Chapter Text
Two boys are in a worn down bathroom. One of them, who’s looking at himself through the mirror, combs and mats his crimson hair with his bare hands, his white button up shirt catching droplets of water. The other can only look down as his attempts at turning on his phone remain futile. It hasn’t been long since they’ve arrived, and thoughts of curiosity had overloaded the two.
Shiro Hoshino, a boy with black hair and glasses, woke up approximately ten minutes ago. He tries to recall, with just the same amount of effort and result as his phone: blank slates.
“So what were you doing?” the crimson haired boy questions.
“Huh?” The other boy looks at his friend’s eyes in the mirror, which looks at his back, “What are you even on about?”
“You know, the room Shiro. Why was there so much of… that in there?”
“I don’t know,” Shiro mumbles, groaning as he holds the buttons on his phone. “I just woke up there, before you started banging on the door.”
. . . Recollection . . .
It happened so quickly, Shiro remembers the previous few minutes. An intruder pressed on the door as he scrambled to find anything to defend himself with. He rushed to find a dirty textbook, covered in feces. Disgusted, he held onto the very edges of the book and quietly hurried by the door. A minute later, the door fell open and as soon as the intruder placed his foot inside, Shiro attacked him on the head with the textbook.
He kept smacking the book, until he heard the voice. “Shiro?!”
As soon as those words slipped out, Shiro stopped and took a proper look to find red hair behind a pair of slender hands. That didn’t stop Shiro from immediately recognizing the boy as Atsuto Chiba, his friend.
“Oh geez, what the fuck is that?” Atsuto almost covers his mouth, but instantly moves them further from his face and examines his hands.
“What… is this…” he trails on, “Oh shit.”
“Shit, it’s shit Shiro. Why did you hit me with a book covered in-!?”
“I didn’t know it was you-” Shiro starts to defend himself. “I was also in a rush before you could kill me.”
“I need-” he nearly pukes out the words- “Washroom. C’mon!”
He zooms past Shiro, who was following right behind him. Shiro knew very well that his friend hated gross things. Feces definitely made Atsuto want to kill his friend even more, but for now the first thing for Atsuto was to get it out of his hands. And then his as well.
…
“Yeah, no wonder you smell, here,” Atsuto replies, holding a handful of water, squeezing his hands to try and secure the already dripping water.
Without warning, he threw it at Shiro. The liquid made a quiet splash, getting on his uniform and bag.
“Argh-!” he panics, hearing his friend’s laughter. “You-!”
He didn't stop laughing, and he spoke once he stopped laughing, “Look, we’re even now.”
Atsuto’s petty revenge made Shiro groan, “You’re lucky it didn’t land on this.” He touches a metallic collar on his neck. The red light glowed brighter and flickered when his finger landed on the collar.
“Almost forgot we had those. Meh, I didn’t bother toying with it just in case. But-” Atsuto uses both of his hands to move the accessory to no avail, looking at Shiro’s hand-. “It’s just stuck there. How’s the progress on your phone?”
“No luck, probably died.”
“My phone wasn’t working either.” Atsuto pulls his phone and attempts to turn it on as evidence. “And I barely use it to have its battery drained.”
“You had time to check that while combing your, hm, lucious hair?” Shiro comments, “What a man of many talents.”
“Before you hit me with the textbook, dummy.” Atsuto puts his device back before moving closer to Shiro.
Shiro couldn’t figure what his friend was doing, even with his scrunched up face as he stepped back. “You smell disgusting.”
“Sniffing me now?” Shiro laughed uncomfortably, to which Atsuto shook his head.
“I just have a good sense of smell.”Atsuto rotates the faucet to stop the water. “There, no need to waste any water on something you can’t remove. Speaking of water though.”
He glances over at Shiro, “We have a shower in the school right? You were in that room for a good while.”
Shiro sighs at the emphasis before speaking. “The change room should have a shower,” he confirms.
“Great, we should get there quickly.” He opens the door, holding it for Shiro. “Do you think Kaede has any sort of perfume to cover it up?”
“She isn’t even with us.”
The boys leave the washrooms and walk out. Atsuto made sure to keep his distance and lightly cover his nose, while Shiro thought about their situation.
“Is it really that bad!?” He grumbles, but lets it go to not continue the conversation, and not get joked about. Both of them woke up in the school building, and Shiro’s memory has been incredibly hazy, so he decides to ask his friend.
“Do you remember what happened when you woke up?”
“You’re assuming that I was knocked out.” Atsuto points out. “Pretty certain you don’t normally do that, right?”
Shiro pauses before continuing, “Fine, were you knocked out?”
“Yeah,” Atsuto scratched his head, “Dunno any specific thing right before, just walked around.”
