Zero Times Two

The moment their eyes opened… they weren’t in the world they knew.

They were in his.

A weightless drop. A cold shift in the air. The world around them pulled itself into shape like paint spilled over an invisible canvas.

Shina.

Their town.

But twisted and warped.

The sky was dark. No moon. No stars. Just churning clouds and a heavy red haze bleeding across the horizon. Buildings stood where they should… but slightly crooked, or cracked, or shifting when not stared at directly. The borders of the city vanished into fog and ink. There was no outside Shina. There was only this.

“This is…” Hatsue’s breath misted as she spoke.

“...Hell, isn’t it?” Mitsuaki muttered.

Their uniforms fluttered slightly in an invisible breeze. The dream-layer shimmered faintly beneath their feet, like a glitch in the air itself.

“Wooooah!” Naomi gasped, spinning around with both hands in the air. “It’s like a VR horror game! But without the VR!”

She stopped. “…So basically just a horror game.”

“Wonderful. Is there gonna be a boss battle too?,” Hatsue deadpanned.

“Is this really Katsuragi’s dream…?” Mitsuaki asked, still glancing around like the buildings might lunge at him.

“He’s not dreaming,” came Honoka’s voice through the dream link. Though she wasn’t physically there, her voice echoed gently in their minds like radio static turned silk.

“This is his domain. A specter-infused dreamspace anchored in his subconscious. That means the laws of reality bend to his will.”

“You make that sound totally casual,” Naomi whispered.

Then—

A pop of light.

And suddenly, Meh was floating mid-air just ahead of them, like a summoned balloon.

“Eiji-dono! Mizuno Naomi! And… assorted extras! Welcome to the boundary of the crimson-tainted realm!”

Hatsue’s eyes widened as she stepped back in shock.

“W-WHAT is that?!”

“Oh,” Naomi chirped, “That’s Meh-chan!”

“Is… is this the eyeball shikigami you all kept talking about?” Mitsuaki stared with genuine concern. “Why does it float like it owns the place?!”

“The Akahebi owns the place actually—spiritually speaking!” Meh replied.

“Great. Floating egg. Talking like an old nobleman.” Hatsue crossed her arms. “Truly we’ve entered hell.”

“Ahem.” Meh spun in midair, “I’ve tracked the source of the domain’s instability. All spiritual currents lead to one place…”

They turned.

“The school.” Honoka continued solemnly.

Their high school building stood at the end of the road, tall and suffocating. Its windows flickered like dying fireflies. One buzzed red. Another was shattered to pieces. The front gates yawned open like the maw of something sleeping but hungry.

“The roof,” Meh finished, eye narrowing with unusual seriousness. “Shinichiro Katsuragi waits there.”

Eiji cracked his knuckles.

“Then let’s not keep him waiting.”

Mitsuaki cracked his knuckles, while Naomi and Hatsue nodded.

No more words were needed. Just footsteps on warped concrete, echoing louder than they should. The dream wanted them to be heard.

The four of them ascended a cracked decaying staircase. Every so often a few eyes would pop out of the concrete, silently looking at them. When the eyes weren’t in the stairs they were in the walls or windows.

“Creepy bastard…” Mitsuaki hissed.

Then the school hallway stretched on.

Red. The kind of red that doesn’t come from any lightbulb.

Each step echoed against the twisted silence like they were intruding on something sacred.

Mouths sprouted from the walls, cackling slowly.

“Is this how Katsuragi dreams of the school?”

“I don’t think it’s safe to assume that.” Honoka replied, her voice projected in everyone’s head, “The Akahebi’s influence is too significant.”

“…But the possession specter only amplifies feelings that are already there… right?” Hatsue mused.

“School must have been hell for him.”

“…And now he’s making it hell for us too.”

Eiji completed Mitsuaki’s sentence, a silence settling over everyone.

With every step, the school grew less like a school and more like something pretending to be one. Desks turned to shapes. Signs turned to smears. The walls pulsed faintly like lungs. The hallway twisted, stretched and then straightened back again.

A staircase appeared at last. It spiraled up in impossible angles, walls crawling with flickering shadows. The lights buzzed overhead like a thousand flies.

At the top, a rusted door.

Eiji placed a hand on it, and slowly opened it.

The rooftop did not open up to a normal sky. Instead, it revealed a void. An endless, screaming red mist rolled across a sky with no stars. The rooftop extended far, warped like a sacred battleground.

