“Father, Mother!”
Seeing her parents escape safely from the fire, the girl let out a sigh of relief.
Then, in that very instant…
“Huh?”
A pillar of light, descending abruptly from the sky, enveloped the girl’s parents.
And then, her parents, standing within that pillar…
They simply vanished before the girl’s eyes.
“Ahhhhhhh…”
A scream tore from the depths of the girl’s throat as she instinctively looked up at the sky.
In the heavens, a woman radiant with light, like an angel, was visible.
“It was—it was you who took Father and Mother…”
“Absolutely unforgivable… I’ll kill you… I’ll definitely kill you… I will personally end you!”
Facing the “angel” in the sky, the girl swore an oath of vengeance.
****
“Mmmnh… Ah!”
Origami’s eyes snapped open, roused from her slumber.
When she gazed at the familiar ceiling, Origami realized…
‘I had that dream again?’
Indeed, Origami had just dreamt, reliving the scene of her parents’ death five years ago.
It was Origami’s first encounter with a Spirit.
The genesis of everything that followed.
From that day forward, with no other relatives nearby, Origami was temporarily adopted by an aunt living in the vicinity. However, the fact that this aunt was involved with the AST profoundly impacted Origami’s life.
After warning Origami not to reveal it to anyone, her aunt disclosed a certain existence to her.
Spirits—the calamities that threatened the world.
Subsequently, Origami trained with extraordinary diligence.
Her sole motivation was to find an opportunity to kill that Spirit and exact her revenge.
In the years that followed, through her aunt’s introduction, Origami joined the AST. After her compatibility with the Realizer was recognized, she became a Wizard.
As a Wizard, Origami imposed even stricter demands on her training.
All to acquire the power to slay Spirits and fulfill her vengeance.
Yet, fate played a cruel joke on her.
No matter how much she trained, an insurmountable gulf remained between her and the Spirits.
Confronting an enraged Spirit, Origami lacked even the ability to approach it.
Powerless.
Utterly incapable of retaliation.
She had abandoned all interests typical of her age, pushing herself to the brink with training, yet her strength couldn’t even pique a Spirit’s interest in battle.
It was merely a lion swatting away a fly.
For this, Origami yearned for power—the power to overcome Spirits, complete her revenge, and reclaim everything.
Then, she saw it.
—A humanoid mosaic.
Origami didn’t know who it was, but it granted her power.
—The power of a Spirit.
With a thought, a golden, feather-like object, reminiscent of an angel’s wing, materialized.
The feather then aimed at a porcelain bowl on the cabinet and fired a beam of light.
With a ‘boom,’ the porcelain bowl shattered instantly, while other objects remained completely untouched.
Origami had done nothing, not even rising from her bed.
A mere thought was enough to launch an attack.
Just like a magician in a novel.
Yet Origami understood this was no magic; it was spirit power.
The power of a Spirit.
Indeed, the girl who loathed Spirits had, in an unforeseen turn of events, become one herself.
One had to admit, fate was a truly wicked playwright!
“…”
Origami remained silent, retracting the golden feather.
Aside from the mosaic figure, whose nature—human or Spirit—was unknown, only Origami herself knew of her transformation into a Spirit.
She did not want anyone else to know, especially the boy she relied on, Itsuka Shido.
Therefore, unless absolutely necessary and guaranteed to remain a secret, Origami decided it was best not to use this power.
In essence, she would temporarily seal this power away.
With that thought, Origami slowly rose, put on casual clothes, and prepared to leave.
As the school was severely damaged and would likely require some time for repairs, Origami’s destination this time was not school.
Princess, the Succubus, and another mysterious Spirit—whose Spirit energy alone had been detected—had all appeared in ways unknown to AST. They were even capable of blending into crowds.
For safety’s sake, the higher-ups had ordered AST members to go out in plain clothes, posing as civilians, to secretly search for any suspicious Spirit activity.
If there was none, that was good.
If there was, at least they would be prepared.
“…”
Regardless of what the higher-ups thought, Origami stepped out onto the street.
****
“Miss, you’re so beautiful, why don’t you come and have some fun?”
“…”
Ignoring the clamor of the street, Origami searched for traces of Spirits.
As the saying goes, to hide a branch, hide it in the forest. With people bustling on the streets and Spirits without their Astral Dresses indistinguishable from ordinary girls, finding one should, by all accounts, be impossible.
Yet, with her keen observational skills, Origami still spotted a suspected Spirit.
Pink hair, large breasts, heterochromatic eyes—such rare features would draw attention on anyone. To possess all three, however, pointed to only one individual: the most alluring Spirit, the Succubus.
Ordinarily, Origami should have immediately reported this to her superiors and requested an observation unit.
However, Origami’s attention wasn’t on the Succubus, but rather on the blue-haired “girl” beside her.
“Qianye, am I too conspicuous dressed like this? I keep feeling like someone is staring at me.”
Long blue hair reached their waist, tea-colored eyes gleamed, and a four-leaf clover hairpin adorned their head. They wore light makeup, a blue low-cut tank top, a brown knitted cardigan, a blue skirt, and women’s sneakers.
Origami had never seen such a “girl” before, but that didn’t prevent her from recognizing his true identity.
‘Arm swing, stride length—completely identical. It’s definitely Shido in drag.’
Origami muttered to herself, swiftly pulling out a camera from an unknown pocket and snapping several photos.
“Qianye, I feel like someone behind me is taking pictures.”
Origami took several more photos, but she wasn’t satisfied. She wanted close-up shots of Shido in drag, especially from *under* the skirt.
As for the mission? Origami had long since forgotten about it. How could a mission possibly be more important than Shido in drag?
That was Shido, Origami Tobiichi’s boyfriend! It must be a vile Spirit using charm to distort his gender identity, making him transform into a girl.
As Itsuka Shido’s girlfriend, Origami felt it was her duty to set things right.
Watching Shido and the Spirit enter a maid cafe, Origami conceived a plan.