The morning of the class trip dawns bright and unseasonably warm. It's also one of the few mornings you can recall eating breakfast with Mom, although it seems like her toast has barely lept out of the toaster before it's in her mouth and she's out the door, her shirt half-tucked and makeup partially done. The clock reads quarter 'til six. You're not sure if that means she's late or not. There's not much you're sure of with regards to her work.

Mariko meets you at the gate to your house pulling the same rolling suitcase she had with her the first day of school, and the two of you make your way to the train station together, pulling your arms up over your eyes to shield them from the searing brightness of the infant sunrise.

Nisekao is already waiting for you when you arrive, as are a smattering of your fellow second years. A tattered olive duffel bag lies deflated on his lap, its zippers turned downwards into a cartoonish grimace. Its contents rattle around loudly as he approaches, a sound that reminds you of pills in a bottle.

The three of you make idle chitchat as light begins to slowly work its way into the corners and crevices of the train station. You talk about the itinerary, about your plans for your free day, about your classmates, and (in hushed tones) about the sudden lull in Shadow activity. Although you're aware that the presence of a Shadow isn't necessarily overt, the telltale sudden swings in mood or changes in perception have been absent from the people around you. Monitoring the Book of Avalon has proven pointless as well. The few entries that have appeared have been too vague to attribute to any one person. "There are thousands of people in this city," Hayate had said, "what're the chances one of these is going to be written by someone we know?"

Nisekao had posited another disquieting theory. "What if someone we know was captured by a Shadow before we met them? How would we know if they were real, and not just a Dreamweaver posing as them?"

You and your friends rehash these theories again as you wait for the train to arrive, but it does very little to comfort anyone. More and more, it seems as though you're losing a handle on the situation just as fast as you've gained one.

Only a couple of minutes before seven, Hayate bounds onto the platform where you and your classmates have only just finished separating yourselves into your groups and signing off on the attendance sheet. Otomuji, who this entire morning has been staring blankly at the tracks as if contemplating the merits of being run over by a train, opens her mouth to chew him out, but instead heaves a titanic sigh and shoves the attendance sheet into his face. He scribbles his name with a sheepish grin and sidles up next to his partner, a disinterested boy from 2-C with his eyes locked to his phone. Briefly, Hayate's eyes flash towards Koharu. Hers rise to meet his, and both their gazes narrow. Koharu quickly breaks hers and turns her back to him, her expression capable of spoiling milk. The dislike must be mutual. You figure as long as they don't make a scene, you don't really care what the deal is.

Fortunately, the enmity disperses once you board the train, as Hayate makes a point to sit well outside her line of sight. You're content to let him stew, and you and Nisekao take your seats across from Mariko and Koharu.

However, as the train breaks into a sprint along the rails, and the cityscape outside the windows dissolves into the greener hues of the countryside, you find that Hayate's absence doesn't do much to alleviate the silence. What brief spurts of conversation you're able to have are guarded and mundane, as you're not exactly able to discuss what you'd like in front of Koharu. Not that it'd matter anyways, you think. Outside of a terse greeting at the station, you don't think you've heard her speak another word to any of you. If she wasn't sitting directly across from you, it'd almost be easy to forget she was even there. Almost. Her withdrawal hardly feels benign. Her body language; the furrowed brows, pursed lips, and pointed sighs all seem to indicate that she doesn't want to be here. Or maybe she'd rather you weren't there? Either way, her presence makes for a somewhat uncomfortable train ride.

Soon enough, the flatlands surrounding Toshima give way to the jutting cliffs of the foothills, and your train rolls into the Yamamori station at not a minute past 10:00.

"So where is this place?" asks Hayate, hefting his bag over his shoulder as he steps onto the platform. "Woulda figured we'd have seen it by now."

Koharu snorts, the first time she's acknowledged anyone else in a few hours. "Too much trouble for you to read the itinerary? Look, there's even a sign right there that says 'Cable cars to manor'."

Hayate's eyes narrow to slits as he peers over the rims of his shades. "Hey, I was just making an observation. How 'bout you keep the snide comments to yourself?"

"Maybe you shouldn't act like such a fool, then," retorts Koharu, snatching up her bags in a huff and stomping off in the direction the sign indicates. You, Mariko, and Nisekao exchange concerned glances before hurrying after her.

