Part 37: Shangri-La, Wrong Endings, Part 1

Shangra-La has a whopping eight Wrong Endings. This update will cover the first four.

Shangri-La - Wrong End 1



Give it back... Maybe I can be of some help to you if you do.



Good question. I never did believe in the paranormal before, but after everything we've seen in here, I don't think I can be skeptical any longer...
That's not what I mean! I'm asking if we should help this person with his problem or not. What do we do? We need to find out friends...but this poor soul has it worse than we do.



While in control of Mitsuki and Fukuroi, we choose to help the red soul with his head problem.



Yeah... I agree. Maybe if we do, he'll help us find a way out of here.



First things first, we head to the reference room.



It looks to be a bucket, probably used by the custodian for mopping the floors. There's nothing inside.

This might work, don't you think?

Take the bucket
Leave it

Acquired [Bucket]

It's old and rusted, but it still seems sturdy enough.

Sound Effect: Item



After collecting the bucket, we head down to the entranceway.

Music: Unrest (B)



A decomposed human cranium occupies the top-left cubby on this shelf. Based on what's left of its facial features and the cut of its hair, this was likely a male middle school student.

Looks like about the right age, but...nnng...



Simply standing in the presence of this severed head was turning my stomach. The foul stench of decay was absolutely overpowering. Even in this low light, I could easily see maggots crawling through his eye sockets, his nose, his mouth, all over his skin... They were everywhere.

I can't...handle the smell...
It does seem like he's been dead for quite some time...
A-Are we really going to carry this back to that spirit? Like, with our hands?!
...How about we try using that bucket?

Try it
Don't try it




Y-Yeah...
I'll do the honors. You hold the bucket, okay?
Okay. Thank you, Fukuroi.
No problem. ...Rng...



The maggots, sensing that something was amiss, suddenly began pouring out of its various sockets and climbing all over their new rusted metal home.

Here. I've still got some tissues left.
Th-Thanks. I really hope I never have to feel anything like that again.



After collecting the head, we're automatically brought back to the spirit.

Music: Elegy



It's your head...I think. Please, take it.
Ahh... My beautiful head! My beautiful face has become so...rotten... Damn those maggots. I'm... I'm so ugly now!
I can sympathize. There are many others who've been killed here, just like you. We're going to need to get in contact with the police and have whoever did this arrested.
Are you...pitying me? Do you feel sorry for me?
N-No, that wasn't my intention. I apologize if I've offended you.



...!
Fukuroi... I don't like where this is going.
I-I agree. I think we need to distance ourselves from this place.

Music: None

It's because you're still alive. That's why you turn your noses at us dead people. Arrogant creatures... Why don't you come and join us?!

Sound Effect: Whoosh



Gwaah?!







Where...? Fukuroi? Fukuroi! Where are you?! Maybe he's passed out somewhere. Ah, I know! I'll try lighting a candle...



There was a chill in the air, both literally and figuratively. The smell that wafted about was both musty and...gloomy, somehow.

Fukuroi! Fukuroi! Wake up! We're somewhere underground now, and it feels really dangerous! Come on, wake up, dammit!



Fukuroi...?

His eyes were wide open, but he gave no response. Looking a bit closer, I noticed that his neck had been severely twisted. He was staring right at me, but his body was facing the other direction. And his half-agape jaw was completely motionless. He wasn't breathing.

Music: A Pitch Black Room

No... No, this can't be happening. Come on. It's not funny!
*hic*



(Somebody's coming! Wh-What do I do?!)

Wait here
Run

Video: Shangri-La - Wrong End 1



Over here! I'm over here! Hurry! There's been an accident!

The footsteps drew closer and closer, and then finally, the figure making them came into view.



Ah, s-sorry, I thought you were...uhh... I-I'm from Byakudan High School, grade 11...
(What the hell is wrong with me? Why am I introducing myself?! This is clearly not someone in his right mind!)
M-My name is Mitsuki Yamamoto and...uhh...m-my friend here has been gravely injured...
(He's got an axe or something, and he's covered in blood. He's... He's probably the guy who did this to Fukuroi!)
W-W-We just k-kinda woke up in here and, uh, w-we didn't kn-know where we were and we saw, umm, bodies a-all around us, and...
(Run, you dolt! Run! Run, Mitsuki!)



Sound Effect: Smash



Music: Wrong End



Video: Shangri-La - Wrong End 1 ends here.

