So chapter 3 is out now! Seems like you guys do like it a bit. Hope I could keep entertaining you all. Let's enjoy chapter 3 together!

The floor shakes under their shoes, as they keep themselves up from face-planting to the wooden ground. After a while, it stops, and Yoshiki looks back to where they just ran from. "He should better follow us soon. And don't plant to run back without us, Shinozaki." He says, as his hand feels a little force coming from the girl.

"But, he's fighting that person alone!" The class representative shouts in depress.

"He could hold himself…maybe." Taguchi says uncertainly. "He did deal damage to that zombie a while ago. It must have been weakened, just a little bit."

"How did you manage to save us anyway?" Seiko asks, remembering that she hasn't talked about it yet. "I was in a daze back then."

"Well, he ordered me to focus on taking you down. He himself went first and snatched the scissors in that zombie's pocket and stabbed it, pushing it to the wall nearby. He then pushed miss Nakashima out of you, then used the Holy Water I lent him and forced her to drink that. Though, it seemed you…" He looks at Naomi at this point. "were thrashing too much, so he had to knock you out."

"So that's the burning feeling in my neck…" Naomi grabs her neck where she felt the burn.

"That sounded scary… how did you meet him?"

"Well…" The group approaches class 2-A's door. "I was… recording that… when he suddenly approached behind me. I would have exposed both of us if he didn't cover my mouth immediately."

Yoshiki opens the door. "We are now alive, thanks to him… Suzumoto, you were alone? Have you seen Morishige?"

Mayu shakes her head. "I haven't. I was by myself before you and representative got to the nursery."

"So that…" Though, his attention turns to the ghost standing alone in the classroom. "Is that…"

Ayumi walks into the room and sees her as well. "Naho Saenoki? What are you doing here?"

The ghost girl turns back to look at the group. She then detects Taguchi, as she chuckles: "You're still alive, you coward?"

The cameraman replies back nervously: "Well… sheer luck, I guess?"

Ayumi pulls out the doll and shows it to the ghost girl while asking: "I have a few questions to you. Are you certain that the teacher was the killer who killed the children?"

Naho raises her eyebrows in annoyance. "Why did you ask that? You heard of that event. You saw the newspapers scattering around here…"

"If so, then why did Kuro tell us that you're lying?" Seiko asks. "What did he know that you didn't know?"

The ghost girl looks at Seiko, her eyes widen a bit in surprise. "Interesting… wasn't you dead moments ago?"

"She wasn't, and no thanks to you!" Naomi pulls her friend back, not wanting to deal with anymore ghosts.

Taguchi asks his 'co-worker': "Have you seen Hibiki-sensei somewhere? I lost sight of him a while ago."

"Then we're the same. I'm still finding him…"

Ayumi: "Do you have any details about how the children were killed? Because I believe that they're finding something that they lost. Kuro managed to calm them down and promised them to…"

"Who is this Kuro?" Now that irritates Naho. "You seem to trust this stranger too much. Or is he a friend of yours?"

"The fact he saved us earned him respect." Naomi replies. "And he even stopped the one you assumed to be the killer for us to escape."

"Back to the matter…" Yoshiki plans to say more, however, footsteps are heard outside, so the group turns to the door and prepares themselves… and Morishige walks in with his phone light on. "Morishige, is that you?"

"So the group is here… Mayu!" Of course he has to find her first, as he runs towards the girl and gives her a tight hug. "I'm so glad you're alive!"

"Morishige! You as well!" Now that makes everyone smile happily, except the ghost girl whose confusion is getting bigger.

Releasing the hug, Morishige then looks around and asks: "Where's miss Yui?"

Mayu answers: "She has left Yoshiki and Shinozaki before. We haven't…"

"Shinozaki?" Naho interrupts their conversation.

"Yes, that's me." The class representative replies.

"…Now this is interesting." Naho lets out a tiny smile. "The teacher who fell off the stairs and died… had the same last name as yours."

"…WHAT?"

"So ong kha den nhi?" Kuro opens his eyes to see black all surrounding him while he is floating in the middle of it. He turns around for a few times to try to see who is talking. "Dung co noi la chinh ong quen luon giong cua ong nhu the nao roi nhe?" He immediately turns to his left and sees himself, wearing all black with a cane, a scarf and a fedora.

"… Dung co noi la toi chet roi nhe? Khong vui dau." Kuro deadpans, not expecting his journey to stop that abruptly.

"Almost died. Ryou almost gave us a heart attack, though. He's just curious about you."

"Yeah, curious to the point that he applied the curse on eye-contact."

"Well, that's just unlucky. He did pay back by keeping watch on your body now."

