Chapter 32
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 32
Chapter Title: Hide Tight!
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I looked around.
This seemed like the living room of some house.
But it didn't feel ordinary.
Because everything was enormously huge.
The chair right next to me looked about four stories tall, and the table beside it was even bigger.
"Hmm."
First off, this wasn't just some simple illusion.
Of course, the girl did have the ability to mess with minds.
But something like that couldn't shake my mind.
"Guess this is what the space is really like."
Still, that was an impressive power on its own.
She'd whisked not just herself, but me too, into another space in an instant.
Come to think of it, kids' cafes and aquariums used similar tricks.
You arrived in a whole different world in the blink of an eye, right?
If the girl had a hand in making those places, this power felt perfectly natural.
Tap.
I leaped lightly upward.
My shadow shoved my body straight up.
I landed on the table nearby and swept my eyes across its surface.
A teacup and plate bigger than my entire body sat there.
I walked past them to the far side of the table—and spotted something else.
There was another chair opposite mine, with a teddy bear sitting on it.
Swoosh.
But then that teddy bear suddenly turned its head to look at me.
Just like it was alive.
"Eek! So cute!"
A teddy bear that moved on its own!
The bear stretched both arms out toward me.
I didn't hesitate—I hopped right over to it.
Thud!
I landed squarely on the teddy bear's head. It seemed flustered for a moment, then started flailing its arms wildly.
Like it was trying to shake me off.
"Bad bear!"
Wham!
So I smacked its head with a solid bonk!
The teddy bear staggered dramatically, then let its arms droop limply.
I thought maybe it'd passed out, but luckily, it seemed fine.
"Let's go!"
I grabbed hold of its fluffy fur and shouted.
The bear carefully climbed down from the chair, then shuffled in the direction I tugged.
It tried a few more naughty tricks along the way, but a sharp scolding each time made it behave perfectly.
From the looks of things, this teddy was part of the girl's collection too. But that didn't matter.
If it ended up in my hands, it was mine now!
"Hmm, where'd she go?"
I circled the living room once, but nothing stood out.
Of course, I checked with my other senses too, not just my eyes.
She definitely wasn't here.
"To the hallway first!"
So I headed to the hallway connected to the living room.
To be precise, I just gave orders while the teddy did the work.
The house was terrifyingly vast by my standards, but riding the bear made it no problem.
"Hold it!"
I stopped the teddy in the hallway and scanned around.
"Just a normal house?"
It was so huge that it felt off, but the layout and design were pretty much like any ordinary home.
What was this space even for?
I pondered for a bit, then decided to keep exploring.
Click.
I manipulated my shadow to open the first door in the hallway.
Beyond it was a master bedroom, the kind you'd see in any family home.
But someone was there.
At first I thought it was a person, but as I directed the bear closer, I realized it wasn't.
"A doll."
It was a doll.
Unlike the teddy I was riding, this one was extremely lifelike.
Just looking at it, you couldn't tell if it was human or doll.
The doll was posed as if applying makeup in front of a mirror.
I glanced up at it for a moment, then looked elsewhere.
And in the master bathroom, I found another doll.
"Is this the dad?"
A male doll stood there, posed mid-shave.
Given the similar age to the one outside, probably playing the role of a husband. It was the master bedroom, after all.
No sign of the girl's presence here either, so I moved on to the next room.
"Closet room."
The next was a walk-in closet—nothing noteworthy, so I skipped it and entered the one after.
"Huh?"
But what lay beyond the open door wasn't a "room."
"Playground?"
There was a playground.
The kind you'd find in apartments or parks.
"Lots of dolls here."
Childlike dolls were scattered all over the playground.
One frozen with arms outstretched in front of a slide.
Another crouched in the sandbox, building a sandcastle.
One on the swing, legs kicked out, suspended mid-air.
All of them halted mid-motion.
"She's here."
And that's when I realized the girl was hiding somewhere in this place.
But right then—
Swoosh.
I felt eyes on me.
