February 13th, Wednesday night.
"...Kurumi. Absorb my spirit power."
Holding the broken-down Kurumi tightly in her arms, Yutsuki thought for a long while before speaking in a low voice.
"...Eh? You want to devour... your spirit power, Yutsuki-san?"
Kurumi froze, unable to understand Yutsuki's intention.
"Your Angel, Zafkiel, has a power that can send soone back into the past. Then it should also have a power that can send soone into the future, right?"
"Mm... Yes. Yud Aleph, the Eleventh Bullet, has the power to send the target into the future."
Kurumi nodded in confirmation.
"Good. Then absorb my spirit power next, and use your Angel to travel one year into the future."
"Eh? Why?"
Faced with Yutsuki's sudden proposal, Kurumi was at a loss.
"To keep the Origin Spirit from finding you."
Yutsuki explained,
"I don't know what her goal is, but up until now, Shido absorbing Spirits's power has undoubtedly been guided behind the scenes by the Origin Spirit. That ans Shido must be an extrely important piece in her plan. To her, the current situation is absolutely unacceptable. So in order to reverse the situation, she'll probably do everything she can to find you."
At this point, Yutsuki paused briefly, waiting for Kurumi to digest and understand her words before continuing.
"I don't know how powerful the Origin Spirit's abilities are, but since she needs to rely on you to carry out a loop, she definitely doesn't have the ability to travel through ti herself. Then there's only one thod. As long as the 'current' you goes to the future one year from now, then for the next year, the person called Tokisaki Kurumi will not exist in this world."
"..."
Hearing Yutsuki's idea, Kurumi could not help feeling stunned.
From Yutsuki's words, there was a faint sense that she understood and was familiar with the Origin Spirit. Otherwise, she could never have co up with such a targeted thod.
Without a doubt, Yutsuki possessed information about the Origin Spirit that Kurumi did not know. She might even know the Origin Spirit's true identity.
Why won't you tell this? Kurumi wanted to question Yutsuki like that. However, before the words could leave her mouth, they weakly sank back down her throat.
The current her, who had abandoned the battle, no longer had the right to say such a thing.
The tighter a string was stretched, the more terrible the pain at the instant it snapped.
For the past ten years, in order to achieve her goal, she had abandoned her parents, abandoned her friends, abandoned her identity as a human, and as a Spirit, she had killed nearly twenty thousand people. The mont she chose to give up, that enormous guilt carved a deep scar into her heart.
There was no aning to any of it.
When she took back the Sixth Bullet from Shido, Kurumi had once thought she had found a sliver of hope. But she never expected it to be nothing more than bait that made her fall into an even more terrifying abyss.
Watching Shido die before her eyes once, twice, three tis... ten tis... a hundred tis... As her emotions gradually went numb, Kurumi began to feel that she was not saving Shido at all. She was only repeatedly desecrating his corpse for the sake of achieving her own goal.
Then now, having lost the will to fight, what aning was there in questioning Yutsuki, who was trying to protect her?
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."
"There's no need to apologize, Kurumi."
Yutsuki stroked Kurumi's black hair and spoke gently.
"I don't know how many loops you went through to free Shido from the fate of death, or how much pain you endured. I also don't understand just how angry, sad, and guilty you feel over Shido's death. But I know this. You are the person who gave the most for Shido... So you did nothing wrong. Leave the rest to ."
As she said that, Yutsuki released Kurumi, picked up the flintlock pistol from the ground, and placed it in Kurumi's hand.
"Now, begin."
"...Zaf...kiel..."
Kurumi struggled to speak the Angel's true na. For so reason, the hand gripping the gun kept trembling, and in the end, the gun slipped from her hand again.
At so point, Kurumi's face had beco covered in cold sweat.
"I'm sorry... I can't... use my Angel anymore..."
Kurumi lowered her head bitterly. Now, the mont she gripped her Angel, guilt surged into her heart like a tide.
"Then——I'll do it for '.' "
"——!?"
At that mont, a third voice suddenly sounded. Kurumi only saw a slender hand enter her field of vision and pick up the flintlock pistol from the ground.
Kurumi's heart nearly stopped.
That voice. That wrist. She was more familiar with them than anyone else. After all, the other person was none other than herself.
More accurately, it was one of Tokisaki Kurumi's clones.
"Mm? Is that all right?"
Yutsuki asked in confusion.
"Well~ Normally, 'we' don't have the right to use Zafkiel, but if the original gives permission, that's another matter."
Kurumi did not dare make a sound. She lowered her head deeply, as if trying to disappear from the world itself.
To Kurumi, "Kurumi" was not rely a clone created by the Eighth Bullet. She was also a comrade in arms who had pursued the sa long-cherished wish. Precisely because they had that shared goal, Kurumi had been able to permit herself to use her clones as expendable pieces.
Now, after abandoning the fight, she did not dare look directly at her clone. She was afraid of being despised and spat upon by her past "self."
"However, Yutsuki-san, you may have misunderstood sothing. Even if Yud Aleph is used, it only allows the target to temporarily stay in the future within the amount of spirit power available. Once the spirit power runs out, they will return to the present."
"Oh... That probably won't be a problem. Let see."
"...Eh? Wait? Yutsuki-san? What did you just do?"
"Mm? I only adjusted it a little with Ratziel according to my own hypothesis. Although Angels are abilities of the sa nature with different targets, in essence, going back to the past and traveling to the future are completely different things."
"...Ara ara, should I say, as expected of Yutsuki-san?"
Amid tension and confusion, the clone and Yutsuki's conversation simply continued without Kurumi. After who knew how long, Kurumi felt a flow of spirit power pour from the City of Devouring Ti into Zafkiel. Imdiately afterward, the sound of a bullet being loaded rang by her ear.
"Then, are you ready to go on vacation in the world of the future, ''?"
The clone asked with a slight mocking tone.
"..."
"Sigh... In that case, Zafkiel——Yud Aleph!"
Seeing Kurumi give no response, the clone sighed sowhat disappointedly and pulled the Angel's trigger.
Bang!
Along with the gunshot, Zafkiel's bullet struck Kurumi's head. The next second, the scenery before her eyes began to twist unnaturally.
"Kurumi!"
Just as her consciousness was about to leave the "present", Yutsuki's voice suddenly rang by her ear.
"I promise you, Kurumi. No matter what the result may be, the future will absolutely not be one of despair."
That was the vow Ryougi Yutsuki was destined to make with her in every single loop.
After that, as if sinking into water, Kurumi was swallowed by a suffocating sensation.
(Am I... heading to the future right now?)
Kurumi thought hazily.
Her body lost control, and she could only drift along like a lone boat floating in a raging current.
When she opened her eyes, all she could see was empty darkness. When she strained her ears, all she could feel was hollow silence.
Then, a huge wave surged and swallowed her. No matter how she swung her limbs, she could only keep sinking.
No, that was rely an illusion. Strictly speaking, in this space, there was not even a concept that could represent direction.
After what felt like an unknown length of ti, the long abyss finally reached its end. As if she had been washed out of the water by an undercurrent, she flew into midair.
"——!?"
At last, her vision opened up. The solid sensation of standing on the ground ca from beneath her feet.
Looking around in confusion, Kurumi murmured blankly.
"Is this... the future one year from now?"
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