On the other side, Eriri, Mio, and Tohka were leisurely strolling down a pedestrian street. For Tohka, who was seeing urban scenery for the first time, everything was novel and fascinating. Her large eyes blinked curiously as she looked around like a little child discovering the world.
Along the sidewalk were rows of shops—some selling souvenirs, others running restaurants, and occasionally, there were street food stalls that drew delicious aromas into the air.
Each time Tohka saw one of these stalls, she couldn't help but walk over and stare longingly at the food, drooling slightly.
Eriri, of course, didn't hesitate at all. With a casual wave of her hand, she told Tohka to order anything she wanted. "Everything's on me," she said generously.
As a result, Tohka's mouth hadn't stopped moving since they started walking.
Fortunately, she was a Spirit—otherwise, with the amount she'd eaten, her stomach would've burst long ago. Yet her belly remained perfectly flat, showing no sign of fullness at all.
"Eriri-nee, this one's so delicious too! You have to try it!"
Tōhka bounced happily over to Eriri's side, offering her a crepe she'd already taken a bite of. Her adorable face glowed with an innocent smile.
Today, Tohka wasn't wearing her ornate Astral Dress that resembled a cosplay costume. Instead, she wore a simple white one-piece dress, making her look like an innocent, well-bred young lady.
"Is that so? Let me have a taste."
Eriri didn't mind in the slightest. She took a bite from the same spot Tohka had eaten, and immediately, the sweetness of cream and strawberries burst across her tongue. She couldn't help but nod approvingly.
"Mmm, it really is good. Thank you, Tohka."
Her words weren't mere politeness. Though not quite on the same level as Aoi Kujou's crepes, this was excellent quality for a simple street vendor. No wonder the stall had a long line of customers waiting when they bought it.
"Hehe~"
Receiving Eriri's praise, Tohka's smile brightened even more, her eyes curving into charming crescents.
As Eriri looked at Tohka's face, she noticed a small smear of cream at the corner of her mouth. The girl herself was completely oblivious.
Without saying anything, Eriri reached out and gently wiped the cream from Tohka's lips with her fingertip. Then she retracted her hand and lightly licked the cream off her finger.
Seeing this, Tohka suddenly felt an inexplicable shyness. Her cheeks turned faintly pink, though she didn't understand why.
Beside them, Mio—whose hand was interlocked with Eriri's—also saw what happened. Her eyes flickered slightly, and she quietly dabbed her chocolate crepe against the corner of her own mouth, leaving a small smudge.
Then, imitating Tohka, she smiled sweetly and offered her crepe to Eriri. "Eriri, try mine too. It's really good~"
Looking at the crepe held up to her lips, and then at the faint trace of chocolate on Mio's mouth, Eriri's lips curved into an amused smile. Mio immediately ducked her head in embarrassment—she knew she'd been caught.
But Eriri didn't expose her. Instead, she leaned forward, took a small bite, then gently wiped the chocolate from Mio's lips and licked it away—repeating her earlier gesture with Tohka.
Seeing this, Mio let out a quiet sigh of relief, her face blooming into a blissful smile.
Finding her so adorable, Eriri gave her interlocked hand a soft squeeze. "Mhm~ Mio's flavor is wonderful too."
"Hehe~"
...
Before long, the clock struck eleven-thirty—only thirty minutes remained before the signing event began.
The three of them decided to stop wandering around and head toward the venue.
Fortunately, the street they were on wasn't far from the bookstore hosting the signing. It would take only about ten minutes to reach on foot.
Not that distance mattered—at their level of power, even millions of miles could be crossed in an instant if they wished.
The distance was only about ten minutes on foot—not nearly enough for Eriri to bother using spatial transfer. So the three continued walking down the street, simply changing direction and quickening their pace.
As they turned a corner and passed through a traffic light intersection, they saw a small child chasing a bouncing ball onto the road. At the same time, a car came speeding toward the spot where the child stood.
On the sidewalk nearby, a young girl with long orange hair reacted instantly. Without hesitation, she sprinted toward the child and pushed them out of the car's path just two seconds before impact.
As for herself, she had no way to dodge. All she could do was watch helplessly as the front of the car closed in on her.
In that moment, time seemed to slow. The scenes of her life—memories from the past decade—flashed rapidly through her mind. Those once-blurred images from childhood suddenly became vivid and clear, as if seen through a polished lens.
Then came a wave of terror—the instinctive fear of death welling up from deep within her heart.
Still, the thought that her death wasn't meaningless, that she had at least saved a young child's life, brought her a faint sense of comfort.
With that, she closed her eyes, quietly accepting her fate.
But as time passed, the pain of impact never came. Confusion flickered through her thoughts.
"Eh? What's going on? Is the afterimage of life still continuing? But I've already stopped recalling my past…"
Cautiously, the orange-haired girl opened her eyes—and immediately froze.
Something was blocking her view. When she focused, she realized it was the car's front bumper—less than ten centimeters from her face.
Yet everything around her was still.
"What… what the hell is happening?!"
Her voice came out trembling with disbelief. She could move her head, but the rest of her body was completely immobile. Everything around her was frozen in place, as if time itself had stopped.
"Yo~ Brave young lady, do you wish to become a beautiful and powerful Spirit?"
