Chapter 190: Elevator Shaft
"Tch... So narcissistic. And isn't that basically the same thing?"
Yuuki Asuna shot back first, then reached down to rub her left leg with a quiet sigh.
"My left leg is still sore and weak. At this rate, I probably need at least another hour before it fully recovers."
"It's fine. There's no need to rush."
Kato Megumi comforted her gently, then asked with curiosity,
"By the way, that mental patient Ms. Sakurakawa mentioned earlier, the one who keeps searching for a bride... do either of you remember him?"
"According to the game data, it should be Eddie Gluskin, nicknamed the Groom. In the original plot, he was tall and strong. Of course, he was nowhere near Chris Walker's level, but he still had a lot of physical power."
The moment Yuuki Asuna finished speaking, Iwanaga Kotoko immediately hugged her chest and pretended to shiver.
"Oh dear, that's troublesome. A graceful beauty like me, with such elegant looks, will definitely be targeted by him. Alas, but my heart already belongs to someone. I have given myself to one person alone..."
"You're overthinking it."
Yuuki Asuna glanced at Asagiri, and despite herself, a trace of amusement entered her voice.
"That guy wouldn't be interested in you."
Before Iwanaga Kotoko could flare up, Yuuki Asuna added at once,
"Of course, he wouldn't be interested in me or Phantom either, because the bride he wants is a man."
"Huh?"
Iwanaga Kotoko and Kato Megumi were both stunned.
"That guy... likes men?"
"No."
Yuuki Asuna shook her head and explained, trying hard not to laugh.
"The bride he wants is not a man, but a woman made from a man. Because of the abuse he suffered as a child, his psyche is seriously twisted. He both hates women and longs for them, so the brides he chooses are all men. Then he personally turns those men into women. As for how he does it... I'm sure you understand."
"Ah... this..."
The moment the two of them turned to look at him while holding back laughter, Asagiri chuckled calmly.
"Go ahead and laugh. If he really cuts it off, none of you will be using it anymore."
The three girls reacted in completely different ways.
Yuuki Asuna's pretty face flushed red at once. She gave a small spit of embarrassment and muttered under her breath,
"He's making dirty jokes again..."
Kato Megumi, by contrast, kept an almost indifferent expression and only commented flatly,
"I wasn't using it before either..."
As for Iwanaga Kotoko, her face changed as if she had just heard the most horrifying thing in the world. She clenched her fists, her expression resolute and unshakable.
"No. Absolutely not. I will never allow that man to defile my treasure. I will stake everything I have to protect my most precious possession!"
"You really do get fired up over the strangest things..."
Yuuki Asuna shook her head helplessly, then let out a soft sigh.
"We're currently on B3. Hodell is in Area C on B2. That means we need to go up one floor to find him, let Leader turn him into a Persona, then continue through B1 to get back to the surface. After that, we still have to escape from the buildings above ground to complete the Dungeon. During all of that, we're definitely going to run into obstruction from the mental patients. And it's also possible... we might encounter the headquarters personnel mentioned in that diary. Based on everything we know so far, there's a high chance they're from Black Watch."
"Black Watch, huh..."
Even the usually carefree Iwanaga Kotoko's expression grew serious.
None of the three of them had ever faced Black Watch in person, but just from Asagiri's description and the fragments of evidence they had gathered across several Dungeons, it was enough to understand how terrifying that organization was.
Every member of Black Watch was a carefully selected elite. They possessed formidable combat ability and were nearly immune to fear, hesitation, and confusion. Most of them even had mental strength high enough to resist Alice's exclusive skill.
A military organization like that was on an entirely different level from the mobile units of the Anti Demi Human Special Operations Group.
"If we were taking the ordinary Player route to clear this Dungeon, we probably wouldn't run into Black Watch at all. At this stage, most Players who meet them would just die without even being able to resist."
After hearing Asagiri's words, Yuuki Asuna pursed her lips, her expression heavy.
"But... if we still plan on finding Hodell along the way, then that means we aren't taking the ordinary Player route, right?"
Asagiri nodded.
"Right."
The atmosphere instantly turned a little heavy.
Then Kato Megumi suddenly spoke in a soft voice.
"It's only Black Watch. They're the sort that can be crushed with a flick of the finger. There's no need to worry so much."
The moment she said that, Asagiri, Yuuki Asuna, and Iwanaga Kotoko all stared at her with strange expressions.
