Chapter 10 - Kiki: Danger

1

Escaping from the room, Shun walked down the hall until he heard Takuro and Mika shouting.

“Damn it! No matter how many times we try, it won’t open.”

“Give me a break! I just want to go home! My Persian kitty, Heart, is probably starving. If she dies, this is your fault. Takuro, this is all your fault! Yours!”

“Ow! Don’t hit me. Calm down, stupid.”

They both sounded quite irritated that the door still wouldn’t open, but rather than fighting, it seemed more like Mika was crying hysterically and Takuro was trying to calm her down. Shun’s fear that Mika was going to be killed appeared to be unfounded. For the moment, it would be okay to leave them alone. There was nothing he could do by butting in, after all. He’d prefer to not get mixed up in any more quarrels anyway.

Shun looked around briefly and decided to climb the stairs to the next floor. He hadn’t checked the third floor yet. There was still a tiny chance that they could escape through a window. Fortunately, he already had experience jumping from high places. He might twist his ankle again, but that was far preferable to becoming rat food.

Careful not to make a sound, Shun hurried up to the third floor. As he ascended the stairs, he wondered who could have killed Takeshi. Only a few moments ago, he had been dead sure it was Takuro. He was the only one capable of doing something so horrific, and he had motive. If the killer was trying to pin the blame on the blue monster, it would have to be someone that had seen his game. But the moment Takuro saw Takeshi’s severed head, he appeared to be seriously stricken. There was no way it was just acting.

Is it possible it’s someone else?

When he considered that, Hiroshi became the newest suspect in his mind. It was extremely difficult to get a read on him and his perpetual stoicism. Even when he found the corpse of a classmate, he hadn’t been perturbed in the slightest. Wasn’t that odd? Hiroshi was also familiar with Shun’s game, which, considering the circumstances, was a strike against him. Any motive he had was still a mystery, but there were people in the world who killed for fun or sport. Nothing was really out of the question.

Pondering all this, Shun reached the third floor. It was constructed in much the same way as the first and second levels. Just like in Shun’s game. First, he checked the windows. He’d had some small hope for them, but the third-floor windows also had thick planks covering them with huge nails bolting them in place. It would be quite a feat to remove them.

Next, he checked the doors as he came across them to see if any were unlocked. The third knob he tried turned. Giving it a push, he cautiously peered inside the room. Colorful, bold wallpaper decorated the interior. The room had a much different feel from the other somber rooms he’d been in so far. Poking his head through the door, he scanned the room. A strange sensation of nostalgia washed over him.

A cartoon character popular with little kids was printed on the carpet. The same character was on the bedspread of the child-sized bed and a plastic toy chest sitting in the corner of the room. A tall bookcase stood against the wall, and further in sat a study desk. All signs pointed to this being a child’s bedroom, yet it was all strangely familiar to Shun. A peculiar tingling tickled him deep in his chest. The southern hall of the third floor. The second door from the west end. He remembered a child’s room being in the same spot in his game.

Seeing that no one was inside, Shun stepped in. There wasn’t a single speck of dust to be seen anywhere, as if someone had recently cleaned. He touched the blanket on the bed. It was soft, as if it had just come out of the dryer. According to rumor, a girl in a wheelchair used to live here long ago. Was this her room? No, if she was wheelchair-bound, then it would be strange to have her room on the third floor.

Shun checked the bookshelf and found orderly rows of old comics filling it. They were all series he’d loved in elementary school. The shelf underneath was crammed with illustrated study books for elementary students, biographies of great historical figures, and game magazines. Shun pulled out one of the magazines and looked at the cover. It was an issue published five years ago. Odd. That conflicted with the story that no one had lived in the mansion for over twenty years.

Shun cocked his head quizzically to the side and casually flipped through the pages. He stopped when he happened upon a guide for an adventure game that was hugely popular during his elementary school days. How many times had this guide been read and reread? The page was filthy with fingerprints.

I remember being super into this.

The only weapon that could defeat the final boss was the Platinum Sword, and to get it you had to crack a code that changed with every playthrough. It was an arduous process, and Shun fondly remembered how he’d never tackle it without a magazine like this that published the key to solving it. Looking down at it, the page he’d opened to had a bunch of codes scrawled on it.

That’s right... I used to furiously try and solve the code just like this.

He traced the thin letters that looked like trails left by tiny snails, then gasped. Thin penmanship. Angular letters. It was very similar to Shun’s own handwriting. No, it was exactly like it. The lines of letters even tended to drift up and to the right just like his did.

Could this... actually be my magazine?

