Leaving the maintenance closest after parting ways with the Janitor, Noah once again ventures out into the halls illuminated only by dim lights.

He walks for several minutes through empty and quiet halls, holding tightly to the mop in his hand.

The cloudiness within his mind is still as prevalent as it was when he had first come out of his strange dream of battle.

But in Noah’s mind it was no dream. To him it was a vivid reality. Even though Noah questions whether the fantastical war really happened, in his subconscious he truly believes he fought in a prolonged battle.

This misconception of reality weighs heavily on his shoulders, adding to the already substantial burden of questions that exist within his cloudy mind.

Rounding a corner, Noah notices an oddity in the hall in front of him. This is something he has yet to see in the maze of hallways.

A brick wall devoid of lockers with an empty pathway in the middle of it. An entrance to a walk-in bathroom.

Noah approaches closer to the entrance and looks inside. Nothing but a dark space lies before him which extends to the left around a corner.

Immediately deciding to check further inside, Noah walks with his mop readied in front of himself. The mop gives him a greater feeling of confidence when brazenly walking into the dark space.

Turning the corner, Noah is barely able to see, as the dim light from the hallway does not reach this far inside the bathroom.

In the darkened space, Noah can make out the vague outline of bathroom stalls on the left and sinks on the right.

Standing there for a brief few seconds to observe the room, Noah is about to turn around and leave when he notices something in his peripheral vision.

He is able to recognize what the vague shape is fairly quickly as he has seen something similar inside this school already. The ghosts of students.

Unlike the previous classroom where he encountered these ghosts before, the ones inside the bathroom are much more subdued.

Instead of acting out in various lively ways, the ghosts inside the bathroom are sitting huddled together in a group as if they are weeping and mourning.

The ghosts start to become more apparent as Noah’s eyes adjust to the darkness. He is able to make out five individual ghosts, with four huddled together outside of one stall.

The fifth ghost is the one he saw initially, as it is moving around the bathroom in an erratic way. Displaying its grief in a different manner than the others.

Only at this moment does Noah’s cloudy mind come to the realization that this is a female bathroom, as all the ghosts he can see are females.

One could also draw the same conclusion that this is a female bathroom from the fact that there are only stalls present and no urinals. The presence of urinals would indicate a male bathroom.

While Noah is standing at the corner of the entrance looking into the dark space, the female ghost that is moving erratically in its grief, bumps into him.

Similar to how the previous classroom’s ghosts all became aggressive towards Noah when he touched the student’s book. All the ghosts in the bathroom turn hostile in a when the ghost bumps into him.

Unlike before when he immediately ran away from the ghosts, Noah decides to stand his ground this time. Having a thought that he might be able to fend off the ghosts with his mop.

Taking a few steps away from the ghost nearest to him, Noah swings his mop at it. Feeling the familiarity in the action as he believes he has done this thousands of times before.

As the mop and the ghost make contact, something unexpected occurs. Instead of passing through the ghost harmlessly like Noah had anticipated. The mop meets some resistance as it passes through the ghost’s body.

As the tassels of the mop hit the body of the ghost, particles and mist break off and disintegrate. Leaving a major wound on the ghost, who lets out a pain-filled silent shriek as it shrivels up to cradle its body which is missing much of its torso.

Noah is surprised to see the ghost be damaged from his swing and even more surprised with how violently the ghost reacts upon being hurt to such a serious extent, as his strike had nearly severed it in two.

But his attack seems to have made the other ghosts far more angry, as two more surge forward in sudden aggression.

Being approached rapidly by two more ghosts, Noah takes a few more steps back while swinging towards the ghost nearest to him.

The ghost holds her arms forward, outstretched in vicious claws. Noah prepares his mop and strikes at her from the right. The mop hits one of her arms, causing it to dissipate into mist.

Unlike the first ghost that backed away after being injured, this second ghost keeps approaching him to get within striking distance of her own sole remaining hand.

The ghost is now far too close for Noah to properly swing his mop at it, so all he can do is raise the mop and use the handle to attempt to block the claw that is grasping for his throat.

As the ghost’s hand meets the mop handle that Noah brought up to defend, it passes right through and continues to strike towards his face. Noah flinches backwards away from the strike.

He feels a cold numbing sensation across his left cheek and into his jaw bone as the ghost’s hand connects with his face and passes through.

But upon meeting the bone of his fangs, the ghost’s hand recoils as if it has hit something it cannot phase through. As Noah’s teeth have long been replaced with a powerful boon.

