However, upon seeing Shidou's reaction, Kotori widened her eyes in surprise.
"What are you talking about? You're an executive committee member of the Tengu Festival, right? Which means that during the time leading up to the festival, you'll have plenty of chances to talk with Miku."
"Even if you say that, Miku isn't interested in boys—no, to be more accurate, she downright *hates* me!!!"
Shidou shouted hysterically.
Kotori shrugged helplessly in response.
"Did you think I said all that without a plan? We've already come up with a countermeasure."
"? A countermeasure?"
Kotori nodded and snapped her fingers.
At that moment, Kannazuki suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"Mr. Kannazuki…?"
"Shidou-kun,—let me show you something good."
As he spoke, Kannazuki swiftly thrust something that had been hidden behind him toward Shidou's face.
"!—"
The moment Shidou saw what he was holding, he turned to stone.
In Kannazuki's hands was a uniform Shidou knew extremely well—
the Raizen High School uniform.
—Only, it was the *girls'* version.
And not only that, it was brand new, and very large in size.
Judging from appearance, if a girl about the same size as Shidou were to wear it, it would probably fit perfectly.
"...Kotori… don't tell me this 'countermeasure' is…"
A bad premonition surged in his mind, and Shidou took a step back.
If his guess was correct… this girls' uniform…
But the next second, Shidou's arms were restrained.
He turned around to find two of the *"excellent"* crew members of the Fraxinus—Kawagoe and Kan'nan—holding him in place.
"W–wait… let me go…!"
As Shidou desperately struggled to escape this place of doom, Shiizaki appeared with various cosmetics wedged between her fingers like throwing weapons, and Minowa emerged holding an assortment of wigs in different colors.
"T–this is…!"
Shidou couldn't help but scream.
He had a feeling that if he let this continue, his chastity would shatter into pieces.
But Kannazuki completely ignored his wails and, along with the other two, closed in with a perverted grin.
"It's okay, don't be afraid, Shidou-kun—at first you might feel a little chilly down there, but you'll get used to it soon enough; trust me, your senior would never lie to you."
"Only an idiot would trust a 'senior' like you!!"
Shidou shouted while continuing to struggle, but obviously, an ordinary high school student couldn't overpower two fully grown adults.
"Kotori… why are you just standing there watching…?"
Hearing Shidou's unusually accusatory tone, Kotori didn't get angry. She simply smiled sweetly like a cute little sister and gave him a thumbs-up.
"Good luck… *sis*."
"Nooooooo!!—"
...
A few hours later, on the other side of Tenguu City.
Standing on the rooftop of the tallest building nearby, Apocalypse Sanluo narrowed her eyes as she surveyed the bustling streets below.
Her stay in this world was unusually long this time—was it because she hadn't used her Angel at all?
If that was truly the case, then this was quite an interesting revelation.
When she didn't want to quickly fall into Lost, she could simply use the pair of flintlock guns Kurumi had given her to fight.
"Ara ara, Miss Apocalypse seems to be in quite a good mood."
Speak of the devil.
Accompanied by her all-too-familiar saxophone-like sound effect, Tokisaki Kurumi emerged from a nearby shadow.
"Tokisaki Kurumi, do you know how to make a Spirit stay in this world for a longer period of time?"
"Miss Apocalypse, that's not something simple."
"Next time, can you at least switch to a different excuse?"
Hearing Kurumi's refusal, Sanluo sighed.
No matter how she coaxed or pressured Kurumi, the latter refused to tell her how to remain in this world for longer, as if worried Sanluo would cause too much trouble.
"Ara? I don't understand what Miss Apocalypse is talking about."
Kurumi tilted her head, pretending to be an airhead and playing dumb.
"Forget it, pretend I didn't ask."
Sanluo glanced backward. As expected—it was another clone.
"So? Tokisaki Kurumi, you didn't come here just to chat about that, did you?"
"Of course not."
Kurumi pulled two flintlocks from her shadow, one of them pointing toward the sky.
"Miss Apocalypse, do you know DEM Industries?"
"DEM? Oh, I think I saw some buildings with those letters when I was in other cities. Why?"
If Sanluo had seen them, that meant those buildings had likely all been reduced to rubble.
"You remember the AST back in the theater yesterday?"
Kurumi pointed her rifle toward the theater in the distance, now reduced to a destroyed mess.
"Mm, and?"
Sanluo yawned.
"Tokisaki Kurumi, get to the point. No need for roundabout nonsense. From what you're saying, those AST members were people from DEM?"
"More like a portion of them."
Kurumi smiled alluringly.
"That one who tried to hurt Shidou-san was a magician employed by DEM."
"Oh? No wonder she acted so strangely. I thought she was just a parasite within AST."
By the way, the electric baton Jessica held yesterday had been shot out of her hand by Sanluo.
"Miss Apocalypse, you're quite sharp. You should already know what DEM is, right?"
Sanluo looked toward the horizon, where the sun had already set, leaving only darkness.
"Since you mentioned Itsuka Shidou, then DEM must've set their sights on him, right? And you said that parasite was a DEM magician—are you telling me a corporation actually has private forces of that scale?"
"Exactly—because the CR-Units used by AST, and by every anti-Spirit organization around the world, all come from DEM. The inventor of CR-Units is the current managing director of DEM—Isaac Ray Pelham Westcott. Miss Apocalypse can think of DEM as an international arms dealer."
CR-Units—mankind's weapon against Spirits.
Although the mass-produced units used by AST could hardly harm a Spirit, they were sufficient for breaking defenses, and for an organization that relied on sheer numbers, they were just right.
"So? Tokisaki-san, you're not planning to ask me to join you in protecting Itsuka Shidou, are you?"
Upon hearing this, Kurumi shook her head with a smile.
"Though I *would* like that—the thing is, Shidou-san already has several Spirits protecting him. It seems he doesn't need me at the moment. Oh, right—while you were away from Tenguu City these past few months, he even managed to conquer a pair of twin Spirits."
"Oh? And?"
Sanluo hadn't changed her posture at all. She was still waiting to see how Shidou and his group would fare against a Spirit like Yuzuru Miku, who gave them zero chance from the first meeting. She wanted to see whether they would despair, or even abandon their foolish idea of conquering Spirits.
"It's simple—Miss Apocalypse, would you like to go with me to DEM's Japan branch? It's right here in Tenguu City."
"Oh?"
That was unexpected in a way.
"What do you mean? As far as I know, you're not exactly a saint. Don't tell me you've suddenly decided to turn over a new leaf and become a hero of justice?"
"Eh? A hero of justice…? No no, nothing like that."
"Hm?"
Sanluo turned her head. Kurumi's expression had returned to normal.
Was it just her imagination? It felt like Kurumi had panicked for a moment, her emotions strangely unstable.
But that wasn't the main issue right now.
"There's something I want from DEM—that's all."
"That's all? Don't tell me you're interested in the equipment there?"
As absurd as it sounded, if DEM was really an arms dealer of CR-Units, then what else would Kurumi be after?
"I'll tell you once I find it—so, what do you think?"
Kurumi had barely finished speaking before Sanluo replied without hesitation:
"Let me think about it. I have a little entertainment show coming up soon—if helping you gets in the way of that, it'll be a problem."
With that, before Kurumi could respond, Sanluo leaped off the tall building.
---