“Eeek! It’s an earthquake! I’m so scaaared!” Miku squealed, using the earthquake as an excuse to wrap her arms around the Spirit beside her. “I’m clinging to Natsumiii!”
“If you can narrate what’s going on, you’re not that scared!” Natsumi shoved Miku’s head away. Still, given the differences in their sizes and arm strength, she did end up captured.
They really did not have the time for games like this. Tohka and Origami were fighting in the sky, the spacequake alarm was going off, and now there was this mysterious earthquake. Natsumi had no idea anymore what to do about any of it.
“Wh-what on. Earth should. We do?”
“Hmm. Not too sure, but it’s gonna be real bad if we don’t stop Tokki and Oriri at least.”
“Assent. If they keep going, the AST and DEM will pick up the scent—”
“Gang!” a loud voice rang out abruptly, and the panicking Spirits turned their faces as one.
“…Huh?” Seeing the person there, their eyes reflexively grew wide.
And of course they did. Standing there before them was the strange boy from the other day.
“Y-you’re that boy…?”
“…Huh? You’re still stalking us even with the whole spacequake alarm ringing? I’m actually impressed. Wait. No, I’m not,” Natsumi said, rolling her eyes.
The boy raced over to them and bowed deeply as they stared suspiciously. “Gang,” he said. “Please. I need your help!”
“…Huh? Uh. What…?”
The Spirits were baffled.
“Um. Did something happen?” Yoshino asked, overcoming her confusion. Kind even to this boy of doubtful origin, she truly was a goddess with a heart full of love.
“Mukuro—the Spirit locked the Earth. If we don’t do something, this is going to get really bad!” he said desperately. “Please. I need all of your…Spirit powers!”
Natsumi frowned. As well she might. First of all, it wasn’t really clear what the boy was talking about. It seemed he knew about the Spirits, which only made him seem more suspicious.
However, after a few moments of hesitation…
“…Understood. If you think I can help,” Yoshino said with a nod.
“Y-Yoshino?” Natsumi turned to her with wide eyes. “Shouldn’t you maybe think this through a little bit? I mean, this is way sketchy.”
“Yes…but he doesn’t seem like a bad person.” Yoshino’s eyes were full of firm resolve. “And…I don’t know how to put it, but. I. Want to. Help him.”
The other Spirits chimed in with their own agreement, one after the other.
“Kah-kah! Aah, excellent. It would seem you have the bare minimum of manners.”
“Assent. I don’t know why, but I feel like something like this has happened before.”
“Mm. Well, if you girls saaay so… A boy is a boy but crop that image a little and his face is cuuute.”
“Aaah, mm. Sure, why not? This kind of plot twist gets me all fired up.”
“You guys…” The boy’s eyes were teary with gratitude.
Natsumi started to feel awkward and sighed heavily. “…What? So now I’m the bad guy here? Fine, okay. I’ll help, too. What exactly are we supposed to do here?”
The boy’s face lit up happily. Then he froze in place. “Um. So…”
Natsumi sighed again. Apparently, he hadn’t thought through the specifics.
“Honestly. What are you doing?” Kotori said from somewhere.
“Kotori?!”
“Huh? Where?”
“I’m sending my voice from Fraxinus via the Territory,” Kotori explained. “It’s just like that guy says: Spirit power’s eating into the ground. We don’t know what kind of effect it’s going to have on the Earth, but we can’t just let it happen. We’re going to send Yggdrafolium to six points right now. You all take up position at each of them and channel your Spirit powers through the Yggdrafolium. We should be able to keep the Spirit power from digging any deeper for the time being.”
“Ho! Sensible,” Kaguya cried. “You do well, Kotori! I shall make you my retainer.”
“Thanks, but no thanks,” Kotori responded dryly. “That’s about all we can do from here. The fundamental issue’s not going to be resolved until we do something about the Spirit and Angel causing all this chaos. You’re sure you can handle that, Shido Itsuka?”
“Yeah.” The boy nodded firmly. “Thanks. For real, everyone. I’m counting on you.” He turned his back to them and was about to walk away when Natsumi called out to him.
“…Where are you going?”
Without looking back, the boy replied, “To the girl who’s holding my hand.”
