Chapter Text
Once the secondary door releases the three of us, it doesn't take long before we come to a three door nexus with a suspicious looking lever at the center. Alice and Tenmyouji banter for a bit regarding who exactly is going to activate said device, which Tenmyouji eventually ends up losing. He pulls the lever with seemingly all the bitter crankiness that he can muster, but the brewing bad mood is forgotten entirely the moment we step into newly unlocked room.
I find myself marveling right alongside my teammates as we take a proper look around the area we suddenly find ourselves in. Before us is a startling beautiful landscape of greenery and rushing water. A giant tree stands to our right, while in front of us is a small stream, fed by a miniature waterfall that falls from a wall of rock. The stream winds around the room, followed by a narrow boardwalk that lends the image of a pleasant garden path. The only thing that breaks the atmosphere are the strange, transparent seeming panels that make up the "sky" that hangs above.
Seems we ended up going down the route that grants access to the B. Garden, which looks rather more majestic in person than it did in the game, not to mention a hell of a lot bigger. Compared to the rest of the base, it's also remarkably pleasant. I feel relaxed by the mere ambiance, and that's coming from someone who doesn't really spend much time outdoors. The fact that it's far warmer in here than everywhere else has been thus far also helps.
"Where ARE we?" Alice asks aloud, not seeming to really expect an answer as she turns in place. "We can't be outside, I can see the ceiling."
"Dunno." Tenmyouji replies anyways. "The panels up there make me think of a greenhouse, but the door said it was some sort of garden. Wonder what it's for."
"Growing food, maybe?" I say absently, pointing to the small patch of growing vegetables a little ways past the tree. "Though I guess that looks more like someone's hobby garden than anything else, so maybe not."
"Well, here's the exit." Tenmyouji says, turning to the door to our left, the safe sitting out in plain sight on the floor beside it. "Think maybe they forgot to lock this one?"
As it turns out, no, they did not forget. I guess the cursory attempt just felt necessary, even though we all pretty much assumed it wasn't going to work.
"This place is huge." Alice notes, seeming slightly exasperated by that fact. "We should split up to search, or we'll never get out of here."
"Agreed." Tenmyouji nods.
I hesitate, but ultimately end up nodding as well. I'd actually been planning on letting them take charge for this room so I could keep concentrating on my increasingly futile-seeming efforts at SHIFTing, but I may have to help here in order for us to even finish in time. While there isn't any nominal time limit, if I remember correctly Dio is going to open an AB room the second he gets back, which will get our entire trio executed if none of us are there to enter a vote in time. Guess I was getting tired of failing anyways. Maybe a break will help…
Following the miniature boardwalk, Alice heads off towards the back of the room, while Tenmyouji advances towards the tiny waterfall in the corner. After quickly looking around for anything of interest and finding nothing beyond a weird panel in the wall with an x-shaped hole in it, I follow after, heading for the small shed just past Tenmyouji. I don't remember much about this room, but I know there was digging and metal detecting involved, so the shovel I can see in there seems like a decent place to start.
Hefting the seemingly unused digging implement, I also notice a small bronze key lying on the ground, and subsequently pocket it. Moving forward brings me to what looks like a large signpost displaying an overhead map of the garden, which Alice is currently standing in front of, muttering to herself.
"Alice?" I say as I approach, breaking her from her contemplation. "Something wrong? Beyond the obvious, I mean."
"Oh… not really, Clover." Alice assures me. "It's just… who would install all of this in the middle of a warehouse? Why would someone build this here?"
Probably so that they didn't go stir crazy from being stuck on the moon and unable to go outside for years on end. I mean I'm sure there's a purpose beyond that, but that's the one that immediately comes to mind.
"Hmm… well, in any event, what do you suppose this means?" Alice asks, changing the subject as she takes a closer look at the map. "This map looks like an aerial view of the room, but these drawings on the right have to be important. They take up more space on the sign than the map itself."
I give it a quick look. There are pictures of grass, a mushroom, and a flower, each with an arrow beneath it pointing to a differently colored metal box. Seems pretty obvious to me.
"Well… I found a shovel. It could be like a treasure map." I point out. "The boxes are the chests, and the pictures are the Xs that mark the spot."
