Work Text:
Ichika knows Saki is planning something from the moment she walks through the door of her house.
Saki is usually a warm, cheery person, but today she is sporting a grin even wider than those Tsukasa typically favors. She’s up to something, but Ichika doesn’t know just what yet.
“Ichikaaaaa!” Saki yells, running up to her and embracing her widely. “It’s so nice to see you!”
“Y- you too, Saki,” Ichika says, even though they had just met earlier that day at school.
Saki pulls away, already bouncing on her feet. “I have an idea, and I can’t wait to tell you guys about it! But, wait. Let’s wait until the others get here.”
“Oh, they’re already here. They’re in my room,” Ichika says.
“Oh, I’m late??” Saki startles. “Let’s go, then! Oh no, I booked us for 6pm…” She runs to Ichika’s room.
Ichika sighs and follows her. Leave it to Saki to be late to something she booked. If it had been any of them, she would have been perfectly on time, eager to make them happy. But, since she chose the time of-
Wait, what exactly had Saki booked?
When Ichika gets to her room, Saki is deep into an animated conversation with Honami and Shiho. Shiho is wearing a huge gray hoodie as usual, nothing new there.
Ichika resists a blush at the sight of her girlfriend. Standing just to the side, Honami looks incredibly cute in her pastel-colored dress.
With a start, she tunes back into what Saki is saying. “-it’s a great bonding activity! We’ll have lots of fun!” she says, gesturing wildly at Ichika’s wall clock, her stuffed animals and the bathroom for some reason.
“How do you know it’s safe?” Shiho asks.
“I read the reviews extensively,” Saki answers. She looks so proud of herself.
“I’m not all that good with puzzles or anything…” Honami mumbles.
“It’s okay! We can all learn together.”
“I guess it’s fine then…”
Ichika steps in, a little concerned. “What’s going on? What are we doing?”
“We’re going to an escape room. Basically, what happens is we all get locked into a room and solve clues to figure out how to escape!”
“Wait,” Ichika responds. “So, like a puzzle room… or a torture chamber?”
“It’s supposed to be fun. A bonding exercise, you know?” Saki replies quickly.
“Yes, you mentioned that,” Shiho says.
“Well, we don’t have practice today…” Honami adds quietly. “It can’t hurt, right?”
“Saki, if we get stuck inside, is there a way out?” Ichika asks.
“Of course! There’s no way we’d be left trapped in there,” Saki responds. “Alright, our reservation is in an hour, let’s go!!” She grabs Honami and Shiho and starts dragging them out the door. Ichika can’t help but follow.
They arrive at the building that houses the escape room Saki’s selected. “Japan’s Greatest Escape,” or so it’s called. When they walk up to the counter, an incredibly sketchy seeming man shoots a grin their way.
“Hey, kids. Here for an escape room?”
Shiho shifts uncomfortably. Ichika echoes her feelings, side-eyeing Saki and Honami as they stand at the counter to make sure they’re safe.
Check-in goes relatively quickly, and they walk up to the room entrance hall, where an informational video is playing. Apparently, they will get locked into a room and have thirty minutes to escape. If their time runs out, someone will come in to get them. Alternatively, they can press a button if they want to get out at any point.
That last bit is reassuring. Despite what Saki had said, Ichika still felt the vestiges of an irrational fear that told her they’d be stuck in the room forever if they couldn’t figure out the clues.
They’re ushered into the room, a small space outfitted with decorations that simulated a cartoonish forest environment. Next thing Ichika knows, the sketchy guy has closed the door with a parting grin. Soon after, the click of a lock resounds throughout the room.
“Oh,” Shiho says. “They actually locked us in here.”
Saki walks over to her, throwing her arm around her shoulder. “It’s fine, all we need to do is solve the clues and then we can get out.”
Shiho nods halfheartedly. She seems to be turning a little green.
Admittedly, Ichika isn’t feeling the best herself. It’s a little jarring to be trapped in a room in such a way, especially with such short notice and limited understanding of what she was getting herself into. She steps closer to Saki and Shiho, then away, unsure of exactly what to do with herself.
She glances at Honami, next to her, expecting her to be expressing at least a little of the same feeling. Instead, she looks like she’s steeling herself.
“Alright, everyone! We need to get out of this room. All we need to do is stay on task and work hard on our clues, and we’ll be fine!” she says, slightly too loud. Shiho winces.
Ichika smiles. Honami really should take the lead more.
Shiho shakes her head rapidly, snapping herself out of her thoughts. “Good point. Let’s look for potential clues.”
