"Even books bleed when opened too far."
Detective Office – 1:03 AM
Airi sat on the couch, a warm tea packet pressed against her palms. Hiragi stood facing the investigation board.
Three names.
Three events.
One symbol: Blood-red ink.
"There's a pattern," Ishigami said quietly. "The Librarian doesn't strike randomly. He follows stories."
Suguru popped out of the kitchen, chewing instant noodles.
"Like… plot armor gone evil?"
"More like narrative targeting," Ishigami replied. "He rewrites your worst trauma. Makes it literal."
Hiragi nodded.
"And Reina's next."
Reina's Past
Scene Cut – 2007
A little girl sat in a dusty library. Her eyes locked on a book titled The City That Dreams in Blood.
Her mother was talking to the librarian across the hall.
"Don't touch that," the librarian warned darkly.
But Reina had already opened the first page.
And never truly closed it.
Now – Akasumi School, 2:12 AM
Reina shivered in her bed.
She was dreaming, but not asleep.
Ink dripped from her walls, spelling words written by memory itself:
"The girl who forgot how to scream."
Back at the Detective Office
Hiragi placed a partially burned page on the table—retrieved from a previous victim's home.
In the corner: a red stamp, shaped like an upside-down flower petal, as if weeping blood.
"This isn't regular ink," Airi whispered. "It's dream-ink. Fused with human memory."
Ishigami pointed at an ancient archive note from the Black Flame Files:
"Only one artifact can embed trauma into narrative form. The Blood Bookmark."
Mission Begins
"Where is it now?" Airi asked.
"Last known location… sealed inside Reina Akasumi's soul."
Silence.
Cold wind brushed past the window.
Hiragi clenched his fist, eyes razor-sharp.
"Then we go inside her story."
Suguru slurped his final bite of noodles.
"Wait—are we about to isekai into Reina's past?"
"Not exactly," Hiragi said. "We're going to overwrite it. From the inside."
To Be Continued…