Date A Mysterious Being

Chapter 19 - Male/Female

About an hour after Shidou and the Magician disappeared, the members of the AST returned to the garrison following an unsuccessful attempt to kill or capture the Spirit and having her flee on them, as per usual.

"..."

But for some reason, this wasn't sitting right with Origami.

Normally, when a Spirit got away, it meant that the Spirit had been Lost to the parallel world. But not a single person had witnessed the moment when Diva vanished into empty air. She had shouted in an incredibly loud voice and disappeared when they all flinched at the shock wave. But there was no Spirit signal in the vicinity, so she'd been deemed Lost. She wasn't sure if it's the first time however. She had a feeling this happened before.
Still, Origami couldn't shake the feeling that Diva had purposely created an opening so that she could run and hide from them.
She shook her head slightly, and the look in her eyes grew sharper. Right now, she had something more important to deal with.

Once the exhaustion after releasing her Territory had lessened to some degree, Origami moved slowly and came to stand before Jessica where she was chatting with her team. "What exactly are your intentions?"

Jessica raised an eyebrow and looked back at Origami. "What do you mean, exactly?"

"Don't play dumb with me. Why did you try to attack Shidou?"

"Oh my! Is he a friend?"

"Answer me," Origami pressed her.

"A civilian wandered onto the battlefield. I tried to protect him." Jessica shrugged exaggeratedly. "Is that a problem?"

"..." Origami glared at Jessica with daggers in her eyes. This was an obvious lie. She very much doubted she had misread the other girl's actions. "The Magician was there, so if Shidou was at risk, he would be protected by him anyway."

But Jessica clearly didn't care if Origami believed her or not. The look on her face said she knew Origami wouldn't be able to touch her as long as she went through the motions. And indeed, there was actual no proof that Jessica had tried to attack Shidou. It might just been an attack on the Magician instead.

"We're done here. Go away. We're busy," Jessica said with a sniff.

But Origami kept going. "Does it have something to do with this special mission you've been tasked with?"

"..."

Jessica and her team twitched. And then she clicked her tongue in irritation and grabbed onto Origami's bangs.

"Ngh..."

"Little girl. You won't live very long if you start whispering about things that don't concern you," she spat and thrust Origami away. Still not completely over her fatigue, Origami fell flat on her backside, and Jessica and her team giggled.

"You there! What're you doing?!" Ryouko ran over, flustered at the commotion.

Jessica averted her face as if to play dumb and then walked off, her team trailing behind her.

"Hey, you okay, Origami?" Ryouko asked, offering her a hand.

"...No problems." Origami took the hand and pulled herself to her feet as she glared hatefully at Jessica's receding back.

"Why...on a Saturday...?" Shidou yawned sleepily as he walked along, flanked by Tohka and Origami as if under arrest.
September 9. A night had passed since his encounter with the Spirit Diva.

They'd had a meeting on Fraxinus afterward to discuss the mysterious drop in likability. He'd been forced to attend since he had no school the next day anyway, and of course, the meeting lasted well into the night.