Author's Note: Looks like I've not made everyone wait a month for the next chapter! This one is going up on 11 May 2017, and as of this date, I'm currently working on chapter 16. Sorry I haven't been posting as much; finals have just happened, and you know how that goes. In any case, as we left off, everyone but Robin introduced themselves. Hope you enjoy the chapter!

Nonary Game: Resonance

"Still with us?" Ian asked. Robin shook his head quickly, both to refocus on the present before him and cement his decision in his mind.

"I'm…" he started again, then hearing a whisper in his head.

"Diamond's at the top of the Mohs scale of hardness, at 10. At 9 is corundum, my boy, and then topaz at 8." The sentence felt like it had been spoken to him, rather like that he'd experienced in the classroom when reading about digital roots. However, this phrase seemed completely unrelated to anything he was experiencing. Who could possibly have told me this? And why would they have said it in… that way?

"Uh, you're number [8], right?" Marcus asked, perhaps feeling the aura of uncertainty that Robin was sure radiated from his entire body.

"...Right," Robin replied, bringing his palm up to his forehead in another attempt to regain traction in the real world. "I'm… just a college student. Nothing fancy or important here. But, uh… you can call me Topaz." Marcus' face fell slightly, as though he was judging Robin for not giving his real name. But he seemed to get over it quickly enough, realizing that there were far more important things to worry about.

"Now that that's out of the way," Lucky started, adjusting their cap, "It's probably about time we head to the numbered door, huh? Might as well try to get through it."

"Don't you think we should wait?" Basilio replied. "We cannot all go through that door!"

"He's right," Cody sighed. "Even if we planned it right, only five of us could make it through."

"There's gotta be another door, right?" Delta asked, scratching absently at his face. "We should see if we can find it."

"In any case, it's not a bad idea to make sure we don't have any other options," Ian affirmed. "Lucky, you only looked one way and found Door [5], right?"

"Yep," Lucky replied, pointing lazily toward the hall they'd gone down to find it. "I haven't been the other way yet."

"Maybe it's about time we check it out, then," Robin mused, raising his eyebrows. "It beats standing around here."

"Hold on, maybe a few of us should stay here just in case. To see if there's anything here that we could have missed," Cody followed.

"And there's another room back there we haven't even looked at," Boxcars added. "We'll see what we can do here."

The nine participants quickly decided how they would split. Robin, Lucky, Delta, Leo, and Ian would be going down the unexplored hallway to see if they could find any unlocked doors or other hints on how to progress further. Basilio and Cody would be staying in the area of the hallway that all the classrooms had opened into, to see if there was anything obvious everyone had missed while being distracted by the alien sensation that had shrouded them since waking up in such a terrible situation. Finally, Boxcars and Marcus would be checking the short hallway in the back corner, where there seemed to be another room.

"Is there anything back that way besides Door [5]?" Robin asked, nodding towards the end of the hall the group wouldn't be checking, or so he thought.

"See for yourself," Lucky answered with a shrug. They stayed at the fork with Leo, allowing Robin to press onward with Ian and Delta. They didn't notice anything too peculiar in the short stretch of hallway before them, but they did notice a bend several meters down.

Ian went ahead and jogged for it, but Robin saw no need to rush, and he instead looked around the hallway. The walls were rather uninteresting, made primarily of beige-painted brick. There seemed to be another classroom near the bend, which Robin approached. To his surprise, the handle didn't even move. He figured it'd be locked, but there must have been more keeping them out of the room. "Maybe they jammed the turning mechanism. It'd make sense, make it harder to burst down the door and keep us out," Delta figured.

"Won't that make it harder for us when we unlock it, though?" Robin asked.

"Oh, I don't know about that," Delta answered, crossing his arms. After seeing the look of confusion on Robin's face, he continued. "I don't think we'll be getting in there. I doubt there'll be anything of any use to us."

"How do you figure?" Robin asked.

Delta put a finger to his chin. "Once we go through the numbered doors, I don't think there's any way we'll be getting back here. Go ahead, take a look." He nodded to something behind Robin, who spun around to see Ian before the door. Indeed, it had been numbered [5], but the large digit was bolder than the number in his classroom, and there was a rather unsettling splatter effect that had been done with the red paint. "If there's a Door [5], and we know from the announcement that there's a Door [9], it makes perfect sense that we'll be running into several more doors later: [1], [2], [3]... They've got to be somewhere that we can't access from here, or else we would have seen more of them by now.

