Don't use Type-Moon references in Oregairu!

14. Don't look at those unhealthy little notebooks!

When Eriri Sawamura uttered the first sentence in a reminiscent tone, Ritsuka Fujimaru sensed something was wrong.

The faint sounds of nature outside, such as the rustling of the wind through the treetops and the chirping of birds, had completely vanished. Even the distant lights and faint sounds of daily life had receded from the room. The already quiet room became deathly silent, with only Eriri's voice echoing and amplifying within it.

The sound seemed to possess a magical power, desperately trying to penetrate the ears and brains of the others. Fujimaru Ritsuka and the others felt a little dizzy.

Countless whispers seemed to rise from the corner, like the hushed conversations of guests waiting for their food at a dining table. The carpet, illuminated by the lamplight, suddenly took on a yellowish-gray filter, like an old photograph, and appeared inexplicably worn.

Eriri Sawamura's eyes lost focus, her expression blank, like a puppet on a string.

Snapped!

Yukino Yukinoshita sensed something was wrong. Suppressing her shock, she rushed forward and slapped her.

But it had absolutely no effect.

Eriri Sawamura continued reciting those blasphemous words, but she began to stumble, losing the fluency she had at the beginning. The latter half suddenly lost its essence, seemingly becoming a translated version: "...However, I know that is wrong. Knowledge does not pursue people, but chases them. Its pursuit is cruel and emotionless, like a falcon and hound replenishing a hare on the ground...So those who pursue the Great Way are like fish caught on bait..."

"Kasumigaoka!" Fujimaru Ritsuka rushed over and, together with Yukino Yukinoshita, held down Sawamura Eriri, trying to cover her mouth as she continued to mutter.

Fortunately, it seems that Eriri Sawamura didn't finish reading the prologue completely; she struggled, but her memorization was interrupted.

The weakest of the three, Kasumigaoka Shi**, finally reacted. A paintbrush appeared out of thin air in her hand, the tip of which spread ink, and then she drew a talisman.

The ink connected in the air to form a pentagram array, on which were also the calming and tranquilizing proverbs passed down by Onmyoji. It was the Kikyo Seal that was popularized by great Onmyoji such as Abe no Seimei.

She gently touched the Kikyo seal with a brush, pointing it towards Eriri. The Kikyo seal emitted a slight light, then transformed into a spell that seeped into Eriri's forehead.

Startled, Eriri finally came to her senses and became a little more awake. She shook her head and felt a burning pain on both sides of her mouth.

Meanwhile, Yukino Yukinoshita and Ritsuka Fujimaru were holding her down, covering her mouth with their hands.

If it were the Eriri from before, she would probably yell something like, "You two adulterers, how dare you try to force yourself on me!"

Eriri, however, silently signaled with her eyes that she had regained consciousness.

After being released, Eriri quietly straightened her disheveled clothes and said with a hint of lingering fear, "Just now...did I lose control?"

"You seem to have remembered something?"

"Before you guys came over, I felt like I'd heard that phrase somewhere before, but then I lost my mind. Now I finally remember, it was something I saw with Aki Tomoya that day."

Eriri felt like crying but had no tears left to shed.

Fujimaru Ritsuka sensed something was wrong: "You couldn't remember before, right?"

Eriri nodded.

"Hiss~ Actually, forgetting that kind of thing is a good thing, but you haven't completely forgotten. So what exactly happened after you two finished reading the book that day?"

Eriri told them that when Aki Tomoya read the first paragraph that day, he seemed to sense something.

He did something amazing; he actually managed to forcefully close the book.

Eriri doesn't have a clear memory of what happened next; she returned home in a daze.

Then, as if she had forgotten many things, she updated her Twitter status to commemorate the chance encounter.

"Speaking of which, I vaguely remember it." Eriri recalled the details of the time. "First of all, the book wasn't abandoned. Aki Tomoya took the book home, and at the moment he put the book into his backpack, I noticed that the name was printed on the spine of the book—'The Secret Scripture of the Mysterious Lord in Seven Chapters'."

Kasumigaoka Utaha thought hard for a long time after hearing the name, but finally shook her head.

Neither Murasaki Shikibu nor she herself had any recollection of this name.

Yukino Yukinoshita had already opened her phone and was quickly searching for the name in her browser.

