"Should I...?" A conflicted Kurumi asked herself as she was staring at the night sky.
She was currently sitting on the edge of the roof of a tall building, surrounded like usual by a dozen of her clones. And that would be nothing out of the ordinary in this for Kurumi... if not the fact that four of her clones were shivering in fear and were franticly looking around.
Kurumi could only sigh at this sight as she somewhat understood their reaction, after all, she saw their memories herself.
And unlike the clone that she send to play with the sweet, kind and gentle Shido...
Kurumi shook her head and refocused herself on the current problem, the problem that caused one of her clones asking/begging to be deployed as far away as possible and another to openly disobey her and refuse to leave her shadow.
The very same problem that's supposedly living in the hotel on whose roof she sitting.
"Counter Guardian." She whispered the title as if checking how it rolls off her tongue.
She didn't truly know if she could believe in his words, but she was sure that this person was not human. She still remembers meeting him on the full moon night in the alley where she cornered some petty thugs and mistook him as their companion.
How wrong she was...
She remembers the bullets ricocheting off him as if she was throwing pebbles at a tank, which only seemed to confuse her as the clones she deployed to slow down anyone in the school who wanted to interfere ripped holes in him.
But then what she felt as she tried to devour him for potentially being with the AST or the DEM made her truly afraid of him.
A world.
He felt almost as great as the world when her shadows touched him and the memory still sends shivers down her spine. It was absurd, but she was sure of it.
Then came his proclamation of being here to get rid of her and she knew he was very much capable of that.
And his name was Alaya, which seems like a pretty girly name as she thinks about it now but she wouldn't say that to his face.
Or so she thought until the whole event on the school roof where she could have died by the hands of Ifrit if it wasn't for Shido and Alaya. Kurumi would never admit it openly, but she was moved by the selfless if a rather silly attempt at protecting her. She would neither say admit that she found the flowers beautiful.
However, it was even more surprising to met him later and be informed that she no longer was deemed a target unless she tried to harm Shido and the other Spirits.
And while the small ruby she received from him was undeniably powerful and refilled her mana much faster than her normal methods could do in weeks, it was the knowledge that they shared a target convinced her to come here today.
And maybe to spend some time petting that adorable white-furred animal he had on his shoulder.
And so Kurumi slid into the shadows and by passing through the walls and floors she arrived at the door.
"Ara ara," Kurumi said amusingly. "Floor 6, room number 66. How fitting."
So, fighting her nervousness with the prospect of allying with someone who knew much and too aimed to take down the Spirit of Origin, she knocked at the door twice.
Though there was some noise behind the door and she had to wait a minute she was greeted by the man himself.
Alaya was wearing a plain black T-shirt with loose black pants with that cute animal sitting on his shoulder.
"Hello, Alaya-san~." She said sweetly
...
"Fou." Said cuteness incarnate as he poked his little paw on Alaya's cheek to which he responded with a sigh and a small smile.
"Looks like the little one was right." He said and chuckled a bit before giving Kurumi a kind smile and stepping to the side as he invited her in. "Want maybe some pancakes? Some still should be warm, and please, just call me Al Kurumi-chan."
Kurumi obliged and entered, all the while hiding her bewilderment at the total change of character of the man before her.
"Truly, you are quite silly." She commented before entering.
And while they had some things to discuss, she could at least enjoy the company of the small creature known as Fou and some rather tasty food.