Illusion Report

The night seeped into the air. When the wind stirred, the chill sent out black ripples.

’Two people?’

’Besides him and me, is there someone else here?’

Mai Mingle slowly turned her head and glanced stiffly to her side. There was no one there.

In the darkness, the silhouette of the Nest looked like Blackmoor City, twisted and deformed after some disaster. The plaza below the steps was wide, dim, and equally deserted.

’...Then that means they’re behind me?’

She turned around inch by inch, as if slowly unfurling a painting. Out of the corner of her eye, a shoulder came into view, then an ear, then hair...

Mai Mingle finally got a clear look. A few steps behind her, someone had appeared without her knowing.

It was a young girl with short, messy curly hair. Her face was pale, and her eyeliner was slightly smudged, though it was hard to tell if it was from sweat or tears.

She stared at Mai Mingle, one hand clamped tightly over her mouth as if to keep from screaming. A star was tattooed on her wrist. The only reason Mai Mingle could see it so clearly was that the girl was inching backward, and had just moved into the light at the edge of the steps.

’Why are you hiding from me? Who’s supposed to be hiding from whom here?’

By the time she processed this, Mai Mingle was simply stunned.

"You... When did you..."

Before she could finish, the sound of hurried footsteps from the other side made Mai Mingle whip her head back around. The young man, sensing something was wrong, had bounded up a few steps. He stared at them from a distance and asked in a low voice, "You two... don’t know each other?"

"N-No, we don’t..."

The young girl slowly stood up, her eyes still fixed on Mai Mingle. "I didn’t see her at all on the way here," she said. "When you said there were two people, it startled me. I looked up, and suddenly she was there."

"Wait a minute," Mai Mingle said, pushing through her exhaustion to struggle to her feet. "I don’t understand what’s happening. When did you get behind me?"

She looked at the girl, and the first conclusion that popped into her head came tumbling out. "Are you a resident?"

Before the girl could answer, Mai Mingle turned to the young man. "Can residents disguise themselves as humans? The fact that you’re a guide means you’re an experienced Hunter. You should know, right?"

The young man paused for a couple of seconds, then let out a heavy sigh. He slumped down onto the steps and buried his head in his hands.

"How did it come to this..."

He groaned, "I just want to finish this guide job and go home! I don’t have much time left in the Nest. Why does even this have to be so complicated...?"

Mai Mingle saw that the curly-haired girl looked just as dumbfounded as she was. ’If she’s a resident,’ she thought, ’isn’t her emotional reaction a little too normal? Too... alive?’

"I don’t know if you’re human or a resident,"

The young man lifted his head, his expression dejected. He stared into the middle distance and said, "But I’ll explain anyway. You can both listen. My punishment is to serve as a guide for a full twelve hours. So, regardless of which of you is my actual client, the sooner I start, the sooner this punishment is over."

"She’s the resident," the girl immediately cut in. "I know I’m human. *She’s* the resident!"

The young man scrubbed a hand over his face, clearly reluctant to play the judge.

He glanced at his watch before speaking. "All residents, Illusions, Rule Zones, and the various traps you find all over the Nest... let’s just say that everything you see in the Nest comes from a single source: humans."

Mai Mingle remained on guard, waiting for him to continue.

"When a person dies and dissolves in the Nest, their body, hobbies, thoughts, personality, experiences, even their genetic makeup, give birth to a large amount of... ’Nest matter.’ Residents are part of that. It’s not unheard of for one person to produce two or three residents. It varies. I’ve heard of cases where the ’Nest matter’ from one person spawned more than ten residents."

’This young man really is a good guide,’ she thought. ’Even when facing one human and one resident, he can still explain things so methodically.’

"So you’re asking the wrong question. It’s not ’Can residents disguise themselves as humans?’ but rather, some residents are human to begin with—or at least, they look human. There are a good number of residents in the Nest that are physically identical to people. They’re a real problem because they’re easily mistaken for Hunters."

He gave a wry smile. "To make things even more of a Rashomon situation, you can’t be sure I’m not a resident either, right? That’s why running into this type of resident is such a pain."

"Then... then what do we do?" Mai Mingle asked, shooting the other girl a sideways glance. "You’re a Hunter. You must have a way to tell which of us is the resident, right?"

"Why are you looking at me? It’s you," the girl said, her brow furrowing. "How long are you going to keep up this act, you resident?"

