Junpei was now tasked with investigating these rooms.
His eyes shot around the room, trying to take as much information in as possible. He didn't want to spend any unnecessary time here. It was a fairly small room that only featured a small table and a couch nearby it. The bluish green wallpaper made it feel like he was in a really old house. He went to check the empty display case in the corner of the room, but noticed there was something on the small table. A pack of matches. He slid it in his jacket pouch. But before he continued, he spoke to June.
"Hey, you should rest on the couch. You still look a little out there after that fever attack."
"Are you...worried about me?" June had looked at him right in the eyes. He couldn't help but blush.
"Yeah, I guess I am." Junpei forced his eyes to wander at anything else in the room, and scratched at the back of his head.
"By the way...Jumpy...?"
"Hm?"
"How did you end up here?"
Junpei wasn't entirely sure what to make of this.
"What do you mean? I told you earlier, didn't I?"
"There was a man with a gas mask when you got home at night. You inhaled some white smoke and passed out. When you woke up, you were on D Deck..."
"Yeah, that's it."
"But is that really the truth?"
" ...What?!"
Now that was uncalled for. Junpei took a step backwards after hearing that. Did Akane not trust him?
"Jumpy, are you hiding something from me?"
"No! Why would I!?"
"Well, if you think about it, this is awfully suspicious. I mean, why would 2 childhood friends bump into each other in a place like this...?"
"Hey, I could ask you the same thing! Are you hiding something?"
"What would I hide...?"
"Well, I dunno. Anything. I mean, you're hiding it. How would I know?"
"You mean, like...the number of men I've dated?"
Junpei's heart stumbled over itself.
"Do you want to know?"
He had to admit, he was a little curious.
"Don't worry. Only 18..." She smiled at him.
"...Times 0. Yeah... I guess I just haven't met Mr. Right yet..." June looked a little embarrassed, and scratched the back of her head in a desperate attempt to seem nonchalant. Junpei coughed quietly in much the same way.
"Anyway, I'm not hiding anything. Just like you, Jumpy. When I woke up, I was on D Deck..."
"Well, you do have a point. I mean, why did Zero pick us? We haven't seen each other since elementary school."
June nodded, and for a few moments she had the faraway look of someone in deep thought.
"Look for what connects the victims. That will lead you to the culprit. Do you remember Seven saying something like that?"
"Yeah, I do. So?"
"Well, that's what I'm saying. I think this must all have something to do with a classmate of ours..."
"You got any ideas who it might be?"
"No, nothing... Well, if it had something to do with school, then it could be one of our teachers, or maybe the principal..."
"Or the janitor or the lunch lady?"
"No... I can barely remember any of them..."
"Yeah, I know..." Junpei went back to searching feeling unpleasant and confused. Elementary school... Elementary school... Was there anything strange that had happened in elementary school? As he searched the room, he continued to wrack his brain.
To his left was a short hallway that would lead to the bathroom. Junpei noticed an odd picture that hung just by the door. It was very abstract, and he had no idea what to make of it. He gave the bathroom a quick once-over, but it seemed to have nothing of notice in it. Just a normal room.
To his right was another door. He grasped the brass doorknob and turned it, throwing the door open with a swift push. The room seemed to be a bedroom. A vanity, a two person bed, and a cupboard.
The bed was nothing special, and neither was the cupboard. Junpei was getting a little frustrated at this point. He wasn't making much progress. But then he checked the vanity drawer. Inside was a small, simple key. "Not much use here, we haven't found anything locked yet." Junpei thought to himself. He was about to exit the room, but in the corner of his eye, saw something hanging above the bed. It seemed to be a... Map?
Junpei brought the map back to the living room and presented it to June, who was still on the couch.
"This ship is bigger than I thought."
"Yeah, it's probably about 900 feet long." Junpei briefly wondered if they'd be able to explore the whole thing in the amount of time given.
"Must be one of those fancy cruise ships."
"Course, it doesn't really look like a cruise ship. Everything in here is really retro. Even if it's some sorta style choice, there's just too much."
"Do you remember what Zero said? On April 14th, 1912...the famous ocean liner Titanic crashed into an iceberg. After remaining afloat for 2 hours and 40 minutes, it sank beneath the waters of the North Atlantic. Do you think maybe this boat and the Titanic have something to do with each other?"
