Chapter 2:Reddish Scenery

Yoshiki was staring at the fresh red blood pouring from Kurumi's sword, while Yuka was hiding behind him, stealing looks from time to time to the cold girl, who was sustaining his stare. Yoshiki was weighing his options: either he decided to separate from her, and risk becoming a victim when she went insane, or he kept her with them and did his best to keep her sane, and risk becoming a victim if he failed. What a variety of choices, resulting in us getting toasted no matter what. I guess I can just hope that Shinozaki found Sachiko and the others. He decided to stall that decision with a question.

"Where did you get that sword?"

She looked down and watched the blood pouring like it was rainwater.

"My dad, he likes collecting old stuff. Even when we were broke, he never sold any of that. I took it with me to show it to ... the others." She left the last phrase hang between them as the silence spread around once again, then wiped her sword on Kizami's shirt. She resumed roaming the corridors as Yoshiki and Yuka followed her. Soon enough Yuka remembered that she needed to go to the bathroom.

"Umm ... Yuka needs to go to the bathroom." she pleaded.

"I suggest you use one of the buckets around here." Kurumi replied coolly.

Yuka wailed in disagreement. She saw that most of the buckets held blood and body parts. Almost immediately her stomach began to growl. That reminded Yoshiki of the lack of food in the Heavenly Host Elementary, though all the bodies around him spared him of having an appetite.

Kurumi got a candy out of her pocket and threw it to her.

"That should keep you alive a little while longer." she said.

"You have more?" Yoshiki asked full of hope.

"Nope. That was the last one."

"Well, don't you need it?"

"No. I've been here for quite some time now, so I either starved to death or started feeding on air."

Yoshiki paled. He was walking alongside a dead girl who happened to have killed everyone she had met besides the two of them. He knew there was no hope for her, no way out, she was condemned to eternal solitude in those ruins. Unless of course, the closed space broke down, in which case she would remain forever lost to everyone who knew her. They went up the stairs to a long corridor, the wall next to them splattered with pieces of a human body.

"S-Suzumoto-san!" Yoshiki exclaimed.

Yoshiki and Kurumi had witnessed the incident, though unaware of each other's presence. Even Kurumi had been shaken up ever since and had shunned the children as much as she could. Of course she didn't know that meanwhile they were appeased. She could just recall their sickly pleased faces as they lifted the sweet girl and projected her on the wall at great speed.

Yuka began to tremble, so he turned her forward and went on with their search. Her wailing increased gradually in intensity as someone was contouring in front of them.

"Sachiko-san!" Kurumi called out.

Standing before them was indeed the girl in the red dress, the true murderer of all those children. Yuka screamed and ran to the long corridor on their left.

"Yuka, wait!" He started running towards her.

"Wait!" Kurumi said sharply. "Who are those who are with you?"

"If you see anyone, tell them you know me!" he shouted from the end of the corridor.

Curiously enough, Sachiko did not make any move during that time. However, on her shadowed face a wide grin appeared.

"You killed one today." Her words, however hard against Kurumi's heart, were said like a greeting.

"Of course I did. You said they would be put to rest if I killed the ones who went insane."

"All to be put to rest." In fact, Sachiko only wanted the fleas to go away so that she could have a little fun, and she had had plenty. Especially chasing that brat around while hearing her crying and screaming, it would be so good to kill her last. And she would wail just like that girl whose eye she had taken.

"I have to go. Keep an eye on those with black hands." she said and disappeared behind a door.

"I will. Especially on the one with dead eyes." she said to no one in particular.

The tape ended. Naomi and Satoshi had just seen a man who had said that he knew a way out.

"That guy knew a way out, and he was looking for blank tapes!" Satoshi pointed out.

"This means that there have to be more tapes."

Naomi held a shred of hope against all those dark thoughts crawling in her heart. Of course, when she got out, how was she supposed to explain Seiko's death? They got out of the room and began roaming the school again.

"Yuka must be in the other building. We should go there and start from the entranceway."

And so they did. However, on their way they entered a hallway where a student appeared to have just died. Near him there was a bloody pair of shoes. Satoshi ran and picked them up.

"These are Yuka's!" he exclaimed with an alarmed look. "We should hurry."

"Are you sure?" asked Naomi.

"I see them everyday. There's no mistaking it."

Naomi nodded and followed him. She did not want to think of a second building just as this one.

After staying immobile, paralysed by pain, Yuka began feeling around, then opened her eyes. On her head was a tile from the wood floor which had held her before the earthquake. She moved her hands slowly and pushed it aside. After getting rid of the rubbish around her, she exited the hallway. Only then did she realise that her shoes were missing. After a bit of walking, she saw numerous pairs of tiny shoes, which marked the entranceway. She then entered it and sat down, only to feel an unpleasant sensation.

"Oh no."

She must have peed herself when she had fallen. She knew she couldn't wear them anymore, so she hid them in one of the drawers. Sitting on the cold, wooden bench, she began thinking of home. Her mom would be waiting for them with hot dinner, and they would sit down and tell her what she had done today. But now not even her brother could be found. At least she got away from the girl in the red dress, who had called her 'Onee-chan'. Her stomach reminded her that she had a candy in her hand so she ate it. It was better than nothing and the empty sensation in her belly resigned for the moment.

When she heard running footsteps getting louder and louder, she panicked. She was almost crying when she saw her big brother and his friend.

"Yuka! Thank God!" Satoshi said and gave her a tight hug.

"Onii-chan!" she said and let her tears fall on her cheeks.

She then felt something strange. Something was hanging from one of the loose threads of her dress. It was a tape with blood stains on it.

"Strange ..." she murmured.

"Naomi, look at this!" Satoshi said and took the tape. "It says 《 Kibiki Research 2 》. We can go back and find the way out of this."

"Let's go." Naomi nodded.

Shinozaki Ayumi was lonely. Where could Kishinuma be? she wondered. Yuki was nowhere to be found and she had not seen a soul in quite some time. She resumed her thinking.

If Sachiko is the killer, then we're here because we failed the ritual. But I'm sure everyone said it nine times. I wish Ms. Yui was here. It's all my fault. She couldn't help it. Whatever thoughts she had would always go back to that. And now that she was alone, she was scared. What if Sachiko decided to silence her? She had no one to protect her. She still couldn't believe that something like this could happen.

When she saw a faint shadow she rushed into it hoping that someone was there with her. Instead she found a key. I wonder what this could open, she mused.

She tried every door that seemed to have a keyhole, but nothing worked, until she found a strange door. It has to open, she thought determined. The key worked indeed, revealing a small classroom unlike any other. She could feel an uneasy presence there with her. It vanished as soon as she began to approach it, leaving only a candy on the floor.

She took it without thinking and that made her feel like she was leaving her own body. A blink of an eye later she knew she was experiencing some spirit's memory, just like she had with Yuki. She was running without having any control over her feet, a thigh wound sending sharp pain through her. She had an empty sensation in her mouth, coming to the conclusion that she had no tongue. She looked back over her shoulder and saw Yoshikazu's possessed body chasing her. But suddenly her leg gave in and stumbled under her. The last thought she had in mind before she was killed was a name. "Kurumi".

Well, I have to confess, I have no idea how long a chapter should be. Should I make them longer? Also I hope I'll soon get a review 'cause I don't know what I'm doing right or wrong. Also any likeness of the characters' names or personalities with real-life people is purely coincidental, as you probably know. Well, see you next time :)

Edit: format update