Well, it wasn't like Nanako could go down that hallway now. In fact, every second she watched Hyun-ki walk down the hall, white sneakers hitting "nigh-ten-gale-floors," was another layer of uncomfortable and guilty icing slathered atop a big, awkward cake.
She had two choices here—run back down the other hallway and see if she could catch up with Asuka and Tsumugu and pretend the last few minutes had never happened, or wait around in the general vicinity for Hyun-ki to leave. The first option probably would have been bit smarter, but… she was still really curious about that English name. Besides, there was still that last room at the end of the east hall she hadn't checked out.
Room Discovered: Laundry Room
Detergent and bleach can't wash away sins.
Like the kitchen, the aesthetics of the room itself and its furniture clashed horribly. Four steel washers lined one side of the room, while four dryers lined the other. A hanging line covered in clothespins split the room down the middle, with a drying rack and baskets of soaps and other laundry sundries sitting in the back. The floor and walls, though, were the same traditional Japanese style—palatial, if Nelly was right—as the hallway, while the pictures and other decorations hanging off the wall were distinctly old-fashioned.
Though it was a pleasant enough (if not visually coordinated) room, it filled Nanako with her strongest feeling of passive dread since she'd woken up. A kitchen meant they could stay for a meal or two. A bedroom meant they might stay overnight. A laundry room? Was somebody expecting them to use it? Just how long would they be here that washing their clothes would be necessary?
Of course, if they figured out how to leave, or at least where they were in the first place, there would be far less need to work herself up with these questions—so she put them out of her mind the best she could, filing them under "potential problems for future Nanako."
They were replaced almost immediately by "current problems for present Nanako."
There was an open entryway to the laundry room rather than any sort of door, so Nanako was clearly able to hear what was going on out in the hallway. And what was going on, was birds. A lot of them, very aggressively, and very loudly. She peeked out of the room as quietly as she could (not that it would have mattered with the cacophony of squawks and flapping wings) and saw from third person what had happened to her just a little while ago.
Halfway down the hallway, crows swarmed around two deeply distressed looking people that Nanako couldn't quite make out in the flurry of feathers. One was tall, one was short, and though somebody had successfully managed to bat a crow away from the murder—it lay motionless on the ground a few feet away from them—they were both fighting a losing battle against the avian menace.
Emboldened by that one success, and also by the abundance of nearby hiding spaces, Nanako yelled to the people in the midst of the flock. "Hey! Come over here!"
"What?" As hard as it was for Nanako to hear them, it must have been even more difficult the other way around.
"I said, come over here!' Nanako tried again, straining her voice this time. "They won't follow you if you run away!"
She didn't need to repeat herself after that. The taller person grabbed the shorter one by the wrist and booked it towards the laundry room, practically dragging them with one hand while shooing birds out of the way with their other.
They both arrived at the entryway a few moments later. The taller person practically dove into the laundry room, and the shorter person followed, and, fortunately, the crows did not.
While the two people caught their breath, Nanako watched as the birds quieted down and eventually dispersed. A few of them re-roosted near the ceiling of the hallway, but most of them flew off elsewhere. In a matter of seconds, the hallway was just as quiet as it had been when she first arrived.
She looked back in the room to see that the two had recovered, more or less, especially the taller person. Nanako could see quite clearly now that she was a slightly-taller-than-average girl with tan skin and dark green hair pulled back into a bun, wearing military-ready clothing: an olive-green jacket atop a grey t-shirt, tan shorts, brown fingerless gloves, and combat boots. And, as Nanako noticed very quickly, she was quite… athletic.
Student Discovered: Hinawa Hikaru, SHSL Sniper
Trained in camouflage, surveillance, infiltration, target acquisition, and… mathematics.
"What," the girl started, "Was that?"
"Oh, the uh—the birds?" Nanako asked, distractedly, ripping her gaze away to actually make eye contact with Hinawa. "I don't know what they are, or why they're here. But they attacked us earlier when we tried to get through a locked door."
"Us?"
