"Don't trip," Iroha whispered behind her teeth, her hand pressing softly against my back. Then, without hesitation, she stepped forward, past me, into the spotlight alone.
Her cloak trailed behind her as the fog curled around her boots. Her voice rang out, smooth and sharp, cutting through the hush of the audience.
"Eyes up, everyone. Stay sharp. You don't know what's coming next… but you'd better be ready when it does."
Then she turned. Not to the crowd, but to me. An intense, quiet look in her gaze.
This is it.
The fog thickened.
Not just around us. It clung to the air like something sentient, patient. The kind of stillness that made your skin itch. The world felt tilted, like it had shifted a degree off-center, and no one had noticed until now.
I looked around. Duskmere was wrong.
Cobblestones were the same. Same crooked slope, same ivy-crawled gutters but the shadows bled too long, the windows gaped like open mouths, and every lantern flickered with purple fire instead of flame.
The houses leaned too far. The sky was smeared with thick, unmoving clouds, dimming everything in a sickly violet hue. And the people? Paused in place.
Frozen mid-sale. Mid-step. Mid-laughter. But their eyes… their eyes were open. Watching. Wide and unmoving. Like their bodies were statues, but their minds were still trapped inside. Aware of every moment, every movement, every blow about to fall.
The whole town held its breath. Not dead. Not asleep. Just… forced to witness.
Except us.
And her.
Iroha stood alone at the town center. The ruined plaza we'd passed through before was now cracked and bleeding corruption. She looked small against the backdrop of broken stone and crooked lamp posts. But her stance was solid. Cloak stirring. Fingers near her belt.
I should have felt reassured.
I didn't.
The moment our eyes met, she didn't flinch.
"What a nightmare this is, right Dungeon Boy?" she smirked, voice too casual for the setting. Then she raised her rapier. Slowly, deliberately, pointing it straight at us.
Naru growled beside me.
I didn't tell her to. She just did. Like instinct.
My grip tightened around the hilt at my side. I hadn't drawn it. Not yet. But something in me shifted. Like pressure building behind my eyes. Like my body was ready before I was.
Rika stood beside me, her spellbook floating midair, pages fluttering unnaturally. Her eyes glowed. Staff raised, steady. Poised.
Right now, all we knew was that Iroha was dangerous.
"You don't want to do this," she said, low and sharp.
I had to. Even if it meant hurting her.
My body moved before thought could catch it. Blade drawn in a blur of steel and intent. The fog split in my wake, carved by a strike meant to end it.
She slipped under it, barely.
A twist of her waist, a pivot on her heel. Boots scraping stone as she danced just out of reach. Effortless. Fluid.
Naru dropped low, her hands slamming into the stone with a thunderous crack. The ground trembled beneath her as something primal surged through her frame.
A low growl built in her throat, rising into a snarl that shook the mist.
Then… she changed.
Fur tore through skin in a silver bloom. Her spine arched up, limbs elongating, muscles coiling with raw, unfiltered power. Fingers curled into claws. Her ears sharpened to points, tail whipping out behind her. Eyes blazed like twin moons caught in a cyclone.
She wasn't a girl anymore.
She was a nightmare.
And in one breathless instant, she launched forward. Fangs bared, claws out, hunger in her blood.
Iroha jumped high, boots lifting just as Naru's jaws snapped inches from her leg.
A flurry of magic lit up the air, bolts screeching toward her in quick succession.
Rika stood behind us, expression unreadable, one hand raised, the other gripping her staff as arcs of spellfire erupted from her fingertips. Precision. Pressure. No hesitation.
Midair, Iroha twisted. Her cloak flared. She spun through the barrage like a ribbon in a storm. Dodging one, deflecting another with the flat of her rapier.
"You're not making this easy, are you?" she said, landing lightly on one knee.
Then I was there. Again.
Katana raised. Her back turned. She hadn't seen me.
Now.
I swung with everything I had, clean, final, aimed to end it.
But her voice cut through the air first.
"Disarm."
She didn't yell. She didn't need to.
The command hit, my nerves flared, muscles seized, fingers betraying me. Pain lanced up my arm. My katana slipped from my hand mid-swing, spinning once before clattering to the stone with a hollow clang.
She stepped in and kicked me in the chest.
Hard.
The world reeled sideways. I hit the ground with a grunt, air crushed out of my lungs. My blade spun out of reach again.
Naru let out a roar that tore through the mist. She surged forward, a blur of claws and fury.
She swung wide, fists crashing down like wrecking balls.
Iroha ducked the first. Slipped past the second. The third came fast.
She caught it, steel meeting fury, her rapier bracing the blow with a sharp metallic clash. Her feet slid back from the force, but she didn't fall.
She leapt.
Boots planted mid-swing, she ran up Naru's arm like a ledge and leaned in, close to her ear.
"Still movement," she whispered.
Naru froze. Every muscle tensed. The fury in her face flickered.
Then a disc of violet energy sliced through the fog and slammed into Iroha's ribs.
She staggered, momentum breaking, and tumbled hard across the stone.
"So this is what it's like when you don't hold back, Honour Girl," she coughed, pushing herself up. "Gotta admit… thought you'd throw something heavier to kill me."
Rika didn't answer. Her eyes glowed deep violet now, burning with rage. Magic pulsed at her fingertips, circling her like storm rings. She raised her staff.
Iroha smirked. "Gotcha."
The spell fired.
Iroha drew her rapier and dropped low, one foot sliding back, the blade angled like a poised conductor's wand.
"Maestro's Tunnelling Needle!"
She stabbed the air. The rapier thrummed, and a sonic pulse spiraled forward in a tight, focused shockwave. It screamed through like a silver arrow.
Colliding with Rika's spell mid-flight.
The blast shattered on impact, arcane light scattering like glass caught in a whirlwind.
But Iroha was already gone.
No flash, no footstep. Just absence.
Then…
"Echo Step."
The fog answered her call. It rippled, pulsed.
And from it, half a dozen Irohas emerged. Each moving with the same smirk, the same stride. Circling in a blur of cloaks and silver steel. Shadows made solid. Echoes that refused to stay still. All on a mad dash toward Rika.
Rika stomped her staff against the stone. A glyph bloomed beneath her. Light surged upward, wrapping her in a shimmering dome, like stained glass turned to liquid, shielding her from the clones' dancing barrage.
But one was already inside.
Inside the barrier.
Close enough to touch.
Her hand was already in Rika's. Fingers laced gently, like a memory made real.
