Realistic or Modern memento mori ;; in character

[arly]

memento mori.

IN CHARACTER

horror + slice of life

... scroll up

disappearance day.

#horror

#high-school

#animanga

Everyone knows you don’t visit the old campus at night. You don’t visit it at all, if you can help it: All the stories say that students who go there don’t come back. There’s a reason they built the new campus, and it’s not just advancing technology and a bigger student population.

Despite the faculty’s best efforts, Shinshirei High School has been unable to shake its haunting reputation. Opening a new building doesn’t undo a hundred years of mysterious incidents, especially when it’s still walking distance from the campus where it all happened. Some say there’s an ancient spirit sealed in the land itself, snatching up all who dare enter; Some say the faculty give the weakest students to that being themselves, as a twisted form of rent; Whatever the cause is, everyone knows that you stay away if you can. Because once every three years, like clockwork, a third year walks into the old campus on the night before graduation, and they don’t ever leave.

Some students think the school carefully chooses its mark from the day the first years step inside. Others think it’s entirely left up to chance. Either way, it’s best to hedge your bets and stay out of view of the old campus windows. It’s been two years since the last Shinshirei disappearance, and the incoming third years know all too well what that means: One of them is going to be next. Even the most rational students feel a little nervous when they see the old campus looming in the distance. And the closer it gets to “disappearance day,” the more strange occurrences start unraveling within the school, until it’s impossible to ignore.

But what nobody knows is that this year, the old campus has new plans entirely. It wants greater prey, the best it can get its hands on, and it has the perfect bait. For the first time in its decades of haunting, it lets go of its most recent capture, all to lure in a better catch.

Maybe it’s a coincidence that brings everyone together that night, or maybe it’s fate. Either way, the ghost of Shinshirei gets more than it bargained for: Five third years inside the old campus, all ready to discover its offering, all marked by the ghost. The bait works better than it could’ve imagined. If it has the appetite, it might just take them all at the end of the year.

One thing is certain for these students, now that they’ve seen the face of death that wanders the old campus halls: If they don’t find a way to stop the Shinshirei ghost by graduation, they won’t all be surviving to get their diplomas. Suddenly, the countdown to the end of the school year is much less exciting.

roles.

scroll

scion

You were all the old campus wanted. The school idol, a student beloved and envied by all, used to love letters and gifts and adoration. Of course, every beautiful thing is destined to be trampled, and peers driven by jealousy might whisper behind your back, spreading rumors about your family history: How your older sibling disappeared three years prior without a trace, how your bloodline has already been tainted by the school. After three years, you can ignore the whispers. But you can’t ignore the mysterious letters that appear in your locker each morning since your third year started, all addressed from your missing older sibling, and all begging you to come save them from the old campus walls. You fell for the trap laid by the old campus dutifully: You would make a beautiful offering.

SCION is the younger sibling of SNARE.

snare

How does it feel to remain in your younger sibling’s shadow, even in the eyes of a ghost? You don’t remember your three years in the old campus walls—when the school lets go of you, you don’t look a day older than when you disappeared, and you don’t feel like any time has passed at all. But you do know that you were never supposed to be let out, and you know that you had nothing to do with the letters your younger sibling shows, whether or not they were written in your hand. No one knows what to do with you since your mysterious return; They hardly knew what to do since your mysterious disappearance. You’re only tentatively allowed to return and finish your third year, but there doesn’t seem to be a point. You know the truth. You’re on borrowed time, and the old campus plans on taking you back when graduation comes, so long as your younger sibling comes with you.

SNARE is the older sibling of SCION.

zealot

With grades like yours, you could’ve gone to any high school you wanted. But you took your talents and squandered them on a place like Shinshirei, all because you wanted to join their Occult Research Club and discover the truth behind the old campus, a mystery that’s fascinated you since you discovered its existence. When you started your first year, you found yourself the only club member, and none of your enthusiasm was able to pressure your peers into joining. But your dreams of ghost hunting haven’t ended just because you’re alone: It’s only fair that your frequent visits to the old campus finally culminate in a real supernatural experience. In a way, being marked for disappearance day is a dream come true. Now you have five peers who are forced to indulge in your fantasies.

ZEALOT is classmates with FRESH MEAT and is the reason they both entered the old campus.

fresh meat

Most assume you have to be suicidal or completely clueless to transfer to Shinshirei when disappearance day is on the horizon. But you were neither: All you were was desperate, and Shinshirei’s mysterious reputation seemed like an escape. Years of sensitivity to otherworldly phenomena have left you with a mysterious reputation yourself, feared for your affinity with ghosts and the supernatural. Shinshirei was supposed to be a strange enough place that you could fade into the background, finally playing the part of an ordinary student. Had you known just what would happen only days after your fresh start at a new school, maybe you would’ve stuck it out for one last year with the familiar.

