Realization: Shido's Feelings (Prologue & Chapter 1)

By: MeisterYM

Prologue

Today, a handful of people were walking along the sidewalks of Tenguu City. Many of them looked as if they were returning from work while others seemed as if they were recently finished with classes. Along with the crowd of students and businessmen were a small number of couples who were enjoying their weekend by having a date.

"Date…huh…"

For someone like Shido Itsuka, the word "date" had been heard and used countless times.

While mulling over the word "date", Shido couldn't help but think about how much had changed since that fateful day, and how he went on one of his most important dates yet.

Almost a year ago Shido's world had turned upside down as he was faced with the decision to either save his little sister, Kotori, or leave her to die from a natural disaster known as a spacequake, an anomaly that distorted space and produced a large shockwave which had the potential to destroy an entire city.

Seeing as how Kotori was the only family he had at the time, he didn't even think twice about going to rescue her.

On Kotori's birthday, both she and Shido had promised to meet at a family restaurant after school to get her a "Deluxe Mix Plate", which happened to be a dish that Kotori favored. Kotori had begged Shido with a face that he couldn't say no to, and so they had promised to go – even if a spacequake occurred.

Unfortunately, as if through some cruel irony, Tenguu City's spacequake alarm sounded moments after both of the siblings headed off to school, and Shido had noticed that Kotori's location at the time was at the restaurant. Even though Shido and Kotori had agreed to go there - regardless of the risk of being in the middle of a spacequake - Shido took that part of the promise as a joke. After all, Kotori wouldn't seriously risk her life for a Deluxe Mix Plate.

Despite believing that Kotori wouldn't actually do something as reckless as waiting for her older brother in the middle of a spacequake, the phone that gave Kotori's position filled Shido's head with doubt.

As Shido was heading towards the restaurant, the spacequake erupted, with Shido at its mercy. Miraculously, Shido was uninjured despite the sudden explosion, though a large crater was formed in the middle of the city. In the middle of that crater was where everything had begun, for within it Shido saw the person who had changed his life forever.

A spirit was a being that appeared randomly after a spacequake, and each of them had the ability to cause spacequakes themselves. Spirits were equipped with clothing known as an astral dress, which served as armor for the spirits due to their magical properties. Along with the astral dress came what was known as an angel, which served as a spirit's weapon. With the mysterious ability of causing natural disasters and also the potential to bring harm to countless individuals, spirits were deemed as a threat to humanity, and so humanity sought to eliminate the spirits by hiring groups such as the Anti-Spirit Team (AST).

The girl in the crater whom Shido had met that day was considered a spirit, and after being nearly killed by her multiple times, Shido had found a way to "save" the spirits without resorting to violence.

As it turned out, Kotori was the leader of "Ratatoskr", an organization whose goal was to help the spirits without killing them by sealing their powers that could produce the spacequakes. With the help of Ratatoskr, Shido was able to save many spirits such as the one in the crater: Tohka Yatogami, codename: Princess.

In order to save spirits such as Tohka, however, Shido had to fulfill two requirements with the help of Ratatoskr if he wanted to save them without having them killed by the AST. The first requirement was to have the spirits fall in love with Shido, which required him to take them on dates. The objective of the date was to raise their affection levels for Shido, similar to a visual novel or dating sim. The second requirement was to have Shido kiss the spirits after having them fall in love with him, this was the process that sealed the power of a spirit. As of yet, making spirits fall in love and kissing them is the only known method to save them without violence.

Due to this method, Shido was able to follow Ratatoskr's instructions for most of his missions and saved other countless spirits such as the little girl, Yoshino, the twins, Kaguya and Yuzuru, the popular idol, Miku, and even Kotori who was also a spirit.

With each mission, Shido was able to bring happiness to the spirits and allow each of them to live a normal life. Together with the girls, whose powers that Shido had sealed, all of them would be able to live together in peace.

However the peace that Shido was striving for was only able to reach a few of the spirits, and there was still one who Shido had failed to save. To this very day, Shido has thought about that one spirit whom he couldn't save, a spirit with the codename "Nightmare". Because of his failure, Shido nearly hated himself for it. He had chosen to help the spirits live a life of peace, and yet he couldn't save a single person.

