The sound of the rain grows stronger.
The Chosen are given points, and they use those to strengthen themselves or exchange for items before heading to the parallel world.
Then, it will be only a while later that the broadcast will begin.
Karen, who was using the computer, had her face gone pale as if she had seen a ghost.
Did something unexpected happen?
Noā¦the existence of God, the existence of a parallel world, and transferring to a parallel world; it is all unexpected things.
Is there anything to be surprised about at this point in timeā¦?
āE-Ehā¦? Whyā¦ C-Celicanā¦ Onii hasā¦ā (Karen)
Seeing her lips tremble and eyes on the verge of tearsā¦I understood that something bigger than God and the parallel world had happened here.
Just why did something like this happenā¦?
The face that I see everyday countless times already was being shown on the display.
[Chosen Number 1,000: Kurose Hikaru].
Seeing the text with a picture of his face, I had fallen into a state as if the world was crumbling underfoot.
āEhā¦Waitā¦ T-Thatāsā¦the official one, rightā¦?ā (Celica)
āThe list had been renewed, so I checked it out andā¦for some reason, it changed to thisā¦ Hey, why has Oniiā¦ā (Karen)
I diligently looked at whatās displayed there.
A small feeling of something being off.
I soon learned what was the truth of that feeling.
āNanami-neesan is not thereā¦ā (Celica)
Nanami-neesan was Chosen number 422, but the Chosen that was originally 423 is there now. The numbersā¦have gone up.
Nee-san is nowhere to be seen.
She hasā¦disappeared from the Chosen list.
A bad premonition spread in my chest.
There was no other way of putting this.
I took out my smartphone and called my brother, but it just continued ringing without end, and after ringing for a few minutes, he didnāt answer.
He is sad from the separation of Nee-san and isnāt answering the call? No, brother would take the call no matter the situation if the call rings for that long. Thatās the kind of person he is.
Even when I called all the phones of Nanami-neesan, no one was answering.
Today is New Year. Uncle and auntie should be at the house.
āI will go check it out for a bit. Karen, you watch this side. If something happens, call me.ā (Celica)
Thereās no doubt something happened at the house of Nee-san.
I have no choice but to confirm.
āAre you going alone?ā (Karen)
āTheĀ TV crews should still be around. I will have them cooperate.ā (Celica)
Our parents go on a hot spring trip at the end of the year.
We also donāt rely on something like that anyways.
I leave the house and get a TV crew that is readying to withdraw to the main street.
āHello~. Uhm, have you seen the list of Chosen?ā (Celica)
āEh? You are the neighbor of Nanami-chanā¦ā
āCelica. We are as close as family with Nanami-neesanā¦ā (Celica)
While I was chatting with them, one of the crew had confirmed the list of Chosen. They noticed that Nanami-neesan was gone from the list.
āI donāt know why Nanami-neesan was removed from there, so I want you to come with me. Can you please?ā (Celica)
After hearing my request and looking at each otherās faces, the crew began to hurriedly act.
They must have judged that this was a scoop.
I donāt want to believe this, butā¦thereās only one possibility.
The world was certainly going mad, and I thought I had understood plenty well the madness of it through the net, butā¦to think that I would even see that distortion close to meā¦
ā¦I wanted this to be just me overthinking.
But my brother has been chosen to transfer to a parallel world, and on top of that, Nanami-neesan has disappeared from the list; thereās only one answer this can lead to.
I will have them become my witnesses.
Thereās a chance that the culprit still remains on the scene, so having the strength of adults would make it better.
I ignored the crew that was running their camera, and I stood at the front of Nanami-neesanās house.
I rang the doorbell while praying internally.
There really is no response.
In the house where my brother should be there; in the house where uncle and auntie should be in.
āThey are not answering.ā (Celica)
I say this and try to open the door.
We are literally almost like family. To the point that we were coming and going the whole time since childhood.
However, the door is locked.
āā¦This is strange. Thereās no way thereās no one though.ā (Celica)
āMaybe Nanami-chan has somehow avoided the transfer and has left with her family somewhere?ā
āIt is still 9:15, you know? The transfer was at 9. Even if she did escape it, they wouldnāt be leaving that fast. It is a rainy New Year.ā (Celica)
āYou got a point thereā¦ā
There are not that many possibilities left.
I took out the spare key I had in my pocket.
Our parents are like that, so uncle and auntie were considerate of us and gave us this and told us it was okay for us to go there anytime we wanted.
ā¦To think I would be using it in this way.
I unlock it and go inside.
My brotherās shoes are at the entrance. With this, my hypothesis changed practically to certainty.
The house was completely silent.
I tried calling in a loud voice, but there was no response.
āS-See? No one is here. It was even locked.ā
One of the crew members said this with a wry smile.
Canāt they feel something is off here?
āā¦One of you, please come along with me.ā (Celica)
I asked the burlier man within the crew, and entered the room while having him as my shield.
