Rakuna rode in a patrol car for thirty minutes, still in a daze.
They arrived at Odawara Police Station.
Escorted by two police officers, Rakuna was led into the station, trembling all over.
The officers bringing Rakuna in were veteran Exploration Division officer Senior Police Sergeant Kuchioka, and the “gyaru cop,” Officer Himezawa.
As the name suggests, the Exploration Division is the department that investigates incidents related to dungeon exploration, and handling in-dungeon trouble like this is a major part of the job.
When Rakuna was shown into the back room labeled “Interrogation Room,” she sat down on the pipe chair in the far back as if prompted.
Her eyes were vacant, her expression like it was the end of the world.
Across the table sat Himezawa, a young blonde officer, while Senior Police Sergeant Kuchioka stood near the slightly open door with his arms folded.
Himezawa tried asking her various questions, but Rakuna remained spaced out.
No matter what she was asked, she just repeated the same response over and over.
“I’m sorry, I don’t really understand.”
“What are you, an AI bot!?”
Himezawa’s snappy retort flew out, but the “AI bot” only trembled in tiny shivers.
With the interrogation going nowhere, even Senior Police Sergeant Kuchioka—watching from behind—ended up holding his head.
“Himezawa. That thing. In times like this, you need to help her relax.”
At those words, Himezawa gave a crisp salute and replied brightly, “Roger that~!”
She pulled out her smartphone from her pocket and showed it to Rakuna.
On the totally shattered screen was a photo of a dog sitting nicely.
“Like, Narakino-chan, you’ve totally got this super cute vibe—like a dog that just got scolded. The dog at my place gets like that too for a while after we yell at him. Cute, right? He’s a toy poodle named Tarō, by the way~”
Despite being E-rank, Narakino Rakuna had deliberately 『Connected』 to an advanced dungeon, slapped away the rescue tracking drone that warned her, and pushed deeper inside. She then pressed onward and cleared, all by herself, an advanced dungeon that normally requires a party of multiple high-rank explorers.
And yet the girl in front of them looked so utterly wilted that she seemed like the last person who could have caused such an incident. Even now, with the phone pressed to her face, she stared with dead fish eyes and opened and closed her mouth soundlessly.
And then—
—Grrrr… grrrrRRRR~.
A loud sound echoed through the interrogation room.
Rakuna immediately clutched her stomach, face turning bright red as she bowed her head.
“Oh! Was that Narakino-chan’s tummy? That was insanely loud! A starving-stomach stethoscope, huh!?”
At Himezawa’s words, Kuchioka snapped back to himself and rummaged through the plastic bag he was holding.
“Miss, for now, how about you eat this? I bought it at a convenience store down the street—”
For the first time, Rakuna looked up.
“K-Ka… ka… katsu-don…!?”
“Ah—no, sorry. It’s a salted mackerel rice ball—”
“Th-th-thank you so much! I will never forget this kindness for as long as I live!”
Rakuna bowed so deeply she nearly slammed her forehead into the table.
She took the rice ball from Kuchioka and stuffed her face, crying as she ate.
“Thank you so much… I have no regrets left… Will it be death by burning…? Or beheading…?”
Just then, Kuchioka’s phone rang.
After exchanging a glance with Himezawa, he left the interrogation room.
“So, Narakino-chan. Can you tell me why you went into an advanced dungeon?”
“…Ah, yes. Um… I was looking for the way back, and I ended up not knowing where I was anymore. And then… I found a spot where the wall was thin, so I punched a hole through it… I mean, I didn’t even know I was in an advanced dungeon…”
“Watching the stream, it definitely looked like that. And yeah, from the situation, I don’t think you intentionally broke in either.”
At that, Rakuna tilted her head, feeling something was off.
“…Watching the stream…?”
“Yep, yep. It was, like, a huge topic. I seriously love explorers’ streams, so I was watching the whole time—work has nothing to do with it! Ahahaha!”
“…The whole time… you were watching…?”
The interrogation room door opened, and Kuchioka came back in.
“Hey, miss. I don’t really get it, but some big shot was furious and said, ‘Make her stop streaming immediately.’”
“…Make me… stop streaming…?”
“Huh? Don’t tell me, Narakino-chan—you’re still streaming?”
At that, Rakuna immediately started digging through her backpack.
She found the white drone used for streaming and pulled it out.
On the screen was a close-up of her own face.
And a massive flood of comments.
〝Ah〟
〝Did she just notice!?〟
〝UOOOOOOOO! She finally looked at the comments!〟
〝Heeey Narakino-san, you watching? lol〟
〝Camera-eye contact too cute〟
〝But her face is wild lol〟
〝What kind of face is that lmaooo〟
〝Space Cat, I’m dying〟
The comments were flying by at an insane speed.
