The scene before him shook violently. Threads of blood-red spread inward from the edges of his vision, mingling with the mist until they formed a dense haze.
Fluttering prayer ribbons circled him, their scrawled words refreshing madly and embedding themselves in his eyes like bloodshot veins.
[You killed Reiko.] [You killed Reiko.] [You killed Reiko.]
There was no loop notification, no ending narration. It was as though a sudden malfunction had forced him out, or a triggered bug had crashed the game.
The scenery of Rabbit God Town was washed away by torrents of blood. The blood thinned into a flimsy film, then vanished in a gust of wind.
Qi Si sat in an empty classroom. The scene was frozen, its colors muted, and gray-white mist filled his surroundings.
A pitch-black figure rushed out of the mist, carrying a thick stench of blood, and clamped his hands around Qi Si's throat. "You killed Reiko... you actually killed Reiko..."
The hands of the Pocket Watch of Fate ticked away. The outline of a clock appeared in Qi Si's eyes, followed by a fleeting illusion of blood-red leaves.
He watched the newcomer quietly, feeling the icy fingers dig into his flesh as suffocation spread through his chest. He never struggled.
The grip around his neck gradually loosened. The figure retreated several steps, revealing a face crisscrossed with bloody marks and twisted, bent limbs beneath it, like a corpse that had been reduced to scraps of flesh and pieced back together.
"You should have saved her... but you killed her..." the figure muttered, his voice sounding as though he were crying.
Qi Si raised a hand and gently wiped the blood and grime from his neck. Dark bruises cinched his flesh like a vicious chain, evidence of the danger he had