Chapter 013: No, You Mustn't

"Reiko? Didn't I tell you to hide in the classroom? How did you find your way here?"
Standing outside the office door was not some monster, but Sato Reiko, who was paired with Su Cheng. Su Cheng noticed that her face was pale, as though she'd been terribly frightened; two streaks of tears still lingered on her snow-white cheeks, making her look pitifully vulnerable.
A faint flush rose on Sato Reiko’s pale face as she stammered, "I was scared hiding in the classroom alone, so I came to find you, Cheng."
As she spoke, she closed the office door behind her. At the sight of Su Cheng, her tightly wound nerves at last relaxed; with a sob, she flung herself into his arms.
A wave of fragrance washed over him, and before Su Cheng could react, a soft, delicate body had thrown itself into his embrace.
"Cheng, I was so afraid just now, so afraid you wouldn't come back and would leave me here all alone." After a night of harrowing, nerve-wracking horror, Sato Reiko seemed to have developed a subtle, inexplicable affection for Su Cheng, letting go of any girlish restraint.
Su Cheng felt that Sato Reiko’s emotions were somewhat abnormal, but at this moment, it would be unkind to reject a girl who sought his comfort, so he gently patted her back to soothe her.
"Don't worry, the Butcher is dead. There shouldn't be any immediate danger in this part of the school building. Did you find any clues?"
The clues in this building weren’t limited to what could be found on the Butcher. Even if ordinary players couldn’t kill him or get clues from him, they should be able to find hints elsewhere; otherwise, the game simply couldn't progress.
Sato Reiko wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and shook her head. "I didn't discover anything special in the classroom."
After a moment of silence, she suddenly looked up, her eyes fixed intently on Su Cheng. "Cheng, there's something really important I need to tell you."
Seeing the young girl's faintly lovestruck expression, Su Cheng had a vague premonition about what was coming and frowned slightly to himself, thinking, "Did this girl forget to take her meds before she came out?"
If Chu He knew what he was thinking right now, he’d surely call him doomed to be single.
"Whatever it is, tell me after we find the clues and escape from this school," Su Cheng cut off Sato Reiko’s imminent confession in a single stroke.
Sato Reiko looked momentarily blank, unsure how to proceed.
Why wasn't Su Cheng following the script?
"Cheng, do you dislike me?" she suddenly asked, her eyes reddening as she gazed at Su Cheng, looking utterly aggrieved and pitiful.
Girl, did you graduate from the Drama Academy or what?
Su Cheng couldn't help but complain inwardly.
"That's not what I meant. You're overthinking it."
"That's wonderful. Cheng doesn't dislike me," Sato Reiko broke into a radiant smile, suddenly tiptoeing to plant a soft kiss on Su Cheng’s lips.
Strawberry lip gloss.
Then, Sato Reiko leaned back against the dusty office desk, eyes brimming with spring, striking a most inviting pose. She even raised her skirt in front of Su Cheng.
Glancing inadvertently, Su Cheng caught sight of an adorable little Winnie the Pooh...
Why did the entire mood suddenly shift into a strange, racy genre?
Are girls in Japan really this uninhibited nowadays? The problem was, Su Cheng had absolutely no intention of reenacting a school romance drama here and now.
"Cheng, I’m cold..."
There was an odd, enchanting power in Sato Reiko’s voice that stoked the embers of desire within Su Cheng.
A wildfire blazed up, spreading uncontrollably.
Su Cheng’s breathing grew heavy; though his lips murmured, "No, we shouldn't," his body was betraying him, moving toward Sato Reiko, who reclined alluringly on the office desk.

