I've spent the last 4 days preparing everything for a date with Shiori, I thought about the location, what to do, how to talk to her, and prepared for her reaction everything meticulously planned for anything.
And so I end up in the current situation where I just asked if Shiori wants to go on a date as class just ended and we just need to go home.
"Do you want to go on a date? I accept!" Shiori just responded to my request to go on a date with an excited smile.
"Great, we can go like this, they won't mind that we're both in school uniforms." I'm not going to take her to an extremely fancy place this time, I'll take her to simpler but fun places.
She approaches and "clings" to me, holding my arm while resting her face on my arm, and we start walking like that to the location. After a few minutes, we arrive at an ice cream parlor.
She sits on one side of the table and I on the other as I let her choose for both of us. Soon she orders a large couple's ice cream for the two of us to share.
"...Why the shyness? We're a couple and it was your request." She blushes and feels embarrassed by the shared order.
"W-Well haha it's just a little new to me." She speaks with a bit of shyness.
"It's okay, it's normal. Say aahh." I take a spoonful to feed her, which she accepts with shyness while I put a smile on my face. She also takes a spoonful of the ice cream to feed me.
Of course, this is extremely cheesy, which draws the attention of other people in the ice cream parlor, after all, public displays of affection like this draw a lot of attention.
This obviously embarrasses Shiori, and I take advantage of it to see how she reacts to everything.
"Shiori, I think I can buy an apartment for us to live together, what do you think? For now, only you will stay in the apartment, but later I'll move in too."
"R-Really? But isn't that extremely expensive? You don't have to do that, I know I had asked to live with you, but I don't want to be a bother...what's this?" She questions when I hand her a paper.
"More specifically, I've already bought the apartment, Shiori, it's for you." I say with a gentle smile while tasting the ice cream. There's no need to keep her with Kotori.
Anyway, Shiori doesn't even want to stay with those who have caused her so much suffering.
"O-Oh...is it for me? Is this serious?" She speaks somewhat shocked while looking at the apartment deed, I didn't rent an apartment, I bought an entire apartment, which is currently being fully reinforced to withstand powerful spiritual attacks.
"Yes, Shiori, it's your apartment, the deed of ownership is there, you just need to sign it...you can live in it whenever you want." This will only further isolate her, since living with Kotori, she still has the spirits she has a slight connection with, even if it's just a small one.
"You don't need to cry, Shiori, you deserve this gift." It's really no problem to give her this as a gift.
"T-Thank you, I don't even know what to say." She says with a gentle smile while blushing and a few tears of happiness escape, but it's obvious that the joy is more about receiving a proof of my love than receiving an apartment.
We both continue eating after she has put away the apartment deed. After we finish the ice cream, I invite her to the apartment so she can see her new home.
We walk for almost an hour, arriving at her new residence, which is already fully prepared, with food in the fridge and cabinets, and clothes for her in the correct sizes, among other things.
We both explore the house while she is a bit surprised at how everything is already prepared, showing that she doesn't even need to go back to Kotori if she doesn't want to.
"Shiori, could you sit at the table, I have something serious to tell you." Cutting the romantic and lively mood of the date, I sit down in the chair opposite the table.
"...O-Okay..." Shiori notices the seriousness of the tone and sits at the table on the opposite side while waiting.
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Shiori's POV:
The date with Aurelio was amazing, I loved talking to him, and he gave me an incredible gift. I'll finally be able to leave that suffocating house, although I don't really mind the apartment, I just think it's cool that I'll be able to live with Aurelio.
However, after signing the deed to the place and exploring the house with Aurelio, he suddenly asked me to sit down and said he would tell me something serious. I wonder what he's going to say.
"Shiori, you know I love you, right?" He starts by saying that he loves me, and I really believe it. I know he loves me, after all, if he didn't love me, he would never spend so much time with me or be so nice.
"Yes, I know you love me." I say a bit shyly, it's a bit embarrassing to talk about love like this after everything.
