**The white dimension I'd been thrown into left no room for excuses.**
Only one being could be behind this.
A being?
Perhaps I was being too generous with my wording. Witches don't qualify as "beings" by definition.
Was this game ending before it even began?
I didn't know what was worse — the absurdity, or the premonition that the absurdity was just getting started.
And, as if on cue, just as these thoughts began swirling in my head — she appeared.
— Welcome once more to my domain!
Fifth-rate theatrics. A voice straight from a festival of madness.
— So, what did you think of my performance? No need to answer — your face says it all! Agha-gha-hah!
That laugh would make even a mirror ashamed to reflect it. As if she genuinely reveled in this.
But can one take joy in murder?
Animals kill without awareness. Humans — with it.
So what does that make witches?
The aftermath of such acts is pain.
But if there's no pain — then what remains?
— This one's frozen stiff just by my presence. Are you truly so terrified of me... ehe-heh.
— What fascinating entertainment awaits! I have high hopes for our little confrontation.
As if she was casting me for a play where the main props were corpses.
— Enough pointless musings!
— I am the witch of this blessed Ryujima Island, and my name is Mariana!
— With this marvelous announcement, I declare our first game officially open!
First?
After everything she'd already done?
This wasn't even the game yet?
— Game... Open?
— What nonsense! You just slaughtered every other participant — even the staff — without sparing a single soul, and now you're talking about opening some game?
— So to you, those recent events didn't even qualify as part of it?
— You're mistaken, Aragi...
— This is merely the prelude to my grand game!
— Preludes lack the thrilling moments found in the middle or end!
— Just the thought excites me, yes... Right now, I'm positively giddy with anticipation!
So this was what a woman looked like after losing everything — except the desire to pretend she'd lost nothing.
A game, you say? A prelude, you say?
Disgusting.
— Why are you doing this? What do you hope to achieve?
— I'll never believe someone who casually flings cruelty around under the guise of amusement!
— Keh... What a tedious man...
If I ever become this insufferable, shoot me on the second day. Out of basic decency.
— A witch needs no other reason!
— Were I anyone else, your question might hold weight — but not in this case.
— Use that dull brain of yours! What could an all-powerful witch, sealed forever on this damned island, possibly want?
Sealed. Not dead. Not gone. Just sealed. Like a doll in a box.
— For beings like me, boredom is the greatest enemy — one I've fought my entire existence.
— Standing above life and death, I can't even perish properly.
— So I created this game! Where select humans compete for the chance to have any wish or question answered!
— But only the last one standing by the sixth night claims the prize.
Alive.
Until the sixth night.
Everything else — just casualty statistics.
— Even so, that's no excuse to treat lives like disposable props.
— Why choose them specifically for your game?
— No precise answer, but let's just say... it depends on my blessing.
— Blessing?
— Like drawing cards. Whatever you pull as your trump — that's what you become.
So — random chance?
As merciless as everything else about her.
They'd just been dealt as trumps in her game. Draw one, play it. Lucky? Death. Unlucky? Still death.
— Why did I survive? Shouldn't I be another corpse in that library like the rest?
— Call it... fortunate timing.
Ah, yes. What luck — being the last man standing on a horror movie set.
— What is this place? That world looked like it shattered into fragments and dissolved into void.
— Correct. That world no longer exists. Merely one shard among infinite others.
Those floating fragments were world shards?
So we're literally in the archives of a discarded reality?
— Why destroy that world? Wasn't the game supposed to last six nights? Barely two days had passed.
— True, but it's already concluded! — the witch declared.
Everything clicked.
The killer had wiped them all out... in under two nights. Maybe less.
**Second Night Casualties:**
**Yahweh**
- Second to arrive on the island.
- Status: Killed on night two (library).
- Cause of death: Gunshot wounds to head and chest.
**Hov**
- Third to arrive.
- Status: Killed on night two (library).
- Cause of death: Gunshot wounds to head and chest.
**Tiamut**
- Fourth to arrive.
- Status: Killed on night two (library).
- Cause of death: Gunshot to the head.
**Kamiki**
- Sixth additional participant.
- Status: Killed on night two (library).
- Cause of death: Gunshot wounds to head and chest.
— Which leaves only...!
— Now you understand?
— This is the true game's beginning! Let your downfall commence, Aragi-i-i!!
The witch's counterattack begins.
But what of Aragi's counter?
Can I — even attempt — to repel it?