Junpei seems well. That's the only thought going through your mind right now, that Junpei seems well. He's on the camera feed now, in the middle of a featureless white room, looking down at his bracelet with a concerned expression, free of any harm physical or mental that you can see. It's a calming thought, accompanied by a sense of relief, distracting you from the tiny size of the room you're trapped in.
Juxtaposing Junpei on the other side of the screen is Phi. The feed shows her in negative colors, almost like a night vision filter, and while you can't
see any physical wounds on her face or legs, and she doesn't seem to be favoring any parts of her body, she only just finished shaking and is now pacing restlessly.
You look down. Beneath the camera feeds, there's a microphone. To the left of the microphone, is a screen with a page of text displayed, and to the right is a yellow indicator light on top of a button.
An intercom button, maybe? You press it and speak into it.
"Phi, can you hear me? Are you okay?"
What you get in response is a blaring klaxon that makes you cover your ears. Ow,
shit.
…Junpei and Phi don't react to the blaring horn. Can they not hear it?
Was the button
not an intercom?
You look around the room, the glorified
booth you woke up in, and find nothing of value. There's a door directly behind you, but the knob was locked when you tried it earlier, and somehow you doubt that blowing your eardrums out is the solution to opening it.
There's nothing else here, just the monitor, the microphone, and five metal walls too close to each other.
You try the button again. "Hello?"
Fucking ouch!
Another klaxon.
Words pop up on the screen, and you try to keep an eye open even as you wince in pain.
'SPEAK NO EVIL!'
Oh, is this part of the challenge? Are you not allowed to speak freely? Is that why the indicator light is yellow instead of green?
So what are you allowed to say?
Your eyes drift down to the screen next to the microphone. Maybe that's a script. You press the button, making sure to read faithfully.
"Participants, this challenge room, the first of three, is based on the three wise monkeys."
"Akane? Is that you?! Where are you? Are you okay? How can I hear you right now?"
Oh Junpei. His concern is refreshing, but very unhelpful for the purposes of trying to solve a puzzle.
"Junpei! Shut up and let her explain the damn rules!"
Phi even agrees with you, but Junpei keeps whirling around, shouting your name at the walls as if he can't hear her.
…Maybe he
can't.
"Wait. Three wise monkeys? Oh
shit, is that the no evil thing? This room is pitch black, so I must be 'see no evil.' Maybe Junpei can't hear me…"
Shit. Phi can't see, and you can't lead her with the speaking restriction you have. Junpei needs to help her out.
First, you need Junpei to stop freaking out. Guess you need to steamroll over his concern to get his attention.
You press the button again.
"Participants."
"Akane! You're back! Are you—"
"This challenge room, the first of three, is based on the three wise monkeys.
One participant can hear no evil."
"—okay? What aren't you… Well, I guess I can hear you just fine…"
It didn't mute you when you stressed certain words, so maybe… "The
other participant can
see no evil."
"What? But I can see this room perfectly! What's—"
You take a shot in the dark, putting yourself into Zero's shoes and mentally preparing yourself for another round of horns.
"A third participant, acting as the Voice of God, can
speak no evil."
"Huh?"
It went through! No klaxons!
"…Wait! Is that why you won't respond to me?" There it is, he's getting it. "Voice of God, huh? Guess Zero thinks pretty highly of himself."
"That's exactly what I'm thinking," Phi remarks to herself.
Wait, that was you talking out of your ass. Did Zero actually…
You flick a finger up on the screen next to the microphone to scroll up. There was actually another line! It
actually says 'Voice of God!'
Why did that work?
"So if you're just repeating words that Zero's providing for you, and you can't speak evil, does that mean I'm hearing no evil? Is it that I can't hear the other participant because they aren't holy and their words would be evil? Then if they
see no evil, they either can't see me — or maybe they can't see
anything at all, and the challenge must be that I have to somehow lead them to safety without being able to see or hear them?"
"Wow, he worked through that fast."
You're not exactly shocked like Phi is, but you still can't help being impressed by the speed of Junpei's deductions.
