Erie cautiously poked around what used to be a patient's room and said, "Looks like there's not much here. Huh." She adjusted her gas mask and said, "I guess it really was just mold or something causing hallucinations, right Goddess?"
Hope walked into the room as well and nodded. "I guess so! Seems pretty normal to me."
The sun was starting to fade outside, but it was still pretty bright, albeit tinted orange. Because of that, everything in the room was visible.
There was a window nearby, with a direct view to the front of the hospital and the van where John and Juliet were waiting. There was a dusty bed with yellowed and moth-eaten covers that were still neatly tucked beneath the mattress. And there was a small desk with a locked drawer.
Erie noticed the desk and raised an eyebrow. "Huh." She walked over and lightly tugged on the drawer. "This is usually where they hide hidden keys, right? Or like key items?"
Hope's blue eyes lit up and she said, "Oh! That's right! It's like an escape room!"
Erie chuckled and said, "More like escape from our doom." She glanced at her phone to see chat's reaction and then rolled her eyes. "Wooow. Everyone's a critic, huh?"
"They didn't like your joke?"
"They said it was too corny."
"Corn? Ooh! Maybe we should make a corn maze sometime! Those would be fun!"
"Maybe when we set up the American branches of Freddy's." Erie walked back over to Hope after scoping the room out one more time. "But this is actually pretty normal when you're not like, hallucinating. Pretty peaceful too."
"Right?" Hope nodded. "It's like the old ruins from Near Automaton... but like, without the ivy."
"...Why isn't there ivy here anyway?" Erie frowned and looked around. "You'd think a place like that would have it..."
"...Did you not do well in school, Erie? Geography and different climates? Ivy doesn't really grow here in Japan like that."
Erie blushed and said, "I-I knew that!" She glanced at chat and then huffed. "Stop laughing! Sheesh... You're trying to kill me here."
Hope gasped. "Oh no! The death jokes! The horror! The bad luck!" She giggled. "Kidding~ But you really like throwing those in, huh?"
"It's my running gag at this point." Erie shrugged. "Kinda wish I remembered to bring a doll of Meryl Kodomo with me though for the bit."
"It would 100% be possessed by the time we left though?"
"Great. Then I could burn it for views."
Hope laughed.
Erie laughed too.
And then someone else laughed with them. A bright and cheerful girl's voice.
Hope froze. "E-E-Erie?"
Erie swallowed and slowly looked towards the door. "Y-Yeah. I heard that too."
Footsteps slowly echoed from outside.
Erie reflexively huddled behind Hope.
Hope grabbed the nearby chair and held it up.
And then...
"Boo!"
...Rin popped her head into the door and said, "It's Rinny~"
"KYA!" Hope chucked the chair.
"DON'T KILL ME!" Erie screamed and crouched on the ground.
Rin caught the chair with one hand and pouted. "Am I really that scary?"
Hope blinked. Then she blushed and said, "S-Sorry, Rin-senpai? But, um..." She eyed the knife in Rin's other hand, as well as the powder all over her body making Rin look like a ghost. "...You're really our senpai, right...?"
"Of course!" Rin giggled and idly waved her knife. "Do you think a ghost would dare imitate me? The only one who gets to do that is Hana!"
Erie slowly stood up and said, "Yep. That's our Senpai alright. Like Julie would say, the strongest imouto."
Hope let out a sigh of relief. "That's good. Niko and I thought that the other shoe might have dropped. It's been too peaceful in here, you know?"
Rin blinked. "Peaceful?"
Erie nodded. "Yep. For a supposedly haunted hospital, there really wasn't much going on. Especially after we put on the gas masks."
Rin tilted her head. Then she said, "Oooh! I was wondering what those were! But that's cool! Does that mean you didn't see the yokai then?"
Erie froze.
Hope blinked. "Y-Yokai?"
"Yeah! Like the weird lady who cut her cheeks open! Or the woman with the scarf around her neck!"
Erie shivered. "Y-You're just teasing us, right?"
Rin tilted her head again. "...No?"
Hope paused. "S-Senpai. A-A-Are you saying you saw yokai...?"
"Saw? Nope! I killed them! They're pretty weak, actually! Bears are scarier!"
Hope gave Rin a blank stare.
Erie slowly blinked.
Rin frowned. "What's with the weird reaction?"
Hope kept staring at Rin. And then she slowly looked at Erie and said, "Niko. Is the translator working right? I think I heard Senpai say she killed yokai and implied she hunts bears."
Erie nodded. "Uh... that's what I heard too... Right Chat?" She glanced at her phone. "...Yeah, that's what they heard."
Rin rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "It's not THAT big of a deal. You could kill them too! ...Probably!"
Erie raised an eyebrow. "...Probably?"
"Well... how much can you bench? I can do 225 kilos!"
"...What the fuck?"
Hope let out a nervous laugh and said, "You mean pounds, right, Senpai?"
"Huh? No, kilos! Kg, right? It's like..." Rin hummed and tapped her chin. "Four plates?"
Erie stared at Rin and said, "...Are you planning to power lift in the Olympics, Senpai?"
"Huh? Of course not! I'm doing sprinting and karate!"
Hope made the sign of the cross and murmured, "God bless those poor souls who get into a match with Senpai..."
