Chapter 95: The Corridor Filled with Banshees
Seeing that, Yuuki Asuna frowned.
"Necro, why don't you come back first? If they've already issued a warning, and you keep going, won't you get attacked?"
"That's possible."
Iwanaga Kotoko nodded. Her deep purple eyes lingered on the darkness ahead. She lifted a foot as if she meant to continue, then paused. In the end, she only shook her head, turned around, and started walking back.
Asuna barely had time to relax when she saw it.
Less than five meters behind Kotoko, a figure began to crawl out of an oil painting.
A filthy white dress, smeared with streaks of paint. Bare feet. Long black hair spilling forward like ink, hiding everything except two eyes filled with malice.
It crept after Kotoko, step by step.
Asuna and Kato Megumi's pupils contracted. Both were about to shout a warning, but Kotoko raised her left hand without turning around.
A silent gesture.
Be quiet.
With her back facing it, Kotoko looked like she hadn't noticed anything. The malicious ghost, however, didn't seem to notice Kotoko's signal at all. It simply followed behind her, closing the distance with slow, deliberate steps.
Seven meters. Five meters.
When Kotoko was only five meters from the living room door, the ghost finally stopped. It seemed to confirm she truly wasn't moving deeper into the corridor, and slowly began to turn back, as if returning to the oil painting it had crawled from.
Just then—
Crack.
Kotoko swung her cane up and swept a framed oil painting straight off the wall. Glass shattered loudly, breaking the corridor's silence and freezing the ghost mid turn.
"Oh dear," Kotoko said sweetly. "I'm really clumsy."
She tapped her head lightly, stuck out her tongue, and smiled, playful and cute.
Hat Mita, who had been waiting obediently, immediately copied her expression and gesture like an eager mimic, as if competing to see who could be cuter.
The moment Kotoko broke that frame, the malice in the ghost's eyes thickened. Before it could move, Kotoko raised her cane again and, without even pretending to be accidental, smashed another painting.
The ghost finally snapped.
It opened its mouth and released a sharp, grating shriek. Dirty hands stained with paint shot forward as it lunged straight at Kotoko's back.
"Violet, help me!"
"Coming."
Kotoko bolted two steps, then dropped into a squat in one smooth motion.
As she lowered herself, a longsword flashing with cold light entered the ghost's vision.
"Stinger."
A blinding burst erupted from the tip of the Exorcist Longsword and crossed three meters in an instant, piercing the ghost's shoulder.
Asuna hadn't missed.
It was simply that—
"Leader!"
"Okay."
Asagiri watched Asuna's dash carry her right up to the ghost and spoke softly.
"Kings Gambit."
In the next second, Asuna vanished. Asagiri appeared where she had been.
The ghost's eyes flared with even deeper malice. Yet it didn't attack Asagiri, even with him right in front of it. Instead, it twisted around, trying to retreat into the oil painting it had emerged from.
"Human Asura."
Before it could take a step, two black, spectral hands seized its shoulders.
"Ahhhh!"
The instant it was grabbed, the ghost unleashed another shriek, even more piercing than before. The framed glass of the paintings on both sides shattered at once.
Dozens of oil paintings crashed to the floor together.
And in the next moment, just like the first one, dozens of paint stained banshees crawled out of the fallen canvases.
"Called for companions, huh…"
Yuuki Asuna frowned and surged forward without hesitation, moving with the same clean brutality Asagiri had shown in the hotel Dungeon. Her Exorcist Longsword flashed.
Limbs severed.
She grabbed the banshee's long hair with one hand and dragged the limbless body toward the living room door.
Several of the newly emerged banshees rushed Asagiri.
"Netherworld Grip."
Before they could reach him, a pale, enormous ghost hand reached out from the void. Its fingers closed.
Crush.
Those banshees were pulverized, their mournful screams cut short as they burst into pieces.
"Leader!"
Hearing Asuna call, Asagiri turned and saw she had already dragged the banshee, now reduced to a human stick, into Hat Mita's living room. He immediately had Human Asura hold the corridor line while he sprinted for the apartment door.
