"Where could he really fall into? We got caught in that hole the same moment." Inumaru asks out loud as he and Aiko wander through the seemingly dimension where they first arrived into Heavenly Host.
"Given his current situation, he can't run away from the Darkened Spirits for long. And he's already affected by it, despite what Sachiko told us." The informant replies as she looks around to see if any traps are prepared for them. "I doubt he can even wake up after that fall and drop unconscious somewhere."
"Getting knocked out in this place is death sentence, especially when you are alone! Oh my dear Sayaka…" Despite being able to talk with an alive one, the boy's still sad that his 'love' in his timeline can no longer return with him. "In all seriousness, we need to find him and Ayumi and get out of here fast."
The two stop their movements when they hear running sound ahead of them. It then stops for a few moments, followed by sounds of people hard-breathing. The duo cautiously head to the direction of the sound…
And they find one of their targets, along with Yoshiki Kishinuma.
"…Ayumi? Yoshiki?" Aiko starts calling out the names of the people before them, which causes the other duo's attention.
"…Aiko? Is that you?" The class 3-A representative recognizes the voice and face and she talks back to her. And once they union, Ayumi sighs in relief. "Thanks heaven! Aiko, did you come here with the Everafter stone? Can you get us out of here?"
"She didn't… have it, unfortunately." Her classmate's reply causes Ayumi to turn to him, but his attention is towards Aiko. "Some girl named Magari took it from her and teleported her… and I forced myself here along with her."
"That damned b…" The informant curses under her breath.
"Ayumi, did you see someone named Kuro running around here?" Inumaru questions as he doesn't see him around.
"…He…" Ayumi plans to say next, but the words are stuck in her throat.
"…Did something happen to him?" Aiko asks in fear, seeing how the girl before her acts.
"Is he… the guy with you when we met, Ayumi?" Yoshiki asks.
"…Yes."
"…Then we have bad news." That causes the duo before him to tense up. "He is… Darkened. I don't think we can save him at this point."
"…What happened?" Aiko half-expects that the situation is NOT as bad as he voices it out.
"Well… when I arrived here, I got chased by that old anatomical model. When I found Ayumi and that guy, he instantly jumped on that model and started stabbing it with a pair of scissors." Yoshiki recounts the event. "Over the time black mist started covering him as he stabbed more… And when I tried to call him, his head turned with a smile that clearly showed that he's about to murder everything on his sight. I have to grab Ayumi and book it instantly before we could be the next victim."
"Now that… is not nice." The group instantly turn their heads to where the duo from Kisaragi ran from and see a bloody Kuro with his right hand holding the scissors, his left holding a phone which is emitting some light, his coat being over his left shoulder, and his face wearing a crazed smile with his mouth area full of blood. His foot misses a step and he slams himself into the next wall, and he lets out a dry chuckle. "I'm… saving you… not killing you…"
"KURO!" Aiko and Inumaru shout as they quickly reach to him, and the other duo hesitant a bit but decide to not run away and instead stay with them. The informant notices the black mist still covering his right arm and his neck, and there's one line that reaches to his right eye. She then raises a finger before his eyes and says: "Hey, stay with us. How many fingers am I holding?"
"Four." That causes the girl's fear to raise a bit. "Counting Inumaru."
She turns back to see the boy holding three fingers up. The fear dies down as she sighs. "Don't scare us like that."
"Hey, sorry for the rudeness, but what happened to that model?" Kishinuma is a bit alert that the thing might have run away…
"That c**t Kizami? Dead as f**k." The laugh after the answer causes them to step slightly back away. He then coughs and continues: "Sorry about that."
"…Can you walk?"
"Not really, Ayumi. Limping, maybe?" The black mist slowly retreats back to the arm area where he got stabbed before. "Where's he? I need to steal his cane. *Cough* He can walk without it for a while."
"…Yeah, you are fine." Inumaru chuckles and throws Kuro's left arm over his shoulder and carries him up. "Where to next?"
Instead of answering, the half-dead man points the scissors towards Ayumi, signaling that she would answer the question. So the girl answers as the group starts moving: "Oh, uh… We're looking for the Pillars of the Six Demons so that I can find a way to save our friends."
"Pillars of the Six Demons? I have never heard of such names."
"That's what Misuto told me to understand. He said that those 'Pillars' could be anything though, and they are positioning in…"
Aiko frowns when Ayumi lists the fifth and the sixth direction.
