A Recap Part Typical of Movie Versions of the Main Story
(Author: The kind where the characters give a rough explanation in about 3 minutes or 3 lines for first-time viewers. I’m satisfied since it’s also in Gridman Universe.)
(Chapters like this always make me really feel something off. It’s tedious, but I really like looking up the various references Eight makes)
In the end, Mea and Arisu were only able to attend that day’s classes starting from the afternoon after lunch break had ended.
“Today we start from page 30 of the text. Yamikumo…… the brother, read it.”
“Roger that.”
In history class, a lesson on “Other World History” was conducted.
This subject, introduced in the new generation, still had many points that not only the students of the academy but even the teaching staff were presently studying, and in Akebono Academy of Supernatural Abilities as well, they aimed for its establishment by inviting special lecturers from Fairy World, and it was being promoted nationwide.
As for Mea, who had actually been to Fairy World and had heard various things from Chesed and Hod, she felt a bit awkward about having knowledge ahead of others, but in this class, while learning about the social conditions of the new generation, and also with many thoughts about the incident this morning, she herself, as someone concerned, ended up reviewing the past incident.
──The Abyss, an existence that had continued its activities since ancient times as a threat leading the world to ruin.
To protect both worlds from that threat, the Primordial Archangel Daat who descended from the other world Fairy World──T.P. Eight Olishua.
In order to regain the power she lost, she, who first acted in this country as the Supernatural Ability Phantom Thief, at times gave trials to people, and in Fairy World she served as a bridge between King Keter and the humans, guiding both worlds toward peace.
Without her, one could not speak of the arrival of the new generation.
Through her and the Savers’ activities, both worlds drove away the threat of Abyss, and the relationship with the holy beasts, which had been hostile until then, greatly advanced.
However, since the name of Mitsui Mea, who contributed the little she could do, was also listed in the textbook as one of the heroes, whenever this lesson was held, the gazes of her classmates stabbing toward her were a slightly ticklish concern.
“──is how it is.”
“Good work. …You read it with oddly strong emotion only when it comes to Daat-sama’s part.”
“Haha, that happens.”
“Of course it does.”
“…Seriously, this brother and sister.”
Due to advanced political considerations carried out between the two worlds, a certain amount of information about T.P. Eight Olishua’s identity had been disclosed.
For that reason, her existence was now known not as a wanted criminal but as someone with merits equal to or greater than the heroes, and she was even regarded as sacred by those who were strongly influenced by her, such as the Yamikumo siblings.
…However, the reality that the government was unable to judge whether she was truly a being of good for this world… and whether it was acceptable to keep treating her as they currently do, was, likewise due to advanced political considerations, placed under a strict gag order.
This was information known only to some members of the Savers, including Mea. It had not yet been told to Yamikumo Arisu, but──
──T.P. Eight Olishua had, from a few days ago, once again begun to operate in the shadows as the Supernatural Ability Phantom Thief, stealing supernatural abilities from children all over the world.
Having regained her power as the Primordial Archangel Daat, she was already causing damage to a number of people incomparable to five years ago.
Moreover, unlike five years ago, it was said that not a single one of the stolen abilities had returned.
At present, some members who have been informed were searching for her, but since she had been found in Akebono City a few days ago, her whereabouts had not been grasped at all.
(Eight-san… just what exactly…?)
Mea did not doubt even an ounce that Eight was a being of good.
She was a noble Archangel, kinder than anyone and stronger than anyone. Five years ago… no, long before that, she had exerted herself to protect the two worlds and had saved many people.
If she hadn’t been there, Mea herself would not have been able to enjoy an ordinary happiness like this now. She owed her a debt she could never repay in her lifetime, and for Mea, who held admiration for her, she could not grasp her true intentions.
There was no way she would do something like making children suffer without reason.
There surely should have been some great reason why she begun to operate in the shadows in this world now.
…Mea, who thought so from the bottom of her heart, believed that those circumstances lay in the “Tree of Evil” that was now causing anxiety to the world.
The “Tree of Evil” was a supermassive great tree reaching a total height of 1000 meters that appeared in countries all over the world only a few days ago──shortly after the night when Eight met Akatsuki En in Akebono City.
It was a gigantic tree bearing a close resemblance to the World Tree Sefira, the source of life in Fairy World, but unlike that sacred tree, its appearance was so ominous that it sent one shivering, a dark tree without even a single leaf.
The name “Tree of Evil” was also given by the local residents of the town where it appeared because it stripped the surrounding land of nutrients, root and branch.
Appearing far too suddenly and simultaneously across multiple locations, that great tree had the public unsettled with the thought that it might be an omen to something inauspicious.
Due to its size and sturdiness, it could not be incinerated even with conventional weapons or the power of renowned supernatural ability users, so in Japan, Akatsuki En and Rikidou Chouta, regarded as the strongest supernatural ability users of the present age, received a request for assistance and had been dispatched to the site together with experts from Fairy World.
