Breathing in the stinking air of the building, Ariyama fixed his gaze ahead, and continued onwards to follow his group.

  Since everything looked the damn same, Ariyama only told that he was approaching the location of the remaining adventures when he heard their distant voices grow louder and louder.

  He turned a corner, narrowly stepping over a section of the floor that just caved into the ground, and then he had finally arrived.

  Of course, Jack and Yaranagi were already there, leaning against the far wall. Well, Yaranagi was leaning, but Jack was more along the lines of being pinned against the wall by Yaranagi's toned arm, his jacket off and his sleeves rolled up, showing off his muscles.

  Ariyama could tell instantly, without even looking at his face, that Yaranagi was angry from their argument. The way his veins pumped along his forearm made him look a hundred times more imposing.

  Further left along the wall, Ariyama saw the anxious Takemichi, the quiet Matsune and the flustered Yasami. They must have gotten the news about the division of the group. Now, they were down to only six as opposed to the original ten.

  Then Ariyama noticed it.

  He was surprised at himself as it took him so long to notice it, but thanks to the patches of darkness covering the interior hallways, his vision hadn't picked up on it.

  Between the two groups up against the wall, set into the hard stone like something carved.

  A doorway.

  Or at least the outline of one.

  It looked like a stone elevator door, without any buttons to press. Just incisions into the rock to make out a set of plain doors.

  Ariyama walked up to the doors, a bead of nervous sweat rolling down the right side of his face. It tickled and it burned and it made him ever so slightly more unsure if any of this was worth it.

  Kazura had gotten hurt, and Koenji – even if Ariyama didn't like him – got hurt much worse.

  And would they have ever even gotten inside the place in the first place if he hadn't activated that Shrine Gate? He was the only one who knew about it from the history book he read, as far as he was aware, so no one else would've been able to do it. Was this his fault? Was he the reason that–

  “So, are you gonna stare at it or are you actually gonna do something?”

  The voice snapped Ariyama back to reality, and he awkwardly tugged at the ends of the zipper of his coat as he looked to his right as Yaranagi acknowledged him. His face was set in a stern mask of stone. His mouth was a straight line and his words were gruff.

  Looking over his friend's shoulder, Ariyama saw Jack leaning against the wall on the floor, a new bruise added to his battered face. Seems that Yaranagi had to rough him up a bit more to be confident of him leaving him unguarded.

  Yaranagi met his gaze again.

  “Well? There doesn't seem to be any other door in this entire damn place. So this thing must be it. It must be the reward we've received for going through all this trouble and causing the injuries of one of our friends and one of… our other classmates.”

  Ariyama didn't realize how dry his throat had gotten, so he forced himself to swallow his saliva before speaking again.

  “I guess so. Well, no one said I'm the leader here, yeah? So I think we should get everyone else's opinions first.”

  Yaranagi looked inclined to argue, but Matsune interrupted before he could erupt.

  “I'm not sure about this anymore. Of course, our friends being hurt isn't a good thing in the slightest, but I'm even more unsure about this doorway here. I… Well, let's just say I don't like any of this.”

  “Great observation, Matsune.”

  Yaranagi grumbled under his breath, crossing his arms in annoyance before deciding to busy himself by walking back over to where he left Jack slumped against the wall.

  If anything, Ariyama was for sure not going to stop whatever he did to that fool. Jack Hayakawa had to be knocked down a few pegs, and a few hits from Yaranagi Yasuke would surely do the trick.

  I looked back at Matsune, my heart drumming in sympathy as I perceived her troubled face.

  “Whatever you mean, Matsune, I get it. No wonder you do. So, Yasami? Takemichi? Thoughts?

  Yasami stuffed his hands in his pockets.

  “Screw off, brat.”

  Takemichi shakes as if drenched in a snowstorm naked.

  “I… want to g-go home…”

  Ariyama sighed.

  What had been expected?

  Matsune, who remained by his side, placed a hand delicately on his shoulder, a tight but reassuring smile on her face.

  “Look, I know you just said you're not our leader, and you're right. But Ariyama-kun, you are… just one of those people who can always stay calm in moments of panic. I don't exactly have any proof, but I just have this feeling.”

