EX Chapter 3

[Sachi]

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Those Kumaing! bastards... Those writhing Kumaing! leeches...

I only found out Hinoe was dead when I tried paying her a visit and found some filthy Kumaing! pigs moving their Kuma! into her home. All I got out of them was that the previous owner had disappeared, and they got the place at the cheap. I had to stop myself from wringing their Kumaing! necks where I stood. How dare they? How Kumaing! dare they walk the ground she once called home? And how dare this be the way I found out about it?

It was raining that day. I had to listen to their Kuma! under the shelter of an umbrella like a scene out of some stupid Kumaing! movie. I looked like a tool. Hell, I felt like a tool. I didn't even have anything to say to them. I remember standing there dumbfounded, probably looking like a complete dumbass. I was just in shock. 

How is it that Shinozaki Hinoe, my teacher, my friend, the woman I Kumaing! loved... How the Kuma! did she go and get herself killed? 'Mysteriously disappeared' my ass. I knew something was up. Call it spiritual intuition if you want. I just know her well enough to understand that she wouldn't just 'disappear' at the drop of a hat, and not even find it in herself to let me know beforehand. I excused myself and left, but not before throwing my guts out on the pavement just outside their front door. I booked a room for myself in a nearby hotel.

And that night, I broke into their house.

I had to find some trace of what Hinoe was doing before she died. Just one single clue was all I needed to go off of. Thankfully, I remembered where she hid that sort of Kuma!. She was a pretty paranoid person, so she kept a lot of her valuables hidden away from prying eyes in a box underneath the floorboards. I'd prepared for this. I'd brought a crowbar with me for this very purpose. Honestly, I didn't fully remember where it was she put the stuff, so I was just about ready to dig up the entire house if that's what it took me. If the new tenants didn't like that, I didn't have an issue with caving their Kumaing! skulls in, either. Fortunately for them, it didn't wind up having to come to that.

I found the box underneath the floorboards next to the window. I found about what I expected. Her savings - a couple hundred thousand yen for a rainy day - a journal, and a photo of her and some little girl I didn't recognise. I was a bit disappointed she didn't still have our photo stored here, but... It must have been out in the open before they renovated the place. Maybe her family has it. I'll check there later, I thought.

Reading the journal made me feel like I was seeing something I shouldn't have. It was like I was ripping open her ribcage, rib by beautiful rib, just to get a peek at her still-beating heart. I could feel my own beating heavily inside my chest. If she knew the lengths I was going to just to save her, I just know she'd be as in love as the day she met me. That's how I knew that I was doing the right thing. I was solving the mystery, and I was going to avenge her, no matter what it was that I found. So, with that in mind, I turned to some of the most recent entries.

She kept talking about a girl called Ayumi. It was every Kumaing! page. 'Ayumi told me this', 'Ayumi went through that' - I wasn't reading this to get to know about her, for Kuma!'s sake! I had half a mind to rip the thing apart at that moment, but... Something was telling me that I had to keep reading. I dunno how to describe it. It felt like something was whispering to me, telling me that it was Ayumi that had all the answers I was looking for. That's why I kept reading, despite everything.

I'll admit... the contents confused me at first. She was throwing around terms I'd never even heard of - well, that's not entirely right. Of course I'd heard of them before, it was just in such in such a strange context she was talking about them in. 

So, the Ayumi girl - Hinoe's little sister - performed a horrible ritual, wound up in the 'Nirvana', and got a bunch of her friends slaughtered by some angry ghosts. She was pretty beat up about it, but obviously she'd be thrown in a psych ward if she said so much as anything about it to a shrink, so the only person she could confide in about it all was Hinoe, and I guess the few friends she didn't wind up getting killed. Hinoe, then, was researching the Nirvana to try and find a way to ease her sister's mind.

For that purpose, she was going to visit the old Shinozaki estate in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, because they're the ones that made the Nirvana or something... And that was it. That was the last entry.

