Chapter 7 - Kibou: Hope
1
Takuro opened his eyes, jolted awake by the sound of his own screaming. Breathing heavily, he sat up in bed. The sheets were soaked. He put a hand to his brow. He was pouring sweat. He must’ve been having a terrible dream, but the terror was all he could remember. Not that he wanted to recall anything else, however.
I’m glad it was just a dream...
He breathed a sigh of relief, tugging at his shirt. After calming down some, he looked around. He knew exactly where he was, for he was quite familiar with the school clinic. But he didn’t see the nurse anywhere.
What am I doing here? Was I so tired that I just needed to crash for a bit? Or did I get knocked out during soccer practice or something? Or...
Flipping through his memories, the entire back of his head began aching badly enough that he unwittingly groaned. It was almost like his brain was refusing to remember.
Stepping out of bed, Takuro instantly felt dizzy. He quickly extended his right arm and grabbed hold of the nurse’s desk to steady himself. There was a pair of scissors lying out, and as misfortune would have it, he just so happened to catch the edge of them when he threw out his hand.
“Ow!”
His face twisted in pain, and he instantly recoiled. He looked at his hand to find not blood, but some sort of blue liquid welling up on his fingertip.
“Oh...”
The moment he saw it, the temporarily fried circuits in his brain resumed normal function, flushing a fresh wave of the nightmare he’d been living through his mind. A blue, man-eating monster. His transformation. And Naoki’s plan for vengeance after being bullied to death.
It wasn’t a dream at all... It was all real.
“Takuro... Are you okay?”
He heard a quivering voice from the door to the room and looked over. It was Mika, holding a towel and a wash basin full of fresh water. She must have been taking care of him while he was sweating and moaning in his sleep.
“Yeah. Sorry I worried you,” he answered, putting a hand on Mika’s shoulder.
Her eyes teared up, and she buried her face in his chest. As he stroked her soft hair, he felt strangely calm.
“What are you doing here? Didn’t Hiroshi tell you guys to wait outside?”
“It’s bad, Takuro. We heard Panzee screaming, and then Kazuya ran inside...”
Takuro recalled Naoki’s grim expression upon seeing Mr. Inoue.
Naoki, you didn’t...
Takuro looked up at the clock on the wall. It was just after seven. Fortunately, he’d only been out for less than ten minutes.
“Where are Hiroshi and Takeshi?” he asked.
“They’re looking for Kazuya,” Mika answered.
Takuro knew he couldn’t afford to stay put. He grabbed his jacket hanging over the back of the folding chair by the bed.
“I’ve gotta stop this rampage of his.”
He quickly slid his arms through the sleeves, biting his lip.
This is all on me. I’ve got to be the one to do something about it.
“Mika, you—”
“I’m coming with you,” Mika cut him off and clasped his hand tightly. “Till death do us part.”
She looked him dead in the eye, and Takuro couldn’t see even a flicker of hesitation within her.
“...Yeah.”
He nodded slightly.
It’s not like I can live a normal life now. Not with this body... If trading my life to stop Naoki will save everyone else, I thought that would be for the best, but...
“Let’s go.”
Takuro then left the nurse’s office, still holding Mika’s hand.
No matter what happens, I won’t let go of her.
2
His ears on high alert, Takuro ascended the stairs with Mika at his side. Other than the buzzing of the old fluorescent bulbs, he couldn’t hear a thing. Where had the others gone?
Upon reaching the second floor, the faint scent of blood wafted past his nose. Takuro was immediately struck with a bad feeling. Mika must have picked up on the smell too. Her grip on his hand tightened. But as terrible as it might be, they needed to know what had happened.
Checking each room one by one, Takuro and Mika proceeded down the hall. They passed the student council room and the AV room. Further ahead were the music room, the computer lab, and the home ec room, which was divided into a sewing workshop and a kitchen area. After seeing that no one was in the music room, the couple moved on. They peered through the window into the sewing workshop, but still nothing seemed to be amiss. Takuro took a step with his right leg to head for the kitchen, when...
“Hey, don’t you think there’s something weird about that mannequin?” Mika asked, tugging on his arm.
“Huh?”
He turned back to the window she was pointing toward. On the other side of a table with a sewing machine on it were three full-sized mannequins. Two of them were the normal kind you’d often see in stores, but the last one was slightly different.
Rather than a mannequin, it was more like a large wooden doll. It had articulate joints so that it could be styled freely, but it had something of a deformed design. Its torso had no discernible waist, making it impossible to tell where the chest ended and the hips began. Its head was entirely spherical as well, with only two bored holes where eyes would go.
