Chapter 39 - Eiji Hoshino
Hollow Night
When your day is finished, ours is just beginning.
You can try and prepare yourself as much as you like, but you’ll never quite be ready for it. The feeling of spilling away into another place as you leave your body, your senses, everything you’ve ever known behind.
For most people, the feeling is enjoyable because they trust that, as surely as the sun rises, they’ll wake up well-rested and pick right up where they left off.
But for us, there’s no such guarantee. For us, anytime we close our eyes could be the last.
For us, we leave heaven each night and descend into hell.
I felt no shock, no urgency, no discomfort from the sudden coldness underneath me. The ground was rocky and uneven, though I could have made it work as a bed regardless. I didn’t want to fight anymore. I was just so... tired.
Still, when an animal is under threat of death, any desire other than immediate survival goes out the window. As my exchange with Mizuko during the day reminded me, I wasn’t safe here. Not anymore.
The sound of rapid steps and shuffles confirmed my fears. I sprang to my feet, my grip on my hammer’s handle tight and unyielding. Just as I expected, the camaraderie we’d forged, however short-lived and expedient, had shattered now that we’d been reminded of what was at stake.
In one corner, blocking the road towards 104, stood Arthur, Mizuko and Junko. Arthur glanced around the space silently, a downtrodden look in his eye, but remained firmly planted by the sisters’ side.
Mizuko was more rigid than the lamppost she stood beside, her eyes unreadable as she assessed the situation. Now was the first time I properly took in her appearance in this strange world; a jet-black gakuren jacket with accompanying hakama, covered by a long blue haori adorned with cool snowy patterns, finalized by equally black tabi socks and blue zori.
She had the likeness of those demon hunters I would read about in the manga I managed to sneak past Dad back in the day. But I had to wonder, in her eyes, who were the real demons?
The Noise, or us?
“I’m happy to see everyone else is okay,” Spoke Rusuban in a warmer tone than I’d come to know him by.
Something about him was different. Was he getting paler? And were those stress lines his face always there? It was as though he’d aged years in a single day. Maybe this whole thing was affecting him more than I’d thought.
Beside him stood Miharu, of all people, but the lifeless glare she gave me indicated this wasn’t the Miharu I’d fought side-by-side with. What had happened at school while I was away?
I was examining the others, my eyes scanning from Reaper to Liu to Daisuke when I realized they were all staring back at me. No. Not at me. At something – someone - moving right next to me.
Barely containing my excitement, I turned to follow their gazes, and was promptly reminded that prayers mean nothing in this sick game.
I sighed, and felt the last of my hope escape with my breath, into the empty night sky.
This had all but confirmed it. Juno was someone at our school.
In fact, to bring him here of all people – just how much did they know about me? About us?
As I watched him inanely scratch his head, pinch his cheeks, and look around with that dumb look on his face, I knew I was in for it.
“W-What the…?!” Nakamura exclaimed. “Is this some kind of joke? What are you all…?”
His murmurings halted abruptly once his eyes met mine. I could practically see the idiot’s emotional states cycling through: astonishment, confusion, and then, as it always ended with this guy, anger.
But there was one thing he couldn’t hide, as imperceptible as he tried to make it.
For just a brief moment, he was relieved to see me.
"Hoshino?! Listen, whatever prank you’re trying to pull—"
I had to stop him there. Just as I suspected, a familiar nausea began to twist my stomach, punch my chest, and buckle my knees. I didn’t have any time to waste – not if I had any intention of avenging Akio.
"Give me your hand," I instructed upon seeing his breaths grow heavy and tired.
Allowing his pride to, for once, take a backseat to the proximate goal of survival, he took my hand.
Before long, we were at the epicentre of a flash of blinding light, a mixture of orange and yellow wrapping around us as I felt life begin to fill my body again. Is this what happened the first time?
After a few seconds, the light formed the brief image of a chain link before dissipating completely, leaving the two of us to our new reality as partners in this game going forward.
"What the heck was that?" he gasped, catching his breath. As he shot back up to his feet, I analyzed his costume, hoping to get some sense of his ability.
