---

//Day 0 | Location: Kuroshio Community Bus

It had been an ordinary day, for as ordinary a day as a monsoon could have been.

The bus, more crowded than normal owing to the unpleasant weather, thrummed with conversation and action. The Ito twins went over English flash cards together, fumbling over any word that was longer than three syllables. Yuudai, buzzcut already dried, teased Tsubasa over the perm that her hair always became in weather like this. Ayano, as always, fussed over the bags beneath Fujita’s eyes, her chidings much too affectionate for Kumi on the seat behind the couple, who turned up the volume on her smartphone higher but failed to realize that her headphones were unplugged. Hana leaned against Maki as the two went over their mock exam scores together, muted whispers belying the gravity of their academic situation, while Daisuke and Yuki swayed with the bus, challenging each other in a duel of core strength. Perhaps it would have been a duel for the ages, if Mayumi hadn’t marched past to get to her usual seat in the rear, where she could watch the happenings and goings of her peers. Others kept to themselves, flipping through their smartphones or going over their study notes. The day had been ordinary, and the day would be busy.

No one thought much of it then, when the bus driver, the sixty-three year old Fuchizaki Takechi, let out a strange sound. Barely any of them even heard him, in truth, so wrapped up as they were with the future that was encroaching upon them.
But none of them could ignore the light that swallowed them up one second after.

…

Disorientation. Discombobulation.

As if their guts were being rearranged, as if they were plummeting down a spiral staircase. As if they were detritus in the ocean, scrambled by incomprehensible undertow. They were sublimated by the light, atomized and categorized, abstracted into concepts of egos and attributes, before stitched together in patchwork mosaics. In one instant, they felt themselves amongst individual grains of sand, and the next, they hurtled through eons and galaxies, grasping onto the substance of stars!

And at the apex of that impossible high, they crashed. Dragged down by gravity, their substance funneled into the thread of a meteor’s tail as they twisted and twisted and dropped and struck! Bound into flesh once more, trapped in entropic decay, their stomachs churning, their brains aching, every blood cell rushing through their veins possessed with a frigid cold or a searing heat, their senses stirred to frenzy by mismatched stimuli for an eternity and an instant!

Then, they felt the ground beneath them stop, and felt themselves launched forth by inertia, the first real force that had been applied to their body since the light.

Some caught themselves on poles or seats, whether with their heads, hands, or chest. Others found themselves sprawled to the ground or upon each other. A lucky few had braced themselves and only ended up crushed a hard surface. A terrific crash sounded in that same instant, the bus’s windshield fracturing like a spider’s web, and then…silence.

The engine rumbled still, but now that old junker’s rattling was accompanied by the blaring of the bus’s horns, over and over and over again, each screech driving another nail in their addled minds. Groans sounded aplenty, none of the students willing to get up yet. A nausea overcame their thoughts, breakfast bubbling with bile to crawl up their esophagus.

But you. You could smell it.

The heady, intoxicating stench of gasoline, leaking out from ruptured fuel lines.

That was how accidents went, right? A terrible crash, followed by a slow-motion explosion.

______________________________________________________________________

Ugh...

He felt heavy. That was the only word that came to Masato at first. The second word was "hurt."

It wasn't terrible. Not even the worst shape he'd ever been in. But his body was sore. His head was pounding, some ache that suggested he may have hit it somehow. His stomach was turning too, though he swallowed the worst of it. And his face... what the hell had just happened? He lifted a hand to his nose and touched it, winced, then sucked in a shallow breath. Gingerly he felt it again, and though his fingers came away bloody at least he could tell his nose wasn't broken. So he'd just smashed his face against something. Seriously, what happened?!

Heavy... Masato's vision came back into focus when he tried to stand up. It wasn't that he was heavy, but there was something heavy partially collapsed on top of him. Rather, someone. Another student.

"Get off," he said, shoving the other boy off of him. How did Endo even end up over here? Masato had been sitting alone toward the front of the bus, and he was fairly sure he'd seen Endo toward the back when he had sneaked a glance in Sato and Higasa's direction. It was almost like the wind outside had come into the bus to toss everyone around.

Damn, my head's spinning.

Coincidentally some disgusting odor in the bus was acting like smelling salts, slow acting and just kicking in. Masato was roused from shock by the mix of several students' puke and gasoline.

They'd crashed. There was some kind of bright light, then... something. Something strange and unnatural, an alien feeling that Masato did not think about - because the more important thing was that they'd crashed. Masato stepped over a girl in the aisle to get to the driver's seat. The ringing in his ears had been replaced by the irritating drone of the bus' horn, on account of the driver slumped over the steering wheel.

"Hey." He reached toward the man, shaking his shoulder. There was no response, so he shook it a little harder. "Hey, ojiisan."

The man's body shifted, sliding off the wheel and coming to rest with a thunk against the side window. He hadn't stirred at all, hell it seemed like he wasn't even breathi—

Masato jerked his hand away, eyes growing wide. He's...!

He turned away. The crash must have been pretty bad. They had to get off the bus and phone the police. The sooner the better since there was always the chance the engine would explode right? That always happened in movies. From the front Masato could see all of the students, from the giant Duncan to the small collection of dyed heads. No one else had... everyone else was alive, but they were still sluggishly coming out of their own stupors.

"Kondo!" Masato shouted, raising his voice over the scattered whining of the students. He knew she'd be in one of the last seats, or would have been before the crash. "Open the door, that back door. Someone help her open the door! Khh." He pressed a palm to his forehead. His own yelling was going to make his headache worse. He probably looked pretty weird, standing at the front with blood dribbling from his nostrils and an expression that was half demanding and half rising distress. With luck maybe Inaba would pipe up and say they weren't in any danger of the vehicle combusting, but until then who knew. He tried to recall safety lessons from grade school, but they slipped from his mind. The back door, yeah, but it was probably okay to use the regular one too right? As long as they were quick about it.

He turned around again, carefully reaching over the driver to pull the mechanism that would open the bus' front door. There was a trembling in his hand that he did his best to suppress, and he held his breath like the man may just come back to life and grab him, but of course no such thing happened. The doors opened. The smell of gas was stronger now, and there was a rush of hot air that pushed in and did his nausea no favors. He looked over his shoulder, eyes flickering over his classmates, over Kogen, over Sato. He'd rouse them himself if they didn't get up soon, but before that he had to at least get the evacuation started. If possible he wanted to prevent any of the girls from seeing their driver too.

"Everybody off!" he told the group at large.

______________________________________________________________________

Complete and utter darkness….it was as Ayana was lost in a vast void, being left to wander endlessly. She couldn’t even remember where she was, or what she had been doing, or where she was even at in this moment. How did she get here, what was this place even. Before she could consider it, light begun to flutter through the darkness. The feeling of immense pain sending a jolt into her system as she begun to awaken from being knocked out cold in the wreck.

The clustered, cramped feeling that she was currently experiencing, not one that she enjoyed as the initial confusion and alarm took hold. Her mind racing as she tried to figure out what had happened and where she was at. Hearing others beginning to stir, and the horn of the bus ringing in her ears. The stinging intoxicating and mind-numbing smell of gasoline filling her nostrils.

That’s right, she had been on a bus traveling with the rest of her class….

But what happened, did they wreck? The last thing she remembered was looking out of the window by her seat before the sounds of bending, twisting metal, of breaking glass followed with darkness.

She reached up a hand towards her head feeling a rather sizeable lump as she knew she must have hit her head and hit it hard. It was then she realized she couldn’t move much, as her senses and thoughts became clearer. She was buried by debris and other people, having been thrown out of her seat and entangled with the others.

