Chapter Text
The sound of shattering glass drags Yuuji from the precipice of sleep. It’s two in the morning, he has class in six hours, and he wants nothing more than to roll over and snuggle back into his blankets. Knowing those things, Yuuji drags himself out of bed anyways and follows a familiar route to the kitchen to find a mess of broken glass on the floor, right by the counter. The cupboard door is open.
“Grandpa, if you’re haunting me, you ought to be more original about it. Or, y’know, you could do it in the day.” His soft, tired voice barely carries across the room. Yuuji did not believe in the paranormal. He must’ve forgotten to close the cupboard, and he probably left the glass too close to the edge of the counter. Sure of those things, he grabs a broom and dustpan from the hallway closet and sweeps up the mess before it bites him in his morning stupor.
In the dark, the shadows seem to jump at him. Moonlight casts hard edges over the lone vase in the windowsill. The petals leave a mixture of rounded shadows on the floor and, if he stares hard enough, Yuuji can imagine that they’re a bunch of little fingers springing out from a spindly arm, reaching towards him out of curiosity. He shakes the thought off with a sigh; the only thing likely to jump out of the shadows at him was one of Megumi’s dogs. He needed to sleep before his mind wandered any further.
With a few hours of breaks in between, Yuuji’s classes end at seven. It’s his longest, most packed day of the week, but the burden of classes that day meant more time in the rest of the week to study and relax. Luckily, it also leaves him enough time to meet up with his two dearest, craziest friends, who are both holed up in their usual corner of a nearby café.
Yuuji grabs his usual caramel latte before sliding into the booth across from two people who are currently deep in thought, heads bowed to study something on a cellphone. “Hello-o,” he calls out, waving a hand over the device. A hand grabs his and squeezes it tightly as a greeting. “Good to see you too, Megumi.”
“Took you long enough.” Nobara sticks her tongue out at him before taking a long swig of her own drink. “Listen. We’ve got a new place to scope out.”
“ You have a new place,” Megumi corrects. He sips his nearly empty iced americano while rolling his eyes at Yuuji.
“Hey, we’re all going. Yuuji, look.”
The phone is spun around and shoved in Yuuji’s direction, displaying a news article from a few months ago. “ School left abandoned among suspicious circumstances . . .a school, Nobara? Isn’t that a bit. . .”
“Interesting?” She finishes, flashing a grin that only meant trouble. “I thought we could check it out tonight. I’ve already got my gear with me.”
Yuuji slumps in his seat with a low groan, his hoodie pooling around his neck until he looked like a very tired turtle. “And you agreed to this, Megumi?”
With a shrug, Megumi nods. “If I don’t go, the two of you will get lost. And probably get arrested for trespassing.”
At that, Yuuji can’t help but let out a self-deprecating laugh. Last month, the three of them had gone to explore an abandoned mall near the edge of town. There hadn’t been much to it besides its sheer size, and he and Nobara had gotten separated from Megumi and lost within an hour of wandering around. Holes in the walls between shops and old furniture piled up in central areas had created a confusing maze of tight or blocked off paths. A particularly labyrinthine department store had them bemoaning the loss of the rest of their lives when Megumi slapped some sense into the both of them, having found an exit through the back door, quite close to where they had entered. Without his level head, they likely would’ve been there all night.
Nobara crosses her arms in triumph, already knowing the answer to her next question. “So you’re in? It’ll do numbers, I’m telling you. I’ve barely seen any videos or blog posts about the place. Seems like everyone is worried there’s something in there .”
“Alright, alright. Count me in. Doubt there’ll be much to find.”
When they arrive at the school, it’s already dark, the autumn sun setting sooner and sooner. The only noise between the trio is the crunching of leaves underfoot as they approach the school and, outwardly, there isn’t a single suspicious thing about it. Besides the grass being overgrown, with a few windows looking broken, nothing is out of place. Nobara already has her camera out and speaks into it in a hushed voice, sharing what little she knows of the history of the school.
The front door is locked tight, leaving them to climb through a window that Yuuji has to muscle open. Immediately, they’re confronted with a storm of flying dust. Everything is coated in a thick layer, further proof to them that no one else has dared (or bothered) to come exploring.
“What a gold mine,” Nobara whispers excitedly. “They must’ve locked this place up and called it quits.”
Behind her, Megumi snorts. “Because it’s just a regular school, Nobara. And you don’t have to whisper, it’s just us here.”
