The monster's roar echoed throughout the city, sending shivers down the spines of those who heard it. It was a deafening sound, one that would make anyone believe that a fearsome creature was about to unleash destruction upon the world.
But for Hikaru, it was different. She heard the voice of a little girl pleading for help, begging not to be hurt, and asking for happiness.
"That's why she was so scared back then," Hikaru muttered, turning around.
"Nee-san, you can go and save Shido. I am goi--" Hikaru's words were cut short as she realized that Tohka was nowhere to be found.
"Wait, where did she go? Did she already go to where Shido is?" Hikaru wondered before changing the subject.
"Anyway, the boy would be safe with Nee-san. Now it's time for me to shine," she declared as she approached the AST.
.....
"Captain, we can't get any closer. The blizzard will detect the magical force of our realizers and increase the angel's defense. If we did get closer, we'll be struck by millions of shards of ice. The wiring suits aren't strong enough!" one of the AST members reported"
"It's impossible to capture the spirit with physical attacks too," added another member.
Upon hearing this, Origami tried another approach.
"Origami?" one of the AST called out, looking at her.
Origami raised both of her arms, focusing all of her mana out of her body, creating a mana field that was able to crush a 5-floor building with ease, leaving just the upper part that she lifted.
"Wh-what are you doing?!" one of her team members exclaimed.
"I'll crush it with a huge mass," Origami replied as she floated while holding the shattered building, preparing to throw it at the spirit.
"...!" But Just as she was about to hurl the building, Origami was interrupted by the screams of her teammates.
"What happened? I can't see!" they cried out in confusion.
"Same here! I suddenly became blind!" another member added.
Origami was just as confused by her team's behavior. "What's wrong with them so suddenly?" she wondered aloud.
She soon found her answer as she looked further away. "Light!" Origami shouted.
Hikaru was standing behind the AST, a big smug on her face.
Origami was about to leave the building to attack her, but Hikaru's words stopped her.
"You already have your opponent though. I think you should be focusing on it," Hikaru said. the smirk expanded on her face.
upon hearing that origami turned around just to find tohka already destroyed the falling building and was charging at her with her sword.
"Princess!" Origami shouted as she blocked the attack.
"took you Enough, Nee-san. I was worried for a sec. Anyway, let's take care of my little prey now," Hikaru said as she turned around to face the AST, who seemed to have adapted to the situation.
"Keep the lineup. The spirit with the code name
"No need for that," Hikaru said.
Suddenly, the AST team was able to see each other, and Hikaru too, but everything else was still black.
"Now you are seeing me, you can attack as much as you want," Hikaru taunted as she left both of her arms waiting for their opportunity.
The AST didn't hesitate and began to shoot at her with their guns. They kept shooting and shooting but suddenly stopped.
It was clear that all their bullets were running through Hikaru without hurting her as if she was a ghost.
"You guys are idiots, trying to hurt me with guns. Try harder," Hikaru laughed.
"to The close range, team B will watch over our back," the leader said. Three members rushed at Hikaru while the rest of the team stayed behind.
They swung their swords at Hikaru, but they went right through her. However this time, they expected that. what they planned was to create a fake chance for Hikaru to attack them, and Hikaru didn't let them down and took the opportunity and attacked.
She moved her arm, ready to strike, but stopped as she dodged a sudden laser beam aimed at her.
Taking a few steps back and regaining her balance, "Oh, so you can use your heads", she commented.
"Captain, the refractive index is 1.82," one of the AST said through their device communication.
"Good job."
"What are you waiting for? Aren't you gonna attack?" Hikaru said smugly.
"I will."
The AST girl attacked, but this time, she didn't swing her lightsaber sword directly at Hikaru. Instead, she swung a little bit to the side.
Hikaru's figure suddenly moved as if it were dodging the attack, even though it was a little bit away from the strike.
"Congratulations, little girl. It seems you finally know the trick. Want me to give you praise?" Hikaru laughed.
"Stop playing around!" their leader shouted in anger.
Hikaru glanced at her for a second and sighed, "Man, you guys are pathetic. Anyway, it seems the boy already finished the work."
She raised her hand, "Let's take the opportunity and show why I was making fun of you guys."
As Hikaru finished her sentence, golden chains surrounded them, shining as if they were made of light itself.
"What?!" the whole AST team shouted as they found themselves unable to move an inch.
"You guys were full of yourselves that you didn't even notice I tagged every one of you with my light," Hikaru explained.
she began to walk slowly towards their leader until she was standing in front of her, just an inch away from her face.
Without a word, Hikaru punched her in the stomach, making her fall to her ankle. The punch was so strong that it made her throw up, and a faint trace of blood could be seen in her vomit.
"Captain!" the other AST shouted.
Hikaru moved her gaze up, seeing a mix of anger, sadness, and fear in their eyes. She left her leg above their leader's head.
"What do you think would happen if I dropped my leg on her head?" Hikaru asked with a deadly aura surrounding her.
They froze, and now the only thing that could be seen on their faces was FEAR.