"I mean, he's in a different part of the building now. We were in the entry hall, the big door at the front of the room was locked, we thought—well, I thought—maybe it could be a way out of here, maybe we should try to force it open. But, well—" Nanako took a breath, finally, and gestured to the hallway. "That happened."
"I understand," the shorter person finally spoke up. "If that's the case, then I deeply apologize, Hikaru-san."
Student Discovered: Yusei Shiroma, SHSL Thanatologist
The living mourn the dead; the dead teach the living.
He was the first person Nanako had met that seemed to be about her height, so that was nice. His neatly-styled black hair, pale blue eyes, and intensely pale skin were all well and fine, but his manner of dress was… considerably less practical than Hinawa's. The long, white lab coat he wore was embroidered with black spider webs and skulls, the t-shirt he wore underneath monogrammed with kanji reading shinigami (Nanako realized, with some amusement, that this was the first t-shirt design she'd seen since waking up that could both read and understand), and piercings up and down his ears.
"You see," he said to Nanako, "I was having difficulty opening one of the doors in that hallway. When Hikaru-san and I met, I asked her if she'd be able to assist me in forcing open a door I assumed was simply stuck, what with her considerably greater strength."
"Considerably, yes…" Nanako murmured.
"And you saw the rest."
"It's fine," said Hinawa, tersely. "You had no way of knowing. Neither did I. And I'm sorry about the whole, uh…" She grabbed her own wrist. "That."
Yusei gave a small, guarded smile. "On the contrary, Hikaru-san. Your quick thinking helped us both. I'm grateful. And you," he said, turning to Nanako, "Helped both of us, so I'd thank you for that, as well. My name is Shiroma Yusei, and I'm the Super High School Level Thanatologist. May I ask who you are?"
"I'm Mochizuki Nanako, the Super High School Level Ghost Whisperer," Nanako said, and Yusei's smile grew a bit wider.
"Ghost Whisperer? Now that is certainly a fascinating talent. It seems we're alike in that sense, Mochizuki-san, with talents and reputations that rely so heavily on death. Then again…" he looked over at Hinawa. "I imagine it might be the same for our companion."
"It's not," Hinawa said, plainly. "My field experience is limited, and I don't plan on getting any more here."
"And yet, they gave you the title of Super High School Level Sniper." Yusei replied.
"My record's twelve-hundred meters. Just because the target I shot wasn't… a person…" She trailed off as she seemed to remember Nanako was still in the room with them. "Yeah."
"No, no, that's really impressive," Nanako reassured her, with absolutely no context as to how impressive it actually was.
"...Right. Anyways, you already know my talent, but my name's Hikaru Hinawa."
"Wait, wait," said Nanako, finally putting two and two together. "You're Hikaru-san? Sharing-a-room-with-Shimizu-san Hikaru-san?"
"What?" asked Hinawa. "Oh, I did see a door with my name and the word 'Shimizu' on there. Guess that explains that."
For a brief, brief moment, Nanako was mildly envious of Asuka.
"Mmm. In that case, might I assume that a 'Himitsu' is present here as well?" Yusei asked.
"Oh, boy, is he," Nanako said. "He's a little bit… actually, you know what? I think you guys might get along really well."
"You really think so? I suppose that's reassuring," Yusei replied. "And have you already met the other person in your room, Mochizuki-san?"
"Nope! I have no idea who it is either—I haven't been down that hallway yet at all. I was going to, but then… you know, birds?" she said, telling most of the truth.
Hinawa walked up to the room's entryway and looked down the hall, scanning the area with the trained eye of someone who regularly made shots from a couple hundred meters away. "Looks like the coast is mostly clear now. A few non-hostiles in the rafters, and that one I knocked down is… still down." She pointed at the crow laying completely still on the ground.
"Wait, is it dead?" asked Nanako, peeking out at it from behind Hinawa. "Not that I'm a big fan of these things, but… that's kind of gross."
"Gross, mmm?" asked Yusei, already pulling a pair of white rubber gloves out of one of the pockets on his lab coat.