"Hmmm... That's a good point. I doubt he would've mentioned it if there wasn't a reason..." Junpei took a moment to look around the room.
"Do you think this boat is... A replica of the Titanic?"
"A replica...?"
"Yeah. You know, like a copy of the actual boat."
"Who on Earth would make something like that?"
"Fans. Crazy Titanic fans."
"No way! Do you even know how much money that would take?"
"No idea. But all they've gotta do is break even, you know?"
"Break even...?"
"Yeah. They could use it as a cruise ship. Climb aboard a piece of history! Sail 'round the world in the resurrected Titanic! Hell, with marketing like that, they'd probably have more customers than they'd know what to do with."
"Do you really think people would want to ride on a ship with such an ominous past? It's the site of the worst accident in history... Over 1500 people died... I wouldn't be surprised if you'd get cursed just for going. Jumpy, do you believe in that sort of thing? You know...curses and stuff?"
"Yeah, well, I guess so. To a certain extent. What about you...? Nah, I guess that's kind of a dumb question." Junpei scratched his temple.
"Yes, I do believe in curses. In fact, I think it was a curse that sunk the Titanic."
"What?"
"A curse sank the Titanic. The curse of the Egyptian mummy."
Junpei couldn't understand how June had maintained a straight face to say that.
"Supposedly the Titanic carried the mummy of the Priestess Amon-Ra... Which was stolen from a pyramid. And they say that the mummy had a history... Everyone involved with it died mysterious deaths... Come on, I'm sure you've heard of it before... "Those who open the coffin will be forever cursed"... Haven't you ever heard that one?"
"So you're saying the Titanic sunk because of that curse...?"
"That's right!" June's eyes had lit up with excitement, like a child with a new toy.
"That mummy, the priestess... Supposedly, she was...special."
"...What do you mean?"
"Well, supposedly, she was really pretty."
" Pretty?"
"Yes."
"But...she was a mummy."
"That's right. She wasn't all shriveled up or rotten or anything. She looked just like she was alive."
"Ohhh. I get it. It's that thing... I don't remember the name... Where your body turns into some kind of wax? If a dead body is put in the right sort of environment... The fat in it turns into something kinda like candle wax, right? And-"
"Yes, saponification. But that's not what it was."
"Huh?"
"That's not it. She wasn't wax."
"Then what is it?"
"They say...that she was frozen."
"What...? Frozen?"
"That's right. The whole body was frozen solid... You know how a human body is more than 60 percent water? Well, all of that water was frozen. The story says that from the time of its discovery, all the way through to when it got put on the Titanic... And even though it was carried through the desert... Her body never melted."
June and Junpei talked a little more, and then went back to their investigation. But even as they did, his mind went back to what she'd told him. Ice that wouldn't melt, even in the desert... Could such a thing really exist? No, even if it did, it wouldn't really be "ice" anymore, would it? The more he thought about it, the more his head hurt. Like he'd eaten his ice cream too fast...
Soon after the two was finished with their room, and Junpei decided to have a check on Santa and Lotus. He had a feeling they haven't made much progress.
The second room was much like the first. A small table, a couch, a display case, a hall with an odd picture that lead to a bathroom, and a door to lead to the bedroom. However, the display case here was full of objects. Santa was yanking on the handle to open it, but to little avail.
Junpei walked over to the table and saw that a candle laid on top of it. Perhaps the matches were for lighting it? He kept it grasped in his left hand as he continued the search.
The odd picture was in the same place as the other room, but it seemed to be missing portions of it. The only thing that remained was the bottom left panel. He walked into the bathroom, and immediately noticed something.
The shower curtain wasn't there. It was there in the previous bathroom, he knew that for sure. But why was this one gone? He scoured for clues, but turned up dry. Bathroom was a dead end, for now.
Next order of business was the bedroom. Junpei opened the door, as Santa and Lotus stood behind him. However, the bedroom was pitch black. One could barely see into the room and make out a faint vanity.
Lotus moved to turn the light on. Nothing. The power was cut to this room.
"What the hell? Can Zero not even keep his own ship working?" Santa swore, throwing his hands up and turning back around.
