"This timing really is quite tight. I'm guessing this clock can't be adjusted anymore, right?"
Kaguya patted the dust off her clothes, then stood up as she spoke.
"That's right. If we want to end all of this, the only chance to achieve our 'perfect clear' has already entered its final countdown."
After saying this, Takumi set the wall clock face-down on the table in the room, then turned his head to look at the sealed window, where the shifting brightness outside was clearly changing.
Everything was beginning to accelerate at this moment.
Could he succeed?
After experiencing two painful deaths and finally reaching this point, could he escape from this damned place in this loop?
Instinctively, Takumi looked toward Maki, who was discussing with Kaguya how to place this toy doll.
Seeing Takumi look over, Maki smiled at him, then continued seriously discussing things with Kaguya.
Takumi took a deep breath and clenched his fist, firming his resolve completely in his heart.
He would definitely succeed.
In this round—he would absolutely, completely end everything!
...
Takumi took off his clothes, which were already completely soaked through, and used tissues from the supply box to wipe the water from his body.
Wearing only his boxer shorts, he loosened his body, stretched, then jumped twice in place, doing some basic stretches before taking a few sips of water.
Those clothes that had been soaked in boiling water by the power of the curse were now hanging on a temporary wire rack set up in the kitchen, with the stove burning beneath it. Takumi was using this method to dry the clothes as quickly as possible, so that when they had to start moving in a few hours, he would not be forced to act while wearing completely drenched clothing.
To be honest, Takumi still felt somewhat tense and uneasy in his heart—still worried, still anxious.
The hands on that miraculous and bizarre black watch had already reached the position of the number 3. The number of times he could start over was now only 9. No—considering Maki's existence, he absolutely had to preserve her memories; in that case, he had fewer than 5 resets remaining. And after this round of actions, it had become essentially clear that each loop only offered one chance to clear everything. Therefore, he had to give it everything he had—he had to settle everything in this one round.
"Hoo…"
Takumi took several deep breaths in succession, doing his best to calm his emotions, empty his mind, and ensure that he could face the upcoming challenge in his best mental state.
All along, Takumi had felt that he was just an ordinary person.
Although he was very handsome and spirited, and although his physique could not compare to a bodybuilding star, it was still sharp and well-defined. Even though he had been an orphan who began supporting himself right after finishing high school, he had relied on writing and a few other small tricks to maintain a comfortable life. And now he had even entered a Horror Story death game governed by rules… hmm, alright, it seemed he was in fact not very ordinary.
"Shijō Maki, Shinomiya Kaguya, hmm…"
Two anime-style two-dimensional beautiful girls—on the level where players in a tabletop campaign would immediately suspect that they might not be human—had become his teammates, cooperating with him, and he had even gotten the first kiss of the former.
As Takumi recalled the four days he had experienced in total across the three loops in the Shirakawa Apartments, he could not help feeling a faint sense of emotion in his heart.
What a shame that he had been on the verge of death at the time and had not been able to properly feel what that kiss was like.
If possible, he really wanted to experience it once more.
Wait a second—why did he feel like he had suddenly become that kind of elder-brother character who was about to exit the stage, the standard doomed type who always gets a solo scene recalling his youth before the final battle?
No, no, no, he could not raise that flag. He was a man who would become a two-dimensional harem king; he must not stop here, absolutely must not stop here, okay!
[Step—]
Because there was nothing to do for the moment, Takumi's thoughts were beginning to run wild, and at this time, he heard footsteps in the hallway outside.
"Takumi-kun, are you in the room?"
Accompanied by the creaking sound of the door opening, Shijō Maki opened the living room door that Yamamoto Hiroshi had repaired and sealed, peered inside, and then saw Takumi standing in the room wearing only his boxer shorts, turning his head to look at her.
"Y-you-you—what are you doing!? Why aren't you wearing clothes!?"
Startled, Maki immediately shut the door and began shouting angrily in the hallway.
"I am wearing something, okay? Why are you saying it like I'm completely naked?"
Takumi scratched his head inside the room, sounding extremely innocent.
"How is that any different from not wearing anything? I'm going to report you for harassment, you jerk!"
Even without seeing Maki's face, Takumi could easily imagine how flustered and furious she must look standing outside the door right now.
