Chapter Text
Darkness. Nothing but a sea of darkness.
Where am I? I can’t feel anything…
Was I… asleep?
I don’t understand…
It’s… too much…
But… what is... “it?”
...Why do I feel… so…
...Why… do I…
...feel…?
//
“Eko!? Eko, are you alright? Oh jeez… please be ok...”
...Huh?
The girl laying on the floor came to, propping herself up with her elbow as she opened her eyes. She focused on a round boy with red hair, looking directly at her. He smiled and held out his hand to her. She looked vacantly at it, then back up at his face.
“Eko, I’m so glad you’re safe!”
She looked around at her surroundings. From the looks of it, they were trapped together in some sort of large mechanical room. Lines of dials and knobs ran along one of the walls, and other devices were interspersed throughout the rest of the room. Despite all this, it was silent. Not to mention devoid of any other life. The boy was still holding out his hand to her, though he looked a little worried now.
“Eko?”
She stared blankly at the boy. “Who?”
“Eh?” He pulled his hand away and squatted down in front of her, looking deep into her eyes. “You? Er… you wouldn’t happen to be her… sister or something, would you? Nah, there’s no way. You have the same red flower in your hair and everything.” The boy frowned and stood back up, fiddling with something on his finger. It looked like a simple ring, though there were two yellow lines running around it. Looking down at her own hand, she saw an identical ring. She fiddled with it too, though it didn’t want to come off.
Where am I?
She stood up, abandoning her inspection on the ring. The longer she thought, the less she was able to come up with. Not only did she not have any idea where she was or how they got there, but she also failed to remember simple things- her past or even her name.
...Who am I?
She turned to face the round boy, nervously holding her arm. “I’m sorry to ask, but do I know you?”
“Huh? What’s that…” The boy staggered back, his mouth wide in shock. “Don’t tell me you forgot your memory again!?”
“Er, again?”
The boy ran his hand through his hair, a concerned look on his face. “O-Okay, I guess this… isn’t anything we haven’t dealt with before, right? Not that you’d know… haha…” He trailed off, then perked up. “I know, I’ll just tell you who you are! That’d work, right?”
The girl looked around the room, avoiding making eye contact. He sighed.
“Well, hopefully, you’ll get your memories back. I can’t go through everything right now, we’d be here for ages.” He looked around the room. “...Wherever here is, anyway. Er, I’ll just run you through the basics, alright?”
He handed her a lollipop out of his pocket and sat down on the floor. She looked down at the candy and, still holding it with both her hands, sat down in front of the large boy. He sighed and pulled out a bag of chips.
“Where do I even begin? I-I guess I should introduce myself again. My name is Ryota Yakushimaru! We met back in a park, though the only thing that you remembered was your name- Eko.”
“Ah,” Eko said softly. The lollipop remained pressed between her fingers.
“Things went kinda downhill from there, I guess? We got attacked by something that wasn’t wearing a whole lot, then met up with Shiro and Kengo- oh yeah, those are our friends. Guildmates. Something like that…” He trailed off at the blank look Eko was giving him. “You don’t remember any of this?”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry.”
Ryota sighed. “Don’t worry, once we get out of here and find Shiro, I’m sure he can help go over what you’re missing. I’m not very good at explaining things, I think.” He finished chewing his chips and stuffed the bag back into his pocket.
Eko looked around the room again. “How did we get here?”
Ryota went silent and stood up, giving a quick glance over the room. “I don’t know how you got here, we weren’t together when… that… happened.” He paused before continuing, “I went out to grab us all snacks from the store, but when I got there it was empty. The lights shut off and the room filled with some gas! There was this man- or, maybe not? I’m not sure actually. They were in a gas mask behind the counter, watching me as everything started to black out. And you wanna know the worst part?”
Eko looked down at the lollipop that was still in her hands.
