This is not the date I wanted.

Mengyue slowly stretched out her hand and tried her best to grab the corner of Shidao's clothes.

However, just as Mengyue was about to touch Shidao, the ground could not withstand the violent wind pressure and broke apart. Having lost her footing, Mengyue felt her body floating uncontrollably.

"—!"

In an instant, Mengyue's pupils suddenly contracted, and she stretched out her hands and waved them desperately as if trying to grab Shidao.

Even though he struggled so desperately, the distance between him and her was still ruthlessly widened.

"Shidou!!!!"

————————I am the dividing line for shifting perspective————————————————————————————

The Beast didn't move.

It would be better to say that there is no need to move forward anymore.

The distress signal had stopped halfway through, and it was unclear whether the other party had been rescued or had perished on its own. The "reason" of the "beast", as weak as a candle in the wind, was incapable of such complex thinking.

Why move forward, after all? The Beast itself has no answer.

If I must say it - it's probably because of the sound.

— can’t leave her alone — want to save her — no matter what obstacles come my way.

Like "stop" and "don't hurt them", these contradictory words kept echoing in my mind.

Although he could not understand the meaning of the words, the remaining instinct in his body urged the "beast" to take action.

So at this moment, after making the decision of "no need to move forward", the "Beast" just fell into silence, and everything in front of it became dark.

(Finished? Finished? Finished, finished. Then──)

Looking at the bottomless darkness around him, the "beast" couldn't help but fall into confusion.

(Where do I go next?)

The "beast" felt that this was not the place for him to stay. In his memory, the place he should go should be brighter and warmer.

——Come to think of it, after hearing about your contract to become a family, I haven’t responded yet.

(who?)

It seemed very close, yet also seemed to come from very far away. In the pitch-black darkness, the "beast" heard such a sound.

——Maybe one day, we will go our separate ways. Maybe, the "forever" you expect will not come true. But I am willing to swear that no matter what happens, you will always be my most important family member.

As the words fell, the "beast" felt a soft touch on his lips.

The heat in my body calmed down. Then, fragments of memories flooded into my mind like a tide, and the world in front of me became clear.

"Dream... Moon...?"

Looking at the brown-haired girl who was very familiar in front of him, "Beast" - no, Gokawa Shidao, began to speak involuntarily.

"Finally you're back, Shidou."

Seeing Shidao's reaction, Mengyue couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief and a relieved smile appeared on her face.

“What on earth just happened…Ah ... Mengyue, why are you so injured?”

Shidou obviously didn't understand the current situation, but when he found that Mengyue in his arms was covered with wounds, he immediately put such doubts behind him. He quickly urged his spiritual power to summon Kotori's healing flame and Miku's Pojun Song Girl to heal Mengyue's injuries.

"Hoo... Hey~ Shidou~"

She waited silently for Shidou to treat her injuries. After her wounds healed, Mengyue took a deep breath and a very "kind" smile appeared on her face.

However, in Shidou's opinion, this smile exudes a sense of danger.

"What, what happened Mengyue?"

Shidou asked nervously, sweat breaking out on his forehead.

"I am quite tolerant of my family. But as expected, if they make a mistake, they need to be taught a lesson."

“Um, that—”

Shidao instinctively felt something was wrong and wanted to back away. However, before he could do that, Meng Yue's hands had already tightly strangled his neck.

"Wait, wait - Meng Yue - breathe -"

Shidou's face instantly turned ashen.

"Your spiritual power suddenly went out of control... You ran to the street and made a scene... You shamelessly asked everyone to go on a date with you and kiss you... In the end, you lost your mind and destroyed everything... Not only did you make everyone worry... You also caused them to get hurt because of you..."

It would have been better if she didn't say it. The more Meng Yue thought about it, the angrier she got.

"I'm sorry - I'm sorry - so I put my hand -"

"Go to that world and reflect on your actions! Heavenly punishment!!!"

——Crack.

Following a crisp sound, Shidao's consciousness fell into darkness again.

"…………Come out. I've put Shidou to sleep."

Holding the unconscious Shidou in her arms, Mengyue turned around, raised her head and stared at the empty night sky.

【………】

As soon as the words fell, a small piece of the picture in front of my eyes suddenly pixelated, forming an unrecognizable mosaic.

Elf-Phantom.

[Sure enough, I can’t hide it from you? 】

The other party made a sound that was difficult to distinguish between male and female, and seemed not surprised at all that Meng Yue had discovered about him.

"Humph, you did something so obvious. It would be hard not to be noticed."

Meng Yue snorted and replied.

In fact, just now, Meng Yue failed. Although she tried her best, she still missed the best opportunity and was blown away by the strong wind.

But just when Meng Yue felt that everything was hopeless, a spiritual power of unknown origin suddenly descended from the sky and suppressed the runaway Shidao. At the same time, she returned to Shidao as if someone pushed her from behind.

If not, it would be impossible for Mengyue alone to save Shidao.

As for who could do such a thing, Meng Yue could guess it without even thinking.

"Let me be clear, I'm not going to thank you."

Without relaxing her guard at all, Meng Yue glared at the "Phantom" and spoke bluntly.

There is also Origami in Mikukoto's story, and it is very likely that she is the culprit who turned everyone into elves. Mengyue is not so naive as to think that the other party came to help her out of kindness.