I took notice of the dark-colored windbreaker with orange, wave-patterned rings around the base of the neck and arms, worn under a large orange trench coat.
The gauntlets on his arms were probably the most notable component – bulky and heavy-looking with technological circuit markings and glowing circles, as though they initially belonged to some kind of robot. Was his ability something to do with tech?
If not for the serious glare he was giving me, I would have audibly laughed at the thought.
I’d be surprised if Ryota knew how to send an email, let alone construct useful gadgets or whatever.
No – if our EXS were like our ‘souls’ then our abilities, which are the way our EXS materialize and take form, should reflect our personality. I knew this guy well enough to hazard a guess as to what kind of power he was hiding up his sleeve.
"We formed a Pact," I sighed, concluding that if he was here with us from now on, hiding things would do more harm than good; especially now that I can’t rely on anyone else looking out for us. Us? Oh, God.
"A Pact?" he parroted. "D-Did you volunteer me up as a sacrifice to some kind of cult? Is that why everyone’s dressed up like this?! Well, I’m not a virgin, so ha! In fact, me and Junko just—"
His rambling hit an instant pit stop as he locked eyes with someone behind me, but it didn’t take a genius to deduce who. As if in a trance, he pushed past me and began to walk toward her in spite of my commands for him not to.
"J-Junko…?" Ryota whispered, still approaching. Junko’s eyes were darting to and fro, her cheeks reddening. How embarrassing. "Babe, what’s going—"
In one swift movement, Mizuko thrusted her naginata at Nakamura’s throat, the tip inches away from piercing. I couldn’t see Ryota’s face from here, but I could see his fist begin to curl up.
Mizuko frowned.
"Halt. You will go no further. I suggest you return from whence you came, or I’ll be forced to put you down." There was a coldness in her voice that set my hairs on edge, and before I knew it, my body began to move. I had no doubt in my mind that she would follow through with that threat if we gave her the opportunity.
I tapped Nakamura on the shoulder. "Look, I’ll explain everything," I attempted to placate. "But a lot has already gone down here, so you need to—"
My arm had been swatted away before I could even finish my sentence. Stunned, I watched as Nakamura raised his head to look straight at Mizuko.
"…I wasn’t talking to you," he spat in monotone.
Shit.
I held the handle of my Prism Hammer like a vice and dropped my stance lower, ready to react to what might happen next.
While I couldn’t comfortably say I was ready to kill, I knew that I had gotten lucky by Juno even bringing Nakamura here to begin with; if not, I’d be long dead by now due to being Pactless.
As screwed up as it sounds, Ryota getting dragged into this was exactly what I needed. I couldn’t let it all be for nothing.
A few tense moments of silence passed, and the air itself grew deathly still as we waited to see what would happen next.
"I see you’ve made your choice," Mizuko said eventually, and she cocked back the arm that was holding the naginata. Shit! She was really going to—
I was split seconds away from hurling my hammer into Mizuko’s body when I both saw and heard an array of movements around me.
Stopping mid-motion, I looked up to see a harrowing sight. The blunt surface of my hammer was inches away from Mizuko’s face, and she was staring directly at me with a lifeless smirk.
But she wasn’t alone.
Both Junko and Reaper had appeared at both my sides, the pointed tip of Reaper’s scythe and the curved edge of Junko’s odachi centimeters away from initiating a divorce between my head and the rest of my body.
"Careful where you swing that thing," Junko threatened. "Wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt now would we?"
This bitch.
"I thought you’d be happier to see your boyfriend…?" I rebutted. "Or does big sis not approve?"
We didn’t move from our positions, frozen mid-action as though we were mannequins on display in some Cadul CIty clothing outlet. Through quick glances around, however, I deduced that not everyone was out for my neck. Well, not immediately anyway.
Nakamura stood completely still, gritting his teeth with quick breaths as the naginata tip was again inches away from his left eye. This time, I could tell Mizuko had no intention of sparing him, for it was Arthur’s hairy forearm that held the staff in place.