“I didn’t even get my snacks! What a jerk-”
At that exact moment, a loud buzzer sounded. A red light flashed on the ceiling. Ryota bolted upright, staring up at it. Eko stuck the lollipop he gave her into her shirt pocket, then got to her feet as well. The buzzer sounded again, and Ryota clapped his hands to his ears. Eko just looked around the room. She tapped Ryota’s shoulder gently as soon as she saw something off.
“Huh?”
She pointed at the bulky machine in the middle of the room and said, “The screens lit up.” However, a cool female voice blared through the room before the two of them could walk over and examine it further.
“Warning: Reactor at unstable conditions. 60 minutes until safety function failure. Please correct all remaining errors.”
“Reactor!?” Ryota balked, then rushed up to the screen. Confused, Eko followed after him and looked at it herself. Displayed on it was a bulleted list.
He read them out loud: “‘One, replace the coolant. Two, eliminate the virus. Three, restore proper turbine functionality.’ Huh. I guess we have to deal with these?” He turned to Eko, but she just stared absently at the screen. “Eko?”
She ran her finger along the imprint of the lollipop in her pocket.
60 minutes?
“When the safety fails, something bad will happen, won’t it?”
“Are you kidding- Oh, right. You might have forgotten. That’s some interesting amnesia. Well... it does depend on some other stuff, I guess. I remember Shiro saying that they’re super safe now. Even if it did go… wrong… any sorta damage would be pretty small. Though… if that thing is as close as this makes it seem…” Ryota trailed off, frowning while looking at the machine in front of them.
Eko took a moment to process this. “That’s… not good. We should get started.”
Ryota frowned, then put on a smile as he looked at Eko. “Right! I don’t know how to do all this, but I’ll follow your lead.” He patted Eko’s shoulder, causing her to flinch.
“I, uh- the first thing we should do is… have a look around.”
“Lead the way!” Ryota said, then they got to work exploring the area.
The room was quite tall, the ceiling reaching up what must have been several stories. The machine with the screen was in the middle of the floor. The machine itself consisted of what looked like two large metal bulbs, one on the left and one on the right. They were fused together by a metal block. On one side it had the monitor glowing with their objectives, right above a rectangular port.
Eko looked closer at the list. “So, what does this all mean?”
Ryota sighed and grabbed his bag of chips out of his pocket again. “Er… let me try and remember what Shiro said.” He picked out a chip and ate it, then pointed to the top objective. “I think this coolant stuff basically keeps the whole thing from overheating.”
“If it overheats, then…?”
Ryota’s face slumped into a worried frown. “It could… blow up, I think.”
“Ah. I guess that makes sense. What about the others?”
“Well... the virus means there’s something that’s messing with the computers of this thing, I guess. If the computers that keep this going go down… that can’t be good. As for the turbines, I think that’s how it generates power. Something must be wrong with them, so we’ll have to fix that.”
Eko took a mental note of all this and continued inspecting the room. On the opposite side of the connector was some sort of input. There was a label above it that had the letter “c,” and on the floor was a large circular port.
This must be where that coolant stuff goes.
Eko touched her hand to the smooth surface of the bulb-shaped machine. It was slightly warm. “What is this?”
Ryota continued eating his chips. “I think these things are parts of the reactor itself? Although… I don’t know if that’s how it’s supposed to be shaped. They look kinda like dumplings.”
Finishing the inspection of the oddly shaped machine in the middle, they turned and looked over at the side of the room left of the monitor. On this side was an array of buttons, knobs, screens, and ports. Most of the screens were shut off, but one of them was lit up in the far corner. On it was a single bright color- green. Ryota looked at Eko, who was looking up and down the row. Without saying a word, she walked down about three-fourths of the way and stopped, focusing on a palette of 6 colors arranged in a hexagon. Starting at the top left and going clockwise, they were yellow, magenta, cyan, red, green, and blue.
Ryota sprinted to her, panting. “H-Hey, hold on! What’s up?”
