chapter05 · 126-ep126
Episode 119: Kisaragi Dungeon
Karin thought she'd reached the deep-layer floor 2 boss room, only to find herself in the floor 1 boss room she'd already passed through.
【Hah?】
【Eh, this seriously IS the floor 1 boss room from earlier, isn't it?】
【I compared the images, and those marks of destruction are identical】
【What's going on, desu no??】
【Ojou-sama, did you possibly take a wrong turn?】
【Did she double back?】
【No way, right...?】
Comments expressing confusion at the utterly incomprehensible situation raced by.
More than a few suggested Karin had taken a wrong turn and doubled back, but that was impossible for Karin, whose exceptional detection skills took her directly to boss rooms even in unfamiliar areas. Besides, if she'd doubled back, she would have climbed the passage connecting the floors along the way, yet nothing like that had happened even once.
"I don't really know what's goin' on... but I shall try pressing onward for the moment, desu wa ne?"
As though deciding that thinking would get her nowhere, Karin continued past the boss room to resume her Elegant-conquest revenge stream.
And the farther she advanced, the more confused the viewers became.
"""KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIH!!!"""
Beyond the boss room appeared hypnosis bats, which should only inhabit floor 2. After Karin swept them away and entered the next boss room she reached—
"I began suspecting this along the way, but it truly is the floor 1 boss room again, desu wa ne?"
For the third time, the stream showed an empty boss room.
And the destruction Karin had left on the wall.
【Hah?】
【Again!?】
【Two boss rooms in a row with no boss AND the same damage!】
【Eh? Eh?】
【Seriously, what's happening, desu no!?】
【An irregularity!?】
【Can an irregularity even do this?】
【Whatever this is, Ojou-sama, you should turn back for now, desu wa yo!?】
The situation was now so blatantly abnormal that it could not be dismissed as some mistake.
Following the iron rule for anything strange inside a dungeon, the viewers urged Karin to retreat for the time being.
Karin also reasoned that she couldn't take Elegant revenge on the floor 2 and floor 3 bosses if they never appeared, so she followed the viewers' advice and turned back toward the surface.
But—
"...It is this room again, desu wa."
At the top of the passage that should have led to the lowest floor of the lower layers was the deep-layer floor 1 boss room—the empty hall distinguished by the wall Karin had shattered.
【Hah?】
【Hey, hey, hey, hey!?】
【If she climbed the upward passage too, there's NO chance she's only lost, right!?】
【Hold on, what?】
【Ojou-sama, aren't you looping?】
【Why!?】
【What's happening!?】
【Eh, what IS this? Isn't this seriously bad...?】
Now the viewers' confusion accelerated further.
But even that was only the beginning.
Karin continued toward the surface and twice, then three times, climbed passages that should have connected to the upper floor. Yet what appeared repeatedly was the empty boss room with its lingering damage, followed by the deep layers' endlessly sprawling caverns. No matter how far she advanced, she could not reach the lower layers, and deep-layer monsters appeared without end.
Moreover—
"—Hmph!"
As an experiment, Karin drew <Mongolian Desu-Worm> and sliced apart the ceiling of the deep-layer floor 1 boss room. Just as when she once saved Mitsuki and the others, she attempted to take a shortcut to the floor above through the section she'd cut out.
"Oah!? Incredible, desu no! It is the deep-layer floor 1 boss room yet again, desu wa!?"
When Karin poked her head out of the ground, the deep-layer floor 1 boss room spread around her once more. This time it even had the new hole Karin had just cut into its ceiling, and when she dropped a dungeon-wall fragment through the shortcut she'd taken, it fell out of the hole overhead.
The sight made even Karin's eyes widen... A section of the deep layers was looping completely.
【Haaaaah!?】
【Seriously, what IS this!?】
【Karin ojou-sama, don't start getting excited!】
【Eh, hey, what's actually happening here!?】
【No fucking way! What is this!?】
【Haaah!? It's seriously looping!?】
【I know dungeon depths apparently exist underground by distorting space, but this is...】
【I came because I heard there was some kind of uproar... Wait, is this real?】
【S-surely this must be some kind of trick, right!?】
【At this point, it can't possibly be fake OR her getting lost...!?】
【What IS this!?】
Dungeons might transcend the laws of physics, but even that should have limits.
The situation was so outrageous that a few people asked whether it might be some trick or performance, even though they knew Karin was not that kind of streamer... But those opinions soon vanished.
The monsters spawned as endlessly as the deep layers continued.
