"We are… back?" Ayumi questions as she opens her eyes and looks around her to see the members of the group slowly waking up, and she can see that it's late in the day due to the lamp lights and the moon above their heads.

After saying their goodbye to the Dead-man-walking, the group quickly ran towards the first floor while avoiding the Darkening spirits and the fleshes emerged from Nirvana. Thanks to the man… creature-in-black, they got through with little problems and reached the exit. Like the last time, they jumped over the fences and immediately got teleported away, knocking them for a moment during the process.

"It seems so." Magari uses her scythe to pull herself out of the ground before grabbing the unconscious Misuto and looking around to find the doppelganger. "...He's not around, huh?"

"It's… Kisaragi School! Yes, we're back!" Naomi cheers up a bit after realizing where they are now, relieved that they managed to get back to the real world.

Satoshi gives out a sigh of relief too, but his face turns sour a bit as he remembers the person they left behind. "...We could have done more than that…"

"Don't beat yourself up, Satoshi." Kuon can clearly see what the boy is thinking, and what the others do too when she sees their expressions. "It's his choice to give us a chance to run away. We should respect it and not repeat the same mistake so his efforts aren't in vain."

It takes a small moment for the students to accept it and nod in agreement. Yoshiki then brings up a different matter as he turns to the scythe-user: "What are you going to do now?"

"...Beat the crap out of the cult, of course. Those damn idiots screwed everything up." She grunts, spinning the scythe around in a slow pace. "If needed, I will try to reform it."

"Don't make it worse as it is." Aiko voices her concern with an unamused expression. She turns to Inumaru and asks: "How about you?"

"...Return back to our old life, of course!" To her surprise, the boy flashes out a smile. "Of course, without making stupid decisions, like how Kuro said it."

"...Do you think he's forgotten?" Yuuka questions timidly, not wanting to hear the worst possibility.

"...We will never be able to find that out." Kuon sadly replies. "We didn't know of his nationality or a hint of his real name."

"We should have." Both Aiko and Inumaru speak at the same time, disappointed in themselves.

"It is water under the bridge." Naomi proposes. "We should go home and take a rest. We can talk tomorrow…" Her phone suddenly rings, causing all eyes to turn curious as she pulls it out and looks at the contact's number. "...This is…" She taps the button and responds: "Hello?"

"Hi Naomi. I'm Seiko's father." The girl's eyes open wide in shock. She has since stopped trying to contact him and his family after Ayumi stopped her from doing so. "I'm sorry for contacting you this late… but can we meet? I have… something I need to ask you."

After a few seconds of shocked silence, the girl quietly replies: "It's… not a problem to me. Where can we meet?"

"If possible, my home."

"It… yes, I will be there soon." Turning off the call, Naomi turns to her friends who are having curious expressions. "It's Seiko's father. He wants to meet me."

"...How? You didn't see him or his family after I stopped you, right?" Ayumi questions, feeling strange rather than disappointed. The others' expressions also change to surprise, considering they know that others have forgotten the deads' existence. The girl in question responds with a headshake.

"...Are you sure it's him?"

"I remember how his voice sounds like, Satoshi. It's definitely him."

"But why did he call you now?"

"...We will know when I meet him, Yoshiki."

"You mean 'we', Naomi." Ayumi corrects. "This is not something normal, we're not letting you go alone."

"Then we should take our leave." Aiko adds in with Inumaru nodding in agreement. "Technically we aren't too close to your group so there's no reason for us to meet him."

"We understand." Satoshi agrees. "I hope the next time we meet, it's a better time."

With that, everyone says goodbye to each other and the student group from Kisaragi School starts heading to the house of their deceased friend, not knowing what will happen next…

With Kuon managing to get a conclusion in her mind while returning back to her own home with Aiko. 'Was it because of his sacrifice…'

Timeskip. Shinohara's residence

"...So it happened."

"I'm so sorry, sir. I shouldn't have asked everyone to…"

"No no… you did nothing wrong, Shinozaki. You had no idea what could happen. I'm even grateful that you attempted to get them back."

Upon reaching the house of the caller, Naomi's the first one to press the doorbell. Seiko's father, Yuutaro, gave her a forced smile though everyone can tell something is wrong. He did voice his small surprise when he saw more people with her, and after the introduction he let everyone in.

Once inside, the students saw the whole family in the living room with grim expressions. When everyone's settled, Yuutaro spoke out the reason why he called Naomi that caused the students to widen their eyes in shock:

Somehow Seiko's existence returned back to them. They also recently found her items and luckily found her best friend's call number so he immediately called, though he couldn't contact for a while before the last one.

The group from Kisaragi looked at each other while measuring what to say to the family. Ayumi then decided it's best to tell them what happened from the beginning to the end, and she did. Which led to the above conversation.

"So Big Sis will never return?" The older sibling, Yuu, asks while trying to hold his tears back, while the other two clearly didn't as streams flow from their eyes.

