Oops. Another long period of absence. Sorry guys. Time to return back... briefly, to this story.
'Almost lost my head. Freaking hell.' Hiding in a dark corner with zero light, Kuro takes his time to re-control his breath before making another run. 'How the hell is SHE here?' Pushing his back to the wall, he dares not peeking out at any moment due to the fact he could expose himself to the chaser. 'A second too late and I'm done.'
The picture he has taken was the only source of warning before he immediately ran forward and felt something crossing the back his neck. Not daring to stop at this point, Kuro opened the light on his phone and headed into the darkness to avoid the attacker while trying to find a certain item.
Running aimlessly is not a viable plan, however, so he took a small moment to stop after minutes of running around a seemingly endless road, turn off his phone and try to adjust his vision in the darkness while focusing on his hearing so he wouldn't get attacked on the back.
'Her appearance is too sudden. She shouldn't be here. And I know next to none how to deal with her!' Screaming in his mind, Kuro tries to find any sources of light around him, and luckily enough he does find one. However, that also risks the fact that he's going to be visible. '…No pain, no gain.'
Making a quick dash, he follows the light and finds the source being a small light bulb on the ceiling inside a room that's designed like a cell for some reasons. Not caring much, he turns his eyes all over the room to find what he's looking for while nearly flipping everything up.
The result: it's nowhere to be found.
'…Sh!t. Where could it be?' He now sees a problem. 'They didn't come down here, and no one exited or entered this basement before me… then…'
After a minute of searching with no success, he then hears the sounds of footsteps again (despite the fact the person COULDN'T possibly make noise). He immediately grabs a nearby wooden plank and throws it hard to the bulb, breaking it instantly. The whole room turns dark, and his eyes once again have to take a few seconds to adjust…
A small giggle echoes in the area, causing his head to quickly turn around to find out where the source could be. He's currently facing the door of the room, and if the attacker is there…
A cold feeling climbs on his back…
'! She could carry that through walls!?' Slightly panicked, he started running off, but he immediately feels a slash to his back, possibly cutting through all his clothes and on his back if the immense pain could tell much. Stumbling for a second, he uses his hands to grab on whatever he could feel and pulls himself up and continuing his run, not caring if 'she' is chasing him or not.
The coldness never stops clinging on his back…
…
"That… was… too… close…" Kuro manages to get out of the basement after another ten minutes of being chased and runs away from the entrance a good twenty meters away before falling to the ground and panting heavily. "Hurt… pain… argh…" Hissing in annoyance, he then sits up and pulls his coat out and finds out that it's now dyed with some of his blood. "Con me no. May ma co cai ao, khong thi xac dinh chet." Sighing in relief that there is not actually too much blood, he throws the coat over his shoulder and tries to stand up… but his back refuses to let him. "…Yeah, figured." Letting out a last sigh, he drags himself towards a nearby wall and just lies on the ground while trying to not let the wound touch the cold floor, and closes his eyes…
*RUMBLES!*
And his eyes snap open immediately when he feels the whole mansion shaking up. "Mother of! How did that bastard…" He tries to stand up, but the slash wound decides to send pain to his mind. "Argh! No time for this sh!t!"
Because of Kizami's twisted desire, everyone in the mansion is pulled into a different dimension. They are surprised at the change of space and time, though they quickly turn their attentions towards the 'boss', who's now holding Yuka in his left arm while his right arm holding an opening Book of Eibon. Behind him, a monstrous creature is trying to pull itself out of the tear of space to try to enter the dimension. They try to reason with him, but with how evil he is, the only way to revert the situation is to defeat him.
"Sachiko! Please help those girls for us!"
"No can do, miss Yui. Even I can't fight something like that." The ghost girl refuses.
"Are you kidding me?!" Yoshiki shouts in disbelief. "Then there's nothing we can do?"
"Well, you can knock the book out of his hand. Though I doubt that thing is going to let you come close to him." Sachiko suggests as she points her finger towards the creature's tentacles.
After some discussions, the boys decide to take the tiny chance of winning and fight the 'bosses'.
And… well, they succeed. With the cost of the zombie director's 'second' death.
After that, the ghost girl immediately uses a spell in the book to get everyone out, including the unconscious culprit.
