Chapter 20

"Wait, isn't this a freaking adult hotel? What kind of weirdo gives this away as a prize?"

Lingmeng stared at the words on the sign and couldn't help complaining.

"Uh... Tohka, let's go back! I'm so scatterbrained that I took us the wrong way."

"Huh? Isn't this the place? Now that we're here, I still want to take a look inside."

"No! You two absolutely cannot go in! This isn't something you kids should be getting into yet. Wait until you're adults before you even think about it."

Lingmeng stood in front of the hotel entrance, doing her best to stop them.

"Yeah, exactly! Tohka, we're still minors. We can't go in!"

Shido nodded quickly, his voice firm.

"Lingmeng, why are you so worked up? Is the essence of dating in there?"

"Uh... In a sense, you're not wrong, but you still can't go in!"

Lingmeng looked awkward at Tohka's question, but she still refused to let her inside.

"All right..." Tohka said, deflated.

Shido and Lingmeng felt bad for the visibly disappointed Tohka, but they were sure they'd done the right thing. After Shido glared up at the sky, where Kotori might be spying on him, the three of them retraced their steps.

"Honestly. They got all the way there, and he turned right back? What a cowardly brother!"

Aboard the airship, Kotori watched Shido on the big screen, shrugged, and sighed.

"...It couldn't be helped. Asking Little Shido to do that out of the blue was too much."

Below her, Reine spoke as she worked the control console.

From what they could see, Tohka's emotions had stabilized. She might not have romantic feelings for Shido yet, but she certainly liked him enough to trust him as a friend. That was why Kotori had decided he should take a chance.

"Even if they don't make any more progress, it's fine. One kiss at the end is all it takes to seal the deal."

Kotori rolled the lollipop around in her mouth and breathed out through her nose.

"...What do we do next?"

"Hmm. Next up are 'Making a Connection' and 'Getting Lost Along the Way.'"

"Hah... hah..." Shido hadn't been running, yet somehow he felt completely out of breath.

"Why do you look so wiped out, Shido? Are your kidneys giving out?"

Seeing how close Shido looked to collapsing, Lingmeng couldn't resist teasing him.

"No way! My kidneys are perfectly fine!"

Shido shot back, exasperated.

"Shido, are you feeling sick?" Tohka asked, looking concerned.

"No... I was just thinking about my little sister up in the sky, and I got a bit emotional."

"Up in the sky?"

"Yeah. She used to be my adorable little sister." Shido raised his eyes to the sky as he spoke.

Lingmeng patted Shido on the shoulder and offered him a few words of comfort.

"I'm sorry for your loss. The dead can't come back, so you have to look ahead."

"That's right, Shido. You have to stay strong."

Tohka looked sad too as she tried to comfort him.

"Uh... Have you two misunderstood something?"

Sweat beaded on Shido's forehead. Only then did he realize he'd made it sound as though Kotori had died...

The Rooftop

"Um... That's not what I meant..."

Shido was about to explain when a voice suddenly cut him off.

"Please take one!"

A woman came over and handed Shido a packet of tissues.

Shido accepted it in a daze. The woman gave him a small nod, then left.

"What's that, Shido?" Tohka asked curiously.

"A pocket packet of tissues, I think?"

"Hmm..." Shido answered, still baffled. Companies usually handed out tissues like these to advertise, but this packet showed only an illustration of a man and woman holding hands and the slogan, "If you feel happy, hold hands."

While Shido was still trying to make sense of it, familiar voices reached his ears. The televisions lined up in a nearby shop had begun playing a strange program.

"Huh?" all three said at once.

Shido, Lingmeng, and Tohka turned toward the televisions.

"What?!" Shido cried out first. The set looked like that of a daytime talk show, and several people who appeared to be commentators were on-screen. Shido had seen every one of them aboard Fraxinus.

So this really is Kotori's doing?

As Shido complained silently, the people on-screen began to speak.

"It's such a turnoff when someone won't hold hands on a first date!"

"Exactly! A man should be bold and decisive!"

"..."

While Shido stood there in silence, the number of couples around them began to grow at an unnatural rate.

Every couple held hands affectionately. Some even made a point of saying things like, "Holding hands feels so nice," and "It's like our feelings are connected."

