The chestnut-tailed girl's face went completely pale.
She'd forgotten! She forgot that to check out of room 307, she needed room 307's keycard.
She... probably really couldn't leave now.
Despair spread through her mind.
"If Hayato-san begged me, I might consider it. But it looks like Hayato-san isn't willing to do that. Just lowering your head to beg me would let a young girl in her prime leave here safely. Sigh, what a pity," Taisuke said with mock sympathy.
Kuroda Hikari clenched her fists so tightly her knuckles turned white and shouted with every ounce of strength she had.
"Get lost! Even if I stay here forever, I don't need Hayato-senpai to lower his head to scum like you for my sake!"
In that instant, Sawanaga Taisuke's smile completely vanished from his face, transforming into something calm and cold. The shift happened so fast it was like watching a mask fall away. He was angry now, genuinely furious, and the lobby's temperature seemed to drop several degrees in response.
Chill after chill rolled through the air.
"I'll count to three. If Hayato-san doesn't say anything by the time I finish, I'll destroy this keycard right here and now."
He watched them carefully, his right hand slowly applying pressure to the plastic card.
"One..."
"Two..."
Hayato still showed absolutely no reaction whatsoever.
"Three..."
"Sigh!"
Hayato let out a deep sigh.
"Why the sigh? Have you finally figured something out?" Taisuke asked with renewed interest.
"Break it."
Sawanaga Taisuke: ???
Kuroda Hikari silently accepted her fate after hearing that word from Hayato mouth.
Only Hoshino Ai seemed to know what was actually going on here.
"I'm breaking it now. I'm... really going to break it for real this time," Taisuke said, hesitation creeping into his voice despite himself.
"Break it," Hayato repeated flatly.
Seeing that Hayato had absolutely zero reaction to his threat, Sawanaga Taisuke finally exerted real force on the card.
Crack~
The plastic keycard snapped cleanly in half.
"Kuroda-san, you're not important to Hayato at all! You'll have to stay here forever now and keep me company whether you like it or not."
"I'd rather die than keep you company. Dream on, you creep," Kuroda spat back.
Hoshino Ai moved to support Kuroda Hikari, her right hand gently patting the other girl's back in an attempt to comfort her and make her feel at least slightly better about the situation.
"Such a shame, really. Hayato, you actually had no reaction whatsoever to me destroying that keycard. As I expected, your own life and freedom are more important to you than anyone else's. But now I'll tell you some good news." Taisuke's grin returned in full force. "I... never actually promised to let you go in the first place! I really wanted to see that perfect moment when you finally learned the truth, when you realized I'd completely deceived you, when despair showed on your face. Really... such a shame I didn't successfully deceive you this time."
"You're going to get beaten to death," Hayato said calmly.
"Hehehe."
Sawanaga Taisuke accepted the statement happily instead of taking offense.
"If you've got the guts, then go ahead and beat me to death. I'll just stand right here in this exact spot, waiting patiently for you to beat me to death."
Hayato shook his head slowly and spoke with complete certainty. "This is the first time I've ever seen a monster that actively requests to 'be beaten to death.'"
"Haha, come on then. I'm waiting," Taisuke laughed.
"I'll satisfy your request."
Sawanaga Taisuke's smile grew even more intense and manic.
But then he watched in complete confusion as Hayato turned directly away from him and walked straight toward the front desk instead.
What was Hayato planning to do? Seek help from that woman at the front desk? What an absolute joke. Had his brain been completely broken from the stress?! How could the receptionist possibly help Hayato in any way? The receptionist was on my side! They were both hotel staff!
"Miss Receptionist, I'd like to report something," Hayato said clearly.
The woman in the black suit who'd been sitting silently at the front desk this entire time raised her gaze, met Hayato's eyes directly, and spoke slowly.
"What is it?"
"I'm reporting that he deliberately damaged a keycard," Hayato stated.
"Huh?"
Sawanaga Taisuke froze completely.
"He damaged the cleaning staff's keycard. He stole and then deliberately damaged the cleaning staff's keycard. An extremely heinous crime according to hotel rules. Please punish him immediately as regulations require."
In a sudden whoosh of movement, Sawanaga Taisuke's head snapped down to look at the broken keycard pieces still in his hand.
The large characters printed clearly on the card reading "Cleaning Staff Use Only" made his eyes widen until they felt like they might pop out of his skull.
"No... this is impossible. This... how did..."
He couldn't figure it out, no matter how hard his mind raced. He absolutely couldn't figure out how this had happened!
"I understand the situation now."
A cold voice rang out through the lobby.
The female receptionist stepped forward in her high heels and slowly walked toward Sawanaga Taisuke with deliberate, measured steps.
Sawanaga Taisuke kept backing away from her advance, his eyes showing increasingly panicked expressions with each step she took.
"We, we're... on the same side! We're both hotel staff!" he protested desperately.
"You... you can't do this to me... if you do this, you're violating its rules too..."
"It... it won't let you go either if you break the rules."
"No wonder it... said you were problematic from the start!"
"Aaaah!"
"Aaaaaaah..."
Bloodcurdling screams immediately rang out through the entire lobby.
Sawanaga Taisuke revealed his true supernatural form as the facade fell away. Ugly dark gray patches covered every inch of his skin, spreading like a disease. He fought back desperately and tried to counterattack, but he was completely and utterly no match for the female receptionist's overwhelming power.
Amid howls of pain and terror, Sawanaga Taisuke fell hard to the ground, his body becoming bloody and mangled beyond recognition. Dark red liquid kept flowing steadily from countless wounds. His beaten body continuously convulsed and twitched.
Hoshino Ai and Kuroda Hikari watched the entire scene with dumbfounded expressions on their faces. So... there was this kind of operation possible?! You could actually do something like this?!
But it felt so incredibly good to watch!
Both girls stared at Sawanaga Taisuke receiving his brutal beating, and their hearts only held excited, refreshing feelings of satisfaction. They even felt the urge to rush up and kick him twice themselves just for good measure.
"Here's your keycard."
Hayato calmly handed room 307's actual keycard to Kuroda Hikari.
"Hayato... senpai..."
She completely didn't understand what had just happened or how he'd pulled this off, but gratitude filled her entire heart to bursting.
"Let's go and get out of here!"
But the bloody and mangled Sawanaga Taisuke suddenly started laughing loudly despite his horrific injuries.
"HAHAHA!"
He'd somehow already stood back up on his feet and now blocked the path leading to the self-service checkout machine. Meanwhile, the female receptionist just stood frozen in place like a statue, no longer moving.
"Originally, I had no way to stop you, no way to touch you at all without breaking the rules. But now... now I can do whatever I want. It's your own meddling and rule violations that killed you all, Hayato. Hahaha, this is perfect!"
"Sigh!"
Hayato let out another light sigh.
"Why are you... in such a hurry to seek death?!" he asked with what sounded like genuine confusion.
Sawanaga Taisuke: ???
What did Hayato mean by saying he was seeking death?
You're the one on the verge of death here, and you're still acting tough?
The next second, what Hayato calmly pulled out from his pocket shocked Taisuke tremendously and made his blood run cold.
Sawanaga Taisuke understood all too well what it meant that Hayato was pulling out this particular item right now. It meant he'd already read through the hotel's complete rules and regulations!