Chapter 21: Unknown Enemy
On the walk home from school, sharp-eyed Takanashi Rikka spotted the fresh lump on Kazama's head.
"Ally! Your cranium has suffered severe blunt force trauma!"
Takanashi Rikka acted like she'd discovered a new continent.
She leaned in close, her uncovered green eye filled with curiosity.
"Could it be because of today's 'Blood Sacrifice' (the dismemberment case), the Management Bureau's lackeys inflicted 'blunt instrument punishment' upon you?"
Kazama expressionlessly pushed her face away.
The lump genuinely hurt—a loving iron fist from an embarrassed Hiratsuka Shizuka.
The force had been substantial enough to make him suspect that woman's bones were made of alloy.
"Mosquito bite."
He casually deployed the most pathetic lie imaginable.
"Have Kamimizu City's mosquitoes mutated? To create such physically substantial swelling..." Rikka actually began seriously contemplating this explanation's plausibility. "It seems the ecosystem has also been eroded by dark forces."
The two boarded a bus heading to Mitakihara District.
Half an hour later, Misaki Mori Tower appeared in view.
Worthy of being Kamimizu City's premier luxury residential area—even the design-focused entrance gate reeked of money.
A sign at the entrance read "Private Residence - Aggressive Dogs."
A small Pomeranian wearing designer dog clothes lounged beside the security booth, barking shrilly at passing pedestrians.
"Is... is this Cerberus, the three-headed hound of hell?" Rikka immediately assumed a defensive posture, hiding behind Kazama. "Such powerful sonic attacks!"
Kazama merely glanced at the palm-sized dog.
He walked over and, before the creature could react, casually nudged it aside with his foot like kicking a pebble.
"Let's go."
He crossed the supposedly tight security perimeter like it was nothing.
Entering Building 1's lobby.
The air conditioning was cranked high. The marble floor gleamed like a mirror.
Kazama stopped and turned toward the still-gawking Rikka.
"Listen carefully. You're staying here. Don't stupidly run upstairs without my orders."
"Eh? Why?" Rikka froze. "Didn't we agree to assault the enemy fortress together?"
"Situation upstairs is unknown. Bringing you would slow me down."
Kazama didn't bother being tactful.
The real reason was simple: this dead weight was too troublesome. If there really were spatial distortions up there, he had The Windy card for mobility. But this girl? Aside from shouting chuunibyou nonsense, she was just an ordinary human.
"If I don't come back out, call the police. If I do come out, then follow. Understood?"
Rikka opened her mouth, seemingly wanting to protest something about "the Wicked Eye never retreats." But looking into Kazama's emotionless black eyes, she ultimately swallowed her words and nodded obediently.
"Orders received, Commander!"
Problem solved, Kazama walked alone toward the elevator bank.
He pressed the up button. The elevator doors opened to reveal an empty car. Kazama entered and pressed "10."
Just as the doors were closing, a leather shoe wedged between them.
The doors bounced back open. A middle-aged man with an oily face, carrying a briefcase, squeezed inside. Without even glancing at Kazama, he pressed "6" and immediately started scrolling his phone.
Kazama retreated to the corner.
Right hand in his pocket, gripping The Windy card. Left hand hanging at his side, fingers beginning to tap lightly against his pants.
The man got off at the sixth floor.
At that moment, Kazama's finger taps reached twenty-three. Twenty-three seconds.
After the doors closed, the elevator continued upward.
From sixth to tenth floor was only four levels. Logically, it should take less time than before, but not dramatically less.
"Tap, tap, tap, tap."
"Ding—"
The elevator doors opened.
Only eight seconds.
From sixth to tenth floor, spanning four stories, had taken less than a third of normal time.
Like stepping forward with one foot and finding the other had already crossed half a football field.
The space here had been folded.
Kazama narrowed his eyes.
The hallway was pitch black. Every motion-sensor light seemed broken. Only the warm yellow glow from the elevator car behind him remained, like a lone lighthouse in deep ocean.
But when the elevator doors closed, even that final light was severed.
Kazama stood motionless. His eyes hadn't adjusted to this sudden darkness, but he could feel the air was stagnant.
No wind. No sound. Not even the signature fragrance scent of luxury apartments.
"Hey."
Kazama spoke toward his collar.
"Kerberos, stop playing dead. Scout ahead."
Kerberos trembled as it poked its head from the collar, tiny wings beating frantically.
"N-no way... it's so dark... I have claustrophobia..."
"Do you have cookie-phobia? Because if you don't go, no more snacks. Ever."
At the mention of no snacks, despite grumbling, Kerberos obediently flew out. The yellow ball was conspicuous in the darkness, like an oversized firefly, trembling as it flew deeper into the hallway.
Kazama leaned against the wall, counting time.
One minute later.
Kerberos returned at triple the speed, like its rear end was on fire.
"Nobody! Kazuma! The entire floor is empty!"
It dove into Kazama's arms, voice urgent.
"I flew through a window into a random apartment. The furniture's all there, but no people! Moreover... moreover the entire floor! There's no sign of living humans!"
"Not even cockroaches. Did we encounter ghosts?"
Kazama frowned.
Nobody?
Where did Takanashi Touka go?
Though Kerberos's description sounded supernatural, Kazama's courage was more substantial than that. He casually walked to an apartment door and pressed The Windy card against the lock.
"Open it."
A gentle breeze drilled into the lock mechanism with a soft click.
After entering, Kazama immediately locked the door behind him to prevent ambush. Only then did he survey the interior.
Beige fabric sofa. Marble coffee table. Warm landscape paintings on the walls.
The dining table even held a half-finished bottle of wine, two wine glasses with red liquid residue.
Like the residents had been enjoying drinks moments ago, then suddenly evaporated.
