Chapter 9

This is a blessing in itself. They fought, valiantly, and almost died. They met someone. They kicked a bunch of trophies away to make some space in the corner—which Taku, due to his unparalleled and creative mind, called a love nest. And after spending the past ten minutes in complete silence to make sure that no new monsters will come by or respawn, they finally sat down.

Teri wiped a single tear from his face and embraced the good ol’ corner. With a pair of indestructible walls at his back, it was natural to push himself deeper into it, snuggle his backpack, and make his comfort zone real.

Yayoi raised a brow, her eyes digging into him. Much to his surprise, the bloodlusted bravado she had earlier seemed to be gone.

Teri replied with a lopsided smile and hugged his backpack tighter. “You refused the corner. Now it belongs to me—”

“I’m not so easy,” Yayoi replied. “And I’m not gonna let myself be cornered by two weird men.”

“And here I am. Very tight. Very comfy. I might even find myself sleeping. Who knows?” Teri forced a chuckle. Being sandwiched by a backpack and a sturdy wall made him feel a bit braver. “And I see you. How’s your back, princess?”

“That’s none of your concern.”

“Of course it is.” Teri smiled wider. “Shrimp. Folding chair. Corporate slave with back problems—”

Yayoi got on her feet and marched towards Teri, her eyes burning red and her legs wobbling at every step. “I was contemplating earlier if I should leave you both alone or kill you in your sleep since Taku here is really nice, but maybe I should kill you now and take that damn corner for myself.”

“No!” Teri hugged his backpack tighter like a spoiled child. He’s taking some stray cringe damage. But he committed himself too far into the bit that he couldn’t look afraid even if he could feel the wind moving around them.

“Wait, me too?” Taku asked, noticing the air literally and figuratively, still keeping his head down and doing some calculations to perfectly break the bread three ways.

Yayoi paused.

Taku beamed Yayoi with a 10,000,000 megawatts of positive vibes and grinned at Teri like an asshole. “See, that’s how you talk to people.”

“Bitch,” Teri joked.

“Dick.” Taku laughed back and proceeded to perfectly fail to break a single piece of stale bread into equal three pieces. He tossed the biggest piece to Yayoi, who managed to catch it, and threw the smallest piece to Teri. He also brought out his waterskin. “We have a tight ration of water, so help yourself in any way you can—just be careful. And I promise you, Teri is not gonna be weird about it.”

“Thanks.” Yayoi sighed. She stretched her back, combed her hair with her hand, and finally sat down to feel the wall’s comfort beside Teri. “It’s not below me to appreciate such kindness,” she said to Taku. “And for Teri…” Yayoi took a bite of her bread, keeping her head still. “I have nothing to be thankful to you about, so keep hoping. Maybe even look forward to it.”

“Look forward to it?” Taku beamed even more, so hard that his body seemed to transcend into a living star for three good seconds. “Does that mean you’re going to stay?”

“I’m thinking about it.” Yayoi chewed her food slowly, her eyes strained by Taku’s sheer energy. “No. Actually. You two are technically the first two decent people I’ve met ever since I woke up in this dungeon.” She grabbed Taku’s waterskin. After giving herself a moment to think, she decides to just fuck it and drink the water carefully with an indirect kiss.

Teri looked at Taku and then at her. “It certainly feels like a compliment. But man, that must’ve sucked.”

“Yeah…” Taku continued, his tone serious and professional as his eyes darted from his waterskin to Yayoi’s lips. “I’m not saying that our group was fine and all. But what happened?”

Yayoi took a larger bite from her bread, her grim eyes now on the floor. “Some asshole decided to go full gangsta and forced out his own harem.”

Taku’s radiance snapped into a black hole. His eyes were serious, rounded. He locked eyes with Teri for a second and placed his focus back to her. “I see.” He started bleeding from his nose.

“Mind sharing what happened?” Teri followed up, seeing that his best friend seemed physically, mentally, and emotionally incapable of continuing the conversation.

“We… I died and woke up in this place. I found myself in a room of about twenty people—I didn’t get the chance to make a more accurate count.”

“Twenty sounds about right,” Teri commented, “but did you—”

Yayoi punched Teri in the shoulder. “I didn’t.” She took another bite off her bread. “We all woke up knowing that we were supposed to be dead. The thought probably broke him. There was this guy. Average in height. Small frame. Black hair. Innocent face like a girl’s. He decided to go to the biggest person in the room and beat him within an inch of his life. Then, he asked us to either submit ourselves to him—body and soul—or leave with nothing. I was one of the very few that left. I went through a few rooms and avoided those dolls as much as I could until I got lucky and found a way to defend myself.”

Taku glared at Yayoi, still deep in thought. “About the harem…”

“I went back to our starting room, thinking that maybe they’ve moved on and I could try to look for things they left behind. But no. They turned that into their base. And by the time I was about to open the door, a lot of people were moaning loudly and screaming in pleasure at the same time.” Yayoi sighed. “Is that enough detail?”

“So, that’s how you do it…” Taku touched the floor with his open palm and breathed to express his rage. “Motherfucker beat me to it.”

“What?”

“You were the biggest person in the room, Taku,” Teri interjected before Yayoi’s imagination stirs even more. “But it’s good to know that they’ve established that as their homebase. We can go out of our way to avoid them.”

“Yeah,” Taku added, tears welling up in his eyes. “We shouldn’t make contact with them. And I don’t think my super radiant aura of friendship could work on that bland-ass horny bastard.”

Teri patted Taku’s shoulder. “Now you’re just being too mean on purpose.”

“I hope that guy stubs his toe. And just when it’s about to heal or when he’s about to recover, he would stub it again,” Taku continued. “No, actually. Hah! I can just wish him dead. Like actually choke on some dick stuck on his throat and die!”

“Sorry…” Teri mouthed to Yayoi. “Its the first time for me to see this, but he gets oddly passionate about things sometimes.”

“Speaking of the starting area…” Yayoi finished her bread. This time, she looked at Teri. It was subtle, but a sense of worry stained her face. “Was there a girl, a bit less tall than me but with long braided twin tails and glasses? She’s wearing a blue hoodie.”

“I’m not sure, why?” Teri asked.

“No, she’s not there.” Taku added, bleeding even more from his nose. “I’m sure of it. If she was there… I’d remember.”

Yayoi gazed at them both, pressing her back against the wall and gripping her wrist tight. Her eyes were steady, but her lips weren’t. “I’m looking for my sister.”