Creak—
Accompanied by a sharp, grating sound, a very plain wooden door was slowly pushed open.
A blood-colored doll concealed its form, then quietly slipped inside, glanced around the room, and quietly withdrew back outside. After that, Takumi's head poked into the room. He carefully observed it once more, and only then did he open the door and walk in.
This was a small storage room.
Inside, one could see neatly arranged training equipment, such as rope ladders, hooks, and water-spray nozzles.
On one side of the storage room's wall hung an entire row of firefighter uniforms and rescue personnel outfits. The two types differed only slightly in color and style.
Takumi cautiously stepped into the storage room and signaled for Chika to stand guard at the doorway and keep an eye on the situation outside.
Through the power of blessing, he could sense a strange aura.
It was inside this storage room.
Somewhere within this storage room.
However, for some reason, that strange aura felt somewhat odd. Takumi faintly sensed that the thing's very existence seemed rather illusory, like firewood that was about to burn out and could no longer continue burning.
No…
This feeling—could it be some kind of residual echo?
Takumi moved deeper into the storage room, to a dimly lit corner area where nothing was stored and which appeared very well hidden.
Here, he sensed something obscure—something left behind from the past, from those obsessions that had turned into strange entities.
Slowly, his footsteps began to move. Little by little, Takumi leaned against the wall in that corner, raised his hand, and placed his fingers near his ear, making a gesture as if he were communicating with someone, like holding a phone.
[If you keep doing this, it puts me in a very difficult position. Can't you think of some way to completely seal that place off?]
The man in a suit leaned against the wall, speaking into his phone with an annoyed expression.
[If that were possible, that would be great. You know very well that we've tried every possible way to seal off the Big Slide, but the walls keep collapsing. People keep getting trapped in there for no apparent reason. At first it was only security guards, but now more and more tourists are getting trapped in there as well.]
A man's voice came through the phone, filled with exhaustion. He sounded as if his mental state was in pretty bad shape.
[I've also lost several of my men, Mr. Reed. I can't keep this matter suppressed indefinitely. The string of disappearances has already drawn more and more attention. Tourists from out of town don't know what's going on, but locals have basically stopped going to that cave. I believe you understand what I mean. This really can't be suppressed forever. This involves more than fifty missing people, and it involves tourists from all over the world, as well as local firefighters and rescue teams. I'm afraid what happens next will only get worse and worse.]
The man making the call let out a weary sigh, his tone sounding increasingly helpless.
[…So what, then? Do you have any solution? I pay you so much money every year—wasn't it precisely so you could keep this matter suppressed? Or are the families of those missing rescue team members making trouble again? Didn't you say you had already dealt with them before?]
The voice on the phone carried a hint of confusion.
[This batch has indeed been dealt with. What about the next batch? Nobody is stupid. What do you think will happen if this keeps going? The situation right now is already extremely bad. If this continues, I think I can only choose to withdraw.]
The man making the call sighed again, and the words he spoke next carried a trace of hesitation.
[You want to withdraw?]
The voice on the phone seemed to have been provoked, and the pitch suddenly rose.
[The money you pay me is no longer worth wading into this mess. I advise you—you'd better give up sooner rather than later.]
The man's voice became firm. It was obvious he was not saying this on a sudden whim.
[…You know I can't shut down Red Nut Grey Cave.]
This time, the voice on the phone clearly hesitated for a moment.
[Because it's a nationally famous up-and-coming tourist attraction? Because it can bring you countless wealth every day now?]
The man on the phone, not expecting the other party to phrase it like that, froze for a moment before continuing.
[…Because it became hugely popular during Mayor's term, and it was then selected as a national-level tourist attraction. This attraction cannot be shut down before our mayor leaves office. It has to be maintained and kept running as one of the shining achievements of his term. This is not something you and I get to decide, understand?]
[…]
[So don't talk about withdrawing anymore. Right now, none of us can withdraw. The problem with Red Nut Grey Cave cannot be known to anyone. This place must remain "normal," and those of us who know there is a problem must also stay in our positions. Do you understand what I mean?]
[…Damn it.]
In those final words, the man let out a deep sigh, his tone growing weary.
The voice on the phone also fell silent. In the last few words spoken by that person, one could likewise hear a deep sense of exhaustion.
Takumi slowly lowered the hand that had been covering one side of his ear.
The residual echo of what had just occurred had already dissipated.
And the content recorded by that residual echo was now imprinted in Takumi's mind.
"So the reason Red Nut Grey Cave wasn't shut down after the anomalies began, but instead continued operating, is because of pressure from higher up?"
"The person who made that call should have been a leader within the fire department, and the one he contacted was Patrick Reed?"
"From the very beginning, when the Big Slide was first sealed off, tourists had already begun disappearing little by little. Security guards, as well as rescue team members and firefighters, also had people go missing around that same time."
Now fully alert, Takumi realized what kind of information was contained in the voices he had just heard.
It was time to leave.
Takumi had already realized that if he continued forward, he would probably be able to see even more residual echoes.
Those people who were intimately tied to the changes and development of Red Nut Grey Cave—after this place had completely turned into a Horror Story amusement ground—had likewise been dragged into this hell. Although they had already become obsessions wandering here as well, based on the fragments of memory they left behind, he would certainly be able to unravel the truth step by step.
A nauseating stench drifted into his nostrils.
Takumi turned his head to the side and looked toward the wall where rows upon rows of clothes hung… a wall from which rows of expressionless firefighters were suspended, radiating a chilling cold.
All of them hung there with their heads lowered, completely motionless, like goods whose fate had already been decided in advance, already traded—simply placed here, waiting to be taken again whenever customers required them.
Their bodies gradually began to swell.
Drops of water dripped down from them.
And as Takumi stared at them, in a moment of dazed clarity, he came to understand the situation.
Those people who had been trapped inside the cave had, in fact, always still been alive—never having completely died.
No matter what those trapped people encountered in the area beyond the Big Slide that had already transformed into a place of the bizarre, none of them had completely died. There was still a possibility for them to leave alive.
Until a torrential rain flooded the cave.
Everyone began to float in the water.
Everyone was submerged in the accumulated water.
The sound of breathing gradually stopped.
In its place came the sound of rushing water.
And then, after the water gradually receded, the lingering sound of droplets falling.
Drip—drip—
The dripping sound seemed to come from a very distant place, yet also seemed to be right beside him.
And hidden within it, faintly, was a sound like someone quietly sobbing.
Takumi showed no reaction to this.
He simply maintained a calm demeanor, expressionless as he stepped forward, avoiding the area where those things hung on the walls, and quickly walked out of the room.
Drip—drip—
The sound of water droplets falling continued to echo behind him.
Takumi himself had already reached the doorway of the room, arriving beside the storage-room door that Fujiwara Chika had been guarding.
But the girl was not there.
And outside the door was not the training area he had passed through earlier.
What appeared in Takumi's field of view at this moment was another corridor—a corridor he found somewhat familiar, though now somewhat run-down.
He knew this place, because during his first run, he had already seen it in another residual echo. This was the office building of the Red Nut Grey Cave tourism development company, the place where the site's first director, Aston, and his successor, Patrick Reed, had both appeared.
And now, Takumi could see that at one end of the corridor was that familiar window—the place from which, in the residual echo, one could directly look out over the surface facilities of Red Nut Grey Cave.
At the other end was a red door.
A door of deep, blood-red color that inspired intense unease, a blood-red door that seemed to glow faintly in the darkness.
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