Sure enough, right around the corner from the station and a little ways up a packed dirt path is another platform servicing a handful of squat cable cars that trundle up the face of the mountain as far as your eyes can trace them.

"The manor must be up there, then," says Mariko. Hayate casts a sidelong glance at Koharu as if daring her to comment on that, but mercifully, both remain silent.

When it's your group's turn, the six of you pile into the car, which shudders and squeals before beginning its deliberate crawl towards your destination. After a few minutes, you spot a ridge on the mountainside rising up before you, and the peaked roof of a grand, ancient building comes into view.

"There it is!" breathes Nisekao.

Two massive stories tall, and surrounded by wide walls that you figure would at least take you ten minutes or so to walk from end to end, Yamamori Manor is breathtaking. Despite being hundreds of years old, its walls still gleam white like eggshells, its landscaping is verdant and well kept, and the brown tile roofing shows little sign of disrepair. Being converted into a tourist destination must have protected it from the ravages of time.

After a brief wait as the rest of the second years are delivered by the cable car, Otomuji and the other two teachers herd you through the gates, down a stone-paved path nestled neatly between two burbling ponds, and into the vast entrance hall.

Your classmates' chatter dies away as the lot of you turn your heads towards the rafters high above you, mouths agape. Cavernous is your first impression of the place - even the slightest footstep reverberates off the walls. Otomuji takes advantage of the silence to get the check-in process going. She presses a set of plastic card keys into your hand and points towards a hallway nestled beneath a large, forking staircase that leads to the second floor balcony.

"Elevators that way," she grunts, and turns her attention back to the stack of keys in her hand.

Although the use of elevators and electronic locks leads to you believe that your stay here might not be quite as divorced from modernity as you once feared, those hopes are dashed once you open the door to your room. The space is old-fashioned, traditional, and sparsely furnished. Tatami mat flooring covers the ground, there are two futons for sleeping, a small safe for valuables tucked in the corner, and a round wooden table in the center.

"Where's the bathroom?" muses Nisekao as he pokes about the room.

"I wouldn't have expected private baths in a place like this if I were you," you say.

"Oh...true..." he mumbles back. The idea of a shared bath must not sit well.

Your phone buzzes. It's Mariko.

[Checked in. Meet you downstairs.]

"Mariko's done. Let's dump our stuff and head on down."

"Sure."

There are a surprising number of students already back in the lobby when you return. It's more likely than not that they were just as disinterested with their rooms as you were. Most of them have their noses in brochures or phones, scoping out lunch possibilities. Mariko has one, too, which she sets aside once she sees you coming. Koharu is with her, and closes her eyes resignedly at the sight of you.

"Ready to get something to eat?" says Mariko. "I know we haven't done much today, but I'm already starving! There's supposed to be this great place that a couple other people said they're going to..."

Her voice trails off as Hayate and his partner approach. He and Koharu immediately lock eyes.

"...sooo howaboutwegetgoingbeforeit'stimeforthehike? All right, okay, let's go!" she says, practically dragging your group off before a single word can be exchanged.

Lunch passes by relatively civilly, and the food lives up to its billing. There's not much, but each bite is expressive and flavorful, which helps to cushion the weight of the bill ("I could've had breakfast, lunch, and dinner for that much at home!" laments Hayate). Soon enough, your group joins the others outside the manor at the head of a cobblestone trail that winds upwards through the pines, and you're off on your tour.

The guide is a spry old man that has no trouble outpacing everyone, either due to his familiarity with the area or his superb fitness. You try your best to pay attention to his long-winded tales about the generations of Yamamoris that lived on this mountain, but keeping pace with him is difficult enough and commands most of your attention. Fortunately, this also means that Hayate and Koharu are too distracted by their exhaustion and frustration to pay attention to each other. Only Nisekao seems to be having no trouble at all keeping up, and hangs on his every word.

Within an hour, you reach the shrine at the summit, and take a break before the next lecture. Hayate doesn't even bother finding a proper place to take a seat - instead, he throws himself down at the foot of a gargantuan spruce.

"What's even the point of having another lecture after all that? I'm more ready for a nap than anything else."

"No stranger to sleeping in class, are you?" mutters Koharu, but Hayate heard it.

"Wanna say that again? I could sleep through every class and still make better grades than you." He pushes his frames onto the top of his head, presumably meaning that he means business.

