When the round had reset, they had rushed after the girl right away. River had been in a lot of games and never had been in the habit of checking the time – when it was done, it was done, so he wouldn’t subconsciously put an importance on checking the old clock.
After concentrating, he could recall the rough position the clockhands had been in after the reset.
It had seemed like… half?
Only two rounds?
He had never had that before.
The realization made River relax. It would indeed be over soon.
“I’m going back to searching for her again”, River said, rushing away. He couldn’t let her roam around alone for too long.
He was relieved to find Skirt in an acceptable timespan. The last time they hadn’t found her during this time, which might be a coincidence or a result of their changes.
Skirt was together in a clubroom. Apparently it was some sort of book club, as everyone was reading the same book and once in a while speaking up. Skirt was in a corner of the room, looking relaxed for the first time the whole day.
River refused to let her out of sight.
Everything was so peaceful now. Skirt was participating in her club, reading at leisure.
With nothing to do, River stayed at the door, peering outside through a little glass frame. He watched Bun pass by, carrying some stuff. He saw Teacher come from the other direction, a bag over his shoulder and playing with some keys in his hand.
The sun started to set.
It was quite uncomfortable to have this happen in this gray world. Everything was a bit harder to make out, and River rubbed his eyes more often.
Everything was so quiet that he got sleepy.
“River!”
The shout was dampened through the door, but certainly loud enough for River’s head to jerk up again. He found Aspen in the hallway, staring inside with a troubled expression.
“Dude is gone.” The young man was embarrassed. “Him, Ponytail and some other guys were watching a movie. I… got distracted watching it and he was sitting behind me. He must have gotten up and left at some point, only Ponytail was still around.”
“It’s alright. Skirt is here and the time should be over soon.” River lifted a hand and pointed at a corner Aspen couldn’t see well due to the angle. “This shouldn’t matter.”
“Oh, good then.” Aspen exhaled, but the conflicted expression on his face didn’t vanish. “It really shouldn’t matter, right?”
They both fell silent.
Technically, it shouldn’t.
As long as Skirt was safe – and she was, here with other people – they were fine. A person who wasn’t around couldn’t trigger anything.
River licked his lips, looking at the floor. He felt Aspen watch him, so he spoke up after a while.
“This is a short game”, he said. “Short, and one where we have several characters that we can’t follow constantly. We were always stopped at some point. And, with games… With puzzles, there are two reasons why a puzzle has little information and short time.”
He met Aspen’s eyes. That the other man was calm also helped him remain steady.
“Either the puzzle is very easy and just doesn’t need a lot-”, Aspen started the sentence for him.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“-or the constraints are a sign of it being a hard one.”
Elnfg fcvfv atf rfcafcmf atf nfgs wbwfca Vxlga uba eq. Snfgsbcf firf kjr jirb qjmxlcu eq jcv atf rmfcf mtjcufv lcab bcf bo fnfgsbcf ufaalcu gfjvs ab ub tbwf.
Jbwqjgfv ab atf ijra ujwf, ktfgf atfs tjv yffc gecclcu jgbecv mbcrajcais, bg fnfc atf bcf yfobgf klat atf ilaaif ijvs… Ktlr alwf, atfs tjv tjgvis vbcf jcsatlcu mbwqilmjafv. Cii atfs tjv yffc vblcu kjr xffqlcu rbwfbcf jkjs ogbw mfgajlc qfbqif.
This was, in its core, the same action over and over again.
It was also why River, despite being quite relaxed inside the dream, wasn’t as joyful and excited as the last time. It didn’t feel like a puzzle.
He had let his guard down due to these differences.
The first of the group left the room. Aspen stepped aside to let them through, then naturally fell into River’s pace as they followed Skirt. They kept on looking around, but there was no sign of Ponytail, Glasses or Dude anywhere. All the troublemakers appeared to be gone.
Skirt checked her phone. She walked a couple of steps towards the stairs down, then appeared to remember something. She turned on her heel and skipped the steps up instead.
Her mood appeared good. It should have been a positive sign, but River only felt more and more tense.
On the last step of the stairs, Skirt almost ran into someone. She stumbled a bit but managed to catch herself.
Behind her, Aspen and River sucked in a breath.
Dude stood at the end of the stairs, just as surprised as Skirt. He laughed, pulling a hand out of his pockets and patting it on Skirt’s shoulder as if they were good friends.
He said something. Then he bypassed her, jumping down the steps and humming a tune to himself. Skirt stood completely frozen.
Without warning, she broke into a run.
Neither Aspen nor River had trouble keeping up with her, especially because her goal was just down the hallway. She tore open the door to the art room, stumbling inside with quivering steps.
The two players entering after her took in the situation immediately.
Bun wasn’t as recognizable anymore, considering half her hair hung loosely.
She was cowering in a corner, half hidden by a table, arms tightly wrapped around herself and legs pulled tightly to her body. It was hard to tell, but there were black patches lying around her – like pieces of fabric.
When Skirt took a step towards her, calling out shakily, Bun jolted and gave a whimper.
Slowly, so slowly it was like artificially slowed down, Skirt slipped to the ground. Her head was turned towards Bun, who only pressed herself tighter into the corner. One of her shoes was missing, lying a good bit away, as was her uniform’s bow.
Skirt’s head mechanically turned towards the sole shoe. Her body shook.
A sound broke out of her, so full of despair and agony that the two adult men in the room retreated a step, feeling unwell.
Her cries welled up, rising in insanity with every second. Skirt pushed her fingers into her hair and tore at it, repeating a phrase over and over again.
In the corner, Bun did not react.
The world around the only two humans broke down. Silence enveloped them.
