Chapter 191 Kurumi remember

Seeing Origami admit that the person she liked was that blond-haired boy, Shidou couldn't help but shrug. Then, he waved his hand and said, "Well, I don't want to date you. I just want to ask you something—"

"Oh... I see... Um, can you let me think about it?" Origami hesitated. After all, although this person's brother had saved her parents, she wasn't familiar with him.

"Eh? Of course...!"

After Shidou answered reflexively, Origami bowed slightly and said, "Well, I'll be leaving first." Then, she quickly walked down the stairs.

…

…

Shidou descended the stairs and returned to his classroom, Class 4. Soon after, the English teacher entered, and the fifth period began.

──Shidou didn't know how much time had passed since the lesson started.

Origami, who was sitting on Shidou's left, suddenly made a strange move.

"Hmm..." Feeling something was off, Shidou glanced at her and saw that she was scribbling tiny words on a piece of paper torn from a notebook. When the teacher wasn't looking, she folded the paper and discreetly placed it on the edge of Shidou's desk—just as he had done for her during their first class together.

"This is...?"

After school, Shidou went alone to the school's rooftop, lying down and staring blankly at the drifting clouds.

He then pulled the folded note from his pocket and held it up to the sky.

——"I'm free this Saturday."

The note was the one Origami had just passed to him. It looked like a response to Shidou's invitation, and there was an address written in small letters at the bottom of the note.

"Saturday, huh..." Shidou muttered, slipping the note back into his pocket and stretching slightly.

It was quite an achievement. Without Ratatosk's help, he had managed to arrange a meeting with a girl he had just met.

That being said, the problems were far from over.

His move is more about getting more information from her than actual dating.

Besides, is it really possible that Origami, transformed into an spirit or even inverse, would have no self-awareness at all?

Several possibilities emerged in Shidou's mind.

The most outrageous but most likely thing to happen is that Shidou recognized the wrong person.

The most absurd yet plausible explanation was that he had mistaken someone else for Origami. The person in the video Kotori had shown him looked like Origami, but that didn't rule out the existence of another Spirit with similar attire.

Another possibility was that Origami was simply lying. While Shidou didn't think she was, he wasn't an expert in criminal psychology, nor was he a master gambler skilled in reading people. There was a real chance that he had been deceived by Origami's acting.

Or - "Could it be that there are two Origami... that shouldn't be possible...?"

Shidou murmured this and then laughed weakly twice.

"Hey... there's also that blond-haired boy..."

In short, including this matter, I must discuss it with Ratatosk.

However, just as Shidou was about to get up, he let out a loud yawn. A wave of exhaustion washed over him. Considering he had spent the entire night searching the database without getting proper rest, it was no surprise that he felt drained.

"Origami... that blond-haired boy..." Shidou mumbled as his eyes gradually closed.

He had no idea how much time had passed when he stirred awake. "Hmm..." Shidou hummed softly and opened his eyes.

After a few seconds, as his mind gradually cleared, Shidou realized that he seemed to have fallen asleep without realizing it. It seemed that he was more tired than he thought.

"Oh... crap. What time is it?" Just as Shidou was about to take out his cell phone from his pocket to check the time, an eerie chill ran down his spine.

A strange sensation—an instinctive fear—gripped his heart.

Then, as he focused, his hair stood on end.

A black gun muzzle was pressed firmly against his forehead.

Then he heard a voice that sounded pleasant but was unusually cold.

"Where is Katsu-kun?!"

"What...?! Tokisaki-san?!"

Shidou called out the girl's name in a high-pitched voice of surprise.

That's right. The one who appeared in Shidou's vision was the spirit Tokisaki Kurumi who sent Shidou back to the world five years ago.

"Where is Katsu-kun?! Answer me!" Kurumi's voice became even colder, and she applied a little force to the index finger on the trigger. The meaning was very clear. If Shidou answered irrelevantly again, she would shoot without hesitation.

"Gu..." Shidou swallowed with some difficulty---"Katsu...kun...I...I don't know what you are...talking about." Shidou's back was almost soaked with cold sweat. The threat of death was dangerously close.

"… …" Kurumi was silent for a moment. She could tell that Shidou was not lying. After a long while, she took a deep breath, as if she was suppressing some emotion, and then moved the gun away.

Narrowing her eyes, she stared into Shidou's, then softly whispered—-"[Zafkiel]---[Tenth Bullet]"

… …

A few seconds later, Shidou, whose skull was pierced by the Tenth Bullet, stood there with his eyes wide open, his pupils filled with hesitation -

The Tenth Bullet had a unique ability—it allowed the first person hit to share their memories with the second person struck by the same bullet. However, if only one person was hit, they would recall their own memories—including the ones they had forgotten.

 As long as those memories are real and have happened, as long as they belong to him, then she will see them.

When Kurumi first appeared in the world after the timeline reset, she had no memories, and it was with the help of this ability [Tenth Bullet] that she remembered who she had forgotten.