"I'm… sorry." Naomi bows her head down while apologizing. "We tried, but… we were spared only because of Shinozaki's sacrifice. We… couldn't do anything."

"...My apology to change the subject, but when did you remember?" Satoshi tried to ride the conversation to a different point of view so the atmosphere could somewhat lift up a bit.

"...Just a few hours ago." Yuutaro answers. "Can't say that we took it well. Suddenly having memories of your own daughter and then not seeing her for months is… not good."

"...Maybe it's because of him?" Everyone turns to Yuka as she re-told her story. "Kuro, I mean. He seemed to know what's going on…"

"And the one with him." Yoshiki can see the logic. "I think that's the one dealing with the memories, not Kuro himself… He's also a mystery too."

"...My thanks for clearing things up." Yuutaro expresses his gratitude to the group. "If you didn't answer my call, I don't think we can handle this well."

The group nods back, showing their empathy to the family. Satoshi then remembers one thing: "Wait, if your family remembered… Then what about Mayu and Korishige's family? And our classmates as well. And anyone who's close to miss Yui."

Everyone looks at each other for a few seconds, thinking of how the mentioned are going to react to the information…

"Next morning, we are calling Kuon-sensei for help. We won't do this alone." Yoshiki suggests. "We know enough of the consequences if we act with no solid plans."

Everyone instantly agrees, not wanting anything bad to happen again. And with that, some small conversations are made before everyone returns to their home, making preparations for what's going to happen in the next few days…


A few hours later. In Heavenly Host

A girl in a blood-red dress groggily wakes up with the feeling of something soft under her head…

"You are awake, dear Sachiko." Looking up to the source of the voice, she sees her mother sweetly smiling at her, and now she knows that her head's lying on the teacher's lap. "You seem to sleep well after the school is stable."

"...Stable…" The girl then remembers:

After her last meeting with the crippled man, she left him and returned back to the clinic where her mother was, and found that the other three kids were also there. Though, the group quickly had a peaceful and playful conversation, likely to mend the strained relationship between them.

Then, the whole school started shaking up violently, which the ghosts didn't even bother since they thought it was common. What surprised them is that something started pulling their cores, causing them some pain. The group started gasping and trying to find the source, but before they could do so, they all seemingly dropped unconscious. Though the pain stopped midway when the earthquake stopped, and they just slumbered peacefully.

"...What happened to us?" The ghost girl questions again. "And… where are the others?"

"They woke up before you. They are heading out to see if they could find out what happened. Though… we might be able to guess what caused it."

"...It's him." The teacher nods, confirming what her daughter is suspecting. "But, how did that relate?"

"I don't know. Maybe we will find out…"

Before she could say anything more, the sound of the door being flung open then closed loudly catches their attention. Sachiko sits up and the two look out and see the three ghost kids running into the room with a frightened look, with a normalized Yoshikazu still standing before the door looking out for a threat. He definitely looks like his living days, though his skin has turned gray like his zombie self.

"...Yanagihori-sensei?" Yoshie calls out, a bit surprised at the man's appearance.

"Good day madam." The male teacher replies back, not turning his eyes back. "We might have a problem."

"What happened?" Sachiko asks as she walks to the ghost kids, and she can tell that they just witnessed something bad.

"It… it's Kuro-nii." Yuki catches her breath and replies, though she's still shaken for some reason.

"Then… there's no need to be afraid, right?" The main culprit of the whole event doesn't understand the fear. "I mean, he's a…"

"I think we got ourselves a worse version of me." That causes her to turn to Yoshikazu, who continues with a small sarcasm in his voice. "Yeah, I still have those memories, lucky me."

"...He is fully Darkened?"

"Worse, Shinozaki-sensei…"

Before he could say anything further, a hand suddenly places itself on the semi-see-through door, causing all voices to instantly drop, except some whimpers from the ghost children. A body figure then crosses the door and stands before it, further terrorizing the people in the clinic with the clear sight of Darkening smoke coming from the body. Though it only lasts for a few seconds before the figure starts leaving, not even attempting to enter the room.

"...Anyone wants to guess what happened to him?" Yoshikazu speaks up after confirming the figure has passed the room.

"...I don't think it's that bad?" Sachiko does feel the Darkening is getting worse, but that's just that, right? "At most, the Darkening…"

"It is changing him." Her question abruptly stops when Tokiko, now with her head intact, says the reason why they're scared. "And I don't mean normally…"

"We saw him absorbing Darkening from a nearby corpse." The Shinozaki duo's eyes widen when they hear Ryou explaining. "I didn't see clearly who that was, but we saw his body starting to gain cuts on his skin. He… then turned to us…"

"I met up with the children midway." Yoshikazu continues. "I did plan to fight him, but the Darkening just screamed to us to not mess with it, so we ran away here with the children's suggestion."

"...Did it really?"

"Not literally of course." The two teachers speak to each other, while Sachiko looks at the other children to see them nodding in agreement. "Some of the new wounds on him looked fatal too…"

"Well, he was dead already." Sachiko adds, then questions herself curiously. "When did he die, though?"