That was also why the two were absent from this morning’s terrorist suppression mission.
──Time moved forward a little, after school at the academy.
Although Mea and Arisu were caught up in a hectic riot since this morning, they were able to spend their classes that day together with their schoolmates as usual.
After completing a day of classwork, it was the youth of high school students to work diligently at their respective club activities, but both of them, after this, had plans to briefly head to the Savers’ headquarters to compile reports on this morning’s dispatch.
Originally, submitting such documents was something done immediately after a mission, but since both of them were still students, the headquarters side had made accommodations.
For that reason, the road the two walked today was the same on the way back as well.
Mea, who had finished preparing to go home a step ahead, during the time she was waiting for Arisu to pack her textbooks into her bag, was browsing online news on her smartphone with a cute carbuncle strap attached.
What appeared in the headline right after opening the page was a topic about the “Tree of Evil” that was now causing anxiety to the world, and although it was not that she wanted to ego-search, the activity of Mea and Arisu who suppressed the terrorists this morning was in the section below that.
“Ahh… our article’s below, huh. As expected, everyone’s concerned about that ‘Tree of Evil.’ It really feels like something’s clearly about to happen now.”
When Mea tapped that article, Arisu, who had finished preparing to go home a moment later, leaned in from the side and spoke while peeking. Her twin tails brushed against Mea’s cheek, giving a slight prick.
“They all appeared in four locations at the same time, right?”
“Yeah. They suddenly showed up in Canada, Australia, Egypt, and the UK. For now, there’s one tree in each of those four countries… Onii-chan is in Canada, and Chouta-san is in Egypt.”
“I wish those Japanese terrorists wouldn’t get carried away just because it’s a time like this…”
Arisu’s sigh, let out from the bottom of her heart in being fed up, touched her hand, and Mea gave a wry smile.
The fact that as soon as the two strongest aces of the Savers left the country, small-time villains began to run wild, was a harsh reality that true peace had not yet come to this country.
However, for Mea, she had a certain level of understanding toward the feelings that led them to go out of control.
“I think they were anxious too, you know? About a world that’s starting to change in various ways, now that exchange with Fairy World has begun.”
Walking side by side, the two left the school building, and with the voices of students engaged in club activities on the grounds as BGM, they moved away from the academy grounds.
Although their Akebono Academy of Supernatural Abilities was described by people of the older generation and students of other schools as “like something that came out of fiction,” once one stepped outside the grounds, it was a school route one could find anywhere.
However, in the new-generation supernatural ability society where exchange with Fairy World was deepening, things that could never have been imagined with the common sense until then had begun to occur.
Perhaps because the existence of the “Tree of Evil,” which suddenly had appeared, was a matter overseas, it was not a familiar disturbance in this country, but there had been people who, convinced that all such incomprehensible phenomena were the fault of the holy beast [Fairies], caused riots, and Mea thought that this morning’s terrorists were of that kind as well.
That was exactly why, although she felt pity, Mea could not bring herself to hate those she captured.
Being crushed by anxiety about the future and losing composure was something that could happen to anyone.
“That’s why we have to do our best and reassure people like that.”
When anxiety toward the world exploded, they could no longer believe in the world that existed here and ended up resorting to violence. That was something very sad, and Mea thought that saving such people was also their, the Savers’, role.
Hearing her resolution, Arisu asked as if recalling the exchange they had with the kobold goodwill ambassadors this morning.
“…Mea-chan, aren’t you actually an angel after all?”
“? What, even you, Arisu… I’m not that great a person.”
With a troubled smile, Mea replied with sincere modesty.
She had thought since five years ago that she wanted to become a kind person like those who had been kind to her. However, as a result, being elevated as an angel felt wrong to her.
For her, an angel was not something like that.
“But you didn’t deny being a princess, right? The ambassador also said you’re the daughter of the king of Fairy World.”
“…More or less. It’s true that king said I’m his daughter.”
“The king acknowledged it! Amazing, you really are a princess!”
『Princess, when will you return to our world?』──being asked that, Mea truly felt caught off guard.
Since the title “princess,” carrying its literal meaning, had never been said to her even by those around her who knew these complicated circumstances, at first Mea did not think that word was directed at herself.
“As for me, when they said princess, I thought they meant you, Arisu.”
“Why!? I’m just a commoner kid.”
“You know, when you use Fairy Burst, you make a castle, right, Arisu? One that looks like a princess would live in. The kind built in Fairyland.”
“Ah, ahh, yeah… well, I do have that kind of image for my Fairy Burst… ah, but if I’m a princess, then Onii-chan is a prince! Hah… doesn’t suit him.”
“Eh, I think Kakeru-kun is a cool person though.”
Above all, even though she was created with a part of the king’s power, she had never been treated as a princess by the genuine angels, the Ten Archangels of Sefirot.
Therefore, even the gazes of expectations and reverence that the kobold goodwill ambassador’s group directed at her felt beyond her.