Alice gives the idea a few seconds of thought. "Hmm. Not a bad idea… there's that mushroom near the entrance, so that's probably one of them. But what does the grass mean? There's grass everywhere in here, so how does this indicate any-"
A sudden cry of surprise rings out from our left, cutting Alice off as she and I both quickly swivel in its direction. The source appears to have been Tenmyouji, who's still over near the waterfall, clutching at his pants for some reason. We both run over to him — well, hastily tiptoe over in my case, as I've yet to figure out how to run in heels — alarmed.
"What happened? What is it?" Alice asks, slowing down as it becomes evident that Tenmyouji isn't actually hurt.
"Nothing. I just found out how stupidly this bench is designed is all." Tenmyouji grumbles, gesturing behind him.
"What's wrong with it?" I inquire.
"Just sit down if you wanna find out." Tenmyouji vaguely replies. "Anyways, have you two found anything yet?"
"A map to buried treasure, possibly." I respond, raising the shovel. "And also something to dig it up with."
"Really now?" Tenmyouji says, looking intrigued. "Interesting… who's gonna be doing the digging then?"
"Are you volunteering?" Alice replies with a semi-playful tone. "I mean, Clover and I are both women, after all. Surely you don't expect us to do it."
I look away. While I wouldn't exactly object to having someone else do the manual labor part of this, the reminder of my current sex wasn't exactly necessary.
"Yeah, well, I'm almost 70 years old." Tenmyouji retorts, raising an eyebrow. "So surely you don't expect me to do it either. Unless you're a whole lot older than you look..."
"Hmmph, as if I'd share my age with you." Alice sniffs haughtily. "It seems we're at an impasse then."
…I think this is just good natured teasing right now, but I also think I should cut this off before it turns into an actual snit.
"Um, there are three spots you know. Maybe we could all just do one each." I suggest, which earns a sort of tacit approval when no one objects. "Anyways, have you found anything Tenmyouji?"
"Eh… so far, just this weird looking pipe." Tenmyouji replies, lifting up a small length of metal with a strangely octagonal head. "Those buttons on the podium thing to the right don't seem to do anything, and I think there might be something behind the waterfall, but I can't reach it."
A strange expression suddenly creeps on to his face. "Hey Alice, you want to give it a try?"
"What? Reaching behind the waterfall?" Alice asks doubtfully. "I'm fairly certain my arms aren't any longer than yours are."
"It's, uh… more that I couldn't straighten mine enough to properly check." Tenmyouji says, clapping a hand to his right elbow. "Water's coming down harder than it looks, and, well, old bones."
What, seriously? He's in worse shape than I thought.
"Someone's got to check though, and you're taller than Clover." Tenmyouji continues. "So unless you want to be stuck in this room..."
Alice looks slightly annoyed, but eventually relents. "…fine."
She steps towards the waterfall, rolling up her right jacket sleeve as she peers into the endlessly cascading veil. "Well, I think you're right that there's something back there." she announces as she stretches her arm forward. "If it's a switch, I might be able to-"
Alice suddenly stops mid-sentence, inhales sharply, and recoils from the waterfall for no apparent reason. I blink. She moved so fast that I doubt she'd have withdrawn quicker if she'd stuck her hand into an open fire… but she hadn't even touched the water yet. Huh?
"Something wrong?" Tenmyouji asks with a strangely forced sounding casualness. "It's just water."
I turn to Tenmyouji, who now looks almost expectant, then back to Alice. Um, what? Someone care to inform me why everyone but me is suddenly acting all weird?
I walk over to Alice, noticing her grim-looking expression as I move to her side. "Alice, what's-"
Alice holds up one finger towards me in a "hush" gesture, then closes her eyes and reaches forward again. Slowly, her arm pierces through the waterfall, until her hand is touching the back of the hollow. Some of the spray bounces off and hits me, causing me to shiver — brrr, that's cold.
About 20 seconds later, Alice pulls back, shaking off her now wet limb as she reopens her eyes and breathes deeply.
"Whatever's back there, it's not a switch." she announces, sounding somewhat aggravated. "Felt more like a series of indents. I think we'll have to be able to see them to do anything with them. There must be a way to turn the water off."
She turns back to Tenmyouji, who just stares at her for a moment or two before slowly nodding.
"Yeah, guess so..." he replies, his tone still seeming slightly off.
Meanwhile, I just stand off to the side of the two, feeling highly confused. Is there some sort of hidden subtext here I'm missing? What is going on?