"Shirogetsu-san!" he roared, his gruff voice laced with concern. "What’s gotten into you? You really would have…"
Arthur’s words faded and his eyes widened as he regarded Mizuko, realizing that she wasn’t even listening. Arthur shook his head in amazement, as though he was looking clearly at Mizuko for the first time.
Her eyes were still fixed on me.
"There we go, Hoshino," she whispered. "There’s a killer in you after all.”
My teeth started grinding as I pulled back my hammer, stepping away from the group. In the corner of my eye, I noticed Kinoko and Miharu hadn’t moved, but there was no sign of Liu or Daisuke. They’d disappeared.
"Ryota," I spoke, dragging him away by the shoulder, my eyes never leaving the sight of my former comrades. "Get used to this. The nightmare is just beginning."
We’d made it all the way to the Scramble Crossing, next to the statue of Hachiko, when I finally decided to spill the beans to him about everything.
About the two nights we’d spent here. The trials we faced. The losses we’d suffered.
Once I’d finished, he crashed onto one of the benches and stared lifelessly at the ground. I didn’t know what to say – I mean, what do you even tell someone who’s been caught up in a situation as crazy as this?
‘We’ll be okay’ ?
‘Give it your best, and everything’ll turn out great’?
Empty platitudes like that had no place here, and from the short interaction he’d had with the others, I think he had already figured out that much.
But to my surprise, maybe I underestimated Ryota, because the next thing I heard was his hearty, bellowing laughter filling up the place.
“Akio, you fucking idiot,” he murmured. He wasn’t looking at me, but I could tell from the droplets of liquid raining down onto the ground that his laughter had been hiding another emotion entirely.
“You always talked a big game about helping people. About putting others first, about fighting for what you believed in, no matter the cost. About being like Hachiko.”
He raised his head to look at the marbled likeness of the aforementioned, and I could now see that his face had become home to rivers of tears flowing down his cheeks. Any fight, any rage that was present in his once defiant eyes had now been extinguished, usurped by a deep and impenetrable sorrow.
“But now look at you. You went and left us all alone, you selfish prick. Why’d you have to go and…”
The words vanished, replaced by his struggled whimpers to keep from breaking down.
I felt my own chest begin to wobble, my eyes water. It was all too unfair. Why did it have to be him? What had he done wrong to deserve…?
I lifted my hands up to my face to stop myself before I completely lost my poise. I had to be strong, now more than ever. Ryota was practically a newborn baby in this world, and I had nobody else who could watch our back and help us.
In that moment, the realization that I was truly alone in this hellish place hit me hard.
I yearned for him so badly. He was always there for all of us. He never took sides and saw us all as his… his friends. He was willing to give us everything and ask for nothing in return.
And we left him to die.
I won’t let it be for nothing, Akio. I’ll get to the bottom of this sick game and tear it all down till there’s nothing left. I’ll crush anyone who gets in my way, and I’ll find a way to bring you back.
I swear it.
Once the heaviness in my heart had made way for a burgeoning inferno, I turned back to Nakamura, who was looking at me with a similar intensity. I needed no words to know that he had steeled his own resolve and made his own promise to Akio in his heart.
For the first time in our lives, we were chasing after the same goal.
Together, we’ll set this whole city on fire and burn Akio’s name into the very earth it stands on.
“Let’s go find him,” Ryota declared.
That’s right. There was only one person who knew the truth about Akio’s death- only one person who had stayed with him until the end.
In order to move forward, we needed to know the truth about what had happened in those final moments.
As we prepared to set off, the billboards above the Scramble Crossing began to buzz with life. The static on the myriad screens positioned around the area started to reveal a familiar picture.
I turned to Ryota.
“Remember those ‘missions’ I told you about?”
He nodded silently, and I allowed him to connect the rest of the dots.
Of course, we had no intention of playing by Juno’s rules any longer. We had our own objective in mind. Still, it was useful that we at least heard what the mission was – and, of course, check the leaderboard.
We couldn’t have known it then, but that next mission would mark a turning point for us.
Despite our bravado and lip service, it would reveal the truth about who we really were.
