Chapter Text
The deep blue electric light made the basement even more eerie, and the stench of burnt human flesh permeated the air.
Watching the two arms re-melt back onto the butler’s body, Togawa Fuuki’s heart sank, and he immediately felt the situation turning unfavorable for him.
The illusion created by White Snake required a large amount of the user’s mental energy. After the Asukayama incident in the morning and controlling the personnel at the Togawa Residence in the afternoon, Togawa Fuuki had little mental power left.
Coupled with the fatigue accumulated from staying up too late last night, he could at most activate a small-scale illusion one more time, and the success rate was far from 100%.
If he could get close, White Snake’s Corrosion could indeed cause damage to a Stand.
However, regardless of the combat power of the newly appeared white enemy, just dealing with Ride the Lighting was enough to give Fuuki a headache.
That was a genuine [fast as lightning,] a speed-type Stand with considerable destructive power. Even when Maehara Naoto was deeply trapped in an illusion, he could still summon it in its complete state, which truly made Fuuki break out in a cold sweat.
The white figure was still crouched behind the butler, its two metallic hands tightly gripping his head, and the white mist surrounding it grew thicker.
‘Is its use of the command disc merely an imitation of me? Or does it already know the full extent of White Snake’s abilities?’
‘Can the command disc embedded in the butler’s brain still function?’
‘Its ability might be related to that ‘white mist,’ and as for its purpose… the fatal ‘coincidence’ in the Doll Room was undoubtedly aimed at Togawa Sakiko, the heir!’
“Hey~ why don’t you say something to me~”
Just as Fuuki was contemplating a strategy, the opponent poked out a very strange head from behind the butler and greeted him.
“The birth of ‘intelligence’ is not an easy thing~ As far as I know, the birth of this universe also came from an accidental big bang~”
“But it’s not enough~ I still need… to grow! I need more and better ‘accidents’!”
That head, like a milk jelly, suddenly trembled, constantly rippling and undulating, with ink-like shadows floating erratically on its surface—it seemed to be trying to piece together facial features for itself.
Finally, two circular ink stains formed a pair of eyes, and a deliberately elongated stroke below the left eye drew a playful smile.
“Hooray! Long live ‘Accident’!”
The white figure cheered, raising its hands to celebrate its gradual progress towards “completeness.”
What greeted it were several sharp silver lights.
These were the carving knives Fuuki had collected from the Doll Room, and each carving knife was coated with some “slime”—a product of White Snake creating illusions, which Fuuki temporarily named [Erosion.]
The flying carving knives shot straight at the white figure’s face, but just as they were only half a meter from their target, with a wail, a broken deep blue electric net captured them all.
Fuuki had not expected this attack to be effective; White Snake’s thrown knives were a probe—a probe to gather more information!
At the same time, Fuuki discreetly pulled something out from behind him: a satellite phone he had specially ordered before coming to the Togawa Family. To deal with emergencies, Fuuki had recorded the contact information of all informants controlled by command disc, as well as important figures.
He expertly typed blindly, sending out several distress messages, and analyzing the current situation in his mind.
At the moment the carving knives were thrown, the opponent was clearly unprepared and made no move to control the butler.
But coincidentally, perhaps due to extreme mental instability, at that instant, the butler’s newly healed broken arm spurted blood again, and the condensed electric humanoid dispersed in the air, coincidentally forming an electric net that completely blocked the carving knives.
“’Chance’? Since this guy appeared, he’s been muttering about chance and coincidence. Is this his ability?”
Manipulating [Chance] doesn’t sound like a powerful ability at first glance. But if one thinks carefully, most things in this world are actually made up of [Chance.]
Encounters between people, natural disasters and man-made calamities, good fortune and misfortune… even the birth of the world and the birth of life, all stem from some kind of [Chance.]
When he was at the British seminary, Fuuki, then Enrico Pucci, often stared blankly at the astrolabe—did some unchanging “truth” exist in the vast universe?
Billions of years ago, a god’s light cough caused nebulae and dust to bloom in chaos; a single-celled organism accidentally turned over near a deep-sea hydrothermal vent, and from then on, flesh and blood had the instinct to chase light.
Coincidence seemed to permeate every corner of the world, but what about beyond that? Was that where truth lay?
Fuuki remembered the meteorite fragment that had merged into his body; its predictive ability might bring him some kind of “inevitability” to avoid coincidence.
The white figure clearly noticed Fuuki’s failed attack, but White Snake’s throwing continued.
As several carving knives were caught by the electric net, several others collided mid-flight, disappearing into the pervasive white mist, and a new round of probing again fell flat.
“How rude, fighting so fiercely on our first meeting~”
The white figure feigned a troubled expression, and the crude smile on its face was timely covered by a shadow.
“As the first person I met after gaining ‘intelligence,’ you… what was your name again… Pucci? Yes, Pucci!”
“You really are a bad guy, Pucci! By birth time, I’m still just a child!”
“Pucci? Hmph! What an unpleasant name! Don’t think I just gained self-awareness; my original form gave me a resounding name!”
“Daydream Cafe!”
“How about that, Pucci? Compared to my name, you’re just a country bumpkin!”
Watching the opponent alternately beating its chest and stomping its feet, then becoming smug, Fuuki resisted the urge to complain and analyzed the information the opponent blurted out in his mind.
‘Just gained ‘intelligence’? It seems to be a Stand with self-awareness.’
‘So unrestrained, the user doesn’t seem to be controlling it, so it should be an ‘Automatic Type.’’
‘It also seems to have considerable growth potential; it must be stifled quickly!’
Memories from another world brought Fuuki great convenience; he quickly analyzed the type of this talkative Stand and conceived a strategy in his mind.
However, the success rate of this strategy was not a reassuring 100%; he had to take a risk.
“As one of the masters of this house, I have no need to be friendly to uninvited outsiders.”
Fuuki adjusted his collar, took a step forward, his tone and gaze revealing determination.
“As the eldest son of the Togawa Family, a true gentleman, I must correct your disrespectful address.”
“My name is Togawa Fuuki!”
“The legitimate heir of the Togawa Family!”
As Fuuki made his declaration, the entire scene fell silent, even the butler stopped wailing.