“Well, I have no clue what you did to open it up, but I gotta say, I'm proud of you, Ariyama boy.”

Jack was unnatural in the way he smiled, looking like those mannequins back in Ariyama’s training room. His thin lips stretched over his face, showing his gleaming teeth.

It was even unnatural to just see him so joyful, in a scenario where he wasn't bullying someone.

But Ariyama barely even registered what he said.

He kept his gaze downcast, his fists tight at his sides, jaw tensed as if he expected something to jump out at him.

He felt it.

When Takemichi had first approached him after school that day and asked for protection, he had said he felt as if something bad was going to happen.

Now Ariyama felt the same.

He hated this feeling; it wasn't something easily explainable, but instead something dull and barely there at all.

A faint throb in his skull, a flip in his stomach. All lesser versions of the pains he was feeling when first encountering that Shrine Gate thing.

Whatever was going on, he didn't like it.

Ariyama walked forward a little, peering into the doorway on the wall. There was a wall of old, dark stone there before, but now it seemed to have just straight up disappeared.

Ariyama was certain this place didn't have some sort of electronic system to do something like that.

It almost didn't seem real, what happened with that red eye on the wall. He knew that was why the door was gone, but something so supernatural… He found it nearly impossible to really believe.

Jack gave Ariyama a weird look.

“Well, someone's not too good at taking a compliment, huh?”

Yasami and Koenji chuckled at that one.

“Oh well. Now that we can actually get inside, shall we? I'll go first. You guys follow and stick close. I'm not embarrassed to say I'd kill any of you if you leave me there.”

Waving his phone flashlight ahead to light up the immediate area in front of him with a blue-white glow, Jack began to trot inside, cautious to not trip over the rubble on the floor.

After him, his goons followed, then Yaranagi and Matsuragi and Kazura. As Odomura gave Ariyama a reassuring smile – which made his heart leap a little – she also made her way through the tight gap.

But Ariyama's legs just wouldn’t move. He cursed at himself and banged his fist against his leg, again and again.

What the hell was wrong with him?

He wasn't scared, was he?

“So you feel the same way now, Ariyama-kun?”

It was Matsune, standing at his side, her gentle hand on his shoulder. Ariyama's heated face looked at her pretty one.

In his moment of weakness, he took just a moment to appreciate how beautiful she was…

No.

He wouldn't fall for her, not like all those others. He prided himself in a way, to be able to ignore her charms.

Better than most, at the very least.

But then he realized Takemichi was also still there, taking a spot by his side. The timid boy nodded his head.

“Uh, yeah, I suppose all three of us feel weird for some reason, then? This place sure is creepy… Maybe it's for the best if we just, you know, leave?”

Ariyama understood where he was coming from, but he shook his head.

“You're in your right to do whatever you want, and I'm not gonna stop you, but hear me out. If you leave now, Jack will only get worse with what he might do to you. He sees you've left here, and he'll only increase the severity of his actions.”

Ariyama hadn't intended it, but Takemichi's face paled considerably.

Matsune moved a little closer to the scared boy.

“Ariyama-kun, there's no need to say something like that. Takemichi-kun, you can leave if you want, and no one will fault you.”

It might have been the ailment affecting him, or even how he was truly feeling, but Ariyama chewed his lip in vexation.

“What are you saying, Matsune? That's complete nonsense and you know it. If he goes against what Jack says now, he'll only be at the receiving end of more punishment. No one is willing to go up against Jack for him, so why bother making more trouble?”

Matsune's blue eyes glared at him, her grip on Takemichi's arm tightening.

“Listen, it's not his fault he's being unfairly targeted by Jack. It's the fault of others.”

Rage sieged through Ariyama's whole body.

“What, like my fault? What are you talking about? You expect me, who no one knows much about apart from my family's wealth, to stand up to Jack? Him of all people? He has an influence that I only wish I could. And let's not forget you! You're the most popular person in the whole year, and the best option to stop him, and yet you do nothing either! So don't you dare blame me when you're equally at fault!”

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Matsune sighed, her face relaxing. She subconsciously twisted the silver bracelet she wore.

“You're right, Ariyama-kun, and I'm sorry. I think it's just the tension in the air tonight that's having us on edge. I didn't mean you specifically, but rather everyone. And yes, I should blame myself too. I haven't done anything to properly stop him, and for that–”

She looked sadly down at Takemichi at her side.

“– I'm so sorry, Takemichi-kun.”

As Matsune looked at him with her gorgeous eyes, Takemichi's face went bright red, and he fumbled with his words.

“O-oh… um, it's OK, Matsune. Really. It's no one's fault and I don't blame them for standing up to Jack. He's a scary guy.”

Matusne nodded and gave him a sweet smile, then looked back at Ariyama.

“And Ariyama-kun, genuinely, I'm–”

“Just… forget it…”

Ariyama blew out a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. His jaw clenched and unclenched continuously.

“Sorry, I just… need some time to think…”

He shook his head in disbelief – at himself, mainly – feeling like a hole had opened in his stomach.

Without another word, he left Matsune and Takemichi alone, barging his way into the doorway and quickly being drowned in the darkness within the structure.