  Ariyama's throat tightened and his stomach churned with a weird happiness. No matter what happened, how did Matsune manage to always say the right things?

  Maybe that's what made her so popular in the first place? Along with her good looks and strengths in sports and academics, of course.

  Ariyama had always questioned why there were people like her. People who were above others in social hierarchies, even if they were all humans.

  But in moments like these, Ariyama was glad that it was people like Matsune – kind, caring, reassuring – who were popular.

  Realizing he hadn't responded to her words of encouragement yet, Ariyama stuttered a little.

  “O-oh, thanks Matsune. I know a lot has happened, but… it's nice to have some like you to be some motivation.”

  Matusne gave him a smile, her full lips glinting slightly, even in the darkness, with the lipstick she applied. Similarly, her silver bracelet seemed to glow too, but in a weird fake light that didn't seem natural.

  But then Yasami interrupted them, waving his hands to separate them.

  “Alright, alright. Enough flirting, you two idiots. Are we going through the doors or what? Yo, boss, what's the plan?”

  He looked over Ariyama's shoulder at Jack, and when Ariyama turned to follow his gaze, he saw Jack try to get up, only to receive a gut punch from Yaranagi. And Yaranagi did not look happy.

  “Listen, you dumb bastard. Call Jack ‘boss’ all you want, but don't believe that he's the one in charge of this little escapade of ours, got it? We're heard as one, and now we're basically stuck in here. Only Katsuragi remembered the way out, and by now he's long gone. Him, Odomura, Koenji, Kazura; all safe and sound outside of this damned place. So I reckon we bust into this doorway and see what's inside. We've come this far, haven't we? Why bother stopping when we're seemingly at the end of the road?”

  Yasami scoffed at Yaranagi's words, but as his boss was still curled up in a painful heap on the cold stone floor, he backed off.

  Wordlessly, Yaranagi trudged ahead, his eyes dead set on the carved doorway on the wall. He gave everyone a cold glance, and when no one spoke up against him, he continued.

  He stopped in front of the door, as if surveying the surface for just a moment, before taking a step back, then rushing forward.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  His foot that was behind came in front and his booted heel smashed into the stone of the door. It must have been fairly thin, as dozens of fractures ran across the door like a spiderweb. Ariyama flinched at the sharp sound of his boot cracking the stone.

  Yaranagi repeated his action, again and again, his boot making the stone door splinter under its weight. After about ten or so blows, the door finally caved in. Its parts fell in a cloud of dust like a waterfall of pebbles, littering the floor and collecting into a heap at Yaranagi's feet.

  Letting out just a low grunt, Yaranagi ducked into the man-sized hole he had put into the doors. Inside, it seemed pitch black, and Ariyama watched as Yaranagi's body slowly lowered further and further until he was out of view. Judging from his movements and the tap of his footsteps, Ariyama expected there to be some sort of stairs leading down.

  Just what was this place really?

  And sure enough, when Ariyama was the next person to go and he peered through the hole, he saw just darkness, and a set of stone stairs leading down into more darkness, dimly-lit by very faint torches flickering weakly in brackets against the walls.

  One thing that came to his attention was how smooth and well-made the stone steps were. While everything else in the building was either rubble or cracked stone, the material here was sharp and professional, like a proper builder had cut and placed these stones by hand.

  Not wanting to keep the rest of the group waiting, Ariyama drew in a long breath, the cold air hurting his throat, Ariyama ducked into the space, getting his balance on the small steps before slowly descending down the stairs.

  The air down there was even colder than it was upstairs. As the echoing of his footsteps on the stairs sounded out down the path they were taking, Ariyama's chest sank deeper and deeper into uncertainty and slight horror.

  Yaranagi was the only one ahead of him, and he was about a dozen steps further down than he was. After Ariyama, Matsune had gone next, her face visibly pale as she went down the steps, as if she was realizing something horrifying.

  After her came Takemichi, his knees wobbling so much Ariyama worried he might trip. Finally, Yasami helped his ‘boss’ down, Jack slinging one of his skinny arms over his goon's shoulders.

