Rooms 203, 202, and 201 were unoccupied—no survivors had stayed in them. Judging from the conditions of the rooms already explored, these three should also contain supply boxes with valuable food reserves and various small tools or miscellaneous items.
Green was the first to pry open the doors of Rooms 203 and 202. The exploration of these two rooms went relatively smoothly. In Room 203, they found a corpse hanging in the living room—the body had already torn apart at the abdomen, leaving the lower half collapsed on the floor. The corpse in Room 202 was lying directly on the bed, showing no visible wounds or distinct marks; however, two empty bottles of sleeping pills were discovered on the nightstand beside the bed.
Throughout the process, the corpses in these two rooms remained almost entirely motionless, only showing slight twitching or blinking. After Takumi and the others left the rooms, the corpses seemed to become a little more active, as if about to follow them out—but ultimately, neither of the two left their rooms. After taking a few steps into the corridor, they simply turned back, returning to their original positions and standing still again. Because of this, Takumi's initial plan—to lure these corpses into Room 210 and see if they could kill the corpse inside—completely fell through.
Could it be that, because there's no "Room Owner," their movements are somehow restricted?
With this thought in mind, Takumi proceeded to enter Room 201—and before he even reached the doorway, he was almost pounced on by the corpse of an old man, nearly dying on the spot.
That scene could only be described as extremely perilous. When the door to 201 opened, the corridor inside was pitch black, making it impossible to see whether anything was there. The moment Takumi stepped in, something shriveled shot out from the corridor—or rather… floated out? In any case, the thing appeared with unbelievable speed and completely without sound. Landing on its toes, it lunged straight at him, its purplish-black fingers slashing five gashes across his arm.
If not for Maki, who had been keeping watch nearby and reacted in time to pull Takumi out, he would likely have died right there. Even after the group retreated, the old man's corpse did not return to the room; instead, it stood motionless in the doorway, leaving no one daring to approach and close the door. Soon after, footsteps echoed from the stairwell—drawn by the earlier commotion—forcing everyone to hide inside the living room. Only after several hours did they dare to come out again, only to find that the door to 201 was still open and that thing was still standing right there at the threshold.
"Looks like the corpses in different rooms really do have distinct temperaments… but this one's just way too aggressive."
Clicking his tongue, Takumi looked helplessly at the five long bloody slashes on his arm. If his reaction hadn't been quick enough, he might not have ended up with just five cuts—but instead been torn into five pieces.
"Yeah… and these corpses in the rooms were all former residents. Watching dead people move again like that—honestly, it's not something anyone would want to see."
Maki, disinfecting Takumi's arm and wrapping it in bandages, shook her head as she spoke, then picked up the iodine to clean the wound.
"Hss… could you maybe be a little gentler?"
The sting of the iodine made Takumi grimace in pain.
"Heh, what's this? You can't even take that? And here you were talking so big before—saying that even if everyone else died, you'd still be the one to turn back time. I actually thought you were some kind of super tough guy."
Seeing Takumi's reaction, Maki's lips curved into a faint smile, her expression carrying a trace of pride as she laughed softly.
"Ahaha, I actually wish I were a tough guy myself. Though, I've always felt I'm pretty brave already."
Takumi chuckled as well, then fell silent, simply watching as Maki carefully wrapped his arm with gauze.
Outside, Yamamoto Hiroshi had already connected the circuits of Rooms 202 and 203. He even tried modifying the switches, wiring them to Room 204 so that whoever stayed there could turn the lights of those two rooms on and off remotely at any time. However, since all the lightbulbs they could find in the Shirakawa Apartments were nearly burnt out, the best he managed was making the lights in those rooms flicker twice.
At Kaguya's request, Green was in another room organizing the supply boxes they had found so far. The food was strictly rationed—priority went to those responsible for exploration that day—and the amount each person ate had to be tightly controlled to avoid wasteful consumption like today's.
Thus, at this moment, only Takumi and Maki were in Room 208, with Maki tending to Takumi's bandages.
It kind of felt like the atmosphere had gotten a little… strange.
As the room grew quiet, Takumi couldn't help but have that thought.
"By the way… about that previous loop—the one you mentioned, where all of us were wiped out—could you tell me what happened then?"
Shijō Maki's voice reached Takumi's ears at that moment.
"The events from that time? Are you sure you want to know?"
Takumi froze for a second, not expecting Maki to ask such a question.
"I guess… I'm just curious. After all, knowing that I once fought side by side with you, yet now have no memory of it at all—it's honestly kind of discouraging. Um, we got along pretty well back then, didn't we? In your eyes, what kind of person was that past me?"
Maki showed a gentle smile and sat down beside him.
The Shirakawa Apartments had long been abandoned; the sofa here was covered in dust, something both Kaguya and Maki had always found distasteful. Yet at this moment, the girl sat down gracefully anyway—right beside Takumi, only a palm's width apart—and turned her head toward him with a soft smile.
Takumi fell momentarily silent. He felt that, normally, he should be feeling excited like some hopeless pervert, yet what came to his mind instead was that moment when he and Maki had once been trapped together in a room on the third floor—when the girl had sat beside him, tracing letters with her finger on the back of his hand, lightly patting his palm.
Those things—the present Maki could never know. Because they belonged to a deleted future, something that had never happened.
A beautiful moment that existed only in Takumi, the one who had rewound time.
"I don't really want to talk about that."
So Takumi shook his head, choosing to reject the girl's request.
Those things… it's enough that only I know them. There's no need for anyone else to.
"But I really want to hear it. You… seemed to trust me from the very beginning, didn't you? I actually noticed before—when everyone else doubted you, the first person you wanted to convince was me."
Maki lowered her head slightly, her voice softening.
She seemed to hesitate for a moment, her feet gently rubbing against the floor a few times before she finally gathered her courage and once again lifted her gaze toward Takumi.
"After hearing you talk about rewinding time—and experiencing one myself—I couldn't help wondering… In that cycle where you said we failed, what kind of relationship did that version of me have with you? And on what basis did I earn your trust?"
"And also, after everything was rewound, with this version of me no longer remembering any of it… does that make you feel… disappointed? Because I've already forgotten the moments we shared, and only you still remember what happened."
"I was thinking, that must be painful, right? The friendship you once built returning to zero, the people you once knew becoming strangers. If something like that would make you sad, then I'd like to share those memories that only you remember. I'm an expert in emotions, you know—you can treat me like a hollow tree and tell me anything, since we're comrades now. I can't just ignore my fellow comrade."
Smiling as she spoke, the girl reached out her hand and gently placed it over Takumi's, which rested on the sofa.
Just like that time before, she lightly patted the back of his hand.
Just like the last time he had felt it—that familiar softness and warmth.
It was as if the scene from that dark room had replayed itself, except this time, he could see the faint smile on her face.
"You really are… a good girl."
Feeling a strange sense of defeat, Takumi couldn't help but shake his head with a sigh.
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