A Date with the Reaper
The word date and this itinerary had absolutely nothing in common.
I let out a dry chuckle and looked at Estelle. She was already standing deeper in the alley, waving me over.
“Hurry up. If you don’t come, I’m going alone?”
I still couldn’t figure out what the hell she was thinking, but for now I hurried after her.
The moment I followed Estelle into the back alley, the atmosphere around us flipped in an instant. It felt like we had stepped into an entirely different world.
“Where do you think criminals hide in the back alleys?”
“Hmm. Probably not on the main paths people use, right?”
“Correct. That’s the common way of thinking.”
“Is that wrong?”
“Close, but a little disappointing.”
Estelle stretched out her finger and pointed at the three branching paths in front of me.
“Then, which path do you think sees the most foot traffic?”
“Umm…”
Each of the three passages had a distinctly different vibe. One was an ordinary alley, another looked spotlessly clean, and the last one had the atmosphere of a back street straight out of the Joseon dynasty. Logically, the clean one should have been the busiest, but—
“That one. The dirt-covered path, right?”
“Why do you think so?”
“Well… the other two feel like standard alleys, but that one is completely different in shape. I figured it’s because a lot of other people’s mental images have been layered over it.”
“Oh~”
Was my answer correct?
Estelle clapped her hands lightly, clearly impressed.
“Good answer.”
“So… is it actually right?”
“It is. Correct. Then, according to what you said, the path with the fewest people would be—”
“The middle one that hasn’t changed at all.”
“That’s also correct. But it’s also wrong.”
“Huh?”
Right and wrong at the same time?
When I looked at her with confusion, Estelle revealed the answer like someone solving a riddle.
“The path with the fewest people is the one we just came from.”
“The one we came from?”
“That’s right. You wouldn’t walk the same path twice, would you?”
“I guess not?”
“Exactly. Ta-da.”
When I turned around following Estelle, the lively streets of the central city that had been there just moments ago were gone. Instead, all I saw were winding back alleys stretching off into who-knows-where.
“Rule of the back alleys: you can’t go back the way you came. Remember that well.”
“This feels like I’ve been possessed by a ghost.”
I chuckled dryly and tried to follow behind her, but Estelle was rummaging through her pocket.
“What are you doing?”
“Just a second. It’s in here somewhere.”
After digging around in her pocket for a while, Estelle pulled out what looked like a photograph of a back alley. She held it up in front of her and tore it in half. The scene in the photo immediately overlaid itself onto the real back alley.
“Wandering around the back alleys from the start would take too much time, so I prepared this yesterday.”
Was this Estelle’s ability—the power to handle afterimages?
I had seen it often in the comics posted on the Community, so I knew about it, but seeing it in person was still astonishing. This was the first time I learned that Estelle stored afterimages using photographs.
“Alright, shall we go?”
I followed Estelle down the newly appeared alley. She walked through the maze-like paths as if she had memorized every turn, never hesitating at any fork. Before long, I could sense other people nearby.
“Hey. Move it faster.”
“I am moving as fast as I can, boss!”
“Sigh. You act just like your owner.”
When I turned the corner following the voices, I saw two men grumbling in a small clearing. Beside them, skeletons made of white bones were moving on their own, carrying cargo into a makeshift building. Necromancers?
“Hello~”
“Hm?”
Estelle greeted the necromancers cheerfully. The moment they noticed her—
“It was nice meeting you.”
With that short farewell, the long Japanese sword that had somehow appeared in Estelle’s hand swung through the air. The neck of the nearest necromancer dropped to the ground with a clean snap. The afterimage clinging to the tip of her blade stretched out long, transforming into something like a black scythe.
“E-enemy!! Everyone, get out here!!”
The surviving man screamed at the top of his lungs. His comrades poured out of the small building all at once. There were far more of them than should have fit inside.
“Who the hell are you!”
The men who burst out shouting bravely froze the moment they saw the scythe in Estelle’s hand. Their faces went pale.
“…The Grim Reaper? Why is the Grim Reaper here?”
“Because you’re all criminals, of course.”
“T-this isn’t under the Hunter Guild’s jurisdiction! The guild has no reason to care what we do here!”
The terrified criminals tried to invoke rules and beg for Estelle’s mercy.
“You’re right. The Hunter Guild has neither the authority nor the reason to punish you.”
“Then…!”
“Sorry. I’m off duty today, so I’m simply hunting you for personal reasons.”
“Fuck… you crazy bitch…”
The legal blind spot here meant that no one would bat an eye if criminals were dealt with outside the law. The necromancers, realizing Estelle had no intention of leaving, tried to make one last stand.
“I don’t know who the hell you are, but get that bitch!”
At his desperate shout, the surrounding skeleton soldiers all charged toward Estelle at once. Watching them, she snorted and muttered.
“Everyone reacts the same way, huh.”
Estelle didn’t even bother dodging the skeletons’ attacks. She simply swung her scythe in one wide arc. The blade sliced the nearest skeleton cleanly in half. Then she lightly snapped her fingers.
