Date A Mysterious Being

Chapter 12 - Frozen Field

"...?!" Yoshino opened her eyes and shivered in confusion. She had been drowsing in a darkness of sorts, but suddenly, the darkness was gone, cold air caressed her cheeks, and before her eyes was a city.

"Uh... Ah...!" She whirled her head around.

She was in the middle of some unknown town. The area around her was devastated, like the aftermath of an explosion. From the sky poured cold rain. She'd experienced this world and these sensations so many times, she was almost sick of it. If there was a difference this time, it was that her peerless friend was not sitting on her left hand.

"...!" She heard a familiar sound from the sky and gasped. She jerked her head up and found several people clad in mechanical armor floating there, just as she'd expected.

"Target confirmed. All personnel, commence attack."

"Roger!"

Bullets flew from the humans' hands and feet straight at Yoshino.

"...!!" She kicked at the ground and twirled up into the sky, carving out a complicated trajectory through the air to evade the humans' attack.

"We're not letting her get away!"

"Understood!"

Voices rang out behind her, and she was showered with even more bullets.
Each of them was a special blow with lethal power. A manifestation of their malice and murderous intent that could have killed her a hundred times over and then some if she hadn't been wearing her Astral Dress.

"...! ...!"

In a state of confusion, Yoshino flew up into the sky, crying out silently. Her heart was pounding. Her stomach hurt. Her head was spinning.
She couldn't accept the fact that someone would turn this nastiness, this homicidal wish on her. It was different from the other times. Usually, Yoshinon was on her left hand. And Yoshinon was very strong. Yoshinon didn't think anything of an attack like this. Which meant Yoshino could also be okay with it. She could make sure she didn't hurt anyone.
But now...

"Eek...!" She felt an intense impact on her back and plummeted to the earth with a small cry. The attack wasn't forceful enough to pierce her Astral Dress, but it was powerful enough to slam her and her protective garb into the ground.
Terror flooded her heart. Her teeth chattered. Her feet trembled. Her vision shook. Her head was so jumbled, she was powerless in the face of all of this.

"Unh, ah, ah..."

The rain came down heavier.

"Good. We go all at once now!" the leader shouted, and the humans turned their sinister weapons on Yoshino.

She felt their desire to kill her, even more determination and violence than before.
Yoshino threw her right hand up into the air.

"...Zadkiel...!!" She brought her hand down as she cried the name of the catastrophic Angel.

"Did we get her?!" Ryouko's voice over the comm sounded a little excited.
Origami let out a shallow breath as she stared down at the smoking earth, her guard still up.

"..."

It had been approximately thirty minutes since the alarm rang and the people had finished evacuating. After confirming that Hermit had indeed appeared, Origami and her team immediately set out on an annihilation mission.

"Wha-?" a baffled voice came over the comm.
The smoke coiling up from where Hermit had fallen disappeared, revealing a ponderous puppet that hadn't been there a few seconds ago. Hermit's small body was plastered to its back.