I Became a Spirit in Date A Live and Refused to Date

But realizing it might be a coded message, Shido hurriedly took the receipt and examined it. On the back, someone had written, "We'll support you. Just act natural on your date."

So you're telling me not to worry about you and to go on a normal date with Tohka?

Shido smiled bitterly to himself.

"Shido, let's go," Aya said beside him.

"Oh... right."

"...Wait. This is a shopping district raffle ticket. Once you leave this store, follow the road on the right to reach the raffle booth. Please make use of it if you can."

Just as they were about to leave, Reine took a brightly colored raffle ticket from a drawer and handed it to Shido, putting particular emphasis on the last part.

Shido looked at the ticket in his hand and broke into a sweat.

You don't mean "if you can." You mean "you absolutely have to," don't you?

"Oh, a raffle ticket? Might as well take it. Thanks."

Lingmeng thanked Reine. It was free, so why not?

"Shido, Aya, what's that?"

Tohka was gazing at the raffle ticket with keen interest.

"It's a ticket that tells you whether you're blessed by the gods of luck or cursed by them."

"...Huh? What does that mean?"

Lingmeng's explanation only left Tohka looking puzzled.

"Uh... Tohka, do you want to give it a try?" Shido asked awkwardly.

"Mm-hmm! I don't know what it is, but it sounds amazing. I want to go."

Tohka nodded firmly.

"Then let's go!"

Beaming, Tohka pushed open the door and ran outside.

"Hey, do you even know where it is? Don't just run off!"

Seeing Tohka dash out without another word, Aya hurried after her.

"I'm off, Miss Reine." Shido exchanged a glance with Reine, then ran out too.

"Thanks for the effort, Reine."

Kotori had been hiding beneath the checkout counter. Once she was sure Shido and the others had left, she stood up.

"...Mm. It's fine," Reine replied in a flat voice.

Kotori was currently carrying out Operation F-08, also known as "A Holiday in Tengu City."

The plan called for the crew to disguise themselves as ordinary citizens and secretly help Shido if a Spirit evaded the organization's detection and made contact with him.

To prepare, every crew member had to undergo at least a month of acting training. Even so, this was only one of the thousands of contingency plans Ratatoskr had devised.

"Yeah, it's me. Act as naturally as you can. If you fail, I'll skin you alive."

After laying out the mission and the consequences in a few words, Kotori hung up.

"Let's head back to Fraxinus. We can't contact them, but we can at least watch the footage."

"...All right. Let's do that."

"Oh, this thing called a grilled sausage is pretty good."

Tohka was walking down the street with Shido and Aya, holding a grilled sausage Shido had bought with his last bit of change.

Just then, Tohka noticed a little boy beside them eating the same thing. When he finished, he obediently threw the leftover bamboo skewer into a trash can.

"Mom, I put my trash in the bin like a good boy!"

The boy waved to a woman across from him. She came over, crouched in front of him, and gently stroked his head.

"Well done, Torata." Torata beamed at her praise.

Seeing this, Tohka gulped down the rest of her sausage, ran to the trash can, and tossed in her skewer. Then she hurried back to Shido and Aya and bowed her head.

"Shido, Aya, I want that too," Tohka said expectantly.

"Uh... well..." Shido scratched his cheek, troubled. Doing that in the middle of the street was far too embarrassing.

"You want one too? Sure." Smiling, Aya placed a hand on Tohka's head and began petting her like a cat.

Feeling the warmth of Aya's hand, Tohka looked utterly delighted.

Huh. Why does this feel a little like petting the Husky I used to have?

Lingmeng kept stroking Tohka's head, thinking to herself. After all, her old dog had reacted the same way when she petted it.

Wait! What's going on? When I first met her, she was such an aloof beauty. How did she turn into a girl begging for head pats?

The thought made Aya's expression turn serious. The Tohka before her was worlds apart from the one she had first met.

The old Tohka would have summoned her Angel and come at her swinging! People changed as they grew up, sure, but this was like meeting a whole different person!

With a strained look, Aya lowered her hand.

"...Hm?" Tohka murmured. She didn't know why Aya had stopped, but she didn't dwell on it. She simply walked up to Shido and asked him to do the same.

"Ah... all right." Shido sighed helplessly, then stroked Tohka's head with a smile. "Good girl. Tohka, you're such a good girl."

Tohka looked delighted all over again.

Yeah, it feels a lot more natural when Shido's the one giving her head pats.

