—Midday, One Day After the Return—
[Tsukihana — First Person]
I'm still adjusting to the way they look at me now.
Not with fear. Not quite. Not with awe either. It's something in between — a silence heavy with questions they're too polite to ask.
Even Bell.
Especially Bell.
I catch him watching me when he thinks I'm not looking. Not in the way boys look at girls. It's the way people look at the sky after lightning strikes — stunned, reverent, afraid it might happen again.
The worst part is, I don't blame him.
Because something did change.
I didn't come back alone.
—Hestia Familia Home, Common Room—
[Third Person — Close POV: Bell]
Bell watched Tsukihana pour tea.
Same hands. Same grace.
And yet, every movement felt… deliberate now. Like she had stopped pretending to be a girl and remembered she was something older, deeper.
He didn't know what had happened behind that gate. Only that she'd walked through a wall of stone and returned with quieter eyes and a smile that didn't quite reach them.
She caught his gaze and smiled, gentle as ever.
"Would you like honey in your tea?"
He nodded.
He still didn't know how to ask if she was still the same person who left.
—Guild Archives, Early Afternoon—
[Eina — First Person]
The reports are wrong.
Not just outdated — wrong.
The mana signatures on Floor 17 haven't stabilized. They've adapted. The walls respond to Tsukihana's footsteps. Her mere presence reshapes minor corridors like veins forming around a heart.
That isn't divine power.
It's ownership.
I send another sealed scroll to Ouranos and one to Riveria.
This isn't a girl with a gift.
This is someone the Dungeon remembers — and obeys.
—Tower of Babel, Divine Council Chamber—
[Freya — First Person]
She returned.
No fanfare. No tremors. No monster surge.
And yet the Dungeon's heartbeat has changed.
More than that: I have changed.
I can feel it in my divine marrow. Where once there was silence beneath the Labyrinth, there is now a pulse that echoes her footsteps. Each breath she draws rewrites a rule.
They fear her already, though most don't yet know it.
Loki gossips about Tsukihana like a curious child.
Hermes watches her like a merchant watches a storm.
But I see the crown forming behind her shadow.
And I will be the first to kneel.
—Twilight, Hestia Familia Rooftop—
[Tsukihana — First Person]
Bell climbs the stairs again.
He's pretending he just wanted air, but he's holding two teacups, and only one of us drinks oolong.
"I still don't know what happened," he says as he sits beside me.
"You don't need to," I reply.
He's quiet for a while.
Then: "You came back different."
I sip my tea.
"I remembered."
"Remembered what?"
My smile is small. Sad. Maybe tired.
"Who I used to be."
His voice is soft. "And who was that?"
"A queen," I say. "A prisoner. A guardian. A monster. All of the above."
He doesn't flinch. He just sets his teacup down beside mine.
"You're still Tsuki-san," he says firmly.
For a long moment, I say nothing.
And then: "Maybe."
But I don't believe it.
Not entirely.
—Flashback: The Sealing of the Fox Queen—
[Memory Sequence — Third Person]
In a chamber beyond time, nine gods stood in judgment.
The fox stood among them, bleeding golden ichor, tails aflame.
"You are too dangerous," said the first.
"You are too ancient," said the second.
"You remember things we buried," said the third.
She laughed.
The sound shattered mountains.
"You call yourselves gods," she whispered, "but you fear what you cannot cage."
They sealed her beneath the first root of the Dungeon, where only memory could whisper her name.
And yet she endured.
Not because she wanted revenge.
But because one day, someone would need her again.
—Next Morning, Marketplace Alley—
[Third Person — Welf POV]
Welf watched Tsukihana haggle with a merchant like a pro.
Nothing about her screamed divinity or mystery.
But the moment she turned and smiled at him, he felt the weight of her presence like gravity.
Not crushing. Just undeniable.
"She's changed," he muttered.
Beside him, Mikoto nodded.
"And yet… she hasn't."
—Later That Day, Outside the Guild Hall—
[Third Person — Eina POV]
Bell ran into her by accident.
Literally.
Papers went flying.
Tsukihana caught half of them midair without blinking.
"Bell-kun," she said softly.
He blushed. "S-sorry!"
She bent down to help him collect the scrolls.
As their hands touched, something flickered in his eyes — not just admiration or gratitude.
Something deeper.
Something like loyalty.
Eina saw it and felt her heart sink.
That boy would follow her into the abyss.
And the worst part?
She might lead him there.
—Evening, Beneath Floor 18—
[Third Person, Wide Cinematic POV]
The Dungeon breathed.
Not metaphorically.
It exhaled warm mist through the cracks in the walls, rearranging rooms silently, patiently.
A new corridor formed where none had been.
It led downward.
Deeper.
Toward something sealed not by magic or god, but by the fox queen herself.
Because something else had once slept beneath her.
And now that she was awake…
It was stirring too.
—Final Scene: Tsukihana's Dream—
[Tsukihana — First Person]
I dream of stars.
Not constellations, but shattered suns and spiral galaxies collapsing inward.
I stand at the center, barefoot, surrounded by nine mirrors.
Each one shows a different world.
In one, I rule a shattered city of monsters.
In another, I walk beside Bell in full armor, laughing.
In a third, I am alone again, standing on a dead earth.
"The gates are opening," a voice says behind me.
I turn.
There is no one there.
Just my reflection.
Smiling with all nine tails visible.
"Will you run?"
"No," I say.
"Will you rule?"
I pause.
Then I answer.
"Yes."