Rika's breath caught.
I rose to my feet and reached for my katana. With a steady breath, I stepped forward and swung. The blade ignited in violet flame, trailing heat through the air as it carved a clean arc. The illusions burst like smoke, unraveling in flashes of fire and silence.
The real Iroha caught the edge. It flung her backward.
She crashed at Rika's feet, breathless.
Naru broke free of Iroha's earlier spell with a shuddering jolt, her limbs twitching unnaturally. She dropped low, one hand clawing at the stone as her head snapped toward Iroha like a predator catching the scent. Her eyes gleamed with that same sickly purple light. No longer wild, but focused. Stalking. Each movement was a crawl, slow and deliberate, like she was savoring the fear.
I walked toward her. My katana scraped along the stone at my side, dragging a glowing line through the dust. Sparks flickered with each step, hissing quietly in the stillness. I didn't run. I didn't need to.
She was right there.
Iroha lay slumped near the fountain's edge, blood trailing from her lip, her rapier knocked just out of reach. The fight had left its mark, but not enough to dim the expression on her face.
She looked up, eyes catching mine through the haze. That same unshakable calm. That same smile.
Soft. Sincere. Out of place in the middle of a battlefield.
But she didn't move. Didn't flinch. She just watched me come closer.
I raised my katana, hand held steady at the hilt. Pressure sure. Intent clear.
Then… she spoke.
"Eyes on me again? Cute. Dramatic irony is gonna hurt like bitch, right dungeon boy?"
I froze. Katana halted mid-swing, breath caught in my throat.
"Stay sharp. You don't know what's coming next… but you'd better be ready when it does."
I looked up.
Rika's staff was already raised and pointed at me. Light blooming at the tip, swelling with rage and arcane heat.
"Unbind Temper."
The words struck first.
The spell struck second.
A blinding burst cracked through the space between us, slamming into my chest like divine fury.
The world spun sideways.
I hit the fountain hard. Stone, water, everything rushing up at once. A wave burst out on impact, drenching the plaza in a spray of broken magic and momentum.
Naru howled a guttural, savage sound that ripped through the silence and hurled herself at Rika, claws raised, fangs bared.
But Iroha was already there.
She stepped between them without fear, one hand raised, her voice calm but unwavering.
"You don't want to do this, do you?"
Naru skidded to a stop, jaws inches from Iroha's throat.
Her whole frame quivered.
And then… it broke.
The rage drained from her eyes. The purple glow flickered, then vanished.
Her breath caught, sharp, confused. And her monstrous form began to unravel. The fur receded. Her claws dulled, shrinking into human fingers. Her hunched, feral posture gave way to something smaller, more familiar.
Wolf ears twitched atop her head. Her tail curled behind her. Leather armor clung to her now-slender frame, sweat-drenched and dirtied from the fight.
She stumbled and fell.
Iroha caught her gently, easing her down with more tenderness than the battlefield should allow.
I pushed myself up. My legs trembled. My chest ached. The fountain water clung to me, cold and bitter. I stood there a moment, breathing hard, trying to steady the pounding in my head. Trying to remember which part of me was real.
Then I walked. One step. Then another. I didn't stop.
Toward her.
Toward them.
Iroha was barely upright, arms still wrapped around Naru. Bruised, cut, exhausted. But she looked up the moment I got close.
And I dropped to my knees beside her.
Then I hugged her.
Not for show. Not for comfort. Because I had to. Because it felt like the only thing holding the pieces of me together.
"I'm so sorry… Iroha," I said, my voice cracking. "I couldn't… I tried to fight it. But it felt like I was watching from the outside. And no matter how loud I screamed… he wouldn't stop. I couldn't stop."
She didn't say anything at first.
She just held me tight, steady.
And I held her back. Like it was the only real thing left.
Rika stood over us. Silent. Watching.
Her staff lowered. The glow at its tip faded.
I didn't look up. My arms were still around Iroha. My pulse hadn't slowed.
"She was the only one that was protected," Rika said quietly.
I turned. Her voice was flat, but her eyes… her eyes were full of guilt.
"When we left her at the inn," she continued, "Iroha was resting after the fight with the hag. I made sure she was safe."
A pause.
"I didn't think it would spread this far. Not this fast."
"The corruption?" I asked, breath still uneven.
Rika nodded. "It leaked out from the Rootline. Followed us. Twisted Duskmere into a mirror of that forest. Froze the townspeople. Hijacked you. Naru. Me."
"But you…" I started.
"No. It was Iroha." Rika cut in, voice quiet but firm. "She got to me first. Cleansed the corruption that held me."
I looked back at Iroha.
She grinned. "Yep. Then I batted my lashes at your lifeless mug and boom, Rika gave you a face full of her blessing. You're welcome."
Rika rolled her eyes, then turned her gaze toward the still, glass-eyed villagers.
"They're conscious," she said. "Just stuck in place. Like an audience trapped in their seats, forced to watch it all unfold."
"We need to save them," I said, eyes flicking to the villagers
Rika's eyes shifted westward. Her staff pulsed faintly. "I can sense the corruption's source. That direction."
Iroha followed her gaze. "Let me guess… that's where the hag is?"
"Correct," Rika said. "She's likely using the Hollow Voice's scythe to amplify the spread of the corruption."
A groan stirred in Iroha's lap.
Naru blinked, eyes dazed. "Then we punch the corruption in the face."
Iroha smiled. "You're back."
Naru squinted around, confused. "What happened? One second I was chasing chickens in the market, and now I'm… in Iroha's lap?" She blinked again. "What happened to the town?"
She didn't move to get up. Instead, she nestled deeper, cheek pressed lazily against Iroha's belly. "Also, just so we're clear, I'm not getting off. This is my spot now."
Iroha raised an eyebrow but didn't argue.
"And," Naru added, half-mumbling into Iroha's stomach, "is it just me, or did anyone else have a super weird dream about being a giant dog playing tag with Iroha?"
Rika didn't even look up. "You turned into a werewolf and tried to eat her."
Naru blinked. "Ohhhh. I can do that?"
There was a beat.
Then all of us laughed. Quiet. Tired. But real.
"The hag's influence is spreading," I said, rising to my feet. "We ran out of time already. But Iroha…" I looked at her, still cradling Naru, "She gave us a second chance."
I turned to face the path ahead. The others gathered behind me, steady now, the weight of the fight settling into quiet resolve.
