Alright, if you would rather, skip this paragraph and continue on with the story. There is a slight chance that what I say may ruin the surprise/flow of the story, so if you'd rather not read this, go ahead and skip to the story! First, let me say: I've changed part of the first chapter, Kodoku no Kakurenbo (which is the second chapter from 's perspective). I made a change to "Tomorrow's sacrifice" during the game of hide and seek. It should now read, "Tomorrow's sacrifice is as follows:" ... "A girl who lost everything and looked into things she shouldn't."

While I hate the fact that I have to write that here and remind you of it, it had to be said, to save any confusion later on. Unless you chose to skip! In which case, please enjoy the story~

Chapter 4 Toire no Hanako-San

"I'm sorry for your loss…" The police take notes, bidding us good evening before leaving the house. It's one-thirty in the morning… crazy how fast everything happened. I feel a hand on my shoulder and look back to see my mother, smiling sadly.

They were all found dead.

Kinen, stabbed through the chest in a dark alley. A robber they said...

Kyouji, decapitated in the woods. A bear, they said...

Sora, cut straight in half, lying in the street. A freak hit-and-run they said...

Hiro...

I choke on the thought, turning to my mother, who pulled me into her arms.

...shredded to bits behind the shrine.

All that was left intact was his face. They asked me to identify him at twelve-thirty this morning. They asked me to identify him!

I fall to my knees as the sky breaks with the sound of oncoming rain. "Ma'am, do you know this boy?"

I lean forward, digging the stones into my palms beneath me. My body shakes, every inch of me going numb. "No, no, please! Hiro, please, that can't be you!" The rain mixes with my tears, blinding me.

"Please, please Hiro! Walk out of those woods right now, tell me this is another one of your stupid fucking pranks! Tell me that all of this was a joke! Let me punch you in the face, hate you, never speak to you again, just as long as you're alive, please!"

An officer bends down, placing a hand on my shoulder, but I shrug him off. "Get away!"

"Ma'am, I think you should get inside. Thank you for your cooperation, but-" He moves to help me up, and I swipe his hands away.

"No! Get away from me!" I shriek. I turn back to Hiro.

"No! Hiro! Hiro, please!" Hands, pulling me up. "Let go of me! Hiro!" I kick someone's shin and hear a string of curse words.

"No!" Hands, holding my wrists roughly, dragging me away. I fight them off, thrashing around violently. "Let me go! He's not dead!"

I pull away. "He can't be dead!" Two more, holding me tightly. I let my head fall, letting every muscle go limp.

Sobbing, I reanimate every part of me, throwing my head back in a howl of anguish.

"HIRO!"

I push the memory away, cringing. He was officially considered a victim of the same murderer that had killed those other students. They were even more convinced because he came from the same school as the others. They're already filing a report on terrorism against E.J. King high school; he's another name they can add to the list. But I know better.

Once the police left, I climbed the stairs to my room, closing the door behind me. My mom didn't say anything; she's good about giving me space when I need it. I laid there the rest of the morning, trying desperately to put the memories behind me, only to awaken several times with a scream at the sight of my friends. I teetered between restless sleep and lifeless staring.

I woke with a start, my eyes still wet with tears. I flop back on my bed, gazing at the ceiling and shivering. I couldn't seem to get what they said out of my mind. My friends died somewhere else? This is the place Kinen died, not some alley, I know it. Why? Why did she just disappear like that?

Kyouji and Sora were found fairly close to one another. Hiro, Kyouji, and Sora were found right around the shrine. Kinen was across town. All were killed in different ways, and all were said to have died at the same time.

That was the most disturbing piece of information. I know for a fact that they didn't die all at once. Kinen was lying there as I spoke to Hiro and tried to keep Sora calm. They didn't die all at once, and they definitely didn't die the way the police claimed they did.

