"Shinozaki! Shinozaki!"

She wanted to block out all these muffled screams, just wanting to just sit back, relax and get some sleep. It didn't seem right however... Those shouts were very alarming...

"Shinozaki? Wake up!"

That sounded like Kishinuma. What in the world is happening? Why was Kishinuma watching her sleep? What was he doing in her bedroom?

"Ah, stay back!" Who was he talking to? Why was he in such a rush? Why couldn't she collect herself?

"Come any closer and you're dead!" Why was he being so aggressive? Who was he talking to? Were they in danger?

She tried to ask him what in the hell is going on, but the words jumbled out of her mouth and ended up sounding like gibberish.

"Shinozaki? Get up! Get to your senses!" What was going on? She was getting kinda worried...

A separate voice called out from a good few feet away, "It's ok, we mean no harm!" Why would Kishinuma assume they were hostile? Who are they? She certainly didn't recognise their voices.

As she started to collect herself, she took in her surroundings. Decrepit, old wooden floorboards, some of them sticking out as if they were bended upwards impossibly, the air thick, bringing the feeling of pain to her head as it was being hoisted up by Kishinuma. This was definitely not her bedroom. The all too familiar sense of dread wreaked distortion in her body.

"Wh-Where am I? Kishinuma? What is this place?" She turned her head towards the intruders. "Who are you?" From the looks of things, they were two boys she had never seen before, both wearing school uniforms different from Kisaragi's, albeit one was wearing it far looser and more ruggedly than the other. One was a deal shorter than the other, and he had purple spiked hair and looked a whole lot more innocent than the other, who had, by comparison, long red hair and gave the aura of a delinquent. He reminded her of Kishinuma, although even he looked more honour roll worthy than this literally red (not ginger) haired gentleman.

"Kurosaki, let me handle this" blurted the taller of the two, pushing his way past who, what she got from that short sentence, was 'Kurosaki' "Whoever you are, I don't care who you are, but It's clear that that lady on the floor is in need of some assistance" he vocalised, sharply, to Kishinuma. She'll admit, she felt slightly flattered at being called a lady, but she could not help but think his worries were feigned, as she detected a slight smirk on his face after his words had been spoken.

"Don't you think I know that?" Why were they all worrying so much? Had something happened to her? As she thought that she noticed a deep gash on the inner thigh of her right leg. It was slowly leaking blood out of the wound; it made her sick to her stomach. It wasn't really painful though, maybe it was shock, but the fact that she derived no pain for it only alienated here more from the situation at hand.

"What's your name? Kurosaki? Find something to stop the goddamn bleeding!" 'Wow, I didn't know Kishinuma could take control of a situation like this.' She thought. She could only groan as the pain slowly started seeping in from the depths of her brain. It actually really hurt. Where had she got this wound from? Was it infected?

The red haired man slowly knelt by her side. "Hey, babe, make it through this for me." Who was he? She didn't even know his name and he's calling her babe? 'Maybe it was just spur of the moment emotional support. Yeah, that must be the only thing that compelled him to say that. He probably didn't know what to say so he said what he thought was best, even if what he thought was best was making her more weirded out.'

"Hey, blondie, what's your name?" Asked the red haired boy, somewhat abruptly. Ayumi was rather amused at Kishinuma's newfound nickname. ''Blondie', haha! '. "Yoshiki Kishinuma. If you're wondering, this is Ayumi Shinozaki. You?" replied Kishinuma, rather annoyed at his use of the nickname blondie. Ayumi could tell something was off between the two. 'Two wrongs don't make a right' she thought with a certain degree of humour.

"I'll still call you blondie" He snickered. "Name's Kai Shimada. Pleased to meet you." He sarcastically added, with a fake smile. Yoshiki did not like this man. Too cynical.

The boy called Kurosaki returned after a few minutes with some gauze he found from who-knows-where, and started applying it onto her thigh. Ayumi didn't like a total stranger touching her leg like that, but it was pretty much to save her life, so She'd let it pass. "That should be it, but she may need support if she wants to move around." 'Really? Not the best of options, two complete strangers or Kishinuma. But hey, that Kurosaki boy seems pretty cute. Reminds me of Mochida. Wait, that's not the problem at hand! Where the hell are we?'

"Ok, thanks, but what in the world is going on? Where the hell are we?!" shouted Yoshiki, almost echoing Ayumi's thoughts. "What is this hellhole?!"

"I have no fucking clue. I couldn't find anything about this place the short time we had been here, other than some bullshit bulletin on the wall that read 'Heavenly Host'." Said Kai Shimada, very aggressively.

"Heavenly Host? Oh no... Oh no... This can't be happening." Ayumi choked out. This was so bad... Why were they here? It's coming back to her now... That was it, the culture festival, and the charm. Oh god, the 'Sachiko ever after charm'. She shouldn't have brought it up.

Kishinuma and the other two looked very alarmed at her words. "Wait, you know where we are?" "Where are we?" Said the two strangers, Kurosaki and Shimada respectfully. Ayumi couldn't help but notice Shimada's rather brusque tone. She didn't really like the first impressions being given off from him.

"D-did you two do a charm called 'Sachiko ever after?'"

Kurosaki uttered a nervous "yes" while Shimada bluntly nodded.

"W-we did t-too... It can't be, the charm must have brought us here, to 'Heavenly Host'..."

Shimada was just spaced out, Kurosaki looked shocked, but Yoshiki was worried. Not really for his own safety, or any of their newly found acquaintances, but for Ayumi Shinozaki. Still, one thought crossed his mind. "Shinozaki, you don't think... The others have been brought here too?"

"Most likely, everyone who performed the charm was probably brought here, including Mochida and his sister... Kurosaki, was it just you who performed with Shimada or were there others?" Somehow, he didn't believe these two would perform a 'Best friends' ritual together.

"No, there were seven others at the time... wait that means Kizami is here too! Thank god! We need to find him, Shimada!" Ayumi didn't know who this 'Kizami' character was that Kurosaki had been talking about, but Shimada had a definite scowl on his face at the mention of the name.

"If you want, go and find that prick. I don't care. You're a fool for being his 'friend'. He doesn't even like you. He doesn't like anyone. He's just an outcast." Shimada was very harsh in his words, but Ayumi and Yoshiki didn't try to get involved. They had never met this 'Kizami', after all.

"Shimada... fine, we probably won't even be able to escape from this hellhole anyway." Kurosaki seemed genuinely distraught at Shimada's harsh words. He knew Shimada and Kizami didn't get along so well, but to see him react like that, was just shocking at a time of life or death like this.

"We have to at least try to get out! I don't want to be stuck here, forever rotting away for no good reason!" proclaimed Yoshiki, eager to disrupt this awkward exchange between the two strangers. "Let's just go and find some means of escape, find our friends and get the hell out of here! Shinozaki, come on, I'll help you up."

Ayumi was thankful that Yoshiki was helping her up, even supporting her body weight to minimize pain, and not just leaving her to get up herself, or maybe leave Kurosaki to help her.

"Yo blondie, want me to take over with that?" said Shimada, clearly feigning his worried voice and expression. He wasn't really expecting the blond to give the girl up, however.

"No, I don't need the help. My name is Yoshiki Kishinuma, I already told you that." asserted Yoshiki with some very obvious bite to his tone. Shimada just laughed off his retort.

The four, with Kurosaki leading the way and the three others right behind him, walked off into the decrepit halls of Heavenly Host, not expecting the full array of horrors that they were heading into.