He could hear the chirping of a sparrow from outside his room.
"..."
Without a word, Lucas glanced at the morning sun peeking in through his window and then turned his eyes back to the data on his computer screen and the impossible number of papers scattered around him.
These noted comprehensive information on the suspects and their reactions to Lucas and Shidou. Physical data like height, weight, blood type, the positions of moles; place of birth; family structure; current address and surrounding environment; and a detailed list of preferences, hobbies, and even fetishes- Ratatoskr had dug up all of this with no regard for privacy. Naturally, the data on the Spirits was full of gaps, however.
That wasn't all. Lucas looked over all the recordings of the suspects, as well. He knew that Ratatoskr had previously checked them over, but he had to see the tapes for himself.
"Already morning...huh?" Rubbing bleary eyes, he tapped at the computer and brought up the list of the remaining suspects.
Two days since Kurumi (and Tohka) disappeared.
During that time, he and Shidou had failed to identify the culprit twice, and a total of four suspects had disappeared.
The day after Tohka and Kurumi vanished, Tama-chan, named by Shidou, and Tonomachi had disappeared. The next day, Lucas had gone back to the beginning to reconsider all the information and named Hazakura Mai, who like Tama-chan hadn't mentioned any past details, and then Mai and Mii vanished.
Only Kotori, Origami, Kaguya, and Miku were left now. But no matter how much they looked into these four, they could find no sign that any of them was Natsumi.
"..." Lucas forced the gears of his hazy mind to turn. There was something he kept tripping over.
Suspects who seemed firmly in the clear. This fact had caused a single possibility to sprout in the back of his mind.
He still had no proof. And it wasn't like he knew for sure who Natsumi had turned into. But this possibility was a thought was like a powerful poison that could upend everything he'd done so far.
He fell into silent contemplation, and the door behind him opened abruptly.
"Lucas..." Kaguya stepped inside and frowned. "Hey...how are you doing...?"
"...Hey, Kaguya."
"Have you....been up all night again? Kotori told you to rest."
"...I'm fine missing a few days of sleep. I've had worse in the past. I'll need to continue researching."
"About that...Kotori was planning on canceling the investigation today, anyway, so you can get some sleep."
"...!" Lucas jumped. "Cancel? What do you mean? Then we'll have even fewer clues, though? Why would Kotori...?!"
"...?!" Kaguya flinched from the sudden raise in Lucas' volume.
"Ah! Sorry.....I'm sorry. I shouldn't be mad at you right now." Lucas apologized again and again, closing in on Kaguya and wrapping his arms around her. Kaguya was the only warmth with Lucas at the moment. She has been supporting him through the days. Without Kaguya, Lucas might have snapped completely.
"...Lucas. Look at this."
"...?" Lucas released Kaguya from his hug, and Kaguya showed him the white card in her hand.
For a second, he thought it was the message from Natsumi that had come with the photos, but it seemed that the text was different. He blinked and read the words on the card.
"How about we bring our game to an end?
Catch me tonight.
Otherwise, everyone disappears.
Natsumi"
"Wha..." Lucas gasped, as he sat up and took the card from Kaguya's hand. "What...on earth."
"It was in the postbox when I woke up this morning," Kaguya told him. "Kotori and Shidou have received the same letter too."
He swallowed hard. "Tonight... If we don't find Natsumi, the remaining suspects will all disappear. Is that it?"
"If we take this card at face value, then yes, that's it." Kaguya timidly said.
Lucas pressed a hand to his forehead. They'd done what they could. They'd looked into everything thry could think of. But even so, they still couldn't pick Natsumi out of the four remaining suspects.
But...the end of their time had come so abruptly, the idea of not panicking was absurd.
If they got it wrong that day, the remaining suspects would all be taken. This overwhelming pressure made it hard to breathe. But Lucas clenched his jaw. For a moment, it became completely silent until his phone started vibrating and giving off a sound of music. There was an incoming call from-
"Kotori?" Lucas picked up the phone on his desk and pressed the answer button. "Hello? Kotori?"
"Lucas. Sorry for the sudden call, but there's no time to explain anymore." Kotori told him about some arrangements they made. "Until then, get some proper sleep, okay?"
"I will. Thank you, Kotori." Lucas said, and hung up the phone.
"Natsumi," he murmured, staring into space. "Tonight...We will find you."
◇
"Hee-hee-hee... Hee-hee-hee!" Transformed into XXX, Natsumi giggled, quite pleased.
She remembered the look on Lucas' face when Yuzuru disappeared the first night. Shidou's face when Yoshino and Ai on the second, Tohka and Kurumi on the third, Tamae and Tonomachi on the fourth, and Mai and Mii on the fifth night. Fear and frustration and confusion and despair all mixed together, an indescribable expression. Each time she pictured it in the back of her mind, something akin to ecstasy ran through her.
But it was no good. It wasn't enough.
Natsumi craved more. A much greater terror than anything so far. Shidou's and Lucas' face tortured with the ultimate despair.
Which was why she had sent one more note, a final letter to Shidou and Lucas. To erase all the suspects left. And to see his face in that moment.
And then when it was all over, to swallow up even Shidou and Lucas, forced to their knees by the unbearable loss.
"No one who's seen my secret can be allowed to go on. It's not enough to simply erase them. They'll live in pain after losing all of their friends," Natsumi said, and gritted her teeth. "After all...no one's ever going to come find me, anyway."
◇
That night, having gotten plenty of sleep (or rather, having been forced to get it), Lucas was in a dim room with Kotori, Shidou and Kaguya.
It was part of an underground facility that belonged to Ratatoskr. The room was maybe thirty square meters. There were tall tables placed all over, but there was nothing else in the dance hall-like space.
