Half an hour later
"…So my connections are correct…" Kibiki says to himself. "But, to think his own pride could drive the Principle to do such things…"
"To be fair…" Yoshie responds. "If I'm him… maybe I would do the same…"
During the time, Yoshie has told the reporters all about the story behind the Principle's covered-up story, and how his son became the 'killer'. With Sachiko helping her mother with the explanation, Kibiki and Naho have seen the full picture of how everything happened.
Then, everyone looks at the person in the bed, who's still sleeping due to the fatigue, just in time to see him nudging his head even closer to the pillow he's lying on. Naho asks uncertainly: "Is… is he really the person who managed to fight against Yoshikazu?" Because all she could see is just a big boy with a childish expression in his sleep.
"Well, believe it or not, he is. But, he hasn't won once." Sachiko answers. "Considering that he couldn't go for any attacks, but instead he looked for a way to defend and then escape."
"He knew that he has zero chances to win." Kibiki comments.
"It's correct." The child nods. They then see Kuro starting to munch on the pillow, which makes the living ones feel weird, and the ghosts feel worrying. "We should wake him before…"
She doesn't have to do so, because another earthquake occurs. Immediately Kuro's eyes snap open as he rolls out of the bed and grabs the nearest item he could see, which is conveniently the scissors, takes a one-knee-crouching position before looking around to see the group looking at him in surprise. The earthquake quickly dissipates, then Kuro sighs in relief as he puts the scissors on the bed while grabbing his head with his free hand. "Damn, that's a rough wake up. How long have I been sleeping?"
Snapping out of the shock state, Kibiki answers: "Just half an hour. Are you okay?"
Stretching his arms, Kuro replies: "A little sore, but otherwise refreshed." That's not actually too convincing as he immediately yawns. Though that doesn't change his expression. "Well, let's see if we can find the others… See you later, you all."
"…You can't be serious, right?" Just the moment his hand touches the door, Sachiko calls Kuro back. "What's the point of doing all of this, if you would get nothing back in return?"
Kuro stands there, looks up at the ceiling for a second, then replies: "Do I really need something in return…eh, I guess not." Then, he opens the door and walks out of the Infirmary, continuing his search for survivors, temporarily ignoring the callings from Kibiki and Naho.
"You two should follow him now." Yoshie says. "Try to gather as many people as possible and prepare the ritual again. Get out of here as soon as possible."
Kibiki and Naho look at each other for a second, before Kibiki turns to the dead teacher and asks: "What about you all?"
"We're stuck here." Sachiko shakes his head. "Go."
It takes a few seconds of silence before Kibiki bows and says: "Sorry for what happened to you all." He then pulls Naho with him. "Let's go."
"…Yes, Sensei." Naho nods, then gives a small glare towards the ghosts before the two are out of the room.
"…Sachiko… I'm worried." Yoshie expresses her feelings.
"I know…He's already at Death's door…"
…
"Wait a second, Kuro!" The boy stops for a second and looks back to see the two running to him. "You shouldn't just run off like that! Who knows what you could stumble into?"
"…" For a second, the blank look on Kuro's face worries the two. But then he smiles, washing the uneasy feeling away. "Sorry. I guess I was too determined to do my work." He then turns back and looks into the darkness of the school hall. "Right now… right, where are they…"
"Where are who?" Naho asks.
"Students from a high school. We were trying to find the timeline where their friends were still alive and pull them to the current timeline to save them." Kuro explains. "Well… it's going to be a little hard to pull off…"
"Why?" They start walking towards, with Kibiki asking the question.
"Their friends' deaths… are caused by another friend of them." Kuro reveals. "While I have killed him once, there's no way to be sure that he's also dead in the new timeline."
"…Why are you so calm when you talked about killing a person like that?" Naho starts questioning Kuro's mentality. It seems the person in front of her has some sorts of brain disordering…
"Why do I have to sympathize with a monster?" Kuro's cold response with a deadly glare temporarily stuns the two. His normal speech then returns shortly as his eyes soften. "Anyway, I would like to avoid that and focus on saving the people that deserve to live longer."
The reporters walk slower so they could be far enough to not be heard. Naho then whispers to Kibiki: "We should take cautious against him. Who knows when he would turn against us?"
"…I hate to agree, but you're right." Kibiki whispers back. Considering that even a medium like Naho could be succumbed to darkness…
Then, they watch as Kuro stumbles into a piece of wood, comically trying to keep his balance, then he just walks off with a childishly annoyed look on his face. That small moment makes the two, for a moment, feel uncertain about their thinking just now.
All fails into silence as they connect the dots between Kibiki's story and what they have read from Naho's online blog. Most of them are angry at how Naho saw everyone's life as 'experiments' so Kibiki could 'have a scoop' and also at the man himself. Some, however, could understand that this is not what Kibiki wanted.
