With that burst of speed, Kaguya failed to catch up immediately, and Takumi managed to put a long stretch of distance between them in the corridor.
The distorted hallway tilted at an angle; the layouts of living rooms, kitchens, and bathrooms were all jumbled together. Garbage bags and rubble piled up everywhere, walls twisted chaotically, and broken doors stood in pieces at random spots.
'What the hell is this place?'
Takumi had no time to think—he could only keep running, side by side with Maki, pouring every ounce of energy into his sprint.
[Stop running! Quickly, stop!]
Kaguya's anxious voice echoed from behind.
[Don't be like this. Don't make things difficult for everyone. This kind of behavior isn't right, you know?]
Her coaxing voice trailed them relentlessly, impossible to shake off.
[Only bad children stay out wandering at night. If you keep doing this, you'll turn into bad children too.]
That voice was getting closer and closer, as if it would catch them at any moment.
They ran through corridor after corridor twisted out of sense.
From behind came muffled, oppressive whispers—like many people murmuring among themselves.
He could almost feel countless eyes watching them, hidden in the dark, silently observing everything unfold, doing nothing.
Just watching.
Every time—every single time—when things happened, they only watched.
No… that wasn't his thought.
'What was this—'
Takumi's eyes widened, his running steps slowing for an instant.
Ahead, a figure appeared.
A disheveled man, his clothes stained with blood.
Tanaka.
"Again? What, changed to a new face this time?"
He didn't have the chance to say even a single word.
The moment Tanaka saw Maki and Takumi running toward him, he gritted his teeth and raised his right hand, revealing a black pistol clenched tightly in his fingers.
[Bang! Bang! Bang—]
Three consecutive gunshots split the air, flashing through the dim corridor.
Takumi, unable to dodge in time due to his running momentum, was tackled to the ground by Maki, both of them crashing into a heap of trash piled along the hallway wall.
Behind them, Kaguya came to a sudden stop, stumbling a step backward.
[That's why I told you—children who don't stay obediently at home at night are bad children. Why just won't you understand?]
With that cold, detached voice, the girl slowly lifted her head.
"Hey, hey… this is way out of line…"
Lying on his back after being knocked down, Takumi muttered under his breath, unable to stop himself after seeing Kaguya's face.
The blood-red color spread.
From the bullet-pierced eye sockets, liquid trickled down.
From the hole torn open on her cheek, murky matter had already begun to seep out.
"Damn it, again with this…"
Muttering irritably, Tanaka staggered as if to turn and flee the next moment.
[So unlovely.]
Yet Kaguya—whose head had been pierced clean through by two bullets—took a step forward and started chasing after Tanaka.
Her speed far surpassed when she had pursued Takumi and Maki earlier, as if some kind of restriction had been lifted; in nearly an instant, she caught up with the fleeing Tanaka.
Takumi didn't look back to see what was happening behind him, nor did he listen to the heart-rending screams and wails.
He merely struggled to his feet, supported the girl beside him, and without hesitation ran off in another direction.
At that moment, he finally understood what that rule—[No fatal or knockout injuries allowed]—had truly been describing.
It seemed as if children's laughter echoed faintly from somewhere far away, quickly swallowed by silence.
Beneath his feet, the ground let out a pained groan and split into deep cracks.
Not knowing where he had run to, Takumi suddenly plunged downward amid the sound of collapsing rubble, tumbling together with Maki into a heap of garbage bags, soon buried by the dust and debris falling after them.
The choking stench of dust gradually dispersed.
Yet a warm, humid breath spread at that same moment, melting against their skin.
Takumi opened his eyes.
He saw flames burning, spreading over the nearby piles of trash.
It was Kaguya—or rather, that thing wearing her appearance. The torch she'd been holding earlier had dropped and ignited a blaze that was now sweeping through the entire apartment building; it clearly wasn't something that could be easily stopped anymore.
Tanaka's miserable screams still hadn't ceased.
Though he sounded utterly tormented, it seemed he still had some strength left to struggle, desperately trying to break free from that thing's grasp.