  He probably recognised the fact that if he tried running, Yaranagi would be sprinting after him with his long, toned legs. No one could ever outrun him.

  Ariyama's breath began to explode from his throat in plooms of cold mist, a shiver running through his bones. His body shook and he zipped his coat up as far as it would go, forcing the zipper so much that it would've broken if Yaranagi hadn't suddenly called out.

  “Hey! I see something here! Looks like some kind of room. And there's something glowing too…”

  Ariyama was just glad to soon be not descending anymore of those damn steps. They were smooth, but so smooth they became unstable to comfortably walk down.

  But then he heard someone cry out behind him, and Ariyama half turned as Matsune collided with him. For a moment, he thought she had just accidently fallen down a step or two. He'd just been telling himself about that just now, after all.

  But when he saw her face, he knew it was something more.

  It wasn't the shocked face of someone who was receiving momentary shock after tripping down some stairs. It was the face of someone who was horrified. Not by something that was happening in front of them, but by something that was about to happen.

  “Yaranagi, no! Whatever's in there, don't touch it!”

  She outstretched her hand in desperation, and nearly fell again as she hurled herself down the remaining steps, before hitting the ground and chasing Yaranagi into the darkness.

  Ariyama was stunned momentarily, his limbs frozen in place.

  What had just happened?

  Matsune's voice screaming out resonated in his head like a replay from the Devil himself, beckoning him to answer the call.

  What ‘call’ exactly? Ariyama wasn't wasn't, but what he did know is that in that exact moment, his body's functions started up again and he too went flying down the stairs. He did a worse job than Matusne at trying to not trip, and lost his footing on the last few steps. Luckily, the momentum he had built up sent him over the last of the steps, and instead he tumbled to the cold floor of the dark room at the end of the stairs. His body shook with dull pain, especially his knees and elbows, which he felt were cut and bleeding.

  But he noticed it right after. That weird thing glowing a faint white in the darkness. More distant cries burning into his mind, Ariyama gritted his teeth and forced himself up, ignoring the stinging pain in his muscles. He didn't know what was going on, but if Yaranagi or Matsune were in trouble, there was no way in hell that he'd let them–

  “DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!”

  The roar was from Matsune again, and Ariyama released the distant sounds he was hearing were coming from her as well, probably to stop him from coming down. But his highest adrenaline had boosted every part of him except for his hearing, apparently.

  So now that he was here, what was going to happen?

  He heard more running footsteps from behind, and he knew Takemichi and the others were probably standing in the darkness with everyone else now too.

  He focused his attention back on the thing glowing dimly further in the darkness. It had an odd shape, almost like a long stick or a dagger…

  Or even a sword.

  But before his mind could wander too much, a painful vibration blasted through Ariyama's whole body, starting at his feet. The room shook and Ariyama felt like he was about to lose his dinner all over the smooth stone floor.

  Huh, smooth again.

  So this room was similar to the stairwell, in the way it was oddly well-kept, unaffected from the elements like the higher parts of the building were.

  The shuddering from the ground suddenly stopped, and there was a horrible screeching sound of stone and stone, as Ariyama watched a wall of hard cement jitter upwards, sealing off the room from the foot of the stairs. Vaguely, he heard the far-away shouts of panic and disbelief from Jack and Yasami and everyone else.

  Ariyama began to get queasy again.

  No way that just happened.

  What is this place?

  Even a ghost couldn't do this.

  What is this place?

  As he pondered the question, the unearthliness of the building didn't end, as a sudden flashbang of blue light filtered into the room and Ariyama's eyes – which had gotten adjusted to the darkness for a long time at this point – watered and squeezed shut.

  Ariyama waited a few moments, feeling the sudden influx of coldness on his skin, yet the bright light burning through his eyelids. He forced his eyes open, and stared.

  Seven torches on either wall of the room had lit up in their brackets, on full display unlike the ones lining the stairwell. They glowed a bright and deep blue, and yet let off no heat. The chill that flew against Ariyama all of a sudden was definitely from those things.

