Before the AST could resume their operations, Shido Itsuka had already disappeared from sight with Natsumi Natsumi. With their target lost, the AST had no choice but to report the loss to their superiors.
Under Ratatoskr's coordination, the spacequake alert was also called off.
People in the underground shelters filed out in an orderly manner.
Recently, the frequency of spacequakes in Tengu City had reached abnormal levels, happening almost every so often—so much so that everyone had become somewhat numb to it.
Choosing not to merge into the crowded streets, Shido, under the remote guidance of his companions, brought Natsumi Natsumi back home as quickly as possible.
"Onii-chan, welcome back!"
As soon as the door opened, Kotori Itsuka, who had long been lying in wait at home, jumped into her brother's arms. "The frequency of spacequakes has gotten way too high lately. And since Onii-chan is so bad with directions, I was really worried something might happen to you!"
"Ah, yeah, I'm back."
A bit speechless at his sister's convincing acting, Shido maintained his composure and patted her head. "Don't worry. Even though your big brother is hopeless with directions and always gets lost trying to find the shelters, hasn't everything always turned out fine?"
Of course, he wasn't actually bad with directions.
Kotori only said that to make it seem like Shido's two "coincidental" encounters with Natsumi were purely by chance.
Although they would eventually tell Natsumi the truth, now was not the time.
As for when the right time would be—that would depend entirely on the situation.
"Onii-chan, who is this big sister?"
Kotori peeked around, pretending to have just noticed Natsumi following behind, and asked curiously.
"Kotori, this is Natsumi. She's an acquaintance I bumped into on the way home and I invited her over," Shido introduced smoothly. "Natsumi, this is my little sister, Kotori Itsuka."
"You really do have a cute little sister," Natsumi said with a smile. "Your brother and I seem to be fated. We bumped into each other two weeks ago, and now again today. I didn't have anything else to do, so I decided to drop by. I hope I'm not being a bother?"
"Of course not! Onii-chan's guests are always welcome!"
Kotori flashed a sweet smile and brought out a pair of guest slippers. As she ran into the kitchen, she asked cheerfully, "Natsumi-oneechan, would you prefer tea or a cold drink?"
"Just plain water is fine, thank you~"
"Alright! Don't mention it!"
Watching the three through the pinhole cameras installed in various parts of the house, the crew aboard the Ratatoskr were all a bit surprised.
This self-proclaimed witch named Natsumi… wasn't she a bit too normal?
They'd already had that impression during her interactions with Shido.
But now, seeing her politely visiting and behaving with good manners, that impression had grown even stronger.
"She's probably the most normal Spirit we've ever encountered, right?"
"She's so normal I'm starting to doubt whether she's even a Spirit."
"How rare…"
The crew of the Ratatoskr sighed with admiration.
Yatogami Tohka, who had no common sense and was like a newborn baby. Yoshino, who had a split personality. Tokisaki Kurumi, who viewed human lives as nothing and had killed tens of thousands. The Yamai sisters, who had split into two and lived in their own little world. Miku Izayoi, who was afraid of men and deeply yuri...
Oh, and let's not forget their very own brother-complex commander who could manually switch personalities.
Compared to them, Natsumi was almost too normal.
The only thing noteworthy about her was probably that she liked to be praised for her looks—maybe a bit narcissistic?
But beautiful people usually had a little narcissism, so it wasn't much of a flaw.
This strategy might go very smoothly, huh?
Among them, only Reine Murasame's expression remained unchanged, not showing any joy over Natsumi normalcy.
"Natsumi-oneechan, are you staying for dinner tonight?"
Handing her a glass of water, Kotori asked expectantly, "Onii-chan is really good at cooking. What's your favorite food, Natsumi-oneechan?"
"Really? Didn't expect little bro to be a top chef too."
Natsumi accepted the water and gave Shido an interested look. "I'm not picky. As long as it's delicious, I'll eat anything. But since your sister praised you so highly, you better not let me down."
"Ahaha, I'll try my best."
