Re:Chapter 2 - Date A Nightmare

...

Silky, black hair, tied in uneven twintails. A ribbon atop the head. A black choker around the neck. A red and black dress held up by spaghetti straps. Black boots with stupidly tall soles. Frilly things on the arms, which I have no idea what they're called. Flawless, pale skin. A smug grin on her lips. A beautiful face adorned with a singular red eye, and one that resembles an old clock.

A girl of near-impossible beauty. She could only be Tokisaki Kurumi.

My number one waifu, and the best girl in Date A Live.

Fuck, I wasn't expecting to run into her so soon... Okay, I need to NOT embarrass myself in front of the pretty girl.

"Well, I certainly wasn't expecting a MALE spirit to exist. Though it's hard to tell with that armor. How lucky for me to run into you~" She purrs with a silky smooth voice.

I'm not gonna last in this conversation am I...?

Fuck it, just say something.

"Well I'd say that I'm the lucky one, running into you, miss." I say, mustering my confidence. I am definitely not good with talking to girls. Hopefully, I'll be able to fix that in the future.

"Miss? Well, aren't you nice?" She says, her voice turns to a more teasing tone.

"Well my mom always told me to be nice to girls, especially the pretty ones~" I say, flashing her a smile, or I would be if I didn't have on the helmet.

"Goodness!" She cups a hand on her cheek and smiles sweetly. "You really know how to make a girl like you, huh?"

"Eh, I've always been kind of a loner, so I wouldn't really know." I say with a shrug. It's true, I've been a loner for years, haven't had any friends since I moved a few years back. Found anime not long after that. That and video games preoccupied my time.

"Though, I'm curious. Do you know what you are?" Huh? She must be asking if I remember being human.

"A... Spirit? Those flyin' girls called me that, but... I kinda knew that beforehand." I say, playing along with the 'Mio gave me Spirit knowledge' angle.

"Ah, them. Do you remember anything before?" She asks.

"Uh, yes?" I 'ask', feigning confusion. "Not sure how I could forget going to bed and waking up in a crater wearing this armor."

She appears slightly surprised at this. Spirits forgetting stuff is normal, after all.

"Well then, would you mind telling me about yourself, Spirit-kun?" There's that teasing tone again.

"I uh, sure? But we should probably sit down somewhere else. This alley probably ain't the best place to be." I say, looking around.

"Hmmm. Very well." She walks up to me and holds out her hand. "Grab my hand and close your eyes."

Okay." I grab her small hand with mine, covered in armor. As I do so, a dark and reddish void appears under our feet. Right, she has shadow powers. We begin to sink down and I quickly shut my eyes before we go under.

"Okay, you can open them." The time Spirit says.

Hearing that, I open my eyes to see... an apartment? It's never really shown where Kurumi stays.

The apartment is small. The living room and dining room are just one big room, there's a couch and a loveseat facing one another with a coffee table in the middle. There's a small table in front of what appears to be a small kitchen. There's also a hallway that leads to more rooms, and behind me is what I can only assume is the front door.

"It's not much, but it's nice isn't it?" She asks next behind me.

"Yeah, it reminds me of the one me and my parents stayed in when I was young." I turn around to see her hair down and wearing a different dress, it's the one she wore in Rinne Utopia, if I recall correctly.

Her dress is black and covers all but her hands, head and some of her neck. Her hair lays in low twintails, held with red ribbons topped with purple flowers. Her feet are covered in tall, high soled black boots.

"Fu~ckin' hell." She's way more beautiful like this.

"Ufufu~ taken by my real appearance are you?" Kurumi teases.

"Of course." Her eyes, er- eye widens when I say this. "I really like the gothic vibe you've got goin'."

"You're quite honest, aren't you? Fufu~" She says, teasingly. "Though, you should get rid of that armor and sit down." Right, the armor. How do I get rid of it?

C'mon, go away and- oh, the armor began the fade away. That was easy. It works on itent, I suppose.

"My, you're much more handsome that I though you would be~" The worst Spirit purrs.

"Handsome? Me? No way in hell-" I begin to say, but stop as I see my reflection in a nearby mirror on the wall. My face it's... completely different. I DO look handsome now. Must be a side-effect of being a Spirit. Oh well, at least I'm not a bishounen. Looking down, I notice my arms are much more muscular than ever. My outfit is just a t-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes.

I've got short, dark brown hair and dark red eyes, a shade closer to burgundy. I'm still 6' tall as I was before, it's kinda easy to tell since Kurumi is nearly a head shorter than me. If I recall she's around 160 cm tall, which is just above 5'.

"Ara~, what's with that look on your face?" Kurumi asks, from her seat.

Should I really tell her something like this? Fuck it. "I'm... I'm in a different body."

"Ara?" She squeaks out, surprised.

"I was never the most handsome guy, certainly not this handsome. I wasn't ever this muscular, either." A explain as I turn back around and sit down on the loveseat, facing her, who's sitting on the couch.

"Anyways, I'm just some guy from America that likes video games and anime. Not sure how I ended up in Japan. Not sure how I became a Spirit. And I'm definitely not sure how I ended up in a different body." I list off, stopping myself from spilling the beans about Date A Live. I... I probably shouldn't tell her about that, less she start questioning reality.