I like how succinct this ending is. Yoshikazu just wordlessly brings down his hammer, and that's the end. No drawn-out death scene, no cackling and mocking from Sachiko, just immediate death.


Shangri-La - Wrong End 2

Music: A Pitch Black Room



Back on the route to the first Wrong End, we instead choose to run.





First time I played this chapter, I agreed to help the spirit and got stuck into these endings. I chose to run, then reloaded the save and said "Oh, Taguchi will help me out!"

And then it was Yoshikazu.



(Is that...a girl? In a place like this? Maybe she got trapped in here too, just like us.)
Hey, little girl! It's dangerous in here!



Who...are you, lady? A-Are you a friend of that bad man who kills people?
Ah! N-No, not at all! Don't be afraid! I ran away from him too. ...You've got a lot of blood on you. What happened? And who is this bad man who kills people?
I don't know. He's a big man, and he killed three of my friends. I'm the only one who got away.
Oh. Sounds like you've been through a lot here. I-I'm looking for my friends right now, but if you'd like, you're welcome to join me. This place seems really dangerous and...to be honest, I'm a little scared by myself, so... please?
Mm. Thank you.



This way, lady.

Mitsuki follows Sachiko deeper into the labyrinth.

This way.



You sure...know your way around.
I've gotten used to it.
Huh? ...Come to think of it, I haven't even asked your name yet...
Sachiko Shinozaki.

Sachiko pushes Mitsuki into the nearby room.

Video: Shangri-La - Wrong End 2



Hmm, what AM I doing?
...?! Wh-What kind of room is this?!

I couldn't decide if it looked more like a pre-war medical facility or a meat processing plant. The stench was overpowering. Not only was the smell of rotting flesh everywhere, but the air was stale and thick. The room seemed to have no ventilation to speak of whatsoever. My eye was first drawn to the blood-spattered table, then to the many other instruments, all stained with dried blood and sprinkled liberally with viscera. And then I saw it, in the back of the room.

No... Oh, God... Is that...?



What I saw was literally a pile of human remains, every one of them flayed open or torn apart. It was almost like a stack of discarded butcher scraps.

No... What the hell is this?! God... Oh, God!
See people you know in there? Which ones? I'll give them back. Or part of them, anyway.
Uulggh...gghh... *hack* *sputter*
There you go. Let it all out. You'll feel better.



Are you calmer now?
Then...let's begin!

Music: Serious



Wh-What...do you plan to do to me?! Whatever it is...don't. Stay away!
Everybody always says that! *giggle* But it's not like it ever works.



GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!

The large man seemed intent on obeying Sachiko's every command. He drew near me, slowly and robotically. There was no emotion, no sense of urgency...just a man walking across the room to do his job, like it or not. I have to run! If he catches me, I'll be...!

Eeee! Get back!
Hee hee! Playing tag? The exit is over here. But can you make it?
GET BACK!!

The man's movements remained slow and evenly paced, but there were only so many places to flee in a room this small. If I got tired before he did, I'd be finished. My only hope was to get out into the hall before that happened. The two of us glared at one another for a few moments from across the dissection table, and then as soon as he made his move, I leaped on top of it.



I'd underestimated just how slippery the table might be, with its thick layer of blood and fat. I quickly spilled off the other side onto the floor. My legs and hind-quarters were soaked through with the blood of an untold number of other people, but I didn't have time to think about that. Adrenaline gave me the strength to stick my landing and I managed to keep running without skipping a beat.

A-Almost there!

I was in the home stretch! For a couple more steps, anyway.



Aahhhhnng...!

A sharp pain suddenly shot through my leg as it touched the ground. I immediately fell into a heap.

IT HURTS!! Ahhh...ahhhhng...MY LEG!!

My right leg was now firmly impaled with thick, sharp metal spikes. I'd been caught in an old-fashioned bear trap. The kind that's got two rows of metal shark teeth lined up on either side, instantaneously snapping shut as soon as any weight is applied in the middle. The thing was designed to catch bears and tigers. So what hope did a human have of escaping it?

Where did Sachiko get a bear trap? Did a poacher come into Heavenly Host to hunt bears or something???



Haha! You dumb bitch. Hee hee... How many dozens of victims do you think I've killed here? People sure don't get any smarter as they get older. Everybody always gets caught by this! *giggle* But then, I don't ever let my prey escape.
Nnngg... St-Stay...back... STAY BACK!!



It was the only thing left for me to do. I was out of options.