A calm, unfamiliar voice echoed from behind her. The orange-haired girl stiffened in shock. She instinctively tried to turn around—but her body refused to move, and even her neck couldn't twist enough to see who was speaking.
Still, her voice was unhindered.
"W-wait! Who are you? Is all this your doing?!"
Just two meters behind her stood Eriri, Mio, and Tohka, all smiling faintly as they watched her futile struggle to look back.
Of course, Eriri knew exactly who this girl was. Mio, having seen the memory projections, had a few guesses as well. Only Tohka looked completely lost.
The girl before them was none other than the original form of the Yamai sisters—Yamai Kazamachi, who had yet to receive a Spirit Crystal and thus remained a single being.
At this moment, Yamai Kazamachi looked about sixteen or seventeen years old. Her appearance was identical to the twin sisters from the story, with the same height and build—nothing like the final fused version of Yamai Kazamachi that appeared later in the original series.
That future version stood at a full one hundred and eighty centimeters tall and possessed an incredibly alluring figure. Compared to her, the current Yamai Kazamachi looked like a delicate bean sprout.
If Eriri hadn't happened to pass by this spot, Yamai Kazamachi would've met the same fate as in the original—dying in a car accident. Without Mio to bestow her Spirit Crystal, she would never have transformed into a Spirit at all.
But such a thing was impossible now. Eriri had already placed a mark on all future Spirits from the moment of their birth. The instant any of them encountered danger, she would know—and within the next second, she could cross entire universes to appear by their side.
This encounter with Yamai Kazamachi was indeed a coincidence—Eriri hadn't specifically sought her out. Before this, she hadn't checked the exact time when Yamai Kazamachi would have her accident. But since she happened upon the scene, there was no way she'd allow the girl to be struck by a car.
So, at the instant the car was about to hit Yamai Kazamachi, Eriri stopped time across the entire world.
Under her control, everything in the universe froze—except for herself, Mio, and Tohka, who could still move freely. As for Yamai Kazamachi, her body was only partially released from the frozen flow of time, leaving her unable to move.
Now, Eriri decided to lift that restriction. She raised her right hand and snapped her fingers lightly.
Snap!
With a crisp sound, the temporal force surrounding Yamai Kazamachi vanished. The girl, who had been frozen mid-fall, immediately tumbled onto the pavement.
"Ah—ouch!"
She gasped instinctively, but the expected pain never came. Though she had indeed fallen onto the hard asphalt, her body registered no injury.
She had no time to question it, however. She quickly scrambled to her feet and spun around.
The moment she saw Eriri and the others, she froze completely.
"So… beautiful…"
The words slipped from Yamai Kazamachi's lips in a dazed whisper.
Both Mio and Tohka were breathtakingly beautiful, their ethereal aura as Spirits making them even more captivating. But Eriri outshone them both—the orange-haired girl's gaze was entirely fixed on her.
Mio and Tohka, as lovely as they were, became little more than background in that moment.
"Hey, snap out of it."
Eriri waved her right hand in front of the girl's face, finally bringing her out of her daze.
"Ah! O-oh, hello! Hi!"
Startled back to her senses, Yamai Kazamachi quickly stepped forward and grabbed Eriri's outstretched hand with both of hers.
"My name's Yamai Kazamachi! You're so beautiful! Can you tell me your name?"
Her expression was one of pure excitement, entirely unguarded. She seemed to have forgotten all about the strange situation she was in—the frozen traffic, the stopped car, everything.
Right now, the only thing that mattered to her was meeting Eriri.
Eriri blinked at her, a strange look on her face. She hadn't expected the original Yamai Kazamachi to have such a bold and straightforward personality. Reaching out to grab her hand so eagerly took a certain kind of courage.
Still, she didn't pull away. Instead, she replied naturally.
"Mm, my name is Eriri—Eriri Spencer Sawamura. You're very pretty too."
"Hehe, thank you! But compared to you, I'm nothing~"
Yamai Kazamachi giggled shyly, scratching the back of her head with one hand. But excitement quickly replaced her embarrassment.
"Eriri, you don't know—when I first saw you, I thought I was hallucinating! I couldn't believe someone this beautiful could exist in the world!"
As she spoke, her wide eyes stayed locked onto Eriri's face, unwilling to look away even for a second.
Amused, Eriri smiled softly and reached out to pat her head.
"Alright, alright, don't get too worked up. You still haven't answered my question, Kaze—do you want to become a Spirit?"
"Yes, yes, yes!"
The moment the words left Eriri's lips, Yamai Kazamachi nodded eagerly without hesitation.
"Um… are you sure you understand what I just said?"
Judging by her lovestruck expression, Eriri was almost certain the girl had no idea what she'd agreed to.
But Yamai Kazamachi didn't care in the slightest. The smile Eriri had just given her had completely melted her reason away.
"It doesn't matter! Whatever you want me to do, I'll agree to anything!"
"Well, that's fine then~"
Eriri didn't question her further. After all, her purpose was to make Yamai Kazamachi a Spirit—and she knew that no one would refuse such an opportunity.
After all, becoming a Spirit meant gaining immense power with no drawbacks—and eternal youth.
For any girl, that alone was an irresistible temptation.
—
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