Sara Redmere has survived monsters, roads, bandits, and another world.

Now she must survive the mall.

After a morning of police statements, school paperwork, and too many people staring, Daichi decides Riku and Sara have had enough official pressure for one day. Sara needs clothes, supplies, food, and a better understanding of modern Japan.

But a simple shopping trip becomes something far more complicated when Sara reveals the money she carried from Valenmere: five gold coins from a civilization that does not exist in this world.

To Sara, it is just coin.

To Daichi, it is evidence.

And when Sara finds a handmade sword that no one else can properly wield, the modern world begins to realize that the Scarlet Blade did not leave all of her danger behind.

Riku Hayashi has returned from another world.

Sara Redmere followed him.

Now they have to survive the one thing neither of them can fight with a blade: the official story.

At the police station, Riku, Sara, Emiko, and Daichi face the consequences of Riku’s disappearance and Sara’s impossible arrival. Every answer matters. Every detail can become a problem. And Daichi Hayashi knows exactly how dangerous the wrong words can be.

For Sara, the clean walls, quiet questions, and controlled voices of Riku’s world may be more unsettling than any forest road.

Because in this world, survival means learning when to speak, when to stay silent, and when to stick to the script.

Sara Redmere wakes before sunrise in a world that still does not make sense.

Riku is home. His parents are alive. The apartment is safe.

But Sara cannot ignore the truth cutting beneath all of it: because she followed him, Riku’s return has become more dangerous, more complicated, and harder to explain.

So Sara does what she has always done when staying feels impossible.

She prepares to leave.

But Riku Hayashi has learned something from her.

If someone can still be saved, you do not leave them behind.

And in this world or any other, no one leaves alone.