"Wait, are you going to—like, actually going to—"
"I'm not the Super High School Level Thanatologist for nothing, Mochizuki-san. I specialize in deaths of all kinds." He pulled the gloves over his hands and let them snap at his wrists. "Certainly, you'd be a little bit interested in the autopsy results of a creature displaying such odd behaviors."
On the one hand, ew, on the other hand… yeah she was. "Do you think you'll be able to figure out why they can talk?"
"...Excuse me?" Yusei asked.
"They can do what?" Hinawa asked, at the same time.
"Here, I'm kind of on a time limit anyways, so let me show you. Hey, what time is it?"
The few crows left in the hallway helpfully showed Hinawa and Yusei their abilities. "CURRENT TIME: NINE FIFTY-THREE A.M."
Yusei looked at Hinawa, looked at Nanako, looked at the birds in the rafters, looked at the bird on the ground, and made a beeline straight for it.
"Hold on a sec—" In a moment, Hinawa was after him, leaving Nanako in the laundry room. They'd taken it remarkably well, but then again, Nanako figured, they might still be coming down from the adrenaline of the initial attack. Nothing opened one's mind to crow-based impossibilities quite like one of those.
Room (Finally) Discovered: North Hall
This one actually has a few more doors than the others.
Nanako trailed after Hinawa, but slowly, sticking close to the doors that lined the right side of the hallway. Finally, she'd get a few answers... and, probably a few more questions. She walked over to the first door at the end of the hall, with two names listed in roman letters and katakana.
Room 1: Vikhrov & Katou
Bi… Viru… yeah, the first name didn't exactly roll off her non-Slavic tongue. Nanako hoped a proper introduction to the person would bring a little more clarity there, or, at the very least, an easier nickname to use.
The second name was a little bit too familiar, bringing back memories of someone in particular—someone who she genuinely could not decide if she wanted to be trapped with or not. Still, though, that name was common—in fact, one of the most common in the country. What were the odds?
She moved on to the next door.
Room 2: Hitotsuki & Kurogane
Well, no surprise there. Nanako had a feeling that between the snacks and the energy, these two would get along like a house on fire.
She moved on to the next door.
Room 3: Himitsu & Shiroma
These two might as well, but like a dimmer fire that burned an odd color, like blue or green. Some mysterious event like a hundred sudden, unexplained deaths would provide them both conversational fodder for weeks.
She moved on to the next door.
Room 4: Watari & Tachibana
Well, those were two names she didn't know, but should have, because they were probably announced at the entrance ceremony, but didn't remember, because there were thirteen other names besides theirs' and her own, and her memory of the ceremony was sort of hazy now, anyways, and…
Nanako wondered, briefly, if Saito and Musubu had run into either of them.
She moved on to the next—
"Mochizuki, don't get so close."
Nanako had been so preoccupied with the bedroom doors that she barely realized she'd reached Hinawa and Yusei in the middle of the hallway. The latter knelt on the ground, hunched over the unmoving crow, while the former pointed at the next door down the hall that Nanako was walking towards. Unlike the bedroom doors, it was larger and more well decorated, sort of like the door in the entry hall, and completely absent of any names.
"That was the door we were trying to open before," Hinawa continued. "You saw how that went."
Nanako took a giant step back, and then another, until she was right next to the two of them and considerably farther from the door. "Thanks, Hikaru-san!"
Hinawa shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah."
Then Nanako looked down at Yusei, who was still examining the bird with the sort of fervor most people reserved for things that were still alive. "Did you find anything interesting, Shiroma-san?"
He continued for a few seconds, then stopped, suddenly, and sat up, placing an oddly clean scalpel, hook, and pair of calipers on the ground next to him. "Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to helpfully examine this bird."
"Oh, well… I guess that makes sense, right? You're a thanatologist, not any sort of crow specialist."
"No, you don't understand, Mochizuki-san. I've examined enough avian corpses that I have a basic knowledge of their average anatomy and physiology."
"You're right so far," conceded Nanako. "I can't say I really understand that."
"This bird isn't dead. Or rather, it was never alive in the first place. Look at this," Yusei said, cradling the bird in his gloved hands and raising it up to Nanako…
...Who quickly backed away once again, struggling to keep an adequate distance between both the dead bird (probably not dangerous; gross) and the locked door (not gross; considerably more dangerous).