Yuuji takes the lead in exploring, as he’s always done. Nobara always stated that if something jumped out at them, he would punch its head off, and Megumi would lead them to safety. Ideally. That, and she wanted Yuuji out in front with the flashlight so that the moment something scared them, she would finally have his reaction on camera, in HD, to hold over his head for the rest of his life.
They move down the main hallway slowly, checking each classroom thoroughly. As expected, there’s not much to find; many desks and chairs are overturned, and everything is coated in that same layer of undisturbed dust. A loud thud has Nobara whipping the camera around to find the source, only to settle on Megumi, who’s white in the face as he stands fixated on something in the corner of the room, by a set of lockers.
“What? What , Megumi?”
Megumi swallows thickly before turning away, the normal blush after being caught doing something having abandoned him in that moment. “Thought I saw something,” he says vaguely, turning to leave. “Must’ve been the shadow from the flashlight.” Nobara is off in an instant, opening each of the lockers with her camera held steadily in front of her. Emptiness, books, the occasional pair of shoes - nothing that could have spooked the steadfast Megumi so easily.
“Let's keep going,” Yuuji offers. A guiding hand on Megumi’s back leads them back into the hallway. Further down, they find another classroom that has Megumi rooted to the spot just outside the door.
Every piece of furniture in the room had been pushed to the sides, leaving the middle empty to accompany a few sleeping bags. Shoes are still set aside, as if the occupants had gone to sleep and disappeared in the night. All but one of the windows are blocked out by papers; Nobara directs Yuuji’s flashlight as she carefully pans the camera around the room to take in the odd setup. She nearly trips over a stuffed animal left off to the side.
“Alright, this is a little bit creepy,” she mutters, zooming in on the offending toy. “I haven’t seen anything else, though. Yuuji, talk to me.”
“Dunno what you want me to say. It’s a little spooky, sure, but that’s just ‘cause this place is empty and dark.”
“Megumi?”
“. . .I don’t like that window,” he settles on, “Can we keep moving?”
Rather than leaving, Nobara gets closer to the window and gives it a thorough once over before aiming it at the floor to see whatever shadows were cast. There was nothing.
“Hey, check out these shades!”
While Nobara had been busy with her camera, Yuuji had picked up a pair of rounded sunglasses, now donning them with a cheesy grin. “Kinda slick, don’t ya think? They make it impossible to see in here, though.” He absentmindedly tucks them onto the collar of his shirt before ushering Megumi out of the classroom.
They had explored most of the rooms already, leaving the largest area for last - the auditorium. Nothing was more unsettling to the pair than Megumi’s unease, so when he hesitated approaching the gymnasium, Nobara’s steeled exterior broke.
“We can just go, you guys. I’ve got a lot of footage, and it’ll still be interesting since we showed a lot of the school.”
“It’s fine,” Megumi immediately cuts in. “I was worried about squatters, but I don’t think that’s the case here. It’s just the environment.”
Yuuji pats him on the back before stepping forward, hand on the bar to push the door open. “We’ll take a peek and go. Sound good?”
Only when he received two nods did Yuuji push forward. At first glance, it was a normal gymnasium; mats and ball carts pushed up against the walls, basketball hoops lowered for play. Several more sleeping bags were scattered in small groups on the ground, and it wasn’t until they took a few steps inside that they realized something was truly wrong.
“What the actual fuck ,” Nobara gasps, camera angled upwards. From the rafters hung several lumps - no, bodies . There was no mistaking the image of the human form in a school uniform, wrapped with rope, dangling limply.
“We need to leave.” Megumi grabs Nobara and is about to grab Yuuji, but the pink-haired man dodges his grip to move further inside. “ Yuuji !”
If possible, the dust was even thicker there, floating through the air hazily as if it were trying to block out the moonlight. With every intention of finding out whether the bodies were real, Yuuji jogs over to the lowest one he could see, which was hanging from a basketball hoop. He can feel the camera on him as he reaches up to squeeze a leg, can practically hear the zoom in on his hand. Above all, he can hear the way Nobara’s shoes squeak against the floor as Megumi tries to tug her out of the gymnasium.
He squeezes again, this time harder; whatever it was, it gave away under his hand easily, far easier than flesh and bone would. A relieved laugh bubbles up slowly in Yuuji’s chest until it tumbles out to echo and bounce in the large expanse of the room, ricocheting until it reaches his friends. The two stare in disbelief as Yuuji shakes the ‘body’ from where he held it.