"Than me? What good's a boast if no one's going to believe it? If you'd keep your mouth shut half the time, you'd sound like half as much of an idiot, you know." You're tempted to applaud for that one, but tact gets the better of you.

"Maybe you oughtta practice what you preach."

The two stop just short of snarling at each other before Mariko decides that enough's enough and steps between them.

"Okay, okay! No fighting! We're here to have a good time and enjoy ourselves! I'm not about to split up our group just because you two can't control yourselves!"

Hayate and Koharu drop their death stares to the ground and mumble something that you're assuming must be an apology. You help Hayate back to his feet, and he brushes the pine needles from his backside.

"C'mon, bro, let's go inside," he says. You take a look back over your shoulder at Koharu as you mount the steps to the shrine. She's furiously tapping away at something on her phone as Mariko attempts to cajole her into following. You'll give Hayate credit, as at least he seems eager to put the argument behind him.

Because of the elevation, the temperature at the mountain peak was so cold that many students donned their jackets. But inside the shrine, the abundance of lit torches and burning incense makes the air so hot and stuffy that the jackets come right back off again. More than once, you and your friends have to stop each other from dozing off by poking each other in the side.

After a seemingly interminable monologue about Yamamori family history, ancient guardian spirits, and the trials of mountainside architecture, all three classes are set free to wander down the mountain back to the manor. Even Otomuji seems relieved, plucking at the front of her sweatstained blouse as she wobbles down the shrine steps. Going back down the mountain, while quicker, is much more taxing on your legs than you expected it to be. When you reach the manor gates, most of your classmates (you included) are lamenting the school's choices.

"Could be worse," says Hayate, "we could've been back at Toshima. Hell, there's even a rumor going around that a couple of third years ditched to come with us."

By the time you reach the lobby, all your group wants to do is take a bath and retire to your rooms for the night.

"That way, we can be fresh for our free day tomorrow," says Mariko, and you all agree that it's sage advice.

Just as you'd predicted, there are spacious, shared baths on the ground floor nestled in a corner of a wide courtyard illuminated by the orange light of dozens of paper lamps. Shedding your sweat-soaked clothes is a welcome feeling, and the warm bath water seems to eat away at the weariness permeating your muscles.

"W-What are you doing over there, Hayate?" asks Nisekao, prompting you to pry open one of your eyes.

Hayate has his ear pressed against the dividing wall that separates the men's and women's bath and is listening intently for...something.

"Excellent question, what are you doing?" you ask.

"Listening."

"Yes, I can see that. Hearing anything?" you say, more than a little facetiously.

"Not a thing. Damn wall's too thick."

"What were you hoping to hear?" says Nisekao, and his face flushes slightly.

Hayate splits a grin. "Oh-ho, so you do have an adventurous side after all, Nisekao-kun! Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but it's nothing as interesting as...that." You'd rather not try to think too hard about what "that" is supposed to mean. "No, I'm listening for gossip."

"About you?" you say.

Now it's Hayate's turn to blush. "Er, well, yeah."

"How come?" asks Nisekao.

"You wanna know if Shimizu-san is talking about you, huh?"

Hayate looks away and slides off the wall. "I don't need to know if she's talking about me, I know she is. It's just..."

"Just what? I'm not going out a limb by guessing there's some kind of history here, am I?"

"Yeah, actually, you are. Just drop it," Hayate says, and submerges himself up to his nose to indicate that the conversation is over.


That night, you're awakened by a piercing shriek. You roll over to shake Nisekao awake, and then reach over to the table to grab your phone. 12:00 AM. Midnight.

"Tetsuo...? What is it?" he yawns.

"You didn't hear that? Someone's screaming downstairs."

"What?"

"C'mon, throw on your clothes and let's go check it out."

Within a few minutes, the both of you are on the elevator down to the first floor and dashing into the lobby.

At first, it doesn't appear that anything's wrong until you see Mariko's hunched figure on the landing of the staircase. Nisekao waits at the bottom of the staircase as you take the steps two at a time.

"Hey, what is it? What's going o-oh."

The sight that greets you snatches your breath right out of your lungs. A twisted, mangled body lies facedown and motionless in a puddle of sanguine fluid, its figure mauled almost beyond recognition. Mariko kneels next to it, her face clasped in her hands with her eyes peeking through slits in her fingers.

