Chapter 225: It Came Back

The mark on that map was Chika’s handwriting.

The Cursed Smartphone under the pillow last night, the map in the Drawer that appeared earlier than planned, and the Photograph of the envelope that did not match no matter what…

She held the three loose threads in her palm for a whole day, and in the end they all pointed in the same direction: South District.

The Abandoned Transit Station on the logistics tracking number.

This time, she did not tell Kazune.

“So hot…”

On the bus to the Minami Ward Abandoned Transit Station, the Air Conditioner heating was turned up a little too much.

Outside the bus windows was still Hokkaido’s gray winter sky, yet inside the bus it was stifling like a steamer basket.

Aina Saiten sat in the window corner of the last row, staring expressionlessly at the lingering snow outside.

Whoo—

A cold draft leaking in from some unseen gap brushed her neck with biting chill, making Aina shiver instinctively.

So cold.

She tucked her stiffened hands into the pockets of her dark gray trench coat, trying to find a bit of warmth.

—And then.

Her fingertips touched a rectangular object.

“…Huh?”

Aina’s movements and breathing stopped at the same instant.

Her mind went blank with a buzz.

That texture.

That faint, familiar curve of the edges.

And that weight almost carved into her DNA…

‘What kind of sick joke is this?!’

‘How is this possible?!’

She remembered everything that happened the night she fled Tokyo clearly!

That dim, cramped Rental Room, that Wardrobe Door she had shut tight with her own hands—

That Old Mobile Phone whose screen always showed the eerie yellow-on-white Alarm App, she had definitely left it in the hidden compartment of the Wardrobe!

She absolutely had not taken it with her!

How could she possibly carry something Cursed like that on her?!

But now… at this very moment.

With trembling fingers, as if touching something highly poisonous, Aina slowly pulled it out of her pocket.

The familiar body.

The familiar weight.

The screen flashed on automatically!

The pale cold light stabbed straight into her bloodless face.

In the center of the screen, the undeletable Alarm App quietly displayed a number.

[34].

The cold number was still counting down in silence.

“What the hell are you… Who do you belong to?!”

Aina stared fixedly at the screen, her voice trembling beyond recognition.

Naturally, there was no response.

The pale glow stung her eyes, bringing involuntary tears.

A chill ran up her spine straight to the top of her head.

“Go die!!!”

In the abandoned Parking Lot on the outskirts of the South District, a scream suppressed to the extreme burst out.

Around her were mottled concrete walls, and the ground was covered with dried muddy water and ice shards.

Aina Saiten swung her arm and, with all her strength, hurled the Mobile Phone hard against the concrete wall!

“Why?!”

“Why does it still cling to me like this?!”

However—

The expected scene of a shattered screen and flying parts did not appear.

Instead, there was a dull “buzz.”

It felt… like hitting a bottomless ball of cotton.

The tremendous impact was swallowed completely by some invisible force!

The Mobile Phone slid down the rough wall and, with a quiet clatter, dropped silently into a muddy puddle of ice water.

“Hah…?”

Aina widened her eyes and stared fixedly at the thing on the ground.

The screen was completely intact.

No cracks, no black screen, not even the tiniest scratch!

‘Don’t be ridiculous!’

‘With that monstrous force just now, even a brick should have gotten a chip knocked out of it?!’

She rushed over and scooped the Mobile Phone out of the muddy water.

Then she raised it high above her head and slammed it down hard against the concrete ground!

“Bang!”

The Mobile Phone bounced cheerfully twice on the cold ground.

…Then, it was still completely unharmed.

The muddy water dirtied its casing, but the screen was still lit.

[34].

That number, like an eye without eyelids, lay in the dirty water, watching her motionlessly.

“Why… why are you still here…”

Aina leaned weakly against the concrete wall.

Her body slid down the wall little by little, her nails digging hard into her palms until blood seeped out.

This was not an ordinary phone at all.

This was an utterly unreasonable monster!

…

More than ten minutes later.

Aina stood up again, tightened her trench coat, and walked out of the Parking Lot without looking back.

By the roadside, there happened to be a green sanitation trash can giving off a sour stench.

She quickly walked over and, without even looking, threw the mud-stained Mobile Phone deep into the trash can.

Then she quickened her pace, almost fleeing toward the South District transit station.

Fifty meters.

One hundred meters.

The cold wind slapped her face, helping her barely regain a shred of Rationality.

She put her hand back into her trench coat pocket.

—And then.

Her fingertips touched that cold, hard rectangular object again.

“…”

Aina abruptly stopped in her tracks.

All the blood in her body froze with a boom!

She mechanically pulled the thing out of her pocket.

The casing was stained with muddy water, and the screen showed a glaring [34].

It came back.

“…You’ve got to be kidding.”

She bit her lower lip hard, turned around, and walked toward a drainage ditch by the roadside flowing with murky black water.

Without hesitation, she threw it in!

With a “splash,” the Mobile Phone sank perfectly to the bottom.

This time, she broke into a full sprint!

She ran several hundred meters in one go, until her lungs burned, before stopping on the empty Street and gasping for air.

With a trembling hand stained with muddy water, she slowly reached into her pocket.

…

A cold sensation.

A Despair-inducing hardness.

It had come back again.

Aina lowered her head and looked at the device that followed her like a shadow, her eyes hollow.

In that moment, she finally understood in utter Despair.

It was not refusing to be discarded.

It was using every “return to pocket” to declare an unavoidable fact to her—

“You are a part of it.”

No matter where she fled, as long as The Countdown had not ended, it would lie quietly in her pocket.

She stuffed it back into her pocket, raised her head, and looked into the distance.

More than ten minutes later.

The Minami Ward Abandoned Transit Station was located in a desolate area on the edge of the City.

The cold wind swirled snow foam across the empty grounds, and the rusted sheet-metal gate groaned with a teeth-aching creak in the wind.

Aina Saiten stood before the half-open Security Door and took a deep breath.

—Compared to this Countdown monster whose origin she could not understand at all, she had more urgent real-world leads to investigate.

Those were the logistics trail behind that box of Anonymous Package and the map mark in Chika’s handwriting.

If that Old Mobile Phone was a paranormal event that crossed physical laws, then the package that had precisely delivered fever medicine, rehydration salts, and light meals was a very real threat manipulated by someone behind the scenes.

Chika.

That Woman?!

Before formally beginning the investigation, she did a small test.

Around the outside of the transit station was a row of old lockers for the movers.

She picked an old locker whose lock was still mostly intact and put the Countdown Mobile Phone, which seemed glued to her body with superglue, inside.

With a “click,” she pulled out the Key.

To be safe, she even used a piece of wire she picked up nearby to wrap the locker Door handle tightly twice.

‘As long as I don’t keep it on me, it should be fine, right?’

With that naive thought, Aina turned and walked into the dim interior of the transit station.