[Time remaining until the end of Day 3: 3 hours 20 minutes]
[Time remaining until nightfall on Day 3: 1 hour 20 minutes]
From the moment the woman's voice appeared to when it vanished, it did not take very long.
But for the three present, the appearance of this thing undoubtedly signified a very bad piece of news.
The anomaly that existed in Room 304 had already begun to spread outward and had begun to track them.
"Why did she appear outside? Shouldn't she be inside Room 304?"
Maki could not quite understand the reason this thing appeared.
"Maybe it's because we took something that, in its view, we shouldn't have taken. Since we've seen this one, the other one will most likely also show up. Let's go. We need to move carefully. Who knows what else we might run into next."
As he said this, Takumi reached up and tugged at the collar of his clothes, which were becoming somewhat damp, and pretended as if nothing was wrong while continuing forward.
Just by getting close to that female anomaly, his clothes were automatically soaked by scalding water, beginning to inflict intense torment upon him.
As the curse he was bearing gradually deepened, the pollution strength from those beast-like "parents" also seemed to be growing stronger and stronger, as though his very existence was gradually shifting toward the position of that pitiful girl, becoming just like her—tormented and abused by the power of the "parents."
'Speaking of which, the things I see, hear, and feel are basically from "her" standpoint. And the final stage of this curse is my execution by the manner of her death, experiencing the same pain she suffered. It is as if, through this curse, I am being forced to experience her entire life and to go through all she went through.'
'The problem now is that, at present, only I am experiencing this situation, but Maki and Kaguya have already started showing signs of being cursed. Will they reach this stage too? If they will, how much time remains before that happens?'
The questions without clear answers left Takumi somewhat uneasy.
"If only we could use that key to go directly to Room 309."
Maki sighed and spoke in a low voice.
"Such delusions are better not to have. We have already tried it. That key cannot open this kind of crucial room. The situation now is already the best conditions we can achieve. The only problem left is merely finding that place."
Kaguya, for once, spoke at length, giving Maki a very serious warning.
"Yes, yes, yes, Oba-san… Mm, it seems like there's also some kind of sound up ahead. Be careful…"
Maki had just replied when she noticed some abnormal movement.
The three hid once again, and then they heard the chaotic noises gradually approaching from afar.
[Come on, who's afraid of who? Hit me! If you chicken out, you're a coward, hahaha!]
[You bastard, are you blind or what? What do you mean by throwing a beer bottle at my doorway?]
[I'll throw it wherever I damn well please. Come on, you wanna fight, right? Come on, come on, scared now, aren't you? Hahahaha—]
A man reeking of alcohol was cursing wildly.
The enraged neighbor, however, did not dare go forward, because he knew this man really would get physical and did not care at all about what happened afterward.
Even if the police were called, once a fight broke out, unless someone was seriously injured, it would only be counted as mutual assault. And this man never accepted mediation—once taken to the police station, his goal was always to make sure both sides got sent to the detention center. The man's idea was actually simple: going into the detention center made it convenient for him to hide from his debt collectors for a few days. But for the neighbors who had work and families to support, this utterly unreasonable person had become unbearably disgusting.
Another reappearance—a fragmentary echo of the past.
But this time, Takumi was no longer the only one who could hear these things.
"Those sounds just now… Takumi-kun, ever since you were cursed, you've been able to hear these sounds the whole time?"
Maki turned her head toward Takumi. Those distorted voices did not seem to affect her too much. Compared to that, after directly experiencing the conditions Takumi had gone through, her worry for him immediately deepened.
"Will the next stage start producing boiling water, or is there still another stage in between?"
Kaguya's face was slightly pale, but she quickly calmed herself and turned to ask Takumi.
"About that. In any case, be careful from here on out. It's not a pleasant experience."
As Takumi said this, he looked at the slightly bulky school uniforms of the two girls.
To deal with the various reactions of the curse, both Maki and Kaguya had padded multiple layers of tissue paper and towels under their clothes. This way, when the curse caused boiling water to appear out of thin air, they could use the paper to absorb as much water as possible and remove it from their bodies in time, thereby reducing the extent of the burns and slowing the rate at which the effects accumulated.
Only, as for how effective this method would truly be, they would only know when that moment actually came.
[Don't get involved with that family's business anymore. As long as this disgusting thing doesn't go too far, whatever.]