I sit up. School. I wonder if they even had school today, after the panic I'm sure the police must have caused from their early morning investigation… It would be a nice distraction. I glance at my clock; only nine forty-eight. It looks like I slept about 8 hours, but it was mostly restless. Would it even be worth it? They haven't closed the school for the other murders, so I wonder if they would close it now. A quick text to a classmate tells me they haven't.

I take a deep breath and pull myself up off the bed. Slowly, I pilfer through my closet, looking for my uniform, and find it falling off a hanger near the back. I must have been in a hurry. Not like I try to remember what happened last night.

"Last night…" I laugh bitterly. "Seems like an eternity ago…"

I grab my bag, slowly descending the stairs, and see my mother in the kitchen. She spots me, and a look of worry crosses her face. "H-Hanako, what are you…?" She glances to my school bag, and I stand there silently. She sees my blank expression and frowns. "Hanako, don't you think you should rest? Everything happened so quickly, I'm not sure if you should-"

I shake my head. "No, no…. I want to go. I might be a little late, but I still want to go…"

She nods, understanding, but hesitant. She makes my lunch as I finish getting ready, sliding a plate of breakfast toward me. I sit down, mostly pushing the food around until I'm done, and soon I'm walking down the street, toward the school up on the hill.

I push the doors open, sighing as I look down. I pause, glancing at the stairs before turning toward the hallway. I need to find out more about what happened. I can't shake the feeling that there is so much more to their deaths than I know. As I enter the library, it is quiet and empty except for the librarian. I sit down at one of the computers, pulling up a database of information. As my hands hang above the keys, I think. What could I search for? Maybe… I type "supernatural deaths", flicking through the searches before coming up empty. "How about 'unexplained deaths'?" I whisper, the keyboard clicking beneath my fingers. Another dead end.

I try several variations of this, searching everything from 'death caused by a ritual' to 'people alive when they should have been dead'. These mostly pulled up accidents, legitimate ones. I sighed, setting my head in my hands. How was I supposed to find out information on something that I had absolutely no clue about? I reached forward, hesitating as my fingers touched the keyboard before typing.

I click enter, watching the results for "Tome of Ruin deaths" pull up underneath. The book pulls up into my vision. I glaze over the summary, glancing at the author's name and biographical information; it seems he died quite a long time ago. I return to the search engine and the second result catches my eye; 'Man found dead, suspended from stairwell'. Clicking the link, I read through the article, my eyes widening. 'The tattered remains of Mr. Hiraku Musuke were found within the apartment which he resides at 06:25 pm.' The author of the 'Tome of Ruin'... I note the year of the incident, 1894, shortly after the book was published. It seems this book was actually his life's research, not just some book of games.

I print off a few pages of the article, gathering my things as I left for my class. "I'll just look over these after school lets out." I mumble to myself. "It said he died in a very peculiar way, though they had no idea what caused it. Even the reports from after the day of the incident didn't seem to have any conclusion for the cause of his death."

I climb the steps, jumping up two at a time in my rush. This new information seemed to spark a flame inside me. At the top of the steps, I moved to take my backpack off so that I could put the papers inside, but several of them fell.

As I reached to pick up the first of the papers, the police report catches my eye. Picking it up, I squint down at the bottom of the page. "Hm, I must have glanced over this part." The bottom of the page held a line from the journal they had found in his possession. 'The Shadow Realm is dangerous, different. Foxes surrounding me. There is no escape but death.' I shiver at these words. Moving to the next page, an autopsy, they claimed that there could be no possibility that the wounds were caused by foxes. I shake my head. Where did this start? How did he begin? I spread the papers out across the floor, my eyes searching across them frantically. I lift up a photocopy of a handwritten journal entry, trailing its lines with my eyes. He was going to enter an alternate plane of reality… and summon fox spirits…

The door to my class room opened, making me jump. I gathered the papers quickly as the girl noticed me. "Hanako?" I look up to see a familiar face, but I can't seem to place a name. "What are you doing here? Are you sure you don't want to stay home and rest?" She looked at me with sympathy as she squatted down, handing me papers without focusing on what they said. I shoved them quickly into my backpack.

