Chapter 45 45: Crisis

"Hah... Hah..."

Shido panted as he sprinted down the road. It was 3:40 PM. Even though Mikoto had dropped out of the date halfway through, Shido had still bounced back and forth between Kurumi and Tohka over twenty times. His body was nearing its absolute limit.

"Huh? Where's Kurumi?"

Arriving at the park bench, Kurumi, who should have been waiting for him there, was nowhere to be seen.

[Shido, in the alley by the park's east exit, this Spirit energy reading... there's no mistake, it's Tokisaki Kurumi!]

Following Kotori's instructions, Shido arrived at a dimly lit corner on the east side of the park.

There, what he saw was blood, blood, blood—covering the ground, covering the walls, as if the entire world had been painted red.

Things that looked like pieces of a human body were scattered in pools of blood, and the air was thick with the foul stench of rust.

[!!!]

For a moment, Shido's brain couldn't even process a single thought. As if all the dates and his normal daily life up until now were just a lie, right in front of him—people had died.

"Uwaaaaaaahhhh—!!!"

Staring at the pool of blood before him, Shido let out a terrified scream.

[Shido! Calm down! Calm down!]

Kotori's voice came through the earpiece, but Shido couldn't hear anything at this point.

Even if he was used to spacequakes, used to the AST's overwhelming firepower, and the supernatural power of Spirits, compared to all that, the sight of living humans reduced to scattered corpses in flowing blood was far harder to endure.

"Ara ara~, Shido-san, you came back so quickly?"

Wearing her crimson and black Astral Dress, Kurumi stood in the center of the blood pool, holding a finely engraved antique flintlock pistol in her left hand.

"S-Save me... this woman is a mon... monster..."

In front of Kurumi, a man sat on the ground. Three concentric circles were drawn on his stomach in crimson blood, looking exactly like a shooting target.

"Ara~, what are you saying at this point? You came prepared to kill someone, yet you didn't have the resolve to have your own life taken?"

"S-Stop..."

Kurumi pulled the trigger without hesitation. Shadow-like black Spirit energy shot from the muzzle, blowing a massive hole right through the man's stomach.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Shido-san."

After finishing off the last person, Kurumi looked in Shido's direction.

[...Run! Run away! Shido!]

Finally realizing that Kotori was constantly shouting for him, Shido turned around, struggling to leave this terrifying place.

"Ara~, you can't do that."

[!!!]

Something grabbed his feet, and Shido fell clumsily to the ground. Looking down, he saw countless pale arms reaching out from the shadows.

"Ah, what a failure, what a failure. I should have disposed of them a bit earlier. I wanted to enjoy my date with Shido-san just a little longer."

Watching Kurumi slowly approach, unlike with Tohka, Mikoto, or Yoshino, Shido felt it for the very first time—just how terrifying an existence a so-called Spirit truly was.

[!!!]

Right at that moment, the dark of night suddenly descended upon the dim alley. The arms grabbing Shido's legs were repelled by an invisible force, vanishing along with the shadows around him. A massive Torii gate slowly rose, blocking Kurumi's path.

"Oh my, my. Interrupting my date with Shido-san so suddenly... isn't that a bit of a breach of etiquette?"

"It's Kurumi-san's fault for choosing a place like this. Your taste is so awful I just couldn't bear to watch."

"Ya... Yakumo-senpai?"

Shido turned his head and saw Mikoto, who had appeared behind him at some point.

"Didn't you already..."

The girl he thought had returned to the shrine had appeared by his side at the most critical moment.

"Honestly. This only happened because you wouldn't stay by my side, Shido" Mikoto said, blinking playfully as she helped Shido up from the ground.

"Kihihihihihi! Although Yakumo-san is also quite delicious, before I enjoy my dessert, could you hand over the main course, Shido-san?"

Kurumi wore a maddened smile as she raised her short pistol and pointed it at Mikoto.

"Oh my, You actually know my name. It seems there's no need for introductions. But unfortunately, I won't hand Shido over to you."

Mikoto grabbed Shido's hand and stared right back at Kurumi.

"Then it cannot be helped."

Kurumi pulled the trigger without hesitation. A bullet condensed from shadows traced a pitch black trajectory, only to shatter completely against Mikoto's barrier.

"Oh my, you don't need to be so stingy with your Spirit energy. Kurumi-san is surprisingly cheap, isn't she?"

"Then, as you wish."

Another flintlock pistol emerged from the shadows, pairing with the weapon in Kurumi's hand—one long and one short, like the hour and minute hands of a clock.

Holding the two deadly weapons, Kurumi unleashed countless bullets onto Tsukuyomi at a firing rate completely impossible for antique muskets.

However...

Tsukuyomi, which couldn't be pierced even by a battleship's main cannon, couldn't be broken by mere Spirit energy bullets, even while sealed by Shido. The bullets hit the barrier like raindrops falling on an umbrella, creating only faint ripples.

"Kotori, please use the teleporter to extract Shido."

Seemingly not considering Kurumi a threat, Mikoto spoke into her earpiece.

"That composure... I'll make you regret it!"

In an instant, the shadow beneath Kurumi's feet expanded several times over.

[!!!]

Just then, several streaks of light flashed across the sky, piercing straight through Kurumi's chest with the speed of lightning.

Mikoto and Shido looked up and saw Mana, who had descended from the sky.

"Mana!" Shido shouted at the sudden reinforcements.

"Nii-sama... and Mikoto-san. Please wait a moment, I will clean this up immediately," Mana said as she walked up to Kurumi and raised her sword.

"Stop it!!!"

Moving faster than Shido's words, Mana cleanly sliced off Kurumi's head.

"Why... why would you do this... Don't kill people."

He didn't want Kurumi to be killed, and he definitely didn't want his little sister to commit murder—especially when he saw the numb look in Mana's eyes, as if she were completely used to slaughtering Spirits.

"That woman is not a human, Nii-sama. Just like Mikoto-san, she is an existence known as a Spirit," Mana said, looking at Mikoto behind Shido. Because she had manifested her Angel, the fact that Mikoto was a Spirit was blatantly obvious.

It was the absolute worst case scenario. Mana, an AST member, deployed the equipment on her shoulders. That was where the decisive laser had fired from, accurately striking Kurumi down. Decapitating her afterward was just an insurance measure to make absolutely sure the target was dead.

"Stop it—!!!"

Shido threw himself between Mikoto and Mana.

"...Forget it. Anyway, please leave quickly, Nii-sama, Mikoto-san. The backup squad will be here any minute."

Although the person in front of her was a Spirit, the fact that she had protected Shido from Kurumi was undeniable.

For Mana, the reason she killed Spirits was simply that they threatened humanity and had to be eliminated, and she just happened to have the power to do it. If possible, she didn't want to strike down a Spirit who had protected her older brother.

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