[Dazzling sunlight poured through the gap in the utterly demolished concrete wall, lighting the formerly dim corridor as brightly as day. The air was thick with the smell of blood and choking concrete dust.]
[Riko Amanai sat sprawled on the cold floor. Everywhere she could see, just as in the twentieth-floor hotel corridor not long ago, there was glaring crimson blood and incomplete pieces of corpses.]
[The middle-aged Curse User who had been shouting arrogantly a second earlier had now become an unrecognizable mass of mangled flesh.]
[But unlike the overwhelming terror at the hotel, as though she had plunged into an ice cellar, Riko Amanai now had absolutely no room for even a trace of fear deep inside her heart.]
[In its place was the utterly real elation and relief of surviving a brush with death, her heart pounding violently inside her chest.]
[It was an extreme longing to be alive, born of truly experiencing death brushing past her.]
[This time, Riko Amanai was not frightened by Panda's somewhat gruff voice, and she completely disregarded the horrifying destructive power he had just displayed.]
[She suddenly lunged forward, undried tear tracks still at the corners of her eyes, and pulled the furry Panda tightly into her slender arms.]
[She buried her face deep in Panda's soft fur and spoke to him with heartfelt, utter sincerity, her voice trembling slightly with excitement.]
["Thank you... really, thank you for protecting me..."]
["Rumble-crash!"]
[Just then, hurried footsteps came from the end of the corridor, accompanied by the sound of several pieces of rubble hitting the floor.]
[Because of the tremendous commotion caused by Panda's New Shadow Style sword draw destroying the outer wall, Suguru Geto, who had been guarding the other side of the school and had not immediately found the other infiltrating