008 – Learning the Truth

After thinking it over, Souta sighed and shook his head.

"Nah, I like being alive."

"Why dig my own grave?"

"Rokuhara-san, lend me one of your shirts."

Kurumi's voice came from the bathroom.

"Huh?" Souta blinked.

Wasn't Kurumi supposed to have plenty of outfits stored in her Shadow Space?

Maybe she was just playing around, enjoying teasing him again.

Without thinking too much about it, Souta grabbed a button-up shirt and hung it on the bathroom doorknob.

A moment later, Kurumi stepped out—

Wearing only the oversized shirt, which barely covered her hips.

Her long, slender legs were fully exposed, her fair skin almost glowing under the room's lighting.

The loose fabric clung lightly to her body, subtly revealing her curves.

Souta couldn't help but wonder—

…Is she even wearing anything underneath?

"Cough—!" Souta cleared his throat, quickly looking away.

Kurumi pursed her lips slightly, then smirked playfully.

"Consider this… a reward for my hardworking friend who stayed up all night."

"Ahem. Well, I just ordered takeout. While we wait, let's get down to business."

Souta decided that some things were best left appreciated from a distance.

Kurumi sat down across from him and asked:

"So? Did you figure out who the First Spirit is?"

"Yeah."

Souta looked at her and asked back:

"You finished watching Date A Live Season 1 and 2, right?"

"Yes. I remember most of the characters."

To be honest, watching herself appear as an anime character had been a very surreal experience.

Especially the scene where she had slowly lifted her skirt in front of Itsuka Shidou—

That had been beyond embarrassing!

It felt like she was being publicly executed in front of the screen.

"Then this will be easy to explain," Souta said.

Without any hesitation, he revealed the truth:

"The First Spirit you've been looking for… is Murasame Reine, the analyst from Ratatoskr."

"You know, the woman with the permanent dark circles under her eyes who always keeps a stuffed bear in her breast pocket."

"…It's her!?"

Kurumi's expression instantly changed—

Clearly shocked.

The "First Spirit"… Was This Close to Me the Whole Time?!

She had been searching for so long—and yet, she never realized it?

"That's right—it's her!" Souta nodded firmly.

"To be honest, I was pretty shocked too. Who would've thought that the final boss was hiding right inside the main character's team this whole time?"

After organizing his thoughts, he continued:

"Let me summarize everything—Thirty years ago, three magus—Isaac, Elliot, and Ellen—decided to take revenge on humanity after their village was destroyed."

"They used Spirit techniques to concentrate all the world's magic into a single point, creating the First Spirit—but in the process, they also triggered the Eurasia spacequake Disaster, which resulted in the deaths of 1.3 billion people. That event was the beginning of everything."

"After the First Spirit was born, a boy named Shinji Takamiya found her and took her in. He named her Mio. For a while, Mio lived peacefully with Shinji and his younger sister, Mana."

"But then, Isaac discovered her and started hunting her down. During the chase, Isaac shot and killed Shinji Takamiya. In order to save him, Mio absorbed his corpse into her body and gave birth to him again—as the person we now know as Shidou Itsuka."

"Mio granted Shidou the ability to seal Spirit powers, intending to split her own energy into Qlipha Crystals and have Shidou absorb them over time—her ultimate goal was to make him immortal so they could be together forever."

"But the initial Qlipha Crystals were in their 'Inverse' state and required massive amounts of human sacrifice to refine them into usable forms."

"So, Mio gave out fragments of her power to multiple individuals, having them refine the Cores for her. However, in the early stages, every single person who received a Qlipha Crystals transformed into a monster. Mio was then forced to hunt them down and reclaim the Qlipha Crystals from their bodies—"

Just as Souta reached this point, Kurumi suddenly interrupted him.

"I already know about the Sephira Crystals!"

There was a deep bitterness in her voice—

A barely restrained fury.

"The so-called 'First Spirit'—she claimed to be a hero of justice. She gave me a 'refined' Sephira Crystals, granting me my Spirit powers, and then tricked me into helping her hunt down monsters, saying it was 'to save the world.'"

"But then… I discovered the truth."

"One day, I killed a 'Flame Monster'—only to realize it had been my friend all along."

"That was when I finally understood—these 'monsters' had once been ordinary humans…"

Souta could see the heavy shadows forming in Kurumi's expression.

He sighed silently.

He had no idea how to comfort her, so he simply reached out and patted her shoulder.

"Don't worry," he said.

"As long as you achieve your goal, all of this can still be changed."

"I'm fine," Kurumi quickly regained her composure, forcing a soft smile.

"Sorry… That must have been an unpleasant sight."

Seeing that she had calmed down, Souta continued:

"After you learned the truth about the monsters, Mio erased your memories and sealed you away in the Neighboring World."

"Later, she split herself into two forms to avoid being detected."

"Most of the time, she lived as Murasame Reine—but when necessary, she appeared as the 'Phantom', continuing to distribute refined Sephira Crystals to humans and erasing their memories of their previous lives."

"That's how so many Spirits came into existence."

As he spoke, Souta frowned slightly.

Kurumi noticed his hesitation and asked:

"What's wrong?"

Souta let out a deep sigh.

"Mio is unbelievably powerful. She has three different 'Angels' she can use—and even if all existing Spirits teamed up against her, they still wouldn't be able to defeat her."

Now that he was more comfortable talking to Kurumi, his words became blunt and direct—even teasing.

Kurumi, however, wasn't offended—only shocked.

"You mean… even if every Spirit attacked her together, she would still win?"

"Exactly."

Kurumi was silent for a moment, then simply shook her head.

"That doesn't matter."

"My goal was never to fight and kill her directly."

"My plan has always been to travel 30 years into the past and eliminate her before she is even born. If she never exists, then none of the tragedies that followed will ever happen."

Souta frowned.

"But if you do that… you'll disappear as well because of the timeline change, won't you?"

It was a simple concept—

Kurumi, as she was now, only existed because Mio had given her a Sephira Crystals.

If Mio never existed, then Spirit Kurumi would be erased from existence.

A different version of her would live a normal human life, but…

That would be an entirely different person.

"That doesn't matter!"

Kurumi's golden eye gleamed with determination.

"This is the wish I've pursued all my life. I'm fully prepared to sacrifice myself for it!"