Chapter Text
Lenore sat by her friends, enjoying their presence in their secret base as tranquility filled the room. After days of restless fighting from the gruesome assignments, the peace was a lovely break from it all.
Eulalie was sitting and conversing with Pluto about all the vast knowledge she had about the stories of Ancient Greece while Berenice was on the couch, corked and arched over the armrest in a position resembling a bridge. She was fast asleep. That was what taking in half of the wine stash in one sitting did to the fervent drinker. Duke was also plopped on the couch, alongside her. He was only asleep though.
”What are you doing?” Morella asked with her usual, lighthearted smile.
”Oh,” Lenore said. “Nothing much, I was reading a good book.” Lenore folded the book she was reading, having already memorized the page. It certainly wasn’t interesting but she needed it to keep her mind off of things.
Eulalie checked the clock to see that the break was, much to everybody’s dismay, near its end. She hopped off the chair and placed her doll on it gingerly. Pluto looked away, frightened by the doll that Eulalie kept insisting was beautiful.
Pluto was trying to shake Duke awake, his calm demeanor breaking every moment he chose to stay asleep.
“It’s quite irresponsible of Berenice to drink before class. I just hope she’s good at masking it.” Morella spoke worriedly. Lenore sighed and contemplated on whether she needed to throw them off the couch to awake them properly or not.
She checked the clock to find the time dangerously close—they only had five minutes till the bells rang. Pluto already went with Lenore's last resort and shoved the two off the couch, forcing their eyes open.
“Ow—Mon amie (my friend)! Was there no kinder method??” Duke remarked.
“Whoops.” The boy said bluntly. “Well you’re awake now is all that matters.”
Berenice woke up without any complaints, mostly to make sure her sloppy way of speaking didn’t give away how much the drinks had influenced her.
”Oh dear, is it time already. . “ Berenice groaned. She rested her arms on Pluto’s shoulder which he clearly was annoyed about. His mouth was the only thing that didn’t give it away. Though Eulalie’s enthusiastic, “let’s go!” seemed to dust off the annoyance he was feeling.
”Yes, hun, I’m coming. .” Bernice said, giving a few hiccups before actually walking towards her. Eulalie awaited for the rest who came soon after. Now that the whole gang was here, they all started to walk in the dimly lit hallway.
They all walked in silence but Morella, all of the sudden, flinched.
”What’s wrong, dear?” Lenore asked with concern.
Morella gave herself half a second to process her thoughts before pointing at an empty space nearby.
“There was something there!” She stuttered over her words. Everyone looked over to where Morella was pointing at and they all collectively saw nothing. Duke was the first one to speak their mind.
“I think you were just seeing this, mon cher(my dear)—“
Something chilling came into frame. Everyone’s eyes were widened as a faint silhouette of a tiger passed by. Pluto jumped back while Eulalie took a step forward, her interest piqued. Berenice grabbed onto Eulalie’s shoulder, assuming that this wasn’t a good sign. They’d never seen something like that before.
The tiger hastened to Eulalie and Berenice, phasing right through them. A strange sensation similar to a heartburn was placed upon the two girls. They watched in horror as their fingers began to break away rapidly along with their skin, it was all turning into charcoal-like dust. They floated towards Duke, Pluto, and Morella, landing on all their skin and ultimately causing them to start disintegrating as well.
“What’s going on??” Eulalie’s voice trembled. Berenice seemed just as terrified but her voice was taken away from the extremity of it.
Pluto tried to take a step forward, hoping that he could somehow save them, but the tiger had a gaze so menacing, it paralyzed his muscles. Lenore felt the tiger’s glare eating her from the inside, but when she finally gathered up the courage to speak, the two girls disappeared into thin air.
“Wait!!” Lenore reached out her hands but felt absolutely nothing filling the space the two of her friends stood at. She practically snapped her head, turning to see the rest of her friends whom she realized was already gone.
