Chapter 3: Heavenly Host Elementary

Naomi woke up in a strange, dark classroom. She looked around at her surroundings, and noticed Dashi unconscious next to her.

"Ah! Dashi!" She cried in concern, moving to the dog. "Dashi?! Dashi?! Are you alright?! Dashi?!"

Dashi moaned and slowly blinked her eyes open.

"N-Naomi?" She whispered softly.

"Oh! Thank goodness you're alright!" Naomi sighed in relief.

"Ugh!" Dashi moaned as she sat up. "What happened? Where are we?"

"I'm not sure." Naomi answered, looking around. "It looks like we're in school, but the desks are too small."

"Where's everybody else?" Dashi frowned as she looked around.

"That's another thing I don't know. The earthquake must've separated us when we fell." Naomi explained.

"Naomi, look!" Dashi gasped, pointing across the classroom.

Naomi looked to where Dashi was pointing and gasped.

On the other side, blocked by cracks on the floor and desks in the way, Seiko and Tweak laid on the floor, unconscious.

"Ah! Seiko! Tweak!" Naomi called.

"There must be a way to get to them." Dashi frowned.

"Well, we could always go out in the hallway and go around to the other door." Naomi suggested.

"Yeah, that might work." Dashi nodded. "Let's try it."

Naomi nodded and stood up with her. But when she was up, she yelped in pain and nearly fell back down.

"Naomi! Are you alright?!" Dashi asked concerningly.

"There's something wrong with my leg!" Naomi gasped.

"Here, sit down and let me take a look." Dashi offered.

Naomi nodded and sat back down, allowing the dog to take a look at her wounded leg.

"I'm not a doctor like Peso, but I can tell that your leg isn't broken, just twisted." Dashi confirmed. "You'll have to keep off it for a while."

"OK," Naomi nodded.

"Just lean on my shoulder for now." Dashi offered as they stood up. "At least until we find you a crutch or something."

"Right, now let's get over there." Naomi nodded as she leaned on the dog.

Carefully, the two exited the classroom into the hallway, going around to the other door on Seiko and Tweak's side. They entered the classroom successfully without any problems. They knelt down to their friends sides and began shaking them awake.

"Seiko! Tweak! Can you hear us?! Open your eyes!" They called.

The two girls groaned as they awoke, staring blankly at their friends.

"Dashi? Naomi?" They whispered.

"You're awake! Thank god!" Dashi sighed.

"Where are we?" Seiko asked as they both sat up.

"We don't know." Naomi answered.

"This certainly doesn't look like your school." Tweak frowned. "What's going on?"

"That's what we'd like to know." Dashi nodded.

"Well, I don't want to stay here another minute!" Seiko cried, standing up. "I'm getting out of here!"

"Seiko! Wait!" Naomi cried.

"GGGRRRR! GRAAAHHH!" Seiko grunted as she tried to open a window. "It's no use. The windows aren't budging. They're sealed tight."

Seiko sighed and joined the three girls again.

"They're not just tight either." She continued. "It's more like they're just wall decorations."

"You mean like painted on?" Dashi frowned.

"Impossible," Tweak shook her head. "I'm sure they're just rusty. Let me at it. I'm a mechanic, so I might know how to figure this out."

"Well, go ahead, have at it." Seiko shrugged.

Tweak passed Seiko and went to the window. She tried everything she could to open the window, even tried breaking it, but it was no use.

"You're right, Seiko." Tweak nodded. "It's like these windows weren't meant to be opened. And not only that, it's pitch black out there. I can't see a thing."

"What the hell is going on?" Naomi swore.

"Well, this is clearly a school building," Seiko pointed the obvious.

"Don't the desk seem unusually small to you, though?" Naomi frowned.

"She's right." Dashi agreed. "As teenagers, you would never fit in these small desks."

"Yeah, they're more our size than anything else." Tweak added.

"Like... An elementary school." Naomi gasped.

"An... Elementary school?" Seiko gulped.

"It can't be... Can it?" Naomi whispered.

"What it is, girls?" Dashi asked.

Seiko ignored Dashi's question and went to a post on the wall. She gasped at what it said.

"What is it?" Naomi feared to ask.

"The printout on the wall..." Seiko shook. "It says 'Heavenly Host Elementary-Notice to all Faculty and Students'."

"Heavenly Host?" Dashi frowned. "Isn't that the school Ayumi was talking about in her story?"

"That's impossible, it's only a story." Tweak frowned.

"Oh God, what's happening?!" Seiko screamed. "Where are we? And where are the others?! Our friends, Ms. Yui, the other Octonauts?!"

"Seiko, calm down!" Tweak comforted. "We'll figure this out, don't worry."

"Everything's going to be fine, Seiko." Dashi added. "We just need to find the others and get out of here."

Seiko breathed deeply, trying to calm herself.

"Sorry." She managed to say.

"Look, I don't have any idea of what's going on," Naomi sighed. "But I agree with Dashi on this. We just need to find the others and find a way out."

"A way out?" Seiko gulped.

"We can't just stand here quaking in terror, we have to do something." Naomi nodded.

"Is it even possible to leave this place?" Seiko wondered.

"Hey, every building has an entry and an exit, of course there's a way." Teak smiled.

