Hitaka Shuho was wearing a red dress with front side-slits. She was clad in black armor, and underneath her dress she wore shorts with stockings. While her clothes were also somewhat tattered, they had sustained relatively little damage compared to s.h.i.+ka Kagura’s clothing.

The rain glanced away from her body; presumably she was s.h.i.+elded by some invisible barrier.

However, this wasn’t the important thing right now.

She was wielding a longsword with her right hand. The sharp blade was etched with runes and blood dripped down from its edge and tip.

In her left hand she held a gun. This gun was larger than the average handgun, and similar to the longsword, it was also engraved with runes. Seiji saw a pentagram and various crisscrossing lines which shone with a faint green glow on the gun’s body.

But this wasn’t the important thing either.

The important part was her expression.

The… veins on her forehead—or at least Seiji a.s.sumed they were veins—were bulging and squirming strangely. She currently looked was shockingly fierce and strange due to this phenomenon.

Her bloodshot eyes were filled with a distant sense of iciness.

Just the way she stood there on the cracked ground caused her to emit an almost tangible frosty pressure.

"Shuho…-san?" Seiji called out to her.

He had an ominous premonition.

Hitaka didn’t respond to his greeting and walked towards him with a hollow look in her eyes.

One step, two steps.

She suddenly revealed a pained expression, and her expression contorted.

Her left hand let go of that mysterious gun, but it disappeared in a flash of green light before it could hit the ground. Then, she clutched at her face in a way that indicated she was suffering.

"Shuho-san, what’s the matter…?"

This time, the red-haired girl finally turned her gaze towards Seiji.

"Seiji… Haruta… why… are you here!?"

‘She finally recognized me.’ Seiji blinked and was about to speak up.

"That’s… Snow Girl… What’s… the relations.h.i.+p between you and her!?"

A strange light flashed through Hitaka’s eyes as she suddenly raised the longsword in her hand.

Snow Girl?

Seiji’s mind raced at top speed.

s.h.i.+ka Kagura was the Spirit-branded Retainer which Natsuya and Hitaka had desperately been trying to find and obstruct!? No… that was impossible! Natsuya had already investigated her background and eliminated s.h.i.+ka from her list of suspects!

‘That can only mean one thing: Snow Girls… there must be two of them!’

Seiji finally understood.

The Snow Girl who had spread the energy-draining drug and froze people to death was one Snow Girl retainer.

And s.h.i.+ka Kagura, who had entered school and tried to live an ordinary school life, was another Snow Girl.

s.h.i.+ka never did anything strange at school and tried to lead as normal a life as possible for her. That was why Natsuya had been unable to detect s.h.i.+ka’s true ident.i.ty.

But when Natsuya’s detection spell activated and Hitaka set out to stop Snow Girl, the two Snow Girls exchanged places!

And so, s.h.i.+ka Kagura who shouldn’t have been a suspect anymore was the one who ended up fighting with Hitaka Shuho.

s.h.i.+ka possessed the "Reaper’s Curse."

In that case, since Hitaka had injured s.h.i.+ka to the point of death, what would happen to Hitaka…

"Answer me, Haruta!!" Hitaka screamed at Seiji.

It was evident that her current state was abnormal.

"Calm down, Shuho-san… Hitaka Shuho! I’m not your enemy!" Seiji said in a loud voice. "I’ve figured it out; you might have made a mistake… You’ve fallen into a trap!"

"Trap… Me?" Hitaka clutched at her face again. "I can’t… fall into a trap… I can’t fail… for Milady’s sake…

"Wahh…. AHHHH!!!!" she shouted in pain.

However, she suddenly stopped.

Seiji’s ominous premonition grew even stronger.

The red-haired girl slowly allowed her hands to fall down as her eyes turned empty and hollow again, displaying an incomparable iciness.

Pressure… or some sort of formless energy seemed to be pressing down on Seiji!

He almost felt like throwing up.

The next second.