So, that's where she was. She'd probably holed herself up in the Shinozaki estate to try and figure out how the Nirvana worked, then got so caught up in her research that she lost track of the time. I almost laughed at how simple the solution wound up being. It was pretty Kumad! up that they sold her house after just missing a few payments, but I guess that's the modern housing market for you. I gathered everything up in the box and left.

All I had to do was figure out where the Shinozaki place was, and that'd lead me right to Hinoe. I started the day pretty pissed, but I found myself smiling on the way back to the hotel. I'll head over there, I'll find her, I'll give her this box, and she'll treat me like a Kumaing! hero. Then I'll help her with her sister, or whatever, and... and then she'll see that she can't live without me. That we need each other. 

Heheheh...

That sounds pretty Kumaing! nice to me.

[Sachi]

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Tracking down the place was a bit of a pain in the neck. Hinoe's notes were all I had to go off of, but even those were vague and pretty unhelpful. I didn't exactly want to go around in hillbilly sister-loving towns asking if any of them had heard of the Shinozaki family - because I quite like my organs where they are right now - so things were a bit more complicated than I was hoping for. Whatever, though. The first step was to get my hands on a copy of her family register. I knew more than enough about Hinoe to pose as one of her family members, so no one batted an eye when I requested the thing.

After that, I searched her close family for the names Sachiko or Yoshie, without any luck. She'd mentioned those two names as prime candidates for the Nirvana's creation (although how she got hold of that knowledge to begin with, Kuma! if I know). I soon learned that their relationship was actually quite distant. Sachiko was Hinoe's second, or third cousin, once removed...? Kuma! man, I dunno how that stuff works. Let's keep it as 'they were cousins'. Way easier on my mind.

So, I had their names, now I had to figure out where it was they stayed. Researching Sachiko and Yoshie took me down a rabbit hole all on its own. Yoshie died in the 50s, and Sachiko's been missing since then too, and hell, that was just the start of that school's problems. I wasn't really interested in the unsolved mysteries, but it at least gave me a place to go off of: Yoshie was the nurse at Heavenly Host Elementary (Sachiko attended as a student), so I could focus my investigation aroun there for now.

...It just so happens that the land Heavenly Host once stood on now belongs to Kisaragi Academy, which is the very same place Hinoe and her sister attended. Small world, I suppose.

Not many residents around still remembered them, but I got word from an old newspaper article that the renowned school nurse traveled quite far to get to the school every day. Not only that, she even had a clinic of her own that she ran outside of school hours. Old people always work themselves to the bone...

Anyway, I found the address of the clinic, and wouldn't you know it, she operated the thing right out of her front door. I'd found the Shinozaki estate I was looking for - now the problem was just getting there.

I took a train into the countryside, but got off a little early while I could still grasp onto some tiny Kumaing! remnants of civilisation. I used Hinoe's savings to rent myself a motorbike, then I was off.

I've got to wonder... how is it fair that Hinoe's house got sold the minute she took her eyes off it, but this thing's still standing after all these years? I guess it's because it's so far out of the way. Not only did I have to ride out to hicksville, but the house was at the top of a mountain trail as well. One that hadn't been maintained properly since the god damn fifties. I had to make sure none of my bare skin was showing when I climbed through the maze of brambles and bushes, because god damn it if I found a single tick stuck to me, I'd have burned this place to the Kumaing! ground... right after I found Hinoe, obviously.

I looked like a treasure hunter straight out of a movie, cutting through all the weeds with my umbrella. I'd like to think I looked pretty cool, actually. 

Well... I'll take back what I said earlier. To call this place 'still standing' would be a bit too generous. It was rotting from the inside out. The whole building looked like it could collapse in on itself at any moment. There were holes in the wood that bugs and fungus were cozying into, and the place just looked filthy. Hinoe's really spending her time at a place like this...?

I passed by an equally decrepit shed and entered the main building, where I was immediately greeted by a split path. Kuma! me, man. Kuma! just can't be simple anymore.

Alright, dipshit. Upstairs or downstairs - where to first?