The feeling and sense of dread and fear begun to fill her already nauseous gut. What about the others? How many of them where seriously hurt, or worse yet dead? Trying to pull herself from underneath the jumbled mess of bodies and debris she felt every inch of her body aching. As if someone had taken a sledgehammer and battered her from head to toe.

Before she could get more of her wits about herself, she could hear a loud voice seeming to be giving out orders and commands. Slowly freeing herself enough to try to lift herself back up too her feet. Even that seemed to take a lot more effort then normal as it felt like her legs were made from jello. Shaking her head, to get her senses back in order, she begun to look around the carnage that currently surrounded her. The heaps of bodies and the tangled wreck of the bus and all the belongings that students had brought with them strewn about. It looked like utter chaos.

She could see some of the others had already started stirring and were quick at work trying to open doors to get out. It looked like the sound of the voice was coming from the class president, Masato she believed his name was if she remembered his name correctly. Her mind quickly shifting to the status of her stepsister Ayane.

Even if they weren’t the closest sisters, or got along all that well, she still felt the need to make sure she was alright. Much to her relief she could spot Ayane stirring across the way from her. Even if she didn’t want to admit it out loud or to Ayane. She was happy that she seemed to be fine enough to be moving about.

With that worry put at slight ease, she begun to inch her way towards the door though she wished Masato would stop shouting so loudly. She already felt like her head was splitting down the middle and the shouting only seemed to increase this. She knew that it was likely necessary, but even so she didn’t find it all that pleasant. “What about some of the others? I’m sure some of them won’t be able to get off without assistance….” Ayana looked around at some of the others who had yet to stir or get to their feet just yet. Wanting to do whatever she could to help them out and assist them as much as she could despite the danger that it may present to herself.

---

Man, the smell of gas was a familiar one. It reminded Rin of the truck she rigged together. Though, "truck" was a bit of a misnomer. It was more of trailer that had half of a motorcycle strapped to it. It definitely wasn't road legal, but it let her haul bits and pieces around her family junkyard. It always smelt like gasoline. You know, she loved that thing. It made her life a whole lot easier. Such a shame when it finally caught fire.

Like a catapult that had its restraining rope cut, she shot up from her collision-induced slumber having instantly gulped down her sick. The smell of gas was a good thing when she was working on vehicles. It was considerably less good when she remembered that she was on a school bus. The crash had put her on a floor. She always took a seat next to the aisle near the rear. She didn't like being trapped by another person.

Her bag of tools had, thankfully, been saved from the brunt of the impact. It was a tough bag that Rin made herself. She wanted a bag that could hold pounds and pounds of tools without so much as a stress mark. What she ended up with was a thick behemoth of nylon, polyethylene, and enough plastic clips to keep the bag shut no matter what.

Though, this bag was also a curse. It being permanently attached to her meant that she had a wicked bruise from her shoulder, across her chest, and to her hip. It was like a bruise from a seat belt. Something that she now sort of wished buses had more of.

Her backpack full of her dailies that didn't fit in her pockets had found its way to the front of the bus. Well, not like she'd miss anything in there. Just some schoolwork--something she only vaguely cared about--and other boring things.

Of course, there was a hidden blessing to this disaster.

Rin finally got to open the emergency exit.

The emergency exit was always something that tantalized Rin. There was just something so hypnotic about it. It was the forbidden fruit of the door industry. Something that tantalizing couldn't escape her interests. Incidentally, that's why Rin sat near the back of the bus. Just for that opportunity to open an emergency door. She'd even watch tutorials on how to open them. A strange fixation, but a fixation none the less.

Even though Masato had yelled for Kondo to open the rear, Rin was already at the door with proverbial spit on her hands. She grabbed the latch and put her entire body into it. Her bamboo shoot arms and legs meant nothing when she had knowledge of levers and was currently converting her body into one. Give her a large enough rigid beam and fulcrum and she'd move the world. She'd open this door and skedaddle on out with a full send. Twice the exits, twice the amount of throughput. She'd leave it up to the other back of the bus kids to bring out other people. She had her bag and was doing the door.

Unfortunately, this deep interest also meant that Rin didn't bark orders for the other kids to get up and out. She was dead set on opening the rear exit.

Fortunately, the Ito twins had begun to recover from their impact induced confusion. They were sportsmen. Hearty in the body. They could handle being hit. Well, Kunio could for sure. His childhood was as a crash test dummy. The other one? He had a good skull. As resident frontsitters, they attempted to help bring the more disoriented front of the bus kids out.

Kumi's large stomach proved to be a weakness. She let out her sick against the wall. If it was any solace, the smell was covered by gas and it would be purged by a blaze of petrol and cinders when she safely left the bus.

One would hope.

The familiar stench of gasoline rose Shun from her unconscious slumber. "Ugh... Satoshi-chan, was that you?" Her senses slowly came back to her as she started to regain herself. "Satoshi- Eh!?" Facing the window, she saw her broken reflection against the cracked glass. It stared back at her. "What happens- Urgh..." Shun clutched her head as she rose up from her seat. The world spun around her, and a sickness pooled in her stomach. Did she get a concussion?

The student retraced her thoughts on how this all happened. She minded her own business looking outside from the back of the car. Shun would have liked to sit in the front, but party pooper Masato just had to take it. Though it didn't matter. The back of the car was just as nice to look through. That was until a bright white consumed everything and was followed by an eternal black.

The reality of the situation intoxicated her, but she was immediately sobered up by Masato's yell. "Yes, sir! Yes, sir!" She said back to him. However, it lacked her usual energy and enthusiasm that she would have likely said. Her eyes darted to her seatmate, that was supposed to be there.

He wasn't there.

Shun turned around to look for him and saw that Endo was on the other side of the bus. "Yikes, I hope he's okay," Shun muttered to herself. It seemed like Masato would have to take off Endo. Looking across from her seat were Yuudai and Sato. It seemed like they were still recovering from the crash. Pushing aside the useless seatbelt that was strapped onto her, she headed her way over to the semi-conscious duo.

"Higasa-kun, Tsubasa-chan, you have to get up!" She said with urgency. While this new situation was giving her the thrills, the urgency in Masato's voice was enough to push aside that interest. "The bus is going to explode! Kaboom! Yipee! Get up!" She tugged on the both of them until they were awake to get the hell out.

Moving out of the way, Shun had to assess the situation further. Rin was in the process of opening a second entrance from the back which seemed fun, but Shun didn't have any time to divert attention to what Rin was doing. What she needed to do was get out of this bus before it exploded!

Or that was what a reasonable person would think. Wouldn't it be more fun if she escaped the bus at the last second? Looking at Rin, it seemed like it was going to take a few minutes for her to crack open that door. Though if she did open the door in time, wouldn't it be fun jumping out through the hidden exit with the bus exploding from behind her?

That would be epic.

"Inaba-kun! Get the door ready!" With that, she began to usher people out of the car. Returning back to Yuudai and Sato since they were nearby. "Higasa-san! You can't get the Nobel Peace Prize if you get blown up!" Shun said as she incorrectly recalled the award that Yuudai wanted to get. Hopefully, that would get him up on his feet. "Take Tsubasa-chan through the back of the bus! Inaba-kun already opened it up!"

With that out of the way, she headed toward the back. Purposefully delaying her exit from the bus, she went to the next pair of students. "Wake up! We need to get out!" She urgently said, though her face betrayed the amount of fun she was having.

Hell.

It was a feeling all to familiar.

An ever-distant heat, a burning smell, a sense of pain reverberating through his body. This truly was hell, wasn't it?

Kogen's eye fluttered open instantly, his maxed-out earphones muffling the sound of chaos from all around him. With his one eye directed to the window, he took a glance at his surroundings. It was an almost tranquil sight, really. A nice scenic view of a forest once undisturbed. Kogen couldn't help but smile at what he has seen, his tumultuous heart filled with a sense of peace.

