This chapter follows chapter 18: this time we ally with K.

Phi couldn't decipher K's intentions. Did he really only want a guarantee from her, to reassure him and allow him to vote 'Ally'? Or was it a fiendish trap? Phi forced herself to ignore the feeling that K was reading her very thoughts and make her choice logically. After minutes of intense thought, Phi could only choose based on the balance of probabilities: Dio would definitely attempt to open the Number Nine Door if he got nine points, whereas there was at least a chance that they could persuade K to stay.

Phi pressed 'Ally'.

Soon after Phi pressed the button the doors opened, and Phi strolled back into the warehouse, trying to keep her nervousness from appearing on her face.

"What the hell were you doing, leaving me out here?!" Dio, her so-called partner, marched up to her and spluttered in her face. "'Cause of that, K's gonna get out of here! You idiot!"

Phi ignored him. If Dio had wanted a role in the decision-making process, he shouldn't have been so blatant in his desire to escape alone. Phi left Dio behind and joined the other players in front of the results screen. There was a tense pause as they waited for the screen to activate – even though Zero Jr. was no longer directly appearing, it seemed he still controlled all the systems with his infuriating propensity towards 'suspense' – but eventually the projector turned on and the table of results was revealed.

Player-BP-Vote-Change-Results

Tenmyouji - 1 - Betray - +3 - 4
Quark - 6 - Betray - +3 - 9
Clover - 6 - Ally - -2 - 4

Sigma - 5 - Ally - +2 - 7
Alice - 1 - Ally - +2 - 3
Luna - 5 - Ally - +2 - 7

Phi - 5 - Ally - +2 - 7
Dio - 6 - Ally - +2 - 8
K - 6 - Ally - +2 - 8

Phi sighed with relief; she had made the right choice. Now that they had voted and seen the results, there was no indication that K had ever intended to betray her.

Beside her, Dio grumbled, "Heh. You were just lucky. Don't you dare try something like that on me again, Phi."

Phi ignored Dio. By now, it was obvious he was just throwing mud against the wall to see what stuck. Instead, Phi headed past him, over to where K, Luna and Sigma were calmly discussing the results.

"Yes, I chose 'Ally' too," K said, "Phi put herself in a situation where choosing 'Betray' would be unwise. If she had chosen 'Betray', Dio would have nine BP now. I concluded that her desire to avoid that outcome would be stronger than her desire to protect herself with 'Betray', and so I voted accordingly."

"Then why didn't you choose 'Betray'?" Sigma asked, "You could be walking out of here with nine points right now."

"It's because you promised, right?" Luna suggested.

K laughed heartily. "Yes, that too, I suppose. It's… difficult to explain. I suppose you could say I felt… a connection. When we were investigating the pantry together, I felt that Phi was somehow… similar to me. Something in me said, 'Don't betray her.' You could call it intuition, I suppose"

So K had felt that link between them as well. But where that connection had reassured K, it had almost driven Phi to make the wrong choice. Phi felt as if her very thoughts had been violated. "Cut it out," Phi snapped, "Gut feelings are bullshit. Besides, you don't get to have a connection with me unless I give you permission, and I don't remember doing that. You're acting like we're pals or something. It kind of skeeves me out, to be honest." Unloading her worry and anger like that made Phi feel better, but it didn't resolve the underlying problem. Something out of the ordinary had happened between Phi and K, and until Phi understood what was going on she couldn't hope to feel secure.

"What the hell, man?!" Sigma exclaimed, "He did you a favour and now you're gonna give him shit for it?" He didn't understand.

"You chose 'Ally' too," Luna said to Phi, "Didn't you do that because you trusted him?"

Phi wanted out of this conversation. Now. It was uncomfortable and no-one would believe her if she tried to explain. She had to find a way to trivialise the situation: get everyone off her back.

"Not exactly," she replied to Luna, testing the waters, "I just made him trust me. When we were in the pantry, I stuffed my face like an idiot. That got him to lower his guard." There. Now it was officially an intentional scheme of hers, not merely a clumsy response to how ridiculously hungry she had been. There was definitely, definitely, no way she actually had made such a fool of herself. And that meant this so-called connection was bunk as well. Right?