And at the bottom of the screen were the words: 『32,000 viewers』.
“Ah… ahh… ahhhhhhh…!”
Her face went even paler than before, and she started trembling violently.
“N-nooooooooooooo! P-please don’t watchhhhhhh!”
With a scream, she threw the drone, toppled out of her chair, and hid in the corner behind her backpack.
Even after being hurled, the drone stabilized itself and kept streaming.
“Narakino-chan, calm down~. But like, instead of ‘don’t watch,’ shouldn’t you be ending the stream?”
“Y-yesh!”
Rakuna peeked out from behind her backpack, wobbled to her feet, and raised both hands in a knife-hand stance.
“Ugufgyuaaaaaaaaah!”
With that mysterious battle cry, she leapt up and swung a knife-hand down at the drone.
But the drone dodged at the last second.
Instead—GASHAAAAN!—the table that had been set there was chopped clean in half.
“Gyahahahahaha! Holy crap! The table’s split in half! Not the table—end the stream! Also why did you try to cut the drone!?”
“Um—I’ve only ever turned a stream on! I don’t know how to turn it off! If I don’t cut it quickly, I’m going to die! Cause of death: exploding from embarrassment!”
“Gyahahaha! I literally have no idea what you’re saying! House! Narakino-chan, house!”
“Not ‘house,’ Himezawa. And what are you even saying? Quit laughing and end the stream for her.”
At Kuchioka’s words, Himezawa answered, “Roger~,” operated the drone’s screen, and ended the stream.
Still in a confused state, Rakuna let out a huge sigh and collapsed limply on the spot.
Like a storm that had finally passed, the room went quiet.
The room was a wreck, and Rakuna was still out of it.
Seeing the situation, Kuchioka’s lips twitched upward, and he couldn’t help snorting with laughter.
“Heh… What the hell are you two doing…? Oh, right. One more thing from the big shots. Miss, they say you can go home now.”
“Wha—!?”
§
Rakuna left the police station without really understanding anything, her backpack on her shoulders, stumbling as she walked.
The two officers watched her back as she disappeared into the sunset.
Himezawa, looking like a question mark was floating over her head, asked Kuchioka:
“Honestly, we still didn’t get, like, anything out of her, but there’s no punishment, huh. Well, Narakino-chan is cute, after all. Cute is justice! V!”
“Don’t get it twisted. Based on the records, the higher-ups decided she didn’t do anything illegal.”
“I was ready for at least a license suspension, though. Even if it wasn’t intentional, she still did a dungeon connection.”
“And for that too—it means the dungeon was in a state where you could connect that easily with just a wall in between, right? You could even say we prevented damage from the connection before it happened. That kid unintentionally helped maintain Hakone Town’s security.”
“I see. Yeah, if you look at it that way, you’re totally right. Flexible thinking! Knead that brain!”
“Anyway, they said the big shots will handle all the little processing details, so don’t worry about it.”
Damage caused by dungeon connections has been trending upward year by year.
The reasons vary by region, but Hakone Town—where Rakuna was born and raised—had an abnormally high number of connections, and was known nationwide for the amount of damage.
In that context, the achievement of clearing a connected dungeon carried major meaning for Hakone Town.
And that had strongly influenced the decision to let all of Rakuna’s many violations go unpunished.
Of course, she hadn’t committed a single violation intentionally, and the fact that the stream proved that was also a major reason.
Relieved by the outcome—Rakuna being spared—Himezawa exhaled softly.
“We don’t want another tragedy like the ‘Abyss Incident,’ you know.”
“Oh? You know about the ‘Abyss Incident’?”
“Of course. Seeing that is what made me want to become a police officer.”
The Abyss Incident.
A special-grade dungeon in Hakone Town—『Abyss』—『Connected』 to a cave that wasn’t even a dungeon, and a child who was an elementary school student at the time ended up lost inside the dungeon.
The incident shook not only Hakone, but the entire country.
Kuchioka stared off into the distance, as if recalling something, then let out a quiet laugh.
“Has it already been five years since then…? …You’ve grown up.”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
“Well, anyway.”
Kuchioka pulled his smartphone out of his pocket and held it out.
“Teach me how to watch streams and how to subscribe to a channel.”
“Kuchioka-jii-chan is actually trying to do his Exploration Division job properly!”
“Heh. Too bad. I just ended up becoming that kid’s fan.”
“That’s not bad news—that’s great news! I, Himezawa, will teach you with everything I’ve got!”