FRESH MEAT is classmates with ZEALOT, and has been unable to resist their obsession with the supernatural. They took up the offer to enter the old campus at night after repeated pestering on the matter.

hammer

You don’t care about ghosts or supernatural occurrences: All you want is to complete the year with pristine perfection, as always. The nonsensical rumors about Shinshirei High School’s old campus have never mattered to you in the slightest when you focus on this goal. As an officer of the student council, you see it as your duty to correct any bad behavior you see in your peers, and you take this task more seriously than your teachers. You only snuck into the old campus that night to investigate much more mundane rumors, all pointing to the school being trespassed on by your most delinquent classmate. You only wanted proof so you could clean up the school, and look where that got you. All you can hope is that this campus curse doesn’t mess up your perfect record.

HAMMER is acquaintances with NAIL, and came to the old campus to catch them in the act of breaking and entering.

nail

You don’t know why nobody believes you. You may have a reputation for disruptive activity and skipping class, but that doesn’t mean every bad thing that occurs while you’re around is your fault. You think whatever’s haunting the school must find it funny, to flicker the lights and knock breakables off shelves whenever you’re around, just to watch you take the blame. It’s resulted in an obsession with the old campus and the thing haunting it: If you can get proof, you think, maybe you can clear your name once and for all. Of course, those lofty hopes only resulted in the old campus really taking notice of you when you snuck inside on the wrong night.

NAIL is often chewed out by HAMMER, especially for sneaking into the old campus.

{art by hoshibackyard}

© reveriee

 

[arly]

font callfont callfont call

MAY 10 (土)

CLEAR SKIES

NEW MOON

02:59

NIGHT.

Respice post te. Hominem te esse memento. Memento mori.

「真死霊高校」

Darkness was a welcome guest. No one who approached Shinshirei’s old campus at this time of night could avoid a hint of fear: Even the crickets knew to avoid that path, and let quiet replace the chirp that echoed through any other warm night. But a dark and silent wasteland was a comfort compared to the alternatives. When it stayed dark, the old campus was just a decrepit old schoolhouse, an empty shell that needed visitors to come to life. Those who came for tests of courage needed a flashlight just to see beyond their fingertips: The school hardly seemed to exist unless someone forced it to be looked at.

But the unlucky third years on the old campus hill weren’t gifted with pitch black tonight. The old campus was not dark, and it was not silent. Anyone standing before the building could see light shining through the windows of the second story hall, a single beacon that begged for a visitor. The lights in Shinshirei’s old campus only worked when they wanted to: The dark made no difference for its regular inhabitants. This light was not for them.

It wasn’t for the voice of the muffled sobs behind the window, either. The old campus was used to them by now, and they were used to darkness. The harsh fluorescent lights above their head were only a hindrance to them, now: Three years without had made sure of that.

The light was for the visitors, those who arrived one by one on the old campus hill. A taunt, an invitation, a warning. Whatever its true intention, the message it sent was the same: “Come inside.”

⁂​

Yasaharu could ignore a bad feeling. He could ignore strange movements out of the corner or his eye, or the nausea set deep in his stomach from the moment he got here. He could blame those reactions on nerves, or the energy drink he’d downed so he could stay awake for a 3 AM meeting, or any number of unthinkable mistakes that had led him to a place like this. Covering his ears and ignoring his intuition was second nature by now.

It was harder to ignore the light shining through the second story window, warm and welcoming and too clear to blame on a lack of sleep. After a walk’s worth of tripping over himself because he couldn’t see his own feet, that light demanded attention.

“There’s probably a squatter up there,” he mumbled to himself, because denial still tasted sweet. Some homeless person, or even a staff member sneaking in after dark—none of that was his business. No matter what, it was a sign he shouldn’t be here. Getting caught breaking and entering didn’t make for a good impression as a fresh transfer.

It was too late for second thoughts to creep in now, though, not when he knew someone who would go through with this no matter what. Yasaharu kept his phone gripped tightly in hand, still open on the texts that confirmed his meeting with Hikaru, and stumbled closer to the front entrance. Grass had taken over the paths, but he was acutely aware of how loud his footsteps seemed as they crushed the overgrowth.

His eyes were adjusting to the dark, but slowly—other than the light that he would much rather avoid, there was nothing to latch onto for clarity. He wouldn’t dare turn on any flashlight now, though. Whatever was inside that building, Yasaharu didn’t want it looking at him.

“Um—hello?” The second he had his sights on Hikaru, he could drag them back down to civilization and make sure no one got involved with whatever it was making Yasaharu’s stomach churn. “Natsuiro, are you there? I think that-”

This was a bad idea, he meant to say, but his breath caught at the pained sounds that rang through the second story window. There was no longer any doubt—something was inside, and Yasaharu didn’t want to find out what.

