If you haven't noticed, FirstWinterLight, isolono already spoiled out the ending of this story since the first chapter. Other than that, thanks for the compliment.
"So all we could do now is to wait for another earthquake to come?" Helping Kuro moving Kai's body into an empty room, Kensuke asks.
"Basically. Although, we could try to find something useful in this building." Kuro replies.
"You seem to know this school very well." Ohkawa comments at the knowledge Kuro seemingly has in his mind.
"We managed to dig up some information about the name of the spell and make connections with the school itself. And… we're a bunch of sympathetic people, go figure."
"None of you questioned about its impossibility?"
"We did, Akaboji. However… after finding out some truths about the charm, we could say that being real."
"Hey, you should take some rest." Ohkawa notices the blood trickling from Kuro's right hand. "That wound of yours is deep…"
"It will be fine." Kuro says, even though he's gritting his teeth in pain. "It would have already been infected."
"…That's a casual reaction if I see one." Kensuke deadpans.
"It's better than death." That earns him nods of agreement.
"But… we also need to find Masato as well." Ohkawa is concerned. "Do you happen to meet him anywhere?"
"Unfortunately, that's a no." Kuro shakes his head in denial.
After moving Ryosuke's body as well, the group walks up to the top floor, with Kuro leading up. Kensuke asks curiously: "What are you planning to do here?"
"Testing if I'm strong enough or not." Standing before the door, Kuro gives it a hard kick, but it doesn't move. "Really?" Giving two more kicks, no results.
"I think you are a bit…"
"The door isn't even budged at all, Akaboji." Using his shoulder this time, he rams himself into the door… only for something to stop him reaching the door just a centimeter away, and push him out. "… So we DO need a key… damn."
"If you know so, then why don't you find it first?" Kensuke asks in confusion.
As for a response for that, everyone suddenly hears a man screaming from outside, followed by a splashing sound. Kuro sighs. "That's my answer. Let's go to the…"
"… No wonder…" Sayaka whispers to Taguchi after hearing the truth from him. "Maybe Naho might know a way. We should find her."
"I think the others would be against it." The cameraman whispers back. "They're not trusting Naho after Kuro pointed out that Naho gave them the false charm."
"Then… do you think he did have a way to escape by himself, but he didn't tell us?"
"The ghosts know everything. And they didn't seem to hide it when they told us about Kuro's conditions."
"Hey, Taguchi, Sayaka!" Yoshiki calls them, as the boys find something on the ground. "Do you two know what this is?"
Running to the front (the duo stay behind with Yui to make sure their behind is covered), Sayaka sees the item in Morishige's hand. "That's… that's one of the cassettes you have, right?"
"Yeah." Taguchi replies. He then receives the cassette and looks over it… then pulls out his own. "Wait…" Replacing the new cassette, he starts the record… and sees it being the moment when Naomi hung Seiko up, successfully. "That's… this could happen if Kuro and I didn't stop her…"
From behind, Naomi gasps in shock, but Seiko and Ayumi immediately try to comfort her by saying that her friend is still alive.
"And this…" Satoshi picks up a red key. "Yoshiki mentioned that they saw a red door that's stuck before. Maybe this is the key for it."
"How about this? Taguchi and Sayaka will observe the room, while we separate into small groups to look around…"
"I would be against it." Morishige disagrees.
"I'm not saying to run too far." Yoshiki explains. "Just a few steps. If one gets into trouble, the others could help instantly."
"…Okay then." Morishige reluctantly nods.
Receiving the key, Taguchi and Sayaka heads to the location Yoshiki pointed at, and they find the door that the key fits…
When they enter, they find a TV with a small camcorder on top of it… and a disgusting smell that causes both of them to cover their nose. Sayaka comments: "Urgh, that stinks…"
"Tell me about it…" Taguchi then walks to the camcorder… "Wait! This is Hibiki's camcorder!"
"Wait really?" Sayaka rushes to him.
"Yes!" Taguchi exclaims. Then, unconsciously, he looks towards the closet. "…The smell comes from there…"
The two cautiously tip-toe there, and Taguchi slides the door open slowly…
"!" And the corpses of their friends reveals. "No…" Both of them say at the same time. Taguchi then backs away in fear, but he's still able to speak: "Naho… and now Kibiki…"
"I'm glad you two are still alive." The ghost of said person suddenly appears, causing Sayaka to back away to the red door in surprise.
Though, Taguchi manages to calm himself and asks: "Kibiki… is that really you?"
