"Uwah, it's so eerie…"
Although it was an open area, the abandoned elementary school was in a remote location, or else it wouldn't have been deserted and resorted to becoming an open venue.
The most direct result of these factors was that the interior of the teaching building was genuinely dilapidated, and many areas were covered in accumulated dust with footprints, which would make anyone with OCD want to die on the spot.
Aina felt that, whether it was an illusion or not, the temperature had suddenly dropped quite a bit the moment she stepped inside, a chilling sensation running from her ankles straight to her heart!
"Ah! Look, here's a map of the route!"
"Mhm... the girls are on the right side?"
Scrambling through the terrifying environment, Kitahara Iori claimed he wasn't scared, but the tension in the shadows on his facial muscles was enough to convey his true feelings—he was a little freaked out!
Staring at the sign that Aina pointed out, which read [Ladies' Only Route →], he hooked his arm over Kouhei's shoulder and heartlessly raised his hand to say goodbye.
"In that case, we're off. Aina, you guys have to cheer up!"
"Get back here!"
Knowing with certainty that the seniors would definitely ease up on the girls' route, Kotegawa Chisa immediately grabbed the ears of the two scumbags and pushed them towards the idiot-only route.
"You two! Obediently go this way!"
"Damn it…"
Looking at the corridor in front of him, which was covered in bloodstains and had talismans plastered all over the walls and windows, Kitahara Iori was nervous but had no choice but to turn on his flashlight and slowly walk forward.
What made it even harder for him to bear was that they had wasted too much time messing around, and the last line of the sun's protection had already vanished from the world.
Darkness had completely fallen, and his visible range was only a small patch right in front of him!
"Tch, it's all Yuu's fault for talking about campus horror legends; this stuff is disgusting even if it's not scary!"
"Well~ I think it's alright. It's definitely just those guys pretending to be ghosts to scare us, and in comparison, aren't naked drinking men even scarier~"
"You have a point, but…"
Actually, the bloodstains and talismans weren't that scary; the former was just a printed picture stuck to the wall, and the latter was similar!
The only thing Iori couldn't figure out was the figure he saw before entering the school. It's normal for an elementary school to have elementary students, but it's hard to overlook a fleeting shadow of a child in an abandoned elementary school.
"Oh, the first checkpoint seems to be here! It's a Japanese doll!"
Unaware of Iori's thoughts, and wanting to get this over with quickly, Imamura Kouhei looked at the Japanese doll in front of him without fear and complained: "Something like this means the next step will definitely be…"
"Pat!"
"I knew it…"
Kitahara Iori was startled by something soft and warm touching the back of his head, but the next second, he remembered the usual routine for this kind of setup.
First, use something to attract attention, and then release something to attack from behind—these guys are truly classic!
Indifferently reaching back and tugging on the rope behind him, he brought the object that touched him to the front and saw that it was indeed just a piece of slightly warm konjac jelly.
"Well~ I overthought it, what a clumsy trap!"
"I know, right, it completely fails to inspire any sense of fear…"
Imamura Kouhei was only halfway through his sentence when the two of them noticed a note tied to the konjac jelly. It only had three words—[Used One!]
"…"
They both fell silent simultaneously. Looking at the konjac jelly, which was warm to the touch and had an unknown hole in the center, Kitahara Iori and Imamura Kouhei's expressions instantly turned to horror!
"Yaaahhhhhh!!!"
"What the heck! That was too fast!"
Walking down the other side of the corridor, Yoshiwara Aina's small face was pale as she listened to the screams coming from the side, and her mood plummeted.
Those were two scumbags; what could possibly happen to make them so terrified!
Just as the scream faded, a leisurely piano melody simultaneously rang out from the classroom next to her, startling her so much that she almost dropped the flashlight.
"Eek! What's going on?"
"Music room?!"
Clutched tightly in Aina's not-so-padded embrace, Kotegawa Chisa's expression was calm, although her back was aching from being poked, and Aina was holding her so tightly she couldn't breathe!
"Aina, let go first; let's go in and take a look."
"Go in and look?!"