The novelist then bows down apologetically. "Please forgive her 'attitude' towards you all. I will hold responsibility for…"
"It's not your fault, Kibiki." Yui interrupts. "Naho is the one at fault. She needs to see that, and we want you to tell her directly that."
"I… will manage…"
Seeing the heavy atmosphere, Taguchi then tries to deter it to a better conversation: "Hey, Boss. Do you think we could use the ritual again?"
Looking up, Kibiki tries to feel the air… "It's… I'm not very sure, but I feel the air being lighter… even more than when we first entered here…"
"But we haven't found everyone yet." Sayaka says. "And I couldn't return without Naho…"
"Me as well…" Taguchi scratches his head. "I forgot that…"
Suddenly the ceiling gives in and something drops right at the corner far inside the room and crashes the TV, making everyone jump in surprise. The boys immediately pull the girls to the door, while they stand in front and prepare to fight whatever just went down…
Only for a few familiar coughs to drop their guards as, when the smoke is clear, they see the alive Kibiki, Naho and Kuro lying on the floor. Kuro is the first to stand up and pull the two up. "I swear, this has becoming a trope or something…" Then he turns to see the students gaping at his 'entrance'. "…Well then, guess I'm back to the right reality."
…
"What do you mean we can't use the ritual yet?" Ayumi asks in confusion. "I thought you have talked with Sachiko about the matter?"
"It's very hard to forgive someone who did an injustice on you." Kuro answers. "Right now, she has only agreed about not killing more people. However… we are still in some dangers. Namely, the Principle himself."
"How could he be a danger?" Yoshiki is not understanding the logic. "I mean, yeah, he's already dead. But…surely you could try to talk to him, right?"
"And one of the ends could be me being killed by him." That drops the room into silence. "We need to be extra careful to deal with the matter. Of course, you can try on your own, but don't step on the edge of the roof or something." Seeing that no one answers, Kuro stands up again and waves his hands. "Well, I think you guys are all here, so try to stick together. I'm going to find my friends now."
"You haven't found them yet?" Nana asks in disbelief.
"I saw some messages from them scattering around. I could make work for that." Kuro responds and heads to the door…
"Good luck finding them on your own, Kuro." Taguchi suddenly says, his voice devoid of actually emotions.
"…Thanks." Kuro sighs, and heads out, leaving the group who's thanking him for helping them.
"Wait." Sayaka stops him again, and when he turns back, she pushes her hand towards his chest. He's a little surprised, and then he finds something in her palm, causing him to immediately grab the object when her hand leaves him. "Good luck."
Holding it in his hand, Kuro immediately recognizes what it is, and when he looks at Sayaka's sad eyes, he knows that he's busted. "…Thanks." But, that doesn't mean he can stay with them. Patting her shoulder once, he turns and heads into the darkness, waving his injured hand back for a goodbye.
Moment passes, and Naho slightly nudges her friend and jokes: "Wow Sayaka, already ditching Haruyuki and finding a new guy? I didn't think you would…"
"Why?" Sayaka's hiccup stops Naho from teasing her. And, in a swift, the girl hugs her friend while crying out loud. "How could we be deserved to have a person like him help us!? HOW COULD WE EVEN PAY HIM BACK FOR WHAT HE HAS DONE FOR US!?"
That outburst makes everyone focus at the duo, as Sayaka starts talking about them should not be alive. Satoshi then whispers to Yoshiki: "Kishinuma…how long are those you together?"
"I doubt it's that long for her to react like that." The blond hair boy then notices Yui's grimacing face. "Yui-sensei? What's wrong?" And then he also sees Taguchi biting his lower lip in frustration. "Okay… this is weird… can you tell us what's going on?"
"I never saw that side of her…" On the other side, Kibiki whispers to Taguchi. "And… you too?"
"It's… something we can't tell you yet." Taguchi says, regretting to not stop Kuro going out on his own. "Nevertheless, if to help, maybe we should do ourselves a favor and find our own friends while he opens the way out of this school."
…
'Vay la Sayaka va Taguchi da biet su that… Hope they won't do anything stupid.' Thinking to himself, Kuro reaches the door that leads to the bridge between the two Wings. Placing his hands on the doors, he takes a moment to let his true emotion cause through his body: fear.
Fear to die.
Fear that he couldn't save someone.
Fear that he might fall to darkness and kill everyone.
Falling to his knees, Kuro breathes in and out at haste, never be able to be used to the atmosphere. His eyes start tearing as well, the feeling of missing his family is overwhelming for a moment. Not caring if there are anyone around him, he takes around a full minute to whimper, before his breath turns to normal, he stands up and steels his expression before returning to his journey…
Peeking from a corner, the three kid ghosts watch the event going with worry written on their faces. Currently, they have already felt the dread from him, but then they felt something else haunting him, even though they don't know what that is. For now, they could only watch from distance, while wishing him good luck.
