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"You can't be serious."
"I am so dead fucking serious."
"You're kidding."
"I am not fucking kidding, dude."
Mizuki ran a hand through her hair. "You're actually insane," She uttered, "There's no way we can get inside. Didn't the rumors say it was locked?"
The classmate beside the pinkette snickered, "Then we'll just find another way in! Don't be a pussy, Akiyama!"
"Okay, first of all-" Mizuki deadpanned, folding their arms. "Don't fucking call me that. Second of all, you're literally going to commit a crime."
"Correction:" Their classmate chirped, "We are going to commit a crime! It sounds kind of badass in hindsight, don't you think?"
"It.."
Mizuki paused, pursing their lips. It.. did sound kind of cool, but still. Mizuki didn't feel like risking their possible future just to explore an abandoned manor in the woods that seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
"God- fine. How are you going to open the door, Ayumi?"
Ayumi hummed. "Good question.. there's no lock on the front door, and all the windows are, like.. boarded up on the first floor."
"Let's see if there's a back door," Mizuki suggested. "Or.. any other free windows."
"Yes, ma'am!" Ayumi saluted, "Follow the leader!"
The auburn-haired girl began to march across the perimeter of the mansion, with Mizuki trailing behind, flashlight in hand. Honestly, they thought that Ayumi just wanted to check it out and leave. But, nope, looks like they were going to break in as well. What fun!
...Jesus, Mizuki was going to get an earful from their teacher for not being able to complete their homework, huh? They also had to apologize to Nightcord for not being able to make it, too..
Well, they might as well.. try to enjoy this at least. They were looking at an abandoned mansion, after all, maybe Mizuki could take some pictures to show their friends! She could show Nightcord, and Toya, and...
...
Wait..
Right. Toya was-
He wasn't here anymore.
"You good?" Ayumi called out from in front, "If you want to stop, we can!"
"N-no, it's fine!" Mizuki shook her head. They didn't need anyone else worrying about them- and Ayumi was probably worried enough as it is.
After all, Toya's disappearance had.. shocked the entire class. No matter how close- it was still unnerving to learn that someone you knew.. was gone. Without a trace.
This was a distraction. Not just for Mizuki, but Ayumi, too. They both worked in the library committee together, Mizuki recalled. This was for both of them to get their mind's off of Toya.
The worst part was- it wasn't even just Toya. Both Tsukasa and Saki had disappeared one night as well, leaving no traces behind. Everyone was worried- it was insane how three disappearances happened all in one night. And they were connected, too- Tsukasa, Saki, and Toya were all siblings (kind of- Toya was honorary, according to Saki).
Mizuki was worried out of her mind for all three of them.
"Oh!"
Suddenly, Ayumi gasped. She waved Mizuki over, a wide grin on her face. "Hey, take a look at this, Akiyama!"
"Eh? What is it?"
Mizuki walked over to their classmate, gazing in curiosity at what Ayumi's flashlight was pointed towards. It was a window, just like all the other ones. Except this one was..
"It's not boarded up!" Ayumi exclaimed. "What if we broke it?"
"Destruction of property, and breaking and entering?!"
"Were you not expecting to break anything?" Ayumi laughed, "Besides, who even owns this place anyway? Is it really 'property' is nobody owns it?"
Mizuki paused, taking a few seconds to let Ayumi's words sink in.
Honestly... she wasn't really wrong.
"Not it."
"Yes!" Ayumi pumped her fist. Apparently she actually wanted to break a window anyway, so... that was a win for her.
She and Mizuki stepped back, the former taking a... fairly heavy stone out of her back. When Mizuki gawked at her in surprise, she only laughed.
"Just in case!" She sang.
Mizuki was not very comforted by those words.
Still, Ayumi chucked the rock at the window with all the strength she could muster- and the glass shattered with a loud CRASH!
"Jeeesus..." Mizuki winced at the noise. "Do we just have to climb inside and risk getting cuts now..?"
Ayumi inhaled sharply.
"...Yeah."
"You're so buying me lunch as compensation for this..."
"Got it!"
The two climbed in through the window. Mizuki gingerly tried their best to avoid the glass, but that didn't stop their hand arm from grazing the sharp edge of a broken window pane. The glass underneath them crunched as she stepped on them.
"Time to look around!" Ayumi exclaimed. "You're good at taking pictures, right?"
"Yup! Just tell me if you want anything," Mizuki replied, stepping off the glass shards. they looked down at the soles of their feet to make sure there was nothing stuck underneath.
The two explored the mansion, entering different rooms and areas. Strangely, it wasn't all that dusty inside- in fact, it looked pretty clean for a quote unquote 'abandoned' manor.
Eventually, Mizuki and Ayumi came across one door- with light seeping through underneath the crack. It was in the very middle of the mansion, up a fancy set of staircases, as well. Something about this seemed off.