"No, whether I searched using this Chinese character or related katakana, I couldn't find anything related to her."

But everyone's eyes turned to Fujimaru Ritsuka, because he once again wore an expression that said, "I understand, but I don't fully understand."

Fujimaru Ritsuka touched the back of her head, feeling a bit troubled.

Back when he was just a child, in order to properly explore the keyhole—no, to get along well with the Servants of the Future Descendants—he also diligently studied the works of Howard Philip Lovecraft in this world.

Strangely, he didn't leave behind a particularly large number of Cthulhu Mythos works, and more importantly, others also wrote far fewer fan works. At least, there weren't as many fan works as Fujimaru Ritsuka had heard of before her transmigration.

He had only heard of the name "Seven Chapters of the Mysterious Monarch's Secret Scripture" before he transmigrated, and he had never seen it in this current timeline.

This book is theoretically not only a record of spells for summoning and commanding superior races and the minions of evil gods. In fact, in the last few chapters, it even tells people how to make contact with great beings.

Do you want to understand the chaotic entity crawling forward? Do you want to know the secrets of the many gods in the universe?

This book contains many terrifying spells: resurrecting the dead, transforming into extraordinary, long-lived, and ageless monsters; controlling interstellar winged horses flying through the sky; summoning earth dragons that shake the earth; spying on the identities of the Great Old Ones and what they represent; and finally, having intimate and friendly contact with them.

The origin of this book is impossible to verify, and in a sense, it should be considered a secondary creation by someone other than the master craftsman.

Therefore, it is quite normal that Yukino Yukinoshita cannot find any trace of this book.

Fujimaru Ritsuka thought about it for a long time, but felt that the spells in the "Seven Chapters of the Mysterious Lord's Secret Scripture" were only marginally related to the current events.

Fujimaru Ritsuka didn't immediately respond to the others' eager looks for the truth, but instead pressed on, "Speaking of which, did the strange things start happening from that day?"

Eriri shook her head: "It was almost a week later when I vaguely encountered something like this. And I believe in Aki Tomoya, he wouldn't be that kind of person."

Eriri understood Fujimaru Ritsuka's subtext and firmly denied it.

Fujimaru Ritsuka rubbed her temples. "You silly girl, I could lie to you seven times a night, and you still believe me?"

15. Launch a surprise attack upon meeting to show goodwill.

Looking at Eriri Sawamura's stubborn face, Ritsuka Fujimaru felt a headache coming on. Perhaps Eriri hadn't been exposed to much Cthulhu Mythos before, or maybe she harbored a sliver of hope.

In the dark and ignorant universe, many recorded events tell observers that if people, due to various circumstances, go mad in their pursuit of knowledge, are dominated by the bloodline from their ancestors, or lose their minds due to encounters with indescribable things, all that remains of them is the same shell as those before them.

Aside from sharing the same face, their inner selves have long been shattered, distorted, and reconstructed. Their personality and values ​​have often been alienated.

Indeed, some people are able to maintain a last shred of clarity amidst terrifying pollution.

But not everyone can do that. These people, or legendary investigators, are called legendary because they possess an incredibly strong will and character, which even the Great Old Ones could not subdue.

Fujimaru Ritsuka doesn't think Aki Tomoya will be able to stay sober under these circumstances.

Even if this incident was caused by someone using magic constructed from the Cthulhu Mythos, it doesn't matter—if those gods really existed, there would already be records and cases all over the world.

What he didn't want was for Eriri Sawamura's last glimmer of hope to be completely extinguished in the face of cruel reality. That would be an even more devastating blow.

However, Fujimaru Ritsuka had no right to try to persuade Eriri. She was only expressing her opinion to Eriri out of a weak sense of sympathy and conscience.

"...Let me make it clear beforehand that your mindset will actually help us more, because most of the clues are pointing to Aki Tomoya. Finding him as soon as possible will be the best help to the case."

Fujimaru Ritsuka paused, but still decided to say something unpleasant, "Don't drown in hope... You should always remember that Aki Tomoya is now one of the prime suspects. Don't try to be alone with him, don't hide his whereabouts, and don't believe anything he says right now."

Eriri listened quietly as Fujimaru Ritsuka finished speaking. She didn't throw a tantrum or make a scene as Fujimaru Ritsuka had expected. The crisis had unleashed her potential, and Kasumigaoka Utaha's magic seemed to have alleviated her lack of energy.

