Within the halls of the Yasogami High School, the Culture Festival was ablaze. Just one hall of the second floor of the building was bustling with activities, with various students enjoying them. A Fortune Telling room constantly satisfied their curiosity, small stands that served snacks like corn dogs and dumplings filled their stomachs, even their ears were enjoyably bombarded with music, courtesy of the indie band comprised of the school's own students playing in the gymnasium. The kind of music that 'sent sugar candy blasting into their eardrums', to quote the lead singer.
It all looked like so much fun, but a constant dread still ate away at the back of her mind; Rei's mind.
Rei was only a first-year student at Yasogami, adorning a sunshine yellow sweater over her school uniform, and curling a lock of her long blonde hair with her index finger. So far, it was the only activity that calmed her down amidst the uncertainty bubbling up within her. Whenever the young girl tried to delve into her mind in the hopes of uncovering some memories of who she is and what happened to her, there was nothing. No memory of how she got here, no memory of why she was here, not even a memory of whether she had chicken or beef for dinner last night. Her head was completely blank.
Only one memory kept repeating in her mind; the memory of the doors that led to the outside beyond this high school being shut tight, no matter how much strength was used to try opening them. Any other outside door except for the ones to the field wouldn't budge either, not even the windows would open a crack for them to leap out of. At this rate, she, and everyone else would be trapped within the walls of this school for the rest of their days. Or at the very least, until this festival's plentiful stock of food shrank down to a few crumbs. Just the ghoulish thought alone made Rei shudder, feeling a sudden chill down her spine.
But even with such a scary possibility, all of the other students didn't seem to care about the predicament, or even notice it. Were they all just unaware of their gilded cage…or did they not even mind being forever within this school's walls?
"Rei!" A rather masculine voice called out from down the hall, tearing Rei away from her thoughts and making her look up to see whom it was. She soon felt her tense body finally relax to see that it was fellow first year student, and her one friend in this place, Zen. It wasn't hard to notice him either, given the giant black cloak bellowing right behind him, attached to the giant spiked collar around his neck, and below his shaggy mess of dark brown hair. It wasn't the only thing that was dark though, for his skin was of a noticeably darker shade than a decent chunk of the other high schoolers.
"Zen! You're back!" Rei called right back to him, her voice perking up a bit once again. She soon saw Zen come to a stop and begin panting from his quick sprint down the hallway, with a corndog in his left hand.
"Sorry that I took so long Rei." He said in-between his pants, and holding the corndog out to the girl. "Waiting in line was utter murder…"
"It's okay Zen, I'm just so happy that you were considerate enough to buy something." Rei responded with a cheery smile while taking a gentle hold of Zen's free hand.
Zen felt a sudden trace of heat tickle his face, and soon smiled back at her. "Of course." He answered, handing the corndog off to her.
Rei's face lit up almost instantly, and immediately took the first bite into it. The fine texture of the fried batter went along perfectly with the cooked pork right in the middle that melted in her mouth, all while the salty tang of the ketchup danced across her taste buds. The more and more Rei chewed on just a single bite, the longer the sensation lasted, helping her truly calm down for once and smile all on her own.
Zen gave off a grin as well, seeing Rei perk back up for once. He too was afflicted with a bewildering amnesia, so it was difficult for him to cheer Rei up in a situation as grim as being trapped in this school. As such, witnessing her spirits lift back up was like a weight dropping right off of his shoulders.
However, when Rei looked back at Zen, her chewing slowed to a halt, and her smile soon disappeared. "Zen, didn't you get anything for yourself? Don't tell me that you're not hungry."
"Oh…" Zen muttered out before his own smirk vanished as well. "Well, it didn't cross my mind honestly. Guess I was just that concerned about you instead."
Rei gave off a small pout. For as grateful as she was for Zen's kindness, it began to worry her just how much the teenage male cared about her needs over his own. As such, she pinched some of the corndog off of the stick with her own fingers, not caring about the grease and ketchup that got on them in the process, and held it out to Zen.
"Huh?" The dark skinned young man uttered at the sight of the finger food being offered to him. "Rei, what are you…?"
"Giving you some to enjoy as well, you goof." Rei said with a snicker in her voice, while her smile softly returned. "After all, food always tastes better when you share it."