The tiger sauntered towards Lenore who was more shocked than furious. It leaped to her as well, phasing through like it had done with Eulalie and Berenice. Lenore couldn’t feel herself as she faded away, not even the coldness of the hallway or the gentle wind from the opened windows. It was as if she was fading out of existence. Then her mind went blank.
. . .
What she soon woke up to was the displeasing odor of blood. The stench was something she smelt before but the dread of the situation was filling up her brain more quickly than the speed of her orientation.
When she did get a basic grip of the environment around her—which was a forest with trees painted red with blood, she realized that her friends weren’t with her. Lenore hurriedly got off the forest floor. Too many thoughts and worries were piling up on the tension of the situation.
The spread of blood surrounding her was fresh, crimson colored, and it was looking like a supplement for some sort of horror film. She couldn’t find the fact that she was unscathed to be comforting since that meant somebody near her must’ve been gravely injured, or even murdered.
In the distance, she could make out the figure of a man standing still, the teal fog concealing his face.
“Found you.” The man said in a threatening tone. “RASHŌMON!!”
A creature made of crimson shadows darted across the forest, cutting through the blood stained trees with ease. The strike was meant to cut off Lenore’s head with a clean slice, and that would’ve been the case if an arm hadn’t grabbed her from behind and yanked her out of the aim range. The person who saved her felt sharp pain as his head slammed against a tree. His arms were still wrapped around Lenore and so they both slumped against the tree.
“Weretiger.” The source of the lethal attack, a man with grey eyes and black hair that had highlights of silver in the tip, spoke angrily.
Lenore looked behind her to find a boy with vexed eyes that was a mix of purple and yellow. Contrary to the man who attacked, this boy had white hair, who, similar to the man with black hair, had an odd haircut.
“This forest is shrouded with terrorists. Stay behind me.” The white haired boy told Lenore. His white sleeves were ripped, a large portion of it colored with blood. His shirt seemed to suffer the same condition.
He cautiously lifted his hands, holding it up in the air before snapping his fingers, causing a crisp snap to echo in the area.
In an instant, something like glowing, green spores began to snow. Another attack was casted by the opponent which was a miss. The white haired boy grabbed onto Lenore’s hands and made a run for it, swiftly avoiding the trees. Lenore turned around, expecting the man to chase after them, but he was frustratedly attacking clones of her and the boy.
“He’s trying to kill dozens of illusions. It’ll buy us enough time.” Said the boy.
Illusions? Was that the ability of his spectre? There were really more questions being formed rather than being answered. Her legs got terribly tired around the time the two got out of the forest. Lenore looked up to see the navy night sky that looked back at her. It looked over everything, including a foreign city that showed itself before her.
“Phew, we made it.” Said the boy before he turned to see an extremely confused Lenore which he felt was the cue to introduce himself. “And uh. . My name is Atsushi Nakajima. I’m a member of the Armed Detective Agency.”
The. . . Armed Detective Agency? Lenore was unfamiliar with such a name. Though his name sounded Japanese. Lenore opened her mouth, a bit hesitantly, she asked one of the several burning questions she had.
“Where are we?” She asked, trying to keep composure through the oddness of the situation. Atsushi was taken a bit back by her question. He didn’t consider Lenore’s outfit strange per se but judging from the way she was behaving, she seemed foreign.
“We’re in Yokohama,” He answered.
The idea that she was in a distant place was in her, just not registered fully. When the boy confirmed their location, it felt unreal. She wasn’t in the Nevermore Academy. In conclusion, she was alive.
Then, the image of the bloodied trees flashed in her mind.
“My friends. . “ Lenore muttered worriedly. “Where are they?”
“Friends?” Atsushi said as his phone beeped simultaneously. He opened it and scanned through a paragraph of text sent by somebody. ”. . My co-workers have rescued five other people. I believe they might be the friends you're looking for?”
Five. . That would be all of them, most definitely. She wanted to believe they were all okay. To reunite with her friends was her priority. Following Atsushi seemed to be her best bet to find them as of now.
“In that case,” Lenore raised her voice. “Please, bring me to them.”