"——You must make me fall in love with you."
"Wha… what!"
Upon hearing Kotori's words, Shidou froze in place.
"You… you said I have to make you fall in love with me… what does that even mean…"
Shidou asked in confusion.
Kotori popped another double-sugar candy into her mouth, shrugged lightly while picking up her teacup, and spoke as if nothing had happened.
"It's the same as with Tohka and Yoshino. There's only one way to seal a Spirit's power, right?"
"S-so that means…"
Shidou swallowed hard. Having already sealed two Spirits, he naturally understood what that meant.
Go on a date, deepen her affection—and then, in the end…
"..."
His gaze involuntarily drifted toward Kotori's lips.
It wasn't because Shidou harbored any indecent thoughts toward his sister—though, honestly, Kotori probably wouldn't have minded.
Because the way he sealed Tohka's and Yoshino's powers before was—
"Bang!"
At that moment, a sudden sharp noise broke through the silence.
Startled, Shidou's whole body trembled.
It turned out that the teacup Kotori was holding had slipped from her hand. The white ceramic cup shattered on the floor, and the milk tea that was half drunk spilled across the ground.
"Kot… Kotori? Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?"
Frowning, Shidou quickly rushed forward to help her up, concern written all over his face.
Kotori lowered her eyes, panting heavily, and shook her head.
"...I'm fine. Don't mind it."
After saying that, as if trying to avoid Shidou's gaze, she gripped her right hand—the one that had dropped the cup—with her left and hid it under the table.
"You're telling me not to mind it…"
How could anyone not mind that? Anyone with eyes could tell something was wrong.
"I said I'm fine! I'm just a bit tired. Can you leave me alone for a while?"
Kotori, as always, was being stubborn and tsundere.
"No, that's not okay. Come on, show me your hand. Maybe you cut yourself—"
"...Shidou."
Just as Shidou reached out to grab Kotori's right hand under the table, the sound of the door opening came from behind him.
He turned around and saw Reine entering with a black bag in her hand.
"Reine? What's going on?"
"Ah, sorry. That's all for today. Please head outside for now."
"Eh? B-but… Kotori's condition…"
"I'll take care of her. Now, hurry and go out. Don't disturb Kotori's rest."
As Reine spoke, Kotori lowered her head and gave a small nod.
"...A-alright..."
Since they both insisted, Shidou couldn't push further. He turned and left, though he still glanced back worriedly at Kotori before walking out.
At that moment, he noticed something strange—the one-way glass wall that had allowed him to see inside earlier had turned opaque, completely blocking the view of what was happening inside.
A few minutes later, Reine came out from the room and returned to where Shidou was waiting.
"Reine, Kotori… is she—"
"She's fine. You don't need to worry. At least, for now, she's out of danger."
"You… you said 'for now'…"
"..."
Reine sat down on the nearby chair and lowered her eyes.
"...Kotori set the time limit—two days from now."
"Eh?"
Shidou blinked, unable to process what she meant.
"Two days from now, on June 22nd, you'll need to go on a date with Kotori."
"What? That kind of thing… I mean, I was sort of prepared for it, but… why two days later?"
"...Because there's no other choice. Within two days, Kotori likely won't be able to keep her sanity while bearing her Spirit power any longer."
"—!"
At Reine's words, Shidou's face turned pale.
"W-what do you mean…?"
"The intervals between her outbursts are getting shorter and shorter. Right now, we can suppress them with tranquilizers and stabilizers… but in about two days, that will reach its limit. After that, Kotori may no longer be the girl you know."
"—"
This time, Shidou couldn't even speak. His throat was dry, and his fingers trembled slightly.
A crisis had appeared—sudden, without any warning.
"...In other words, if Kotori passes that day—June 22nd—she might become like…"
"Tokisaki Kurumi. Or worse… like the Three Falls of Apocalypse (Tenqi Sanluo)."
"—!!"
This was bad. Extremely bad.
Reine, as expected of Fraxinus's chief analyst, hit the mark directly—illustrating the severity of the situation by comparing Kotori's condition to the Spirits they had encountered before.
For Shidou, there were only two short days left.
If he couldn't seal Kotori's power in time, she would lose herself completely—and then, just imagining the city of Tenguu engulfed in flames and corpses made his blood run cold.
"Th-then, shouldn't we start immediately—"
"...We can't."
Reine placed a hand under her chin, as if thinking, then sighed as though she had resigned herself.
"Though yes, that would normally be the correct move."
"Eh?"
Shidou didn't understand.
"...But it would be too reckless. I already told you—her condition is being managed by medication. We have to wait until her state stabilizes."
"But… in two days—"
"That's exactly why that day is the only possible time. You have to be prepared—if you fail the day after tomorrow, there will be no way to bring Kotori back."
"Ugh…"
Shidou bit his lip hard.
Once again, he had caused trouble for Kotori.
If only he were stronger… perhaps everything could have been different. Kotori wouldn't have needed to reawaken her Spirit powers.
He thought about it again and again—it was all his fault.
Reine sighed softly and turned toward the control console.
"Anyway, leave this to me for now. Shidou, go check on Mana's condition. If you leave now, you should make it in time for visiting hours at the hospital."
Reine gestured toward the door, as if to usher him out.
"B-but Kotori—"
"I'll take care of her. Please, just do as I say for now."
"..."
Normally, Shidou would have left quietly.
But this time, his fists clenched tightly on their own.
This was his fault.
Because of him, Kotori had to regain her Spirit power again.
If he wanted to prevent something like this from happening again—he had to…
Having made up his mind, Shidou turned toward Reine with determined eyes and said:
"Reine."
"...Shidou?"
Reine raised an eyebrow, surprised by his tone.
"I want to know… can I use one of the CR-Units that AST uses?"
A manifestation device.
It was, in Shidou's mind, the fastest and most practical way to gain strength.
Even though he had massive Spirit energy inside him, Shidou was still human and couldn't freely manipulate it in battle.
But if he could borrow the power of a CR-Unit…
After all, the unit's 'territory field' functioned similarly to Spirit energy.
In theory, with a CR-Unit, Shidou believed he could channel the Spirit power within him and achieve some combat ability.
"...Shidou, what are you saying?"
Reine put down what she was doing, visibly surprised.
"I want to become stronger."
"...Why?"
"...Because I don't want Tohka or Kotori to keep fighting for my sake, using their reversed Spirit powers. I don't want to drag everyone down while they're risking themselves to protect me. I don't want to just stand by and watch everything fall apart… That's all."
Shidou took a deep breath, trembling as he spoke.
"...Shidou, I don't think that's a wise choice."
After a moment of surprise, Reine's expression returned to calm neutrality as she resumed operating the console.
"Reine! I—"
"Your mission isn't to fight, but to save the Spirits. Even if you possess Spirit energy, you probably can't use a CR-Unit—it would place a tremendous strain on your brain."
"The Spirit energy inside you already burdens your body enough. If you add a manifestation device on top of that, things could get much worse."
Her eyes wavered slightly as she said this, though Shidou didn't notice.
"...Alright, I understand."
After saying that, Shidou turned and walked toward the door.