Itsuka Shido was dead.
That was the only fact left before Tokisaki Kurumi's eyes.
As if she had known from the start that only Itsuka Shido and Kurumi would be on the rooftop, Ellen Mathers had slipped past the eyes of Kurumi's clones and Fraxinus's surveillance. In an instant, she had launched a surprise attack on Shido.
Shido had not died right away. But soon after, a large number of Nibelcole appeared, along with the Wizard nad Artemisia. They stopped the Spirits who rushed over, while Artemisia successfully cut off one of Kurumi's arms.
Using that opening, Ellen rcilessly brought her blade down and severed Itsuka Shido's head.
The healing flas that kept burning over Shido's body could not heal such a fatal wound. The flas slowly grew weaker, until they vanished completely.
Looking back, that was the mont this city—this world—fell into despair.
...
"Zafkiel——Dalet."
Kurumi pointed the gun at her own temple and pulled the trigger.
Soon, her severed right arm reattached itself as if ti had been rewound.
"Hah... hah..."
Kurumi breathed hard. Her forehead was covered in dense beads of sweat.
However, compared to the wounds on her body, the blow to her mind was far greater than she had imagined.
"Are you all right, ''?"
The clones inside the shadows asked in worry.
"I'm fine..."
Kurumi took a long, deep breath and answered in a slightly weak voice.
After that, in order to escape Artemisia's pursuit, Kurumi had moved through the shadows and hidden herself inside the ruins of one of her temporary bases.
Once her face looked a little better, Kurumi turned her head and looked through the window toward the distant school.
What she saw was a tragedy beyond imagination.
A crimson sea of fire that seed to burn the entire sky.
A frozen wasteland that covered the earth in extre cold.
A giant tornado that tore countless buildings up from their roots.
A pitch black beam that swallowed everything in its path.
Despair, rage, hatred.
Even from such a distance, the dirty waves of spirit power stabbed at Kurumi's skin like needles.
"They... inverted huh?"
With a trace of bitterness on her face, Kurumi slowly forced those words out.
At that ti, because they were wary of Kurumi, who was known as the most evil Spirit, almost all of the Spirits sealed by Shido had gathered around the school in secret, watching because they were worried.
And because of that, without exception, they had all witnessed the tragedy of Shido being killed with their own eyes.
Watching soone precious die right in front of them—that pain and despair were more than enough to make them invert.
Kurumi had already guessed that if Shido died, the other Spirits would invert because of it.
She simply had not expected that the person who killed Shido would not be herself.
"'I' found him."
Suddenly, a clone stepped out from the black shadow.
In her arms was the body of Itsuka Shido, whose head had already been separated from his body.
"That was really close. If I had been even a few steps later, there would not even have been ashes left. If we left him alone like that, my conscience would hurt."
"...Dalet."
After a short silence, Kurumi fired at Shido's body.
Soon, just like her arm earlier, the severed head reconnected perfectly to the body. The wound in his chest, and even the school uniform stained red with blood, returned to normal as if nothing had ever happened.
However, that was all.
"Itsuka Shido" kept his eyes closed. There was no sign of breathing, and not even a heartbeat.
Yes.
Kurumi had known from the start.
Even a bullet that rewound ti could not bring back a life that had already ended.
"Ah... I see... I... failed, didn't I..."
When the last thread of hope was cut, Kurumi gave a miserable laugh and squeezed out those words, filled with despair.
Now Shido was dead.
All the spirit power sealed inside him had returned to the Spirits.
In other words, Kurumi had lost her chance to gain a massive amount of spirit power all at once.
Even for her, defeating so many inverted, rampaging Spirits and taking their spirit power was nothing more than a fantasy.
And even if she sohow won, the price she would pay would be huge. In that state, there was no way she could defeat Takamiya Mio.
Everything had been for nothing.
The decades Kurumi had lived through, the tens of thousands of lives she had trampled over—all of it lost its aning the mont Shido was killed.
"Ah... aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
There was no trace of her usual calm.
Kurumi could only slam her fist against the floor and let out a hysterical roar.
She did not know how long had passed.
