O5-13 The God of Wisdom, Iwanaga Kotoko, sat cross-legged on a wooden chair at the modest dining table inside Kuro Sakuragawa’s apartment.
She was currently dressed in one of Kuro’s oversized white button-up shirts, which hung loosely off her petite frame like an improvised, comfortable one-piece dress.
Her prosthetic left leg rested casually against the chair rung while her real foot swung lazily in the air.
Since the very second Kuro had opened his eyes that morning, Kotoko had been completely inseparable from her smartphone.
Her large, brilliant eyes were practically glued to the glass, her thumb scrolling, tapping, and refreshing the interface with a manic, unshakeable intensity that defied her usual playful demeanor.
“Iwanaga,” a deep, thoroughly exhausted voice corrected from the kitchen counter, formatting the heavy sigh into a dull grumble.
Kuro stood there, holding a freshly brewed mug of coffee, his messy dark hair sticking up in multiple directions.
He adjusted the collar of his shirt, glaring at her with a deadpan, deeply judgmental expression.
“You’ve been staring at that screen since the moment I woke up. If you keep burning your retinas on that glass, your remaining good eye is going to fail you, too. Put the phone down and eat your breakfast.”
“Oh, but Kuro-senpai! You simply don’t understand the sheer, historic magnitude of the information I am taking in right now!” Iwanaga cheered, her voice a melodious, overly dramatic purr as she tilted her head back.
“A true goddess must always keep her finger on the pulse of the universe!”
Kuro raised an eyebrow, taking a slow, unbothered sip of his coffee.
He walked over to the dining table, leaning down slightly to look over her shoulder.
“Right. And what exactly are you looking at that’s more important than actual human interaction?”
“Hehehe… I’m so glad you asked, Senpai!” Iwanaga giggled ecstatically, her face flushing with a sudden, pure wave of mischievous delight.
With a theatrical, lightning-fast flourish, she violently snapped the phone upward and shoved the screen directly into his face, practically pressing the glass against the tip of his nose.
“Behold! The absolute pinnacle of cosmic architecture and global security! Feast your eyes upon its glorious, unfiltered majesty, Kuro-senpai!”
Kuro blinked, his deadpan expression hardening into absolute stone as his eyes focused on the glowing display.
There was no hidden network.
There was no highly encrypted global anomaly tracking radar.
There were no classified dossiers or scientific metrics.
All Kuro saw was his own sleeping face plastered across the phone’s high-definition background wallpaper.
The picture had clearly been taken stealthily by Iwanaga at some ungodly hour of the morning.
In the photograph, he was completely passed out on his back, drooling slightly onto the pillow, and entirely shirtless, with his bare chest and collarbones cast in the soft, vulnerable morning light.
“Change it immediately,” Kuro demanded, his deadpan mask completely cracking as a rare flush of genuine embarrassment colored his neck.
“Even I have limits to what I will tolerate, Iwanaga. Put a standard wallpaper on that thing.”
Iwanaga tilted her head to the side, her large, single eye blinking in genuine, unscripted confusion.
“Change what, Kuro-senpai? What are you talking about?”
She turned the phone back toward herself.
Her eyes locked onto the display, but she wasn’t looking at any wallpaper.
The screen was completely dominated by the SCP Foundation interface, detailing live logs and local security scanning.
She turned the glowing screen right back toward his face, pointing a petite finger at the glass.
“Kuro-senpai… look closer. Tell me exactly what you see on this phone right now.”
Kuro sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose in sheer exasperation.
“I see a highly embarrassing, shirtless picture of myself drooling on a pillow, which you stealthily took this morning. Now put it away.”
“Oh my… so that’s how it is,” Iwanaga murmured, a sudden, sharp spark of pure revelation lighting up inside her brilliant mind.
A delightfully mischievous grin broke across her face.
Cognito Masking, she realized, her heart fluttering with a thrilling academic excitement.
The app wasn’t just encrypted.
The hardware itself physically altered the light and visual perception of unvetted civilians.
To anyone who hadn’t signed the contract, the phone looked like a completely standard, mundane device running an ordinary background.
Only a member could see the foundation.
“To think it displays a view of my beloved Senpai in such a deliciously defenseless state to the rest of the world.”
Without a word of warning, she dropped her smartphone onto the table and eagerly extended her right hand, holding her small palm flat right in front of his face.
“Then what about this, Kuro-senpai? Can your eyes perceive the heavy burden your future bride is carrying?”
Kuro’s casual, unbothered demeanor vanished instantly.
