Happy Halloween!

Unbeta'd due to time constraints, all mistakes are my own.

The rumbling of the bus and the steady rolling of the tires along the asphalt road are a soothing sort of white noise as Hajime tries to keep himself from dozing in his seat. He sits at the back of the bus with his backpack in his lap. He doesn't know why he feels the need to take up as little space as possible. He's one of only four other people on the bus, including the driver. The other two are a tipsy university student dressed as a vampire probably on his way home from a Halloween party and a middle-aged salaryman most certainly stuck working too many hours of overtime. He could drape himself all along the back seats if he wanted and weren't so afraid of the bus driver giving him a stern look through his rear view mirror.

The sound of his phone ringing startles him out of his thoughts. Hajime digs it out of the front pocket of his backpack and peers at the screen. Ayame Hinata. His sister is calling.

He pokes the little answer button and holds the phone up to his ear. "Hello?"

"Where are you?"

"Hi to you too."

Something like a cross between a snort and a sigh carries through the phone and he can just picture Ayame pinching the bridge of her nose the way she does when she's annoyed.

"I'm on the bus. I'm meeting up with some friends from school."

"This late at night? Shouldn't you be helping us unpack the rest of the boxes? You still haven't even unpacked most of the things in your room. I'm looking at the boxes right now."

Hajime shrugs even though he knows his sister can't see it and moves his backpack onto the empty seat next to him. "Why should I worry about that? It's Halloween. I deserve to have some time to relax."

"It's been two weeks since you and dad moved here. I know you weren't all that happy about the move, but you can't just live like this. You have to take some responsibility around here too, you know."

He rolls his eyes. Even if Ayame is six years his elder, graduated from university, and happily living on her own, he hates when she treats him like a kid. "I'll get to it, okay? I just haven't had the time. I've had a lot of coursework to catch up on. It's exhausting."

There's a sound on the other end like something shifting across the floor. It sounds as though Ayame is going through some of the unpacked boxes. (Maybe if he's lucky, his sister will do all the unpacking for him.) "Hajime, I get the feeling you're avoiding us or something. I don't know what your deal is, but dad says you haven't talked to him in weeks. Heaven knows that you barely talk to me unless I'm calling for you. Have you even talked to mom at all?"

"Mom's not here. She's back in Tokyo," he snaps and quickly remembers to lower his voice when the salaryman shoots him a disapproving look.

"Hajime, I'm serious. You just run off on your own and do your own thing. You know if there's anything bothering you, you can talk to me about it. I'm your sister. I've had to deal with my own stuff too when I was your age, I can understand."

There she goes again, making every problem about her, like she can't even fathom that he's grappling with his own issues. It's not only irritating, it's grating. Before he can properly gather up his thoughts, he finds himself saying, "Why do you care? You don't even live with us anymore. It's not like your opinion matters in the end."

Ayame goes silent. The call is quiet for a long moment and he knows he's struck a cord. He thinks of apologizing, but he also thinks of the bitter pieces of his broken family, and the apology dies on his tongue. Hajime leans his head back against the too-short bus seat, ignoring the way it awkwardly pulls at his neck, and sighs. "Listen. I don't really want to get into this right now. It's late, and it's Halloween night. I'm just want to have some fun, make new friends. You should be happy for me."

More silence. And then: "Fine. Don't stay out too late."

He jabs at the "end call" button on the screen and tosses his phone on top of his backpack. He doesn't even bother to say goodbye.

His stop is at the very end of the line. Hajime steps off the bus onto the empty road. As the bus rolls away, he catches a glimpse of the LED sign switching from its standard "Hope's Peak City Line" message to one that says "Not in Service."

The road is scantly lit with only a few street lamps dotting around. His classmates said to follow along the road until he came across an old wooden sign (of which he cannot read due to weather). There's a large blue van parked in the dirt. Everybody else must already be here. Feeling an itch of curiosity, Hajime digs out the flashlight from his backpack and shines it through the windshield. It's an older model car, large enough to seat seven or eight people, with slightly fading leather seats and a little charm dangling from the rear view mirror. The seats are bare except for a jacket draped across the back and an old crumpled receipt on the passenger side. The contents of the van don't immediately give him any hints to the owner.

