The group headed down the hallway with weary steps, the 'students' did the same, though their gazes were all locked on the group with unflinching focus
"Hey hey.... I know speaking isn't a good thing but is this really ok"
"Knowing that yet still opening your mouth, you're truly a defective thing"
"Sakura-san that was a bit excessive, don't you think"
"Oh do you object Ike-san? What if speaking was the trigger that made these 'students' to enthusiastically come shower us with love"
".....You're creeping even me out now, Airi..."
"So-sorry"
The group of five players finally entered the black mist, they're bodies were tense, the dungeon had instilled an instinct to expect the worse from any situation
"Um Yotsuya-san, not to be rude but can we at least know what the current plan is?"
Akira didn't glance back to the girl asking, as he continued on his forward direction, he smiled slightly,"....for now we don't know the dungeon's nature and the safest way to stay 'safe' is following its rules"
He looked at the flash of light, his smile widening a bit,"... I say haven't you all wondered why we can comfortably go to the school's next designated space without seeing anything?"
Airi who was walking behind Akira suddenly walked right into his back, she held her nose in slight pain as akira said sorry
The group had stopped walking, this question made everyone think carefully, judging by the way Akira had phrased the question
This weird situation wasn't one where you could ignore with simple,"Oh? That's how it works"
Akira had experience with the dungeon before. He understood something about Eerie Games that the other players didn't.
Not enough to explain anything substantial, mind you, but enough to know that what they were seeing simply couldn't be dismissed as another haunted school.
He looked over the hallway.
The students moved around as though nothing was wrong. A girl laughed with her friend near the lockers. Someone complained about an upcoming test. A boy struggled to close his locker because his bag was too full.
Everything was painfully ordinary.
"Something's bothering you, isn't it?" Ichinose asked, though the question seemed to be directed at herself as well.
Akira glanced at her.
She noticed.
Ike snorted. "You're not the only one staring at this. Can't say I blame you, though."
Akira nodded.
The previous time, even though they had been separated, everybody had encountered the same type of students.
Dead.
Maimed.
Injured.
Clearly something that shouldn't have been alive. If he had to describe them simply, they had looked like zombies.
Yet now, only a few minutes after entering the mist, the first students they encountered were completely normal.
"They're completely normal," Sakura continued.
"And that's what's strange," she added. "Especially in a place filled with entities."
"Exactly," Akira said.
These were entities.
No matter how you sliced it, they were fundamentally dead.
The only thing that had changed was their appearance.
"Don't get it twisted," Akira continued. "Just because they look normal doesn't mean they've suddenly become normal."
His eyes shifted toward Ike, who had been staring at one of the girls for a little too long.
"Don't stick it in. It might never come out."
Ike's eyebrow twitched.
He understood the reference immediately.
In fact, everyone did.
They simply chose not to comment on it for very different reasons.
"So what should we do?" Kei finally asked, voicing the question that had apparently been bothering her as well.
Akira held his head.
A faint headache was beginning to form.
"Why are you always asking me?"
Kei blinked.
"You're the leader."
"Akira-kun," Ichinose said beside him.
Akira looked at her.
"Just because I'm the leader doesn't mean everything should be decided by me. We all have heads, don't we?"
He gestured toward the others.
"Why am I the only one who's supposed to think?"
"But aren't you going to explain any of this?" Ike asked.
He looked between them, genuinely confused.
"Because I'm gonna need someone to explain why normal students are apparently more suspicious than dead ones."
Kei looked at him with a flat expression.
"Ike."
"What?"
"What's scarier? A ghost..."
She paused.
"...or a person?"
Ike frowned.
"A ghost, I guess?"
"Exactly."
Kei nodded as though she'd just proven an important scientific theory.
"Now, what's scarier? A cup labeled 'poison'..."
Ike's expression slowly became wary.
"...or a delicious-looking cake that is actually made of the combination of people's shit?"
Ike's mouth twitched.
"What kind of sick, dark, twisted thought is that?"
Akira ignored the slap and kick Ike received from the blonde beside him and nodded silently.
"She has a point, though."
Ike rubbed his arm.
"Huh? Tch though it's disgusting I can't deny she has a point"
"It's better to know outright that something is dangerous than to be fooled by its appearance."
Akira glanced at him.
"Let me put it in a way you'll understand better."
Ike immediately became suspicious.
"You don't have to, I understand enough already"
Akira smiled, ignoring his protest naturally and making Sakura pity ike a bit. One of Akira's coping mechanism in stressful situation is dark humour
"Since it's Ike, I think I know a the best way for you to remember this situation longer"
Ike felt that he should definitely cover his ears to not hear whatever would be said but another stronger part wanted to hear what Akira would say
"What's better? Being smashed by a beautiful girl who hadn't taken a bath in five months..."
Ichinose, Kei and Sakura shuttered, they suddenly got goosebumps, what the hell could be worse than that?!
"...Or being smashed by an arrogant, disrespectful, annoying, clean, curvey, tall, and athletic dude..."
"Fuck! Yostuya-dude?! I knew that something messed up was coming
Akira pointed toward the hallway.
".....heh, so do you understand now? That's a similar situation"
Ike stayed quiet before shudded
"...This situation is better than your own...."
Sakura nodded,"Akira-kun's head is filled with what could be called, 'Nightmare fuel' "
"Exactly."
Akira folded his arms.
"Stop bullying me"
"Tch, who'd have the guts?"
His expression dropped the amused expression, adopting a more serious one.
"That joke aside, this situation is seriously worrying, regardless of whether these entities attack us or not, the sheet fact that this dungeon is capable of change is worrying"
The others fell silent.
"These students look normal, they look like the exact depiction of 'A school hallway filled with students' "
Akira's gaze moved across the hallway. He took hold of Nicole's favourite pencil
"We already established that we need to get to the next Stage of this game. So we need to cross this place"
"You think this might be difficult?" Airi asked, noticing his hand on that familiar Eerie item
"Yeah, in these dungeon, we've already learned something, didn't we, Airi?"
His voice lowered slightly.
"There is no such thing as normal."
The laughter.
The conversations.
And everything else that gave a feeling of deja vu, was fundamentally wrong in a situation like this
"This is a place where common sense joined Newton in the grave. 'Normal' is the most abnormal"
End of chapter 7