Tatsuki offered a suggestion. "How about you just hand her over to me?"
"Eh?"
He crouched and idly stroked the dazed dragon girl's horns—finding the feel more and more pleasing. "I'm rather fond of beastfolk girls, and I already house a sinner who once did wrong under manipulation. I've got plenty of experience rehabilitating that type."
"This …"
FrostNova and the others had no idea how to answer; blurted out, the request sounded vaguely perverse.
"No way—the leader, she—"
Crownslayer jerked awake from the brink of unconsciousness and shouted.
"Shut it."
Plick!
Tatsuki flicked her forehead. Crownslayer toppled over with a thud and slept peacefully.
Rubbing his temples, Tatsuki told Amiya, "Take this one back and keep her on a tight leash. She and that immortal of yours have a misunderstanding. Just tell her one thing: 'Riddle-speakers, get off Terra!'"
"Eh?" Amiya was lost. Immortal? Did Rhodes Island even have someone like that?
"A-hem."
Ace, sweating, whispered, "He means Dr. Kal'tsit's."
"Dr. Kal'tsit's!" Amiya gasped.
"Dr. Kal'tsit's… I don't know why, but the phrase feels vivid," Dobermann muttered, tugging at her mouth. Even Nearl nodded—though for her it was the circuitous speech that struck home.
"Dr. Kal'tsit's really does like talking in circles; a straight shooter like me finds it hard to keep up," Nearl remarked.
"A-ha-ha… maybe she knows so much that everything comes out foggy," Amiya said awkwardly, then asked, "Tatsuki-san, are you close with Dr. Kal'tsit's?"
"Not at all," Tatsuki replied, utterly decisive.
"…" Amiya was left speechless.
"Hand Talulah to me and you won't lose out."
He pointed at FrostNova and Patriot. "Your Oripathy is severe—FrostNova won't live long. I can cure you."
"Talulah's a condemned soul with no future. In my place she might live decently. Trade her future for yours—how does that sound?"
"?"
He spoke lightly, yet every face showed shock. "Cure Oripathy—seriously?"
Most folk on Terra knew the disease. Long exposure to Originium or its by-products, inhaling dust, or being cut by shards could cause the illness known as Oripathy. Victims were dubbed the infected. Cells fused with Originium, crystalline lesions formed inside and out, magic aptitude skyrocketed while the body weakened in pain.
Casting spells only widened the infection until life was lost and the corpse became a new vector. In theory Oripathy was incurable; decades of research had yielded little, and even Rhodes Island's inhibitor merely slowed the spread. A cure sounded like a fairy tale.
Tatsuki disliked wasting breath. While they processed his words, he was already in front of FrostNova. One casual sweep of his hand and agony lanced through her body—only for two warm palms to cup her cheeks an instant later. The pain vanished.
"Your face is kinda chilly," he teased.
Only then did FrostNova realize she felt warmth—body heat! Because of her arts, she had always been icy cold. The warmth barely registered before it faded again.
"All done. Your Oripathy is gone, and I repaired your near-collapsed body after the crystals vanished." He withdrew his hands. "You're fit as a fiddle now—and you'll never catch Oripathy again."
He had slain the phenomenon of Oripathy within her single body; killing a personal affliction was even simpler than erasing a regional one.
FrostNova touched her cheeks, stunned. "It's… warm…"
"Big sis, fantastic! Big sis is cured!"
The Yeti Squadron cheered, no jealousy in their voices, only heartfelt joy. They alone knew how her body had always radiated a killing chill, unable to feel warmth.
"Tatsuki, sir—Patriot offers you highest honor and everlasting friendship." Patriot snapped the stiffest military salute. FrostNova was like a daughter to him.
"Tsk. Other people get phlegm stuck; you've got Originium in your throat—sounds awful," Tatsuki quipped. Under the Mystic Eyes he waved again, unleashing a gold-hued salvation.
For a moment Patriot felt as if his body would fly apart—so many crystals disappearing at once threatened collapse—but the pain sped by, and in a blink he was whole. The lump of crystal at his windpipe was gone. He understood: he was truly cured, by a mechanism even he couldn't name.
"…"
After a long hush, with everyone watching expectantly, a red gleam flashed in Patriot's eyes and he spoke—smoothly, clearly. "Your treatment, it seems, requires no face-touching."
The words froze the air.
"Look, if curing Oripathy doesn't earn me any pay, can't I at least pat a pretty girl's cheeks?" Tatsuki protested, perfectly solemn.
"U-ugh…" FrostNova blushed for the first time ever, cheeks heating in truth. Patriot glanced down at her perked-up ears, sighed inside, and finally said, "Thank you."