[Sachi]

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...Some help that turned out to be. I guess sitting here just thinking about it isn't going to get me anywhere. Alright, fine, I'll flip a coin and see where that takes me.

Heads.

Fine. Downstairs first it is.

I could tell this place hadn't had any visitors in a really long time. The sliding doors were practically crumbling away if I so much as breathed on them. It was hard for me to believe that Hinoe was really hiding out here, but I guess she must just be that committed to her sister. That's admirable, but I wish she took my feelings into account before she ran off like this. Whatever...

I climbed through an empty doorframe into a living room, which probably doubled as a waiting room for the clinic? The table in the center was surrounded with more sofas than I'd call normal for a room this size. It was also stacked with old magazines, their pages covered in black mold to the point I didn't feel like giving them a read. I could at least read the date on the one at the top of the stack, though. 1953. That tracked with when the Shinozakis disappeared.

I guess this is for real, then.

I almost shat myself when I heard something staticy suddenly spring to life right by my ear. I swung my head around and found the source to be an old-timey radio. How the Kuma! was it still functioning?! I knocked the thing off the shelf like a cat, then stomped it into pieces. That got it to shut up.

It wasn't plugged in anywhere. Battery powered, maybe?

Kuma!, who cares? One less thing to worry about. I just hope there aren't more of those fuckers around. 

There were some kid's drawings on the walls that I felt weirdly inclined to take a look at. They were all signed by "Sachiko", and depicted a girl and her mum. The kid really needed to broaden her horizons, I'll say. She kept drawing the same thing day in day out - happy face, holding hands - the only thing that changed was the location. "Me and mummy in the park", "me and mummy in the snow", "Me and mummy" blah blah blah. She always drew herself in a red dress, and her mum in a grey one. The same smiles. The same poses...

...That did make me wonder who the girl in the black dress was, though. She was always somewhere, hiding out in the pictures like an easter egg you'd have to spend a few seconds finding. Always lurking in the background, always staring at the two in the front.

Kuma!, kid's drawings in places like this are pretty freaky. I don't want to see anything like this. I'm out of here.

I left that Kuma! behind and headed through another doorframe into a tiny kitchen. There was a pot on the cooker, but I'm not stupid enough to have opened that myself. Here's what I'd find: rotting meat, flies buzzing all over it, maybe a dead rat or two. Yoshie probably began dinner preps before she went to school that day with the assumption that she'd be back later to finish it off. That's kinda sad, but I'm not about to do her 50 year old any justice by opening it now. Kuma! that. 

Nothing in the kitchen, either. Where else can I go?

There were two more rooms on the first floor, barring the short connecting hallways between some of them. The first was just under the staircase - a toilet. It didn't have anything noteworthy, so I shut the door right back up and went to the last room. It was directly in front of the living room. An old poster written in crayons was stuck to it. It read something along the lines of "Please wait for your name to be called," but the thing was just as mouldy as the magazines. It was barely clinging onto life, so I could barely make heads or tails of it.

Well, inside there I found some kind of office that had been repurposed into an examination room. There was a bed to my side, with... the outline of a person showing through the covers.

"Hinoe?" I asked. No response.

Yeah, Kuma! that. None of my business.

I shut the examination room right back up.

Back at the entrance, I climbed the stairs to the second floor, careful that they didn't fall to crumbs underneath me, because then I'd be well and truly Kumad!. I'm not getting any reception out here, and the only guys who could track me down would be the ones I rented the bike from. And to be quite honest, as long as they findd their bike on the side of the roadd, I don't think they'll put much effort into looking for me. I'd probably be dead by then anyway.

The second floor was even less useful than the first. Just rooms belonging to the two that stayed here, and a second office room that unlike the first hadn't been changed from its original purpose. There was a photo of a man I didn't recognise in there... the father? I'd only seen his name on the family register - he wasn't in any of the newspaper articles I found. I couldn't even remember his name. Wonder what happened... Did he die or just skip town?

"Papa..."

I twirled my head around. I could've sworn I heard something, but I guess not. I put the photo back on the desk and left the office. Time to snoop around the other rooms.

