Part 48: Tooth, Part 4

Video: Tooth
This video covers the entire update.




You know what they say: No weapon can pierce a calm heart. So...what's the most important thing right now?



...!
No... No! NOOOO!!
Ahhh... Ahhh...!

What was going on? Why was Emi screaming?! I could hear voices now. Emi and Ohkawa were having a heated argument.



No! We can't just leave him behind! We have to... We have to take him to a hospital!
But he's dead!
No, he's not!
HE'S DEAD!!
HE'S NOT! He...can't be...



That ghost girl must have been pursuing them!

...! This is bad. I have to go help them!



Sound Effect: Fall

Ahh! What the...?!
MURDERER!!



Katayama's body was sprawled unceremoniously on the landing halfway up to the third floor...along with Ohkawa. At the top of the stairs stood Emi...and in front of her, Yuuya, with an imposing scowl on his face.

...I didn't understand any of this. What had just happened?

AAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!

Music: Unavoidable Tragedy



Ohkawa, then, seemed as if he'd fallen and broken his arm. He was lopsidedly crawling toward me. It was almost as if he were trying to distance himself from Yuuya.

*whimper* Murderer... MURDERER!!

I ran to the base of the stairs to meet up with Emi. I needed some sort of context here.

Emi! What happened? What's going on?!
Run! Run away! You'll be killed!



What?!

I glanced up at Yuuya, but his face was shrouded in darkness. I couldn't make out any expression at all.

Ahhh...UWAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHH!!



Ohkawa seemed to have reached his breaking point. He shot to his feet and took off behind me toward the second floor, as fast as he could.

...Yuuya...kicked Ohkawa down the stairs? Why?!

Yuuya... It's not true, is it?



As soon as he reached my level, he bent down and began...fiddling with Katayama's body. Raising the arms, then letting them drop...wiping blood from the ears and nose, then looking at it as if studying a specimen under a microscope...

Hmm. Hahahahahaha...

...



What the hell? He was enjoying this! I finally got to see an emotion written clearly on his face...and it was elation? How was this not some crazy dream?!

Yuuya... Yuuya, noooOOOOOOO!!

Tears began spilling from my eyes like water. I was shocked, confused and...I don't even know what else!

*sob* Tohko! *hic* Get away from him! Hurry!
*pant* *wheeze* GOD, NOOOOOOOO!!




Shimada took the key and lost it, so this room is no good...
If we hid in a place like that, we'd be sitting ducks anyway. We... We need to go farther down... to the first floor!

The poor girl was frantic. I can't say I blamed her, but...well, something about this whole situation just didn't feel right to me.



Huh? What?
I just don't believe Yuuya...kind, sweet Yuuya... would be capable of something like that.
But...he really did kick him down the stairs! It happened!
He kicked Ohkawa? How can that possibly be true?!



With that, Emi pushed me out of the way and ran past me, toward the stairwell leading to the first floor.

Ah! Emi...!
I have nothing more to say to you! You wouldn't believe me anyway, since you're so convinced I'm lying!



I was now separated from every one of my friends. But...was I really in danger? I mean, I was...but from Yuuya? That just didn't seem right. Or more likely, I didn't want it to be. I wanted to believe that this was all a misunderstanding. My legs were shaking and my head was swimming. I just stood there, unsure of where I should go or what I should do.

Music: None



And in his hands was Shimada's huge knife -- the one that was last seen jutting from Shimada's stomach. It was still dripping with blood.

...!

This definitely made matters more complicated. How could I doubt Yuuya's guilt when he was holding something like that? Why did he even have it?! How could he possibly bring himself to pull a knife from his friend's lifeless corpse...?

But I wasn't going to run. I turned around, and I braced myself. I opened my mouth, intent on discussing this rationally. If I ran away now, I felt like it would all be over. There would be nothing left to save...no one left to trust. But what could I possibly say to him?

Why did you do it?
Are you all right?



But I just wanted this all to be a horrible mistake so badly, I knew I had to say something. I knew I had to get through to him. ...Maybe he was just freaking out in his own way. This whole experience had been taxing for all of us, and Yuuya's only human. He must have been terrified. And maybe I could help get him through it...get him to talk about what's bothering him and feel a little better. It was worth a shot, at least...



Kirisaki. Do you know where Urabe and Ohkawa are?
Huh? Umm...wh-why?
...

Music: Indeterminate Form (B)

No answer. He just started muttering to himself and slowly walked right past me, as if I weren't even there.



I thought I could put it to good use... in a lot of ways.
Stop this! Get rid of that thing!



I grabbed him by the arm and just clung to him, putting my full weight on his body to keep him from going any farther down the hallway. He was at a crossroads, about to walk down a path of no return. And I wasn't going to lose the kind, considerate Yuuya I'd fallen for. Unfortunately, the only tools I had at my disposal for stopping him were my feelings. And those just weren't going to be enough...

Sound Effect: Thump



Ghaagh...!

I was so startled that it took me a moment before I'd even figured out what happened.