And there he stood.

Katsuragi.

Or… what was left of him.

Tall. Gray-skinned. His limbs had stretched unnaturally, legs shredding through his tattered school pants. One eye human. The other—a gleaming red serpent slit. His face was warped, but was still undeniably his. Snake heads sprouted grotesquely from his back like a hydra blooming from his bones. His tongue flicked, a forked thing, twitching between fanged teeth.

He smiled.

“Welcome… to the only place where I matter,” his voice echoed—layered, dual-toned. Katsuragi’s voice overlapped with a hissing, slithering growl beneath it.

“What took you so long, Kanzaki? And why did you bring those insects with you? You take this as a field trip?”

The moment everyone laid eyes upon the apparition barely fitting into Katsuragi’s skin, their hair stood at attention. Honoka’s voice came shaky.

“Everyone…” she whispered before her father’s voice cut in, like a projection.

“This place is not like we thought!” His tone was panicked,

“The Akahebi has seized complete control of this realm! It knew we were coming!”

“What does that mean…?” Naomi asked, voice shaky.

“It means this is far worse than we thought…” Masaki drew a breath, “Pain inflicted here is real! Getting erased from the dream…. Isn’t as insignificant as we made it out to be.”

“Wait…” Hatsue’s eyes widened, “So you’re saying those snake heads…”

“Will sting like hell.” Mitsuaki clicked his tongue.

“Getting cold feet?” The Akahebi hissed.

Eiji stepped forward, “Shut the hell up, snake. We’re ending this.”

“Kanzaki-kun! Think about your next move! If you get erased… if you die in there you may not be able to go back in! It’s too dangerous!”

Masaki’s voice echoed in everyone’s head. If Eiji couldn’t come back inside then their plan of acting as his beacons inside their dreamscape for him to return where foiled.

“What’s more I can’t pull anyone out unless you’re erased!”

That last bit of info rattled everyone even further.

“Will I be erased if I drop from the roof? Should I?” Naomi looked down from the school rooftop.

“Damn it…” Mitsuaki looked at the Akahebi, each step of his rattling the concrete.

“Stay back.” Eiji said with a glance over his shoulder, “And don’t do anything stupid.”

Then, the world split with sound as an inhuman roar came. The rooftop shook. In a blink, Katsuragi lunged.

Eiji didn’t flinch.

Red lightning burst from his fingertips, sparking wildly across his knuckles as he braced himself.

The monster’s claw came crashing down—and Eiji punched into it. Fist against fang. The impact rocked the rooftop, a shockwave rippling through the warped air.

“Rrgh—!” Eiji grit his teeth as Katsuragi’s weight pushed down harder. Claws scraped his shoulder drawing blood. Still, he pushed back, grabbing the serpent-arm and slamming Katsuragi over his shoulder in a flawless throw.

“Senpai!!” Naomi called.

But Eiji already knew… that the fight was just getting started.

Katsuragi twisted in midair, landed on all fours like a beast, and charged again.

He was faster now.

Eiji ducked a claw swipe, then punched, a blast of lightning erupting point-blank into Katsuragi’s side.

The specter hissed—but grinned.

“You know how the host feels about you, Kanzaki Eiji?” The serpent voice spoke, lowly.

Eiji flinched.

“Betrayed.”

Then claws plunged into Eiji’s chest.

“Gah!”

The young man gasped, feeling every inch of black nail clawing within him, his blood draining on the floor.

“Kanzaki!”

“Senpai!”

The onlookers stared in horror.

“Who did I… ever betray?” Eiji looked within the human eye of the specter.

“Sometimes looking away is betrayal too.” The Akahebi hissed and tossed Eiji aside, his body sliding across the rooftop. Eiji tried to rise but his knees seemed to buckle beneath his weight.

The pain… it actually was real.

“Is that all, exorcist?!” The specter laughed.

Eiji glared back, lighting dancing across his arm as he tossed a red streak of thunder towards the Akahebi. However his strike didn’t have the usual firepower. It sputtered and died, the specter simply taking it without flinching.

Eiji’s eyes widened. His lightning… had never faltered before.

While the young man was still stunned, from within the smokescreen emerged a serpent head. It lunged straight for him at breakneck speed.

“End of the line!”

The specter bit down on his neck. Eiji didn’t move.

And in that moment—his body flickered.

And vanished.

