Ends meet chapter 9

Yuuto was awake again, expecting Shinja and Hayatu to be worriedly looking at him, especially the first, and tending to him. He blinked his narrow eyes back open, seeing a small face and ginger hair in the process. The last thing he remembered was falling down that hole, and watching himself vanish from head to toe. Was he in yet another space? He couldn't be, since the strange pigtailed girl from earlier mentioned her appeasing the ghost and something about there being no spaces anymore. He hated to admit it but he really didn't know how the whole space thing worked, so he would have to get back to the others to learn more. But wait, this was a girl in front of him with bright ginger hair.
"Oshiro...?" he mumbled, reaching up from where he was lying.
"Hey don't touch me!" she growled, leaping away from him.
"Uh sorry...Can I call you Shinja, it's just a bit-"
"I'm Kazuko." hissed Kazuko, pulling him up. It was one of her pet hates when people mixed her up with her sister.
"What? Oh..."
Yuuto got up with Kazuko's help, brushing off dirt from his trousers silently. He really hoped he wouldn't have to bump into Shinja's rude twin sister, but he supposed it was better for her to be alive not dead for Shinja's sake.
"So," she said, fidgeting with her hair "You said something about my sister?"
"That's right. I was with her and Hayatu a few minutes ago,"
"Since when were you on a first name basis with him? I thought you two were practically enemies!"
"I forget names, their irrelevant to me, they take up too much space."
"Ugh, you would say that," spat Kazuko in disgust. In reality the only reason why she hated Yuuto was because Hayatu detested him so, and an enemy of Hayatu was an enemy of hers.
"So where are they now?"
"I don't know, where are we in this current time."
"Well we're in the same space as Shinja, Sachiko promised me so."
"Sachiko? You mean the girl in the red dress right, the one that killed Mr Gucci?"
"Mr Gucci is dead too?" asked Kazuko with a raised eyebrow, not showing any emotion.
"Ye...What do you mean, too?"
"As far as I'm aware Himura is dead also. Saw her in a run down with Sachiko."
"Oh. Shinja will be devastated. Next to you Chikua's her best friend!"
"How would you know that about my sister anyway?"
"I'm very observant if you haven't noticed Kazuko!"
"Oshiro!" she retaliated, walking out of the corridor. God, that boy was completely useless, she might as well kill him too. Wait, what was she saying exactly? She was forced to kill Chikua, she had no choice, but there was no need to kill again! Trying to distract herself, she found a shiny card on the floor, somewhat familiar.
"What's this?"
Yuuto scurried up behind her and glanced at the card. It was cream and aqua blue, like their uniform, and had a name scrawled on the back with untidy handwriting.
"Looks like a name tag from our school." told Yuuto with a slight from.
"I can't read it," said Kazuko bluntly "It's covered in blood."
Yuuto squinted through his glasses, and instantly recognised it. Panic rose inside his chest, making him breathe more heavily.
"Ryato. This is Ryato's name tag! He must be near by!"
Yuuto ran across the corridor, calling his name, extremely loudly for his standards especially. Kazuko was about to follow him when she heard a child's voice, distinctly Sachiko's.
"Wrong waaaaaay..."
Kazuko called Yuuto back, pointing in the other direction.
"That's it...On the floor..."
Yuuto ran over to the other side, screaming at what he saw. It was Ryato.
"Ryato? TALK TO ME RYATO!"
Yuuto shook his limp body violently, shouting at his best friend to wake up. His distressed screams alerted Kazuko, who rushed over to try and calm the boy. Ryato was lying still, several slashes across his chest and arms, with a large pool of blood right by his head. Calmly, Kazuko checked for a pulse in his wrist, thumb and neck but couldn't sense a thing. Yuuto screamed again, pressing hard on his bloody chest, trying to revive his friend the best he could. However it was no use, Ryato was clearly not breathing, and his heart had stopped long ago.
"Yoshida is dead..." Kazuko whispered, trying to pull Yuuto away. "We need to get going if we're going going to find the others."
Much to her surprise Yuuto pushed her roughly away from him, glaring at her with the most fiery eyes.