Hearing Rei giggle for the first time they were in here was just the thing to bring back Zen's smirk, and he instantly took the piece of corndog from her and plopped it right into his mouth. It tasted just as good as Rei made it appear to.
Rei happily munched on the rest of her fried dog as well, enjoying every second of the delicacy even though there was less of it. Once she was close to the ending crumbs on the stick however, her eyes caught a quick glance of what was outside on the school field. Right in front of the massive clock tower that stood right alongside the school, with a bell as large as one from the Notre Dame resting right above the face of the clock, several students were out on the field. From the looks of how they were all running and laughing together, they seemed to be playing a game of baseball with one another. Each one of them looked to be having an absolute blast as the game continued, even when small tussles occurred, resulting in at least one team member getting a noogie. Even so, each one of them looked to be good friends with one another.
"Rei? Is something the matter?" Zen asked out, noticing that something seemed to take a hold of her attention. Only a second after he asked that question, he noticed the group of teens out playing on the field as well.
"Zen, you don't mind if we go out too, do you?" Rei asked in a curious tone, like a child asking their parent if they can purchase a brand new toy.
Zen laughed a bit; there was no way in whatever pit of hell that he could ignore the sparkle in Rei's eyes that told him she was eager, especially not when she at her happiest.
"Of course, but only after one small thing." Zen's statement made Rei's eyebrow raise up, until Zen took a hold of one of her hands, and raised it up to show the ketchup and drops of grease on it from ripping off the piece of corndog earlier. "You wash your hands first."
Rei blushed a bit out of sheer embarrassment, and pulled her hand right back. After letting out a disgruntled 'fiiine', she headed off to the bathrooms, while Zen just kept chuckling to himself.
He looked back out of the window, seeing the full face of the clock as it directly landed on the time of noon; the time the bell began to toll. Zen couldn't hear it, for this entire school was also soundproofed as well as sealed up, but he knew it was still happening outside the school walls whenever the hour struck.
He soon walked away from the bell and to the bathrooms, paying it no heed, just like all of the other students.
Zen rested against one of the nearby walls on the opposite side to the bathrooms, while the sound of running water was easily heard right through them.
The sound soon stopped, and shortly afterwards, Rei walked right out of the Ladies room, still washing off the last few damp spots on her skin with a paper towel.
"There, clean as a whistle now Zen." Rei said with a big smile that came to her face in a single second, while also holding up both of her hands and splaying her fingers to show that they were truly spotless.
"Heh, that's good to see." Zen smiled right back at her, and stood straight up from his slouching spot on the wall. "Alright, now we can go outside to the field."
"Thanks Zen." Rei replied as her smile only grew. With that, she took an immediate right towards the hall that led to the outside field, with Zen walking right beside her.
Once they got to the doors however, both of them noticed several students keeping both of the metal doors shut.
As bewilderment filled the heads of both Rei and Zen simultaneously, Zen only now just noticed the clock that was up above the pair of doors; it read two minutes after noon.
"What the heck is going on?" Rei asked out to the other students in the meantime. As she did, all the students barricading the doors looked back at her, without so much as a smile on their face, contrasting the looks of sheer joy and excitement from the teenagers upstairs enjoying the festival.
"Keeping the doors closed so the sound of the bell doesn't come in, that's what." The oldest looking of the students said as he held the door shut. From the armband he adorned on his bicep, he seemed to be the President of the school's Student Council.
"But… why?" Zen asked, with even more confusion than Rei. "What harm is a few chimes of the bell gonna do?"
The Student Council President's eyes widened from Zen's question, in an almost horrific way. Afterwards, he looked down as his face now had something of a pained expression across his face, and his hands slowly lifted from the door, right as the clock above read three minutes after twelve.
"You don't know…?" He asked to both Rei and Zen, his voice carrying a rather melancholy tone to it. Upon seeing the two of them shake their heads in response, the president looked back at the other students. "Open 'em up. They'll only believe it once they see for themselves."
The other students looked almost mortified at the direction of their Student Council President, but reluctantly did so, and went from pushing the door shut to pulling it wide open, letting the outside sunlight flood the hall.
