He had dealt with all the beings existing on the 5th floor. The mouthed monster, the ownerless bastard mutt, the crawling woman, the dancing woman, the security guard, the non-existent door, and even the unlucky clown bastard. He changed every single one of them to dust without leaving a single strand of hair.
No wounds appeared on his body during that process. If the materialized urban legends used guns, it might be different, but they all tended to use bizarre powers or prefer close combat.
Then those bastards could never win.
Close combat.
It was the event Kenji was most confident in.
"......"
While finishing off the clown, he had touched too many blood puddles. The gloves were clearly supposed to be black, but red was mixed in here and there. It seemed like if he didn't wash them properly, the smell would seep in and he'd have to throw them away.
Kenji clicked his tongue and shook off the bloodstains on his gloves.
'5th floor done. Next is the 4th floor.'
Kenji rotated his wrists and slowly descended to the 4th floor. The stairs from the 5th to the 4th floor were longer than expected, and he felt he understood why.
What was the motif of the ghost story residing in the old school building? Since it provided a guide and warnings about it, was it Neapolitan? Yeah, Neapolitan was probably mixed in too. But the largest framework occupying this ghost story was probably courage training. The rest were just accessories filling that composition.
Courage training during retreats or school trips usually uses a method where groups are formed to go through a set course. But it's rare for every group's course to be the same. Because then the group that goes first could tell the next group where things appear and what's hidden where. The possible courses tended to be winding.
It was the same here. The courage training that started upon entering the main entrance. The ghost story assigned each person the characteristic of being one group and divided their courses individually. Someone started on the 1st floor, someone on the 2nd floor, like that. The destination was naturally the main door to escape the old school building. So the person starting on the 1st floor had the greatest advantage.
Probably, starting on the 1st floor was no different from being told to just leave. Whether the starting floor criteria were random or not was unknown, but what did it matter? Anyway, starting on the 1st floor meant you could see the end simultaneously with the start, and for a timid participant, it was such a lucky event that they could shout hurray and immediately escape the old school building.
But the 5th floor? What if the starting point itself was the top floor of the building and a place teeming with monsters?
The difficulty level doubled compared to the 1st floor. On the 5th floor, you couldn't even escape through windows, so you ultimately had to go down via stairs, and that process would be nothing short of arduous.
Moreover, even if you somehow reached the stairs, could those stairs really be called normal?
As expected, they weren't normal.
"They had no intention of letting us escape nicely."
Kenji gave a bitter laugh and stopped dead in his tracks.
He had already descended several thousand steps. But he was still inside the stairs going down to the 4th floor. Going up to the 5th floor was quick, but going down seemed impossible even if he spent an eternity.
"An infinite staircase ghost story."
Penrose stairs. A staircase structure where no matter where you go up or down, you ultimately end up eternally circling in the same direction. A form of staircase that couldn't exist in reality, but since an urban legend had materialized, it wouldn't be impossible. Kenji let out a sigh and tapped his mask with his finger.
Honestly, it was a bit troublesome. If monsters or ghosts jumped out, he could at least eliminate them, but this was something else—he could walk the stairs forever and starve to death. Of course, there was a method. As the saying goes, if the body is strong, the head doesn't suffer—the problem was it was a stupid and simple method, but there was a definite solution.
"I wonder if the building will collapse."
Kenji muttered while tapping the wall with his palm. He stood there pondering for quite a while longer, then eventually nodded as if having decided.
Yeah, he couldn't waste time here. And if the building collapsed, he just had to take Himari and Eimi and get out faster than that, and even if that was impossible, he didn't really think the two would get hurt.
Halos aren't for nothing. Given Kivotos high school girls' durability and superhuman strength, they could probably dig through the debris and escape on their own.
Thinking that, Kenji clenched his fist tightly.
Penrose stairs. The infinite staircase where you wander eternally on the stairs. The method to break it was very simple.
Just break the middle.
White Lotus Demonic Art, Ink Wheel Revolving Heaven.
