"I can't help but feel like this doll's eyes look kind of lewd. Is it just my imagination, Takumi?"
The next moment, the doll was lifted up, forced to face Maki's brownish-purple pupils directly.
Takumi, controlling the doll, shook its head repeatedly.
"Don't waste time."
Walking ahead, Kaguya turned back and spoke, slightly displeased.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. Tch, that's the annoying thing about elders—always so quick to get impatient."
Looking again at the doll—since she couldn't see its expression, and since the thing couldn't make any sound—Maki, unable to figure out what Takumi controlling the doll was thinking, had no choice but to put it helplessly back on her shoulder, then continued onward together with Kaguya.
'It's clearly just a doll, so why do I keep feeling this strange, indescribable sensation? Could it be because Takumi is controlling it that I'm subconsciously treating it like Takumi himself? Could this be one of this Obsession Item's traits?'
After thinking for a long while without reaching any conclusion, Maki could only set the matter aside for now. Because of that, she failed to notice that the doll on her shoulder suddenly lifted its head toward her hair, then swiftly lowered it again in a strange motion.
"Hiss—ha—"
In the living room, Takumi let out a long inhaling breath.
In all his life, this was the first time he could so unabashedly smell a girl's hair.
If it weren't for his injuries making movement inconvenient, Takumi would probably have jumped up right then and shouted "Hell yeah!" or something.
But well, for now, he should focus on what comes next.
Exploring the third floor is no easy task—pervy thoughts like this have their time and place, and they can't interfere with serious business.
Takumi's expression quickly turned serious.
Once Maki and Kaguya formally stepped into the stairwell and entered the area of the third floor, he immediately cleared his mind of all unhealthy thoughts, focusing entirely on the task at hand and carefully monitoring each area.
Huddled on one side of the living room, Maeda Miwa looked frightened.
She saw Takumi's expression shift from sudden joy, to pure intoxication, to instant indifference, and finally to solemn seriousness. Then he just sat down on the sofa, closed his eyes, and turned all quiet and brooding—like some kind of lunatic—which terrified her deeply.
Could it be that this man has already been possessed by an evil spirit?
Because of the hallucinogens she had taken earlier, Maeda Miwa's mind was already unstable; trembling, she tried to run out of the room. But as soon as Takumi, noticing her movement, opened his eyes and glanced at her, the woman was so frightened that she didn't dare move at all.
What's with this clock-turning NPC?
Takumi was puzzled, not quite understanding what was going on with the other party.
But he didn't pay too much attention to that side of things; the focus right now was still on Maki and Kaguya, who had already stepped onto the third floor.
"It's really an utter mess… This kind of architectural structure shouldn't even be possible in the real world, right…"
Gazing at the tables and cups hanging upside down from the ceiling, Maki couldn't help muttering softly in astonishment.
"Indeed. After all, this is a place like a nightmare. Be careful—pay close attention to your footsteps. The footsteps on the third floor are traces left by the former 'Debt Collectors'. You must never be discovered by those footsteps. But by tracking the direction of the sounds, we can find the location of Room 304."
Giving this reminder, Kaguya was the first to move forward, crossing a winding corridor, then cautiously peeking out from the end of it to observe the surroundings. Only after confirming there was no danger did she continue advancing.
Maki immediately followed, vigilantly watching the blind spots of Kaguya's field of view. The two girls advanced step by step, moving through this completely distorted structure.
"Up ahead."
Kaguya suddenly whispered.
Three porcelain dolls walking shoulder to shoulder emerged from a door not far ahead.
"Over here."
Maki spoke right after, taking action first, and Kaguya unhesitatingly followed. The two of them immediately hid atop a cabinet Maki had already spotted earlier and memorized.
"Move."
When those dolls had passed, Kaguya flipped down at once, with Maki landing steadily right after, and the two continued forward.
After advancing a bit further, Takumi noticed a doll silently approaching from behind and quickly patted Maki on the neck. She turned around at once, spotted the porcelain doll, and whispered to Kaguya, "Behind us!"
