Ch 7(?)

"K-Kurumi… You can't be serious, can you?" A horrified looking blue-haired boy stared into a pair of red and gold eyes.

"Of course I am, Shido-san." As if she wasn't close enough to his body, she began pulling herself up until the hot breath from her mouth could be felt in his ear, which caused his body to stiffen.

"I will not force this upon you, but it would be wise to keep in mind what I may have to do should you not agree~" She traced her finger down Shido's abs and gave a few quick licks and nibbles to his ear.

Miku watched in aggravation as Shido's knees were visibly giving out under the intensity of his situation. Not being able to hear their conversation from where she was standing was not helping her cause, either. One handkerchief after another, Miku could not hold her jealous nature in and shredded the poor towels apart with her teeth. It should be her causing Shido to tremble at the knees for her, not some random gothic chick.

"I can't… I just can't agree to that, Kurumi…" Tightening his hand and shutting his eyes in aggravation, Shido knew he couldn't give in to the temptation of this seductress. Kurumi pulled away from the man so that their faces were in front of one another again, but her smile never faded.

"As I have mentioned, the deal is up to you and you alone." Kurumi pushed off of Shido's body and allowed herself to do a little twirl before catching her footing a few feet away.

"I must admit, I never pictured you to be the man who would put his family and loved ones in danger~" The spirit bit her lip enticingly.

'His family and loved ones? Could she perhaps be talking about… us? Are we in danger?' Miku tried to grasp the situation from the few words that were audible to her but the lack of context and information were not doing her justice.

"They have nothing to do with this, Kurumi!" A small blaze could be seen inside of Shido's eyes. No one was going to threaten his family as long as he was there to do something about it. Unfortunately for him, his words went into one ear and came out the other.

"I am glad to hear that you will be accepting my offer, then. I could never be with a man who didn't protect his loved ones~ Kihihihi!" She was toying with him again and he knew it.

"That's not what I meant and you know it!" His left foot shot forward as if warning the manically laughing spirit to back down.

"Ara ara~ so do you really intend to reject my wonderful offer? I feel that it is quite fair for the both of us, really. Your family remains safe and out of harm's way and all you have to give me is a simple s-" The golden and red eyes sharpened as the malicious spirit ducked right as a shard of ice flew past where her head once was. She pushed off the ground intensely to create some space between herself and Shido.

Picking up on the projectile's appearance, Shido quickly began looking around until his eyes caught the glimpse of two orange haired girls floating a few hundred feet from his position.

"El Kanaph!" Two ladies joined hands before what appeared to be a mighty bow came into existence before them. Taking aim, they lowered the arrow's tip until it lined up with the pale spirit before them.

"Kaguya… Yuzuru…" Shido stared in disbelief. He never thought that he would have been found, and so quickly at that.

"Shido!" A loud shout traveled through the air. Recognizing the voice, the blue-haired boy and the indigo-haired spirit quickly turned to see a blur of purple quickly making its way over to their location. Before even being able to process what he had seen, he felt a body crash into his, easily knocking him to the floor and into a daze.

"Shido, Shido!" Picking up his head and rubbing the new bruise on the back of his skull, Shido opened his eyes through the pain to witness a girl with hair sprawled all across the ground tightly gripping torso and squeezing her face into his abs.

"T-Tohka? What are you all doing here? What's going on?" He was happy to see her but decided now was not the best time to show it, what with Kurumi standing but a few feet away.

"Are you okay, Shido? Did I really make it on time? You're safe, aren't you?" Indigo eyes cast their gaze upon his as the princess looking spirit removed her face from his body. He couldn't help but smile upon seeing how beaten up she looked over his safety.

"Yeah, Tohka. You made it just in time." The long locks of the spirit sprawled across his torso once more as she dove back into his body. However, one thing still was bothering him.

'What did she mean by this time?' The thought was quickly dismissed as a small applause could be heard not but a few feet away.

"Oh my~ what a happy reunion. It truly is a wonderful thing to have so many women surrounding you with love. Isn't it, Shido-san?" The sarcasm and teasing was almost too embarrassing to bare at this point.

"You really do never stop listening to yourself talk, do you?" Red pigtails and long blue hair floated in the wind as a pair of small figures made their way towards the crowd.

"Ara ara~ if it isn't-" Kurumi was immediately cut off.

"Back off, Kurumi. You stand no chance against all of us. Take your leave and we might be able to forgive you since Shido appears to be unharmed." Drawing closer to Shido, she made eye contact. He immediately noticed that her eyes weren't normal. They seemed to contain a small fire behind the cold stare that appeared to be etched into her being.

