"Meowr…"
"Ugh, old Wu…"
"Mroooow—"
Tenguu City Pet Store. Like hospitals and other businesses too difficult to quickly evacuate, it had a shelter built directly into the building—a dedicated rapid-transport system that kicked in the moment the alert sounded.
Just minutes ago they'd received a baffling customer who, despite the shelter entrance being right there, had insisted on handing over her cat for safekeeping before running off.
"Mrooow—" Every cat in the building voiced something distinctly uncharming.
"Quiet!"
Whether caught up in the tense atmosphere or simply running on sharper instincts than humans, the cats and dogs had broken into a chorus of anxious noise—maddening for people already dragged from their beds in the dead of night.
Yimi cleared her throat. She raised her head and announced:
"Mya-mya, myo-myow!"
"Mrooow—" All the cats.
"Mya-mya, myo-myow!" Yimi.
"Nyaooow…"
"Mya-mya, myo-myow!" Yimi.
"Mya-mya, myo-myow!" All the cats.
Yimi gave a satisfied nod and turned toward the dog section. "Wuf-wuf, woof-wow!"
"Wuf-wuf, woof-wow!" All the dogs.
Conversion complete.
"…"
The shop assistant involuntarily took a step back, reducing her own presence. "Manager—is that little super-cat about to lead a 'Furballs Rising' revolt in here?"
"Congratulations, Host—achievement unlocked: [Missionary]. Reward: Gateway Energy +5%."
These odd achievements always triggered at the strangest moments. Yimi was more or less used to it.
"Still—what was that young lady thinking? The shelter here has plenty of space. Running around out there like that, is she really going to be okay?"
"Probably has a younger sibling at home alone—a toddler who can't speak yet. Worrying, honestly. The shelter procedures are better than they used to be, but that doesn't mean the risk is zero."
"When you think about it, a Spacequake at this hour is always going to leave some people who don't bother evacuating…"
"Meow?"
The cat couldn't speak. But the cat understood perfectly.
A few cage-mates made worried faces on her behalf.
Yimi stared at the lock on the cage door. She reached a paw through the bars and prodded it. Solid—far too solid to force open while she was still this weakened.
She glanced at the humans chatting away on the far side of the room. Then she tucked the lock into her storage space, eased the door open, and slipped out.
Before the other cats could follow, she put the lock back in place and latched it shut behind her.
The caged cats: "Mrreow! Nyaoow myaou!"
"Congratulations, Host—achievement unlocked: [Voice Chat Enabled]. Reward: Gateway Energy +5%."
The earlier mass-noise event gave her cover—no one noticed the commotion from this corner. She used the cages as stepping stones, launched off the top with repeated jumps, and pried open a ventilation grille using the same trick, then crawled through.
The cat had no idea what ventilation shafts were for. But sharp cat instincts could feel the airflow at the opening.
"I don't understand. I have no need to be saved by you."
She was dressed in pale violet—superficially resembling a qipao yet far more exposed—golden hair spilling loose, longer than most girls who spent years carefully tending their locks would ever dare to grow. Gathered on either side of her head into twin buns, she looked no older than Kotori or Yoshino at a glance—yet her chest rivaled even Tohka's.
Mukuro Hoshimiya. That was her name.
She had been floating peacefully in outer space when something cat-shaped had come screaming in from who-knows-where and smashed into her, knocking her down from beyond the atmosphere all the way to the surface. The impact had taken considerable time to shake off—it was only now that she'd fully come around.
"But there are so many wonderful things in this world," Shiori offered hopefully.
Another flat, expressionless face—minimal emotion, minimal reaction. Origami, Reine-sensei, Yuzuru… somehow she always ended up surrounded by people who showed nothing.
"There is no but. Wonderful things don't make me feel interested. Uninteresting things don't make me feel bored. Because I've locked away my heart."
"Your heart…"
Kotori's voice crackled in her earpiece. "Her readings have maintained a flat, perfectly even average from the very start—no variation whatsoever. This could be connected to what she just said."
Because Mukuro had shown total apathy from the outset, they'd pushed Shiori into a more extreme gambit—the line "I am the woman who will become your master"—but it hadn't produced so much as a flicker.
"I have no reason to be sealed by you. More to the point—on what grounds do you assume it would even benefit me?" Mukuro's golden eyes swept across the area. The AST members who'd basically shown up to clock in for work looked like they were not having a good time. She hadn't held back against them—and if Shiori hadn't intervened in time, they would have received the finishing blow.
"After sealing a Spirit's power, what do you plan to do if they face an attack like this? As I see it, you simply drag them from a state of being able to protect themselves into danger."
"That's…" Shiori had no answer. Because what Mukuro said wasn't wrong.
This was the kind of crisis that only came up during summer school trips. And beyond the clockwork public-servant routine of AST, there was another enemy entirely—DEM Industries, based in Britain. They had real initiative. They were genuinely stronger. Rumor had it AST's own equipment was supplied by the same company…
Her thoughts drifted to the youngest Spirit she'd encountered—who had also pushed back when she'd spoken about sealing her power.
In truth, without her intervention, Yimi's ability to redirect misfortune would have kept her from direct harm… No—others would still be hurt. That was the core problem. It wasn't right.
"Itsuka Shiori—"
The moment her name left Mukuro's lips, Shiori thrust her key-shaped wand into empty space. A pitch-black portal tore open—swallowing a long-range sniper beam that no one but Mukuro had detected.
"Who's out there?"
She hovered in midair, a black Realizer nothing like the standard AST issue—its sole armor a butterfly-wing spread of crossed thrusters at the back, legs encased to the knee in high boots, and in her right hand a weapon substantial enough to be called a cannon rather than a gun.
CR-Unit: Mordred. The sister unit to the Pendragon belonging to the most powerful Wizard alive.
She can win. With this, she finally had the power to fight a Spirit.
Origami looked toward the girl who appeared no older than a middle schooler—she wasn't the white-light Spirit from before, but that didn't make her hatred any less. She had always despised them as a category, as beings that brought disaster to others—though the daily reality of walking to school alongside Yatogami Tohka and the Yamai sisters had been quietly wearing that hatred thin.