In that instant, countless slashes erupted in rapid succession, carving through every skeleton in the clearing. The bones shattered into pieces and scattered like dust.
“What the…!”
The necromancers were stunned by how a single slash had multiplied dozens of times over. They looked at each other in confusion.
And in that moment—
“Guh…!”
Another slash struck where their gazes met. It looked as if the necromancers were cutting each other down with their own eyes. Before they could even understand what was happening, they collapsed one after another. The only one who survived the entire sequence was the one who seemed to be their leader.
“Lucky, aren’t you?”
“…Fuck!”
As if he already knew what had happened without needing to see it, the necromancer squeezed his eyes shut and fled into the makeshift building. Even though I had watched it with my own eyes, I still had no idea what just occurred. I let out a quiet, dry laugh.
“Just now… what was that?”
“I used the afterimages clinging to their pupils.”
“Their pupils?”
“That’s right. Seeing is just the brain interpreting the afterimages that form on the pupils, right? So I went—yap!—and did that.”
Estelle explained what had happened while making an adorable little gesture with her hands. So she had landed the first slash to plant the afterimage of the cut onto the necromancers’ pupils, then used those afterimages to deliver slashes through their own line of sight.
She really was the strongest in the Hunter Guild for a reason. The way she applied her ability was no joke.
While I was still marveling at Estelle’s power, she began rummaging through the scattered cargo around us.
“They were smuggling goods. As expected.”
“This is…”
The items the necromancers had been moving were very familiar to me. White urns. The exact same things I had helped smuggle when I first came to Shion. Looking at them, Estelle posed a question.
“Do you know what the most common scam pattern is for new hunters arriving in Shion?”
“…Not really?”
“They offer to help you enter Shion, but in exchange they make you smuggle. Most hunters who come this way end up drifting into the back alleys, but if someone actually succeeds, do you know what they do?”
I had a feeling where this was going, but before I could speak, Estelle continued.
“They blackmail them for a ton of money or force them to run errands. If you get caught smuggling, you officially become a wanted criminal by the Hunter Guild.”
“Sounds scary.”
“Right? I wonder how excited these guys got while watching yesterday’s broadcast?”
Ah. So she already knew.
The moment I realized why Estelle had brought me here, I flinched and glanced at her. She burst into a small laugh.
“It’s fine. I brought you here so that wouldn’t happen.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Trash that tries to hold back a future 5-star hunter should be cleaned up in advance.”
It didn’t seem like Estelle wanted me to become a wanted criminal so easily. I let out a sigh of relief inside. Estelle patted my back and declared.
“Then, shall we go finish this? We need to catch the rat that ran away.”
Stepping into an enemy hideout like this was obviously dangerous, but Estelle didn’t seem to feel any threat at all. I followed the confident woman into the makeshift building. The interior was clearly much larger than the outside suggested.
“Bone Arrow.”
The moment we entered, a low chant echoed from somewhere. A bone spike shot straight toward my forehead.
“Ugh!”
I had been prepared, but the speed still made it hard to react. At the last second I barely managed to block it with my gauntlet. The attack had clearly been aimed at me, not Estelle.
“Quick judgment.”
Estelle nodded in evaluation of the necromancer’s attack. At the same time, corpses began rising from the ground around us. But the instant Estelle tore another photograph, a brilliant light burst out and swept over all the corpses. In the blink of an eye, they collapsed back to the floor, motionless.
“Ah, fuck… what kind of crazy bitch…”
Had he run out of ways to resist?
A man walked out from between the piles of fallen corpses, spitting curses. At the same time, Estelle’s sword pierced straight through his chest. The man collapsed to the floor without any further resistance.
“Good. That’s the end. Now…”
But the corpse that had just fallen immediately staggered back to its feet. This time Estelle cut off his head, but the body on the floor turned to ash and burned away. From deeper inside, the exact same man walked out again.
“If you’re done playing around, please leave. I don’t die here.”
“Oh? The atmosphere felt strange, so it’s that kind of setup?”
“Yes. That kind of setup. So please stop wasting time and leave.”
“I see. So that’s the rule, huh?”
It seemed this building wasn’t just bigger on the inside. It also had the ability to infinitely resurrect the man. Knowing this better than anyone, the necromancer begged Estelle to leave.
“I won’t touch your newbie again, so please, just go.”
“You know what you did wrong, at least?”
“Of course I do. Obviously. I’ll make sure to tell the others too. So please…”
The necromancer had just declared he would never touch me again, but that attitude seemed to have rubbed Estelle the wrong way.
“I don’t like it.”
“Pardon?”
“A criminal trying to make a deal with me. I really don’t like it.”
“…If that angers you, I’ll die until you’re satisfied.”
“Acting so cocky while being so sure you won’t actually die. That’s what I hate the most.”
The man, who had been smiling obsequiously, seemed to sense something was off from Estelle’s expression. He probably thought she would keep killing him until her anger subsided, because he squeezed his eyes shut and braced for pain.
