Lalá!

Tome stumbles into the truth: an important businessman, an associate of the ex-owner of this building, has a deep hatred for the new manager of the resort and so has been trying to gaslight her as revenge. Once she is isolated, distrusted of enough, he can do whatever horrid thing he wants to her—with a coating of deniable plausability

Tome runs after Reigen and Serizawa. However, taken by fury and scared of the consequences of being found out, the associate intervenes. He has to take it out on someone else, and he figures it's even easier to dispose of a high school girl

Humans are all too fragile

They also develop a surprising strength under stress

Heart pounding, almost feeling the man's fingers on her arm, Tome rips the pole off a desk lamp and strikes hard

He doesn't get up

Tome's hands tremble, tremble and she can't look away. Her legs buckle. The blood oozing down the man's head makes an impression on her nostrils and she feels so sick

Vertigo throws her on the floor. Her logical mind urges her to run and find a good excuse for the dead body in front of her. She wonders about her future. If this will get her arrested, if it'll get Reigen and Serizawa arrested or if there is a lucky chance the authorities will believe her when she pleads self-defense. Her life has barely started and it might be gone

For now, Tome doesn't know. She is a high school girl sobbing in fear-anger-relief, alone at the second floor of an hotel in the middle of nowhere

Fast steps find her and she meets a blur of a dark blue suit. Serizawa stares at her from the door, panting, an edge of seriousness on his eyes. Tome breaks down again. Brings her hands to her face, as if to hide her guilt. She blubbers between thick tears about how that guy wanted to kill her first

But the response isn't an accusation. The steps become close and soft until warm hands guide her to Serizawa's chest. Tome inhales heavily. He is clinging with a concern that is almost guilty as well, as if he was willing himself to learn teleportation and make all of this disappear

When Tome explains the situation, Serizawa nods. Assures her that Reigen is distracting the clients. He says he's sorry he wasn't there, because her safety had been his responsibility and he was too old too fall for this kind of overdone trap. Tome asks what should they do now

Serizawa glances at the blood-soaked corpse with recognition. He has seen this a hundred times. The familiarity, though, isn't of an emotionless killer: it is much closer to a nurse discovering a patient didn’t make it, and acting accordingly

Her coworker is a good man, he always has been. That's why Tome trusts him when he says he can solve this

Tome doesn't doubt Serizawa when he removes all signs of blood. She doesn't suspect a thing when he makes the place as tidy as it had been minutes before. She silently promises not to ask why Serizawa is eerily good at this

As far as other people know, nothing happened at the Umeboshi House

The associate was found at a mountain kilometers away. A hiking accident, says the news. His funeral is scheduled for next Tuesday