“Guys. It’s fabric. Like squeezing a pillow. C’mon, feel it.”
Upon seeing that it wasn’t as dangerous as she thought, Nobara comes closer with the camera and gives the ‘body’ a tentative squeeze of her own. “Who the hell would do something like this?” She finally says, wandering over to a group of sleeping bags. Carefully, she nudges one of the lumps before crouching down to pull back the sleeping bag. Like the others, this body is also dressed in a school uniform, morbidly donned with a long-haired wig. Pulling it aside reveals a small ball for the head. The white of a towel sticks out from the neck of the shirt.
“I think it’s a sign that we shouldn’t be here,” Megumi states flatly, his voice ringing out clearly through the silent room.
“For once, I agree with him. We should go, Nobara. You can work with the footage–”
A dull thud interrupts Yuuji and he freezes like a deer in headlights, head slowly craning towards the far end of the gymnasium. After a few seconds, a ball slowly rolls into view. There were no other noises but their voices, no other signs that someone may be there - nothing but a ball set free from a cage that should have been locked.
The three make a break for the door and dash through the school, no longer caring about how much dust they were stirring up, how much noise the pounding of their footsteps made. The front door had been barricaded from the inside with a piece of wood and, without a second thought, Yuuji kicks it and blasts the door open. They run until they’re well off the school’s property, and only stop when they’ve reached the street.
“I think. . .that’s enough for tonight,” Nobara gasps, hands on her knees.
Yuuji couldn’t agree more. Nothing about the school had really bothered or scared him, per se, but there was something very off-putting about seeing Megumi legitimately uncomfortable with the situation. “Let’s just go home and worry about the footage tomorrow.” The others nod in agreement and they part ways there.
Despite it only being 9:30 - 9:30, had they really spent that long in the school? - Yuuji finds himself feeling absolutely exhausted. His legs are tired, he can’t stop sneezing from all of the dust they kicked up. He flops face down into bed without much of a second thought but ends up sitting right back up, something sharp digging into his chest. It’s the pair of sunglasses that he had tried on as a joke and never set back down. He tries them on again and is greeted with the same, almost pitch black darkness as he was earlier; what kind of person would need sunglasses so dark, he wonders. They’re strangely free of dust, unlike everything else in the building.
Perching them on his nightstand, Yuuji digs himself under his blankets and falls asleep faster than he had all week.
Again, he is woken up by a loud noise. He checks his phone, and again, it’s two in the morning. This time, it’s not the sound of broken glass that has him crawling out of bed, but a looming shadow in the corner of his room that shouldn’t be there.
Yuuji freezes in bed, heart thudding uncomfortably in his chest. Think, think - what would be in the corner of his room to make such an odd shape? Not his furniture, nothing he had hanging on the wall. His closet was on the other side of the room, and he always kept the door closed with a few things piled in front of it, since it liked to swing open on its loose hinges. Suddenly, he remembers the coat hanger that he recently thrifted, pushed to the corner due to a lack of space. Of course . He kept his hoodies on it, and the shape of the fabric must have been what was causing the shadow that looked like the head and shoulders of a person. Of course. He stares until his eyes adjust, until the moonlight struggling to peek through his window blinds becomes less of a shock to his sleepy eyes.
It doesn’t help what he sees.
In the corner, in front of the coat rack, is in fact a person, standing with their arms crossed. Yuuji’s eyes roam from the crossed arms, down the long legs, and back up to where the head would be. With his eyes adjusted, he now realizes that what he sees is a head of white hair, whiter than that of any elderly person, and. . .eyes. Eyes a piercing, unwavering blue that stare directly back at him.
“You have something of mine.”
Yuuji’s heart is in his throat as the person speaks, and any words he could possibly come up with die away instantly. There was a man in his house. In his room, looking what felt like into his very soul.
You have something of mine.
His mind flits to the sunglasses on his nightstand. Without breaking eye contact, he carefully grabs them and holds them out with a surprisingly steady hand. The man does not move to grab them. Instead, he cocks his head and smiles.
It is not a friendly smile, a smile full of teeth and more teeth, gums showing as it widens.
Yuuji wakes with a start. Sunlight is streaming in, and the sunglasses are where he left them on the nightstand.