He starts down the dirt path into the woods, using his flashlight to guide the way. The invitation to come join them out in the wilderness for Halloween ghost storytelling had come as a surprise, but he had graciously accepted if only as a desperate act of fitting in. Tests of courage were popular back at his old high school, even though he never got to participate in one. A night of ghost stories isn't exactly how he thought he'd be bonding with his classmates, but as the new kid in town, he'll take what he can get.

Hajime stops in his tracks and looks behind him. He doesn't know why—maybe it's the darkness or the occasion or a combination of both—but he has the distinct feeling he's being watched… It's hard to describe, but it just feels like there are eyes on him, out there, somewhere. Gooseflesh arises upon his arms. The hairs on the back of his neck stand on end and a solitary shiver races up his spine. He shines the flashlight around, but all he sees are trees and bushes.

"Hello?" he calls cautiously. "Is anybody there?"

Silence.

He swallows and mentally curses himself for thinking to come here alone instead of being accompanied by one of his classmates. Why couldn't he have asked to go with somebody? If he disappears now due to some wild forest animal or a crazed stalker, nobody will ever know.

A noise like a twig snapping makes him jump in his skin. He points his flashlight in the direction of the noise and holds his breath. That's definitely the sound of footsteps he's hearing, and whoever—or whatever—it is, it's coming closer… and closer… He tenses. He doesn't have a plan, nor a weapon nor anything to defend himself. All he can do is brace himself for whatever is about to pop out at him—

—The bushes part, revealing a grinning Mahiru Koizumi. "Hinata! I thought I saw you there."

Immediately, his tension melts away into relief. "Koizumi, you scared me!" he breathes, one hand slapped over his still-racing heart.

"Sorry! I thought you saw me too, but I guess it's too dark to really see." Mahiru smiles sheepishly and he can't help but return it. Even if she gave him a fright, it's so much better to see a friendly face right now. "Everybody else is waiting, we already started a campfire. Come on, I'll show you the way. Besides, it's better for a man to escort a lady out in the wilderness." She fixes him a serious stare and points a finger at his face. "Just don't do anything fishy, got it?"

Together, they travel down the path to the night's ghost storytelling site. Mahiru asks how he's liking school so far, if he's having an easy time making friends or if the coursework has been difficult. He answers to the best of his abilities (school's good, everyone's nice, and he's having trouble with English but he always has so it's nothing new) and resolutely avoids any mention of his home life.

There's a bright yellow light shining through the trees, no doubt where the others are. He can make out some silhouettes as they draw nearer. One of the silhouettes notices them and waves merrily. "Hajime, is that you? Over he-eeere!"

Stepping into the clearing, Hajime spots Ibuki Mioda, Kazuichi Souda, Hiyoko Saionji, and Nagito Komaeda all crowded around the makeshift campfire. Kazuichi lounges against an overturned log and yawns, briefly giving Hajime a view of his shark-like teeth. Hiyoko seems to be poking at the dirt with her finger ("Squish squish!" she chirps every so often) while Nagito and Ibuki roast marshmallows over the flame. Ibuki, the one who was waving, leaps up from her seat and hurries over to greet him with a signature Ibuki Mioda hug.

"Hinata, it's good to see you made it here safely," Nagito says, smiling, just as his marshmallow slides clear off his skewer. "Ah!" He makes an aborted attempted at catching it, but yanks his hand back when the flames lick along his palm. He stares forlornly at his ruined treat burning in the fire. "What rotten luck…"

"Big Sis Mahiru, where'd you run off to?" Hiyoko quips. "I was getting really worried that some forest monster gobbled you up or something!"

Hajime shoots Mahiru a curious look. "Huh? Koizumi, I thought you just arrived?"

"Oh! Did I say that? No, I came with everyone else, I just went back to the van to grab something." She holds up her camera to illustrate.

An irritated voice pipes up near the bushes, "Are we going to start this stupid thing or what? The new kid's here, fuckin' finally, let's just get this over with already." Off in the shadows stands probably the last person he'd ever want to see. Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu is by far the prickliest of his new classmates, and the one Hajime gets along with the least. Like most moody boys his age, his expression comes in two forms: smirk or scowl, and right now he's wearing the latter.

"What's he doing here?" Hajime whispers to Ibuki, clearly displeased.

Ibuki's grin is a cross between amused and apologetic. "We needed a driver. Kazuichi's grounded from driving and Fuyuhiko's the only other one with a big enough car."

