CHAPTER XIII
~Written in Ash and Blood~
A shimmer ran through the ink-soaked air, and another door materialized before Yuzuki and Reina—its surface rippling as if alive, edges glowing faintly with an otherworldly light. Without a word, the two girls rushed to it, hearts pounding, and flung it open together.
On the other side, they found themselves in a nearly identical room: the same shifting ink for a floor, the same suffocating silence. But this time, two figures stood frozen at a desk—Himari and Kaito—both staring blankly at a piece of paper. On the desk, in bold, inky strokes, was the name: Shirosawa Ayane.
Yuzuki and Reina didn’t hesitate. Each grabbed one of their friends by the shoulders—Yuzuki shook Kaito, Reina clung to Himari.
“Kaito! Your name is Tsukigami Kaito! Tsukigami Kaito!” Yuzuki shouted, her voice fierce.
“Himari! You’re Takasago Himari! Takasago Himari!” Reina echoed, desperation in her tone.
But Kaito and Himari remained unresponsive, their eyes glazed, lips barely moving.
Again and again, Yuzuki and Reina repeated the names, voices growing louder and more urgent with each attempt.
“Tsukigami Kaito! Tsukigami Kaito!”
“Takasago Himari! Takasago Himari!”
On the fifth try, Kaito’s eyes flickered. He blinked, confusion giving way to clarity as the color returned to his gaze.
“My name… Tsukigami… Kaito… Tsukigami Kaito!” he gasped, the words finally breaking through the fog.
Moments later, Himari’s lips parted, her voice trembling but growing stronger.
“Takasago… Himari… Takasago Himari!” she declared, her eyes snapping back to life.
Yuzuki and Reina released shaky breaths, relief washing over them as all four friends stood together, their names—and their selves—restored in the heart of the Ink Realm.
A chill swept through the ink-drenched room as the wall behind them rippled and darkened. From its shifting surface, the shadowy ghost emerged—long, filthy black hair hanging over her face, arms impossibly thin, her tattered white garment soaked in ink. She glided forward, her presence suffocating, and with a twisted smile, she purred, “My, my.”
Instantly, a wave of terror crashed over the group. Reina, Kaito, and Himari screamed, their voices raw with horror, and without thinking, all three scrambled behind Yuzuki, clutching at her sleeves and shoulders. Their eyes were wide with panic, breaths shallow, as they cowered in her shadow—leaving Yuzuki standing alone between them and the advancing ghost, the only thing separating her friends from the nightmare that had slipped in from the walls.
Yuzuki stood firm, her friends trembling behind her, and faced the ghost. “We’ve recovered who we are, what else must we do to leave?” she demanded, voice steady despite the fear pressing in.
The ghost’s lips curled into a sinister smirk. “Burn the names of those girls with your blood and write your names on the ashes of those papers with cleansing ink by the dawn. If you fail, I’ll suck you in here again and never will you be able to escape,” she intoned, her voice stuttering and echoing menacingly through the ink-stained air.
Summoning her resolve, Yuzuki darted past her friends and through the rooms from which they had emerged, snatching up both papers—each bearing the cursed names. She raced back, grabbing the final paper from the desk where her friends waited.
With all three papers clutched in her hands, Yuzuki faced the ghost and declared, “Then send us back.”
The inky pool beneath their feet began to churn violently, tendrils of black liquid snaking upward. In an instant, the ink yanked at their bodies, pulling them down, swallowing them whole as the world twisted and dissolved into darkness—propelling them toward the next trial, and the hope of escape before dawn.
As the four emerged from the inky void, gasping for breath, they found themselves once again on the chilly rooftop of the school. The sky was still dark, but a faint blue was creeping along the horizon.
Yuzuki, catching her breath, turned to Kaito. “What time is it? When does the sun rise?”
Kaito, still trembling, fumbled for his phone. He stared at the screen, stunned. “It’s 4:00 AM… The sun rises in 25 minutes!” His voice cracked with urgency as the weight of their task hit him.
He looked up, eyes wide. “We have to burn the papers before sunrise! To the science lab—now!”
Without hesitation, Kaito took off running down the stairs. Yuzuki sprinted after him, clutching the cursed papers tightly. Himari and Reina exchanged a quick, determined glance—then bolted after their friends, their footsteps echoing through the empty halls as the race against dawn began.
