"Maybe the numbers relate to room numbers?" Masato offered with a shrug. “It’s hard to tell, I mean if she was still on the intercom we could have asked about the whole progress thing...since it sounds right." Masato turned to one side so he could stop himself and scratched his head. Maybe there was something more going on than they were saying, after all they'd only been in one room so far and there were plenty more in the school.

"Or maybe the numbers relate to other rooms or places like this one. Other galleries?" He shrugged again. "Like I said I dunno, I'm just throwing ideas out. But if we've hit a dead end here maybe some more exploring might help us find answers."

In the end there was only going to be one real way to find out and that was to look around some more. But the first room wasn't giving Masato any hope that it was going to be a pleasant experience.

"And hey maybe we'll find a bakery room."

It all happened way too fast.

One moment, Haruka was turning as she heard Toby running up behind them. She saw him slip and fall.

And that was it.

Haruka stared in shock at where Toby had fallen in. It didn't take long before the ripples subsided, and everything was still again.

And that was it, huh?

Haruka collapsed to the floor, unable to fully comprehend what had just happened. She knew Toby was gone, but that was it.

It was all she needed to know though. She started to cry.

"N-N... *sniff*... No... Toby, come back... come back, p-please..."

She probably looked real pathetic right now, but she didn't care. One of her friends was gone.

This was getting real scary, real fast, and Haruka didn't feel like dealing with any of it anymore.

"Y'know, I'd actually be up for a picnic, but neither of us brought a basket of food. Tragic." Well, artist girl,would probably be hella pissed if they brought food into her gallery, so it all worked out. Anyway.

Of all the things Akira expected to be behind the door Mitsuki opened, the secret world council was not one of them. Why the hell were they chilling right next to the garden? Did faceless abominations need time to admire the bounty of nature?

Well, whatever. There was an opportunity here. Akira stood in the center of the spotlight feeling the intense gaze of the figures' lack-of-eyes. He cleared his throat. "Gentlemen. You must be wondering why i called you here today." Silence. "I have discovered a criminal most dire. A wretched being, deserving of our scorn. Last meeting, someone stole our secret cookies." Akira twirled around to point at a random figure. "It was you, Douglas! You did it, you fiend!"

"How could you, Douglas," Mitsuki deadpanned. She deadpanned so thoroughly that it did not even sound like a question. "I trusted you."

Then she gave a little cough. The sound seemed like nothing in the wide-open silence of the room. The faceless paintings stared. Colors different. Every face the same. Staring endlessly without faces or eyes or souls.

"Bunny-senpai, don't we have better things to do?"

"Have you checked your inventory?" she said. Watched his face to see what sort of results her words would have. "Perhaps you have an item that might be used in this room."

That was pure BS. She just wanted him to chew on that for a while. Flip the supposed-protagonist role that he had claimed for her on its head. Shake down the fundamentals of the world!

In any case, it was not like she was being responsible or anything. Gods forbid. She just wanted to keep exploring. Also to keep raining on Akira's parade. That too. It was amusing. Teamwork - her opening new rooms, him investigating, and then her pooping on his party. Always pooping.

...

Forget that train of thought. Time to check out the next room. She moved to the doorway inside the council room and took a peek.

Saturday, April 11th, 12:16AM - The Unknown Council

The lights go out.

"Wrong."

A deep cut appears one Akira's left palm, and as the lights come back on, one of the paintings looks...

The canvas is ripped in several places, and red paint is splattered generously across the blue garment.

"May I suggest... choosing more carefully this time?" says the unknown, unfamiliar, disembodied voice.

Tsuki smirked. She was about to ask 'well, what if this girl is a suspicious person too?' Something along those lines. She pushed her worries and pessimism aside. 'Don't talk to strangers' didn't seem to apply in this situation.

Tsuki had to look out for Rika. This girl was a ball of energy, and she would be lying if she claimed it wasn't rubbing off on her but... She was starting to get the feeling that Rika didn't find any of this the least bit unnerving. Like they were on an adventure. Kind of odd when she thought about it; art galleries were not considered adventurous, and school building didn't normally have galleries. Whatever. Tsuki didn't want to see Rika get hurt, but she also didn't want to seem like she was a no good fuddie duddie. Tough line to walk.

"Heh. So, uhh..." Tsuki rubbed the back of her neck. "I saw you outside earlier. What made you wanna come out here at the dead of night?"

She was obviously talking about the whole 'midnight curse' thing but...Then she remembered Yayoi. Was Yayoi waiting for her? Crap. Yayoi wasn't inside the building, was she? Damn. Tsuki never considered that. She could have sworn Yayoi told her to wait at the front. What if she was... Yayoi was fine, probably, probably, but Tsuki could not have known that. That's what she gets for not noticing the writing on the entrance wall.

She creased her lips as they arrived at the door.

