Takumi had absolutely no intention of striking up a conversation just because Yotsuya Miko was a beautiful girl. He turned away and left, continuing to think as he searched for a barbershop.
If the first mission at the Shirakawa Apartments had already been Dusk-level, then as long as the next mission was of the same level as this one, and he acted cautiously, he should still be able to get through it safely. Yeah, there probably wouldn't be any major problems—as long as he did not run into Tanaka and that traitor woman again, those two top-tier nightmares among nightmares.
Thinking this, Takumi's gaze happened to lock onto a barbershop by the roadside, and he walked straight in.
"Boss, I'm going to meet my girlfriend tomorrow. Could you give me a hairstyle that's eye-catching enough?"
Takumi's words fell with conviction.
Inside the shop, the staff all raised their heads one by one.
"He's here."
One young staff member pushed up his glasses and said softly.
"He's here—the rare customer the boss talked about. The type who doesn't order a specific style, only gives requirements, hides his preferences, and even hands out punishment cards if he's not satisfied."
Another shirtless clerk nodded lightly as well, his expression grave.
"Are you sure the boss didn't just play too much at Yoru Suzume last night?"
The last clerk—who looked the most like a normal person—weakly raised his hand and asked.
Step—
Finally, a middle-aged uncle wearing a pink cat apron slowly lifted his head and locked his gaze onto Takumi as he walked into the barbershop.
"Young man, to dare make such a request of me—the Tiger of the Backstreets, Fujimura the Barber, one of Tokyo's Four Heavenly Kings of hairstyling—truly makes the blood surge. It seems today is the day I return to the world and reforge the name of my [Demon-Cutter Hands]."
No, seriously—aren't you people's banter settings a little too classic? And even if this is a two-dimensional crossover anime world, isn't this kind of cringe a bit excessive? Did I wander into some kind of comedy sketch?
Takumi really wanted to complain, but in the end he still had his hair tidied up a bit at this shop, making his overall appearance look fresher. After that, he went out onto the street and bought a few casual tops and pants with relatively matching colors and styles. It wasn't to the point of being especially handsome or fashionable, but compared to the hastily thrown-together outfit he'd worn when meeting Maki before, it was still a lot better.
By evening, Takumi contacted Maki and Kaguya once more, asking whether they could see those things outside. In the end, both gave negative answers.
It seemed that even among the players, only he himself could see those things.
"If there really is something about me that's different from other players…"
Takumi lowered his head and looked at the black wristwatch he was wearing.
Was it this thing that had given him the ability to see those things?
The question had no answer.
And right now wasn't a good time to take action.
So in the end, Takumi just stayed cooped up at home playing games, trying out every console he had, marveling at how he'd never even dared to imagine living like this before. He happily played all the way into the late night, and only then went to rest and sleep.
That night, he had a strange dream. He dreamed that he was standing in the middle of a straight road.
On one side of the road stood the cute Shijō Maki; on the other side stood many beautiful girls with disheveled clothing.
Takumi walked toward Maki, only to hear her snort and turn her back on him.
"As if I'd care about you choosing me, you lecher, idiot, pervert!"
So Takumi turned around to look at the beautiful girls, and the beautiful girls curled their fingers at him.
"Come on, master, come play with us~"
A hesitant look appeared on Takumi's face, and he turned around again to look at Maki, who had her back to him.
"Hmph. If you like it so much, then go on over, you pervert!"
Takumi turned his head back once more, looked again at those beautiful girls, and took a step forward.
"Idiot! Who told you to actually go over there?!"
An anxious voice came from behind him in the very next instant.
Takumi turned around, only to see Maki charging straight toward him and crashing into his body. The impact was far too strong, and Takumi was completely unprepared, so the two of them fell backward together, collapsing right into the middle of that group of beautiful girls.
Then, amid the muffled chaos censored with a [beep—], Takumi opened his eyes, only to find that the sky outside the window had already brightened.
Ah. It was a dream.
"Why would I have such an absurd dream?"
Takumi couldn't make sense of it no matter how much he thought about it. In the end, he decided to give up thinking, got out of bed, took a proper shower, and finished off the bread and milk he had bought before coming home the day before. After that, he checked his phone, confirmed the message Maki had sent him, and prepared to head out toward their agreed meeting place.
Beep beep—
The phone, no longer on silent mode, sounded at that moment.
Takumi lowered his head and saw that it was a news alert. It reported that a deceased woman had been found in the restroom of a bar in Tokyo. The victim had been disemboweled, and the scene was extremely brutal. The article also included a censored photo, in which one could barely make out a woman sitting on a toilet.
Wait—
The mosaic only covered the most critical parts, so Takumi quickly noticed the woman's clothing.
That outfit… could it be—
Maeda Miwa?