"Did you really think that would be enough to convince him?" Sigma asked with a bemused expression on his face, "I mean, if you were wrong, then he could have escaped and left you behind."

Phi glared at him. "What are you getting at?"

"Well, I'm just thinking that maybe you felt some kind of connection to him too…" Trust Sigma not to realise that such a link could be a weakness as well as a strength, a vulnerability as well as a tool to use.

"Oh come on! How am I supposed to feel a connection for a guy whose face I haven't even seen? Just shut up."

Finally, Sigma backed down. Phi turned her attention away from her own AB Game vote to the main surprise from this round of the AB Game: Tenmyouji successfully betraying Clover. Phi couldn't believe it – Clover had made it quite clear she didn't trust any of the other players anymore after Alice's death – but it had happened anyway.

"Why did you do that?" Clover asked Tenmyouji softly, "What did you tell me all that stuff for? Were you just lying?"

Tenmyouji shook his head "Everything I told you was the truth. You have to trust me…"

"I did!" Clover shouted over him, "Look where it got me! How could you do that? You're such a jerk! How could I betray you after that? And then you… you…" Clover paused. Her eyes hardened. "Are you Zero?"

"What? No, of course I'm not Zero."

"Then how could you know all that? Where did you find out about that stuff?" Clover asked aggressively.

"I told you…" Tenmyouji started.

"Don't lie to me!"

"I'm not lying," Tenmyouji replied, but it was clear that Clover was unconvinced.

"Forget it. It was stupid to trust you." Clover almost turned away, but then she said, "I mean, there's no way…"

Tenmyouji sighed. "Clover, this isn't about me. I… I made a mistake. I got someone involved in this when I shouldn't have."

"You mean Quark? You did this to get Quark's BP up to nine? But… you've only got four points."

"I'm not important," Tenmyouji immediately said in response, "The only thing that matters is that Quark gets out of this nightmare. Now, I'm going to go and look for Quark."

He turned away and, without another word, walked briskly through the magenta door. Clover also left, this time through the cyan door. Phi guessed that Clover intended to return to Alice's body. But she didn't think there would be any more clues for Clover to find.

The discussion of the Ambidex Game had finished. Since no-one was going to escape yet, there was nothing better to do but carry on with the Nonary Game.

"Um," Luna piped up, "If we could, uh, change the subject… Where did Dio go? He must have been here for the results."

"Ah, I saw him leave," K said, "He checked the results, and then left through the yellow door."

Unfortunately, none of the players knew what Dio was up to. They could only hope he wouldn't be able to do too much damage. Before they could start deliberating, the Ambidex Gate smoothly closed. Once all six doors were completely sealed, an announcement sang out through the speakers. "The Ambidex Gates have closed. Round three of the Ambidex Game will be the Star Round. Star keys are required to open the gates. There is no set limit on usage of the star keys. The Ambidex Gates can be opened as many times as the players wish to open them."

"So, as long as we have the Star keys, we can play the AB Game as many times as we want," Phi said.

K scratched the side of his helmet thoughtfully. "You probably won't be able to play it continuously, however. There's a period of time between when the doors open, and when the polling ends."

"Based off the last two rounds, I think it's about forty-five minutes long," Luna commented, "So I think we should be able to play the game once every forty-five minutes or so." Luna stopped talking for a second, but then a thoughtful expression appeared on her face, and she continued, "Oh, that's right. Didn't Zero Jr. say our bracelets were supposed to change round about now?"

Luna was correct. Phi quickly checked her bracelet, and found that she was now a magenta pair. Sigma was once again her partner. Better than getting stuck with Dio again, she guessed. Though only Luna and K were still present – Phi wouldn't be able to get a complete picture of the pairings for the next round yet – Phi checked their bracelets as well: K was a yellow pair, Luna was a green solo.

Wait. Green?

