I will swear to protect the beauty with my life

Under the moonlight and the light from the street lamps, Rikka took out her exclusive weapon, a black lace folding umbrella, from under her body, raised it high above her head and declared war on Yuta.

"Yuta! The Administration has tampered with you, causing evil cookie singularities to appear in your body. In order to remove them, we have to defeat you now!"

After saying that, Rika, trying hard to suppress the inexplicable throbbing in her heart, looked into Yuta's eyes and stammered out the prayer before the battle.

"Explode... Explode, reality! Break, nerves! Exile this world!"

This time, Rikka recited the prayer haltingly. Since she was staring at Yuta, her heart was beating non-stop. She had no way of calming down and was even hasty to take off her blindfold. She no longer had the grace and agility of her previous battles, and her voice was even trembling.

However, neither Yuta nor Touma noticed this abnormality. Only Rikka discovered that after she took off her blindfold and recited the prayer loudly, the familiar scene around her was still the same, and she did not enter the so-called "combat mode" at all.

This is not normal, very abnormal. If Fang Wuwei were here, he would have discovered that the vague magic circle that appeared every time Liuhua prayed did not appear at all. This time she was just being stupid.

Looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar scene around her, Liuhua fell into confusion...

Where is my battle field? Where is my Queen of the Night? Where is my True Eye of the Evil King?

Why is the person in front of me still Yuta!

"Master! Now that things have come to this, we can only use that death!"

Seeing Rikka's confused face, Touma, who thought that his master's attack on the Black Flame User had failed, acted decisively and said the lines he had already prepared, successfully bringing the confused Rikka back to her senses.

"Master!"

"Tou Shou!"

After calling each other's names, the two began to disperse quickly, at a speed that was not even fast at all, with Yuta as the center, they began to circle around Yuta...

As if they were trying to confuse Yuta, Touma and Rikka were running and talking loudly, but in fact their speed was clearly visible.

"How? Can you tell us apart, Death?!"

"This is a phantom maze for the two of us. I'm Rikka!"

"Toushou is Toushou death!"

"Which one is me?!"

"Which one is Master Death?!"

Yuta, who was in the center, looked at the two people circling around him at a speed that was too slow for him, with a speechless look on his face, but perhaps there was a hint of happiness hidden in his heart.

So... he acted decisively, stretched out his traditional hand knife, and slashed Liuhua horizontally, knocking her down.

Rikka, who was hit by Yuta, let out an adorable "ah" sound, the folding umbrella in her hand fell to the ground, and she fell sideways.

"It would be strange if I didn't recognize it."

On the other side, Touma, who asked Yuta to find Rikka, saw that he was not beaten, and began to feel complacent, and said the lines that Yuta would expect to say if he recognized the wrong person.

"Idiot! The one over there is the real Death!"

Toshou was so focused on reciting his lines that he completely forgot that Yuta had found the right person. His words left Rikka and Yuta speechless.

"Are you happy that your double didn't get hit?"

"Wow!! It looks like this is death!"

After saying this back, Yuta didn't want to waste any more time on Touma, so he walked forward and looked at Rikka who was squatting on the ground with her hands covering her head.

It is undeniable that although he was somewhat dissatisfied and confused about being called out so late at night, he was very happy. He was happy that Rikka could return to normal and that Rikka could talk to him again. He seemed to be glad that Rikka did not hate him as he had imagined.

"Really? What do you want to do?"

Although he complained as if he was disgusted by the trouble, the smile on Yuta's face was almost overflowing and the corners of his mouth could not be lowered at all.

"I was worried about you for nothing...Are you okay?"

Hearing Yuta's extremely gentle voice, Rikka raised her head and took a look...and her heart almost exploded.

Under the moonlight, Yuta, with a gentle smile on his face, is so handsome in Rikka's eyes? Especially looking at the beautiful white full moon in the sky, it reminds her of the wonderful walk under the moon that she and Yuta had taken during the previous summer vacation.

It seemed that from that day on, I became so strange that I couldn't look Yuta in the face...

Yuta stretched out his hand and wanted to pull Rikka up, but Rikka looked at Yuta's outstretched hand and hesitated to hold it.

In the past, she couldn't even feel anything when they pressed their whole bodies against each other, let alone hold Yuta's hand. But now, just looking at Yuta's gently extended hand, she felt her heart about to jump out and her face was hot. She knew her face must be very red.

But she didn't understand why.

"what happened?"

Finally, under Yuta's urging again, Rika timidly grabbed Yuta's hand, feeling the strength from the gentle and warm hand that was much larger than hers pulling her up. Rika stood up and stared blankly at Yuta's face.

Since that summer vacation, she has never looked Yuta in the eye again, let alone when the distance is so close that she can even see the tenderness in Yuta's eyes.

Rika, who looked directly into Yuta's eyes at such a close distance, felt even more uncomfortable than looking directly into the eyes of the so-called invisible god. Her heart was pounding and an inexplicable emotion swept through her body. At this moment, Yuta's figure seemed to exist in her mind, and her heart was deeply engraved with Yuta's eyes.

Those eyes that made her heart beat fast and were so gentle.

According to her response plan, she should run away now, run to a place where she can't see Yuta, run to a place where she can't hear Yuta's voice, this will calm her restless heart.

But...for some reason, she didn't want to leave. She wanted to stay by Yuta's side, just like Yuta had always been by her side. She wanted to stand with Yuta forever and ever...

No...no!

Although Rika was frightened by her own strange idea, she still found a trace of rationality in her love. Feeling her chest was stuffy and her heart was beating too fast, Rika finally ran away for the sake of her own life. Just like she had escaped from reality countless times, this time, she was running away from Yuta and the feelings in her heart.

Seeing Rikka running in a hurry and panic, without even picking up the dropped umbrella, Touma was quite shocked that the combination of himself and the Master was easily defeated, but Yuta was just worried at this time, Rikka was too abnormal...

And Rikka just thought that as long as she left Yuta, she would be the same as before, at most she would feel uncomfortable when sleeping, but she would be fine soon. But unfortunately, she would toss and turn tonight, and her mind would be full of Yuta, Yuta, Yuta...

Tonight, a young girl is destined to have a sleepless night.