Ever since getting dragged into this death game, Hoshino Ai's nerves had been wound so tight they might snap. She was jumpy and paranoid. Apart from Hayato, who gave her some sense of security, everything else felt dangerous.
This was a place where one wrong move could mean running into something supernatural and losing your life.
Just moments ago, they'd walked around outside for so long without seeing a single person. Now they'd barely finished reading the check-in rules, and footsteps were already echoing from the entrance.
In a flash, Hoshino Ai ducked behind Hayato, pressing close to his back. Her hands gripped the hem of his clothes tightly. Her bright eyes brimmed with fear, not daring to look toward the entrance, yet unable to stop herself from wanting to peek.
Hayato shared the same thought.
Whoever was coming through that door probably wasn't normal.
High chance it was something supernatural.
Hayato looked up, ready to activate time stop at a moment's notice.
Two figures appeared in the hotel lobby, one ahead of the other by about a body's length.
The one in front was a middle-aged man in a black suit. His head was balding, his belly slightly protruding. The standard look of a greasy middle-aged guy.
The other was a woman with black shoulder-length hair. She wore a beige dress and a black ladies' hat. Around twenty years old, recently out of school, but still carrying that youthful vibe.
The middle-aged man's face lit up the moment he spotted them. He walked over quickly, almost eagerly.
"Finally found someone! Do you guys know what's going on? Why did Tokyo suddenly get covered in fog? I've been walking around, and there's only this one hotel..."
"Stop right there."
Hayato's command came out sharp and clear.
"What's with your attitude, kid?"
In that instant, Hayato's eyes turned cold and piercing. His posture straightened, forming a wall of presence.
Even without special fighting skills, being young, tall, and backed by a literal superpower counted for something.
The middle-aged man's confidence wavered. He stopped in his tracks.
Meanwhile, the shoulder-length-haired woman's eyes flashed with interest. Her gaze sized Hayato up, lingering just a moment too long.
"Hey there, handsome. Do you know what's going on?"
Ding dong...
"Welcome."
Another mechanical greeting echoed through the lobby.
A guy and a girl walked inside side by side.
"There really are people in the hotel! Thank god, I thought it'd be a totally creepy and empty hotel!"
The guy who just entered sounded tense but relieved at the same time. Even the girl beside him seemed to relax a bit.
The young man had dyed blonde hair, probably around sixteen or seventeen, wearing a black-gray t-shirt and beige athletic pants.
Next to him was a girl with chestnut-colored twin tails. She wore an off-shoulder green patterned top and brown shorts that went to mid-thigh. Cute and innocent-looking, though her bright eyes flickered with faint unease.
Their arrival immediately shifted everyone's attention.
"What, what's going on..."
Suddenly, the blonde guy seemed to notice something. His expression went from confused to stunned in seconds. His hand rose, pointing with trembling excitement.
"You, you're Hoshino Ai! Ai-chan!"
Hoshino Ai froze.
The blonde immediately ran toward her, but Hayato stepped in front of Hoshino Ai first, blocking his path completely.
"Uh, sorry, I got too excited seeing Ai-chan. I, I'm a fan of Ai-chan's. I even went to a B-Komachi concert in Sakakino City before."
"The concert in Sakakino City half a year ago."
Hoshino Ai remembered that one.
"Yeah, yeah! Half a year ago. I went to Ai-chan's concert with my friend Makoto. It was amazing! I never thought I'd run into you here!"
The guy suddenly remembered something and quickly added, "Oh, sorry, I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Sawanaga Taisuke, a student at Sakakino Academy. Also a loyal fan of B-Komachi and Ai-chan, hehe."
"Nice to meet you, Sawanaga-kun."
But Hoshino Ai noticed Hayato's expression had shifted.
Did this man not like me greeting other guys? Did he think this guy was dangerous, maybe something like ghost?
Her eyes unconsciously assessed the situation, trying to read Hayato's reaction.
Hayato's mind was already racing.
Sakakino Academy. Sawanaga Taisuke.
Hayato recalled a certain series. "School Days."
The school and name matched up. The chances of this being a coincidence were basically zero.
Which means...
"And she is..."
Hayato nodded toward the twin-tailed girl.
"This, this is my classmate Kuroda Hikari. Same school as me, also at Sakakino Academy. We ran into each other at the mall, and on the way back together, we didn't expect to encounter this fog, and then... we found this hotel here."
Hayato's suspicions solidified.
It really was "School Days." Which meant Kotonoha Katsura existed in this world, too.
"Which mall were you guys at?"
Sawanaga Taisuke seemed a bit thrown by the follow-up question but answered anyway.
"The mall is about three kilometers from Sakakino Academy."
Sakakino City....
Hayato and Hoshino Ai exchanged glances.
This was definitely supernatural. People from completely different locations all encountered fog around the same time and ended up here. They'd been selected by a death game, no doubt about it.
"Hey, hey, hey! No matter what, I'm still the oldest one here. You kids better not ignore me. Hurry up and tell me what the hell's going on! Why can't we get out? Why is there a hotel here?!"
The middle-aged man suddenly got angry, his voice rising. Being ignored by a bunch of young students clearly hit his ego hard.
"Quiet."
"You..."
Whoosh!
Just for an instant.
The middle-aged man only felt Hayato's figure blur before his eyes, and then his abdomen took a heavy blow. Intense pain made him double over, gasping.
"I'm not a fan of violence, but I think the best way to calm you down right now is with my fist. I don't want to be like this, but your actions will probably put my life in danger. Don't provoke me anymore."
Hayato's calm words made everyone present go quiet.
Did I just do that? Yeah. Yeah, I did. Necessary.
"I'll only say this once. If nothing unexpected happens, we've probably been selected to enter a 'death game.'"
The middle-aged man looked confused, but the woman with black shoulder-length hair went pale instantly. Her expression turned ugly.
"No, that can't be! We... how could we..."
Even the chestnut twin-tailed girl Kuroda Hikari showed extreme panic, her hands clasping together.
"Isn't that just an urban legend? It doesn't actually exist, right?"
But right now, faced with this bizarre reality, their hearts had already started accepting it to some degree.
"What death game? What the hell is that?!"
Soon, with Hoshino Ai's careful explanation and Kuroda Hikari's nervous additions, the others roughly understood what a "death game" was.
The balding middle-aged man couldn't maintain his composure anymore. Even his legs were trembling visibly.
Blonde Taisuke wasn't doing much better, his face drained of color.
Hayato had been observing all four of them this whole time.
Was there something supernatural disguised among them? Or maybe... were all four of them not human?
Hayato couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.
Various possibilities can happen, but as Kudo Shinichi said, there is only one truth, so what I need to do right now is follow the rules first while gathering information.