Prologue

Click, click, click, click.

Listening through the hall door, footsteps could be heard coming from the kitchen.

The heels tapped on the concrete floor with a series of light clicks. The brief pauses in between must have come from the person making the footsteps carefully observing their surroundings.

Kamo looked down at what he'd pulled from his pocket.

Without eyes or nose or mouth, it appeared to be a featureless, flat mask of pitch black. He placed it on his face and it eagerly clung to his skin.

Click.

The footsteps stopped abruptly.

They should have gone to the door leading to the storeroom. A moment later, he heard the rattle of the iron door closing. The target had entered the storeroom, as instructed.

Kamo walked into the kitchen and locked the door to the storeroom. He barely made a sound, so the other person shouldn't have realized they were locked in the storeroom.

Everything had gone well up to now.

Kamo looked at his smartwatch to confirm the time, then sighed. “Five minutes should be enough.”

After four minutes had passed, Kamo pressed himself to the door and listened carefully.

...

She should be unsteady on her feet. Sure enough, from the other side of the door came the slight clatter of something falling to the ground.

Kamo waited another three minutes, then unlocked the door and walked into the storeroom.

Deep in the room, the targeted woman was on the floor, facing the storeroom door. Blood was seeping from her nose, but she was still breathing.

Kamo was startled when he saw what was next to her.

Two puppets of clowns, about fifteen centimeters in size, one wearing a purple tuxedo and one wearing a red one, with bloodstains on their legs and hips. Perhaps nasal blood had dripped on them when the target fell to the floor.

Had she moved the clown puppets, or...?

At that moment, the woman let out a faint moan.

It seemed he had waited too long. Even though he was wearing the mask, it was still better to finish everything before the target regained consciousness and saw him.

Kamo grabbed the rope from the storeroom and strangled her. After a dull, blunt thud, the victim's body convulsed slightly.

He didn't know how much time passed before the whisper came to his ears.

“Another victim.”

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