"As for the traces of those people's past lives, I've already found them, but there's one thing Takumi said that's very true—those people must have already disappeared long ago."
Shijō Maki, who had been standing at one side of the room, listened earnestly to Takumi's words, then lightly nodded and followed up, walking over to the bedside on one side of the room, crouching down, and pulling out a small box from under the bed.
"Mm…"
The box was clearly sowhat heavy; when Shijō Maki lifted it into her arms she looked slightly strained, but still furrowed her brows and slowly carried it over to the table, placing it down before unzipping and opening this small suitcase-like box.
Takumi and Kaguya in the next instant saw the various items jumbled inside the box.
Compressed biscuits, bagged instant noodles, bottled water, toilet paper, alcohol, iodine, antipyretics…
All sorts of things mixed together, clearly prepared here on purpose to provide supplies for the people living in the room.
"The production dates are all around two years ago, the most recent two years and three months. The items are either already expired, or not far from expiring. Also, inside the box there's this."
As Shijō Maki spoke, she opened one side of the box and pulled out a sheet of white paper.
Just like the rule sheets they had found earlier in the house, this paper also had words written upon it.
[To the Survivors]
[No matter who you are, when you wake up in this room, you are already one of us.]
[As those who likewise suffer the curse, unable to escape this terrifying apartnt, only by cooperating with each other can we better survive.]
[This box contains so food and water, as well as disinfectant alcohol, gauze, so simple dicine, and tools. These things are replaced once a year, so don't worry about them being unusable. If you need them, take them.]
[But if it is nightti, when using these things please try not to make any noise. If you've read the rules we left in the rooms, you will understand what I an. If you haven't yet read them, then hurry and do so now. This is not so place where you can spend your days in peace; everyone here is exposed to danger at every mont. If you want to survive, you must know the rules.]
[——Kyosei]
Unlike the densely written rule sheet of more than 2,000 characters, the content of this note was far simpler and more straightforward.
Just seeing these things, Takumi felt a kind of indescribable sensation.
Whether it was the household rule sheet placed in every room, or the cabinets specially built in the corridor to evade danger, now added to the supplies placed in the rooms for survivors to use—it was imaginable that the group of survivors who once lived here must have done their utmost to unite, racking their brains to improve each person's chances of survival.
But now, they had already vanished, leaving only these traces of existence.
In this process, just what had happened?
From the writing on this note, it could be seen that those past survivors had the ability to distribute such ergency supplies into every room. That also ant that the people who once lived here had already investigated the rules of this place thoroughly enough to basically live normally, even having great reserves of energy to help others.
So what exactly had happened that made the traces of these survivors disappear altogether?
"If this 'replaced once a year' isn't just nonsense, then the organized survivor group that once existed here has already disbanded for at least a year."
All along maintaining her indifferent expression, Shinomiya Kaguya slowly spoke, her gaze fixed on the scattered things in the small box, no one knowing what she was thinking.
"That's right. Earlier in the corridor I asked so of the others; they didn't seem to have noticed whether there were such boxes in the rooms. I suspect every room should have one of these supply boxes. If we really do have to stay here for so ti, then collecting these supply boxes will be very necessary. Even food close to expiry can at least fill our stomachs. Facing this bizarre apartnt in a hungry state is no good. Right, Oba-san?"
As Shijō Maki said this, she sat down on the sofa at one side of the room, lightly swinging her legs.
"The things in this supply box are enough to get us through for about a day. Though we could try to conserve, that would lower our stamina and make it hard to react in ti when facing danger. In other words, even if we take a conservative approach, we can only hold out in this room for a day at most. By tomorrow we'll have to take action and leave."
Shinomiya Kaguya furrowed her brows. She did not like Shijō Maki calling her 'Oba-san.' Though in terms of family seniority it was indeed so, the two were both girls of the sa age, and yet she had to be called sothing belonging to an older generation. This made Kaguya very displeased—displeased enough that she wanted to argue right here and now.
'No, I cannot do that.'
As a mber of the Shinomiya family, quarreling in private might be one thing, but with outsiders present, it was better to keep her propriety.
Exhaling lightly to steady her mood, Shinomiya Kaguya kept her expression calm, continuing her analysis: "Although we must take action, the intelligence we currently have is far too little, so rash action is not a good idea. Just like Takumi-san said, the rule sheet we hold may very well already be outdated. Even if so parts do hold reference value, others that appear to protect us may now have turned into death traps."
"So now, it's very necessary for us to sort through the rule sheet we have." Stretching out her pale fingers, she lightly pressed on the rule sheet placed on the table, her tone becoming more severe.
