Part 4: Seal, Part 4
Music: Depths of Space and Time
A wire trap is preventing us from proceeding upstairs, so we head for classroom 3-A.
Can't go in, though. Instead we check the paper on the wall.
There's nothing else in that hallway, so we head into room 2-A.
Music: None
The room is empty, except for this writing on the chalkboard. When we look at it, a voice begins to speak from somewhere. This speech is subtitled in the top-left.
Music: Unrest (A)
This...shouldn't have been there. It wasn't on the board when I first got here with Seiko. Somebody had to have written it recently, but why? To create a rift in our friendship?! I didn't know if it was a person or a ghost who did this, but whoever it was, it was a terrible thing to do. This was all really starting to...get to me.
Is somebody in here?! Stop harassing me, whoever you are! I can't take this anymore! I just...can't!
I ran out of the room, never even pausing to wipe the tears from my eyes.
Music: Depths of Space and Time
We're automatically moved out of the classroom.
We head west and then north, ascending the stairs to the west side of the third floor.
The door to the reference room is frozen in place, as if it's just a decoration on the wall. It can't be opened.
We can't go into the reference room, but there's something important in the hallway immediately in front of it.
It's a decomposing corpse. The smell is ghastly. Judging by the height and uniform, this was probably once a male senior high student. His school name tag seems to have survived intact, prominently displayed on his now damp and discolored blazer:
Like the previous game, Book of Shadows has a bevy of name tags to collect. There's a total of 63 in the game, and we'll be seeing them all.
There's nothing else for us up here, so we head back downstairs.
And we head south into classroom 1-A.
Music: None
It's more piano wire...There was yet another piece of piano wire in this room, seemingly razer-sharp like the others. But only one. I could avoid it easily, with some care.
We examine the lever behind the piano wire.
Pull the lever?
Pull it
The machine was old and the lever was rusted, so it wasn't going to give without a fight. I could rattle it a little, though, so I figured I had a chance.
Rrrrng...gnngggh!Sound Effect: Crank
Huh? It's gone. The piano wire... It's gone!
There's nothing else in this room, so we continue exploring by heading to classroom 1-B.
If the map from Corpse Party is still fresh in your mind, you may recall that there was only one classroom on the west hall of the second floor, but there are three here. This doesn't mean anything, the developers just wanted to add two more rooms.
There weren't any lights on, and the whole school was bathed in darkness. Yet in this lone room, a small circle of light just kept blinking on and off. It seemed almost as if it would turn on whenever I looked at it, and turn off whenever I looked away. Or maybe that was just my imagination. But it seemed possible that someone could be trying to get my attention.
Is anybody in here?...No response. I began to get more and more creeped out with every passing second. At first I thought maybe somebody was watching me, but now I was almost certain of it.
As I got closer to the source of the light, the blinking stopped. The light was now fully on.
Music: Depths of Space and Time
We immediately investigate the flashlight.
A flashlight...and it's on.I wondered if this was the source of the blinking light. It did turn steady when I got near the thing, but that just left me with more questions.
Take the flashlight
Maybe it was just low on batteries, and that's why it kept going on and off. That's what I told myself as I picked up the discarded flashlight.
Sound Effect: Item
I'd have to make sure to use it sparingly, so as not to waste what little energy it had left.
With the flashlight in hand, we continue looking around the room.
The shelves are littered with dead lice. If one were to rest an arm on one of these shelves, there's no telling how many might come along for the ride.
Listen to your teacher.
You're going to die now.
There's a bleach-white skeleton sprawled out here. Judging by height and uniform, it appears to be the remains of a male junior high student. Looking closely, there's a faded school name tag attached to his blazer:
Masashi Kawasaki Age: 13
Shobu University Middle School
Suffered fatal injury to cervical vertebrae.
That's it for room 1-B, so we head to 1-C.
Music: None
The silence was almost deafening. There wasn't a single sound to be heard. This room, and this room alone, felt very different from any other.
We start by examining the picture on the board.
It's a child's crayon drawing. Very vibrant and colorful. The subject's mouth is open and she seems to be eating...a watermelon, perhaps?
There are two skeletal remains here, both of them mostly whitened at this point. They seem to have died huddled up against one another. Both are female and look to be around junior or senior high school age. There's a school name tag attached to the remains of this one's uniform:
Sato Yuzuki Age: 17
Karasuyama High School
Collapsed while searching for friends; starved to death.
And the one on the left:
Miki Sato Age: 16
Karasuyama High School
Attacked with bladed weapon by unknown assailant; died of blood loss. Markings carved into body.
[Class Log]
I ate a student today.
I was hungry, so I had to. Plus, we played rock-paper-scissors, and I lost. I thought I'd lose to an adult, but I didn't.
Lastly, we investigate the cupboard to the left of the chalkboard.
It kind of turns the stomach. Best not to look any closer. Best just to walk away.
Music: Depths of Space and Time
And that's it for the classrooms, so we head down to the first floor.
But we can't. It looks like we're restricted to the second and third floors.
Since we threw that crank in room 1-A, we head back to the east staircase to check on that piano wire.
But Naomi stops as she passes room 3-A.
...! Wh-What... Who...? Ah...aaahhh...
Wh-Who...me?
Wh-What the hell does that mean?!
We still can't enter room 3-A, so we continue to the piano wire trap.
And the wire is gone! We check out the previously inaccessible crank.
It's some sort of mechanism with a level attached to it. Pull the lever?
Pull it
Ungh...!Sound Effect: Crank
Phew...What a strange contraption. Pulling the level made a retractable floorboard extend outward over the hole, but also restrung all the piano wire. I had to be careful not to touch any of it. If I even slightly brushed up against a single strand...
The path to the third floor is open, but we can no longer access the rest of the floor. We continue forward to the stairs.
Another one...Right at the base of the staircase, no less. What a sadistic place to put it... It should be possible to use the stairs, but that piano wire is razor-sharp. Best to go slow and take care not to forget about it later on.
If we investigate the wire, we get more information about it.
The way it's drawn, it really looks closer to waist height than neck height.
We duck around the wire and head upstairs.
We stop at the very top of the stairs.
There are bleach-white skeletal remains here. Based on their build, it seems likely that this was a female middle school or high school student. Her school ID name tag is lying on the ground nearby:
Rei Kurosawa Age: 17
Matsukaze Prefectural High School
Suffered massive injury from bladed weapon; died of shock.
There's no reason to ever stop on this tile except to pick up that name tag. It's very easy to miss, but at least it's totally optional so it doesn't really matter.
I continue forward and try to enter the boys' room.
Unfortunately, we can't visit our friend, Toilet Ghost. We continue forward into the girls' room.
Music: None
It's pretty uneventful. In fact, the paper on the wall is the only thing we can investigate in the entire room.
Suddenly, I felt a sickness in the pit of my stomach. It was almost unbearable. I felt like...I was forgetting something. Something absolutely crucial.
Well, that's it for the third floor. I suppose we need to head back downstairs and explore some more...