Chapter 352 - 5: Got Dumped, Huh?

Chapter 352: Chapter 5: Got Dumped, Huh?

Yimi reached out and tugged at Tobiichi Origami’s clothes. The ugly outfit that had once been hers now belonged to Origami.

Origami did not respond. She took off Yimi’s hat and confirmed that the pair of cat ears beneath it were real.

Her height, appearance, and voice had not changed, but her hair had grown quite long and showed signs of having been trimmed by someone. Dressed in a pretty little skirt instead of an Astral Dress, she looked like a whole new person.

Origami’s impression of her was still frozen on the cat-eared child who liked T-shirts and shorts, wore a baseball cap, sometimes went barefoot, and never cared about dressing up.

Both she and Kyouno Natsumi were wearing witch hats, but perhaps all those changes also made everyone subconsciously realize that this child was the real thing—not Natsumi, battered to the point of coughing blood yet still stubbornly using Haniel to pull some sudden stunt on them.

They had worried about her for so long and thought she was dead. Origami had nearly undergone Inversion the moment she fused with the Sephira Crystal, yet this little cat had apparently gone off somewhere and enjoyed herself for an entire month...

"She’s perfectly fine, isn’t she? If I’d known, I wouldn’t have come..." Natsumi, still sprawled on the ground like a corpse, muttered her usual pessimistic remarks.

Yoshino gently patted her stomach.

Takamiya Mio rose from the ground. Her previously gentle expression turned serious as she looked at Yimi, whom she had designated her greatest enemy.

"You actually escaped from that place?"

"But... I won last time." Yimi raised her spear and pointed it at Mio.

"That is true. Even my final Angel could not defeat you. Just as I sensed when we first met, you truly are dangerous." Takamiya Mio sighed.

"Liar..."

Itsuka Kotori crouched on the ground, murmuring to herself to distract from the violent impulses unique to becoming the Spirit of the Fifth Sephira.

The Spirit of Origin was as powerful as a god... No, she herself was already a god. How had Yimi possibly defeated her?

Mio’s wariness was not an act.

"But it is absolutely impossible for me to stop here." Mio lowered her gaze slightly.

"Why are you trying to kill... Origami and the others?!" Yimi asked bluntly.

"Because the plan changed, I suppose."

Mio looked toward Itsuka Shiori. "I will reclaim the Sephira Crystals sooner or later anyway. When that time comes, I will inevitably have to kill everyone."

Without wasting another word, she reached toward Yimi and, dispensing with all formalities, immediately invoked her third Angel, Ain.

The instant it appeared, every Spirit present sensed that something was terribly wrong.

Would her second attempt to erase Yimi end the same way?

Mio did not know. She had never allowed herself to retreat or consider another path. Everything had been decided the moment she wished to revive Shin.

"Wait! Stop!" Shiori tried to intervene.

Just as before, Yimi raised the bloodstained spear again. This time, however, she did not simply throw it. The saint’s blood—the true source of the Spear of Longinus’s power—burst apart and hovered in the air as droplets, making everyone instinctively want to avert their eyes.

"Noble Phantasm release—"

Come to think of it, neither the spear’s Angel nor its power to transfer misfortune had manifested at all in Origami after she inherited Yimi’s Astral Dress.

Was this also the power of a god?

She would die.

Facing the spearhead, Mio realized that once more. This was not the holy suppression that evil beings instinctively suffered, but an anti-divinity property that the weapon had barely displayed since entering Yimi’s hands.

Even the nature of direct erasure was obstructed by the saint’s blood.

An arc of light flashed past.

"I really will die." Takamiya Mio restored the gentle smile to her face and stepped back twice, allowing blood to run from the corner of her mouth.

So even the Spirit of Origin—or rather, a god—could bleed?

The wheel behind her that symbolized the Kabbalistic Tree of Life shattered. Yimi pulled the spear straight out of Mio’s pierced chest, and Takamiya Mio collapsed.

At the same time, a strange emotion stirred inside Yimi, even though this had always been a fight in which one of them had to die.

"Yimi... Reine..."

The others had not even processed what had happened. The mortal enemy who had plunged them into despair had been defeated in a single strike, just like that.

Enemies with divine traits were actually easier for Yimi to handle.

"How does it feel, Mio?"

Tokisaki Kurumi was the first to recover. She walked over, apparently prepared to deliver a few taunts.

"Yamauchi Sawa fell just like this back then. Before that, I regarded both of you as my dearest friends."

Kurumi’s goal had always been to return to the past and change everything before Mio committed those acts. She had never carefully considered what she would say to mock Mio after winning.

She was merely reminding everyone who had formed bonds with Ms. Reine that there was no way they could avoid killing this woman, burdened with countless crimes—and that they should not direct their resentment at Yimi for killing her.

"So this is what life slipping away feels like. Somehow, I feel very sorry."

Takamiya Mio gazed calmly at the sky until Shiori took her hand.

"Reine..."

Mio reached up and brushed Shiori’s hair aside. "My name is not Reine. Takamiya Mio—that is the name you gave me."

Her voice carried no trace of weakness. Even her disappearance was evidently different from that of an ordinary person.

Mio finally had the chance to restore Takamiya Shinji’s memories to Shiori. Under everyone’s worried gazes, Shiori clutched her aching head.

"Shiori!"

"I’m fine. I... remember everything now."

Shiori took Mio’s hand again and looked at her sadly. "Was all of this for me?"

For her alone, Mio had committed so much slaughter.

Mio opened her arms toward Shiori, delighted as she moved to embrace her. "Shin, I finally..."

Shiori’s gaze flickered away, but she took the initiative and hugged her.

No matter how well she concealed it, Mio still saw through her.

"I see. You are Shiori, not Shin."

Takamiya Shinji was dead. Even if Shiori possessed his memories, Shiori was still Shiori. Had Mio not faintly anticipated this outcome from the very beginning?

"Do not be sad, Shin. Do you remember saying that you deeply resented your mother for abandoning you? I am sorry. That was me..."

Kotori had once told Mio that this had given Shiori powerful self-destructive tendencies as a child, which filled Mio with guilt.

Only now did Mio realize why she had continued despite vaguely sensing that Shin could never return: somewhere in her heart, she had also wanted to create someone capable of killing her.

If Shin could not return to her side, then she would choose to follow her in death. Perhaps that, too, was what she had wanted.

Standing at the edge of the group, Origami wanted to deliver the final blow with her floating cannons, but she restrained herself for Shiori’s sake.

"No. I am Shinji." Tears streaming down her face, Shiori told a gentle lie.

She bent down, but Takamiya Mio raised a hand to stop the approaching lips. "No. I must not cheat on him."

...

"So I got dumped, huh."