"Oi oi! That thing is trying to stop us from escaping!" Yoshiki screams as he dodges a tentacle swipe by ducking down. "Can you be quicker?"
"Don't rush me. Anything needs preparation." Sachiko stops her chant for a brief moment to reply before continuing.
Then, to everyone's surprise, the tentacles of the creature suddenly stop, and they see them retracting back… and the group notices a strange man with a black cane in his left hand, with his right hand placing in front of the creature. The mystic creature somehow calms down and it starts retracting back to the portal…
"…You are…"
"Just a bystander." Once the creature fully returns to its realm, the figure puts the fedora down further to hide his face and replies to Sachiko's call. "The way is clear. Do your work." With that, the person steps into his own portal, escaping the place.
"…" Deciding to say nothing, the ghost girl finishes the spell, and everyone returns to Heavenly Host's one of many classrooms.
"Damn it." Kuro grunts as he slowly heads back inside the school. Knowing his current situation won't help, he decided to escape the mansion immediately and headed back to the school. He's now wearing his coat to avoid getting cold. "I hope they could get out alive…" The wound on his back starts aching again. "Cai con me nha no. That slash might cut deeper than I thought. I seriously need medical treatment ASAP."
Pushing the main door open and going through the entranceway, he enters the main hall. He starts looking around to see if he can find anyone around. His walk is much slower compared to even before due to the wound, he dares not heading to the second floor, and instead trying to find either Kibiki's hideout or if an infirmary exists in the first floor miraculously.
However, that idea takes a small halt because of another earthquake, causing Kuro to fall on his back. That makes him hiss in pain as tears roll out of his eyes. "*&^*# (*." He tries to flip his body while grunting/cursing constantly, and when it's done, he tries to push himself off the floor despite the earthquake is still happening. "This… takes… too long…" Kuro kneels down on one knees, places his hands on the floor to keep himself from crashing down again, and waits for the event to end.
Eventually, it does end, and he stands up and takes a look around. And suddenly he feels another chill on his back. "…More dangers. Great." He grunts, seriously doesn't want to deal with any further problems before dealing with his wound.
Pulling his phone out, he checks the battery and is surprised to see it being full. Though, he might have an idea what happened. "…Well thanks for the help." Any help is a good help. He turns on the light and starts waving around to see if there's any traps around him…
"Hey!" Turning to the right, he sees a trio of students running towards him. One boy who's calling for him, two girls, wearing school uniforms. And…
He knows neither of them.
"…" He turns to his left to see if anyone's in the other direction, and finds none. He turns back to the group who is now on the nearby range of hearing. Not wanting to be impolite, he smiles back at them, as best as he could, and replies: "Good afternoon. Looks like you are the newer victims of this place, huh?"
"Newer… victims?" The boy asks back uncertainly.
"…Wait a second, you understand me?" Kuro has to ask again because he could still understand them, but…
"Well duh. You ARE speaking to us now." One of the girls replies with an impatient tone.
"…Then it would be easier then." Kuro raises his left hand to the boy, who takes it and shakes. "Call me Kuro. Can I have your name?"
"Ah, my name is Yuuma Shindou. Here…" The boy starts pointing to his classmates. "They are Yuma Okita and Erina Yuzuki. We were just performing a spell…"
"Sachiko Ever After charm, correct?" That earns nods of surprises from the trio. Kuro then swipes the sweat out of his forehead, feeling his body getting hotter. "That spell surely lured a lot of people here."
"Do you know where we are?" Erina asks, hoping that they could at least get some information about their current location.
"Hey, is that the exit?" Okita then notices the main door behind Kuro. "We can just get out of here…"
"It's not that simple, miss Okita. You can only return back to the real world by using the charm again, and correctly."
"…Correctly?" Shindou repeats the last word. "What do you mean by that?"
"Who's the one suggesting you to perform the charm?" Kuro asks, trying to get something from them so he could find out which timeline he is in.
"It's… a friend of mine. Tamaki Minase. She told me that she found it on a blog…" That makes Kuro facepalm himself with his left hand. "What's wrong?"
"It's… *sigh* things happened." Kuro then turns his head back to the exit again to see that Okita has opened the door. "Hey miss. Stay away from there. I will check it first."
"Check? For what?"