"Hey, hold up." Tsuki said, holding Rika back. She squeezed the girl's hand, hoping to quell Rika's protests. "I know that you know that we should be careful, Rika-chan but... Lemme go in first, kay?"

Considering how confident Tsuki's voice sounded, she showed a little caution when she opened the door. Twisting the doorknob, she gave it a light push, letting the door swing open with a slow, wooden creak. Had there been a spook behind that door she and Rika would have been screwed. But -

Saturday, April 11th, 12:17 AM - The White Room

Tsuki shielded her eyes with her free arm. The white room was so white it was almost blinding, like staring into the sun. When her eyes finally adjusted to the violent shade of bleach and the door was all the way open, she took a good look inside. Immediately she squinted. There were paintings in the room, but they weren't like the paintings in the hallway or lobby. They were only paintings if your definition of 'paintings' was 'the walls of your home'. It was like she stepped in on a fancy down-town exhibition, avant garde-type crap, and none of it fit the rest of the... school gallery?

Tsuki blinked, looked at Rika, looked back into the room, at the paintings.

"Okay," Tsuki said. "That's... I wasn't expecting this."

Horror movie bullshit. She hated it.

Shiori was starting to wonder if Haruka was coming; he turned around just in time to see Toby plunge into the sewer. Jolting a little at the loud splash, his eyes widening as he froze on the spot for a few seconds. Undoubtedly, he was trying to register the sudden turn of events in his mind, with little success. Right now, he looked something like a deer caught in the headlights with the expression on his face and all.

The boy's gaze finally stopped wavering and eventually hardened into a rather apathetic look. (Besides, it wasn't as if he had known Toby, anyway - he'd only seen the boy how many times? Once or twice?) Why isn't he resurfacing? he inwardly wondered, That's... odd... Shiori just assumed the water was poisonous or something of the sort - after all, what else could it be, anyway? It wasn't like the surface could harden over or anything - that would've just been silly.

Even with that, however, the boy's curiosity remained. So what if Toby was probably dead? There was probably still something at the end of that hallway, and Shiori was keen to find out what. His spirits had been dampened a little by this, but, after struggling a little, he managed to set his mind straight.

"...Get up," he said flatly, awkwardly avoiding looking at Haruka as he spoke, "We're going."

"Even if we did find a bakery or something, it probably wouldn't be safe to eat anything in it..." Kozue didn't like being the one to rain on everyone's parade, but he was too rattled to try and indulge in the humor Masato was holding onto.

He stepped forward to take Yori's arm again and try to direct him towards the door. "Everyone's leaving us behind. Maybe we'll get a better idea of what to do if we check out what's in the next few rooms?" Honestly, he just didn't want to be in the same room as these creepy paintings anymore.

If Suzume was trying to get him to relax, it worked. Sho felt reenergized at her touch, like he could take down any freaky graphite monster that tried to jump out at them in this odd sketchbook world. Somehow, even the pencil-girl’s misshapen face didn’t startle him as much as it probably should have –although that might be because the last place he visited was a giant stomach. Doodles weren’t quite as terrifying as being eaten alive. Shocking, right?

Sho approached the pencil-girl with Suzume. The rational part of him was still wary despite its seemingly harmless demeanor. He put an arm defensively around Suzume’s waist and drew her to his side. Upon closer examination, the doodle appeared to be reflecting his own caution –well, as much as a stick-figure-faced person could, anyway. It assumed an edgy stance as though prepared to flee… or perhaps fight? Probably not.

“We’re not gonna hurt you,” Sho said in a meager attempt to calm the pencil-girl down. “We’re just a couple of travelers looking for the best tourist hot-spots around here. Do you happen to know any?” Humor would most likely just go right over the girl’s head, but it was worth a shot.

Walking towards the white room Rika heard Tsuki ask, "~ I saw you outside earlier. What made you wanna come out here at the dead of night? ~"
To that she smiled still walking ahead with little rush to reach the next room, answering,

"Well... at first I thought, how fun would it be if something weird did happen... if the barricade to the old school building were to disappear and I could snap a screenshot or something... then I saw the rest of the guys gathering and I thought that it wouldn't happen with that many people there... you know ghosts are shy things... at least from stories...

I thought I might at least come from behind and go Boo~ making them all jump back... I didn't thought we would really get trapped in a place like this."

She sighted as they reached the white room's door, wanting to open the door she felt Tsuki hold her back, she looked at her but before she could really think on the possible dangers of what laid behind the door Tsuki opened it.

That made her think, 'what if something had happened there... I... I shouldn't let her go first into things... I'm the upper class mate after all...'
Making a mental note of that so that when the next mysterious door appeared she would be the one to open it, Rika walked into the room, being blinded by its really bright white, a pure, pure white only disrupted by the squares of color around the room.

