In an instant, their eyes met.
Without warning, a strange and unsettling atmosphere permeated the shop, as if the temperature had dropped several degrees all at once.
This crimson-haired woman radiated an aura that mere words could not capture, a presence entirely distinct from that of ordinary people. Just the sight of her made Ryoji immediately recognize: this woman was anything but simple. Mysterious. Unfathomable.
"Pardon me, excuse me, are you a colleague?"
The woman with dark-red hair regarded him for a moment before her lips curled into a perfectly polite smile. Her gaze swept over the two women beside him, dismissing them as irrelevant. Every ounce of her attention was fixed solidly on Ryoji.
"Colleague? What colleague?" Ryoji blinked, genuinely perplexed.
'Sorry, but he wasn't here to play riddles.'
Although he could instantly tell this woman was extraordinary, he had no clue who she was, nor what she meant by those words.
"No… perhaps I was mistaken. Please don't mind it."
Her eyes betrayed neither belief nor doubt. She held Ryoji's gaze an instant longer, then smiled again.
"Shopkeeper, could you tell me about the desserts here…?"
Turning toward Boudica, the proprietress, she placed a sizable order.
Even though she now directed her attention elsewhere, Ryoji felt it keenly; her main focus remained on him.
Before long, she departed with a large bag of pastries.
Right up until the moment she stepped out of the shop, she didn't glance back at Ryoji, not even once.
To Ryoji, that behavior was stranger than anything.
Ordinarily, people couldn't help staring at him, drawn as if to admire a work of art. Even when they did look away, it was always with reluctance, intoxicated, like addicts unable to break free.
Only one kind of person ever made a deliberate effort not to look at him.
Those guarded against him.
"Who was that again?" Ryoji frowned, frustrated by his splintered memories.
If only he had a name, maybe then something would come back. He stayed in the shop for another half hour.
Thanks to this, the desserts sold out completely. Lady Boudica apologized, saying she couldn't thank him properly. Usually, there were leftovers for the staff, but today, the customer flow had been overwhelming.
Ryoji assured her it was no trouble. Then, together with Minamoto no Yorimitsu, he headed home.
As soon as they entered the residential district, Ryoji's eyes flickered.
Several birds wheeled in the sky above the houses, their wings black as crows. They sometimes perched on utility poles, never lingering long enough to suggest they were leaving any time soon.
"Well, it's about that season when the birds migrate!" Yorimitsu seemed not to notice anything strange, just sighed at the passing time.
"True enough." Ryoji's expression didn't change, but his mind grew heavy.
These black birds, just like two nights ago when he'd wandered the city after dark. The difference now was their number had multiplied.
'Could it be… are they watching me?'
'But why? It didn't make sense.'
That night he'd been careful, completely concealed, his face hidden. Under cover of darkness, it shouldn't have been easy for anyone to spot him.
Unable to fathom the reason, Ryoji chose to ignore it, for now.
Yes, he wanted to uncover leads about the hidden world, but that didn't mean he'd risk exposing himself recklessly. With his strength he might not need to worry much, but his mother and little sister were another matter entirely.
He had to protect them. At the very least, he couldn't let them be exposed to the gaze of magi, those demons disguised as humans.
The birds circling overhead never left, even as night overtook the city.
Most of them congregated around the Ryoji family's modest house, settling into the surrounding shadows and staring, motionless, at the building through the dark hours.
"…So I really have been marked."
Fresh out of his bath, Ryoji sensed the gaze of the unseen observers outside his room, their presence impossible to miss. His instincts offered a single, unambiguous answer.
For now, it seemed, he was only being watched.
If their intentions were hostile, they would have acted long before this. The fact they hadn't struck meant they were either still uncertain of his identity, or something held them back.
One thing was certain: this surveillance would not end soon.
"This won't do."
He racked his mind, searching for an answer.
Being watched this way for any length of time was dangerous, not just for him, but for his family. If he ever wanted to take action, he'd be forever shackled by this constant vigilance.
He needed to uncover who controlled the familiars.
But magecraft was a foreign world to him; he couldn't trace the familiars to their master. If he tried brute force, they would self-destruct, just as before. Trying to capture or charm a familiar would only alert the mage and endanger himself further.
"If only Aozaki Aoko weren't on leave…"
He sighed.
He'd gone to the student council office yesterday, searching for Aozaki Aoko, only to discover she was absent with a cold.
"Wait… Aozaki…?"
Suddenly, a realization struck him, a flash, sharp and clear.
"That woman in the dessert shop… was she Aozaki Touko? Is this the start of Mahoyo's storyline?"
The name "Aozaki" triggered a rush of memory.
He couldn't recall every detail of Mahoyo, the series had never received an anime adaptation, only a game. But he faintly remembered the plot unfolded during Aozaki Aoko's high school years. And at this moment, Aoko was indeed a student at his school.
If that was true… then perhaps the time for the sisters' destined clash had arrived.
"Tomorrow, I'll test it out." Ryoji made his decision.
This could be an unexpected opportunity.
Crack!
Crackle, crackle!
"…Hm?"
Sudden sparks popped and hissed beyond his window. Ryoji narrowed his eyes, unsettled.
What's happening?
With a sense of proprietary annoyance, he moved to the window and opened the curtains.
In the moonlit night, the black familiars were gone. Not a trace remained, except for a few dark stains clinging to the nearby utility pole.
Soon after, something new caught his attention.
First, a bird.
Unlike the previous ones, this bird shimmered with a metallic sheen in the moonlight, eyes gleaming like polished crystals, alien and uncanny in the midnight silence.
Yet it wasn't the bird's presence that chilled Ryoji to the bone.
What truly froze his heart was the figure lurking at the end of the alley.
A man, wrapped in a black cloak. His face shadowed by a rounded hat, body concealed by a long coat, his entire being an unreadable silhouette.
As if sensing Ryoji's gaze, the man lifted his head.
In that instant, two scarlet crescents, glowing like blood-red moons, sliced into Ryoji's vision.
(End of Chapter)
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