Eko studied the colors carefully, then tapped magenta. A black border surrounded the color. She then tapped cyan, causing a black border to surround that as well. A light beep sounded, and the black borders changed to the same dark blue as one of the colors, then vanished. Eko subconsciously held onto her left shoulder as she thought.
“Eko?”
After a second, she spoke up. “Say you’re using paint or… food coloring or something. What happens if you combine yellow and cyan?”
Ryota thought for a second. “It turns light green, doesn’t it? ...Ah, I get it! But if you didn’t remember what a reactor was, why do you know that?”
Eko shrugged and tapped yellow and cyan. The borders surrounding them changed to the same light green they saw on the screen.
Clunk.
A panel slid away beside the monitor, which now glowed red. They walked over to it and saw a flash drive laying in a compartment behind two layers of glass. On the back wall were the letters “AV.” Eko looked to Ryota, who stuffed his bag of chips away again.
“Maybe that thing has some sorta… anti-virus software?”
Eko shrugged and headed back to the colored buttons.
Red… that’s yellow and magenta, right?
She tapped those buttons, and the borders glowed red, signaling one of the glass panels to slide away. This time, however, the screen glowed white with a single black symbol on it- a 5 pointed star.
“Oh, hey! That’s just like the one on the back of your hand.”
Eko took a moment to process this, then looked down at the back of her left hand. The same symbol was right there. She stared at Ryota, pointing to it.
He just laughed. “Ah, sorry Eko. I guess you probably wouldn’t remember anything about the app. Shiro will explain it again, don’t worry. Let’s just focus on fixing this thing first.”
“Yeah… let’s check out somewhere else then. We can’t do the same thing again here.”
Ryota nodded and followed her across the room, stopping in front of a set of pillars. There was a blinking light on one of them.
“These must be the turbines,” Ryota said. “I think that light means there’s something blocking it.”
“How do we get rid of it?”
Ryota looked up along the pillar, then pointed with his lollipop at a spot several feet up. “I think we need to get into that thing.”
“We’ll need a ladder or… something.”
The last thing in the room was on the wall behind the coolant station- a fire extinguisher box. It was locked. Ryota grabbed the key that was hanging off the side and tried to find a lock.
“Eh?”
Eko looked at the box herself. There wasn’t any lock anywhere. She tapped Ryota’s shoulder and pointed back toward the side of the room with the screens. She led him to a specific point along the machine covered wall.
“Here,” Eko said, pointing to a slot.
Ryota smiled and stuck the key in. “Good eye!”
A faint smile grew on her face at the compliment and she turned around. Ryota turned to see what Eko was looking at. A display had lit up on the far end of the wall, on the complete opposite side from the one with a star. It was now glowing blue. Eko stepped over to the color switches and, after hesitating slightly, pressed magenta and cyan. The border around them glowed blue and the sound of a motor echoed throughout the room. They turned around on the spot and watched as the pillars on the opposite side of the room fell down into the floor. They settled down with the hatch at eye level. Ryota and Eko glanced at each other, then rushed over. Before they could look closer, a beep sounded through the room, and they heard a familiar female voice.
“Warning: Reactor at unstable conditions. 30 minutes until safety function failure. Please correct all remaining errors.”
Eko glanced at Ryota, who nodded back, then opened the hatch.
“W-what’s in there?” Ryota asked, a note of worry creeping into his voice.
Eko sighed. “Calm down. We’ll be fine.” She reached in and felt around, grabbing hold of some sort of metal tube. She carefully pulled it out and shut the door. It clicked as soon as she shut it, locking as the turbines came to life with a mechanical hum. The pillars raised slowly back into the ceiling. “One down, right?” She said this with a small smile on her face.
Ryota took a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah, you’re right… Thanks, Eko.”
She held up the tube she was holding. It was a large L shaped tube, and she knew exactly where it fit in. “Come on, I think we’re almost done.”
