I looked at the time, just to see it was almost five o'clock. Quickly, I raced out of my room, heading down the stairs to the bottom floor. I began walking over to the game room, when I suddenly stopped. I stared up at the scene, a sense of unease in my mind. I could feel the sweat roll down my face, as my heart pumped.
This was where we had found Furuya. She died and was placed high up in the air... right here. I felt uneasy, as I stared at the placement where my friend had to perished. I took a long sigh, and put a hand to my heart.
"I'm sorry this happened to you. I'll try my best... to live on." I said. I didn't believe in anything spiritual. But... in that moment... I genuinely hoped that she had heard me. And... maybe I needed to hear that too.
I continued walking, making it to the game room door, being the one with all the other girls inside. I sighed, knocking on it, waiting for someone to open it. Suddenly, it flung to the side, Morita standing in the door.
"Hello Hirano! Come on in!" Morita chuckled mischievously.
"Hey, Hirano, are you gonna be okay? I don't want a hallucination to happen while this is going on. Just so no one gets hurt." Naito explained, a frown on her face.
"I- I'll be fine. And I- I'm not the only one h- hallucinating, so I should be fine." I replied. She nodded, walking over to the middle of the room as I followed behind her.
I immediately felt the tension, as Miyazaki, Imamura and Tengan sat in the oddly silent room, no words between them. I stood, confused, approaching Miyazaki.
"H- hey, didn't you and Imamura m- make up?" I asked. Miyazaki rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, we did. But that's not going to fix all of the tension immediately. It's gonna take me awhile for me to really care about these two." Miyazaki said. Imamura scoffed, looking away, while Tengan remained silent, her eyes closed and her fingers intertwined.
"I- I guess... that makes sense..." I replied. I looked over to Morita and Naito, who were cheerfully chatting with each other. I sat down on the floor, staring at the ground. I didn't know what to do. Why had I been excited for this? There so much tension in the room that I was feeling uncomfortable.
"Alright! Project make the bitches like each other has officially commenced!" Morita yelled out, making a pose as she did. Imamura almost replied angrily, but shut herself down before she could say anything. But she was clearly irritated.
"Alright! How about we play never have I ever?" Naito suggested, sitting down on the floor.
"Never have I ever nearly killed thousands of people by starving them to death..." Imamura mumbled under her breath.
"Excuse me?" Tengan said, glaring at Imamura.
"Huh? I didn't say anything! What are you looking at me for..." Imamura said nonchalantly, making it obvious that she did say something. Tengan turned away from her.
"At least I didn't put hundreds of people out of business..." Tengan replied quietly.
"UH, yeah you did!" Imamura responded. "Didn't you fire all of your employees a year ago!?"
"Yes, but I said out of business, not out of a job." She said.
"YOU STILL DID THAT!!! All those small businesses falling to YOUR EMPIRE!!!" She screamed.
"Um, guys-" Naito began.
"Well then maybe they should've been smart enough not to do that." Tengan replied.
"WHY YOU!!!" Imamura yelled, holding herself back just enough not to punch Tengan.
"Both of you are horrible people..." Miyazaki mumbled. Imamura shot a glare at her, nearly shaking with anger. I could feel myself slowly backing up to the wall, trying to get as far away from the tension as possible.
"Okay... how about we do something! Miyazaki, how would you feel about doing some hair?" Morita said. Miyazaki nearly perked up, her eyes filled with inspiration and excitement.
"I... uh..." she began. She looked to everyone in the room, almost asking for some sort of recognition.
"I... guess that fine..." Imamura mumbled. Miyazaki proudly stood up, and walked over to her, sitting behind her and beginning to fumble with her long blonde hair. I looked to Naito, who was staring at the room with sad eyes.
"What's wrong?" I asked. She sighed, looking at the ground in shame.
"We... shouldn't have done this. It was a stupid idea." Naito said. I paused for a moment.
"W- well, maybe a little bit..." I replied. "B- but it was a good attempt!" She shook her head.
"No... it wasn't..." she responded.
"Miss Hirano Rei?" Someone said. I looked up, making eye contact with Tengan. "Could I speak with you... privately?"
"U- um... okay?" I replied. I stood up, and followed Tengan over to the closet at the front of the room. "S- so... what did you want t- to talk about?"
"I'll get right to the point." She began. "I am not particularly sure about something."
"S- so you're confused?" I replied. She paused for a moment, before nodding.
"Imamura has a grudge against me for certain decisions that I've decided to take in my existence. She acts like I am causing the downfall of our society, even though I am not the one who came up with the rules. I am not the one who made decisions for other people. Our fates are ceiled as soon as we enter this world, and so I was destined to be like this. So why? Why doesn't she understand my perspective? You have to do anything and everything to survive in this world. So why does Imamura insist that I am the problem with her and many others lives?" Tengan asked. I paused, staring at the floor.
"I think it's because... she wants you to do things in more of a moral way. I bet she doesn't want to argue either, but she can't help it. Her talent won't let her stop until she finally gets the world to a better place, but she can only do it a step at a time." I replied. Tengan stared into my eyes, almost seeming to be lost in comprehension.
"So... you're saying that what I've done with my life isn't moral?" She replied.
"W- well... a little bit. B- but you have the right to ch- choose what you do with it." I explained. She glared at me for a moment.
"I... don't... know." She responded. She thought to herself for a moment. "I may need some time to think about this situation-"
"H- hey... do you want to be friends?" I asked. Tengan looked up at me, her eyes wide.
"Huh?" She blurted out.
"W- well... you seemed kind of lonely, and I thought..." I started, before looking up at her. I stared for a moment, watching tears fall down her face.
