"Tohka's fighting Mukuro now?"
Melusine blinked in mild surprise. She hadn't expected Inverse Tohka to just abandon their duel to go after Hoshimiya Mukuro instead.
Still, that worked out perfectly for her.
She raised her left hand and spread her fingers. A flurry of black light arrows crashed into her palm—yet each one shattered on contact, like raindrops against a mountain. The fragmented arrows dissolved into motes of black light.
"My apologies in advance, Origami."
Melusine lowered her hand and slowly turned to face Inverse Origami. Her eyes, which had previously burned like twin suns, narrowed into the slitted pupils of a dragon.
"This might hurt a little. Try to bear with it."
Whether the inverted Origami heard her or not was unclear.
Her glassy, lifeless eyes stared straight at Melusine, while the "feathers" orbiting her body gathered and launched volleys of high-penetration black energy arrows.
Though they were called "light" arrows, they clearly weren't traveling at light speed. For someone like Melusine, dodging them was trivial. She moved through the arrow storm like it wasn't even there.
The air shook. Her dragon heart thundered in her chest, pumping out torrents of energy.
Clad in spiritual flame, Melusine streaked through the sky like a blazing blue meteor.
Origami loosed arrow after arrow—but none could so much as graze her. Melusine's figure danced at the edge of the horizon, unreachable, like the moon reflected in a lake—clearly visible, yet untouchable.
Suddenly, the blue meteor wheeled around and shot straight toward Inverse Origami, shattering the laws of inertia. The sonic boom alone split the clouds, and the kinetic force behind her charge was enough to pulverize the ground.
Origami attempted to block with her feathers, but even they couldn't stop the sheer momentum. She plummeted like a bird with shattered wings.
But before she could hit the ground, Melusine was already on her again. Her spiritual energy condensed into a sword of light—each arc a brilliant slash, as beautiful as it was deadly.
Just as the blade was about to connect, Origami dissolved into a cloud of radiant particles, and Melusine's attack whiffed through empty air.
Melusine halted her charge mid-swing and turned her gaze toward a direction only she could track.
The scattered particles reformed some distance away, once again taking Origami's shape.
Melusine blinked.
"Origami can teleport now?"
She didn't recall that being part of her toolkit.
Wasn't she just a spam-happy feather machine who went pew pew pew?
Melusine's thoughts were cut off as Origami fired three focused beams in rapid succession.
Reflexively, Melusine dodged.
She had avoided all of Origami's prior barrages with ease—but this time, something was different.
The beams bent in midair.
They were tracking her.
They were homing?
Melusine's eyes flashed gold, narrowing sharply. She glared at the incoming beams—
And with that glare, a howling storm of spiritual energy exploded from her body, obliterating the beams in an instant.
The resulting shockwave didn't stop there—it surged forward and slammed into Origami's body, sending her flying. She crashed through three buildings before finally coming to a halt.
Within the ruins, Origami still tried to stand—until a streak of blue tore through the sky like a falling star, crashing down with the force of an extinction-level meteor.
A wave of translucent force spread outward on impact, ripping up the ground, turning high-rises to dust, and blasting smoke and rubble into the sky.
Huff—
Melusine let out a slow breath, her posture relaxing slightly.
"Whew… I feel so much better after letting loose like that."
She smiled and rolled her stiff shoulders.
Though she'd inherited the Saint Graph of Lancelot, the Fairy Knight of Proper Human History—along with the skill [Eternal Arms Mastery]—anyone who mistook her for a finesse-based fighter was in for a rude awakening.
Melusine was a dragon.
Brute-force stat crushing was what she did best.
Fighting like this had been like forcing a pro footballer to play the World Cup in ill-fitting high heels.
And the heels were two sizes too small.
---
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Inverse Tohka drove Mukuro back with a heavy slash and glanced briefly toward Melusine's direction. Her brows lifted slightly.
"Lancelot… so that's your real power? Hmph. There's a limit to how interesting things can get, you know."
Tohka's blade hummed, and the razor edge of her aura stung the air like needles. She moved on instinct, striking out again. Sparks flew as blades collided.
"Kill… kill… KILL—! Anyone who tries to take Beloved from me has to DIE!"
Mukuro lunged repeatedly with Michael, her eyes frenzied.
Sometimes she stabbed directly. Other times, she thrust her spear into portals to attack from blind angles.
Tohka's expression darkened, but her guard held.
Unlike Mukuro—who had power but little finesse—Inverse Tohka was a seasoned warrior. She wielded her overwhelming energy with just enough control to stay in command of it.
She was still far below Melusine—but compared to Mukuro, she was a world apart.
"What's wrong? Come on—aren't you the one who said you were going to kill me?"
Tohka's grin curved upward with derision. Her blade swung, its flame rising like a tidal wave.
Mukuro grit her teeth and summoned a portal, redirecting the attack.
As the flames faded, Mukuro's eyes widened—Tohka had vanished.
"Your reaction's getting slower, woman."
The voice was cold, and impossibly close.
It rang in Mukuro's ear like Death whispering to her.
Instinct screamed—not to fight, but to flee. She turned sharply and raised Michael in defense.
But—
"Too slow."
The only thing she saw was a blade streaking straight for her neck.
SLASH!
Blood sprayed—but was quickly vaporized by the flames on Camael's edge.
Tohka frowned.
She hadn't landed the killing blow.
At the last moment, Mukuro had shifted just enough to avoid decapitation. Instead, Tohka had carved deep into her arm.
"Hmph. Lucky."
Tohka's eyes narrowed.
"But you won't be lucky again. The next strike ends this."
