Part 34: Shangri-La, Part 5




Background Sound: Rain

My name is Nari Amatoya. I'm a seventh-grader in Musashigawa Girls' Middle School, class 1-6. 'Naana' is a friend I've had since I was a little girl. Her real name is Nana Ogasawara. She'd been with me up until just recently, when we'd randomly gotten ourselves separated in the halls. I did still have another companion with me, but...well, she wasn't really someone I could count on. Like, at all.

*sigh* That's how it always was with her. I'd lost count of how many things she'd found to whine about in this place. This was Chihaya Yamase, a fellow member of the drama club. Never satisfied, but never willing to do anything about it, 'drama' fit her to a T. If Naana were with us, I'm pretty sure she'd give in to Chihaya's whining and insist we take a break. But I'm not Naana, and I won't be guilted so easily.




It really was just like leading a child around. She was as spoiled as can be. I truly felt it wasn't possible for any human being to be more spoiled than Chihaya. ...But it's not like I could really leave her behind, you know? She'd be dead in no time flat, as helpless as she was.
Sound Effect: Thunder










The two girls head inside.









I told myself that I was going to find Naana in this second building, come hell or high water. Failure was not an option.
Background Sound: None
Music: Escaping Samsara (B)

We're put into control of Nari and begin investigating the entranceway.

A decaying human head has been forcibly crammed into the top-left cubby. It mustn't have been easy to make it fit, as there are tiny pieces of flesh and scalp tissue all along the frame. Based on what's left of its facial features and the cut of its hair, this was likely a male middle school student.


Chihaya seemed almost as if she were trying to hide behind my body from the sight of the severed head, and she wound up pushing me forward in the process. If she didn't want to see it, she could just not look at it! Why did she need to be so grabby?! Worse still, she was pushing me right into the shelf, giving me an uncomfortably close view of the head, not to mention the...things crawling on it?!




We exit the entranceway and head east, toward the staff room.

Within the hole, there's simply nothing visible at all. It's like a void down there. There's no way to estimate depth. You'd have to be a track star to make it to the other side safely. And even then, it would be risky. Chihaya certainly couldn't pull it off.

We can't proceed to the staff room, so we head south and enter the music room.

Sound Effect: Piano




There are portraits of influential people connected with this school, or possibly with this classroom specifically. Not an uncommon thing to find. In this atmosphere, though, it really looks like they're all staring directly at you, no matter what angle you view them from. It's creepy!

We investigate the portraits again.
There are portraits of influential people connected with this school, or possibly with this classroom specifically. Not an uncommon thing to find. In this atmosphere, though, it really looks like they're all staring directly at you, no matter what angle you view them from. It's creepy!
Sound Effect: Uwaaaa
Suddenly, Chihaya tensed up and hid herself behind my back. You're not the only one who's scare, you know...

There's nothing else in the music room, so we head out and up the nearby staircase.

And we enter the art room.

There seems to be a faint, almost imperceptible stain all across it, roughly in the shape of a human torso. But it might just be the lighting...
We investigate the center canvas next.


The inside of the cabinet is blood red throughout, as if someone very carefully painted it that way. Actually, wait, isn't that a tube of red paint inside? And if looks unopened... In fact, it looks completely untouched. There's not even the slightest indication that anyone has so much as moved that tube of paint in years. Which means this red coloring must be...
...from a different tube of paint, ohmygod!

We exit the art room and head north. The game automatically stops us at this space.
Music: None


Was it lightning? But we weren't near any windows, and there was no thunder...

The purpose of that flash was to draw our attention to this shiny thing.

In contrast with everything else in this school, it seemed like a fairly recent item -- a decade old at most, but likely much newer.



Sound Effect: Item

Though if I gave it to Chihaya for safekeeping, it would no doubt wind up on the ground again somewhere. So I decided I'd just pocket the thing.
Music: Escaping Samsara (B)

The reference room is locked, and the girls' room is empty, so we head back downstairs.

And we return to the pit we saw earlier.

It was hard to ascertain details in this dim light, but he seemed a bit too big to be a middle schooler or high schooler, and he wasn't wearing a uniform.





Still no response.



It was a fairly expensive-looking DV camcorder. And a well-worn one, at that, with dings and chips all over it. Nonetheless, it looked like it probably still worked.


Video: Entranceway
This video covers the remainder of the update.
Music: None




In my agitated state, I kicked a pair of hallway slippers that was sitting on the ground nearby, and they flew right into the dead girl's face.


I grabbed her jaw and began shaking it around, and was a bit startled by the sensation. It felt just like I was touching living flesh. Except this person was very, very cold. Cold as a statue. A statue covered in skin and muscle... but a statue nonetheless.




I flipped my cell phone back on and switched it to camera mode, centering the lens on the lovely Ms. Kaida. Her slashed and broken gaze was focused ahead of her at a downward-facing angle. Yet in contrast to these injuries, she wore a peaceful expression on her face. Almost as if she were posing for me; just waiting for me to hit that shutter button.

Sound Effect: Camera


Sound Effect: Camera


I tried poking her wound with my finger and heard a moist, squishy sound as my fingertip was swallowed up. She'd gone cold, but I guess there was still some blood left in her. Either that or decomposition was already well underway. I pushed farther in, digging my finger through the gaps between her muscles until it struck something smooth and hard.

As I drew my face into her forehead, a few particles of perfume scented the foul odor of sweat and sebum that had heretofore been assaulting my nostrils.

Sound Effect: Camera






