Chapter 2 - The Spirit from Space
Monday, January 9th.
Up until yesterday, Raizen High School was a peaceful edifice, only for the large aggregate of students to report to school successively the next day. As they passed through the gate with misted breaths, each of them advanced towards their respective classrooms and exchanged pleasantries with their fellow classmates. Although their dialogues were essentially different, most of them comprised of “Happy New Year”, “Long time no see”, and so on.
The winter holiday had concluded and today was the school opening ceremony.
From today onwards, Raizen High School would welcome its third semester. 1
“Un…”
Shidou, who arrived together with Tohka, shrugged his shoulders to adjust his school uniform. The garment felt a bit antiquated although it had only been a couple of weeks since he last wore it.
But there was nothing he could do about it. With the beginning of every year, a substantial checklist of activities refreshed its contents, let alone the various events which occurred during the winter vacation.
A certain boy’s voice called out from his right, as Shidou stretched while contemplating these quandaries,
“Hey long time no see, Itsuka.”
In the direction of said voice, Shidou discerned a boy that had spiky hair styled through using pomade - his classmate Tonomachi Hiroto. For some reason, Shidou felt he hadn't seen him in ages. Shidou emotionally sighed and proffered his hand.
“Ah, Tonomachi. Happy New Year.”
“You too, say, what have you been doing?”
“Hm?”
The question caught Shidou off guard. Tonomachi thereupon pointed his finger behind him, to which Shidou inspected three girls quietly whispering something while looking over at him every then now.
They were a girl with a disheveled uniform, a girl emphasizing an expressionless expression, and a petite girl wearing spectacles. The trio’s names from right to left are Ai, Mai, and Mii. They were a pretty famous group from class 2-D.
It wasn't difficult to see that they were gossiping about Shidou barefaced. Indeed, it was obviously regarding a negative issue.
“Ah—……”
Shidou was at a loss for what to do. He just didn't get them.
According to what others told him, when the spiritual path had destabilized last month, Shidou had unconsciously uttered a pile of superfluous mushy words to the three. Of course, Shidou hadn't the slightest reminiscence of that time. But whether he remembered or not, none of that mattered to them.
“Uh… I don't know.”
Regardless of how, it was unnecessary to propagate these allegations of himself. Shidou blurted out a perfunctory sentence, attempting to forget about that.
“Hmhm~ well no matter. Anyway, I just saw Tama-chan at the teacher's office—”
Halfway through Tonomachi’s sentence, the bell signaling the start of classes rang.
“I’ll be going then.”
With that said, Tonomachi also returned to his own seat.
“Hey where’s Tama-sensei?”
“Um well she should be here soon —there she is.”
“.....”
Shidou waved his hand as he watched Tonomachi sit down, his mind full of unfavorable premonitions. Although he also had no memory of the incident whatsoever, Shidou did animatedly propose to Tama-chan when his spiritual path fluctuated.
Basically, the follow-up with everything interrelated to that incident should have been handled by Ratatoskr analyst Murasame Reine, who is also Shidou’s assistant class teacher. As he sank into unpleasant thoughts, the door of the classroom suddenly opened, revealing his homeroom teacher, Okamine Tamae, also known as Tama-chan by the students. And around her delicate body, an unparalleled gloomy was overcast.
“Uoohh…”
Shidou pondered while seeing her condition, as well as his classmates. The students all began to enquire confusedly.
“Muuu... Shidou, what's going on with Tama-chan-sensei? She looks so sad today,” asked Tohka beside him.
“Aah, uhh... I have no idea,” mumbled Shidou.
As if she was deaf, Tama-chan sluggishly trod into the room and stepped onto the platform, attendance book in hand.
“....Everyone, happy New Year. How was your vacation? Christmas plus New Year's Eve plus New Year's Day….—must've been quite happy.”
Although she didn't say anything weird, she didn't prohibit the whole class to gasp. Tama-chan smiled hypocritically, devoid of any emotion.
“How old is everyone this year? Since everyone was promoted from your second to third years in high school, you should be around 18 years old. Those of you born later should be 17. My birthday will be in March, guess how old sensei will be…”
Raizen High School’s most famous teacher, Tama-chan, was 29 years old. Everyone knew that for a fact, but no one dared to say that. Looking around, she let out a weary smile as if she attained enlightenment.
