"Hmm, there are messages—and not just one. Oh, come on..." Only then did Tohka notice her phone, and there was more than one text on it. But the content of these messages made her feel a little sick to her stomach. One was from Reine Murasame. That woman was urging her to hurry up and seal her powers back into Shido Itsuka and then come have a talk. That wasn't so bad. But the other message nearly made her lose her mind—because it was from Miku Izayoi. She'd originally been like a virtual idol who rarely showed her face. But back in Marvel, Tohka had egged her on to hold a concert. So, this time, when Miku returned, she had gone straight on stage and performed. As a formally debuting newcomer, her concert had been a massive success right from the start. As for all those people who had tried to exploit her with sleazy industry tricks...well, Tohka didn't know how Miku handled them in the original story. But after seeing so many big scenes together—and not being afraid to get ruthless—those people had either been ruined financially or driven completely insane. After all, scumbags who liked to play casting-couch games never had clean records. Miku had exposed them easily. And then...anyway, by the time Tohka returned from the boundary of reality, everything had been resolved.
But now there was a problem. Seeing the Yamai sisters on either side of her, sluggishly putting their clothes on, Tohka didn't even know what to say. The gist of Miku's message was that her tour had ended and she wanted to come hang out with Tohka—after all, they hadn't spent time together in ages. But why did Tohka feel a chill all over, like her life was about to end? Was it her imagination? She could almost see Makoto Itou from the afterlife waving at her.
"Ugh, seriously, we're all girls—what am I scared of?" Shaking her head quickly, Tohka decided this was all just needless worry. It wasn't worth mentioning at all.
"Um, when you finish getting dressed, I'll leave for a bit. Try not to start fighting again, and if you get hungry, go have something in the cafeteria downstairs." After mentally shoving aside her bad premonitions, Tohka hurried out. After all, Reine Murasame was waiting to see her, and she couldn't waste more time here.
Counting it up—she'd sealed three new Spirits already, not including the earlier ones. Strictly speaking, there was only one Loli before. Now adding the Yamai twins still only made two, which was kind of frustrating.
"Hey, why do I have to come here so early in the morning?" After giving them her instructions, Tohka left and soon arrived at another room, where Reine was waiting.
"It's nothing. Just hurry up and seal your powers back. Last night, Shido's Spirit energy already started to go berserk, though I managed to suppress it temporarily." Reine took a sip of water and spoke calmly when Tohka entered.
"Right. About what you mentioned before—your proposal to try sealing their powers yourself—how's that coming? That Kurumi before didn't want to be sealed, so that's that, but what about these two?" But what Reine cared more about was her earlier suggestion. She knew DEM Industries had appeared, and she was still wary of those criminals responsible for the catastrophe thirty years ago. To push Tohka forward instead of Shido would be beneficial in some ways.
"I don't know yet, but I can give it a try. I'll need some time, though—I have my own plans. As for my own power, I can seal it back into him now, so stop bothering us for a while." Tohka already had a little idea in mind regarding the Yamai sisters. After all, she intended to rescue Origami's mother, and more hands would definitely help. For that reason, she had no intention of sealing the twins' powers just yet. Running around half-crippled wouldn't help—if anything, it would be a burden.
"What exactly are you all planning? Seriously, acting all secretive like this..." Reine looked Tohka over, unable to figure out what she was up to. But she didn't try to stop her. She could guess that whatever it was probably involved DEM. And since it was those scumbags, Reine was more than happy to see them get trouble, so she didn't object. The more problems for the DEM, the better.
"Alright, I won't stop you. But don't forget—your powers are still the foundation. If you don't seal them, the energy inside Shido will keep going out of control. I can suppress it once, but I can't keep doing it every time." As Tohka turned to go, Reine reminded her again. It would be a joke if Tohka actually forgot.
"Yeah, yeah—I get it. Where is that guy now?" Hearing Reine, Tohka asked about Shido's whereabouts. After all, she still couldn't do anything fancy like sealing powers remotely.
"He's in the cafeteria eating. You can find him there." Reine replied blandly.
"Alright." Tohka thought, wow, this woman must have serious stalker tendencies to know so much.
Leaving Reine's room, Tohka went to the cafeteria. It was packed with their schoolmates. The whole room was buzzing with whispers—after all, last night's events had been too big to conceal. The spaceship wreckage might have been smashed beyond recognition by Tohka's final impact, but the problem remained: the island had literally been split in half. Add the earthquakes, and there was no way to hide it.
"..." But just then, Tohka noticed Origami Tobiichi carrying a tray and coming straight toward her. Unlike Tohka, who was completely unhurt, Origami had her head wrapped in a bandage. And since she hadn't appeared at all during last night's titanic battle, Tohka could guess what had happened. Clearly, Origami had been reassigned somewhere and then clubbed over the head—so she'd spent the whole thing unconscious, never getting a chance to intervene.