Shijō Maki imdiately spoke up, clearly having already thought about this matter. "Then let's start with the very first rule: from 8:00 in the morning to 17:50 in the afternoon. At present, this clearly has a problem. The light outside the window shows that it should be dayti, yet the corridor displays abnormalities that defy common sense. Either the light outside itself is a kind of deception and we're actually in the middle of night, or this rule itself has already lost effect, with the apartnt full of danger even during the day."
"This much I can confirm—it's dayti now, without mistake. So the only possibility is that this rule is no longer accurate and cannot protect us." And Shinomiya Kaguya at once gave her reply, her tone filled with certainty.
"Biological clock?" Shijō Maki froze slightly at this answer, then imdiately understood Kaguya's aning.
"Exactly. The Shinomiya family's schedule is extrely strict. Once it's past 23:00, my body instinctively grows sleepy, and earlier the wall clock already showed it was around 1:00. If this were 1:00 in the morning, it would be impossible for to have no reaction." Shinomiya Kaguya gave a slight nod, her words unconsciously tinged with a trace of pride.
"Truly such a strict way of life it's almost pitiable, Oba-san. But have you considered the problem of ti zones? If we've been brought into another ti zone, then your biological clock may not accurately correspond with the ti. And to push it further—what if we're in another world altogether?" With a light snort, Shijō Maki crossed her arms and shot back without the slightest politeness.
"I've also considered that, but the place we're in now—the houses, the furniture, the writing—every feature without exception carries an obvious Japanese style. Unless the builders of this place were bored enough to go to sowhere like the United States and do a full-scale replica, the ti difference can't possibly be that great. As for another world, that's at least not sothing we need to consider now, because if we think that way, we'll end up trapped in this room forever. With that line of thinking, no matter what we do it will all be wrong, and our purpose here is to leave, not to get stuck in pointless dead ends."
Shinomiya Kaguya fired back rapidly, while on the other side Shijō Maki imdiately showed a pensive expression, then lightly nodded, acknowledging her words.
"I think…"
All this ti unable to find a chance to speak, only watching the two girls volley their words like rapid fire, Takumi at this mont raised his hand, wanting to say sothing.
"All right, then next is the second rule: after 21:00 this apartnt seems to undergo so abnormal change…"
But Shinomiya Kaguya had already quickly moved on to the next topic. Even though Maki had stopped, intending to listen to what Takumi wanted to say, she too was swept up in Kaguya's pace and could only continue discussing the next problem.
"An absolutely accurate clock… that line can't be written randomly, it must have so aning. We'll have to try changing the ti on the clock later, to see what happens."
"According to this rule, after 21:00 we must stay inside the room, and preferably the very room where we woke up, and we must maintain absolute silence inside, ignoring the knocking of children… This 'children' may be a kind of designation, pointing to so threat within this apartnt. Do they have so way of monitoring the situation in the whole building, so that even if we know sothing we can't discuss it at will?"
"As for the room's circuitry, I tested it when I woke up. Broken, and has been broken for a long ti. So the third rule about not turning on the lights is completely aningless. This may also be one of the proofs for why the survivors back then disappeared. When those survivors were still active, the apartnt's circuits should have been maintained and intact. No, we can't only consider our own room. The lights in the corridor are intact—if those lights also fall under the category of 'must be off after 21:00,' then what?"
"Did the high cabinets have anything left behind? We'll have to check later. These rules are very clear: the source of the threat is similar in size to young children, not tall, so you can evade them using high cabinets. But now they've disappeared, so whether this evasion thod still works is hard to say. On the other hand, those cabinets should have so traces left behind, which might help our further investigation."
"And the specific ntion of room 304 in this way—that's a very big problem. In contrast, the rule's maker claid he lived in 309, which ans the 3rd floor itself should be safe, with only 304 being a problem? Either way, investigating the 3rd floor is absolutely necessary. Right, before when I was outside, I asked the others about their room numbers. They were all on the sa floor, residents of the 2nd floor. As of now, it seems no one has appeared claiming to be from 304."
"According to this rule, going in and out of this apartnt actually isn't obstructed, it just has to be through the main entrance. But our task is to escape from the Shirakawa Apartnts within 7 days. If this really were that easy to do, I don't think there'd be any reason we'd be given such a task. Perhaps the situation on the 1st floor is extrely dangerous. If we're going to investigate, we must be as cautious as possible."
"Leaving other things aside, until now there's been no movent in the corridor—that alone is very troubleso. Even if, Oba-san, you heard footsteps leaving, does that really an it's safe outside? Just the question of whether we should open the door and go explore later is already very troubleso."
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