(Note: Part 1 available here)
Chapter 5
Premonition: Déjà vu
1
I ran atfull speed into the dimly lit room, following Seven’s broad body. To mysurprise, he was carrying an apathetic Clover under his arm. He really wastremendously powerful.
“Hurry, weonly have 81 seconds! We don’t have time!” yelled Seven.
Weeventually reached the end of the corridor. There was a door on the left-handside that was caked with black stains. There beside it was the DEAD that wewere looking for.
“Right…It stopped,” sighed Seven in relief while wiping the sweat from around hisneck. “I thought we were gonners. No matter how many times we do this, I’lldefinitely never get used to it.”
Icompletely agreed with him.
“We’rejust wasting time here. Let’s go,” announced Seven, while staring at thedoorknob beside the DEAD. There wasn’t a single other door to be found. We hadno choice but to go forward this way.
The words“Operating Room” were written in English across a metal plate that was attachedto the door. It didn’t seem to be a pleasant place. A cold shiver ran down myspine.
Sevengrabbed the brass doorknob. The creaking of the hinges sounded like the groanof a hoarse old woman. I took the first step into the room in an attempt toencourage the others.
In themiddle of the room there was something that seemed to be a big bed with aperson lying in it. I stopped walking and gasped. I heard Clover give out ashort scream from behind me.
The personlying in the bed didn’t move a muscle. The “bed” was probably an operatingtable. The intense ceiling light lit up the abdomen of the person. The scalpeland forceps that were beside the person reflected the light, making them shinewith a dubious silver colour.
2
“Are they…dead?” I asked Seven, as he overtook me and walked towards the operating table.
“Stupidthing scared the life outta me. It’s just a doll,” breathed Seven, his breathstinking if cigarette smoke. He peered at its face.
“…Adoll?” I asked, moving cautiously closer to it. It was the kind of thing you’dfind in science labs long ago: it was an anatomical model of the human bodywith exposed muscles.
But eventhough I knew it was a doll, the bad feeling did not go away. This evidence wassupported by the fact that Clover was only looking at the operating table froma distance and not coming near it.
“Why isthere something like this here?” she said aloud, asking no-one in particular.
“I know,right? I guess it’s one of Zero’s antics?” suggested Seven as he clicked histongue in frustration. He dragged the doll down from the operating table. “Hey,the f*ck is this?”
Eventhough he hadn’t lost any colour in his face upon seeing the anatomical modelof the human body, he had a frightened expression as he stood in front of theempty operating table. Looking over from behind him, I could see that there wassomething written on the operating table in red letters.
We are not Guinea Pigs.
Consideringwhere this was, the red letters looked like blood. I felt a strong gaze staringat me. I turned by head. Lying there was the human body model, staring directlyat me, as though it was staring into my soul. We are not Guinea Pigs- it was though the doll was protesting.
“Uuuuuugh…”
I heard apained groan coming from beside me. I turned to see Seven crouching down,holding his temple.
“Aoi… raitono…noka…ne.”
A load ofgibberish spilled from his mouth.
“Seven,what’s wrong?” I asked, concerned.
“…I’mok,” he replied, breathing hard as he stood up. He was not ok one bit. His facewas pale and his lips were turning purple. His forehead was covered with sweat.“I just have a bit of a headache.”
He lookedaround and frowned in a distressed manner.
“Don’t payany attention to it. It seems to be a chronic illness. Whenever I possiblystart remembering something from my past, my head always hurts.”
Speaking ofwhich, he was suffering from memory loss. How on earth did it feel to have nomemories from before nine years ago?
“Pleasetell me: Do you not even know your own name?”
“Uh… WhoI am, where I live, what kind of life I had: I can’t remember any of it at all.Nine years ago, I was washed up on the coast of Kujuukurihama Beach* and sawsaved by a fisherman who happened to be passing by. The only thing I waswearing was a ripped-up t-shirt and jeans. I wasn’t even wearing shoes.”
He told usabout how he had no personal belongings with him either. The only thing he hadon him was a receipt from a convenience store that had been crumpled up into aball in his pocket.
“I couldtell from the receipt that I had bought a bento box from the Tokyo area.Relying on just that, I could tell that I had come to Tokyo. But I didn’t knowanything? Even now I have no clues.”
“But yourhead started hurting just there… Does that mean you have rememberedsomething?” I asked.
“Yeah.Actually, the same thing happened in the big hospital room. It’s the first timefor me to suffer from headaches this frequently. Isn’t it called Déjà vu? Anyway… I feel like I know this ship frombefore.”
I didn’tmiss the fact that Clover’s expression changed slightly as she listened to ourconversation from the corner of the room.
“The bighospital room from before, this operating room… I know them.”
Seven tookhis beanie off his head as another headache attacked him
“Aoiraitonokaka…aoiraitononaka…” Seven repeated the same words over and over again, like acurse.
“What isthat?” I asked.
“Even Idon’t know. I think that maybe it is deeply connected to the cause of my memoryloss.”
Aoiraitononaka…Aoi raito no naka… In the bluelight?** Perhaps that is what it meant.
3
“Sorry.Now is not the time to talk about such things. Let’s find the exit,” suggestedSeven, breathing deeply and wiping away sweat as his headache died down.
“Overthere,” Clover said, pointing to a cloth partition that had been put up nearthe wall.
I saw apink door beyond the partition that I hadn’t noticed up until now. There was anLCD panel attached to it, just above the doorknob. I went over to the knob andtwisted it, but it seemed to be locked and did not move. This was the sameset-up as before: the door wouldn’t open unless we could find the key andanswer the question.
First, Itouched the monitor so that we could see the question. The whole monitor glowedblue before displaying the question.
What is the white smoke that madeyou lose consciousness called?
I thoughtback to the time when I was abducted by the man wearing the gas mask. White gaswas emitted from something that looked like a grenade. As soon as I breathed inthat gas, I lost consciousness. It was probably an anaesthetic gas. So thenshould I input “anaesthetic gas”? No, I didn’t think it was that simple.
“There’sno use faffing about thinking about it. Let’s find the key first,” Seven saidwhile peering at the monitor from behind me.
The threeof us split up and started looking for the key. When we initially passedthrough the numbered door, Clover had stayed in her vacant state, and lookedutterly helpless. But now she understood that we needed to proceed in order tofind Snake, so now she was fervently searching the area around the partition. Idecided to explore the medicine cabinet.
However,the glass door wouldn’t open. It was locked. Unable to just stand there andwatch me, Seven put his arm in the narrow gap between the medicine cabinet andthe wall. When he pulled it back out, he was holding a small key.
“If it’sthe key you’re after, I got it.”
“But…how?” I starred at his flabbergasted, my mouth wide open.
“There arestrong medicines inside of this cabinet. Since it dangerous, I guessed thatthey key would be hidden in this gap instead,” he answered, his responsesounding natural.
“No,that’s not what I meant. Why did you know where the key was?”
“Ah…”Seven’s eyes widened as he alternated between looking at the key in his handand the gap between the wall and the cabinet.
“Why?” Iasked again.
He seemedto be the one who was the most surprised out of all of us.
“Asexpected… I wonder if I have ever been on this ship before?”
“But isn’tthis a hospital ship?” I retorted. “For what purpose would you have boardedthis ship?”
Unless hewas involved in all of this, he shouldn’t have known the hiding place of thekey behind the medicine cabinet. Then did that mean he was a doctor? No, Icouldn’t imagine that at all.
“…Esper,”murmured Clover, who was crouching down and examining the floor. “Hey Seven,perhaps you’re an esper?”
4
I wasutterly bewildered by Clover’s suggestion.
“When yousay “esper”, do you mean like… having supernatural powers?”
Sevenlaughed so much he snorted.
“Well ifthat’s the case, I’ll just teleport you guys off this ship now.”
“I’m notjoking. Seven, I think that you might have precognitive abilities,” she saidwith a straight face.
“Do youthink so?”
“Déjà vuis one type of precognitive ability. You’ve seen this operating room before,right? That’s probably because you have predicted today’s events in a dream.”
“No way…”
“You couldeven tell that my brother was blind from the very start.”
It wasn’tas though I believed in psychic abilities. But like Clover said, it was Sevenwho pointed out first about Snake bring blind. Until Snake confessed it, Inever even noticed anything about his vision.
“Thatwasn’t a premonition. That was a detective’s intuition-”
Sevenstopped moving. His eyes opened wide and he started into space.
“…Detective?”he repeated to himself again and put his hand to his temple. He seemed to be inpain again. “Was I a detective?”
He seemedto be trying hard to remember something. But he was unsuccessful.
“Nope.Can’t remember.”
He shookhis head ferociously. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead. They slid down tohis check and then flowed to his neck.
“Seven,please. Please use your clairvoyance to find where my brother is,” beggedClover, with beseeching eyes.
“Sorry,I’m just an ordinary guy with a huge frame. I don’t have psychic powers. Isthere even such a thing in the first place?” said Seven bluntly, repeatedlywiping away the dripping sweat with the back of his hand.
“You don’tbelieve in the second sight?” questioned Clover, her voice rising. “Even thoughthere are so many people in this world who claim to be oracles?”
“They areall frauds.”
“Of course,there are frauds, but there are many people that aren’t!” screamed Clover,getting very worked up. “Didn’t you know? Someone predicted the sinking of theTitanic!”
“Huh?What’s that now?”
“It’strue! It was written about in a novel that was published fourteen years beforethe accident.”
I knewthat story too: The short story “Futility” by the American author MorganRobertson. It told the story of a large passenger ship that crashed into aniceberg and sank.
Just thatalone could have simply been a coincidence. But it is said that everything fromthe name of the ship, the departure time and all kinds of specifications of theship including the over-all length, the displacement, and the maximum speed, tothe number of lifeboats it was equipped with was almost the exact same was theTitanic. It was though he had witnessed it all with his own eyes: the area ofocean where the accident had happened, the cause of the accident, the areas ofthe ship that were damaged, and then faithfully depicted it in his story.
…Huh? Iwas dumbfounded. Again, how did I know that story?!?
“What’swrong, Junpei? You don’t look so good. You’re a little pale. Are you tired?”asked Seven, turning to me and peering at my face.
“It’s…it’s nothing,” I insisted, hastily shaking my head. The knowledge of theTitanic that I supposedly didn’t know was spilling out of my brain like I hadaccess to a computer. Maybe if I shared that I knew these facts with them, Itoo would be branded as a “clairvoyant”. It’d be best to keep quiet.
“…Let’sfind the pink key quickly,” I suggested.
I took thekey for the medicine cabinet from Seven and opened its glass door.
“Tell me,where is my brother?!?” demanded Clover. She advanced on Seven obstinately,seemingly unable to give up.
“Our firstpriority is opening that door. If you want to see your brother, then find thekey first.”
Icarefully took out some medicine bottles as I listened to Seven, who sounded atwit’s end Since the labels were all written in Roman letters, I had no ideawhat was written on them.
I put thefirst lot of medicines bottles onto the floor and peered at the space in thecabinet where they had been. I found a small key.
“Foundit!” I called out in a loud voice and took the key. Seven and Clover rushedover.
“Welldone, Junpei!” shouted Seven, patting me on the back with all his might. Ialmost choked from his excessive strength.
“But thatkey… the colour is different,” Clover pointed out. Now that you mention it,she was right. The door had been painted pink, but the key we had found wasyellow.
I triedputting the key into the keyhole. But since the shape of the key was completelyto the shape of the hole, it got stuck half-way. It was an unexpected case of falsehope.
Unable tocontain my anger, I flung the key at the floor. But my aim was a bit off, andthe key flew towards the medicine bottles. It hit one of the bottles on thefloor, and the glass shattered into pieces.
“…sh*t.”
A scentthat resembled the fragrant olive was drifting throughout the room. It was ascent that I had smelled recently. The man wearing the gas mask came to mind.The grenade that he had held in his right hand… from there a white smoke hadgushed out…
I felteveryone’s hearts stop. This was the anaesthetic gas that we had inhaled thattime. It seemed that Seven and Clover had also realised that it was.
“f*ck!Don’t inhale it! Let’s get outta here!”
BeforeSeven had the chance to finish screaming that at us, I was already covering mymouth and legging it.
5
Wereturned the way we had come from and flew out into the corridor, slamming thedoor behind us. We leaned against the wall and gasped for air.
“Thatsmell…” muttered Clover.
“Yeah.It’s definitely the anaesthetic gas that Zero used on us,” I said.
The whitesmoke had started passing through the gaps of the door and was leaking into thecorridor. It was only a matter of time before the smoke filled the place.
“We haveno choice. Don’t inhale. We’re gonna go back into the operating room and openthe pink door. Ok?” said Seven, taking off his beanie and shoving it in hismouth.
“But thequestion…”
“It’s ok.If we check the label of the broken medicine bottle we’ll know the answer,” Iresponded, patting an uneasy Clover on the shoulder.
“Right,let’s decide who is going to do what,” began Seven. “The two of you run to thepink door. I’ll pick up the key and toss it to you. Then I’ll read the namewritten out the label out to you, you guys type it in. It should work.”
Clover andI nodded at the same time. If things went smoothly, we’d be able to proceed tothe next room in less than ten seconds. We’d surely be able to hold our breathsfor that amount of time.
“Ok, let’sgo,” announced Seven.
“Wait,”said Clover suddenly. She took a pendant-like object out of her pocket. Sheclutched it in front of her chest and closed her eyes as though she waspraying.
“What’sthat?” I asked her.
“It’s acharm.”
Cloveropened up her fist. Placed on the palm of her hand was a silverwork that wasshaped like a four-leaf clover. Wait, didn’t Santa also have a similaraccessory?
“Each leafof the four-leaf clover carries a different meaning,” Clover explained, “Hope,faith, love and luck. “Whatever happens,don’t lose hope. The most important thing is believing, then loving. When theyare present, that is when good luck comes to visit.” My brother taught methat.”
“Can Ihave a look at it?” I requested. I took the silverwork into my hand. The letter“L” had been engraved in it. “Did you get this from Santa?”
“What?Why?”
“Oh,nothing. It’s just that he has the same one.”
“Oh. Well,in the experiment nine years ago, Santa-”
“We’ve notime. Let’s go.”
Clover wascut off by Seven’s hoarse voice.
…Theexperiment nine years ago? I was curious about her story, but it’d be best ifwe got out of here first. The white smoke was surely spreading throughout thiscorridor.
“Three,two…” counted down Seven with a nervous look, his hand on the doorknob.
“One…”
I took ina deep breath.
“Zero!”
And on cuehe opened the door.
6
I couldn’tsee in front of me very well because of the pure-white smoke had filled theroom. I took Clover’s hand and pushed my way towards the goal of the door,bumping my shoulder off the wall several times.
“Junpei!I’m throwing the key to you!”
I saw abig black shadow in the midst of the white haze. The pink key flew towards mein a parabolic shape from the shadow. I caught it and quickly thrust it in thekeyhole. The question was displayed on the screen. When I pressed the answer button,our bracelets started flashing.
“Seven,the answer!!!” I screamed.
“Wait. Ican’t see well because of this stupid smoke is in the way… ok, got it!”
“Hurry!” Iwheezed, gradually starting to suffocate.
“I’m badat English. Ma… mando…
“Mandraine!”screamed Clover. “Mandraine was written on the vial of medicine that Aceinjected himself with not that long ago!”
“She’sright! It’s definitely Madraine!”
I heardSeven’s voice coming from the fog.
The top ofmy head had started pounding in pain from the lack of oxygen. We were almostout of time. I input “Mandraine” and prayed as I pressed the enter key.
The timeddetonator stopped, and the door opened outwards.
“Seven!” Icalled out. “It’s open, hurry!”
The threeof us dashed out of the room, almost entangling ourselves in each other in theprocess. After opening my mouth wide and gulping down oxygen, I reached backand closed the door. Fortunately, the door closed perfectly, leaving no gaps,so the white smoke couldn’t leak through.
I lookedat my surroundings. A dim, dreary corridor stretched on seemingly endlessly.
“…Let’srest for a bit,” said Clover, clutching her chest as though she was in pain asshe squatted on the cold floor.
“Rightthen, wait here. Junpei, look after Clover. I’m going to check what’s up ahead.”
With that,Seven ran down the corridor.
I took adeep breath as I watched him run away from behind. Even though we were able toovercome the crisis, my mind didn’t clear. How many more times were we going toexperience such a feeling of tension like this? It seemed that our goal wasstill rather far away. However, our time limit was approaching, drawing closersecond by second.
7
I calledout to Clover, who was crouching down and looking at the pendant.
“What?”she answered, concentrating her view on her hands.
“The thingyou let slip earlier? Something about an experiment nine years ago… what didyou mean by that?”
Seven’smemory loss, the disappearance of Lotus’s daughter, the onset of Angel Feverfor Snake, Santa, Clover and Akane: all of these things happened nine yearsago. There was no doubt that some secrets were being hidden here.
“It wasnothing. Forget about it,” replied Clover flatly. But because she tried to dropit, I became more and more concerned about it.
“Tell me.What was it, that experiment?”
Her lipsshook as she grasped the silverwork in her right hand.
“Promiseme that you absolutely will not tell anyone.”
“Yeah, Ipromise.”
“Really?You can’t even tell Murasaki.”
“Got it, Iwon’t tell her or anyone.”
“I cantrust you… right?” asked Clover. She opened her right hand once again. Whenshe looked at the four-leaf clover in her hand, she made up her mind and lookedat me with teary eyes. “Ok. Right, I’ll tell you. I’m going to tell you whathappened on this ship nine years ago-”
“Wait asecond. THIS ship?”
“Yes,that’s right. My brother was a test subject of the Nonary Project that wascarried out on this ship,” she told me.
I wasastonished by what she was telling me.
“TheNonary… Project?”
“Nineyears ago, my brother suddenly went missing without any notice. He came backhome unexpectedly after two days. He came up with some bullsh*t story that hewas “abducted by aliens and taken to Mars” for the police. But he told only methe truth.”
“Huh? ThenSnake was-”
“Yes. Hewas a victim of the case of the series of disappearances of young boys andgirls. My brother was confined on this ship and he was forced to be a testsubject. The culprit threatened him by saying that they’d kill him if he saidwhat really happened, so that’s why he came up with that story.”
“You saidhe was a test subject… for what exactly?”
“TheNonary Game.”
“What?”
“Thepurpose of the game was the exploitation of the ability to manipulate humans atwill.”
I staredback, lost for words.
“They usedSheldrake’s Hypothesis to do that. Well, all of this is just me relaying whatmy brother said.”
Her storywas incomprehensible: I couldn’t make head or tail of it at all. But eventhough she had made the effort to open up her heart to me, I was hesitant toask tactless questions. Anyway, now I should listen to the story until the end.I firmly held back my desire to ask Clover questions and listened actively towhat she was saying.
“Do youknow Sheldrake’s Hypothesis?” asked Clover.
“Thetheory where the events that happen to one person is transmitted to anotherdistant person by means of special fields? Yeah, Santa told me.”
That wasthe reason that the group of monkeys, who were living far away, suddenlystarted to do the same actions as other monkeys one day. It was the reason thatthe percentage of people who knew the correct answer to that problem increasedin a group of people who shouldn’t have known the answer. All of these thingscould be explained by Sheldrake’s Hypothesis: I remember Santa being proudwhile telling me this.
“Santa…as I thought, he was also one of the test subjects…” muttered Clover.
“Becauseyou have the same silverwork as him?“
“This wasmade by my brother,” she answered, stroking the clover with her fingertips. “Itreally is amazing. It didn’t matter at all that he had a disability. My brothermade such an intricate accessory with just his right hand. L is my brother’sinitial: his real name. He intended to give it to me for my ninth birthday, sohe made nine. He had put them in his pocket to give it to me later, but he waskidnapped straight after. He told me that he gave the silverworks he made tothe other test subjects he met there as a token of friendship. Even though itwas a present for me… My brother really is such a good-natured person…”
She had afaraway look in her eyes, making her seem incredibly lonely.
“Could youtell me a little bit more concrete things about the Nonary Project?” I askedher, feeling my chest tighten.
“Thekidnapped children were divided into two groups and started the Nonary Game intwo different areas,” Clover explained. “The rules were exactly the same as thegame we’re participating in now. The people who safely escaped out the ninthdoor were to be knocked out again and taken back to their homes… but therewere people that that did not happen for.”
“Huh?”
“Well,apparently two people died during the game.”
“…Do youknow the names of those people?” I asked, my heart pounding.
“I do. Iknow because my brother told me. One was called Nona. She was the youngest inthe group: she was just an eight-year-old girl.”
Just asI’d thought.
EverythingLotus had been saying was right. She was one of the victims of the case of thedisappearance of young boys and girls but was not counted as one.
“And theother?”
“She was agirl who had just started secondary school. Her name was-”
Just asClover’s mouth formed the syllable “a”, we heard footsteps in the distancecoming towards us. She fell silent, and we were forced to stop our conversationthere.
8
I listenedcarefully. Huh? Something was wrong.
I couldhear several pairs of footsteps.
“Junpei!!!”
I looked up, surprised to hearAkane’s voice so suddenly.
“I cameacross them up ahead,” explained Seven.
“I’msurprised,” exclaimed Lotus. “I didn’t think we’d be meeting again so soon.”
“Nah.Didn’t I say this’d happen?” Seven gasped through his still heavy breathing. Hestuck his chest out proudly. “We have to be apart from each other sometimesuntil we find the 9th door. Even though we temporarily split up, wewere bound to meet again somewhere. If not, then no-one’d be able to go throughthe 9th door. So, we should be able to meet up again so we can gothrough the ninth door. That’s what the Nonary Game is.”
“We werein the operating room. Where were you?” I asked Akane, who was shedding tearsof happiness.
“We werein the laboratory. There was a load of machinery that I didn’t understand atall and a many different types of medicines… oh, and there was a computerthere too…”
She toldme that the question that was asked when opening the door was, like the lasttime, the same as ours. Akane had remembered the name of the anaesthetic thatAce had injected himself with, which meant that they were able to escape.
“I foundthis thing in the medicine cabinet,” said Akane, putting her hand in her pocketand putting out a key that was painted black. “It’s different from the key thatwe used to open the door of the laboratory. I think that we’ll possibly be ableto use this somewhere ahead.”
“A key? Wefound one too,” announced Seven, holding the yellow key between his fingers.
“Ah. Youdiligently picked that key up too,” I said, feeling grateful.
“Naturally,”he responded, inflating his nostrils. “Of course, I didn’t overlook such atrivial clue. It is the basis of every investigation, you know.”
“Itsomehow seems that Seven is a detective,” stated Clover.
“Uh…yeah,” said Seven, appearing to have mixed feelings to what Clover had said.“Junpei, I will entrust this key to you, since I’d probably lose such a smallthing straight away.”
With that,Seven gave the yellow key to me. I took it and put it in my denim pocket.
“Are wenot supposed to be rushing ahead?” asked Lotus, trying to hurry everyone up.“If we continue at this pace, then we might be able to escape faster thanexpected.”
Wefollowed in succession after Lotus, who was panting as she broke into a run. Imade sure to absolutely check all the doors on the way. But every single onewas locked and looked unlikely to open. We zig-zagged around many corners butthere were no forks in the path. We just continued intently walking along asingle path.
Eventuallywe reached the end. An iron door stood in front of us. It looked like anumbered door but there was nothing like a RED near it or red numbers on it.
Sevengrabbed the handle. The door didn’t seem to be locked, so it began to swingopen all by itself. Perhaps there was a sensor on only this side of the door,which would only unlock the door by checking the number of people.
All six ofus dashed to the other side.
“Huh?”
I knewwhere we were before I even looked around. A large white room. Rows of bedspacked tightly together. The smell of antiseptic.
And in thecentre of the room sat Ace, staring in blank amazement.
9
I couldn’t help but feel a huge senseof shock.
The truth about the Nonary Projectcame from Clover’s mouth.
No, that can’t be! I can’t believethis!
I called out in a loud voice.Please, somebody save me…
However, my cry did not reachanyone.
Translator’snotes
*The nameof the beach is a reference to the number nine in Japanese.
** Aoi raito no naka is Japanese for “Inthe blue light”.
Chapter 6
Murder and Murderer
1
“I feellike I’ve missed out on something,” laughed Ace from the bed. “I believed thatyou’d definitely come back- certainly, I did say that. But I didn’t realisethat you’d come back so quickly.”
With that,he looked back at the unmarked door which was between door number 3 and doornumber 7. We had come through that door and back into this room once again.
We allsurrounded him and told him in minute detail the events that had happened upuntil now. Ace listened to us. Although his face was puffy from lying down, hishead seemed to be clear and he seemed alert. After he finished listening toeach teams’ reports, he spoke.
“Wellapparently it seems that the next path that we should take has been decided.”
“…Huh?What do you mean?” asked Lotus, tilting her head to the side.
“The newkeys that you all found. If you use the black key, then we should certainly beable to continue further on the floor below with the small hospital room.Right?”
Ace wasright. There had been a black door at the end of the corridor downstairs. Thissurely had to be the key that could open that door. I punched the air intriumph.
“Well thenwhat about the yellow key we found in the operating room?” asked Seven, tiltinghis thick neck to the side.
“Therewasn’t a yellow door I believe…” said Akane. I also scanned my memories. ButI didn’t feel that I had seen anything like a yellow door.
“Good grief.Everyone, think about it a little bit more carefully,” said Ace, looking a bitshocked as he glanced around at everyone.
“You meanthe elevator?” responded Santa unexpectedly.
“Theelevator doors on the C Deck was definitely yellow,” recalled Seven.
“Oh yeah…now that you say it,” I said aloud, remembering that there had been a keyholejust below the up and down button.
As well asthat, there had also been a black door on the C-Deck. That was probably theother side of the door that was in the small hospital room. Thinking about itbased on directions, there was no way that I was wrong: the small hospital roomand the grand staircase were joined together. If we came back to the grandstaircase one again and took the elevator, it’d probably be easier thanexpected to get outside.
“Well nowthat you’ve got it, let’s go,” said Seven. He turned to face the white doorthat led to the small hospital room.
“Wait,”said Clover unexpectedly, a grim look on her face. “What are we going to doabout door number 3?”
“What doyou mean by ‘what are we going do’?” replied Seven. “Is it not the same as doornumber 7 and door number 8? Will we not just come back to the large hospitalroom in the end? There’s no point in checking it any further.”
