-Spiritual Kinship- 2nd half

Chapter 20 - Long-Distance Conquering

The Itsuka twins along with the Spirits, Tohka, Origami, the Yamai sister, and Reine.

[Ratatoskr] had originally employed its warship <Fraxinus>, but we're currently not able to, because it was damaged from the last fight.

Therefore, the group occupied the nearby underground facility as their impromptu base.

The Spirits separated from the twins at the security desk, much to the dismay of Tohka and Origami, but it was probably for the best.

Right now, they had to discuss strategies once a new Spirit appeared. It was best not to let them witness the scenario.

As Syouji stepped inside the command room, he noticed Shidou's face change into one of nervousness.

"Dude, I'm here... you alright?" Syouji said with a concerned look as he put a hand on Shidou's shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Shidou said as he smiled before releasing a deep sigh.

Syouji nodded as he walked forward and saw the crew assembled in front of their console monitors, urgently carrying out their tasks.

Syouji then walked up to a console that seemed to be showing a white screen.

Below it, there was a sort of scanner that radiated a blue light as Syouji approached.

"What's that?" Shidou asked curiously.

"It's my console," Syouji said as he scanned his bracelet. "It's a bit troublesome having to access everything on a bracelet."

When he did that, a voice from the console was heard.

[Welcome, Master Syouji] The console showed what seemed to resemble a girl close to the age of Kotori with silver-white hair and blue eyes.

She was wearing clothing similar to a Western nun, with a white dress and a black cross-like symbol in the middle.

"Whoa... Who's that?" Shidou asked.

"This is [MARIA]. Nia helped me with her final design. Cool right?" Syouji answered.

"Ah you two are here finally?" Kotori spoke while sitting on the Captain's seat in the middle of the command room. She had her black ribbons tied on her pigtails and sore her military uniform with military stripes on her shoulders.

"......Sorry to have kept you waiting." Reine said taking off her white coat and sat on an empty seat.

"No... you've done well."

"It seems a meteorite was hurled down from the sky, by a Spirit." Syouji said as [MARIA] nodded while showing a recreation of the scene.

"But... How did that come about?" Shidou asked. "You said that a Spirit did it, but there was no spacequake warning. Is it a harmless Spirit? But... To go after the school immediately... Is it after Tohka and the others?"

[You ask an awful lot of questions...] MARIA said with an artificial voice. For some reason, she sounded like Kotori.

"Yeah....What in the world could be happening? To be honest, I don't even know." Kotori with a perturbed expression and held her chin while looking towards her console.

At that moment, not knowing how, [MARIA] somehow entered her console.

"W-What the-?! Syouji what the hell kind of AI did you create?!" Kotori shouted in surprise as Syouji cowered a little.

"I... May or may not have snuck into DEM's databases along with Ratatoskr and stole some tech in secret and created her..."

Syouji said with a prideful grin that showed a bit of nervousness.