This is not the date I wanted.

"W-What do you mean I didn't refuse?! It was you who took the initiative—"

"—!"

"Oh... Looks like we should put this topic aside for now."

Increasing her strength, she suppressed the "Nibelcol" who was trying to break free. Origami's flushed face instantly regained its composure, and her fingertips pointed at "Nibelcol", and a white light began to flash.

"—?!"

"Sorry, this is my special seat."

After leaving these words in a cold voice, the bushes outside the men's locker room returned to calm.

——————————————I am the dividing line after school————————————————————

"Ha—I'm so tired."

After finally getting through school, Shidao couldn't help but let out a long sigh of exhaustion as he walked home.

In the afternoon, Origami stuck to him closely in the name of "guarding" as usual. He didn't know why, but the gazes and comments of his classmates were more terrifying than usual. He felt so uncomfortable that he was in agony.

"Shidou, am I causing you any trouble?"

Seeing Shidou looking so tired, Origami seemed to feel that what she had done was a little bit wrong, and asked worriedly.

"No, no, that's not the case."

Seeing Origami's self-blaming expression, Shidou smiled bitterly and shook his head.

No matter what, Origami's original intention was to protect himself from being harmed by DEM. Although a lot of trouble occurred because of this, he naturally had no reason to complain about Origami who protected him so seriously.

"I know, Origami, that you did all this to protect me. I can't thank you enough."

"I see... You're welcome. I'm glad I could help Sergeant-in-Chief, too."

Origami couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief after hearing Shidou's answer. She felt relieved yet a little ashamed.

"In that case, how about I continue to be Shidao's 'bodyguard' from now on?"

"Um...well..."

Hearing the proposal, Shidou couldn't help but sweat on his forehead. Being guarded by Origami 24 hours a day - this kind of life is fine for one day, but if it continues, he will not be able to bear it either physically or mentally.

"Right, right. Speaking of which, it seems like the ingredients at home are running out. I have to go to the shopping district to replenish them."

Feeling Origami's burning gaze, Shidou decisively chose to change the subject.

Hearing Shidou's words, Origami frowned subconsciously.

"Shidao, this is an emergency. We don't know when DEM will attack. It's safer to go back directly this time."

"Well, it's just a short detour. It won't take much time. And nothing happened today, right?"

"This one……"

Origami was speechless for a moment.

"We're just going to buy some meat, and I'm not saying we're going alone. If you, Origami, find any danger, we'll retreat and run away immediately, is that okay?"

"...I understand. Then let's take a detour to the shopping district."

Origami thought for a moment, then finally nodded and agreed to his request.

After arriving at the shopping street, Shidao first went to the butcher's shop and spent money to buy a super large portion of tenderloin.

Shidou knew. Because he was targeted by DEM and Kurumi, everyone had been in a state of mental tension these days, and Mana and Yamai also suffered a lot of injuries in the battle with Allen and the others.

Moreover, I'm afraid that Shidao himself doesn't know that in places he can't see, everyone is working hard to protect their own safety.

If you want to be motivated, you should eat meat - this is what his father, Gokawa Ryuo, told him when he was a child. Tomorrow is the final showdown with Kurumi, although it is insignificant, he still wants to take this opportunity to reward everyone and reward himself.

“And then the vegetables…”

"Meow~"

Just as Shidou was about to move, a sound at his feet caught his attention. He looked down and saw a calico kitten with a red collar at his feet.

"Cat?! Shidou, get out of here!"

"Wait! Calm down, don't get so excited Origami."

Seeing Origami about to pull out her gun, Shidou quickly stopped her.

"No matter what, DEM can't possibly send a cat to assassinate me. And judging from the collar on it, it obviously has an owner."

"It's hard to say. Maybe that was a bomb."

Origami did not let down her guard. She first scanned the cat with an instrument to confirm that the collar was not engraved with the "blasting formula". Then she grabbed the cat and stroked its body to confirm whether there was a bomb in its stomach.

"Hmm... I didn't find anything like that. Just a regular house cat."

Origami made this judgment.

"Meow~"

Fortunately, this cat is not very afraid of people. It seems to regard the origami action as a caress and acts coquettishly in a very comfortable manner.

"Look, I told you it's fine. But it's actually a domesticated one. Where's its owner?"

Seeing Origami holding the cat, Shidou couldn't help but chuckle, then looked around with some confusion.

"Mary!"

At this moment, a little girl suddenly screamed and trotted towards Shidou.

"Meow~"

Hearing the girl's voice, the cat ran out of Origami's arms and ran to the little girl.

"Really? Where have you been? I was so worried."

"It looks like the owner has arrived."

Heaving a sigh of relief, Shidou bent down and spoke to the little girl.

"Little sister, be careful next time and don't lose your pet."