It certainly looked odd upon closer inspection, but it wasn’t strange enough that anyone would give it a second passing glance. Takuro for one had never paid attention to the mannequins in the sewing workshop, so it wasn’t like he could say even if something was weird here. But this one... Takuro recognized this mannequin.
“That mannequin... It was in the Jailhouse, wasn’t it?”
He nodded silently in response to Mika’s question, a bead of cold sweat dripping down his temple. She was exactly right. Takuro had seen that doll-like form many times in the Jailhouse, both virtual and otherwise. It was an item that played an important role in Shun’s escape game.
“Do you think we’ve been trapped inside another world that’s synchronized with the game?”
“Correct! Very astute,” said Naoki from behind them.
Takuro immediately stepped in front of Mika to protect her as he faced off against Naoki.
“Remember what I said at the very beginning? ‘Welcome to the Jailhouse.’ Once I installed Shun’s escape game on the school’s mainframe, voila. So right now, we’re back in the game. Well? Isn’t it fun to be enjoying a little leisure at school?”
Naoki sounded delighted, but Takuro was in no mood for his ramblings.
“Where’s Panzee?” he demanded with a glare.
“He’s been dead for a while now,” Naoki answered, nodding down the hall.
Takuro could feel Mika trembling behind him.
“Why? Why did you have to kill someone else?” Takuro asked, making sure to stay in front of Mika. “It’s me you really hate, right? This doesn’t involve anyone else, so if you’re going to kill someone, kill me.”
“My, I’m shocked. I never thought I’d live to hear those words come out of your mouth. Oh, wait...” Naoki said in a joking manner, pursing his lips. “So I’m supposed to believe you’ve become a goody two-shoes or something? Can people really change that easily, I wonder?”
“My friends...”
The faces of everyone he’d fought to survive alongside in the Jailhouse flashed through Takuro’s mind.
“My friends changed me,” he answered, bolstered by Mika’s warmth as she leaned on his back.
“Oh, they’re your friends, huh?” Naoki said with a frosty stare. “Too bad one of them’s already dead.”
There, Naoki lifted his right arm, revealing his shirt stained blue.
“You didn’t—”
“See for yourself.”
Naoki pointed toward the adjacent kitchen space. Mika was faster than Takuro, and instantly darted over to the door. Peering through the window, however, all the color ran from her face.
“Mika, don’t run off! Stay behind me!”
Takuro quickly followed after Mika, keeping himself between her and Naoki. But when he approached the door too, a familiar face leaped out at him. On the gas stove was a large aluminum pot. Right next to it, on the kitchen counter, lay Takeshi. By his head was a carelessly placed cookbook.
“What... What do you think you’re doing?” Takuro turned and asked Naoki.
“I’ve never eaten a human before, and it seems I just don’t have the stomach for them raw, so...” Naoki said quite indifferently.
“You...”
Takuro knew he couldn’t afford to lose his cool. But despite his best efforts to remind himself that, his voice quivered with rage.
“Ah, yes, that’s it. I really can’t get enough of it. It just sends shivers up my spine. I never did get to see that look on your face while I was alive, after all.” His eyes fixed on Takuro, Naoki continued in a sharper tone, “You asked me earlier why I had to kill someone else. Well, let me explain it. It’s because my anger won’t be sated just by torturing and killing you alone.”
The harsher Naoki’s tone grew, the colder the air in the room turned from the tension.
“So I’m going to kill everyone you care about to plunge you into the darkest depths of despair first.”
There, something overtook the rage in Takuro’s heart. It was fear. He was starting to freak out. His knees wobbled, and he began to sweat profusely. He did his best to stay strong in front of Mika, but his teeth were still chattering. Takuro had never been on the receiving end of such pure, pointed hatred before. It chilled him to the bone.
“Don’t... Please.” Takuro got down on his knees and bowed his head.
“Are you seriously begging? Now this is a real shocker. I had no idea you were even capable.” Takuro could hear Naoki laugh. “I remember all the times you made me beg for mercy. Of course, I didn’t want to be hurt, so I did what I was told. But this is the mercy you showed me!”
The impact rattled Takuro’s brainpan. His forehead hit the floor with a thud. The next thing he knew, Naoki was stepping on his head.
“That’s just cruel! Stop it!” he heard Mika shout.
“Cruel? You want to lecture me about cruel? I seem to remember you laughing from the sidelines,” Naoki hissed, ruthlessly grinding his foot into Takuro’s head.
