"I am very sorry. After I came back, I was very tired, so I took a nap."
Takumi began apologizing without the slightest hesitation, his tone extremely sincere.
"Do you think I am not exhausted? I worked so hard to escape from that damned place and still had to attend a whole day of classes. And do you know what the rumors about me at school are right now? A pure girl deceived by an outside delinquent—all because of your hug. In broad daylight, a strange man tightly hugging a girl whose clothes were full of stains and tears—you, do you know just how much trouble you caused me—"
The girl's voice grew louder and louder, like an angry lioness roaring through the phone.
Takumi was already considering whether he should record a dogeza and send it as an apology, but after her outburst, she immediately returned to a normal tone.
"In any case, do not break into the school again. Even if you need to come in, at least wear something tasteful and tidy up your appearance a little. Do not repeat things like sneaking in and stealing a teacher's clothes like today. Since this is the real world, pay at least some attention to your image."
"The Obsession Items you gave me, I have been carrying them properly. These things can still be used in the real world. I am worried they might lose control, so tomorrow we must meet, and transfer these Obsession Items to you—the one who can contain them through that black watch. I also already contacted Oba-san. She has some helpers she can mobilize to search for the traces of other players. Do not look for them recklessly; you might get counter-tracked."
"Tanaka and that woman disguised as Maeda Miwa gave me a very bad feeling. Maybe the player group itself is not united at all, and may even be in a state of survival-of-the-fittest predation. As newcomer players, even if it looks like we have received pretty good improvements, being secretly targeted would definitely not be a good thing."
"Also, I discovered that my body has become much stronger. Whether it is strength or speed or my coordination and control of my body, everything is completely different from before. That strange voice talking about the Sacrifice Game said that I received an A-rank evaluation, and then I also heard a little girl saying goodbye to me, and then I found that I can sense the goodwill and malice of people around me. As long as a person stands in front of me, I can instinctively know whether he will treat me well or not treat me well. Although the judgment is somewhat vague, I think this should be the blessing given by that child."
"You also received this kind of power, right? You must still be somewhat careful. After our power increases, we need a little time to control it. During class in the afternoon, I accidentally pulled the classroom door handle off. Hey, hey, are you listening? Why have you not said anything for so long?"
It was obvious that Maki truly had a lot to tell Takumi. She talked nonstop for quite a while before noticing that there was no sound from Takumi's side at all, and she immediately complained with some dissatisfaction.
"I am listening. We need to meet tomorrow, right? When? Morning or afternoon? Around what time?"
Takumi quickly spoke, his voice filled with focus and enthusiasm.
"So after I said so much, the only thing you heard was 'meet up,' right?! Ha, unbelievable. You really are someone who leaves people not knowing what to say. Because of you today, I suddenly became the focus of the entire school. Dad even called to ask if I was going out with some strange guy—this is all your fault."
The girl's voice carried a hint of resentment at this moment.
"You can answer your father and tell him that I am not a strange guy."
Takumi thought for a moment and spoke tentatively.
"You think using that roundabout way will make me admit that I am going out with you? You idiot. How could anyone become boyfriend and girlfriend after knowing each other for just four days? Something like this… should—should be handled more carefully. You, you should not always be in such a rush. Can you not just… just give me a little time to think? My head is still very messy right now. I still cannot think about something like this…"
From anger, to flustered anger, to shy hesitation—less than ten seconds in total.
Takumi did not know whether this girl was doing it on purpose or was naturally like this. He could only say that 2D girls truly possessed astonishingly overwhelming talent in acting cute.
"I know, sorry, probably I indeed was a bit impatient. In short, we all safely survived, this is something worth celebrating, and right now I am very, very looking forward to seeing you tomorrow, Maki."
Therefore corners of his mouth curved up even more, and the pleasant meaning in his voice was also completely unhidden.
"Ugh… saying nonsense again, in short, tomorrow you are not allowed to come over looking sloppy!"
[Beep—]
In the end it was the girl who hung up first, hastily ending this call.
Takumi put down phone, sat on chair before desk at one side of bedroom, and after sitting for quite a while, only then did he clench both hands into fists and shake them, softly saying "Nice".
No matter what situation he would encounter next, Takumi felt he already was prepared to face it. Whatever bastard supernatural Horror Story rule film set, he precisely would pander to otakus, precisely would have romance; ah, of course gathering information, intelligence and understanding his own situation was also very important, but even better would be not delaying either.