"Shit, but how do I lead them out? Akane, can you — no, wait, you can't answer… Oh, but how is it stopping you from saying evil? I have to imagine that you tried talking to me before you started reading whatever lines you were given. Maybe… Here's how we can test that. Akane, try saying 'evil.' It's part of the line you said earlier, but it's far enough from the beginning…"
Oh, you see what he's saying. He wants to test if the censor is listening for whole lines or words that aren't on some sort of approved list. You press the button next to the mic and speak clearly.
"Evil."
…
No buzz.
"Alright! Now that we know that works, you can answer yes or no questions! If 'yes' isn't on your script thingy, you can default to 'see' for an affirmative, and obviously, you can say 'no.' Okay?"
"See!"
"Alright! Before we like, start, you're okay, right? You're not hurt or anything, are you?"
Oh, Jumpy…
"See."
"Yes you're hurt?! Wait, no, I messed the question up. Uh. Yes, you're okay?"
You have to shake your head fondly. "
See."
"Right. That's good! Okay, can you see both participants, or do you just have, like, a book and a speaker?"
"What, like a Chinese Room situation?" Phi remarks. Meanwhile, you're stuck trying to answer Junpei's question, which, while
binary, is not yes/no. Damn it, Junpei.
"Monkey."
"What? Oh, damn, I did it again. Uh. Do you have eyes on us?"
"See."
"Is there, like, a shared wall between us?"
Um. "Evil?"
"Inconclusive… Is the camera setup two feeds side-by-side?"
"See."
"Am I on the left side?"
"See."
"Which means the other participant is on the right, okay. Now I have to figure out which of these walls in a perfectly square room is facing the right side."
Well, on the camera feed he's facing the front wall. Maybe…
"One?"
"Huh? Oh maybe… Am I facing the front wall right now?"
Same wavelength, very good. "See!"
"Which means," he raises his arm to point to the wall on his right, "this should be the wall that's connected to the other participant on the camera feed!"
"See!"
"Well, if they want it so I can't hear them, the walls are probably soundproofed. But if our rooms are
connected, and the walls aren't too thick, then they should still be able to feel a strong enough impact!"
Phi's head tilts as she hears Junpei talk, and then perks up when he walks to the wall and starts knocking on it. "Oh! Okay, he's gonna try to lead me through vibration, that's a good idea. Akane! Call out when I'm facing the left wall from your perspective."
Her idea is to raise her arm, point outward, and slowly spin to orient herself. However, she is
also facing the front of the room, and she starts spinning clockwise, so it takes a bit for her to face the right way. All the while, Junpei keeps one hand pressed flush to the wall while knocking with the other, waiting for his partner to knock back.
Phi does eventually face the right way—
"One!"
—and as soon as she knows it, she drops her arm and runs forward full-tilt, slamming into it heavily, shoulder first.
"Jesus!" Junpei falters — he
definitely felt that slam through the wall — but he gets his bearings back and starts knocking again, slower this time. And soon enough, Phi gets to her feet, presses a hand to the wall, and knocks back.
"Okay. I'm gonna start walking towards the front-facing wall. Just follow my knocks, and knock back so I know you're following."
Slowly, Junpei and Phi shuffle along to the front, and when they get there, a section of the wall slides open on both sides, and when they walk through, it shuts behind them. Your feed changes to a different room, though it doesn't show Junpei and Phi walking out. Maybe they have to walk through a passageway to get to the next room.
The screen wipes itself clean, and the light above your button changes colors to green.
"Wow, I'm impressed," you hear Phi's voice through the speaker. "I thought Junpei was just some goth stalker biker boy or something, but he figured out what was going on pretty quickly."
"Hey, I can hear you now."
"Oh good, I won't have to repeat myself later. Hey Akane, you okay? Can you talk now?"
"Maybe? I think so, I don't have any lines, and it isn't buzzing and cutting me off. Are you two together?"
"Well, I can't see anyone in this tunnel, but I could hear, uh, Phi, right? That was your voice, right?"
"Hey, your short-term memory managed to survive one or two rounds of sedation, congratulations."
"Definitely Phi. You all good, Kanny? Nothing to worry about?"
"Yeah, I'm fine outside of being stuck in an AV room the size of a closet. My door's locked too! Apparently, I'm just supposed to sit here and give out cryptic clues and wait for you two to solve everything!"
