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Originally Posted by Hemisphere
Tohka herself was suspicious of humans, believed that they were all out to kill her, and was even willing to kill Shidou during their initial encounters. Would that belief of her brand her as irredemable, considering that we never really find out the casualties involved with Tohka's prior appearances (spacequakes and all)? Yoshino was scared of every human, not just out of fear of hurting them but because of their open hostility towards her. Every time they've shown up, they receive nothing but open hostilities. Kurumi's been around longer than the both of them, and every time she's appeared she was met with aggression, "killed" countless times and was treated as an existence rejected by the world, like most seireis.
To the seirei, their rule is "kill or be killed" - the only human interaction they've had is one-sided aggression, and their only choice is to fight back or wait until they "disappear", of which they aren't even unclear as to when it happens. The only reason seireis are even recently amicable is because of Shidou and his efforts (thanks to Kotori); he's the only one who has really interacted with them in a manner different from "kill-on-sight", and gave them a different option of interacting with the world that would not lead to them being generally treated as enemies of the world.
Kurumi is what Tohka, Yoshino, and every other seirei would have ended up had Shidou not come to save them, in a sense being the logical extreme regarding how they've interacted with the world so far. To her, every human is a hostile threat, much like how Tohka and Yoshino perceived them to be prior to encountering Shidou. They've never had any other interaction to show them otherwise; when Shidou presented the alternative choice to Kurumi, that he was willing to "save" and understand her, Kurumi was visibly horrified. She even had to "kill" herself just to wipe the slate clean and stick with her goal. But considering how volume 4's epiloge showed how she was able to drain energy yet hold herself back from killing, it could possibly be a signal of change for Kurumi, even if she was just holding back in order to not get found out by Ifreet as she was still weak and in hiding at the time. And considering that her penultimate goal shows empathy for her seirei kind, there is clearly more to her character than just "I LIKE TO KILL AND I HAVE A CRAZY LAUGH TO GO WITH IT".
So yes. I really doubt that she is an irredeemable villain considering her circumstances. If anything, reducing her to generic psycho killer would just horribly flanderize her character.
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I believe we have a misunderstanding here.
Being an irredeemable villain doesn't mean she has to stay as a generic psycho killer character who has no motivation or anything. Yes, you are indeed right that Kurumi is a complete antithesis to the other spirits introduced so far- and I feel that she should stay that way. A spirit that actually stays "unrescued" and even perhaps die tragically in the process without having the chance to really redeem herself. Maybe Shidou can't succeed in "rescuing" every spirit out there, and it would make more sense for Kurumi to be that particular spirit rather than becoming yet another generic harem interest character and actually become flanderized as a typical yandere love interest character. (Only to be overshadowed by other love interests and lose her place as a significant character later after her arc is done)
As you mentioned, maybe Kurumi does have a positive motivation for what she's doing. Or maybe not. I wouldn't judge Kurumi's actions in the epilogue as anything really definite at the moment- She certainly seems like a character that could simply just lie, and even if she didn't, it doesn't really justify her past actions. I don't see why she would show any empathy towards her seirei kind considering how she was almost killed by one and almost killed the other. The only remotely possible one she would show that kind of treatment is obviously to the main character, and even that seems like a rather forced writing. If someone mentally unstable like Kurumi can be "rescued" or influenced to that point just from a single act of "don't hurt her" rescue attempt, then what really prevents Shidou from doing the same to every other spirit out there? A creepy furry necrophiliac seirei, perhaps?
But yes, my point is that Kurumi should stay as an irredeemable villain character- (though not necessarily generic, since she can have whatever motivation nor does villain have to necessarily be 'evil'- just opposed to the protagonist at all times and is only in it for self-interest if otherwise) rather than losing every dignity as a character by becoming a boring yandere harem target for Shidou like every other seirei, then being forgotten eventually due to the ever-increasing number of characters, which is a very common thing to happen in any harem archetype.