Yoshino quickly ran over to where Shido was sitting and looked over his body to make sure there really weren't any wounds.

"Kotori, she-"

"Save it, Shido. I will have a talk with you about all of this later. You won't be getting off so easily." Tightly closing her eyes she turned her head back towards the problem at hand. Pure malice could be felt as the Commander opened her crimson-red eyes in what seemed to be an attempt to burn holes through the woman before her.

"So scary." Kurumi cradled her body while feigning fear. "I never expected to have to see you here again, you know. I should pay you back for all the misery you caused me during our first encounter. The amount of time I had lost put my plans back quite a decent amount, you know."

Firmly grasping her flintlock pistol, she raised it until the barrel was leveled with Kotori's skull. A salty look of displeasure hung over her face. The dark spirit began tightening her grip around the trigger getting ready to fire it.

"Kurumi, wait!" Shido cried out in a panic. He jumped in between the two girls who seemed ready to have a cat fight.

Kotori didn't have her powers as of right now so if she actually got hit by her bullet, it would end the same way it did for Miku. If not much, much worse. He had to make sure Kurumi didn't find this out or it could spell trouble for them in the future.

"You'll get the time I promised you another day, just please give me a little while to think about your other offer!" Shido had no intention of actually agreeing to her other offer, but if it was able to buy them some time then the least he could do was say that he would consider it.

Almost shocked by his sudden change in opinion, the Lolita dropped her weapon.

"You'll really consider my offer, then?" Her eyes were opened wider than usual as she blinked several times from confusion. She herself wasn't entirely convinced that he would take her offer into consideration since he had so vehemently rejected her earlier.

"As long as you promise to leave peacefully right now, then the least I could do is think about it." Miku stood behind Shido with a pouty face on.

'This was supposed to me my first date with Darling, but now it's turned into a war time peace treaty.' A long sigh escaped her lips. 'Something still feels off. She must have gone through all of this for something pretty important but I couldn't hear what it was. Whatever the offer... you'll be okay, right, Darling?'

"The tables have turned in your favor, so now you seek to strike a deal with me. Very well... I will gladly accept Shido-san's offer." A smile appeared on both parties' faces. "Just remember that one day I will either come for you," She paused with a smile, "or you will come for me. Our destinies are strangely intertwined at this point. Whoever manages to conquer the other will be the one to change history, no? So, Shido-san," she twirled herself around once and looked back at him with hunger in her eyes, "Who do you think will be victorious in the end? Kihihihihi!"

Grabbing the ends of her skirt, she curtseyed before expanding the shadows below her. She turned around as to not face anyone and let the shadows consume her very being.

"Wait, Kurumi!" A voice no one was expecting called out to the malign spirit.

"Ara ara, I do believe that is Tohka-san I hear, yes?" Time was short as almost half her body was already in the shadow. She, however, still did not turn around.

"Why did you save us?" Being so to the point as usual, Kurumi was taken back. Not to mention the lack of context behind the question.

"Save you?" It was hard for everyone to tell if she was feigning innocence or genuinely asking since no one could see her face.

"During the time when DEM had captured me and Miku had taken over the people in the city, I was told you were there fighting with Shido to allow him to make it to me." She swallowed hard. "You could have easily taken him away from all of us without us even noticing, but you decided to use yourself as a decoy and risk yourself instead. Why?"

Everyone was baffled by the words coming out of Tohka's mouth. The normally peppy and animated girl sounded too serious for everyone's comfort. She almost sounded the same as when Shido first met her.

"Such an interesting question to be asked and such an ugly crowd of people to hear the answer." Twirling around yet again to see everybody, Kurumi stared down the questioner.

"If you truly want to know, how about we go on a date?" Even Kotori flinched at the random suggestion made by the killer.

"A… date?" Tohka asked in confusion. She had only ever been on dates with Shido. It almost seemed weird to her that she could go on dates with other people.

"Yes, yes, that is what I said. If you wish to know the truth then I ask you on a date. Information such as this is not meant for all ears and some private time with another spirit is never a bad thing for a loner like me." She faked crying, but no one even batted an eye to the act.

Tohka rigidly looked over to Kotori to see what she should do, but even commander-mode Kotori was having a hard time making a good call for this. Finally after a few seconds of pondering, Kotori looked up.

"She'll be there. Just make sure you are as well. No funny tricks either or I will see to it myself that you don't make it out of there unharmed." Kurumi smiled delicately and clasped her hands together.