Lingmeng folded her arms and nodded firmly as she watched what was happening.

"Uh... the raffle booth... is that it?"

The three of them had reached the raffle location. Shido checked the map on the raffle ticket and spoke uncertainly.

In an open space stood a long table draped in red cloth, with a large raffle drum on top.

"This is definitely it," Aya replied.

"Ooh, so this is where the raffle is? It's pretty lively."

Tohka nodded, speaking in surprise.

A man in a happi coat stood by the raffle drum, and another stood in the prize collection area. Behind them were bicycles, bags of rice, and other things that looked like prizes. Several people were waiting in line.

Shido scratched his cheek. His memory was a little hazy, but the men in happi coats looked familiar. So did the people in line. He was fairly sure he had seen all of them aboard Fraxinus...

The Adults-Only Zone

“Here, Tohka. You can draw.”

Seeing how eager Tohka was, Aya took the raffle ticket from Shido and handed it to her.

"Huh? I can?" Tohka looked at Aya in delight.

“Of course. Right, Shido?”

“Mm... go ahead and give it a try, Tohka.”

Shido nodded in answer to Aya's question.

“Ooh! Here I go!” Tohka cheerfully joined the back of the line.

As she watched the people ahead of her turn the raffle drum, Tohka's head and eyes followed it around without her noticing.

At last, everyone ahead of her had finished. Imitating them, Tohka handed her ticket to the attendant and placed her hand on the drum.

On closer look, Shido realized the attendant was Kawagoe, the one known for “entering the burnout phase in record time.”

"I just turn this, right?"

Tohka gripped the handle and muttered to herself. Then she gave it a hard spin.

“Ah, I wonder what Tohka will win?”

"No idea. Even if it isn't worth much, it'll still make a nice memory."

Shido and Aya watched curiously from behind.

With a clack, a small red ball dropped out.

"Uh... did it really have to be red?"

The sight of the red ball reminded Aya of the abysmal luck she'd had pulling cards in her previous life.

"Oh, that's too bad. Red gets you pocket tissues—"

Before Shido could finish, Kawagoe suddenly began ringing the bell in his hand with a loud clang-clang.

"Congratulations! You've won the grand prize!"

"Ooh!"

"Wh... what?" Shido and Aya exclaimed together.

They both froze, then looked up at the prize board. The grand prize had been marked with a gold ball, but somehow it had changed to a red one.

"Shido, the grand prize was a gold ball just a moment ago, right? Or have I been doing it so much lately that I'm seeing things?"

Lingmeng tugged at Shido's sleeve, unable to believe it.

"Uh... I don't know either. But Tohka's so happy, so maybe we shouldn't say anything."

Shido answered awkwardly. He hadn't seen what had happened, but he figured Ratatoskr was probably behind it.

"Congratulations! The grand prize is a free couples' pass to Dream Island!"

"Ooh! Shido, Aya, what's that?"

"Sounds like a theme park. Have you heard of it, Shido?"

Shido shook his head, looking just as puzzled.

"Sorry, I haven't."

Tohka happily accepted the tickets. Just then, Kawagoe suddenly leaned close to Shido.

"There's a map on the back of the tickets. Please make sure you go! The sooner, the better!"

"O-okay..." Overwhelmed by Kawagoe's intensity, Shido could only agree, sweating.

"Oh, it's pretty close to here. Want to check it out, Tohka?"

Aya glanced at the map on the back of the tickets and turned to Tohka.

"Mm!"

"Then let's go, Shido!"

With that, Aya and Tohka headed toward the spot marked on the map.

Shido found it odd. If he remembered correctly, that area was residential. It wasn't impossible, but he had trouble imagining a theme park there.

Still, Tohka and Aya wanted to go, so there was nothing he could do. He sighed and hurried after them.

"Ooh! Shido, Aya! There's a castle over there! Is that where we're going?"

Tohka excitedly pointed at a castle ahead of them. Shido cried out in disbelief to himself. No way! There really is one?

"If this is the place, it's a pretty impressive theme park."

Lingmeng spoke as she approached the castle. Then she spotted the sign posted outside and stopped dead.

"What is it, Aya?"

Shido walked over. When he saw the sign, he froze too.

The sign read "Dream Island," which was normal enough. The words beneath it were another matter.

They read: "Short stay: from 4,000 yen for two hours. Overnight stay: from 8,000 yen."