"What...what the hell is this...?" you say after finding your voice once again. But before Mariko can muster any kind of response, the sound of footsteps comes echoing in from the balcony above and Hayate ambles into view.

"Hey, did you guys hear tha-oh my God what the fuck." The sight of the corpse stops him dead in his tracks, and he keels over to retch on the carpet.

"Good of you to make it," you say, climbing one of the forking staircases and helping him to his feet. When you return to the body, Hayate averts his eyes and gives it a wide berth.

"G-Guys...? What is it?" calls Nisekao from the foot of the stairs.

"It's probably better that you don't see-" you begin, but you're immediately cut off by Hayate screeching, "There's a fuckin' dead guy up here!"

"D-Dead?"

"Dead girl, more like," says Mariko, taking deep breaths all the while to steady herself. "This is bad. Really, really bad. If whoever did this is still in here, we've got to get help as soon as possible."

You're inwardly thankful that someone's thinking clearly. Your brain's still going mad trying to come to terms with the fact that there's a dead body not more than a meter away from you. Fumbling for your phone, you're greeted by an unwelcome sight. Where you'd had a decent signal before you went to bed, now there are no bars at all.

"Signal's gone," you say, "think this place still has a landline somewhere?"

"Um...um...there should be one at the check-in counter!" says Nisekao, who seems eager to distance himself as much as possible from the body.

"No way...uh-uh...this isn't real, this isn't real, this can't be real," Hayate gibbers, and you can't help but dopeslap him upside the back of the head.

"Owch...what was that all about?"

"You gotta get yourself together. I'm freaked out, too, but letting it get to you isn't gonna help anyone. Mariko's got the right idea: we need to try to keep a level head and work out a way to get us help."

Suddenly, something that had been nibbling at the depths of your mind comes to the surface.

"Mariko, where's Koharu?"

Mariko stops in her tracks, whips her head around, and gives you a disconcertingly lost expression. "I thought she was following along behind me. I got out of bed so quickly that I never noticed..." Her gaze travels to the corpse. "Oh no..."

Nisekao's voice calling from below interrupts her train of thought to deliver more encouraging news.

"It's n-no good! The phone down here is dead, too!"

"Well, then it can't be helped, can it?" says Hayate. "We gotta get back down the mountain and get the police!"

And with that, Hayate vaults over the banister of the landing, tumbles onto the floor, and takes off at a breakneck pace down the entrance hall with the three of you on his heels. When he reaches the doors, he practically throws himself at the handles and heaves with all of his might - only to almost fall back onto his rear end when the doors refuse to budge an inch. And as you trace the seam between the two slabs of polished wood, it doesn't take long to find out why. Set halfway up, slightly above the door handles, is an orange, skull-shaped mask emblazoned with a black, target-like design.

"That's a problem."

Hayate's gaze whips between you and the mask. "Why? What is that?"

"A mask."

"I can see that. But what does it mean?"

"There's a Cloud beyond these doors. If we want to go get help, we'll have to fight our way through the Shadow on the other side."

"Wait. You're talking about one things like the one that kidnapped me, right? You're saying there's one right out there? Why?"

"What," you say, beginning to get fed up with Hayate's hysterics, "You think I know? What's the matter, anyways? Didn't you want to hunt down Shadows with us? Well now's your chance."

"Oh, give me a break, bro! I didn't think it'd be like this! I mean, we got whatever did that-" he points towards the landing and the corpse, "-in here, and now we got Shadows out there! I ain't ready for this yet! I'd have at least liked to know we were gonna do this beforehand!"

"Well, I think it's a little much to ask them to be accommodating. If you can't deal, then you can stay here with Nisekao. Now step aside and let me try it."

You step up to the door yourself and feel around the edges of the mask for the familiar grooves on the side. Once you feel your fingers sink into them, you give it a mighty pull - but this time, the mask refuses to come off.

"What the...why isn't it working this time? Hey, where are you going?" you call after Mariko, who's started back up the staircase with an air of purpose.

"There's something I want to check," she says.

Following after her, you return to the body, which is still lying facedown in its own viscera. Oddly enough, this time you notice that the smell of blood is absent from the scene. Gingerly, Mariko bends down over the body, and turns its head to the side. Where its face should be, there is the same orange mask that's affixed to the door.

The reality of the situation hits you like a hammer, and Mariko voices the conclusion you've come to:

"We were wrong. The Cloud's not out there - we're already inside."