The safe-rooms door awaited their presence, looming in front of them. No matter how inviting such a shiny white door should have looked, at the moment it gave off the aura of a sharpened guillotine.
Aspen spoke into the silence, tone monotone and calm. “So, what, she’s going to kill herself after all? Even though she was safe all day?”
“I’m sorry”, River mumbled, catching Aspen’s attention. River was thoughtfully staring at the doors out to the setting. “Or it’s my fault. That’s probably what she was saying at the end.”
His fingers were twitching, slowly tensing into fists. An unhappy frown reappeared on his face. He turned his face to the ceiling, shouting with obvious annoyance.
“Hey! You, Gamblers! You are watching, aren’t you? I want to talk to you!”
“Hello-lo!” The voice came from right behind him. River tried not to scream at the sudden sight of a paper-copy of himself leaning over his shoulder. The way the voice was hitching up and down made him guess that this was the exact same Gambler that had taken this form the last time they met. “Hello, hello, hi! What’s up? You called? I came! I’m here!”
Paper-River clapped into its hands in delight. The Gambler was either acting or genuinely excited to have been rudely commanded to come by a mere human. It turned its face towards Aspen, who bared his teeth at it, still remembering their last encounter.
“What did Dude say at the end?”, River demanded to know. He felt itchy all over, a sensation of ants crawling on every inch of his skin. He held back the desire to scratch himself, knowing that the itch was only psychological.
“I don’t think I’m allowed to tell you but I like that you’re asking!” The Gambler’s head tilted to the side, which was an odd sight considering its 2d nature. “So how about a question for a question! Why do you want to know? Why are you bothered? What will it do for you to know?”
The Gambler didn’t ask only a single question, but River knew what it wanted to know. He pressed his teeth together, feeling the pain.
“It’s not solved”, he forced out. “It’s not solved and I won’t know if I ever will solve it. I don’t know what failed.”
There was no way to alleviate the itch. Even this question was nothing more than a desperate attempt to feel a bit better about his failure.
“You’re right.” The paper-image sounded almost smug. “You didn’t try your best and you failed. Now you will have to live knowing that you failed and that you might not ever encounter this one again! Or worse, that someone else might encounter it and solve it! How does that make you feel?”
Painful.
“You knew you’d hate losing. Why didn’t you do your best?” Paper-River laughed.
Seeing his own image laugh made River flush in shame. He balled his hands into fists, fingernails digging into his palms and jaw still clenched tight.
You didn’t try your best because you underestimated it, didn’t you?
The whisper inside his ear sounded like it was spoken by his own image directly in front of him.
You underestimated it completely.
You can understand the complexity of someone willing to kill-
-but you cannot understand the complexity of someone willing to die.
You thought it was so much easier, didn’t you?
You thought it couldn’t be as complicated, didn’t you?
You don’t understand what goes on in the mind of someone
willing to murder
not some other person
but themselves.
And you never even tried to understand.
“A question for a question”, the Gambler repeated. “The words the man said were I was expecting to find you, but too bad you weren’t around. Well, it turned out fine – I just had fun with her in your stead.”
As he heard the words, River knew he would not have solved the game even if he had had more time.
The weight of that girl’s guilt… Her sense of responsibility for someone else taking her place, even though she wasn’t the perpetrator – he really couldn’t understand it at all. He wouldn’t have noticed this possibility in advance, never.
He could relate to the anger of an aunt protecting the family precious to her, but he couldn’t relate to the guilt of a victim.
If your bully turns to someone else…
Wasn’t that good?
Wasn’t it good for her? Wasn’t it most important that she was safe?
Would he ever have understood that what she wanted wasn’t just her own safety, but also the knowledge that her safety wouldn’t cause other people to suffer?
“I guess we will throw this one out of the selection now that you got your answer. It wouldn’t be fair otherwise! But well, this was still pretty fun. Love your work. Keep it up!” Paper-River gave a thumbs-up. “No present for you because you failed, though! See you around soon!”
The image went up in flames again. Aspen stepped over the place where it had stood, trying to catch River’s blank gaze. He hadn’t spoken this whole time, only watched River’s every movement.
Right now, there was absolutely nothing he could do.
My pain is mine.
Your pain is yours.
He wasn’t going to act like he understood River’s thoughts at messing up this game, because he himself didn’t mind as much. The game alone – the time spent with River, running around – had been enough for him. He didn’t need a perfect end… but River did.
“Let’s take it seriously next time”, he said soothingly. “No matter how easy it seems, we will both do our best. ‘Kay?”
River gave a hum. Like a lost child, he hung his shoulders low, lost in thought.
As the white door in front of them opened, River wondered what he’d have done if he could have gotten another shot at this game…
…And if it would even make a difference.
Failed: Another’s last straw
Trivia: Fall damage
Humans are quite ridiculous when it comes to falling down somewhere. In general, 6-8 meters are survivable, anything beyond is often deadly. 30 meters are considered 100% fatal, but humans wouldn’t be humans if it was that easy: There is a case of someone surviving a fall 90 meters down to a hard surface. Not unsurprisingly, the best way to survive is by ensuring your legs hit the ground first.
Author’s Note
Thanks to Killokii for the beautiful com!
And because they were so funny, under the cut 2 work in progress sketches for when we were discussing the commission~
Right here
Ah-ha~ it was wonderful! Their emotions, the picture, the end! Thank you so much 🌸
Thank you for the chapter!! (◠‿・)—☆<3
That face want supposed to be there-
Wasn’t*
Love this. The simple fact that you made them fail at least once put your story one step above all the others.
I’m your fan, you’re a fabulous author <3
Thank you for that image! It helped my imagination while I’m reading.
Great chapter!