Hinawa, on the other hand, just calmly looked down at the bird in Yusei's hands. "What the—oh. I guess that actually explains—come back, Mochizuki, it's fine."
And she did, but very hesitantly. Nanako craned her neck so she could see what Yusei was holding from as far away from possible, and—wait. Was that metal? Whipped from mild disgust to total confusion in the span of a half second, Nanako walked right up to Yusei and took a closer look at the bird.
The outside looked like a normal crow—in fact, if Yusei hadn't made any incisions, it would be impossible to tell it wasn't one. But where the scalpel had cut a neat, straight line and the hook had pulled away layers of skin, maybe, and feather, instead of blood or organic innards laid metal and computer parts that Nanako couldn't even begin to comprehend. "Is... is this a robot?"
"It's definitely not a normal bird," Hinawa answered.
"Indeed. It's heavily augmented, at least, if not entirely artificial. At the very least… I suppose it does begin to answer our questions about its odd behavior and capabilities of speech…"
"Shiroma-san, you sound a little disappointed. Were you looking forward to cutting open a dead bird that much?" asked Nanako.
He shook his head. "You must understand, Mochizuki-san. I generally can't use this talent of mine to help my peers in any palatable way. This… just seems like a missed opportunity, is all."
"Now that's something I can relate to," said Hinawa, and both Nanako and Yusei looked up at her with a bit of surprise. "Look, if either of us are using our talents around our classmates, that means something is probably wrong. Don't stress about it."
"That's… kind of you to say, Hikaru-san. I'll keep it in mind."
Again, Hinawa looked a bit uncomfortable. "...yeah."
"Hey, it's not like I can do my thing here, either," said Nanako, just really wanting to chime in one way or another. "The—the, um, energy in this place isn't too great. I tried before, and, well… doesn't look like there's going to be any good ghost communication here, you know?"
"Are you proposing we all be useless together, Mochizuki-san?"
"Useless? Of course not! We've all still got our ravishing good looks and charming personalities to fall back on."
Yusei exhaled in amusement and Hinawa wore an expression that could have been a smile in the right light, and, frankly, Nanako was proud of that.
Still, though, there was one tiny issue. "So, uh, what are we supposed to do with it?" Nanako asked.
"Leave it," said Hinawa. Yusei ignored them both, poking at something on the inside of the crow. Nanako hoped he knew what he doing, but figured he did not.
"What, just—right there, in the middle of the hallway? I don't just want to leave it in front of someone's bedroom."
"Why? You heard Shiroma, it's not actually dead. What else would we—"
As if on cue, a crow roosting near the ceiling swooped down towards the three of them. But instead of clawing or pecking at any of their heads, it dug its talons into the robot crow Yusei was examining and flew off with it.
The three looked over at the exiting bird and the metal corpse it was carrying in awe, Yusei apparently too shocked to even close the hands that had been holding the crow.
"Well," started Nanako, after a moment of stunned silence. "That problem solved itself."
"Ah, if only the rest of them could do the same," said Yusei, standing up and brushing off his black pants. "Though, I imagine we'd all like to minimize anymore crow involvement." Nanako nodded fervently in response.
"So, what now?" Hinawa asked.
"I'd like to visit my room for a bit," said Yusei. "While I've spent a good deal of time in this hallway, I haven't actually entered the door with my name on it."
"Me, too! I've been waiting to visit my room for—okay, it's actually just been for a few minutes, but I've been meaning to do it."
Hinawa shrugged. "Well, it's not like I have any other plans."
"Great!" said Nanako. "A whole bunch of us are meeting in the lounge at ten, so we've got a few minutes. We can check our rooms out and meet back here when we're done."
Yusei made his way to the third door from the laundry room, while Hinawa and Nanako walked past the ornate, crow-locked doors to the other room down the hallway.
"So there's a lounge?" Hinawa asked Nanako.
"I mean, that's what Musubu-san and Shimizu-san called it. It's not like we have any way of knowing what these rooms are actually names, right?"