Beyond the ruined rooftops, clouds twisted above an elevated ridge: black, seething, crawling like oil. The Hogmire Cemetery.
I walked to my blade. Sheathed it with a clean click.
Eyes forward, locked onto the gaze of the audience before me.
"Alright team, let's go kill a witch."
The lights dimmed.
And the stage… went silent.
Iroha spun her plastic rapier once, then rested it across her shoulder. "Told you we'd nail it," she said, smirking. "All that rehearsal, all that chaos. Worth it."
"And none of us missed our cues," Rika added, a little too casually. But I caught the corner of her mouth twitch. She was proud. Quietly.
Naru stretched, letting out a yawn like a lion cub. "Hey, I didn't punch any of you for real. I deserve a trophy for that."
Iroha pointed at her. "You tried to bite me."
"I was in character!"
Rika rolled her eyes. "Method acting doesn't usually involve fangs."
I leaned back against a column, the last of the tension easing from my shoulders. "You were right," I said softly. "About the pacing. About not needing it to be perfect. Just honest."
Iroha's gaze flicked up. She smiled. Not her usual smug grin, but something smaller. Warmer. "We found our rhythm," she said. "Took a few business days to get there… but yeah. I think they felt it."
Then, somewhere just off-stage, a deep bell tolled once, twice. And the lights shifted. Violet tones melting into grey.
Rika straightened first.
Iroha second. "The fight's not over yet."
The fog thickened as we passed the rusted gates of Hogmire Cemetery. Every step forward sank into damp soil, the scent of rot curling beneath our boots. Headstones leaned at strange angles. Crypts were half-swallowed by earth.
The trees here didn't sway, they convulsed, as if wincing in slow motion. Flowers bloomed and wilted in reverse. Somewhere ahead, a bell tolled once. Then again. And then silence.
No crows. No wind. Just us.
Iroha moved first, rapier lowered but ready. Her eyes scanned the gravestones like they might reach back.
Beside her, Naru's nose twitched. She wrinkled it. "It smells like death," she whispered. "Like not the dead kind."
Rika kept her staff close, a faint pulse of warding light trailing behind each step. "The source of the decay is nearing," Rika said, her voice low. "Be ready for anything."
I didn't speak. Didn't need to. My blade was drawn. The final step had already begun.
Then—
A voice from the fog. Cold. Amused. Unseen.
"So the little bird broke the leash. How… disappointing."
We stopped. Every instinct pulled tight. We knew that voice.
"Come out and face us, Crusty," Iroha snapped.
A laugh. Shrill and slithering. "Ah, ah, not yet. Why rush what's inevitable?"
Naru growled low. Rika's grip tightened; her staff pulsed with rising magic.
"It's not too late to stop this," I called out, stepping forward.
"Oh my," the hag crooned, mockingly gentle. "The hero… the blade-wielder… the failure." Her voice twisted. "Why should your party follow a man who couldn't even save them? Leave the persuasion to your little lyre bird."
Rika's voice cracked like a whip. "Where's the scythe, hag?"
"Ohoho… it's in good hands, wizard," the hag purred. "Be patient. You'll feel its power firsthand soon enough."
"This is getting old," Iroha called out. "Aren't you getting tired of pretending to be a poorly written throwaway villain?"
"Hey!" I frowned at Iroha.
A beat.
Rika didn't wait. "Enough of this." She slammed her staff to the ground, and a surge of arcane force rippled out in a shockwave, tearing the fog back in a wide ring.
And there they were.
Figures that had stalked us in silence. Now laid bare.
A moss-covered giant with rootlike limbs, lurching forward on cracked legs. Its torso split open down the middle, revealing hollow space where a heart should be.
A lizard-creature, low and hunched, its body wrapped in strangling vines. Fungal blooms pulsed along its spine, releasing faint trails of glowing spores with every twitch.
A horned toad, three times the size of a bear, bark-armored and twitching with decay. Its swollen throat expanded unnaturally, like it was choking on something it hadn't finished digesting.
A floating mass of flesh and vines, its massive eye fixed on us, tendrils writhing like it could taste our fear. The eye blinked sideways, slowly and didn't open again the same way twice.
Above it all, the hag's laughter echoed, stretched too long. Like an echo that didn't belong to her.
"Taunt me all you want, little bird," she hissed. For a second, her voice caught on something deeper… rougher. "Let's see if you're still chirping with a carved-up throat."
We were surrounded. They crept closer, forcing us back until we stood shoulder to shoulder, weapons drawn like a last line of defense.
Naru raised her fists like a boxer mid-ring, eyes locked forward.
Iroha whispered, barely audible, careful not to provoke the monsters. "Uhh, Naru? Isn't now a good time to turn into a werewolf?"
"I don't know how to turn it on," Naru muttered.
"What?" Iroha hissed, a little too loud.
The lizard-creature hissed back.
"I said I don't know how I did it," Naru repeated. "I was asleep when that happened!"
"It's okay, Naru-chan," I said, stepping forward. "We'll just have to beat them the old-fashioned way."
"And how do we do that?" Iroha asked.
"Toget—"
"If you say 'together,' I'm joining the floating meatball," she cut in flatly.
I smiled.
"No holding back," Rika said, stepping forward. "Time to bring on the light show."
Her staff pulsed to life.
I dropped into a samurai stance, blade steady, knees bent.
Naru lowered into a crouch, legs tense like a fox about to pounce.
Iroha spun her rapier with a flourish, its tip catching the lantern light as she smirked.
"Lyrical Surge," she whispered, and the magic in her voice wasn't subtle.
A radiant glow pulsed beneath our boots, spreading in luminous veins through the cracked stone. In the same instant, we moved. Launched forward like runners at the shot of a starting gun, every limb charged with sudden vitality, every breath sharp and focused.
Naru hit first.
"OHHHH YEAH!!!" she bellowed, wild and grinning.
She rocketed toward the moss-wrapped giant, a silver blur streaking across the cemetery floor. The creature reared back, a hulking mass of bark and rot, and hurled a titanic fist at her. But Naru dropped low mid-sprint, the wind curling around her frame. She pivoted hard, one palm scraping stone for balance, and came up swinging.
Her fist connected with the creature's chin in a brutal uppercut. The sound was like timber cracking under pressure: sharp, raw, final. The giant didn't fall, but its head twisted violently, bark splitting along the jawline in a jagged seam.
Naru rolled her shoulder as the beast staggered. "Who needs fur," she grunted, "when you've got fists!"
