Chapter 58 58: Melee (Part 1)
"I see. Moving from the pool to the amusement park? A very good plan."
Back on the airship, Reine noticed through the screens that Shido had taken Kotori from the pool area to the amusement park. The two were currently challenging the towering drop tower. On the screen, Kotori was screaming at the exact moment the ride plummeted.
"As expected of Mikoto. I'll definitely have to award her a Holy Kotori Medal when she gets back."
Kannazuki nodded as he stood next to Reine.
"Hmm? Was it Mikoto's advice?"
"Yes. Because audio recording was turned off, we don't know exactly what Shido-kun and Mikoto talked about, but right after they parted ways, he took the Commander straight to the amusement park" Kannazuki explained.
By the way, the "Holy Kotori Medal" was a medal Kannazuki made himself using Kotori's photo. It was surprisingly popular among the crew on the airship.
"I see. It seems our meddling might have actually been unnecessary."
Looking at the screen, without Fraxinus's support, Shido and Kotori's date was actually getting better and better. Roller coasters, haunted houses, bumper cars... Shido pulled Kotori along, and the two had a blast on all the thrill rides.
Finally, the exhausted pair sat on a bench in the amusement park, leaning against the woods for a short rest.
[!!!]
Just as everyone on the airship thought the date would continue smoothly, a blaring alarm suddenly pierced the air.
_________________
A boy holding the Spirit energy of multiple Spirits: Itsuka Shido. He was also the target Kurumi had been dreaming of. To achieve her ultimate goal, a massive amount of Spirit energy was necessary. Yet, her previous attack on Shido had ended in failure.
[I'm starting to understand why my future self never ate Shido-san.]
Kurumi stood in the woods of the amusement park, looking at a boy and a girl in the distance. The girl was the terrifying Spirit of Fire, and the boy was her target: Itsuka Shido. She had only planned to collect some time from the park, but unexpectedly ran into him.
[To risk his own life just to save an enemy... Shido-san really is too gentle.]
Thinking back to it, Shido had stood right in front of Kotori's cannon fire for the sole purpose of protecting Kurumi herself.
If possible, she really wanted to postpone her plan to eat Shido indefinitely. At the very least, until she found the Second Spirit and obtained the information she wanted, she didn't have any immediate desire to devour him.
However, there was still one thing she absolutely had to confirm: the self correcting force of history.
Changing the past was Kurumi's ultimate wish, one she had to achieve no matter what. But if history itself worked to correct any changes, then Kurumi needed to find out just how troublesome this self correcting force could be, because she would have to face it sooner or later anyway.
So, Kurumi decided to try kidnapping Shido. If the world truly corrected its own mistakes, then her actions would undoubtedly be obstructed.
[Even if I don't succeed, interrupting the Spirit of Fire's date doesn't sound so bad either.]
Thinking this, Kurumi summoned her Angel, Zafkiel.
The section of the clock face that had been melted by cannon fire was already restored. However, neither her Spirit energy nor the number of clones she had left could compare to a few days ago. The battle with Kotori had consumed about five hundred of her clones. Even after replenishing a few, she currently only had around thirty clones left in her shadow. In this condition, she had absolutely zero chance of winning in a straight fight. However...
[If I just want to take Shido-san away, I don't need to fight so hard.]
"Aleph(The First Bullet)!"
"Zayin(The Seventh Bullet)!"
The plan was simple: while the two were distracted on their date, she would launch a sneak attack to freeze the Spirit of Fire's time, then use Aleph to accelerate herself. By the time the Spirit of Fire broke free from the time stop, Shido would already be long gone with Kurumi to who knows where.
She raised her short pistol loaded with Zayin and aimed it directly at the completely defenseless Kotori.
[!!!]
But the exact moment she pulled the trigger, a blaring alarm echoed throughout the marine park.
"Origami, have you reached the designated position?"
In a secluded corner of the woods, Ryouko spoke softly into her radio.
Around noon, a large number of guests had collapsed inside a restaurant at the amusement park. Because the symptoms were identical to the incident at Raizen High School, several observation devices were deployed to the amusement park area, and they successfully tracked down Nightmare's whereabouts.
"Yes. I have arrived at the destination. Ready to engage at any time."
Parked near the woods was a large cargo truck meant for delivering drinks and ingredients. However, hiding inside it was the AST's secret weapon: White Licorice. Origami was currently piloting the massive CR-Unit, ready to launch an attack on Nightmare at a moment's notice.
"Wait a little longer. Wait until Nightmare moves to an unpopulated area."
She didn't want to start a battle here. The amusement park was full of civilians. Fighting now would expose the AST and Spirits to the general public. While she had considered using a spacequake alarm to evacuate the crowd, doing so might alert the target.
[!!!]
But right at that moment, on the other side of the woods, Nightmare manifested her Angel and pointed her gun at a boy and a girl a short distance away.
[Tch!]
There was no time to hesitate. Even though Ryouko felt like she had seen the two people Nightmare was aiming at somewhere before, stopping Nightmare from committing murder took absolute priority.
"Sound the spacequake alarm!!! Origami, move out!!!"
The moment Ryouko gave the order, the spacequake alarm blared across the marine park. At the same time, the massive White Licorice burst out of the cargo truck. Piloting the giant weapon, Origami launched her assault on Kurumi.
"Cleaveleaf, unlock and deploy!"
The two laser blades in Origami's hands extended outward, wrapping like glowing ribbons around Kurumi—who had hesitated for a split second due to the alarm just as she was about to fire the Seventh Bullet at Kotori.
"Directional Territory deployed! Magic Cannon 'Blastalk'!"
Using her Territory to lock Kurumi in place, the two main cannons on White Licorice gathered magic energy and fired a scorching beam of light directly at the target!
BOOM!
Following a massive explosion, Kurumi took a direct hit from the main cannons. Although the firepower couldn't compare to the Spirit of Fire's cannon, Kurumi—whose Astral Dress was only C-rank still sustained significant damage.
"Oh my, my. Is this the price for trying to change history? It seems I really must make an enemy of the world itself."
Looking at the AST members who had suddenly appeared, the flames of anger ignited in Kurumi's heart.
Rather than the logical explanation of "I was discovered by the AST because I drained time from people in the amusement park," Kurumi preferred to believe this was the result of history's self correcting force. It had intervened to prevent Shido from being eaten by her the moment she targeted him again.
So, the anger in the young girl's eyes was not directed at the AST unit in front of her, but at the world itself for trying to obstruct her ultimate wish.
"Come forth, come forth. It is time to prove 'our' resolve to this world."
The shadow beneath her feet expanded, and her clones materialized one after another.