A low, muffled whimper echoed faintly from the upper floors. Including the low tapping sound of footsteps.
It was quiet at first, so quiet it could've been the building creaking under its own weight. Or the sound of other curses skittering around.
But then it came again. A sob. A child's voice rang through the silence.
"…please…someone…"
Fumiko's head snapped up. "Did you hear that?"
The others paused. Their already tense postures became more rigid.
"…someone help me…!"
The girl's voice cracked through the silence, trembling, trying to stay quiet, but the fear in it cut through the cursed air like a knife.
Yuji was already moving.
"She's alive!" he called out, bolting down the corridor they'd just cleared.
"Yuji, wait!" Megumi barked, but they were all already running after him.
Their footsteps thundered through the basement hallway as they raced back toward the main level.
Then …..
A scream.
It was sharp. Piercing. And cut off too fast.
They froze at the stairwell.
Fumiko's breath caught. "She's gone."
Nobara clenched her fists. "Dammit."
They pushed upward through the stairwell, bursting onto the first floor.
But ….
Everything had changed.
The hallways were not the same.
Where before the floors were cracked linoleum and flickering lights, now the entire corridor was cast in a sickly, surreal light, half of it bathed in cold, unearthly blue, the other side smeared with a deep, blood-soaked red.
Yuji looked around. "The hell…?"
"It's a domain…" Megumi muttered, confused and surprised. "Or something close to one."
Graffiti twisted and writhed along the walls, taking new forms. Symbols. Faces. Mouths. Cloaks.
And then, a voice.
But It wasn't loud. But it was close, too close, like it was whispered right behind their ears.
"Red cloak… or blue cloak…?"
They all turned sharply, weapons and fists ready.
But no one was there.
Just the dripping ceiling. Just the air, now buzzing with cursed energy so thick, so stale and stuffy it felt like breathing in smoke.
Yuji swallowed hard. "What is that voice saying?"
"Red cloak… or blue cloak…?"
The voice said again.
Fumiko gripped her cane tightly, standing still, focusing. "It's not just one voice. It's… overlapping. Many of them sound ….female."
Nobara stepped back from the wall, where a long smear of crimson had appeared, like someone had been dragged.
Megumi's jaw tightened. "This is a cursed technique tied to a story."
Yuji blinked. "A story?"
He nodded grimly. "Urban legend. 'Red cloak or blue cloak'… It's a common spirit riddle."
Fumiko added quietly, confirming Megumi's story. "You're asked: 'Red or blue?' If you answer red, you're slashed to death, your body soaked in blood. If you say blue, you're strangled until you're cold and pale."
"…so what happens if you don't answer?" Nobara asked.
Megumi glanced at her. "No one knows."
Standing upright he started fiddling with his comms. But he wasn't receiving anything. Something was messing with the signal.
Another soft giggle echoed down the hall. A little girl's laugh, but twisted, hollow.
The hallway ahead shimmered, as if warped by heat.
And then .....
A small figure appeared, stumbling into view.
A middle school girl, her uniform torn, her knees scraped, eyes wide in terror. She looked up at them.
"P-please! I—I tried not to say anything! I didn't answer!"
Yuji stepped forward. Confident. "It's okay. We've got you!"
But before he could reach her …..
SCCCHHRRPP!
An invisible force yanked her backward, like a hook through her spine.
Her face twisted from one of relief to pure horror.
She screamed, clawing at the floor, leaving bloody drag marks as she vanished into the red-tinged hallway behind her.
The scream ended abruptly.
Then:
"Red cloak… or blue cloak…?"
This time the voice was clearer. Male. Croaking. Hungry.
Fumiko's eyes narrowed. "It's aware of us."
Nobara's hammer creaked in her grip. "Let it be. I'm done playing games."
Megumi raised a hand. "No one answer. That's the key."
The lights above flickered violently.
Yuji glanced down the red corridor, then the blue. They stretched like illusions, impossible to tell what lay beyond either path.
"Split paths," he muttered. "It's trying to divide us."
Megumi cursed under his breath. "Classic domain tactics. But it's not fully formed… that means it has limits."
Fumiko moved to the center of the two halls. She lowered her cane, touching the floor lightly.
Her eyes fluttered closed. "There's a center point… past both paths. The distortion overlaps there. A heart. Or a core."
Yuji nodded. "So we bust through the middle."
