Following the small accident, the duo was now in possession of three keys, and the fourth one would soon join the others in Akashi's hand, as it just fell on the ground, resounding with faint rings. Ritsu hardly commented on this prowess, but she couldn't deny that despite the dark, their efforts were not in vain and they progressed smoother and quicker than she initially thought.
It was all thanks to Akashi's good judgement, to say the least. His keen power of deduction spared them the effort of scurrying around and instead let them concentrate on what they deemed important to check. Even without light, they managed well.
Overall, it was easy, and it was supposed to be. As he explained to her during their search, the treasure hunt was only a pretext to add a thrilling and funny dimension to the Haunted House. So the hidden items weren't necessarily put in places hard to find, and they were rather hidden near objects that would naturally come to people's mind. Like the sheets in the second room, it was the first thing that busted into view when they entered the room. Common sense told them to begin their search there first. It was as simple as that. If it was too hard to find, some people would just lose interest and forget about the challenge. Everything was thought for people to have fun.
"Ouch!" The cry followed the ring. As she tried to get the key that fell to the floor after she pulled on some sort of rope, her left leg banged into a wooden box.
"I have it." His voice came from a few meters ahead of her, where she actually wanted to go, if it weren't for that cursed wooden box.
"As always."
But she probably also had to give his sharp eyes some credit for their success in the treasure hunt. So far, Akashi seemed to deal with the dark rather well, almost too well, frankly speaking. As if he was already accustomed to it.
"Good work."
"Say that to my shin. It really hurts...!" She instantly retorted, rubbing said appendage. "How come I've never heard you bump into anything?"
"I could ask you the same. How come I'm always hearing you bump into something? You're right behind me."
"...That's not true, Akashi-kun."
With the fourth key in their possession, the duo wanted to proceed, but before they had to make a choice. When they first inspected the whole room, they noted tree doors, excluding the one from which they entered.
"Which door?"
"The one closest to us."
They went straight to it. Ritsu touched the wooden door, trying to find the door handle. She looked for it for a couple of seconds, and to her great surprise, there wasn't one. Again.
"The door handle is missing. That's the second time!"
Akashi immediately headed to another door and opened it without trouble.
"Seems like some doors are to be opened one way only."
"Things are getting complicated."
Without light, it was hard to orientate themselves and pinpoint their exact location within the haunted house. Ritsu took a glimpse at the door next to her, locked. They would not get out of this haunted house anytime soon, and this impression only increased with time. Not that she wasn't having fun with the treasure hunt, but she missed the light a bit.
She walked up to Akashi and followed him inside the new room.
They stepped into the place and proceeded with their examination. Only a minute after, Ritsu was struck by an odd detail. Under her fingertips, she recognized the familiar touch of the sheets, the very same from the start of their adventure.
"Er, didn't we already examine this room?...That's the room full of sheets."
"You noticed too." Akashi confirmed, turning back to her. "As it seems, all rooms are connected to one another."
"Then, the doors..." She rbought the doors that stood in their way each time they entered a new room into focus, and got an inkling of the situation they were about to face.
"...can either lead us to a new room or another we already crossed." He completed her observation, as he noted the same. "My guess is that the haunted house has been set up as some sort of maze. In each room, we always have to choose between two paths or more and we're unsure of where it could lead us. Some rooms are dead ends, others are leading us on a new track."
Akashi's reasoning made sense. Since the beginning of their hunt, they had crossed four rooms, and always had been confronted with a choice about which door to open. Even if they had chosen to walk through all of them in a rather «straight» way, both of them knew that their choices certainly had some influence on their course but not to such an extent as to encounter a one-way door again. Ritsu thought that even after crossing a room they could freely retrace their steps if the need arose. However, in all likelihood, that was one big mistake to have gone so care freely. Some doors wouldn't open as she wished. And like in a maze, they had to go over some tracks they already had walked on.
"How many rooms do you think there are?" She turned her head to the boy next to her in a dejected motion.
"I don't know. Not many, I guess. Maybe seven or less, given the fact that there are six keys."
One room for each key, that added up as they always found a key in every room. However, that meant two keys were still left to find in rooms they had yet to come across. Well, if they ever managed to get there without a hitch, Ritsu thought, getting a bit tired by all the surprises that came one after another. Crossing a maze in the dark without a flashlight was the worst luck.
"What are we going to do? At this rate, we have a high chance of going in circles if we don't proceed with caution."
"We won't. If we narrow our options, this maze is far from being complexed. Even in the dark."
Akashi went back to the fourth room. Not questioning him further on his sudden move, she stayed right behind him, and followed him as they returned into the third room.
