Vol. 1 Chapter 3 – Conceptual Monster

One of the lounging goblins slapped its loincloth and stood up.

The loincloth it wore, as well as the club and blunt weapon in its hands, were standard goblin equipment.

They were part of its existence, generated together with it when it emerged from the miasma.

Because of that, it still kept its loincloth on even while raping.

Though it seemed that, during the rape itself, even they had thrown their weapons aside.

Just before the corridor connecting the stone chambers, one goblin that had gone to pick up a blunt axe tilted its head.

The sound, gosu, was the sound of the goblin’s right cheek caving in and its skull being crushed out of shape.

The goblin slumped down on the spot as if falling onto its backside, then instantly turned into a will-o’-the-wisp, but none of its companions had noticed yet.

The arm that slid out from the corridor into the stone chamber, looked as if it had grown out of the shadows.

Then came the fluttering, birabira, even though there was no wind.

Torn, frayed and worn down into ragged, weathered strips of black cloth.

A humanoid figure whose scarf-like cloth made everything from its neck to its upper body melt into the color of shadow peered into the stone chamber, which was thickly filled with the smell of sex.

Within its mask-like expressionless face, red, red eyes like glowing embers had locked onto the goblins.

Several of the goblins noticed it.

Slowly, the human-shaped shadow, both pitch-black arms hanging limply down, stepped into the stone chamber.

“Gi.”

“Gugege?”

If anything, the presence it gave off was far too different from that of a goblin.

Because of that, their reactions were delayed and because of that, following their natural reaction pattern, they raised their weapons and stood up.

At the goblin leader’s cry, which served as a signal rather than a language, it took a straight punch from the front, burying its hooked nose inward into its face.

The shadowy figure that had driven in its right fist made its black scarf flap like a crow’s wings and bore down on another goblin leader.

The goblins seemed to have stopped moving, not because the shadow was moving quickly, but simply because they had frozen stiff with fear.

The goblin leader, struck in the left cheek by the right fist, had its head spin all the way around with a gururi, was sent flying and scattered into will-o’-the-wisp flames before it even hit the floor.

The shadow cloth wrapped around the fist creaked with a gishigishi as it tightened.

Having lost the leaders who gave them commands, the goblins began swinging their weapons wildly in all directions and letting out strange cries.

It was fear, the kind that did not even allow them to choose flight.

A right straight punch was driven in. A seemingly wooden shield shattered, and the face behind it caved in.

A left straight punch was driven in. A goblin was blown away, its face snapping backward while it still gripped its club.

A right straight punch was driven in. Everything above the jaw was physically blown away.

A left straight punch was driven in. The head that had been crawling on the floor, begging for its life, was flattened against the ground.

A right straight punch was driven in. The body of the goblin that had been fleeing into the passage bloomed into an eerie flower against the wall.

Touma did not know any way to strike other than a straight punch but it was more than enough to serve the purpose.

The physical strength he had gained through rank ascension after defeating the『Natural Enemy』had reached an inhuman realm and the drop item, the Divine Gear, was fully supporting the field correction of the Yomotsu Hirasaka Area.

However, the unknown penalty of the Divine Gear was gradually eating away at Touma’s stats.

“Haah…”

Slowly breathing out a white, cold breath, Touma left the flattened stone chamber behind and melted his figure into the depths of the corridor.

＊　＊　＊

He searched for enemies.

When he released his senses, he could feel every shadow that existed within the floor as clearly as if he were holding them in his hands.

The edges of the black rags stretching out with a basabasa had become part of the shadows and melted into them.

Enemy detection. There were no longer any MOBs called goblins nearby.

Across the entire terrifyingly vast floor, he could see that goblins had infested the place in numbers too troublesome to count but even reaching them would be a struggle.

The unpleasantness of his perception stretching out without limit made him dizzy.

This exceeded the amount of information he could recognize.

That was why it overflowed from the vessel of consciousness known as himself and began doing XXX on its own.

Slowly, with heavy footsteps, he advanced through the dungeon.

