Part 9: Chapter 2, Part 2

Music: Chapter 2's Theme




...!
Whoa! Another earthquake!



The school shakes for a few moments until the quake subsides.



Ayumi stands up.



I just got a really bad feeling... We've gotta go search for Ms. Yui.
What if she comes back while we're gone, and we miss each other along the way?
We're going!
A-All right, all right already! But if we don't have any luck finding her, let's just make sure we come back to this room, okay?
*sniffle* *sob*
How about...we leave her a note? Shinozaki, do you have anything I could write with?
I've got a pen...
But no paper, huh. ...Well, there's always the teacher's desk.
...

The two of them get closer to the desk, and Yoshiki writes a message.



How's that?
Blunt. And kind of sloppy.
It's your fault we have to leave her a message at all, you know.
But...she might be in trouble!
O-Okay, okay! Just...don't cry! We'll find her!



We're now in control of Yoshiki, accompanied by Ayumi. We start by taking a quick look around the classroom.



There's a door behind the cabinet (which is stuffed full of long, black hair), but we can't open it.



The Power Stone is in our inventory, thanks to our actions as Shishido. This is a very useful item, which must be obtained by collecting it as Shishido and choosing to give it to Ayumi. This isn't a situation like Chapter 1's completely arbitrary wrong end, though. You do not need the Power Stone to clear the chapter.



The printout on the wall doesn't have any new information for us, so we leave the classroom.



We begin our search by heading in the obvious direction: north.



First we stop off in classroom 2-A.

Music: None



For the third time, we read this same newspaper clipping. I'm not going to transcribe it again.



Not to mention dark, and scary... Hey, Shinozaki...
Do you have any more of those candles, like the one you lit during the ghost story?
I do.
How about we light one up and take a quick breather? They give off...some heat, right?
Sure...



Ayumi and Yoshiki huddle around a candle, in what may be the stupidest attempt to keep warm I've ever seen.

This candle of mine...really is kinda warm...
Yeah...it is.

Sound Effect: Thump



Suddenly, the door flies open and we're put back in control of Yoshiki.

The candle Ayumi placed is a fully functional save point. We make use of it and head through the newly opened door.

Music: Chapter 2's Theme



We continue to the east, but the door to the classroom Shishido is in has mysteriously vanished.

What the... Looks like a dead end. Did this happen during that last earthquake...?
Ms. Yui... Where are you...? I'm really worried...

Since this path is now a dead end, we head back the way we came.



I recall the third floor was off-limit to teachers. Yoshiki and Ayumi aren't teachers, so we might as well check it out.



And sure enough, the barricade is gone.



Oh man, someone's going to be very pleased with me.

The first time I read this message, my reaction was something like "Oh, that's kinda creepy." Shortly afterwards, I realized I'm also compulsively collecting name tags off of dead bodies, so I'm just as much of a creep.



Ignoring the open room for now, we go check out the cabinets on the right.

A crude picture, seemingly drawn by a child, adorns one of the shelves.



Four smiling children are surrounding an adult, and merrily stabbing him to death.

...How...unsettling...



At least it's not hair, I guess.

Next we head into the open doorway.



But as we pass the threshold, we're thrown backwards through the air!

Wh...What the...?
Ouuch!!



We can't get into that room, so we head back downstairs.



Heading south past the classroom, we find a way to proceed. There was a pit here when we were controlling Shishido, but a board appears when we take control of Yoshiki and Ayumi.

After crossing, we head into the stairwell immediately past it.

Music: None



What's up?
I just had a brainstorm.



There's not a student in 2-9 who isn't intimately familiar with them, right?
You kidding? There's not a student in our GRADE who hasn't seen them at least once. People call you the horror rep of Kisaragi for a reason!
So how about...



...we light some candles like this, all throughout the school building? They'll be like signal flares for Mochida and the others.
Let them know you and me and Ms. Shishido are all here with them, safe and sound.
Y-Yeah, I guess...



(...but, if it makes her feel better...)
Come on, let's go.
Okay!

Scatting lit candles all around this entirely wooden building is a great idea, Ayumi.

