Story Reader / Floating Record / ER09: Crescent Sun / Story
Yata, are you really leaving?
Where are you running off to, leaving me here all alone?
I worked so hard to build a proper school life for you...
You don't like it? Not up to your standards?
Don't worry. Next time I'll shape the dream exactly how you like it.
This isn't our school anymore... It's nothing but a graveyard!
What's wrong with drifting eternally through memories of days gone by?
To live forever without pain... Isn't life just a fleeting dream anyway?
Why wake up at all? Are all our problems just gonna go away when we wake up?
I remember now... I remember everything now.
You're only going to find yourself in greater pain the more you think, Yata...
I came here for one thing—to deal with the Red Tide's influence on this island.
These illusions you're projecting... they're meant to hold me back. You've been trying to stop me all along.
For me... no, for all of humanity, you stand as our enemy.
Yuka, tell me now! Where did you take Shiva?!
Is that person important to you?
She's my companion, my comrade-in-arms who fought beside me.
Does that make you two... friends?
Friends? Yeah, I guess you could say that.
She's your friend... and I'm not?
Are we seriously having this argument right now?!
I never really wanted things to turn out like this, but...
Why... We could have gone to the Red Tide's world together.
Don't worry, I'll help you remember everything... slowly.
After failing to persuade her, "Yuka's" body begins to twist and contort before Yata's eyes.
Soon, beneath the black hair, her delicate features begin to blur and melt away like liquid.
You're not Yuka. You're just some kind of illusion.
Wait, Yuka! Don't choose that side!
Don't choose the Red Tide!
Heh...
Before Yata's eyes, Yuka dissolves into a puddle of red liquid and vanishes into the classroom floor.
We're in an illusion. Figured as much.
Like a dream, the moment you become aware of it, everything begins to crumble and fall apart.
The "reality" around the classroom begins to unravel as red liquid seeps through the walls from all sides.
The ground trembles continuously as waves of static and flashing lights surge through the air.
The illusory space, the false objects, and Yata's perception of reality begin to contradict one another...
Soon, the disintegration inches closer to where Yata stands...
Spider-web-like cracks spread across the floor...
Before the cracks reach her, Yata spins around and grabs the classroom door handle.
Time to get out of here!
Yata turns the handle and pushes the door with all her might, and in that moment...
The world around her shatters like a jigsaw puzzle hitting the ground, breaking into fragments until only endless darkness remains.
Before Yata lies a single dark path forward—there is no other way to go.
She sprints down the path, where a white light gleams from an exit up ahead.
Just before reaching the exit, a sudden curiosity stirs within Yata.
Like in all myths, she cannot help but look back over her shoulder...
Mere inches away, a massive Noh mask hurtles toward Yata, its maw gaping wide.
As monstrous teeth threaten to devour everything in sight, the white-lit exit beckons just ahead.
She lunges forward with all her might... and then, white light engulfs everything in sight.
Phew!
Yata's eyes snap wide open as she awakens in an unfamiliar place, gripped by fear and panic.
Her breath comes in uncontrolled gasps as the aftershocks of the vision still course through her.
For Yata, now a Construct, these sensations are nothing but phantom pains, echoes of the person she was from when she was still a human.
After regaining her composure, Yata surveys her surroundings—dust-covered audio equipment lies scattered nearby.
Yata steadies herself against the soundproof wall as she rises, carefully listening for any movement nearby.
She appears to be in a school's broadcasting room.
That diary I saw in the hallucination just now...
I think it said something about a weird machine hidden in the activity room.
Why would something like that be in a school, though? What exactly was the administration hiding?
I wonder if that has anything to do with what's going on in this building now...
I feel like I've forgotten something important.
Wait, that's it—the mass fainting incident at Misono High!
It happened... in the activity room... Yes, it happened in the activity room, too!
I gotta look into this.
Yata pushes open the door to the broadcasting room and heads straight for the activity room.
As she climbs the stairs, her head starts throbbing again.
The hallucinations are back...
Each step feels heavier than the last, but Yata grits her teeth through the discomfort and presses on.
By the time she staggers to the activity room, she's barely pulling herself together...
Dammit...
Almost there...
Just... have to make it... to the activity room...
Through sheer force of will, Yata continues to push forward.
Soon, strange sounds reach her ears as visions from yesterday—the people, events, and scenes—begin to materialize.
The abandoned corridor begins to twist and warp as strange lights and shadows dance once again.
Dead memories spring back to life and dance vividly before Yata's eyes as the illusions swallow her whole.
