Nagi now ba her vil, read the test diary entry.

  When she saw the video of a high school student shrinking into a child, a chill ran down her spine.

  "Isumi, under normal circumstances, could a high school student turn into a child?"

  "Hmm… even evil spirits skilled at manipution 't do such a thing easily. At most, they might drain a person's energy or rehem unscious, but shrinking someone's body is unheard of," Isumi replied seriously. "Unless it's some sort of transformation spell. But that's an advaeique, far beyond what ordinary evil spirits are capable of."

  "Then, what about medie? Could ordinary medie do it?"

  "???"

  Isumi tilted her head in fusion at the suddeion.

  "Nagi-, do you mean normal medie? As in, not something supernatural?"

  "Yes. Could it be possible?"

  "Among the medies I know, there are some extremely advanced pounds that might temporarily shrink a person's body. But such drugs are not ercially avaible. They're usually proprietary to certain families anizations."

  Hearing this, Nagi sighed in disbelief.

  "So it's an incredibly low-probability event…"

  A high school detective turned into aary school student by some experimental drug created by an underground anization? Even knowing the truth, it felt too absurd to accept.

  "Maria, brihe photo of the child that the bodyguards took earlier. And also, did they take a photo of Shinichi Kudo today?"

  Maria nodded and quickly brought over the surveilnce photos captured by the bodyguards.

  The photo of Shinichi had been taken during routine surveilnce, and the photo of the child lying in the alley was also ready.

  Nagi took both photos and examihem closely.

  Her eyes widened in realization.

  "It's him! That child is Shinichi Kudo!"

  "!?"

  Her suddeio Isumi and Maria stunned.

  But when they pared the two photos, the truth became clear.

  "It's the clothes!" Isumi excimed.

  "Yes," Maria added, nodding. "The clothes in both photos are identical. The child is wearing the exact same outfit as Shinichi."

  Nagi sighed, her tone filled with disbelief.

  "So the story is that Shinichi Kudo saw something he shouldn't have, got hit on the head with a blunt object, and was forced to drink some experimental poison, which caused his body to shrink?"

  "That seems to be the case," Nagi firmed.

  "Ah…"

  Maria let out a long sigh.

  "A plot like this sounds like something out of a novel or a movie. I 't believe it's actually real."

  Nagi nodded but quickly reminded Maria of the diary's earlier cim.

  "Maria, acc to that man, we're characters in a story. And our story has somehow been ied into reality."

  Maria's head throbbed at the reminder.

  "The more I think about it, the strahis world bees."

  Seeing Maria's pained expression, Nagi couldn't help but chuckle lightly.

  "Maria, when we first learned about the existence of evil spirits, our world was already weird."

  "…That's true."

  Maria sighed again, resigning herself to the increasingly bizarre nature of their reality.

  ---

  "Are there any other updates in the diary?" Isumi asked.

  "Yes," Nagi replied. "It's about why he exposed his name."

  This immediately caught both Maria and Isumi's i.

  "What did he say?"

  "He cimed there was no reason for it. He just did it on a whim."

  "…"

  Maria and Isumi exged incredulous looks before speaking in unison:

  "Impossible!"

  ---

  At the same time, in the Shinomiya family vil, Hayasaka reacted the same way.

  "Absolutely impossible!" she excimed.

  "A perso act without a reason. He must have had some motive for exposing himself."

  "I agree," Kaguya said, her expression thoughtful.

  "At first, I thought he was fishing—baiting us to act. But now, it seems more like he was dug a test."

  "A test?" Hayasaka asked, puzzled.

  "Yes. Not a test for us, but a test of the diary itself," Kaguya expined.

  Hayasaka's eyes widened as realization dawned.

  "The lottery?"

  "Exactly," Kaguya firmed.

  She was almost certain that the man had exposed himself to test whether the diary's lottery was influenced by the tent he wrote.

  Thinking about it, Kaguya couldn't help but feel a twinge ret.

  "If he succeeded in his test, he must have obtained power equal to or eveer than mine."

  She sighed deeply.

  "If I had acted against him yesterday, I might have succeeded."

  But her cautious nature, ingrained by her family's strict upbringing, had made her hesitate.

  Her suspi and overthinking had caused her to miss out on what might have been her greatest opportunity.

  "Miss Kaguya, I think it's better to avoid being too entangled with that man," Hayasaka advised.

  "He's the diary's true owner. If the diary has any sort of proteeism for its host, trying to take advantage of him could backfire."

  Kaguya fell silent, pting Hayasaka's words.

  "…You're right," she admitted after a moment.

  Whether or not such a meism existed was something only the diary's owner would know.

  As a mere reader, Kaguya could only gain what the diary allowed her t to seize more might result in losing everything.

  This was a lesson she had learned well from her family's teags.

  "But…" Kaguya murmured, her eyes gleaming with determination.

  "At least this diary gives me the ce to gain more power."

  Turning to Hayasaka, she issued a and.

  "Hayasaka, practice with me tomorrow."

  "Uood," Hayasaka replied, bowing slightly.