"At least he feels sorry. So… I'm going to wake up soon?"

"If you feel so."

"…Dung co dua kieu day."

"U, toi biet."

…

Waking up, Kuro feels the scissors being in his right hand's grip, which lays on his stomach… and the coldness floating above him. Opening his left eye, he sees the boy being straight up face-to-face, and nearly swings the scissors up out of fear if the boy isn't backing out immediately. He then notices himself being placed with his back facing the shelf, since the boy is in front of the main door. He opens his remaining eye while saying: "Not cool."

"S…ry…" The boy hangs his head down apologetically.

"It's alright. Just don't do it again." Standing back on his feet, Kuro asks: "Why are you here?" Seeing the boy looking up at him with hopeful eyes, he understands. "I will find it. But I'm not sure if we're in the right dimension, so bear with me for a while, okay?"

The boy nods, and Kuro puts the scissors into his pocket and starts heading back into the school, with the ghost boy following behind. Although, Kuro notices the hall on the right having extended. "Hm…should I… Ryou, can you stay in this place? The second wing won't have your thing, but I need to make sure that a… certain someone won't run around and kill people." The boy nods, a bit saddening but understanding as he vanishes. Kuro starts walking to that hall, opens the door which is unlocked luckily, and heads to the other building...

…

Feeling the change of atmosphere, Kuro shivers a bit. Thankfully, a lightened candle is positioned next to a shoe shelf, so he sits down next to it while lifting off his coat out to not feel the cold of the rain dampening it. "Lanh vai chuong. The dech nao Ayumi chiu dung duoc khi ma co ay rua cai dong bay nhay trong cai ho boi nhi?" He shivers at the thought. "Ma nghi lai thay kinh vai, cai dong do ma vao mom thi…"

"Someone's there?" Hearing a voice, Kuro immediately pulls out the scissors, stands up then grabs his coat and shields himself with it, preparing for the worst…

And he slowly calms down when he sees who is approaching him. A scared girl, who is not in the 'dangerous people' list. Lowering his coat and scissors and putting them on the floor slowly, he raises his empty hands up, signaling that he's not going to hurt her. Kneeling down, he pushes the candle towards the girl, then backs away a bit. A few seconds pass, and the girl slowly comes to the candle and sits down while focusing on his every move. Knowing that she couldn't trust him yet, Kuro puts the scissors into his coat's inner pocket, then hangs it on his shoulder and sits opposite to her over the candle.

…Another moment passes. And the girl asks him something, but he couldn't pick any words that could be the main point of the question. So, he points to his ears and shakes his head, indicating that he couldn't understand what she said. The girl looks a bit down after knowing that. He sighs and pulling out his phone so he could open something…

"English?" Looking up in surprise, Kuro sees the girl looking at him in worry.

And he replies: "…You can speak it?"

"A bit." That makes Kuro facepalm. "Sorry. I thought you're Japanese…"

"It's…okay." Kuro assures her. "Anyway, you can call me Kuro, since my real name is a bit hard to pronounce. What's yours?"

"It's Emi Urabe. Nice to meet you." The girl smiles, knowing that he's at least trying to be friendly.

"To you as well… Why are you alone?" Kuro asks, not wanting to know what he's fearing to be true.

"It's…" Please no… "I… saw someone…died… my friends…"

"Say no more." Kuro immediately orders her, and she follows. "Sorry for asking." The girl nods. Another moment… "Think you can walk now?" Another nod. Kuro stands up and says: "I need to go deeper in this building, but I can't let you go alone. If you're near me, I could protect you better."

"Thanks." The girl says, then quickly fixes it when Kuro looks at her curiously: "I mean…"

"Well that's something I can understand. You're welcome." Kuro smiles back at her, causing her to smile as well.

…

After passing the West Hall, the duo faces the stairs, then Kuro notices something lying on the ground. He walks closer and kneels down to check what it is, and grimaces when he finds out. Emi asks in concern: "What do you find?"

Not answering immediately, he moves his left hand down and tries to grab it, only to see his hand moving through it. "Hm… illusion, again." His expression eases up as he stands up and answers: "Nothing important. Let's head upstairs."

"…Okay." She knows that he's hiding something, but she doesn't dare to ask, not now at least.

"To ease your fear…" Kuro suddenly says. "I thought it's a real deal, but turned out to be this school trying to trick us. We have to be extra careful."

"Oh…" So that's why.

After reaching the second floor, they walk back into the hall and see a bloodstain next to a hole that leads to the first floor. The girl says again: "Blood is everywhere. I really don't like it…"

"Neither do I." Kuro replies understandingly. Then another bloodstain, this time with human shape, lies in the middle of the hall. "This is not good…"

"Don't mind me, but why are you alone?" Emi suddenly asks, referring to when they first met.

