Orario was noisy, chaotic, and filled with the kind of distractions that mortals clung to like lifelines — but the Dungeon was honest. It did not pretend to be safe. It did not try to entertain. It was raw, and bloody, and brutal. And yet, it welcomed her like an old friend.
Tsukihana Inariya's feet touched Floor 6 with a silence so perfect, the air seemed to bow with her.
The walls pulsed. The mossy glow dimmed.
Behind her, Bell Cranel hesitated.
"H-Has it always been… this quiet?"
Lili's sharp eyes scanned the eerie, empty corridors. "No monsters. No sounds. Just… cold."
Tsukihana smiled faintly. "Good. They remember."
Welf looked deeply unsettled. "They?"
"The Dungeon," Tsukihana replied, crouching briefly to brush her fingers against the floor. "It's not just stone and magic. It breathes. It remembers."
The moment her fingers touched the rock, the walls groaned softly — not with collapse, but with recognition. A shimmer of mana pulsed under her palm.
Bell, standing uncomfortably close behind her, could only stare. "It's like it's alive…"
"It is," she said. "And it knows who I am."
🐾 A Memory Beneath the Surface
A flash.
Stone halls soaked in divine blood. Screams in languages lost to time. Chains. Fire. A glowing blade melting through crystal. Nine tails, soaked in silver light, raised in defiance.
The last words of a dying god:
"You should never have been born."
Tsukihana blinked.
The vision was gone.
The air still trembled.
She stood up slowly, brushing invisible dust from her kimono. "Come on," she said, tail flicking behind her. "We have floors to descend."
The party pressed deeper into the Dungeon, and still, no monsters came. No goblins. No wolves. Not even the usual traps. Just long, silent tunnels that echoed with breath and footsteps.
Bell kept stealing glances at her. "Is this normal?"
"No," said Lili.
"Not even slightly," added Welf.
"I've never heard of the Dungeon doing this for anyone," Mikoto said quietly.
"She's not just anyone," Bell whispered, eyes wide.
🪞 Above, in the Tower
Freya stood at the balcony of Babel, wine untouched in her hand. She was staring toward the Dungeon entrance like a woman waiting for a lover who hadn't yet realized they'd been seduced.
"She walks the stone roads again," she murmured.
Ottar stood behind her, still as a statue. "Should we send someone to follow?"
Freya gave a lazy smile. "You think someone could?"
Ottar was silent.
"I wonder," Freya continued, voice soft as velvet. "How many gods remember her name."
🧊 Floor 7
They encountered their first monster two floors down — and it wasn't natural.
A warped kobold, twice the normal size, with eyes the color of moonlight and claws tipped in obsidian. It hissed something in a tongue Bell didn't understand, but Tsukihana stiffened.
Her voice dropped to a whisper. "That's not Dungeonspawn."
Before anyone could react, the monster lunged.
Bell stepped forward, dagger ready — but the air around him changed.
Tsukihana didn't move.
She simply blinked — and the monster froze in mid-air, as if caught in glass.
A ripple of shimmering foxfire bloomed from her shoulders. Nine spectral tails flicked once.
The monster dissolved into ash and petals.
Bell stumbled back, mouth open. "W-What was that?!"
"I warned you," Welf muttered. "She's not normal."
Tsukihana shrugged. "It was corrupted. Shouldn't have been here."
"Corrupted how?" Mikoto asked, eyes narrowed.
"Something… down there," she gestured below them, "is trying to reach back up."
🌀 In the Deep Floors
Chains rattled.
Not from iron, but from thought.
Far, far beneath even the deepest levels recorded, something stirred.
❝She walks again.❞
❝The path is open.❞
❝She forgot… but we did not.❞
A gate cracked.
Light bled through.
🏞 Back in Orario — That Evening
The party returned to the surface before sundown, disturbed and unusually quiet. Bell had questions — too many. Lili avoided eye contact. Welf muttered something about needing a drink. Mikoto prayed, softly.
Tsukihana, as usual, looked serene.
She stepped off the lift like a queen descending from her throne, and the Guild building's doors opened just as she approached.
"Ah," she said, smiling. "Miss Eina."
The half-elf receptionist blinked, startled. "Y-You knew I'd be here?"
"Of course."
Tsukihana stepped into the Guild with Bell at her heels, dragging a hand along the polished walls like a cat returning to its favorite temple.
Eina took one look at her and said, "You're not just an adventurer, are you?"
Tsukihana tilted her head, tails swaying. "Define 'just.'"
Eina narrowed her eyes, whispering as quietly as she dared. "You don't register. The system doesn't log you. No Guild mark, no divine binding. And yet you draw mana like a high-tier mage."
Tsukihana's eyes glinted. "I do many things."
Eina bit her lip. "Who are you really?"
Tsukihana leaned in, smiling gently.
"Let's just say… I'm what the gods stopped talking about."