My name is Itsuka Shidou, just an ordinary second-year student at Raizen High.
Well… even though all sorts of extraordinary, supernatural incidents have been happening lately,
I still think of myself as a normal high school student… probably?
A few months ago, Mom and Dad left for a long business trip.
Since then, I've been balancing schoolwork while also taking care of my little sister, who just entered middle school.
Even though it's just the two of us at home, our parents haven't worried at all.
After all, even before they left, my skills at housework and taking care of others had long surpassed theirs—
something that left Mom pretty depressed for quite a while.
My sister, Itsuka Kotori, can be a bit mischievous—
she loves waking me up with a knight's kick (seriously, is there any sister other than Kotori who thinks kicking is an acceptable way to wake her brother?)—
and she sneaks lollipops behind my back all the time, making me constantly worry about her getting cavities.
She also occasionally makes some pretty unreasonable requests...
but overall, she's a good kid. I think?
I had thought those peaceful days would continue forever.
Until one day—
I learned of the existence of Spirits.
Girls who wield terrifying, godlike powers,
whose very arrival brings destruction—
they are called Spirits.
And it's precisely because of these dangerous beings that Itsuka Shidou's headaches began...
"Shidou~! Shidou~! I don't know how to solve this one! Help me with my homework!"
"No, doing your homework yourself would be better, right?
"Besides, if I help you, the difference in handwriting would be obvious and the teacher would definitely catch on..."
"No, don't get mad!"
"I can't do it for you, but I can teach you step by step, so please calm down!"
"Moving houses is seriously a pain!"
The violet-haired girl shouting at me—
her name is Yatogami Tohka.
One of the so-called Spirits.
However, her Spirit powers have already been sealed by me, so now she's no different from an ordinary girl.
We live together under the same roof, and even attend the same class at school.
I had truly believed I was just a normal person—
until someone suddenly informed me that I possess the ability to seal a Spirit's powers and turn them into normal humans.
Honestly?
It freaked me out...
Though I'll admit, I was a little bit excited too.
I mean, what teenage boy hasn't fantasized about having superpowers?
A Kamen Rider belt, a light wand, a high-tech armor suit—
beating down evil under everyone's admiring gaze and rescuing troubled girls to earn some cool points?
Of course...
My ability doesn't involve any fighting at all.
In fact, it's completely passive.
And even worse, the seal is incredibly unstable—
if a Spirit's emotions run high, their powers could come surging back.
Suddenly, I felt a cold chill at my back.
Instinctively, I shuddered.
"Yoshino! Yoshino! What's wrong?!"
Grasping the situation quickly, I dashed toward the living room—
only to find the sofa and part of the floor already covered in frost.
The air itself was thick with a white mist.
A tiny girl with pale blue hair was sprawled on the floor, reaching desperately under the sofa.
"Shidou... -san..."
The little girl—Yoshino—looked up at me like I was her savior, and in her soft, marshmallow voice, she said: "Yoshinon... Yoshinon is..."
Kneeling beside her, I peered under the sofa—
and spotted Yoshinon, the rabbit puppet Yoshino always carried.
Her arms were too short to reach it.
I easily grabbed it and handed it back to her.
The temperature in the room finally stopped dropping.
Yoshino slipped the puppet onto her left hand, and immediately, Yoshinon came "alive," waving its tiny arms.
"Oh! Yoshinon's back! Thank you so much, Shidou! I feel a little bad for troubling you all the time..."
Yoshino also gave me a shy, grateful look.
"Thank you... very much... Shidou-san..."
"Oho! As expected of my faithful vassal!"
Another voice rang out dramatically.
A girl with a haughty pose stepped forward, her twin-tails swaying.
"Whilst challenging my trials, I suddenly sensed a disturbance in the spirit flow. Rushing to investigate, I found you, Shidou, had already conquered the trial of the frozen purgatory!"
"Correction: Kaguya-chan only rushed over because she was worried about Shidou."
"I-I was not worried! Yuzuru, stop saying nonsense!"