Music: None

Sound Effect: Crack

...?! Aghh...!

The man's foot came down hard on my left leg. It immediately contorted unnaturally and went limp, and I could see a pointed shard of bone jutting out from a bloody hole in my sock.

Rrrnnng...ghhhhaaahhh... My...leg... You broke...my leg...

Next, the man wrapped both my arms in chains.

Rrrrnnnng... No, stop... Please... It hurts... It hurts! Nooo!

As he pulled on the chains, my leg muscles also tightened -- around sharp metal spikes and a compound fracture. The pain was literally unbearable. In my half-unconscious, agony-addled state, I was just barely aware of being raised into the air by my arms on some sort of pulley system.



There's no need to worry. You see, you're about to experience horrible agony...and then die!
Why... Why me...? Why not some person...I've never met...from a foreign country? Why does it...have to be...me...?
You sure have beautiful skin, lady. So you'll get the filefish treatment. I'll peel every last bit of skin from your body...starting with your face.

Sachiko began approaching me, with a broken-off shard of an earthenware pot in her hands. No... God, no... No, no, no, no, no...

Sound Effect: Peel



An intense pain shot through my entire face. An undiluted, primal scream escaped my mouth unwittingly, as if I were throwing up blood. But not a living soul was around to hear it. There was absolutely no way for me to resist anymore. All I could do was lie limply, strung up along the wall, and feel my skin getting peeled away. Sometime amongst the throbbing, shooting, burning, electric agony coursing through every nerve ending, overseen by the girl's sneer, I lost consciousness.

The very last thing I saw before lapsing into eternal slumber...was a familiar strip of skin being flapped about merrily in Sachiko's hands.



Music: Wrong End



Video: Shangri-La - Wrong End 2 ends here.

Remember that thing I said about the first wrong end being succinct? You know, how I praised it for not being really drawn out with Sachiko gleefully cackling through the entire thing?

Though to be honest, listening to the sound effects while Mitsuki describes her face being peeled off makes me really uncomfortable, so I guess the ending does its job.


Shangri-La - Wrong End 3



While in the girls' room as Mitsuki and Fukuroi, we choose to peek into the small hole in the bathroom stall.

Video: Shangri-La - Wrong End 3



Mitsuki, come on...



...and saw the telltale glint of another eye staring back at me from within.

*gasp*



S-Somebody...in there...w-was looking back at me...
What?! That can't be! You don't see any feet along the bottom of the stall, right? Let me have a look.

Fukuroi ducked down and peeked in through the hole, exactly as I had.



Fukuroi! What happened? Are you all right?! Ahh! F-Fukuroi...? No... No, you're joking, right?!



On closer inspection, I noticed a round hole in the lens, as if a small stick or a fat needle had been instantaneously driven through it deep into his eye.

Fukuroi! Fukuroi, please! Stay with me!
...

There was no hint of a response. He just kept subtly convulsing, as if he'd been electrocuted. How had this happened? What was going on?!

???: Boys aren't allowed in the girls' room.



Wh-Who... What... What did you do?!

The stall door opened, revealing a little girl with an eerie blue glow about her. She looked to be around grade-school age. A fifth or sixth-grader, maybe. One of her eyes had been completely pulverized, but her face showed no indication of pain. Rather, it had a certain stoic quality to it. It was unreadable. Most disturbing of all, however, was the object she held in her right hand. It was an awl or an icepick or some such thing...with a bloody, dripping blade.

Are you the one who let that boy in here?
W-Wait... I...



Before I even had a chance to answer, the girl leaped from the stall with blinding speed.

That's not allowed.

Sound Effect: Splort



Reacting as quickly as I could, I threw my arm in front of my face, and almost immediately felt the icepick blade pierce right into it.

Sound Effect: Splort

Not just once, but twice...three times...

Sound Effect: Splort

It dug deep into my arm...my palm...my shoulder...

Sound Effect: Splort

St-Stop! STOP!! IT HURTS!! ...Aaaaaggghhh...

I had to run. But she wasn't about to let me. She just quietly kept hacking away, working her way up and down the entire length of my arm. Bit by bit my skin and flesh was chipped away, until finally the icepick completely penetrated my palm and began boring into my cheek. Eventually, my ear was hacked apart, and then I was scalped -- so thoroughly that I could hear the sound of my skin peeling away with my remaining ear.