A black ring from his fist surged as if about to burst. But it didn't burst. He gripped it tightly with his grip strength and layered another technique on top. That alone transformed the nature of the move.
White Lotus Demonic Art, Thorn Shatter Revolving Heaven Fist.
An instability that seemed ready to burst at any moment was added to the crushing force. Kenji, without hesitation, slammed what he held in his fist toward the floor.
-Qua-rur-rur!
Fear surged like a wave. Darkness covered everything in an even darker color, and the stairs going down below disappeared entirely. It looked as if they had sunk into a sinkhole. Kenji shook off his throbbing fist and straightened his bent back.
Despite such an impact, fortunately, there were no signs of the building collapsing. It seemed he could be a bit more relaxed.
"......"
After checking if the drawing on his mask was still there, he threw his body down through the hole.
After a brief sensation of floating, he landed safely on the ground. Kenji held his aching wrist and calmly looked around.
Where he landed was the 4th-floor hallway. On the hallway wall, dwarves with only mouths dangling instead of facial features were huddled together, staring at Kenji. Among them, one that looked like the leader and was slightly larger than the others abruptly opened its mouth.
"Are you alone?"
Kenji made a blank expression for a moment, then chuckled and answered.
"Uh, yeah, still single."
He swung his leg wide.
4th floor.
Cleared!
There was nothing special on the 3rd floor. There was food labeled 'Sea Turtle Soup' inside a refrigerator that particularly exuded presence, but since he crushed the entire refrigerator, it evaporated on its own. The flying heads all achieved salvation after he grabbed them by the hair and played a few rounds of 'rat fire'.
Having cleared the 3rd floor with little fanfare, he went down to the 2nd floor.
The moment he stepped into the hallway, a cackling laughter could be heard. The laughter grew louder, soon becoming so close it seemed right next to Kenji. Kenji slowly turned his head toward where the sound came from.
Then a woman with a pale white face filled his vision. Bloody tears flowed from her unfocused crimson eyes, and pus dripped from mouth corners that looked cut by a knife. Her nose only had bloody flesh left as if ground on asphalt.
A woman of bizarre appearance. She looked at Kenji, beaming a bright smile, then began cackling laughter that could make the building shake. Kenji also grinned and grabbed her lower jaw.
"Smile~"
"......?"
Just as the ghost tilted its head at Kenji's lively voice.
Riiip! Kenji ripped out her entire lower jaw. Bone was pulled out, and skin tore with a screetch, making a horrific sound. It happened in an instant. The woman who had been cackling with laughter now felt that no laughter came from her mouth and fumblingly stroked her jaw. But all she could feel was a tongue dangling in the air as if suspended.
The moment she realized, her face contorted.
"......?!"
"You should smile."
"Gyaa, gyaaak! Gyarurrak!"
"Smile~"
Kenji spat out with the most laughter-filled voice possible and shattered her skull. She turned to dust and scattered without leaving any last words. Kenji let out a deep sigh and tossed her jawbone, which had begun to disappear, onto the floor.
"It's hard to even pretend to be crazy."
After that, the 2nd floor was also uneventful. After somehow dealing with the girls drinking hydrochloric acid, Kenji strode down toward the last remaining 1st floor. Since Himari and Eimi weren't on any floor from the 5th to the 2nd, they were probably both gathered on the 1st floor.
The 1st floor was a bit wider than the other floors. Not that it was a massive scale, but if the two were determined to hide, finding them would be no easy task. Kenji groaned and thought.
'How many ghost stories have I dealt with?'
He recalled the warnings he saw in the guidebook and tapped his mask with his finger.
What he finished on the 5th floor were numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, and 16.
On the 4th floor, just number 13.
On the 3rd floor, numbers 10 and 11.
On the 2nd floor, numbers 6 and 15.
Total 12. So four remained.
'Broadcast ghost story, human body model, tall woman, shower room hose.'
Something vaguely came to mind regarding the broadcast. Right before running amok on the 5th floor, there was crackling static noise from beyond the speakers. Almost simultaneously, the monsters with mouths all over their bodies appeared.
He sent all those bastards to salvation. So it seemed the broadcast ghost story was also cleared.