Hajime tries to picture Fuyuhiko—easily the shortest boy of the bunch—driving a soccer mom van like the one he saw parked on the side of the road. The word "booster seat" pops up in his head unbidden and he barely stifles a laugh.

Fuyuhiko seems to sense his change in mood. "You got something to say, fucker?"

"Nope," he answers, popping the "P."

Ibuki ushers everyone over to their seats to start their night of spooky stories. Hajime tucks his backpack against his side and settles down onto an unoccupied stump next to Mahiru, thanking her with a nod when she passes him the bag of marshmallows.

Two stories in and he's already starting to regret his decision to come.

"… Everyone turned around and that's when they saw… THE EMERGENCY PARKING BRAKE WAS LEFT ON." Kazuichi shrieks at his own story, waving the flashlight around like a maniac, but his efforts are met with silence and unimpressed looks.

"This is so lame!" Hiyoko whines, kicking her heels back and forth against the hard-packed dirt. "I thought we were going to tell scary stories! All of these have been super duper lame! I might as well be getting free candy door-to-door!"

"It can't be helped. Souda's talent isn't in storytelling, after-all," Nagito says woefully. "Although somebody as worthless as me wasn't able to do much better."

"Hey! It wasn't that bad… Was it?"

Everyone seems to be at a consensus. Mahiru looks disenchanted, Fuyuhiko looks pissed (but when doesn't he look pissed?), and even Hajime has to admit the night has been rather disappointing so far.

Ibuki abruptly snatches the flashlight from Kazuichi's hands. "Well, you better grab ahold of a belt, Hiyoko, because Ibuki's about to scare your pants off!"

There are a variety of murmurs echoing around the crew; Hiyoko mutters a few more complaints under her breath, Nagito remarks how surely this story will fill them hope, and Kazuichi crossly shoves a whole marshmallow in his mouth. Ibuki doesn't let any of that affect her, patiently waiting for everyone to settle down before she holds up the flashlight beneath her chin. The shadows contour her cheekbones and eyes harshly.

"Have any of you ever heard the story of Crying Peko-chan?" she drones in a low, very un-Ibuki-like voice. The rest of the group exchange wary glances, but nobody answers. Ibuki makes a solemn noise in the back of her throat, like she thinks they've all made a grave mistake for choosing to be so ignorant. It's clear that Ibuki is hamming up her performance, but Hajime already feels the earlier levity evaporating away with that one thoughtful sound.

"Peko-chan was a strange little girl who used to live in this very town. She had pale, sickly skin, and abnormally white hair, and these super creepy red eyes like you might see on a demon child. Everywhere she went, people stared. The other school kids especially loved to bully her. They called her a monster, a freak, but it wasn't just her looks that creeped them out; it was her attitude. She was like a statue. She never smiled, or frowned, or showed any sort of emotion, as though all her feelings had been scooped out. No matter how much the kids bullied her, she did not cry. It became their personal mission to see her tears."

Ibuki pauses for dramatic effect, and Hajime takes the moment to look around the circle. Everyone is silent, listening in rapt attention. Even Hiyoko keeps quiet, clutching onto her bag of gummies.

"One dark and stormy night these kids chased her all the way to a cave in the woods, much like the woods we're in right now. One of those really craggy caves too, pits and rocks everywhere. They tortured her, did the most atrocious things just to get her to cry. They threw rocks at her, and still she did not cry. They pulled her hair, dug under her fingernails, and still she did not cry. They stuffed dirt in her mouth, yanked out her eyelashes, cut up her face with sharp stones, and still she did not cry.

"It was then that Peko-chan decided she had enough and tried to fight back against her bullies, but the cave they were in had this pit with all these jagged rocks at the bottom. In the scuffle, she tripped and fell over the ledge, impaling herself on the rocks below. Blood spurt everywhere. Horrified, the bullies all stared down at her body as she hung like a lifeless doll on those rocks. She bled a slow and agonizing death, and they finally got to see Peko-chan cry for the first time.