"Ahh, how nice it is for the weather to clear up." He spoke to himself, his eye slowly closing as the cacophony of screams and the shredding of metal that he called music filed his ears...

... Wait. Why are we stopped at a forest?

It was then that Kogen opened his eye once more, sitting up from his seat to truly behold the chaos before him. The once packed bus filled with his peers had turned into a sight unimaginable. Shattered windows, caved-in seats, what is left of his classmates all scrambling out of the hell that they had found themselves in. This can't be happening, surely. This must be a dream, a nightmare that he needed to awaken from. All Kogen could do was place his hands on his face in utter shock of the scene around him.

It was then that he realized the blood on his face. His right eye ached... it was bleeding.

It only made sense, after all. It was the eye that contained all of the world's misfortunes. Surely it had been trying to speak to him before this had all happened! Surely if he was awake for the crash, he would have been able to prevent it! Surely such a thing happened because his cursed leaked out into the school bus, and his classmates were to suffer! And surely, his eye wasn't bleeding due to any rational reason such as the rhinestones in his eyepatch cutting into his eyelid during the crash!

In any case, Kogen could not help but feel responsible for this catastrophe. He needed to take responsibility for his actions, or more accurately, his inaction. Resolutely, he would stand up, realizing only now that the pain in his body was much more severe than he had thought. He keeled over and retched, his breakfast almost rematerializing as the sheer agony had almost caused him to throw up. His AirPods fell to the floor unceremoniously due to the sudden jerk of his upper body, allowing Kogen to truly take in his surroundings.

Scream of panic, frantic scrambling, and a foreboding crackling coming from the front of the bus... and yet, amidst the hell that they had found themselves in, a familiar voice called to Kogen. A familiar voice that he had not heard in too long.

That voice... it couldn't help but rile up the One-Eyed Devil!

"J-just who the hell do you think I am?!" Kogen shouted out in defiance as he did his best to keep in this morning's meal. Lifting his head high in the air, Kogen would almost leap out of his seat, rushing through the aisle as his one eye would dart around the bus. The doors were already handled, and it seems that most of the students were already being lead out of the bus in an orderly fashion. Knowing that these two vital roles were already fulfilled, Kogen would instead search for anyone in need of help, his eye settling on a wayward hand grasping the air for aide. Someone was buried in their seat, the cushions having collapsed over them!

"I've got you!" Kogen yelled as he grasped the hand tightly, pulling them out with all his strength as he kicked the rubble out of their way. Whoever was under there didn't matter to Kogen. All that mattered was that he was able to act, to at least save one person's life in the same way his was saved as well. He couldn't help but grit his teeth into what was almost a grin, thinking once more of the voice that stirred him to action.

It was ironic that the only times Kogen had heard that voice holler for him desperately was when his right eye was already bleeding.

---

//Day 0 | Location: Nameless Forest - Clearing

Others roused themselves at Masato’s shout, some still groaning while others leapt up to their feet, scrambling for their belongings. The Ito twins, as Rin had understood, were quick to recover, rushing out from the front doors. Daisuke, alongside Maki and Fujita, took more than their fair load of discarded bags, urging others still weakened by the aftereffects of the crash to get going, while Kumi’s face transitioned from a sickly green to a mortified red when Yuki approached to help her, only to end up stepping on her vomit.

It had been a traditional Japanese breakfast. Miso, natto, fish, and rice, all chewed up and semi-digested, now a sticky, acrid mess that somehow even managed to overpower the stench of gasoline. A lesser man would have squirmed and writhed, would have been unable to hide the flash of disgust. But Endo Yuki? He had dealt with worst, and was happy to take Kumi by the hand regardless, leading her out to the back.

Mayumi, still trying to find her glasses, didn’t have a chance to act on the president’s orders before Rin had sprung into action. And as other students began filing out best they could, especially Shun who was swinging her hands like a baseball team advisor urging players to steal a plate, she resigned herself to being half-blind and scrambled out after the rest.

Kogen’s dramatics were enough too, to wrest Tsubaki out from the mound of cushions she was underneath. The short-haired girl yawned as she was pulled out, her free hand rubbing her head as if trying to shake cobwebs (or concussions) out of it, before the severity of the situation dawned upon her and the simplest thing she could say was…

“Fuck.”

…

But they all got out alright.

In the end, as Shun stood at the threshold of the back door, waiting for an epic explosion to jump out from…nothing happened. There was only a fwoosh of gasoline being ignited, before the front end of the bus caught fire. Oily, black smoke rose up in thick plumes, polluting the picturesque skies above. It had been an accident, to be sure, but as for the injuries…only superficial cuts and bruises were sustained. Some were woozier than others, having fallen down after they had all cleared away from the bus. Others had lost some of their belongings during the exit, though Hiroshi recommended not re-entering. Even after Shun had ate the bitter pill of disappointment, hopping off of a bus that wasn’t going to explode dramatically, smoke was still building up inside there, streaming out from open doors and cracked windows. Soon enough, the cushions would catch fire, and then, perhaps by tomorrow, there would be nothing but the charred husk of a bus.

Kumi was retching again, her empty stomach still trying to hurl things up. Of all those out on the clearing, only she could really smell it. Beneath the heftiness of smoke, laid the umami aroma of crackling fat and flesh, boiling blood and bone. The slight girl doubled over a second time, Hana rubbing her back with an unreadable expression on her own face.

No, perhaps, going by where she was looking, perhaps this was the first time in a long time that her expression was readable.

Gone were mountain roads and saltwater breezes, countryside desolation and rice field terraces. In its place, there was a cerulean sky and a hot sun. A forest of foreign trees, and a clearing of lush, uncut grass. It was nature, picturesque and untamed, unspoiled by even a hint of civilization. And, though no one really knew the how, the where, the why, they all knew the what.

This was the Otherside. This was what laid beyond a Portal.

…

“Well, Prez?” Daisuke folded his arms, looking down at Masato. “What’s next?”

Mayumi cast a glance over at him, glaring. Or squinting. “What do you mean by that? This isn’t school, Nakagawa-san.”

…

“Sit down, you two,” Tsubaki snapped, gesturing at the most obviously injured duo. “And stay still. Ayana-chan, look at my fingers. How many are there? And Ko-kun, hold fucking still. I’m trying to clean it up before you get an infection in your eye.”

“Dunno why you give a shit.” A familiar voice, crude and callous, sounded. Akito. “It’s survival of the fittest, Tsubaki-chan. Those clowns’re liable to get offed first when shit g- OW! Maki, watch where you’re going!”

…

“Heyo, passin’ by,” Yuudai sang, popping up before Shun. “Everything alright, Kanamori? Trynna tally up where everyone’s at right now. Emotionally and all. Ah, and...”

He managed a softer smile, gratitude dimpling his cheeks.

"Thank you for the shout,
But Nobel Peace Prize a doubt,
Poetry I..."

His brows furrowed in concentration.

"...seek out?"

...

"How lame..." Shun grumbled as she hopped off of the smoking truck. There was a brief wonder if Rin could return the truck to its proper glory. It was quickly shut down as it was brought up because of the lack of necessary equipment and damage. While Rin was a prodigy when it came to mechanics, some things were not fixable unless she were a super mechanic! In that case, Rin had a definite chance of fixing this poor girl up.

Though as Shun began to settle down, something hit in the head. It wasn't anything physical or mental. In fact, it was already there by the time she woke up. "Ugh..." Her head felt like pins were being driven through her skull. The light was nauseous to look at. Wave exhaustion crashed into her. The adrenalin seemed to have faded away once there was no immediate danger. Though despite faltering from the effects, Shun stood strong and straightened herself up. She could endure it.