Shido gave a dry laugh, suddenly feeling a great deal of pressure.
While it was true he often cooked, being teased as a "top chef" by a Spirit made him silently curse Kotori for bringing that up.
Kotori clearly guessed what Shido was thinking and gave him a subtle glare.
To capture a Spirit's heart, you must first capture her stomach.
A satisfying dinner was a golden opportunity to deepen the relationship. Pressure or not, he'd have to step up.
After that, the three of them chatted and laughed together for a while.
Seeing that Natsumi was indeed very friendly, and that the image of a "close-knit sibling household" had been successfully built, Kotori decided it was time for the next phase.
"Although today's spacequake alert meant we didn't have to go to school, I still haven't finished my homework."
Putting her hands together apologetically, Kotori said, "I'm going to go work on that, Natsumi-oneechan. Please feel free to keep chatting with Onii-chan."
With that, she went upstairs.
She made a subtle gesture toward a hallway camera. Vice-commander Kannazuki Kyouhei immediately understood and teleported her back to the Ratatoskr.
Switching to her black hair ribbon, Kotori's demeanor changed instantly—back into commander mode.
"Shido, ask her about what happened two weeks ago."
Sitting in the commander's chair, Kotori instructed, "Her affection level is already close to 60%, and the atmosphere is relaxed. Now's the perfect opportunity."
Meanwhile, still sitting on the couch at home, chatting with Natsumi, Shido subtly nodded.
Honestly, he really wanted to know what had happened back then, too.
"Um, Miss Natsumi…"
Shido cleared his throat and ended the current topic, hesitating slightly before asking, "Can I ask you something?"
"What is it?"
"About what happened two weeks ago."
"Oh, that thing?" Natsumi made a face like she was recalling something. "What do you want to know?"
"Back then, didn't you suddenly disappear?" Shido asked. "I've been wondering—where exactly did you go?"
Two months ago, when that military-uniformed, unregistered Spirit spoke to Natsumi, every crew member aboard the Ratatoskr and Shido himself had heard it word-for-word.
They even recorded the conversation and had been analyzing it repeatedly ever since.
The more they analyzed it, the more they felt that the unregistered Spirit was like a supercharged version of Yamai Kaguya's chuunibyou syndrome.
Except possibly even worse.
At least Yamai Kaguya just had a ditzy personality and spoke with a bit of flair.
But this unregistered Spirit? She seemed to have constructed an entire new worldview in her mind, genuinely believed it, and even tried to get others to believe it too.
"Hmm… how should I put this…"
Natsumi thought about how to explain, then said, "You've heard of the concept of 'parallel universes,' right?"
"Yeah," Shido nodded. "It's like, outside of our universe, there are other universes that are similar—or maybe not similar—to ours?"
"Pretty much." Natsumi nodded. "That military-uniformed person—she seemed to have thrown me into a parallel world of this one."
Of course, this was an excuse Natsumi came up with.
She absolutely couldn't tell Shido about the world of Re:Creators.
Honestly, it wouldn't matter much if she did tell him.
But the problem was, she was certain that she was being monitored by the Ratatoskr right now.
And onboard that airborne battleship was Reine Murasame, who was the other half of Mio Takamiya.
If Reine didn't already know the truth, and Natsumi explanation clued her in to Altair origins—if it sparked her interest in going to the Re:Creators world and joining forces with Altair—then the joke would be on all of them.
The parallel universe excuse not only matched something Altair had once said, but also fit the worldview of Date A Live quite well.
After all, in this world, parallel universes did indeed exist.
Upon hearing Natsumi explanation, Shido didn't know how to respond for a moment.
Even the Ratatoskr crew went silent, momTachibanarily unsure how to assist.
"That unregistered Spirit… came from a parallel world of ours?"
Kotori's eyes widened in shock.
Just knowing that parallel universes were real was already mind-blowing.
And now, it seemed the unregistered Spirit even had the ability to travel between them—that was even more shocking.
