"Chirp~ Chirp~"
"Hah, hah~"
"W-what's going on? How is this possible… Where is this?"
The young girl suddenly sat up on the hospital bed, as if she had just had a terrifying nightmare. She was breathing heavily, her face filled with panic.
That girl was none other than Ryuju Momo, the young mistress of Tokyo's yakuza organization, the Dragon Pearl Group.
Ryuju Momo looked around and frowned.
She remembered that she had only fallen asleep after school and returned home. How could she have ended up here?
"This is… a hospital gown?"
Lowering her head, Ryuju Momo noticed the blue-and-white striped clothes she was wearing, confusion written all over her face.
Could it be… that she was sick and sent to the hospital?
No, that made no sense. She had only been a little sleepy these past two days, how could that lead to hospitalization, and they had even changed her into hospital clothes already?
And even if she really needed to be hospitalized, her damn old man would definitely have told her.
"Hm? What's this?"
Sitting uneasily, Ryuju Momo was just about to get out of bed and leave when she suddenly noticed something hanging by the bed.
Picking it up, Ryuju Momo realized it was a medical chart.
However, the room was not lit, and there was no moonlight outside either, so she could only read the words by the faint, dim yellow light coming from the corridor:
"Patient Information: Ryuju Momo"
"Diagnosis: Bipolar Disorder"
"Symptoms: Irritable, easily angered, prone to violence."
"Treatment: Euthanasia"
"Executing Institution: Aoyamagaoka Psychiatric Hospital"
Looking at the words on the chart, Ryuju Momo's expression changed drastically.
"Bang!"
With a swing of her arm, the girl directly hurled the chart against the wall, then cursed furiously:
"You're insane! You're the ones with bipolar disorder, your whole family has bipolar disorder! Damn it! Which idiot sent me here?!"
Muttering curses under her breath, Ryuju Momo already felt that something was seriously wrong.
Although her unreliable old man was usually a bit crazy, that didn't mean he was stupid; at the very least, he wouldn't do something like sending his own daughter to a psychiatric hospital for euthanasia.
After glancing around the hospital room, Ryuju Momo shifted her gaze to the hospital bed.
The bed looked extremely old and dilapidated; even the joints between the bed legs and the metal frame were covered with large patches of rust.
"Tsk."
She looked it up and down, then lightly kicked it.
Seeing the bed shake, she realized it was a worn-out product gnawed away by time, so she kicked it hard without hesitation.
"Bang!"
With a dull sound, the hospital bed began to creak and wobble, and soon the hollow iron pipe supporting the bed frame came loose.
Picking up the iron pipe, Ryuju Momo weighed it in her hand, felt that it was quite heavy, and kept it as a weapon for self-defense.
Although Ryuju Momo was still unsure of the current situation, she roughly concluded that she had most likely been kidnapped.
She was the young mistress of the Dragon Pearl Group, and many people wanted to kidnap her to threaten her father, the leader of the organization, so Ryuju Momo was well prepared for situations like this.
"The noise I just made will definitely attract someone, so I'll find a spot and wait."
Thinking this, Ryuju Momo did not leave the room, but instead hid in the corner beside the door.
When the door was opened later, the door panel would block her, and she could seize the opportunity to launch a surprise attack.
If the ambush succeeded, she would still have a chance to escape.
She just didn't know whether this group of people who had kidnapped her had firearms; if they did, the situation would be extremely troublesome.
Even though Ryuju Momo had some martial arts skills, she was still a girl and knew that her chances in a direct confrontation with a large man were less than thirty percent, let alone if that man had a gun.
Right now, Ryuju Momo was also gambling, betting that they would underestimate her because she was a girl, which might give her an opening.
Once the hunter underestimates the prey, there is a possibility that the prey will turn around and kill the hunter.
That was what her unreliable old man always told her, and Ryuju Momo deeply believed it.
Hidden behind the door, Ryuju Momo took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and carefully listened to the sounds in the corridor outside the room.
Soon, Ryuju Momo really heard something:
"Clack, clack…"
Judging by the sound, it seemed to be the footsteps of leather shoes with thick soles, and from the rhythm, it could be concluded that there was only one person!
However, Ryuju Momo's expression did not improve in the slightest.
What kind of normal kidnapper would wear leather shoes while kidnapping someone?!
If they were wearing leather shoes, then it was very likely that the other party was an enemy of the Dragon Pearl Group, a thug from another organization and very possibly armed!
Taking a deep breath, Ryuju Momo closed her eyes and did her best to calm her emotions.
Although this wasn't the first time she had been kidnapped, she was scared—terrified!
No matter what, Ryuju Momo was just a middle school student, and one who had never even been in love. Faced with death, or even humiliation worse than death, how could she not be afraid?
Gripping the hollow iron pipe tightly, Ryuju Momo wasn't sure whether such a poor-quality object could knock the person entering the room unconscious with a single blow.
She estimated that it probably couldn't, because it wasn't a thick pipe like a water pipe, so it would be very difficult.
At that moment, the sound of the leather shoes drew closer and suddenly stopped.
Ryuju Momo knew that the person had likely already reached the door and was peering through the small window on it, and once they saw that she wasn't on the bed, they would immediately enter.
Now all she had to do was stay calm.
And sure enough, after a brief moment, the door to the room was suddenly flung open.
Lowering her body, Ryuju Momo saw a strange person enter, wearing a bizarre white mask and completely wrapped in a cloak.
However, she couldn't see the face behind the white mask, only catching a fleeting glimpse.