"Ahem. Deal's done—Talulah's coming with me."
A new voice cut in, dripping scorn. "Well, if it isn't Leader Talulah. Leave you alone for a minute and you're a complete wreck?"
Out of the ruins strode the Cockroach, foul-mouthed W, with several Rhodes Island operators in tow.
"Scout!" Ace shouted, overjoyed—he had thought Scout was already dead.
Scout, sniper rifle slung on his back, raised a calm hand to signal he was fine. W, however, frowned. "What's this all about? When did everyone suddenly make peace for the history books?"
Her eyes bulged; she jabbed a finger ahead and yelled, "What the hell—that guy's gone! Talulah's gone too!"
Everyone looked back. Tatsuki and Talulah had vanished.
"A-ha-ha, Tatsuki said three people at home weren't fed yet, so he bolted," Exusiai parroted the line Tatsuki had sent to their group chat.
…
Tatsuki had been mistaken—he thought only three stomachs waited, but there was a fourth: Kanao.
With no time for subtlety he filled every belly first. When all four girls were finally satisfied, he asked what was going on.
Kanae explained: not long after Tatsuki left, she heard sounds outside, and Shinobu went to check. They found Kanao clumsily imitating something Kanae had once shown her—because she wanted to grow closer to Tatsuki. Events had snowballed from there.
Busy from daylight to evening for their sakes, Tatsuki finally departed—after one final round of tenderness. Before leaving he transformed Kanao into an angel, taught her Haki and the Rokushiki techniques, and left five senzu beans with Shinobu just in case.
…
In Kal'tsit's Office, Rhodes Island.
Inside a Rhodes Island office Kal'tsit reread the mission report yet again: Amiya's team had rescued the doctor while facing violent infected rebels, a crippled city core, and a descending Catastrophe—without a single casualty. Even more stunning: Amiya had recruited three Reunion captains and captured a fourth.
FrostNova, Patriot, and W were now allies; Crownslayer sat in custody. Patriot—last pure-blood Wendigo, someone even Kal'tsit respected—had come back alive. And everything, absolutely everything, revolved around one man: Tatsuki.
Black and gold wings—neither Sankta nor Liberi. According to Amiya, the man himself had said: "I'm human—the same species as the doctor." More, he had casually dispersed a Catastrophe and, with an ordinary knife, slain the supposedly immortal Black Serpent inside Talulah.
Kal'tsit, herself a long-lived being, certainly knew of other immortals—but this was only the surface. Amiya's own words echoed.
"Tatsuki-san bears evil enough to drown the world yet carries hope that can shake it. He's a good person."
Kal'tsit ignored the moral judgment, but Amiya's sense for power was rarely wrong. Tatsuki had appeared and disappeared in a blink, taking Talulah with him—what was his aim?
She flipped to two more sheets—the medical scans of FrostNova and Patriot—and found the detail that truly rattled her. On the two most crucial metrics the results matched perfectly.
[Somatic Cell-Originium Fusion Rate]: 0 %
Amiya claimed Tatsuki had cured their Oripathy. The data said she was right. No crystals anywhere in their bodies; the fusion rate was zero. Former terminal patients had become ordinary people. Yet the next line was even wilder:
[Blood-Originium Crystal Density]: 0.000 u/L
They had extended the precision to another decimal and used their most sensitive instruments—still zero. Not even deep-sea hunters like Skadi could boast zero; the air itself was full of invisible Originium dust. Kal'tsit ordered repeated tests and finally noticed: when they breathed, the dust simply… vanished.
"Originium inside them is being killed," she murmured.
…
Three days had passed since the downfall of the Wild Territory incident.
As usual, Kaguya Shinomiya reported the day's affairs to Tatsuki, though he sensed a new softness in her every motion.
"President, besides those items, there is one more: several new transfer students have arrived."
"Transfers? At this time of year?" Tatsuki frowned—winter break was barely three weeks away; why not wait for the next term?
"Mm." Kaguya answered softly and refilled his empty teacup.
"Wow, everyone's here!" Chika peeked through the door before entering, a deck of cards in hand. "Let's all play—I found a new game!"
Thunk.
Tatsuki's hand trembled around his teacup; Kaguya's smiling cheeks twitched; Yukino Yukinoshita's typing fingers skipped a beat. Three pairs of eyes pinned Chika: Are you sure about that?
"Ah…" Chika, who always forgot past pain, remembered the last game-night disaster and broke into a cold sweat. "It… it should be fine, right?"
Heart pounding, they played—and to everyone's relief the game really was fine. One more failure and Chika might have developed game-night PTSD.
...
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