"What are you doing here?" asked a man in a black coat, his face fixed in an expression of anguish, his voice dry as an empty riverbed. "Aozaki Touko, there's nothing here you're looking for."
"My being here is just a coincidence," replied Touko, in her beige trench coat, tossing her cigarette to the floor and stamping it out. "But there's also a bit of inevitability. After all, my student's brother is here in this apartment. As a teacher, I can't just stand by."
"...Kokutou Mikiya?" Araya thought for a moment and reached a conclusion. "If I return him to you, will you leave?"
Azaka wanted to say yes, but it seemed her teacher wouldn't settle the matter so easily, given the rumored personal grudge between them.
"Hahaha, as if," Touko cheerfully refused. "After all, my idiot little sister specifically told me: if I get the chance, I have to take you out."
Araya was puzzled—he'd never done anything to offend the Aozaki sisters, and in some ways, he admired these two geniuses. Who could believe that the same family would produce two magicians? It was like a terrible joke.
"Well, then I have to kill you today," Araya said mechanically. "Is this the interference of the Counter Force? I'm its enemy, yet you're here to stop me..."
"Araya, what's the purpose of this crude building of yours?" Touko looked around, asking casually as if touring an old classmate's new house. "You don't think you can simulate and collect the explosion of souls at the moment of death, hoping to reach the Root?"
"Honestly, shouldn't this conclusion have been reached centuries ago? Even if you collect thousands of deaths, it's useless."
"You're mostly right," Araya admitted. "But there's also a truth you don't know. I have been seeking the quantity of death, believing that after experiencing enough different ways of dying, I would find the diffusion of souls leading to the Root."
"But even so, I can't reach the great Source!" Araya's expression grew more anguished. "So, I classified the residents here into sixty-four types, condensed them into the eight trigrams and four images, and finally reached the two modes!"
"Hey, Araya, that girl isn't...?" Touko finally understood why the stubborn monk had captured Shiki, or rather, she had just overlooked the peculiarity of her name.
"Those who get shortcuts to the Root will never understand!" Araya shouted. "Even if humanity can't be saved, I'll reach the Root and record all human deaths!"
"That's the funniest thing I've heard all year," Touko laughed. "I don't think I'd ever be that open-minded, even after becoming a Third Magician."
"You won't succeed, Araya," Touko said seriously. "Even if you open the path, the first to appear will be the guardian of mankind, and you won't be able to defeat them."
There was no need for more words. Araya had no desire to talk further with someone who possessed salvation for all but watched humanity's suffering indifferently. The two would always be parallel lines never meeting. Since Touko stood in his way, he would simply defeat her.
"Fugu, Dakatsu, Taiten!" In Araya's words, three golden barriers spun out from him—these were barriers based on his origin of stillness. Anything touched by them would be frozen.
"Azaka, step back," Touko warned her student as her shadow began to churn.
The fat cat Cheshire surged like a black tornado, gaping maw and predatory eyes fixed on Araya. Normally, even the Chaos of the Twenty-Seven Dead Apostle Ancestors couldn't resist such two-dimensional attacks.
But Cheshire's claws froze when they hit the triple barrier. Araya couldn't completely stop a familiar driven by the Third Magic, but the barrier still protected him.
"A materialized soul familiar, huh...!" Araya said. "To use the path of salvation on such a vicious construct... as expected of the Scarred Red!"
"Oh, don't blame me for not warning you," Touko raised an eyebrow. "In the past, if I heard someone say that, they'd die without a grave."
"Hmph! Kongou, Chougyou, Ouken!"
Seeing the triple barrier fail, Araya produced three more—completing the Six Realms bounded field, existing in both two and three dimensions, countering the familiar on its own plane.
With Touko's laughter, a golden light flashed in Cheshire's narrow eyes, and Araya's six barriers shattered.
With engine-like magical output, Cheshire's destructive power exceeded its usual limits, shattering the barriers and attacking Araya.
It sounded like an axe chopping rotten wood—Cheshire's claws severed Araya's arm, but Araya himself vanished.
Cheshire, as if asking for praise, brought the arm to Touko, who patted its head before it returned to her shadow.
"I see," Touko kicked Araya's arm and said to Azaka, "He hid a relic inside his arm. No wonder his barriers were that strong."
"Sensei, can you find my brother now?" Azaka asked anxiously.
"Don't worry," Touko reassured her. "From what Araya said, your brother should be safe. Even if he's dead, Aoko can resurrect him."
"So, the main thing now is to find Araya's real body. The apartment itself is probably part of him, which allows for such spatial transfers. Kill his body, and the hostages will be spit out."
"To Araya, Mikiya is insignificant," Touko continued. "The important one is Mikiya's girlfriend—Ryougi Shiki. Her body is special."