Her pitch suddenly rose two octaves. Yoshiwara Aina let go of Chisa but shook her head frantically, trembling all over—
"No way! Chisa, haven't you heard of the Seven School Mysteries! The headless female ghost will crush the heads of any living creature who trespasses into her territory with the steel keys of the piano!"
"I told you there are no ghosts…"
Pulling open the door to the music room amidst Aina's strange pleas of No, no, no, Kotegawa Chisa, unconvinced, poked half her head inside, and as expected, it was empty.
Carefully leading Aina to the piano where the sound came from, she quickly found a phone playing an audio recording inside the piano lid.
And judging by the model, it was a friendly contribution from her own sister!
"See~ I told you it must be Big Sister and the others playing tricks; there are no ghosts in this world!"
"Really?"
Trembling with fear, Yoshiwara Aina didn't want to have her head crushed by an evil spirit, but she also didn't want to abandon Chisa and run away, so she chose to crouch down, covering her head.
It wasn't until Chisa turned off the music player and no more music came out that she reluctantly opened her eyes just a crack.
Sure enough, just as the other party said, the phone that had just been collected was now in Chisa's hand, and the case was Nanaka-nee's classic pink phone shell.
"It really is! That's great…"
Finally able to breathe a sigh of relief, just as Yoshiwara Aina smiled bitterly at Chisa, she suddenly caught a glimpse of a short-haired crown flashing past the window behind the other person, running from the far left to the far right.
Her heart stopped! Excluding the possibility of her eyes being broken, the only limited person whose height could be slightly taller than the classroom window was probably an elementary school student, right?
But an elementary school having an elementary student is completely normal... Wait a minute!
"Chi, Chisa? Did you just see something run past the window behind you?"
"???"
Goosebumps instantly broke out all over her body. Kotegawa Chisa was badly frightened by Aina's tightly constricted, terrified eyes and instinctively jumped two steps forward.
And when she turned to check if there was anything strange behind her, both the space behind her and outside the window were completely silent.
"Well, Aina, did you missee it?"
"Impossible! It was definitely a small boy, and a very young elementary student!"
"Gulp…"
First, Iori said he saw a little girl, and now Aina said she saw a little boy! Kotegawa Chisa was genuinely spooked now.
Putting aside everything else, why didn't Iori and Aina's accounts match up? Could it be that the elementary school students they saw weren't the same person?
"Let's... ignore those things for now."
Her voice was already trembling. Kotegawa Chisa pulled open the back door of the music room and walked out, feigning composure as she comforted Aina: "No matter what it is, let's find the seniors first…"
She didn't finish her sentence, which was instantly choked back by the terrifying sight in front of her—
A human silhouette stood prominently in the darkness of the empty corridor. Although it was too far away to see clearly without a flashlight, she could guarantee that they had definitely not seen anything like this on their way!
"Mhm, let's go…"
"Wait!"
It was too late to stop her now. Yoshiwara Aina walked out with the flashlight, intending to go upstairs along the original route, but the flickering light finally landed on the end of the corridor.
Long, black hair covered its face. A wet, white dress clung to its body, outlining its shape, and water droplets were dripping onto the floor from the limp hem of the dress.
"Eek!"
Seeing such a female ghost, Yoshiwara Aina almost fainted immediately, but this time, at least, the figure didn't hide its face, and there was a shadow behind it...
"Gulp, is, is that Azusa-senpai...?"
"Azusa-senpai, we already know your true identity! You're not scary at all even if you don't speak…"
Cold sweat streamed down her face. Kotegawa Chisa tightly clenched her fists, forcibly suppressing the urge to run away, and righteously attempted to expose the truth of the so-called test of courage!
However...
"Pat!"
The white-clad female ghost made no attempt to defend itself against the suspicion, simply taking a straightforward step forward, leaving a wet, splashing footprint on the floor.
"Azu, Azusa-senpai?"
"Pat! Pat!"
The transition from stepping to running only took a few seconds. Seeing the white-clad female ghost charging straight towards them, Aina and Chisa instantly burst into tears, turned, and ran, leaving a trail of screams behind them.
"Yaaahhhh!!!?"