"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH...! IIIIIIRRRKK! NOOOOOO!"
Standing in front of the door, Ritsu and Akashi were welcomed by horrendous screams coming out of the obscure room, certainly the voices of the current visitors. For a simple thrilling experience, those screams were quite horrific which aroused her excitement even more. She glanced from the corner of her eyes at Akashi who was browsing the poster of the event stuck on the wall. To think she would actually share a private moment with him, and in a haunted house no less. That was something she would have qualified as ridiculous and inconceivable a month ago but here she was, with him, ready to challenge the Haunted House.
"Are you new challengers?" the host asked, wearing a false small axe that was sticking out of his head.
They nodded exchanging looks.
"Oh! Akashi...and Asaka...! Together!" He realised, zeroing in on them with one big eye. "Wow! Such strong challengers! Will you be able to beat the Haunted House?"
"Beat?"
"Yeah. It's a small treasure hunt with, of course, lots of surprises inside! You'll see!"
"We can already hear that!" She joked. "Those are some awful screams."
"Aha! Don't expect your hunt to be a walk in the park! And let me tell you something! A real ghost roams inside it. "
"Really?" Akashi drawled, a glint of interest shining in his eyes.
"Yep! I can't say more or it'll spoil the fun! Well then, which course will you choose? The Friends or The Lovers?"
"Are those the two paths? What's the difference?"
"Never heard about haunted house being the best place to strengthen bonds?" He chirped while his brows were wriggling like mad trying to hint some possible development between Akashi and her.
"You made that up just now." She retorted flatly.
"Aha, better see it yourself then! Darkness reveals more about a person than light!" He affirmed in a superhero's stance. "So, which will it be? Friends or Lovers?"
When Ritsu turned to Akashi, he shrugged his shoulders, letting her choose as there was no matter for debate.
"Ah! I forgot to mention that The Lovers' path is more challenging and you can get a unique prize! Hehe."
"Something you made up again?" His snicker made her suspicious.
"No, what he said is the truth. It's written on the flyer." Strangely, Akashi spoke up and handed it to her. It was right there, written in bold characters: «Want to add some thrill in your love life or find the courage to declare your flame? Then The Lovers Course is made for you! Across the darkness, search for the five hidden keys to win your beloved heart and obtain a unique prize with the Heart key, the ultimate love treasure (only in this course)! Through this experience beyond reality, you'll never let go of your partner!»
"So far no one has found the Heart key! They were so scared that they only tried to find the way out." the host added with a certain satisfaction. "Soooo~ which one?"
"The Friends / Lovers course." They answered at the same time, except there was one wild answer out there.
"How bold, Akashi! Having your eyes on Asaka?" He nudged him as he felt a certain kinship with him. "Even a creep like you can't resist a cute girl's charm."
"Can I ask why the Lovers'?"
"I should be the one asking why you chose the Friends' path."
"I chose depending on our current relationship that is friendship...Unless you think otherwise."
"It's small details." He put a hand on his hips and blankly looked her in the eyes. She stared back unsure of why he got serious. "Friends or Lovers, those are just words to add some fun to the event. Overall the Lovers' path is the best in term of thrill. Moreover it's not mentioned anywhere that this course is solely for couples."
"Oh crap Akashi, you're serious?! I take back what I said! You've got no heart and where's the romance?!"
Akashi disregarded his remark. "And I prefer when there's a challenge for winning the prize at the end. Challenges are very exhilarating."
In short, he was looking forward to this, his red eyes were sparkling at the prospect of an interesting challenge. No matter how mature and wise he may seem, he still remained a kid at heart in spite of everything. This rare side of him was almost heart-warming. Actually, it was the very first time she was referring to him as a kid.
'A crown of flowers could well and truly suit him.'
"After you, then." She didn't need to say more, the joy was certainly written all over her face. Since he stated earlier she was easy to read, why not use it to her own advantage when with him?
They exchanged looks, Akashi smiled back satisfied with her decision and both turned to the host who didn't follow what just happened.
"We'll take the Lovers course."
"...Oh boy, don't act so lovey-dovey when you're not even a true couple." He sighed in exasperation while opening the door of the haunted house. "Good luck~! And have fun!"
Inside, they were walking down a narrow and straight corridor where fake candles shed a dim light, making the spider webs that covered the walls shimmer in an eerie way and accentuating the ominous atmosphere of the house. At the end of the corridor, a coffin was propped up, a creaking sound followed as the lit opened slowly but the inside was empty, no trace of a vampire.
