Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“He’s really invested in that book, huh?”

“He’s invested in many books. He brought a lot of those on this trip. I did give him that one, though.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have, Iguro. He’s an addict now.”

Shinazugawa was driving, Iguro was in the passenger seat, and I was in the backseat on the right side. The two took turns driving, and I just sat in the back since I’m fourteen and can’t drive yet. If I’m being brutally honest, I would crash the car. 

The reason why we are on this road trip is because we really needed a break. Shinazugawa was getting more and more angered lately due to people causing a ruckus, and Iguro was just tired of stupid people, and the amount of things that went wrong in the chemistry class. I was just tired of schoolwork. So, all of our friends said we needed a getaway trip. We were going to say no because we are stubborn people, but with how stressed we have been recently, we decided to go on this trip. Just the three of us. We don’t exactly know what we will do when we get there, but we’ll just look up some good places or ask some people where we could go.

Right now, I’m reading a book about some weird monsters that can only be found in a strange hotel. We have some rock music on, but I’m paying no mind to it right now. It was raining outside, which I paid more attention to than the music I like. I like the rain a lot, and I do love playing in it. Sometimes, it makes me slightly sick and then everyone jumps my ass for it. Not in a bad way, of course. Back to the main topic, though.

Not only am I reading, I’m waiting for when we finally get to the hotel we are staying at, because I’m sick of sitting in this car at this point. 

“Shinazugawa-san, are we close?” I ask. He sighs and nods.

“Yes, Tokito, we’re close. Stop acting like a four-year-old that’s going to Disneyland,” he grumbles. “It’s just another twenty minutes, so calm your ass down.”

“Fine,” I mutter. I pick up my book once more, and I’m on a page with a monster called “Figure.” Pretty interesting monster, blind but has super hearing.

I remember when the three of us went on a short trip to a library, and I couldn’t decide on a book to pick. Iguro gave me that book because he saw that I was being too indecisive. I read it and liked it when I saw the first page. He also gave in and just gave me all the books I was holding.

This whole entire trip, too, everyone has been texting and asking us how we are doing, even though we are fine every time. I get they’re our friends, and that they can get worried. But it can get annoying.

I’m reading, and the next thing I know, I close my eyes, and then I’m being shaken.

“We’re here now, Tokito.”

I begin to open my eyes. My vision is blurry and unfocused, so I rub them. Eventually, my eyes do focus, and I see Shinazugawa shaking me. “We’re here. You slept like a baby for the rest of this drive! You always do whenever you fall asleep! We tried to wake you up for five minutes straight.”

“Mmm...” I mutter groggily. “Do we go in now?”

“No, we’re just going to sit in here and wait for someone to steal this car,” Shinazugawa says, rolling his eyes.

Iguro sighs. “Of course we go in. It’s raining outside.”

“Okay.”

We get out of the car and quickly grab a bit of our stuff (we decided to come back for most of it once we check in) and head inside. As we are walking inside, Shinazugawa and Iguro have a conversation of their own.

“At least most hotels are pet friendly. Kaburamaru would likely suffer without me,” Iguro quietly told Shinazugawa.

Shinazugawa looked at him. “Then this hotel wouldn’t be ‘friend friendly’ then.”

“Oh, shut up.”

The two laugh a bit before Shinazugawa suddenly perks up. “If that were the case, Tomioka would get kicked out immediately.”

“Wow…” I mutter as we head in.

Once we get inside, Shinazugawa and Iguro are up at the front desk, while I’m just behind them. I hear the ding of an elevator and it opens. I slowly walk away and into the elevator just as a few people get out. 

I have a strange temptation to push every button in the elevator, so I reach up and do so (there are 24 floors, is that really neccesary?). There are three buttons left before someone comes in and says “You don’t want to do that.”

The sound of the voice startles me and I whip my head to the right quickly. He looks old, and is definitely tall. Maybe about Shinazugawa’s height or taller. I can tell he works here.

“Bad things happen to people who press all the buttons. What happens might be as unlucky as the number four...” he says in a low voice.

“Oh...” I mumble.

He suddenly smirks. “Ah, but those are legends. Superstitions! Don’t need to scare little ones like you.”

“I’m fourteen!” I exclaim.

