"Waaah! So bright!"
The sudden flash made Yatogami Tohka yelp and throw an arm over her eyes.
Shichen narrowed his eyes slightly, calmly sizing up the woman holding the camera.
She had platinum-blond hair in a distinctly Northern European style, sharp features, and skin white as snow.
A textbook foreign beauty.
"Ara~ ara~" Tokisaki Kurumi chuckled softly when she saw her, as if she recognized the woman.
Not just her—Tobiichi Origami's eyes flickered when she saw the newcomer. She said nothing, but she clearly knew her too.
Shichen thought that was natural—he knew her as well.
"Ellen, what are you doing here?" he asked evenly.
"My apologies. I'm the photographer sent by Cross Travel Agency to accompany you—Ellen Mathers… For the next three days, I'll be in charge of recording your trip. I just took some candid shots without asking first—I'm very sorry. If I offended you, I'm willing to apologize properly."
The girl, Ellen, walked over and bowed slightly.
"What kind of plane are you trying to play at?" Shichen asked, expression turning odd.
He'd called her by name, yet she was still pretending not to hear.
And this wasn't their first meeting, either. Back at the amusement park, Westcott had brought her along and even called Shichen "Origin."
"Excuse me, and you are?" Ellen looked at him, genuinely puzzled, as though they were strangers.
"…Forget it. Can you delete the photos?" Shichen didn't bother pushing. Whatever game she was playing, he wasn't going to chase it.
"I'm afraid not," Ellen shook her head.
"Why not?"
"As we agreed beforehand, our agency needs photos of your group for promotional use. You're expected to cooperate."
"But you just snapped those while we weren't paying attention."
"That's also permitted under the contract."
"…I just want you to take them again. What if we weren't ready just now? You might've caught us making weird faces."
"Eh?" Ellen blinked, clearly not expecting that reason.
"So, can you now?"
"It's fine. The candid shots turned out great. Those photos are absolutely perfect."
"…So you just don't want to delete them, huh?"
A faint threat crept into Shichen's tone.
"My apologies, I'll be taking my leave."
Ellen immediately turned and hurried off, almost like she was running away.
"?"
Shichen frowned, thrown off by her reaction.
Did she just… run?
"Ara~ seeing this side of her is certainly interesting," Kurumi said with a smile.
"..."
Origami pursed her lips, surprise flickering in her eyes as well.
"Shichen, who is she?" Tohka asked, watching Ellen's retreating back with curiosity.
"You don't know her?"
"It's my first time seeing her."
"That so… Then don't worry about it." Shichen shrugged, then suddenly looked up at the sky.
"Shichen, you noticed too? It feels like someone's been watching us," Tohka said, tilting her head back anxiously to follow his gaze.
"Don't mind it. It's nobody important. But a storm's about to roll in—we should hurry and get everyone checked in. I'll go talk to Hiyori-sensei."
"Oh… Wait! Shichen, something's wrong!"
Vmmm—
No sooner had Tohka spoken than the previously clear blue sky twisted. The clouds rolled into a massive vortex, spinning violently.
Almost at once, the scenery around them shifted at terrifying speed, growing dim and ominous.
Dark clouds surged overhead. A wild wind roared to life. The calm sea in the distance reared up into towering waves.
In under a minute, it looked like the end of the world.
Wind howled like the earth itself was groaning. Trees lining the road thrashed violently, on the verge of being uprooted—
A typhoon had formed out of nowhere.
And it was growing stronger by the second. Nearby trash cans rolled as they were blown over, empty cans and scraps of paper whirling through the air.
"Shichen-sensei, what on earth… is happening?"
Hiyori-sensei ran up to Shichen, panic written all over her face.
"Looks like a typhoon," he answered.
"A typhoon?!"
"Don't panic. First, get the students to the archive building—that's the safest place."
"R-right!"
"Origami, Kurumi, you two as well. Don't run off."
"Eeh~ Shichen, this isn't just a typhoon," Kurumi reminded him.
"Of course I know what it is. But we get everyone to safety first."