In both the previous rounds, there had been a clean dichotomy between primary colours and secondary colours. When the Chromatic Doors were secondary colours, the bracelets were primary colours, and vice-versa. Now however, there were both primary colours and secondary colours on the bracelets. Phi could only imagine what that meant for the next set of Chromatic Doors.

None of the players present knew either, so the only way left to find out more information about the next round was to track down the other players and find out what their bracelets were. Since they also needed to find Quark, their goals were perfectly aligned: they had to search the facility. They agreed that they would go in pairs – Phi with Sigma, Luna with K – for protection in case whoever murdered Alice attacked again, and meet up back in the Floor A warehouse forty minutes before the next set of Chromatic Doors were due to open. Phi just hoped that was enough.

With the details sorted, the search began in earnest. As K and Luna left through the magenta door, Sigma and Phi headed to the cyan door, intending to examine Alice's bracelet. They were in the space behind the cyan door when Sigma tapped Phi nervously on the shoulder.

"Hey… You don't… uh, you don't think K's the killer, do you?" he whispered.

"Maybe," Phi replied noncommittally.

Sigma's whisper became harsh. "Maybe? But if he is, then Luna's in danger!"

"Maybe," Phi replied again.

"Damnit, Phi!"

"You're not one to talk," Phi said, "I didn't see you stopping her."

Sigma spoke hesitantly, "Well, yeah, but… I just had this gut feeling I could trust him."

"A gut feeling, huh? Sure you're not the one who's feeling a connection to our armoured friend?" Phi was still feeling rather bitter about the conversation with K after the AB Game. "I mean, all that plating is pretty flattering to his figure."

Sigma didn't respond to Phi's teasing. Instead, he walked further into the crew quarters. Phi was about to follow him when an intriguing but horrible thought struck her.

"Have you considered that it might be Luna?" Phi asked, "The murderer, I mean."

Sigma replied instantly, "No, that's not possible. Luna wouldn't have needed a knife to kill Alice. When we played the last round, Alice's BP was one. Luna was playing against the two of us. All she would have to do is convince us to vote 'Ally' and she could have killed Alice easily."

Phi saw that Sigma's argument was fallacious, and pounced. "If she'd done that, do you really think the rest of us would let her get away with it? We'd probably have tied her up, or locked her away, or something. This way, no-one knows who the killer is. Besides, there's no way in hell Alice would have chosen 'Ally'. The only way to get an 'Ally' vote from your pair would have been to physically overpower Alice. Or trick her, like I did with Dio."

"So… what? You're saying Luna's the killer?"

"Maybe," Phi said for the third time.

Sigma sighed heavily. "Goddamnit, Phi! Stop saying 'maybe' and answer me."

"I'm just saying the possibility exists. Besides, even if she was, I don't think we'd need to worry about K's safety. He's got a full suit of armour. I'm betting he's pretty hard to kill with all that on."

Once she'd said that, Phi continued on, heading towards cabin number two where Alice's body still lay. She took the wheel on the door in her hands and spun it quickly around. Phi pushed the door open.

Suddenly, Clover burst out of the room. She ducked under Phi's arm and headed in the direction of the exit door. Phi didn't react in time to stop her, but managed to catch a quick glance of Clover's bracelet as Clover's left arm levered her aside. She was a cyan pair.

"Hey, hey!" Sigma called after her, "C'mon, don't run away!"

"Run away?" Clover replied softly.

"Well, it sure looked like you were trying to get away from us."

Clover shook her head slightly. "I wasn't running away though. I just… don't want to talk to you."

"Isn't that pretty much the same thing?" Sigma asked, "Look, running away isn't going to do you any good. Don't you want to find out who killed Alice? Well, you're not gonna be able to figure that out unless you talk to people."

"I don't need to," Clover interrupted him, "I already figured out who did."

Both Sigma and Phi hurriedly asked Clover who had murdered Alice, but she crossed her arms defensively over her chest.

"I can't tell you. You might be working with them. Both of you could be in on it." It seemed Clover was as untrusting as ever.

