0. Head-to-Head
(0/3)
Yuki returned to her apartment room.
(1/3)
She turned on the lights.
Her home, a single six-mat room,
revealed its unchanging appearance.
However, within it, there was one
thing radiating a strange presence. No—it was doubtful whether it could even be
called a "thing." For while it emitted a sense of existence that was
boundless, its form was wavering unsteadily.
<It> possessed an appearance
identical to Yuki. Hair left long and unkempt, a lifeless face, a worn-out
jersey, and an atmosphere akin to a ghost. It sat cross-legged on the floor
with the haughty demeanor of a Yakuza executive. Being indoors, it had taken
its shoes off, and yet, those shoes were not in the entryway. It was a fact
that suggested she was not a being with physical substance—that she was a
<Phantom>. Yet, no matter how much Yuki strained her eyes, she could not
erase <it> from her field of vision.
As if mocking Yuki’s efforts, the
phantom curled its lips.
"It's useless. My existence is
already halfway independent of you. Guzzling booze won't make me
disappear."
Even the voice was exactly the same
as Yuki's. "Who the hell are you?" Yuki asked.
"I told you earlier, didn't I? I
am you."
"Why can I see something like
you? Why did you appear?"
"I think you understand that
better than anyone, don't you? The one who called me was none other than
you."
Yuki fell silent. Because it hit the
mark.
Just as the thing said—in truth, she
already had a rough idea. During the time she met the phantom outside the
apartment and returned to her room, Yuki had been remembering. Remembering what
she had done.
Tamamo. A player with a beautiful
appearance that no one could help but turn to look at. Yuki had abandoned her
position as Tamamo's master, cutting ties with a plausible excuse. Later, they
reunited at the climax of <Royale Palace>. Yuki was driven into a
situation where she could only survive by killing Tamamo with her own hands.
Because I got involved with someone with a half-hearted attitude, that is why I
was punished—thinking this, she executed what had to be done.
And so—indulging in sentimentality
like she was actually worth something, she was now seeing this thing.
Yuki closed her left eye.
She looked at the phantom version of
herself with only her right eye.
Thinking normally, this expression
was absurd. Yuki's right eye had already lost its vision; it should have been
impossible to see anything. And yet, the figure of the phantom was reflected
even in the field of vision of that single right eye. She was seeing with a
right eye that shouldn't be able to see. She could feel its presence acutely.
In the midst of <Royale
Palace>, Yuki had acquired a way of seeing that did not rely on visual
information. There was also her innate ability to read presence. If these two
factors acted in the wrong direction for some reason—she could sense the
existence of a human who wasn't actually there. The trigger was Tamamo; the
implementation was Yuki's superhuman senses. That was the background
constructing this phantom.
"Correct answer," the
phantom announced.
Since it was Yuki herself, it seemed
it could read her mind.
"Thanks to you honing your
skills, I was able to come out into the open like this. I express my gratitude
for that technique."
However, the phantom continued.
"I cannot help but despise your
psychology. Shocked that you killed a disciple? Hey, hey, give me a break.
Don't act so pathetic. It's not like you."
Yuki did not answer.
"What on earth happened to you?
You used to be a simpler human being. Since when did you start thinking about
such messy, complicated things? Was it that? Was that 'Doctor' (Hakushi) a bad
influence? Or was it Mishiro? Or perhaps Tamamo herself? Either way, it’s
pretentious. Let's take it easy."
The phantom then locked eyes with Yuki.
"Remember. Remember what kind of
human you originally were."
As if information was being poured
into her through that gaze, Yuki's consciousness was guided toward the past.
(2/3)
For Yuki, the moment that could be
called the beginning of her life.
That was, of course, the Ninth
Game—<Candle Woods>. The baptismal game that made Yuki the Yuki she is
today.
However, naturally, in a material
sense, Yuki’s life had existed long before that. Before <Candle
Woods>—back then, Yuki was merely smoldering without purpose while playing
the role of the Doctor's foolish disciple.
And—even before that.
When it came to the time before
meeting the Doctor, it was now beyond the realm of oblivion. Yuki tried not to
recall memories of those days as much as possible. She could accept her time as
a disciple as a transitional process leading to the present, but her self from those
days was, to put it mildly, an unforgivable existence, one she didn't even want
to allow into her consciousness.
But, now that it had come to this,
she had no choice but to look back.
What kind of human she had been.
Just how insensitive a human she had
been.
(3/3)
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