The Shikigami deftly wove through the crowd.

The reason it didn't simply pass through them was likely because, unlike the pure Spirit Body of the Fox Monstrosity, the Shikigami seemed to possess a thin physical form. This meant that even ordinary people would feel something upon contact with it.

Of course, this sensation wasn't strong; it was merely the tactile feeling of being nudged by a soft balloon.

With its help to clear the way, Asakura found it much more convenient to move through the crowd.

At the very least, he didn't have to squeeze through by force while maintaining the magic spell [Scale] as he did before.

Paradoxically, even though the convention was crowded everywhere, the Shikigami gave off the impression of a butterfly flying in a field of flowers—incredibly elegant yet completely out of place with its surroundings, as if it existed in another world, possessing a kind of eerie, ethereal beauty.

That said, its ability to find people was also quite outstanding. After being squeezed in the sea of people for about half an hour, Asakura saw that familiar flash of green.

Utaha looked like a solitary boat, her face wearing an expression of being on the verge of tears, tossed about as she was carried along by the waves formed by the dense sea of people.

The noisy clamor turned into a surging tide that easily swallowed her up. Her slender figure was pushed and shoved by the crowd, swaying and stumbling like a small boat that could be submerged at any moment, making one worry that she might become a victim of a stampede at any second.

Asakura wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt that the sprout on her head seemed to have grown a size larger than before.

So, he took another look and confirmed that he hadn't seen wrongly.

Before, the sprout felt like a very ordinary germinating seed, with two equally tender leaves growing on a lime-green stalk.

But now, not only had the stalk grown longer, but the leaves had increased from two to three.

Asakura reached out and grabbed her.

"Awa..."

Utaha instinctively tried to struggle at first, but then she saw that the person grabbing her was Asakura.

"It's been nearly half an hour, why are you still in the dōjinshi hall?" Asakura asked.

"I want to get out too..." Utaha said, looking like she wanted to cry but had no tears left. "But there are just too many people. Sometimes it's hard to squeeze into a gap, and just when I want to confirm my direction, I get pushed away by the next wave of people..."

Asakura let out a helpless sigh.

"Hold on tight..."

He grabbed the girl's hand. He chose not to follow the original route starting from this hall and moving through the game area, the corporate area, and finally the cosplay area.

Like in some sandbox games, even if you return to an early-game map in the late-game, you don't need to run the original path again because there are usually shortcuts.

While there are differences between reality and games and one cannot generalize, sometimes the principles are the same.

Asakura directly took Utaha to the exterior of the halls.

In terms of linear distance, circling around the outside of the halls to the cosplay area was much further than walking through the inside.

However, if one accounted for that terrifying sea of people, the longer path outside was actually much easier to walk than the inside.

"Are? If that's the case, why don't the people inside come out, and instead keep squeezing back and forth inside the halls?"

After hearing Asakura's explanation, Utaha couldn't help but ask in confusion.

"Because their purpose for coming to the convention is the booths inside the halls. If they walk outside, doesn't it mean they came for nothing?"

Asakura replied.

It was like going to Disney Land; if someone gave up on all the entertainment projects and just walked around inside once before leaving because every project had a long line, what would be the difference between that and not going at all? It would just be a simple challenge of their daily step count...

"Speaking of which—"

On the way, Asakura suddenly had a whim and looked at Utaha's head, then gestured with his chin toward the Shikigami beside him.

The Shikigami understood and directly reached its hand toward the sprout, intending to see if it could pluck it off.

As a result, the moment its hand touched the sprout, the Shikigami's body suddenly exploded. Its entire form turned into a pool of black liquid that splashed onto the floor, vanishing in an instant.

Simultaneously, Asakura felt as if he had the illusion of hearing something screaming miserably.

No, it wasn't an illusion.

He frowned and made a judgment almost immediately.

It was the voice of the Fox Monstrosity.

That Shikigami was clearly different from past individuals; it should be considered an extension of a part of Him.

