This is not the date I wanted.

(What are these two guys doing again...)

Looking at Shidou holding the end of Tohka's scarf as if he was going to walk a dog, Mengyue couldn't help but frown.

"Hehe! You fools! Why are you still standing still in a place like this?"

"Surpass. Yui and Yakuya can't stop."

"Yakoya! Yui-chan!?"

Shidou was a little frightened when he saw Yakuya and Yui suddenly rushing out from behind him.

"Hmph, speed is of the essence in war, I will go ahead... What are you doing?"

"Confused. So early in the morning, are you playing the game of taking the dog for a walk?"

After pausing for a moment, Yakuya and Yui looked at Tohka and Shidou and frowned.

"Hmm? What do you mean?"

Tohka tilted her head in confusion.

"Hey, hey. Don't say something that could lead to misunderstanding. This is because—"

Before Shidou could finish his explanation, the two turned around.

"I won't tell you about your habits, but I advise you to be more careful in public."

"Yes. Please also consider Tohka's preference for your fetish."

"So it's not!"

"Well, good-bye! Let's meet at the agreed place."

"Farewell. Yamai is the child of the wind, full of life."

Having said that, without waiting for Shidou to continue explaining, the Yamai sisters continued running towards the school road.

"Really? You two are so enthusiastic so early in the morning."

At this moment, Meng Yue finally caught up and looked at Shidou and Tohka with a hint of teasing in her words.

"Meng Yue? Wait, don't get me wrong, there is a reason for this."

Shidao was in a panic when he saw Mengyue appear. Mengyue shrugged calmly.

"Hey, I know. I saw it at a glance. You didn't wear enough clothes when you went out, so Tohka wanted to lend you the scarf to wear together, right Tohka?"

"En!"

Tohka nodded.

"You know."

Shidou couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"Didn't yesterday's weather forecast say that the temperature would drop today?"

Meng Yue asked, looking at Shidou who was not wearing his scarf and gloves.

"Uh, I didn't notice..."

"really."

Shidou scratched his cheek in embarrassment. In response, Mengyue looked as if she had expected it, sighed softly, and took out a dark blue scarf and plush gloves from her backpack.

Meng Yue took a few steps forward and came in front of Shidao, handed the gloves to Shidao and put the scarf around his neck.

"Here. You have lived up to my expectations, Shidou. The things you prepared came in handy as expected."

"Thanks……"

Looking at the girl's rosy cheeks as she leaned in close to him, Shidou couldn't help but lower his head in embarrassment, mumbling a thank you in a low voice.

"Hmm? Shidou, do you have a fever?"

Suddenly, Mengyue seemed to sense something was wrong and looked at Shidao in confusion.

"Fever? Is Shidou sick?"

Hearing Mengyue's words, Shixiang couldn't help but come forward hurriedly and asked worriedly.

"Hmm...my temperature is a little high. Maybe I caught a cold when I went out in the cold wind."

Mengyue took off her gloves, touched Shidao's forehead and said.

"Wait, wait! I'm fine!"

Feeling the girl's slightly cool and soft fingers gently touching his forehead, Shidou suddenly felt a burst of heat on his cheeks.

However, Meng Yue didn't seem to realize how much influence her self-evident action had on the young man in front of her. After retracting her hand, she gave instructions to Tohka.

"Well, it's not a high fever. But just in case, Tohka, when we get to school, remember to take Shidou to the infirmary to get some medicine."

"Ok, I know."

Tohka nodded vigorously to show her understanding.

"Well, I'll go chase after Yakuya and the others, and I'll help you explain it while I'm at it. But I don't think they actually have any misunderstandings. See you at school later!"

"Bye! Meng Yue!"

After waving goodbye to Mengyue who was leaving quickly, Tohka turned to look at Shidou.

"Then let's go quickly, Shidou."

"..."

"Shidou?"

It was not until Tohka screamed again that Shidou suddenly came back to his senses.

"…Ah? Ah——That's right, let's go, Tohka. If we don't hurry up, we'll be late."

"En!"

Tohka nodded happily.

Gulp--gulp--gulp--

He took another step towards the school. For some reason, the sound of his heartbeat seemed unusually clear in Shidou's ears, so clear that it made him feel a little irritated.

(It's so noisy, be quiet.)

Shidou couldn't help but think so.

Should I say it's the turmoil of puberty or something else? I don't know why, but today Shidao is always very sensitive to Mengyue's every move. Feelings that don't usually appear in his heart are lingering in his heart and are difficult to dispel.

Nervous, shy, and... a little unwilling.

Seeing the somewhat ambiguous behavior between herself and Tohka, Mengyue had no misunderstanding and saw through the truth directly.

This is a kind of trust, and also an understanding of Shidao and Tohka. This is also the reason why everyone has always felt that Ryogi Yumezuki is very reliable.

However, at the same time, Shidou did not feel any jealousy or envy from the other party, not even a sense of awkwardness.

