noffsinger Chapter 124 Madness Part 3: "When the Date Ends"
Chapter 124 Madness Part 3: "When the Date Ends"
After sending the Four Heavenly Kings away under the pretense of helping to bury things, Ming, alone with binoculars, watched Kurumi waiting below.
Then, Ming put down his binoculars and watched as Kurumi tilted her head and looked at him with a hint of curiosity in her eyes.
"Okayamine, how long have you been watching me? Hasn't Shido-san come back yet?" Kurumi asked Ming silently through mouthing.
"almost."
When faced with Kurumi's sudden question, Ming answered easily without any surprise. After all, given Kurumi's counter-surveillance abilities, it would be strange if she didn't discover him secretly observing her.
The only thing that Kurumi might not know is that she summoned the Four Heavenly Kings.
"Alright, then I'll wait a little longer."
Three minutes later~
When Shido jogged back, Kurumi was already waiting at the door, carrying a shopping bag containing the lace lingerie she had just chosen.
"Did you really buy that lingerie?!"
"Because Shido-san said it was cute, so..."
Kurumi handed over the shopping bag, tilted her head, and smiled as she answered, looking like a gentle and intellectual young lady.
After that, Shido embarked on a busy and dramatic dating journey, continuing his romantic pursuits with three charming girls with very different personalities.
During this period, Shido had several unexpected encounters with the persistent trio.
However, each of these encounters leads to an unexpected situation, but each time Yoshino always manages to completely capture the attention of the trio with her unique charm.
Perhaps it was Yoshino's innocent smile, as radiant as a flower blooming in spring, that made the three who wanted to record Shido's decadent life temporarily put aside their idea.
If you don't let go, then Shido's legendary return to school tomorrow will continue to be reported in the school's information network...
...A transition sound effect of bubbles rising to the surface~
At 15:25:41 PM, sunlight shone on a bench in a park near a grove of trees, where a blue-haired boy and a black-haired girl were looking at each other.
At this moment, the warm sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, creating patches of golden light that fell right in front of the bench.
"Excuse me, Kurumi, I need to use the restroom!"
Kurumi watched Shido hurry towards the public restroom, her beautiful brows furrowing slightly. "Sigh~ Shido-san, really. Even on a rare date, he's so busy."
"But well, never mind..."
Kurumi sat on the bench, lost in thought. She thought that Shido would also be completely devoured by her soon after today, so she decided to be tolerant of the boy's shortcomings.
"Anyway, it's going to be mine in the end, no way~ I'm really~ As expected, so hot..." Kurumi seemed to be talking to herself, perhaps this was her first date.
Thinking this, Kurumi suddenly seemed to hear a sound in the woods behind her.
"...Meow~"
The sound was very faint, but Kurumi, who had a lot of experience petting cats, knew at a glance that it was the cry of a very weak cat, and because of its weakness, the sound was very soft.
Following the sound, we saw four masked men holding toy guns that could fire steel balls, shooting at something on the ground.
"This guy is pretty quick!"
The perpetrators sounded excited; perhaps in their eyes, only by throwing punches at weaker creatures could they prove that they were not inferior.
It was a cat, desperately dodging the bullets fired by the group. Its right hind paw was tucked off the ground, as if it were lame. Its fur was disheveled, and it looked at them pitifully, begging them to let it go. However, the abusers only became more excited and surrounded the cat, then began to fire bullets without mercy.
"Take this! Take this!"
"Hey, aim and shoot!"
"You didn't hit a single shot."
"Haha, run away, run away quickly!"
"How is it?"
The perpetrators carried out these heinous acts with a grin on their faces, unaware that an even more terrifying figure was standing behind them, watching coldly.
"Ara ara~ You guys seem to be doing something very interesting~" Kurumi said with a smile, suppressing her disgust and murderous intent as she looked at all of this.
"Varied..."
The thugs turned their heads instinctively upon hearing the voice and saw an elegant and dignified black-haired girl walking towards them step by step.
"Please don't be nervous~ Please let me join you~ I also have unique insights into the use of guns~"
Kurumi approached slowly with light steps. However, what was strange and unsettling was that although her beautiful face always wore a charming smile, the powerful aura emanating from her carried a hint of coldness. Unfortunately, the three thugs did not notice this at all.
"What do we do?" one of the thugs on the left asked the leader.
"Of course you can, there's no other way," the leader of the thugs said to Kurumi, and the way he looked at her even seemed...
"Well~ thank you so much. Now, I have a suggestion. Could we change the rules a little? It's not a difficult thing..." Kurumi's smile became even more sinister, and even the little cat lying on the ground, barely alive, looked at her with a chill down its spine.
"It's just... a change of target."