"The police ruled it an accident, so the kids were never punished. But in recent years, there have been reports that the people who bullied her were suddenly killed in mysterious accidents, one… after… another…

"They say on dark Halloween nights like these, if you listen really really carefully, sometimes you can hear the sound of her weeping… But don't just take my word for it. You guys know upperclassman Seiko Kimura? She's heard the sound of crying when nobody else was around. She says she hears that sound in her nightmares sometimes. That's why she's always looking over her shoulder nowadays. Not only that, but many people have spotted the ghost of Peko-chan wandering around. But watch out. She doesn't want anyone to see her crying, so if you hear her, make sure you don't make eye contact. Because if you do… it may be the last. Thing. You ever. See…

"What does she do to her victims, you ask? Well nobody knows for sure. Anyone who's seen her cry has never lived to tell the tale. Some say she slashes up your face until you're unrecognizable. Some say she feasts on your heart while it's still beating in your chest. Some say she drives you insane and forces you to kill yourself. One thing's for sure: if you ever see those demon eyes of hers, she will never… ever… be satisfied until you're dead…"

Hajime suddenly hears the whoosh of wind and a sharp, solid THUD somewhere to his left. It startles him so much he screams. He's not the only one; Mahiru screams too and Kazuichi lets out an undignified screech as he clings to Hiyoko for protection. (She promptly shoves him away.) It's only when the group settles down again do they see Fuyuhiko was the one who made the noise. He's on his feet, eyes narrowed, fists clenched as his sides.

"What the hell, Kuzuryuu?!"

"Seriously! You scared us half to death!"

"I don't like this story," Fuyuhiko hisses through gritted teeth.

"What? It's just a story. You're not scared, are you? Aren't you supposed to be a man?" Mahiru scoffs.

"I said. I don't like this story," he repeats, looking no less upset.

Hajime exchanges a confused look with Ibuki.

"What's the big deal?" Hiyoko huffs, crossing her arms. "The night was finally getting good and we have to stop just because Kuzuryuu can't handle it?"

"Perhaps that may be the best course of action," hums Nagito. "Souda looks as though he's about to soil himself."

"Listen! Little girl ghosts are the worst, okay?!"

Nagito shrugs. "Ahhh, what a mood killer."

"It was a good story, Mioda," Hajime tries to placate. "Best all night, really. I got goosebumps all over."

"Awww, thanks, Hajime!" Ibuki chirps, passing him the flashlight. "But I didn't make it up myself. I really did hear it from somebody else, although I don't really remember where, even though my memory is usually really good. An online forum or something? 2channel? Either way, it gave Ibuki chills, so she decided to share it with everyone!"

He nods and starts to say that he'd like to hear more stories from her, but something else catches his attention entirely.

The distant sound of weeping.

His heart skips a beat.

"Seriously, Kuzuryuu, are you crying now?!" Hiyoko barks. "That's so disgusting! Picking this place was your idea, you know."

"The hell? Does it look like I'm crying?"

"Guys…" Ibuki murmurs, pointing a trembling finger towards the trees. "Look over there…"

Hajime looks and he wishes he hadn't. Off in the distance is what appears to be a little girl walking back and forth amongst the trees. She's dressed in a white kimono, no other colors or patterns, just solid white, a pale spot in the darkness. In fact, it looks as though she is entirely white from head to toe, from her alarmingly pallid skin down to her silvery hair. She has her face in her hands, body wracked with sobs. He wonders how somebody could walk around at this time of night with her face covered, let alone a single little girl.

He looks around the circle, silently pleading for an explanation, but the looks on everybody's faces tell him he won't be getting a good answer.

"Is that—?!" Mahiru strains.

"It can't be… Crying Peko-chan…?!"

"This is an interesting development…"

"I-It can't be, right?" Hajime sputters, trying to form some sort of logical explanation for this. She's just a lost little girl… out in the woods… in the middle of the night… She's crying because she needs help and perhaps they should actually go and help her but even the thought of approaching the little girl makes his heart sink to his feet.

"Don't make eye contact! Don't make eye contact!" Kazuichi screeches, yanking his beanie over his eyes. Automatically Hajime slams his eyes shut too, even though he knows he must look ridiculous, even though a part of him doesn't want to believe this is actually happening, he just can't risk it.

"Are you guys being serious right now?"

When Hajime peeks his eyes open again, he sees Hiyoko is on her feet, hands firmly planted on her hips. "It's just another one of Ibuki's stupid Halloween pranks. It's so obvious."

"But I swear that's not me!" Ibuki squeaks.