“There isa point. At least for me there is.”
“Oh,right. Sorry,” muttered Seven, looking apologetic as he scratched his head.
“Becauseit’s possible that Snake is past door number three,” said Clover, noddingdeeply.
“Right.Ok, I will accompany you,” announced Ace, standing up from the bed. “Since youlet me have a lot of rest, it’s my turn to work. Which means that you’ll haveto come too, Seven. Will you lend us your strength?”
“What…Me?”
Sevenstared blankly back as though he was looking for an explanation. I calculatedit there and then.
4 + 1 + 7= 12
1 + 2 = 3
It seemedas though Seven had done the mental maths too.
“Tsk. Iget it,” he said, his shoulders sinking in acceptance. He readjusted hisbeanie. “Me going would be the quickest way I suppose. Right, let’s go.”
He stoodin front of door number 3 and touched the RED.
“Huh?”pouted Seven. “Is this banjaxed or something?”
No matterhow many times he scanned his bracelet, no asterisk symbol lit up on thedisplay board.
“Moveaside. I’ll try,” said Clover. She held her left wrist up to the scanner panel.This time one asterisk symbol lit up. “See, it’s fine. There’s nothing wrongwith it.”
“Then doesthat mean my bracelet is broken?” questioned Seven.
Next Acetouched his bracelet off the RED. The second asterisk symbol lit up.
“Of course,it’s just my bracelet that’s f*cked-”
Next toSeven who was staring at his bracelet, Clover pulled down the lever. The doorswung open inwards without any difficulty.
“It seemsto be ok,” exclaimed Clover, peering into the doorway. “We have to find mybrother quickly.”
She tookthe first step to pass through the door.
“You justwait a minute, little missy,” bellowed Seven. “Let’s proceed with caution. Ifmy bracelet is broken and the DEAD is not working properly, then somethingbad-”
However,his words fell on deaf ears: Clover had passed through the door.
“Hey,wait!”
Thebeeping of the detonator rang out.
“We’ve gotno choice. Now that it’s come to this, I’m just gonna have to believe that thebracelet isn’t broken,” snapped Seven, clicking his tongue.
“Yeah,you’re right,” said Ace, sounding like he was preparing himself for the worst.“Well then, we’ll just pop out for a bit.”
They bidtheir farewells and passed through the door.
“Becareful,” said Lotus.
“Can’tbelieve I’m hearing such words from you of all people, grinned Seven as helooked back at us. “Maybe you’re falling in love with me?”
“D-don’tsay such idiotic things! If the three of you were to die, it’d be a bit of abother,” shouted Lotus, a vein popping on her forehead. “With just the four ofus – me, Junpei, Murasaki and Santa- we can’t open the 9th door.”
“Ofcourse. So that’s what this is,” smiled Seven. Then, as though to cover hisface which had twisted into a grin with laughter, the door abruptly closed.
“…Willthey be ok?” murmured Akane anxiously.
“There’sno need to worry,” responded Santa. He pointed at the RED. “Look at the displayboard.”
I did whatI was told and looked down. The word “ngaged” was displayed on the displayboard. I could not see the letter “E”. It seemed that the wiring had been cutoff there. For that reason, only the first asterisk symbol had not lit up.
Theperiodic beeping noise stopped suddenly. It seemed that they had beensuccessful in stopping the detonator.
“Thankgoodness.” Akane let out a small sigh and put her hands to her chest.
“Wellthen, should we get going too?” suggested Lotus, turning her back on thenumbered door.
“Get goingwhere?” I questioned.
"Youreally are an airhead,” she said, sounding astonished as she looked back aroundat us. “Wouldn’t it be a waste of time to just sit here waiting for them? If wewant to get going right away after this, we’re going to have to do apreliminary inspection of the area.”
With abroad grin, she pulled out the black key that had been daringly tucked away inher semi-exposed breasts.
2
“I’llpass. I’m not arsed doing something so tedious,” Santa said as he lay on thebed. “If you’re just checking the area in advance then go without me. I’ll waithere for Seven and the others to return.”
“Youlittle brat…” began Lotus, taking long strides towards Santa.
“Isn’tthat a good thing?” suggested Akane as she restrained Lotus. “If the three whowent through door number 3 come back to an empty room with nobody here, they’regoing to be quite alarmed, aren’t they? Let’s allow Santa to look after theplace.”
“…You’reabsolutely right,” admitted Lotus. “Got it. Right, the three of us will go.Santa, we’re relying on you.”
With that,Lotus started walking towards the white door. Akane and I followed a little bitbehind her. Akane was light on her feet: she seemed to be in in good form. Wequickly marched through the area around the hospital room with all the doors,went down the stairs and hurried to the end of the corridor with the blackdoor.
“Do youstill have a temperature?” I asked Akane was we walked.
"I’mok. It’s nothing at all. In fact, my body feels so light that I feel betterthan usual,” responded Akane in high spirits, bending her elbows as through shewas showing off her muscles. She didn’t seem to be straining herself.
I caughtsight of her at her flexible fingers. I remembered then that she was good atthe piano, and that she used to perform in front of me before.
“Hey, doyou still play the piano?” I asked her.
“Um…yes,” she faltered, after some hesitation.
“You usedto always talk to me about how your dream was to become a piano teacher,” Ibegan. “Are you going to a music school now?”
I intendedto ask her about it casually. But for some reason there was no response fromAkane.
“Akane?Akane, what’s wrong?”
“No, it’snothing,” responded Akane, shaking her head in apparent confusion. “For somereason I can’t remember clearly…”
“Hey, hey.Have you got amnesia too?”
I had saidit as a joke, but Akane nodded her head repeatedly, a serious look on her face.I immediately started to worry.
“Does thatmean that you don’t remember what happened when the man wearing the gas maskattacked you?”
“No… Ithink that I vaguely remember something like that. But I reckoned that it wassomething that had happened in a dream…”
“Perhapsit is a side-effect from the anaesthetic gas,” suggested Lotus, who was walkingin front of us. “Maybe your recent memories are becoming a bit vague withtime.”
“No,”responded Akane. “My memories were becoming vague before that. “That’s beenhappening a lot recently.”
“Did yougo see a doctor?” I asked.
“Um…”
Akane’sface turned red with embarrassment. It seemed like she couldn’t even rememberthat. Apparently, her memory loss was more serious than I had imagined.
“Do youremember your Coming of Age ceremony?” I asked, thinking it was worth a shot.
“What?”
“Lastyear, you should have approached the time for your Coming of Age ceremony. Doyou remember it?”
“…No.”
Sheherself even seemed surprised by the fact that she couldn’t remember. I startedat her, my eyes wide open.
“Whatschool did you go to?”
She stayedsilent, unable to answer the question.
“You can’tremember your secondary school?”
“I’m sorry…I don’t know.”
Her facefell as she looked at me apologetically. I felt that I was bullying hersomewhat, but I thought that I wanted to know as much as possible in detailabout her symptoms. As soon as we escaped from this ship, I was going to haveto take her to a doctor.
“How aboutprimary school?”
“I know thatmuch,” she said, smiling broadly. “Even now I can clearly remember the times Ispent playing with you.”
Basically,that meant that she had all her memories from before that point nine years ago.It was the complete opposite of Seven’s condition.
“It mightbe anterograde amnesia,” suggested Lotus. “It’s when the hippocampus part ofthe brain is damaged in some way, and from that point on, the brain can’t storenew memories. Up until when in your life can you remember clearly?”
“Junpeiand I had parted ways, and I had moved to my father’s house… that’s right,after that I fell ill. From then on my memories are kind of vague…”
“There’sno doubt about it then. That condition is the cause of it. How long ago wasthat?”
“It was…right after I left primary school? So… nine years ago?
I gasped.
“Nineyears ago-”
Akanenodded slightly.
“I washospitalised with Angel Fever… and after that… my memories…”
Akane’scheeks were somewhat red. It was not a good sign. She was probably going to geta temperature again.
Lotusstopped walking and turned to face us.
“When youreach level 3 of the Angel Virus, doesn’t the virus reach your brain?” sheasked.
“Are yousaying that the virus has caused her hippocampus not to function properly?” Iasked.
“Well-”
“The Murasakithat came here didn’t seem to have any memory problems at all,” I said, cuttingacross her. “She could remember everyone’s nicknames, she could grasp all therooms in the Nonary Game, she’s able to hold normal conversations-”
“No,actually that’s not the case. I’ve been hiding it…” she confessed, shakingher head. “Some of my memories are a bit vague. Here, when I first went throughdoor number 7: the memories from that time, when Junpei and I started checkingroom 92… I’ve completely forgotten all my memories from around that time…”
That wasconsistent with the time when her whereabouts were unknown. Where was Akanewhen her memories were vague? And what was she doing? I felt like these thingscould not be explained with just anterograde amnesia.
I couldn’tfind the right words to say to Akane, who was looking very glum.
There wasjust suffocating silence drifting between us.
3
Weeventually reached the black door. Fortunately, no monitor displaying aquestion had been set up there. We just put the key in and the door openedeasily. A familiar sight unfolded before my eyes. I went through the door,walked a few steps, and saw a splendid grand staircase before me. “C-Deck” waswritten on the wall on the left.
“I feellike we’re back to square one,” sighed Lotus, putting her hands on the banisterof the staircase and peering far downwards.
The wallclock on the landing showed that it was slightly past two. There was less thanfour hours left. We couldn’t afford to linger.
“Where isthe elevator?” asked Lotus me.
“It’s thisway.”
I crossedin front of the grand staircase and stood in front of the elevator. As we hadseen before, there was a small keyhole under the up and down buttons. Withouthesitating, I took the key out of my denim pocket and put it into the keyhole.The lights all around the elevator lit up as though it had woken up.
“Well,looks like it started up,” I announced.
“Out ofthe way,” snapped Lotus. She shoved me away and pushed the up button. The soundof the motor hummed and with a clear chime sound, the yellow door on the leftopened.
The threeof us got on. Inside buttons A to E were lined up on the wall. Withouthesitation, I pressed the A button. The doors shut, and we slowly started toascend.
“It’sextremely slow,” snarled Lotus, sounding irritated. Even though there were onlytwo floors between the A-Deck and the C-Deck, it was taking a long time to getthere.
As Ilooked at Lotus’s profile, I recalled the story that Clover had told me.
“The kidnapped children weredivided into two groups and started the Nonary Game in two different areas… Twopeople died during the game. One was called Nona. She was the youngest in thegroup: she was just an eight-year-old girl.”
Should Itell Lotus the truth? Or would it be better to just stay silent like this? As Ihesitated, the elevator reached the A-Deck.
When weget off, there was an iron door that blocked our path. The number 6 had beenscrawled across it. We found it. The numbered door. There wasn’t just this onethough. There was a dead end just outside of the elevator, with two heavy doorsstanding there. On the right there was door number 2 and on the left was doornumber 1. REDs were attached to the side of the doors. Just to be sure, I tooka peek at the bottom of the device. The RED had not been pulled out. Nothing ofthe sort had happened this time.
“Let’s goback and tell this information to the others, I said, turning on my heel andtrying to get back in the elevator.
“Hey,wait,” Lotus called out, stopping us. “The three of us are able to open doornumber 1.”
5 + 6 + 8= 19
1 + 9 = 10
1 + 0 = 1
“Thisagain? That’s enough. We don’t need this. By secretly acting before the others,we won’t be able to open the last door,” I snapped back, fed up of herselfishness.
“Iunderstand. I was just expressing a possibility…”
“Let’sgo.”
I pulledAkane’s arm and we went into the elevator. Worried that she was going to beleft behind, Lotus rushed in after us in a panic. We came back to the C-Deckand got off the elevator. As I looked back to it, I thought of something.
“Pleasewait a minute,” I called out to Lotus, who was walking along the corridor.
“What?”she asked.
“If we usethis elevator, then maybe we’ll be able to go to the lower floors…”
“You’rebeing stupid. The floors below us have already been submerged in water. Doesthat mean you want to drown?”
“Butplease take a look. The walls and floor of the elevator are completely dry. Ithink it’s worth a shot.”
With that,I pressed the upside-down triangle button with my index finger. Once again, thedoors opened.
“Akane,please wait here,” I requested.
“Wait,what the f*ck are you trying to do?!?” screamed Lotus, sounding distressed, herhair flying about the place.
“I’m goingscouting.”
“Are youf*cking mad? The floors under this have all been completely submerged!”
“Rightthen, let’s investigate it.”
“…Investigate???”
“Likethis.”
I put onlyone foot into the elevator. Half inside, half outside the elevator, I pressedthe E button. I quickly drew my body back and left the elevator. The doorsclosed, and the elevator started to move. I listened carefully and heard thesound of the doors bursting open at the lower floor. Having confirmed that theyhad opened, I pressed the upside-down triangle button again. Before long thedoor opened. As I had expected, I couldn’t find a drop of water inside.
“What doesthis mean?” asked Lotus, her eyes popping out of her head in surprise.
“That eventhough the D-Deck is flooded, the E-Deck underneath it is safe?” suggestedAkane, a look of utter bewilderment on her face.
I’d saythat some of the E-Deck and the elevator shaft are sealed structures,” Isuggested. “Like a flask that has been submerged in water, there is an amountof space in the E-Deck that has not yet been submerged.”
“Right. Sothat’s why the ship can still float!” exclaimed Lotus, tapping the palm of herhand with her fist as she got it. “So, the air space of the E-Deck acting as afloatation aid!”
“Yeah,that’s probably it,” I nodded, taking one step closer to the open door. “Right,I’m going to check out the situation below. Akane and Lotus, both of you waithere-”
“Wait…but…”protested Akane, her brows furrowed.
“Look,let’s just go along with what I said. Got it?”
I placedboth of my hands firmly on Akane’s shoulders, then turned around leapt into theelevator. I pressed the E button and the doors started to close, and thenAkane, who looked upset-
“I’ll cometoo after all!”
Sheslipped her body through the narrow gap and entered the elevator. I hastilytried to open the door, but it was too late. The steel doors shut firmly, andthe elevator began to move towards the bottom floor.
“You…You’re being completely reckless,” I protested. I put my hand on her head andruffled her hair. She looked up at me and grinned happily.
“Do youremember? I had never seen a dolphin, not even once… I used to complain aboutit. So you said: “Right, let’s go to an aquarium during the spring holidays” …Iwas really happy then.”
“Oh yeah.I had almost forgotten about that.”
Whiletalking to Akane, a memory from my childhood that I had completely forgottenwas slowly coming back to me.
“But thenmy mother died suddenly, and it was decided for me that I would move to myfather’s house. In the end, we weren’t able to go, were we…”
“…Thattime must have been very tough for you,” I said, hanging my head.
“No, itwasn’t like that,” denied Akane quickly. “By saying this, I’ll probably make mymother in heaven angry, but I was excited the whole time to meet my father andbrother again, who I had been separated from when I was very young.”
“…Youhave a brother?”
“Huh? DidI not tell you before? I have a brother who is three years older than me. Hisname is Aoi. We were separated when I was four, and I hadn’t been able to seehim that whole time.”
It was myfirst time hearing it, but for some reason I remembered hearing the name “Aoi”somewhere.
“Are yougetting along well with your father and brother?” I asked her. In response tomy question, she shook her head slightly and her eyes shook with solitude.
“I’msorry, I can’t remember…”
“Oh yeah,that’s right…”
Theelevator stopped and made a pinging sound. Even though I was confident thateverything would be ok, the moment the door opened I felt a twang ofnervousness. However, there was nothing wrong. There was no flooding around thearea and just like the other floors, there was just an endless-lookingcorridor. It seemed that the electrical system was live as the corridor was litup.
I grabbedAkane’s hand and the two of us got off the elevator at the same time. It was soquiet that it was creepy. I stared down the corridor. An indigo-coloured iron grillewas covering off the entire area. Unfortunately, it seemed that we could not goany further.
“Are wereally surrounded by… the ocean?” asked Akane, looking around.
“Yeah.”
“There isjust a wall separating us from nearby dolphins that are doing things likeswimming around,” said Akane, smiling slightly. “Sorry… You’re probably madat me for not being serious, but I’m probably just a little bit excited. Todayis the first day of the spring holidays. I have just finished my last day ofprimary school, and you and I are going to the aquarium on a date-”
Tearsstarted spilling suddenly from Akane’s eyes.
“…Ifonly all of this was a dream.” Akane let out a sob before continuing. “Eventhough I got to meet you in this way… why… why did it have to happen likethis…”
My heartwas flooded with thoughts that I couldn’t accept as I watched her sobbing. Ihugged her on impulse. Akane’s heartbeat and her warmth were transferred to mybody.
“…Junpei?”
“Don’tworry. This isn’t real. We’re just having a nightmare,” I whispered. I felt alump in my throat. My heart hurt as though I had swallowed a lump of lead.“When we wake up from this dream, let’s go to the aquarium together, Akane.”
“Yes…let’s.”
I heardher shy voice coming from around my chest area.
4
Akane andI returned to the C-Deck, where we were reunited with Lotus. We went back theway we came to the large hospital room. In the large hospital room, we sawSanta, along with Ace, Clover and Seven, who had appeared to have returnedsafely.
Butsomething seemed off. Seven had an unearthly expression on his face, and Ace’sface had been drained of colour. As expected, Clover looked so frail that itseemed like she was going to disappear. The only person who wasn’t differentfrom normal was Santa, who was looking at me.
“Didsomething happen?” I asked, with a sense of intense unease.
“Snake isdead,” muttered Santa in response, staring into space with his arms folded.
“No…”
A shiverran through my entire body. My heart pounded as though it was going crazy and Icouldn’t breathe properly. Cold sweat oozed slowly from my forehead and neck.Akane and Lotus acted the same. Their faces were pale and filled with despair,and they couldn’t move a muscle.
“That…you can’t be serious?” gasped Akane.
“If you’rein doubt then why don’t you go make sure with your own eyes?” said Seven. Hisshoulders were shaking, and he was grasping them firmly with both of his fists.
“But wecan’t get through the numbered door…”
“If that’sall you’re worried about, we’ll be fine,” followed up Ace, pointing at theother numberless door. “I left a pillow in the gap of the door. Since it can’tlock, we can go through there.”
“What’s inthere?”
“The sceneof the crime is in the x-ray room, which is on the left-hand side of thecorridor. Because we were able to answer the question without any problems andunlock the door, we can open it easily.”
In otherwords, we could get to the x-ray room without having to go through a numbereddoor.
“It’swhere there are seven creepy mannequins lined up. That’s where the body is,”explained Ace.
“Ok, gotit. We’ll go check.”
The threeof us nodded and put our hands on the numberless door. We saw the iron door onthe left as soon as we entered the corridor. It was a door that we hadn’topened sometime back. However now just as Seven had said, I was able to open iteasily by pulling it towards me. I made up my mind and sprang into the room.
“…Ugh,”groaned Akane, who had just stuck her face in after me. She covered her mouthwith her hands.
“There’s ahorrible smell,” continued Lotus, pinching her nose.
There wasan odd bad smell permeating the room. The smell of blood, the foul smell ofsomething rotting, the smell of dirt and then the smell of something that hadbeen burnt: the chaos that was all of these bad smells caused my nose to runand eyes to water. I too couldn’t help it: I covered my mouth with the palm ofmy hand. Feeling overwhelmed with nausea, I had a look around.
“What isthat?” I asked. I couldn’t help but shudder in horror at the bizarre sight infront of me.
The redlight on the ceiling illuminated the seven anatomical models which were allstaring in the same direction. A photograph of each of our faces had beenattached to the face-part of the models.
When thef*ck were these taken? My lips were a in a thin line, as though I was angry.The model of Akane which was beside mine had her eyes narrowed, as though therewas a glare of light. Lotus who pouted her lips, Seven who had a fierce glaringstare, Santa who smiled a nihilistic smile, Ace with his eyes closed inapparent silence, Clover who had the expression indicating her dependence onothers with upturned eyes. Snake and the 9th man were not there.
I thenlooked towards where the seven models were looking. There was a cloth partitionthere. Fresh blood was splattered across it. It was clear where Snake was fromwhere the blood was spreading on it.
“Murasaki,you wait here!” I ordered.
But…”protested Akane, turning to me.
“I saidjust shut up and listen to me.”
Whileforcibly stopping Akane with the palm of my hand, I cautiously walked into theroom while keeping some distance. Lotus followed so closely behind me that itwas though she was clinging to my back. We reached just before the partition. Iput both hands on it and fearfully thrust it over to the other side.
I stoppedbreathing. My heart felt numb. It seemed that even time was frozen. There was adisastrous scene unfolding in front of me that was so bad that I wanted tocover my eyes. There was a sea of blood covering the area, with chunks of fleshscattered around in it.
A head.Both arms. Both feet. A torso.
Part ofthe torso had been completely hollowed out. From there, pinkish organs werespilling out. Pieces of flesh had also been splattered on the surroundingwalls. Bits of yellow fat clung to the walls, which was oozing downwards in away that made it seem as though a slug had been crawling there.
“Wait… whatis this? What- AAAAAAAGH!”
Unable tobear such a terrible spectacle, Lotus ran from the room. I could hear hervomiting in the corridor. That was probably a normal reaction. It was I who wasthe strange one by staying calm and composed.
“Are youok, Lotus?”
It seemedthat Akane had gone outside the room to look after Lotus. For the time being, Ididn’t have to worry about her coming back.
I observedthe corpse once more. I could see that parts of it had been completely burnedblack. The head was a particularly badly burnt part. Like the tip of a matchthat had been burned out, the body had been charred black from being engulfedin white hot flames.
Beside allof this, the left wrist had rolled away. It had separated from the body and hadprobably been torn off by the impact of the explosion. Pure white bones wereexposed from where it had been torn off. I gazed at the whole corpse once again.Lumps of flesh that were separate from the body were wrapped up in tatteredclothes. The wine-red necktie, the blood-stained dress shirt, the deep bluejacket with the yellow stripes, the grey trousers: all of it was familiar. Thiswas without a doubt the body of Snake.
“Why…who could do such a thing…?”
I put myhands together for Snake and then raised my head. On the blood-splattered wallthere was something that looked like figures scrawled across it.
5… 2…
Whateverwas written after that was obscured by blood, so I couldn’t read it. What wasthis? I was concerned by it, but I was just about to reach my limit by stayingin this place.
“It’sawful, this is.”
I heardSanta’s voice behind me. I looked back. He was looking at the ghastly dead bodywith his usual cool expression.
“What didyou come here for?” he asked.
“I thoughtI’d come to check myself. Just in case.”
Santastepped into the pool of blood seemingly for no apparent reason.
“Thoughtyou didn’t want to get your shoes dirty?” I questioned him, scowling.
“Nowwouldn’t be the time for saying things like that. At this rate, it can’t behelped that all of us will be killed. If I alone want to survive this, then I’mgoing to have to check out a lot of things here.”
And withthat, Santa kicked Snake’s dead body. The body twisted into a strange shape,and I heard a squelching sound as something was crushed.
My stomachmade a sound like a dog growling. I tasted an acidic taste in my mouth assomething came up. sh*t. I couldn’t stand it. I dashed out of the x-ray room,leaving Santa behind. The smell of blood would follow me forever and neverleave my nostrils.
Every timeI encountered the smell of iron from that point on, the scene in the x-ray roomwould be resurrected and I’d have to hold back the feeling of being sick to mystomach.
5
When Iwent back to the large hospital room with Akane and the others, we all glancedat Clover. She was perched on the end of the bed, hanging her head deeply. Ihad never seen such dull and vacant eyes like that anywhere else before. Shewas just breathing mechanically over and over again, and she didn’t react toanything at all. She seemed so brittle and dejected that it looked like shewould break if you touched her.
EventuallySanta came back. His sneakers had been dyed red with blood. As soon as Inoticed, I felt sick again.
Onceagain, the seven of us had gathered in the big hospital room.
“So…could you see that we definitely weren’t lying?” asked Seven from right besideme. Concerned about Clover, he lowered his voice as he continued. “Snake wasmurdered.”
“…Murdered?”
“Could younot help but think only that? At least three people’s cooperation is needed toopen a numbered door. The culprits must have verified their bracelets alongwith Snake at the RED to open door number 3, and then tossed just Snake inthere.”
“…Howhorrible,” whispered Akane, covering her face with her hands.
The doorcloses after nine seconds. Snake, who had been isolated, had no choice. No. Actually,he probably just didn’t want to give up. Even though he knew it’d be in vain,he ran into the x-ray room in search of the DEAD. In order to stop the timeddetonator in his bracelet, all of the people who verified their bracelets atthe RED had to likewise touch their bracelets off the DEAD. Snake wasn’t ableto do anything on his own. Eventually the 81 seconds passed, and… Thehorrible scene I had seen in the x-ray room seemed to be reviving itself in mymind. I hastily shook my head.
“Who onearth could do such a thing…” muttered Lotus.
“Three ormore people, including Snake, would have been needed to open the numbered door.If there was just one culprit and Snake, then the door definitely wouldn’t haveopened,” replied Seven in a detached voice.
“In otherwords, this is the work of multiple culprits,” I deduced, folding my arms andletting out a low moan.
“Just tobe sure, I’d like to check too,” announced Akane.
“What?!?”I thundered.
“I wonderwhen Snake was killed?”
“It wasprobably when we all split up and went looking for the RED’s circuit boards. Wenoticed that Snake was gone after that,” pointed out Seven
“Since wesplit up and each of us was in charge of searching for the circuit boards in aspecific area then that’d mean that it’s impossible for any of us to have analibi, right?” I added.
“Yeah. Sobasically, that means that it’s possible for any of us to be a culprit.”
“W-Wait aminute, please!” interrupted a panicked Akane. “The two of you sound crazy! Howcan you seem to naturally speak so calmly when you’re saying that the culpritis among us?”
“Yeah, butit’s not just one culprit. There’s definitely two or more.”
“Cut itout, Seven,” rebuked Ace. “What are you planning on doing by stirring up all ofthis suspicion? Do you not think that we’re falling into Zero’s trap by doingthis?”
Seven justlooked at the much more dignified Ace with an uncomfortable expression.
“What doyou mean by “falling into Zero’s trap”?” asked Lotus, leaning forwards.