"I already heard everything from Shido. First, thank you for protecting him." But to Tohka's surprise, Origami's first words were gratitude.
"Um, well...that..."
"But..." Of course, Tohka didn't get to finish before Origami cut her off. Clearly, saying anything nice about Tohka was almost impossible: "I also heard you were the one who drilled that crack across the island. Honestly, it's a waste you're not working as an industrial drill."
"What drill—drill nothing! At least I'm still better than you!" Hearing Origami, Tohka nearly leapt up in outrage. What did she mean, drill? She'd only spun around a few times and then—ugh, fine. Tohka had to admit, maybe being a drill wasn't such a bad fit. But she refused to let it go: "Even so, I'm still better than you! Where were you last night, huh? You didn't even show your face—don't tell me you got whacked on the head and knocked out cold. Your wound still hasn't healed?"
"You...!" Sure enough, Origami couldn't keep her usual deadpan when Tohka taunted her like that.
"Um—um—are you two alright? Also, could you not do this so early in the morning? Look, everyone's staring." Just then, Shido's voice cut in, breaking up their standoff. Their argument hadn't exactly been whispered, but it hadn't been loud either. Fortunately, from a distance, nobody could hear the content, so Shido relaxed a little.
"Hey—you—what exactly did you tell those two sisters? If you don't answer, I swear I'll chop you to pieces." The instant Shido walked over to mediate, Tohka switched her fury to him. No way was she going to let it slide—he'd nearly given her a stroke that morning. She stormed over, grabbed him by the collar, and hoisted him into the air.
"Hey—what are you doing?" Origami couldn't stand by any longer. She hadn't been there last night, but she wasn't going to let Tohka just dangle Shido like this now. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her Realizer from her pocket —she hadn't activated it yet, but the threat was obvious.
"Hmph, you really think that works on me?" Tohka just curled her lip at Origami's glare. Then she dropped Shido, pressed her palm to his chest, and sealed her power back into him. Finally, she tossed him aside like a sack of potatoes.
"Ow—ugh—my butt..." Shido had no idea Tohka had just re-sealed her power. Rubbing his bruised backside, he got up and started explaining, since he really had been the instigator: "Look, I was just trying to help you. Didn't you see how the two of them almost started fighting to take care of you when you were passed out?"
"You call that help?! More like—" Tohka practically yelled, her rage boiling over. Those guys up on the ship—she'd never be able to forgive them. Seriously, every time she dealt with them, it turned into something perverted. Of course, she nearly blurted out "sleeping together," but when she saw all the curious eyes watching, she swallowed it back. She really didn't want to say something that would make everyone stare even harder.
"I mean—I was just trying to help, really—and those sisters, they really..." Shido trailed off, because he too had been about to say something about feelings. But with all the gossiping eyes on them, he forced the words back down.
"Tohka—so this is where you were." Just then, the Yamai sisters walked over. Judging by their relaxed expressions, they were doing fine. Sure, they'd made Tohka nearly cough up blood that morning, but in the end, it was just three girls sharing a bed—nothing more had happened, so there wasn't much awkwardness for them.
"Wow, aren't those the twin sisters from before? And why are they wearing our school uniforms? I don't remember anyone like that enrolled here." The twins were wearing the same uniform Tohka had borrowed, which instantly drew a lot of attention. Since they looked identical—chest size differences aside, which the uniform completely hid—even Tohka could only tell them apart by their hairstyles. Not that it mattered, since as soon as they spoke, you could immediately tell.
"Agreement—Tohka is being so cold. Weren't you planning to take responsibility for us? And yet you just walked out as soon as you woke up." Yuzuru's calm voice delivered the line, but it was the sort of comment that could instantly ignite a scandal.
"Whoa—Tohka, what did you do?!" The cafeteria exploded in chatter. Everyone turned to stare at Tohka, who was trembling a little. Nobody jumped to that conclusion, but it was more than enough to fuel endless gossip.
"Hey—you all have the wrong idea! It's not what you're thinking! And you two—could you please watch how you phrase things?!" The crowd might have thought it was funny, but for Tohka, it was mortifying. Her face bright red, she leapt up and grabbed both sisters by the arms, dragging them away. As for breakfast—well, she'd just have to skip it.
"Um—did something actually happen between them?" Watching Tohka vanish with the twins, the whole class was left to speculate. With the way she'd reacted, how could they not jump to conclusions?
"Ugh—you two need to be more careful with what you say. Anyway, now I'm going to teach you how to tell which things are edible." There was no way she could show her face in the cafeteria again, so Tohka decided on an indirect approach. This was the perfect chance to teach the twins how to tell safe food from dangerous food. At the very least, she wasn't planning to get poisoned again. Seriously, if Ellen hadn't been stopped by the trio back then, she probably would've been caught.
So, for the sake of filling her stomach—and protecting her life—Tohka would take these two to the next market trip. After all, nobody liked ending up poisoned.