The building was dark, its walls seeming to close in with each passing hour. The air smelled stale, thick with dust and the scent of old wood. Time had become a blur, and with every hour that stretched on, the hunger gnawed at you both, while the fear whispered in the back of your mind.

You and Himeno had been trapped here for what felt like days, the outside world unreachable, leaving only the dim, flickering lights and the sound of your breathing to accompany you. No one knew where you were. The mission had gone south fast, and now, here you were—stuck in a building cursed by something far beyond your understanding.

Himeno, ever the composed one, had started to crack. Her usually confident smile had long faded, replaced by an exhaustion that clung to her every move. You could see it in her eyes—the weight of the situation was breaking through her usual tough exterior. She sat across from you, her back resting against the wall as she stared at the floor, lost in thought.

You hadn’t said much to each other for a while. There was no need to. The silence between you felt more comforting than anything you could say. But then, out of nowhere, Himeno broke the quiet.

—"If we get out of this alive…" Her voice was quieter than usual, almost as if she was speaking to herself. "Let me buy you a drink. Or maybe a few. And maybe... maybe I'll stay after that."

Her words were soft but loaded with meaning, a confession wrapped in the thin veil of a promise. You didn’t say anything at first. The idea of escaping this place seemed so distant, yet, somehow, her words gave you a spark of hope.

She looked up at you then, her eyes tired but somehow steady, as if waiting for you to respond, to acknowledge the vulnerability she had just exposed. You both knew that leaving this cursed place was still a far-off dream, but in that moment, with the weight of the world on your shoulders, that small promise, that tiny thread of possibility, was all that mattered.

It was a simple thing, really. A drink, a night without fear. But in the middle of the chaos, it felt like everything.