"That sounds like fun!" Hanamichi piped in. Rukawa raised an eyebrow, but left it at that. Hanamichi's cheer was infectious, and he didn't feel like being a spoilsport that day. The redhead had rapidly succeeded in becoming his live Prozac since they had gotten together two months ago.

"Hey, what are all of you doing here?" Mitsui came up from behind them and gave Hanamichi a friendly shove. Rukawa's eyes narrowed marginally, but Kogure smiled at him to show Mitsui was just joking.

"We're going to try this haunted house together," Sendoh jerked his thumb at the small queue before them.

"That sounds like fun," Kogure grinned at Mitsui, a private moment which Koshino smiled to see.

"I can't believe you're all getting together and leaving us behind!" a loud yell from the opposite direction alerted them to Kiyota and Jin, quickly making their way through the crowd. Kiyota looked decidedly wind-tossed. Jin was laughing as the shorter boy pulled him through the throngs of people. The Kainandai students looked at the signboard, before turning to the group and simultaneously issuing thumbs-up.

"That looks fun!"

"I guess we've got eight people now, all we need are Fujima and Hanagata to show up and we'll be all-"

"Someone call my name?" Fujima queried, as his taller counterpart came up behind him.

"We need two more!" Kiyota pointed accusingly at Fujima and Hanagata. Quieter Hanagata just blinked, while Fujima had the grace to laugh as he looked around. Rukawa privately thought it was a textbook-perfect coincidence. Now they had ten people, just nice for one round of the people allowed in the haunted house at the same time.

"Well what are you all waiting for?" Sendoh flashed a megawatt grin and gestured to the counter. "Let's go!"

@@@

They stood in the lobby, in a vague circle. In front of them, five corridors opened out into various parts of the house, which was promised to be quite a walking scream. "I'm taking that one." "Then I'll try the second." "Guess that leaves the third for me." "What do you say, fox?!" "Do we have a choice?"

Suddenly, the dim lights went off.

"AH!"

"Are we stuck?! Are we stuck?!"

"We're going to dieeeee-mph!"

"This is supposed to happen when we've walked in, guys. Only we spent so much time deciding who would try which door."

"How are we going to walk in the dark?!"

"…carefully."

"Teme, kitsune!"

Someone whacked Kogure's face, and his glasses went flying. Desperately he got down on his knees and searched, his hands making random circles on the floor. The noise level was rising fast, and he didn't want the spectacles to be broken anytime soon.

End of part 3