While thinking this, Takumi turned head to look outside window, then lowered head to look at phone.
Then he paused for a moment and turned his gaze back toward outside window again.
And with that pale woman's face stuck to glass outside window, just like that he stared at it for a moment.
Takumi: ???
In an instant, Takumi's whole body tensed up, almost about to immediately stand up and flee outside bedroom door.
He obviously had already escaped from the instance.
And for entire daytime, he obviously did not encounter any abnormality, obviously always was in safe environment; how did this kind of thing pop out right when night was about to begin?
Could it be that real world actually always had all kinds of eerie beings? Only usually they existed in a state separated from ordinary people and would not be discovered, and because I participated in rule-based Horror Story game, in a certain sense my "sight" was opened, so I can see these things?
Various thoughts rapidly flashed through Takumi's mind.
But very quickly, he furrowed his brows.
He did not feel anything from this woman's face before him.
Through blessing given by little girl, Takumi possessed ability to distinguish goodwill and malice, to distinguish humans and non-humans.
This ability did not take effect on this big flat face before him.
Just like this thing did not exist here, or it was only a natural phenomenon, itself not possessing any inclination or emotion.
"…"
After a brief hesitation, Takumi stood up, walked to side of desk, and reached out to pull open window.
That woman's face only looked straight ahead, continuing to float motionlessly.
And Takumi had already extended hand, trying to touch other side.
His hand directly passed through that thing.
He touched nothing.
This thing seemed like some three-dimensional projection or something of that sort, fundamentally not possessing any tangible entity.
'But what exactly was this thing? Why would I see this thing?'
After brief thinking, Takumi put on clothes and walked out of home.
This time he saw more things.
Under dim sky that was about to enter night.
Up in that high sky, one after another twisted silhouette floated inside city, floated in midair, sometimes blurry, sometimes clear, sometimes vanishing without trace, sometimes suddenly appearing.
Takumi saw countless corpses, countless eerie beings, countless twisted and bizarre things.
Most among them still floated in sky above, but there were also some, like that pale woman's face, that had already fallen from sky above and floated aimlessly in various corners inside city.
People walking past on roadside looked right past them, and they likewise would not pay attention to those passersby.
Occasionally, there would even be people directly passing through those things, and those things would also pass through pedestrians on road, vehicles and walls and various other things, just like strange things in a bugged game that lost collision volume and could casually go through walls, like malfunctioning programs, like illusions floating unnoticed.
What exactly were these things?
Unease in Takumi's heart intensified even more.
Rule-based Horror Story game under name of sacrifice, souls of dead unable to rest imprisoned by unknown existence, eerie things repeating Obsession, and… phantoms surfacing inside real world. Just like a gradually opening grand curtain, and he was only one actor among them, unable to know, unable to predict next step's direction, not knowing where end of this play would lead.
'No matter what, is it only possible to take one step at a time?'
While thinking this, Takumi turned head, and saw a girl with long black hair and very beautiful light-golden pupils walking past before him, walking while also playing with phone. Other side wore school uniform, looking like she had just returned home after school, or on way home after going somewhere to hang out after school.
Looked like she lived right next door to his home.
That girl's pure and cute beautiful face, even in 2D world also was very rare, carrying a bit of pitiful feeling.
Takumi could not help but look at her a few more times out of concern.
To state beforehand, he was not driven by lust; although Takumi was very clear he had a somewhat frivolous and lewd personality, he would not go so far as to start imagining and feeling restless just from meeting a good-looking passerby. Only because he knew this was a crossover anime world and had already encountered Shinomiya Kaguya and Maki, Takumi very much suspected that high-appearance girls he encountered might again be protagonists from some works, so he only paid a bit more attention.
As for this one before his eyes… could not tell; there were too many long black straight hairstyles in Japanese anime. Only one thing was certain: this one was not Yukinoshita Yukino; that chest curvature at a glance could not possibly belong to Flat-ino.
However, could pay attention to her house's doorplate… hmm, Yotsuya family? If it was Yotsuya family… could it be the protagonist of Mieruko-chan, that Yotsuya Miko who was bullied by eerie beings every day and had teary eyes every day?
With her existence, would it mean these things unseen by ordinary people would one day become visible, gradually begin to be noticed by people around, and then…
Forget it, thinking that far was useless; better to think about how to survive next mission.
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