As the sun kissed the edge of the horizon, the school building was mostly vacant since most of the students had gone home already. In one room, however, six girls could be found doing little more than goofing off…
"What kind of book did you say you were looking for?" Tomo loudly asked as she stared at a shelf full of difficult-looking books.
"I told you before, I'm just looking around," Yomi scolded in an irritated tone. "I didn't ask for any of you to come," she added as she looked about at all of her friends that had tagged along.
"I wanted to look for something, too," Chiyo asserted from her perch atop a ladder as she tried her best to stretch up and reach the top shelf.
Sakaki made an affirmatory sound from her spot crouched down near the floor as she looked at the bottom shelf to announce that she shared the same sentiment.
"I was curious," Kagura announced from behind a bookshelf. "In all this time I've never actually been in here."
Tomo laughed aloud as she taunted, "You really sounded like an idiot just now!"
"What was that, true idiot?" Kagura challenged as she walked around the bookcase to glare at Tomo, only to find the wildcat was nowhere to be seen.
"Gah!" Tomo shouted from right behind Kagura, causing her to visibly jump.
"Why, you-!" Kagura threatened as Tomo pointed and laughed at her.
"You really are one hell of a fool!" she continued to taunt the irate tomboy.
Her rage boiling over, Kagura violently shoved the laughing idiot, sending her reeling backwards and right into Osaka, causing the duo to crash into a bookshelf. "Osaka!" Kagura shouted as books rained down on the two girls. "I'm sorry!" Kagura apologized as she raced to dig them out, although she only felt guilty about Osaka getting involved.
"Is everything all right?" Yomi asked as she rounded the corner with everyone else. "What happened?" she shouted as she helped a dazed Tomo escape the pile of books.
"It was an earthquake!" Osaka mistakenly claimed as Kagura pulled her free as well.
"Are you two all right?" Chiyo worried since both Tomo and Osaka seemed to be struggling to stay on their feet.
"What the hell was that for?" Tomo shouted at Kagura as soon as she had recovered.
Kagura growled as she released Osaka to stand on her own. "It was punishment for your being such an idiot!" she retorted.
"You're the idiot!" Tomo dumbly countered.
"You're both acting like eleven-year-olds," Yomi scolded before turning to Chiyo. "No offense."
Although Tomo was completely unaffected by Yomi's reprimand, Kagura took the words to heart. "Sorry," she apologized as she bent down and started picking up books. "I'll clean it up."
Yomi couldn't help but to appreciate that Kagura at least had the capacity to learn, unlike the idiot standing next to her. "It'll go faster if we all work together," the brunette asserted as she also began to sift through the fallen books. All the others quickly joined in, minus one. "This is just as much your fault, you know," Yomi spat as she glared at the idle wildcat.
"What's that?" Chiyo interrupted as she pointed to the underside of the lowest shelf on the bookcase.
"What's what?" Osaka dumbly asked as all eyes fell on the tiny genius.
Everyone struggled to get down as low as the redhead to see what she was pointing at. "A latch?" Osaka observed only after laying flat on her belly so that she was low enough to the metallic object hidden under the lowest shelf.
"It's probably to anchor the bookshelf to the wall in case of an earthquake," Yomi rationalized.
"Let's find out!" Tomo announced as she reached down and gave the object a good tug. "I'll bet it's a switch to open up a secret passage. Like in a movie!" As she kept trying, the stubborn switch didn't budge at all, eliciting the wildcat to frantically pull at it. For all of her obnoxious efforts, all Tomo managed to do was cause the few books that had been replaced to fall back into the floor. "It's stuck," Tomo dumbly informed the group as she gave up, fully unaware of the glares that she was receiving.
"This isn't a movie, and we're not in a haunted mansion," Yomi scoffed. "Like I said, it's probably there to keep it anchored, and it's probably locked to keep idiots like you from disengaging it."
"I'm not so sure about that," Chiyo challenged as she pointed above the bookshelves. "All the shelves are already anchored to the walls with brackets. Not to mention this is the only one with a latch like that."
Sakaki stood on her toes to spy the supports. "She's right," the tall girl observed. "They all have brackets except this one," she continued as she pointed to the bookshelf with the latch.
