Part 32: Shangri-La, Part 3




Music: Main Theme 3

Morishige automatically moves to this spot, and then we're placed into control of him.

It's a corpse that's only just started to decay. Seems to be a junior high school girl. And from the looks of it, she was cut completely in half, using some sort of edged instrument.


It was one of those cat-themed spiral notebooks that's all the rage with teenagers these days.

Music: None

Mr. Goto seems even more anxious than we are. He says he'll make sure we all get home safely, but his temperament just keeps getting worse. He's usually so cool, but lately he's just gotten kind of scary. Hiroko, Arisa and the others are getting really fed up with him.
Mr. Goto is so unfair! He keeps playing favorites with Hiroko. That was the last of our food, too... And I'm the one who stopped Hiroko and Norika from fighting...

Music: Main Theme 3




???: Hey, you there. What are you doing?

Music: None


























Taguchi leaves us, and we're put back into control.
Music: Main Theme 3

We take another look at the body.
It's a corpse that's only just started to decay. As a result, the name tag is still pristine:
Norika Miharu Age: 13
Seisho Junior High School
Body bisected at torso; died instantly.


This hole is important. It's very annoying to forget about it (or never notice it in the first place) and then have to come back here later, since it's in a random piece of hallway that you wouldn't revisit when trying to figure out where to go.

We're finished with the hole for now, though. We head west into the locker room.

It's a more recently-deceased corpse. The clothing and general body mass suggests she was a junior high school girl in life. Based on the height of the shower head and the positioning of the body, this appears to have been suicide. The name tage is a bit dirty, but still legible:
Honoka Nanjo Age: 15
Seisho Junior High School
Hanged in locker room shower.
There's a note near the body, neatly folded three times.
Music: None

Now they're dead too, and I'm all alone. There's nothing to eat, and I'm staving, so I tried eating rats and cockroaches. But that just gave me severe diarrhea. My lips have dried out and I've lost a lot of weight. So I've decided to kill myself before the ghost kids or that hammer-wielding man get me.
After all this, I've finally realized... The time I spent with Mr. Goto, Hiroko, and the others was the best of my life. Goodbye Dad, Mom and all my friends from class. Please don't ever forget me.
And then everyone forgot her because she died inside Heavenly Host. I'm sure Morishige would get a kick out of that, if only he knew.
Music: Main Theme 3

We head out to the pool.

It's the skeletal remains of a student. He's not wearing any sort of uniform, per se, but his build suggests he was probably male. What IS he wearing...? At least there's a name tag:
Reiki Negishi Age: 16
Kurashiki Industrial High School
Collapsed while searching for friends; starved to death.

It's an extremely decayed corpse. Based on the uniform and tall stature, this seems to have been a senior high school boy. His name tag is pretty mucked up, but legible:
Kiyomasa Kagei Age: 17
Kurashiki Industrial High School
Skull Pulverised by blunt object.

We re-enter the building and head north at the fork by the entranceway.

We attempt to enter classroom 4-A, but the door is locked.

Instead, we head east and enter room 5-A.

"Aren't you forgetting something? Be careful on your way home."

There are lots of old stationery goods inside, like rusted paper clips and beat-up scissors. Not a one of them seems usable or functional. ...Except perhaps this spool of kite string mixed in with them.

Take the kite string
Sound Effect: Item

Seems good as new. And it might just come in handy!

The nearby custodian's closet is locked, so we head all the way back down the hall and into the entranceway.

Taguchi isn't here, but there's investigation to be done in here.

Of course.

It's a fairly fresh corpse. Looks to be a junior high school girl. Her eyeballs seem to have been slashed horizontally with a thin, razor-like blade. And as if to complement this, the arteries in her wrist seem to have been slashed vertically with the same blade. That was most likely the cause of death. The name tag on her chest is bloody, but legible:
Arisa Kaida Age: 13
Seisho Junior High School
Died of blood loss from deep external wound.

It's a notebook.
Music: None

Music: Main Theme 3

Finished in the entranceway, we head east, to the second wing.



Upon that musing, the spirit vanishes from sight. But the sense that I was being watched remained. There was a covered walkway beyond this heavy, iron door. A covered walkway that wasn't supposed to be there, evidently. Did I dare challenge it?

Open the door and proceed out into the walkway?
Do it
Just as my hand touched the knob...

Music: None
I was sent backwards by some tremendous force. For a split second, I swore I saw a figure...but that could've just been my imagination. The pain from my impact, however, was very real.

And ultimately, I was unable to open the door.

Touching that door boosts the darkening meter by a whopping 30%! This happens every time you investigate the door, so you can very quickly hit 100% darkening if you stubbornly try and open it repeatedly.
Music: Main Theme 3

Finished with the first floor, we head up the southeast staircase.

The Nurse's office is locked, so we head past it and are stopped on this space.
Music: None


Music: Main Theme 3

There's some sort of stain on the wall here.



The lab is also locked, and a hole in the floor prevents us from proceeding to the restrooms. We proceed past them and enter room 3-A.

It seems to be a school newsletter of some sort.
[Disaster Training Day]
"To prevent accidents, always be aware of your surroundings. Look before you act."
Next, we investigate the blackboard.

