"Huuuh?!"
Todomatsu blinked as Karamatsu tried to explain his reasoning again, it was probably a little cramped since you all were sitting in the girl's restroom. The restrooms seemed to be the only area that wasn't equipped with surveillance technology.
"Buraza, your talent with technology is remarkable! You know more about it than anyone else here! We need that knowledge to unlock the rest of the floors on the elevators!" Karamatsu pleaded with him.
"We know that there's more floors because of how many buttons there are." you said, trying to help Karamatsu with his explanation of his plan. "They're not labeled unless we unlock the floors to gain access to them, but if we can use the phone to our advantage, we might be able to unlock access to all the floors."
"How's the phone going to help with the elevator?" asked Todomatsu, brows furrowed as he tried to comprehend what you and Karamatsu were going for.
"The phone is probably connected to the system that runs this building. If we can get into that system, we can probably unlock the rest of the floors and get to the top to get out of here!"
"Why are you asking me? Dekapan is the inventor, he probably would be a better choice!"
"We never said you were doing this alone." you said, stepping aside to show that Dekapan had been hunched down behind you, looking to Todomatsu expectantly while he held a laptop from the electronics store in his hands. You, along with everyone else looked at Todomatsu with high expectation, your hands curled gently into fists in front of you as you smiled brightly at him. Todomatsu glanced between everyone, letting his eyes linger on Karamatsu, then to Jyushimatsu who stared at him with that same expectant hope.
"I know you can do it, buraza." said Karamatsu, hopeful smile on his face.
Todomatsu stared at the stupid grin on his older brothers face, and for a moment he thought he could see the same grin on Osomatsu. With a heavy sigh, the youngest hung his head and pulled his phone out from his pocket.
". . . What do you need me to do?"
You and Dekapan need to work together to break into the system here. Using your phone, Dekapan will connect to it with the laptop and start scanning the files contained within. That's the first step in the plan.
While everyone had left the restroom, Todomatsu and Dekapan stayed behind. Todomatsu kept hold of his phone, making sure he wouldn't be breaking the rule of lending out his phone to other people, while Dekapan uncoiled a usb cord to connect the two devices. The cords snapped into place, he settled down on the floor and started tapping away at the keys while Todomatsu curiously leaned in closer to look at the screen.
We're going to need a distraction for Mononeko so he doesn't notice what's going on. That's where Jyushimatsu and Choromatsu come in. The two of you do anything you can to keep Mononeko around you. Whatever you do, make sure he doesn't leave your sight. Not even for a second. I know things are hard right now, Jyushimatsu, but do it for your remaining brothers.
"MONONEKO-SAAAAAAAN!" Jyushimatsu called out as he cupped his sleeve covered hands around his mouth. Choromatsu flinched at the sudden yell before using his pinky to dig into his ear and try to pop it.
"You don't have to be that loud, Jyushimatsu." Choromatsu groaned. "I'm sure he'd show up if you just said his-"
"Hai hai!" Mononeko stood in front of them, one paw up in the air as if he was waving.
"-name." said the third eldest, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Murder Cat! Do you like baseball?!" Jyushimatsu called out, already holding a bat in his hands.
"Murder Cat?" said Mononeko, blinking a couple times in confusion.
"LET'S PLAY!" Jyushimatsu called out, grabbing hold of the cat's paw. Mononeko stared down at the grip before his head snapped up when he was tugged upwards.
"HANNA!" the second youngest shouted as he pulled Mononeko up and pitched him across the mall with ease. The cat went flying, that confused look still on his face while Jyushimatsu watched with those wide eyes. When he crashed into the ceiling, Jyushimatsu threw his hands into the air in celebration.
"HOME RUN! HAHAHA!"
Choromatsu watched with horror from the corner of his eyes as the number on Jyushimatsu's bracelet ticked down to 1.
Wait . . . 1?
Totoko, your job is to be back up distraction. If something happens to a point where Jyushimatsu and Choromatsu can no longer keep his attention, it'll be your job to step in. Do whatever you can to keep his attention away from the cameras.
Totoko watched from around the corner with an exasperated look as Jyushimatsu just flung Mononeko like he was a baseball. Her hand came up to smack over her face before dragging her hand down with a irritated groan. Stupid NEETs, couldn't even handle a simple task of distraction. She wasn't sure if this counted as needing back up, but since Jyushimatsu was now out cold from the shock of discipline, Choromatsu was probably going to need help. Another growl, Totoko pushed from the wall and put on her best smile, even if it was forced, and headed to try and help the feline once he fell to the floor along with a few panels from the ceiling he had crashed into.
Karamatsu and I will be waiting in the elevators, once Dekapan and Todomatsu find anything, it should be sent to our phones through the inner wifi network that runs the programs for our phones. If this works out, we'll be getting out of here in no time!
