Chapter 351: The Old Lady Acting Young! Do You Think You're Still Seventeen!

What exactly is... happening?

Witnessing this scene, Origami Tobiichi was full of confusion, and the sight before her eyes was hard to believe.

For a moment, she even doubted her own senses, wondering if she was experiencing an illusion, or if she had been ambushed by a "Phantom."

Or perhaps it was simply the strange effect triggered after Kurumi Tokisaki's Spirit Bullet hit herself?

Bringing some kind of indescribable side effect?

However—

The dark flood that followed did not give her time to be stunned or think.

It was a completely indiscriminate map cannon, a sky-covering AOE, attacking not only Mio Takamiya, but also Kurumi Tokisaki, Origami Tobiichi, and others.

Or rather, even if it was heading toward Mio Takamiya, the dark flood poured down from the sky over the entire area on the sea surface.

Naturally covering the entire area, submerging everything in endless darkness.

Light easily penetrated the sea surface, like a sharp sword cutting through darkness, as if to evaporate the Atlantic Ocean and cut through everything.

From ocean currents to the atmosphere, they were crisscrossed and divided by countless black light beams; from the sky to the sea, everything was being bombarded wildly. As if the entire World was trembling, everything became blurred and chaotic.

"... Ugh!"

Under heavy pressure, the Random Domain collapsed one after another, and Origami Tobiichi felt as if she had been caught in a violent earthquake or storm.

Everything around her spun and twisted wildly; she seemed to be grabbed by an invisible giant hand, unable to resist the tremendous fluctuations and violent currents from the Outside World, nor able to maintain a stable figure in midair.

The girl's entire body seemed like a tattered ragdoll, thrown high into the air by violence, torn in all directions, as if about to be trampled and crushed.

—Bang!

At this critical moment, Kurumi Tokisaki's flintlock fired another bullet from afar.

The Spirit Bullet passed through the turbulent air currents, rotating faintly into an indistinguishable spiral trajectory.

As if suddenly appearing at that spacetime coordinate, and as if locking onto that position and arriving in a flash, it precisely hit the target.

The bullet struck Origami Tobiichi, whose Random Domain had collapsed one after another under the pressure of the Outside World, and all defenses had vanished at that very moment.

"...!!"

Origami Tobiichi widened her eyes.

Once again enduring such a gunshot fired by Kurumi Tokisaki, it still did not cause her any substantive physical injury.

However, this did not mean there were no other effects—

At this moment, the girl felt something invade her mind in the form of images.

This sudden influx of information made Origami Tobiichi feel a wave of dizziness and trance; it was a power beyond common sense intervening in her World.

As if suddenly connecting to the consciousness of another self from a different timeline.

Information surged in like a raging tide, turning into understandable sounds, images, and emotional information, countless images accompanied by complex perceptions invading her consciousness field all at once.

And then she saw... a certain girl's life.

Intelligent from a young age, with excellent academic and athletic abilities, her future dream was to become a cute bride.

Her strong subject was arithmetic; her weak subject was national language.

Her favorite food was baked dishes; her least favorite was celery.

Everything was so pure and beautiful, like the first ray of sunlight on an early summer morning, warm and not dazzling.

The World was full of common sense.

No one would doubt it.

When she was young, she did not particularly realize this, but stubbornly believed that such a gentle World would last forever.

Her fate began to become "special" in that summer five years ago.

Everything around her suddenly changed.

—That day, when she returned home, what greeted her was not the familiar street scenery, but a scene of raging fire, like Hell.

On that day, the girl's life trajectory was completely rewritten.

—When she ran toward the town surrounded by flames...

—When she saw her father holding her mother's shoulders, kicking open the burning home door and escaping amidst the roaring flames...

—When she was overjoyed, tears welling in her eyes, about to rush forward and reach out to take her father's hand...

However, at this very moment.

Something like light suddenly poured down from the sky, easily evaporating the street, and the remnant wave blew away her petite figure.

Then, her parents located directly beneath that light...

Turned into tiny fragments, unimaginable that they had still retained human form just a moment before.

(Ah, ah... ah... ahhhhhhhh—)

At that moment, time seemed to stagnate, and the World collapsed before her eyes.

Terror and despair instantly devoured the young heart.

She struggled to climb up, gritted her teeth, looked up at the sky, and saw the outline of a being releasing light, like an angel.

(Cannot... forgive...! Kill you...! I... will absolutely kill you...!)

Raising a voice filled with sorrow and anger, she swore she would definitely take revenge.

It was just like looking at herself in a mirror.

Everything was so familiar, because that was the curse Origami Tobiichi had repeated countless times in her mind.

As long as she closed her eyes, she could still recall the nightmare-like scene to this day.

If the information flow surging into her brain merely forced her to experience such a nightmare again in person, then perhaps it could be accepted...