Consequently, it was insta-killed the moment it touched the sprout. Whatever curse or dark power existed on the sprout had even "traced the network cable" to check the Fox Monstrosity's records.

While it hadn't reached the level of directly insta-killing the Fox Monstrosity, judging by the terrified emotions reflected back from Him, Asakura probably wouldn't be able to call Him out again for a short while.

This made Asakura pause for a moment. Utaha, caught off guard, crashed "with her two globes" into his back. As a result, nothing happened to Asakura, but she fell on her bottom due to the reaction force.

"It hurts..." The girl rubbed her buttocks while looking at Asakura with teary eyes. "Why did you stop suddenly?"

"It's nothing, just that the problem is slightly more serious than I imagined."

"How serious? Well, even if you told me, I'd probably find it hard to understand..." Utaha pouted and said in a low voice.

"I originally thought it was just a scratch, but in reality, it's at the level of 'merely a fatal wound'."

"That's not just 'slightly' serious at all?! Isn't that already extremely grave?!"

The girl's face turned pale with despair. Trembling, she pulled a small notebook and a mini ballpoint pen from her pocket (heaven knows where her cosplay outfit got a pocket from). "At... at least let me write a will..."

"Wait until I've looked at it before you write any wills."

As Asakura spoke, he reached out his right hand, which was encased in [Scale], toward the sprout on the girl's head.

However, he didn't actually touch the sprout. He stopped a moment before contact and activated "Future Sight" to confirm if touching that thing would cause any adverse reactions.

Then, in the vision of the future a few seconds later, Asakura saw himself seemingly pulling something out of her head.

...It... it shouldn't be the girl's brain matter, right?

Regardless, at least the defense of [Scale] was effective.

In other words, the power level of the sprout on Kasumigaoka's head was above that of the Fox Monstrosity but below the magic spell [Scale]?

Having confirmed there was no danger, Asakura then reached out and touched the sprout on the other's head.

In the next instant, his vision seemed to be violently torn apart, and heaven and earth suddenly overturned.

Asakura only felt a sensation of weightlessness throughout his body. He was certain he hadn't lost consciousness; it was just that by the time his thoughts coalesced again, the ground beneath his feet was no longer hard floor tiles, but soil covered in cold, damp moss.

The original Tokyo International Exhibition Center seemed to have been erased from reality, replaced by a forest so eerie it bordered on a nightmare—shimmering light and whispers floated in the air, and tree shadows trembled in the windless calm, as if they were watching this uninvited guest.

"...So that's how it is," Asakura nodded, "It's a Demon Realm."

Just like the Dessert Demon Realm that had trapped Yukino and Yui before, or the Mirror Demon Realm that had scared Anon half to death, the sprout on Utaha's head was also interconnected with this Demon Realm before Asakura's eyes.

"A Portkey... no, is it the Demon Realm itself? ...Too suspicious. Could it be that Kasumigaoka herself has been 'Demon Realm-ified'?"

Asakura scratched his head in distress.

What should I do now?

However, he didn't hesitate for long.

Future Sight clearly showed him pulling the sprout... or whatever that thing was... out from the girl's head.

Yet he hadn't successfully plucked the sprout, but was instead brought into this Demon Realm. That meant the time in this Demon Realm was likely not synchronized with the outside world. It should be that he finds a way out, and only after exiting does he conveniently pluck the sprout.

Until then, no matter how long he stayed in this Demon Realm, in the future seen by Future Sight, it would be nothing more than an "instant" that couldn't even leave a trace.

"Actually, it's not that there's no way to get out..."

Rather, if he simply wanted to leave the Demon Realm, Asakura had plenty of ways.

For instance, teleporting directly to the Site of Grace in the Roundtable Hold, or using the magic spell [Candle] to burn an exit, or even using [Scale] properly to break through this space... well, only the pathetic [Snake] remained as useless as ever.

However, it was just as he had worried before. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

If this Demon Realm itself was transformed from Utaha the person, breaking the space to return to reality directly from here would likely cause synchronized damage to her body.

