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Back on the beach, as Kanon's angel wings completely dissipated, Kensei collapsed to his knees on the armored transport ship's deck. His mouth hung open as if he'd aged twenty years in an instant.
"How... why did this happen..."
The lab-coated middle-aged man kept muttering to himself.
"It shouldn't be like this! This isn't how it was supposed to go! Why did it fail?! Kanon should have ascended to become an angel, answering the divine call to heaven!"
"You're noisy. Guess I was so focused on draining Kanon's angelic power, I forgot about you."
Floating above, Bokue glanced down at the man who'd clearly descended into complete madness.
With just that single look, golden flames ignited across Kensei's body, reducing him to ash in the blink of an eye. The fire also vaporized the scattered remains of that couple who'd threatened to turn La Folia into a biological weapon.
Only after finishing this did Bokue slowly descend from the sky.
On the ground, the two girls immediately rushed forward as they saw him descending, both expressing their concern.
"Bokue, are you alright?"
"Bokue... are you hurt anywhere?"
Compared to the silver-haired princess's directness, the War Dancer was slightly more subtle.
But the worry in Sayaka's eyes showed her concern was no less than La Folia's.
After all, they'd watched Bokue take six magical cannon blasts head-on.
"No, I'm fine. Don't worry about me."
Bokue shook his head.
"Then... what about her?"
Sayaka finally turned her attention to the silver-haired girl in his arms, carefully reaching out to check for breathing.
"How's Kanon doing?"
"She's... fine too. Just exhausted and hasn't regained consciousness yet."
Bokue's tone remained unhurried.
"Since Kanon's consciousness was completely controlled by the angelic power inside her, I had to drain all of it first. Emergency treatment, basically."
"Drain?"
La Folia tilted her head curiously, making a grasping gesture with her hand.
"Like those energy-draining techniques from TV shows?"
"Mm... something like that."
Bokue thought about it seriously before answering.
"This way, the angelic power in her body isn't strong enough to forcibly override her consciousness anymore."
He'd basically copied what Vali had done to him with the White Dragon Emperor's Divine Dividing—except Bokue's power was so overwhelming that he'd nearly made Vali explode, almost causing complete physical collapse and death on the spot.
"I see. Thank you, Bokue."
La Folia smiled slightly.
Vroooom—!
Just then, white waves suddenly appeared on the distant sea surface, accompanied by a speedboat's horn.
"That boat... more pursuers?"
La Folia reacted sharply, frowning as she looked toward the sound.
Bokue also glanced over, but unlike the silver-haired princess's wariness, his expression was completely relaxed.
Even Sayaka seemed to realize something, her brows relaxing with a hint of disbelieving anticipation and joy.
"No, wait! Could that be—"
"Big Brother! We're here—!"
The girl's cheerful voice carried across the waves like a soaring dove, reaching the three on the beach.
Without question, that voice belonged to Nagisa.
She leaned halfway out of the speeding boat's side, waving energetically toward the beach. Meanwhile, in the cockpit sat a certain Sword Shaman, sitting ramrod straight with both hands gripping the wheel tightly.
"Yukina and... Miss Nagisa?"
Sayaka covered her mouth in surprise.
"How did they find us here?"
"...Who knows."
Bokue said this, but he'd already guessed the answer.
In barely thirty seconds, the speedboat racing at full throttle reached the beach.
Yukina had barely stopped the boat when Nagisa leaped down from behind, running straight to Bokue for an unabashed, tight hug.
"Long time no see, Big Brother~ Did you miss Nagisa?"
"It hasn't been that long..."
With Sayaka and La Folia watching, Bokue could only pat the girl's back like an actual big brother.
But this earned a dissatisfied huff from Nagisa.
"You left yesterday! That's already two whole days! There's a saying—'one day apart feels like three autumns.' Three autumns is three years, which is 1,095 days. Not seeing each other for 1,095 days, and if we keep calculating by 'one day equals three autumns'..."
"Then you'd be stepping on air to reach Heaven."
Bokue cut her off before the numbers could balloon further.
After all, with Nagisa's personality, she might well end up saying something like "do it three trillion times and I'll forgive you."
Even a True Ancestor's body couldn't handle that kind of abuse...
"So how did you two rent a speedboat anyway? You're both underage, aren't you?"
"About that..."
Nagisa didn't answer immediately, instead looking toward Yukina, who'd just disembarked and joined them.
The Sword Shaman still held the boat keys. Seeing everyone looking at her, she froze slightly.
"Um... actually, Nagisa said she could sense Senpai's location. And I was a bit worried about Sayaka and Bokue-senpai working together, so I used my Lion King Organization authority to rent a speedboat. But now it seems..."
Yukina's eyes gradually narrowed as she spoke, looking past Bokue and the others to the beachfront mansion standing nearby.
Without question, this was obviously someone's handiwork.
Yukina's narrowed eyes were meant to complain about Bokue creating a villa while supposedly on a rescue mission, but as they say, the speaker has no particular intention while the listener reads meaning into everything. To Sayaka, it looked entirely different.
The War Dancer girl's cheeks flushed red as memories of everything that had happened on the island over these two days and one night flooded back. She waved her hands frantically.
"Well... how should I put it, um... it was fine! Bokue only had a small accident at first due to some misunderstandings, but everything after that was no problem. You can absolutely rest assured about that, Yukina... Besides, it was only two days. Now all the problems are solved and we're preparing to head back... Yeah, that's about it..."
As she spoke, Sayaka's heart suddenly trembled slightly.
Right, just as she'd said—time to go back.
So afterward... would there be another chance for such "accidents"?
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