No wonder, after all these years, neither Ratatoskr nor any other Spirit-related organization had found a single clue about the military-uniformed Spirit's name.
So she was from another world?
"Parallel worlds…"
Reine Murasame chewed over that term, falling into deep thought.
She was certain that the girl who called herself Altair was not a spirit. There were no spirit crystals in her body, but rather a different kind of power that she had never encountered before.
In other words, even if parallel worlds did exist, Altair was absolutely not something created by a version of herself from another world.
However, the concept of parallel worlds was broad enough that it was possible there existed a world where she herself didn't exist at all, and Altair might have been a product of some other experiment.
After pondering it for a while, Reine Murasame decided not to dwell on the matter any longer.
Anyway, Altair couldn't stir up much trouble now.
For the time being, it was better to focus on assisting Shido Itsuka in sealing the spirits, so she could achieve her goal as soon as possible.
"The parallel world stuff is kind of boring. Let's not talk about me anymore. I want to know what happened afterward."
Skimming over anything related to herself, Natsumi Kyouno shifted into a more comfortable posture and asked casually, with a hint of laziness in her tone, "That girl in the military uniform—what happened to her later?"
Shido Itsuka swallowed nervously, not knowing how much he should say for a moment.
But soon enough, help from Ratatoskr came again through his earpiece, making it clear to him what he should say.
Listening to Shido's recounting, Natsumi Kyouno finally got some clues about what had happened after the disappearance of her other self, "Little Tsumimi."
According to his account, it could be roughly understood that after Altair achieved her goal of transferring Little Tsumimi, she no longer had the desire to fight.
The Phantom—or rather, Tokisaki Mio—did not let her go so easily. Every time Altair tried to transfer herself away, she would be interrupted.
However, Altair eventually seized an opportunity and disappeared during the battle.
Even so, given that Altair hadn't returned, it could only mean that the opportunity she had seized was actually a trap laid by Tokisaki Mio, and in the end, she had still been captured.
"You're not lying to me, right?" Natsumi Kyouno looked at Shido with a half-smile, "I can understand if you didn't want to get involved in any more trouble and chose to hide certain things, but I really hate people who lie."
"I absolutely didn't lie, I swear to God!" Shido Itsuka immediately declared firmly.
Seeing this, Natsumi Kyouno confirmed that Ratatoskr hadn't hidden anything.
Their mission was to seal spirits, so naturally, they wouldn't do anything that would touch the spirits' bottom lines.
Since she had already stated that she hated liars, they naturally wouldn't choose to hide or lie about relatively unimportant matters.
In other words, it was very likely that Altair was indeed imprisoned somewhere now.
If that were the case, then Natsumi Kyouno could breathe a sigh of relief instead.
At least the worst-case scenario—Altair teaming up with Tokisaki Mio—had not happened.
"Still, where would Altair be locked up?"
Natsumi Kyouno wondered.
The world was so vast, and Altair was immune to the Zafkiel Manuscript. On her own, there was no way she could find her.
Judging from Shido's words, Ratatoskr hadn't found her during this time either, and the other spirit-related organizations probably hadn't either.
So, where exactly would Tokisaki Mio imprison Altair?
The Arctic or Antarctic?
Remote mountain forests?
Some kind of underground fortress?
No, those wouldn't be secure enough.
She would have to lock Altair somewhere she could enter and exit at will, where she had absolute control.
Natsumi Kyouno eyes flickered with contemplation.
Looking through the window, she gazed at the clear blue sky.
Then, a flash of realization appeared in her mind.
The Rinkai
Altair was most likely imprisoned in the Rinkai—a world constructed entirely from Tokisaki Mio's Rinkai.
In her Rinkai, she was the one and only god.
Imprisoning the most unstable variable there would be the most secure option.
"However, as a spirit, there's no way I can go to the Rinkai. The moment I enter, I'll fall into slumber."
Natsumi Kyouno pondered.
"Looks like I'll have to head back for now... and bring in some reinforcements."