"I won't get mad, so just give it back now."

There's a piece of paper hastily taped onto the glass door:
"RETURN THE CLASS LOGBOOK
I'M GETTING ANGRY
DO YOU WANT TO BE KILLED?"

There's nothing interesting left in 3-A, so we head next door to 2-A.

"A request from Nurse Shinozaki:
We've received new furnishings. Please try to keep them clean. Let's take good care of our school environment!"

There's nothing else of interest in room 2-A, and a pit prevents us from visiting the reference room. We enter room 1-A.

Sound Effect: "Help me!"
Music: Unrest (B)
There's a half-rotted corpse sprawled out on the ground here. Seems to be a junior high school boy, based on size and uniform. His student ID name tag is still fully intact:
Osamu Murada Age: 13
Shobu University Middle School
Ambitious novelist who got separated from his journalist friend. Has known ties to Japanese spiritualism.



It's a class newsletter. Though this particular issue seems to be little more than a rough photocopy of an article from the local newspaper. The only thing to distinguish it from the original printing is a single line at the top that says, "May such tragedy never occur within these walls again."
"It's already been one week since the horrific incident at Heavenly Host Elementary School. After much discussion between school officials and members of the PTA, students are being provisionally requested to return home from school in groups. In addition, PTA volunteers have been asked to take turns keeping watch over all main roads to and from the school during morning and afternoon commutes. Other elementary schools across Japan have begun adopting similar policies, proving just how much this tragedy speaks to us all.
May the three victims of this incident rest in peace, and may their departures help us all realize just how vulnerable we are in this world. If we can learn to better protect our children from harm as a result of this unthinkable crime, then perhaps their deaths will not have been in vain."


The door seems to be busted, so it should be easy enough to pull out...

Take the wire
Sound Effect: Item


Continuing our exploration, we head next door to 1-B.

There's a message permanently carved into the blackboard here, as if with a nail:
"Why? What did I do to deserve this? Goddamn it, it's all his fault. He's the one who made us do that ritual. Friends forever? Look where that got us. He's in here somewhere too. And if I see him, I'm going to kill him. I swear I'll do it! I'll make as if I'm hugging him, like I'm oh so happy to see him again, and then I'll wring his filthy neck until I break his trachea."

We're done in this classroom.

We stop in front of the next room down. There's a large hole in the floor, which prevents us from heading any further south than this space.

"Beware the children. You can't reason with them. Don't let your guard down."

It's a largely decomposed corpse. Based on body mass, this actually seems like it may have been an adult male. Probably a phys ed instructor, as he seems to be wearing a jersey and there's a whistle hanging limply around his neck. Looking closely, there appear to be lacerations across his entire body, with a particular concentration along his back. There's no way these could have all been made by a single assailant. Most likely, he was flogged to death by multiple aggressors, all at once.
There's a custom name tag sewn into his jersey:
Itsuya Goto Age: 29
Seisho Junior High School
Seisho Junior High principal. Suffered multiple stab wounds; bled out.
We head into room 1-C after checking out Mr. Goto's body.

"You're being watched."

A message is written here in chalk:
"Here's here. Right behind you. Don't turn around. Because if you do---"
There's nothing in this classroom besides flavor text, so we head out.

We need to get back to the first floor. Because of an inconveniently placed hole, we have to go all the way back to the southeast corner of the map to get down. If we walk across the first floor and go upstairs we can get to the opposite side of that hole, so it doesn't actually prevent us from reaching anything. Its only purpose is to waste time.

Upon reaching the first floor, we return to where Morishige began.
Music: None


Try fishing it out
If I were to bend this wire into the shape of a fishing hook and attach it to the kite string, I thought...then maybe I'd be able to bring up whatever it was down there, provided it wasn't too heavy.


I quickly but carefully pulled in the line. Damn! Whatever it was, it fell off of the hook before I could bring it back up.

Try fishing it out again


I began pulling up the line, slowly and steadily, trying my hardest not to shake it any more than I had to.
Sound Effect: Item


There was no response. And not a single sound or indication of movement. Maybe she...wasn't down there after all...?

Without even realizing it, I found myself gripping Mayu's student ID tightly, squeezing it in my hands repeatedly as if to verify its existence. It felt like her ID had been entrusted to me, and I absolutely had to get it back to her. It was now my mission.


Music: Unrest (B)

Now that we've collected Mayu's ID, we head into the entranceway to check for Taguchi again.
Music: None

The room shakes for a bit, and then comes to a stop.


Meanwhile...
Video: Meeting
This video covers the remainder of the update.











We're moved to this position





Background Sound: Atmospheric Hum
The girl I'd just run into was wearing a school uniform I hadn't encountered before. And standing next to her was a boy who had a halfway irritated look on his face, but was offering the girl a hand anyway. He was wearing his school jacket, and she was not, so I couldn't tell for certain, but they definitely came across as classmates -- or at least schoolmates.















Suddenly remembering that I'd fished her student ID out of that pit, I withdrew it from my pocket and showed it to the two students.
Background Sound: None






Music: Unrest (B)



