"Clang." Tohka's strike was instantly deflected by Mana Takamiya, and in the next heartbeat the two of them were clashing in that blood-soaked alley.
"This girl really is a handful... No wonder she paid so much lifespan for that power." Trading blows evenly with Mana, Tohka was secretly shocked. With this much strength, Mana was already on par with her current self. Then in the future, when she had to face those DEM people, it would be even harder. But Tohka wasn't too worried—putting aside how strong she'd be by then, if necessary she could simply let Inverse Tohka handle it.
"Enough, this is endless. I'm leaving." Glancing at the darkening sky, Tohka didn't want to keep fighting. She took advantage of an opening to dodge Mana's attack and then shot away like a cannonball. She quickly found a place to remove her armor and blended into the crowd.
"So fast!" Seeing Tohka disappear in an instant, Mana froze. It was the first time she'd ever seen a Spirit run away without hesitation, so she stood there blankly for a moment. And in that time, Tohka had completely vanished, and her instruments could no longer detect any Spirit signatures. Naturally, without a spacequake, she couldn't just go drag Tohka out of the crowd.
"Whew, that girl is really something." Glancing back, Tohka confirmed Mana had left and finally sighed in relief. She didn't want to stay there locked in a stalemate—today's experiences were more than a little stimulating. Now all she wanted to do was go home and wash her face to calm down. Mostly because that incident with Kurumi was just too much. Even with Miku, it had never gotten to that extent.
But things never go as expected. As Tohka was wandering back to her place, just when she pulled out her key to open the door, she ran straight into a certain blue-haired girl who was a head shorter than her.
"….."
Both Tohka and Mana were stunned, since neither of them had expected to run into the other here. Then…
Then nothing happened. Mana, for one, wasn't wearing her equipment, and besides, she'd come here to see her brother. As for Tohka, she was simply exhausted from everything today and didn't have any desire to keep fighting. So, the two of them very tacitly exchanged a look, and one began knocking on the door in front of her while the other simply opened her own door and went inside.
"Ugh, that girl is so damn annoying." Back in her room, Tohka saw the panties she'd tossed aside earlier. She couldn't be bothered to wash them now, so she just threw them into the bathroom. Then, feeling worn out, she flopped onto the sofa and started spacing out. But just then, she could clearly hear that things next door were getting lively again.
"German family drama? Man, that side is a mess… and by the way, when I looked at Mana just now, she didn't seem to have any chest at all, but in that combat gear she looked pretty busty. Is she secretly stacked?" Maybe it was all the stress she'd been under, but Tohka's thoughts wandered further and further. Then she started thinking about Mana's performance during their fight…
Knock, knock, knock. Just as Tohka was lying there zoning out, there was a measured knocking at her door again. Sighing, she had no choice but to get up from the sofa and head to the entrance.
"Tohka, come with me. We have some things we need to discuss." When she opened the door, she saw Muramura Reine with dark circles under her eyes. Tohka didn't even bother to guess whether she was faking it anymore.
"What is it? Seriously…" Hearing Reine's words, Tohka didn't object, and followed her over to the lively Itsuka household. As soon as she walked in, she saw exactly the scene she'd expected.
Yoshino was sitting on the couch not far away, and Kotori was sitting face to face with Mana. But between them there was a strange tension that made Tohka instinctively take a step back. Even as an outsider, she felt a chill watching this kind of domestic standoff—no, it was practically a German soap opera.
"Ah, you're here." With Tohka's arrival, the atmosphere finally eased up a little. Mana instinctively tensed up, though. After all, not even an hour ago, they'd been fighting each other in an alley. So, the moment she saw Tohka, this girl who looked like she was in her teens but was actually in her forties got a little nervous.
"What are you doing here? Planning to take out the blue-haired girl? If it's me and Yoshino together, it shouldn't be a problem." Although she knew everyone's identities, Tohka still pretended ignorance. To be honest, she was still annoyed that Mana had interrupted her search for Kurumi, so she didn't mind stirring the pot a little. Anyway, she was ninety-nine percent sure no real fight would break out.
"What did you say, Princess? You think I'm afraid of you?" Hearing Tohka's words, even without her equipment, Mana didn't back down. She stood up and squared off against Tohka.
"Hey, stop it!" Acting as the mediator, Shido rushed between them. He had seen their earlier battle and was still shocked that Mana could actually hold her own against Tohka. But he knew that if these two started fighting here, his house was as good as gone—and everyone inside would be collateral damage.
"Brother, how do you know this Spirit? I can sense the same kind of presence from her as from that other one." To be fair, Mana, who had destroyed hundreds of Kurumi's clones, was very sensitive to killing intent. Even though Tohka almost never intended to kill, the aura she unintentionally let out still caught Mana's notice.
"Uh, Tohka is…someone I met before…" Hearing Mana's question, Shido hurried to explain. To be honest, even now he still couldn't quite believe that Tohka had ever killed anyone. Her first impression on him had been too strong, and during all her fights with the AST, she'd never actually taken a life.
"So, what did you want with me? Don't tell me it's about Kurumi Tokisaki. You've decided not to have Shido go and try to date her, right?" Ignoring Shido, who was busy explaining to his sister, Tohka sat down in the spot Mana had been in—right across from Kotori.