Alice walks off without another word. I trail after, feeling sort of concerned, and catch up just as she removes a silver key from under an out of place flowerpot. Tenmyouji's footsteps come up behind me a few seconds later.
"Didn't we agree we were going to split up to solve this room?" Alice asks aloud, not turning around.
"Well… it seemed like a good idea at first," I slowly admit, "but I don't think we can get a full understanding of anything if we're all looking at only one part of the picture. It'll be a lot easier to get out if we're all on the same page."
Honestly, now that I think about it splitting up is actually kind of counter-productive, given how a lot of these puzzles and mechanisms usually require the item from a different puzzle to do anything with them. Also, the group certainly didn't split up in the game, unless the implication was that they were yelling all their dialogue to one another from across the room.
Alice sighs, but doesn't object as Tenmyouji and I join her in front of the small garden. Neither of them say a word to each other, and I don't know what to even ask, so I decide to let the subject of… whatever just happened back there drop for now in favor of working on the room. Speaking of which, cucumbers, onions, and tomatoes seem like strikingly odd choices for a garden if you ask me, but then again I haven't been living on this base. Maybe Sigma, Akane, and Kyle really liked them or something. There's also a split pepper lying on the ground, despite there being no peppers plants growing here, making it obviously suspicious. I grab it up to give it a closer look.
"This pepper has a coin embedded in it." I note as I pry the little yellow disc out. "Don't ask me how someone got it in there, but they did."
"Really? Weird..." Tenmyouji mutters. "Think there are any others?"
"Even if there are, we're not splitting open every piece of produce in this garden searching for coins that might not even be there." Alice declares. "Unless we get stuck on something that looks like it requires them, let's move on."
Thinking that's probably a good idea, I pocket the coin and follow her lead further down the boarded path. The river ends in a little circular pond here, with another one of the lion-eating-the-sun motifs displayed at the bottom in mosaic form. There's a gravestone with a metal detector lying on it just off to its right, and beside it is a patch of white flowers, which…
I gag at the awful scent that suddenly invades my nostrils, cringing backwards so hard that I nearly end up knocking over Tenmyouji.
"What IS that?!" I cry, trying not to breathe in.
Alice wrinkles her nose, her expression morphing into one of disgust. "I think it's this patch of flowers…"
"Looks like skunk cabbage." Tenmyouji comments, not looking all that bothered as he strolls right up to it. "As the name implies, it's not the best smelling of plants."
I stumble forward and thrust the shovel into his hands. He looks confused for a second, until I explain, my voice sounding extremely nasal due to the fact that I'm now pinching my nose shut as hard as I can. "This is one of the clues on the signboard, which means there's probably something buried under this stuff. Please take this one, I think I might pass out if I have to stand near these things much longer."
Seriously, Clover must have a better sense of smell than I do, because this is horrible. The game probably mentioned these things, but the sheer repulsiveness of their odor was most definitely not communicated. I'm starting to feel physically nauseous.
Tenmyouji accepts the shovel, and I all but sprint away from him to the left, where Alice is now examining the set of scales on top of the small table that stands there. In her hands are a small paring knife and a golden key, which were previously sitting on top of them. I release my nose and gasp for clean air, feeling like I just escaped a field of toxic gas. Thank goodness the smell doesn't seem to carry far.
"Are you okay Clover?" Alice asks, turning towards me.
I nod as I continue to draw in air, realizing I probably seem like I'm being overly dramatic at the moment, but also not particularly caring. God, they should call it corpse cabbage. Why would anyone plant that?!
Evidently trusting that I'll get over my sensory-induced issues, Alice turns back to the scales and removes a weird, semi-cylindrical piece of metal from the drawer at the bottom. The top looks sort of like a thick screwdriver, and ends in a weird, sort of x-shaped point, while the bottom is shaped like an octagon.
"There's a lot more stuff just lying around in the open this time." Alice comments.
"Yeah, way more." I agree. "We should probably figure out where some of this is used so we don't have to keep toting it all around the room. That metal thing probably goes in the panel on the wall back there, so maybe we should go place that first." I say, gesturing towards the area we entered from.
Alice nods, and begins walking in that direction. I follow behind, but take a moment to cover my nose and grab the pipe Tenmyouji set on the ground nearby before hurrying to catch back up. Just as Alice inserts the metal thing into the wall, I attach the pipe to the other end, creating a handle.
"Well done." Alice praises. "Let's see if this turns the waterfall off then."