Raising his head, he checked the bookcase again. There were a few books he didn’t remember, but most of them mirrored his personal collection. Upon closer inspection, the bookshelf also looked familiar. There was a sticker of a cartoon character stuck to one side, exactly where Shun had put one as a kid. There were also notches in the bookcase just like the ones he’d carved with a box-cutter back when he was in sixth grade to measure his height. There was no doubt. This bookcase was the one Shun had used in elementary school.

“What is this doing here?” Shun said breathlessly as he felt the marks in the wood.

It made no sense. All of his furniture should have been disposed of when his family moved to this town. The bookcase, the desk, the bed... Shun’s heart skipped a beat. Gulping, he glanced around the room. The bed, the desk, and even the carpet were familiar too. They were all his. No wonder he’d felt nostalgic coming into this room.

The magazine toppled from his hands to the floor. He ran over to the desk and opened the top drawer. It was filled with stationery casually tossed inside, all the same styles he’d used in elementary school. The second drawer down contained stacks of printouts. He picked one up. It was a vocabulary test. Next to the score was his name... written in his handwriting.

“What is this? Someone’s bad idea of a joke?” he asked, but there was no one there to answer.

Searching further, he discovered something unfamiliar in the shadow of a well-worn deck of cards. He took it out to take a better look at it. It was an old-fashioned brass key. A wooden card hung from the attached keyring with the symbol “σ” carved into it. He knew right away that it was the Greek letter sigma. Most likely by using this key, he could access a certain room in the mansion.

“Why...”

That was all he could mutter. His mind reeled in confusion. You could find a key in the child’s room in his game too. Using it would allow you to open the door to the study. Who was doing this and what they were after, Shun had no idea. There was no telling how far the similarities between this mansion and the one in his game would go, but at this point, it was worth a try.

Gripping the key in his hand, Shun exited the room. At almost the same time, the door to the next room down the hall opened and someone emerged.

“Shun...”

She turned and looked at Shun in surprise. Her expression was quite haggard, but there was no mistaking that it was Anna.

2

“I’m glad you’re safe.”

Shun let out a sigh of relief to finally see Anna again. In reality it hadn’t even been an hour since they’d parted ways in the entrance hall, but to Shun it felt like she’d been gone for days. He quickly glanced over her, but she thankfully didn’t seem to be injured. A look of abject fear was plastered across her face, but that was to be expected. Wandering all alone through the mansion, she must have been frightened out of her mind.

“Where have you been? I was worried,” Shun said as he approached her.

He smiled as wide as he could in an attempt to reassure her. But for some reason, when he took a step forward, she took a step back.

“...Anna?”

Thinking he was imagining things, he continued forward, but the distance between them remained the same. Puzzled, he looked into her eyes for an answer. But all he saw there was fear. She then turned her face away like a young child about to throw a tantrum. The biggest surprise yet, however, was what she said next.

“Don’t come near me.”

“...Huh?”

“I said don’t come near me!” Anna nearly shouted, her fearful gaze directed squarely at Shun.

“Why?” he couldn’t help but ask. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Maybe she’d experienced something so terrifying that she’d lost the ability to reason. Shun spoke softly so as not to spook her further.

“Will you stay calm and listen to me? We have to escape from here as quickly as possible. Things have gotten bad.”

“I know. I found Takeshi downstairs.”

She grimaced, like the very thought of the tragic scene pained her.

“How...” Her lips trembling, she looked Shun in the eyes. “How could you do that?”

“Huh?” Shun was at a loss for words.

“I know you hated them all. And I considered myself guilty too for knowing you were being bullied but doing nothing to help. But... did you really need to go that far? Well? Are you going to kill me too?”

She seemed to be getting more and more worked up the more she talked. By the end, she was practically shouting.

“H-Hold on.” Shun searched for the right words, but Anna glaring at him made him nervous. “I don’t understand what you’re saying. Do you... think I killed Takeshi?”

“That’s the only explanation, isn’t it?” she shrieked.

“I just can’t understand why you’d think that.”

“Don’t play dumb! Will you just stop all this? Let us out of here now!”

Shun couldn’t get his head around this sudden change in Anna’s behavior. As he watched her, he could see the head of a tiny shiba inu poking out from her blouse pocket.

“This keychain looks just like you, Shun, so I couldn’t stop myself from buying it. It was a set of two, so I’ll give you one.”

Anna had been so friendly to him before. What was going on now?

“We’re birds of a feather, aren’t we?”

Where had the girl who’d said that gone?

“I didn’t do anything. You’re mistaken. Can you tell me why you’d think that? I want to try and convince you otherwise.”

“The cardboard box,” she stated bluntly.

“Huh?”

“I looked inside the cardboard box Takuro brought here. I’d been wondering about it all along.”

“...What was inside?”