“I shall not…release him to you.” Mukuro stood on the trembling earth and glared at the two Spirits locked in fierce combat in the sky above.
Tohka was currently focused on the battle with Origami, and Mukuro would have no trouble coming up on her from behind.
“Michael. Lataib!” she shouted, and twisted Michael in her hand. Instantly, a small door opened, just big enough for Michael’s tip to slip through.
Naturally, the other side of the door opened in Tohka’s blind spot. She would thrust Michael through and turn the key Angel. The finishing move would be Jerez, the most mysterious of Michael’s secrets—material disassembly. Any and every material in this world returned to nothing when confronted with this power. Tohka would be no exception.
“Jerez!” Mukuro watched for the right moment in the battle and thrust the key Angel toward the door in space.
The moment Michael was about to go through the door, however, Shido leaped in front of her and threw his arms out.
“Mukuro, you can’t!”
“…?!”
Mukuro’s eyes flew open, and a jolt ran through her.
It was too late. Although the muscles in her arms had stiffened reflexively and her aim was a little off, the tip of Michael stabbed into Shido’s shoulder.
“Hngh?!” He grimaced in pain, and she hurriedly yanked backward to try and pull the Angel out.
In the next instant, however, a curious sensation overcame her, and she let out a startled cry. “Huh?”
Images poured into her like surging waves through the polearm stabbing Shido. And it wasn’t one-sided; she felt something leaking out of her as well.
She didn’t know what this was. It felt like the interiors of the two individuals that were Shido and Mukuro were being mixed, like two bottles full of different liquids being connected and shaken.
Aah. This was not the first time she’d felt this. Yes. That time. When Shido had inserted his fake Michael into her in space…
“…”
✦ ✦ ✦
Yes. That time. That cold winter’s day. Something had appeared before her when she was sunk into despair. Something with a strange form, as though blurred by water or pixelated. This something had handed her what looked like a gem that shone with a golden light.
It was that time when she—Mukuro Hoshimiya—became a Spirit.
She was not afraid, though. Actually, it would perhaps have been more appropriate to say her joy overpowered her fear.
She had Michael now. The key Angel could lock objects, but more importantly, intangible things, too—even people’s memories. If she used this power, she was sure that her big sister, her father, and her mother would love only her.
Mukuro quickly got to work in high spirits. She opened a door in space, inserted Michael into all of her family’s acquaintances and friends and locked their memories of Mukuro’s family.
The results were unexpected. The reaction of her family when she went home that day was utter confusion at the discovery that no one knew them anymore. They were so perplexed by the unusual situation that they had no time for Mukuro.
She had believed that if they had no one but her, they would give her all their love. But love and affection were the furthest things from their faces when they found out Mukuro herself was the one who had done this to them. Instead, they looked at her stunned and angry, panicked and upset. There was rejection in their eyes.
Father, mother, and sister feared Mukuro after she obtained this mysterious power. They turned away from her.
She didn’t remember what they had said. Even though she could vividly recall the scene, she could only hear fragments of the dialogue in this mental tableau.
“Monster.” “What did you do?” “Don’t kill me!” “Get out.” “Someone like you.” “Not family.”
Perhaps it wasn’t that she didn’t remember what they had said, it was simply her brain doing a kindness in keeping it from her, knowing her heart could not stand to go through the anguish again line by line.
The pain in her heart, at the very least, was vividly remembered. It hurt. She couldn’t breathe. Such sadness. Such loneliness. These emotions swirled around and around inside of her, and before she knew it, she had stabbed the father, the mother, and the sister with Michael and locked away the memories of herself inside of them.
If she had heard them speak another horrible word, she may have lost her mind.
✦ ✦ ✦
Just like that, Mukuro was alone once more.
It wasn’t as simple as returning to the life she’d had before. Now she knew the warmth of family. Now, in a way she had never been before, she was truly alone.
When she thought about it, she had never deserved to love anything. She had been dropped into this world without love, so she hadn’t realized how twisted her own understanding of love was.
If she loved, she had to be loved. If she loved, she had to be the only one seen.
So Mukuro had locked her own memories. Her own heart. So that she would no longer remember she’d had a family, the warmth of a family.
So that she would never love anything again.