Mirrors could reflect the true appearance of people in the hotel.
This was the conclusion Hayato reached, the final piece clicking into place.
Right now, Tanaka Ichiro and Kamimura Miho's external behavior was perfectly normal. So normal that it was impossible to detect even a hint of a problem on the surface. The more normal they seemed, the more Hayato suspected something was rotting internally. And the reflection in the TV screen had perfectly verified his dark suspicion.
I can't save them and take them to the shower.
After showering, the two would most likely reveal their full supernatural nature.
If that happened, they'd face the immediate danger of two additional hostile entities.
Hayato scanned the room once more with sharp eyes, confirmed the condition and position of items, then exited quickly.
Time resumed flowing once again.
Bzzt...
"Hayato-san, come on in. Let's all have fun together. It's safe to stay in the rooms in this hotel. Don't stay outside anymore. The hallway's really dangerous out there."
Tanaka Ichiro wore a friendly smile plastered on his face. One hand casually slapped Kamimura Miho's butt, making a loud, crisp sound echo.
"No thanks."
The moment that flat refusal left his mouth, Tanaka Ichiro and Kamimura Miho's ambiguous gazes immediately changed, as if he'd triggered something critical.
"In a love hotel, you have to make love!"
"Not making love means you're not a good guest."
The two went stiff. Their gazes locked onto him with unsettling intensity. Their bodies seemed controlled by invisible strings as they began walking toward Hayato step by step.
"I have Ai-chan already."
Hayato waved at Hoshino Ai. This made her gently set down the unconscious Kuroda Hikari against the wall, then quickly walk over in small hurried steps. The moment she arrived at his side, Hayato directly pulled her in close, his left hand wrapping around the girl's slender waist, embracing her firmly.
Hoshino Ai was completely stunned by the sudden contact but didn't resist or refuse. The masculine scent coming from Hayato made her heartbeat uncontrollably accelerate, pounding against her ribs.
"Plus Kuroda-san over there. I'll head back to the room soon and do some loving things with them both."
The two stopped moving forward.
"All together then."
"I'll have a taste first, then come find you two later." Hayato kept watching them carefully, observing every micro-reaction.
"Hayato-san, you're amazing!"
"Look at him. That's real strength. That's a real man. And you? You're just pathetic, can't even last a single round!"
Tanaka Ichiro and Kamimura Miho laughed and played around with each other, seemingly satisfied.
"Ai-chan and I will head back first. I'll close the door for you two."
Without waiting for their agreement, Hayato grabbed the door handle and slowly pulled it shut. The moment the bang of the door slamming sounded, inside and outside formed two completely different worlds. No more sounds came from within that sealed room.
"Hayato-kun, Kamimura-san, and the others..."
Even Hoshino Ai could feel their state was deeply abnormal. No matter how open or perverted people were, they wouldn't invite strangers to an orgy in such a dangerous place!
Hayato nodded once, his gaze returning to meet the girl's confused expression.
"Let's go back to our room."
But right then—
Ding dong...
A crisp bell sound echoed through the quiet hallway shrouded in dark red lighting.
That came from the elevator direction.
Click...
The elevator doors slid open.
Footsteps rang out clearly. That was the distinctive crisp sound of high heels stepping deliberately on hard flooring.
The next second, a figure emerged from the elevator.
She wore a black suit that outlined her curvaceous figure perfectly. Her long black hair swayed with each step, movements designed to captivate and mesmerize.
It was the receptionist from the first-floor lobby.
She'd taken the elevator up to the third floor.
Why has she come to the third floor now?
Is it based on time, or did we violate some rule?
Hayato rapidly recalled all ten rules, searching for what might have triggered this.
"Guest..."
Her face was charming and beautiful, her voice sweet like honey.
"Making loud disturbances late at night and disturbing other guests' rest is not permitted behavior."
"Please return to your room immediately."
"If you don't return, I'll be complained about, complained, complained..."