"Oh come on! Of course we're not…" Sigma exclaimed, but Phi restrained him.

"Forget about it. There's no point. It doesn't matter what you tell her, she'd never going to believe you. Just tell me one thing, Clover. How did you know who it was?"

Clover considered it, and eventually replied. "I noticed something. Alice figured it out too. Before she… Why don't you figure it out for yourselves?" Clover took her last, blunt rejection as her cue to leave, and fled from the crew quarters.

"Shit!" Sigma swore once the door had closed behind Clover, "I forgot to ask Clover what colour her bracelet was."

Fortunately, Phi had seen it, and described Clover's cyan bracelet to Sigma. Reminded of why they had gone to the crew quarters, Phi picked up Alice's bracelet. It displayed, in blue text, the word 'Solo'.

A pattern was emerging. It seemed like pairs had bracelets with secondary colours, while solos had primary colours. If that was the pattern, then the three bracelets they had to find were:

K's partner, the other yellow pair.

Clover's partner, the other cyan pair.

The red solo.

Phi placed the blue bracelet in her pocket. Two people would need it to get through the next set of Chromatic Doors; it was best if she kept her eye on it.

Now that Alice's bracelet was secured, Phi and Sigma turned their attention to what Clover had said, what she had noticed. Clover had said that 'Alice figured it out too.' That meant it had to have happened when Alice was still alive. It also had to have happened after they had entered the second set of Chromatic Doors: Alice had entered with Sigma, so if Alice had seen it then, Sigma would know too. That left a very short window in which it could have happened. Phi wracked her brain, and eventually it became obvious.

So when Sigma said, "I wonder what it was that Clover noticed," Phi knew exactly what to reply with.

"You mean what Alice noticed. Clover must be referring to what Alice was examining by the AB Rooms before she died. You were the one who pointed that out to me, remember?" Phi knelt down and once again examined Alice's body. "I'm looking for any clues to what she figured out before she died." It didn't take much rummaging, now that she had some idea what she was looking for, to find something out of the usual. Phi felt a loose piece of fabric and pulled it out to show Sigma. It was a handkerchief, and when Phi pulled it into the light the dark red stains on it were clearly visible. It was blood. "It's darker than Alice's," Phi explained to Sigma, "so it's probably been stained like this since before she died."

"If it's not hers, whose blood is it?" Sigma asked.

Phi knew that there was only one possibility, but she stayed quiet, hoping that Sigma was capable of working it out for himself. It took him far too long, but eventually he got it.

"The old lady?"

"Yeah, probably," Phi replied.

"Do you think Alice… killed her?" Sigma asked.

"Who knows? She could have just found this somewhere, for all we know. That possibility fits what Clover told us better. It's more likely that this is what caused Alice and Clover to figure whatever-it-was out. If we work out why this handkerchief is so important, we'll work out who killed Alice."

Phi was curious, and given time she would have stayed to put all her effort into deciphering Clover's riddle. But they didn't have that time. They still needed to find Quark. Still pondering Alice's murder in the back of her head, Phi led Sigma to the elevator and down to the lower floor.

"Let's take the blue door," Sigma said as they arrived, "We should be able to get to the room Tenmyouji, Quark and Clover went to that way."

Phi agreed and they headed through. Behind the blue door a winding corridor led them to another hub with a lever and three doors, just like the one that had taken Phi into the pantry. Only the door on the right was unlocked; its holographic plaque read 'Rec Room'. They entered.

Phi and Sigma found themselves in a warmly lit, brightly coloured room, full of recreational equipment: a kiddie's ride to their immediate left, a dart board on the middle of the wall immediately opposite, a pool table filling up the centre of the rec room. If she wasn't in such a hurry to search for Quark, this place would be the ideal place to relax. Tenmyouji stood by the pool table, looking pensively into the corner of the room. He appeared not to have noticed their arrival.

"Tenmyouji," Sigma announced their presence, "I'm guessing from your face that Quark is still missing."