"I am." The ghost nods. "Sorry for separating from you… but I guess if you are still alive, then it's okay…"
Sayaka, after taking a moment to calm down, asks: "Kibiki… how did you die?"
The ghost of the novelist shakes his head. "I… wouldn't like to talk about that. But… I guess you two could guess if you saw our corpses earlier…"
"It…it's impossible!" Sayaka doesn't believe that. "Naho… Naho couldn't…"
"The Darkening." Taguchi interrupts. "Naho herself wouldn't do so, as Sayaka said. But, with that happened, it's only a matter of time."
"…It seems you found more details about this than me." Kibiki smiles. "Did you find out who's the one responsible for this?"
The cameraman scratches his head. "Well… it's not me, but another guy. He calls himself Kuro, and he's currently working on converting this disaster."
"Hm… I haven't heard a name like that…"
"Kibiki…" The ghost turns to Sayaka. "… How could we get out of here?"
"Kuro told us to hold on the Sachiko charm." Taguchi says. "It's very important, right?"
The novelist nods. "Yes. However, right now you can't escape. The school's covered with a strong spiritual field, created by Sachiko Shinozaki."
"The girl in red?" Taguchi asks.
"That's right. And she's also powered by Naho's spiritual strength as well. If you want to escape, you have to manage to stop both of them."
"… I think… maybe Sachiko's no longer a problem."
Kibiki crosses his arms in confusion. "Why are you saying that, Taguchi?"
"You don't know yet, but somehow Kuro managed to survive all of his encounters with her. And he seemed to know nearly all corners of this place, about the other ghost kids being killed by Sachiko, and the teacher not being the real killer." Then Taguchi changes the subject: "And speaking of him… how many ways can we escape this place? And… can we escape alone?"
"That… is impossible. Since the spell has to be performed with at least two people, escaping does also require the minimum number of being two."
"Then… how did he get here?" Sayaka asks. "Kuro, I mean. The ghost children said that nobody entered this place with him…"
"Believe it or not, he's not supposed to be here." All three turn to the red door, and the alive ones gasp in surprise. Standing in the room with them right now is a man that looks identical to Kuro, wearing a black outfit from head to toe, with a black fedora and a black scarf that covers his lower face. "And neither is my existence."
"K…Kuro?" Both of the alive ones exclaim. "When were you able to speak Japanese?"
"So that's Kuro, huh?" Kibiki comments. "Hm, for a person like…"
"I'm not Kuro." The person interrupts. "I'm no human either. I'm just a being that has his face and voice."
Silence.
"Then, why are you here?" Kibiki then asks.
"Just to confirm something for you." The person replies. "And don't worry about Kuro himself. He knows what he needs to do. And Kibiki… even though you won't be able to return back to the real world, your counterpart will replace your position." And with that, the man vanishes.
… Taguchi speaks up first, after a whole minutes of another silence: "What… just happened?"
"I'm…not sure." Kibiki replies, also confused at the event. "That man… he said that Kuro wasn't supposed to be here… what does that mean?"
"…I think that, we should…"
Before Sayaka could finish her words, someone rushes into the room. "Hey, Taguchi, Sayaka, you took a little too…" Yoshiki asks, before noticing a new ghost in the room. "Woah, another one?"
Taguchi notices that he's staring at Kibiki. He answers: "Ah… right, yeah. He's my boss…"
"Now you know my pain." Kuro grunts, as he tries to sit up, but he uses his right hand to push himself up, so… "Ouch. That's more painful than I thought."
"Dude, at this point, you might need to cut that hand…"
"And let it bleed me to death? No thanks." Grabbing his left hand over his right to try to close the wound, Kuro looks forward and feels the change of coldness in the air. "…Can't say when we are now…"
"I believe that we're in the past." Akaboji replies. "I don't feel too many souls in here…"
"What can we do here, then?" Ohkawa asks, first in Japanese then translates it for Kuro.
"How about trying to see if our group was still intact?"
"We're currently in the First Wing. You guys dropped in from the Second Wing… and I see no ways to get there." Turning to their back, they see a wall that's supposed to be the exit to the bridge that connects the wings. "And this hallway is… currently clean, meaning there are not many people getting in here… yet."
Ohkawa is about to retort, but then remembers that they're in a different time and dimension. "Those earthquakes are… random, right? Should we just wait for the next one to arrive?"
"Hm… let's just do a little check around. Maybe we could find…"
At that moment, Kuro suddenly feels a shiver on his back, despite that he doesn't see anything dangerous, in his field of sight. He immediately raises his finger and puts it over his lips, signaling everyone to be quiet. Once it's done, Kuro slowly walks to a corner and peaks his head out…
…Nothing.
