Chapter 21

"I'm not scared, I'm not scared..." Doppo Kunikida tried to hypnotize himself.

Osamu Dazai was practically laughing himself silly. "Kunikida~" He even deliberately called his name in an eerie voice.

"Aaaaaah!!" He fell for it every time, that Kunikida.

Atsushi Nakajima instinctively swallowed, his skin crawling. Kyoka Izumi took his hand reassuringly.

Koyo Ozaki stared at their joined hands, her eyes practically blazing with fury.

Atsushi Nakajima grew even more frightened.

"Hmph, cowardly weretiger." Ryunosuke Akutagawa gave him a disdainful sidelong glance. "I would never fear such things."

"That's Akutagawa for you!" Higuchi Ichiyō's eyes sparkled.

"" certainly did not open the door. He pulled up the surveillance feed outside the monitoring room.

On the screen, the pretty hostess he had seen earlier stood outside the door. She was not knocking, though; she was holding her chin.

"Sir, are you in there? I can't find you anywhere. Are you in there?"

Her voice was undeniably sweet, yet there was something uncanny about it.

"" neither answered nor made a sound. He was still observing, but the knocking had stopped.

"Are you in there? Are you in there? Are you in there?"

The hostess paused, then suddenly smiled.

"You're in there. I can see you."

Those hollow eyes stared straight into the surveillance camera, and even "" instinctively stepped back.

Thud.

Something fell.

"" held his breath, his pupils contracting.

The hostess had kept that sweet smile on her face the entire time. Now her pretty head rolled across the floor and began bouncing. Her eyeballs still swiveled in their sockets, brimming with intense malice and an uncanny menace.

Thump, thump, thump.

That was right. What he had heard earlier had not been knocking at all, but... the sound of a head bouncing on the floor! She had only picked up her head just now to deceive "".

The pretty head kept bouncing, its scarlet lips parting as it repeated, "Sir, sir, I can see you. Open the door. Open the door."

Her voice grew increasingly shrill, like something scraping across glass. "Open the door, open the door..."

The head began ramming the door.

Oh no.

It'll draw the other monsters here!

Thumpthumpthumpthumpthump...

Countless sounds of "knocking" rang out. On the surveillance feed, "" clearly saw a dense swarm of heads rolling out from everywhere, then bouncing up.

Among them were the office workers and security guards he had seen earlier. They all wore identical smiles and opened their mouths. "Open the door, open the door. If you don't, we're coming in."

As if you wouldn't come in if I opened it! "" braced himself against the door, but the impacts from outside kept growing stronger.

There was little time left. A mere door could not stop these uncanny entities. Once the right conditions and methods were met, anyone they targeted was certain to die.

Then "" heard it.

Thump. Thump.

The sound of a head came from inside the room.

The uncanny entity... had gotten in.

I have to find a way out of this! "" frantically recalled the clues he had gathered, until his eyes finally cleared...

That's right.

When the thumping finally reached his side, "" smiled confidently. He had figured out the rules behind this incident!

"Aaaaaah!!" The fainthearted were nearly wetting themselves in terror.

"God, compared to those hideous Cursed Spirits, this is a whole different kind of unbearable!" Nobara Kugisaki could not help rubbing her arms. "What kind of person makes this? It's way too grotesque!"

Doppo Kunikida nearly passed out on the spot. His mind had gone completely blank.

"It's so scary! Naomi's terrified~" Naomi Tanizaki threw herself into Junichiro Tanizaki's arms, clearly frightened out of her wits.

Even Kyoka Izumi quietly caught hold of Atsushi Nakajima's hem. Many others also showed signs of discomfort. Everyone present was either accustomed to bloodshed or used to seeing bizarre-looking Cursed Spirits, but this uncanny phenomenon was a different kind of horror. They knew they would struggle to stay calm if they suddenly encountered something like this themselves.

Even so, none of them wanted to miss what happened next.

Then, just as everyone held their breath, waiting to see how "" would escape this hopeless situation, the screen suddenly went black.

??? What was going on?

Everyone was beside themselves. Cutting off there was shameless!

In the darkness, someone's voice rang out.

It was gentle and loving, like a spring breeze, like flowing water.

"Time to get up, Ranpo."

"Mmm, I'm so sleepy. Let me sleep a little longer."

"You're going to be late, Ranpo."

Ranpo Edogawa rolled around under the covers several times before reluctantly poking his head out and opening his bleary green eyes. "I know, I know. Stop calling me, An'an."

With that, he slowly crawled out from under the covers and scratched his bird's nest of hair.

An Xinyi smiled helplessly and smoothed down his unruly hair. "Now that you're awake, get up. I'll go make breakfast."

"I know, I know." Ranpo reluctantly began pulling on his clothes.

Once An Xinyi was sure Ranpo was awake, she left, leaving the still somewhat groggy Ranpo alone.

Ranpo Edogawa yawned and lazily leaned toward his computer. On the screen, the ordinary-looking investigator had already returned to his little home, and his record now contained a new entry: "Successfully resolved the Class C incident: Head Ghost."

Ranpo finally woke up a little.

"Mm-hmm." Ranpo Edogawa appreciatively scrolled through the lengthy record, thoroughly satisfied with the fruits of last night's late-night efforts. "Just what you'd expect from me. Solved it easily."

He closed the page. There was an icon on the desktop that resembled a vertical eye, or perhaps some bizarre religious symbol. Merely looking at it sent a chill through him, as though he were being watched. A few small words appeared beneath it.

The game "Weird Invasion."

"What??!!" It was actually a game?!

They'd wasted all that emotion, damn it!