Erie stared at her phone and then said, "Chat says they don't believe you, Senpai."
"Eh?" Rin blinked. "...Should I do a workout video? Onee-chan can lift more, you know?"
"...Anyway." Erie decided to change the subject. "Where's Hana-senpai? Wasn't she with you?"
"Oh! Hana-chan went in the basement. She wanted to go look for old notes and treasure hunt. I thought about it, but it looked kind of icky down there, so I changed my mind. Instead, I went upstairs for ghostbusting!"
Erie rubbed her chin. "Icky? Like how?"
"Like glass jars with organs!"
"...Actually, I'll pass." Erie let out a nervous laugh. "That... does not sound like a good time."
Hope pulled out her phone to check the time and said, "It's almost 5 PM now... should we head outside to set up camp and make food?"
"Oh!" Rin nodded. "We definitely should! I wanted to practice firemaking!"
After that, the three girls started walking back towards the entrance.
As they did, Erie looked towards Rin and said, "What do you mean 'practice firemaking?'"
"I saw someone start a fire by rubbing two sticks together REALLY fast! It looked fun, so I wanted to try it!" Rin hummed. "But we need firewood... I'll go chop down some trees! And hunt some deer!"
Hope frowned. "Do we have permission to hunt deer around here?"
Rin nodded. "Mmhm! Technically, Mister John already owns everything here!"
"Wait, what?" Erie blinked. "Since when?"
"Since you asked him?" Rin shrugged. "Mister John likes to accumulate stuff. I think he bought a lot of old houses too. He's definitely a hoarder."
Hope giggled. "I can see that... Dad does seem like the type of person to collect a lot of junk."
Erie hummed and said, "That's true. Pops seems like he has a garage filled with random stuff throughout the years... But Rin-senpai." She glanced at Rin and said, "Are you not calling him Papa anymore?"
"Well, I want to. But I got in the habit of calling him Mister John, so it's kind of hard to break." Rin shrugged. "I'll call him Papa when I remember to though!"
As the three rounded the corner, Hana walked up from the basement, carrying a dusty manilla folder. She noticed Rin, Hope, and Erie, and then waved. "I'm back. It was kind of cool down there, but nothing too crazy. Just a maze with a monster."
"Aw, really?" Rin sighed. "Boooring. No special secret guns or anything? Easter eggs? Cursed treasures?"
Hana shook her head. "There was this weird white hand thing, but it played nice. I think it's dangerous to go down there though. Lots of chemicals." She glanced at Erie and Hope, both still wearing gas masks. "Those might help, but I think you'd get sick, so let's not go."
Erie nodded. "Yeah... I think I'll draw the line at accidentally gassing myself with mysterious chemical fumes... We're here to get inspired for a spooky fun house, not get sick."
Hope nodded too and said, "Mmhm... But we've got a lot of inspiration so far! Like having furniture that randomly falls apart or move around!"
Erie blinked. "Wait, what? When did that happen?"
Hope pointed at the door. "It's like that. See? The door's missing."
Erie slowly turned her head.
And like Hope said, the front doors were gone. Instead, there was just a blank plaster wall.
"...Okay." Erie tapped her gas mask. "...Is this still working...? Rin-senpai, Hana-senpai, are you seeing-?"
Before Erie finished talking, Rin took a few steps back and said, "I've got it!"
Erie paused. "Wait, Senpai-"
"Super attack, Rin flying... kick!"
An orange blur rushed out. And then-
*BOOM*
A small explosion of dust and shattered plaster erupted before flickering back into fragments of a broken steel door.
Erie slowly blinked. Then she took off her gas mask and rubbed her eyes. "...Okay chat. So like, we DEFINITELY need to check this on the replay. Time stamp this. Because that was absolutely just a blank wall. But when Rin-senpai broke it, the wall turned back into the doors..."
Rin struck a pose and flexed her bicep. "Strongest imouto!"
Hana cleared her throat. "I think that's me, Rin-chan."
"Oh!" Rin nodded. "Strongest high schooler!"
Hope nudged at the shattered steel and said, "I'll say..."
At that time, John hopped out the back of the van and said, "You girls done with the daytime exploring?"
Erie stretched. "Yeah, I think so... Not much more we'll get out of it. But when night comes..." She smirked. "That's when things get super spooky."
Rin giggled. "Are we going to use like a ouija board? Or tape recorders? Maybe ask questions like, 'is anyone here with us?'"
Erie nodded. "Yep! We've mapped out the hospital, so we can go look at some of the spookier places. I wanna go back to that empty room with the locked drawer and ask some questions. Maybe we could have Hana-chan go ask questions in the basement too since she's fine with chemicals."
Hana's orange eyes lit up. "Ooh! That sounds fun! I'll ask the White Hand what it's like being a giant limb!"
Erie slowly blinked. "...What?"
Hana giggled. "Don't worry about it- Wait." She looked around. "Where did Rin go?"
Hope tilted her head. "Huh? Senpai was just-"
*CRACK*
Everyone turned towards the side to see Rin split a tree in half with her bare hands and start breaking it into firewood with karate chops.
Erie watched her do that. Then she slowly said, "...Somehow, I am suddenly no longer afraid."
Hope laughed.