Realizing something was wrong, Takumi abruptly came to a stop.
...
Shijō Maki lifted her head and looked toward the street outside the café.
She then lowered her head again, lightly tapping her feet against the floor twice. With a slightly irritated twist of her body, she raised her head once more to look toward the street.
"So slow. Isn't this guy being way too slow?"
The girl finally couldn't hold back her complaint.
"There are still a full thirty minutes left until our agreed meeting time, and you've already repeated that line five times."
Kaguya, who was sitting beside Maki, glanced at her and spoke in a flat tone.
"Even so, he's still too slow. We arrived forty minutes early, you know."
With her head resting on the table, Maki let out a dissatisfied "mmph," then propped her face up with her hands and lifted her head again, muttering in a very displeased tone.
"…It looks like you really have been captivated by him, Maki."
Kaguya's expression took on a slightly amused look.
"Who's been captivated by that guy? A fool who's always pushing his luck all day long and has not a shred of gentlemanly manners—there's no way I'd care about him."
The girl said this through clenched teeth as she took a large gulp of coffee.
"Oh? Really? Hearing you say that hurts me quite a bit."
A voice sounded from behind them at that moment.
Maki froze for a split second, then realized something and sharply turned her head, her gaze immediately locking onto Takumi as he walked up from behind.
From his hairstyle to his clothes, everything was completely different from yesterday.
Although his overall demeanor was still that same carefree, flippant sort, he really had taken her words to heart and properly tidied up his appearance.
Seeing Takumi like this, Maki's mood instantly improved by quite a bit.
"You're way too slow. If you're going on a date with a girl, then make sure you arrive early."
Although her mood had improved, Maki showed not the slightest hint of happiness on the surface. She merely shot Takumi a sideways glance, then shifted further inward in her seat and casually reached out to pull the curtains closed, blocking out the light from outside the window.
This was a small private room on the second floor of the café. Quite a few people came here to chat or work, seeking a quiet and comfortable environment.
Maki and Kaguya had chosen this place precisely to ensure safety—to make sure no one could eavesdrop on them.
"Let's talk about business first. There really are quite a few things that need to be discussed this time."
After pulling the curtains shut, Maki's expression immediately turned serious.
Knowing that what they were about to discuss was important, Takumi sat down beside Maki and nodded solemnly as well, not continuing any playful banter with her at a time like this.
"Then I'll start with the explanation. As for information related to the sacrifice game and the players, I have indeed obtained some intelligence through my own methods."
After taking a sip of coffee, Kaguya was the first to speak.
"The existence of players—or rather, the existence of players on a certain scale—has already lasted for at least around two years."
"I did not directly investigate the existence of the players themselves. Instead, after discovering that Obsession Items could be used in the real world, I had my assistants investigate some of the more bizarre, unsolved death cases that have occurred recently in Japan. The result was that starting from two years ago, the frequency of such cases began to rise rapidly, with incidents occurring almost everywhere across Japan."
"Not only that, the rate at which these cases have erupted over the past half year has been increasing more and more. Yet the strange thing is that there is basically no discussion of them anywhere. If I hadn't specifically asked people to look into it, I would never have believed that just this month alone, eighty-five homicide cases have already occurred in Tokyo, and that the total number of homicide cases nationwide last year exceeded eighty thousand. Incidents of such massive scale could never be suppressed by the Metropolitan Police Department alone. And yet, the reality is that no one seems to know about these events—as if they happened and that was simply that."
As she spoke, Kaguya placed several printed documents onto the table.
Takumi flipped through part of the materials. Among them was a case of a family of three who had been beheaded—yet the investigation revealed that after being decapitated, they had still walked into the living room, gathered around the table to celebrate a birthday, their throats stuffed full of cream cake. There was also a case of a man living alone who encountered a girl offering late-night doorstep services; when he woke up the next day, all that remained under the covers was a blood-soaked human skin. The autopsy showed that this skin had already been peeled off the previous evening. There were also reports of cries for help coming from sewer pipes; when the pipes were opened, investigators found a mass of tightly packed human tissue stretching for more than ten meters inside the pipes. The investigation determined that these tissues had crawled dozens of meters within the pipes, and that the people only died after the pipes were broken open…
Horrific cases that completely defied common sense—one could say they were fundamentally impossible to occur in the real world.
Not a single one of them had been solved.
Not a single one of them had attracted even the slightest attention. Almost no one discussed them at all. Whether on public online platforms or in various hidden, small-scale forums, there was no discussion of these incidents whatsoever. Even though Kaguya's assistant had easily breached the Metropolitan Police Department's systems and retrieved these files, proving that they had not been sealed as top-secret, they still failed to draw any attention at all. It was as if everyone were deliberately turning a blind eye to these terrifying events.
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