"In order of doing so, I can deal with…"
"Stop right there." The informant interrupts. "Don't you think the locations are strange?"
"Strange?" Yoshiki asks back. "From what I can tell, it's just a hexagon…"
"Star of David *Cough* or Seal of Solomon."
"I'm surprised you know that." Aiko crosses her arms and says with an impressed voice.
"Blame a few certain games. That guy wanted to destroy them, and I know it's a bad deal. I'm trying to find a way to both counter his plans and save people here."
"Well… do you have a plan for that?"
"Even if I have one, Inumaru, I doubt it works. I have no ways to know if the plan can be pulled off. For now, let's find them first."
"Shouldn't we go find an Infirmary and treat your wounds first?" Yoshiki proposes a different plan.
"I have no physical wounds… except for the hole that one lovely ghost gave me."
"…Okay, why the constant jokes? This is not time and place…"
"For him, it is." Aiko explains. "He's trying to keep himself awake, since any collapse could cause him a major drop of what's left of his strength."
"Unless that bastard helps me directly, another drop would be my done for. Or some food."
"Good luck with that." Yoshiki snorts.
"Don't be rude." Ayumi scolds her classmate.
"Just ate some."
That causes the group to halt instantly as they look at his bloody mouth again and see a maniac grin on it. Inumaru immediately knows what he just implied, panics and says quickly: "Hey hey hey! We are not food here! Don't bite me!"
"Dude, it sucks. Never again."
"How could you even think of doing so?!" Ayumi shivers at the thought. "Even if he's a bad guy…"
"That's precisely why I tested on him first."
"That's not the problem here!" Yoshiki shouts. "What happened if you get fully darkened?! You are willing to risk your life like that?!"
"That, or being starved to death, coming back as a hungry ghost and starting to find live human and feast on them. You want to deal with a weakened zombie or a ghost?"
The group turns silence as they move forward while watching for traps. While they still feel what Kuro did is reckless, he did bring out a good point…
"By the way *Cough* That f***er Misuto is nowhere in Heavenly Host, but we need to make sure that he doesn't know that we know."
"…So he left Ayumi here and returned back to Earth safety?" A nod is the answer to Yoshiki's angry question. "I'm going to kill him."
"Don't try. He has spiritual power. Unless you have a gun or something."
"Where should we head first? I mean, the directions are a bit too general."
"…I suggest checking the classrooms. It seems that most groups appeared from that kind of locations. Aiko suggests after hearing Inumaru's question.
"…No. I don't remember any of the rooms having the pillars. *Cough* Maybe more specific rooms like Music room or that Gym... oh God."
"What?" The other four asks at the same time.
"…We're going to go deaf while dealing with one of the Pillars."
Heading outside, the gem that helps finding the Pillars starts shining up, and it leads the group to a statue of a wolf under the heavy rain. The group plans to try to get closer, but the statue emits a very dark energy that scares most away.
Except one who feels something familiar from the energy.
"…Stay back." Grabbing the shining stone in Ayumi's hand, Kuro leaves his moving assistant and slowly walks to the statue.
"Hey… you think you can do it?"
"Can you?" Yoshiki's silence is an obvious answer to the injured man.
The more he's getting close to the statue, the dark energy slowly retreats back to the statue, and the wolf opens its mouth for him, letting him see a pit of darkness in it. With nothing left to lose, he puts his right arm into its mouth while the others watch in anxious and concern…
Then, to everyone's relief, Kuro pulls his arm back without a problem. The statue growls once before returning itself back to its original state before the group comes. They watch the man looking down at his right hand for a moment before walking to the group and showing them what's in his hand: A small red crystal.
"So… what does this mean?" Aiko asks, not very sure if what Kuro did is different than what Misuto planned. Then, to everyone's surprise, he throws the crystal into his mouth and swallows it in one go. "Hey! Why did you…"
Before anyone says anything else, Kuro's skin reddens up, to the point it looks like he's being boiled. He stiffens up in order to not let out a bloody scream, but everyone could see that he's in immense pain given how his body recoils and folds. Ayumi quickly screams: "Aiko! Do you have any talisman to purge the darkness?"
"I'm on it!"
"No need…" Kuro's reply causes the girl to stop moving for a moment. "Give me a second…"
"What… what is really your plan?!" Inumaru half asks half screams. "Even if it's a crystal, it probably comes from the Pillar, which screams evil by itself!"
