So quiet.
Gotō Hitori raised her head and looked at the forest path before her.
This was already in the outskirts of Tokyo, a remote area where almost no one would normally appear.
After taking a few steps forward, Hitori saw an abandoned shrine. The torii gate had collapsed, and the shrine itself was reduced to a stretch of ruined debris. Under the cover of the bamboo grove, it appeared extremely dim, even carrying a faintly eerie air.
The girl with messy pink hair stopped in front of the shrine. She stood in silence for a long while, and in the end only lowered her head and let out a faint sigh that only she could hear.
Only a very few people knew that this place had once been the origin site of a Dusk-level Instance.
It had been the very first mission Hitori participated in as a newcomer. Whether to call it lucky or unlucky, she had joined a brand-new Instance that had just appeared, one that no other players had yet explored or investigated. Moreover, she had entered it together with one of the few friends she had finally managed to make.
The entire process of that mission had been extremely perilous. Fortunately, a reliable veteran player had led the team, and they had smoothly discovered the core Obsession within the Instance. In the end, they chose to fulfill the lingering regret of that entity, liberating the Aberration that had wandered within the shrine, and also freeing all the lingering obsessions trapped there.
The girl's first blessing had been obtained here.
Together with her friend, she had struggled to survive until the very end, won, and returned to ordinary daily life.
Even though after that, every month, they would once again have to face the various dangers within Instances.
But she had always believed that they would certainly persevere, certainly overcome one difficulty after another, until at last they truly found a way to break free from the Sacrifice Game, to escape this terrifying world.
And then, she was left alone.
In silence, the girl sat down on the remaining steps of the shrine ruins and took the old guitar from her back—the instrument even bore faint, barely noticeable traces of blood.
Closing her eyes, she gently plucked the strings.
A smooth melody immediately rang out across the open clearing in the forest.
Once again, she heard the voices of the past. Once again, she saw the things that had once happened.
With the sound of the guitar, Hitori's eyes widened as everything that had once vanished reappeared within her senses, unfolding before her once more.
Immersing oneself in fantasy did not seem so bad.
Because the real world had always been this dull and painful.
Even that band that had once brought her warmth, that had made her feel she was gradually beginning to change—after she disappeared, they simply forgot her existence. If one day I were to die inside an Instance, would they forget me as well? After all, I am a player, but they are not.
Ah… so that's why I chose to leave that band.
After becoming a player, I should have made that choice long ago. After all, the life of ordinary people had already drifted far away from me.
But now—this me, this me who has still accomplished nothing—what exactly am I still expecting? What am I still waiting for?
She opened her eyes and looked at the guitar in her hands.
The girl took a deep breath. She felt a faint urge to stop playing, to deliberately strike a wrong note.
She knew that if she did that, she would certainly be able to go back—to return to that place, to the place where her past had completely collapsed. But in the end, she merely brought her performance to a slow close, finishing the piece flawlessly, without a single mistake.
Alright, next, it's about time to go ba—
"You played well."
The girl's inner world was abruptly interrupted at that moment by a man's voice that suddenly cut in.
Hitori abruptly raised her head and then saw, standing beside the collapsed torii gate and looking at her, Takumi.
S-s-s-s-someone is here—!!!
The pink-haired girl with severe social anxiety began trembling almost immediately. Her gaze instantly started darting toward the stone slabs, as if searching for a crack to crawl into.
"It's me, Takahashi Takumi. Does Gotō-san still remember me?"
Takumi did not approach Hitori. He merely stood beside the torii gate and continued speaking.
It wasn't that he was unwilling to get closer. It was just that—the guitar in Hitori's hands was emitting such a chilling aura that it was impossible to ignore. Feeling extremely uneasy about it, Takumi thought it over and decided it would be better to keep some distance.
What exactly was going on with that guitar?
Even recalling all the Obsession Items he had seen so far, Takumi could not find a single one whose aura was more terrifying than that guitar.
If he were forced to make a comparison, he could only compare it to the core obsession itself—that is, those horrifying aberrant auras. But even then, the only Aberration Takumi could think of that could be compared to the guitar in Hitori's hands was the red-dressed Aberration beneath the Great Rift.
In other words, that Obsession Item was at least at the maximum-tier Dark Night-level core Obsession Item—perhaps even beyond that. After all, this Obsession Item had not yet gone out of control; its truly terrifying side had never been revealed.
