In the end, Maki was persuaded and reluctantly agreed to stay behind.
After seeing the shattered bullet marks blasted into the second-floor corridor and learning about the previous attack—as well as the possibility of a second one—Maki struggled with the decision for a while before ultimately choosing to remain. Together with Chika, she planned to contact Gotō Hitori and seek help in preparing for any further attacks that might come.
After all, both Maki and Chika had family and friends they needed to protect. If they followed Takumi and Kaguya into the Instance, then if another attack occurred in the real world, there would be no one left to notice it.
Only Kaguya, whose family harmony was somehow in the negatives, was an exception. With the only person she could truly call family already trapped inside an Instance, if someone actually decided to retaliate against her relatives, Kaguya probably wouldn't care in the slightest.
She might even think they were doing a good job.
"Will you really be okay?"
Before leaving the Shinomiya estate, Maki hesitated and stopped, turning to Takumi with a quiet question.
"If you're asking whether there's absolutely no problem... well, honestly, I can't really say that. But at the very least, I'm more confident than I was when I went to Fujihana Middle School. This time, at least, I'm not being dragged into it completely unprepared."
Looking at the concern written all over the girl's face, Takumi smiled and replied.
"No matter what, you have to be careful."
Maki let out a sigh.
"Takumi, I know that because of that ability of yours, there are times when you have no choice but to endure the agony of failure, of starting over, and all that pain by yourself. There's nothing I can do to help with that."
"But even so... I... I don't want to see you get hurt. I don't want to see you go through all that suffering."
"Even if some things are unavoidable, at least don't treat them as something normal. Don't keep piling more burdens onto yourself because of them."
"Takumi, I want you to take better care of yourself. I want you to value yourself more."
"At the very least, don't get used to the pain. Don't start thinking, 'As long as I can try again, it'll be fine.' Don't treat using your own suffering as a way to buy opportunities as something that's only natural."
"Maybe I'm overthinking things, but I can't shake the feeling that if you rely on that ability too much, it might twist who you are. Little by little, you might stop being yourself."
"I don't want that to happen..."
Reaching out, the girl wrapped her arms around Takumi and spoke softly against his chest.
No matter how stubborn or tsundere she usually acted, now that Takumi was about to leave and once again step into danger, Maki finally revealed the gentler side of herself and gave him her heartfelt warning.
"Yeah, I know."
Takumi returned the embrace, holding her gently.
"Don't worry. I'll be fine. Struggling with everything I have to stay alive—that's always been my creed."
Leaning close to her ear, he whispered his answer.
I will never be twisted.
Because in this world, there are girls like you who genuinely care about me.
As long as you're still here, as long as Chika is here, as long as all the people I've met since coming to this world remain here—everyone who has treated me with genuine sincerity—I'll never lose myself.
I'll treasure myself.
I'll treasure everything I have.
Because that's the truest reason I've managed to keep going all this time.
Takumi never voiced those thoughts aloud.
Some of them touched on the fact that he was a transmigrator.
Still, he had to admit that since arriving in this world filled with danger at every turn, the beauty and love he had gained and experienced were every bit as profound as the madness and darkness he had witnessed.
It was precisely because those bonds existed that he had gradually become part of this world. They allowed him to genuinely feel, deep down, that he belonged here.
If he had never met Maki or Chika, Takumi was certain he would not be the person he was now.
In that version of his life...
Maybe he would have become a cold, solitary wanderer.
Maybe he would even have been stronger than he was now.
More capable, perhaps.
But if the current Takumi were given a choice, he would choose these bonds without hesitation—even if they meant he would never become as strong as he otherwise might have been.
Patter, patter—
The car gradually disappeared into the curtain of rain.
The Shinomiya family's chauffeur drove Maki and Chika away. Even as the distance grew greater and greater, Takumi could still see Maki staring at him through the window and Chika waving her hand in farewell.
So he raised his own hand and waved back a few times.
Only then did he turn around and return to the mansion, walking toward Kaguya, who had been waiting for him all this time.
"Nervous?"
"Scared?"
Takumi asked the girl before him.
"Not really..."
The black-haired girl with the red ribbon shook her head at first.
But after hesitating for a moment, she answered honestly.
"I'm still a little scared. Are we leaving now?"
After hearing Takumi describe what he had gone through inside Fujihana Middle School, Kaguya had a fairly clear idea of just how dangerous a Red Moon-level Instance was.
