[center][b]Before the Loss of Light:[/b][/center]

The dismissal bell rang throughout the halls of the school, signaling the end of the day. The teacher quickly finished up with his lesson and shouted a reminder at his pupils to finish their homework. Kaku slumped over in his seat and rested on his elbow, staring blankly at the reality beyond the windows. Students were either making their way home or rushing to club meetings. Those who were leaving for their abodes either traveled alone or in small groups, conversing about their school day or other boring subjects. People who were committed to a sport jogged around the grounds with their teammates, reciting motivational songs and cheers to pass the time. The sun glowed orange in the sky, behind it was a canvas of mixed bright colors and smudges of gray. Yet another ordinary day came to a close, nothing notable by Kaku’s standards had occurred today.

The headphones which sat firmly on his scalp blared music into his ears. Recently, he has developed an addiction for OSTs, mostly from animes forced upon him by a certain fellow club member. Within the POIR, Kaku was more of an assistant than a researcher. He never had the initiative to pursue his own subject, instead, he lends a helping hand as an analyst. Speaking of the club, somebody in the congregation wanted him to take notes on a certain entity, but he was unable to remember what the name of it was. Kaku made a shrug at the thought and let out a loud yawn. By this point, his classmates had vacated the room, so there was no need to excuse himself for making such a gesture. Was this how he would continue his last year of high school? Gazing at the setting sun, contemplating his current social standings and his future.

After twenty more minutes passed, the boy decided to rise from his seat and proceed to the club room. Waiting for him was a comfortable couch and a coffee machine, along with a handful of lively students, who were deeply enthralled by their studies. He stopped the music and slid the headphones around his neck, then grabbed his carrier bag. As he was about to depart, the ground began to shake erratically. Realization slowly came over him, his eyes widened as the earthquake continued on with its destructive shakes. Kaku lost his footing and stumbled forward, catching himself with his hands. The lights flickered and turned off, the illumination matched that of outside. Screams of panic echoed from outside, he was able to hear car horns from the local town. Kaku leaned on his side, hoping the floor wouldn’t give way beneath him. [b]”Can’t make my way to the club room now. The city must be hell at the moment.”[/b] Suddenly, the sounds and the shaking came to a complete stop. It was utter silence, everything had come to a halt. Then, almost instantly, darkness engulfed the school, disrupting any travel of light to the ground. He was unable to see even a centimeter ahead of him, though his eyes were still wide open. While attempting to get up, a sudden wave of nausea came over him. Kaku was sprawled out on the floor, lost in a deep sleep.

[center][b]Day 1:[/b][/center]

[b]”Man, I feel like shit. What happened?”[/b] Kaku muttered as he regained consciousness. The massive headache and sore body wasn’t helping to relieve the pain. As he slowly regained his senses, he noticed his right hand was in a liquid. It was sticky, almost a paste, and it reeked of iron. His eyes opened a sliver to see what exactly was covering his hand. What he saw was an unnerving sight. The substance was a hue of dark red on the verge of black, a puddle of it laid before Kaku. As he got a better look of the situation, it turned out his whole entire arm was doused in the stuff. His eyes widened as he realized what he was partially covered in. [b]”Blood?!”[/b] He quickly shot up out of surprise and slammed his head into the bottom of a desk. He felt a numbing pain course through his spine, but too much adrenaline through his veins for it to hurt that much. His fingers fumbled while trying to undo the buttons, as his mind wasn’t in the calmest state at the moment. The second the last button was undone, the student threw his overly expensive jacket across the room, blood splattered on its impact. [b]”What the he-”[/b] 

An attempt at a sentence was cut off as light of the same color poured through the window. Only now was the student able to visually intake the current state of the room. A mixture of dust, grime and blood coated the walls and window sills. The desks had been turned over, and looked like they hadn’t been used in ages, as the wood which made them up was now rotting. A glance at the outside confused the student even more. The sky lacked a sun, in its place was an endless plain of butts. No longer was an urban terrain in front of the school, now the whole entire establishment was surrounded by a forest. He was unable to put together an explanation with the facts he had written down in his mind. All he could muster was curses under his breath, resting his head in his clean hand. After a few minutes of silence, Kaku was able to compose an acceptable facade. Whatever he was in, it was definitely not a lucid dream, it was too realistic to be a creation of his imagination. There would be no waking up from this nightmare.

As first order of business, Kaku decided to make his way to the bathroom. He stepped out into the hallway, which was even darker than the barely illuminated classroom. While using his phone as a light, he proceeded towards the bathroom. [b]”I hope I am the only one in this hellhole. I wouldn’t want for any of the others to get stuck in here. Not even any of the students I despise deserve to be thrown into this prison.”[/b] Kaku shined his light on the blue symbol, representing a male individual. The student proceeded into the bathroom and sprinted to the sinks. After propping up his phone to focus the light on the mirror, he placed his hand on the nozzle. As Kaku turned it, a sigh of relief escaped his mouth as clean water flowed from the sink. A nice twist would be that the liquid would be mixed with gasoline, making it a constant combustible source. Fortunately, Kaku did not smell anything of the sort originating from the faucet. When he finished drying off his hand, something caught bright caught his eye. Sticking out of the mirror was a group of perfectly white teeth, pristine enough to reflect the light from his phone. A black mist seeped from the crevices between each tooth, the glass was perfectly molded around the grouping. The congregation of teeth turned into the grin, moving the glass with it. Kaku couldn’t even comprehend how many laws of physics these dental masterpieces had just broke. The student took a step back, completely speechless. More groups of teeth slowly phased out of the glass, just barely poking from the surface. Faceless grins covered the mirror, the fog oozed from the cracks and traveled to a space in the middle of the pane. The final product was a vague phrase; [i]Your friends will be tasty[/i] The student grabbed his phone and retreated from the room, as he had no intentions of sticking around. [b]”NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE”[/b] Kaku shouted as he ran as fast as he could from the whole entire area.

[b]”That confirms my suspicions, the others are here. I’m useless on my own. I wonder how they have been. How long have I been asleep?”[/b] Every question he asked himself split off into their own subcategories, and continued on from there. Out of all of it, he was only able to audibly muster one phrase; “Wait. What the legitimate fuck is happening?” The query was simple and straight to the point. Kaku continued down the hallway, listening to his footsteps echo repeatedly. A sudden scream from down the hall broke the silence, followed by the shrill cries of what sounded like toddlers. He threw his headphones on and heavily press onto them in an attempt to reduce the sound. With his eyes barely open, the student sprinted down the hall, until he slammed face first into a surface, stopping his blind assault. As his eyes shot upon, an appendage flew at him, causing him to jump back a meter. Once he was out of the range, he shined his light on the source of the hand. Kaku was facing a mirror, which reflected an image of him sitting on his rear next to another person. She would almost be as tall as Kaku if he was standing up. He nearly labled it as another hostile entity, until he noticed the distinguishable violet-white hair. Shiori was known for staying calm and collected, even now she was taking notes of the extraordinary mirror. He let out a sigh and looked up at the fellow human being; [b]”Pres? Even though I wouldn’t have been able to hear any of your warnings over my frantic shouting, you could’ve at least stiff armed me."[/b] He spoke in short phrases, trying to get out as many words with each miniscule breath. [b]"I’m sure you have a better understanding of what is going on than me.”[/b] Kaku tried to moderate his breath, as he was worn out from the running. Another male voice echoed throughout the halls, the contents of his words sounded similar to whatever Kaku was just spewing. [b]”...And there’s Aito-san.”[/b]