I turned around.
A doll stood there in an awkward stance.
It had been crouched on the ground, fiddling with marbles.
I turned back—and saw other dolls approaching.
No.
That wasn't all.
Way over there.
At the edge of my vision, something loomed.
A head.
This wasn't just a playground.
The whole area around was a hide-and-seek spot.
And countless dolls blanketed the surroundings, all converging on this place.
"Hmm."
If I had to name it—
Doll Village?
I had no idea why a hallway from a house led to a playground, but whatever.
"Anyway!"
Not important.
This was hide-and-seek, after all.
"Time to hunt!"
Find the girl, and it was over.
So I went with a simple method.
"This time, go wild as much as you want!"
I snapped my fingers.
In that instant, every shadow around rose up and began moving on its own.
Crunch!
The shadows unleashed eerie violence on their former owners.
Snapping necks, tearing bodies, ripping out the stuffing inside.
Every shadow here harbored grudges against its host.
That was the origin of the anomaly "Shadow" that I'd devoured.
Riiip!
Crack!
As all the dolls in the area shredded and shattered, I slowly rode my teddy onward.
The moment I first saw those dolls, I'd known.
The girl was hiding inside one of them.
So, destroy them all, and she'd have no choice but to show her true self.
"Hide tight. Your hair's showing."
I hummed the familiar tune as I waited for her to appear.
The dolls were pretty sturdy.
"Here? Nope!"
But they couldn't withstand my shadows, so their numbers plummeted fast.
"How about here? Not here either!"
Eventually, when I sensed fewer than ten left—
Tap.
Suddenly, an alien sensation hit, and the scenery froze.
Even the shadows.
All of them, rampaging like living things, hung motionless in mid-air.
My teddy bear halted too, one foot raised.
Swoosh.
And above my head.
Something descended from on high.
A giant brush.
A brush to correct errors in this tiny world.
It aimed to paint over me. Erase me completely.
"Hehe."
Was this her last trump card?
Probably.
The dolls were just side attractions.
The key was that this entire world lay in the palm of her hand.
Inside here, she could wield far greater power than usual.
She'd probably kept me wandering to build up her strength to the max.
By staying so long, I'd started blending into this place's rules too.
Yeah. Smart.
"Dummy!"
But this was hide-and-seek.
I followed the brush with my eyes to pale fingers, then up to the girl.
She gazed down at me.
"Found you!"
Ignoring my words, she tried to swing the brush.
But she'd set the rules.
So now.
I could use my power freely too.
"Eat!"
I flicked my hand lightly, and a door ripped open in the air. A massive maw burst forth.
Crunch!
It swallowed the brush whole.
If I'd been a split second slower, it would've taken her hand too.
Whoooosh!
With the brush gone, my body rapidly reverted to normal.
And in that moment.
I stood back at the original spot.
On the outskirts of the ghost village.
"I figured as much... but not easy."
The girl spoke, her face far paler than when we'd started.
I grinned back at her.
"Still, it was kinda fun!"
"Fun... yeah."
She let out a hollow laugh, stared at me intently, then spoke.
"How about joining us?"
"Us?"
"Yeah. The Foundation and all that? Pointless, right? This isn't even your world anyway."
I tilted my head at that.
"Have we... met before?"
"Yeah. We did. We even promised to be friends."
"Oh! I remember now!"
I clapped my hands.
"You've changed a lot!"
"You said you liked cute things."
"Yeah, you're definitely cute!"
Not quite as cute as me, though.
Anyway.
"Nah."
"Why?"
"Looks boring."
Her expression blanked as she pulled a doll from her bosom.
A pink teddy bear doll.
"Here. A promise is a promise."
"Wooow! Thanks!"
I took it and reached out—then squeezed hard.
And right after.
Crunch!
The girl's body crumpled.
I lowered my hand and looked down at her remains.
Stuffing poured out.
Just like a doll.
Flutter.
A small scrap of paper drifted from the wreckage.
It read: See you.
I smiled.