After the scene, we head down the stairs.

Music: First Floor



We arrive on the first floor and head east.



...will be your final ray of hope...



We can't proceed to the far east, but we can go either south or north. We start by heading south.



The entranceway door is actually open for Yoshiki and Ayumi, so we head through.





After reading the note, we try opening the front door. My priorities may be a little backwards.



Of course it wouldn't be that easy, though.



There's nothing else in the entranceway, so we head back out and proceed north at the fork.



There are...human bones...
Oh, God, no... *gasp* *wheeze* *cough* *cough*



I'll be...fine... I'm just...hyperventilating...a little... *wheeze* *cough* *cough*

After wheezing on the floor for a bit, Ayumi regains her composure and stands up.

Come on... We have to find Ms. Yui.
Y-Yeah...
(Where the hell is Satoshi...? If he were here, I bet Shinozaki would be a whole lot calmer...)
What are you standing around for?! Let's get out of here!
A-All right, already!

Oh man, so many bodies. So many name tags ripe for the picking!



Kai Shimada Age: 17
Byakudan Senior High School, Class 2-4

Sliced up with edged weapon; bled out.



...? Did you just hear...?
We have...to get away from here.
O-Okay...

That's a good idea, Ayumi. But on the other hand, there are three more bodies here to inspect.



Tomohiro Ohkawa Age: 17
Byakudan Senior High School, Class 2-4

Sliced up with edged weapon; bled out.



Masato Fukuroi Age: 17
Byakudan Senior High School, Class 2-4

Struck with one weapon and stabbed with another; bled out.



Hikari Kirigami Age: 13
Musashigawa Girls' Middle School, Class I-2

Bled out from injuries.



Finally finished with the bodies, we head north to where the hallway splits. We begin by heading east.



Both of the doors to this classroom are affixed to the wall.

I appreciate that the game tends to differentiate between doors that are locked and may be opened later and doors that are just for show, rather than just saying every door is locked and letting you try every single door whenever you get a key.



There's no name tag, unfortunately. We check the scrap of paper next.

There's a hastily-written note on the ground. Its writer seemed to have struggled with it, as the lettering is inconsistent and difficult to read.



It  h   u rts .. ..   it   hu  RT S

aFTER   i  di e  the  p ai n  WI IL    conti nue FoR eve r...

NOO  oo oo ! ! NO, no, No, nOOO O !





You're going to leave me behind, aren't you...
I   w i l l   n e v e r   f o r g i v e   y o u . . .



The note burns away and we regain control.



I t   h u r t s . . .

She just repeats this every time we talk to her.



There's an erratic noise, like that of TV static, comic from within.

I don't know how this custodian expects anyone to deliver the name tags they collected if the door is always locked. Honestly.



Finishing up on the east end, we head west.



They're in the process of slowly drying and whitening, creating an almost overpowering stench throughout the hallway. Any clothing the deceased had been wearing is long gone, so there are no means of readily identifying gender on sight.

And the text ends here. But if you investigate the corpse a second time, the same description repeats with one extra text box at the end.



Emi Kudou Age: 17
Lexern Senior High School, Class 3-2

Willingly offered own flesh as food to sustain friend.

There are way too many name tags that require you to repeatedly investigate a body for no damn reason.

After collecting the tag, we check the paper on the floor.

[Victim's Memoirs]
(1/5)



What else was I supposed to do? I was starving. We both were. And there's no food here. So we decided, together, that one of us should try to live just a little bit longer. If I ever get home, I'm supposed to tell all the people waiting for us what happened. We left it all up to a game of paper-scissors-rock. Loser eats winner.

And I lost.

I felt her blood going down my throat, quenching my thirst. And her meat was supple and satisfying. But that blood and that meat was once my friend. Up until just a few hours before, I'd been talking with her. As I feasted, I just kept thinking, this food used to be a person. Before I tore it apart, it all worked together to sustain a life. And every time I thought about that, I just started crying...and I couldn't stop.

I wanted some part of her to be with me even after she died, so I decided to keep one of her eyeballs. And I thought I should write all of this down, to help preserve some small portion of my sanity.