"That's fair," she said, and they both stopped at the next door down the hall.
Room 5: Hikaru & Shimizu
"Hopefully I'll meet this Shimizu before we end up sleeping in the same room."
"Well, they should be in the lounge when we get there. You'll like them, though, they're nice."
Hinawa nodded. "Right, well. See you in a few, I guess." She walked inside the room and the door swung gently shut behind her, but not before Nanako heard an exclamation of genuine surprise about "this being here."
Nanako would have to remember to ask about that later. But now, there was only one place she was planning to go: down the north hall, where she'd find...
Another person. In front of the room next door to Hinawa's and Asuka's stood a boy who looked both like he desperately did not want to be there, and like he had no intention of moving. Every few seconds, he raised his hand as if to knock on the door, then lowered it fearfully.
Student Discovered: Yuki Tempura, SHSL Itamae
There's satisfaction to be found spending one's life in front of a cutting board.
Physically, he was just a smidge shorter than Nanako, but between his frail build, pallid skin, and thin blond hair, he seemed half her size. The fact that his clothes—a blue button down shirt with rolled up sleeves, a lilac apron, brown trousers, and an embroidered green scarf—all seemed a size too big didn't help, either.
He seemed so focused on this apparently Herculean task that Nanako was fairly certain she could have walked right by him without drawing his attention. But she knew herself well enough to know that wasn't going to happen. And she'd met three more of her classmates on her fifteen-minute-long Room Quest, after all. What was one more?
"What are you up to?" she asked, approaching the boy. He seemed a bit startled by her approach—he stared at her for a moment, then moved his gaze quickly to the floor. "Hey, nothing's wrong or anything. I'm just looking for my room. Is this one yours?"
He pushed up the oval-shaped glasses he was wearing and looked at her again, though he didn't make eye contact, and nodded gently. "It has my name on it."
Room 6: Tempura & Kennedy
"So, are you Tempura, or Keh-neh—oh." Nanako frowned. This was his room, too. "So you're Tempura-san, then?"
He nodded again. "T-Tempura Yuki, the Super High School Level Itamae. It's… it's, um, nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you, too. I'm Mochizuki Nanako, the Super High School Level Ghost Whisperer." Like many people, Yuki looked just a bit confused when she said that, and also like many people, he was a bit too polite—or perhaps shy, in this case—to say anything about it. "So… what exactly are you doing out here?"
"Um, I wanted to go in, b-but…" he looked down again, making his already quiet voice even harder to hear.
"Buuuut… your roommate's kind of cantankerous? If that's the case, Tempura-san, then we're on the same page."
Yuki shook his head quickly. "Oh, no, no! I don't… I don't know if he is. I saw him walk down here, and go inside, and… slam the door. M-maybe he's just having a bad day…"
"Yeah, well, I'm not sure anybody here is having a great day," said Nanako, sarcasm masking her mild guilt about her role in Hyun-ki's bad day.
"And, um, then there were birds, and I ran away, but now I'm back, and…"
"...And you want to go in, but don't want to deal with him while he's upset?" Nanako finished, and Yuki made a vaguely affirmative noise back. "Oh. Well, here, I'll talk to him." She was… probably going to have to do it in the future, so why not just get it over with now that it could have a net positive and not just more awkward departures?
"W-would you, really?" asked Yuki, giving his first hint of a positive emotion since they'd met. "Thank you so much, Mochizuki-san."
"Hey, it's no problem. Though… he might want to see me even less than anyone else."
"What? W-wait, why?"
Nanako didn't bother to answer the question, instead knocking on the door to room number six a little bit harder than she probably had to. Yuki took a few startled steps back. "Heeeey, Kennedy-san? Are you in there?"
"I thought we were through talking, Mochizuki," came the muffled response. So he was there, at least.
"Yeah, yeah, you don't have to talk to me! But your roommate's out here, so you should at least greet him nicely!"
"YOU can't tell ME what to do!" Another muffled response. But still, the door opened just a bit, revealing the still immensely unimpressed-looking Hyun-ki. "Alright, I'm here. Now you can leave."