It would have been more convenient if they'd been able to use the conference room on Fraxinus but given that one of the suspects was Origami and another was a disguised Natsumi, a Spirit whose power had not been sealed, they couldn't risk that.
Soon enough, he heard the sound of the door opening. And then the remaining people came inside on slow feet.
"Woooow! It's like a secret baaase!" The first was Miku.
"..." The second and last was Origami.
Six people. All of the remaining suspects were gathered together here.
These were the arrangements Kotori had told him that morning.
Shidou wanted Kotori to give him a place where he could bring all of the suspects together and talk to them. This was absolutely essential for him to shore up his conviction.
And there was one more thing. He honestly wanted to hear their thoughts as they came to the situation with fresh eyes.
Ratatoskr staff had already explained everything to them. Fortunately, he supposed, the people who were left knew about the existence of Spirits, so this was a hand he could play.
"Thanks for coming," Kotori said.
The girls to them, seeming somewhat perplexed.
Shidou took a deep breath and looked at each of them in turn. "I know you've all heard what's going on. So first...let me apologize. I'm sorry. You all got dragged into this because of me and Lucas. I'm really sorry." He bowed, deeply. And heard them start to chatter.
"Mm-hmmm. So then that daaaate was part of your investigation? That's kind of too bad."
"..."
"I know it's not usual of me, but we need your help." Lucas spoke up.
"Shidou." Origami at last broke her silence as she stared hard at him. "What exactly is this?"
"Sorry. Origami. But please. We need you on board, too," Shidou pleaded.
Origami lowered her eyes and shook her head. "I don't want you to get the wrong idea. I would naturally offer you my help. Especially if it involves Spirits. That's not what I'm asking about."
"Huh? Then..." He furrowed his brow.
"Where is this place?" she asked. "Who was it that explained the situation to us? I've wondered about this for a while. What kind of connections do you have, exactly?"
"Th-that's..." Shidou stammered. These were in fact natural questions from Origami's perspective.
"If you worry too much about the little things, you'll get wrinkles," Kotori said, from where she stood to the left of Shidou.
Origami turned a thorny stare on Lucas. "Kunshu Lucas."
"...What," Lucas replied. For a moment, the two of them stared at each other.
Although he never showed it, Origami probably knew about Lucas' secret identity. He could practically read her mind.
"So you know?" Lucas asked, as if he read her mind.
"I do." Origami lowered her gaze and sighed. "For the time being, I have no objection to cooperating with you, as long as you're in friendly terms with Shidou."
"What am I to you? A killing monster?"
"O-okay," Shidou stammered. "Thanks, Origami."
"It's fine. But."
"But?"
"You asked me out so suddenly, I had gotten my hopes up a little."
"...That's... Well, uh, I'm sorry."
That was all he could say. He bowed his head. In fact, it had been Reine who contacted Origami and the others to bring them here, so he had no idea what kind of invitation they'd received.
"Keh-keh! It appears the issue has been resolved." Kaguya threw her hands out to strike a pose. "In which case, shall we not begin? The ritual of selection to smoke out the traitor lurking in our midst!"
"Goodness! You're full of fire, hmm?" Kotori remarked.
"Is that not only natural?!" Kaguya spread her hands dramatically. "The villain who absconded with Yuzuru is here among us, yes? Then we must find her and deal the appropriate punishment. I'll lose it otherwise!" Her true voice slipped out toward the end. Kaguya cleared her throat and posed anew.
"At any rate! We shall unearth this Spirit or what have you that has erased Yuzuru and the others!"
She made a fist. It was an unusual way of showing strength. She was no doubt directing all her suppressed emotions since Yuzuru's sudden disappearance toward the culprit behind it all.
"Yeah, yeah. I get that you're raring to go, so just calm yourself for the time being." Kotori flicked the stick of the Chupa Chups in her mouth. "The situation is exactly as you were told before arriving here. One of us is a Spirit with the power of transformation, and we have to find her. The results of the investigation thus far have been summed up in these documents. No question or concern is too small. Speak freely."
She waved toward a nearby table where multiple sets of papers fastened with binder clips sat.
Everyone picked up a set and spent a few minutes looking over the documents.
Before too long, Miku let out a sigh. "I seeee. So that's what you meant with your question that time, darling."
"Darling?" Origami's eyebrows twitched.
Shidou hurriedly spoke up. "W-well, how about we deal with that later?"
"..." Origami looked unhappy, but she said nothing and dropped her gaze to the papers once more.
"Lucas," Kaguya said. "What appearance does this Natsumi, or what have you, take on exactly?"
"Hm? She's-"
"She's hideous, terrifying to look at." Kotori cut Lucas off. "Her face is like a toad that got hit by a car. Bulging eyes too far apart, piggy little nose, skin covered in pockmarks like moon craters. She's pretty tubby, too. No shape at all-bust, waist, and hips basically all the same size. And her face is just huge. Like her head's half her body. She's less Spirit and more monster, y'know?"
She rattled off this description of Natsumi with a straight face. But this very much did not match up with the Natsumi in Lucas' memory; it was clearly complete nonsense.
"Hey, Kotori," Lucas started.
Kotori put a finger to her lips. "Shh!"
And that's when he understood. She was trying to get a reaction out of Natsumi. There weren't too many people who would take it entirely in stride if they were described in such an unflattering way. Even if it didn't show up in her face or actions, there might have been some kind of reaction in the measurement devices set up in the room.
However.
"...No reactions we can see."
Lucas heard Reine's voice in his right ear.
Kotori had likely received the same report. Tch! She clicked her tongue and tapped at a small terminal on the table.