It was time to address the fact that they were in a portal. A single glance at their environment could tell anyone that wherever they were, it wasn't Earth, which excited Shun, though it was slightly hampered by her concussion. It was still going to be a grand experience of adventure and survival. However, the start was going to be tough. Even Shun could realize the severity of their situation. Most of the students were hurt or injured, the only adult was dead, and she could hear Akito being an ass.

However, she perked up when she heard Yuudai's voice. "Ah me? I'm doing a-okay, Higasa!" As she gave a thumbs up to the buzzcut student. Even though she wasn't feeling exactly well, she wanted to look strong in front of everybody. Otherwise, it'd be a bit of a downer if even she was unwell. "Eh? Is it called the Nobel Peace Poetry? How many trophies are there-" Shun immediately shut herself up when Yuudai began to make up a poem.

It was...

Nothing? Shun didn't get what poetry was all about. Writing and reading words wasn't her thing, after all. "Wow, to think you can even make up a poem right now." She was impressed, though.

Regardless of that, she wanted to know their situation. Inaba, the twins, and Higasa seemed perfect well and assumed that Sato was also fine. Endo, on the other hand, last time she checked, seemed to be in a complete wreck, however. "How is everyone doing, aside from Akito, Higasa?" Shun asked him. "Is everyone gathering up right now? Knowing Class prez, he'd probably gather everyone to some sort of meeting." Shun chuckled at the thought.

---

Rin's only thoughts on the bus was that it was a shame. There was no fixing up that bad girl. Maybe if they tore out everything when the fire stopped, she could convert it into some kind of shelter. Or she could pull it apart for the precious scraps of metal that adorned its frame. Well. She didn't really have any ideas now. It was something she'd have to think about. Thankfully, Rin being at the back of the bus combined with her disinterest let her ignore an inconvenient truth held within.

That someone had died and their corpse had been burning.

Perhaps it was better to not think of it at all.

...

Well, no sense in standing around. Rin always hated that. Standing around. Nothing interesting happened when people stood around. After all, they had the threes of survival to follow. What were they? Three minutes without air, three hours without shelter, three days without water, and three weeks without food?

It was probably about three minutes since they crashed. That meant that the air was probably fine. That meant that she had to work on shelter! They only had three hours, after all! Of course, the part that Rin didn't care enough about to remember was that it was three hours in extreme conditions.

She'd already got to work on her own.

In true Rin fashion, she hadn't told anyone about her plans for shelter. She just immediately went to break some branches off of the weird trees. She'd leave being affable to the more social members of her class. For now, at least.

______________________________________________________________________

The class prez was not gathering everyone into some sort of meeting.

He was on the verge of spacing out, staring at some spot between the burning bus and the tree line. His sleeve was stained red from swiping at his nose, and the short locks of his hair were plastered to his forehead and neck by sweat. It was the first time he'd seen a dead body so close before, besides his grandmother's wake when he was just a kid. It was an entirely different situation now, plus they were... in danger, probably. Masato was relieved that the bus hadn't actually exploded, despite the palpable disappointment on Kanamori's face, but would they get lucky enough to avoid danger twice? They were in a freaking Portal. Somehow the bus had gone right through and delivered them here with no obvious way back.

It was a surprise that most of the students were so calm about the whole thing. Maybe they were still in shock, or maybe they were just doing their best to hide it. Maybe for some there was a measure of excitement too - who hadn't wondered what the inside of a Portal was like, after all?

He came back to himself again when Nakagawa asked him a question. Before he could answer, Kondo cut in, and while her words were irritating they were technically true. They were all students at the same school, on the way to said school when the accident happened, but this was as far from school as they could be.

"She's right," he sighed loudly. "Not that many of you ever listened to me in school anyway."

Still, it would be best to stay together. If this ragtag group of middleschoolers needed a leader... well, he'd be lying if he said he wanted to do it, but he'd accept the responsibility if it came to him.

"Those safety PSAs... Eh, hold on." He pressed a thumb to his nostril when he felt his nose still bleeding and snorted out the other side. A clot shot out onto the ground earning a disgusted noise from his fellow student councilman. "I guess we're supposed to stay put and call the authorities." He reached into his pocket and found nothing. He patted his uniform and jacket down and realized everything had been in his bag, which was on the bus, which was on fire. "Damn it... Kondo, your phone?"

"I can hardly see, I only grabbed what was in front of me." That being a notebook she held up, proof of her hard work in order to beat Maeda. Well, whatever. Masato glanced up at the basketball club's captain.

"Nakagawa?"

"Nope."

"Fuckin'..." Masato grumbled. He cupped a hand around his mouth, about to shout for a phone, when one appeared in his peripheral vision. Without a word Ichibangase, tried a few calls and then shook his head, showing the phone screen to Masato, Kondo, and Nakagawa: NO SIGNAL.

Yeah, that figures. With a quiet word of thanks to Ichibangase, Masato moved on. "Then let's do a head count, see what supplies we got, stick together and stick it out until the army picks us up."

What else were they supposed to do anyway? Thankfully everyone was still all in one place, and Okumura was already tending to the wounded (which Masato had refused when she first called him over). He was pretty sure everyone had made it out, but he hadn't actually done a roll call or anything and he couldn't make Kondo do it with her impaired sight. He started a mental count when he noted a student breaking away from the group and headed into the trees.

"What the hell is she doing?" He had said it to himself, but his words drew the gaze of the people around him towards the girl. "Inaba! What the hell are you doing?"

______________________________________________________________________


Once Ayana had gotten off the bus, she had turned to see the very anti-climactic end as Shun hopped off of it. The heat of the fire on her face as her eyes focused on the growing flames as it begun to consume the bus. Only Tsubaki’s voice drawing her attention away from the building flames as she turned both her head and her eyes towards her.

“Huh? Fingers? It depends….do you count a thumb as a finger, or just as a thumb…” being cut off by Akito before she could continue any more of her reasoning. Frowning as she pointed at Akito “Hey, if I was a clown, I’d have face paint, oversized shoes and a big honky red nose and I have none of those things…..at least I didn’t the last time that I checked…..” Reaching her head up towards her face giving it a good rub. Getting a good feel for her nose and her face as she looked down at her hand to get confirmation that she neither had a big red nose, or face paint. Double-checking just in case, even though realistically there wasn't a chance she would find anything.

“I’m totally fine outside of the bump on my head, I’ve hit my head harder before in the past I’m sure….I just needed to get my footing underneath me….but I’ll be fine, I promise” Reaching her hands up as she brought them in to either side of her face slapping them against her cheeks hard one time and squishing her face together. Trying to get her full focus and attention back to their regular levels as she felt much better afterwards.Leaving two red marks on her cheeks in the aftermath. Despite the aching that her body still felt and the throbbing sensation coming from the bump on her head. She was trying to put these troubles to the back of her mind as she attempted to get a better grasp of the situation.


Noticing Rin had already gone off and seemed to be working on something all by herself. “well, she sure didn’t wait to figure things out, she is already off tinkering with things, I wonder what she is up to…” Ayana pondered. The others all seemed to be trying to figure out things themselves slowly but surely. Despite the lump, and her initial confusion, it became quickly clear that they weren’t somewhere that was familiar to her. The tree’s where nothing like the ones she was familiar with, plus any signs of the mountain roads they had just been on seemed completely gone. What more, if they had crashed off of one, surely, she should be able to see where they came from, but all she could see was the forest of foreign trees and the wild untamed grass.

