The screaming barely lasted a second before the woman bolted.
"Chiharu, wait up!"
Her boyfriend's face had gone ghost-white as he scrambled after her, terrified of being left behind to die in this place.
The twisted, blood-soaked figure twitched.
"AAAAAHHH..."
A piercing shriek tore through the air. The remaining two guys didn't need any more convincing and took off running. Fujibayashi Ryou's face drained of color as she spun toward the classroom door, feet already moving.
Everyone fought to get out first, desperate not to be last.
But the moment she crossed the threshold, something clicked in Fujibayashi Ryou's mind. She glanced back over her shoulder and saw Hayato still standing there, completely still.
Was he frozen in shock?
"Hayato-kun, we have to go!"
She gripped the doorframe with one hand, shouting back at him urgently. When he still didn't react, she bit her lip hard and ran back in, grabbing his wrist and pulling.
Right then, this normally timid, anxious girl summoned every ounce of courage she had. Even a glimpse from the corner of her eye at that thing made her blood run cold.
Hayato let himself be pulled out of the room, though his mind was elsewhere.
The instant that black-haired girl in the white school uniform had turned around, he'd activated his time-stop ability. He'd studied her carefully, even tried touching her. But there was nothing there. No physical form.
He'd grabbed books, chalk, anything nearby and tried to make contact with that phantom figure. Nothing worked. Even his own hand passed right through her.
If he couldn't touch her, could she touch him?
Hayato had considered testing it, but decided against it. Having something this weird make contact with him first probably wouldn't end well.
Outside the classroom, darkness swallowed everything. Only a few lights in the hallway and scattered classrooms kept the silent school building from being pitch black.
Thud thud thud...
Thud thud thud...
Footsteps pounded down the stairs. The couple in front half-ran, half-tumbled their way to the first floor.
"Quick, let's get out of here!"
"I'd suggest not running around blindly." Hayato's voice cut through the panic.
He and Fujibayashi Ryou had kept a steady pace and caught up with the others despite starting late.
"Hah... hah... hah..."
Everyone gasped for breath. A guy in a tracksuit was wheezing hard.
"What... what the hell just happened to us?"
"Why are we even here..."
"That woman... she was a ghost, right? A ghost!"
Questions flew left and right. Everyone desperately wanted answers.
"If I'm not mistaken, we've been pulled into some kind of supernatural incident."
Hayato spoke up when it became clear nobody else was going to calm down.
He didn't have a clear plan for completing this mission yet. First, he needed to organize the current participants and start looking for clues.
"A... a supernatural incident? You mean those... those rumors? They're real?"
"That's impossible. How could they be real..."
They'd all seen things online, stories that seemed half-true, half-fake. But whenever it came to actual details, there was never much substance.
Most people figured it was just another urban legend.
"Real or not doesn't matter right now. We're already caught up in this thing. Staying calm is what we need to focus on."
The others couldn't help but find Hayato's composure unsettling. A ghost had literally just appeared in front of them!
"You... you've done this before, haven't you?"
"I've got some experience, yeah."
"Then tell us how to get out of here alive!"
A tall, bulky guy stepped right up to Hayato, glaring down at him with aggressive eyes.
Hayato let out a long sigh.
"What's with the sigh?"
"There's always someone who can't read the room and has to prove themselves."
"You little punk, I'll..."
Thump.
The big guy doubled over, clutching his stomach as he dropped to his knees.
"Gah... agh..."
Pained groans spilled out of him.
"Sawano! Sawano!"
Another guy, nerdy-looking with glasses, rushed over in a panic.
"H-how could you just do that?"
"He was about to throw the first punch," Hayato said, his tone staying flat. "I'm not wasting precious time on pointless explanations or dealing with interpersonal drama."
Fujibayashi Ryou stared at Hayato in surprise. Ever since this whole thing started, he'd been acting completely different from the person she knew, like he'd become someone else entirely. Maybe facing this kind of danger brought out another side of him.
The tall guy, Sawano, took about ten seconds to recover enough to stand back up. He shot Hayato a resentful look but kept his mouth shut this time, at least understanding that trying to get revenge through brute force wasn't going to work.
"So... what do we do now?"
The other woman in the group finally spoke up.
"I'm... I'm Miyata Chiharu. Um, nice to meet you."
The blonde-haired girl forced a smile. Watching Hayato casually resort to violence while staying completely calm had definitely left an impression. This guy was not someone to mess with.
But that same quality also gave her a strange feeling that if they listened to him, maybe they'd actually survive this.
"Hayato. Just call me that."
"H-Hayato-san... I'm Kawasaki Yasunari. Chiharu's boyfriend."
The crew-cut guy introduced himself nervously.
The tall one was Sawano Kousuke, and his friend was Honda Kazuya, an otaku type who was into anime and manga.
Hearing that last bit actually improved Hayato's opinion of the guy slightly. He could relate to that side of things, at least a little.
"We need to collect clues and find a way to clear this."
"Can't we just..."
Chiharu pointed toward the exit, her dyed blonde hair swaying.
"Run outside? Get away from here? Wouldn't that be safe?"
She absolutely did not want to stay in this school building, and she definitely didn't want to go searching for clues.
"First, we can be pretty sure this isn't our world anymore. Running outside won't get us home."
"Second, we can't escape. These supernatural scenarios usually have a set boundary."
"Third, take a look outside. Completely dark, not a single light source anywhere. Does that seem normal to you?"
It didn't look normal at all. Something about that pitch-black void outside felt deeply, fundamentally wrong.
"If you run out there, you'll probably die the fastest. Anyone want to test that theory? I won't stop you."
The thought of death shut everyone up real fast.
The big guy had been thinking about dragging his friend outside to make a break for it, but not anymore.
"I just... I just came to watch a movie with Sawano. How the hell did we end up in a supernatural incident?!"
That one sentence hit everyone right in the gut.
Fujibayashi Ryou felt the same way.
"Hayato-kun... my sister... she won't also be..." The thought of her sister, Fujibayashi Kyou, suddenly struck her, and she looked at Hayato with worry in her eyes. By now, she was convinced he'd been through this kind of dangerous supernatural event more than once.
"Your sister will be fine. Don't worry."
"Okay..."
Right then, Chiharu froze completely, her body going rigid. Her voice came out shaking.
"She's... she's here."
The blood-stained figure appeared.
---
The illustration is in the comments of this chapter.