"Gotta be kidding me. Take a look," Kotori said, and Natsumi popped up on her screen. She was a beautiful woman in a witchy Astral Dress.
"Whaaat? She doesn't look at all how you said. You're quite the scary girl, Kotori." Miku said, perturbed.
But Kotori paid her no mind and pushed with a question. "You got anything?"
"It is somewhat concerning that you, Lucas and Shidou have been unable to grasp the tail of this beast after all this." The next to speak was Kaguya. "To start, is it indeed a certainty that this Natsumi or what have you is among us? Is there not the possibility that this transformation business was a lie, and she merely wishes to watch Lucas and Shidou panic and soak in that joy?"
"Naturally, that possibility exists. However..." Kotori crossed her arms and signaled Lucas with her eyes.
Lucas nodded in response. "With the few days I talked to her.. I don't think she's the type to lie."
"Oh-ho?" Kaguya raised an eyebrow. "And how is it you can say that? This is the Spirit who removed Yuzuru and many others, yes? To trust her would be difficult."
"...I trust her because she was was honest and didn't lie to me five years afo. Even after she lost her memories, her nature of behavior shouldn't change." Lucas explained.
"Mm-hmm." Kaguya frowned and then nodded to indicate her acceptance of this. "I see then. Well, you are the one who has spoken with Natsumi directly. Worthy of trust, I should say."
Soon after, Origami lifted her face, apparently done reading all the papers. "Shidou. Is it possible to see the photos and cards that Witch sent?"
"Yeah, sure," Shidou agreed. He pulled a white envelope out of his bag and handed it to Origami.
"..." Origami lined up the photos and cards on the table, while Kaguya and Miku peeked at them from either side of her.
"Mm-hmm. Indeed." Kaguya snorted. "The photos were taken without our knowledge then."
"Aah! My eyes are half-cloooosed!" Miku was indignant.
But Origami ignored them and moved her gaze over the photos and cards. She put a hand to her chin and was silent for a while before raising her face at last.
"There's one thing I'd like to confirm."
"Yeah? What?" Lucas asked.
"The Witch's transformation abilities," she said. "Is it possible for her to transform into something other than a human being or a Spirit?"
"Huh?" His eyes grew wide in surprise. "Something other than a human being or a Spirit?"
"Yes." She nodded. "To be more precise, is it possible for her to transform into a substance with no life signs or a being that is clearly a different mass than her original form? For instance, could she become small enough to fit in your hand or thin like a sheet of paper?"
Now that she mentioned it, when they first met Natsumi, she had transformed the AST members into funny characters. If she could do it to someone else, it wouldn't be strange at all if she could transform herself into something other than a human being.
"It's probably possible," he said, finally. "But I don't know if she could turn into something of a radically different size, though."
"Meaning you can't definitively say it's impossible?" Origami pressed.
"Yeah...I guess not."
"Oh." She nodded.
Miku clapped her hands like she'd just thought of something. "Oh! So then maybe..." She pointed at the pictures on the table. "You mean maybe the Spirit turned into one of these piiiictures...or something like that?"
"Pictures..." Shidou put a hand on his chin. True. He couldn't completely reject the idea.
"I'm in here. Can you guess who I am?"
Right. From that text on the card, "in here" could indeed have meant that Natsumi was inside a photograph itself.
"Yes." Origami glanced at Miku and nodded, firmly. "Normally, if you were shown a photograph and told 'I'm in here,' you would think the Spirit was inside of the person in the photograph. But in this case, she did not specifically say that."
She glared at the photos as she continued.
"To start with, there's something off about the rule itself. The more time passes, the fewer suspects there are. It's true that this might be an effective means of instilling panic in Shidou. But at the same time, it runs the risk of making it easier for him to find her. She wouldn't use such a method unless she was certain that he would never manage it."
Shidou nodded. This was the same question he and Lucas had.
"Indeed." Kaguya sniffed and crossed her arms. "But supposing that were so, how to proceed? There are thirteen photos here. You mean to point the finger at each and every picture?"
"No need for that," Origami said, and pulled the pictures on the table together into a pile.
"Origami?" Shidou said, doubtfully.
"Watch." She reached a hand into her pocket, and there was a chak sound. A knife plunged into the pile of photos. The blade went through all of them and stabbed into the table.
"Ee?!" he yelped.
"This is the simplest and quickest way to check," Origami told him, her expression perfectly blank, and twisted the knife in the stack.
But the photos did not react.
"It seems that was incorrect," she said, with a hint of regret in her voice, as she put the knife back into her pocket.
Shidou wiped away the sweat on his forehead with one hand. All the while wondering what would have happened to Natsumi if she really had transformed into a picture. Fortunately, Lucas still had the pictures in his letter, so he quickly swapped them out.
"Hmph." Kotori snorted. "Back to square one then?"
"Buuut I think Origami's right, though. This doesn't feel like Natsumi enjoying empty thriiiiills. I think she's bending the rules so that there's no way anyone will be able to guess the right answer. I mean, there are only four suspects left? Isn't there a real chaaaance that even if you take a shot in the dark, you might get a hit?" Miku said, placing a finger on her chin thoughtfully.
Shidou was entirely in agreement with her.
However. Kaguya looked at Miku with a complicated expression. "Meaning? Do you presume to say that Natsumi is not among the suspects? Did Shidou not just reject this idea?"
"I-I wasn't saying that, buuut..."
"Or perhaps you wish to make us believe that Natsumi is not among us?" Kaguya said, narrowing her eyes.
Miku's mouth twisted downward into a pout. "What's thaaat supposed to mean? I will get mad at you, you know, Kaguya!"
