Just as Aqua and Yoshino were engaging in an unexpected interaction, and Shido and the entire crew of the Fraxinus were still in a state of shocked and confused analysis, the bridge monitors showed that Koushi had rushed to the entrance of the department store like a whirlwind.
"Koushi! Hold on!"
Kotori immediately initiated an emergency communication with Koushi, speaking rapidly.
"We can see the situation inside! The Heavenly Judgment Spirit, who calls herself Aqua, is currently showing a huge deviation from the bloody behavioral patterns recorded last night, and is engaging in non-hostile contact with The Hermit!"
"We are analyzing her emotional data and behavioral logic; please do not rush in recklessly! We are immediately generating a few preliminary contact options for you, you need to..."
"I don't need options, Kotori."
Koushi's voice interrupted Kotori; he stopped at the damaged entrance, breathing slightly, but his gaze sharply pierced the dim interior, locking onto the silver-haired figure rubbing faces with Yoshino.
His tone was unusually calm, even carrying an unquestionable confidence.
"Options are best left for that indecisive guy, Shido."
"I have my own plan."
He said in a deep voice.
"If she... if she really is Chinatsu, really a part of my sister, even if it's just a sub-personality..."
His voice carried a complex emotion, mixed with expectation, resolve, and a hint of desperate courage.
"Then, what I am about to do, she absolutely cannot remain indifferent to!"
"Koushi! Wait! This is too risky!"
Kotori's voice carried obvious worry, and even a hint of undetectable panic.
"You are not like Shido! Shido possesses recovery abilities enhanced by Spirit powers; even if he is gravely injured, he has a chance to recover! But you are different! You are purely flesh and blood!"
"If your judgment is wrong, if she really is as dangerous as the files show... you will die! If you die, nothing will truly remain!"
Facing Kotori's almost pleading warning, silence fell on the other end of the communication for a moment, where only Koushi's increasingly close footsteps and the whistling wind could be heard.
Then, Koushi's voice sounded again; gone was the previous teasing, leaving only a calm yet absolute determination:
"Trust me."
Before the words finished, he no longer hesitated, suddenly exerting force, and his figure, like an arrow shot from a bow, rushed straight into the ruined building where crisis and the unknown coexisted, heading toward the eye of the vortex that determined the fate of him, Shido, and everyone else.
Just as Shido was anxious about Aqua's unpredictable attitude, Yoshino fearfully shrank behind Aqua.
Although she had just been hugged, Yoshinon said in a comical voice, "Oh my, has someone else come? It's really lively today~" trying to lighten the mood.
And Aqua herself wore an increasingly playful smile, her golden eyes looking toward the stairwell with great interest—
The footsteps coming up grew closer and clearer, and finally, the newcomer stepped onto their floor.
Koushi's figure appeared from around the stairwell corner, but his opening line stunned everyone.
"This is a trial, friend."
His tone was low, carrying a deliberate, theatrical sense of gravity as he continued to walk forward. The sight of the people upstairs was temporarily blocked by a thick supporting pillar.
"I have accepted the trial of overcoming the past." His voice came from behind the pillar.
"Human growth is about defeating an immature past."
Then, under the dumbfounded gaze of everyone (including the entire crew aboard the Fraxinus watching through drone cameras), Koushi's figure reappeared from behind the pillar.
—He had unexpectedly stripped off his school uniform jacket and the T-shirt underneath, standing bare-chested, revealing his well-toned, clearly defined abs and chest muscles!
He stood proudly and yet completely naturally at the stairwell, as if this attire was perfectly normal for the time and place, his eyes burning as he looked toward Aqua and uttered that earth-shattering name:
"Hmm, you must think so too, Phoenix-in Aqua."
The air was deathly silent.
Shido's mouth hung open in an O shape; his brain had completely crashed, utterly unable to comprehend the absurd development unfolding before his eyes.
Yoshino let out a muffled sound and completely buried her face into Aqua's back, seemingly feeling safer there subconsciously?
Yoshinon's rabbit mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out, as if its vocal system had short-circuited due to excessive shock.
A strange silence fell over the Fraxinus bridge, and then someone, unable to hold it in, let out a suppressed gasp.
Kotori covered her forehead, wearing an "I can't look" expression, and growled through clenched teeth: "That idiot...! This is his 'plan'? To test her reaction using public humiliation?!"
As for Aqua, who had been called out directly, the playful smile on her face instantly froze.
Her golden eyes first flashed with an extremely brief hint of astonishment and... helplessness?
But that helplessness vanished instantly, replaced by a feeling of being offended, mixed with shame, anger, and fury!
Especially the name "Phoenix-in Aqua" seemed to particularly provoke her.
"You...!"
Visible rage seemed to rise on Aqua's forehead; unstable ripples began to appear in the space around her, and dark purple electric lights faintly flickered.
"Who permitted you to call this King by that name?! And what is with your shameless appearance?! Do you want to be thrown into the Imaginary Space to drift forever?! idiot Big Brother!!!"
She screamed in exasperation, even unconsciously using the address "idiot Big Brother," and although she immediately realized her slip and became even more furious, the information contained in her words was explosive!
The instant Koushi heard the words "idiot Big Brother," a sharp light flashed in his eyes; far from being afraid, he instead revealed an "I knew it" smile mixed with complex emotions, although that smile looked particularly bizarre and embarrassing in his current bare-chested state.
The atmosphere at the scene, which had previously been subtly tense, completely plunged into an unpredictable abyss mixed with extreme awkwardness, social death, and potential life danger.
Shido was already starting to consider whether he should find cover and hide.
Hearing Aqua's exasperated roar mixed with "idiot Big Brother," Koushi did not retreat; instead, the corner of his mouth curved into a deeper, more complex smile—a smile that carried confirmation, relief, the sense of 'I knew it,' and a hint of unspeakable bitterness.
He ignored the awkwardness of his current bare-chested state, or rather, he was completely immersed in his own rhythm, his eyes burning as he met Aqua's furious gaze and continued:
"Finally... I see you, Aqua." His voice dropped, carrying the emotion of someone who had endured great hardship. "No, I should say... Long time no see, Aqua."
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