Izumi realized that the insects that had crawled away when the glass jar shattered could all have found someone to host them, meaning there were likely many people in his situation and Dekim's. But had the insects succeeded in taking over the brains of those individuals?
He continued walking as his right hand wanted, each step hesitant and heavy.
"Turn left! Izumi, quickly!" the Dobby-like eye in his right hand urged.
Izumi complied with the right hand's request, quickening his pace as he approached the spot where the person was supposed to be. But when he arrived—an empty alley! No one was there!!!
"It seems he felt me too," the right hand said.
At that moment, Izumi stopped walking and took a step back.
"What's wrong? Move forward," the right hand stretched to bring the Dobby-like eye to Izumi's eye level, saying.
"You said he's one of your kind... Could it be someone whose brain has been taken over?" Izumi asked, not wanting to hear a positive answer.
"It could be, but it could also not be," the right hand replied.
"This is extremely frightening!!!" Izumi took two steps back, saying this, then turned and began to run back.
In a dramatic turn of events, the right arm expanded to a massive size with countless fingers, gripping the streetlight pole in the alley with incredible speed. The right hand pulled Izumi back onto the path, as he struggled against the right arm clinging to the pole, trying with his left hand to make the right arm let go, but to no avail; there was a vast disparity between their strengths.
The mouth and eye of the right hand appeared, saying, "Don't try, because you won't succeed."
"I want to know what I am exactly; that information would be useful for you too. Instead of asking questions, discover the answers for yourself," the right hand added.
"Alright," Izumi conceded, his voice defeated.
"25 meters, he's around that corner. It seems he's eating," the right hand said after reaching an agreement with Izumi.
"What, eating!!!" Izumi exclaimed, letting the right hand lead him to see what was there.
A breathtaking sight met Izumi for the first time: five meters away, a four-legged creature was feeding on the entrails of a delivery worker in a bloody scene.
"Ugh, what is this I'm seeing!!!" After witnessing the brutal sight, Izumi vomited and said with difficulty.
His words alerted the creature to his presence; it paused for a moment and turned toward him. It resembled a lynx but had a distorted head, with one eye in the center surrounded by numerous long, sharp fangs.
"Did you fail too?!" the unknown creature said as it returned to its natural form.
"Please stop talking!" Izumi replied, disgusted by its voice.
The unknown creature took steps toward Izumi, while he stepped back, maintaining a safe distance between them.
"You... in your position... with your host," the unknown creature said in a stuttering voice.
"I'm... with my animal host..." the creature added, addressing Izumi's right hand.
"We are not satisfied with our fate," the unknown creature said, its wide eyes looking frightening.
"Run!" the right hand screamed, having sensed the creature's ill intentions from its words.
"What?" Izumi couldn't comprehend the scene; he froze in place.
"Run, quickly!" the right hand urged, stretching out to direct Izumi on which way to go.
Izumi responded to the right hand's urgency and began running back the way he had come, while the unknown creature remained motionless in its place.
"What? You told me to go that way! And now what? You want me to run?" Izumi said as he sprinted, with the right hand leading the way.
"It wants us to merge," the right hand replied.
"What do you mean?" Izumi asked, dodging alleys in an attempt to escape the unknown creature.
"I feel it wants to kill you!" the right hand said, one of its eyes watching Izumi's back for any potential danger as he ran.
"It has a strong sense of suspicion toward you because you're still human. Despite its control over the brain, it considers it a failure?" the right hand added.
"How is that? Didn't you say the goal is to control the brain?!" Izumi asked, panting.
"Correct, to control the brain—but a human brain, not an animal's," the right hand answered.
The face of the unknown creature split in half, transforming into a new, massive shape, vertically stretching to form wings, with eyes and a circular mouth filled with sharp fangs.
Izumi looked exhausted; his speed was no match for that of the right hand, which was pulling ahead of him. Realizing this, the right hand decided to stop running with Izumi and hide underneath a parked truck on the side of the road.
"No way out! It's inclined to fight! We'll fight here," the right hand said, directing its eyes toward Izumi.
"What??? Fight!!! Don't use 'we'! You're the one who will fight! Just go and leave me alone; I'm not moving from this spot," Izumi said, trying to catch his breath.
"Don't be foolish; you're the target, not me. If it kills you, I'll die too," the right hand insisted.
"It's coming!" the right hand's eye spotted the unknown creature soaring in the sky.
"This... is impossible! What's happening!!!" Izumi exclaimed as he glanced up and saw the massive form flying overhead.
The right hand shot up into the sky at incredible speed, transforming into a single Dobby-like eye and four sharp, serrated blades. It launched an attack instead of waiting to see what the unknown creature would do. The creature began to dodge and evade the right hand's strikes. With each dodge, the right hand grew longer without showing any intent to retreat or change its attack pattern, continuously targeting the creature while increasing the pace of its assaults.
This relentless barrage made it difficult for the unknown creature to keep up with the speed of the attacks. Finally, the right hand's determination paid off as it pierced the creature's body in mid-air, blood spraying everywhere in a scene that looked like the sky was raining blood.
The unknown creature crashed to the ground after suffering a sudden stab to its back—a fatal blow from the right hand's blades that ripped its heart from its place.
"Is this... is this his heart?" Izumi asked, astonished by the battle he had witnessed, questioning the heart the right hand had returned with.
"Look, he's about to die," the right hand said, pointing a finger at the dying unknown creature.
"He had been living off the organs and digestive system of the animal whose brain he fed on," the right hand added, raised to Izumi's eye level.
"But what kind of animal is this? It's so unfamiliar!" Izumi wondered.
"There's no doubt that the insect has fed on a variety of creatures since it took control of the animal, leading to this transformation," the right hand explained.