Tokyo: Rabbit Officer and Her Evil Partner-Chapter 330 - 251: Death of the Dog-headed Man

The moment these words were spoken, the cat-woman also realized.

The rules never said you couldn’t pair with the dead.

She slapped the table and cried out loudly, urging the dog-headed man to hurry up and insert the card. The latter lowered his head, retrieved the card from his pocket, and leisurely found the "Cat" card, inserting it into the slot with just two seconds to spare.

The cat-woman’s heart relaxed, but then she reacted and turned to question Minamoto Tamako, "Why didn’t you pair with the dead?!"

Minamoto Tamako was momentarily at a loss for words. She hadn’t had time to consider too much; it was almost an instinctive reaction to subconsciously choose Mr. Fushimi... No matter what happened, she didn’t want to see Mr. Fushimi die in front of her.

Before she could explain, the broadcast sounded again, announcing the pairing results:

"Countdown finished."

"Pairing successful: Rabbit and Dog."

"Eliminated: Cat."

"Execution countdown: Thirty seconds."

"Please let the eliminated participant designate another participant for ’Elimination’; if not designated, then ’Elimination’ will not proceed."

...

The room fell into a deathly silence.

Minamoto Tamako murmured softly, "How could this happen... If you can’t pair repeatedly, what’s the point of issuing cards?"

"Maybe the designers assumed the eliminated participant wouldn’t pair," the dog-headed man said nonchalantly.

The cat-woman’s headgear sounded with a beep, prompting her to come to her senses, clutching the helmet tightly as she staggered back, terrified, before collapsing to the ground: "No... don’t... I don’t want to die..."

Seeing this scene, Minamoto Tamako didn’t dare to utter a word of comfort; overwhelming fear and guilt almost crushed her—there was a brief moment when she even forgot how to breathe, her heart wrenching with pain.

If the cat-woman chose her for elimination, she would almost feel relieved.

...

"Didn’t you say you could pair with the dead?! You lied to me! You’re all liars!"

"I—I don’t want to die... Is there any way out..."

"Speak up! Say something! You were so good at talking just now!"

"Where’s the secret door? I want to get out—"

...

The ticking sound grew more urgent as the cat-woman, after experiencing terror, luck, and pleading, fell into deep despair.

She sat like a lifeless doll in the corner, silent for a few seconds.

With the final ten seconds of execution countdown, she spoke with all her strength, nearly cursing: "I want you to watch him die..."

"What?" Minamoto Tamako was stunned, feeling an ominous premonition.

"You quite like this guy, don’t you? You’re a couple, aren’t you? I can tell..."

The cat-woman gritted her teeth, blood pouring as she spoke word by word: "I choose the dog-headed man for elimination!"

...

Minamoto Tamako opened her mouth, the word ’no’ stuck in her throat; she hadn’t even had time to make a sound before the ticking sound merged into one, and with a ’buzz,’ the cat-woman’s head suddenly exploded, a column of blood shooting straight toward the ceiling, painting an inverted triangle in the corner.

The dog-headed man reacted quickly, jumping from his chair in an attempt to dodge the steel pillar, only to find that ticking sounds echoed inside his helmet.

He turned his head, meeting Minamoto Tamako’s gaze, seemingly wanting to say something, but ultimately unable to speak.

—Bang!

The sound of flesh bursting echoed, with fragments of the skull and helmet scattering together.

The headless corpse swayed in place before collapsing to the ground with a thud.

A buzzing filled Minamoto Tamako’s ears, her mind blank as she stood motionless, the cards slipping from her hands one by one.

Fushimi Roku...

Did he die?

Right in front of her...

Just like Kawai did...

Perhaps this is the Heavenly Punishment targeted at her...

But what exactly did she do wrong?

Why did those she loved have to leave her?

...

Before she could come to her senses, the broadcast sounded again:

"The second round of pairing has ended, participants please retrieve pairing cards."

"The third round of pairing is about to begin, countdown five minutes..."

"Timing, start."

The wooden drawer made a crisp sound, ejecting the cards that had just been inserted.

"How... is it like this..."

Minamoto Tamako collapsed onto the chair, wrapping her arms around her knees, curling up: "It’s too cruel..."

Now, she’s the only participant left.