"Traps. And ghosts." Pulling out his scissors which scares the hell out of the others, Kuro heads into the entranceway.
Wiping another stream of sweat, he slowly moves through the shoe shelves to try to see if he can find anything useful…
And he has found the murdered kids… murdering another victim.
And his shoe just steps on a cracked tide, creating a breaking glass sound that immediately draws their attentions.
"…*Sigh* This is getting old." Not bothering to even try to run, Kuro lowers the scissors and says: "I know you want to play, but can we at least talk about a trade?"
The kids immediately walk closer to him, and he can feel the Darkening around them. Yuki then glances at him with a sinister smile and says: "No Big Bro or Big Sis wanted to play with us before. They all ran away, and we all caught them up. You are either very brave or just giving up on life. So, to cheer you up, we will let you pick the game."
He was expecting to get stabbed instantly, but it seems his plot armor is still on. "So, if I pick one that you might not like, can I choose another one?"
"Only one, Big Bro." Ryou's lip curls up into a dangerous smile.
"…Well, how about treasure hunting?" That makes the black mist slightly expand around him. "And no, the treasure is not my tongue. What we seek are your missing parts, Yuki, Ryou and Tokiko."
That causes the black mist to immediately dissipate as the kids back away in surprise.
"Yes, I know of your conditions. I know who killed you." Seeing that he succeeds, again, in talking to the first victims, Kuro continues. His voice becomes ragged and barely able to hold on between heavy breaths. "It's very tragic that you died that way. However, it's not right to make others suffer. I don't mind finding them again, but please consider my words and don't murder people on sight." He then feels the heat becoming unbearable, he tries to fan it off by taking off the coat, but it seems to not working. He needs to act fast. "I can guide you there, but… I don't think I can last long before collapsing… or dying…" He coughs once. "Let's go..."
However, before he could move again, he loses his footing and falls to the ground. Being too used to this problem, Kuro can only cough in pain and tries pushing himself up, but ends up failing. "…Hay lam. Gio thi khoi chay."
"Hey, what took you so long?" The door to the main hall suddenly opens, revealing Okita entering with an annoyed face, which turns horrified when she sees him on the ground with the ghost kids surrounding him. She screams loudly, which causes the other two to run in and see the scene as well. The ghost kids quickly disappear, leaving Kuro lying on the ground defenselessly.
The students quickly rush to him and carry him up to the nearby wall and sit him up. Shindou notices a huge slash wound on Kuro's back and asks in worry: "Hey, Kuro! Did those kids hit you on the back?"
Through the pain, Kuro hisses: "Not them. Also, thank you for sitting me up… and curse you for suing them away."
"Well excuse me! How the hell would I know if they are hurting you or not!? They're covered in blood!" The girl who screamed before doesn't feel anywhere near apologetic. "And why didn't you just run back instantly when you saw them? We could have helped you…"
"How?" A simple question shuts the girl up. "The moment you saw them, you already screamed in fear. That's basically a death wish in this place."
"Then, who are they? And do you need us to find them?" Shindou asks, not knowing if they really have to do so.
"No… need to find them. However, if you can *cough* go and find their lost parts. I can show them…"
"The bigger problem now is you!" Shindou throws Kuro's left arm over his shoulder. "We need to find you somewhere to lay down! And fix the wound if possible!"
"…If you insist." Not going to deny any helps, Kuro replies. "There is possibly an Infirmary on the second floor… let us head upstairs."
However… in the middle of the way, they find a corpse… that seems to be one of the trio's friends. Kuro neither denies nor confirms it, but instead says to tell them how the school works once they reach the infirmary. The trio reluctantly keep quiet and move on.
…
"Stop." Kuro pulls out his scissors again. "Something is inside there."
The group has reached the room right where Kuro has suspected it to be at. However, before any of the high school students could open it, the injured boy stopped them due to the unique coldness emitting from inside the room.
"Then… should we leave?" Yuzuki asks worriedly.
"…I will be the judge to it. However, if it is a danger, drop me and run."
