"The layout of this room isn't the sa as the ones on the second floor. Could this be the original, normal structure of Shirakawa Apartnts?"
Noticing a trace of abnormality, Kaguya frowned and said quietly.
Behind her, Takumi once again pressed a hand to his forehead.
Strange.
Why was it that ever since he'd co up to the third floor, he was seeing more and more of these things?
It was as if his vision no longer existed entirely within the present Shirakawa Apartnts, but was sohow connected to another place.
Why was such a change happening?
As he pondered this, Takumi reached out to grasp the doorfra, intending to close the door.
In that mont, he subconsciously raised his head and looked outside.
Then he saw that filthy little child, dressed in ragged clothes, appearing and disappearing amid the distorted architectural structure, vanishing without a trace.
"…"
And so, Takumi understood.
He had already been discovered by that thing—it had begun to reestablish contact with him once again.
...
After learning about his regression ability, Takumi had actually considered a question like this: for those rule-based Horror Stories involving mory and cognition—those troubleso things of the type "to know is to recognize"—perhaps the ability to regress could not erase the influence of such things.
In any case, Takumi had already co to know the "taboo" of Shirakawa Apartnts.
And having co to know the taboo ant he had fulfilled the condition for triggering it, thus becoming a target that "that thing" could gaze upon.
Only, perhaps because of the regression, within the operational logic of this rule-based Horror Story, he possessed an additional segnt of taboo mory that had appeared out of nowhere. Therefore, for the rule to activate in this regard, it would take a certain amount of ti to slowly begin. But now that he was already able to see that thing, it ant the triggering speed was not slow. From this point of view, perhaps… the seven days allotted for escaping Shirakawa Apartnts might, for him, amount to less than half that ti—or even shorter.
In the most optimistic estimation, in about three days, he would trigger the curse power of the core taboo of Shirakawa Apartnts, be dragged once again into that distorted and twisted Room 304, have his mouth sewn shut with needle and thread, and be tortured to death with boiling water.
He really didn't want to go through that again.
That kind of torturous death—just experiencing it once was enough to drive one into despair, yet he had gone through it twice. If he had to endure a third ti, Takumi truly didn't know whether he could survive it.
"Takumi-san, you seem rather uneasy."
Kaguya, resting on one side of the room, watched the changes in Takumi's expression and spoke softly.
"I just thought of sothing rather unsettling, that's all."
Realizing his expression had given him away, Takumi let out a long breath, then lifted his head to et Kaguya's gaze.
Red eyes.
They glead brilliantly like rubies—eyes like these shouldn't exist in the real world, right? As expected, she truly belonged to the two-dinsional realm.
It was just a pity that the gaze from those eyes now looked nearly lifeless—no trace of ordinary human emotion could be found in them.
'The Ice Princess Kaguya, a girl raised under the Shinomiya family's twisted education of "absolute self-interest," a "girl in a box"—for such a girl to now be in the sa eerie and terrifying Horror Story zone as , risking her life alongside to investigate… it was, I had to admit, rather strange.'
"Do you have anything to say?"
Locking eyes with Takumi, Kaguya did not know what he was thinking. She only saw this man fall silent, so she spoke up again to ask.
"…Say what, say sothing, huh. Mm, Shinomiya-san, do you still rember the four hints for this ga? The predecessors' ssages, the happiness of dust, the door of restarting, and the place one must not go. What are your thoughts on these things?"
Closing his eyes, Takumi leaned against the wall and spoke slowly, his voice carrying a trace of hesitation.
"Thoughts, huh…"
Kaguya was not quite sure why Takumi suddenly asked this question, but she still quieted down to think for a while, and only then did she slowly speak.
"The point about the predecessors' ssages is actually quite clear. Whether it's Kyosei's ssage, Sanchez's investigation notes, or so other records left by past survivors who once lived here, all of them hide various clues—and our exploration so far has been based on those who have already died. They left us a way to survive, guiding us forward."
"As for the happiness of dust, this line of thought may not be certain, but in my guess, perhaps it refers to a toy? I may not be very familiar with a normal child's childhood, but isn't it said that children like toys? And the place one must not go—I think you also have a sense of it in your heart. That place is very likely inside one of the walls of Room 304."
"The intelligence you and Maki brought back from the last—mm, the last loop is quite substantial, already basically enough for us to piece together what once happened in this apartnt. All sorts of clues can basically be matched up; only so matters of detail still need further investigation."
