After a long silence that seemed to absorb every sound in the street, the wooden lock moved slowly.
The door opened.
It did not open with force. No light appeared behind it. Ozoki stood in the frame, his slight frame filling the space with the bare minimum of presence. His black hood partially covered his face. His staff in his hand. He said nothing. He didn't move. He only stood there.
And he did not close the door.
Shina stepped forward and went straight to the point — that was always her way. She began explaining why they had come. Ozoki didn't respond. But he didn't move and didn't close the door in their faces either.
Their steps crossed the threshold.
And then the reality of this place hit them.
The house was not old or crumbling. It was worse than that — it was a home that said through its silence that no one truly lived in it. A bed covered with a dry grey blanket that looked like it hadn't been touched in days. A bare wooden table with nothing on it. A small poor kitchen with no smell of food and no utensils suggesting real use. No pictures on the walls. No books. Nothing saying that a person had chosen this place to be their home. Old torn bandages lay on the floor beside the sofa — not thrown carelessly, but the way someone would leave them who sees no difference between the floor and anywhere else.
Shina stopped in the middle of the room.
Her yellow eyes moved slowly around the space. The right words didn't come — which was very rare for her. She searched for the correct framing, the logical angle to start from, but the house in front of her was not a problem that needed framing. It was a reality that refused classification.
Iris stood in complete silence.
Her eyes moved slowly between the bandages on the floor, the bare table, the empty kitchen, and the grey bed. She said nothing. But something in her chest was growing heavier in a way she could not stop.
After a short while, Shina exhaled quietly and began.
She explained the dungeon. The condition. The point system. The rank gap and the enormous reward. The real risks. Everything clearly and directly as she knew how.
Throughout the explanation, Ozoki didn't move.
Iris watched him — not his face hidden beneath the hood, but his hands on the staff, the position of his body, any change however small. But there was no change. He remained as he was — a statue listening or perhaps simply breathing.
And she kept watching the house behind him too.
Every time her eyes fell on the bandages or the bare table or the kitchen that didn't seem to be used, something grew heavier. She hadn't expected this weight. She hadn't expected that simply seeing how a person lives could do this.
When Shina finished speaking, silence filled the entire room.
Iris looked at Ozoki.
"Can you participate with us?"
A very short silence.
Then his voice came from beneath the hood.
"Alright."
One word. Dry and dead, from vocal cords that seemed to have burned at some point and never healed.
Shina and Iris froze where they stood.
The shock was not because of the voice. They had heard it before. The shock was because of the immediate acceptance. Without a single question. Without a single hesitation. A person offered entry into a Level Seven dungeon with a broken body and no Response, and he said "alright" as though responding to an ordinary request.
In Shina's mind the questions began fighting: what was the reason for this acceptance despite all the risks? Does he understand what I said? Has his body reached a level of destruction where he sees no difference between going and not going?
In Iris's mind there was only one question she couldn't push away: is he in this state to the point where he didn't think about the consequences at all?
They tried to speak. But he remained silent, watching them from beneath the hood. The air in the room was heavy in a way that didn't resemble any room they had been in before. Not because it was old or closed. But because the person standing in it was filling it with an emptiness deeper than the walls.
Shina tried again and explained some points a second time. Then asked:
"Are you sure?"
Ozoki remained silent. He didn't answer. He only watched them.
Complete silence filled the space to every corner.
Then Shina exhaled, deep in thought, and broke through the stillness:
"Since we have a full week with no classes, we need to start preparing immediately."
Iris came out of her trance. She looked around again as though she had been somewhere else entirely. The expressions on her face shifted suddenly.
"Yes. Yes, we should."
Ozoki gave a single slow nod. Small and silent.
Something dark crept into Shina's expression as she turned to look around the house one more time. The bandages on the floor. The bare table. The emptiness.
"Then the first thing we're doing is changing the state of this house. I can't stand being in it like this."
They began cleaning.
Ozoki tried to move.
"Stay where you are," Shina said. "You'll ruin things in your condition."
He sat and watched them.
Within minutes, using their auras and their focus, the house was clean. The bandages were gone, the table was wiped, the bed was straightened. But it remained empty. The cleanliness hadn't filled the emptiness — it only revealed how deep it ran.
Iris wiped her hands and looked around.
"Alright. Since we're done, I think we should get a meal and talk a little. Get to know each other better."
At the word "meal," something happened to Ozoki.
It wasn't a thought. It was fragments — incomplete images that exploded suddenly somewhere behind his eyes. A man's voice, deep and rough, in a darkness whose location he couldn't place. Fragments that wouldn't complete themselves. Then a violent tremor through his nerves that made his body lose its balance.