She raised Camael high—its aura alone distorting the air.
Mukuro's eyes gleamed with a new kind of madness. She couldn't afford to hesitate.
She clenched Michael tightly and screamed:
"[Michael—Disengage]!"
This was Mukuro's trump card—her Unlock ability, capable of severing the molecular and spirit-particle bonds of anything it touched, reducing matter to its base elements.
A deathblow in every sense.
She discarded defense entirely, committing everything to this one strike.
Both of them did.
If either attack landed, the other would die—or worse.
And just then, a gate appeared between them.
A pitch-black "door."
Both recognized it instantly. Mukuro had just used this trick dozens of times in front of Tohka.
Naturally, Tohka assumed this was Mukuro again—and prepared to slash through the distraction.
But then—
A figure emerged from the gate.
Tohka's eyes widened in shock.
There wasn't time to speak. Not even time to move.
SLASH!
Crimson blood burst into the air, spraying across both girls.
Standing between them—
Was Itsuka Shidou, holding Michael in his hand.
Tohka's blade had sliced diagonally across his body, nearly cutting him in half.
Mukuro's spear had torn away his right shoulder completely.
The wounds were mortal.
Enough to kill a man outright.
And yet—Shidou, coughing blood, managed a small, broken smile.
"Th… thank… goodness…"
What was he grateful for?
Perhaps that neither of them had been struck.
But he didn't have the strength to say more.
Both Mukuro's Unlock and Tohka's slash had torn through his lungs. Just saying three words was already more than his body could take.
"Ah… ahh…"
No words came from his throat—only dry, ragged breath.
His brain, starved of oxygen, couldn't make sense of what he was seeing. Nonsense flooded his mind, rejecting reality.
The spiritual energy inside him surged wildly—like a beast let loose from its cage.
It crashed against bone. Burned blood. Overwhelmed organs.
It oozed out of every pore—stained black with despair.
"Ah… ahhh…"
Beloved… died?
Six killed him… with her own hands?
Now… Six is all alone again?
Mukuro gasped, struggling to breathe. Her heart raced past 200 beats per minute.
Inside her mind, something snapped.
Memories gushed through the gates of her mind like a tsunami, erasing reason.
The image of her family struck down by Michael overlapped perfectly with the fallen Shidou.
Her energy grew unstable.
Just as she teetered on the edge of total collapse—
A hand chopped cleanly at her neck.
The storm of dark energy faded.
Mukuro collapsed, unconscious—falling gently into the arms of someone waiting.
"You really are good at causing trouble for me, Shidou."
Melusine's voice held quiet exasperation as she cradled Mukuro in one arm, her eyes flicking to Shidou with a touch of scolding.
He floated midair, tattered clothes soaked in blood. Blue flames of healing licked at his wounds.
"Th… thanks… cough"
"Stop talking. Your lungs aren't fixed yet."
Melusine sighed.
"Were you trying to get yourself killed? Why the hell did you jump in without using an Angel? Didn't you pull Michael out just now?"
"My brain… kinda short-circuited… just went with the flow…"
"Flow my ass."
Shidou gave her an apologetic grin—only for pain to wrench his face as his wounds protested.
Yeah. Definitely brain short-circuited.
If he had to be honest, it wasn't that he couldn't use an Angel.
He just… didn't want to raise a weapon against Tohka and Mukuro.
That one moment of hesitation almost cost him his life.
If he said that out loud, he'd probably get lectured for being soft.
Still—despite the severity of his injuries, he was lucky. The healing flames were already beginning to work.
"You should offer incense to your ancestors sometime."
"Why…?"
"I'm pretty sure every one of your ancestors just cashed in all their favors in the afterlife to keep you alive."
That level of divine luck wasn't just your average ancestral blessing—it was a goddamn explosion. Visible from miles away.
Melusine glanced down at the unconscious Mukuro in her arms.
Honestly… when she wasn't talking, Mukuro really did look adorable. No one would ever believe this tiny, fragile girl had nearly annihilated everyone close to the one she loved.
And somehow…
How did someone with a body like this even exist?!
Melusine's eyes lingered for just a second too long before she turned away.
Only to find herself facing someone else.
"…Looks like this is where I stop. What a shame."
Inverse Tohka stood with one hand on her head, eyes narrowed in pain—like she was holding something back.
She shot a sidelong glance at Shidou and spoke in a distant voice.
"Seems like your injury shook her up pretty badly. She's trying everything she can to reclaim control."
Her "her" clearly meant Yatogami Tohka.
After realizing their memory loss was due to Mukuro, Shidou had used Haniel to mimic Michael and restore their memories.
So—Tohka remembered.
She remembered Shidou.
And after seeing herself nearly kill him, her real consciousness was clawing its way back to the surface.
Tohka turned to Melusine.
"What a waste… I wanted to enjoy that fight more. But now, with so many interruptions…"
Her voice weakened further.
"Guess I'll have to wait for another chance… to finish it properly."
At last, she looked back at Shidou.
That monarch-like pressure in her gaze made Shidou involuntarily flinch.
"If you ever… ever pull something this reckless again… and make the other me worry like that…"
"I won't forgive you."
With that, she closed her eyes and collapsed.
Melusine was already there to catch her.
Meanwhile, Shidou stood frozen, stunned by what he'd just heard.
Wait… was Inverse Tohka… worried about me?
No… maybe not him.
Maybe she meant the other Tohka.
Still—
For the first time, Shidou found himself thinking… maybe Inverse Tohka wasn't as terrifying as he'd believed.
At the very least, he was no longer afraid of her. Not like before.