Miko had a dream.
In the dream, she was wearing a pure white wedding dress, flowers adorning her waist.
Looking ahead, she stepped forward beneath the solemn tolling of church bells, walking toward the man waiting for her there, dressed in a formal suit.
Why am I here?
Her consciousness was hazy. She couldn't clearly make out the scene before her, nor could she see who exactly was waiting ahead.
And yet...
There was an overwhelming sense of familiarity.
A feeling of closeness.
A feeling that if it were him, then he would undoubtedly be the person she wished for.
Because of that, happiness and excitement welled up within her.
The moment she saw him, all her confusion faded away. She forgot everything else and walked toward him wholeheartedly.
"Will you become my wife?"
She heard him ask softly in a gentle voice.
"I will."
She answered instinctively, without the slightest hesitation.
Then he lowered his head and softly kissed her lips.
As the church bells grew increasingly melodious, she felt his hand lightly trace across her skin.
She could feel her breathing gradually becoming heavier.
One moment they had been standing inside the church.
The next, they were suddenly in a dimly lit bedroom.
Her heart began pounding rapidly.
She could feel him lifting her into his arms, carrying her to the bed, and gently laying her down.
His fingers lightly brushed over the pristine wedding dress as he slowly loosened it.
The scenes and sounds that followed left her thoughts increasingly muddled.
"Do you regret choosing me?" he softly asked.
"How could I? It's because of Senpai that I was able to come this far. So the person I can choose, the person I will choose... could only ever be Senpai..."
Burying her face in his chest, she answered in a timid yet unwavering voice.
The beating of her heart seemed to grow even heavier.
And his arms had already wrapped tightly around her.
After that...
After that, Miko woke up.
"Ugh... w-what kind of weird dream was that...?"
The dream had been far too vivid, filled with all sorts of embarrassing details that made the girl's cheeks resemble ripe peaches.
It was simply too shameful.
The various positions she had seen in the dream, the sensations she had experienced...
They were things she had never encountered before, yet she had felt them with such astonishing clarity and realism that she wanted nothing more than to find a crack in the ground and crawl into it.
Normally, weren't dreams supposed to be manifestations of a person's subconscious?
That meant the contents of a dream shouldn't exceed the limits of one's own understanding.
But the things in my dream... those movements, those positions...
Ugh...
I've never actually experienced any of those things before. So why was I able to imagine them so naturally in the dream? And why did they feel so real?
And on top of that...
It had to be that person.
The one who had left such a profound impression on her.
She couldn't understand it.
Miko truly couldn't understand what was happening.
Something like this...
Sigh.
Forget it.
I'll take a shower first.
Shaking her head, the girl grabbed a change of clothes and headed toward the bathroom.
After taking only a few steps, however, she suddenly stopped.
Blushing furiously, she returned to her bedside, opened a drawer, took out a pair of light-cyan panties, and only then continued toward the bathroom.
Last night's dream had really been terrifying.
Feeling the lingering strangeness in her body, Miko sighed inwardly.
The blush on her face clearly wasn't going away anytime soon.
Meanwhile, in a guest room within the Shinomiya residence, Takumi also opened his eyes and stared at the unfamiliar ceiling with a puzzled expression.
"Even though I'm not exactly inexperienced anymore—I've already crossed that line and plenty of times at that—why am I still reacting like this? Could this be another side effect of the physical enhancements brought by my Blessings? What a pain..."
Muttering to himself, Takumi couldn't help recalling Miko's shy little face from the dream, along with her inexperienced mixture of reluctance and acceptance.
How should he put it?
Even though it had only been a dream, it felt strangely as though it had really happened.
"Yeah, and her reaction was different from both Chika's and Maki's. Chika looks bold on the surface, but at the beginning she was actually quite passive. She only became proactive after gradually getting used to things. As for Maki, she was the type who showed a bit of resistance at first, almost like she was roleplaying a kidnapper-and-captive scenario. But once things got going, she'd quickly get into the mood and start cooperating. Miko in this dream, though... that combination of shyness and longing... how should I put it? It really had a unique charm."
It's just a shame it was only a dream. It would've been nice if it had been real.
Still, well, forget it for now. Rather than thinking about that, he should focus on how to rescue Kaguya's little maid, Hayasaka Ai.
With that thought, Takumi stretched lazily and walked into the guest room's private washroom. After cleaning himself up, and dealing with a certain stain that hadn't appeared in a very long time, he finally opened the door and stepped out.
The moment he did, he saw Kaguya waiting at the end of the hallway.
The dark circles beneath her eyes made it obvious she hadn't slept at all the previous night.
"Seriously, you need to get some proper rest. Don't forget what kind of place we're about to enter. If you don't keep your mind in good shape, something could go wrong."
Seeing her condition, Takumi thought it over before deciding to offer a reminder.
"...I know. I just can't sleep."
Kaguya shook her head and fell silent.
They left the mansion, boarded one of the Shinomiya family's luxury cars, and headed toward an upscale venue.
Kogawa Shu had already reserved a private room in advance. Once Takumi and Kaguya arrived, he brought out the Obsession Items Takumi had requested.
The first Obsession Item was one Takumi had chosen because he wanted something that could assist with investigation and judgment, verify the authenticity and importance of information, help gather intelligence, and accelerate the analysis of acquired data.
Its name was the Lucky Twenty-Sided Golden Die.
As the name suggested, it was a pure gold die with twenty faces.
Using it was simple. After making a decision in his mind about a particular course of action, the user would roll the die. The number that appeared would indicate the likely outcome of that decision.
If the result was 20, it meant the user's plan would definitely produce a favorable outcome and might even bring unexpected rewards.
