Sion and I explored the school, keeping an eye on the other students.

“I don't see anything suspicious right now.”

The moment I finished speaking, a classroom door opened and a man burst out screaming.

“Uhh— Aaaaaagh!”

... It's always my big mouth.

But this was a game involving the uncanny to begin with. Trouble could erupt at any moment without it being surprising. It was only a matter of time.

Sion's eyes widened at the sight of the panicking man.

“That man... He was on the missing-persons list.”

We hurried over to him.

“We're not students here. We're government agents. We've come to rescue you all.”

Sion stated our identity and purpose in simple, clear terms to calm him down, but...

“We need information. I know it's difficult, but please try to calm down for a moment and tell us what's happening.”

“Govern... ment... Officials? Aah! Dead! Dead, I tell you! I don't want to die! It's started againagainagain!”

The man babbled, his face deathly pale.

“C-curiosity... That's all it was! Home! Home! Send me home! I don't want this! I don't want to die!”

He fled down the corridor, avoiding Sion as she approached.

“Aaaagh—!”

He didn't seem to have any particular destination. He looked too anxious to stand still and was simply running blindly.

... But he didn't get far.

A female character with pink twin-tails suddenly emerged from around a corner.

“Eek! What's your problem!?”

CRASH—♡★!?

An effect resembling cotton candy burst into view as the man collided with the pink-haired character and fell.

... The cotton-candy effect bothered me, but anyway.

Unlike the background characters with their shadowed faces, she had cute, clearly defined features. I suspected she was one of the academy's heroines.

Sure enough, Sion looked at the pink-haired character and explained.

“According to the notebook, that's Moemi Momo, one of the heroines. She's a tsundere character.”

“... A tsundere with twin-tails. That's a classic.”

“Now that he's stopped, let's secure the civilian and protect him.”

But the man had gone still. I thought the impact might have brought him to his senses, but that wasn't it.

“N-no. ... No!”

Still on the floor, he looked up at Momo, trembling.

That wasn't the reaction of someone meeting a cute girl character. He had frozen at the sight of something he feared.

Momo, the pink twin-tailed tsundere, gripped the hem of her skirt in one hand and pressed it firmly down.

“You... You just saw my panties, didn't you!?”

Her flushed face trembling, she glared at the fallen man.

“Pervert! Die!”

Then, like a tsundere straight out of an old dating sim, she raised her foot and kicked him in the head.

“N-no! I didn't see! I didn't, I swear! Spare m—”

POP! SPLAT—!

His head burst, scattering red chunks of flesh and blood all over the corridor.

There wasn't even time to intervene.

The unexpected, absurd sight unfolded so quickly that Sion and I stood stunned for a moment.

“Ugh! So annoying!”

Her twin-tails swaying, Momo went back around the corner.

Then she slowly poked her head out at a grotesque angle.

CREEEAK...

“...”

With expressionless eyes, she waited for her next victim to approach the corner.

'Fuck... That's not a tsundere... That's an uncanny psychopathic corner killer.'

I quickly pulled myself together. I had to.

Someone was dead, and that was that... I still needed to keep my wits about me and survive, didn't I?

Just then, footsteps rang through the corridor.

CLICK— CLACK—

A beautiful brown-haired girl character with a mysterious air approached.

“Sigh... The corridor's a mess again. I suppose it's because we have so many colorful personalities here.”

She sighed as she surveyed the corridor, stained with sunset and blood.

“Should I recruit more student council members? There's just too much work.”

Smiling as though it couldn't be helped, she opened a window and looked outside.

“... Still, I like this school.”

She tucked her windblown hair behind her ear, then turned her gaze toward me and whispered softly.

“What about you?”

I wanted to ask who in their right mind would like a school with corpses lying around... but naturally, my opinion didn't matter.

This wasn't a conversation or a question.

[A peaceful everyday life with no particular complaints, merely far removed from that heart-pounding thing called youth.]

A steady, measured voice echoed throughout the school.

[I thought those dull days would continue, one after another. Until I met her.]

It wasn't a school announcement. ... It was narration.

[The girl who spoke to me at school in the sunset. Gremory, Harem Academy's student council president.]

The other kids had Japanese names. Why was the student council president the only Westerner?

