Takumi did not talk for very long.
Regarding that first round of exploration that only he remembered, he only mentioned part of it: how Maki and he had conducted the investigation together, how the two of them had been trapped in a room on the third floor, and finally, how the girl was killed by the frozen corpse.
He didn't mention the part about blocking the bullet, but even what he had said was enough to make Maki's expression change dramatically.
"Being dragged by some strange black hand into a room together—that's really hard to imagine. And in the end, I was killed by the corpse in my own room? That frozen thing in the refrigerator actually had that kind of ability…"
Taking a deep breath, the girl didn't know what kind of expression she should show in response to what Takumi had just told her.
After all, according to him, he had personally witnessed her death. Though it sounded unbelievable, given everything that had happened, Maki's entire worldview had already been overturned—so she didn't doubt that what Takumi said was true.
Still, just hearing about something like that sounded truly despairing. Everyone had died; Kaguya had turned into a monster that couldn't be killed even with a bullet through the head; and in the end, he himself had died before she did. To have gone through all of that—how had he managed, alone, to find the clock and complete the rewind?
"Takumi… mm, if you don't mind, I'll start calling you by your name, all right?"
After lowering her head in thought for a moment, Maki looked up at Takumi and spoke softly.
"Of course, that's fine—as long as you don't call me something like Takunuts, Shijō-san."
Takumi nodded lightly, unconcerned, only for the girl to reach out again and pat his hand.
"Just call me Maki."
In that moment, a faint glimmer seemed to flash within the girl's brownish-violet eyes.
"Since we were once comrades who shared life and death, a more intimate form of address should be fine too. Just call me Maki, Takumi."
She bared her teeth slightly in a confident grin, her sharp canine faintly visible as she smiled.
Then Maki stood up, gently patted Takumi's shoulder, and turned toward the living room doorway—where Shinomiya Kaguya had just entered.
"It's time to prepare for the second round of exploration."
Kaguya's tone was calm, as though she had only just arrived, not as if she had been standing outside the whole time, listening to their conversation before coming in.
Of course, Kaguya wasn't eavesdropping for some idle reason. After obtaining the second rule sheet yesterday and forming several hypotheses, she couldn't help wondering about Takumi's true identity. Noticing the red-and-white stains on his body, her thoughts began drifting toward darker possibilities—such as the idea that Takumi might actually be a dead man pretending to be alive. That was why she wanted to secretly observe his behavior more closely.
However, from what she had seen so far, those suspicions seemed unfounded; there was no need to worry too much.
"Ah, perfect timing, Shinomiya-san. There's something I think I should say here. I've realized that within this apartment building, I seem to be playing a special role. Well, it might sound strange, but I think… my identity might actually be the corpse in Room 204."
Takumi's perfectly serious statement nearly cracked the calm expression on Kaguya's face on the spot.
A few minutes later, in front of the hole in the wall of the kitchen in Room 206, Takumi jumped down first, landing in the stagnant water below.
The shoes that had finally dried were soaked once again. Takumi had considered going into the water barefoot, but since this was an indoor environment with all sorts of hidden hazards, there could easily be a nail or something lurking below the surface. In the end, he decided to keep his shoes on.
Still, the feeling of water seeping into his shoes was truly unpleasant.
"Be careful," Maki said seriously from her post beside the hole, while on the other side, Kaguya was performing a final inspection of the rope tied around Takumi's waist. The rope was made by knotting together bedsheets, blankets, and various other materials scavenged from the rooms, with the upper end secured inside the second-floor kitchen.
Unlike yesterday, this time only Takumi was going down. Maki and Kaguya guarded the broken section of the second-floor floorboards and the kitchen doorway, while Yamamoto Hiroshi and Green stayed in the living room—the former had moved some small wooden cabinets and other pieces of furniture from nearby rooms, attempting to saw and dismantle them to make a simple ladder, and the latter was responsible for operating the clock in case the worst happened.
The reason they decided to send only one person for this exploration—and chose Takumi, whose mental resistance to the various forms of psychological contamination was the strongest—was mainly because, after studying the second rule sheet yesterday, Takumi, Kaguya, and Maki all concluded that if multiple people went down at once, even one person losing control could easily result in total annihilation in that kind of environment below. Moreover, considering the rule that forbade the use of light—forcing them to move entirely in darkness—anyone besides Takumi, Kaguya, and Maki would be almost completely incapacitated once underground. Thus, they settled on Takumi carrying out the mission alone.
"Thirty minutes. We'll keep time on our end. After thirty minutes, we'll tug the rope once. When you feel it, pull it once in return as a response. Then we'll wait ten minutes. If you don't come back within those ten minutes—or if you don't respond after the first signal—we'll immediately rewind time."
