Corpse Party: Redemption

The Paranormal Researchers

The girl who had answered the door turned out to be Naho. Sachiko had mentioned that after her death, she'd wandered around Heavenly Host and met with several of my friends from Kisaragi. The man who had come to the door the second time had been Kibiki.

"That's a very interesting situation," Kibiki said after Sachiko and I had explained the situation with our souls. Well, I should say soul since we shared hers. "I'm afraid at this point I know of no way to help the two of you."

"Well, I guess it was worth a try," I sighed, trying to figure out what to do next.

"Perhaps between the four of us, we might be able to work out some sort of solution," he said before I had a chance to do anything.

"We kind of hit a wall with our Heavenly Host research," added another man, who I hadn't really noticed until now.

"Only because you're too coward to try out the charm," Naho said, somewhat teasing him.

"You don't mean that Sachiko charm, do you?" I asked suddenly. Clearly, Naho and Kibiki didn't seem to remember having already done the charm or they just believed it to have been a dream. This other man didn't seem to have the same feelings about it that they did.

Their slightly stunned reaction told me I'd guessed it.

"You remember more than they do, don't you?" I asked the other man. Thinking about it, something about him seemed familiar. No doubt he'd been in Heavenly Host. "You know it was real." I studied him, trying to remember my brief time in that school.

He seemed a bit uncomfortable with the way I was looking him over. "H-how do you know that?"

"How do you think the three of you got out?" Sachiko answered for me. That caught the attention of the other two. We had left out the events in Heavenly Host intentionally, but because of this one man, we had to talk about our involvement.

"I was not a victim of that cursed school," I started, answering the questions they hadn't asked yet. It would be better to tell them before they had a chance to respond. "In fact, I had no knowledge of Heavenly Host or the Sachiko Charm. All I had known was that a very dear friend of mine had disappeared suddenly and no one seemed to remember him. That was when Sachiko and I met."

Sachiko and I proceeded to tell them of how we had released them from the awful place. I didn't tell them everything that happened, just what they might possibly need to know. To be honest, there were some things I didn't want to remember.

After some discussion on the problem, I stood up to leave. When I realized I still didn't know the other man's name, I walked over to him. "I don't believe we've been introduced. I'm Sayuri." I extended my hand out to him, but as he shook my hand, something completely unexpected happened.

The moment my hand touched his, some brief memories played out. The only one that really mattered was the moment he'd run into someone I knew too well. This told me how he'd known what happened was real, as well as what his name was.

"Sachi?" I asked after coming back to reality. Looking over at her, she simply just shook her head. I turned back to the man in front of me. He seemed quite shaken up by what had happened. It had been similar to what happened with Yuka and then with Kizami. "That's new. That hasn't happened without Sachi being involved."

"What happened?" asked a concerned-looking Kibiki. When I gave him a confused look, he explained more. "You both screamed."

I hadn't even realized I'd done it. "Your name is Shougo Taguchi, isn't it? You saw it too, didn't you?" He just nodded and left me to explain it. "Those were some of your memories from inside Heavenly Host."

"This is the third time," Sachiko added for me. "Each time was different. But this is the first time she'd done it without me. It's only been done with those who have been in Heavenly Host, but it doesn't work with everyone."

"Quite interesting," Kibiki said, thinking it over. "Perhaps we can look into it while working out a solution for your problem."

"One problem with you studying that," I pointed out. "I have school. I'm too far behind as it is after having transferred in the middle of the year and with the whole mess with Heavenly Host and the results of it. Not to mention I've been missing for five years and I have yet to regain most of my memory."

There wasn't much you could say to argue with that. All research involving me and Sachiko would have to be completed using only Sachi for the time being. No way around that.

Then there was the issue of communication. I couldn't come all the way out here every time they had a question for me. Unlucky for me, I'd lost my cell phone sometime around the time I'd visited Heavenly Host, so that wasn't really an option.

"Sayuri, isn't this yours?" Sachiko asked me, pulling my mind from my thought. She held a small rectangular object in her hands, which looked strangely familiar.

"Sachi, how long have you had that?" I questioned, slightly irritated that she hadn't shown it to me a lot sooner than this. My cell phone that had been missing for a while.

"I got it from your friend's home while you were recovering after Kizami stabbed you." That had been at least a month ago.

"Sachi..." I mumbled in frustration. At least I got it back. Bet there aren't any messages on it when I finally turn the thing on. "Well, I guess we have a way to communicate now."