'Three remain.'
He had examined every nook and cranny from the 5th to the 2nd floor. The fact that they weren't found meant all three remaining ghost stories were distributed on the 1st floor. Kenji let out a small sigh as he descended the stairs.
"Of all places, the ones left on the 1st floor are all gathered together."
Same with Himari and Eimi. Same with the ghost story bastards. Why were they all crowded in one space? Anyway, nothing ever came easy.
While lamenting, he arrived on the 1st floor. Kenji adjusted the position of his tilted mask and first walked to the end of the left hallway.
Relative to the stairs, the left hallway had a science room, a shower room, and a restroom. Kenji first stopped by the shower room and smashed all the sprayers there. He also pulled out all the hoses.
The next place he visited was the science room.
Only one human body model was visible in the science room. There was nothing placed in the spot where there should clearly have been one more. Judging by the footprints left behind, it seemed to have moved, but tracking it didn't look easy due to the thick wheelchair marks left behind—perhaps Himari had been here. Instead, he could find Himari's location. Kenji followed the long trail of wheelchair marks and moved his steps thud thud toward the right hallway.
Then, a thump thump sound could be heard. Kenji opened his eyes sharply and turned his head toward it.
There stood a woman so tall her hair reached the ceiling and dragged on the floor, wearing a black coat. She was knocking on the broadcasting room door. No need to look further. A ghost story. But what the creature was saying was truly outrageous.
"Hey, guys, open the door. It's me, Kenji."
"S, sorry, we can't open the door right now because we're all undressed."
"Then you want me to keep waiting here? I came down from the 5th floor with real difficulty, isn't this too much? I came searching for you, checking every single room, you shouldn't do this."
The creature said that in a voice exactly like Kenji's.
Kenji let out a hollow laugh. With an incredulous expression, he took off the mask he was wearing, swept back his bangs, and approached the creature.
"Open up quickly. I'll just go in and stare at the wall or something."
"No way, no matter what. I'm in charge of a major project called 'President Chest Growth'."
"Eimi?"
"The best way to grow a woman's chest is for someone to touch it. And directly on bare skin. So you, a man, can't come in."
"Eimi."
Himari's voice could be faintly heard. The distance between Kenji and the monster grew closer. Soon, the monster noticed Kenji. It fell silent for a moment, then muttered in a frightened voice.
"G, guys. He's here, he's here. O, open the door quickly! Quick! We have to survive first, right?"
"Wh, what do you mean he's here?"
Himari asked. Kenji moved his lips faster than the creature could mimic the voice.
"A superman on a white horse."
"......! K, Kenji? Is that the real Kenji?"
"What are you saying, Himari! That's a monster! I'm the real Kenji!"
The creature just let out the voice without any change in expression. Kenji looked at that and chuckled.
"What kind of speech is that? If you're gonna mimic, do it properly."
"Wh, what are you talking about?! Himari! Eimi! Open the door quickly! I'm gonna die!"
"Oh, how did you know that?"
"Himarriiiiiii!!!!! Eimiiiiii!!!!! I thought we were friends, but you're abandoning me like this!!!!!!!!"
"......Hearing my speech pattern like that does feel weird."
"It's my voice! Not yours!!!! You fake like you!!!!!!!!!!"
She charged at Kenji, dragging her enormous body. Kenji let out a short breath, then immediately slammed his fist into the creature's chest.
White Lotus Demonic Art, Thorn Shatter.
-Crunch! A sound of something being crushed inside the impact point could be heard. Her eyes widened at the heavy shock striking her entire body, and she screamed. It was her original voice, no longer mimicking anyone's. It was horrific, unpleasant, bizarre, and alien.
Kenji glanced sideways at her rolling on the floor, then grabbed the broadcasting room doorknob.
"Watch closely. This is how you say it here."
Squeak.* Kenji opened the door. The two people sitting close together came into his view. Kenji looked down at them and spat out in a calm voice.
"I came to save you."
Then, as if to reassure them, he grinned and continued.
"Let's go home."
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