“This ispart of the scenario that Zero drew up,” explained Ace, scowling. “Don’t forgetthat you are participating in a game that Zero set up. Because it’s a game,there will have to be both winners and losers. The people who go through the 9thdoor will be the winners. And those who fail to do that will be the losers.He’s making us compete against each other for victory.”
“So,you’re saying that he’s intentionally trying to create a division between us…”pieced together Akane, faltering slightly.
“Exactly,”answered Ace. “That is why we shouldn’t start jumping at shadows and beingsuspicious of each other. Unless we trust each other and strengthen our unity,we’ll just end up doing what Zero anticipates us to do.”
“Does thatmean that Zero killed Snake?” asked Lotus. Ace nodded deeply.
“Yes. Itprobably was Zero.”
“Yes,exactly what you said, Ace,” agreed Akane.
“The firstthing we should be doubting here is Zero, the master of this game, right?”pointed out Ace. “It was him who kidnapped us in the first place.”
Both Ace’sand Akane’s opinions were reasonable. But nevertheless, I couldn’t help butdoubt the members here. Then I had a sudden thought.
“But whatif Zero is among us?”
6
“But what if Zero is among us?”
With justthose few words, I had the power to make everyone freeze on the spot. No-onespoke a single word. We just exchanged restless glances at each other, asthough we were trying to probe each other’s intentions. Every time we exchangedglances with each other, a strained and unpleasant atmosphere swept between us.
“Junpei,w-what are you saying?” asked Akane, unable to bear the silence. “Were you notlistening to what Ace said just now?”
“Yes,that’s right,” agreed Ace. “There’s no need for us to all be recklesslydoubting each other-”
“Recklessly?It’s not reckless at all,” I cut across. “There is a good basis for it?”
“What doyou mean by ‘a good basis’?” asked Seven. In response, I stuck out my left arm.
“It’s thebracelets. Why are the detonators in them timed?”
I hadthought that Zero was somewhere else, watching our actions from a distance.That seemed certain, as it takes no effort whatsoever to do so.
“There isa timed detonator set in our bracelets. And why is that?”
No-oneanswered my question.
“It’s notjust the bracelets. Things that are timed have been put in place in all partsof the game,” I continued.
Thenumerous puzzles on the ship were all made to function automatically. There wasnothing for Zero to worry about as everything had been programmed so that wecould move forward of our own accord. Why was that? Why had Zero put in so muchinto these bothersome puzzles?
There wasonly one possible answer.
“Ofcourse. So that means you think that Zero has slipped in amongst us,” musedSanta with a cold grin. “While Zero is working among us, it is difficult forhim to do things such as observing each of our actions in detail and carryingout remote operations. So that meant he had no choice but to set up all thepuzzles in this ship to be automatic… Aren’t you a smart one…”
He saidthat to me, but even though his words were praising me, I could only hear himmaking fun of me.
“I thinkthat both Seven’s opinion that claims that “the culprits who killed Snake areamong us” and Ace’s opinion that “Zero is the one that killed Snake” arecorrect. Because Zero is one of us,” I stated.
There wereno objections. I wasn’t sure if they agreed with me or not. Everyone just stoodin silence with stern expressions.
7
Thesilence that seemed as though would go on forever was broken quickly by thesound of the announcement of the time from the grand staircase.
Three lowand heavy chimes rang out. There was only three hours of our time limit left.
“It’s awaste of time for us to continue just standing here, arguing about this andthat,” said Ace, looking around at everyone. “Anyway, let’s get going.”
“But-” Iprotested.
Ace shotme a sharp look as I tried to argue. With the majestic look in his eyes, Iunexpectedly shrank back from him.
“Can younot see that it is dangerous for us to investigate into this any further? Ourfate lies in Zero’s hands. With the flip of a switch, couldn’t he just causethe devices inside the capsules in our bodies to detonate?”
Ace’sopinion was also reasonable. It wasn’t a good idea to carelessly provoke Zero.If we backed him into a corner, then the resulting desperation could causetrouble for us to say the least.
There wasno doubt that Zero was among us. I wanted to reveal his identity as soon aspossible. But like Ace had said, now we probably just had to proceed quietly.
“Oh,that’s right!” exclaimed Lotus, clapping her hands together. “Because of allthat happened with Snake, I completely forgot… Anyway, I found them. The nextnumbered doors.”
She stuckout her chest proudly, as though it was an achievement she had accomplishedalone.
“Really?”asked Seven, leaning forward in anticipation.
“Yes, thisway! Follow me!”
With that,she opened the white door and began walking down the corridor that continuedtowards the grand staircase. Seven, Ace and Santa followed her. But Cloverremained sitting on the bed.
“Clover,let’s go,” suggested Akane, gently putting her hand on Clover’s shoulder.
“Leave mealone,” said Clover weakly, staring at the floor. “It doesn’t matter…whatever I do, nothing maters. My brother is gone… There’s no use in meliving anymore. Just leave me here…”
“Don’t thinkthat your brother would definitely not want that to happen to you?” said Akanefirmly. “If you get disheartened here, then aren’t you just doing what Zerowants? Do you not hate Zero? Let’s shock him and upset his plans.”
“I don’treally want to…”
“Do younot want to continue on living for your brother’s sake?”
Clover’sshoulders twitched.
“I want tolive,” she announced eventually.
My heartwas snatched away by Akane. I was drawn in by her reassuring eyes that wereshining with strength. The woman standing in front of me was not the usualtimid girl I knew.
“You don’twant to die in a place like this,” she said.
Akanemoved her head as though he had come to a conclusion and stared blankly intospace. Her strong desire to live even struck a chord with me. It was thoughthis desire to live had been changed into a large amount of energy.
Akane wasright. We were not about to die.
I firmlypledged this in my mind.
“Neverabandon hope. Believe in the important things. And then love. When all of thoseare present, that is when good luck will come to you,” I said, approachingClover. “Clover, that is what you told me. You can’t give up yet.”
Shestrongly grasped the pendant that was swaying around her chest with her righthand, then slowly lifted her face.
“Mybrother…” she sniffed, wiping her wet cheeks with her other hand. “You’reright… if I die, then I wouldn’t be able to convey to everyone just how muchof a wonderful person my brother was.”
Cloverspoke nervously as Akane helped her to stand up from the bed.
“Thank you…I’m ok now,” she whispered.
Wobblingslightly, she started walking towards the white door with a determinedexpression that showed that she had broken through her doubts.
When shereached the white door, Clover turned around.
“Goodbye,my brother,” she whispered. She rubbed her red and swollen eyes and bidfarewell to Snake. A solemn air weaved its way between us.
“Right,let’s go,” said Akane, pulling Clover’s hand and continuing through the door.
8
Gazing atthe two running in front of me along the narrow corridor made my thoughtswhirl. Ace had admonished that prying any further would be dangerous. As aresult, I couldn’t help but be concerned about Zero’s true identity.
At leastthree people’s cooperation was needed to open a numbered door. Snake and theculprits had verified their bracelets at the RED and opened door number 3. Andthen only Snake was thrown in there.
Seven’swords came to mind. If Seven’s reasoning was correct, then two people hadkilled Snake. But who on earth could have opened door number 3 along withSnake?
First, Ithought of all the possible combinations if there had been two culprits.Snake’s bracelet number was 2. Whose numbers, along with this, would make adigital root of 3?
It was nottoo difficult to calculate. To get a digital root of 3, then the sum of thethree people’s numbers would have to be 12. Since I knew that one number was 2,then the sum of the remaining two numbers would be 10. There were only twopossible combinations like that.
The firstwas 4 and 6: Clover and Akane. No, that was impossible. Akane couldn’t be Zero.Which brought me to the remaining option: 3 and 7: Seven and Santa.
If there wereonly two culprits, then I couldn’t think of any other possible combinations.But what if there were more than three culprits? I considered all thecombinations where the sum of all four including Snake was 12.
2 + (1 + 3+ 6)
2 + (1 + 4+ 5)
There wereonly two possible combinations this way two. But both of them were impossible.I was definitely not Zero, and it was hard to see Akane being a culprit.
Then howabout the combinations where everyone’s numbers added up to 21? Thesecalculations were a bit more difficult to figure out. But I was able to workout the answers in my head.
2 + (4 + 7+ 8)
2 + (5 + 6+ 8)
2 + (1 + 3+ 7 + 8)
2 + (1 + 4+ 6 + 8)
2 + (1 + 5+ 6 + 7)
2 + (3 + 4+ 5 + 7)
There weresix possibilities. I then omitted the combinations that included me or Akane.
2 + (4 + 7+ 8)
2 + (1 + 3+ 7 + 8)
Yet againpossibilities remained. Since it was difficult for me to believe that thesadness Clover had from losing her brother was acting, I was able to omit oneand narrow it down to one option: Ace, Santa, Seven and Lotus. No, this alsoseemed to be quite impossible. If four people were conspiring, then theyprobably would have done something much more daring. For example, when Ace,Seven and Clover went to the x-ray room, it would have been possible for thetwo of them to easily dispose of her.
Whichmeant that both Santa and Seven were the ones to be suspicious of. So, I wasgoing to have to pay close attention to their actions from now on.
Just afterpushing open the black door and reaching the grand staircase, we finally caughtup with the four others who had gone on ahead. All of us stuck together,crowded into the elevator, and went up to the A-Deck.
Aftergetting off the elevator, I took the lead instead of Lotus and showed everyonewhere the numbered doors were.
In frontof us was door number 6.
To theleft was door number 1.
To theright was door number 2.
The giantiron doors stood ready for us, bulky and heavy. It was though there were sneeringat us, as we stood in front of them, frightened.
“So, thereare eight…” said Lotus, stroking her left wrist.
“Eight?What do you mean by that?” asked Seven, wrinkles appearing on his forehead.
“Seriously,you’re so slow. The first doors were 4 and 5. Next were 3, 7 and 8. And nowthere’s 1, 2 and 6. Doesn’t that mean we have already found eight doors?”
“Oh, right…Huh? Wait a sec. Does that mean the next door waiting for us is…”
“We’llprobably get there soon,” smiled Lotus softly, folding her arms. “The 9thdoor is next.”
Our goalwas close. I felt my heart pounding in my chest. But at the same time an eeriefeeling of dread crawled up along my spine. Only five of us could pass throughthe 9th door. It was definite that two people would be left behind.
In anycase, the time would come when we would have to make a decision. Would I beable to remain calm at that time?
9
I secretly confided in my brotherabout all the strange things that have been happening to me.
But my brother just laughed it alloff.
He didn’t believe me at all.
Of course, he didn’t.
I can’t feel bitter towards mybrother.
Because I myself can still notbelieve it.
Chapter 7
Standstill: Battle
“There’sisn’t much time left for us. Let’s start dividing up into teams right away,” announcedAce, getting the ball rolling.
After alittle discussion between everyone, we all got into groups without too muchhesitation. There were no stressful feelings of tension this time, unlike thetimes before. Even if we were separated from each other, we knew that we couldmeet each other again.
But only Iwas different. A different type of nervous feeling was taking over my body. Thepossibility that Santa and Seven were Zero was not only high, but above that Ididn’t want them to work together as much as possible.
Whatshould I do?
In orderto conceal how truly disturbed I was, I did the mental maths with the utmosteffort while pretending to be calm on the outside for the others. The digitalroot for me, Akane and Clover was 6. The digital root of the remaining fourothers was 1. In this case, both teams could open a numbered door. Thiscombination was the best.
“Akane.Clover. Let’s go,” I said. I pulled both of their hands and started headingtowards door number 6.
“Hey, whyare you acting so selfish?” asked Seven, raising his voice.
“Is itreally something of concern?” Since the four of you can go through door number1,” I said as I touched my bracelet off the scanner panel.
“What’swrong with it? We’ll all be able to meet again anyway.”
ThankfullyLotus helped me out.
“Well,agreed but…”
“Right,it’s been decided. Ok, both of you hurry,” I said quickly, hurrying Akane andClover before Seven could change his mind. Sensing the strange atmosphere,Akane hurriedly extended her arm towards the RED.
“Clover,hurry up,” I urged.
“Wait. I’mnext.”
Santastretched past Clover and forcibly wedged himself in. He bashed his braceletoff the scanner panel, causing a third asterisk to light up.
“What thef*ck are you doing?!?” I yelled, losing my temper.
“Is thatnot my line? Don’t act so selfishly. Are you guys up to something?” he said allin one breath. I was lost for words. Santa sneered.
What’swrong? Not gonna disagree with me?”
Since Ihadn’t confirmed it yet, of course I couldn’t just look him in the face andsay: “You’re Zero”.
“But…with these numbers, the door won’t open,” I muttered eventually.
“It will.Oi, old man, let’s go,” Santa said, beckoning Ace over.
5 + 6 + 3+ 1 = 15
1 + 5 = 6
With thesenumbers, the door would open.
“The otherthree will go through door number 1.”
4 + 7 + 8= 19
1 + 9 = 10
1 + 0 = 1
There wereno problems with these combinations.
“I don’treally care,” muttered Clover. “Anyway, won’t everyone be able to meet again?”
She leftmy side and proceeded towards door number 1.
“Clover,don’t! I called out in a fluster, trying to stop her.
“It’sfine,” smiled Clover, showing her pearly white teeth. “If I just depend onothers, then I’ll make my brother laugh at me. I too have to become stronger.”
Her smilewas very painful to look at. It made my heart ache.
“If you’rethat worried about Clover, then should we reconsider the combination?”suggested Santa. “You, Clover and the old man could go through door number 1.The rest of us could go through door number 6.”
Santa’swords sounded as though they were a threat. The idea of a combination where Iwould have to entrust Akane to a team with Santa and Seven… there was no wayI could do that. As well as that, the current teams were better as it meantthat the two of them would be apart.
“Got it…it’s fine this way,” I agreed as I nodded. There was no other way, and no-oneelse had any complaints. I looked at Ace. “Right, Ace, let’s go.”
“Ok, Iunderstand,” he agreed.
Acetouched off the RED and then lowered the lever. The door slowly creaked widelyopen.
“Right, we’regoing too,” announced Seven. He stood in front of door number 1. Clover,looking innocent and unaware, did as she was told and held her left wrist tothe RED.
…Wasthis really going to be ok?
I couldn’thelp but worry about Clover. What if Seven bared the fangs that he had beenhiding until now and showed his true nature? If that happened, then only Lotuswould be there to protect her. But what could Lotus actually do to protect sucha powerless girl?
Be carefulof Seven: just as I was thinking that at least I could try to convey that toher-
“Don’twaste time,” barked Santa. “Let’s go.”
Santagrabbed me and dragged me through the door.
2
The doorclosed.
It waspitch black all around. I desperately strained my eyes, but I still could seenothing. Only the light from the bracelets that everyone was wearing shoneominously.
“Junpei,where are you?”
I heardAkane’s frightened voice from beside me. I fumbled, trying to push my waythrough the darkness. My fingertips touched off soft, smooth skin. It wasdefinitely Akane. I strongly gripped her hand and was not about to let it go.
“This isno good.”
Next, Iheard Ace’s voice from nearby. “With all of this darkness, I have no idea wherethe DEAD has been set up.”
“Anyonehave something we can use to light up the place?” shouted Santa. But no-oneanswered him. “sh*t! What should we do?”
“Calmdown, Santa,” Ace told him softly. “We still have more than a minute. There’sbound to be a light switch somewhere. Let’s check the walls by fumbling withour hands.”
Thatseemed to be our only option. With one hand still holding Akane’s, I used theother hand to feel around the wall.
No matterhow many times I was told to calm down, I couldn’t because my mind waspreoccupied the rapid blinking of the skull. My heart was pounding in my chest.Gradually it became hard for me to breathe. How many seconds were left?
And thenit happened.
I heardthe sound of the iron door swinging open very close by. Light spilled in,slight illuminating our surroundings. I looked to my right and I could clearlysee the outline of Akane.
“What isthis? It’s pitch-black!”
I heardSeven’s voice.
“I don’tlike it. It’s creepy in here.”
Next, Iheard Lotus mutter that.
What thef*ck was happening?
“Seven!” Iscreamed without hesitation.
“…Huh?”he responded, sounding confused. His voice echoed clearly across the room,coming from somewhere past Akane. “Was that you just now, Junpei? Why are youhere?”
“Could itbe possible that we’re in the same room?” I wondered aloud.
I heardthe door close, and once again our surroundings were enshrouded in darkness.Apparently both doors were connected to the same place.
“But…why?” spluttered Seven, sounding confused.
“Hey,ahead of all this, we don’t even know where the DEAD is. This is reallydangerous!” cried out Lotus.
“Everyone,where are you? It’s pitch-black and I don’t know where anyone or anything is,”cried Clover, quickly starting to panic.
Ourreunion was far from a happy one. The situations we were placed in were nevergood.
“Calmdown!” shouted Ace. “There’s bound to be a light switch somewhere. First, checkthe walls-”
“Hey. Iguess you can’t really say that this is easy-going.”
I heardSanta speak somewhere on my left. I could just see the light from the skull onhis bracelet in the darkness. I felt that the speed of the blinking of theskull had sped up slightly.
“Junpei…are we really destined to die here?” quivered Akane. I grabbed her hand.
“Don’tgive up, you idiot,” I said, turning away. If we got past this room, the nextdoor awaiting us would be our exit: the 9th door. I couldn’t failnow when we were so close. “This so-called destiny is a load of sh*t. You canchange the future as much as you want!”
Just asAkane was about to open her mouth to speak…
“Here itis! I found it!”
Ace’sdelighted voice echoed all around, and suddenly the room was lit up. Narrowingmy eyes against the glare of light, I turned back and looked at mysurroundings.
The roomwas bent into a concave shape and I was standing near the centre. An oblongdesk was located right in front of me. Also, there seemed to be some sort ofmap hanging above it. When I looked away from the map, I saw that there werethings such as compasses and pencils scattered messily across the table.
“This mustbe… the chart room, right?” muttered Akane beside me.
On theother side of the desk there were various shelves of different shapes and sizeslined up, filled haphazardly with telecommunication equipment. On both the leftand right-hand sides, I saw old wooden doors.
“Where isthe DEAD?” yelled Santa. “Hurry! We don’t have time!”
Aceappeared from a blind spot: a place that bent away from the room that wecouldn’t see.
“Did youfind the DEAD?” he asked urgently.
“Here!It’s over here!”
As thoughshe was responding to Ace’s question, I heard Lotus’s voice from my right. Thefour of us looked at each other, then dashed towards the source of the voice.Following along the walls and turning around the corner, we found three people:Clover, Seven and Lotus.
Seven wastrying to press his left wrist up against the DEAD.
“Wait!”yelled Santa, running ahead and shoving me to the side. “We’re doing it first.”
As heraised his voice, he lashed out suddenly and hit Seven hard. Caught off guard,Seven’s giant body smacked off the wall with great force and the entire roomshook a lot. Clover let out a loud scream.
“Bastard.What the f*ck are you doing?” roared Seven angrily. He leapt up and tried tolunge at Santa.
“Seven,wait! Please!” I pleaded, spreading my arms wide and blocking his path. Now wasnot the time for such squabbles.
“Hey, youtoo? What’s up with you?” he questioned, looking puzzled.
“We’regonna get blown up first. So-”
As Iexplained this, Santa, Akane and Ace quickly touched their bracelets off the DEAD.
“Oi,there’s only you left. Hurry up!” bellowed Santa. I rushed over to him, tappedmy left wrist off the scanner panel and strongly pulled down on the lever.Before long, the skull on my bracelet had disappeared.
“…Thank goodness, we’re safe,” sighed Akane, leaning against thewall as all the tension that had been building up was shattered. She graduallybegan to slide down the wall.
But it was too early for us to feel safe. The unpleasant electronicbeeping noise was still continuing.
“Hurry!” Iscreamed. I pulled Clover by the arm, half-forcing her to tap her bracelet offthe DEAD. Next, Lotus and Seven finished verifying their bracelets. At last,all of the detonators had been stopped.
I strokedmy chest and sank to the floor beside Akane. The others’ knees gave way andthey crumbled to the floor with us.
For thenext while, without uttering a single word, we just continued to reflect uponthe joy that we had managed to keep our lives.
3
“The f*ckwas this about?” bellowed Seven, finally coming to his senses and scratchinghis swollen cheek with his index finger. His cheek has just gone slightly red.It seemed that there hadn’t been much damage done. “I knew we’d meet againsometime, but I never thought the doors would lead to the same room. What’sZero trying to achieve?”
“I don’tget it either. He’s just mocking us,” answered Lotus with a heavy sigh. Shethen raised her voice, as though she was speaking to Zero. “Are you enjoyingwatching us being confused?”
“Perhapsthat’s what this is,” said Ace next. “He probably intended us to fight nastilyin front of the DEAD. That’s why he turned off the lights. Because if we justbarely found the DEAD within the time limit, then we’d be visibly scramblingfor it.”
“I’ve hadenough of this!” cried Lotus hysterically, holding her head with both handslike a frightened child. “We’ve got to get out of here fast! If we’re here anylonger, I’m going to go crazy!”
I stood upand wandered around the room. There were five doors in total in this room.Since three of them were the numbered doors from before, those three wereimpossible to open.
The lightswitch for this room was beside door number 2. It was almost a miracle that Acehad even managed to find it in the first place. If we hadn’t turned on thelights… I shuddered at the thought.
I suddenlyremembered my suspicions. The moment the lights were turned on, I realised thatthis room was concave. But from my position at that time there had been a blindspots on the left and right. So, I hadn’t seen the entirety of the room. Whyhad I known the shape of the room?
No. Ididn’t have the time nor the headspace to give to such trivial problems. Iturned my gaze to the other doors, rather than the numbered ones.
Beyond thelong table were the shelves and telecommunication equipment that were arrangedhaphazardly. And on both ends of those were two doors. The door on the righthad a metal plate with “Control Room” written on it. The one on the left had“Captain’s Cabin”. Both signs had been written in English.
“…The captain’scabin,” I read aloud.
Akaneopened her eyes wide.
“Is Zerogoing to be beyond this door?”
“Hold up.Why would you think that?” asked Lotus with her lips pursed.
“Pleasethink back to what we heard Zero say when we were on the grand staircase. ‘My name is Zero. I am the captain of thisship.’ That’s what he said to us.”
Everyonefaces paled and they started to look nervous. Feeling that the man wearing thegas-mask would be on the other side if we opened it now, I instinctively stoodon guard.
“…IsZero in here?” asked Clover eventually as she stood up. “Give me back mybrother… give him back…”
She triedto creep doubtfully over to the captain’s cabin, as though she was sleepwalking.But the long table was in her way, so she couldn’t proceed. The left side ofthe desk was stuck perfectly into the wall. Because of the position of thepieces of old equipment, it was impossible to go under the table. In order toget to the captain’s cabin, we were going to have to either climb over thetable or go along the narrow free gap on the right side of the table.
“Give mybrother back!!!” screamed Clover. Pushing past everyone, she went along theright side of the table and stood in front of the captain’s cabin. In a flashshe had pushed opened the door and bounded inside.
And thenext moment, the sound of her screaming pierced my eardrums. Could Zero reallybe in there?!?
“Hey,Clover!” shouted Seven.
“Clover!”cried Lotus.
Everyonestood up, their faces pale.
“Clover!”I yelled.
I tried toovercome the barrier in front of me, but as though the legs had rotten, thetable creaked and shook from left to right. With no other choice, like Clover,we all pushed the table aside, moved along the gap and dived into the captain’scabin.
Clover wasstanding near the doorway, staring into the room. I followed her gaze. Thesight of a pitiable man stretched out in a pool of blood burst into my view.
“What-”
My entirebody froze up. My mouth dried up completely, and it felt as though my head hadbeen split in two. The others poured in after me.
“Eww,gross.”
“What’shappened here?”
“I’ve hadenough… how long will this continue on for?”
There wascommotion as everyone’s thoughts leaked out unanimously.
“Junpei,what happened?” I heard Akane ask.
“Murasaki!Don’t come in!” I yelled. I didn’t want to show her such a disastrous scene.“Ace, since I’m going to check here, get everyone else to another place-”
“Understood.We’ll examine the control room.”
4
Only Sevenand I remained in the captain’s cabin. My heart pounded as I stood facing theman who was quite possibly the culprit behind Snake’s death.
“Ishe the culprit?” asked Seven, strolling over to the man sprawled on the floor.
“…Huh?”
I couldn’tsee his face as he had fallen forwards. I also didn’t recognise his clothes.
“Bloodyawful,” said Seven. He leaned over the pool of blood. As though he wasaccustomed to it, he reached out and pressed the back of the man’s neck withhis finger. “No good. He’s already dead.”
Hisshoulders dropped and he shook his head from side to side. Even without himsaying it, it was obvious from the amount of blood that had been splattered onthe floor. It was impossible to live after losing that much blood. On theright-side of his back there was a deep wound as though he had been gouged deeplyby something.
…f*ck.
I hadsurprised myself by being able to observe this corpse so calmly. Perhaps myheart had been completely paralysed from the repeated tragic events. I’d hadenough of this game. If the game didn’t end soon, I was going to break down.
“Perhapsthis is the murder weapon,” suggested Seven. He showed me an axe. Everywherefrom the base of the blade up was covered in bright red blood. “Judging by theshape of the wound, it’s gotta be this.”
Besidesthe axe, something that looked like blood-covered water-proof clothes had beenbundled up and abandoned. It was likely that the perpetrator had worn them toavoid the splash-back of blood.
I gingerlyapproached the corpse. The white seaman uniform that he was wearing and thegolden coat of arms that he was hanging from around his shoulder told usclearly that he was the captain.
“Ah…”
I finallyspoke. He was wearing the same bracelet on his left wrist that we were allwearing. From the impact of the hit, the face of the bracelet smashed, and thepieces were scattered around in tiny pieces. So unfortunately we couldn’t readthe number on it.
“Is thisguy Zero?” asked Seven. It was difficult for me to judge whether it was aserious question, or if he was just playing dumb. “No way…”
Aren’t you really Zero?
As I heldon to that suspicion, I answered him.
“If thisman is Zero, then why is he wearing a bracelet? He can’t be Zero.”
“But thenwho is this guy?”
I shook myhead in response to Seven’s question. I didn’t know.
“If weexamine his belongings, we’ll probably get to understand something about this,”announced Seven. He leaned over the body and reached into the man’s trouserpockets.