Side by side, they walked over to the backside of the “dumplings,” as Ryota called them. She held up the pipe to the hole. It fit perfectly into both ports. When she pressed down, something inside clicked shut and locked the tube into place. The sound of a fluid rushing into the machine added to the hum of the turbines. After a few minutes, the fluid stopped and there was a short buzz from the reactor.
Ryota smiled and walked over to the other side of the machine. Eko turned to follow just as Ryota yelled back, “Eko! Come look!”
She picked up the pace and joined Ryota in front of the monitor. The screen was not only blank, it appeared to be turned off. Eko stared at the screen, confused.
Ryota looked at Eko uncertainly. “Did we… solve it?
No, we couldn’t have.
Just as she started to shake her head, the cool voice blared above them once again. “Warning: Reactor at unstable conditions. 20 minutes until safety function failure. Please correct the remaining error.”
Eko walked over to the color puzzle again. She looked back at the blank screen.
Ryota looked on the verge of tears. “W-What can we do? What do we do, Eko? We don’t have a key for that star thing, do we?”
She stared at the black screen, thinking of option after often. Then, she felt a jolt of realization. She turned around abruptly, looking down at the colors. “Answer me something. If you were to combine, say... Magenta and green what would you get?”
“Black…? Oh!”
Eko nodded and tapped the two. It glowed black, but nothing happened. She pressed the two again, getting the same result. She leaned down with her hands on either side of the array, staring from button to button.
...?
Ryota held up his hand, where his ring was. “What about yellow and that blue? Might have to do with this thing.”
Eko looked down at her ring, the one with the two yellow lines, then tapped yellow and blue. There was a click as the extinguisher box unlocked. They looked at each other then ran up to it, wrenching the door open.
“Warning: Reactor at unstable conditions. 10 minutes until safety function failure. Please correct the remaining error.”
Inside the door was a picture of the star. Each of the 5 points was a different color, yellow, red, magenta, blue, and cyan, and the inner pentagon was green. Eko’s heart beat fast as she ran back to the colors, leaving Ryota behind. She reached the colored buttons and slammed down on all of them at once. A rainbow border surrounded the buttons and the last pane of glass slid open. The drive was free.
Ryota grabbed the stick, ran over to the blank monitor on the reactor, then shoved it into the port beneath it. The screen flashed white, and the red light that had been flashing the whole time ceased. Ryota fell to the floor, his arms splayed on the ground. His chest rose and fell as he took deep breaths. Eko sighed and took a seat next to him, letting him rest. They sat there for a minute, 3 minutes, 10 minutes... nothing happened. They were safe. Eko looked up at the monitor. A star was glowing on the screen.
Curious, Eko stood back up and plodded over to the fire extinguisher box, looking closer at the star. Now that she wasn’t under the same pressure, she reached in and pulled it out of the red box. The star was the same multi-colored picture she had first seen, but on closer inspection, it was drawn on the picture of the back of a hand.
Ryota stepped up behind her. “Hey, it’s like your mark… though, it’s kinda weird.”
Eko stared blankly at the picture. She put her hand with the mark over it, lining up the stars. It was the exact same size, but the thumb of the drawing stuck out to the left. She folded the paper and stuffed it into her pocket next to the lollipop Ryota gave her.
“That’s something, huh?” Ryota said as he pulled out and unwrapped another lollipop.
Eko shrugged and tried her best to put it out of her mind, then looked into the box again. The paper had been hiding a large purple button. She reached out, then hesitated.
“What’s wrong?”
Eko took her hand back and held her arms. “I’m just… curious is all. Why hide a button behind that picture? It’s like they- well, whoever brought us here- wanted us to see it… or…”
Ryota chuckled and pressed the button. There was a slam as a door opened up on the wall opposite the reactor. “Do you remember anything now?”
Eko averted her eyes and shook her head.
“Well, I’m glad to see you’re the same as you were! So cool and unfazed, y’know?”
