Yoshino Kenichi sat inside the house, feeling somewhat nervous.
Since Nagayama Keiichiro had left to investigate, he could only sit here and try his best to soothe the Boy; if possible, taking him out of this room would be the best remedy.
Well then... "Would you like to go out and play with Uncle?"
Yoshino Kenichi put on what he thought was a kind expression, but to his surprise, the Boy beside him didn't buy it, pouting and shaking his head.
"Uncle, wait a bit longer, she went to pour tea. Every time Grandma does something, it takes a long time... because she always forgets what she's supposed to do."
Yoshino Kenichi smiled and nodded, then said: "While we wait for Grandma, why don't you come to the door with Uncle? Uncle wants to settle down here too. Can Da Yong show Uncle around the place in detail?"
The Boy hesitated a little.
Yoshino Kenichi continued to coax him: "Look, Uncle brought money. What do you want to eat? Sushi? Or fresh-baked bread? Steak? Why don't Uncle and you go buy some together? We can even bring some back for Grandma."
The Boy stood up, his feet fidgeting restlessly: "Then, then I'll go tell Grandma!"
Yoshino Kenichi grabbed the Boy's hand: "Shh... let's give Grandma a surprise."
He pulled the Boy's hand and was about to head out when the old woman's raspy voice suddenly sounded in his ear.
"Are you leaving?"
Yoshino Kenichi turned around in horror and looked up—he found that the old woman had been pressed against the ceiling for who knows how long. Her entire body was like a spider, limbs spread wide, gripping the ceiling tightly.
Her head was intact but hung down from the ceiling, dangling right above where the two had just been sitting, swaying like a swing.
While he was talking to the little Boy, this head had been staring at him from directly overhead?
In an instant, the hair all over Yoshino Kenichi's body stood on end, and a cold current rose from his feet, quickly spreading through his entire body.
That familiar sense of madness attacked him once again.
His teeth chattered 'clack-clack-clack' and his nostrils flared, but his arm seemed to declare independence, reaching for his waist without hesitation—as a SWAT veteran of many years, even in an unconscious state, he could still make the right choice!
This had already become a bodily instinct.
Draw, raise, aim, fire!
All in one fluid motion!
Bang!
A muffled sound echoed in the room.
The long bullet pierced the old woman's brow, its rotation generating high heat that scorched her brain before exiting the back of her head and hitting the wall.
Clink.
The shell casing hit the floor, and the tide of mad whispers receded.
The old woman hanging on the ceiling fell with a 'thud'—not the dull sound of flesh hitting the floor, but a crisp sound like some kind of plastic texture.
Silence returned to the room.
Yoshino Kenichi panted heavily. In that instant, the intense adrenaline had allowed him to perform extraordinary movements and aim with precision.
So much so that after the danger passed, he felt a bit dizzy.
"Sanity remains... that shouldn't be right. Out-of-Control people have no sanity..."
He leaned forward, murmuring the doubt that had been on his mind.
Can an Out-of-Control person still act like a normal human?
He walked up to the 'corpse' and looked down.
Wait, no?
Yoshino Kenichi finally saw the corpse clearly—there was nothing abnormal about the old woman's body.
Except, the amount of flesh was strange... how could there be so much meat?
"That shouldn't be right?" Yoshino Kenichi crouched down to inspect it carefully, pulling a pair of white rubber gloves from his pocket.
"Why shouldn't it be?"
The response came from behind Yoshino Kenichi's head.
He was very familiar with this voice.
It was Da Yong, the voice of that abandoned Child!
He whipped his head around, wanting to raise his gun, when Nagayama Keiichiro's cracking scream reached his ears.
"Watch out!!"
Yoshino Kenichi swore he had never heard his Captain shout with such sharp hoarseness; could that guy who maintained his cold-faced persona even while running actually have a moment where he lost his composure?
As he thought this, his vision began to spin, flying up toward the ceiling for a moment, then spinning back down to the floor.
Finally, his vision focused on the floor, where a pair of worn-out sneakers occupied his entire field of view.
They were Da Yong's sneakers.
Then, a massive pressure came from the outside, and he heard the sound of bones shattering.
Everything ended... Nagayama Keiichiro ran back into the room from the hallway as fast as he could... only to see the scene of Yoshino Kenichi being decapitated.
An expression of astonishment still lingered on his face. Blood, squeezed by the immense pressure, sprayed from the headless neck, staining the entire room's ceiling red.
His eyes nearly bursting from their sockets, he watched as the little Boy stepped on Yoshino Kenichi's head with a smile.
At the last moment, he even looked up deliberately, waiting for Nagayama Keiichiro to appear at the hallway entrance before nonchalantly crushing the head with his foot.
"You bastard!!"
Nagayama Keiichiro raised his gun in a rage, the muzzle spitting flames as he fired at the Boy.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The Boy stood in place with a smile. In front of him, two deformed people blocked the bullets.
Nagayama Keiichiro had seen the photos in the hallway and knew who they were.
They were the Boy's parents.
At this moment, the couple no longer resembled their appearance in the photos; their entire faces were slashed to pieces by knives and covered in wounds.
Their human legs had long since disappeared, replaced by massive lower limbs resembling those of some amphibian. Their bellies were round and bulging, and their eyes, like the old woman's before, were nearly bulging out of their sockets.
They looked like two deformed frogs, or toads.
Nagayama Keiichiro said no more, continuing to fire while moving to find cover.
The two deformed parents blocked the bullets while the Boy hid behind them, as leisurely as if he were taking a stroll.
He spoke to Nagayama Keiichiro with a giggle: "Look, my parents abandoned me, so I turned them into monsters; Grandma abandoned me, so I turned her into a monster too."
"Clearly they were the ones who wronged me, so why does everyone always say it's my fault?"
Nagayama Keiichiro hid behind a wall to change magazines, pulling a grenade from his waist pouch.
"Siding with chaos and hunting order. That's enough to make you die a hundred times. Your parents and grandmother weren't good people, but are you?"
Listening to this, the Boy's face gradually turned hideous: "You dogs of order! Always sticking your noses where they don't belong! What's so bad about chaos? At least it saved my life!"
"If none of this had happened, and you and that guy had sent me back, wouldn't I just have continued to suffer?"
"Ritualists of the Chaos side must be purged."
Nagayama Keiichiro spoke coldly, gripping the grenade.
A passage of text appeared in his mind, his thoughts surging.
Nagayama Keiichiro activated his mystery.
[Baseball Player (order): A transcendent ritual integrating throwing, hitting, base running, and shortstop play.]
[It appeared because of a certain baseball player, yet was obtained by someone who doesn't like baseball at all.]
[Evidently, hobbies and work are two different things.]
[If the Ritualist lives long enough, they will gradually activate multiple chain abilities.]
[Ability:]
[Three Strikes Out (Origin Point Grade): Destined to be hit three times.]
[After three times, the Ritualist can return one equally precise Sure-Hit Throw.]
[Cost:]
[When mystery is not deployed, none of your throws will hit the target.]
[Energy Level: Lv1 · 「Origin Point」]
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