The red-haired girl disappeared from where she was standing and reappeared right before Seiji in a flash, her sword raised… and she swung at him!

[Bullet Time] activation!

Seiji saw the sword speeding towards his neck.

He managed to dodge it in the nick of time by rolling on the ground.

*Slas.h.!.+*

Even though Hitaka’s sword clearly didn’t touch the ground, a deep crevice appeared in the direction she had swung her sword!

Seiji stood up as fast as possible and backed away from her in an attempt to put some distance between them.

Hitaka woodenly looked towards him and was about to step forward again when she revealed yet another pained expression.

Her right hand loosened its grip on the longsword as it dropped and disappeared in a green flash just like the gun before it.

"Wahhhhhhhh!!" Hitaka clutched her face and screamed at the top of her lungs.

Seiji carefully observed her from a good distance.

He might as well… load now.

This was all he could do.

Just as he was about to load and leave this place, Hitaka’s shouting stopped.

"Ahh… Haruta-sama…" she said in a soft tone which was unfamiliar to Seiji.

Seiji paused for a moment in surprise.

Hitaka slowly removed her hands from her face. In her eyes was a look that Seiji had never seen her have before.

"I am the spirit… Inugami…" the hoa.r.s.e voice stated.

Inugami? [TL note: Inugami is a Dog Spirit.]

"My contractor… can no longer… be saved…"

Seiji furrowed his brows.

"She can’t be saved… is it because she killed the person possessing the ‘Reaper’s Curse?’"

Hitaka… No, Inugami nodded while controlling the red-haired girl’s body with that painfully distorted expression.

"As Haruta-sama… stated… this… was a trap. Kill my… contractor… otherwise…"

Her right hand reached out and suddenly dragged the longsword out from some pocket dimension. She then tossed the sword to Seiji.

The sword twirled through midair and landed right at his feet.

"Hurry up… kill me…"

Seiji took a look at the longsword before turning back to Inugami/Hitaka.

"I won’t do it."

‘I’ll save you all.’

He said the last sentence in his heart.

Then, he loaded.

The world sank into darkness before lighting up again.

Seiji returned to early morning when he had just woken up. It was his habit to make a save file every morning.

He slowly turned to look outside the window and saw that the weather was foreboding today with dark clouds in the sky.

He shut his eyes and sighed.

Just like the last time he went through this day, he went together with Mika and Kaede to school.

Seiji gave Hos.h.i.+ a call after reaching school. He asked Hos.h.i.+ to check Year 2 Cla.s.s 4 to see if s.h.i.+ka Kagura had come to cla.s.s today.

Hos.h.i.+ happily accepted this task.

A few minutes later, he called Seiji back and reported that… s.h.i.+ka Kagura hadn’t come today. She claimed to be sick.

Later, once again.

Just like last time, Seiji received a call from Natsuya, and heard her explanation in the student council office.

This time, he didn’t leave as soon as last time.

"President, you investigated s.h.i.+ka Kagura and discovered her abnormality… but you didn’t do anything else. This means that you must have completely eliminated the possibility of her being a hostile Spirit-branded Retainer," Seiji stated. "Can I ask just how you confirmed this?"

Natsuya blinked in surprise.

"Apart from investigating her personal traits, I also sent someone to follow her every movement. I’m certain that she didn’t do anything while the enemy Spirit-branded Retainer was active. She definitely didn’t disappear or do anything else which seemed suspicious.

Seiji nodded.

"This does seem to eliminate the possibility that she’s that Snow Girl. However… I still feel like there’s something strange about it all.

"President, you should be able to feel it as well, right? A special existence like s.h.i.+ka Kagura transferring in to Genhana High School right at this period of time… Do you really believe it’s just a simple coincidence?"

Natsuya slowly began to furrow her brows.

"Haruta-kun, what do you mean?"

He was waiting for this.

Seiji took a deep breath.

"I… smell a plot behind all this."

Natsuya was rendered speechless by this sudden revelation.