Chapter 10 – The Boogieman - Part 3
Day 20 – 572 students remaining.
One hour before the morning announcement, Shuji has decided to head with Maro Taro and Kanna to the eastern side of the city. As they walk there, Maro Taro begins to complain about the timing.
“Did we really have to get up so early? Couldn’t this have waited until after the morning announcement?”
Shuji is swift to respond.
“No. It’s best we look around the eastern side of the city while its quiet. This way, Kenro and the others won’t bother us for certain. Secondly, we have a better chance of finding the boogieman at night or just before the morning announcement. I’m sure that he will be extra cautious throughout the rest of the day.”
The three of them begin to look around the eastern part of the city but do not notice anything suspicious.
Unknown to Shuji and the others. The member of Mikuni’s crew who was abducted last night is facing torment at the hands of the boogieman. In the boogieman’s dark basement, he looks directly at the member of Mikuni’s crew, filling him with terror. The member of Mikuni’s crew is chained up where Hiro Abe was chained up before.
“What’s your name, boy?”
The member of Mikuni’s crew looks in fear. The boogieman continues to torment him.
“What’s the matter? I haven’t taken your tongue off yet.”
The boogieman stares at the member of Mikuni’s crew with a sinister expression.
“Haruto. My…my name’s Haruto.”
The boogieman starts to laugh. The girl chained up next to Haruto was the girl who was abducted by the boogieman the other day. She opens her eyes and looks at them in fear. She has clear injuries on her body. The boogieman looks at her.
“Oh, Yui. You’re finally awake. Maybe today’s your time to die.”
The boogieman continues to look sinisterly at them both.
“Who do I choose? I’m having so much fun. I know, let’s play a game to decide.”
The boogieman turns his back to them both and begins to do something with his hand. Yui begins to wonder what he is doing until he turns around.
‘A coin?’
The boogieman begins to speak to them both.
“Heads or tails? Pick wrong and you die. Choose correctly and the person next to you dies.”
Yui looks to the ground in fear as Haruto suddenly speaks up.
“Heads. I pick heads.”
The boogieman flips the coin. Yui and Haruto look on in fear as it feels like the coin toss is taking an incredibly long time.
The coin lands on the top of the boogieman’s left hand as he quickly covers it with his right hand. The boogieman slowly moves his right hand away to reveal the coins reading.
“…tails.”
Haruto begins to stare at the coin paralyzed with fear.
“No! Wait! Please!”
A few minutes go by as Shuji and the other continue to look around. Before they notice it, the morning announcement begins. They stop investigating to pay attention to the announcement.
“The time is 7am. This is day 20. The system has decided that Haruto Ogawa is the saddest person in the city.”
Back in main part of the city, Mikuni’s crew who are awaiting the food drop are frozen in fear.
“What? He’s one of us.”
Inside of his office, Mikuni is in a state of confusion. Mikuni cannot believe what he is hearing. Before he could panic further, Mikuni recalls the promise that he made to his followers when they all first arrived in the city.
‘I won’t let a single one of my followers die and that’s a promise.’
Mikuni now bears a facial expression filled with anger.
“Well Mr.Boogieman, you’ve made this personal.”
Mikuni stands up from his chair and walks over to the window.
“I will find your identity. Rules or no rules, you will die.”
In the Boogieman’s basement, the gunshot has killed Haruto. The boogieman now prepares to leave his basement.
“Whilst everybody’s at the food parcel site, I’ll be stealing some food from one of the stashes I found. Don’t miss me too much.”
The boogieman gives the two remaining survivors a crazed glance before leaving the building.
Yui begins to think to herself.
‘If I don’t get out of here, I’ll be killed soon.’
Yui tries to move one of her hands out of her restraints but fails.
“Come on.”
Yui desperately tries to pull her left arm forward but this causes her to be in a lot of pain. Yui begins to think to herself.
‘No matter the cost, I need to escape. I want to live!’
Yui begins to bite her lip as she forcefully tries to pull her left hand out of the restraint. Her left hand dislocates as she proceeds to pull it out in great pain.
“I… I did it.”
Yui tries her hardest not to pass out from the pain and after a few seconds rest, she decides to continue.
“One limb at a time.”
Yui braces herself to begin pulling out her right hand.
Back in the city, Shuji, Kanna and Maro Taro have split up and are searching different parts of the city.
Unknown to Maro Taro, he is looking around near the location of the boogieman’s hideout. An injured girl is running through the area and onlookers notice in fear. The girl is none other than Yui, who has escaped the basement of the boogieman.
“Help! The boogieman’s coming!”
Onlookers begin to run away as Maro Taro notices the commotion and heads towards Yui. Maro Taro stops Yui and begins to talk to her.
“Calm down. Tell me what has happened.”
Maro Taro instantly notices the terror in Yui’s facial expression. Yui begins to elaborate.
“I was held prisoner by the boogieman. He just left his hideout. I barely escaped. We have to run. He’ll be back at any minute.”
Yui begins to cry as Maro Taro tries to process what he has just heard. Maro Taro begins to think of a plan.
‘Should I alert Mikuni and the others? No. That part of the city is too far away. The boogieman will be long gone by the time I get there.’
Maro Taro begins to think of Shuji and Kanna.
‘Maybe I should get Shuji. He can take down the boogieman. But I don’t know where exactly Shuji is right now.’
Maro Taro begins to think harder as he looks at Yui and wonders what Shuji would do.
‘No. The second the boogieman notices that one of his prisoners have gone, he’ll probably move hideouts. This is our only chance to catch him.’
Maro Taro takes a courageous stance as he has decided his next move.
“Hey.”