Along with the blinding light, a faint smell suddenly hit both the young girl and dark-skinned boy. One that seemed to sting their noses ever so slightly, like the twinge of pain that comes when a needle pierces through skin. When they finally brought themselves to move their legs again, and carefully walk out the doors, they saw it.
All of the students who were happily playing a friendly game of baseball a few minutes ago were now spread out across the dirt in the field, without moving so much as a finger.
The ring of the bell was no longer there, leaving a cold silence to settle in the air as Rei and Zen felt their eyes widen right up, and their mouths hang open from sheer shock. Entire minutes passed before either one of them could move, before Zen finally lowered a foot down to the dry ground on the outside field, and walking towards one of the high school students splayed down on the earth.
The teenager's eyes were wide open, but were completely still in their sockets, and showed no indication of moving again. The rest of his body was just as motionless; no rise and fall of his chest, no faint set of breaths leaving his lips, not even a pulse when Zen lowered his fingers and gently pressed them against the student's neck.
Zen felt his chest tighten upon the realization; all of these students would never rise back up again. Now, the only things that seemed to move on them were the numerous ants crawling across their skin, almost like they found a new place to colonize.
He pulled back his now trembling hand from the lifeless figure, and soon turned his back to the sound of terrified panting. Once he did, he saw Rei standing right in front of the doors. Sheer terror spread across her entire facial expression, and her hands shook as they held a single dust-coated baseball, no doubt from the game these students were playing before this happened to them.
Shortly afterwards though, her hand opened up, letting the baseball fall right back to the ground. Along with that, she took one step back as her legs now began to shake, and her eyes opened up even wider from horror. Once she looked down at her hand, a small, but shrill scream then left her mouth, and she ran right back towards the school, as if something was chasing her.
"Rei!" Zen shouted out to her, but saw as it only fell on deaf ears, as Rei kept running past the other students and the Student Council President, bolting down the school halls. From seeing that, panic instantly filled Zen's mind, and he stood straight back up and sprinted back into the school. But in his sudden fret of anxiety, he didn't notice that he ran right into the president, nearly knocking him over in the process.
"Agh! Jesus!" The president let out as his face quickly cringed up a bit from the short bit of pain from being ran into. "Dude, watch where you're going wil-Ah!" His words were interrupted once Zen grabbed him by the collar, and even pushed him up to the wall while Zen's glare became as sharp as knives.
"Why don't you get some common sense in that thick skull of yours!?" Zen yelled right into the President's face, gritting his teeth in between his harsh words. "A bunch of students just died, and you're not even the least bit disturbed by it like Rei clearly was?!"
"H-Hey now!" The President called out in a more timid tone of voice now. "You're saying that like I wanted them to die! It's not my fault that they ignored the rumor!"
"Rumor…?" Zen asked, his sudden puzzlement about the use of the word now replacing at least some of his anger.
"Yeah." One of the students to the side called out, giving Zen a quick nod as well. "If anyone hears the bell all the way through, they're dead." He explained in just a singled sentence, appearing all too calm for discussing such a topic. "But them?" The student grew a rather pained then looked out to the field, looking at all of the corpses that now littered it. "They said they wanted to prove that it was just a myth, and decided to go outside when the bell's tolls came near…"
Zen had no immediate reaction to the other Yasogami student's words, only standing speechless as his breaths became louder with each one. Before long though, his fists tightened, digging into the Student Council President's shirt even more.
"…And you had no problem with just letting them all drop dead out there?" Zen asked in a dark tone, sounding as if he was ready to interrogate every one of them.
"If we kept the doors open, a lot more people would've heard it." The third student to the side responded, his voice sounding just as grim. "It was either them, or us."
Zen felt a sharp chill go down his spine from the student 's cold words. The thought of death wasn't in Zen's head at all during his time in this school, much less the thought of letting others die. As those new thoughts began to buzz around within Zen's mind, the slight trembling in his hands returned, before they opened up and released the Student Council President.
"I-I'm sorry though…" The President uttered, taking a few steps away and rubbing his neck a bit after being held by the collar. "If you didn't know any of that already, it's no surprise that you haven't been able to chill out and enjoy the Festival."
Chill out?
Enjoy the Festival?