“Hey, something isn’t quite right here, I know I hit my head….but something about our surroundings doesn’t line up with what we should be seeing right now…” Taking a seat and listening to Tsubaki staying still for the moment, even if she felt like trying to explore more around them to get a better grasp of their surroundings. To see if there was anything or anyone nearby that they could go too for assistance.

---

//Day 0 | Location: Nameless Forest - Clearing

"Ehehe," Yuudai grinned, even as he brought his hand up to mask that grin. Everyone knew poets had to play it cool, after all, but it was always nice to get some genuine praise about it, especially when his siblings just groaned and plugged their ears whenever he tried to get feedback from them. "Doesn't seem like the Prez's doing anything to me though. Everyone else...well? Okumura-san's patching up the worst of the lot, but for a bus crash, I think we'll be alright."

...

Daisuke clicked his tongue while Mayumi shook her head. They had both expected there to be no signal, but seeing it up close like that...well, it wasn't great. "Yuudai's already taking a measure of everyone," the golden-haired athlete said. "And as for what we got on hand..."

Well, the good news was that, owing to the lack of sudden explosions and such, while everyone had hurried themselves off bus, they didn't necessarily book it either. The boys had carried most of the bags that they could see, after all, and a cluster of them had been tossed onto the grassy field afterwards. No one looked to start rummaging through it though, entranced as they were with either their situation or their preoccupations.

Mayumi looked at it, then at the notebook she had in her hand and grimaced. "I'll take an inventory then, Nagashima. Endo! Make yourself useful and get over here!"

...

"Yeah," Tsubaki replied curtly. "It's the Otherside."

There wasn't much else to be said about it, not from her. Kogen, fortunately, was uncharacteristically quiet, perhaps because his delusions had finally become reality, and reality in turn had been both disappointing and terrifying. Regardless of what Ayana herself said, however, the short-haired girl continued to look after her, parting the hair around her head to assess as best as she could the state of the bruise. And as for what Ayana herself saw?

Perhaps it was because the adrenaline hadn't died off yet, or the situation hadn't sunk in yet, but most of her classmates were indeed getting it together. The clearing was quiet, as far as she could tell when a bus was still crackling and burning, while Prez went off to make sure Rin was never alone. The others stayed together, some offering comfort, others getting to work. For as dire a crisis as it all was, it also wasn't too bad.

After all, it was a lovely day, a clear blue sky marred only by black smoke rising hundreds of meters high.

...

Branches broke as expected. Though some of them were younger, and thus had the flex to ignore Rin's efforts to break them off the stem, the older, drier ones snapped off cleanly. She'd need a proper cutting tool to get any limbs of substantial size, of course, but if nothing else, the tinkering savant's foraging attempts at least confirmed that those unfamiliar trees were still made of wood. At the edge of the clearing she worked, pointedly ignoring Masato as he strode up to her. Just as they did in school hallways and yards, in the PE shed and homeroom class, the Prez's words fell upon deaf ears.

Physical tasks took the mind off of reality as easily as thoughts of duty and responsibility did.

Rin, in her pursuit of survivalism however, forgot a step that preceded bushcraft. Before you started taking care of your basic needs, you had to assess. Assess yourself. Assess your belongings. Assess your surroundings.

It was Masato, indeed, who was in a better position to see it. See Rin's hand, as she reached for a thicker, deader branch. As she broke it off and revealed six eyes within the shadow.



Matted fur of a light gray streaked with darker patches. Four limbs, long and gangly, that ended in a set of hooked claws. A head that looked to be a mixture of a wolf and a bear, saliva dripping out from its open maw. A beast of proper size, as big as a deer, as muscled as a carnivor Where there were Portals, there were monsters. And what was the burning bus, if not a massive signal? A signal that something foreign had encroached upon their territory. Something foreign and something fresh. Furless beasts, not clad in armor and technology, bearing neither blades nor firearms, all of them possessed with the softness of juveniles.

Masato had no time; the wolfbear was upon Rin in an instant, its snapping jaws clamping down upon the branch she had just broken off rather than her face. Hooked claws snagged against her belt as the beast to press its skull closer to her head, human and hunter scrambling upon the field, the branch breaking beneath incisors that looked much too sharp to belong to a beast that merely hunted for surviv-

"HIYAHHH!"

In one moment, the wolfbear's six eyes loomed over Rin's face, and in the next, two leather shoes burst into view instead. Maki had arrived with dynamic violence, launching from a sprint into a dropkick!

One that could definitely have laid out any wild dog or wild delinquent back in Kuroshio, but one that had only snapped the head of the beast back and...nothing else. It remained atop Rin still. One eye closed from where the heel of the schoolgirl had impacted, but five more still focused on devouring what laid right beneath it.

Maki herself sprung back to her feet, raring for violence, but even she was forced to pause at what she saw next.

It was a wolfbear, after all. And wolves hunted in packs.

Two more of them slunk out from the darkness, fangs bared, ferocity unleashed. And, perhaps as a measure of just how little threat a handful of infants presented to these monsters, the two shot off around Masato, Maki, and Rin instead, sprinting down for the other students further away, their bellowing howls matched only by the students' shrieks and shouts.

But where could they run? Where should they run? Could they hope to outpace the beasts if they leapt into the thick brush of the surrounding forest? Could they shelter around the still-burning bus, using the primal fear of fire to temporarily dissuade those wolfbears frmo approaching? Could they instead all group up together, in an attempt to intimidate the monsters with sheer biomass alone? Could they climb trees? Duck under brush? Stand and fight? Throw food and hope they'd take the easier meal?

Whatever thoughts spun inside their heads, those students at least had the luxury of a few seconds of thought, which was far more than what Rin, Maki, and Masato had.

But amidst the mounting dread, the seconds that would decide which lives spiraled downwards into death...

---

Asahi was one of those that kept to themselves in the bus. He wasn't much of a morning person even in his younger years and he was definitely not going to become one now. He would need just a couple of moments that he could get all to himself first thing in the morning, or else he would be socially tired for the rest of the day. That didn't mean he wouldn't appreciate small conversations here and there, but it seemed that his classmates had their own thing going on either with themselves or with other people.

He was just scrolling through his phone, admiring a few handsome content creators his age on social media when he got distracted by the noise the bus driver just uttered out. "What the-" He barely had time to process what had happened when the light surrounded everyone.

He was kind of used to the feeling of carrying heavy objects when he was a kid while helping his dad and grandpa hoist a large fishing net over the sea to catch fish, but this was definitely nothing compared to that experience. Asahi felt like the sky just fell down on him. He had a massive vertigo like he had a hurricane in his head. He lost his hearing for a bit and his sight was blacking out so much he thought he could never see again.

He tried to move but groaned in pain when his arm was pinned down by one of his classmates. "M-Move..." He uttered weakly as he also would weakly try to push the person away with no avail. He then heard a familiar voice giving orders, and Asahi never thought he would feel so elated to hear Masato's annoyingly righteous voice again.

Asahi managed to get himself out of the piled mess of bodies though he would groan weakly in pain all over his body. He couldn't see anyone properly because his eyesight still dimmed but he could see the general silhouette of things. He knelt down over what he hoped was his classmate and not a hunk of metal debris. "H-Hey... Hey, get up..." He said as he shook them. 'Good god, don't tell me they're all dead...' He thought, his heart filling up with dread.

He heard Masato giving out orders again, this time to tell anyone who was conscious enough to help Kondo open the door. Asahi would only go and shake others to wake them up before the door finally opened. "C'mon!" He shouted in support of Masato and the others that shouted as Asahi got out of the bus along with the others, helping them as much as he could through his intense headache.

