"Huh? What are you talking about? Aside from being unable to contact Shido and the others, every facility aboard the vessel is working normally. So what exactly happened!?"
Under Kotori's questioning, Shiizaki swallowed softly.
"S-some of the Spirits are registering multiple Spirit Power readings...! And it's not just one of them!"
"What—!?"
Hearing that shocking answer, Kotori held her breath.
"Which Spirits...!?"
"Let me check... Tohka, Yoshino, and the Yamai Sisters!"
"Four of them!?"
Speaking urgently, Kotori turned her gaze toward the screen displaying the DEM Building.
The building where Shido and the others were shone with black light.
That light radiated outward, spreading into the sky.
"Could it be..."
Kotori frowned and murmured.
If her suspicions were right, the worst possible situation seemed to have unfolded.
What she had feared all this time had finally come true.
"The Spirit Crystals... have gone Inverse...!"
Kotori spoke with a conflicted expression, biting through the Chupa Chups in her mouth.
Fortunately, she had not heard Lingmeng's name among those Shiizaki listed.
If that cheat of a girl went Inverse too, there would really be no end to it. In a sense, that was a silver lining, wasn't it?
The scene returned to Lingmeng.
"Ow, that hurt..."
Clutching her backside, Lingmeng rose from the floor with a pained expression.
Everything had happened so suddenly that she had not even had time to react.
Miku, who had also been slammed into the wall, asked in a panic.
"W-what in the world happened!?"
She had barely finished speaking.
When she looked ahead again, the pitch-black spheres enveloping the Spirits began to dissipate.
In their place stood three figures who looked incredibly familiar, yet utterly unfamiliar.
Chapter 38: Inverse (Part Two)
"W-what in the world happened...?"
Still unable to process the scene before her, Lingmeng