Chapter 6: The Whispering Hallway
There's a hallway in Shirogane High that shouldn't exist.
Between the music room and the old storage wing.
Ninety meters long.
No windows.
No lights.
And if you walk it alone...
It whispers.
Rumors say students go in and come out changed.
Some forget who they are.
Some gain knowledge they should never have.
Some... never come out at all.
Ishigami proposed the investigation.
"Information compression zone," he called it.
"Something is using memory as a medium. It talks to you using what you fear."
I just called it cursed.
Airi simply said, "Let's go."
We entered at midnight.
Flashlights in hand.
Footsteps echoing.
The deeper we walked, the quieter it got.
Not silence.
Not emptiness.
Just... pressure.
As if the hallway was leaning in, listening back.
Then came the first whisper.
"You let them die."
It was my voice.
Softer. Younger.
From the night my family disappeared.
I froze.
Ishigami didn't stop.
He was muttering equations under his breath, eyes scanning the wall.
Airi held my hand.
"They're not real," she said.
"But the guilt is."
Then came Ishigami's turn.
The lights around him flickered.
A dozen voices whispered:
"Monster. Freak. Puppet of logic."
He stopped walking.
His fist clenched.
"You can haunt me with truth," he muttered,
"but truth is my domain."
Suddenly, the walls shook.
Dozens of dark, human-shaped shadows stepped out, wearing the uniforms of Shirogane.
Eyes glowing white.
"Welcome to your class of regrets."
[Void Threat Level: Beta-Class — The Echoed Students]
They moved as one. Fast. Jerky.
Not physical.
They phased through light, but hunted sound.
Ishigami snapped:
"Don't speak. Don't breathe loud. Follow the rhythm I tap."
He began tapping a coded beat on his flashlight:
Silent–Silent–Step–Pause–Silent–Step.
Airi and I followed.
The creatures circled but didn't attack.
Until…
Suguru Kentotaro barged in from the back door yelling:
"GUYS! I BROUGHT SNACKS—AAAAAGHHHH WHY IS EVERYONE CREEPY?!"
The illusions exploded into chaos.
"Suguru, you moron!" I shouted.
He tripped on air and accidentally fired a magic seal from his palm—
comically huge, shaped like a rice cooker.
It somehow dispelled half the illusions.
"MY BAD! I WAS HUNGRY AND CURIOUS!"
In the madness, one Echo latched onto Airi.
She froze—its mouth whispering directly into her ear.
She gasped. Her eyes widened.
Then... turned silver.
Airi unleashed a new form.
[Voidborn Surge: Memory Break]
Dark wings of static burst from her back.
Her voice layered, distorted.
"You think I fear my past? Let me show you yours."
She clapped.
All Echoes collapsed.
The hallway returned to silence.
We stood panting, stunned.
Suguru casually unwrapped his onigiri.
"Y'all got trauma. I just came for snacks."
Later, in the rooftop, Airi sat quietly.
I asked her what the whisper said.
She didn't answer.
Just this:
"Some memories… are borrowed. I'm not sure which ones are mine anymore."
And I realized something:
The deeper we walk into the Void...
The more we lose—
not just others.
But ourselves.
To be continued…