If you were to look at Ayumi right now, with her swollen eyes and pale face you might assume she was the one who had just been stabbed and not Yoshiki. But it was Yoshiki, she wasn't sure how it happened. She thought that it might have been an accident, that maybe he had tripped in front of her. Or maybe Sachiko had just changed her mind and went for him instead. Either way he had been stabbed and all Ayumi could do was stare. She stared at the blood soaking through his shirt like it could hurt her. It was Seiko who made the next move, if she hadn't they all would have surely been killed right there and then as soon as Sachiko turned to look at them. But when Sachiko did turn to look at them they were gone. In almost impossible time Seiko silently initiated their escape. After she had gathered Ayumi's attention both of the girls put their arms around their newly injured friend and limped away barely avoiding Sachiko's gaze.

There was nowhere safe to go that they knew of, the schools new shift had left them directionless. All the rooms were the same just in different places and that wasn't very useful. It was by some grace that they found the principal's office. Yoshiki recognised it immediately and made sure to inform the girls of the secret passageway in it; the one Morishige had decided they should come back to later. They laboriously made their way to the door and were relieved to find the passage in the wall was just where Yoshiki said it would be.

"Kishinuma, there's a ladder how are you going to be able to climb down it you can barely walk?" Ayumi pointed out while she caught her breath.

Kishinuma looked down into the passage and his hand tightened around his wound. "I'll manage." He lied and since they didn't have any other choice they went down. Yoshiki went first so that he could be helped from the top. Like Ayumi had suspected it wasn't easy, each step was incredibly slow and looked unbearably painful and in the end Yoshiki didn't make it all the way down without falling. It sent rackets of pain through his body and Ayumi couldn't stifle a scream. She hurried down after him in a much quicker pace than himself and he assured her that he was alright and that 'he wasn't even that far from the ground anyway.' Yoshiki didn't think it would make a difference anyway, he was surely as close to death as you could be.

That leaves them here. Underground. Stopped to rest up against one of the shabby dirt walls. Ayumi like the rest of them hadn't eaten in hours so she assumed that her body had nothing left in it. She was proved wrong when she was informed of Satoshi's death. She only made it a short distance from her friends before she could no longer keep the liquid in her throat from shooting up. It was a horrible feeling but not horrible enough since it didn't distract from what she had just heard, or what she had just been through or what she was probably about to go through.

Seiko didn't go over to comfort her, she was too busy tending to Yoshiki and part of her was glad because she didn't know how to do that anymore, 'comfort'. What did it even mean? Nothing would help. Those sort of thoughts made her feel as horrible as the burning in Ayumi's empty stomach.

Seiko truly felt for her. She thought honestly that if Ayumi hadn't already been in shock the news of Satoshi's death might well have sent her over the edge, or even allowed the darkening in. ...Or maybe she was just stronger than she thought.

Seiko was relieved to find she was still carrying the bandages from when she wrapped Yoshiki's hand. She couldn't exactly call it luck after everything that happened, but it was something.

Ayumi wiped her mouth and turned to her friends. Seiko was staring at her as she pushed down on Yoshiki's wound. It was a serious look. Ayumi stood up and rejoined her now very small group. The mood was tormenting. A bunch of traumatised teenagers sitting around contemplating how likely they were to end up dead is a sore sight. Yoshiki looked at the blood on his hands and wondered how much time he had left. And he wondered if it was worth it. He looked at Ayumi, she was alive and he was grateful and doubted he'd go back and do thing differently if he could. But she was so sad, her eyes hollow and her heart broken because the one she really loved was dead and now she was stuck here with him. Alive though, and that's what really mattered.

"What do we do?" Seiko asked with fear in her voice.

Ayumi wiped her eye with her sleeve. "We know how to get out...we have what we need..." Her voice was soft but convicted.

"We need to get Yuka." Yoshiki said.

"Okay. So that's it then. After we find Yuka we can just... leave? We do the ritual properly and we leave?" Seiko said, she sounded more hopeful than the others even if only by a little.

Ayumi thought it over. "Yes...but how are we going to find Yuka? Kishinuma Isn't going to be able to move and we can't leave him by himself."

"I'll go then." Seiko didn't hesitate.

"On your own!?" Yoshiki and Ayumi said at once.

"You can't." Said Yoshiki. "This school's too dangerous especially now."

"And what if I don't? Yuka dies all by herself." She shook her head defiantly. "I'm going."

"But what if you don't come back." Ayumi said blankly.

"I will. I promise."

"Shit."

The girls turned to Yoshiki. "What is it?"

"My student ID...the paper scrap I don't have it."

"What do you mean you don't have it!" Ayumi looked like she might throw up again. It would have been comical if it absolutely weren't funny.

"Satoshi...I never took it back off him... he still has it." Yoshiki said slowly, almost with shame.

Seiko's head faced the ground. "Okay then I'll get that too. You'll just have to tell me where he is."

Ayumi started to cry.