Mizuki could hear faint chatter inside. The two classmates exchanged wary and confused glances.
"Do we go inside..?" Ayumi whispered, leaning closer to the pinkette.
Mizuki shook her head. Definitely not. She was not risking this tonight. They already took a few pictures, that was enough. Getting caught for breaking and entering was not apart of the list of things Mizuki wanted to do before they inevitably died.
"Let's go," She whispered, until-
"Is somebody there?"
A muffled voice from inside the room called out. Ayumi and Mizuki both froze, horrified expressions on both of their faces.
Had they been caught?
"You can come inside," The same voice offered. It sounded.. strangely familiar. And it shook Mizuki to their core.
Was it just them, or did that voice sound like.. Tsukasa-senpai-?
No, no, it couldn't be him. He was loud, and boisterous and extravagant! The tone of this person's voice sounded.. gentle, and kind, and soft. Like Kanade or Honami!
"D-do we..?" Ayumi stammered, taking a step back.
Mizuki gulped. The other side of the door had gone quiet as well.
They could leave. They could leave now and just be done with it.
But.. as much as they hated to admit it, part of Mizuki.. wanted to check it out. They were curious, and they wanted to know who was inside that room.
Of course.. curiosity kills the cat.
But curiosity had gotten the best of them. Mizuki stepped up to the doorknob, slowly turning it. She looked back at a nervous Ayumi, squeezing her hands together as she nodded.
Mizuki nodded back- and she opened the door.
There was an immediate contrast to this specific room and everything else in the house. Not only was it the only room with light, causing the classmates to squint at the sudden brightness, but it also seemed quite.. childish in nature.
The ground was a soft, green carpet, like grass. The walls were painted a vibrant sky blue, with white clouds also painted on the walls and ceiling. In the corner of the room, there were multiple dollhouses lined up on the wall, kind of like a street full of townhouses. Small animal plushies roamed about the room, which was pretty darn insane because the plushies were actually moving around and talking! That can't be possible, unless they were one of those weird moving plushie toys. Either way, Mizuki had never seen anything like it before.
But by far, the most unsettling part was the round table sitting in the middle, with a bunch of assorted items for a tea party neatly organized atop of it, ranging from scones, to biscuits, to actual tea- Mizuki could see a bit of steam rising from one of the cups. But it wasn't the table that was disturbing... it was the people surrounding it.
Three familiar figures were seated in front of the table, all with calming smiles, yet strangely empty eyes. When Mizuki had opened the door, all three of their heads had immediately turned to face them, as if it was some sort of automated response.
The three people, they were...
Tsukasa.
Saki.
And Toya.
"H... huh..?"
Ayumi covered her mouth, while Mizuki just stared in shock, hand on the doorknob.
Tsukasa was the first one to speak up. Apparently, it had been his voice from the oter side of the door at first, too. There was a teacup gently held in his hands as he greeted the two.
"Welcome!" He chirped, smiling warmly. "It's not very often that we get visitors."
"H-huh-" Ayumi stammered, "T-Tenma..? Is that.."
"'Tenma'?" Tsukasa repeated, tilting his head to the side. "I'm afraid that's not me. My name is Tsukasa, for the record. It's wonderful to meet you two."
Mizuki snapped out of their shock, shaking their head. "Hold on, Tsukasa-senpai-" They began, "What do you mean by 'meet'? And what do you mean by 'not you', either?! That's your name- and Saki, too! Saki Tenma, Tsukasa Tenma!"
The two siblings exchanged confused glances.
"We're not sure what you mean." Saki spoke, shaking her head. "But that is my name! I'm surprised you know it!"
Toya stared at Ayumi, his expression unsettlingly blank. Ayumi looked back at him.
"..Aoyagi," She uttered.
Toya shook his head. "My name is Toya. I'm not sure where you got 'Aoyagi' or 'Tenma' from."
His voice sounded as dull and monotone as Mafuyu. Mizuki shivered in fear.
"Wh..what are you three doing here?" Mizuki uttered, "And- what do you mean by..?"
"What do we mean by what?" Saki asked, confused. "Why not join us for a cup of tea instead?"
Mizuki and Ayumi exchanged looks yet again. Not one of them trusted that.
"We'll pass." Ayumi coughed, "U-um.."
None of them knew what to say.
This was insane. All three of them- Saki, Tsukasa, and Toya- here? Wearing cute little outfits like hinamatsuri dolls, and.. for some reason- they refused to believe their surnames.
"Do you.. remember me, Ao.." Ayumi trailed off, frowning for a moment. She shook her head, restarting her sentence. "Do you remember us, Toya?"
To her, it felt weird to use his first name. She'd never called him by it before.
