I Became a Spirit in Date A Live and Refused to Date

"What do you mean, 'That's it'?! I'm trying to have a serious discussion with you! How am I supposed to stay serious when you suddenly say something like that?! (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻"

Lingmeng had shattered the serious mood with a single sentence, and Shido protested loudly.

Lingmeng merely waved a hand, signaling for Shido to calm down.

"Oh, come on. Calm down first."

Then Lingmeng raised a finger.

"First, I need to correct something you said."

"Hm?"

Shido made a puzzled noise.

"You said Kurumi was different from us because she'd killed people. But we're not actually all that different from her. When it comes to killing, every Spirit has done it to some extent."

"You mean Spacequakes? But those aren't something you choose to cause, are they?"

Shido understood what Lingmeng meant. Every time a Spirit appeared, it triggered a Spacequake, and the casualties could be enormous.

But neither appearing in this world nor causing a Spacequake was what a Spirit intended.

Kurumi, though...

Before Shido could continue, Lingmeng cut in.

"You're right. Even someone as kind as me has killed plenty of people because of Spacequakes. None of it was what I wanted, but those deaths are undeniable."

"But you just said you didn't mean to—"

"Intentional or not, do you think it makes any difference to the people who died in those Spacequakes?"

"Uh..."

Shido swallowed what he had been about to say.

Lingmeng was right. The Spirits hadn't meant for any of it to happen, but those people really had died.

"So Kurumi and the rest of us aren't fundamentally different. We all have human blood on our hands. If you're willing to save us, Shido, why can't you reach out to Kurumi too?"

"I already told you... Kurumi..."

"You want to say she kills people of her