“Still younger than the people you came with.”

Suddenly, a woman comes and inserts keys into a keyhole, resetting all the buttons. I look up and smile faintly as a thank you before my face turns into a weirded out expression. Shinazugawa and Iguro come in and are talking to each other before they see me.

“Hey. Heard you were about to push every button in the elevator,” Iguro says. “You don’t want to break the elevator.”

“Don’t be stupid, Tokito,” Shinazugawa adds. “Anyway, we’re on the third floor. At least we’re not on the fourth.”

“Superstitions...” I mutter before the elevator doors close.

In our room, room 333, we all agreed that it is a very nice room. Very big, too. Shinazugawa and Iguro left and told me to stay in the room while they get all our stuff. I got out some sakura mochi that Kanroji packed for us all and ate a few pieces. It was really good, to be honest. I finished it all by the time Shinazugawa and Iguro came back from their little adventure to grab our things.

Afterwards, we all took a quick shower (we took turns, because no way in HELL are we taking a shower crammed together like that. Do people actually do that?) and changed into some pajamas. There are beds for everyone in here, so we just sit in our own beds and do our own things. Well... Shinazugawa was already asleep. Iguro let me play with Kaburamaru for a bit, and I was happy. Iguro was reading the book I was so locked into earlier. He hasn’t read it at all, and now he looks he is actually liking the book.

I feel pretty proud, since he was the one who chose this book. He read for ten minutes, and I played with Kaburamaru until Iguro closed the book.

“We should go to sleep now, Tokito. We can figure out what we do in the morning.”

I nod. I’m pretty tired anyways. Iguro turns off the lights as I get under the covers. I’m fast asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.

When I opened my eyes the next morning, I saw the curtains were already open, making me groan in annoyance. I closed my eyes, put my arm across my eyes. “What the hell...?” I mumbled. “Close the fucking curtains...”

I heard Shinazugawa chuckle. “You gotta wake up at some point. Iguro was placing Kaburamaru to see if you would wake up, but you just slept. And we began yelling at each other for where to go. And you still slept. How the hell do you do that?”

“I don’t know,” I say quietly. “Also, why would you yell at each other? That’s so stupid...”

“Sorry about that. I know Shinazugawa. Tried to calm him, but he just started screaming,” Iguro says, sighing.

“Sorry. Anyway, we’re going to a nice looking mall, and we can get some more snacks. You have a big appetite like Kanroji does,” Shinazugawa tells me.

My appetite can’t be that big... Right?

...

Nevermind. Nothing can make me even lose it. Food is good. Really good.

“I guess I do,” I mumble.

“Not ‘you guess,’ you DO have a big appetite. Now you need to change. Can’t go out in your damn pajamas,” he says to me.

“Fine, fine, Mr. Old Man...” I grumble.

“YOU’RE talking about ‘Mr. Old Man’ when you have the memory of an old man,” Shinazugawa retorts. 

“What the fu-”

“Calm down, both of you,” Iguro blurts out. Both of us stop immediately. The silence is awkward.

“Let’s... just get changed and go out…” Shinazugawa said, before turning to me. “Tokito, you got a whole new outfit from Kanroji recently, right? You wanna wear that?”

I smile faintly and nod. I go and grab the clothes out of my suitcase, go in the bathroom for privacy, and put them on. It was a nice outfit: grey shirt, dark blue striped pants (stripes are slightly lighter), olive green belt, pastel blue plaid jacket (the lines are darker, probably powder blue), dark yellow scarf that had flower print, and a beret that matches my hair (teal). The hat also has two golden cat heads on it, which I find cute.

I come out of the bathroom a little later, and Shinazugawa smirks at me. “Well, don’t you look all dapper? You look like you’re about to go to a traditonal Japanese celebration.”

I chuckle. “To be fair... This outfit was made for special occasions...” I clear my throat. “You guys should get some clothes on too. Can’t go out in your pajamas.”

A few minutes later, Shinazugawa and Iguro are now in different clothes.

Shinazugawa was wearing a white long sleeved shirt with buttons on the collar, which he just leaves unbuttoned. He has a bright green jacket that is unzipped. He was also wearing black jeans. Iguro had a dark purple shirt, black pants, and his signature black and white striped jacket. It’s really baggy, but it looks good on him.