She gives the handle a quarter turn, and the sky rapidly dims, bathing the room in shadow.
"Looks like it's just a glorified light switch." Alice says, looking around with mild disappointment at the newly darkened room. "I guess if the 'sun' is gone, that means it's nighttime now… I wonder why that would be important."
"Probably those." I say, pointing out the various glowing star patterns that have appeared along the length of the miniature river.
"Hmm… I see." Alice replies. "Has anything else changed?"
"Not that I-"
"Hey! Can we turn the lights back on please?" I hear Tenmyouji yell from midway across the room, utterly ruining the otherwise tranquil atmosphere. "I can't see anything!"
I bemusedly turn the handle back to its original position, returning the room to daytime. Tenmyouji appears to have unearthed the first box, and is trudging over to us with it, the shovel, and the metal detector all in hand, though he looks like he's having trouble finding a way to carry them all at once.
"Thought I was gonna trip over my own feet for a second there." Tenmyouji gripes, placing the golden box down in front of us and hefting the metal detector. "Oh, and I'm guessing we'll probably be needing this for one reason or another."
"Most likely." I agree, as Alice kneels down to unlock the golden box with the golden key, and withdraws a small strip of torn paper.
"Hmm, just a couple of dots...? Looks like we probably need the full page to do anything with this." Alice muses as she looks it over. "Mind holding on to this for me Clover?" she asks, holding the scrap out to me. "My outfit is a little short on pockets."
"No kidding." Tenmyouji whispers under his breath, just loudly enough for me to catch.
I take the paper, slipping it into the same pocket currently holding the hidden file pages. I'm beginning to run out of room myself, truth be told. These pockets were clearly not intended to ever be used in any truly meaningful capacity, and they're already holding the previous round's AB room keycard, the two hidden file papers, a square of aluminum, and the bronze key and yellow coin from this room. As unexpectedly functional as Clover's microshorts have been so far, I'd still gladly take something with a bit more storage space… and some better insulation, for that matter.
My thoughts are interrupted by a loud beeping as Tenmyouji runs the metal detector over a raised mound of grass just across from the empty shed.
"Hey, looks like there's something under here." he says aloud.
"That's probably the second box." Alice replies. "We should check the mushroom under the tree next."
Sure enough, the mushroom results in more beeping.
"Here, give me the shovel, I'll get this one." I volunteer.
Tenmyouji obligingly hands over the garden implement, and I begin spooning up dirt. It's not an easy task — once again, Clover's overly long nails are getting in the way, and her body is clearly not built for anything particularly strenuous to begin with. You know, aside from Quark, I wonder if there's a single character in this setting it would have been less convenient to get stuck as, at least physically speaking. Gah.
As it becomes clear that I'm not making particularly fast progress, Tenmyouji starts using the metal detector to scan the ground nearby. After about a minute of him finding a whole lot of nothing, Alice speaks up, looking vaguely irritated.
"What are you doing? We already know where all the boxes are."
Tenmyouji shrugs, continuing to scan. "Yeah, but who says those are all this is for?" He replies, taking a moment to grin. "Besides, I haven't gotten to use one of these things in years."
Alice scoffs. "In case you've forgotten, this room is enormous. It's pretty unlikely you're going to find anything by just waving that thing around at random."
…correct me if I'm wrong, but that is how one usually uses a metal detector, isn't it? Why so snippy, Alice?
"Well, the coin I found in that pepper was made of metal, so maybe he could try waving it around the vegetable patch?" I innocently suggest as my shovel finally hits something hard.
"Hmm... good thinking Clover." Tenmyouji replies as he strolls around the tree to do just that.
Alice gives me a strange look and taps me on the shoulder as I work the silver box free of its earthen prison.
"Clover, we're trying to keep a low profile, remember?" she whispers. "We may all need to help to get out of this room, but we still want to be underestimated. Don't just start handing out free advice."
…oh, right, that. Yes, I do remember, but… ugh, I'm just not willing to put on that sort of act on top of the one I'm already kind of performing, especially given how pointless I know for a fact it would be. Thankfully, I think I can justify refusing to do so.
"I know Alice," I whisper back, beginning to pull the box out of the ground, "but Tenmyouji mentioned earlier that he was worried there might be a secret time limit on solving these rooms, and with the way the other Nonary Games were designed, I don't know if he's necessarily wrong. Honestly, I think right now we should be more worried about finishing quickly than not drawing attention."