My vision was blank. And I honestly couldn't tell if it's because I had my eyes closed...or if I simply didn't have eyes anymore. I only knew for sure that I was still being hacked apart because I could hear it. The pain gave no indication, as it was already omnipresent. I begged for mercy several times in vain before I finally just started praying that this agony would come to an end. God, please... I'll endure whatever trials lie ahead with open arms if you'll just save me now. I beg of you...please...make it stop...

Music: Wrong End



Video: Shangri-La - Wrong End 3 ends here.

I'm going to assume the ice pick went all the way through Fukuroi's eye and into his brain, because I don't think simply having an eye stabbed would send a person into convulsions like that.


Shangri-La - Wrong End 4

Music: Oddity



While in control of Morishige, we choose to go into the hole to get Mayu's ID, instead of persisting with our makeshift fishing rod.



...Well, at any rate, all I need to do is lower myself down, grab whatever's down there, then come right back up. It couldn't be simpler!

As long as I proceeded slowly and cautiously, I thought, I'd be fine. First things first, I needed to figure out how deep this gap went.

The string went in up to here, so...a little over four meters? That's deeper than I'd expected.

My height is 178 centimeters, so with arms outstretched, I'd be about two meters or so. Which meant if I grabbed onto the ledge with my hands and lowered myself down, I'd only have another two meters to fall. And that seemed entirely reasonable. It was notably less of a drop than one would face when jumping from a second-story veranda, for example.



A little stacking could easily give me a meter and a half of extra height, I thought. And that should get me plenty close to the edge of the hole. I'd probably be able to reach it and grab on with just a single jump!

(Worst case scenario, Taguchi will be stopping by the entranceway in less than an hour. That's close enough that if I yelled loudly, he'd hear me.)

The screen fades out, and Morishige tosses desks and chairs into the pit.

All right. That should do it. ...Let's get this over with.

Video: Shangri-La - Wrong End 4
This video covers the remainder of the update.



I think...I sprained my ankle. The one thing I didn't predict...was that the ground would be so uneven down here.

Well, at least I could finally find out what the item was that I'd seen from above.



In fact, it seemed to be a Kisaragi Academy student ID!

No... It's Mayu's! What is it doing down here?! ...Don't tell me...she fell... M-Mayu! Are you here?! Mayu!!

There were a considerable number of dead bodies down here with me. Most of them were full-on skeletons who seemed like they'd been here for ages, but a handful of them looked like they may have just died a few hours ago.

There are so many of them...and virtually every one is wearing what looks to be a modern-day school uniform! What is going on in this wretched place?!

I briefly scanned the bodies of the departed in the dim, unnatural light that filtered in from above, and found one that was wearing very familiar clothes. This was definitely the uniform of Kisaragi Academy High School. I was horrified. Mayu...please, tell me it's not you!



Music: None

Both of Ayumi Shinozaki's eyes were wide open...but she wasn't looking at anything in particular. Those eyes weren't seeing anything at all anymore.

Sh-Shinozaki...

Music: Despair

Wh-Why...? Wh-Who...did this to... *choke* *gag*
(Calm down! Don't panic! Shinozaki...is dead. This is just a body. Just one of many in here.)



*pant* *pant* *pant* ...Goddammit, Kishinuma should have been with her! What the hell was that incompetent jackass doing?! He was probably off messing around with God-knows-what, leaving Shinozaki all alone and helpless... and now...look at her!



Her uniform is too blood-soaked. It would just upset them. Her underwear is out of the question, of course. And her hair band...is just too common. I need something that one could associate with her personally. Ah, I know! The ghost story candles! ...Damn. Guess she doesn't have them on her anymore.



*pant* *pant* I had no idea human hair was so resilient! *pant* *pant* I don't think I can do this cleanly.



It's all right, Shinozaki, isn't it? It's for your family's sake, after all! Now, open wide... Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
...Ah... Ahhh! No! Her tongue! It's missing! It's already been taken! Goddammit, whoever did this, stop messing with me! I guess I have no choice, then. I'll have to settle for a tooth! ...Rrrrrg...GODDAMMIT!! ...Grrah! It won't come out! Not if I'm pulling with just my fingers, anyway...



What's happening? Why is everything going black?! ...Aaaaaaaahhhhhh...black...black...ghhh...ghhHHH... BLACK!!




Music: Wrong End



I really like this ending. But then, I like every scene where Morishige completely loses his goddamn mind. His voice actor just sells it so well

Anyway, that's the end of this update. Tune in next time for the other four Wrong Endings!