"Hmph. Do you panic because my aim was true? You grow more suspicious. Your evil intentions are visible in the jet-black aura around you."
"Hey! Both of you! Settle down!" Kotori hurriedly got between Kaguya and Miku. The two girls glared at each other over her head for a moment. "This is not the time for picking fights. Lucas, you tell them, too."
But Lucas was silently looking at them with his hand covering his mouth.
"Lucas?" Kotori said. "What's up?"
"Oh, actually, what if-" he muttered to himself and ran his fingers through his hair vigorously.
Lucas laid the pictures out in front of him and stared at them intently. "Four suspects left. But no matter how deep I dig, I can't find any hint of Natsumi among them. She's bending the rules so that I'll never be able to guess right. 'I'm in here. Can you guess who I am?'..."
He had come up with one possibility after days and nights of close examination of every bit of information he could get a hold of.
Muttering to himself, half-cursing, he exhaled at length. And then he let his gaze run over the others and spoke. "What if Natsumi isn't any of you?"
"Huh?"
All eyes grew round in surprise.
However, that was only natural. They had been brought together to find Natsumi, and now he was saying Natsumi might not have been among them. This was a bit like the cart before the horse.
"Hang on." Kotori frowned. "What are you saying, Lucas?"
"Precisely." Kaguya nodded. "Is this not in direct contrast to Shidou's words?"
But Lucas shook his head. "No, I'm not saying that Natsumi isn't someone in the photos. At best, I'm saying she's not any of the four remaining suspects."
"...!" Kotori's eyebrows jumped up a beat later; perhaps she had guessed at the implication of his words. And then she began to flip through the documents at hand at lightning speed.
Kaguya and Miku gaped at her.
"I get it." Kotori nodded to herself. "No way... But then..."
"Huh? What? Heeey, don't just talk to yourseeelf! Tell us!" Miku pestered Kotori.
She looked up, appearing almost feverish. "Yes. Maybe this-"
The twisting of a space in the middle of the room interrupted her, a faint glow spilling out of the spot, and the Angel Haniel appeared.
"Wha...?!"
The girls all cried out in confusion.
Lucas hurriedly cast a glance at the clock. It was 11:30 PM, still half an hour left before midnight.
"What's this mean? Today's not over yet, though!" he shouted.
As if in response, the end of Haniel opened, and Natsumi popped up.
"Hee-hee-hee! Don't panic, kids. It's our last night. You need to have more fun with this, okay?" Smiling cheerfully, Natsumi continued. "Special rule for the final night. I'll give you ten times the usual time to pick someone- ten whole minutes. If you don't guess who I am in ten minutes, or you don't guess at all, then I'll give you another ten minutes. If in the end, you haven't guessed right by the time there's one suspect left, then you lose. I will take the existence of everyone here for myself."
"Ngh!" Shidou and Lucas grimaced, and they heard Kotori click her tongue.
"Thirty minutes...huh?" Kotori said, slowly. "You do think up some dirty tricks."
"Meaning?" Shidou asked.
"Four remaining suspects," Origami said. Glaring at Natsumi, she continued, quietly. "If you go over the time limit without picking the culprit, then at exactly midnight, there will be one suspect left. In other words, the Witch will end the game at the same time as the date changes."
Lucas clenched his hands into fists and looked at the girls in the room once more.
Kotori, Origami, Kaguya, Miku.
Their faces were all colored with tension and fear and frustration. Just looking at them, it seemed impossible that one of them could be a Spirit who was trying to steal everyone's "existence."
"Oh, right, right," Natsumi said, as if to interrupt Lucas' train of thought. "Since you've all gathered together here so thoughtfully, I don't mind if someone other than Shidou or Lucas guesses. But, of course, it's one guess every ten minutes, so think very hard before you speak. If the number of votes is the same, then I'll consider that guess void."
"You really just do whatever you want." Lucas scowled at the new rule she tacked on.
But he couldn't stand here confused forever. They had thirty minutes left. And just three more chances to guess who Natsumi was. If he guessed wrong now, everyone there would be taken by Haniel. He absolutely could not fail. Especially not when the very existence of the ones important to him are on the line.
Kotori looked toward Natsumi reflected in Haniel's mirror. "Perfect timing. There's something I wanted to confirm with the gamemaster."
"Oh my! And what would that be?"
"The rules of this game are that you're in one of these pictures. One person disappears every day we don't guess who you are. If we name the wrong person, that person will also disappear... That's correct, right?"
Natsumi shrugged, jokingly. "Who can say...is what I'd like to say. But well, I can answer you that much at least. Your understanding is not wrong."
"Oh." Kotori shot a glance at Shidou as she snorted a little.
He nodded in return. That was the very question he himself had been about to pose.
"Wh-what is the meaning of this? Oi, Kotori, explain yourself!" Kaguya said, brow furrowed.
Kotori dropped her papers on the table. "We may have seriously misunderstood things."
"What?" Kaguya tilted her head.
Kotori sifted through the photos lined up on the table. "We've been trying to find Natsumi among the people shown in these pictures."
"Mm-hmm." Kaguya nodded. "But is that not the rule of the game?"
"Right. There's no mistake about that premise. But what if our thinking was pushed in a certain direction?" As she spoke, Kotori separated the photos into two groups.
On the left were Origami, Kotori, Kaguya, and Miku. On the right were the other eight. Basically, the suspects still remaining and the people who had already disappeared.
"M-meaning?"
"That thing Tobiichi and Miku were talking about before's really been bugging me. The four of us were investigated and analyzed in greater detail than any of the others suspects. Of course, we're up against a Spirit, so it would be no surprise if she had power that exceeded our expectations. But if Natsumi's actually not one of us, then everything makes sense."