I then grab my dark green backpack that I carry when we travel. I put in some snacks and water in case anyone gets hungry and/or thirsty out of the blue. Iguro looks at me.

“Gotta carry food all the time...” Iguro mutters. “You guys can have it all. I don’t really care much for it.”

“You gotta have some food for once in your life...” Shinazugawa mutters back. We then put on some shoes (Iguro and Shinazugawa have black shoes, I have my signature sandals because it’s actually quite warm in Japan. Our clothes are thin as hell luckily. No, I’m not barefoot, by the way.) and walk out the door.

“Shinazugawa...”

He turns to me. “What?”

“How come these elevators don’t break, even though they’re used so often?” I ask, genuinely. He then looks at me like I’m the stupidest person that was ever known.

“I’m a fucking math teacher, not a goddamn mechanic or an electrician. I’m also not the one who designed the place. Do I look like either of those?” he says.

“Honestly, you look like you got electrocuted,” I reply. Shinazugawa tenses up, but he takes a deep breath while shaking his head.

All he says is “Anata wa hendesu” before we go into the elevator. I am about to press a random button before Iguro pushes me back.

“Keep this kid in the back…” Shinazugawa mutters, but I know he is joking. We respect each other a lot. He’s like a brother to me. Shinazugawa presses the button for the lobby, and the elevator closes and we start heading down. I kind of forget why we are leaving, and the silence is awkward.

“What are we doing again?” I suddenly blurt out, and they both look exasperated. Iguro puts his hand on his head and sighs. Shinazugawa just looks grumpy.

“Oh my god, you are actually stupid…” he mutters before the elevator door opens and we head out. 

Big ass mall, here we come… I think. As we get into the car, I steal a quick glance at Kaburamaru. I love him. And snakes in general. Snakes are pretty cool in my opinion. Suddenly, I hear Shinazugawa’s phone ringing at full blast, and it is some heavy metal song I forgot the name of. It causes me to jump again, like it does all the time. This guy needs a new ringtone.

Iguro looks over at him. “Is it Kanroji?”

Shinazugawa sighs, and hands the phone to Iguro. It’s definitely Kanroji. He answers it and immediately says, “Hi, Kanroji.”

I can hear her squealing on the other end. “Ah! Iguro-san! How are you?”

“Good. Tokito and Shinazugawa are doing good as well.”

“Yokatta! I hope you’re enjoying your trip!” she exclaims.

“We are,” I say. 

I hear Kanroji gasp. “Muichiro-kun! Genkidesu ka?”

“Genkida yo,” I reply.

“Is Shinazugawa-san alright as well?”

“Yes. Now shut the fuck up,” he grumbles.

“Shinazugawa. Be nice,” Iguro grumbles back.

“Well, I’m just glad all of you are doing well! But I have to go now! Sayonara!” she gleefully shouted before hanging up. Shinazugawa then takes his phone back. 

“Now since that’s over, we can head out now,” Shinazugawa mutters. I smile faintly, feeling very ready. This will be a very nice break from all the stress school gives us all.

I just want to enjoy this day out, and this trip in general.

When we finally get there and are inside, we look around. The place is very very huge. Certainly not the place to be lost in. After looking around, the two look at me. 

“Please do NOT get lost in here. Can’t handle scrambling to find you,” Shinazugawa says.

“He’s right. Please stay close,” Iguro adds.

I nod. I don’t need to get lost right now. Fuck getting lost. We all begin walking, looking around a bit. I wonder if there’s an arcade. I don’t know why, but the three of us like arcade games. And who wins varies, so we always have a lot of fun. There were many games where I could crush the hell out of them. I close my eyes simply because I’m wondering.

I also stupidly wonder how it is like to be Kaburamaru. He seems to just... chill. All the time. If only Shinazugawa could be that chill. His anger issues are off the charts. He gets so mad at the drop of a hat-- literally! And then--

“Oi. Oi. Tokito. Get up.”

My eyes open and I see Shinazugawa. I can also feel him lightly slapping my face. I grab his hand to stop it, clearly showing that I’m awake.