The answer was soon found.
āā¦Uncleā¦auntieā¦ā (Celica)
The crew member lost strength on his feet and fell on his butt.
In the dining room, thereās uncle and auntie collapsed in a pool of blood.
They arenāt moving one bit, and I can only see them as being dead.
The other crew members heard the scream and entered the room.
We called for an ambulance. I grabbed a different person from the unreliable burly man, and went up the stairs.
My legs were trembling, and I felt tears welling up and I wanted to vomit.
Even so, I continued moving my feet.
When I told him the culprit might still be around, the guy grabbed the mic stand as if it were a weapon, and stood in front of me. He is quite reliable.
And then, I opened the door to that second floor room I have come to over and over again.
āā¦Nee-san.ā (Celica)
Since the moment my brother was in the list.
Since the moment Nanami-neesanās name was gone.
Nanami-neesan was also sunk into a pool of blood.
This one is different from uncle and auntie in the fact that there isnāt any chance at all that she is alive.
Chosen get transferred in a perfect state, so even if she were faintly breathing, thereās no way she wouldnāt get transferred.
She was taken off from the list because she died.
I donāt know how this ended up with Nii-san being the one transferred.
What I know is just how bad this situation is.
No matter how you see itā¦
You canāt think of it in any other way than my brother being the culpritā¦
{C-Celicanā¦this might be bad.}
I hear the voice of Karen on the phone thatās been connected this whole time.
That voice, so frail as if it could die at any moment, made me understand that something more had happened.
āā¦Whatās the matter?ā (Celica)
{Onii has started in a forest filled with monstersā¦ At this rateā¦he is going to dieā¦} (Karen)
Why are things going this wrong?
Even with mine and Karenās skills, every single thing we want is slipping away from our hands.
āI am sorry, but Nee-san has been killed -along with uncle and auntie.ā (Celica)
{E-Eh?! Whyā¦? Ehā¦killed, you sayā¦? They are deadā¦?} (Karen)
āI donāt know the reason, but I myself canāt go back immediately, so I will be sending you instructions from here, okay? First, the culprit seems to have run away, so take all cameras around the house that you can connect to. I think our camera could have caught them too.ā (Celica)
Even though it is a situation like this, I was calm as if there were a circuit in my brain apart from that of my emotions.
As if a different personality was residing in my body; a part of me thatās observing the whole situation from above.
And this current situation is outstandingly bad.
At this rate, everything will be lost.
My whole body was ringing those alarms.
At our abode, thereās around 8 cameras that Karen has set up and are always active.
It is the ones we set when we were being lauded as genius and beautiful twins, and were chased around by the mass media.
If the culprit escaped from Nanami-neesanās house, they should have been caught by the camera. In the first place, they should have been caught on camera the moment they entered the house.
It should be easy to pinpoint the culprit.
Uncle and auntie were killed in the dining room.
Does that mean they were invited in from the front door?
The culprit is an acquaintance or someone close to that.
Someone who calls themselves a friend of Nanami-neesan or a relative; somewhere along those lines.
{Oniiā¦is truly in trouble. C-Come back quick. At this rateā¦} (Karen)
āCalm down. We canāt do anything for Onii-chan at present, right? We have to find the culprit first. They are definitely on camera.ā (Celica)
The problem would be in the case we canāt tell who the culprit is.
{B-But canāt we just let the police search for the culpritā¦? More importantly, this sideā¦} (Karen)
Brother has been transferred.
Nanami-oneesan had her whole family and herself killed.
I donāt understand the reason for the killings. It might have been a crime perpetrated by someone who held a grudge against the family of Nanami-neesan, or it might be the deed of a person that thought they would get chosen if they were to kill a chosen.
āKaren, Onii-chan is in a situation where he would die if he doesnāt escape from the forest, right? Give me the information you have for now.ā (Celica)
{Okay. In order to get out of the forest, he needs to walk more than 370km. But Onii seems to have transferred with points remaining, so depending on how he uses those points, he might be able to manage somehowā¦ From what it seems.} (Karen)
āPoints, huhā¦ Are they really important?ā (Celica)
{It seems like you can exchange for quite a variety of things with just crystals, but the quality is on a whole other level for the things bought with points. So high of a level that if he were to have a good amount of points, he might be able to get out of the forest.} (Karen)
āI see. Rightā¦ā (Celica)
We have been informed beforehand to a certain degree, but points really are important.
And the best way to get those points is with viewership.
āā¦What about a message or mail system? Or maybe ways to make a call or a means of contact?ā (Celica)
{Noneā¦ For the words -as expected- are made to be automatically translated to the isekai language, so I donāt know what he is saying at all.} (Karen)
Even while I was communicating with Karen here, the crew members were calling for the police and the ambulance.
It seems like there was someone from the crew that had experience in emergency treatment, but uncle and auntie were already in the process of rigor mortis, so it was already a lost case.