Part 33: Chapter 4, Part 10

Video: Home
This video covers the entire update.



...
...?! Is this...our classroom...?



We quickly run to wake up Ayumi.



Hey! Wake up!
(She's breathing, at least...)
Shinozaki! Come on, wake up already!



K-Kishi...numa...? *hic* *gag* *cough*



Take a look around you! I can hardly believe it myself...but here we are!
No way...



Yoshiki and Ayumi take a look around.





It's true...
Yeah! We made it! We're home! WE'RE HOME!!!



Heh...heheheheh... Heheheh...heheh..heh... *sniffle*

We're put in control of Yoshiki and wander around a bit. We start by talking to Ayumi.



And we head towards the center of the room.



Well, two out of nine ain't bad, I guess. We exit the classroom.



Only the red glow of the light next to the fire extinguisher offers any respite from the quaint, quiet darkness of the school hallway.

(Standing around in the darkened corridors of our school building at 8:00 in the evening...just feels so surreal...)

The most surreal thing you've experienced today, surely.



... (Is this...reality? Was everything up until now just a dream? Where am I right now? And what am I doing?)




Wha...?! Shinozaki! What's wrong?!



Yoshiki runs back into the classroom to Ayumi's side.



What the hell is this?!



*shudder* *shiver* It's...not over, is it... Why isn't it over? Why?!
Dammit...




Music: Discomfort

Girl Spirit: ...

Nooooooo!

Ayumi takes several steps back.





*pant* *pant* Ahhhhh!!




...on the day I was kidnapped.



Wh-Why is she telling us this?
I-I have no idea!



...so after school, I decided that instead of going home...I'd park myself in the outdoor walkway for a little, and watch the rain.



I told him all about my fight with mom, and he listened really closely, and just kept saying, uh-huh, uh-huh... He was sick and couldn't speak much, you see... But he was a very kind man. I really liked him. But then...

Music: None



...



I'm so sorry.
(She's so tiny, she must be...) Fifth-grader...Yuki Kanno...right?
Ah...



For making the effort...to help those of us...who were killed in that school.
Didn't we succeed, though? So why are you still here?!



But, we returned your tongues! We gave you back your ability to speak out! And we even got your murderer to repent for what he did!
Is it just...that you can't forgive him, no matter what?



Repentance is between the criminal and the victim. It's the sole act capable of moving us. And we exist as fragments of the sacred ground upon which Heavenly Host is sealed. I believe moving us...is your best course of action.



So you're saying...his words...the words spoken by the doll...weren't good enough to appease you?
That's...not...
...
...Huh?
So...what, then?



You child spirits are the ones who summoned us there, aren't you?



The hell d'you mean by that?!
We're just the cogs that hold the closed spaces together.
But you...you killed Suzumoto, didn't you?!
Wait!
Huhh?!
Let's hear her out.
...



Why the hell are you suddenly so concerned about us?!
I heard about a situation like this from my sister once...



It's kind of like stopping short at the edge of madness...
...with all sorts of thoughts and feelings swirling around in your head... Your kindly nature and your sudden hatred and panic begin to spin around and around, and you just start acting out without any sort of control...
Your sister some kind of medium or something?
Yeah...something like that.



...
I feel for you. I really do. So please...please! Bring the rest of them back! Mochida, Ms. Yui...and everyone else, too... Bring them all back home.
...
Come on! You can do it, right?!



Why not?!
Those closed spaces...have eaten a lot of innocent souls. Far too many, in fact. The grudges of those who died there have filled every last corner of them. There's no room left. And because the agony and pain has nowhere else to go...it's begun feeding on the minds and souls like us who are bound there.
It won't be long...



Music: Unpleasantness

...
So...we're going to lose you as an ally, then?
...
So why don't you just hurry up and bring them home right now?! Isn't there any way for us to save Mochida and the others?!



Wh-What is it?



...find all four of us Heavenly Host serial kidnapping and murder victims...



...and you just might get your friends back...
You expect us...to go back?!
And this time, instead of just having one person left to appease, we have to go back to the drawing board and appease all four of you?!
Why...couldn't you tell us the reason our previous efforts weren't good enough? What is there to hide?
It's just...



Music: None



Yuki's spirit gently took hold of Ayumi's hand, and in an instant, their two beings seemed to merge into a single mind.



Sh-Shinozaki?!