Kato Megumi froze for a second, clearly flustered.
"Wh... what's wrong?"
"You just..."
Iwanaga Kotoko asked tentatively,
"Were you imitating Leader?"
"Pfft..."
Yuuki Asuna could not hold it in anymore and burst into laughter. Looking at Kato Megumi's slightly reddened face, she waved her hand.
"Sorry, sorry... It's just that with your usual image, lines like that really don't suit you at all. It's too funny..."
"Sigh, Phantom."
Asagiri shook his head, looking profound and inscrutable.
"In the domain of coolness and showmanship, you still have much to learn."
Kato Megumi: "..."
One brief moment of stepping out of character, exchanged for a lifetime of mortification.
She silently swore to herself that she would never imitate Asagiri's cool act again.
...
A little later, inside the large hall on the third underground floor.
"Clang!"
The moment a cute twin tailed girl stepped forward, a sharp iron railing shot up from the ground and pierced straight through her abdomen, pinning her body to the nearly four meter high ceiling.
"That stings a little..."
Even with her stomach completely skewered by the jagged metal, Crazy Mita still sounded completely calm. She just looked down at Asagiri and the others by the railing with a speechless expression and sighed.
"I mean, I don't really mind, but can't you switch it up sometimes? Hat and the others can scout too, you know. You're obviously just bullying me."
Asagiri walked over to the iron railing, grabbed it, and bent it apart with brute force, opening a gap large enough to pass through.
"It's because you're hard to kill. If a Persona gets destroyed, I lose stamina and mental strength."
Hearing that, Crazy Mita let her head droop weakly, then deadpanned,
"Ah, I died."
"Stop making terrible jokes and come down already."
"Sigh. Black hearted boss."
Crazy Mita shook her head, casually snapped off the railings stuck through her body as if they were toothpicks, then floated back down to the ground. The wound in her abdomen healed at visible speed.
Along the way, she had truly suffered quite a lot. Iron railings through the stomach, trap pits packed with spikes, walls full of hidden darts that turned her into a pincushion. Every time the four man team advanced, she was pushed to the front. Compared to carefully checking every step, this method was much faster.
"It's an elevator..."
Seeing the old elevator behind the sliding iron gate not far away, Iwanaga Kotoko walked over to examine it. When she noticed the call button was still lit, she asked,
"It looks like it still works. And this seems to be the only way up. Should we take it?"
"Wait."
Asagiri slowly walked over, pulled the iron gate aside, and braced one hand on the edge as he leaned his body out into the elevator shaft to inspect the space above.
"The elevator car seems to be on the second floor above ground. Roughly thirty meters up from here."
After checking the position of the elevator, he studied the inside of the shaft more carefully.
It did not look like a normal elevator shaft at all. There were no maintenance ladders, no side ledges, nothing reliable to brace against. It was impossible to tell how the elevator was operating in the first place.
"Strange power...?"
Asagiri made a rough judgment immediately.
This elevator was probably the same as the metal pot from before, the one that produced water out of nowhere and made the human head inside vanish. In other words, it was another phenomenon maintained by the supernatural power of this place.
Which raised an important question.
Who in their right mind would trust an elevator powered by strange force?
Yuuki Asuna walked over to his side, looked into the shaft as well, and came to the same conclusion.
"With our physical ability, everyone except Necro should be able to climb the shaft directly by driving our weapons into the wall for support. If we really had to do it, you could carry Necro up. But... rashly entering the elevator shaft while we're suspended in midair with nowhere to brace ourselves is too dangerous."
"Agreed."
Asagiri glanced downward into the darkness below.
"The bottom is about fifteen meters down. A fall from that height wouldn't kill us, but don't forget, the deepest level underground is where the source of Kyozan Mental Hospital's strangeness is located. If we fall into that area, it may not be easy to get back out."
"Then... do we still press the button?"
"Press it."
Asagiri gave the answer immediately, then added softly,
"Get ready to fight. In any horror story, danger always appears at moments like this."
"Okay. Got it."
Iwanaga Kotoko took a breath, then pressed the up button.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then a harsh, rusted screeching sound suddenly came from inside the shaft, the sort of metal grinding that made one's teeth ache.
Yuuki Asuna tightened her grip on her rapier, her expression turning tense.
"This sound is way too loud..."
The moment she said that, all four of them simultaneously remembered the public Dungeon hint.
[Please remain quiet and do not attract the attention of the Mental Patients.]
.....
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