I can rewind time to prevent death

The SUV sped through the streets as dusk descended and city lights flickered on; Daisuke Kitahara paid no heed to the speed limits.

Seeing Yan Junze's anxious expression, even though he had no idea what was going on, Daisuke realized the situation might be very serious.

The SUV rushed forward in silence, as Yan Junze kept focusing on the Spacetime Atlas in his mind.

"Nothing, still nothing."

Since the mission began, the Atlas had yet to display any text prompts.

In the past, as soon as a mission was completed, the completion prompt would typically appear very quickly. Even if there was a slight delay, it wouldn't take this long.

This abnormality made Yan Junze suspicious and led him to consider a possibility.

Perhaps, this mission wasn't truly completed yet.

The hints provided for this mission were relatively vague, only stating that the strangeness named Junichi Eki was filled with resentment, and they needed to locate his corpse to resolve his Obsession.

The body had been found, and according to what Ito Yuko said, the two of them indeed knew each other and were once close to the point of planning marriage. However, Yuko was unaware that her father had killed Junichi Eki.

Originally, it seemed that once Junichi Eki and Ito Yuko were reunited, the strangeness's Obsession would be resolved, completing the mission.

Yet, the prompt still hadn't appeared, causing the previously unworried Yan Junze to grow increasingly uneasy.

He already had a suspicion in his mind, but it was so outlandish that he couldn't be sure if it might actually be true.

The SUV quickly stopped at the narrow path leading to the Ito family's estate. The two of them jumped out of the car, one ahead of the other, making their way to the front gate.

Daisuke Kitahara, being agile, followed Yan Junze's instructions and didn't knock on the door. Instead, he climbed over the wall beside the gate.

Once he landed inside the courtyard, he turned back to unlock the gate from within.

Yan Junze followed him through the corridors, heading toward the tearoom where Kurosawa Tsuyoshi was located.

On their way, the two noticed that the courtyard seemed perfectly normal. The corridors were brightly lit, with lights spaced evenly under the eaves.

When they reached the tearoom, both of them suddenly froze, exchanging glances before turning their attention toward the tearoom.

The lights outside the tearoom were all on, but the tearoom itself was shrouded in complete darkness.

"Sensei!" Daisuke Kitahara was the first to react after a moment of shock. His face turned pale with terror as he shouted, rushing into the tearoom.

Though Yan Junze was equally taken aback, he didn't step in right away. Instead, he turned his head to look toward the storage room at the end of the narrow hall.

The storage room light had already been switched on earlier. At that time, the lights had gone out because a fuse outside had blown, not because the bulbs were broken.

The storage room, now lit, was eerily silent, and there was no way to tell if Yuko was still inside.

The lights in the tearoom were soon turned on by Daisuke Kitahara, who stepped inside, only for a bloodcurdling scream to immediately fill the air.

Without even needing to look, Yan Junze knew that Kurosawa Tsuyoshi must have met a horrific end.

The True Word Barrier conjured by Sylvanus, combined with the power of the Book of Change, was nothing a Reaper could withstand.

If Kurosawa Tsuyoshi had been enveloped completely by darkness, anything could have happened to him in an instant. Once entirely immersed, there was practically no escape.

But why had only the tearoom's light gone out while the rest of the house remained illuminated?

Hearing Daisuke Kitahara's screams, Yan Junze quickly followed him inside. The moment he stepped into the tearoom, the stench of blood overwhelmed him. Kurosawa Tsuyoshi's body had been brutally dismembered. His head was beneath the tea table, while his arms, legs, and torso were scattered across the room—on the floor, by the doorway, and even the windowsill.

A cursory glance suggested that Kurosawa Tsuyoshi had been forcibly torn apart by something. The disarray in the room indicated a fierce struggle initially, but once the room was fully engulfed in darkness, escape within such a short time frame became impossible, leaving his body to be completely destroyed by whatever lurked in the shadows.

Daisuke Kitahara had already collapsed to his knees in the pool of blood, cradling his mentor's severed head, tears streaming down his face.

"Where's Ito Yuko?"

Faced with such a gruesome sight, Yan Junze was at a loss for words to console Daisuke Kitahara. Instead, he turned and walked out of the tearoom.

He quickly made his way down the narrow path outside, heading toward the illuminated storage room.

Standing at the storage room's entrance, he peeked inside. Apart from the frozen corpse they had retrieved from the freezer—still stiff like a block of ice—there was no sign of Ito Yuko.

It was unclear where the woman had gone, leaving her beloved Junichi Eki inside the storage room alone.

Inspecting carefully, Yan Junze noticed that nothing in the room appeared to have been disturbed since they left.

At that moment, there was movement behind him. Turning his head, he saw Ito Yuko standing at the doorway. Her face was slightly pale, and only the left side of her body was visible—the right side remained hidden in the darkness outside the door.

"Mr. Yan, you… why are you… back…" Yuko seemed surprised.

Although he didn't understand Japanese, Yan Junze could guess what she was saying. He turned to face her, staring into her eyes, and took two steps forward. Stopping when he was two meters away, he spoke.

"After leaving, I noticed something seemed off about you, so I came back to take a look."

Yuko shifted back slightly without replying.

"You understand Huaying." Yan Junze continued.