Huh?! Sealing Without a Kiss?

Standing amid the ruins, Qian Huanyue seemed to sense something, and a memory unfolded before her eyes.

"Hi, we meet again." A silver-haired girl with a dreamlike, breathtakingly charming face appeared before her.

"You are?"

The silver-haired girl looked somewhat surprised, her expression seeming to say, "Don't you recognize me anymore?"

"There's no need to keep going."

"Constantly fighting like this must be hard on you." A gentle voice reached her ears.

For the first time, the purple-haired girl, who did not yet have a name, felt comforted. She found the other girl a little strange, yet she did not dislike the feeling.

"...Mm."

Without realizing it, the purple-haired Spirit girl developed a strange sense of reliance on this friend who had descended from the heavens. Such a feeling was utterly unfamiliar to her.

Qian Huanyue saw herself from a first-person perspective—or rather, she had possessed Tohka's body within this memory. This strange experience was rather interesting. So this was how Tohka had felt deep down back then.

—Something akin to familial affection.

The scene shifted. A blue-haired girl solemnly promised the Spirit, "I will never want to hurt you! I will never deny you! You are fully qualified to live a normal life!"

The purple-haired Spirit was deeply moved.

Through the conversations between the blue-haired girl and the silver-haired girl, the purple-haired Spirit gained a name of her own.

—Tohka.

Mm, just as expected of you, Shiori-chan. Qian Huanyue felt the joy in her chest resonating with the memory.

What else could Qian Huanyue say?

She could only marvel...

Because of the pain in her hand, her vision still blurred from time to time. After all, Huanyue was most afraid of pain.

Mm, that had to be it.

Suddenly, she noticed an unusual detail and widened her eyes in surprise.

Huh?

After being pushed high into the air by herself, Shiori met the gaze of the rampaging, out-of-control Tohka. Hesitation surfaced in her eyes, and her face looked somewhat pale.

"My sword is about to lose control. If this continues, I can only release it..."

"No, that would destroy this place."

"Then what am I supposed to do?!"

"Um... Tohka, sealing is mouth-to-mouth..."

The instant Tohka bent down to approach her, Shiori's mind went blank, and she instinctively turned her head slightly.

Their foreheads collided.

"Ugh!" ×2

Tohka's Spiritual Power was sealed.

Qian Huanyue: ??????

Qian Huanyue said nothing. Qian Huanyue was utterly shaken.

Why didn't sealing require a kiss? If it didn't, then why had Shiori suggested kissing during their date?

After all, this world was different from before. For example, Shiori was not "Shido." Could the conditions for sealing be different too?

So did that mean she had been taken advantage of back then? Remembering how Shiori had asked to kiss her on their first date, Qian Huanyue felt strangely embarrassed and annoyed at the same time.

A little angrily, she kicked the ground.

A huge cloud of dust rose from another part of the ruins.

Qian Huanyue held one side of her face in one hand. Her cheek was indeed burning hot.

She had no idea how much she would be teased if anyone saw her like this. Thinking that, a faint yet especially sweet smile appeared on Qian Huanyue's face.

After sniffing a few times, Huanyue looked at her completely uninjured hand and nonchalantly summoned [Seraph of Thousand Blades].

Now that the area before her had become completely Empty, such a huge commotion would probably have alerted the Quasi-Spirits of the Tenth Domain.

After resting for a while and feeling that her eyes were no longer so watery, Qian Huanyue used her Angel to tear open space and step into the Ninth Domain.

"My, my," Kurumi immediately noticed that something was off about Qian Huanyue. Her eyes looked especially moist. "How did it go, Huanyue-chan?"

"Hmm? Everything's completely fine..." Huanyue looked especially flustered at the moment, but after quickly steadying her expression, she put on a seemingly relaxed smile. Narrowing her eyes, she spread her palms and raised both hands. "I took care of everything."

She had only wanted to resolve the trouble quickly, so she had used [Seraph of Thousand Blades] to form [Cannon Type] and increase the output of her Spiritual Power.

In the end, she accidentally hurt herself. Making herself cry...

She would rather die than admit something so embarrassing.

And also... ahem, she would not mention that either.

Kurumi: Stare.

Qian Huanyue: Eek! (She nearly stepped back.)

"I think... I want sweets, Kurumi." Qian Huanyue steadied her expression and leaned forward in a coquettish manner.

"My, you'll have to ask Miss Hibiki about that."

"Um..." Hii Hibiki raised her hand and said, "Things are somewhat different here from the Real World. As long as you use Spiritual Power and imagine what you want, you can create it."

Quasi-Spirits could create all kinds of things they wished to appear, and food was naturally included.

Hii Hibiki used Spiritual Power to produce a pudding.

"Wow! So you can do that." Qian Huanyue's attention was successfully diverted. Because she had cried, her eyes looked far more crystalline than before, and when they lit up, they were especially captivating. "That's amazing, Little Hibiki!"

Think.

Pudding—pudding—pudding—Spiritual Power transfer—

Formation!

[Seraph of Thousand Blades] suddenly appeared and transformed into the shape of a pudding.

"...?" Qian Huanyue's smile froze. Holding the hard [Seraph of Thousand Blades], now shaped like a pudding, in her hands, she tilted her head and looked exceptionally pitiful.

Oh no! Hii Hibiki nervously covered the smile on her best friend Yangliu Xiying's face.

You're not allowed to laugh, best friend!

"Pfft!" Kurumi covered her mouth with one hand and chuckled softly. In the end, she could not hold it in and snickered, murmuring, "Want me to help?"

With a thought, a Black Forest cake appeared in front of Kurumi.

"Huh?"

Watching everyone around her create whatever they imagined.

Qian Huanyue stared blankly, feeling as though she had somehow been excluded.