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V13 Story II – Part 08

“Hey, Asato, why exactly are we wandering around this same place over and over?”

Asato raised his head. We were sitting side by side on the veranda, taking a break from our seemingly endless loop. The sliding door behind us was open.

This was the fifth time we’d visited this room. We were both exhausted from the repetitive cycle and the increasingly grim scenery.

Something deep black covered the floor of the dim room, blending into the shadows. It resembled seaweed. I glanced at the object beside me: the jet-black hair Asato had pulled out earlier, now placed atop the basket filled with organs. Gleaming under the red sky, the long strands of hair formed a dark river reaching the floor. Its glossy sheen was quite pretty, but the raw skin at the root was disturbing. Asato remained silent. I stared at the hair, pondering our endless loop. So far, we had collected legs, organs, lips, eyes, and hair.

We were assembling someone’s scattered body parts, starting with the legs. But what was the purpose of this?

No matter how long I waited, Asato didn’t answer. Heaving a sigh, I shifted my crossed legs and sat at the edge of the veranda. My outstretched feet sank into the petals. They felt like dry paper but also oddly moist. The surface was both warm and cold. A jarring contradiction.

The red petals had risen almost to the veranda’s level. Before us stretched an even more desolate scene. The bowl-shaped depression had expanded and now resembled the site of a meteor impact. Red petals had accumulated at the bottom, while more fell from the sky in a constant shower. Occasionally, a white silhouette flitted across my vision—the beast was still trailing us. The scene was hellish, but almost more grandiose and intriguing than the spirit world itself.

This place lay on the boundary between the mortal world and the spirit world, and it was strongly influenced by someone’s lingering will.

I took a cigarette from my chest pocket, lit it, and put it in my mouth. Asato grimaced. His gaze was telling me to put it out. But this time, I ignored him. Asato grabbed the cigarette box from my hand.

“Hey, wait!”

I thought he was going to throw it away, but instead, he took a cigarette, put it in his mouth, and extended his hand for a light. I sighed and handed him my lighter. He took a drag, grimaced, and as I expected, coughed violently. He threw the box and lighter back to me. It didn’t take long for him to get used to it.

Calmly, Asato continued smoking, then looked up at the sky. “Disgusting, isn’t it?” he muttered. “Sadashita must have been horrified when they saw this.”

“It is disgusting. No, actually, more like shocking. But the curse itself doesn’t seem that malicious. Sure, the organs, eyeballs, and lips are creepy, but they’re just there. I’m more worried about the beast behind us. Everything else seems like it could be ignored. What exactly is Sadashita so afraid of? They could just leave this place as it is.”

“Oh, Odagiri, did you think I was intentionally choosing the same route each time? That I was systemically, without a second thought, going around in circles?”

Asato wore a disturbing smile. I tilted my head in confusion, then the horror of his words sank in. I turned pale. Asato had been walking randomly, which meant we were being forced back to the same place every time we left the room.

“That’s right, Odagiri. Once you enter this area, you’re trapped in a loop. It seems the people who first explored this place on Sadashita’s orders met a tragic end. They kept trying, staying on the phone the whole time, but no matter how many times they left the room, they ended up back here. If I recall correctly, the call abruptly ended around the time they found the lips.”

Asato flicked the ash from his cigarette. Sighing, I stubbed out the long cigarette on the veranda, and furrowed my brow deeper. I now understood that Sadashita seriously considered the possibility of us dying. The sight before me looked even more horrifying than before.

Having Asato as a guide had led me to subconsciously let my guard down. My perception of this place had been laughably naive. We weren’t going around in circles by choice. We simply couldn’t leave.

“Well, damn. I hope we can make it back in one piece,” I said.

“No guarantees. But I’m not planning to die here.”

“If we can’t break the curse, maybe we could dive deeper into the spirit world. If we find Mayu-san, she might be able to help. Although, knowing her, she might just refuse.”

“Shaking off the curse and finding the scarlet woman, then escaping with the help of her treasure? Odagiri, do you have any idea how difficult that sounds? It’s like a plan hatched by someone whose brain cells are completely fried. If we’re going to reach her, we’d need to find an esper strong enough to take on the scarlet woman. I doubt anyone like that even exists. That, or maybe…”

Asato suddenly trailed off, his sharp gaze shifting to my stomach. But without saying any more, he crushed his cigarette on the veranda and flicked the butt into the sea of red flowers. It traced an arc in the air before being swallowed. Dusting off the bottom of his jeans, he stood up.

“We can’t do that. We made an agreement. Let’s go, Odagiri. We’ll find out soon enough whether we can make it back. For now, we’re welcome here. This loop might feel like we’re circling the same spot, but it’s more like we’re descending a spiral staircase. There has to be an end. And soon, the beast will start moving. The end will come, one way or another.”

Asato started walking. I followed, stepping over the red petals.

We left the room, knowing we’d just end up back here.

All the while, a pair of vicious eyes tracked our every move.

“…”

“So, this is how it changes.”

Looking through the remains of the roof, I groaned. The curtain of small flowers had undergone an unexpected transformation. It had melted and fused into soft vagina with a mucous-like texture. A quivering pink membrane filled the gaps between the slanted, overlapping debris, and at its center was a thin slit. It didn’t block the path entirely, but it was clear that if we tried to push through, we’d be devoured.

“Gross,” Asato sighed. “And kind of obscene.”

“Good to know you can actually feel that way.”

I studied the quivering membrane. It looked fragile, but one wrong step, and it would all be over. We decided to see if there was another way through.

We took a wide detour around the back of the roof, but somehow ended up right in front of the membrane again. It seemed like the only way forward was straight through.

Asato crossed his arms and nodded. “Yeah, this thing definitely wants to kill us. Is this where the other explorers met their end?”

“Who knows? Is this another trap made by the owner of the organs, hair, and lips?”

“Hard to say. Maybe the red flowers just set a new trap on the path their prey keeps passing through. Either way, it makes no difference. We just have to find a way through without getting eaten. So, what’s the plan, Odagiri? Want to make a wish?”

“No need. I think I’ve got it.”

I set the basket on the ground and searched my jeans pocket, pulling out my wallet.

There was kindling in the bag hanging from my elbow, but I couldn’t use it. As I reluctantly reached for the bills, I noticed a stack of old receipts. Lucky for me, I was sloppy.

I grabbed a few receipts, lit them with my lighter, then held them under the membrane. I went for a drier spot on the roof, and the flames caught quickly. The flowers burned with an eerie, scream-like sound. As the first receipt crumbled to ash, I added more kindling. For good measure, I doused the flames with lighter fluid. Even the damp flowers began to burn fiercely. Now, all we had to do was wait. I lit a cigarette by the edge of the flames and put it in my mouth. Then remembering something, I lit another and handed it to Asato. He took with a terribly displeased frown.

“Odagiri, I’ve been thinking about something.”

“Oh yeah? Since when? Be specific.”

“Since you stormed into that abandoned building, convinced I’d killed my sister. You get a bit extreme when you’re pissed. Like you get really bold.”

“I don’t think so. I’ve always been like this.”

Where was he going with this? What a ridiculous accusation. As I smoked my cigarette, the flowers burned away, leaving a blackened, charred hole. I picked the basket up and carefully crawled through the opening.

I paused, taking in the sight ahead. A strange awe washed over me. Countless red petals floated in the air, motionless.

They had frozen on their way down, like goldfish trapped in ice. I moved forward cautiously. As I touched them, the petals shivered, like waking from a dream, then fell to the ground. The air cleared in our wake, a red path trailing behind us. Petals continued to fall as we advanced.