"Yeah, right. She does this every year, guys, come on. Don't you remember how she told that story about a werewolf and got Mitarai to make those stupid animation just to scare us? Hey! Who is it over there? Is that you, Pig Barf? Get over here so I can punish you for real. Hello-oooo?"

The little girl stops, lifts her face up, and looks in their direction. She's too far away to clearly make out her features, but there seems to be something red on her face. Blood? Is she hurt?

Or something much worse?

"Did you hear me? You over there! I said get over here right now!"

The little girl jolts and convulses, her head spasming faster than humanly possible like a movie running at the wrong frame rate, and it's then that Hajime is sure that something is wrong. "Saionji, no!" he croaks, reaching for her. The little girl starts at them slowly but her feet don't seem move, like she's floating. She blinks in and out of sight as if she's on a radio signal set at a bad frequency.

The next second she's nose to nose with Hiyoko.

"Oh—" Hiyoko breathes.

The little girl makes a sound in the back of her throat like a cross between a sob and a growl. In one fluid motion she fists her hands around the front of Hiyoko's blouse and sinks, and as she does, she drags Hiyoko down with her straight through the solid ground. Hiyoko doesn't even have the time to scream, phasing through the dirt from her head to her feet.

She disappears without a trace left behind.

Somebody screams, and he's not sure who. (Maybe it's him.)

"RUN!"

Hajime barely has enough time to remember to grab his flashlight and backpack as he darts off through the trees. He hears the thunderous footsteps of his classmates right behind him, everyone struggling to keep up with one another. He doesn't dare look behind him for fear of making eye contact with the ghost of what he now knows is Crying Peko-chan.

"Mioda, why'd you have to tell that stupid story?! Now we're going to die! We're all going to die! I knew this was a bad idea!"

"But it's just a story! Besides which, you have to summon her for Crying Peko-chan to appear!"

"Summon?" Fuyuhiko squawks. "You didn't say anything about a summoning!"

"Well it's not like somebody could accidentally summon her! You have to write 'Peko-chan, show me your eyes' on a wall while chanting it out loud three times!"

"Ah—!"

Hajime thinks he hears somebody stumbling and falling upon the dirt. He tries to look over his shoulder to see who it was, but somebody else collides powerfully with his back, forcing him to keep on running. He doesn't know how long they run for or where they're going, but by some stroke of luck, they manage to make it back to Fuyuhiko's van still parked near the side of the road. His legs feel like jelly and his heart is hammering in his chest. "Guys, wait! I think we're safe!" he pants, hands on his knees as he struggles to catch his breath. Kazuichi actually throws himself at the van and kisses it, to which Fuyuhiko shoves him out of the way.

"We have to get out of here," Fuyuhiko wheezes as he clumsily fishes his keys from his pocket.

"Wait," Hajime says, scanning the crew and filling with dread. Kazuichi, Nagito, Fuyuhiko…

"Where are Koizumi and Mioda?!"

Mahiru sniffles as she inspects the ugly scrape on her knee. It's red and bleeding in places. Normally a scratch like this would hardly faze her, but the combination of the pain, the adrenaline, and the frightful sight of Hiyoko being literally spirited away has her on edge.

"Is anything broken?" Ibuki asks.

"No, I don't think so. It just hurts." She touches a finger against the scrape and hisses. She can wipe away the dirt, but for now she'll just have to deal. "Ibuki, where did the guys go?"

Ibuki glances over the bushes they're hiding behind and cups a hand around her ear. "Hmmmmm… I don't know. I don't hear them screaming anymore. And Ibuki's phone has been on the fritz too so we can't call them." She seems to sense the fear and anxiety radiating off her friend and offers Mahiru a bright smile. "Don't worry, Mahiru! I'm sure they're waiting for us by the car! Besides, Kazuichi's sure to start screaming any moment now, and Ibuki's super-sensitive hearing will pick it up right away!"

"But what about Hiyoko?" she asks quietly. She can't ever forget that sight, those pale white hands pulling Hiyoko through solid ground like she were dragging her down to hell—

"We'll find her for sure!" Ibuki says, pumping her fist in the air.

Mahiru sighs, staring down at her hands. "I can't believe you're so calm right now when we just saw a ghost."

