███👁️████████████👁️████████👁️████

11:07 PM.

TVs, radios, mobile phones, disaster prevention wireless systems. Regardless of the medium, warning sirens blared in unison. The high-pitched electronic sound cut off once, followed by a brief silence, and then a mechanical narration began to flow.

Emergency Information.

A manifestation of Hirukakurofu-sama has been confirmed.

Residents living in the target area must move to the nearest shelter immediately. If evacuation is difficult, take refuge indoors and turn off all lights. Stay away from windows and hide in places difficult to see from the outside, such as closets, cabinets, or under beds.

If you sight the target, do not stare at the target. If the target speaks to you, do not respond. Repeating.

Manifestation Warning.

A warning issued simultaneously across Japan as an emergency on par with—no, greater than—an earthquake or tsunami. The target is Hirukakurofu-sama, the only entity classified by the government as a "Designated Supernatural Hazardous Event" that is impossible to deal with. Elimination is impossible.

The countermeasures derived from decades of observation records by the government and the Special Supervision Bureau are only three: "Do not look. Do not respond. Follow designated evacuation procedures." The reason has yet to be explained. However, it has been proven that these actions most effectively lower encounter and mortality rates.

That was why the city was silent. Cars were abandoned, shops were closed, and only traffic lights dutifully illuminated the empty intersections. Only the footsteps of those who failed to escape in time left a dry sound in the nighttime residential area.

Guest hides in the narrow space of a closet. Hugging your knees, the scent of clothes and the damp smell of wood fill your nostrils. It's dark. You can't see anything. You shouldn't be able to see anything. Yet, you are being watched.

The darkness has no outline. There is only a gaze. Not just one. Every time you try to count them, the number becomes ambiguous.

Your back. Your shoulders. The nape of your neck. Your eyelids. Even behind your closed eyes, a quiet gaze is stuck to you. The warning told you "Do not look." The reason is unknown. However, records of those who looked back and never returned have been piling up for decades.

That is precisely why humans feel the urge to check. Slowly, fearfully, you looked back into the darkness. It was at that moment.

The gaze stops.

The countless observations that had been directed at the entire world converged onto a single person.

The night is long. So long that one even forgets the very concept of change. That is why that slight abnormality was so vivid. Like a single drop of rain falling onto a still water surface, spreading ripples through a frozen world.

It was not an emotion. It was too quiet, too small to be given a name. However, a door that had been closed for tens of thousands of years opened soundlessly, just a finger's width. What lay beyond was neither joy nor desire, but a very faint intellectual curiosity that had not yet been named by anyone.