“I’m up,” I blurt. I look around, and I’m lying on my side with my hands in front of my face. Did I faint? I sit up and look around. “What happened?”

“You tripped, then fell down and hit your head. You don’t look concussed, though...” Shinazugawa replies. He extends a hand, and I take it, being helped up. 

“Make sure that doesn’t happen again, Tokito, or I’ll make sure Kaburamaru strangles you,” Iguro says lowly. I know he wouldn’t do that, though, but I nod anyway.

“Is there an arcade here?” I ask suddenly. The other two sigh and shake their heads.

“Just fainted and you’re STILL worried about an activity for us to do. Typical,” Iguro mutters. We all laugh a bit before trying to find one. We eventually do and play some of the games for a little while. One we spent a lot of time on crushing each other on was Taiko no Tatsujin. Really fun game! 

Then we did driving/racing games and fun games before we head out. We’re all pretty hungry. Iguro tries to say that he doesn’t want to eat, but Shinazugawa and I calmly talk him into eating just a little bit.

The three of us leave the mall and head to a restaurant and we each order our favorite foods. I was wolfing down some furofuki daikon, Shinazugawa was eating ohagi, and Iguro ate vinegar soaked kelp. 

“Hey, this is pretty good. And Shinazugawa, you should tell everyone about your love for ohagi...” I teasingly tell him. He just shoots me a glare. 

“Hell no. No one needs to know that shit.” 

Iguro shrugs. “I don’t know, maybe people will warm up to you.”

“Just shut up about the ohagi...” he mumbles.

We all ate our food, and Shinazugawa and Iguro left a tip for the employees. I smiled as they did that. Lots of people should know those two have a soft side. As we pile back into the car, I take a piece of sakura mochi out of a bag... I packed in the bag. I basically inhaled it, because it was gone in less than five minutes. 

I felt tired though, so I went to sleep. The next thing I knew, I felt the car stop, and I woke up. I knew we were back. “Ready to head back?” Iguro asks, and I nod. We get out of the car and head into the hotel. As we walk into the lobby, we begin to talk a bit.

“Did Kaburamaru enjoy this adventure?” Shinazugawa asks, and Kaburamaru hisses, as if responding. Iguro chuckles softly at his snake.

“I think I’ll take that as a yes,” he answers back.

“Come on, Iguro-san. Kaburamaru enjoys your company in general!” I exclaim.

We then reach the elevator, and Shinazugawa presses the button for it to come. Eventually, after what felt like years, the door opened, and we went inside. The other two didn’t even keep me in the back. I was in front of them.

“So, what do you plan on doing back in the room?” Iguro asks.

Shinazugawa shrugs. “Don’t know yet.”

I chuckle. “I’ll just read for a bit.”

Iguro chuckles. “Of course you will.” The door closes and we stand for a bit. I then walk over to the buttons, reach up, and press them all. I actually do press them all.

“TOKITO, LEAVE IT!” Shinazugawa screams, pushing me to the back so harshly that I hit the wall and fell down. But it’s too late. Suddenly, the elevator shakes violently.

“That isn’t supposed to happen!” Iguro exclaims. We hold onto the walls tightly. I don’t even know it, but I begin to hyperventilate. Then, the elevator just stops. It begins going up normally and playing some weird music.

But… That’s not the music it usually plays. It’s different now. Shinazugawa looks at the both of us and huffs.

“You two alright?”

Iguro and I nod, not saying a word. Then, Iguro sighs and looks at me. “Okay Tokito, you need to stop touching things!”

Shinazugawa literally scowls at me. He scowled so hard that I was shocked his teeth didn’t break. “Why did you press every button in this elevator?!”

“I liked the sounds and the lights…” I mumble. 

“THAT’S YOUR FUCKING REASON?! You just LIKED THE SOUNDS AND LIGHTS?! It’s just like how you ask about the shape of a goddamn cloud, except this is worse!” Shinazugawa screams. He takes a deep breath and begins to push the buttons. When they don’t work, he begins to slam them before sarcastically saying, “Great, it’s not working. Thanks, Tokito!” 

