When they finally pulled themselves out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, barely two minutes had elapsed in the real world.
Several hours still remained before the advance trial was set to begin.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka swept his gaze around the room.
Once he'd confirmed no one had been left behind, he said simply:
"Regroup here before four o'clock."
With that single instruction, he turned and walked away without a second glance.
Hirata Yousuke watched his retreating back and let out a quiet, helpless sigh.
He turned to the classmates who were still visibly unsettled by Ayanokoji's manner, and offered a gentle explanation:
"Sorry — that's just how Ayanokoji is. He runs a little cold at first."
"But he's genuinely reliable. When the actual trial comes, you can trust him without reservation."
Katsuragi Kohei nodded along in agreement:
"In the midterm uninhabited island Black Sphere exam, he saved quite a few people."
He paused, taking in the visible exhaustion written across everyone's faces, and suggested:
"That said… even though no one took any physical damage inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, we still burned through two full days of grueling training in there. Mental fatigue doesn't just erase itself."
"If we want to be in any shape to face the advance trial, everyone should take some time to decompress and rest."
From where he was leaning against the wall, Housen Kazutomi let out a contemptuous snort and shook his head:
"Rest? Anyone who can't handle a little pressure like this is going to fall behind in the exams ahead anyway. It's just a slow death."
"Now, now, Housen-kun — that's a bit harsh."
Yagami Takuya sidled over with a pleasant smile, looking for all the world like the past two days hadn't touched him at all:
"Downtime isn't slacking off — it's letting the mind breathe. Keep a bowstring pulled too tight, and it'll snap on you right when you need it most."
Amikura Mako nodded earnestly:
"Exactly. Not all of us are built the way you are, Housen-kun. Most of us are pretty ordinary people. Stay wound up at maximum tension long enough, and something's going to give eventually."
Housen Kazutomi replied with a cold exhale through his nose — noncommittal, but he didn't push back either.
Meanwhile, Karuizawa Kei hadn't joined the conversation at all.
She walked over to Morishita Ai, who had been quietly observing the exchange, and let her gaze settle on Morishita's characteristically blank little face.
"Come to think of it, I wasn't really paying attention during the Time Chamber simulations… Morishita, are you planning to enter the advance trial too?"
Morishita Ai answered in her flat, expressionless way:
"Yeah. I've got 8 S-Points saved up right now. Without my own Combat Suit…"
She paused a beat.
"…Morishita Ai would feel extremely unsafe. I have to go."
Karuizawa Kei understood completely.
Once you'd experienced the edge a Combat Suit gave you — who could ever go back to tolerating the fragility of a plain human body?
At that moment, Nanase Tsubasa — who had been quietly listening from the side — blinked and tilted her head, looking mildly surprised:
"Hm? From the way you're all talking… you already knew each other before this?"
Karuizawa Kei glanced back at her, but before she could respond, Amikura Mako was already answering in a soft, patient tone:
"We were all thrown into the same uninhabited island Black Sphere exam a few days ago — the whole first-year cohort, forced in together. When you're all staring down life and death side by side, you get to know people pretty fast, even if you'd never met before."
Morishita Ai added quietly:
"Don't let the fact that I'm standing here fool you. Back then, I came very close to… you wouldn't be seeing me right now."
"Honestly, I never expected Chris to end up with the highest score out of everyone."
"At first I figured he was just another filler like me…"
Nanase Tsubasa's eyes flickered with curiosity:
"What actually… happened in that exam?"
"Is that also why Horikita-senpai has been walking around looking so shattered…?"
Karuizawa Kei let out a long sigh, her expression complicated:
"That's… a really long story."
And just like that, the girls had fallen into their own little world, conversation spinning out on its own momentum.
Hirata Yousuke and Katsuragi Kohei exchanged a glance, and by unspoken mutual agreement decided to excuse themselves — this was not a conversation for them.
Yagami Takuya, for his part, was genuinely curious about what had happened on that island — the things Amanatsu Kazuha had refused to tell him — but with all the other guys already gone, he could hardly hang around in a circle of girls without it being awkward. He had no choice but to leave as well.
