Standoff

The girl opened her eyes, finding herself cradled in the arms of the young woman before her. The sensation behind her head was incredibly soft, yet she quickly understood what she was resting upon, and flustered, she pulled away from the embrace.

A flush of crimson spread across her cheeks, reaching her ears, making her delicate face resemble a perfectly ripe apple.

It wasn’t until the girl had pulled away that Shido fully registered what had just transpired. He immediately moved to her side, checking on her.

“Are you alright? That’s a relief. It’s a good thing Yisha reacted so quickly, otherwise… Here, your doll.”

The girl timidly stared at Shido, though her gaze soon shifted to the comical rabbit doll in his hand.

She accepted it, then bowed in thanks before turning to leave.

!

Her feet seemed to falter once more, and the girl stumbled again. Just as her nose was mere inches from the ground, Shido caught her, halting her fall.

“Tsk!”

“You’re far too clumsy. Never mind, I’ll take you to the resting room over there, though we might need to get the miko’s permission first.”

Once the girl had regained her footing, Shido led her towards a nearby building.

“Yisha, aren’t you coming?”

He turned to look, finding Yisha inexplicably furious, her eyes burning with displeasure directed at him.

“No, I just remembered I have something to do. I’m leaving now.”

The young woman quickly composed herself, then departed from the shrine as soon as the words left her lips.

“Alright, take care.”

Shido, watching Yisha leave, felt a touch bewildered. Yet, he mused that the double umbrella Yina had given him had, in a way, served its purpose.

“Well then, we…”

His words abruptly ceased. The figure he expected was no longer in his sight; the girl had vanished at some unknown moment.

‘Ugh, I hope she’s alright.’

After a fruitless search, Shido could only offer a silent prayer before departing alone.

From behind a tree in the corner of the shrine, the rabbit doll quietly peeked out.

‘Damn it, that was Hermit! It seems he truly is central to Origin’s plans. Even after all my interactions with him, they still send Spirits over.’

Yisha strode rapidly through the streets, her pace quick and determined. After several turns, she finally halted, looking up at the sky. The heavy clouds showed no sign of dispersing, and the relentless rain continued to pour.

“Let’s see where you’ll run now, Calamity!”

Light particles adhered to her feet, and in the instant kinetic energy was released, Yisha ascended to the rooftops of the surrounding buildings. Before her lay the very shrine she had just passed.

Searching all around, the young woman finally located the girl beside a rack laden with countless ema [wooden prayer plaques]. It seemed the girl was engrossed in reading the wishes people had inscribed upon them.

“Annihilation!”

A massive cannon materialized in her hand. After aiming at her target, her finger poised to pull the trigger.

“Wouldn’t that be a little… improper?”

!

The voice, so startlingly close, sent a shiver down Yisha’s spine. Without a moment’s hesitation, she transformed Zadkiel into a blade and swept it horizontally behind her.

When she spun around, she found nothing but split leaves behind her; she had struck nothing else.

“I must say, your reactions are truly swift. Quite frightening, actually.”

Wrapped in an unrecognizable substance, a mosaic-like entity, whose true form neither ordinary eyes, nor Yisha’s ‘domain,’ nor even Michael could discern, hovered at the top of the tree.

“Origin, what’s the point of spouting nonsense? Why don’t you come down and spar? I promise to kill you.”

The blade dissolved into liquid, re-enveloping her longbow to form a colossal cannon. Yisha smiled, speaking to it in a jesting tone, yet the killing intent in her voice made the surrounding raindrops feel even colder.

“You attacked me the moment you heard my voice. If I hadn’t been vigilant, you might have torn away my disguise.”

It offered no reply to Yisha’s words, merely continuing to speak as if to itself.

“You want me not to lay a hand on her? Fine, let’s have a little match, and I won’t interfere.”

The young woman adopted a swaggering posture, looking for all the world like the boss of a street gang, having years of experience in the underworld. She even gave it an internationally recognized gesture of defiance.

“If it weren’t for him, I would have already made my move. You can only blame your own bad luck.”

Upon hearing Origin’s words, Yisha suddenly understood. She spun around, only to find the girl had already vanished!

‘Clever, it was stalling for time.’

“Well then, until next time.”

With that, Origin’s form flickered faintly, as if on the verge of disappearing.

Boom!

The cannonball reached its target the instant it left the barrel, yet Origin showed no alarm. After the battle in Mongolia, it had gained a thorough understanding of this enemy named Shimazaki Yisha. Moreover, it was about to leave this place.