Then the elevator opens, and we see an… odd looking lobby. Not the lobby we were in. There’s no people at all, either. And it’s night and raining. It was daytime and sunny when we left today… What is going on…? I stupidly walked up to the bell and begin tapping it, ringing the bell. But then, I look up and see a door, with “001” on it, and there is a lock. I look up and see a key behind the desk. I run behind the desk, grab the key, and unlock it. I hear the elevator close, and I know there is no turning back.

“Wait, Tokito.”

I look up and see Iguro. “You sure this is a good idea?”

I look down in shame. “There’s no turning back now… We can only move forward.”

“Great! Just great! We’re stuck in a fake ass hotel now, thanks to you, Tokito! You’re a very intelligent individual! I’m sure you can figure out how to escape this place!” Shinazugawa begins yelling, in a sarcastic tone. He kicks the door open and stomps in, Iguro and I follwing suit, without stomping.

The room was just a hallway, and there was a door with “002.” 

I might be foreshadowing, but if there is 100 doors, I’m actually gonna scream.

We open up the next door, and I can see Shinazugawa is obviously trying not to go insane.

All three of us are. 

While attempting not to start freak the hell out, I get an idea.

“Wait... Maybe we can call for help? Iguro and I forgot to charge our phones, but you still have yours, Shinazugawa-san,” I suggest.

Shinazugawa takes out his phone without saying a word, then he growls and throws his hands up. “No fucking signal! Amazing!” 

“Then maybe Tokito is right. We really don’t have a choice...” Iguro mutters.

And that very much was true. But I have so many questions. What is this place? Why is it like this? Why are we here? Is it haunted? Are we going to be stuck here forever? Are we going to die here...? 

Suddenly, Shinazugawa decides to carry me. “This is so you don’t touch any more shit,” he states bluntly.

Actually, this is doing me a favor. I don’t have to walk now!

...

Now I just sound downright lazy. Which I’m not. 

As Shinazugawa and Iguro begin to walk, the question in my head just popped up and will still remain for a while:

What inhabits this place?

Chapter Text

We have been through six doors. We are now on Door 007.

Iguro began looting in the drawers, just to make sure we don’t miss anything useful. He found some gold coins, though, which confused the hell out of us. Shinazugawa still carried me in his arms, which it was obvious to the two of them that I was enjoying being carried right now.

All of a sudden, the lights flicker. We’re a bit confused, but then we hear a loud noise. Shinazugawa sets me down before yelling for us to get into a closet. I look around, and there are four closets. Each of us get in one. I’m going admit... I’m a little scared. 

Then the noise gets so loud, since it is in earshot. It rushes by and breaks the lights, plunging the room in darkness. We hop out of our closets and we look to see the next door open, lights on in that room. We glance at each other.

“Okay... This is actually weird,” I mutter.

“Shut the fuck up, you dumbass,” Shinazugawa growls, smacking me upside the head. “You’re the reason why we’re stuck in this shithole right now!” 

“Shinazugawa, don’t be so harsh. We get that he is the reason we’re here, but you can’t be too hard on him,” Iguro says as we walk into the next room. Iguro looks through some drawers, and I do the same, finding some gold coins. I wonder what these are for, but nobody knows, so I just sigh and go into the next room. Shinazugawa and Iguro follow suit.

In the next room, we opened the drawers and we got more gold. I found a gold bar with some gold coins. I put that in my bag, which I kinda forgot I had. We walk through more doors, all of them having literally nothing. We get to Door 013, and there is a lock. There is a door on the right side, with no key. I run into that room, and I see how big it is. A bed with some chairs, a desk on the right corner, a curved “roll up” desk smack in the middle, and a fireplace on the left side.

I folded up the cover of the desk and found a flashlight, to which I immediately snagged. I also opened up the other drawers and took all the gold coins. Shinazugawa taps me on the shoulder and I look up.

“Found the key on that red chair,” he says, pointing to a fancy looking chair by the fireplace. “Now let’s go.”

I nod and follow him as we both jog out of the room, Iguro follwing suit. Turns out he was at the window, watching the rain fall as I was just... looting. Shinazugawa puts the key and opens up the next door, and we walk in. This time, it is a room with multiple doors, all boarded up but one door with no number, and Door 014. I quickly go into the room with no number and see a chest. It is filled with a lot of gold and a lighter, so I stuff it in my bag. After I leave the room, I give the lighter to Shinazugawa. I already have a flashlight, anyway. We go through the next room.