“Oh…” heexclaimed, his expression changing.
“Did youfind something?” I asked him.
He pulledhis hand out. He was gripping a purple key with his fingertips. Following thepattern up until now, there was probably a purple door nearby.
“Let’scheck his face. Hey, help me turn him over,” I requested.
Sevenpassed through the pool of blood and went around to the other side. He put hishand on the man’s shoulder. As I had instructed him, he grabbed the man’sankles. The body was still warm, as though the man was alive.
“Do yourecognise this guy’s face?” Seven asked, gazing at the man’s exposed face. Botheyes of the man wearing the seaman’s uniform were open, and the expression hehad pulled with his dying breath seemed to be one of surprise. He looked to bein his fifties. I didn’t know him.
“I just knowthat his hobby was playing the guitar,” muttered Seven, peering at the corpse’shands.
“Huh? Howdo you know that?”
“Look,see here. Just the fingers on his left hand seem oddly hard, no? Seems like aserious guitar player.”
“And since then, you haven’t beenable to play the guitar you love so much…”
Clover’swords unexpectedly came to mind.
“It really is amazing. It didn’tmatter at all that he had a disability. My brother made such an intricateaccessory with just his right hand.”
“Is itpossible that…”
I hadalways had an uncomfortable feeling that something was out of place. He shouldhave been able to play the guitar, even if he couldn’t see. But then why did hehave to make the silverwork with just his right hand?
There wasonly one conclusion to be drawn from this. And that was- No, wait. If that wasthe case… Was there any chance that this was just a big misunderstanding onmy part?
“What’sthis?”
My trainof thought was interrupted by Seven’s words.
He hadmoved to the corner of the room, where there was a photo stand perched near thewindow. He took the photo stand in his hands and had a look at it. I peered atit from behind him. There was a photo with four men in it. It seemed to havebeen taken in an office, as there were several computers lined up behind them.
The momentI looked at it, I noticed it. I knew three out of the four people in the photo.
First, theman on the far right, who was sporting a moustache and had the same face as thedead body lying in front of us. He was a little younger in the picture, but itwas definitely him.
Next, secondfrom the right. The man wearing white clothes and glasses had the very samedistinctive hair as the bird nest man. He really resembled the 9thman. No, no matter how you looked at it, it had to be him.
Inaddition, just one more person. The man on the far left, dressed in a stripedsuit: It was Ace.
“Why isAce here?” questioned Seven, his expression distorted.
“Are youok?” I asked him. “You don’t look so good.”
Oily dropsof sweat appeared on his forehead.
“Ah…it’s nothing,” said Seven quietly, pressing on his temple.
“So, whatdoes all of this mean? Why is there a picture of Ace in a place like this? Andit’s not just him. There’s the 9th man, and the man who appeared tobe the captain together in the picture…”
I trailedoff. What was even more interesting was their expressions. By the way theysmiled, it was clear that they were on good terms, maybe even friends.
But why?What kind of connection did the four people in this photo have? Seven took thepicture out of the photo frame and carefully turned it over. Written there wasa date from nine years ago, along with a short sentence.
To the success of the NonaryProject
With Niji*zaki, Kubota andMusashidou.
Hongou Gentarou
Sevennarrowed his eyes.
“Hondou…Nonary Project… Cradle Pharmaceutical…”
Wordsspilled from his thick lips as though he was chanting.
“Sheldrake…field… cube… explosion… aoiraitononakane… aoiraitononakane…”
Suddenlyhe stopped speaking. In a flash, his once narrowed eyes were now wide open.
“Iremembered,” muttered Seven, his whole body shaking as though he had snapped.
“Huh?”
“Iremember, perhaps everything!” he bellowed at me, grabbing me by the shoulders.Overwhelmed by him roaring in my ear, I was unable to move away.
“Do youremember the incident of the disappearances of the young boys and girls thathappened nine years ago?” Seven asked me excitedly, as he took off his beanieand scratched his head, ruffling up his hair.
“Is thatthe case where sixteen boys and girls in the Tokyo area went missing at the sametime?”
“Yeah.They all came back the day after the next as though nothing had happened. Itwas concluded that nothing of a criminal nature had happened. But that was notthe case.”
Lotus hadsaid the same thing.
“Whenyou’ve been a detective for a long time, you’re able to make various kinds ofhidden connections. There are times when beneficial information comes from itunexpectedly. And that day was one of those times.”
“Seven, sothen you are a detective after all?”
“Yeah. Butif you only do things your way, then you’ll just be shunned by though aroundyou.”
With that,he smiled in a bittersweet way and kept talking.
“I heardfrom a reliable source that that night, a ship would depart from a certaindock. Several children were forced onto that ship, and then taken to a largecruiser ship that was moored offshore. “
Sevencontinued his story. He had received a tip-off, so he was keeping watch at aquay when an unidentified ship came alongside it, along with several menwearing black suits. They were carrying a large sack with them onto the ship.The sacks looked as though something had been crammed into it.
Due to thesize, weight and dimensions of the sack, Seven was convinced that something wasup. He discovered that the men were transporting several children.
When Sevenjumped from his hiding place to try save the children, he felt the presence ofsomeone behind him. Before he could turn around, he felt a sharp pain in hisneck. And with that he lost consciousness.
“…Andwhen I woke up I was on the ship. They locked me up in a dark and cold singlecell-like place…”
When hestrained his ears, he could hear several high-pitched voices. All of themseemed to be terrified. It had to be the abducted children.
Sevendestroyed the air vent in the ceiling with his great strength. He went along anarrow duct towards the source of the voices. On the way, he passed by thelarge hospital room and the operating room in the ceiling. He finally arrivedat the place where he met four children.
“Aoiraitononakane.”Seven said his usual magic word. “That’s the names of the children I met then.Despite the fact that Aoi’s voice hadn’t broken yet, he was still a completesmart-arse… he was a little brat that was a young secondary school student.”
Aoi… hadI heard that name somewhere before?
“The otherboy was Light*. It seemed like he was blind because he always had his hand onAoi’s shoulder.”
“Thenperhaps…” I began.
“Yeah,”confirmed Seven. “Nine years have passed since then and he’s completely grownup. But his face is the same. It’s Snake.”
Aoi, Light,Nona…
“Andwasn’t Nona a little girl?”
“How didyou know that?” asked Seven, his eyes widening.
“I heardit from Lotus. Nona is Lotus’s only daughter.”
“Holy sh*t…”whispered Seven, biting his lip seemingly in frustration. “If I’d just donethings a little better, I would’ve been able to save Nona and Akane too…”
Thesesurprising words spilled from his mouth.
“What didyou say just now?” I asked urgently.
“Aoi andLight were safe. But I wasn’t able to save the two girls.”
“What weretheir names? There was Nona and…?”
“Akane.She was Aoi’s younger sister.
I was soshocked that I felt like I had been hit in the back of the head with a bluntweapon. It was so bad that I couldn’t breathe properly.
“No… noway…”, I gasped, my tongue sticking out.
Aoi,Raito, Nona, Akane… Aoi, Light, Nona, Akane. These were the four childrenthat Seven met nine years ago. The name of the girl who had died with Nona wasAkane- Seven had told me so.
Akane…as in my Akane?
Was thisjust a mere coincidence?
Nona wasdefinitely Lotus’s daughter. But Akane probably had no connection to my Akane.Come on, my Akane was still alive now.
But…
“Unlessyou’re a ghost, you can’t escape from this closed off space. So Murasaki is aghost.”
Santa’swords clung to my mind, and I couldn’t get rid of them. It was by no means amistake in my vision that Akane had gone transparent for a moment in thesecond-class cabin.
“Junpei!”called out Akane as she knocked on the door of the entrance.
Of course,it was impossible. Akane was right there. The Akane who died with Nona was acompletely different person from my Akane.
It’d seemstrange to be shaken up forever. I called out to her on the other side of thedoor, pretending to be calm.
“What’swrong, Murasaki?” I shouted to her.
“Pleasecome here right away! We found a purple door in the control room, but it’slocked…”
“Purple?”
I took outthe key that Seven had found in the man’s trouser pocket earlier. I gave it toAkane.
“Let’shurry!” she said.
I left thecorpse and hurriedly dashed from the captain’s cabin. The sight of Akane filledme with relief.
“Let’sgo,” I said, pulling her arm and dragging her alongside the table.
“Ouch,Junpei. That hurts.”
Akanefrowned at me. But I did not loosen my grip.
I couldn’thelp but feel that if I let go of her hand, she would disappear off somewhere.
5
Everyonelooked at us and we bounded into the control room.
Althoughit was supposedly the control room, all of the windows were sealed shut withiron plates. As a result, I had no idea of what was happening outside. Therewere several meters and gauges lined up in narrow rows, but they didn’t seem tobe working.
On theright-hand side of the ship, there was a door that was completely purple. Itseemed to be beckoning us to come over quickly.
“Who wasthe dead man in the captain’s cabin?” asked Lotus as she leaned back on thebright black steering wheel. Leaving the explaining to Seven, I stood in frontof the door. Like before, there was ac LC panel installed above the keyhole.
“Did youread the question?” I asked Akane, to which I got a confused-looking nod inresponse. “Well, what was it?”
“Well…”
“Who’s theculprit behind the murder of the man with bracelet number 2?” Santa replied inthe place of a hesitating Akane. At the same time, Clover’s expressionstiffened.
“We foundthe indigo blue key hanging in the control room,” continued Santa. “But sincethe colour’s wrong than of course it’s of no use. We’ve gotta find the purplekey…”
“Well inthat case we found it in the captain’s cabin,” I responded, and pulled the keyout of my pocket. I carefully put it into the keyhole and turned it. The panelemitted an orange light as it gave off a low electronic beeping sound.
Who’s the culprit behind the murderof the man with bracelet number 2?
Itdisplayed the question the way Santa had put it, word-for-word. But underneathit, another sentence appeared.
You have only one chance to guesscorrectly.
Itwas ok. There was nothing to be afraid of. I prepared myself and reached forthe answer button.
“Hey. Waita second,” said Santa, grabbing my arm.
“Why?” Iasked.
“Did youread the question properly?”
“Yeah.”
“We’veonly got one chance.”
“I know.”
“By “Iknow”, do you mean… Come on, you don’t mean that you know who killed Snake,do you?”
I noddedvigorously in response to his question.
“Junpei…”whispered Akane.
“Hey, doesthat mean you know who the culprit is?” thundered Seven.
“I can’ttell if you’re making this up or not,” pondered Lotus.
Everyone’seyes fixed on me.
“I wantyou to explain first. Don’t rush ahead on your own selfishly,” growled Ace in awarning tone. “Who are you saying the criminal is? If you’re able to convinceevery single one of us, then you can input the answer without hesitation.”
“I knowwho it is,” I announced, nodding my head. “Alright. First, I have something toask you, Ace.”
I pointedat Akane before spitting out my next words.
“Who. Is.She?”
“Oi, thef*ck you talking about?” demanded Seven, looking puzzled. The others hadsimilar reactions.
But Acewas different. The area around his cheekbones was twitching, as though it wasspasming.
“Can younot answer me?” I asked.
“That’snot the case… she’s Murasaki,” answered Ace with a tense expression.
“Nope. Toobad.”
“What?”
“He’sSanta.”
“Wait,what?!?” screamed Ace dementedly. Everyone was taken aback, especially Santa,who’s name I’d called. He was shaking considerably. However, if I said anythingcareless now, then everything would be ruined. I continued without missing abeat.
“Heborrowed the clothes he’s wearing from Murasaki. And then the clothes thatMurasaki is wearing are Santa’s. The pair of them exchanged clothes secretly sothat you wouldn’t notice.”
“That ispreposterous! It’s impossible!” roared Ace, which was quite unusual for him.
“So, youdon’t think he’s Santa?!
“Of coursenot! Obviously!”
“Why? Whydo you think that it’s not Santa?”
“Wouldn’tit be obvious if you just checked their bracelets?” snapped Ace. He approachedAkane with long strides and violently grabbed her arm. “Look here! The numberon the face is 6. It’s Akane! Or is there something else to this? Are yousaying that Murasaki and Santa took off the bracelets that they absolutelycannot take off and exchanged them? Isn’t that impossible?”
Hesplattered spit everywhere with his last few words. His calm, cool and composedmask was gradually being peeled off.
“Wellcertainly what you’re saying is right but…” I said and shrugged my shoulders.“Well, if you hadn’t had gone through the effort of checking her bracelet, thenwould you have not known who she was?”
“…Ah,”said Ace, his expression hardening. It seemed that he had finally noticed themistake in what he had said.
“I’msorry, Ace. I tricked you into revealing the truth. Needless to say, she isAkane, not Santa. But why did you not know such an absurdly obvious fact?”
Ace saidnothing.
“I askedyou ‘Why do you think that it’s notSanta?’. Your answer to that was ‘Wouldn’tit be obvious if you just checked their bracelets?’. Normally you wouldn’tsay such a thing. Something like “their faces are different” – something likethat would be enough.”
Acerepeatedly grinded his teeth in anger and scowled at me. But I didn’t flinchand kept speaking.
“You-suffer-from-prosopagnosia,don’t-you?”
“Prosopagnosia?What the hell is that?” asked Seven. He appeared to be confused by theunfamiliar word that came from my mouth. I frowned before responding.
“It’s acognitive disorder where one cannot differentiate between the faces of humans,”I answered concisely.
“Such adisorder exists?”
“It’s notreally that rare of a case,” Lotus informed us. “For us, it’s not easy todistinguish or remember the faces of foreigners. Animals such as monkeys ordogs all look the same to us. The disorder is the same as that.”
“…So,why do you think that about me?” asked Ace.
His poorattempt at denying it made me even more suspicious about him. Ace had spokencalmly. But it was clear that he was shaken as his voice was tremblingslightly.
“Did younot know? The models in the x-ray room each had a picture of us stuck on them,”I responded.
“…Huh?”
“Despitethat, without any feeling at all, you said that there were seven creepy dollslined up, and that there was a dead body by them. You didn’t notice that theyhad our faces, did you? If you had, you probably would have told us about thepictures. Needless to say, you wouldn’t be labelling the dolls with our faceson them as just ‘creepy’.”
Ace’s eyeswere moving rapidly from left to right. Perhaps he was desperately searchingfor an excuse. Taking advantage, I pressed him further, not giving him a chanceto come up with one.
“WhenSeven took off his beanie, you were lost for words, weren’t you? Youdistinguish Seven from everyone else by his hat. So, isn’t that why you messedup then?”
Finallygiving up on resisting, Ace responded us by showing us a grin with from onecorner of his mouth.
“If I look at things such as people’s build orclothes, I can tell who they are. But as this condition grows in my brain overthe years, I unintentionally got into the habit of only focusing on one thingthat stands out. Dear me- perhaps I should have been a little bit more carefulthan usual.”
“So, areyou admitting it?”
“Yes. Likeyou said, I have prosopagnosia. I cannot identify human faces.”
The airrustled around us.
“But areyou saying that there’s something wrong with that?” continued Ace. “Are youmaking fun of a person’s condition?”
“It wasn’tmy intention to laugh at you,” I replied, shaking my head. “Actually, I evenfeel sorry for you. But the possibility that the culprit behind killing Snakehad prosopagnosia is quite high.”
The oncecalm expression of Ace became grim once again. His eyes narrowed into slits ashe responded.
“And whatdo you mean by that?”
“Theperson who killed Snake was you, Ace.”
Everyonestared at me with frightened expressions. The sound of them all gasping reachedmy ears.
I could nolonger turn back. I had made up my mind. I balled my hands into fists.
6
It was Acewho’s coarse laughter that and broke the stifling silence.
“You’resaying I’m the culprit? Wow, this guy is funny! You can’t seriously besuspicious of me.”
“I’m notsuspicious of you. I am convinced that you did it.”
“Don’tmess with me,” growled Ace, his expression becoming much more rugged. “And whatbasis do you have for saying such things?”
“I havethree reasons.”
“Interesting.Would you be so kind as to allow me to hear them?”
He spreadhis arms in exaggeration, showing his attitude of provocation. I had no choicebut to respond.
“Tryrecalling what took place in the large hospital room. A few hours ago, when theseven of us that were there were not all able to proceed, you yourself said ‘Leaveme here’, right? Why was that?”
“Has thatnot already been settled? I wanted to save everyone.”
“No,that’s not it. You didn’t want us to see the body lying in the x-ray room,” Isaid, giving the silent Ace a sidelong glance. “If only you remained in thehospital room, then the remaining six would have had to go door number sevenand door number eight.”
“Hey, comeon,” snorted Ace. “I imagine that you are jealous of my brave act. But doesthat mean that you can look down on my heroic tale? I just have a spirit ofself-sacrifice, and I was only trying to save your lives.”
“A spiritof self-sacrifice? That’s not it, and you know it. You knew that whatever doorwe took, we’d come back to the large hospital room in the end.”
At thatmoment, Ace raised his eyebrows.
“W-Whatare you saying? You don’t know that!”
It wasclear that he was shaken up.
“Well,whatever. Let’s leave that there, since I still have two other reasons.”
“W-whatare they?”
“Thesecond reason is, like we were discussing just now, the fact that you sufferfrom prosopagnosia.”
“So,you’re trying to say that some guy who can’t identify people’s faces isdetermined to be a bad guy? That’s a bit narrow-minded, Junpei.”
“Come on,”I sighed. “Just that silly reason alone is not enough to doubt someone.”
“So thenwhy-”
“Beforeexplaining, let’s get one important fact straight. The corpse lying in the x-rayroom is not Snake.”
“What?”
In theblink of an eye, Ace’s face paled. The others were extremely shaken up. Theywere showing signs that they were even more disturbed than they had beenbefore.
“Clover,please tell me. Snake -your brother- how did he become blind?”
“He wastrying to save me. He thought I had fallen off a cliff…” responded Cloversounding stressed.
“At thattime, he didn’t just lose his sight, he lost his left arm too, right?” Icontinued. “So that’s why he wasn’t able to play his beloved guitar.”
Clover nodded.
“His leftarm? Then does that mean that Snake’s left arm is a prosthetic?” gasped Lotus,her eyes widening. “Wait a second. But the corpse in the x-ray room…”
“Yes: theleft wrist of the body lying there was definitely the wrist of a flesh-and-bloodhuman being,” I explained. “So, in other words, the corpse in the x-ray room isnot Snake’s.”
“Then mybrother…” deduced Clover, lifting her head.
“Yes, heshould be alive.”
“Thankgoodness… my brother…” she whispered, tears spilled rapidly from herfluttering eyes.
“That’sidiotic… absolutely idiotic…”
Incontrast to Clover who was revealing her relief, Ace was repeating the samewords over and over again, his face pale.
“Let’ssuppose that the culprit doesn’t have prosopagnosia. In that case, that personwould probably notice that the person they were killing was not Snake. Becauseeven though the clothes he was wearing were the same as Snake’s, his face wasdifferent. However, for some reason the criminal killed that man… Why wasthat?”
Ace didn’thave a response for that. I continued.
“If theculprit had prosopagnosia, then that’d explain everything. He mistook the manin front of him as Snake and committed the murder.”
“Wait,wait,” said Ace in a shrill voice. “For argument’s sake, say that I killed him.But then even if I did, I had no incentive. Why would I have to kill Snake?”
He triedto butt-in with his counterargument, but I continued my hypothesis right away.I spoke without hesitation.
“I havetwo reasons for thinking that.”
“What arethey?”
“The firstis that Snake knows about your past.”
And rightaway, Ace looked panicked.
“If thedetails of your past were to come to light for everyone here, then it’d cause alot of trouble for you. So, in order to make sure that he kept his mouth shut,you decided to take care of Snake,didn’t you?”
“W-whatare you… well frankly-”
“Second,”I continued, ignoring his excuses. “You held a grudge against him. You didn’tknow when he could strike. He was nothing more than a threat to you. So, inorder eradicate this threat, you killed Sna-”
“Just waita second!” interrupted Lotus. “By this old man’s past… what the hell doesthat mean? What happened?”
“A certainsomeone told me that there was another Nonary Game nine years ago that Snaketook part in. The organiser of the game was the CEO of Cradle Pharmaceutical,Hongou Gentarou-”
“FORf*ck’S SAKE THAT’S ENOUGH!!!” roared Ace. His face was bright red with fury.“This is all completely groundless bullsh*t! A certain someone? You can’tanswer who. Because this is all fabricated by YOU. Me, a person with a statusof prestige, and against you, some youngster who we’re unsure if we can eventrust or not. Isn’t is OBVIOUS?”
He pointedhis forefinger at me and screamed.
“Who thef*ck sent you? Why are you trying to set me up?!?”
“Me? Didyou just say ‘me’?” I asked him. Ace took a deep breath and averted his gaze.“You have just acknowledged that you are the CEO of Cradle Pharmaceutical,haven’t you?”
“Ah…yes. That’s right,” he answered, pulling on the hem of his suit for no reason.“Certainly, I am the CEO of Cradle Pharmaceutical- Hongou Gentarou. But what isall of this? Things like the Nonary Game that happened nine years ago… I haveabsolutely no idea what you are talking about. I don’t know who suggested allof this to you, but everything you heard is bullsh*t. First of all-”
Perhaps itwas in order to stop any objections, or perhaps it was to change the subject.But Ace continued by showering me with questions.
“Junpei,you keep continue to insist that I am the sole culprit. Calm down and thinkabout it for me. When you do that, will you still think that I did all this andkilled Snake by myself?”
“It wasn’tSnake. It was a different person who was wearing Snake’s clothes.”
“I don’tcare about those things!” bellowed Ace without trying to conceal his anger.“The culprits pushed that man through door number 3.”
“Probably.”
“Wellthen, it’d be impossible for me to do it alone, since I wouldn’t have been ableto open door number 3 on my own.”
“That’sright, Junpei,” pointed out Akane. “At least three people are needed to open-”
“No,” Isaid, cutting her off. “He could have opened it.”
“How?”spluttered Ace in confusion, his eyes abnormally bloodshot. I stared right backat him and answered with slightly upturned lips.
“ActuallyAce, there is something that you have hidden on your person that you stole.”
“…What?”asked Ace, his face freezing.
“I wassurprised. The fact that you’d side such a thing from us,” I began. As I spoke,Ace stuffed his hand into his coat pocket.
“N-noway,” stammered a panic-stricken Ace, as he began to fumble around in thepocket.
“Ah, ofcourse. Are you hiding it in that pocket?”
“Um…” hestuttered. He stopped suddenly. “You bastard. You tricked me.”
Havingfigured out my strategy, he started at me intently with his hand still insidehis coat pocket.
“Shall Iguess what’s in there?” I asked. “It’s the 9th bracelet. Am Iright?”
“Oh mygod! No way!” shrieked Lotus. Seven was staring at me with his mouth wide open.Akane covered her mouth with mouth hands, her eyes popping out of her head.
“Ofcourse. It’s the bracelet of the glasses dude,” muttered Santa aloofly, as heleaned against the wall.
“WithAce’s bracelet, the bracelet of the man dressed like Snake and then the braceletof the 9th man. If you verified those three bracelets at the RED,then you could easily open door number 3.
1 + 2 + 9= 12
1 + 2 = 3
“So, it ispossible that it was Ace who killed the man who looked like Snake.”
Ace calmlylowered his right hand that had been inside his coat pocket and deeply hung hishead. I couldn’t see the expression on his face.
“I don’tcare if you keep playing dumb,” I said to him. Feel free to obstinately insistthat you don’t have the bracelet. But please take your coat off for us. Ok?”
“Heymister, do exactly what he said,” instructed Seven, moving closer to Ace. “Ifyou refuse, we’re going to force it off you.”
Seven hadjust put his hand on Ace’s shoulder when…
“Hahahahahahahahahaha!”
All of asudden, Ace started to laugh loudly. He spread his arms wide, looked up at theceiling and his dry laugh echoed. When his laughter eventually stopped, all thecolour had drained from his face.
“Bravo,Junpei,” he said, moving his lips with a hollow expression that seemed asthough all his emotions had been stripped from him. “Just like you said, I amhiding the 9th bracelet in my coat. I got my hands on it wheneveryone was looking for the circuit boards that had been taken out of theREDs. I secretly slipped out of the small hospital room that I was in charge ofsearching and went back to the first-class rooms to where the body was by goingthrough the orange door.”
Ace beganhis confession, his face still expressionless.
“Ofcourse, my intention was to retrieve the 9th bracelet. In thisNonary Game, the 9th bracelet had the almighty existence. It can beadded to any number, and the digital root will remain the same as before.”
I gasped.I had not noticed that before. Of course, Ace was right.
1 + 9 = 10 > 1+ 0 = 1
2 + 9 = 11 > 1+ 1 = 2
3 + 9 = 12 > 1+ 2 = 3
… …
Withoutfail, the person with the 9th bracelet can be part of any team. There was thepossibility to enter any door. In this game, that’d be quite the advantage tohave.
“AlthoughI didn’t necessarily have a specific aim in mind. If you have a joker in yourhand, you should be able to use if effectively later. So that is why I decidedto retrieve the 9th bracelet.”
Acegathered his breath before continuing further with his confession.
“Lookinginnocent, I came back to the large hospital room. Standing in front of doornumber 3 was Snake. Well no, actually it wasn’t Snake…”
Ace toldus that he had called out to the man that was wearing Snake’s clothes. The manhad looked back at him, no words came from his open mouth. It was as though he barelyconscious. He had been in such a daze that it seemed like he was sleepwalking.
“I hadbeen cautious of Snake since the start. As Junpei pointed out, I was frightenedthat he knew about the things from nine years ago. Of course, I couldn’trecognise his face. But it was clear that it was him from his characteristicssuch as his clear voice and the fact that he was blind.”
Ace’sexpression became ugly and distorted.
“I thoughtabout it. Even though that guy should have been very resentful of me, whywasn’t he saying anything to me? On the contrary, he didn’t even show theslightest hint that he was going to touch me. Had he not noticed that it was mesince he was blind? Or perhaps he was acquainted with Zero and was thinkingthat he’ d take his revenge on me? Either way, having a person around who knewabout my past was a big threat for me. It’d be best for me to dispose of himbefore he could challenge me. If I was going to kill him, then was my chance,since it was just the two of us. I took a quick glance at the RED and saw thatthe word “Vacant” had appeared on the panel. Was it this man who had insertedthe circuit boards into the RED? Whatever- this was a god-send. Why not usethis chance against him? I quickly moved into action.”