An enemy.

Only there, standing alone, was something strangely out of place.

“Oh my. Welcome.”

There, all alone in the dim darkness between the corridor connecting one stone chamber to another, the stall existed as if buried into the wall.

“It’s been ages since I had a customer. But my, you’ve been swallowed up by something awfully strange, haven’t you?”

“Hello.”

Touma greeted the long-eared woman sitting behind the counter, wearing a kimono and smoking a kiseru pipe. kiseru¹

Courtesy for courtesy.

That was a promise that had to be kept.

“Yees, hello there. Even after ending up like that, you’re still keeping your sense of self, aren’t you? I’m surprised.”

“Is that so?”

“It is. Fufu, you’re somewhat like a soldier or a samurai, aren’t you?”

The female shopkeeper smiled lightly, korokoro, and pointed at the black rags with the tip of her kiseru.

“That Yomotsu Koromo, where did you pick it up? That’s a fragment of a god, you know. If a human uses it, they’ll end up being contaminated.”

Ton, ton. With the tip of her kiseru, she lightly tapped the edge of his right hand where it rested on the counter.

Hyururi. The black rags that had been lazily stretching out shrank back to their original size.

The sense of omnipotence that had filled his entire body vanished, and the abrupt decline in his perception almost brought him to his knees.

“Hmm. Let me have a wee look at you… Oh my, you defeated Yomotsu Shikome, did you? You’ve got the title of Godslayer attached to you. Ahh, you carry the blood of a god, don’t you? Would it be a thunder god, perhaps?”

She asked in an oddly drawn-out voice that was strangely calming but I had no idea what she meant.

“It’s nothing especially rare. Seems there are plenty of people outside this country who carry the blood of gods, you see. Most of them, just like you, have become so thin-blooded that it hardly means anything, though.”

“I see.”

“You dooo. Since you defeated Yomotsu Shikome, it seems your divinity has risen just a little, but well, I don’t think there’s any harm in it.”

Touma had absolutely no idea what she meant.

Was this also one of the academy’s mysterious facilities?

“Hmmmm, I suppose it would be better to recover that thing. Originally, it was part of the same dungeon system as me, after all… But still, you are technically able to use it and ownership of drop items is a right recognized for challengers, isn’t it?”

He might not have understood the meaning, but he could at least understand the words themselves. What puzzled him was the way she spoke, a strange, blended dialect that seemed impossible to place.

Apparently, dorm students gathered from all over the country ended up speaking in this kind of chaotic, mysterious mixed dialect.

“Then, let us do this. I will buy the Yomotsu Koromo from you and present you with a substitute rare item.”

“Understood.”

“…You accepted that awfully easily. The Yomotsu Koromo is actually quite an extremely rare cheat item, you know.”

She had suddenly taken on the tone of a tenement wife from a period drama but he had no particular fondness for that sort of thing.

In fact, wearing it gave him the chills and left him oddly worked up, making him want to get rid of it as soon as possible.

“Ufufu. I’ve taken quite a liking to you. In that case, how about this? It is called Ame-no-Ohabari, a divine sword that holds the authority of a thunder god.”

From behind the counter, she casually pulled out a single blade and offered it to me.

It was a straight sword with its unsheathed blade exposed.

It was double-edged, like something displayed in a museum, and it looked neither like iron nor bronze. With the blade and hilt made as one piece from tip to pommel, would this be called an ancient sword?

At a glance, it looked blunt, like a replica sword used for rituals, but whether it was its aura or its presence, he felt an unbelievable pressure from it.

“Of course, unlike the true object, this is a copy conceptually forged inside the dungeon. But since it’s modeled after the age when mythology was at its height, I think it might actually have more divine benefit than the real thing.”

If someone swung a thing like this, it felt like the sea would split open and an island would be born.

“I do think you could probably use it but if you adapt to being able to use it, you might stop being human, you see…It drops quite a bit in rank but how about this Raikiri? It holds the power of lightning and can release a one-billion-volt electric shock. It’s an SSR item.”