The heat of the outside didn't help Asahi's dizziness, but it was better to be out in the open air than to be stuck in a crumpled mess of metals that used to be the bus. One thing led to the other and eventually everything within the vehicle caught in flames, filling the air with the sickly smell of smoke and burning gasoline mixed with what Kumi had for breakfast while she was vomiting.

Once everyone managed to get their bearings and somewhat recovered a bit, it was time to regroup and take stock of what happened. Mayumi's right: it seemed that their merry class was unlucky enough to go through a Portal and end up at the Otherside. Asahi heard about it a lot online of course, but he'd never thought he would actually experience it himself.

He rolled his eyes when Masato suggested to stay still and call the authorities, as if that really helped a lot of people before. It seemed that everyone was slowly starting to realize where they were too while there were a couple of them that were already on the move. Rin was already out and about breaking branches off the weird trees either for campfire, for making shelter, or probably both, as Tsubaki was making rounds to make sure everyone was in one piece.

Asahi was massaging his temples now that his headache was gradually disappearing when he heard a commotion. All the color drained from his face as he saw an abomination of an animal, snapping at the branch Rin was trying to get. Maki delivered a mighty dropkick to the devilish beast, but it did absolutely nothing to it.

The smell of the burning bus still filled the air, but it was now mixed with the musky scent of one-no, three monsters, all snarling, all eyes focused on their class. Asahi lowered himself on the ground behind his classmates as he made his way towards the bus. He grabbed a thick, long branch nearby and stuck it at the fire, holding it there until the tip was on fire. He didn't know if this will work but he needed to at least try and do something.

"Oy!" Asahi shouted at the top of his lungs, running towards the front of the group facing the wolfbears. "Get away, you filthy animals! Get away!" He continued to yell as he waved his burning stick towards the creatures hoping it was enough to drive them away.

Shun jerked up at the sudden sound of branches being crushed and the sound of heavy footsteps. The only one who was relatively interacting with the environment was Rin. The middle schooler turned her head around, earning a faint hit of nausea from turning too fast, and saw what was happening. A bear with multiple eyes was attacking Rin. Maki tried to help by throwing a kick at the bear, but Shun had other problems to deal with.

Mainly dealing with a bear that was coming both at Yuudai and her.

"Higasa!" Shun shouted out in a warning. Her hand grabbed a fist full of dirt and threw it at the menacing beast's eyes. She needed to attract its attention. If anything, she hoped that the beast wasn't dirt immune. Unless the eyes were dirt-repellant, Shun thought that at least she could blind the beast. "Hey, you four-eyed teddy bear! Over here!" She screamed to get its attention.

A feeling of catharsis washed over her as she stared at the monstrosity. Now that she had a good look at it, the mutant bear looked incredibly cool. Her classmates might think otherwise, but perhaps this was going to be the time of her life. The chances of her dying were high, but she had already accepted those terms. The world wasn't some sort of manga where they could overcome everything through the usage of an author's pen. If Shun was going to die, then she would make the most of it.

Shun took a few steps back from the bear and backed up closer to the flaming car. On the way, she picked up the longest branch she could find and dragged it against the floor. "You want more! I can make a nasty dirt pie, dung face!" She needed the right opportunity. If she had tried hard enough, maybe she could have collided with the bus and attack it with the branch. While it seemed like a stupid idea, Shun was welcoming to such ideas.

Ah shit, ah fuck, I'm going to die, aren't I?

Kogen had, in fact, been eerily silent, huddled up as he allowed Tsubaki to do her work. Rocking back and forth, he was almost pissing himself in fear. Almost. For some reason, Kogen felt that if he had pissed himself, he'd be imitating someone else in a similar situation to him. Was it one of his peers? No, it couldn't be...

In any case, Kogen was indeed freaking out about the situation at hand. It wasn't because of the fact they could be in a portal of all things, but that his eye was still bleeding! Of course, if Kogen knew any better, he'd be aware that the cut on his brow was merely a superficial one, and it only appeared to bleed heavily due to all the little blood vessels in the face. To Hitotsumi-kun, however, it really did feel like he was going to die or, at least, bleed to death.

"A-an infection?" Kogen scoffed, his voice clearly breaking. "Oh please. I've held our collective misfortunes back in this eye for so long! A mere 'infection' would mean lit- Ow! That stings!

"... My eye's not going to fall out or anything, right?"

Kogen did his best to stay still, but he couldn't help but shake ever so slightly at the thought. Ironically enough, however, Akechi's comments, while adding more to the gravity of the situation, helped Kogen steel himself a bit more. The sooner he'd look vulnerable to that rat, the sooner he'd sink another knife into his back once more. And besides, if Kogen gave that rat anything else to work with, he'd be more of a pain in the ass to him. He knew it was better off to ignore him until he got bored.

It seemed that Ayana had it from there, anyway... probably?

When Tsubaki was done stitching his eye up and moved to work on Ayana, the blond-haired boy simply walked over to the edge of the gathering, away from everyone else, and laid down on his back, his arms spread out as he let out a pained sigh. Some music would be nice. Kogen reached to his pockets, and-

"I left my AirPods on the bus, didn't I?" He asked himself, before the smell of smoke filled his nostrils. Damn it. Ah well. C'est la vie.

...

Before Kogen could truly relax, however, the sound of ruffling leaves followed by... a scream? A yelp, was it? Damn, did infighting start already? Probably all Akechi's fault, the bastard that he is. Well, not his problem once more. He already saved someone today. If the only danger to their lives was each other, Kogen couldn't care less. After all, those damned normies would all throw him to the wolves again if he butted in. Better off conserving his energy and resting for the time being.

A fight could be fun to watch, though...

Kogen sat up to see what was going on, before truly beholding the horrors of the situation they had found themselves in. Two large, gray-furred shapes came charging towards them in the horizon, with a third one a bit farther away. It seemed to have cornered one of the mechanic weirdos (Kogen's one to talk) while the self-righteous karate kid attempted to help, to no avail. There was another, much more recognizable shape standing there, too. Was that... no. No. He was just bossing everyone around! How could he... before Kogen even could...

He shook his head, springing up onto his knee as he took account of the situation. The two bear-sized wolves... bearwolves? That sounds catchy, much catchier than any other denotation. Kogen took count of the bearwolves. It seems that two of them were charging the group, but a few his his classmates already seem to be dealing with them in one way or another. Meanwhile, the three that separated from everyone else looks like they need some help. Kogen inquired as he stood up and began his sprint, taking advantage of his disparate position from the rest of the group. Still, even as he ran, he could see how disorganized they were.

You asshole, running off like that... guess I gotta do your job, too, then!

"Cheese Pizza-kun!" Kogen shouted towards Fujita, a new nickname Kogen had given his disciple both out of disdain for his normiehood and pride for his glow-up, "Get everyone else together and look out for any more of those things! Strength in numbers!" Strength in numbers indeed, especially if this pack of bearwolves was only the tip of the spear. Having eyes in all directions would help, and remaining in this clearing would be wise until the immediate threats were dealt with. Probably. Kogen wasn't too sure about all this.

What he was sure about, however, was his ability to run wide circles, his sprint continuing through the perimeter of the clearing they had found themselves in. Of course, there was one thing Kogen was shockingly good at, one he didn't take too much pride in for fear of it overshadowing his steadily growing rock career.

It was his talent with baseball.

Hitting the dirt with a slide, Kogen had found himself a perfect eighteen-or-so meters away from the trio and the bearwolf that stood atop one of them. While on the ground, he would find himself conveniently next to a couple of nice, somewhat rigid rocks. It wasn't ideal, but it will do. Kogen grabbed a handful of them, before tossing one at one right for the bearwolf's eye.

"Ibar!"

Standing up and dusting himself off, Kogen scoffed as he looked upon the bear, tossing another one of the rocks playfully into the air.

