“Wha—”
“Fly with me into the sky!”
Having cast two spells in quick succession, Mia grabbed Misaki who was wrapped up in the vines, and the two of them levitated out of the flat. Misaki frantically ripped at the green stems binding him with all his might, reached for the stun baton he kept in a holster fastened to his jeans and pressed it into her body. Blue sparks erupted, crackling, at the point of contact, and she let out a sharp cry. Her concentration thus disrupted, they started falling. Mia plummeted to the ground, slamming into it ungracefully, while Misaki managed to land feetfirst.
Eventually, Mia staggered to her feet, and the pair glowered at each other, standing in front of Misaki’s apartment door. “What are you doing?! You startled me!”
“Sturdy as always, I see! I haven’t said I was coming yet!”
“It was as good as saying you are coming! I know you want Sayoko, you hypocrite! You are such a wimp!”
“Wim… Shut up! That’s how I am! What am I supposed to do about it, huh? Look at yourself, Miss It’s-all-gonna-be-fine! You’re just an airhead! How can you stick your nose in everybody’s business like that when you’re dumb as a brick? No one asked your opinion on adult love matters, little virgin!”
Strictly speaking, that last bit was sexual harassment. Mia narrowed her eyes, emitting a growl. “Oh, right… I have not tried challenging the buffoon of the Rangers yet. I shall use this opportunity as the Supreme Ruler of Evil to put an end to you, Red! I shall beat you to a bloody pulp and abduct you to Kyoto even if it shall be the last thing I do!”
“That does it, you villain wannabe! I know you’re all talk! I’ll teach you something—you’re no good in a battle!” Misaki yelled out, bracing his baton.
Mia, too, brandished her wand, twirled it and cried, “O sour taste, be transposed!”
“…?!”
As soon as the girl finished her spell, a terrible, acrid sourness assaulted Misaki’s mouth, spreading over his tongue. What was that—lemon? He hadn’t drunk anything, so why was his mouth overflowing with lemon flavor?
As his hand automatically flew to his mouth to cover it, she whirled her wand again, chanting another spell in addition to the previous one. “O ice, become my projectiles and fall down as rain!”
With a loud, rumbling noise, a storm of ice lumps the size of a marble tumbled down on Misaki’s head. Disoriented, he broke into a run towards Mia, his hands still plastered over his mouth. He had to seal Mia’s lips. He had heard Subaru and Shou’s accounts of their fights with Mia, and the first thing they had done was curtail her ability to speak.
“O earth, collapse!”
“Who do you think I am?!”
He remembered every spell he had seen Mia cast. Misaki pushed off the asphalt, gaining momentum for a big leap upwards. The next moment, a gaping hole opened up with a low moan right under where his feet had been, but he evaded it, landing safely on solid ground. Mia was now within his reach.
“I’ll close that big mouth of yours!”
“…! O e-earth, become covered in ice!” she stuttered out, closed her eyes, squatted and touched her wand to the ground. As if spreading from where it touched the asphalt, a wave of frost ran over the pavement, tiny ice crystals melding together in its path to form a single shiny surface.
“…?!”
Misaki couldn’t stop his feet from slipping; he skidded on the icy strip of asphalt, teetering wildly, and crashed, bruising his back.
“…Ow!”
Misaki tried to get up jerkily, willing the throbbing pain in his back to subside. Mia used this moment to make a grab for his hand and fluttered her wand in the air, intoning, “Fly with me into the sky!”
Immediately, their bodies floated up, as if they were two sparks spat out by a bonfire. Eventually, they ascended so high they could reach out their hands and touch the clouds.
“You cannot run away from me now, Misaki. If you fall down from this height, you will die.”
“Argh, you little twerp! Dammit. I really am hopeless at combat. …Why did I get picked for the Rangers again? Crap.”
“As if I would know. Okay, we’re heading for Kyoto. It will take us about an hour and a half, I expect. While we are flying, think about what it is you want to do, Misaki,” Mia instructed and promptly shut her eyes.
Was she conjuring up another image in her head? Mumbling something incoherent under her breath, she opened her eyes and uttered the words, pouring intent into them, “Bullet train!”
“Huh? Bulle—Waah?!”
Air roared in his ears as his body was now being propelled through the air at incredible speed. The two advanced towards the west. Strangely enough, he felt no wind pressure, although it should be more than tangible considering how fast they were moving. It seemed that a cloud of mist hanging around Mia and curling over Misaki’s body, was protecting them from the effects of high-speed flight.
“…Mia, can I ask you something?”
“What is it? Make it quick so that I don’t lose concentration.”
“Okay. What did you do to fill my mouth with lemon taste just now?”
“Oh, that? I arranged my taste transferring technique a little bit, now it turns your saliva into lemon juice. It took me a month to perfect it. Bwa-ha-ha!”
“Ugh, why did you spend a month of your life on a stupid prank like that?!” Misaki shouted inadvertently.
It was stupid, but pretty mean. Hoping desperately that the girl would discover the weaknesses of his teammates too, he traveled through the air with her.
✦ ✦ ✦
TO the west they went, onwards and onwards, without changing their course. Mia, focusing her will, kept her mouth shut. Misaki, helped along by her silence, sunk into thought.
He pondered about what he was going to do now. Maybe it was time he started doing the things he had been running away from in fear. Indeed, this was a turning point; the turning point he had been waiting for like a miracle. He had been hesitating, unable to make a decision. He had been holding himself back, afraid that he wouldn’t be able to make Sayoko happy. But he hadn’t wanted to lose her, hadn’t wanted her to walk away from him, so he had been showering her with affection. And what a cowardly affection it had been, now that he thought about it.
He wouldn’t say the words Sayoko wanted to hear the most, basking in the bliss their always too short trysts brought, shutting out the inconvenient parts, picking and choosing only what was enjoyable. He had been behaving like a selfish bastard, hadn’t he? So, it was time for them to really confront each other.
If Misaki loved Sayoko, if he wished to spend his life with her by his side, he had to take action. Even if it came out pathetic or if she rebuked him for it. Even if they called him feckless, a disgrace. Even if she refused him, it would be okay. He had already heard her bid him farewell. He had nothing to lose. Determination burning bright like a flame in his heart, Misaki steeled his resolve.