"Wonderful, I will send you the information on where to meet me in the near future." With one last wink to Shido, she was gone from sight and the shadows closed upon themselves.

An eerie silence lingered amongst the group minutes after everything was said and done. No one moved or spoke as they all tried to take in the random events that happened on this day.

"Is it over?" Miku was the first to speak as slowly walked over to Shido and wrapped her arms around his.

"Not even close." Kotori spoke up. Taking the lollipop out of her mouth she looked at the sheen glazed across its surface blankly.

"What do you mean, Kotori-san?" Yoshino whispered from besides Shido.

"It seems that my brother and that woman had quite the interesting conversation. Something about a certain deal they made without my approval?" Shido felt a cold sweat coming up as he looked at the dark aura that seemed to be coming off of his little sister.

"Uh, well, no.. you see… I kinda-"

"Oh, and there's also the fact that you forgot your communicator at such a crucial time."

"Uh…" He began backing up slowly.

"And rather than trying to get the attention of the Fraxinus you run into a closed underground location where we can't even begin to see what you are doing or where you are." Kotori took a few steps forward.

Shido didn't even try to defend himself at this point. He knew that today had been a streak of nothing but bad luck and unfortunate events for him, but he couldn't really explain that to her in her current mindset.

Feeling something strange, or rather the lack of something, under his foot he looked back to see that he had walked backwards so far that there was no more roof left. It was then that Kotori managed to catch up to him.

"So, what would you like to say for yourself, Onii-chan?" Her smile was sweet but the death and gloom surrounding her said otherwise. Shido had to choose his next words very wisely.

"I-I'm sorry?" However the pressure did not allow that.

"That's what I thought." Kotori grabbed him by the ear and started dragging him along as she began walking in the opposite direction towards the building's stairway.

"Oi, Kotori! That hurts!" Shido awkwardly tried to keep up with his sister's long strides before being taken into the stairwell leading to the bottom of the building.

"This was literally the worse date ever…" Miku sighed and hunched herself over in defeat. Trying so hard all morning to get herself looking just right, and then having to try and force him out of his own home multiple times. All for nothing.

"It's okay Miku-chan. If you want, Yoshino is willing to offer you her body as payment until your next date!" Steam poured from Yoshino's ears as she quickly tried to cover up her friend's mouth far too late.

"Then let's get started right away!" Without a frame in between the end of Yoshinon's sentence and the words being registered Miku perked up. She ran over to Yoshino and grabbed her wrist gently before began tugging her along behind her.

"M-Miku-san, please wait!" She looked like a rabbit that had just been caught in a cage, desperately trying to find a way out.

"We'll first take a bath together since I really need to clean myself up, then we can caress each other's naked bodies with the many different types of soaps and oils I have, and maybe after that I can take you to my bedroom for a wonderful bonding experience, and once we wake up I could cook a wonderful breakfast before dressing you up in cute outfits!" Drool poured from the side of her mouth as she gazed into the sky with stars of excitement filling her eyes. Her date today was the last thing on her mind.

On the other hand, Yoshino seemed to try to be breaking away but all the lewd thoughts being thrown at her was making her lose her strength as the new couple made their way into the stairwell as well.

Tohka remained in place even after the others left, still looking as if she were trying to take in all the events that transpired.

"I have to go on a date with Kurumi?" She never really liked Kurumi since she seemed to steal Shido away from her too easily, even more so than Origami. But it was also true that she never really got to know her after what happened. Every time they met they seemed to be at weapons length from one another. Today being no different.

"Wait, does that mean that we have to…" The thought of her and Shido joining their lips together at the end of their dates crossed her mind. A sudden blush crossed her face and her mind was thrown into a panic.

With that unpleasant thought now swirling inside her mind, she embarrassingly made her way towards the stairwell to eventually meet up with the others and hopefully ask for more information on what a date really was.

Back in the sky, two angels remained holding a very large bow.

"Oi, Yuzuru…" The small spirit gritted through her teeth.

"Acknowledgement. Yes, Kaguya?"

"Everyone seems to be leaving without us." She watched as Tohka, the last spirit on the building, made their way inside.

"Affirmation. It appears so."

"Do you think we should follow them?"

"Denial. Kotori told us not to move once we were in position until told otherwise."

"Is that so…" Kaguya sounded to be losing faith. "This is getting quite heavy to hold up."

"Recognition. This position is not the most comfortable to stay in either."

"When do you think she'll realize to let us go?"

"Contemplation. Probably when she is done teaching Shido a lesson." The two spirits looked at each other and sighed.

"We're going to be here a while."