[This is my last testament, the final thing I leave behind in this world.]
[I committed a mistake. Arrogance devoured my soul, judged my existence, and turned it into the proof of my descent into hell.]
[I harmed many people—many pitiful ones who, like me, were trapped here yet hoped someday to leave this apartment. I dragged them down with me. My sin is beyond forgiveness.]
[I do not know whether, after I atone for my sins in hell, these crimes will ever come to an end, nor whether God and those I have harmed can forgive a sinner like me.]
[But for the sake of any successor who may someday come to this place, I must leave behind this testament.]
[The true key is indeed 309, but 304 is also included. Everything cannot be completed by relying on an isolated room alone; the two rooms must be used together.]
[This room has been repeating the past all along, but it only repeats the events of six days—one day has been hidden. That was the final day, the day when ■■■'s death began. (Here, a name was originally written, but it was later erased—judging from the stroke marks, it should have been removed after the writer realized something.)]
[Tear the calendar in the house to the 17th, and it will become that day; the events of that day will begin to play out in this room. From that moment, time in this house will start to accelerate, until 1:00 a.m. on the night of the third day—that is the most crucial opportunity to resolve everything. Do not wait until the seventh day; by the time the rescue team arrives on the seventh day, it will already be too late. Only on the third day can everything be salvaged. I was truly foolish—why did I not notice earlier that 3 was also a key number?]
[Only those wearing the rescue team's uniform can open 309. I do not know if this was Kyosei's idea, but as the sole survivor of the rescue team back then, I truly should not have doubted him. Yet, what meaning is there in saying all this now? By now, he should have completely become one of those dead members of the rescue team, no longer able to retain himself as he once did.]
[Open the door of 309—open it for the second time—and take her to that place of refuge, the place she believes she can be safe. That is the only flaw within her Obsession, the sole method to end this endless regression and repetition. I once tried to destroy this path; I believed false information, thinking that as long as I destroyed the corpse that served as the root, everything would end. I soaked her in boiling water—what she feared most. That indeed destroyed her body, but the result only distorted her existence even further, driving this apartment even more insane than before.]
[Now, she no longer has a real, tangible form—but there is still something she cares about. Her existence will cling to that thing. I believe it should be a treasured belonging of hers, but I have never found that object in the room. Perhaps it was thrown somewhere—I suspect it might be under the bed. But I can no longer go forward■■■■■■ (At this point, the writing becomes fragmented, filled with meaningless scribbles and chaotic strokes. Barely recognizable among them are the words "Mother," "I was wrong," and "Don't.")]
[I'm g■ing to die.]
[I d■n't want to become one ■f th■■■. I d■n't w■■nt to h■■rm others a■ter de■th. I obta■■ed a kind of pill made fro■ ashes and some unkn■■■■ subst■■ce. It's said th■■ if one eats it, af■er dying, they won't bec■■e those terr■■ble things. Haha, those people deceived me before, saying that destroying the corpse could end everything—I wonder if they're deceiving me again about this. Anyway, I still have one bullet left. I suppose I can at least die as a human being. (The handwriting gradually becomes clear again after the previous disorder.)]
[My daughter, I can no longer see you, and I can no longer fulfill my promise.]
[May the suffering of this life, once it ends here, no longer bind the path of your future. I will go to hell to atone and repay those I have harmed.]
[So farewell forever, this damned world, this damned apartment.]
[—Sanchez]
The contents of the paper were not many; it did not take long to finish reading them.
Toward this man, the culprit who had caused the worsening of Shirakawa Apartments, Maki and Kaguya made no comment.
At this very moment, what concerned them more was the secret this man had left behind in the final moments of his life—one that could very well be related to ending everything within the apartment.
Could there be something important hidden under this dust-covered bed?
As she thought this, Maki was just about to move when she felt the phone belonging to Shinomiya Kaguya in her pocket vibrate.
Huh?
What's going on—someone calling her?
A call, in a place like this?!
Taking out the phone, Maki had absolutely no intention of answering it. She immediately threw it to the floor and signaled Kaguya beside her to hurry and leave.
Yet even so, their movements were still one beat too slow. The phone that had fallen to the ground suddenly turned on by itself—the screen lit up, showing the caller ID as [Shijō Maki], and it connected on the spot, automatically switching to speaker mode.
[There are rats in the house again…]
A gloomy woman's voice came from the phone.
[There are rats in the house again…]
Like a sigh, that voice echoed faintly around the two of them.
[Thud!]
A gigantic, twisted, and eerie woman's head suddenly fell from nowhere, slamming onto the floor beside the bed. The head faced directly toward the underside of the bed, staring straight at Maki and Kaguya beneath it, and then its mouth slowly writhed, producing a sound.
[There are rats in the house again…]
In the next moment, that gigantic head slowly rolled beneath the bed, blocking the light shining in from outside and plunging the entire space beneath it into deeper darkness.
...
[There are rats in the house…]
Amid the gloomy muttering, Takumi suddenly lifted his head.
The blurry figure beside him vanished at that instant.
In its place came the ominous sensation of being watched by something utterly terrifying, as though a moment later something indescribably cruel would occur.
"Who's talking?"
The Black guy, Jamal, looked around in shock, yet could not find the source of the voice.
"Has something happened? Should we strike the clock?"
Startled, Green immediately looked toward Maeda Miwa, who was standing by the corner of the wall with the same terrified expression, swallowed hard, and was already about to step forward to force her to strike the clock.
"What the hell are you rushing for? Wait first!"
But at the very next moment, Takumi's shout rang out, and Green no longer dared act on his own.
They could not strike the clock yet.
At least for now, they could not strike it immediately.
Enduring the steadily rising heat of his clothes and the increasingly damp sensation spreading across his body, Takumi forced himself with all his strength to ignore the intensifying feeling of being watched inside the room. He frowned deeply, watching through the doll's vision as Maki and Kaguya ran swiftly.
The Blood Puppets, whose limbs had been replaced by wooden joints, were clutching the woman's head tightly, holding it back outside the space beneath the bed.
[Creak—creak—]
Cracks were rapidly appearing across the Blood Puppets' wooden joints.
One minute—no, thirty seconds—perhaps even twenty seconds would not be enough before this Obsession Item that could delay the anomaly's movement completely shattered.
Was it because the level gap was too great?
"Oba-san, we split up—one searches, one tears the calendar!"
Maki shouted as she ran.
"I'll tear the calendar, you look for the item."
In less than half a second, Kaguya shot out like an arrow from a bow, darting from one side beneath the bed.
Maki did not hesitate in the slightest and began to race through the dark space under the bed.
The time they could use was short.
The anomaly within 304 had already discovered them—it was beginning to act. Even with the Obsession Item temporarily restraining it, they could not gain much time; they had to find that "precious item" before it was too late.
According to Takumi's experience during his exploration on the first floor, those items of significant importance, once found and held, would not disappear even after the clock's rewind. Therefore, as long as they could find that object and seize it, then trigger the rewind, they would definitely be able to take it away!
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