"Ngah?!"
"Whaaat?!"
"...!"
Kaguya and Miku cried out in surprise, but Origami began to flip through the documents she held, her eyes growing wide.
She let her gaze crawl over the text and then slowly lifted her face. "I see. It's true that it isn't written anywhere."
"W-wait just a second! You mean..." Miku said, pressing a hand to her forehead as if to try and bring peace to the chaos in her mind.
"Yes." Lucas nodded, firmly. "It's natural to assume the culprit would be among the remaining suspects. But this isn't a mystery novel. The other suspects might have disappeared, but they aren't dead. Nowhere in the rules does it say that whoever disappears at the end of the day isn't Natsumi."
"...?!"
Kaguya and Miku both gasped together, eyes wide as saucers.
Yes. This was the lone possibility Lucas had arrived at.
Four remaining suspects that he found no reason to question no matter how he dug into them. And a rule that would put Natsumi at a disadvantage as the game progressed.
If this theory was correct, then it linked everything together.
"Thus, Lucas. Shidou. Kotori. Do you mean to say that Natsumi is not among those gathered here but rather one of those who have vanished already?" Kaguya asked, nervously.
Kotori put a hand to her chin, a complicated look on her face. "Actually, it's more like of the people who have already disappeared, it's someone other than the people who disappeared because Shidou named them. It would definitely be against the rules for her to lie when Shidou guessed correctly."
She pulled the pictures of Yoshino, Tama, and Mai out from the group on the right side, leaving six photos: Yuzuru, Ai, Tohka, Tonomachi, Kurumi and Mii. These were the people Natsumi had taken at the end of each day.
"W-w-wait just a moooment!" Miku cried out. "Doesn't this make it mooore difficult? Now we have more suspects!"
And indeed there were five of them now. Given that they only had three more guesses, the number of options was too large.
However.
Origami shook her head. "It looks that way in terms of numbers. But it's not actually more difficult. Looking through these papers, we can see there is just one person who would have guaranteed Natsumi's safety."
But Kotori nodded in agreement with Origami. "Yes. If a suspect were to disappear before they could be named, then they would vanish from our minds as a possibility. Making that person a sure bet for Natsumi."
Eyebrows rising, she continued.
"But even if that is the case, the initial conditions were the same for everyone. No matter how low the probability, if Shidou or Lucas named her before she disappeared, then Natsumi would lose. Lucas, think. There was just one person. One person who didn't rely on coincidence to escape potentially being named by you."
"No way... Yuzuru..?"
He spoke the name of the girl who disappeared the first night and swallowed hard. Kotori and Origami looked away, indicating their agreement.
But Yuzuru's sister Kaguya scowled with displeasure.
"What say you? Do you mean to say Yuzuru is the culprit?" She brought her face in close, and Lucas hurriedly shook his head.
"Wait. Stop. I wasn't-"
But Kotori cut him off. "It's in the documents. Haniel only started to show up and push us to name someone on the second night."
It was exactly as she said. Haniel hadn't appeared on the first night. In other words, Shidou and Lucas haven't been given a way to guess who Natsumi was. And that night, Yuzuru had been taken. At the time, they had trembled in fear at the fact that a suspect disappeared, but when they thought about it now, they didn't understand why Haniel hadn't shown up on the first day.
"The first night. Yuzuru was taken," Kotori added. "To put it another way, doesn't that mean Lucas would definitely not guess it was her after that?"
Kaguya looked sick at the fact that Yuzuru was under suspicion, but perhaps unable to find any ammunition to argue it, she pursed her lips shut.
Kotori sighed and turned toward Natsumi. "Such a mean little idea. But as a result, your meticulous caution actually gave us something on you. The person you're impersonating is Yuzuru," she said, confidently.
"..."
Lucas sank into deep thought. This did make sense. But for some reason, he couldn't help feeling that there was still some decisive something missing.
"Hmph. You're sure about that?" Natsumi replied, leisurely. "That's exactly ten minutes. Everyone in agreement with Kotori, please raise your hands."
Shidou, Kotori, Origami, Miku, and Kaguya-reluctantly-raised their hands.
The corners of Natsumi's mouth turned up in Haniel's mirror. "Okay, that's time up. A majority vote has selected Yamai Yuzuru." She snapped her fingers.
"Wha-" Origami glowed faintly and was sucked into Haniel's mirror.
"O-Origami?!"
"Hee hee! Try. A...gain! Your thought process was interesting, but toooooo baaaad!" Natsumi laughed, as if it was all too hilarious, and whirled a finger around like she was issuing a challenge to Lucas, Shidou and the remaining girls. "Well, the person you named is Yuzuru, and she's already gone, so I can only erase one person, unfortunately. Hee hee! Two chances left. I wonder if you'll be able to guess right?"
"I-impossible." A shiver of fear ran across Kotori's face. "You're saying it wasn't Yuzuru?! Th-then who exactly...?!" She set her elbows on the table and cradled her head in her hands.
And of course she did. At the eleventh hour, they were back at square one. There was no time before their next guess. The tension was so great, their hearts practically leaped out of their chests.
"Ngh..." Lucas turned toward the documents once again.
Yuzuru was not Natsumi. So then was it one of the people left in that group-Kurumi, Tohka, Ai, Tonomachi, Mii? But no one other than Yuzuru had any guarantee that they wouldn't have been selected by Lucas or Shidou. Had Natsumi actually opened herself up to danger simply for the sake of having fun with the game?
But if he let his thoughts go in that direction, then that very premise was meaningless. If Natsumi was just having fun, she could easily have been one of the three remaining suspects. Or...