The other girls tried to stand tall and see, but none were tall enough. "How on earth did you see them, Chiyo?" Kagura inquired as she gave up.
"I've noticed them from before when I had to use a ladder to reach the top shelf," the diminutive genius explained.
"It's amazin' that y'all can remember somethin' like that," Osaka praised.
"I'll try it," Kagura announced as she let her curiosity get the better of her. Grabbing the lever she pushed with her free hand and pulled the lever with all her might. Sure enough, the rusted latch couldn't match up to Kagura's strength and suddenly gave way, causing the tomboy to let out a hiss. "Damn it!" she cursed as she held her hand. "Damned thing cut me," she whined as she put her wounded finger in her mouth.
Tomo couldn't care less about Kagura's distress. "Is it a secret passage?" she asked as she tried pushing and pulling the bookcase.
Yomi sighed as Tomo resorted to trying to slide it to either side despite the fact that it had a bookcase on either side preventing it from sliding to either side. "If you're done with this nonsense, we really should get this stuff cleaned up," the bespectacled brunette announced in an irritated tone as she and most everyone else started to gather up the books again.
"Maybe it's just stuck, like the latch," Kagura guessed as she took over where Tomo left off. Once more putting everything she had into it, the tomboy violently pushed and pulled on the shelf. After a few tries, the shelf let out a loud crack as it swung open and crashed into the wall, causing Kagura to fall forward into a dark corridor.
"It is a secret passage!" Tomo announced as she rushed in after the tomboy. "I told you so!" her voice taunted in the darkness.
"E-even a broken clock is right twice a day," Yomi claimed as she followed after with Osaka tagging along behind her. As soon as she stepped into the darkness, Yomi automatically felt the wall and found the light switch. Once illuminated, it was clear that it truly was a secret passage. The narrow hallway led straight to a descending staircase, and the bookcase was really just an elaborately decorated door.
"It looks like it can be opened and closed from this side, too," Chiyo observed as she entered alongside Sakaki now that the lights were on. The small genius motioned to the bottom of the camouflaged door to show that the latch could be operated from the inside as well.
Curious as to how well it would work, Yomi took hold of a crude handle attached to the back of the bookcase and closed it before working the rusty latch. "I'll be damned," the bespectacled girl mumbled aloud as she tugged on the handle to prove that it worked. "I wonder how long this has been here."
"Hey, look," Kagura urged as she pointed to a small slit in the wall. "You can see what's going on in the library through these."
"Creepy," Osaka mumbled as she looked through another one.
"We gotta go see what's down there!" Tomo excitedly announced as she pointed down the stairs and into the darkness.
"A mysterious passage leadin' ta who-knows-what in an empty buildin' where no one could hear ya scream," Osaka observed, garnering a rise out of most of the girls. "What could possibly go wrong?"
"W-we should go back," Chiyo nervously suggested as she turned back to the door with Sakaki on her heels. "We still have to clean up that mess, remember?"
"Where's your sense of adventure?" Tomo challenged with a smile as she started down the staircase without hesitation.
While most of the girls followed after Tomo, Chiyo and Sakaki left the secret passage and opted to just go ahead and pick up the books. "I'm just no good with the dark and scary things like that," Chiyo explained to Sakaki as she closed and secured the bookshelf. "Thanks for staying with me," she appreciated as the two got to work cleaning up the mess. "It would still be a little scary if I was here alone."
Sakaki just nodded in response, hiding the fact that she was just as easily frightened as the little girl.
While Chiyo and Sakaki performed their mundane task, the other four managed to follow the stairs down one floor only to be stopped by a door secured with an old, rusted padlock. "Guess it's no use after all," Yomi lamented as Kagura idly tugged at the rusty lock.
"Just force it open!" Tomo encouraged. "Like you did with the bookcase."
Looking at the others to find that no one had any objections to the suggestion, Kagura looked back to the door and the intimidating lock. "Why is it always me?" she lamented as she wrapped her hands around the lock and pulled with all her might.
"It's because all you have is muscle and big boobs," Tomo teased.
"At least I have something!" Kagura retorted as she gave up on breaking the lock. "You're completely worthless!"
"Can you get it open or not?" Yomi irately demanded in hopes of averting another argument between the two girls.
