The Deities of Hell

Mizuki hid in something like a cave.

It was pitch black and a shallow river streamed everywhere.

Monkey forcibly entered through the entrance and illuminated its surroundings with a sun in his palm.

Mizuki was already nowhere to be found.

By a crossroad just a little further inside, Mizuki’s shoulder bag and flashlight fell over.

Seeing that, Monkey ran along the road.

“It's finally gone.”

Appearing from the river, Mizuki collected his shoulder bag and flashlight before taking the other road Monkey hadn’t chosen.

After walking a little, he saw a hole in the ceiling.

Light shone through it into the cave onto Mizuki as if to lead him.

Mizuki looked up at the inner parts of the ceiling, then threw a handcuff toward a chair-like object.

The handcuff got stuck in the chair, and after confirming it, he pulled the chair down.

Climbing on top of it, he clambered up on the wall and continued upwards.

He reached the first floor of the castle.

He did it without caring about ruining the walls or the floor, and even the furniture was scattered around.

Reaching the door, he couldn’t find any crevice to go out through.

However, Mizuki used the handcuff to snare it around the doorknob and pulled on it to open the door.

The room inside looked like a torture chamber.

A guillotine, a needle chair, a creepy mask, and other torture tools made in the Middle Ages were lined up.

Each of them was a human tool in a size suitable for humans, but it didn’t change the ominous feeling the room gave off.

There was dried blood sticking everywhere, and skeletons were scattered all over.

The broken walls around the room only added to the dreadful feeling.

Mizuki passed through the room to the staircase leading to the second floor.

***

The second floor was a pretty spacious library.

It had a similar gloomy feeling, but it wasn’t Monkey’s size.

It was a human library.

While some books were stacked disorderly, some bookshelves had even fallen over.

The library continued up to the third floor.

Having seen the staircase to the next floor, Mizuki hurried to it.

However, like a monkey swinging down a tree, Monkey dropped from the third floor.

“Even though it was in the basement just a moment ago… It looks like it’s gotten smaller, too.”

Monkey’s back had become round, so its posture had shrunk.

Even the feathers and hands and feet had become smaller, so thanks to its small build, it was able to descend the stairs.

“I need to somehow get to the third floor without being seen…”

While hiding himself in the bookshelves, he curled up and took Monkey’s place.

However, as Mizuki past the stacks of books fallen to the floor, his shoulder bag got stuck on a book, and the whole stack fell down.

A bookshelf tumbled down and crushed him.

“Ugh!”

“Kih?”

Noticing the fallen books, Monkey approached the spot Mizuki had been standing in.

Because of the hundreds of books, it still couldn’t spot him underneath.

Still, Monkey started to slowly carry the books one by one to another place.

It was just a matter of time before Mizuki would be discovered below all of the books.

“I-I have no choice!”

Mizuki rushed out from underneath the pile of books.

Then, he ran to to staircase leading up to the third floor.

“Kii!”

However, Monkey shot a star from its palm, and, like a meteor shower, it destroyed the stairs.

Panicked, Mizuki escaped in the shadow of a bookshelf.

Monkey followed Mizuki and ran to the bookshelf.

However, besides the mountain of books behind it, Mizuki was gone.

The tip of Mizuki’s shoe peeked out from the pile of books.

As if discerning that, Monkey pulled on the shoe.

“Kii!?”

However, there was only one shoe.

Flustered, it ran to the inner parts of the bookshelf in a panic, then looked left and right.

Mizuki had disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Still, there was another shoe in front of the stairs leading down to the first floor.

Lifting up the shoe, Monkey ran down to the first floor.

“That was dangerous.”

Mizuki was hiding in a stack of books near the staircase connecting the first and second floors that Monkey had just passed.

By leaving one shoe, he earned enough time to guide Monkey down the stairs with the other.

“Still, now the stairs to the third floor are broken…”

Mizuki muttered and skimmed his surroundings.

He was struck with an idea and climbed up a bookshelf, hooked the handcuffs on the iron bars on the third floor, then climbed up the chain connecting the handcuffs.

“There’s another room in the back… and there’s no other door so I have no choice…”

***

Mizuki walked to the big door in the back.

The size of the room gave off the same ominous feeling.

The library just now had books and bookshelves in a size suitable for humans. but this room looked wider.

There were a bed and chair, but everything seemed to be oversized in a distorted way.

There seemed to be something on the desk in the center of the room.

Something was moving inside a glass-like thing.

Noticing that, Mizuki climbed up on the chair to reach the desk.

“Yua!”

A glass box was placed on the desk with Yua inside.

Her body had been tied with a thread, and she had been blindfolded and gagged.

A ribbon was tied around the glass, and it was decorated as a gift to give away to someone.