Chapter 3 - Now, the Twintails
“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”
That morning began with my scream.
Ultimeguil on TV? Sure, whatever. But now the news coverage had gone insane too.
A morning news program was running a special feature on my transformed self.
Crystal-clear footage—way sharper than two days ago—played proudly on the screen next to the anchor.
They got yesterday’s photos after all…!
“Your name! Please tell us your name!”
“Ah… T-Tailred-s… whoa, wait!”
“You’re wonderful! Please let me call you onee-sama!”
“She’s obviously an imouto! Haa haa, let’s play dress-up together!”
“Waah, I wanna go home—make a path!”
Footage of me mobbed by female students.
A twintailed little girl, teary-eyed, flailing arms and legs.
Heartwarming and utterly deranged—completely wrong for breakfast TV.
“Why is there video…”
I’d only given my name in public yesterday. Yesterday. And the caption already read “Tailred.”
Aika had finished breakfast at her own place but was still munching toast in my living room, her expression darkening with every passing second.
“…Souji.” Her voice went dangerously quiet. “Yesterday you were having that done to you … face buried in girls’ boobs … not resisting at all … you were enjoying it, weren’t you…!”
“It’s a height difference! When they hug me, that’s what happens! I can’t violently shake them off while wearing Tailgear, can I?! It’d be a slaughter! So what’s with this—everyone’s weirdly obsessed with me, guys and girls!”
“And boobs everywhere … you’re kidding me, there’s not a single flat-chested girl! This has to be Ultimeguil’s doing!?”
I don’t even know why she’s getting mad about that.
So naturally, I encouraged her. Manfully.
“Don’t make other people’s boobs your enemy! Face yourself!”
“Here’s an iron fist for that!”
“GABAA!”
Naturally I didn’t get through to her. Blood spray danced as refreshing rain through the morning air.
Meanwhile, the TV running in the background was its own kind of blood-spray-worthy.
Most of the girls had been affectionately poking and touching, but some had genuinely dangerous expressions & grips. Even through the screen, I felt the raw passion ready to devour me.
An all-girls school or not, that kind of energy toward an elementary school-aged girl was seriously not okay.
Someone filmed it all on their cell phone. Amateur camerawork made it shaky, but remarkably clear. I’d underestimated modern phone specs. My brilliant calculation, “finish fights quick, audience won’t matter,” had already collapsed.
Battle footage and the aftermath of me being toyed with by female students, packaged as a set. In both good ways and bad, the mysterious hero Tailred had been dragged down into mass-appeal territory.
“Yo, I straight-up respect that loli.”
A dreadlocked dude in sunglasses and a suit was being interviewed, claiming to be affiliated with that girls’ school. Good grief, that guy wasn’t there yesterday. If you’re using a plant, at least make him believable.
“The Metropolitan Police Department will continue seeking information regarding this girl—”
“Why?! Leave me alone and investigate Ultimeguil!”
They broadcast a world conquest declaration yesterday, and they’re still after me?!
“She’s so cute, Tailred-chan~♪”
Mom, sipping tea, relaxed on the sofa without a care—her eyes slipping over to me as she spoke the name.
“SHUT UUUUUUP!!”
Her son and “daughter”, debuting simultaneously. As a parent, she must be deeply moved. The clock until my rebellious phase ticked down another notch.
“Souji-sama, Souji-sama!” Twirl ran up, laptop in hand, practically vibrating with excitement. “Look—Tailred-tan summary blogs and wikis, fan sites and analysis pages! The internet’s going crazy!”
“I’ve only transformed twice—what the hell is this lineup AAAAAAAAAH!!”
What are they even summarizing? Wiki-ing?
I could only cry.
I just wanted to be left alone. Instead, Japan—no, the world—kept building me up like an idol!
Overseas pages buzzed with discussion too.
Translation pages had already sprouted, comments like “Japanese people are living in the future” filling the feeds.
…but if I could, I’d go back to the past.
…
Mom suddenly cast off her apron like a dramatic cape. Twirl spun & reverently knelt before her.
“…Twirl-chan.” Mom’s voice dropped low. “It seems So-chan is still a virgin…”
“I have no words to excuse my failure, my lady.”
“No matter how generous I am, I don’t have the mercy to forgive three or four failures, you know…?”
“Yes…! Tonight, without fail!”
What—are they doing evil organization roleplay? I can’t hear well from the other side of the room.
Decades-old dream fulfilled, huh, Mom? Good for you. Yeah.
The two hugged enthusiastically, crying—no, manly tears—wetting their cheeks with passion.
“Ahh…”
“A-are you okay, Souji?”
By the time I headed to school, I was completely worn out.
“I was prepared for some of this, but … this momentum…” My voice came out hollow. “What’s going to happen to me?”
Yesterday, the future felt uncertain. Today? Downright terrifying.
“Well, it’s a world-class scoop. Better than depressing news about politicians screwing up or someone getting arrested, right?”
“Even so! The focus is entirely on Tailred!”
Attention laser-focused on the hero, not the invaders. Unacceptable.
A little girl, no less.
…Or rather, because it’s a little girl.
The invasion being relatively mild was lucky. But this level of complacency?
Aika shrugged. “That secret base was super chuuni though. The crystallization of super-science—gauges pointlessly stuck on walls and everything.”
“Y-yeah. She built an elevator entrance in the back of the café for some reason…”
Last night had been the underground secret base unveiling. Mom got overexcited. Aika grumbled but seemed pretty drawn in too.
The battle hub was the main room with satellite monitoring.
And the Spatial Leap Catapult (I shortened the long English name myself) for instant deployment. The transfer pen maxed out at a few dozen kilometers, but this thing covered nearly the entire world. She wasn’t kidding when she said build overnight.
Aika hummed. “Well, Twirl behaved last night, so I guess a base to protect Earth is fine.”
Aika didn’t see it, but I secretly peeked into the innermost room.
Shuddered.
Blueprints scattered on a desk. Half-assembled machinery.
A weapons development lab.
Among countless formulas and characters running across wall monitors, I barely made out the terrifying words:
Anti-Aika System.
…
Aika. All those grudges against you? Steadily accumulating.
Exhausted just from school, I wanted to rest at home.
“————Why the hell do you bastards show up one at a time, every single day, like clockwork AAAAAAAAAH!!”
And yet the very moment I got home, word of an Elemerian appearance came through, and so I deployed from the underground base.
Perfect timing. As if I was being watched.
Three days. Just three days, and an evil template was crystallizing. Slight fear crept in.
If attrition was their strategy, it was working spectacularly.
“Ahh… I’ve finally met you, Tailred!”
Another new monster (read: pervert) stood before me. Irritating pose and all.
I’d worried about simultaneous multi-site deployment, but drip-feeding enemies at regular intervals? This is painful. I had no idea how many more there’d be. A monster-a-day marathon with no end in sight—the worst kind of anxious torture.
“Damn it. Just have to do this.”
