Chapter 156: Visual Contagion
Kamihara Shinji had felt something was off for days. His gender swap was different from the others. Ordinary people merely changed genders with no other alterations, but for him, his charm had skyrocketed. It was as if he was constantly drawing attention, regardless of gender; anyone near him couldn’t help but stare. Even with sunglasses covering most of his face, his strange allure was barely contained.
Now, Nagai’s confession had given him the answer. Combining this with his observations, Kamihara realized the sprite anomaly was parasitic. It selected the most attractive post-swap individual to inhabit, amplifying their charm to lure others. This was likely a mechanism to spread its rules rapidly. The allure was so potent that it could override moral boundaries, making its spread terrifyingly efficient.
Moreover, Kamihara suspected there was another infection vector beyond skin contact. Was it his eyes or his soul? He had a hunch it was his eyes. If it were his soul, the contagion would be a global catastrophe, impossible to contain. But since he’d been wearing sunglasses, perhaps he’d inadvertently blocked this transmission path.
Nagai had mentioned that even his close friends couldn’t resist imprisoning him upon seeing him. Yet, Kamihara, despite being more attractive post-swap, hadn’t faced such extreme reactions. Eyes, often called the windows to the soul, were likely the key to this charm. Staring into the mirror, he saw no anomaly in his eyes, but he remained pensive.
He picked up his phone and called Aokiji. With his experience in anomaly investigations, he was confident in his theory and needed to act decisively.
“Hey,” Aokiji answered.
“It’s me. Remember the deformed child you and Akane investigated? Do you still have that eye photo?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Bring it out. I need to see it,” Kamihara said calmly. “Also, find a prisoner and alter our household registries to make us siblings.”
“You’re planning to…” Aokiji caught on. “You’ve figured it out? What’s going on? And it’s not ‘brothers’—it’s ‘brother and sister’ now.”
“Same difference,” Kamihara replied, his serious tone undercut by Aokiji’s jest. “I think this ‘Gender-Swapper’ minor anomaly is nesting in my eyes. I want to see if that photo can deal with it.”
Aokiji and Akane had previously investigated Little Eye and Little Ai. Kamihara had created Little Eye with limited writing skill, and completing its rules now required too many legend points, which he needed for Kaoruko. So, Little Eye stayed home, a mascot watching TV. Little Ai, meanwhile, roamed Japan, now seen by the Special Division as a spokesperson for a mythical anomaly alliance.
Kamihara could have simply photographed Little Eye’s large eye, but he needed to showcase his abilities to the Special Division and contain the anomaly. This required using their restricted photo. It also meant he’d have to enter Little Eye’s killing rules by committing “domestic violence,” then viewing the photo. As the notebook’s master, he could choose whether to fall under the rules.
Soon, Nishimura Kaori arrived to drive him home. Kamihara left Tohsaka at the police department and got in the car. He couldn’t risk triggering Little Eye’s rules at the Special Division—if they noticed anything amiss, it would be disastrous. So, he’d claimed that “domestic violence” had to occur at home to activate the photo’s rules.
On the way, he glanced at Nishimura’s left hand on the steering wheel, marked with a ♂ symbol. He recalled that when she picked him up, she already had the mark. At the time, he was too preoccupied to notice, assuming she’d been infected elsewhere. Now, he suspected it was his doing—when she saw him without sunglasses, his gaze likely infected her.
So, beyond skin contact, the Gender-Swapper could spread through eye contact when nested in someone’s eyes. His sunglasses had inadvertently contained the visual contagion.
Arriving home, Special Division staff were already waiting. A prisoner in shackles, a convicted murderer, was presented. Kamihara nodded, and the staff confirmed they’d altered the household registries to make them siblings.
“Ghost-sama, we’ve updated the records,” a staff member said.
“Thank you,” Kamihara replied, dismissing them.
He removed his sunglasses and stared at the bound prisoner. After a moment, he focused on the prisoner’s right hand. A ♀ mark slowly appeared.
Visual contagion. Kamihara inhaled sharply. His theory was correct. The sunglasses had indeed blocked the Gender-Swapper’s line-of-sight infection. But this method was weak, easily thwarted by a simple barrier—understandable for a newborn minor anomaly with incomplete rules.
Now, it was time to see if Little Eye could handle this minor anomaly.