Only after blood began to seep from her palm did the sound of her fist striking the floor slowly stop.
After that helpless burst of anger, Kurumi sank down to the floor like a deflated balloon.
To be honest, if this had been Kurumi when she was younger, she would have fallen into despair and inverted just like the others.
But now, besides sadness and anger, there were other feelings left in her heart.
Guilt.
Sin.
Feelings toward the boy in front of her—the boy who had feared her, yet still gathered his courage and reached out his hand to her.
"I'm sorry... Shido-san..."
Holding Shido's body in her arms, Kurumi whispered.
Perhaps, if Itsuka Shido had been a heartless, womanizing scumbag…
Or if he had seen Kurumi's murderous side and then pulled away from her in fear…
Perhaps Kurumi would not have softened.
Perhaps she would have killed him directly and taken his spirit power.
"Truly... kindness is such a hateful thing..."
After muttering bitterly to herself, Kurumi gently supported Shido's body and kissed his cold, stiff lips.
"This is a small apology. Even your second kiss happened while you were unconscious. You really are an unlucky person, Shido-san."
After a long while, their lips parted.
Looking at Shido's peaceful face, as if he were rely asleep, Kurumi gave a bitter smile.
In June of last year, when Kurumi had been defeated by Kotori, Shido had suddenly thrown himself between them. Because of that, Kurumi had been able to escape safely.
As thanks, before leaving, Kurumi had lightly kissed the unconscious Shido.
"——!?"
Suddenly, Kurumi felt a warm current flow into her body.
Imdiately after, Zafkiel appeared behind her against her will, the huge golden clock floating at her back.
"...What is this?"
Kurumi's eyes widened in surprise.
She saw that at the bottom of Zafkiel, the nural "VI", which had lost its color after her battle with Kotori, was now shining with dazzling light.
"Vav..."
Touching the number engraved on the clock, Kurumi muttered blankly.
Zafkiel, the Angel of ti, had twelve abilities.
Aleph, the First Bullet, accelerates the target.
Bet, the Second Bullet, slows the target's ti.
Giml, the Third Bullet, ages the target.
Dalet, the Fourth Bullet, rewinds the target's ti.
Hei, the Fifth Bullet, predicts the near future.
Zayin, the Seventh Bullet, stops the target's ti.
Het, the Eighth Bullet, creates past versions of herself.
Tet, the Ninth Bullet, connects consciousness with a target from a different point in ti.
Yud, the Tenth Bullet, sends the target's mories.
And then there were Yud Aleph, the Eleventh Bullet, and Yud Bet, the Twelfth Bullet, which required a massive amount of spirit power and allowed ti travel.
And this one—
Vav, the Sixth Bullet.
It sent the target's consciousness back several days into the past.
Ever since her battle with Kotori, Kurumi's Sixth Bullet had been unusable.
She had always thought Kotori had destroyed it.
But now, at last, she understood.
The real reason had been that kiss, like a prank, back then.
From that ti onward, the door to her heart had already been opened by Shido, if only by the smallest crack.
"Ah... I see... So... I had lost from the very beginning..."
After murmuring in a daze, tears began to spill uncontrollably from the corners of Kurumi's eyes.
She realized that she was far, far more naive than she had ever imagined.
(But now, there is a chance.)
A faint thread of hope rose in her heart.
Kurumi loaded the Sixth Bullet into the chamber and aid the gun at herself.
Although the Sixth Bullet could only send her back a few days, and naturally could not send her back thirty years to when she was still human in order to kill the First Spirit, it was enough as the key to change this hopeless future.
"I'm sorry... The only one allowed to kill Shido-san is ."
And with that, Kurumi pulled the trigger.
"I found you, Kuru—"
Suddenly, soone's voice sounded by her ear.
But before that person could finish speaking, Kurumi's consciousness left this era through the power of the Sixth Bullet.
And so, Kurumi returned to February 8—the day before she re-enrolled at school.
In order to change the future, she began discussing a battle plan with her clones.
She believed that the reason Shido had been killed was because of the difference in combat strength.
She had been held back by Artemisia. The Spirits had been held back by the Nibelcole. On top of that, the enemy had caught them by surprise, giving Ellen the opening to kill Shido.