The lights flicker again, signaling that entitiy is about to come. Iguro mutters quietly, but in annoyed way, “This is already getting REAL annoying...” We all hop into closets, waiting for that stupid monster to pass by. It does, breaking the lights in the process. As soon as the entity is gone, we hop out of the closets. We see the next door open, with lights on again, so we run inside. I wonder how long this is going to be.

I open up the first drawers I see, and I take some coins and some batteries, when I hear a voice call for to me.

“Tokito!”

I look up and see Iguro. He runs up and grabs my arm, dragging me into the next room. “Seriously, stop grabbing things.”

“You were doing the same thing earlier!” I yell. “And what if we need these? I already found a flashlight and a lighter! That’s already a sign, right? We’re likely going to have dark rooms in this place! So we probably will find important things if I keep opening up drawers.”

“Will you open up drawers in a run for your life?”

“Uh- I- Uh..” I stutter. Okay, he’s got me there. “Whatever. That’s different,” I mumble, breaking out his grip and turning away. Shinazugawa then grabs both of our arms and drags us into the next room.

“Stop fucking around like children lost in a supermarket,” Shinazugawa snarls. “We have better things to do than rob a treasure worth of money from every drawer you see.”

We both sigh but stay quiet as he lets go and lets us walk on our own once more. The next few doors have nothing really wrong with them. The next room is like a puzzle. There is a long table and a fireplace in the front. I look at them. “We just have to put the portraits in the right shape,” I tell them. I hear Shinazugawa mutter, “How old does this place think we are? Two?”

We hear a ding sound and the fireplace goes under, and we see the next door, which is 021. We go open it and into the next room. The lights flicker, but it flickers longer. All of us glance at each other, shocked and confused. There are no closets, but we know something is up. I feel like in the book I read, this was a different entity. Can’t entirely remember.

I bolt to the next door, opening it, only for us to be in a dark hallway, blue enveloping our vision, and weird sounds. It’s actually freaking me out.

“Go!” Shinazugawa yells, before we all start running. We run for a few seconds before we see two words flash in our vision: “TURN AROUND”

Shinazugawa is perplexed. “What? Why would we need to-”

All of a sudden, a bright blue flash envelops our vision, and we are knocked back, disoriented. I fall against a drawer and cut my palm, and I grunt in pain.

It hurts so bad now... I think before standing up and running, Iguro and Shinazugawa follwing suit, before seeing TURN AROUND again. “Do as it says!” I yell. “We got hurt the first time! We don’t want that happening again!”

So that is exactly what we do. We keep turning around every time it tells us to. But after a few turns, I begin to feel pretty dizzy from all of this. Iguro looks at me. “Tokito, you okay?”

I nod, seeing the words, and turning around for another time. This time, we see the next door, and we go full speed and open it. We all fall out of the door, and the room is now completely normal. I get up on my hands and knees, still slightly woozy, but it’s beginning to subside now. Shinazugawa comes next to me and puts a hand on my shoulder.

“Nice job back there,” he says. “We probably might’ve died if it weren’t for you.”

I sigh, mumbling a small “thank you.” We stand up and head into the next room. When we go inside, I just walk over to the wall, sigh and sit down, hugging my knees to my chest. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this... I think. Iguro sees how I look and sits down next to me.

“Daijōbudesuka?” he asks.

I shrug. “Wakaranai!” I shout. “I don’t know anymore! I caused this, and… I’m hungry.”

“You got snacks in your bag, right? So, just eat up,” Iguro tells me.

I perk up and take off my bag. I take out a small container with some onigiri, and I ate two pieces of it.

“I’m actually glad you packed those snacks, Tokito. I don’t know how long we’re staying here,” Shinazugawa told me. 

“It’s a bit heavy to carry this,” I admit. “Hopefully I don’t get scoliosis.”

“Damare. Son’na ko to dekinai,” Iguro says.

I chuckle. “I’m just kidding.”

He looks down at my hand. “Holy crap. That’s a real nasty cut you got there.”

I look down, and I see it is almost to the point of being called deep, and it is bleeding. “It hurts,” I admit, looking up, hating the sight of this.