"That feels familiar," they both snark at the same time. There's a brief pause before Junpei picks up the thread. "Why's it feel familiar to you? Did Akane kidnap you to play in a game too?"
"Oh, well, no. Not yet, at least."
"Not yet?!"
"Maybe not at all. Who knows what timeline we're in. It's meant to be a backup plan, anyway."
"Timeline? Backup plan? A backup for
what?"
"Nothing that's important right now. What about you? Is this not your first time getting kidnapped and stuffed into a super dangerous game?"
"You-
ugh. No, it isn't."
"Well, it sounds like there's a story there. Too bad this tunnel is ending. Oh well, time for another heart-pumping escapade, I guess."
"I… Guess?"
In your camera feed, from an almost straight down view, Junpei and Phi enter from the bottom of the screen. You think initially that it's another split-feed, and they're in different rooms again, but they
both turn their attention to the grey dividing wall in the middle of the feed, so maybe it's the same room and there's actually a wall separating them. You hear a mechanical whir, probably the entrances closing behind them, and a small section of the front wall opens up on both sides to reveal three circular shapes that you can't make any sense of from your angle. The best you can see, from the shapes poking out of the wall, both sides have two buttons and a screen above them.
Phi seems to recognize them, from the way she hangs her head and lifts a hand up to her face.
The light turns yellow again, and the screen flashes at you. You try to scroll, but this time the only words you can speak all fit onto a single line.
"Your second challenge is this. Get out before anyone else."
They
really just want you to be cryptic and useless.
"Before anyone…?" Phi is stuck on your wording, apparently hearing something you didn't catch, and walks to the right of the room, her head on a swivel. She stops while looking at a point on the far wall above the divider, where you can't see. She curses under her breath and kneels down, calling out as she… knocks on the floor?
"Hey Junpei, you see those buttons on the wall?"
"Yeah?"
"Are they the same as mine? With an A and a B?"
"Uh, yep. Same buttons."
"Go ahead and hit the B button for me?"
"Uh, okay…"
Blaring horns make the both of them flinch, but not you, maybe because you can only hear the horns secondhand through the speakers.
"Okay, that didn't work…"
"What were you even trying to have me do?"
"I wanted to see what would happen if you vo-pressed the button when I didn't. We need to press them at the same time."
"Okay. On your count?"
"Yeah, three count. Same thing, press B."
"You got it."
"One, two, three!"
…That was weird. Maybe it's the camera angle, but you think that Junpei and Phi pressed different buttons?
"Okay, my number went up to six!"
"So did theirs…"
"You say something, Phi?"
"No, no. Same thing, okay? B on three."
Phi is now walking to the right along the front wall, crouched into a runner stance.
"One…"
She crouches a bit further down…
"
Two…"
…she starts
sprinting at full speed toward the middle…
"
Three!"
…and she slams the button at the same time that Junpei presses his, then jumps straight up, throwing her hands up to catch the top of the divider—
As the floor
falls out from beneath her.
She strains a bit, but manages to heave herself over the wall and fall onto Junpei's side in a three-point landing, just as his buttons slide upward to reveal an exit. For his part, he looks shocked, eyes wide open.
"Phi?! What was that about?"
"Let's go through first, I don't want to take any chances."
"Alright…"
They walk into the dark entryway, and your camera feed changes again to
yet another featureless white room, with what looks like two sets of buttons on a podium in the center.
Your indicator light turns green, and you press the intercom button.
"Phi? You okay?"
"Ankle's a bit tender from the jump, but it isn't a strain, at least.
"Well, that's good. So, when you were kneeling and knocking on the floor, were you checking for a trap?"
"Yeah, I was listening for an echo. I was expecting like, spikes or something, or maybe the wall was gonna rise and trap me on the other side, but the echo under the floor sounded way too deep."
"How did you even know to check for a trap?"
"Oh, Junpei, right, I was gonna explain. So that room was based on the Prisoner's Dilemma. Basically, there are two guys in prison—"
"Yeah, they're both asked to turn on their partner. Neither squeals, they both go to jail for a couple years, they both squeal and they both get a longer sentence."