"Deducted, deducted... performance..."
"Not allowed..."
The smooth, honeyed voice abruptly became choppy and broken halfway through, like a skipping record.
Click click.
The gentle tone grew increasingly horrifying with each glitched word.
Hoshino Ai's heart pounded violently.
Thump thump thump..
Return to the room. Return to the room immediately!
Only by entering the room will we be absolutely safe.
Hoshino Ai immediately grabbed Hayato's hand tightly and rushed toward their door, pulling him along.
Thud...
She headbutted straight into the solid door.
"Ow."
"It was clearly open just now! Why did it suddenly close?"
Hoshino Ai cried out in shocked pain, rubbing her forehead.
The door that should've been standing wide open was now firmly closed. There was no wind in this hallway. Why would it slam shut? And there had been no sound of the door closing either!
Hayato immediately pulled out the keycard. To prevent getting locked out, he always carried it when leaving the room.
He swiped it.
Bzzt bzzt bzzt...
The electronic lock made the harsh sound of failed authentication repeatedly.
The door didn't budge.
"Why, why won't it open!? Why can't we get in!?"
Hoshino Ai grew increasingly anxious with each failed beep. From the corner of her eye, she glanced toward the elevator direction on the right. That receptionist from the first floor was getting steadily closer and closer, heels clicking.
"Please... return to... room..."
"Return... room."
She turned her head sharply.
Crack.
Her neck made a crisp snapping sound. That was the sickening sound of bones breaking. Crack crack... The next second, her head twisted to the other side at a completely bizarre, inhuman angle.
Hoshino Ai glanced over and immediately noticed the receptionist's face was now covered in dark gray eerie patches spreading like rot. Her beautiful eyes were completely lifeless and dead, releasing a sinister and terrifying aura that made the air feel thick. Her entire being emanated a black eerie atmosphere that seemed to darken the hallway.
Hoshino Ai almost screamed if she hadn't memorized the rules and knew she absolutely couldn't make loud noises, she would've let out a blood-curdling scream in that moment.
"Ha-Hayato-kun..."
She looked at Hayato with teary, desperate eyes, her body trembling visibly.
Hayato looked up at the room number and immediately understood why the keycard had failed and why they couldn't enter.
The room before them wasn't room 306 at all.
"This isn't room 306."
"Monster!!"
Hayato's head snapped toward where that terrified voice came from. A flash of movement, someone ducking back inside.
Click...
The sound of a door slamming shut rang out loudly down the hall.
Sawanaga Taisuke had fled into his room and immediately locked the door behind him.
"That was... Sawanaga-kun."
Hoshino Ai gritted her teeth in pure anger, hands clenching into fists.
Hayato-kun even personally went downstairs to help him, successfully getting him back to the third floor alive.
But now, this bastard. Repaying kindness with this?! A total ungrateful human!
Hoshino Ai suddenly noticed something else wrong, the unfamiliarity of the entire hallway before her.
"The third floor... changed completely. What's happening?"
The simple, square layout of the third floor had transformed entirely in that single moment.
Looking ahead, the dark red hallway twisted unnaturally in the distance. Doors hung upside down on the ceiling. Various messy items had suddenly appeared scattered in the hallway as if materializing out of thin air, furniture, luggage, and things that shouldn't be there. The previously wide passage now seemed cramped and crowded. Gray dust filled the stale air. The atmosphere carried a suffocating, oppressive, deeply gloomy aura that pressed down on them.
The glamorous exterior had been violently shed, revealing the true, rotting eerie side underneath.
Perhaps this was the real face of the "Koi no Kokoro Love Hotel" all along.
And a figure in a black suit, eerie and distorted, was slowly walking forward toward them.
"Disturbing... other... Guest..."
"Must be punished..."
"Hotel..."
"Expelled..."
A cold, hoarse, deathly voice echoed through the twisted hallway, bouncing off warped walls.
Crisis was closing in fast.