“I… will finally graduate from my late twenties to my thirties… huhuhu... great right?”
Perhaps it was due to miserable pity that everyone remained silent. Ai softly called Tama-chan’s name. Fluorescent light reflected off her glasses, dazzling Ai with its radiance.
“Shut up. From now on, anyone who wants to speak with me must add Sir before and after sentences!”
“S-sa…. yes Sir!” Ai was overwhelmed by Tama-chan’s momentum and respectfully followed her order.
“Sir, Tama-chan what happened, Sir?!”
As Ai repeated, Tama-chan answered back in a ruthlessly ridiculing manner.
“Nothing, nothing happened. Everything's fine, except for some news worthy of celebration. My friend from primary school, Airi-chan, will be getting married next month. Huhuhu, really good news. Because Airi-chan’s so great, her husband must be great too. We were together for every birthday and Christmas each year, and even exchanged chocolates every Valentine’s day. When we drank till we were drunk, she used to carry me and say, ‘Ugaahh~ if I’m still single when I reach thirty, marry me Tama-chan!’ and so on. It seems like her future spouse is a doctor younger than her by a couple of years. During last year's ‘Men are all bastards’ reunion for us girls, Airi-chan sprained her leg while drunk and fell in love at first sight with the doctor that treated her, their relationship developed fiercely. Although I was at the scene that time, I got drunk and fell asleep at the clinic, becoming a third wheel. Who would've thought that in that short amount of time, my best friend for all those years fell into the river of love right in the next room? Life is so unpredictable, how I wish everything was a dream. In reality, I was also thinking that if even Airi-chan, who’s such a wonderful girl, didn't get any attention, men sure are blind. Airi-chan is really a remarkable woman. Beautiful, elegant, she was practically a model. Because she was still single, I felt that it was still unimportant. But Airi-chan was captivated by a man behind my back. Actually I started noticing that she came to our reunion less frequently last year. Airi-chan’s so evil. How could she betray me like this by getting married? All those lies ‘it's so embarrassing’ and such...they were a ploy to arouse men's lasciviousness. I need to carefully learn this skill too.”
Tama-chan rattled on monotonously while leaning her upper body on the lectern.
“Hu…huhu...and another one of my classmates gets married.. Vile! Evil! Spouses are all outstanding fellows…”
Tama-chan began to cachinnate *he.he.he* derisively as if she was possessed by some entity.
“Everyone… everyone abandoned me… tell me... How many more wedding celebrations do I need to attend…?”
“S-Sir, that uhh.., Sir!”
“Wait for me everyone… I’ll join you soon... ha...haha... I’m so incapable... Why has god forsaken me so…?”
As if something had finally cracked inside her, Tama-chan glared at the dumbstruck students.
After a considerable period of quietness, she flipped open the left out attendance book.
“...Alright, begin roll call.”
Tama-chan approached Ai, Mai, and Mii indifferently, to which the trio shook their heads imposingly.
“N-n-n-no!”
“Sir, you look problematic, Sir!”
“Sir, get some rest, Sir!”
“What? I’m perfectly fine”
Tama-chan smiled with perfect relief.
“But if a demon appeared before me right now and offered me a wish in exchange for my life, I’d probably wish for a meteor to befall Japan next month.”
“That's why such a thing is…!”
“Isn't that how a primary school pupil would think before school starts?!”
“Huhuhu... didn't I say that was a joke? Hee… hee... meteorite… unleash yourself..”
Chalk in hand, Tama-chan pretended to be a magic girl waving her magic stick and hurled the piece of calcium carbonate out the window with a *haa!* as if she casted a magic spell.
—And then, in that instant.
An enormous deflagration in the sports ground reverberated throughout the now vulnerable classroom, the shockwave shattering the glass windows and fluttering the curtains. The students inside screamed in unison and hid under the tables.
“Uaaahh!”
“Hyaaaaa!”
“W-what’s... going on?!”
With one hand covering his resonating ear, Shidou carefully brushed off the shards of glass on his uniform and stood on a chair to peer outside.