"Here's where I'm starting to theorize, but… I imagine that after going through here, we end up at a new area, with a few more doors, so that we keep progressing and never end up circling back. Someone could get left behind if they're not careful. It's probably something you want to keep in mind," Delta finished.

"Whoa," Robin answered. "Do you think we should tell the others?"

"That…" Delta paused, smirking slightly but with little emotion. "It might not be in our best interest. Perhaps we should be a bit careful about who we're trusting with strategy here. No offense, but I probably shouldn't have told you anything of my theories until we had more definitive proof." He glanced to the side, as though to find a nonliving rest site for his eyes. "We should look at the door more closely." Leading the way to the door, he finally let his crossed arms fall.

"I guess there isn't too much different from a normal door here," Ian mused as the other two joined beside him. "Well, it's double-wide, but that's pretty standard for a door in a school. And I figure you've noticed the other major difference."

"Let's not forget the RED," Robin said, eyeing a spot on the wall just beside the door. A fairly large device with a circular panel rested there, roughly at shoulder-height, paneled in red metal. He approached it casually, pulling down on the lever. The two harsh beeps reminded him of those he'd heard when exploring the classroom he'd woken up in.

"Interesting," Delta said. "I'm assuming that's the scanner. Topaz, would you place your hand on it?"

With a shrug, Robin obediently set his left palm against the panel, his lightly-spread fingers easily fitting in the circle. A single, chirpy beep graced his ears then, and an asterisk lit up on a panel beside the scanner. It looked to be a simple LED panel, which had been blank until scanning Robin. "I guess that means you're verified here," Ian said. "Of course, you're not going through that just yet."

Delta looked at Robin and then Ian for a split second. "No, I suppose not." 1 plus 4 plus 8 equals 13; 1 plus 3 equals 4. "Alright then, let's head back."

"You three having fun?" Leo asked, presumably disapproving of how long it took them to return. "We should head to the other end." From where they stood, it seemed to be basically a reflection of the hall that lead them to Door [5], which Robin figured was to be expected of a school. Hopefully there isn't too much creative architecture here. Another implication of the symmetry was that there would likely be a second double-wide door after the bend, an excellent candidate for an additional numbered door.

Still somewhat impatient from standing around before, Leo sped down and around the corner. Without stopping, he spoke. "Yeah. Here's the number [4] door." Those words lead the rest of the crew to pick up their paces, and they awkwardly jogged to catch the tail end of Leo's words. "I guess no one's screwed after all."

Robin scanned around the door, ensuring he could take in every detail. Indeed, the door matched Door [5] in every manner except the number. Lucky placed their hand against the scanner panel, just to be certain of its function. They raised their eyebrows at the sight of the asterisk on the LED screen. "Well, seems in order. Ian, Leo, shall we get going?"

7 plus 1 plus 5 equals 13; 1 plus 3 equals 4.

"...Relax, it was just a joke," Lucky said, holding up their hands in a defensive stance.

"Come on," Ian rallied, "let's get back to the others. Surely by now they've found whatever there is where they looked."

"Or whatever there isn't," Delta followed. Robin was inclined to believe he was correct. He gave Door [4] one last pensive look, then following the others as they paced back.

Before the idea escaped him, though, he slowed himself to check the other doors in the hallway, those belonging to additional classrooms, he figured. The first one he happened upon was rather like the door he and Delta had discussed just a few minutes ago, as was the second. The next door he came to, however…

"A bathroom," Lucky stated.

"Thank God," Leo cheered, briskly entering the men's room. Robin hadn't realized until that point, given the low-key adrenaline that had been flowing around inside of him, but his bladder was indeed under as much stress as the rest of his body. Giving the other three a casual tilt of his head, he ducked in right behind Leo.

While Leo made straight for one of the stalls, Robin's eye was caught by a glint of silver from the farthest sink. He approached it curiously, and it resolved itself into a chain. One end of the chain was affixed to the base of the faucet, reminding him of a bathtub stopper, although why a sink would have a chain holding on to its plug was beyond him. Indeed, the chain did not even stop at the hole, sinking at least another couple of inches down the drain. It seemed to be clean enough, though, so he hooked a finger behind it and rattled it loose.

To his surprise, the free end of the chain looped through a hole in a small key, the kind one might use to get into their home. It was fairly unremarkable, however, excepting an odd symbol on one side.

"What's that?" Leo asked, seeming a bit more relaxed after getting the opportunity to relieve some tension.

"I just found this hanging from the faucet," Robin replied. "Do you have any idea what this symbol is?"