The ghost’s fingers continue to slowly dissipate even though it is no longer touching Noah. The ghost herself has a trace of hesitation when just moments prior, she was full of viciousness when attacking.

Noah continues to step back further into the bathroom entrance, creating distance between himself and the other approaching ghosts.

He rapidly swings his mop from the left to his right, having barely enough room in the narrow confines of the hall to do so.

His strikes collide with the silhouettes of two approaching ghosts, damaging them slightly, less so than his first swings had against the other ghosts. This is something Noah does not notice.

The damage the ghosts sustain seems to be enough to discourage their aggressive advance as they hesitate on whether to continue attacking or to retreat.

Noah does not give them a chance to decide as he begins to step forward while swinging his mop. Acting upon the sudden impulse to completely eliminate the ghosts.

Rapidly swinging the mop back and forth in a frenzy, Noah chases the injured ghosts back into the bathroom trying to dissipate them all.

The remaining ghosts all decide to back away from the dangerous man who is approaching them with violent intent. Each hit they take dissipates more of their ghostly bodies.

Following the ghosts into the darkness of the bathroom, Noah is unable to see properly and is blindly swinging in the dark.

What Noah cannot perceive is that he has already eliminated two of the five ghosts that were originally inside the bathroom. The remaining three are huddled together and silently crying in the farthest corner.

Only one of the ghosts remains unharmed while the other two have sustained heavy injuries, one of them being the first ghost Noah had struck and nearly split in two.

Continuing to act on his impulse to eliminate the ghosts, Noah steps past the corner and enters deeper into the bathroom than he has been before.

He cannot see clearly and is moving based on the blurry outlines of the sinks and stalls that are vaguely present.

He is able to make out the shapes of the remaining ghosts in the corner of the bathroom and decides to advance towards them, wanting to swing his mop once he is in range.

This time, instead of meeting slight resistance and dissipating parts of the ghosts, the mop simply passes through them only slightly distorting their silhouettes.

Noah does not realize his mop is no longer causing damage to the ghosts, as he continues to strike at them a few more times.

Eventually he does notice and immediately loses the urge to eliminate the ghosts. Noah even starts to back away from the ghosts, deciding to retreat out of the bathroom.

From an impulsive, full on attack, to immediately retreating after realizing his weapon is no longer effective. Noah’s current actions cannot be described as anything other than volatile.

For a reason that even Noah is unaware of, He seems to be acting in ways that he normally would not. It is almost like there is some outside force subtly compelling him down a certain path.

A path towards violence, reaching for an indestructible strength. A method that is influencing Noah through his boon. But this is not the sole force guiding his current behavior.

Noah’s vulnerable state of mind only makes him more susceptible to the many influences around. The many minor nudges and notions that are sent his way are made more apparent because of this vulnerability.

Noah reaches out to grasp where he remembers a sink to be, he moves through the bathroom towards the exit where the only light is coming from.

However, the remaining uninjured ghost gains new confidence upon seeing Noah rush towards the exit of the bathroom. It decides to strike back at him.

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As Noah is about to turn the corner to the bathroom exit, something collides with the back of his right leg, nearly causing him to fall.

Limping slightly into the dim light of the hallway proper, Noah looks down at his leg to see a small trickle of blood, some unknown object having been thrown by the ghost had left a cut that is currently bleeding.

Moving farther away from the entrance of the bathroom, Noah finally remembers his original purpose in entering.

He was looking for a disoriented girl, who obviously is not in this dark bathroom. Thus, Noah suddenly loses all interest in exploring the dark and potentially dangerous bathroom. His mind moving on to other subjects.

Looking down at the mop in his hands, Noah cannot help but feel oddly happy, almost letting out a small smile on his usually placid face.

He feels no remorse, no regret at having disrupted the ghosts’ mourning and even attacking them.

In fact, he feels pleased with how it turned out, sustaining only a small cut on his leg while having fought back against the ghosts.

He cannot help but to view his mop in an even more favorable light. Feeling an unnatural sense of pride in his accomplishment at fighting against the ghosts. A pride that is not his own, but is one that he is compelled to feel.

Noah did not put any thought into the reason why his mop was able to harm the ghosts in the first place or why it had stopped working in the end.

It was not even the mop itself that enabled Noah to damage and even destroy the ghosts. It was something else that was present in the tassels of the mop.

The residual goo from the insect he had killed earlier while helping the Janitor. Some splatterings of the insect’s goo had remained on the mop through all this time.

When the mop was swung at the ghosts, the residual goo was what had damaged and even destroyed the ghosts, not the mop itself.