"Okay, just give me a second." She turned around—if Yuki looked nervous when they'd first met, he looked petrified now. "Come on, Tempura-san, he won't bite." She looked back to Hyun-ki. "Will he?"
Hyun-ki glared at her, then looked back at Yuki. "Well? I'm here."
Yuki stepped forward, hesitantly. "I-I-I'm Tempura Yuki. The, the, um, Super High School Level Itamae."
At once, Hyun-ki's gaze softened—not an incredible amount, but noticeably more than it had throughout either of his conversations with Nanako. "You mean like a sushi chef?"
And with that, Yuki's entire demeanor shifted, as well. And his voice—for the first time, Nanako had no trouble hearing him. "Oh, yes. Yes! I do other things too, but sushi's my favorite! I-I'm best at nigirizushi, but my maki rolls are pretty good as well, I think…" He froze, as if realizing he'd said more than a dozen words in a row. "Oh, um. I'm sorry."
Hyun-ki opened the door wider and beckoned Yuki inside. "It's fine, I love sushi. Why don't you come in, look around, and... tell me a little more about it?" he asked, in a tone that could almost be described as friendly.
"Y-yes! Thank you!" Yuki smiled at Nanako and gave a slight wave, then practically skipped past Hyun-ki into his room.
Hyun-ki watched him go with an expression that, again, was bordering on possibly being interpreted as warmth—then looked back at Nanako with the same sharp glare as before. "You can go."
"No, no, wait. What—what was that? What prompted that?" she asked in disbelief. "Are you the same person I met a few minutes ago?"
Hyun-ki rolled his eyes. "It's simple. Do you eat food, Mochizuki?"
"I have been known to, yes."
"Great. Tempura makes food. People eat food. He's productive, he makes people happy with his honest work. Which is more than I can say for some people."
As if answering, a voice sounded from inside."Wow! All my stuff is here—even my special blend of furikake!" It seemed Yuki was different, as well; now he was loud enough to hear from the other side of the (admittedly fairly small) bedroom.
"I—" Nanako sighed. "Fine, fine. He seems like he's doing better, so I'm gonna just… actually, before I go, can I just say—"
"What?"
"Uh… sorry? About…" she gestured vaguely to nothing in particular. "All that."
Again, Hyun-ki rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I was over that ten seconds after I left."
"Wait, seriously?" Nanako asked. "Because I was actually feeling kind of bad about it this whole time, and—"
"I literally couldn't care less."
"Huh. Well, I guess that's... that, then…" Was she just supposed to leave on that? "Oh! I should probably tell you about the thing in the lounge in a few minutes—"
He shut the door before she could finish, though he closed it gently rather than letting it swing shut naturally or slamming it. "Okay, Kennedy-san! Geez." Was that… progress?
Well, at least some of her gnawing guilt had been alleviated, so it really had been a net positive—not just for her, but for everyone involved. And, more importantly, it freed up the rest of the hallway. At long last, she walked to the last two doors on the side of the hall without interruption.
Room 7: Kaminaga & Kaminaga
That was kind of nice, actually. Nanako wondered if they'd ever shared a room before—regardless, of everyone here, they were probably the best equipped to do so. This unknown sort of place would squash any sibling rivalry before it could crop up.
And then, finally. The last room in the hall, the room with the English name, the room with her name…
Room 8: Wilson & Mochizuki
Nanako mumbled to herself, examining the nameplate and trying to sound out the pronunciation through the kana written on the door. "U… iru… sohn?"
The door suddenly opened, and Nanako stood up straight in surprise. "Hey, you're gonna want to try 'Will-sehn,'" said the boy who opened the door. "It's not Japanese, but it's pretty easy if you say it a few times.
Student Discovered: Henry Wilson, SHSL Historian
Not, like, all of it. Do you know how long history been happening?
