Previously:
"I see. We have no choice but to search randomly, huh…" Naru said. Hitomi put her eyepatch back on. "Everyone, what do you have with you?"
"Eh?" Mai said. "Only these..." She held up her watch and a roll of tape.
"Just holy water and a rosary, that's it," John said.
"Only this, and an oil lighter," Bou-san said, holding up his vajra.
"A mala and a little salt," Masako said.
"Only this omamori charm," Hitomi said, holding it up.
"I don't have anything!" Yasuhara reported with a smile, holding up his empty hands.
'Ah! We're dead meat!' Mai thought.
"This means we have very minimal equipment then," Naru said without making any offerings himself, which Hitomi took to mean that he was as empty-handed as Yasuhara. Naru stood up. "Let's go examine the classrooms one more time. We should also check to make sure there aren't any abnormalities of the walls and floor."
"And if we don't find anything?" Mai asked.
"In that case, we'll have to consider the possibility that the corpses are being stored outside of the school somewhere, and that the way to get to it may also be a means to escape from here," Naru said.
The Forgotten Children (Part 4)
The rain continued to pour down outside while they searched. The most exciting thing that happened was Mai hitting her head against the bottom of a desk she had crawled under.
"Ack!" she exclaimed.
"Hey, you okay?" Bou-san asked her. "That made a pretty loud noise."
"I-I'm fine. I'm fine," Mai said, though her head was throbbing. "There's nothing under here..." She stood up and brushed herself off, but she was covered in dust and dirt.
"Let me help you with that," Hitomi said, and she helped Mai clean herself off as much as possible. Mai couldn't help thinking of how Ayako would have teased her if she were there.
"… He—ey, Ayako—answer me—" Mai called out. "You're always so noisy. At a time like this, you should be making your self assertions—"
"… Mai," Masako said.
"Yeah..." Mai said with a sad smile. "I shouldn't be saying such discouraging things, huh." She stretched. "Sorry, sorry! Then let's keep looking—…" She noticed something was off about the ceiling. "—Naru."
"What is it?" he asked.
"That..." Mai said, pointing to the problem area. Parts of the tiles were covered in something dark. "That thing… doesn't it look like it'll move? Maybe that is..."
"Those are…?" Hitomi said, squinting. "!" the black stuff was moving.
"Here we go," Bou-san said, grabbing a broom that was in the room.
"Wai… Bou-san, what are you going to do?" Mai asked.
"Hold on a second—" Hitomi said, but it was too late, he was already prodding the ceiling.
BUZZZZ.
The flies that had been clinging to the tiles took flight and began to swarm.
"Nooo!" Mai cried.
"Kyaaa!" Masako screamed.
"So gross…!" Hitomi said, frowning. 'If there are flies there, then it definitely...'
"—John, take the girls out into the hall. You go too, shounen," Bou-san said.
"Yes!" John said. They moved to stand just outside the doorway.
"Be careful!" Hitomi called. Bou-san and Naru were already focused on the ceiling again.
"Normally there should be at least one panel that will move..." Bou-san said, tapping the ceiling with the broom. "—Got it." The panel moved, and a gust of foul air swept down on them and out into the hall.
'It stinks!' Mai thought, squeezing her watering eyes shut, holding her nose. 'It's like we've stirred up a pile of rotting things—'
'As I thought!' Hitomi thought with her eyes squeezed shut, holding a hand over her mouth. She felt like she was going to be sick.
"… We should probably look up there," Bou-san said, coughing. "What do you want to do, Naru-bou?"
"We won't be able to confirm anything if we don't go up," Naru said, holding his arm over his nose and mouth. "But I don't think two people will fit up there."
"… I guess it's gotta be me then," Bou-san said reluctantly, holding his nose.
"If you're frightened, do you want me to go?" Naru asked.
—∞—
In the end, it was Bou-san. After they moved the desks and stacked the chairs on top to give him a raised platform to stand on, he climbed up to do the job.
"It looks pretty difficult," Bou-san said. "And a lighter would probably be a bad idea, huh."
"Not using one would be safer, I think," Naru said. "It's also probably best that you not breathe the air up there."
"Got it," Bou-san said.
"Bou-san, don't..." Mai said, concerned.
"It's just a little peek," Bou-san said.
"But!" Mai said.
"If I actually got up on the ceiling, it'd collapse," Bou-san said. Bou-san stood up on the chairs and reached up to move the ceiling panel. He slid it open, took a quick look, then put the panel back and squatted down on the chairs with his hands on his knees. "… Uwah—" he said, exhaling a heavy sigh. "I saw some things I rarely see..."
"Are you okay?" Hitomi asked him.