"There are three doors we haven't opened yet. One here and two in the second room on our left. Let's try this one first."
"You have a good memory, Akashi-kun..." Not like hers, she retained things a lot easier by sight and sound than by her other senses, hence why she couldn't think of those remaining options on the spot, even if she knew they existed.
"You too could have thought of it." He made the remark in a quiet tone, as he approached the door.
"Well, I do remember those doors, but they didn't cross my mind until you reminded me of them. That would have taken some time before I could think of it."
By the sound of his touch, the door revealed itself to be locked too.
Two doors to the left, the duo immediately walked into the second room and both checked the remaining doors. One was locked, the other opened.
"It's just as you said. With you, everything seems strangely a lot easier."
"Because not everything is as complicated as you think."
The light steps of the boy set on this new track. Trailing him after a beat, Ritsu cast a glance back, then turned her eyes back to the front, somewhat bothered by the silence of the place. For a haunted house, it was so quiet that she couldn't help but wonder.
"Say, don't you think that it's awfully calm around us? We don't hear anything strange and we haven't encountered somebody who tries to sca—"
*splash*
Before she could finish her sentence, a gelatinous rectangular thing landed right in the middle of her face.
"Oups."
"You did it on purpose, didn't—"
*splash*
"Again! You're fully aware I'm just behind you!"
"Watch out, Asaka. There are konnyaku jellies hung on threads."
"You're warning me now?!"
This new room seemed to amuse Akashi a lot. She decided to take her distance from him in order to avoid some other konnyaku jellies attacks and started the examination on her side. But much to her dismay, this was far from being restful. On top of continuously running into konnyaku jellies, her hands touched slimy things she'd rather not know for her own sake.
After getting a general idea of the area, she followed the sounds of Akashi's whereabouts. Soft rustles accompanied his light movements, giving a charming side to his natural elegance easily pictured through his silence and composure – So many times observed and yet ungraspable – As always, nothing seemed to trouble his quietude, not even those konnyaku jellies, neither did the spiders in the second room, the graveyard in the third room, the hanged skeletons in the fourth room, nor the dark. Akashi remained the same boy she first met and the new friend she started to know and learn to care about. Calm and soothing, yet not absolutely devoid of some burning innocence, the boy could have this kind of presence while a plain strictness and cold fairness could roughly shape his words and actions.
He didn't change; in light or in darkness, he was always in control. And curiously, she couldn't help but smile in happiness at the idea of him remaining the same as ever.
*clatter* *clatter* *clang*
Out of the blue, loud noises came from behind the door near her.
"...! W-W-What are those noises?" Snatched away from her reverie, she perked her head up at the sudden ruckus.
"Here you have your scary moment."
"Akashi-kun! Now's not the time to be joking!" His steps got closer to her and stood near the door. "You're going in?"
"This might be our chance to ask for help, Asaka."
"Oh."
Akashi was really down to earth. By his clear intonation, he never considered the fact that those noises might have been produced by something out of this world. True, the thought itself was silly, but remained a very spontaneous reaction in this sort of place.
About to leave the room, Ritsu froze at the threshold, her attention was caught again by some clangs breaking the silence that slowly imposed between them in a regular rhythm. It was the keys Akashi was carrying with him. She wondered about their importance, or rather Akashi's priorities. From the start, he focused more on the treasure hunt than the exit. The four keys could attest to his determination to go through the challenge till end, while the exit seemed like a distant goal. She went along with his fun, not through spite but because she simply knew that, with him, the exit wasn't as far as she imagined it to be. After collecting the lot of keys, his next destination would definitely be the light.
However, unexpectedly, he left the room without the fifth key and decided to seek for help. As far as she knew, Akashi wasn't the type to give up on things half-way.
"But we still haven't found the key of this room."
"...I've already found it. Only one left."
His voice denoted some great satisfaction which she didn't even bother to react to or question. In his company, things revealed themselves to be so easy and strangely surprising that she no longer felt the need to make comments or tried to find an explanation to his actions.
The new room was as silent as the others, the strange noises echoed in their mind as if from a dream. They couldn't sense a soul or hear a simple breath, it was empty. There was nobody in there, but she couldn't have been wrong about the origin of those noises, even Akashi had approached the door when it had occurred. Unless there was not someone with them, but something...
A cold shiver ran down her spine. What was she thinking? Those things didn't exist; she tried to slap some rationality into herself. Yet, unconsciously, her fingers tightened around the defective flashlight, prepared for any danger. No light would come from it, she knew, but her grip didn't slacken, probably hoping that it would light up again in case of emergency.
"...Do you see someone, Akashi-kun?"
