化物狩団

It was a bit complicated to see how they would both ride the bike at the same time since what would the point be if only one of them rode it and the other walked? There was no special place on this bike for another person to comfortably sit or stand on it. Though, it didn't have a basket, either, so in the end she sat on the handlebars while Kintarou pedaled the bike. There was some awkwardness at first, since Chihaya had to lean back in order to not fall of the bike, but there was no time for embarrassment; they had to get to the school.

“Turn right up here,” Chihaya said.

“All right.” They turned at the corner and stopped following the river finally. Following the road without a flashlight proved to be easier as the two got closer to the school; More street lights appeared on the road. “Are we almost there?” asked Kintarou.

“Yeah, just a couple more minutes.” She didn't really pay attention closely to the midnight bike ride. Chihaya was, however, extremely worried about Raiki. She was also a bit worried about Raizou, but he seemed to be holding up all right. Though he was probably freaking out right now, she had to at least try to find the little kid. She had no idea if he'd be here, but it was something.

She almost couldn't believe that this was actually happening. Though, if she hadn't heard “Raiki” with her own ears, she would still probably think Raizou was crazy. That afternoon, he was dead serious when he told her that he hadn't scratched his own arm. She believed him in the end, too; Chihaya usually was able to get the truth out of Raizou when he was lying, but he didn't change his story this time. It was all just really weird. Maybe ghosts and demons really do exist? Who knows, but what she did know was that something weird was happening right now and the kid that was speaking with them earlier was not Raizou's little brother.

The teenagers finally arrived at the elementary school. Chihaya hopped off the handlebars and ran towards the school, stopping to wait for Kintarou to put up his bicycle and catch up with her.

“Do you think the school is even unlocked?” Kintarou asked.

“Well, we can find out,” answered Chihaya, “you can try opening the doors and I'll have a look around outside.” She glanced around quickly. “I don't think there's anyone here, but we should probably be sneaky about this?”

“I don't really want to get in trouble for breaking into a school,” Kintarou replied. “I'll let you know if I get in.” He turned and walked towards the front of the school.

Chihaya headed in the other direction, now wishing she had a source of light. While it was light near the entrance, the sides of the building were very dark. The school was near the forest, and she wanted to avoid going too deep into the trees.

“Hey, Raiki,” she called quietly. As she walked near the perimeter of the forest, Chihaya could hear sounds from the forest: animal calls, creaking leaves, possibly some snapping twigs here and there. Something rustled in the leaves above her head; Chihaya immediately froze and stared upward. She waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, but even then she didn't see anything but leaves. She thought for a moment that all of the weirdness lately was making her hear things that weren't there.

Chihaya continued on and decided to stop thinking for now.

She continued around the school, every once in a while calling Raiki's name. She reached the front of the school without finding anything. It looked like Kintarou had gotten inside, though, since she didn't see him anywhere. She glanced around quickly before walking inside the empty school.

Chihaya hadn't entered this building since she had finished with elementary school a couple years ago. She didn't really want to, either. Elementary school hadn't been very fun and she would rather forget about as quickly as possible.

However she did know where to look first. The building was pretty big since so many students went here. She headed towards the younger kid's classrooms. Looking around, she never noticed how eerie an empty building in the middle of the night could be. Thinking about it though she never thought she would have to walk around in an empty building in the middle of the night looking for an eight year-old. She heard a creak behind her as she walked down the hallway which she pointedly ignored.

“Raiki, where are you,” she called even quieter than when she was outside. It was like talking disrupted the darkness and would awaken it. She turned and peered into a darkened room. She didn't think there was anything in there. It was hard to tell since the darkness successfully shrouded anything that might be lurking around. Chihaya wondered how much a flashlight cost and if it would be worth investing in one, when a hand touched her shoulder.

Chihaya whipped around, covering her mouth to stop a small scream, and looked right at Kintarou.

“Sorry,” he said.

“Don't-!” She stopped herself. It wasn't worth getting angry over. “Did you find anything?” she asked.

"No," he answered. It was hard to see him in the dark. "But I really couldn't see much of anything."

"You checked that whole side of the building?"

"Yeah, nothing."

"I see." Chihaya started walking down the hallway. "This way are more classrooms. Maybe he's down here."

The two walked through the darkened hallway. Chihaya felt along the wall, making a mental map of where she was. They continued on in silence like this for a while until they came to the end of the hallway.

"All right, we can start looking here and make our way back to the entrance." Kintarou agreed to this and they split up again to search the few classrooms. Searching in the dark seemed less scary when someone was nearby. This didn't help with results, though, and Chihaya couldn't find anything after searching through a couple of the rooms. Chihaya sighed heavily as she opened the door to another room. She was starting to lose hope; maybe everyone was acting crazy. This whole thing seemed really farfetched anyway. She walked over to the back of the room and opened the door to a storage closet. At her feet lay a small, sleeping child.

Chihaya could not believe what she saw. Raizou's younger brother was sleeping on the floor of a closet. She bent down and shook him. An unintelligible murmur escaped his mouth, and he turned away from her.

"Raiki! Wake up!" She shook him harder as she called.

Raiki opened his eyes a little bit and blinked. "What," he said groggily, "Oh, sis? what are you doing here?"

He seemed tired, but fine, and Chihaya gave him a huge hug. "Hey, Kintarou, I found him!" She shouted over her shoulder. She squeezed Raiki tighter.

"He-hey sis, what's wrong? You're squishing me!"

"Oh, um," Chihaya stammered. Her thoughts were too jumbled and she had a think for a minute to come up with an excuse. "You, um, fell asleep at school. It's dark now so I came to get you."

Kintarou walked into the room then. "Oh, hmm. We should probably hurry back, then," he pointed out.

Chihaya was suddenly hit with the realization that if she was here holding Raiki right now, then whatever back at Raizou's house was -definitely- not his little brother, and still probably trying to kill him.

"No," she said finally, "you head back. It'll be faster if you go alone. We need to let the others know right now."

"Will you two be all right?"

"Yeah, we can walk back." Chihaya smiled.

"All right," he turned around to leave. "Be careful," he added as he walked through the door.

"You too!"

Chihaya looked back at Raiki. "You're still squishing me," he pointed out.

"Too bad. Wake up a bit more, and we'll walk home."