And with that, they’re off on the chase, ready to solve “The Reign of Tahi’li.”
According to the instructional video (and the overviews Ichika looked up on their way to the room), Tahi’li is a Polynesian god who has been trapped in the holding area they’re standing in right now by malevolent raiders, and their goal is to help her get through the booby traps surrounding her.
It doesn’t make a lot of sense, since why couldn’t a real god just phase through booby traps? Ichika plays along anyway, though, since the worldbuilding does add some fun to the process.
“I FOUND SOMETHING!” Saki yells from the corner of the room.
“You don’t need to yell, this is a small space,” Shiho says, stepping over. “W-what are these?”
On the floor are a set of small stones with letters written on each one, seemingly with no rhyme or reason to what letters were chosen.
A C B O T K C R H E E O
There are also two random blank stones just lying there along with the others.
“It’s probably an anagram. We should rearrange the letters and see what happens,” Ichika suggests.
As if the two of them are telepathically connected, Honami leans down before Ichika can finish her sentence, reaching to rearrange the letters.
“Hmm,” she mumbles.
She finally finishes and shows everyone the word she ended up with.
CHECKERBOARD
“Find a checkerboard pattern!” Saki says. She doesn’t have to, since everyone jumped to search as soon as they saw the word. It seems as if they’re all getting the hang of this escape room thing.
They check the walls, then the floor, then the ceiling, and find nothing. There are some letters on the ceiling fan, though, but they decide to deal with them later.
“Wait, what if we made a different word?” Ichika suggests. “Remember checkerboard, I’m going to mix up the letters and try something.”
After a few aborted tries, she ends up with “electroshock.”
“That doesn’t seem right. Aren’t electroshocks usually lethal or damaging?” Shiho asks.
Saki perks up. “Well, usually, but… there’s an electrical outlet and wire here that I could-”
“SAKI, NO!” everyone else yells.
“Ugh, guys, too loud. This is a small space,” she groans.
“So it’s not checkerboard or electroshock. Let me try now,” Honami says.
After prolonged shuffling noises, she hesitantly starts to speak.
“Uhh… weathercock? That can’t be right…”
“What even is a weathercock?” Ichika asks.
“I don’t want to know,” Shiho responds. “I-”
She pauses for a second, staring at the corner of the room.
“Is that a coconut?”
“OH, WAIT!” Saki yells. Ichika can feel Shiho’s exasperation as she seemingly gives up on telling Saki to talk quietly.
“I know what the anagram is!” she continues. “Look. These stones are spaces. This actually spells blank blank coco!”
“Ohh, that makes sense,” Honami responds. “Wait, blank blank?”
“Well, I don’t know what goes there,” Saki says, defensive. “I have to figure it out! There’s one space stone, though, so two words.
“‘The’ would fit as the second word,” Shiho says. “Then the first word would be… uh… break?”
“Break the coco,” Ichika says, nodding. “Wait, we have to break it? Why?”
“Well, maybe there’s a clue inside. The question is… how do we break it?” Shiho mutters.
“It’s a nut, right? Do you think I could crack it with my teeth?” Saki asks innocently.
“Are you trying to crack your teeth or the coconut?” Shiho throws back. Saki looks sufficiently abashed.
The coconut is decently big. A circular shape with the diameter of Ichika’s palm, it looks solid and sturdy. She picks it up, turning it around in her hand - until she notices a hole in the bottom part of the coconut.
“Guys, we can force it open from here!” she says, happy at finally finding the solution to the clue.
Honami reaches for the coconut, wedges her fingers into the hole on opposite sides and pulls. As the coconut cracks open, her biceps flex and she bites her lip. Ichika stares. She can’t help it.
She’s startled away from her shameless ogling when a soggy piece of paper tainted with coconut residue flies out of the coconut and smacks her square in the face. She peels the slightly sticky sheet off and reads it out.
“Once in a minute, twice in a moment, never in a thousand years.”
“Huhh?” Saki says. “This is a riddle, isn’t it? I think I’ve heard this one before, but I don’t rememer the answer…”
“Yeah,” Shiho nods. “I remember it being something stupid that made me groan and facepalm, though.”
Honami doesn’t seem to know the answer either. For a few moments, everyone stares at the little slip in Ichika’s hand, completely flummoxed.
Ichika tries turning the piece of paper over, looking to see if there are any symbols or markings on it. Nothing whatsoever. She glances around the room to see if there is another piece of paper they can match it with. She can’t see any.
“What if… it’s a minute? Like, there’s no minutes in a thousand years, right? … never mind, that doesn’t make sense.” Saki pipes down, a little disgruntled.