And there are some revelations you don’t come back from.
Hollow Night
When your day is finished, ours is just beginning.
You can try and prepare yourself as much as you like, but you’ll never quite be ready for it. The feeling of spilling away into another place as you leave your body, your senses, everything you’ve ever known behind.
For most people, the feeling is enjoyable because they trust that, as surely as the sun rises, they’ll wake up well-rested and pick right up where they left off.
But for us, there’s no such guarantee. For us, anytime we close our eyes could be the last.
For us, we leave heaven each night and descend into hell.
I felt no shock, no urgency, no discomfort from the sudden coldness underneath me. The ground was rocky and uneven, though I could have made it work as a bed regardless. I didn’t want to fight anymore. I was just so... tired.
Still, when an animal is under threat of death, any desire other than immediate survival goes out the window. As my exchange with Mizuko during the day reminded me, I wasn’t safe here. Not anymore.
The sound of rapid steps and shuffles confirmed my fears. I sprang to my feet, my grip on my hammer’s handle tight and unyielding. Just as I expected, the camaraderie we’d forged, however short-lived and expedient, had shattered now that we’d been reminded of what was at stake.
In one corner, blocking the road towards 104, stood Arthur, Mizuko and Junko. Arthur glanced around the space silently, a downtrodden look in his eye, but remained firmly planted by the sisters’ side.
Mizuko was more rigid than the lamppost she stood beside, her eyes unreadable as she assessed the situation. Now was the first time I properly took in her appearance in this strange world; a jet-black gakuren jacket with accompanying hakama, covered by a long blue haori adorned with cool snowy patterns, finalized by equally black tabi socks and blue zori.
She had the likeness of those demon hunters I would read about in the manga I managed to sneak past Dad back in the day. But I had to wonder, in her eyes, who were the real demons?
The Noise, or us?
“I’m happy to see everyone else is okay,” Spoke Rusuban in a warmer tone than I’d come to know him by.
Something about him was different. Was he getting paler? And were those stress lines his face always there? It was as though he’d aged years in a single day. Maybe this whole thing was affecting him more than I’d thought.
Beside him stood Miharu, of all people, but the lifeless glare she gave me indicated this wasn’t the Miharu I’d fought side-by-side with. What had happened at school while I was away?
I was examining the others, my eyes scanning from Reaper to Liu to Daisuke when I realized they were all staring back at me. No. Not at me. At something – someone - moving right next to me.
Barely containing my excitement, I turned to follow their gazes, and was promptly reminded that prayers mean nothing in this sick game.
I sighed, and felt the last of my hope escape with my breath, into the empty night sky.
This had all but confirmed it. Juno was someone at our school.
In fact, to bring him here of all people – just how much did they know about me? About us?
As I watched him inanely scratch his head, pinch his cheeks, and look around with that dumb look on his face, I knew I was in for it.
“W-What the…?!” Nakamura exclaimed. “Is this some kind of joke? What are you all…?”
His murmurings halted abruptly once his eyes met mine. I could practically see the idiot’s emotional states cycling through: astonishment, confusion, and then, as it always ended with this guy, anger.
But there was one thing he couldn’t hide, as imperceptible as he tried to make it.
For just a brief moment, he was relieved to see me.
"Hoshino?! Listen, whatever prank you’re trying to pull—"
I had to stop him there. Just as I suspected, a familiar nausea began to twist my stomach, punch my chest, and buckle my knees. I didn’t have any time to waste – not if I had any intention of avenging Akio.
"Give me your hand," I instructed upon seeing his breaths grow heavy and tired.
Allowing his pride to, for once, take a backseat to the proximate goal of survival, he took my hand.
Before long, we were at the epicentre of a flash of blinding light, a mixture of orange and yellow wrapping around us as I felt life begin to fill my body again. Is this what happened the first time?
After a few seconds, the light formed the brief image of a chain link before dissipating completely, leaving the two of us to our new reality as partners in this game going forward.
"What the heck was that?" he gasped, catching his breath. As he shot back up to his feet, I analyzed his costume, hoping to get some sense of his ability.