But when he was less than two meters away, a trembling black hand like liquid ink stretched out from an oil painting on the floor and lunged for his ankle.
A cold flash cut through the air.
Kato Megumi, who had appeared at the doorway at some point, held an ominous deep purple dagger. Her expression was calm as ever, but her movement was decisive and clean.
She drove the blade straight down into the ghost hand's palm.
"Hurry and get inside," she said softly.
After the last Dungeon, Megumi had clearly changed. Even now, her voice stayed gentle and steady.
Asagiri and Megumi crossed the threshold together. Hat Mita hurriedly slammed the door shut and even braced her shoulder against it.
Yet the moment the door closed, it felt like two different worlds had been separated.
The banshees' shrieks vanished instantly. The entire room fell quiet again.
Hat Mita stared at them, wide eyed.
"What… what were those things?"
Megumi stepped forward two paces, watching Hat Mita carefully.
"Mita, have you never seen them before? You didn't even know they existed?"
"I don't know…"
Hat Mita shook her head, nervous.
"At first, I didn't even know there were other places in this world besides my home. This room was my whole world."
A faint loneliness slipped into her voice.
Yuuki Asuna felt a tug of sympathy and was about to say something, but Hat Mita suddenly brightened again. She hurried to Asagiri's side and resumed that cute swaying motion.
"But as long as Player stays with me, even if it's just this one room, I'll be satisfied!"
Asuna and Kotoko both looked visibly displeased.
Before either could react, Megumi moved silently, like a shadow, stepping between Hat Mita and Asagiri and separating them.
"Mita, we can't fully trust you yet. Please stay a little farther away from him, okay?"
"Huh?"
Hat Mita blinked, seemingly only half understanding. She stared at Asagiri, like she was trying to read the answer off his face.
"That's enough," Asagiri said lightly. "This is a Dungeon. If you want to fight over me, do it after we get back."
Then he looked at the limbless banshee, still held by its hair in Asuna's grip. It wasn't screaming anymore. It only stared at everyone with eyes full of malice, like it wanted to tear them apart with its gaze alone.
Asagiri walked over slowly.
Asuna understood immediately. Like handing over a plastic bag, she lifted the banshee by its hair and passed it to him.
"Can you speak?" Asagiri asked.
The banshee stayed silent, eyes fixed on him, hatred so thick it felt almost physical.
Slap!
Asagiri raised his right hand and struck it hard across the face.
Because Asuna was still holding it by the hair, the limbless body swung back and forth like a pendulum after the blow.
"Woohoo! Woohoo!"
Hat Mita clapped excitedly from behind, eyes shining.
"Let me hit it, let me hit it! It looks so fun!"
"Go ahead," Asagiri said.
Under the slightly speechless gazes of Kotoko, Megumi, and Asuna, Hat Mita stepped right in front of the banshee.
A hard baseball bat appeared in her hands.
She adjusted her hat with one hand, twisted her hips like she was lining up a perfect swing, and brought the bat crashing into the banshee's waist.
Bang!!!
The force was so ridiculous the banshee's body snapped into motion like a yoyo. Its long hair, still serving as the string, wrapped around Asuna's hand with the arc before the body dropped and kept swinging.
"Woohoo! Home run!"
Asuna couldn't help asking, half confused, half curious.
"Mita… are you not scared at all?"
Hat Mita tilted her head.
"Scared of what?"
Then, as if she had answered her own question, she smiled sweetly.
"Oh, I get what you mean. But it's fine. As long as Player is by my side, I'm not afraid of anything!"
Asuna let out a helpless sigh and pressed a hand to her forehead.
"Alright, alright. I get it. You like him. Can you stop announcing it every thirty seconds?"
She honestly didn't know what to do.
Logically, as Asagiri's official girlfriend, she should be jealous. She should be angry. She should be ready to declare war.
The problem was, Mita was clearly built like an NPC in a dating sim. And technically speaking, the four of them were the intruders here, barging into her territory and dragging her into this mess.
Asuna looked at Hat Mita, swaying cutely like nothing in the world could touch her, and felt the ache in her temples deepen.
This Dungeon was genuinely torturous.
.....
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