The white dimension I ended up in left no room for excuses. Obviously, only one person stood behind this.
Person? Perhaps I was too kind in my wording. Witches don't fall under the category of "people" by definition.
Could this game end before it even began?
I didn't know what was worse, the absurdity or the premonition that the absurdity was only beginning. And, as if on cue, precisely when thoughts were just starting to swarm in my head, she appeared.
"Once again, welcome to my domain!"
Fifth-rate theatricality. A voice as if from somewhere at a festival of madness.
"So how do you like my performance? You don't need to say, everything's clear from your face! Agha-gha-hah!"
This was the kind of laugh at which even a mirror is ashamed to reflect. As if she truly derived pleasure from what was happening.
But can one rejoice in murder? Animals kill without awareness, humans — with it. And what about witches then?
The feeling after such an act is pain. And if there's no pain, then what?
"This guy seems frozen from my presence alone. Are you really that afraid of me... ykh-hykh. What an interesting spectacle awaits me! I'm placing great hopes on you in our confrontation."
As if she's casting me for a role in a play where the main prop is corpses.
"Enough meaningless musings! I am the witch of this blessed Ryujima Island, and my name is Mariana! At this wonderful performance, I declare our first game open."
First? After everything she's already done? This wasn't a game yet?
"Game... open? What are you talking about! You just killed all the other participants and even the servants, didn't spare a single one of them, and you're talking about opening some game? So for you, these recent events weren't even a game?" Aragi began erupting with words.
"You're mistaken, Aragi... This is only the beginning of my grand game! The beginning doesn't have such interesting moments, unlike those that will occur in the middle or at the end!"
"Just the thought of it brings me pleasure, yes... Right now I'm aroused by our game!"
So this is what a woman looks like who's lost everything except the desire to pretend she's lost nothing. A game, you say? A beginning, you say? Disgusting.
"Why are you doing all this? What do you want to achieve? I'll never believe someone who so indifferently throws around all this cruelty under the pretext that it's merely interesting and brings pleasure!"
"Kh... What a tedious guy..."
If I ever become as annoying as her, please, shoot me on the second day. At least out of respect.
"A witch like me needs no other reason! If anyone else were in my place, your question might perhaps have meaning, but not in this case. Think with your stupid head, what could an all-powerful witch want who's forever sealed on this damn island!"
Sealed. Not dead, not vanished. Simply sealed, like a doll in a box.
"For those like me, boredom is the worst enemy I've fought my whole life. Standing above life and death, I can't even die," she continued with the same madness with which she began this performance. "And so I decided to create this game, where several people will be chosen as its participants in the struggle for the fulfillment of any cherished wish or answer!"
Game.
Wish.
"But only the one who remains alive last by the end of the sixth night can achieve this reward."
Alive.
Meaning everything else is victim statistics.
"Even so, that's no reason to throw away the lives of those who were already dead. Why did you choose them for your game?"
"I don't have a precise answer to this question, but I'll say this: it all depends on my blessing."
"Blessing?" I asked in surprise.
"It's like playing cards, whatever card you draw as a trump, that's what it becomes."
So randomness? Merciless, like everything about her.
Meaning they simply became trumps in her game, drew and play. Lucky? Death. Unlucky? Death anyway.
"Why did I survive? Shouldn't I have become the same corpse in the library as all the other players?"
"Perhaps, consider it your luck."
Oh yes. Great luck — to be the last one left on a horror film set.
"What is this place? That world looked as if it had just shattered into countless pieces and dissolved into the void."
"You're right, that world no longer exists, it was nothing more than a fragment among all these endless ones like it."
Flying fragments were shards of worlds? So we're literally in the archives of abandoned reality?
"Why did you destroy that world? Isn't the game calculated for a duration of 6 nights? Not even two days have passed."
"Correct, only it's already over!" the witch pronounced.
At that moment everything fell into place. The killer managed to destroy everyone... in two nights. Even less.
Results of the second night:
Yahweh
Second to arrive on the island.
Status: Killed on the second day in the library.
Cause of death: Head and chest shot through.
Hov
Third to arrive on the island.
Status: Killed on the second day in the library.
Cause of death: Head and chest shot through.
Tiamut
Fourth to arrive on the island.
Status: Killed on the second day in the library.
Cause of death: Head shot through.
Kamiki
Sixth additional participant.
Status: Killed on the second day in the library.
Cause of death: Head and chest shot through.
"All that remains is...!"
"Now do you understand? This is the beginning of the true game! So begins your downfall, Aragi-i-i!!"
The witch's counterattack begins. But what about Aragi's counterattack? Will I at least be able to try to repel it?