Chapter Text
Darkness. That was all he could feel, see, and somehow even hear. There was nothing, and then all at once, there was everything. It started with a tunnel filled with the black substance, there was a light at the end. He could feel so many people yelling all at once, all in pain, though some had sadness with that pain other’s anger, some didn’t even know how they felt, but one just one was filled with hope, he ignored them all as he climbed through the substance, he should be dead, why isn’t he? That doesn’t matter right now all that does is he’s going to live, he climbed through the dark tight path, it felt as if it was breathing but it doesn’t matter. To think before he could have cared less about surviving, well that no longer matters all that does is he lives now, he thought as a smile grew on his face. He finally reached his hand out to the light before feeling a sudden rush of coldness as he found himself lying on something wooden as he opened his eyes, before closing them again that had been so mentally tasking that he was going to take a small nap.
Shuichi slowly woke up on the floor dazed and confused on what had happened last and where he even was. But slowly his memories came back to him, of Kaede, the killing game, of the mastermind being Tsumugi, how K1-B0 had sacrificed himself for the other three to live. Shuichi got up with a groan, finding that he was laying on a wooden floor covered in ink which now stained his clothes. He stood up and looked around the room, it was small, only things really being there were a table with some soup on it, an ax, and a boarded up door. Shuichi put the ax and the door together and grabbed the ax and walked over to the door and with all his strength knocked the wooden boards down. He quickly found himself in a hallway with nothing unusual about it compared to any other hallway other then the amount of ink and the banging coming from the door in front of his, slowly he walked over and felt it with his hand, and after feeling nothing put his ear up to it to see if he could hear anything, and hear something he did.
A knife came through the door from the other side just a few inches away from his face, he jumped back and dropped the ax in surprise, happy that it didn’t cut his feet off. Though he is surprised to see that the hand coming out of this newly formed hole in the door is someone he knows, he sees her hand trying to reach for the doorknob before the person sighs and moves their hand back inside.
“Hang on!” Shuichi says as he rushes back and opens the door from the outside to be greeted with a familiar face.
“So you’re alive as well,” Maki said with a small smile, Shuichi knew this was her way of saying she was happy to see him again.
Suddenly the two heard a clicking sound from one of the other doors in the hallway and both nodded at each other descending to go see what it was, slowly taking careful steps in case of what was making the clicking sound. They had reached the door when it had shot open with another familiar small girl standing in the doorway.
“I Himiko Yumeno have escaped once again!” The small redhead exclaimed, she wore her normal outfit but now with a black cape which had a red underlayer, and holding a giant staff with a pointed edge.
“Himiko!” The other two said as they saw the young mage.
“Hey guys!” She said with a smile before it turned into a small frown, “I’m guessing the two of you don’t know why we were locked in these rooms or where we even are,”
“No, though it is suspicious, how exactly did you get out?” Shuichi asked, putting finger on his chin as he thought.
“Well with my staff of course!” She said with a smile though noticed the other two weren’t, “actually I used the pointed tip to unlock my door.”
“Really? Whoever put us here must have realized that it could have at least been an idea, and they didn’t take my knife from me…” Maki stated.
“R-really? Wait Shuichi, how did you get out of your room?” Himiko asked, tilting her head slightly.
“W-well my room wasn’t really locked, there were wooden boards but there was an ax which I used to break through them,” Shuichi stated as he went over and grabbed the ax, “Who or what put us here wanted us to get out, though what’s confusing on me is why they would put an extra step when there was no real need.”
“D-do you think it could be…?” Himiko asked and while not fully saying it everyone knew what she meant.
“We can’t rule it out, though in truth I don’t think so,” Maki said, crossing her arms and looking down.
“Well either way the only way to find out what we’re doing here is by going forward,” Shuichi stated and the other two agreed, Himiko decided to ditch the cape but keep her staff in case she would need it.
They kept walking after a bit the long hallway with many doors turned into a normal hallway with a few doors, most having scratches on them as if something was trying to get in, the three felt uncomfortable but after everything they lived through they in truth hadn’t really payed it much mind, there was another door at the end which lead out of the hallway. Shuichi took a deep breath in and closed his eyes as he slowly opened the door, taking in another deep breath as he opened his eyes and staring in disbelief. It was a small room the first thing Shuichi saw was a messed up pentagram of some kind ink smudge as it seemed like someone fell into and then tried to crawl out of it, the next thing he noticed was by the pentagram being cans of something turned into candles, he then noticed the broken boards by the door, but what he saw next wasn’t pleasant.
Three coffins all nameless lined up on the wall being the perfect size to put a person in.
“T-this can’t r-really be another you know?” Himiko asked fear spreading through her voice, this whole thing reminded her of the third class trio when Tenko’s body was found.
“I- we have to see,” Shuichi stated as he moved and crouched in front of the messed up pentagram and took some of the ink with one of his fingers and placed two of them together seeing how the ink wasn’t dry let.
“Fresh, whoever’s behind this might still be close by.” Maki said as she crouched by Shuichi and looked at the ink.
Shuichi nodded, he didn’t know how much more he could really find here, though seeing the bodies could help, he got up and walked over to the first coffin and took a deep breath as he placed his fingers on the lid there was no dust proving it happened even more recently and opened it finding, nothing. He sighed as he went to the other coffin and opened the door, finding nothing once again. He took another deep breath and slowly opened the coffin to find-
Kokichi’s body fell out.