"Maybe I feel peachy and I'm sitting on the floor of the dungeon because it's so comfortable, did you ever think of that? Of course not."

"I... didn't, no. Is that the case?"

"No. This is a bad dungeon and it should feel bad. In fact probably it does. For everyone except me. I'm still shielding it out. Which also feels bad."

"Suwan Masaharu-shi, would you like to step out?"

"Kinda leaning toward skipping that step, but like, thanks for asking, I appreciate you taking time out of your day except for how I have no idea what process generated that result."

What the... She opens the commscreen to look up whether Suwan Masaharu has his backlash publicly on record, and he does, and it's loneliness which this doesn't match... at all. "Why are you leaning toward skipping that step?"

"Because, like, why."

"You mentioned being here felt bad, so if you're outside it will hopefully feel less bad. And if it doesn't you can always come back inside."

"I fucking guess, but like, dungeons have this convenient trait where if you hang out in one long enough you die."

Okay that's. That's alarming. That is very alarming. She is alarmed.

She is not going to show this. "Let's go outside, then, shall we? And you can come back inside later, if you really want that, or do something else, if you'd rather do something else."

"They program the customer service robots really well these days, don't they. I bet you have a name and everything." But he'll get up and walk.

Not engaging with that, thank you. She is going to try to make sure he... actually walks out... but his power on record is also the kind where, if he wanted to not be found, he just would not be found, so she has... very limited ability to help, here.

Out he goes?

Yeah, now he's sitting outside the dungeon on the ground, looking around sadly at all the people who aren't real.

If another person who isn't real tries to talk to him will he still respond or has he given up on that?

He might as well, it's not like they get any less real if he talks to them. "What is it?"

"We're getting your partner here, okay?"

"Like that's going to work."

"...it's—"

There's the localised flash of blue light, Haru feels a momentary ping in his backlash, and Jaeha homes in on him immediately. "Haru-ya," he breathes, kneeling down to wrap his arms around Haru.

"- oh, you're - are you real -"

"Yes, Haru-ya, I'm real, I'm here—let's go home?"

"Don't let go of me please," he's clinging hard enough to hurt. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry don't be mad, I just, don't let go of me, I need you, please stay real -"

"I'm not mad, I'd never be mad, I'm not leaving you—" He's tapping at his commscreen behind Haru's back, he got confirmation that the suicide alert unlocked the system to allow teleportation back to their registered silo (Jaeha's house) without needing to request Haru's confirmation, and he says, gently, "We're teleporting home together, okay? I'm not leaving, I'm not letting go of you, I'll come with you and we'll stay together there, alright?"

"Oh my god I'm so stupid, I almost died, what the fuck, I'm supposed to be better at keeping track, don't you dare put me down."

"I'm not going to put you down." He presses the confirm button and then they're in his living room, Haru still in his arms. They don't need to move from there, any farther, but now Haru can break down or do whatever he wants without having to worry about witnesses. "You're not stupid, Haru-ya. You're a hero."