Alice is silent for several seconds before she speaks again.
"…I have to admit, that's a valid point, and this room is probably too big to risk wasting time." she quietly replies, handing me the silver key. "Just don't overdo it, okay?"
I pause, a bit surprised that Alice didn't require more convincing, before silently nodding as I unlock the lid of the box and summarily slip the dotted paper scrap inside into the same pocket I stored the other in. We quickly move over to the final "treasure" spot in front of the shed, just as Tenmyouji returns to us with a tomato, an onion, and a cucumber in hand, looking rather pleased with himself.
"Looks like you were right Clover." he says, setting the metal detector on the ground as he holds up the pieces of produce. "Think we're gonna need something to cut these things open though."
"Like this, perhaps?" Alice asks rhetorically, placing the paring knife she's been holding into his free hand.
"Perfect." Tenmyouji smiles. "Now, if I recall correctly, it's your turn to do the digging Alice."
Alice sighs. "Fine. Clover, hand me that."
I pass her the shovel, and she quickly gets to work.
…okay, maybe not that quickly. I take it back; maybe Clover isn't the most inconvenient character I could have ended up as after all, because Alice seems to somehow be having an even more difficult time at this than I was. Admittedly, I think that's mostly because she's trying to keep her ring from swinging around too much and exposing her chest, which prevents her from really bending over to any useful degree. Not that she particularly needs to worry, because Tenmyouji isn't even looking at her, he's actually looking at… me, for some reason?
I turn towards him, wondering why I'm being stared at, when he suddenly opens his mouth and speaks.
"Say, Clover. Have you ever heard of a man named Wim Hof?"
I blink, baffled by just how out of nowhere that question was.
"What?"
"He's also known as 'The Iceman'." Tenmyouji elaborates, seeing my confusion. "He's most famous for climbing up Mt. Everest in nothing but shorts, but he set a lot of other records for stuff like taking the world's longest ice bath, and running a marathon above the Arctic Circle."
…oh hey, I think I do know who he's talking about, actually.
"You mean the guy who can supposedly control his own body temperature?" I clarify.
"You got it." Tenmyouji smirks. "Pretty incredible, huh?"
Well, I did find him on a list of "People with Real Superpowers", so I suppose so. If I recall, he supposedly uses some sort of special meditation and/or breathing technique to keep his internal temperature constant? They even publicly tested it, I think. Of course, in this universe, he's probably long dead.
"Yeah, it's pretty cool." I admit. "What brought him to mind though?"
"Dunno." Tenmyouji shrugs. "Guess I was just wondering if there might be anyone else out there with that sort of ability."
He takes a moment to look pointedly at Alice, who gives no indication that she's listening to either of us.
I frown and tilt my head to the side, crossing my arms beneath my chest. Wait, is he implying…
Several things suddenly begin sliding into place. Oh- oh, so that's what that weirdness earlier was about! Tenmyouji thinks that Alice is All-Ice, so he challenged her to stick her arm under a waterfall — an icy cold waterfall — thinking she wouldn't be able to do it, but since she was, now he thinks... you know, that's actually a fairly decent hypothesis, all things considered. It's wrong, but in the context of all the sci-fi stuff that happens in this game, someone theoretically having control over their personal body temperature is actually quite plausible, especially since there's even an actual real world basis for it.
Regardless, why exactly is Tenmyouji so fixated on this All-Ice thing? I mean, I'd be curious too, but what does he expect to get out of it? And why bring this up with me, especially when we're standing right in front of Alice? Is he trying to probe for information based on our reactions, or…? Oh, that's probably why he was referencing her age earlier too, isn't it? That flew right over my head.
"No idea, but I wish I could do that." I eventually remark. "So far, every room besides this one has felt like a walk-in freezer."
Now that I've figured out why he brought it up to begin with, this topic ultimately seems harmless enough. In the end, Tenmyouji's still chasing the answer to a mystery that doesn't really exist, so as with back in the lounge, I don't see any real problem with it.
"Maybe you can." Tenmyouji says, looking thoughtful. "I mean, it's supposedly a learnable skill, after all."
"Really?" I idly reply.
"Yep. Going by what the guy has said on record, you just need the right mental frame of mind, and-"
"As fascinating as this topic is, in case you've forgotten, we still have the rest of the room to solve." Alice cuts in. "You could at least work on getting whatever's in those vegetables out."
