First "dungeon" ends this chapter, woo hoo...
Kinda short, but I've been feeling down so I didn't try and push the word count.
Anyway, enjoy!
As soon as Naoki and company were back to the locked door, it was time to try and figure out what to do again. None of the groups really found what they needed, as far as they could tell… So they were back to square one.
"Did you guys at least find something?" Naoki held out his jacket. "I mean, I found this just sitting in a chest…"
Tadano pulled a bowtie from a pocket and nodded. "This was about all we found on our hunt."
"I…" Kazuya held out the bloody apron, trying to fight back the memories it brought up. "Found this."
As soon as they all held them out, though, something weird started happening. The items began to glow and morph in their hands. It almost looked like they were being melted into new shapes, but they weren't even warm…
When the glow finally faded away, the items were replaced with simple blocks of varying sizes. At first it really didn't seem to make any sense, but that's when it clicked in Kazuya's mind. These blocks, they were…
"I think these go in the door!" He ran over to it, shoving his block into the middle indent. Perfect fit. "You guys do the same with yours and I think we'll be through!"
"That so?" Naoki gave a snort as he pushed his into the largest indent on the bottom. "They do fit…"
Tadano frowned as he approached, slowly sliding the smallest into place. "Let's be careful about whatever lies beyond here, then."
Kazuya gave a nod. "I think we're all ready to go in…"
"Let's hurry this up a bit." Jimenez spoke up from the middle of the group. "We don't have all day to be standing around, you know!"
"Agreed!" Takeshi nodded, arms crossed. "There's nothing to discuss if we can go in. We healed up, so there's nothing to worry about."
Tadano stepped in first, holding up a hand to try and stop the others from entering. "Wait, this one is dangerous!"
Kazuya peeked over his arm and frowned. Standing there was a blonde girl, her skin a light blue and her eyes red. She was clinging to two dolls and smiling at the people who had made their way into the wide room… But when she saw Kazuya, her face twisted into a frown.
"It's… It's the big kid who wouldn't die for me!" She stamped a foot against the ground, eyes welling with tears. "And then he killed Mr. Red and Mr. Black…!"
"Wait… Are you talking about me?" Kazuya pointed to himself with a frown. "I-I… I didn't do anything to you! I've never seen you before."
"You did, though! You did, you did…!" She wailed, shaking her head from side to side. "I just wanted you to die for me! I asked you nicely!"
"I-I don't know you!" Kazuya shook his head. "And I'm sorry, but… If you were to ask someone to die for you, would you really expect them to say yes?"
"Yes!" She nodded, sniffling. "Because if you died we could've stayed together forever and ever and ever!"
"I… I'm sorry then…?" Kazuya really didn't know what he was supposed to say… He'd never seen this little girl before and now she was talking about him refusing to die and killing others…?
"Really? You mean it?"
"Y-Yeah…"
"Then…" She swayed a bit from side to side. "Will you die for me?"
After a long fight full of trying to defend Kazuya from Alice's direct attacks on him, the group had won. For someone so small and cute, she sure was still tough… Almost as bad as when Tamaki refused to give her the gem she'd found in a magic box.
"So… It really doesn't seem like anything changed, huh?" Tamaki turned to Chiaki and sighed. "That sucks, doesn't it?"
Chiaki frowned. "It's annoying, but that just means we'll have to keep searching for a way back, I guess…"
"You're right!" Tamaki slapped a hand on her shoulder. "Let's work hard!"
"Let's…" Chiaki casually brushed the hand away. "But let's try not to waste too much time, alright? We should get back, heal up, stock up, and move on."
"We can't exactly move on if we don't know where to do…" Hallelujah sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "Guess we're gonna have to try and hunt down another place to explore, huh?"
"Well, sure… But let's wait on that!" Hiroko walked up to him, ruffling his hair. "Rest and recovery needs to come first, or we might end up dying for another demon."
"Ah, yeah… Good point." Hallelujah nodded. "Guess we should get back and figure out how to heal up, then."
"Everyone!" Tadano's voice caught their attention. "Let's go! Stay close and we'll try to avoid as many demons as we can on our way out."
"Got it!"