Date A Mysterious Being

Chapter 24 - DEM

He felt a sudden buoyancy like he was being yanked upward, the opposite of the sensation from when he'd been pulled into the shadow.
His head shook intensely, colors other than black charged into his field of vision, and a moment later, Shidou and Miku were tossed onto the stage at Tenguu Square.

"Unh. Eh..."

Maybe because he'd just been yanked out of the dark shadow, his eyes stung a little. But they quickly adjusted to the light, and he was able to take in the situation onstage.
Several Kurumis had banded together to guard Shidou and were facing off against Yoshino on Zadkiel, and Kaguya and Yuzuru with Raphael readied. It wasn't hard to catch the open hostility in their gazes.

"M-Miss Miku...!"

"Lady Miku! Are you well?!"

"Relief. You're safe."

Yoshino and the sisters cried out when they saw Miku come out of the shadow with Shidou.
Kurumi knelt close to him. "Can you stand, Shidou?"

"Kurumi... What on earth was that..."

"I told you, didn't I? Time limit," Kurumi said and looked around. "In order to leave people inside my shadow, I must leave it open. If the shadow is injured, the space will quickly collapse. I bought you as much time as I could, but things don't go very smoothly when your opponent is a group of Spirits."

He turned his head to follow her gaze and saw innumerable Kurumi corpses fallen around them. It had apparently been quite the intense battle. Not only that, he noticed the ring around Kurumi's finger had also disappeared.

"I won't be able to utilize Lucas' tools for a while. We will be retreating now."

"Wait a second! I just need a little more-" His collar was abruptly yanked up, and Shidou stopped speaking. "Cough! Wh-what are you...!"

A massive icicle plunged into the spot where he had just been, and he couldn't actually continue his protestations.
When he looked back, the warm and kind Yoshino was glaring at him with eyes filled with malice.
"I-I can't let...Miss Miku's enemy live...!"

"Y-Yoshino..."

"Do you understand the situation now?" Kurumi said, sounding somewhat exasperated as she turned the pistol in her hand upward. "Zafkiel. Aleph." She shot herself with the fast-forward bullet, grabbed Shidou with her free hand, and leaped up.

"Ah?!" He unconsciously cried out at the intense g-force that pressed down on his body.
But Kurumi paid this no attention as she set her feet down on a light fixture and danced up into the night sky through the hole in the roof.

Miku wasn't about to let them get away, however. Pressing a hand to her forehead as if trying to hold back the drunken sensation of being pulled up out of the shadow, she shouted, "Pl-please don't let him escape!"

"Understood!"

"Roger. We have heard you."

The Yamai sisters flew outside in pursuit of Kurumi.

Kurumi might have been using her high-speed bullet, but her opponents were wind Spirits. They engaged in battle not too long ago, and Kurumi was utterly out-speeded.

"This is a bit of a pickle, hm?" Kurumi said in a voice that had none of the nervous tension of her words, and she raised the pistol in her hand once again. "Zafkiel. Bet. Second Bullet."

A shadow shot out from the stage and was sucked into the barrel of the gun. Kurumi turned this toward the Yamai sisters and pulled the trigger.

"Hmph! Ignorant girl! Such a trifle has no effect on us!"