Huh?! Sealing Without a Kiss?

Standing amid the ruins, Qian Huanyue sensed something. A memory unfolded before her eyes.

"Hi, we meet again." A silver-haired girl appeared before her, her face so enchanting it hardly seemed real.

"Who are you?"

The silver-haired girl looked surprised, as if to say, Don't you recognize me?

"You don't have to keep going."

"Fighting all the time must be hard." A gentle voice sounded beside her ear.

The purple-haired girl, who had no name yet, felt comforted for the first time. She thought the other girl was a little strange, but she didn't dislike the feeling.

"...Mm."

Before she knew it, the purple-haired Spirit had developed a strange dependence on this friend who had descended from the sky. The feeling was utterly unfamiliar to her.

Qian Huanyue saw everything through Tohka's eyes—or rather, she had slipped into Tohka's body within this memory. It was a strangely fascinating experience. So this was how Tohka had felt back then.

—Something like the warmth of family.

The scene shifted. A blue-haired girl solemnly promised the Spirit, "I would never hurt you! I would never deny you! You have every right to live a normal life!"

The purple-haired Spirit was deeply moved.

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

—Tohka.

That's Shiori-chan for you. Feeling the joy in her chest echo the memory, what else could Qian Huanyue say?

All she could do was marvel...

The pain in her hand still made her vision blur now and then. Huanyue was afraid of pain, after all.

Yes, that had to be it.

Then she noticed something unusual and widened her eyes in surprise.

Huh?

After Shiori, whom she had pushed high into the air, met the gaze of the rampaging Tohka, hesitation appeared in her eyes. Her face looked rather pale.

"My sword is about to go out of control. At this rate, I'll have no choice but to unleash it..."

"No, that would destroy this place."

"Then what am I supposed to do?!"

"Um... Tohka, the seal requires mouth-to-mouth..."

The instant Tohka leaned closer, Shiori's mind went blank, and she instinctively turned her head aside.

Their foreheads collided.

"Ow!" ×2

Tohka's Spiritual Power was sealed.

Qian Huanyue: ??????

Qian Huanyue said nothing. Qian Huanyue was utterly stunned.

Why didn't the seal need a kiss? If it didn't, why had Shiori suggested kissing during our date?

This world was different from the one she knew, after all. Shiori being Shiori rather than Shido was one example. Could the conditions for sealing be different too?

So had Shiori taken advantage of me back then? Recalling how Shiori had asked her for a kiss on their first date, Qian Huanyue felt a strange mix of embarrassment and indignation.

A little annoyed, she stamped her foot.

An enormous cloud of dust rose from the ruins.

Qian Huanyue cupped one cheek. It really was burning hot.

If anyone saw me like this, I don't even know how they'd tease me. At the thought, a faint but exceptionally sweet smile crossed her face.

After sniffling a few times, Huanyue looked at her uninjured hand and casually summoned Seraph of Thousand Blades.

The area before her had been reduced to an empty expanse. With a disturbance that huge, the Quasi-Spirits of the Tenth Domain had probably noticed.

Only after waiting until her eyes were less watery did Qian Huanyue use her Angel to open a path through space and step into the Ninth Domain.

"Oh my." Kurumi spotted at once that something was off about Qian Huanyue. Her eyes looked unusually moist. "How did it go, Huanyue-chan?"

"Hm? No problems at all..." Huanyue looked especially flustered, but she quickly steadied herself. Then she smiled as though everything was fine, narrowed her eyes, and raised both hands with her palms open. "It's all taken care of."

She had only wanted to deal with the trouble quickly, so she had formed Seraph of Thousand Blades into its Cannon Type and increased the Spiritual Power output.

Instead, she had accidentally hurt herself. Making herself cry like that...

She would never admit to something so embarrassing, not even if her life depended on it.

And... ahem, she wasn't going to mention that other matter either.

Kurumi: Stare.

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

"I... I want something sweet, Kurumi." Qian Huanyue kept her expression steady and leaned forward coaxingly.

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

"Um..." Hii Hibiki raised her hand. "Things work a little differently here than in the Real World. If you picture something you want and use Spiritual Power, you can create it."

Quasi-Spirits could create all sorts of things they wished for, including food.

Hii Hibiki used Spiritual Power to make a pudding.

"Wow! You can do that?" Qian Huanyue's attention was successfully diverted. Because she had cried, her eyes looked far brighter than before, and their sparkle was especially captivating. "That's amazing, little Hibiki!"

She thought hard.

Pudding—pudding—pudding—channel Spiritual Power—

Create!

Seraph of Thousand Blades suddenly appeared and took the shape of a pudding.

"...?" Qian Huanyue's smile froze. Holding the hard, pudding-shaped Seraph of Thousand Blades in her hands, she tilted her head and looked terribly aggrieved.

Oh no! Hii Hibiki's heart skipped a beat as she covered the smile on her dear friend Yangliu Xiying's face.

Don't laugh, my friend!

"Pfft!" Kurumi covered her mouth, laughing softly. In the end, she couldn't hold back a snicker and murmured, "Would you like me to help?"

With a single thought, a slice of Black Forest cake appeared before Kurumi.

"Huh?"

Everyone around Qian Huanyue seemed able to create whatever they imagined.

She stared at them with blank, beady eyes, feeling strangely left out.