The rest follows him, and once they see no dangers, Ohkawa asks: "What is that, Kuro?"
"…I'm… not very sure…" He admits. "For a second I felt cold on the back."
"Maybe that's just you being paranoid." Kensuke jokes.
"…Maybe… Alright, let's move up."
…
"…" Kuro scratches his chin in suspicion. So far, they haven't encountered anything strange, with no corpses as well. For a haunted school and after what they faced… this gives him a strange feeling.
"Isn't it good? Nothing is after us for now." Kensuke is underestimating the situation.
"…With a vengeance soul in charge of this place, I doubt that we have a good floor to relax."
"Then what do you suggest?" Akaboji asks.
"…Let's find an Infirmary. If we're lucky, maybe we would be able to find the dead teacher from years ago."
"The zombie guy?"
"No, Ohkawa. Sachiko's mother is whom I'm aiming at, for now."
With that, everyone starts heading to the second floor, where Kuro believes the Infirmary to be there. And it's true that there's one, but… it's locked.
"That's… well then." Kuro shrugs. "Not the worst thing it could happen."
However… the moment Kuro backs away, the door opens by itself. "…" Everyone doesn't say a word while looking at each other. But, one thing comes to their minds: This is a warning sign.
With a nod, Kuro steps forward with the scissors in his left hand, due to his right being hurt too bad. He goes in first, followed by the living duo, and the ghost girl floats in last…
When the group is in, the door closes behind them. Immediately Kuro raises the scissors in defend, as Ohkawa and Kensuke try to pry the door open, with no success. The injured male takes a quick look around to see anything abnormal points in the room, as he slowly steps forward…
Then, writing sounds appear, and Kuro snaps his head towards the only table in the room, and a black figure can be seen through the curtain. Swallowing hard, Kuro calls out the only possible name: "Yoshie… Shinozaki…"
Instantly, the figure stops writing, and its head turns right at him…
…
"Ouch…" Kuro raises his left hand up and grabs his head in pain. "That freaking hurt…"
He then turns to his left, to see Yoshie sitting on the chair, which is moved near the bed he's lying on. Said teacher is having a sad expression on her face. "I'm sorry…"
"…" He then remembers the memories he watched after the massive headache that knocked him out. "It's… fine… Where is everyone?"
"The two students are finding some ways to find their friends." She then looks at Kuro's right hand. "And we have used another pack of bandages to cover it, but the wound is already infected."
Kuro raises his right hand up, and true to her words, it's covered with a brand new bandage. "At least it doesn't look ugly anymore. Thanks." Sitting up, Kuro then reaches for his shoes. "Thanks for not killing me. But I need to move now. Sachiko wouldn't wait for me to save these guys."
Yoshie stops him after he takes three steps away: "Kuro… do you believe that… you can save everyone?"
"… That's impossible, both of us know it." Kuro replies. "One must make a sacrifice to do so, and even when it happens…"
"Why do you have to do so?"
"…It's a right thing to do."
"… I won't stop you. However, before you leave…" Yoshie stands up and gives Kuro a small plushie. "I was planning to give it to my daughter in her birthday… please give her my wish."
Kuro turns the plushie over, before asking: "Shouldn't you be the one doing so?"
"I… I can't leave this place, if you haven't noticed."
"Hm… was it because of Sachiko?"
"…Yes."
"… Maybe that one could help…"
"What do you have in mind?"
"…Book of Shadow. It might work."
Yoshie shakes her head. "Impossible. It is in the real world at the moment."
"Ah, that's bad." Scratching his head again, Kuro then stuffs the plushie into his inner coat's pocket. "Well, we will make do."
"About Takamine…" Yoshie's voice holds disgust. "Do you seriously plan to 'save' him as well?"
"… To be fair… We CAN give him a chance. We human tends to…commit sins in the most unexpected time."
"…If you think so…Goodbye…"
"Take care of yourself." And with that he leaves the Infirmary.
"…" Returning to her diary, Yoshie starts writing in it. While praying for Kuro to survive the ordeals…
…
Another earthquake, but this time Kuro doesn't get thrown into another hole. Meaning that he still has work in this dimension.
"It ra thi, cai tay gio dung duoc roi." Kuro says to himself, as he looks at the new bandage. "If everything's done correctly, maybe I will try to help her escaping that room."