Kagura shoved Tomo out of her way before responding, "Even if it is rusted, there's no way I can break this off. It's useless… like Tomo."
"You're the one that can't do it!" Tomo retorted as she shoved Kagura back. "That makes you the useless one!"
"You can't do it, either!" Kagura barked back.
And just like that, the two girls were grappling with each other. This time they ended up crashing into the door. The force of the impact was enough to break the rusted hinges and cause the door to come free although the padlock still bound the door to the other side. "It's about time Tomo's antics paid off," Yomi commented as the fight completely evaporated now that the two were past the door.
"See?" Tomo gloated as she got up and dusted herself off. "I'm not useless at all."
"Like your weak ass could have opened it without my help," Kagura scoffed.
"Found it!" Osaka interrupted yet another fight as light flooded the room.
The light revealed a relatively large room with no windows and only one other door. It was furnished with an old couch to the right of the entrance with a large, square, and low table in front of it. The table was surrounded with two floor cushions on each side except for the side with the couch. Across from the couch on the opposite wall was an old projection screen television on a stand with a VCR. On either side of the TV there were small shelves loaded with old VHS tapes. Both of the walls perpendicular to the ones with the couch were cluttered with several bookshelves, each boasting a wide variety of books. The wall furthest from the entrance had a loveseat and coffee table in between the bookshelves. The room surely would have been warm and inviting if not for the layer of dust covering everything. Perhaps even more distressing was the door across the room from the loveseat, which was completely boarded up and covered in spirit wards.
"It's kinda creepy," Osaka stated the obvious as the girls fanned out to check the room out.
"I wonder what this place was for," Yomi spoke her thoughts as she scanned over the nearest bookshelf.
"All this stuff is really old," Tomo observed as she checked out the TV. On a whim, the wildcat pressed the power button and was surprised to see the TV spark to life. "It still works!" Tomo shouted as she wiped the dust from the screen. Hitting the channel button, however, yielded no results. "No channels," she lamented.
"Try this," Kagura offered as she grabbed a random tape and handed the dusty object to Tomo. Popping the tape into the VCR, the two were excited to see it start to play. "This is so cool!" Kagura admitted.
"All tha books here are old, too," Osaka noted as she checked out the bookshelves on the far wall.
Yomi, meanwhile, had wondered over to the table where she drew a hand across the center of the quality cherry to reveal a red emblem of two interlocking letter 'S's. Further inspection of the area revealed a leather-bound tome on the couch with the same symbol on the front. Picking the book up, Yomi reluctantly sat down on the dusty couch and opened the intriguing book. As Yomi started reading the book, the other girls had made themselves at home as well. Kagura and Tomo sat on the floor cushions on the far side of the table as they waited for the movie to start, and Osaka had pulled a light novel from a bookshelf and had begun to read it as she sat down on the loveseat.
"Everyone is still down there, aren't they?" Chiyo fretted. She and Sakaki had already replaced all of the books and even put them back into their proper order several minutes ago. "D-do you think something happened to them?"
Although going into that scary place was the last thing she wanted to do, Sakaki couldn't just abandon her precious friends, either. "Maybe… we should check," she reluctantly suggested as she bent down and groped around for the hidden latch. Once more unlocking the camouflaged door, Sakaki carefully swung the bookcase open as not to dislodge any of the books. This time, the corridor seemed far less intimidating as the sounds of their friends laughter echoed up from the now lit room at the bottom of the staircase.
"Ah, there you two are," Yomi greeted as the duo entered the room.
"We were worried about you all," Chiyo admitted as she took in the room. "What is this place?"
"It's a secret club room where a secret club used to come," Yomi explained as she kept her nose buried in the leather-bound book.
"You really think that's what this place is?" Tomo inquired as she pried her eyes off of the movie and looked to Yomi.
The brunette nodded. "It's all in this book," she asserted as she held the book up. "It was called the 'Scarlet Society'," she elaborated.
"That's just a story," Tomo easily dismissed.
"No," Yomi countered as she pointed to the matching emblem etched into the table. "This is a club handbook," she explained. "Complete with a club overview, club rules, and even a detailed list of every member that was ever in the club."
"Really?" Tomo asked as she, and everyone else, had become quite interested in the book.