Entering Second Wing, he looks left to see it being a clear way to walk. The earthquake then returns, but this time Kuro decides to just simply ignore it and walk to the direction of interest…
When he sees a blue dot and another red one looking straight at him… and once it gets closer…
"…Give me…a break…"
…
"What was that?" Kai Shimada asks Kizami, as the two are standing in the exit of the Second Wing and were glaring at each other before they hear running steps from another hallway.
"…No idea." The stoic boy replies. "But, could be someone who is still alive."
"Hm… how come haven't we found that person sooner?"
"The building is bigger than we thought then…"
Then, someone runs out of the darkness, his right hand holding a pair of bloody scissors. The person then looks into the darkness and slowly backs away from it, his weapon in his grip, waiting for something… and then a girl in a white uniform emerges from shadow with a predator look that focuses entirely on the boy.
The two then watch as the girl lashes on the boy, and he responds by stepping aside with his right arm going around the neck of the girl and starting to choke the girl with his arms. The girl tries to break free, but the boy proves to be more endurance as her elbow hits don't work too well.
The two decide to take actions as they run towards the fight… only for the boy to suddenly push the girl towards Kai with his left arm… and during the movement of the right arm, stab Kizami in the neck much to his surprise, and then a pull and a last stab right through Kizami's right temple. Kai and the girl fall to the ground, as Kai gets up only to see the damage already done. Kizami's dead body falls to the ground, and the boy pulls out the scissors then looks at him with a cold glare. Scared by the eyes, Kai books it and runs to where Tohko has ran off before…
Only he doesn't find the girl at all, and instead he finds the injured Katayama by himself. The poor boy then asks the other in surprise: "Kai? Where's everyone?"
Due to how scared he is currently, Kai couldn't open his mouth yet…
"KATAYAMA!" To their surprises, the rest of the boys of their group appear from the other way, as Kensuke immediately goes to check his legs. "Are you alright?"
The injured boy coughs once before answering: "Not too good, but still alive… How?"
"How what?" Kensuke asks back.
"How… Ohkawa just vanished in front of me…" Katayama points at the boy in question with a small fear in his voice.
"Oh… We will answer you later. For now, let's get to the exit…" Ohkawa says, as he and Fukuroi grab each of his shoulder and bring him up…
"Wait wait!" Kai speaks up, drawing everyone's attention. "There's a killer around here! We can't just use the exit!"
Kensuke widens his eyes in surprise. "A killer? You mean a big guy with a hammer?"
"No! A guy with scissors wearing a black coat!"
However, the moment that info comes out… Kensuke and Ohkawa look at each other, and then sigh in relief, much to everyone's surprise. Then, the former replies: "Then we actually have nothing to worry about. Let's find him and the exit!"
"You can't be serious!" Kai is extremely surprised at his sudden bravery. "I saw him killed Kizami just now!"
That makes Ohkawa's expression darken. But, before he could say anything, Fukuroi interjects: "Just point us to there."
"…Damn it!" Kai grits his teeth. "If you want to die, just go and…"
"You're coming with us." Kensuke orders. "The girls are saved, so right now we need you with us so we could return."
"…What? You found the way to escape this place? I thought that the exit is…"
"It's more complicated."
The group then slowly heads to the exit of the Second Wing… and just before they walk through a door frame, they smell something burning. They head in, and see the 'killer' sitting next to a burning corpse, and the girl's body is lying next to him, unconscious. The 'killer' appears to have his eyes closed.
Kai pulls out his knife and plans to kill him, but Kensuke sees it and stops him. "Don't. He won't hurt us."
"Are you out of your mind? I saw him attacking that girl before he killed Kizami!"
The outburst from Kai causes the 'killer' to open his eyes and look directly at the group. Kai gasps in surprise and backs away, but Ohkawa greets him: "Hey, Kuro! Are you okay?"
"…Exhausted." Kuro replies with a painful smile. "This girl sure is strong."
Katayama then asks Fukuroi: "Hey, why is Ohkawa speaking English?"
The megane replies: "Apparently that guy doesn't know Japanese."
The two English-speakers then exchange more words, before Kensuke walks to the corpse and sees who it is. "…Kizami…"
Kai then shouts to Kensuke: "Hey! Should we just kill the guy and walk off? He killed your friend there!"
"…After what I heard from Ohkawa, I stopped considering Kizami our friends." Kensuke replies back, surprising Kai.
"Guys…" After done talking with Kuro, Ohkawa calls the duo. "Let's get to the First Wing. Emi's group is there with a few more groups of survivors."
"That's great!" Kensuke says happily. Then he notices Kuro doesn't move. "What about Kuro?"
