Deep within the woods and isolated region of Japan rests a dilapidated, abandoned mansion. No one has dared go near this home, for stories surfaced ad spread that resting inside was a monster that would steal you away from reality. Other rumors surfaced that any who even step on the gated property were doomed a messy death. Death, mutilation, loss of your existence, the rumors spanned every dark and disturbing idea imaginable, yet no one dared question them. Fear controlled what they thought of the house, even though no one dared confirm them. For years, these rumors kept most daredevils, the superstitious, and children from finding the hidden mansion, keeping what darkness truly wait inside away from the masses.
Many stupid or unwise teens and young adults would round the gated area, trying to see into the dust-covered windows of the mansion in hopes of seeing the monsters inside. A few dared step through the threshold of the broken gate, only to scamper back in complete fear.
We only discovered the home when Sanageyama and his gang were surveying lands for expansions of his company, and stopped short when years of rumor and myth rose from the dead. You can say he started all of this, finding it and telling everyone to check it out, but that would be putting balme on an innocent party. He simply wanted to show us this mansion surrounded by death rumors. He meant no harm. He didn't mean for us to enter the building, he didn't mean to get all of us killed.
All of us except for me.
The first time we were here, my first loop, we had no clue what was to happen. Wearmed ourself before we entered, and did not expect to find the home spotless. We did not know where to begin, but we immediately wanted to leave. The door locked behind us, and it sealed my, our, fate for eternity. We were split up from the beginning, several of us chased away by Nui's monsters. We all ended up in pairs of twos, and from there it turned into a slaughterfest.
Maiko and Mikisugi went down first I found out later, brutally ripped into shreds by a larger monster in the basement, which was unlocked unlike the other loops following this one. We did not find what was left of them until circumstances arose to find refuge in the room they died in. We were down four people by then, losing Inumuta and Iori in our recent battle. We never found their bodies, or their weapons.
From then on, we collected clues and keys as we ran for our lives, avoiding battle when we could. Wounds collected quickly, and we lost Hakodate to a fatal wound to her thigh, bleeding out to death in Takaharu's arms. I guess you can say that their rivalry ended there, but a lot of other things ended.
We eventually found solace on the first floor, and some hope, as we finally solved a difficult puzzle into a secret room, but our hope ended when we turned on the lights. Blood decorated the walls, a perfect white piano sitting in the middle of the gory decorations. We camped there for a while until we were forced to run once more through the house, splitting apart again as we escaped an ambush by three of the monsters.
It did not take long for more of them to die off. Nonon hit her dead-end in the piano room, dying on the ivory keys she had played earlier for comfort. Ryuuko and Sanageyama died together in another secret space leading down from the first floor, fighting off what I would learn later is Nui who grew upset that her prey had come too close to freedom. Takaharu died beside me as we kept a swarm back from rushing Lady Satsuki as she tried to open a room we could open, now locked.
The last three, Lady Satsuki, Mako and myself. We worked so hard to get to the end, sacrificing and taking hits to reach the hidden floors above us, finding out what the house hid in the bloodied rooms we roamed. We barely survived but we found the dead-end room, a plain white room with a key at the other end. We walked in, and hell broke loose as monsters appeared, and to this day I don't remember what happened when one of the monsters knocked me unconscious.
When I woke up, I knew I didn't want to see what was around me. I found the monsters completely missing from the room, blood stains the only evidence of any conflict. Lady Satsuki and Mako were dead when I finally rose my eyes from the floor, propped against the wall just below the key to our freedom. I could not do anything for them except give my respect, pick up their weapons and run for them. The front door opened as I turned the key, the sound of thunder booming above me as I exited alone, blood coating me in sickly red patches.
All I could do was numbly walk across the browning yard until I only had a few steps left to freedom. I stopped, and turned to face Nui. Lightning and thunder clapped and roared above us as the rain came down, the water becoming no more than a nuisance.
Nui did not speak to me, but I could tell she had a mouthful to say. At the time, I did not know her, and honestly she frightened me. She could only be the person making this happen, and for that fear instilled within me.
"I want to go back." I demanded. She looked curiously at me before the most darkest smile appeared on her face.
"You want to relive their deaths? Do you really want to stay with me for their pathetic lives?" was Nui's reply. Her first words to me, and I already knew I had to best her, to keep everyone safe.
"I don't care if I must sacrifice myself again and again, they all deserve to be free from this hell. Send me back!"
She said one more thing to me, words I partly wished I took to heart before I descended this far into her game. She told me this:
"You will regret it for as long as it takes."
I did not care then. I needed to save them, I needed to free them from this life of death. I stepped toward that frilly pink demon, and reiterated my demand again.
"SEND ME BACK NOW!"
I didn't realized I had been sent back until I opened my eyes after a flash of lightning blinded me. Everyone was alive again, we were approaching the mansion front door. Nui sent me back as I demanded to save everyone. I got a restart to make up for my mistakes, to keep everyone together and alive until the end. When we finally made it inside and found some peace after investigating the kitchen, I told my story. I admitted the horrors I saw, the monster that would come, and the death to happen.
No one believed me. I guess I had it coming now that I think about it, I must have sound crazy to all of them. Even Lady Satsuki denied my wild story, dismissing it as folklore as fake as the rumors surrounding the home, and ordered me to drop the tale. For once in my time following her, I did not want to obey her orders. My knowledge could save us all, and yet she joined the others in calling me 'crazy' and 'ill of mind'. I swallowed down my words, and tried my best to follow her order, but as the loop progressed, and we barely survived through the attacks, surprise assault, and uncertain hiding and puzzle solving, I started to believe that maybe not following what I had to offer would be right.
We were nearing the final room, the final floors that held our freedom when tragedy struck us.
Nui appeared, and decided this loop had bored her to no end thanks to no deaths, and decided to target me. I could only freeze as it felt like a thousand hot iron spikes pierced through my torso. The other's screams, Mako's over the others, hit my ears as I hit the floor, a bloodied mess from Nui's silent murder.
The loop ended for me at least with the sight of Ryuuko chasing down Mako as she ran from the room. Otherwise, my memory of the loop drops dead. Even as I wait out the period between loop changes, I still do not know what happened to have the loops continue as they do now. It should have stopped there, but here I am, going on into loop sixteen.
I swear if this loop isn't my last, I'm not going to survive mentally much longer. I can only hide what I've seen and felt and done for so long. I do not want to admit this but it's the truth now.
My resolve is starting to develop cracks, and they're threatening to deepen until they shatter it whole.
"Well maybe then, the fun will really begin~"
Nui would obviously be here, stalling the change. I dared not open my eyes, but answered her.
"I refuse to crack under your pressure. You will not win."
"Says the man who is showing obvious wear and tear. Your rationality, your resolve, everything will break soon, and then your fight truly begins!"
She disappeared without another giggle, and I opened my eyes, sunlight temporarily blinding me as I walked alongside Sanageyama and Nonon, approaching the mansion once more. I could easily see Nui's silhouette in the second floor window above, and I knew she could see the expression I gave her. She vanished, and I quickly sighed to help calm myself.
Nui is simply a distraction. Focus on them, on the others. They matter more this loop then you have ever mattered.