“It definitely looks like it hurts,” he replies, still looking at the cut. “Hopefully that doesn’t get infected.”

“Yeah…” I mutter, feeling the blood drip. Iguro then pats my shoulder and stands up.

“Alright, we have to keep going now.”

I nod before standing up, and we keep going. The next door we go through is… well… something. 

There are a lot of rooms, but there is furniture blocking a part of the hallway. Straight down, there is a door with a lock, numbered 024. I walk to the furniture, and see a door numbered 023. I look back, and Iguro and Shinazugawa just look confused. 

“Okay, who the fuck thought it was a good idea to design a hallway like this? And how did this furniture get here?! Did it just… fly?!” Shinazugawa yelled.

“Who knows what the hell goes on in here,” Iguro mumbles. “This would normally be a stupid decision, but let’s split up and look through each and every room, in every nook and cranny. I feel stupid saying that, but I don’t care right now.”

I go into the first few rooms while Iguro and Shinazugawa go further down. I look around in the drawers (finding some gold in the process), on the bed, under it, on the chairs… and I find nothing. I come out of the sixth room in the hall.

“Find anything?” I ask. There was an awkward silence afterwards. “I’ll take that as a no. Let’s go into that hallway over there,” I say, pointing to the few rooms behind the piled up furniture. I take them to the door that leads there. This room is just an empty L-shaped hall and then we immediately dash into the other rooms. As I look in the drawers (and find nothing but a bandage, which I use a bit of immediately for my hand), I hear Iguro sigh from outside.

“Fuck. I can’t see the number on this…” he mumbles. He goes to the furniture and sees the door, but the number is blurred. “Well, shit.” He turns back to us. “Do any of you guys remember the door number?”

“No,” I mumble. I hear Shinazugawa mutter “of course you don’t.” But it’s obvious that he can’t remember either. “Just give me the key,” he says, and Iguro hands him the key.

“What if that’s the wrong door?” I ask, looking up at him (Honestly, how the flip is he so tall?). 

“If I’m being honest, he could be right, Shinazugawa. I wouldn’t open that if I were you,” he adds.

“Psh, I’m not scared of some silly door,” he says, before walking up to the door and unlocking it. But right after that, an entity literally claws at Shinazugawa and knocks him back while letting out this demonic screech, and it scares us too. Iguro and I jumped like a cat that saw a cucumber. 

Iguro runs, crouches down, and helps Shinazugawa sit up. “I hate to say it, but I told you so.”

“Shut the fuck up! Honestly, what the actual FUCK is this place?! How does pressing every button in an elevator lead to this?! I would rather be stuck in the hotel elevator, than this shitty situation! What kind of bitchassery is this? Who was the shithead bastard that pulled off how this works-”

“Shinazugawa. You’re sounding worse than a drunken sailor,” Iguro says, and I snicker from behind. Shinazugawa whips his head around and gives me a death glare.

“And you shut up too! You’re the whole reason we got into this mess, anyway, so keep your mouth shut!”

“Fine, fine,” I say, still stifling my giggles. “Just hand me the key and I’ll take us to the right door, you moron.”

Shinazugawa hands the key, but he’s hurting. I feel really bad, so I crouch next to Iguro. “You okay?”

He nods, but not before clutching his chest, some blood seeping through his shirt. It’s definitely wounded, bad. Iguro’s eyes widen. I hand him the bandage, and he quickly bandages Shinazugawa’s chest, putting pressure on the wound. 

It honestly hurts me seeing others hurting, especially them. We’ve grown quite close and we see each other as brothers at this point. Shinazugawa and Iguro are especially close. They’re best friends, and that much is obvious.

Iguro tightens the bandage and helps Shinazugawa to his feet. “I’m okay,” he says. “I’m okay, don’t worry about me.”

I sigh in relief. “Thank goodness. Now let’s get to that door.”

Both of them nod and stand up. We walk towards the door, and I unlock it, and we go into the next room. 

Honestly, at this point… I can’t even begin to imagine what will happen in the next rooms.

Chapter Text

Hey y’all! Today, I’m starting my freshman year! So I won’t be as active! But I may try to discreetly write in class >:3

I hope today is a first day back! I love you all so so much! Have a great day!