In theory, for a school-wide event as significant as the uninhabited island exam, he could piece together a rough picture just by tracking down a few of the participants around campus.
But that was the problem — thanks to Chris casually recommending him, Ryuuen Kakeru had latched onto him and barely let him out of his sight for the past two days, putting him through his paces nonstop. He hadn't had so much as a spare minute to go fishing for intel.
Some things were just too painful to put into words.
Time slipped quietly by through taut, strung-out nerves.
Before long, the appointed hour for the advance trial arrived.
With Chris, Ichinose, and the others looking on.
A wash of blue teleportation light swept through the room — and just like that, the sixteen participants who had already assembled vanished into thin air right before their eyes.
When they opened their eyes again.
They found themselves standing inside an ancient ruin, the air heavy with a cold, damp chill.
Massive cut-stone blocks formed the passageways around them, their surfaces carved with strange, archaic totems. It wasn't completely pitch-black — thin slivers of light seeped in through the cracks between stones — but calling it well-lit would have been generous.
Before the Black Sphere's notification chime had even sounded.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had already fished the universal capsule containing the Parasyte fusion and Titan serum out of his pocket and crushed it in his palm.
As the serum injected, he felt the familiar icy sensation crawl beneath the skin of his fingertips.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka drew a slow breath, and addressed the already-transforming right hand:
"Zero — can you sense anything unusual nearby?"
His right hand twisted and writhed, reshaping itself into a tentacle complete with its own independent eyeball and mouth.
The Parasyte known as Zero spoke:
"My detection range mostly only picks up others of my own kind… but far-beyond-human night vision and long-distance audio perception — those I can manage."
"Confirmed: no unusual life signs within thirty metres."
"At roughly fifty metres out — there are heartbeats. Approximately human."
Ayanokoji gave a slight nod.
Behind him, Yagami Takuya stared at this unsettling scene with barely concealed awe:
"Parasytes really aren't just combat weapons, are they — they can work like actual partners too… As expected of Ayanokoji-senpai!"
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka slid him a glance and let the remark pass without response.
At that moment — a soft, resonant hum.
The Black Sphere's signature electronic chime finally sounded, accompanied by a glowing panel that unfurled in midair above them all.
[Advance Trial Mode: — "Jack of Spades · Hide-and-Seek"]
[As you have successfully cleared the first-stage Newcomer Objectives, the penalty of "Life Deduction" will NOT be applied to advance trial losers this time, as a reward.]
[However, please note the following:]
[This trial does NOT take place in your world of origin. Therefore, upon death you will NOT be returned to your original world. Instead, you will respawn in place within the arena three seconds after death. Please exercise extreme caution.]
[Rules are as follows:]
[Within the allotted time, collect or physically destroy the Stone Masks located throughout this arena — all while operating under the noses of the Vampires and the Pillar Men (Clan of Darkness).]
[The four participants who collect/destroy the greatest number will receive the Final Reward.]
[Time Limit: 60 minutes]
[Special Restrictions:]
[1. Beneath each statue lies a dormant Vampire. They sense the vital energy of human contact and will awaken upon being touched by a human.]
[2. At the centre of the ruins stand four stone statues sealing Pillar Men. For every three Vampires that awaken, one Pillar Man will stir and begin to hunt.]
[3. When two Pillar Men have awakened, the Exam Phase will activate by force.]
[4. Once the Exam Phase begins, ALL Vampires and Pillar Men within the arena will be forcibly awakened.]
[Final Special Intelligence Report:]
[As testers who have crossed into a foreign world to resolve its anomalies, the local World Consciousness provides the following intelligence support:]
[1. Both the Pillar Men and Vampires share a weakness to sunlight. However, embedding the Stone Mask with an Aja Stone and activating it through intense light will cause the wearer to evolve into an ultimate life-form immune to all things.]
[2. Several individuals from other worlds have inadvertently wandered into this arena. They will be treated as intruders and held temporarily in Advanced Nurturing after the exam. Among them, however, is one anomaly from another world. By the principle of like repelling like — when you make contact and force their exposure, the Exam Phase will activate immediately.]