You sat down with Karamatsu in the east wing elevator, back against the wall while he sat beside you, staring at his phone with intensity. Your own phone was held in your grip, but your eyes didn't seem to stare down at the screen. You were more focused on the man beside you. He looked so concentrated on the screen before him, you almost didn't want to disturb him.
"Hey, Karamatsu?"
"Hmm?" his head lifted to look over at you once you spoke, the intense look wiped from his face.
"I . . . When we get out of here, I'd like to get to know you more. All of you."
Karamatsu stared with wide eyes at your statement, mouth slightly agape.
"When this all started, I didn't know any of you, but over the course of time we've been trapped here . . . I feel like I've grown a lot closer to all of you. We've worked together as teams, we've been through so much loss. I don't want this friendship to end once we find a way out."
Your gaze was still locked on the screen of your phone, but when he didn't answer right away, you lifted your head to look over at him. He was crying again, or at least he was trying really hard to make it look like he wasn't.
"Wuh? O-Oh, what's wrong? Did I say something?" you started blabbing out, not sure what you had done to make him cry, but you instantly silence yourself when you felt him reach over to grab your hand in his own. His other arm lifted to cover his eyes and his teeth grit tightly in his jaw, but no matter what he did, the tears wouldn't stop flowing.
"Karamatsu?"
"Thank you." he finally replied.
"I-I didn't do anything- woah!" you tried to assure him you did absolutely nothing to be thanked for, but in a moment he had shifted from his place against the wall, his hands going around both of yours as he knelt down on one knee in front of you. Your phone clattered lightly against the floor as he held your hands, and you felt the creeping sensation of a blush lighting up your cheeks.
He began with your name, saying it like it was honey against his tongue, then closed his eyes, bringing your knuckles to gently rest against his forehead.
"You've done so much for all of us here. You've stayed strong no matter what has happened and even through all of this, you still smile like the sweetest jewel of the sea."
". . . Wat?"
"My life would not be complete if we parted ways after this." he said, lowering your hand so he could look up into your eyes. "For you to wish to stay in my company, my heart and soul are in your hands."
"W-Woah, okay. Easy there Casanova." you said with a small nervous laugh to your voice. Geeze, flattery was one thing but this was a bit much, wasn't it? "Just . . . say it normally."
". . . I'd really like us to be friends after this." he quickly said, pulling his hands away from yours.
". . . Me too." you replied, smile bright on your face once again. Karamatsu's gaze was transfixed on you, like he was hypnotized by that smile. The more he watched you, the more you couldn't stop blushing. It was like you were saved by the bell when your phone started to ring.
"O-Oh! That must be Todomatsu and Dekapan!"
You quickly answered the phone, video chat popping up to show Todomatsu staring back at you.
"Todomatsu!" you said, smiling brightly once more. "Did you find anything?"
"Tons of stuff." he said, staring downward before turning the phone around so you could see the lines of information and code on the screen. You had to lean in a little bit to see it, Karamatsu brushing up against your side while he tried to look as well.
"The files were encrypted pretty well, but Dekapan figured it out and got them out." Todomatsu said as he turned the screen back on him. "It shows all the answers to the puzzles, oh! And there are more floors above us! This building has fifteen in total."
"Fifteen?!" you exclaimed. You were only on the fifth floor! There would have been ten more to go through?! Karamatsu glanced up from the phone to look back at the buttons that lined the wall next to the door.
"There's more than fifteen buttons here, what would the extra ones do?" he asked.
"They probably served to make us think there was more floors than there are." you said, looking back to them as well.
"Actually, they're used for entering a code." Dekapan said, leaning his way in so he could see the screen as well.
"A code?"
"We found a bunch of codes that unlock the rest of the floors, we'll send them to your phone as soon as we can." Todomatsu insisted. You nodded your head, looking to Karamatsu with that same bright smile from before. The one that melted his heart.
"There is something concerning though." said Dekapan, looking back to the screen of the laptop. Todomatsu turned the phone once more to look at the screen, and you could see what looked like a bunch of gibberish code that glitched and jumped across the screen.
"What in the world is that?" you almost whispered out as you leaned into the screen again to get a better look.
"Corrupted code it looks like." the man said with a sigh. "The file name is too damaged to see what it belongs to, and trying to break it down causes it to spread to other files. I think it's best we leave it alone for now, but I'd like to take a better look at it later."
"We'll send the clean files along now, good luck cause we're all counting on you! Bye bye!" Todomatsu waved into the camera and the call ended. It wasn't long before your phone started to go off with notifications, as well as Karamatsu's own.
This was it.