“Could it have something to do with love or connection?” Honami asks.
“But then, how could we know? That’s so subjective…” Shiho answers.
Saki starts humming, seemingly hoping it’ll get some blood flowing to her brain. Ichika, confused as well, starts singing along.
“Once in a minute, twice in a moment, never in a thou-sand years~~~”
They sing it again, and Honami joins in. Once more, and even Shiho is mouthing along.
Ichika starts throwing in other lyrics. “How shall we solve the riddle? Puzzle so strange, we try…”
“To solve it but the answer… evades us every time,” Saki finishes.
Abruptly, everyone stops.
Then they all burst out into laughter.
“That was so silly,” Honami chokes out. “Imagine if that actually worked and we got the answer. Wouldn’t that be great?”
“Unfortunately, words do not have that much power, it seems,” Shiho responds, still chuckling.
“Wait,” Saki says. “WORDS! Minute. Moment. Thousand years.”
“Wait, yeah,” Shiho concurs. “Hmm. Both minute and moment have m…”
“... but ‘thousand years’ doesn’t.” Ichika finishes.
“The answer must be ‘m’!” Honami declares. “Wait. What does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” Shiho says. “It’s weird. What if we tried doing something else? There’s other stuff in this room. Like, I’m standing on weird grass.” She kneels down near the patch of fake grass she was standing on, then abruptly lifts it off the floor.
“Flip it over! What’s on the other side?” Honami asks.
“It’s a maze,” Shiho answers.
Ichika is a whiz at mazes. She can just sense where the line goes next. The others know that, too, so Shiho hands the maze over to her along with a marker she found on a table and Ichika solves it in no time flat.
“That didn’t reveal anything else…” Ichika says, puzzled.
“Look at the line,” Honami says. “It looks… a bit like an ‘R’.”
“Another clue that we don’t understand?” Saki complains.
“No,” Honami answers. “I think it’s a pattern. See, both puzzle answers were letters.”
“Yeah, that makes sense,” Ichika says. “There are other puzzles,” she continues, gesturing to the fan on the ceiling. “Maybe we have to solve more puzzles until we find all the letters and then unscramble them like an anagram.”
“Yeah, that makes sense.” Saki beams, glad to see how invested her group is getting in the escape room. “In that case, let’s get solving!”
After some riddle-solving, which may or may not have included some frustrating altercations with the ceiling fan which in turn may or may not have included several minor electrocutions, Ichika thinks they’ve finally been able to collect all the letters.
“Okay, so we have one M, three Rs, one O, and one I.” Shiho says. “What-”
“Mirror!” Saki interjects.
Oh, it does seem to spell ‘mirror.’
“Isn’t that kinda sweet when you think about it?” Ichika says. “It could be referencing the way we mirror each other in our playing and make sure we get the notes others miss.”
“Or maybe it’s about how we mirror each other in real life, helping each other develop our personalities, grow and follow our true feelings,” Honami adds.
“Aww, guys! That’s so sweet!” Saki gushes, enveloping them in a hug. “Maybe our teamwork and companionship are the key to solving this puzzle.”
“There is literally a mirror on the wall right here,” Shiho deadpans.
Saki steps back. “Oh.”
“It’s okay, we can still use teamwork and companionship to solve the escape room,” Honami consoles.
“Ah. Uh, no need to make me feel better, Honami,” Saki mumbles. “I just got a little carried away. Thanks, though.”
Ichika, blushing a little (out of embarrassment this time), walks up to the mirror and looks into it. She sees nothing but her own, normal, reflection. In the background, she sees Shiho walk up to Saki and whisper something into her ear. Saki brightens up instantly.
Ahh, young love, Ichika thinks, a minor in a committed loving relationship of her own.
Ignoring her hypocrisy, she focuses back on the mirror. Honami comes up to stand next to her - and in the process, accidentally bumps into the mirror. It moves an inch.
“Huh? The mirror just moved!” Honami said.
“Well, maybe we can move it more,” Ichika suggests. She grabs one end of the mirror, and Honami grabs the other. Ichika pushes, Honami pulls, and it goes easily, sliding into a spot in the corner and revealing a hidden entrance.
“There, teamwork and companionship,” Ichika says. Honami smiles, amused.
Saki and Shiho have come back to the normal, non-romantic Earth, and everyone moves through the mirror entrance single file, finding themselves in a new room entirely.
There’s not much in this room, at least compared to the other one. The floor is covered in a grid of gods that look vaguely Polynesian, each different from the other except for the image of Tahi’li Ichika recognizes from earlier in the right bottom corner.