"...A resident is still a resident. There are bound to be differences in their behavior compared to humans, and many have special abilities. If you look closely, you’ll find plenty of telltale signs. For example, like you just said—you didn’t see it on the path, but you turn your head, and suddenly it’s right there beside you."

The young man pulled his jacket tighter. "But this resident is determined to blend in and act human, so it’ll be careful to hide those giveaways. In a situation like this, it’s hard to say how much good the few identification methods I know will do."

’I see... Then I can keep hiding for a while longer.’ 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"What’s its goal? Why would a resident infiltrate our group?" the girl asked, her eyes fixed on Mai Mingle.

’That girl is so rude.’

"There are many possibilities, but they all boil down to the same fundamental principle."

The young man clicked his tongue. He reached for his pocket, then stopped, his face falling in frustration.

"Forgot... I’m quitting. Anyway, to a resident, a human is an incredibly valuable resource. A person killed and promptly consumed by a resident can provide all sorts of benefits..."

"Okay, I’ll list the most common ones. Keep in mind, a single resident can’t claim all of these benefits, but they are frequently seen."

"First, human bodies can be used as nutrients for reproduction. By themselves, residents are actually sterile. This means that once a resident is created, it’s one of a kind. If it wants more of its own kind, if it wants to build a clan, it has to use a human body. It has to find aspects within that person’s body and mind that are similar to its own essence and use them to procreate."

’In other words, if an old woman died in the Nest and spawned a resident that desperately longed for youth, it would search for that same desire to stay young forever in other people...’

Mai Mingle understood this by applying it to her own situation, but of course, she didn’t say anything out loud.

"Second, as far as we know, residents can only be severely injured, not killed—at least, I’ve never heard of anyone managing it. But that doesn’t mean they’re immortal. Residents themselves have limited lifespans."

The young man’s gaze flickered between the two of them before he backed up another two steps, as if he wished he could just retreat into the library to finish his speech.

"Killing a person allows it to absorb a bit of their lifespan. The exact amount of time gained is random. But from a resident’s perspective, even one extra day is better than nothing, right?"

"Don’t back away," the girl called out, a note of anxiety in her voice. "I don’t know much about the Nest; that’s why I need a guide. What if you leave me alone with it and it gets me?"

The young man’s expression froze for a few seconds before he heaved another sigh.

"Right... you can’t die. I mean, the person who hired me as a guide can’t die. If she dies, I can’t complete my twelve hours, and who knows what’ll happen to me then."

"What other benefits do residents get from killing humans?" Mai Mingle asked.

The young man glanced at her. "Quite a few. But one of their most sought-after goals is to gain special abilities by killing humans."

"What kind of special abilities?"

"All sorts," the young man said, crossing his arms. "There’s a type of resident called a Vulture. It can take on a person’s appearance after they die—that’s its special ability. I’ve also heard of one that can make people forget the last ten seconds... apparently it nearly wiped out an entire Hunter team from a Family Faction."

"Whatever the case, we just need to figure out which one is the resident, right?"

The girl said quickly, "You have to figure it out eventually. You can’t be comfortable spending twelve hours with a resident, right? So how about this: whatever test you use, don’t announce it. Just do it. Catch us off guard. When you identify the resident, I’ll help you take it down. You agree with that, don’t you... resident?"

"I suppose that’s the only way... but it’s easier said than done."

The young man took a deep breath and stood up. "It gets even harder if the resident doesn’t know it has become one."

Mai Mingle froze. "...It doesn’t know it’s a resident? That’s possible?"

"Of course," the young man said with a wry smile. "Generally, if an experienced Hunter who knows the Nest inside and out dies here, the resulting resident has a strong sense of self. It knows it’s not human. But what if the person who died was just some poor soul who wandered in by accident, someone who knew nothing about the Nest?"

"That person might not even have known what a ’resident’ was. So naturally, there’s a chance the resident spawned from them wouldn’t know either. It might even see itself as human, rationalizing its own ’birth’ by concocting a plausible story in its head—like being rescued from the brink of death or something."

Mai Mingle stood motionless in the dark, but it felt as if a light were slowly dawning in her mind.

"I’ve heard that a resident that truly believes it’s human is completely indistinguishable from one in appearance and behavior. It can even go back to Blackmoor City. But that state can’t last forever. Its true, resident instincts will always bubble to the surface eventually."

’...So that’s what this is.’

Mai Mingle thought she understood.

So that’s what this was so that’s what this was so that’s what this was so that’s what this was so that’s what this was