The frigid air seemed to solidify as the red-haired girl took a step forward.
Amidst the dark, ruined hallway, she stood out like a splash of color from another world—smiling, waving, approaching the trio with an eerie cheerfulness that clashed violently with their grim surroundings.
"That's..."
Yotsuya Miko was the first to sense it: a jarring dissonance that made her temples throb.
The girl didn't belong here.
Not like Alice, not like the twisted students and teachers, not even like Takakai, Kumami, or herself. It was as if two entities overlapped within her—one human, one something else—blurring together in a way that made Miko's vision swim.
"Hellooooo~"
The girl wobbled unsteadily on a crumpled cardboard box, blinking in confusion before regaining her balance with an almost comical flail of arms. Her red pigtails swayed with the motion.
Takakai stared, dumbfounded.
She looks... kind of dumb?
"Miss Kita? What are you doing here?"
Kumami was the first to speak, her voice tight with a tension that made her cigarette tremble between her lips. The ash dropped unnoticed to the floor.
"Kita?"
Takakai's mind raced through his otaku knowledge before landing on the reference: Kita Ikuyo, the sunshine guitarist from Bocchi the Rock!, nicknamed "Kita-Kita" by fans for her name's punny rhythm ("Here she comes~ There she goes~").
So she's a player too? And a Crimson Moon-levelone at that?
"You know her?" Miko whispered to Kumami, her fingers tightening around Takakai's sleeve.
"She was part of a Tokyo trio during the last mass raid on Fujika Academy. Good kids—well, except one weirdo. But this..." Bearmi's bronze eye pulsed faintly as she scrutinized the girl. "I don't like this."
Her hands flexed, the cleaver's edge glinting even in the dim light.
"Were her teammates named Hitori Gotou and Nanami Aoyama?" Takakai asked, watching Kita's reaction carefully.
"You know them?"
The girl—Kita—perked up instantly at the names, her previously vacant eyes gaining a spark of recognition. One pigtail flipped over her shoulder as she tilted her head.
"Youuuu... know Hitori-chan? Ehehe~"
Her giggle was airy, distant, like a recording played through faulty speakers. Behind it, the sound of blades scraping concrete grew louder, though no source was visible.
As Kita shuffled closer, Takakai's Blessings screamed: Human and specter, fused. Miko's vision warped around the girl like repelling magnets, the air itself seeming to reject her presence. Kumami just stubbed out her cigarette against the wall and stepped forward, her boots crunching on broken plaster.
"You're Kita Ikuyo, right?"
Kita tilted her head further, the motion unnaturally smooth. A trickle of black fluid seeped from her left ear.
"Kita...? Mm! I'm Kita! And you're... Kumami-san?"
Her smile didn't reach her hollow eyes.
"Do you remember why you're here?"
"Why...?"
The question froze her. Her fingers twitched at her sides, nails digging into her palms hard enough to draw blackened blood.
"Hitori-chan... Danger... Wrong place..."
Her form flickered—human one second, a pale specter the next, the transition accompanied by a wet tearing sound. The hallway lights buzzed violently.
"Not... here... Card... ID..."
A trembling finger pointed at Takakai's keycard, then—
Poof.
She vanished.
The sudden silence rang louder than any scream.
"...Well, that happened."
Takakai blinked at the empty space where she'd stood. A single red hair floated slowly to the ground.
Kumami lit another cigarette with hands that didn't quite shake. "Her squad handled Yoruyama Academy's B3-B6. Guess it went sideways." She exhaled sharply. "What you just saw? That'sSpecter Possession—Rank 8 on 'Worst Ways to Die' for Crimson Moons.Half-dead, half-specter, too scrambled to even know she's gone."
Her tone was clinical, but her grip on the cleaver turned her knuckles white.l
A girl crept down the darkened hallway, ignoring Sawatari Rika's increasingly frantic shouts.
That psycho's gone. I'm getting out!
At the stairwell, a voice hissed from behind the fire door:
"Outside... dangerous... Go back..."
"Wah—?!"
Kita Ikuyo stood behind the door, her smile stretching too wide. The swimming pool's emergency lights reflected in her unblinking eyes.
"Y-You're another student, right? Move! I'm leaving!"
"Dangerous... Go back..."
Kita beckoned with one hand while the other remained pressed against the door. Her fingernails were torn and bloody.
Fed up, the girl shoved past—
—and felt ice-cold breath on her neck.
CRUNCH.
Her skull split down the middle, the wound carving deep into her brain as she collapsed. The stairwell door creaked shut behind her body.
Back in the classroom, Rika heard knocking.
Through the window, she saw two figures:
The missing girl.
And Kita Ikuyo, grinning behind her.
"Outside... dangerous... Don't open..."
Their voices merged as the lock clicked open.