Yomi nodded again. "Apparently, the only faculty member to even know this place existed was the original principal, and, according to this book, he took the secret with him when he left. So the only people to know about this place were the club members themselves." Turning a couple of faded pages, Yomi continued. "Apparently, four seniors and two juniors were all the club's members each year, and when the seniors graduated, the juniors-turned-seniors would recruit two new seniors and two juniors."
"So why's this place abandoned and all?" Osaka asked.
"I haven't gotten that far," Yomi admitted as she flipped through the pages that listed the club members. "Looks like the last club was nine years ago," she observed as she read the year of the last group of names. "No way!" Yomi exclaimed as she suddenly stood up.
"What is it?" Kagura excitedly asked as the whole group gathered around Yomi.
Yomi sat the book down and pointed to the page. "Look at the names of the last club president and vice-president." In turn all of the other girls also exclaimed their disbelief. Sure enough, the name written as the last club president was Kurosawa Minamo and the vice-president was none other than Tanizaki Yukari. "There aren't any names listed for the juniors here, either." Yomi added.
"What's it mean?" Osaka asked as Yomi picked the book back up.
"It means that Sensei and Yukari know what happened to the club," Kagura surmised. "We should go talk to them about it."
"No way!" Tomo instantly refused.
All eyes fell on the wildcat due to the bizarre refusal. "Why not?" Kagura asked with a bit of ire in her voice.
"So long as no one knows that we know this is here, we can use this place however we want," Tomo explained as she motioned to the extravagant club room. "If we talk to Nyamo and Yukari about it, they might give this club room to someone else! The only way we can keep it for ourselves is if we keep it a secret!"
"And that's twice," Yomi quipped. "I agree with her. Let's become the new members of the Scarlet Society and keep this place a secret."
"It sounds like fun," Osaka agreed.
Sakaki and Chiyo both nodded as well. "This is kind of exciting," Chiyo admitted.
"I still kind of want to know what happened, but okay," Kagura reluctantly conceded.
Flipping a page in the book, Yomi looked around for something to write with. "Anyone have a pen?"
"We'll have to go back to the library for one," Chiyo realized as everyone failed to produce one.
"It's late anyway," Yomi observed as she closed the book and tucked it under her arm. "Let's turn everything off and go home. We can pick this up after school tomorrow."
As the group ascended the stairs, Yomi caught sight of the bookcase sitting wide open. "Who left it open?" she hissed as she rushed into the library to make sure that the secret hadn't been let out of the bag. Luckily, the library was as abandoned as when they left. "If we want to keep this a secret, you guys can't be so careless," she lectured as the group entered the library from the secret passage.
"Did anyone see?" Osaka inquired.
Yomi shook her head. "It looks like everyone has gone home already."
"This is so cool," Tomo marveled as she closed the secret door.
"Come on," Yomi urged as she sat down at a table in the library and grabbed a pen. "We'll all need to sign our names and grade in this book," she informed everyone as she set the tome down on the table and flipped it to the first blank page. As she waited for everyone to gather around, Yomi followed the established format and put the school year at the top of the page.
"Where do I sign?" Tomo demanded as she rushed to the brunette's side.
Yomi hesitated as she made sure to keep the pen out of Tomo's reach. "I think we need to decide on who will be the president and vice president, first," she realized as she pointed to the page with Yukari and Nyamo's names on it. "The president and vice president sign first."
"I should be the president!" Tomo predictably announced. "I'm the one that found it!"
"Chiyo noticed the latch," Yomi corrected the wildcat's false statement, "and it's Kagura that actually got everything open."
"I can't be president," Kagura claimed as several stares fell on her. "I'm part of the swim team, after all."
Kagura's logic was sound. After all, she would end up being at the pool just about every day in the summer. "I guess that just leaves Chiyo," Yomi observed as all eyes fell on the smart girl. "She is our class president, after all."
Chiyo shook her head as she waved her hands in a dismissive manner. "I-I don't really want to…"
"You're the one with the book," Kagura jumped to the pathetic little genius's aid. "You already know more about this club than all of us put together."
Yomi hesitated a moment before she resigned with a sigh. "All right, I guess that makes me president… any objections?"
