The Marine Park was a theme park located near Nagase Station, five stops away from Tenguu Station.
The park consisted of two main sections — the Water Park, which featured all kinds of pools, large public baths, and indoor shows; and the Land Park, an outdoor amusement area with rides and attractions.
Every summer vacation, countless tourists and couples would flock there from far and wide, making it one of the most popular spots around.
That said, it was still only mid-June.
Although the indoor facilities and the amusement area were open year-round, the most popular part — the outdoor pools — wouldn't open until next month. So compared to the peak season, today's crowd was relatively light.
But for Shidou and the others, that was actually a good thing.
If the park had been as packed and chaotic as those summer scenes often shown on TV, it would've been impossible to enjoy themselves. So for a date, this time of year might actually be perfect.
Thinking that to himself, Shidou finished changing and stepped out of the men's locker room into the indoor pool area.
The girls seemed to still be changing. Shidou stretched and rolled his shoulders, taking a moment to look around.
"Whoa... this is pretty amazing."
Beneath a massive domed ceiling spread a wide, shallow pool shaped like a beach shore, with a large artificial rock mountain at the back that served as the water slide.
"You can be impressed, but don't forget your mission, Commander."
Kannazuki's voice suddenly came through his earpiece.
"I—I know... Oh, right, this earpiece— it won't break if it gets wet, right?"
"Yes. It's fully waterproof," Reine answered calmly. "Just make sure it doesn't fall out of your ear."
Truthfully, Shidou wasn't sure he'd even need their support this time.
At that moment, the girls' voices called out from behind him.
"Shidou! Sorry for keeping you waiting!"
Turning around, Shidou saw Tohka, Yoshino, and Kotori — all already changed.
Tohka and Yoshino were wearing the swimsuits Shidou had bought for them yesterday, just as he expected.
Tohka wore a light purple bikini; Yoshino a pale blue one-piece with a frilly skirt at the waist. Yoshino still looked a bit awkward in it — maybe Tohka or Kotori had helped her put it on.
Perhaps because they'd already worn them before, or simply because everyone around them was similarly dressed, the two girls didn't seem embarrassed this time. With bright smiles, they jogged toward Shidou.
"Ah... h-hello..."
Shidou suddenly realized that all that "training" he'd endured back on Fraxinus hadn't been complete torture after all — it had actually helped him.
After all, both Tohka and Yoshino were stunningly beautiful. If he had seen them like this without any preparation, he might have been too dazzled to focus — and ended up neglecting the one he actually needed to charm: Kotori.
"...Good thing you had that training, right?"
As if reading his mind, Reine's voice came through the earpiece.
"Reine... don't tell me you planned that—"
Before Shidou could finish his thought, Tohka let out an excited shout:
"Whoa! Amazing! There's a lake and a mountain inside a building!"
Next to her, Yoshino — breathing a little faster from excitement — blushed as she spoke. The puppet Yoshinon on her left hand waved its arms.
"S-so much water..."
"Shidou, can we go into that lake?"
"Ah, of course! That's kind of the whole point of coming here, you know."
At his reply, Tohka's eyes sparkled even more brightly, and she shouted:
"Yoshino, let's go!"
"O-okay...!"
The two girls ran off energetically.
"They sure have a lot of energy," came a voice from behind him.
Shidou's shoulders stiffened.
"O-oh, Kotori."
He turned around slowly — and, as expected, there stood Kotori, now also in her swimsuit, arms crossed and a lollipop in her mouth.
She wore a white two-piece swimsuit — a halter-neck style top with thin straps that somehow radiated a subtle charm.
"..."
Come to think of it, Shidou realized he hadn't seen his sister in a swimsuit for a very long time.
Since their parents were always busy, the Itsuka siblings had lived mostly on their own, without much in the way of leisure activities.
While Shidou was still lost in thought, Kotori frowned slightly, looking displeased.
"Why are you staring at me like that? Biologically speaking, we might not be blood-related, but if you're having indecent thoughts about your sister, then you've lost not only your right to be a brother — but also your right to be human."
"Wha— no way!"
Shidou blurted it out without thinking.
Kotori's expression darkened even further.
"What's that supposed to mean...?"
"...Shidou?"
Reine's calm voice came through the earpiece.
"When you meet your date wearing a swimsuit, you're not supposed to just stand there in silence, you know."
She was right. Shidou cleared his throat softly and turned back toward Kotori.
"Kotori..."
"Yeah?"
He opened his mouth — but the words wouldn't come out.
It couldn't be helped. They were too close as siblings; saying that kind of thing to her felt unbearably awkward.
"Well... I just..."
"Hold on, Shidou."
Kotori suddenly interrupted, her tone turning serious.
"! Kotori, what is it—"
"Save it for later. Look over there."
Following her gaze, Shidou turned his head—
"!!! That's—"
Beside the pool stood a tall, black-haired girl in a blood-red dress, staring around curiously, her expression full of wonder — like a country girl seeing the big city for the first time.
"Looks like this date isn't going to go smoothly after all."
Kotori bit down on her lollipop, snapping it in half, her eyes narrowing sharply.
——
Tenqi Sanluo was utterly confused.
She hadn't expected to find herself in Tenguu City again.
Even though she'd temporarily severed her connection to the Spirit power messenger that Kurumi held, somehow she'd still appeared in this city.
It made her suspect that maybe her Spirit power was still linked to Kurumi — and that even if she cut the connection, when she manifested in the real world, it would automatically bring her here first.
If that were true, things were getting troublesome.
If she just reclaimed her power now, who knew when she'd next appear in this city — she might miss out on some interesting fun.
But right now, she desperately needed to vent — to turn the fire burning inside her heart into literal flames blazing across the city.
Since she couldn't fully control her materialization anyway, Tenqi Sanluo reluctantly accepted the situation as it was.
Now that she was here again, she realized she'd never really looked at the buildings of Tenguu City before.
Every time she had manifested in the past, she'd gone on a rampage — destroying everything in sight to unleash her anger, never caring what her flames consumed.
To her, buildings were only ever divided into two categories: sturdy and not sturdy.
And every time she finally thought to stop and look, all she saw reflected in her eyes was endless fire — and ruins stretching as far as the eye could see.
Since she was here again, and because there was still something about Shidou that interested her, she couldn't cause a scene. So she simply followed the flow of people quietly into a building called "Marine Park."
As for money — she'd just grabbed some unlucky passerby on the way.
And so, empty-handed and aimless, Tenqi Sanluo wandered inside, blankly staring at the strange sights she'd never seen before.
"What's this huge pool even for? And that... is that a mountain? Why is there a mountain indoors?"
Since she hadn't planned any of this, she hadn't brought a swimsuit — not that she'd been ready to face her current gender anyway. (To be honest, she'd mostly been spending her days either running from that fact or looking for amusement instead.)
Now, surrounded by people wearing what she considered absurdly revealing swimsuits, she felt a wave of awkwardness.
If this weren't Tenguu City, she might've drawn her weapon Polar Ice Burst and frozen the entire pool, smashing everyone inside one by one like watermelons.
Unfortunately, that was out of the question here.
"...So in a place like this, what exactly am I supposed to do?"
Thus spoke the most brutal Spirit.