Fourth Floor Investigation

After I was certain that Sakura was going to be ok, I spent the rest of the day mourning the three students we lost, alone in my room. Teruteru, the perverted chef who made amazing food. Mondo, the biker who refused to hit a girl for any reason, yet was ready to fight any guy who rubbed him the wrong way. And Tenko, the girl with a serious misandry problem, who sparred a lot with Sakura.

Teruteru died a horrible death, cooked to death in the Kitchen oven. Mondo's death, by contrast, was likely instantaneous, if what Kyoko said was true. And Tenko...that...THING...dislocated her knee and broke her arm, before finally breaking her neck with a Tombstone Piledriver. She suffered as well, though not as long as Teruteru.

I was really not in the mood for company, nor did it seem anyone else was. Even the Group Chat was quiet, and we ate dinner in relative silence, each person making their own dinner without saying much of anything to anyone else. Sakura was taking things the hardest, slowly drinking her protein shake and barely touching the yakisoba with shrimp that she made herself.

The only positive thing that happened today was Monorakun pushing another update to our E-Handbooks, so we could see the current date as well as the time. Today was Friday, March 18th, 2022, according to the newly updated Date/Time, and if my math was correct, this was our tenth day stuck in this place, with six of our "classmates" already dead.

When the 10pm alert went off, I headed straight to bed, and drifted off to sleep. And another dream came to visit me, another memory from my past.

I was 16 years old, almost 17, and was getting dressed up for a date with a guy I had just met, Tonchiki Gehinna. I had on a cute navy blue dress, sleeveless and just above the knee, black thigh-high stockings, and navy blue low heels. My hair was half-up, half-down, with the top half put up in a wide ponytail. I even used a little bit of makeup, something I rarely do beyond lipstick and eye shadow, adding some blush and lip liner.

Tonchiki picked me up a few minutes before the appointed time, and we went to see a scary movie, "Jigoku Heno Dou", or "Road to Hell" if translated into English. It was written by American director Andrew Forrest, which seemed unusual for a Japanese movie, but horror/mystery movies always caught my interest.

To my disappointment, Tonchiki seemed much more interested in me than he was the movie, staring at my chest, and not-so-subtly trying to slip a finger or two under my hem, under the guise of resting a hand on my knee or thigh. He stopped after a character I did not like died, and I whispered into Tonchiki's ear, "I hope that person's killer gets his penis cut off and eaten in front of him," before opening a package of beef jerky, taking a bite, and ripping it away from my mouth for effect.

Afterwards, we got into his car, with him driving, and we pulled up to a house I thought was his. He took my hand, and we walked up to his front door. I noticed all the lights inside were out, and it seemed no one else was home. However, when we got to the front door, instead of reaching for his keys, he reached for his belt buckle. My eyes widened, knowing what I had just walked into.

This was not his home. This was an abandoned building.

With a swift motion, he jerked my left hand, which he was still holding, towards him hard. Thinking quickly, I used the momentum to deliver an elbow to his jaw. This stunned him and caught him off guard, and when he loosened his grip on my left wrist, I drove my right knee into his gut. Feeling and hearing the wind knocked out of him, I swiftly grabbed both sides of his head and drove my right knee, again, into his face, breaking his nose and making him spout blood.

"Owww! Wha the fuu, bith?" Tonchiki loudly mumbled at me. I had apparently busted his lip with the lower part of my knee, as well.

I answered with a right hook to the temple, as hard as I could, and he dropped like a bunted foul ball, straight down and to my left. Smiling to myself, I took the keys off his pants loop, and dragged an unconscious Tonchiki to his car, buckling him in the passenger rear seat. I then moved over to the driver seat, counting two forward clicks before I could reach the pedals, and drove to the mortuary.

We had just pulled into the Kantoku Mortuary and Funeral Home when Tonchiki regained consciousness, and we had not driven but a few minutes away.

"Where the hell are we now?" Tonchiki demanded.

"We are at my family's funeral home. I have supplies here to tend to your injuries," I responded.

"Ughhh...fine, whatever. You owe me for this," Tonchiki muttered at me. I merely shot a glare out of the corner of my eye, before both of us exited the car.

I got us both into the spare Kitchen, the one we almost never used anymore because it was too small for us, and after getting him a glass of water, I went to the bathroom and returned with an ice pack for his face.

"Thanks. You got anything else besides water?" Tonchiki asked, rather indignantly.

I nodded. "Certainly. We have sodas, apple juice, orange juice, a few types of tea, and I could-"

"Make me some tea then. If we're gonna be together, a woman like you's gonna have to learn your place, after all."

Disguising my glare with a smirk, I left without saying a word, and made Tonchiki some tea.

Some very special tea, indeed. My very own "Buresuresu Suimin", or "Breathless Sleep" tea.

I enjoyed watching Tonchiki drink it all. When the melatonin started kicking in, I dismissed it as a side effect of a possible concussion, while laying a tarp underneath him for him to lay down on.

When the confusion set in next, I again attributed to his concussion, and insisted he lay down and try to relax, to clear his mind as best he can.

Then, as always, came the vomiting and the convulsions. I could not help but giggle to myself as this misogynist piece of offal thrashed and retched all over himself, again and again. I was fortunate that most of the vomit ended up all over his chest and arms, and not very much ended up on the tarp. Maybe I could spray this tarp off instead of burning it, I thought to myself.

Finally, came the paralysis, as the lungs and heart seize up and stop moving, the arms and legs go limp, and the body slowly dies in front of me.

Once I was satisfied that he was dead, I carefully wrapped Tonchiki into the tarp, then cradled him in my arms as if he was a sleeping child, carrying him to the crematorium. There, I laid him on the conveyor belt, decided to leave the tarp with him, and turned on the cremator, burning him to ashes.

