That afternoon, Shirou arrived at the hospital Touko had specified.
After using suggestion Magecraft to make the hospital staff believe he was a substitute physician, Shirou was told which private room his target was in.
Inside the pure white room was a girl who looked sixteen or seventeen at most.
Her black hair fell to her shoulders, and she sat quietly on the bed.
Shirou was a little surprised. He had heard she had been unconscious for a full two years, yet she did not look the least bit haggard, as a patient should.
The only abnormal thing was her face. Bandages were wrapped around the area where her eyes were.
Come to think of it, doesn't this girl look a little like Mitsuzuri?
Does she usually practice some kind of martial art?
"You're Shiki Ryougi, right?"
Shirou had just pulled over a chair and sat down beside the bed when he sensed an intense rejection from the girl.
Touko really dumped a troublesome job on me...
Shirou braced himself and spoke in a gentle tone.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Shinji Matou, a speech therapist here to help treat your aphasia..."
"Hey. Who told you I had aphasia? And..."
Shiki Ryougi coldly cut off Shirou's self-introduction.
"Why is there a brat here?"
Shirou was secretly startled.
As a Magus, he might only be third-rate, but as a Magecraft user, there was no doubting his ability.
He was not so incompetent that an ordinary person with no Magecraft training should be able to see through his disguise.
And besides, her eyes were sealed right now. She could not see anything...
Ah, I see.
Precisely because she can't see, her other senses are sharper.
Shirou admitted that he had underestimated this girl named Shiki Ryougi a little. She really did practice some kind of martial art, didn't she?
"Why aren't you saying anything? Whatever..."
Shiki Ryougi reached toward the bell on the bedside table to call the nurse, but Shirou snatched it away first.
"Let me teach you something, Shiki Ryougi-san. Don't judge people by how old they look."
"Hmph..."
Shiki Ryougi stared at Shirou with her sightless eyes.
"You're not a doctor, are you? And that name just now was fake too."
"That's right. Let me introduce myself again. My name is Shirou Amamiya."
He smiled as he spoke. "Mm... I'm a Magician."
Strictly speaking, his full title was "the Fifth Magician's lover and the First Magician's Master," which shortened to "Magician."
Yes, that was absolutely not bragging.
"..."
Shiki Ryougi looked utterly speechless.
"I'm not interested in stage magicians."
"No, no, no. Magic isn't Magecraft, and it isn't a trick either."
"Magic is incredible. It exists on a completely different level from those things."
Shirou looked at the girl with his twilight-colored Mystic Eyes.
"For example, the hole in your chest is something a Magus could never fill. But with Magic, there's a way."
"The hole in my chest?"
"That's right. You should have noticed it long ago, haven't you?
"You're all alone now. The 'him' inside you died in your place in that car accident."
After Shirou said that, Shiki Ryougi covered her mouth.
She finally remembered why her memories felt severed.
The presence of the other personality inside Shiki Ryougi, SHIKI Ryougi, had disappeared.
...
Shiki was a person with dual personalities, with another personality inside her.
The Ryougi bloodline had a hereditary chance of producing children with two personalities.
In ordinary families, such special children would be treated as taboo, but in the Ryougi family, they were instead revered as transcendents and regarded as legitimate heirs.
Shiki had inherited that bloodline.
That was also why her parents had passed over their eldest son and chosen her, a girl, as heir.
However, this was never supposed to happen.
Between the two personalities, the masculine male personality and the feminine female personality, the male personality usually held stronger control.
The few legitimate heirs up until now had all been born male, with female personalities inside them.
Only Shiki had somehow gone wrong, becoming the exact opposite of the previous cases.
Inside Shiki, who was female, existed the male SHIKI Ryougi.
The one who held control over the body was the female Shiki, namely her.
SHIKI Ryougi was her negative personality, the one who bore the emotions she suppressed.
Shiki had lived until now by erasing the negative darkness that was Shiki Ryougi, killing SHIKI Ryougi, who was equal to herself, countless times while pretending to live as an ordinary person.
SHIKI Ryougi himself did not seem especially dissatisfied with this.
He slept most of the time, and when she woke him to deal with situations like sword practice, he would agree in a bored sort of way.
The relationship between SHIKI and Shiki Ryougi was like that of master and servant, but that was not what they truly were. They were one and the same.