The use of those terms made Zen's hands curl right back up into fists, feeling his nails digging into his palms as well. Were these students that flexible with others dying that they could brush it off with a snack and a game in the Cultural Festival? Was this really the type of lifestyle they were comfortable with?
Zen let out a ragged breath through his gritting teeth, and took off through the hallway before he could let those questions haunt him any longer. If there was one thing he did know for certain, it was that Rei was outright terrified from what she just saw, and he had no idea where she ran off. Plus, considering how large this school was, and how the students he just conversed with seemed to value the lives of their other classmates, she could've wandered into a place that wasn't safe.
Zen slammed his palm on the wall, all the while a harsh set of pants left his mouth and his legs were so worn out, it was as if the bones inside them had turned into jelly. He checked just about the entire school, all of its floors, including the roof, and he still didn't find Rei anywhere. Nobody else said that they saw her, and Zen was already feeling the dread of seeing another dead figure eat away at the back of his thoughts.
It was then, by mere chance, he heard an incredibly faint sound nearby. When he raised his head right back up, he saw a gunmetal gray door in front of him, in the wall to his left.
Zen stood straight up, and placed his ear against the door. Ignoring the cold tinge that the metal door left on his ear, he heard that the noise was a touch louder, thus it was in fact, coming from beyond it.
Once Zen realized that, he wasted no time yanking the door right open. The first thing that lay past the door was a staircase that seemed to descend into deep darkness, with a single spider located by the top left corner. Despite seeing a scene that would make most people flinch back from the instant jolt of fear, Zen went right down the stairs as quickly as he could without tripping. At that point, he was almost unaware of how the light grew dimmer the deeper he went down, or how the spider seemed to follow him down the stairway.
When Zen reached the bottom, it took a while for his eyes to adjust to the immense darkness that filled whatever room this was, but he could definitely hear a quiet sobbing from down here. Once he had at least some vision in this place, he saw that it appeared to be some sort of basement, storing several kinds of sports equipment littered with cobwebs, an array of Yasogami school uniforms, and most importantly, Rei sitting all by herself, with her head buried within her legs as her crying could definitely be heard now.
"Rei?" Zen called out to her, keeping his voice low in order to avoid startling her. He then sat down onto the cold floor, staying right by her side even as the coldness of the floor seeped right through his clothing.
"Z-Zen…?" Rei responded after one more sob, and cautiously pulled her head back up. Like Zen had expected, it was covered in tears. "What're you doing down here?"
"I could ask you the same thing." Zen responded with a chuckle, in the hopes of cheering her up, but to no avail, as Rei's head only drooped back down. The small smile that Zen had on his face had now vanished from seeing that, with a frown twitching at his lips instead. "…Look, I know that seeing all those students limp on the ground must've scared you, but-"
"They weren't just limp!" Rei yelled out, her strained voice being heard right through her legs and the fabric of her skirt. "Zen… didn't you see it?" Her body began to shudder as she spoke, curling up into an even tighter ball. "What happened to all of them?"
"What happened…?" Zen questioned as he reached his hand out to place on Rei's shoulder, but it soon froze once he noticed something on his index and middle finger.
Blood.
Zen felt his heart pound right against his ribcage while his hand began to shake. Questions filled his skull as to where the blood could've come from, and he began recollecting his thoughts about everything that he saw and touched before ending up in the basement. That was when his mind landed back to the moment he pressed his fingers against the student's neck, only to find no pulse.
However, once he remembered that moment, a sudden vision flashed before his very eyes.
It was one similar to the sight of all the students splayed across the field, but it was vastly different from before. Each student's neck was ripped right open, causing crimson to violently spill all over both their bodies and the ground. Patches of their skin were ripped off, and all of the teenagers' bellies were torn wide open, revealing the last two ribs from their ribcage, sticking out like the appendages of a grotesque millipede. But aside from that, most of their bodies were empty, containing nothing inside them as if they were all gutted like fish that were soon to be devoured.
And right in the middle of all those corpses, a single baseball rested in a pool of blood.
Zen immediately slammed his blood-coated hand onto the wall as his balance wavered, and raised his other one right up to his mouth. Vomit boiled up from his throat, and coated his palm before the young teen forced himself to swallow the bile back down.
