A door on the second floor swings open, Mari leading everyone back out into the hallways of the school. The Paranormal Club members pour out, searching the hallways for any danger before closing the door again. They circle up to figure out where to go from here.

Katsuki looks around the group. “So, what’s next? How do we find Kirika in this chaos?”

Mari points to her nose. “This right here. Ah’ve been smellin’ her mana pattern tha’ whole way up. I can lead ya right to her laik a bloodhound!”

A few of the others look at each other confused, then look back at Mari. “What do you mean?” Yuudai asks. “She always smelled normal to me….”

Cerys facepalms. “That’s because people like you can’t smell mana, Yuudai. I can’t even smell it. You have to have some attunement to the supernatural before you can even detect any of it, much less track it.”

“Yeah, what she said. Took me a lot of trainin’ ta get this good!” Mari gloats.

Raidou laughs. “I can tell, if you can detect her over my massive mana signature!” He flexes his arm with a smirk, “You must be well trained!”

Katsuki holds her nose and sticks her tongue out. “Oh, so that’s what was smelling so bad?”

“Hey, I took a shower before leaving!”

“I thought you were playing video games?”

“Knowing this scoundrel, he thinks a simple cologne counts as a shower,” a man covered in shadows says before stepping forward.

“Who-” Yuuri goes to ask before stopping, recognizing the face as it reaches the light. “K-Kairu?”

“In the flesh.” He smirks. “I must thank you for gathering here, it saves me the trouble of hunting you down.” He looks at Mari. “When I felt the barrier break, I knew it was you all. It sent a shiver down my spine, knowing you would willingly bring such doom upon yourselves.”

Yuudai steps forward. “W-what do you mean Kairu? Was that barrier put up to protect the town?”

“Of course not. It would draw too much attention if people could freely see a building full of hell walkers being torn apart brick by brick. It’s more convenient this way.” Kairu’s face twists with pleasured madness. “These humans will never see it coming.”

Akina shakes her head. “You don’t know who you’re up against, do you? I’m not just a normal human.” She looks back over her shoulder, then returns her gaze to the man. “And the rest of these people aren’t too bad, either.”

“You’re awfully confident for having such trouble with those pathetic demons I told to visit your clubroom.” Kairu says with a widening smirk. “Do you really think you can stop me with your meager abilities?”

Akina runs up and punches at the man. “I’ll show you what power we poss-” She stumbles forward as she connects with only air, the image of Kairu wavering around it.

“Aha, I bet that air you just hit is very sore right now, Miss Gedou.” Kairu chuckles. “Unfortunately, I’m here with sweet little Komori, who’s oh-so-kindly helping me get the rest of my army to this plane. Such a… nice girl.”

Yuuri pushes her way to the front of the group, holding her knife up at the image. “Don’t you dare say Kirika’s name again, you fiend! I’ll take you down and send your army back to where they came from!”

“Ahaha, I doubt that. As much as I’d love to destroy you all in front of Kirika’s eyes, I doubt you can even reach me. Besides.” He conjures another image beside him, showing the student council hiding in a classroom, frantically trying to keep it’s door closed against pounding demons. “It would seem you have more pressing issues.“ The images begin to waver and disappear. “It will be fun watching all of you perish. Goodbye, Paranormal Club.”

Raidou punches a wall, opening a new hole in the side of the building. “Argh, that guy pisses me off.”

Yuudai hangs his head, wandering to sit near the opposing wall. “You mean… The guy who was helping me all this time… he’s… he’s the one doing this? Was… he just using me all this time?” His eyes begin to water. He buries his face in his knees to hide his frustration.

Katsuki turns to the others. “So, what do we do now? We know where Kirika is, and we know who we need to fight to stop this madness, but… we can’t just let the student council get attacked like that, can we?” She looks between her clubmates.

“They’re of no importance, their titles are more decorative than anything. We have to stop this invasion first and foremost. “Akina says, shaking her head. “Casualties are unimportant.”

Yuuri stands up and slaps Akina. “No! We have to save them… we have to save everyone!”

Akina looks Yuuri directly in the eye, rubbing her cheek slightly out of mild surprise. “Because we’re in the middle of such danger, I’m going to pretend you didn’t do that. When we’re done, though, I WILL pay you back for this attack.”

“THEN DO IT!” Yuuri shouts at Akina. “Fight me, beat me up, whatever! I’d rather let you pummel me than have their lives on my conscience for the rest of my life!” Yuuri’s eyes burn with passion as she stares down Akina. “Do whatever you want when we’re done, just… help me save them.” She pauses, her eyes glistening. “Please…”

“Fine.” Akina says. She huffs, then slaps Yuuri back. “You’ve impressed me, Yuuri. Your passion comes at the strangest times, but it burns brightly. Consider that your payback.” Yuuri’s eyes widen in shock.

Mari steps over between the two, then reaches out to pull them together in a big hug. “That’s tha spirit, ya guys!” She puts on a cheesy grin. “Comin’ tagether an’ all that, it’s almost a miracle!” She laughs as Akina and Yuuri struggle to get out of her grip.