It was so incredible that it did not feel like an item someone should obtain at the beginning of an adventure.

It felt like restarting from the『Starting Town』while holding the strongest equipment you obtain in post-game completion mode.

If this was a lower-rank item, then what kind of rare category was that first mysterious divine sword?

Touma was extremely interested in Raikiri, probably an odachi, sheathed in a vermilion-lacquered scabbard but without a doubt, it was far beyond his station.

“I’m sorry, but could it be something a little more like, 『Oh, this is convenient』?”

“I’m a spirit bound by the principles of trade too, you see. A transaction has to be of equal value, but… ah, right.”

She tilted her stacked palms diagonally and smiled like a merchant.

“There’s a conceptual skill that was newly born inside the dungeon just recently, so how about I teach you that?”

“So, in other words, I’m the test subject. I understand.”

“Oh my. Men who are too sharp are disliked, you know.”

What she presented to me after saying that was, in a certain sense, something familiar. It seemed like the kind of skill that did not need any explanation.

・Spatial Storage

・Information Viewing

“I suppose it’s because of the influence of recent web novels and the like. Item boxes and such are so overly convenient that who knows how much compensation they would require. Even if it is only a tiny amount, owning space is part of a god’s authority, isn’t it? As for 『Appraisal』which is written about as a cheat skill, that has existed as a skill since ancient times, since the age of the gods. This is actually viewing authority for the Akashic Records. There was a limitation on how much the reader accessing it could understand, but the idea of turning it into global numerical values is pretty stylish, isn’t it? As for the interface, this is the first time in my life I’ve ever seen such a bizarre system. Building a computer OS and simulator environment is the product of a pervert. Creatures from other worlds would modify their own bodies rather than create something like this. But the infinite possibilities spreading through this cyber space called the internet are…”

Touma understood that this spirit-san or whatever she was, who was holed up inside this dim dungeon, was a shut-in internet maniac.

When he looked around the inside of the shop again, which was about the size of a four-and-a-half tatami-mat room, he could see a computer quietly set up in the corner of the counter, along with a tangled mess of cables.

Wait, is that a LAN cable?

Once again, the question of whether this place was actually some large-scale attraction facility came to mind.

She had mentioned web novels and the like, so she was probably able to connect to the WWW.

Incidentally, the computer was a fairly recent model.

The spirit-san recital, which had begun with passionate praise for the internet, ended with complaints about how stale otherworld reincarnation and transfer stories in web novels had become.

Touma had browsed through some of them himself to kill time but he was nowhere near as hooked as spirit-san.

A full ninety percent of it had turned into incomprehensible otaku talk but from fragments of what she said, he understood that spirit-san was bored because she could not leave the dungeon.

Japan, or rather this world, apparently provided the ultimate way to kill time, so she planned to cling to the floors around here for a while.

“You see, other primitive worlds are truly boring. Over the past few centuries, the number of challengers taking on the dungeon has dropped quite a lot too. Well, the shop automatically transfers on its own from time to time but I’ll cling on with sheer guts.”

“I see.”

He did not understand at all.

“It was fun speaking with an intelligent life-form for the first time in ages. Now then, please hold out both your hands.”

Turning both his palms upward, he took spirit-san’s hands, which had been offered across the counter.

Touma’s hands, which at some point had stopped hurting, connected with spirit-san’s hands.

To compare it to a computer, would it be close to the sensation of downloading a program from an uploader?

It felt like being made to undergo sleep-learning while in a lucid dream.

He tried to read the strings of characters being written inside him but the fineness and overwhelming amount of information made him look away from it.

It was a code far more precise, refined and even artistic than the rows of characters, formulas, and circles he had hallucinated when passing through Rashoumon.

“Well, that’s about how it is. It’s not as though I understand it while using it either. It’s the descriptive formula of all things in creation, the primal language. It’s just like a computer. Even if you don’t understand what’s inside, you can still use it, right? By the way, the capacity is a little too large, so I can’t write all of it into the soul domain. Since it’s convenient, I’m installing it as an authority into your empty divinity.”

