We go back to the end of chapter 52 in order to break through Plot Lock 11: Deja Vu
Sigma was the first out of the infirmary after Alice, pausing only to allow the door time to automatically open before him, but Phi wasn't far behind. She broke into a ferocious sprint, only to be brought up short when she caught up with Sigma. He was standing frozen at the intersection between the exit to the infirmary and the corridor that connected all the upper floor rooms; both doorways were closed, blocking sight in both directions.
"Sigma! Which way did Alice go?!" Phi asked forcefully.
"Agh! I don't know which way she went," Sigma replied.
"You don't know! What's the point of those wild intuitions you're having if they…" Phi choked on the words she was trying to say. Images flashed in front of her eyes.
She was kneeling in a stream. Her head was bowed; Phi tried to raise it but found the struggle to do so immense. Bright light speared down from above, scattering off every ripple of water. As Phi watched the patterns the reflections made around her knees, she felt a thick, viscous liquid creep over them.
It was red. It was blood.
Phi threw in an immense effort and strained to raise her head. Her eyes followed the rivulets of blood back up the stream: around the meandering bends, past banks of waving grass and weakly sprouting flowers, and all the way back to its source.
The blood was Alice's. Alice knelt limply in the shadow of a rocky cliff-face, her very life draining out of her and into the water. As she gazed on, Phi knew exactly what she was seeing. She was seeing how Alice would die.
"Hey, Phi! You alright?" Sigma asked loudly, snapping Phi's reverie.
Phi shook her head to clear her thoughts. "Yeah," she dismissed Sigma's concern. What the hell had that been?! While she had been in the vision, it had felt completely real. Now Phi wasn't so sure. She would have dismissed it as just her imagination, but something about the whole deal seemed… familiar.
The rest of the players emerged from the infirmary, Dio at the head. "You lost her?!" Dio blurted out as he saw them standing there. The other players, seeing Phi and Sigma standing still, also slowed down; all their momentum had been squandered.
Phi took charge; it was reassuring to take control so soon after that moment of uncertainty. "Let's split up and look. Quickly! She can't have gotten too far." Phi scratched her chin, trying to think of the best strategy should one of the players find Alice. "Look… if you find her, it's best not to shout or anything. Just… do your best not to provoke her. Understood?"
They did. Sigma darted off to the left, so Phi… froze. Why couldn't she move? Sigma had headed left, so heading right was the obvious, logical choice. Yet, Phi didn't.
As Phi tried to force her foot forward, and as the other players left to start their search, she had a sudden spark of realisation. In that moment, she understood exactly what that horrific vision had reminded her of. It was exactly like how Sigma had suddenly just known everything about the control room. Sigma had also described what had happened to him as a 'vision': maybe, just maybe, it was the same as what had happened to Phi.
No. That was ridiculous. There was no way Phi had just had a vision of Alice's death. That sort of thing didn't happen. Never.
And yet, Phi couldn't shake the conviction that what she had seen was true. She couldn't shake the conviction that Alice was about to kill herself in that verdant brightly-lit room.
Very well, then. Phi would search there. Someone had to, at least, so it wasn't like Phi was being completely irrational by giving in. Of course, she first had to work out where that room was. It wasn't one that Phi had already visited. Phi tried to recall what the other teams had mentioned about the rooms they had opened. Only one possibility fit: Clover had mentioned that she, Tenmyouji and Dio had searched a room called the 'B. garden'. That sounded right. Phi would search there.
She broke into a sprint, instantaneously accelerating to a punishing pace. Phi tore past Clover, Luna, K and Dio despite their speed along the corridor; as Sigma turned off the corridor to enter the lounge she tore past him as well. All that mattered to Phi was getting to where she was going. As Phi reached the elevator she dived inside and pressed the button to take it down. There were angry shouts from back along the corridor; Clover, K and Dio sounded frustrated that Phi was taking the elevator down alone. But that didn't matter. All that mattered to Phi was getting to where she was going.
The moment Phi reached the bottom of the elevator shaft and stepped out, the doors closed behind her: probably the elevator being called back by those Phi had left on the upper floor. Phi ignored it. She was focused solely on her destination. Clover, Tenmyouji and Dio had searched it; that meant the blue door. Phi charged through it.
As she reached a corner in the corridor beyond, a door automatically opened in front of her where she hadn't expected it. Phi vaguely remembered that the map had marked it as a shortcut allowing the teams that had gone through the green and blue Chromatic Doors back towards the elevator. Still, it was the wrong way. Phi ignored the shortcut and swung herself around the corner.
At the end of the corridor, Phi found three doors leading off a hub, exactly like behind the red door. Only one was unlocked. That had to be the entrance to the B. garden! Phi dived through.
As Phi entered, she saw instantly that she was right. The B. garden looked exactly like the room in her vision. That meant there had to be something to it. She hadn't been there before; whatever had told her what the room looked like could also be right about Alice.
Having validated her vision, Phi's mind edited out all the details of the garden: the blades of grass, the flowers, the ripples of water, the stocky zelkova tree. Compared to what Phi was looking for, they were irrelevant. Instead she stared with eagle-like focus on the cliff-face opposite the entrance. And, peering into the shadows it cast, Phi saw what she was looking for.
There, framed by the cliff face, Alice stood.
There, framed by the cliff face, Alice raised the scalpel high.
As Phi stepped forward, time froze. The knife seemed to be descending so slowly, so casually, and yet Alice was so far away. Phi only had one chance; she had to cross the distance in time. As she leapt desperately toward Alice she stretched out her arms towards Alice's wrist. Even as Phi's mind strategized and calculated, she knew it wouldn't matter. All that mattered was the race: Phi, versus Alice's scalpel.
Not knowing if she'd won or not, Phi crashed into Alice, forcing her arms to the side and driving her back into the rocks. There was a moment of complete silence.
Then Alice's heavy breathing told Phi that she was still alive.
Then Alice's guttural growl told Phi that it wasn't over yet.
Alice wrenched her arms forward. Phi tried to hold them in place, but as her resistance gave way, Phi realised: Alice was stronger than she was, Alice was much better trained, and Alice was further boosted by the relentless Radical-6. Only Alice's mindlessness had prevented her from overcoming Phi instantly. But inefficient as Alice's assault was, she would free her knife eventually. She would stab herself, then. She might even try to stab Phi.
And whoever Alice stabbed, Phi would lose.
This fanfic has branching storylines. To keep track of the various storylines, a link to the Flow Diagram is provided in my Author Profile.
This would be another Plot Lock (Plot Lock 12: Know the Terrain) but we already picked up the Plot Key by going through the B. Garden in chapter 31. Thus, we'll continue straight on through.