“Please! Just stop!”
“Mika, be quiet!” Takuro shouted.
It was dangerous to provoke Naoki. There was no telling when he might turn his anger on her.
Besides... this is what I deserve.
Takuro’s skull shuddered and creaked from the strain. If he continued to offer no resistance, Naoki would surely splatter his brains right there on the floor. A pitiful way to go.
But if this is how it has to be, then so be it, he thought, resigning himself to his fate. I did way worse to Naoki for way longer.
“Please! That’s enough!”
As Mika’s grief-filled scream reached Takuro’s ears, the weight on his head suddenly lifted. He looked up to see Naoki bowled over in the hallway. Mika must have pushed him.
Fearing a counterattack, Takuro quickly got to his feet and positioned himself between Mika and Naoki once more. Naoki, however, stood up lazily. Brushing the dust from his clothes, he shrugged his shoulders and looked at them in pity.
“Fine. It would be a shame to just kill you two outright, so in the interest of good fun, let’s have a little wager,” said Naoki as he turned to point to the clock in the room. “It’s currently 7:10 AM, an hour and ten minutes before the school bell rings.”
“What of it?”
“Since I managed to sync the school with Shun’s game, it’d be a waste not to enjoy it, so let’s play. As for the wager... Oh, I know! If you can escape from school before the bell rings, you win. How’s that sound?”
“And if we can’t escape?”
“When the bell rings, the plated doors and windows will all return to normal. Naturally, everyone will then come inside like any other school day, and I certainly doubt they’ll be expecting a man-eating monster waiting for them. I’ll gobble up every last one of them in their surprise,” Naoki said with a gleeful grin. “The odds are stacked against you, but good luck and have fun!”
And with that, Naoki raised his right hand high above his head and skipped off down the hall, humming and waving.
3
The chisel snapped off at the handle, the blade clattering to the floor uselessly.
That makes the seventh one.
Hiroshi sighed and reached out for another chisel.
“What are you doing?” Kazuya asked.
Hiroshi hadn’t noticed him walk over.
“Are you okay now?” he asked, picking up the next chisel.
Kazuya hadn’t said a word while they were running from the science lab to the art room on the third floor. And after making it there, he’d simply sat in the corner hugging his knees, wide-eyed and utterly unresponsive. He’d looked like someone had sucked the soul right out of him.
But Hiroshi could hardly blame him. He’d just witnessed the aftermath of their homeroom teacher’s brutal murder. If anything, Hiroshi was the odd one here for being able to keep his calm.
When he realized that it was pointless to try and talk to Kazuya for the time being, he’d decided to give him his space. Really, he was grateful he hadn’t gone hysterical. This was much easier to deal with than someone who was thrashing about or shouting crazily. And so, leaving Kazuya to his own devices, Hiroshi had gone over to the window.
He hadn’t brought the two of them here by chance. The art room was basically in the middle of the third floor, and as such, it was outfitted with emergency escape chutes along the windows. Hiroshi’s plan was to use one to get out.
His first thought had been to go immediately to the window in the boys’ bathroom that Kazuya and Mika had used to get in, but Takuro was asleep in the nurse’s office practically next door. He knew he’d be putting his unconscious friend in danger if he led the monster that way, so he’d chosen plan B: the art room.
After finding one of the boxes labeled “emergency chute,” Hiroshi carefully opened it. Luckily, he’d gone through safety training and knew exactly how to use it. Now if he could just get one of the windows open, they could escape outside.
Next, he’d taken a moment to inspect the metal plates covering the windows. They looked like they could be removed by hand, but when he grabbed them, they wouldn’t budge. They were apparently affixed to the glass somehow, though Hiroshi couldn’t find any nails or bolts holding them in place.
The set of chisels was something Hiroshi had found while searching the cabinets in the room. He took one and wedged it between two of the metal plates on the windows. He tried again and again in various ways, employing the process of trial and error, but the only results he had to show for it so far were seven broken chisels.
And the eighth was no different. The blade broke off with a dull snapping sound and fell at Kazuya’s feet.
“This appears to be fruitless. I doubt any further attempts will yield favorable results,” Hiroshi said, his shoulders lowered in disappointment.
Rubbing his bright red fingers, he then turned to Kazuya and repeated his earlier question.
“Are you okay now?”
“No, not really... I’m still shaking. See?”
Kazuya held his hands out in demonstration. And indeed, his fingertips were quivering slightly.