"…Best to say, it's personal matter."

"…Where's your friends?"

"Not very sure. But they're brave enough, I'm sure." Kuro lies.

Emi decides not to push it further. Though, she wraps her arms around Kuro's left one, causing him to turn to her in surprise. "I'm a bit cold, and your coat is warm…"

That causes him to blush a bit, then immediately pulls out the coat and gives it to her. "Keep it for now."

"Thanks." Though, her arms are not leaving. "I feel a little safer this way."

"…Suit yourself then." Trying not to scream out of embarrassment, Kuro says.

Then, they hear a whimper noise around, a little child's one. Emi is about to say something before Kuro covers her mouth with his hand as the two stop a bit. Then, the whimper stops, and Kuro removes his hand, as Emi asks: "What is it?"

"…Not sure if it's real or illusion. Let's keep moving."

"It can't be… that little girl…" Yoshiki says, now connecting the dots. "Only that girl survived, but then vanished without a trace…"

"And that black lady… Kuro said her name being Yoshie Shinozaki… was she really that teacher?" Taguchi says in fear, remembering how the duo girls nearly got killed when she appeared, and Kuro returned just in a nick of time to stop it.

"Hm… sounds like you got yourself a big scoop. Congrats then." Naho mockingly says to Taguchi. "If you manage to survive."

"I'm a bit surprised that you didn't connect the dots." Morishige says his suspicion. "A person like you should have found that out earlier… or you're tricking us into thinking that."

"…Now you're saying it… maybe it's somewhere there…" Naho starts wandering in her mind.

"What do you mean?" Ayumi asks in confusion.

"There are a lot of blanks in my memory, so to speak. Maybe that detail was somewhere in there."

"You got amnesia?" Seiko asks.

"… That's for another matter. For now, I will continue my search. Try to survive this place." With that, the girl walks to another door of the classroom and exits, leaving the big group behind.

"I think you should follow her…" Yoshiki tells Taguchi, but the cameraman shakes his head.

"Unfortunately she's dead. But at least we don't have to worry much about her suddenly turn against us. For now, we have to protect ourselves first…"

"And we have to be careful of illusions as well." Morishige warns. "I… Kuro showed me where you… 'died', Mayu. Thankfully, he seemed to know how this school works…"

"You found him? Did you see a zombie around?" Yoshiki asks back in worry.

"No. He was alone, though he looked fine." Morishige replies.

"Thank goodness…" Everyone sighs in relief.

"But, I lost sight of him and Mochida siblings after the floor collapsed…"

"You found Mochida as well?" Both Ayumi and Naomi ask in concern, the former makes Yoshiki feel a little disheartened.

"Briefly."

"Right now, we can't separate. The ghosts could pick us one by one if we did so. Kuro only told those ghost kids to leave us, not the others." Yoshiki says.

"Okay!" Everyone agrees.

"Hoi la roi do…" Kuro speaks to himself, as he and Emi reach the floor where the Headmaster's office is located. He knows that he couldn't access it because he didn't see the Headmaster falling down, but with his interferences, things could change somehow.

"What is it?" Emi asks him.

"It's… the number of corpses… it's too low for some reasons…"

"I feel like it is better…"

"Actually, it could be worse. We couldn't be sure WHEN we are if it's in the primitive time of this place."

"Heh, primitive time?"

"The beginning. IF we're in that time, the four ghost children WILL hunt us." Kuro grabs Emi's hands and starts pulling her with him while running down the lower floor. "We need to be quick. If we're lucky, the next earthquake could send us…" Just in time for one to happen, causing Emi to nearly fall out the stairs if Kuro doesn't stop and hold her from falling down. "Back to the time we should be."

Once it stops, the girl timidly says: "Thank you…" Earning a nod from Kuro, she looks down at the lower stairs and yelps in surprise. "W…What is that?"

Looking down where she's pointing, Kuro watches as somebody is running into the hall. "… We have to be careful…"

The duo starts walking slowly down to the second floor, the footsteps suddenly return and head straight towards them. Emi immediately hides behind Kuro as he draws out the scissors again…

And bursts out from the door, Mitsuki Yamamoto stops before the two with frightened face. Upon seeing Kuro first, she falls on the back, trying to crawl away due to the sight of the bloody scissors. However, Emi recognizes her and asks: "Mitsuki?"

Now that stops the frightened girl from crawling, as Kuro moves to the left a bit so the girls could see each other's face. The girl asks back shakily: "E…EMI?"