"A formless monster with only footsteps that kills silently; one that can read minds, communicating to trap people in a deadlock through mere conversation; another that hides in a corpse within the house, stalking survivors to strike once they leave;
and one with a complete physical body, taking on a survivor's appearance but revealing an inhuman form when fatally wounded…"
Just the creatures encountered so far already numbered at least four entirely different kinds.
Who knew how many more terrifying things might appear next.
It was really too damn hard—if only there were a save function like in games, so he could retry again and again.
"Ugh…"
The girl lying atop him let out a pained groan.
Knowing full well what had happened, Takumi lowered his head, helping Maki sit up amid the heap of trash, his gaze falling upon her abdomen—where dark red was slowly spreading.
When they'd fallen together earlier, quite a bit of her blood had stuck to him, staining his own clothes crimson as well.
"Looks pretty bad."
Takumi stared at the bloodstain on Maki's stomach, then sighed as he spoke.
"Of course it looks bad… you don't need to say it…"
Breathing heavily, Shijō Maki, supported by Takumi, barely managed to sit upright; her body trembled uncontrollably.
"Now's not the time to act tough. Being too tsundere stops being cute, you know."
Takumi shook his head and muttered that line, then cautiously glanced around again.
So far, nothing had come their way. Though the smell of ash and smoke was growing stronger, it was still relatively safe for the moment.
Most likely, Tanaka—who was now getting beaten up by that fake Kaguya—was drawing plenty of attention away from them.
If that was the case, they had to move quickly. After all, no one knew how long that old player could hold out.
"Leave me… here. I'm a burden now. I'll only slow you down."
Having finally recovered a little, Maki pressed a hand over the gunshot wound on her abdomen and spoke in a low voice.
Judging from the look on her face, the girl had clearly made that decision seriously.
"Yeah, I know."
Takumi said as he reached down and grabbed the hem of his T-shirt—then tore off a strip with a sharp rip. Naturally, he avoided the red-and-white-stained part; he figured his own brain matter probably wouldn't help speed up Maki's recovery.
"What are you doing? Didn't I say to just leave me here? Finding the clock is the most important thing right now—this isn't the time for something like this! And besides, you clearly didn't choose to save me before! You're supposed to be the rational one, aren't you? Why are you acting like this now?!"
Realizing what Takumi intended to do, Maki struggled, but the pain and weakness from her injury made it impossible to break free from his grip. All she could do was glare at him in frustration and question him angrily.
She knew that not long ago, when she had been dragged into this distorted world by a shadow after reading that information and triggering some kind of interaction, Takumi had intervened. But back then, he hadn't chosen to save her—he'd taken the backpack off her shoulders instead. It was only because he failed to retreat in time that he'd fallen in with her.
It was impossible not to feel at least a bit upset about that, yet Maki knew that his decision had been the optimal one in that situation—there was nothing wrong with it. If she could go back and choose again, she would still agree with Takumi's judgment and support his choice.
So why wasn't he doing the same now?
In a situation this dangerous, where the unknown lurked everywhere, trying to save a severely injured and barely mobile companion was nothing but self-sabotage.
'You're supposed to be the rational one, aren't you?'
"Hey, shouldn't you be asking yourself that? How long have we even known each other? Ten hours? Maybe three or four at most if you add everything together. To put it bluntly, we've only exchanged a few words—we're strangers forced to cooperate because of the current situation. So getting yourself shot just to save a stranger like me… have you ever considered how stupid that is? Rationally speaking, you should've just left me and run off on your own, right?"
But faced with Maki's questioning, Takumi only replied in a calm tone as he wrapped the torn strip of T-shirt around her waist and tightened it. His makeshift bandaging was far from professional—it merely managed to stop the bleeding, while also putting her through intense pain. Even so, though Maki's body trembled repeatedly and her forehead broke out in cold sweat, she clenched her teeth and endured without making a sound.
"That's why I said, I'm not like you. I'm the eldest daughter of the Shijō family—educated to be the best, trained to lead others. Someone like me can't possibly allow her follower to just die like this. I simply miscalculated this time… And also, what does tsundere mean? It sounds kind of… insulting…"
Even though she was in so much pain she could almost cry, Shijō Maki still refused to show weakness, baring her metaphorical fangs with stubborn defiance.