Spirit-san tapped his hands, ton ton, with the fingers of both her hands.

The black rags shrank with a shurushuru and peeled away from his arms and body.

“The item box is the same kind of thing as that thing you see in web novels. I don’t know what the inside is like, so I don’t recommend storing organic matter in it. It’s probably a space with nothing inside, so if you store living things in it, they’ll die. Even if you store a dungeon monster in it while it’s still alive, if you take it out in an outside country, it’ll probably be dead. If you store a lunchbox inside, it’ll probably be ruined, either dried up or frozen.”

What a dangerous extreme space, Touma thought.

Or rather, normally with this kind of item box setting, isn’t it standard that living things cannot be stored inside?

“Who’s going to judge something like that? I’m saying that anything and everything up to about humanoid size would probably get sucked right in.”

“That is a highly lethal skill.”

“If you go killing things in such an irregular way, your level won’t go up, so there’s no point, you know?”

Touma did not understand the significance of raising his level either, but he was a little, no, quite afraid of using it.

“I think it would be best to follow the standard pattern and use it to store items you pick up in the dungeon. Non-organic ones, that is.”

“I’ll stick to inorganic things.”

“As for the interface, well, I don’t think there’s any need to explain it.”

The black rags settled neatly into spirit-san’s hands, leaving behind not even the bloodstains that had seeped into his wounds.

In exchange, his  uniform was in tatters.

For it to be ready for disposal on the first day of practical training…Touma hoped they would issue him a new uniform.

He lightly moved his body but there was no particular pain.

Especially the tips of both his arms, from the wrists onward, where his fingers had been broken and the skin had been peeled off, had almost returned to normal.

“Since you were more than half turned into a demi-god, I think the state of your physical soul has returned to normal…oh, my.”

His right palm had been holding the crystal body that had spilled out from Shizuka the whole time.

The faintly glowing, slightly cherry-blossom-colored polyhedral crystal had pierced through his palm and was embedded all the way into the back of his hand.

The wound had risen up and healed around it, completely fusing with it.

Touma could see the other side through the crystal but the three middle fingers, whose tendons should have been severed, moved without any problem.

“It has completely fused with you. If there’s no pain, I don’t think there’s any problem. That is something you should treasure, I think.”

Spirit-san’s faint smile told me not to say anything.

From far away, a heavy zuzuzu echoed, like the dungeon itself was creaking.

Touma looked at the wristwatch on his left hand, now freed from the rag bandages and the hands of the clock pointed to noon, the gate-closing time.

“Thank you for your patronage. May we continue to have good dealings in the future.”

“Thank you very much. My name is Funasaka Touma.”

Spirit-san gave a small bow, pekori, then touched a finger to her cheek and smiled with a soft kusu.

“You really are a new student who still knows absolutely nothing, aren’t you? You must not tell your true name to spirits, demons, or beings of that sort. If they don’t take a liking to you, you’ll be eaten. That’s advice from Skeggjold, the stall spirit of the World-Piercing Labyrinth YGGDRASILL.”

＊　＊　＊

3:00 p.m.

Gigi-gigi. The thick, heavy Rashoumon, the『Beginning Door』was closed by the two guards.

The gears built into the double doors activated and the bar carved from the sacred tree was set in place.

The multiple linked barrier locks of various kinds sealed the gate in layer after layer and the Rashoumon, which had been vibrating loosely, fell still.

In front of Rashoumon, in a plaza like a Noh stage, stood every student of First Year Class C.

Most of the students simply stood there, looking around in confusion.

From the students’ subjective point of view, the scenery had changed immediately after they passed through the Beginning Door, and they had merely been moved to a position a little distance away, looking up at Rashoumon.

The female students who had been slumped on the floor as if suffering from anemia also shook their heads and stood up without incident, their hips swaying slightly.

The murmur that slowly spread was filled with the relieved atmosphere of after a small test had ended.

“…Well. Guess that’s about how it goes.”