Really, Kurumi has enough problems already.

I mean, I kinda want to tell her, I didn't much liked isekai fanfics where the protag told no one about being isekai'd and/or their knowledge of the world. But at the same time, it might not be a very good idea.

"And you're sure that you're in a different body?" Kurumi asks, her voice and face gaining a serious, yet dangerous glint.

"Yes." I say, honestly. "You asked me if I remembered anything, meaning Spirits don't remember being human, but I am one hundred-percent certain that this ISN'T my body. I was always a thin, average-looking guy."

"I see." She hums. "Still, this shouldn't be surprising, I suppose."

"Why's that?" I ask.

"Spirits have knowledge on how to use their angel naturally." She says.

"So when you and others became Spirits, you knew about your powers?" I ask.

"Correct." She says with a nod.

"Well... I didn't actually know what my powers were until I used them." I say, causing her visible red eye to widen. "I do know... How to explain this...?" I say, trying to tell her my knowledge of this world. "I know about this 'timeline', so to speak."

"Timeline?" She asks, her eyes gaining that dangerous glint.

"It's like... Okay, imagine watching an anime, learning everything there is about the world and story, then getting thrown into that world. It's kinda like that." I explain. "I know about Spirits and spacequakes, even though I know for certain those things didn't happen in my lifetime. I suppose you could say I know about bits of this world, I guess."

"How much?" She asks, seriously.

"I know about stuff that happened and... stuff that probably will happen. I know about what happened with you an' Mio, as well, Kurumi." I say, causing her dangerous look to change to one of shock. "I know of a... shall we say 'canon' timeline, but one without me."

"This is... well, I suppose it might not be the strangest thing I've seen." She says with a soft chuckle.

"You're tellin' me. I'm still trying to sort through all of this knowledge crammed into my brain. Spirits, Mio, Sephira, spacequakes... God, it's a lot." I try, feigning mental exhaustion. Well, kinda, this is all still a lot to take in.

"So, you're aware of things that will happen?" Kurumi asks slowly.

"Kinda? With me being here, the butterfly effect is going, so those things probably won't happen." I rationalize.

"And... you know about Mio." She observes.

"Yeah. Don't ask me where she is, though. I've got no damn clue." I explain. Seriously, Date A Live never really said where she was. She just kinda showed up at the end.

"Ah. That's unfortunate." She says, a bit sad.

"Yeah." I promise you won't have to go out and kill her, Kurumi. I'm gonna beat a lesson into ol' Mio if I have to.

Silence takes over the room, until Kurumi breaks it. "Well... you know my name, but what is yours?"

"I'm in a different world, in a different body, so I'd say this is a second chance at life." I say, pausing to let out a sigh. "Why use my old name? From now on I'll be... Issei. Sahashi Issei."

Yeah, I figured I'd steal the names from harem anime protagonists. Sue me if you have a problem with it.

"Sahashi Issei... not a bad name." Kurumi praises.

"Haha! Thanks." I say with a grin.

"Well, it's nice to truly meet you, Issei-kun." She says with a beautiful smile.

"And it's nice to meet you as well, Kurumin~" I say with a teasing tone, causing her eye to shoot open and a blush appears on her cheeks.

"K-Kurumin?" She stammers, breaking her persona.

"Yeah, do you not like it?" I say with a grin.

"No it's, nice." She says, quietly.

Well, this is nice and all, but I just realized something important. I'm in a different world. Where the hell am I gonna stay!?

"Say, uh... Kurumi?" I begin, awkwardly.

"Yes, Issei-kun?" She asks.

"This is hard to ask, but do you know anywhere I could stay? Y'know, different world, different country, no money." I say.

"Ufufu~ I suppose I do." She says, giggling. "I have a few spare rooms, if you'd like."

"R-Really?" I ask, surprised and hopeful.

"Of course. What kind of person would I be if I simply tossed one of my fellow Spirits to the side?" She asks, rhetorically.

"I... Thanks, Kurumi. I'll pay ya back for this." I promise her.

"You don't have to do that, Issei-kun. You're a nice person so I wouldn't mind. The fact you're quite cute helps too~" She says.

Damn tease.

"Thanks, Kurumi." I say with a genuine smile.

She smiles a beautiful smile. "You're welcome, Issei-kun." She stands up and moves toward the hall. "Come, I'll show you your room."

We then walk down the hall, and she leads me to a room, opening the door to let me see inside. It's small with a double bed, a nightstand and a dresser (for clothes, of which I had none).

"It's quite bare, sadly." She says.

"Nah, it's more than enough, Kurumi." I say, before noticing the bed. "Say, why do you have a second bed, anyway?"

"A girl has to have her secrets right~" She teases.

"Ha, fair enough."

AN

And chapter 2 is re-written! This is a little longer than the original, but not super long.

A review from an earlier chapter expressed their distaste with Issei telling Kurumi about Date A Live. After re-reading the story, I agreed, so it's been scrapped. Also, Issei asking Kurumi to stay felt kinda rushed as well, so I tweaked it a bit.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and look forward to the next!