As herecalled all of this, Ace smiled ominously with one corner of his lips.
Ace hadprobably touched both his own bracelet and the 9th bracelet he hadjust picked up off the scanner panel. Then after he more than likely grabbedthe man’s arm and forced him to verify his bracelet, then kicked him insidedoor number 3. It was not something a decent person would do. There was proofin that by the fact that his eyes had completely lost the warmth of beinghuman. Only his tongue was eerily wiggling around like some sort of reptile.
“Pleasetell me just one more thing,” I asked Ace, trying to hold back my disgust. “Itwas you who killed the man in the captain’s room, wasn’t it?”
“Why wouldyou think that?” questioned Ace.
“If theperson who killed him is among us, then the time to do so was very limited. Thechance to commit the crime would have been right after passing through the doorto the chart room, which was a short amount of time. But there was a long tableplaced in the centre of the room, so it wouldn’t have been easy to move to thecaptain’s cabin. If anyone besides you had moved towards the captain’s cabin,then they definitely would have bumped into you. But if you were in a standingin a position that was close to the captain’s cabin-”
Ace saidnothing. I continued.
“If youcarried out the Nonary Game on this ship nine years ago, then you’d probablyknow exactly where the room was.”
“So,you’re saying that I could move so swiftly though this dark room?” snapped Ace.“Bullsh*t. It’s too dangerous. What would I have done if someone had found thelight switch straight away? It would have been exposed that I wasn’t there inthe chart room.”
“The lightswitch was right beside door number 2,” I pointed out. “We couldn’t have foundit right away. In order so that all seven of us could open numbered doors, wewere only able to open door number 1 and door number 5.”
“That’s aconsiderable amount of reasoning skills,” said Ace. He licked his lower lipwith his tongue and dropped his shoulders in apparent acceptance. “I knew thatZero, the ringleader of this game, was inside the captain’s cabin because, inthe game nine years ago, I myself monitored all of the places on the ship frominside that room. Like Snake, Zero also knew about my past. So that’s why I hadto kill him.”
Hecontinued babbling on.
“Themoment we continued through the numbered door and I realised that all around uswas pitch-black, I thought that that moment would be my only chance. I quicklyslipped into the captain’s cabin and turned on the light in there. There was aman sitting there with his back facing me. I called out to him, but he didn’trespond. Just like the man who was wearing Snake’s clothes, he had a blankexpression as though he had consumed sleeping pills.”
He told usthat he killed the man with the axe that was lying close by the man. Ace hadgrabbed the axe, aimed it at the man’s chest and swung it straight down. Toprevent himself from becoming covered in blood, it seemed that he hadn’tforgotten to wear the water-proof clothes that had been hanging on the wall.
“I thoughtthat the sound would have resonated, but it seemed that everyone was soengrossed in finding the DEAD that no-one noticed. I killed Zero, then quicklyreturned to the chart room and turned on the light switch on the wall.”
Acestroked his beard, parted his lips and continued speaking in a rough voice.
“I haveone more thing to confess. Actually, it was I who killed the 9thman.”
7
I hadalready imagined as much so I wasn’t particularly surprised.
Myresponse must have been lacking. Ace frowned as though he was dissatisfied andbroke the silence.
“Well moreprecisely, I just led him to his death by explosion… That man’s name wasKubota. He was my faithful subordinate. At the beginning when we were firstsearching around the area of the large staircase, I caught him and stealthilywhispered this into his ear. ‘It seemsthat the settings of the DEAD have been changed. One person can carry out the verificationand then stop the timed detonator, even by themselves. So, you go ahead andcheck the other side of door number 5’.”
“But why?”asked Akane, sounding heartbroken.
“I havefour reasons for disposing of Kubota,” announced Ace. He held up his indexfinger. “First. Like I said before, in this Nonary Game, 9 has the almightyexistence. Him making use of such a convenient existence could have been athreat to me. So, on those grounds, I decided to remove him in the early stagesof the game.”
Next, heheld up his middle finger.
“Second. Ialready explained this earlier. I wanted the 9th bracelet because ifI got my hands on it, I’d be able to use it to my advantage. And for that tohappen there was no other way but for that guy to die.”
This time,he extended his ring finger.
“I couldgo on and on, but the existence of Kubota was nothing more than a nuisance tome. That man knew my past: the events that took place nine years ago. It wasnecessary to quickly obliterate him before he could broadcast that to theothers.”
That meantthat even Ace, who couldn’t distinguish human faces, was able to easily todetermine that it was him due to his characteristics of having hair like abird’s nest and his silver-framed glasses.
“And mylast motive was for the sake of a test,” said Ace, holding up pinkie fingeralong with the other three fingers. “I thought that no doubt that this NonaryGame was a prank. I decided to make that fool violate the rules so that I couldsee the result.”
With anexpression of relief, Ace lowered both shoulders and looked around at usone-by-one.
“My confessionis over… what’s that? What’s with the look of contempt in your eyes?”
He spokeabout it as though it was regrettable.
“Ace,please don’t say things that you don’t mean,” I said without missing a beat.“You should know that the man in the captain’s cabin was not Zero.”
Ace didn’trespond. He just shook his head boldly.
“Didn’tyou say that the axe you killed him with had been left in the captain’s cabin?The man in there had been anesthetised so that he couldn’t resist. Everythingwas set up. It was set up when you killed the man wearing Snake’s clothes. Whenyou came back to the large hospital room, the circuit boards of the REDs hadbeen put back in. And of course, standing there was the man who had beenanesthetised. You have fallen into Zero’s trap: you’re just being played byZero. Perhaps it was the same when you killed the 9th man too.Without your knowledge, three people- Kubota, Niji*zaki and Musashidou- havebeen killed. All of this has happened without Zero getting his hands dirty.”
Ace’scheek twitched.
“Why…now, what did you just say? Why do you know the names of Niji*zaki andMusashidou?” asked Ace in a rough and childish voice.
I took outthe photo that Seven and I had found in the captain’s cabin and held it out infront of Ace.
“You can’tdistinguish the people here, but the man on the far left of this photo graph isyou. Beside you is the 9th man- Kubota. Standing next to Kubota isthe man who is lying dead in the captain’s cabin. Which then leaves this man,who is probably the man we found in the x-ray room…”
I turnedover the photo and read out what had been scribbled messily on it.
“To the success of the Nonary Project. WithNiji*zaki, Kubota and Musashidou… Are you four not the leaders of theNonary Project? Has Zero devised this game to take revenge on the four of you?”
“Heehee,”laughed Ace, as though he had given up. “I beg your pardon. So, you’ve foundout that much. Indeed. The four of us, including me, were staff members for theNonary Project. Niji*zaki Nagisa was working at my right-hand side as a staffofficer. Kubota Teruaki was the head of research and development- he helpedwith the technical side of things. Musashidou Kagechika was a major shareholderin Cradle Pharmaceutical. It was him who provided complete funding for it.”
Ace smiledas he spoke. I couldn’t help but feel disgusted by that repulsive smile. Hedrew out his long-winded speech even further.
“Ofcourse, it wasn’t just the four of us that did everything. In order to carryout the experiment, a top-secret research team was put together. There weredozens of people on the team. The Nonary Project was executed along with theircooperation.”
Acecontinued speaking unapologetically.
“When Iwoke up in the third-class cabin… there was a message card under my pillow. Thiswas written on it. ‘I know about theserious crimes you committed nine years ago. I’ll make you experience the samesuffering that the children experienced then. If you want to survive, then winthe game’. But there was no way I could confess that. So, I… no… therewas no way that it could have been Niji*zaki and Musashidou. So, I wonder, willI be killed next?”
Ace openedhis eyes, promptly turned around with unbelievable speed and bounded alongbeside the wall. He quickly grabbed the arms of Lotus, who had been standingthere, and pinned them behind her back. He then pressed a familiar knifeagainst her throat.
“Kindlyexcuse me. I do not want to be killed.”
His eyessparkled with insanity.
8
“Hey…what?” said Lotus from Ace’s arms. She was frozen on the spot.
“I wentback for Kubota’s bracelet, and I was glad I took it with me,” said Ace.“Although it’s a little repulsive, I’m going to have to do the same as him. Itcan’t be helped. So, can we cooperate?”
“What doyou mean?”
“Stop it, Pops.You have obediently confessed to everything, so can you stop playing dumb?”snapped Seven, calling him out.
“Itappears that you do not understand,” responded Ace. “Why would you think that Iwould be this easily confused? Have all of you decided to die here?”
“What are…”I began.
“Right,Junpei. Answer the question and open the door,” demanded Ace as he pressed theknife against Lotus’s throat. “Hurry! Do you want something to happen to her?”
Ace pushedthe knife more strongly against Lotus’s neck. Blood began to trickle down towardsher shoulders.
“I got it…I’ll open it. I’ll open it so please don’t do anything rash,” I urged. I stoodfacing the purple door and pressed the answer button. The timed detonatorstarted ticking and at the same time a numeric keyboard appeared instead of theregular keyboard with letters. So, it’d be ok just to enter the bracelet numberof the culprit? Ah, of course. It had been established that we had only onechance. If we were able to input answers multiple times, then we could justkeep pressing buttons until we got it right. The rule was a measure put inplace to avoid this.
“Don’twaste time. Hurry!” barked Ace.
What if Ipressed the wrong number? If I did, then everyone’s bombs would explode, andAce’s plan would end in failure.
But Ididn’t think that that was the best ending for us. There should still be a wayto help everyone. I pressed the number 1 with trembling fingers. The screendisplayed the word “ok” and the door opened.
“Everyone,put your hands up and get away from the door,” ordered Ace. Because of thecurrent situation in which Lotus had been taken hostage, we obediently followedhis orders. Ace had no weak spots at all. Of course, Seven looked embarrassed,as he was unable to find the right time to carry out a counter attack.
“Keep themup and move to the back,” continued Ace.
We did aswe were told.
“Right,that’s enough. Try moving one step and watch this woman’s life end,” threatenedAce. He slowly and steadily approached the door while holding Lotus with herhands behind her back. No-one was able to move. I could tell by looking at theinsane expression on Ace’s face that his words were clearly not just a threat.
“Wellthen, farewell,” grinned Ace in triumph when he reached the door.
“Where doyou intend to go?” asked Seven.
“Hasn’tthat already been settled? I have the 9th bracelet. And now I haveobtained Lotus’s bracelet too. With these, I can open the last door.
9 + 8 + 1= 18
1 + 8 = 9
So that’swhy he had chosen Lotus as a hostage.
“Lotus,you should be grateful. For only you will get to survive with me.”
“You’relying!” screamed Lotus. “That’s not what you’re going to do! When we escapefrom here, you intend to kill me, don’t you? So I’d rather stay here and-”
“Well ifthat’s what you want, then I can just cut your hand off here. You’re not what Ineed. I only need your bracelet.”
Lotus became quiet and meek in responses toAce’s threat.
“We haveno time. Let’s go.”
And withthat final note, Ace slipped through the open door. The door swiftly closed and,in an instant, the two had vanished from view. We could only hear dashingfootsteps and Ace’s loud laugh echo through to our side.
We jumpedat the door straight away. We rushed out of the room.
But Aceand Lotus were nowhere to be found.
9
The end of the game is drawingclose.
Will everyone be able to escapesafely?
…And what about me?
Chapter 8
Zero, The Mastermind
1
I ranalong the corridor with Seven and the others. Before long, a familiar sceneunfolded right before our eyes. The grand staircase on the left. The fourfan-shaped iron plates above our heads. The only escape route Ace could havetaken was downstairs.
“Junpei,the E-Deck!” shouted Akane who was coming up from behind me. “Look, when wewent down to the E-Deck in the elevator didn’t we find an iron grille?Although, we weren’t able to move past there then…”
As soon asshe said it, I remembered. The iron grille had been painted indigo. Of course,hadn’t the key we found in the control room also been indigo?
“Who hasthe indigo key?” I asked urgently.
“Lotusdoes,” replied Akane
Whichmeant…
“Let’sgo!!!”
I boundedup the stairs two steps at a time. As I was running, I stole a glance at thewall clock. The hands of the clock showed that it was quarter to five. Therewas only seventy-five minutes of the time limit left.
We reachedthe elevator. The display above the elevator showed that it had stopped at theE-Deck. There was no doubt that the two on them had headed there.
“Hey, buthasn’t the E-Deck been submerged…?” pointed out Seven. It was a naturalquestion to have. But now I didn’t have the time to leisurely explain it tohim.
“It’sfine!” I responded as I shoved everyone into the elevator. Finally, I got inmyself and pushed the E button right away.
Theelevator began descending slowly. It seemed that Seven still didn’t trust whatI had said: his mouth was open wide as he tried to fill his lungs with oxygen.
Beforelong, the elevator reached the E-Deck. We all scrambled to get off, entangledin each other.
“…I’msurprised. Seriously, I didn’t think it’d be like this,” said Seven, lookingrestlessly around the place as though he couldn’t believe it. The others prettymuch had the same reaction as Seven. It made sense to be convinced that thisfloor was flooded.
Just asAkane had guessed, part of the iron grille that had previously been blockingour way had moved slightly, so it seemed that we would be able to proceed.There was no doubt that the 9th door was through there.
We passedthrough the iron grille and pushed along the corridor. My heart was throbbingin a strange state of elation, with mixed feelings of fear and anticipation.But on the flip side, my knees started trembling. But I was hesitant to saythat I felt carefree and was trembling with excitement. It was much more likelythat I was trembling with fear.
Betweenthree and five people could open a numbered door. Even if we were lucky enoughto catch up with Ace and Lotus, at most only five of us could go through thedoor. At least two people would be left out. And at that time would we actuallybe able to continue this game calmly?
Weeventually reached the end of the corridor, where there were two wooden doors:one in front us and the other on the left. First Akane put her hand on the doorin front of us, but it seemed to be locked and would not open. Next, I glaredat the door on the left before throwing myself at it. It opened unexpectedly,and I tumbled into the room at full force.
“Ow…” Imoaned, a sharp pain running along my cheek. I had loudly skidded across thefloor and grazed it. I lifted my face up and groaned slightly.
Theceiling was quite high, looking to be almost ten metres. A geometric patternedstain glass that had been fitted in the room glistened brightly.
While holding my sore cheek, I sat up andquickly glanced around. The first thing that burst into view was a white altarthat had a white cross raised on it. In the corner, there was a coffin-likeobject.
“Let go ofme!”
I couldhear Lotus crying out from the other side of the altar. I hurriedly lookedaround. And my eyes widened in surprise.
There wereseveral silver tubes stretching towards the ceiling. I had seen one of these inthe chapel in my neighbourhood- it was a pipe organ.
To theright of the organ a giant LC panel that was a metre in length had beeninstalled. I could see numbers on it.
4121…4120…
There werefour digits displayed on it. The countdown was quietly continuing. Perhaps ourtime limit was being displayed in seconds. There was about 68 minutes left.
Thenumbered door was to the right of the organ. Just like the doors before, theremajestically stood the giant iron double doors. The number 9 had been scrawledacross it in red ink.
Ace andLotus were standing in front of the door. Ace looked desperate as he rattledand pulled on the lever of the RED.
“Why? Whywon’t it open?” he shouted impatiently.
He was soengrossed in trying to open the door that it seemed that he had not noticedthat we were there. Now was our chance. Seven and I exchanged looks at eachother. We went for his weak spot and carried out our counter attack. FirstSeven tackled Ace. He toppled to the floor, and I swiftly took the knife fromhis hand.
“Lotus,over here!” cried Akane. She pulled her by the arm, away from Ace. Lotus hadsuccessfully and safely escaped from Ace.
And withthat the tables had turned.
“But why?Why…”
Aceincoherently muttered the same words over and over, his eyes wide open, eventhough Seven had twisted his arm.
“Hey,Junpei, could you lend me your jacket?” asked Seven. I took it off and gave itto him. Seven then cut my jacket with the knife and tied both of Ace’s armstogether with it in the place of ropes. This way he wouldn’t be able to opposeus.
Havinglost his fighting spirit, Ace just dropped to the floor and continued muttering“Why? Why?” over and over again.
“We’vearrived at last,” said Seven, looking up at the 9th door.
“Yeah,” Iresponded. Wrapped up in my thoughts, the bottom of my heart felt frozen. Onlyfive of us could survive. The real battle would start from here.
“Junpei,look. Look over there,” Akane said. I turned around and looked to where she waspointing.
“…Whatis that?” I questioned. I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Directlyopposite the door we came in through, on the opposite side, there was a wallthat was covered with a snow-white curtain. The wind blowing from outside theroom caused it to sway: the curtain vigorously blew upwards in a gust of wind.
Beyond thecurtain was a numbered door. The door was so small that you could mistake itfor a window. And of course, on the surface of the door was the bright rednumber 9.
“…Whatdoes this mean?” I spluttered eventually.
All of usstood stunned, the freshly emerged 9th door before us.
2
There wasanother 9th door.
The shapeand size were different compared to the other numbered doors we had seen upuntil now. But a RED had been properly installed beside it.
“Why arethere two 9th doors?!?” screeched Lotus. “Could this mean that oneis the right door and the other is wrong?”
“I don’tthink so,” responded Akane as she went past the curtain and approached thesmall 9th door that had been hidden from view. “Leaving the very endup to fate… it doesn’t seem like something Zero would do.”
“Perhapsboth of them are right,” suggested Santa after her. “Zero never said that therewas only one 9th door in the first place.”
Iremembered what Zero had said to us.
“Theexit you need to escape is hidden somewhere on this ship. Look for it. It’s adoor with 9 written on it.”
Of course! He never said that there was just one door. I started tofeel a glimmer of hope.
“So, if wedivide into groups of three and four-” I began.
“It’simpossible. Look,” exclaimed Clover, who was squatting on the floor in front ofthe altar. She pointed at the floor to convey what she meant.
I glancedat the floor by her feet. Written there were several maths sums. Apparently,she had used her earing as a pen. She probably hadn’t said anything all thistime as she had been thinking up of the different combinations to open the 9thdoor.
１+３+５＝９
Remainder:４+６+７+８＝２５
３+７+８＝１８
Remainder:１+４+５+６＝１６
３+７+８＝１８
Remainder:１+４+５+６＝１６
５+６+７＝１８
Remainder:１+３+４+８＝１６
１+３+６+８＝１８
Remainder:１+３+６+８＝１８
１+４+５+８＝１８
Remainder:３+６+７＝１６
１+４+６+７＝１８
Remainder:３+５+８＝１６
３+４+５+６＝１８
Remainder:１+７+８＝１６
“Got it?”asked Clover, pointing at the sums. “There are only eight possiblecombinations, but none of them are ones in which both teams would have adigital root of 9.
“So,you’re saying,” I muttered, “that if three people go through the 9thdoor, four will be left behind. And if four people go through, three will beleft…”
Clovernodded.
“Seriously?!?Are there any combinations that you have missed?” asked Lotus, scanning all thecombinations with doubt in her eyes.
But youcould understand this without looking at each combination one by one.
In orderto open the 9th door, the sum of each bracelet had to be a multipleof 9. Namely 9, 18 or 27. Since the sum of all seven of our bracelets was 34,if we made a team that had a digital root of 9, then the sum of the braceletsof the remaining members would be 25. The digital root of that team would be 7,and they wouldn’t be able to open the door. If one group added up to 18, thenthe other would add up to 16. If one group added up to 27, then the other groupwould add up to 7. So that meant that the digital root of each of our teamswould always be 9 and 7.
“sh*t. Ifonly there was a way for all of us to get out,” growled Seven.
I wasshaken by his words. Seven was right. There were two 9th doors.Which meant that all nine of us who had gathered together on the grandstaircase at the start would have been able to escape.
Whendividing nine people into groups of four and five, if one team had a digitalroot of 9, then the other team would also definitely have a digital root of 9.
“So, theNonary Game… was designed in a way that everyone could be saved,” I saidaloud without thinking.
Zerohadn’t lied. He didn’t say that there was just one 9th door.Nevertheless, the trapped players naturally start fighting. One team betraysanother team, deceives them, and even attempts to defeat them. In some cases,even blood would flow- perhaps even some people would be killed.
And thenin the end the players who survived would reach this final room, only torealise that there were two 9th doors, and that there was no need tokill each other.
Knowingthis, they are driven to madness from the bad feelings surrounding the doors.This was probably Zero’s true goal.
“Hey, waita minute,” shouted Lotus, raising her voice from beside me and shocking me. “Dowe really need to take that man with us?”
Sheindicated at Ace with her chin. Ace hung his head, his hands and feet bound.
“If it’sjust the six of us, will we be able to manage?”
I couldunderstand her feelings. But even though he was an inhuman person who hadkilled three people, wouldn’t we be burdened with the same sin if we left himhere and escaped?
No, thatwas impossible in the first place. For example, even if we removed Ace, thatwould only mean that the number of combinations that could to go through the 9thdoor would decrease from eight to four. It’d be impossible for all remainingsix people to escape.
Afterhearing that, Lotus dropped her shoulders, crestfallen.
“You’rethe worst! We’ve come all the way here to die!” she screamed, looking panicked.
“Say, the9th man- Kubota, was it?” began Seven. “What would happen if we used hisbracelet?”
Lotus’sface lit up.
“Yes! Whydidn’t I think of that?”
“Sorry,but that is also impossible,” I announced, shaking my head.
Just asAce had explained in the control room: even if the number nine is added to theoriginal number, the digital root would remain the same. If we were to use the9th bracelet, our situation wouldn’t change at all.
“Then whatwas with all that ‘it’s the almighty bracelet’ sh*t?” barked Lotus, scowling atAce. “It’s nothing but lies! It’s just a useless number!”
“If onlymy brother was here…” lamented Clover.
Of course-Snake had had the 2nd bracelet. If he was here, then the sum of allour bracelets would have been 36. We would have been able to divide up mutuallyinto groups that were multiples of 9.
If Snakewas here…
No, wait.
Hadn’tSnake bracelet been removed from Snake’s wrist and transferred to the wrist ofthe man, Niji*zaki, who died in the x-ray room? If that was the case…
“We mightall be able to be saved by this!” I roared, to which I received strange looksfrom everyone. “Isn’t the 2nd bracelet in the x-ray room?”
Beforeanyone had the chance to speak, I was already running.
“I’ll goget it now!” I said and dashed from the chapel.
“Wait,I’ll go too,” I heard Seven call out after me.
“No,Seven,” I shouted back. “Please be on alert here and keep guard of Ace.”
Eventhough he was tied up, we still had to be careful. If anything happened, thenno one other than Seven would be able to fight Ace.
“Then Iwill follow you!”
I turnedaround to see Akane following me, breathing heavily.
3
“It’s toodangerous. You should stay with everyone,” I said, pushing Akane back as Ipressed the button for the elevator.
“It’ssafer for me to stay with you, Junpei,” she expressed encouragingly, holdingher head high. She stood in front of me and gazed at me. “It’s not that I havedoubts about everyone else, it’s just it’s possible that one of them is Zero.And then…”
She stoppedthere and took a step closer to me.
“Andthen?” I asked.
“Junpei…there’s something that I have really been wanting to tell you…” she mumbledunclearly.
“What doyou want to tell me?”
As soon asI asked her that, the elevator doors opened. We got on at the same time, and Ipressed the C button. But nothing happened. The button didn’t light up like ithad before.
“Dammit!What’s wrong with it?” I exclaimed. No matter how many times I pressed it, theresult was the same. My impatience gradually got worse. I gave up on the Cbutton. Praying, I pressed the B button. This time the lamp lit up as normal,and the elevator doors closed. The elevator carrying the two of us startedrising slowly. I put my hand on my chest in relief and leaned against the wall.
“Junpei,there’s blood,” said Akane, sounding concerned as she touched my cheek.
“Yeah,it’s from when I grazed my cheek when I burst into the chapel.”
“Are youok?”
“It’s justa scratch,” I assured and tapped my cheek. But the cut was deeper than I thoughtit had been. A violent pain rushed through my brain.
“Ow!” Iexclaimed, accidentally wincing.
“Take iteasy. It’d be bad if it got infected. Let me take a good look,” requestedAkane, getting much closer.
“H-hey!”
A sweetsmell tickled my nostrils. I stood stock-still. I couldn’t even more a muscle.
…I feltlike this had happened before. While having this strange feeling of Déjà vu, Isaw Akane’s glossy lips move. Akane smiled, as though she had read my mind.
“Do youremember?” she smiled. “It was a little bit before we finished primary school…
As soon asshe said it, I remembered. The two of us were sitting on a small hill. We werequietly watching the sun set over the distant townscape.
“Are you ok?”, asked Akaneanxiously.
“It’s just a scratch. Ouch! Ow owow ow!”
“You’re not ok at all. That was…extremely rash. You against five secondary school kids… that’s just insane!”
“You say that, but I had no choice,did I? I couldn’t just leave you there like that.”
Likepleasant music flowing from a music box, scattered memories that had beenstuffed away in the compartments of my brain began to spread slowly back aroundmy mind.
The incident of the savageslaughtering of the rabbits occurred on the last day of the first term. I foundthe free time for myself to continue listening to the surrounding adults. Theydiscussed the urgent first ten days of March, the period just before the end ofthe school year. And then, they determined that the culprits behind theslaughtering were a group of secondary school students.
Akane and I headed together to thepark where they always hung out. The secondary school students, who alwaysseemed to be badly behaved, were sprinkling flammable oil on a kitten behind abush.
“That’s awful,” exclaimed Akane,covering her face. “What are you doing? Stop it!”
Before I could feel either anger orfear, my body was already moving. I hastily picked up the kitten and gentlytossed it to Akane.
“When Igot the kitten from you, I ran to the nearest police box and brought back apolice officer with me,” recalled Akane. “I was really surprised. Your face wasswollen up like puff pastry. Even though you couldn’t stand, you were stilltrying to catch those secondary school students.”
I shruggedmy shoulders.
“And whenI was treating your wounds at the bank, I asked you: “Did they manage to getaway while I was on the way here?”
“No, they got away,” I replied
“Then how come…” began Akane
“Because I’m a guy that never givesup. I can’t forgive those bastards who took your precious rabbits away fromyou. At any rate, you haven’t noticed that I’m bowing down on the ground inapology to you.”