But Junpei had the solution. Simply light the candle with the matches he found from the two rooms. Presto. There be light. He placed it on the vanity to avoid having hot wax fall onto his hand.
"Nice one, Junpei!" His teammates awarded him with a pat on the back. Somehow this did not make Junpei feel much better.
Since the two rooms seemed to be mirrors of the other, Junpei first checked the vanity drawer. He gave it a small tug, but it had no give. Zero sure did like locking things. His hand dove into his pocket to retrieve the key he found in the other vanity, swiftly depositing it into the keyhole. A twist and a pull, the drawer was unlocked. It held only a single object, a small tile that reminded Junpei of the abstract pictures he saw earlier.
There was no map above the bed however. What there was though, was a curtain that laid on the bed itself. His earlier suspicisions were true, and it was intentional. He grabbed the curtain and turned around to leave, but just then, the light went out. Upon further inspection it seems the candle ran out of wax. Junpei took notice that the candlestick looked less like a stick, and more now like a... Key? He looked at it closer, and it did indeed resemble the teeth of a key.
As the display case was just a few steps from the bedroom, he decided it wouldn't hurt to try. Both Santa and Lotus gave him an odd look as he hadn't explained himself the entire time he was in the room and that he was now trying to put a candlestick into a keyhole. To everyone's surprise, it actually clicked, and opened up. The first object one would see was a tile, much like the one Junpei found in the drawer.
Santa looked at Junpei with an odd stare. He clearly didn't expect Junpei to just come into his room and be a puzzle solving master.
"The fuck man? It's like you've already completed this before or something."
Those words rapidly echoed in Junpei's mind. It did seem rather odd to him that he was able to piece together things that weren't intuitive. His body just seemed to move on it's own at times.
"Sorry Santa, I guess i'm just better at solving things than you are." Junpei loved the occasional tease. It helped break up the tension. The curtain wasn't going to hang itself though. He moved quickly through the room and down the hall to the bathroom. Lotus was inspecting the painting and it's missing tiles very carefully, as if trying to recall something. Well, it wasn't his priority at the moment. He took no mind of it and walked into the bathroom.
Just as before, it had shower curtain rings near the ceiling but no curtain to gird itself. Junpei remedied that and pulled it closed. There was a hole torn in it, off the center and to the left. Peering through it, all one would see is one of the tiles on the wall. Specifically, the fifth from the top and third from the right. This was clearly implying something.
Junpei pulled the curtain back and took a step to the tile. His nails dug around it, yet nothing was coming loose. As he did this, his mind conjured an image. The other bathroom, and it's tile. Junpei released his hands from the wall and quickly ran back into the other bathroom to confirm this thought.
Why did that first come to mind? What if he missed a tool and was supposed to break the tile in the other room? It was if his mind was working independantly. Junpei pushed back those thoughts and focused on the task at hand. The tile came off without any resistance, and a painting tile was behind it. That made three, enough to finish the picture.
After some rearranging of the tiles, Junpei succeeded in recreating the picture. It lowered and revealed a key with the symbol of Mars. As with everything, he put it in his pocket.
"What's the deal with this picture anyway..." Santa had only been mumbling to himself, but it drew Lotus's attention.
She looked at the picture, and paused.
"I...I think I've seen this picture before."
"Where?"
"In a book. There's a British biochemist named Sheldrake. He has a rather interesting theory. I saw this picture in his book."
"What's this interesting theory?"
"Morphogenetic field, which relies on the theory of morphic resonance..."
"Man, I can't deal with this. Just listening to you talk about it is giving me a headache." Santa put his hands on his head, as though he were in great pain.
Lotus merely arched an eyebrow in his direction and continued.
"It's not a difficult concept to grasp. In essence, he states that the shapes of living organisms and their behavioral patterns are transmitted through a field not visible to the eye."
"Uh, what part of that isn't difficult, exactly?"
Lotus did not look pleased.
"All right, how about this... Theory of the Telepathic Mechanism."
"Telepathy?"
"Yes, telepathy. Well, perhaps not exactly telepathy, but... It is close enough, for a simple approximation."
Santa suddenly burst into laughter.
"HAHAHAAHA! Are you serious!? Telepathy? Who do you think we are? Kids from the 70s? I can't believe someone would actually do serious research on something like that."
"Yes, I agree."