The spirit who Shido has yet to encounter again was a spirit that was different from the other girls he had met. Unlike them, Shido had seen the dark side of her personality, and it was a void that instilled a cold terror like no other. Compared to the other spirits, she was considered the worst, and Shido had seen with his very own eyes how far she could take things. On his first attempt at a date with the spirit, Shido had seen a man blown to pieces by the one he was trying to save. The only reason Shido was still alive was because of his sister, Mana Takamiya, who saved him during one of Nightmare's attacks and claims to be his true sister. After suffering injuries from her battle with Nightmare, Mana is now working with Ratatoskr, and recently saved Kotori and the rest of the crew from Miku's rebellion.

Meanwhile Nightmare, like the other spirits who Shido had succeeded in saving, had also taken a liking to Shido, but it didn't seem like the sense of like that was love. Instead the feeling was more like desire, a desire to devour him whole. Despite the tremendous fear that he felt, Shido tried in vain to save Nightmare, but she disappeared after being attacked by Kotori who had unleashed her own powers as a spirit. Thus the objective immediately changed from saving Nightmare to saving Kotori. While Shido succeeded in saving Kotori, the spirit whom he was supposed to save before Kotori had vanished without a trace until months after Tohka was kidnapped by a company known as DEM Industries.

DEM Industries is still at large, and their goal at the time was to capture Tohka in order to use her spirit powers. When all hope seemed lost, Shido was saved by the one person who he thought would be the last person in the world to help him. With Nightmare's help, Shido was able to convince the idol, Miku, to help him save Tohka, and together the three of them recovered Tohka from DEM Industries.

However soon after saving Tohka, Nightmare had once again vanished without a trace.

Chapter 1

It was seven in the evening, and Shido had told Tohka and the others that he would be busy for a while, so he would be coming home late.

Shido had been sitting at a park bench for hours as he watched the crowd of people in Tenguu City come and go until it was only him and a few other civilians.

Shido was wearing casual clothing tonight, and he told Kotori on the phone that she should have dinner without him. At first Kotori was suspicious of Shido, but after remembering what he had told her a few days ago, she respected his decision and responded with a doubtful voice.

"Alright, just make sure to come home safe, Onii-chan."

After hanging up the phone, Shido sat on the park bench for another hour, until finally no one was around. It was eight thirty in the evening, and it was time for Shido to make his move. After making sure that no one else was around to see, Shido stood up from the bench.

"So, are you a clone or the real one?" Shido asked aloud.

At first nothing happened, but a few seconds later Shido noticed a shadow behind the tree in front of him slightly shift. Moments after that, Shido had spotted the person he was looking for.

"My, since when did you notice that I was watching you, Shido-san?" asked a familiar voice.

The person who was behind the tree walked out into one of the walkways of the park until Shido could see her clearly under a spotlight. She wore a glowing red and black dress that looked like one would take to a ball and had an elegant voice along with a well-mannered dialect. The hair on both sides of her face were tied, and if one were to look at her eyes closely, they would notice that her right eye was a color of crimson red, and her left eye was a color of golden yellow. The eye that was yellow displayed a faint design of a clock.

After seeing the girl clearly and making sure that she was the one he was looking for, Shido had grown a little nervous, but after recalling the previous events that had occurred, he immediately closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

After calming down, Shido opened his eyes, and was relieved to see that the girl was still there.

"You didn't answer my question," Shido said calmly, "are you a clone or the real one?"

"Quite the approach you're taking tonight, aren't you, Shido-san?" teased the girl, "Who knows if I'm the real one or not?"

The girl gave a noticeable grin as if she enjoyed teasing Shido, but Shido was used to her way of toying with him. After all, during their first date she was willing to show Shido her panties and even bought the underwear that he was forced to recommend, no thanks to Kotori and Reine-san.

After thinking about the underwear scene from their first date, it was difficult for Shido to keep a straight face, and he chuckled a little as he made a grin of his own. The girl who was in front of him gave a look of wonder, but responded afterwards with her own smile. It was times like these that made Shido forget the wickedness that the girl in front of him was capable of making him feel. Back then, if he wasn't careful around her, he might not even be having this conversation with her right now. He had reminded himself several times after dating one of her clones that she was the one who could blow him to bits and pieces that couldn't be put together again.

Yes, this was her. This was the spirit whom Shido had failed to save, codename: Nightmare, also known as Kurumi Tokisaki.

"Was there something that you needed so badly that you had to get my attention, Shido-san?" Kurumi asked.

After recollecting his thoughts, Shido regained his composure and had a serious look again.

"Yeah…" replied Shido.

With another deep breath, Shido looked at Kurumi with intensity and started to tell her what he was thinking about all week.

"…Kurumi. Go on another date with me. I won't take no for an answer."

To Be Continued