"Fresh blooooood!" Suddenly a shadow leaped out from behind the curtain near the coffin. Surprised, she squeezed the chick plush staring blankly at the incoming vampiress who was brought up short due to their lack of reaction.
"No scream? Too bad...It usually works." the girl said, disappointed at her failed attempt while taking a peek at her visitors. "Uwa! Damn, of course is scaring you two weirdos beyond my abilities!" Cheered up by her rather stupid explanation, she faced them happily. "Never thought I'd see you two here! And together! Tehehe, here for the Friends course?"
"No, the Lovers."
"NO WAY! Since when are you two...?!" Ironically, they managed to make the vampiress scream.
"Nothing of the sort. We're here for the unique prize."
"Huh? What a let down." She muttered then she fetched a flashlight behind the coffin and gave it to them. "Take this. You'll need it for the course."
Ritsu took it and switched it on, checking if the flashlight worked as a beam lit up her face.
"Now." She walked up to one of the two doors presented to them, one was red and the other pale green, certainly in reference to the two courses; then she opened the red one and bowed slightly. "Will you be the first to find the Heart key? Hehe. See ya!"
They walked in and the curtain closed up leaving Akashi and her in absolute darkness.
"Wow, I can't see anything."
In the course description, they didn't lie when they said «across the darkness», the darkness was so thick that she couldn't even see the end of her nose or the hand she was waving in front of her. That was where the flashlight came in handy.
"Ah! That's better."
She inspected the place thoroughly, still standing near the entrance with Akashi by her side. Glancing around, the room was rather small. They only had to take few steps to reach the center of the dark room. Right before their eyes stood a wooden door, and around them, human heads were hung here and there accompanied with two corpses laid on the floor.
At the center, Ritsu aimed the light beam at the walls, all covered with black curtains adding more to this impression of oppressing darkness.
"I hope we won't end up like them after the treasure hunt." She joked, flashing to the two white corpses. "Or at least, not on the floor. Even with the flashlight it's kind of hard to see something."
"We'd better watch our steps."
The boy was examining the corners illuminated by the flashlight which he followed in a quiet observation of the place. Then Ritsu stopped the light on a second door, just at the right of Akashi.
"There's a second door." She said as she pointed the beam back to the first door. Somehow amused by their actual situation, she turned toward Akashi and put the flashlight between them, just under their chin. "Left or right? Which one are we going to take?"
The beam of light going straight to the ceiling lit up their faces, giving to both of them a shady impression. Especially in Akashi's case, the shadows on his face seemed to accentuate his stern traits more than usual.
"I'll let you choose." He replied, an amused smile tugging at his lips. The excitement he saw in her turned rather creepy with the way the flashlight was angled.
"Hum..." She lowered the flashlight and pointed in the direction of the first door, then turned back to Akashi and the door behind him. "Let's take the second one, then."
"Are you sure?"
"Huh? Yes. Why are you asking?"
"Just feeling like it."
"...«Just feeling like it» doesn't sound really like it when coming from your mouth." Ritsu brushed off what he just said in a half-hearted tone. And yet, a vague hesitation took her. From the corner of her eyes, she casted a look at the first door, dimly illuminated by the light still on Akashi. Did he notice something or hear anything near that door next to him? But the two of them were pretty close to each other and she felt nothing strange. Unless he was...
"Are you trying to scare me off?"
Akashi was quiet as ever. As she looked at him closely, her gaze trailed the long and large shadow at his back, swallowing the whole door and stretching high, as if it could almost engulf him. For a few minutes, she contemplated it, something eerie seemed to float in the air.
Looking away, Ritsu shook off that strange sensation, thinking that the silent atmosphere of the room and the fact of being alone in the dark with Akashi certainly played with her mind. The redhead probably just asked for fun. "I doubt there's something that terrible awaiting us behind that door. Unless you want us to take the first one?"
"It's doesn't make a difference. We'll take the second door, let's go." Akashi replied while Ritsu stared at him openly. She had been right after all! He was just trying to scare her off.
The boy led the way. In the second room, the duo scanned the new room, apparently of the same surface area than the previous one. Their eyes fell on the torn white sheets that hung on clothesline in a rather messy way, and completely blocked their sight. They could hardly see anything ahead unless they crossed the sheets.
Ritsu squinted her eyes to discern what seemed to be bloodstains and bloody hand prints on them, and there were even some awfully painted on a wall. Although she knew that those were fake, a shiver still ran down her spine. She had to admit that the rendering was pretty realistic.