His eyes widened, his deadpan expression twisting into a rare look of profound, immediate shock as he stared at her bare hand.
Etched cleanly into the delicate, pale skin of her right palm was a stark, dark, flawless Roman numeral, XIII.
“Iwanaga… what the hell happened to your hand?!” Kuro demanded, his voice dropping into a sharp, tight register as he grabbed her wrist to inspect the mark.
“Did someone break in? Is this a curse from a rogue phantom? When did you get this?!”
Iwanaga completely ignored his frantic interrogation, her mind entirely consumed by her own internal deductions.
She stared off into space, pulling her wrist from his grip as she tapped her chin with her left hand.
So the physical mark is fully visible to civilians, but the app is hidden, she calculated rapidly.
The Reincarnator wasn’t exaggerating.
This brand is a permanent anchor to a completely separate layer of reality, and the Yokai are being detected by the ra-”
Before she could finish her line of thought, Kuro’s hand suddenly shot forward.
With a swift, non-negotiable movement, he snatched her smartphone right off the wooden table, slipping it securely into his own trouser pocket.
“Ah! Senpai, that is flagrant theft!” Iwanaga squealed, instantly pouting fiercely as she lunged forward across the table, her oversized white shirt sliding off her shoulder as she tugged at his clothes.
“Give it back! That device contains the highly classified information! Besides, if you keep it in your pocket, it might accidentally scan your inner desires, and we both know how scandalous those can be!”
“No,” Kuro said flatly, his tone completely unyielding as he pointed his chopsticks toward her untouched breakfast plate.
“You’re going to sit down, finish every single bite of your food, and then we are heading straight to a clinic to get that mark on your palm properly checked out. I don’t care what kind of god of wisdom you are. You’re not playing around with a skin infection. Eat.”
Iwanaga slumped back into her wooden chair, letting out a loud, thoroughly dramatic groan of defeat.
She picked up her utensils, glaring at her food with a childish pout, though her single eye remained incredibly sharp.
***
The smooth, unyielding rumble of a customized luxury limousine cut through the blanketed white streets of Hokkaido.
Inside the spacious, leather-lined cabin, the heater control kept the winter chill at bay.
Sanzenin Nagi was currently buried under a mountain of premium, high-density thermal blankets, her twin blonde pigtails poking out as she aggressively scrolled through a tablet interface.
Opposite her sat Hayate, looking slightly stiff in his fresh winter butler coat, while Maria sat composedly by the window, her hands folded neatly over her lap
“I must say, Maria,” Nagi pouted, tapping her tablet screen with a gloved finger.
“This Amagi Brilliant Park place looks incredibly rundown in the older forums. Are you certain they have the ultra-rare, limited-edition, pristine figurine master-grade magical girl autographed platinum variant there? If I find out we deployed our private regional security escort to clear three highways just for a tourist trap, I’m cutting Hayate’s budget!”
“Eh?! Why my budget, Milady?!” Hayate sputtered, his face turning pale as he braced himself against the limousine’s smooth drift.
“But from what I looked up, the park actually underwent a massive structural renovation recently! Since it’s mid-winter, they are hosting their famous Evening Light Shows tonight. The entire fantasy district is supposed to be illuminated by thousands of crystalline lanterns.”
“Lanterns are for normies,” Nagi hiffed, though her eyes subtly sparkled at the digital brochures.
“What else do they have?”
“Well,” Maria cut in, her voice a soothing, perfectly polished melody that instantly commanded the cabin.
She pulled her smartphone subtly from her apron pocket, masking the deep-blue administrative interface behind her fingers.
“The tracking reports- pardon me, the promotional flyers, indicate they have completely transformed their massive Splash Ocean pool area for the season. It has been frozen over into a sprawling, high-density ice-skating arena, fully equipped with musical choreographies.”
“An ice arena? Hmph, I suppose that’s acceptable for a winter attraction,” Nagi mumbled, leaning back against the leather cushions.
She tapped the tablet screen aggressively, navigating to the official event page for the park-wide scavenger game to check the reward prizes.
Her eyes scanned the list, and her jaw dropped in immediate, dramatic outrage.
“Wait! Look at this absolute blasphemy! Hayate, look at the prize distribution!”
Hayate leaned over to look at the screen.
“Let’s see… first prize is a lifetime free pass to Amagi Brilliant Park. Second prize is an exclusive private day in the park with Princess Latifa, the park’s royalty mascot… And third prize is…”
“The ultra-rare, limited-edition, pristine figurine master-grade magical girl autographed platinum variant!” Nagi screamed, her twin blonde pigtails practically violently shaking with pure, unadulterated geek rage.
