Corpse Party: Killing Harmony

Freedom is Within Your Grasp

As the ghosts approached, Iruma felt her heart begin to race. Terror made her body tremble. The spirit without most of her head approached. Blood spurted from where arteries should be. Iruma could easily see down her throat since the head was cut from above the chin, jagged lines revealing where each cut stabbed through muscle and bone.

The ghost gurgled with each breath as if blood clogged her oesophagus. Ouma held the bag out that held Tsuji's tongue. She turned to Ouma and stumbled toward him instead of Iruma. He trembled and took a deep breath.

Iruma snatched the tongue bag and drew the spirit's attention to her. "Tsuji Tokiko," she shouted. The hallway seemed to quieten and the walls watched them interact. One wrong move and Iruma would be screaming in agony for an eternity. "This is yours, isn't it? I'm giving it back!"

A bright light enveloped Iruma's vision and she blinked rapidly. It eventually subsided enough for Iruma to see, but nothing seemed different. When she focused, she noticed Tsuji now had a tongue sitting in her half-decapitated head. Tsuji coughed and spluttered before she gradually faded away until Iruma couldn't feel her presence anymore. "W-What happened? Did we do it?"

"Don't know but I'm outta here!" Ouma pointed out the other ghost girl approached with malice in her eye. The left eye socket poured phantom blood. He grabbed Iruma's wrist and began running.

As they ran through the school, the girl with the red dress suddenly appeared. The two watched as she walked through a door and disappeared again. They turned to each other and nodded. It wasn't like they had any other leads, so they might as well follow. When they walked through the doorway, they found themselves halfway up a stairwell.

The doll in Iruma's pocket began weeping. "Here we fucking go again!" She pulled it out and glared. Every robotic noise grated her ears. "Annoying little shit."

Each word the doll spoke made Iruma grimace. "Where your friend went splat. The floorboards beneath that wall. Right under her globby entrails, where the blood pools. Drip drop drip drop." It began laughing like someone who enjoyed nothing but despair. The laughter filled the hallways which made Iruma and Ouma pale in horror.

Ouma snatched the doll and threw it as hard as he could, making the head roll a few centimetres away from the body. He fell to the floor, tears pouring from his eyes as he silently wept in frustration. Iruma stomped her foot, unable to contain the anger beginning to bubble away inside her stomach.

"You getting a good boner from this, you whore?!" Iruma shouted to the school, hoping her voice would travel through the hallways and reach whoever owned this stupid doll. She groaned and held her head. "God... I don't know if we'll ever be able to get the last tongue... There's no way we could rummage through Yumeno..."

"Who's there?" The two jumped at looked at the top of the stairs to see a feminine figure. When they noticed the woman's light-blue hair, they felt a little more relaxed. Shirogane walked down the steps and stood beside them on the landing. "Ah, hello you two! It's good to see you safe and sound." She glanced down at Ouma who continued to sob on his knees. "What happened?"

"Long story." Iruma waved her off and decided to focus on a more important question. Shirogane hadn't appeared during their entire captivity... Where had she spent her time? "Where have you been?"

"I spent a while in the second wing but suddenly lost consciousness." She absentmindedly reached up to rub her head. "When I woke up, it felt like the air changed, so I wonder if I'm in a different place now... Ah, that's my explanation though, it's most likely wrong!" Shirogane patted her clothes, making some dust fly free in clouds. "Oh, and I met with the Amami's briefly."

"I'm glad they're okay." Iruma glanced at Ouma who stopped crying at the news, looking up at Shirogane hopefully.

Shirogane's sigh made alarm bells ring in Iruma's mind. "When I next came across Amami-chan, she and her brother had been separated and she seemed terrified. Poor girl..."