"You think someone will pop up behind those sheets?"
"Probably. It's a good spot to lurk around, but also a good place to hide a key."
"Oh. Now that you mention it, we're in the middle of a treasure hunt." She noted with a hint of relief. Akashi's words reminded her of the other purpose beside the thrilling experience: The ultimate treasure. When she caught a glimpse of his sheer amusement, the peculiar oppression of the place lessened, and she shared his sentiment with a chuckle.
When they decided to move, Ritsu let go of the door, from which they came in, and it closed heavily behind them. First to react, she turned back, suddenly suspicious of that peculiar sound. The door wasn't that heavy to close that way.
Akashi barely acknowledged it and advanced toward the sheets, even if for a second he had been on the lookout with his red eyes on the door. Following his movement, she paid no more attention to the sound and walked behind him.
"Where do we start searching?"
The redhead stopped and inspected a white cloth. "Let's take a look at the sheets first. The key might be attached to one of them."
At his idea, she helped him by pointing the flashlight all over the sheets. Nothing came from their first inspection and they continued. Now amidst white sheets and bloodstains, the room seemed to have widened, the door gave the impression to be far away, even though they only had taken a few steps from there.
In the middle of their search, the flashlight began to flicker strangely. The interval between the flickers shortened with the seconds.
"Eh?..." By reflex, she lightly hit it on her palm. Complete darkness. "Aah?!...It doesn't work anymore! You've got to be kidding me!"
Not amused by the situation, she hit it harder on her palm, but as she somehow guessed with a certain resignation, the flashlight never lit again.
"...Do you think it's part of the Lovers course scenario? By giving us a defective flashlight to make us wander in the house." She raised the stupid question, wanting at least to hear an explanation for their bad luck.
"I doubt that. There's no fun in a treasure hunt if we can't see anything."
"I second that. We can hardly progress without light. Maybe we should go back to the entrance, we're not far from there." She suggested, looking around in vain.
"I guess that's not a bad idea."
In the darkness, their steps sounded louder. Robbed of their sights, their other senses became sharper, and it was kind of stressing Ritsu out to rely on them so abruptly. Their movements, their breaths, every detail that she didn't take notice of before increased the thickness and the silence of the darkness.
She heard a light tap on a hard surface, surely Akashi who was ahead had reached the door. But before she could notice he had halted, she awkwardly bumped into him.
"Oh, sorry, Akashi-kun." She stepped back to let him have the space to find the door handle.
"There's no door handle."
The comment sounded so absurd that she didn't believe it at first.
"Spare me your joke."
"I'm not joking. We're locked in."
So that hard sound earlier was the door locking...
Facing the facts, the boy and the girl fell silent. Not only did their flashlight die on them but they couldn't even retrace their steps.
"We have to find another exit."
"In the dark?"
"We don't have much of a choice."
"Why not call for help? Some students must be waiting somewhere in case of emergency. Oh!" And the face of a student came to her mind. "The vampiress. We're just one room ahead, if we shout she might hear us and come to our help!"
"Go ahead."
At the invitation, her idea didn't sound as good as the first time, now that she realised the silliness of the action and all the embarrassement it'd cause her ; she sort of understood why Akashi didn't even try to make the suggestion.
"...Ugh, I think I'll pass." She sighed, squeezing the chick plush against her for a little comfort. "We'd better move on as you said. That way, we'll probably run into someone."
"Let's get going then."
Akashi walked ahead and she followed him, carefully trying to never let the distance between them widen. They had the worst luck so far, she didn't want to add more to it by losing sight of one another, though she doubted they could really get separated. The rooms weren't that big and a faint call would be enough to know the other's whereabouts in the said case.
But in spite of everything, her heart felt light, warmed by a silent concern from her friend. Akashi, as well, kept a steady pace to make sure she followed.
"Good thing we're together."
"You're scared?" Akashi asked, his steps faintly echoing away, then he stopped in his track. She heard him putting his bag full of prizes on the floor that ensued some rustles.
"Alone, maybe. I don't think I'd have gone alone in the dark, and probably I would have waited for someone to come instead."
"You don't seem like the type of girl that waits around to be rescued or seeks other's help."
"Guess that explains why I turned up as the Witch for the play. Midorima-kun would surely say that Fate has spoken." She laughed it off before she reverted to a graver tone. "In fact, I'm not scared of the dark. It feels more like uneasiness than true fear."
Her gray-blue eyes roved around the place, unable to discern a single form. The sheets, the doors, Akashi's silhouette, everything around her was swallowed by darkness.
