EPISODE 15 — "THE WHISPERING DOORS"
Night fell faster than usual.
It wasn't the normal kind of darkness—this one felt alive, creeping into corners, slipping beneath doors, settling over Osore High like a thick blanket trying to suffocate the school. Students went home early without understanding why. Teachers felt uneasy, locking classrooms twice before leaving.
Kaito walked alone.
He didn't want to, but after the incident with the Fear Wraith, everyone kept a safe distance from him—even the people who used to borrow his notes or ask for help. The way they stared still clung to him like a stain.
Haruka and Jun followed him out of concern, but even they sensed something heavier clinging to him tonight.
"Kaito," Haruka called softly, "don't walk off by yourself. You need rest."
He said nothing.
He just walked.
The campus grounds were silent except for the wind brushing against the trees. Moonlight spilled across the empty courtyard, but the shadows underneath the benches stretched longer than they should have. Jun noticed first.
"The shadows… they're moving on their own."
Kaito stopped walking.
He heard it too.
A faint tapping sound.
Tap—tap—tap.
Like knuckles tapping wood.
Haruka turned slowly. "Where is that coming from?"
Tap—tap—tap.
Kaito looked toward the old abandoned building behind the gym—the one rumored to be locked for years because of an incident no teacher ever explained.
The tapping grew louder.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Jun stepped back. "Don't tell me someone is in there…"
"No." Kaito whispered. "Not someone."
A chill rolled down his spine, and the seal on his chest pulsed in warning. Kyōfu-no-Kami's voice bled into his thoughts:
"THE DOORS ARE WAKING… AND SOMETHING ON THE OTHER SIDE IS CALLING YOU."
Kaito clutched his shirt as the pain throbbed sharply.
Haruka grabbed his arm. "Kaito! Stay with us!"
He shook his head. "There are… doors inside that building. Old ones. Ritual doors. They're reacting to the seal."
"How do you know that?" Jun asked.
"I don't…"
He swallowed hard.
"…the god does."
The tapping became pounding.
Kaito looked at the others. "We need to go inside."
Jun paled.
"Go inside the haunted building?"
Haruka took a deep breath.
"If Kaito says it's connected to the seal, then we don't have a choice."
They approached.
The entire building felt wrong—colder, heavier, as if the air inside refused to move. The windows were blocked with wooden planks, but faint lines of darkness leaked through the cracks.
Kaito touched the front door.
Instantly, dozens of whispers flooded his ears.
"Come in…"
"We've been waiting…"
"Fear's vessel…"
Jun flinched. "You heard that too, right? RIGHT?"
Haruka raised a talisman, whispering a charm under her breath.
They stepped inside.
---
The interior was worse. Every hallway looked stretched, the lights flickering weakly. The air tasted metallic. Kaito's skin prickled as if hundreds of eyes were watching him.
Then they saw it—
At the end of the hallway.
A door covered in old seals.
Handwritten talismans dangled from the frame, some ripped, some half-burned. Black fingerprints stained the wood. And faint claw marks dragged outward, not inward.
Haruka whispered, "This is bad. Something tried to break OUT."
The moment Kaito took a step forward, flame-like blue light burst from the seal on his chest. The talismans on the door burned away, dissolving into dust.
The whispers grew louder.
"OPEN IT…"
"FEAR ANSWERS FEAR…"
"VESSEL OF THE GOD…"
Kaito's breath hitched. He felt as if invisible hands were pulling him forward. Kyōfu-no-Kami surged through his veins.
"OPEN THE DOOR, CHILD. IT IS TIME."
Haruka yanked Kaito back.
"No! You can't listen to him!"
Kaito's eyes flickered black for a second.
"I—I'm not trying to," he whispered. "He's forcing my body to move."
Jun slammed a protective barrier charm onto the floor, glowing gold beneath them.
"You're not going anywhere until we understand what's behind that thing!"
But the door didn't wait.
It began to open by itself.
Slowly…
Creaking loudly…
A flood of cold, black mist poured out, swallowing the hallway. Haruka held onto Kaito tightly as the fog crept across the floor like living liquid. Within the fog, shapes began to appear.
Long hands.
Distorted faces.
Mouths stretched too wide.
Eyes blinking from the darkness.
Fear wasn't forming a creature this time.
It was forming many.
Kyōfu-no-Kami whispered in delight:
"AT LAST… MY CHILDREN COME TO GREET ME."
Kaito stared into the fog, heart pounding.
And then—
One of the shadowed figures stepped forward, solidifying just enough to take a familiar shape.
Kaito felt the air leave his lungs.
No.
No, it couldn't be—
The shadow wore the shape of a student Kaito knew.
Someone quiet.
Someone who went missing two years ago.
A boy who vanished on this campus without a trace.
Haruka gasped.
"Is that—?"
Before she could finish, the shadow boy tilted his head toward Kaito…
…and smiled with a mouth that wasn't human.
"Kaito," it whispered, voice layered with dozens of others.
"We've been waiting for our vessel."
Kaito stepped back, trembling.
Behind the child-shaped shadow, dozens more figures took form—students, teachers, strangers—every one of them a person swallowed by the Whispering Doors over the last decade.
They were not souls.
Not spirits.
Not alive.
Not dead.
They were fear's leftovers.
The shadows lunged.
The doors slammed shut.
And everything went black.