Author's Notes: I own nothing. I had promised a drabble with this request a few days ago and I had now just gotten the chance to sit down and write it. I hope you guys enjoy it as well! :D I own nothing of Corpse Party - I just find the characters and story fascinating.

The Darkening Light

Somehow and some way, they made it back to Kisaragi Academy. Along with Satoshi, Ayumi, Yoshiki, Naomi and Seiko returned alive somehow. However, they had to leave behind Satoshi's sister, Yuuka, Miss Yui, Mayu, and Morishige. It was hard to leave them behind but they couldn't grieve. They couldn't bring their bodies back to the living.

But we had survived, Naomi selfishly thought as she clung to the girl who cried next to her. The pain of seeing those mutilated bodies and the savagery of the ghost children, up and including Sachiko. The sad story of how the daughter died to protect her mother – which only grew her bloodlust and sadistic nature. It was almost too much to bear. The students cried out their silent or loud tears for those who had fallen behind and those who had been stuck for who knows how long.

Still, they cried and cried. They couldn't bring themselves together after what they had seen in Heavenly Host Elementary. Still, Ayumi Shinozaki, ever the class representative, managed to stop her tears to ask one thing of the survivors.

"Please come back, all of you, to school," she paused as she tried to control her tears once more. "I know it's hard after what we have just seen but please come to school tomorrow. We need to talk about what happened in the daylight."

They've agreed as they couldn't really think beyond, We've made it. We're still alive. We're back home.

The academy was empty as they left although Satoshi seemed that he couldn't bear the pain of losing his only sister. He was deeply troubled and Naomi wanted to comfort him but, she had someone more important – Seiko.

Within the dark and cruel halls, Naomi had almost succumbed to possession and almost killed Seiko herself. She remembered she woke up to holding Seiko with her bare hands and as she reached for the rope. Something in her head managed to fight the ghost away with such vigilance that she managed to stop herself from hanging Seiko.

All the while, she felt nothing but guilt for trying to kill her best friend. She had wanted to apologize for it in some way, but, as usual, Seiko took it in stride. This caused some kind of built up frustration that Naomi had in her head that she needed to relieve. She had originally decided, as she had thought she was going to die in the elementary school, to tell her with her dying breath.

But since we survived, how am I to relieve these feelings? What are these feelings anyway?

It came unexpectedly, though, for Naomi. She had always thought she had a crush on Satoshi but throughout the painful journey of muddling through the blood stained walls and the floors that covered endless black holes, she had never depended on Satoshi's strength. The two had been separated from each other, as well as the rest of their friends; and so, Naomi depended on Seiko. The less busty one always tried to keep her spirits up, even when they encountered corpses of dead students of the past. She always tried to sing a song that would echo in the hallways that would relieve the continuous growing terror of not knowing what's on the other end of the hall. She always would try to make Naomi at least smile with memories of the past and possibilities for the future.

She was the source of strength Naomi had, not so surprisingly, expected her to be. After all, Seiko was the source of strength for her father and siblings ever since her mother had disappeared.

Seiko had revealed her true pain of missing her mother and her fears of how her siblings could have felt if she were gone and Naomi had almost ended her life over it.

While the two decided to hold hands as they walked home, they came into the crossroads. Usually, it was nothing. It was taken for granted they would see each other the next day at those crossroads, happy go lucky and unaware of the day's events that would unfold. The two schoolgirls looked at each other as there was a soft rumble in the distance.

Even though Seiko was her pillar of strength, she actually enjoyed seeing her moments of weakness. She felt the girl jump – fear of what was going to come next after the storm. She held onto her hand tighter but as she did, Naomi heard the familiar ringtone from her cell phone. The song that played was the one she had assigned her own mother for and it brought Naomi out of her stupor.

She quickly picked it up and answered it right away.

"Naomi?" cried out her worried mother on the other line. "Where were you? Usually you don't stay this late at school! Are you with Seiko again?"

Relief to hear her mother as she felt the rain hit her head, she felt tears once again fill her eyes. She started to sniffle and tried to hold back cries.

"Y-yeah," she said, "we saw a sad movie…I'm sorry if I'm crying…." She lied through her teeth as Seiko watched her cry. The girl remained motionless, as she seemed she was unaware of what to do next, especially while her mother was on the phone. Naomi didn't hear what her mother said after that but she agreed to come home. She agreed to hurry home.

After she hung up, she looked at Seiko, who was just as soaked as Naomi was. Seiko had her usual longing look on her face as she felt her grip tightened once again. Wordlessly, Naomi knew what she said.

"Don't leave me," they both wanted to say to each other. They hoped and prayed that this wasn't just a nightmare. They hoped and prayed this moment, here and now, wasn't just a cruel image that was brought by the hopeful wishes of the trapped souls that only wished to torment those further.

Despite the longing for each other, they knew they couldn't. Instead, while the night turned darker and darker and as the street light shone over the two, Naomi did the only thing she could do; she leaned in and gave Seiko a kiss on her lips.

It was meant to test herself to see if this was the reality, not a hopeful wish or her dying will. As it turns out, it was reality as Seiko, after being surprised by the kiss, pushed back. The two remained their longer as their tears came out once again and as it mixed in the rain.

They never let each other hands go.

Still wordlessly, the two parted as though they understood each other's feelings just in that singular kiss. While Seiko thought Naomi had a crush on Satoshi, after that kiss, it was clear whose heart Naomi craved instead – Seiko's. The girl smiled at her, still without words, and gave her another small kiss goodbye.

Naomi didn't feel ashamed but a sense of relief; as though a big heavy weight lifted off her shoulder. She felt the pain for Satoshi, as well as the pain of losing Ms. Yui, Morishige, and Mayu – but Naomi had escaped the darkening light once before. And now, she's definitely going to remain there.