"Well, I have something to tell you, it's secrets I haven't told anyone and I'm going to tell you because I love you and trust you." The seriousness in his tone really makes me uncomfortable.
But the fact that he says he trusts me enough to tell me something he's never told anyone before really makes my heart beat with excitement. I just wonder what he's going to say to make everything so serious.
"Shiori, I am [Eclipse] and I am also [Shinigami]...basically, I'm the spirit that caused a huge number of deaths and destruction."
He speaks without any filter, as if what he was saying was normal.
"H-Huh?" I make a confused sound, not understanding anything he said. I think I may have misheard, I didn't pay that much attention to what he said because of the excitement.
"Didn't you understand, Shiori? I killed millions, and not only that, I'll kill many more in the future, I'm basically the biggest enemy of almost all of humanity."
"..."
"A-Aurelio, this isn't funny." I say nervously about all this, this joke is not funny at all, it's uncomfortable.
"Don't you remember? We've had a date before, between me as a spirit and you as a normal person, I'm sure that reminds you of something, doesn't it?"
When he says this, it strangely seems correct, after all, I also felt that something seemed strange and it seemed like I knew him.
"L-Lie...you...you're a spirit? For real? And killed so many...w-why? And will kill more?"
I ask several questions in shock, trying to properly absorb the information.
"...Out of pure personal selfishness, Shiori, unfortunately I'm not as good as you expect, but I really love you, that's not a lie."
"And about killing more, humanity isn't as good as you expect, Shiori, they are disgusting and repulsive beings when they want to, and that's relatively common."
"Someday you'll see how humanity will end up rejecting you, humans have already abandoned you before, haven't they? In the future, it will only get worse because they are very untrustworthy beings."
I'm completely shocked, not believing all this. The person I love and the only one I have is a spirit who killed millions of innocent people? And according to him, out of pure personal selfishness?
In addition to saying that he will kill many more, this is so shocking that I can only be stuck in place with a confused mix of emotions.
"Disappointed, Shiori? This is who I am, you can think of me as a monster if you want, unfortunately I can't change that, I just wanted to reveal the truth to you because I love you."
"I'll give you some time to think about it, if you don't want to see me anymore, I understand, just know that I love you, and I had a lot of fun being with you." Aurelio gets up from the chair and leaves, while I keep my head down, thinking about everything.
Everything is so confusing, I don't know what to think of this situation. I should find this bad, consider him a monster, or even be afraid of him, but I don't feel that way.
He's all I have, I love him too much to care about the evil he's done, it's just that everything is so shocking that I'm stuck without knowing what to do.
Honestly, I don't find this so bad, and that's what makes everything stranger. I love him too much to care about the evil he committed, which seems wrong. I shouldn't let love blind my vision like this.
He did terrible things, and as such, I should distance myself from him, but why would I do that? Why should I move away from the only one I have and who loves me? I don't see any reason to try to stay away from him.
Love is really something incomprehensible. I like him so much that I really just want to ignore everything and continue loving him as always.
In fact, him having the confidence to tell the truth isn't a sign that he loves me? This accelerates my heart while I'm not sure what to think.
But I think I've already decided, I love him too much to abandon him. It's so strange to love him so much, I know I'm kind of desperate for this, but he's all I have left, I really don't have other options.
He's kind, he loves me, and he trusts me, while my sister only saw me as a slut and didn't really care about me, she just used me for her work.
I really should continue with Aurelio, I can ignore his evil deeds, that doesn't matter, he loves me and I love him. I can accept that he is evil, as long as I don't think about it.
"Y-Yes...I don't need to think about it...w-we're dating, he loves me...and I love him so much...that's all that matters." I start repeating this to myself.
Over and over without stopping, I'm just going to the room that is now mine while repeating that I love him and he loves me, I'm doing this to forget everything else.
I don't need to think so far ahead as long as we love each other, I can forgive his evil deeds.