My love game with them that will lead to certain death

This is natural. If the people who exchanged bodies with her disappeared, this strange supernatural phenomenon would of course come to an abrupt end.

Eriri Sawamura's life returned to a stable daily routine. She went to school alone, took the car home alone, and stayed at home to kill time when her parents were not around.

This was what Eriri had hoped for when she first became involved in this unreasonable simulation - she just wanted everything to return to how it was before.

But when things really developed as she wished, all that was left was endless emptiness and astonishment.

It was like she tried to clench her palms, but found that the truly precious things slipped away silently from her fingertips, and in the end she realized that she could not hold anything.

Eriri inherited everything from her brother, his achievements and glory, the praise and expectations of others, the interpersonal relationships centered on him - these were the things she thought at the beginning "would belong to me if I didn't have this brother", but now she doesn't have much sense of belonging.

None of this belongs to her.

The things that truly belonged to her could never be found again.

Was it a joke from heaven? Perhaps he had understood her needs from the beginning, but when she gradually began to cherish the man in front of her, he took everything back.

After that, Eriri would always wander around the room that had become a storage room, trying to find some clues from the pile of messy discarded items but always came back empty-handed.

But just when she thought things would never turn around, a sudden flash of inspiration came to her mind.

That shrine.

Since it is possible to solve supernatural phenomena such as body swapping...is there also a way to deal with the supernatural phenomenon of my brother suddenly disappearing?

Chapter 58 What Really Matters

The dream came true and Eriri Sawamura became alone again.

Without her brother who always outshined her, her parents, teacher and classmates all looked at her with hope, but she just couldn't be happy - it's better to say that she had been depressed for nearly a week.

When she broke up with Tomoya Aki, Eriri thought that she might really be the kind of heartless and carefree person, and she didn't show any emotional fluctuations even after she had a complete breakup with Tomoya Aki, whom she grew up with and had secretly loved.

But it turns out that the reason she can be so free and easy may be just because "this person" is not important enough to her.

When someone truly important disappears without a word, all that's left is the feeling that the sky is falling apart.

If Eriri continues to stay in this world where everyone has forgotten about that boy, it will be difficult for her to remain unaffected.

However, the unique connection between twins allows her to stay awake - perhaps this is one of the reasons why she can still remember her brother unlike others.

If the "absolute rules" in the dark are like the haze in the darkness, trying to deceive everyone and make them forget the existence of the boy, then this special connection is like a flame that can dispel the black fog.

It is called absolute trust and spiritual connection.

No matter what they do, they can share it with each other. No matter when and what happens, even if they quarrel, they will definitely walk hand in hand and spend the rest of their lives together shoulder to shoulder - this is the importance of twins to each other.

This is absolute mutual understanding.

The same appearance, the same blood, the trust between them is indestructible and innate, and they have long been considered each other's other half.

Although Eriri was a little distraught at first, unable to understand why her brother couldn't tell her the secret and even left her alone on his own - but if she changed her mind a little bit, she would understand his good intentions.

Maybe it’s not “don’t want to”, it’s just “can’t”.

He must have some kind of ideology, in order to achieve a purpose that even Eriri doesn't know, so he lay dormant like this until that ultimate wish was fulfilled.

So the question is, what is the thing that Toru has kept silent about but has carried out to the end?

To get to the heart of this matter, perhaps we have to go back to the place where the nightmare of it all started - the dilapidated shrine in a small border town.

After finding this clue, Eriri's thoughts became much clearer, as if everything had suddenly become clear to her. After she realized that the existence of this shrine might be the key, she packed her bags and left in a hurry the next day.

Although Sayuri was a little troubled because Eriri had been behaving abnormally recently and always did things that she couldn't expect, and she was always muttering about her having a twin brother - but out of love for her daughter, Sayuri still discussed the vacation with the school and personally arranged a full-time driver to take her to the place that had been razed to the ground by the meteorite.

After experiencing the horrific meteorite attack, the previously unknown border town instantly made headlines in major newspapers. The fact that "there were miraculously 0 victims in such a natural disaster" also amazed the followers, and the number of tourists visiting the town increased by dozens of times.

Eriri avoided holidays and weekends and set out for the small town again, but after the meteorite crash, more tourists came to join in the fun than she had imagined.

The restoration work of the town has just begun, and the tourists who come here for the famous ruins can only stay in a nearby town more than ten kilometers away to recuperate and set off for the ruins the next day - but Eriri can't wait that long.