Sachiko's didn't have anything I cared about. Well, I guess I found some more creepy drawings. 

"Sa...chi's room... now..."

So, finally, I was in Yoshie's room. I was leaning against a chest of drawers, agonizing over the fact that this room was about as useful as the last: which is to say, not Kumaing! very. I wasn't about to leave without finding a trace of Hinoe, but my options for that were getting pretty limited. 

"Down... there..."

A breeze blew in through the broken window. It wasn't strong at all. I could barely even feel it.

But it did nudge the closet door open a little, just barely.

Just enough for me to see something within...

What was that? A staircase? In the closet? I got up to take a closer look. Sure enough, the closet extended a lot further back than it seemed to. There was a whole extra staircase in there! It spiraled down a good while, and even though it was bigger than the average closet, it was still pretty tight and claustrophobic. With nothing else to do, though, I bit the bullet and started climbing down.

I'm not really sure how common it is to have a staircase to the basement start on the second floor, but what do I know? Maybe it was all the rage back in the day.

There wasn't any natural light getting into the basement, so I was forced to use my phone as a flashlight. It's a good thing I did, too, because the place was a complete mess. It looked like someone had tried setting up a ritual circle down here, but they didn't do a very good job of cleaning up after themselves. No way Hinoe would be so amateurish as to do that. Even if she was living in a shithole like this, she'd at least take good care of her surroundings. That's the kind of person she was.

There was dried blood all over the floor. Thinking on it now, having a place like this right under a clinic is something right out of a horror movie. Like they're going to sacrifice the patients to the devil or something. I laughed a little, and approached a small stand set up in the corner of the room. Unlike everything else, it wasn't dusty. It was actually quite clean... Which meant that someone must have removed something from here pretty recently.

That was a small victory. It confirmed that someone - most likely Hinoe - was here a short while before me. The question then became... where was she now?

I tripped over something hard, and just narrowly avoided breaking my nose on the grimy Kumaing! floor. I groaned as I stood up, then kicked whatever the Kuma! it was I tripped over into the wall. I went to get a closer look, pulling back some... familiar looking fabric, and... smelling a... familiar perfume...

"Hinoe...?"

What... what the Kuma!?

WHAT THE Kuma!?!

I held her head close to my chest. I couldn't form even a single word to express to her how sorry I was for not getting there sooner. I stroked the thin, stringy remnants of her hair, then ran my hand across her bony cheek. This is exactly what I said would happen if I wound up dying here! She- She died, and no one knew where she was, and there wasn't any reception, and no one even came to look for her! They just called her "missing" and were satisfied leaving it at that! Who the Kuma! let this happen?! Why didn't she tell anyone she was coming here?! Kuma!! Kuma!! 

I can't tell the police I found her. They'll take her body away, and- and I'll never see her again! God Kumaing! damn it! Hinoe! Why the Kuma! didn't you tell me you were coming here?! I would have come with you! I would have kept you fed! I wouldn't have let you Kumaing! die here! Who... Who's going to teach me now? You were my teacher! You were the only one who... who understood...

I grabbed her shoulders and screamed into her face everything that was bundling up inside me. Her expression didn't change once.

No matter how much I shook her, Hinoe never woke up.

[Sachi]

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In the time since then, I studied even more of Hinoe's research notes. She'd had a journal in her handbag when she died, and it was in there that I found way more detailed info about the Nirvana. She'd done so god damn much... All of that, just to end up lying dead in a basement somewhere. It wasn't right. I decided that I was going to carry on her research to keep her memory alive. I'd go above and beyond what she found, and wherever her soul was resting, she'd be proud of me, and she'd be able to rest in peace.

I'd learned a lot of things about the Nirvana from them. A basic history lesson, how the thing is structured, the nature of the spirits that rule over it - all sorts of stuff. It was when I was reading all that that I realised something... The Nirvana was crazy and horrifying if you didn't know what you were getting into, sure. But I did know. I knew about its ruler, I knew about how the thing was formed, and I had a basic understanding of how to remove that ruler from the throne. According to Ayumi, that's just a temporary solution, because it tries selecting a new Sachiko soon after the previous one is dethroned. But...

