"Mmm, eating really is the best." Ignoring the strange looks from the whole class—including the teacher—Tohka contentedly patted her slightly rounded belly. What she didn't know was that after her little stunt, the entire school's cooking classes had been shut down. She'd even been put straight onto the blacklist, but Tohka didn't care in the slightest. If she wanted, did they really think a mere door could stop her?
"Ah, hahaha." Watching Tohka so cheerfully sweep away her earlier gloom, Shido Itsuka could only smile with a black line across his forehead. This girl was truly unique, completely unconcerned about how others saw her, and yet somehow a little cute.
"My, my, as expected of you, Tohka. You're just like me—willing to do anything for food." But just then, Kurumi Tokisaki's voice sounded. The moment Tohka heard it, her good mood vanished. That woman...
"Heh, don't lump me in with you. What I eat is just food. And as for what you eat, don't you even have the slightest bit of self-awareness?" She did love to eat, but only actual, normal food—never anything weird. And what Kurumi called "food" was basically humans, or rather, their time. Once someone's time was extracted, they'd quickly age and die. So, saying she was basically a cannibal wasn't really wrong.
"Ara ara..." But in response to Tohka's words, Kurumi just let out a little laugh without arguing further. She realized Tohka seemed to know her quite well, and that only made her more interested. After all, ordinary prey was boring—but someone like Tohka was much more fascinating. She really wanted to see what kind of interesting things she could learn from her.
"This woman—she's insane. Has she been killed so many times that her brain finally broke?" Being stared at by Kurumi's gaze gave Tohka goosebumps. She had no idea that just one remark of hers had thoroughly piqued Kurumi's curiosity. If she'd known, she definitely would've smacked herself—serves you right for running your mouth.
The tense, peculiar standoff lingered through the afternoon. When the final bell rang, students packed up to head home or to their clubs. Tohka, of course, belonged to the "go-home club."
"Wait—Tohka, where are you going?" But just then, Shido suddenly called out to her. After all, they were technically neighbors, and in theory Tohka would head home with him. But this time, she was heading off in the opposite direction, and not only that—she'd even put on her armor. With the aura she was giving off, Shido thought she was about to pick a fight. Well, he wasn't wrong—she basically was going to pick a fight.
"You'd better not follow me. If you really want to know what I'm doing, go ask your people upstairs." Ignoring him, Tohka leapt onto the nearest building and sprinted straight to the top. Then she stood there, pulled down her demon mask, and started scanning.
"Huh?" Watching her climb the tall building, Shido didn't even have time to react before a beam of light enveloped him. When his vision cleared, he found himself back aboard the airship. Entering the command room, he saw the whole crew already assembled, his sister staring intently at the screen with a stern expression.
"Uh...what exactly is happening? And why does everyone look like that?" Shido was still a bit lost as he looked at everyone's reactions. Then he saw Tohka standing alone on the rooftop, her demon mask pulled down as she remained completely still.
"That armor..." Shido didn't understand, but Kotori seemed to realize something: "It looks like she's scanning. That armor of hers has a lot of advanced tech that we don't really understand. Just where exactly has Tohka Yatogami gotten all this stuff?"
"Mm. That girl treats the armor like it's extremely important. She said it's something her family passed down. Seriously—there's no way a family with technology like that could be completely unknown, but we haven't found any record of one." Reine's voice sounded next. This was part of why she'd advised Kotori to let things play out. The two of them were so secretive—might as well let them collide and see what happened.
"Mmm. Good—found you." Whatever the others were speculating about, Tohka herself didn't know or care. She'd already located Kurumi's position. After all, it was Tony's armor—of course it had tracking functions. Earlier that day, while Kurumi was distracted, she'd stuck a tracker on her.
So Tohka quickly locked onto her target and set off in pursuit. But when she saw the location, she frowned slightly. Kurumi seemed to be moving toward some deserted back alleys. Tohka knew that tactic all too well—she'd used it herself before, though back then it was just to grab some spending money. But she knew Kurumi definitely wouldn't stop at that. Anyone who caught her interest was probably going to die. Tohka didn't exactly disapprove—if you went looking for trouble, you deserved the consequences.
"Tohka—are you receiving this?" Just then, Kotori's voice crackled into her ear. Only now did Tohka remember she'd given them her comm frequency.
"What is it? Aren't you all spying from above? Don't tell me you've decided to stop me from approaching that Spirit." Tohka could guess exactly what these people were up to without even thinking.
"It's nothing. Just...be careful. That Spirit really is dangerous." Kotori had already guessed that Tohka understood how much of a threat Kurumi posed, but she still couldn't help giving one last warning.
"Tch. I know. If that's all, I'm hanging up." Muttering, Tohka cut the connection.
"Mmm, looks like I'm not too late." A moment later, she arrived at her destination: a secluded alleyway. Standing there in her school uniform was Kurumi. And around her were a bunch of punks, so pathetic that Tohka almost couldn't bear to look.