Volume 2, 2 - What People Look For in a Hero Part 3

Volume 2, Chapter 2 – What People Look For in a Hero Part 3

“Hahaha!! That’s what happened after I left!?”

Khalija’s amused laughter echoed in the living room of the Kenzaki house, and Yasuo glared at her resentfully.

She was still wearing Yasuo’s tracksuit, and paid no attention to Yasuo’s glare as she continued to work on something with several metallic parts spread out on the table before her. Nodoka, who had given the tracksuit to her without permission, was sitting beside her and watching her work with an interested expression.

“It’s not something to laugh about…”

Yasuo said that as he sat down in front of Khalija.

“Colonel! What are you doing!? Why are you causing problems for Yasuo?”

Diana, who was standing next to Yasuo with a red face, began to chew out Khalija fiercely.

“Uwaaah… Onii-chan, that’s really something.”

Nodoka was provoking him her brother by giving him a disgusted smile, so his only ally was Diana.

“Look, even Nodoka’s doing that! Why do I have to be seen by other people in such a way? I didn’t even do anything!!”

It was past nine pm when Yasuo left prep school.

He didn’t see Shouko anywhere on his way out, and when he instead saw Diana waiting by the roadside a little distance away, he felt like crying for more than one reason.

“Yasuo! What’s wrong!?”

Diana panicked upon seeing Yasuo with a pale face and tears in his eyes, but Yasuo had been unable to say anything until they got back home.

After he finally spoke about what happened, this was the result.

“The girl called Shouko Tatewaki was looking very hard at us, so I assumed she was a spy from a different country. I see, so she’s someone from this world.”

Stop lying, you obviously knew that wasn’t true!

Almost as if she had read Yasuo’s mind,

“I was half-serious, you know?”

Khalija shamelessly said that.

“Then what was the other half for!?”

Khalija was being so relaxed that Yasuo felt stupid for taking any of the things she said in the taxi seriously.

“In the first place, no one from our world would try and make contact in such a way because it would make Hideo angry! We are already in a position where we are causing problems for everyone from the Kenzaki family, so please try to restrain yourself! H-How could you do something like k-kissing Yasuo!?”

“Diana-san, calm down. She definitely didn’t kiss him. If she did, Onii-chan wouldn’t be this calm.”

Even though Nodoka hadn’t been present at the time, she spoke as if she had seen what happened and attempted to pacify Diana, whose face was red with indignation.

Nodoka was right, but no matter how Yasuo looked at it, she was just making fun of her brother for his lack of experience, so he had a complicated feeling about it.

True, they hadn’t kissed, but thinking back, he thought that having his neck licked by a woman he had just met was also pretty abnormal.

“Well, calm down, Major Krone.”

“How can I stay calm at a time like this!?”

“Don’t hit the table. You’re going to knock the parts off.”

“Here, Khalija-san. One of the screws fell down.”

“Ah, thank you, Nodoka. Please put it near that one of the same size which goes on the right.”

“Okay.”

“…What have you being doing since earlier?”

Yasuo felt like he’d seen the mechanism that Khalija was working on somewhere before…

“It’s Major Krone’s Castor. I thought I should at least make some temporary repairs.”

“…She’s fixing it for me!”

Diana’s embarrassment and anger had not yet faded entirely, so she said that still fuming slightly.

“Castor… Is that the one that broke back then…?”

It was a Techno Weapon which was meant to be used right-handed, and was broken in the battle against Alexei’s Shii when she had been defending Nodoka.

“It gave out to high voltage and the Sorcery Circuits inside were fried. Thankfully, the circuit board itself seems to be fine, so while I can’t repair it completely, I should at least be able to make it usable. Want to take a look?”

Yasuo was scared to approach Khalija once again, but he was still interested to see what the insides of a Techno Weapon looked like, so he kept his guard up and looked at it from over her shoulder.

“What, what’s this?”

His gaze was immediately captured by its internal structure.

The insides of Castor, which looked like a pistol grip, appeared to a mysterious mechanism with what looked like gears from a mechanical watch laid over something which looked like a computer’s motherboard.