If she can’t pair with the deceased, when five minutes pass, she too will face a headshot death.

This trial is like dominoes; once the first person initiates ’Elimination,’ unnecessary hatred is sown in everyone’s hearts—they’re just like blocks in elimination, one swipe and they all perish.

No one survives.

...

...

Time reverts to ten minutes ago.

On the ceiling, the hidden camera within the chandelier silently rotated, capturing images and transmitting them through circuits to appear on the black-and-white television.

In front of the TV sat dozens of spectators, dressed in suits, wearing full-face masks, softly discussing with their companions:

"It’s said she’s the Kujo Family’s daughter..."

"Big news, but I’m more interested in Kujo Yua..."

"The Sect Hierarch might really bring her here..."

The croupier stood beside the TV, carrying a wooden tray, collecting chips.

After the betting was over, the croupier pressed the remote, the broadcast announced this trial’s content as "Pair Pair Look".

Two TVs were placed on the table, prompting the audience to discuss again:

"Ah, I know that, it’s really interesting..."

"Eh? Have you seen it before? What kind of gameplay is this..."

"Spoiling it ruins the fun..."

"It’s okay," said the woman wearing a young woman mask softly, "I’m really curious, don’t keep us in suspense."

The man wearing a Yaksha mask gazed over; beside him, the woman was curvaceous, with a long neck, nine-head proportions, just by her figure she seemed a beauty. His heart fluttered, his male pride stirred: "Hmm... Should I say it..."

"Come on, tell us," the young woman implored.

"I can’t refuse you," the Yaksha replied with a hint of flaunting in his tone: "To the participants, this trial only has five people, but actually..."

He indicated the TVs with a motion of his mouth: "It’s ten people, just divided into two rooms."

The screens on the two TVs each monitored the scenes of two rooms.

The participants were cats, dogs, pigs, cows, rabbits, paired up in twos; although wearing headgear, their attire and figures had subtle differences—Minamoto Tamako was in the left room, while Fushimi Roku was in the right room.

"Generally speaking, the subjects of ’Pair Pair Look’ are a couple."

The Yaksha continued: "Two believers play them, mimicking participants in the other room using earphones... they’re either terminally ill or have undergone ’professional training,’ never easily exposing flaws."

"By confusing identities with headgear, then categorizing using cards labeled ’Cat,’ ’Dog,’ ’Pig,’ ’Cow,’ ’Rabbit,’ misleading participants... If there were only five people, they wouldn’t need ’Cat, Dog, Pig, Cow, Rabbit’ codes, just use their names, right?"

"The reason for distributing cards, requiring participants to pair via cards, is actually to conceal a fact..."

"Participants in two rooms can also pair with each other."

"However, to balance difficulty, the trial gives a hint at the start: each participant receives five cards, indicating that participants can pair with their kind."

"Such as Rabbit with Rabbit, Cat with Cat, Dog with Dog... kind negation, that’s the correct play for Pair Pair Look!"

"If lucky, this trial could have all survive; if unlucky, none survive... just depends on when participants discover another room, and the other five participants."

The Yaksha reached this, as the trial on the TV was nearing its end.

"Looks like the Kujo Family’s daughter can’t hold on anymore, maybe she’s already given up." He sighed, expressing his misfortune, betting on the wrong person.

Finished speaking, he turned to look at another TV screen and suddenly froze: "What’s that guy doing?"

The black-and-white screen was filled by a massive dog head.

Bloodstained hair dyed the camera lens red, the headgear constantly twisting like adjusting posture, the man inserted the camera into the headgear’s eye holes.

With dim light, the crowd glimpsed a pair of cruel, bright pupils inspecting them.

"Finally... found it..."

A raspy voice sounded, seemingly the speaker’s throat was strangled, forcing out words with effort.

Following shortly, was a series of metallic scraping sounds.

The croupier realized something, his face changed slightly, he quickly picked up the walkie-talkie, speaking urgently, "Send someone to room 9, the participant is using the camera lens reflection to pry open the lock on the helmet!"

As soon as the words fell, only a ’click’ echoed.

Under the watch of the crowd, Fushimi Roku’s face hidden in darkness suddenly disappeared. The camera pointed at the helmet’s end, only able to capture the blood-dripping ceiling.

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