"So that's how it is, huh. When a guy sees a girl without clothes, it's the guy harassing her. When a girl sees a guy without clothes, it's still the guy harassing her. That's gender discrimination, okay? I'm shaking with rage here. When will this world be a little kinder to boys?"
With his arms crossed, Takumi let out a long sigh of lament, instantly making Maki outside the room clench her fists.
"What are you talking about? Saying things like that just proves Takumi-kun is an idiot who doesn't know how to be considerate to girls. Saying that only makes your score drop. If my impression score of Takumi-kun was 100, that one sentence alone would deduct 40 points—I can only give you a passing score of 60. Hmph!"
Maki's voice, filled with displeasure, rang out quickly from outside the door.
Ending her sentence with a deliberate "hmph"—this two-dimensional feeling really was strong.
"So a girl's score fluctuates this easily? But as for me, my impression score of Maki is very high—about, oh, thirty thousand points or so."
Takumi, who was silently marveling at Maki's personality, intentionally drew out his voice as he spoke, and right on cue, he heard stomping sounds from the hallway.
"W-who cares about your thirty thousand points, you commoner. I'm the eldest daughter of the Shijō family, you know—a character destined to stand at the top. Thirty thousand points, hmph—thirty thousand points… even if your impression score with me goes back up to 80 points, that's barely good. There's no way I'll give you anything higher!"
Just from her voice alone, one could picture the girl outside the door stomping her foot while mumbling to herself.
Takumi had to admit: even though every year people said tsunderes were going out of style, those genuine, fully fleshed-out, truly cute tsunderes—not the trashy, ill-mannered fake tsunderes shoved into harem toilet-paper novels—had never gone out of style at all.
[Creak—]
While Takumi was still slightly immersed in Maki's earlier tsundere lines, the girl outside quietly opened the door again and peeked inside—only to see Takumi still facing her, arms crossed, showing his defined torso, wearing only his boxer shorts.
"Why are you still not wearing clothes…"
The girl immediately shut the door again while shouting.
"No, listen—my clothes are completely soaked. I don't have any choice right now, okay?"
Takumi sighed helplessly.
"Soaked? Why? Ah… is that curse still acting up? Are you okay? Why didn't you say so earlier—I almost thought you had some kind of weird fetish, you pervert…"
Realizing that the situation was not what she had imagined, Maki almost immediately opened the door and walked in, the worry on her face completely unconcealed.
Only then did she notice that Takumi's body was covered with burns of various sizes. Although they were not as severe as in the previous loop, they were still frightening to look at. Without the slightest hesitation, she turned around to search the supply box in the room, took out all the disinfectant iodine and bandages, and then strode to stand before Takumi.
"Turn around. Sit properly."
At that moment, the stern expression on the girl's face carried an astonishing level of authority.
Takumi said nothing and obediently turned around and sat down, letting Maki apply medicine and bandage his wounds.
The room fell quiet.
With a serious expression, the girl carefully disinfected Takumi's wounds, then wrapped the bandages around him.
Meanwhile, Takumi closed his eyes and remained motionless, quietly feeling the sensation of the girl's fingers and the cotton swab touching his body.
"Why didn't you explain clearly at the beginning?"
In the end, it was Maki who could not help breaking the silence, asking softly.
"Even if I said it, it would only make people worry, right? Besides, this time it's nothing serious. But you and Shinomiya-san—you're already starting to gradually feel it now, aren't you?"
Takumi let out a low chuckle, but his voice quickly turned serious.
"…Mm, that… yes. Although we haven't actually seen anything yet, we can already feel it."
Maki nodded lightly, choosing not to deny it.
They had explored Room 304 and drawn the attention of the strange presence there, and coupled with all the information and clues they had gathered during their investigation, Shijō Maki and Shinomiya Kaguya had now reached a point where they had become partially aware of the core supernatural forces within the Shirakawa Apartments—and, like Takumi, had begun gradually attracting its attention.
Even though nothing had manifested before their eyes yet, Maki could indeed faintly feel that something was watching her.
For that very reason, the actions on the third day would carry risks and dangers for both Maki and Kaguya that were no less than those Takumi would face.
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