And at some point—their forms had changed into grotesque aberrations.
"A... gagagaga...!"
"GIGOGOGOGOGOH!"
"OAAAAAAAAAAH...!"
Hypnosis bats. Insect Warriors. Troll Grizzlies.
The monsters appearing were the same kinds that had inhabited floors 1 and 2 of the deep layers, but every one of their bodies had 'collapsed' horribly.
Some were covered in festering sores. Some had limbs growing from impossible places. Still others spewed sludge-like bodily fluids from every opening.
【Eek!?】
【What NOW!?】
【What are these disgusting monsters, desu no!?】
【Is this Resident Evil!?】
【Is this Silent Hill!?】
【H-hey, this isn't a fake video or anything like that!?】
Their forms, like zombies or creatures whose generation had glitched, assaulted the most primal sense of disgust. Even the viewers with experienced eyes recognized them as real and screamed.
"S-something disgusting suddenly appeared, desu wa!? I shall remove it from the screen immediately, desu no!"
DOPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!
"""GUGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIH!?"""
Fortunately, the aberrant monsters seemed more fragile than their original forms. One swing of Karin's fist instantly pulverized them into tiny pieces.
【Removing them from the screen (this world) is Lmao】
【Instant decision, instant pulverization, lololol!】
【Are they tragic monsters raised without knowing the concept of camera angles?】
【Ojou-sama just punched those disgusting things barehanded like it was nothing. Lmao】
【Why doesn't this ojou-sama hesitate at ALL after seeing that...?】
【This is the kind of ojou-sama who can kill a cockroach barehanded】
【Ojou-sama is the strongest! ...No, but seriously, what has been happening this whole time...?】
【Ojou-sama, is this really safe...?】
【Seriously, none of this makes any sense. What the hell has been happening...?】
But even Karin's overwhelming strength could not stop the viewers from voicing their anxiety this time.
Naturally.
Something blatantly resembling a loop had arisen inside a dungeon—and in the deep layers, no less. No matter how far Karin advanced, she could neither escape nor even proceed onward. Now grotesque monsters had appeared as well, making it seem as if Karin alone had been cast into another world... After one eerie development after another, an atmosphere of, "Wait, isn't this genuinely bad?" slowly began to spread.
"Phew. I have eliminated the disgusting ones for now, desu wa. But what in the world is truly happening? Nerima Dungeon was entirely ordinary when I scouted it beforehand... At this rate, all my plans for an Elegant-conquest revenge stream are ruined, desu wa."
Following the usual practice when an irregularity occurred, Karin revealed the dungeon's name and tilted her head, the only person still perfectly carefree.
And that was when it happened.
What in the world had happened to Karin?
Following the aberrant monsters' arrival, an 'answer' began appearing in comment after comment—an answer that heightened the viewers' fear further and even stripped away Karin's easygoing air.
【H-hey, Ojou-sama, this might not be the time to act that relaxed...】
【A looping floor and glitched-looking monsters...】
【Kisaragi Dungeon...?】
【H-hey, isn't this Kisaragi Dungeon...?】
【Hah!? No way!?】
【Kisaragi Dungeon!?】
【Whoa... I thought I'd seen those disgusting monsters somewhere before...】
【This is seriously the exact same situation as THAT traumatic video!?】
【Haaah!? The American government officially declared that one a fake video!】
【It gets discussed more on scary-story forums than dungeon forums, desu wa yo!?】
【Yeah, but this is...】
【Eh, hold on, if this is the real Kisaragi Dungeon, isn't Ojou-sama completely screwed...?】
"Kisaragi Dungeon? What is that, desu no?"
Karin noticed the phrase suddenly flooding chat and asked the viewers.
【An urban legend, or something like that】
【It was considered the number-one example of a fake dungeon video, but...】
【It's a pretty famous dungeon horror story...】
With a sense of hesitation, viewers explained through superchats and video links that it was a fairly famous dungeon ghost story—an urban legend.
Kisaragi Dungeon.
The phrase did not refer to any specific dungeon. More precisely, it was a popular name for a paranormal phenomenon that occurred inside one.
More than ten years ago—
America had been terrorized by an infamous explorer.
He was known as 'Mad Dog.'
The criminal was estimated to possess combat power approaching level 3000 and a unique skill resembling teleportation. Police, civilians, mafia—he chose no particular target as he rampaged wherever he pleased to satisfy his selfish desires, escaping every time without anyone managing to track him.
Then one day, he tried his hand at dungeon streaming, already a popular genre at the time.