“Don’t play dumb. You know everything, don’t you?”

“I don’t know anything. Why do you think that?”

“Because inside the box was your—”

She cut off there. Her eyes opened so wide that they looked like they’d fall out as she studied him. No, that wasn’t it. She was looking behind Shun.

“No... No more...” Anna’s body began to quiver.

“What? What’s wrong?”

Following her gaze, Shun turned around. The door at the end of the hall was swinging open, and a thick arm stretched out of it. It was unusually muscular and blue like someone had painted it.

“...You’re kidding.”

Shun could only look on in shock as the unimaginable unfolded right in front of him. The giant blue creature exited the room, hunched over and looking cramped. In the hall, it stood up and slowly turned toward them.

The blue giant’s eyes were abnormally huge, just like the rats in the second-floor bedroom, and its body was horribly misshapen. It stood on two legs but it was hunched low, possibly because its head was too large. The first thing Shun imagined after seeing its creepy figure was the Australopithecus he’d seen in his world history textbook. Its giant eyes, which took up nearly half of its upper face, were glaring in his direction. The repulsion he felt from seeing it was so strong that it made him slightly dizzy. It sniffed the air, checking for a scent, and then the giant man—no, the grotesque monster—grinned smugly.

“Nooooo!” Anna screamed, overcome by fear, and took off running.

Taking that as a signal, the monster slowly began walking forward. Its pace seemed leisurely, but it was moving at a surprisingly fast clip. Moving like someone walking on a high-speed moving walkway, it zipped past Shun. It chased after Anna, not even giving Shun a second glance. The distance between them grew shorter and shorter as he watched the monster go after her.

Anna, having reached the east end of the hall, quickly tried the door to the last room. But it was locked and wouldn’t open. The giant was closing in fast. With her back pressed up against the door, Anna looked petrified. As the monster got closer to Anna, its large frame blocked Shun’s view of her. Then came the sound of something being squashed. Red liquid splashed up against the door. Only the disgusting sound of chewing echoed in the otherwise silent hall. Hunched over, the monster was digging in to something.

“...Anna?”

Shun called her name feebly, but there was no answer.

“Stop it... Stop it, please...”

A hoarse voice escaped his throat.

Anna’s... dying.

“Come talk to me if you’re ever in need.”

Anna, the girl who had kindly welcomed a shy new student like him.

“Your eyes look like a shiba inu’s when you laugh. It’s cute.”

Just seeing her smile made him feel happy.

“We’re birds of a feather.”

He’d hoped they could grow even closer...

“Stooooop!”

He knew it was too late, but his body moved on instinct. Sprinting down the hall, he jumped onto the monster’s back. But Shun was weak. There was no way he could do anything against the monstrous giant. He was quickly sent flying.

His back slammed into a wall, knocking the wind out of him for a moment. His face twisted in pain, he tried to get up. The monster was already in front of him, looking down on him.

I’m going to be killed.

Shun sprung up, spun on his heels, and darted forward. There was no time to look back. He could tell the monster was chasing him.

It’s coming. That monster’s coming for me.

Mouth open wide, Shun gasped for as much oxygen as possible as he ran as fast as his legs would carry him. A monster that eats people. If it caught him, it was game over. He wondered if he should run into the room the monster had appeared from. Something could be lying in wait there. But if he stood still, he’d end up meeting the same fate as Anna. Shun took a hard turn and ducked into the room next to the child’s bedroom—the one Anna had been hiding in.

Inside was mostly just a large rug covering the floor. There was hardly any furniture. It was terribly dreary. The only thing that stood out was the wardrobe on the far side of the room. With the monster closing in, Shun had no choice but to hide there. There wasn’t time for anything else. Shun cut across the room and jumped right in. Closing the door from the inside, he hugged his knees and held his breath just like Takeshi had done.

What was that monster? Was it what killed Takeshi? Had it attacked Hiroshi as well? Holding his breath, Shun prayed for Hiroshi’s safety. And what about Takuro and Mika? He didn’t like them much, but that didn’t mean he wanted them dead. And... poor Anna. Balling his hands into tight fists, he bit his lower lip hard.

I liked her. I looked up to her. I was so happy we were growing closer, little by little. But now... Why did this have to happen?

The door to the room opened with a creak. Shun could sense something was approaching. His arms crossed in front of his chest, he begged his body to stop shaking.

Go away! Go away! Go away!

Shun desperately repeated the same words to himself in a chant. He heard the footsteps stop in front of the wardrobe, and then there was a strange, unearthly growl from the other side of the wardrobe door.

It’s over.

Shun said his prayers and closed his eyes. Just then, he heard a heavy, low sound from far away like someone had kicked a wall.