The lizard-creature lunged from the left. Tongue whipping forward like a vine. Before it could strike, Iroha slid in a blur across the ground, her rapier slicing upward in a clean arc. The tongue fell in two, writhing, and the beast recoiled with a screech.
"I've had worse kisses," she muttered, already moving to flank.
Behind me, Rika raised her staff high, the runes flaring to life around her like miniature stars in orbit. Each one pulsed with arcane rhythm, a silent countdown of power ready to be unleashed.
"Rift Walk," she called out.
And then she vanished. A blink through space itself, the air distorting in her wake. She reappeared atop a crumbling crypt, cloak whipping in the breeze, runes still spinning above her head like glowing satellites.
"Scatterlight Surge!"
She cast the runes forward with a sweeping motion. The glyphs streaked through the air, struck the horned toad's armored back and erupted. A swarm of brilliant orbs burst out from the impact, scattering mid-air before collapsing inward into a focused detonation of violet-white beams. Each light ray pierced like divine needles, burning holes into bark and hide.
The toad shrieked in fury. Then reared back and unleashed a wave of rot, a thick, steaming gush of necrotic bile hurled toward her perch.
But Rika had already moved.
Another flicker. Another blink.
She reappeared on the ground behind the floating eyeball beast, boots landing silently inside a dome of translucent magic she'd conjured in mid-transit. The barrier shimmered outward in a curved wall, etched with living sigils that pulsed with protective light. From within its shielded center, Rika didn't hesitate. Her staff swung upward again, already shaping the next spell, eyes locked ahead, jaw set, unrelenting.
"Samurai!" she shouted.
I didn't need to be told twice.
My legs moved before thought could catch them, surging forward with the full force of momentum behind me. The katana roared to life in my hands, its edge blazing with golden flame that trailed behind like a comet's tail. The mire underfoot vanished from thought. I tore through it like it wasn't even there, a streak of light cutting through swamp and shadow.
The floating beast twisted in midair, its enormous eye quivering as it tracked my approach. Tendrils lashed out like striking serpents, dozens at once, each tipped with thorns and barbed growths.
Then the world shifted.
Rika's barrier blinked off her frame and rematerialized around me mid-sprint. A radiant shell of light snapping into place just as the vines came crashing down. They struck with brutal force… but the barrier held, shattering them into a cascade of golden sparks that fizzled harmlessly around me.
I didn't slow. If anything, I leaned into the storm.
With a burst of energy, I vaulted into the air. Twisting, flipping, then spun with a speed that blurred my outline, the katana whirling like a divine wheel of light.
"24K OVERDRIVE!"
Golden arcs sliced out in every direction, cleaving tendril after tendril with surgical fury. Each cut landed clean. Burning ichor hissed against stone. Vines dropped like severed cords from the heavens.
The creature shrieked. But I wasn't done.
I dropped low from my final spin, landed in a controlled slide, and let the momentum carry me beneath the beast. My blade flashed upward in a final strike, cleaving straight across its underside in a sweeping blaze that left an afterimage etched in gold.
I landed in a slide, spun, and raised my blade again. The floating horror spasmed midair, ichor dripping from its ruined tentacles. Its eye darted wildly, no longer tracking, no longer in control.
"Next."
Across the battlefield, a thunderous roar tore through the air as the moss giant reared up to its full, grotesque height. Both arms, thick as tree trunks and wrapped in vines, curled above its head like battering rams preparing to fall. Then they came crashing down toward Naru with the force of a collapsing mountain. She moved, but not fast enough. One of the strikes clipped her hard, sending her sprawling through a crumbling tombstone in an eruption of soil and shattered stone. She hit the ground hard and didn't rise.
The giant's hulking form twisted with a slow, grinding motion. It stepped forward, roots digging into the earth as it lifted both arms again, ready to smash her where she lay.
But then—
Iroha descended from the mist like a blade from the heavens. Her cloak billowed behind her, boots slamming down onto the creature's moss-covered shoulder. "Hands. Off. My Naru."
She didn't hesitate, didn't breathe.
"MAESTRO'S TUNNELLING NEEDLE!"
Her rapier flashing with charged light as she drove it deep into the side of its neck. The blade sank in with a metallic ring, then pulsed with raw force. Detonating a sonic shockwave that rippled through the giant's entire frame. Its limbs jerked. A visible tremor raced down its spine, cracking bark and tearing vines.
Before the giant could even react, Naru was already in motion. She rose with a furious roar, blood trailing from her mouth, and sprinted toward the beast without hesitation. At its knee, she planted her foot and launched upward, using the joint as a springboard.
"LICORICE PUNCH!"
Her body curled midair. Then uncoiled as she drove her fist squarely into the monster's gut.
The impact landed like thunder. A deep, echoing boom cracked through the cemetery as the giant's body convulsed. Its hollow chest caved inward. The roots beneath it writhed and tore free from the soil. And with a final, guttural groan, the moss giant toppled, slamming into the graveyard floor in an explosion of dust, leaves, and splintered stone.
The smoke cleared slowly, revealing two figures atop the fallen beast. One stood tall, twirling her rapier with a flourish. The other cracked her knuckles, blood dripping from one temple but grinning through her teeth like she'd just won a prize fight.
Iroha stepped forward, planting one foot on the monster's shoulder like it was a stage prop, and tilted her chin with theatrical flair. "And that is how you drop a tree," she said with a smirk, flicking the ichor from her blade in a wide, elegant arc.
But the toad wasn't finished. Its throat bulged unnaturally before its jaw unhinged with a sickening crack, and from the darkness inside its mouth came a swarm of spectral insects. Translucent, glowing things that buzzed with arcane rot and surged forward like a living bullet storm, headed straight for Rika.
I moved without thinking. Boots skidding over damp stone, I threw myself in front of her and raised my katana just in time. The air erupted with stinging impacts as I slashed and spun, my blade a blur against the chittering mass. Deflecting each tiny missile with blinding speed, like slicing rain mid-fall.
Behind me, the hum of magic faded.
"You didn't have to block those," Rika said quietly, lowering her staff.
"I know." My chest rose and fell. "But my body moved anyway."
I glanced back at her.
"You're someone worth not losing."
A pause.
Her eyes softened. Then a small smile, real and unguarded.
"Thanks for running after me," she said, barely above the wind.
I smiled back.
But the moment passed.
Her face turned, expression shifting as she locked onto the toad, now reeling for another attack. She stepped forward, shoulders squared, eyes burning with a deep electric blue. She raised one hand to the storm-washed sky while gripping her staff in the other, her expression focused and unshaken.