(End of Chapter)
Chapter 157: Containment: Gender-Swapper
Muffled sobs. The nameless prisoner, masked and sprawled in the living room, ached all over, whimpering in pain. His body was bruised, his face swollen, limbs twisted unnaturally. Blood pooled on the floor—Kamihara had been merciless.
He’d reviewed the prisoner’s file: a man who, despairing of life, had stabbed two women on the street. Kamihara felt no pity. Stepping on the prisoner’s hand, he elicited a shudder of agony. Then, with a swift strike to the head, he knocked the man unconscious.
After the beating, legally, they were siblings, and this counted as domestic violence. Kamihara picked up the iron box left by the staff, opened it, and took out the eye photo. The entire image was dominated by an eye, its white and pupil stark, edged with bloodshot veins. The cold, gray tones evoked a chilling haze. Staring too long, the pupil seemed to follow one’s gaze, instilling dread.
As Kamihara looked at the photo, Little Eye, perched on the coffee table, sensed something. It gazed at him, confused. “Mama.”
Kamihara smiled wryly—technically, it wasn’t wrong this time. “There’s an anomaly in my eyes. Help me kill it.”
“Mama.”
Little Eye, still limited to that word, understood. As Kamihara chose to enter the killing rules, Little Eye, despite its sentience, had to follow its rules.
Instantly, Kamihara’s eyes widened slightly as he scanned the room. From every crevice—door gaps, wall seams, drawer edges, curtain folds, floor cracks—eyeballs emerged, layering over each other, their soft, squelching sounds unnerving. They stared unblinkingly at him.
Kamihara didn’t close his eyes; instead, he met their gaze. He felt his mind being eroded, negative emotions welling up, irritation growing. His stage-four spiritual power held, but before the eyes could intensify their assault, two symbols appeared in the depths of his own eyes: ♂ in the left, ♀ in the right.
The gender marks, as if startled, began to overtake his pupils. Though he could still control his body, his eyes were no longer his own. The symbol-laden pupils darted frantically, locking onto the crevice eyes. The more they looked, the faster the marks pulsed.
Finally, the ♂ and ♀ symbols leapt from his eyes, merging midair into a small sprite. Kamihara recognized it as the game’s missing gender-swap envoy.
Before it could react, Little Eye’s curious stare fixed on it. With a swift motion, Little Eye snatched the fifteen-centimeter sprite, gripping it tightly despite its struggles.
“Mama.”
“Good job,” Kamihara praised, relieved. In the clash of rules, Little Eye had triumphed. Though not as powerful as Little Ai, it easily subdued newborn rule anomalies. This confirmed that many nascent anomalies, lacking soul nourishment to complete their rules, were weak. Yet, encountering them was rare.
Aokiji and Akane had mentioned that some anomalies emerged fully formed and complex, likely tied to human factors.
Watching Little Eye hold the Gender-Swapper, Kamihara ordered, “Kill it.”
Little Eye opened its mouth, swallowed the sprite, and chewed. As it did, Kamihara felt his neck pendant—the notebook—vibrate. Ignoring it, he placed the photo back in the box and swallowed the euthanasia drug on the table.
He was still under Little Eye’s killing rules. Little Eye’s rules could trap even death-substitute monitors in a death loop: each revival wouldn’t erase the domestic violence, retriggering the rules upon seeing the photo.
Reviving, Kamihara checked himself—still female. In the mirror, his beauty remained, but the unnatural charm was gone. He’d expected this; the Gender-Swapper targeted the soul, with the body following suit.
Touching the pendant, the ominous notebook appeared. Flipping to the second page, he saw no increase in legend or virtue/vice points from containing the Gender-Swapper. Perhaps points would come when the swapped individuals died naturally, decades later.
He turned to the Gender-Swapper’s page. “When men and women began to complain, believing the other gender had societal advantages, the Gender-Swapper was born…” Scanning the blood-red title, he silently commanded, “Consume 75,642 legend points to use the Gender-Swapper’s rules? Yes/No.”
“Yes.”
A gray light enveloped him. When it faded, he checked—still female. His face fell, but then he recalled: infected individuals took three days to swap. He’d just re-entered the rules, meaning in three days, he’d revert.
Three-day leave it is. He’d stay home, going nowhere.
(End of Chapter)
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