"Natsumi is a spirit that has the ability to mimic anyone that she sees including the abilities of the person that she mimics. To say one thing for short, yes, she could considered as her code name: {Witch.} She also-"

"Um, not to be rude or anything, but I kind of already know about her mimicry ability." Shido's little sister Kotori, had explained the entire situation to me. Well, the things she already told me was something that I had already learned from previous events. I didn't know how scary she could be until she slammed her hand on her resting chair.

"Just listen will you!?" She's really scary. I didn't think she'll be angry that fast. I think it'll be best to keep my mouth shut and just listen.

"Kotori, please don't be too hard on him. He's had a rough life so far." Shido had managed to calm Kotori down from her short temper.

"*Sigh* Kioshi, how much do you know about Spirits?"

"T-The only thing that I know about them, is that every time a Spacial Quake occurs, they appear from them. A-And they also have powers that are unique to their own-self." Hearing that, Kotori's left eye had twitched out of arrogance.

"Is that so? And where did you get this information from? Humans such as yourself shouldn't know anything about Spirits." Kotori was getting suspicious about me now. I should've just said nothing in the matter, but when pushed under pressure, I can't help but answer honestly.

"Um...while I'm not sure if their abilities are unique to themselves, it was only an educated guess. Natsumi...had told me that when she arrived on Earth, she said that she didn't see anyone else but the AST to greet her." While it's not right for me to lie, it would be a huge problem for them to know anything about Mumei. It would only have Kotori even more suspicious about me.

"Hm...and how do you know about their ability? While I do understand your "guess," I still lack the information about how you know about their own unique ability." This wasn't good. With the wrong words said, they would instantly take me out.

"With Natsumi-" Before I could make an excuse, Kotori had interrupted me.

"Kioshi, think real long and hard for this next excuse. Because the next words that come out of your mouth could might very be your last as you turn into a crisp. "An educated guess?" Do you really think I'm stupid enough to buy into that rubbish?" She was threatening me. She actually didn't buy into my lie at all. If I told her about Mumei, would she be angry at me? In fact, does anyone here know about Mumei? It's only Kotori, Shido, and me in this room. While the others were in Shido's house, we were in the Ratatoskr. I didn't even know this ship existed until now.

"I-"

"Ow!" Before I could say anything with my very few seconds, Kotori had been bopped in the head by a book by Shido.

"What was that for Shido!?"

"Because you're being rude to our guest. Kioshi had been troubled since the very day he met Natsumi, so wouldn't you think it would be best to let him off a bit easy?"

"Huh!? I'm trying to protect you and the other Spirits Shido!" Shido raised his eyebrow in question.

"Protect me from Kioshi? Kotori look, he's not that kind of person. While we didn't chat with one another, I could tell that he just wants a peaceful life."

"Shido, he has no background records! Not a single person knows where he comes from! He just popped up out of thin air! How do we know if he's some kind of spy!? He's an anomaly!" There goes that word again...Anomaly. What is it about me that makes me different than anyone else?

Why do I exist?

"Kotori that's enough! Kioshi can you please wait outside? I'll speak to you after I'm done talking to Kotori." I silently nodded as I heard the two continue to argue with one another. Were they always like this?

Or was it because of me?

I think I should just wait until Shido comes out...

After 10 minutes of arguing, Shido had finally come out of the room. He looked a bit stressed, but I guess that's normal for him. That's his little sister after all. There should be no doubt that they argue from time to time.

"Shido?" Hearing my voice had slightly spooked him. I haven't considered myself to be the scary type.

"Ah! I forgot you were here Kioshi! Sorry for making you wait for so long. Follow me, we'll be talking by ourselves for now.

"I-It's no problem. I'm kind of used to being ignored, so yo don't have to worry about that much." It was true. Not a single person besides the teachers had noticed that I had existed in school. But for the teachers, it should be no doubt that they were concerned as for where I came from.

"Don't say that. You're just not used to being noticed. So for now on, let's be friends. Alright?" As Shido said this, he extended out his hand for me to take. Friends...I haven't heard that word for some time. It's just that...I'm not used to being referred as a "friend."

"I-If I'm not a bother, then yes. Let's be friends...from now on." As I reached out for his hand, I felt a bit happy to shake hands with a...friend. But now that I think of it, should I consider Mumei as a friend?

"Um,Kioshi?"

"Yes?"

"Why are you patting my head?" Hearing this, I looked to see that I was in fact not shaking his hand. Instead, I was gently patting his head.

"I-I'm sorry. It...just felt normal for me to do that. I don't know what came over me." While Shido was a bit taller than me, I felt weird to just start patting his head. I don't really know what came over me.

"There's no need to apologize. I just didn't expect that at all. It felt...nice if I should say so myself. N-Not to say that I liked it, it's just that I haven't gotten my head patted for so long." Shido had started to laugh a bit from being nervous. Did he really enjoy head patting?

"A-Anyway, ahem, let's talk about what we know about Natsumi." Shido had quickly dropped his laughter and made a face of seriousness.

"Kioshi, have you ever thought about the reason as to why she wants to be called cute?"

"Um, not that much. But she did ask me something like that when I first met her. Is there something that I'm not noticing?"

"Well, I was thinking that you might know something about her since she is mostly around you."