I tapped my ribbon to summon Blazer Blade, but the instant my hand fell upon it, the Elemerian looked at me happily and introduced itself.
“I am one captivated by ribbons, Fox Guildy. Please remember me, beautiful goddess.”
I snorted. “Like hell I’ll remember!”
Sharp, fox-like appearance. A cut above the muscular brutes so far.
“Heh… Adorable yet powerful. A wonderful ribbon.” Its voice dripped smoothly. “Just looking at it makes my heart melt.”
Great. Another one with a voice-actor-quality voice. Irritating.
The location—quiet suburb—meant no audience yet. Even so, after yesterday, I needed an even quicker finish.
But appearing quietly in a deserted place, no fuss, no dramatics? The two battles weren’t wasted after all. This guy was being cautious, acting carefully.
No more questions. I poured power into Blazer Blade.
Even facing the certain-kill flame blade, Fox Guildy remained eerily calm.
“To think the sword that felled my stalwart comrades was born from a ribbon.” It smiled bewitchingly. “I sense the hands of Fate.”
From nowhere, it produced a ribbon, gazed reverently, spun unnecessarily, and tossed it skyward.
Like rhythmic gymnastics, the ribbon spiraled toward me. But I didn’t need to knock it down—it just circled my body a few times before returning.
“…What?”
“Ohhh… t-to think it was this much…” Blood spurted from its mouth in an over-the-top shoujo manga reaction. It dropped to one knee. “…gwofu”
What is this thing doing? Can I cut it down now?
“Haa, haa…! Crystallize—my love!”
Elemera burst from Fox Guildy’s body and poured into the ribbon.
The ribbon stopped dead, then transformed frantically, growing in rhythmic spikes like ferrofluid.
“…Oh!?”
My patience had just about reached its limit, but when the ribbon split in two and took the same shape as Tailgear’s Force Revon, curiosity edged out caution.
Then twintails popped out like magician’s doves from a hat.
“Ohh?!” I almost dropped my sword to applaud … but the magic trick missed its stopping point.
Head emerged from twintails. Torso from the head. Arms and legs appeared.
Human form.
“What the … wait.” I looked closer. “That’s me!”
A life-sized figure. Modeled after me.
Tailred.
“Ribbons are for tying…” Fox Guildy’s voice turned reverent. “Especially for twintails—irreplaceable. Your divine Twintail Attribute… I have presumptively bound it with my Elemera.”
“Y-you’re copying my power?”
“Hardly. Just a mirror reflection. Merely simulated—a doll. I don’t possess a powerful Doll Attribute like Lizard Guildy, so I can’t even move it.”
Come to think of it, Twirl said Elemera isn’t limited to one per person. Even Elemerians crystallized with one Elemera core can grow to possess multiple types.
So this guy’s probably a Ribbon Attribute, but also using Doll Attribute in combination.
“However… the appearance is, as you see, almost faithful.”
Fox Guildy touched the doll’s Force Revon gently, as if handling something fragile.
Its expression: an elderly person watching a grandchild play in the garden. Loving. Too gentle. And therefore, for me…
“Hi, ii, ii…”
Horrifying. Goosebumps rose and I couldn’t help but shrink away.
The atrocity continued.
“Ha!”
With a spirited shout, it spun on its tiptoes, then reverently took the figure’s hand and began dancing.
Like that first impression with the student council president—twintails and dancing, they share a high affinity. A monster and figure this time, but the sheer imagination warped reality. A realistic ballroom materialized behind them, too vivid to be hallucination.
“UGYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”
My twintails bounced with my scream.
It’s a doll. Just a doll.
No matter how desperately I repeated that—impossible. A doll with “my” face, dancing hand-in-hand with a pervert. A full-body sweat broke out.
“Fuu…”
Dance ended, but my nightmare didn’t.
Fox Guildy sharpened its spirit, crossed both arms, and exhaled thickly.
As if melding its heart with nature.
But.
“Heh… Now now, you mustn’t run.” Its voice turned sickeningly sweet. “I haven’t finished wiping your body yet. You’ll catch a chill.”
It harmonized with the wrong nature. Pure delusion.
“What the hell are you doing to me in your imagination EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!”
The me in its delusion definitely wasn’t wearing clothes. Being about to leak from emotions other than fear—that’s a first in my life.
…wait, hang on. In the Tailgear functions I tried to forget about, wasn’t there something perfect for this?
“Ah, please wait!” Fox Guildy continued addressing the figure. “You just took a bath, but you got all sticky with that ice pop.” Crooning voice. “What a naughty child you are, fufu”
“NNNGHYAAAA——————————!!” I clutched my head and fell to the ground as if in psychic pain.
“Souji-sama! Don’t worry about that fake—smash it to pieces!”
Twirl’s communication finally cut in, staggered as if she couldn’t bear to watch. Aika screamed “gross!” in the background—right, she means Fox Guildy. Right? Not me?
“Y-yeah … right … of course…”
“Now’s the time to use Tailgear’s equipment—Elemersion!”
“Elemersion… uses Elemera Orb power, right…”
“That doll’s made from Elemera. The Doll Attribute from the first battle should work!”
Right. Destroy the doll—the vessel for its delusions—and escape this living hell. Like it said, Lizard Guildy’s Doll Attribute should have far superior doll influence!
“…and destroy…” My eyes flicked up from my gauntlet to the scene.
Still continuing its delusions. Not an opening—complete defenselessness.
But looking directly at it would erode my mind. Target the doll with Doll Attribute. Neutralize it.
“Ha, ha…” My breathing grew ragged.
Actually, the appearance was perfect. Its twintails had mint-tier reproduction quality.
Not really the mystical radiance of the real thing, but passing grade. More than passing.
The twintails, swaying from the Guildy’s fighting spirit, burned themselves into both my retinas.
“Kuh…”
My legs trembled. They stuck to the ground like flypaper.
That doll—one finger should destroy it. What was I hesitating for?
Destroy it or be defeated.
“UOOOOOO I CAN’T DO IT! I CAN’T DESTROY TWINTAILS EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!”
Even so, there’s things I can’t compromise on! Fake or not, malice-filled or not—the twintails themselves were innocent! Judging them with my own hands? Such arrogance—could it truly be permitted…?!
“You are indeed the real thing.”
My head shot up. “What?!”
“Yes. Just a doll. But you cannot destroy it.” Fox Guildy’s voice rang with certainty. “One who loves twintails… one who possesses the strongest Twintail Attribute—you cannot destroy twintails!”
I hissed. “Tssch…!”
“Souji-sama?!”
As if my body rebelled against my spirit, my outstretched hand dropped powerlessly, and I fell to my knees.
The price for one who’d lost will to fight: merciless delusional death-play.
In the underground base beneath the Mitsuka house, in the main command room, two people watched the monitor … with faces pale, as they panicked.
“That IDIOT! Even if it’s twintails, it’s just a doll!” Aika clutched her head and paced in furious circles.
“Uaaaaaah… s-stop—at least put clothes on it—”
Screams echoed through speakers. Ear-covering-worthy screams. In many senses.