[It doesn't matter. I didn't need to accept your thanks. After all, the original plan was to appear when the satellite launched the attack. I just didn't expect that you would resolve the danger with your own strength. ]

Phantom replied nonchalantly.

[Then, it was a sudden impulse. That person will definitely be saved, but I suddenly became curious about how far you and my child can go.]

"..."

[It seems that I have talked a little too much. ]

Seeing Meng Yue's silence, "Phantom" realized that he had been a little too talkative. His figure gradually disappeared into the darkness.

【See you next time, Liangyi Mengyue. 】

"what--"

After a long time, Meng Yue closed her eyes and let out a helpless sigh.

"Forget it, I'll think about the troublesome things later. Shidou, let's go home."

"..."

"Are you asleep? You are such a willful fellow."

You were the one who knocked him out. If Phantom was still here, he would definitely complain like this.

Carrying Shidao on his back, Mengyue walked in a messy forest. Looking at the dimly lit Tiangong City in the distance, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

"Welcome back, idiot."

27 The back of the incident

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

The fire lit up the dark forest.

This is another forest area outside of Tiangong City, a quiet forest far away from the city. It is located just across the bustling city, directly opposite the forest where Shidao is.

It was originally a sparsely populated forest, and a fire caused by lightning in the forest on the other side of the city attracted the attention of citizens, so no one noticed the changes here.

The source of the fire here was not dead wood ignited by lightning, nor was it a fire left by campers. Instead, it was fuel leaked from a crashed giant transport plane.

"Oh oh oh~"

With a small sigh, Tokisaki Kurumi slowly walked out from the dark shadow illuminated by the firelight.

"I had planned to set up an ambush in front of the DEM facility, but I didn't expect to crash into a place like this."

Observing the transport plane that had turned into scrap metal thoughtfully, Kuang San thought for a moment and then picked up a piece of wreckage from the ground.

"Zafkiel (Emperor of Keke) - Yud (Bomb of Ten)."

The shadow filled the gun barrel and turned into a "bullet". After Kuang San placed the fragment between herself and the muzzle, she pulled the trigger without hesitation. Suddenly, the concentrated black shadow penetrated the fragment and hit Kuang San's head.

Neither the fragment nor Kuang San's head was hurt. However, the scene that the fragment experienced turned into memory and appeared in Kuang San's mind.

"I see, that's what happened."

Kuang San couldn't help but smile.

In his memory, the calm "Material A" in the transport plane that was running smoothly was shaking like a fetus moving. Then, it was hit by a giant beam of light emitted from a facility on the ground, and then fell here.

"So it was Mr. Shidou's work. It's really related to something I didn't expect." 　

After hearing about Shidou's situation from the clone, Kurumi, who had sorted out the consequences, couldn't help but sigh.

"After the second spirit sensed Mr. Shidou's spiritual waves in the transport plane, it asked him for help... Unfortunately, Mr. Shidou was in an unstable stage of spiritual energy congestion, and he couldn't suppress the spiritual energy in his body and went berserk. If this is the case, it really caused a lot of trouble for Miss Mengyue and the others."

But obviously, it was meaningless to blame the other party for all this. She was locked in the container and obviously didn't know the situation of Shidou and the others. The other party's plan was just to escape, and there was no reason for anyone to blame her.

"But anyway - I didn't expect that Shidou-san would help me in the end."

Although Kuang San had already ambushed a large number of clones at the possible landing site of this transport plane, even without this accident, Kuang San could have snatched the second spirit. However, considering that she was able to achieve her goal without a lot of sacrifices, Kuang San should be considered to owe Shidao a favor.

"Okay, Miss Elf. Let me see what you look like?" 　

With some expectation, Kuang San arrived at the back of the transport plane. However, to her disappointment, the container was already empty.

"Nightmare!"

Accidentally hearing a voice that seemed to be calling her, Kurumi couldn't help but turn her head and see Shidao's sister, Takamiya Mana, flying towards her with a murderous look. 　

"Ha... Although it's not entirely satisfactory. But there's nothing we can do about it. Let's just retreat this time."

Although he wanted to conduct a thorough search of the area, the magician in front of him would obviously not let him wander around. Wasting extra time with him was obviously not a wise choice.

Helplessly, Kuang San could only sigh in disappointment and honestly choose to retreat. 　

"Don't run!"

Landing at the spot where the transport plane crashed, Mana scanned the surroundings with sharp eyes. Tokisaki Kurumi had already disappeared into the shadows, and it was obviously impossible to find her in this dark forest.

"Damn it, he ran away."

Mana couldn't help but scratch her hair in annoyance.

Not long ago, she was still fighting with Alan Mathers, but in the middle of the fight, the other party seemed to have received an order from his superiors and retreated.

After completing the task of buying time, Mana originally planned to rush to Kotori and the others to help her elder brother. However, when she arrived, the problem there had been solved. Mana now accepted the commission from Sister Mengyue and went to this area to investigate if there was anything unusual.

But to be honest, the reason why Mana was so murderous when she saw Kurumi was not so much because of the accumulated grudges in the past, but rather because she wanted to vent the depression in her heart.

Until now, the name spoken by Shidou still stirs up waves in my mind.

"…That Mio. Who is she…"

While investigating the wreckage of the transport plane, Mana muttered softly. 　

———————————————————————————I am the dividing line for transferring scenes——————————————