"Will… sen. Will… sehn. Wilson. Huh, you're right." Now that Nanako was done with the name, she took a closer look at the guy it was attached to. His features were about as average as they came: short brown hair, brown eyes, a ruddy complexion… and, well, he was a few inches taller than average. Still, though, his clothes went right back to average: blue jeans, a plain white t-shirt, some silver tags on a chain around his neck, and an aviator jacket with a red and blue patch on the left denoting something that, as per usual, Nanako had never actually heard of.
"I take it you're Mochizuki, then?" He opened the door a bit wider, and leaned on it to keep it open.
"Mmhmm. Mochizuki Nanako, the Super High School Level Ghost Whisperer," she said. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting to learn your name. Or… well, okay, it's probably been ten or fifteen minutes. But, still! Those were ten or fifteen minutes I spent in suspense, Wilson-san."
"Oh, no, don't you start with 'Wilson.' Stick with 'Henry' for me. Henry Wilson, the Super High School Level Historian—pleased to meet you." He stuck out his hand, and, thankfully, a few years in the daytime talk show circuit had Nanako instinctually reaching out to shake it back. Still, though, it seemed a little weird, a little formal, a little… foreign.
"Have you been here for a while, Wi—Henry-san?"
"I got here a while before you did. I saw a door with my name on it—where else was I supposed to go?"
"That… is entirely fair," said Nanako. "Is there anything exciting in here?"
"Well, if you'd call a tiny bedroom exciting… then again, when we wake up like this, I guess everything's a little exciting." He stepped back along with the door, vacating the entrance entirely, and jerked a thumb back into the room. "You wanna take a look?"
Oh, she did wanna take a look. Nanako walked inside while Henry let the door shut behind her, and…
Well, it was a bedroom, alright! It seemed Nelly was accurate with her description, especially the part where the room was just big enough to walk around in with all the furniture. It was also just about symmetrical: two beds with their headboards against the wall, two small bed tables with lamps, two short dressers near the front of the room, and two single-shelves attached to opposite walls. What was likely a window at one point sat in the back of the room between the beds, a metal plate bolted over the top and an admittedly lovely piece of traditional art clumsily covering the cover-up. It… didn't exactly inspire confidence in Nanako's hope to leave the building sooner than later. And, of course, a crow sat atop a small perch in the corner of the room that seemed almost built for it.
But much, much weirder than any of that was that the room, like Nelly had also mentioned before, was already decorated. With Nanako's stuff. The same purple bedspread and black and white pillows she'd brought to Hope's Peak covered the bed on the left side of the room, and a few books she enjoyed and trinkets she'd collected sat on the left shelf along with a big, light green candle in a glass container helpfully labeled Pine Forest. An old photo of her parents and another of Nanako and her sister were displayed on top of one of the bed tables, and… well, now she had to check. She opened one of the drawers in the left dresser, and lo and behold, a set of some very familiar undergarments and pajamas lay inside.
"Huh," said Nanako, calmly. "What the heck?"
On top of the dresser, meanwhile, was another candle (black; labeled April Moonlight), and her sorely outdated cell phone. She flipped it open—like Asuka's, it had a bit of charge left, and like Asuka's, there wasn't a drop of connectivity. "Yep. I'm..." she flipped it shut and put it back on the dresser. "I'm gonna stick with what the heck."
"So I'm guessing that's all yours? And that you don't remember moving any of it in, either?"
"It looks that way," said Nanako, going through the rest of the drawers. Clothes, clothes, another dress, another jacket, some accessories, another scented candle (white; Sugar Cookie), more clothes… "I just… don't get it. I recognize all of this, and I'm pretty sure I brought it all to Hope's Peak. But we're definitely not there, and I definitely didn't bring it here…"
"Yeah, same with—wait." He looked at her shelf and the top of her dressed. "Did you bring two candles to school?"
"Three." She pulled Sugar Cookie out of the drawer and held it up. "Actually, I think I might have brought a few more… there was definitely something apple-scented in the mix."
Henry looked dumbfounded. "W...why?"
"Oh, I go through these like water, Henry-san. It's all part of the job. Ghosts love a good candle, and I love the smell of fresh rain in an evergreen forest."
"That… sounds kinda fake, but I guess I don't know enough about ghost whispering," he said, pretty much unconvinced.