Ibuki grins and puffs up her chest looking like a cat that's caught the canary. "Ibuki won't go down that easily just because of some ghost! I'm the plucky sidekick of the story, they need me to keep the atmosphere light!"

That startles a laugh out of her. While Ibuki's endless optimism may be grating to some, she's glad she has her here now. "I don't really know who 'they' are. But you really do make me feel a lot better."

"That's the spirit!" Ibuki cheers, helping Mahiru to her feet. "Ibuki will stay right here to protect you! Now let's go and find the others!" Like some sort of brave fool storming onto the battlefield while being vastly outnumbered, she marches backwards into the open, making sure Mahiru is well within her sights.

Mahiru lets out another breathless laugh at the ridiculousness of her friend. With the tender pain still shooting down her leg, it's going to make running a bit difficult. But maybe she won't need to as long as they're careful on the way to the van. She's about to follow after Ibuki through the trees, but her shivering voice and shocked face stops her in her tracks.

"Mahiru…?"

"What?"

"… Are you behind me right now?"

"No… I'm right in front of you. You can still see me. Why…?"

Ibuki trembles and frantically gestures with her eyes as if to say, Look behind me. She leans over a bit to see. Just over Ibuki's shoulder, Mahiru can make out the strands of somebody with abnormally white hair. A small white hand slowly reaches out towards them.

Mahiru sucks in a breath and shrieks.

Hajime looks up sharply. "Did you guys hear that?" Nagito also looks up from his phone, eyebrows quirked. (No reception, they've discovered. Not on any of their phones.) He looks back to the guys, whose faces all reflect a mixture of anxiety and wariness. "That's probably Koizumi and Mioda. We have to go back for them!"

"Go back?!" Fuyuhiko scoffs. "Are you crazy? The smart thing to do would be to save our own skins before we all die!"

Kazuichi nods like his neck is made of rubber. "For once, I agree with Kuzuryuu. They'll catch up. We gotta get out of here now or we're all dead meat."

"That is the most logical way of looking at it," Nagito hums, placing his cell phone back into his coat pocket. "Only those worthy of survival shall emerge from the darkness victorious and full of hope."

Kazuichi glares at Nagito. "You know, you've always said some weird things in the past, but that attitude of yours is really starting to piss me off!"

"Oh? But weren't you also agreeing with Kuzuryuu just a second ago?"

"Well— Yeah, but— You didn't have to put it like that!" Kazuichi sputters.

"Guys, we can't just leave the girls behind!" Hajime presses, throwing out his hands pleadingly. "What if they're in trouble?"

"We're all in trouble! It's like that bastard Komaeda said, survival of the fittest! It's not my fault they couldn't fuckin' keep up!"

"Kuzuryuu, don't be like that! Put yourself in their shoes. If you were hurt or lost, I'm sure Koizumi or Mioda would want to help you too."

"You gotta be shitting me. You think I need anybody's help? You think I need your help? I'm not some fuckin' kid, okay? Now either get in the car or get the fuck out of my sight, because I'm getting out of here!" He practically rips open the driver side door and hastily climbs in.

"Kuzuryuu, wait—"

He's reaching for Fuyuhiko, hoping to dissuade him from leaving the girls behind, but the sound of rustling startles him from that task. Hajime whips around, bracing himself for a ghost or a ghoul or any other variety of night terror to jump out at them. Instead, for the second time that night, Mahiru bursts through the bushes and all but runs into his arms.

"Koizumi!" he cries, feeling a flush of relief at seeing his classmate safe and sound.

"Hinata!" she answers, looking equally as relieved.

He looks back to the bushes, expecting to see Ibuki burst through the bushes as well, but as the seconds tick by, nobody comes. Hajime furrows his brows. "Where's Mioda?"

Mahiru whirls around the way she came, eyes wide. "She was right behind me…" Her eyes dart around the trees and bushes, looking more and more panicked with each passing second. "W-We saw the ghost of Crying Peko-chan. Ibuki told me to run ahead because I got hurt. Sh-She said she would be right behind me. Did I leave her behind?! I— Oh god, I didn't mean to…! I— Oh no!" She looks down at the camera still strapped around her neck. The lens is broken, spiderweb cracks on the glass. "My mom gave me this camera…" She lets out a frustrated scream and throws her hands over her face. "Oh, is anything going right tonight?!"