"No sign of him, huh?" Phi added.

Tenmyouji glared at them. "Happy? I'm asking if you're happy that Quark's still missing."

"N-No, of course not. Why would we be?" Sigma stuttered.

"Then does it hurt? Are you so terrified about whether or not he's safe that it feels like someone's got your chest in a vice?" Tenmyouji stared at their faces deeply for a few tense seconds, then answered his own question, "Hmph. Didn't think so. Quark's got nine BP. If I find him first, I might make him escape. So it's better for you if I haven't found him yet. Am I wrong?"

Sigma sighed. "Tenmyouji, what's going on here? This doesn't sound like you. I know you're worried about Quark, but…"

Tenmyouji roared, "And just what the hell do you know?! He's all I've got left. If something happens to him, I'll… I'll… It's all my fault. It wasn't supposed to be like this. I never should have brought him here."

"Wait, what?" Phi asked sharply, "'Brought him here'? The hell do you mean by that, Tenmyouji?"

Tenmyouji sighed. "Zero made me an offer."

"I thought you said you and Quark were abducted like the rest of us," Sigma said.

"You mean you came here voluntarily?" Phi asked. She wanted answers. Why the hell would Tenmyouji bring a child into a Nonary Game? Especially given how much Quark's disappearance had hurt him. Phi wouldn't believe it, but Tenmyouji had all but confessed.

Rather than answer, Tenmyouji abruptly changed the subject. "Can I see the other side of your bracelets?" he asked, "Please, just do it."

Phi glanced at Sigma. Much as she wanted to keep pressing Tenmyouji to tell them why he'd voluntarily brought Quark there, it looked like he wouldn't continue until they'd done what he demanded. Eventually, both Phi and Sigma held out their wrists. Tenmyouji studied them carefully, and, with his left hand, adjusted their positions, moving them closer together. As he did so, Phi was able to see Tenmyouji's own bracelet. He was a red solo. When Tenmyouji had finished manipulating their arms, he stepped back. Looking expectantly at Tenmyouji, Phi and Sigma continued to hold out their wrists.

Icy cold liquid shot across them.

Phi yanked her wrist back. "Eyaa!" she yelped.

Tenmyouji didn't explain what he'd done or why he had done it. Instead, he turned away from the and headed to the light switch in the corner of the room. The room went dark. Tenmyouji requested that they show him their bracelets once more. They did so, but even in the low light Phi could see that there had been no effect of the chemical on their bracelets. She didn't know what Tenmyouji was looking for.

Tenmyouji seemed satisfied, though. "Hmph. It's not you two, then."

With Tenmyouji's judgement, something in Phi's mind clicked. "That stuff you sprayed us with was Luminol, wasn't it." Luminol was a chemical Phi was quite familiar with. Making sure she didn't leave traces detectable by that stuff was important in her job.

"Isn't that the stuff they use on cop shows to find blood and, uh, other stuff?" Sigma queried, "Why did you spray us with it?"

Tenmyouji didn't answer Sigma's question. "Just relax, okay? I've found all I needed to know. Neither one of you is Zero Sr."

"Are you saying that because there wasn't any reaction from the Luminol?" Phi asked.

Tenmyouji nodded.

Sigma looked confused. "Uh, someone mind explaining this to me?"

Phi shrugged. "Well, you know as much as I do now. I was just making guesses based on what he was doing." Sigma seemed to understand, so Phi turned her attention back to Tenmyouji. "Now that's done, can you get back to this 'offer' to you from…"

"Sorry, but I've got to go," Tenmyouji interrupted her, "I need to go look for Quark."

Tenmyouji turned away, but Sigma grabbed him by the shoulder. "No. I'm sorry, but I can't let that happen. You dropped a real bomb back there, and I'm not about to just ignore it. What did you mean when you said that Zero made you an offer? Why are you here?"

"I can't tell you," Tenmyouji said bluntly.

"Why not?" Sigma asked, "I don't really understand how, but you seem to have decided that neither of us is Zero Sr., right? Then why can't you tell us?"

