Chapter 282: Mana and Shiori Becoming Spirits?
"Lin, Mom and Dad want us back before eight, so Origami and I are heading out first."
At Chiyogami's words, Franklin smiled and nodded, then turned to the expressionless Origami.
Lin… night visit…
Reading her lips, Franklin sent a divine-sense message: "I'll definitely come. Tonight I'll make sure you're both satisfied…"
Chiyogami, who also received the message, felt her cheeks flush uncontrollably.
Sensing everyone's curious stares, she grabbed Origami's hand and hurried toward the entryway.
With a faint smile, Franklin looked at the others still gathered around the table.
"Anything else anyone wants to say? If not, you can stagger your turns in the bathrooms—there's one private bath on each of the first through fourth floors."
Nagisa gave Franklin a small nod, then gently took Yoshinon and Yoshino by the hand and headed out of the living room.
Kurumi leisurely sipped her black tea, quietly watching Franklin. Tohka was still eating her after-dinner cake with no intention of leaving.
Franklin gave a helpless sigh and stopped pressing them. He turned directly to Mana Takamiya and Shiori Takamiya.
"Let me apologize again—I'm truly sorry for everything you went through at DEM. That will never happen again.
From now on, I'll do my best to let you experience a normal teenage girl's life. As for fighting, I'm more than enough."
Mana shook her head lightly and looked at Franklin with a serious expression.
"No. What I want is to be useful to you, big brother. A normal daily life is already too far from me—I don't need it right now…"
Franklin raised a hand to stop her from going on, then turned to Shiori.
"What about you, Shiori?"
"Me… I'm fine either way. My main reason for working at DEM was to protect Mana.
Now that I have your help, Lin, I'm okay no matter what. I'll just follow whatever you decide."
Franklin nodded lightly, then looked back at Mana.
"Mm. Helping me is simple. From now on, just stay by my side. I'll personally design your CR-Unit, and if you want to fight, I can make that happen. Plus, I'll feel safer with you close."
Mana's eyes lit up at his words. "I understand, big brother. From now on, I'll always be right beside you."
Franklin smiled, then took Mana's and Shiori's hands and carefully sensed their physical conditions.
"The modifications were pretty thorough. It feels like parts of your bodies have already started turning spirit-like…"
He glanced at Tohka—he had no intention of letting anyone else have these two sisters.
Using the spirit bodies of Yoshinon and Chiyogami that he had created with Illusory World Genesis as a reference,
Franklin planned to fully transform the two girls into spirits. He instinctively looked toward Reine and found her staring back at him.
He gave a light cough to ease the awkwardness, then decided to let them choose for themselves.
"Mana, Shiori—because your bodies are in a special state right now, I have two options for you.
The first is to turn you back into full humans. Your current strength would drop significantly…"
At this option, Mana's brows immediately furrowed, and Shiori's tightened slightly as well.
"The second option is that I'll use some of my abilities to fully convert both of you into spirits.
But afterward, you'd become targets for AST."
Their brows furrowed even more. After a long pause, Mana scanned the room once and looked back at Franklin.
"Big brother, you have the ability to turn spirits into humans, right?
All these girls around you are spirits—the one codenamed Princess, Tohka; the one codenamed Efreet, Kotori Itsuka;
the one codenamed Hermit, Yoshino, plus the mysterious Yoshinon;
the previously unknown spirits Origami Tobiichi and Chiyogami Tobiichi; and the worst spirit of all, Nightmare—Kurumi Tokisaki. I hunted her for a long time, but I could never kill her."
Feeling the killing intent in Mana's gaze, Kurumi gave a faint smile and lightly sipped her black tea.
"Ara ara, don't look at me like that, Miss Mana. I might end up as one of your future big sisters.
We should try to get along peacefully, or Mr. Franklin will have a headache."
At Kurumi's words, Mana turned her gaze back to Franklin, full of confusion and questions.
"Explaining Kurumi is simple but also complicated—it depends on each person's values.
In the past, she killed a lot of people, many of whom didn't deserve to die. By human laws, she is guilty.
But she's a spirit. When AST tries to kill her, she has the right to fight back. So I make no judgment on any of it.
All I can promise is that from now on, Kurumi won't kill casually. As for becoming your sister—that's inevitable.
I'm going to seal the powers of every spirit, then go meet the origin spirit."
As he said this, Franklin looked at Reine Murasame. Their eyes met; in her somewhat weary gaze, he detected no cracks or tells.
"All right, we'll set that aside for now. Back to the original question: become humans again, or become spirits?"
Just as Mana opened her mouth to speak, Kotori—black ribbons in place—stood up with a dark expression, walked over to Franklin, and grabbed both of his cheeks.
"After hearing all this, I'm only now realizing what you're thinking, big bro. Isn't one little sister—me—enough for you?
You want to take both of them too? You hopeless siscon—you're completely beyond saving."
Seeing Franklin's face being pulled like that, Mana's brows tightened. She stepped forward and swatted Kotori's hands away.
"I won't allow you to humiliate big brother like that. And you're not even fit to be his sister.
You don't act like a sister at all—just always looking down on everyone."
As the two instantly squared off, Franklin helplessly clapped his hands to draw their attention.
"Well… Kotori didn't say anything wrong. I do have some pretty heavy personal motives…"
Kurumi narrowed her eyes in an amused smile, watching with interest to see how Franklin would handle this.
Tohka kept eating her cake, completely oblivious to the argument.
Relieved at that, Franklin turned to Mana, Shiori, and Kotori.
"My own preference is to transform you into spirits. That way, Mana and Shiori, you'd never be able to leave me."
At his words, Mana and Shiori were covered in question marks.
"What does that mean, Lin? Leave you? Why would we leave you?"
"Yeah, big brother—even if you don't turn us into spirits, we'd never leave you."
Seeing how innocent they looked, Kotori let out a scoff.
"Two little kids who can't even figure that out, and they're still trying to pick a fight with me."
As Mana's anger flared again, Franklin gave a light cough to pull their attention back.
"Mana, Shiori—I have an ability called Spirit Sealing. It can turn spirits into humans…"