"That's more like it."
Standing in the corridor, Kaguya looked coldly at the trembling Yamamoto Hiroshi and the blonde woman, her proud posture like that of a queen.
"Whether you accept it or not, if you don't obey from now on, I will punish you."
"In dire straits, the brilliance of humanity is never a necessity for survival; on the contrary, sufficient bestiality guarantees safety. Right now, if you can't behave, then I can only say you retain only the most basic utilitarian value—you're scum less useful than dogs. If you show even a little sense, depending on the situation, I might consider granting you some leniency."
"Mr. Green, please handle these two disobedient dogs and keep them from being a nuisance."
With that casual command issued, Kaguya no longer looked at the two of them.
"My name is Yamamoto Hiroshi, I am not a dog."
Feeling insulted, the man let out an angry low growl.
"I—I'm Maeda Miwa…"
The woman, though trembling, spoke up timidly after Kaguya's words; since Yamamoto Hiroshi was protesting, she followed suit.
Then, when Green grinned viciously and stood before them with the knife, uttering in a sinister tone, "What your names are is none of my damn business," the two ordinary people, lacking any special backbone, chose to fall silent.
After roughly a minute or two of this fuss, the pair were only barely subdued.
'What a pain.'
Takumi shook his head slightly, sincerely irritated by the difficult situation.
They had to make these two see the real thing before they could understand the situation. Otherwise, even if suppressed by force now, those two idiots would sooner or later act like the background characters in a horror movie and do something stupid. And to solve the mysteries and rules of this place, they couldn't constantly babysit those two—no matter that they'd picked up Green as a makeshift subordinate, one person watching two others would inevitably miss something.
Add to that the mechanics of this damn place, and if those two died they might become something utterly unbeatable that would come after them. If that forced them to rewind time with the clocks again, everyone's blood pressure would spike.
At least, they could identify one useful role for them: candidates to turn the clocks.
Having personally wound a clock, Takumi still felt the gaze of those head-clocks; after contact, ordinary wall clocks seemed to have developed some uncanny connection to him. That anomaly warranted caution, so he concluded that next time they needed to use a clock's power, Shinomiya Kaguya and Maki must not be the ones to operate it. He had originally thought Green could wind the clock; now it seemed more appropriate to have Yamamoto Hiroshi or Maeda Miwa do it. He believed that after winding the clock they would finally grasp the true nature of their situation.
Though that might be a little cruel—no, not cruel at all. Since he had already been haunted by that strange thing after winding a clock, honestly he'd effectively saved these people's lives; collecting a little interest from them wasn't unreasonable.
Takumi was somewhat surprised to find that his own shift in mindset came rather easily.
Doing things like putting on a villain's face alongside Shinomiya Kaguya, or even seriously considering certain less-than-ethical methods, didn't cause any moral disgust in him.
Maybe it was because they weren't beautiful girls—after all, he did judge by appearances.
Thinking that, Takumi picked up a wooden stick from the corridor and propped it against the already closed door of Room 205.
He exchanged a glance with Shinomiya Kaguya and Maki; then Takumi pointed toward Room 208. After a brief moment of thought, Kaguya and Maki gestured for Green to take those two along—quietly, without making a sound
The so-called plan to go to Room 210 was, of course, a lie. Since Tanaka had already warned them not to go near 210, Takumi wasn't stupid enough to risk his life testing whether that advice was true or not.
Therefore, hiding in Room 208—the one they had explored earlier and that hadn't shown any major danger (at least, Fridge Guy hadn't seemed interested in interacting with them during the previous round of investigation)—to observe the hallway and see whether Bed Guy had chased out after them, was a move worth attempting.
Yes, Takumi had decided to follow the habit of horror game players in naming monsters—like Chainsaw Guy, Scissor Guy, or Fat Brother—and give these corpses nicknames. Doing so, in a way, eased his mental burden.
Arrogantly acting like a lackey who had found backing, Green led the dejected Yamamoto Hiroshi and Maeda Miwa into the living room. Following Takumi's orders, the two were placed in the kitchen, told to move the refrigerator so that its door faced the wall tightly, and then sit down with their backs against it. Green stood at the kitchen doorway, watching over them.