!

Boom!

A sudden anomaly occurred: countless golden threads enveloped the area where Origin stood. Not a single trace of the cannonball’s explosive power leaked out. Then, Yisha swung her massive blade, plunging it fiercely into the shimmering enclosure.

Clang!

The sound of metal clashing echoed from within, a development that did not exceed Yisha’s expectations.

Controlling Zadkiel to transform into threads, she bound her opponent. Then, drawing her longbow, her fingers tightened around the string until her fingertips split open, sending fresh blood splattering outwards.

The young woman commanded Calamity, ensuring every light particle was bathed in blood. These blood-infused particles of Calamity then converged upon the longbow like gathering stars, gradually forming a single arrow.

As if a gale had arrived, the vertically falling curtain of rain was swept away. Within this cleared space, the young woman, her hair flowing freely, slowly drew back her longbow.

“By my name, I seek your power. All that you desire, shall be…”

Yisha suddenly stopped. With the cessation of her words, all preparations halted, including the increasingly luminous Zadkiel and the half-formed arrow.

She turned her head, looking towards the place where the girl should have been, that rack filled with ema.

There, where nothing had been before, a ripple appeared. Then, the mosaic-like entity, which had obscured everything, materialized.

“So this was your confidence in facing me? Today truly was an impressive performance.”

“I’ve only just learned that your ‘skin’ also possesses mimicry capabilities.”

The young woman lowered her bow. The wounds on her fingers were covered by Zadkiel, which emerged from the silken sphere, and were instantly healed.

“Still, it’s not enough. I’m truly curious what other performances you have in store; I’ll certainly be an appreciative audience.”

‘Tsk! Michael didn’t work in that instant? No, that’s not right. It wasn’t speaking to me in its true form from the very beginning.’

The light particles that had been hovering around flew out from the threads. Each one shimmered with the seven colors of a rainbow, radiating a brilliance that was almost blinding.

She glanced at Calamity, then turned her head to look at Origin below. Connecting this to the spiritual power and properties Calamity had absorbed earlier, she now fully trusted the Kanzaki family’s intelligence.

‘Firing the cannon in that instant was meant to catch me off guard during a teleport, making me ignore it. The stalling through conversation was to seal the space, preventing me from teleporting away. Then came a series of bindings and the final killing blow. Impressive. Truly worthy of the one who once drove me away.’

A hint of delight entered its voice, and its words conveyed unmistakable admiration.

“It seems Hermit isn’t there after all. What a clever ‘wildcat for a prince’ scheme.”

Just now, Michael relayed information: a sub-space had bypassed the Angel’s seal and converged with this location, taking something away. The precise location from which it was taken was inside the shrine building.

“Then, I look forward to our next encounter.”

Having said this, Origin vanished, much like a Spirit’s ‘lost’ state, ignoring the seals and departing directly. The key difference was the absence of any convergence between the boundary and the real world.

‘A forced teleportation through a seal… It couldn’t do that last time.’

Realizing the situation had become more troublesome, Yisha rubbed her head in frustration. She surveyed her surroundings, then used her Angel to repair the traces of their battle before leaving the area.

“Whoa! What was she doing? Suddenly mobilizing such power, it scared me half to death!”

Life appeared utterly shaken, as if the recent tremors had left her deeply unsettled.

“If you have time for theatrics, you’d be better off helping Order guard the passage, or assisting Slaughter in suppressing the seal,” Destruction retorted.

Destruction grumbled as they simultaneously cleared away the pavilion ruined by the earthquake and the rocks dislodged from the mountain.

“No way! Let whoever wants to do it, do it. I’m not. I’m just a support; if something goes wrong, I can’t be the one to fix everything on my own!” Life stomped her foot in protest, then settled back into the swing.

“We should ask what happened later. Considering that Spirits are approaching humans, Origin probably intervened to ensure the plan’s smooth progression, and she seized the opportunity.”

Destruction sighed, placing a hand on the last massive boulder. Dark purple veins spread from their arm to their fingers, then onto the stone.

Once the purple completely permeated the boulder, they gently blew on it, and the massive stone crumbled into dust.

“Alright, let’s look around.”

Hearing this, Life immediately rose and followed the gracefully departing Destruction. Perhaps as an afterthought, she even flicked a droplet of water towards the dust that had once been the boulder.

They departed, leaving behind a colossal tree that stood as a testament to everything they had accomplished there.