"What's the deal between you and that demon?"
The silver-haired, red-eyed girl in the tailcoat paused her attack, standing still as she tossed out the question. Sosei loosened her grip on her blade slightly, her voice steady but cautious. "She's my friend."
"Oh yeah?"
The girl tilted her head, a smirk playing on her lips. "Doesn't look like she's too grateful for the sentiment."
Before Sosei could bristle at the rude jab, she spun around, her heart sinking. Wakaba Mutsu had backed off to a distance, already conjuring new demon puppets. They now encircled Sosei and the mysterious stranger in a tight ring.
"Mutsu!" Sosei shouted, her voice cracking with urgency. "What's wrong with you?!"
Mutsu didn't answer. She just raised a hand, directing her minions to attack again.
Three puppets lunged at the mystery girl, only to be sliced apart with a single, effortless swing of her scythe. She had the nerve to keep chatting with Sosei while doing it. "You sure you didn't get the wrong person?"
Her tone was light, like she didn't care one bit about Sosei's earlier swing at her.
"No way I'd mistake her. That's Mutsu."
Sosei's blade spun, carving through another puppet that got too close.
Yeah, the "thread" connecting them might've been cut, vanished into nothing, but Sosei was dead certain that was Wakaba Mutsu—her partner who'd fought demons by her side. So why did she look like this? Why was this stranger calling her a demon?
"You're saying your friend is a demon? That's not exactly a laugh riot, lady."
"Mutsu's not a demon!"
The stranger's words stung, fueling Sosei's frustration. She hacked through two more puppets, determined to make Mutsu answer for herself.
"Scáthach!"
Sosei charged toward Mutsu, shouting the name of her weapon as she snapped its twin blades together.
Her demon-hunting gear, "Scáthach," had a trick she rarely showed her teammates. It could turn abstract "connections" into visible "threads" only she could see—and cut them. Sever the thread between friends, and they'd become strangers. Cut the thread between a boss and their subordinate, and the job was done.
It was the opposite of the wish she'd made to Little Ace long ago. This power could only destroy, never build. It could only take, never save.
But right now, Sosei was almost grateful for it. It couldn't bring back what was lost, but it let her feel what she'd lost. That day, it showed her the thread tying her to Mutsu snap.
And in this moment, it was like this power was made for her—to defeat Mutsu without hurting her. If Sosei could use Scáthach to snip every thread linking Mutsu to her puppets, she could take them all down without spilling a drop of blood!
Behind her, the tailcoat-wearing stranger lazily fended off puppets, watching Sosei charge ahead without stepping in.
But Sosei miscalculated.
From the shadows behind Mutsu, two more demon puppets emerged, barreling toward her.
Sosei cursed under her breath. In its scissor form, Scáthach couldn't shield her with that misty barrier. Right now, she was barely tougher than your average high school girl. If those puppets pinned her down, she was done for.
"Man, this is painful to watch."
The stranger moved in a flash, cutting through the puppet swarm like they were nothing. Her scythe's eerie blue blade arced like a crescent moon, aimed straight for Mutsu. The two puppets abandoned Sosei, lunging at the stranger instead.
The crescent slash tore through them, its momentum carrying it toward Mutsu.
"No!" Sosei screamed.
Too late. The blue scythe descended like a death sentence, aimed at Mutsu's head.
Mutsu looked up, her gaze calm and unflinching as it met the blade.
A streak of pitch-black broke free from her shadow, forming a lightless shortsword that blocked the scythe. A figure materialized behind it, solidifying into a girl in a black-and-red outfit, her face hidden by a mask.
"'Death,' you flopped this one," the dark-haired girl said coolly. "Time to bail."
"Mhm." Mutsu nodded faintly, her voice barely audible.
"Think you're just gonna walk?" The silver-haired, red-eyed girl—scythe in hand, mask on, probably a demon hunter—clearly wasn't ready to let this go. She swung her scythe again, its blade slicing toward Mutsu.
But the new arrival just flicked her wrist. The shadows at her feet surged like a boiling tide, swallowing Mutsu whole.
"Wait!" Sosei split her twin blades apart, reaching out toward the fading Mutsu with a heart-wrenching cry. "Mutsu, don't go!"
Her voice broke as she pleaded, "What happened to you? Why aren't you answering my texts? Why'd you stop coming to school…?"
Mutsu didn't respond. She sank into the shadows, her masked gaze distant and cold as it met Sosei's.
"Give it up," the masked, dark-haired girl said flatly. "She's not the person you knew anymore."
Mutsu was gone. Sosei's pent-up frustration had nowhere to go but the dark-haired girl in front of her. She shifted into a fighting stance, her voice sharp. "What did you do to her?!"
"No comment."
With that, the girl drew another weapon from the shadows, parrying the crescent scythe. The silver-haired girl smirked. "Seriously, why waste your breath talking to demons?"
"Exactly. We are demons," the dark-haired girl said pointedly. "So quit clinging to fairy tales."
She stepped back, melting into the shadows and vanishing.
The silver-haired girl's swing missed, but she spun the scythe with flair, collapsing it into a cane without so much as scratching the ground. She glanced to the side, chuckling. "Looks like we're in the clear."
Sosei followed her gaze. A girl in a Haneoka Academy uniform stood there, dazed, like she'd just woken up from a bad dream.
Then the silver-haired girl's voice cut through. "Since you and that demon are pals, I'll leave the cleanup to you, yeah?"
"Huh?!"
Sosei whipped around, but the girl was gone. She looked again—nothing. No trace of her anywhere.
The puppets Mutsu had demonized had shrunk back to their normal size, scattered across the ground like broken toys.
Sosei let out a bitter laugh, sheathed her blades, and rubbed her cheeks, forcing a smile as she approached the Haneoka student.
"Hey, you okay?"