"…Because…" After a lot of ragged breath, Kuro manages to recover his breath and normalizes it before saying: "Thanks to that, I remember that I can do one thing to screw up his plans, without direct interference into them."
"By… eating it?" Yoshiki is not fond of the idea. "…This is going to repeat for the rest, isn't it?"
"Correct."
"How about we share that? The next time…"
"I will bear it. I have a reason for doing so."
And with that, Kuro winks at Inumaru and Aiko.
And both of them now know why.
"…Please, tell us there's a chance we can help you."
"Well, you ARE helping me, right?" Kuro's now genuine smile causes a deep cut in the duo's morality, as they are now certain there's only one way to go for him…
"Don't just keep us out of the loops here. What's going on?" Yoshiki asks the same question in Ayumi's mind.
"Let's keep going. The sooner we are done with this, the better."
…
After taking the second one (which caused Kuro to actually go mad for a moment before Aiko managed to pull out the crystal) and the third one (he turned completely deaf until the obnoxiously loud song in the Gymnasium is completely out of range from the others' hearing detection), they head to the outdoor pool and sees a familiar color of the water.
"Urgh… I want to purge." Yoshiki grunts. "If the damn Pillar is under the water again…"
"Well, we can drain the water, right?" Inumaru says. "Just heading to the back and deal with the…"
"…Guys." They all stop talking and turn to look at Kuro, whose skin is getting paler. "…Is it just me… or I feel something… moving in the pool?"
The rest instantly turn their looks to the direction, but after a minute, nothing happens.
"Maybe the Pillars did something to you?" Aiko guesses. "I'm a bit more surprised about how you still hang on after consuming those without an ounce of spiritual in you."
"Just will." Gently kneeling down to the edge of the pool, he feels something resonating with the crystals in him, and he has no doubts that it's the next crystal. "Ayumi, can I borrow the stone?" Once he receives it, he starts waving the stone around to check its reaction, and he can confirm that the stone pretty much gives out the same result as he can conduct. "…I actually didn't think of the possibility, but that's convenient."
"…You can feel where the Pillars are now?" A nod. Aiko shakes her head in disapproval. "Is this really your plan?"
"Not in the slightest. But I should have…" He stops speaking when he notices the feeling of the crystal suddenly move around the pool, and the stone's light is flicking in his hand. "It's moving… oh no."
The moment he recognizes a danger, it's already too late. Tentacles emit from the depth of the pool and swing around dangerously, causing everyone to gasp in surprise. Kuro opens his mouth to try to shout orders to the others, when suddenly a tentacle with the feeling of the crystal on it swings directly at his face, throwing him through the fence. Before anyone else could react, the tentacles just retreat back to the water and disappear without a trace.
After the shocking moment, everyone quickly gets over the hole of the destroyed fence and finds Kuro lying on the ground, showing no signs of moving. They panic and flip him over to see a very obvious bruise on his face, with his glasses cracking from the impact. His nose is bleeding, and his breath is so shallow they all have to get very close to notice that he's still breathing.
They quickly gather around him, with Inumaru and Yoshiki pulling him towards a tree and laying him on a softer ground. Ayumi wipes out the blood on his face and Aiko starts checking his eyes. What she sees terrifies her even more: the right eye which looks like a dead fish's eye is now having only redness, with the pupil being in a darker color; the left eye's bloodshot now turns into cursed symbols that nearly cover all but the pupil.
"He is still alive… right?" Yoshiki asks uncertainly.
"He's still breathing… barely." Ayumi replies in concern and fear. "We should find his friends. Maybe they can do something…" She suddenly feels something appear behind her, and she turns back to see a dark figure already looming over her.
Her next yelp of surprise causes everyone else to divert their attentions and see who it is. Yoshiki is about to stand up and pull Ayumi back, but Inumaru recognizes him instantly: "Oh, you! Hey, can you help him? I know you can't directly…"
"He must not die yet." The figure heads closer to Kuro, which causes the others to spread out to leave him away…
And to their surprise, the figure just raises his cane up and slams one end to Kuro's chest area, causing the body to shake up, which manages to snap the person out of the current state. Before he says anything, he quickly turns his head and throws out blood and other stuffs, then grunts: "Holy hell, almost a goner! Also, DAFUQ!?"
"You need my cane, so I give you that."
"Bastard."
"…He could have died from that." Aiko is not approved of the method. "But thanks for saving him."
