“Hm-hmm, what fun.” Mukuro beamed at Shido and swung his hand in hers back and forth. “Aren’t you having fun, my lord?”
“…Yeah,” he replied. “This is great fun, Mukuro.”
“Hee-hee! ’Tis, ’tis.” She glanced at him coyly. “Say, do you like Muku, my lord?”
“Of course. I adore you.”
“And Muku you. Hee-hee! Such happiness!” Her cheeks coloring faintly, Mukuro smiled even more broadly.
“…”
Shido looked at her carefree face and gritted his teeth. He was currently strolling down Tengu’s main boulevard holding hands with Mukuro. She had apparently enjoyed their date the other day so much that she wanted to walk through the city with him again today.
“Oh! What is that?!” She looked at everything as if it were all endlessly fascinating, and she called out to him every few steps, her eyes lighting up. Each time, he would respond with gentle kindness.
Naturally, however, he wasn’t simply enjoying a day out on the town with her. A few hours earlier, after Haniel had been rendered powerless, he’d tried desperately to talk some sense into her. He’d explained that while he did in fact like Mukuro a great deal, he cared about the others just as much. He asked her to please turn them back to normal.
But she refused. It wasn’t out of malice or ill will. Her unshakable system of beliefs was that Shido liked Mukuro, so he shouldn’t need any other girls. In fact, it was the existence of those other girls that kept him from being honest about his feelings.
Yes. She truly was pure and innocent. Her will had simply turned in a direction unfavorable for Shido.
“…”
This didn’t mean he was giving up, however. It was true, the situation could hardly have been said to be ideal. For all intents and purposes, he was without a single ally, and Haniel’s power to turn that around had been locked up by Mukuro. But he still had one tool in his kit to break this stalemate. He touched his lips wordlessly.
Seal her Spirit powers with a kiss. The strange special ability Shido alone had, the objective of him and his team.
Open Mukuro’s heart, make her weak in the knees, and kiss her. If he did that, her powers would be sealed, and everyone’s locked memories would be unlocked once more.
There were a few obstacles, however.
First of all, there was his likability with Mukuro. From what he could see, she was fond of him. But now that he’d lost the support of Ratatoskr, he couldn’t say with certainty whether it was within the range that would make sealing her power possible. Which meant that he couldn’t go off half-cocked. Mukuro had Michael, after all. If she found out what he was thinking, she could lock his ability to seal Spirit powers just like she had locked Haniel’s ability to turn into Michael.
An Angel that locked everything in creation versus the ability to seal Spirit power… He didn’t know which would come out on top, but if she did actually manage to lock his ability, he would be out of cards to play. He had to tread carefully.
And…
“…Mukuro, why are you…,” he said, somewhat unconsciously.
The reason she wanted to monopolize him to such an unhealthy degree and the reason she had locked her own heart to go off and drift all alone in space. Even if he did succeed in sealing her Spirit power, he felt like that wouldn’t resolve the fundamental issue.
“Hmm?” Mukuro cocked her head to one side.
“Why would you do all this?” he asked. “You said I felt close to you, right? What exactly did you mean by that?”
“Simply a feeling. But if pressed…” She held a finger up to her chin. “After I fell to the Earth in your arms, I had a strange dream. And thus, I became strangely intrigued by you.”
“A dream?” he parroted.
“Mm. It was not that I envisioned you while I slumbered. The dream was merely sad. A small child, alone from their first moment of consciousness, at last gains a family. Howbeit, when I awakened with this sadness lingering… For some reason, Muku wished to gaze upon your visage.”
“Huh?” Shido frowned. Puzzle pieces were starting to come together for him. That dream, as it turned out—
“Itsuka!” a voice called out from behind, interrupting his thoughts.
“…Huh?!” A heartbeat later, Shido jolted and looked back.
There were two reasons for his shock. One was simple—no one besides Mukuro had spoken his name in two days. All his friends and acquaintances had had their memories locked by Mukuro, and he assumed that she hadn’t missed anyone.
The other reason was that this voice was familiar.
“O-Origami?!” he cried out and whipped around.
Yes. The person who had called his name was his classmate and a Spirit, Origami Tobiichi herself. When he saw her the day before in the classroom, however, she hadn’t remembered him. How exactly had she escaped from Michael’s power?
“And—Oh.” Suddenly, he realized that Origami hadn’t called him “Shido,” she’d called him “Itsuka.” And that the air around the girl standing ahead of him was a little gentler and softer than Origami Tobiichi. He stared with wide eyes. “A-are you actually…this world’s Origami?!”
“Y-yeah. It’s been a while, huh? I guess that’s a weird thing to say. I’ve been hanging out with you this whole time.” Origami laughed awkwardly.
This un-Origami-like smile clinched it for Shido. Before him now was—and was not—Origami.
He had once used the power of the Angel of time to travel to the past and rewrite history. Now, inside of the body of this girl, there existed two Origamis—the one who had lived in the original world, and the one who lived in the new world. Rather than their personalities being neatly split, however, it was more like they had mingled and given rise to a new Origami. The one standing here now was very clearly the Origami he’d met after the world changed.
Something else concerned him even more in this moment, however.
“Origami,” he said, carefully holding back his excitement. “You remember me?!”
“Of course.” She nodded. “It seems like the memory of the surface me was locked—oh, actually, I guess it’s maybe the channel to pull out the memories?”
“…!”
Shido gasped. This was a godsend. He had been feeling so isolated and helpless, his heart nearly crushed by anxiety, and here came someone who knew him. This fact alone was enough to rouse his tattered spirits.
Clearly, this new development wouldn’t turn the whole situation around just like that.
“…Hm-hmm?” Standing next to him, Mukuro looked skeptically at Origami. “You…were one of the girls with Shido. How strange. Your memory should have been locked.”
She sighed in annoyance, held up her right hand, and manifested a shining key out of thin air.
“Well, so be it. I know not by what means you opened Michael’s lock, but I shall simply lock it once more.”
“…! Mukuro!” Shido cried out. He couldn’t stand it if he lost this precious ally when she had at last appeared before him.
“You can’t!” Origami also shouted to stop Mukuro, but her motivation was somewhat different from Shido’s. “If you manifest your Angel here, she’ll find you!”
“What?” Mukuro cocked her head to one side.
“ ‘She’?” Shido furrowed his brow curiously. And then he heard a clack from above, followed by a grumpy “Hmph.”
Guided by these sounds, he looked back and lifted his face to see a girl standing on the streetlight, her arms crossed.
The long hair that fluttered in the wind was the color of the deepest night, and eyes that glittered like crystals looked quietly down on them. Her body was wrapped in an inky Astral Dress of concentrated darkness. She would have easily blended in with the sky itself at night. But it was day, and her nonchalant silhouette was outlined by the brilliantly burning sun.
“Wha—” Shido’s eyes widened at the sight. Not because he was surprised by her strange appearance, though.
It was because he knew her.
“I found you, woman. Hmm? Some other odd ones here, too. A Spirit, and… Hmph. The boy from that day? Perfect. I will turn you all to ash together,” Tohka said, eyes as cold as ice, pronouncing a death sentence.
✦ ✦ ✦
