"The barrier node is hidden somewhere inside Amber Mansion."
Nanami Kira gazed at the dim firelight flickering in the hearth, his voice low.
"Don't you dare talk to that woman, or I'll be angry—and once I'm angry, no amount of coaxing will fix it!"
Hoshino Ei grumbled into his ear.
"Then should we split up and search?" Minamoto Sorako's eyes lit up. She clapped her hands together, excitement blooming across that lovely face.
You'd be the first one killed in a horror movie...
"The node isn't so easy to find. In fact, while you were away from the mansion, I'd already sent my shikigami out to scout." The Scarred Man leaned against the table, smiling with half-lidded eyes. "They found nothing."
So he'd noticed the anomaly in the barrier long before anyone else.
A serpentine shikigami—sleek and dark, like an Anaconda—slithered along the crimson carpet, wound its way up a table leg, crested the edge, and coiled around his arm.
He toyed with it idly as he spoke.
"None of us know each other's names yet. I think it'd be wise to change that."
"After all, we're going to be working together for a while, helping each other, overcoming this together. From now on, we're partners."
"I'll go first. Branch family of the Zenin Clan, Semi-Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer. Call me Zenin Aka. My technique, as you can see, is commanding Cursed Spirits."
"I—my name is Kotone Yui. Grade 2 Jujutsu Sorcerer. I serve as Zenin-sama's attendant..."
A girl with cropped pink hair peeked out from behind Zenin Aka's shoulder, timid as a mouse. Half her face stayed hidden.
"My ability is this rope."
So they're not lovers. Master and servant, then.
Nanami Kira noted this silently.
"Don't you look at that girl!"
Hoshino Ei's protests were grating.
"My name is Minamoto Sorako, heiress of the Minamoto Clan. Semi-Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer."
Sorako thumped her chest proudly—though there wasn't much of a curve to speak of—and declared it with unmistakable pride.
"What about you?" She tilted her pale chin toward Nanami Kira.
My name is Nanami Kira, I live in the villa district north of Tokyo, and every day I have to exorcise eight Cursed Spirits before I go home...
Without lifting his head, he said flatly:
"Kento Gojo. Branch family of the Gojo Clan. An ordinary Grade 3 Jujutsu Sorcerer. I'm also a shikigami user."
He pulled out Hoshino Ei, who had been nestled stubbornly against his chest, and Stray Cat, whose tiny head was poking out of his pocket. He gestured at them.
"These are my shikigami."
Stray Cat looked as if it had gorged on some mystery-recipe cat food and destroyed its stomach, now limp and listless from head to tail. Hoshino Ei, for her part, had gone boneless for some undisclosed reason, dripping with cold sweat. The group glanced at them and collectively shook their heads.
This shikigami user is probably the weakest among us. More than a few of them thought it.
He looked unremarkable, too. Nothing distinctive, nothing dangerous.
He hadn't even gotten angry when the others mocked him earlier. Seemed like a mild-mannered sort.
Harmless. That was the first impression Nanami Kira left on everyone.
After all, what sort of ill intent could a little hand and a little cat possibly harbor?
"The name's Tsuruda Tasuke. Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer, retired."
The oldest among them spoke in a gravelly rasp. His hair was white, his skin papery and dry, and a long-stemmed pipe dangled from his lips.
Past seventy, easily.
"My technique is 'playing video games.'"
He produced a game controller from inside his coat with the gravity of a samurai drawing a blade.
"In combat, I don't need to dodge or attack on my own. I just work the sticks and buttons, and my body moves automatically. In my prime, I could chain seven combos in a single second!"
Of course. Not a single normal old man in the entire jujutsu world.
Gakuganji Yoshinobu's technique was playing the guitar. The Zenin Clan head's technique was basically a cartoon show...
Were they trying to corner the entertainment industry?
At this rate, the next old man's Innate Technique will just be "adult films," and they'll have the full set. They could start a company. Call it Jujutsu Rejuvenation Sunset Red Co., Ltd...