“-If this was all some kind of hazing, I’m gonna kill you.” If only it could be that simple.

hoshibackyard

night owl

 

[khai.]

scroll

夏色光

old campus

arly

excited !

The racing heart paces, and may even exceed, one hundred beats per minute; reaching two hundred or more under immense stress. In such a state of arrythmia, its pumping becomes inefficient and panicked. Blood is not as easily circulated and, in tandem with the heart's exertions, may cause chest pains, nausea, and potentially a cardiac arrest.

Doctors diagnose it as tachycardia. Hikaru calls it a dream.

It felt like it was. The world around the campus appeared deathly still—as if it, too, held its breath in fear. Scarce gusts were low and hushed, only faintly suggested the stirring of weeds that stood alongside the student. In the cruel quiet of the dead hour, in crude paths they had long since carved in visits prior, the Natsuiro could hear their heartbeat. It sung an unfamiliar rhythm, one that shot dull pangs through their ribs onto the edge of their nails; fingertips that clutched a camcorder that devotedly filmed the lone light that lit the hall of Shinshirei's past.

It was something they had never seen before. Throughout their years in this high school, Hikaru hadn't seen the fluorescence of light anywhere near the place that weren't hesitant blinks, or the final sputters of a waning bulb. But there it was, clear as day. Warm, embracing, and undeniably there, and it remained there even as countless minutes trickled into the nothingness of the long night. And so did they—hooded, sleepless eyes beholding the invitation for just a few more seconds.

"Look at that."

they whispered.

This was what it meant to ache; all feet that itched to move, and lips that have grown tired of smiling. Hikaru's heart was full. Alone atop the hill they have made their own, they had never felt more alive.

Of course, happiness was always sweeter shared. The tense voice of a beloved buddy broke the sacrosanct silence that the blonde had unknowingly ensconced themselves in. Unflinching as always, the foggy grays of their irises finally broke contact with the old campus to meet Yasaharu's. Their eyes gleamed as they recognized him, waving a hello before an unmistakable labored groan crooned past the two. Their grin kindled in excitement as their friend's grimace worsened, all caught on video as they swiveled to record the transferee.

"I'm sorry?"

Hikaru apologized in earnest, still engrossed by the trepidation of it all.

"I was only half-listening before you were cut off."

They zoomed in on Yasaharu's face, night vision etching their worried features in hues of green.

"You heard it too, right? Right?"

Man, they're so glad they brought their camcorder.

ave maria

franz schubert

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[Dicentra]

SAEKO

mood.

tense

location.

the old campus

tags.

everyone

Everyone has bad habits. Procrastination from piles of homework, doom scrolling on every platform of social media, chewing with their mouth open for everyone to hear; and, of course, Saeko had one of her own; despite her perfectionist act. She viciously bit at her fingernails, gnawing anxiously until they were ragged and sore. Each nervous sting was accompanied by a furtive glance around the dark, her heart pounding louder with every step she took. Her footsteps echoed faintly against the cobblestones, hesitant and uneven, as she approached the looming silhouette of the old campus.

The building stood against the night sky, its once-grand facade now clothed in shadows and ivy, the windows like dark, vacant eyes watching her approach. A shiver ran down her spine, the uncanny silence of the night broken only by the rustling of leaves and the distant hum of cicadas. The campus seemed to breathe with an unsettling life of its own, the weight of its history and rumors pressing down against on her. Her teeth moved from nail to nail as she fought the urge to turn around.

But she couldn’t back out now. Whispers around her classroom had propagated about how Hayate was planning to trespass on the old campus. Many found it entertaining, and the rumors spread like wildfire, fast enough to reach even Saeko's ears. The light looming in the second-story window confirmed her suspicions — he had to be here. She was finally going to catch him red-handed; finally report him and get him expelled. Hayate, the thorn in her side for so long, would be gone. The thought brought a twisted thrill to her heart; and the line between if she was chewing her fingernails out of nerves or excitement blurred.

Yet the thought of getting seen trespassing, the idea of her mother finding out — her heart sank. She glanced at the fresh bruise on her forearm, the deep purple almost blending with the darkness around her. Saeko couldn’t afford to get caught, not when she was this close to getting rid of Hayate. She bit into her nails harder; the taste of metal brushing against her lips as she realized she had cut through skin. But it didn't bother her, not until she saw a few other figures approaching the building. She wasn't going to approach them; she didn't want more people to see that she was there. Not until she saw that one had a recorder on him; and a grin traced her lips as she had a notion. If they were here to expose Hayate, it would be even better if she could catch him in the act of doing something incriminating.

She pulled down the sleeves of her uniform to cover her arm, and rubbed the trail of blood from her hand against her skirt so that it wouldn't be all over her palm. With her typical counterfeit smile, she approached the two, recognizing them from another class. "Out for an adventure? You know you shouldn't be out here so late at night."