Lotus's response was surprisingly curt. Junpei had expected at least some conflict.
"I read the book, but I can hardly say I understood it. I'm in no position to defend or condemn anything it said. It was probably just someone latching on to a statistical out-lier from some study and turning it into a ridiculous theory. There's no scientific merit to any of it, I'm sure. But even so... I... Anyway, I saw a picture like that one in his book."
Lotus indicated the picture they'd all been looking at. After a moment she walked up to the strange picture, examined it, and then spoke.
"Hey... What do you think this picture looks like?"
Santa answered first.
"Wadda ya mean? Isn't it just, like...abstract, or something like that? It's just black and white scribbles. There's no meaning there. That's it."
"What about you, Junpei? Does it look like anything to you?"
"Hmm... I guess it looks like..."
Junpei stared at the picture for a long moment. He could see nothing but paint, he was never good at rorschach tests. That is, until his mind gave him a little help. "Dog" is what it was telling him. Dog? Maybe...
"Maybe a dog? See, you've got the head here, and these are the front paws... And these are the back paws."
Junpei traced the black contours.
"See?"
"Ahh...I see it... I guess you've got a point..." Santa despite his constant aloofness, was clearly impressed.
Junpei glanced over at Lotus. She looked stunned.
"How did you know? You're right. I didn't think you would have been able to guess that."
For a brief moment, Junpei felt a swell of pride.
"A TV show from Great Britain did an experiment once. They took 2 similar pictures. Both of them were difficult to identify, initially... But once you'd figured out the answer, you couldn't see it as anything else. The first picture was a woman wearing a hat. The other one... Well, to make it easier... Let's just say it was this picture of a dog. So. Their experiment... First, they sent the pictures to other parts of the world where British radio and television didn't reach. To Ireland, the U.S., Africa, Europe, etc... Then, in each country, they gathered a number of test subjects. All in all, there were roughly 1,000 people."
"Those 1,000 people were shown the 2 pictures, and asked "What does this picture look like to you?" The results, in and of themselves, were not terribly interesting... [9.2%%] of the people saw the lady in the lady picture. [3.9%%] saw the dog in the dog picture. Then, 2 days later... They broadcast a new show. During the 30 minute show, they broadcast the dog picture, and its solution. The audience was estimated to be 200,000 people. After the broadcast, it could be assumed that the number of people who knew the solution to the dog picture now totalled over 200,000 people. After another 2 days had passed, they gathered a number of research subjects from areas where British TV and radio did not exist."
"This time, they were only able to find a sample of roughly 850 people. Naturally, none of them were people who had participated in the 1st test. They were, however, given the same test, and the same 2 pictures. The results...were shocking. [10%%] of the people saw the lady in the lady picture. The previous test had yielded a [9.2%%] success rate-the change was not statistically significant. The dog picture, however, produced a very different result. The percentage of people able to successfully find the dog grew from [3.9%%] to [6.8%%]. A very significant increase."
"So, do you understand? Do you realize the significance of this experiment? There was no way the second group could have seen the picture. They lived far away from Britain, and couldn't have seen the picture. But even so, it was only the success rate for the dog picture that went up. Why? How did that happen? What does it mean?"
Lotus looked back and forth, from Junpei to Santa and back again.
Normally calm and collected, she looked now as though she were very nearly possessed, and there was something manic about her manner. Santa took an involuntary step backward. Junpei didn't budge, and stared straight back into Lotus's eyes...
"Does this have something to do with that "field" or whatever it was that you were talking about earlier? A field not visible to the eye... So if more people know the answer... Then that information will pass through the field..."
They all stared at each other for a moment.
"Pssyyyych!" Her manner suddenly shifted, and Lotus smiled broadly at Junpei and Santa. She waved her hand dismissively, doing her best to laugh the whole confrontation off.
"Oh, I was just kidding. You really shouldn't take me seriously. Well, I mean, the things I just told you about are true. They really did happen. But the results of that experiment really aren't anything to go by. They could have easily falsified them. In the end, I'm sure they were just in it for the ratings. They are a TV station, after all."
At last, it seemed that Santa had gained control of his composure.
"R-Riiiight! Man, I gotta admit, you had me there for a minute! I, uh, really thought you were serious..."
"Like I told you before, I'm sure it's all just pseudoscience."