“Huh?”
Ryota laughed. “I’ve only seen you seriously upset once or twice! Plus, every time we come across some sorta mystery you always think pretty hard about it. It’s just nice to see that hasn’t changed… although, that does get on Kengo’s nerves a lot. He’s more ‘punch first, ask questions later.’”
Eko stared at him. “Er, do we get along?”
“Oh, sure. Everyone’s different, y’know? But that doesn’t mean you can’t be good friends!” He walked toward the open door. “You coming?”
“Yeah,” she said, paused, then added, “...thank you, Ryota,” Eko said, then walked with Ryota out of the room. With a loud slam, the door shut tight behind them. The steady hum of the room cut away instantly. The two of them walked together through a silent, featureless hallway. The sound of Ryota’s half filled chip bag crinkled as he walked. Every so often, Eko would ask a question, then he would answer in turn.
“Do you know where I’m from?”
“Oh... I don’t know, actually. Not even you did.”
“Was I a good person?”
“Of course! Well, you definitely were since I met you. Don’t know what you were like before you forgot your memory the first time.”
“Was I, uh, in any sort of relationship?”
“Not as far as I know. I remember you got super wasted one night and ranted about it.”
“I what?”
“Eko, I have never seen anyone drink as hard as you do in my entire life. It’s a little scary, really.”
“Huh. I guess I can see that.”
“Do you remember anything now?”
Eko shook her head and asked more about the world, what a guild was, what the app was, what a rule was, and eventually, they ran out of questions and answers. Their footsteps echoed in the empty halls as their silence permeated the room. They reached the end of the hall, boasting a large wooden door. Without a word, Ryota opened the door and walked through, Eko following in his wake.
They walked out into a room that was not unlike a train station. The ceiling looked like it was carved from a rock, and the air felt cool and damp. Eko breathed in deep, feeling relaxed. Ahead of them were three different rails, each having a different color set of tracks. On the left was blue, in the middle was green, and on the far right was red.
“Eko!”
She turned around in time to see a thin, blue-haired girl run at her, jump, then land in a pose mere inches away from her. Strapped to her back was a stringed instrument half the size of her body. Eko backed up and looked at Ryota, whose mouth was wide open in shock. The girl flicked Eko’s forehead, looking disgruntled. “What’s that expression supposed to mean?
Ryota sighed and pulled a lollipop out of his pocket. “That’s a bit of a story. Is there anyone else here?”
The girl turned on Ryota, steaming. “And just who are you!?”
“I’m Ryota, Eko’s friend! You’re Benten, aren’t you?”
Benten grinned and twirled a charm on the end of her finger. There was a ring on her hand- two cyan bands ran across it, matching the color of her hair. “So you’re a fan?”
Ryota motioned toward Eko. “She told me about you. Said you were very… energetic.”
Benten grabbed Eko’s arm, causing her to jump slightly. “Guess who’s here!”
Eko was thoroughly confused, though the only sign she showed was how she looked down at the hand holding onto her. “Uh… who?”
“Ahab!”
“Who?”
“...Ahab? Captain Ahab?”
Eko just stared blankly at her.
“Oh, come on,” Benten groaned, then pulled Eko toward a room.
Ryota chased after her. “H-Hey, wait!”
They charged into the room, Benten practically carrying Eko through the air. They stopped at the entranceway. The six that were in the room turned to see why Benten was causing so much noise.
“Good grief. Both ye brats are here now…?”
Eko shook her head, shaking off the disorientation caused by Benten dragging her along, then focused on the source of the gruff voice. She blinked.
“You’re… a buffalo?”
The large horned beast man looked from Benten to Eko, his pipe blowing up rings of smoke. He was large, dark-furred, had a large white beard and was heavily scarred. Scars ran along his arms, over his right eye, and even his left leg was gone- replaced with a metal prosthetic. From the looks of it, he was dressed as some sort of captain.