Yuudai looks away from the group, sighing loudly. Cerys walks up beside him. “Weird, right? I never thought she had emotions besides angry and angrier.” She grins. “Almost enough to make me sick.”

“Cerys, now isn’t the time for your junk,” he says. “Again, everything I know is a lie. Everyone just wants to control me. I just… I can’t trust anyone. I can’t control anything.” He falls to the ground and slams his fist on the floor. “I can’t help anyone, not even myself!”

“Yuudai, stop. This isn’t the time for you to wallow in self pity. You can cry yourself to sleep tonight for all I care, but people are going to die if we don’t get a move on right now.” She reaches her hand down to Yuudai with a stern look. “A real sportsman doesn’t complain until the game’s over, anyway.”

Yuudai looks up at her, trying to find some words to respond with, but none come out. He turns his head back down, then looks back up at her. “You’re… You’re right. It’s not even the ninth inning yet, this game isn’t over.” He takes her hand, letting her help him back to his feet. “We even have the power hitters coming up!” He pats his arm, then makes a swinging motion in the air. “Time to hit a home run!”

Cerys rolls her eyes. “We get it, Yuudai. Now come on before you get hit by a fist.” She smirks at him before rejoining the group, Yuudai following not far behind.

The renewed determination of the group is immediately put to the test as they turn the corner to continue their mission, seeing a scene of terror. Demons line the hall, the dilapidated walls painted a blood red color from the moon hovering above the suddenly topless corridor. It seems to stretch on forever, and a howling scream seems to be coming from wherever the other end may lead.

The group is unable to process the scene before them. Saito is the first to react by spinning around and going to walk back the way they came. “Welp, we’re done here. We made it as far as we can, no regrets.”

Yuuri grabs him by the scruff of his shirt as he passes by, stopping him in his tracks. “Saito…”

He turns his head, looking at her face. He pauses, then sighs and turns around. “I guess it’s my duty to keep you safe, if nothing else.” He brandishes his scythe and gets ready to forge on.

Before he does, Mari puts her hand out. “Wait. We need ta be ready. Thah’s a lot of magic up ‘haid, so let’s not rush in too blind.”

“No duh, we can see that.” Cerys says. “There’s a big clue in the huge line of demons in front of us.”

They all look humanoid, but their faces are mangled. Their eyes are misplaced, noses removed. A permanent smile looks cut and sewn where their mouths and cheeks should be. Each is holding a lantern made out of a human skull, an eerie light glowing from the jaws.

Raidou rotates his shoulder. “Well, the defeat of a thousand demons begins with the first punch!” He jumps forward into the hallway, punching the closest demon in the face so hard it starts to turns to dust. It gives out a chilling screech as it falls, alerting the other demons, who begin to rush down the club.

“RAIDOU YOU IDIOT!” Yuuri yells, causing him to turn his head.

“What? I got this easy!”

“No, I mean-” She’s cut off by the loud roar of a demon’s death, then another, and another. Raidou continues fighting the demons, becoming a whirlwind of fists to control the horde. Raidou begins to slow down as the fight begins to drag on. He throws a punch at one of the few remaining demons left. It gets caught so he throws a punch with his other fist which is also caught. “Ay fuck you! Let go of me.” Raidou yells at the demon as the rest begin to surround him.

The other members begin to yell, trying to warn him of the situation. He looks up with a smirk. “Hey, don’t worry, I told you I got this.” He starts to push, popping two more arms out of his sides, knocking two foes away as they do. He slams his new arms down, crushing the lanterns of two nearby demons, causing them to dissipate with it. “It’s too easy, you’d thin-” He’s cut off by another demon hitting him from behind in the head, causing him to collapse to the floor.

“Of course we already have to clean up after your idiocy,” says Cerys as she jumps into the air before teleporting above him. She dive kicks into the pile of demons, causing them to scatter. One of their lanterns lands next to her, she makes a show of lifting her leg and crushing it with a hearty stomp.

“Damnit Cerys, I don’t need help!” Raidou says as he gets back up on his knees, dusting himself off.

“Save the bragging until you can back it up, buddy.” Cerys says, standing shoulder to shoulder with him. “Good thing I got these sharpened recently!”

“Yeah, saive some fer us!” Mari says as the others charge in, backing up the duo. She throws some talismans forward as she runs, three of them hitting their mark and exploding, destroying the lanterns and their holders. Yuudai dashes through the smoke caused by Mari’s talismans and finds a lantern demon, he throws a hook to the demon’s jaw and knocks it down. Before he can crush the lantern, one of the demons creeps up behind him, readying a strike. Yuudai spins around and dodges it before countering with a cross to the demon’s jaw, knocking it down and it’s lantern out of it’s hand. It skitters next to Yuuri’s feet.

Yuuri grasps her knife tightly and plunges it down at the lantern, destroying it. She pops up. ”Yay, I did it!” She then looks at Saito just as he cleaves through three demons with one swing of his scythe. He looks over at her as they’re disappearing and gives her a thumbs up. “Good job, Yuuri!”

