Ten minutes later, Hayato had asked many questions, but hadn't gotten clear answers to most of them. She was missing many memories, couldn't communicate normally, and didn't understand many of his questions.
But at least they'd established basic trust.
The biggest threat in this supernatural scenario wouldn't threaten him anymore.
"I'll find your skull and help you get revenge. I already have an idea, so can you trust me and let me retrieve what's inside?"
Hayato looked directly at her. The two of them gazed at each other quietly for ten seconds.
Rustle rustle rustle...
The sound of moving hair strands rang out.
The black hair tangled densely around the chairman's office door slowly withdrew. A minute later, the complete doorway appeared in Hayato's vision.
She'd agreed to let him enter.
"Thank you. Leave the rest to me. Go wait for me at the art room!"
She glanced at Hayato once before leaving, her figure quickly disappearing around the corner at the end of the hallway.
Hayato went downstairs to rejoin Fujibayashi Ryou and Kazuya.
"Hayato-kun!"
"H-Hayato-san, is it... done?"
"Come with me to the chairman's office."
"Okay!"
Hayato walked in front. The three of them quickly reached the fourth floor.
The ghost's figure had disappeared.
Eliminated? Or successfully lured away?
Either way, it proved Hayato's strength!
Click...
The three of them re-entered the chairman's office.
"Hayato-kun, I'll handle this side."
"I'll take care of this area."
But no matter who searched where, they found nothing.
Fujibayashi Ryou looked up at the ceiling, but there was still no skull there either.
"Where could it be? This chairman's office doesn't look like it has hidden compartments."
Hayato fell into thought too.
The skull wasn't here, but there were bones. That was the intel he'd gotten from her, definitely accurate. But she didn't know the exact location either, so searching was necessary.
But they'd searched everywhere.
They'd even moved the bookshelves to check behind them. Nothing.
Hayato's fingers tapped on the desk, making crisp tapping sounds.
"Hayato-kun, maybe it's in a really hidden spot. Don't a lot of novels have those folded spaces, or hidden locations that only appear after placing things in certain positions?"
Fujibayashi Ryou smiled as she offered a new theory.
"It's possible..."
But that didn't fit this scenario's setup.
If it was a hidden spot that required solving a puzzle, the relevant clues should have appeared already.
Where else hadn't they checked?
Hayato's gaze swept around the room. The entire chairman's office had been searched.
It couldn't be that the bones had already been cremated to ash and made into something, could it?
Hayato let out a light sigh and sat down.
In that moment, the bracelet twitched slightly.
Hayato looked down. His previously calm heart suddenly raced, and an indescribable rage began climbing steadily.
"H-Hayato-kun, don't get upset. We'll definitely find it!"
Seeing this, Fujibayashi Ryou immediately spoke anxiously to comfort him.
She clearly understood how much pressure Hayato alone had shouldered in this cursed school building. After finally solving the ghost problem, they still couldn't find the crucial skull. Even the best mindset would crack under that.
Kazuya trembled.
"Already found it."
"Huh?"
Fujibayashi Ryou made a surprised sound.
"Right here."
Hayato stood and looked at the black leather chair.
"What?!"
Shock.
Fujibayashi Ryou's eyes went wide. She couldn't help swallowing, her voice shaking.
"That... that can't hold a skull!"
"It's bones."
Hayato closed his eyes and slowly exhaled, rationally calming the tidal wave of fury surging through his heart.
"If this is how it is..."
"Her becoming a vengeful spirit really isn't impossible..."
Riiip!
Hayato grabbed the chair's black leather covering and yanked hard. With a tearing sound, the chair revealed its true interior.
In the area filled with foam and latex padding, gray-white human bones were quietly embedded.
Cruel, horrifying. A chair embedded with human bones.
Fujibayashi Ryou almost screamed.
As a nurse, she'd seen corpses and touched human bones before. But making bones into a chair—this was absolutely the first time witnessing something like this.