"It's my job." The figure then watches Kuro leaning himself up to the tree with his right hand placing on where he just got hit by the cane. "Better?"
"Better than dying, obviously…" He then reaches to his glasses and puts it back into his coat. "I suppose you won't fix it."
"You don't ask for it."
"And you know I won't."
Ayumi looks back and forth between the figure and the man on the ground, and she feels like they are either twin or clones of each other considering she sees NOTHING different from the two's appearance. "Um… I'm sorry if it sounds rude… but you two…" However, the moment she blinks, the person is already gone, leaving his cane behind. "…What? Where did he go?"
"Leave him be." She turns back to see Kuro trying to reach to the cane, which Inumaru helpfully brings to him. After thanking the boy, he stands up using the cane to keep himself up. "We need to find the rest ASAP. I don't like that punk…"
"Can you even see anything?"
"I'm not blind, Yoshiki, but thanks for asking… Damn, they're REALLY messing inside me now…" Grabbing his chest in pain, Kuro lets out a maniac grin. "Darkening and the Demons… nice combination."
"…You might need these." Aiko pulls out a few talisman and shows it to the injured man. "Use this to suppress the Darkness in you. Normally I would ask for your money, but I suppose you saving my life is a good price."
"…I think it would backfire to me. I'm abusing this to keep moving."
"I'm envy of you." Inumaru sighs. "I have high spiritual energy and yet I got taken by the Darkening, yet you can control it quite effectively."
"Probably because I don't have that that helps me… How long are you going to hide, miss?"
Kuro's head turn and his statement cause the others to look at where he's looking at, to see Magari moving out of the shadow of the forest. "Impressive. You managed to survive that long. You seem to be much more useful than that girl there."
"You…" Aiko growls.
"And I'm surprised you two are still alive as well. Guess you have some luck in you…"
"That's rich coming from you." Black mist crawls on Kuro's right face and covers the area below his right eye. "Now, I'm assuming you're planning to ask for the Book of Shadow, am I correct?"
"As if. I knew where the book is. No, I'm questioning you on why you keep agitating the Pillars despite clearly knowing what will happen next."
For a moment after Magari's demand, Kuro doesn't say a word and his head hangs down, the Darkening slowly retreats back.
"…Kuro?" Ayumi asks in concern.
"Hey, if you don't want to answer, then…"
Before Yoshiki finishes his word, Kuro bursts out laughing with a bloody and sickening manner, and the Darkening now emits around him, signaling a person being controlled by Darkening. All quickly back away, and Magari pulls out her scythe and readies to cut down the laughing person…
"Why? Why? WHY!? Yes! Why do I have to?!" The person starts talking to himself. "Why the F**K do I have to get in the harm way!? Why do I have to care of these guys' lives if they're doomed to die!? I need not to care, and I just have to tell him that I don't care and just leave without a trace!" Another laugh. "Isn't everything already okay in the way it is?! I got thrown around like ragdolls, got beaten down and fallen through floors after floors! F**king painful as f**k!" Another. "I can't even SLEEP properly without getting murdered in my mind constantly! Other than attending Sachiko's birthday party, everything else is SH!T! In fact, I could just go to the dark path and murder everything on sight!"
He continues to throw words out over and over, with the others looking in fear and concern, or curious from Magari. Not because it sounds exactly like he's completely out of his mind, but because he actually makes no moves signaling of an attack.
Then, the man stops his rant and takes a few deep breathes. The black mist surprisingly dissipates as well, not completely though.
"…It's very simple. Kuro finishes with a surprisingly calm voice. "I don't want to die, that's pretty much true. But I don't want to see others dying. Curse my greed for happy endings." He then slowly climbs back to the pool area and makes his movement clear that he's heading back into the school building. "Feel free to criticize on that, and I don't care."
"…Hey! Wait!" Inumaru's shout snaps the others out of shock as he starts getting back to check on the injured man. "Sayaka's going to be mad at me if you get killed!"
"…I'm not planning to die here either." Aiko turns her head to Magari and narrows her eyes in anger. "You can keep the damn stone. We're taking that punk's stone when we get our hands on him." With that, the girl quickly follows the other two, and a few seconds later Ayumi and Yoshiki follow her too.
That leaves Magari alone in her spot. Taking a moment to rethink of what just happened, she says to herself: "…After this, I'm leaving the damn cult. And who was that figure appearing and disappearing without a trace?"