Date A Live - New Life in a Harem Anime

Chapter 3 - Date A Imagination

"Oh? And what's that?"

"Well, you know how Mio refined the Sephira Crystals, right?"

Kurumi loses her smile and becomes quite serious. "Yes?"

"All the other spirits get Reiryoku from their angels to power their abilities. The Sephira Crystals work like a battery, constantly giving you energy. Zafkiel, however doesn't give you any, instead you have to take it from others. Thinking on it, Mio most likely couldn't do specific things with the crystals, she was only focused on making them compatible with humans, so she didn't, or maybe couldn't fix it."

"Where are you going with this, Issei?" No 'kun' with my name?

"I'm gonna hack into Zafkiel."

"..."

"..."

"How?"

"Imagine it, obviously. Kurumi, I... I don't want you to have to kill anyone else."

"But-" she starts before I cut her off.

"I know, I know, but you shouldn't have had to kill anyone in the first place. Not the people you've stolen time from... and not your friend."

"..." she looks down as I mention Sawa. It's still a sore spot for her, even over two decades later.

"Don't get me wrong, Mio's done a lot of bad shit, but I know she isn't evil. You going back in time and killing her or doing anything for that matter could make a worse timeline than the one we're in now. That, of course, doesn't excuse everything she's done."

"So, you know about my plan huh, Issei-kun?"

"Yeah. It's a hell of a burden you've put yourself through, making yourself out to be a villain. So, I'm gonna fix Zafkiel so you don't have to kill anymore. Also, I'll make it so your lifespan isn't tied to using it's abilities."

"Issei..." she looks up at me sadly. "Why are you doing all this for someone like me?

"Don't say that shit, Kurumi. You're an amazing person, why the hell wouldn't I help you?"

"..."

"You could've kicked my ass to the curb after we talked earlier, but you let me stay and everything."

I walk to her, bend down and grasp both her shoulders with my hands. "Kurumi."
She looks up at me reluctantly.

"You are a good person."

"!!"

She lets out and audible gasp. Someone had to tell her.

"You can't keep making yourself suffer like this, dammit."

"Issei..." she has tears in her eyes as she makes a small smile. "... go ahead."

I nod, letting go of her shoulders. "Just sit still. I hope this'll work."

Just imagine the crystal. Imagine a connection with it... oh? Oh! I feel something in her chest. I think I made the connection. Now then, imagine computer code, but for an angel. I need to access last your code.

Suddenly, I feel a pull from the other side. C'mon dammit! I'm trying to help your host, work with me here!

"...!"

"Ara?"

The pulling ceases and before me appears a large, flat circle. It resembles a shield, comprised of many small, red rings. Each ring has many symbols inside, just as red as the rings themselves. The symbols are... familiar.

"What is this?" Kurumi asks, in awe.

"...I think it's Zafkiel's code?"

"What are these symbols?"

"I think it's... the angelic alphabet."

"Angelic alphabet?"

"Yeah, a certain game series I played, as well as another series which was a spin-off to it, had this language around the magic and in many other places. It was the language of the angels, or Watchers, which appear near the end of the game and are the main antagonists. Or rather, their queen is." Ah, good 'ol Drakengard. Never thought it'd help me here.

I use my angel to give myself knowledge of the language and begin looking at the code.

"Okay, time to get to work."

—————

Sometime later, I finally found what was wrong with her angel not giving her energy.

"Fucking hell, Mio. If I see her, I'm gonna punch her in the face."

"Ara? I've never heard you so angry before Issei-kun."

"I found the problem and it's made me angry.

Mio did an amazing job refining these crystals. Just about everything runs smoothly except this. It's like she turned regular, basic code into a modern video game just by implanting the code into different computers over and over again, without even looking at the code. Of course, this would leave problems, and this is a fucking severe one.

See this symbol here?" I point to a symbol that looks like a vertical line with a small dot on top. "This symbol could mean 'u' 'v', or 'w'. It may seem minor, but this is causing your problems."

"How so?" She seems genuinely intrigued by this.

"Angels are like batteries. They produce energy and send it to the Sephira Crystal. The crystal then turns it into Reiryoku and sends it to the Spirit. The Spirit can use the Reiryoku to manifest their angel and use its abilities. The angel produces energy constantly at a certain pace, and Zafkiel is, in fact, producing energy, specifically, time energy. The energy should be sent to the crystal, turned into Reiryoku and sent to your body. But for you?

This one symbol. This one fucking symbol is blocking everything. It's preventing your crystal from sending Reiryoku to you, causing you to need time energy, your own time energy, instead of Reiryoku to power your abilities. Plus, since you can't make Reiryoku, you need pure time energy instead and have to take it from an external source and add it to your own.

This one symbol. If it was the one for 'I' or 'j' instead..." The symbol turns into another one, a triangle with dots on all 3 corners. Kurumi visible jolts as it changes. "...you will get energy from Zafkiel like your were supposed to."

"Y- You're right. I feel energy coming from Zafkiel. It's never done this before."

"Well it should've. One letter, one fucking letter off and you wouldn't have had to kill anyone. You just could've waited a while, building up energy and gone back in time and killed Mio ages ago."

"How long will it take?"

"In about a year you should have enough energy to use Yud Bet to go back in time 30 years for about... an hour or so before it wears off."

Honestly, this really pisses me off. Kurumi wouldn't have had to do so many terrible things all because of one damn letter. The world is a cruel bitch.

I wave my hand and disconnect with to Zafkiel, causing the code to disappear. " *sigh* Sorry 'bout that, but now, you won't have to kill anymore."

I'm really shocked when she stands up and hugs me. "Thank you, Issei. Thank you." she says in a small, shaky voice.

I smile, "Anytime, Kurumi."

—————

AN

I HAVE NO IDEA IF SEPHIRA CRYSTALS WORK LIKE THAT. I don't care though haha.

I always wondered why Kurumi was the only one to have to get energy from others, instead of from within. Plot, I suppose.

Next time, we'll see a bit of fluff and maybe a bit of exposition into how our protagonist ended up here.

Hope you all enjoyed and look forward to the next chapter!