He opened his mouth, blowing smoke out his nose. “What’d ye do ta her, brat!?”
Benten balked. “I-I didn’t do anything! I don’t think she hit anything on the way here… honest!”
At that moment, Ryota burst into the room, his eyes falling on the buffalo and a few of the others in the room. He smacked a hand to his head. “Oh, right! I forgot to mention that transients… exist… haha…”
“What happened to Eko!?” Benten yelled, grabbing and shaking Ryota violently.
“She…! Forgot…!” Ryota said, trying to break free of Benten’s grip.
Benten released him, causing him to fall to the floor. “What? How?”
Ryota got up while rubbing his head. “Agh, I dunno. As far as I can tell, she just woke up like this.”
Eko was starting to feel uncomfortable as everyone looked at her. “Ah… I’m sorry.”
A kid wearing a labcoat stood up, ending up only slightly taller than he was sitting down. “Interesting. If Eko doesn’t remember us, let’s just tell each other who we are.” He looked right at Eko then added, “You all must have seen the star back at the reactor. No matter how she lost her memories, there’s a good chance she’s connected in all of this. I’d be surprised if any of us didn’t know her… Regardless, she should introduce herself too. Just to be sure.”
Ryota sat down and sighed, pulling out a third lollipop. “Well, I’ll go first then. I’m Ryota! I’m Eko’s friend, we woke up together. I tried to explain some things to her, but I missed… a lot. So... she doesn’t know any of you anymore… Sorry.” He looked sheepishly at Eko.
Benten introduced herself next. “I’m Benten, the rockin’ star with a million followers and-”
The buffalo beastman interrupted her. “Well well, and ye were just mouthin’ off that ye keep gettin’ ignored.”
Benten glared at him. “Well, why don’t you go next then, Captain buzzkill?”
He sighed and breathed out a cloud of smoke. “I’m Captain Ahab. Ye can call me Captain or Ahab, I don’t care. This brat and I woke up in the same place.” He held up his hand, showing a band with two cyan lines, the perfect match to Benten’s. “Even without yer memories, ye still seem mostly the same to me, brat. Not even showin’ a little surprise at there bein’ talkin’ beasts. Heh.” He finished this with a dark shadow passing over his eyes.
Brat? Did I do something?
“Hey-hey-hey, Captain! Don’t be so down!” cackled a dark blue hyena with bright green hair and a tail made of orange hands. Eko thought he looked like a DJ, so long as she ignored the absurd nature of his body. “I’m sure our dear lassie will get some memories in time. Don’t get too excited though, we don’t want you to limp out later~”
“Get on with it!” Ahab shouted.
“This dog’s name is the one, the only, Nyaaaaaaaaarlathotep!” His tail clapped behind him as he bowed, sticking his tongue out at Eko. On his right hand was a ring with two magenta bands.
“Pardon my friend here,” said a mysterious lady garbed in a fancy gray dress. A mask covered half her face and she held a closed umbrella across her lap. On her finger was another ring with two magenta bands, matching Nyarlathotep’s. “You can call me Christine.”
“Y-You sound familiar,” said a large bear, dressed in a lab coat. He looked very nervous. “Have I met you before?”
“Why, my dearest Jambavan... I may not have met you before, but that is not to say that I am not familiar.”
Jambavan looked confused. “...Well, you definitely sound like someone else I know.” He turned to Eko. “S-Sorry, my name is Jambavan. I’m a, uh, a medical student.” He reached out a hand to shake Eko’s hand, which she took after a moment of hesitation. He had a ring with a single yellow band on it.
The old man in the corner spoke next. “Ohoho, It is good to see you in good health, despite your current condition. My name is Ded Moroz, though I often go as Santa Claus.” As he lifted his hand to say hi, Eko made out a band with a single cyan band. “Do you remember Santa, if not me? A jolly old man dressed in red, giving presents to good boys and girls?”