[3. Shortly before the trial began, a human who coveted the power of the Stone Masks underwent transformation inside the arena. As a result, one Vampire currently mid-transformation already exists within these ruins before the trial has even started. Stay alert.]
After reading through that long string of rules.
Nanase Tsubasa let out a quiet, relieved breath, murmuring under her breath:
"Thank goodness… even if we don't crack the top four this time, we won't lose any Resurrection Counts…"
"Don't celebrate too soon, Nanase-san."
Katsuragi Kohei rubbed his shaved head, his voice heavy with warning:
"As the trade-off… even if we die in this environment, the protection mechanism won't trigger to pull us out. Respawn in place after three seconds…"
"One wrong move, and you really could get permanently stuck here."
As he spoke, Katsuragi Kohei glanced over at Morishita Ai and Karuizawa Kei, whose postures had gone slightly rigid not far away, and couldn't help a low exhale:
"Hm… looking at it now, sending Kamuro and Sakayanagi together might have actually been the right call after all."
"Good thing we could retrieve the Combat Suit rifles through the Black Sphere wristband — otherwise, without that, relying on Ayanokoji alone would've been a real headache…"
"Vampires… Stone Masks?"
Hirata Yousuke murmured the words, his gaze instinctively drifting toward Ayanokoji.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka pressed his lips together, thinking.
His right-hand Parasyte suddenly spoke up:
"Ayanokoji — I've noticed the walls around us are covered in masks. Is that what you're all looking for?"
The moment those words landed, Nanase Tsubasa and the others immediately spun to look at the stone walls around them.
Sure enough — the walls were densely lined with bizarre stone masks, packed in row upon row.
Beneath each mask, they could faintly make out the hunched shape of humanoid stone effigies, dusted in grey-white.
Remembering the rules, Nanase Tsubasa scrambled backward in alarm, terrified of accidentally brushing against one.
But Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was already moving.
He channelled Ripple Breathing along his meridians, extending it into the Parasyte's tentacles.
Then directed the tentacle to reach out and pry a nearby mask from the wall.
The Parasyte extended a blade, held the mask aloft in the air for a moment, and waited.
When the humanoid stone effigy beneath showed no sign of waking, the tentacle finally passed the mask back into Ayanokoji's hand.
Staring at the stone mask now sitting in Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's palm, Amikura Mako's eyes lit up with sudden understanding:
"I see… because a Parasyte doesn't technically qualify as a human, it completely sidesteps the Vampire-awakening mechanic?"
Ayanokoji gave a nod, offering no further explanation.
Instead, he pulled the Myriad Realm Illustrated Guide — the one Chris had lent him earlier — from his pocket, and aimed it directly at the mask in his hand for a scan.
"Beep——"
[Stone Mask]
[Details: A creation of Kars, the genius of the Pillar Men (Clan of Darkness). Its original purpose was to overcome the race's weakness to sunlight and evolve his kin into ultimate life-forms.]
[Early imperfect versions could only stimulate the human brain and convert humans into Vampires — servants or highly efficient prey. Even so, a human-turned Vampire still possesses the regenerative ability and monstrous strength common to Vampires in the broad sense, capable of effortlessly overwhelming ordinary people.]
[If an Aja Stone is embedded in the specially crafted Stone Mask and activated through intense light, it will allow the Pillar Man wearing it to evolve into an immortal ultimate life-form.]
[Method of Use: Once the mask makes contact with human blood, bone spines will extend from the back of the mask. The spines precisely pierce the wearer's brain, stimulating latent potential and initiating Vampire transformation.]
[Value: After the exam concludes, each mask may be exchanged at a recovery price of 4 S-Points. If brought to the Mystery Merchant, it may be traded directly for 1,000 Item Points.]
"4 S-Points?!"
Even Morishita Ai's perpetually blank face couldn't fully contain her surprise:
"That means… one mask alone is enough for me to scrape together the points for a Combat Suit?"
