Tokisaki Kurumi, at her core, was a kind-hearted girl.
She'd been born into a wealthy family, doted on by her parents, practically raised in the palm of their hands.
So from childhood on, she had never really run into anything upsetting. She drifted through her seventeen years of youth with almost ridiculous smoothness.
In those seventeen years, she'd never hated anyone, and no one had ever hated her. Life was safe and peaceful.
Anyone living like that would normally feel happy—but she didn't.
It wasn't that she was being pretentious. She just felt like she ought to do something, yet had no idea what that something was.
A kind of vague helplessness.
Her family gave her freedom, her daily life was comfortable, her surroundings safe—but beyond that, the world was full of people suffering all kinds of hardship.
Through TV, newspapers, magazines—and her own eyes—Tokisaki Kurumi saw people dying in wars, people born with fatal illnesses, people with not enough food or clothes.
People being treated differently for no good reason.
And every time she saw it, her heart filled with a powerful sense of powerlessness.
Of course, other people noticed these things too. She wasn't the only one. Most people could see it.
They just chose to look away.
But for Tokisaki Kurumi, that feeling never went away.
She kept thinking that maybe there was something she could do.
She wanted to reach out and help people who were suffering.
It was a sense of justice—a very pure, slightly childish justice, but it wasn't a bad thing.
Tokisaki Kurumi was a girl full of a desire to do what was right.
At dusk, as the sun sank and the sky turned orange, two girls walked side by side along a road.
They were wearing matching outfits—clearly school uniforms. Their mannerisms were elegant, like young ladies, and they were relaxed and close with each other.
"Um, Sawa-san…" one of the girls finally spoke, a little hesitant.
She had soft, glossy black hair falling naturally down her back, tied simply with a ribbon. Her limbs were slender, like she might snap if you squeezed too hard. Her features were very delicate, and her crimson eyes were strikingly beautiful.
Her name was Tokisaki Kurumi.
"What is it, Kurumi-san?" the other girl replied with a gentle smile.
This girl had chestnut hair done up in three braids, giving off a simple, down-to-earth vibe, but her face was just as pretty.
She smiled brightly, like a little sun, instantly putting people at ease.
Her name was Yamada Sawa.
The two were classmates and close friends.
"Do you have any plans tomorrow? If not… would it be okay if I came over to your place?" Kurumi asked.
Her voice was a bit quiet, almost shy.
"Sure, that's fine… ah—wait, don't tell me you want to play with Kuriko again?" Sawa suddenly realized, smiling.
Kuriko was the name of Sawa's cat.
"N-No, it's not like that… I just wanted to study with you…" Kurumi hurried to deny it.
Even so, the white skin of her cheeks had flushed red.
Of course she knew her little secret was completely obvious to her friend.
"Hehe~ Kurumi-san, if you like cats so much, why not keep one yourself?" Sawa asked, amused.
"I can't. My mom's allergic," Kurumi said helplessly.
"Ah, I see. Then you'll just have to wait until you're living on your own."
"Mm…?" Kurumi suddenly looked ahead.
"What's wrong—ah, wow, he's super handsome~" Sawa followed her gaze and saw a ridiculously good-looking young man walking toward them, whispering in surprise.
"Mm." Kurumi glanced, but wasn't interested in his looks. She withdrew her gaze and answered noncommittally.
The handsome guy walked closer and closer until he was about to pass them.
"…If you ever run into trouble, remember you can call on me."
The man's voice brushed Kurumi's ear as he passed, then he just walked by as if nothing had happened.
"Eh?" Kurumi couldn't help turning to look back at him.
"What is it, Kurumi-san? Did you fall for that handsome guy?" Sawa teased.
"No… didn't you hear anything just now?" Kurumi frowned slightly and asked her.
"Hear what? I didn't hear anything," Sawa shook her head.
"Really…"
"Anyway, that guy was really good-looking, like some prince out of a fairy tale, or an angel straight out of a dream," Sawa said, staring at the man's back, a bit starry-eyed.