"YOU DONT CARE! YOU NEVER CARE ABOUT ANYONE DEAD OR ALIVE! IM BETTING YOU WOULDN'T BE LIKE THIS IF THIS WAS HAYATU, OR SHINJA!" He yelled, punching her in the stomach. He was so furious, he just needed to take it out on someone and Kazuko was the closest living being.
"Id do anything for Shinja! YOU KNOW THAT!"
"NO! YOU WOULDN'T SACRIFICE YOURSELF, YOU WOULDN'T KILL! I WOULD DO ANYTHING TO BRING MY BEST FRIEND BACK!"
"MAYBE I HAVE KILLED! Maybe I've done the worst thing humankind can do, in order to save my sister because she is the most important thing to me now. You can stay here with your stupid boyfriend, YOUR RIGHT, I DONT CARE ANYMORE, IM GOING!"
And with that the infuriated girl stormed off, not giving backward glance. Yuuto would have to fend for himself now; she didn't want to lose time, for Shinja could be dying right now. Kazuko didn't want to think that, but it was the only thing that kept her motivated. She was about to leave when Yuuto had the nerve to call her back.
"Wait. You won't get anywhere without me you know, I'm the only one who has enough information."
"If you want to tag along, you better come now because I'm not waiting much longer."
With one look back at Ryato's slumped dead body. Yuuto followed Kazuko out of the corridor, still startled by their discovery.


"...so we just need to get your friends, and then meet up with Satoshi and our friends, and then we can escape with the method Naho and Kibiki explained."
Shinja and Hayatu nodded, understanding Ayumi's plan to get out of here. She had been explaining it for the last few minutes as they walked towards a small classroom, where Yoshiki and Ayumi agreed to wait until Shinja and Hayatu had successfully found Kazuko, Chikua, Ryato and hopefully, Yuuto as well.
"You won't be long, since we're all in the same space now, just watch out for the child spirits and stuff. That's all really." Ayumi told them, entering the classroom with Yoshiki, who waved to the other two as he followed her. Shinja and Hayatu sped down the corridor, still hearing Yoshiki and Ayumi's conversation from the classroom behind them. Shinja thought she heard a woman's voice too, but she put that theory away since she could be imagining anything in a place like Heavenly Host. The small talk her and Hayatu made was fairly minimal, since Shinja had been really stunned by their sudden kiss was was very shy towards him now, a which Hayatu actually didn't seem to mind, she was cuter that way to him anyway, when she was shy and bashful. They were just strolling down a stairwell, when Shinja froze on the spot, her mouth hanging wide open.
"What's up?" inquired Hayatu, gently putting a hand on her shoulder. He looked over to where she was staring, and gasped slightly as well. Chikua was lying on the floor, covered in. blood from head to toe. Urgently, Shinja ran over to her and yelled in her ears, making the dying girl groan in reply.
"No tongue..." Hayatu pointed out, making Shinja start sobbing. She was speechless; why did Chikua deserve to die, she was her best friend!
"Chikua, hang in there!"
Looking around the room for a cloth, Hayatu realised there was none, and passed the handkerchief that Shinja had put on his bleeding arm generously to her. Grabbing it with out thanking him, she applied pressure on Chikuas wound, still sobbing quiet tears into her lap. But it was no use, Chikua's breathing was slowly stopping, making Shinja scream in frustration. She was trying her hardest, however it was clear there was no way to save her. Shinja threw her arms around the corpse of her best friend, stroking her hair softly even though she was getting blood on her hands. Hayatu didn't try to stop her, just stared at the scene, thinking how this place was being so cruel to her. It wasn't fair!
"Shinja..." he called, putting an arm around her "She died looking at you. I'm sure she died in the best hands."
Shinja nodded, falling in to his chest again, still sobbing uncontrollable tears of mourning.
"Why, why WHY!" she screamed thumping his chest "WHY IS EVERYONE DYING!"
Hayatu let her take her hurt out on him, it didn't really hurt in the slightest; she wasn't very strong.
"Only two people we know have died, there's still five of us left."
"Your wrong as usual."
"Huh?" said Hayatu glancing at Shinja. "What do you mean?"
Kazuko and Yuuto emerged from the darkness, both looking sad and tired.
"I'm Kazuko. And there are only us four left."