The internal structure of Ogawa Apartment, due to Araya's hidden intentions from the beginning, was designed rather intricately, with spirals, yin and yang, illusions... The design incorporated a lot of magical knowledge. Even a Magus would need time to understand the situation here, and ordinary residents who didn't understand Magecraft would also think, "This building is really complicated."
The first and second floors were originally set up as entertainment areas, so they were very spacious halls, divided into east and west sections by an elevator. The same went for the entire apartment. Except for the first and second floors on the east and west sides, moving to the other side could only be done via the elevator.
Upon entering the apartment, a feeling as if falling into the surface of the sea immediately enveloped the entire body.
Naoki couldn't help but frown, "A barrier? Araya Souren has been dead for a long time. According to the collected information, this place functions well as an ordinary residential apartment, there shouldn't be a barrier. Is this inherent to the building itself? Or, is this great legacy being utilized by someone?"
"Neither."
Quite unexpectedly, as if responding to Naoki's murmur, someone's answer came from the elevator side.
With her hands in her pockets, wearing her signature red jacket and blue kimono, Shiki leaned against the wall, looking at Naoki with a smile on her face, "I was wondering who it was, turns out it's you. What's up?"
"That's the question I wanted to ask."
Naoki couldn't help but be surprised, "Why is the next heir of the Ryougi family, who disappeared without a trace two years ago, appearing here?"
"Because I live here." Shiki replied in a matter-of-fact tone, "Humans always need a place to live, otherwise what's the difference between them and stray dogs? Besides, it's free here, so I live here."
"Why not go back to the Ryougi family?"
"Just don't want to go back. But, asking such a question, may I assume you were hired by the people at home to look for me?"
Firmly shaking his head, while spreading both his hands, Naoki smiled, "No. It's just that I wanted to know some things, so I conducted an investigation into what happened in this city over the past two years, and found something strange here, so I came. To be honest, meeting you was beyond my expectations."
"By the way, since we've met, what a coincidence. Could you answer a few of my questions? There are many of my guesses that I want to confirm the truth of."
Seeing Naoki take out a notebook and pen from his backpack, making him look like a reporter, Shiki's gaze couldn't help but show a hint of disgust, "Passing through, no time. I'm in a hurry to eat."
"Besides, including this time, this is the second time you've appeared before me. If you want to live, you'd better not appear before me for the third time."
"Eh?" Naoki couldn't help but frown, "What's this? Did you set a rule for yourself [meeting someone three times means you have to kill them]?"
"Add the prefix [that I remember] to me."
Watching Shiki's back as she walked out of the apartment, Naoki's gaze showed a hint of seriousness, "The feeling... the situation is a bit bad, her mental state."
After meeting three times with someone Shiki knew, she would kill them.
From a mystery perspective, this could be considered an oath that had no coercive effect, but... why did Shiki make such an oath? And looking at her condition, it seemed that she herself voluntarily set that oath for herself?
Was it because of the incident two years ago?
Or...
"Well, although this isn't very good, but looking directly at her house might help me solve this mystery a little."
Arriving in front of the apartment door, looking at the nameplates listing the residents' family names, Naoki quickly found Shiki's house.
West Wing, 405.
◆━⊰✧⊱━◆
Shiki's house was like what he had seen on TV before, too simple. After Naoki used Magecraft to open the door and enter, he almost thought he had entered a newly renovated and uninhabited house.
The furniture inside the house was complete, but apart from the furniture that had been there from the beginning, there were no other items. The kitchen was empty, the closet only had one or two pieces of clothing hanging, no trash can, no water dispenser, no air conditioner, no refrigerator... none of it.
"To be able to survive in such an environment... it can be said that it's indeed fitting for Ryougi Shiki?"
In the original work, Shiki didn't care much about her living environment. Three times a day she only ate tomato sandwiches and drank plain mineral water. It was imaginable what her attitude towards life was. Even Naoki felt it was natural that she didn't have any spare clothes.
Not touching the items in Shiki's house carelessly, just walking around briefly in each room, making sure there were no abnormalities, Naoki sighed helplessly, "There really aren't any clues that can answer my doubts. Should I have just chased after her and kept asking her questions back then?"
Although the consequence would be being chased and slashed by Shiki who had opened her Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, but he also couldn't defeat her, Naoki felt it wasn't a problem.
The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception were indeed troublesome, but that didn't mean there was no way to deal with them. Just look at Sasuke's Rinnegan, which was so powerful, it was also stabbed and lost, right? Of course, Naoki only wanted Shiki to answer a few of his questions, not to the point of stabbing her eyes. Dislocating all her joints should be enough.
"But... for some reason, I feel like something is wrong."
Looking at the layout inside the house, after exiting the house and leaning against the railing while looking at the scenery outside, Naoki frowned slightly, "A barrier... since there's a barrier, it means this place is another world relative to the outside, but another world... the strangeness inside and outside is almost nonexistent."
"The point is, what is the barrier for? And the sentence Shiki said earlier..."
[Neither]
That meant this barrier was neither inherent to the apartment nor created by a specific Magus later on.
Then how did this barrier form? If it wasn't a natural product, nor an artificial product... did it appear out of nowhere?
"..."
After propping his chin and pondering for quite a while, Naoki sighed helplessly, "Ah, still can't figure it out. If Waver was here right now, it would definitely be much better, he would definitely be able to see through the tricks of this apartment directly."
"Then next... if there's no problem upstairs, let's go downstairs."
Naoki remembered this building had an underground parking lot.
However—
*Creek creek creek creek...*
Since when, the doors of other residents' houses suddenly opened on their own. One after another, dolls resembling mannequin models walked out shakily, sandwiching Naoki in the middle.
Glancing at the situation on both sides, Naoki blinked his eyes, "What's this? Did I trigger an automatic defense mechanism? Or touch some kind of trap? Why did it suddenly become a doll version of a zombie movie scene?"