"Oho, what have we here? A mongrel who would dare lay their claim to the Devil Hitotsumi's subjects?" He spoke, his voice sinking into a deeper tone as he had allowed his demonic person to take the reins. He would then look to Masato, briefly.

"Get these two and run back to the rest. I've got it." He stated, his pubescent voice nearly squeaking in terror as he faced the bear once more. And with that, another rock thrown at it. And another. Really, this would go on until the bearwolf's attention was pointed to him instead of Inaba.

Kogen was primed to run as soon as that monster had its attentions set on him, prepared to dash deeper into the woods if need be. Maybe he'll eventually run out of stamina, or maybe he'll trip on the branch. It didn't matter, as Kogen was never one to think too far into the future. All that mattered was that everyone else was relatively safe.

Safe from the horrors of this world.

Safe from pain. From torment.

From certain death.

It wasn't the first time Kogen had thrown himself to the wolves, after all.

______________________________________________________________________


“The Otherside? You mean that place that gets sung about by that one lady who wants to always tell people hello from it?....well now, I’m not quite sure what to think about that” reaching her hand up to rub her chin as she thought about it. Not minding that Tsubaki continued to tend to her head and look after her. The bruise being rather tender to the touch, Ayana was starting to feel much better as the initial shock of it all started to wear off.

Her eyes drifting towards the black smoke rising into the clear blue sky as she pondered it for a moment. Turning her attention to the rest of her classmates as she saw Masato run off to go after Rin, while the others seemed to be going about their own various tasks. “Everyone seems so lively, who knew it took crashing a bus to get everyone energized” remarking on the situation as she didn’t have very long to ponder it.

Being interrupted by the sound of screams coming from various classmates and the roars of the onrushing Wolfbear’s. The situation turning chaotic without any warning her ears being filled with the crashing of brush and shrubby, the panic settling in as many started to move much more frantically. The two Wolfbears that had split off to come after the main group in a hungry bloodthirsty rush.

Ayana watched as they emerged from the brush as she got up to her feet immediately and considered running for it initially. It's extra eyes giving her the creeps as it reminded her of some kind of spider. But suddenly a thought came to her mind, if she ran, then surely, they would either just run her down, or go after someone else. There was no way she could let that happen to one of her fellow classmates. She had no weapon, or way to defend herself or anyone else, but she had to find something to do.

Suddenly an idea sprung into her head, wait... she had two weapons directly attached to her feet. She didn’t know quite why this idea had come into her head, but surely it was better than doing nothing. It had been like a voice inside of her head causing discord amongst her thoughts. Reaching down and yanking off the shoe from her left foot. Taking aim at one of the two beasts. She turned her body sideways like a major league pitcher. Putting all the strength into her leg as her adrenaline built within her. Her muscles tensing up as she gripped the shoe in her right hand. Rearing back with all her might, all of her power. She drove her body forward with her right foot. Her body twisting as she brought her right hand forward like a slingshot. Her pushing off her right leg with every fiber in her body. "Take this you WolfBearSpider!" with a final shout she released the shoe from her hand….

As it immediately flew straight up into the air above her slipping out of her hand at the last moment. Ayana not realizing this as she expected to see the shoe careening towards one of the two Wolfbear. Only for the shoe to come tumbling down from the sky above, whacking her in the top of the head with a thud which immediately startled her. Standing there for a moment blinking her eyes as she didn’t know what had happened at first. Coming to a quick conclusion without any real reasoning “It threw the shoe back faster then I could see it! This beast is more dangerous than I thought!” Quickly gathering up her shoe from the ground and slipping it back onto her foot. Deciding to try to group up with the biggest group of students she could nearby and figuring they would have a better plan after her attempt had failed.

---

Unfortunately, Rin had not yet constructed a spiked fence when a beast had arrived. Even if Masato had been able to warn her, she wouldn't have been able to react since she wasn't listening to him anyway.

It was a strange experience. She had gone from dangling on branches to prone on the ground with a beast on top of her. Claws pressed into her waist, the weight of the beast-amalgamate stealing her breath. It was certainly different. Rin was used to being injured. After all, whenever Kunio wasn't with her, she'd have to personally test what she made. Her thoughts of what she overlooked usually dulled the pain.

This time, there were no thoughts. There was no reason why this had happened. There was no math error. There was no point of failure. There was no scrapyard bolt that sheared. There was nothing she could try to solve as she lay on the ground. It wasn't like she could think, anyways; thinking was a privilege afforded to those not on the precipice of life.

For the first time in her life, Rin had nothing as she watched others try to deal with the beast that had oh-so-lovingly whetted its appetite on her branch. The flying kick of Maki who had bought her seconds of time. The footsteps of beasts running past at least signalled that she wasn't immediately to be devoured, despite what the beast on top of her would want her to think. The stones of Kogen, a pitcher's attempt to fight, would briefly steal its attention. But it was just a boy throwing rocks. The beast could easy tear her throat with a single tooth and deal with the chuunilinquent later.

She felt her heart beat. There was no breath to cushion the reverberations. Her heart refused to stop beating. Even if Rin couldn't think, her heart would guide her. No inefficient solution to a problem this time. Her long forgotten sense of survival was guiding her. It was a surprise that it came back; Rin was the type who refused to eat for entire days because she wanted to finish something. A wave of warmth washed over her and flowed into her arms.

Was it a blessing that she had not landed with her tools on her back? Was it a curse that she was not protecting her most prized possession? She felt the familiar nylon.

Her hand gripped her bag as tight as it could, her fingernails dripping with blood as the warmth hid the pain.

If the beast wished to eat, then it would certainly eat. Rin would force nylon, polyethylene, and steel down its throat until it was full.

Her first words upon arrival were not instructions nor did they make conversation.

The first thing that came to her mouth was an indecipherable scream of anguish and survival.

"ぎゃーー"

She swung her bag at the beast, the weighty tools jingling as they collided with each other inside.

______________________________________________________________________

It was no shocker that Inaba didn't respond to him when he called out, nor when he jogged to catch up to her. In some schools the student council's words were akin to law, but in Kuroshio that was not and had never been the case. Probably never would be either. In some ways, the familiarity of being ignored (while still just as irritating) was grounding. Sure they were in the Otherside, but things would be just the same as normal until they were rescued.

It was a futile hope.

Masato was not one of those "Portalheads" that kept up to date with every piece of media about the phenomena, nor did he have any interest in them at all besides the casual. Hopefully he could be forgiven for completely forgetting a staple of those stories... the monsters.

His next words to Inaba dried up in his mouth when he saw those eyes staring out of the brush. He couldn't do much more than stare back, and when it struck it was with such speed that nothing he could have done would have prevented it from disemboweling his classmate.

Miraculously, it didn't happen. There was no spray of blood or cry of pain; Inaba's stick collecting had saved her life, giving her a lifeline, however short. It was incredibly lucky. She was surely blessed by Bishamonten, who'd appeared as an avatar in the form of Suzuki. What the hell am I thinking?

Suzuki's dropkick snapped not just the monster, but Masato into action. "Fuck," he said, and then again, "fuck, fuck, fuck."

Out of pure desperation he threw his shoulder into the beast hovering above Inaba, but it barely even budged. When more wolf-bears revealed themselves he'd tried to grab one of them to stop their charge, but his hands only came away with fistfuls of coarse hairs as they ran by towards the group of students. He didn't dare look over there, but the others had to be in a better position anyway all grouped together near the fire. He focused on the monster in front of him, thoughts racing and heart thundering. Just what the hell was he supposed to do here? The thought of running did cross his mind, but his feet refused to move until a few rocks were pelted at the wolf-bear. His gaze flickered to the source, Kogen, and somehow after meeting the other boy's eyes Masato's headache came back in full force.