Walking down to the stairs, Kuro yawns with his eyes half-closing and his left hand covering his mouth. "I should take a nap after dealing with Sachiko… this is so tiresome…"
Then, he hears footsteps from an intersection. Not clearly in mind, Kuro casually walks towards to see who is still in this dimension…
And he sees a person covered in Darkening magic walking to him…
Kuro pulls his glasses out and cleans the lens with his shirt, puts back up and narrows his eyes to see who that is… and he sees a pair of glasses on the person's face. "Well… that makes my work easier… or harder, depends on whose perspective."
"So Sachiko is truly the culprit…" The still-alive Kibiki says to himself during his research in the library. "If I can exorcise her, then the school might disappear. I need to ask Naho to do so…" Putting the books back to the shelf, he exits the library and heads down to the first floor…
However, when he reaches the second floor, he then hears some crashing sounds in the first floor. Taking caution, he walks slower while preparing for the worst. "Probably some ghosts trying to mess things up…"
The moment he reaches half-way of the stairs connecting the first and second floor, something flies across his vision from right to left, followed by a hard landing sound. Surprised, but out of curiosity, Kibiki walks out and enters the hall then turns to the left, to see a male lying on his back with a bloodstream coming from his head. Kibiki rushes to the person and checks on him, to see him still being alive. He tries to wipe the blood away with his sleeves while asking: "What happened? Did you fall on something?"
"Kibiki?" The person, his right eye closing because of the blood, looks at the novelist with a widened left eye. "You… you have to run! Naho is trying to kill you!"
"…Huh?" He's surprised by two things: The person is speaking to him in English instead of Japanese, and he just warned him about…
"Sensei…" He freezes up in fear as the tone of the person is extremely creepy. And when he turns back, the blood on his face drains away, as he sees a crazy Naho walking to the two males, with a dark smoke coming out of her. "I found you…"
"RUN KIBIKI!" The person then stands up, ignores the wound on his head, as he rushes straight to the possessed Naho, his fist aiming at the girl's forehead. However, the punch couldn't reach the target, as the Darkening blocks the attack, and it then throws the person right at the wall nearby. The direct hit to the wall causes the person to cough out blood, and he tries to push himself off the ground to continue fighting. Though, he sees Kibiki being frozen in place, the person shouts again: "Kibiki! For f**k sake, RUN!"
Snapping out of shock, Kibiki plans to rush to the person, however he told him to leave him behind, since the novelist is now a target to the possessed girl. Not wanting to die, Kibiki says his sorry to the person, before running away with Naho immediately giving chase.
After a few minutes running in circles, Kibiki reaches the Infirmary in the Second Floor, and he swings the door open and rushes inside, then tries to close it. However, Naho, with Darkening strengthening her, manages to stop his work and fling open the door, causing the novelist to fall to the floor due to the sudden event. Then, Naho uses both of her hands and grabs Kibiki's neck, choking him while grounding him. He tries to fight back, but he is no match to the possessed girl.
The girl then shouts at his face, asking why he left her back there, saying that she was being good for his sake. He tries to reply back, but his words fall on deaf ears, as he feels the grip getting stronger and stronger. And then, at that moment, he hears Sachiko whispering to Naho the last push to kill him…
In the nick of time, the person from before bursts into the room with the holy water bottle in hand, as he splashes the water into Sachiko, causing her to fling back in surprise. Then, he crashes his body right at Naho, sending both of them out of Kibiki as he sits up and gasps rapidly for air. The novelist then watches as the person manages to get up first and draws out the scissors, ready to fight the ghost girl who's extremely furious now. Naho is now on the ground, unconscious because of the impact of the slam and being out of Sachiko's control that her mind shuts down to protect itself.
"You… you stopped me too many times…" The ghost girl recognizes the person facing her. "Don't take my mercy for weakness. In the end, you will die…"
"Sachiko?" Everyone turns to the voice of the woman, to see Yoshie focusing on her daughter. "…Do you still recognize me?"
"…I do." The girl then grins madly. "Just wait, mother. I will give you more kids so you won't be lonely anymore…"
"Stop it, please." Yoshie's plead causes Sachiko's smile to falter a bit. "This isn't you. I can't see you doing this anymore…"
"…I'm doing everything for you, mother." Sachiko grunts. "Why don't you appreciate me?"
Kibiki watches the two exchanging words, and the further it goes, the worse the situation is. Yoshie urges her daughter to stop killing, but the girl's refusing to follow her mother's words. Then, the whole school starts shaking up as Sachiko's power builds up, and she's about to attack even her mother…
Only for her to stop when the wounded person raises a black cat plushie between the two females. He doesn't say a word, instead he slowly gives it to Yoshie, then gives her a nod and slowly backs away. Though, during that, the person grabs Naho and pulls her towards Kibiki, and gives him a look that says 'you hold her'. Kibiki awkwardly nods, as the person puts the girl into the novelist's arms and sits down next to him, watching the family dealing with their problems.
