Hollow crane, Level 11,Boxing Gym.
{The 11th floor was cloud white with tiles and all, a pitch white room in short.}
A thick finger pressed the call button beside the elevator door.
The display above blinked:
7… 8…
A group of broad-shouldered men in gym shorts and taped wrists — boxers, all muscle and no patience. Their knuckles cracked in anticipation as they gathered near the entrance of the lift.
"As soon as it opens, we jump him," one said, rolling his shoulders. "Don't give him a damn second."
"Heck yeah!" another echoed.
"Right hook—BAAM! Uppercut—BOOM! We save the young lord, easy!" The loudest of them — a blonde man with a thick mustache, all energy and zero brains — threw mock punches in the air like a cartoon.
"Yer damn right," someone muttered.
He froze mid-punch, frowning at the elevator.
"Only if this stupid door wasn't in the way. It's killin' our rhythm."
Then his expression brightened — a stupid idea forming fast.
"Wait. That's it. The door's the problem."
He turned toward the corner of the room, where a lone janitor sat hunched beside a cleaning cart.
"HEY, Gorro! Get over here! Do your thing — get rid of this door!"
The janitor — Gorro — didn't move for a second. His mask-covered face tilted up slowly, eyes dull with exhaustion. He muttered something under his breath about being done for the day.
"Hey!" the boxer barked. "Protecting the young lord's your duty too, janitor-boy!"
With a groan, Gorro pushed himself up and grabbed his cleaning cart. "I don't get paid enough for this," He groaned as if woken from a nap, joints popping as he stretched.
He shuffled forward, dragging his battered janitor's kit on its squeaky wheels. The boxers watched, murmuring among themselves.
Goro parked the trolley by the elevator. His hand slid inside, pulled out a long dry broom. Without a word, he began to sweep the elevator door.
As Gorro swept the door seemingly disappeared with it, one of the young boxers among the group looked in awe, he thought to himself "it just vanished??"
With three clean sweeps the entire door vanished, now with the door gone the inside machinery of the elevator was being visible, the ropes and the balance weight and stuff.
Considering the work being done the young boxer stepped forward to take position again, , but the mustached boxer placed his hand over his shoulder.
"Hold up, kid. He ain't done yet."
Gorro switched tools — pulling out his mop and dipping it into the bucket. Then, with slow, deliberate strokes, he mopped the thin air as if mopping an invisible door present there.
The mustached boxer leaned close to the younger one's ear.
"The broom must be followed by the mop," he whispered. "That's what seals the deal."
Gorro continued his precise strokes.
Caption:
Name: Gorro
Affiliation: Regular blue collar worker(not affiliated with anything.) Nero Ability: "Janitor's kit."
Hollow crane, Level 12, Canvas.
{ A partly finished floor with few windows from which light poured into the dark room with concrete walls with beams still visible. a floor only accessible through an elevator, meaning there was no stair facility to that floor from above or from below but the stairs of level 11 and 13 directly connected.}
Moments earlier.
An elevator technician in that dark room kept messing with the elevator calling button on that floor with his screw.
"Dammit out of all the people that could have done the regulation check, why did they have to send me??" he thought as he looked tensed as the eerie feel of the room spooked him.
The place felt wrong.
Like the walls were watching him.
Whoosh.
A sudden cold brush of air passed behind his neck.
He spun.
Nobody.
"…Nope," he whispered, voice trembling.
He hurriedly closed his toolkit.
He jabbed the elevator call button repeatedly.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
He kept hearing whispers in the seemingly empty room.
Sweat slicked his palms. His breaths turned shallow.
He yanked an inhaler from his pocket — pressed it —
but nothing came out.
"What…? Not now—"
He tried again — still empty.
His knees buckled.
"Haaah… haaah—!"
Eyes watering, fingers shaking, he slammed the call button desperately…
…until his legs finally gave out.
His body slumped sideways against the concrete, breaths fading to ragged wheezes.
Silence swallowed the room.
Hollow Crane, Level 11 — Boxing Gym.
