#chapter 3 start

As you emerge through the campground door, you see something unusual... Something rather unexpected...

Another miserable trial, another gruesome loss. You had a feeling it would start to become a cycle of this until that “royal flush” appeared. The trial ended in the early evening, and you had until the next morning to get over yourselves. Perhaps it was easier this time, or perhaps not. 

The Queen waddled into the corridor, as she had done before, an army of robobutlers following behind her, each equipped with slices of strawberry cream cake. Delicious! 

Man, this shit was exhausting. The lot of you probably slept for almost an entire day. Instead of waking you all up with a megaphone first thing in the morning, Wallace woke you up with a megaphone around mid-afternoon.

“Up and at ‘em. Got the maps.” At least he wasn’t yelling through the megaphone. Just speaking through it. While it was turned up to 11.

Death loomed in the air, you’d watched a friend be executed, and Death promised another of your peers were soon to perish. All you could do was sit in the library and contemplate. The rumblings of the castle being the only noise to accompany your thoughts. Dominique didn’t do much to comfort you all, they seemed far too drained, and instead left you to yourselves, likely disappointed in your selling of an innocent soul to Death.

Well, here’s another quick recap for you all, just as a reminder of what’s been going on the BEST ANIME OF THE SEASON!

This time around, after Mae was executed, the squad was tasked with taking down a more powerful spirit than the last, a blackmailer controlling the inner-workings of a spirit-vibrant red light district. The previous spirit mentioned the the students would soon realize the reasons behind their suffering. Would this new area reveal any new information?

No. At best, Tomoe got a new tattoo.  😂

Pathway found themselves face to face with information gathering, attempting to discover the location of the spirit. The lively nature of the area must have gotten to Pauwau, who was quickly tied into underground competitive turtle racing, the ringleader being, well...

An eccentric.

Luckily, they managed to avoid the turtle shop all-together, instead combining their energies into Pau’s own Hikari to win against the wiener dog man! It was then, they handed off the password to the casino to the Exorcism team. Nice teamwork!

Less nice teamwork from the Exorcism team as they spent almost half their time in the Anime Shoppu! A store managed by the one, the only, Hatsune Miku! She was really trying to get the team to buy a Wii to “play some gamus”  

Mana found it necessary to make a cruel Madoka Magicka reference, almost resulting in the death of everybody in the store.

After that, the four made their way to the casino, then promptly being handcuffed and forced to gamble for their own souls. Mr. R, or later found out to be Roach, Starch’s older brother, was defeated after most of his cursed, spirit gamblers he had trapped in his casino were somehow erased right in front of his ghostly eyes. 

It was a short trip to the waffle house and then promptly to the arena behind the Maid Cafe where the team met Kayo, a blackmailer with the spiritual ability to reach into people to learn their secrets and fears. Convinced she wasn’t dead, she fought back mercilessly, until the conviction and tenacity for peace of the other team finally broke through to her. She absconded into hiding as the previous spirit, Sei, carried her deep into the ground, phasing through it.

And now you’re all gathered in front of Starch, awaiting some sort of announcement.

“AHA! You guys are really fantastic, yknow that? I can sense the loss of another powerful spirit in the city, another one bites the dust-o! Hope you’re all old enough for that reference! Heyo!”

“Anyways, i’ve noticed you all seem pretty tired of being forced to kill each other and then promptly do my dirty work after, so, to make it up to you all I’ll send you to where I sent that poor ginger kid who crossed me!”

TO DEATH?!

“To a LUXURY VACATION!”

The maps on your IDs all simultaneously update to reveal the next area of the Halfway to Heaven. This one seems...spacious!

“WELL! HAVE FUN KIDDOS! I know I’ll be taking a breather! We’re halfway there, kiddos! The Halfway to Heaven is living up to its name as we speak!”

He floats away with those odd words.

It’s been a few days since you saw your classmate die before your eyes. What you did in that span of time - investigating, discussing among yourselves, know that the threat of the motive would be carried out with the assurance of the death of your peer varied widely, but there was unquestionably a certain... gravitas surrounding the facilities ever since then. Still, life went on as usual, and you had no robots getting on your case for being lazy and not murdering, or. Things of that nature. 

Still, about four or so days after the murder, your keycards vibrated softly. Pulling them out, you were greeted by the sight of new areas to explore.

Ah, so life went on as usual... including the knowledge that you still had no means of escaping.

[Dead End]

Tsutanai was still in shock from being dragged away as she looked around, slightly disorientated, from her place on the cold ground. The only light source for the time being was an oil lamp placed beside her, the flame inside flickering ever so slightly. Despite the situation, a smile came to her face as she excitedly reached out for the handle of the lamp. Rising to her feet with the lamp in hand, she tried to look at her surroundings. It was a tunnel. The end of it wasn’t in sight, no matter if she looked behind her or in front. The sides were just what she expected, dingy, slightly derelict brick walls. And at her feet were some train tracks. Sure they looked disused for some time, and as it were, they weren’t powered but it was no excuse to not be scared. However, she begins skipping in the direction she was facing without a care in the world. If this was a tunnel it would lead somewhere!

Tsutanai continues down the tunnel, there was an increase of fairly irritating squeaks from either mice or rats, water droplets, and generalized rumbling. It was the squeaking which got to her most. It sounded as if it was almost too close to her as if it could have been in her head. She knew it wasn’t though.

Becoming hopeless,she absentmindedly drags a hand along one of the walls. When she notices an odd dampness, she looks back to her hand. Now smudged with blood. A small yelp comes from her as she lifts the lamp to the wall. As expected, there was blood trickling down them. Her eyes going wide, she breaks into a sprint, only to soon run straight into a brick wall, notifying the end of the tunnel. Tsutanai falls backward and groans, rubbing her head, smearing more blood onto her. Taking a moment to come to her senses, she stands up shakily, now noticing how the rumbling from earlier felt more vigorous. She was still anxious about how she’d actually die. She supposed the dead end was meant to symbolize something.

Reaching for the oil lamp she tries to investigate the dead end. Squinting, she knew there was blood there, but the weak flame wasn’t enough to help. Suddenly, the tunnel became lighter. She froze, reading the word before spinning around more than once to face away from the wall. The light was coming from the tunnel. The rumbling was so intense Tsutanai had to use the wall for support. The word on the wall read “FAILURE” in big letters.

Tears welled up in her eyes, the lights becoming blinding as they got closer until a loud horn echoed off the walls. And before she could muster up a scream she was crushed. Between the wall and the train, blood spattered up and over the previously written message.

Tsutanai Kato, The SHSL Railway Engineer, was dead.

“She’s very dead. Anyways, maps!”

Access map descriptions here!

And then the fox-person ran around, handing everyone a Monoeelcoin before going into a cloud of mist.