Meh’s eye widened in horror.

“The anchor’s broken… Eiji-dono has been… cast out.”

Silence.

The specter’s fanged grin widened. Then he turned toward the others.

“…Well then,” Katsuragi hissed, crimson mist coiling around his feet. “Which of you insects wants to die next?”

“Everyone… Run!”

It was Honoka’s voice. Calm, firm, echoing in their minds through the link.

“Now!”

They didn’t need to be told twice.

Well… most of them didn’t.

“B-But… senpai i-is—!” Naomi’s knees hit the rooftop. Her frame shook like a brittle branch in wind.

“He’ll be fine! Come on!” Mitsuaki grabbed her arm, yanking her up. “We’re his extra lives, remember? We can’t die before he comes back!”

“Go, go—!” Hatsue shouted, pushing open the rooftop door.

They bolted into the stairwell. The rusted door slammed behind them—and instantly, it rattled from the other side.

A low, distorted cackle followed. Broken radio laughter… leaking through the cracks.

The three didn’t dare stop. They sprinted down warped stairs and into the hall, now blazing in blood-red light. Eyes and mouths rippled from the walls—watching, giggling, whispering.

They passed classrooms, one after another.

Then a voice.

“In there everyone!” Honoka directed them into a classroom, as Hatsue slid the door open and pushed them inside.

It looked like a classroom—but barely. The desks were half-melted. The windows pulsed faintly like lungs. And from the walls… fingers. Still and twitching.

They ducked behind desks, catching their breath.

For a second they all held their breath.

When a few moments of silence passed, they exhaled.

“What the hell… do we do?” Mitsuaki huffed.

“Keep it together…” Hatsue wheezed.

Naomi, breathing hard, clenched her fists.

“…We need to fight it! Stall until senpai comes back!”

“Yeah, I’m all for kicking its ass!” Mitsuaki agreed.

“…Are you both insane?” Hatsue nearly shouted. “Hey, I know that this thing will surely find us before long but we can’t just—“ She stopped, brows furrowed.

“Shiratori-senpai?” Naomi tilted her head.

“We can’t go in without a plan…” Hatsue said slowly, a grin forming on her face.

“Then all we need is a plan…” Mitsuaki nodded.

“Okay! Plan!” Naomi nodded and paused. “But… what kind of plan?”

⌁◉⌁

Back in the Takenaka household—

Eiji awoke with a ragged breath. Sweat clung to his body. His hand shot to his chest… then his neck.

He was back.

Back in Honoka’s tatami room. Dim candlelight danced against the walls. Meh was nowhere to be seen. Naomi, Mitsuaki, and Hatsue lay unconscious around the ritual circle.

Honoka sat beside him, eyes closed, hand pressed to the sigil. She didn’t stir at all, her presence tranquil but evidently elsewhere.

Only one person stood.

“Kanzaki-kun!” Masaki rushed over. “How do you feel?”

Eiji’s muscles ached like they were on fire. He swallowed.

“Like a bag of shit.”

Masaki pressed a hand to his shoulder.

“Then rest—!”

Eiji’s hand shot to the shaman’s forearm and squeezed.

“Put me back in.”

Masaki froze.

“…What?”

“I said, put me back in.”

“Are you out of your mind?! I told you already—the rules changed. That thing has full dominion! If you go back in, you’ll be even more vulnerable. Barely touching it will burn!”

“I can handle it.”

“Double the pain you felt!”

At those words, another side of Kanzaki Eiji emerged. An egotistical, even sadistic side.

But it was a side that refused to give up… no matter what.

“I didn’t feel anything…”

“Kanzaki-kun stop this nonsense! I can’t let you go back there!”

“And what are we supposed to do then? Let the others get erased and let this monster roam free and kill even more than it already has?”

Masaki remained silent when faced with the truth.

“I refuse to stand idly by while this happens. Put me back in.”

“Kanzaki-kun, the pain–”

“The pain was nothing. Double nothing’s still nothing,” Eiji muttered, standing shakily.

Masaki stared at him. But the look in Eiji’s eyes… wasn’t up for debate.

“…You really are Tsubaki’s kid, huh…” Masaki exhaled. “Fine. But listen, Kanzaki-kun… if you get erased again…”

He paused, voice dropping.

“Your soul might not come back. You could get trapped in between the dream and reality. Forever.”

Eiji nodded once.

“Then we better not lose.”