Housen Kazutomi's eyes lit up with barely restrained greed:
"This place is absolutely crawling with Stone Masks — there have to be dozens at minimum! Enough for every single one of us to easily rack up several dozen S-Points each!"
"With that kind of haul, forget Combat Suits — we'd be able to get our hands on advanced gear without breaking a sweat!"
"It's not that simple."
Yagami Takuya threw cold water on that idea immediately, shaking his head as he laid it out:
"First — our only viable solution right now is Ayanokoji-senpai. We can only safely retrieve Stone Masks by using his Parasyte. The moment anyone else tries to grab one by hand, there's a very real risk of waking a Vampire and triggering the Exam Phase on the spot."
"Second… we can't afford to just sit here and hoard masks while waiting to maximise our post-exam gains."
Yagami Takuya pointed at the stone effigies beneath the masks, his expression grave:
"We're completely surrounded by Stone Masks — which means these walls are packed with dormant Vampires. If the Exam Phase gets forced open…"
"Facing hundreds of Vampires with our current group — most of us without Combat Suits, let alone Black Sphere weapons — even if Ayanokoji-senpai is as strong as he is, there's no way he could cover all of us."
"Yagami-kun is right."
Hirata Yousuke picked up the thread:
"So our immediate priority is to find the hidden Mystery Merchant first."
"While they're still dormant, we use the Stone Masks to trade for enough Item Points, buy whatever we need to keep ourselves alive and arm up properly."
"Otherwise we get greedy, and the whole team wipes. And don't forget…"
Hirata swept his gaze across the shadowed passageway around them:
"The Black Sphere prompt mentioned that besides us, there are people from other worlds wandering around in here. If they start running around the ruins without knowing what they're doing and accidentally touch one of the statues…"
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka gave a nod, and casually tossed the Stone Mask over to Hirata Yousuke.
He stepped past the group, positioning himself at the front of the column, and spoke over his shoulder without turning around:
"Then stay close to me."
"Leave the masks on the walls for now. Let's get a feel for the layout of the ruins first and locate the Mystery Merchant."
At the other end of the ruins, at that very moment.
Just as Hirata Yousuke had feared.
The gears of fate are so often set in motion by the ignorant.
Yotsuya Miko had been struck by a sudden wave of dizziness — and just like that, she found herself somewhere completely foreign: a damp, frigid ruin where even the air tasted of decay.
She was already the kind of girl who spent every waking moment on edge — ever since awakening her ability to see spirits clearly, those grotesque, malevolent forms had become a constant presence she lived in terror of, forever dreading the moment one of them might notice she could see them.
Now, taking in the environment around her, her knees buckled, and she very nearly crumpled onto the stone floor entirely.
'W-where… where even IS this…?'
But then again — in folklore, particularly powerful vengeful spirits could supposedly create illusions of this kind, trapping the living inside barrier-realms that felt completely real, right?
So… wasn't it possible that…
She had simply wandered into a spirit's barrier by accident?
If that was the case — same as always, just pretend she couldn't see anything, find the exit, and she'd be out?
Miko had no idea whether this desperate, self-deluding theory held any water whatsoever.
But she had no other option. As a high school girl, this was the only tool she had for surviving something this terrifying.
"It's fine… as long as I don't see them, they don't exist…"
Miko drew a shuddering breath, forced her trembling hands to fish her phone out of her skirt pocket.
She kept her head down as if typing out a message to a friend on LINE, using only the corner of her eye to nervously steal glances at the path ahead.
As for the Stone Masks lining the walls around her, grinning with stone fangs?
And the stone effigies lurking in the shadows, looking ready to lunge at any moment?
Miko could only chant a frantic mantra at herself in her own head:
I can't see them! I don't see anything! Those are just ordinary rocks!
But no matter how desperately on edge she was, no matter how flawlessly she kept the act up —
She could not escape what the Tome of Ages had already written.