So Yoshiki told Seiko where Satoshi's body was. And Ayumi assured Seiko that she'd keep pressure on Yoshiki's wound. And then Seiko left, alone.


The school was a mess. It wasn't exactly in working condition before but this was inoperative. If Seiko were to have any luck finding any of the things she was looking for and her way back to the basement then that's exactly what it would be: luck.

A little black dot caught her eye. At least from far away it was a dot, up close Seiko discovered it was actually a small childs cat plushie. She had no use for it but something told her to take it anyway, and Seiko had always prided herself on her intuition.

And her intuition got her further than she thought. Despite Yoshiki's shady directions Seiko found what she was looking for not long after leaving the basement. Though it wasn't something to be pleased about.

Seiko had watched her best friend die in front of her, watched her corpse be carried away like a broken toy, but it didn't mean she was unphasable. She wasn't yet numb. Satoshi's body; or at least the sight of it, hit home.

Slowly but with a strong posture Seiko went over to her friends body. It took her a minute to get close but at the same time she couldn't look away.

"I'm so sorry. Forgive me." She whispered as she bent down to her knees. She drew her hands forward and slid them into each one of his pockets until she found what she was looking for. When she pulled the ID back she pulled her body back with it and released the breath she had been holding. Yoshiki's ID wasn't the only thing she had. She took Satoshi's too: a sign of respect. There was something else too that her curious hands couldn't help grab hold of; a little pink notebook, it seemed an odd thing for him to have which meant he must have picked it up along the way for some reason. That's why she took it.

Seiko squeezed her eyes closed and took a final large breath. Her intuition was clawing at her, she opened her eyes and saw something else: the shadow of something and a small glow radiating from behind her. It was so small and no where near human shaped. She knew what it was without turning around. Yoshiki had warned her about them, he said it was these little red flames themselves that killed Satoshi.

Despite the urge to look back Seiko pushed herself off the ground and ran forward away from the flames. She made the mistake of turning her head to see if they were following her and that's when she ran right onto the visibly unsteady floor. It broke and there was a wave of butterflies in her stomach as she fell.

Seiko only opened hey eyes when she realised the floor was no longer falling, and she wasn't plummeting down with it. The part she was on was stuck like a hangnail, tilted at a diagonal angle but still barely attached to the rest of the floor. And Seiko was as near to the bottom as she could get; on her hands and knees but facing upwards. The grasping chunk of floor which she was on was creaking and shaking unreassuringly and was bound to snap off. So Seiko climbed. Climbing might not be the right word for it, it more of an upwards crawl.

She dug her fingernails into the wood and heaved her body forward. Using her knees to push up one bit at a time, as a result they were becoming increasingly scathed with little bits of wood starting to stick to the skin and blood beginning to draw.

Now she was nearly at the top and back on flat ground. The broken platform was wonky and beginning to bounce each time she got higher. Seiko was sure she could reach the top in only a few more moves and because of her eagerness she started to rush, which cost her almost half of her progress when she lost her grip and slid back down. She let out a scream because her bare leg skin took the brunt of it all.

Still the platform didn't snap off and only shook more. So she climbed again. And this time when she was close to the top she knew better than to rush, even when she felt the platform giving way with every push. With great strain she pulled herself up and felt the floor fall away from her legs, but she was already safe. Her exhaustion was great and very repressing and her legs were constantly stinging and probably would be for the rest of her time here. Seiko felt a great need to lie down and regain her strength if she was going to make it back to her friends so of course it would be at this exact same time that the shadows re-introduce themselves.

Seiko had only seen them once. When Naomi was murdered (killed was too soft of a word in Seiko's opinion, what she saw was murder) and so that's the memory they were associated with. Even if they weren't and even if she had never seen them before in her life she knew they were bad. Anyone could tell that. Like with many things in this place it's the aura that gives it away, and their aura was nothing short of evil.

The first eagerly made a grab for her and she rolled to one side. With complete inelegance she threw herself to her feet and stumbled away from the shrieking evil. Despite the pain in her body Seiko was surprisingly fast; but these things could fly and dissipate and reappear in front of her, they had the advantage.

She dodged and ducked her way down the halls panting uncontrollably. Her throat was cold and hurt from the running. One made a grab for her and pulled her to the ground but they weren't any less clumsy than she was so she was able to evade it.

Seiko stopped running. She had heard a scream. "...Yuka?" She asked the empty space in front of her. There was another and she turned her head. It was coming from the direction of the shadows. So either bravely or foolishly Seiko ran back.

It wasn't easy and it was hardly graceful. The shadows were clawing at her, digging at her, trying to enter her body. And only now did Seiko notice that there were clouds of dust falling from the ceiling: it was breaking.

She ran faster and swung her arms as quickly as her legs were going as a defense against the shadows. It done her little good. Part of her was accepting death and part of her was rejecting the idea entirely. She had too much to do, both in here and in the real world.

She heard the scream again and this time it was so close it pierced her ear drum. The ceiling collapsed, she could hear that too. Seiko felt an extreme pressure on her body, and then she felt nothing.