"O-Oh, okay, right! Ha ha ha hahahaha!"
Santa and Lotus laughed, and gave one another jovial claps on the shoulder.
Junpei, however, didn't feel so much like laughing.
Something felt...wrong...unclear...
"All right, enough nonsense. We've got the key. Let's get out of here."
"Word."
Lotus and Santa walked away from the picture.
But Junpei stayed, staring at the picture of the dog.
"A field not visible to the naked eye"
Morphogenetic field... The more he thought about it, the more his head hurt.
Junpei went to leave the room, as their work was done and they could all leave, but he was stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, Junpei, you got a minute?" Santa had shown up out of nowhere, and gave Junpei no small start.
"Here, take this." Santa pulled something out of his pocket. It looked like a bookmark. It had a 4-leaf clover in it.
"What is this...?"
"I found it in-between some of the cushions on the sofa. Pretty sure it ain't gonna be any help to us, but I figured we might as well hang onto it anyway."
"Then why don't you hold onto it?"
Santa gave him a wry smile.
"You know what I hate most in the world? I got 4 things: Hope, Faith, Love, and Luck."
"Hope, Faith, Love, and Luck...?"
"Damn straight."
"And you...hate these things?"
"Yeah, you got a problem with that?"
"Uh, not really, but..."
Junpei tried to figure out how best to phrase what he wanted to say.
"What does a bookmark have to do with any of that?"
Santa scratched the back of his ear, and looked awkward.
"Well, see, each leaf on the 4-leaf clover has a meaning to it, okay? And that meaning is pretty much those 4 words. It's like...a flower language. Well, I guess it's not a flower is it? So a leaf language, I guess. Yeah, you could call 'em leaf words."
Junpei looked at the bookmark.
Hope, Faith, Love, and Luck...
"So...yeah. I want you to take it, okay? Just touchin' it gives me the creeps. Take the damn thing, all right!?"
Santa pretended to shiver with disgust and shoved the bookmark into Junpei's confused hands.
"All right, sure, I'll take it.
He shoved the thing into his pocket, and gave Santa a last, confused look. His pockets will see a lot of use through this adventure.
"Phew. Man, I feel a lot better now. That thing was a real pain, you know?"
"Do you really hate those 4 words that much?"
"Yeah, well, they can all betray you, you know? Hope, Faith, Love... even your destiny..."
What had happened to Santa, Junpei wondered. How had he become such a bitter person For a moment, they looked at each other.
"Well, that's not my only reason. That's not the only reason I hate the 4-leaf clover. I just can't bring myself to like the number 4."
"What, worried about the Four Horsemen?"
"Nah. C'mon man, that's just silly. Maybe back in the Dark Ages that kinda crap scared people, but this is the 21st century, and I'm a 21st century guy."
"Then why do you hate 4 so much?"
"'Cause it's a half-ass number. Not the best or the worst. That's why. 9 is a way better number. So what if it's last place, right? Least it's not some lameass middle number."
Santa's explanation made no sense. Junpei was even more confused than before.
"You play?"
"You mean, like, the stock market?"
"Nah, that's not what I mean. Why the hell would you think that? I mean, yeah, I do stocks too, but..."
This last statement, more or less thrown away by Santa, caught Junpei very much by surprise.
"You!? A stockbroker?!"
"Yeah. Got a problem with that?"
"No, you just...don't look like the type."
What Junpei didn't say, of course, was that he didn't think Santa looked smart enough to be a stockbroker.
"Man, that stuff's just like gambling, you know? All you gotta do is bet on the winning horse. Nothing that hard about it."
"You sure sound pretty confident. So...are you betting on winning horses?"
"Course I am. You remember a couple years back when the stock for Cradle Pharmaceuticals shot through the roof? Stacked a few bills over that, if I do say so myself."
"Uh huh..."
"Uh huh" was all Junpei could think of.
Cradle Pharmaceutical... Why did that sound familiar? It was if he was on the brink of remembering something, but nothing came.
Junpei was taken out of his thoughts when he heard June and Lotus calling for them. They was supposed to be unlocking the door, not sitting here talking stocks. The two left the cabin and found themselves back in the long hallway. He retrieved the key and unlocked the door. The group had solved the puzzle.