"What about Ayako and Lin-san?" Mai asked. "Were they—" They heard the sounds of footsteps and slithering. Coming from the ceiling. The panel Bou-san had moved suddenly slid all the way open, and something fell out. Hitomi and Mai's eyes widened as their brains registered that it was a corpse.
"Nooo—!!" Mai screamed as it hit the floor.
—∞—
They retreated to the fire.
"… As expected, that was a corpse… wasn't it…?" Mai asked.
"That definitely wasn't anything living, but—that was an adult, though," Bou-san said.
"—An adult?" Mai asked.
"Yes, an adult," Bou-san said. "So it couldn't be one of the disappeared children, then. —Shounen, hand me some water."
"Takigawa-san, which cup is yours?" Yasuhara asked.
"The triceratops," Bou-san replied.
"But why was there an adult..." Mai said.
"Maybe it was an adult who came here to search for one of the vanished children?" Hitomi suggested.
"… Perhaps," Naru said. "We could assume that, like us, they ended up trapped inside and disappeared. I don't think they've managed to hire people to look into this case twice. And the corpses wouldn't have been left alone."
"That sounds likely," Bou-san agreed.
"Here you go," Yasuhara said, handing Bou-san his cup. "You had the foxes, right, Shibuya-san? And then Lin-san and Matsuzaki-san?"
"I can't be certain, but as far as I could see they weren't up there," Bou-sa said, taking his cup. "… At least I didn't see any living people."
"… People you say. Then, what was that thing we saw?" Mai asked.
"Do you want something to drink, Taniyama-san?" Yasuhara asked. "Matsumoto-san?"
"Ah, thanks," Mai said.
"Yes, please," Hitomi answered.
"—I didn't see it clearly, but—if you want my opinion on what it was, I think that was a gaki we saw," Bou-san said.
"… Say, that… corpse should have fallen down earlier, before anyone moved that ceiling tile, right?" Mai said. "Would it even have been possible to get up on that ceiling?"
"Possible, but I doubt it," Bou-san said. "It certainly looked dangerous, so getting down quickly was best." A heavy silence fell over the group.
CLAP!
Mai flinched, startled by Yasuhara clapping.
"Yes, all right, let's relax a little bit!" Yasuhara said with a smile. "Who had the penguin cup?"
"Ah, that's mine, thanks," John said.
"No problem," Yasuhara said. "And the rabbit was whose?"
"… It's Matsuzaki-san's," Masako replied.
"Oops..." Yasuhara said.
'—Ayako and Lin-san, where did they go?' Mai wondered. 'We haven't found any way to leave here and there also hasn't been anything left behind from either of them—'
"You've managed to bring up the stuff we're trying to repress here, huh, shounen," Bou-san said. "I guess your technique could still use some work."
"Well, I'm still just a novice, after all," Yasuhara said innocently. "I want to quickly become a splendid old man like Takigawa-san!"
"That's creepy. Cut it out," Bou-san said, sweat-dropping.
"Really? I got that from you," Yasuhara said with a grin.
"Ah?" Bou-san said.
"To object to me being creepy, you'd have to still be young," Yasuhara said. "But you're an old man, aren't you?"
"You—" Bou-san said. "At any rate, I am number one in Japan."
"That's Mt. Fuji," Yasuhara retorted.
"After all, I am Momotaru's follower..." Bou-san tried with a bead of sweat sliding down his face.
"That's a pheasant," Yasuhara corrected him.
"Anyway, I am breakfast's..." Bou-san said, sweating nervously.
"That's a croissant," Yasuhara retorted. "—Wait a minute, that was terrible." Mai, Masako, Hitomi, and John all laughed. They couldn't help it. Despite the grim situation, those two were hilarious.
"No more! Please stop—" Mai said. A small hand reached out and took the cup with rabbits on it.
"This is mine," a little girl with braided pigtails said, holding it.
'—Eh? Who is this child?' Mai and Hitomi thought.
"And the cow one is Takato-kun's, right?" the little girl said, looking at the boy sitting just behind her. Mai stared at them with wide eyes.
'This boy is...' Hitomi thought.
"Taniyama-san, Matsumoto-san, is something wrong?" Yasuhara asked. "You look dazed."
"Eh?" Mai said.
"..." Hitomi continued to stare at the two children. She was thinking something, but she could feel the idea growing smaller in her mind.
"That's right! Mai-onee-chan and Hitomi-onee-chan are strange!" the little girl said. Mai and Hitomi looked at her.
'Ah, that's right… this child is Mariko-chan...' Hitomi thought. 'Why did I think it was strange for her to be here?'
"… Y-Yeah, sorry Mariko-chan!" Mai apologized with a sheepish smile. 'That's right—this is Mariko-chan. How could I have forgotten?' Mariko smiled at them.
"Mai always looks dazed though, right?" Bou-san teased.