His mind was filled with other thoughts, so Ariyama nearly tripped multiple times on the debris left scattered across the floor of the building.

It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness inside, and when they did, Ariyama forgot all about his feelings about Matsune and Takemichi and Jack and his family.

The interior was a mass of darkness, the peeling walls and shattered floor barely visible behind the blindfold of black that covered everything.

Cautious, Ariyama took a few steps forward, his gaze focused on his feet to ensure he didn’t trip. The others only entered a little bit before him, so he was surprised when he couldn’t even hear the echoes of their voices bouncing off the walls.

The whole place was windowless, and the darkness seemed to only get bigger as Ariyama turned a corner and faced down a long hallway. At the end of this hallway was a point where not even the moonlight shining through the doorway could reach. It was pitch black, and when Ariyama picked up a pebble off the ground and tossed it down the corridor, it was enveloped by the shadows.

Only the faint thud of it hitting the floor made Ariyama sure the pebble was even still there.

As Ariyama made his way jankily down the hallway, he peered into the maybe doorways on each side. All the rooms were desolate, save for one or two that seemed to have even more graffiti painting their walls.

But even the graffiti faded to non-existence as Ariyama journeyed further into the ruins.

Eventually, he stopped. His breathing was starting to act up as the dust seeping from the ceiling and coating the walls made his throat swell.

He coughed into the crook of his elbow, shrugging off any dirt that had landed on his jacket as he explored. Was there even a point to this place?

Sure, Ariyama had thought before that he wasn’t a big fan of going to a place supposedly haunted by dead people, but that didn’t mean he wanted this trip to be completely worthless.

That was why he activated that gate, after all.

Wait.

The gate.

That must have been another thing Ariyama had subconsciously tossed into the back of his mind, because there was no way he would just accept what had happened with that red eye.

It was definitely a drawing, sketched out on the wall alongside the rest of the graffiti, in a dark red color. So then how had it actually opened and glowed a fiery red? And how had it managed to open that seemingly immovable stone door.

So many questions…

But what was Ariyama to do?

It wasn’t like he could just ask any of the others about this. They’d all call him insane, probably even Matsune. And he couldn't consult the thing that gifted the knowledge about the eye: that history book, because it was sitting pretty with his mother back home.

So at this point in time, Ariyama was completely alone with his dilemma.

So was there really much point in stressing over something he couldn’t change?

Probably not.

Ariyama gritted his teeth and shook his head, clearing his mind of everything, even if only for a minute. Then he made his way towards that spot of pure darkness at the end of the hallway.

As Ariyama reached that point, he heard something, distant but still audible.

He paused, his ears focusing on any small sound around him. He picked up the slight sifting sound of the dust falling from the ceiling, the whisper of the breeze running through the shadows.

But then he heard voices.

At first, he wasn't sure exactly what they were, but as he pressed his ear to the wall, he knew for sure they were voices.

From what he could figure out, about three of them. Two male and one female.

And judging from their current situation, Ariyama guessed the girl was Kazura, as Matsune was still probably somewhere near the doorway with Takemichi, while Odomura's quiet cadence wouldn't travel that far in this maze of plain stone walls.

As for the two male voices, he could only think it to be maybe Jack and Yaranagi, but that was nothing more than a guess.

And furthermore, Ariyama didn't like the idea of Jack even talking with Kazura. She was his childhood friend after all, and he cared for her more than she probably knew.

And maybe there was some other reason too, but…

Ariyama shook his head.

This wasn't the time to confront his feelings over one person or another. Right now, all he wanted was to catch up with everyone else and maybe not end up a shadow monster's next meal.

The dust raining down like a shower of gray, Ariyama finally reached the dark end of the hallway, then he chose a direction at random, deciding to head left.

More crumbling walls and littered floors later, he finally emerged into something actually different.

At the side wall of the hallway, there was a burst-open door. Dodging the debris of the wood scattered across the floor, Ariyama stepped inside.

It was a sort of dining room or something similar. There was a rotten wood table in the middle of the wide room, the chairs surrounding it either splintered on the floor or withered husks barely keeping themselves together.

What must have once been a chandelier hung dead off a rusted chain from the ceiling. It looked like it could've once been glittering with pearly white material, but now it was just a shriveled-out shell of dull color.

Its squeaky chain swayed ever so slightly, even when the breeze from outside didn't reach this far into the building.

Looking around, Ariyama noticed another doorway on the opposite side of the room, and quickly went for it. It led into another hallway yet again, indistinguishable from the others.

But the voices were getting louder, ever so slightly. But as Ariyama traversed this new path, he heard something else. It took him a moment to realize it was someone crying…

This sound passed through the walls like a ghostly wail, so much that it almost did sound haunted.

Ariyama one hour ago would've scoffed at himself for unironically considering that possibility, but his views had already changed when we encountered that Shrine Gate.

If a piece of graffiti could move and glow like a floodlight, what's to say ghosts don't exist too?

But as Ariyama turned a corner, he found the real origin of the sobbing.

Curled up in a corner, knees up to his chest and arms around his knees, face red from exertion, was Koenji Bennosuke.

Ariyama stared in disbelief for a good few seconds before cautiously approaching the shaking boy.

“Koenji? What's wrong?”