Kaito slammed open the science lab door, flicked on the harsh fluorescent lights, and immediately began rummaging for a Bunsen burner. Yuzuki, adrenaline surging, searched frantically for a knife.
Himari and Reina hovered uncertainly by the door. “Are we seriously going to cut ourselves just to extract blood?” Reina asked, her voice trembling.
“WHAT ELSE?” Kaito and Yuzuki snapped in unison.
“Oh! A spirit lamp!” Kaito exclaimed, pulling it from a lower cabinet and quickly setting up the wire gauze and stand.
“WHAT ARE YOU TWO STARING AT? HELP US FIND THE KNIFE!” Kaito barked, still rifling through drawers.
Reina and Himari snapped into action, searching the cabinets. The clock ticked to 4:15 AM.
“Guys! Hurry! Fifteen minutes left!” Kaito shouted, glancing at his phone, which buzzed with calls from home—he declined them without hesitation.
Reina’s voice rang out, “FOUND IT!” as she held up a knife.
But before anyone could react, Himari snatched it and flung it out the open window.
“HIMARI!” Kaito roared, his voice booming.
She spun around, defiant. “Are you guys all idiots? How can you harm yourselves with knives just for—”
“You die, then. Nobody asked you to live anyway,” Yuzuki cut in coldly, already grabbing a fillet knife from another drawer.
Kaito finished setting up the lamp, and Reina hurried to join him. Without hesitation, Yuzuki sliced her inner wrist, crimson welling up. Kaito lit the papers, Reina cut her own skin, and Kaito followed suit, their blood pooling onto the cursed papers as they began to burn to ash.
Himari stood back, aghast. “Are you THREE serious? DO YOU THREE REALLY WANNA DIE?”
Kaito and Reina shot her sharp glares. Yuzuki ignored her, focused on the task.
The papers blackened and crumbled to ash. The clock read 4:21 AM.
“WAIT. CLEANSING INK? WHERE’LL WE GET THAT?” Yuzuki suddenly cried.
“SHIT,” Kaito muttered, panic rising.
Himari, still by the window, scoffed, “That’s what! We can’t find cleansing ink!”
“What is cleansing ink?” Reina asked, voice thin.
Tap. Tap.
Yuzuki felt a light tap at the back of her foot. She glanced down—nothing at first. Then she spotted it: Koroborokururu, the small bear-like spirit, holding up a tiny ink bottle.
Yuzuki’s face lit up. “Thank you!!” she breathed, grabbing the bottle. Kaito and Reina exchanged bewildered looks, peering around for whoever she was talking to, but saw nothing.
Yuzuki dashed to a drawer, grabbed a test tube brush, and prepared the ink. Kaito and Reina, seeing the bottle in her hand, asked, “Huh? Where’d you get that?”
“No time to explain!” Yuzuki shot back.
With the ashes ready, Kaito, Reina, and Yuzuki pooled their blood and wrote their names with the cleansing ink. Himari hesitated, but as the others finished, she finally joined in, writing her name just as the clock struck 4:25 AM.
The first rays of dawn spilled through the lab window. A sudden, resonant sound rang out, echoing through the room—a sign that the ritual was complete, and the curse’s grip was breaking.
As the final names were written, something uncanny unfolded. The burnt ashes—spread thin and precisely arranged by Yuzuki—began to seep with thick, black ink. Droplets formed and fell, landing in the rough patterns of their names. The ink resisted forming solid letters; instead, each droplet bled into the ashes, shaping their identities in a spectral, fleeting script.
Recognizing the ashes were limited, Yuzuki had quickly spread them out, making enough space for everyone. She instructed the others to drop the cleansing ink onto the ashes, letting the ink itself form the names in negative space—a solution born from her quick thinking and resourcefulness.
As the ink bled into the ashes, it pooled in trembling droplets, each one outlining a name in stains and shadows—indistinct, yet unmistakably theirs. This method, using negative space and the interplay of ink and ash, was entirely Yuzuki’s idea, allowing all four to leave their mark despite the scarcity.
Gradually, the ink began to vanish. The droplets faded, their darkness seeping away until nothing remained but the faintest trace—a ritual echo that would not last. The disappearance of the ink signaled the ritual’s completion: their names, once on the verge of erasure, were restored, and the curse’s grip began to dissolve.