"I... would enjoy that... a lot." She said, the slightest bit of a smile on her face. Come to think, that seemed like the first time I saw her smile. At least... from what I remembered. She took a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped some of the tears out of the corners of her eyes. She took a deep breath, losing her smile. "Should we return to the group?" I nodded, following her back out of the closet.
Imamura's hair had been put into a high ponytail with some of her hair in a braid, wrapping around the connecting line. She was staring at the floor, not looking at anyone. Tengan stared at her for a moment, before sitting far away from Imamura, looking away from her.
"You okay?" Naito said, looking up at me. I smiled.
"Yeah. I'm doing really good." I replied. She stared at me for a moment.
"You didn't stutter." She responded, a bright grin on her face.
"W- well... I don't know..." I said, laughing a bit.
"Hey, I wonder what the boys are doing!" Morita chuckled.
"Boys?" Miyazaki replied, glaring at her with a confused expression.
"You don't know? The boys are doing their own little party thing in the room over." Morita laughed. Miyazaki scoffed angrily.
"Of course they did..." Miyazaki said.
"Hey, what about we play another game?" Naito suggested.
"Like a killing game?" Ressa yelled, appearing out of nowhere.
"WHAT THE-" Imamura yelled, jumping up from where she was sitting, before getting angry that she'd been scared by a doll.
"Ugh... it's him again..." Morita blurted out.
"Aaawwww, I'm so loved here." Ressa began. He cleared his throat. "Anyway... WHERE DID THE TENSION GO!? FIGHT EACH OTHER!!! KILL EAXH OTHER!!! START THE NEEEEXXXXTTTTT TRIAL!!!" He yelled, stomping his feet back and forth.
"We don't want it kill each other! What don't you get about that!?" Imamura yelled. Tengan looked away, catching her attention as she glared at her angrily.
"Well well well, if we're not going to kill each other... then I might make it a little bit more intriguing..." he chuckled. "Alright! The hallucinations are going to come a lot more often! And there's nothing you can do about it!" He laughed. My eyes went wide. No... I could take that. More hallucinations would be the worst thing for me right now. I felt my heart begin to pump faster just thinking about it. Suddenly, Miyazaki grabbed the stuffed animal and held him in the air, grabbing the scissors from the small pouch in her apron, and pointing them at him.
"Listen to me right now you little shit..." Miyazaki began. "I'm not going to live through one of the worst days of my life again. And I'm not going to murder anyone. Either you get rid of these fucking hallucinations, or I'm gonna chop that little head right off your shoulders!" Ressa remained silent, almost seeming to have disappeared even though he was still in her grasp. "Hello!? Do you not have anymore comebacks!?" She yelled in his face.
"You know... I am very bloodthirsty. I'd love to kill you right now, especially since you broke a rule, but I'll cut you some slack. But... I'll make you the first example." He said. Miyazaki glared at him, almost unable to comprehend what he was saying. Suddenly, claws came out of his paw, and he threw them into Miyazaki's arm. She let out a bloodcurdling scream, falling to the ground and dropping the robotic bear. But the screams didn't stop, clearly being from some other source. Blood violently dripped from her arm, as her eyes almost seemed to swirl as she begged and yelled. I felt a sudden fear come over me, as tears fell from my eyes, my body shaking as I looked at the robotic bear that had just violently harmed our friend.
"Miyazaki!" Morita yelled, running over to her, and getting down next to her. "W- we'll help you! We've just got to-"
"LEAVE ME ALONE!!!" She screamed, racing out of the room before any of us could follow after her. Morita raced to the door, looking out as she watched Miyazaki run for her life. She began to exit before.
"Nuh uh! Don't leave!" Ressa yelled. We all turned to him, fear in our eyes as he wiped the blood from his claws. "Don't follow after her, or I'll infect you with the hallucinations as well! Got it!?" He said. Everyone began to tremble with fear, as Morita slowly walked away from the door.
"W- what if she dies!?" I replied.
"Then she'll get what she rightfully deserves for breaking a school rule! Now if you excuse me, I'm going to have a looooooooooonnnnnnnngggggg bath." He said, before disappearing. Their was silence in the room, as everyone shook in fear.
"No..." Imamura said, breaking the silence. "I'm gonna go check on her. I'm not going to let ANYONE die. And if I get those stupid hallucinations, so be it!" She yelled, beginning to walk to the door.
Suddenly, the lights went out. Why did the lights go out!? What was going on!? Was Ressa back and he was going to attack Imamura this time!? I started to hyperventilate as I backed up into a wall.
"Hey! Who turned out the lights!?" Imamura yelled.
"Everyone! Remain calm! We've got to-" Morita began, before the sound of a music played began to play, drowning out everyone's voices. I couldn't hear anything, as the power stayed out for a little while longer. I felt the sweat dripping down my face, as I began to panic. Someone was going to die... weren't they? This was when someone was going to be murdered! The tension rose, as a couple of seconds felt like hours. At this point, it felt like a day had gone by.
Suddenly, the lights came back on. I looked at everyone else in the room, looking for any evidence of a murder. I made eye contact with everyone one by one. Imamura. Morita. Naito. Tengan. They were all alive. I took a sigh of relief, as Naito turned off the music player. Suddenly, there was a knocking at the door. Quickly, I raced over, opening it up. Kawata stood there, his body shaking as he stared me in the eyes, his face pale.
"I- I... need you... to come.. w- with me..." he said, slowly beginning to walk back to the game room. A fear overcame me, as I followed Kawata back over to the other room. My eyes went wide, as I stared inside. I had been so relieved. But little had I known, it wasn't in the place I had expected.
I stared at Shishido Kyo's lifeless body, blood leaking on the floor around his head.
Words: 2298