Only Akeno was in the clubroom when they arrived. She looked up from whatever she'd been reading and greeted them with her usual warm smile.
"Good morning." Her gaze moved to Kai with a flicker of genuine concern. "How are you feeling? Better?"
"Much better. The President took care of it," Kai said. He scanned the room. "Where's Koneko?"
"She stayed to finish the investigation after you left last night, and picked up a contract summons on her way back. She may be a little late." Akeno's smile widened slightly. "You distributed quite a few flyers yesterday, Kai. Don't be surprised if your own summons comes through in the next day or two."
"I won't hold my breath," he said. "Most people throw those things away without looking at them."
Rias had moved to the window, and her expression, while composed, carried the particular stillness of someone who hadn't finished processing something. "Akeno—about last night's Fallen Angel. Did you find anything useful?"
"Not much, unfortunately. She was annihilated too completely to read clearly from the residual Holy Power alone. But if I encounter another member of the same household, I'll recognize the energy signature. That much I can promise."
Rias accepted that with a small nod, then turned to Kai. "It seems I can't repay the debt immediately. But when we do cross paths with whoever sent her—"
"President." Kai cut her off gently. "I'm not particularly aggrieved. I took some damage; she paid for it with her life. The ledger is reasonably balanced."
Rias considered this, then let out a breath that was almost a laugh. "You're right. Though I hope whoever commanded her is smart enough to stay out of our way going forward."
The teleportation circle activated, and Koneko stepped through with the unhurried composure of someone returning from an errand. She was carrying a paper bag.
"Ara, welcome back," Akeno said. "Contract go smoothly?"
"Successful." Koneko gave a small nod. The faintest trace of satisfaction crossed her face—there and gone, like a ripple on still water.
"Well done," Kai said. "And thank you for staying late last night. I mean it."
Koneko reached into the paper bag without comment and produced a wrapped portion of breakfast, which she extended toward him. She had brought food for everyone.
"Thank you," he said, taking it.
Rias unwrapped hers with visible delight. "Cream bread. My favorite. Thank you, Koneko~"
They ate in companionable quiet for a few minutes. Kai turned something over in his mind, then decided there was no reason not to ask it.
"Are contracts with humans really the only way for Devils to grow stronger? That seems like a significant dependency."
The three girls went quiet. Rias set down her bread and after a moment, sighed—not with irritation, but with the weight of something long accepted.
"You think we haven't noticed? We're well aware. But there isn't a better option currently. And it isn't only us—the Angels face the same limitation. Why else do they invest so heavily in spreading faith and building followings? It's the same mathematics."
Akeno picked up the thread, her voice soft. "Pure-blooded Devils are extraordinarily rare now. The same is true of pure-blooded Angels and Fallen Angels. All three factions have reached the point where they depend on humans to continue existing in any meaningful way. That's simply where things stand."
Kai absorbed this quietly. He'd understood the numbers were low—he hadn't understood quite how structurally low they were. That the great supernatural factions of the world had fought themselves to the edge of dependence on the species they'd once regarded as far beneath them was, in its way, a remarkable thing.
They did this to themselves, he thought, without particular judgment. Fought until there was almost nothing left, and now here we are.
Since there was no alternative, contracts were the path forward. He accepted that and moved on.
Class was unremarkable. The day passed at its usual pace, and as the final bell cleared the hallways, Kai was already thinking through his flyer route for the afternoon.
He felt it before he saw it.
A surge of demonic energy—sudden, circling, unmistakably directed at him—coiled through the air of the clubroom like a current finding its conductor. The purple-black light materialized around him in slow spirals.
Across the room, Rias sat up straighter. "Is that—"
"A contract summons?" Kai said, watching the energy with open surprise.
"It absolutely is." Akeno was already on her feet, moving with brisk efficiency. "Someone activated one of your flyers. Don't just stand there—respond to the call. I'll set the circle."
Kai reached inward and accepted the summons. He hadn't genuinely expected this to happen, and the novelty of it was difficult to suppress entirely. "Thank you, Vice President."
"Good luck," Koneko said, from her spot at the table.
"Wait for good news," Kai said, and meant it.
The magic circle opened beneath his feet, bloomed with light, and took him.
Several minutes earlier.
Mai Sakurajima let herself into her apartment, closed the door behind her, and stood in the entryway holding a pineapple bun with an expression of quiet distress.
The problem was getting worse.
At the bakery just now, she had tried three separate times to get the clerk's attention. Spoken clearly. Stood directly in the line of sight. Nothing. In the end, she had left the money on the counter, taken the bread, and walked out—the only option available to someone the world had apparently decided to stop registering.
This had been building for a while now. At some point, curious about the extent of it, she had gone out in a bunny suit—the most conspicuous thing she owned, the kind of outfit that stopped traffic under ordinary circumstances—just to test the boundaries. She had walked through a populated area. Not a single person had reacted.
She was frightened, though she held it at a remove and examined it with the same careful detachment she applied to most things that frightened her.
It's possible it's localized to this area, she told herself. I've only tested it near the school. It could be different elsewhere.
And then: That boy yesterday could see me.
She went to the bathroom, ran a bath, stripped out of the bunny suit and hung it neatly, and lowered herself into the water. She sat there in the steam, thinking, until something caught her eye.
A piece of paper, tucked into the pocket of the folded clothes on the floor.
She picked it up.
The flyer. The one the boy from the Occult Research Club had given her. She turned it over in her hands. The magic circle printed on it in deep purple looked, in retrospect, slightly less like a novelty promotional graphic than it had yesterday.
Can this really grant wishes?
The moment the thought completed itself, the flyer lit up.
Not metaphorically. The circle glowed—genuine, unmistakable, purple light spreading from the printed lines as though they'd been waiting for exactly that thought to be thought.
Mai stared at it. Even she, with her particular talent for sustained composure, felt her heart rate climb.
It's actually—
Splash.
Something appeared in the bathtub.
More specifically, someone appeared in the bathtub—arriving from nowhere with enough displacement to send a wave of hot water over the side and onto the bathroom floor, soaking everything within a meter radius.
Kai sat in the water, fully clothed, and looked down at himself. Then he looked up.
Mai Sakurajima was sitting on the other end of the same bathtub, staring at him with an expression that he would have described, with reasonable accuracy, as blank.
Silence.
Kai: "…"
Mai Sakurajima: "…"
The water dripped off the edge of the tub onto the floor.