Thoughts raced through his mind, and he pressed his index fingers up against his temples as if to try and bring peace to his brain.
"Hee hee! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" Natsumi burst out laughing, clutching her stomach, as if delighting in their confusion. "My, my, it's rough, hmm? Are you done playing detective? If you don't hurry up and find me, you'll all be chumming it up in the mirror world, you know? Hee hee! But don't worry. I'll make good use of all of your appearances."
"This...wretch!" Kaguya kicked at the floor and charged toward Haniel. "How dare you take Yuzuru! Kurumi! Tohka! Yoshino! Origami! Tama! Ai, Mai, Mii! And Shidou's friend! Give them back! Give them back!!"
But there was no way such an attack would work on an Angel. Haniel shone hazily, and Kaguya was easily sent flying.
"Ngah!" She groaned when she slammed into the wall.
"Kaguya!" Lucas shouted.
"You're wasting your time! Stop! Even if you could use your limited Spirit powers, you don't have the strength to take on an Angel the way you are now," Kotori said, a stern look on her face.
"S-so we should just leave it?!" Kaguya clenched her hands into fists and was about to take another swing at Haniel when Natsumi spoke again.
"You've been running around doing this and that, but the time's come. It seems you haven't picked anyone yet. What's it going to be?"
Before they knew it, ten minutes had gone by.
"I guess you don't have a pick, hmm? In that case-" Natsumi started to say.
"Ai!" Lucas shouted.
""Huh?"" Shidou and Kotori gasped.
"You're saying Ai is Natsumi?" Kotori asked.
"Honestly speaking, it's the only thing I can come up with. Ai hasn't revealed anything from her past and let Mai and Mii do it. It just has to be it!"
"So it's Ai then?" Natsumi asked.
Lucas couldn't think of anyone, either. Begrudgingly, he nodded his assent.
This time, Kaguya shone faintly and was sucked into the Angel.
"Wh-whoa!"
"Kaguya!!!"
"Too bad. Ai's a miss, too. And midnight's in ten minutes. Your next pick's your last chance. Hee hee! Now, I wonder if you can guess who I am?"
And then silence fell over the room once more.
But that didn't last long. Miku began to shout, head in her hands.
"Wh-what is going on?! I haaaate this! Please let me go hoooome!"
"Calm down!" Shidou cried. "You have to calm down, Miku! Getting upset is playing right into Natsumi's hands!"
"D-darling... It's just, I mean...!" Tears filled her eyes, and she began to sob.
Shidou gritted his teeth as he comforted her.
Something. He was missing something decisive. Natsumi being one of the people disappeared by Haniel... That had to be right. But he still didn't know who it was.
"Right. There's something, there has to be something." Kotori flipped frantically through the papers, sweat pouring down her forehead. "This snake woman wouldn't come to a fight empty-handed. There has to be something that would put her completely in the safe zone!"
Lucas looked at the photos on the table. At the three people Natsumi had taken who had also not yet been picked by him.
But was Natsumi really one of them? He wasn't even sure of that anymore. He pressed a hand to his chest as if to try and settle his steadily increasing heart rate, as he looked back and forth between the papers and the pictures.
But no matter how hard he thought about it, an answer was not forthcoming.
"Sorry to disturb you in the middle of your struggles, but that's five minutes," Natsumi said, giggling.
Lucas gasped. When he looked at the clock, he saw that five minutes had indeed gone by. Time had flown as he panicked. His fear elicited confusion, and confusion destroyed his judgment. With a shaky breath, he scratched madly at his head.
"Aaaaaaaah! Enough! I haaaate this!" Miku screamed, shoving her hands into her hair, unable to withstand the extreme tension. "Daaarling... I... I-I...!"
Her teeth began to chatter, and she pulled an ornament out of her hair and pushed it into Shidou's hand.
"M-Miku? What-"
"I-if I disappear, too, please don't forget me! Look at this ornament and r-remember me," she pleaded.
"Don't talk like that! I'm not letting you disappear! We're definitely going to find Natsumi!" Shidou shouted and handed the hair ornament back to Miku. But she refused to take it. "Miku...?"
"I-it's just... If I have it on me, won't it just disappeaaaar with me?!" she cried. "I-I can't bear to leave you with nothing of mine, darling!"
"What-"
And then.
"-"
Shidou felt something like an electric current jolt him.
Only Kotori and Miku were left. And the timer was counting down. In a few minutes, Haniel would erase the final person. The situation was the definition of despair. This would normally be the time when resignation crept across a person's face. But Shidou was shivering at the possibility that had flitted into his head.
The hole that he'd found in the rules: it wasn't necessarily the case that Natsumi was not one of the people who had already disappeared. And the words Miku had spoken just now: If she had it on her, it would disappear with her.
These two things connected with that annoying fog hanging over his head, that nagging feeling that something was off, and everything snapped into place.
"What if..." he started, half-dazed.
"Huh?"
"Shidou...?"
"D-darling?"
Lucas, Kotori and Miku turned dubious faces his way.
But he couldn't afford to respond. He simply stood on the spot and furiously pieced together information in his mind.
Now that he was thinking about it, this game had been strange right from the get-go. All he'd been given in the beginning were a couple of sentences. But over the days that followed, various elements had been added in. Based on these, which grew in number with each passing day, Shidou, Lucas, Kotori, and Reine had guessed at the rules Natsumi put in place. They'd been eager to try and grasp the true nature of this game.
That. What if that had been Natsumi's objective. What if the addition of these rules, which seemed like nothing more than caprice at first glance, were to hide a single phenomenon?