But Estelle chose a different method.
She let go of her sword and stretched both hands forward. Then, like a movie director, she made a viewfinder with her fingers and framed the man in front of her.
“Open Eye.”
She murmured the activation phrase. Massive amounts of mental image surged and erupted from Estelle. The mental image that burst out of her eroded reality itself, rewriting the world with her own inner landscape.
Color drained from the world. Everything lost its hue, as if we had stepped into an old black-and-white film. A stage formed with the man at its center. The completely reconstructed world now resembled a movie theater.
“Mental Image Manifestation…?”
“You know, there are stages to Mental Image Manifestation. Did you know that?”
The smile on Estelle’s face remained, but her eyes were no longer red. One had lost all color, like faded black-and-white film. The other glowed a vivid yellow like a projector lens, with film patterns drifting across it.
“A sufficiently powerful mental image can do more than change the world. It can erase rules that already exist. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“…Ah, shit.”
The man, realizing what was about to happen to him, squeezed his eyes shut. Behind the theater, the projector whirred to life and began screening a film.
Cut. Stab. Slice. Pierce.
Countless sword strikes rained down on the stage all at once. There was no way the man could withstand it. In an instant he was reduced to a bloody pulp, leaving only a stain on the floor.
“Hmph.”
Estelle snorted, finished with the man’s execution, then turned to me with a bright smile.
“How was that? This is Mental Image Manifestation. Think you could do it too?”
“…I still have no idea how you did it even after watching.”
If it had been something like swinging a sword, I might have been able to figure out the method by observing, but this was basically magic. How was I supposed to copy that?
Sensing my helplessness, Estelle laughed and encouraged me.
“Well. If you keep watching and feeling it, you’ll understand the method someday.”
“I hope so.”
It was time to release the manifestation now, but no matter how long I waited, Estelle didn’t dispel it. When I looked at her in confusion, she smiled brightly and dropped a bombshell.
“But just experiencing a Mental Image Manifestation like this feels a bit of a waste, doesn’t it?”
“Wait a second?”
“So, how about you learn how to deal with one firsthand?”
“You want me to block that? I can’t! No way!”
She wanted me to stop that barrage of attacks from earlier? Even if I had ten bodies, it would be impossible. But Estelle waved her hands as if to reassure me.
“Come on. I wouldn’t ask you to do something like that.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Let’s just learn the basics—how to destroy a mental image domain by using its own rules against it.”
“Huh?”
What was she talking about now?
“The rules of a mental image domain apply equally to everyone inside it. Even the caster themselves. If you dig into that, you can hit back against someone who used Mental Image Manifestation.”
“I… see? But how…?”
“In my mental image domain, once one movie finishes screening, a random character is chosen as the director.”
“Director?”
“The person who will create the next film from their own memories. Come on, show me how amazing a movie made from your memories would be?”
As soon as Estelle finished speaking, she moved onto the stage while I was shifted into the projection room. The room was filled with tools used for editing film. While I looked around, Estelle continued explaining from the stage.
“There are two ways to destroy a Mental Image Manifestation. One is to inflict damage the domain itself cannot withstand. The other is to corrupt the image so the opponent cannot maintain their mental image. Which method will you choose?”
“…I don’t even know how to make a movie?”
“It doesn’t need to be an especially artistic masterpiece. See the lever on the right? Pull it and your memories will come out as film. Edit it however you want and attack me in your own way.”
The moment I clicked the lever as she instructed—
“Whoa?!”
A waterfall of film poured out, smashing part of the editing room. Had even my past-life memories been turned into film?
“Hmm… this is an unexpected situation.”
The destruction of the editing room seemed to have caught even Estelle off guard. Her voice sounded flustered. Seeing that gave me confidence. I had been worried about how to break the mental image domain, but maybe it would be simpler than I thought?
Ever since she mentioned destroying the domain, one clear image had been floating in my head. Of course, it wasn’t a memory I particularly wanted to touch, but given the situation, I had no choice.
Muttering to myself, I picked up the scissors used for editing film.
Just what kind of movie would he show?
Estelle had been slightly surprised by the mental image strong enough to break the editing room, but she didn’t think he could destroy this theater in one go. With that thought, she waited on stage for Lee Seong-hyun’s memories to begin screening.
No matter how she looked at it, he was an irregular vessel. Even after obtaining the Mother Box, he remained perfectly fine. She absolutely could not let anyone else take him. Not when a disaster was soon to descend upon Shion.
“I’m done editing. Do I just put it in the projector?”
“Yes. Just insert it and it will start on its own.”
Right on cue, Lee Seong-hyun announced that he had finished editing. Now, what memory would be screened?
In front of the eagerly expectant Estelle, the film that began playing was—
A dazzlingly colorful eight-ton truck that shattered the black-and-white screen.
“Eut?!”
A loud horn filled the quiet theater. It destroyed the dark world just like that. Exactly like a traffic accident.