mind.
“Oh right… They went to get on an airplane and jumped to the sub-float, right?”
Sayaka and La Folia had been tossed to a place far from the airport; Kojou had entered his neighbor’s bathroom. The locations and seriousness were completely different, but in both cases, instantaneous spatial shifts had been involved.
Yukina carefully chose her words as she murmured.
“Perhaps there is some kind of distortion occurring in the space surrounding Itogami Island.”
Kojou audibly drew in his breath.
Spatial control, using that for instantaneous movement—wasn’t that what Natsuki Minamiya, the Witch of the Void, specialized in—?
“Spatial distortions…? Do you think this might have something to do with Natsuki disappearing?”
“I do not know. However, I feel like the timing is too similar to be a mere coincidence.”
“Seems like it.” Kojou nodded with a twist of his lips. “It’d be nice if we could get in touch with Natsuki, but where should we look for her?”
Yukina spoke with a tone tinged with faint unease. “In this situation, carelessly walking around is dangerous. In any event, let’s wait and see for the moment. Please return to your own residence, senpai. There’s a chance Nagisa and Yuuma might become wrapped up in this. Also, there is no guarantee you will get back safely next time.”
“I see. You have a point.”
This time, Kojou had happened to go as far as the bathroom of Yukina’s next-door apartment, but next time might not be on such a small scale. If the next warp sent him to the stratosphere or the bottom of the sea, he might perish instantly, unable to return.
Viewed from that perspective, Kojou’s experience earlier was an incredible stroke of good fortune.
After all, he hadn’t been tossed out into a busy shopping district buck naked; the people at his destination were Kanon and Astarte, both acquaintances.
Subconsciously recalling how they looked in the bath, Kojou blessed his good fortune with renewed fervor.
As Kojou did so, Yukina shot him an emotionless glare even scarier than before.
“Senpai…”
Obeying his animal instincts, Kojou prostrated himself once again.
“I’m really, really sorry…”
7
When Kojou returned to his own residence, it was Nagisa and Yuuma who awaited him, in the bath.
That was not to say that Kojou was forcibly warped into their bathroom the instant he entered the doorway. It was simply that Nagisa’s and Yuuma’s voices from the bathroom were so loud that Kojou could hear them all the way from the living room. It was all kinds of girl talk about if they had boyfriends or not, what sort of guys they liked, ways to make your breasts bigger, and lurid rumors not meant for the ears of boys—all forbidden topics for discussion that Kojou knew nothing about.
Yes, he was curious, but these really weren’t subjects he wanted to hear about from his own little sister’s mouth. In spite of that, he didn’t have it in him to announce,
I can hear you
, and so, with something of a heavy heart, Kojou grabbed a drink in a PET bottle and went out onto the veranda.
Even Nagisa and Yuuma’s careless banter was not audible from outside the apartment.
Leaning limply against the railing, Kojou poured the lukewarm sports drink down his throat. Then, he suddenly saw something that made his blood run cold.
“…Eh?!”
The hand holding the PET bottle shuddered. Kojou was looking at a park on a plateau on the other side of the street. The distance had to be almost a full kilometer away.
If Kojou had not had vampiric vision kick in after sunset as it was then, and if the clothed man standing there did not stand out, he would surely never have noticed.
“No…way. What’s
he
doing here…?!”
Kojou put some shoes on and flew out of the apartment in great haste, running down the apartment complex’s stairs. He leaped over the exterior fence and plunged down the road, taking the shortest possible route toward the plateau. It was
“Oh right… They went to get on an airplane and jumped to the sub-float, right?”
Sayaka and La Folia had been tossed to a place far from the airport; Kojou had entered his neighbor’s bathroom. The locations and seriousness were completely different, but in both cases, instantaneous spatial shifts had been involved.
Yukina carefully chose her words as she murmured.
“Perhaps there is some kind of distortion occurring in the space surrounding Itogami Island.”
Kojou audibly drew in his breath.
Spatial control, using that for instantaneous movement—wasn’t that what Natsuki Minamiya, the Witch of the Void, specialized in—?
“Spatial distortions…? Do you think this might have something to do with Natsuki disappearing?”
“I do not know. However, I feel like the timing is too similar to be a mere coincidence.”
“Seems like it.” Kojou nodded with a twist of his lips. “It’d be nice if we could get in touch with Natsuki, but where should we look for her?”
Yukina spoke with a tone tinged with faint unease. “In this situation, carelessly walking around is dangerous. In any event, let’s wait and see for the moment. Please return to your own residence, senpai. There’s a chance Nagisa and Yuuma might become wrapped up in this. Also, there is no guarantee you will get back safely next time.”
“I see. You have a point.”
This time, Kojou had happened to go as far as the bathroom of Yukina’s next-door apartment, but next time might not be on such a small scale. If the next warp sent him to the stratosphere or the bottom of the sea, he might perish instantly, unable to return.
Viewed from that perspective, Kojou’s experience earlier was an incredible stroke of good fortune.
After all, he hadn’t been tossed out into a busy shopping district buck naked; the people at his destination were Kanon and Astarte, both acquaintances.
Subconsciously recalling how they looked in the bath, Kojou blessed his good fortune with renewed fervor.
As Kojou did so, Yukina shot him an emotionless glare even scarier than before.
“Senpai…”
Obeying his animal instincts, Kojou prostrated himself once again.
“I’m really, really sorry…”
7
When Kojou returned to his own residence, it was Nagisa and Yuuma who awaited him, in the bath.
That was not to say that Kojou was forcibly warped into their bathroom the instant he entered the doorway. It was simply that Nagisa’s and Yuuma’s voices from the bathroom were so loud that Kojou could hear them all the way from the living room. It was all kinds of girl talk about if they had boyfriends or not, what sort of guys they liked, ways to make your breasts bigger, and lurid rumors not meant for the ears of boys—all forbidden topics for discussion that Kojou knew nothing about.
Yes, he was curious, but these really weren’t subjects he wanted to hear about from his own little sister’s mouth. In spite of that, he didn’t have it in him to announce,
I can hear you
, and so, with something of a heavy heart, Kojou grabbed a drink in a PET bottle and went out onto the veranda.
Even Nagisa and Yuuma’s careless banter was not audible from outside the apartment.
Leaning limply against the railing, Kojou poured the lukewarm sports drink down his throat. Then, he suddenly saw something that made his blood run cold.
“…Eh?!”
The hand holding the PET bottle shuddered. Kojou was looking at a park on a plateau on the other side of the street. The distance had to be almost a full kilometer away.
If Kojou had not had vampiric vision kick in after sunset as it was then, and if the clothed man standing there did not stand out, he would surely never have noticed.
“No…way. What’s
he
doing here…?!”
Kojou put some shoes on and flew out of the apartment in great haste, running down the apartment complex’s stairs. He leaped over the exterior fence and plunged down the road, taking the shortest possible route toward the plateau. It was
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