“What do we do?! Souji’s—Souji’s——!” Aika’s voice pitched higher. “Don’t you have missiles that fire from here or something?!”
“……………” Twirl trembled, fists clenched & pressing on the console metal. “If it comes to this…”
Blood seeped from her lips—beautiful, like artwork protected by harmony.
“Tw-Twirl…”
An agonizing decision. Aika sensed it.
“—Aika-san … I have a request.”
“Something I can do!? If it’ll save Souji, I’ll do anything!”
“Then… would you transform?”
“Got it! I just need to transform, right!”
Instant answer. But by the time she swallowed the meaning, the only natural reaction spilled out.
“—Huh?”
“I told you before. One more candidate.”
“Wait, huh … wha…?!”
“So, Aika-san.” Twirl’s gaze was steady. “The other one. The only other person in the world suited to equip Tailgear.”
Aika stared, mouth agape.
“Liar.”
“It’s not a lie.”
It didn’t seem like one of her usual jokes.
“But there’s only two people in the world, right?!” Aika’s voice wavered. “…that’s too convenient…”
“You could also think you were guided, drawn to each other. Same Twintail Attribute.”
“…Twintail. Attribute…”
Destiny.
For the first time, she believed in that word.
“…Souji.”
Not just childhood friends.
Two people guided by destiny, who met.
Aika pressed her chest with both fists, red all the way to her ears.
“Wait. Hold on.”
And then came crashing down to Earth.
“…Didn’t you call the other person a barbarian? Said handing it over would”—in air quotes—"destroy the Earth?"
With a straight-faced stone expression, Twirl remarked: “Eh, that’s a fact, isn’t it?”
A bone-cracking strike—first since the initial blow—exploded on her pale cheek.
“OWOWOW…!”
“You’re right. I might be a barbarian.” Aika clenched her fist, declared resolutely. “But I can save Souji!”
“A-Aika-san… even though you’re the absolute worst… you’re saying something cool…”
“Sure, I don’t want to fight that pervert. But more forces are better, right?! Why were you so stubbornly refusing!?”
Twirl gently lowered her defensive hands, and finally seemed to start to spill her true feelings.
“I didn’t want to involve you in danger, Aika-san…” Her voice cracked. “Even though in just a few days you’ve nearly killed so many times…” Glittering tears rolled down her cheeks. “You’re a precious friend I’ve made in this world!”
…
“…So. What’s the real reason?”
Twirl cracked. “Oh well later I was planning to tell a plausible lie—‘To maintain Tailgear’s power, I need to implant my biological data into Souji-sama’s body’—and indulge in indecent acts, ehehe…” Twirl’s smile turned sheepish. “But if I give Tailgear to Aika-san too, I’d have to sleep with you as well to keep up the pretense—”
“You absolute PERVERT AAAAAAAA—!!”
“Aaah, I hate this cursed constitution that makes me blurt things out!”
“Why are you constantly thinking about perverted stuff?!”
“What’s wrong with a female lusting after a male?!”
“At least choose your words when being shameless, EEEEEEE!!”
At least in the context of the declining birth rates, Twirl’s “virtues” might be admired. But as the two screamed idiotically at each other, Tailred’s screams continued.
“Nooooo—stop holding hands with twintails and skipping—don’t hum in that good voice—aaaaah”
The anguished whines grew weaker and more defeated.
Aika trembled, impatient.
“I get it—you hate me! But right now I want to save Souji!” Her voice broke. “Please, let me fight too! I’ll get on my hands and knees if I have to!!”
Twirl smiled wryly. Looked straight into Aika’s eyes.
“…I don’t hate you. A precious friend.” Her voice was gentle. “That’s not a lie.”
“…What.”
Aika’s cheeks flushed.
Gentle, kind words.
Why? While she inwardly sneered—it’s just an act—part of her felt a little happy. And that was frustrating her.
“Even if it’s to protect this world, this is my revenge. Just forcing Souji-sama, who has no connection to any of this, to fight…” Twirl’s voice dropped. “My heart feels like it’s tearing apart. And then on top of that, to drag his dear friend into it…!”
Aika actually felt the same. She’d just tried to stop Souji from protecting the world, without trying to do anything herself.
Wasn’t that irresponsible of her?
“If I send Aika-san into battle, Souji-sama will surely resent me.” Soft, pained. “He’s truly such a kind person.”
…that was probably the real reason.
“Twirl, I have twintails too. I’m their target, right?” Aika’s gaze was steady. “…Then isn’t it safer to fight myself? I’m not as devoted to protecting others as Souji is, though…”
“Unlike Souji-sama…” Twirl’s expression turned serious. “Your Twintail Attribute isn’t for yourself, is it? Can you risk the twintails you’ve treasured as much as your life? Once you put on the bracelet, there’s no going back.”
A clumsy consideration, but perhaps the first time any had been directed at herself.
Aika snorted.
“I’m not so much a child I can’t take responsibility for my own decisions, Twirl.”
Twirl nodded firmly. From her lab coat pocket, a blue-glowing bracelet emerged. Come what may, Twirl had resolved herself.
“Aika-san, promise me. No matter what—”
Aika nodded, serious expression. “No matter what—”
“—that you’ll leave being Souji-sama’s first woman to me.”
“Oi.”
“There’s no time! Just say yes! Otherwise, I won’t give this to you!” Twirl’s voice rose desperately. “Or … surely someone about to become a hero wouldn’t knockmeoutbyforceandtakeit?”
“…”
“Aika-san isn’t that kind of person, right…?!”
Aika smiled sweetly—
What’s a hero?
A messenger of justice who fights evil for weak people.
…
Someone who fights for the weak, right?
Not someone who uses dangerous throws banned in modern martial arts on a defenseless, frail woman.
Not someone who drops you on your head when you can’t break your fall.
That’s not human behavior, is it?
…
What’s a hero?
That difficult philosophy—similar to a child’s pure question—hung in the void; unlikely to be answered, as Twirl’s head had been embedded in the floor half-way through the thought.
“Wait for me, Souji…”
Aika ran through the underground base corridor, prized hair streaming behind her—actually rather gallant, for once.
She fitted the bracelet—entrusted with such conviction—onto her right wrist.
“—Tail … On!”
No embarrassment. The transformation mechanism activation abbreviated start-up phrase she’d been complaining was ’embarrassing’ spilled out fluidly, and responding to that absence of hesitation, a belt of brilliant blue light encircled Aika’s body.
A resolve cut from time, beyond perception.
And its proof, forming like a cocoon, scattering countless light particles as Aika’s body began to shine.
The moment she opened her eyes—closed as if sharpening her spirit—her body was covered in a blue suit.
Hm, slightly more revealing than Red. But the aggressive, warrior-like design suited Aika.
The Spatial Leap Catapult at the foremost part of the underground base activated, teleporting Aika out in a brilliant cannonball flash.
“Ha—!!”
Transfer point: directly above a cluster of buildings near the battle.
