This is not the date I wanted.

Then your actions can be described as the worst kind of scum.

(But, it's all I can do. After the problem is solved, I'll have to explain it clearly even if Origami has to send me to the hospital.)

Shidou made up his mind silently.

"Um...I have something I want to tell you."

"Actually, I...also have something I need to say to Gokawa-san."

Just when Shidou was about to confess, Origami suddenly spoke.

"What do you have to say?"

Having missed the opportunity to confess, Shidou could only ask back.

"You know I was once a member of the AST - the Ground Self-Defense Force against the elves."

"Ok, I know."

Shidou nodded.

"But I quit AST a while ago."

"That's it..."

Although he had already heard it from Kotori, Shidou still asked with some hesitation.

"Is it because... you lost consciousness due to anemia as you said last time?"

"Well, that's one of the reasons. After all, this is a job that uses dangerous weapons, and this symptom is quite fatal. But the main reason is that I'm a little confused."

"confused?"

Seeing Shidou's puzzled expression, Origami gave an awkward smile.

"Well, although it's a confidential matter, I'll make an exception and tell you now. Hacker - do you know the elf with this identification name, Gokawa-san?"

Seeing Origami unexpectedly mention Mengyue here, Shidou couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise, and then hurriedly pretended not to know and replied.

"Sa, Sa——It sounds like an elf with a unique personality."

"Yeah, she's a very unique elf indeed." Origami nodded with a wry smile. "She wears a girl's uniform from an unknown school, and a strange black windbreaker. She's often seen playing with a tablet when she materializes. To be honest, when I first saw her in July, I even suspected that she was a middle school girl who didn't have time to take shelter."

I understand! Shidou nodded in agreement.

Origami seemed to recall something, and a complicated expression appeared on her face.

"At first, because the opponent was a Pokémon with the same danger level as Nightmare, everyone was very alert, but the manifestation device was meaningless in front of the Hacker, so we all lost without exception. However, what surprised me the most was that the Hacker saved the teammate who crashed after disarming."

After that, Origami tried to look up information about Hacker. Then she found that the reports about this elf were very contradictory.

——The space quake is the smallest in scale, and the number of casualties in the world is zero. However, it is the most dangerous spirit to humans.

As he spoke, Origami looked up at the night sky and sighed.

"At that moment... how should I put it... 'Ah - what are we doing?' I wanted to laugh at myself... I began to doubt whether what I was doing was right..."

"Origami..."

"…I'm sorry, the elf is the murderer of your brother…"

Origami seemed to have no idea how to face Shidou, so she lowered her head in shame.

"No, you don't have to apologize."

"Eh?"

Shidou replied with a firm shake of his head.

Perhaps this answer was completely unexpected in Origami's eyes at this moment, but for Gokawa Shido, Origami being able to let go of her hatred and accept the elves was one of the things he hoped for most in his previous world.

"I don't think your idea is wrong at all, Origami. I—no, even if it's my brother, he would definitely say that."

"Itsuka-san..."

Origami's voice trembled, her shoulders shaking slightly, and she looked like she was about to cry.

"S-Sorry... I actually..."

Origami turned her head away, as if she didn't want anyone to see her current state. Shidou didn't continue to speak, but silently held Origami's hand tightly, looked up at the bright moon in the night sky, and a gentle smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

(That’s great, Mengyue…our efforts have not been in vain.)

At the same time, a very impressive performance was heard from the earphones. It seemed that what Origami was really worried about was whether Shidou would accept her forgiving the elf.

"Look at Itsuka-san! A shooting star!"

A meteor flashed across the night sky. Origami, as if to cover up her own gaffe, pulled Shidou to the fence, leaned over the wooden handrail, and pointed to the sky.

"Shooting star! We need to make a wish quickly!"

"Even if you say so, I can't think of any wish at all so suddenly..."

Shidou said with a troubled look on his face. But in fact, he secretly made a wish in his heart - for Meng Yue to come back to him. ...Well, although the shooting star had already disappeared when he made the wish.

Crack-!

Suddenly, perhaps due to aging, the wooden fence that Origami was leaning on made a cracking sound. Naturally, Origami, who was leaning on the handrail, was about to fall from the edge of the park on the high platform.

“Whaaaaaaah!?”

“Origami!”

Fortunately, Shidao was still holding Origami's hand at this time, and he grabbed Origami in time and mustered up his strength to pull her up.

"Huh... are you okay?"

Shidou breathed a sigh of relief and asked Origami with a little concern.

"........."

"Origami?"

Looking at Origami who remained silent, Shidou couldn't help but feel a sense of weirdness.

Hot - at this moment, a burning sensation came from his left hand, and Shidao realized that when Origami fell just now, his arm was scraped by the broken surface of the raft, leaving a shocking scratch.

Naturally, the pale white healing flame automatically appeared on the surface of the wound.

"not good--!"

Shidou seemed to realize something, and his pupils suddenly contracted.

