The weather had not improved much over the course of the evening, which put the ronins on edge as they got up from their beds and walked around the dark, creaky, dirty house. Ryo took the lead with Sage with flashlights, and Rowen was behind them. Kento graciously volunteered to follow up behind them. he tried to act tough, but he wasn't fooling anyone. At every odd sound, he would whip around and swing the bat he brought with him.

"We should not be here…"

"Yes, Kento, we know. You've only said that ten times since waking us up!"

"B-but what about Cye? What if the ghosts got him!"

"Listen, Kento… Cye can take care of himself! He's okay, I'm sure!"

"But this is no joke!"

Sage had finally given up in trying to be reasonable. He stopped and turned, grabbing Kento up by his collar.

"Will you give up this up already! This is ridiculous! There are no such things as-"

"Quiet, you guys!"

All eyes were on Ryo and his serious expression. He looked concerned and wary, and because of that, Rowen and Sage took up arms and Kento held onto his bat tighter. They were in a long hallway, and ten feet down was an open door with its light on. The blinding white light made their eyes hurt, and the closer they stepped to the door, the dizzier Sage began to feel. He was the warrior of light, and was not accustomed to the dark, but the light he saw before him held a sinister feel, and as he felt bad, so did the others, in their own ways. Kento had a bad feeling from the start, and now he feared what he would see in that room. Ryo could still smell the blood from the freezer, and more of it seemed to be coming from the open door, making him jittery and nausious. Rowen thought he heard footsteps, though no shadows danced across the hall from the lit room. Closer, closer… the footsteps were getting louder the closer they got to the door.

Two feet from it, the ronins stopped and looked at eachother. It was when they looked at Ryo expectantly that the ronin wished he had not taken the lead. But, what was done was done, and he took a deep breath before reaching out to open the door all the way. Time slowed down the closer his hand got. Taking a hold of the old wood, his hand began to shake.

"On three…"

"Right."

"One…"

"Two…"

"Hi, guys!"

The cheery voice came from nowhere, and so did the hand that fell onto Rowen's shoulder. All of them yelled out in fear, scrambling about. Kento ran foreward, tripping over his feet in his haste. Sage jumped back and waved his flashlight around. Rowen was spun around as Kento went by, and was standing in a dizzy state; Ryo was knocked back into the stiff door, which proved that he wouldn't have been able to open it even if he had tried. And Cye… was staring at the group dumbfounded.

"Uh… hi. What are you guys up to at this late hour?"

Kento and Rowen jumped up and yelled in the brit's face, who put his hands up in his defense. Kento and Rowen took turns in their yelling.

"What do you mean!"

"We were looking for you!"

"You just suddenly disappeared!"

"We thought you were kidnapped by a ghost!"

"I didn't think that…"

Sage turned his head and regained his composure, looking away to hide his blush. Ryo gave him a 'look' and shook his head as he dusted himself off. During the brief pause, Cye put together what the two crazy-heads had just said.

"Um… I'm sorry! I didn't get any of that! What were you doing?"

They got in his face again, and Sage tuned out their voices until they were only background noises to him. His main focus was on Ryo, who was turning around in a circle, trying to examine his back. Sage set a hand on his shoulder.

"What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

"No…but I feel a sticky substance on my back!"

At this, everyone froze. The three boys fighting stared as their faces paled. Sage stood behind Ryo and ran a hand down his back, letting the sticky stuff fall onto his hand. He then stepped back and held out his hand. Since it was dark, the substance looked dark, too. Brining his hand into the light of the open doorway, Sage showed that it was not red, as all had feared, but a sickly green color.

"What… what the bloody 'ell is 'at?"

"It looks like… like…"

"Slime…"

It was Ryo's time to freak out now.

"Slime! Are you kidding me? Gross! Get it off of me, guys!"

Everyone just stared as Ryo made a fool of himself, spinning around in a circle, trying to brush off the layer of slime that had accumulated on the back of his shirt.

"Ew! It's soaking through! Gross…! Guys, help me out here!"

"No way! I'm not gonna touch it! 'Yer crazy, man!"

"Guys!"

"Ha ha… hold still, Ryo!"

Rowen and Sage quickly cleaned it off, but the feel of it still stuck to Ryo's skin, making him shudder.

"T-thanks…"

"No problem."

"The question is, where did the slime COME from?"

'Um… guys!"

Kento was by the door Ryo had been knocked into with his hand on it; slime was running down the length of the door.

"Weird!"

"Not as weird as THAT!"

Cye shouted loudly. Out of nowhere, slime appeared and stated running down all the walls around them. It dripped to the floor and soon, their shoes were covered. All of them tried to move their legs, but the sludge was thick, making Cye squeal uncharacteristically. Without another moment's hesitation, they all bolted down the hallway. The liquid continued to pour onto the floor, and then it thinned and vanished. The group had made it back to their room in record time and stopped just outside the door to rest.

"Do you still not believe in ghosts, Sage?"

"I will admit… the slime was strange, but there could be a very good explanation for it!"

"Ghosts? Hey, Kento…"

"Yeah, Cye?"

"Tell me… why do you think there are ghosts here? I mean, this seems to be the stereotypical scary house, but that doesn't mean it had stereotypical ghosts!"

"That… is the part of the story I hadn't mentioned."

"HUH?"

All of them spoke in unison and stared at Kento.

"Tell us the rest, already!"

"Well… aside from the suicides that happened here… I heard a story that back in the Meiji era, a lot of innocent people were taken up to this hilltop by the enemy… and slaughtered."

Rowen and Cye hugged as they screamed. Sage was wide-eyed, and Ryo nearly fainted standing up.

"We… could have heard that BEFORE we decided to come here…!"

"Sorry! I tried to tell you guys, but-"

"-Quiet."

"Hm?"

Ryo was serious again, and sweat dripped from his brow as he looked down the hallway.

"What is it, Ryo?"

"I heard footsteps coming towards us…"

All of them stared down the hallway they had just run down for a long time, but they saw nothing. Sage sighed and turned around, facing the door to their room with his eyes closed.

"This is ridiculous! I'm not going to play this childish game anymore! You all can run around for all I care! I'm going to bed!"

No one said a word. They all just stared at the door wide-eyed.

"No one cares? Very well then!"

"Uh…Sage?"

"What?"

"…Open your eyes, man…"

"Huh?"

Sage opened his eyes and was face-to-face with a floating specter, with a distinguishable face and glowing red eyes to go with. At first, he just stared, not knowing what to think or say, but after a moment, his face paled also, and in an instant, he ran. The others did, too. They all ran away screaming, and soon, they discovered, they were each alone in the very bid, dark house.