[From deeper inside the room, Riko heard the strangled half-scream and the ugly way it had been cut off. Panic shot across her face. In all her memories, Kuroi had always been calm. The unshakable older sister who could handle anything.]
[If something outside had scared Kuroi that badly, then what the hell was at the door?]
["Kuroi! What happened!? What kind of monster is out there!?"]
[On the corridor side, you heard every bit of that aborted scream.]
[You also understood exactly what the peephole had shown her.]
[Your expression stayed calm. You turned your head slightly toward the door and spoke in a flat, controlled voice.]
["Miss Kuroi, you've seen what's out there. I don't want to waste time. Riko Amanai's situation is extremely dangerous. Staying in a room that only looks secure will just draw more Curse Users here. They'll keep coming, like sharks after blood."]
[You paused.]
[When you continued, the words landed with a weight that left very little room for argument.]
["You're a smart woman. You understand what I'm saying. If I came here to kill her, or if I were another bounty hunter, someone who can wipe out every Curse User in that hallway wouldn't need to slide a student ID under the door and ask nicely. Breaking through this door would have been much easier than killing all of them."]
[The words cut straight through Kuroi's defenses.]
[You did not deny the bodies in the corridor. You did not dress them up either. Every death out there was your work, and you were admitting it without shame.]
[But the logic was just as clear. Someone with that kind of strength could have torn through the door any time he wanted. The fact that you had not was proof by itself.]
[Kuroi leaned against the door, chest rising and falling too fast. The bloody scene outside still flashed behind her eyes every time she blinked. Even so, reason forced its way back through the horror.]
[She understood the message.]
[The struggle lasted only a few seconds, but it felt cruelly long.]
[In the end, Riko's safety won.]
[Because the other choice was obvious. If they stayed here, the next wave of Curse Users might break in, and neither of them had any way to survive that. The boy outside looked like a god of death, yes, but at least he wore a Jujutsu High uniform.]
[Click.]
[The deadbolt sounded painfully loud in the silent corridor.]
[Riko had not followed Kuroi's reasoning at all. She stared in disbelief as her caretaker actually reached for the handle.]
["Have you lost your mind!? Why are you opening it!? He's obviously a bad... per... son..."]
[The accusation died as the door opened.]
[The gap widened, and the corridor came into view.]
[The sight hit Riko like a hammer.]
[She had lived her whole life wrapped in layers of protection. Even knowing she was special, even knowing danger existed somewhere out there, she had never been thrown face-first into something like this.]
[Headless bodies lay behind you. Blood shone on the walls, the carpet, the ceiling trim. Heads with frozen expressions of terror were scattered along the floor like someone had thrown away broken dolls.]
[It all flooded her eyes at once.]
[Riko's mind went blank. Her mouth fell open. Her knees buckled, and she collapsed onto the foyer carpet, shaking so hard it was almost audible.]
[You did not waste time staring at the shell-shocked Star Plasma Vessel. Your gaze dropped to Kuroi, whose forehead was slick with cold sweat.]
["You're Miss Misato Kuroi, I take it. We're out of time. Get Riko Amanai and follow me. Jujutsu High's reinforcements are waiting outside the hotel."]
[Kuroi looked up at you.]
[Under the effect of Life is Like a Play, an ability that behaved less like a technique and more like a rule written into reality, the face she saw was handsome and open. Warm and dependable. The kind of face that belonged on a recruitment poster.]
[Which was insane, considering the hallway behind you looked like a butcher's nightmare.]
[The contrast was so extreme that it looped right past terrifying and landed somewhere close to reassuring.]
[Kuroi bit her lip hard enough to taste blood, forced her thoughts back into order, and nodded.]
[Then she turned, grabbed Riko by the arm, hauled her up, and half-carried, half-dragged her out of the room.]
[The two of them followed you like frightened quails in a storm, pressed close together and barely breathing. Every step through the blood-drenched corridor looked like it took conscious effort.]
[You walked in front, but your mind was already running calculations.]
[These two had hit the limit of what their minds could take. One more push and they might actually break.]
[As you approached the elevator, the shadow beneath your feet stretched forward in a quiet, almost invisible surge. A second before the doors opened, the middle-aged man's corpse still lying inside the elevator sank soundlessly into the shadow storage of the Ten Shadows Technique.]
[After everything they had already seen, making them share a sealed metal box with a mutilated body would have been too much.]
[The elevator doors opened.]
[The three of you stepped inside, and the elevator began its smooth descent.]
[The corpse was gone, but the aftermath was not. Dried blood still streaked the stainless steel walls and floor. The thick copper stink had nowhere to escape.]
[The corridor had stripped away every last scrap of Riko's earlier arrogance. She clung to Kuroi like a terrified child, nothing left of the girl who had been shouting demands through a locked door only minutes ago.]
[Her eyes moved over the bloodstains on the elevator walls.]
[She swallowed.]
[When she finally spoke, her voice was small and damp with barely held-back tears.]
["Those people... the dead ones in the hallway... did you really kill all of them?"]
[You turned to face her.]
[No hesitation. No attempt to soften it.]
["Yes. Every one of them, by my hand. You don't need to feel guilty, and you don't need to be afraid. If I hadn't reached them before they breached that door, the head rolling across the carpet right now would have been yours."]
[Cold and brutal but also true.]
[You thought for half a second, then reached up and lifted the round, motionless thing that had been perched on your shoulder the entire time. Until now, it had been as still as a stuffed toy tied to a backpack.]
[You held the plump black-and-white figure out to Riko.]
["If it gets too scary, hold on to this. It'll protect you."]
[Your voice softened as much as you could manage.]
[Riko stared blankly at the plush toy hovering in front of her face.]
[Inside this elevator, with blood on the walls and fear still choking her throat, the sudden appearance of something so absurdly cute almost broke her brain in a different direction.]
[For one miraculous second, the sheer wrongness of it snapped her out of the nightmare.]
[She had actually been wondering about it since the corridor.]
[Why would someone who had just decapitated a hallway full of people without blinking, someone who moved with that cold, efficient danger, be carrying a cuddly panda plushie on his shoulder?]
[In its own way, it was almost more unsettling than the bodies.]
[Riko's arms closed around Panda's soft body.]
[She looked down at the round face, at the lazy dark circles around its eyes, and murmured in a daze.]
["This toy... is going to protect me...?"]
[That was when the plushie, which had stayed perfectly silent until now, lifted one fuzzy paw. Its round black-and-white head tilted to the side. Then a warm, unmistakably alive voice came out.]
["Hey there."]
[The air inside the elevator froze.]
[Riko's pupils widened. She stared down at the "toy" in her arms. The toy that had just spoken to her.]
[One full second passed in absolute silence.]
["AAAAAAAAHHHH!"]
[Her scream was so sharp it felt like it might peel the elevator off its cables.]