After all, the feeling of heart-wrenching grief and utter despair, she had experienced countless times.

She had already learned to accept, learned to numb herself.

But reality told her——there was no "merely". None of this was that simple.

The images in her mind began to crack, pitch-black darkness spreading like spiderweb cracks, silent splitting accompanied by the sound of flaking, scattering across the ground like glass fragments. After the bizarre storm of information, another image appeared.

It seemed to be that final scene from before, only……only the "perspective" had changed.

——Origami Tobiichi blankly discovered she was dancing in mid-air.

——Looking down at the town below from a superior angle.

Flames shot into the sky, dyeing the sky a deep red, the air filled with pungent smoke and the smell of burning. The wind carried tongues of fire howling past, blowing crumbling walls and broken tiles flying everywhere.

The most obvious thing was that on that asphalt road, destroyed beyond recognition, there was a trace of destruction larger than the surroundings.

No matter how fierce the fire, flames could not cause such a disaster.

It was simply like……"traces of light pouring down from above".

Then, at the center of that trace of destruction……

Scattered were countless pieces of flesh and bone fragments that were probably still in human form seconds ago, as if telling a cruel story.

That's right. That was undoubtedly——

Thump-thump, thump-thump.

The heart was jumping.

Her head felt as if being stirred round and round.

At this moment, Origami Tobiichi had an impulse to destroy her eyes, ears, nose──all her senses, cutting off messages from the outside world.

However, she still half-subconsciously moved her gaze.

On the outskirts of that trace of destruction, there was a small figure.

It was a young girl with shoulder-length hair held by a hair clip, looking very young.

That young, tender face was decorated into a tragic expression by black soot and a blank expression.

The tiny figure on the ground raised her head, she looked up at the sky, making eye contact with Origami Tobiichi floating above the town.

She seemed to be saying something, but it was drowned out by the sirens sounding all around and the sound of buildings collapsing, completely inaudible.

But there was no need to hear it, Origami Tobiichi knew that sentence very well.

(Cannot……forgive……! Kill you……! I──absolutely will kill you……!)

Origami Tobiichi seemed to completely understand.

She also seemed to completely not understand, her vision shaking, her throat as if blocked by viscous liquid, her fingertips trembling nonstop.

She tremblingly examined her existence at this moment.

Covering her slender body was a pure white Astral Dress emitting a faint glow.

And countless "feathers" as if wrapping the Astral Dress, dancing in mid-air.

Those who knew nothing about Spirits seeing that appearance……

……would definitely think it was an "Angel", right.

"……Is……it……me……who killed Daddy and Mommy──?"

Origami Tobiichi finally understood what she had obtained by connecting her consciousness with herself from different timelines.

It was the cause of the destiny that ran through her life.

Begun by oath, ended by curse.

…………

…………

"……Something like this, is too cruel……"

In reality.

Brilliant light tore through the dark flood, the outline of the "Phantom" appearing again.

She quietly gazed in Origami Tobiichi's direction, her tone inexplicably muttering, looking like she had some sadness and regret.

"Hah, stop pretending, aren't Spirits all your tools? Why show crocodile tears at a time like this!"

Kurumi Tokisaki's merciless mockery came, accompanied by consecutive gunshots.

Two old-fashioned flintlocks, one long and one short, forcibly emitted the fierce momentum of machine gun suppression.

The Angel of Time "Zafkiel" appeared behind the red-and-black mad figure, Roman numerals on the clock face continuously pouring power, transforming into shadows injected into those two guns.

Supported by powerful Spiritual Power, even ordinary moves became extremely deadly.

Let alone a Spirit who mastered the power of time and shadow.

Mio Takamiya could only defend, remaining silent in the face of Kurumi's mockery.

She of course could not at this time respond or explain anything regarding this issue……although her attitude of caring for Spirits had no falseness at all, she would not have any hesitation about killing them either.

It was just that, in the end, she chose to use any means necessary.

If at this time she insisted on saying she actually cared about Spirits, held respect for them or something, it would be too hypocritical……

On this point, Kurumi Tokisaki's mockery was actually not wrong.

"Hmph! Nothing to say?"

Kurumi Tokisaki had no intention of having a long heart-to-heart talk with her good friend after a long reunion, she just wanted to buy as much time as possible for Origami Tobiichi's transformation on that side.

While launching attacks, she simultaneously elegantly avoided the endless black rain falling from the sky, while sizing up the other party's situation.

That noise-like disguise was finally broken, Mio Takamiya was no longer in a state of being unable to be cognized.

Her current form was like that of a high school girl, with a head of bright pink short hair, brown pupil color, and even wearing a Comezen High School uniform skirt.

But……

Kurumi Tokisaki absolutely did not believe this was the other party's true appearance! This must be yet another layer of disguise beneath the disguise!

"Tch! An old hag acting young! You think you're still seventeen?"

(Chapter End)