Something had entered the mansion.
Even though he hadn't seen anything unusual yet, Takumi instinctively felt it.
He reached out and covered Kaguya's slightly parted lips.
Using a flash of lightning outside the window, Takumi signaled for silence, then carefully moved to the edge of the room and listened for any movement in the hallway outside.
The place where he and Kaguya currently were was a side reception room on the second floor of the mansion—a place that normally wasn't used to receive guests and that almost nobody would deliberately pass through. It was the kind of room that would be covered in dust within a few days if the servants didn't come clean it regularly.
Takumi and Kaguya had chosen this location as their preparation site because they had no idea whether this special ticket would produce some strange reaction. As a result, they had picked a place that wouldn't matter even if it were destroyed.
Yet before they could even confirm what kind of entrance effect the ticket had, something else had already happened.
Gripping his pistol, Takumi frowned and pressed himself against the door, carefully listening to the sounds outside.
Tap—
An extremely faint footstep, almost drowned out by the sound of the rain.
If his senses weren't sharp enough, Takumi was certain he never would have noticed it.
Tap—
The second footstep sounded.
There was virtually no difference from the previous one. The volume and intensity were exactly the same, and it was steadily approaching their position down the hallway.
Tap—
The third footstep sounded.
Again, it was completely identical to the first two. Even the interval between the second and third footsteps was exactly the same.
Not human.
Takumi immediately reached that conclusion.
Human footsteps couldn't be that precise. This mechanical regularity was impossible for a human being.
Moreover, nearly thirty seconds had already passed since the power outage and blackout. The servants of the Shinomiya household should have come to investigate long ago.
Yet from the beginning until now, Takumi hadn't heard a single sound other than those footsteps.
That was highly abnormal.
Either whatever had slipped into the mansion under the cover of darkness had already dealt with everyone except him and Kaguya...
Or its power had altered the surrounding environment, preventing him from sensing the servants while simultaneously preventing the servants from reaching this room.
Either way, one thing was certain.
The visitor meant no good.
Without the slightest hesitation, Takumi pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The sudden gunshot sounded exceptionally harsh in the silence.
No bullet emerged from the barrel.
No muzzle flash appeared.
Yet by judging the position of the thing outside through the sound of its footsteps, the moment Takumi decided to fire, the bullets materialized directly in the hallway beyond the door and shot toward the location where the fourth footstep would appear.
As an initial probe, fifteen bullets were fired simultaneously, attacking from all directions toward the thing's location.
Although he was using the Infinite Bullet Mode, which lacked any supernatural properties, testing had already confirmed that bullets in this mode still possessed a certain degree of control over Aberrations. They could knock back or suppress supernatural entities with physical forms, making them perfectly suitable for testing.
As for the possibility that the thing outside was actually a person, that was highly unlikely. Takumi's own senses weren't easily deceived.
And with the fourth footstep, another of his Blessing's effects had already begun operating automatically, issuing a warning.
Do not open the door.
Do not meet that thing.
Do not look at that thing.
The moment you see it, you die!
The third effect of the Blessing inherited from Hirano Sōsuke pointed out a clear safe zone to Takumi at that moment: any environment separated from the thing outside by a barrier, where they could not occupy the same room without obstruction.
Crash! Crash!
The sound of shattering glass rang out in the hallway.
The fifteen bullets slammed into the walls, cabinets, and light fixtures, creating a series of explosive impacts.
Yet the fifth footstep had already reached the area right outside the side room's door.
No hit.
The ordinary bullets had struck absolutely nothing.
In other words, the thing outside...
Didn't possess a true physical body?
Bang!
Without the slightest hesitation, Takumi pulled the trigger again.
This time, he used one of the ten special bullets—the ones that required twenty-four hours to replenish once he started using them and that possessed the power to seal the abilities of a Horror Story.
A burst of fire flashed from the gun.
Kaguya's eyes widened.
At that moment, she felt something indescribably intense.
It was as though the instant the bullet left the chamber, something else had emerged alongside it, attaching itself to the projectile as it roared toward the target Takumi had designated.
Bzzzt—
The next moment, the lights came back on.
The torrential rain outside showed no signs of stopping and continued to drum against the windows.