Kaguya swiftly moved ahead, leading Maki to a cabinet she had noticed three seconds earlier during her scouting.
Soundlessly, Kaguya bent her knees slightly and leapt nearly 2 meters high on the spot, flipping onto the cabinet. Then she reached her hand backward.
Following right behind, Maki jumped almost simultaneously, grabbed Kaguya's extended hand, and smoothly landed atop the cabinet with her. The speed and fluidity of their movements left Takumi, watching from the side, utterly stunned and unsure how to even describe it.
"Mm… it's a bit cramped…"
Because the cabinet was small, Kaguya and Maki had no choice but to hold each other tightly, while the doll controlled by Takumi "accidentally" fell right between the two of them, squeezed in the middle and unable to move.
What kind of feeling was this, exactly?
Sitting on the sofa, Takumi couldn't help but sink into contemplation.
A sponge? A pillow?
It felt like being gently embraced.
There was also a faintly burning warmth to it.
But the depth didn't seem very great—there was still a faint sense of bumping.
How should one describe this sensation?
This question was full of philosophical depth.
Unable to find an answer for the moment, Takumi could only sit where he was and ponder, once again startling Maeda Miwa, who was still huddled on one side of the room, mistaking him for being engrossed in some terrifying thought.
Soon, the danger passed. Maki, expressionless, was the first to jump down from the cabinet. She took the doll into her hand, stared at it for a while, then placed it back onto her shoulder.
Takumi touched his own shoulder; a red mark had been pinched into it—an unintentional result of Maki's grip on the doll earlier.
It seemed that when the doll received an external force, it would double that reaction back onto the user.
As expected, using an Obsession Item wasn't that easy; such things always came with both advantages and drawbacks.
"Oba-san, when you came up here with Takumi before, were you also pressed together like that on top of a cabinet?"
Maki glanced around, and seeing that there was no immediate danger, asked the question in a slightly unhappy tone to Kaguya, who had already jumped down.
"…Does that matter? Focus on the mission."
Kaguya paused for a moment at the question, her expression unchanged, and replied coldly before moving on again.
"I… mm…"
Stuck by that counter-question, Maki couldn't think of a comeback and had no choice but to fall silent and continue forward.
Did it really matter?
He was just a boy she'd known for four days—what did he have to do with her, anyway?
She couldn't quite understand this faint, inexplicable feeling of irritation.
But when that guy was squeezed between her and Oba-san just now, he was definitely doing it on purpose, right?
Maki shot a glare at the obedient-looking doll sitting on her shoulder.
If it weren't for the unsuitable situation right now, she would definitely give him a good lesson.
Gathering up her complaints, Maki followed Kaguya onward, and soon the two of them found the door to Room 304. Their pace was nearly twice as fast as when Kaguya had acted together with Takumi, their efficiency extremely high. Moreover, the number of times they had been discovered by porcelain dolls and forced to hide was only three—several times, they even noticed those noiseless dolls before the dolls noticed them, managing to change course and evade in advance.
They didn't even need to stop in a room to rest; their stamina had barely been consumed at all.
Their operational efficiency seemed several times greater than his own…
At that moment, Takumi felt rather awkward.
Compared to Kaguya and Maki working as a pair, his performance during the first round of exploration suddenly seemed embarrassingly weak.
No, that's not right—this isn't called being weak, it's called having different strengths.
He could only console himself inwardly that the position he'd been assigned earlier hadn't really suited him, and that this current role of commanding from the rear might actually be better.
With that thought of self-comfort, Takumi refocused his attention on Maki's side.
Kaguya took out the key and once again opened the door to Room 304.
[Creak—]
After the sharp sound of the door opening, a dark corridor appeared beyond the doorway.
Empty, littered with garbage bags and liquor bottles, and filled with the stench of alcohol.
This time, even through the doll's perspective, Takumi saw no abnormal signs.
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