"Is it under construction?" She thought not really seen a purpose to the room as she orbited towards the center, getting a bright idea that brought a smile to her face.
"what if... AW! hey hey Tsuki, see this... I think I get it."
Standing in place at the middle of the room Tsuki begun to spin around in place, the room twirling over and over and over, the blocks of color mixing together in a rapid motion of color, making a visual effect that almost looked like a horizontal rainbow.

"awww.. huf...huf...",
Rika felt to the ground catching her breath, a smile on her face,

"It's a rainbow isn't it?"
She said to Tsuki looking up at the white ceiling.

In her train of thought, she felt Sho's arm around her waist, which made Suzume turn all shades of pink. And she thought kissing him on the cheek was frisky . In comfort and shock, her eyes flickered between Sho's arm on her waist, Sho's face, and the girl's face. Her face was all the colors of a ripe peach. She blinked and gave a small strange little smile while her cheeks continued to show all their colors.

"We're not gonna hurt you. “We’re just a couple of travelers looking for the best tourist hot-spots around here. Do you happen to know any?"

Not understanding his humor, she whispered, "..We're not tourist, we're students. And would never vaca--" she stopped herself and then her mouth became a little circle that mouthed, Oh. Her eyes narrowed at her own ditsy-ness and her cheeks went back to their colorful state. After it all, she looked at the girl and continued to feel something. Her face made Suzume shrink a little, but she looked just as almost withdrawn as herself. She sucked in her breathe a little because she didn't want the girl to become more on edge. In her head, she swore again that she's this girl drawing before...

"Sho, I-I don't know about all this." she mumbled. "Something seems off." She couldn't shake the feeling something bad happened or was about to happen. Or both. Then it hit her, "Sho." she breathed quickly, "I think I drew her." and before he could ask she started saying her explanation. "I think I doodled her on a test once. But I had to erase it because I would've gotten point deducted. I was really bothered by it because I liked the drawing." In the pit of her stomach, she felt awful. She stared horrifically at the little drawn girl. "If she's here, does..does that mean I killed her?"

'Get up, we're going'?

That's it? That's all he had to say? Someone had just died in from of them, one of her friends, at that, and that was all he could say?

Who the hell did he think he was?

Haruka's sadness turned, simmering into anger. It was a blind anger, but in the absence of a justified target for her anger she chose to directed it at the other boy.

To that end, she brought her open hand crashing against his cheek.

"I'm not going anywhere with you!"

Then she turned and jogged out of the world. She was barely aware enough to avoid any puddles on the way out.

---

Saturday, April 11th, 12:16AM - Graphite Gardens

A low hum begins to permeate the area. With no other source of ambient noise, though, the hum is readily apparent. The hum roughens into white noise.

The girl's face changes to one of shock and horror and, grabbing the two teens in front of her by their shirts, she pulls them into the flowerbed. The flowers are tall enough that if one were to crouch, they would be relatively obscured from outside the flowerbed.

The girl cowers, covering her ears.

"Next set of rooms it is then." Masato spun around and rolled his way out of the gallery. "Big question now then, is which room are we going into next? Since there isn't exactly a lack of rooms waiting to be explored." The only reason Masato even brought it up was because he didn't want to be the one to make the decision of which room to go in. It seemed like a big responsibility. One he didn't want to take up. The potential to cause someones death via picking the wrong door? No thanks, The idea didn't appeal to Masato in the slightest. He was just good at keeping calm and making jokes. Not exactly leadership material.

Yori seemed to have assumed the mantle of leader anyway. As far as Masato was concerned Yori seemed like a good choice for leader. He was smart, calm and most importantly respected. Out of the three of them, he was easily the best choice. Kozue seemed like too much of a follower and Masato well he was honest enough to admit he wasn't cut out for the job.

Yori glanced up the stairs, and then towards the door to the rest of the floor. "We stay down here," he stated quietly, gripping Kozue's arm. "For now. Explore this floor first and then go onward. If we skip ahead, we might miss something important."

He began to guide Kozue towards the door. It seemed like the best option for them. Not only was it a logical progression, but...they hadn't heard from the others in some time. Something may have happened to them due to their carelessness. It wasn't an option he wanted to entertain aloud, yet, but it was one he kept in mind. He wouldn't let that happen to them.

Inside the next room, a series of warped, almost grotesque paintings flooded the room. Each seem filled with figures that wavered back and forth between human and inhuman in the blink of an eye. Objects that seemed to be arranged to mimic the human form and features.

"Pareidolia," he mused. "First the mannequin, and now this. No true human form in sight, on mimicry. Curious, isn't it?"

Tsuki almost laughed as Ruki spoke about her little plan to spook everyone. It was the sort of prank Tsuki would have pulled when she was a kid! Really, she couldn't imagine anyone falling for it though... Oh. What was she kidding though. Ruki would have scared the heck out of her had she snuck up. Fucking spooks got to her, they really did.