Kaito let out a deep, exhausted sigh as he collapsed to the ground, the tension draining from his body.
Reina, still trembling, dropped to her knees beside him, clutching her arm and letting out a shaky laugh of disbelief.
Himari stood frozen for a moment before slumping against a nearby desk, her eyes wide, trying to process everything that had just happened.
Yuzuki, breathing hard, leaned against the edge of the table, her hands stained with ink and blood, a faint smile of relief flickering across her face as she watched her friends—safe, real, and finally themselves again.
Kaito stood up, steadying himself, and the others followed suit, sensing it was finally time to leave. But before anyone could fully process their relief, a loud thudding noise echoed from outside the science lab.
Yuzuki instinctively rushed toward the door to see what was happening, but Kaito caught her arm firmly. “No,” he said quietly but firmly. “Everyone, follow me. We need to get out of the school now.”
Yuzuki was perplexed, her mind racing with questions. Why is he stopping me? she wondered. Yet, exhaustion weighed heavily on all of them, and without hesitation, the girls nodded and fell in step behind Kaito.
Taking an alternate route through the school’s dim corridors, they moved quickly but quietly, careful to avoid any danger. Though confusion lingered, they trusted Kaito’s urgency and followed him out, their footsteps echoing softly as they made their escape.
As they reached the school gate, Reina and Himari, both exhausted and eager to put the night behind them, simply exchanged tired glances and started walking home together without so much as a goodbye.
Yuzuki lingered for a moment, glancing back. She noticed Kaito standing quietly at the threshold of the gate, his hands in his pockets, eyes fixed on the ground.
She hesitated, then turned to him. “Aren’t you leaving too?”
Kaito looked up and offered a small, reassuring smile. “I’ll go in a minute. I just want to be a gentleman and wait until all of you are out of sight. Ladies first, after all.”
Yuzuki blinked in surprise, a faint smile tugging at her lips. “You’re such a weirdo, Kaito-kun.”
He shrugged, still smiling. “Maybe, but it’s the right thing to do.”
Yuzuki glanced at him, a knowing look flickering in her eyes. As she turned to leave, she murmured quietly to herself, “Or, maybe it’s what your father asked you to do.”
The words were barely audible, carried away on the early morning breeze. With that, Yuzuki nodded, turned, and made her way home, feeling a little lighter as the first rays of dawn crept over the horizon, leaving Kaito standing at the gate—his smile lingering, touched with a hint of nostalgia.
Yuzuki, curious and suspicious, deliberately took a turn and pressed herself behind the wall, waiting quietly to see if Kaito would actually head home or do something else.
Yuzuki watched in stunned silence as Kaito’s father, Shiranui Haruki, emerged from the early morning shadows, followed by Haruki’s father, Kurosawa Ren, and Ren’s own father. All three men were dressed in imposing, traditional Japanese ceremonial attire.
They wore kamishimo: formal ensembles consisting of crisp black kimono beneath wide, pleated hakama trousers, and sleeveless jackets with stiff, exaggerated shoulders called kataginu. The fabric was heavy and structured, each garment adorned with family crests (mon) on the chest, back, and sleeves, signifying their lineage and authority. The silhouettes were striking, designed to project dignity and command respect.
At their sides hung long Japanese swords—katana—each sheathed in lacquered scabbards. The swords’ hilts were wrapped in intricate silk cord, and the fittings gleamed faintly in the dawn light, marking them as both ceremonial symbols and reminders of the family’s ancient traditions. The overall effect was both regal and intimidating, a visual echo of generations steeped in ritual and power.
As Kaito approached, Haruki immediately began scolding him, his voice sharp and commanding. Yuzuki strained to listen, but Kaito’s response was too quiet, his words swallowed by the morning air. The scene was striking—three generations, all in ceremonial garb, confronting Kaito at the school gate as the sun rose, while Yuzuki watched, hidden and wide-eyed, from her vantage point around the corner.
Yuzuki’s eyes narrowed as she watched the scene unfold. Ugh. I KNEW IT! Something was up! she thought, frustration bubbling inside her. Without hesitation, she turned on her heel and took off running, determined to put distance between herself and the mysterious confrontation she’d just witnessed.
To be Continued...
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