Shidou stared wide-eyed in shock, frozen where he stood.
Everything in his sight was dyed a blinding, vivid red.
Within that crimson space, three distorted, island-like shapes floated eerily.
Shidou couldn't imagine—no, he didn't dare to imagine—what they were.
The scene before him was too alien for his mind to immediately comprehend.
Even though a terrifying hypothesis began to form in his head as seconds passed, his almost unhinged mind still refused to accept what his eyes were seeing.
Because what he was witnessing was simply too absurd—for an ordinary high school boy.
In a normal street, in the middle of an ordinary day—there were... corpses?
"Ugh—waaaaaaahhhh!"
At last, reality crushed his rational resistance, and Shidou let out a horrified scream.
"Shidou! Calm down, Shidou!"
Kotori's voice shook his eardrums. From her trembling tone, it was clear she too was forcing herself to suppress her fear.
As soon as Shidou's mind accepted reality, the strange metallic stench in the air flooded his nose, and a wave of nausea hit him hard.
He had already eaten too much during the triple date earlier—and now, seeing such a hellish sight, he instinctively covered his mouth to suppress the rising urge to vomit.
"Ugh...!"
"Oh my, oh my?"
Hearing the voice, Shidou turned toward its source.
In the middle of that ocean of blood stood a girl clad in black.
"...Shidou-san, you've come."
Tokisaki Kurumi, wearing her black-and-red gothic spirit dress, turned to him with a charming smile.
In her hand was an elaborately decorated old-fashioned flintlock pistol that seemed to have appeared from nowhere.
Deeper inside the alley, a half-naked young man sat slumped on the ground, trembling uncontrollably.
His bare torso was smeared with blood, and on his abdomen, someone had drawn three concentric circles—like a shooting target.
"Ugh..."
The man gasped desperately, clinging to life, his eyes locking onto Shidou as though seeing a final lifeline.
"P-please... s-save... me...! T-this... this woman... she's a... monster...!"
"Oh dear, oh dear."
Kurumi turned her face back toward the man, raising her pistol slightly to aim at the center of the circles on his abdomen.
"Tokisaki-san, I told you to take it easy earlier. That was supposed to be a moving target practice. Now that he's immobilized, it's not fun at all."
Leaning casually against a tree nearby, Tenka Mitsuroku (Tianqi Sanluo) watched the horrific, bloody scene—something utterly shocking in Shidou's eyes—with the detached calm of someone looking at a puddle from childhood.
"Ahaha, I couldn't help it."
"Kurumi... you... what are you trying—"
Shidou, half-stupefied, forced the words out of his throat.
Kurumi, meanwhile, giggled while staring at the trembling young man.
It wasn't her usual sweet, adorable smile—
It was a chilling, deranged grin that made one's teeth chatter just from hearing it.
By Tenka's standard, if Kurumi's expression were just a little more twisted and crazed, it would almost resemble her own face when she slaughtered people.
"To aim a gun at life itself, yet not be prepared to lose your own—that's quite strange, don't you think? That's what it means to point a weapon at a living being."
The man opened his mouth to beg for his life one last time—
Kurumi, without hesitation or mercy, pulled the trigger.
Instantly, a pitch-black bullet—seemingly formed of shadow—shot from the gun, carving a pure black trail through the air before striking the exact center of the target drawn on his abdomen.
With the impact, the man's stomach burst open. His body convulsed once—and then lay still.
"Perfect score."
"If it were my grading scale, you'd be lucky to get ten points at that range," Tenka commented dryly.
Kurumi ignored her sarcastic remark, carelessly dropped the pistol, which then sank into her own shadow and vanished.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Shidou. I didn't mean to show you something so unsightly."
Turning back toward him, Kurumi's gaze was filled with desire—
Not the affection between lovers, but the hunger of a wolf staring at prey.
"Shidou! Shidou! Run!"
Only then did Shidou realize Kotori's frantic shouting in his earpiece. He forced his trembling legs to move and tried to flee.
However—
"No—no, that won't do."
Before Kurumi could even act, Tenka stepped forward and blocked his way.
"Let me go!"
Driven by instinct, Shidou struggled to break free, but how could a mere human overpower a Spirit?
Taking advantage of his movement, Tenka swiftly raised her right leg and kicked the back of his knee, forcing him down, then pressed him to the ground with ease.
"My, my, thank you, Miss Tenka."
"Eat neatly, and make it quick."
Tenka followed up with another swift kick, striking Shidou's head. Stars exploded in his vision, and his body spun before collapsing flat on his back—facing Kurumi as she slowly walked toward him.
As his dizziness subsided, Kurumi was already crouching beside him.
"Got you, Shidou-san."
She smiled sweetly, kneeling down, leaning over him as if to cover his body.
Shidou's eyes widened in terror, the light fading from them—not because of Kurumi's beauty or her closeness, but pure, unfiltered fear.
He finally understood why Spirits were called world-destroying disasters—
Why they were humanity's natural enemies.
Spirits were terrifying.
The unnatural scent emanating from Kurumi's body confirmed it beyond doubt.
"You're this terrified over something so small? I thought you were made of sterner stuff," Tenka sneered.
"Don't be so harsh, Miss Tenka," Kurumi purred. "I still want to have a lovely date with Shidou-san."
As she spoke, her hands caressed Shidou's cheeks. The golden clock dial in her left eye began to spin.
"Now then, Shidou-san... let us become one."
Kurumi's face inched closer, her lips nearly brushing his—
And just before they touched, Shidou's entire body was suddenly enveloped in a strange sensation.
It was something he had never experienced—an indescribable feeling, as though he were being wrapped in a dense, viscous liquid. The substance seemed alive, gently stroking his skin with deliberate intent. It was surreal, ethereal.
"Hel—"
He barely managed to force out a single word—
Then, in the next instant—
"—!"
A short gasp escaped Kurumi's lips as her body was suddenly flung backward by an unseen force.
Her slender form slammed into a concrete wall, leaving fine cracks across its surface.
Shidou had no idea what had just happened. He could only stare in stunned silence.
"—Are you all right, Onii-san?"
Before he could even process the situation, a familiar voice spoke in front of him.
It was Takamiya Mana.
She had appeared out of nowhere, now clad in her CR-Unit battle armor—complete with the wing-like shields on her shoulders, exactly like the equipment Shidou had seen in the video the day before.
"Ma...na?"
"That was close. Are you unharmed, sir?"
...
"Whew... thank goodness Mana arrived in time, or things would have gotten really bad."
Aboard the airship Fraxinus, Kotori exhaled in relief as she watched Mana's arrival. Though she still hadn't forgiven her for their "little sister rivalry" from the other day, Kotori couldn't help feeling grateful.
She realized how utterly terrified she had been just moments ago. To steady her nerves, she hurriedly popped a lollipop into her mouth.
"Commander! We've identified... the Spirit standing beside Tokisaki Kurumi..."
The crew member wiped the sweat from his brow, his voice trembling.
"Oh? Really? Well, whatever it is, I just hope the situation doesn't get any worse..."
Kotori sighed, pressing her hand to her forehead and mumbling while biting into her candy.
Looks like Shidou would need another mental recovery session after this.
"Commander... I'm afraid the real problem is that Spirit beside her..."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"T-the data shows... that Spirit is classified as Genie (Shura)."
Clatter—
That was the sound of Kotori's lollipop falling from her mouth.