One and Only

Ch. 18 Second Years

We made it to the 3rd floor to see Suguru leaning against a wall waiting for us.
"You find anything?" I called out.
"Nah," Suguru answered. "Place is spotless, other than the gross stains on the carpets." I shuddered.
"Where's Satoru?" Shoko questioned.
"Still in the last room, dunno what's keeping him." He pushed himself off the wall and made his way to the last room in the hall. He pushed open the door and we heard the squeaking of the bed from the hallway. Suguru just stood in the doorway, face blank. Shoko and I looked over his shoulders to see Satoru jumping on the bed.
"I told you not to play on the beds!" Shoko grabbed the poor boy from the collar and dragged him out of the room. Satoru just making pitiful noises as a means to protest. Suguru and I chuckled at the scene.
"So then, shall we head upstairs?" I put a hand on Shoko's shoulder. She left out a huff and began to walk back to the stairwell at the opposite end of the hall.
As soon as we stepped foot on the 3rd floor there was a noticeable shift. It felt like the walls and floor were moving, drawing you in to a certain room. The door to room 34 was open, and we could hear a crunching sound coming from it. Suguru was the first to enter.
"Shit." Was all that needed to be said. As we all got into the room, it was converted into an incomplete domain. The walls and floors turning into a fleshy space, eye and mouths sprouting from every direction. The room began to elongate and grow, and right in the middle we could see an older man's body, bloodied and gnarled. Cleaning supplies and a janitorial cart dented and spilled. Well, there was the man the Windows mentioned. Satoru took a step forward and suddenly fleshy appendages shot out from what were once the floors. Of course, none of them could touch Satoru, but as for the rest of us our ankles were being wrapped with the disgusting tentacles. I heard Shoko let out a groan as she was pulled to the ground. The appendages dragging her away from us. I tried to reach out for her, only for another of the flesh tentacles to shoot out and wrap around my wrists. I was soon brought to the floor, I could feel the flesh moving beneath me, moving up my body encasing me. Swallowing me.
"Mai!" Suguru conjured up a curse that cut away at the flesh that was enveloping me. I yelled out a thanks as I dashed to Shoko. I pulled out a dagger that I had strapped to my lower back, throwing it to the tentacles at her leg. I watched it writhe in pain as it let her go, she was quick to grab at the dagger and give it another stab. I scooped her up and grabbed my blade as I jumped out of the way. Satoru came crashing into it. Using his cursed energy to a leave a decent crater where the appendage once was. Then, the most blood curdling inhuman scream reverberated through the entirety of the space.
"I guess it doesn't like being hurt." Suguru said as the screams finally ceased.
"Sounds like it's pretty deep, you guys wanna get started on going after it?" I said, putting Shoko back on the ground.
"You can carry me more, ya know. It's nice, I feel like a princess." She said, still holding on to my shoulders.
"After, I wanna get this done first." I replied.
"Satoru, why don't you just exorcise it? You probably already know where it is." Suguru said, checking the time on his phone. Satoru just made a face.
"I don't want to, don't feel like it." He replied, throwing his arms behind his head. "One of you two do it." He pointed at Suguru and I.
"Me? Why me?" I was genuinely confused as to why he said me.
"You're strong, you can do it. I'll stay here and hang out with Shoko!" He added cheerfully. Shoko didn't seem too bothered, making it obvious that she didn't have any intention of doing anything anyway.
"I mean.. I guess?" I shrugged, turning to Suguru. "Wanna come with?" He was already conjuring a cursed spirit, a favorite of mine. The cute ray came out, floating around the raven haired boy. I walked up to it and gave it pats. Suguru hopped onto the ray and held a hand out to me, helping me on. I wrapped my arms around Suguru's waist.
"Ready?" He looked back at me.
"Yep!" I said joyfully.
"We'll be back in a few," Suguru called out to the two still on the ground. I gave a wave as the ray began to fly through the air.
Honestly, this thing was a lot farther than we thought. We had been flying through the space for at least 10 minutes, and we were going pretty fast. Well, not that I was complaining, really. It was peaceful. I was resting my head against Suguru's back, his hair blowing back from the air rushing past us. This was probably the best time to tell Suguru my answer.
"Hey, Suguru?" I called out to him.
"Yeah?" He kept facing forward
"Do you remember when we talked? About dating?" This time, I felt him crane his neck to look at me.
"I do." His tone was expectant. Unsure if it was for me to hurry up and explain, or if he was waiting for an answer.
"Well I've been thinking it over, especially recently. I don't think w-" I was cut off by the onset of cursed appendages coming barreling towards us. I grabbed onto Suguru's waist tighter as the ray began to maneuver around the tentacles. It felt like I was on a roller coaster, my stomach doing flips with every turn and loop.
"Mai, down there!" Suguru called out. I looked down to see a misshapen mess of what tried to appear human. It's bones looked too big for its body, it's entire posture looked like someone who had just got up from getting hit by a semi-truck. We could feel the cursed energy radiating off of it. Suguru got us closer to the ground, I jumped off the ray and pulled out the dagger once again, hacking away at the appendages that shot towards us.
"Do you want me to kill it?" I called out to Suguru.
"No, I'll take it in." He said, summoning a massive worm looking curse, swallowing the fleshy thing up. The worm mashed it against its teeth, the poor mangled curse looked even worse than before. Suguru transformed the curse into a black orb that fit into his hand. I watched as he put the orb to his mouth, it looked entirely too big for him to swallow. And yet, he managed to force the thing down. His face scrunched.
"You okay?" I asked, coming up to him. The incomplete domain crumbling away and returning to its normal state as a hotel room.
"Yeah, I'm okay. Just need some water. By the way, what was it that you wanted to say?" He asked.
"Oh, well.." The confidence i had then dwindled away. I was going to reject him. Before I finished, we saw Shoko and Satoru were sitting on the floor.
"She was really cute, kind of dumb, but man were her friends hot! I got some of their numbers too, going on a date with one of them after this." I just stared at the white haired boy. I knew I shouldn't be upset. I knew I shouldn't have gotten as jealous as I did. Of course Satoru was still going on dates, he even said he didn't want to give that up yet. I was angry. I turned back to Suguru.
"I have an answer for you now. Yes, I'd like to go on a date with you."
"Huh?" Suguru gave me a shocked look. Satoru went silent, I could feel him staring at the two of us. "Really?" Suguru breathed out.
"Yeah, things are a lot less stressful now. So, I'd really like to go on that date." I smiled at him.
"Ah-" We heard Shoko. The door to the room shut before she could say anything else. We turned to see that Satoru was now gone.