There were jewels of beautiful colors embedded at the shaft of each of the gears, and the gears were connected to each other by thin wires. However, even Yasuo could tell that they had been badly damaged in several areas.

“The basic operation of a Techo Weapon depends on a combination of this structure that is laid over the circuit board, and the technique formula that resides in the circuit board itself.”

“So these parts that look like they are burnt are where it has been damaged?”

“That’s right. They are called Sorcery Circuits. They are circuits meant to efficiently transmit the magical energy of the user. It looks like they were damaged because they weren’t able to handle the pure electricity released by the Regulus of 『Lightning』. ”

“Pure electricity?”

“Come on, these are the basics of Sorcery. Didn’t Major Krone already teach you about this?”

Yasuo looked towards Diana after Khalija said that, and suddenly remembered.

“Ah, that’s right. The phenomena caused by Magic and Sorcery are partially comprised of magical energy itself.”

“That’s right. The use of Techno Weapons, Sorcery, and Magic are greatly dependent on using as little magical energy as possible to bring out the greatest possible effect.”

Diana smiled, as if praising a student who got the right answer.

“My father’s Regulus is a specially made weapon in which every single component was selected carefully by my mother to have the greatest possible affinity with my father. My father never really had a large capacity for magical energy, but the efficiency with which his weapon generated the phenomena was far greater than that of regular Techno Weapons. The ratio of magical energy to generated phenomena was probably somewhere around 1:8.”

“A frightening Techno Weapon, indeed. The fact that he hadn’t forgotten how to use that weapon even after becoming a Shii is equally frightening.”

“Is it really that amazing?”

“For Magic that doesn’t use Techno Weapons, the ratio of magical energy to the generated phenomenon is pretty much always 1:1. A Techno Weapon that can increase that to 1:3 is already considered to be of exceptional quality. However, speaking of that…”

Khalija suddenly looked at Yasuo.

“You’re something of a mystery. Using the requiem to send off the Shii is dependant on the amount of magical energy you possess. Your level of magical energy is hardly worth talking about, but you managed to send off three of them at the same time back then, right?”

“Oh, you’re talking about that?”

Khalija was probably talking about the fight with the Shii during which they met her.

“Doing something so excessive, doesn’t it put strain on your body?”

“I don’t particularly feel any strain… I’m just singing, after all.”

“That’s pretty incredible in its own way, you know.”

“That’s right…”

Diana nodded as if she just realized it.

“An ordinary Magitech Knight can only send off one at a time, maybe two if they try really hard. Sending off three or more of them at the same time, I think only high-ranking clerics from the Church of the Divine King would be able do something like that…”

“Oh, really?”

Yasuo didn’t really understand what that meant, but since nothing good had happened to him recently, being praised was not a bad feeling.

“Well, having an aptitude for magic is pretty straightforward, after all. Not to boast about my own abilities, but my affinity with different kinds of Techno Weapons is pretty high. However, my overall aptitude for Magic is quite low. The flames and lightning that I can create are like child’s play. Even when it comes to healing, doing something like closing a scratch on your neck is my limit. When it comes to sending off the Shii with the requiem, sending one at a time is the best I can do. Thinking that way, I guess it’s something you can be proud about.”

“It’s better not to praise him too much. Onii-chan easily gets overconfident.”

At this point, even his sister’s abuse failed to anger Yasuo.

However, Khalija smiled and said that she would be careful, and ended the conversation. After that, she went back to repairing Castor, and pulled out something completely unexpected.

What Khalija pulled out of a plastic bag was a completely ordinary spool of iron wire. There was the seal of a nearby home-improvement center near the barcode on the label.

“You’re going to use that as a replacement?”

“I asked Madoka to buy it this afternoon. It’s the closest substitute for Sorcery Circuits that can be found in this world. I should be able to make it work somehow.”

“Is it okay if it’s not a copper wire? Won’t passing electricity through an iron wire just cause it to burn up?”

“Iron is the best metallic conductor of magical energy. Besides, iron that has been processed for the manufacturing industry has the optimal amount of carbon in it, so it’s easy to use as a substitute. To tell you the truth, it would have been better if I could have brought another Castor along with me, but annoyingly enough, we are only allowed to carry a limited number of weapons when traveling here. Since I was already carrying my own weapons, I wasn’t able to carry another Castor with me.”

