"Coming, coming~~~"
Hearing the knock at the door, Fujino Asagami set down the kitchen utensils and seasonings in her hands.
Without even stopping to untie her apron, she hurried to the entrance, unlatched the chain, and opened the door.
"Welcome back, Shirou-kun."
The smile on the girl's face froze.
Standing in the doorway was not only the boy Fujino had been eagerly waiting for. Behind him stood another girl about her own age.
"I'm back, Fujino."
Fujino Asagami ignored Shirou's greeting and peered past his shoulder at the girl behind him.
Her long hair fell to her shoulders. It was beautiful black hair, yet it looked as if it had never been cared for, as if she had simply let it grow wild for years.
She had an androgynous beauty that made even Fujino hold her breath, with a slender figure and snow-white skin that gave her a dignified, almost otherworldly air.
"Shirou-kun, who is this?"
Alarm bells rang in Fujino's mind as she stared hard at the girl's face.
"Ah, let me introduce you. This is Shiki, the one I mentioned to you before... Shiki Ryougi."
Fujino Asagami was taken aback. "Ryougi...?"
Could it be that Ryougi?
The Ryougi family, the yakuza clan so famous in Mifune City...
She could not help looking the girl over again.
The kimono the black-haired girl wore looked plain at first glance, but anyone with a trained eye could tell it was actually an extremely high-end piece.
So that was it. If she was the daughter of the Ryougi family, it would not be strange for her to have her own dedicated weaver.
"Fujino, do you know Shiki?"
"No, this is my first time meeting Shiki-san... I didn't expect her to be a girl around my age."
Fujino Asagami spoke calmly.
Since Shirou was there, she did her best not to let him notice her dislike, putting on a polite, practiced smile.
But…
"Shirou, I hate this person," Shiki Ryougi said bluntly.
Shirou scolded her loudly. "Shiki! What are you saying? That's incredibly rude to Fujino-san!"
"Hmph." Shiki Ryougi turned her face away.
"Sorry, Fujino... Shiki was in a car accident before and only just woke up, so she may still be having trouble adjusting. Don't take it to heart."
"Yes, Shirou-kun. I won't take it to heart."
The three of them moved from the entrance into the room.
As they did, Shirou explained the situation to Fujino at length.
Like Fujino, Shiki Ryougi possessed abnormal eyes, and from now on, she would also receive Shirou's guidance and learn how to control them.
"It's not 'control.' It's 'use.'"
"Shiki, be quiet for now."
"Shirou, where are the scissors?"
"What are you planning to do now?"
"Cut my hair, obviously. It's uncomfortable when it's this long."
"I'll cut it for you."
"Over my dead body... Tch, don't just touch my hair!"
"What, are you embarrassed?"
"Go die!"
"..."
Fujino barely heard the conversation between Shirou and Shiki.
Inside, she was deeply shocked.
It seemed she was not the only one who hated Shiki Ryougi. The other girl hated her as well.
They both saw the black hair behind one another, and both felt a visceral revulsion toward the other.
That person had nothing but blood in her. She longed to kill, longed to hurt others... She was a murderer.
Even if she had not killed anyone yet, she would sooner or later. As someone of the same kind, I can say that with absolute certainty.
I can't let her stay by Shirou-kun's side.
Someone like her will only tarnish Shirou-kun's character.
I have to protect that boy.
Fujino Asagami quietly closed her eyes.
Shirou is the one who gave me hope. My savior.
For his sake... I would even kill.
...
...
On the last day of Golden Week, Touko Aozaki returned to Mifune City.
Shirou entrusted Shiki and Fujino to Touko, then returned to Fuyuki for school.
Shirou gave Shiki and Fujino his home phone number, telling them to contact Touko if anything happened, and to consult him if that still was not enough.
Until summer break, Shiki did not call even once.
She really is like a cat, Shirou thought.
Fujino, on the other hand, called from time to time. A few times, Fuji-nee was the one who answered.
When they heard that a girl had gone out of her way to call Shirou from Mifune City, Irisviel and Taiga Fujimura convened a family meeting.
"Fuyuki and Misaki weren't enough, so now you've built yourself a family in Mifune City too? Shirou, bigamy is illegal, you know!"