Megumi's expression hardened. "We go together. If this is a test of fear or logic, we outsmart it. If it's a curse playing predator…."
Nobara smirked. "Then we play executioner."
As they prepared to advance, the voice echoed one more time, closer, sharper, rasping with venom:
"So… what color will you bleed?"
Yuji raised a fist, eyes narrowed.
"Let's find out."
Fumiko stepped forward with the others, hand brushing along the ground, the vibrations pulsing beneath her fingers like drumbeats.
She moved one step, then another—
Then stopped.
Her cane tapped tile.
Silence.
No vibrations.
"…Yuji?" she called softly. "Megumi?"
Nothing.
Her head tilted slightly. The air was wrong again.
Heavy. Muffled.
Like someone had thrown a thick blanket over her senses.
She turned around.
No one was there.
The hallway behind her was dark, oppressively so, and when she turned back toward where the others had just been …..
The light had changed.
Gone were the warped red and blue hues clashing in the corridor.
Now there was only a dim, flickering gray light, like a dying fluorescent bulb. A sterile, humming silence.
"...Guys?" she called again, a little louder this time.
Still no answer.
Fumiko drew in a steady breath, grounding herself.
Not panic. Focus.
She tapped her cane .Tap. Tap. Tap.
A subtle echo. But it curved unnaturally, the space ahead wasn't straight anymore.
She was trapped in a construct.
A whisper trickled through the wall near her ear:
"Red cloak… or blue cloak…?"
She stayed still. Silent.
Another whisper and chuckle, this time from above:
"No answer is still an answer..."
----------------------------------------
Down a red hallway:
Yuji stumbled forward with Megumi close behind.
The walls around them pulsed, wet, almost organic. Like they were walking inside a massive artery.
"Fumiko? Nobara?" Yuji called, turning to check behind them.
But the corridor stretched back farther than it should have. They were both gone.
"…We were just next to them." He looked to Megumi, uneasy. "Did the curse separate us?"
Megumi didn't answer at first. His fingers flicked into a summoning sign. Nothing appeared.
"…No response from the dogs," he muttered. "They've been cut off."
The walls throbbed, and the air was sharp with the metallic scent of blood.
Yuji turned his head. A child's voice whispered from the shadows:
"Do you want to be a hero…? Or a victim?"
He clenched his fists. "Show yourself!"
A door opened on its own nearby—dark beyond its frame. A crimson cloth fluttered inside.
--------------------------------------------
In the blue hallway:
Nobara stood alone, glancing left and right.
"Guys?"
Her voice came back to her like it was underwater.
The walls around her were slick with condensation, the temperature dropping fast.
She exhaled, and her breath fogged up.
"Okay… great," she muttered, reaching into her pouch and pulling out nails.
Ahead, a mirror hung crooked on the wall.
She approached cautiously.
In the mirror, her reflection smiled.
But she wasn't smiling.
"…I don't like that," Nobara muttered.
The reflection tilted its head and whispered:
"Will you choose red… and die beautifully?"
"Or blue… and fade without a mark?"
The corridor behind her closed in, the air thick with the scent of perfume, old and floral, like a funeral parlor.
Nobara narrowed her eyes. "I pick hammer."
And swung at the mirror.
CRASH!
Glass exploded outward, but what spilled out wasn't glass. It was hair. Long, black strands that slithered like snakes across the floor.
She jumped back.
The wall behind the broken mirror cracked open like a door, revealing a narrow path… and the sound of a girl crying.
"…Was that the same girl from before?" she muttered.
Then the voice came again, louder, echoing now in all three spaces:
"Choose…"
"Red cloak… or blue cloak…?"
----------------------------------
Back to Fumiko:
Fumiko's breathing was calm.
But her fingers twitched, tapping patterns against her cane.
Then her head turned suddenly, sensing something.
A shape had entered the corridor with her. Silent. Barely stirring the air.
It didn't speak.
But its presence vibrated through the floor.
She turned toward it slowly, calmly.
"…You're the storyteller," she said quietly.
A low croak answered her, from nowhere and everywhere:
"No."
Then, from the shadows, a figure emerged, draped in half red, half blue. Its face was a blank mask, with a vertical mouth that grinned too wide.
In one hand, a red cloth stained dark.
In the other, a blue sash, dripping water.
It loomed silently before her.
"Choose."