Saying that, Khalija lightly tapped the staff-shaped Techno Weapon in the holster on her waist.

“However, what you said is correct. The iron used to make Sorcery Circuits in our world is made strong enough to handle most magic, but you can just say it was a bad match against Regulus. If the opponent is a regular Shii, then even this wire should be good enough. You should probably step away for a bit. If this releases any shrapnel by some chance, it might be dangerous.”

After making sure that Yasuo and Nodoka moved away, she stretched out the iron wire and placed it on Castor’s circuit board. She then released the light of magical energy from the tip of her bare finger, and used it like a soldering iron to attach the wire in place on top of the circuit board. Although it looked like she cut the wire using heat, there was no smell of burning metal at all, and the iron on the circuit board glowed and spread across the circuit board as if it had a will of its own.

Once the iron stopped spreading and settled down, to their inexperienced eyes it looked like it had been built that way to begin with, and didn’t look like a temporary repair at all.

“Wow, so beautiful.”

“Are you talking about me?”

Her ability to tease Yasuo even when she was focusing on work was almost praiseworthy. However, maybe because she was focusing, the joke was not very good and it was easily avoided.

“I’m talking about the circuit board.”

“How boring.”

Khalija spoke without looking up from the circuit board, but her tone suddenly turned serious.

“『Beauty is power.』”

“Eh?”

“It’s something my father, who taught me how to handle Techno Weapons, used to say. Not just Techno Weapons, there are various kinds of beauty possessed by all objects. Beauty in the external appearance, beauty on the inside, beauty in the design, beauty in utilization, beauty in the manufacturing process, and even beauty in the maintenance process. I think he meant that striving to make something as beautiful as the circumstances allowed during the manufacturing process would make a better product for a larger number of people. In that respect, Castor and Pollux are truly well made. I can see why they are the most commonly used Techno Weapons.”

“Do Magitech Knights build and maintain their own Techno Weapons?”

Even the Regulus that had come up in the conversation earlier had been handmade by Diana’s mother.

It made sense to periodically maintain your own weapons, but Yasuo was surprised that they could even create the weapons by themselves.

“It is usually at the level of lubricating the moving parts, and making a safety inspection before using them. The Colonel is a special case.”

Diana shook her head and made a comment.

“I already told you earlier about how she was promoted to a Technical Lieutenant, but at the time she enlisted in the army, her skill and knowledge regarding Techno Weapons was already equivalent to that of a professional Techno Weapons craftsman. It was enough to make the Head of the Techno Weapons Research Division groan in despair. She’s a professional who understands the characteristics of many different types of Techno Weapons and develops an optimal fighting style that matches those characteristics perfectly.”

“Hot!!”

While Diana was carrying out her explanation, Khalija suddenly let out a loud shout and the smell of burning metal spread through the living room.

“Major Krone… Please stop saying things like that. It makes me lose my focus.”

“Eh? Ah, I’m sorry.”

Khalija’s cheeks were slightly red as she spoke brusquely to Diana, but Diana continued to speak after apologizing.

“The Colonel’s Techno Weapon, Marfik the 『Snakebone』, is particularly impressive as its form can be changed freely. It can take any shape depending on the user’s magical energy, but that apparently makes it extremely difficult to use. It’s said that there are only a handful of people in the whole world who can use it, and I’ve heard that the Colonel’s maintenance skills make her an expert who is the most proficient at using it…”

“Hot!!”

Once again, they smelled burning metal and heard Khalija’s shout.

“……Major Krone!”

“Y-Yes!”

“I can’t focus with you talking here, so please leave the room for a bit. Yasuo and Nodoka as well!”

“Eh? Ah, Y-Yes!”

“Okay, got it.”

Forced by the pressure Khalija emitted while red in the face, the three of them ended up leaving the living room.

“I wonder what happened to her all of a sudden.”

“I-I don’t know… But we should probably leave her alone until she’s done with her work.”

Yasuo tilted his head in confusion, and Diana also looked flustered.

“Hmm. This is just an assumption, but…”

“What is it, Nodoka?

“I’m not sure, but maybe Khalija-san doesn’t deal well with praise?”

