Creak—
With a soft sound, Takakai pushed open the door and peered into the kennel outside.
All the cages had fallen silent. The mixed-breed puppies inside lay motionless, like stuffed toys drained of all vitality.
Just like the pot of soup in the small room that had solidified after the butcher was sealed, these people—transformed into mongrel dogs—had become part of the dungeon's mechanics. With the ayakashi suppressed, they too had lost all activity.
In other words, they were already beyond saving.
But conversely, this also meant the kennel—like the small room deeper inside—had temporarily become a safe zone.
"Come out. This place is secure for now."
Takakai beckoned behind him, and Kaguya and Hayasaka cautiously stepped forward to join him.
"This place… this kennel…"
Returning to the place where she had been trapped for days, Hayasaka shuddered involuntarily, her face paling.
Her way of ending up here had been similar to Kaguya's—both had triggered the [Friend] rule during their investigations, wandered around, and been lured into the kennel by a [Friend]. By the time they realized something was wrong and tried to escape, the door had been shut behind them.
The difference was, Kaguya had Takakai to rescue her, so she'd only been a dog for about half an hour.
Hayasaka, on the other hand, had endured days of torment.
At first, she could still maintain her human consciousness, remembering who she was and attempting to escape.
But her efforts were futile. Once in a cage, no dog could save itself—unless, like Takakai, they had a grudge item to create an external force for escape.
After struggling through the first day, by the second, Hayasaka's mind had begun to blur. Her ability to think had steadily deteriorated.
She hadn't realized it at the time, but she was being rewritten by the dungeon's rules, gradually turning into a real dog.
By the third day, she could barely distinguish whether she was human or canine. Her memories as a person had begun to fade, to the point where she questioned whether they had ever been real at all.
Fortunately, Takakai and Kaguya had arrived in time.
Three days of transformation had damaged Hayasaka's cognition, but reversion was still possible. Had they rescued her on the sixth or seventh day, even if she recovered, she would have been left with permanent side effects.
(For example, a famous Crimson Moon player team, [Red Covenant], had a member trapped in Shirasawa Elementary for six full days. Afterward, her teammates spent over half a month using grudge items to partially correct her behavior—and even now, she still exhibited… disturbing habits.)
But for the three of them, still inside the dungeon, that wasn't their concern right now.
"It's okay… it's okay. We'll get you out of here."
Kaguya, now fully aware of what Hayasaka had endured, spoke in an uncharacteristically gentle tone.
It was a little ironic.
In the over ten years they had spent together, Kaguya had never spoken to Hayasaka this softly.
But it was precisely because of this abnormal behavior that Hayasaka recovered faster.
(To put it bluntly—if your normally tyrannical boss suddenly started giving you vacations, asking after your health, and showering you with gifts, you'd be too busy questioning their sanity to dwell on your own problems.)
Of course, Hayasaka and Kaguya's relationship wasn't that bad. But even so, Kaguya acting like this was so out of character that it was impossible not to notice.
"...Young Mistress, I'm fine now. Thank you, but you don't need to worry so much about me."
Hayasaka forced a weak smile, trying to appear as normal as possible.
"Don't push yourself. We're in a dangerous place—if you're hiding something, it could cause problems later. We need to function as a team to get through this."
Kaguya relaxed slightly seeing Hayasaka's condition, but her tone remained firm.
"I know. I'm fine—just still adjusting to these clothes."
Hayasaka briefly considered mentioning her strange new impulses but hesitated after glancing at Takakai.
Some things are just too embarrassing to say out loud.
Creak—
Takakai, ignoring the conversation behind him, carefully advanced and opened the kennel's main door, scanning the hallway beyond.
The lobby looked unchanged. So far, so good.
Given the butcher's clear connection to [Hachiya Chiyo], he had worried about retaliation. But it seemed there was no second Alice-level intelligent ayakashi here. The entity had only "hmphed" at him before leaving.
"It's safe out here. Let's find Hayasaka some proper clothes."
Takakai led the way downstairs, with Kaguya and Hayasaka following closely.
As they moved, he noticed something new—crude drawings of [Kurokko] on the walls.
Some were just chaotic scribbles, but certain lines coincidentally formed twisted black humanoid shapes. Others used bright colors to depict children or adults, with [Kurokko] standing beside them.
One drawing in particular caught his attention—a crude classroom scene, with students and a teacher, overlaid by a [Kurokko] drawn in red crayon, its smiley face defacing the original artwork.
Takakai's interest wasn't in the content itself.
Rather, he suspected this depicted the classroom where he and Kaguya had died in the first loop.
With the butcher gone, has something changed in that room?
If so, that was their next destination.
"Kaguya, keep watch behind us. Report every 30 seconds."
Stepping into the hallway, he noticed the mirror at the far end had been shattered, and the walls were now covered in even more graffiti.
"The children's voices… there are more of them now. I can't see them, but it feels like they're everywhere—in every room…"
Kaguya's voice was low, uneasy.
Unable to fully perceive the entities, she could only hear them—laughter, shrieks, the sounds of things being broken.
Like a horde of unruly children running amok.
Yet she saw nothing.
Hayasaka, walking in the middle of the group, remained silent. Unsure of her role, she simply followed Takakai's lead.
Takakai quickly entered the [Teachers' Office] they had visited earlier, summoning the firefighter to search for readable documents.
Meanwhile, Hayasaka improvised a makeshift skirt by wrapping a sofa cushion cover around her waist, covering herself from the thighs down.
(Takakai paid no attention to this. His focus was elsewhere.)
Next, he opened the classroom door—only to find it unchanged from before.
Did I misjudge?
Frowning, he motioned for Kaguya and Hayasaka to enter with him, leaving the firefighter to continue searching the office.
"There's no new graffiti here… and I can't hear the children's voices anymore."
Kaguya's observation confirmed his suspicions.
"What about the office? Did you hear anything there?"
"...Faintly, but distant. This room, though—it's completely silent. It's like it's blocking the sounds out."
"Not blocking. More like… escaping their influence."
Takakai theorized:
"With the butcher sealed, the 'children' have lost whatever rules were restraining them. That might make gathering clues from them harder."
His gaze shifted to the two unopened doors in the classroom.
One led to an unknown area. The other resembled the [Nap Room] door.
If the children are now running loose, does that mean places like the [Classroom] and [Office] are empty of them?
Would the [Nap Room]—previously full of [Kurokko]—now be safe to enter?
Without needing to speak, Takakai and Kaguya exchanged a glance and split roles instinctively.
Takakai moved toward the [Nap Room] door, while Kaguya kept watch, pulling Hayasaka along with her.
They've gotten so in sync…
Hayasaka observed silently.
Mr. Takakai's movements are completely professional. And Young Mistress… she's not as skilled, but her instincts are sharp. How many times have they fought side by side like this?
While I was uselessly suspecting him, how much blood and sweat did Young Mistress shed in these nightmares?
I've been so incompetent…
Shaking off her thoughts, Hayasaka focused on scanning the room for anything unusual.
Then—
"Psst… hey, hey… over here."
A whisper, so faint it might have been her imagination.
Her gaze shifted reflexively.
And there—
From a crack in the wall, in a dark room beyond…
A woman's face leaned out, grinning as she beckoned.