“Ooh, look at this one!” Saki gushes. “She’s so pretty…”
Shiho directs a glare at the god Saki’s looking at. It’s funny that she feels threatened by a piece of paper.
“Oh, yeah, she’s gorgeous,” Honami says. “I wish these gods actually existed.”
Never mind, Ichika gets the jealousy.
The images are all embedded in the floor, covered by a thick layer of glass. There are four rows and columns, with the first two columns and the last two columns clustered together.
“Okay, so the rows are labeled A B C D and the columns are labeled 1 2 3 4,” Honami says.
Shiho walks over to a door in the wall. “The keypad in this door has letters and numbers. We might find the code on the floor.”
To the right of the door, Ichika notices a small table pushed to the wall. Six inches above the tabletop, a wheel that looks very similar to the one that hovers behind Tahi’li’s head in images is embedded into the wall.
Saki leans against a random stretch of wall - then screams as it moves backwards, flap opening to reveal a small cubby in which a statue of Tahi’li resides.
“Saki.” Shiho says. “That wall literally says ‘push here.’ Why did you lean against it?”
Saki blushes. “Uh- I was- distracted? Oops…”
She reaches back for the idol, placing her hands on both sides of it and lifting. It doesn’t budge.
“What…?”
She tries again, putting her whole weight and strength into it. Nothing happens.
“Your fingers might be strong from playing the piano, but I guess your hands aren’t,” Shiho says. “Let me try.”
She walks up to the cubby, reaches out and tries to lift up the idol - and once again, it doesn’t budge.
“Should I try?” Ichika hesitantly suggests, unsure if it’ll move if her friends have already tried and had no luck.
Just as she expected, when she tries to lift up the idol, absolutely nothing happens. It feels almost rooted to the floor of the cubby.
Ichika turns around slowly.
“... Honami?”
That determined look is back on Honami’s face again. She takes a step towards the cubby. Then another.
Slowly, she reaches into her pocket and pulls out an apple pie pastry (wait, is outside food even allowed in here?). She unwraps the packaging, lifts it to her mouth and swallows the whole thing in one gulp.
“Alright. I’m ready. ”
One, two, three steps to the cubby. She reaches out, holds the idol and HEAVES.
With an almighty screech, the idol slides out of the cubby. Honami takes big, powerful steps across the room to the small table Ichika saw earlier, where she places it down on the opposite side of the wheel.
Ichika wishes she had a phone to take a video with. She’d have that footage on replay for the next five years.
“H-how did you do that??” Shiho sounds stunned. Saki’s mouth has actually fallen open.
Honami blushes under the attention. “I, uh, I have to move a lot of furniture when housekeeping for Kanade. I guess it made me pretty… strong?”
Trying to distract everyone from her feat of valor, she pats the idol. “So what do we do with this?”
“Isn’t there a floor image that looks just like the god? What if we put it on top of that?” Saki suggests.
“Yeah, that might work,” Shiho agrees.
Honami looks at the idol, then sighs.
“Good thing I brought a lot of apple pie pastries.”
With another heave, she grabs the idol and carries it over to the image, setting it on top with a CLANG!
Nothing happens.
Honami drags the statue a bit to the side so she can look at the picture. Another resounding screech occurs. Ichika’s grateful they’re all in a band - otherwise, there would have been no way they’d be able to handle the noises.
“Hmm,” Honami mutters. “The statue looks very similar, except it’s missing that halo thing on its head…”
“Halo?” Ichika asks. “You mean this wheel?” She gestures at the wall behind her.
“Yes! What if we aligned that halo with this statue?” Saki suggests.
Honami looks at the table, a full three feet above the ground, and sighs again.
With the help of two apple pie pastries as fuel this time, she grabs the idol and hefts it onto the table, then aligns it with the halo in the wall.
A series of clicks sound through the room, and everyone jumps, even Shiho. Ichika can see Saki reach for Shiho’s hand.
The clicks cease, and there is silence for a minute. Ichika waits with bated breath.
The silence continues.
Honami fidgets a little. “Maybe we-”
“MY SPIRIT HAS RETURNED AT LAST.”
Shiho screams. Then Saki screams. Suddenly, everyone is screaming.
“WHAT IS GOING ON?” Honami screams. Even her screams are adorable, Ichika thinks. Then she snaps out of it.
“I DON’T KNOW! SHIHO STARTED SCREAMING SO I STARTED SCREAMING AND NOW EVERYONE’S SCREAMING,” Saki screams.