Who would do something so cruel?!
Kazuya had panicked to the point of nearly breaking down.
So scary. This place was just too scary.
I want to go home. Mom, where are you?!
After a while, the oppressive, deathly atmosphere slowly recovered.
"Let's go to the art room."
"Once we're there, everything can end."
Hayato carried the chair and walked ahead. Fujibayashi Ryou watched his back and only felt the suppressed anger radiating from him.
She couldn't help thinking Hayato-kun was really kind.
Genuinely sympathizing with and angered by that ghost girl's tragic fate.
Following Hayato, Fujibayashi Ryou saw the ghost in the distance. But Hayato didn't stop walking, continuing forward step by step. She took a deep breath, suppressing her inner fear and following closely.
Hayato-kun wasn't afraid, so she wouldn't be afraid either. Hayato-kun sympathized and felt angry, so she would too.
Her fear mysteriously dissipated quite a bit.
Only Kazuya trembled alone, his legs shaking, but he didn't turn and run either. He could only grit his teeth, gather his courage, and follow with stiff movements.
The three of them passed the ghost without any attack occurring. Kazuya finally let out a long breath, feeling fortunate about his choice.
Bet right. Following Hayato-san was definitely the right call.
Click...
The art room door opened.
Hayato and the other two entered one after another.
But now only Kawasaki remained in the art room.
"Hey, where's your girlfriend?!"
Kazuya looked around but didn't see Chiharu anywhere.
"She's not with you guys?"
Kawasaki's tone immediately turned cold.
"Ha! She stayed in the art room with you. What do you mean she left with us?"
"Not long after you left, she went out the door. She told me she wanted to go out and work with you guys. Don't tell me... you abandoned her? Got her killed?!"
In that moment, Kawasaki's sharp, scrutinizing gaze locked on them. He walked quickly toward Hayato but seemed to think he'd be hard to deal with, so he took two steps toward Kazuya instead, acting like he'd grab his collar.
"Watch your behavior."
Hayato's single sentence made Kawasaki's hand stop mid-air.
"Hmph. Chiharu was definitely killed by you. You definitely used her as a sacrifice."
He snorted coldly and stepped back.
"Why did you bring a chair to the art room? Weren't you looking for bones?"
"The bones are inside the chair."
Fujibayashi Ryou provided the explanation.
"Hayato-kun, according to the note, as long as we bring the bones to the art room, we can leave the school building, right?"
"Right. We've delivered the item to the art room. Next we can leave the building and this school."
"We can finally leave!"
Kazuya almost cried from joy.
Fujibayashi Ryou also showed a hint of happiness. Finally able to leave here. Finally able to see her sister.
She hoped her sister wasn't too worried about her safety.
"What about you? Coming with us?"
Hayato asked Kawasaki.
"I won't thank you."
He said coldly.
"The fact that Chiharu died because of you won't be written off even if I follow you out of here."
"Suit yourself."
After speaking, Hayato walked toward the art room door. Fujibayashi Ryou and Kazuya followed one after another.
SLAM. The art room door closed tight.
"Where's Kawasaki?!"
Kazuya turned around but didn't see Kawasaki who should have followed them out.
Rattle rattle rattle...
He tried opening the door but found the handle wouldn't budge.
"It's locked. What's going on? Hayato-san, he's..."
Right then, Kazuya realized Hayato had also disappeared. Mysteriously vanished.
And in the distance, the ghost stood quietly watching.
Kazuya was about to cry.
This was bad!
Meanwhile, on the other side of the door in the art room.
"Hahahaha..."
"HAHAHAHA..."
Kawasaki threw his head back and laughed.
"Got it! Finally got it! Her body's bones have finally been delivered to the art room!"
"I can finally leave this school building! Finally escape the fate of being trapped here!"
Looking at the bones beneath the black leather, Kawasaki couldn't hide his excited expression.
He turned and walked to the window side of the art room, pulled open the curtain, looked at the mannequin, and reached out to remove its head.
