Touko's method was simple. She would use her Third Magic's absolute control over souls to return Enjou's soul—currently residing in this puppet body for some unknown reason—back to his real brain, still somewhere in Ogawa Apartments. Then, she would trace the soul's path to find Araya Souren's stronghold.
"Do you understand?" Touko said seriously to Enjou. "Your current body, and those you just saw as your parents, are all puppets made by that guy. But unlike your parents, your soul managed to partially escape his control, which is why you met Mikiya and Shiki."
"That guy... why is he doing this!" Enjou asked, trembling with suppressed anger. "Why cause such pain and despair for everyone!"
"Who knows?" Touko shrugged indifferently. "If we could understand the minds of the mentally deranged, wouldn't we be deranged ourselves?"
"Also," Touko continued, raising a finger, "from what I've heard about your family's time in Ogawa Apartments, I'm 99.9% sure your parents' worsening relationship was also due to Araya Souren's— that is, the monk's—influence."
"!?" Enjou grew even angrier, looking up, waiting for Touko's explanation.
"Was it a magical suggestion, Sensei?" Azaka mused, seeming to have realized something.
"That's part of it, but not all," Touko shook her head. "Every element making up this apartment exerts mental pressure on its inhabitants, especially non-magus. Long-term residents inevitably develop mental abnormalities. That's why the tenants on the west side all died from various accidents."
"Azaka, after entering Ogawa Apartments, didn't you feel a sense of otherworldliness?" Touko asked her student.
"Otherworldliness?" Azaka paused, thought for a bit, then said, "Now that you mention it... yes, there was a feeling of discomfort, like entering a creature's body."
"You're exactly right," Touko nodded. "Araya Souren has somehow made this temple his own body. We're moving about inside him. That's why, after our fight on the first floor, he could escape at the last moment."
"All right, enough talk. It's time to make that monk pay," Touko's gaze sharpened. "Ready, Enjou?"
"...I understand!" Enjou's eyes became resolute as he took a deep breath. Though unfamiliar with the magus, he understood what that monk had done to his family. "Please, I'm ready!"
Touko pressed her index and middle fingers together, their tips glowing gold. She gently pressed them to Enjou's forehead. Enjou's body, like a puppet whose strings were cut, collapsed instantly to the floor.
Azaka quickly checked on him. Just now, Enjou looked completely human, but now, anyone could see he was a puppet. His joints, mouth, eyes, and skin all gleamed with obvious inorganic luster.
"Hmph, looks like Araya Souren has studied my early papers on puppet-making at the Clock Tower," Touko remarked, glancing at the puppet En Ba on the ground. "But it's just an imitation. He never had the talent for it; this is the best he could do."
"Sensei, did you find Araya Souren's location? Is my brother there?" Azaka asked anxiously.
"I believe Mikiya is indeed in Araya Souren's lair, and not in immediate danger," Touko said. "All these deaths were planned long in advance. He wouldn't add an extra, unplanned soul at the last minute."
"As for his lair—it's exactly where you'd expect: under this apartment," Touko's lips curled into a fierce grin. "Time to settle accounts. Not finishing him off years ago is my debt!"
Knowing Araya Souren's workshop location, Touko wasted no time and headed straight for the central elevator shaft, not expecting him to provide any ordinary stairs to the basement.
Inside the elevator, Touko ordered the fat cat Cheshire to cut open the floor of the elevator car. The two of them dropped into the dark shaft, then immediately used boundary magic to float down at a steady speed.
Perhaps realizing Touko wasn't fazed by this level of attack, Araya Souren didn't try any tricks like making the elevator fall. Their descent was smooth.
With a series of slicing sounds, a corner of Araya Souren's gloomy underground workshop ceiling broke open, and Touko and Azaka floated down gently to the ground.
The workshop was dimly lit, with only some indicator lights flashing on unknown machines. The rest was pitch black.
Touko waved her staff, and a starlit orb floated up, casting a bluish glow over the secret workshop.
Azaka saw countless pipes and jars stacked everywhere. Inside the jars were the brains of some Ogawa Apartment residents, still alive—just as Touko had guessed. For Azaka, a newcomer to magecraft, it was chilling.
But judging by the number of jars and the number of puppets they'd found, once this incident was over, few could be revived by Touko.
Touko looked to the end of the workshop, at a figure sitting in a chair, who snorted in disdain. "Look at the state you're in, Araya. Pathetic."
Azaka looked up sharply, following Touko's gaze, and saw the culprit they had been seeking: Araya Souren.
What kind of person was he? His body was pierced with countless pipes of unknown purpose. His head was bowed, skin dried out, and where Touko had chopped off his arm earlier, not a drop of blood flowed—what did was like powder.
"Just a little more," Araya rasped. "Just a little more, and I'll have enough death..."
"But why? Why would humanity's pitiful collective unconsciousness send you, the enemy of the world, to me?!"
His previously emotionless voice suddenly grew shrill. Araya was extremely agitated by the appearance of his famous old classmate, Aozaki Touko.