Finale

Time flowed without pause for Makoto, ever since they vanished.

"...Done!"

The smiling man asked for him to wait on that same chair while he "prepared everything".

"I liked you, so I'll show you something special!"

Makoto stays silent.

"You can come now."

...He gets up slowly, and turns toward the living room.

There were many kinds of blades and unknown instruments all over the ground.

The three members of the family from before were smiling in the background.

"You can sit on the sofa."

Makoto reluctantly follows the order.

The sofa had been moved to the corner of the room, and moved from facing the tv to facing the corridors, where the bedrooms were.

"These three are this time's assistants, mister Papa, lady Mama, and the little one!"

Makoto stares silently.

"Don't forget to clap to the show."

He claps with a smile, that must be more like the face of someone dying.

"Let's start with the simplest of them all, the little one and the fast cut!"

She walks beside the smiling man, and makes the same reverence an actor does before a play.

The man squats and picks up one of the many blades on the ground around him, and in the next moment, it is on the ground of the other side.

Nothing happened.

"Voilà!"

Afterwards, the smiling man puts his hands beside her head while doing the jazz hands, as if he was saying "take a look at this!" with them.

That's when the thin line of blood appeared on her neck.

The eyes of the girl had lost their light, and she falls to her knees, her head falling to the side afterwards, and rolling to his feet.

A small fountain of blood pours from her neck before the rest of the body falls down.

That moment, the eyes of the man shone.

Makoto knows that's the signal for clapping, and he's forced to do so while smiling, like before.

"Isn't it beautiful? How the red overlaps all other colors?"

Was that why he was dressed up like that?

Makoto stays silent.

"And now for the next show..."

This time it was the gentle looking middle aged lady.

He throws the remains of the little girl to the side, and pick up a chair he had prepared, the lady sits immediately after.

"The last show was something fast I improved after much training. Obviously, this one as well."

He picks up a curved blade.

"I call this one Mama and the perseverance!"

He inserts the curved blade into her abdomen, which makes her scream in agony.

Makoto couldn't help but look at the mister, who's probably her husbando, as that happened…

The mister kept smiling, but there seemed to be tears forming in his eyes.

"Eyes on the show, Makoto."

He instantly turns his attention back to the man as he hears his name.

Using another knife now, he was opening the woman's stomach, and the exposed intestines started to come out.

"I actually wanted to show this to Yuki, but I don't think he can handle it, yet..."

The blood gushed out, but the woman wouldn't stop screaming.

It was as if he cut perfectly in a non lethal way, to maximize the victim's suffering.

He picks up some kind of medical instrument and stops the bleeding, then starts to remove the intestines.

Following that, he removes her legs piece by piece, starting with the fingers.

There were many small pieces.

The most impressive was the speed at which he did that, and the cuts as precise as a surgeon's.

When the woman's legs were fully removed till the minimum needed for her to sit, he did the same with the arms.

The removed pieces from the arms were even smaller, the size of a bean.

The woman hadn't stopped screaming since the beginning.

Her voice started to grow hoarse.

"Woah, I need to hurry!"

He went even faster.

Left arm, right arm, nose, ears… he removed even the breast area.

All that was left of her was an exposed heart and lungs, and whatever someone needed to scream.

That moment, the woman's voice vanished, and a dagger was thrust upon her heart.

"Finale."

He curved himself like an actor after a play.

Makoto could clap while making a fake smile, but tears rolled down his eyes.

The smiling man seemed to take that in a positive light.

"For the last show… We'll have Papa, the pure flesh!"

The tears wouldn't stop, alongside the fake smile.

The chair the woman was in is thrown to the side.

But the pieces stayed on the ground

The middle aged man stays still.

The next second, the man held a skin piece.

And in some area of the mister's body the clothes started getting drenched in blood.

"I actually couldn't do this before, but this wonderful place taught me many things."

Eventually, the mister was all red.

The skin was removed perfectly, save for the face, that was then removed as well.

As he ripped it off, the eyes fell, and the mister dropped to his knees.

"Ah, I always remove the eyes as well by accident, I'm sorry for the mistake!"

He trembled.

The sensation the mister must feel at that moment was inimaginable.

"And with your number done, we say goodbye!"

He inserts a long knife in the back of the man's neck, ending his suffering.

Was this mercy or an even greater cruelty?

Makoto did the same as before, and clapped.

He soon stops, and can't smile anymore.

Not even the tears stayed.

"You remind me of Yuki a bit."

He puts the mister's face atop Makoto's.

"A souvenir."

He felt as if he could hear "sorry" that moment, and right afterwards he could see something.

It seemed to be someone's memory, a man comes home after the day's work and his wife and daughter are in front of a person.

He runs and tries to stop the person, but ends up being knocked down and forced to see his younger daughter and wife brutally murdered.

The mister manages to beg, almost pray, for Yuki to not go home today in his last breaths.

"So he's named Yuki?", he notices that was a mistake.

Sleep at a friend's house, loiter around somewhere, it doesn't matter how.

Just save yourself.