冴 子

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[mizton]

yuuji

location

shinshirei: new ⟶ old campus

mood

sigh ⟶ oh i know those ppl

mentions

akio

@

emberxheart arly khai. Dicentra kunikuzushi

Should've stayed home.

It wasn't any rational thinking that brought Yuuji to such a conclusion, instead finding his new sneakers tainted by the smushed exoskeleton of the most unfortunate beetle that night.

That afternoon just earlier, the bell had long since rang for even extracurriculars to head home. In an unoccupied clubroom, orange from the light of the setting sun, laid countless papers, sprawled out over the desk space of four or five Yuuji had earlier pushed together. On the blackboard was the boy's rushed handwriting with notes like, Aki doesn't say... or same e's*? or bullying? Though, as the sky outside dimmed, doodles of game characters & his name in English, written over & over to get the characters right, would accompany such speculations. By the time the second bell had come on over the intercoms, he'd retired to a chair by the blackboard, leaned back & with a pensive face lit by the colorful light of whatever mobile game caught his fancy that week.

A closer look at the desks revealed that all—besides one, a graded test that he'd thrown in just as carelessly as the rest—were arguably letters with the most ominous of pleas scrawled in blue, some red or even brown inks, crumbled or carefully folded but then recently crinkled from having been stuffed in that morning along with the rest. Unable to sleep & like it were the rising action of some mystery show, Yuuji had decided last night to confront whatever had been harassing his shoe locker ever since the schoolyear begun. Such decision wracked his head all day that he couldn't tell you what lectures he'd just sat through all day, but that was typically the case anyway.

When school let out, his parents were appeased with a text home saying that he'd been invited out that afternoon, that he'd be home late. Later, Yuuji escaped the peers who actually would've invited him out with the excuse that he was helping with some club stuff that afternoon, that he'd be online later if they wanted to hang out.

Now, it had been just a little after two & a half hours had passed since classes let out. Yuuji knew it because the heavy thud of one of the on-duty teachers slowly but steadily had been drawing near toward his room—someone stuck with the duty of corralling all lingering students to head home for the day. That teacher found Yuuji's clubroom to be nearly spotless when he peered through one of the windows, just catching the lone boy wiping down the board with a smile & a wave when Yuuji 'noticed' his approach.

"Head home, Mr. Tokkuri. Not like you to be alone."

"Sir, haha, yeah. I got stuck with cleaning, but they're just waiting for me out—"

With a paw for a hand raised, the teacher cut him off to excuse himself, calling out as he passed: "Tell me later. Go home."

When all was said & done, desks rearranged once more, Yuuji headed out with his neck craned down at his phone. On it, though not needed, were walking directions to the old campus, but then a text: Big groups tonight. Please come if you can. Thank you, see you.

A sign from God, maybe. Like it were something decided for him, there was a sigh of near-relief that escaped him as he rerouted his walking directions to the old restaurant instead.

—

All signs not to go had come up & yet... here he stood, just a little to the right from being otherwise dead center within the old building's entrance gate.

Someone before him had pushed the thing through its rails earlier, surely, because the last year he'd come, he'd had to throw his backpack & person over to get in. Not tonight, though. The entrance was open like the building had been expecting company. The thought should've chilled, but instead: Epic, thought Yuuji, taking it instead as affirmation that his decision had been recognized by something other than himself. Inwards, he pressed to appease it—worst case scenario, he'd end up blurred on the news; best case, satiated curiosity.

Having come from a shift at work just a half hour earlier, it would've been the scent of frying oil lingering on his person to announce his approach were it not for the unabashed phone flashlight Yuuji shone before him. His first steps into the sort-of courtyard set up the building had, not dissimilar to the long stretch the current campus had, approaching the front doors: a long, courtyard-looking path toward the old campus' front entrance. Thinking back, there should've been no way sound carried to his ears the way it did, but that wasn't something known in the present.

Unable to really make out light or disturbances in the distance beyond his own, Yuuji squinted into the passing trees, overgrown hedges, bushes, & especially weeds that rose through the cracks in the pathing, the Tokkuri kid careful not to step into any of them for the sake of his clean sneakers. They'd barely managed to survive a shift just now; had he known, he would've worn his regular shoes but, that morning, he thought: if he was going to die, it may as well be in a fit he'd want to be a ghost in.

Almost comically, though: Squelch... & then "Eugh!"

Face contorted in disgust, Yuuji paused to lift his right foot where he'd felt the sudden give. With a thumb, he swiped up on his phone's brightness, aimed the torch toward his sole, & found that it was, in fact, not just mud: man had stepped on the fattest beetle that had ever before graced concrete.

