Illusion Report

He thought he would die the moment he opened the door.

He thought that the moment he saw Damian, he would roar, go mad, and land a vicious punch. Chaisi imagined he would be consumed by a searing, white-hot hatred—burned to ash, reduced to a heap of whimpering ruins right where he stood.

Of course, nothing happened.

When he stepped into the hallway, Damian was standing a few paces away. He was wearing a set of dark blue pajamas, and with a shaky breath, he smiled at Chaisi and said, "This is great, Brother Chaisi. Good thing you’re still awake."

Even if he could never truly call Damian his little brother, Damian was still his brother.

Chaisi almost wanted to turn and run.

But in the end, he just forced the words out of his throat. "What... What happened?"

In the dim, unlit corridor, only a few windows with wooden lattice carvings let in the hazy moonlight from outside.

Damian’s room was at the end of the hallway, the very last one. The light spilling from the half-open door cast him in a dim silhouette.

His blond hair, glistening in the hazy moonlight; the white of his teeth when he smiled; the faint sheen of sweat on his forehead... To this day, Chaisi was never sure if that scene was just his imagination.

"Hurry," Damian beckoned to him. "Come into my room, we’ll talk there."

’...Maybe I’m still asleep in bed. Maybe this is a new nightmare.’

’Maybe this nightmare can lead me into the Nest.’

Chaisi followed Damian forward with sleepwalker-like steps. After a few paces, he realized something was wrong.

"Why are you walking backward?" Chaisi asked.

Damian was still facing him, taking one backward step after another. He chuckled softly. "You’ll see when we get there."

’...Wait, that’s not right.’

It was only now that Chaisi’s mind seemed to wake up and start working.

’After Damian opened the Path, he should have fallen into the Nest... Could it be that he came right back out after going in?’

’In other words, not only does Damian have a Path, but his Path—no, his talent—is that superior?’

’He can go whenever he wants and come back whenever he wants?’

’...Completely unscathed?’

Chaisi had never felt so hideous as he did in that moment. If you were to cut him open then, only poison would have flowed out.

’Tomorrow morning, when Uncle Kai finds out his son opened such a safe and simple Path, what kind of look will he give me?’

Chaisi didn’t dare to imagine Uncle Kai’s face. He forced himself to change the subject, asking, "You’re already back from the Nest? What is your Path?"

Damian’s answer startled him.

"No, I haven’t gone in yet."

’What? How is that possible?’

"Then how do you know you’ve opened a Path?"

Damian had already backed up to the half-open doorway of his room.

All the lights in the Kai Family house were dimmable; the light in Damian’s room was only at half its usual brightness. So it wasn’t until Damian backed into the light that Chaisi finally saw the wispy, ethereal shadows trailing behind him—an interweaving of dark blue and deep black.

"Wait, what’s that behind you?"

Damian pushed the door open with his elbow and stepped backward into the room, stopping on the carpet.

"Look,"

He was both excited and nervous, his smile wide and bright. He gestured behind him. "My Path!"

For a good while, Chaisi couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing.

He had seen a Kai Family Hunter enter the Nest before. Every single one of them would perform some action, fulfill some condition, and then suddenly disappear. Supposedly, all Hunters and all Paths were like that.

If a Path was a Hunter’s talent, then without a doubt, Damian was the most gifted Hunter in history.

Bar none.

Throughout all of history, no other Hunter in the world was on the same level as him.

Chaisi stared at the piece of dark blue pajama fabric, his throat dry and scratchy, unable to speak a word.

"What... is that?"

Damian’s room was large. In the center stood a scaled-down, wooden medieval fortress, big enough for a child to crawl into and run around in, playing at sieges. Damian loved it and always asked Chaisi to play with him. In the past, Chaisi, playing the attacker, had taken his fair share of foam bullets.

At some point, a wooden splinter had jutted out from the fortress wall.

It had snagged a torn piece of pajama fabric. Damian must have caught the back of his pajamas on the splinter while going in or out of the fortress. Not noticing, he must have tugged hard as he moved forward, tearing the cloth. That piece of fabric was still hanging on the splinter.

But the piece of fabric wasn’t hanging down.

It floated in midair, like a flag fluttering without any wind.

The dark blue fabric seemed to be slowly bleeding its color into the air, creating a large patch of impenetrable blackness. It was as if someone had cut a piece out of reality, revealing a black hole—just like—just like the human-shaped black hole Han Liuyue had left behind.

But unlike the human-shaped black hole, this large patch of blackness also seemed to be floating, slowly seeping into its surroundings... No, that wasn’t right.

It wasn’t seeping into its surroundings.

It was extending wispy, tenuous trails of dim, dark shadow toward Damian’s back.

At a glance, a hazy corridor of shadow had formed between Damian and the torn piece of cloth.

"See? My Path is a real ’path.’ An actual road!"

Damian couldn’t hide his pride and excitement, his forehead glistening with specks of light.

