The Deceptive Survival Manual
In manual ghost stories, the manual clearly serves as a survival guide, providing ways to live for those trapped in the ghost story situation. It is the essential rule and structure required for the manual ghost story to exist as such. But at the same time, a ghost story is an entity designed to harm people and lead them to death. As a manual ghost story, it must provide survival rules to the victims, while simultaneously dragging them toward death in its role as a ghost story. The result is the famous cliché of manual ghost stories: false rules. Normally, these false rules are akin to seasoning—meant to sow confusion and prevent tension and horror from diluting if victims rely solely on the manual. But this particular ghost story goes beyond using false rules as mere flavoring. It upends the very premise of the manual ghost story itself. Not "you can survive if you follow the survival rules," but "even if you follow the survival rules, you cannot survive."
"Damn...."
I nearly hurled the night patrol rules clutched in my hand, but barely restrained the impulse. Up until now, spotting and exploiting loopholes in ghost stories had been my specialty. Who would've thought I'd end up on the receiving end like this? My mind reeled, scrambling for a way out of this mess.
That was the moment.
Clack, clack. From somewhere. Far off. Yes—precisely from the far end of the corridor. The sound of shoes echoed, in the exact same gait as Elaine's, the exact same heel clicks.
One thing I'd learned since becoming a teacher at the academy: unfortunate events always come in chains.
"Finally out of talismans?"
I turned slowly. There stood the ghost, freshly freed from its seal, glaring at me with a face brimming with malice and mockery.
"You have no idea how much I suffered waiting for your talismans to run dry."
"...How? I definitely slapped talismans on you."
"To seal me, you should've checked the room for other anomalies first. Lucky for me, I passed the talisman off to one and slipped away. Kahahahaha!"
My mistake. I'd been so fixated on banishing the ghost that I forgot to inspect the room. Somehow, the Elaine ghost had used the anomaly inside to escape the talisman's bind.
"Now then... as we agreed earlier...."
The Elaine ghost's face twisted. The skin of Elaine's face it wore warped into a grotesque, demonic grimace, pure hatred and malice distorting it beyond recognition.
"I'll chew you up alive starting from the head!!"
"You didn't say 'alive' earlier! You ghost bastard!"
The ghost lunged straight at me. I shoved it aside and bolted the opposite way. Thankfully, the seal's effect hadn't fully worn off—it was weakened enough that, unlike our second-floor encounter, I could repel it with my own strength.
...Huh? Maybe this is manageable.
But that flicker of confidence vanished in under five seconds.
"Kahahahaha! Stop right there! Right there, you damn old fart!! How else am I gonna rip your limbs off!!!!!!"
Shoved to the floor, the ghost scrambled up on all fours, pursuing me in a nightmarish crawl. Its limbs crackled with horrifying pops, yet it kept pace with my sprint despite the quadrupedal gait. That abominable sight shattered my will to fight. Better to run.
Face-to-face with a ghost story? Save it for a weaker one next time.
"Come to think of it, you showed up before the patrol even started! That's cheating!!"
"Breaking rules? No clue what you're on about!! Come closer—I'll explain in detail?"
"Like hell I will!!"
Damn it. What fresh hell is this at midnight?
In my frenzy to evade the ghost, I hit a dead-end wall—and stairs. Already at the far end of the third floor's opposite side? Felt like I hadn't run far...!
"Kahaha! Dead end!!"
"You idiot! Stairs!!"
To put distance between us, I spun toward the stairs and started down.
Or tried to.
The instant my foot hit the first step, blood drained from my head, leaving a chill. Wait—did I pass the central stairs?
I snapped to attention and peered below. No second floor. Just thick fog enshrouding everything. The dense mist writhed like a living thing, slithering up my foot past that single step.
"Shit!!"
I yanked my foot back in panic before the fog could devour it. The mist vanished as if it had never been, and the view beyond the stairs reverted to normal.
"Ahh. Such a shame. What a shame."
