Demise Game

18.accusations

You and Hanami may have almost been adults, but that didn't stop the two of you from tightly holding hands and nearly clinging to each other as you entered the desolate school building. Tokiwadai Technical School wasn't a small building by any means, and there was a number of girls' bathrooms that Jinsei could have gone into to play Hanako-san.  It's not like your school had a specific "haunted" bathroom.  That would just be too easy.

        The question is, would Jinsei have gone to the closest one to just get it done with?  Did he go farther in to avoid being interrupted? Or did he choose randomly?

        The two of you didn't have time to search every single bathroom in a three-story school. Pulling out your phone, you attempted to dial Jinsei's number, but the call immediately dropped.

        "Either his phone is off...  Or he blocked me," you said blandly, glancing over at Hanami.  She gave a nervous nod, pulling out her own phone, only for it to die the moment she unlocked it.

        Wonderful. Your life was clearly just a comedy of errors and nothing was going to go your way tonight.  As usual.

        "I'll go on 'head."

        Shiki gave you two one last glance before bounding off, swiftly disappearing into the darkness of the school.  You and Hanami exchanged looks for a moment.

        ". . ."

        ". . ."

        "Stay together?"

        "Uh, duh, yeah."

        Practically clinging onto each other, the two of you started to trek deeper into the school.

        If you had looked back behind you, you would have noticed the school door was no longer there, replaced by a solid wall.

▰━▰━▰━▰━▰━▰━▰━▰

        Black mist engulfed the school halls.

        Isora remembered seeing this when him and the others went to interfere with A-me's game.

        Instead of displaying the floor the elevator was stopped at, the electronic number at the top was counting down like a clock, glitching every now and then.  Further inspection showed that something was seeping from the elevator — a black smoke, almost, slowly unfurling from the seams of the steel doors.

        It wasn't separated from a door anymore. It permeated the hallways, smelling heavy of campfire smoke.  It was a strangely comforting and nostalgic smell for something that clearly was ominous.  Every nerve in Isora was telling him to turn tail and walk away, away from the darkened hallway and the smoke that seemed to cover the ground like a heavy fog.  With every step, it seemed to swirl around his feet.

        More likely than not, the closer he got to Jinsei's location, the heavier the smoke would be.

        Even worse, the school hallways seemed different.  They were longer, almost labyrinthian.  He didn't recall there being so many twists and turns.  He didn't recall the classrooms being so far apart, and he cursed when he realized the same thing that happened with the Elevator Game and A-me was happening again.  Clearly, Kokkuri-san didn't want them interfering this time, either.  If Hanami or [Y/n] had made it into the school, were they dealing with a similar issue?  Lost and wandering aimlessly?

        . . .

        Isora stopped, a dark look on his face.

        "I should have killed him when I had the chance," he muttered under his breath with a scowl.  Game be damned, even if Jinsei wasn't the traitor, he had proven to be a nuisance and a threat to [Y/n]'s safety.  Isora should have backtracked to Jinsei's house and should have put him out of his misery.  It wouldn't have been hard; with a demon already trying to kill them, Isora's tracks could have been easily covered.