Tapping his fingers lightly on the desk, Arthas had lost interest in continuing to attend class obediently.
His attention had been completely drawn to the new transfer student, the girl named Kurumi Tokisaki.
The identity of the Spirit seemed to be confirmed without a doubt. He couldn't be wrong about that feeling of power.
Although it was well hidden and seemed very weak, there was no doubt that it was the exact same power as Tohka and Yoshino.
Tohka only had a similar aura, Yoshino had an almost identical power of frost, and the girl named Kurumi before him possessed another one of Arthas's powers.
It was the power of sin that Arthas had buried deep within himself and hadn't fully tamed to this day.
"The sin of this world, huh?" Why was he sensing this from this girl?
As if she had noticed Arthas looking at her, Kurumi couldn't help but turn her head, showing Arthas an exceptionally bewitching smile.
What a bewitching girl that was impossible to properly describe... Arthas sighed softly. An ordinary man would definitely be easily captivated by her.
The morning homeroom quickly came to an end. Arthas hadn't originally intended to notify Kotori, but when he thought about Origami's identity as an AST member, he decisively dialed Kotori's number.
After all, it would be troublesome if the AST people acted recklessly.
A moment later, the dial tone rang, and Kotori's slightly delayed voice came from the phone.
"Hey... Hey, what do you want calling me at this time?" A somewhat lazy voice rang out. It seemed that Kotori hadn't been properly listening to her morning class either.
"Hey, Kotori."
"Really, why did you have to call at this time? If the phone had rung ten seconds earlier, the teacher would have confiscated it, you know." Kotori complained.
"If you're at school, you should properly set it to silent mode."
"I just forgot a little today..."
Although she said she was dissatisfied, her tone was more like she was acting spoiled with Arthas.
"So, what's the matter, Arthas?"
"It's a very important matter..."
While saying this, Arthas glanced at Kurumi.
Although she had said something that would startle most people during her self-introduction, like "I'm a Spirit," Kurumi was currently surrounded by a sea of people.
It was a state where all sorts of questions were flying around. It wasn't just the students in the class.
Students from other classes had gathered to see the legendary beautiful transfer student. It was just like the scene on the first day Tohka had transferred.
At this time, his eyes inadvertently met Kurumi's. Kurumi smiled at him again.
Arthas's eyebrows rose. Now he could be certain that this girl definitely knew him.
Although they might not have met, she definitely knew of his existence.
"Arthas?" Kotori's words interrupted Arthas's thoughts. Coming to his senses, Arthas quickly spoke.
"Well, a transfer student came to class today, and she bluntly called herself a Spirit as soon as we met."
"A Spirit?!"
Kotori said this with some surprise, and then what followed was the sound of clothes rustling from the other side of the phone.
It was as if she was changing the ribbon she used to tie up her hair.
"Explain the details."
Kotori continued in a tone that was clearly different from before.
"Even if you want me to explain the details, I don't know what to say. Anyway, when the transfer student was giving her greeting, she said, 'I'm a Spirit,' and it can basically be confirmed that she wasn't lying."
"Well, that's interesting. A Spirit who came to us on her own initiative, huh? I'll go notify everyone to start acting."
"It's not clear what the Spirit wants to do yet, but no matter what, let's take care of it before the AST start acting."
Saying this, Arthas cut off the phone. Soon, the bell signaling the start of the first class rang out.
At the same time, in a corner of the Tengu Garrison, in the observation room that oversaw all the Spirit wave information in the South Kanto region.
"...Impossible." AST captain Ryouko Kusakabe frowned and groaned.
"Are you sure there's no mistake?"
The man who was operating the central control panel looked over here, shaking his head with sweat on his face.
"I'm sorry. The precision of the observation equipment here is the highest level even within the country."
"...Is that so."
Re-examining the values displayed on the screen and confirming that there was no mistake, she sighed heavily, as if trying to shake off her confusion.
The screen displayed the scan data of a certain person.
No, the term "person" might be a bit misleading.
In any case, that value was that of the calamity that would kill the world.
"...A Spirit transferred into high school? That's a joke that's not funny."
Yes, at 9:00 this morning, they received a communication from Origami to the base.
Because a girl who claimed to be a Spirit had transferred into her class, she requested an investigation...
Although they were skeptical, they still scanned the girl, but...
Ryouko wiped her forehead. Her sleeves were soaked with sweat. Even though the air conditioning was on, her skin was subtly damp.
This wasn't without reason. To transfer into high school, not only would a family register and resident card be necessary, but also various other documents.
It was impossible not to feel a chill when a dangerous being with the power to destroy a street with a flick of their finger had escaped their observation and possessed the knowledge to understand and apply the structure of human society.
"What happened? Why are you gathered in the observation room?" A calm voice rang out. It was a voice that made people feel at ease just by hearing it.
There was no one else who would say such a thing. Turning her head to look behind her, Mana was standing there as expected.
"Officer Mana." However, Mana Takamiya clearly wasn't in the mood to greet them.
Looking at the analysis on the big screen, the girl showed an extremely serious expression. Mana even wrinkled her brow in disgust.
"This is... So it appeared after all, 'Nightmare', the Spirit codenamed 'Nightmare'..."
"'Nightmare'..?"
Ryouko asked strangely, and Mana tightened her brow and sighed hatefully.
"Identification name 'Nightmare', this is the... most evil Spirit I've been chasing!"
"The most evil... Spirit?"
Such a title gave Kusakabe Ryouko a bad premonition. Looking at Mana, she asked again in a trembling tone.
"A Spirit who has already caused the deaths of at least ten thousand people. If you include the unidentified victims, the number should be several times higher."
Mana Takamiya sighed lightly, "I've been chasing her traces overseas, but I never expected her to appear here so brazenly."
"T-Ten thousand people...!? It's d-difficult to understand. Why wasn't an evacuation order issued? And such a large-scale spacequake..."
"You're wrong."
Shaking her head, as if to interrupt Ryouko's words, Mana Takamiya bit her lip tightly and spoke.
"The scale of the spacequake caused by 'Nightmare' is only standard. Although there were deaths, the number is less than a hundred."
"Th-Then why..."
"The reason is simple. She killed those ten thousand people directly with her own hands."
Ryouko held her breath.
'Princess' and 'Hermit', who had appeared in Tengu City before, had caused deep spacequakes, but hadn't actively attacked humans themselves.
But, if a monster that could easily tear apart the earth killed people with its own will...
How terrifying that would be was easy for an AST member to imagine.
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