"Sawa-san, you've dreamed about angels?" Kurumi let go of the weird feeling and laughed softly.
"Not literally, but you know what I mean. Don't you think so too?"
"He's… okay, I guess." Kurumi shook her head.
Unlike most girls her age, she wasn't especially interested in boys yet.
"Aww, what a shame. With your charm, Kurumi-san, you could probably snag a guy like that," Sawa said, sounding genuinely regretful.
"It's not that simple."
"I'm serious, I feel like he was paying special attention to you just now."
"Was he?"
"Want to go back and ask for his contact info? I'll go with you!" Sawa offered.
"I'll pass. I'm just not interested in dating right now."
"Alright, alright… I guess Kurumi-san really does only have eyes for cats."
"That's not…"
The two walked farther and farther away, and once they'd gone quite a distance, the man—Shichen—stopped and turned to look back at them.
"Didn't think 'Sansan' was this elegant," he murmured to himself, impressed.
He'd always known what Kurumi had been like at the beginning, but seeing her with his own eyes made it clear just how refined and dignified she was.
A proper young lady.
And yet, in that young lady's heart, there was this burning urge to uphold justice and punish evil. You'd never guess it from the outside.
"Sawa hasn't changed one bit either," Shichen added with a smile.
Yamada Sawa looked exactly the same as he remembered, aside from a hint of maturity in her mannerisms.
He watched the two girls until they disappeared from sight, but didn't run after them or try to talk again.
He'd just arrived in the past; at this point in time, they didn't know him. If he suddenly approached them to chat, they'd probably treat him like a potential creep.
Even with his looks. Ordinary girls might not think that way, but Kurumi was different.
After resolving Natsumi's situation, Shichen had come back in time to settle the karmic threads between himself, Kurumi, and the others.
Sawa had seemed a bit lonely lately, and her thoughts were getting darker. Shichen couldn't stand to watch that.
If he wanted to help her properly, he had to come to this point in time and figure out something important.
He'd also considered another question: what would happen if he stopped the First Spirit from turning Kurumi into a spirit at all?
But when he first arrived, Kurumi herself had warned him—he was not allowed to interfere with her becoming a spirit.
Without that power, she couldn't fight for justice.
Even Sawa had asked him not to stop her transformation. If she didn't become a spirit, she wouldn't be able to stay young anymore.
When it came to his own women, Shichen listened. He had no choice but to come here and wait for his moment.
And, thinking about it—if he did change things by meddling in the past, the timeline he'd come from would already be completely different.
Classic time paradox.
He'd shown up a little early this time; there was still a while to go before the First Spirit made her move. So for now, he could only familiarize himself with this era and quietly raise his presence.
…
The next day, around the same time, Shichen "ran into" Kurumi and Sawa again.
Since they'd already met once, when he passed by them this time he gave them a polite nod.
They nodded back.
"Kurumi-san, we keep bumping into that handsome guy. It feels like fate!" Sawa said, excited, once they'd gone by.
"Sawa-san… you haven't actually fallen for him, have you?" Kurumi asked.
"Not quite that far."
"Then why do you keep—eh?" Kurumi suddenly sped up her pace.
"Kurumi-san?"
Sawa hurried after her, and they stopped under a tree.
There was a little girl standing beneath it, eyes full of tears as she looked up into the branches.
Following her gaze, Sawa saw a tiny kitten, trembling with fear, clinging to a branch above.
"Sawa-san, hold this for me."
Kurumi handed her schoolbag to Sawa, then went straight to the trunk and started climbing.
"Kurumi-san?!" Sawa yelped.
The branch wasn't very high; Kurumi reached it in no time. Then she carefully crawled along it on all fours until she was close enough to grab the kitten.
"Thank goodness!" Sawa had been nervously watching the whole time.
Kurumi let out a sigh of relief and was just about to make her way back when her foot slipped. The sole of her shoe failed to find purchase—and she suddenly slid off the branch.
"Kurumi-san—!"