That was when it hit him; was that ghastly sight was Rei saw?
Looking back at her hands as they held her legs close, Zen could see the small blotches of scarlet on her fingers, no doubt from when she picked up the baseball on the field.
Zen took a deep breath, even with an uneasy stomach at the moment, and wiped the blood off of his fingers with his cloak before gently placing it on Rei's shoulder.
"Rei…" He muttered, hid hand soon lowering to rub her back. Seeing her continue to shake as her sobs rang in his ears felt like an icy stab through his chest. "…We'll get out of here, okay?"
Those words were what finally made Rei lift her head up as her sobs ceased.
"Rei, I promise that we'll find a way out of this school somehow, okay?" Zen stated, with a firm resolve in his voice, and a nod of his head. "Even if it seems impossible right now, we'll escape this place, and we sure as hell aren't going to die."
"Zen…" Rei eventually answered in a quite tone of voice, one that sounded as though her throat was still filled up with tears. She eventually took in a deep breath as her body slowly unfurled from its ball shape, and showed a soft smile to Zen. "…Okay. Thank you."
"Heh, not a problem." Zen chuckled as he smiled right back, and offered a hand for her. "Now let's get out of this old basement, 'kay?"
"O-oh! Right." Rei answered, and took a hold of Zen's hand after wiping off the blood on her fingers onto the floor. She then got back up on her feet, and continued holding hands with Zen as the two walked up the stairs. "Um… sorry about freaking out like that Zen." She said as her head slumped down again. "I didn't mean to be such a crybaby…"
"Crybaby?" Zen raised an eyebrow. "Rei, getting scared after seeing what you did wasn't being a crybaby, that was being rational." As he spoke, he then tapped his temple with his finger. "And I'm pretty dang sure that rationale is a good thing to have." The dark-skinned freshman let out another small laugh as he saw a light shade of pink tickle Rei's cheeks.
"Oh… Okay." Rei muttered back before she smiled again. "Heheh, thanks again Zen."
"Anytime." Zen grinned back as the two walked up the staircase without looking back.
Within the dark depths of the very basement the two students were in a minute ago, a spider descended from the wall, silently crawling down to the bits of blood that Rei and Zen left behind on both the same wall, as well as the floor. Once it reached one of the splotches of crimson liquid, the arachnid lowered the many appendages and fangs that made up its mouth, and sipped up the blood.
Within the silence that was just as deep as the darkness, one could've possibly heard the spider's joyous shrill as it lapped up every last drop.
Zen felt a sense of relief wash over him once both him and Rei got back up to the school, where the sunlight basked over their skin alongside the excited bustling of the Culture Festival. Judging from how Rei loosened the grip on his hand as well, there was no doubt that she felt the same way.
"Zen?" Rei asked as she perked her up towards the taller boy. "…Would it be too much if we played some festival games now?"
"Not at all." Zen answered with another smile; one that grew once he saw Rei outright beaming from his reply.
"Thank you so much Zen!" Rei blurted out happily, even hugging Zen right around the chest. As she let go, the young girl then darted off to the restrooms again. "I'll wash my hands to make sure they're squeaky clean!"
Zen nodded, and softly smirked as he watched her happily run off down the halls on her own. Once he caught notice of a window to his right, his eyes opened up a bit as he could see the school field again from here. Feeling his legs move on their own, Zen walked up to the window, and his eyes landed back onto the field, seeing that it didn't have a single body left on it now, appearing as though nothing ever happened out there.
When Zen blinked though, all of the colors of the world suddenly became inverted, except for the striking red of the blood that nearly coated the entire field. However, all of the corpses that bled so profusely before were now gone, and instead, there were trails of scarlet, ones that appeared as though something was being dragged away, and led up to the bell tower.
Zen felt his stomach tie into another knot until he blinked again, and the sight of all the blood was gone, becoming no more than the view of a typical field for a school. Looking back down the hallway Rei scurried through to reach the bathrooms, Zen let out an shaky sigh, and felt his nails digging into his palm as his hand curled into a fist. If there was at least one other person in this place who could truly help them, then maybe the disquiet that tangled up his guts would dissipate.
But right now, they were no better than butterflies entangled in the spider's web.