[Just looking at him makes me sick. How can someone like that exist in this world?]
More and more echoes began surfacing, as if taking the toy outside had activated the memories of this twisted place.
[That whole family might as well just die. That disgusting wife of his—two days ago she secretly picked vegetables from 303's plot, and when she got caught, she actually stomped the entire garden flat.]
[And their daughter—does she have some kind of illness? She's like an idiot all day long—talk to her once and she jumps in fright. And that mother of hers actually yelled at me just because I talked to her daughter. She's completely insane!]
Voices of disgust, expressions of disgust, actions of disgust—no matter what feelings people held at the beginning, in the end everything turned into the same disgust.
[Forget it. Last time that young guy from 309 tried to help their daughter a little, did you see the scene they made? They practically forced him to leave.]
[Sigh, I just wish those debt collectors would stop pounding on doors in the middle of the night. One time they even knocked on my door by mistake.]
All of the voices pieced together bit by bit, piecing together the things that had once happened, piecing together a corner of the history of that apartment building.
Facing that detestable couple—people everyone feared getting involved with, feared becoming entangled with—from the conflicts at the very beginning, to everyone gradually ignoring them, acting as if this family did not exist, no matter what happened turning a blind eye. Once certain things became habit, they became taken for granted. For example, everyone knew that the couple's daughter was constantly tormented, constantly abused. But what does that have to do with me? Would there really be any benefit to interfering?
Only one newly arrived young man—someone who wanted to make something of himself in the big city, who wanted to save money and thus moved into this old apartment building—could not bear it after seeing what the child suffered, and took action.
But his kindness only brought him endless trouble, and in the end forced him to move away from here. And after that vivid example, even fewer people were willing to involve themselves with that family, to the point that even the neighboring children copied the attitudes of the adults—ignoring, insulting, or even bullying that child.
Everything slid toward the abyss.
Light gradually disappeared without a trace.
Or perhaps it had never existed at all.
There had only been a single moment when she had an illusion—an illusion that things might actually change.
"Hah…"
Takumi had already removed his clothes and was moving with his upper body bare.
The burns on his body had increased, his skin reddened, blisters forming, or entire patches of flesh scalded raw.
Even though the total number of wounds now was still not that many, not yet to the level of the second loop when they covered his whole body, for Takumi, the pain he was bearing had already become severe enough to start affecting his ability to move.
"It still won't work…"
Kaguya took a deep breath and removed her badge. The nearly solidified rescue-team uniform on her body dissipated, revealing the school uniform she originally wore.
"Are we still lacking some condition? Or has that door really hidden itself to such an extent—so well-hidden that even after searching this area back and forth so many times, we still can't find it?"
On the other side, Maki was also panting. She had already worn the badge once earlier and had only removed it when she was nearly at her limit, yet the result was still nothing.
Wearing the rescue-team badge, forming the rescue-team uniform on their bodies—perhaps that would allow them to find the entrance to 309. This was a possibility Takumi, Maki, and Kaguya had considered, and the reason they attempted it just now.
But the result was not ideal.
Even with the rescue-team badges worn, they still could not find the location of Room 309.
During the process, the three also tried replicating the tactic Takumi had used on the first floor—trying to immerse themselves in the identity of rescue-team members and call for aid—but there was no response from any rescue-team personnel.
By contrast, the two "parents" wandering in this area were something the three had already encountered repeatedly many times.
And every time, the distance between those two things and the three of them seemed to be gradually closing.
Even if they pulled far away from them, after not too long, those two things would slowly wander back to their surroundings again.
It was as if they had some method of positioning, some method of sensing their location.
Maybe it was because that thing was in their hands?
At this moment, there were still about thirty minutes left before the light completely vanished and nighttime darkness set in.
Nearly an hour of full-force searching had yielded no results.
Later, Kaguya even thought of using the blood key to open a door and connect it to some large door on the first floor, to see if this method could summon the rescue team. But not only did this attempt fail to open the door, it instead attracted the "parents," forcing the three to flee in a disheveled hurry.
It seemed that because there was a major conflict between the first and third floors, forcibly opening a first-floor door on the third floor would basically only draw the attention of anomalous existences.
Takumi had expected things would not be that easy, but truly facing this situation where no solution could be found at all, he had to admit that he was more or less growing anxious.
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