Three options appeared on the tactical screen.
_______________
1. "Wait! I didn't mean to bother you."
2. "I'm not afraid of you."
3. "If you have a reason for being here… I want to hear it."
_______________
"Don't pick anything that makes her feel challenged!" Kotori snapped quickly. "Someone like her only pulls away more if you push!"
On the floor, Kannazuki was still sprawled out, a strange look of bliss on his face.
"Queen of Ice… if I may… one more stomp before dying happy—"
BUGH.
Kotori's kick landed squarely.
"Stand properly, pervert."
The tactical system began calculating the probability of the Spirit's response.
The numbers spun… slowed…
Option 3 was selected.
Kotori read it aloud, "If you have a reason for being here… I want to hear it."
She narrowed her eyes.
"Acknowledging rationality. Not begging. Not challenging."
"That Spirit doesn't respond to basic emotions," Reine said calmly. "The affection graph stayed flat at zero because she hasn't deemed Shido a relevant variable yet."
"She reacts to logical structure, not emotional approach. For her, social interactions are cause-and-effect branches, not feelings."
Kotori let out a small huff and added, "A cold-thinking Spirit… impressive. The trickiest kind."
She pressed her communicator.
"Shido. You copy?"
On one of the screens, Shido was still standing where Morgan had just disappeared.
"Copy. So… I'm supposed to chase her, right?"
Kotori rolled her eyes and replied firmly, "Stupid question. Of course!"
"But don't use the usual approach," Reine added. "Don't talk about feelings yet. Ask her purpose. Let her explain her presence. Make her feel the conversation has meaning."
Kotori pointed at the screen.
"Think of it like negotiating with the most rational person in the world. Don't tease. Don't act brave. Don't be dramatic."
A pause.
Her tone dropped slightly.
"Chase her… before she decides this world isn't worth an explanation."
Shido nodded firmly. "Okay."
He ran in the direction Morgan had gone, weaving through the trees and stepping on ground still scarred from the aftermath of battle.
But the forest was empty.
No footprints.
No lingering energy.
No spatial distortions.
Suddenly, the Fraxinus panels beeped softly.
Spirit signal—gone.
Not weakened.
Not retreated.
Gone, as if it had never existed.
"Kotori," Shido's voice came through the communicator, confused. "I can't find her anywhere. Can she be tracked?"
In the command room, Kotori's eyes sharpened as she stared at the screen, now displaying only empty data.
"…No Reiryoku readings."
She typed rapidly, switching sensor spectrums.
"Infra-dimensional void. Spatial distortion zero. Even wave residues—nothing."
Silence hung in the forest air like an invisible mist.
Shido swallowed.
His throat felt dry.
"So… she ran off?"
In the Fraxinus command room, Kotori didn't answer immediately. Her jaw tightened, and her fingers froze above the control panel.
"…No."
She leaned back slowly in her chair, her red eyes fixed on the main screen.
"She didn't leave."
A brief pause—long enough to make Shido's chest feel heavy.
Kotori crossed her legs.
"She just… chose not to be found."
The night wind whispered through the trees. Shido stood frozen in the forest, as if the words were harder to accept than a simple "she ran."
"…Seriously?"
Kotori closed her eyes for a moment, then exhaled slowly through her nose.
"Impressive," she murmured flatly, almost sarcastic. "Now we have to chase a Spirit that doesn't even consider our existence important enough… to leave a trace."
Silence.
Only the wind and the beat of Shido's own heart.
"So then…" Shido's voice was softer than usual, "what happens next?"
Kotori opened her eyes. Her gaze sharpened—full commander mode.
"There's no choice."
"Shido, return. We can't track something that deliberately erased itself from the map."
Her voice dropped half a tone.
"All we can do… is wait until the Spirit decides to appear again."
Shido clasped his hands gently.
"…Understood."
A soft light glimmered beneath his feet.
In an instant, his body dissolved into particles of light—pulled back into the Fraxinus.
The forest was empty again.
As if no one had ever been there.
***
Several hours had passed since Morgan vanished from Ratatoskr's surveillance.
In the hallway of the house, Gabriel walked slowly, his steps automatic, his thoughts somewhere far away.
"Ash's meeting with Mukuro… it actually went well," he murmured under his breath. "But something feels off. Like a missing note in the middle of a song."