"Trust me. I'm usually on the television circuit, but I'll do private events sometimes, and these things are instrumental to communing successfully." To setting up the right aesthetic, mostly, but that was something she did not typically tell people. "What about you?" Nanako asked, standing back up and leaning against what was apparently her dresser. "All this other stuff is yours too, right?"
He nodded, gesturing to the right side of the room, personalized in a way that Nanako figured suited him. A plain white bedspread covered his bed, while his shelf was packed full of thick books in English and Japanese, with some more stacked on top of those. "It's just like yours, but with one other weird thing." Henry walked over to his dresser and picked up a long, hardback book that was sitting on top. "This was here, too."
The cover said… something, definitely. English—actually, any non-Japanese language—wasn't really Nanako's strong suit. "Oh! I know that word! That's winter, right?"
"That's right. It's a book about the Winter War, with collected testimonies from Finnish soldiers that were just recently translated into English!"
Nanako stared at him blankly.
"You know, the Winter War? The inter-war conflict between Finland and the USSR that galvanized the Axis powers into the ultimately unsuccessful invasions of—you have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"
"Not a clue," said Nanako, brightly. "See? You have your Finland, and I have my candles. That's how these talents work, right?"
"I… wait, hang on, that's not the point I'm trying to make. Most of this stuff I brought to Hope's Peak. But this book," Henry continued, "didn't come out until the same day as the entrance ceremony. I was really looking forward to getting it, but I thought I'd have to wait a while before I got to visit a bookstore big enough to stock English-language books."
That… had a lot of implications. Granted, the entire bedroom situation had implications, but Henry's book had a few more. "So… did whoever… whatever… brought us here just want to leave you a personal gift, or something?"
Henry shrugged. "It's really weird, but… I'm not complaining. It's the best thing that's happened to me all day, that's for sure."
Nanako sighed, resisting the urge to fling herself onto her bed in a somewhat-justifiably dramatic way. "Okay, so… we have our belongings here, we have things that aren't our belongings, necessarily, but that we're going to keep because we like them here. Did I miss anything."
"No, I—" Henry stopped himself, then resumed speaking in a hushed voice. "Actually, Mochizuki, there's one more thing. I didn't wanna to bring it up before and overwhelm you with everything at once."
"What? What is it?"
"Okay, don't freak out or anything, but if you look up in the corner of the room, there's—"
"What, the crow? Is that it?"
"Uh…" Henry paused. "Yeah, I guess? I… just kinda thought you'd be a little more weirded out, seeing a bird staring at us."
"Henry-san," Nanako started. "I have dealt with so much bird-related nonsense today, you don't even know. Here, I can show you something else." She looked up at the crow—their equivalent of a digital clock on the nightstand, she supposed. "Hey, what time is it?"
"CURRENT TIME: TEN ZERO THREE A.M."
Henry looked up at the bird with the same bewildered expression everyone else seemed to wear when they first heard the talking birds. "What the…"
"See? It's pretty… wild…" Nanako trailed off, suddenly realizing she had somewhere to be. "Oh, shoot! I totally forgot—"
"What? What else is there?" asked Henry, shock giving way to mild concern.
"Nothing bad this time, I promise! Henry-san, do you want to meet some new people?" Nanako asked, already yanking the door open.
"Uh—sure? Yeah, why not?" he answered, walking up to her.
"Great! Come on then, we were supposed to be there three minutes ago." She all but pushed him out of the room and followed quickly after, letting the door close behind them both unceremoniously.
Hello! I want to say I'll keep updating about once a week, but my way of writing is so inconsistent that I'm not entirely sure! I'm definitely going to try and stick to that, though. I'm also still not sure whether the prologue is going to be one or two more chapters (if there are two, the second one will probably be pretty short) but either way, I promise we'll eventually reach the murder game part of this story that is ostensibly about a murder game.
PS: One of the research articles I read for this story was written by a crow thanatologist. Like, a woman who specializes in the field of "how crows die." I didn't know that was a field of research by itself, but she's apparently a doctoral candidate now. So, remember to keep following any very specific passions you might have!