"Ah!"
A piercing cry of pain rang out. Sato Reiko seemed to have been dealt a terrible shock, her features twisted in agony.
Yet what had pierced her body was not Su Cheng, but the katana in his hand.
The gleaming blade stabbed without hesitation into Sato Reiko’s chest, the tip protruding from her back.
With a single strike, Su Cheng ran her through—ice cold, to the core.
The sudden turn of events had caught Sato Reiko entirely off guard.
"When did you realize?"
Despite being stabbed through the heart, Sato Reiko did not die immediately. Her expression became hideously contorted, like a vengeful spirit crawling out of the abyss, her eyes seething with venomous hatred.
"The moment you threw yourself at me," Su Cheng’s lips curled into a cold smile. As he’d suspected, the girl before him was not Sato Reiko at all.
"The Sato Reiko I know is a bit of a neat freak. This office hasn’t been cleaned in ages; there’s dust everywhere and even a decaying human head nearby. If it were really Sato Reiko, she couldn’t have stood to remain here for a second, but you didn’t care at all—were even prepared to get intimate with me here. That was your fatal flaw."
Su Cheng twisted the katana, shredding the impostor’s heart, but the creature seemed insensible to pain.
"What are you? Or perhaps, what are you not?"
As he finished speaking, the flesh on "Sato Reiko" suddenly shriveled, her once-pale skin turning a charred black, a foul stench of rot filling the air.
Before Su Cheng, the once-lively girl transformed into a revolting desiccated corpse.
The memory that he’d just been kissed by this corpse made his stomach churn—he nearly retched up his dinner.
The corpse’s nails elongated rapidly, glossy black and sharp as blades, clawing viciously at Su Cheng’s throat.
There was no time to pull the katana from the corpse’s chest. Abandoning the sword, Su Cheng drew the dagger hidden in his sleeve and sliced off all the corpse’s fingers.
Then, he stepped forward, crushing the twitching fingers underfoot, and in a flash, swung his blade at the corpse’s slender neck.
Crack!
The corpse’s neck snapped, and the terrifying head rolled onto the office desk, oozing a foul black liquid.
The instant he killed the corpse, Su Cheng felt a wave of dizziness. The scene before his eyes shifted; the corpse had vanished as if it had never existed.
Somehow, the office door was now open from the outside.
"Was it... an illusion?"
Su Cheng’s expression changed. The hallucination had been so vivid, like a scene from Inception. If he hadn’t found the flaw and killed the corpse, his mind might have suffered severe damage.
This hallucination wasn’t a coincidence; it had to have been created by someone—or something. Which meant, in this school building, there was a killer capable of conjuring illusions!
Just then, a dark figure flashed quickly past the office door out in the hallway.
"Who’s there?"
Su Cheng immediately gave chase, but the shadow moved swiftly, and he barely caught a glimpse of its back.
Judging by the outline, it seemed to be a tall, gaunt man, his head swathed in bandages like a homicidal maniac from a film.
So, there was more than just Koji Tezuka lurking in this school.

Leaving Koji Tezuka’s office, Su Cheng descended the stairs to the classroom where Sato Reiko was hiding.
The moment he opened the door, a mop came crashing down at him.
Su Cheng deftly dodged the attack. A voice, tinged with surprise and relief, greeted him.
"Cheng, I’m so glad you’re safe!" Seeing Su Cheng return unharmed, Sato Reiko finally breathed easy and set down the mop in embarrassment.
For some reason, seeing Sato Reiko again, Su Cheng couldn’t help but recall the image of that adorable little Winnie the Pooh...
"Are you hurt?"
Sato Reiko’s expression turned to shock at the sight of the deep, bone-deep wound on Su Cheng’s left shoulder.
"It’s just a scratch, I’ve already treated it."
"This is no scratch—don’t try to tough it out."
As she spoke, a green glow shimmered in Sato Reiko’s soft palm. She pressed her hand to Su Cheng’s wound.
He hissed.
The pain was excruciating, but oddly exhilarating.
About five minutes later, Su Cheng removed the bandages from his shoulder. The wound had closed completely, leaving only a jagged scar.
"Healing skills are really something," he remarked, flexing his left hand and finding it strong enough to grip a sword again.
During the treatment, Su Cheng told Sato Reiko about the clues he’d uncovered. Her face was full of astonishment when she heard that he had slain the Pig-headed Butcher.
"These six numbers are the key to the next clue, but where are we supposed to use them?" Sato Reiko murmured the numbers from Kanako’s diary twice over, her thoughts a tangled mess, unable to find a lead.
When it came to solving mysteries and tracking down clues in horror games, Sato Reiko was completely in the dark. She couldn’t be of much help with deductions, so all she could do was quietly follow Su Cheng around and act as his support.
"I did find a hint. These numbers might be the code to Kanako’s personal locker."
While searching the school building earlier, Su Cheng had spotted a row of lockers for students’ belongings. The codes for the lockers were six digits.
Dawn was less than four hours away. There was no time to lose, so Su Cheng and Sato Reiko hurried toward the lockers.
"Third-year, Class B, Kanako. This is it!"
Su Cheng shone his flashlight and entered the six-digit code. With a click, Kanako’s locker popped open.
Inside were some ordinary stationery and books—nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Su Cheng searched carefully and found a photograph tucked inside a book.
The picture was of two girls. One was Kanako, her brown hair framing a radiant smile; the other was the victim, Yumi Mizuki, whom Su Cheng recognized from the student handbook.
Besides the photo, there was a delicate gift box containing a silver cross and a birthday card.
Reading the card, Su Cheng learned that Kanako was apparently a Christian, and that the silver cross was a birthday gift from Yumi Mizuki.
Just then, a crumpled scrap of paper tumbled out of the locker.
Su Cheng unfolded it and saw that it was a page torn from Kanako’s diary.