"You don't get it," Tenmyouji snapped, "I can't tell you no matter who you are. Right now, we might as well assume Quark is a hostage. Zero Jr. seems to be aware of everything that goes on here. If I tell you, he'll know, and then God only knows what Zero Sr. will do. Please… I'm asking you, put yourself in my shoes."

"That's kind of difficult," Phi said, "I'm not sure how I'd put myself in the shoes of someone capable of bringing Quark into a death game. Unless you tell us what's going on, we can't help you. If whatever offer you got made is related to Quark's disappearance, then the rest of us all might be looking in the wrong places. So if you want us to find him, you're going to have to tell us."

Tenmyouji looked conflicted, and he eventually let out a frustrated grunt. He shrugged away Sigma's grasp and marched furiously out the exit door. Phi didn't know why, but he'd chosen not to answer, for better or for worse.

Once Tenmyouji had left, Sigma sighed dejectedly. "Hey, can I ask you a question?"

Phi shook her head. "It won't do you any good. Whatever you want to know, I don't know anything about it."

"No, it's not about what just happened. Did you catch what bracelet he was wearing?"

"Chill, man. He's a red solo. I had a look while he was talking." That continued the pattern that Phi had noticed: Tenmyouji was a solo, red was a primary colour.

"That, uh, wasn't what I wanted to ask either," Sigma said nervously, "When he sprayed us… You, uh, you screamed, didn't you?"

"No," Phi lied shamelessly.

"Yeah, you did."

"No, I didn't."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you did. Not quite so tough when you're scared, huh?"

In response to Sigma's incessant insistence, Phi shoved him forcefully towards the exit door of the rec room. "Sh-Shut up! We've got stuff to do. Get going! Move!"

"Eyaa!" Sigma screamed, exactly as Phi had. Phi quickly corrected her own thoughts: Sigma screamed, exactly as Phi hadn't. There: that was better.

Phi and Sigma left the rec room and found themselves in another warehouse, almost identical in shape to the one on the upper floor. There was one major difference, however, that completely answered all Phi's questions about the next round of the Nonary Game. There were no Ambidex Rooms on this floor. Where they would have been, Phi could instead see the next trio of Chromatic Doors: white Chromatic Doors.

They made it instantly clear what was going on with everyone's bracelet colours. By combining the secondary colour of a pair with its complementary colour – belonging to one of the solos – you would produce white, exactly as the Chromatic Doors in front of her demanded. This meant that there was only one possible way of grouping the players for the next round:

Phi and Sigma would go with Luna.
K and his unknown partner would take Alice's bracelet.
Clover and her unknown partner would go with Tenmyouji.

With that sorted, Phi took her time to explore the rest of this new warehouse. She didn't expect to find Quark in there – there was no clutter around the walls, which meant that if Quark had been in the warehouse they would have seen him instantly – but any information they could get would be useful.

One thing that Phi saw, to the right of the Chromatic Doors, was a large rusty steel door that – if this warehouse was right below the one on the upper floor as she believed – corresponded to the Number Nine Door. It was exactly the same size and shape, and was similarly held in place by foreboding metal clamps. But where attention was drawn to the Number Nine Door, by spotlights and the blood-red nine painted on it, and by the prominent lever beside it that would eventually open it, this door was so drab as to almost fade into the walls on either side. Nor was there a mechanism by which this door could be opened, or any indication that it could be opened.

Sigma pointed out another of the more striking features of the lower floor's warehouse. "What's that over there?" he asked curiously.

Phi's gaze followed his pointing arm over to where giant blood-red letters were daubed on the wall, reading, 'Memento Mori. When the nineth lion ate the sun.' Seeing Sigma's confused expression, she explained, "Looks like more graffiti. There was some on floor A too, remember?" Phi recalled how she had realised that the previous graffiti had been an anagram and solved it. It was quite likely that this message was an anagram as well.

However, before Phi could start trying to solve it, she was distracted by the arrival of Dio. He strolled in nonchalantly through the same door Phi and Sigma had and surveyed the floor B warehouse with a dismissive expression.

