…Huh?
What's going on? Is it broken?
Satania noticed that the data being transmitted from the glasses was behaving abnormally.
Name: Kiryu Yazuki. Height…
At first, the data appeared normal, but it only lasted for a split second—so fast that Satania couldn't catch all the details.
Then, the name field started rapidly refreshing, flickering through a series of unknown words, constantly changing.
It was as if the system was encountering a critical error.
Even if she did recognize some of the words, the refresh rate was way too fast for her brain to process.
She decided to check his Evil Value.
…What?
The Evil Value status was going crazy, numbers fluctuating wildly, forming an absurdly long string of ever-changing digits.
"What the hell?"
Muttering to herself, Satania instinctively pressed the button on the glasses again—right as it executed the Absorb Evil Value command.
The next second—
She felt an overwhelming chill spread through her entire body, as if something had licked her skin.
Then, it was as if she had stepped onto absolute zero, the icy sensation creeping up from her feet to her brain.
At the same time, the target in her vision vanished.
In his place was a shadowy figure engulfed in thick, black flames.
In the blink of an eye, endless darkness spilled from the figure, writhing like the abyss itself, threatening to devour her completely.
Goosebumps erupted across her skin. Sweat poured down her body like a waterfall.
What… what is this…?!
"BZZT—CRACKLE—"
A sound like an overloaded machine sputtering electricity filled the air.
Satania's glasses sparked violently.
"Ahhh! My eyes—!!!"
She barely had time to scream before—
BOOM!
The glasses exploded.
"Ugh—"
With a pitiful groan, Satania collapsed, eyes rolled back, mouth foaming, her face blackened like charcoal. Her signature red hair had transformed into an explosion-style afro.
Meanwhile, the person she had tried to analyze—Yazuki—looked slightly puzzled.
Just now, he had felt… strange.
Like something inside him was being pulled out.
Glancing at the other three girls, he saw that none of them seemed surprised at Satania's fate.
Not at all.
Not even a little.
Raphiel—the one Yazuki had labeled a sow—had pulled out a random twig from who knows where and was now poking Satania's face with it.
Vignette sighed helplessly, her expression a mix of exasperation and pity.
As for the useless loli Gabriel…
She was picking her nose, grumbling to herself.
Tch, wasting money on useless junk again. She should just give me the cash so I can spend it on gacha rolls instead!
"Manager, I'm heading out."
The outside light had softened from its midday glare, turning golden as the sun neared the horizon. It wouldn't be long before dusk set in.
Yazuki finished packing up and waved to the café owner as he left.
"Take care."
Gabriel's voice followed him from behind—except it wasn't the usual farewell tone.
No.
It was the kind of farewell you'd give a dead man.
And she sounded totally bored while saying it.
"Sigh… I bet even the smallest bra size would be loose on you."
Tilting his head slightly, Yazuki's gaze briefly flickered downward toward Gabriel's chest.
Then—
With a look of pure pity, he sighed.
A moment later—before Gabriel could even react—his legs activated full turbo mode. In the blink of an eye, he was gone, having bolted out the door with lightning speed.
And just before he vanished completely—
He threw out one last mocking farewell:
"See ya, washboard~"
"—YOU BASTARD!!!"
A furious, bloodthirsty roar erupted from the Angel Café, filled with the pure intent to kill.
Now then… time to go shopping.
-----------------
Meanwhile—
In a parallel space, existing at the same coordinates as Muten Prefecture, yet within another phase of reality—
Though the terrain was identical to its surface-world counterpart, there were no buildings, no signs of human civilization.
BOOM—
A thunderous impact shook the ground.
A figure crashed into the earth with the force of a falling meteor, leaving behind a crater.
This figure was completely pitch black, emitting a nauseating and repulsive black aura. Its limbs were long and slender, with fingers and toes curled like sharp claws. Its head bore a pair of cloudy, blood-red, ferocious eyes, a mouth grinning all the way to the ears, and uneven, jagged teeth. On its back were what appeared to be rotting bat wings, making its appearance nothing short of a monster from the depths of hell.
"Ice of darkness, spirit of snow, grant me your breath and form a frost more silent than death—"
A voice as melodious as a flowing stream rang out. Looking over, one could see a girl standing about ten meters away, as delicate and beautiful as an exquisite piece of art. She had long, straight, purplish-red hair and emerald-green eyes.
As she chanted the incantation, her index finger traced glowing trajectories in the air. The light around her dimmed as if it were being absorbed by her.
After drawing three lines of glowing runes with her slender fingers, she flicked her fingertip lightly.
In an instant, an invisible chill erupted. The moisture in the air condensed and crystallized into numerous sharp ice shards, which then shot toward the monster at bullet-like speed.
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
In the blink of an eye, the monster was riddled like a porcupine and simultaneously frozen into an ice sculpture, only to collapse into ice shards the next moment.
"Phew~"
The girl let out a breath of relief.
Her name was Shizuno Urushibara.
About half a year ago, she began to awaken memories of her past life as a hero, a trait characteristic of a "Savior." Since then, she had been training, preparing to enroll in a specialized school for Saviors next spring.
Technically, she could also attend the Hero Academy, but it was known for its hostile atmosphere and frequent bullying, as it was more battle-oriented. The Savior Academy, on the other hand, was more accepting of modern-day heroes, though few actually chose to enroll there.
Right now, her act of hunting down otherworldly monsters that had invaded Earth's inner world was strictly speaking a reckless and dangerous act. Most Saviors her age barely knew how to wield their power properly, and hunting monsters was essentially suicide.
Although she was an exceptional Savior, this kind of action was still prohibited.
This time, she had secretly gone out on her own. Upon encountering a monster she believed she could defeat, she decided to take it down. Additionally, she had recently learned that the Hero Academy would be welcoming an outstanding new student next year, who might be her future rival.
Now that the monster was eliminated, Shizuno immediately dashed toward a nearby building.
Any appearance of a monster would soon be detected, and someone would come to handle the situation. To avoid getting caught and scolded for her reckless actions, she needed to leave quickly.
She entered a building that supposedly had a passage connecting to the surface world.
Stepping into what seemed to be an ordinary elevator, she immediately felt an unnatural sensation. Her magic power became completely unresponsive, making her feel like a normal person.
This was due to the powerful physical laws of the surface world rejecting supernatural forces. It was a restriction placed by the gods of Earth to prevent beings like heroes and Saviors from disrupting the world's order.
As the elevator panel displayed the floor count decreasing to the first floor—
Ding!
The elevator doors opened. Shizuno stepped out into a shopping mall, where she could see customers browsing and making purchases.
As she exited, she saw other people entering the same elevator she had just used. However, they would only be using the regular elevator to move between floors in the surface world, never accessing the hidden inner world.
Suddenly, her expression changed as she looked toward her shoulder bag—where a mass of black mist floated out.
It was the remnants of the monster she had supposedly destroyed. Somehow, it had managed to evade her detection and hitch a ride into the surface world with her.