Tale of Discovery

So, it has appeared at last. It's a little odd that it did so at such a troublesome time, but I can't do much about that.

All of a sudden, I hear the cries of a woman as I sense a rather big projectile falling in our direction.

Using my senses, I check the projectile out, only to find one of the three girls that had escaped, albeit, instead of wearing the combat realizer unit I saw, she is now dressed up like a brown dog.

"Natsumi?" I subconsciously mutter as I look past the falling girl over at a figure sitting on a flying broom right above us.

Seeing that I've noticed her, a smile forms on the now-undisguised, but in adult form Natsumi as she begins to descend toward us.

At this moment, "Bang!" - the word pops up where the girl contacts the ground along with some dust to seemingly make it more dramatic.

I take one last glance at the unconscious girl before shifting all my focus over to Natsumi who has almost reached the ground now.

"Here," Natsumi immediately says as she proceeds to grab something behind her and throws it over to me.

Telekinetically grabbing the object, I take a few seconds to observe it.

This… It seems to be something like a futuristic speaker? Why would Natsumi bring this over to me? In fact, why was she even carrying this in the first place?

"That girl over there," Natsumi says, seeming to understand my doubts, "She was setting this up on top of the building."

No wonder… Then, this thing must have something to do with whatever it is they're planning to achieve.

Even so, what can be done through a speaker? Play some kind of noise that only affects certain creatures? That's the only way I could think of for them to use speakers as a part of their plans.

"Hey, Shido, look!" Tohka suddenly exclaims while pointing up at the sky.

Doing as she told me to, I am met with the sight of what seems to be a space quake forming right in the middle of the sky. However, unlike the ones I have seen before, this one has sparks of golden lightning briskly appearing and disappearing all around it.

Shortly, the space quake begins to expand marginally before abruptly 'popping' and revealing two rather similar-looking figures floating in the sky while facing one another.

"Origami," I say in a solemn tone, "I need you to head over to the fortified building from earlier. Take the rest along with you."

Hearing my words, Origami simply nods her head once along with a hum of confirmation before looking over at Miina who is still on her knees and hands.

"Tohka," I say as Origami moves over to carry Miina, "You can make as much usage of Sandalphon as you can. Just try to limit the damage you do, alright?"

"Alright," she responds in a serious tone that makes me uncomfortable for no other reason than her usual beamish demeanor not being exhibited.

Now then, I should probably do this too, just in case.

Accessing my database, I skim through the numerous objects listed and proceed to create a few pairs of earplugs.

"Put these on and have them do the same," I say as I hand the earplugs to Tohka, "Also, take care. In case anything happens, try to make as much noise as possible to attract my attention."

"Finally, Natsumi, I leave the unconscious girl to you," I say, to which Natsumi simply nods her head before looking over at the girl lying on the ground.

Having said that, I use Flight to slowly ascend with my gaze focused on the two figures in the sky who just so happen to be right in the middle of some conversation right now.

Using this chance, I observe the two properly.

Identical twins - that's the first thought I have regarding the two girls floating in the sky.

The two of them are both wearing a set of leather clothing that exposes a moderate portion of their skin.

To the left, there is a girl whose expression reminds me of Origami for some reason. Perhaps because she looks impassive? Either way, the girl has no apparent expression on her face as she speaks.

Appearance-wise, there are some barely noticeable differences between the two girls.

For starters, the one on the left has her hair braided in three portions, while the other one has it done into only two.

Moving on to their peculiar clothing, for their torso, they both have leather along with some bits of metal covering their modest breasts.

On their neck, they both have silver padlocks with broken chains hanging from them.

Next, they have a pair of belts forming a diamond shape on their stomachs while leaving them bare as the belts extend to their lower half.

Here is what I find rather interesting, as both of them have a half-skirt on with multiple belts reaching out from beneath it to the long socks that are knee-length.

Moving on to the differences, the main one would be the color of their outfits, of which the left one's more of a bluish-purple unlike the other girl's mainly purple-colored outfit.

My observation is cut short as the two girls suddenly seem to notice my presence and look over at me together.

Releasing a small sigh, I circulate Holy Essence within my arms as I increase the pace at which I ascend toward the twin.

"Hello," I say casually once I am at the same level as the two. While I am at it, I take this opportunity to quickly scan the island with Clairvoyance.

Expectedly, on one side, numerous students are escaping to the same building I had sent Origami and the rest over to along with Tamae and Reine who are leading the way.

Quite a distance away from there, I find another one of the two girls who is just about to finish setting up a speaker similar to the one in my hand right on top of a tall building.

Already aware of the lengths my foes will take in order to capture me, I decide that it would be better if I just decreased their numbers from now on at every given chance. As such, I hastily access my database and begin looking for a certain object that can solve both of my problems in one go.

In a matter of seconds, to the twin's chagrin, I create a rocket missile right in front of me while not heeding them any attention.

"Hopefully, this thing explodes," I mutter before using telekinesis to move it behind myself.

Then, along with a swift motion of my arm, I hurl the missile right at where the girl is at while amplifying its vectors.

The next moment, the rocket slams into the ground beside the girl and immediately blows up, resulting in a deafening sound reverberating over the place as a mild shock-wave spread around the island.

"What the?!" a voice reaches my ears as one of the twin's eyes widen in shock.

Turning to face her, I adopt a pleasant smile and say, "Sorry about that. Had to get rid of a nuisance first."

Casting a final glance at the building now-destroyed roof of the building, I am relieved to find the remnants of the girl and speaker, suggesting that neither survived the explosion through some odd means.

Unfortunately, even after I take a dozen or so seconds to look around the island once more, I don't find the last girl.

Releasing another sigh, I shift my focus back to the girl who let out a yelp earlier and says, "So, how about we introduce ourselves?"