Naturally, it was no proper stream.
He happened across an apparent beginner streamer inside a dungeon, punched them away, and stole their equipment. Then, while mocking the viewers who repeatedly reported and condemned him, he capriciously began imitating a streamer.
During that broadcast, something changed.
"That streamer brat could never make it this far," he sneered upon soloing his way to floor 1 of the lower layers. There, 'Mad Dog' suddenly became unable to escape the dungeon.
Exactly like Karin now, the same floor looped infinitely around the boss room.
Then grotesque monsters began appearing. By that point, the man was in a full-blown panic.
His vaunted warping ability had no effect whatsoever. Though he slaughtered the malformed lower-layer monsters with ease, the confident thug's face vanished. The footage cut off while he panicked with a haggard expression. Afterward, the trail of victims left by the 'Mad Dog' who'd rampaged across America abruptly ended, and his fate remained unknown.
The video spread amid an enormous uproar. Although the American government personally announced it was "a malicious fake created by an anti-dungeon organization" and most copies were removed, occult enthusiasts and others continued quietly uploading it as a famous horror video to this day.
Because the situation resembled being cast into another world, Japan named it Kisaragi Dungeon after the urban legend of Kisaragi Station. Until this very moment, it had been consumed as an ordinary fake horror video.
But... now that Karin had fallen into the exact same circumstances, nobody could laugh it off as fake.
【I looked up Kisaragi Dungeon. Isn't this bad...?】
【Someone uploaded the video on Twiitter, and the EXACT same thing is happening. I can't even lmao】
【The image quality is bad enough that it does look fake, but that man's screams are way too genuine...】
【O-Ojou-sama will be all right, won't she? Karin ojou-sama can handle it, right?】
【If that video is real, then even someone with a spatial unique couldn't escape!?】
【Hey, hey, hey, hey, I can barely believe this. Is Ojou-sama seriously going to be okay!?】
【Someone should call for rescue!?】
【Isn't this bad...?】
【No fucking way. Can an irregularity seriously be THIS nasty...!?】
A clear change came over the earlier confusion about what was even happening.
Viewers who'd apparently researched the horrifying urban legend and its uploaded video cried out over the anomaly's newly defined nature and the worst ending it suggested.
The same seemed true of Karin, who until moments ago had been speaking without a care.
"My... To think this was such an irregularity, desu no...!?"
Tension entered her expression.
Karin often dismissed internet posts as jokes or people getting carried away, but if a video existed that even she could detect was not fake, this time was different.
"Something like this occurred before, and somebody even went missing... In that case, as everyone says, this is no time to worry about my Elegant-conquest revenge. I shall seriously investigate a means of escape, desu wa ne!"
She declared it forcefully, as if to blow away the viewers' unease.
Then she once again proceeded Elegantly through the repeating deep-layer floor 2.
However—
Even after roughly an hour passed, Karin merely continued circling the same place... and the stream showed nothing but endless passages and battles with monsters that never stopped.
"Ah hah hah hah hah hah hah hah hah! Struggle all you like—it's useless, useless! Nothing you do will let you escape that pseudo-other-dimensional dungeon!"
While Karin investigated an escape from Kisaragi Dungeon—
Someone watched in delight and burst into mocking laughter.
A room inside a certain multi-tenant building.
Yoko Inukai had taken the day off from work. Together with ten subordinates, she had lain in wait inside this secret hideout, eagerly watching for Karin to fall into the trap.
"That seal casts its target into a malformed dungeon created in another dimension. Unlike an ordinary barrier skill, it isn't something you can destroy. After all, the pseudo-space exists in a spacetime separate from this one. No matter how completely you annihilate it with your absurd power and equipment—even if you use whatever equipment you made from that abyssal boss—it'll be meaningless. You were finished the moment you carelessly stepped inside."
She confidently declared her victory to Karin, still struggling inside the dungeon.
And it was only natural.
Kisaragi Dungeon.
Official name: Other-Dimensional Pseudo-Dungeon Generation Seal.
It was an other-dimensional seal constructed by combining three elements: a 'core' accidentally created as a by-product of insane dungeon research generations ahead of this country's; a close aide with a rare barrier-construction unique skill; and nine high-level explorer subordinates who supplied mana.
Even now, Yoko's subordinates sat in the room's corner with their eyes closed around a supreme magic item resembling a dungeon core, maintaining the seal. Rather than trapping the target, its effect was more akin to banishing them into another dimension ever so slightly misaligned from this world.