“Eeh?”

“Remember when she first came to or house, she looked pretty embarrassed when Diana-san was praising her. Skilled people like her who are capable of doing anything often receive little praise because people think that’s only natural, so singing her praises like Diana-san does in front of other people probably makes her embarrassed.”

“……I wonder if her character is actually that admirable.”

Yasuo thought that, if anything, she would be type of person who asks for more praise when people praise her.

“No, I’m pretty sure it’s like I said. She doesn’t like feeling embarrassed when she’s praised, so she puts on a strong front like that.”

“Don’t you think you’re reading too much into it?”

“Then we just have to test that idea again sometime.”

Nodoka looked very confident.

“I understand what you’re saying, though. Although being praised is not a bad feeling, it is also strangely embarrassing in a way.”

It looks like Diana also found Nodoka’s proposal valid, so she was nodding while looking like she understood.

“Yasuo? Are you home? The bathroom is free right now, so go take your bath.”

At that moment, Yasuo heard his mother’s voice coming from the direction of the bathroom.

“Ah, okay. Well then Diana, I’ll see you around.”

“Yes. Umm, I’m sorry… for all the things…”

“Hmm?”

“Not just me, but the Colonel… caused all those strange misunderstandings… Had I known that she would do that, I would have stopped her in advance.”

“Y-Yeah, it’s okay.”

Yasuo felt shaken upon seeing Diana’s blushing, downturned face.

Right now, Yasuo wasn’t facing much trouble by outsiders misunderstanding his relationship with Diana. However, he hadn’t given any thought as to how Diana felt about the whole thing.

He wasn’t arrogant enough to believe that Diana had interest in him as a member of the opposite sex, but as a man, he couldn’t reject that possibility entirely.

Moreover, as it would also affect Diana’s dignity, he could not afford to answer her casually, as that would be the very definition of digging his own grave. In such situations, staying silent is the worst thing one can do, but Yasuo’s thought process had completely locked up and he wasn’t able to say a single word.

“Well then, I should be going… I’ll see you again… tomorrow…”

Diana headed towards the main door with a sad smile, and Yasuo could only see her off with some vague words.

Diana left the house, and the only sound that could be heard was the sound of his mother’s hair dryer coming from the direction of the bathroom.

“Useless.”

His sister’s wholehearted attack scored a perfect hit on his mind from the flank, and Yasuo could only hang his head while being depressed.

“You can say that, but what was I supposed to do…”

“Diana-san is cute, you should just go out with her already.”

“You say that like it’s so simple!! Deciding whether to go out with someone or not isn’t such a simple matter!”

Taking Diana’s history that he had heard from Khalija into account, he could not rashly hit on her, and besides, Yasuo could not use such a skill at his current level of experience. That’s why he had strongly rejected what Nodoka said, but she just laughed at him.

“Huh? What are you talking about? If you really didn’t see her that way, then you could have just said that you didn’t mind it, or said something like ‘Isn’t it annoying how people misunderstand this?’ and left it at that. The fact that you couldn’t say it means that, at the very least, you are conscious of Diana-san in a special way.”

“Eeh… No, but—”

“And then there’s Tatewaki-san, and maybe even Khalija-san? Feeling self-conscious about all the girls who you get even a little close to, just how bad were your relations with girls until now?”

“I-It’s not that I’ve never spoken to girls before. I have spoken to them during club practice and in class, it’s just that I’ve never spent any time with them in a more casual setting…”

Yasuo felt truly pathetic for trying to explain this kind of thing to his younger sister who would not stop kicking him when he was down.

“You know… Diana-san has faced a lot of bad experiences with people for a while now.”

“Nodoka?”

What did she mean by bad experiences?

Had Nodoka perhaps heard about Diana’s past from the person herself?

“In all that time, the only emotional support she had was 『The Hero from thirty years ago, Hideo』. She was talking about that sort of thing on our way back from school today.”

So it was as he had thought. He wasn’t sure what steered their conversation in that direction, but it wasn’t hard to imagine that the root cause was almost certainly Shouko’s misunderstanding from when they met at the Ozone Shopping Center.

