The Dead One: The Final Grudge

Chapter 37

Kiyoshi: Onryō...

It's a type of yurei - ghosts that appear as they were buried - that exists solely for the purpose of vengeance. The onryō, the most feared of all yurei, arise when people die with strong, violent feelings of anger, jealousy, and hate. Once birthed, these yokai seek out a specific victim(s) and torture that person (or those people)...

Kuro: *Sarcasm*  then....Things just keep getting better and better...

Kiyoshi: This could be one of Yokai's hardest games yet. Since they are so strong they curse the very ground they pass over, and that curse spreads like a disease. 

Kuro: I don't care if they're strong or not...I have to help Konami...I don't want her to end up like Shouta...or worse...

Kiyoshi went quiet for a moment before nodding.

Kiyoshi: I see....so you're still worried about your friend...

Kuro:....Why wouldn't I be...Without him...or Mei...I'm just nobody....

Kiyoshi: You shouldn't be so hard on yourself...

Kuro: It's just....I almost lost him again because of her...Yokai...That little bitch...Taking advantage of him like that...

Kiyoshi:... Yokai-chan doesn't care about humans like I said before...

Kuro:....

Kiyoshi: But...she also don't understand them...

Kuro: Eh?

Kiyoshi: In her eyes, she views human emotions are pitiful...like the belief that there are six basic emotions of happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust. All human behaviour can be broken down into facial expressions that can commend to their choices in life. Like your friend's emotions...

Kuro:.....So she views Shouta's kindness as...

He looked at Kiyoshi for the answer.

Kiyoshi: She views his kindness as an weakness. So in her eyes, Shouta was just another baggage for her. Might say this if he have perceived to be another person that has interpreted  act of kindness as them being a pushover and being easily manipulated.

Kuro:.....Almost like Mei...

Kiyoshi: So...she knew that Yamazaki-kun was desperation for the term 'girlfriend', right?

Kuro:......Yeah.

Kiyoshi: So she used his desperation to her advantage and lured him into the Jorogumo den to finish him off. With or without you beating the game.

Kuro: (Fucking little cheater....)

Only God & Satan would know how much Kuro would want to kill that brat and destroy her over and over again.

It's sad isn't it...

How good people...good humans are treated like the bottom line from others who take advantage of them to be on top of the food chain.

Just like Shouta...

Back then the same situation with Mei...

They mistake her silence for ignorance, her calmness for acceptance or her kindness as weakness.

But compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength. People just take your kindness for weakness sometimes, and that's just the bottom line.

Kuro: It does matter to me...

Kiyoshi: Pardon?

Kuro: Shouta's life I mean...but so does Mei...I must do whatever I can to get the others back as well...

He then looked back at Shouta's bed where the boy was still asleep.

Kuro and Shouta are like an Red Oni/Blue oni pair.

Sure there was also Chibi and Hibiki...

But Shouta came first...

From their odd friendship, they both swap around these roles depending on the situation. Kuro is generally stoic and has the ability to keep calm in life-threatening situations, while Shouta is the most emotional of the pair and gets riled up by the supernatural. Even get distracted if he sees a cute girl or look at porn magazines or scream at the site of a corpse. However, things are different when dealing with social problems like bullying from Maki or dealing with judgemental students and adults, Kuro is more likely to lose his cool under pressure and attempt violence, with Shouta or Mei(Sometimes) being the one to pull him back and handle the situation calmly...

Kuro: I...must protect him...

Kiyoshi: Don't carry everything on your shoulders. Just do what you gotta do. Do...what you think is right. It's your choice. Your decision. Not Yokai-chan's...

Kuro nodded.

Kuro: Watch after him for me...I better go...and save Konami...

Kiyoshi:....Do you even know where she's at....

Kuro:......Not really...But there was one place I might know of....and that's the place where she previously died...

"....The Science Lab..."

-Later-

Kuro kept his breathing to a minimum.

Despite it used to be ragged and harsh.

Regardless, the direction he was heading in was unknown to anyone as he'd never investigated this way from the part of the school before, or at least he hadn't.

Kuro: This is getting ridiculous...
Where the hell am I...? It's like the school had changed once again...I better be heading to the Science Lab...

Up ahead he saw a bunch of things he wish he never saw...

There were a bunch of dead students...some of them were hanged on the wall like some kind of directions.

Bloody handprints everywhere.

The rotting smell hitting his nose.

Kuro: What an bad route I turned too...Konami....You better be down here...I hope I'm not running into a dead end along the way...

Holding onto hope for another day, He kept his eyes all over the place keeping an lookout for his surroundings before he accidentally bumped into something.

Kuro: Oof! What the-?!

To his surprise, the thing he collided into was just a person coming out from a familiar room.

Kuro and the stranger looked at each other for a moment.

???: K-Kuro?!

That voice...that face...it finally dawned to him. He never thought he would see this person again after so long.

Kuro: Koga?!