Shiki Ryougi was instantly conflicted.
"I have a wonderful suggestion," Fujino Asagami said with a slight smile. She pointed to a nearby doghouse and giggled. "Let him stay in the doghouse. As long as it keeps the wind and rain off him, it should be fine, right?"
Shiki: "..."
Fujino was originally a pure, simple girl; she wouldn't have come up with such a spiteful idea on her own. This was clearly the result of Haruka Kasugano's "excellent" personal tutelage. Naturally, Tomoe Enjou wasn't about to accept those terms.
"Stay in a doghouse? Are you insane?!" Tomoe snapped. He looked at Shiki, hoping she'd stand up for him.
However, Shiki was staring at the doghouse with an expression that clearly signaled her approval of the plan.
"It's all your fault! Why did you have to open your big mouth?" Tomoe shouted, his shame turning into rage. He took two threatening steps toward Fujino.
"Stop!" Shiki warned immediately.
But it was too late. Fujino had already activated her Mystic Eyes of Distortion. "Don't come near me!"
Snap—
Shiki moved to save Tomoe, but she froze in the next second. Fujino hadn't killed him; she had only twisted his arm. But that arm... it was mechanical.
"Aaaagh! It hurts!" Tomoe screamed in agony.
But Shiki and Fujino simply stared at him with expressions of confusion mixed with dread. He wasn't human.
Fujino was only following Haruka Kasugano's orders to provoke Shiki and break one of Tomoe's arms as a "lesson." She never expected him to be a puppet.
"What's with those looks?" Tomoe asked, still oblivious to his own condition. Then, following Shiki's gaze, he saw his severed mechanical limb.
"What... what is this? Why is my hand..." Tomoe's world crumbled.
Shiki and Fujino locked eyes. They both knew this situation was far from simple.
------------
Shiki and Fujino soon learned the whole story from Tomoe. He claimed to live in the Ogawa Apartments with his mentally unstable parents. His mother, unable to endure his father's domestic abuse, had decided the previous night to kill his father, then Tomoe, and finally herself. But Tomoe, sleeping in bed, had suddenly awakened as if by a premonition. He killed his mother in self-defense and fled.
But looking at his mechanical arm, Tomoe fell into despair. "What is happening..." he muttered.
Having been with Haruka Kasugano for nearly a year, Shiki and Fujino were well-acquainted with such anomalies. They could tell at a glance that Tomoe was a puppet. Although the craftsmanship was inferior to Touko Aozaki's, who was making puppets with such high intelligence—no, puppets with souls poured into them?
Driven by curiosity, Shiki and Fujino followed Tomoe back to the Ogawa Apartments. Tomoe was hesitant to return, fearing the police would be everywhere because of the "murder." But Shiki and Fujino ignored his protests and insisted he lead the way.
They soon arrived at the Ogawa Apartments—a cylindrical building standing abruptly in the middle of a small plaza. But there were no police, not even a single passerby.
"How can this be..." Tomoe was stunned. Had the neighbors not reported it?
The next second, he was nearly frightened to tears. A woman who looked exactly like his mother walked toward them from the outside, passing them as if they didn't exist, and walked straight back into the building.
"Mom? Why... wasn't she killed by me?" Tomoe was in shock.
Shiki and Fujino had already guessed the nature of the situation and weren't particularly surprised. "Lead the way. To your home!" Shiki urged.
In the original timeline, Shiki wouldn't have investigated Tomoe's home for another month. But because Haruka Kasugano sent Fujino to stir up trouble, the timeline had been moved up.
The three arrived at the third floor. Fujino politely pressed the doorbell. Tomoe's father opened the door. "Who are you looking for?" he asked.
Tomoe fell to his knees in fear. His father looked right at him but seemed not to see him at all.
"Where is your son?" Shiki questioned.
"Tomoe? He's inside studying. Who are you to him?" the father asked.
"It's nothing. We have the wrong house!" Fujino smiled.
Tomoe's father replied with a robotic, cold "Alright," and shut the door.
"How? I am Tomoe Enjou! I clearly did it last night!" Tomoe wailed in despair. Shiki and Fujino ignored him.
"What's going on?" Fujino asked.
"If I'm not mistaken, there's something wrong with this building," Shiki said. They headed back to the first floor. "The elevator clearly rotated just now. Let's take the stairs."
The Ogawa Apartments had a "Yin-Yang" structure. Each floor had a "living world" disguised by puppets, and the elevator always opened to this side. To find the "world of the dead" where the corpses were piled, one had to take the stairs.
The three soon reached the "Yin" version of Tomoe's apartment. It was visibly filthier and more dilapidated. Fujino reached for the doorbell, but Shiki simply kicked the door open.
Squelch—
A swarm of flies buzzed out, followed by a putrid stench. Inside lay three corpses. Judging by their state, they had been dead for at least six months.
"Urgh..." Fujino couldn't help but retch. Shiki remained unfazed, while Tomoe collapsed.
"I'm already dead? Then who am I? Am I a fake? What is the point of my existence?" Tomoe despaired.
Suddenly, the environment shifted. The corridor, previously somewhat lit, plunged into darkness.
"Tomoe, you've done quite well. To think you brought Shiki Ryougi here in just one day!" Souren Araya chuckled.
His appearance brought a crushing pressure. Shiki and Fujino both felt it: this man was powerful.
"I... think I know you," Shiki said, searching her memories from three years ago.
"Indeed. It has been three years," Araya replied. Shiki vaguely remembered him as one of the causes of her accident. "Three years ago, I failed because I hadn't fully triggered the impulse within you. So, I arranged for Kirie Fujou and Fujino Asagami to stimulate your chaos!"
Araya glanced at Fujino, who shuddered. "Now, you are only one step away from awakening your Origin!"
"Nonsense!" Shiki drew her knife and lunged at Araya, opening her Mystic Eyes of Perception to kill him.
But Shiki froze. She couldn't see any "Lines of Death" on Araya.
Araya's left hand was embedded with the sarira of a holy monk. Since a sarira is the product of Nirvana, it exists between life and death, blurring the boundaries and preventing an unawakened Shiki from seeing his death.
Araya's "Six Paths of Boundary" manifested as three circles around him. White bands suddenly shot out, entangling Shiki. His boundary drained the kinetic energy of any living being that touched its lines. Shiki was instantly rendered powerless.
Fujino tried to use her Mystic Eyes of Distortion, but they were inside Araya's specialized boundary, the "Hounaden (Hall of Offerings) 64 Layers." With a wave of his hand, Araya severed the space between them, causing Fujino's power to fail. Before she could react, she too was ensnared.
Araya threw them into the structure, imprisoning Shiki in the "Core" and Fujino in the basement. Satisfied, he looked at the broken mechanical arm of Tomoe Enjou and killed him on the spot.
Now, he only had to wait for the 64 Layers to forcibly awaken Shiki's Origin. The Ogawa Apartments functioned as a Taiji diagram—a place of perpetual "reincarnation" where puppets died every night and "revived" every morning. It was the perfect furnace to stimulate Shiki Ryougi.
Slowly, Souren Araya vanished into the darkness.