Chapter 10: Every Clock in the House is Absolutely Accurate
What's happening? What's happening, what's happening?!
Everything unfolding before them had completely defied all expectations.
The increasingly violent pounding, the emotionless, ceaselessly repeated shouts of "Open the door," the corridor shaking as if in an earthquake, and the dizziness spreading uncontrollably from their minds—all of it intertwined chaotically, like a dissonant symphony.
Kaito knew full well that panicking in the face of sudden danger was pointless.
Flailing around wouldn't make an enemy take pity and slow down. It wouldn't delay an urgent crisis. Reality had no pause button. The faster he calmed down, the better his chances of finding a solution and escaping this predicament.
But what could he do?
The most relevant experience from his past life was standing up for a bullied classmate in school, fighting five delinquents with a shit-stained mop, earning him the nickname "Shit-Stick Immortal." No one had ever taught him how to deal with urban legends that defied logic—especially not when the rules he had were two years out of date, their validity unverifiable, with no cheats like x-ray vision or invincibility, and even with two beautiful girls as teammates, he couldn't just conjure up the necessary knowledge out of thin air.
To be fair, the rules stated that we shouldn't respond. Who the hell knew this damned thing could even pick up on our inner thoughts and turn them into a conversation?! Was the idiot who wrote these rules deliberately hiding key details, or do the rules of this cursed place actually change every day, evolving at breakneck speed?
"Why... are they knocking on the living room door now?"
At this moment, Maki was completely panicked, her face filled with disbelief as she turned to look behind her at the cracked, barely-standing living room door.
She couldn't comprehend it.
Just a second ago, those things had been knocking on the main door in the hallway. How had they suddenly moved inside to knock on the door between the living room and hallway?
All her knowledge and experience failed to explain what was happening now, offering no guidance on what to do.
Only now did this girl truly begin to understand what a [Kaidan] really was.
Crack!
A hole split open in the wooden living room door.
Blood began oozing from the hole.
A foul, metallic stench spread through the air.
It was as if the living room they had just searched moments ago had transformed into a slaughterhouse, filled with bloodied limbs.
[Open the door!]
The voices of the three seemed to echo directly in their ears.
Like three invisible figures standing beside them, roaring in their faces.
The distorted voices made their vision blur.
They could almost see three mangled figures crowded behind the door, wailing endlessly, screaming in sharp, agonized cries.
Boom!
The wooden door was now completely deformed, on the verge of being smashed open.
The hallway itself had taken on a bizarre, warped appearance, distorted like a funhouse mirror reflection.
And the three of them, now collapsed on the floor, seemed to be twisting along with it—every cell of their bodies, their skin, flesh, and bones slowly contorting into grotesque shapes.
"What... is this...?"
Kaguya struggled several times but couldn't manage to stand up.
From the moment the things outside the door began changing, the three in the hallway had started losing control of their bodies.
The increasingly twisted, hallucinatory world. Their limbs growing weaker and weaker.
The chaotic noise in their minds amplified, howling as if countless figures surrounded them from all directions.
As if the hallway was now packed with an endless crowd, pressing in so tightly they couldn't move.
One after another...
Unseen, unheard, unfelt...
Those who had been lingering here... forever... never able to rest...
"Ugh..."
Kaguya, whose hearing was the sharpest among the three, collapsed to the floor with a pained whimper.
The 17-year-old girl had never faced anything so terrifying and bizarre before. Combined with the fact that she had been alone in the hallway listening to the knocking before Kaito and Maki arrived, she was the most affected, barely able to keep herself upright.
Yet even so, she instinctively clutched the wall clock in her hand—the only clock in Room 208, taken from the end of the hallway—never letting go.
"Four... Kaguya..."
A faint, indistinct voice whispered by her ear.
Amidst the countless cries of agony, it felt as though someone's voice had pressed close against her.
The next moment, a hand suddenly shot out from the side, seizing the clock in her grasp in an instant.
Kaguya whipped her head around to see Kaito's face splitting apart down the middle.
Such a sight should never have existed in reality.
Kaguya could clearly see the fissure forming down the center of Kaito's face, his cheeks parting like the pages of an opening book.
Beneath the skin, blood still flowed through the veins. His white brain matter seemed to writhe slightly, his bisected tongue still twitching. Even the severed muscles trembled so vividly that she could see saliva secreting from the exposed surfaces.
Was this... an illusion?
Looking down, the skin on her fingers clutching the clock appeared to be peeling away bit by bit, revealing the crimson flesh beneath.
She couldn't seem to feel any pain.
And yet... the pain seemed to be growing clearer, little by little.
After she noticed it, after she realized it, after she became aware—it began spreading, suffusing her entire body.
"..."
No sound escaped her lips.
In the silent, soundless corridor,
the girl couldn't utter a single word.
She could almost see her own body turning transparent.
Watched as every part of her began to tear, to break apart, saw herself gradually fragmenting into pieces large and small.
The pain grew sharper.
Yet her thoughts grew increasingly sluggish.
No sound escaped her mouth; she could only watch numbly as it all unfolded.
Watched herself gradually march toward death.
Was this... what was happening in the corridor outside?
Click—
But she could still hear something.
A sound coming from beside her, from terrifyingly close.
With great effort, she lowered her gaze.
What she saw was a severed hand.
A hand nearly completely detached, hanging by only a shred of skin from a skeleton that had all but shattered into pieces.
She saw two fingers.
Two fingers gently pressing against the hour hand of the clock.
Click—
A crisp sound rang by her ear.
The hour hand of the clock was being turned.
Moved backward by a small fraction.
"Ah—!"
The next instant, Kaguya's eyes flew open as she bolted upright from the filthy, tattered bed.
She turned her head to see Kaito lying beside her, gasping for breath, his forehead drenched in sweat.
No eerie knocking, no disembodied voices.
No fragmented body or dulled senses.
It all felt like an unreal nightmare—except upon waking, she seemed to have returned to the starting point.
"Just now... what did you do...?"
Already realizing something, Kaguya still found it hard to believe. Her voice was barely above a whisper as she spoke.
"The clocks in every room... they're always accurate, aren't they?"
Kaito struggled to prop himself up, glancing at the Rule List on the nightstand and the kitchen entrance with its door removed not far away. Then he stood, swaying slightly as he braced himself against the wall before finally steadying himself.
He turned back time to the very beginning.
He turned it back to the moment when he and Kaguya had just woken up in this room, when they had just heard that eerie voice.
Right now, the two of them were still in Room 204.
Everything that had just happened hadn't occurred yet.