Just thinking about entering such a terrifying place made it impossible for her to stay calm.
But then she thought of Hayasaka, who was trapped inside a place like that right now.
And no matter how afraid she was, not a single thought of backing down ever crossed her mind.
A rescue mission.
Kaguya reinforced that conviction in her heart.
For the last time, Takumi took out his phone and checked the time. They were still within the optimal entry window Mai had given them. The Aberration's attack and the arrival of Maki and Chika had delayed things slightly, but the former had been eliminated after only two rounds of probing, and persuading the latter hadn't taken very long either. Overall, the situation was still acceptable.
Because Kaguya had once experienced an incident at the Shirakawa Apartments where an Aberration used a phone to interact with her, both she and Takumi left their phones behind in the mansion.
After checking their supplies one final time, Takumi took out the strange doodle and motioned for Kaguya to come closer.
The two of them extended their hands together and pressed their fingers against the bizarre figure drawn on the doodle.
I want to enter Hayadate Elementary School.
Takumi spoke silently in his mind.
A cold, gloomy presence immediately began to gather.
The lines on the doodle seemed to come alive. They slowly started writhing and shifting, gradually changing shape.
The surrounding scenery became blurred.
More and more blurred.
As though the entire world had suddenly dropped from high resolution to low resolution.
It even seemed to be on the verge of collapsing and breaking apart.
Black light began spreading outward.
And upon the doodle, a dark crimson color suddenly emerged from within the black lines.
Takumi saw a smiling face.
It resembled the original doodle in style, yet filled him with a far greater sense of unease.
A blood-red smiling face.
He felt as though the face in the doodle was staring at him.
Watching him.
Smiling at him.
Then the doodle changed once more.
The black lines and red lines twisted together, merged together, and transformed into another shape entirely.
This time, he saw some kind of grotesque thing.
He couldn't even tell what it was.
It seemed to possess blood-red teeth.
Blood appeared to be dripping from its mouth.
It seemed to be laughing softly.
Letting out a strange, eerie chuckle.
The thing turned its head.
It appeared to have no eyes.
Yet somehow, it had already seen Takumi.
Seen the person observing it.
Bzzzz—
A dull vibration spread through the room.
Takumi and Kaguya vanished.
Their figures disappeared from the room entirely.
Along with the doodle itself, they simply vanished into thin air, departing for the darkness beyond the real world.
Patter—
Patter—
The torrential rain outside showed no sign of stopping.
Takumi could hear the constant rumble of thunder accompanied by intermittent flashes of lightning.
Slowly, he sat up from a narrow bed that carried a faint musty smell.
The lighting in the room was extremely dim, barely enough to make out his surroundings.
It was a small bedroom.
A narrow single bed sat in the corner of the room. The sheets and blanket had been washed so many times that their colors had faded.
Beside the bed stood a small nightstand.
Against the wall at the foot of the bed was a row of bookshelves.
And directly ahead of him, after sitting up, he could see an old wardrobe and an old-fashioned wooden door.
His gaze swept across the room before settling on a desk near the nightstand.
And on that desk sat a desktop computer that looked fairly old.
A computer?
Takumi froze for a moment.
The Hayadate Elementary School Instance was something from the 1940s.
Why would there be a computer here?
And not just any computer—it looked like the kind of household machine that only started becoming common during the 1990s and 2000s.
Takumi carefully examined the room again.
For now, he couldn't see anything particularly strange or dangerous.
After confirming there was no visible rule sheet and hearing no unusual sounds nearby, he cautiously shifted on the bed.
His feet touched the floor.
Then he prepared to stand up and investigate further.
[Big Brother... Big Brother...]
A sharp tapping sound came from behind him.
Tap. Tap.
Along with it came the anxious voice of a young girl.
Turn around.
Takumi had absolutely no intention of turning around.
But the moment he heard that voice, an overwhelming impulse surged through him.
A powerful urge to look.
To turn around and look.
His body was forced to rotate.
Forced to face the window beside the bed.
Forced to look at the figure standing outside, tapping on the glass.
BOOM—
Thunder exploded.
A pale flash of lightning illuminated the pitch-black world beyond the window.
The figure tapping on the glass grinned at Takumi.
Smiling softly, it continued knocking on the window as it spoke.
[Big Brother, I'm back. Hurry and open the door.]
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