“But, I believe I heard a voice before finding you. At first when I saw you, I thought you were talking to yourself.”
“I don’t do that,” Shiro objects.
“You also aren’t bold to assume things.” His friend grins. “But the voice was softer, humming a tune rather than actually speaking. It was one of the girls for sure too.”
“You might actually be right, Kaede might be here with us then.”
“Nah,” Atsuto denies, “Her voice is less soft and if she hummed, it’d be a bunch of random chirpy tunes, no melody.”
“Jesus, how much do you know about Kaede?” Shiro asks. The question got a chuckle from Atsuto.
“Try observing people for once. It’s pretty useful. Oh right, we’re here.” He shoved his friend into the change room, and sighs. “Finally, get a shower dude.”
Atsuto was going to wait for his friend right outside, and maybe take time to investigate his surroundings. He walks to the end of the hall, discovering wooden planks right behind the windows. He examines it before noticing a small crack and takes a peek at the outsides. What was behind the glass and wood, was the sky. That was not a surprise.
“That’s odd,” the boy mutters, continuing to stare. The surprise was the colour. Atsuto was certain the windows had no sort of tint on them, as the school had no windows of sorts. As he kept looking, a red light appeared before him. It flickered on and off repeatedly, which made Atsuto back off. Just as he did, an alarm rang off and the light darted straight where his eye was.
Atsuto’s eyes could only look at the laser, breaking the glass with a clean beam, and be grateful he dodged. When the light disappeared, he carefully but quickly ran back right to the change room door. His breathing got heavy, and his heart was beating. Atsuto’s arms shook as he could hear multiple footsteps from the same direction. He turned to the other end of the hall, opening the change room door and taking a peek outside the hall. Fuck.
He was waiting for the worst to come when a short girl’s head popped up. Her pigtails moved around as her eyes looked straight at him and she dashed to Atsuto. “Kaede?”
“Atsu!” her voice boomed with joy, making Atsuto smile. Following behind her were three other students he recognized: Chiyoko Yamazaki, Katashi Hashimoto, and Keiko Kurokawa.
“Kaede?” Chiyoko looks at the hallway to see Atsuto. “Atsuto? You’re here too?”
“Hey,” he says, “Sorry about the loud sound. Peeked through the window and the stupid alarm went off, as well as a laser that nearly carved my eye out.”
“There’s… lasers!?” Kaede panics, letting him go. “Are you alright Atsu?”
Atsuto reassures her as he faces the other three. “You guys got stuck here too?”
Chiyoko took the question, “Yeah, we all found each other and agreed to stick together. Safety in numbers, obviously.”
As she mentioned that, Keiko looked away from the group. Atsuto notices, but decides to disregard it, especially given Katashi was staring at him. “Cool, I’m currently waiting for Shiro to finish his shower before we’re off.”
“It might be better if we all stick together, don’t you agree?” Chiyoko mentions, turning to her group, “Wanna join us? We can wait for Shiro too.”
“Sure Yamazaki, but I do want to investigate the windows though.” Atsuto looks at the wood. “There was a hole somewhere between the planks, then the laser went through.”
Keiko walks past them to the windows. Her footsteps are light as she nearly glides through the halls.
“This window right?” Keiko points at it, looking at Atsuto, who nods. Crouching down, she takes a moment before finding the hole Atsuto mentioned to his confusion, and peers through the cracks.
“Keiko don’t-!” Kaede runs to her friend’s side and pushes her. The blonde wasn’t able to react before she fell, Kaede falling right after. The two land on the ground and Atsuto ran to their aid.
“Ow…” Kaede allows Atsuto to help her back on her feet.
Keiko sat up and placed her hand on her back. “The hole was blocked already.”
“You still could’ve gotten hurt.” Atsuto points out. “You need to be more careful about doing stuff like that, you know.”
“I’m fine, it wasn’t like I was going to die.” The blonde rolls her eyes. “Besides, I would’ve been fine if you out of everyone looked at the crack and didn’t lose your eye already.”
“Don’t do that again!” Kaede shouts, her words firm. Everyone stayed silent as she continued, “It wasn’t safe in the first place and Atsu nearly died already. I don’t want you to die.”
Keiko didn’t open her mouth. The door opened, with the group turning to see Shiro, his hair wet from his shower. His eyes look around at the group, Katashi standing by Chiyoko’s side and the trio of Kaede, Atsuto, and Keiko further behind.
“Kurokawa?” Shiro looks at her on the floor, confused. “Never thought you’d be on the floor...”
“Oh shut up.” She briskly got up. “What even made you take a shower?”
“We…”Shiro darts his eyes at Atsuto, who manages to hold his laughter. “...Don’t need to talk about it.”