The ghost's sly cackle scraped at my ears. That damned thing had known—lured me to the stairs on purpose. Because these weren't the end-of-corridor stairs. They were the central ones!
I'd escaped the trap, but no time to relax. Its killing intent pressed right against my back. While I'd hesitated, the ghost had closed the gap terrifyingly fast—now it was practically breathing down my neck.
Front: ghost. Below and sides: central stairs. Back: wall.
"Kahaha! No escape now!! Got you!!"
"Nngh...!"
In that hopeless moment, my body moved before my mind could calculate. Without a second thought, I hurled myself at the "wall" that had blocked the corridor earlier—the one that hadn't been there.
No dull thud. Just cold air enveloping me. The fake wall melted away like an illusion, and I slipped through to the other side in an instant.
I'd vaguely guessed an anomaly-made wall might be permeable. But to think it had no physical substance at all—just a phantasm. Maybe the other anomalies were the same?
No time for pondering their riddles.
"You bastard running again!! When I catch you, I'll chew your legs first so you never escape!!"
Furious at my repeated escapes, the ghost bellowed with bloodshot eyes and seething rage.
Its chilling curse only fueled my defiance. I couldn't let it catch me. I sprinted wildly, evading it toward the real end-of-corridor stairs. Down to the second floor. Then the opposite end. Finally, to the first floor.
Before I knew it, I'd looped the entire patrol route backward—right back to where Elaine and I had started.
And from there, the only path was up to the second floor again.
Yes. I'd just spin in circles through the academy corridors forever. I'd tire eventually. The inhuman ghost? Never.
I halted my flight and caught my breath.
"Finally figured it out? This chase is pointless. Run all you want—it's just these corridors. I wait for you to tire from looping the same path!!"
"Nah. Right on plan! Idiot!"
Returning to the start meant the first classroom we'd visited—and sealed—was here too. I unlocked the door to that very room, the one we'd first tried patrolling together.
The ghost hadn't anticipated me reopening a once-sealed door. Its reaction lagged a beat, letting me duck inside.
"So that's your 'perfect plan' from all that brain-racking? Hiding here? For real?"
As I vanished into the classroom, the ghost sauntered in, mocking leisurely.
No hurry, of course. Hiding only works if the enemy doesn't know you're there. It had watched me slip in—hiding now was like an ostrich burying its head in the sand.
The ghost methodically flipped chairs and desks one by one, scouring the room. It guarded the door—the one I'd unlocked—to block any retreat. Dead set on ending this marathon chase, it searched with ruthless precision: slow, but thorough.
Clatter, clatter. It drew nearer to my hiding spot. Slow, but certain.
That was the moment.
Squirm.
"There you are!!! Kahahaha!!!"
Spotting movement amid the toppled desks, the ghost pounced without mercy.
And what it seized was...
"A chair...? Flesh chair...? Why the hell...?"
The flesh chair—the very first creature(?) we'd sealed. It squirmed desperately to escape the ghost's grasp. The ghost stared at it in bewilderment.
"Now!! Eat this, you rotten ghost!!"
While the ghost was distracted grappling the squirming chair, I burst from between the desks where I'd lain in wait and charged.
"Showing yourself!! Foolish...!!"
Slap!!
The ghost tried to counterattack, but it never got the chance. The talisman I slapped onto its forehead locked it rigid once more.
"Payback—for the anomaly that innocently took the hit for you!"
"Wha... how.... Talisman, th...is...."
In its final moments before fully hardening, the ghost shot me an incredulous glare.
"Recycling. Gotta think of Hipnia's environment. Climate change is scary stuff."
The talisman I'd reused to reseal the ghost? The exact one from the flesh chair. Just as the ghost had offloaded its seal onto another anomaly to escape, I'd recovered a used one and repurposed it. Of course, that freed the prior anomaly—so I'd deliberately descended to the lowest-risk first floor.
Thus, I dragged the resealed Elaine ghost along. This time, I could truly end it. I could see the proper way to resolve this ghost story—not with the manual's phony survival rules, but the real law of survival.