The girl who pompously referred to herself as "this princess" was Kaguya Yamai.
The other, Yuzuru Yamai.
They were the twin Spirits who controlled the wind.
Though their appearances were almost identical, their personalities couldn't be more different—
making them surprisingly easy to tell apart.
Usually, when the two of them were together, there weren't any wild emotional swings, so I didn't have to scramble to stabilize anything.
Which, honestly, was a huge relief.
However...
I realized far too soon that I had relaxed too early.
"Why did you cause another Spirit energy surge?!"
"Even a goldfish can remember something for seven seconds!"
"Has your brain degenerated even below a goldfish's, planning to compete with single-celled paramecia in a Dumbest Brain Contest?!"
Her voice was adorably cute, but her words were brutally cutting.
And at the same time—
BAM!
I felt a sharp kick to my backside, and my face slammed straight into the couch.
"Kotori... you switched back to Commander mode again?"
"Pointless questions serve no purpose other than wasting everyone's precious time, my dear idiotic onii-chan."
Kotori shot me a cold, bug-squashing glance, then fished an unopened lollipop from her pocket, tore off the wrapper, and stuck it into her mouth like it was a cigarette.
Itsuka Kotori.
My little sister.
Also the supreme commander of the mysterious organization, Ratatoskr.
Her signature red twin-tails tied with different ribbons:
white for the mischievous little sister,
black for the sharp-tongued, ruthless commander.
Oh, and by the way—
I'd only just recently learned that Kotori was also a Spirit.
"At this rate, how do you expect to save the other Spirits like Tohka and Yoshino?"
"Or are you planning to just sit back and watch AST kill them?"
"Of course not!"
Like a dried fish leaping back into water, I sprang to my feet, my voice firm and unwavering.
"Hmph."
"At least you've got some spirit."
For just a moment, satisfaction flickered in Kotori's eyes—
but she quickly masked it.
"But spirit alone isn't enough!"
"The AST aren't going to back off just because you're passionate."
"This isn't some sappy youth anime, nor are you the protagonist of some braindead harem manga where talking alone solves everything."
I wanted to say "I'll do my best," but my instincts screamed otherwise.
If I said that, Kotori would probably lock me in a black room and force me through all kinds of hellish galgame-like events—
or worse, push me into cringey "dating sim" scenarios with Tohka and the others.
Besides—
I've already got my hands full with five Spirits.
If another one shows up, what's going to happen to my life?
Just a few months ago, I was a perfectly normal high schooler...
and worst of all, I still haven't touched my summer homework!
For a high schooler, unfinished summer homework was second only to the literal apocalypse in terms of world-ending crises.
Honestly, for some people, failing their homework deadline might be worse than the end of the world itself.
So honestly, Earth-mama is pretty pitiful…
There are just so many people out there who, over the smallest of things, wish the world would explode.
But as the saying goes—
You never know which will come first: an accident or tomorrow.
"Woooooo—!"
A sharp, piercing siren suddenly blared.
For ordinary people, that alarm meant they needed to immediately seek shelter.
But for Itsuka Shidou and Itsuka Kotori, it meant something else—
It was time to get to work.
Aboard the airborne battleship Fraxinus, by the time Shidou and Kotori boarded, the crew was already moving at full speed, busily carrying out their duties.
If Shidou hadn't already known these people beforehand, just watching them now, he might have thought they were actually extremely reliable professionals…
"Report! Now!"
Kotori, as Commander, immediately seated herself at the highest position, with Vice-Commander Kannazuki Kyouhei respectfully standing closest to her.
"Commander! We've detected an unregistered spirit wave!"
"In other words... a Spirit manifesting for the first time."
Kotori bit down lightly on the lollipop in her mouth, her brows knitting into a frown.
A Spirit appearing for the first time... That means we know absolutely nothing about her—no idea what she likes, what she hates, nor what kind of powers she possesses.
If we approach carelessly and trigger her hostility, it could end in disaster...