"Ready, Samurai?" she called out, the energy in her voice carrying as thunder rumbled overhead in answer.
I gave her a nod and surged forward into a sprint, the katana trailing behind me like a banner of golden light. Wind curled around the blade's edge as I shifted my stance mid-stride, no longer aiming to slash. This time, I would pierce.
"SUNKISSED SKIN SUNKEN SPIRIT"
With a powerful leap, I flipped through the air and drove my weapon straight into the toad's eye, burying the blade down to the hilt as the creature let out a distorted shriek that echoed through the cemetery.
"Now, Morisaki-san!" I yelled, keeping the weapon lodged in place like a lightning rod.
Rika didn't hesitate.
"WRATH OF THE BROKEN SKY!"
At that moment the clouds tore open. A pillar of lightning screamed down from the heavens and struck the blade, sending a blinding surge of electricity into the creature's skull. The energy crackled through its bark-armored hide, crawling across its back in glowing arcs before detonating in a violent burst of thunder and flame.
The shockwave flung debris in all directions as I was thrown backwards, rolling once before landing hard near a broken headstone. Smoke rose from the scorched crater where the toad had been, and when the mist cleared, only charred bark and twitching roots remained.
Rika strode toward me, lowering her staff slowly, her violet cloak still fluttering from the residual static in the air. "That's three down," she said with cool finality, eyes already shifting to the next threat.
She didn't see it.
A wet snap cracked through the air as the lizard-creature's tongue lashed forward. It snared Rika mid-step, coiling around her waist like a python and lifting her effortlessly into the air.
"Morisaki!" I shouted, springing to my feet.
Rika struggled, but the pressure was already tightening. Her staff slipped from her grasp, and her eyes widened as the tongue began to squeeze.
I leapt up, katana raised to sever the grotesque appendage but a second tongue fired from the beast's gaping maw and caught me midair. The blade slipped from my hands, clattering uselessly onto the stone below. I gasped, breath crushed from my chest as the muscular coil pinned my arms to my sides.
Iroha was already moving, but the creature anticipated her. Its tail whipped out like a striking serpent and slammed into her mid-stride, curling around her with terrifying speed. In seconds, the three of us were suspended above the cemetery floor like captured prey, limbs bound and breath vanishing fast.
Naru watched, frozen.
"Guys…?" she whispered, voice trembling.
She took a step forward. Then another. Her fists clenched. Panic rising.
We were struggling now. Rika's head slumped. Iroha's rapier hung loose in her fingers. I could feel my muscles giving in, vision swimming from the pressure. We didn't have long.
And Naru snapped.
"LET THEM GO, YOU OVERGROWN SIDE DISH!" she howled, slamming her foot into the ground and charging.
The creature hissed and sent a third tongue rocketing toward her, fast and brutal.
It struck the ground.
But Naru wasn't there.
The tongue twitched upward, confused… then something tiny raced along its length.
A rat.
Silver-furred, fast as lightning. Naru had shifted mid-run, now darting up the creature's appendage with needlepoint claws and gleaming eyes. The beast roared and tried to flick her off, but she launched again, midair, and twisted in a blur of motion.
The rat became something else.
Limbs elongated, spine curved, claws burst from fingers, and with a snarl of raw fury, Naru crashed onto the monster's back in the form of a snarling velociraptor, jaws sinking deep into its shoulder.
The creature screeched in agony, releasing me. I dropped. Hit the ground hard, rolled, grabbed my katana in one fluid motion and sprang upward.
One clean strike.
The second tongue fell in two twitching pieces, and Rika dropped from the air, limp and pale. I caught her just before she hit the ground, her breath shallow, her eyes fluttering. I lowered her gently, but my grip was already shifting back to the hilt. There wasn't time.
Above us, the lizard shrieked. Its body thrashing violently under Naru's relentless assault. With a sudden whip of its torso, it flung her off like a ragdoll.
But Naru stuck the landing with animal precision, her claws gouging deep furrows into the moss-slick stones as she skidded to a halt, crouched low like a coiled spring. In one seamless motion, she rose, spine arched, muscles flexing beneath her skin, her breath steaming in the cold air. Her lips peeled back into a snarl, not from pain or fear, but from something primal. Something ready to destroy. She didn't wait. She didn't hesitate. She bolted forward with terrifying speed, each stride more feral than the last.
That was when our eyes met.
Just a flicker of shared instinct, no words, no signals, just pure understanding exchanged in a single glance. I knew what she was about to do, and she knew I'd follow.
I pushed off the ground and landed on her back, knees bent and arms steady, riding the movement like a wind-carved blade drawn by fate itself. My katana hummed in my grip, catching the light of the storm above, the edge gleaming like a promise as it angled back over my shoulder. I anchored myself against her momentum, letting the force of her charge become my own, a single unit of flesh, steel, and fury tearing across the battlefield with unstoppable purpose.
Naru leapt first, jaws wide, and sank her fangs straight into the lizard's throat. The beast staggered from the impact, choking on its own blood as she clung to its neck.
I used the momentum, kicked off her spine and vaulted high. Spun once mid-air. My katana whistled through the mist like a falling star.
One clean slash.
The lizard's tail dropped behind us, severed mid-snap. I hit the ground, boots skidding, catching Iroha from the air as the tail thudded to the side, twitching with leftover nerve-fire.
But Naru—
She didn't stop.
Still latched onto the monster's throat, Naru began to change. It started as a ripple. Her muscles tightened, flexing with unnatural force. Then the ripple became a quake. Her body convulsed once, twice, and then the fur erupted, spreading in dark, thick waves across her arms and shoulders. Her spine cracked audibly as it elongated. Talons split and bent into claws. Her jaw flexed wider. Bones rearranged with sickening precision. The lithe raptor form crumpled away like a shell, replaced by something taller, heavier, monstrous.
She wasn't shifting anymore. She was awakening.
The full werewolf stood, breathing steam into the night air, a creature of raw strength and untamed fury. Her golden eyes blazed like torches beneath the mist.
With a low growl, she pulled her blood stained teeth from the lizard's mangled throat, only to lock her thick arms around its neck in a vice of muscle and bone. The beast writhed, legs scrambling, tongue lolling. But it couldn't break free.
Naru's feet dug into the soil like stakes. Her legs bent. Her back arched. Then she surged.