No signs of struggle. No bloodstains. No sign of that ladle-wielding Saint Conditioner.
"Strange..."
Kazama approached the dining table and touched a glass.
Cold.
"If this were physical kidnapping, there should be signs of struggle. If home invasion robbery, everything should be ransacked."
"Kerberos, check the bedroom."
Kazama pointed his flashlight toward the closed wooden door.
At that moment, clear knocking suddenly echoed.
From the entrance door he'd just locked behind him. As if someone stood outside.
Kazama whipped around, flashlight beam stabbing toward the door. The peephole showed only darkness. Kerberos had clearly confirmed this floor was empty.
"Who's there?"
He demanded sharply.
No response.
Kazama considered sending Kerberos to check the peephole—the toy couldn't die anyway—but the cowardly lion absolutely refused to move.
Cursing internally, Kazama could only raise his staff, pointing it at the door.
But the instant before he acted—
"Knock, knock, knock."
Behind him, the master bedroom door produced identical knocking.
Front and back.
Perfectly synchronized.
This classic horror movie setup usually had protagonists lean close to peek through the peephole, or nervously ask "who's there?"
Then get scared half to death.
But Kazama wasn't a horror movie protagonist.
He'd come here to play demolition crew.
"Want to play catch the turtle in a jar?"
Kazama sneered coldly, then without hesitation unleashed The Windy card in both directions.
Two windstorms simultaneously surged toward both targets.
"BANG!"
The heavy security door at the entrance exploded outward like paper, crashing into the opposite hallway wall with tremendous impact.
"CRACK!"
The bedroom's wooden door shattered into splinters, fragments flying everywhere.
Dust filled the air.
Without pausing, Kazama charged toward the entrance first, flashlight raised.
The hallway was empty. The deformed iron door lay alone on the floor. No person. Not even a shadow.
He spun toward the bedroom.
Inside was a large bed with pink sheets. The vanity mirror reflected his flashlight beam. Still no one.
"Wh-what's happening?"
Kerberos poked its head from the pocket, staring at the devastation, completely stunned.
"No physical form? So it's illusion magic? Or spatial folding? But which card could pull off something this elaborate?"
Kazama didn't answer. These invisible, intangible enemies were the most disgusting. Since physical attacks were ineffective, staying here made him a sitting duck. Time for strategic withdrawal.
"Whatever it is, this place isn't safe. Let's retreat."
He immediately decided to back out, staying against the wall, slowly retreating toward the hallway.
Just as he passed the consistently closed door that appeared to be a study—
"Creeeeak—"
The door opened.
Without warning. Like an invisible hand had shoved it.
Immediately, the fifty-inch bulky CRT television that had been inside the study launched like a cannonball, howling through the air straight toward his head!
"!!!"
Kazama's reaction was instantaneous.
Almost reflexively, he dodged sideways while pushing Kerberos back into his pocket.
"CRASH!!"
The television barely missed his nose, slamming into the load-bearing wall behind him. The screen exploded, glass shards scattering, electronic components clattering to the floor.
If he'd been even 0.1 seconds slower.
His head would now resemble that shattered screen.
Kazama whipped around, staring intensely at the dark study doorway.
By flashlight beam.
Inside was only an empty desk, an overturned chair. Still no one.
"So you like playing ghost tricks?"
Kazama's voice went cold.
His mind raced through possibilities.
No physical presence. Objects moving on their own. Synchronized supernatural phenomena.
This had to be a Clow Card. But which one?
The Illusion could create false images, but couldn't move physical objects.
The Move could manipulate items, but required the card holder's direct control.
The Shadow could attack from darkness, but would leave traces.
Unless...
"Spatial manipulation," Kazama muttered. "Something that can control the entire floor, fold space, move objects from different rooms simultaneously."
Kerberos trembled in his pocket. "That's... that could be The Maze. Or worse, The Loop combined with The Move."
If multiple cards had nested together, this became exponentially more dangerous.
Kazama backed toward the destroyed entrance, never taking his eyes off the dark study.
"We need to leave. Now."
But as he reached the doorway, reality itself seemed to shift.
The hallway he'd just walked through—the one leading to the elevator—was gone.
In its place stretched an identical corridor. Same wallpaper. Same apartment doors.
Except it extended impossibly far, vanishing into darkness that his flashlight couldn't penetrate.
"What the—"
Kazama spun around.
The apartment he'd just exited was behind him. But beyond it, the hallway extended endlessly in that direction too.
Two infinite corridors. No elevator. No exit.
The space had looped.
"Kerberos. When you scouted earlier, did you see any staircases? Emergency exits?"
The guardian beast's voice was tiny. "N-no. I flew the entire perimeter. The hallway just kept going. I thought it was just a really long building but..."
But it was a trap.
A spatial maze with no exit.
Whoever—or whatever—controlled this floor had sealed him inside the moment he'd stepped off that elevator.
And now it was playing with him.
Testing him.
Watching him scramble.
Kazama's grip tightened on The Windy card.
Fine.
If this was a test, he'd show exactly what he could do.
"You want to see how I handle being caged?"
He raised his staff toward the ceiling, channeling magic through The Windy card.
"Then let's see how well your cage holds up when I tear it apart."
Wind began to gather, pressure building in the confined space.
If spatial manipulation had folded this floor into a loop, then the ceiling above and floor below were anchor points.
Break the anchors, break the spell.
Simple.
Brutal.
Effective.
The wind howled, gathering into a compressed sphere of cutting force above his head.
"Hope you're watching," Kazama said coldly. "Because I'm about to ruin your fun."
He thrust the staff upward.
The wind sphere detonated against the ceiling like a bomb.
END OF CHAPTER 21