Shiomi was referring to the young man named Soujuurou Shizuki.
When they arrived at the inn yesterday, among the guests resting in the lobby, he was the only one who never spoke. From start to finish, he quietly and calmly observed everything happening in the hall.
Judging by Alice Kuonji's reaction, the young man was someone she knew, apparently called over to help her with something.
Yet in the lobby, aside from Shiki Ryougi's husband and daughter who had stayed in their room and never came out, Soujuurou Shizuki was the only other person absent, and no one had reported where he went.
"Oh, you mean him? He said earlier that he'd go take a look around for me, then never came back," Tobimaru said casually. "No need to worry. Even if Aozaki died a thousand times, that guy wouldn't necessarily die even once. At worst, he'll just wander back on his own in a few days. He's always been the type who can live through anything without batting an eye."
"…Huh?" Aoko's face darkened again.
Alice nodded in agreement. "In a sense, Tobimaru's assessment isn't wrong."
"Is he some kind of large dog that loves to run off on his own?"
Shiomi wasn't suspicious of Soujuurou himself. He was simply wondering whether there might be a second victim, or something along those lines.
From the instincts he had honed on the battlefield, Soujuurou Shizuki was actually the least likely person to commit murder.
Even so, at a glance, Shiomi could tell that the young man's body had been tempered through countless trials. If he truly intended to kill, Soujuurou could easily become a first-rate assassin.
"Never mind. If he's coming back anyway, and there's no concern he'll die out there, then there's nothing to worry about."
With that, Shiomi dropped the matter and turned back to Aoko Aozaki.
"You said 'one after another' just now. Does that mean that, within this Singularity, only one Aoko Aozaki can exist at any given time… no, only one can be alive?" Shiomi leaned against the sofa's armrest, narrowing his eyes as he spoke.
Aoko acknowledged it without hesitation. "Your judgment is correct. Setting parallel worlds aside, the me who travels through time can't take part in events where 'I' already exist. If I'm able to jump, it means that I no longer exist in that time. Death is just one way that condition can be met."
"Then what about people other than you?" Touko asked. "For example, us?"
That question left Aoko at a loss. "Honestly, I'm not sure how to answer that, big sis. I didn't really understand what you meant by 'Rayshifting' earlier either. In any case, it seems different from my jumping, so the rules should be different as well."
"I see," Shiomi replied flatly, once again sinking into thought.
When Aoko had explained her situation earlier, Shiomi had immediately thought of himself.
If it really was Chaldea's Rayshifting that caused the saturation of the phenomenon, resulting in the disappearance of 'Shiomi and Morgan of 2001,' then that would still be manageable.
Once the Singularity was resolved, 'Shiomi and Morgan of 2001' could return here, perhaps without even remembering what had happened.
But if it had nothing to do with Rayshifting…
Then what was the reason behind the disappearance of 'Shiomi and Morgan of 2001'?
As the thought crossed his mind, his gaze flicked briefly toward Aoko before lowering again.
Touko, who was still discussing matters with Aoko and the others, caught that subtle change in Shiomi's silence. Without showing it on her face, she continued the conversation as if nothing had happened.
"But I really didn't expect Big Sis to be here too. You didn't actually end up fighting the 'first Aoko' and then take advantage of the chaos to kill that version of me, did you?"
Aoko started suspecting her older sister again.
There was no continuity of information between the first and second versions, so the current Aoko had no idea what had happened yesterday. To her, these people were companions she had only just met.
Touko laughed openly. "It's not like you've never fought me before. Back then, you were barely a fledgling Magus, and you still crushed me completely. How could I possibly beat the you who's grown even stronger?"
"Admitting defeat to Aoko so easily… Touko, you really have changed compared to the past." Alice spoke calmly, clearly a little surprised by how casually Touko treated something like this.
"Well… how should I put this? Big Sis, didn't you bring quite a few helpers along this time?" Aoko said, looking genuinely puzzled. "I noticed earlier that the two people with you aren't ordinary at all—especially this suspicious-looking one here… what was his name again?"
Only then did she realize she had forgotten to ask Shiomi's name.
"My fiancé, Tenkei Shiomi," Touko said suddenly, spouting nonsense without hesitation.
That left Shiomi momentarily stunned, though he held back from commenting. Clearly, Touko figured that since Aoko had already been "refreshed," teasing her little sister like yesterday wasn't satisfying enough. She needed to raise the stakes.
"Wait, Miss Touko, didn't you say just yesterday—" Alice tried to correct her.
"That was only so I wouldn't scare you," Touko said as she adjusted her glasses. The lenses flashed with an eerie glint. She looked at her sister with a smug, taunting smile. "In fact, I'm already prepared to abandon the Aozaki name and change my surname to Touko Shiomi."
"Abandoning it… you really say things like that so casually," Shiomi muttered under his breath, stifling a laugh so only he could hear.
Aoko instantly bristled like an angry cat. "Huh?! F-f-f-fiancé?! What is that supposed to mean?! And what's with that smug look on your face? Are you making fun of me?!"
She had no reaction at all to the part about "abandoning the Aozaki name." Instead, she was completely shaken by the fact that her older sister supposedly had a fiancé, unable to accept the reality that she'd been left behind.
"This version of Aoko reacts surprisingly fast," Touko said, her smile deepening.
Alice let out a small sigh. "No matter how many years pass, Aoko is still immature in certain respects."
"Hey, Alice! Whose side are you even on?!" Aoko immediately turned on her.
Shiomi felt like his head was splitting in two. Seeing that Aoko Aozaki's personality was still exactly the same as it had been back in her student days filled him with mixed feelings.
With Touko fanning the flames, the discussion completely derailed.
After quite a while of chaos, things finally settled down. Alice took Aoko to her room, while Shiomi went downstairs to continue questioning the others, searching for clues.
"Sorry about that. I said whatever I wanted without asking you first," Touko said as she lit a cigarette, leaning against the balcony doorway as she took a drag.
Shiomi smiled faintly. "Honestly, I wish it were true."
"Seriously…" Touko neither confirmed nor denied it. "So what do you think? The one who managed to kill Aoko even after her death—do you think they're among us, or could it be someone else entirely?"
"Who else could it be?" Shiomi turned his head naturally, looking at Touko with a hint of resignation. "You might not see it yet, but it was obvious to me at a glance. The one who killed… the first Aoko, without a doubt, was me."
"What?"
Touko thought she must have misheard. The cigarette burning between her fingers nearly slipped from her hand.