"Actually, I think-UMPH!" Tomo started, only to be cut off by Yomi elbowing her in the gut.
"It's settled, then," Yomi announced as she put pen to paper and signed her name, year, and the word 'president' into the book. As soon as she finished recording her information into the book, Yomi asked the obvious question, expecting the obvious answer. "So… the vice president…" she reluctantly spoke as she cast an expectant glance at Tomo.
"Me!" Tomo boisterously volunteered as she raised her hand, just as everyone feared.
"No one else?" Yomi asked as she looked around to find everyone minus the grinning wildcat avoiding her gaze. "Fine," Yomi reluctantly conceded as she slid the book towards Tomo. "Do it properly," she warned as she handed Tomo the pen. Tomo actually did do it right, if for no other reason than to cement her role as the vice president.
When Tomo finished, Yomi grabbed the book and pen from Tomo. "Just come and sign your name and year," Yomi announced as she stood up and laid the pen down next to the book. One by one, the girls all came and signed their names to the book, including Kagura.
"So what now?" Osaka asked as she finished writing her name in the book.
"I guess we come back here tomorrow and start cleaning up the room," Yomi suggested. "After we get it restored, we can probably just do whatever we like in there."
"Hey!" Tomo interrupted as she angrily pointed at Osaka. "You didn't do it right!"
"Ah didn't?" she asked as she looked again at the book. For all Tomo's shouting, Osaka couldn't find anything out of place.
"You didn't write 'Osaka'!" she challenged. "You were supposed to write 'Osaka'!"
"But that ain't mah real name," Osaka defended herself.
Far be it for Tomo to be deterred by logic, especially when it comes to something like harassing someone. "Everyone calls you Osaka. You even write 'Osaka' on your tests!"
"That's only because Yukari gets confused when ah write mah name on a test," Osaka argued.
Although it was amusing to watch, Yomi's conscience wouldn't let her allow the wildcat to keep teasing Osaka like that. "What's done is done," Yomi announced as she picked up the book and snapped it closed.
"It's written in ink, so it's too late to do anything about it now."
"S-so are we going to meet back here tomorrow?" Chiyo asked, also trying to divert Tomo's attention away from harassing Osaka.
Yomi nodded. "We'll have to figure out how to get in without being spotted," she asserted. "There will be several students here just after school, after all. And we've got to get cleaning supplies in there, too."
"The entrance is back in the last row, though," Chiyo pointed out. "Only someone in that last aisle would be able to see us."
"We still can't take any chances," Yomi reasoned. "We'll have to be careful whenever we go in or come out."
"Won't someone notice if we all go back there an' don't come back out again?" Osaka asked.
"It doesn't matter," Yomi easily dismissed. "So long as no one sees us go in or out, they won't be able to do anything other than wonder about it."
Kagura sighed as she scratched the back of her head. "You guys seem to be taking this awfully seriously," she noted.
"Don't you think it's cool?" Tomo scolded.
"Well, yeah," Kagura agreed. "It just seems kind of… I dunno… selfish?"
"We found it!" Tomo hotly retorted. "It's ours!"
"I won't say anything," Kagura assured, "but I still think we should talk to Sensei about it. There has to be a good reason that it got abandoned. What if it's dangerous or something?"
"I don't think that's the case," Yomi argued. "If it was structurally unsound or infested or something, then the whole school would have to shut down and inspected."
Kagura growled as she grabbed her bag. "It still feels like we're doing something wrong," she grunted before leaving.
"What was that all about?" Tomo wondered as she watched Kagura storm out of the library.
"Kagura said she'd keep it a secret," Yomi rationalized as she tucked the club's book into her own bag, "so I wouldn't worry about it."
"If she blabs, I'll never forgive her," Tomo stated the obvious as she grabbed her own bag.
"I'm really excited about all of this," Chiyo admitted as she, too, grabbed her bag and followed the others as they all started to leave. "I've never been in a school club before."
"Ah haven't been in one before, either," Osaka revealed as she turned out the library lights before exiting into the hallway.
As the group left the building, the sun finally slipped below the horizon, summoning the night. Just as the shroud of darkness swept over the school, an uneasy air filled the hidden club room. Had someone been there to observe it, a loud, erratic pounding began to echo out from behind the sealed door.