"If the first exploration goes smoothly, I'll be the one to go down next, and Maki will follow in the third round. Each cycle will be forty minutes, to make sure everyone stays in good condition for exploration and investigation. So, as the first explorer, the responsibility on your shoulders is the heaviest—don't push yourself too far."
Kaguya gave these instructions to Takumi in a calm, composed tone. Unlike Maki, she was colder but far more rational; right now, she had devoted her entire mind to the mission at hand, and her attitude toward Takumi had subtly changed.
Still, perhaps that slight shift also had something to do with Maki's trust in Takumi—making Kaguya somewhat more willing to pay attention to him as well. After all, Shinomiya Kaguya herself was the product of a strict and distorted upbringing within a rigid financial conglomerate; predicting her emotions and thoughts was never easy.
"Then, I'm heading out."
Takumi made a V-sign toward Maki, then took his first step forward.
He opened the kitchen door and stepped into the eerie living room.
[Splash—]
As he advanced, the cold water rippled around his feet.
Compared to yesterday, this dim living room showed almost no change. However, because Takumi intended to explore more thoroughly this time, he drew a little closer to the household altar placed in the middle of the room, attempting to inspect what exactly was being enshrined there.
The table itself was covered with stains and marks of decay, and the statue placed upon it had also suffered severe corrosion.
Even so, Takumi could still barely make out that it seemed to depict a kind-faced woman holding a child in her arms.
A Koyasu Kannon?
Takumi himself did not believe in gods or buddhas, and knew little about such matters. Still, he was at least somewhat familiar with the typical features of Buddhist statues—the broad ears of this one were a very classic trait, and the pedestal below resembled a lotus base. Together with the figure's pose of cradling a child, it instantly brought to mind the folk devotion to Koyasu Kannon, the child-granting form of the Bodhisattva.
Placing such a statue at home—were they praying for a safe birth? Come to think of it, was a Koyasu Kannon really suitable for domestic enshrinement? Hm, perhaps it was about time he brushed up on some folk customs?
With idle thoughts swirling in his mind, Takumi refrained from touching the already rotted statue. Instead, he turned around and walked toward the living room door.
Once again, he noticed that not far from him, on the sofa, there seemed to be a slumped human silhouette sitting there.
Recalling what the rules had mentioned, he didn't think too much about it—just pretended not to see, opened the living room door, and stepped into the darkness ahead.
From this point on, the faint light from the kitchen could reach no further.
He now had to move in absolute darkness—advancing through an environment where not even his outstretched hand was visible.
"Hoo…"
Takumi could feel his breathing growing heavier.
It's fine, it's fine.
Rather than worry about what he might encounter in the dark, it was better to push straight ahead in one go. It's just a bit dark, what's there to be afraid of? Damn it—why does that sound like I'm setting up a death flag? This feeling is seriously annoying.
[Splash—]
Takumi kept moving forward, one step at a time, wading deeper into the corridor's darkness.
Then, from behind him, he heard a voice.
From the room he had just left, there suddenly came what seemed to be a man's voice speaking.
[Raising sons, not daughters—raising a girl only brings suffering. I've already suffered once, I can't go through that again! Bodhisattva, please bless me with a boy; I can't let our family line die out!]
The man's tone carried a trace of lament.
At the same time, faintly, there seemed to be the wailing of a child and the subdued sobbing of a woman coming from inside the room.
[Splash—]
Takumi only pretended not to hear, placing one hand against the wall as he continued forward.
[Splash—]
The sound of his legs wading through the water spread through the darkness, masking those voices from the room behind him—if only a little.
[Splash— splash—]
But then, Takumi heard another sound rising from behind.
Following his own splashing footsteps came the faint yet unmistakable noise of someone else wading through the water.
[Splash— splash—]
Someone had walked out of the living room—silently—and was following right behind him.
[Splash— splash—]
In that pitch-dark corridor, the two of them advanced in silence, one ahead and one behind, with only the alternating sounds of water being waded through echoing around them.
[Splash— splash—]
Walking in front, Takumi could hear that sound slowly drawing closer, little by little closing the distance between them.
Ten steps, nine steps…
Takumi could even feel the flow of water striking against his calves from behind, breaking apart with each contact.
[Splash—]
The wall beneath his fingertips felt damp, as if covered in traces of moss.
The footsteps behind him drew closer once again—so close now that Takumi felt the other was barely a single step away.
[Splash—]
In the next moment, only the sound of Takumi wading through the water remained.
As if it had all been an illusion—
as if the person following behind him had never existed at all.
"Hoo…"
Until Takumi felt a faint breath brush against the back of his neck.
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