"Don't say such things!" Mai said. She filled the cow cup with water too and handed it to Takato. "Here you go, Takato-kun."
"Thank you," he said. Mai felt as if her heart was being squeezed a little bit.
'… For some reason, just now, something seems strange—' Mai thought.
"Anyway, the sun will go down soon. Shouldn't we come up with some countermeasures for our safety?" Bou-san suggested.
"I suppose so," Naru said. "At any rate, it's not possible to remain in physical contact with everyone constantly, and..." He paused. Everyone else looked a little hesitant, too.
'So… I'm not the only one who felt something strange just now?' Hitomi thought, glancing at Mai, who seemed to be the most affected.
'As I thought, it's not just me,' Mai thought. 'Everyone has the feeling that something has changed. Completely. Something has...'
"—When that corpse fell down a while ago, it seemed like a diversion of some kind," Naru said. "When we were attempting to avoid it and afterwards, everyone lost sight of each other. During that time, someone probably vanished."
"Hey now, aren't you overthinking it?" Bou-san asked. "If they vanished, how exactly were they done in then?"
"Wha… are you kidding!?" Mai said. "Actually, Lin-san also—"
"Who is Lin-san?" Mariko asked.
"Who's that?" Takato asked.
"Umm…?" Mai said, unable to answer.
"Onee-chan is strange!" Mariko said.
"Strange!" Takato parroted.
"Now that you mention it, Mai has a tendency to sleep-talk sometimes, so it should be her strong point," Masako teased.
"I-I'm awake! I'm just a little spaced out!" Mai said defensively.
"A little? More like a complete space case. Who was it you were talking about then?" Masako asked.
"Like I was saying! —" Mai couldn't bring herself to finish. "Who was it actually…? Huh?"
"Let's ignore the idiot, shall we?" Naru said. "Bou-san, is the kekkai still in place here?"
'What Mai said was strange, but… I felt like I was about to remember something...' Hitomi thought, furrowing her brow.
"It's holding up well, but do you think it's still necessary?" Bou-san asked.
"It's a good precaution , and nothing should cross over it," Naru said.
"Even so," Yasuhara said. "If we're shut inside the kekkai, we should be in less danger. But unless we're able to leave the school building, we're right back where we started, aren't we?"
"I agree with shounen," Bou-san said. "It's too early to start doing exorcisms. I have no intention of just drying up and dying here, thank you."
"That's true," John said. "And we have some small children here too. At any rate, we have no idea how to get out of here. We should come up with a safety plan, since when it becomes night the spirits will be even more active, and it will be more dangerous. And it's a little preemptive, but shouldn't we also come up with an escape plan?"
"—I suppose so," Naru said, holding his chin. "First we should look for an escape route. We're lucky that this building has wooden walls, so shall we try to open a hole somewhere? And if that doesn't work, we could try using fire."
"Burn it? that's kind of extreme, isn't it?" Bou-san said.
"It seems likely that if we burn it a little, it should become much easier to break through," Naru said. "If that doesn't work, then we should try to hunt down the spirits in here. We should corner them in one place and perform an exorcism."
"Gotcha," Bou-san said.
"First of all, let's search for something to make a hole with," Naru said. "Hara-san, while we're at it, can I get you to check the state of the classrooms?"
"I understand," Masako said.
"Should I take another look, too?" Hitomi asked.
"What are you talking about, Hitomi-onee-chan?" Mariko asked, giggling. "You can't see anything! You say the strangest things."
"Strangest things!" Takato repeated.
"Ah… That's right..." Hitomi said, holding a hand to her head. "What was I thinking?"
"..." Naru watched her, holding his chin. 'It isn't like Hitomi to speak nonsense...'
—∞—
They all walked around together, making sure no one was alone. In one of the classrooms, while Masako was taking another reading, Mai, Hitomi, and Yasuhara were looking inside a cabinet. So far all they had found was a bunch of old textbooks.
"No good?" Mai asked.
"Mmm… It seems there's nothing in our spot here, huh," Yasuhara said.
"Kyaa! Kyaa!" Mariko cheered.
"I found a ball!" Takato said.
"Kyaa!" Mariko said.
"Hey now, kids. Don't mess around," John said gently. "We have to make sure we help out properly."
"Okaaay," Takato said, holding the ball.
"We look for something sturdy, right?" Mariko asked. Mai smiled at them, but sighed.
"Something wrong?" Yasuhara asked.
"Mm… Since a while ago, I've been having this sort of gloomy feeling in my chest," Mai replied.
"You too?" Hitomi asked.
"You too, Taniyama-san? Matsumoto-san?" Yasuhara said.
" 'Too'? You mean you also feel it, Hitomi-Sempai and Yasuhara-san?" Mai asked.
"Yeah," Hitomi said.
