Mika was hugging Mas.h.i.+ro while standing in the practice field.

"Mas.h.i.+ro... try hitting that." She attempted to get Mas.h.i.+ro to attack the target by pointing at the round target.

"Chirp?" It was clear that the silver-winged loli didn’t quite understand.

"Hit that target with your power," Mika tried explaining again.

Mas.h.i.+ro blinked in seeming realization.

"Chirp!" She appeared to understand and flew towards the target.

Seiji and Natsuya observed her carefully.

They witnessed the silver-winged loli flying towards the target, and then... cras.h.i.+ng into it!

*Smack!*

She bounced off the target.

"Chirp..." Mas.h.i.+ro flew around dazedly in midair for a few circles and almost dropped out of midair.

"Mas.h.i.+ro!" Mika shouted, rus.h.i.+ng over just in time to catch her.

Seiji and Natsuya were rendered speechless.

"How was that just now?" Seiji asked anyway, holding no expectations.

"It was on the level of a young child’s punch," Natsuya answered calmly.

'Yep, a normal level... the h.e.l.l!'

"Mika, how’s Mas.h.i.+ro-chan?" Seiji asked.

"She’s alright; she doesn’t seem to be hurt." Mika gently patted the silver-winged loli’s head.

"Chirp!" Mas.h.i.+ro was excited. Seiji suspected she believed that she was being praised for doing well.

"It’s fine as long as she’s okay." Seiji sighed and rubbed his chin in contemplation.

"Mika, perhaps you should change the way you ask her to hit the target. She misunderstood you and crashed into the target headfirst instead. Maybe you should word it more accurately, so that she uses her true powers."

"Yeah... but what should I say?" Mika felt that it was a difficult problem.

"‘Don’t use your body; use your internal power to attack that thing...’ Try saying something like that."

Mika copied Seiji’s sentence word for word and pointed at the round target again.

"Chirp?" The silver-winged loli tilted her head in confusion.

It seemed that there was a failure in communication.

"This is a difficult problem—how should we have a Spiritual Creature that only half understands us and can’t communicate to attack the target that we want?" Seiji felt helpless about it. "President, do you have any ideas?"

Natsuya mulled it over. "When Yin-Yang Masters control Spiritual Creatures, we don’t use words; we use spells... a connection through Mana. Uehara-san and that creature, Mas.h.i.+ro-chan, have a connection already. Perhaps words aren’t necessary; she just needs to think it, and Mas.h.i.+ro-chan will understand... Just maybe."

"Mika, did you hear that?" Seiji asked. "Try thinking what you want her to do as hard as you can." 

Mika nodded and looked towards Mas.h.i.+ro. Mas.h.i.+ro returned her gaze with an innocent expression.

Mika stared into Mas.h.i.+ro’s eyes and attempted to transmit her intentions. Mas.h.i.+ro’s... expression of innocence didn’t change one bit.

The two of them simply stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity.

*Chirp~~* The silver-winged loli suddenly broke into a burst of cute laughter.

Mika revealed a helpless expression as she looked back towards Seiji and Natsuya. She had failed again.

Seiji covered his face in exasperation.

Just what could they do?

Seiji recalled how Mas.h.i.+ro tensed up upon seeing s.h.i.+ka.

Since Mas.h.i.+ro felt enmity towards s.h.i.+ka, it was likely that she detected s.h.i.+ka’s nature as the [Reaper’s Curse], wasn’t it? The most likely explanation as to why Mas.h.i.+ro had been so defensive was in order to prevent s.h.i.+ka from getting close to and harming Mika.

In that case... Seiji looked over at the targets and pondered a while longer.

"I have an idea that we could try," he said slowly.

He gestured for Mika to release Mas.h.i.+ro-chan and beckoned Natsuya and her to come closer to him.

When the two girls were standing beside him, Seiji whispered his idea to them.

"Is this how we'll do it?" Natsuya muttered softly. "Alright. I promise that Uehara-san won’t come to any harm."