Tenmyouji opens his mouth to reply, then closes it. "…fair point. We can talk later. Here, Clover, could you hold these for a moment?"
He passes me two of the pieces of produce, and begins using the paring knife to slice into the tomato. A red coin is quickly extracted, followed by a white one and a green one from the onion and cucumber, respectively. I fish out the yellow coin from my pocket and hand it over to complete the set.
"Hard to believe these were in the vegetables… just how long has this all been planned out for?" Tenmyouji mutters.
Yeah, really. Now that I think about it, this puzzle is actually a pretty huge clue that this whole setup has been in the making for years and years, isn't it? I never noticed that while playing the game proper.
Tenmyouji puts all four coins in his right hand and slowly moves it up and down. "These are heavier than they look. Wonder where we use them… I'm gonna go look around for that."
I don't follow Tenmyouji as he walks off, instead wandering off on my own after telling Alice that I'm going to look around a bit more. I end up back in front of the tiny pool and headstone that the room's miniature river terminates at. Now that the skunk cabbage is lying off to the side buried under a mound of dirt, the air over here is a lot more tolerable.
I crouch down in front of the grave, tracing the inscription of "Tu fui ergo eris" it's been marked with, my gaze lingering on the tiny keyhole on its front. Kyle should be directly underneath me right now… or rather, he would be, if Akane wasn't dead. Which reminds me.
Sitting down next to the pool, I use the moment's rest to make another attempt at SHIFTing. This goes just as poorly as the last dozen or so attempts, as determined by the fact that nothing has changed when I open my eyes again. I sigh. I didn't really expect it to work right now, but I had to try...
Noticing that Alice is pulling the final box out of the ground, I return to her side and help her heave it up and out. I take the bronze key from my pocket and hand it to her, allowing Alice to unlock the box and unearth the final slip of paper. We put the three pieces together on the ground, revealing a small vertical pattern of red dots, with a long red arrow going down the edge of the page.
"...well, seems obvious to me what these are for." I say, looking over at the three red buttons on the podium that stands beside the waterfall.
"Same here. Want to do the honors?" Alice asks.
I shrug, and walk over to input the button combo indicated by the page. Alice follows, as does Tenmyouji, who walks up to us with a disgruntled look on his face.
"I sure hope we didn't need that scale back there for anything important, because ah... it kinda broke." he informs us somewhat sheepishly, causing both of us to freeze in place.
"Wait a second, you broke part of the room?!" Alice almost shouts, swiveling around to glare at him.
"Yeeeeeeeah." Tenmyouji says, holding the back of his head with one hand. "Sorry. I barely touched it and the thing fell apart. I'm guessing it was pretty old."
Alice looks about ready to start verbally tearing into him, and I honestly can't blame her, as I'm fairly certain we did need that scale in order to properly measure the coins' relative weights. If Tenmyouji broke it, without managing to do that first... well, we might be in trouble.
"Okay, that's not good, but let's not panic just yet." I say aloud, hoping to keep my partners from getting into a row while simultaneously trying to reassure myself. "We haven't come across anything that needs weights yet, right? Let's hold off on yelling at each other unless we do."
Alice still doesn't look happy, continuing to glare angrily in Tenmyouji's direction, but says nothing further. Tenmyouji winces.
Somewhat unsure myself now, I press the buttons on the podium as the paper strips indicate, and the waterfall ceases to flow. With the way cleared, the three of us step into the tiny alcove it hid, trying not to accidentally push each other off the side of the narrow walkway. There's a small metal panel in the wall, containing four small holes in a line with < signs between them.
"Looks like this is where the coins go." Tenmyouji says, holding them out. "Less than signs... wait a second, is this what that scale was for? Ranking them by how heavy they are?" he asks, sounding rather befuddled.
"Yes, I would assume so." Alice snaps, obviously still mad.
"Can't I just judge that by hand?"
Alice and I both turn and blink at him for a second. That's... a very good point, actually. Without the framing of the video game, it shouldn't exactly be hard to tell when one coin outweighs another. In fact, even if he gets it wrong, I don't think there's anything stopping him from just trying every combination until he gets it right.
"Perhaps... but there's probably a trick to it." Alice points out. "What if they don't come out once you insert them, meaning we only have one chance at getting this correct? What if one of them is made of a material that feels lighter than it really is? It could even be that-"
Tenmyouji steps forward and inserts the coins, and the panel swings open to reveal a computer screen showing nine stars of various colors.
