Classroom of the Revenge

V2 - Chapter 9: Endless Labyrinth

Horikita was now stuck. Ever since the incident, she was lost.

Horikita remembered that day quite vividly. It began with her memory of her being pleased. She had managed to at least help out Ayanokoji from her class. In a way, she was quite excited. Because of this, she prepared extensively to ensure nothing went wrong.

When the time came for the study session, she found that Ayanokoji learned at a moderate pace for an average student. To say he was unremarkable was an understatement. But, Horikita was fine with this. After all, this was another step toward reaching her brother. Everything was proceeding smoothly until an announcement occurred over the intercom.

"Attention students and faculty!" The speaker blared, "an unidentified body has been discovered on campus."

Horikita looked horrified and said "that's terrible."

"It is," Ayanokoji agreed.

Horikita then heard a buzz from Ayanokoji's phone. At first, she was going to reprimand him for having his phone on during the study session. However, she quickly changed her mind when Ayanokoji dropped the phone. In fact, he was even in shock.

So Horikita asked a different question, "what is it?"

She then looked at the phone and saw something horrific. She saw a mutilated corpse. The corpse had long slashes all across the body, soaking the ground around it. The body was naked as well. This revealed that the body's genitals were removed as well. The face of the body was a hacked up mess. Not a single identifiable feature was present on the face. The hair was matted with blood, dying it a dark crimson. The body itself was facing up toward whoever took the picture.

Horikita gasped in horror and felt lightheaded at the image. Then she looked at Ayanokoji to see his face twisting into sickness.

"Ayanokoji!" Horikita yelled.

He then vomited and started gasping for air. He weakly reached for his phone to look at the image again. Horiktia couldn't understand why.

Then, after seeing the image, he tightened his grip around his phone, causing a crack to form on the screen. Of course, Horikita was too panicked to think anything of it and called for some sort of faculty member.

"What are you yelling about? Don't you know this is a library!?" The ancient librarian walked over.

She then saw the vomit and wrinkled her nose. She then noticed that something was wrong with both Horikita and Ayanokoji's faces. She then glanced at the phone and immediately figured it out.

"What the hell are you students looking at!?" She yelled with a volume that seemed high for someone of her age.

Then Ayanokoji said in a voice that sounded even more lifeless than usual and said "I was sent this image by an unknown number."

Horikita was surprised by his sudden recovery. However, at the same time, she couldn't help but be worried by his expression. It was unlike anything she had ever seen before. And after that, she hasn't seen Ayanokoji ever since.

Ayanokoji locked himself away in his room, refusing to even go to class. Horikita attempted to bring him back out. But it failed. She didn't know why. Ayanokoji never knew the person killed, that much was clear. After all, that body was unrecognizable. It was just a bloody mess, nothing distinguishing about it. So that meant he had to be distraught from seeing the image. So, she let some time pass after her first attempt.

It was after a week that she became really worried. From what she heard, not a single student saw him anywhere on campus during the week. And his week-long absence was beginning to become a popular conversation topic. Some people were saying how he was just being a baby, others were saying that it must have been very traumatic. Some even asked Horikita for details, but she never gave any. The point was, many people were starting to become divided regarding Ayanokoji's absence.