For in the iron pages of that chronicle, which guides the direction of all worlds, the following had already been recorded:
[When Yotsuya Miko, gripped by anxiety, fails to watch the road ahead; when Shiranami Chihiro, startled by the sound of approaching footsteps, breaks into a run — two girls who crossed from different worlds will collide at the crossroads of fate.]
What history's brush inscribes shall become absolute reality, without exception.
And so.
At the very moment Stroheim's scouting party, separated from them by a single wall, walked into the great hall where the Pillar Men's statues stood —
Shiranami Chihiro, running in a blind panic, desperate not to be found.
Rounded a sharp corner — and slammed headlong into Yotsuya Miko, who was equally terrified to look up at where she was going.
"Thud!"
"Oww!"
The sudden, completely unbraced impact sent both of them tumbling to the floor.
The undeniably solid, physical reality of it — the actual, fleshy impact — made Miko freeze for a split second before her heart soared with sudden relief.
'She's real! Thank goodness — there's actually another living person in here!'
Her first instinct was that she'd finally run into a fellow trapped visitor who was just as lost as she was.
Miko opened her mouth, already halfway through an apology, already getting ready to ask if the other girl knew where the exit was — someone to lean on in this nightmare.
And then Shiranami Chihiro's mouth opened, and out came:
"Ugh… of all the luck…"
"Now I've been spotted by someone. If anyone else sees me too, they'll force me to transform into a spirit, won't they…"
Keyword extracted — spirit?!
The words Miko had already been pushing toward the tip of her tongue came to a dead halt.
Her breathing seized.
Don't tell me — what I just ran into isn't human either?!
In the space of a single heartbeat.
Miko's survival instincts hit maximum overdrive.
The "sorry" she'd been forcing to the surface executed a last-second pivot on her tongue, and instead she scratched her head and muttered aloud to herself:
"Oh gosh… seriously, how clumsy am I."
"Walking on perfectly flat ground by myself and somehow managing to trip over my own feet — what a day I'm having, haha…"
As she spoke, Miko went through an elaborate performance of rubbing an ankle that hadn't been twisted at all, head carefully down the entire time, going out of her way to avoid meeting Shiranami Chihiro's gaze.
She felt around for her phone, which had clattered onto the stone floor, reaching blindly for it — just trying to bluff her way through.
Except…
Her hands were shaking like a leaf in a storm. And her voice — tight and dry with barely suppressed tears — had a distinct quiver to it that rather undermined the entire performance.
She wasn't exactly what you'd call convincing.
Shiranami Chihiro stared at the girl in front of her, acting as if everything was perfectly normal, and fell into a moment of speechless silence.
What… was this supposed to be? Street theatre?
Shiranami Chihiro let out a sigh.
Thinking of the booted footsteps that could close in at any moment.
She just reached out and grabbed Yotsuya Miko's still-scrabbling-blindly-on-the-floor wrist.
"Alright — drop the act."
Shiranami Chihiro said with a note of resigned exasperation: "I know you saw me."
Miko's hands shook even harder.
Tears were already welling up in the corners of her eyes — but she still refused to concede, stubbornly wrenching her head to the side, slapping at the cold sweat on her forehead with the back of her hand, and launching into an absolutely committed one-woman performance directed at thin air:
"Phew… why does this basement feel kind of warm?"
"Is it because I wore too many layers today? Yeah, I really need to get outside and get some air…"
Shiranami Chihiro stared at this pitiful display of sticking fingers in ears and hoping for the best, and was at a complete loss for words.
She picked up the phone from the ground and held it out in front of Yotsuya Miko's face, blocking her line of evasion.
She was just about to open her mouth and explain her "ghost" situation —
But then.
The moment Miko felt the phone press into her palm —
She looked at the screen, right there in front of her face, up close.
And the tears she'd been holding back through sheer force of will, crammed stubbornly into the corners of her eyes for so long — finally lost the battle. They gathered into fat, heavy drops and spilled silently down her cheeks.
'Mom… Dad… please, somebody up there…'
'Please watch over Miko.'
This had to be a spirit playing tricks on her eyes… I — I must be having a nightmare… right?
— End of Chapter —
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