“Now thatyou mention it, that did happen,” I smiled while rubbing under my nose. To behonest, it was kind of embarrassing hearing about such an old tale.
“Junpei,you haven’t changed a bit since then. You’re still a clumsy, reckless,good-natured person…”
“Hey, youdidn’t say any nice things.”
“Oh,you’re right,” she smiled, showing her white teeth. “Its’s just that… Iwanted to meet that Junpei again.”
She cutoff there, covered her face and swallowed her next words.
“…Akane?”
“It’s just…In the end, there’s something I wanted to tell you at all costs…”
“Don’t saythings like ‘in the end’,” I said, smiling at Akane who was talking with suchdifficulty. “After this, won’t we be able to meet many times, face-to-face?”
“…Whatdo you mean?”
“There’ssomething I want to tell you too,” I said with a grin, putting my hands on hershoulders. “But I won’t say it now. I’ll talk to you when we escape safely fromthis ship. So please wait until then.”
She lookedup at me and nodded silently.
As thoughit had been waiting patiently for us to finish our conversation, the elevatordoor opened with perfect timing.
“Let’sgo,” I said. I grabbed Akane’s hand and quickly headed towards the grandstaircase.
But justas we were about to descend the stairs, we stopped in our tracks. I couldn’thelp but be astonished by the sight before my eyes.
“No way.”
Akane’svoice echoed behind me.
A smallpiece of wood that had washed away from somewhere drifted close to my feet. Ourdumbfounded faces were reflected back at us on the surface of the water. Beforewe had realised it, the amount of water had increased more than ever. TheC-Deck had been completely submerged. Which is probably why there was noresponse when I pressed the C button. The emergency device must have kickedinto action to make sure that the door stayed completely sealed at the C-Deck.
“…Whyhas the water level increased so quickly?” I said aloud, while at the same timethinking it was a pointless question. The answer was obvious. This was all thework of Zero. Without a doubt, Zero had to adjust the amount of flooding sothat when it went past the time limit, the ship would sink right away.
It’d beimpossible to recover the bracelet from the corpse in the x-ray room underthese circ*mstances. No, we couldn’t give up. There had to be a way to do it.
“Let’s goto the control room and find something we can use,” I suggested and dashed upthe stairs towards the A-Deck. I opened the purple door and once again stepfoot in the control room.
“What areyou planning to do?” asked Akane.
I did notanswer her. I opened the drawers and checked the shelves that caught my eye.
“No way.You’re not going to dive into the water, are you?!?”
TypicalAkane. So good at guessing. She must have read it from my expression.
“It’simpossible!” exclaimed Akane, raising her tone. “Are you even thinking abouthow far away the x-ray room is?”
“Don’tworry,” I responded while peering at the shelves. “I’m not thinking of justdiving in and going there. If only I could find an aqualung…”
“Is thereanything you can use?”
“No,nothing.”
“Youhaven’t had training before, so you can’t dive deep into the sea. Let’s give upon the bracelet and turn back and go back to where everyone-”
SuddenlyAkane cut off. Then the sound of her toppling over reached my ears.
I spunaround and saw Akane sprawled across the cold floor.
“Hey,what’s wrong?” I asked her. I hastily rushed over to her and touched herflushed cheek. Her temperature was not normal. Apparently, her high temperaturehad returned. Now was now the time for things like going to the x-ray room.
“Can youwalk?” I asked her.
“Aaaaaagh!”roared Akane. Her entire body was convulsing. Her body was bending in adistressing manner. Not just her lips, but her entire face was turning purple.Her state was very different to what it had been up until now.
“Akane,keep it together!”
“Junpei…I remembered,” she muttered almost incoherently, breathing heavily. A weaklight peeped out from her slightly open eyelids. “Yes… I… was a ghost…”
“What thehell are you saying???”
“I’m sorry…Junpei… everything here tonight… it’s… it’s my fault…” gasped Akane,tears spilling from her eyes.
“Akane…PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER, AKANE!”
“Please…don’t worry… I’m ok… it’s just my presence is unstable… because I’mapproaching a singular point…” mumbled Akane. She was losing consciousness,and her words weren’t making sense to me.
“AAAAAGH!”she screamed as though she was dying. Once again, she started spasming and herentire body was bent backwards. Her now wide-open eyes were fixed on one point,like a dead person. An unusual amount of froth was spilling from the corner ofher mouth.
It’d beserious if she bit her tongue. I looked around for something I could cram intoher mouth.**
And afterthat, the sound of a dry explosion echoed, like the sound of a balloonbursting.
“…Akane?”I said, looking around nervously. Even though she should have been lying on thefloor in front of me, I couldn’t see her anywhere.
4
I crawledto the place where Akane had been up until a few moments ago and searched thefloor with the palms of my hands. It was the same as when she had disappearedfrom the second-class cabin: I couldn’t feel any warmth where she had been.
“Akane!” Icalled out. But there was no answer. I jumped up and bounded around the controlroom. But there was no-one there. What the f*ck was happening? I didn’tunderstand at all. I had only taken my eyes off Akane for one or two seconds.No matter how fast she could move, even if there had been a hidden doorsomewhere, there would have not been enough time for her to disappear from thecontrol room.
I crossedthe chart room and pushed open the door to the captain’s cabin. Things herehadn’t changed from before: there was the corpse of the man lying there withhis back gouged open by the axe. I stared at the bracelet on his left wrist. Itseemed that it was no longer possible to retrieve the bracelet from the x-rayroom. So perhaps this bracelet would do?
If you want to save…
“…What?”
For asecond, I thought I could hear someone’s voice. I looked all around me. Butthere was only the corpse that was covered in blood. There was no way that hehad spoken, was there?
If you want to save her, take thebracelet to the chapel…
I wasn’thearing things. This time I heard the voice clearly.
“Who’sthere?” I asked. I stopped breathing, and only moved my eyes from left toright. Was Zero somewhere nearby?
There’s no time. Hurry…
No. Iwasn’t hearing this voice from somewhere around here. This voice was resoundingdirectly inside my head.
“…Thiscan’t be real,” I said aloud, looking around me with both hands covering myears.
Hurry.
Eventhough I had been covering my ears, I could still hear the voice as clearly asbefore. There was no doubt about it. It was unbelievable, but they werespeaking directly to me inside of my brain. No… perhaps something hadhappened to my head?
Hurry. Time is already…
Iabsolutely had to follow what the voice said. For some reason, I found myselfthinking that.
I graspedthe axe that had been at my feet. With a cry, I swung it down forcefully on theleft wrist of the corpse.
The bladeof the axe plunged into the wrist of the corpse. I heard the flesh tearing anda slimy, lukewarm liquid splashed on my cheek. However, I couldn’t falter fromsuch an insignificant thing as that. The wrist was still connected to the arm.I gripped the axe again and swung down on the same place. This time was moreeffective. The severed left hand was sliding around in a pool of blood.
I removedthe bracelet from the wrist, dashed from the room and headed towards theelevator. The lips of the corpse seemed to be mid word, and the eyes had beenstaring motionlessly forwards.
I was nolonger innocent. It seemed that I had broken myself.
5
I wentback to the chapel. Everyone’s faces stiffened with fright as they caught sightof me, as I was covered in blood.
“Hey, didsomething happen?” asked Seven.
“…Whathappened to Murasaki?” quizzed Lotus.
Iconcisely explained how the C-Deck had flooded so that it was impossible toretrieve the 2nd bracelet, and how Akane collapsed and disappearedfrom right in front of me, as well as how I retrieved the bracelet from thecorpse in the captain’s cabin.
“Hey, didyou just abandon that girl there, then nonchalantly stroll back here? I thoughtshe was a close friend of yours!” shouted Seven, grabbing onto me.
“She’s…no longer alive,” I responded, avoiding his gaze and shaking my head. “She wasa ghost.”
“What thef*ck do you mean?”
“Seven,didn’t you realise a long time ago?” I asked. “She’s Akane, the girl who diedon this ship nine years ago.”
“Ofcourse,” gasped Seven, his face paling instantly. “That girl from then? No,that can’t-”
“KurashikiAkane- that’s her real name.”
“Kurashiki…Akane?” whispered Ace.
I sawAce’s mouth twitch and my doubts relating to Akane turned to convictions.
“That girl…was Kurashiki Akane?” continued Ace. “That’s preposterous. In the experimentnine years ago, she-”
“Yeah, shewas killed by you!” I spat, filled with pure rage. But I supressed the darkfeelings that had suddenly boiled to the surface. Now was not the time forfighting.
“Wait asecond,” exclaimed Lotus, raising her voice. “What are you all saying? I don’tget this at all. Murasaki is a ghost and she really died nine years ago? Areyou seriously saying that? That’s crazy! Anyway, I touched Murasaki. My handdid not go through her. And as well as that she was warm.”
“Sorry,but who proved that ghosts don’t have any substance? It’s just a whimsicalspeculation,” grumbled Santa, as though he was speaking to himself.
“Well,then what?” snapped Lotus. “So Zero just detained a ghost and stuck a braceleton its arm?”
“Hey. Idon’t think that this argument, which we don’t need to be having by the way, isabout that,” announced Clover. “Hasn’t the situation changed a lot by Murasakinot being here?”
Everyone’sgaze fixed on Clover.
“Anyway,think about it. The sum of all six of our bracelets is 28. In order to maketeams with digital roots of 9, the sum of the numbers has to be 9 or 18. Inthis case, the sum of the bracelets of the remaining members would be 19 or 10,meaning the digital root would be 1.”
“Wellsh*t,” said Seven. “Then we still won’t be able to all go through.”
“But if weexclude THAT person…” said Clover, glancing sideways at Ace.
3 + 4 + 5+ 7 + 8 = 27
2 + 7 = 9
“Ifthere’s just five of us we can escape!” beamed Lotus, her eyes shining and hervoice filled with joy. “Right, we’ve got to hurry and go-”
“Wait aminute,” I interrupted. “Is this really ok?”
“What areyou saying?” protested Lotus. That guy is a cold-blooded killer. Is therereally any reason to save him?”
“But thatdoesn’t give us the right to judge him!”
“Stopglossing over what he did! If we sacrifice him, then all of us will survive!”
“This islike the plank of Carneades,” said Santa in a low voice.
“Carn…what?” spluttered Lotus.
I knewwhat that meant. A shipwrecked man clings to a plank of wood for dear life.Then another man appears who also tries to grab onto the plank. But if both ofthem were to hold onto it, the plank would sink. Filled with worry, the firstman shoves the man who came after, causing him to drown. He is saved and latertried, but in the end, he is not charged with a crime.
This was decidedaccording to Japanese law. Penal Code Article 37: An act unavoidably performed to avert a present danger to the life,body, liberty or property of oneself or any other person is not punishable onlywhen the harm produced by such act does not exceed the harm to be averted.***
But evenif it was lawful, and even though I knew that the person we would sacrifice wasan atrocious killer, I was not able to just stand back and let him die.
“Well thenis there another way to save all of us?” snapped Lotus.
“Well…”
“There’sno time for you to leisurely think about it. When there’s no alternative,should you not try your best to choose the method that saves the most lives aspossible?”
“It’s finefor you to leave me here,” grumbled Ace sulkily.
“See? Evenhe’s saying it,” said Lotus, pointing at him.
“But letme warn you,” sneered Ace. “Zero doesn’t care in the slightest about helpingus.”
“Why wouldyou know that?” asked Seven, staring at Ace.
“Neitherof the doors opened for me. With my bracelet, Lotus’s bracelet and the 9thbracelet, our digital root was 9. And yet the numbered door didn’t budge aninch.
“Then doesthat mean this bracelet is banjaxed?” asked Seven, holding up the 9thbracelet he’d taken from Ace in front of Ace’s face.
“No, theasterisk symbol lit up as normal. It should have correctly recognised it.”
“Let’s tryit. Clover, please help me,” I said. I took Clover, who had been standingbeside me, with me and we stood in front of the numbered door that was besidethe pipe organ. First, I moved my bracelet close to it. Next, Clover verifiedher bracelet.
“Seven,could you lend me the 9th bracelet?” I requested.
“Sure.”
With that,he threw the bracelet towards me. I caught it with my right hand and moved itclose to the RED. The third asterisk lit up.
5 + 4 + 9= 18
1 + 8 = 9
Thatshould have worked. But nothing happened when I lowered the lever.
“I toldyou so,” smirked Ace. “Too bad. I guess all of us will just have to wait herefor death.”
Why wasthis happening? This didn’t make any sense. I stood in front of the RED andknocked hard on the door. When I did that, another asterisk symbol appeared forsome reason.
“Whatcould this mean?” asked Lotus, moving closer with a confused expression.
“Ah, it’sthis,” I said. I knew what the cause was straight away. The blood-coveredbracelet in my jacket pocket had caused the scanner panel to react when it gotclose to it.
“Why doesit have to be like this? I thought we had found another way. But I just got myhopes up for nothing.”
As Lotusspoke, I casually pulled down on the lever. The door suddenly opened with a lownoise. Everyone looked through the gaping open door in a state of shock. Whennine seconds had passed, the door closed again. I didn’t understand why thishad happened. What the f*ck was going on?
The numberof the blood-covered bracelet that I had taken from the captain’s cabin wasstill unknown as the face was broken. However, as it had been verified by theRED, it had to have a certain number allocated to it.
“Oh…” Isaid aloud, as I looked at the bracelet I had gotten from Seven and thought upof a possibility. “Perhaps…”
It wasmost likely just a stupid delusion. But it was worth a try. Once again, I askedClover to verify her bracelet. She pressed her bracelet against the RED, apuzzled expression on her face.
“Alright,Lotus, you next, please.”
“Me?Alright.”
Lotusextended her arm. The second asterisk symbol lit up.
Withoutmissing a beat, I pressed the 9th bracelet to the RED and put myhand on the lever.
“What areyou doing?” objected Lotus. “That’s not going to work. Me, Clover and thennumber 9, that’s… um… that’s only 3.”
As Ilistened to Lotus’s objections, I lowered the lever with great force. And onceagain, the door opened wide.
“Asexpected…” I muttered.
“What doyou mean ‘as expected’?” asked Lotus, drawing closer to me. “Could you explainit in a way so that I and everyone else here can understand?”
“Thebracelet that the man called Kubota was wearing was…” I began, thrusting the9th bracelet in front of her. “The thing it, it wasn’t the 9thbracelet. It was the 6th bracelet.”
As Iexplained, I rotated the dial by 180 degrees. The digital number of 9 changedto 6 in the blink of an eye.
8 + 4 + 6= 18
1 + 8 = 9
“Becauseof its simple design of just a winding crown on the left and the right, even ifyou turn it upside down, it’s appearance doesn’t change at all. So that’s whyno-one noticed it. It’s quite likely that even Kubota himself was convincedthat his bracelet’s number was 9.”
Of course.Ace had failed to open the 9th door along with Lotus. Since thebracelet he thought was the 9th bracelet was actually the 6thbracelet, it didn’t open.
“Well ifthat’s the 6th bracelet, then that’d certainly mean that I would beable to open the 9th door with Clover but… something seems off,”pondered Lotus. “If that’s the case, then the man with the messy hair…Kubota, wasn’t it? Anyway, in the beginning when he opened the 5thdoor, it was me and Murasaki who verified our bracelets with him.
“Yeah,then the maths are wrong,” contributed Seven, wrinkles on his brow. “IfKubota’s bracelet was 6, then 6 plus 5 plus 6 would be 17. The digital root of17 is 8. It wouldn’t work with door number 5.”
No, that’snot it,” I responded. “Wouldn’t that mean then that there are two 6thbracelets? Did Zero not say that each person had different bracelets, and thatno two were the same?”
“Then whatdoes that mean?”
“It meansthat Akane’s- Murasaki’s bracelet was also upside down. Her number was not 6:it was 9. So that’d mean that they were able to open door number 5, right?”
Whatyou’re saying seems to make sense at first glance, but actually it’snonsensical,” announced Clover. She took out the same earing from before andstarted scraping into the floor with it:
1st- The 4th door
Members:Santa, Junpei, Murasaki, Lotus
３+５+６+８＝２２ → ２+２＝４
2nd – The8th door
Members:Santa, Murasaki, Lotus
３+６+８＝１７ →１+７＝８
3rd– The 6th door
Members:Ace, Santa, Junpei, Murasaki
１+３+５+６＝１５ → １+５＝６
“This is alist of all the numbered doors that Murasaki has passed through up until now,”explained Clover. “I also wrote who went through those doors with her. Allright?”
“Yeah,” Ireplied.
“But itMurasaki’s bracelet number was 9 and not 6, then the maths won’t work.”
Cloverrewrote the 6s as 9s and fixed the sums.
1st– the 4th door
３+５+９+８＝２５ → ２+５＝７
2nd– the 8th door
３+９+８＝２０ →２+０＝２
3rd– the 6th door
１+３+５+９＝１８ → １+８＝９
“See?” shesaid. If the digital root is 7, then door number 4 wouldn’t have opened. Thedoors for 2nd and 3rd time are the same: the numbers onthe door and the digital roots do not match at all.”
“Lookcarefully at the sums again. Do you notice anything?” I asked her.
“What arey- huh?”
“No matterwhat sum you look at, the number 3 is definitely in them. Santa was always withMursasaki.”
“What’syour point?” asked Seven, moving his rugged face closer.
“Pleasethink back,” I instructed. “When the three of us: me, Murasaki and Clover weretrying to open the door, didn’t Santa barge in suddenly?”
I glancedat Santa. He didn’t respond at all: he just leaned against the wall, staringinto space.
“Santa’snumber isn’t 3. His real number is-”
I cut off,took the earring from Clover and made further modifications to Clover’s sums.
“In thiscase, don’t the digital roots and the numbers on the doors match?” I asked.
1st:The 4th door
０+５+９+８＝２２ → ２+２＝４
2nd:The 8th door
０+９+８＝１７ →１+７＝８
3rd:The 6th door
１+０+５+９＝１５ → １+５＝６
“0, not3?” croaked Clover in a hoarse voice. “Then that means”-
Everyone’sgaze fixed on Santa. While staring into space, he gave a small smile, movinghis lips slightly.
“Correct.”
Santamoved away from the wall, and slowly looked at us.
“You gotit. That’s right. I am Zero.”
6
Aferocious earthquake ran between us. Everyone stared at Santa with stunnedexpressions. I was no exception.
“You…”said Seven, after the small silence. He had a complicated expression on hisface that was a mix of anger and pity. “You really are Aoi, aren’t you?”
“Woah. Youremembered.”
Santa’swhole face spilt into a big smile. Since he had tried up until now not to showany emotion, you’d almost think he was another person because of his smile.
“Aoi?”questioned Lotus.
“He’s oneof the people who participated in the experiment nine years ago,” respondedSeven. “He was still just a young kid then.”
“That timewe didn’t pick out stupid nicknames; We called everyone by their real names,”revealed Santa. He looked at me. “While we’re at it, would you like me to tellyou my surname? It’s Kurashiki. Kurashiki Aoi.”
I receiveda huge shock from hearing such a familiar surname. Santa looked happy, pleasedby my reaction.
“Yes,” hecontinued. “I am Akane’s brother.”
“So…” Ibegan. “When you said that your little sister died nine years ago…”
“Yes. Iwas talking about Akane.”
A fierceshiver run through us. Everyone got goose bumps. My knees were trembling somuch that I couldn’t stand properly.
“But…Akane didn’t say a single thing about you being her brother,” I spluttered.
“Oh well,that was inevitable. From the shock of nine years ago, she lost all hermemories from when she met me onwards.”
Hisremarks were absurd. While he was saying that Akane had died nine years ago, hewas also saying that the current Akane was suffering from memory loss in thesame breath.
So, areyou the mastermind behind this game?” asked Seven.
Santanodded deeply in response.
“I’m gladthat you seem to be enjoying it. It was worth the trouble of setting it up.”
“What’sthe purpose of this? Is it revenge for nine years ago?”
That’spart of the reason. But I also couldn’t forgive the four people at the centreof the Nonary Project who killed my little sister,” said Santa, glancing atAce. “Hongou Genaro, since I wanted you to experience fear greater than death,both you and Kubota participated in the game. I wonder, did you enjoy it?”
“Youbastard,” muttered Ace- Hongou- between clenched teeth. “You really are Aoi.”
“Ah, ofcourse,” continued Santa, sounding delighted. “Well, I guess it’s as expected.You can’t differentiate faces after all. And my voice hadn’t broken yet backthen. “President Hongou, you were surprisingly excellent. If you want to be saved, win the game – just with that memo I wroteand put under your pillow, everything has moved so perfectly up until nowbecause of you. Exactly as I had imagined it. It has gone so well that it’salmost frightening.”
Ace saidnothing.
“Out ofall the members of this group, you noticed that Kubota, the director ofresearch and development for the Nonary Project, was there. At first yoursuspected that he was Zero. But say even if you hadn’t had thought that, it’dwould’ve been troublesome for you if he was to carelessly blab about the thingsfrom nine years ago. So, you gave him false information and said that the rulesfor the Nonary Game were different, which led him to his death.”
“Youbastard, you really did have us dancing in the palm of your hand,” laughed Aceseemingly in a self-deprecating way.
“Next,even with the killing of Niji*zaki, you acted exactly as I thought you would,”continued Santa. “I drugged Niji*zaki with anaesthetic in advance and confinedhim in a secluded place. I made use of the time when everyone was searching forthe circuit board to put Snake to sleep with the anaesthetic gas too. I removedhis clothes and took the bracelet off his prosthetic limb. Then I woke Niji*zakiup and put him standing in front of door number 3.”
“But isn’tthat a little strange?” questioned Ace. “Kubota’s bracelet was 6, not 9, right?So then why did the numbered door open for him?”
Ace’sdoubts were just. Santa had come up with the idea of Ace using Kubota’sbracelet to kill his own subordinate, who had been disguised as Snake.
1 + 2 + 9= 12
1 + 2 = 3
But inreality, Kubota’s bracelet number had actually been 6. The digital root was 9.So, the door should not have opened.
1 + 2 + 6= 9
It’ssimple,” responded Santa. “It wasn’t just Niji*zaki. I also drugged Musashidouwith anaesthetic and put both of them standing in front of door number 3.
“The twoof them?” repeated Ace. “Why the two of them?”
“BecauseMusashidou’s bracelet was absolutely necessary in order for you to carry outthe murders for me,” explained Santa, pointing at the bracelet with the brokenface that I was holding in my right hand.
A whileago, I had not been able to open the 9th door with my bracelet,Clover’s bracelet, and the 9th bracelet, because it turned out thatKubota’s bracelet was 6, not 9. But as well as that, when I verified thebracelet with the broken dial, the door opened. In other words-
5 + 4 + 6+3 = 18
1 + 8 = 9
That meantthat the captain’s- Musashidou’s- bracelet number had been 3.
“Oh, Isee,” I said aloud as I finally figured out Santa’s trick.
“After youput the circuit board back in the RED, did you scan Musashidou’s bracelet?”asked Ace.
Before Acehad taken action, the number 3 would have already been input. So that meantthat in the end, the digital root would have been 3.
3 + 1 +2+6 = 12
1 + 2 = 3
“That’sright,” nodded Santa.
“The leftside of the display board of the door number did not light up for some reason,”I deduced. “Was that also your work? You cut the wire in advance so that itwouldn’t be revealed that the first asterisk symbol had lit up, correct?”
“Right youare, Junpei,” applauded Santa, nodding his head happily. “And when I finishedup my work in the large hospital room, I took Musashidou towards the captain’s cabin.”
“What? Butto get to the captain’s cabin, you’d have to unlock the black door, and thenput the yellow key in the elevator…”
“Iam Zero. I prepared a master key,” stated Santa. He stretched his arms outbefore continuing further, as though he proud of what he had done. “Hongou, whomistook the man in the captain’s cabin as someone who was acting behind thescenes, murdered him with an axe in order to project himself– Honestly, Ididn’t know if it’d work out or not. But he carried it out splendidly.”
But on thecontrary of those words, Santa’s entire body was still, and was even giving offan aura of anger.
“Hey, Iwant you to tell us something,” butted in Lotus suddenly. “What was the NonaryProject? And what on earth were the people of Cradle Pharmaceutical planning?”
“Hongou,will you explain it in your own words?” asked Santa, glancing at Ace, who hashanging his head and didn’t respond. “f*ck it. Right, I’ll talk. In order todevelop a vaccine for Angel Fever, the researchers at Cradle Pharmaceutical,who were continuing their studies, were surprised to discover that there was acommon point between the patients who had, at one point, reached level 3 of thevirus.”
“…Acommon point?”
“Everyone’sgot strangely sharp intuition here.”
“Huh?”
Unlike theothers, I was not surprised. I myself had noticed the subtle changes.
Santacontinued speaking, the flame of anger lit.
“Due tothe changes carried out in the cerebrum and other parts of the brain caused bythe stimulation of the Angel Virus, Sheldrake’s Theory suddenly starts to haveelements of truth to it.”
7
Santa hadspoken eloquently about the Nonary Project. Basically, what he said was this:
Supposethat right now you taught the answer to a problem to a million people. If youdid, then the probability that I could answer that problem correctly tomorrowwould be higher, despite not being told anything about it myself.
Alternatively,say that one million people did a handstand all at once. Despite not knowinganything about this, the likelihood that I would do a handstand the next daywould be higher.
All ofthis was the result of human thoughts, actions and behavioural patterns beingtransported and spread around through a special field.
But whatwould happen if there was one person with power equal to that of those millionpeople? What if there was a mysterious person who by just doing a handstandhimself could spontaneously make the other people also do a handstand?
Thatopposite pattern was also plausible. Even normal people who did not have thatsort of power: even if one person like that did a handstand, others would readthat weak signal and spontaneously do a handstand. What if such a strangeperson existed?
The former person held the power to write the special field. Thelatter held the power to read the field.
Bur how did the sender and receiver form a pair? Perhaps the senderwas able to manipulate the receiver at will.
In order to verify this, eighteen children who had shown symptoms oflevel 3 of the Angel Virus had been gathered.
Transmitting and receiving: Whichever ability you excelled in could bediagnosed by Ganzfeld Experiment. Those who excelled at transmission capabilitywent to a laboratory in Tokyo. They were group Q. Those who excelled inreception capability were imprisoned on the Britannic. This was group A.