“Haa… It was nothing, huh? I really don’t remember anything at all.”

Beside Seiichi, who had both hands in his pockets and was smiling wryly, Mai stood up, patted the back of her skirt and gave him an open, carefree smile.

“It feels like falling asleep during class, then realizing the bell’s already rung and class is over?”

“Yes… it does.”

Shizuka placed a hand on her chest, took a deep breath, and nodded.

Even the body that had been stiff with tension before the dungeon dive had returned exactly as it was.

“The clock has moved forward properly too. I thought maybe I’d have to set it again, but…?”

“Ah, ah, um… T-Touma-san.”

Shizuka stiffened and stammered, having been pulled straight into Touma’s chest in a hug, as if he were gathering her into his arms.

At the sudden, contextless embrace, Shizuka was seized by disgust and fear, and reflexively tried to step back.

“…Shizuka.”

At the name she faintly heard from Touma, whose face was lowered, something deep inside her trembled.

As if following the sensation of the arms that had gently released her, she looked up at Touma’s face, which was a head taller than hers.

Touma’s expressionless face, which she had always thought was frightening, was staring straight at her.

“Hey, hey, don’t get horny in a place like this. At least wait until after school… wait, hey, you bastard.”

“Are you in good health, Seiichi?”

“No, I’m totally fine but why are you suddenly grabbing me by the collar?”

“Do not misunderstand. I was merely trying to strip you.”

“Stop iiiit!”

Seeing Seiichi resist with all his might, Mai laughed kerakera.

“Everyone. Thank you for your hard work.”

The class’s murmuring had turned into chatter, and as the students began getting noisy, their homeroom teacher, Midori, raised her voice with the name list in one hand.

Her face, which had carried a somewhat tired, glossy, sorrowful expression, tightened.

“With this, the special practical lesson is over. Classes are finished for today, so you will return to the classroom once and then be dismissed, but… girls, please remain in the classroom. There are a few announcements.”

“Ugh, what a pain. I mean, even so, we’re still finishing earlier than usual, right… It feels weird after all.”

“You’ll get used to it eventually.”

Released from the tension of the special practical lesson, their classmates headed toward the stairs while chatting noisily.

For new students who were still not used to the school, there could never be enough free time after school.

“Then, what should we do? Shizuka, are you going back to the dorm once?”

“Huh… ah, yeah.”

Shizuka, who had been absentmindedly holding her own chest, turned her eyes toward Touma’s back as he walked ahead.

Seeing that, Seiichi twisted his mouth into the shape of a smile and pretending to act naturally, quietly whispered to Shizuka.

Even without hearing it, Mai more or less understood the meaning of the secret talk and looked exasperated.

“Hey, Seiichi-kun.”

“It’s fine at this point, isn’t it? …They probably already did it inside anyway. I don’t remember, though.”

“Honestly… it can’t be helped. Are you the one coming over here, Seiichi-kun?”

Mai, who accepted it readily, placed a hand on her hip and tilted her head slightly.

If she pulled her partner into her room too quickly, the dorm seniors might say something but she had already seen a model example.

At the very least, it was still better than making a trip to the boys’ dorm.

“We’ll switch tomorrow. We need to test things quickly, or if it turns out to be a miss, our options for changing partners will decrease.”

“Bleh. I’ll make you whimper.”

『Looking forward to it』Seiichi replied, while inwardly letting out a sigh of relief.

From the information he had gathered beforehand, he knew that even if memories from inside the dungeon were reset, the experience of death would still leave stress in the heart.

An abnormal rise in sexual desire caused by witnessing death.

Seiichi seriously wanted to avoid having someone like that as a roommate.

TL: This interlude consist gang-rape of the sensei, you have been warned and small in depth about Rashoumon & three hun and seven po. Also, there’s a number code from me, since it reminds me of a doujin that’s a bit similar to the sensei and..muscular npc doing her. 

Interlude: An Oni Weeps at Rashoumon

When the final party passed through Rashoumon, the door creaked, as if the door itself had a will, then shut tightly.