Just then, Ratatosk's screen, which was monitoring Kurumi, suddenly went black, as if it had been grabbed by a hand!
At the same time, communication with Ming, who was tracking Kurumi, also came to an abrupt end, and no matter how they tried, they could not re-establish the connection.
This sudden turn of events threw Kotori into a panic. Her eyes widened as she stared intently at the now-blacked-out monitor screen, cold sweat pouring down her forehead.
"Is it malfunctioning? Fix it now! Can Gangfeng Subordinate Gate hear me...? What's going on over there?!" Kannazuki suddenly shouted, becoming serious.
However, no one answered Ming's call.
"Oh dear! What on earth is going on?!"
"Shido! We've lost Kurumi!"
Slightly out of breath, Shido struggled back to the park, only to be surprised to hear that Kurumi had gone missing.
What are you guys doing?
"Commander, there is a spiritual energy fluctuation nearby, in the woods near the east exit of the park."
Shido strode steadily through the bushes, quickly reaching the clearing he had started with. Even before he got close, a strange, pungent stench mixed with the smell of blood spread rapidly through the shady woods. Shido covered his mouth and nose, cautiously moving forward.
Snapped!
The crisp sound of gunfire pierced through the woods, and red and white matter splattered onto the surrounding trees.
Shido was breathing heavily, his pupils shrinking to their limit. The smell in the air and the scene before him made him feel extremely nauseous. There were congealed blood clots or uncongealed blood plasma everywhere, whitish bits of flesh, tattered pieces of clothing, and corpses lying haphazardly.
Even though he was vomiting uncontrollably, the sight of the horrific scene before him caused the boy to scream in shock.
Even Kotori, who had some knowledge, stared wide-eyed in disbelief.
"Ugh... Ahhhhhh... Ugh ...
In the end, Shido couldn't hold back and vomited up everything he could, which was a huge shock to his physiology.
While Shido was kneeling on the ground vomiting violently.
"Oh my, Shido-san, you came so quickly."
Solemn and elegant, the red and black buds bloom amidst the carnage, just like a blood-soaked rose. At this moment, Kurumi is already wearing the [Divine Might Spirit Dress? Third Edition]. The red and black lace gothic dress highlights her beauty, and the flintlock pistol in her hand is still aimed at something.
Upon closer inspection, one could see a thug, shirtless with a handprint drawn on his abdomen in his companion's blood, being pointed at by a flintlock pistol.
"Help...help...help me..." the thug screamed with all his might, after all, he had witnessed with his own eyes how this "devil" killed his companions with a single shot.
"This guy... monster..." The thug's words were starting to become incoherent, and he didn't even realize that he had already wet himself with fear.
"Oh~ You want to kill something, but you're not prepared to be killed yourself. Don't you find that strange? Pointing a gun at life is..."
After saying that, Kurumi pulled the trigger, and with a series of 'bang bang bang' sounds from the flintlock pistol, the thug's abdomen and even chest were completely pierced, revealing bloody holes.
Oh, I see.
Witnessing all of this unfold, Shido felt his worldview had been completely shattered. How utterly brutal Kurumi's actions were!
After doing all this, Kurumi simply turned around without any burden and gave herself an extremely creepy smile.
"Shido, run away!"
Kotori's voice rang in his ears, and Shido forced himself to stand up, wanting to run away.
"No, that won't work!"
However, it was tightly bound by countless pale arms reaching out from the ground.
"What is this?!"
Shido struggled valiantly, like a beast trapped in a snare.
"Ah~ Ah~ Ah~ Failure, failure, what a failure! I was hoping to enjoy my date with Shido a little longer!"
Kurumi approached with a sinister grin, bending down to meet Shido's slightly morbid heterochromatic eyes, whose head had been turned away in fear.
"Well, there's nothing we can do about it, hee hee hee~" Kurumi licked the corner of her lips, and her smile became increasingly morbid.
At this moment, Ming stood quietly deep in the forest, holding the injured cat, watching, which could be considered as tacit approval of the situation.
At this moment, the countless wounds on the kitten in Ming's arms made him look so miserable. If Kurumi hadn't come out to stop it, there would only be one fate awaiting this kitten... to be stoned to death by them.
Ming gently stroked the kitten's wounds, a flame materializing in his hand. It wasn't scorching hot, but rather extremely warm, gradually healing the kitten's wounds.
'boom! '
Just as Kurumi was about to devour Shido, an invisible, random domain blasted Kurumi away, sending her crashing heavily into a tree.
"Is that Mr. Ming..." Shido murmured to himself, still shaken.
However, the person who appeared in front of him wearing the manifestation device was none other than his "younger sister" who had suddenly appeared the day before yesterday—Mana Takamiya!
"It was a close call."