"What are you even talking about, Fuji-nee?"
"Don't play dumb. That girl is your local wife in Mifune City, isn't she?"
"What's a local wife?"
"You're still playing dumb! I don't remember raising you to be such a lying child, Shirou."
"Looks like I'll have to teach you a lesson... Sakura, bring me my Tora-Shinai!"
It took Shirou a very long time to finally explain everything.
Why was Fuji-nee so angry...? What on earth had Fujino said to her?
One evening before summer vacation began, Fujino called and said that Shiki had been going out at night a lot lately.
"It isn't very good for a high school girl to be wandering around outside at two in the morning, is it?"
"Yeah, you're right. It's too dangerous... I'll remind her next time. Thanks for telling me, Fujino-san."
"No, Shirou-kun, that isn't what I meant... Never mind. It's nothing."
Shirou brushed off Fujino's report.
Of course he knew what Fujino was trying to say. Shiki was not the one who would be in danger.
Not long after he returned to Fuyuki, Fujino had called him once.
At the time, she told Shirou over the phone that she was investigating the serial murders that had taken place in Mifune City two years earlier.
It had been a horrific case that caused a huge uproar throughout Japanese society at the time.
There had been six victims in total, and each had died in an exceedingly gruesome state. The killer seemed driven by a twisted urge to pursue some form of art.
One victim had been split in half from forehead to crotch, with one half pressed flat against a wall.
One victim had their limbs cut off, then their hands sewn to their feet and their feet sewn to their hands.
One victim had their severed head placed at the center, with their arms and legs arranged around it in the shape of a swastika.
At the scene of the fifth murder, a student badge from a nearby high school was found.
Then the sixth murder occurred at the gate of a great and powerful family's estate in Mifune City. The Ryougi family.
Although that murder was considered part of the serial killings, no deeper investigation was carried out.
After the police completed their routine forensic examination of the scene, they were no longer able to enter the Ryougi family's land. Supposedly, pressure had been applied.
Yet strangely enough, no new murders occurred after that. The killer seemed to have vanished into thin air.
"Did you know, Shirou-kun?"
Fujino Asagami spoke in a cold, hostile voice. "Shiki-san was also hospitalized after a car accident around that same time."
Shirou: "..."
Fujino did not trust Touko. She believed Touko and Shiki were on the same side.
Although Shirou had tried to persuade her and told her that Shiki could not possibly be the murderer, this was the one time she refused to listen to him.
"I'll prove it to you, Shirou-kun... Shiki-san isn't worthy of your trust."
Even now, Fujino continued to obsessively investigate the case from two years ago, using the scouting techniques and basic magecraft she had learned from Touko.
...
After summer vacation began, Shirou started visiting "Garan no Dou" frequently.
He had promised Shiki and Fujino that he would teach them how to control their Mystic Eyes, and he could not exactly break that promise.
Shirou understood better than anyone how disastrous it could be when someone failed to consider a girl's feelings.
It was not only Shirou. After summer vacation began, Shiki and Fujino also began showing up at "Garan no Dou" regularly.
"Have you heard that rumor? Apparently, there's a girl flying through the air above the Fujou Building."
That day, while the three of them were gathered in the lounge drinking coffee, Shiki suddenly brought up a supernatural rumor.
In the commercial district, there was a luxury apartment building called the Fujou Building.
Rumor had it that at night, a human-like figure could be seen above the building.
Shiki said she had already seen it several times.
A girl dressed in white, flying through the night sky above the building with the moon behind her.
Even without the "Mystic Eyes of Death Perception," the current Shiki possessed spiritual sight beyond that of ordinary people.
In the East, it was called "Pure Eyes," something similar to, yet not quite the same as, the "Gram Sight" of the Western Magecraft world.
Since Shiki said she had seen it, it probably was not just some summer ghost story.
"It seems the number of suicides has already risen to eight."
At that moment, Touko Aozaki cut into the conversation and brought up the recent suicides.
In less than a month, eight female high school students had jumped to their deaths one after another.
No matter how anyone looked at it, the situation was abnormal. Yet apparently, there was no connection between the suicides. The girls all attended different schools and did not know one another.