If in that brief period of time where the realm is without a ruler, I were to step in and convince the Nirvana that I should be the one to take Sachiko's place... I could tame it. I could have it bend to my will. By all accounts I'd become a God. And I could use that power for good.

I could deal with so many of the world's problems. Overpopulation, overcrowding of prisons... I could even enact true punishments to the crimes that don't have ones severe enough. I'd be feared, but at the same time, I'd be loved. I could remove all the rot and filth from the world... I could even deal with those filthy Kumaing! bastards that put their hands on Hinoe...! I could throw them in that Kumaing! realm and watch them try escaping like lab rats stuck in a maze! But I'd make sure there would be no way out. Scumfuck bastards like that don't deserve it!

It was at that point I knew this is what Hinoe had intended for me from the start. She might not have realised it herself, but she was doing this research not for her sister's sake, but out of a subconcious desire for revenge on those pieces of Kuma! that took advantage of her. I'll do it for you, Hinoe. I'll take the Nirvana as my own.

The only thing the journal didn't tell me was a way to access the Nirvana. For that, I'd have to ask directly from the source.

---

I'd been to Hinoe's old home a couple of times before she moved out. She was always a bit anxious that her family would go wild if they saw her come home with a boy, so I'd never actually met her parents or her sister in person. Still, I at least knew the address, so making contact with Ayumi wasn't a problem at all. Though I'll be the first to admit that our initial meeting was far from... ideal.

I think she was taking a bath when we first met. I knocked on the window, thinking that it was the one connected to her room, but... Eugh. She appeared in front of me wrapped in a white towel and holding some sort of big ritual knife in her hand. She looked terrified. I had to ease her mind somehow, so I opened up the window and climbed inside to show her that I wasn't a threat. I mean, would a threat climb in if they saw a knife like that? Obviously not.

"You're Ayumi, right?" I asked. I already knew she was, but I guess I wanted to be polite.

"W-W-Who the heck are you?!" She took a bunch of steps back until she was pressed right up against the door. I sat down on the windowsill and tried not looking at her directly. I guess she was a little self conscious.

"I'm Hinoe's old apprentice. Name's Misuto. Look, I get this is a bad time, but I need your help with something."

"You're... Hinoe's apprentice?" She started lowering the knife, and her previously horrified expression softened just a little. "I'm sorry... I don't think she ever mentioned you."

I hid my anger behind a half-smile. That pissed me off more than it should have. Of course Hinoe would have mentioned me. I didn't realise her sister was such a Kumaing! airhead. She must have just forgotten. Whatever. 

I gave her a briefing on the situation. I told her that I needed a way inside the Nirvana, and asked how it was that she got inside to begin with.

I didn't expect her entire Kumaing! life story in response. Didn't she know I'd read all of this Kuma! already?

"Why would you want to go there?!" She screamed at me. Her face was a mess of tears, and Kuma!, I was a little scared she'd start swinging the knife around. "Whatever you might have read about it, it's worse than you can possibly imagine! So... So many people, so many of my friends, so many people who thought they knew what they were doing died there! And- And you're telling me you want to go there for fun?! Just to satisfy your curiosity?"

"I'm telling you that unlike those dipshits, I have a plan."

"I-I'm sure Naho had a plan before she went there, too! And she wound up just like so many of the others!" She crouched down, and I quickly swung my head away in case her towel was about to fall down too. I slowly looked back to find her clutching her head like a maniac. Jesus... was she tearing her hair out?

"I hate this I hate this I hate this I hate this...! No matter where I go or what I do, it just keeps following me wherever I go! Even when I've left, I can't escape its influence! No! No! NO!!!! Hinoe! Hinoe! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

...She was inconsolable. I was a bit taken aback. Well, I guess I'm not the first person to try reminding her of all that traumatic Kuma!. Still, her frequent sobs of 'Hinoe, Hinoe' caught my attention. Did she know something...?