"What are you doing here, Dio?" Sigma asked.

Dio shrugged smarmily. "Oh… nothing. Just going with the flow, you know? Seeing where life takes me."

"You don't seem to have any interest in searching for Quark," Phi said pointedly.

"Why would I? Do we even know he's really missing? Maybe the little shit's just off having naptime somewhere? So I figure, let sleeping dogs lie, right? Or kids in this case, I guess. If we wake him up, he might realise he's got enough BP to blow this popsicle stand and ditch us. That happens and it's all over. We'll be stuck in here for the rest of our lives. Which probably won't be that long.

"So, what are you guys here for?" Dio asked once he'd finished his spiel, "Did you bring Phi here so I could kill her?" He then turned towards Phi. "Oh, really? You already forgotten your little stunt earlier? We're damn lucky K chose 'Ally'. If he hadn't, you'd be hanging from that crane right now." Dio pointed at the ceiling, where a giant metal claw dangled down towards them.

Phi dismissed Dio's threat. "Hmph. Sounds like you're getting a little desperate. Word of advice, Dio: that's not a smart attitude to have here. All you'll do is make sure that whoever plays against you in the AB Game won't pick 'Ally'."

Dio snorted. "You talk as if I give a fuck. I already know I won't be up against you two. K and I are the yellow pair. You guys are the magenta pair, right? Two pairs can't go through the same Chromatic Door. Simple enough for you?"

With that, Phi was able to work out all the bracelet colours. The trios heading through the white Chromatic Doors were:

Phi and Sigma would go with Luna.

K and Dio would take Alice's bracelet.

Clover and Quark would go with Tenmyouji.

"How do you know our colours?" Phi asked.

Dio giggled. "K told me. He was down here a while ago. Speaking of which, Tenmyouji and Clover have been around too. Guess everybody misses my company. Anyway, that's how I know what everyone's colours are."

Wait. Why hadn't Dio made any mention of Luna? When the four of them had left the floor A warehouse, Luna and K had agreed to stick together as they searched for Quark.

Sigma had noticed this as well. "Was K by himself?" he asked worriedly.

Dio nodded.

"What about Luna?" Phi asked directly.

Dio shrugged. "Luna? Haven't seen her." He didn't seem to appreciate the unease in their questions, because he indifferently continued, "Anyway, K and I won't be pairing with you two. We'll be taking the blue solo."

"That's… that's Alice's bracelet," Sigma said with a wavering voice. As his voice trailed off, he fumblingly fidgeted with his own bracelet. Then he looked closely at its screen. "We've only got five minutes left before it's time to meet up with everybody else," he mentioned to Phi, "We should get back to floor A."

Even as Sigma and Phi turned to leave, Dio declined to follow them. "Sorry, but I'm gonna stay here. Moving around so much is a pain in the ass."

"Nobody invited you," Sigma replied, "C'mon Phi."

They had failed to find Quark, and as Phi left she could almost feel Dio mocking them for it. But they had, at the very least, learned everyone's bracelet colours and more about the facility in which they were trapped.

It didn't take them long to get back to the upper floor, though Phi was worried since they didn't pass anyone else on the way there. Surely the other players would be returning for the arranged meeting time as well. Phi forced herself not to worry. She and Sigma had been delayed talking to Dio; perhaps the other players were already waiting for them in the floor A warehouse.

As Phi and Sigma entered the lounge on the way to the warehouse, a thought struck her. She paused in the middle of the room, gazing intently at the ornate clock that had formed part of the lounge's puzzle.

Sigma, not expecting her to stop, walked into the back of her. "Huh? Something up? Why'd you just stop?"

Phi tried to explain. "Well… You see that clock over there? The one that looks like the sun. It reminded me of that graffiti in the warehouse of floor B. You remember what it said? 'Memento Mori. If the nineth lion ate the sun.'"

"Oooh, I get it. That's what the clock made you think of, right? The sun in that sentence."