"And besides, with my ankle, I could really use Peso's help now." Naomi chuckled.

"... You're right, and it's a lot better than just standing around." Seiko smiled. "I feel like I'm going to go all looney in here if we keep this up. "

"Okay then. The first step is leaving this room." Naomi nodded.

Everybody else agreed as they followed her outside the classroom. It was dark in the halls, and it looked like the building could collapse on them any minute now, but they didn't let it bother them. As they walked, they took notice of all the notes on the walls, but they didn't bother reading them, they had more important things to do.

Naomi stumbled as she walked on her ankle. The girls offered to help her, but she refused. She needed to be tough if she was going to make it out of this school with the others, once they found them. Eventually, they ran into a dead end by a huge gap in the floor. They had no choice but to go inside the classroom near them to get around it.

When the girls entered the classroom, they screamed. Laying in the far corner of the classroom, was a human skeleton.

"Why is there a dead person in here?!" Seiko cried.

"Hold on, let me get a better look." Naomi offered. "Maybe they're not real."

Stepping lightly, the girls approached the skeleton and Naomi knelt down to get a better look.

"No, these are real alright." Naomi shivered.

Seiko cried and backed away, almost falling into the hole behind her.

"Seiko!" The others cried and grabbed onto her before she could fall.

"You girls..." Whispered a voice.

The girls turned back to the skeleton and gasped when a blue light that looked similar to a will-o wisp appeared above the body.

"You girls are new victims, are you not?" It asked in a male voice.

"A ghost!" Seiko screamed.

"Calm down Seiko." Dashi ordered. "I don't think it wants to hurt us."

"Who are you?" Naomi asked.

"I was brought here against my will... And confined... Just like you." The wisp answered.

"Confined?" Naomi gulped. "Do you mean, there's no way out?"

"I'm afraid not. This school exists in a reality all its own, cut off from the world you know." The wisp explained.

"So why have we been brought here?" Naomi asked.

"And it there's no way out, then what's the purpose of us being here?" Tweak frowned. "Me, Dashi, and the other Octonauts. If our mission isn't to help the humans escape this school, then what is our mission?"

"That my dear rabbit is not something I know." The wisp answered. "But as for the girl's question, 'they' brought you here. They're constantly bringing new victims into this school. More and more, all the time. Sinless innocents, one after another. This is a cursed multidimensional nexus. Multiple planes of existence, all piled on top of one another, created by powerful, vengeful spirits."

Thunder roared outside as the wisp added quietly...

"Closed space... Or perhaps closed spaces."

"Closed spaces?" Dashi frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"You, and we as well, are the unlucky victims of an inescapable abduction." The wisp continued. "And it seems you are not the only ones who were brought here. I'm sensing numerous others."

"So.. Our friends are in this school too?" Seiko asked.

"I don't know the exact number." The wisp answered. "But I do know that others were pulled into these spaces at the same time as you... They are definitely in this school."

"On my god, that's such good news!" Seiko cried happily. "Girls, they're here! We're not alone!"

The girls all sighed with relief, happy to hear that their friends have made it.

"That means Satoshi is here too. I bet that makes you feel a lot better, Naomi." Seiko smiled.

"However, you can not meet them." The wisp spoke.

"What do you mean?" Dashi asked.

"They are definitely in this school, but the space they occupy differs from the space we occupy." The wisp explained. "If you wish to see your friends, you must find the means of entering their space, or bringing them into this space. Even then, escape is nigh impossible. But at least you'll be able to die together."

"Oh god... Is there no way out of here then?" Seiko whimpered.

"You said we were brought here by vengeful spirits." Naomi frowned. "Who are they? And why have they taken us?"

"I don't know," the wisp sighed. "Neither the motives of our captors, nor a means of escaping this hell. All I know is that with some effort, you can at least live out your days together in the same space. And that alone is a fate worth fighting for. Two heads are better than one. Your chances and your opportunities are so much greater when working together. Do whatever you can to find a way out of here. Don't... End up... Like us..."

Suddenly the other classroom door opened. The room went dark for a split second and lit up again.

"No!" The wisp cried and disappeared.

The girls looked to the corner of the classroom and screamed. A ghost of a little girl sat curled up to her knees in the corner, her red dress barely covering her thighs. Her black hair covered part of her face, but the girls could see that she was looking at them.

"Run! We have to get out of here, now!" Seiko ordered.

The others agreed and ran out of the classroom as fast as they could. They didn't dare look back behind them in fear of locking eyes with the ghost. When they finally stopped running, they collapsed on the floor, trying to catch their breath.

"Is everybody alright?" Dashi asked.

"Yes, but what was that? A child spirit?" Seiko wondered.

"Honestly, I really don't want to know." Tweak coughed.

"It did kinda glow." Naomi blinked. "I never believed in ghost before."

"Neither has Captain Barnacles." Dashi shook her head. "This is really going to crush his reality. Even worse than the time pool."

"I just don't understand any of this." Naomi sighed. "Except there's no easy way out of this. Like it or not, we're stuck in here."

"It'll be okay." Seiko promised. "Let's just, you know, march on with our heads held up high, or something."

The girls all smiled and nodded. They stood up from the floor, and continued on their adventure.