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After the stray cats and dogs finished their canned food and dispersed happily, Blake and Ruri cleaned up the mess outside, said goodbye to Mahiru, then headed toward the subway station together.
The night wind was cold.
The subway, packed during the daytime, now sat nearly empty. Only a handful of exhausted office workers remained, people stuck working late into the night.
By the time they arrived at the station near the Goko residence and got off the train, the underground passageways were practically deserted.
As Blake walked forward, he suddenly felt a cold little hand tightly grab his right hand.
"What's wrong?"
He turned toward Kuroneko.
Ruri's face had gone slightly pale, her eyes nervously fixed on a middle-aged man in a white dress shirt carrying a briefcase several meters behind them.
"That guy looks familiar…" she whispered into his ear.
"You know him?"
Blake glanced back from the corner of his eye.
The man's hairline had already evolved into true baldness, but otherwise he looked completely ordinary.
Was he an acquaintance?
With Ruri's personality, meeting someone she knew should make her embarrassed, not tense.
"I don't know him," Ruri whispered while pressing closer against him, clutching his hand tightly. "But something feels off… Blake, have you seen that movie Exit 8 that came out recently?"
"The one adapted from the game?"
"Yeah, that one."
"Haven't seen the movie, but I've watched gameplay videos…"
Halfway through speaking, Blake suddenly understood why she looked so nervous.
That balding middle-aged man really did resemble the NPC from the game.
"It's probably just a coincidence." Blake discreetly became more alert, quietly tightening his grip around her cold fingers. "Don't scare yourself."
"You can't be sure," Ruri whispered anxiously. "Magic girls exist in real life too, you know. What if we end up trapped like in the movie and can never leave?"
Blake spoke softly to reassure her.
"Surely Lady Kuroneko of the Dark Night isn't scared by something this minor?"
"O-Of course not." Ruri's face was pale, but she still instinctively answered with tsundere pride. "But even the Black Cat of the Dark Night has natural enemies."
"Hurry up and use your unbeatable powers to think of something."
"The one with unbeatable powers is Miss Mahiru, not me!"
…
The pale tiled corridor.
The cold fluorescent lights.
The silent balding man steadily following behind them.
An indescribable pressure hung in the air, making both Blake and Kuroneko unconsciously speed up.
Maybe it was just their imagination, but in the empty underground passage, only their own footsteps seemed to echo around them.
Thankfully, the worst-case scenario never happened.
Not long after, the two finally exited the station tunnel.
Seeing the neon-lit streets outside, both of them let out sighs of relief at the same time.
"We made it out." Blake exhaled lightly. "Guess we just scared ourselves."
Ruri turned to look back toward the station, her voice tense.
"That man… where did he go?"
"He probably left through another exit," Blake replied casually.
"But…"
Ruri's face paled slightly as she bit her lower lip.
"We never passed any other exits the whole way here."
…
Blake instinctively turned back as well.
The underground corridor behind them was completely empty and deathly silent.
"Don't say another word. Let's just go home."
Get as far away as possible.
Only an idiot would turn back to investigate some incomprehensible horror-movie nonsense.
"H-Home!"
Ruri immediately nodded along.
The two quickly put distance between themselves and the station.
Only after a long while did Ruri finally relax.
And then she noticed something strange about the way they were holding hands.
She lowered her gaze.
The moment she realized exactly how their fingers were intertwined, her face exploded red.
"W-We're interlocking fingers?!"
"When did that happen?"
"Why don't I remember at all…"
Before, they'd only been holding hands normally. She could still barely convince herself it was just some ordinary greeting gesture.
But there was no such thing as interlocked fingers being a greeting.
That was absolutely the kind of handholding only couples did.
Ruri's cheeks burned scarlet as she instinctively tried to pull away.
But the warmth of Blake's palm felt strangely comforting, almost magical, making her completely unwilling to let go.
After hesitating for a while, her embarrassment finally won out.
Blushing furiously, she whispered:
"C-Could you let go now…"
"Hm?"
Blake finally realized something was off and quickly let go of his right hand.
"Sorry, I honestly didn't notice."
"I-It's fine…"
Goko Ruri hurriedly hid her hand behind her back, the tips of her ears and even her neck turning pink.
"I only noticed just now too…"
"…"
An awkward silence quietly spread between them.
Ruri took a deep breath, trying to come up with something to break it.
"We might've just run into a spacetime singularity earlier. Good thing we escaped the subway station in time, or things could've gotten dangerous."
Blake: "…"
Ruri lifted her chin seriously and continued:
"A spacetime singularity is a supernatural phenomenon that only appears at specific times and places. It both exists and doesn't exist in reality. Once ordinary people enter it, there's a high chance they'll never come back."
Blake couldn't help saying, "Don't you know a little too much about this stuff, Ruri?"
Ruri folded one arm across her chest and placed the other hand against her face dramatically.
"That's simply how this world is designed."
Stop adding weird settings to the world already!
Just as Blake was about to reply, a cold gust of wind suddenly blew toward him, followed by an icy raindrop landing on his cheek.
"Is it going to rain?"
He looked up at the sky.
"I felt it too." Ruri quickly suppressed her chuunibyou mode. "Let's hurry. We're still a few minutes away from home."
"…"
The two picked up their pace again and hurried through the night streets.
Dark clouds filled the sky.
Before long, a light drizzle began to fall.
"Good thing our clothes didn't get soaked." Standing at the entrance of the Goko house, Blake let out a breath of relief and looked toward the black-haired girl beside him. "Ruri, can I borrow an umbrella?"
"Hm?"
"It's raining outside. I'll need one to get back to the station."
The moment she heard he still intended to go to the station, Ruri's expression immediately stiffened.
"Don't go to the subway station!"
"Huh?"
"The spacetime singularity might not be over yet. If you go back now, you might suddenly disappear into another dimension or something." Ruri's eyes quickly grew determined. She looked up at him, her ears turning red again. "It's almost eleven at night already, and now it's raining too. By the time you get home it'll probably be after midnight, so… so why don't you stay over at my house tonight?"
Ba-dump. Ba-dump.
Her heart was pounding wildly as she forced those words out.
Bringing a boy home this late at night and even letting him stay over… if her mom or sisters found out, there'd be no explaining it!
Blake sighed helplessly.
"I told you to stop scaring yourself."
"Anyway, you're leaving tomorrow instead."
Ruri's tone left no room for argument.
"Come inside already. You can sleep in my room tonight and quietly leave tomorrow morning. Don't worry about causing trouble. At this hour, Mom and my sisters are definitely asleep already."
The subway station had definitely turned into a spacetime singularity. Better safe than sorry. She absolutely had to make Blake stay.
Blake hesitated for several seconds before finally nodding.
"Then sorry for intruding."
"Hurry and come in…"
Ruri took out her key, quietly unlocked the door, and tiptoed into the house.
The next second—
The lights suddenly switched on.💡
Then a surprised voice rang out:
"What's this? Little Ruri actually brought her boyfriend home?"👀
"....."