Hajime awkwardly pats Mahiru on the back, unable to think of what else to do. He never though he'd see reasonable, levelheaded Mahiru Koizumi break down like this. "Koizumi, calm down… You didn't know she wasn't behind you anymore… I'm sure Mioda is fine. Shhh, shhh…"

From inside the van comes a second frustrated yell. "Are you fuckin' kidding me?!" Fuyuhiko screams, slamming his fists against the dashboard. The van momentarily rocks back and forth from the weight of his outburst. He climbs back out the van and slams the door shut behind him with far more force than necessary.

"What's wrong?"

"The fuckin' engine won't start. I've tried it like a million times but it just won't start. We can't leave if it won't start."

"Hmmmm," hums Nagito, stroking his chin. "Souda, can't you fix the engine?"

"Wha— Oh, right!" Hurriedly, they pop open the hood, hope arising in their chests, and Kazuichi dives right in, but a few minutes later he emerges looking grim. "I can't do anything."

"What? Come on, I thought you were supposed to be the best mechanic around!"

"There's nothing wrong with it! I can't fix something that isn't broken! What do you want me to do, break it even more? Then we'll really be stuck!" He scrubs a hand over his face. "W-We can just take the bus or something back to town. Come back for the van in the morning. The bus stop is close by—"

"The buses don't run this late. It's past midnight by now."

"Then we'll walk!" Kazuichi screeches. "We have to do something!"

"Wait," says Mahiru, looking serious and thoroughly recovered from her earlier breakdown. "We can't leave without Hiyoko and Ibuki. I'm never going to forgive myself if I actually left them behind. We have to go back for them."

Hajime nods. "Koizumi's right. It should be the same for all of us. If we leave them here now, we'll never be able to live with ourselves."

Fuyuhiko makes a frustrated noise. "Are we still going over this? I can live with myself just fine. This isn't the time to be playing hero. Peko's out there trying to kill us!"

"What was that, Kuzuryuu?" Nagito asks, raising an eyebrow.

"You hard of hearing? I said a ghost is trying to kill us!"

"It's not that. I just thought it was interesting how you called her by her name. It almost sounds as though you're familiar with her somehow."

Fuyuhiko seems to falter, tripping over his next words. "I just don't like that stupid nickname, okay?! What's the big deal anyway?!"

Kazuichi tugs on his hair. "Does it really matter what we call her right now? There's a creepy little girl ghost that wants to drag us into hell and we're just standing around like idiots!"

Mahiru crosses her arms and huffs, "I'm not leaving here until we find Hiyoko and Ibuki! They're our friends!"

"Well I'm not walking right into a ghost girl's trap, car or not. Hell, I'll go by foot back to town if I have to."

"If you want to be a coward and abandon our friends, then that's your choice, but I'm not going to!"

"Fine! It's your funeral!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

Fuming, Kazuichi turns on his heel and stalks down the road.

"Souda, wait—!" Hajime stammers, reaching after him helplessly.

Mahiru marches off towards the trees, calling over her shoulder, "Hinata, are you coming with me?"

"I— Of course, I want to find Saionji and Mioda too, but— Should we really let Souda go alone? I don't think splitting up is such a good idea."

"He made his choice. What about you, Komaeda? Are you leaving with Souda?"

"I'm always on the side of hope. And right now, the hope of finding our friends shines so brightly."

"I'm coming too," Fuyuhiko pipes up. All eyes snap to him. "What? Don't shit yourselves. I'm just not going anywhere with that pink-haired idiot!"

Hajime eyes him warily. One minute he's talking about leaving the girls behind, and the next he's tagging along to go find Hiyoko and Ibuki. Given the situation, perhaps he shouldn't be so surprised. For all his bravado and his insistence that he need not rely on anyone, he thinks Fuyuhiko is only trying to stick with the bigger group for his own safety. That just means one more body for Fuyuhiko to use as a shield between him and the ghost.

"But we shouldn't—" Hajime looks back to the road. Kazuichi is a speck in the distance. He hates the idea of leaving somebody in the group alone with a ghost girl roaming around, but everybody else seems to have made up their minds already.

"Just leave him. At best, he'll find somebody to go get help. We have to find Hiyoko and Ibuki before it's too late!"

Reluctantly, he nods and trails after Mahiru as she delves back into the forest.