One hundred.

I woke up to the scent of freshly-starched bedsheets and chamomile tea. All I could hear was the low rumble of the air conditioner. Gently, I opened my eyes to see a shaft of light beaming in from a window and illuminating a patch of fabric on the pillow next to me. My eyes drifted from the lit patch to the rust colored stain on the comforter, to the girl sitting in a straight-backed chair next to the bed, nose buried in a book, looking for all the world like she came in the same package as the bedsheets and pillows I was currently resting on. I blinked a few times, gradually drifting into consciousness. The blurriness at the edges of my vision receded, and I took a better look at the girl. She wore a sky-blue dress that reached down to the middle of her calves beneath a lacy white apron. Her hair was cream-colored, thick, and unbelievably long, reaching almost to the hem of her dress. She held her book delicately, her mouth forming a perfectly straight line save for the tiny bit of tension at the corner, just teetering on the edge of a smile.

I paused when I noticed her eyes. She emoted with her eyes more than anything else, and at the moment they seemed to gleam with contentment as they scanned the pages of her book. More striking, however, was the fact that her irises were crimson.

I suddenly got the sensation I was falling, and a spasm went up my spine, startling the girl sitting beside the bed.

"Oh! Miss Asahina, you're awake," she said with formality she was clearly uncomfortable with.

I sat up, immediately feeling a wave of pain behind my eyes.

"Yeah," I muttered.

"Um...my name is Mary Kozakura. The Commander wanted me to watch you. We were all pretty scared because your nose started bleeding, and you...passed out."

I massaged my temples. "Yeah."

"So...if there's anything you need-"

The bedroom door flew open.

"Mary, is she up?"

I recognized the girl in the doorway as Momo Kisaragi, the idol whose merchandise adorned every inch of space on the walls of my room back home. Memories flooded back that were, technically speaking, only a week or two old. Waking up one weekend to find that I'd won two tickets to Momo's upcoming Obon concert in Tokyo. The fantasies of not just seeing her live, but going to the capital of Japan, getting my foot in the door, finally escaping the vise-like grip of my hometown of Aibetsu. My dreams being crushed when my parents said I couldn't go alone. Remembering Hibiya…

I couldn't finish the thought before I felt the white-hot tears in my eyes. I felt something compressing in my chest, coiling tighter and tighter before it snapped.

"Hey, are you alright? What's wrong?", Momo asked. I shook my head. I just wanted to stop thinking, go back to sleep, run away from something. The nightmarish experience of August Fifteenth, waking up in a hospital, these weird kids and their club, Momo Kisaragi just so happening to be in on it…my life had officially become a fever dream that I could not wake up from. I wasn't sure if I was laughing or crying. All I knew was that I wanted to scream. My skin felt ice-cold.

I didn't notice that Momo had sat down next to me until she reached around and put her hand on my right arm. I turned to look at her.

I could see incredible detail in her skin. Without all the makeup she wore onstage, her skin was tan and course. Her cheeks especially had a sandy texture to them, in sharp contrast to the soft, snowy pallor they had in her promotional material. Her jaw was set, and her amber eyes locked with mine, looking neither at me nor through me.

She was looking into me, into my soul.

Her gaze softened, and she smiled gently before pulling me closer. "You're safe."

"What?"

"You're safe. I understand if you're scared, and I don't imagine you trust us very much, but we're going to take care of you."

I took a shaky breath. "'We' as in your...club?"

"That's right. We've all been through what you've been through, more or less."

"And what exactly have I been through?"

She looked up and smiled as Kido appeared in the doorway without a sound.

"Ah, Commander, just in time. Wanna give her the briefing now?"

Kido nodded, and pulled up a chair. This was the first time I'd seen her without her hood pulled up and her collar concealing her nose and mouth. Her green hair was pulled into a ponytail, but that didn't stop it from reaching down to her shoulderblades. The left leg of her pants was rolled up to her knee.

"When I was ten years old, my father's wife left him, and he set fire to the family's house. He got trapped inside, and by the time paramedics arrived the damage to his lungs was to extensive to do anything but keep him comfortable for three days he had to live. My big sister and I were trapped as well. It was a big house, with a lot of rooms, and we got lost. The fire killed us before the smoke did. The date was August Fifteenth.

"You've met Mary, I take it? When she was 400 years old, a group of hunters found the house where she and her mother lived. Her mother was out, so they tied her up and began to drag her back to their village. She fought them tooth and nail, screamed out for help, until they cut her throat. Her mother found her, along with the hunters, and she turned every one of them to stone. The strain was too much for her, and her heart burst. It took her less than a minute to die. The date was August Fifteenth.

"Yesterday, an unlicensed heavy-goods vehicle lost control at an intersection, and crashed into the entryway of an apartment building, killing two children, identified as Hibiya Amamiya and Hiyori Asahina." She looked me dead in the eyes. "When the paramedics arrived, you didn't have a pulse. All attempts to revive you were fruitless. The ambulance was only a formality. They were going to take you to the morgue, until you came back. Not only did your heart start beating, not only were you breathing, you were conscious. You were coherent. You sat up and asked where you were. And they couldn't find a scratch on you."

She leaned back in her chair. "All of us should be dead. All of us were dead. And we want to know why. That's why we formed this gang, the Mekakushi Dan. To find out why we're here, why we were taken into the that world, and what we can do to save the people we died with, the people who are still stuck there."

I realized that I had been holding my breath. "Okay. Let's say I believe you. What can I do to help Hibiya?"

Kido glanced at Momo like she hadn't been expecting the question. "We...we don't know."

I sighed. "Then you can't help me." I stood up and walked to the window. While we were talking, the sky had become overcast. Tiny droplets of rain began to form on the window pane.

I wondered if it was raining in that world now. Hibiya told me, before I left, how much he loved the rain.

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Hiyori stood at the window, motionless, watching the rain come down. I sighed, nodded to Momo, and pulled up my hood. One thing left.

"Hiyori. There's someone who wants to see you."

"Who?" she muttered, not looking away from the storm.

"Member Number Nine."

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Kido and Momo left, shutting the door behind them. They talked for a while, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. Finally, the whispering died down, and Kido opened the door.

Later, she would tell me that she said something along the lines of "I think you two know each other", but all I remember hearing is the rush of blood in my head. Chinatsu Asahina was Member Number Nine.

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"Master."

"What is it?" I asked.

"How come you were so rude to that girl?"

"What girl?"

Ene scoffed. "The tall one. With the short hair? Chinatsu?"

I looked down at my reflection on the surface of my drink. "Her." I took a sip. "I dunno. Something's...off about her."

"Off?"

My eyes felt sore.

"Yeah, I just didn't...recognize her."