"Now..."
"With complete remains in my possession, I'm not afraid of her at all."
Victory belonged to him.
"The skull really was inside the mannequin's head. Good idea."
"Of course."
Right after saying that, Kawasaki froze.
He slowly turned around to see that the art room that should have been empty now had an additional figure.
"How did you get in? You couldn't have gotten in."
He'd clearly seen Hayato leave. Once the art room was locked from inside, it was impossible to open without a key. And Hayato should have used up all ten keys.
So how did this guy get in?
"You... did you keep one key?"
But there was another problem. If he'd used a key to open the door, Kawasaki should have heard it.
He tried hard to remember but hadn't heard any door-opening sound.
"No. Ten keys, all used."
"Then... how did you get in?"
"Guess, Akizono... sensei."
Faced with Hayato's calm demeanor, Kawasaki realized something.
His identity had been exposed.
"When did you start suspecting me?"
"When I saw you in the art room, I already suspected you. You'd been replaced. You weren't Kawasaki anymore."
"Reason? I'm confident I played him pretty well. You're all strangers to me. The only close person was Chiharu, but even she didn't notice anything wrong with me. Could a stranger like you sense my problem?"
"Your attitude wasn't a big issue, but..."
Hayato pulled out a piece of paper.
"You said you ran alone to the art room and hid here."
"Problem?"
What was the problem with that?
"You said 'that ghost Yuuko never came here.' How did you know her name was Yuuko?"
"That was written on the note, obviously."
Akizono spoke.
"The note you got didn't have 'Yuuko' written on it. And we never mentioned her name to you either."
Silence.
Endless silence.
One small oversight had exposed his abnormality.
"Of course, there were other reasons."
"Ten keys, six participants. And the entire school building had fifteen locked classrooms."
"After Sawano's initial death, Year 2 Class A's door opened."
"After Miyata Chiharu died, the teachers' office that should have been closed also opened."
"Each death opens one classroom door."
"This was actually indirectly lowering the search difficulty for us. Generally, classrooms that open after deaths contain important clues. But that's not the point."
"This pattern shows that when only one of us remains alive, all the classroom doors in the building will open. Including the art room, all six of us dead means every door including the art room opens and can't be closed."
But at that point, it would have no meaning for the participants.
"Remember when I calculated the number of keys and locked classrooms in the art room? Nine keys, twelve classrooms. Add the art room and that's thirteen classrooms. The difference is four. And the number of people in the art room at that time was five, including you. But if you weren't human, then it was four people."
"I see."
He understood.
He understood everything.
This guy was truly sharp.
"You're impressive. I'll admit that. As a reward for seeing through my identity, I'll allow you to leave here alive. You can take your woman and leave together."
But Hayato's calmness made Akizono involuntarily tremble.
This guy didn't want to leave?
"I'm not in a hurry to leave. I have plenty of time right now."
What was this guy planning?
"Y-you're not afraid your girlfriend outside will get attacked by her? She doesn't hold back when killing. With your girlfriend's looks and figure, she'll definitely be abused and brutalized. Disfigured, dismembered, dying in pain and wailing."
Faintly, there was a hint of excitement in his words.
"That's how you killed her. In the end, you made her body's bones into a chair and sent it to the chairman's office, to the school chairman who was her father, Chairman Yuuko's father..."
That was also the biggest reason the chairman committed suicide.
That middle-aged man hadn't died from mental breakdown due to the school's terrifying incidents and mutations, but because he'd discovered the chair's secret.
"You're a complete scumbag. An animal."
Hayato suddenly felt like even he was a good person in comparison.
He absolutely wouldn't let this bastard die so simply. A simple death would be a reward for this scum.
But Akizono burst out laughing.
"They deserved it... those father and daughter deserved it! THEY DESERVED IT!"
In that moment, he was incredibly agitated.
Even now, he believed he'd done nothing wrong.