Nanami Kira mused darkly, then turned his gaze to the last person.
"Sayahi. Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer." She drew out the last syllable with a lilt.
"My technique is hypnosis. I can create illusions, and even use them to manipulate Cursed Spirits."
She spoke with a half-smile, all languid amusement. She was tall, draped in a sheer black dress beneath a cropped vest. Thigh-high stockings, garter straps tracing lines beneath the gauze, peep-toe heels that arched her feet into a sharp line, two painted toes peeking through the opening in vivid nail-lacquer red.
Her hands, too, were—
"Don't. You. Dare. Look. At. Her. Hands!"
Hoshino Ei hissed through gritted teeth, and Nanami Kira could hear the indignation cracking in her voice.
"Grr... damn it, damn it... what's so great about her anyway..."
He patted her gently.
"Shall we go search for the node now? I can't stand staying here even one more day." Sayahi lifted one long leg over the other, crossing them, and let out a languid yawn.
"I agree." Sorako nodded.
"No. We should return to our rooms."
Nanami Kira cut them off. He rose from his chair and turned his gaze to the window.
The cold autumn rain had thinned to almost nothing, a drop here, a drop there, landing without force. The thunder had quieted. The clouds were dissolving, but the sky had only grown darker.
Evening had arrived. Night's tail was slowly draping itself over the world.
"It's best not to leave your room after dark."
"Why?"
"Because Jasmine said so. And so far, she hasn't told a single lie."
It was true. Jasmine had never lied. Not about the "livestock raised in the mansion," not about the auction. Not one word had been false.
"That's absurd."
Nanami Kira sighed, stood, and slipped Hoshino Ei into his inner breast pocket.
He pulled the door open and left them with a final word:
"Don't leave your rooms. And don't use anything that belongs to Amber Mansion."
"That's the only advice I have."
"My, my. For a Grade 3, you certainly are timid."
Sayahi's laugh was honeyed, her eyes gleaming with contempt.
"Time is running out." Zenin Aka opened his eyes fully, his tone shifting to something grave. "Every extra minute we spend here is another minute for something unpredictable to happen."
"That maid is our enemy. Why would we trust what the enemy tells us?"
"I agree with young Zenin." The old man nodded, stroking his pipe stem.
"Let's split up and search."
"Well..."
Sorako bit her lip. She looked at Sayahi, then at Nanami Kira's retreating back. At last, she made her decision.
"Let's go back to our rooms first."
The next day, when the sun rose again, it rose behind thick clouds that refused to part. The entire morning was damp and gray.
Sayahi was dead.
Identical to the previous timeline. On September 28th, three people had died, and she was among them.
[Chapter Five: The Autumn Mansion]
The previous night, after agreeing to split up and search for the barrier node, everyone had returned to their rooms.
Every person, an island.
"The Past and Future exist simultaneously. What Amber Mansion requires is balance." Nanami Kira's voice was steady. "Every successive clan head of the Minamoto family, upon death, has had their soul imprisoned here, existing as 'the Past' within Amber Mansion. A thousand years of accumulation. This place became a haunted realm long ago."
"At night, those curses emerge. Staying in your room keeps you safe. That should also be a form of exchange, a cost paid for protection."
He had already established a baseline of credibility.
And the rules of this game had grown clearer:
1. No killing each other directly, but words, schemes, and indirect methods are permitted.
2. Find the barrier node.
3. Find a way to pay the node's price. Others can be used as payment, or alternative methods may exist.
4. At nightfall, you must return to your room. No leaving.
Unconfirmed, extrapolated:
5. Past and Present coexist within Amber Mansion; unknown rules govern the interaction.
6. Some will or arbiter exists behind the game, the same entity that signed the next-timeline Binding Vow with Nanami Kira.
7. Everything inside the mansion can be auctioned, provided the price is paid. Presumably, items useful for winning can be purchased.
8. The standard for "price" and "payment" remains unclear.
9. A mole may exist among the guests.