"Tohka, huh? It's a very nice name, I like it a lot."
Hearing the name Arthas had given her, Tohka's face showed a gentle smile.
"Then what about you? What's your name?"
"As for me, it's Arthas."
"Arthas..."
Hearing Arthas's answer, Tohka repeated it softly, then looked at Arthas with a joyful expression.
"Then my name will be Tohka Arthas."
"Uh..."
Arthas was slightly stunned, not knowing what to say. He just silently patted the girl's head, feeling as if he had another daughter.
"If you like it, then let it be that way."
"Mm."
Hearing Arthas say this, Tohka nodded happily.
Because it wasn't convenient to go to town, Arthas temporarily took Tohka to a shrine to rest, while also thinking about his future plans.
At the same time, while the two were hiding in this shrine, on the other side, in the giant warship Fraxinus floating above the town, the girl-like Commander was looking at the report sent by her subordinates.
"A strange man, and a Spirit who hasn't returned to the Boundary. What exactly is going on?"
Frowning as she said this, the girl had a puzzled look on her face. Just then, at the entrance of the main hall, Fraxinus's analyst, Murasame Reine, led a girl dressed in a student uniform in.
"Oh, it's big sister. Are you an idiot? Why didn't you evacuate when the alarm went off, and instead ran to the scene of the incident? You even got knocked unconscious by the shockwave, how embarrassing. Lying on the ground looking so pitiful, if a strange uncle had seen you, your chastity would have been in danger, you know."
"That kind of thing would never happen! The security in Tengu City is so good, there's no way it would be as exaggerated as you say, Kotori!"
The girl's name was Itsuka Shiori, an ordinary female high school student with a younger sister, Itsuka Kotori. Before today, she had been living a very ordinary and normal life. But after today, everything had changed dramatically.
Her younger sister had inexplicably become the leader of a super powerful organization, and she herself had been told that she had been chosen to carry out some unknown mission.
For some reason, Itsuka Shiori felt very uneasy. In her ordinary life, she was completely dominated by this younger sister, with all sorts of tricks that made her laugh and cry.
"Alright, alright, let's not talk about these things for now. The information obtained from long-range monitoring is too little. Let's ask you who was at the scene. What did you see? Do you know anything about the relationship between that man and the Spirit?"
"Even if you say that..."
Hearing Kotori's words, Itsuka Shiori was first slightly stunned, and then looked at her sister, who was sitting high on the Commander's seat, with a puzzled look.
"Before that, can you explain to me what exactly is going on?"
"Well, this is really troublesome. So, first, those are monsters called Spirits, and this is the AST, the Ground Self-Defense Force's Anti-Spirit Team. Because my idiot big sister ran around on her own and saw a lot of things she shouldn't have seen, if I hadn't made an exception, you would have been secretly executed by now, you know."
"Even if you say that... I still don't understand anything."
Hearing her younger sister say such a long string of inexplicable things, Itsuka Shiori felt a headache coming on, still not understanding anything.
"Alright, alright, then I'll explain it in detail, slowly. First..."
Her finger slid on the screen, and the appearance of a woman that Itsuka Shiori recognized appeared.
"AST, a special force for dealing with Spirits."
"Dealing with... Spirits?"
"That's right, AST, a special force for dealing with Spirits, responsible for killing Spirits."
"Ki... Killing them?"
This word made Itsuka Shiori tremble involuntarily.
"Of course, actually, if the Spirits hadn't been deliberately holding back all along, these self-righteous guys would have died countless times already. But Spirits are always a threat, so they must be eliminated!" Kotori said very seriously.
A threat, huh... Raising her eyes, Itsuka Shiori couldn't help but recall the traces of destruction brought by the purple-haired girl's descent, and then fell silent again.
"But, do we really have to kill them... I always feel like the Spirits are pitiful."
"Well, that's just like you, big sister. But don't be discouraged, because there are also people who think like you, and that's us. We, 'Ratatoskr', adhere to this philosophy. We also subjugate Spirits, but we use a different, gentler method."
Seeing her older sister's disappointed look, Itsuka Kotori smiled and continued to explain.
"That is the method of talking to the Spirits. We, 'Ratatoskr', use dialogue to solve spacequakes without killing the Spirits."
"Just dialogue?"
"Of course not, you have to have an incredibly intimate conversation with the Spirit. For example, flirting with each other, romantic dates, and finally making the Spirit fall head over heels in love with you. How does that sound? Pretty good, right?"
Kotori explained this to Itsuka Shiori with an expression that said, 'You should be grateful, you should feel excited'.
"Pretty good my ass! I'm a girl! Between girls!"
Hearing Itsuka Kotori say this, Itsuka Shiori's pretty face immediately turned red, and the girl said this in a flustered manner, looking at a loss.
"Who said girls can't do that kind of thing with each other? It's obvious that the love between girls is the purest."
"Don't make that kind of expression. Doing this is just to make the Spirit have good feelings about this world, and only by making the Spirit shy can we seal their abilities. So the only way to make the Spirit shy is love!"
Analyzing the benefits of this method in a logical manner, Kotori was very satisfied with the reason she had come up with to deal with Itsuka Shiori, whether it was temporary or had been prepared long ago. She was just short of saying, 'I am indeed the smartest'.
"I... I understand, if doing this can protect that girl."
Remembering the sad look on the purple-haired girl's face that she had seen, Itsuka Shiori's heart trembled slightly involuntarily.
That... was the feeling of heartache.
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