"Mmmph! Mmmph! Mmmph! Mmmph!"
Inside the Garan no Dou, seeing Ryougi Shiki with her hands and feet tied, her mouth stuffed with a towel, and Naoki standing in front of her playing with a dagger, Touko, who had just returned from the restroom, was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly covered her mouth in horror.
"Master, your mind has strayed."
Without waiting for Touko to utter her shocking statement, Naoki explained first, "It's just because she desperately wanted to chop me into pieces that I tied her up like this in self-defense, it's absolutely not what you think—"
"I didn't expect a young man like you to be an S?"
Touko's face showed horror, but her tone was full of amazement.
"Well, I don't mind you wanting to unleash your hidden nature, but if possible, do it somewhere else, this is my workplace, even I can't work while watching adult scenes."
"I told you it's not like that! What kind of person do you take me for!"
"Just went out for a bit and already brought a strange girl back to play SM, wait, come to think of it, aren't Gray and I, who are always under the same roof as you, quite dangerous?"
"Gray is an exception. If I were truly perverted, Master would have been destroyed by me long ago."
"Hahaha, how dare you talk!" Touko, who was propping up her chin, suddenly laughed, "Alright, alright, I won't tease you anymore, what's with this kid? A kind-hearted girl you found on the street? Crouching inside a cardboard box?"
This overly detailed description made Naoki unable to help but smile bitterly, "Master is quite knowledgeable too. Unfortunately, no, she's just a troubled kid who ran away from home, has some mental issues."
"Ngh—who has mental issues!"
Struggling to remove the towel stuffing her mouth, Shiki glared sharply at Naoki with annoyance.
"It's someone like you who has mental issues! Just barging into my house, without saying anything directly destroying all my things, I'm going to report you for property damage!"
"I don't think the person who hasn't paid rent for two years, and arbitrarily slashes the homeowner's inheritance, is actually any better."
"You two are really the same."
Touko couldn't help but laugh, "But, I more or less understand the situation. So that's it, no wonder when I went to Ogawa Apartment before, I always felt something strange there, it turned out you were living there."
"Master has been there?"
"Hmm, because of the inheritance issue of Araya Souren." Touko said while lighting a cigarette, "My relationship with him wasn't very good, until now I've even forgotten what he looks like, but in any case he was a doll maker, although his specialty was different from mine, his inheritance was a huge fortune, at that time I really wanted to generously take it all."
"Truly like an evil relative seizing inheritance—don't throw that ashtray!"
Without any preamble, Touko threw the ashtray at Naoki's forehead, exhaled smoke, "Well, in the end, of course, it failed. Someone like Araya, didn't leave behind anything that could be taken away, I also didn't like the dolls wandering around the apartment, so I just left them there. But when I left, I saw many wounds on those dolls, was that your doing?"
The last sentence was addressed to Shiki.
Nodding unhappily, Shiki said, "Araya? What was his name, the guy I killed. Before he died he said if I was interested I could go to Ogawa Apartment, after I went there I found a lot of dolls, and as long as I didn't use these eyes to kill them, they would reappear the next day, so I just slashed them every day for entertainment."
"They'll reappear the next day... So that's it, no wonder he made such a request when asking me to design Ogawa Apartment, it was for this? The cycle of life and death, accumulated fate... hmm."
Both being doll makers, plus former classmates, Touko quickly understood what Araya Souren wanted to do with Ogawa Apartment—through the constant repetition of fate, hoping there would be an unexpected change in the countless cycles. Those dolls were supposed to be used for simulation experiments, if he were still alive, now he should already be using the residents living there for experiments, right?
'Looking at it from here, that person being killed two years ago can also be considered a good thing.'
Thinking of this, Touko couldn't help but laugh, "But it really surprised me, Araya's level of strength, within human limits can be said to be very extraordinary, the reason he could reach a level almost equal to mine, his personal strength was the main factor. It turned out he was killed by you two years ago, at that time you were only sixteen, right?"
"I'm not too clear myself." Facing Touko's teasing, Shiki was silent for a moment and then replied like this, "It's just that after being attacked, I desperately wanted to fight him, wanted to kill him, until I realized I had already killed him. Although I don't remember the process, but I'm sure, in the end, it was indeed me who stabbed the dagger into his body."
"Isn't that even more amazing?" Touko laughed, "Unconsciously killing that person. I'm telling you, Naoki, maybe she's a monster like you."
Hearing this sentence, before Naoki himself could speak, Shiki snorted coldly with displeasure, "Hmph! What is this? Mockery? I was defeated by this guy in three moves, you're saying I and he are the same type of monster? He's clearly much more of a monster than me, even the lines on his body weren't that visible..."
"The person in question is right here, you guys keep mentioning monsters, are you thinking about my feelings?"
Spreading his hands helplessly, Naoki smiled, "Well, my situation is a bit special, strength and Mana are basically the legacy of a certain idiot, the only talent that can be said to be my own, is just this pair of Mystic Eyes. By the way, this Mystic Eye Killer was also made by Master, right? Three years ago, an order from Professor Kayneth."
After Naoki said that, Touko just remembered, "Oh, no wonder your glasses looked familiar, I thought it was just a similar model, it turned out they were indeed made by me. An order from Lord El-Melloi, hmm hmm, I remember."
"By the way, young man, I already understand your situation and this girl's, but why did you bring her back?"
"..."
"You couldn't have not thought about it, right?"
After being stunned for a moment, Naoki chuckled dryly while scratching his head, "Well... what else could I do, having her here makes me more comfortable seeing her, you believe that?"
"You like her?"
"Objectively speaking, yes, after all, she's quite beautiful." Naoki said honestly.
Actually, he just felt that, since this was Kara no Kyoukai, if Shiki wasn't there, it always felt like something was missing, Kara no Kyoukai with Shiki only felt somewhat complete.
Of course, perfect completeness might not be achievable, after all, based on the investigation over the past three months, Naoki was completely certain.
—Here was a parallel world different from the world he knew, a parallel world where a man named Kokutou Mikiya did not exist.