“Well, we should probably investigate the building now that Shiro’s done.”
Chiyoko takes the lead, heading to the nearest classroom. Kaede drags Atsuto along and Shiro follows along, leaving both Keiko and Katashi outside.
Katashi glances at Keiko, who was still standing there looking at the door. “So, are you going?” he asks the girl, who returns it with a scoff.
She answers, “There’s no point. You don’t need six people to figure a room, plus I’ve done enough to draw my own conclusions.”
“There should be more of us,” Keiko suggests, “It’s less likely the entire school’s here, otherwise our group would be much more troublesome than it is already.”
“Just because we’re all here?” Katashi asks.
“They’re only theories at the end of the day,” she nods. “I’m not particularly close to Shiro, even more so with Atsuto. I believe our class is here somewhere.”
Katashi nods, as he watches Keiko’s eyes look at him, “Well you’re probably right. It makes enough sense.”
The two stood in the silence for a while. Katashi looks at the door, listening to the muffled chatter on the other end before heading into the class. Keiko stood there, before walking the other way.
“Don’t bother looking for me.” she waves before disappearing around a corner.
Stepping inside, Katashi finds the group of four split off into teams of two already. Kaede and Atsuto were looking through shelves of textbooks, while Shiro and Chiyoko were rummaging through a teacher’s desk. Chiyoko looks at the door to find her friend.
“Ah, Katashi!” Chiyoko calls out to him. He walks to the girl’s direction, while she walks away from Shiro, noticing Keiko not with Katashi.
When she asks, Katashi responds, “Dunno. Didn’t seem like she wanted to show up so I just left her alone.”
His response made Chiyoko sigh, “Of course. Well, why did you go get her?”
“I…” he starts, but she cuts the boy off.
“Fine, I’ll get her. Just hang with Hoshino for now, ‘kay?” Without an answer, Chiyoko rushes out of the classroom. Katashi walks to Shiro, who was done emptying the desk.
“Hey,” Shiro greets the other as he sits on the desk, avoiding the papers.
“I actually do have a question for you Hashimoto.” Curious, Katashi turned to the boy, waiting for him to continue.
“I asked Yamazaki before too-” Shiro mentions- “but she didn’t give a clear response and our conversation was cut short. What did you guys do before finding me and Atsuto?”
Katashi tilts his head. “Katashi’s fine. But nothing much. I woke up with Kaede in a classroom and found Chiyoko and Keiko.”
Shiro nods. “Yamazaki was fine telling me that at least. Then what happened after that?”
“Nothing really. When we found them though, Chiyoko was shouting.” Katashi covers his mouth.
Shiro tilts his head until he catches Katashi’s muffles. Sighing, he closes the drawer. “I’m not too sure how you find it hilarious, but alright.”
“It’s just stupid,” Katashi answers, “Not the first time she raised her voice, but at Keiko? It was really odd.”
Shiro grumbles, making the other boy laugh, “Not really. It’s Kurokawa, I’m more surprised you would find it shocking.”
“What did she even do to you?” he asks, laughing.
“What didn’t she do?” Shiro turns to Atsuto and Kaede, asking if the pair found anything.
“We didn’t find anything good.” Kaede frowns, holding a purple book. “Other than this. It wasn’t even on the shelf! Just laying there picking dust.” She opens the book to show the boy a photo of seven teachers they all recognized. Atsuto peers over her shoulder and points to one of them.
“Oh, I recognize her! I never really liked her though,” he mentions, before moving his finger to another. “And that guy. Everyone in the photo really, no one is new here.”
“But why do they have the same collars as us?” Shiro ponders the question.
“Oh god, it’s like the room you woke up in, but cleaned up.” Atsuto moves to whisper to Shiro, before getting his face lightly pushed off.
“Why would they be there…?” Shiro’s thoughts were interrupted by a loud noise blaring in the room.
Kaede yelps and the book falls to the ground. She covers her ears and screams.
“God it’s already loud here, you don’t need to make this shit worse.” Katashi raises his voice, squeezing his headphones.
“All students, please make your way to the gymnasium. This alarm will be dismissed when all twenty students arrive.” The alarm continues to blare as the four quickly rush outside.
“Twenty of us, really?” Katashi grumbles, as Chiyoko runs towards the group and follows them.
Shiro shouts through the sound, “Did you find Kurokawa?” The ginger shakes her head, much to Kaede’s disappointment, as the group goes down a long flight of stairs. The group opens the door and finds fifteen students: all their other classmates and Keiko. The moment the one at the end of the line takes a step into the gym, the alarm stops.
“Ow…” Kaede mutters, as she notices Keiko behind the bleachers. The blonde notices her too, but looks away. The brown-haired girl decides to walk to her and tries to avoid the crowd.