The man soon comes to end what he started, and the mister suddenly sees himself in the corridor outside.

Yuki was coming, but he couldn't stop him.

Makoto comes back to, confused.

The smiling man was looking at him in a different way.

It seemed to have affection.

"You too… From now on, you're also my little brother."

He seemed happy, for some reason the indifferent face felt happier than his smiles.

"Now I have two little brothers."

Soon he's back to smiling.

At that moment, the man turned to the door, as if he knew what was about to happen.

It was destroyed by a kick.

"Makoto!"

The man immediately looks on the eyes of that boy, which are reflected in the man's own eyes, it seems the boy's name was Yuki.

Yuki saw the scene of his nightmares.

This time, the killer had a face.

"Hello little brother."

That was reality.

There was no way to escape it anymore.

"Thanks for the paradise."

An indifferent face, and smiling eyes.

It was as if the world broke apart.

As if waking up from a long dream, Sheila, Kyou and Yuki were in the station.

The first one to awaken was Kyou.

He looks around, and sees Makoto goin' down the station's stairs.

"...Guys!"

Havin' just woken up, Kyouichirou was still somewhat dizzy.

"Makoto, are ya alright my dude?!"

His scream woke the other two up.

"We're… outside?"

She said, confused about the why.

She then proceeds to get up from the ground, and soon Kyou does the same, while Makoto ran in their direction, who were in the middle of the station.

"We really woke up here."

Sheila appeared pensative, while Kyou hugged Makoto.

"Bro, I thought you'd die..."

The three were close childhood friends, and Sheila felt the same.

Relief.

She almost felt guilty about making this the club's outdoor activity, almost.

...But since everyone was fine at the end, the feeling did not last long.

She then notices the other person on the ground, with their hand massaging their head.

A young man with messy long black hair that looks like it has not been cut for a long time, using a summer uniform from their school.

He gets up slowly, and is a bit taller than Kyou, seemingly being the same age as them.

"Yuki?"

Sheila asks.

The youth seems to answer to that name.

"How do you know my name?"

She makes an "aha" with her hands, lightly punching her palm with the other hand as if it was a hammer.

"I was right! A true supernatural phenomena!!"

Kyou and Makoto, who were in an endless cycle of "Are ya really ok? Ya don't look fine at all!" and "I am dude, you can relax." were baffled by what they just heard.

"Ah, right."

Sheila's smiley and guiltyless face changes to a serious one.

"Manabu said sorry for not noticing before."

As he heard that, it was like Yuki had truly awoken.

He felt complicated feelings at that moment.

"Manabu… No, I'm the one who should've woken up before..."

"And we are in 2021, too."

Yuki wasn't sure he heard properly.

"I'm sorry, what? I can't remember how I got here, but that year only comes in more than 30-"

The young lady shakes her head to the sides.

"These people, geez, look, you made something that created some kind of supernatural fridge and now you're in 2021. Just accept it."

Everyone gets dumbfounded by her lack of sensibility.

"That's not good", thought Makoto.

To try and make the mood lighter before Kyou loses the last bit of his patience, he changes topics.

"O-our bags and flashlights are in the park! I'm not sure why, but only us ended up in that place."

The other two sounded confused upon hearing that, weren't they using them all along?

...They weren't.

Yuki just kept being confused.

"I can't remember anything properly from the moment Manabu..."

Makoto heard that.

While Sheila and Kyou were distracted by the fact their bags truly weren't there, he went to speak to Yuki.

"It's better like that, believe me."

When they came back, the blood that sprayed on him and the skin mask vanished, but not the memories.

Was it because of the amulet?

Everything happened so fast the others thankfully didn't catch on to what happened before they got there.

...It was enough for only him to have such nightmares.

And he doesn't want to explain, either.

When Makoto woke up, he was sitting and leaning by a tree, with their things all organized beside him.

It was like someone left them there for him.

...However, he didn't want to think about it.

It was better to just forget.

"But wait, if you're someone from the past, what happens now?"

As Makoto says that, everyone there notices that Yuki's situation was complex.

"...For now ya can come over to my house, we see the rest later."

Kyou, who lived in a big traditional japanese home, saved the day.

So many absurdities happened the last few hours that no one there questioned what Sheila said earlier about supernatural fridges, at least for now.

Makoto went to stay the night at his friend's house as well, but first they took Sheila home, after picking up their things left at the park.

As soon as she got home, she went straight to the table to write for a while.

On her desk, now laid and unfinished investigation report.

「Investigation of the phenomena "Kids of the Station"

Participating members: Yamazaki Sheila, Yamamoto Makoto, Nagato Kyouichirou.

Area Investigated: The park of the aforementioned station.

Budget provided by the school: 10.000¥.

Results: Supernatural activity confirmed.

Cause of the phenomena: Unknown.

Details of the operation: We found a phenomena of the alternative space type, and...」

Sheila slept peacefully, too tired to finish it that day.

That was the first true supernatural phenomena the club found ever since her entering the club at the beginning of that year, her first year of high school.

...Maybe the first of many.