The body is lying in a nondescript stone walkway.
　There's no room around it and it's a single path.
　Well, we've arrived. Nothing has happened so far.

"Who do you think it was, this guy?

　Was I honestly there?　He's such an unimpressive mob guy.
　I think he was one of the ones killed by the werewolves.
　He was shot through the head with a gun.
　Ten minutes to fifteen minutes post-mortem, give or take.

But whatever. Will you excuse me?

　Only the bullet is plucked out of the head with a telekinetic cheat.
　It's not like a magic bullet or anything, it's just a lead bullet. Of course it's twisted.

"Even if you look at it with a connoisseur's eye, it's just an ordinary bullet...hmm, but is this a 'time residue'?

　The time residue means that this bullet has jumped through time.
　Just to be sure, if you rewind the bullet's time only, the blood and time residue that was attached to it will disappear and it will be restored to the state it was in before it was fired.
　If you look closely at the restored bullet, you can see that it has been inscribed in English cursive script.
　This 'T.F.' initials printed somewhere.........

'Did you find out anything?'

　Sensing that there was no sign of a trap, Misaki peeked out before he knew it.

'Look. There are initials on the bullets.
"'T.F.'?　Is it the manufacturer or something?

　Misaki didn't show much interest in it.

　But something stuck with me.........
　I didn't tell Misaki, but I'm pretty sure I've seen that print before in my otherworldly travels.
　........No, I can't remember.
　For now, let's put the bullets away in the item box.

'Hey, hey, Ryouji. If you can rewind time, wouldn't it be possible to suppress the moment of the crime?
Well, I suppose I could, but...

　In a boxed world like this, there's no derivation of bifurcated parallel worlds, so there's no need to worry about going back in time too many times and getting the timeline messed up.
　There's no risk of ending up just wasting time like the quantum eye, and there's no reason not to do it...?

'Let's do it!　He said it would be interesting!
You don't think you're just going to let me take care of the little masked bastard, do you?
'I don't know what you're talking about... hmmmmm...'

　Misaki turns away and sings a bad song.

It's all right.

　It's not the same as a bad hunch, but it's a good reminder.
　Normally I don't care how textual you are, but you should only follow your instincts.

Aren't you being a little overly cautious?

　For some reason, Misaki's mouth is agape in disappointment.

You're going to try to crush me and him together, aren't you?
Ha-ha, not really!
By the way, the only thing that sees the past is the left eye. It's no use trying to catch me off-guard while I'm activating my ability.

　Misaki reacts with a twitch.

''Hahahaha!''

　I turn away and let out a dry laugh.

''........I guess I'll kill it after all.
Oh, man, I'm just the most harmless girl in the world, okay?

　I invoke the magic eye of past vision during the silly exchange.

'Well, let's start from half an hour ago anyway. Fast forward to the scene where there's nothing going on and... oh, here it is.

　The scene of the victim, who was walking down the aisle, being shot was perfectly visible.
　The time of the crime was 13 minutes ago. That means it was committed 17 minutes after we met up with them.
　But this is........I see. So that's why the 'time residue' was attached to it.
　So that means it was a bit further on..............Huh?

What's going on?

　Maybe he thought the results of the battle were not good from my expression, or maybe Misaki calls out to me.

I'm sure you'll be able to see this as well. I'm going to project it with illusionary magic as it is.

　After the magic eye is deactivated, he uses illusionary magic with no chanting and no movement to recreate the image of the moment of the crime in this place.

'Oro, he's suddenly falling down.

　Misaki tilted his head slightly.
　There was no sound, because the video was shown as it was in the past.
　There was no sound, only the victims collapsing suddenly in silence.

'Hey, wait a minute. I don't see Manto-kun anywhere. Ryouji, are you making a mistake or something?
Relax. Let me explain what I found out first. As you can see, there is no light, or even trajectory, of the gun as it was fired at the moment of the crime. But ... here. We're going to stop it.
Oh, there's a bullet coming out of nothing!

　Misaki rolled his eyes and pointed at the bullet.
　A bullet that wasn't there a second ago appeared right next to the forehead of the victim, who was walking down the aisle with an unhappy face.

"And then, a second and a half later, the bullet penetrated the victim's skull and reached his brain, shredding its contents. So you're messing up the inside.
Wait a minute. Why are bullets coming out of nothing?　Is your cape turning invisible in that area?　Or is it just bullets in space transfer?
'If it's invisibility, you'll know right away, and you won't see the distortion of space inherent in transition. That's not the case. This guy is going back in time. The bullets are from the future.

　Misaki's eyes darted to my explanation.

''I'm sorry ... I have no idea what you're talking about, Ryouji.
Right. Well, let me demonstrate.

　I take out one holy silver gun from the item box and point the muzzle at the wall.

''Oh, what's that gun? It's so cool!
I'm not gonna do it you can't look at me in disapproval like that.
Stingy!