But the eerie footsteps had vanished without a trace, as though they had never existed at all.
After standing silently by the door for a moment, Takumi grasped the handle and slowly opened it.
The hallway outside was completely empty.
The only evidence that anything had happened were the countless impact craters left by the barrage of bullets, along with the scattered rubble and shards of glass littering the floor.
None of it had been a dream.
"What was that just now?" Kaguya asked softly from behind him, cautiously poking her head out of the room.
"A ticket delivery."
Takumi answered while looking at something lying on the floor.
"The delivery method was just a little unconventional."
He had already spotted an object that clearly hadn't been there before.
It appeared to be a piece of paper.
Judging by its appearance, it looked very much like an invitation.
It was exquisitely crafted and carried a faint sense of age.
After confirming that the thing wasn't going to suddenly jump up and bite anyone, Takumi picked it up and discovered that it was an assignment notice.
The entire document was written in German. It was an officially issued transfer order assigning a certain non-commissioned officer to the Baidōsu Concentration Camp.
Takumi could sense the contamination of Aberration power within the document.
Just like the doodle Kaguya had brought back—it should have carried an intense supernatural aura, yet for some reason had stabilized into something that could be used voluntarily.
A ticket.
Although Takumi had already suspected what it might be, seeing something like this delivered directly to his doorstep still left him in a particularly heavy mood.
There was no doubt that this had been delivered through the power of a KP.
And Takumi suspected that among all players so far, he might be the only one who had truly come into contact with a KP.
These beings lurked behind the Instances. They clearly stood above Horror Stories and Aberrations.
They manipulated events from the shadows, creating one Instance after another. It could be said that in every tragedy, a KP was always there behind the scenes, pushing events forward.
Why did they do this?
What was their relationship with the Sacrifice Game?
What kind of position did these KPs occupy?
What was the ultimate purpose behind what they had been doing for decades?
What would they do to this world in the future?
And the black watch he possessed...
Did it also have some connection to them?
Question after question weighed heavily on Takumi's mind.
He knew that with his current level—having only begun to make contact with and clear Red Moon-level Instances—he was still nowhere near capable of confronting those things directly.
Even though he already possessed tremendous power and could combine different Blessings with the watch's functions to achieve strength far beyond that of ordinary players, he remained utterly insignificant before such mysterious beings.
But if they were truly that powerful, why did they go about creating Instances in such indirect ways?
The KP behind Shirakawa Apartments had used false information to lead Sanchez into making the wrong choices.
The KP behind Red Nut Grey Cave had misled Vernon with flawed reasoning.
And the KP within Fujihana Middle School had manipulated Alice in some manner.
They rarely relied on their incomprehensible powers.
Instead, they used words.
Communication.
Schemes.
They guided people into making choices, causing Instances to take shape.
Whether it was Red Nut Grey Cave or Fujihana Middle School, both had once possessed the potential to cause massive disasters.
Yet because of the KPs' influence, they ultimately became controlled Instances that players could investigate and explore.
From that perspective, were the KPs' actions entirely evil?
Although they undeniably pushed tragedies into motion, they also limited the scope of those tragedies.
They had stabilized them.
What exactly were they trying to accomplish?
Takumi couldn't find an answer.
Or rather, he did have some suspicions.
But without any evidence whatsoever, they were nothing more than guesses.
He didn't dare draw conclusions.
Forget it.
One step at a time.
A lowly genin shouldn't be worrying about meddling in the affairs of the Sage of Six Paths.
Better deal with the problems right in front of him first.
"Don't worry about it. At least for now... well... there probably shouldn't be any more incidents."
"Come on. It's about time we entered the Instance."
Suppressing his thoughts, Takumi stored the assignment notice imbued with Aberration power inside the watch's storage space.
Then he turned toward Kaguya, who still had no idea what had happened, and spoke.
Unfortunately, as if deliberately contradicting his words, the moment he finished speaking, hurried footsteps approached from one side of the hallway.
A servant arrived in haste.
The servant was startled by the damage in the corridor but quickly regained composure and respectfully bowed toward Kaguya.
"Young Lady, the young ladies of the Shijō and Fujiwara families have arrived."
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