After the cloaked figure entered the room, it suddenly stopped in front of Ryuju Momo's bed.
Seeing this, Ryuju Momo knew that her chance had come.
She shot out like an arrow, and the hollow iron pipe, swung with all her strength, smashed heavily into the back of that figure's head.
"Thud!"
A dull impact rang out from the back of the strange person's head, a sound that made even listening to it feel painful.
However, Ryuju Momo didn't have time to think; after the blow, the cloaked figure did not fall!
Without hesitation, Ryuju Momo immediately swung again, horizontally, striking the person's temple hard.
Then, without any pause at all, Ryuju Momo, still holding the pipe, sprinted out through the door, completely ignoring what happened to the strange person behind her.
Ryuju Momo ran in such a rush that she naturally didn't see how her second strike had actually twisted that person's head to the side.
The neck was bent at a ninety-degree angle, and the head was almost level with the shoulder.
At a glance, it didn't look like something that could still be alive, yet that strange person not only didn't groan or scream, but even grabbed their own head with one hand and forcefully twisted it, rotating it another one hundred and eighty degrees backward.
The head, which had originally been facing forward, was now directly turned toward the back.
If Ryuju Momo had been even a little slower, this scene would have completely paralyzed her with fear.
"Hehe, hehehe~"
The strange person giggled, and crimson blood slowly began to seep out from the black, hollow openings that represented the eyes and mouth on the white mask.
Twisting its limbs, the strange person step by step walked out of the room, giving chase in the direction Ryuju Momo had fled.
"This place is so strange, why is there… no one at all? Could it be that only that one person kidnapped me?"
Walking cautiously through the corridor, Ryuju Momo thought to herself.
When she had rushed out of the room earlier, she had seen a hospital floor plan on the wall, but the situation had been urgent, so she had only glanced at it briefly before continuing to run.
Even so, Ryuju Momo had gathered some information.
First, the exit of this hospital was located at the far left of the first floor, unlike normal hospitals that have large doors in the main lobby.
Second, the entire hospital had five floors, including a basement.
The place she had been earlier was the third floor, so theoretically, by going down two floors, she should have seen the exit.
But the problem was that Ryuju Momo had already descended to the first floor, yet there were no exit doors at all on this so-called first floor!
Moreover, along the way, she hadn't seen a single kidnapper, which was extremely strange.
As she walked through the first floor, Ryuju Momo constantly felt an uneasiness, but she couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was.
Suddenly, her vision blurred, and a massive iron gate appeared out of nowhere in front of Ryuju Momo!
Seeing the iron gate, Ryuju Momo was struck dumb.
What was going on? This place… those doors weren't here before, were they?
Frowning, Ryuju Momo felt a chill in her heart, tightly gripped the hollow steel pipe, and slowly retreated backward.
But after only a few steps back, Ryuju Momo felt an icy shiver run down her spine.
Turning her head, she discovered that there was actually a wall behind her, and the staircase and corridor she had come from had completely disappeared.
"Something's wrong!"
At that moment, Ryuju Momo felt her scalp tingle.
She looked forward again and discovered that the iron gate was now only one step away from her!
"Gulp, this… what's going on?"
Staring at the iron gate in front of her, Ryuju Momo's face was filled with caution, but in a daze, faint crying could be heard from behind the heavy gate.
The crying was sorrowful, as if every sound carried an unspeakable injustice that words could not describe.
In a trance, Ryuju Momo's body involuntarily reached for the handle of the iron gate.
"Creak~ Bang!"
When the girl pressed the handle, the heavy iron gate let out a dull sound, then slowly opened.
The moment the gate opened, a cold, icy wind burst out, but Ryuju Momo completely ignored the cold; her body, like a puppet, lifted a leg and stepped inside.
"Bang!"
With a heavy slam, the iron gate shut.
The moment the gate closed, Ryuju Momo suddenly came to her senses.
Realizing what had happened, Ryuju Momo quickly turned around, wanting to open the gate again and escape.
But the gate gave her no chance, disappearing the instant Ryuju Momo tried to touch it.
Watching the gate vanish before her eyes, Ryuju Momo's eyes were filled with disbelief.
"A dream! This is a nightmare! Wake up! Ryuju Momo, wake up!"
Crouching down, Ryuju Momo grabbed her head and tightly shut her eyes, trying to wake herself from the dream.
But she couldn't do it at all.
"Zeng!"
The sound of electric lighting turning on echoed in her ears, and a faint purple light illuminated the space above Ryuju Momo's head.
Noticing the anomaly, Ryuju Momo raised her head, but the sight before her completely stunned her.
Suddenly, a large door appeared in front of Ryuju Momo, and above it were clearly written three large letters: [Morgue]!
Seeing those words, Ryuju Momo's pupils shrank sharply.
She quickly stood up, wanting to find a way to escape.
This place made her extremely uncomfortable; an indescribable fear filled her entire body!
Just as Ryuju Momo stood up, the door of the morgue suddenly opened, and then a metal cabinet about half a meter tall slid out from inside.
Seeing the metal cabinet, Ryuju Momo's legs gave out, and before she could steady herself, she collapsed directly onto the floor.
On the metal cabinet was a photograph of a person, and it was none other than Ryuju Momo herself!
Staring at the black-and-white photograph, Ryuju Momo murmured with a vacant expression:
"Am I… dead?"
Just as Ryuju Momo was wondering whether she was dead or alive, a voice sounded:
"What are you thinking about? It's all fake."