"He's staying here. Saying that he's still having something to do in this building." Ohkawa explains. He then turns to Kuro and says: "We're leaving now. Take care of yourself."
"To you too." Kuro replies with a smile and waves his hand to the boys.
The group, except Kai, bows slightly and gets out of the building and heads into the bridge. Kai then asks Ohkawa: "Hey, what about the girl?"
"Kuro said that he needs to keep a watch on her. He's keeping her with him until he's sure that she's purged out of the possession. And that's why she attacked him and he had to respond."
…
Azusa wakes up with a massive headache and pain around her neck. She opens her eyes to see the ceiling of the school, and feels her back lying on the floor. Sitting up, she feels a presence to her left, as she turns to see a person lying next to her, his eyes closing. She then sees a corpse not far away and grimaces. She then plans to stand up… only for the person to suddenly open his eyes and grab her left hand with his injured right, causing her to try to pull back to no avail.
The person sits up, and they lock eyes for a few seconds… before he sighs and releases her hand. Pulling her hand back, Azusa backs away slowly… "Don't go too far. I don't want to get chased by you again." She blinks, as it takes a few seconds to her to recognize the person just talked to her in English.
Taking another to compose herself, she asks back: "Who are you? And how did you get here?"
"The name's Kuro. My friends and I caught a glimpse of the situation of this school, so we performed the Sachiko Charm incorrectly to get in here."
"…It's similar to ours. But… how could it fail? We did everything correctly…"
"Fate could be a troll sometimes." Kuro simply replies. Then, he stands up and rubs the dust out of his outfit. "Do you have any ideas where your friends are?"
"…I'm not so sure…" Azusa hesitantly answers.
"Hm…it's going to be hard… how many of yours?"
"…Four."
"…Okay. We shouldn't separate at this point. Traps could be anywhere."
"ARE YOU SERIOUS?" Yoshiki punches the wall next to him in anger. "ALL OF THEM ARE LIES? HE DIDN'T TRUST US IN THE BEGINNING?"
"Kishinuma, calm down." Satoshi tries to talk him down. "Maybe he has another reason to…"
"REASON? WHAT REASON? HE SOMEHOW FOUND HIS OWN WAY IN HERE! HE COULD JUST TELL US HOW AND WE COULD FIND OUR OWN EXIT! HE IS LITERALLY A STRANGER TO US ALL!"
After the groups have separated, Yui has told her group about her conversation with the ghosts of the kids. And needless to say, everyone is surprised, feeling sad and angry at how reckless their 'helper' is doing. The last part mostly is for the blond boy.
"But, what is the benefit in his work?" Ayumi is trying to find the logic. "If he wanted to survive, he would just stick to one group, and try to save the others normally. He has no skills of a survivor, and yet he kept pushing into danger without any preparations…"
"Despite that, he knew exactly who is friendly, and who is dangerous." Seiko recalls the fight between him and the Darkening ghost teacher. "The fight in the Infirmary. The teacher was exactly a threat, and yet he still could see through it…"
"And calming down Sachiko as well." Naomi adds. "If our existence could be wiped out of the real world, how come could he still point out the abnormal points?"
Picking up another name tag, Sakutaro replies: "Currently, it doesn't matter. Right now, we need to wait for the opportunity and grab him and then escape out of this school."
Mayu then sees Yuki walking to them as she greets her: "Oh hey, Yuki! Can we ask you something?"
The one-eye girl nods. Naomi immediately asks first: "Can you tell us why Kuro hid everything about him to us?"
"…It's a difficult question, sis." Yuki reluctantly answers. "But, we could think of a few things. First, about his name… it's actually that hard to pronounce. We did a small peak at his Student ID… and we can't read anything, despite them having English alphabet in it."
"Well, we can see why." Seiko scratches her head. "What of the others?"
"…How he knew about how to deal with us… We have no idea." The ghost admits. Then she remembers: "Everyone, since you knew about his conditions… can you try to keep him to one of your groups? We fear that he might die really soon…"
"He's doing too well." Yoshiki grits his teeth. "The ones that need help here are us!"
"No, he's not." Yuki shakes her head. "What you saw was only the face he 'wants' you to know about him. We followed him, and we saw him breaking down once shortly after he left you. He's not as strong as you thought he would be."
"…I see." Satoshi is next. "About Sachiko's condition… should we find a way to appease her ourselves?"
"Currently she and her mother are with each other, both have escaped the Darkening. But, she still has some grudges against the Principle…"
"And that's what Kuro is doing." Ayumi realizes. "Should we head to the Second Wing and find the person?"
"…I suggest you not. But, if you think you can do it… I wish you all good luck." With that the ghost girl disappears.
"We should be the one doing it." Satoshi decides. "Kuro has done too many things for us, now it's time for us to pay him back."