"Don't be an idiot!" he shouted at Kogen. The current situation was too dire for Masato feel the slight burn of shame he usually did when he interacted with the chuunibyou, but there was some other heat in his chest instead. Anger, probably, at Kogen trying to act the hero. Portal monsters were a whole lot different than upperclassmen.

After Inaba swung her bag at the beast, Masato snatched the girl by her shoulder to rip her free out from under the wolf-bear's paws. It didn't matter if she got a little cut up, so long as she was alive. If she could get her feet underneath her she could run, and all four of them could regroup with the others and figure this shit out. For what little good it would do Masato took hold of one of Inaba's fallen sticks only because he had nothing else to try and defend any of them with.

---

//Day 0 | Location: Nameless Forest - Clearing

There were three things that humans were good at.

One, they could communicate. Their language was complex and diverse, capable of conveying commands, descriptions, and emotions with deceptive ease.

Two, they could throw. No other animal exists with as strong a throwing arm as a human being, whom at their best could throw a ball twice as fast as a cheetah could sprint.

Three, they could run. They were not fast, but they could certainly be consistent, their bodies tuned to manage energy and body heat, intake oxygen and conserve fluids, for days upon days.

But was it enough?

Duncan’s basketball, hurled with all the force he had in his bones, was only enough to draw the attention of the charging beast. The cranium protected the most important organ of one’s body, after all, and regardless of how hard the ball felt, its buoyancy meant that all the force that it carried upon impact was just as likely to bounce back against it. And so, it did. It bounced away in a different direction, and the wolfbear charged onwards.

This would have been the time to break, to run, but in that moment, as all the boys considered the pros and cons of splitting versus running in a group, Asahi stood up. To say that the branch he held was on fire may have been generous. Its tip was charred and smoking, but a proper blaze had not yet ignited. This was no torch. This was just a stick. But on the other hand? Regardless of what he wielded, this was Asahi! If he was willing to stand up…

“Yosh!” Daisuke roared, as if shouting down the fear. “Let’s do it, basketball team! Hiroshi, Juro, get the girls outta here! The rest of y’all, we’ll take down at least one of them! C’mon, Kurosh-”

A shadow shot past the blonde-haired jock, past the pink-haired socialite. In Kuroshio Ogata Middle, there were two people who distinguished themselves as true martial artists. There was Maki, of course, who practiced samba and would butt heads with anyone. But then, there was her neighbour, her rival from another dojo, another fighting style, another philosophy.

There was Bansen Sasuke.

The wolfbear lunged at him, and he fell back in turn, protecting the most vital parts of his body with his arms while simultaneously kicking upwards with his feet. Such beasts possessed strength that humans could not compare with, and if it had truly been the size of a bear, his gambit would have failed even with the principles of physics and leverage on his side. But here? Against a monster the size of a girthy deer?

It flipped over Sasuke, slamming onto its back.

And in that stunned instant, Kunio acted first, his reflexes kicking in as he dove atop the beast, trying to pin down one of its limbs with his whole body. Yuki, snapping out of it, leapt into the fray as well, but now the monster itself was scrambling for purchase, trying to find its footing.

“Go go go! Dogpile it!” Someone was shouting that. Someone from a distance.

Of course, that someone was Akito.

But in the brilliance of Sasuke’s technique, in the vulnerability that one of the wolfbears showed, all the boys: Asahi, Duncan, Kunio, Sohei, Yuki, Sasuke, they all forgot that there had been another wolfbear charging at the students.

…

Ayana though, could see it.

Could see Shun doing the same thing that Asahi did, brandishing a burning stick as if it could do anything against such a monster. Her own shoes were returned to her at such speeds she couldn’t even see, but perhaps it was better too, because immediately after that, Tsubaki smacked her on the head.

“What the hell are you doing, Ayana-chan?” she snapped, pulling against her wrist. “We need to run!”

Of course they did. The situation with one wolfbear and six of the most athletic boys in their class could go south way too quickly. She could see her step-sister running with the crowd of other girls, could see Ayano dragging her boyfriend away with her even as Kogen called (quite rudely) for his help. This was the Otherside, this was the portal and its monsters. Weren’t they all just being stupid, trying to fight here, when none of them had anything close to resembling a weapon?!

And if the boys were being stupid, then Shun had to be even stupider, trying to do what Asahi did, but without any of the support he had!

The motor-enthusiast’s pile of dirt scattered against the face of the beast that ran at her, which prompted it only to close its eyes before reopening them, vision wholly undisturbed. Closer and closer it drew, and faster and faster it seemed. Four limbs to propel it forward, hooked claws to offer greater traction than any running shoe, and a body that contained more strength than what any human bodybuilder could aspire towards. That was the nature of what she was going to face off against.

The possibility of death was high. The branch in her hands was slim, unreliable. Her mind was scrambling now, weighed down by the consequence of action and inaction, of a timing that her reaction speed could not handle.

Someone was going to die.

But if Yuudai had a choice, that wasn’t going to be Shun.

He came from a farmer’s family. His father always did what he could to make sure he grew up alright. He had older siblings to pick fights with, younger siblings to take care of. He had his dreams and his ambitions, his love for poetry and rice fields, for the salt sting of the ocean waves and the memories they all made on that summer day. And he knew that if he let Shun draw the wolfbear away, if he chose to run instead of fight…everything that he gained in his short life would have been worth nothing.

So, the boy made his own choice.

An impact struck Shun from the side, knocking her inches away from the reach of the wolfbear’s claw. In that fraction of a frozen second, she caught a glimpse of Yuudai’s gaze, filled with a confused desperation. And then both boy and beast was gone, smashing through the window of the burning bus, trapped in an inferno that should have been hers to suffer.

A cry of pain. The stench of burning flesh and vaporizing blood.

Her heart, roaring like a motor.

…

The branch snapped, but before the wolfbear’s jaws could clamp onto her shoulder, Rin jammed her bag into its mouth. Nylon and polyethylene tore, but steel was made sturdier and the monster growled. Between the strange thing it was biting into and the rocks that bounced against its head, it had decided.

Enough was enough.

And Masato, desperate to drag Rin out, had a front-row seat to it all, as the wolfbear whipped its head back and threw Rin twelve meters into the sky. The student council president felt a throbbing pain where his nail had torn off, but that pain was secondary to watching one of his classmates get flung into a tree with such force that trunk shoot. To watching her limp form hang off from branches of a ten-meter high tree, like a doll tossed away by an angry child.

Her bag of tools spilled out its contents. A rain of steel. Nuts and bolts, screwdrivers and clamps, the hammer and its nails.

Kogen’s words failed to find purchase. Every rock he threw, every iota of bravado he mustered, all of it didn’t change the inevitable. Rin was dead. No one could have survived that. And even if she did, all that awaited her was a fatal drop from the top of the tree to the bottom. Against the strength that the monster demonstrated, what did he hope to accomplish with a handful of rocks?

And though all this may have been a defining moment for the two boys, for the monster that stood before them? It was just food for later. It could shake that lump of meat down from the trees after, but there was prey to be hunted now.

So it charged.

And so she did too.

“Listen to the dumbass!” Maki leapt up onto the wolfbear’s back, arms wrapping snake-like around its neck, legs locking around its torso best as she could. “Run, Masato! GO!!”

Her arms could not squeeze past fur and fat and muscle to choke out the beast. Her legs wouldn’t last long against the wild rampaging that the wolfbear did to try to shake her off. And Masato too, could see the purple splotches on her right ankle.

A consequence of hasty action that brought no meaningful results.

Rin could no longer run. Maki couldn’t either.

Only he could.

Would he?