“—Shidou, look at that,”
Origami, who affirmed the situation first, pointed to outside. Shidou walked over to the window, creaking over the fragments. Trembling with trepidation, he gingerly gazed down.
Shidou observed the now annihilated school sports ground, along with the nearby roads and expanses, as if the whole area had been decimated by a spacequake. However, there was no warning siren so he searched intensively—.
“....Eh?”
At the epicenter of the destruction, Shidou could indistinctly identify a black lump of matter. From his location, he couldn't distinguish anything clearly but it appeared to be some sort of ultimate demolisher or huge rock. In other words, it could be deduced that the gigantic crater and previous shockwave emerged from ‘That Thing’ colliding with the surface. Since the impulse of force was so great, it must've dropped down from somewhere high.
The other students should have figured out something similar. Tonomachi idly gazed at the sky, and said, “M-meteor..?”
“Haauu..”
Tama-chan’s complexion returned to its ghastly pale state.
“Uwaaahh~ Tama-chan summoned a real meteor!!!”
“She unwarily contracted a demon?!”
“Tama-chan! Don't die on us!!!” Everyone ran towards her despite her supercilious look.
Meanwhile, Shidou’s phone rang in his pocket, an incoming call from ‘Itsuka Kotori’.
Although it was against the rules to talk on the phone during class, the current matters warranted an exemption. Shidou headed towards a quieter corner and pressed the converse key.
“Shidou! Are you okay?!”
Kotori shouted loudly at the other end.
“A-ah listen to me Kotori, Tama-chan signed a contract with the devil and summoned a…”
“Haa? Have you gone crazy? Anyway take Tohka and the others to the commander office here! Fast!”
“T-that means…”
Shidou was stupefied.
“Yeah, a new Spirit has appeared.”
♢♢♢
After travelling in the bus for about 10 minutes, Shidou, together with Tohka, Origami,
Reine and the Yamai sisters from the next class, arrived at Ratatoskr’s underground facility. Ratatoskr had originally employed its floating airship Fraxinus as its headquarters; however, it had suffered critical damage in the previous warship battle
and was in repair. Therefore, Shidou and the others had occupied the nearby underground facility as their impromptu base.
At the security check, Shidou and Tohka parted from each other as they were approaching the command room. Despite the fact that they were specifically instructed to wait in another room caused Tohka to feel dissatisfied, Shidou had to discuss strategies once a new Spirit appeared. It was best not to let the other Spirits see the scenario.
As Shidou stepped inside the command room, he felt a complicated sense of nervousness directly on his face. The crew of Fraxinus all assembled in front of their respective automation console monitors within the room, urgently carrying out their tasks.
“You're here,”
Kotori retorted while sitting on the captain's seat in the center of the command room.
Seeing Shidou beside her, Kotori switched her ribbons, undeniably to black. She wore her military uniform with crimson stripes on her shoulders.
“Sorry to have kept you waiting.”
Reine, who came here together with Shidou, took off her white overcoat and sat on an empty seat.
“No, you've done well.”
“Alright, the situation is like this.”
“Ah...how did that come about? You said that meteorite was generated by a Spirit, but the spacequake warning didn't ring. Is it an unhostile apparition? But immediately attacking the school… could it be targeting Tohka and the others?”
“—U-un...”
Towards Shidou’s question, Kotori adopted a perturbed expression and held her chin.
“What in the world is going on? To be honest, even I haven't the slightest idea.”
“Wh-what does that mean?”
“Hmm… Show the current site on the monitor.”
The crew began to operate their consoles.
Then, on the large screen in front, the world map was projected. Red dots were scattered over every continent, island and ocean.
“This is….?”
“Aye, an unknown object appeared in your school’s campus, right? These identical phenomena occurred in every marked location on the map simultaneously.”
“Wha..?”
Shidou couldn't help but wrinkle his eyebrows and stare fixedly at the cartogram.
“All these places… at the same time?”
For a moment it was hard to believe, that artilleries dropped onto 42 locations in the whole world altogether, including a multitude of Anti-Spirit Team bases and various
DEM industries’ branches in many countries. Therefore, the possibility that it was a sniper operation done in response to sensing feeble spirit waves and magical power could not be eliminated.