"Right, but if
one guy squeals and the other doesn't, the one who ratted gets off free and the other one gets life. So, the A button stood for Ally and the B was for Betray. You saw how your points went up, right?"
"Yeah? Started at three, went up by three every time."
"And you 'won' at nine points."
"Wait! Were you Allying and losing points to me Betraying? How many points do we get if we both Ally?"
"Yeah, and we would've gotten two, but that's not the point. There were two more point counters above the divider, and I didn't know what would happen if we both Allied but one of the other guys Betrayed. We had to get out
before anyone else."
"And once I Betrayed the first time, it was too late to double back and try to Ally."
"Yeah, they both went up to five points. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it was a double bluff, and one of them would've gone up to six if we chose to Ally instead—"
"And because we Betrayed, Zero was trying to guilt us by saying there was no reason to rush and one asshole was throwing the other participant away in a rush?"
"Yeah, but it doesn't matter now."
"Yeah, because you're apparently Supergirl. That was like a five meter wall, what are your legs even made of?"
"Springs made of a polymer consisting of steel and spite."
"I wouldn't fucking doubt it.
Jesus."
"There's the exit. You ready for the third challenge?"
"I'm fine, is your leg holding up?"
"If we need to run for some reason, you can just carry me."
"Yeah, you look small enough for that."
"Good, I wouldn't want to strain your noodle arms."
"Maybe I'll just leave you to die."
The indicator light changes color before you see them pop out on the screen, and your line is even shorter than it was the last time.
"Third challenge, count the children."
"The hell is that supposed to mean?" Junpei mutters just loudly enough to get transmitted. "Are kids gonna pop out of the damn ceiling or something?"
"Junpei, come over here and like, lean against the podium. Face that corner."
"Why the corner?"
"The best way to present this challenge is to show us images on the walls, right? This button has three lights above it, so I think we get three tries to look at everything."
"So you want me to take these two walls?"
"And I'll take the other two, yeah. You ready?"
"Mhmm."
"Okay, I'm hitting the button."
Your angle is awkward, placed specifically so you can clearly see Junpei and Phi in the center and not much of the puzzle. You have no vision on the back wall where the two of them came from, and you can only barely see the corner of the side walls, little strips of green and blue, probably from the background.
But you can see the back wall
perfectly.
Five teenage boys with dark hair and black suits have been put into coffins, with the top half of each casket open like a funeral viewing. Smoke is pouring out of one casket, water fills a second, and the other three all have objects placed on the bottom half: an axe, a knife, and a syringe.
Six young girls with brown hair and pretty purple dresses are sitting in front of the coffins sobbing, and nine teenagers with light hair and pressed white suits are trying futilely to calm them down.
…You turn away from the camera feeds and sit on the floor, pressing the heels of your hands to your eyes and listening to Junpei count.
"So there are three guys coming out of an office building and eight ladies standing outside to meet them—"
"Any kids?"
"I mean, these girls kinda look like they might wanna
make some kids —
ow! Your elbows are bony!"
"And your
head is
empty. What's on the other wall?"
"Uh, a group of fathers and daughters walking through a park? I couldn't get a number, it looks like it's halfway through the animation."
"We have two more goes at it, it's fine. I had a mother rocking twins to sleep, and then a goddamn
funeral procession or something. There were a lot of kids — they definitely all looked like they were under eighteen."
"What, like they were teens? Are we counting teens?"
"Even if we weren't counting teens, it sounds like there are still enough actual small children to go into double digits. And yet for some reason, this keypad only has one digit for data entry."
"Yeah, there were at least three or four girls on that other wall, and it was at least halfway through the loop, so with twin babies that's already eight or nine. Unless we don't count the babies?"
"There were at least five girls in that procession, older than infancy but younger than teenage."
"So that's probably not… Hm. How did you know the rules for that game?"
"What, the AB Game?"
"Yeah, you said it was based off the Prisoner's Dilemma, but all I saw were A and B."
"Oh, right. It has to do with that other game I played."
"…The game Akane hasn't kidnapped you for yet."
"Yep."
"In a timeline that you're not even sure will exist?"
"That's the one."
"Do you want to maybe explain that?"