Realizing this, Takumi's expression as he looked at Hitori could not help but carry a trace of caution.
No matter what kind of cute, withdrawn girl the original Bocchi had been, she was certainly not the same as the player Bocchi in this current crossover world he inhabited. This Bocchi was still just as cute, but the strength she possessed was absolutely not to be underestimated. It was hard to imagine what kind of power that aberrant guitar had brought her.
"I'm very sorry sorry excuse me terribly sorry for the disturbance sorry for disturbing you—"
On Takumi's side, after he finished greeting her and before he could figure out how to continue the conversation, the pink-haired girl had already slung the guitar over her back and fled amid a string of rapid apologies, leaving Takumi no intention of giving him a proper chance to talk.
"She runs really fast…"
Takumi had only just managed to raise his hand. Before he could even call out words to stop her, she had already slipped dozens of meters away.
Having been waiting for Kaguya and Chika while they were in the restroom, and having come over midway after being drawn by the sound of the guitar, Takumi could not help but click his tongue. Feeling somewhat bored, he turned and walked back the way he had come, casually taking a photo of the map of this ruined shrine.
Come to think of it, when Bocchi left just now, it seemed that there had been a very small tag on that Obsession Item guitar.
The writing on that tag… I don't remember it very clearly. It seemed to be the name of some middle school? For there to be something I cannot recall clearly despite my memory and powers of observation—is that even possible? Or could this also be the effect of that Obsession Item, causing information about the holder and the Obsession Item itself to be overlooked to a certain extent?
For a moment, Takumi could not figure out the specific effect of Hitori's Obsession Item. But he could not possibly chase after her to ask about the specific effect and origin of such a life-and-death item. Thus, he could only keep his doubts to himself and temporarily stop thinking about it.
"Takumi-kun, where did you just go?"
"Didn't we say you weren't allowed to run off? Hey, hey—Takumi, what kind of place did you find?"
The voices of Kaguya and Chika sounded not far away. The two girls walked over and quickly noticed the abandoned shrine nearby. Kaguya was somewhat wary of such places and was not very willing to go inside, while Chika completely treated it as a great spot for an adventure, even pulling Takumi into the shrine to take several photos.
"By the way, why is there such a large shrine here, yet the people around seem to know nothing about it? It looks like it has only been abandoned for a few years at most, right? There are clearly many things inside that haven't been badly damaged yet, and it's already completely impossible to identify which deity used to be enshrined here."
Filled with curiosity, Chika continued wondering about the shrine all the way back to the hotel.
Unfortunately, everyone they met along the way knew nothing about the shrine. Even elderly people who had lived there for decades had no knowledge whatsoever of the shrine in the bamboo grove. Noticing this, Takumi and Kaguya merely exchanged a glance, immediately understanding each other's thoughts.
That shrine was very likely the same as Shirakawa Apartments and the Red Nut Grey Cave—it had once been an Instance. That was why it had been forgotten, becoming a nameless ruin remembered by no one.
However, according to the consensus reached through players' investigations, aberrant places that turned into Instances were supposed to disappear from the real world. Yet Takumi and the others could still see that shrine and even enter it. This meant that the place had already returned to the real world, and whatever Aberration had originally existed within it had already been released.
Had some player solved the obsession within that Instance and obtained a blessing, thereby destroying the Instance?
It must have been a very strong player, right? An ordinary player could not possibly accomplish that.
"Takumi, let's investigate together! Follow me, Great Detective Fujiwara Chika, and uncover the truth of the past!"
Before Takumi could think further, Chika—who had somehow produced a red cap from nowhere—ran up, grabbed his hand, and dragged him toward the library in a nearby district.
"Hey, wait for me…"
Kaguya, who had originally intended to create an opportunity to spend more time alone with Takumi, called out somewhat irritably from behind, forced to run along with the two of them.
Kaguya-sama was very unhappy now.
In her view, this morning's outing had been quite a failure.
Because Chika had clung to Takumi the entire time, hardly giving her any opportunity to be alone with him. Even when she found a chance to say something, the other girl would quickly come over and join the conversation. Now she had even dragged Takumi away again.
Ah, honestly, what is wrong with this girl?!
The little person in her heart kept shouting, stamping its feet and spinning in place.
On the surface, Kaguya could only barely maintain a calm expression as she followed Takumi and Chika into the library, abruptly changing from a visiting tourist into an investigator.