Itsuka Shidou had the ability to seal a Spirit's powers—
but completing a seal required two conditions.
First: the Spirit had to open her heart to him—essentially, he had to raise her affection to a certain level.
Second: he had to kiss her.
In short, the process of sealing a Spirit could be summarized as—
"Go on a date, make her blush, steal her first kiss, seal her powers, and add her to the harem."
Honestly, it wasn't surprising that Shidou was often cursed by others as "Itsuka the Scumbag."
Still... we don't even know how strong this new Spirit is.
If she's even weaker than Yoshino, she could be in serious danger against AST.
Which means contact is unavoidable—we'll have to gather information during the interaction itself.
Kotori ran through all these thoughts in just a few seconds, quickly reaching a basic decision only to realize something was wrong.
Without her noticing, an eerie, oppressive silence had fallen over the ship.
"Hey! What's going on?!"
Anxiety flared in Kotori's heart as she hurried to break the silence.
As if waking from a nightmare, the crew members all jolted.
"Co-commander! Th-th-this—!"
"Spit it out properly! Who the hell can understand that stuttering?!"
Seeing their panic only fueled Kotori's anger.
"You're supposed to be the elite, handpicked crew! Calm down and report the situation clearly!"
Her expression was sharp, voice strict—
but even Kotori herself could feel the rising unease in her chest.
What could possibly make my crew this terrified...?
And then, one of the crew members finally spoke up, delivering an observation that shocked Kotori to her core.
"Just now... the spatial quake's size exceeded that of Tenguu City and it's still expanding without any signs of slowing down."
"As of now... it's already covering a quarter of Japan!"
"W-what—?!"
The impact of that news made Kotori spring to her feet, so shocked that she didn't even notice the lollipop falling from her mouth.
Under normal circumstances, Vice-Commander Kannazuki would already be groveling at her feet like a dog, picking up the fallen lollipop and thanking the Commander for her "gift"—
but right now, even he wore a grim, heavy expression.
Spirits were officially designated as unique catastrophic lifeforms from the neighboring dimension.
Regardless of their own will, merely by manifesting in this world, they would cause spatial quakes—
devastating everything in the vicinity.
Normally, the size of a spatial quake correlated with a Spirit's output ability, mana reserves, and control.
For example:
Yatogami Tohka's spatial quake was rated B-class.
When she first appeared, she blew up Shidou's school and several surrounding streets.
Yoshino's quake was the smallest—rated C-class.
Kaguya and Yuzuru Yamai's were both rated AA-class.
Fortunately, they usually appeared over the ocean.
If their quakes had struck a populated city, the devastation would have been unimaginable.
But even compared to the Yamai twins—
the current situation was on a completely different level.
A spatial quake blanketing a quarter of Japan—
If it descended, even people hiding deep underground might not survive!
And the scariest part was—
it wasn't even slowing down.
The quake was still expanding.
"Could it be... a malfunction in the detection instruments?" someone suggested, almost desperately.
"I wish it were just a malfunction!" another snapped back.
You couldn't really blame them for panicking.
In the entirety of human history, there had only ever been one disaster larger than what they were seeing now—
The Eurasian Sky Disaster, about thirty years ago.
It killed over a hundred and fifty million people—
the worst calamity humanity had ever faced.
As the crew reeled in fear, in one corner of the bridge, a silver-haired woman in a white lab coat stood silently.
Her dark under-eye circles were so heavy it looked like she hadn't slept properly in decades.
Her eyes glimmered faintly with an unsettling light.
And then—
Without any warning—
the spatial quake alarms stopped.
Silence fell again over Fraxinus.
Heavy.
Oppressive.
Unnatural.
---
T/N: hmm i wonder which servant will it be... Morgan? ALSO ANOTHER FANDOM I DONT KNOW ABOUT! SO IF U SPOT MIOSTAKES SORGEE ALSO I BARELY READ COMMENTS IF AT ALL :sob: so you should join the discord to shout at me for mistakes instead >:)
discord.gg/wisetl