Even so, she felt guilty about betraying their pure eyes, and the fact that she left that place as if escaping while using evasive wording was her biggest regret of the day.
“At that time you said something like ‘For now, to protect the two worlds, I will protect this town’ and skillfully dodged it… but what about actually? Like, living in Fairy World in the future. Come on, looks like you have a guy you’re close with over there too, ufufufu.”
“…What’s with that laugh. I’ll say this, but I’m not in that kind of relationship with Chesed or Hod, okay?”
“Eh, really? I thought they were making quite a move on you. Even that ribbon, you got it from the two of them, right? That means there’s a chance.”
“Nope, nope. This ribbon were a graduation gift from elementary school, so it’s not like that.”
“Hmm… hmm.”
Toward her close friend who seemed to be thinking of various fun things, Mea gently denied it with a wry smile.
The tricolor ribbon tying her ponytail──each also becoming a weapon optimized for her respective forms──was something she received as a present from the two Archangels about four years ago.
They were irreplaceable friends to Mea, ones she once fought together with. Even after Mea became able to use the power of an angel, the two would come, making time out of their busy schedules, to teach her how to handle this power, like mentors.
Both of them were beautiful──one rarely removed his helmet, and the other was more often in the form of a bird than in human form──and perhaps because of that, girls around them like Arisu amusingly speculated about her relationship with the two, but in reality all of that was impossible delusion.
At least, Mea thought so.
“You know, Arisu… what you call a real angel isn’t like that.”
“What do you mean?”
While walking along the way back to the Savers headquarters, Mea spoke with a serious face about the way she believed an “angel” ought to be.
“Their love is very great. That’s why their love is always directed toward the whole world.”
What came to her mind were Chesed, Hod, and the other Ten Archangels of Sefirot, and the Primordial Archangel sisters who poured their unstinting love into the two worlds.
They never engaged in romance like humans.
Because an angel’s love was always broad and vast, enveloping the whole world, it was not something directed toward an individual.
“You think so…? I think Malkuth-sama and Rikidou-san, who came to Akari-san’s wedding, seemed pretty close though.”
“Eh?”
“Eh?”
“…A-anyway! It means that something like an angel isn’t something a person like me can become!”
“Hmm…”
She thought she had explained it carefully and thoroughly, but Arisu did not seem to entirely get it.
She had inadvertently said something strange, but Mea did not quite get that either, so it was about mutual. And regarding Malkuth and Rikidou Chouta, from what Mea had seen, they were always arguing or crossing blades, so she thought that rather than being in the kind of relationship Arisu was suspecting, they were the furthest from it.
Arisu sometimes says things I don’t understand… tilting her head, the figure Mea considered the most angel-like among angels appeared in her mind.
(…I’m not an angel, but I want to get even a little closer to you… Eight-san…)
Having once again returned to being the Supernatural Ability Phantom Thief, what was she thinking, and what was she trying to do in this world now?
With the four “Trees of Evil” that appeared overseas, Mea could not shake the feeling that something significant was about to happen again in this world.
…Under normal circumstances, she would like to fly around right now and help with searching for Eight or investigating the Tree of Evil.
However, before leaving on an expedition, Mea had just been asked a favor by her brother-in-law, Akatsuki En.
──While we’re gone, we’ll leave the peace of the town to you.
That was the morning after he had an encounter with T.P. Eight Olishua at the symbol of this town, Akebono Tower.
Shortly after that night, he received the investigation mission for the “Tree of Evil” that appeared in four overseas countries, and with those words, he entrusted the town to Mea while he was away.
…For the first time in a while, he patted her head. While the clumsy yet gentle touch brought feelings of nostalgia and joy, Mea saw in the eyes that spoke those words a strong determination and resolution.
“I have to protect it… I will.”
“Hm?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Because of those circumstances, the present Mea did not have the option of “returning” to Fairy World from the beginning.
The topic had strayed, but Mea answered Arisu’s question once more.
“…Sure enough, saying I would ‘return’ to Fairy World doesn’t feel right. I do want to go to that world again someday, but I consider this town to be my home.”
If one spoke of her origin, then in fact Mea’s birthplace was indeed Fairy World, and like the angels, it would be the World Tree Sefira.
However, when Mea was born, she had not only no memories but not even emotions, so the starting point that formed the current “Mitsui Mea” was, after all, the Mitsui household in this town. Therefore, in her own perception, she considered herself a resident of this world.
That she came to think this way was undoubtedly due to the firm growth nurtured by those around her.
However… even so, in Mea’s heart now, there were still smoldering emotions even she herself could not properly put into words.
Feelings that even she herself was not aware of sometimes appeared in her dreams as nightmares. They were deep, dark nightmares from which she could not awaken unless she saw them through to the end.
On the days she saw them, something was always happened in reality as well… and on the night when T.P. Eight Olishua and Akatsuki En were fighting, the reason she could not rush to the scene was also because, at the same time, she was suffering from a nightmare.
──And she would see that nightmare again on the night of this day.