"Ah, it's only natural that you're surprised, brother," Mana said, gripping her twin blades tightly as she stared intently at Kurumi, who had stood up again.
"Oh dear~ How rude of you to interrupt my date with Shido-san~"
Mana ignored Kurumi's words, focusing intently on her, and explained to Shido, "We'll talk about it later, brother. I'll finish as soon as possible."
[Murakumo] raised its energy cannon muzzle, and four beams of light shot towards Kurumi.
Kurumi flashed into the air, leaping up with ghostly agility, attempting to dodge the four deadly beams hurtling towards her.
But something completely unexpected happened! These seemingly ordinary beams of light seemed to possess their own consciousness.
And it changed direction at an astonishing speed, continuing its pursuit of her.
Kurumi was startled and quickly used her movement technique to change positions in the air, trying to shake off the relentless pursuit.
But no matter how hard she tried, the four beams of light were like missiles locked on to their target, relentlessly pursuing her.
Finally, after a fierce chase, one of the beams of light struck Kurumi's body accurately.
Immediately afterwards, the other three beams also struck her, the powerful energy instantly penetrating her body and piercing her completely into the air.
"Kurumi!!"
Shido called out anxiously, but the girl had already collapsed, blood gushing from her abdomen, and she was breathing heavily.
"No! Don't kill her!!!"
Shido tried to stop her, but Mana did not do as she wished. She simply raised her sword, while Kurumi smiled with clear eyes, as if she had confirmed something.
"As expected, Shido-san is really nice..."
The blade sliced Kurumi in half from top to bottom, while Shido could only stare blankly.
"Why...why can you remain so calm! You just...you just..." Shido cried out in a state of near irrationality to Mana, who had just saved him.
“This is an elf, brother…” Mana said mechanically, as the [Murakumo] manifestation device retracted, revealing the boy in his more casual everyday clothes.
She stared blankly at Kurumi's corpse, then continued, "And, I'm used to it." Turning away, Mana continued explaining to Shido:
"【Nightmare】Tokisaki Kurumi is a special spirit. No matter what method I use, no matter how many times I kill her, this woman can appear elsewhere and kill people as if nothing happened. That's why I keep chasing her."
"She was so persistent that she killed countless times, countless times, countless times, countless times, countless times, countless times..."
"Alright, stop talking! This can't even be called a habit, it's just torturing your own heart." In Shido's eyes, Mana's eyes looked numb, not like a girl at all.
If I were the older brother, I would definitely keep my younger sister away from such things.
"Only I can do this."
Mana retorted, stretching out her hand, her body radiating a powerful energy fluctuation.
Immediately afterwards, a layer of dazzling light suddenly emerged from her body, quickly converging into a circular shield that enveloped her like a transparent light barrier, and directly repelled Shido.
"hateful."
Shido touched the outer edge of the random domain, but couldn't enter it at all.
As Mana was preparing to dispose of Kurumi's corpse within the random area, a voice from Kotori came from below. Looking down, she saw a communicator lying on the ground.
"Operation halted. We'll use Fraxinus to recover it, Shido. Can you hear me?"
Mana looked over and silently picked it up.
As dusk fell, Shido walked aimlessly through the streets of Tengu City's commercial district, his heart filled with anguish.
"Shido, what's wrong!"
"What exactly happened?"
Origami and Tohka both found Shido at the same time.
Noticing the scrape on Shido's right hand from the fall, Tohka immediately grabbed his hand and asked with concern:
"Shido, weren't you injured?!"
As he felt this sensation, Shido recalled the scene where Kurumi, also a spirit, had smashed all the thugs to pieces, and a strong sense of unease welled up in his heart.
"Uh!"
Shido instinctively pulled away from Tohka's hand and took a step back, looking quite bewildered.
"I'm sorry, did I hurt you?" Tohka asked, puzzled, but continued to patiently show concern.
"No..." Shido looked at his wrist, turned around, and hurriedly left with only a "sorry" before leaving.
"Shido!!" Origami and Tohka shouted at the same time.
Shido just kept running, as if he was running away from something. With a flash of bright light on his body, he was teleported back into Fraxinus by Ratatoskr.
Kotori looked at Shido, who was in a daze, and simply said, "You've had a hard time, Shido," without saying anything more.
At this moment, a tense and oppressive atmosphere filled the quiet medical room. Lingyin stood quietly in front of the hospital bed, her gaze fixed on Ming, who lay on the bed, covered in wounds and barely breathing.
His expression was quite subtle, as he was found in the forest, severely injured and on the verge of death.
Lingyin felt a surge of complex emotions, but she didn't speak. She just stared silently at Ming's lifeless face.
She seemed to want to see through his closed eyes everything he had been through, to find out what had caused him to suffer such severe harm that his life was hanging by a thread.