"No, I'm alright, really." I smile and the girl pulls back, her face soft and pitying.

She smiles a sad smile, and nods. "Alright. Well, I'm actually glad you decided to come to school, Hanako; I'm sure it will keep your mind busy…" I nod, heading into the classroom as she continues on to wherever she was going. The teacher stands at the front, clearly impatient, but still considerate enough to let me find my seat by the window before continuing. I hear her drone on, talking about English. I've never cared for it, but it was Kinen's favorite subject. She always wanted to learn it and move to America to become a star... I laugh softly to myself.

In front of me is where Hiro once sat. Another empty desk, one up, and one to the left shows Kyouji's absence. Sora… I frown, the noise of the classroom now falling to deaf ears. Sora didn't even get to come back to school. His seat was…

I look beside Hiro's desk, where a girl sits, listening closely to the teacher's lecture. Sora doesn't even have a seat to come back to.

I cover my mouth, looking out the window as the tears come. I shake my head, standing quickly and rushing out of the class. I hear her, the girl who comforted me. Her name… something with a "K". I keep running, down the stairs to the third floor. "Hanako!"

I can't talk to you right now. I just need to be alone. This was an awful idea. I dodge out of sight, going into the girl's restroom. There are signs taped onto some stalls, reading "Out of Order", and I push on the closest one without a sign, the third one from the door. It doesn't move, and I knock on the door, checking if anyone is inside.

Outside of the bathroom, I can hear them looking for me. "Hanako! Are you there, Hanako-san?"

A whisper creeps through the stall door "Yes, I'm here."

I freeze. What?

I let out a slow, ragged breath. Sora…. said something about this. The door is loose, as though it had unlocked.

What did he say? What would happen…

I press the tips of my fingers against the door.

… if I opened it?

I press lightly, and the door swings open. A little girl in a red skirt with bobbed, black hair stood there looking at the floor. She grinned, tilting her head up slightly, and I pull my hand back, surprised.

"I-I'm sorry, I just-"

Suddenly the girl sprung forward, grabbing me and pulled me into the stall.

I screamed, writhing in fear, but her grip was firm. The stall door slammed shut. I caught a glimpse of her face, before she turned me around and thrusted my head into the toilet. I fought desperately to pull myself back up, lucky to have gasped in air at the last moment; her pitch black eyes had shocked me.

I wrap one arm behind me, vainly scratching and clawing at her arms. I heard a laugh through the water, and suddenly the pressure was gone.

Pulling myself up quickly, I slammed my head into the stall door, turning around and reaching instantly for the latch, but it wasn't there. The stall walls were now solid from the floor to the roof; there was no way out. A shadow towered over me. "No no no NO NO!" I screeched, covering my face. "No, I can't take this! Leave me alone! Leave me ALONE! LEAVE ME AL-"

Hands wrapped around my face, my arms, my legs. Hands everywhere, too many to count. Pulling me back. Away from the door. Away from freedom, from safety. I look back, and a black mass is seeping out from inside the toilet. I let out a shrill cry, turning away and grasping frantically at the stall walls.

Red. I see red. Filling my eyes. A snap, deep in my body.

Black.

Absolute, eternal, lonely bla-

Toire no Hanako-San - Miss Hanako of the Toilet

...
"Good evening, it's the occasional broadcasting, NNN.

From NNN occasional broadcast, we will tell you of yesterday's sacrifice:

A girl whose memory fails her, and drags another along.

A boy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A boy who runs from his friends, for fear of a similar fate.

A boy who would never answer right, even if he tried.

Today's sacrifice is as follows:

A girl who lost everything and looked into things she shouldn't.

Now, the pale you is tomorrow's sacrifice.

May your soul rest in peace, good night."

FIN