"No."
In quiet strides, Akashi drifted away from her. His back was usually within reach, and right now she couldn't estimate the distance between them. He was in front of her, that was all she could tell.
"Asaka, are you so scared to be holding my hand?"
"What are you talking about?"
"I need your help."
"...!"
"...! W-W-W-Who was that?!"
*rustle* *tap* *tap* *clang* *rustle*
The unknown voice cast a spell of confusion. Amidst the darkness, brisk rustles, frantic hits, and piercing clangs gave another dimension to the silent place. She was unsure of what Akashi was doing, though his brief yet distinctive movements did sound very hectic. However, at the moment, she didn't really mind him. Confused, she was hitting the flashlight on her palm helplessly as a last recourse. She sought light right now, she needed to see something.
Her wish was granted, she did see something.
The miraculous column of light beamed again and straight at the pale face of a boy covered in blood.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
Then, darkness reigned again. She scarcely had had the time to see in front her when the light went out and her heart was ready to burst out of her chest. She didn't see Akashi's back as she had hoped, but an unknown boy with trails of blood dripping down his face. Her heart beating in an unknown rhythm, she couldn't think straight, wondering where that boy came from. There was nobody in this room a second ago, Akashi also said so. And now, more importantly, where was he? She shuddered to herself, because she somewhat felt the answer. There was no presence of a third person near them, meaning...
"D-D-D-D-D-Did you see it, Akashi-kun?" She asked in panic, before she realised she was gripping Akashi's shirt. She didn't let go of him as her confused gray-blue eyes were carefully inspecting the room in search of the boy.
"...Only the back."
"W-W-W-Where did it go?..."
"Not far I supposed."
"H-He scared the hell out of me!"
"I never meant to scare you."
The voice popped out next to her.
"AAAAAAAAHHHH!"
Ritsu recoiled in surprise, swiftly pulling and keeping Akashi with her. Definitely not letting go of him, not until they brought light to this mysterious case.
"You managed to make Asaka scream twice. Not bad."
"Akashi-kun...!"
The comment broke the ice between them and the strange presence. As always, her red-haired friend didn't even consider the idea of the boy being a real ghost and talked to him like he usually would. In his voice, no fear was inflected, but rather surprise mixed with an odd note of wonder and light-heartedness.
"So, who are you?" Akashi reverted to a clearer tone.
"Ah, I'm part of the members in charge of scaring the visitors." The boy answered with a frankness that didn't match the low pitch of his voice.
"I see. It was you who made that ruckus earlier. However, aren't you supposed to stay away from the visitors after scaring them?" He asked, wondering why he was still there, currently talking with them.
He hummed a positive answer. "It's normally the case...But I'm in trouble, I don't really know where I am."
"You're lost? How can a member in charge of the event be lost?" The redhead grew more and more incredulous by what he was hearing. Logically, the boy should have a very good knowledge of the place to move around in order to scare people.
"That's a long story."
"Keep it short."
"I lost consciousness."
After that answer, Ritsu and Akashi just heard the wind blow.
"Er, are you still here?" She decided to speak.
"Yes."
"Why don't you continue?"
"I told you the reason. You said to keep it short."
"But that's too short!"
She heard no reaction from him. What a strange boy. In the dark, she couldn't shake the impression of talking to thin air when with him off her mind. He just slipped through her senses; he even passed under Akashi's radar, which was quite a feat in itself. In the dark, it was like he was a part of the shadow around them, and his very low presence made it impossible for her to even imagine a simple silhouette of the boy, as it was the case with Akashi. Through that, she was able to more or less tell about his whereabouts out there.
In hindsight, the cause of this weird impression probably lay in the fact she didn't have a face to match to the shadow boy to feel more at ease with him...Well, in truth, she did have one, but not some she really wanted to see again, all because of the blood on his face. However, during that split second, her eyes still pictured a pair of blue eyes opened in surprise and teal hair, so pale compared to the dripping vivid red running from his right temple.
"Say, when you said you lost consciousness, did you get hit by something?"
"How do you know?"
His clueless voice invited a timid smile on her lips. "You look pretty beat up with all the blood over your face. You must have it checked, just in case."
She took her handkerchief out of her skirt pocket and awkwardly waved it in the air, not really sure where exactly the boy was. "Er, here, you can wipe the blood with my handkerchief."
"Ah, thank you, but the blood will..."
"Don't worry about it. You can use and keep it." Her hand collided with his, provoking a rather peculiar feeling inside her, now that she «touched» him. Even if there was actually no reason to doubt it, he was indeed a real boy. Then, a weak pull took it from her as he obliged to her kindness.