The boxers were still crowding around the elevator entrance, bouncing on their heels, waiting for the lift to arrive.
From below, faint metallic thuds echoed up the shaft—then came the sound of struggling, crashing, and… screaming.
The red digits above the door flickered:
…10…
…11.
The elevator arrived with a ding.
Except—there was no door. Gorro had wiped it away minutes ago.
The boxers' eager faces turned stiff as they peered directly into the moving lift.
A voice came from inside "huh the shaft is open on this floor?, strange."
As the boxers got excited and moved their bodies ready to jump the man inside.
The first thing they saw was a man in a black suit collapsing forward. His throat was slit clean open, blood spraying in short, violent bursts. It splattered across the tile—and across their stunned faces, excitement gone and awe covered their faces.
Then came another figure—
Jinta—tied up, thrown out of the lift like a sack of trash.
Kaito's voice came from inside, low and bored:
"...I'm done with you." saying so he put his sword back into the sheath.
Before anyone could react, the elevator hummed and began to rise again, vanishing upward into the shaft.
Kaito's voice came from inside again:
"Oh almost forget, there you go." he said as he took jinta's black needle which was tucked behind his ear and flicked it out through the open elevator shaft as the lift went up.
While the cut throat man fell onto the floor helplessly trying to crawl away from the lift as the blood kept spraying out of his neck and groaned and mumbled gibberish
"Ghrrr—khhh… AAHHHHH Huhhh."
The boxers stood frozen in their fighting poses, blinking with their faces covered in blood trying to process what just happened.
Jinta, lying on the floor, thrashed weakly, yelling, "Untie me! Damn it, untie me! I'm drenched in blood here!"
The cut throat man crawled past the group of boxers groaning in agony before the sweet death finally occurred to him.
"gahhh…..argghhh."
Behind them, a low growl rumbled.
They turned.
Gorro stood by his cleaning cart, veins bulging across his temple, fists trembling. Even with the surgical mask on, his fury was clear.
His freshly polished white tiles were now splattered red.
He glared at the blood pooling across the floor, at the corpse half-sprawled in it, at the crimson splatters creeping toward his freshly cleaned tiles.
"I just wiped this floor," he muttered as his eyebrow flickered, voice rising slightly. "Just wiped it."
Inside the Elevator.
The elevator hummed as it climbed.
Blood streaked the steel walls. A few corpses lay slumped in the corners—faces twisted, tongues hanging out, eyes rolled white.[(a song being heard all along on the elevator radio.)
From the ceiling speaker, a crackly old Bollywood tune chirped:
"Eena… meena… deeka…"]
Kaito sighed.
"…Well. It sure got crowded in here …" Kaito looked up "...what's with this song??" he said. He immediately clicked on the music button near the floor display to switch it off, the speakers went silent with faint static noise.
The elevator display blinked:
11 → 12
"Only three more floors," he thought to himself.
The hum of the lift filled the silence for a few seconds.
The elevator jerked slightly—then stopped.
A soft chime rang.
Ding.
Kaito's eyes lifted toward the opening doors—
—and froze.
A technician in uniform lay collapsed on the concrete just beyond the threshold — body twisted awkwardly.
But what stole his attention was the eerieroom.
The concrete walls were covered in demonic uncanny paintings.
Distorted faces stretching into impossible smiles.
Shadowy limbs dripping into the floor.
Animals twisted into humanoid parodies.
A thousand eyes painted across pillars, all staring back.
Hollow Crane, Level 11 — Boxing Gym.
The chaos had quieted.
Jinta had been dragged a few feet away from the pool of blood, still tied up from shoulder to ankle like a bundled corpse. A few of the dumber boxers crouched beside him, fumbling with the knots.
"Hold still, damn it—these ropes are like steel!"
"I am still!" Jinta barked back. "You're just bad at it!"
"You dimwits over there.." he said looking at a few boxers bent down near the lift opening looking for something. "....you better find my black needle, i can't control it with my hands tied up this hard." he said looking back at his hands tied together with his legs on his back.
