“When this spirit attacked me, I used my oracle powers on it and caused a sort of forced possession. It’s a single-use thing, but it’s made me super powerful,” Shildina explained. That sounded wrong on all sorts of levels!

“How dare you!” Miyaji raged—even though he seemed to be using the exact same technique. I also didn’t think her oracle powers had been behind the attack she used when she appeared.

“So you can use magic now?” I asked.

“No. I imbued this with power and used that,” Shildina explained, holding up an ofuda. It looked like she had access to some pretty different attacks from Rishia.

“So she was too much for them to handle . . .” Miyaji muttered. It sounded as though Miyaji had taken steps against Shildina, but they clearly hadn’t worked out. “But to make use of her yourself! This is the height of cowardice! Release her!” he yelled. I guess it made sense that he would have placed a trap for everyone after splitting us up.

“Sweet Naofumi, watch this!” Shildina said and turned to Miyaji. “You get defeated by this!”

“Ah! My power . . . she’s draining it! Master Hidemasa!” The transparent spirit split off from Shildina and collapsed. Shildina threw out a bunch of ofuda and then incanted by passing magic through them.

“I call upon your power. Ofuda! Respond to my word! Become a torrent and wash these enemies away! Watatsumi!” Shildina’s cards unleashed a flood of water created from magic, which rolled like a tidal wave toward everyone she considered an enemy! She was pulling off what looked like cooperative magic on her own. Just like Itsuki, she seemed to have a pretty solid understanding of magic in this world already. She had also taken the spirit and was using her as a magic tank . . . What was she, a monster?

“What is this?!” Miyaji raged as his allies screamed and flailed. “More cowardice, interfering in our battle!” The magic hit Miyaji, Armor, and Witch too. The moron woman spun her chain around herself. She was a moron, but she was also the strongest one here. S’yne was struggling, that was for sure. If we didn’t save her soon, she’d be in trouble.

“I heard everything you were just talking about,” Shildina said, her voice warped by the fact that she was still casting magic. A number of mysterious ofuda swam smoothly through the air like they were water, targeting Miyaji’s musical instrument, sticking onto it.

“Paper Splits Rock: Explode!” The ofuda flashed and then exploded, blowing Miyaji away. He managed to recover—but he was gripping his stomach, a pained look on his face and groans coming from his mouth.

“I’m not finished yet! What . . . what’s this feeling . . . like my insides are being stirred around?!” I saw something moving through Miyaji’s body, a flicker of light that I recognized. It looked like a Hengen Muso Style Point of Focus.