"God..." was the first word Yuuji had said within the old campus that night, "I knew I shoulda"—At this point, he'd been taking to begrudgingly pressing onwards, despite his griping, dragging his shoe behind him in hopes of getting the gore off him—"got bug spray or somethin'. Fuck it, goin' home. Go again tomorr—"

Though, it was then that the wind carried a choked sob to the forefront of Yuuji's attention. Like it'd been his own, he stuttered in his step. His neck nearly cracked with the urgency taken to snap upwards. He squinted into the dark, swinging his phone's light right & left like he might come across the source of the sound. His torch lingered towards the old building's second story, until chatter up ahead broke such concentration.

It was funny: in an instant, all apprehension had left his person, replaced now from the excitement of potential others. Like a wet dog padding into a pristine living room, Yuuji approached with his phone's flashlight all the way up, completely okay with making everyone's presence known. Features flattened by the harsh light, it was only when the Tokkuri turned his light off that he was able to recognize the others as peers from school. Though maybe not friends, the grin he wore to greet them was uncaring & so he called when he approached:

"Guys, hey!"

* = insert anything here LOL yuuji was just checking the handwriting of the letters with akio's, so he's comparing how they write certain characters but ofc not in english]

きいろいジャケット

百景 (Hyakkei)

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[emberxheart]

暁緒

AKIO.

replicant

location

old campus ; east wing, room 3-1C

time

2:22 AM

Dead.

That's all it was. A husk; a lifeless, numb thing. It didn't care for the shadows parting around it, or the fragments of whispers floating from immaterial jaws. It simply lay there—empty and cold and unmoving.

Even when the sickly buzz of electricity sputtered around it, nothing stirred within it. There was nothing to stir, after all; only something so withered, locked away in the grasp of a cracked ribcage, that what it had once been was lost to time. Even when fear itself peered down at it, it did not shiver. Not even when the horror of all horrors reached a tendril of curiosity into its shell did it make any semblance of protest.

Not even when a heartbeat shuddered inside it for the first time in three years did the husk make a sound.

Dissatisfied, the spectre withdrew. The not-dead thing's eyes had no desire to follow as it went. It lay there, pulse dull in its ears, as harsh light flooded the unblinking eyes in their sockets. If it could feel, the bones of its skull would be chilled by the sudden grasp of ghostly talons around them, wriggling through the cracks and sutures and into the—

Akio gasped. Akio— Akio—

They—

A ragged breath clawed from deep in spasming lungs. Warm tears gathering in the corners of their eyes. Mouth forming around a word, throat not obeying; only a strangled wheeze broke the silence.

It was Akio. They were Akio. They... they'd just been... what?

Choking on the remnants of hollow desolation, they rolled to their side. The aged fluorescents stung even through closed eyelids, teardrops falling freely now there was feeling to fuel them. And, oh, how the feeling scraped at Akio. They curled into themselves, the drag of their skin across the floor sending shockwaves through their bones; the wretched rush of their life's memories flooding back to them in bursts of smoke and colour made them twitch helplessly.

Jaw open in a silent scream, Akio cowered at the onslaught. Disoriented, distraught, the only sounds that could squeeze past their chest were strangled, wracking sobs.

Akio stayed like that, trembling on the uncaring ground; for how long, they didn't know. They weren't concerned with the shadows that swirled around them still. The anguish was too all-encompassing for them to notice.

Until—

Akio's breath hitched, sob caught halfway in his neck. That voice, drifting from somewhere in the distance... they recognised the tone, that cadence. How did they know that voice? Desperately searching through the jagged edges of their mind, Akio finally dredged up a name.

"Yuuji?"

 

[kunikuzushi]

hayate

Light.

A pulsating, breathing light exhaled from the second floor like bright eyes in the dark. Eyes that shouldn’t be open.

Pallid in their sickly hue, the windows peered down at Hayate with an unnerving glow. It was strange to see the second floor lit like it was beckoning. A predator waiting for it’s prey. It seemed the old campus of Shinshirei High had awoken from its long slumber, and it was hungry.

Perhaps fear would’ve gripped his heart if Hayate were a more cautious young man, perhaps if he were wiser, he wouldn’t be awake at all and fast asleep instead of preparing to break into a building at 3 am. Nonetheless, a thoughtless determination shielded him from paranoid thoughts of the worst. If he was to lift whatever curse haunted him, he had to unearth the truth buried within these walls.

His plan was simple: Break in. Find clues. Prove everyone wrong. Boom— Explosion sound effect courtesy of the brilliant interior of Endo Hayate’s mind.

A totally fool proof, solid plan.

In truth, Endo Hayate knew how harebrained it was, but he was out of options. Before he had left for the old campus, the thought struck him that he was being a fool; The student body thought him mad and sometimes Hayate felt that they were right. But finding a reasonable explanation for his misfortune was near impossible, so Hayate had turned to the unreasonable.