Hikaru sighed and slid her leg away. "Do you see how close death is to you guys? I can kill each one of you. The only thing that stops me is my principles as a human, or that is what I believe my heart is, but you guys still want to kill me."
"Hikaru, you can stop now. We finished here. We can move away,"
Hikaru moved her glance from the defeated AST just to see shido in front of her with yochino...yochino was naked?
shido realized what Hikaru's eyes say, and moved fast to correct the misunderstanding
"Look i swear i will explain everything later, let's just move away from here first" he defend himself
".... i see. wait what about Nee-san"
...
Tohka was standing guard on one of the building's roofs, keeping an eye on Origami.
"You don't know when to give up, huh?" she said, catching her breath.
"Until I see your body lying dead on the ground, I would never," Origami responded.
As Origami was about to attack, a sudden light appeared around Tohka, and the moment after that, tohka disappeared leaving Origami standing frozen.
Upon finding herself in a safe place, Tohka sighed, making her semi-astral dress disappear.
"Nee-san? You okay?" Hikaru said as she approached her sister.
"Yeah, I wasn't really hurt anyway," Tohka responded.
She moved her gaze to Yochino, who was hugging Shido's arm.
Seeing Tohka's glance, Yochino got closer to Shido as if she wanted to hide.
"Don't worry, Yochino, this is Tohka. She helped me save you," Shido reassured her.
"Tohka-san?"
"Umu," Tohka nodded.
Their little conversation was cut short as the door went open.
"Kotori?" Shido said.
"Stupid brother!" Kotori said as she threw a strong punch at Shido's stomach.
'Good punch,' Hikaru thought as she held her laugh.
Kotori then hugged him. "That was reckless! You're supposed to listen to me!" Her eyes started to tear.
"Kotori!"
"If you listened to me, you wouldn't have gotten hurt!" Kotori finished.
"The pain is one way to make a boy a man," Hikaru said, getting everyone's attention.
"What?" Kotori responded, confused.
"I am sure you know that in the future he's going to face more than just a few wounds. I already respect his determination to save all the spirits. That is one of the reasons why I trusted my life in him, but if he can't endure that much, he isn't worthy of my trust." She stopped and moved her glance around the people that were present.
"He still has a long road to becoming a strong and worth man, and those obstacles are his way to that," she finished while closing her arms together.
Kotori just glanced at her for a sec and then moved it to Shido. "She really likes to appear as a philosopher, huh?"
Shido just responded with an awkward giggle.
"Anyway, we finished with Herm- I mean Yochino," Kotori moved her glance at Hikaru. "You remember our deal, right?" Kotori asked.
Hikaru just sighed. "Yeah yeah, we can go at the end of the week, good enough, right? I want to go to school tomorrow, after all."
"Fear enough with me. You can now take a break an-"
Kotori stopped as she saw the door open. Raine entered through it.
"Oh Reine, what brings you here?"
Hikaru froze and started to sweat.
"I have the report of the hermit or Yochino-san mission," she answered.
'Don't panic, don't make the same mistake twice, just calm down,' Hikaru thought, she started to breathe hard.
"Oh, I see. Thanks for the help," Kotori said as she grabbed the document.
'She's an ally, not an enemy. Just hold yourself together,'
Raine moved her glance at Yochino. "You're the newcomer, huh? My name is Reine Murasame. Nice to meet you," she said as she bowed slightly to greet.
Yochino returned the greet, "T-the same here."
Reine shifted her gaze to Hikaru, extending a greeting. "Last time we didn't have the opportunity to greet each other. My name is Reine Murasame. Nice to meet you."
She was about to bow but stopped as she noticed Hikaru's expression.
Shido also picked up on Hikaru's unease and approached her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Hikaru, are you alright?"
'She's shaking like crazy! What's wrong with her?' Shido thought.
Hikaru moved Shido's arm away and approached Reine. "I-I'm sorry for our first m-me-meeting as it ended up in an unwanted situation. My name is Ya... I m-m-ean Hikaru Yatogami," she bowed.
Hikaru was struggling to finish her introduction. "I see. It's a pleasure to meet you. Anyway, Kotori-san, I'm going now. I still have some documents to finish," Reine said as she excused herself.
"Oh! Yes, of course. Thank you for your hard work," Kotori responded, still trying to make sense of what had happened.
'Finally, that's over. I can rest now,' Hikaru thought as she lost her balance and fell to her knee.
"Hikaru!" Shido shouted, trying to catch her.
"I'm fine, boy," Hikaru said, she turned her glance to Kotori. "I'm going to start school alongside Nee-san tomorrow. I want to rest now. Can you teleport me to my room?" she requested.
Kotori returned the glance. "I understand. Take some rest. Don't push yourself too much."
"I know. Thanks," Hikaru replied as a blue light appeared to teleport her to her room.
Upon finding herself in her room, Hikaru flopped onto the bed.
"That was embarrassing," she said, burying her face in the pillow. She remained in the same position for a moment just to sit up again on her butt.
"Where is my dog?"
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(A\N): finally, we are at Kurumi arc, the plot gonna finally start,
anyway that is my chapter for today see ya later