"Just now… what did you do…"
Already realizing sothing, Kaguya still found it hard to believe such a fact, and couldn't help but whisper the question.
"Every clock in the house is absolutely accurate, isn't it?"
Takumi, with difficulty propping himself up, glanced at the rule sheet placed on the nightstand by the bed, and at the dismantled kitchen doorway not far away, then stood shakily, bracing himself on the wall until he finally steadied.
He had turned the ti back to the very beginning.
Back to when he and Kaguya had just woken in this room, had just heard that eerie voice.
Now, the two of them were still in Room 204.
Now, everything that had just happened had not yet co to pass.
If one were to ask how to grasp sothing in the quickest possible way, generally speaking, firsthand experience was always the most efficient approach.
At least for Kaguya, who had just gone through that nightmare-like experience of her entire body tearing apart, disintegrating, and vanishing, she now had an incomparably deep understanding of what kind of horror this apartnt concealed beneath its surface decay.
"You turned back the ti on the clock, so we just went straight back to the very beginning?"
Kaguya quickly stood up, opened the living room door, and looked toward the hanging clock in Room 204. The ti on it had indeed returned to the very start.
Could such a thing really be possible?
Just by turning the ti of a clock in the room backward, ti itself could actually rewind.
Shinomiya Kaguya felt that all the common sense she had accumulated over more than ten years had shattered entirely in that instant.
"It does seem that way. Anyway, we need to get out as soon as possible. If we really have gone back to the beginning, then before long, that woman next door will start screaming to summon that invisible thing again."
Saying this, Takumi picked up the sheet of rules from the bedside table, folded it, and tucked it into his trouser pocket. Then he glanced again at the mysterious black watch on his left wrist.
In fact, in that critical mont earlier, the first thing he had tried was to move the hands on this strange watch on his left wrist.
After all, at that ti, Maki and Kaguya beside him were both starting to crumble apart, and his own body was beginning to break down as well. In that situation, he didn't dare touch the two of them, so he decided to first try moving the watch on his own hand.
Only—it hadn't moved at all.
That broken, bizarre watch, with only a single minute hand remaining, was unbelievably sturdy, as if welded to his wrist. The hand couldn't be moved whatsoever.
Seeing the situation grow more desperate and everyone about to fall completely apart, Takumi had no choice but to risk touching Kaguya and try moving the hand of the hanging clock she carried. That was when it finally worked.
Maybe the watch on my hand isn't bound by the rules?
'But if that's the case, why did this thing appear on my wrist, and why can't I take it off?'
Thinking silently to himself, Takumi kept moving forward, already walking ahead of Kaguya.
"Thank you. If not for your action just now, I don't think I could've survived."
Behind him, Kaguya took down the hanging clock from Room 204 and followed his steps, speaking her gratitude with solemn sincerity.
"Don't thank yet. We still haven't confird the precise range or properties of this clock's ability. When I open the door, be extrely careful. We don't know whether only those who hold or turn the clock retain their mories, nor can we be sure whether those three who turned into… monsters have returned to normal. If anything unexpected happens, you must turn that clock imdiately. If we can't reunite with Shijō-san, then we'll only have one trial left."
Taking a deep breath, Takumi forced his weakened body onward.
"Only one chance?"
Shinomiya Kaguya understood what Takumi's words implied.
"Turning that clock's hand isn't without a price. First, the ti you can rewind should only cover the period we've actually spent inside this apartnt. Before the last reversal, I tried turning the hour hand further back, but it didn't work. That thing felt stuck—I could only barely move it a little. Second, whoever has turned that thing once probably can't do it a second ti. In fact, they might not even be able to touch it again."
As Takumi spoke, he had already walked near the front door. He turned back to glance at the hanging clock in Kaguya's hands, gave a slight smile, then turned forward again, looking out past the broken lock of Room 204's door, which he had already pushed open.
He didn't look again at the head Kaguya was holding—
A head identical to his own, damaged, with three clock hands sticking out of it.
From beginning to end, that head's gaze had been fixed on him, sothing Takumi could clearly feel at every mont.
He had a premonition that even if he sohow managed to survive this bizarre and terrifying place, that gaze would never leave him.
From this day on, every mont, everywhere, he would forever feel that watching presence—the cold, shadowy stare from the darkness. Until the day he stopped breathing and his consciousness ceased to exist, he would never escape it.
So that's why the rule sheet never explicitly wrote down the thod of saving yourself by using the hanging clock—because doing so would, in essence, place a lifelong burden on the user?
'Even so, couldn't you at least write it clearly? Do you have any idea how much trouble we've had to deal with because of your vague, outdated, and broken rules…'
Takumi grumbled inwardly several tis, but that was all it was—grumbling.
He knew perfectly well that complaining wouldn't change anything. What mattered now was action. So he didn't even voice those complaints, only vented them quietly in his mind before stopping himself. He didn't dare think too much either, afraid that sothing capable of reading minds might suddenly reply to him.
[Creaaak—]
Opening the door to Room 204, Takumi imdiately saw Maki stepping out from Room 208, eyes slightly red and holding another hanging clock. She had reacted even faster than Takumi and Kaguya, apparently forcing herself to regain composure as quickly as possible, taking the clock and rushing out.
Well, of course, in Takumi's vision, that too was another head. Perfect—now he could feel double the gaze. In a way, as long as Maki and Kaguya carried those damned clocks, he could track the positions of the two beautiful girls at any ti.
"Don't panic, everything's fine. Ah, three more people ca out over here? Are you all right?"
At that mont, Tanaka was in the corridor speaking with that Black guy, trying to calm his frightened state.
Yamamoto Hiroshi was standing against the wall, his expression anxious, watching his surroundings cautiously. When he saw the three of them co out, his face clearly showed disappointnt.
It seed that the people who had vanished in the corridor and turned into monsters earlier were now completely normal again.
Takumi noticed Tanaka's gaze. Though it seed like just a casual glance, Takumi could easily tell the difference. He was now certain that this man calling himself Tanaka had retained his mories and knew what had happened.
In other words, during the rewind using the hanging clock, everyone who was still alive at that mont had retained their mories—and knew exactly what had taken place.
Yamamoto Hiroshi was just about to take a step forward, intending to walk toward Takumi.
It looked like he was planning to ask the sa question as before—trying once again to deceive himself with the "reality show" excuse.
However, before he could even speak, the white muscular man who had previously refused to interact with anyone suddenly shoved Yamamoto aside and hurried toward Takumi, his face full of desperation.
"You're veteran players, aren't you?"
The man's voice trembled slightly, and his gaze toward the three of them was filled with intense hope.
"Just now—just now, you used an obsession item, right? An obsession item that can actually turn back ti? That's… that's unbelievable! My na's Green. I can do a lot of things. Could you take with you? Please—I won't try anything shady, I swear."
Green.
That was the na the man gave.
Yeah, a pretty common and unimpressive na—but still better than those Tom or Jack types you found everywhere.
'Wait—did he say veteran players?'
The existence of "veteran players" who had cleared stages in this so-called Sacrifice Ga didn't really surprise Takumi. He had long suspected that the man calling himself Tanaka was one. And now, hearing what this Green guy said, Takumi realized he likely was one too—probably the kind who had managed to survive one mission by sheer luck. Of course, that assumption depended on whether this guy wasn't just acting, pretending to be like this on purpose.
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