Emi screams her friend's name as she runs towards her and hugs her, though that causes both of them to lie on the floor. Kuro sighs in relief as he pockets the scissors while looking around, checking for any dangers. "Mitsuki! I'm so worried! Where have you been running off?"

"I…You… YOU WERE KILLED!" The girl suddenly screams up, as she tries to push the other girl out. Emi is surprised after hearing that, and that moment lets Mitsuki to escape her hug. She tries to run, but Kuro immediately grabs her right arm to stop her from running. "LET GO OF ME!"

"Mitsuki! What's wrong?"

"Can you tell her to calm down?" Kuro asks Emi, as he pulls out the bold move by pulling Mitsuki towards him and hugs her tightly, causing her to flinch up and punch him in the chest.

"LET GO OF ME!"

"Mitsuki, stop! He's trying to help us!" Emi screams, trying to calm the girl down.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!" Mitsuki screams again. "LET GO OF ME! THAT GHOST IS COMING!"

"… Now that's troublesome…" Kuro sighs, as the pain starts getting to him.

"Kuro! She's saying that a ghost is coming!" Emi immediately translates the girl's scream.

"!" Kuro looks directly at the door Mitsuki just walked through, just in time to see Tokiko walking straight to him. However, the moment the ghost sees him, she stops and takes one step back. "…We made a deal, right?" Kuro asks, uncertainly. Thankfully, the ghost girl nods with what's left of her head, as she fades away.

"… You chased her away?" Emi asks in disbelief. "You can do that?"

"Well, 'chased away' is a bit wrong. She left us alone, for now." Kuro says, feeling the punches slowly stop. "Does she calm down?"

Emi walks closer to Mitsuki and asks: "Mitsuki? Are you okay?"

"…No." She then starts crying. "Masato… he's dead as well…"

That saddens Emi, as she says to Kuro: "Another friend of ours…"

"…Can you tell her that… we MIGHT have a chance to save your friends?"

"Wait, really?" Now that lightens up Emi's mood a little bit.

"What did he say?" Mitsuki asks while wiping her tears.

"He said we could save our friends!" Emi replies.

"Wait, really?" Mitsuki turns to ask Kuro again. "Can you revive dead people?"

"Um…" Unfortunately, those words aren't in his knowledge of language.

"Mitsuki, he can't understand you."

"…Isn't he…" Kuro releases the girl now, knowing that she has stopped thrashing. The girl takes a good look on him before asking: "What's your name? Wait, Emi called you Kuro earlier right? Why are you here?" She receives a flat look from Kuro, who clearly doesn't understand what she just said. "Never mind then…"

Emi translates the previous sentence for Kuro: "She's asking you if you could revive people?"

"Do I look like one? Just leave this location first and find a cleaner place. The mid hall would do."

…

"Okay first, we're from different timelines." Kuro starts his explanation, and Emi also helps translating so Mitsuki and Kuro could understand each other.

Mitsuki asks in confusion: "Different timeline?"

"This place, Heavenly Host… think of it like infinite biscuits placing on top of each other, each one is a dimension with different timeline and positions of locations." Kuro notices Emi's eyes swirling. "You can't translate that, right?" Earning an embarrassing nod, Kuro sighs: "Okay… simple. There are many Heavenly Host. We come from different ones. The earthquake is how we go into each other's school."

"So different time… you met Emi when she was walking around?"

"Yeah. She's also different from your school. Anyway… the way I'm using to 'save' you, is to somehow get to the time BEFORE you got killed. I managed to save a few with this way, but they're not out of Heavenly Host yet. We need to comfort all the kids before reverting the spell."

Emi asks: "Can I ask why we failed the spell? I did check everything right! And our friends wouldn't just ignore the warning. Well, maybe Kai would do, but…"

"Since when did Naho give you a proper spell?" Kuro deadpans.

"…Wait! She gave out the wrong spell? WHY?"

"… Ask her the next time we meet her." Kuro sighs. "It's very dangerous to approach her without preparations."

Emi: "Does it relate to her boss' disappearance?"

"…Yes. And the 'scoop', about the events in Heavenly Host."

Mitsuki slams her hands on the floor angrily. "How could she! She's risking everyone's life! For one scoop!"

Emi doesn't translate that, instead she apologizes to Kuro: "Sorry for her actions. She's upset."

"I understand." Another earthquake causes Kuro to hold the dish that holds the candle so the light won't go off. "The school will change itself. And we won't have any ideas who we could run into."

Mitsuki: "So it's a blind shot in the dark?"

"Basically." He then looks at the East Hall's entrance. "Let's move. We shouldn't stay in one place for too long."

Chapter 3 end!

Like what I said to my pal, Kuro will save everyone... one version of them anyway. For now, enjoy, and I will see you in the future!