Chapter 2

When they passed through the door, the first thing they noticed was the plants running on the walls and the floor. Personally, Hiroshi didn't expect it to be clean, but he didn't think it would be that messy. Takuro stood in the center, looking at the area. Some plants fell in front of the doorway, lightly blocking the exit.

"That's the place ya wanted us to go, right Takeshi?" he asked to the boy holding Kazuya.

"Yeah, this is the haunted mansion," he answered.

"What?" let out Kazuya, "Y-you mean, this is where that monster lives!?"

Takuro smirked.

"Ya seriously believe this place's haunted?"

"N-no…" replied Kazuya, though his tone of voice revealed he was lying.

"You really brought the good friend, Hiroshi," sneered Takuro.

The mansion itself was old. Even though no one really knew its location, everyone heard about it. Recently, a rumor had started running around saying a monster had taken residence in there. Hiroshi didn't believe it. If the mansion's was unknown to everyone (except those who randomly found it like Takuro's gang), how could someone know there was a monster in there? Besides, no one witnessed seeing a non-human creature lurking the past month, and the rumor magically appeared around that time. Kazuya seemed to believe it though, but he was quite the naïve type, so there was nothing surprising about that.

Takuro put his arm around the girl's shoulder.

"So, I thought that Megumi and I would go upstairs with Hiroshi while ya two would look around this floor with Kazuya, how about that?"

Hiroshi scoffed before anyone could reply anything.

"Is that why you brought us along? Because you were too scared to go alone?" he said with a challenging smirk.

Takuro didn't seem to appreciate. He took a couple of steps closer, stared down at Hiroshi's mocking eyes, and kneed him in the stomach.

"That's what I thought," continued Hiroshi regardless of the pain, "the truth always hurt more; you just proved it!"

Takuro raised his fist to punch him, but was interrupted by Kazuya.

"Stop that!" he exclaimed, unable to look at his friend getting pointlessly hit.

There was a sudden high-pitched noise. Everyone looked in the hallway next to the staircase, where the sound seemed to come from.

"Hey, Kazuya," said Takuro, "go check that out for us."

"What?" let out the said boy, "You mean, me?"

"Yeah, I think ya can handle this… No actually, ya're just the man for this job!"

Takeshi let go of his arms and took his bag to let him go in the hallway, but he didn't move.

"Get moving!" said Takuro, apparently losing his temper.

"Shut up!" exclaimed Hiroshi.

Takuro turned toward Hiroshi and clenched his fist.

"What did you just say?"

"I'm going instead," said Hiroshi, ignoring Takuro's question.

"Say what?"

"I said, I'm going, and there's nothing you'll do about it."

Takuro only smirked.

"Heh, then you better hurry up and see what that was."

Ryota let go of Hiroshi that started walking in the corridor.

"Hiroshi…" let out Kazuya under his breath.

The gang looked at him walk through the corridor. When he turned a corner, Takuro looked back at Kazuya.

"Pay up."

"Huh?"

"My monthly friendship tax; I want my payment now."

"I don't have any money…"

Takuro's expression seemed to darken. He cracked his knuckles and approached Kazuya, who started to get nervous about that.

"Let's make you pay the other way, then…"

Takeshi seemed to understand something, which caused him to step aside. When he was out of the way, Takuro shoved Kazuya on the wall, putting one of his large hands around the boy's neck. He clenched his free hand in a fist and brought it violently on his victim's face multiple times. He only stopped when blood got out of Kazuya's nose. Takuro tapped the boy's nose with his palm and an unnatural sound came out of it, followed by a loud whimper. He then kneed him in the stomach, forcing Kazuya's breath out, some air he couldn't inhale again because of the hand still wrapped tightly around his neck. Takuro let go, but forced his victim on the ground before kicking him repeatedly in the stomach. He was about to grab Kazuya's hair to force him to look up, but Megumi's voice stopped.

"Taku," she said, "I think we're not the only ones in here."

"What makes you say that?" he asked, leaving a barely conscious Kazuya on the floor.

"I think they are in the other room over there," she answered, pointing at a door at the very end of a long corridor. The door was half opened and a shadow seemed to be moving inside.

"Well, I'll make them leave," replied Takuro, landing a soft punch in his palm, "This is our territory now!"

Hiroshi couldn't help but look at the room he was in with a disgusted look. There seemed to be mud on the floor and growing plants a bit everywhere. The wallpaper had a yellow tint and some green-grayish spots on them.

"How did this even get in…?" he quietly asked himself, looking at the thin layer of mud.

He walked farther in the room. He'd take the very first object he'd see and go back to say that was the source of the noise. He didn't feel like looking in this room, but, mostly, he didn't want to leave Kazuya alone with those guys for a long moment. He had accepted to go instead of Kazuya only because he looked completely freaked out. It would have been better for him to look for the source of the noise, find the back door, and go. Well, Hiroshi knew his friend would have never left without him, but still. Anyway, he didn't see any back door yet, and maybe there wasn't even one in the mansion. He glanced behind a counter and an object caught his attention. The round broken form was white, pure white. It seemed to shine through the dirty room. The piece of dish seemed clean, as if someone had just washed it. Hiroshi took one of the plate's shards and stared at it for a second, as if it was telling him how it fell on the floor, if it was the object that made the noise.

A rustling behind him made him turn around. He approached the branches on the wall and pushed them out of the way. He found out there was a door behind. He pushed it open and poked his head in to take a quick peek; what if that was the backdoor? He figured out it was a normal room with only a mere bookshelf in it and a closed window covered by leaves and twigs. Hiroshi pulled himself away and exited the room.

"They better accept that proof…" mumbled Hiroshi while walking down the corridor.

When he turned the corner, he immediately noticed nobody was there. He started running but stopped when he felt himself slip. He continued his way by walking instead and reached the foyer. He looked around, but saw no one in the nearby hallways. The only thing left was Kazuya's bag next to a wall.

"Where did those guys take him?" he asked himself.

Thinking Takuro decided to leave him in here and forced Kazuya to go with them, he went to the doorway and tried to push away the branches covering the way out. The plants refused to move from their spot. Hiroshi's reflex was to kick them, but it didn't do anything; it was even more solid than a metal fence. He looked down and realized the plants seemed to have dug their way into the dirt.

"How did they manage to do that?" he thought out loud, "Oh, well, I guess I'm stuck here…"

Hiroshi backed away from the door and looked around, crossing his arms. He didn't even spend an hour yet in here and he already hated this place.

Oh, believe me, Hiroshi, you will...
I decided to go with a dirty mansion instead of a clean one. Hope you're okay with that, 'cause I ain't modifying that! I have some ideas that came with the dirty mansion thing.
I know, short chapter. I think the real stuff starts next chapter!
And, you read it: I used some actual quotes that I found in the game (I do not read japanese. I found an english version somehow)

So, please leave a review and see you in the next chapter!