From previous experiments, the executioners had determined that theability to access the field increased with “insight” and “crisis”.
When you face a difficult problem, after worrying, worrying andworrying, there is a moment where the solution suddenly comes floating to thesurface of your mind. This is called “insight”. Because of the informationobtained by “insight”, it becomes easy to write to and read the field.Furthermore, by adding “crisis”, the ability to access the field increases allthe more.
Everyonestayed silent and looked puzzled. It was unclear whether they had understood ornot. But paying no attention to this, Santa continued his explanation.
“So Hongouand the others decided to set up all these gimmicks and riddles on this ship.We had to solve those riddles in order to proceed: that is the situation thatthey manufactured.”
Of course, they did not forget to give them access to “crisis”. Inblunt terms, this meant crushing the side of the Britannic, and while the shipwas sinking, making the children in Group A compete in the Nonary Game. Then,they would be cornered with extreme conditions, which stimulated the revelationof their abilities.
In the meantime, the children in group Q- the ones who were in themock laboratory in Tokyo- they were confined in Building Q. The Q Building wasan exact imitation of the structure of the Britannic and the inside was theexact same with the same tricks set up in it.
“But whywould they do that?” asked Clover.
“Did youknow that Apollo 13, which was involved in an accident, somehow returned toEarth?” Santa asked, responding to Clover’s question with a question. No-onewas able to respond to such an abrupt question.
“NASA reproduced an exact replica of the inside of Apollo 13. Usingthis replica, the staff at NASA replicated the accident that occurred to Apollo13. They were able to solve what they should do by inserting themselves insidethe replica. They then conveyed the conclusion that they had come up with tothe astronauts inside the actual ship. A similar thing was done with the QBuilding and the Britannic.”
Hongou hadsaid the following to the children in Building Q.
“Solve the riddles set up in theroom. If you solve them, that information will be conveyed transmitted to GroupA.
If you’re able to successfullyconvey it, the subjects in Group A will be able to proceed.
On the contrary, if you can’tconvey it, the Britannic will eventually sink, and the members of Group A willbe sleeping with the fishes.”
“Howawful,” whispered Lotus, her breathing ragged. She put her hand to her chest asthough she was earnestly trying to breathe normally again. Her eyes were brightwith tears. Her daughter had been caught up in this insane project and hadunfortunately lost her life. Her sadness was immeasurable.
“It’scrazy…” she sobbed. “A special field where thoughts are transported? There’sno way something like that could exist…”
“What areyou saying? My plan was perfect!” yelled Ace. However, you could tell from theglint in his eyes and the lack of frankness in his words that he himself didn’tfully believe it. He turned to face Seven. “And if you hadn’t gotten in theway, the experiment would have been a success.”
“There’sstill something I don’t understand,” answered Seven, ignoring Ace. He turned toSanta. “What did you do with Snake?”
“Yeah,where’s my brother?” screamed Clover.
“Don’tworry,” sneered Santa. “I’d never inflict harm on your former comrade. And youstill have to search this room well… Any other questions?”
“I have one more,” piped up Lotus. “Why havewe been caught up in this? Would it not be better to just involve the fourconnected to the Nonary Project? That has nothing to do with us.”
“No,rather than Hongou’s minions, you lot were more important. After this you mustdo your best,” laughed Santa happily. “Oh ooops, it’s almost time. I’ve got toget going.”
He glancedat the numbers of continuing silent countdown on the left-hand side of the pipeorgan and put his hand in his left pocket.
2010…2009…
He took ablack lustre mass out and sneered. Everyone swallowed deeply. It was a pistol.
“This isnot a toy,” he announced. He pointed it in the air and pulled the trigger. Aflash flew out, along with a deafening explosion. “At last – a present for youall.”
He slowlypointed the muzzle of the gun towards me then flung one of the bracelets thathe was holding at me. It was Kubota’s bracelet- the 9th, no, the 6thbracelet.
“Clover,”began Santa. “I feel sorry for you…and I apologise, because Snake has a goodhead on his shoulders. He became aware of my plan, and it’d be troublesome ifhe got in the way. So, I decided to use you as a hostage.”
“…Whatdo you mean?” she questioned.
“Just likeHongou, I laid out a message card under Snake’s pillow. Look, wasn’t there thatBraille card that Snake showed everyone? That was it.”
“But therewas just a more detailed explanation of the rules of the Nonary Game written onit…”
“No. Thatcard said: Don’t dare talk about whathappened here nine years ago. If you do, I’ll kill your sister.”
“So that’swhy my brother told that lie?”
“Heprobably said it so that you lot wouldn’t recklessly copy Kubota. If you hadgone through the numbered door without understanding the rules properly,everyone would have self-destructed. But that doesn’t mean that he wasconveying the truth. If he had confessed: “AsI have experienced the Nonary Game before, I know the rules”, then Cloverwould have probably been killed. With all of this, in pure desperation, Snakecame up with that explanation. He really is a smart guy.”
When hefinished talking, Santa fumbled around in his pocket before pulling out a newbracelet.
“Do youknow whose bracelet this is?” asked Santa, turning the face towards Clover. Thenumber 2 was displayed there.
“…Mybrother’s,” whispered Clover.
“When Ichecked Musashidou’s corpse for the last time, I secretly took this. I’ll givethis to you.”
Cloverstretched her arm out to take the bracelet. Santa shrewdly grabbed it.
“Right,let’s go.”
“…What?”
With themuzzle of the gun pointed at us, Santa approached the double-doors.
“Junpei,give me the 3rd bracelet.”
We had nochoice but to follow his orders obediently since Clover had been taken hostage.I threw the bracelet with the broken face at Santa.
The 3rdbracelet, Clover’s 4th bracelet, the 2nd bracelet in herhands and then Santa’s 0 bracelet: the digital root of the four was 9.
“I’m theone who gets to live!”
Ace stoodup suddenly. Before we had noticed, he had undone the restraints that had been puton him, using Clover’s earing in the place of a knife. We were so carelesslycaught up in Santa’s confession that we didn’t notice.
Crying outlike a beast, he picked up the 6th bracelet that was on the floorand hurled himself at Clover.
Santa wasunable to fight back against such a sudden attack. All too soon, Clover waseasily snatched away.
TakingClover along with him, Ace stood in front of the other 9th door. Hepressed the 6th bracelet that he had clutched in his right hand andthe 2nd bracelet that was in Clover’s hand against the scannerpanel.
“Too bad.Looks like I’m the winner of this game,” he gloated.
Santapointed the gun at Ace, and Seven pointed the knife at him too. But since Acewas using Clover as a shield, there was nothing they could do.
Finally,he scanned his own bracelet and swiftly pulled down the lever.
6 + 2 + 1= 9
He clungonto Clover’s hand. He seemingly intended to proceed through the door whileusing her as a shield. If he was to do that, then Clover would die by explosion.Now was not the time for looking on wistfully.
I had torescue Clover. But just as my footsteps started pounding across the floor…
It won’topen,” said Ace, stopping in his tracks. For some reason, the numbered doorstayed still and silent. “Why won’t it open?”
Ace let goof Clover’s arm and started moving the lever with both hands.
“Clover,run away!” I shouted.
And atthat moment, there was a loud bang as a gunshot rang out.
The 6thbracelet that Ace had been holding fell to the floor. The next moment, hisshoulders slumped as he held onto his thigh with both hands.
“Uuuuugh,”groaned Ace. He seemed to be suffering, bright-red blood gushing from betweenhis fingers. “…Why?”
He stared at Santa with wide eyes, in a waythat seemed like he couldn’t believe what had just happened.
“I just…wanted to see faces… human faces,” spluttered Ace, limply falling to hisknees on the spot. “If I obtained the ability to access the field… I toowould have been able to recognise the faces of others…”
His entirebody shook as he struggled to breathe. But he did not stop talking.
“Just byglancing at the face of another… how can one recognise humans by their faces…I can find that out… so…”
“So,you’re saying that you carried out this horrendous experiment for that stupidreason?” spat Santa. “Because of your selfishness, Akane…”
“You foolsdon’t understand… not being able to identify people’s faces… the pain ofnot being able to read anyone’s emotions… the loneliness…”
The coldfloor was covered in blood that was spreading out around him. While we wereengrossed in that sight, Santa grabbed Clover once again and pressed the gun toher temple.
“This timeI really mean farewell.”
WithClover as his hostage, he continued walking towards the big doors. With such abewildering development, Clover didn’t seem to be trying to resist at all asshe had already lost her willpower.
When Santareached in front of the door, he first pressed the 3rd bracelet thathe had been holding against the RED. Next was the bracelet on Clover’s leftwrist, and then the 2nd bracelet that she had been holding in herright hand was read by the scanner panel. Finally, Santa pressed his ownbracelet against it and grabbed the lever.
“Actually,there’s no bomb set up in my stomach, but I’ve got to follow the rules just incase,” he announced.
3 + 4 + 2+ 0 = 9
The dooropened slowly.
“Junpei,said Santa suddenly, looking back at me from the door he was drawing close to.“I’ll leave the rest to you. You’ll understand soon. There is only one way.Only one way to save my dead sister… Akane.”
Those werehis last words. Santa dragged Clover along and exited through the 9thdoor.
“…Wait…wait for me,” begged Ace, dragging his left leg and following after the two ofthem. “I don’t want to die in a place like this… I don’t want to die… don’tleave me…”
Hespeedily slipped through the closing door, disappearing from sight.
“A-” Icalled out to him to stop. But it was too late. “Idiot, if you don’t verifyyour bracelet and pass through the numbered door-”
The 9thdoor creaked closed. After exactly eighty-one seconds, I heard Ace’s dyingscream.
8
There wereonly three of us left behind in the chapel: me, Seven and Lotus. The LC panelbeside the pipe organ went from 1832 to 1831. We had a mere thirty minutesleft.
Thesituations we were placed in kept changing so suddenly that we were unable tokeep up. We could just stand stock-still in surprise. But this time our situationwas fatal.
Suddenlythe door that lead to the elevator closed with a rusty sound.
“sh*t!” Iexclaimed. Knowing it was hopeless, I dashed over to the door anyway and triedputting pressure on it. “It’s not good. It won’t open.”
“What?!?”shrieked Lotus in a shrill voice. “Does this mean that we’re trapped?”
“Apparentlythat seems to be the case,” spat Seven bitterly.
I turnedaround and dashed over to the 9th door that was hidden from sightbehind the curtain. Both Seven and Lotus followed me.
I triedstretching my hand out towards the RED, but I stopped. It was useless. With thethree of us here, we wouldn’t be able to open the 9th door.
5 + 7 + 8= 20
2 + 0 = 2
“Wait!”exclaimed Lotus hopefully. “If we use that bracelet…”
Lotuspointed at the bracelet that was on the floor in the centre of the room. It wasKubota’s bracelet: the one Santa had left here as a parting gift.
I quicklydid the maths in my head. There was only one combination that led to a digitalroot of 9.
5 + 6 + 7= 18
1 + 8 = 9
Both Sevenand I looked at Lotus at the same time. It seemed that she too had sensed it.Without warning, she gave us a sad smile.
“Oh, dearme, what a pity,” said Lotus, pouting her lips as usual. “And we’re just onestep away from completing this game.”
“Lotus…”I began.
“It’sfine, please go ahead. It’s a pity though. Since that’s the only way left,there’s nothing else we can do.”
“There’sno way we could do that,” said Seven, faster than I could as he glared at Lotusfrom directly in front of her.
“Oh, thisis unexpected. Is this not your chance to relieve yourself from such atroublesome person like me?”
“Youidiot!” yelled Seven suddenly. Lotus drew back, surprised by his unexpectedreaction. “If you weren’t there with us… if you weren’t there… it’d be…bothersome…”
Sevenmuttered the last bit, averting his gaze.
“…Bothersome?”repeated Lotus, sounding surprised.
“Y-yeah,that’s it. If there weren’t any bad guys like you, then my trade wouldn’t beable to keep going.
“…What?”
“Uh…anyway, we can’t simply leave you behind,” mumbled Seven.
I looked upat Seven, who was rubbing under his nose, and nodded deeply.
“That’sright,” I agreed. “Let’s find a way to save everyone.”
“I’mastounded. The two of you are really so stupid that you’re beyond saving,”sighed Lotus exaggeratedly, turning her back to us as she called us names. “…Youreally are stupid.”
Hershoulders were shaking slightly. Seven and I exchanged glances, smiling weaklyat each other.
And then,that’s when it happened.
It begins.
Someonemuttered this in my head. It was the same voice that I had heard in the captain’scabin.
It’s finally beginning.
A shrillsiren reverberated around the room. I reflexively looked at the altar. Thefloor split, dividing at the left and the right, and a dome-shaped capsule roseup.
“What…is that?” uttered Lotus, sounding scared.
“Woah. AsI expected, it came out,” said Seven, clicking is tongue unpleasantly.
“What?What do you mean?”
The destined final experiment.
“It’s thebeginning of the final experiment,” I muttered.
“But why…why do you know that?” asked Seven, looking at me with surprise.
I had anextreme feeling déjà vu.
I myselfdidn’t understand it.
But I hadseen that sight somewhere before.
And whatwas inside that dome-shaped capsule- I knew that too.
9
It begins.
It’s finally beginning.
The destined final experiment.
Translator’snotes
*Light ispronounced Raito in Japanese.
**Don’tf*cking do this. Just don’t.
*** It’s areal law. You can check it out here: http://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/law/detail/?id=1960
Chapter 9
Demise: The End
1
I waswatching. I could see everything that was reflected in his eyes.
I waslistening. I heard all the sounds that shook his eardrums.
Odours,tastes, textures: I was experiencing everything that reached all five of hissenses.
I knew. Iknew everything he knew. What he was thinking, what he was planning, what hewas feeling – I knew it all. The way his heart was jolting- I understood itcompletely.
Myconsciousness was inside of him. I sympathised with him by means of the field,we had overlapped and become one. I was him himself, and at the same time, Iwas an onlooker.
It startedwith the sound of a shrill siren. About nine years ago from now. We weretrapped inside the ship that was going to be blown up.
Theresonance began with him at that time. My consciousness melted into him and webecame one. I was inside of him. Inside of Junpei.
I hadaccessed Junpei’s consciousness, which was separated from me by a period ofnine years.
Nonetheless,that did not mean that I had completely lost myself; I was living in twodifferent realities at the same time.
One wasthe reality of the present. The other was the reality of the future. For acomparison point, it was like two films being projected onto one screen at thesame time: they were cloudy and blending into each other, the boundariesunclear.
Nevertheless,if I concentrated, I could focus on either one. So, I clearly perceived whatwas happening right in front of my eyes
“Come on,come on!” my brother Aoi shouted. I desperately chased after him. I could seeseven other children around me. Everyone looked to be around the same age as meand my brother.
“Come on!Hurry up!”
We randown a long, straight corridor and burst into a large hospital room.
There wasa violent dispute. Two boys started grappling and fighting. One girl watchedthem, crying.
“I want togo home! I want to go hoooome,” she sobbed.
Anothergirl slapped the cheek of the girl who was raising hell. A murderous lookflashed and remained in the eyes of the girl who had been crying.
Two hourshad passed since the Nonary Game had started. Everyone’s minds were broken intopieces.
“Everyone,come here for a bit,” said Light just then. This boy would be the blind man calledSnake in nine years’ time. “There’s something I want to tell you.”
As theeldest, he emitted a voice filled with dignity. Everyone assembled into acircle around him.
“I have a sister who is very important to me.Her name is Clover. Today is her ninth birthday.”
With that,he reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver four-leaf clover silverwork accessory.
“Wow, socute!”
Theyoungest and smallest of us, Nona, showed a smile that we had not seen in along time.
“As Iintended to give this accessory to my sister for her birthday, I have beenworking hard on it for the last two months. As you all know, I can’t see, somaking nine of them was excruciating. Since I thought it’d be a good idea toexpress that to my cry-baby sister, I kept at it frantically and made them. Imade nine four-leaf clovers for nine-year old Clover.”
Everyonewas hanging onto his every word. Light continued speaking.
“Haseveryone here got someone who is special to them? I want you to please think ofthat person. For the sake of that person two, we absolutely have to keep onliving and escape from this ship. Right?”
Everyonenodded in unison.
“To dothat, there are three things we must do: Trust the others, love, and continueto embrace our hopes. If everyone follows those three things, then good luckwill definitely come to us. Hope, faith,love and luck- those four things are the four meanings of the four-leafclover.
Lightsmiled sweetly and stretched out his palm, which was covered in the ninesilverworks that he had made.
“Right, ifyou’ve understood that, then I want you to take one. As proof of your oath.”
One byone, the clovers disappeared from the palm of his hand. I too grabbed one andheld it in my hand.
There wasonly one silverwork left at Light’s fingertips. He then said the following,making the last clover seem important.
“Pleasedon’t forget this. As long as you have them, we will always be friends. Ok?”
The eightother children and I nodded, with frigid expressions on our faces.
Afterthat, we ran around the ship, passed through several numbered doors beforefinally reaching the room with the 9th door.
It was alarge room, reminiscent of a chapel. There were two 9th doors beforeus. We had thought that in order to pass through the 9th door, wewould have had to sacrifice four people. We hugged each other in pure joy atthe reversal of our expectations.
First,five people would open the huge double doors and go outside.
“It lookslike we’ll be able to get out if we go up the stairs like this. You guys,hurry!”
I heard afrantic voice from the other side of the door.
“We’ve gotto hurry too!”
Mybrother, Aoi, was standing in front of the other numbered door- the small onethat was hidden in shadows by the curtain. Behind him, Nona, Light and I werelined up. With this, we would come to the end of this ridiculous game.
The threeothers had finished verifying their bracelets. Finally, I moved my wrist closeto the scanner panel. And that’s when it happened.
A shrillsiren echoed around the room. Startled, Nona crawled under the desk.
“Look,over there,” I said, pointing at the altar. The floor had split, dividing atthe left and right. A transparent object rose up from the gap.
Theatmosphere of this scene was completely out of place. It was though we were watchinga cheap science fiction movie.
“What isit?” I asked.
Ahemispherical object that was about one metre in diameter stopped moving assoon as it had been completely revealed. My brother took steps, approaching thealtar to investigate. I followed him.
The domeseemed to be made of reinforced plastic.
Inside thehemispherical capsule was a nostalgic toy that I often played with long ago.
2
“Ofcourse,” I said to myself. I looked at the toy that was stored inside thecapsule. Just like I had imagined, a single Rubik’s cube had been placedinside. It brought back old memories.
“I thinkthat the final experiment has been set up so that we can operate the opening ofone of the two 9th doors, ending with a point in time that allmembers can escape safely,” I said, looking at the various colours of theRubik’s cube.
“Hey…Junpei, why do you know all of this?” asked Lotus. I ignored her question andcontinued ahead. Anyway, I wouldn’t have been able to answer her questionproperly.
“Theremaining members will not be able to escape as easily as the people before.There’s one other thing we have to do to open the door besides verifying out braceletsat the RED.”
“Is that other thing the Rubik’s Cube?”
“Yeah, itwas like that nine years ago,” responded Seven. “When I finally reached theceiling of this room, smashed the window and looked inside, the four peoplethere had reached their destination.”
*
“Carry out the final experimentfrom now.”
I heardZero’s voice coming from beside us. We were standing in front of the capsulethat had appeared suddenly, feeling utterly confused. His voice was slightlymixed up with some sort of interference. His voice was probably coming from aspeaker implanted somewhere on the wall.
“You’re good natured, the lot ofyou,” said Zero,as though he was mocking us. “Why don’tyou try thinking of yourself first? It was really foolish of you to let theother five people escape so freely. Where’s the proof that the other door,which is different in shape and size to the other doors up to now, is a real numbereddoor?”
Of course,I was aware of that possibility. But I didn’t want to have a nasty fight withothers over the five rights to life. If it reached the point where I was facedwith the idea of kicking down the others, then I’d rather voluntarily sacrificemyself. Along with these thoughts, I hoped that I’d be able to follow after theothers. The others surely were thinking the same.
“You hopeless fools, you’re moreconsiderate of others than you are of yourselves. I don’t really like thosekind of feelings.”
Zero’stone of voice subtly changed.
“No, rather, your ability to beextremely considerate of others, that feeling is necessary. Congratulations.The four of you have been chosen.”
This wasgreeted with silence.
“Right now, there are also four childrentrapped inside the chapel of the Q building. Just like you lot, there is acapsule with a Rubik’s Cube inside it placed in front of them.”
Nona, whohad crawled under the table, stuck her head out and looked around, like ascared squirrel.
“The small chip that is embedded inthe Rubik’s Cube that operates the numbered door has been programmed so thatthe RED will operate as normal only when all the faces of the cube have beenput in order. I’d like the four of you to work together and successfully solvethis puzzle.”
Cold sweatslid down my temple.
“Thenhurry, let me do it!” shouted my brother, recklessly shaking the capsule.
“Don’t rush it. Just wait a littlemore.”
It seemedthat the voices on this side could be heard on the other side. Zero respondedwith perfect timing.
“Isn’t there a countdown quicklycounting down beside the pipe organ?”
I lookedover there. The number displayed changed from 1587 to 1586.
“As you may have already noticed,that’s your remaining time. You have about 1500 seconds left… about 25minutes. As soon as the countdown hits 0, the bomb that has been set up at theheart of this ship will explode. In one moment, you’ll be sleeping with thefishes.”
Nonadashed out from under the desk and clung to my waist.
“No! Idon’t want that to happen!” Nona screamed softly.
“Don’t worry. Your suffering willjust be for a moment. You are currently in the heart of the ship, so you’ll allbe liberated from your suffering pretty much as soon as the bomb explodes”.
“Enoughwith your stupid boasting! I said, I’m gonna open this capsule now!” my brotheryelled.
“It’s too soon. It’d be troublesomeif you solved it because you were given too much time to do so. The time limitis 16 minutes and 39 seconds – 999 seconds. So, wait a little longer. Untilthen, wouldn’t it be good to develop a game plan? Fingers crossed.”
And withthose last words, Zero’s announcement came to an end.
*
“Ninehundred and ninety-nine seconds?” I repeated, turning to face the panel besidethe pipe organ.
1297…1296…
If it wasthe same as it was nine years ago, the capsule should open in five minutes.
“Butthings are different this time,” said Seven, frowning. “Say that even if we dosolve the puzzle, the three of us won’t be able to open the 9thdoor.”
“So, weneed to think. There has to be a way-”
A loudnoise drowned out my words. Everyone turned to look at the source of the sound.I noticed that the coffin that was placed at the corner of the altar shookslightly. And then a familiar voice reached my ears.
“Let me outof here!”
“…Snake?”I called out, rushing over to the coffin. “Is that you, Snake?”
“Thatvoice… it’s you, Junpei, right? And Seven and Lotus… I can tell by thefootsteps,” he responded in his usual calm tone.
3
We satholding our knees in front of the capsule, not exchanging a single word betweenus. Time was passing moment by moment. The panel that notified the remainingduration of our lives said 1214- December 14th… that was Junpei’sbirthday. It displayed it for a second, before continuing to count downfurther.
“Hey,Akane. Over there. What’s that?” asked Nona, pointing at the altar. I hadn’tnoticed until now, since it had been hidden by the curtain. But there was ablack hexagonal wooden box standing there. Was it a coffin? It was big enoughto even hide an adult.
Eventhough I was older than her, I still felt like the lid would open and someonewould come out of it. The thought gave me goosebumps.
“Why isthere a coffin in a place like this, I asked aloud. As soon as I said it, mybrother stepped up to it and roughly laid hands on it. But the lid was firmlyshut, so it seemed like it wouldn’t open at all.
“Pleaseallow me to investigate it too,” requested Light as he approached the coffin.For a while, he meticulously checked all over the coffin before eventuallycoming to a stop. “Oh, there seems to be a numeric keypad here.”
He pointedat the side of the coffin. I approached it too. Just as he had said, there wasa panel on it with the numbers 1 to 9 arranged on it.
“Ifyou type in a pin, that should trigger the mechanism to unlock it,” said Light.
“Yeah, butdo you know the password?” asked my brother.
“Wait- Ofcourse! In the x-ray room!” I exclaimed and opened my right hand. I rememberedthat in the x-ray room, there had been a nine-digit number scrawled across thewall. I thought that it might have been a clue for something, so I borrowed thepen that Nona had picked up in the First-Class Cabins and wrote it down on thepalm of my hand.
Iapproached the coffin, then input the nine-digit number that I had written onthe palm of my hand.
*
“Are youok?” asked Seven, putting his face up close to the coffin.
“Yes,”replied Snake from the inside of the coffin, not sounding too strained. “But itis unbearably cramped in here. Could you help me get out of here quickly?”
“Well, Ihate to say this, but…” Seven trailed off, his troubled expression turning toa desperate one.
The coffinwas locked electronically. There was a numeric keypad on the side of it. Itseemed that the mechanism to open it wouldn’t work without entering the passcode.
I walkedin front of Seven and Lotus, who were both looking troubled, and I said anine-digit number. Seven and Lotus stared at me with puzzled expressions.
“Oi,what’s with that number you just said now?” asked Seven.
Withoutanswering his question, I ran over to the coffin, knelt down in front of theinput device and keyed in the number I had just said with confidence. Finally,I pressed the enter key. There was a mechanical sound that came from inside thecoffin as it unlocked. The lid creaked open and Snake came out. He was wearinga questionable black robe, that made it seem that he was going to suddenlystart summoning demons.
“Thanks,you saved me,” he said gratefully.
Whilebeing supported on Seven’s shoulder, Snake got out of the coffin. Since he hadbeen shut up in a narrow place for a long time, his way of walking was awfullystiff. But in comparison, his complexion was not bad. Rather he looked betterthan we did.
Happy withthe safety of our friend, we patted him on the shoulder.
“By theway, how were you able to open the coffin lid?” asked Snake, facing me.
“Well,you see…”
I trailed off. Even I couldn’tproperly explain it. If I told them things such that someone had whispered itinside my head, then they would definitely question my sanity.
“Hey, it’s almost time,” piped upSeven, pointing at the panel at the wall.
The series of 4 digits were aboutto change to 3 digits.