The moment the spatial transfer completed, Aika drove her feet into the rooftop concrete with everything she had.
“Wow. I really could jump clear into the clouds.”
Less a leap than a launch. She wanted speed—only speed—enough to make up for every second wasted on that idiotic farce.
“So now I’m one of the freaks … well. Can’t be helped.”
She tore through the sky at fighter-jet speed, twintails streaming behind her like wings reclaiming the blue above.
“He’s always getting himself into trouble … I need to be there.”
From the distance, she might have appeared as a streak of light, trailing into a meteor.
“Let me read you a bedtime story … oh my, aren’t you a needy little thing~”
The psychological attack—that voice, sweet enough to unravel anyone—was reaching its climax.
Fox Guildy was a terrifying opponent!
A fake. No matter how many times I told myself that, the twintails he sustained through sheer force of will was something far beyond imitation. But scarier than the power itself was his self-control. To project that all-consuming delusion onto a doll of a little girl while remaining in full, lucid command of himself took someone who’d shattered themselves past every ordinary limit, without once losing their grip on who they were.
That was the power of the heart.
To me, who’d mistaken raw destructive force for strength, he was in another dimension entirely.
“Is this it … is my twintail going to lose to someone like this…?!”
I was on my knees, gasping, shaking. I couldn’t even stand.
Then, without warning, a crack like lightning split the sky.
“Stop right there, PERVERT!!”
“What?!”
“Huh?!”
I almost turned around myself. Caught off guard for a split second. I immediately hated that about me.
A streak of blue light, still trailing from the heavens, slammed into the earth between me and Fox Guildy.
“…could it be…”
The Tailgear’s Imagechaff works differently from what Twirl used on day one. Hers erased the wearer’s presence entirely—if you shouted, you’d give yourself away. The Tailgear version is identity-protection focused: it prevents any viewer’s mind from linking the suited warrior to the civilian they know. No use as stealth, but you can walk around in your own face and no one connects the dots.
Unless they already knew who you were.
So to everyone else, an unknown warrior had appeared from nowhere. But to me…
“…Aika…?”
The words were barely a whisper.
The warrior in blue was my childhood friend. Tsube Aika.
“Who are you?!”
“I am—” She snapped to face the demon directly. “—Tailblue!”
She said it to me. To the enemy. To the whole world. Strongly, and without doubt.
Like the words themselves were the ritual of becoming.
What an expression.
Not a trace of uncertainty. And behind it, an aura that seemed to rise from her body straight into the sky, something vast and absolute. Like someone who’d have zero trouble driving an acquaintance of three days face-first into the floor without a second thought.
Which, really, was true.
“Oh, wonderful…! I never imagined a partner would appear…! I’m cornered, pushed to the very edge of death … so why can’t I stop my heart from racing?!”
“…ugh, you really do look just like him, it’s revolting … but!”
Aika reached into the armored panel on her forearm and drew out a glowing pale-green stone.
“Elemersion!!”
The slot slid open, glowing deep blue. The Elemera Orb drifted up and locked itself in. The cover clicked shut. Aika’s whole body pulsed with pale-green light.
“Elemera Orb—Doll Attribute!”
The moment the words left her mouth, the Tailgear’s Elemersion kicked in—the system for channeling crystallized Elemera Orb power into combat, a specialized equipment function, turning their stored Attributes into something wielded. Since the Tailgears share a subspace storage, anything I’d collected was usable by either suit.
I’d never touched it. It was a function I’d pushed to the back of my mind; why fight with something other than twintails?
Except now—
“That’s — Lizard Guildy’s!!”
“Now then.” Aika’s voice was perfectly steady. “Be still, little doll.”
The doll, cast in my face and my shape, began losing reality under the wash of Doll Attribute light. The terrifyingly lifelike thing Fox Guildy had sustained through his own monstrous willpower became, in seconds, nothing more than a photograph taped to a mannequin. His fantasy, that overwhelming, almost-visible obsession, blinked out without a trace.
“Wha—?!”
Aika smirked. “If you wanted a doll to fool someone, you should’ve brought a stronger Doll Attribute. A bit of a planning failure, no?”
Well, they couldn’t have known we could use each other’s collected Elemera Orbs. That doll had been a perfect trump card against me specifically. The failure of imagination was not accounting for an irregular.
And the first person to use the Tailgear’s true combat capability … someone who’d only ever heard the briefings from the sideline … was Aika.
“Hoi.” She threw a full-force iron fist square at the doll’s face. The impact drove straight through, and it shattered like sugar glass.
“What are you DOING?!”
In horrible slow motion, like it was being displayed for my sick, twisted benefit, I watched my own face crumple in on itself and collapse. I was going to see that in my nightmares for weeks.
Fox Guildy shrieked. “No hesitation?! That was modeled after your dearest friend!”
“My friend is right here.” Aika gave me an easy smile and a wink. “Isn’t he?”
“…partner…”
I dragged Aika into this—the guilt had gone completely white in my head. But that guilt, anyways, was self-important. She wasn’t a victim.
I staggered upright, my mental block vanishing.
Nothing needed to be said. The trust we’d built, and the years behind it, was a bond that no number of words could come close to.
And right now, behind Aika, looming like an aura, noble expression and all, as though the enemies she’d overcome were watching over her from on high—was Twirl.
I’ve had this feeling for a while.
She’s still alive, right?
She is … right?
“Grrrrhh—damnation! Your twintail Attribute is weaker than Tailred’s … so I’ll simply take yours! First, those magnificent giant ribbons, if you please!!”
“Dream on.”
She flicked the ribbon anchors holding her twintails with her fists, both at once. Light scattered like water droplets, then in an instant solidified into a lance in her hands.
The 「WAVE LANCE」 spilled forth. The deep, dense blue of the ocean distilled into a point. A sapphire-blue trident that could only be a gift from the God of the sea.
Oh my god. Not a hammer, or an axe. Thank god.
「BREAK RELEASE!」
A column shimmering like water, cylindrical and crushing, coiled around Fox Guildy and locked him in place.
“GHK — UUUUUGH!!”
“I may be new to fighting—” She drew back the lance. “—but when it comes to twintails—!”
A sea-splitting thrust brought the 「EXECUTE WAVE!」 to tear clean through Fox Guildy’s chest.
“GHAAAAAAAAH…! At last—a final dream—let me—again without her clothes—going to catch a cold—wait, I see it! So that’s how the ribbon—GAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”
As Fox Guildy’s body sparked violently, he managed a final satisfied smile—and detonated.
…he probably held the image of me, unclothed, right up until the very end.
“…Twirl. I did it.”
Tailblue’s smile was absorbed into the clear blue sky.
I hope that isn’t being phrased optimistically.
The lance dissolved into the air. Aika stretched both empty hands above her head.
“Move out! Tailred, and—wait, there’s another one?!”
The very moment the fight ended, reporters materialized from nowhere, with their cameras already rolling.
Aika stepped in front of me without hesitation, aimed a three-fingered peace sign at the press corps, and smiled.
