“I didn't wait that long. I checked out a few stalls in between.” She inserted her straw, took a sip, and handed the other slushie to Kizuna. “Bought this for you. Strawberry.”
As Kizuna took the cup, her fingertips brushed against Qiluo's. She took a sip, squinting from the brain freeze, but quickly opened her eyes again and looked at Qiluo.
“You seem to be in a really good mood today?”
“Am I?” Qiluo touched the corner of her mouth and realized she was indeed smiling slightly. Lowering her hand, she turned her gaze toward the distant sports field, where stalls were being packed up. “The school festival was really nice today.”
Kizuna chewed on her straw, hummed in agreement, and nodded, taking another big gulp of her strawberry slushie.
Yuki walked over just as Kizuna was clutching her cheek from the cold.
“This is for you too.” Qiluo pulled a juice bottle from the bag and handed it to her.
“...Thank you.” She stood next to Qiluo, not rushing to drink it.
Shizuru had already changed back into her casual clothes. Her long hair, usually tied up in a high ponytail, draped loosely over her shoulders, its ends slightly messy from rubbing against her collar when she changed.
She stared down at her phone, her finger slowly scrolling across the screen as if reviewing some incredibly precious record.
Kizuna was the first to notice her. She lightly nudged Yuki's arm and whispered, “Senior Kirishima is here.”
Yuki looked up and froze for a moment when she saw the smile on Shizuru's face.
She had seen Shizuru at the Association many times, but this was the first time she had ever seen her make such an expression.
Shizuru walked up to the three of them, turning her phone face down against her side. She put on her usual polite, proper school smile. “Sorry to keep you waiting. There was more to do at the student council than I expected.”
“It's fine. We just got here too,” Yuki said.
Kizuna tilted her head, studying Shizuru. “You seem to be in a great mood, Senior. Did something good happen at the student council?”
“...It's nothing. I just happened to get a message from a friend.”
“Senior Kirishima, this friend you mentioned...” Qiluo tilted her head. “Is it a boyfriend?”
Shizuru's expression underwent a rapid triple-transformation: from shock, to denial, and finally to a forced attempt at composure.
She quickly denied it. “No! It's just... someone I met recently.”
“Oh~” Qiluo dragged out the syllable just long enough to make Shizuru's ears turn red.
She went on to say that today was indeed a perfect day for making friends, and that this new friend must be very interesting to make Shizuru smile so happily.
Shizuru was left speechless by this blunt observation, while Yuki silently looked away from her face.
Shizuru opened her mouth, wanting to say something to salvage her dignity as their senior, but her mental vocabulary seemed to have been wiped clean. In the end, she could only squeeze out, “It's not that kind of relationship.”
Star-trail was currently lying inside Yuki Kurokawa's bag, looking completely exhausted.
The light of the phone shone through the canvas fabric onto its face as it tapped rapidly on the screen.
I mean, who else but Lightweaver could get Shizuru to clutch her phone like this!
The five of them blended into the last crowd of people leaving the school. As they walked out the gates, the evening breeze blew past, carrying away the noise that had built up throughout the day.
Why five people?
They had run into Yano Rei on the way out.
Kizuna was the first to spot Rei.
She had just tossed her empty slushie cup into the trash when she turned around to see Rei jogging over from the school building, cradling a precariously stacked pile of cookie bags.
“Tian Gong-san! Kurokawa-san! Wait up!”
She straightened up, taking a balance sheet away from her mouth. The dense columns of numbers made her wrinkle her nose, but she quickly beamed again. “Today was absolutely amazing! Our class's Magical Girl-themed café broke last year's sales record! The teacher said we'll get a special shout-out during homeroom.”
Rei handed out the remaining cookie bags to them, and after double-checking the last balance sheet with the class representative, she was picked up by her mother, who had come to fetch her.
Before leaving, she leaned out of the car window, waving her hand and shouting, “See you tomorrow!”
Soon, the crowd at the school gates thinned out. The last remaining students walked past them in twos and threes, occasionally glancing in their direction.
The last trace of orange-red in the sky had faded into deep blue. The streetlights at the school gates flickered on right on time, casting overlapping halos of light at their feet.
“Qiluo, my family's car is parked right across the street,” Yuki Kurokawa said, pointing to the familiar black sedan on the other side of the road. “We can drop you off on the way. You've been on your feet all day; it's too far to walk back.”
Kizuna and Shizuru had already left.
“No, thank you. I'd like to walk for a bit.”
Qiluo Tian Gong tilted her head to look at Yuki. “I'm not just being polite. I really want to walk on my own. Today was lively, but I'd like a moment of quiet by myself.”
“...Okay.”
Yuki wanted to insist, but seeing Qiluo's eyes, she figured Qiluo simply didn't want to trouble her. In the end, she respected Qiluo's decision.
Yuki watched Qiluo's retreating figure grow smaller in the distance.
Only after the figure turned the corner did she open the car door and slide into the back seat.
Qiluo simply wanted to be alone to think about today's Erosion Body.
There was no better environment for contemplation than a long, solitary walk.
...
Qiluo Tian Gong stood by her apartment window, gazing at the distant stars dimmed by the city lights.
Lightweaver opened the window, and as the night wind rushed in, she leaped silently into the darkness, flying toward Hachioji.
The hillside where they had fought during the day looked exceptionally desolate under the moonlight.
The soil upturned by the scythe and hammer still bore messy trenches. The remains of the vines had already been cleared away by the Association, leaving behind only a few dark brown scorch marks on the ground.
Lightweaver landed on the hilltop and crouched down, gently touching one of the scorch marks with her finger.
It was left by Mingyue's scythe. Where the blade had passed, the soil had crystallized into thin flakes, crumbling into tiny specks of light at her fingertips.
She stood up and walked slowly along the path of the battle, the details of the day's fight replaying in her mind one by one.
The point where the barrier shattered, the densest clusters of vines, and the path where the underground core was finally driven into the trap.
Finally, she walked to the edge of the deep pit, crouched down, and pressed her palm against the cold dirt at the bottom. Closing her eyes, she extended her senses deep into the soil.
The residual mana fluctuations were incredibly weak, but at this close range, Star-trail's detection array could still capture a few fragments.
Deep within the soil, there was a type of mana that did not belong to the Erosion Body itself. Like an extremely fine thread, it stretched from the bottom of the pit all the way up into the sky.
Following the trace, she looked up. In the night sky, that star of death hung slightly to the west of the zenith.
Why was a B+ Tier Erosion Body able to grow to such a scale while completely avoiding my daily patrols?
Why did a trait from the original world, like the Mana-Devouring Thorns, appear here?
All clues pointed in a single direction—the Eye of the End.
It had truly begun to directly influence this world.
Rate on N.U.
