Date a Live:Date Under The Moon Chapter 180 180: Determination

[!!!]

The shout from outside the door made Mikoto's body tremble lightly.

Without a doubt, that voice carried a feeling that belonged only to "Shido."

[What should I do…]

Precisely because of that, Mikoto's feelings beca even more confused.

"Hey! Who are you?!"

Just then, a strong beam of light shone onto Shido's face.

Not far away, two police officers were shining their flashlights at him. After all, it was the middle of the night, and he had been pounding on soone's door and shouting. It seed that the nearby residents had mistaken him for a suspicious person and called the police.

"Wait… I'm not…"

"Don't say anything. Please co with us!"

Shido had never expected things to develop like this.

At this rate, before he could soothe Mikoto's feelings, he was going to get arrested.

"Please—! Senpai! Please believe —!"

He struggled, trying to shake off the police officers's restraint.

He could not lose here. He had a feeling that if he was taken away like this, he would never be able to see Mikoto again.

As a result, because he used too much force, Shido crashed into the door of the Yakumo residence.

Bang—!

The loud impact shook Mikoto's heart.

It was an all too familiar scene, just like—Shido risking his life to slam into the barrier she had erected to reject everything.

Bang—!

The commotion outside continued.

Shido crashed into the door again.

[Shido…]

Mikoto gripped the hem of her skirt tightly. Every impact from the boy left the girl's heart more and more at a loss.

However, gradually, the sounds outside grew quieter.

Even Shido, without manifesting an Angel, could not resist two police officers working together to restrain him. It did not take long before he was pinned to the ground.

"Stay still!"

"When we get to the station, we'll let you have a nice katsudon!"

One officer pressed Shido's head down while the other twisted both his arms behind his back and took out handcuffs.

With a crisp click, Shido was cuffed.

[This is bad…]

Shido thought.

He was not afraid of being taken to the police station. What he feared was that Mikoto would completely shut him out from this point on, leaving them no different from strangers.

The mont he thought that he might never be able to see Mikoto again, the unfamiliar feeling in his heart exploded like gunpowder.

"Yakumo—senpai—!"

The instant he was about to be taken away, he shouted as if putting his life into it.

Click.

The door, which had been stubbornly rejecting Shido like Tsukuyomi itself, opened.

Shido turned around and saw Mikoto, tear tracks on her face, looking at him with a complicated expression.

Half an hour later…

Mikoto and Shido were taken to the police station together.

At first, the police had thought it was a delinquent boy threatening a shrine maiden late at night. In the end, however, they determined it was simply a lovers's quarrel.

Even so, Shido's resistance and the disturbance he caused late at night were still enough to create quite a bit of trouble.

However, Mikoto seed to have so connections. After the girl made a phone call, Shido was released without leaving behind any record.

Along the way, neither of them said anything.

They walked through the empty streets, where only the streetlights stood, and eventually arrived at a park.

At this hour, the park was completely deserted. Only the quiet streetlights gave off a cold glow, dyeing the lonely place in a faint beauty.

"Um… senpai… here's so juice."

Shido walked over to the vending machine by himself and bought a can of coffee and a bottle of juice.

"Thank you…"

The girl accepted the drink and said faintly.

[Ugh… what should I do?]

Shido awkwardly scratched his cheek.

Although Mikoto was finally willing to sit beside him, she did not seem to have forgiven him.

"Hah…"

He let out a troubled sigh, then said,

"Senpai might not think so, but no matter what, I want senpai to believe that I and the Itsuka Shido senpai knew are absolutely not two different people."

Yes. To Shido, the idea that he had replaced the version of himself who belonged to this world was sothing he had to deny no matter what.

Not only for himself, but also for Mikoto, and even for Kurumi.

Shido felt that in Kurumi's heart—the miracle bought with Zafkiel should not have been sothing as tragic as creating a parallel world after history was changed, then letting the Shido from the original world enter it and replace the Shido who should originally have existed there.

Shido was Shido.

It was only that after changing history, as the price, he had lost precious mories he never should have lost.

Perhaps… this was the punishnt the world had given him for changing history.

"Although I don't have the mories anymore, every ti I see Yakumo-senpai, I can't stay calm. I don't want senpai to hate . I don't want senpai to misunderstand my relationship with Origami. And even more than that, I don't want to lose senpai. Even without those mories, I believe that these feelings are absolutely not fake—!"

And now… he finally understood.

He understood what that confused emotion he felt every ti he saw Mikoto really was.

It was surely the feelings he had for Mikoto, still remaining even after he had lost his mories.

Clang.

Hearing Shido's words, the juice Mikoto held between both hands fell to the ground.

[Shido still has feelings for ?]

Although she could not quite believe it, Mikoto could tell that the Shido before her was not lying.

"And besides, if I really wasn't the Shido senpai knew, then there's no way I'd still have a spirit power pathway with senpai, right?"

There was also another small piece of evidence.

If it was truly the Shido from the original world replacing the Shido after history had changed, then Mikoto should currently be in an unsealed state.

Because—the Shido from the original world had never sealed Mikoto.

[!!!]

Hearing Shido's words, Mikoto widened her eyes.

Perhaps… the Shido before her really was the Shido she knew.

It was just that he had lost part of his mories because history had changed.

But…

"I… I can't believe it just like that."

The girl shook her head and held both hands to her chest, saying painfully,

"Even though I want Shido to be Shido too, whenever I think that it might not be true…"

It felt as if she would be betraying the person she loved, pouring all her feelings into a stranger.

That thought was far too terrifying, and it gripped the girl's heart tightly.

"Ugh…"

Hearing Mikoto's words, Shido did not know how to persuade her.

Even if he wanted her to believe him, it sohow felt hollow and slightly unfair for him, the person involved, to say anything.

"But… I want to try to understand."

However, Mikoto was not such a weak girl either.

She raised her head, looked at Shido, and said firmly,

"So I'll try to confirm it with my own eyes—whether Shido is truly the Shido I love!"

She did not want to simply stop here.

If believing that the Shido before her was the Shido she loved would be a betrayal of the Shido who had shared countless precious mories with her…

Then completely rejecting the Shido before her would likewise be a heartless abandonnt of Shido, who was clearly only missing his mories and was still the person she knew.

She did not know what was right or wrong.

But precisely because she did not know, she could not run away.

The only thing the girl could do was confirm it with her own eyes—what kind of existence the Shido before her truly was.