“Starting today, I’m joining the fight! Nice to meet you all. Together, we’re the Twintails!”
She scooped me up princess-style and launched us both straight into the sky.
I couldn’t help but complain. “Oi!!”
“Relax! I gave them their shot.”
She triggered her Elemersion again, and this time pulled out … Ribbon Attribute. Straight from Fox Guildy, and barely thirty seconds old. Yet, she wielded it like she always had it.
The Tailgear’s ribbons extended and reshaped itself into vast blade-like wings, cutting us free from gravity’s strings.
Aika burst out laughing. “Oh wow, I can actually fly?! This thing is amazing!!”
High enough above the clouds that they were below us, the smile on Aika’s face up here had completely transformed from the one she’d given the reporters. It was real, and unguarded.
I couldn’t look away. Her twintails, now a bright blue, caught the azure of the sky like iridescent wings, shining brighter than I’d ever seen them.
She seemed to notice my gaze. “…hm? What is it?”
“No, just…”
I’m an idiot.
She’d made a clean exit, as smooth as a pro, and given the cameras just enough to bait them. Of course she’d done it deliberately; she remembered everything I’d said this morning, about all the scrutiny landing only on me.
Aauauah.
“Aika—I’m sorry. Uhm. For being such dead weight.”
“Ne, get it straight: I chose to transform. And watching those perverts from the sidelines eye you up every fight was stressing me out anyway! I move fast. You know that.”
Warmth in my chest flooded in from her thoughtfulness.
Wait. Chest.
The word crossed my mind and my eyes moved before I could stop them.
Tailblue’s suit left the chest exposed.
Unlike me, Aika … didn’t become a girl. She was practically herself. A modest, flat chest, wrapped in a suit clearly designed with the assumption of cleavage, like some kind of punishment. A gap left for displaying something that wasn’t there.
Ah, jeez. What a tragedy.
I’m so sorry, Aika. Having to wear something so humiliating, all because I’m not good enough—
“…hm.”
Her eyes traced my pitying gaze.
The arms holding me let go.
“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”
Parachute-less skydiving! Turns out, it’s really quite thrilling.
I survived the cartoon-physics experience of making a loli-shaped crater in the asphalt, but when I got home, I found someone who made that look like a pat on the back.
“…ahwawa…”
If anyone ever asked me to give a live demonstration of what “HP 1/9999” hypothetically meant for a human body, I would have pointed at Twirl, here, now. ‘Cus that was approximately her condition.
“What happened?! Twirl!” Aika’s voice went sharp. “Souji, an Ultimeguil assassin might have infiltrated the base!! Twirl … I’ll avenge you!!”
Jeez, even straightforward honest-as-a-board Aika of all people’s suddenly mastered Seek Time = Zero.
“S-Souji-sama…” Spoke Twirl’s voice, barely there. “…be careful… there are people in this world—vicious ones—who deceive childhood friends … I went to all the trouble of setting the scene dramatically, and she just strong-armed it to pieces … great … villain…”
THUNK.
Twirl’s eyes rolled white, just before she went out cold.
Meanwhile, Aika was looking at her own wrist, then at mine. Red, and blue. She was smiling, soft and bewildered, like a dandelion seed drifting on the wind.
I looked at our wrists too, then at Twirl’s head, now resting carelessly against the floor.
My expression did something I’d rather not describe.
What have we done?
The worst possible person to receive this technology. World-surpassing power, entrusted to someone who absolutely cannot be trusted with it.
The world thought it had found a savior … and instead, it’s got a god of destruction.
“WHAT IS THIS?!”
The god of destruction’s roar filled the house at dawn.
Aika hadn’t knocked, seeing better fit to charge through the front door before locking herself in front of the living room TV.
“That’s my line … ugh, they’re framing it weirdly again…”
Every outlet, whether it be news or internet, was running the same footage of a tiny weeping red girl being tormented by monsters.
World leaders were already issuing statements pledging support for “that little girl.”
Tailblue, on the other hand, had been rendered an afterthought—scarcely more than a footnote.
Despite having staged herself perfectly for the reporters, and having given them more workable footage than I ever had—I’d been caught completely off-guard every single time the cameras showed up.
“So! Would you say we can’t confirm the blue one is an ally?”
The other news anchor nodded. “It would be premature to make that call. What concerns me is how violent her eyes look, even when she’s smiling.”
Even the rare coverage she got looked like that.
Though, honestly — not wrong.
Then a close-up of teary-eyed Tailred filled the screen. Smiling anchor in the corner wipe.
“WAAAAH!!”
I stared at the footage of myself.
…jeez, beautiful twintails.
I really had no investment in my own face or figure, but that form … even despite knowing they were mine, I felt drawn to them. Tailblue’s were just as remarkable, just as worthy of the same attention. And yet…
Maybe for someone without my particular fixation, things just landed differently.
“I have to say, Tailred’s looking adorable as ever this time, tehehe~”
Watch your mouth. I can read your nameplate from here, and that’s a very serious title you’ve got on it.
I flipped through channels, and found Tailred on every one. It was like Polling Day-tier blanket coverage. I couldn’t help but bury my hands in my head.
“Aaauugh…”
It was back-and-forth back-to-back love-and-hate. I’m going to have a complete identity crisis before the month was out, seeing all these idiots argue and fawn over me.
Not like I was the only one in pain, though.
“My head is killing me!! Red everywhere, wherever I look—why?! We’re both on the same side! Why is my reputation so bad?! TV, internet—Blue gets shut out everywhere!!”
There were visible bags under Aika’s eyes. She’d probably been up all night.
I put a hand on her shoulder. “…you went online? I’ve been avoiding my computer entirely.”
“I figured the internet would be awful, so I tried TV thinking it’d be better—and it’s also awful!!”
“That took guts.”
“It’s not guts, it’s desperation! You’re only this relaxed because you’re popular! Getting media coverage and then being completely ignored is infuriating!!”
“I … sort of get it?” She was bloodshot and unreasonable. I smiled the kind of smile that had no idea what to do with itself. Everybody’s got their own problems.
“Oh my~ Aika-san, are you perhaps having thoughts along the lines of ‘I’m cuter than her, this isn’t right, kii~’?”
Twirl abruptly materialized into the living room in a flash of sparkling light—despite her neck brace, she had a daring evil grin, with her laptop held against her chest like a funeral portrait.
The browser filling the screen held wall-to-wall Tailblue coverage. One window showed Tailblue looking fierce as she had cut Fox Guildy apart. The other had barely any photos; just a tiny profile shot, buried under an enormous wall of text.
“Tailblue is absolutely popular, you know! Look.”
Twirl swiped the windows. The second one opened fully, zooming in on the wall of text. It proved to be an imageboard.
“…”
> Flat as a board in a chest-baring suit — is she a masochist? Like, an actual masochist?
> For a split second I thought she was sexy. Wrong!
