The artificial glow of light rained down upon the group of nine, eight students, one faculty member. Not a single movement or audible noise could be heard above the combined, inconstant breathing of the group, and the electrical buzzing from the light fixture above. The empty halls felt lonely, too lonely. No light flooded in from the windows, the pitch blackness prevented any sight or comprehension to the features below the high walls. The finite space was welcoming from the horrors that they had experienced within the walls of Heavenly Host Elementary.

The first to break the ice and displace the stale air around them was the brunette known as Naomi Nakashima. She had somehow awoken from her seemingly endless slumber with the most crippling headache in known reality, but somehow, it didn't bother her. Nakashima ocilated her head from the far left, to the far right, and back again. She was surrounded by the unconscious bodies of her friends and her homeroom teacher, Yui Shishido. The images soon came back, though, the most vivid image was that of her best friend hanging from an old rope. Watching her swing back and forth. In a blind rush, she threw her head to the left, where she couldn't see Seiko, and back to the right. She saw her. Seiko lied in a fetal position as if she had been born again. Naomi leaped to her feet, and cradled Seiko by her neck and back. She noticed how Seiko had faint scaring around her neck, this set off alarm bells in Naomi's head. This caused her to put her head on the left side of

Seiko's chest and listened for a heartbeat.

'badum badum badum'

Naomi's eyes teared up as she realised her best friend was back from the grave. 'How... how is she here? I saw her!' Nakashima thought. She was as puzzled as the next person. When this came to mind, so did the homeroom teacher, and the others that seemingly died in the horror show that was

Heavenly Host. The brunette felt a touch on her shoulder, this caused her to let out a tiny scream. She was still on edge from the spirits and the mentally insane in a small space. She bolted her head round, to see a squatting Yoshiki. The well-built boy gave a concerning look as he opened his mouth to speak

"Is she okay" he spoke, a monotone voice resonating within Nakashima. Naomi just responded with a nod, she couldn't speak with the lump in her throat and the tears in her eyes. She broke down while holding Seiko is her arms. She couldn't contain such an emotion that was even past the point of Euphoric. These tears that were once those of sorrow and mourning, were now the ones of extreme euphoria and joy. Nakashima hadn't realised how Seiko may as well be the second heart within her body, she couldn't live with knowing her best friend was dead, and now she laid there, with a relaxed expression, almost that of a newborn sleeping in their crib for the first time.

But, like all newborns, she soon awoke from her eternal sleep. As she started blinking and taking in her surroundings, her breathing increased drastically, becoming shallow, much like the fits of hyperventilation that Yoshiki saw in Shinozaki. Naomi rectified it by pulling Seiko into a heartfelt hug. It was much more sincere than she had ever given Seiko, or even her own mother.

Once Seiko realised, she embraced it further, pulling the two together without a millimeter between them. Kishinuma just coughed, causing the two to react with bashful expressions. After their reactions, Naomi helped Seiko to her feet, she supported her at first, after being supposedly dead. Yoshiki looked at the clock, and then outside. The clock read 12:30, 'fuck, we've been only been here for five hours' he thought to himself.

"guys," He announced with a concerning tone ",we've been out for five hours. Let's wake up and check on the other before heading home. It doesn't matter with me too much, but Shinohara had to help her dad, he's probably worried sick, just like your mother Naomi." He lectured the two girls on why they should be making their way soon.

"Shouldn't we tell someone about what's just happened" responded Naomi with a serious expression.

"Like anyone would even believe us," Seiko pointed out ", I mean, I've just been dead for the last few hours. How the Helldoes that even work"

Saying this put doubt in Naomi's mind as to the reality of these events. But she came to the conclusion that the craziest has already happened, so why not more fucked up shit?

Yoshiki started to dust off his jacket and realised that he had dried blood on his shoulder and shoulder blade. He remembered when he was clubbed round the head by Yoshikazu's sledgehammer. He felt his head where the wound should have been, but nothing, not even a scratch.

"Come on guys, help me get everyone up" Yoshiki demanded the help of the two girls. Naturally, they tended to Mayu, Shinozaki, Yuka, and Yui. Yoshiki wasn't so gentle on Mochida and Morishige. He gave them the once over with the swift pass of his backhand. It worked with getting Mochida up, he reacted with an inaudible scream and almost lunged for Yoshiki. The actions of a banshee scared the living shit out of the girls and caused Yoshiki to fall on his arse, holding in a hernia while becoming the laughing human kettle. The two girls began to chuckle themselves without the feeling of worry in the back of their minds for the first time since they were sent to Heavenly Host. Satoshi calmed down, gained his composure and requested a hand up with his own. Yoshiki accepted this request, and added a verbal comment "Good to have to back, loser"

Satoshi noticed Shinohara and Nakashima and exchanged a looked with the former, blushing slightly.

Another thought crossed Mochida's mind, it was that of his little sister, Yuka. He looked down towards the clean floor and saw Yuka. He breathed a weighted sigh of relief as he ensured her safety. He never wanted her to go through that hell again. They were lucky that they were alive, seeing as no one else escaped from that dimension, suffering damnation for all eternity. He felt a tad bit of sorrow within his own mind, but he was too focused on the 'living' part of life. He never wanted to go back there and he never wanted to be put into the same position with no escape.

Finally, they were free. Free from the clutches of death. And the case of a few classmates, were pried from the jaws of fate. It was almost like a rewards for beating the puzzle, a sick, twisted, evil puzzle. If you were to fail, you would die alone, if you were to prevail, you would receive your dead back and given a gateway back to the unsealed reality. God knows what would happen to those souls when they were left behind. But what could they do now? Go back and help? Well, if anyone said that, I think the mutual answer would be 'fuck that'. If they had taken anything from their experience, it is that they had developed a callus of the mind that was tougher than any metal, or composite. What they had experienced had prepared them for any Hell that came their way.