That was proof that the Rashoumon system was operating normally.

Now, it was a lost-art magical device that neither the academy nor anyone else could understand.

They did not even know how to maintain it, yet the very reason for the academy’s existence forced them to use it.

And as part of its function, sacrifices were offered to Rashoumon.

What her own students would gain from this point onward, and what they would lose.

As a graduate of the academy, Oikawa Midori understood it all too clearly.

“This year seems to be quite the harvest.”

“Looks like we’ll be able to enjoy ourselves right away.”

The two guards serving as Rashoumon’s gatekeepers curled their lips into vulgar grins.

Since the academy’s fundamental information could not be allowed to leave for the outside world, staff members were often graduates, for the sake of maintaining secrecy.

In truth, unless someone had experienced the academy themselves, they were of no use.

However, as was always the case with organizations, the older the history, the more stagnant and rotten-smelling parts it had.

Midori raised her lowered face and glared sharply at the two guards.

“Those children are students who challenged the labyrinth for the first time today.”

“Yeah, exactly. That’s why we’re saying there’ll probably be some first-timers too.”

“There was even a brat with a virgin-girl face.”

Midori bit her lip at the guards, who looked as if they were wondering why she was stating the obvious.

They had no guilt at all. Not even the slightest doubt.

“The girls who fall will be trained soon enough anyway.”

“Now’s the only time we can appreciate their innocence.”

“The others will probably gather before long too.”

As the guards chuckled, the fronts of their trousers had begun to bulge.

“At least! At least until those children understand how the system works!”

“Shut up.”

At the command, delivered in a voice that was neither loud nor rough, Midori’s body reflexively trembled with a bikun and obeyed.

“What’s with you, going on like this? Don’t tell me you’re actually trying to give us your opinion?”

Midori remained frozen, unable to even open her mouth.

Ever since she had entered the academy as a student, it had been drilled into her body and soul.

“Hmm, ah. Now that you have become a teacher and your students are about to end up in the same position you once did, you pity them, do you…?”

One of the guards stood in front of Midori, who was trembling in fear.

“Do not get conceited. You are nothing but a fallen lowborn.”

He grabbed her by the front of her clothes and forced her face upward.

Her blouse, woven with the same Spectra fibers as the school uniform, split easily.

“Do not forget that you are only being kept alive by our mercy.”

“Hey, hey, don’t scare her so much.”

The other guard smiled as he moved behind Midori and reached for her waist.

He slid up her knee-length tight skirt, like peeling the shell from an egg.

The contrast between her black stockings and the plain white panties wrapped beneath them instead gave off a certain sensuality.

He hooked his finger into the crotch area of the stockings, tore a hole, shifted aside the crotch section of her underwear and violated her with his finger.

Midori’s hips trembled and she bit her lip and closed her eyes.

It was a switch.

A signal that had been planted into her body so that she would be made ready, conveniently and easily.

Heat spread from deep inside her hips, and a thick, muddy sensation filled her.

“She has probably been sulking because we have not paid attention to her lately.”

“Well, that cannot be helped. If you use the same hole for years and years, look, you get bored.”

“A whore is the same as any other as long as there is a hole open.”

The guard standing behind her, having pulled down the front of his tracksuit, replaced his withdrawn finger and forced his penis into her.

Midori’s soft, relaxed vaginal opening slid the fist-like glans deep inside.

“Ah…”

A suppressed groan escaped Midori’s mouth.

“Ohh, good, good. Looks like you were desperate for affection. There, there.”

Midori’s legs nearly gave out as she was impaled from behind in a standing position.

Her firm, shapely buttocks rippled with a squelching sound and her belly tightened, having been penetrated countless times by countless men.

Midori’s eyes remained shut, as if refusing reality but gasping breaths continued to leak from her half-open mouth.

“It has been a while… yes, I suppose no one has used her for three days. Starting tomorrow, your students will be putting plenty of their things inside you, so endure it.”

With a gurgling sound, he finished with the force of a boy.