"Not seeing anything ahead sure is kind of stressing but not enough to make me panic."
"And still sufficient to make you remain in the shadow."
She chuckled. "I still need some light to guide me in the dark."
Akashi didn't say anything. Only the faint rustling of fabric prevented silence from settling completely between the two of them.
Hearing those sounds getting distant, Ritsu concentrated on the spot where she supposed the boy was while trying to get accustomed to the dark. But it was too soon. She couldn't tell if his presence was now only a few steps away from her or further.
"You don't need light, Asaka."
"I'm not so sure about that. As you can see, it's pretty dark around us. In such circumstances, everybody would need light."
"You already have what it takes to get out."
The ash-blond haired girl stayed silent, no more precisely, she couldn't come up with any reaction. Something gave her the impression they weren't talking about the same thing, and eerily, his words twisted up with his piece of advice earlier:
«You shouldn't belittle yourself.»
However, as of now there was something different in this echo, a strange nay oppressive sensation crawling under her skin she felt for the first time. This unknown feeling seemed to tighten her heart when she attempted to unravel the twisted link that formed within her.
"Courage?" She said as a guess. Even without fear, crossing darkness required a good amount of courage and determination.
"Not quite. Something more innate, that can't allow you to stay in the shadow."
As far as she was concerned, the more she tried, the more she couldn't keep the distance.
"...Are we talking about the same thing, Akashi-kun?"
"You're far from being stupid, Asaka."
She did have an inkling of what lay behind his words, yet it didn't mean that she understood why he told her that. She knew now to not take his words lightly. No matter how sudden or strange he may sound at first, his words sure revealed to be quite insightful when she eventually grasped the meaning. Like they already proved to be during her first meeting with the whole colorful squad.
"Even so, sometimes it's hard to follow you."
"Even if I was to give you an explanation, it's not like you'd believe right away what I'm saying. It boils down to the same thing whichever way I tell them, but the result would be different; and depending on the case, it could turn out less than satisfying."
He wasn't wrong. What mattered wasn't the form of his words, but how people received them and grasped the core of his intentions. In her case, it certainly had some impact on her or else his piece of advice wouldn't be lingering on her mind in the way it did. Despite the vague pressure she sensed earlier, it echoed in the distance as though to lead her in a particular direction and push her limits she didn't feel the need to overcome until now.
She decided on her own to listen to his piece of advice and had certainly distorted it in some kind of way to suit the girl she was. But, well thus far the result was far from being displeasing.
"Well, I wouldn't object. But at least, choose the right place to tell me that. You know I'm rather uncomfortable without light and you're still saying those weird things to me. You really intend to scare me, aren't you?" A faint chuckle reached her ears and she responded the same. "By the way, Akashi-kun, what are you doing with the sheets? I've been hearing you flipping them for a while now."
"We still have to find the keys before leaving."
"Er, what?...!" She didn't believe her ears, as he hadn't given up on the idea of gathering the five keys in order to get the ultimate treasure. "We aren't going for the exit right away?!"
"It's our only choice to move on. However, I've never mentioned anything about giving up the treasure hunt."
"You said it wasn't funny to find objects in the dark."
"Alone, it'd surely be the case. But you're here with me, the last time I checked." At that moment, she didn't know how she should to take it. The sweet warmth on her cheeks betrayed a certain happiness.
"First you want to drag me into the Friendship quiz contest and now it's a treasure hunt in the dark. That's some passionate side you have here, Akashi-kun. You really want the winning prizes."
"The haunted house was your idea."
"Ugh...Don't rub salt into the wound." She gave in and walked up to where she last heard his voice.
To advance without a hitch, she used her hand to open the way and moved the sheets on her way. As she approached the presumed location of the boy, her fingers grazed a fabric. She lifted it with a jerk, thinking the fabric was quite long given the slight sensation of weight. When the back of her hand smacked something very hard like a bone, followed by a sound close to teeth clicking together.
"Ngh..!"
"...Oh!" Ritsu shouted, realising what just happened. "I'm so sorry!...I didn't thought you'd be this close! It's hard to gauge distance!"
She didn't feel Akashi's presence next to her until she found him in a rather clumsy way. When she pulled up the sheet to move on, her right hand smacked the boy's jaw, and on top of that quite violently, remembering the sharp sound the hit made.
"I didn't hurt you I hope!"
"...You have more strength than expected...Asaka."
With that incident, both were forced to admit that their little adventure in the dark would be more physical than they expected