"You can't be…"
"Worry about yourself and your classmates first." Using his left hand, Kuro mutters what's left of his strength and opens the door…
And the group sees a certain paranormalist with the trio's friend, Mayuri Yoshimura. After a quick greeting, Shindou puts Kuro on one of the chairs while the others try to find bandages and anything that could clean off the wound. Kuro nearly nods off because of the exhaustion, but he barely stays up due to the pain and what's left of adrenaline in him.
The group (except Naho) is also horrified at how large the wound on his back is after removing his coat and shirt. Fortunately, thanks to the clothes, the damage is shallow, but it's still dangerous to leave it be. Thankfully they also manage to find an alcohol bottle (which Kuro suspects 'one' person placing it there, but he says no words) and fixes the wound instantly. The right hand is also dealt with when the trio notice the old bandages.
During the treatment, and thanks to Kuro's intervention with the ghost kids, Tamaki Minase, Shinichi Yanagihara and Miyako Hayakawa find the room and enter it and they are happy to find their alive classmates. Although the mood quickly turns down when they talk about their dead ones…
Once the wound's covered up, Kuro's body heat cools down, and he sits straight up for the first time after entering the room. "My great thanks. Damn, any more seconds and I might collapse for real."
"You surely have a strong will." Naho smirks. "For how long though…"
"Don't make me punch your face, liar." Kuro's one-eighty change of personality surprises everyone. "You are lucky that I managed to save a version of you and Hibiki. Don't make me regret that decision."
"…Save a version of me." Naho repeats. "So, you know how this place works, correct?"
"You bet on it. Also, Shindou, that corpse IS indeed one of the Hayakawa."
"…What… what do you mean… one of me?" The girl herself asks fearfully.
"…We did see a corpse with your phone in its hand." Okita replies. "However, I don't understand what he is saying either…"
"Time paradox. Multiple parallel dimensions. Think of a decision you have made before. Have you thought about what happened if you made a different one? A single choice creates a new dimension, even to the universe level. This is how Heavenly Host. When an event starts, multiple dimensions are made to fit the possible endings…" Kuro stops for a moment to take a breath, and for everyone else to digest the info. "Also, timeline is screwed in this place. A moment, we are in the present, and the next moment we could be in the past, or even the future. The only telltale is the earthquakes."
"…Okay, not to be rude, but…" Shinichi rubs the back of his head and speaks up since nobody does so. "We're not here to listen to a theory of space and time."
"I know. But, I told you so you can have a small hope of saving those classmates of yours."
"...That's how you saved 'me' and Hibiki-sensei." Naho confirms the way Kuro did in the past.
"Correct. We can also use that way to save these guys' classmates. However…" The injured boy then points his finger towards Tamaki…or rather something behind her. "Who are you? Being invisible doesn't hide your killing intent."
That makes everyone, including the girl, to turn back… and sees a girl wearing a Gothic dress with dead eyes staring at them, especially the one who just called him out. The girl's stoic expression leaves Kuro in the dark to try to find out her current feeling. Though, there is one thing he can tell:
She is currently NOT human. But, she DIDN'T die in this place.
Because if she did die here, Darkening would have consumed this kind of girl already.
Unless…
They then notice the girl opening her mouth, trying to say something but no sounds come out. Even Tamaki is showing a dumbfounded look…
"Saki. Saki Akagiri." Mayuri speaks up, calling the girl's name out. "So you have…"
Kuro immediately feels the ghost's hatred glare sending directly straight to the girl. He then sees the ghost's right hand slightly moving. Sensing the danger, he immediately rushes out and pushes Mayuri out of her current position…
The result: The girl is saved, with the cost of his lower right arm getting stabbed by a wooden stick shooting up from the ground. The hit is also strong enough to actually go through his arm, leaving a hole on it.
A second passes, and everyone is horrified at the scene, and they see Kuro gritting his teeth, trying to not scream out loud although tears are already spilling out. He holds the upper right arm with his left hand and he slowly brings it down so the pain could be minimized as much as possible. If he isn't prepared his mind quickly, he might have been instantly knocked out.
After taking a few deep breaths to calm down, Kuro looks up to the ghost girl and smirks: "So, you are next. Good day, Saki Akagiri."
Chapter 11 end!
So, a small context: I just finished Another Child. So... Kuro didn't have the knowledge of this storyline and had to act recklessly if he was forced to. Oops.
Hope you guys still enjoy the story. See you again in the future!