“STOP SCREAMING!” Shiho screams.
“WHERE DID THAT VOICE EVEN COME FROM?” Ichika yells. No one hears her over the screaming and the disembodied voice that has continued to say something from above.
Wait. It’s still continuing? Surely, that means they have to listen to it. What if it’s a clue?
Ichika takes her chance. As Saki opens her mouth, she lunges and slaps a hand over it. She does the same to Shiho immediately after. She shoots a look at Honami, which is enough to make her stop talking. (Girlfriend telepathy? Who knows?)
With everyone silent, they can all hear the voice, which continues to issue from the speakers.
“-steps left, two forward, arrive at salvation and escape from hell.” Everything goes silent.
“Oh no, we missed it!” Honami says.
Shiho blushes. “Sorry.”
“No, no, it’s fine! I would have screamed too if I was startled by the voice,” Honami says.
“But you were startled by the voice,” Shiho responds.
“Uhh…” Honami falls silent.
Ichika turns to Honami. “If we want to play the message again, all we have to do is take the idol off whatever it’s on right now and put it back down again, right? Maybe that’ll trigger the mechanism.”
Honami sighs a long-suffering sign and walks over to the idol, picking it up and dropping it back down to align with the halo.
The clicks sound again, and this time everyone is silent.
“MY SPIRIT HAS RETURNED AT LAST.”
“It’s restarting!” Ichika whispers.
“Good thinking, Ichika,” Honami praises.
The voice continues. “Start with the bringer of life and the universe constant. Two steps forward, two steps left, one step back, two steps right, three steps left, two forward, arrive at salvation and escape from hell.”
“I- what?” Saki asks.
“Something about steps?” Ichika mumbles. “It said ‘start with the life-bringer and universe’ or something. Maybe that’s the god?”
“Okay, so we start at the god statue?” Shiho suggests.
“I mean, we could try…” Ichika says. “What did it say after that?”
“Two steps forward, two steps left, one step back, two steps right, three steps left, two forward, arrive at salvation and escape from hell,” Honami recites perfectly.
“How did you remember that??” Saki asks incredulously.
Honami shrugs. “I don’t know, I just did… It’s a good thing, right? We can use that knowledge.”
“Wait, Honami, say that again,” Ichika requests, standing right in front of the big statue.
She follows Honami’s instructions and ends up somewhere to the left of the room, with nothing seemingly in sight.
“It doesn’t make sense for them to be talking about our footsteps anyway, since each human’s foot span is different…” Ichika mumbles. “So what else could it be?”
“Wait,” Saki points towards the floor. “It wants us to start at the god, right? What about the image on the floor?”
“Oh, hmm,” Shiho says. “Wait. Oh, I get it!” In a rare display of excitement, she rushes to the tiles and points at the Tahi’li one. “Saki, stand here.”
Saki does so, obediently.
“Okay, Honami, what’s next?”
“Two steps forward.”
“Come stand here,” Shiho says, pointing at an image in the same column as Saki but two rows ahead.
“Huh? I’m so confused,” Saki says as Honami walks over.
“Just trust me. Honami, what’s next?”
“Two steps left. So, would she stand on that one?” Honami asks, pointing to a tile.
“Yeah, exactly,” Shiho nods.
“Ohh, so those images represent steps!” Ichika exclaims. “That makes sense! Honami, what’s next?”
“One step back,” Honami says.
“I’ll stand on that one!” Saki adds, pointing.
Following this course of action, they slowly work through Honami’s instructions, ending up on a tile at the front left of the grid.
“According to the labeling,” Saki says as she looks downwards, “this tile is A1.”
Ichika walks over to the door and carefully punches in A 1 * on the keypad. It beeps and flashes green, swinging open to reveal the hallway they entered through.
“Oh! We made it!” Saki says gleefully, grabbing the nearest person - Honami - in a hug. Ichika grins, and even Shiho cracks a little smile.
They all clamber out of the door, jubilant.
“We should do this again sometime!” Honami is saying.
“Yeah, I chose the easiest one for our first time. Maybe, next time, we can try an even harder room!”
“There are more ?” Shiho asks incredulously. “Wow.”
The man who locked their door is nowhere to be found. Instead, a woman who was waiting outside their exit door congratulates them warmly as they all prepare to leave and head back to Ichika’s house. They take a few pictures to celebrate their victory, then head out.
Ichika is the last one out. Just before she leaves, she glances back at the woman, who walks up and whispers something to her.
“You guys actually took thirty-five minutes. Don’t tell your friends, though - they look so happy.”