VIII (Aoi Kurashiki x Reader)

XIX

A flood of emotions washed over her. She felt a chill run down her back, and her chest tightened even as her blood began to boil. She was about to speak when- "Vi, behind you." Santa placed a hand on her shoulder.

She turned around, scarcely able to believe what she saw. A door... and a nine. There was another one? "What the hell...?" Was all she could muster. On shaky legs, she made her way to the second nine.

It was a small door set parallel to the door they'd come through in the other corner of the room. She ran a finger over the rough paint. There was no mistaking the number, and if any more proof was needed, a RED was bolted to the wall near the door. She grabbed the handle and shook. Not because she expected it to open, she just wasn't sure if it was real.

"Why the hell are there two?" Junpei was the first to voice his concern.

It was Ace who answered. "Do you think perhaps one is the 'right' door, and the other is the 'wrong' one?"

(Y/N) shook her head, letting her hand fall from the second door's handle. "That seems unlikely."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Think about all the rooms we've been through so far. They're full of puzzles, but there are always hints about how to solve them. Do you really think at the end of the game Zero is going to throw in something that depends entirely on luck?"

Ace did a double-take of the room. "Then you're saying there's a hint around here somewhere..."

"I think both of them are the right door." Santa cut him off. "If you think about it... Zero never actually said there was only one door with a nine on it."

'The exit is hidden, but it is there. See the exit... seek the door that carries a nine'

Junpei began to mutter to himself. "So, if there are two number nine doors. If we split up right..."

"That's not gonna work." Everyone looked at Clover who held her hand out towards Junpei. She hadn't spoken in a long while. "You've got a notebook and a pen, right? Can I borrow them?" Slightly confused, Junpei forked them over. "Watch."

Clover opened the notebook to a blank page and set it down on the desk. Everyone else gathered around her. watching as she wrote down a series of numbers. Once she was finished she tapped the pen against the paper. "The numbers on the top are all the combinations with digital roots of nine. The numbers on the bottom are people who don't fit."

"There are only eight possibilities if we split up into two groups of three or four people. So, if three people go through the door, the four are left behind. If four go through, three are left behind. Right?" Clover nodded, almost as if she were pleased with herself for solving a difficult math problem. The room went quiet. Silence lay across everyone like a thick, heavy blanket. No one spoke, their faces were blank.

Just when they thought they could all escape... they were wrong.

(Y/N) combed her eyes around the room. As she did, she began to wonder... What was this room, exactly?

The walls were covered with candles. The wavering flames made the shadows of (Y/N) and her companions look as though they were dancing. Two rows of wooden pews filled most of the room. Between them was a strip of rich, red carpet. The carpet ran straight through the room, ending at the door that pointed to the stern of the boat. and at the other end of the carpet... An altar?

It was a recessed space set into the wall between the two other doors. Sitting on a raised section of the altar was a coffin. A coffin... No, it couldn't possibly be. But if it was... Whose body was inside? That was as far as (Y/N) chose to pursue that thought.