Illusion Report

To make matters worse, in the stall behind Mai Mingle, from behind the half-open door, another back of a head was "watching" her.

One in front and one behind, the two figures seen from behind were like mirror images, sandwiching Mai Mingle between them.

"It’s a bit of a stretch... but based on the ad copy, I wondered, what if the reflection that was erased from the picture was different from reality? One is a toast, the other is drinking alone.

"Why erase the reflection? Because if it were kept, you could just look at it to know which was the toast and which was the solo drink. Now, through some technique, most of the reflection has been erased, leaving only one difference—the third hand holding the glass.

"That way, anyone looking at the picture wouldn’t know whether the model in the actual photoshoot was toasting someone or drinking alone."

In other words, you couldn’t tell the reflection from reality. Once she reached that step, the rest was easy to deduce.

After all, the ad copy was "Gather in this moment, share the mellow spirit." Comparatively speaking, a scene of two people toasting would certainly embody concepts like "gather" and "share" better than drinking alone.

’Thinking about it that way, the actual photoshoot must have been the "toast," to match the copy.’

It was with this exact thought in mind that Mai Mingle had come out of the left stall.

’If I were my older self now, even with a clear mind,’ Mai Mingle thought, ’I would never have been able to think so far outside the box.’

That kind of outside-the-box thinking was for the young. The elderly had trouble accepting new things precisely because it was so hard for them to break from their fixed cognitions; they lacked mental flexibility.

’Having a young brain seems to have naturally given me a young way of thinking—what was that called again?’

She seemed to recall hearing about it before... ’Embodied cognition?’

"So... that’s why I chose the ’real’ side between the two and came out this way. That has to be it, right?"

The woman touching up her makeup stood motionless with her back to her and said, "It’s not."

Mai Mingle froze. "What?"

"The ad mentioned ’multiple reflections,’" the woman said, her voice thin. "But if there is only one reflection and one real scene, it can’t be called ’multiple reflections.’"

Mai Mingle listened, stunned. ’She did have a point.’

"In reality, both of them are reflections. Before you make a choice, there is no such thing as ’the real one.’"

The back of the woman’s head said, "Whichever one you choose is the one that becomes real. If you had chosen to come out of the right stall, then the model drinking alone would have been the actual scene from the photoshoot."

"Miss—I can call you that, can’t I? Miss, are you saying it didn’t matter which side I came out of? Was all that thinking for nothing?"

"Whether it was for nothing depends on how you look at it. I was rather hoping you would come out of the right stall. Of course, the ideal situation would have been for you to crawl out from under the door, but that’s such an obvious dead end. Even the most novice Hunter would have a hard time falling for that, alas."

The back of the head let out a few laughs that sounded more like it was speaking—three syllables, "Ha. Ha. Ha." The delivery was slow, the pronunciation clear, and the tone perfectly flat. It wasn’t a laugh, just someone saying the words "ha ha ha."

"Although both are reflections, the one you chose to make real is also the one that corresponds to the hint in the rules."

Mai Mingle didn’t quite understand. "You mean... the reflection that *doesn’t* correspond to the hint in the rules could also have become real?"

"Yes," the back of the head said. "This restaurant can operate according to the rules, or it can operate without them. If you had chosen to make the ’non-compliant’ possibility real, this restaurant would have become dominated by chaos, disorder, and randomness.

"However, since you have now made the ’rule-compliant’ possibility real, it means the rules, logic, and hints have all come online."

’Online’? What was that supposed to mean? What line?

’Is that another one of those slang terms young people use? Judging from the context, it probably means they’ve taken effect?’

The back of the head smiled at Mai Mingle.

A back of a head with no mouth and no features, just a curtain of hair, shouldn’t be able to "smile." But... it felt as if the scalp stretched like the skin on a face, pulling the hair into a curving ripple. Incredibly, Mai Mingle saw a smile form in the hair.

"Do you want to leave this restaurant?" the woman said. "Then please, find my face."