I took notice of the dark-colored windbreaker with orange, wave-patterned rings around the base of the neck and arms, worn under a large orange trench coat.
The gauntlets on his arms were probably the most notable component – bulky and heavy-looking with technological circuit markings and glowing circles, as though they initially belonged to some kind of robot. Was his ability something to do with tech?
If not for the serious glare he was giving me, I would have audibly laughed at the thought.
I’d be surprised if Ryota knew how to send an email, let alone construct useful gadgets or whatever.
No – if our EXS were like our ‘souls’ then our abilities, which are the way our EXS materialize and take form, should reflect our personality. I knew this guy well enough to hazard a guess as to what kind of power he was hiding up his sleeve.
"We formed a Pact," I sighed, concluding that if he was here with us from now on, hiding things would do more harm than good; especially now that I can’t rely on anyone else looking out for us. Us? Oh, God.
"A Pact?" he parroted. "D-Did you volunteer me up as a sacrifice to some kind of cult? Is that why everyone’s dressed up like this?! Well, I’m not a virgin, so ha! In fact, me and Junko just—"
His rambling hit an instant pit stop as he locked eyes with someone behind me, but it didn’t take a genius to deduce who. As if in a trance, he pushed past me and began to walk toward her in spite of my commands for him not to.
"J-Junko…?" Ryota whispered, still approaching. Junko’s eyes were darting to and fro, her cheeks reddening. How embarrassing. "Babe, what’s going—"
In one swift movement, Mizuko thrusted her naginata at Nakamura’s throat, the tip inches away from piercing. I couldn’t see Ryota’s face from here, but I could see his fist begin to curl up.
Mizuko frowned.
"Halt. You will go no further. I suggest you return from whence you came, or I’ll be forced to put you down." There was a coldness in her voice that set my hairs on edge, and before I knew it, my body began to move. I had no doubt in my mind that she would follow through with that threat if we gave her the opportunity.
I tapped Nakamura on the shoulder. "Look, I’ll explain everything," I attempted to placate. "But a lot has already gone down here, so you need to—"
My arm had been swatted away before I could even finish my sentence. Stunned, I watched as Nakamura raised his head to look straight at Mizuko.
"…I wasn’t talking to you," he spat in monotone.
Shit.
I held the handle of my Prism Hammer like a vice and dropped my stance lower, ready to react to what might happen next.
While I couldn’t comfortably say I was ready to kill, I knew that I had gotten lucky by Juno even bringing Nakamura here to begin with; if not, I’d be long dead by now due to being Pactless.
As screwed up as it sounds, Ryota getting dragged into this was exactly what I needed. I couldn’t let it all be for nothing.
A few tense moments of silence passed, and the air itself grew deathly still as we waited to see what would happen next.
"I see you’ve made your choice," Mizuko said eventually, and she cocked back the arm that was holding the naginata. Shit! She was really going to—
I was split seconds away from hurling my hammer into Mizuko’s body when I both saw and heard an array of movements around me.
Stopping mid-motion, I looked up to see a harrowing sight. The blunt surface of my hammer was inches away from Mizuko’s face, and she was staring directly at me with a lifeless smirk.
But she wasn’t alone.
Both Junko and Reaper had appeared at both my sides, the pointed tip of Reaper’s scythe and the curved edge of Junko’s odachi centimeters away from initiating a divorce between my head and the rest of my body.
"Careful where you swing that thing," Junko threatened. "Wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt now would we?"
This bitch.
"I thought you’d be happier to see your boyfriend…?" I rebutted. "Or does big sis not approve?"
We didn’t move from our positions, frozen mid-action as though we were mannequins on display in some Cadul CIty clothing outlet. Through quick glances around, however, I deduced that not everyone was out for my neck. Well, not immediately anyway.
Nakamura stood completely still, gritting his teeth with quick breaths as the naginata tip was again inches away from his left eye. This time, I could tell Mizuko had no intention of sparing him, for it was Arthur’s hairy forearm that held the staff in place.