She lifted the creature clean off the ground, its weight straining against gravity for one suspended moment, then twisted, rotating in a full circle as if winding a storm around her. With a final roar, she brought the lizard down like a meteor, spine-first into the cemetery floor. The impact thundered across the graveyard. Gravestones split. Roots tore loose. Dust rose in a choking wave as the ground itself cracked beneath the force of the blow.
And when it cleared, she stood alone over the broken husk, chest heaving, claws dripping, eyes still burning.
The last echoes of the monster's fall faded into silence.
I sprinted over to Rika, who was still catching her breath, one hand at her throat where the vines had wrapped. Iroha dropped beside her, kneeling fast, brushing hair from her face with worry in her eyes. All of us were panting. Shaken. Alive.
Naru didn't move.
She stood at the edge of the crater, shoulders tense, ears twitching. Not looking at us — but beyond.
Scanning. Sensing.
"We're not alone," Iroha murmured.
Then… came the laughter.
Not the gleeful cackling from before, not the hag's shrill hysteria. This time, it started slow. Cracked and wheezing, like old lungs filled with swamp water. Then it deepened. Shifted. Lost its human pitch.
By the time it finished, it wasn't laughter at all.
It was mockery made divine.
The voice that followed was composed, clear… and utterly alien.
"All life bends toward stillness."
A glyph shimmered to life beneath the cemetery's central monument. Runes flickering in a sickly spiral of green and bone-white. The dirt split apart with a sickening crack, like the earth itself was being unzipped.
First came the tip of a scythe.
Then fingers, twisted and gray. An arm. Then another. And finally… the hag.
She crawled out or perhaps was pulled. Her limbs contorted in unnatural ways, like a marionette being dragged through water. Her spine bent the wrong direction, head limp and swinging from her shoulders.
And then... she floated. Limbs slack, toes inches from the ground, her frame eerily still except for the one hand clutched tight around the scythe's shaft.
Her face was pale. Mouth ajar. Neck twisted just a little too far.
She looked dead.
But her fingers moved. Her body swayed.
And the voice that followed didn't come from her throat.
It came from the scythe.
"You… and your heavenly delusions, each moment you shared lead up to the inevitable. Your collective demise."
A chill hit the air like a reversed heartbeat.
Iroha didn't look impressed.
"I hate you," she said, turning toward me.
"Wait, what?" I blinked.
"You set it up like she was the big bad, but nope… plot twist, she dies and the real villain takes over. Again. Like with the Fogfather. Rinse and repeat." She gestured lazily at the floating corpse.
"I wrote this arc in two days," I snapped. "Give me a break."
The scythe hummed. A slow, rising tone, like a choir note being tuned too high.
"Arise."
That one word dropped like thunder.
A surge of green-black energy burst from the scythe's tip and slammed into the hag's back. Her body jerked violently. Eyes shot open, glowing green, and her head snapped upright, mouth stretching into an impossible grin. Her chest heaved as breath returned to lungs that shouldn't work. Then she laughed again, the old laugh. Too wide. Too alive.
And two voices spoke in unison. "Your tale ends here, little ones."
"Uh oh," Iroha said, taking a step back.
Then the ground moved.
Behind her, the corpses of the fallen monsters twitched.
One by one, their eyes flickered open, glowing with the same green light. The moss giant's limbs twitched. The horned toad's belly convulsed. The lizard's broken jaw unhinged once more. Even the floating eyeball, now missing most of its flesh, began to pulse with new life.
And they moved.
Not individually… but together.
Their corpses lurched toward the center, not crawling, but folding. Shifting. Reforming.
Roots tore from the ground and wrapped around arms like sinews. The giant's chest became a torso, its bark rib cage cracking to form a twisted exoskeleton. The eyeball lodged itself inside the chest cavity like a false heart, veins curling outward to connect with tendrils and nerves. The toad's legs, bloated and gnarled, formed the hind supports, while the lizard's spine became a whipping tail tipped with bones.
The hag hovered in the center, arms outstretched, scythe still humming. Her body encased like a pilot in a necrotic throne, suspended mid-chest.
Naru, still in her werewolf form, bared her fangs. Her growl rumbled low, vibrating through the cracked earth.
"A corpse mecha kaiju." Rika says flatly.
"Okay that's really not good," Iroha said again, voice pitching higher.
She turned toward me slowly, wide-eyed. "Uhh… Dungeon Boy...? You didn't happen to write a part where we get four giant metal monsters that fuse into a robot and save the day, did you?"
"Genre mismatch," I muttered. "Not that type of adventure."
Rika pointing her staff toward the creature's chest. "There. Center of the mess. The scythe. That's the Hollow Voice ."
"No," Iroha said suddenly, voice colder. "We flushed it down the toilet."
Rika shook my head. "It all makes sense now. That wasn't the god. That was the vessel. The Hollow Voice is the scythe. A sentient necromantic artifact."
"Ah," Iroha nodded. "That explains why it kept vibrating even without batteries."
Rika didn't flinch. "Now it has a new vessel. This flesh-mech thing. And we need to separate it… fast."
"Good thinking, Honour Girl," Iroha said. Then she turned to me and smiled.
"Okay Dungeon Boy... what's the plan?"
And they all looked at me.
Bloodied, bruised, but steady.
Every pair of eyes burning with trust.
I looked up at the sky.
And I gripped my blade tighter.
"...Let's write a better ending."
The monster moved like a nightmare too big to wake from. Every step cracked stone. Every vine whipped through the mist like a limb that didn't belong. I didn't look at its full body anymore, just the way the earth broke beneath it.
But we were already in motion.
High above, Rika streaked through the sky like a blue comet. Firelight danced around her fingertips, and every time she blinked from one position to the next, a barrage of arcane fire slammed into the monster's warped skull.
"Morisaki-san. Take to the skies and rain hell. Keep its eyes up and focused on you."
And she did. A massive root arm swept through the air, nearly clipping her but she blinked again, sidestepping gravity like it was optional. A second later, a volley of radiant bolts smashed into the creature's left eye socket. It flinched.
Which meant Iroha had her window.
She danced across the monster's body like a blade spun by rhythm. Each step a beat, each movement a verse. Her cloak flared behind her like a trailing note, boots tapping across writhing limbs and pulsing armor without hesitation. She didn't run. She flowed, a flash of silver streaking up its spine, then down its arm, then around the shoulder in a spiral of motion too fast to follow. And when her rapier struck, the joint split with a raw, grinding rip, like sinew and stone tearing in protest. The whole construct staggered from the blow, its balance thrown off as if her precision had pulled a single thread that held the beast together.