"I think it would take too long."
"…Sure, whatever. So maybe Zero's aware of this game that you may or may not play in the future, and that's why that last game didn't have more of an explanation than two buttons and vague directions, because he knew you would know."
"Sure."
"So if he knew about your game that happened in an alternate reality or whatever the hell, it would be easy to imagine that he knows about the game
I played in this exact state just a year ago."
"That seems plausible. Is it relevant?"
"Yeah, because that game had a lot to do with digital roots."
"What, online plants?"
"No, not digital like computers, digital like the digits of numbers. The sum of a number's digits, to be exact.
"So you want to count all of the children and then add together the digits of the number we get?"
"It's the only thing that makes sense."
"Okay, that works. Well, I know that wall has two babies, and you said one of the walls didn't have any kids at all?"
"Yeah, just salarymen and call girls."
"Wonder why that is."
"To give participants a chance if they screw over their partner in the last game and don't have another set of eyes, probably."
"That's as good a reason as anything else. I'm hitting the button."
"Go for it."
It's quiet for a bit. You imagine that they're busy counting.
…It probably isn't a coincidence, then. If they knew about a game that hasn't happened yet, that backup plan that Phi told you about, then they probably know about the Nonary Game, and the rounds that didn't happen.
The front-row seat you had to each and every one of Junpei's deaths, and the nightmares that served as your punishment.
Why else would the boys look exactly like him? Why else would the girls look exactly like you?
You curl up tighter into your ball.
"Alright," Phi calls out eventually. "I got mine, you all set?"
"Yeah," Junpei responds. "I don't think we'll need that third loop."
"You're that confident?"
"As long as you didn't mess up your count, I have a great head for math."
"Alright, let's see it in action. Five dead teens, six crying girls, and nine living teens trying to console the girls."
"Five-eleven-twenty if we're including teens? Fourteen teenagers, keep that number just in case."
"Sure."
"I had a few blond fathers and seven blond daughters following them like little ducklings. With the babies, that's twenty-nine kids—"
"Or fifteen if teens are banned."
"Let's assume they're not. Two and nine is eleven, one and one is two."
There's a little trill that comes from the speaker, and Junpei and Phi both cheer. You rise from your huddle slowly and turn to face the camera.
'SPEAK NO EVIL'
The camera feed is gone, that message is the only thing that remains.
The indicator light next to the microphone is a bright red.
This is… less than ideal.
"Well there's the door leading out," you hear Phi from the speakers. "But what's with this keypad entry?"
"'The queen is captured just as easily as any pawn.'"
"Is that supposed to be a hint? Should we have been looking out for pieces to a meta puzzle?"
"What's this groove? Is this a door?"
A door? Oh! Are they right outside?!
You run to the door in your room and try slamming on it. "Junpei! Phi!"
"Hey, do you hear something?"
"Yeah, knocking. That is
also familiar."
"
Junpei!"
"Maybe the door is soundproof, and the only reason we can hear the knocking is because the door is rattling against the frame."
"That makes sense. But who's even in there?"
Who
else would be in here, Junpei?! You deliberately stop knocking, wait for someone to comment on it—
"Hey, they sto—"
—and slam on it twice more to interrupt.
"Wait, can they hear us? But why can't we hear them?"
"I dunno, how come Akane could hear us from wherever she —
wait! Akane, knock twice if this is you!"
Knock, knock.
"Shit, maybe the password is out past the door somewhere?"
"That looks like a long hallway, I don't know if we have the time to run out, search, and run back."
"
Fuck, then what do we do?!"
You're stuck listening to them go back and forth about the situation. You can't do anything about it. The mic is muted with no way to send out sound. You guess you could open your mind and try to transmit to Junpei, but you don't know the password, and there's nothing in this room besides the monitor setup so you can't help with clues.
To punctuate your despondent thoughts, your bracelet sounds off. The five-minute warning.
Is this really it for you…?
QUANTUM LOCK DISCOVERED
Captured Queen
1 of 11
Fragment Selection
(Choose One)
Designer (Sigma and Maria)
Condition (Mira and Diana)
Mortality (Junpei and Sigma)
Revisit (What Fragment?)
Redirect (What person?)