The Spirit of Origin was finally introduced in episode 11 of Date a Live IV when Kurumi used her power to show Shido her dark past. It was clearly emphasized that she was very fond of cats when she was still a human. She would risk herself to save a trapped cat at the top of a tree, and would often play with the pet cat of her best friend, Sawa. Not only that but it was also shown that Kurumi is very sensitive to her surroundings. She always wants to help others when they are in trouble, and also wants to stop the current war in her time. It is safe to say that she wants to be an ally of justice and has a great sense of responsibility. This answers why she lowers her guard when it comes to cat-related matters, and why she is still helping Shido even though she wants to devour him. She might be the worst spirit, be she is also the kindest among them all.
Kurumi was in deep thought of what was happening around her when a spirit monster appeared behind her. There, she met a beautiful young lady, who addresses herself as Mio Takamiya. Mio told her that she is a hero of justice and she is killing spirit monsters to save the world. She gave a Sephirah crystal to Kurumi, and that’s how Kurumi became a spirit. As mentioned above, Kurumi had a great sense of justice, and the moment she became a spirit, she thought that she could save the world by killing spirit monsters. Though because of this, she spent less time with Sawa and spent more time with Mio. Kurumi often killed the spirit monsters, and Mio would take care of the cleanup. At that time, she killed the spirit monsters with fire, storm, light, and sealing attributes. With this, Kurumi became known as a Spirit Hunter.
The Truth Behind the Creation of All Spirits
Kurumi’s happiness didn’t last. She killed a spirit monster with a fire attribute and immediately left Mio so that she could spend time with Sawa. Though on the way to her house, she thought that maybe she could invite Mio, so she came back to the place where she killed the spirit monster. There, she found Sawa’s dead body in front of Mio, who was holding a Sephirah crystal that came out from Sawa. There, Mio revealed the whole truth behind the creation of all spirits – she was giving her power to others by giving them Sephirah crystals.
However, if a person is not compatible with the power, they will go berserk and become spirit monsters, which means that the monsters that Kurumi killed were originally people, who received a Sephirah crystal from Mio. This means that the spirit monsters that Kurumi killed are the previous owners of Camael (Fire-Kotori’s angel), Metatron (Light-Origami’s angel), Raphael (Storm-Yamai Sister’s angel), and Michael (Seal-Mukuro’s angel). It seems that Sawa is the spirit monster with the fire attribute, whom Kurumi killed.
Mio clearly emphasized that she is what you call a “Spirit”. Though since she is giving her power to others to become spirits, she is the so-called Spirit of Origin. After learning all this, Kurumi almost became an inverse spirit, but she avoided it using the power of her angel, and she is the only spirit who was able to do so. So far, the spirits who went inverse in the series were Tohka, Nia, and Origami, but none of them were able to stop it, leaving Kurumi as the only one with this unique ability. This scene explains the birth of the White Queen in Date a Bullet. Because of this, Mio was relieved because Kurumi’s refined Sephirah crystal wouldn’t turn back into a Qlipha.
Mio also mentioned that for a Sephirah to be refined, it must be given to a person over and over until it finds a compatible owner, which means that the Sephirah inside Kurumi was once in the possession of countless dead people, and it is the same for all the Sephira crystals that will be distributed to Yoshino, Kaguya, Yuzuru, Miku, Kotori, Origami, Mukuro, and Natsumi in the future. This proves Inverse Tohka’s statement about the creation of all Spirits from episode 8, as well as Nia’s in episode 3.
Mio also said that she holds no grudge against people, but she also cannot give up on her goal, which is why she is doing this. Looking back in season 3, this is also what Phantom said to Origami, after giving a Sephirah crystal to Kotori. Just what is Mio’s goal? I’ve mentioned in my previous episode review that Shido is Mana Takamiya’s biological brother, which means that they are also related to Mio Takamiya.
These events happened roughly 26-27 years ago, and at that time, Kurumi and Nia are the only spirits that were compatible with Sephirah. These are also the reasons why Kurumi wants to travel back in time, to when Mio first appeared on Earth. To prevent the deaths of 150 million people in Eurasia because of Mio’s Spacequake, which is the first scene we saw at the beginning of the whole series, to prevent the deaths of the people that were killed by Mio’s Sephirah crystals, to prevent the deaths of the people that were devoured by Kurumi to make herself stronger, and ultimately, to prevent the death of her best friend, Sawa. Date a Live IV episode 11 really gave us a mind-blowing plot revelation, and you might want to vote for the anime on our weekly poll because of it.
This is a turning point in the Date a Live series. The first lines in “S.O.S.“, the ending song of the series, are “It was something nice and sweet until I saw that it’s been always something cruel, dark and sore”. Looking back, these lyrics can be connected to the entire series, from the first episode until today. One thing is certain, Shido’s world will never be the same.
Watch Date a Live IV episode 11 on Crunchyroll
© 2021 Koshi Tachibana, Tsunako/KADOKAWA/”Date A Live IV” Production Committee