When she set out, she prepared a travel tent, sleeping bag and charging source, so spending the night in the wild was not a problem. Eriri asked the driver to drive directly to the town destroyed by the meteorite, and then got off the car and walked to the shrine according to the route she remembered.

Although this mountain area has been devastated by the impact of the meteorite, you can still vaguely see some signs of what you saw when you came here last time.

The originally towering cliff was directly dented by the meteorite, which saved a little trouble from climbing. As night fell, when the flow of people around the town where the incident occurred gradually decreased, Eriri bypassed the local no-entry signs and walked through the forest where no one would notice towards the mountain where the shrine was supposed to stand.

The radius of the huge crater is comparable to the length of four or five stadiums combined. Ying Lili walked down the slope for nearly half an hour before reaching the bottom of the crater.

The devastated land no longer had any signs of life having ever existed there. This alone was very different from the scenery that Eriri had seen when she came here before.

But in the center of the endless crater, there was a faint light flickering.

Eriri was sure that the light was not produced by artificial light.

It was precisely because of this that she couldn't help but quicken her pace as she dragged her tired body forward, running towards the fascinating light spot in small steps.

Only on the earth covered by moonlight, this little light is the only one illuminating the ground, emitting a faint brightness.

As Eriri gradually approached, the light spot changed its state, and the surrounding space also changed as if it was distorted -

I vaguely seemed to have returned to the shrine.

This is how Eriri feels at the moment, as she is only a few dozen meters away from the light spot.

The area occupied by the light spot should be the center of the shrine - although this is a guess without any basis or theory to support it, Eriri thinks so.

The closer you look, the more the space distorted by the light seems to present a completely different scene than the original one.

The ground that should have been flattened by the meteorite, but under the refraction of the blurred light and shadow, it was possible to vaguely see the lush forest before the disaster. What was even more bizarre was that Eriri could actually glimpse the state of the shrine before it was destroyed.

There was even a young man standing in front of the shrine, discussing something with the person dressed as a shrine maiden in charge with his back to her.

"Eh……?"

Eriri gradually slowed down her pace. After all, that dazzling golden curly hair was really hard to look away from.

That was the most important person to her.

Chapter 59: You can’t see it with your eyes

Come to think of it, Toru Sawamura had never mentioned his previous trip to Eriri.

The two siblings who were close friends had a secret that they didn't tell each other, which made Eriri unable to let go for a long time. However, she would never get the truth no matter how hard she tried, so she could only give up.

My brother never mentioned a word about the previous trip he took alone, and even when he decided to take Eriri with him again for some reason, he never explained the whole story to her.

Now might be the chance to find out what really happened on that day.

Ying Lili did not take any further steps forward, but just stood there quietly, staring blankly at the figure that seemed to have been missing for almost half a century.

Her brother was standing right in front of her, but the distorted space and the pulled air seemed to remind her that they were not in the same world, or time and space.

If you get any closer, it might disappear into thin air.

Therefore, Eriri could only stay where she was, trying hard to suppress the urge to rush forward and hug her brother, holding her breath and staring at the profile that had already been engraved in her memory and would never be erased.

The curly-haired boy was not looking at him, but was staring solemnly at the girl dressed as a shrine maiden standing in front of him.

Then, the black-haired priestess uttered a fact that left Eriri dumbfounded - and this should be the same words that Toru heard at the beginning.

"The method I provide can only temporarily alleviate the occurrence of supernatural phenomena such as body swapping... It is almost impossible to completely stop it, because it will naturally stop when the time is up."

The witch paused and continued.

"That's when one of you dies completely."

"……Eh?"

The boy showed a rare look of surprise on his face, and Eriri, who was standing next to him, was stunned by the shock of this fact.

The words coming out of the shrine maiden's mouth were so outrageous, but when she thought about her current situation, Eriri found that it was unexpectedly explainable.

"Haven't you figured it out yet? Since you've come to my house, I thought you had some basic guesses about the current situation of your twin brother and sister."

Cold and inhuman words gradually came out of the witch's mouth, and Eriri's face became paler and paler.

"After listening to your description of the many "unfortunate" events that happened to your sister, there is actually nothing strange about them. It is just a cycle of "cause and effect."

"A cycle of cause and effect...what does that mean?"

"You probably already have the answer in your mind, right? After all, the way it's presented is really obvious."