“You gotta tell me... What in the world is going on here?”
It was a perfectly natural question, but Hiroshi struggled to find an answer. So much had happened that he wasn’t even sure where to start. And even if he did manage to explain it all, he doubted Kazuya would ever believe him.
“We have to call an ambulance right away. Panzee’s—”
“It’s too late. Mr. Inoue is dead.”
“Did he kill him?” Kazuya asked with great nervous energy. “I wasn’t seeing things, was I? That guy in the science lab...”
“Yes, that was Naoki,” Hiroshi quietly answered with a modest nod.
“How? I thought he was dead.”
“If you define death as the termination of one’s life in their original body, then yes, he’s dead.”
“What are you saying? That was a ghost?”
“Strictly speaking, no, but that may be the easiest way to explain what’s going on here.”
The reality was that it wasn’t just Naoki. Takuro, Mika, Takeshi, and Anna were all dead too, but revealing that now might be too much for Kazuya. Hiroshi couldn’t risk sending him into a panic, and so he kept that detail to himself.
“So, what? A ghost cursed Panzee to death? That... can’t be, can it? Am I dreaming?”
“Overthinking the matter will only confuse you further. For now, let us just focus on escaping. Once we’re outside, I’m sure we’ll awake from this terrible dream,” Hiroshi calmly said.
“I got in here through the window in the boys’ bathroom. I think we can get out that way, too.”
“Indeed. I’m starting to think that may be our only option.” Hiroshi put a hand to his chin when suddenly he saw a figure in the hall. “Hide!”
Pulling Kazuya by the hand, he moved to the rear of the classroom. He threw up a white sheet draped over a set of shelves and hid the two of them under it. And it wasn’t a moment too soon. The next second, he could hear the door to the room burst open.
It was too late now, but Hiroshi was kicking himself for not holding on to one of the chisels. He looked around for anything else he might use as a weapon, but the shelves only housed a few plaster busts. He locked eyes with the leftmost one, which seemed to be looking down on them in concern. It was a bust of Hermes, one of the 12 gods of Olympus, as sculpted by Praxiteles of Athens. Hiroshi recalled reading in a book that Hermes was an expert in many fields and far more knowledgeable than the other gods.
Please help us.
Hiroshi had never prayed before; this was his first time asking for help from a divine being. Logically, of course, he didn’t believe in the existence of gods. That said, he’d lost count of how many times he’d had his mind blown recently. He now knew good and well that there were a great many things in this world that science couldn’t explain. And that being the case, he couldn’t completely deny that there might be a god out there somewhere.
Next to the statue of Hermes sat busts of two men facing each other. The one on the left was Apollo after the Apollo Belvedere statue in the Vatican. The one on the right was Michelangelo’s famous bust of Brutus. When his eyes fell upon Brutus, Hiroshi felt an uncanny sense of déjà vu. Just what was going on here...?
Hiroshi reached his hand up for the statue, intent on getting to the bottom of this strange feeling. But no sooner than he did, the white sheet concealing him and Kazuya was ripped away.
“Oh, good. You guys are still okay.”
There stood Takuro and Mika, who were both looking quite relieved.
“Thank goodness, Takuro. You’re okay now?”
“Yeah. I couldn’t stay asleep forever, now could I?”
Takuro was putting on a brave front, but there was an awkward tension in his expression.
“You guys are still okay.”
Something about his words nagged at Hiroshi.
“Don’t tell me Takeshi’s...”
“Yeah... Naoki got him. There was this gaping hole in his temple... It was nasty,” Takuro answered, biting his lower lip. “He’s insane. He had... Takeshi’s body in the kitchen like he was going to cook and eat him.”
Takuro was visibly fighting back his rage, but it wasn’t Naoki he was angry with. No, he was angry at himself for not being able to save Takeshi. Hiroshi could tell because he felt the same way.
“Naoki said he would spare us all if we managed to escape before the bell,” Takuro continued.
“Yeah, but... are you sure we should believe what he said?” Mika asked in concern.
“Believe it or not, his power is well beyond anything we possess. I don’t even think we could beat him if we all ganged up on him. So we’re kind of out of options. Our only choice is to believe him.”
“Um... I’m not sure I follow...” Kazuya, who had only been listening in on the conversation so far, interjected. “We just need to get out of here, right? In that case, the boys’ bathroom on the first floor—”
“Is out of the question,” Takuro said, cutting him off. “That was the first thing we thought of too, but it was a no-go. We checked, and the open window is now covered by a metal plate like all the others. Naoki must have realized the bug and patched it.”