  They lit up the whole room in the strong glow, so Ariyama could see everything now. Takemichi, Jack and Yasami behind him, trying to force the cement seal open to escape up the stairs again, and Yaranagi with Matsune ahead, her hand on his arm, forcefully keeping him from moving any more forward. Yaranagi could've easily broken free and stomped on over to the glowing shard, but maybe the severity of her grip made him hesitant.

  As for the glowing shard of a blade, it rested on an ornate pedestal on the top wall of the room, hovering slightly off its surface, bobbing up and down in the air like it was floating on water. Staring at slightly more, Ariyama noted that it was indeed a sword, yet its blade was snapped off halfway up, the severed blade ending in a strip of jagged steel. It looked like it had been blown off or even torn off, as opposed to just cut through.

  The hilt was longer than usual, seemingly built for two or even three hands to grasp it. The hilt was spread like a hawk's wings.

  He could see everyone now. In the shade of blue that illuminated their faces, he saw the confusion in Yarangi and the look of pure terror in Matsune. Why was she acting so strange? Everything was not normal, of course, but why was she of all people acting so much more intensely?

  “Everyone, please! I can't explain right now, but I know what this is now! I had a feeling since the beginning but now I'm sure! We have to run now if we're going to survi–”

  Then came Takemichi's meek voice, cutting through Matsune's with a weak scream.

  “What the hell is that!?”

  Instantly, Ariyama looked over to where Takemichi had been pointing.

  The room itself was made of the same smooth gray stone as the stairs, and was relatively tall and wide. And over on the right hand side wall, there was a spot where there were no flickering blue torches. Instead, a large crack split the section of the wall down the middle.

  For a moment, Ariyama was confused as to why Takemichi was screaming over a crack in the wall, but then he saw it.

  The crack opened just slightly along the fracture, wide enough to see something glinting from the darkness. A flash of something metallic, yet weathered with age, draped in vines and dripping with moss and mud.

  There was a loud creaking sound, as a massive figure broke through the crack, opening it open into a large wound in the stone.

  And the figure who bled from the wound was a massive creature.

  It was like a medieval knight, standing at least ten or more feet, in armor rusted and cracked from either battle or time. In its hand it held a massive saber that was so long it's tip scraped against the adjacent wall, spraying orange sparks that contrasted against the blue filter covering the sealed room.

  Ariyama felt his stomach plummet. His knees shuddered and he had to force himself with all his might to stop them from giving out.

  “Wh-what is…”

  He couldn't even put together words. He was vaguely aware of the explosion of panic around him. Takemichi was screaming, Jack and Yasami and Yaranagi cursing and stumbling back. But once again, Matsune acted differently. Her face was drained of color, but she seemed to steel herself before running forward. That silver bracelet on her right wrist gleamed again, as it always did.

  But it was different this time.

  It glowed. But it glowed a purple-pink color.

  Before Ariyama got a good look at what she was doing, the charging knight reached them.

  And zoomed right past Ariyama.

  It suddenly got very quiet.

  And Takemichi's screaming was cut off.

  Ariyama didn't want to look, he wanted to keep staring at Matsune and continue trying to ignore her beauty. Everything would be back to normal, like it always was, but Ariyama knew he had to.

  He didn't want to, but he craned his neck around anyways.

  Matsune was crying out, and everyone else was swearing, unable to stay standing straight and falling over themselves

  When Ariyama saw it, he swallowed the burning bile that rose in his throat. His hands at his sides squeezed so tight it hurt.

  The knight had its head ducked, its knees bent. It was facing the wall, its saber extended through the smooth stone.

  But pinned against the wall, the sword piercing through his chest, his blood running down his pant leg and pooling at his feet…

  Takemichi looked up at Ariyama, open mouth dripping blood. His face was aghast with shock, the rest of his body rigid and unmoving, even as his head swiveled to look at him.

  “You… promised me you would…”

  But he didn't have enough strength to even finish a single sentence. Takemichi Yuno's slight shoulders slumped and his head lolled forward, his chin touching his chest.

  His blood-splattered glasses fell off his nose and cracked against the floor below him.

  And then he was dead.

  Just like that.