The skin contact that seemed intimate in the eyes of others, to Mengyue, was simply the care and concern for her family. If it were Yoshino, Nanashi, or anyone else, Mengyue would definitely do the same thing very naturally.

Gokawa Shido is an important family member in Mengyue's eyes. But, maybe that's all.

(——! What on earth was I thinking?)

Shidou couldn't help but feel a little self-loathing.

"Shidou, are you still feeling unwell?"

As if noticing Shidou's abnormality, Tohka asked with some concern.

"Ah? It's okay, don't worry Tohka."

After realizing that he had made Tohka worry about him, Shidao couldn't help but reflect on himself, and smiled and shook his head to show that he was fine. And Tohka seemed to recall Mengyue's instructions, and began to follow Shidao's steps cautiously.

"Shidou, I will protect you."

"Thank you, Tohka."

My body feels a little hot. Maybe it's just like Mengyue said, I caught a cold.

We moved forward step by step. Maybe it was because it snowed a little last night, we could see some small snow piles with footprints on the road.

(What am I in Mengyue's eyes?)

Although his rationality has been telling Shidao that now is not the time to think about this problem, Shidao still can't help but feel doubtful and uneasy.

01 Premonition of imbalance

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

In the underground facility of Ratatoskr, Kotori Itsuka was sitting alone in a room, reading the documents in her hand with a thoughtful expression.

This is no wonder. Although there have been many terrifying and dangerous incidents due to contact with elves before, the last incident was one of the most dangerous, large-scale and weird events among them.

The reversed elf Devil transformed from origami; the historical distortion caused by Tokisaki Kurumi's angel Kekeketei; and the culprit who turned humans into elves - Phantom.

Although Kotori herself still finds it hard to believe the specific reasons, with Shidou and Mengyue, two people who jumped from the "original history" as evidence, she can only half-believe and half-doubt this information as a premise for inference.

"Even so... we haven't gotten any information that can be said to have caught the other party on the tail."

With a somewhat exhausted sigh, Kotori leaned back in her chair and muttered to herself helplessly.

The phantom's entire body was covered by a noise-like mosaic, and his voice seemed to have been mechanically changed. Be it himself, Meijiu, or even Sister Mengyue, although they had all seen each other, they could not see through each other's true face.

The only breakthrough point was five years ago, when Origami and Phantom fought each other, breaking the mosaic barrier of the opponent and seeing the figure of a young woman.

But considering the situation Origami described at the time, this appearance is most likely just a disguise of the other party.

Eh——just when Kotori was having a headache over the true identity of the phantom, there was a sudden knock on the door.

"Who?"

"……it's me."

A weak voice came slowly from the door, and Kotori knew immediately that the person coming was Reine.

"Please come in."

As soon as she finished speaking, the door was pushed open, and Kotori saw her best friend and right-hand man, Murasame Reion, walking into the room with the same heavy dark circles under her eyes as always.

"What's the matter, Lingyin?"

"...Well, I wanted to contact you through the terminal, but I heard you were here..."

"Well, I came here because I wanted to check something. I've calculated the attendance days, so it's no problem."

He casually brushed off his skipping of classes, but if Shidou and Mengyue knew about it, they would probably give him a lecture.

This thought inadvertently came to her mind, and Kotori scratched her cheek and looked at Reine.

"Then, what's going on?"

"...Well, I found something that is of concern."

"A place of concern?"

"This one……"

In order to answer Kotori's confusion, Lingyin silently handed the terminal in her hand to Kotori.

"Isn't this everyone's spiritual wave value chart?"

Seeing the various numerical graphs displayed on the screen, Kotori couldn't help but feel a little surprised.

The spiritual wave value chart is, in a sense, equivalent to the emotional fluctuation chart. Since the spiritual power of the elves is easily affected by emotions, Fraxinus must always detect the spiritual waves and emotions of the elves so that he can deal with them in the first time when encountering emergencies.

Flipping through the pages one by one, although some people's spiritual waves occasionally fluctuate due to some unexpected circumstances, thanks to Shidou accompanying the other party on dates, it has gradually stabilized recently.

"Sister Mengyue, you are so stable."

She quickly skipped over the information about herself that she had already known, as well as the bizarre information about Tobiichi Origami whose stats in all aspects were off the charts. When Kotori came across the spiritual wave value chart of Ryougi Yumezuki, for some reason a wry smile appeared on her face.

If the values ​​of other people are like the sea surface with more or less waves, then Liangyi Mengyue is the lake surface like a mirror.

Starting from a value that is neither low nor particularly high, a straight horizontal line extends to the latest date. Although from Kotori's point of view, it can only show that Meng Yue's stability and maturity make people feel at ease. But if her brother saw it, he might suffer a great mental blow.

Even if the records of the previous world line are counted, the number of times Meng Yue's spiritual power actually reversed was only twice.

(The future is going to be tough... Onii-chan.)