“Try and be aware of that, okay? Even though you’re the kind of person who takes his life for granted and fails his tests, you are still an important existence to her right now.”

“Haa!? What!?”

Seeing her brother act so openly shocked, Nodoka frowned and decided not to give him any more hints.

“Hey, go take your bath already. The gas for heating doesn’t come cheap.”

“Eh, yeah. Nodoka, what do you mean…”

“I don’t know. Just go away, already!”

“Hey, what are you two fighting about? Did Diana-chan leave already? ”

Their mother appeared at that point, and Yasuo wasn’t able to question Nodoka any further because he didn’t want to talk about going out with girls in front of his mother.

“Hmm, I was just talking about how utterly hopeless Onii-chan is.”

“Hey.”

“Yes, but he’s been this way for ages.”

“Hey!!”

His protests against his sister and mother’s abuse were completely ignored.

“By the way, Khalija-san is working on fixing Diana-san’s Techno Weapon in the living room.”

“Ah, that’s right, she mentioned that to me earlier. Maybe I should make some tea? …Yasuo, your father will be home soon, so go take your bath quickly.”

“Fine…!”

Nodoka listened to her brother take out his resentment on the bathroom door by slamming it shut, and let her shoulders droop.

It was back when Diana was still new to Japan, and her brother was still fiercely against her and everything pertaining to Ante Lande.

She had heard Diana talk about 『Hideo the Hero, who looked exactly like the current Yasuo』.

Nodoka didn’t know how those feelings of Diana’s were affecting her current relationship with her brother, but no matter how you looked at it, Diana was too soft on Yasuo in many ways.

It wasn’t that she was clinging to him, but she definitely saw his every action in a favorable light.

And then, considering Diana’s past as a 『Daughter of Nobility』 that she had heard about on their way back from school, and the tales about the various marriage proposals she had received, her brother, who was like a life size replica of 『Hideo the Hero』, must have been a special existence to Diana.

And then, that brother of hers had gone on to say that he wanted to protect Diana and the world that she wanted to protect too.

The problem was that Diana’s feelings caused her to accept everything about Yasuo even though they were not romantically involved.

As a member of his family, Nodoka knew that her brother was not such a special existence by any means, and looking at him from the perspective of a modern Japanese person, he had more bad points than good.

“I guess this is what it means to love a good for nothing man?”

“Did you say something, Nodoka?”

“Uh, no, it’s nothing.”

“Ah, Madoka. I’m sorry, I made a slight mistake while working and there’s a smell in the room…”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, it’s not that bad. Nodoka, can you turn on the exhaust fan?”

“Sure.”

While turning on the exhaust fan in the kitchen, Nodoka worried if her brother was going to be alright, in more ways than one.

“Seriously, what the hell! Gaaah!”

Yasuo entered the bathroom and turned the faucet, but shouted after receiving a cold water shower at full blast because he didn’t notice that the valve was turned towards the shower side.

“Aaaaaargh!”

Yasuo sat down on the seat and poured some hot water from the bathtub over himself. While waiting for the water from the faucet to warm up, Yasuo started thinking about the things his sister had said, and accompanying those thoughts, several scenes started to play out in his head.

Shouko, Diana, and Khalija.

He had gotten close to a number of women within a short period of time, it was completely unprecedented in his life so far. When he thought back to the times he had spent with them, he remembered the feeling of Shouko’s hand as she pulled him to his feet when he was sitting on the ground, the softness of Diana’s body when he had carried her during the fight with Alexei’s Shii, and the feeling of Khalija’s breath on his ear in the taxi.

“Ugaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

He kept thinking of unnecessary things because of what Nodoka said.

Yasuo stuck his head into the wash basin filled with water and shouted, and he heard his mother’s fed-up voice coming from the other side of the door.

“Why are you shouting like that in the bathroom? The window is open, you know.”

“Blub blub blub blub!”

Shut up!! Yasuo, the eighteen-year-old high school male student shouted that with his face still under water, but he still had enough presence of mind to realize that people in the neighboring houses might hear his voice, so he stood up and went to close the window while he was still dripping wet.

Thankfully, there were no lights switched on in the neighboring houses, so it didn’t look like anyone had heard him shout.

