Intruders

The three loud knocks made both Kanji and Yuki jump. Their eyes locked. Yuki stood up and opened the door. On the other side, stood Mr. Yamaguchi, their arts teacher.

“Ah! Hatanaka-san and Okimoto-san! What are you doing in my office?” He said with a wide, stretching smile.

Kanji stood up, putting his tattooed hand close by his side, “Sorry! I saw it was empty, and we needed a place to talk.”

“We will clear out immediately,” Yuki added.

“Still, the teacher’s lounge is not the place for a heart-to-heart, is it? Is something wrong?” Yamaguchi said, a wondering look on his face. He looked Kanji up and down, which made Kanji wonder did he see my hand? and perhaps should he see my hand? But then decided he should not.

“N-no, everything is fine,” Kanji stammered, “just a private thing. I didn’t want the other students to overhear. That’s all.”

The teacher looked at Yuki, whose face Kanji could not see, still with his overly big smile which would not go down for a moment. “That’s good to hear! But please, avoid using this room again without permission. The teacher’s rooms are private for a reason. And remember,” He looked at Kanji again, “If you’re having any issues, feel free to come to me any time. Now, if you’ll excuse me…”

“For what reason?”

“Excuse me?”

“You said they are private for a reason, for what reason?” Kanji acted on his curiosity without thinking.

Yuki turned her head to him and uttered noiselessly with her mouth “Stop!” as she raised her eyebrows.

“Curious are we? I’m sorry to disappoint you, but there are no secret treasures here. We occasionally store exams and student files, which shouldn’t be viewed by others. Does that answer your question?”

The teacher’s left eyebrow raised just a little, which Kanji perceived as the teacher teasing him, testing him, laughing at how his feeble mind couldn’t uncover the true secret of this place. Yuki took his hand and led him out of the room. “Come on, let’s go.”

They walked past the teacher and into the hall.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“Forget about it,” she whispered back.

Kanji took one last glance back at the teacher, but he wasn’t smiling anymore.

*****

After preparing for the journey for a day, they reached the location on Awaji Island by train and bus. The sun had set two hours ago. It was dark and cloudy, yet the rain held off.

“I think it's here.” Kanji looked at his phone, and then pointed at the tall black metal fence of the mansion. His heart raced as they crouched and crawled their way on to a hill scouting the mansion, watching it from behind a bush.

“Do you see anything?” Kanji whispered as Yuki looked through the goggles.

“Looks abandoned. There’s a broken wall in the main building, and the lights are off,” She whispered back, “It’s… a strange architecture. Buke-Zukuri from the outside but crude stone bricks from the inside.”

“Bricks?”

“Yes. Let’s get closer, there’s a hole in the fence over there.”

“Wait, you stay here. I’ll go first,” Kanji said as he put an arm in front of her, “there’s no reason to endanger yourself.”

“Oh, that’s right. Sec…” She moved her backpack to her front and opened the main compartment. She dug inside, and took out a revolver, which appeared to be a renewed Type 26, which looked huge in her small hands.

Kanji’s eyes widened and his stomach turned, “Woah, woah, where did you get that?”

“It belonged to my great-grandfather. We’ve been holding on to it ever since. Isn’t it beautiful? They don’t make the bullet anymore, but I have a handful.”

Kanji, stammering, “H-how many do you have?”

“Twelve. More than enough, right?”

Kanji swallowed. “I… I hope so.”

“Anyways, I’m going with you. Let’s go.” Yuki said as she checked the cylinder, snapped it back in place, and started walking down the hill.

The cold wind blew on Kanji’s skin as they walked down and through the passage, the sound of crickets and nightjar echoed. Their feet pushed against the spring of oversized grass as they walked through the mansion yard. They reached the side of the building with the broken wall. Inside was complete darkness.

“Do we just go in?” Kanji whispered, “should we use a flashlight?”

“No, someone might see. Let’s just go.” Yuki whispered back.

They started walking inside the building, it was almost completely dark apart from the slither of moonlight.

“Ugh, the floor is flooded, it’s all water.” Yuki said.

Something solid contacted Kanji's leg and he stumbled forward, falling on his hands in the water which made a loud splash, his palms bruised. “Oh, shit.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. Maybe we should use the flashlight after all?”

Before Kanji could reach for his light, the room's lightbulb chandelier turned on.

“Shit, someone’s home! Hide!” Yuki whispered.

Huh?

They ducked behind an overturned dinner table in the corner. Stone bricks lined the room, making it dark despite full light. A staircase turned behind them, leading to a balcony hall. Ahead, a staircase descended into reddish mist.

It looked exactly like the room from the game.

“Oh, fuck. No, no, no. No fucking way.” Kanji muttered.

“What? Did you see something?”

How is this possible?

“Speak!”

“This looks like the house from the game!”

“W-what?”

“It looks just like it, if it really is then—”

“Shh!” Footsteps. Heavy, and slow echoed one after the other on the wet plank floor. They got closer and closer, dreadfully slow. Kanji’s palms sweat profusely.

Yuki typed quietly on her phone before showing the message to him: ‘where to go?’

He returned a message on his phone ‘stairs in front lead to hammer room’

They both peeked above the table. A tall, bald man stood in front of the staircase, wearing a gray Kariginu. His voice echoed in a confident, urgent tone:

“Hello, little ones. We are perfectly aware of your presence. Give yourself in immediately, and we can resolve your intrusion peacefully.”

They both looked at each other in silence. They pulled out their phones.

‘should we turn ourselves in?’ Kanji wrote.

‘no, it’s too dangerous. we don’t know what he’ll do.’

‘then what do we do?’

‘you know this place! think of something!’

Where could we go from here? Shit… It’s risky, but it’s the only good option.

Kanji continued typing:

‘we can reach the main hallway if we go up those stairs behind us, there we could lose him, and that’s if this place is really identical. And he said we, means there might be more.’

“Well? What will it be?” the man repeated.

‘or maybe it's a bluff.’

‘we can’t take that risk.”

The man let out a deep sigh. “So, it seems I will have to drag you out.” he started unknotting his Kariginu, revealing a chiseled and heavily tattooed body, and then started walking towards them.

Fuck, fuck. What do we do? We need a distraction. Something!

He looked upwards.

‘shoot the chandelier and we run,’ he typed.

She looked at him with a pale face, then quickly nodded. She leaned backwards on the ground so as not to expose her movements. She lifted the gun with shaking hands, and aimed at the chandelier.

Gunshot. Ears ringing. Complete darkness. A shattering of glass sounded from the middle of the room.

“RUN!” Kanji yelled as he took her hand, and they both started sprinting from the table up the stairs.

“WHAT THE FUCK? YOU HAVE A FUCKING GUN?!” The man cursed.

Panting and heart racing, Kanji ran through the dark hall to the best of his memory. Left, right, right. Smack, his leg hit something hard again, he fell, and brought Yuki down with him. The man’s footsteps echoed from the entrance, and they quickly hid behind a stone halfwall.

Kanji tried to stop breathing, but couldn't. His world started spinning.

The footsteps halted.

“So,” the man spoke, his voice full of spite, “you have chosen death.”

Kanji shook uncontrollably.

Light, but not from a lamp. A fire, from a high angle.

Kanji lifted his head from cover. The man held out his hand, and a ball of fire formed, growing in size, lighting up more and more of the room.

“Burn,” the man said.

“YUKI, GET DOWN!” Kanji yelled.

Explosion.