> I didn’t know flat could also be unjustice
> Flat-chested in a sexy costume lmaooo TailBlue wwwwwwwwww
…and many other warm words of encouragement.
More than you could scroll through. The comments filled the page and poured off it, down through an endless abyss—pages and pages of crowd-driven mockery.
Aika’s voice went very quiet. “Track down every single person who wrote these. You can do it.”
“Personal information must be protected~!”
“Then protect mine! Why does Souji shrink into a little girl when he transforms but I stay exactly the same?! This suit has a chest cutout—wasn’t it designed assuming someone would actually fill it?!”
“…it’s most likely,” Twirl said, clearly fighting very hard not to laugh, “that Aika-san’s flat-chest Attribute is overpowering the Tailgear core’s compensating force. …pfffft. Kukuku.”
“Flat chest is an Attribute?”
“If it’s something Aika-san fixates on—of course it can be.”
So even body characteristics women find unwelcome can qualify as Attribute fuel. The lore goes deep.
“…this … woman…”
“Ah~! Aika-san, there you go, straight to violence again! They literally just said your eyes look dangerously aggressive!”
“Ngggghh.”
Aika’s raised fist trembled overhead.
Twirl, venting every grievance she’d bottled up until now, went in for the throat.
“The reason the entire world sees right through you, Aika-san, is that you simply don’t read as righteous. If that bothers you, the first step is breaking your habit of hitting people the moment anything happens. Keep at it long enough and I’m sure everyone will come around on Tailblue … as Tailred’s sidekick. Pfpfpfpffhahaha~”
Aika gave Twirl a big smile and a V-sign.
Then jammed both fingers directly into her eyes.
“GYINYAAAAAA——!!”
“Hey! You literally just heard what she said!”
“When I listen to Twirl, the electrical signals from my brain chemically react before they reach my hands!!”
“If electrical signals chemically react, you’ve stopped being a living creature!”
“…I wonder, actually,” Twirl mused from her fetal curl, and her voice had the distant, glassy quality of someone looking out at a black void, “perhaps Aika-san is a killer machine sent back from the future. Dispatched to eliminate me before I can protect the world alongside Souji-sama!!”
That’s absurd. Though the ’not a living creature’ assessment is hard to fully refute.
“…hey. That laptop—”
Something moved in Aika’s eyes, as if catching the smallest detail, and despite a squeal of refusal she snatched Twirl’s laptop out of her hands.
Pinning Twirl to the table with one hand and working the keyboard and trackpad with the other, Aika typed one character into the browser search bar— ji「じ」 —and tapped the space bar once.
The first autocomplete: 自演乙. Nice samefagging.
…huh.
“…”
“…”
I leaned in closer.
Aika minimized the browser, scanned the desktop, and opened a text file named blue.txt.
Bulleted draft posts. Every single mocking comment about Tailblue, listed out … and written in advance. Including the masochist line.
“IT WAS YOU——————————————————!!”
“She found out at the SPEED OF SOUND?!”
“You’ve got technology that spans worlds and you’re doing petty keyboard-warrior stuff?!”
“Aika-san doesn’t understand! The internet is the last refuge of those without power! How dare someone like you meddle even there! That’s exactly why I can’t stand normalfags!!”
I blinked. The ’normalfag’ label is a bit of a stretch. The issue is that her arms are literally powered by physical force.
“Don’t make personal attacks your emotional support!”
“And I have sustained grievous wounds!!”
‘Pointless’. That was the only word for it, really. This was too pathetic to be called an information war. A self-defeating spiral going nowhere. Just pointless.
I heard a dull crack from somewhere. I was too scared to look.
“…Souji-sama,” Twirl said, in a voice like she was speaking from somewhere very far away, hollow eyes finding mine. “You scold Aika-san … but you never actually help me, do you…”
I responded with an exasparated sigh. “Honestly? You both looked like you were having fun. I couldn’t really bring myself to—”
“…heh. Heh hehehehe. Souji-sama derives pleasure from watching me suffer. You have that Attribute too.”
“I do NOT!”
“Then I shall simply kill my heart and endure. For someone of ordinary constitution, these daily trials would have long since stopped their breath.”
She was going for a brave, delicately sultry voice. But raw, genuine agony cut straight through her—and she screamed something that sounded like cloth tearing.
“Alright, alright! Aika, enough! There are limits!!”
“She mocked me online—breaking one or two arms shouldn’t be a crime!!”
“If that logic held everywhere, Japan would be rubble by tomorrow!!”
Once she’d finally been talked down to a simmer, Aika and I walked to school, running through strategy.
“…do we really need to shout the attack names?” A thread of doubt wove through her voice.
“Trust me on this one. It’s not just for show; vocalizing focuses the intent. The Tailgear runs on will. Putting it into words makes the mental activation more efficient.”
“…does it actually work?”
It does. The theatrical element is both a side effect and the main effect. Words as a key, an on-off switch, gives the mind a single point of entry. Kinda makes everything sharper.
I shrugged. “You were pretty into it from the first battle, though.”
“Th-that was—I was running on nerves and self-hypnosis! I was trying to match you!”
She caught herself mid-sentence and looked away sharply.
We kept walking. The conversation had circled without quite landing.
Then, as we were approaching the school, I noticed something.
More girls were wearing twintails on the way to school.
Aika took note.
“…why are you staring at all the other girls?”
Oh, there she went—I’d finally talked her down, and now she was annoyed in a completely different direction.
“No, I—it’s been bothering me. I think the Twintails are having an effect. More girls are wearing twintails … that morning news segment was practically encouraging it.”
Aika shifted uncomfortably. “…I’m getting anxious too, actually. Why are there so many…!”
“Eh, anxious? Why?”
“Nothing. But … doesn’t it kind of feel like when an indie band you love blows up mainstream, and you can’t quite put your finger on why that’s annoying?”
“That’s—I don’t think that’s the same thing. I can’t really explain it, but.” I looked down at myself.
Without thinking, I’d reached out and was holding one of Aika’s twintails between my fingers.
What is this feeling.
More twintails everywhere. That should be everything I’d ever wanted. So why do I have this nagging unease?
“Come to think of it—did Student Council President Shindou recently start wearing twintails?”
“Why are we suddenly talking about the president?!”
“Because her twintails are remarkable—if she’d had them in middle school, I absolutely would have noticed.”
“She transferred in from the high school division. She’s only been here six months and she’s already the face of the whole school, apparently.”
“Huh.”
That tracked. Twintails like that, they could make someone student council president on day one.
“Then again.” A voice materialized between us, though it had been there for a while. “Someone that perfect probably has something to hide. Those twintails are calculated. Engineered for likability, if you ask me. Though I do prefer the more youthful figure~”
I wrinkled my nose. “What? No. People don’t grow twintails strategically to get people to like them.”
“O-of course they d-don’t, that would be ridiculous, absolutely no one would ever do that!!”
The voice cackled. “Aika-san, your cheeks are Tailred right now.”
All three of us stopped.
