Thursday morning, Ren stared at his phone from his apartment bed. Copo Minase, Room 201. The twenty-eight-year-old wooden apartment creaked somewhere around this hour. Car sounds from outside. Morning news voices leaking from next door. A normal morning. But Ren's head wasn't normal. Shiori's words from Wednesday night kept echoing. Running is useless. It's already begun. He opened his phone. First to Akane. Then to Shu. Same message, sent separately. "Getting close to me will drag you into Marriage Battle Royale. I need you to keep your distance for a while." Send. He turned the screen face-down. Read receipt came immediately. From Akane. "Namba-san, that's not right. Let's talk in person." (Of course it would go like this...) He turned the phone face-down again. Didn't reply. * * * He arrived at Nakatsuka Trading's entrance at 8:50 AM. The moment he stepped toward the automatic doors, someone was standing in front of him. Deep green short hair. Bangs swept to the right. Odd eyes—left red, right silver—looking straight at Ren. Shu. "[serious]I read the message you sent." "[surprised]...Why come all the way to the office? That's the second time." Shu's lips tightened slightly. Unusually, his face looked flustered. "[serious]Keeping your distance is your choice. But just for today, hear me out. The situation is worse than you think——" "[sarcastic]Stalking, take two. New record." Shu's words caught. The left eye behind his glasses wavered slightly. In that instant, Ren dove into the elevator. Pressed the button. Closing. Just before the doors shut, Shu took a step forward, then stopped. Silent, watching the doors close. That face stuck in Ren's head. (I do feel bad about it...) He did. But this was right. He didn't want to put them in danger. That was all. The elevator rose. * * * Before noon, the intercom rang. "Namba-san, you have a visitor at the reception desk. Someone from Kawasaki Trading Company, requesting you as their assigned sales contact." Ren tilted his head. Kawasaki Trading. Never heard of them. But new clients happened all the time. He closed his PC and stood. The two men in the conference room wore ordinary suits. A man in his forties, another in his thirties. No business cards. No introductions. The moment Ren sat down, their smiles vanished. "[cold]So you're the core of Marriage Battle Royale." "...What?" "[cold]Come quietly. To us——Remnant Circle. That's your best option." Remnant Circle——an extremist community among reincarnators who argued that past-world powers should be actively used in this world. An estimated two to three hundred people operating through private SNS groups. Ren had heard the name. "[serious]...I refuse." Man A pulled out his phone. "[cold]Then we have no choice." He turned the screen toward Ren. An address. Not Nakatsuka Trading's address. Unknown. Then another screen. Shibuya Ward, Matsumatsu——Kanade Library. Shu's workplace. "[cold]Next is here. After that, a café in Daikanyama. Where Hikawa Akane frequents. We've done our research. Refuse, and we'll take out the reincarnators around you one by one." "[angry]...That's extortion." His voice came out low. Trembling. "[cold]Please consider it." Man B stood. Man A followed. Both bowed politely and left the conference room. The door closed. Ren was alone in the dim conference room. He gripped both sides of the chair's backrest. Squeezed hard. Scared. Angry. He couldn't tell which. Both mixed together, thrashing inside his chest. (They knew where Akane and Shu live.) Even keeping distance, they'd follow. He couldn't run anymore. That wasn't all——if he ran, they'd be in danger. He looked up at the dim ceiling. The fluorescent light flickered slightly. * * * Friday morning, right after work started. "Namba, got a minute?" His boss Katagiri approached, voice low. Forty-five, usually considerate. But his face was different today. Confusion mixed with faint worry. "[serious]...Accounting called. There's a suspicious transfer log from your account yesterday——after hours. Two million yen. I want to believe you, but..." Ren was made to open his PC and check. The log was there. Definitely there. Two million yen under Ren's name, last night. But Ren hadn't done it. He hadn't even worked late yesterday. "[serious]I don't know. I didn't do it." Katagiri's face twisted. The look of someone who wants to believe but can't. That's when Ren noticed. Noguchi from the next desk, who always said "thanks for your hard work"——wasn't looking at Ren today. Staring intently at his PC screen. Tanaka from the back desk glanced at Ren once. Immediately looked away. The sales floor was usually loud. Phone rings, conversations, laughter. But now, around Ren——silence. No one spoke to him. At lunch, he went alone to the convenience store "Daily Spot" on the first floor, bought a rice ball, came back. No one called out to him. It wasn't funny. Not at all. No matter what he said, no one would hear it. That feeling slowly wrapped around Ren. * * * After work, his phone vibrated on the train. A message from an unknown number. He opened it and understood from the first line. "Stay away from reincarnators, you blank." Next message. "You're disrupting the community." Another vibration. Another. Another. Ren's photo was posted on a private reincarnator forum. Full name and workplace included. Title: "Marriage Battle Royale's Lab Rat Guy." Over ten messages from unknown numbers followed, all mockery. Remnant Circle. He knew immediately. Ren set all incoming calls to reject. Unknown numbers, one by one. His thumb moved slightly stiffly. Then Akane called. Then Shu. Ren's thumb hovered over the reject button. He wanted to answer. He really did. But——answering would put them in more danger. Those men already knew their addresses. He rejected Akane's call. Rejected Shu's. The train arrived at Nakano Station. Ren walked alone through the crowd. * * * Copo Minase, Room 201. He didn't turn on the lights. He leaned against the wall, hugging his knees. Only the phone screen lit the room. A LINE message from Akane. "Namba-san, where are you? I'm worried." From Shu. "Can't reach you. Don't be alone tonight." Ren didn't reply to either. In the dark room, he remembered fifth grade. Yamada Yu. His best friend. They walked home together every day. Laughed at stupid things. One morning, the teacher handed him a letter. "I'm moving soon but couldn't tell you. Sorry," written in Yu's handwriting. The seat next to his was empty. He stared at it all morning. No one said anything. ——When you connect deeply with people, you lose them eventually. So don't connect deeply from the start. He'd lived by that for seven years. And yet. In just one week at that marriage party. Akane and Shu had become exceptions. He realized it now. For the first time. And that realization——made him even more afraid. He turned the phone face-down. Closed his eyes. * * * Past midnight, Ren picked up his phone again. Akane's messages. Shu's messages. He couldn't reply to either. If he did, he'd drag them in. He was about to close the app when he noticed another notification. Tsubaki Shiori. He opened it. "Sample-san, please come to Lusher tomorrow night. Alone. This isn't a threat." Ren stared at the screen. Lusher——the private venue in Shinjuku-sanchome that Marriage Battle Royale used. Another line came through. "I have something to tell Marriage Battle Royale. It concerns Namba-san too." Why should he trust her? The woman who smiled and said "running is useless." But——Wednesday night, Shu had said it. That girl's statements——no lies. Not a single red line, he'd said. Judgment Line——Shu's skill could distinguish truth from lies. Shu had sworn to it. Ren stared at the screen for a long time. He didn't reply. Put the phone down. But his eyes traced the words again. Next Friday. Lusher. The quiet room. The phone screen went dark. In the darkness, a creak from the hallway. Footsteps on the flooring. Just one. Ren turned around. No one was there.