Hearing my suggestion, the two girls look at each other before they both nod their heads.

Seeing this, the smile on my lips grows as I clench my hands and press them against my hips before saying, "I will start then. My name is Shido Itsuka, and I just so happen to be a spirit like you two."

There is a lot wrong with what I just said, but it's currently the best introduction I can give, so can't do much about it.

"Stating: My name is Yuzuru Yamai," the one with an impassive expression says.

What an odd way of speaking…

"Oho! I am Kaguya Yamai, the real one!"

"Objection: Kaguya is not the real Yamai."

"Hmph! We both know that I am. My all-seeing eye has made it clear to me!" the girl responds with a vigorous aura around her.

"Reasoning: You're basing your opinion off as a fact and making a false accusation."

Before the lively girl can respond to her claim, she continues, "Fact: Kaguya's all-seeing eye has never been correct."

"Stop, stop!" the other one exclaims before glimpsing at me, "We are about to reach the end anyway!"

Huh? What's with these two, and what the heck are they planning to get me caught up in?

Their whole conversation is weird, to begin with. One of them claims to be the 'real one' while the other objects to it in a robotic manner.

If I were to take their words at face value, I can deduct the following: The two of them both hope to be a certain individual and are trying to determine which one of the two of them is the one.

Either way, it sounds like an annoying mess to get caught up in…

"Say, how about you-" I say, only to get interrupted by the sound of a woman yelling in the distance as a figure begins to briskly fly toward us.

Looking down, I find Ellen, who has an expression that I can only key out as 'crazed' on her face while making use of her realizer to fly in our direction.

In her left hand, she's carrying the spear that let out a burst of energy, while in the other, she's gripping the 'sword'.

"Excuse me," I say before canceling Flight and letting my body drop while also smashing the speaker in my hands to bits.

"Ahhh!" Ellen cries out as she continues to get closer to me with her right arm raised, obviously planning to slice through me using her sword.

The next moment, we're both within each other's reach. As I expected, Ellen swings her sword, to which I simply use Vector Manipulation and reverse the vectors of the forces acting on the sword.

This results in Ellen's balance to get unstable, which I take as a chance to swiftly throw a punch at her stomach, only to stop midway and open my fist to utilize Holy Slash instead.

Caught both off-guard and off-balance, Ellen could only watch in horror and fury as blades of light directly slice all four of her limbs off and effectively ruin the flight mechanism of her realizer.

"Goodbye," I say in a cold tone as I kick her in the gut as a finisher, resulting in her to shoot toward the ground after coughing out a mouthful of blood.

As such, I look at the woman fall to her death for a few seconds before looking back up at the two spirits, who are now surprisingly flying toward me themselves.

As if the previous happenings weren't surprising enough, one of the twins proceeds to pull a lance out of nowhere and attempts to stab me in my stomach.

Naturally, I prevent that from happening by canceling the vectors acting on the spear before counterattacking by punching her chest.

As a result, the girl gets hurled back quite a distance, to which the other one responds by swiftly changes the direction of her flight, clearly intending to catch her.

---3rd POV---

Making use of all the energy she can muster, Yuzuru manages to catch up to Kaguya and embraces her as the two of them stop moving in the air.

"Statement: It's pointless to fight him head-on."

As a response to Yuzuru's claim, Kaguya coughs twice before roughly pushing her away and saying in a haggard tone, "Shut up! This is the only way left."

"Refutation: It's only what Kaguya has assumed so."

"Then, do you know of any other way?! We tried everything! So, let's do it this way! The first one to beat him wins!"

"Inquiry: Why is it necessary to beat him?"

"Why, does Yuzuru have a better suggestion than this?"

"Response: Yes - Seduce him."

"What?"

"Reasoning: Safer and has not been done before."

"Eh… It's true, but…"

At this moment, a certain figure abruptly appears in between the two girls, who is none other than Victor.

Placing his palm against his forehead, he mutters, "I knew this would be troublesome..."

Following that, Victor releases as sigh before adopting a solemn look and looking over at Kaguya.

He remains motionless for a dozen or so seconds, seemingly deliberating on something before saying in a mocking tone, "I just heard her say something about seducing me. Do you think either of you can actually pull it off?"

"What do you mean by that?!" Kaguya exclaims as a response to his words while clenching her fists.

"What else other than pure doubt of your capabilities?" he responds while grinning.

"Report: He is issuing a challenge."

"I know!" Kaguya exclaims while gritting her teeth, "I just don't like the way he said as it makes my blood boil."

As a response to this, Victor shrugs and says, "For now, how about you girls land on the ground, so we can have a proper conversation? I doubt you can seduce me in this situation."

"Affirmation: I think so too," Yuzuru says while looking over at Kaguya.

---1st POV---

Landing on the ground along with the two girls, I take a moment to search the surroundings for anything out of the norm, only to happen upon an interesting sight.

Not much of a distance away from us, a limbless Ellen is lying on the ground while the last remaining girl tends to her wounds by some device shaped like a pistol, albeit a white one.

Next to them, there is another one of those speakers, but this one seems to be ready for usage.

"Follow me," I order the twin as I begin walking in the direction Ellen and the girl are.

Hah~ I've done it now. Due to the oddity of the situation and how things were arranged, I had no other choice than doing what needed to be done.

I suppose it's about time I stopped testing the waters and began facing the opponent directly.

Doing so would most likely bring an end to the peace I've had, and could potentially leave me with a very limited amount of free time.

I reckon that Kotori's higher-ups will begin to throw their die into this game sometime soon, anyway.

For now, I should take Ellen and the girl that should currently be held hostage by Natsumi over to somewhere I can freely interrogate them.

And, right now, there is only one place that comes to my mind...