Iris lunged forward and grabbed his shoulder with instinctive speed.
"Are you alright?!"
Shina stayed and watched. Her mind began analyzing immediately — the visible heartbeat through his thin clothes, the tremor, the speed of his return to stillness.
Ozoki slowly regained his balance.
"Are you alright? Is something wrong?"
Ozoki remained silent.
"Iris," Shina said.
"What?"
"Why are you still holding him like he's a princess? Are you two secret lovers or something?"
Iris froze. A faint flush crept to her cheeks. She made sure Ozoki had fully regained his balance and released him quickly. A cold sharp aura began rising from her as she stepped toward Shina with narrowed eyes.
"Haven't I told you to stop watching all those romantic shows? Your mind has clearly malfunctioned."
Shina scratched her head with a foolish smile.
Ozoki watched them both with eyes that reflected nothing.
When they stopped and turned to him, they felt his silence had made the atmosphere strange again. They exchanged a glance.
"Let's go to a restaurant," they said together. "Cooking here is out of the question."
The whole way there, Ozoki walked behind them. The two girls talked and tried to lighten the mood between them and include him in the conversation. But he only nodded or remained completely silent. His staff in his hand always. And they kept noticing that unchanging grip on it throughout.
"Ozoki, is there anything you prefer to eat?" Shina asked.
Two steps of silence.
Then another fragment — the same deep voice in a darkness he didn't remember: A steak. Medium rare, with melted cheese on top. That's what a fighter deserves.
"A steak," Ozoki said. "Medium rare with melted cheese."
Shina and Iris looked at each other. The precision and strangeness of the answer at the same time. They said nothing and kept walking.
The restaurant was in a quiet side alley. Small and unknown, lit with warm light. Shina and Iris were regulars here — they knew it for its quiet and its good food.
When they entered, Reka welcomed them — an older woman with cheerful features and wrinkles that resembled a permanent smile.
"Oh! You brought someone with you finally? This is the first time! And it's a boy — is he one of your boyfriends?"
"For heaven's sake! What is wrong with everyone today and the romantic jokes?!"
Reka laughed and waved her hand.
"Sorry, sorry. What's your name, young man?"
Ozoki was silent. His eyes on the floor.
"Ozoki," Shina said. "Sorry, he doesn't talk much."
"Perfectly understandable. Take your usual table."
The food came. They sat and ate.
Shina and Iris kept noticing how Ozoki ate — no enjoyment, no expressions. He placed food in his mouth with pure mechanical motion as though filling fuel to keep operating.
They looked at each other.
This person is going to be a real weight on our backs in the dungeon.
"Ozoki, do you want to try something from my plate?" they both said at the same time.
They turned to each other.
"Why did you talk at the same time?!"
"Why did you talk at the same time?!"
They said it together again. They stopped. Their faces flushed.
Ozoki watched them with food still in his mouth.
From behind the counter, Reka laughed silently.
At the bill:
"Ozoki, you embarrassed us, so you pay as punishment," Shina said.
Ozoki moved like a machine and passed his card immediately.
"Wait! That was a joke! We didn't mean it!"
He looked at them with empty eyes while they felt genuinely guilty.
Reka glanced at the card. Her eyes widened slightly. Then she looked at the two girls and smiled.
"It seems your boyfriend paid for you today."
"Be quiet or we're never coming back!"
"Sorry, sorry. I think I'm just missing my younger days."
They left.
The cold wind, the quiet street, the heavy silence between the three of them.
Shina broke the silence.
"By the way Ozoki, that staff is very old. Would you like me to clean and polish it for you?"
Ozoki stopped walking.
He tightened his grip on the staff and moved it slowly behind his back. A simple, silent motion. But it was the clearest refusal that could come from someone who doesn't speak. As though refusing to hand over the last thing left to him.
"Sorry. That was intrusive of me."
Iris tried to lighten the mood with a smile:
"What's wrong with you? You hold it like you're blind and can't walk without it!"
"He is blind, actually."
Everyone froze.
The voice was not Ozoki's.
The darkness split at the corner of the alley. Rio stood with his hands in his pockets, his black hair moving with the cold wind, his grey eyes fixed on all three of them with a calm that resembled nothing else.
"He is completely blind," Rio said. "And he has never been anything else."
The words fell like a stone into a deep well.
Shina and Iris went rigid. The breath cut short in their chests.
Ozoki remained standing between them. Holding his staff. Not moving. Not commenting.
As though what was said did not concern him.
Or as though he had heard it before.
End of Chapter Ten