"Remember?" Toya tilted his head to the side. "I have not met any of you before."
"Huh? But we're classmates!" Mizuki argued, narrowing her eyes. The feeling of dread pooling in her chest only spread and grew even more the longer she stayed inside the room. They wanted to leave- but they wanted answers even more.
"Classmates?" Toya repeated. He raised an eyebrow. "I do not know what you mean."
"Would you like a cup of tea?" Saki offered again. Ayumi declined for the two of them.
Saki's smile fell.
"Why not just sit down and join us for a while, then?" Tsukasa asked. He was the only one still smiling.
"Um," Ayumi glanced over at Mizuki.
Mizuki shook their head. They had no idea what else to do.
All of this seemed.. wrong. Horribly wrong.
Fuck curiosity. She and Ayumi had to leave. It felt like something bad was going to happen.
"I- I think, we better go now," Ayumi stammered nervously. "It was nice to meet you guys, but it's kind of a school night, and it's be best to get as much sleep as we can before...-"
"No."
"Huh-?"
And in the split of a second, before anybody could react, Toya had pointed at Ayumi.
A scream ruptured from her throat as-
As...
...
Huh..?
Mizuki stared in shock and horror, unable to move or scream as Ayumi's heart was pulled out of her body, leaving a hole right where it was supposed to be. Blood pooled out from the wound, her eyes rolling into the back of her head as she fell, limp, onto the ground.
And in Toya's hand, where he had pointed at the girl- now laid a beating heart.
Beating.
It was still beating. How- what...
What was going on..? What just happened-?
Mizuki stared at the body in front of her. Crimson red blood stained the green, grass-like carpet.
The editor took a step back.
...This.. this couldn't be real.
It couldn't be real.
It couldn't. Ayumi couldn't have died. She can't be dead. This was- this was a trick, an illusion, a dream, none of it was real, Mizuki would wake up in a cold sweat in her bed and everything would be fine and one of the only classmates that didn't send her weird looks and snickers in class wouldn't be dead and they would go to school and greet them and say, "Hey! I had this cool dream where we went to this abandoned mansion" and she would say "That's so fucking awesome!" and everything would be normal and they would be happy and-
"..Mizuki."
The pinkette sucked in a sharp breath.
Slowly, they turned to look at the source of the voice. Standing right beside her, too close for comfort- was Tsukasa.
"You don't want to leave us, do you?" He asked.
Mizuki gulped.
They couldn't form a reply. Any response they had was stuck in their throat.
They couldn't wrap any of this around their head.
"It's dangerous out there." Tsukasa breathed out softly, his voice barely above a gentle, quiet whisper. He paid no mind to the dead body beneath them. "People are scary."
Toya stood up, walking to one of the dollhouses. Ayumi's beating beating, beating, beating, it was alive, she had to be alive, she couldn't be dead nononononononononononononononononono heart still in his hands.
"They'll ask you where she went." Tsukasa spoke. He sounded so.. scary. So unsettling, so calm and eerie, so seducing and gentle, as if it was comforting instead of threatening. "They won't believe you. They'll think you killed her."
No...
No, that couldn't be right. It can't...
Saki stood up, walking towards the two. She took the body into her arms, blood staining her pink garments. She walked away.
"You can stay here, with us." Tsukasa offered. He smiled softly, and it made Mizuki feel sick to their stomach. "You don't have to leave, ever. You can be here forever, if you want to. It'll be so much fun."
Toya brought out a plushie. He shoved the heart inside, staining the fluff inside.
"Here, nobody will have to worry about you. Everybody would be so much happier- and we will, too." Tsukasa took Mizuki's hands. "You don't have to worry about anything, either. We can do whatever you want, you can be whoever you want to be."
Mizuki's hands trembled in Tsukasa's grasp as he squeezed them tenderly. Saki walked towards Toya, a sewing kit replacing the dead body she had been carrying. Her clothes were devoid of any stains.
"Doesn't that sound nice?" Tsukasa hummed, "Being who you want to be. Everyone here is accepting and supportive. If you want to be a girl, we can make you into the prettiest girl in the world. If you don't, then you don't. It will always be your choice."
Toya took the sewing kit. He began to sew the plushie back together, Saki watching in earnest.
Being who they.. wanted to be?
Something was wrong. Something was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
But.. the thought... why did it sound so.. good?
"You can look like whatever you want to. Wear clothes you want to wear and dress however you want. Nobody here will judge. You can become a new person, and leave your past behind. And everything will stay the same. We will treat you how we always have, with the utmost kindness and affection."
Tsukasa brought their hands up.
"What do you say, Mizuki?"
Mizuki's breaths were ragged and heavy. They didn't know what to do. They didn't know what to say.
They couldn't.. they couldn't move.