"Spirit...spirit..."

With a low voice, violent spiritual power burst out from Origami's side, easily blowing Shidou away. Then, turbid black mud wrapped Origami like a whirlpool, turning her into a dark spiritual outfit like mourning clothes.

PS: Although it feels a bit spoiler-like, I saw so many speculations in the comments. I just laughed - you guys are all thinking too complicated.

13 The One Who Reaches Out

==============================

"Spirit value category E, confirmed to be a reverse spirit."

"Damn it... this is not good."

The anxious voices of Kotori and her teammates rang out in the earphone in her right ear, and the roar of space-quake alarms began to sound from the loudspeakers around her.

Shidou took a deep breath and looked in the direction of Origami. He found that Origami's lifeless and dim eyes were also staring at him.

“Spirit…”

There was no sadness or murderous intent in the hoarse voice, only a hope for destruction.

However, Shidao's mind was unusually calm at this moment. No, it should be said that he had to calm down.

(How can we solve this problem?)

The healing flame had long since disappeared after healing the previous wound, and Shidou no longer displayed spiritual power, but Origami Tobiichi did not recover to her original state like Kurumi did last time.

Maybe there are some conditions that I don't know about. Shidou judged this way, but what exactly it is, most likely only Mengyue or Kurumi would know.

And now, Shidao obviously did not have the aftertaste of studying these.

[Shidou, did you hear me? Get out of here quickly. ]

"I'm sorry, Kotori... I can't do this."

Shidou shook his head silently.

He knew very well that if he escaped from here at this moment, he might be able to escape, but there was no doubt that the reversed origami would destroy Tiangong City like the previous world in his memory.

Shidou didn't want such a tragedy to happen again here, and he didn't want Origami, who had finally managed to live an ordinary life, to fall into despair again.

and so--

"I'm going to rescue Origami. Please help me, Kotori!"

[…Really, you are still as willful as ever. ]

After hearing Shidou's request, Kotori's helpless sigh came from the earphones.

[Forget it, being able to not rush into it without thinking is also a kind of progress. I will accompany you this time. ]

"Thank you, Kotori."

[Let’s talk about this later. Dangerous Shidao! ]

Hearing Kotori's voice, Shidou suddenly noticed that at some point, dark "wings" were floating around Origami. At this moment, the tip of the wing was flashing a dim halo towards Shidou.

"Satan - lightsaber."

"Raphael (Hurricane Knight!)"

Just before the pitch-black laser hit him, Shidou quickly summoned an angel, and used the thrust generated by the strong wind to blow his body away, thus awkwardly avoiding Origami's attack.

[Shidao, are you okay? ]

"Yeah... not bad."

Ignoring the bumps and scrapes on his body, Shidou got up from the ground and whispered into his earphones.

"Kotori, please cover me until I get to Origami."

【Understand...Remember, don't force yourself. 】

"Don't worry."

After hanging up the phone, Shidou looked at Origami not far away, took a deep breath, and ran towards the other person with all his strength.

"..."

As if noticing Gokawa Shidou approaching her, Origami's wings once again gathered dark light. However, this time, they were intercepted and cut off by several sharp metal pieces that suddenly appeared in mid-air.

[Sade——Tobiichi Origami, what are you doing to my brother? 】

As Kotori finished her words, the airship Fraxinus appeared in the sky above the park. Kannazuki controlled the independent manifestation unit "Leaves of the World Tree" to cover the nurse's path and move forward.

Not letting go of this opportunity, Shidou used Hurricane Knight to instantly increase his movement speed, closing the distance between him and Origami.

However, this alone is not enough.

Origami was currently surrounded and isolated by a very dense wall of spiritual energy. If Shidou wanted to reach Origami, he had to break through this spiritual barrier.

"Sandalphon (Sandalphon)!"

A gorgeous giant sword appeared in his hand. Shidao raised the angel in his hand and swung it heavily at the spiritual barrier.

Bang! The strong recoil made Shidao's palm numb, as if he was hitting a hard rock with a kitchen knife. Shidao's slash only left a faint crack on Origami's spiritual power barrier.

(Not powerful enough!?)

This was an unexpected situation. Shidou widened his eyes in surprise.

Soon, Shidao realized that the Aoshagong in his hand was not a complete version. In addition, without the control of the Sage of Dawn, a lot of spiritual power was wasted. Naturally, it was impossible to easily break the barrier of the elf in its prime state.

(If it doesn’t work once, just keep doing it until you break it.)

Shidou gritted his teeth and thought, but the burden of using an angel caused Shidou's body to become stiff against his will.

Moreover, Origami did not seem to intend to give Shidou a chance to improve his skills. The number of wings floating in the air suddenly increased. After destroying the "Leaves of the World Tree", they surrounded Shidou and Kotori's air fleet.

When Shidou realized what Origami was going to do next, his hair stood on end.

“Stop origami——————!”