"What a waste. And if you leave, there won't be any left when you get back." Hugging her plate and eating heartily, Tohka lazily glanced at Shido Itsuka sitting across from her. But he had no appetite at all now. Even though he hadn't eaten breakfast, at this moment he was a complete mess. His once neat clothes were now covered in all sorts of colors, and the grease had splattered all over him, making him feel utterly miserable.
"Your incompetent fool who only ruins things. Hurry up and go wash up and change your clothes." At this moment, Kotori's voice once again came through the earpiece. After all this effort, Tohka's affection level had almost no change at all. It was exactly the same as before, not the slightest sign of increasing.
"Alright, I'm going right now." Not bothering to reply to his sister, Shido just wanted to find a place to change his clothes as soon as possible.
"Sorry, I'm going out to change." Saying this to Tohka, Shido hurriedly ran outside. Then, finding a secluded corner, he directly teleported up to Ratatoskr.
"You idiot, hurry up and take a bath and change clothes. Don't forget, our mission isn't over yet. You must get cleaned up before Tohka finishes eating. Damn it, why is that girl eating so fast? Move it!" She had originally thought she'd prepared thoroughly, but very soon she received a message from Reine Murasame. It reported how long the food they had prepared would last, and she quickly realized they didn't have much time.
"Alright, I'll get cleaned up now." Hearing his sister's words, Shido immediately left the control room. Honestly, even without Kotori urging him, he wanted to change clothes as fast as possible.
On the other side, Tohka had been planning to eat her fill. But what surprised her was that Reine Murasame, who had been dressed as a waitress earlier, actually came and sat directly across from her.
"So, you did it on purpose earlier, using that little trick to get Shido out of the way. What is it? If you've got something to say, just spit it out." Even Tohka hadn't expected that this woman would just sit right down opposite her. After all, she had always shown up with that lifeless attitude before.
"Drop the act. Who are you really?" But what surprised Tohka was that this woman had completely abandoned her usual half-dead demeanor. She was staring straight at Tohka, as if she wanted to see right through her. "You've probably already guessed my identity. And your presence is simply too strong. When I split my spirit base back then, your spirit base was powerful but hadn't reached this level. And you give me the exact same feeling as the Original Spirit's tome."
She wasn't making this up. As the First Spirit, Reine Murasame found Tohka's presence too obvious to ignore. She had originally planned to hide her identity and pick another time to talk to Tohka. But after meeting Tohka's gaze, she decided to drop the pretense.
"Say whatever you want. Right now the people upstairs can't see us. I've already blocked the signal there. And Shido won't be back for a while. So, you can stop acting—you don't have any real affection for Shido." Seeing that Tohka didn't look surprised at all by her words, Reine frowned. She had guessed correctly—Tohka almost certainly already knew who she was. But she wasn't worried about Shido being exposed—after all, he wasn't a spirit.
"Mm, so direct." Alright, this time Tohka really was stunned. She hadn't expected this woman to lay everything out so bluntly. It left her momentarily at a loss. She did know quite a bit, even more than Reine imagined. But she also knew that this was the moment for laying all the cards on the table, so she said nothing and just stared at Reine. She really wasn't in any rush. On the contrary, this woman seemed anxious. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been so eager to come find her. In theory, that meant Tohka was the one with the advantage.
"Fine, I won't waste words." As Tohka had expected, Reine couldn't hold it in and said directly, "I want you to seal your origin power into Shido's body to stabilize it."
"To stabilize his body..." Although Tohka knew Reine was doing this for Shido's sake—after all, he had already died once decades ago—and that Reine was probably trying to keep him alive, there should still be other spirits, so there was no need to be this desperate, right?
"Because your role is very special..." But Reine's next words really caught Tohka off guard, because she hadn't thought of this: "Sealing the spirit's power is necessary to keep Shido's body from collapsing. And as the Tenth Spirit, you are also the foundation of the Tree. Your power is an essential step—without it, he has no way to withstand the other spirits' powers."
"Mm?" Alright, now Tohka was genuinely stunned. In the original work, sealing Tohka's power had been very successful. Although there were a few incidents where it leaked out, it always stabilized again quickly. So, she really hadn't expected this. But that wasn't the most important part—the crucial thing was that Reine's eyes had already changed. Tohka knew that if she refused, this woman would fight her even if it meant exposing her own identity. Judging by what she said, if Tohka didn't agree, all of Reine's plans would be ruined. This woman would likely do whatever it took to kill her and replace the Tenth Spirit. After all, in theory, the spirit base was the essence of a spirit. The AST couldn't swap out a spirit base's owner, but this woman just might be able to. Though she probably wasn't completely sure she could do it—Tohka's power wasn't weak, and Reine wasn't certain she could win. And if Tohka managed to escape, the revenge afterward would be a huge headache for her.
"Alright, I have a condition too. I want more than half of your spirit power." Since she already knew this much, there was nothing to hide. Surely Reine had expected her to make demands—otherwise she wouldn't be sitting here calmly negotiating.
"Deal. But to prevent you from backing out, I'll give it to you after he has sealed three other spirits." After all, it was her spirit power, not her origin power. So Reine didn't object—this kind of energy would regenerate over time anyway.
"Fine. If you go back on your word, I'll take back my power. I'd like to see how long his body can last without my support."