{One Month Later}

  The multiple-choice question stared back at Suzume from her laptop screen.

  "Which of the following best describes the process of cellular differentiation?"

  She clicked option C without really reading it. The online exam would auto-submit in twenty minutes anyway, and she'd already secured enough points to pass.

  Her studio apartment was quiet except for the TV murmuring in the background. Some news anchor droned on about traffic patterns while Suzume worked through her biology midterm at the tiny desk that doubled as her dining table.

  [Should probably pay more attention to this.]

  She glanced at the framed photo beside her laptop. Her and Akane from last summer, Suzume pressing a reluctant kiss to her sister's cheek while Akane grinned at the camera, throwing up a peace sign. They'd taken it at some Player fan event Akane had dragged her to.

  Suzume sighed. She allowed herself one of these per day now. Any more and she'd never get anything done.

  Back to the exam. Question 47 of 60.

  "—breaking news from Shibuya where the unstable dungeon portal that claimed twelve Players' lives last month has finally stabilized."

  Her fingers froze over the keyboard.

  "After weeks of monitoring, the Dungeon Management Bureau confirms the portal's energy readings have returned to safe levels. Recovery teams will enter this afternoon to retrieve the remains of the Players trapped inside during the catastrophic destabilization event."

  The exam timer kept counting down. 19:32. 19:31.

  Suzume turned toward the TV.

  Footage showed the familiar Shibuya intersection, now permanently scarred by the swirling purple vortex that hadn't closed in a month. Yellow tape and concrete barriers formed a hundred-meter perimeter. Protesters held signs demanding better safety protocols.

  "Families of the victims have been notified and will be permitted to receive their loved ones' remains once identification is complete."

  Her phone buzzed. Mom.

  Mom: They called. Can you meet us there at 3?

  Suzume: Yes.

  She looked back at her exam. Thirteen questions left. The words blurred together. Photosynthesis. Mitochondria. The building blocks of life.

  She clicked through the remaining questions at random and hit submit.

  ---

  That Shibuya intersection looked smaller in person than it did on TV.

  Suzume stood with her parents behind the police line, watching recovery teams in hazmat suits prepare to enter the portal. Other families clustered in small groups, some crying, others staring with the blank expression of people who'd already done all their grieving and were only looking for closure.

  "They said it might take a few hours," her father said quietly. He'd lost weight since Akane died. Well, they all had.

  Her mother said nothing, clutching her purse like it might fly away.

  The first team entered at 3:17 PM. Suzume knew because she kept checking her phone, needing something to do with her hands. The crowd fell silent except for the occasional sob or whispered prayer.

  At 4:45, they started bringing out the bodies.

  Black bags on stretchers, carried with professional detachment by workers who'd probably done this too many times. A Bureau official with a tablet checked each one, calling out names for identification.

  "Tanaka Jun."

  A woman's wail cut through the air.

  "Yamamoto Miku."

  An older couple stepped forward, holding each other.

  "Aoi Akane."

  Suzume's legs moved before her brain caught up. Her parents flanked her as they approached the stretcher. The official unzipped the bag just enough to show a face.

  It was Akane. But also it wasn't.

  Death had stolen everything that made her sister shine. The confidence, the warmth, that insufferable grin. Just empty features that looked too small, too still.

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  "Is this your daughter?" the official asked gently.

  "Yes," her mother whispered.

  They rezipped the bag.

  "Her personal effects are being held pending investigation," the official continued, voice carefully neutral. "The Bureau needs to determine exactly what happened in there. You'll be notified when items can be released to the families."

  "How long?" Suzume heard herself ask.

  "Could be months. I'm sorry."

  They started wheeling Akane away. More names were being called. More families stepping forward.

  "What about her phone?" Suzume pressed. "She always recorded her runs. There might be—"

  "All devices are evidence. I understand this is difficult, but—"

  A commotion erupted near the portal. Another recovery team had emerged, gesturing frantically. The official hurried over, tablet forgotten on a folding table.

  Suzume didn't think twice.

  [Fuck that.]

  Her hand shot out, snatching a familiar phone from the evidence box beside the tablet. Akane's case, cracked but unmistakable, with that stupid anime girl sticker she'd been meaning to remove.

  She slipped it into her jacket pocket and kept her face blank.

  Her parents were watching Akane's stretcher disappear into a Bureau van. They didn't see. Nobody saw. Everyone was focused on whatever drama was happening at the portal.

  The phone felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.

  ---

  Back in her apartment, Suzume sat on her bed with Akane's phone in her hands. The battery was dead. Of course it was. A month in a dungeon would do that.

  She plugged it into her charger and waited.

  The lock screen showed 47 missed calls, 112 texts, and a battery warning. Suzume knew the passcode. Akane used the same one for everything, her birthday backwards.

  Most of the messages were from before. Friends asking where she was. Guild members wondering why she'd gone dark. Their parents, increasingly frantic.