"Hey, hold up," I stopped her. She looked up at me hesitantly. "What do you know about Hinoe? Hasn't she been missing?"

I pressed a button I shouldn't have pressed. If I thought she was bad before, now she was bawling so hard I could barely make out what she was saying.

"It was... It was m... It was me..." She kept saying. "I killed Hinoe!! If I hadn't gone to the Shinozaki estate, she would still be alive! She'd be able to tell me everything was okay! But it was because I'm such an idiot! I got her killed because I thought I could change things! I thought I could save the day! But I couldn't! Ahhhh! After escaping, I thought I was free! But it keeps clinging to me! Heavenly Host killed Hinoe just like it killed everyone else!!"

I needed a minute to process what she was saying. Hinoe died... because Ayumi went to the Shinozaki estate? Did I have that right? 

In other words...

Ayumi... killed Hinoe...

This... This bitch...!

I thought she could help me! I thought we were on the same Kumaing! side! And now I find out that the entire reason Hinoe is in that Kumaing! basement to begin with is because of HER?!

I could feel my fists clenching tight enough for them to turn completely white. If I hadn't already bitten off most of my nails, my hand would have been bleeding. It took everything I had not to gut her with that knife then and there. She was my enemy now, I'd just found that out.. But I still needed information from her. 

So, I lied.

I left my perch on the windowsill and walked over to her. I put my hand on her bare shoulder and watched as she looked up at me like a lost puppy. "I know a way that can save everyone stuck there," I told her.

"I just need you to tell me how to get there."

[Sachi]

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The requirements for accessing Heavenly Host were surprisingly simple. All I needed was one other willling participant, and I could go there whenever I wanted. Sure, getting out again would be a bit of a pain, but I knew what I was getting myself into, so I was able to make as many preparations as I wanted. I even had someone in mind to serve as my player 2... Ayumi Shinozaki herself. I could kill two birds with one stone that way. I'd get myself into the Nirvana like I wanted, and I'd have ample opportunity to make sure that traitorous bitch faced punishment for what she did to Hinoe. 

So, a few days after our encounter in her bathroom, I met with Ayumi again on her way home from school. She was walking together with some sleazy-looking delinquent whose presence pissed me off. I didn't have an issue with performing the charm with more people, but if this was one of the guys she escaped with, he'd do anything he could to try throwing a wrench in my plans. The only reason I was sure I'd be able to convince Ayumi was because she was an optimistic idiot who would do anything to try and redeem herself. Even one force working against me would make this so much more complicated...

Either way, I was ready to go today. I had to shoot my shot here and now. So, I stepped out of a streetlight and cut the two of them off. "Yo," I greeted them.

"Oh! You're the boy from my bathroom... Misuto, wasn't it?"

I wished she didn't introduce me like that. Now the guy was eyeing me like I was some kind of pervert. I was going to tell him that it was a misunderstanding, but I didn't really feel it was worth the effort. "Yeah," I relented. "Misuto. Good to see you're doing well, Ayumi."

"Hold the damn phone. What does a guy like you want with Shinozaki?" The delinquent stepped in front of her instinctively. Kumaing! hell. Maybe I should have waited for them to split before approaching her.

"It's okay, Kishinuma," she assured him. "This is Misuto. He was one of Hinoe's apprentices. He's looking for a way to destroy Heavenly Host..."

"What? Is that really something you can do?" He was immediately interested. I was a bit surprised. It looked like she had a good leash on him.

"Yeah," I nodded. "I've got a plan to free all the souls stuck there. I know it's what Hinoe would have wanted."

"That's great!" Ayumi beamed. "If there's anything I can to do help, just let me know! I'll get you anything you need from Hinoe's old room! I'm sure she's got things you could use! Talismans, more notes, anything!"

"Whoa, whoa," Kishinuma seemed a bit taken aback. "You need to calm down, Shinozaki. He could just be messing with you."