Tsuki stepped into the room, nervous, looking around at each of the pantings with shifty eyes. The only time she broke eye-contact with the objects around her was when Rika spoke. Loudly. Tsuki spun her head, and she could not contain her laughter, nervous or otherwise.

"You're silly." She said. "Maybe you've got a point though. Does kind of look like a rainbow..."

Tsuki padded right up to her, reaching a hand out. Had to hand it to Rika, she really broke the ice, tense-creepy-room-wise.

"There's another door. Don't think there's anything else in here. Come on."

As Tsuki waited for Rika to grab her hand, she gave one of the paintings another glance. A mossy green painting... that was when she caught a glimpse...

... Tsuki had no clue what the bold shade of green 'did' exactly. It did something, certainly. There was some kind of movement, a light jump or quiver that she managed to catch So, really, asking 'did that picture just move?' would be a case taking things way out of proportion. She still jumped, though. She just couldn't say why.

Rika noticed Tsuki's smile and just as she was reaching out to take her hand she saw how Tsuki's eyes darted to something behind her, making her jump back, Rika instinctively looked back too... nothing, just a solitaire green square painted on the wall, not waiting too much she looked back at Tsuki and said,
"y-you scared me there, I really thought there was something behind me, hehe, good one."
With a smile and helped herself up, no longer feeling quite as safe.

"but sure... I guess this room is only this, let's continue and find that girl."
Rika was still a little scared, her heart pounding slightly harder than usual within her chest, and so, taking Tsuki's hand she begun to walk away from the center of the room, heading towards the other door, to see what lay ahead...

Taking risk on her own hands Rika just opened the door without a second thought, if there were risks behind that next door she would rather be the one affected rather than her new friend.

Emptiness and more emptiness. Weird, unsettling art. None of their classmates. Kozue honestly didn't think he could take much more of this. He wanted to go home, dammit!

"I don't care, Yori," he whined, knowing that he was being childish but continuing on anyway. "The creepy art's not going to help us. Nothing here is going to help us!" He slapped petulantly at the painting nearest to him, half-hoping he would knock it from the wall so he could take some immature glee from the destruction.

Shiori was about to open his mouth to make a snide remark when Haruka slapped him across the face. The sharp slap, although not very painful, throbbed a little. He blinked. Slowly. Obviously not sure whether to feel more shocked or insulted, he raised a hand, feeling his cheek. "I'm not going anywhere with you!" he vaguely registered Haruka saying, but was too busy gaping. He spluttered a little, but found himself unable to properly pronounce even a word.

He stood rooted there on the spot for what seemed like minutes, but slowly, his shock turned to anger (mingled with a good dose of confusion). (Obviously, the boy had never been slapped before.) Rubbing his cheek again, he blinked a few more times before realizing Haruka had left the sewers.

Probably too afraid, he thought mockingly, I bet she's gone to catch up with her little friends. Probably going to fall weeping into their arms after that other person... fell into the water. Some part of Shiori still refused to admit the other boy was dead, so he avoided thinking about it too much. Maybe there had been an undercurrent that had carried him further down the sewer.

Shiori decided to made his way after Haruka, a faint snarl now tugging at his lips. "Come back here Haruka," he said, voice strangely calm yet giddy at the same time, "Do you really think running away's going to make anything better? If you really give a damn about your friend, you wouldn't be leaving his body here to rot." There was now a cruel overtone in his voice he barely bothered to mask.

He didn't know exactly what he was going to do after he caught up with her, but pushing her into the sewer along with Toby sounded extremely appealing at the moment. Haruka had insulted him, slapped him, and now she was running away like a coward? How obnoxious of her, Shiori mused to himself.

"No, Ninja-chan, I'm pretty sure this is exactly what we need to be doing." Akira said, pounding a fist into his palm for emphasis. "Doing what needs to be done. Asking the hard questions."

He was impressed by Mitsuki's inventory question. Sadly the only item that could have been of use to him was currently wherever iPears go when they disappear off the face of the earth, but it showed she was getting the hang of the game. Akira was about to remind her that only the protagonist got a legit inventory when the lights went out.

Akira's left hand exploded with pain, and he let out a distinctly unheroic yelp. When the lights came back on, they found him collapsed to his knees, clutching his hand. "I, uh," he stammered at Mitsuki, face deathly pale, "Think I pissed something off."

She turned when the lights went out. Her heart jumped in her chest. Scaredy-cat. Such a bad thrill-seeker.

Then the yelp. Lights on. The joke - self-admonishment - was forgotten.

Mitsuki stared. Akira was bleeding. Blood dripped. Slowly.

And she turned to the painting. Rips and tears. Paint, or blood, or paint that was blood. Douglas was dead.

She turned back.

She opened her mouth but could not speak. There was a buzzing in her ears.

She tried again.

"No shit."