"Did you see the Book of Shadow with him?"

"Unfortunately not, Shinozaki-sensei."

Their conversation is interrupted when all can see and feel the Darkening energy wrapping in the front door, causing Yoshikazu to back away from it with the kids running to the other teacher. A moment later, the door's opened, revealing the Darkened figure in front of them, and what they see is not what they're expecting.

The figure standing in front of them is definitely the only person who entered Heavenly Host without a conventional method. His appearance, however, changes in such a drastic way that no one would think of him now as the person from before.

His hair has gone messier with dried blood covering parts of it. His left pupil now resembles Naomi's cursed eye with lots of sprinkles spreading around the eyehole, while his right eye no longer has iris while having full bloodshot. His skin has turned pale and dried up, similar to how a thirst and hungry person would be. There are also visible scars all over his face, with one specific running from his ears to the corners of his lip, causing one of the ghost kids to remind herself of her own death. His coat is nowhere on his body, revealing his inner shirt which is drenched in sweat and blood with another specific on the front of the stomach area. The original hole on his right arm is releasing Darkening smoke and covering his body. When Sachiko focuses on his neck, she can also see some sorts of bruises around it.

The dead's eyes start looking around the room, focusing on the frightened people in it for a few seconds before starting to walk forward. Instinctively, the two teachers pull the kids back, preparing for anything bad to happen. However, the figure simply stops for a second before changing his course, aiming for the medicine shelf and starts shuffling through the items.

"...Kuro-nii?" Putting the courage up, Sachiko calls for the person, who stops what he's doing and slowly turns to her. "...You… are you still Kuro-nii?"

"...May…be…" To the group's surprise, the person replies, albeit with clear distortion in his voice. "Many… voices…"

"...He sounds like us." Yuki recognizes the speech pattern. "I mean, when we were in our vengeful forms."

"...!" Yoshie seems to realize something as she walks closely to him. The Darkening mist is about to reach out for the ghost, but a shift of the figure's head causes it to immediately subtract back. His head then turns to the teacher with his eyes staring at her. "...Kuro, can you… open your mouth?"

The eyes avert away for a few seconds, showing that he's considering if he should do so or not. In the end, he decides to do as she asks.

And that's when the dead teacher's theory turns out to be correct.

"Kuro…" The woman covers her mouth in shock, not thinking that he would pull off something like that. "You… how did you…"

"...Suffer…" To her horror, he talks back, showing exactly what she's scared of. He then turns back to the shelf. "...no…more…"

"Mother… what did you see?" Sachiko quietly questions when the teacher slowly backs away, her expression remains the same. "...Something happened to him?"

"...His tongue…"

The whole room turns quiet, except the sound of the flickering candle and Kuro finding items.

Then Tokiko asks in fear: "Is… is it… the same as…"

"...Yes." The older Shinozaki confirms, just in time Kuro pulls out an alcohol bottle and starts pouring the liquid into his hands, which gains him pain that he hisses in response.

"...How did he manage to do that?" Yoshikazu also realizes what has happened.

"I… don't know." That's the honest response. "Did he… use something in the book…"

"...Pain…" The Darkened figure slightly folds towards, hiding the front from the others. Though, it's only a few seconds as he stands up and turns back…

And the other dead ones see his left hand's skin being burnt, not sure if it's because of the alcohol or because of what he's doing to himself.

"...Later…" No more words are spoken when the figure slowly walks out, passing through the others, and heads to who-knows-where.

"...So the pull feeling earlier…"

"I think he's absorbing the Darkening from others so he's the only one dealing with it." The mother confirms her daughter's suspicion. "...How is he still able to keep his sanity…"

"The other guy." Sachiko instantly knows. "Kuro-nii might be just a normal human, but the one with him is a completely different being. Perhaps those two are connected or something."

"...Do you know how to find him?" The male teacher questions. "From my memories, he seemed to only appear whenever he wanted without a reason…"

"Unless Kuro-nii is in real danger." The girl-in-red interrupts. "...But if he's not around Kuro-nii right now…"

"We should keep an eye on him. In case he suddenly goes mad."

"Let me follow him." Yoshikazu takes the lead after hearing Yoshie's suggestion. "You should try finding some others whom he helped during the time he was still alive."

"We will." The two teachers nod to each other and the male one heads out, finding out where the Darkened figure has left to.

"We should find the first group he helped." Sachiko suggests. "Even when they're ghosts, they could still somewhat give us a way to help him."

"Okay!" The other children agree and head out as well, leaving the two Shinozaki behind.

"Mother…"

"I will help too." The younger smiles up as the older grabs her hand gently and the two walk out of the room, planning to find whatever that can help the situation.

Unknown to them, the mysterious being appears at the chair Yoshie used to sit and write her diary, and chilly hums a music tone. After a few seconds, he speaks to himself: "Good luck."