　He can't pull the trigger because it's too heavy anyway.
　Anyway, I ignore Misaki and put my finger on the trigger.

"I'm going to send a bullet into the future 10 seconds from now in three, two, one.

　Bang, the sound of gunfire echoed through the dungeon.
　However, there are no bullet holes formed on the walls.

''........Ryouji?''
We'll see. Here he comes, in three, two, one.

　With a kink, sparks flew on the wall.
　Although a bullet hole is created, it is quickly disappeared by the game process.

'Here's the thing. Well, this is sending a bullet into the future, but the masked little guy did the opposite. It's not that hard to figure out, is it?
No, no, no, no!　I do it like it's obvious, but I usually never do it!
"Incidentally, the time residue embedded in the bullet that was fired indicates that it was fired from five minutes in the future.
So what is time residue?

　The time residue is the invisible residue that sticks to you when you move through time.
　It's difficult for even a connoisseur to discern, and I don't know the details of the theory, so Misaki ignores it.

I don't know the details of the theory, so Misaki ignores it. The masked chibi travels back in time to five minutes in the future, then uses his past vision ability to send a bullet into the past while seeing the past five minutes ago, like me, and shoots the victim in the head.

　I wouldn't use such an elaborate covert method if I were you, but it's certainly interesting.
　It's very unlikely that you'll be noticed by someone who doesn't have time countermeasures in place.
　If I had to say a drawback, it's that you can't use it against an opponent who stays in the same place for a long time.
　But in this game, the other participants are constantly on the move, so it's not a weakness.

''Let's see. I still can't keep up with you but since this happened 13 minutes ago, does that mean we're 8 minutes ahead of you?
I'm supposed to, but this is the footage from eight minutes ago.

　Fast forward to time and stop.
　But there's nothing in the picture except for the fallen body.

'Really?　Manto, I don't see you anywhere, do you?
Yeah.

　Eight minutes ago, there was no sign of the masked little guy, or even a gun being fired.

'What does that mean?'
To tell you the truth I have no idea what it's all about.

　Sweat trickles down my cheeks slowly.
　It's a cold sweat that didn't even flow when I encountered Lily, Addy and the otherworldly guardian Pythen.
　At the same time, my brain starts spinning at full speed.

''How can I combine the abilities he has on hand to pull off a trick like this...?

　At that time, I saw all of the masked chibi's abilities for sure.
　The "Modern Weapon Cheat", the "Magic Eye of the Past", and the time travel cheat ability... I do think I had those things.

　But in the first place, I've taken measures to ensure that she can't see me with her past vision, and for example, killing past enemies to make the current one disappear doesn't work for me as I'm independent of cause and effect.
　The same goes for my wives, who are protected by the Harlem Rule, and any enemy that interfered with me before that would be hunted forever by Tindalos' guard dogs.
　So I'm sure that when I appraised the masked little guy, I must have decided that he wasn't my enemy to this extent.

　And as usual, I quickly forgot about it.

''Silly me, maybe I need to get back into it.

　The time residue indicates that that bullet went back in time by five minutes.
　And yet, five minutes in the future, he was gone.

　There are two possibilities.
　Either he's disguising the time residue and actually firing from a different time.
　Or that masked little guy is using a cheat ability that I don't know about.

　Even if it's the former, if all the times are checked, the future time of the hiding place can be easily revealed.
　Would the masked little guy who has some kind of future vision countermeasure use such a time-sucking method?

　To be clear, the latter is more likely.
　

　If you use your appraisal eye, you can get a general idea of their abilities, not to mention their true names, from their magic wave motion.
　However, you can't read their experience, their battle techniques, and even how they use their abilities that I don't know about.
　The only thing I can see through my connoisseur's eyes is a magical wave and an aura that at first glance doesn't have any meaning.
　The only way to know what they actually mean is to deduce and decipher them based on the experience I've gained so far.
　The reason why I love using such a difficult-to-use evaluation eye is because it has a very high potential to detect the true nature of an opponent, and I also love the fact that the experience of my experience in other worlds can be used as a weapon.

　Information is vital in a battle between cheat holders.
　An enemy with an unreadable hand is extremely dangerous, and it's important to anticipate the unexpected in order to deal with it quickly.
　That hasn't changed even now that I'm nearly invincible.
　It's no consolation to say that I'm invulnerable so I can't be killed... If the enemy won't die, they won't die, but they will use countermeasures as soon as they can, which is what the Cheat Holders of the past have done.
　If you're not careful, you'll be caught flat-footed.

''Hmm, Ryouji looks like that too, huh?
'Yeah, I thought it was going to end up being another shitty game...'

　Misaki is smiling........no, he's laughing.
　It's not the usual flashy fake smile, but the smile of an amused person who seems to think it's fun from the bottom of his or her heart... a smile of an amused person who can see killing as a form of entertainment.
　And--

This is going to be quite an interesting hunt.

　I must have had the same kind of smile on my face.