“W-wait a moment. Even South America was raided! But isn’t that on the other side of the world?! Were those locations attacked by duplicate Spirits like the Yamai sisters?”
“N-no, that doesn't seem to be the case. The Spirit is without a doubt a single entity. Also to be precise, that projectile isn't truly a meteorite,” replied Kotori with a light shake of her head. Shidou perplexed.
Kotori presumably knew that her words weren't completely clear. Flicking the now double lollipops in her mouth, she issued orders to the crew.
“Seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times. Play the video.”
“Roger!” exclaimed one of the crew’s members, <Boss> Mikimoto, while operating his console.
The screen which previously graphed the world map now began to play a video.
“——” Watching the scene which transcended reality and fantasy, Shidou ceased breathing for a split second.
On the frame was a lusterless, black, and abstruse darkness. And within that unilluminating presences, flickered countless tiny specks. Shidou first believed it to be the night sky, but quickly dismissed that notion as he noticed something was amiss.
There was a gradually rotating sphere at the bottom of the frame. A vortex of white and blue as far as the eye can see. Indeed, that was the planet where Shidou and the others resided, Earth.
“The universe….”
That was the literal metaphor of the consummate separation of the heavens and the earth. And at the very center, a young girl floated unconstrainedly.
Above all, her beautiful long hair continuously radiated magnificent phosphorescence in spite of the black hole-like darkness that shadowed everything else. The unparalleled gorgeous golden hair would make anyone recognize her as the fairytale girl Rapunzel, drifting leisurely in that deep dark realm. Her Astral dress was embellished with patterns of various constellations and in her hand held a rather lengthy staff.
“This girl is….?”
“Yeah—we just recently confirmed this Spirit. We haven't decided on a fixed codename for her yet. For convenience, we’ll call her <Zodiac> temporarily.
“First time?”
“Yup, of course excluding any unobserved possibilities, at least in Ratatoskr’s database. Her angel, Astral Dress, abilities, temperament and et cetera are still unknown.”
“So that's how it is. Is her method of attacking the Earth identified yet?”
As Shidou questioned, Kotori replied back with a heavy sigh.
“To tell the truth, there's a reason why we were able to detect this Spirit.”
“A reason?”
“Aye. Broadcast the video taken three hours ago.”
“Roger.”
And so, the big screen started to display a different tape.
Although the background was still in outer space, this time <Zodiac> seemed to be dormant, her whole body curled up and calmly floating in the cosmos.
“This is….”
Shidou’s words halted midway.
The recording showed a different figure.
“A space warship?!” Shidou was taken aback and rounded his eyes.
An armada of three gargantuan space warships emerged from Earth and not only that. Innumerable termite-like figures gathered around each ship. Upon closer inspection, each of those figures could be distinguished to be humanoid machines.
There's no doubt that those were DEM industries’ unmanned weaponry
<Bandersnatch> units.
“Could that be...DEM?!”
“Yeah, they were the ones who discovered <Zodiac>’s presence. After we sensed something suspicious from their warships, we used automatic cameras to scout that area and found her too.”
Kotori reply was marked with a hint of disgust.
“H-how can DEM find Spirits….”
Shidou blurted before stopping in realization. Kotori shared his opinion and nodded.
“I’m afraid it's <Beelzebub>. It couldn’t be helped, even though Nia can hamper it somehow.”
Then the screen showed another change.
DEM’s warships locked onto the inactive <Zodiac> and carried out preparations for an assault. The warships expanded their territory and charged up numerous cannons with devastating magical power. Meanwhile the <Bandersnatch> units around the Spirit began to load their own CR-units.
“Oii… isn't that a bit overkill?”
“Just keep watching.”
<Zodiac> gained awareness of her surroundings and unhurriedly lifted her head up. With an indifferent expression, she glanced as if she didn't care about the impending danger, stretched her body and raised her right hand.
“<”Seal-Removing Lord” — Michael>,”
The girl uttered the name very softly.
The next moment, a luminous staff materialized immediately from the hollow void, the same as the one grasped in her hand in the previous video. At the top end of the staff adorned a luxurious star accoutrement, and on the bottom end inlaid saw tooth edges, resembling a key.