He exhaled softly, his shoulders rising a little before falling again.
"Maybe it's normal," he continued inwardly. "Her heart's still locked. The way she talks is flat… not just cold, but empty. Like an NPC whose dialogue hasn't been unlocked yet."
The tips of his fingers twitched faintly, as if holding back an invisible urge.
"I could open the door myself," he said quietly. "But… that's not my role. If I force it, the meaning disappears."
A faint smile formed.
"I already left a marker, anyway."
The crystal orb crossed his mind—still, beautiful, simple. Not merely a gift, but an unspoken promise. A point of convergence in the future, when the time was right and her heart was no longer locked from the inside.
Thinking through those possibilities made his steps feel lighter.
Eventually, he reached the living room.
Morgan sat there with perfect posture, a cup of warm tea in her hand. The Queen of Winters' gown framed her figure like black snow given human shape.
Calm. Silent. Unshaken.
She opened her eyes behind the veil, her gaze settling on Gabriel without a ripple.
"The preparations for Rinkai are complete," she said flatly, her voice smooth yet cold like the air before a snowstorm. "Name the time. We can depart at any moment."
Gabriel didn't answer right away.
He walked toward the sofa at an unhurried pace, as if no urgency in the world could disturb the rhythm of his steps.
Morgan, meanwhile, had already set her own teacup down. With a quiet, fluid motion, she prepared another.
Thin steam curled upward, carrying a gentle warmth that contrasted with the chill in her presence.
Gabriel sat beside her.
He accepted the cup without a word, holding it with both hands before drinking. He didn't sip immediately—he inhaled softly first, letting the aroma fill his senses.
"Pu-erh tea," he murmured softly. "Deep, earthy aroma… blended with apple essence. My favorite."
Only then did he take a sip.
"Mm."
A faint smile formed.
"The taste is balanced. Deep, but not heavy. Like the birth of a white dwarf in some corner of the universe."
A gentle silence settled between them.
Morgan did not turn immediately, but her lashes shifted slightly behind the veil.
"A white dwarf is not a birth," she said flatly. "It is a remnant."
She lifted her cup again.
"A star that has lost its grandeur. No longer burning, only leaving behind a dense core… stable because it has no other choice."
Her tone remained cool, yet it held no disagreement—only correction.
"If that is your metaphor," she continued quietly, "then this taste is not about a beautiful beginning."
She took a sip of her tea.
"But about something that has passed through destruction… and chosen to remain."
Gabriel kept that faint smile.
What Morgan had said wasn't a rebuttal—it was the most accurate explanation possible.
The tea in his hands truly tasted like that. Deep. Aged. Calm. Warm.
And at the very end, there was a thin line of freshness, almost imperceptible—not cheerfulness… just a quiet assertion that something still remained.
He liked that.
"You still haven't answered my question," Morgan said at last, her voice cold like a frozen lake. "So… when are we departing for Rinkai?"
Gabriel fell silent.
His gaze lowered to the faint ripples on the surface of the tea.
In less than a second, his mind had already weighed dozens of possibilities, like a chessboard whose moves he had seen all the way to the end.
He took another sip.
"Soon," he finally answered, his voice a shade deeper. "But not now. There are still a few things I want to do first."
Morgan glanced at him briefly from behind her veil.
To anyone else, it might have seemed faint.
But to Morgan—who had been with him for three years—the meaning was clear.
He still wanted to walk a little longer as "Ash." But his ultimate goal hadn't changed.
A thin smile appeared on Morgan's lips. Not warm. Not gentle. But real.
"If that's what you wish," she said calmly, "I will not refuse."
She took another sip of her tea.
On the other side, a faint color rose on Gabriel's face.
Her words just now weren't sweet. Nor were they gentle. But Gabriel could feel the flow of Ki that accompanied them—subtle, steady, without hesitation.
And that was exactly what made their meaning… too clear.
Gabriel exhaled softly.
Not in irritation.
Just slightly disturbed, because the calm he had just felt was shattered by something he hadn't planned to feel.
___
Author's note:
The plot has indeed changed. Mukuro and Spirit, who have already met Gabriel, will be looking for him.
Well... Anyway, the MC's journey in Date a Live is a bit complicated.
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