Evidence was to be found here tonight. What kind of evidence, Hayate wasn’t sure, but his insatiable need to find something gripped him by the hand and forced him to stumble head first into the dark.

Towards the glow.

A chill shrugged him out of his thoughts as he tightened his grip on his flashlight. The risk of being seen was higher with a light on his person, but few were awake at the witching hour of 3 am. To the ones that were, Hayate was sure they’d be scared off by a ‘delinquent’ creeping in the dark.

It was only when he heard it that he considered turning back.

Weeping— or rather, an amalgamation of pitiful whimpers floating towards him in the wind like the pleas of a wisp. Faint but still present as if hidden behind gossamer. Hayate didn’t know who or what was crying but the chilling keening urged him to walk faster lest he get lost in the dark. A chill fought to crawl up his spine. The spectral cry—first the soft sound of a plucked harp string—grew louder as Hayate approached, soon morphing into an eerie convulsion of painful sobs.

“The hell—!” The shock tumbled out from his lips as he found himself too distracted by the sound to realize he was approaching a group of students. Before he could voice a cry of outrage at the sight of an unpleasantly familiar face—Saeko—the sound withered in his throat as the eerie sobs came to a halt, only to whisper a name.

Suddenly, Hayate didn’t mind being caught by the council anymore.

Before he could falter further, he cleared his throat and stepped closer to the circle. “What’s going on here!” He demanded, as if now he were the rightful authority.

遠藤颯

 

[arly]

click!

安春

Yagi Yasaharu

location

old campus

mood

stressed tf out

tags

everyone

これが最後かしら

Despite his better judgment, relief drowned the edges of Yasaharu’s dread at the simple sight of Hikaru’s face. Their smile might’ve been unnerving, and he didn’t particularly like the idea of any of this being kept on video, but at least there was someone else to bear witness to whatever lurked above—you heard it too, they said, a question Yasaharu had asked too many times to count but never heard in kind.

He ignored the gentle urging to look at the Old Campus: His eyes stayed focused on Hikaru instead, who seemed half phantom themselves, and gave the subtle impression that they might blink out of existence if Yasaharu looked away for too long.

“I didn’t hear shit,”

he lied, but the words came out soft. If we can hear it, then it can hear us.

“Listen, this was a bad idea, okay? Let’s go.”

While we still can.

It wasn’t a ghost that made Yasaharu jump but the voice of another high schooler, a girl he only vaguely recognized from student council announcements. Any sense of relief was butchered before his eyes when she appeared beside them. Only a few weeks and he was already getting caught trespassing on school grounds? His mom would kill him—no, worse, she’d sit him down for an earnest conversation about personal responsibility and force them to hug it out until he cried. The thought alone made him shudder.

But even that would’ve made sense: To be caught trespassing had to be what he and Hikaru deserved. What he couldn’t comprehend was the sight of two more classmates, appearing from the dark like cockroaches that begged to be stepped on by whatever loomed above. The weight of decay was heavy on Yasaharu’s shoulders, surrounding them all—it was only growing stronger now that the rest of them had appeared, like the final piece had slotted into place.

“Is there a single sane person in this entire school?”

The question was asked under his breath to no one in particular. What's going on here, that was the same thought Yasaharu had, and the answer seemed much too complicated: Sure, the blond guy looked like the trespassing type, but a student council officer? Not to mention an acquaintance from another class whose name Yasaharu hadn’t bothered to remember-

Yuuji, the campus supplied, and the thought that it knew their names made his stomach lurch. He grabbed Hikaru by the arm in a fruitless attempt to push the camcorder down.

“Let’s go,”

he repeated, hissed for only the two of them to hear—at least in the chaos of pointed fingers that seemed to be unfolding, they might be able to leave without any trouble.

But his own traitorous eyes shifted at the sound of a click behind the old campus doors: Even Yasaharu couldn’t resist watching them shudder open, an exhale of relief. They shivered in anticipation. Settled. The show was ready to begin, now that its stars had arrived.

A careful eye watching back on the tape might’ve noticed Yasaharu’s pupils blow wide as he stared into the dark abyss of the school. The entrance was only illuminated by light cast down the stairs, beckoning them to the hallway above: But Yasaharu’s gaze alone caught a glint of teeth in the stairwell, a disembodied smile, and the image of a student in uniform, walking in and never walking out. The school had rolled back a tape of its own, waving the distorted memory before Yasaharu’s eyes. “Will you really leave them here all over again?”

The old campus was impatient, and it would do what it took to be fed. Yasaharu understood this whether or not he knew what the old campus was. His mother taught him years ago not to listen to smiling faces that beckoned him into busy traffic—not all spirits were to be trusted. He should’ve known.