"Fooling Mas.h.i.+ro-chan like this doesn’t seem good to me... but we do need to be able to see her true powers..." After hearing Natsuya's promise, Mika agreed after some hesitation.

They began implementing Seiji’s idea.

Mika walked back to the practice field and walked over to the spot that Natsuya indicated.

Natsuya manipulated something on her computer and controlled a human-shaped target to move towards Mika.

As Mika saw the human-shaped target approach, she pretended to be afraid and started s.h.i.+vering.

"Don’t... don’t come over here!" she shouted out in (fake) terror.

"Chirp!?" The silver-winged loli who was currently flying around in midair saw this, and her eyes widened in shock.

The human-shaped target approached closer and closer.

"Don’t come over!!" Mika pretended to be terrified; she was now screaming.

Natsuya increased the speed of the human target at the perfect time, making it seem like it was about to crash into Mika.

"Ahh!!" Mika continued acting.

"Chirp!!!"

Something instantly changed in the atmosphere. For just an instant, Seiji felt a deep chill as he watched Mas.h.i.+ro.

It was as if he had plunged into a freezing river!

He saw the silver-winged loli’s hair suddenly turn blood-red, her wings changed to pitch-black, and a large amount of dark red mist suddenly materialized before her and began condensing into the form of a ball.

In just an instant, the dark red ball shot out, leaving a colorful trail behind that seemed almost like a streak of blood.

*Boom!!* A low and deep explosion reverberated throughout the underground facility.

The human-shaped target that was struck by the dark red ball vanished.

It didn’t explode and it wasn’t destroyed; it vanished entirely!

Mika, Natsuya, and Seiji were all stunned.

After a few seconds of dead silence—"Chirp!"

The silver-winged loli had already returned to her original colors and flew towards the double pigtailed girl.

Mika reflexively caught Mas.h.i.+ro.

"Chirp~" Mas.h.i.+ro once again displayed a cute expression. It seemed like she wanted praise for having done a good job.

Mika, blank-faced, could only pat Mas.h.i.+ro listlessly. Seiji felt that it was incredible how she hadn’t shown any expressions of fear from that.

He himself definitely had an expression of shock. Natsuya, standing beside him, had the exact same expression.

That just now... what the h.e.l.l was that!?

It seemed like some technique from an anime, but the target that was. .h.i.t just instantly vanished, without leaving a single shard or trace behind... Was it a dimensional transfer bomb or black hole bomb or what!?

Frightening.

This attack’s effect was frightening, and the change in Mas.h.i.+ro was frightening and overall... terrifying!

Seiji was inwardly patting himself on the back for having successfully avoided a clash between s.h.i.+ka and Mas.h.i.+ro last night, otherwise... he definitely would have needed to load.

Mas.h.i.+ro was actually able to use such a powerful attack... just what was she?

"Her power... is immeasurable," Natsuya muttered to herself after she regained her senses. She looked at her computer monitor, shaking her head in disbelief.

On the screen was a warning displaying that the measuring equipment had undergone an error.

If the target had been destroyed, and the numbers were off the charts, that would have been astonis.h.i.+ng but still understandable.

But what was with the measuring equipment displaying nothing but errors?

What exactly was that ball-shaped attack? It was impossible to know.

The target disappeared after being struck, but did it transform into something too microscopically small to see, or was it transported elsewhere? If it were instantly vaporized, then its destructive power was insanely strong! And if it were transported elsewhere, where did it go?

This was definitely unimaginable.

After all this, this Spiritual Creature—no, the mysterious creature who'd been given the name of Mas.h.i.+ro—seemed likely to have a nature which was far more frightening than what it appeared like.

Cute chirping sounds echoed throughout this quiet, empty s.p.a.ce.

Mika looked towards Seiji. Seiji and Natsuya exchanged glances.

The two of them nonverbally communicated and came to an unspoken agreement.

"Let’s stop the test."

"Yep."