SHIKI's actions were Shiki Ryougi's actions, and the desire to suppress himself was also SHIKI Ryougi's own will.
Yes, SHIKI Ryougi was a killer.
Although he had never actually killed anyone, he possessed an intense urge to kill.
The main personality, Shiki, ignored that wish and had always forbidden him from acting on it.
Even if they ignored each other, SHIKI and Shiki Ryougi were indispensable to one another.
Because Shiki Ryougi existed, SHIKI, though an anomaly, never felt lonely.
But the moment came when that relationship broke apart.
Two years ago, when Shiki was in her first year of high school, SHIKI Ryougi, who had never desired control over the body before, began to want to appear on his own.
From that point on, Shiki's memories became fragmented.
The current her could not remember anything from SHIKI's first year of high school until the car accident.
The only thing she clearly remembered was a human body torn apart on the ground, and her own hands stained red with blood.
...
From that day on, Shirou visited the hospital room marked with Shiki Ryougi's name every afternoon.
Touko had not told him to do it. He simply felt he could not leave her alone.
Although he knew he was unwelcome, Shirou did not mind.
Before either of them realized it, the girl's attitude had changed from her initial coldness, and little by little, she became willing to talk with Shirou.
From Shiki Ryougi, he heard the story of her and SHIKI Ryougi.
"Hey, Amamiya... why did SHIKI die in my place?
"If everything you said is true, then as long as SHIKI Ryougi hadn't died for me back then, he could have survived that car accident.
"I should have been the one who died."
"You're wrong, Shiki... You already died."
"What?"
"You and SHIKI Ryougi together were one person, Shiki Ryougi. Now...
"Now that you've lost SHIKI Ryougi, you're no longer that same person, Shiki Ryougi."
The girl suddenly understood.
She finally realized why the sixteen years of her past life felt so unfamiliar to her.
To the "Shiki Ryougi of now," the "Shiki Ryougi from two years ago" was nothing more than a stranger who happened to have the same memories.
Having returned from death, she could never again become the Shiki Ryougi she once was, because SHIKI Ryougi had left forever.
"..."
Shiki Ryougi held her face in her hands and sank into a long silence.
Occasionally, the girl would get sulky too.
"Having two personalities isn't that big a deal, is it? Don't stare at me like I'm a giant panda."
"It really isn't that big a deal. I have a friend with up to eighty-eight personalities."
Shirou's words made Shiki Ryougi find it funny. How could someone like that possibly exist?
"But Shiki, you and SHIKI aren't as simple as ordinary dual personalities."
"You coexist at the same time, each with a clear sense of self, yet your actions can still be unified."
"A special case like that has probably never appeared even in the history of the Ryougi family, has it?"
Shirou pinched his chin, then spoke in a meaningful tone.
"You and SHIKI really are like the two ends of a taijitu."
"One half is black, the other is white, and each has a small opening of the opposite color running through it."
"A white hole in the black crescent, a black hole in the white crescent. They coil around each other while opposing each other at the same time."
"A spiral of black and white, yang and yin, good and evil."
Shiki Ryougi grew a little impatient. "Amamiya, what exactly are you trying to say?"
"If you and SHIKI symbolize the divided taiji, the 'Ryougi,' then naturally there should also be a 'Taiji' that exists."
"In other words, the plate itself that holds both black and white."
Shiki Ryougi understood what Shirou meant and frowned as she asked back, "Are you saying... there's a third personality inside me?
"Just like how I couldn't sense SHIKI when he was asleep... because this third personality has never appeared on its own and has always remained silent, I didn't know it existed."
Shirou nodded.
Shiki Ryougi said, "That's impossible. Why would a third personality hide its existence from me and SHIKI?"
In truth, Shirou also thought it was impossible.
At first, Shirou had seen the hollow inside the girl's heart through the "Mystic Eyes of the End," then combined that with Touko's information to deduce that "SHIKI had died in the car accident."
If there really were a third personality inside Shiki, it should not have been able to escape Shirou's eyes either.
Although he had no proof, Shirou did not want to give up so easily.
"Nothing is impossible. SHIKI could clearly take control of the body, so why did he give it up voluntarily? Can you explain that?"
"That's..."
Shiki Ryougi's lips parted slightly.
In truth, she knew the reason. It was because SHIKI loved dreaming even more than she did.
Shiki Ryougi changed the subject.