That was why it was impossible for any monster to destroy through brute force. Not because the seal was sturdy, but because it existed in a different dimension to begin with. Once someone stepped through the remotely placed entrance, there was nothing to destroy and no escape, even with a spatial unique skill.
Naturally, such a mighty seal could not be used without limit. Perhaps due to its outrageous power, activating it once apparently imposed an extraordinarily long cooldown.
In the dungeon-advanced nation of America, 'Mad Dog' had bared his fangs not only at security forces, but even at underworld organizations connected to Yoko's invasion sabotage force. They had experimentally used it to dispose of him while earning a favor from the American branch, only for it to become unusable for over ten years afterward. Yoko had begun to think it had broken or been an accidental, single-use creation... but whatever the case, she smirked at her tremendous fortune in its becoming usable again at this exact moment.
After all, she had finally eliminated the monster who seemed impossible to remove under the current circumstances—Karin Yamada, who would undoubtedly become the greatest obstacle in the invasion plan's final stage.
And eliminating Karin Yamada was not the only benefit Kisaragi Dungeon offered.
"Kufufu. Struggle, tremble, and rot away until the very end. Plant fear of dungeons into the entire world. How ironic. The greater the hope you've spread through your channel until now, the greater the despair your destruction will produce—and the darker the shadow it will cast over dungeon society."
Indeed. That was why Yoko Inukai had deliberately acted during a stream.
What would happen if Karin, who had shattered every obstacle through her absurd strength, rotted away inside a horrifying 'irregularity'?
The explorer profession would unquestionably lose momentum.
At least in this country, fewer people would seek to become explorers, reducing the chance of another monster like Karin Yamada being born. Even if that failed, the implanted fear of dungeons would undoubtedly impede the growth of explorers as a whole.
And that would increase the grand invasion plan's chance of success, leading Yoko Inukai toward her brilliant future.
"The 'last time,' America and every other country that couldn't distinguish an irregularity from our power suppressed the story with all their strength to avoid increasing fear of dungeons... But with Karin Yamada's fame and this number of concurrents, that won't be possible. Fear of the other-dimensional dungeon will undoubtedly consume the whole world."
The tremendous stomach pain and pressure she'd suffered until just recently had vanished somewhere.
Watching the stream comments flow across the screen, Yoko Inukai smiled with genuine malice from the bottom of her heart.
【Hey, hey, hey, no fucking way!?】
【How long is this seriously going to continue...?】
【Mitsuki-sama posted that she called a hundred times and sent a thousand messages, but it keeps saying out of service and nothing goes through. What does that mean when Ojou-sama can still stream...?】
【This is a genuine paranormal phenomenon. What the hell is happening!?】
【Every monster is still some deformed freak, and I'm starting to break out in a cold sweat...】
【I figured Karin ojou-sama would discover an escape right away like always, so what IS this...?】
【Can't she use whatever equipment she made from that abyssal boss?】
【If she isn't using it, she probably didn't make equipment with such a convenient function... Besides, this irregularity apparently trapped someone with a spatial unique too...】
【Hey, hey, hey, hey, aren't dungeons way too dangerous!?】
【Even if Ojou-sama has fusion-reactor fuel efficiency and secretly carries the meat Sharie-sama gave her, if this continues forever...】
【This is bad. My kid wanted to become an explorer because of Karin ojou-sama, but I'm stopping them with everything I've got】
【Everyone should calm down a little. If this is too much for you, stepping away from the stream for a while is also an option】
Just as Yoko intended, the sight of Karin still circling the same place after more than an hour had finally begun to inspire very real fear in the viewers.
Perhaps as a side effect of the extraordinary feat of generating a pseudo-dungeon in another dimension, the monsters produced inside the pseudo-space were grotesque aberrations. They were fewer and weaker than monsters in a real dungeon, but their designs alone were more than enough to provoke fear in both viewers and the sealed target. The pseudo-space also possessed other mysterious inconsistencies, perhaps because it originated from a unique skill: streams could be broadcast, yet calls and e-mails did not connect... Its eerily mismatched nature seemed to wear down the viewers' minds wonderfully, until fearful comments made up the majority.
Until Kisaragi Dungeon's name emerged around an hour earlier, the comment section had still possessed an air of, "Well, she's Ojou-sama, so she'll manage somehow." But after watching Karin swallowed by the abnormal dungeon, fear now ruled it completely.
