"We come from a different dimension! This is a horror game, and you're one of the NPCs! Our job is to escape this level!" Abby rattled off in one breath.
"He's from the Taisho era!" Runa admonished, "How would he know what a horror game or an NPC is?"
Abby smacked her palm against her head. "Oh yeah! I totally forgot about that."
Manjiro looked at both of them in confusion. "I have so many questions. First, what is an NPC, second, what is this about a horror game, and third, what do you mean I am from the Taisho era! Is Emperor Taisho not on the throne anymore?"
Abby nodded. "We're over a hundred years in the future!"
Manjiro looked like he saw a ghost. "I can't believe it…"
After the girls explained what an NPC was, Manjiro had a defiant glare on his face. "No! You're wrong! I am sure everyone here has free will and can make choices on their own. We are not controlled by anyone or anything!"
Runa grinned cruelly. "Wanna try a little experiment?"
She placed the mask carefully on his head and ran to the door, waiting tensely. Manjiro rose gracefully to his feet, his great gleaming tusks turning to the door as if sniffing out prey. A dangerous glint glittered in his eyes. He struggled against the ropes, stalking through the classroom toward his targets. He stopped half a foot before Abby.
"Don't kill me!" Abby flinched away, shrieking. Then, she realized something and tugged the boar mask off Manjiro.
He looked around in bewilderment. "How did I get here?" he asked, shaking his head.
Abby raised a hand to smack his head, but her hand softened at the last second and ended up patting it instead. "You idiot," she smiled fondly, "You don't know what's happening, do you? Either you walked here yourself, or the mask controlled you."
"Considering you don't remember anything, it's clearly the latter," Runa reasoned.
Manjiro's face was ashen. He buried his head in his hands. "My whole life was just a planned story for a game to play out, huh?"
Abby looked at him sympathetically. "Poor guy," she sighed and comforted Manjiro for several minutes.
After some time, a determined expression suddenly crossed Manjiro's face. "I will help you guys get out of here!"
Abby's mouth hung open. She stared at him, eyes wide: "Wow, it's a little unnerving how quickly you got your things together. I thought you were going to wallow about your life being a lie for the next hour."
Manjiro glared at Abby. "What do you take me for? Do I look like I would do such a thing?"
Without preamble, Abby realized she had been so concentrated on how to leave this place that she did not notice Manjiro was ✨shirtless✨. The muscle lines on his waist are just chef's kiss, she thought idly.
Manjiro noticed her intense gaze. "Why are you staring at me?" Following her line of sight, she looked down, surprised to find his chest bare.
"WHO THE F*CK STRIPPED ME!", he screeched.
Runa covered Abby's ears, facing Manjiro disapprovingly. "Don't swear! There are kids around here."
Abby scowled at Runa. "I'm not a kid! I'm seventeen!"
Manjiro and Runa both gave her an unimpressed stare. "Are you, though?"
They all broke out in laughter as if this was not a haunted game that could take their lives at any moment.
"But seriously guys, who took my clothes off?" Manjiro asked again.
"We didn't strip you," Abby answered. "You came pre-stripped."
Manjiro snorted. "Is that even a real word?"
Runa snapped her fingers in front of their face impatiently. "Guys, focus! We need to figure out how to escape this hell-hole. Let's go investigate the front door!"
Chastised, the other two nodded their assent, and they made their way to the entrance. Abby pushed open the classroom door. Outside, lying in the hall, tens of hundreds of decaying bodies piled on the floor, giving off an ungodly stench. Abby leapt up in shock and screamed so loudly that the whole building vibrated.
She pointed at the bodies with a shaking finger. "R-Runa, these weren't here b-before…"
Abby was struck by a terrible feeling and she looked up, scared of what she'd find. A snow-white fox hung from the ceiling.
Before she could react, the fox spoke. "Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! Good morning or afternoon or whatever! Did you guys have fun? Oh, don't mind about the bodies! I didn't kill them, they came pre-killed if you know what I mean, haha!"
Abby stood there, unable to process this much information at once. First the dead bodies, then a talking fox, what on earth is going to happen next?
Manjiro was the first who recovered. "Is that the fox that Sylphie turned into?"
Abby shook her head. "No, the fox that Sylphie turned into was a red nine-tailed fox, not this one."
The little fox tilted its head. "Who is Sylphie? And I am also a nine-tailed fox!" Nine big fluffy tails appeared out of nowhere.
"Well in case you don't understand you little fox, we are trying to find out how to escape and the fox we are talking about is red not white!", Abby ranted.
The fox looked at itself and big teardrops fell out of its eyes. "So you guys don't need me? Does that mean I'm not needed? I have been in this school for hundreds, even thousands of years but no one noticed me, and when I finally found someone who can see me they don't need me!"
Abby's face fell. She raced forward to comfort the fox, feeling immensely guilty."No, please don't cry! Maybe we will need you somewhere… You can come with us! We're trying to find a way out of the school."
The fox licked Abby's hand and rubbed its head excitedly against her. It jumped down from the ceiling in one graceful leap. "Follow me! I know a dog hole we can climb through."
Abby called out to the others: "Guys, this little fox knows the way out, let's follow it!"
Runa looked at Abby like she was a child and sighed. "The fox literally said it had been trapped here for thousands of years but it knows the way out? Why did it not just leave? This doesn't make sense!"
The fox looked at Runa grimly, replying, "Because I've been cursed to haunt this place forever! But you guys can still be saved, I want to help you."
The three teens looked at each other and nodded in quiet agreement, setting off after the fox. It jumped toward the far side of the corridor and disappeared around a corner. They hurried after it.
The group gasped as they rounded the bend. Vicky laid on the floor, unmoving, while Polina crouched over her.
"Polina!" Abby beamed in delight, "What happened? Where were you guys? I was so worried!"
As Polina turned in their direction, Abby screamed when she glimpsed her best friend's face covered in blood. Red veins ran through her eyes, and her face was ghostly pale.
Abby ran up to the pair and saw Vicky also covered in blood. A deep gash cut through her arm, and Polina wasn't in a better state either, a thousand tiny incisions all over her body and some still bleeding. Abby kneeled down and checked Vicky. She wasn't breathing.
Abby opened her mouth to scream again, but Runa covered her mouth. "Polina, would you please explain?"
Polina broke down into tears. Her mouth moved, but nothing came out. She pointed at her mouth, then shook her head.
Runa looked confused for a second before realization dawned. "Abby, I think she is unable to talk!"
Abby turned to Polina for confirmation. The girl nodded, so Abby asked her to draw what happened in the diary.
Polina sketched a tall, menacing shadow with two long katanas. Abby stared at it and felt there was something familiar about the drawing, but she struggled to place it. On the other hand, Runa looked like she knew what was happening. Abby feared hearing what she would say.