Across the room, the mustached boxer wiped blood from his cheek with the back of his hand and pulled out the walkie talkie.
He thumbed the button, voice rough:
"Yo, 14th floor. This is Level Eleven. Young lord's been rescued. Repeat—young lord secured. Target's still in the lift."
In the background, Gorro was already back at work.
He muttered curses under his breath as he mopped up blood from the tiles.
Each wet drag of the mop echoed through the white room, his movements sharp, angry.
Inside the Elevator.
The air was heavy.
Kaito stood in the middle.
He exhaled slowly.
"…What the hell was that?" he remarked about the eerie floor.
The elevator display blinked.
12
As the doors of the elevator closed on that floor.
Hollow Crane, Level 13 — Lower Kitchen.
A line of chefs stood by the elevator entrance.
Not cooks — killers in aprons.
One gripped a cleaver, another twirled a carving fork between his fingers. Others held pans, scissors, boning knives — whatever was sharp enough to kill.
At the front, a middle-aged man with a bandana tied tight around his head cracked his neck, eyes fixed on the rising elevator light.
"Positions, boys. Our customer's about to arrive."
A hulking man, muscles bulging beneath a single apron — and nothing else (he is butt naked except the apron)— molded a lump of flour into a perfect heart with his giant hands.
He grinned dreamily.
"Heh… I just hope he's pretty."
Caption:
Name: Roberto Affiliation: Beggar clan, LGBTQ rights club president
Nero ability: "Dough of affection."
Next to him, a lean blond with his hair slicked back, a yellow jacket tied loosely around his neck, flicked a few drops of oil from his fingers onto the ground.
The floor hissed where they landed.
"Pretty or not… I'll make him sizzle."
Caption:
Name: Diddy Affiliation: Beggar clan
Nero ability: "Oil up."
A short chef with a tight white uniform and a bandana, his front teeth poking slightly out of his mouth, juggled vegetables in his hands like a circus clown.
He chuckled.
"Tch. Long as he don't mind a little extra boom in his salad."
Caption:
Name: Chop Affiliation: Beggar clan
Nero ability: "Veggie Bomber."
The middle aged man with bandana licked his thumb, ran it along the edge of his knife, testing the sharpness.
He smirked.
"Alright, boys. When the door opens…"
"We serve the special."
Inside the Elevator.
Kaito straightened, hand on his sword, ready to unsheath it.
The lift had slowed — just enough for him to feel the approaching stop.
He glanced at the glowing display:
…12… → 13.
He could sense them on the other side — heartbeats, breathing, steel edges trembling with anticipation.
Both sides were eager for the doors to open up.
Moments Ago — Hollow Crane, Level 14 – Grand Kitchen.
The scent of spice and smoke hung thick in the air.
Sanjay leaned against a gleaming counter, walkie in hand.
"Yo, 14th floor. This is Level Eleven. Young lord's been rescued. Repeat—young lord secured. Target's still in the lift."
Sanjay smiled, slow and pleased.
"Fantastic," he murmured.
He turned to the man beside him — Zaffer, dressed in a chef's coat with two braids.
"Do your thing."
Zaffer smiled, "That's all I wanted to hear." saying so he swayed his hand towards the far end of the floor where the elevator's entrance stood.
A huge kitchen knife appeared right there piercing through the elevator shaft.
The ropes of the elevator pulley snapped.
Back at level 13
"Here we go again," kaito muttered, partly unsheathing his sword, ready to slaughter the people beyond the elevator doors.
But then—
A sudden jolt.
A sound like thunder.
The floor beneath him jerked .
The corpses around him — blood spiraling upward like red ribbons.
Kaito's eyes narrowed, a quiet "huh" escaping him.
He could feel it in his stomach now — that hollow pull.
The realisation hit him
The elevator was "Freelyfalling."
NARRATION:
"9.8 meters per second squared — the value of acceleration due to gravity, given by Sir Isaac Newton."
"That was the speed with which the monk was moving toward his impending doom."