Finally, having read his address off of his driver's license, I took his keys and put some surgical gloves on from the body preparation room. I then drove his car back to his house, left the keys in the ignition and the doors unlocked, moved the seat back two clicks (to its original position), and walked home.

"Wake up, everyone! It's 7am, and Nighttime is now over! Time to enjoy another fun-filled day at The Ultimate Talent Enhancement Center!" Monorakun's gravely voice woke me up. Stretching and yawning, I gradually dragged myself out of bed. I took off my PJs and took a quick shower, then got dressed in my black tights, my black dress with white top half, and finally my black custom-made heels. Looking at my E-Handbook, today was 3/19, a Saturday.

No one had said anything in the Group Chat, so I headed to the Dining Hall to get some breakfast. I settled for some Apple Cinnamon bagels, which I buttered and sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on before eating.

After we ate, we split up into groups to explore the newly unlocked Fourth Floor. Hiyoko and Mahiru paired up immediately, as I had expected them to. Sakura and Nekomaru got together. Rantaro grouped up with Kyoko. Fuyuhiko and Toko, refusing to pair with each other, decided to strike out on their own.

This left me with Korekiyo, who I did not mind too much.

"So, shall we travel together to the Fourth Floor, and examine its mysteries together? Certainly, there is a fear of entering unknown lands, but the lure of knowledge, and the promise of a potential positive reward, will cause your curiosity to overcome one's fear. People are greedy; it is simply a trait of humanity."

I could have done without the speech, but I did not wish to rudely cut him off. "Certainly. Unlike Fuyuhiko and Toko, I have no desire to explore alone. I would welcome your company, Korekiyo."

We walked up the stairs to the Fourth Floor, with Korekiyo asking me questions about some of the funereal rites I had performed in the past, and offering historical information as I named them. Burial, cremation, taxidermy (only for pets), mummification (only done once, by special request), pyres (always lit by the deceased's oldest male relative), and more recently, even "green funerals" (buried somewhere in nature, with a tree stump or a boulder taking the place of a traditional headstone).

For his part, Korekiyo seemed politely interested in my work, and his historical annotations were interesting as well.

We finally arrived on the Fourth Floor, and decided to head straight ahead, ignoring the room to our left. We could see into the Courtyard from even higher up now, using the windows to our left, but no one was down there. Following the bend in the hallway, we circled around the Courtyard before reaching a T intersection, with two doors ahead of us. One was slightly to our left, and the other was slightly to our right.

Korekiyo opened the door to the left, revealing a Bowling Room. All the bowling balls were designed with Monorakun heads, and the two top holes were very close to where Monorakun's eyes would be, while the thumb hole was more between its nose and mouth. The pins were designed as Monorakuns, as well; ten of them, standing in the traditional pattern for bowling. There were also brown seats for those not actively bowling to sit on, out of the way of the single lane in the room.

We left the Bowling Room and headed left, towards a few other rooms; one to our left, one to our right, and a third straight ahead. Opening the door to our left, we saw a closet with batting helmets, baseball bats, and elbow pads.

"A curious find, Shishano. There are only baseball-related items in here. Where would they be used, I wonder. Somewhere nearby?"

Having no idea, we left the closet and headed to the room directly across from it, and everything became clear. Inside was a batting cage, with a Monorakun face on Home Plate. There was a backdrop of Monorakuns in the stands, with foul lines separating foul balls from fair hits.

"Kehehehe...Now I see. There was no room for the bats, helmets, and other gear, so they were all placed in the Equipment Room across the hall. This means that anyone who uses the Batting Cages must first enter the Equipment Room to get their gear, and must return to it to put their things away."

I nodded. "Yes, that seems to be the case. I have never been much into sports, though I do not mind watching sports."

We left the Batting Cage and headed into the final nearby room. Within was a chemistry room, with tables, beakers, chemistry equipment, and lots and lots of medications, supplements, and other chemicals.

While Korekiyo looked over the equipment, I looked over some of the compounds. I found myself in front of the Ms. Maca, Mallow, Manacea...Marsh Tea... Mastic... Melatonin... Methylpentane... Mormon Tea... before ending with Myrtle.

Curious, I went to the beginning, to the As. Abscess root, Ascorbic Acid... Aconite... Agave... Aloe... Alpinia... Angostura... Arsenic... and finishing with Avocado Sugar Extract, which struck me as odd.

So there were medicines in here, supplements, vitamins...and poisons. This was a dangerous room.

"Kehehehe...One could easily come in here to seek a poison to murder another. There is beauty in death, as death is just another chapter of the struggle of humanity," Korekiyo commented. I was uncertain if he was speaking to me, or to himself, so I did not respond.

Leaving the Chemistry Room and walking down the long hallway, past the Batting Cage and the Bowling Room, we headed straight towards a shuttered stairway. It, undoubtedly, led to the Fifth and final floor of this place, but there was no point in dwelling on that right now. We took a left, walking back towards the other staircase and the door we passed up earlier.

Opening the door, I was met with a strange sight. There were slowly flashing lights, signs hanging over what appeared to be cubicles with cut-outs for windows, and what appeared to be Monorakuns...everywhere. All facing the doorway, all staring at us.

My eyes went wide, and I took a step back, into Korekiyo's chest, before spinning around. Before I could say anything though, I saw Monorakun standing between us and the stairway going downstairs. He appeared to be grinning, and he was standing on his hind legs, his arms out wide as if to either give us a hug, or to block our passage through him.

Monorakun spoke only one word to the both of us.

"Surprise!"

(Author's Note: "Road to Hell" is a fangan written by Andrew Forrest, aka DrewFrostStorm. Used with permission.)