We’d been so used to her popping up that neither of us had even registered her joining the walk. Twirl, wearing a perfect replica of the school uniform, started to outline her entire transfer-student plan with cheerful precision—she’d transfer into their class, Aika would play the role of ‘ugh, you again’ for the drama, Twirl would ignore the teacher and sit next to Souji immediately, and then—
“Get back home, you animal——————————————————!!”
Aika kicked her with everything she had. The scream doppler-shifted into the distance.
She genuinely sailed in an arc toward the direction of my house. In real life. A gag-manga physics violation, witnessed with my own eyes.
“Good morning! What a lovely morning!!”
A bright voice at our backs. We both turned.
Speak of the devil! Student Council President Shindou, beaming radiantly.
She hadn’t seen anything, right? That whole sequence just now?
She greeted every student she passed, even ones she couldn’t possibly know by name, with the same open warmth. No wonder everyone loved her.
Or maybe she’d felt the grey weight in the air and decided to step in.
Either way, I was smiling before I’d made a conscious decision.
“Good morning, President. You seem in good spirits.”
“I am! I heard Tailred has a partner now, and I’m so happy about it.”
“—! Right, right, Blue is actually—”
The inside of Aika nearly launched at her. You understand! That energy. Stopped short only by recent memory, she hovered—vibrating—ready to agree.
She’s still sore. This goes deep.
“—I’m just so relieved.” The President’s voice was warm enough to fill the whole street. “No matter how strong someone is, fighting alone wears you down eventually. But with a partner, you can hold each other up. We can cheer from out here, but we can’t truly support a fight. Knowing Tailred has someone who can … makes me genuinely happy.”
“…yeah.”
I nodded firmly.
Aika had gone completely still, so I spoke for both of us.
“President, you’re a real supporter of the Twintails, aren’t you?”
She fidgeted, caught off-guard, and reached up to take one of her twintails between her fingers.
“It might seem strange for someone my age… but I love heroes. I still watch tokusatsu shows. I still buy the toys.”
“Really…?”
Good. That’s good. Something warm, and also something a little like kinship.
“That day, actually, I’d slipped away from my attendants to go to a hero event. That’s where I was when the attack happened.”
Oh yeah. I found out later that there’d been a tokusatsu and anime hero event at that venue that day. It had technically been for kids, but the President would’ve fit in perfectly.
“So I feel a sense of fate in it, in meeting Tailred. And in being saved.”
“Fate…”
“Heh. Sorry … I’m not sure why I said all that.”
A flicker of doubt suddenly crossed my mind. She’d seen Tailred up close. Even said a few words to each other. There was no way she could know. No way.
But I wanted to say it regardless. For her sake, this person who cheered for them with nothing but honesty.
“President. I’m sure Tailred, and Blue too, they’re genuinely grateful to have someone like you. You’re a real support for them. Both of them.”
“Thank you.” She paused. “You’re, um, Year 1 Class A, Mitsuka Souji-kun. Oh.”
She stepped close. Very close.
Close enough that if either of us moved—
“…p-president?”
She looked at me for a long moment. Then tilted her head, stepped back half a pace, light on her feet—twintails swaying. My heart went with them.
“Just my imagination … I’m sure … heh. Well, then~”
She left. Something feverish in her voice, lingering in the air.
We stood there for a moment.
“She knows every student’s name.”
Aika, who hadn’t said a word through any of it, shifted her weight like she didn’t know where to put herself, and let out a long breath.
“…she really is a good person, huh. Makes me feel stupid for caring about the internet stuff.”
“See? Normal, good person. Twirl’s completely wrong about her.”
“…that’s what makes it so frustrating. Idiot.”
“Hm? What?”
“Nothing. Come on, let’s go.”
Her bag knocked against my side. She was already jogging toward the school gate.
“Oh my god—Tailred just smiled at me!!”
“Whatever. While you were busy with that, I got a Tailred heat-transfer on my boxers. She’s with me at all times. I cannot function academically without her present.”
“You made a bot, didn’t you?! I built mine first!”
“And mine has more followers. Besides, there are already like three thousand Tailred bots across the whole world. Bit late, man!”
“Okay, sounds good, let’s go see a movie after school, Tailred-tan.” (Some guy speaking to a disconnected phone, alone.)
This is a high school. This is what the walk to the gate looks like, every single morning.
“Aika.” My voice was completely flat. “I mean this sincerely. If you could trade places with me, I would beg you. I will happily take every samefag accusation and masochist comment and dismissal of presence you can dig up.”
Behind me, Aika stood at the gate with the energy of someone staring down a cliff, deciding whether to jump.
“…I need a minute. To cool down.”
We each lowered our heads. Different reasons, same motion.
A human-shaped crater in the road outside the Mitsuka house, pale in the moonlight.
Something had fallen here. Something had crawled out.
Leaving behind the smoldering resentment of a girl who had not been permitted to infiltrate the glittering garden of youth.
The witching hour.
Souji’s room was on the second floor, the innermost of three rooms.
A shadow moved toward it, light and feminine.
The staircase should have creaked under her, but she ascended in total silence—a skill that went well past natural talent and deep into the territory of practice.
The same silence carried her down the hall to Souji’s door, where she stopped.
“…heh.”
Something blade-thin slid into the gap between the door and the frame. Barely a whisper of vibration—not a sound proper—and then, some five centimeters down, it found the lock.
One tiny tick. Then silence.
The metal latch had been cut clean through, parted like butter.
Whatever this intruder was, she wasn’t human in any ordinary sense.
She stepped through. Moonlight from the window caught her face.
Twirl.
Though … was it really? Her eyes had gone wrong. Something had vacated the premises behind them.
Slowly, carefully, with each step placed like a calculation, she moved forward.
Breathless wasn’t quite right; she wasn’t suppressing breath. Rather, she seemed not to be breathing at all.
She was flawless, efficient, somewhere past ninja and into the territory of phantom thief. Though truthfully, with the full-body catsuit and the tool-belt hung with equipment, a more accurate description might be ‘comedy sketch performer’.
From the belt, she pulled a lint roller.
She pressed it carefully across the carpet and surrounding surfaces, then with tweezers transferred each collected strand into small labeled plastic bags. Hair. The other label was partially obscured, but clearly read ○○ Hair.
She sealed each bag, and tucked them away.
There was no risk, since no-one would believe the first offense.
Next, the closet. She tested the sliding door with one finger—registered the slight scrape of the runner. She considered briefly, then shoved it open in a single decisive motion. Kk—one sound, one instant.
She looked over her shoulder. Souji was still asleep, not stirring.
She reached in and lifted out his school blazer.
“Hm … mm … shnnuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuff—”
This was not the romantic image of someone pressing their face to a loved one’s clothing to breathe in their warmth. This was something else entirely.
She exhaled every cubic centimeter of air from her lungs, then drew in a replacement breath—slowly, completely, using the blazer as a filter—with the lung capacity of something not from this world. Not particularly unlike a famous pink round inhaling beast.
Her expression went slack. Her eyes went somewhere else.