So she sought out Takamiya Mana and found a way to pass the information about DEM's attack to her.
Then, on the next day, everything went just as Kurumi had expected.
The plan went very smoothly.
Mana held Ellen back. Kurumi and her clones held Artemisia and the Nibelcole back separately.
After DEM realized that their surprise attack had been exposed, they quickly retreated.
(It worked. History has changed.)
Just as Kurumi thought that and relaxed her guard in relief—
—Whoosh!
With the late sound of cutting wind, a deadly bullet passed before her eyes and struck Itsuka Shido.
As if a waterlon had burst apart—
It sounded like a slightly silly comparison, but the scene Kurumi saw could only be described as bloody.
"Urgh—"
Everything above Shido's feet had vanished.
The burst of blood mist splashed all over Kurumi's body.
Faced with such a sight, even Kurumi, who had killed countless people, could not stop herself from wanting to vomit.
Then, just like in her mory, history repeated itself.
"A sniper...?"
Once again, back in her base, Kurumi's face looked terribly grim as she listened to the report from the clone who had seen it happen.
"Yes. The position was in a small forest about ten kiloters away from the school. 'I' killed the enemy for now, but..."
As she spoke, the clone Kurumi threw the sniper in front of Kurumi.
It was only a drone painted with camouflage.
(I was careless. I never thought they had hidden sothing like this.)
Kurumi's expression grew heavy.
After hesitating for a mont, she gritted her teeth and said,
"...Next ti, I will deal with the drone ahead of ti."
And so, Kurumi once again used Dalet to restore Shido's body.
To be honest, unlike the pure sadness from the first ti, this ti Kurumi felt a faint guilt, as if she were disrespecting the dead.
(I am truly sorry... Shido-san.)
With a complicated sigh, Kurumi lightly kissed Shido's lips and reclaid the power of the Sixth Bullet.
Another loop began.
This ti, she arranged for her clones to wait in ambush at the place where the drone had sniped from.
But to Kurumi's surprise, this ti the drone did not appear at the previous ambush point.
And that was not all.
When the sa mont arrived again, Kurumi used Aleph to speed up her awareness and successfully stopped the enemy's shot.
But before she could feel happy, the second and third shots ca from two completely different directions.
Once again, they took Shido's life.
Just like that, the sa future repeated before Kurumi's eyes two more tis.
"What is going on?"
Kurumi could not help asking, her voice filled with anger.
—There is more than one drone.
—Our positions were discovered.
—It is the power of Beelzebub. Westcott may have noticed 'us' lying in ambush and changed the sniping locations.
The clones answered like that.
Only then did Kurumi understand.
The enemy was not stupid.
From the mont they decided to kill Shido, they had surely prepared a careful and complete plan.
Drones were not human. As long as they had money, they could mass-produce them.
Kurumi could not be certain that there were only three drones prepared for sniping. There might be more.
And even if she tried to deal with them ahead of ti, the other side would change their hiding places first. In other words, even with mories from the rewinded ti, Kurumi did not have the advantage in information.
"I will not... lose heart over this little setback."
Even so, Kurumi, unable to give up, decided to use the Sixth Bullet and return to the past again.
"Is that really all right? If we cannot find a solution, then even if we go back, we will only be torturing Shido-san."
Hearing her clone's question, Kurumi froze at the very mont she was about to pull the trigger.
She pressed her lips together tightly.
"Then... what am I supposed to do?"
"..."
What answered Kurumi was a silent pause from her clone.
"I found you! Kurumi!"
Suddenly, a voice different from her own sounded behind her.
"Yutsuki-san?"
Turning toward the newcor, Kurumi's eyes widened in surprise.
Original Author's PS: Part of this chapter connects to foreshadowing from the original Itsuka Sister arc. Since this work start after the Yamai arc, readers who do not know it should check the original.
Original Author's PS2: Honestly, when I first saw that Kurumi's Fifth Bullet ability overlapped with Yutsuki's, I panicked a little. But then I thought about it carefully: Kurumi has to pay with her ti to use that power, while Yutsuki does not.
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