Actually, it was pitch dark outside. Even considering that it was night, there was no light outside the window at all.

No, it wasn’t a matter of there being no light, there was something black in the place where the window pane should have been…

“Eh.”

Yasuo’s mind froze when he saw the two points of red light that suddenly appeared outside the window frame.

His hand was still on the window, without understanding what exactly it was that he was seeing.

“Ah.”

『Grrr…』

When he heard it growling, his mind that had locked up finally began to work again.

“Aaaaaaaargh!”

“What!?”

“Yasuo, I’ve had it up to here with you!”

“Onii-chan is making a racket again… Hey!! What the hell are you doing!?”

Right after they heard his scream, Yasuo came running into the living room, still dripping wet and covering his front with just a towel. Seeing that, the three ladies in the room, Khalija, Madoka, and Nodoka, were obviously shocked.

However, Yasuo didn’t have time to waste on explanations.

“Sh-Sh-Sh…”

“What are you shushing us for? We should be shushing you! What are doing, running out of the bathroom naked!?”

“There’s a Shii in the bathroom!!”

In that instant, Madoka and Khalija reacted instantly.

Khalija jumped over the table and ran out of the room, with Madoka following closely behind.

However, the few moments Yasuo had wasted were apparently the deciding factor.

“W-What!?”

He heard the sound of something heavy breaking, and by the time he followed the two of them into the hallway, things had already turned into a horrible state.

“This time it’s the bathroom…”

Madoka couldn’t be blamed for blanking out.

The door that separated the dressing room from the bathroom was broken, revealing the broken wall of the bathroom that was letting in cold air from outside, while water gushed out of the broken faucet with a pathetic sound.

And then, there was the Shii that stood in the middle of such a background.

“Peeking at Yasuo while he’s in the bath, such poor taste!”

A flame appeared above Madoka’s hand.

“I completely agree.”

Khalija also made a stance with the strange Techno Weapon, Marfik, that she unlimbered from her waist.

“It’s quite small. It’s probably the one I allowed to escape last night. We should put it down right away.”

“You’re right. But out of consideration for the neighbors, I don’t want to cause any more disturbance.”

“That depends on the opponent, but you’re right.”

At the very least, it had enough power to tear down a wood-frame wall with its bare hands, so they couldn’t their guard down.

“……o…”

“Hmm?”

“…o……”

“Is it trying to say something…?”

“Perhaps it’s another one moaning about Hideo the Hero? Seriously, why are they so attracted to an old man like him?”

The small Shii that destroyed the bathroom ignored Madoka and Khalija, and instead appeared to be searching for something.

At that moment, Diana, who was supposed to have gone home already, came rushing in through the front door again, probably because she heard the noise.

“What was that incredibly loud sound just now!?”

“Diana!? Sorry, but please look after Nodoka…!”

Upon seeing her, Yasuo stuck his head out of the living room and said that. In retrospect, it was a mistake.

“Yasuo!? Why aren’t you dressed!?”

Diana, who turned red and looked like she was about to blow steam like a kettle, was looking at Yasuo whose only equipment was a single towel.

“N-Now’s not the time to be talking about that…”

『Grrrr……?』

“Ah! It’s a Shii!”

“You’re late! Don’t lose your cool over something as trivial as a naked man! If there was more than one enemy, you would have been killed!”

Diana finally came back to her senses after hearing the Shii growling and Khalija’s scolding. She pulled Pollux out of the pocket of her sweatshirt and took a stance while stealing glances at Yasuo.

Khalija’s reprimand actually sounded more like a joke, but Diana was aware that she could lose her life if she underestimated a Shii.

However, something strange happened in the next instant.

『Grrrrrrr…!』

The Shii spun around and ran away through the hole in the wall.

“Wha—!”

“Eh?”

So it chose to run away again?

Khalija immediately dashed off in pursuit, and Madoka decided to stay and protect the house. Diana was hesitating because of the anti-climactic outcome, and as for Nodoka,

“Put something on, for heaven’s sake!”

She pulled out a bath towel from the pile of folded laundry in the living room, and threw it at her brother.

※

“Just what was it trying to do…”

Khalija clucked her tongue as if annoyed and pursued the Shii that was running away.