Shiro looks around, counting all twenty classmates, including himself.
“You guys are here too?” A girl with dark black hair, their classmate Airi Miki, steps forward before anyone else does.
“Of course Miki. We couldn't miss this little… fucked up reunion,” Atsuto teases. “No, but what is going on?”
“Beats any of us.” A tall bulky boy with glasses steps forward.
“It’s no coincidence we’re here though, but why do we even have weird chokers that kill us?” A girl mumbles, moving her hand right below her neck.
“Wait, they kill us?” Atsuto’s eyes darted to the girl.
“Etsuko tried taking it off.” The boy, who looked nearly like her counterpart, walks towards Atsuto. “It just tightened until her hands were off of it.”
“We should probably investigate the school.” Chiyoko turns around to open the door. She grabs ahold of the handle and tries pressing down and pushing the door, when the alarms go off.
“SHIT-” she quickly pulls the door back and the alarm abruptly stops.
“Seriously? Why didn’t I transfer sooner,” Katashi sighs.
“Okay, so we’re all stuck in our own gym with things wrapped around our necks that could kill us, and leaving the gym will kill our eardrums.” Atsuto recaps.
“Plus our phones are dead,” Shiro adds.
“Well, at least mine and Shiro’s are. Have any of you guys tried yours?”
One by one, some students tried turning on their devices, with no success. Others have reported their results before they came to the gym, but a girl with short black hair and glasses froze.
“It’s working now! It’s strange though, it only shows a sheep icon.” The announcement lights the group’s faces as they begin crowding around her. Everyone waits as the girl’s phone starts to vibrate, the sheep icon still remains. Then it stops.
“Greetings participants.” A robotic voice calls out from the phone. Some students’ eyes lit up with a bit of hope, which disappeared not long afterwards. “Welcome to Mafia.”
Shiro looks around, noticing his classmates, all with different reactions of confusion and fear. He then turns his attention to the phone, his classmate still holding onto it in fear.
“In approximately one minute you may be free from the gymnasium. In approximately three minutes, you will be promptly knocked out. Further instructions will be given in the morning.” The phone then turns to a black screen, before the words “DIE” appear on the screen.
Erina Suzuki, the girl who was holding the phone just now, drops it as everyone steps back from it. No one spoke. They just stared in confusion, some with fear. Airi Miki, who once stood tall, now steps back to the wall in fear and slumps down to the floor. A blonde girl notices her and walks to her.
“What is even happening?” Airi covers her eyes, holding back her tears. The blonde kneels to comfort her friend to no avail. “We’re not going to die, right Gin?”
Gin noticed how her friend’s voice cracked with each word but unable to respond directly, she hugged Airi, whose arms stayed frozen.
“We’re gonna die…”
“Now hold on.” A blond boy stands in the centre next to the girl in glasses. “This could just be some elaborate prank being set up.”
“Yeah, a “prank” Hajime,” Kaede sarcastically says, “Where you know, the sky’s burning red apparently and a laser almost blasted Atsuto's face and-!”
“WHAT!?” Shiro turns to Kaede, then at Atsuto, desperate for an answer.
“Uh… No one told you…” She sheepishly grins as Atsuto explains.
“While you took your shower, I took a look in advance. The windows were entirely barricaded and I took a look and a laser was pointed at my eye soon after. I’m fine though and no one got hurt.” He glares at where Keiko was, only to not see her.
“Wait hold on, where’s Kurokawa?”
“Huh? She showed up before you guys did…” Hajime mentions, “She wouldn’t have gone too far.”
“Kurokawa might have left? No, shouldn’t the alarms have gone off now?” Shiro though, before a melody pierced through the speakers. The noise was quieter than the previous one, a more bearable tune.
“Wait, we’ll be promptly knocked out…?” Kaede said aloud, before collapsing. Before her head touched the floor, Atsuto grabbed onto her body.
“Kaede? Kaede!?” Atsuto spoke, gently shaking her. Her eyes remained closed and she didn’t move.
“It’s the noise!” Shiro shouts, covering his ears while his eyes focus on the speaker. “Cover your ears!”
By the time he relayed the message, several of his classmates began to get knocked out. Shiro continued to squeeze his ears tight as even people who covered their ears earlier were starting to feel heavy. His mind eventually grew fuzzy and Atsuto, who still had his consciousness, ran to Shiro as he fell.
“Shiro? SHIRO! WAKE UP!” Despite Atsuto violently shaking him, he failed to fight against his eyelids, which closed and meanwhile his mind drifted off into slumber, unable to hear the noise, or Atsuto’s desperate pleas for him to wake up.