“An angel…?”
“It looks like it.”
The <Bandersnatch> units commenced their assault and encircled <Zodiac> while charging their laser sabers. She kept herself calm and composed and inserted the front end of the key in vivo towards the direction of the Bandersnatch, turning it to the right as if it was in a keyhole.
“——《Segva -Lock》.”
With a sound of metals colliding sonorously, the <Bandersnatch>’s four limbs drastically lost their turgidity and its territory vanished into nothingness. Despite being at the offensive moments ago and their fearless nature, every single one of them instantly lost
their will to fight and remained motionless. It was as if their power source was sealed off.
“Th-this is….” gasped Shidou.
“<Michael>. From analysis of the video, we can infer that this angel has the ability to seal the target’s function by impaling it with the key.”
Reine said so as if interoperating smoothly. By that time, <Zodiac> had already crippled the incoming <Bandersnatch> units, machine by machine.
However, DEM had already expected that result. A few Bandersnatches would be insufficient to seize <Zodiac>. While she was dealing with them, the three warships had finished charging their cannons with magical power. The fleet then opened fire from three different directions, releasing a dense accumulation of magic. The dark space was instantly permeated by dazzling rays of light.
“Uwaaah…”
But <Zodiac> remained unaffected by her imprisoned plight and directed the bottom end of her staff to the front.
The key faded as if it had been engulfed in space, and <Zodiac> turned it to the left.
“——《Rātaibu -Unlock》.”
In that instant, a collapsed black hole energized around <Zodiac>, absorbing all the bombardments fired at her.
“Wh-what….?!”
Shidou widened his eyes.
Yet it had not ended there. Another black hole emerged behind the warships and <Bandersnatch> units. The artillery had not just been nullified, but the astonishingly powerful bombs were also teleported, without losing a shred of their energy.
The pitch-black world was once again reignited as explosions burst forth. The whole armada of three warships and countless of <Bandersnatch> units were blown away by their own immense firepower.
“DEM’s bombs were….?!”
“...Yeah. That's one of <Michael>’s abilities.”
“The key alters the very fabric of space-time to unlock space, thereby creating a wormhole. Moreover, she can also set its destination.”
“A Spirit opening gates with a key… could she be…?!”
Shidou, who suddenly realized something, turned towards Kotori.
“Figured it out? Well, afterwards <Zodiac> started attacking the Earth. Opening gateways like previously, ingesting the aftermath of DEM’s warships’ wreckage.”
“How did she designate the tens of locations throughout the world?”
“It seems so. She was sleeping peacefully but was woken up by the warships...she's certainly enraged with wrath. In the event of the remnants escaping combustion in the atmosphere and being directly delivered to the surface, they would preserve their mass and smash into the ground. On the other hand, luckily she didn't do so and the force of her attack was reduced by a large margin, maybe due to her not throwing it over several thousands of kilometers.”
“Is that so… the shockwave felt really powerful though.”
Shidou furrowed his brows as he remembered the scene.
“If meteors of that size actually showered, it definitely won't just be till this extent. It wouldn't be surprising if the blast radius covered tens of kilometers - it would be a fait accompli for someone like her capable of generating wormholes. No, the damage just now is already critical.”
“.....”
Cold sweat covered Shidou’s face. An extremely horrifying ability… On the basis of its distinct applications, perhaps even the Earth could be annihilated. Shidou stabilized his mood by taking deep breaths.
“...Then, what should I do?”
Shidou was aware that he had to get acquainted with the new Spirit in order to seal her powers.
However, this time his target's location is in outer space. He couldn't just approach her and chat with her. On the contrary, it was already hard enough to come into contact with her.
“That's right. No matter how hard it is, it’d be quite troublesome if she were to launch another blitzkrieg. In short, time is of the essence. Let's conduct a dialogue with her.”
“Converse with her…. how? Telephone and mail will get us nowhere.”
Kotori showed solicitude to her blockhead brother.
“Are you stupid? How do you think we captured this video?”
“Video...ah! There was something like that!”
Shidou realized he had forgotten about this point.
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