“haa … haa…”
The discipline she’d maintained — perfectly silent, perfectly controlled — finally cracked. Short, ragged breaths leaked through.
“uhehe…”
Please don’t go further in that direction.
“nn… nnh…”
“!”
A sound from Souji. She froze.
Her neck turned with an audible creak to look.
Just a peaceful sleeping face. She let out a breath.
“…Souji-sama.”
The smile that crossed her face, just for a moment, was genuinely tender. Something almost maternal in it.
“ufufufu…”
Then it changed.
I felt something warm on my cheek.
I registered the wrongness before I registered consciousness; the sensation dragged me up from sleep whether I wanted it or not.
“nn…”
I opened my eyes partway.
A dream…?
Vision sharpening. Someone right there, above me, smiling.
—an angel…
…with an angel’s face and a demon’s nature? Oh, no. Just a demon. Smiling.
“uhehe… —ah.”
“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”
The warmth on my cheek had been Twirl’s drool.
She was gaping open-mouthed directly over my face, jaw unhinged, strings of drool descending — the image of a horrific extraterrestrial predator. I wanted to find a power loader and punt her into orbit.
Downstairs, in her bedroom, Souji’s mother heard her son’s scream in the dark of night.
A slow smile crossed her face.
“Looks like the time has finally come—!”
The lights were on.
Twirl was on the floor in a full dogeza and had not moved, refusing to look up.
“I know it’s creepy, okay?! I know a creepy girl appearing without warning in the middle of the night is—I know!!”
“Creepy has nothing to do with it! It’s—just—”
That I act like this is a crime, when my actual behavior is what I should be accounting for.
I swallowed it. I had no standing to call anyone else creepy. I was well aware.
“What were you actually doing here in the middle of the night?!”
“W-well, that is — I detected a margin of error in the Tailgear’s fit calibration, and needed to take new measurements around the face area … but I didn’t want to wake you..!”
“If it was urgent, you could’ve just come normally and woken me up. I’d much rather that, for my mental health.”
But the Tailgear doesn’t cover the face. Something’s nagging at me.
If I were a detective, I thought, the warm liquid on my cheek would be the clue that broke the case open.
But I wasn’t, so I let it go.
“Anyway—”
“—! Ah—ngh, I can’t—not right now—!”
Twirl suddenly clutched her chest and curled up into a tighter ball.
“Twirl?!”
“haa—haa—ah, nn, ah, ahh…”
The sounds she was making were not something I had the emotional bandwidth for.
“Hey—are you actually sick?!”
“Souji-sama—don’t come close—please—”
This wasn’t nothing. This was serious.
“Twirl, that’s not really about the fit calibration, is it?! What’s wrong?!”
I grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her upright. She slumped forward, head against my chest.
“I-I’m … feverish … please … help me … Souji-sama…”
She turned her eyes up at me. Gleaming. It was the kind of look that did things to a person’s heart rate.
She doesn’t even wear twintails. How is she doing this?
“He-help … how…?”
A pause. Twirl’s cheeks went red. She seemed to be choosing her words very carefully.
For Twirl to actually hesitate — this must be serious.
“I’ll do whatever I can! Just tell me—don’t hold back!!”
She’s saved the world. She’s saved twintails. There was nothing I wouldn’t do.
…I thought I saw a smile flicker across her face just now, but … in a medical situation, captured expressions can look like anything.
“…beings from another world—like me—who stay here long-term… are subject to the world’s own immune response. Like a virus in a body … gradually rejected … pushed out. The pain is that process beginning … to prevent it … I need genetic data. From the people of this world…”
“Genetic data..?”
“You may have thought me shameless, Souji-sama, given everything I’ve done … but there’s always been a reason … I’m a woman, after all, and I…”
Every bizarre thing she’d ever done … all those incidents … and there’d been a scientific reason behind all of them?
I’m not a child. I understood exactly what she was asking.
My face was going red. I could feel it reaching my ears.
“Please, Souji-sama… give me… the strength to live in this world…”
I had said whatever it took. I’d meant it.
But this sounded rather like something she had made up on the—
“Aura Pillar!!”
“Wha—”
Water erupted from Twirl’s feet (er, from the bed) and I was blasted sideways with a scream.
“Gyaaaaaa!!”
“AAUGH it’s COLD!!”
“You chuunibyou fraud, using a fake illness to seduce Souji—and you kept refusing to let me become Tailblue, but the second I did, you conveniently revised your strategy!!”
Tailblue had cut a Tailblue-shaped hole through my window with the Wave Lance and was standing in my room, having soaked every surface with water.
Why does everyone treat my window and locks like they owe them nothing?!
Case in point, my lock, apparently, had already been dealt with! Casually, like blowing your nose … or blowing the door open. Thanks, Aika.
“W-wait—Aika—that was acting?! She was faking?!”
“No I wasn’t! It really hurts—nn, ahh~”
Her gasping had gone astonishingly wooden.
I deadpanned as I got onto my feet. “…wanna re-shoot that cut?”
“…the pain is real, at least!”
“Calling it now!!”
“Oh my ~ Is it that time already ~?”
Mom, in her nightgown, appeared in the doorway. She’d apparently heard ‘chuunibyou’ and followed the sound like a compass needle finding north.
“Why are YOU HERE?!”
She didn’t hear me, or didn’t care. She was already gliding toward Aika with the frictionless momentum of someone on a mission.
“Oh my! Oh my oh my! Is this—is this the famous Tailblue?! Is this Aika-chan?! I’ve been dying to see you in person!!”
“We showed someone who cannot see this AGAIN!!”
My protest evaporated into the air. The famous person in question, lethal eyes and all, had bared her canines and was already shouting.
“Miharu-obasan—please lock this woman in a basement and never let her out!!”
“…Aika-chan~ … are you going to take responsibility~?”
“…huh?”
“You interrupted something, didn’t you~? I was watching from the beginning—so ‘interrupting something’ is a perfectly accurate way of putting it, isn’t it~?”
Mom had, apparently, been watching for a while. In her mufu mufu smile.
“Th-that’s not—I wasn’t—I just—”
Aika had gone bright red, both hands windmilling at her sides.
“Hey, stop swinging the lance while you wave your hands!!”
The room was getting cube-diced at high speed, from the high-pressure jets being flung everywhere.
Ugh. I needed to think about something … several things, actually, but every time I’ve tried, something in my immediate environment’s demanded priority. Maybe I should just stop trying. Maybe the lesson here is: stop trying to think.
“…I feel, at this point, that my body may be arranging itself into multiple separate components,” Twirl mentioned from somewhere off to the side. “I’ve been like this for a while now. Just for your information.”
“Do it already, just go all the way!! It’ll be good for you!!”
“I’ve survived this once, but a second time would be … my final performance..! grk…”
The Aura Pillar binding her had folded her into a C-shape and was maintaining it with perfect consistency.
Those same pillars could restrain monsters. Whatever Aika held back for Twirl, it wasn’t much.
For once, she wasn’t acting.