Eko thought, her arm drifting over to her shoulder again. After an uncomfortable few seconds, she spoke up. “I know who you’re talking about but… I don’t remember the name ‘Santa.’ It’s weird... I don’t have any name, er, associated with that.”
It was true, and the thought of it rubbed Eko the wrong way. When Ded described Santa, there was a part of her that said, “Of course I know who that is!” When she tried to remember a name, however, it was gone. It wasn’t like something was on the tip of her tongue, it was just... not there.
Jambavan looked worriedly at Eko. “...Eh? That’s weird… if you had what I thought you did, you should either be able to remember nothing about Santa or everything about him. Forgetting just the name…? A-Anything else?”
Ryota thought to himself for a second. “She didn’t know that much about nuclear reactors, I guess. Oh, but she did know her colors!”
Jambavan looked slightly more confused, but he stopped talking.
“Ah,” Eko said, “At this point, I think at this point you all know me better than I do. I’m Eko, I woke up next to Ryota.” She held up her finger and showed her ring with the two yellow bands. “I’m sorry I don’t remember you, but it’s really nice to meet you all! Again… I guess…”
Duo nodded. “And I’m Duo. It looks like some of you picked up on the meaning of these rings. That’s good.” He held up his ring, showing off a magenta band. “Single bands were solo, while double bands have an ally. As for what these are for-”
“Allow me to answer that.”
A loud, deep, warped voice blared out of a speaker in the corner of the room.
“And just who are you!?” yelled Ded. Eko turned around and saw that, where the jolly Ded with a white beard used to be standing, he now had a black suit and dark hair. He was holding a cigar aloft in his hand. She turned back to the speaker, accepting that if a buffalo could speak and Nyarlathotep could exist, then a man could change so drastically.
“Now, now… do not interrupt me. If you want to get through here and solve the final puzzle, you have to know the rules of this game.”
Ahab put his hand on Benten’s shoulder, who had already opened her mouth to retort. She sat down next to him begrudgingly.
“My name is Zero. I am the one who kidnapped all of you, just as I am the same one who is responsible for the girl’s condition.”
Eko’s eyes widened slightly as she looked at the speaker. Duo turned briefly to look at her, then looked away.
“Zero” did this to me? But… why?
“In this game, a game known as the Nonary Game, you will have to escape a series of puzzles. You must go into them with specific groups. The rules are as follows: One- you can only go into a room with one single duo and one single solo. You cannot go with anything else. Two- the colors must make the correct color. If you choose to disregard those simple rules or attempt to cause any… problems... there will be a punishment.”
The nine of them looked around the room at each other.
Punishment?
“Should you disregard these instructions, the ring will inject you with a highly potent toxin. I assure you, the death will be quick and… mostly painless. At the very least, your suffering shouldn’t last more than half a minute. This punishment will also happen if you try to destroy or remove the ring. Your first task awaits. Don’t mess it up.”
There was a click, and the voice shut off. The nine of them looked at each other, then back down at their rings. The sound of a train pulling into the station echoed in the cavern. They all walked outside, seeing three open-air trains- one red, one blue, one green. A digital clock started counting down- half an hour until when they presumably had to leave.
“Generous of Zero to give us so much time to discuss,” Christine said with a gentle laugh. “Or, perhaps... it is cruel to give us this long to deliberate on our situation, hmm?”
Jambavan looked around nervously. “T-This must be why we had that puzzle with the colors, right?”
Duo nodded. “It must be. Before we go through either of our options, I have a question for all of you. We were all taken in the same way, correct?”
“Ah… You mean, being taken out by smoke then kidnapped by someone in a mask?” said Ded, his beard white again. The rest of them nodded, other than Eko.
Duo turned his eyes to her and said, “I highly doubt you remember anything from when you were taken. In fact…” He trailed off and looked at the time remaining. There was still quite a while until the trains left. “Never mind.”
Huh?
Duo squatted down, staring into the tunnels. “Don’t use your sacred artifacts.”