Yui looks at Maro Taro and wonders about what he is going to say.
“I have a plan. But it can only work with your help. Do you think that you can help me?”
Yui nods.
“Okay. I need you to take me to the boogieman’s hideout. Once you’ve shown me the way, I need you to find my friend Shuji. He looks quite out of place here, you can’t miss him. Tell him what you’ve just told me.”
An image of the boogieman flashes in Yui’s mind as she hesitates to give a response. It’s clear that she fears returning to the boogieman’s hideout. Yui decides to reluctantly conquer her fear.
“I’ll do it.”
The injured Yui and Maro Taro head towards the boogieman’s hideout. As soon as the boogieman’s house is in view, Yui stops. Yui points at the boogieman’s house.
“It’s that house over there. In the basement.”
Maro Taro nods.
“I’ll take it from here. Just remember what you promised me, ok?”
Yui nods as Maro Taro begins to rush towards the house. The injured Yui continues to run away from the boogieman’s house.
Maro Taro enters the boogieman’s hideout and heads into the basement. Maro Taro notices all the torture equipment and the body of today’s victim. Maro Taro begins to feel sick but tries his hardest not to throw up.
Maro Taro begins to look around the basement and decides to hide behind the counter.
“I can do this. I just need to hold him down until somebody else arrives. I believe in that girl and I believe in Shuji.”
After waiting for a few minutes, footsteps are heard entering the home. Someone begins to walk into the basement. The boogieman heads into the basement. Maro Taro begins to panic but thinks about his past.
When Maro Taro was a child, he told everyone about his desires. A young Maro Taro stands in front of the class.
“I wanna be a superhero.”
The class begins to laugh at Maro Taro.
“Someone like you could never be a superhero.”
The young Maro Taro grips the piece of paper he is holding as he looks at the floor with an expression of upset.
“Look, Maro Taro is gonna cry!”
The other children continue to laugh. In Maro Taro’s mind, everything fades from the scene apart from his childhood self. He remembers what he was going to be and today he is going to become it.
The boogieman enters the basement and has noticed that Yui is missing.
“What the fuck. That bitch. Now I have to move. Shit, quickly.”
Before the boogieman could begin to grab his stuff, a shadowy figure appears behind him.
Maro Taro strikes and jumps on the boogieman in an attempt to take him down.
Maro Taro decides to find out who the boogieman is.
“Time to see who you really are.”
Maro Taro tries to turn the boogieman around but as the boogieman turns around, the sight of the fishhooks digging into the sides of his mouth are too much for Maro Taro to bear. Maro Taro moves backwards and screams, releasing his grip on the boogieman.
“Aghhhh!”
The boogieman pulls a knife from his pocket and slashes Maro Taro before beginning to run away.
“Fuck. How could this happen to me? If I play this cautiously and take the long way, I’ll be caught.”
The boogieman runs into the streets and begins to head towards another desolate area, where his second hideout rests. However, to get there, he has to run through some areas where people are present. In his haste to escape from Maro Taro, he takes the risk. Unknown to the boogieman, Maro Taro lays on the floor of the basement, clouded in shame.
“I failed.”
As the boogieman ran through the streets, those who saw him screamed in terror and ran away, knowing that the now infamous fishhooks are a sign of terror and death.
In another location, Shuji is looking around the city. Somebody calls for his name.
“Shuji!”
Shuji instantly hears this. He begins to head towards the calling of his name.
“Shuji!”
The calls get louder and louder until Shuji pinpoints the source. The injured Yui running through the streets.
“Shuji!”
Shuji approaches her.
“Hey! I’m Shuji!”
Yui turns to Shuji and explains the situation to him. Upon hearing about Maro Taro’s plan, Shuji knows that he needs to get to the boogieman’s hideout straight away.
“That idiot. Hmph, I can’t blame him. That’s exactly what I would do.”
Shuji turns to Yui.
“Where is the boogieman’s hideout?”
Before Yui could answer, Yui falls to the ground. The injured Yui is incredibly exhausted and is having extreme difficulty standing.
“I’m sorry. I’ve been running an awful lot and my limbs are all badly injured.”
Shuji looks at the injured Yui and begins to think.
‘Those injuries look really bad. It’s a miracle she was able to come this far.’
Shuji begins to pick Yui up.
“Don’t worry about it.”
Shuji picks Yui up and places her on his back.
“I’ll carry you. Just point in the direction I need to go.”
Shuji heads to the boogieman’s hideout with Yui on his back. On the way there, Shuji notices a commotion.
“The boogieman is real! I saw him!”
People are beginning to panic in the area. Shuji ignores this as he knows that his friend’s life might be in danger.
Once the boogieman’s house is nearby, Shuji places Yui on the ground nearby.
“Wait right here. I’ll be back soon.”
Shuji heads into the boogieman’s home.
“Maro taro.”
Shuji begins to head into the basement.
“Maro Taro, are you here?”
Shuji looks in the basement and sees Maro Taro sitting on his knees and facing the floor in shame.
“I failed you, Shuji. I couldn’t catch him.”
Shuji looks over at the last one of the boogieman’s captives who is still chained up,
“Come on. Let’s release him and then bring him and Yui to the hospital.”
Maro Taro is shocked.
“You’re not angry with me?”
Shuji looks at Maro Taro in confusion.
“Of course not. But I’d appreciate it if you could explain everything that’s happened when we get back.”
Maro Taro and Shuji save the unnamed man and Yui. After taking them to the hospital, Maro Taro explains what happened. Shuji decides that perhaps once Yui has recovered, he can get an insight into the boogieman’s way of thinking and track him down.