With each second without a reply, Tsukasa squeezed Mizuki's hands tighter and tighter. It felt like he was going to break her bones. Toya kept on sewing the plushie back together, heart stuck inside.
They wanted to leave. They didn't want this. They didn't want any of this.
But if they tried to leave, would they die, too? Would Mizuki's heart be ripped out of her own body, just like Ayumi...?
They nodded weakly.
Their head felt funny. Their stomach felt sick. They felt like puking out all of their insides.
But.. there was nothing that Mizuki could do.
Tsukasa hummed. "I'm so glad."
He squeezed tighter. He never let go.
Toya finished the last stitch. He gave the kit back to Saki, who stood up and walked away. This time, Mizuki saw where she went: There was a hidden door in the side.
Toya placed the plushie down on the floor. Like some sort of magic spell had been cast upon it, the plushie stood up and began to walk around aimlessly, just like all the others.
Their beady eyes seemed to all share the same panicked desperation.
But they could not control themselves. They could not scream.
"Follow me." Tsukasa instructed. He led Mizuki to another wall, where.. there was another door hidden in the wall.
With each step Mizuki took, the foggier their mind became. It felt as if they were floating. They could barely even comprehend the situation anymore.
What was happening...?
The door lead to a dark room, filled to the brim with different outfits.
It was.. everything Mizuki had ever wanted. It looked amazing.
They looked around, eyes wide in surprise.
"You can choose whatever you want." Tsukasa offered. He walked in front of a mirror, hiding the cracked glass. "Go on. You can pick. Become whoever you want to."
Mizuki's head was spinning. It felt like.. something was wrong.
But.. how?
How was something wrong? Why was it wrong? What had just happened- how did Mizuki end up here again...?
Tsukasa was waiting patiently, a calm smile on his face.
Right, right.
Mizuki got... to choose.
Choose whoever they wanted to be.
They can.. be anything.
That sounded amazing...
Mizuki walked through the racks, examining each outfit. They all looked so beautiful, Mizuki wanted to wear all of them...
But.. one caught their eye.
It looked... ripped. And underneath the rips were a vibrant red fabric, contrasting the black and white colours of the rest of the dress.
It was...
Beautiful.
They wanted to wear it.
This was what they wanted to be. Who they wanted to become.
Mizuki looked back at Tsukasa, who nodded.
"I have the perfect accessories for that one. Go change."
Mizuki glanced to the side. There was a little space covered by a curtain... it was where Mizuki could change.
Tsukasa walked away as Mizuki entered the room.
The mirror was cracked. Mizuki didn't think anything of it.
They wanted to wear this dress. They wanted to look pretty in this.
The dress was pretty. Mizuki wanted to be pretty, too.
After putting on the dress, Mizuki looked at herself in the mirror.
...Pretty.
Pretty, pretty, pretty.
Mizuki liked it.
Mizuki liked it a lot.
It was pretty.
Mizuki was pretty.
They red made it look like Mizuki was bleeding. It was a nice detail. It was pretty.
They stepped outside, and Tsukasa clapped his hands. "You look amazing," He praised, "Come, let me give you something."
Mizuki nodded. It almost felt like they couldn't control their own body. They didn't need to thin of what would happen, all she was happy about was how pretty she looked.
Tsukasa placed a ribbon in her hair. It was a black bow, with a large rose, fading from white to red.
Pretty. It matched the dress perfectly.
"You won't have to see anyone judge you ever again with this." Tsukasa whispered. He took out another item. A black blindfold with a pretty trim. "That's fine with you, right?"
Mizuki nodded. They wanted to wear it.
That way, nobody would see her eyes. Nobody would tell what she was thinking.
That way, they could shield themselves. That way, they wouldn't have to see anybody look at them again.
They wouldn't get judgmental stares.
Tsukasa carefully wrapped the blindfold around Mizuki's head. Their world quickly went dark.
They wouldn't have to see anything ever again, if they didn't want to.
"You can take it off anytime you wish," Tsukasa reminded them, as he fastened the blindfold around their head. "But keep the bow."
Mizuki nodded.
Okay. It was okay.
Mizuki didn't want to take the blindfold off, ever. They liked it,
They liked the safety of the blindfold. It made their thoughts feel like mush. It took away their thoughts and worries, they didn't have to think about anything anymore if they didn't want to.
"How do you feel?"
"Good." Mizuki whispered. Their voice came out as soft-spoken, monotone and quiet.
Tsukasa clapped his hands. "That's wonderful, my dear friend."
Mizuki heard footsteps approaching them. Saki's voice was the one who spoke.
"Now," She piped up happily, "Would you like a cup of tea?"
Mizuki paused.
A cup of tea sounded... nice. There couldn't be anything wrong with that.
A smile spread onto Mizuki's face as they replied.
"Yes," They answered. "That would be amazing."