Two women stood in a white, round room, facing a glowing circle the size of a basketball that was imprinted into the centre of the room.

“What on earth could have happened for Daisuke-kun to request an emergency portal all of a sudden?” sighed one of the women as she adjusted the ponytail of her long black hair. “I thought he had full control of the situation when he called the other night.”

The other woman, who had short lavender hair and wore a maid’s outfit, cocked her head to the side and folded her arms. “Something bad must have happened. You did say that this girl he’s looking after had a very strong spirit capacity, didn’t you Sekai-chan?”

“I know, Riri,” the woman named Sekai replied. “He should arrive anytime soon. We’ll know what had happened when he does arrive.”

The both of them stood in silence momentarily before the glowing circle in front of them shone even brighter, and soon the light engulfed the whole room and a void opened up above the circle. Daisuke walked out from the void, carrying Nikko’s body in his arms. Blood continued to flow out of her chest and dripped onto the white floor.

“Sh-t,” Sekai gasped while moving forwards. “What the hell happened?”

“I’ll get a bed ready in the infirmary,” Riri said before rushing out of the room.

Daisuke bit his lower lip and looked down at Nikko’s expressionless face. “Hanabei Mina.”

“What?!” Sekai raised her voice. “Wha-… She was in the mortal realm? And this is her doing?”

“She made a mini alternate space to try to kill me,” Daisuke answered.

“She definitely didn’t succeed, but… she killed Nikko?”

“Yeah,” Daisuke proceeded to walk out of the room. “I’ll explain more later. Right now I need to resurrect her before we run out of time.”

Daisuke rested Nikko on a bed in the infirmary. He took off his coat and rolled his sleeves up as Sekai and Riri stood by the edge of the bed. Daisuke channelled his spirit energy into the palm of his left hand and placed it above Nikko’s heart. The energy slowly flowed from his hand into the stab wound.

“Hanabei Mina… she showed herself for the first time in years,” Daisuke said. “I suspect she was interested in Nikko since she has such a strong spirit capacity. But the space she created brought Vallista in and they swarmed around Nikko.”

“Well if she planned on kidnapping her, it didn’t turn out so well, did it?” Sekai muttered. “It would all have been lost if the Vallista consumed Nikko’s spirit.”

“I’m not sure if that was her objective though,” Daisuke replied. “I think she wanted to kill me… that would explain why she prioritized attacking me first. I’m sure she knew that the alternate space would bring Vallista in, and if she wanted Nikko for herself, she would not have taken that risk.”

“Hmm, sounds like she wanted to kill you and let the Vallista get Nikko,” Riri said. “But… she was the one who killed Nikko before the Vallista got to her?”

“Yeah,” Daisuke nodded. “She seemed entirely focused on me right until the Vallista were about to consume Nikko’s spirit. That’s when she stopped attacking me and Shadow Stepped to Nikko to prevent that from happening.”

Riri placed a hand on her hip. “She was once a spirit chaser… one of us… she knew that if she killed Nikko, we would be able to revive her as a spirit chaser.”

“Was that her plan all along?” Sekai asked as she continued to watch Daisuke’s spirit energy transfer into Nikko’s body.

“I can’t say,” Daisuke responded. “She knows that if Nikko is resurrected by us, her power will be in our hands. Perhaps she wants to steal her away once she is resurrected. But for the majority of our fight, Mina was solely focused on me. She never showed any intentions of capturing Nikko.”

Daisuke withdrew his hand and put his coat back on. “Riri-nee, can you please clean and patch her up?”

“Of course Daisuke-chan,” Riri said as Daisuke walked out of the infirmary. Sekai followed after him.

“Hanabei Mina,” Sekai murmured as she and Daisuke arrived outside the command room. “I wonder what she has been up to?”

Daisuke remained silent and opened the doors to the room. A green-haired man stood by a workbench, facing away from the entrance. The two of them approached him.

“Yuuta,” Daisuke called.

The man, Yuuta, spun around. “D-Daisuke! You’re back!”

“Hanabei Mina has shown herself for the first time since the Mabaroshi Massacre,” Daisuke explained as he approached the monitors and booted up the system. “She attacked me in the mortal realm, and killed Sugimura Nikko.”

“W-What?”

“It’s complicated,” Daisuke said immediately. “Sekai will fill you in, I need to write a report for this.”

Daisuke waved a palm across the panel in front of the monitors, summoning a holographic keypad and began typing away in a document.

Mina… Daisuke thought to himself. She said something before she Shadow Stepped to Nikko… something about this not being what she wanted? What could she have meant by that? If she really wanted Nikko’s spirit to be consumed by the Vallista, why did she change her mind at the last second?

“This really is a crazy story,” Yuuta said, interrupting Daisuke’s thoughts. “The most infamous person ever to be associated with the Mabaroshi, I wonder if we’ll have to face her sometime soon.”

“She isn’t someone you want to mess with,” Daisuke said sternly.

“S-Sorry,” Yuuta apologized immediately. “Well, she… I probably don’t need to remind you.”

“You don’t.”

“Either way,” Sekai said. “Sugimura should awaken in a few days, right?”

“Yes,” Daisuke responded. “We should prepare her a room in the headquarters and enrol her into the Spirit Chaser Academy. She’s gonna have to get used to her new life.”