Nighttime. Under the dim light of the streetlamps, dragging legs that felt like they were filled with lead and even heavier thoughts, Shido finally returned to his familiar home.
Pushing open the door, the bright light in the living room and the faint lingering scent of dinner in the air formed a stark contrast with the world outside, which had just undergone a battle approaching apocalyptic proportions.
"I'm home..." His voice carried undisguised exhaustion.
"Welcome back, Shido!"
Kotori, who had been waiting at home, jumped up from the sofa, a precious jewel dangling from her mouth.
She was still wearing her Raizen High School uniform, but the black ribbon symbolizing the commander mode was now on her head, and her expression was unprecedentedly serious.
She quickly walked up to Shido, scrutinized him, and only slightly relaxed after confirming he had no obvious external injuries, though her brow remained tightly furrowed.
"Hurry up, we're going to the Fraxinus!"
Kotori lowered her voice and, without question, pulled Shido upstairs.
"The details must be analyzed immediately!"
Shido was almost dragged in a daze by Kotori, ascending onto the Fraxinus, hidden high in the sky, via the transfer device.
Even the familiar bridge environment offered him no sense of security now; his mind constantly replayed the blood, the maniacal laughter outside the factory, and the world-destroying lightning and spatial tearing.
In the relatively quiet lounge, Murasame Reine silently handed him a cup of warm black tea and a simple bento box, but he had no appetite.
Kotori folded her arms, her expression stern as never before, the precious jewel in her mouth clicking loudly as she bit it.
"Alright, you can talk now." Kotori sat down across from Shido, arms crossed, her eyes sharp.
"Tell me everything that happened today, from beginning to end, in painstaking detail! Don't miss a single detail!"
Shido took a deep breath, sat on the chair, and began recounting, starting from the moment he met Chinatsu and Origami at the entrance of the Amusement Park.
He spoke of Origami's intervention, the awkward atmosphere among the three of them at the Amusement Park, lunch at the old shop, the Spacequake alert, being taken into the City of Devouring Time by Nightmare, and... everything that happened inside the abandoned factory that overturned his Understanding.
He recounted in more detail the secret history (or unofficial history) told by "Welt Yang" concerning the Eurasian Great Disaster thirty years ago, the birth of the two Spirits, the DEM Company massacre, and Welt Joyce's sacrifice and inheritance.
He described Chinatsu's broken yet determined gaze during her "awakening," her sadness and resolve when she admitted to being a Spirit, and the shocking declaration of "I like you" followed immediately by her farewell.
Then came the battle outside the factory.
He recounted how Chinatsu faced the massive DEM army alone, how she progressed from "struggling hard" initially to "maniacal laughter" later, and how she constructed weapons using the Jurisprudence Authority to fight.
He described the arrival of Ellen Mathers, the brief but brutal close-quarters combat, the terrible sight of Chinatsu being nearly cut in half, and the horrifying scene of her stitching her body together with metal spikes and forcing herself back up.
Finally, there was the most shocking transformation.
"...Then, she collapsed. I... I rushed out after her, and I saw..." Shido's voice began to tremble uncontrollably again, the hellish scene seemingly reappearing before his eyes.
"She... Chinatsu-san... suddenly erupted with a completely different, much more terrifying power and spirit dress! She said... 'Humans, your very existence is a mistake'... She summoned countless monsters, used spatial gates... to swallow all of the DEM Company's artillery fire, and then threw it all back... She... she almost single-handedly destroyed the entire DEM unit."
He couldn't continue speaking, his hands gripping his knees tightly, knuckles white.
The cold figure, turning its back to the sunlight and swinging the blade of destruction, fiercely clashed with the image of the girl who had tearfully bid him farewell, nearly tearing him apart inside.
Kotori listened in silence the entire time, only the occasional sound of her forcefully crunching the candy indicating her inner turmoil. When Shido finished speaking, she closed her eyes and rubbed her temples.
"Just as I thought..." Kotori's voice was low. "It roughly matches the situation we pieced together from remote observation and the scattered data Origami sent back from the AST, but the details are much more... harrowing."
She looked at Shido, her expression complicated.
"First, concerning the history recounted by 'Welt Yang'."
Kotori said gravely. Reine, standing nearby, silently nodded, indicating agreement with this direction of analysis.
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