Her smile falters as she looks down at the remnants of the lantern disappearing at her feet. “T-thanks… I did it, huh?”

Saito walks to Yuuri, scruffing her hair as the hallway returns to normal, all the demons having been cleared from it. “Yep. See? You closed the pocket dimension by killing that demon!”

She shakes more, wanting to tell him to stop teasing her, but at the same time not wanting him to stop patting her head.

Akina walks over and slaps Saito’s arm away. “Don’t be congratulating other people when you yourself did such a sloppy job.”

“The hell you mean?” Saito yells. “At least I did something, unlike you!”

“I wanted to see if I could trust you all to have my back in combat. I’m not impressed with what I saw.” Her eyes burn as she stares directly into Saito’s eyes. “If I was trusting you with that kind of killing speed then I’d be dead a thousand times over.”

Yuuri interrupts. “That’s why we work as a team! We cover each other’s weaknesses, so that even if it isn’t the best we get the job done with nobody getting hurt!” She looks over at the other club members, but zeroes in on Raidou who’s trying to brush away Katsuki.

“Damnit, I told you I’m fine! It’s normal for a demon to bleed!” He says, using his arm to push her away.

“No it’s not, these guys are turning to dust! And even if it is, I don’t want you hurting anyway! We need everyone to stay in this so we can save Kirika!” Katsuki muscles her way back to his side, checking his head. “Plus, you might have a concussion.”

“Demons don’t get concussions!”

“You want me to give you one? Now shut up and let me look at your eyes!” She sticks a finger in his face, moving it from side to side. “Now, follow this with your eyes, not your head.”

Raidou tries to argue back, but instead simply complies, following her finger with his eyes. “There, I did your dumb test, can we get moving on now?”

Katsuki stands up. “Only if you promise to be more careful the rest of the way.”

They hear some banging coming from one of the doors lining the hallway. “Hey, Who’s there!? We can hear you talking! Are you demons? If you’re demons, go away! If you’re here to save us, then… uh, d-don’t go away!” A voice cries out from behind the door.

“Oh! Right, the student council!” Yuudai says before opening the doorway to the classroom he was standing next to. When he does, he finds a girl aiming the end of a broom at the door and several others huddled near the back.

“Pleasedontbeademonpleasedontbe- Oh, you’re a student here!” The girl says, lowering her broom. “Did… Did you all destroy those demons?”

“The ones outside of the room? Heck yeah we did!” Yuudai brags before Katsuki pushes past him.

“Don’t mind him, he’s a bit too proud of his strength.” She enters the room and looks around while signalling the others to come inside.

“Hey guys, did you hear that? We’re saved!” The broom wielding girl turns back to the others as they start to get up.

“Actually, not yet.” Mari says, stopping them as they stand up. “We’re, uh… kinda trapped ‘ere for tha moment.”

“Eh? W-what do you mean?”

“There’s a barriah outside an’ more demons everywhah. Even if ya ran yer hardest, there’s nowhere to be runnin’ to.”

At Mari’s words, their faces droop once again. The girl picks her broom back up, hitting it against a nearby desk in frustration. “So, we’re really just going to die here, then!?”

Mari holds back a laugh out of politeness, but can’t stop her smirk. “I nevah said that, now. All we gotta do is beat the big dumb baby on tha top floor who’s holdin’ all this stuff together. Once we do, his barriah will dissapeah and we’ll be able to leave!”

The student council looks confused, but then the main girl asks Mari again. “S-so you’re going to beat Mr. Baby then, right?”

“Yep!” She replies with gusto. “An’ don’t worry, we won’t be forgettin’ ya on tha way out. Jus’ be ready ta leave at any time.”

“But what if more demons show up before then?” One of the huddling students asks.

“Well, lemme see…” Mari digs around her cleavage before pulling out a talisman. “Ahah, here ya are! I don’t have any more anti-barrier talismans, but I do have some actual barriah talismans! Slap this on tha door after we leave an’ it’ll protec’cha!” She hands the talisman to the broom-weilding girl. “An’ when we come back for ya, just rip it off an’ follow us. Ya only got one, so don’t open it for any othah reason.”

The student council members nod, then the girl looks back at Mari. “T-thank you.” She tries to think of something else to say, but can only manage “G-good luck in the fight!”

The group starts to leave the room, with Mari looking over her shoulder at the council members. “Don’t worry, we got this in tha bag!” she says, closing the door behind her. She waits for a few moments before she hears the zap of a talisman activating, smiling and catching up with the others.

The rest of the group stands in front of the stairs to the top floor. “Welp, Mari’s here, so now all that’s left is to climb these stairs and face Kairu. We all ready?” Katsuki asks everyone, looking around the room at her clubmates. One by one they nod, with Saito and Yuudai verbally agreeing with solemn “Yep’s”. Katsuki places her foot on the first step, then points up it. “Then, as the leader of the Miyafuji High Paranormal Club… let’s go finish this!” She then begins to climb the staircase, the other club members following closely behind her with lumps in their throats but fire in their hearts.