While the three of them on this side began flipping through the library's collection under Chika's excitement, on the other side, Maki finally recovered somewhat, yawning as she sat up from Takumi's bed.
"Ugh… it still hurts…"
The teary-eyed girl bit her lip lightly, lowered her head to look at her lower abdomen, then turned to glance at the secret weapon thrown on the floor that was already ruined. A faint blush gradually rose on her face.
So that's how the secret weapon is used…
And why did it hurt so much at the very beginning? Could it be that it will hurt every time from now on? Although it did start to feel good midway… no, actually, this morning it didn't really hurt much anymore. That kind of pain was something left over from last night. In other words, does that mean it's only like that the first time? Ugh… I never understood these things before. The etiquette teacher at home only said that such matters should be left for one's future husband to teach. It really does feel complicated.
Come to think of it, Takumi-kun… did he go out with Auntie and Fujiwara-san?
That guy actually left me behind and went out to have fun. And with Fujiwara, of all people. Could it be that those two are doing something inappropriate?
Maki's little radar began operating at high speed at this moment.
Without the slightest hesitation, she directly activated the mental communication that, at present, could only be used between her and Takumi.
{Maki: Takumi-kun, what are you doing right now?}
{Takumi: Oh, Maki, you're awake? Is your body feeling better now? We should be back in a little while.}
{Maki: "We" who?}
{Takumi: Shinomiya-san and Chika, the two of them. The three of us are in the library right now. So how are you feeling? Can you walk?}
{Maki: I-I'm fine now. Wait, the three of you are all at the library?}
If it was three people together, then it probably wasn't much of a problem. Most importantly, Auntie currently seemed to have absolutely no romantic atmosphere whatsoever with Takumi-kun, so Maki could relax somewhat.
Still, why the library? Weren't the three of them supposed to go play at the bamboo grove hill earlier?
{Takumi: Well, you could say it was Chika acting on a whim. We found what looks like the ruins of a destroyed Instance. She insisted on coming to investigate, and we actually did find some things—although they probably don't mean much anymore.}
{Maki: You found some things?}
{Takumi: Yeah. There used to be a prominent family in the old district here that maintained a shrine. That shrine was called [Yomi Shrine]. Every few years, the family would reportedly conduct a ritual. The ritual involved placing a spiked oni mask onto a [pure girl] to pierce her eyes, then binding her limbs with ropes and tearing her apart while she was still alive. Afterward, once the girl died, she would become something like a human stake used to suppress the Yomi no Magai-michi. Honestly, this ritual feels strangely familiar…}
{Maki: No, what exactly are you investigating over there?!}
{Takumi: I don't really know either.}
In any case, judging from the results of her attempt to investigate Takumi's whereabouts, there did not seem to be any real issue. That Fujiwara-san had not made any suspicious moves so far.
It was just that she truly could not understand why they were investigating such an ancient and barbaric custom. Just hearing about it made Maki lose her appetite.
The girl, brooding quietly in her heart, got down from the bed, her smooth bare feet lightly touching the floor.
"Ugh… it hurts…"
For the next few days, she probably would not be able to do that kind of thing again.
Takumi-kun was a bit too terrifying. Was this the kind of growth brought about by an S-level body enhancement? If this continued, once Takumi-kun obtained a Dark Night-level enhancement, what kind of changes would he undergo?
Lost in her wild thoughts, Maki picked up the clothes scattered on the floor, put them on, and walked out of the room.
Meanwhile, after spending a large amount of time in the library and ultimately only confirming that the descendants of that ancient family had already died out several years ago, the three of them had also set off on their way back to the hotel.
"In the end, we looked up so much, and still didn't come up with any useful information."
Kaguya, feeling that her life had been wasted, appeared extremely helpless.
"Hehe, that's just how being a detective is. Sometimes you solve major cases, and sometimes you do useless work. And even so, at least we did confirm that there's something wrong with that place, didn't we? We can always come back to investigate again when we have time."
Chika, who did not feel that the time had been wasted at all, merely said with a grin.
"I refuse. Even if we know there's a problem, it doesn't mean anything. That place is nothing but ruins now…"
Of course, Kaguya herself was not persuaded by that.
As for Takumi, who was walking at the back of the group, he simply recalled the scene of Gotō Hitori sitting in the ruins playing the guitar that morning, and then realized that since that place had already become a forgotten and remote spot, there was in fact only one possible reason she could have known about it.
Was she the player who had solved the obsession and destroyed that Instance?
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