4
The item that we needed to escapehad to be hidden inside of this coffin. My heart was fluttering inanticipation. But that anticipation was shattered in an instant. What came outof the coffin was not what we needed to escape, but a black-lustre handgun.
“What… is this?” my brotherasked, picking it up with one hand while pushing me back with the other as Itrembled. “It’s gotta be a toy… right?”
“No, it’s probably real,” I said.And then there was a commotion around me.
“…Why is there something likethat in there?” screamed Nona.
Suicide.
That sinister word crossed my mind.When you can no longer endure the dear of imminent death, you could use this tomake things better – that is that the handgun seemed to be indicating.
Perhaps the others were havingsimilar thoughts too. An air of despair started to tinge the atmosphere in theroom.
And then it happened.
The sound of glass shattering camefrom the ceiling. We looked up and saw the fragments of shattered glasscatching the light and falling like snow.
“…Huh?” I gasped.
A giant man peered down at us fromthe broken window in the ceiling. He was giant like a bear, with a brutal face.
“Don’t worry, I’m not your enemy,”he assured us. “I’m a detective. I’ve come to save you.”
He was the person who would becalled Seven nine years from now.
“Is there anything like a rope thatwe can use?” he asked. “Wait a bit. There’s bound to be sheets in the hospitalroom.”
With that, the detective left us.But he came back in minutes. He dropped a rope from the ceiling that he hadmade from tying several sheets together and used it to come down to us.
“Hurry, there’s no time,” he saidsternly. He suddenly grabbed me and held me under his left arm. He used hisremaining right arm to climb the rope made from sheets.
“If you go a bit further from here,you’ll reach a spiral staircase,” the detective told me quickly as we reachedthe inside of the ceiling. “Run as fast as you can to the top of it. If you dothat, you’ll be able to get outside. Hurry!”
After being pushed forward by thedetective, I started running as I was told. Eventually the spiral staircasecame into sight. I ran towards it at full speed. I could hear another set ofpounding footsteps right behind me. It was probably someone else who had beensaved by the detective. Eventually, faint light illuminated above my head. Itwas not the light of incandescent lights: it was soft and warm. It was a smellthat even calmed my mind: the smell of sunlight. The exit was close.
Unable to supress my impatience, Ipicked up the pace. And that’s when it happened.
“We’re missing someone.”
I heard Light speak behind me.
“I’ve only been able to hear 4 setsof footsteps for the last while,” he continued. “Has someone fallen behind?”
I stopped in my tracks and spunaround. Only my brother, Light and the detective were following me. Nona wasnowhere to be seen.
“Huh?” questioned the detective,looking frightened. “But when I jumped down into that room, there was onlythree of you.”
“Does that mean that she…”
I trailed off. When I tried tothink calmly. Come to think of it, I had not seen Nona once since the detectivecame to rescue us.
“…No way,” I whispered.
When faced with fear, Nona facedthe barrier of acting like a small animal and quickly hiding from view. Whenthe giant man appeared from the ceiling, she more than likely concealed herselfin the shadow of the coffin. I blamed myself for not noticing her at all in my owndesperation to escape.
Nona trusted only me: it seemedthat she only listened to what I said and turned a deaf ear to the others. Thiswas my fault. If only I had been more careful…
I had to save her.
As soon as that thought crossed mymind, my body started moving fast. I pushed past my brother, quickly slippedthrough Light and the detective and dashed down the stairs, three steps at atime.
“Akane, you idiot! Don’t do it!”
I heard my brother call after me. Iknew that there were countless dangers involved with this. But I couldn’t justleave Nona behind.
I reached the end of the spiralstaircase, pushed open the door and entered a familiar corridor. I could seethe door to the chapel on the right. The door that was supposed to be tightlyclosed. But for some reason it was wide open. Come to think of it, the doorthat I had swiftly passed through to get to the spiral staircase had beenunlocked just moments before. What was going on?
I felt that I had a clear action todo, so I couldn’t hesitate. I dashed into the chapel, my footsteps pounding onthe floor.
“Nona!” I screamed.
“…Akane?” she mumbled, stickingher face out from the shadow of the altar.
“Good, you’re safe!” I exclaimed. Iran over and pulled her into a strong hug. “Right, let’s go.”
“I can’t. I can’t walk anymore,”she whispered in a miserable voice as she held her right leg. Her ankle wassprained: the area around it was swollen and red.
“Just hang in there. Let’s do ourbest.”
“But…”
“Remember what Light told us?” Isaid, taking the four-leaf clover pendant from my chest pocket and holding itin my fingers. “Don’t give up. We have to have faith until the end.”
I held my hand out to Nona. Shetook it, nodded deeply and stood up. We somehow managed to leave the chapel,her dragging her right leg as I supported her. As soon as we got there, mybrother and the others arrived with perfect timing.
“You… you are completelyunreasonable,” breathed my brother.
“Her leg is injured,” I explained.“Please help.”
The detective would easily be ableto carry Nona. If I just left Nona to him, we could once again run towards thespiral staircase and-
“Ooops, we can’t let that happennow, can we?”
Suddenly someone grabbed my rightarm, and I was dragged into the chapel. I spun around to see Hongou standingthere, grinning eerily at me.
“It’s a bit of a bother, you giving up in themiddle of my experiment.”
“Akane!” shouted my brother. Heflung himself at Hongou in an attempt to save me.
A gunshot rang out. I involuntarilyclosed my eyes.
I opened my eyes, choking on thesmell of gunpowder, to see my brother cowering and clutching his rightshoulder.
“No! Aoi!”
“…I’m fine, it’s just a scratch.Don’t worry,” he tried to assure me, his face twisted in pain. He turned toHongou. “You bastard-”
The second shot was fired at thefeet of the detective, who was quivering with rage.
“Ok, everyone, like that, gostraight back to the spiral staircase, or else this time I’ll blow a hole inthis kids head,” spat Hongou in a grotesque and rough voice, as he pressed themuzzle of the gun to my temple.
“No, stop! Let me go! LET ME GO!”
I struggled, haphazardly moving myarm around in a desperate attempt to resist. But I had just started secondaryschool, so my arm strength was no match for a fully-grown man’s.
“Don’t f*cking struggle! I couldjust shoot all of you dead right here!” threatened Hongou.
I had no choice but to obedientlyfollow what I was told to do.
“Alright, don’t rush us,” said thedetective. He gave Nona, who had been tucked under his right arm, to Light, andthen instructed him to go back to the spiral staircase. He then carried mybrother, who was losing consciousness, out of the room.
“That will do.”
When he had confirmed that everyonehad gone down towards the door, Hongou reached his hand inside of his jacketpocket. I guessed there was a remote control in there. And then with anelectronic beeping noise, the door swiftly shut, stealing the four others frommy view.
“Aoi!” I screamed. Then suddenly Iwas thrown into the chapel. I tumbled onto the floor and ended up collapsingface-down.
“And from now on the finalexperiment will be carried out.”
Hongou showed me a cold smile,before slamming the chapel door shut.
“Aaaaagh! I screamed.
I bounded over to the door andrattled the door knob. But nothing happened.
I looked up. The sheets that thedetective had hung down from the ceiling had been slashed to shreds andscattered over the altar. It was probably Hongou’s doing. It was no longerpossible to escape through the ceiling. Which meant the only way to escape wasthrough the 9th door.
I approached the small numbereddoor that was hidden from view by the curtain. Fortunately, there were threeasterisk symbols lit up on the top part of the RED. The bracelet numbers of thethree others had been entered.
“Hey, are you ok?”
From above, I could hear thedetective’s voice. I looked up to see him peering through the broken ceilingwindow.
“sh*t. It’s impossible to jump downfrom this height,” he said regretfully, his face falling.
“Please don’t do anything rash,” Irequested. Even if he was to jump down here, my situation wouldn’t change atall. “Besides that, how is my brother?”
“Don’t worry. I’ve treated him forthe time being with some medicine that was in the operating room. After this,I’ll carry him to the hospital.
“Please… I’ll leave my brother toyou.”
And with that, I decided to preparemyself. I looked up at the panel that was next to the pipe organ.
1002… 1001…
Soon it’d hit 999 seconds– and thenthe capsule would open. I stood in front of the altar, waiting for that time.
1000… 999…
Exactly as Zero had announcedearlier, as soon as the panel changed to 999, the capsule slowly started tosplit open to the left and right.
Now that it had come to this, I hadno other choice but to do this. I grabbed the Rubik’s Cube in my tremblinghands.
*
“I’m not worried because I’m goodat Rubik’s Cubes,” I revealed. I checked the remaining time as I twisted andturned the cube.
782… 781…
The time left was 13 minutes. WouldI be able to do it on time?
My heart was pounding violently.
5
My heart was pounding violently.
A considerable amount of time hadpassed since my access to Junpei had been cut off. I could not draw out theknowledge from the inside of his head. At a loss at what to do, I just staredat the cube in front of me. In the meantime, time was ticking away. No matterhow many times I wiped my eyes, my flood of tears would not stop.
“This is still impossible… Idon’t understand…”
I hadn’t even been able to properlysort one face. There was no way I’d be able to deal with all six faces. Ididn’t even know where I should put my hands. The more impatient I got, themore my degree of confusion increased.
“Akane…don’t give up.”
A faintvoice reached my ears. I looked up to see my brother overlooking me as he wasbeing supported by the detective.
“Aoi! Areyou ok?”
“Akane…I said it, right? That you can see the future you and me now…” gasped mybrother, as though he was in pain.
“Yes, butyou…”
“I’llmanage somehow… So, just focus, ok? Only think about survival.”
“…What?”
What thehell was he saying… how was I supposed to deal with this? I checked theremaining time. 654… 653… This ship was going to explode in less than 11minutes. My palms were soaked with sweat. My blood was surging through my body.I was hot. I couldn’t breathe. I felt dizzy and giddy. My heart was poundinglike crazy. It felt like it had burst open.
I clutchedthe silverwork clover that I got from Light in my hands and prayed.
Save me,Junpei!
*
“Save me,Junpei!”
I heard avoice.
“Akane?” Iquestioned. I stopped moving my hands and looked around.
“What’swrong?” asked Seven. Seven and Lotus were staring at me with puzzledexpressions. Snake seemed to sense something: He was listening intently asthough he was investigating the situation.
“Akane!Can you hear me? Answer me, Akane!” I yelled out restlessly.
*
“Junpei?”I cried, spinning around instantly.
I had justheard his voice. I looked around restlessly. Of course, I understood that hewasn’t here in this place. But his voice was too clear. It was though he wasnear me…
“Junpei!”I cried out again. I looked around swiftly, as though my soul was beingsqueezed out.
And then aresponse came straight away.
“Akane.”
“Junpei!”
*
We calledout each other’s name several times to verify each other’s existence.
“Akane…are you by any chance in the chapel now?”
“Yes,” she responded, her voice echoingdirectly in my brain. “But how do youknow that?”
I suddenlyunderstood the words that Santa has said just before leaving the room.
There is only one way. Only one wayto save my dead sister… Akane.
6
434… 433…the time limit was approaching mercilessly. I cried out into the void, theRubik’s Cube in my hands.
“Junpei,there’s no time left! Please, help me. If I can’t sort all six faces of theRubik’s cube, the ship is going to explode!”
*
“Ok.”
Iresponded with one word. Rather than responding properly to Akane, I waswhispering to myself, caught up in my own thoughts.
So that’swhat this is all about. I had finally realised it at this point. Why was theNonary Game being carried out this time? Why had we all been gathered here? Allof this in had been orchestrated in order for us to arrive at this moment intime.
Then therewas only one thing for me to do. I had to somehow save Akane from nine yearsago.
I lookeddown at my hands. The Rubik’s Cube was perfect right before my eyes. But itdidn’t make any sense. Naturally, the arrangement of her Rubik’s Cube wasdifferent from the one I had gotten, as was the case with all Rubik’s Cubes. Icouldn’t tell her the solution to this puzzle under such circ*mstances.
I closedmy eyes and sharpened my senses. My consciousness was aligned with Akane’s fromnine years ago. The things that Akane was seeing, that are separated by time,were being replayed inside my head.
“Akane,don’t move yet,” I instructed her.
I changedthe alignment of my own cube to change the cube she was holding in her hands. Sortingthe six faces was a demanding task, but I couldn’t afford to lose heart.
“I can’tsee the backside of the cube very well,” I informed her. “Turn the cube 180degrees to the right for me.”
“Ok… like this?”
“No, notthat face. Yes, there, stop what you’re doing there.”
“Hold up…what’s wrong? Who the hell are you talking to?” questioned Lotus, staringuneasily at my hands. “Besides, it looks like the colours are graduallystarting to match less…”
“It’sfine,” I responded. “I’m sorry but, could you please keep quiet for a bit?”
I wasn’table to focus on synching with Akane.
“But…”
“Lotus,leave it to Junpei,” said Snake quietly. “The only thing we can do is watchover him. Just the same as that time nine years ago.”
7
I finallyunderstood it. Why did my brother had kidnap Junpei nine years later and startthis terrifying game again? It was all done so that I could be saved.
Now, mybrother looked at the me of this moment and sensed it. He figured that myconsciousness and Junpei’s consciousness from nine years later was connectedthrough the field.
However,several conditions were necessary in order to create this miracle.
First,Junpei had to contract the Angel Virus, and he had to reach level 3. Perhaps mybrother had used some method to artificially inject the virus into Junpei’sbody. The incubation period for the virus was five to ten years. Which is whyit took him so much time to fulfil his purpose.
Next, hehad to construct the exact same conditions that the current me had aroundJunpei. For that reason, my brother prepared the large-scale setting and on topof that, even went as far as abducting Light and the detective. Lotus must havebeen filling in the role of Nona, who had passed away.
And therewas one more thing. If my feelings for the other person were not strong enough,then the two of us would have not been able to connect. This alone was the onlything that my brother was not able to do himself with just hard work. But now,Junpei and I were connected. Which meant…
The bottomof my chest felt so hot it was though it was burning. Even though I was on thebrink of life and death, my heart was filled with joy.
I want tolive, I wished strongly.
I wantedto live and meet Junpei once again.
*
Finally, Iwas able to arrange Akane’s Rubik’s Cube in the same way as mine.
121… 120…
Theremaining time was two minutes.
I stoppedwhat I was doing and took a deep breath.
Deliver this to Akane.
Iconcentrated on the cube in front of me, and all the colours were sorted atonce.
*
I couldperfectly understand Junpei’s thoughts. Both my hands started to move, irrespectiveof my will. The colours of the cube began getting sorted before my very eyes.It was like looking at magic. And then finally-
“Yes, wedid it!” I exclaimed. The panel was completed with sixty seconds left to spare.
“Akane, how is it? Was it transmittedto you?”
“Yes, allthe sides are sorted on my side too! That said, it was you who sorted them forme, Junpei… I just followed you… Now I just have to scan my bracelet on theRED.”
“Then hurry!”
“Ok!” Iresponded. I left the altar and ran over to the numbered door. “Please open,please-”
I prayedas I touched my bracelet off the RED, before pulling down the lever. I feltlike it was going to work. The door slowly opened. The rusty creaking sound wasnow music to my ears.
Unnoticedby me that the four of them had moved away from the other side of the ceiling,my brother, Light, Nona and the detective were waiting there, expecting me onthe other side of the door.
*
There was sixty seconds left of thetime limit. The lights in the room began hectically switching on and off as thepiercing warning sirens rang out.
“Why areyou just standing in a daze? You’ve got to hurry,” urged Lotus. “Since you’vesolved the puzzle, you should open the door with Seven’s bracelet, the 6thbracelet and your bracelet, Junpei.”
“But…”protested Seven, his face twisted with misery.
“Hurry!Are you going to waste my willingness to die?”
“Lotus,it’s ok!” I assured her, grabbing her arm and moving her towards the numbereddoor against her will. “We can save you too!”
“Wait…what do you intend to do?”
“I knowwhat I’m doing. I’ve got this,” I assured her as I pressed her bracelet againstthe scanner panel.
“What doyou mean, you’ve got this?”
“This doorwon’t open with a digital root of 9. When Hongou tried to escape using the 2ndand 6th bracelet, that was the case, right?”
“Butwasn’t that because it was before the puzzle was solved?” pointed out Seven, ashe moved his left hand close to the RED.
“That isincorrect,” said Snake, scanning the 6th bracelet he was holding inhis left hand off the scanner panel. “It has been programmed so that wheneither of the doors is opened, the cube operates as a lock. Hongou explained itto us nine years ago.”
“Then whywouldn’t it open?” asked Lotus.
“This timethe setting has been overwritten,” explained Snake. “Because Santa has noincentive to kill us.”
Why hadSanta gone through all the effort of taking Clover with him when he left thisroom? From that time onwards, I thought something was strange. Santa had boththe 6th and the 9th bracelet. If he used those, he wouldhave been easily able to open the numbered doors.
But he didnot do that. The 6th bracelet in the room that he left behind in theroom was an essential number for us. The words of Zero came back to me.
The exit to escape is hidden onthis ship. Look for it. It’s the door with 9* written on it.
It wasn’t9. I looked at what was written on the door. It was “q”. I looked back to checkthe time limit.
10… 9…8…
I moved myleft wrist close to the scanner and pulled down on the lever with all mystrength with my right hand. The door gave out a noise and opened. And the DEADhad been set up just beyond the door. Everyone broke free and rushed out of thechapel, and then carried out the verification of their bracelets. But Icouldn’t afford to brace myself for it yet.
“It’s overhere! Hurry!” yelled Seven, taking the lead and dashing over to the spiralstaircase.
The timelimit should have already passed, but for some reason, I could not hear thesound of an explosion.
8
The DEADhad been set up just on the other side of the door. I hastily pressed mybracelet against it.
Everyone,hurry-” I screamed as I looked back. But for some reason, everyone was juststaring at the door…
“Akane?Where are you Akane?”
I peeredinto the chapel to see my brother screaming as though he had gone crazy.
“It’sdangerous! The door will close!” he cried out.
Mybrother, who was trying to enter the room, had his arms held behind his back bythe detective.
“Akane…why…”
My brotherburst into tears in front of the closed door.
“Aoi, whatare you saying? I’m right here!” I screamed loudly. But my voice did not reachhim. “…But why?”
“You guys,a skull has come up on your bracelets,” pointed out the detective.
“Not good.Light, Nona, hurry!” said my brother.
The threeof them leapt at the DEAD and finished verifying their bracelets.
“What’sthe meaning of this?” screamed my brother. Even though we opened the door,Akane is nowhere to be found! I need her!”
“Aoi! Lookat me! I’m right here!”
“It’s myfault,” sobbed Nona, tears streaming down her face. “It’s my fault that Akane…”
“Don’tcry. We’re alive!” said Light. He turned around as though he had sensedsomething. “…Akane?”
“Yes! I’mhere! Right here!”
But ofcourse, it seemed that my voice did not reach them. Light turned back around,and once again, his back was facing me.
The soundof an explosion rang out, and the floor shook violently. Black smoke started toleak in through the gaps in the door.
“Hurry.This ship is f*cked, it’s gonna sink,” urged the detective.
Everyonebegan dashing up the stairs. I too hurriedly followed. Whether it was the heator not, I didn’t know. But my whole body was strangely hot. However, I wasn’tjust feeling the heat: all the pain and exhaustion from up until now completelyvanished. Even though I was running as fast as I could, I wasn’t out of breath.It was though I wasn’t in my own body. It was though I was looking at myself ina dream- I was seized by such an unstable thought.
I felt asense of apprehension and dropped my gaze to my feet. To my surprise, only theoutline of my legs remained: the rest had vanished in a way so that I could seethrough them completely to the other side.
“What…is this?”
My mindfell into such extreme chaos that I was on the verge of panic.
SomethingJunpei had said nine years in the future unexpectedly came to mind.
This so-called destiny is a load ofsh*t. You can change the future as much as you want!
“Ah…perhaps…”
I stoppedwalking and stared into space.
It waslike Schrodinger’s cat. Unless you opened the drawer, you couldn’t tell if thecat was alive or dead. Was it possible that I was in a state of life and deathoverlapping, and that whether I lived or not had not been determined yet?
The futurecould change. A future where Junpei was not infected with Angel Fever, a futurewhere he didn’t participate in the Nonary Game, a future where he gives up onclearing this game midway, all these futures surely existed. The Junpei of nineyears from now wouldn’t necessarily be able to save me. No-one would be able todetermine whether I really could be saved until that time came.
So, the meof now was neither alive or dead- I existed as something like a ghost. Perhapsnine years later, the day where Junpei would save me would come.
“DON’T!”
I heardthe voice of the detective from above my head and I came back to reality. Ilooked up to see that Nona had climbed over the bannister and was about tojump. My eyes fixed down below to see that seawater that had poured in becauseof the explosion. It was swirling around in a frighteningly powerful whirlpool.Nona couldn’t swim. If she fell down there, she’d die for sure.
“You, stopit! Calm down!” roared the detective.
“It’s myfault… it’s my fault… I’m sorry, Akane.”
Sobbing,Nona jumped out into the air. The detective reached his hand out. But didn’tmake it in time. And just like that, she was sucked into the centre of theraging whirlpool.
“NONA!”
I clung tothe railing as I called out her name.
*
We ranwith the sole intent of reaching the top of the spiral staircase, running sofast we almost went through it. We continued on intently not looking to theside, our feet climbing upwards and our hands tearing through the air.
In themidst of this, I heard Seven’s voice.
“Junpei,there’s one thing I want to ask you… is that ok?”
“What isit?”
“It’sabout the 9th door there just now. Why… Why did it open?”
“Yeah,”added Lotus. “We used our four bracelets and verified them at the RED. Fiveplus six plus seven plus eight is twenty-six, so the digital route would havebeen 8…”
“It wasn’t9 that was written on the door, it was the letter q,” I explained.
“…q?”she repeated, looking puzzled.
“Come now.Hexadecimal numbers are used in computer programming, right?” I responded.
Inhexadecimal notation, a came after 9. After that, b, c and d came next. Theletter a corresponded to 10, b to 11 and c to 12.
“What thehell is all this about?”
“Ratherthan thinking of hexadecimals, you’d understand if you thought of it assexagesimal digits, for example.”
“Sexagesimal?”
“When itgets to 16, without the digit increasing, h is 17, i is 18, and if you continueon, q is-”
“26!”shouted Seven, counting on his fingers.
“Look,over there!” cried Lotus, pointing forwards.
At the endgoal of the spiral staircase, a single door was awaiting us. The door was wideopen, and bright, dazzling sunlight shone in and illuminated the area.
“Theexit,” I announced, quickening my pace.
9
Everydaycontinued on without me knowing whether I was alive or dead. From that day on,my memories became terribly uncertain. That was also because of chaos or beingSchrodinger’s cat. But as time passed, and the destined day drew close, myexistence started to become clearer.
Even now,I cannot forget the face of astonishment and delight of my brother that morningwhen he confirmed my existence in the washroom.
However,there were still some things that remained unstable. The smallest of events hadan impact on the us of that destined day, and each time I got a hightemperature and my existence became uncertain once again.
“I willdefinitely save you.”
I hadn’tknown at all that my brother was advancing such a horrific plan right in frontof my eyes.
*
We tumbledoutside, entwined in each other. An intense light almost blinded me. I narrowedmy eyes and swiftly held my hand over my forehead. The scene in front ofgradually began to fill with colour. My blurred vision slowly started to focus.
“This is…”
“Huh? Noway…”
“Why?”
There wasthe rooftop of an abandoned building that looked like it could collapse at anymoment. A familiar scene was spreading in the distance. I also saw the recentlycompleted Tokyo Skytree.
“Of course…”breathed Snake. “I couldn’t hear waves or smell sea water. Which means thathere-”
“Yes, it’s the simulation lab in Tokyo,”announced Santa, who appeared from the shadow of a water tower. “I didn’t havethe money to buy and remodel a cruise ship, so I used this abandoned facilityas I pleased, without permission.”
Clover wasbeside Santa.
“Light!”she cried out. Her face crumbled as she ran over to him. “Thank goodness you’realive!”
She leaptat Snake’s chest and sobbed. Snake smiled and gently stroked her face. Santagazed at the two of them, a glimmer of loneliness in his eyes.
“I’m sorryfor dragging you guys into such a thing,” he announced. “Don’t worry about thething about the bombs, since nothing was set up in your stomachs.
With that,he took something that looked like a remote control out of his breast pocket.As soon as he pointed it towards us, our bracelets disconnected from our wristsand fell to our feet.
“See ya,”said Santa. He raised his right hand, turned his back to us and proceeded tostroll inside the building.
“Where areyou going?” I asked him.
“Junpei,I’ll leave the rest to you.”
He beganto slowly descend the spiral staircase without answering my question.
“Hey,Santa,” I called out, approaching the door to follow him. And then, anotherperson appeared in place of Santa. It was a girl that looked to be around theage of an older secondary school student. I had never seen her face before, butI knew who she was straight away. It had to be the girl from nine years agothat I had seen through the field. She really looked like her.
“…Nona?”mumbled Lotus from behind me. “It can’t be… Nona, is that you?”
“Can yousee me, Mum?” she asked, looking surprised.
“But how?Nine years ago, you jumped from the spiral staircase and died, didn’t-”grumbled Seven.
“I wassaved then,” she responded.
Anotherperson emerged from the door.
“But sinceI had an uncertain existence at that time, I think that Nona, who I desperatelysaved, also ended up having an uncertain existence.”
Akanesmiled happily at as she watched the mother and child embrace.
“But it’sfine now,” she continued. “Schrodinger’s cat lives. The drawer was opened, andsince everything became reality-”
“Akane…”I mumbled, slowly drawing close to her as she smiled.
There wassomething I had to tell Akane if we safely escaped. But there was a lump in mythroat and no words came out. I gently turned Akane’s face, which was dyed redby the illumination of the morning sun, towards mine. She shifted her gaze tolook at me, and her lips moved a little.
“I’m here,Junpei.”
Our twolong-stretching shadows shook, along with the faint smell of the fragrantolive.
Translator’snotes
*Nineis pronounced as “kyuu” in Japanese, which is the same as the pronunciation ofthe letter q.
9 Persons9 Hours 9 Doors Alternative- The End
This work,written by Kuroda Kenji, is an adaptation of the game “9 Persons 9 Hours 9Doors”, released by Chunsoft in 2009.