Now that she made contact with him, she dropped her guard and resumed their conversation with more lightheartedness. "So, what happened to you? Don't tell me it's Akashi-kun who's the cause of your injury when he was dancing in the dark."
"No, I was hit by the previous visitors." the boy answered, not reacting in the least to their banter, and went on with his explanation as asked. "They forgot something, so I wanted to give it back to them before they got to the exit. But when I caught up to them, they got scared and hit me by accident. I lost my balance and got knocked out by something, apparently."
"You're not even sure yourself?"
"My memories are kind of fuzzy. I must have fainted at that moment." He told them calmly. "When I regained consciousness, I didn't really know where I was. I didn't find my flashlight, it might have fallen somewhere when I was hit. And I decided to find the exit but I got lost."
In all likelihood, Akashi and her weren't the only one with bad luck.
"Then I heard you coming and took that opportunity to ask for help."
"Oh, the moment you held Akashi-kun's hand. You really scared us."
"I'm sorry I didn't want to. It's hard to see in the dark."
Ritsu sympathized with his troubles. The boy had lost his point of reference after that incident and wandered all alone in the dark. And at that, there was more to this sympathy. A very calm charm breathed through the boy's speech and manner. His voice was most of the time even, hardly changing his intonation to express himself; his vague movements felt pretty light yet not to the extent of being graceful or nimble, but everything concurred harmoniously with that straight politeness that emanated from him. No trace of formality marked his words like she could note in her speech or Akashi's, it was just an ordinary politeness – One that didn't have that distant approach and reflected shards of bluntness which curiously echoed with kind and honest notes, making it quite easy to talk to him with that peculiar feeling of proximity.
"And to say we came here with the same intention."
"You needed my help?" The boy asked, his voice lilting slightly due to surprise.
"Well, kind of. We wanted to ask you the way to the exit. As you can notice, we aren't using the flashlight because it's defective."
"Oh, that flash..." He recalled the moment their flashlight blinded him for a second, then considered their situation. "I don't think I will be of any help."
"So I guess."
"...Er."
"That was quite blunt." Akashi commented, sounding a bit amused. Ritsu raised her brows as the ghost seemed to fidget a little, like somehow troubled by her words. But the passing awkwardness of the moment suddenly struck her.
"Ah, no, I didn't mean it that way! It's just because all three of us are in the same boat without flashlights!" She tried to make up for her bluntness. "We are all alone in the dark. Speaking of which, that's strange, so far you're the only member we encountered here. Aren't there other students in the haunted house?"
"It's because of the rule : Only one group of visitors can challenge the haunted house and for as long as they have not cleared or left it, nobody can interfere unless my classmates or I give an alert for emergency to the others outside." Which explained their long and silent stroll.
"What about your classmates?"
"Normally we're three here, me included, but..."
"You're the only one in charge of the place right now." Akashi summed up the situation.
The boy confirmed. "They went on their break due to club obligations."
"There is no one to stand in for them for the time being?" He pressed to get the whole story.
"There should. But since I passed out, I don't really know."
"And since we met anyone but you. It means they haven't come back. That's why we couldn't ask for help." Ritsu concluded, drawing some of her attention to Akashi who started to move around.
"I apologize."
"Well, you aren't at fault. The other two should bear the responsibility instead." He simply said, his strides slowly beat the ground in a quiet pace.
"Akashi-kun is right. You'd better take a break after all that!" She agreed with him in a cheerful tone. "For now, let's find the exit."
The boy reacted with lesser enthusiasm as he wasn't accustomed to the duo, yet she couldn't help but imagine a light smile brighten his face.
"It will take some time. We can't tell in which direction we're going."
"We have Akashi-kun with us."
"I didn't know he can see in the dark."
"Me neither." retorted the redhead in the middle of his examination.
"Can I ask what you are doing, Akashi-kun?" Upon hearing the calm agitation around the latter, the boy wondered, a bit startled.
"I'm looking for the key."
"The key? You didn't give up on the treasure hunt because of the dark?"
"We don't know where the exit is, we might as well take the time to search for the key while we wander here. That way we kill two birds with one stone."
"You two are having fun."
"That's the reason why we're here." Akashi added, soon joined by Ritsu in his search.
The girl couldn't let him do all the work after knowing he was actually having real fun despite their bad luck. Or maybe it was because of it that they got to spend a good moment together.
«Darkness reveals more about a person than light» The words of the host rang in her mind, and for sure he wasn't totally mistaken when he declared that haunted house could be a place to strengthen bonds. It was a rare sight of Akashi she caught there, one she would fully appreciate before returning to the light.