"Keep an eye on those two. If something tries to come out of the fridge, pull them back into the living room."
When Takumi said this, he saw the man's face instantly turn pale green—it was obvious that all his courage came from the three of them. Because of that, Takumi had to adopt a slightly tougher tone before Green reluctantly took the two into the kitchen, trembling.
Kaguya, whose hearing was the sharpest, stayed in the hallway as usual. She decided to be the one to verify the outcome of this attempt, and if anything went wrong, she would retreat into the living room without hesitation—never again calling Takumi and Maki over like last time, when the three of them had nearly been wiped out.
"Ha… Let's hope this time gives us a good result."
Standing at the door between the living room and the corridor, Maki sighed, murmuring wearily.
She personally disliked playing the villain, and had never wanted to do anything to those pitiful people who, in essence, were just as trapped here as they were. Unlike the cold-blooded Shinomiya Kaguya, molded by her corporate heiress upbringing, and Takumi, whose sense of morality wasn't particularly high to begin with, Shijō Maki had always been a kind, good-natured girl. She was simply smart enough to know that, when things couldn't be explained clearly and they were already feared and distrusted, maintaining pressure was the only way to ensure temporary stability—so she kept up the cold façade.
And in the end, the reason that man named Green was willing to listen to the three of them was only because he thought they were all "veteran players."
Once that layer of disguise was torn away, that murderous creature would never stay as calm and docile as it seemed now.
It was all just too troublesome, too difficult… Why did this so-called game have to torment people who had simply been living their normal lives?
The girl's sigh received no reply.
Meanwhile, in the corridor, Kaguya—frowning as she focused on the sounds outside the door—heard the noise she both wanted and didn't want to hear.
[Clack—]
The small wooden stick propped against the door of Room 205 fell over.
...
After leaving Room 205, Takumi had found a chance to tell Kaguya and Maki about the second corpse hidden under the bed in 205.
And so now, upon hearing the sound of that stick falling and the door slowly opening, Shinomiya Kaguya immediately understood that the thing now standing in the corridor was very likely that grotesque male corpse—half of its body twisted and disordered, as if disassembled and pieced back together again.
So back in Room 205, had that thing been hiding under the bed all along, silently watching them as they searched the room?
The key question now was—which direction would it go?
Before leaving the room, Takumi had deliberately mentioned the number of Room 210 to mislead it. But that misdirection depended on whether the thing possessed a certain degree of thought and lacked any special means of tracking.
[Thud—]
Heavy footsteps echoed through the corridor.
Its movement direction… was toward Room 210.
Kaguya let out a silent sigh of relief.
For someone accustomed to viewing problems through logic and reason, nothing frightened Shinomiya Kaguya more than entities that defied prediction or calculation—things that followed no pattern or principle. And up to now, every single one of those things she had faced had been exactly that.
But now, this strange corpse—whatever it was—had been successfully misled by Takumi's words and had chosen Room 210 as its target.
That meant the threats within this apartment were not all beyond reason. At the very least, they could still be deceived, still fall for traps—and from that, she could begin formulating more strategies, more possible tactics that might actually work.
[Creak—]
She heard the door of Room 210 open.
The thing that had come out of Room 205 had already entered 210.
Shinomiya Kaguya turned around and looked toward Takumi, who was stationed at the boundary between the corridor and the living room.
She raised one finger, then three, then two, alternating through several hand gestures. Takumi raised his hand as well, responding with the same set of gestures.
This was the silent signaling method Kaguya and Takumi had agreed upon to alert one another. Every few minutes she would look back and exchange that silent communication with Takumi; although she couldn't be certain it would actually work, if Kaguya were to encounter something with psychic contamination, Takumi should notice the anomaly. He would then put in his earplugs, rush to Kaguya's side, bring her into the living room, and shut the door, isolating the source of contamination; if that failed, they would consider using the clocks to rewind.
With so much intelligence blank at the moment, this was already the best temporary solution the three could come up with.