"Iroha-san. Cripple it. Go for the joints, the hinges. Anything that moves, break it. Don't let that thing take a single step."
She spun, flipped, drove the blade along a crack in its ribs, then vanished behind its massive thigh, already heading for the next opening.
I didn't have time to follow her path, the vines were mine to deal with.
The vines came fast. Faster than anything that size should've moved. Lashing out in every direction like living whips. But I was already in motion, katana drawn in a clean arc that sliced through the first strike before it landed.
"That thing's going to lash out the moment you get close. Leave its defenses to me. I'll carve the path, and keep it clear for you."
I turned with the motion, pivoting hard to meet the next wave, carving down the vines that curled toward Iroha's flank, then again to catch the ones snaking toward Naru's back. Every blow was precision, not fury, a shield of steel and intent. I wasn't fighting to kill. I was fighting to deny. And as long as I stood between those limbs and my team, they weren't getting through. Not one inch. Not one strike.
Then—
A thunderclap split the sky.
A blur tore down through the mist.
Naru.
Still in wolf form. Massive, burning with untamed fury. She clawed her way up the monster's front like a living battering ram. Each step was a punch, a hammering strike that cracked bark and splintered armor, her claws sinking deep with brutal rhythm. She was breaking in. Trying to force her way to the heart by sheer momentum.
"That chest is guarding the scythe. Tear it wide open, Naru-chan! Show that thing what unstoppable looks like!"
She howled. Low, defiant. She bit down hard on a twisted root that lunged toward her throat, ripping it free in one savage jerk.
The monster convulsed. For a heartbeat, it reeled, teetering like it might collapse under her onslaught.
But then… the bark closed. The vines stitched. The open wounds rippled once and sealed, not like healing, but like the world itself was refusing to come apart.
"It's regrowing," I muttered. "Too fast."
Iroha dropped beside me, rapier dripping with glowing sap. She was panting hard.
"The walking bed frame is cheating," she growled.
I raised my katana again and shifted my stance. "Then we cheat harder."
I glanced at her. "Follow my lead."
She gave me a grin. "Right behind you."
We took off, sprinting side by side up the monster's moss-coated thigh, our boots hammering down in rhythm with the tremors shaking the battlefield.
And then… I started singing.
"Another fight to win..."
Her head snapped toward me, eyes wide. For just a second, she looked stunned. Then her expression shifted. A breath caught in her throat. Recognition bloomed across her face like sunrise.
Her grin returned: sharp, bright, knowing. And then she answered.
"Another wall to break..."
We surged upward, feet pounding against bark and bone as we climbed.
"No time to fall—" I sang, voice rising with the charge.
"No time to fake—" she echoed, her rapier glowing in her grip.
Vines snapped toward us from the monster's spine but before they could land, fire erupted midair. I looked up. Rika. Her staff flared, and the vines burned to ash before they ever touched us.
Together, we shouted: "This is the path we chose to take!"
We both began to glow. Golden energy pulsing from Iroha's voice, wrapping around us like a battle hymn. She lunged ahead, rapier outstretched.
"The world... the stars—" she sang, and drove her blade into the monster's underarm, piercing through like a needle through cloth.
I spun low beneath her, katana set ablaze. "The fight will be ours!" we shouted, arcing my blade through the opening she'd made. A single, perfect cut, and the arm dropped, severed in a flare of golden light.
The monster reeled.
High above, Rika twirled her staff, and the sky answered. A sphere of fire bloomed at its tip: dense, radiant, barely contained.
"WORLD SPLITTER SOLAR BREATH!" she called.
The miniature sun detonated into a single beam, screaming downward. It struck the earth first, burning a molten line through the soil, carving a glowing trench that split the battlefield open. Stone melted. Mist vaporized. The ground itself recoiled as the ray seared upward, arcing with impossible precision and seared clean through the monster's arm.
There was no explosion, only a hiss and a shimmer as the limb slid away, sliced with surgical precision. The severed arm thudded to the ground, trailing steam. The creature swayed, off-balance, smoldering and disarmed.
Above it all, Rika hovered in the firelight like a judgment passed.
"Quick, Naru!" Iroha shouted.
Naru didn't hesitate. She rushed forward, still in wolf form, grabbing Iroha by the waist. Iroha aligned her body like a javelin, rapier pointing forward.
"Honour Girl!" she called.
Rika's eyes flared. "Divine Armour!"
A radiant barrier wrapped around Iroha mid-flight as Naru launched her toward the monster's chest.
"Maestro's Tunnelling Needle," Iroha shouted.
The rapier detonated a pulse of force behind her as she flew. A sonic boom rocketing her forward.
"PRIMAL DAWN PIERCER!"
She tore through vines and bark, through the monster's chest cavity, and burst out the other side, leaving a gaping hole behind.
Within the opening, the scythe.
Exposed. Still anchored.
Naru leapt after her, eyes locked on the scythe.
But the monster reoriented, flinging a vine like a whip. It struck Naru mid-air, sending her crashing down. She hit the ground hard, transforming back into her wolf-girl form.
Rika's voice cracked across the field. "No! The hole's closing!"
And it was. The bark was curling inward, vines slithering like muscles trying to heal. The last trace of light around the scythe was vanishing into dark.
I didn't think.
I threw myself forward, wedging my arm into the shrinking gap. My fingers found the shaft of the scythe: cold, humming, alive. I gripped it with everything I had.
Then I pulled.
Nothing moved.
The artifact resisted like it was rooted into the monster's soul. Arcane force bucked through my arm, and pain flashed white-hot behind my eyes. I screamed. My feet skidded across the monster's slick bark, heels dragging. I dug in. Pulled harder. It still wouldn't give. My grip was slipping. I could feel something tearing, not the scythe, but inside me.
"Samu-chan!" Naru's voice cut through the chaos.
I roared and planted my stance again, using every ounce of strength, not just muscle, but memory. Every step that brought us here, every promise I hadn't said out loud.
"Come on!"
The scythe wailed.
And then—
In what it felt like the most last possible second.
It tore free.
A storm of soul-fire exploded outward, green and gold, screaming across my arm and chest like it was trying to burn its way into me. I was lifted off my feet, spinning, hovering. Weightless for a single breathless instant.
Below, the monster crumbled in on itself, the stolen limbs buckling without purpose. Its frame collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, crashing to the earth in a broken sprawl of bark, rot, and empty power.
And I floated above it all. Scythe in hand.