You stood from the floor of the elevator and opened up the files on your phone, Karamatsu doing the same. There was so much information, accurate descriptions of the murders, all the solutions to the puzzles, the codes to punch into the elevators to get to the rest of the floors. There was even a blueprint of the mall that showed what stores were on each floor. There was something odd about it though.
"Karamatsu, look at this." you pointed to the blueprint. "The directions . . . it's upside down."
"Huh?"
"The mall, everything's underground! We're not on the fifth floor, we're on the tenth!"
Sure enough, the blueprints showed that the actual ground floor was what they had thought was the top floor. All the floors below it were basement floors and the numbers counted down from 15 as they went up.
"So the numbers are switched around here!" cried out Karamatsu. You nodded before holding the phone up, looking at the diagram a moment longer.
"The ground floor doesn't have any shops, that must be where the mastermind is!" you looked up to Karamatsu, seeing a renewed look of determination in his eyes. Everything was falling into place, all that was left to do was confront the mastermind! You strengthened your resolve and looked at the code for that floor, punching the buttons in the exact pattern they needed to be. There was a few clicking sounds before the car jerked and started it's ascent up to the ground floor.
As you stood there, you stared up, watching the numbers count up.
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
You felt Karamatsu take your hand in his own, causing your attention to turn over to him as you both got closer to the top. He just looked back to you, smile on his face with a renewed confidence. You couldn't help but smile back, his conviction was contagious.
The door opened once it reached the ground floor, a soft ding signalling it's arrival. Slowly both you and Karamatsu peered out the door, looking around to see what was on this floor. Just as the blueprint had shown, this floor was void of any shops, and instead looked like a grand hall. The floor was marbled black and white tiles, columns that held up the ceiling alternated between black and white and had designs of ivy crawling down them. This large room had no windows, yet for some reason still had curtains against the wall, royal red with gold trim hung down from the walls and on the other side of the grand area, there was a heavy wooden door.
"Do you . . . think that's it?" you said in a quiet voice. Karamatsu nodded slowly before stepping out onto the tiled floor. The moment he stepped out, the tile under his foot depressed, the sound of whirring mechanics started and the lights of the hall went out. Fog filled the area and you felt like you were suddenly pulled along by the hand, was it Karamatsu? You took a few nervous breaths before a spotlight snapped on over the two of you, causing you to lift your arm to block the bright light. When you lowered your arm once you were used to the light, you blinked at the sight of Karamatsu before you. Was he . . . always wearing a suit? Wait, where did you get these fancy clothes?!
His hair was slicked back, only a few strands near his forehead were left stray, and he wore a blue rose in the pocket of his suit jacket. He looked at you expectantly and held out his hand as music started to play, a waltz it seemed. You looked down at the offered hand before reluctantly taking it and within moments he had you pulled up against his chest. You didn't remember coming here to dance, yet here you were, stepping gracefully in time with the music as Karamatsu kept one arm around your back, the other held in your own. Huh, you didn't know he could dance. You didn't even know you could dance. Ballroom dancing wasn't exactly something you practiced on a regular basis. Or at all.
Something was weird about this, you couldn't quite place your finger on it. This was out of place you knew for certain.
"Karamatsu?" you tried to gain his attention, and he granted it to you with an adoring gaze.
"What is it, my flower?" he spoke even as he continued to dance with you in rhythm of the song. Woah wait a minute, flower? He'd never called you that before.
"Stop." you murmured out, trying to pull your hand from his. It wouldn't budge. "Karamatsu, stop!"
It was like he couldn't hear you now, too lost in your eyes to even think about what you were trying to say- wait. You blinked your eyes a few times to clear your vision, every blink seemed to make the surrounding s glitch almost. You tore your eyes away from his to look around you, the ballroom occasionally flickered in and out to look like it was in ruins, the suit Karamatsu wore wasn't really there. The fog that had filled the room encircled the two of you and started to seep in closer. The room finally returned to it's actual state, even as Karamatsu still tried to dance to a tune that wasn't there. You looked down to see the cracks in the old marble floor, some of the columns had fallen and looked like they had been in disrepair for years. This wasn't the same place you were in before, was it? Even the lavish curtains from before were ripped and the entire place looked like it had been in this state for years.
"The fog." you suddenly muttered out, eyes glancing back up to the glazed look that had taken over Karamatsu's eyes. "Karamatsu! Snap out of it!"
His actions never ceased, he continued to pull you around the dilapidated dance floor.
"Karamatsu!" you tried to call out to him again.
Nothing.
"KARAMAT-" you screamed in his face this time, seconds before your foot slipped and the palm of your hand smacked up under his chin in your attempt to keep your balance. His eyes blinked a few times as if he was finally coming to, releasing your hand to rub his own under his chin where you accidentally uppercut him. His gaze looked around to see the condition the place was in.