"Fine, fine. I'll listen to you, Shichen."
The forecast had clearly said all three days would be sunny. Weather reports weren't perfect, sure, but this sort of extreme shift shouldn't be happening.
Unless something unexpected was involved.
Unless this world's special beings were at work—the Spirits.
Shichen had already anticipated something like this happening. He just hadn't expected it to come so suddenly.
But it was no big deal. A mere storm was nothing but a party trick in front of him.
Once everyone was safely herded into the archive building, Shichen slipped out alone and headed straight for the eye of the storm.
Tohka had wanted to come, but he'd told her to stay and protect the others.
He didn't take Kurumi, either—he'd told her to keep an eye on Origami and stop her from doing anything reckless.
Standing beneath the roiling heart of the tempest, Shichen looked up and saw two humanoid silhouettes locked in combat in midair.
A storm this abrupt and this powerful, driven by a supernatural force—there was only one real explanation: a Spirit.
And the power he sensed was very familiar.
It was the same power that flowed from Lugia.
He was called "Origin," after all.
Shichen didn't move, simply stood on the torn-up ground and watched the two figures clashing savagely in the sky.
After a long exchange, both spirits seemed to gather their strength and then hurled themselves at each other in a full-force collision.
BOOM—!
Vmmm—!
The shockwave rippled outward, and a violent gale exploded across the island.
Standing in the center of the storm, Shichen didn't budge. Power that originated from himself could hardly harm him.
The two figures locked together in the air were suddenly flung apart, sent crashing toward the ground.
They landed almost symmetrically on either side of Shichen.
Then, almost instantly, the howling winds around him weakened and faded, until the air within that space became still and calm.
But that was only the area around Shichen. Further out over Arubi Island, the storm still raged.
That localized calm had nothing to do with Shichen; it could only be caused by the two beings who'd just landed—
each standing in a small pocket of stillness, like the eye of the typhoon.
Shichen looked left and right at the pair, their appearances exactly as he'd expected.
"Heh~ hehehe~"
On his right, a girl with her long hair tied up high walked toward him with a fearless grin.
She looked about the same age as Tohka, with orange hair and quicksilver eyes, her features sharp and well-proportioned.
Her outfit, however, was what truly stood out: a dark jacket, straps wrapped around her body like belts, and metal restraints clamped around her right wrist, right ankle, and neck, trailing broken chains.
She looked like some dangerous criminal bound in seals for her crimes—
and yet her clothing was still surprisingly revealing, exposing large swathes of pale, firm skin.
"Pretty impressive, aren't you, Yuzuru? As expected of this queen's other half~ To think you could fight me to a standstill with twenty-five wins, twenty-five losses, and forty-nine draws. But that ends today."
The girl's tone was dramatically over the top, like she was reading straight from a script—a prime case of "second-year syndrome."
The girl on Shichen's left started walking toward him as well.
"Objection. The one who will emerge victorious in this hundredth battle is not Kaguya, but Yuzuru."
The girl who called herself Yuzuru also had orange hair, braided down her back. The biggest difference between her and "Kaguya" was her eyes—half-lidded and sleepy, with a deeply uninterested air.
Her face, however, was identical.
Her outfit was nearly the same as Kaguya's—another restraint-style uniform—with the shackles on the opposite side: neck, left arm, and left leg.
The two of them looked like mirror images of each other, each the other's literal other half.
"Hmph, don't be ridiculous. The one truly worthy of the name 'Yamais' is me. Hurry up and accept reality already!" Kaguya huffed.
"Denied. The one who gets to live is Yuzuru. Kaguya doesn't deserve the name Yamai," Yuzuru countered flatly.
"Hmph, such pointless struggling. With my Mystic Eyes that see the future, I've seen it clearly: on the next attack, you'll be pierced through by my jet-black spear that commands the storm!"
"Accusation: Kaguya's so-called 'prophecies' using her Mystic Eyes have never come true."
"..."
The two of them bickered heatedly across Shichen…
and completely ignored his existence.
~~~
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