He cursed under his breath and imagined a heartfelt lecture on making smarter choices as he stomped to the entrance, chasing the beckoning half-face that flickered from view. If he got possessed by standing on the threshold then at least he wouldn’t have the presence of mind to worry about this bullshit anymore. He knocked his hand against the door frame, half warning and half outcry of irritation.

“Whoever the hell is up there, stop whining and get down here!”

As a warning of exorcism, it wasn’t his best—but Yasaharu didn’t exactly have the tools to cast out an evil spirit at his disposal. All he had was the sorry excuse for an intuition that told him whatever was inside, it was at the same risk as the rest of them.

4:00 AM

♡coded by uxie♡

 

[emberxheart]

暁緒

AKIO.

cuckoo song

location

old campus ; east wing, stairwell

time

4:02 AM

interactions

everyone

mood

disorientated

Cold floor. Cold skin. Dried tears on cheekbones that didn't feel like their own. Eyes open, unblinking, processing none of what they saw. Their brother's laugh ringing in their ears.

A shout from below, pulling them from their shell-shock.

"Whoever the hell is up there, stop whining and get down here!"

The voice spiralled in Akio's head, muffled words rearranging themselves until the call started to make sense. The harsh glow of outdated lights needled them from somewhere above. They blinked. They were on their side, curled on decrepit wooden floorboards, and the hands that swam into view beside their face were streaked with blood. Akio's brow furrowed, and after a heartbeat of concentration, the shredded tips of their fingers twitched. The half-rotted wood was scored with rust-red scratch marks, and as their hands curled into fists, the stinging pain from their nailbeds hit with a fresh whimper of pain.

Slowly, painfully, Akio dragged themselves upright. Hunched over, now, room blurring at the edges from the effort, the voice from downstairs said something again; something Akio couldn't make out this time, but it sounded impatient.

Yuuji, came a whisper from a corner of their mind—was it Akio's mind?—Find Yuuji.

Akio had no choice but to obey.

Their legs were the hardest to bring back under their control. With every jerk, every twitch, every click of a joint and gasp of discomfort, something flickered on the crumbling walls. Akio paid it no mind. They wobbled to their feet, knees still bent, one hand smearing fresh blood onto the doorframe as they steadied themselves. Akio shuffled out of what seemed to be the remains of a classroom—a spark of recognition flared in their mind, but didn't light—and soon, they were peering down a cobweb-gated stairwell.

Akio could make out more voices, now. The one that had called to them; two that sounded like they were arguing; and one that made the them-not-them jump in anticipation. All Akio had to do was go downstairs.

One hand strangling the rusted railing, they stuck a leg out to the first step...

...And a flashlight shone straight into their eyes.

With a startled yelp, Akio slipped. Their shoulder smacked into cracked concrete, then they tumbled, chin over ankle over hip over elbow until they came to rest in a shivering heap at the bottom of the landing.

They lay there, stunned, until the world returned in colour.

"—the school, call the cops, anyone—"

"—hear me? Fuck, I knew I should never have—hey, dumbfuck, are you alive? 'Cause I'm not gonna bother trying to talk to your spirit if—"

Akio groaned, swatting away the voice as it came back into focus.

"Wh..."

They looked up blearily into the wide-eyed but frowning face of a third-year.

"Huh? Who...?"

Their words were cut short when a wave of runrunhiderunhiderun crashed through their veins. Akio jerked back from the dark-haired stranger, scrabbling back up against the wall right as that damned flashlight found his eyes again.

"Ow!"

they complained, bringing a trembling hand up to block the offending beam. The word scraped at their throat, and they swallowed thickly as they squinted.

The flashlight lowered.

"Holy shit,"

breathed the white-haired person wielding it.

"You're the kid who disappeared three years ago. You're—"

"Akio!"

someone roared.

Someone...

Yuuji Yuuji Yuuji Yuuji—

The whirlwind that could have been their brother descended upon Akio like the weight of a thunderstorm. Hands found the tattered neck of their shirt and their head snapped against the wall with a thud that rattled through their jawbone.

When the ringing in Akio's ears subsided, and Yuuji's fury-twisted face—older, somehow, and sharper—drew into focus, they registered what Yuuji was saying.

"What gives?!"

"W-What...?"

Akio would have struggled, had they the strength.

"Yuuji— stop—"

Three pairs of hands snagged Yuuji's shirt and, eventually, prised him loose from Akio. A tall guy, bleached hair and metal glinting from his earlobes, was holding Yuuji back from lunging at Akio again. Half-shadowed, almost blending in with the ghostly outlines prowling the hall, stood a pretty girl, phone in hand but frozen halfway to her ear. Akio's chest heaved. The guy they'd seen when they came to was watching them with a guarded kind of curiosity, but as Akio's eyes flicked over him, his gut twisted again with adrenaline.

The flashlight wielder wore an expression of absolute joy.