“What bug?” Kazuya asked in bewilderment. “This isn’t some video game.”
“I’m afraid it is,” Hiroshi replied flatly. “We’ve been trapped inside one of Shun’s games again, it seems.”
“So you noticed it too, huh?”
“Yes, though only a few moments ago.”
Hiroshi recalled the strange sense of déjà vu he’d felt upon seeing the busts on the shelf. They were all key items in Shun’s game.
“Yeah, basically the same for us. One of the mannequins in the sewing room was just like the wooden doll from Shun’s game.”
Hiroshi knew instantly what Takuro was talking about. In the game, the doll could be found in the mansion’s parlor. If the player inserted red and blue stones into its eye sockets, the head would come off to reveal a key.
“Then perhaps if we find the stones, we shall be one step closer to escaping.”
“That’s why we came here. The blue stone was hidden in a marble bust, right? So if we break these puppies, we’re bound to find—”
“Hold on a second.” Hiroshi stopped Takuro just as he was about to grab one of the statues. “You played Shun’s game; surely you recall that there was only one statue. In other words, the extras here must be dummies or traps. I imagine that only one of these busts is actually safe to break. And if we choose the wrong one, it may explode—game over.”
Takuro froze. Before him sat the three busts.
“Which do I break, Hiroshi? I bet you remember.”
“No. The correct bust should be randomized with each playthrough, meaning there’s no single right answer.”
“Then what do we do?”
“In Shun’s game, there was a hint hidden in another room.”
“Do you remember where?”
“The bathroom. If you pulled the plug in the bathtub, the water would drain and reveal a key to the rec room, which contained the password—”
“Great, but there’s no bathtub at school, much less a rec room. We’d waste all day just trying to find their analogues here.”
“Agreed. Considering our time limit, we cannot afford to squander any. Which means our only option is a Hail Mary,” Hiroshi said and picked up the Brutus bust.
“H-Hey, you—”
He could see Takuro freaking out out of the corner of his eye as he hurled the bust at the floor. It didn’t explode, but rather shattered to pieces. A round blue stone rolled out of the marble debris.
“Found it,” Hiroshi announced dryly as he scooped up the stone.
“How did you know...?”
“I could tell something was different about that bust.”
“Explain it in layman’s terms, man.”
“You didn’t see it? Michelangelo’s bust was carved with Brutus facing left, but that one was facing right. That made it obvious it was a fake, presumably placed here later.”
“What? That doesn’t prove anything.”
“Certainly not. That’s why I said it was a Hail Mary.”
“Dude, that was reckless—”
“Of course, I had some confidence in my assumption. Hiding a key item inside a statue facing the wrong way seemed like something Shun would do, after all.”
Hiroshi handed Takuro the stone and stepped away from the shelf, careful to avoid the marble shards on the floor.
“You really are amazing. Always a step ahead of me,” Takuro remarked with a wry smile.
“We haven’t much time. I’ll go with Kazuya, you go with Mika—we need to find the red stone as quickly as possible,” Hiroshi turned around before the door and said.
“No, you and Kazuya are regular humans. If you run into Naoki, you’ll be killed instantly. So I’ll take you, and Mika will guard Kazuya—”
There, Mika tugged on Takuro’s arm. Hiroshi couldn’t help finding them cute.
I can even tell why Mika’s suddenly upset. My, I certainly have grown.
“No, that won’t do,” Hiroshi said. “It’s not like the two of you can stand up to Naoki either, correct? In that sense, we’re the same.”
“No, we’re not. Unlike me and Mika, you two still have a life to live. Don’t throw that away.”
“As far as I’m concerned, the same goes for you.”
“...Yeah right.” Takuro looked away. “But thanks.”
Confused as to why he was being thanked, Hiroshi cocked his head. It was true that he’d grown, but he was still far from completely understanding the human heart.
“You two go and insert the blue stone into the mannequin. We’ll head west from here and go down the stairs to the first floor. Can you two go east and check the second floor?”
“Okay.”
“When you’ve checked every classroom, let’s meet up back here. How does that sound?”
“Fine by me.”
“Then we shall see you soon.”
Hiroshi then extended his hand like it was only natural, surprising himself by the gesture. Asking for a handshake was something the Hiroshi of a month ago never would have even considered.
“You better survive,” Takuro said, gripping Hiroshi’s hand.
“Likewise.”
Hiroshi gripped his tightly back. The warmth of Takuro’s hand made his chest burn for some reason.