"When I walk forward, it gets longer. When I back up, it gets shorter. That’s why I don’t dare turn around. If I turn to face it and walk in, I’ll enter the Nest. And I can’t walk around it, or I’d leave it behind outside."

"You... How do you know?" Chaisi finally found his voice. "Have you been in the Nest? Is this really a Path?"

He thought Damian would say he hadn’t been in yet, that it was just a guess.

"Yeah," Damian said casually. "I’ve been in."

Chaisi stood there, imprisoned in his own body, unable to respond.

"But I didn’t go all the way in." Damian, completely oblivious to Chaisi’s state, said, "I only went in about halfway, took a look around, and came back out."

’...A Path that was not only simple and convenient, but could also maintain its form as a "passageway," allowing for free entry and exit.’

Damian had already seen the Nest.

"The Nest... what’s the Nest like?" Chaisi asked in a murmur.

At that time, he didn’t know for sure that he would never see what the Nest looked like in his entire life, but he already had a faint inkling.

Damian shrugged.

"It looks a lot like Blackmoor City! At first glance, there’s no difference from here, nothing special. The streets were empty, and I didn’t see any residents, so I just popped my head back out. But it was nighttime over there, too, so I couldn’t see very clearly. I’ll go in for another look tomorrow morning."

"Are you going to keep the Path open until morning?" Chaisi asked.

"I don’t know if I can sleep like this," Damian said, his attitude more like someone who had discovered a new toy. "I can’t lie on my back, right? I have to keep my back to the piece of cloth to maintain it?"

Chaisi had no idea how to answer that question.

"How do you close it? By taking the cloth off? Pressing it back onto your pajamas?" he asked. "How about I take the fabric down for now, and you can try again tomorrow morning with a different shirt?"

After Chaisi finished speaking, he realized Damian hadn’t been paying attention to him at all.

His brother was tilting his head, lost in thought. Chaisi had to call his name before Damian turned to him.

He looked at Chaisi, a strange light shining in his eyes.

It was the kind of light a child focuses with a magnifying glass, right before burning an ant.

"...Brother Chaisi, why don’t you try going in?"

Chaisi stood frozen before him, not understanding at first. "What?"

"It’s a ’path,’ right? Maybe other people can walk on it, not just me."

At that time, neither Damian nor Chaisi knew in what way his words would be proven true.

"Haven’t you always wanted a Path, always wanted to enter the Nest? I think you might not even have a Path at all. If you want to get into the Nest so badly, you can borrow mine. It’s a lot more promising than you testing for your own Path."

Damian spoke without reservation, but...’He’s still saying this because... because he’s looking out for me, right?’

Chaisi swallowed a heavy, hard, and complex emotion. In a trembling voice, he said, "You think... that would work? A Hunter’s Path... usually only the Hunter themself can use it."

"That’s for ordinary Hunters." Damian couldn’t contain his pride, saying with a laugh, "Is there any other Hunter in the world who has a Path like mine?"

Such a sweet and hopeful nightmare.

In a daze, Chaisi walked between Damian and the piece of cloth. Tentatively, he took a step into the "Illusion Corridor."

He didn’t feel anything strange.

His entire body entered. He followed the "corridor," step by step, toward the large, floating mass of deep blackness.

The thirteen-year-old Chaisi and the thirty-year-old Chaisi, separated by seventeen years, stood together before the thick darkness. Together, they slowly leaned forward, thrusting their heads, their gazes, their shoulders, their bodies... into the endless, incomprehensible Black Abyss.

Damian let out a soft laugh. "You actually dared to go in."

No matter how he looked, all Chaisi could see was darkness.

"Did you see the Nest?" Damian asked.

A sudden panic seized him. He quickly retreated, stumbling back a few steps, and said, panting, "N-no—Did you go in? How far did you go? I only saw blackness. I couldn’t see anything but black."

"You went in deeper than I did," Damian said. "I saw the Nest the moment I poked my head in. But you only saw darkness?"

Chaisi gave a stiff nod.

"Looks like it’s not your Path, so of course you can’t use it."

Damian immediately dropped the subject as if brushing away a speck of dust. "Hey, you think if I open a Path somewhere else, it’ll lead to a different spot in the Nest? Then I wouldn’t even have to go in! As long as I find the right place, I could just reach in and grab an Illusion, couldn’t I?"

He giggled and said, "Grabbing an Illusion would be too easy. What’s that phrase... Oh, like taking candy from a baby!"

Chaisi felt himself nodding, but his mind seemed to have drifted far away. He was just watching himself from a distance as he discussed Damian’s Path.

’So there really is a God in this world,’ he thought.

’And that God went to great trouble to design a hell, and gave it the name ’the Human World’.’

If that weren’t the case, Chaisi couldn’t explain what happened next.

He stared at the large, floating mass of darkness and gently grabbed Damian’s arm.

"Don’t move."

Chaisi said, his voice dry and hoarse, "...I’m here, so don’t be afraid. No matter what happens, I’ll take care of it for you."

Damian was startled. "What’s wrong?"

"In that mass of darkness... I think there’s someone there."