a/n: au ending where yonaka is endlessly stuck in going through the castle over and over again, unable to grasp reality the longer it goes on

She could not stop the tears as they fell from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. Having just witnessed her dear friend's execution, she didn't realize how much it would break her until she'd see it right in front of her. But when she finally managed to regain the balance she had, though her legs were shaking and vision blurry, she hurriedly tried to make her way out of the cell. She wiped her eyes with her non-bloodied sleeve as she kept moving forward in the long, eerie hallway.

The pesky little mogekos were still occupied at the burning stake, so the highschooler bid her time in getting out. It still felt quieter than usual. She remembered Defect Mogeko's words;

"You have to run, missy... or this will all be for nothing."

She had to, it's what he would've wanted, she knew that.

Eventually Yonaka found a path of stairs as if presented for her and she strived to make her way up quickly as possible, wanting to get to the end point of this castle as soon as possible and go back to her... family.

'Brother...'

He had been gone for a long time. She believed once she returned home, her brother would already be there, waiting for her dreadfully, just as she was.

At the end of the ascend of stairs, there reside a single door, the only thing that stood out in the big, dull area. With no second-thoughts, Yonaka pushed open the door and stepped through, as it closed behind her with an audible click. The highschooler stood there for a moment to register she was in a very familiar area, the very first floor in fact, when she'd stepped her foot into the castle. In the distance, she saw a faint silhouette of Moge-ko with a dead mogeko in a puddle of blood. Her breath got nearly caught in her throat out of fear but then she realized...

It was just an unmoving phantom... she was just seeing things.

She took the route as she remembered it before, though confused and frightened the longer this went on. Whilst she went by, she didn't want to think it'd be true, but she was going through the entire castle all over. Absolutely nothing was different...

It was quiet, like there was no sign of life in the castle at all. Her echoing footsteps felt unusually even loud for her as well as her heart pounding against her chest. On the way, Yonaka was beginning to get suspicious as she passed by mogekos who didn't even acknowledge her as she went. Her bad feeling was proven true soon after, realizing they were just phantoms who stood completely still, like the one she saw before, as she hesitantly gave a poke at one of them but her hand just went right through.

She didn't know how long she'd been going on for, but she still couldn't stop now. She had to clear her head, there would be no point of if she was just going in loop, trying to find the exit... escape the nightmare, but still wasn't sure if it even was true.

After a while, she had to make a stop, found herself slumped to her knees, staring on ahead, at nothing in particular, there was nobody living in sight, except mogekos who were just delusions. Nega's blood was still on her, it stuck to her, couldn't get his last live moments out of her head...

"Yonaka-tan..."

A husky whisper not far from echoed through the hallway, calling her name. Yonaka stopped breathing, her world was spinning before her eyes. She wished she didn't, but recognized the voice.

"You have a lovely shade of crimson on you. Is it your own?"

Oh no, no, no, it can't be, she thought.

"Wh...?" She looked up to see a smiling face. In confusion and panic, she tried to back away but she was weak of will, and didn't get far.

"You don't look so good, whatever happened to you, my dear Yonaka-tan?"

At the path to the exit, she at least thought she had chosen the right way out of the castle, but began to doubt when she went from the last floor back to first one. She tried not to think about it, thinking it was just an illusion, but gradually got more lost and lost to the point where she ended up there, in the grasp of a soothing yet venomous voice, trying to lure her in.

Where there is mogeko, there is nightmare.

"You're not real either, are you...?" Yonaka spoke up as she eyed the other.

"Oh, I'm very real. In flesh and all." Moge-ko responded, almost gleefully.

Of all places she could have accidentally wandered to, she had to run into the bloodthirsty psychopath. "But I'm glad you came right to me..." The shady figure stepped closer to the highschooler with each word she spoke.

'I didn't do that...! What is...no, stay away...' The braided girl's entire body shook, she found herself unable to speak or move.

With a malicious glint in her eyes that seemed almost visible, she spoke the words which echoed in her prey's mind.

"You're just a bug that flew into the spider's web, Yonaka-tan... But don't worry, Moge-ko will end your suffering."

In her last remaining moments, she can't remember if she screamed or felt any pain at all.

She had failed her friend, even after she promised him to escape the castle, she still couldn't do it.