Benten stopped fiddling with her biwa in confusion. “Hey, why not? You trying to limit my creative potential!?”
He turned and looked at her instrument, then looked at the rest of them in turn. “I only know what some of your rules do, but when Zero said to avoid causing any ‘problems,’ I think the greatest chance you have to cause something like that is using a rule. Especially you, Eko.”
Eko looked down at Duo. “My rule? What do you mean?”
“So you don’t remember your rule. Interesting.”
Ryota stepped forward, frowning. “How is that interesting? If she doesn’t remember anyone, why would she remember that?” He stared down at Duo, who said nothing.
“...Should we plan out which trains we’re all going on?” Jambavan said, putting his hands together.
Duo sighed and got up. “There are only two real options here. Since it needs to be three people, those who have partners can’t team up with another team with partners, and solos can’t pair with solos. I couldn’t go with Jambavan, and Eko and Ryota couldn’t go with Christine and Nyarlathotep.” He pulled a piece of paper and a pen out of his pocket. He wrote down the cyan duo- Benten and Ahab, the yellow duo- Ryota and Eko, the magenta duo- Nyarlathotep and Christine, then the respective solos- Ded, Jambavan, and Duo. “The only two options are as follows: Eko, Ryota, and I take the red train, Christine, Nyarlathotep, and Ded take the blue train, and the last three take the green train. The other option is that Christine, Nyarlathotep, and Jambavan take the red train, Ahab, Benten, and I take the blue train, and Eko, Ryota, and Ded take the green train. That being said, I want to go with Eko. I have some questions.”
“So what?” Ded was back to his black Ded appearance. “Why not just ask her in front of us, you- Ah, sorry about that.” Ded transformed back into White Ded mid-sentence.
“Is that just a thing that happens?” Eko whispered to Ryota.
He took a lollipop out of his mouth and whispered back, “Yeah. Weird, right? You get used to it. Knowing you, you’re already used to it.”
Eko stared at Ded, who was rubbing the back of his head. “I think he just wants to go with Eko, but he’ll never say that.” He chuckled as if he heard something funny.
Duo got up and looked at the clock. 10 minutes were left.
“Data.”
Ded focused on him, frowning. “Pardon?”
“I don’t have any problem with telling you what I’m thinking, but I want more data before I’m sure. That’s why I want to go with Eko. Anyone else have a problem with my layout?”
Ded said nothing but moved back as if to concede defeat. The rest of them looked at each other, lost for words. Some of them fidgeted with their ring, not daring to try and pull it off. Benten toyed around with her biwa, and Captain Ahab puffed away on his pipe, the smoke billowing up toward the dark stone roof.
A few minutes passed, and Duo spoke up, looking at Eko. “If that’s settled, let’s get ready to go.”
The clock now said 5 minutes left. Each of them went on their respective trains, with Eko following Ryota and Duo aboard and taking a seat. Her face betrayed little emotion, but she reached down and felt the imprint of the candy Ryota had given her. When the clock hit 0, the doors locked with a click.
“Remember to keep all hands and legs inside the vehicle at all times! We’ll arrive at the gift shop soon, baby!” Nyarlathotep called to the rest of them as their engines started to move, each of them reaching the tunnel at the same time. As they passed under the tunnel, lights along the side glowed in a pattern- yellow, yellow, magenta. After a second, they flashed red and returned to normal.
Ryota pulled out a lollipop and stuck it in his mouth while Duo stared ahead into the tunnel. Eko continued to feel the lollipop in her pocket.
What’s going on? Everything happened so fast… At least, they all seem like pleasant people. I wonder if I should ask Ryota about them. Well… maybe I should just talk to each of them myself.
She looked behind them, the light of the cavern fading as they got further and further away. A shiver passed through her.
Whatever’s coming… I hope we can get past it. And…
Zero’s words passed through her mind.
What is that “final puzzle?”