Chapter 22: Impossible!

Previous chapter was fixed as there were some repeated paragraphs and section.

…..

Shido couldn't sleep.

His sister, Kotori, still hadn't come home. Usually, she would be back by now. He called her phone. It went straight to voicemail. He sent messages. No reply.

Had something happened? Did she run into trouble? But that made no sense. She could teleport directly home. Was she just working late? This late?

He sat on the living room sofa, his mind a whirlwind of anxious possibilities, none of which made any sense.

Just then, his phone rang.

He snatched it up, his heart leaping with hope, only to see an unfamiliar number.

"Hello? Who is this?" he answered, his voice tight with anxiety.

"It's me. Kannazuki Kyouhei."

"Kannazuki! Is Kotori still on the Fraxinus? Why isn't she home yet?" Shido's questions tumbled out in a rush.

The answer he received was not the one he wanted.

"I'm calling you about the Commander. It's better if we speak in person. Come to the ship."

The line went dead. Shido stared at his phone, a cold dread creeping into his heart. If it was about Kotori, he had to go.

….

Aboard the Fraxinus, Kannazuki and Reine explained everything. Shido learned that his sister was a Spirit, and then, in a one-two punch that knocked the wind out of him, that she had gone to face the Spirit Hunter alone.

He demanded they take him to her.

Fortunately, Reine, with her usual foresight, had placed a secondary tracking device on Kotori without her knowledge. They watched her signal move from near their home, walk in the opposite direction, stop suddenly, and then vanish, only to reappear moments later at a new set of coordinates over the ocean.

The Fraxinus was already en route.

They arrived just in time to see me deliver the final, devastating blow with my replicated Camael.

….

The axe slammed into Kotori's body with crushing force.

I had held back, so she wasn't cleaved in two. But the impact drove her into the ground, leaving her staring up at me with pure, undiluted rage. The axe blade was buried deep in her shoulder, forcing her to drop her own weapon.

Clang.

Camael fell to the street.

Blue flames of regeneration flickered across her wounds, but I could see them weakening. Her recovery rate was slowing.

Her spiritual power is almost depleted, I noted with a quiet sense of relief.

She was at the end of her rope. As her power faded, a flicker of her own consciousness began to return.

"Ugh... ah..."

Not much, but it was a start. Her delicate face was marred with cuts and bruises, but they would heal in time.

I pulled my axe free and ran another scan of her body. My assessment was correct. The duel was over.

I looked around at the devastation. The street was a chaotic sculpture of fire frozen in ice, a strangely beautiful sight. The surrounding buildings were scarred and broken.

It was time to end this.

I turned my head and looked up at the sky.

Right on schedule. A cloaked airship had just arrived at our location: the Fraxinus.

With the audience now in place, I dismissed my counterfeit Camael. I knelt beside Kotori, my head-mounted processor whirring as a small component extended—the plugin for Pseudo-Gavelet.

I leaned in close, my voice a whisper only she could hear.

"Please, get some rest now."

The power of the Songstress flowed with my words. In her exhausted, broken state, Kotori had no resistance to its magic. Her breathing, ragged and harsh, soon evened out. The chaotic spiritual energy raging within her calmed to a gentle ebb. In a matter of seconds, she was in a deep, peaceful sleep.

From the slight frown on her face, however, it seemed her dreams were not as peaceful.

With Kotori unconscious, my work here was done. I would not be taking her with me this time. My bio-scanners had detected a new arrival moments ago: Shido Itsuka, teleported down from the ship, now hiding behind a large chunk of rubble, watching everything.

He hadn't rushed out this time. It seemed he had learned to think before acting.

Just as I had done after every other battle, I opened a portal and left, leaving him to care for his sister.

….

The portal deposited me back in the heart of the city. It was now three in the morning. The only souls still awake were the most dedicated gamers and the most overworked office employees. The streets were silent, empty.

Darkness was no obstacle for me. An Ex-Machina's optical sensors naturally included night vision.

I had fully analyzed Camael. Though Kotori had never used its cannon form in our fight, I had acquired the data for both configurations.

Hmm?

I stopped. I looked back at the entrance to a dark alleyway.

There was nothing there. My scanners confirmed it. No heat signatures, no energy readings. The area was deserted.

And yet... I felt something. A strange pull, a flicker of intuition from the human ghost still rattling around inside my shell.

I stood there for several long minutes, just staring into the empty darkness.

I decided to trust the ghost.

I rerouted power, overclocking my sensor suite far beyond its normal operational limits.

This time, I found something. A presence. A woman. And... nothing else. My scanners couldn't resolve any further data.

Then, my visual feed glitched. A shimmering, pixelated distortion appeared at the mouth of the alley, a blur of digital noise where a person should be.

A living blind spot.

My mechanical irises contracted to a pinpoint.

….

"...Ugh..."

"...Where am I?"

When Kotori awoke, it was already the next afternoon.

She sat up, her mind a fog. Familiar bedroom, familiar furniture, familiar ceiling. The familiar sound of cooking coming from the kitchen.

"I remember... I was fighting the Spirit Hunter..." she mumbled, pressing a hand to her forehead, trying to piece together the shattered memories of the previous night.

She remembered the fight. She remembered making a mistake, leaving an opening. She remembered the greatsword piercing her chest. Even with her regeneration, the pain had been real. If not for the phantom ache still lingering in her chest, she might have dismissed the entire ordeal as a nightmare.

But her memory cut off right there. After the blade, there was nothing. A corrupted file.

She had no idea how she had gotten home.

Did the Spirit Hunter... bring me back?

No. That was impossible... right?

….

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