The heat of battle was fading. But my heartbeat wasn't.
I looked at the scythe. And the scythe looked back.
It didn't hum anymore… it whispered.
Not in words. In intentions.
My grip tightened. Not because I wanted to but because letting go suddenly felt... wrong. Like I'd be losing something. Like this thing in my hand was mine now. Had always been mine.
Something moved in the corner of my vision. A flicker.
"Dungeon Boy?" I heard Iroha's voice. Gentle. Close.
I turned toward her. Slowly.
"It's okay," she said, reaching a hand out. "We won, you can put down the scythe now."
I opened my mouth to answer but what came out wasn't mine.
"Why would I…"
The words were cold. Hollow. Like they'd fallen through my throat instead of rising from it.
My hand twitched.
The scythe hummed in my grip, low and alive, and my arm refused to let go. The warmth in my chest had drained, replaced by something colder. Something... vast.
I blinked once. The world felt too sharp.
Then I looked down.
There, just a few steps away, was Naru. Slumped in her wolf-girl form, chest rising and falling weakly.
The scythe pulsed. My eyes followed. And I stepped forward.
The glow from the blade turned green. My own vision tinted with it.
I began to descend.
Slowly. Weightlessly. Feet touching soil like a marionette lowered on invisible strings.
Rika descended from the sky just ahead of me, still alight with lingering arcana. Her staff glowed, her eyes wide with alarm.
"Stop," Rika's voice rang out from above. Tight, sharp, urgent. "Ranjiro, stop!"
I didn't.
My eyes were locked on Naru.
Iroha threw herself in front of me, arms wide, breath ragged. "No… stop. Please, please stop!" Her voice cracked, barely holding itself together.
Still, I walked.
She pressed her hands to my chest. Trembling, desperate, like maybe if she just held on tight enough, she could anchor me back to the boy who shared songs with her under classroom lights.
"Ranjiro," she whispered, eyes glassy. "Don't do this. You're not him. You're not this."
Her voice shook. Her fingers curled in over my chest.
And I didn't even blink.
I raised my hand.
And pushed her aside.
She hit the ground with a choked cry, landing hard.
Rika's eyes went wide, the spell she'd been forming broke mid-air. Her breath caught. The fear hit first.
Then fury.
"Ranjiro. Enough!" she shouted, sigils sparking to life around her. "I don't care what that thing's doing to you. This isn't who you are!"
But the blade was humming. My steps never stopped.
She launched a binding spell, golden rings lashing out like chains.
I raised the scythe.
The moment it lifted, Rika's body rose with it, suspended in a slow arc of gravity-defying magic. Her arms flailed, eyes wide. With a flick of the blade, she was hurled aside like a fallen leaf.
Her magic dispelled.
And I kept walking.
Closer now. Naru didn't move.
The scythe pointed down. Its green glow pulsed. Once, twice. Aimed at her chest.
She looked up at me.
No words. Just those big silver eyes.
And then—
"Iroha… DISARM!" Rika screamed from the ground.
Iroha threw her hand forward. "Disarm!" she cried.
Nothing.
The scythe didn't even twitch.
"Wandering Fog!" Rika yelled, and the world vanished.
Just like that.
Everything. Light, shape, sound. Gone.
Only fog remained. Dense. All-consuming. I couldn't see them. Couldn't see her. Couldn't see anything.
The scythe's glow dimmed. Faded. Died.
And in the white silence—
Warmth.
Something soft pressed against me.
Against my lips.
No sound. No warning. Just a stillness that bloomed across my chest like light through morning frost.
They were soft. Gentle. Certain. The kind that didn't ask for anything, only offered.
Arms slipped around my waist, drawing me close. I felt the curve of a body against mine, the soft exhale of breath brushing my cheek.
The world didn't move.
Only us.
The fog held its breath.
And something inside me loosened.
I let go.
A metallic clank hit the earth. The weight in my hand disappeared.
The lips pulled away.
I blinked.
The fog thinned. Sunlight spilled through the cracks in the sky.
Rot gave way to green.
The ground, once gnarled and pulsing, lay quiet beneath our feet.
Gravestones stood clean. The air no longer reeked of death.
And in front of me—
Three girls.
Alive. Watching.
I blinked, my chest still rising and falling like I hadn't caught up to the quiet yet.
"Uh… guys? What just happened?"
Iroha stepped forward first, her eyes glinting with something between exhaustion and warmth.
"We won," she said softly. "You're back."
"I guess I am… but how did I—wait, where's the scythe?"
I glanced around, scanning the ground.
Rika's voice answered, calm but certain. "It's gone. I can't detect its presence anymore."
I opened my mouth to respond—
WHAM.
Naru launched herself forward and kicked me hard in the shin.
"OW! What the hell?!"
"You almost killed me, dumbass!" Her voice cracked at the end.
I stumbled back. "Okay, okay. Point taken!"
But then I caught the way her fists trembled, the way her eyes didn't quite meet mine.
She was scared. Not of me. Of what had almost happened.
"I didn't… I mean, I didn't mean to—"
"We know," Rika said firmly, stepping beside her.
She didn't look mad. Just tired. Her arms were crossed, but her shoulders had dropped. She let out a long breath.
"You're back," she repeated. "That's what matters."
Silence hovered between us.
I looked at them, really looked.
All three had flushed cheeks. All three were watching me just a second too long.
But none of them said a word.
And none of them needed to.
Because for now, we were here.
Together.
Alive.
Then… light.
A spotlight hit us from nowhere.
The field flickered. The mist dissolved.
I turned, slowly.
And for just a second everything was still.
The lights above. The velvet curtains drawn.
And rows upon rows of faces, silent.
Watching.
Breath caught in my throat.
Not from fear. Not from panic.
Just the kind of disbelief that hits when reality finally catches up.
Then —
The audience stood at their feet, roaring in applause.
A standing ovation.
Spotlights hit us from all sides.
"I did not expect this," Naru mumbled, rubbing her eyes with her sleeve.
"We did it, Dungeon Boy," Iroha said, eyes on the crowd.
"We pulled it off," Rika added, voice quiet but sure.
I didn't know what to say.
So I just smiled.
The four of us stepped forward. Side by side.
We took each other's hands.
And bowed.
The crowd roared.
We did it. We actually pulled it off.
But somewhere in the back of my mind, behind the clapping, behind the lights, one thought refused to leave.
Wait a second.
Someone kissed me.
WHO THE HELL KISSED ME!?