The family conversation then gets softer, as Yoshie reminds Sachiko of her birthday, and the fact she's going to give the plushie to her daughter. After that, Yoshie keeps bringing the good memories up, and slowly but surely, the power inside Sachiko starts to subdue, and she starts crying. And, when it's over, with 'I always love you' from Yoshie, Sachiko rushes towards her mother and gives her a tight hug, her tears falling down to the floor, quickly followed by Yoshie's own as well.
"S…Sensei?" Kibiki looks down to see the girl in his arms waking up. "W…What happened?"
Seeing the normal look in her eyes, Kibiki decides not to bring out the fact that she was trying to kill him earlier. "It's nothing, my girl."
The girl, while having many questions, decides to just nudge into his arms further while purring, causing him to chuckle a bit. She then looks towards and sees Sachiko hugging Yoshie. "I…Is that… Sachiko?"
"…She is." Kibiki replies. He then turns to his right… and the person has already left without a word. "Hm? Where is he?"
"Where is who?" Naho asks back.
"The one… I will tell you…"
*THUD!*
A huge noise outside of the Infirmary catches everyone's attention, including Sachiko and Yoshie. The ghost duo then looks around and sees Kibiki and Naho, but not the injured male. Yoshie immediately asks the novelist and his girl: "Have you two seen Kuro?"
"Uhm… He was just sitting with me…" He also looks around. "Maybe he's outside?"
"… His life force…" Sachiko then feels someone behind the closed door. "It's so faint…"
Naho questions in suspicion: "Who are you talking about?"
Instead of answering, Yoshie and Sachiko walk towards the exit, and the latter pulls the door open…
Revealing the person lying on the floor, trying to push himself up after his own fall. However, after what he has gone through… his arms can't support his body anymore, and he falls again, this time his mind shuts down for good.
Gasping in fear, Yoshie quickly flips him over to check if he's still alive or not… and sighs in relief when he's still breathing. However, based on Sachiko's statement earlier, he's still in danger. Quickly, she looks at her daughter, to see the young girl already having the same idea in mind. Sachiko uses her power to float Kuro's body up, as she leads him back into the Infirmary and towards the bed in the room.
Kibiki and Naho, already standing up, steps aside so the process could happen. They watch as the person's body lands on the bed softly, and the looks of concern on the ghosts' faces create confusion on the alive people. Cautiously, Kibiki asks Sachiko: "W…What are you doing to him?"
After the process, the ghost girl looks at Kibiki, then to Naho, and answers: "Giving him some respects. After all, he saved you by attacking your girl, thus saving her in the same time. Risking his own life for strangers…"
Naho pulls out a talisman and plans to use it on Sachiko, but Kibiki stops her. He then continues his question: "Why don't you just kill him, like you have done to the others?"
"Because…" Yoshie answers this time. "He knew what happened to us, and thus helping us regaining our humanity…"
Then, an earthquake suddenly happens, nearly making Kibiki and Naho lose their footing. And it also wakes up Kuro from his coma due to his own fear, but since he couldn't control his body that well, he falls off the bed and lands on the floor painfully. "Ouch…" That's all he could whine.
That earthquake then ends abruptly like how it starts. Sachiko immediately re-uses her power and lifts Kuro back to the bed. Yoshie then asks in worry: "Are you okay?"
"…Not much…" Kuro whines, while smiling painfully. He then asks back: "So… are you two happy yet?"
Sachiko nods. "But, I have to praise for your own stupidity. I can't believe you would fight us that directly."
"Well… my plan was to knock out Naho, then deal with you later. Guess I underestimated your power." Kuro says, his smile turns into a small laugh. "Anyway… I'm out. Do whatever you want to me."
Sachiko crosses her arms and asks curiously: "Oh? And what 'whatever' are you referring to?"
"Who knows what you're thinking now." Kuro nonchalantly says. "Maybe a plan to torture me in my sleep for example."
She immediately pouts. "I do that many times, doesn't mean I do that EVERY time."
"Like I said, who knows…" Sachiko focuses a bit, and finally realizes the teasing tone despite him being still in immense pain. "Goodnight." With that, he closes his eyes and starts sleeping for real.
Deciding to leave him alone, Yoshie turns back to Kibiki and Naho, who are looking at the event in surprise. "… You are having a lot of questions, right? We will answer them in his place."