Which is why Noah’s last swings had little to no effect on the ghosts, as the goo was nearly worn off.

Noah continues to walk until the next intersection of halls and makes a right turn, where he notices further ahead a similar barren brick wall with a bathroom entrance.

Most individuals would make the connection that bathrooms come in pairs. When there is a female bathroom in an area, then a male bathroom must be nearby.

But Noah does not think like this, instead he is slightly puzzled, wondering if he has just come back to the same bathroom.

Approaching closer, Noah infers that this is not the same bathroom. As this one has lights coming from within, while the previous bathroom was dark.

Walking into the entrance carelessly, Noah rounds the corner and makes his first observation of the bathroom.

The sinks are on the left side of the room while the stalls and urinals are on the right. The inverse of what he had seen in the previous bathroom.

The dim light that illuminates the room reveals cracked mirrors above each of the sinks and grime covering the tiled floors and walls.

The bathroom is of an off-white eggshell color, giving the feeling the entire surface area of the room is stained with filth and grime.

Now standing in the center of the bathroom, Noah is able to discern noises coming from one of the stalls. The sounds of a girl crying.

Noah approaches the stall he hears the noises from and pulls open the door while looking in with a numb expression. The cloudiness in his mind makes him feel detached from the happenings around himself.

A young girl sits on top of the closed toilet lid, crying with reddened eyes. She holds tightly onto a stuffed bear, it being the only source of security in the confusing world around her.

Noah stares at the young girl while listening to her bawling. Not making the connection that she is the disoriented girl he is supposed to find and lead to the art room.

Taking a step closer to the girl, Noah looks down and asks her a callous question. “Are you the disoriented girl?”

His words go unheard as the girl continues to cry, tears streaming down her cheeks. She hunches forward, trying to get as close as possible to the bear in her arms, as it is her only comfort.

Continuing to look at the girl with an unmoved expression, Noah begins to feel impatient. Whether it be the forces influencing his mind or the girl’s crying, both are reasons for his growing irritation.

Reaching down to grab the girl’s arm, Noah pulls her off the toilet and out of the stall. Even as she cries out louder because of his aggressive actions, Noah does not pause even for a moment.

“No! Don’t take me away! I have to wait for Mr. Bear’s scarf!” The young girl yells out through her tears. “Mr. Bear needs his scarf!”

Continuing to pull the crying girl out of the bathroom and into the hall, Noah stops for a moment to give a brief response. “I am bringing you to the art room.”

Noah having decided it easiest to forcibly drag the girl to the art room to see if she is indeed the disoriented girl referenced in his trial.

A similar thought process to his methods when attempting to deliver Natalie’s diary in his earlier trial.

Noah’s words are heard by the young girl, who continues to struggle against Noah’s far stronger grip while yelling and crying even louder. “No! I can’t go anywhere! I need Mr. Bear’s scarf!”

Noah disregards her shouts and continues to pull her along. Not taking into account the risk of bringing the girl while traveling to the art room through the open halls.

Walking down the hall to the left after exiting the bathroom, Noah pulls the girl behind while making fairly slow progress, not even reaching the intersection ahead after some time.

The reason for their slow pace is the stumbling and often tripping steps of the crying girl that Noah tows behind him. He is unable to walk with a steady pace while she remains behind, constantly falling and losing her footing.

The normally easily heard warning noise the hall monitors emit cannot be heard over the girls crying and desperate pleas for her stuffed bear’s scarf.

Thus, it is only after the first hall monitor appears in the intersection in front of Noah does he realize the amount of danger he has gotten himself into.

Quickly turning around while pulling the girl with him, Noah rapidly moves in the opposite direction the hall monitor appeared from, as it is still some distance away.

He believes there is a chance he can take the girl with him and avoid the hall monitor that is pursuing them.

Noah moves at a near running pace, firmly pulling the girl along, who is only being held up by his strong grasp on her arm. They pass by the bathroom entrance they so recently come from.

They go further down the hall, Noah deciding to take a left at the intersection, only to falter when seeing another hall monitor approach from this direction.

Turning back to try a different hall, Noah comes to a sudden stop as he notices hall monitors approaching from all four directions at the intersection.

Letting go of the girl, Noah grips his mop with two hands and makes a rash decision, finally starting to feel the same sort of panicked rush he had during his first encounter with a hall monitor.

His current circumstances have truly become dire. Only in this sort of hopeless situation does the cloudiness within his mind fade slightly.

Looking down all four directions while standing in the middle of the intersection, Noah chooses a hall and begins to run down it, directly towards a hall monitor.