"...it really is that simple." Alice says, holding a hand over her face. "Well, that turned out to be a lot of fuss for nothing. Sorry about that."
"It's fine." Tenmyouji replies, looking rather surprised that worked himself. "Can't really blame you for getting mad. Lucky that scale wasn't important after all, I guess."
Alice shakes her head, evidently still in slight disbelief, before turning her attention to the screen. "Stars... like the ones we saw when we darkened the room. Clover, do you remember what colors those had and what order they went in?"
I do not, and Tenmyouji didn't even see them, necessitating another quick flip of the day-night switch as a refresher. After all three of us take the chance to examine the glowing shapes in the river again (and just admire the garden in the dark for a bit), we turn the sun back on and return to the alcove, where I tap the purple, blue, yellow, green, and red stars in order. The screen turns green — looks like for the first time thus far, we actually found the non-secret password first.
After memorizing the combination, we move to the safe near the entrance. Alice does the honors of opening it this time.
"Let's see. Two key cards with moons on them…" she says, handing one to me, "a map of Floor B, which I assume is where we are right now... the key to the room… some sort of diagram… and a piece of paper that says 'IG = immunoglobulin'."
She holds the latter two out to me and Tenmyouji to look. The diagram is the one that shows the timeline of Sigma's consciousness, which isn't terribly important to me, so I don't focus on it for long. As for the other paper… I actually don't remember what the purpose of this was. Immunoglobulin is like… something inside the body, right? Why is that important again? Gah, why couldn't I have been dropped into the universe of a game I played somewhat recently?
I'm not alone at least, as neither Alice nor Tenmyouji seem to have any idea what to make of the page either, nor the timeline one for that matter. Tenmyouji eventually ends up folding them up and sticking them in his shirt pocket, along with the map. Alice gives a token protest, but perhaps due to the earlier "argument", she doesn't push it much.
"So, are we going to try and get the file password too, or are we just leaving?" I ask.
"We should probably at least attempt to get it before we go." Alice replies. "Any ideas as to how we might do that?"
"Yeah, actually." Tenmyouji says, walking back over to the recessed panel. "I noticed something else about those stars. Let me try… this."
He taps the screen several times, though it's covered by his back from where Alice and I are standing. Sure enough though, I see the outer edges of the screen turns blue, and Tenmyouji begins walking back to us, looking slightly smug.
"Well that was fast." Alice notes.
"Yep." Tenmyouji replies with a grin as he crouches down to unlock the safe again. "Same colors, but ordered by size, if you were wondering."
Punching in the second passcode, he pulls out the expected golden file, and immediately begins pouring over its single page of contents.
"Nicely done." Alice says. "We can look at the file later though. For now, let's get out of here and meet back up with the others."
Tenmyouji doesn't respond. After several seconds of silence, Alice raises an eyebrow.
"Are you ignoring me? Come on, let's go."
Tenmyouji still says nothing, his gaze so focused on the page in his hands that he appears to have stopped blinking. Just when I'm beginning to think he's gone into some sort of meditative trance, his head suddenly snaps back up, turning towards Alice.
"Back from La-La Land, are we?" Alice sarcastically asks, an undercurrent of annoyance running through her voice.
"I knew it…" Tenmyouji mutters.
"Hmm?"
Tenmyouji looks down at the paper again, and begins reading off one of the entries. "Ice-9 is a special form of water with a melting point of 36 degrees Celsius. In other words, it freezes at room temperature. There is a rumor that says all the water in Alice's body is actually Ice-9. Who knows whether it's true or not, but if it is then she always has to keep her body temperature above 36 degrees Celsius."
He punctuates the final sentence by looking up at Alice accusingly, pausing for a brief moment before he continues.
"Well?"
Alice crosses her arms, looking thoroughly unperturbed. "Well what?"
"You don't have anything to say about this? It's clearly referring to you."
Alice rolls her eyes. "What exactly are you expecting me to tell you? Yes, I've heard that rumor before, and it's ridiculous. Isn't that obvious?"
“…really now.” Tenmyouji flatly replies. “Is that your final word on the matter, All-Ice?”