Akio licked their dry lips nervously. They tried to speak; couldn't find their voice. They cleared their throat—a grating sound—and tried again.

"Who are... Where...?"

"Shinshirei,"

offered the girl, with a turning-down of her lip.

"The old campus. Absolutely off-limits and you are breaking so many rules right now."

Yuuji finally fought free of the tall boy's hold. Instead of rushing forward, or saying anything, he rummaged in his pockets, burning eyes never leaving Akio's.

"What are you?"

interrupted the dark-haired guy, arms folded.

Despite their apprehension at looking in his direction, Akio tore their eyes from Yuuji's.

"Akio,"

they mumbled. The name sounded wrong, like it didn't fit around their teeth.

"Tokuri Akio."

 

[Dicentra]

SAEKO

mood.

wtf???

location.

the old campus

tags.

everyone

Unbelievable. The sheer number of students who decided to come out together on an arbitrary night was surprising enough, but finding someone who had been missing for years — especially one who didn't look much older than when they disappeared — was beyond anything Saeko had expected. It was her job, a responsibility she had self-appointed, to keep track of almost everything that happened at the school. That included meticulously researching every case of a student disappearing during their third year. It was like clockwork, really. But no one had ever returned. Not ever. Until now.

She wasn't one to swear, but "Holy shit." She whispered under her breath.

She had always assumed the stories of third-year students disappearing were nothing more than a cruel prank, a twisted joke that had turned into an eerie school tradition. Every year, the tales would circulate, whispered among the students, but Saeko never took them seriously. It seemed like just another way to spook the underclassmen, a rite of passage that ended with nothing more than nervous laughter. After all, no one ever came back, so how could she prove it was anything more than a rumor?

Hell, maybe it was something the school itself kept up just to stay in the news. Sure, it didn’t give the best reputation, but some people believe that even bad publicity is good publicity. Maybe the school shipped the missing students off with a scholarship somewhere far away, using the mystery to their advantage. After all, how naive would she have to be to believe in ghosts like the story goes? It seemed more plausible that there was some mundane explanation behind it all, some hidden agenda that the school used to its benefit. The idea of actual spirits haunting the halls was just too ridiculous to consider — at least, that’s what she told herself.

She took a deep gulp as she glanced around her surroundings. Abandoned classrooms, eerie windows creaking open and shut, broken clocks frozen in time along the halls—it all made sense in a place that had been left untouched for so long. The desolation was almost expected. But the sudden draft of cold air she felt the moment her foot crossed the threshold? The unnerving sensation of being watched, even though they were still near the entrance? And the persistent goosebumps crawling up her arms, forcing her to tug her sleeves down for warmth? Something felt off, undeniably so.

But Saeko wasn’t the superstitious type. No, she couldn’t just chalk it up to ghosts. That would be too easy, too irrational. The draft must be from Akio’s fumbling around, she reasoned. The wind, slowed by the stagnant air inside, could have caused the supernatural feeling. And the goosebumps? Just a natural reaction to the unexpected chill in the air. It had to be. There had to be a logical explanation for everything.

Yet, that feeling of being watched lingered, gnawing at the edges of her thoughts. It was an unsettling sensation, like eyes boring into the back of her head, making her ears perk up as if instinctively readying for something — anything. It was the kind of feeling that prickled her senses, heightening her awareness, making her hyper-alert to every shadow, every creak, every flicker of movement in the periphery. The sensation of a stare — an unblinking, unseen gaze..

It made her head slowly turn towards the entrance they had entered from, her eyes narrowing as they tried to pierce the darkness from which they had emerged. Nothing was there. Just shadows and the stillness of the abandoned building. She was overreacting, surely. But as she stood there, eyes fixed on the void, an unsettling certainty began to creep in. No matter how much she tried to dismiss it, a nagging voice in the back of her mind insisted that something — or someone — was definitely watching them. The thought tightened her chest, her instincts screaming at her that this was more than just her imagination playing tricks.

"We should go." She stated firmly, turning back to the group with a tone that brooked no argument. "No, we have to go. And you're all reporting yourselves to the school board tomorrow. With... the camcorder as proof! We're leaving. We have to g-"

But her words faltered as her eyes landed on Yuuji. The sight of him, standing there with that expression made her pause. Her voice caught in her throat. She could see the mix of shock, disbelief, and desperate hope on his face as he stared at the figure that was his long lost brother. The fear that had gripped her just moments before was swept away, replaced by a heavy understanding that she needed to give them this moment.

But that didn't stop her from keeping a close eye on Hayate, her gaze flicking back to him repeatedly, making sure he didn’t try to make a run for it while she allowed the others a minute to process. And as for Yasaharu and Hikaru — she was actively ignoring their presence. Why the hell were they there anyway?

冴 子

♡coded by uxie♡