Kamen Rider Date A Live

“That’s right! On this point, ③ seems more reasonable, and if things go smoothly, there might be an opportunity to take the lead in the dialogue.”

"Yes! Shido, listen..." Just as Kotori was about to give her the option, the surrounding air suddenly became strange.

"Rejected!" Then, a majestic, icy voice exploded in Kotori's mind.

"...Is it...ah..."

Space froze, time stopped. Kotori stared in astonishment at everything around her. Kannazuki, who was wiping her chin in deep thought, had now become a real-life "The Thinker." The team members below were the same. The time on the screen was frozen at 5:24...

In this frozen world, the voice that appeared in Kotori's mind directly overturned everyone's decisions!

"You! Who are you?! Why, all this..." A bead of cold sweat began to drip from Kotori's forehead. Stagnant space and time? How could this be...?

"He...shouldn't...be...bound...by...Kamen Rider...acting on his own impulses...choosing...himself..."

The cold voice echoed intermittently in Kotori's mind, but this did not diminish its majesty in the slightest; on the contrary, it exuded an even greater air of mystery.

"..."

—At school—

"I'll ask you one more time, who exactly are you?!"

The girl said impatiently, her eyes becoming sharp, and then, at that very moment, Shido finally heard Kotori's voice in his right ear!

"...Shido, say what you want to say, if...you really want to help her..."

Kotori took her hand away from the microphone, and at that moment she felt a sense of relief throughout her body, and almost collapsed!

"Commander!" Seeing Kotori's unusual behavior, Kannazuki worriedly tried to go over to help her, but Kotori slapped him away.

'I'm sorry, Onii-chan, but... you have to succeed...'

Kotori felt her eyes were a little red, and unconsciously rubbed them with the back of her hand. Then, she stared intently at the screen, not blinking.

"Commander...you!...Sigh~! You must succeed! Itsuka-kun..." (The crew's thoughts)

——Back to the scene——

"Understood, Kotori."

"My name is Itsuka Shido! I came here to see you."

"I don't want to be your enemy! I came here to talk to you."

The girl looked at Shido with a suspicious gaze.

"Ok?"

When she walked up to Shido, stared at his face for a moment, raised her eyebrows, and said...

"I think I've seen you before?"

"Ah, that's right, this month... I remember it was the 10th. On the street."

"Oh."

The girl nodded as if in complete agreement, then returned to her original posture.

"I remember now, you're the guy who said some weird things."

Hearing the girl's words and seeing her eyes begin to soften, Shido breathed a slight sigh of relief, but the next moment...

"I remember you said you didn't intend to kill me? Humph! You actually resorted to such an obvious trick. Tell me! What is your purpose? Are you planning to wait until I lower my guard before attacking me from behind?"

"..."

Shido frowned slightly, clenching his teeth. He wasn't annoyed by the girl's "stubbornness," nor was he anxious about not gaining her trust. He was simply bothered by her attitude—that look of disbelief in everything, that despairing and numb attitude towards the world.

'Humans...'

At that moment, Shido suddenly felt his heart calm down, and a rare calmness spread through his mind.

Why are you so convinced that I want to kill you?

“I’m not lying, I’m telling the truth. Even if those people outside want to kill you, I don’t. I want to talk to you, and that’s why I came here.”

He started off just talking casually, but unexpectedly, he got more and more fluent, and his voice began to flow smoothly. Hearing this, the girl stared at Shido's face with a questioning look, seemingly trying to find any sign of a lie in his expression. And so, a moment later…

"is it?"

"Ah, that's right."

"But all the humans I've ever met say I'm doomed. Although that mysterious armored man appeared last time, he felt more like me than a human."

The implication is that all humans want to kill me, except for the incident with the armored man, because he was one of my own.

"That's not true! The armored man from last time... might have been human too."

After hesitating for a moment, Shido decided not to reveal that he was the "armored man." He knew that saying so now might backfire.

"........."

The girl didn't answer. She put her hands behind her back, half-closed her eyes, and kept her mouth tightly shut—once again showing an expression of distrust towards Shido's words.

"Then let me ask you, if you didn't want to kill me, why are you here? Did you really just come to talk to me?"

Just talking to himself? The girl should have been the first to reject that idea, but for some reason, she went along with Shido's words.