  But there were videos in the camera roll. Videos dated after the stream had cut out.

  Suzume's thumb hovered over the first one.

  [Do I really want to see this?]

  She pressed play.

  The video was shaky, poorly lit. Akane's face filled the frame, dirt-smudged and exhausted but alive. So alive it made Suzume's chest hurt.

  "Okay, so... shit. The portal's definitely sealed. We've checked everywhere." Akane's voice was steadier than her hands. "Most of the party's dead. It's just me, Yui, and Kenji now. We found a safe room. Relatively safe anyway. Those things don't seem to come here."

  She panned the camera around, showing stone walls carved with symbols that glowed faintly. Two other Players sat against the far wall. The healer, Yui, had her eyes closed, golden light flickering weakly around a wound on her leg. Kenji stared at nothing.

  "We're going to rest here and try again. Find another exit. There has to be one, right?" Akane forced a smile. "We have to be quick about it. Any enemy we run into could be fodder or a literal nightmare, now. I'll be home soon."

  The video ended.

  Suzume played the next one.

  Timestamp: six hours later.

  "Kenji's gone." Akane's voice was flatter now. "He said he was going to scout ahead. We heard screaming about ten minutes later. So it's just me and Yui now."

  The camera showed the healer sleeping fitfully. She looked smaller than before.

  "I'm saving phone battery, so these'll be short. But I wanted to..." Akane paused. "If someone finds this, tell my family I'm okay. Tell them I'm being smart about this."

  Another video. Two days later.

  "Yui died."

  Just that. Akane didn't elaborate, didn't show the body. Her face had changed. Sharper angles, hollow eyes.

  "I found some water. Tastes like metal but it's something. Still looking for another exit."

  Three days.

  "I think I'm going in circles. The walls keep changing. Or maybe I'm just... I don't know." She laughed, but it sounded wrong. "I keep thinking about that time Suzu got lost at the mall when she was eight. Cried for twenty minutes before I found her by the fountain. She was so mad I'd left her behind."

  Five days.

  "There's something following me. Not the big ones from before. Something else. It doesn't attack, just... watches. I can hear it breathing sometimes. I wasn't close enough to see its level but I don't want to risk it. No way something like that is low-level."

  Her sister looked skeletal now. The confident Player who'd bounded into Suzume's room a lifetime ago was gone.

  "I should save battery but I can't stop recording. It feels like... like if I stop, I'll disappear. Nobody will know I tried."

  Seven days.

  "Mom, Dad, I love you. I love you so much." Tears tracked through the dirt on Akane's face. "I'm sorry I was such a pain. Sorry I tracked mud through the house and stayed out late and made you worry."

  She wiped her nose with a filthy sleeve.

  "Suzu... fuck. I promised you drinks. I promised a lot of things. I'm the worst sister."

  Eight days.

  "I can't find the safe room anymore. Everything looks the same. I think... I think this is it."

  Akane sat against a wall, camera propped on her knees. She looked directly at it. Through it. At Suzume.

  "I wanted to tell you something. That day you were born, I was so jealous. Six years old and suddenly I wasn't the center of attention anymore. But then they let me hold you and you grabbed my finger with your tiny hand and I just... knew. I was going to protect you forever."

  She closed her eyes.

  "Guess I fucked that up too. You'll have to protect yourself now. Be better than me, okay? Study hard. Become a doctor or whatever. Live a long, boring, safe life."

  A sound in the distance. Stone grinding against stone.

  "Shit. It found me."

  The video cut off.

  Despite the awful note, there was one more video. Ten days after the portal sealed.

  The camera barely focused. Akane's face was, at this point, basically a skull with skin stretched over it. Her voice came out as a whisper.

  "Still here. Don't know how. Ran out of water yesterday. The thing that was following me... I think it's playing with me."

  She tried to laugh. It sounded like paper tearing.

  "I used to be so strong. Level 21. Phoenix Guild prospect. Now I can't even lift my daggers."

  The video ended.

  Suzume stared at the black screen. Her hands were shaking. When she touched her face, it was wet.

  [Ten days. She survived ten days after the dungeon became unstable.]

  The phone slipped from her numb fingers onto the bed. She looked at her desk, where her biology textbook sat next to scattered exam notes. The ordinary life she was pursuing.

  Outside her window, the city lights twinkled like stars. Somewhere out there, Players were streaming their dungeon runs. Fans were cheering. Guilds were counting their profits.

  And nobody was coming for the ones left behind.

  Suzume wiped her face with her sleeve, just like Akane had in the video. Then she picked up the phone again and watched them all again.

  By the third viewing, she'd stopped crying.

  By the fifth, something else had taken its place.

  Not grief. Not anymore.

  Something harder. Something that had some teeth to it.

  The Bureau would investigate. They'd find exactly what the guilds wanted them to find. The portal had been unstable. Tragic accident. Nobody's fault. New safety measures would be proposed and quietly forgotten.

  [... Is that really okay?]