"Why would he do that?!" She seemed genuinely offended. "He's doing what he can for Hinoe. I have to do my part, too."

"No... I think he might just be a bit overconfident." The delinquent Kuma! looked me up and down again. "He doesn't exactly look like a spiritual genius. And I mean, even Naho..."

"Oh, shut your Kumaing! trap," I snapped. "I'm not here because I want anything of Hinoe's. I'm here because what I need is you, Ayumi."

"Huh?" She jumped. "You need me? What for?"

"Well, I need a second person if I want to get in, don't I? You seem about the best I could hope for. You've been there before, you know your way around a spirit or two, and we both want to avenge Hinoe, right? What do you say?"

Ayumi didn't say anything for a minute. That was good. I'd be up Kuma! creek without a paddle if she immediately refused me. That she was even considering it was a sign I could press my luck further. "We can even take along your boyfriend, if you want," I added. "She's talking about this so freely, you must've been one of the lucky fucks who escaped too, ain't you?"

He looked at her with his eyes wide. "Shinozaki... You're not seriously considering going back there, are you?"

"If what Misuto says is true... then we can save everyone, Kishinuma! Our friends, Naho, even complete strangers... We'd be able to save all of them!"

Damn! It took even less effort than I thought! This thing must have Kumad! her up really badly!

"Think about what we had to go through just to get out once!" He yelled at her. "You want to go in there again, even knowing that? What if this guy's plan doesn't work out? What if he's just delusional? What then, Shinozaki? We'll be trapped in there all over again!"

"You can't just say that..." She stared down at the ground. "If we've got out before, we can get out again..."

"Getting out once was a miracle! Getting out twice is just... It can't be possible. We used up all our luck surviving the first time. I... I'm sorry, Shinozaki. I can't let you go."

"You can't let me? Who- Who says you control what I can and can't do, Kishinuma?! I'm- I'm my own person!"

Kumaing! hell. This was turning into a lover's quarrel. I don't have time for this Kuma!.

"Look, if he's such a pussy that he doesn't want to come along, that's fine. The charm only needs two people." I leaned against the wall and shrugged. 

"You stay out of this!" He shouted at me. What, does this kid think he's threatening? "I won't let you die in there, Shinozaki! Don't you remember what those spirits said?! You'll feel that pain for the rest of your existence!"

"Until I free them," I interjected. He didn't like that.

"Oh, shut the Kuma! up! What kind of psychopath are you?! She's so ridden with guilt that she's willing to do anything to make things right! You're just a manipulative bastard!" He threw his bag onto the ground and started to approach me. "I won't let you lay a Kumaing! finger on her!"

"What, you wanna fight?" I stretched. I'll admit, I hadn't gotten much exercise in recently, but this kid didn't look all that tough. I waved my umbrella in front of me a few times like a blade or something. I'd probably just have to whack him a few times with that before he went crying home to his mummy.

"If that's what it takes."

"Kishinuma! Misuto! Stop!" Ayumi begged. Neither of us paid her any mind. We both had one goal at this point: to beat the utter Kuma! out of the other. I guess some people might consider that manly.

---

Thwack, whack, tink

I deflected the first of his punches with my umbrella. It must've hurt like a bitch from his end. I could see his face cringe with every strike. That's the advantage of having a weapon, fuckface. It was absurd to think that this kid really thought he'd be able to beat me of all people up. I was getting into fights like this while he was still wearing Kumaing! diapers. He really didn't know who he was messing with.

Whack, crack, thwack

Again, I swatted his fists away like flies. I was barely putting any effort into it, and that seemed to only piss him off more. It felt like his rage was growing with every punch sent my way. Not that I really minded, though. With any luck, he'd give up when he realised how out of his league he was. Or maybe Ayumi would beg me to stop beating the daylights outta him, and promise to come with me so long as I kept him alive...

I was musing over things like that, casually knocking away one strike at a time, when...

Snap

My umbrella split into two pieces. Now I was just holding onto a tiny stick with a curly handle. The top half plopped onto the floor in front of me. 