... Well, Western characters were a dime a dozen, and that wasn't important. Moving on.

[What could she be thinking, inviting an ordinary student like me to join the student council? ... But I had a small premonition that, with her, my ordinary life might change.]

The narration ended.

The lovely voice of the beautiful brown-haired Gremory rang out.

“Come on. Let's shape our academy life together.”

At the same time, the game's title appeared like a holographic status window.

BA-DUM!

[Win This Girl, That Girl, Every Girl~ Heart-Pounding Harem Academy Life~ Together in Love and Death]

'... What a fucking shitshow.'

Right. This wasn't anything like a conversation.

You saw these all the time in dating sims and visual novels.

It was the opening prologue announcing the start of the game.

[An endless love story through infinite reincarnation]

Music played from the holographic window as various event scenes set at the school flashed past.

They ranged from fun events spent with beautiful girls to horror events that abruptly changed the mood with a burst of static.

A tug-of-war using human intestines instead of a rope.

Students' corpses sprawled on beds behind a beaming heroine holding a bandage in the infirmary.

A heroine lifting a small piece of unidentified flesh with chopsticks and offering it with an “Open wide~.”

... Scenes I had no desire to see unfolded before us.

Among the students killed by the crazy psycho heroines were background extras, but there were also people from the missing-persons list who had been dragged into the game.

Sion wore her usual calm expression, but her fists were clenched tightly.

Like playing with ants and killing them for no reason at all.

“...”

She loathed the uncanny that preyed on people, and its senseless cruelty.

And Yohan...

It was tragic, yes, but continuing to watch wasn't good for his mental health.

“Menu.”

... He opened the menu window and searched for a button to skip the opening.

“...”

But there was no skip button.

“Sigh...”

My eyes narrowed.

I didn't know about anything else yet, but one thing was certain.

They'd left out the skip button to force-feed users these gory, grotesque event scenes, passing them off as some half-assed shocking twist. Uncanny game or not...

This game was absolute dogshit.

... Well, that wasn't important either.

What really mattered right now was—

I looked down at my hand.

“...”

—I'd been trying ever since I woke up, but I couldn't summon my grimoires.

Neither <Mysteries of the Worm> nor <The Lesser Key of Solomon> responded. It felt like a signal that couldn't get through.

Considering that I was wearing a school uniform rather than the coat I'd had on, it seemed this place was structured so that objects from the real world outside couldn't be brought in.

The beautiful brown-haired student council president character, Gremory, looked at me and smiled prettily, her eyes crinkling as though she were mocking me.

Yes. For the first time since becoming the owner of a grimoire, I'd become embroiled in an uncanny incident without one.

* * *

Yohan's small studio apartment.

After its master suddenly vanished along with the woman beside him, Grizzly, the Invisible Vampire, disobeyed the order not to come out and emerged from the grimoire.

“Gyaa...?”

It poked at the flat slab (laptop) left all alone on the desk—the last thing Yohan had touched before disappearing.

But there was no response.

“Gyaa?”

Grizzly tilted its head, then remembered something that had happened with its master.

The memory drifted gently into view.

One day, with its master's permission, Grizzly had been happily playing by opening and closing the refrigerator door.

[“Gyaa~ Gyagyagya!”]

THUD— CLACK! THUD— CLACK! THUD— CLACK!

But in the middle of its game, the refrigerator started acting strangely.

BZZZZ!

[“Gyaa? ... Gyaaa.”]

When Grizzly called for Yohan, he said,

[“... Did the fridge finally break down?”]

Yohan solved the problem in a manner befitting a former humanities student who had majored in philosophy.

[“Will this work?”]

He thumped the refrigerator twice with his hand.

[“Hiyah! Fix yourself! Get fixed!”]

And luckily, it really did get fixed.

Grizzly marveled at the sight of the dead refrigerator coming back to life.

[“Gyaaa!”]

... End of flashback.

Remembering that moment, Grizzly decided to try the solution its master had taught it.

“Gyaa—!”

It resolutely raised an arm over the laptop.

And the grimoires, which had moved onto the bed—<Mysteries of the Worm> and <The Lesser Key of Solomon>—found themselves of one mind for the first time since choosing Yohan as their master, and stopped Grizzly.

HUMMM! HUMMM!

They flapped frantically.