" 'I'm in here. Can you guess who I am'..." Murmuring the rule that he'd spoken countless times, Shidou dropped his gaze to one of the photos on the table. To a single point he had completely overlooked until that very moment. To a single photo that was clearly different from the other eleven.
"Natsumi. There's one thing I want to confirm," he said, turning his gaze toward the Spirit in the mirror.
"Hmm? What is it then? If you're going to beg for your life, I'm not interested, though," Natsumi replied, with a leisurely ease.
But Shidou ignored that challenge and continued. "You sent us thirteen photos. But are there really thirteen suspects?"
Natsumi still showed no signs of being flustered in her reply. "Hee hee! Well now, who can say?"
But that was enough for Shidou to be certain. Because she had answered Kotori's question earlier. And yet she dodged his now. Which was proof to back up his guess.
Shidou recalled the conversation he'd had with this suspect a few days earlier.
"Ah..." A detail he hadn't paid particular attention to at the time came back to life in his mind.
There was no mistake.
Shidou swallowed to wet his dry throat and slowly lifted his face. "I know. Lucas. Kotori. Miku."
"""...?!""" Lucas, Kotori and Miku gasped. Natsumi raised an eyebrow.
"Y-you know?" Kotori said. "You mean, who Natsumi is?"
"R-really, daaarling?" Miku's face lit up.
"Wait. Don't tell me-" Lucas must've realized it too. "Are there really thirteen suspects." Shidou's questin hovered in his mind. At that same moment, it all made sense in Lucas' brain as well. If you count the suspects- Tohka, Kurumi, Kaguya, Yuzuru, Yoshino, Kotori, Tama, Ai, Mai, Mii, Tonomachi, Miku and Origami- it's thirteen suspects, right?
Shidou took a deep breath and continued. "Our premise was wrong. Natsumi didn't move herself to the safe zone at the start of the game. She was always in the safe zone."
"What do you mean?" Kotori said.
"Natsumi's answer just now clinched it for me too," Lucas said, as if Shidou's mind was directly connected to his. "She never once said that there were thirteen suspects."
"What...?" Miku's eyes grew round, and she began to count the photos on the table. But of course, there were still only thirteen of them.
Shidou and Lucas slowly shook their heads, and Shidou continued. "Yes, there are only thirteen photos. But it wasn't Natsumi who defined the number of suspects; it was us. There were actually thirteen suspects- actually, it's more like thirteen people and one being!"
"...!"
Kotori's eyebrows shot up her forehead. And she turned her eyes toward one of the photos. "I can't believe it. But it's true that if that's the case..."
"Darling, we're out of time! There's only thirty seconds left!" Miku shrieked.
Shidou took a deep breath. Lucas and Shidou glanced at eachother, and nodded before slowly raising their left and right hand. ""Natsumi is...you!"" They pointed his index finger out towards Haniel. ""Isn't that right, Yoshinon?!""
Natsumi's reflection in Haniel looked back at Shidou and Lucas with a serious face, unlike the bold smile she'd been wearing thus far.
"Yoshinon, is it? I suppose you mean the puppet Yoshino carries around."
"Yeah, that's right." Shidou nodded. "For these last few days, you've turned yourself into Yoshinon."
"Perhaps you could clue me in on how you came to this conclusion," Natsumi asked, stroking her chin with one hand.
"I realized it thanks to Origami and Miku," Shidou said, staring into her emerald eyes. "First, the possibility that you could turn into something other than a person. And the fact that whatever the suspect had on them disappeared with them. Thinking about these two facts together, the only thing I could think of was Yoshinon."
"..." Natsumi crossed her arms, no expression on her face. Shidou ignored this and continued.
"And once I realized this possibility, I remembered something strange."
"Strange?" Kotori asked.
"Yeah." He nodded without taking his eyes off of Natsumi. "When Yoshino and Yoshinon came to the house in costume on the first day of the investigation, I was so surprised at Yoshinon poking its head in through the opening in the door that I threw my cell phone at it."
"Now that you mention it, I feel like I did watch a video of that."
"But Yoshinon neatly avoided it," he said. "Almost like it could see the phone coming. But Yoshino's eyes were definitely on the other side of the door."
"Ah...!" Kotori's eyes flew open in surprise.
Yes. Talking to Yoshinon on a daily basis, they tended to forget. "Yoshinon was a personality that manifested through the puppet only when Yoshino had it on her left hand. It was completely dependent on Yoshino to sense anything. It shouldn't have been able to dodge the phone." Lucas continued Shidou's thoughts.
"And one more thing," Shidou continued. "When I chatted with them about the past, Yoshinon talked about when it was at Origami's house. And it's true that when Yoshino lost Yoshinon, I found it in Origami's house. But there's no way it could know that. Away from Yoshino, Yoshinon's just a puppet."
It was impossible for Yoshinon to have known it had been kept somewhere else.
But Natsumi had known. Maybe she'd gone through his memories when she turned into him. Or maybe when she was assessing people to decide who to become, she'd learned about Yoshinon from Origami's journal. He didn't know how, but she had had information that Yoshinon couldn't have known.
"You spoke. And you could've just left all the talking and moving to Yoshino! I don't know if you wanted to add some info and clear away any suspicion, or if you were overconfident and trying to give me a hint, but you went and talked!" Lucas thrust his finger out at Haniel once more. "So, how about it, Natsumi! Are you Yoshinon?!"
"...That's-" Natsumi hesitated.
Haniel shuddered. As the shuddering grew in intensity, the mirror at the end began to crack. And then the mirror emitted a powerful glow, unlike the faint light it had shone with so far.
A dazzling light, like several large spotlights combined into one, filled the room. Shidou automatically shielded his face with his hands.
