254 Failed Date ; Meeting

"That was odd," I say while gazing at the sky.

Finding nothing, I shift my sight to Kurumi only to find her with a displeased look on her face.

"Hey, now," I say, "Do you still want to continue the date?"

Hearing my query, Kurumi makes eye contact with me and says, "Of course."

Beaming a smile at her response, I tighten my clasp on her hand before beginning to walk again.

After a short while, we found ourselves in the park, examining the surrounding nature.

"You idiot brother, what are you doing?! Leave the area as soon as possible!"

Deciding to ignore Kotori, I turn my head to gaze at Kurumi before asking her, "Say, what did you mean by your statement from earlier?"

"Pardon me, but I don't know what you're speaking of," she responds.

"I meant your objective. You said that you wanted to eat me, no?"

"Ara~ That, I did," she replies as a grin forms on her lips, "Perhaps, I should do it now?"

Sensing the slight hostility exuding from her, I am assured that her 'eating' is not what I had in mind.

Nevertheless, I remain unfazed as I ask, "Do you still think you can?"

The moment those words leave my mouth, the hostility from Kurumi disappears as she says, "No."

Heh. It seems like the display from earlier has warded off any ulterior thoughts she may have had.

"Kurumi, I would like to ask you something."

"And what would that be?" she responds while continuing to look in front of her.

"What do you think you are?"

"A spirit," she replies almost immediately.

"Spirit? That's the only term that you know of?"

Hearing this, Kurumi squints her eyes as she stops in her tracks, causing me to do the same.

"You speak as if you know more than just that, Shido," she says with a smile that doesn't seem genuine.

"Well," I say, deciding to not reveal my identity yet, "The term is a rather ambiguous one. I was just curious as to why they would call us as such."

"Us?" Kurumi repeats as she squints her eyes.

Well, shit.

"That's right. I'm a 'spirit' as well."

Following this statement, Kurumi chuckles for a solid five seconds before saying, "Pardon my rudeness, but you're definitely not a spirit."

"What do you mean?" I ask, genuinely confused.

"If you were a spirit, I would've been able to tell."

Hearing her words, I realize something - She is considered a spirit despite being a Binary Factor.

Could the term be even more ambiguous than I thought?

"Then, what do you think I am?" I ask.

"An abnormal existence," she responds, "Not a spirit, but not a human either."

There is a hint of amusement in her tone. Well, this is better than the aura she gave off previously.

At this moment, I notice something in the corner of my vision. A somewhat bulky brown-haired guy that seems to be in his early twenties is walking toward us. In his hand, he is holding a leash with a cute white dog tied to it that's whining for some reason.

Kurumi has noticed the guy as well as she looks over at him and the dog with an expression I hadn't seen on her face before - anger.

"Come on, you little turd. If it weren't for mom, I would've thrown you out of the house long ago," the guy mutters as he tugs on the leash, causing the dog to whine further.

That results in the man getting even more irritated as he kicks the dog's head, causing it to whimper in fear and pain.

Seeing this, I'm once again reminded of the reason I hated humans in my past life.

I cast a glance at Kurumi, only to see that her anger has increased, but she soon notices my gaze as she regains her composure as a fake smile forms on her lips.

Shortly, the guy and the dog reach us and are about to pass by without the guy bothering to cast a glance at us.

"Excuse me," Kurumi suddenly says, attracting his attention, "Don't you think that you ought to treat it better?"

"Huh?" a bewildered voice escapes from the guy's mouth, "Who are you and-"

His voice gets cut off as he gets a good look at Kurumi's face. He glimpses at me as a sneer forms on his lips before he says, "Alright-"

Already knowing how this will turn out, I interrupt him by using telekinesis to twist his veins from inside his body and squeeze a few of his internal organs while at it.

That results in streaks of blood flow out from his orifices as all his movements come to a halt.

Seeing this, a surprised look appears on Kurumi's face as she turns her head to face me and ask, "Did you do that?"

"Who else?" I respond with a grin.

"Shido! What are you doing?! What's happening?! Hey, Shido!" the anxious voice of my sister, Kotori, bursts in my ear.

Ignoring her, I telekinetically remove the leash from the dog and crouch down in front of it before reaching my arm out to rub its head.

"Go. You're free now," I say with a smile while keeping my sight on Kurumi's face using Clairvoyance.

As I had suspected, she is fond of dogs, or perhaps animals as a whole. The previously fake smile is gone and in its place, a genuine one has formed.

Seemingly understanding my words, the dog barks twice before dashing off toward the park gate through which we entered.

"You don't seem troubled with killing humans," Kurumi remarks.

"Because I've already killed plenty of them before."

"Do you like dogs?" she follows up.

"No," I say, causing her brows to furrow slightly, "I like all animals."

Hearing the latter part of my response, her brows return to normal as the smile on her lips grows.

Well, in a sense, my reply is the truth. I have yet to encounter any animals that I dislike.

"It turns out that we are like-minded in a few ways," she says before chuckling lightly.

"Well then, let's get back to our date now, shall we?" I say as I plan to start walking again, but Kurumi doesn't comply as she stays stationary.

"Kurumi?" I ask, while gazing at her face, only to notice that her expression has become odd.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible," she suddenly says before looking to the left.

{Binary Factor detected. Threat Level: 1}

Great.

Focusing on the location that Kurumi is looking at, I notice a blue figure flying toward us at an extreme pace.

Upon closer inspection, I notice that it's a blue-haired girl that's wearing mechanized battle attire similar to that of the AST.

A short while later, the girl reaches our location and lands right in front of us.

I take this chance to inspect her close up, only to notice that she looks oddly familiar.

The girl scans us with using her brown eyes before glancing at the standing corpse of the guy from before.

She proceeds to shake her head before focusing her sight on me and furrowing her brows slightly for a few seconds before she abruptly happily exclaims, "I knew it! It was you, after all, big brother!"

…

Huh? I am this girl's brother? What the heck is up with this turn of events.

The cheerful expression on the girl's expression doesn't last long as she says, "Get away from here, big brother. I will take care of her."

Before I can respond to her words, Kurumi giggles slightly before saying, "You don't need to do that. I've already killed my target here."

Then, Kurumi glances at me and winks once before suddenly dashing backward at a speed beyond normal humans.

The self-proclaimed sister in front of me seems to want to chase her but ultimately decides not to do so.

Instead, she runs over and embraces while exclaiming, "Big brother! I have been searching for you for so long!"

Hugging her back, a wry smile forms on my lips as I consider all of today's unusual events.

Still, my date with Kurumi is seemingly ruined. Hopefully, I can find her later today and make it up to her somehow...