[If something outside had scared Kuroi that badly, then what the hell was at the door?]

[On the corridor side, you heard every bit of that aborted scream.]

[Your expression stayed calm. You turned your head slightly toward the door and spoke in a flat, controlled voice.]

[You paused.]

["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."]

[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.]

[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.]

[The struggle lasted only a few seconds, but it felt cruelly long.]

[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.]

[The deadbolt sounded painfully loud in the silent corridor.]

["Have you lost your mind!? Why are you opening it!? He’s obviously a bad... per... son..."]

[The gap widened, and the corridor came into view.]

[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.]

[It all flooded her eyes at once.]

[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.]

[Kuroi looked up at you.]

[Which was insane, considering the hallway behind you looked like a butcher’s nightmare.]

[Kuroi bit her lip hard enough to taste blood, forced her thoughts back into order, and nodded.]

[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.]

[These two had hit the limit of what their minds could take. One more push and they might actually break.]

[After everything they had already seen, making them share a sealed metal box with a mutilated body would have been too much.]

[The three of you stepped inside, and the elevator began its smooth descent.]

[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.]

[She swallowed.]

["Those people... the dead ones in the hallway... did you really kill all of them?"]

[No hesitation. No attempt to soften it.]

[Cold and brutal but also true.] 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

[You held the plump black-and-white figure out to Riko.]

[Your voice softened as much as you could manage.]

[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.]

[She had actually been wondering about it since the corridor.]

[In its own way, it was almost more unsettling than the bodies.]

[She looked down at the round face, at the lazy dark circles around its eyes, and murmured in a daze.]

[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.]

[The air inside the elevator froze.]

[One full second passed in absolute silence.]

[Her scream was so sharp it felt like it might peel the elevator off its cables.]