Worse yet—
【【Breaking News】 Sharie-sama has arrived at Nerima Dungeon and is apparently destroying the deep layers, but she seriously can't find Karin ojou-sama】
【There are records of Karin ojou-sama entering Nerima Dungeon, but she's not inside. Is that real...?】
【This is bad. Apparently Honoka-sama brought detection-specialist Anti-Dungeon Division members, but Karin's presence abruptly vanishes in front of the floor 2 boss room. There's an uproar at the entrance】
【Hey, hey, hey, hey】
【Are you serious!?】
【I was inside Nerima Dungeon, but an irregularity alert sent me rushing out, and police and media are seriously gathering everywhere】
【Whoa, it's real】
【The news is starting to cover it too...】
【Hey, is Karin ojou-sama genuinely missing!?】
【The fact that Mitsuki-sama hasn't appeared in chat shows how serious this is...】
【Sharie-sama is supposedly rampaging, but there's no sign of that in Karin ojou-sama's stream whatsoever...?】
【Did she seriously enter another spacetime or something!?】
【A real-life spirited-away case... If even Karin ojou-sama can't deal with this, isn't it way too dangerous...?】
【The situation is so bad that nobody is even commenting on Sharie-sama's rampage...】
【Eh, hold on, can things THIS bad happen in dungeons...?】
【Can we only watch Karin ojou-sama weaken and die like this...?】
Karin's endless wandering through the deep layers was becoming an enormous uproar. Explorers who appeared to have been inside Nerima Dungeon at the same time and spectators alike shared information in chat and on social media.
Whether they intended to report the current situation and call widely for help or merely craved attention, they were stoking fear of dungeons beyond even Yoko Inukai's expectations.
It was better than expected. A success beyond even the ideal outcome.
"Fufu, kukuku! The monster who unified a continent can rampage all she likes—it's useless, useless. The dungeon exists in another phase. Not only can its occupant not escape, but outsiders cannot even detect its existence. This seal is literally dimensions apart from the ordinary barriers you mediocre humans know. Karin Yamada, your ridiculous strength and deranged growth potential nearly twisted my stomach apart... which only makes me happier I could seal you away here. Farewell. Let your tragedy contribute to our prosperity."
The corners of Yoko Inukai's mouth curled up like a crescent moon, painting a cruel smile across her beautiful face.
—That was when it happened.
"Hm? The concurrents suddenly increased while I was concentrating on detection... and the comments seem different too. What happened to everyone, desu no...? Wait, eh!?"
"Hm?"
Karin had suddenly glanced at the comments on her phone and made a dumbfounded noise.
She fiddled with her phone, eyes wide, then her face turned pale as the blood drained away.
"Eh, hold on, why has this become such an uproar, desu no!? The news!? The police!? I am missing!? Hold on, my social-media DMs are nothing but Mitsuki-sama, and Sharie-sama is doing WHAT, destroying the dungeon!? ...Wait, ah!? Could I have neglected to mention it—or rather, does everyone believe I cannot escape from here!?"
Karin's voice rose into something resembling a scream.
"I-I am terribly sorry for causing such a commotion, everyone! I was so focused on detection that I seem to have completely forgotten to say this, but I found a likely means of escaping ages ago, desu no! It is only that if this irregularity has occurred before, I thought I should establish an escape method simple enough for someone with merely passable detection skills, like Mad Dog-sama, to use as well... I am currently verifying that method, so please do not worry!!"
【Hah?】
【Hah?】
【Hah?】
【Hah?】
【Hah?】
"........................................................................Hah?"
"E-eek!? Th-this news footage truly shows the entrance to Nerima Dungeon, desu wa!? D-did my carelessness cause all of this...!? I-I have done it now, desu no...! I made everyone genuinely worry, which is terribly un-Elegant, and caused such an unbelievable uproar... Ugh, my stomach is cramping..."
As Karin trembled over the news footage on her phone and clutched her stomach... dumbfounded voices escaped the viewers—and Yoko Inukai, whose smile had frozen solid.
――――――――――――――――――
I spent nine thousand Japanese characters just on the buildup, desu wa...
And the author ojou-sama tilts her head at why so many villains have dog-themed names.
Incidentally, Karin ojou-sama's internal organs are Karin ojou-sama's internal organs, so they can hurt Karin ojou-sama too, desu wa.
※Also, I haven't managed to reply much, but thank you all for the reports that you purchased book volume two and for your impressions, desu no! I'm delighted that you enjoyed the newly written content too, desu wa!
Also, acrylic-stand preorders from Melonbooks-sama's online store close today at 11:59 p.m., so please don't forget if you have yet to order, desu no!