“I’m my own father?”
After Ji Qianye voiced this bewildered question, Celia’s captivating laughter echoed within his mind.
“Well now, you little rascal, isn’t your ‘mommy-wife’ good to you? You played such a nasty trick on me, yet you’re still both my daughter and my husband. No one else would get such special treatment.”
“Who’s your daughter? I never acknowledged you as my mother!” Ji Qianye retorted.
However, after his retort, he further inquired, “By the way, how did you even come up with such… well, such a convoluted family dynamic?”
“Why, from your memories, my dear daughter, of course!” Celia admitted with an air of open frankness.
“My memories? Something like that shouldn’t be possible in real life, should it? Or did your inspiration come from some novel or anime I’ve watched? I do recall one where the male lead’s biological mother was his past life’s girlfriend, that one was called ‘Date A—’ ”
“Time, resume!”
A sudden voice, unmistakably non-human, abruptly severed Ji Qianye’s train of thought.
“Hm? That voice sounds like Takehito Koyasu… Wait, ‘Time, resume!’ That means we were in a state of stopped time earlier.”
“Oh dear, oh dear. I was hoping to chat with you a bit longer, you little rascal. It seems the time stop was too brief, and I forgot to warn you: in this world, you’re considered a calamity that tears reality apart, and humans will attack you!” Celia’s voice, whether mournful or gleeful, resonated through Ji Qianye’s mind.
“Attack? What would they use to attack me? A steamroller?”
Ji Qianye was in the midst of his internal grumbling. Then, one second passed, two seconds passed, three seconds passed… seven seconds passed.
“Takizawa Rola-da!”
“Damn it, it really is a steamroller!”
****
“Captain, we’ve located the target!” reported an Anti-Spirit Team (AST) member, part of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force’s AST unit, to their captain, Lieutenant Ryouko Kusakabe.
“Understood! Everyone, be cautious. Ensure that all of you return safely!”
As the newly appointed captain, Ryouko Kusakabe prioritized the safe return of her entire team over the AST’s mission to eliminate Spirits, especially concerning the newest member.
Ryouko Kusakabe glanced back at the white-haired girl who followed closely behind, a figure as exquisitely delicate as a doll, yet as emotionless. She couldn’t help but sigh.
“Especially you, Origami Tobiichi!”
Even when the captain singled her out by name, the white-haired girl known as Origami Tobiichi remained expressionless, as if her emotions resided somewhere else entirely.
Ryouko Kusakabe, aware of Origami’s past, said nothing further. Ever since her parents were murdered by a Spirit, vengeance had consumed Origami’s thoughts, and joining the AST was solely a means to achieve that end.
Perhaps someone could eventually reach the depths of that girl’s closed heart, but it would certainly not be Ryouko Kusakabe.
“Captain, the target has suddenly changed its position!”
“What?”
Ryouko Kusakabe was taken aback, yet the facts were undeniable. The target, or rather, the Spirit—a being with the beautiful appearance of a young girl, yet one that brought calamity to the world—had just been there, but now had instantly relocated to another spot.
It was as if it had teleported, or perhaps the Spirit, or some other entity, had stopped time without their perception.
“This Spirit is unrecorded; the AST’s database holds no information on her, and her abilities are still unknown! Therefore, extreme caution is paramount! Do not act impulsively before we understand her capabilities!”
“Understood!”
Despite the warning, the first reaction of the AST members, including Ryouko Kusakabe, upon seeing the girl before them, was how incredibly cute she was.
With her strikingly beautiful pink hair, a voluptuous figure, rare heterochromatic eyes, and bold attire that seemed ill-suited for her youthful appearance, she sat amidst the ruins in a ‘duck sit’ posture, muttering to herself. She presented herself as a bold, adorable, and lively young girl.
“Don’t be deceived by her appearance! Never forget how terrifying Spirits truly are!” Ryouko Kusakabe admonished her team.
However, this reminder was likely superfluous. Having engaged in numerous battles with Spirits, she and her team knew better than anyone the true horror of these beings—monsters whose power could never be judged by their outward appearance.
Yet, as things stood, this particular Spirit seemed utterly unthreatening. She hadn’t even detected the AST’s presence. It appeared that not only was the AST encountering this Spirit for the first time, but the Spirit herself might have only just encountered the AST, hence her complete lack of defenses.
While that might be true, charging in recklessly would be utterly foolhardy, especially considering the opponent’s apparent ability to stop time.
Fortunately, even as a rookie, Ryouko Kusakabe had learned a method for dealing with time stops from her former captain.
“If the opponent is a Spirit suspected of having time-stopping abilities, never engage them head-on. Even if we establish a twenty-meter radius firing zone, she’d only need five seconds to launch an attack, but for us, it would feel like an instant. Before we knew what happened, we’d be sent flying.”
“So, when you encounter a Spirit with time-stopping abilities, you *must* catch her off guard, throw a steamroller at her head, and then Muda Muda Muda…”
Though she had no idea why a steamroller was necessary, nor what ‘Muda Muda Muda’ truly signified, Ryouko Kusakabe held an unwavering trust in her former captain regarding this matter.
Even though that individual was a pervert who constantly dreamed of being trampled by middle-school-aged girls, often forcing team members to wear special cosplay outfits before stepping on him as a form of disciplinary punishment—to the point where Ryouko Kusakabe sometimes wondered if he had truly abandoned his humanity—
Nevertheless, she had to admit that the captain, whose name she preferred not to utter, was undeniably a genius with considerable expertise in time manipulation.
By sheer coincidence, a steamroller had miraculously survived the spatial quake, sitting by the roadside.
While throwing it at the Spirit with brute force would be difficult and risk alerting her, they were magicians, after all, wielding the powerful tool known as the Territory.
The Territory, a space generated by a Realizer, could fulfill various functions according to the user’s will, its properties shifting with the Realizer user’s intent. The stronger the user’s willpower and the more focused their concentration, the higher the Territory’s precision and greater its strength.
Among them, the one with the strongest willpower and most focused concentration was not their captain, but…
“Origami, I’m counting on you!”
“Understood!” Origami nodded, and an unseen force lifted the steamroller into the sky, aiming it at the still-unaware Spirit.