"By the way, Amamiya, this hospital seems to be haunted."
"Yeah, I know."
"...You know?"
The girl looked incredulous, glaring fiercely at Shirou with her sightless eyes.
This was something she had not told anyone else yet.
Recently, every night, a white spirit would slip into her room in the dead of night.
The disgusting mist, which reminded her of a jellyfish, would drift to Shiki's hospital bed, then keep touching her face in the darkness.
In that instant, she would feel her body rapidly freeze, and a chill as sharp as a bird's talon would race down her spine.
The ghost never violated the girl any further, and the girl simply kept staring at the ghost.
Only when the white spirit completely dissipated at five in the morning could Shiki Ryougi finally fall asleep.
"If you knew it was haunted, why didn't you do something?" she demanded angrily.
"I thought Shiki was still trying to die, so I left it alone... From the sound of it, you don't want to die anymore?"
Shirou smiled as he said it.
"..."
Killing intent spread from the girl's body and filled the entire hospital room.
Shirou hurriedly said, "I'm kidding," then got up and hung the Rune stone he had found at "Garan no Dou" on the door.
That night, the ghost did not come to disturb Shiki Ryougi's sleep again.
For the first time in a long while, she slept well.
...
After finishing his work at the hospital, Shirou returned to his temporary lodging for Golden Week.
In other words, Touko Aozaki's office in Mifune City.
It was an unfinished building that had begun construction several years ago, when the economy had been good, only to be abandoned halfway once the economy worsened.
Although the outside of the building had been completed, the interior had never been finished. The walls, floors, and construction materials were all exposed.
Touko had bought the entire building and made it her base in Japan.
The second and third floors were the office workspace, while the fourth floor was the president's private area. Shirou had been sleeping there recently.
It was described as a free employee benefit, but in reality, it was just Touko making Shirou watch the place while she was away from Japan.
On the way back to the office, Shirou's gaze was drawn to a striking figure.
At dusk, a girl wearing a black uniform resembling a nun's habit was walking through the streets of Mifune City.
...It was the uniform of Reien Girl's Academy.
Speaking of Reien Girl's Academy, it was a very famous Christian seminary.
It was known for its extremely strict school culture, and Alice and Touko had both gone there for high school.
When Shirou heard from Touko that she was actually Alice's senpai, he was so shocked he nearly drowned in his coffee.
Shirou briefly imagined that woman smiling and saying, "Good day," and his scalp immediately prickled...
Then Touko glared at him fiercely.
"I heard Reien is an all-boarding school..."
Shirou stared at the girl walking alone ahead of him, yet here she was at this hour, in a place like this.
Hmm. Looks like Reien students aren't as proper as the rumors say.
Then again, even Touko-nee-san graduated from there...
Come to think of it, doesn't this girl kind of resemble Sakura? In terms of atmosphere.
"What should I make for dinner tonight?"
The office kitchen had a huge Chinese wok. Shirou had never used one before. Even when making Chinese food, he had always used a frying pan.
During the days he stayed there, his greatest pleasure was cooking with that wok.
Mapo tofu... no, he was already tired of that. Tonight, maybe stir-fried pork with green peppers...
Just as Shirou was cheerfully thinking about what to make for dinner, several young men who looked like troublemakers latched onto the Reien student walking ahead of him.
"Um..."
"Why is a Reien student out at this hour? Did you sneak out behind the school's back?"
Shirou ignored the girl being harassed and the crude laughter, and continued walking forward.
Wait.
Now that I've finally gotten my hands on a good cooking tool, I really shouldn't limit myself to stir-fries. Maybe I should try something more difficult this time?
"Please... please let go..."
"Don't be such a downer. Want to come have some fun with us? You came out here to look for guys anyway, right?"
When it comes to Chinese food, it has to be Peking duck! All right! Tonight, I'll try making Peking duck!
"I'm sorry... please don't do this..."
"Your parents spent all that money sending you to Reien. They'd be so disappointed if they found out, wouldn't they?"
No... that's impossible.
A Chinese wok isn't Morgan's cauldron. It can't just make a Peking duck appear out of thin air...
"Hah? Why are you acting so pure? Want us to tell your school you snuck out?"
Shirou sighed and stopped walking.
He turned around to look at the girl being harassed by the young men.
"Twice-cooked pork or sweet-and-sour ribs, which sounds better?"