"That's right! It's exactly what you heard! I want to talk to you. We can talk about anything, and you can ignore my request if you don't like it. But please understand one thing. I..."

Shido took a deep breath and then shouted out everything he had to say, without thinking twice!

"I! Don't want to kill you! And I won't kill you!! Absolutely not!!!"

"If I had to explain why, it's because in my eyes you're just a girl with immense power! Maybe to others you're a dangerous ticking time bomb, but what does that matter to me? I don't want you fighting with those people! That's why I came here to talk to you! I want to find a way to help you! That's why I came here! So I absolutely won't kill you!! Please believe me just this once!! Please!!!"

Shido ran out of words by the end, even repeating himself in several places, but no one noticed these flaws anymore, because the girl had fully absorbed the emotion in his words. Looking at Shido's resolute gaze, the purple-clad girl involuntarily took a few steps back. For the first time, a crack appeared in her cold eyes and expression. She turned around, and then…

"Um, your name is Shido, right... You really don't want to kill me?"

"Really!" Upon hearing Shido's unwavering answer, the purple-clad girl turned to look at him.

"Really? Really?"

"Really! Really!"

"Really? Really? Is it true?"

"Really! Really! Really!"

"Well…"

She then turned her back to Shido again, unconsciously scratching her head with her left hand. It seemed this was the first time she'd encountered such a situation, and she was now somewhat at a loss. But it was precisely at this moment that the purple-clad girl seemed more like a real person than ever before.

"Hmph! Who would be fooled by something like that! Idiot, idiot!"

At that moment, the purple-clad girl raised an eyebrow and spoke in an awkward tone, which instantly lightened Shido's previously heavy heart. This was the girl who truly expressed her emotions; she was being genuine.

"But, well..." the girl said with a complicated expression.

"Although I don't know what you're up to, you're the first human who's ever seriously tried to talk to me... so I'll use you a little to get information about this world! Yes! That's it!!" (You're being tsundere.)

"Yeah?"

Seeing the girl's expression finally brighten and her eyes begin to melt, Shido finally breathed a genuine sigh of relief.

"What? Is there something you're unhappy about?" The girl suddenly raised an eyebrow at Shido, making Shido break out in a cold sweat.

"No, no! Absolutely not!!" Shido broke out in a cold sweat, frantically waving his hands.

"Alright, let's begin. First, our names... I..."

"I don't have a name!" Before Shido could finish speaking, the girl's sudden remark made him freeze.

"However, if we have someone to talk to, we must have a name... Shido! What would you like to call me?"

After a moment of silence...

"I've already thought it through. Yatogami Tohka, that's your name and your surname."

"Yatogami...Tohka?"

"Hmm. Yatogami, the surname, 'Yo' refers to your hair color, as black as the night; 'Kato' is because your weapon is a sword; 'Gami', to be honest, refers to your fighting power, which was like a demon to me back then."

"The name Tohka comes from the fact that we first met on April 10th. It's a homonym for the name.

"Why? You'd already thought it through..."

"Because when we first met, you said, '...A name? —I don't have...that kind of thing.' I can't forget your expression then. I've been thinking about giving you a name ever since. Don't you like it...? Then I'll think about it..."

"...No need!...I...I...I really like this name and surname, that's fine!"

The girl, ah, no, I should say Tohka, had her head down, but her face was flushed, making her look extremely cute.

Tohka shook her head, raised her head, and looked into Todo's eyes. Todo's eyes held only truth, without a trace of lies.

"By the way, Shido, how do you write 'Yatogami Tohka'?"

"Ah, it should be written like this—"

Shido walked to the blackboard, picked up the chalk, and wrote the five characters 'Yatogami Tohka'.

"Ah."

The girl gave a soft hum and, mimicking Shido's actions, wrote on the blackboard with her fingertips.

"Ah, that's not right. You need to use chalk to write..."

Shido stopped abruptly halfway through his sentence. The marks left by the girl's fingers had become neat and beautiful scratches, and the words "Yatogami Tohka" appeared crookedly on the blackboard.

"what?"

"...No, it's nothing."

"Yeah."

The girl said this. She stared at the words she had written, and after a while, she nodded slightly.

"Shido."

"what's up?"

"Tohka Yatogami".

"Uh?"

"Tohka Yatogami. This is my first and last name. Pretty nice, isn't it?"