He chose this path because the hall monitor in it is the smallest of the ones he can see.

Noah’s intention is to try to slip by the hall monitor and continue running away, making his escape. When the hall monitors leave, he can potentially come back for the disoriented girl.

The thought that the girl might also be targeted by the hall monitors never crosses his mind. Having worry for the wellbeing of others is something the current Noah is unable to do.

Noah runs towards the hall monitor, rapidly closing the distance between them. Tightening his grip on the mop, Noah moves closer to the right wall with a plan of action in mind.

He believes that since he was able to fight back against the ghosts in the bathroom, then he could possibly fight back against the hall monitor, giving himself enough room to slip by and continue running away down the hall.

As long as he is not completely blocked off, he can continue to run and find a suitable place to hide.

This is the same thought process he has had when traveling the halls. Only in this current situation, he has no open path to run down.

This leaves him with the only desperate option of trying to pass by one of the hall monitors blocking the hall and then continue running.

With little distance between himself and the hall monitor remaining, Noah raises his mop and prepares to swing.

The hall monitor meanwhile slows down its own steps as its target is directly approaching. Moving its long arms toward Noah, the hall monitor prepares to encapsulate him in its shadowy grasp.

Noah’s mop swings out and collides with the hall monitor’s arm. The shadowy arm is met with slight resistance but still passes through the mop to continue on to bear down on Noah.

The impacting force when the Mop and shadow arm collided is transferred to Noah and causes him to lose his footing and stumble, but is not enough for him to completely fall.

Staggering forward with speed, Noah ducks under the hall monitor’s arm, feeling his left shoulder take an impact that slams him into the wall of lockers. The mop being knocked from his grasp and dropping to the floor.

Pushing off the lockers to continue moving forward, Noah scrambles with all his effort to keep running, to get away from the hall monitor.

However he is given a new shock when he sees another, much larger hall monitor appear right in front of him from around a corner.

Not having enough time to stop or dodge, Noah runs directly into the hall monitor’s large sweeping arm and is met with a solid cushioned blow to his abdomen.

The blow felt like a large dense pillow being slammed into his body. Noah is lifted off his feet and sent flying backwards towards the pursuing group of hall monitors.

He lands with a solid thud on his back, the air knocked out of his lungs. He lays there stunned, long enough for both the hall monitor in front and the one behind to catch up and surround him. This leaves him no route of escape.

Noah finally rolls himself over, getting off his back, onto his hands and knees, he looks desperately at the hall monitors that surround him. This is the closest and most detailed view he has had of the hall monitors.

As the grayish black arms approach closer, Noah’s thoughts are of indignation. He is unwilling to accept that he is going to be captured by the hall monitors. He is resentful at how he is going to be subdued in this manner.

Even though he had kicked another Lifeless to the hall monitors already, he refuses to accept that he too will fall victim to them.

Giving his last efforts in a desperate struggle to stand up and move, Noah is still easily smothered by the shadow arms of the hall monitors, entering a world of cloudy darkness.

His body immediately turns slow and sluggish. The commands his brain is sending to his muscles and body are not acknowledged, even his own thoughts begin to slow.

His vision blurs and distorts, the last sight he makes out is of a dimly lit hallway, filled with many hall monitors that are still approaching.

The last thought Noah has as his vision fades to black and he enters a dream induced sleep, is that he wants to be stronger, to be able to fight his way out of these situations.

The influence from Indomitability is able to take an even deeper hold of Noah during his vulnerable moments.

As Noah’s mind drifts into sleep with these defiant thoughts, he is the most receptive to the method that had chosen him.

Around the hall monitor that Noah is losing consciousness in, the halls are still full of movement, as a large number of hall monitors are all converging on the location of one especially violent delinquent.

Numbering more than five, the hall monitors all move towards the largest one in volume, the one that contains Noah. A deep voice can be heard, giving a report to the others still moving closer.

“The delinquent is in custody. Violations worthy of superior detention. Violations include: Resistance of command, assault and harassment of a peer.”

Another rumbling voice also speaks up after a short pause, “Escort the delinquent to superior detention, the rest will return to regular patrol.”

The hall monitors all remain still as the rumbling of the voice fades, then in unison, they all turn and part ways. Heading towards their own routes to continue their patrols.

Noah, meanwhile, is existing in a state of deep sleep. His senses are all shutting down. The last evidence of his struggle being the fluttering of his eyelids.

After a few more sightless blinks, they too close to join the rest of his being in a state of deep sleep.

The suffocating darkness surrounds him and pulls him into a conscious dream of darkness.