“Third prize?! They put a literal crown jewel of modern otaku culture below a local season pass and a tea party with some mascot girl?! The absolute disrespect to the narrative medium! This is an insult to collectors worldwide!” Read this novel at novelping(.)com for the best experience.
“M-Milady, please calm down!” Hayate raised his hands frantically, sweating bullets.
“Look at the bright side! Since it’s only the third prize, it might actually be easier for us to win it, right? The competition will probably be aiming for the lifetime pass instead!”
“That’s exactly why it’s a trap!” Nagi slammed her fist onto the leather console, her eyes burning with a manic, unshakeable gamer pride.
“True pros don’t aim for the podium.
We aim for the actual treasure!” After saying her piece, she continued browsing, “But look at what else they have active right now!
An underground maze event that links directly into the scavenger clues!
Dornell’s Cave: Ruby’s Trial by Fire!”
“Ah, the red dragon, Ruby?” Hayate noted, checking the attached map.
“He plays the role of the fierce final boss of the underground labyrinth. Visitors actually have to navigate a subterranean stone maze and physically face him to clear the trial.”
“A real underground labyrinth with a giant, fire-breathing final boss?!” Nagi’s gaming obsession instantly hit maximum velocity, her previous irritation completely evaporating into pure, unbridled excitement.
“Hayate!
Forget the skating rink!
The moment the limousine stops, you are diving straight into Dornell’s Cave!
You will face that red dragon, conquer the Trial by Fire, and secure the exact point score we need to win that third prize.
The ultra-rare, limited-edition, pristine figurine master-grade magical girl autographed platinum variant!
“Eeeegh?! But Milady, an underground cave in this freezing weather?!” Hayate cried out, his legendary bad luck practically screaming a warning inside his head.
“Do not worry, Hayate-kun,” Maria commented smoothly, offering a comforting, pristine smile to ease his immediate panic.
“An establishment of this scale surely has high-capacity heaters installed throughout the indoor venues for the visitors’ ultimate comfort. I am certain the cave environment will be perfectly pleasant.”
As the customized luxury limousine drew nearer to their destination, navigating the final snow-draped avenue leading to the entrance plaza, a sudden, heavy vibration throbbed against Maria’s thigh.
She subtly pulled her smartphone from her apron pocket, shielding the display with her fingers.
A stark, aggressive crimson warning banner was violently plastered across her screen, pulsing with a cold, administrative light.
Her posture instantly went tense, her breath catching in her throat as she clicked the warning text.
The application immediately redirected her interface to the live [ RADAR ] tracking.
Maria’s large, intelligent eyes widened beneath her calm exterior.
Instead of a pinpointed anomaly dot, a massive, glowing white circle of absolute scale was rendering across the display.
The investigation perimeter completely enveloped the entire expanse of Amagi Brilliant Park, bleeding past the front gates to cover the surrounding infrastructure and vacant external areas.
But it was what lay inside that giant boundary that made her blood run freezing cold.
Swarming across the digital map, scattered entirely inside the large encompassing white circle, was a high-density cluster of smaller, intensely bright white blips.
There were dozens of them, some moving about in fluid, erratic patterns near the coordinates of Dornell’s Cave, while others drifted lazily across the amusement rides, the main plazas, and even the surrounding structures outside the park’s immediate vicinity.
The sheer, unprecedented density of the tracking signatures sent a violent shiver down her spine.
Instantly, the parting words of O5-13 The God of Wisdom, echoed through her mind with the absolute weight of a lethal prophecy.
“The unknown is always the most unpredictable.”
A deep, knotting dread took root in Maria’s chest.
This wasn’t just a single displaced magical object or a minor rift in reality.
She was stepping straight into a massive, swarming hotspot of active, unknown anomalies.
And the terrifying truth was, she hadn’t just walked into the crosshairs alone.
She had actively manipulated her precious Mistress Nagi and the unlucky butler into driving right along with her.
“We’re here, Milady!” the security driver’s voice crackled over the intercom as the limousine smoothly glided to a halt right in front of the grand, snow-dusted gates of the park.
Maria slowly slid the vibrating, data-heavy phone back into her pocket, her knuckles whitening as she smoothed down her maid uniform.
She had to maintain her flawless civilian cover, protect her mistress from an unknown threat, and execute her very first tactical investigation as O5-7.
All while walking blindly into a territory swarming with moving anomalies.
***
Author’s Note:
The Ultra-rare, Limited-edition, Pristine Figurine Master-grade Magical Girl Autographed Platinum Variant!…