KAGACHI;

[crashout]

Comments

[crashout]

That makes this easier. [In the end, he finds what he's looking for and hands Kagachi two sticky notes. His writing is rushed, like he was working as the audio was recording, but Kagachi will read:

"I am so sorry", I told her. "I let

????

Using my friend's ....front (?) of me smiled.

"It's okay, it says. Come lay with me."

The second note says:

I spoke to H(?) again. He seemed to be in a bad mood. But that's hardly surprising nowadays... It's easy to forget how he used to be when this all started.

"This is pointless," he said to me. "They're hunting us down, like we're...There were 33 of us four weeks ago. Now there's only 12! And my brother, he was--"

I asked him to calm down. Pleaded with him to hold onto his hope. We would speak to C (?) later, so he could share with us what ... had whispered to him.

He'll have to, like, flip the note over for the second one because it's a little long but let's just start there. Kagachi can read and Junpei will take a drink from the bottle in his hand, more than a little unnerved.]

But as our conversation carried on, I could not let go of my guilt. I could not tell him what I had done, and who I had protected.

[preceptive]

[...]

Thirty-three, huh?

[crashout]

[What the fuck happened to my tag please assume that weird outlier was part of the note and the tag ended with "more than a little unnerved."

But. Haha!]

So you see the first problem I have with...whatever the fuck's going on here.

[preceptive]

Yeah. So, something's going to come and hunt us down?

[crashout]

What did Higekiri tell you we saw on the camera?

[preceptive]

You saw yourself having sex and being torn apart?

[crashout]

Oh. Yeah. [Is he surprised that Higekiri detailed that? Maybe.] Or more like we were already torn apart...all three bodies were missing faces before we even got to that part. But the likeness was clear.

[preceptive]

The missing faces part is weird. ... Well, all of it is. But why remove the faces?

[crashout]

That's been my question, too. Three almost-perfect replicas, but one of them left the scene. When Higekiri and I were checking the equipment, Beck said she felt something--or someone touch her. Paralyzed her, actually. She's fine now, but the lights went out and things changed after that.

[preceptive]

I heard something like that. She was the one who put in the first cassette, right?

[crashout]

Right. I'm wondering if that's the only connection myself, because there's no way in hell it was a coincidence.

[preceptive]

So we have more answers, and more questions. Great.

[crashout]

Better than no answers and more questions. [He lifts the bottle in a mock-toast.] Cheers to that, or whatever.

[But there's a slight sigh.] If something's really coming for us soon, the next question is how are we supposed to prepare for that?

[preceptive]

Some of us know how to fight. But I get the feeling it's more complicated than that.

[crashout]

You mean like how I'm not so sure it's only going to be a physical fight?

[preceptive]

Yeah, something like that. At the very least, if spirits are involved, then things like possession aren't out of the question.

[crashout]

[...hm.]

You answered pretty quick when I asked earlier. Have you had experience with this kind of thing before? Ghosts and whatever.

[preceptive]

Dealing with spirits was my job.

[crashout]

Like an exorcist? [What are you, Kagachi?]

[preceptive]

Not exactly.

I help convince souls to pass on, if they find themselves chained down by regret. If I'm too late, their emotions twist them into becoming malevolent, at which point they have to be cut down.

[crashout]

A grim reaper then. [He doesn't seem bothered.] Explains the scythe and everything, at least. But how does someone get pulled into a job like that?

[preceptive]

[what the fuck is a grim reaper]

... The scythe used to belong to someone else, actually.

[sort of. anyway,]

The man who raised me had the same job. I don't know the details, but I think it was formed a couple of decades ago, when people realized souls were becoming Lost.

[crashout]

[It's fine, they're fine. He seems to be thinking on this, taking another drink like it'll help clear his thoughts. Who knows, maybe it will. It'll help keep his focus on what's important. ]

What's the likelihood that we're dealing with some lost corrupted souls? That isn't a problem unique to your universe, is it?

[preceptive]

This all seems too convoluted and elaborate for that. The worst I've seen is possessing people to turn them into mass murderers.

But I wouldn't dismiss the possibility that the nature of a soul differs between worlds. Does reincarnation exist in yours?

[crashout]

The idea does, sure, but I've never seen an example of it. At least not really in the way I think you're thinking of it. [That's vague, but sure.] Can there be only one version of a soul at a time?