"Thank you all for coming." Gabriel said as soon as they were in the subworld. "We may need more than one guide due to the amount of people we will be bringing back." The world seemed a deep red. The sky was frozen in place but a strange wind continued to blow.
"You didn't need to come too, Naoya." Kouichi said bluntly.
"I know why you came as well. It wasn't just to protect Mei, was it?"
Kouichi looked away.
"You don't want to revive those from the inn, do you?"
"Not everyone at the inn went insane."
"I thought so." Nayao put his hand on Kouichi's shoulder. "I know how you feel, but she was under immense stress. Akazawa even tried to help."
"Yeah. She did lose it in the end though."
"You have every right to hate her, but please, let us bring her back."
"Whatever. I don't plan on staying here for long. If need be, I'll take Mei with me."
"She'll pose no danger."
"How do you know? You didn't see the soulless eyes that I saw. Once Takako died, she lost her humanity."
"Sorry for interrupting, but we should probably head this way." Gabriel motioned towards the staircase.
"You alright?" I noticed Kouichi getting nervous.
"Yeah. Just a little anxious at what I will find."
There at the middle of the staircase a deep red shadowy figure appeared above a translucent Yukari Sakuragi. There appeared to be no damage to her, except of course, said shadowy figure hovering over her, seemingly sucking her life force.
"Red energy shadow. Get down." Mena warned. She jumped into action and materialized teal "laser lights" at the shadow. It soared towards Mena. She said something unintelligible and a teal containment field encompassed the shadow. She said something else and the containment field collapsed in an explosion.
"Good job, Mena." Gabrel said.
"I was in no danger. That was a low level red shadow."
"Sorry, but what is a red shadow? I thought they only came in one colour – shadow." I asked.
"When consumption of life force is great, shadows begin to take on a reddish colour. This of course is only an illusion. Such colours cannot be viewed by normal humans, but the visual translation is red.
"Then is she…" Kouichi asked.
"She is fine. The shadows are red collectively from all the life force taken."
"If life force is already taken then…" Kouichi asked.
"They are truly dead." Mena continued. "Their souls will be released upon the destruction of this red energy, but they cannot be reconstituted into a body."
"Then we can't save them?"
"Guys, what's going on?" Yukari climbed the steps. "What am I doing here?" She seemed a bit groggy.
"She's alive." Kouichi rushed towards her.
"Hmm. This means that we can bring back people from at least several months ago." Naoya suggested.
"Can we head over to the hospital?" Mei asked.
I'm not sure of the danger here, so we should probably walk." Gabriel said.
"How else would we have…" Naoya was interrupted by yours truly.
"These guys can also teleport." I said.
"Yeah, probably wise since I don't know how many red shadows there are. Even the low level ones are a bit of a hassle." Kaori added.
Yukari suddenly screamed. I turned around and saw Kouichi's and her hand go through each other. Yukari backed away. "What…"
Mena mumbled something. I knew what she did. "Try it now." I called out to those two. They were able to touch each other.
"Huh?" Kouichi turned around.
"I rephased her life force into a solid being. She will still need the body when we return." Mena continued walking.
"What happened? All I remember is running out after hearing about an accident involving my mom." Yukari asked.
Kouichi explained the situation as best as he could to her, including that Mei now "exists" and it's okay to acknowledge her, and also the fate and future revival of all classmates.
On the way to the hospital we were able to revive Ikuo Takabayashi. He seemed just as dazed, but more calm. This was probably due to Mena phasing him in before he "touched anyone. Luckily, Mena was able to take care of that low level red shadow as well.
The group entered the hospital gasping. The air was foul and the wind was nearly a gale. The building, as the classroom, was old decrepit in this subworld.
"We should head to the basement." Mei said and ran off.
"Wait!" Kouichi ran after her.
The rest of the group had no choice but to run after them. I turned the corner and found Mei crushed by a ceiling tile and pipe. The perpetrator was visible – a red shadow.