The early parts of the chat history were normal.
Kiss-Shot simply explained Souta's situation and informed Kurumi that he was helping her retrieve her limbs.
But as the conversation progressed...
The tone began to shift.
Kurumi's messages gradually carried a hint of hostility.
The underlying message?
Kiss-Shot was shameless for troubling someone else with her problems.
However, Kiss-Shot didn't care about Kurumi's subtle sarcasm at all.
In her mind, Souta was her minion, which meant he was family.
And helping family was perfectly normal.
If Souta ever needed something from her, she would also do her best to fulfill it.
So instead of getting offended, Kiss-Shot simply assumed that Kurumi was just jealous.
In fact, she was intrigued by Kurumi's attitude—
She wanted to see how far Kurumi's passive-aggressive remarks would go.
This was the difference between them.
An almost 600-year-old vampire who deeply valued her bonds with her minions—
But never restricted their personal relationships.
Versus a 50-year-old Spirit who, despite her age,
Had spent most of that time sealed away.
Which meant that in terms of maturity, she was only slightly older than a teenage girl.
And for the first time in years, she had finally found a friend willing to help her.
She was terrified of losing him.
After a while, Kiss-Shot went to sleep.
She was very loyal to her desire for sleep.
And when Kurumi @-mentioned Souta a few times with no response,
She eventually fell silent.
"Crap! I Forgot to Explain to Kurumi!"
Souta facepalmed as he suddenly remembered.
Last night, when he was chatting with Kurumi—
The three vampire hunters just so happened to attack at that exact moment.
He had no choice but to drop his phone and engage in battle.
It's not like he could fight and text at the same time, right?
And while Kiss-Shot did her best to explain,
...Her words sounded more like bragging than anything else.
Hopefully, Kurumi wasn't too mad.
Deciding it was better to be proactive,
He @-mentioned her in the chat.
"@Kurumi. Sorry, Kurumi. Last night, while I was chatting with you, three vampire hunters suddenly attacked. It was an emergency, so I couldn't reply in time."
Kiss-Shot had already told Kurumi about his situation.
But Souta felt it was better to explain personally.
A new message popped up.
"Souta, you fought them? You're not hurt, are you?"
"I'm fine. Those vampire hunters weren't that strong. As a vampire, my abilities are really powerful, so the fight ended easily."
This wasn't an exaggeration.
Souta's vampire abilities were indeed powerful.
He just hadn't fully explored them yet.
For example, Dramaturgy's transformation abilities?
Souta could do the same thing.
Turning into mist, darkness, or even shaping his body into weapons—
It all depended on imagination.
In the original story, Koyomi Araragi would often fantasize about being a tree.
And as a result, he was able to turn his hands into tree branches that wrapped around Guillotine Cutter.
Vampires were just built different.
"Souta, next time you're going to do something dangerous, you better tell me first! Otherwise, I'll be seriously mad!"
Seeing this slightly scolding message,
Souta felt warmth in his heart.
He smiled gently and typed a reply.
"Sorry for worrying you."
"As long as you understand. By the way, since you're a vampire now, you can't be in the sun anymore, right? Will that be okay? I can use Fourth Bullet to reverse your body back to normal."
What Souta didn't know was that—
Kurumi had a hidden agenda.
She was trying to free him from being Kiss-Shot's minion.
If she could turn him human again,
Then that annoying vampire would lose her influence over him.
And that would be very satisfying.
"Reversing my body back to a human isn't that simple."
"Hmm? What's the difficulty?"
"This is just my theory—"
"Large amounts of energy can distort space-time. For example, planets create gravitational fields that bend time. This proves that time itself isn't really that mysterious— it's just a force that reacts to energy."
"So trying to reverse time on a high-energy being is much harder than doing it on a regular human. Since I'm a vampire— a supernatural entity— the energy required to rewind my body would need to counteract that supernatural nature."
"I have plenty of time stored up, so you can use as much as you want. If it's not enough, I can take some from you. So it's fine."
For some reason, this message felt weird.
"I have a lot of money, so I can sponsor you.
And if you ever run out of cash, I'll just take more money to keep sponsoring you."
"Alright, I'll be honest. The truth is, I don't want to lose my current powers."
"But don't worry, Kurumi— I have a way to remove my weaknesses."
"Oh? What's the plan?"
"This whole rescue mission for Kiss-Shot? It's actually a solo mission issued by the system.
Once she fully recovers, I'll complete my task and receive a reward— 'Immortal Body Evolution Opportunity.'
I already asked the system.
This reward will allow me to evolve into a perfect state— keeping all my strengths while removing my current weaknesses."
"I see... well, as long as you have a solution, that's good.
It would be a shame if you couldn't be in the sun anymore.
After all— I was really looking forward to sunbathing with you on a date, Souta-kun~ ❤️."
Souta suddenly remembered—
Just a while ago, he told Kiss-Shot the same thing.
Were the two sunbathing plans about to collide?!
...Why was he even nervous about this?!
"By the way, Souta— will your plan also free you from being Kiss-Shot's minion?"
"It should be possible. Once I evolve, I won't be a vampire anymore."
"Then I can rest assured."
That's what she cared about this whole time?!
Kurumi soon fell silent, probably busy with her own affairs.
Seeing that the group chat had died down, Souta casually tossed his phone out the window.
From the fourth floor.
Ever since discovering that the system phone had some kind of stalker-like homing function,
Souta just couldn't resist messing with it.
Sure enough, a second later, he reached into his pocket—
Did someone message him again?
Souta quickly took out his phone and checked—
Only to grin in excitement.
Because right there on the screen, in bold letters...