"It's kind of… like I've been cheated of something somewhere, isn't it?" Yasuhara said, holding his chin.
"Yeah, exactly. That feeling," Mai said.
"There are also moments, where I feel like I'm about to remember something, but can't," Hitomi said.
"Ah, I get that, too!" Mai said.
"… Hey, doesn't that strange feeling begin whenever Mariko-chan and Takato-kun show up?" Yasuhara whispered to them, eyeing the two kids.
"You think so, too?" Hitomi said.
"It seems like something bad has happened, and my heart clenches," Mai said.
"Yeah… It's way to dangerous to bring small children into a place like this—that's what I think, anyway," Yasuhara said.
"Yeah… probably," Mai agreed. "But that's not the only thing… Just now, to come up here, we had to pass through that small door on the landing, didn't we? A while ago, wasn't it a bad thing to cross through there? I don't remember why though." She smiled wryly and rubbed the back of her neck. "Of course, I might just be becoming a little timid after everything that's happened though."
"Now that you mention it… it was supposed to be a bad thing, wasn't it?" Hitomi said. "Though I can't remember why either..." Yasuhara furrowed his brow slightly.
"What is it?" Mai asked.
"No, just now, something..."
"Mai-san, Yasuhara-san, Hitomi-san, is there something over there?" John asked as he, Mariko, and Takato stared at them. A shiver went up Mai's spine.
'What was that, just now—for a moment, there was a really bad aura...' she thought.
"There's absolutely nothing useful up here, as far as I can see," Bou-san said. "It looks like we have no choice but to try the more dangerous method. Let's head back to the entrance."
"Yeah," Naru agreed. They all left the classroom, making sure to keep everyone in their line of sight as much as possible. Bou-san led, followed by Naru, then Masako, then Hitomi, then John, then the two children, followed by Mai.
"May throat's dried out," Mariko said.
"Then let's go and have some juice," Mai said. Yasuhara smiled watching her take care of the children. Then, his eyes widened. He took one step forward and froze in the doorway. "Yasuhara-san?"
"What's the matter, Onii-chan?" Mariko asked.
"What's the matter?" Takato asked. Yasuhara stared at them.
"Wh-What's wrong, Yasuhara-san?" Mai asked. "Naru! Wait a minute!" she shouted after Naru and the others, who didn't seem to have noticed that Yasuhara was acting strangely. "Look, can't you all see this?"
"… Taniyama-san… the cars..." Yasuhara said with a slight tremor in his voice.
"Eh?" Mai said.
"Why do we have two cars!?" Yasuhara asked. Mai's eyes widened as she remembered an image of the van and Bou-san's car parked next to each other. In that instant, Yasuhara was swallowed up by flames.
"—Ya—Aaagh!" Mai screamed.
"What happened!?" Bou-san asked as the rest of them all turned to look.
"Yasuhara-san… Yasuhara-san was—!" Mai yelled as John, Masako, and Hitomi ran forward to restrain her when she tried to go back in despite the fire.
"Mai! You can't!" Hitomi said, concerned.
"We have to get out of here!" Masako said anxiously.
"But!" Mai cried. "He's still—!"
"Please!" Masako said, resting her head on Mai's shoulder. "Don't be rash…!" Mai stared into the inferno. She fell to her knees.
'Yasuhara-san…!!' Mai cried, holding her face in her hands. Hitomi held her, blinking back her own tears. Bou-san stared at the scene with Naru, shocked. The two children were quiet. Then, just as suddenly as it started, the fire ended. It seemed to be sucked up into the ceiling until nothing was left. The classroom door shut.
"It disappeared…!" Bou-san said. Hitomi and the others stared in shock as he rushed to open the door again. "Shounen!" He was even more shocked by what he saw inside. The classroom was completely undamaged. He stepped into the room, and the others followed so he wouldn't be alone. "—What the heck is this…? Even after that fire, not a single thing in there is burnt."
"—It seems that, even after a fire, we're stuck searching for an escape route," Naru said.
"How sure are we that fire was real?" Hitomi asked. Mai flinched.
"What the heck are you talking about at a time like this!?"
"So that's how it is, huh," Bou-san said with a sigh.
"!" Mai was surprised when he poked her and Masako in the forehead. "Uwa!"
"You all also need to stop being so easily frightened," Bou-san told them.
"To be frightened by such a thing is only natural though, isn't it?" John said kindly. "Something like spontaneous combustion is quite unexpected after all."
'… Everyone, why aren't you saying anything about Yasuhara-san?' Mai wondered, shocked.
"Onee-chan, what's wrong?" Mariko asked, tugging on her sleeve.
"Mariko-chan, just now—" Mai said, spinning around to face her. She looked at the three children staring up at her. Mai's eyes widened. 'What was… What was I thinking about just now…?'
