"By the way, Yoshino and Yoshinon, you two stay here and play. I'm going over there to have a look—it seems like they've started fighting again." At this moment, Tohka also noticed the waves of battle coming from the distance. She gave Yoshino a quick word and then left directly.
"Hey, Tohka..." Yoshinon opened her mouth as she watched Tohka leave, but then didn't say anything more. After all, Tohka wasn't stupid. Although she was sometimes a little slow, overall she was still quite shrewd (probably).
Finding a deserted corner, Tohka put on her armor directly. As for that semi-finished astral dress from the original story, the one that only materialized on her limbs and not her body, Tohka decided to forget it. Honestly, she felt that was even more lewd.
"Hey, are you okay? Looks like they really have started fighting." Once she had her armor on, Tohka couldn't be bothered to hide herself anymore and simply flew up into the air. Soon, she saw Kotori in her astral dress, wielding her huge axe to wildly smash the turtle-shelled Origami. As for Origami, wearing her latest equipment, she had no strength to fight back in the face of this Kotori.
"Tohka, hurry and think of something—they've started fighting again!" At that moment, Shido also saw Tohka descending from the sky. Like he'd found his savior, he wanted her help to stop the two of them.
"Ahhh, this is going to be a problem. You have to understand—their grudge is basically irreconcilable. Even if I stop them now, once Origami gets the chance she'll still try to fight Kotori to the death." Hearing Shido's words, Tohka shrugged helplessly. If the misunderstanding in the middle wasn't cleared up, the two of them would keep fighting. As for just revealing the truth—Tohka hadn't even considered it. It wasn't that Origami wouldn't believe it; even if she did, she would absolutely have a mental breakdown. This wasn't just Tohka speculating—at least in the original story, she could still vent her emotions by reversing. But now, she wasn't even a Spirit, so who knew what would happen.
"Just what is going on with them? Even when she looked at you, Origami's eyes were never this terrifying." Right now, Shido was completely confused. This time Origami's reaction was way too abnormal. Before, when she saw Tohka, she would show hatred, but nothing like this. Origami had suffered plenty under Tohka's hand, but even then she'd never reached this level.
"How to say...you should probably ask her yourself. Honestly, I'm not exactly sure what happened either. Back then, I wasn't even in this world." Hearing Shido's question, Tohka shrugged to show she really didn't know the specifics. But after thinking about it, she still explained: "Look at the situation—it's practically a fight to the death. Think carefully—has Kotori ever lost control before? Look, that little girl is losing control again."
After she finished speaking, to prove her point, Tohka pointed at the two of them. At that moment, Kotori's eyes had once again turned the same crimson red Tohka's would when she lost control. Each strike of her axe was heavier than the last, and as if to further illustrate Tohka's point, Origami was finally unable to endure the strain. She fell out of the sky directly.
"You mean...damn it, I remember now." Hearing Tohka's words, Shido froze for a second. Then he remembered his earlier conversation with Kotori, along with what Origami had told him before. Instantly, cold sweat drenched him. He knew now—this was something huge. This was basically an unsolvable problem. He could also guess why Origami harbored such deep hatred for Spirits.
"You damn Spirit...back then, my parents..." Just then, the fallen Origami looked up at Kotori with eyes full of hatred. Hearing Origami's words, Kotori snapped out of her berserk state. She knelt to the ground in a daze.
Though she was the commander of Fraxinus, at heart she was still just a little girl. Her past berserk rampage had always been a scar on her heart, so when she heard Origami's words, she completely broke down. After all, she was just an ordinary girl—how could she have no burden from something like this?
"Damn it—stop it!" Seeing this, Shido charged over desperately and stood in front of Origami.
"Damn it, did you forget that little girl has regeneration? Shit—damn it, I forgot he doesn't know yet." At that moment, Tohka suddenly realized that because of her interference, the regenerative ability Kotori had granted Shido hadn't been triggered yet. In other words, he probably didn't even know Kotori had such powerful healing.
"Whatever—let's just knock that little girl down first, then we can talk things out properly." Glancing at Shido rushing forward, Tohka decided she didn't want to keep watching. She didn't know whether he could calm them down like in the original story, and she honestly felt that knocking someone out first was the most effective way to reason with them.
Having made up her mind, Tohka didn't say anything further. She drew her longsword from her back and charged straight toward Origami.
"..." On the other side, Origami was hesitating as she stared at Shido standing in front of her. But suddenly, she felt a gust of pressure coming toward her. In alarm, she quickly reactivated her deployment device. Although Kotori had broken it before, it was high-tech equipment—after a short time, it had already recovered.
Bang. This time, Tohka's attack didn't strike her directly. Instead, it landed on a green barrier in front of her.
"Damn it—this time her turtle shell is pretty sturdy, huh." Looking at the barrier, Tohka muttered in annoyance. Before, this thing had been almost like paper in front of her, but now she hadn't been able to break it in one hit.
"Hmph." With a cold snort, Tohka poured her spirit power into her blade. Bit by bit, she stabbed it into the green barrier, then with a forceful pull, she sliced open a gap.