Alice’s expression melts into a scornful glare. “Oh, now I see. You’re one of those conspiracy nuts…”
I quickly look back and forth between the pair as they begin glowering at each other, trying to figure out what to do. Of all the possible team combinations that could have found the file describing Ice-9, why did it have to be the one that contains the only two people the subject is remotely relevant to? We should have just gone on without it…
“Come on, just admit it already!” Tenmyouji insists, his tone growing more accusatory. “You’re All-Ice! I know you are! This folder practically proves it!”
Alice snorts derisively. “Proves what? That you’ve fallen for the same absurd urban legend so many others have? The one that Zero probably wants you to fall for, if it’s mentioned in that file? News flash, Ice-9 is fictitious. It doesn’t exist, and neither does the so-called ‘All-Ice’ you seem to be fixated on.”
"Uh, guys? Can we maybe calm down…?" I ask, trying to intercede, only to be summarily ignored by both parties.
"You're not fooling anyone!" Tenmyouji accuses, beginning to sound genuinely angry. "I've seen you before, MET you before almost four decades ago, and you looked exactly the same as you do now! There's no way you could still look like that if you're not her!"
"You met someone who looked like me." Alice scathingly replies, glaring daggers in Tenmyouji's direction. "Up until today, I've never seen you before in my life. And I most certainly am not that old you ass!"
Alice steps forward and angrily grabs the file out of Tenmyouji's hands, bringing it up to her face to examine herself. "Look, this even explains that Ice-9 is just an idea pulled from science fiction! Seems you conveniently overlooked that part while you were…"
She looks as though she has more to say, but abruptly trails off instead, her expression first shifting to shock, then fury. "Wait, what?! That's highly classified information, how did they-?!"
Before I can even ask what the issue is, Alice shoves the folder at me, pressing it into my hands.
"Clover, look at this."
Confused, I rapidly begin scanning over the page, trying to figure out what so very quickly sidetracked her from the whole All-Ice thing. Okay, there's entries on Ice-9, tu fui ergo eris, integer factorization — oh hey, there's one on immunoglobulin! — Morphogenetic Field Theory, H, and SOIS. Wow, this might be the most useful file we've found thus far. I don't think she's talking about the Ice-9 or the Morphogenetic Field entries, since neither of those are exactly classified... what's "H"?
[H: This refers to Gentarou Hongou. He was one of the [REDACTED]. He was the person who supervised the kidnapping of the children who participated in the Nonary Game in 2018. He is the CEO of Cradle Pharmaceutical, and a devoted follower of Free the Soul."]
...huh, I'd actually forgotten that Hongou/Ace was a follower of Dio's cult. What's with the redacted part though? Don't think that was there in the game; that's weird. Is this what Alice is upset about, or-
Wait. There's an entry on SOIS. The department whom Alice and Clover are a part of, the existence of which is supposed to be top secret.
…ah. So that's why she's pissed.
"That's... not good." I say. "Zero definitely shouldn't know about that."
"Definitely not." Alice echoes, sounding more distressed than I've yet heard her. "I think it's safe to say we've been compromised."
"What are you two talking about?" Tenmyouji interrupts, scowling. "Our conversation isn't finished yet, Alice."
Alice turns and scowls right back. "Yes, it is. We have bigger problems right now than listening to you rave about your inane delu... sions..."
Alice trails off again, swaying on her feet as if she's suddenly gone punch drunk.
"Um, Alice? You okay...?" I ask uneasily.
"…speaking… too… fast…" Alice slurs, taking a stumbling step forward. "…world's… spinning… what's… happening…"
…oh no.
"Seriously?" Tenmyouji scoffs. "You're going to fake being lightheaded, just so you don't have to-"
"I don't think she's faking!" I frantically inform him, hurriedly propping myself underneath one of Alice's arms to support her. "Quick, help me sit her down!"
The genuine worry in my voice must be obvious, because Tenmyouji's expression softens, and he gingerly helps me lay Alice down on the nearby bench. She's holding her head as if it's throbbing, and her breathing is shallow.
"Any idea what's wrong with her?" Tenmyouji asks, now apparently fairly concerned himself.
I do. I wish I didn't.
"...Clo… ver..." Alice murmurs softly.
I bite the inside of my lip. I haven't really thought about it in more than an abstract sense up until now, but regardless of which timeline is chosen or what choices are made, someone ultimately ends up succumbing to the Radical-6's full effects early on in the game. Usually, it's Quark. But when it's not, it's…
I look down at Alice again, who appears to have passed out where she lies.
…damn it....