((Yoshiro POV))

The curry came out great. The traditional crafts lessons were a blast. Then along came the sixth of the seven wonders, the Grim Reaper. Now Akane-kun and I are…

“We’re! Going! To see! Hanako-kun!”

“I! Said! No!”

“You can’t fix this on your own!”

… Arguing about it.

“Shut up! Who asked you?!”

You accidentally let go of his hand, falling down onto the ground.

“Ow!”

Akane simply sighs.

“We don’t even know where he took Aoi. If that was really Wonder Number Six, who is better to ask than Hanako-kun?!”

“If you want to pin your hopes on him, I won’t stop you. I know your head over heels for Number Seven-Sama.”

“Head over-“

“But I don’t trust him. He might rescue you, but I doubt he’s get off his ass to help Aoi-chan. That’s that. So go on without me. I’m going to go find Ao-chan my own way.” He starts walking away. You grab his wrist.

“Wait a minute! I told you, it’s too dangerous to go alone!”

“Oh for the love of… Do you ever quit-?!”

Just then, a ghost passes by, picking up Aoi’s basket as she sings eerily.

-/-

“What was that… Ghost, I guess?” Akane asks.

“That girl… she just picked up the basket Aoi dropped.”

You two start to follow her, turning around the corner.

“Umm…”

“This way. I’ll take you to where she is.” The ghost says, walking into a doorway, soon disappearing out of sight.

“Wait!” You say, following her.

“Huh?! Yashiro-sa- H-hey!”

You keep following the ghost, ending up in.. an elvator? You see the basket set in the center.

“Yashiro-san!” Akane soon runs in behind you.

“Huh?… no one’s here.. where are we?” You mumble.

“In an elevator, it looks like. There shouldn’t be anything like this in the old building.” Akane responds.

“"Where she is." She meant Aoi.. right?”

“Let’s head back. We need to rescues Ao-chan—“ Right as he was about to walk out, the door closes right in his face.

Going down. A female voice says from the speaker. The elevator starts moving.

“What are you doing, Akane-kun?!”

“It wasn’t me! The elevator started moving on its own!” He hit the open button.

“Damn it! The buttons aren’t working!”

You hear a ding.

“It stopped?” You looked just as confused as him.

-/-

Some weird.. Apparitions got on. That’s probably the best way to describe them. They got off on the next stop, thankfully.

Going down.

“Wh-what was that?” You ask.

“No idea..” Akane mutters. The door opens.

“Let’s just get off here..”

“Wait! Someone’s here…” You hold onto his arm.

You see a few figures which slowly turn around. A clown, two headless girls, and a ghost.

“A-A-Akane-kun…”

They start running over to you. You both start freaking out as Akane rapidly hits the close button.

“Close it, close it, close it, close it!!”

-/-

Going down.

You both are panting.

“What the hell is up with this elevator?” Akanes hand slowly slid off of the close button.

“It was a trap.. that girl tricked us..”

“Don’t forget that you got us into this mess. This is what you get for blindly following apparitions.” Akane sounded annoyed as he spoke.

“I’m so sorry..”

”What do we do? I want to go save Aoi, but I don’t even know where the elevator is headed. Come to think of it didn’t something like this happen to me before? And that time, I got a call from Hanako-kun.” The elevator stopping interrupted your train of thought.

“It stopped? But the doors aren’t opening..”

“Damn it! We don’t have time for this!” Akane slams his fist into the wall in frustration. A voice crackled over the speaker.

“Testing, testing. This is your emergency call center speaking. Elevator passengers, can you hear me?”

“That voice..!” You whisper excitedly.

“What are you up to this time, Yashiro?”

-/-

“Hanako-kun!”

“Wait, Number One is with you? Are you cheating on me?”