I wonder if Dittany of Fresh has any use for this situation...

Moreover, if he escaped the Demon Realm this time, he didn't know if he could enter so normally again next time.

So, he had no intention of leaving for the time being.

"Anyway, I'll try exploring first..."

Asakura pondered for a moment and quickly made a decision.

He kicked a large tree beside him; the towering ancient wood crashed down, and the moment it hit the ground, it shattered into countless snakes, scattering in all directions like a vivid tide.

"This many..."

Asakura thought for a bit and used the magic spell [Scale] to create several temporary steps in the air. He ran to the top of a large tree in a few strides and looked around. He couldn't see the edge of this Demon Realm, but there were several giant trees nearby—not trees in the ordinary sense, but giant vegetation similar to the massive, majestic World Trees found in fantasy works, where one tree is equivalent to an entire village.

"Doesn't seem like enough."

Asakura muttered. Then, the tree beneath his feet suddenly became much shorter, and many snakes of various forms continuously slithered out from the tree under him, spreading further into the surroundings.

Asakura had no interest in testing those giant trees one by one; letting his little snakes go confirm things was clearly the simplest and most efficient method.

"Aaaah!"

Just then, a scream rang out.

Asakura looked to the side and discovered that Utaha was actually in the secret realm as well.

Could I have guessed wrong? Does this secret realm have anything to do with her, or is it purely the effect of that sprout?

Then, Asakura noticed a slight abnormality.

The Utaha before him seemed a bit different from usual. Even though she was screaming in terror at the snakes all over the ground and her facial expression showed genuine fear, the usually slightly clumsy and weak-willed appearance had completely vanished. It was replaced by a reaction driven purely by fear, just like a normal person's natural reaction when facing something they are born to loathe.

Even her attire was different from outside. The suggestive maid outfit with a school swimsuit base was gone, replaced by a very ordinary dark-colored JK uniform. There was neither a headband nor a sprout on the girl's head—only a white hairband.

"You are Kasumigaoka Utaha... right?" Asakura asked her.

But at this moment, the girl, who was standing on her tiptoes trying her best to avoid the tide of snakes, clearly had neither the inclination nor the energy to listen to Asakura.

So Asakura sighed and lightly clapped his hands.

The snakes swarmed forward and tied the girl up tightly. At a glance, she looked like a colorful version of the Michelin Man.

"Can you listen to me properly now?" Asakura asked with a smile.

"Generally speaking, shouldn't you drive these snakes away before negotiating?" Utaha's face was pale.

"I think this is more efficient," Asakura said righteously. "See, can't you talk to me calmly now?"

"Compared to this humiliating and terrifying treatment, I think it would be better to just faint from fright here," Utaha also sighed. "But my will seems too firm. Even after suffering such terrifying treatment—I remember it's called the Pit of Toads (Zao Pen), right?—I didn't lose consciousness, but can instead continue chatting with the weirdo next to me..."

"Does the 'weirdo' refer to me?" Asakura asked with a smile.

"An esper ability to manipulate snakes—no matter what kind of work it's in, that's a villain who would be defeated by an ally of justice, right?"

"So it's that kind of monster (Kaijin) from Kamen Rider. I thought you meant a 'strange person'..." Asakura complained.

"In the eyes of ordinary people, there is no substantive difference between the two."

"Rather than this boring sophistry, I'm more concerned with realistic issues—you are Kasumigaoka Utaha, right? I don't really want to ask a third time. It would be best if you could answer me here."

"...Who are you?" Utaha looked at Asakura warily.

"Monster Snake-man," Asakura answered with a slightly mocking tone.

"A taste so poor you sound like small fry who wouldn't survive the first few episodes of a procedural drama," the girl said indifferently, as if she hadn't heard the sarcasm in his words.

"Didn't you bring up this topic first?! Honestly, is this your true personality, Kasumigaoka? I'm starting to want to give up on saving you."