"Where . . . where are we? Hnnh?" he had started to ask, but you quickly brought your sleeve up against his nose, you using your other arm to do the same to yourself.
"Don't breathe in the fog." you warned him, voice muffled. "Whatever it is, it clearly is causing delusions in us."
"Oh." Karamatsu said, leaning his nose and mouth against your sleeve to use the fabric of your clothing as a filter. You were going to have to walk through it, so taking a deep breath, you motioned with your head for Karamatsu to do the same and to follow you. The door looked at lot worse for wear up close, claw marks lined the old polished wood, but despite the heavy appearance, the door was easy to open. A few shoves with your shoulders, both you and him managed to push open the door and shut it behind you, blocking out the fog from following.
"What is this place?" Karamatsu spoke up beside you, causing you to lift your head to see for yourself. It looked like a laboratory, several monitors lined the walls, showing off sections of the mall, a few even showed the entrance outside.
"Karamatsu, look!" You pointed to one of the screens that had a view to the outside world. "We're almost there! We just have to go back and get everyone else!"
"But we haven't found out who's behind this!" he tried to remind you. That was right, you were supposed to be looking for someone that was orchestrating this. Another look around the room, and it made you realize just how much in disrepair it was. Some of the monitors were broken, some lights flickered as they were trying to keep themselves alive, and in the center of the room was something that looked like a large container, a small window on the front that had a single crack in it. You walked over to it, standing on your toes to try and see into the window, but age had caused the glass to fog over, and you could only see the silhouette of what looked like a person inside.
"Do you think . . . whoever is in here?" you said, looking back towards Karamatsu who seemed fixated on one of the monitors. "Karamatsu?"
The monitor he stared at flickered in and out with static, but every once in a while, the words "IT CANNOT BE STOPPED" appeared on the screen. You moved over to where he stood, staring up at it as well.
"What can't be stopped?" you absentmindedly asked, only to have your answer appear on a different screen when Karamatsu hit a button on one of the panels.
If you are reading this, then it means the project was a failure.
We did everything we could, but the corruption spread too far.
It's taken over the entire system.
We've had to abandon all of our work,
I can only hope to God that things don't get out of control.
"What's all of this even mean?" you hissed out, reaching up to hold your head. None of this was making sense! What project? What corruption? Karamatsu looked over at you before his eyes seemed to lock onto something past you. You looked at him before following his eyesight, looking to see several red glowing lights from the shadows of the room. You turned around quickly, watching as things started to move in the darkness, and a sudden rational fear started to rise within you. You felt the hair on the back of your neck stand on end as something came out of the inky void. Ears twitched, eyes focused in and out, crawling along the floor like an animal was a creature that looked like Mononeko, only more feral, more animal than the plush figure you had grown to know over the course of your stay here.
The cat tilted it's head in your direction and you froze.
A low rumble came from the beast and slowly it stood up on two feet, snarling and walking towards you and Karamatsu. You could see that the claws on this one didn't retract, were longer and . . . a lot sharper than the ones you were used to on Mononeko. That fact alone made this situation more dangerous, and yet your feet refused to move. Were you scared? Scared enough that movement didn't seem like an option anymore? The thing towered over the both of you when it was on two feet, that single red eye glinting and a mouth of sharp teeth opened as a roar ripped through the room.
You couldn't feel the ground, and it was all because Karamatsu had grabbed you and tossed you over his shoulder, rushing for the exit as fast as he could. The beast gave chase, lowering down onto all fours and sprinting after him, only to crash into the door when it tried to cut him off. Over his shoulder, you watched as more creatures that looked like Mononeko more closely started to step into the flickering light. This was like a nightmare!
"You're not supposed to be in here! Nyaahaha!" one of the Mononeko called out.
"Why can't you guys just follow the rules?!" said another. The beast Mononeko growled out as it circled around you and Karamatsu, like a predator corning it's prey. The familiar tune of a broken rule came from both you and Karamatsu's bracelets, the counter on yours rolling down to 0, while his went down to 2. You waited for the shock to ravage your system, but it never happened, instead the bracelets sparked a little before snapping off your wrist, clattering against the floor. You were free! But that wasn't quite as big a deal as what was going on in front of you right now.
"Ehhh?!" one of the Mononeko spat out, looking in confusion at the fallen bracelets then the room started to fill with the cat's laugh, echoing like there were hundreds of them in the room with you.
You held on tightly to Karamatsu as the beast let out another roar, leaping towards the both of you with those claws bared.
MONONEKO MALL
Mutual Killing Game
Survivors Remaining:
ERROR
ノイ ζム刀刀Ծイ 乃乇 ㄎイԾアア乇Ð