She said, "You're such a kind person. Even in this situation, you're still comforting me."

She stood up and skipped around energetically: "So, you're going to track down that guy, right?"

"Yes, the people who searched Aki Tomoya's residence before were just ordinary private detectives. Perhaps we can find more."

Eriri slapped her cheeks hard with both hands: "Let me be your guide and take you there. Maybe I can find some information about Aki Tomoya that he's hiding here."

"Of course, that's what we think too. As your childhood friend, you might be able to find clues that we might miss."

“…Childhood friends?” Eriri gave a wry smile, shook her head, and her golden twin tails fluttered. “Then leave it to me. After all, I’m one of the few close friends he has left in real life!”

"Of course, we believe you."

Fujimaru Ritsuka calmly took a half step back, avoiding the flying twin tails.

Although Fujimaru Ritsuka said that, he still remained cautious. After all, plot twists are not uncommon in Cthulhu mythos.

...In a little while, I still need to keep a close eye on Eriri and not leave her side. If she really shows any abnormalities, it would be bad if I kept the information from her.

After everyone finished discussing, they prepared to leave. Before leaving, Eriri took a blanket from her room and draped it over Sawamura Sayuri.

Fujimaru Ritsuka leaned close to Kasumigaoka Utaha's ear and whispered something.

Kasumigaoka Utaha, ignoring the ticklish breaths near her ear, produced a calligraphy brush between her nimble fingers. She wrote rapidly in the air: "The four spirits guard, the four gods show mercy, in harmony with the creation of heaven, resisting misfortune."

A sudden realization dawned on Eriri, who saw a magic circle, invisible to ordinary people, appear around Sawamura Sayuri, radiating an aura of both peace and resistance. Sawamura Sayuri seemed to have fallen into a deeper sleep.

Eriri nodded gratefully to Kasumigaoka Utaha and Fujimaru Ritsuka in turn.

Fujimaru Ritsuka smiled without saying a word, trying to curry favor. Every little bit of goodwill she could gain was welcome.

The four of them left the Sawamura family home one after another.

------------

"Haha, I never expected that a casual gift that day would yield such a like-minded companion." The old gentleman who appeared at the folk fair that day, John, stood at the alley entrance, leaning on his cane with satisfaction, gazing at the boy across the street.

He opened his arms as if to embrace the boy opposite him: "Come, fellow countryman who has awakened from the nauseating and tedious life! Let the elder give you a welcome hug."

puff.

John suddenly saw a hole in his chest. He looked down in shock, but there was nothing there.

"Wh-what?" As something was pulled away, he fell backward, blood gushing from his chest. The blood foam blocked his trachea, and he could no longer speak, only making a hoarse sound like a broken bellows being pulled.

"Ugh... This is so annoying, so annoying. It's so incredibly unpleasant." Aki Tomoya, who had been missing for several days, emerged from the shadows and picked at his ear with his little finger.

He leaned down to look at John, and seeing the confusion in the man's eyes, he couldn't help but sneer: "Why are you making such a strange face? This is just a little lesson for you. No way, no way? You're going to die like that..."

Aki Tomoya half-squatted, tilted his head, and his usually mild-mannered face suddenly revealed a terrifying expression: "Well, you really are lazy!"

clap clap.

Aki Tomoya turned his head and saw another John walking out clapping, while the corpse on the ground had already turned into an amorphous mass, wriggling and crawling to the old gentleman's feet.

"Very good! As expected of a man who gained enlightenment from reading a 'pseudo-manuscript'. The abilities you possess are not even the spells recorded in the 'Seven Chapters of the Mysterious Monarch's Secret Scripture', are they?"

Old John secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Luckily, he wanted to put on a good show in front of the newcomers, so he used a stand-in to meet them.

Even if he were physically present, he might not be able to avoid that silent "greeting".

He bowed respectfully, full of apology: "I wonder if you've calmed down yet? Could you please explain things properly..."

"Hahahaha! Not bad! Not bad! This is how a follower of our God should be diligent—no, this is how diligent he must be!"

Aki Tomoya flashed his gleaming white teeth: "Those who do not thirst for knowledge and constantly strive for improvement, those who are misled by superficial knowledge, do not deserve His favor."