"Well, thank you, big brother——"

Hearing Shidao's words, the little girl nodded excitedly and thanked Shidao. However, after seeing Shidao's face, she was stunned at first, then pointed at him and exclaimed.

"Ah - that philandering older brother! He's hooked up with a new woman again!"

"Eh? Eh?!"

Shidao couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise, and then after a closer look, he noticed that this little girl was the same little girl he had helped find a cat with during last summer vacation and in September.

However, the people who accompanied him on those two occasions were Tohka and Yumezuki.

"No! This is a misunderstanding! Little sister, please listen to my explanation——"

"Ah - I won't listen! A playboy who's cheating on three women! A scumbag! You'll be eaten if you get close to him! Mary, let's run!"

"Meow!"

"and many more!"

Looking at the little girl and cat running away from him, Shidou's hand just stood in the air.

"Shidou, someone you know?"

Origami asked curiously.

"No... I just saw him a few times on the road."

Shidou replied weakly. To be honest, scaring the kid away was unexpectedly a big blow to him.

"Forget it, let's go home quickly after buying vegetables."

However, at this moment——

——Boom! ——Boom! ——Boom! ——Boom! ——Boom——!

A series of violent explosions were heard from a distance.

"Wow? What happened?"

Feeling the slight vibration coming from the ground, Shidou asked in surprise.

"The explosion... but it's far from here."

Origami replied solemnly.

"Explosion?" After hearing Origami's words, Shidao seemed to have thought of something, and his face suddenly changed, "Could it be that something happened to Tohka and the others?"

"No! Judging from the explosion, it didn't come from the direction of Shidou's house."

Origami shook her head and looked at the black smoke rising in the distance, her eyes full of confusion.

There is no doubt that this explosion must be related to DEM, but this time they neither attacked Shidao nor the elves. Origami couldn't figure out what DEM's purpose was.

"...Anyway, let's retreat and reunite with everyone."

Origami suggested.

"Yeah, that's true."

Shidou nodded, and prepared to leave the shopping street with Origami.

[Warning! Warning! A space earthquake has been detected. Residents are being notified. Please evacuate to the nearest shelter immediately.]

Suddenly, in Shidou's ears, the usual space quake alarm began to sound from the radio in the shopping district.

However, this alert is slightly different from previous ones.

[Emergency warning! Since many shelters in Tiangong City were paralyzed and cannot be used due to unknown explosions, we are looking for available shelters. Citizens, please follow the navigation on your mobile phone to go to the shelter for refuge. Repeat once more——]

(The place where the explosion just happened is an air-raid shelter?)

After hearing the content of the broadcast, Shidao suddenly felt a bad premonition.

Soon after the broadcast ended, Shidou saw citizens of Tenguu City preparing to evacuate everywhere on the road.

It was more chaotic than any previous evacuation, with a rush and crowded flow of people.

Shidao's instinct told him that at this moment, the population of Tiangong City, more than one hundred thousand, were gathering here.

"Origami, this is an enemy—"

"Shidou?!"

Soon, Shidou and Origami were separated by the unstoppable flow of people and disappeared from each other's sight.

23 DEM's Attack

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

“Puh-ha! Finally it came out!”

After breaking away from the crowded and fierce crowd, Shidao couldn't help but support his knees with his hands, panting and speaking with sweat all over his forehead.

Hundreds of thousands of people were crowded in these small streets in chaos and disorder. The feeling was hundreds of times more terrifying than that of housewives shopping in the discount section of a supermarket. The body was uncontrollably manipulated by the thrusts from all directions, and the bones and muscles were squeezed as if they would be crushed in the next second. If one accidentally fell, he would probably be trampled into a meat paste by the rolling crowd.

If he hadn't used the angel to protect himself in time, he might have died.

After his breathing became slightly calmer, Shidao wiped the sweat from his forehead. However, he saw that the sticky sweat was mixed with red liquid.

Shidou's pupils suddenly contracted.

This was not his blood. Looking back at the main street, Shidao noticed that under the feet of the citizens who were fleeing in panic, blood with a fishy smell was flowing on the ground and gradually flowing into the drain.

"vomit--"

A nauseous feeling rose from his stomach, Shidao's face suddenly turned pale, and he subconsciously covered his mouth and nose.

(Calm down…Calm down…You have to calm down…Itsuka Shidao…Meng Yue said…The more you wait for a moment, the more you must not lose your composure.)

Pain, fear, doubt, anxiety, anger... Shidou suppressed all kinds of negative emotions. He took a deep breath to keep his mind clear.

(First, I want to clarify the current situation.)

Not long ago, when Origami and I were buying food in the shopping street, there were suddenly several explosions and earthquakes. Then, the space earthquake alarm sounded, and there was information that the underground air-raid shelters had been massively damaged.

Is this also why citizens who have received professional evacuation training are rushing to the remaining shelters in such a panic?

(But are there really any new elves?)