Chapter Text
Four dead. Four of us were dead, and for what? Another new hallway in a building?
As I twisted the doorknob to another new, shiny room, that’s what ran through my mind. Not excitement for what I’d find, not fear about our living conditions, not terror at the sight of what I could only describe as the dilapidated corridor. No, it was wondering why four of us died, and this was our only recompense. Why Kaede died.
Stepping inside, my brain seemed to cast away that line of thinking upon seeing the anthropologist in what I assumed to be his own lab. He still had that intense sharpness to him, that mask both emotionally and literally blocking him out from my scrutiny. He was by the bookshelves, gleefully passing a graceful finger across the edges of the dusty hardcover books, looking at the title of each tome like a scientist looks at a petri dish.
“Ah, Saihara. Seems you’ve decided to join me. Look now, this lab is full of relics and ancient scripts! It’s nothing like any of the usual university offerings, no.”
He seemed eccentric, maybe even giddy, over the prospect of study materials, when only minutes before, he’d been glorifying Kirumi’s desperate escape attempts calm as ever.
“It… sure is nice, Kiyo.”
I didn’t really have anything else to respond with. But not too long after, the lanky man pulled a book out from the shelf, leafing through and skimming its pages. My curiosity got the better of me, so I stepped closer.
“Ah? What’s that one about, Kiyo?”
“It is about European paranormal beliefs. Though rather widespread in public media nowadays, back then they believed that the souls of the deceased could come back and haunt- perhaps, even possess a person.”
“Do you believe in ghosts?”
“Hm… I suppose one could say I do, yes. Though, believing in a ghost possessing another? That is simply impossible. One cannot take a vessel of one soul while it’s still occupied. Now, a deceased corpse, that, I believe, could be possessed.”
“How… interesting…?”
To say I was mildly creeped out would be an understatement. Though I was trying not to show it on my face, his eyes narrowing told me I should invest in a mask of my own sometime. To keep the peace, I decided to switch the subject.
“Say, what about that dog statue over there…?”