"Around me? What do you mean by that?" If I could remember, I've encountered Natsumi for almost like three times.

"Well, I'm not trying to frighten you but I think you should become aware of this Kioshi." Aware of what exactly?

"Aware of what?"

"Aware of the fact that Natsumi was always detected to be near you."

" Detected near me? I'm sorry, I'm kind of not understanding what's going on here. Could you please clarify for me please?" Shido has all of the answers that I need, so I need to understand the entire story first.

"Well, here in Ratatoskr, we are an organization to save Spirits. As you already know, Spirits are the entire cause of Spacial Quakes, so we try our best to save them from being killed from the AST. We develop a more peaceful way to deal with Spirits other than killing them."

"What peaceful way did you have in mind?" When asking this, Shido's face had become slightly red from embarrassment.

"To..to date them." Date them? Does dating have to do with something about a Spirit's ability?

"Date...them? You only need to date them to...stop them from destroying cities?"

"I-It's not just that! I...need to kiss them too." While Shido did mumble the last of his sentence, I was still able to understand what he said. To date and kiss a Spirit...I haven't of something like that. If that was the case, then why hasn't Mumei told me about Shido?

"You...kiss them too? Does that really work?" I tilted my head to the side in confusion. It's just hard for me to understand what you had to do in order to stop a Spirit.

"I-It works. Tohka, Yoshino, Miku, Kotori, Miku, and the Yamai sisters are all Spirits." They were all Spirits? I haven't met the others, but it kind of surprised me with the fact that they are Spirits. But wait, if Kotori was a Spirit, and she was his sister, then...

"Shido... did you kiss your sister?" Shido had instantly, stopped everything and looked at me with a slightly more reddened face.

"I-It's not what you think! She's a Spirit and I really wanted to save my sister from her illness! Please, don't get any wrong ideas!" I only stared at him with my stoic face.

"It's fine. Now that I know about you save Spirits, can you explain about this entire Natsumi issue? I'm still kind of in the lost here."

"R-Right, sorry for the hold up. Yes, while I do save Spirits, it is only something that I could do. I...I'm not sure why, but I am able to seal a Spirit's ability by kissing them. As for how it happens, I do need to take them out on a date to keep their mental state situated. And for us to know this, we have a monitor that detects the Spirit's mental status. While it is like a mental status record, let's call it a love meter. The higher the meter goes, the more affectionate they become. But the more it falls...I guess you know what that means." It's hard for me to understand, but I am starting to get the basic gist of the entire Spirit dating thing.

"While I did try to go on a date with Natsumi, she seemed uninterested with the dating plan. Her meter wouldn't even fill to a neutral love status while I was with her. We kept trying to find a solution to her problem, but we kept hitting a brick wall. But that's when you showed up. For some reason, every time we found Natsumi after that date, she seemed to be located at any area close to you."

"This is still coming out a bit vague for me. Why would Natsumi even consider to be even close to me? Is it because she needs a place to hide?" Shido only crossed his arms.

"We don't know. But there's one thing that we do know. Her mental status is a bit above neutral whenever she is located near you. Even if we do know this, a new questions strikes our mind: is Natsumi starting to fall in love with you?" Falling in love with me? How could she be falling in love with me? That couldn't be right at all. Is that really true?

"What would happen if she did...fall in love with me? Would that still hinder you from saving her?" It's a good question. Shido's job is to have the Spirits fall in love with him so he could eventually kiss them and seal their powers. But what would happen if they fell in love with someone besides Shido?

"Hm, I don't really know. We really haven't experienced this kind of thing before so we're out of ideas for the matter. For now, could you do us a favor? We need you speak some more to Natsumi to see if this really is true. I'm not asking you to go onto a date, but I kind of need you to talk to her so we could have a solution for her. Could you do this?" While this was a request from the second friend that I've ever gotten, I think I should do this. If it's for finding a reason as to why she's doing this, then I have no choice.

"I'll do it. Please let me know whenever she is located so I could speak to her. Shido, you might not know this, but you're the only person that can save me right now. Please, give me your word that you will find a way to save me from these crimes."

"...We will try our best. If you could find a way as to what's bothering her, then we will do everything in our power to get rid of these crimes on your head." At his words, I felt more relieved. Relieved that this will all come to an end sooner or later. It all took time after all.

"And one other thing Kioshi." As he grabbed my attention again, I was prepared to listen to him.

"Is there anything else I need to do?"

"Well, it's not a request but I think you should meet my friends."

Huh?

"Meet...your friends?" Shido scratched the back of his head as he laughed a bit.

"Yes...it's just thought that it wouldn't be healthy to always be by yourself. It would never hurt to have a friend there for you every once in a while."

"But...would they accept me for who I am? I'm...just an anomaly. Something that shouldn't exist in this plane of existence. I'm-" Before continuing, Shido stopped me.

"Kioshi?"

"Yes?"

"Let's go meet with Tohka and the others okay?"

"A-Alright." With that, we started walking in the hallway of the ship that I never knew existed. My life has become so confusing, that even I don't know what to do with it. But even so, to earn a friend and they accept you for who you are just feels...

Warm.

I never knew you could feel this warm even when you're not under your covers in your bed.

I feel sleepy...