That was the first time in my entire life that I'd ever been punched in the head. And he put everything he had into it.



I couldn't focus. My brain was still rattling inside my skull from the impact.



The world was spinning. I looked up at him with spasmodic, twitchy, tear-filled eyes. There was no sign of remorse or compassion whatsoever. He looked like a feudal warrior, clutching his sword and staring down at his enemy. The area all around my eye was throbbing. It hurt so badly, and felt so swollen and sore...I couldn't even imagine what it must have looked like.

And he wasn't done with me. He got in closer and closer, grinning unnaturally as he raised his fist for a second strike.

Sound Effect: Thump

Music: Torture



...!

Sound Effect: Thump



Ahhh...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!




He was going to kill me. He was really going to kill me! God...

*pant* *wheeze* Ghlgh...!

I felt something rattling around uncomfortably inside my mouth, so I spit it out into my hand. It was white...



That maniac had actually knocked out one of my teeth!

Nnng... God... My... My tooth... *sob*

He was there. Just behind me. I panicked, tripping over my own feet and stumbling to the ground on the landing between the first and second floor.

Ghah...!

I'd fallen on my backside, dropping my tooth on the ground next to me. I began slinking away from the encroaching figure of Yuuya Kizami. Save me! Somebody! Anybody! God, please!



...?

I was scooting backwards across the floor, too stiff, sore and scared to stand...but then my hand brushed across something small and metallic. A key!

Sound Effect: Item



Ahhh...ahhhhhh...!

Even with my hand right over it, I was shaking so badly that I could barely work my fingers to get a grip. It was the most frustrating feeling in the world, and for a few seconds (that felt like hours), I just kept trying in vain to pick up that damned key! Finally, I slipped my finger through the ring. I had it! This was my one and only chance. Scrambling to my feet, I somehow slipped past Yuuya...and ran back up to the second floor, as fast as I could force my shaky legs to carry me.

I had the key! I could lock myself in!

Music: None



Staring at the tooth that I'd dropped on the ground. Staring intently, as if trying to make out what he was seeing.

...Her tooth? Heh...



Music: Kind Words

*crunch* *crunch* *crunch* *crack* *crunch* *scrape* *crunch* *crunch* *crunch* *gulp*

Heh...heeheehahahahaha...





Ahhh...haaah...!



There didn't seem to be any way to lock the door from the inside. I needed to find a hiding place before Yuuya showed up. The corner of the room? Under the bed, maybe? I was scanning every inch of the room as quickly as possible, sizing up my surroundings. My eyes stopped on one of the medicine shelves.



It felt like such a revelation, like the answer I was looking for...but what was I going to do with scissors? Was I going to fight? Fight who? Yuuya? I wouldn't stand a chance... I decided to leave them there. I stepped back, and crouched down behind the partitioning screen that was set up in the middle of the room.

*whimper* *sob*

Music: None







Urabe had run back to the bathrooms on the third floor to warn Ohkawa about the imminent threat that was approaching. Unsurprisingly, he was still crouched on the ground, cradling Katayama's lifeless head in his arms. And he was still stubbornly insistent that if he were to leave that spot, he'd have to carry Katayama with him.



No! We can't just leave him behind! We have to... We have to take him to a hospital!
But he's dead!
No, he's not!
HE'S DEAD!!
HE'S NOT! He...can't be...



It made one hell of a thud when it hit the landing. But he was already dead, so what did it matter? As long as it helped get Ohkawa moving, I didn't care. See? Look. He's dead. So get your ass off of that floor and run!

Music: Fear of the Occult (B)



...!
K-Kizami...

Urabe was looking at me, then at Katayama's body, then back at me, as if she couldn't make up her mind which was more interesting. But why was she looking at me? Did I have something on my face? Ohkawa, on the other hand, was focused squarely on Katayama. He was trembling all over, but I thought he finally understood. Then he turned toward me...



...yelled like a madman and ran down the stairs toward his friend's body. He wasn't exactly in his right mind, however, so those last few steps didn't quite go as planned. He tripped and fell, quite hard, next to Katayama.

Ghaaaahh...!



AAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!
*whimper* Murderer... MURDERER!!
Emi! What happened? What's going on?!



I wasn't the one who killed Katayama...

Run! Run away! You'll be killed!



(In here...getting killed by the school and getting killed by me...are one and the same.)

Music: None









Music: Shangri-La -Ballad ver.-



And with that, the credits roll.

Corpse Party was an amazing game with a few weak points. Book of Shadows on the other hand, was a fairly weak sequel with a few really good points that shine through. Overall, nothing in the game could really be considered a "sequel," and half of it isn't even canon. The game would be greatly improved with just one more chapter, that actually means something to the overall story. Perhaps some sort of prologue to Blood Drive, the third game in the series.

Oh well. Tooth was a good end to the game; we'll just have to accept that nothing of substance really occurred and move on. There'll be a couple more updates after this, such as the usual wrong end update, and then the LP will be complete.