The old road changed the moment they entered the zone.
The air turned colder first.
Then quieter.
Not peaceful quiet.
The kind that made every footstep sound out of place.
The trees grew taller on both sides of the path, their branches curling overhead until the road felt less like a road and more like a tunnel leading somewhere it shouldn't. Broken shrine stones lay half-buried in the weeds. Torn prayer papers clung to bark and rock, fluttering even when there was no wind.
Daichi adjusted Nando-baba on his back and frowned.
"…I don't like this."
Nando-baba didn't even look at him.
"You're not supposed to."
Maru kept one hand near her sword.
Hikari's eyes moved carefully across the path.
Akira and Ryo had gone quiet.
Aiko held her bag tighter.
And for once, even Rishiro had stopped making jokes.
That somehow made the place feel even worse.
The path beneath them slowly changed too. The cracked stone gave way to smooth old paving, like they had stepped onto something ancient hidden under the modern world.
Ryo noticed first.
"…Was this road always here?"
Hikari looked down.
"No."
Akira frowned.
"Then where did it come from?"
Nando-baba's voice came low and sharp.
"Don't stop walking."
Daichi glanced back slightly.
"…You could explain things normally, you know."
"Walk."
That was all she said.
Then the mist appeared.
At first it was only a thin white layer around their feet.
Then it climbed.
Up their legs.
Past their waists.
Sliding between them in long pale streams that moved like living things.
Maru immediately reached for her sword.
"Hikari."
"I know."
Rishiro turned slightly.
"Stay close."
But even his voice sounded wrong in the mist—muffled, stretched, too far away.
Akira said something from behind, but the words came out broken.
Ryo's shape blurred.
Daichi cursed.
Nando-baba snapped something from his back.
Then the mist surged.
It wasn't natural.
It rushed across the path in one cold wave and swallowed everything.
White.
Silence.
Cold.
Aiko reached out to grab maru's hand.
"Wait—!"
Her fingers touched nothing.
Then the mist thinned.
And she was alone.
Aiko froze.
Her breath caught in her throat.
The path was still there, but everything else looked wrong now. The trees seemed darker. Taller. Twisted in ways they hadn't been before. The silence pressed in from all sides.
"…Hello?"
Her voice came out small.
No answer.
She turned quickly.
Nothing.
Only pale mist drifting between black trunks.
Her pulse started rising.
"…Maru?"
Nothing.
"…Hikari?"
Still nothing.
"…Sir Liar?"
Silence.
Aiko took a few shaky steps forward.
Then stopped.
The road didn't look familiar anymore. Every direction seemed the same. Every tree looked like the last one. The longer she stood there, the more the silence started to feel alive.
"No… no…"
She kept walking anyway, trying not to panic.
"I'm alone… where is everyone…"
Her voice cracked.
The forest gave nothing back.
Aiko swallowed hard, but her breathing was already uneven. She passed a broken stone lantern half-swallowed by moss, then a crooked little shrine marker pushed into the dirt beside the path.
That was where her legs finally gave up on pretending.
She sat beside the stone marker and pulled her knees close.
Tried to breathe.
Tried to stay calm.
Tried to tell herself the others had to be nearby.
But fear leaked through anyway.
"I'm alone… where is everyone…"
The words came out smaller this time.
Her eyes burned.
"…This sucks…"
Then the tears came.
Quiet at first.
A few shaky breaths.
Then soft crying she tried and failed to hold back.
She lowered her head, wiping at her face angrily.
"…Stupid…"
Then a voice spoke nearby.
"…Wow."
Aiko froze.
Dry.
Amused.
Annoyingly familiar.
"…Need a napkin?"
Her eyes were still shut, her brain still stuck in panic, so the answer slipped out before she could think.
"…Yes, please…"
A beat passed.
Then her whole body went rigid.
Slowly, Aiko lifted her head.
Rishiro stood a few steps away, one hand in his pocket and the other holding out a folded cloth, looking way too calm about the whole thing.
Aiko stared.
Then her eyes widened fully.
"…EH?!"
She jumped up so fast she nearly slipped.
Rishiro blinked once.
"…Damn."
He looked at the cloth in his hand.
"…That reaction kinda hurts."
Aiko pointed at him, face red and wet with tears.
"W-What are you doing here?!"
He looked around the empty road.
"…Enjoying the scenery."
"There is no scenery!"
"Yeah, fair."
Aiko covered her face instantly.
"Oh my god…"
Rishiro sighed and held out the cloth again.
"Take it before you make this more awkward."
Aiko snatched it from him.
"…Don't say anything."
Then she paused.
Her face changed.
"…How long have you been following me, Sir Liar?"
Rishiro tilted his head.
"Come on, you can call me big brother instead of Sir Liar, y'know. Damn."
Aiko stared at him.
"…Absolutely not."
Then he glanced at her with that same annoyingly calm look.
"…Well, for the other one, I've been with you since the part where you kept going, 'I'm alone… where is everyone…'"
Silence.
Aiko's face turned bright red.
"…You heard that too?"
He nodded once.
"Mhmm."
For one full second, she looked like she wanted the forest to swallow her whole.
Then she covered her face with the cloth.
"…I'm never recovering from this."
"Probably not."
Aiko peeked at him from behind the cloth.
"You're horrible."
"I'm hilarious."
"No."
"Little bit."
Aiko let out a miserable groan.
The mist drifted slowly across the road between them.
After a moment, Rishiro's expression shifted. Still casual. But sharper.
He looked down the path ahead, where the white haze swallowed everything after a few meters.
"…We gotta get out of this place first."
Aiko lowered the cloth a little.
"And the others?"
His gaze stayed forward.
"At least, I guess."
Then he started walking.
"…And find the others."
Aiko looked at him for one second more, then hurried after him.
The mist closed behind them.
And the old road swallowed their footsteps whole.
End of Chapter 46