"Ugh, the air reeks of romance!"

At the sight of all those lovey-dovey couples, Lingmeng let out the instinctive wail of someone painfully single.

Are they trying to make me hold hands with Tohka?

"Ugh." Shido pressed a hand to his aching head, then spoke.

"To... Tohka."

"What is it?"

Shido held out his trembling right hand and swallowed.

"Um... do you want to... hold hands?"

"Hold hands? Why?"

Tohka tilted her head, utterly confused.

"I think Shido just wants to. Isn't that right, Shi~do~?"

Lingmeng teased him from the side. She figured Shido simply wanted to hold a girl's hand but didn't know how to say it, so she decided to give him a push.

"Y-yeah! Tohka... is that okay...?"

Shido blushed, his voice growing quieter and quieter.

"I see." Tohka murmured, then slipped her left hand into Shido's right and smiled.

"If that's what you want, Shido, let's hold hands!"

"...!" Shido jumped at Tohka's initiative.

"What's that look for? You're the one who asked."

Tohka puffed out her cheeks and gave Shido an annoyed look.

"...R-right." Shido smiled awkwardly.

"Ah, to be young!" Lingmeng folded her arms and watched Shido and Tohka through half-lidded eyes, sighing like an old man.

"Come on, Lingmeng, join us! This is a date for all three of us!"

"Huh?"

Before Lingmeng could react, Tohka took her left hand in her right.

Wow, Tohka's hand is so soft and warm! I never thought I, Qian Lingmeng, would get to hold hands with a girl in this lifetime. I can die happy.

Feeling the soft warmth of Tohka's hand, Lingmeng basked in her humble little victory.

She had nothing to lose, so she let Tohka hold on. The three of them walked down the street hand in hand.

Lingmeng was on the left, Shido on the right, and Tohka in the middle. Strange as it sounded, Lingmeng felt like she and Shido were parents taking their daughter out for a walk.

"This feels really nice!"

Tohka smiled and tightened her grip a little.

"Y-yeah... (///ˊ?ˋ///)"

"Holding hands with Tohka really does feel nice!"

Shido spoke shyly, while Lingmeng answered without the slightest attempt to hide her delight.

After walking for some time, they found a sign ahead that read "Under Construction."

"Huh?" Shido looked puzzled.

"Construction? Looks like we'll have to turn back."

"I guess so..." Shido sensed something suspicious, but with no other choice, he turned back the way they'd come. Absurdly, the road they had just walked down was now blocked by signs too.

"..." Sure enough, when Shido looked at the workers ahead, he recognized several faces. They were crew members from Fraxinus.

"What's going on? Is all of Tengu City being repaired today, Shido?"

Lingmeng looked ahead in confusion, then glanced at Shido.

"Maybe? Things have been pretty chaotic lately, so repairs wouldn't be surprising."

Shido knew the real reason, but he couldn't tell her, so he forced a faint smile.

Then he fell silent and looked at the road branching off to the left toward an elevated plaza.

"...You want us to take that road?"

"Hm? What is it, Shido?"

"Nothing... Anyway, let's go take a look over there!"

"Okay!"

"Anywhere's fine with me!"

Tohka looked happy just to be out walking, while Lingmeng seemed to think one destination was as good as another.

"Come on, let's go, Shido!"

"Oh. Right..."

Shido set off down the road to the left, his movements stiff.

It was six in the evening.

The high-rise buildings in front of Tengu Station were bathed in orange-red light.

A boy and two girls stood in a small park on the elevated plaza, where they had an unobstructed view of the beautiful scene.

There was nothing unusual about the boy. He was just an ordinary high school student.

But the two girls were beings humanity called disasters: Spirits. One of them, Lingmeng, had not revealed that she was a Spirit. She had simply disguised herself as an ordinary girl.

"Whew..." In the distance, Ryoko Kusakabe peered through her binoculars, narrowed her eyes, and bit her lip.

"A ninety-eight-point-five percent match. You can't explain that away as coincidence!"

In Ryouko's eyes, the girl who should have been a world-destroying calamity had somehow become a cute girl. She could hardly believe it.