Perhaps to recover a bit of her pride and self-respect, Kaguya spoke at length and in detail.
As for the situation of the family in Room 304, Takumi had already told Kaguya about it before heading to the third floor to explore. At this mont Takumi said nothing, rely sitting where he was and listening to Kaguya's analysis. At the sa ti, he was also thinking silently to himself—of course, on the premise of trying his best not to think about that key taboo, limiting his perspective to those two atrocious parents, and, for all content involving that thing, using every possible form of indirect reference, in order to delay the curse as much as possible.
The cause of death was having her mouth sewn shut and being scalded with boiling water. Before that, it was likely just beatings and similar abuse. After all, with a child's frail body, being subjected to mouth-sewing and boiling water would make survival impossible. And afterward—was she walled up? But since the rescue team slled a stench, perhaps it was so kind of hastily built mud wall? Or maybe they dug a hole into the wall, stuffed her directly inside, and roughly sealed it back up?
This family had a second child—a boy. He had been sent away before Shirakawa Apartnts beca distorted. Perhaps, after that incident, the parents knew they would be arrested once exposed, so they sent the child away. And according to Sanchez's investigation records, that child who was sent away seed to have mysteriously died within the sa year the other residents of the apartnt disappeared. Maybe after death, he was pulled back into the apartnt?
Perhaps the turning point ca after the birth of the second child—once the man's desire for a son was fulfilled, the first one was treated with even less importance, becoming even more of an eyesore. So when they acted, the parents' moral bottom line had fallen even lower.
The neighbors should have tried to help, but they must have suffered retaliation from those parents. For a child they despised so deeply, once they discovered that soone was willing to show her love or attempt to help her, for these two people who had already lost all trace of humanity, it would have been absolutely intolerable. Room 309… perhaps it was the residents of 309 who had co into conflict with those of 304—and very likely left the apartnt afterward because of it.
Then, the door of restarting…
"Maybe it's 309. If we open 309, we might obtain sothing very important. I think the door of restarting might refer to this room—309."
As Takumi thought these things, Kaguya, sitting opposite him, spoke calmly, voicing the very thought in Takumi's heart.
"Indeed. Unfortunately, this place is far too chaotic. Apart from 304, which still offers so traces of clues, finding any other room is like searching for a needle in a haystack."
Letting out a light sigh, Takumi slowly stood up from the floor.
Up to this point, he had not yet reached the state of the previous loop—where he could feel that thing's gaze upon him at any ti, in any place.
But such a state would not last long. As the curse deepened, he would inevitably face death sooner than anyone else.
Still, there should be enough ti.
Enough ti to verify his thoughts.
"You already have an idea?"
Seeing the change in Takumi's expression, Kaguya realized he must have co up with sothing, and she asked.
"I once experienced being gradually transford into a mber of the rescue team, the process of having my self-awareness destroyed by that badge."
"That process was even more painful than death. But after surviving, I ca to realize a few things. I think, to so extent, I've roughly figured out the essential nature of these eerie phenona—though until now, I hadn't had any concrete ideas on how to summarize them."
Takumi nodded slightly, carefully peering through the crack of the door to observe outside while answering Kaguya.
"These inhuman anomalies—the key to how their power operates should lie in Obsession, while the specific chanism of its operation lies in mory."
"The rescue team keeps repeating their rescue actions, stopping those who try to return to their rooms from the corridors, because 'saving' is their obsession. And the scenes of flooding that appear where the rescue team's anomalies exist are repetitions of their past mories."
"I'm not trying to say they still have feelings or anything like that. Although I have great respect for those rescue team mbers, as soone who almost beca one of them, I can confirm that once they turn into anomalies, the rescue team no longer possesses anything like emotion. Under the influence of Obsession and mory, they are rely distorted echoes endlessly repeating the past—unable to move toward the future."
As he spoke, Takumi's gaze caught a faint, flickering figure in the corridor outside. He withdrew his eyes and spoke slowly to Kaguya.
"But that doesn't an they are unsolvable tragedies. Because the very foundation of these rescue teams' existence still lies in Obsession."
"The rescue team trapped in the endless loop cannot fulfill their own obsession, so they remain on the first floor. But if there were a way—when everything replays again—to let them complete their obsession, to truly carry out the act of saving the people of Shirakawa Apartnts, then once released from that loop, they could stop this aningless repetition and gain genuine rest."
"I believe this sa principle should also apply to the apartnt's most central taboo."
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