It was casual sexual disposal, like relieving oneself in a toilet.

He pulled himself out, sticky with a white, viscous fluid that was not semen and slapped her backside over her pantyhose.

“Even though she has a good face and body, and has been bred more than anyone else, she still has not conceived. What a pitiful woman.”

“Even after being released from Tokoyo, she is still like this.”

“If she had become a child-bearing woman, she could have escaped from here. Yet down to the marrow of her sex, she is barren.”

“We have enjoyed her plenty until now, though.”

Midori had been serious by nature.

Because she had been serious by nature, she had worked harder than anyone else to fulfill the mission upheld by the academy, continuing to challenge the other side of Rashoumon.

As a result, she achieved better results than most, and became unable to live outside the academy.

Just as the academy’s ideals dictated.

Just as Rashoumon’s original design concept intended.

＊　＊　＊

The foundation of Rashoumon was the Soul-Binding and Physical-Soul-Control System.

It was the fallen child of a forbidden art that could never be made public, one that incorporated the Taoist idea of the three hun and seven po. three hun and seven po²

It was a system that sent the three souls into Tokoyo, the world beyond the door, while leaving the seven physical souls behind in the present world as anchors.

Together, the souls and physical souls composed a human being.

In the present world, the material world, what strongly influenced a human being was the physical souls, which governed the body.

And in Tokoyo, a higher-dimensional space, what strongly influenced a human being was the soul, which governed the mind.

The three souls were said to govern the mind, the fundamental element that made a person human.

The seven physical souls were the elements originating from the material components that made up a human being, namely joy, anger, sorrow, pleasure, love, hatred, and desire.

They were the seven elements that arose because humans possessed the shackles known as the flesh.

And there was one more element that depended on the body.

Memory.

It preserved all memory and the body, and no matter what happened beyond the door, even if one were to meet death, it restored everything to its original state.

The moment one passed through Rashoumon’s open door, everything was rewound.

From the person’s own perspective, because they had no memories of the other side of the door, it felt as though time had skipped, so the continuity of consciousness was maintained.

However, all knowledge, experiences, acquired items, fear, and despair experienced beyond the door became nothing.

Thus, there was nothing to feel as pain.

An attraction with guaranteed safety.

The meaning of the message written in the admission pamphlet would be understood soon after enrollment.

＊　＊　＊

With a gotori, the first returnee appeared inside Rashoumon.

Needless to say, it was a student who had been killed by monsters in Tokoyo, the world beyond the door, an otherworldly realm that, in recent times, was more commonly called a dungeon for the sake of modern understanding.

The interior of the dungeon was a higher-dimensional space, separated from the present world.

The souls and physical souls that vanished inside the dungeon were linked to Rashoumon and would eventually be pulled back into the present world.

There were many unknown factors involved in the use of Rashoumon.

However, the detailed documents had been lost in fires during the chaos after the war and only data based on empirical rules had been accumulated.

The most suitable users were boundary people in their youth, an age when the souls and physical souls were active.

The number of registered people who could use Rashoumon.

The maximum number of people who could be transferred at the same time.

The ritual procedures for opening and closing the gate.

All of it was nothing more than procedures passed down as『so it must be.』

Inside Rashoumon, the female student, whose unfocused gaze wandered vaguely through the air, remained slumped on the granite floor without moving at all.

The baton and shield she had been holding had also fallen near her feet and there was not even a single stain on her uniform blazer.

Her body, her memories, and every element that formed a human being were all present, but the heart that should have moved them had not yet revived.

The first gate where the trial was received.

The souls and physical souls that had passed through the『Beginning Realm Gate』would return only when the door closed.

“A woman came right away.”

Whether they had died inside or were still alive, at the moment Rashoumon closed, the three souls would be expelled from within.

If they had survived inside, the three souls would fuse with the seven physical souls saved by Rashoumon, added onto them.

If they had died inside, the three souls that had scattered throughout the dungeon would be collected, using the seven physical souls loaded by Rashoumon as a marker.