"Shirogetsu-san!" he roared, his gruff voice laced with concern. "What’s gotten into you? You really would have…"
Arthur’s words faded and his eyes widened as he regarded Mizuko, realizing that she wasn’t even listening. Arthur shook his head in amazement, as though he was looking clearly at Mizuko for the first time.
Her eyes were still fixed on me.
"There we go, Hoshino," she whispered. "There’s a killer in you after all.”
My teeth started grinding as I pulled back my hammer, stepping away from the group. In the corner of my eye, I noticed Kinoko and Miharu hadn’t moved, but there was no sign of Liu or Daisuke. They’d disappeared.
"Ryota," I spoke, dragging him away by the shoulder, my eyes never leaving the sight of my former comrades. "Get used to this. The nightmare is just beginning."
We’d made it all the way to the Scramble Crossing, next to the statue of Hachiko, when I finally decided to spill the beans to him about everything.
About the two nights we’d spent here. The trials we faced. The losses we’d suffered.
Once I’d finished, he crashed onto one of the benches and stared lifelessly at the ground. I didn’t know what to say – I mean, what do you even tell someone who’s been caught up in a situation as crazy as this?
‘We’ll be okay’ ?
‘Give it your best, and everything’ll turn out great’?
Empty platitudes like that had no place here, and from the short interaction he’d had with the others, I think he had already figured out that much.
But to my surprise, maybe I underestimated Ryota, because the next thing I heard was his hearty, bellowing laughter filling up the place.
“Akio, you fucking idiot,” he murmured. He wasn’t looking at me, but I could tell from the droplets of liquid raining down onto the ground that his laughter had been hiding another emotion entirely.
“You always talked a big game about helping people. About putting others first, about fighting for what you believed in, no matter the cost. About being like Hachiko.”
He raised his head to look at the marbled likeness of the aforementioned, and I could now see that his face had become home to rivers of tears flowing down his cheeks. Any fight, any rage that was present in his once defiant eyes had now been extinguished, usurped by a deep and impenetrable sorrow.
“But now look at you. You went and left us all alone, you selfish prick. Why’d you have to go and…”
The words vanished, replaced by his struggled whimpers to keep from breaking down.
I felt my own chest begin to wobble, my eyes water. It was all too unfair. Why did it have to be him? What had he done wrong to deserve…?
I lifted my hands up to my face to stop myself before I completely lost my poise. I had to be strong, now more than ever. Ryota was practically a newborn baby in this world, and I had nobody else who could watch our back and help us.
In that moment, the realization that I was truly alone in this hellish place hit me hard.
I yearned for him so badly. He was always there for all of us. He never took sides and saw us all as his… his friends. He was willing to give us everything and ask for nothing in return.
And we left him to die.
I won’t let it be for nothing, Akio. I’ll get to the bottom of this sick game and tear it all down till there’s nothing left. I’ll crush anyone who gets in my way, and I’ll find a way to bring you back.
I swear it.
Once the heaviness in my heart had made way for a burgeoning inferno, I turned back to Nakamura, who was looking at me with a similar intensity. I needed no words to know that he had steeled his own resolve and made his own promise to Akio in his heart.
For the first time in our lives, we were chasing after the same goal.
Together, we’ll set this whole city on fire and burn Akio’s name into the very earth it stands on.
“Let’s go find him,” Ryota declared.
That’s right. There was only one person who knew the truth about Akio’s death- only one person who had stayed with him until the end.
In order to move forward, we needed to know the truth about what had happened in those final moments.
As we prepared to set off, the billboards above the Scramble Crossing began to buzz with life. The static on the myriad screens positioned around the area started to reveal a familiar picture.
I turned to Ryota.
“Remember those ‘missions’ I told you about?”
He nodded silently, and I allowed him to connect the rest of the dots.
Of course, we had no intention of playing by Juno’s rules any longer. We had our own objective in mind. Still, it was useful that we at least heard what the mission was – and, of course, check the leaderboard.
We couldn’t have known it then, but that next mission would mark a turning point for us.
Despite our bravado and lip service, it would reveal the truth about who we really were.
And there are some revelations you don’t come back from.