There were a few cases of Shii running away when they realized that the odds were against them, but this was the first time she saw one that ran away before the fighting even started.

Moreover, there was only a single Shii, and it had appeared in this other world in a country called Japan. It was strange in many ways.

There was currently no way to pursue a Shii that disappeared into the ground because of a mistake or a delay in sending it off, but even in that respect, this Shii was strange.

It was running a little ahead of Khalija, leaping from one rooftop to the next.

“Where is it going……”

In any case, she had to find out as much information as possible about the actions of the Shii.

Khalija decided to keep following the Shii for as long as possible and observe its actions. She took care to not be noticed by the Shii as she continued pursuit.

“Nnn!”

After some time, the Shii visibly slowed down and stopped moving on top of one of the houses.

Looking closely, Khalija saw that it was a building that was used both as a house and a restaurant.

Light was spilling out of the front of the building from behind the short curtain, and she could hear the lively sound of drunk people talking.

Did it change its target to a place that had a lot of people?

It had jumped over a large number of buildings on its way here, so that sounded fairly strange, but she couldn’t think of any other explanation.

If the Shii was going to do something dangerous, she had to eliminate it right away.

Just when Khalija decided to make a move, the Shii started doing something even more strange.

Instead of heading towards the restaurant, it jumped in through a window on the second floor where the lights were out.

“Oh no! It’s going to attack the residents!”

Khalija hurried towards the same window, but once there she saw something unbelievable.

The Shii from earlier was standing quietly in the middle of the Japanese-style room with six tatami mats spread on the floor.

There was no one else in the room, and the Shii did not pay attention to the faint sounds of the drunks that could be heard from below. It even failed to pay attention to Khalija, who was sitting in the window frame, and just closed its glowing red eyes as if it was going to sleep.

In the next instant,

“Wha—”

Khalija was shocked speechless. The black flames that covered the Shii from head to toe slowly receded, and the body of a human could be seen coming out from within.

The flames vanished in a matter of moments as if they were being sucked into the person’s eyes, and the person, now fully visible, crumpled to the tatami floor.

“……!”

For an instant, Khalija thought that the person had died, but then she heard them breathing loudly enough to hear even from where she was sitting, and they even tossed over in their sleep.

“Fuaah… Aaah…”

Perhaps they were talking in their sleep? Khalija couldn’t sense any trace of maliciousness or ferocity from the voice that leaked out along with the breathing.

However, there was no mistaking the fact that a human came out of a Shii’s body right in front of her eyes.

What surprised Khalija the most was the identity of the person.

“If I remember correctly… Her name is Shouko Tatewaki…”

It was certainly that girl who was supposed to be Yasuo’s friend from prep school.

The girl was someone she had been looking into herself, after she found out that she was an acquaintance of Yasuo’s.

“A Shii possessing a living human……?”

Khalija hadn’t felt any strange magical energy or suspicious behavior from her when she saw her outside the prep school.

From Diana’s report and the way Nodoka spoke about her, it was clear that she was a person from Japan with no connection to Ante Lande whatsoever.

Her clothes were the same that Khalija had seen her wearing earlier that evening. A plain jacket and trousers.

What had happened to this girl who looked like she had nothing to do with the Shii?

“Is this really happening…? Can Shii really possess humans……?”

Khalija unconsciously touched the circlet on her her forehead.

The jewel that she touched with her fingertips was as cold as ice.

“……Goddamnit!”

Khalija ground her teeth out of frustration, but she couldn’t take her eyes off Shouko for a while.

※

Yasuo, who had finally managed to put on some clothes after being yelled at by Nodoka, and Diana, who was trying her best not to look at Yasuo even though he was finally dressed, welcomed Khalija back to the house.

Khalija heard Hideo’s groans coming from near the bathroom inside the house, but he was probably just holding his head after seeing the state of the bathroom right after coming home.

“Colonel. I’m glad that you’re alright.”

“What happened to the Shii from earlier?”

Khalija shook her head while standing in front of Diana and Yasuo who had rushed towards her.

“Unfortunately, it managed to escape again.”

Seeing the disappointed looks on their faces, Khalija once again shook her head at how badly she had handled the situation.