Kuma!, I thought. It's plastic... Am I Kumaing! stupid?!

I looked back up from the broken umbrella on the floor. Just in time to see a punch flying directly toward my nose.

Whack

Kuma!... I was seeing stars just from one punch. I collapsed onto the ground, actually, now that I think about it, just like my umbrella did. When the pain subsided enough for me to open my eyes again, he threw another punch my way. 

I tasted something metallic in my mouth.

"Don't... ever... come near... Shinozaki... again!" He said between hits. I felt like a Kumaing! punching bag. Yeah, he got the jump on me, I'll admit when I'm beat. If I wasn't Kumaing! around with my umbrella, I might have been able to do something, but... 

"Kishinuma! Kishunuma, please!" My eyes were swollen shut, so I only heard footsteps run toward him. The rhythmic punching stopped as I heard a girl sobbing next to him. "You were right! It's stupid! I won't go! Please, just leave him alone! Please! You're going to kill him!"

I heard him panting. He kicked my shin and spat on me, just to make sure I was down. 

"If you ever speak to her again... I'll make this look like nothing. You hear me?!" He yelled. Kuma! off, man. I'm already down.

"Yeah..." I spat out some blood in the direction of his voice. I wasn't sure whether or not I hit. "I... hear you."

"Good..." He panted again. "Good..."

"Kishinuma..."

"Shinozaki..."

...I just wound up becoming a romantic memory for these two dipshits. Kumaing! hell.

My body was already on the verge of drifting away, but I practically begged my brain to make me lose consciousness so I didn't have to hear any more of this Kuma!. It fortunately obliged.

[Sachi]

#s://i~imgur~com/sqNZ7NT~png

So... my first choice didn't wind up going so well. 

I didn't want to try meeting up with Ayumi again. Kishinuma probably wouldn't be too far behind, and I don't think I could take another humiliating beating like that. So, I had to go down the list and settle for my second choice.

Holding an ice pack up to my battered face, I called the next best person I could ask for. She was a bit annoying, but I didn't particularly have anything against her, so it was unfortunate that she'd probably wind up becoming a sacrifice.

But... she was the only person I could count on to perform the ritual with me.

---

"You must be really desperate if you're asking for me of all people, Misu!" She giggled, munching happily on a cake that she forced me to buy. I'm sorry, Hinoe. Your savings are going to the stupidest Kumaing! places.

"Yeah, well, you got me," I sighed. "I never thought I'd say this, but I need your help, Magari. You game or no?"

"Well, of course." She nodded. Her gigantic Kumaing! twintails wobbled as she did. It was embarrassing to be seen in public with her, not to mention what she was wearing... It was like she just got back from a cosplay convention. "I owe her a lot. Hinoe taught me so much about the paranormal. Gaaah, I'm still so miffed that Naho disappeared right after I learned about all that stuff!"

"I don't care."

"She'd have to pay attention to me if she knew how hard I worked, right? I mean I was practically almost on her level. Ooh, do you remember when I exorcised my first spirit? It was, like, at that hospital!"

"When you gave the dying old man a Kumaing! heart attack?"

"Nooo! He was possessed, I stuck a talisman on him, and his soul was freed! I felt like such a hero." 

"He flatlined after seeing a girl carrying a Kumaing! scythe show up in his room. He was already manic. He must have thought the reaper finally came for him."

"You never let me have anything."

"I let you have that Kumaing! cake."

"Oh, thanks for that, by the way. So, how is it we get there again?" Magari tilted her head with the fork in her mouth. I bet she was trying to look cute, but she just looked like a fat Kuma!.

"Perform the ritual with me. That's it. It's not hard, Magari."

"Oh, yeah yeah yeah. Just let me finish this first, okay?
...Do you mind if I get something else for the road?"

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the most compassionate person... but I nodded, and I felt a smile coming on when I saw her clap her hands in glee.

...It might end up being her last meal. I'll sit back and let her enjoy it. Just this once.

--EX CHAPTER 3 - END--