Kaguya-sama: Love Is War wants me to turn myself in.

“You’ve changed,” Natsuki Amamiya said softly. “You weren’t like this when we were playing hide-and-seek on the ghost ship.”

“Everyone can pretend. When you first meet a senior, you're not familiar with them and you're worried about what to do if they're a bad person. You definitely have to pretend to be mature.” The spy maid raised her pretty face and spoke softly. “It's different now. You're so familiar with the senior. It would be very tiring to always pretend to be mature in front of someone you know well.”

"Tsk~"

If I hadn't seen the little devil icon flashing above your head, I might have actually believed you.

It looks pink and delicate, but it'll definitely be black when you cut it open!

“Very well, I’ve made up my mind.” Amamiya Natsuki sat up straight.

"Hey, what is that?"

A faint blush rose on Hayasaka Ai's face: "Is senpai ready to confess?"

Amamiya Natsuki said:

"Ready."

"..."

The spy maid paused slightly, and the smile on her lips froze.

Eh?

Is he really going to confess?

No, the confession was a pretense; the real reason was to fulfill her promise and kiss him!

Hayasaka Ai subconsciously became conflicted.

(After I confess my feelings, he'll ask me to kiss him... Should I kiss him?)

(For the sake of the young lady, a kiss wouldn't be a problem.)

(As a spy, some sacrifices are necessary to achieve the goal... but it's just for the young lady's mission!)

For some reason, Hayasaka Ai could clearly hear her own heartbeat becoming increasingly rapid.

"I've made up my mind," Natsuki Amamiya said quietly. "You perform a 360-degree backflip."

"Eh?"

Hayasaka Ai looked up in surprise, "What are you talking about, senpai?"

Amamiya Natsuki said without changing her expression:

"I don't know why, but I suddenly want to watch someone perform a backflip."

"Senior, senior, senior~" The spy maid gritted her teeth and leaned closer to vent her resentment, "Don't you feel any guilt for bullying girls?"

"I'm sorry, it doesn't hurt at all."

"..."

Chapter 289 Hayasaka Ai, The Maid Returns

"Let's go, let's try to get out of here."

Natsuki Amamiya let out a soft breath and stood up.

"Are you looking for the thirteenth step?"

Hayasaka Ai got up, the painful curse on her body completely gone, and now she felt relaxed and in a great mood.

"Yes."

Amamiya Natsuki nodded.

Even as the curse was being removed from the spy maid, the 'written conversation' with Komi-kun did not stop.

One person is not wise enough, but three people are skilled enough.

According to Kaguya and the others' speculation, since they entered the alternate dimension by stepping on the thirteenth step, they would likely have to go through the thirteenth step to leave.

The location of this thing is unpredictable and will move and change from time to time.

For example, just now, after Amamiya Natsuki stepped on it and disappeared, the thirteenth step also disappeared.

and so.

Once an ordinary person accidentally enters another dimension, they almost never get out—

Firstly, the location of the steps is unpredictable.

Secondly, the vengeful spirits in other dimensions are quite bizarre. Once discovered, they will subject you to equal suffering. When the suffering exceeds a certain limit, you will collapse and fall into depravity.

The huge teaching building, the eerie and terrifying environment, coupled with the strange evil spirits and rules, make it impossible to reach the thirteenth step again unless you have the luck to win the lottery.

Of course, none of these things are a problem for Natsuki Amamiya.

First, let's look at the location of the thirteenth step.

For ordinary people to find the steps, they would have to conduct a thorough search of the school and hope that the steps' location doesn't change.

But for Hanako-chan, who is also a ghost story, the location of the thirteenth step is like a light in the dark, clear and without any secrets.

The location of the steps is easily obtained.

The notebook was responsible for transmitting information.

Natsuki Amamiya only needs to follow the index in the notebook and find the spy maid directly.

The only problem now is verifying whether the thirteenth step is the key to getting out.

"Set off."

"..."

Amamiya Natsuki walked ahead with her notebook in hand, followed closely by Hayasaka Ai. The two quietly left the office.

Come to the corridor.

It was still dusk, the setting sun like blood.

There is indeed no passage of time in the alternate dimension.

"The steps are located on the far left of the first floor. Let's go there."

Natsuki Amamiya glanced at her notebook and walked forward.

"Senior, let me go first," Hayasaka Ai whispered. "There are many strange vengeful spirits in the school building. We must not be seen by them. Once they see us, we will be cursed and suffer inexplicable pain all over our bodies."

They hadn't gone far when the spy maid grabbed Amamiya Natsuki's arm and whispered a reminder:

"We can't go any further; evil spirits are lurking there. Let's take another route."

"Ah."

"..."

The spy maid spent half a day in the alternate dimension, exploring almost every place she could, and grasping the movements of most of the vengeful spirits—the vengeful spirits in the alternate dimension were strange, almost always staying in the same place and rarely wandering around.

The two went down to the first floor.

As one approaches the stairwell containing the thirteenth step, plaintive sobs drift from the restroom.

"We don't know what's in the restroom." Hayasaka Ai frowned slightly. "If we go too close, it might be dangerous. The vengeful spirit inside might be Hanako."

“It’s not Hanako,” Natsuki Amamiya shook her head. “The vengeful spirit crying inside is a thirteen-year-old fifth-grade girl.”

"Huh?" Hayasaka Ai looked over in surprise. "How did you know, senpai?"

“Of course it’s because I went in there,” Natsuki Amamiya said matter-of-factly. “When I first entered the alternate dimension, I heard crying from the bathroom and wondered if it was you hiding inside crying by yourself.”

Hayasaka Ai snapped back, annoyed, "Who would hide in a place like the bathroom?"

"Anyway, don't worry about it." Amamiya Natsuki smiled. "Mizuki-chan and I are already good friends."

"How did you know the vengeful spirit's name?!"

Hayasaka Ai covered her forehead and couldn't help but complain, "Wait a minute, senpai went into the restroom and saw a vengeful spirit inside. Wasn't she cursed with pain?"

"No, not really." Amamiya Natsuki said meaningfully, "I roughly know what the rules are."

"..."

Seeing that Amamiya Natsuki walked over without any fear, Hayasaka Ai naturally chose to believe her.

The two quickly arrived at the restroom door. Amamiya Natsuki stopped and called out into the dark restroom:

"Mizuki-san, do you want to come out and play for a while?"

"..."

The crying in the bathroom stopped abruptly, and there was no sound at all.

Amamiya Natsuki shouted again:

"I'm really not a bad person, come out here."

Hayasaka Ai: “…”

A guy who claims he's not a bad person is definitely not a good person!

The little girl in the restroom refused to come out and see anyone, so Natsuki Amamiya could only shrug regretfully and walk past the restroom with Ai Hayasaka to the leftmost corridor.

"One, two, three, four, five... thirteen."

In the soft twilight, Natsuki Amamiya stretched out her fingers and counted the steps one by one.

"Is this the thirteen steps?"

Looking at the unremarkable thirteen steps, Hayasaka Ai felt a mix of emotions.

On the way here, she counted the steps in other places, and they all had twelve steps.

Before, I was being chased by the ghost story Hanako, so I didn't have the mind to count the number of steps, and at that time I had no idea that there was a ghost story about steps in the school.

If Natsuki Amamiya hadn't risked her life to come in, she would probably have been trapped here forever.

No food.

There is no water source.

Apart from the voice of the vengeful spirit, no other sounds could be heard.