None of the eight had left a suicide note, and most of the suicide scenes had multiple witnesses.
There was also nothing suspicious in their private lives. No drug use, no involvement with questionable religions.
"No wonder the police decided they were unrelated suicides."
Touko Aozaki took off her glasses and lit a cigarette. Shirou frowned and hurried over to open the blinds.
"Don't smoke indoors when there are minors here, Touko-nee-san."
Fujino Asagami, who had been silent until then, spoke up. "So the suicides are connected to the figure flying above the Fujou Building, correct?"
"You've become sharper and sharper since regaining your sense of pain, Fujino."
Touko Aozaki looked pleased. "Unfortunately, Shiki noticed it before you this time."
She knew perfectly well that Fujino Asagami saw Shiki Ryougi as a rival, which was why she said it on purpose.
What a terrible personality... Shirou thought. Thank goodness she isn't my girlfriend.
"The jumping incidents will stop once they reach eight people. Then things will quiet down for a while."
Shiki suddenly said that out of nowhere.
Fujino reacted sharply. "You know when they'll stop?"
"That's right."
Shiki looked into the distance and nodded. "I saw it. There were eight people flying."
"What do you mean?"
"There's someone floating above the Fujou Building, and the girls who committed suicide are circling around her."
"Those eight girls are basically ghosts. Only one of them is floating there alive. That's all."
Fujino immediately noticed the inconsistency. "Shiki-san, when did you see those ghosts?"
"A while ago. About three weeks back, I think? I remember Shirou came to my apartment that night."
"..."
Fujino's forehead twitched slightly. She bit her lip and said, "The numbers don't match. The death toll only reached eight yesterday."
Shiki's gaze did not waver at all. She stated firmly, "There were eight of them. From the very beginning, I saw eight figures flying."
"You're lying!"
"Huh? Why would I need to lie?"
Obviously to show off in front of Shirou-kun, Fujino thought privately.
Shiki scratched her hair. "I'm not lying... The air over there just feels wrong. Right, it's strange in the same way as when hot water and ice water collide. That's why..."
Fujino put on the smug look of a victor. "Shiki-san, would you like to see a doctor? I can introduce you to one..."
"Shiki isn't lying. I'm afraid there's something wrong with time at the Fujou Building."
Shirou explained, "There isn't only one speed at which time flows. The distance it takes for things to reach decay is not equal."
"When humans die, the 'Record' that belongs to them does not disappear."
"As long as there are observers, nothing suddenly vanishes without a trace. Instead, everything gradually returns to nothingness."
Touko nodded and picked up from there.
"When the observer of a 'Record' is not a person but the surrounding environment, special people like them can become phantoms even after death, roaming through the city. That's one of the phenomena known as ghosts."
"The ones who can see those phantoms are people who share part of their 'Record'... friends and relatives of the dead."
"Shiki is an exception... and Fujino, you possess the same aptitude."
On the rooftop of the Fujou Building, the flow of time for the "Record" was probably extremely slow.
So what Shiki had seen was actually the Record of those girls before they jumped to their deaths.
"Enough with the explanations no one can understand."
Shiki impatiently cut off Shirou and Touko's conversation.
"They won't do any harm. The problem is the one who started all this, right? So what, do you need me to go take her out..."
Fujino Asagami rose from the sofa.
"There's no need for Shiki-san to do anything. I'll deal with her tonight."
After saying that, the girl turned and left the agency.
"Aren't you going after her?"
Touko looked at Shirou and urged him on with a faint, teasing smile.
Shirou sighed helplessly and ran downstairs after Fujino.
The girl with long, straight purple hair ignored Shirou as he hurried after her, simply continuing down the street.
"Fujino-san, are you angry?"
Hearing the boy's words, Fujino slowed her steps until she finally stopped.
"I've been thinking this for a while now. Shirou-kun always calls Shiki-san by her first name."
"Eh... That's because..."
Fujino Asagami turned around and looked straight into Shirou's eyes.
"Could you stop calling me Fujino-san occasionally, and just call me Fujino?"
"Fuji... no?"
"I'm so glad~ Let's go, Shirou-kun♡"
Fujino Asagami smiled happily, then tightly clasped the boy's hand.