"Ngh!"
"What the-"
"Wh-what is this...?!"
"Eeeaah!"
Soon, the shining subsided, and his light-seared eyes finally could see again.
Lucas noticed several people lying on the floor, people who hadn't been there a second ago.
Yes. His friends, all the people disappeared by Haniel.
"You're back!!" Lucas shouted, and several of them sat up slowly, holding their heads.
"Huh?"
"Wh-what on earth...?"
"I'm...back?"
"...!"
Kurumi, Tohka, Kaguya, and Origami all blinked rapidly.
In the next instant, Kaguya seemed to guess what had happened; she whirled her head around and ran over to Yuzuru, lying limp on the ground.
"Yuzuru! Yuzuru!" Kaguya shook her sister.
A few seconds later, Yuzuru coughed, weakly. "Hazy. Kagu...ya. You are as boisterous as ever."
"Yuzuru!" Tears streaming down her face, Kaguya embraced her. Yuzuru looked at her blankly for a second, but then quickly hugged her back.
"Kurumi!" Lucas cried out, almost crying.
"Lucas.." Kurumi jumped into Lucas' arms, and hugged him tight.
"I made it, Kurumi. I made it! I was so worried...!"
Tama-chan, Tonomachi, and Ai-Mai-Mii were still unconscious. From watching Kurumi, Tohka and Yuzuru wake up, he guessed that it might simply have been the difference in resistance to Spirit powers rather than the order they had been taken by Haniel.
"Thank goodness. You're all...okay..." Shidou heaved an enormous sigh and slumped to the ground, spent.
Although he had been bold in his declaration of the culprit, the truth was his heart had been pounding so hard, it threatened to rip in half.
"Shidou!" Tohka ran over to him. "Wh-what happened? Where are we?"
"...Hey."
But now that the tension had been released, Shidou didn't have the extra energy to even give a real response to Tohka's questions. He smiled, weakly, and stroked her hair.
"Ngh...! What's wrong, Shidou? Mmm..." She had a doubtful look on her face, but eventually, she made a happy noise, like she was enjoying the hair stroking.
Shidou was somehow enjoying himself now and the tension left his face.
But then out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a certain silhouette.
"That's...!" A girl was crouched on the floor just like everyone else. A girl wearing a big witch's hat. "Natsumi!" Lucas walked slowly over to the girl in question.
Everyone else had apparently noticed where Lucas was heading. Origami, Kotori, Miku, Shidou and the Yamai sisters moved to encircle Natsumi.
"That's our win. We'll accept your surrender," Lucas said.
"...!" Natsumi's shoulders jumped up, and she slowly lifted her face.
The second he saw Natsumi hidden behind the broad brim of her hat, Lucas forgot his nerves and cried out, stunned, "Huh?!"
The reason was simple. The girl on the floor before him now was entirely different from the Natsumi in Shido's memory.
Small, slender body. Unhealthily pale skin, and a stooped back that made her small body look even smaller. Spindly brows, eyes that drooped morosely, no trace of that confident expression. Her hair alone was just barely the same color as that of the Natsumi in his mind, but it wasn't shiny and long. It was a bird's nest, untouched by brush or comb. A small girl utterly unlike the sexy Natsumi crouched there before him. This was.. the Natsumi he had come to know so many years ago.
"You're the same small Natsumi I knoooowwww!!" Lucas shouted, enough to probably leak to the outside.
She gasped, patted her face, and looked shocked.
"Ah. Ah. Aaaah?!" she cried out in despair, grabbed onto the brim of her hat, and curled into herself even further in an attempt to hide.
"What...on earth...?" Shidou cocked his head curiously.
"I get it." Kotori snorted softly. "So when you met her before, Lucas. Shidou. She had changed her appearance with her Spirit power."
"Oh." Shidou's eyes grew round.
"But why? There wasn't any reason to-"
"-!" Natsumi screamed a voiceless cry and raised her right hand high, still hiding herself in her hat. "Haniel!"
The Angel floating in the center of the table came over to nestle itself into Natsumi's hand. The cracked mirror began to repair itself automatically.
In the next instant, Natsumi's body flashed with light, and then she transformed into the adult woman Shidou and Lucas were familiar with. She turned hateful eyes on Lucas and then everyone else around her.
"You know," she said, in an oppressive tone. "You know you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you knoooooooooow!" She twisted about in a fit of rage. "You've seen my secret...not once, but twice...! I-I-I-I can't let you get away with this. Never. None of you. You'll all paaaaaaaay!" she shrieked and brandished her broom. "Haniel!"
"Wha...?!"
The bristled end of the Angel shone once more, and the room was saturated in a dazzling light.
"Ngh...!" Lucas and Shidou consciously closed their eyes. The light died out in a few seconds. Their eyes adjusted, and the room returned to its gloom.
However.
"Shidou! Shidou!" Tohka cried, her voice higher than usual.
Shidou turned to look at her and froze.
"Shidou, what is this? My body won't listen to me!" Tohka kicked and flailed, trailing oversized pajamas, looking to be around eight years old.
"Wh-what?!" Shidou gasped.
But that wasn't the only weird thing.
When he looked around at everyone, all of them-except the unconscious members of their group and Lucas-had grown younger, just like Tohka.
"What...the hell...?" Lucas furrowed his brow.
"Hee hee! Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!" Natsumi laughed, breezily, Haniel still held up in the air. "Take that! You can aaaallll stay tiny babies forever!"
Natsumi cackled, and then straddling Haniel, opened a hole in the roof, and flew off into the sky.
"Stop! Natsumi! Natsumiii!" Lucas shouted, but his cries only echoed emptily in the room.