Phi decided to test Sigma. "Yeah. Did you notice anything strange about that graffiti?"

Sigma scratched his head. "Apart from the fact that it made no sense? Not really…"

Phi chuckled. "Wrong answer. Maybe you're not the eagle eye I thought you were. I guess I have to do everything. Part of it was spelled wrong. Specifically, they spelled 'ninth' wrong."

Phi could see Sigma visualising the graffiti as he considered her comment. "Oh, I guess you're right. They just put an extra 'e' in there? That's kind of a boneheaded mistake. Do you think it was, like, a kid who wrote it?"

"I don't think it was a mistake at all."

Sigma shook his head in confusion. "I'm not following."

"Maybe Zero put that 'e' in there on purpose. Maybe because he didn't have enough letters in there otherwise." Sigma had to be capable of realising that it was part of an anagram from that massive hint.

Sigma was not capable of realising that it was part of an anagram from that massive hint. "Uh, what?"

Phi sighed, and led Sigma on into the floor A warehouse.

They entered the floor A warehouse to find that they were the only players there. That was disconcerting.

"What should we do?" Sigma asked.

"What do you mean, 'What should we do'? All we can do is wait. We don't want to end up missing each other by accident." Besides, staying put would give Phi a chance to think about the things they'd learned during the most recent search of the facility. The first thing that came to mind was Clover's claim that she knew who murdered Alice. The place where Alice had presumably found the handkerchief was right there in front of them, just waiting to be inspected.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Sigma asked Phi as she moved towards the AB Rooms to start investigating.

"I just wanted to check something really quick. That last time we saw Alice alive, she was right here." Phi pointed to the far end of the row of AB Rooms. "Remember? She was kneeling down, looking at something on the ground."

Sigma came up and joined her, and they went round the corner to bring whatever it was that Alice had been looking at into view. They saw it immediately. About halfway along the wall of the AB Room and close to the floor, a small splatter of dried blood showed up brightly against the cold grey metal.

"Isn't this… blood?" Sigma asked nervously.

Phi patted him on the back encouragingly. "Nice work there, Sigma!"

Sigma sighed. "I don't need you to pat me on the back. It makes me feel stupid or something."

"The truth hurts, Sigma."

Sigma ignored that and kneeled down so that he could look more closely at the blood stain. Phi, lost in thought, was content to look over his shoulder. If there was any chance of her figuring out the circumstances behind Alice's death, this blood stain was the clue that would let her do it.

She just had to follow Alice's train of thought. What would have been the first thing to come to Alice's mind upon finding the blood-soaked handkerchief here? She had to have guessed that it was something to do with the death of the old lady. Everything followed from that.

Somehow, that handkerchief had convinced Clover that she knew who killed Alice. How had it done that? Phi tried to tally up everything unusual about the bloodstain before her. First, the bloodstain was far too small to be from where the old lady was murdered. Phi guessed that it was blood that had dripped from the handkerchief while it was still damp. Secondly, how had the handkerchief become so completely and uniformly stained? It wasn't just random blood splatter. Thirdly, why had the handkerchief been left there beside the AB Rooms? And finally, why had no-one noticed the bloodstain before Alice did? It was prominently bright – it would have been more so in the past before it dried out – and the players had searched the warehouse thoroughly upon escaping into it for the first time. Surely someone should have noticed the handkerchief then.

All interesting points, but it wasn't enough to tell Phi who had killed Alice. There was something missing. There had to be something that Phi had missed. Just one more clue, and Phi would be able to unveil the murderer. Just one more clue…

To Be Continued…

This fanfic has branching storylines. To keep track of the various storylines, a link to the Flow Diagram is provided in my Author Profile.

We've reached Plot Lock 1: Can't see the Forest for the ABs. Since we can't continue along this storyline, that means we've cleaned out everything behind the magenta door and have to go all the way back to our very first choice of Chromatic Door (Chapter 2). We have two possible options:
1) Take Tenmyouji through the Yellow Door.
2) Take Alice through the Cyan Door.