The three souls and seven physical souls were the natural form that humans were originally meant to have.

If the seven physical souls, in other words everything attached to the body, were completely reproduced, then the three souls, the souls of the heart, would also be drawn in.

However, not all of it would return.

For the students’ sake, the only thing disclosed to them in an easy-to-understand way was that they would lose their『memories and experiences.』

Originally, the timing at which the seven physical souls were regenerated by Rashoumon was random.

Some people, even if they died early inside the dungeon, would not be regenerated until the gate closed, while others were regenerated immediately after death.

It was believed that the system automatically adjusted itself so that no burden would be placed on Rashoumon’s regeneration system.

“Mm. As expected, this year truly is a fine harvest. Those so-called screening committee members chose ones that look good.”

The clubs and plastic shields that made up the new students’ dungeon-dive set were gathered together and tossed into a container for the next class.

Still violating Midori, one of the guards turned his attention to the female student in her seven-physical-souls state and collected her as well.

“A fresh woman whose soul hasn’t even started to peel away yet really does feel different.”

Carrying the limp female student under one arm like luggage, he lined her up in front of the homeroom teacher, who was forced to remain there.

Midori, whose ass was still being abused by the second guard, stared hollowly at her student, who had been turned upside down with her legs held up.

“Untouched, a virgin. A brat who still smells innocent.”

He pulled down her cute pale-blue underwear, with their cute design and slid the tip of his tongue—which extended all the way to his chin—into her tightly closed little hole.

The tip of his tongue, which had been held thin and pointed, swelled up like a slug that had absorbed water, and he rubbed his saliva over her skin, making it slick and wet.

The vagina, which has only ever experienced the gentle penetration of a slender, immature penis of a similar age, is stretched from within by a tongue that rivals a mature penis.

The female student’s mouth hung open, her tongue lolling out as she breathed in pain, but no voice came from her throat, nor did her arms or legs move to resist.

“Well then, shall I have my turn?”

The guard forced himself on her while she remained unable to resist.

A massive object, thicker and longer than his tongue, was pressed against the entrance to her vagina, which was glistening with saliva and twitching spasmodically.

“Nn… ah…”

She was violated completely as if someone had knocked over a bucket of water, the semen is injected deep into her vagina.

A white-hot sensation burst deep in her mind and the overwhelming foreign feeling spread through her body.

Midori, whose body had been trained to interpret even such violation as pleasure, reached climax with her tongue hanging out like a dog.

The thing thrust into her backside was like an iron club, with grotesque, bulging veins standing out all over it.

“Virgin girls are good but old brides have their own flavor too.”

Midori’s glasses had fogged over. By now, her hips were held up only by the hand gripping her belt, while her backside was struck with a sharp, rhythmic sound.

The guard who had just finished still remained aroused, continuing to violate her body.

“Hoho, good, good. Every time your soul falls, I will give you my affection.”

The female student, held upside down by both ankles, was being assaulted from above.

“If your revival comes too quickly, who knows how many times you’ll end up receiving our semen. Look, you’ll end up like your homeroom teacher!”

Midori crossed her thighs and curled her toes as she continued to be made to ejaculate, the fluid dripping down her inner thighs.

In Taoist thought, there is also the idea that the soul belongs to gods, while the physical soul belongs to oni.

The same length and thickness of penis, the same face, the same golden eyes, and the same exposed fangs and horns growing from their shaved heads.

“Ohh, has it already begun?”

“A first-timer, a first-timer.”

The white walls connected to Rashoumon.

From within the western and eastern walls, men dressed in work clothes emerged.

They were the ritual oni-gods built into Rashoumon, responsible for the door’s opening and closing system, as well as the facility’s defense.

“North Oni.”

“West Oni.”

“South Oni.”

“East Oni.”

The method to command the oni-gods that guarded Rashoumon no longer existed.

They merely followed the old contract.

The physical soul transforms into an oni and the oni transforms into the physical soul.

Those who receive the oni’s essence remain endlessly bound by the physical soul.

There is no death there but neither is there salvation.

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