The deeper they went, the narrower the passage became.
The air grew sticky, and things resembling human tissue began appearing on the walls on either side.
They clung to the walls, still twitching faintly despite having no source of nourishment.
"Looks like this really is where Mahito conducted his experiments."
Rihito's gaze darkened as he took in the strange sights around them.
Even Kugisaki merely looked disgusted and said nothing more.
The mood among the four of them grew steadily heavier.
After roughly two minutes of pursuit, another large door appeared ahead.
"Kugisaki!" Nanami called out sharply.
"Leave it to me!" Kugisaki immediately understood what he wanted.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The next instant, three nails imbued with cursed energy shot forward like lightning.
Crash!
The door was covered in rust and had gone without maintenance for years. Struck by Kugisaki's three nails, it toppled straight over.
The four of them never slowed down. Almost the instant the door fell, they charged through.
"This is..."
Fushiguro froze as he rushed into the room, disbelief spreading across his face.
Kugisaki was little better. The disgust in her eyes was almost overflowing.
"Split up and search for clues. Stay alert, and call out immediately if you notice anything unusual." After two seconds of silence, Nanami finally spoke.
Although he looked no different from usual, his voice was heavy. Even the knuckles of his right hand, gripping his cursed tool, had turned white.
"So this really is where Mahito experimented on transfigured humans."
Human tissue lay scattered all around them. Inside the enormous culture vessels against the wall, a number of mutilated corpses were still twitching faintly.
Several relatively intact transfigured humans were even tied up nearby, their eyes darting wildly as their mouths opened and closed.
They seemed to have noticed Rihito and the others and were pleading for help.
Cruelty, bloodshed, and horror defined this room.
Rihito took a deep breath, then slowly let it out.
He could stomach this scene better than the other three.
After all, he knew the original story and understood Mahito's nature.
Even so, the murderous intent in his eyes had not diminished in the slightest. If anything, it was growing stronger.
At Nanami's command, they immediately turned and headed toward different corners of the room.
Rihito approached one side of the room, where a workbench covered in brown stains held several enormous, transparent culture vessels.
The brown stains looked like blood that had seeped out, dried, and weathered over a long period.
Numbers were marked at regular intervals, as though Mahito had placed them there specifically to distinguish his test subjects.
Rihito looked up, his gaze settling on the first transparent vessel.
Inside was a dwarf-sized transfigured human, about a meter tall. Their appearance still retained most human features; their body had simply been shrunk considerably.
Hopefully, I can find a clue to Mahito's whereabouts here, Rihito thought, then began searching carefully.
But when his gaze swept over the transfigured human's head, it lingered involuntarily for a second.
"This feeling..."
Sensing something was wrong, Rihito began studying the transfigured human closely.
He leaned nearer, examining their appearance through the transparent vessel.
"They look so familiar. I feel like I've seen this person somewhere."
Rihito felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity toward this transfigured human, whose body had been shrunk several sizes, but he could not remember where he had seen them.
Perhaps this was simply some unfortunate person he had once seen, only for Mahito to capture them for his experiments.
At that thought, Rihito stopped dwelling on it.
Just as he was about to look away, the transfigured human inside the vessel suddenly moved.
"Hm?" Rihito stepped back, focusing his attention on the transfigured human.
Their eyelids were trembling faintly, the movements growing more pronounced, as though they might wake fully at any moment.
"...Ri...hito?"
Rihito jolted, disbelief spreading across his face.
Who is this? How do they know my name?
Looking at that shrunken, slightly swollen face, the sense of familiarity in Rihito's mind grew stronger.
"Is...that...Rihito?"
"Help...help...me..."
"...Who are you?" Rihito abruptly leaned closer, staring fixedly at the face inside the vessel.
A beautiful figure he barely knew instantly surfaced in his mind.
"Rihito...I...I like you!"
The girl before him wore a long white dress, a blush on her cheeks. The breeze had tousled her waist-length black hair.
Her hands had turned slightly white from gripping her confession letter too tightly.
"Sorry, I'm not planning to date anyone right now."
Back then, Rihito had rejected her without hesitation. It had been his second day after crossing into this world.
"It...it's okay. I...I'll wait for you, Rihito."
After saying that, the girl had walked away, looking a little disappointed.
He had never imagined that would be the last time he saw her.
"Is...is that you, Kaori?"
Rihito pressed his palm against the vessel, then snatched it back as though he had been shocked.
He did not even realize that his voice had trembled uncontrollably as he said those words.
"Help...me..."
Kaori seemed to have regained her senses for only that brief instant. Then, like the other transfigured humans, she was left with nothing but the raw instinct to survive.
"Rihito, what's wrong?"
Seemingly noticing something was off with Rihito, Kugisaki jogged over from the other side.
"...Nothing." Looking at the girl inside the vessel, Rihito forced himself to calm down immediately.
Yet the flames deep within his eyes seemed ready to burn through the entire world.
Kugisaki glanced at the vessel in front of Rihito, then at him. For once, she said nothing more.
Just then, Fushiguro finished his investigation and hurried over to them.
"Look. I found this."
As soon as he approached, Fushiguro produced the clue he had found.
It was an identification card covered in blood.
The writing on it was already blurred beyond recognition, though they could just make out something about a high school.
"It looks like a student ID." Kugisaki took the card, struggling to decipher the writing. "I think the name is...Haitani?"
Haitani?
At that name, Rihito's pupils contracted, and a terrible foreboding rose within him.
"What did you find?" Nanami's voice suddenly came from beside them.
His expression was no longer as calm as before. A hint of gravity had settled over it.
Nanami's gaze swept across the three of them before settling on Rihito's strained expression. He said gravely:
"Rihito, you noticed it too, didn't you?"
At those words, Rihito slowly nodded.
Noticed what?
Fushiguro and Kugisaki exchanged a glance, each seeing the confusion in the other's eyes.
But both remained silent, waiting for Nanami to continue.
"All the transfigured humans in this laboratory came from the same school." As he spoke, Nanami kept his gaze on Rihito.
"They were students at Rihito's former school, Ritsu High School!"
Before you continue