The witch had no intention of keeping the secret any longer, and instead spoke the story in a tone as gentle and calm as possible.

"You and your sister are twins. Although you grew up together as two independent individuals, your family is well-off and envied by others. However, as you said, many strange and unfortunate things happened to your sister. In contrast to her, you are much luckier."

Eriri always fails at critical moments, her guesses are never correct, and she occasionally falls flat on her face for no reason. She always has wounds of varying sizes on her body - although these are just trivial things that Eriri thinks are because she is not favored by the goddess of luck.

Che, on the other hand, has lived a smooth life since childhood. He has never been troubled by any trivial matter. Whenever he encountered some small troubles, he was always able to turn danger into safety or have help from noble people. Even if he just bought a lottery ticket, he would definitely make his money back.

"As twins, your situations are very different. Have you ever thought carefully about why this is the case?"

"Don't beat around the bush. I'm here to seek answers from you."

The conversation between the curly-haired boy and the shrine maiden is still going on. They seem to be completely unaware of Eriri standing beside them, immersed in their own world - or maybe they can't see Eriri's existence in the first place.

"As a miko, you can definitely interpret the supernatural in your own unique way, right?"

"I mean, the answer is already there on the puzzle."

The miko sighed, and this subtle movement made Toru frown, and Eriri's nerves also tensed up.

"Although you are twins, you only have incomplete souls... Whether it's the extraordinary phenomenon of body swapping or the fact that it doesn't conform to the law of conservation of luck, it's just because you are not "complete." "

"Not complete...?"

"The twins originally belonged to a soul that was split in two. Both their fate and life were divided unequally. The irrational body swapping phenomenon occurred only because the soul was eager to merge into one."

"Two into one... that is to say...?"

The curly-haired boy frowned, as if he understood something. The miko, who exchanged glances with him, nodded in agreement. It was indeed much easier to communicate with someone who understood things so quickly.

"Only when one of the twins dies and the soul is pieced together and integrated into a truly complete thing, the other twin will become a "complete" person and live a fulfilling life."

"........."

Looking at the young man who was still immersed in such a large amount of information and had not yet recovered, the witch continued to supplement in a calm tone.

"And one of you... will surely die here in the near future. This is the fate that was destined when you were born."

"My fate was predetermined when I was born... How could I have such an unreasonable fate...!"

No matter how Ying Lili, who had come to her senses, criticized the injustice of God in her heart, her brother standing in front of her just lowered his head and fell into deep thought. It seemed that he really believed this statement.

But Eriri couldn't understand why this was happening for the time being.

"You mentioned it before, your sister always encounters unpleasant things, big or small, and her health is getting worse and worse."

The miko didn't say anything else, but both Toru and Eriri understood what she meant.

Of the twins whose souls were split in two, Eriri is indeed the weaker one compared to Toru, who seems to have divine luck and everything goes smoothly for him.

It was as if the fire of her soul was so weak that it could be extinguished at any time.

"Although it may not be nice for me to say this...but if one of you two is destined to leave first, your sister is the best choice."

"But - if you want to 'reverse' this situation, there are ways to do it."

The words of the shrine maiden gradually made Eriri's bad guess take shape.

Is there a possibility that my brother's disappearance is actually due to...

Chapter 60: The Disappearance of Toru Sawamura

"It's just that the cost of 'reversal' is too high, and you may not be able to afford it. It's not a bad thing to just accept reality and let it develop naturally."

"If you still have doubts about what I said, I can understand that."

Seeing that the young man in front of her was still standing stiffly and silently, the witch sighed and brought out a small bowl of chewing wine from the altar behind her.

“You can get a glimpse of how things are going to end and then decide what decision to make.”

She quietly pushed the bowl in front of the boy and motioned him to drink it. The curly-haired boy did not hesitate, but just lowered his eyes to look at the clear wine surface that reflected his face, then took the ceramic bowl and drank it all.

Eriri, who was still some distance away from the two people who were talking, could only watch her brother with her pupils contracted, frowning and closing his eyes. His face was pale and solemn, as if he was experiencing a nightmare. Although she could not witness everything her brother saw with her own eyes, she could see some clues from the expression on his face.

"Cough, cough, cough, cough!"

The young man staggered back a few steps, as if he had witnessed something too shocking. Even after he slowly calmed down, he was still frightened.

It was rare to see the brother who was always able to handle anything with ease show such a panicked expression. Eriri probably guessed what he had seen.