If the result was 10, it meant the Lucky Golden Die could not determine the outcome, or that the matter lacked a clear positive or negative tendency.
If the result was below 10, it indicated the user's plan would likely lead to an unfavorable result.
The golden die could be useful in many situations. Whether determining if a path was dangerous or evaluating the authenticity and implications of gathered intelligence, it could provide valuable assistance.
Of course, every benefit came with a corresponding drawback.
The problem with this Obsession Item was that if the user rolled a 1, not only would they immediately attract the attention of the Aberrations within the Instance and become affected by supernatural influences, but the die itself would actively trigger unfortunate events, pushing the situation toward danger.
In other words, after rolling a 1, the golden die effectively manifested a tendency toward events where "something bad has already happened, and something even worse is happening at the same time."
And that wasn't all.
The more times the die was used within the same Instance, the greater the chance of rolling a 1.
Starting from the second use, the face displaying 2 would permanently become 1.
On the third use, the 3 would become 1.
And so on.
After the twentieth use, every face of the die would display 1.
Of course, even in that state, the Obsession Item couldn't really be called completely useless.
The second Obsession Item was one capable of repairing both physical injuries and mental damage.
Its name was Surging Blood.
It was a small glass vial filled with crimson blood that constantly churned and flowed as though it were alive.
Its method of use was simple.
Drink it.
A quantity no larger than a fingernail clipping was enough to regenerate severed limbs. Even fatal injuries such as being cut in half or dismembered could be completely healed, provided the victim still had a breath left in them and consumed a slightly larger amount.
Not only that, but it could also alleviate the symptoms of information contamination and mental distortion, even restoring a twisted mind to normal.
The reason this blood possessed such power was because it originated from a Dark Night-level Instance centered around experiments and research into forcibly fixing and altering a person's mental state and self-identity.
The source of the blood was an entity that had undergone extensive modification. It firmly believed itself to be an ordinary person despite having become a terrifying Aberration.
As a result, anyone who drank the blood would be influenced by the donor's mindset, causing both their body and mind to autonomously return to what was perceived as a normal state.
However, if the drinker considered their usual state to be abnormal, then consuming the blood might not necessarily produce a favorable result.
Furthermore, a single person could drink at most three small mouthfuls.
Any more than that would cause excessive cognitive influence and lead to mental distortion.
Unless the user possessed exceptionally strong willpower, this was an item that had to be used with great caution.
The third and final Obsession Item was a toy box.
Players had officially named it the Mysterious Toy Chest.
Unofficially, however, it had earned another name:
The Fucking Useless Piece of Crap.
Well, it was indeed a Dark Night-level item.
At the very least, it had been discovered inside a Dark Night-level Instance.
But it had also caused enormous confusion among every player who used it.
Over the course of many owners, it always seemed to end up being returned to Kogawa Shu in the end.
The function of this Obsession Item was very simple.
The toy chest itself could not be opened, but there was a small hole on its surface just large enough for a person to stick one hand inside. Doing so would allow them to pull out a toy.
There were many possibilities.
A stuffed teddy bear.
A plastic toy soldier.
A toy train.
There had even been things like Ultraman and Transformers.
What all of these had in common was that they were alive and would act on their own according to some logic that players had never been able to figure out.
And...
Well...
They really were just toys.
They possessed absolutely no supernatural powers.
To date, the strongest toy ever pulled from the box had been Chucky the Killer Doll. That thing possessed physical abilities roughly equivalent to ten children combined. Armed with an unsharpened toy knife, it had enthusiastically stabbed at an Aberration for quite a while before being flattened in a single step by the Aberration, which hadn't even noticed it was there.
It could be said that this was a completely useless item whose sole purpose seemed to be creating absurd situations.
Incidentally, any toy taken out of the box would remain active for only fifteen minutes before disappearing.
A new toy could not be retrieved until the previous one had vanished.
As for what would happen if the item lost control, no player had ever managed to find out.
It appeared to be an exceptionally stable Obsession Item with an extremely low tendency toward loss of control.
Or rather, among all discovered Dark Night-level Obsession Items, it was probably both the most stable and the most useless.
"Mr. Takumi, are you really sure you want this thing?"
For one of the rare times, Kogawa Shu showed a hesitant expression.
He genuinely felt that giving this item to Takumi was practically a scam and that he was taking advantage of him.
"Yes. This is the one I want."
Takumi's attitude was unwavering.
He knew perfectly well that this was a joke item.
However, Hayadate Elementary School was an Instance involving children.
And Mai's hint—
"Think about the problem from a child's perspective."
—had ultimately led him to choose this bizarre Obsession Item that appeared to have absolutely no practical use.
He had a feeling.
Perhaps bringing this thing along would produce an unexpectedly useful result.
"Since you've made your decision, then we'll proceed accordingly. We'll properly store the Dusk-level Obsession Items you've entrusted to us. If other players need them, we'll either sell or rent them out, and the resulting profits will be shared with you."
After saying that, the assistant Kogawa Shu had brought along collected all of Takumi's Dusk-level Obsession Items—items that had already become largely useless in Red Moon-level Instances—as well as the payment provided by Kaguya.
The three new Obsession Items were left behind.
Then they departed.
Takumi first picked up the golden die and casually rolled it around in his hand.
Next, he shook the glass vial filled with blood that would never dry up or run out.
Finally, he picked up the toy chest and examined it carefully.
Afterward, he stored all three Obsession Items inside his watch's storage space.
"So, does that mean the preparations are finished?"
Kaguya, sitting beside him, asked softly.
"You could say that, more or less. But don't rush. Panicking won't solve anything."
Takumi answered calmly.
At the same time, he picked up his phone, lit the screen, and opened the memo containing the four game hints he had copied down regarding Hayadate Elementary School.
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