Leo leaned in a bit, his eyebrows curving up as he focused on it. "It kinda looks like a theta, doesn't it? But the line's all the way across the circle here. It's probably something else though, maybe astronomical or alchemical or something." Robin didn't know any astronomical symbols off the top of his head, and he hadn't even been aware of alchemical symbols at all.

"Think one of the others would know?" he asked.

Leo shrugged. "A pilot, a sharpshooter, and a dude whose looks scream 'paranoid fashionista.' Not exactly my idea of nerds, but it can't hurt to ask, I guess."

Thus, the others were summoned in. Ian and Delta entered with no further words, but Lucky stayed stock-still. "Uh, I know precious little about symbology." Robin glanced back at the restroom door, clearly labeled with a male sign, then nodding in an awkward apology.

"This look familiar to either of you?" Leo asked, holding up the key.

"A circle with a line through the center; very specific," Ian mused, quite sarcastically.

"Hey, knock it off. We're trying to figure this shit out, same as you," Leo grunted.

"I have to agree with Ian," Delta sighed. "Unfortunately, this symbol is far too basic to discern meaning from. I bet it's been used hundreds of times over history for all sorts of things. Hell, it could be something exclusive to this game."

"Maybe we could ask the others when we get back," Robin said.

"Dude," Delta interjected. "It's a way long shot to hope anyone can figure out this circle in a line. Why don't we worry about it when we split off to go through the numbered doors." Robin wanted to make it clear he didn't think it was a good idea to keep information from the others, but he doubted that Delta would have any qualms with doing that. Shrugging, Ian and Leo lead the way out of the restroom.

"No luck, I presume," Lucky asked, stretching their arms. The other four let the silence answer them.

"Hey, they're all back," Cody called, leading Basilio to approach.

"It's about time," Basilio said. "Did you find a lot of things? Or were you just relaxing?"

"Like there's a single one of us here who doesn't need to relax," Leo replied, letting only a hint of a frown cross his otherwise neutral face.

"Why don't we start with you all?" Robin asked Cody. "No offense, but it doesn't look like you were too successful."

"Nah, we really weren't. But at least we figured out a couple of interesting things," Cody replied. "Firstly, it looks like all of the doors that go into the classrooms we woke up in are locked again. I guess whoever's moderating this game has decided we're done in there, so there's probably no need to go back and get anything we've left. Not that we had any personal effects on us besides our clothing, but… whatever.

"Second, well… You know how your room had one locked door and one that you unlocked? Well, all the second, locked doors are totally jammed from the outside. You can't even jiggle the handles."

"Yeah, we ran into the same thing," Ian replied. "Looks like we can't get into a damn one of the rooms around here."

"That's probably because our kidnapper wants us to go ahead and go through the numbered door. But, anyway…" Cody continued. "Only one more thing, really. There's not a single natural source of light in this place. Every source is on the ceiling. So I'm thinking we're at least a bit underground here."

"Do you think this school could be entirely underground? Isn't that kind of weird?" Robin asked.

"Nah, I doubt that," Cody replied. "It's more likely we're just in the basement, or the school's built into a hillside, or something along those lines. Although, I guess without being able to see anything like a staircase around here there's no way to be sure."

Basilio contributed no additional information, and Robin highly doubted that he and Cody were keeping anything from the rest of them, so he slowly nodded. "I guess we should ask Boxcars to see what he found."

"Did you have any luck with that additional room back here?" Ian asked Boxcars as he approached.

"Well, for starters, there's actually two rooms back here. One looks like it's just a bit smaller than a normal classroom, but Lord knows what's in it. It's locked." Boxcars shrugged, then clearing his throat.

"Let me guess," Robin chimed, "the handle's totally jammed?"

"Uh, no? What do you mean?" Boxcars stepped aside and jiggled the handle easily enough. Alas, pulling on it was fruitless.

"That's weird," Ian agreed. "All of the random doors we passed by on the way to the numbered doors were stuck. Like, we couldn't even move the handle at all."

"Huh. Well, I don't think these handles are moving all the way either. If they were, the little bar thing would recede all the way, and we could open the door. So it's probably just locked," Boxcars continued.

"I'm guessing you didn't find anything like a key, then?" Robin asked.

"Not at all," Boxcars groaned. "Anyway, you're forgetting about the other room. Well, it's not too much of a room, per se."

"It's sort of a supply closet," Marcus continued. "Like what you'd expect to be filled with stuff a custodian would probably use to keep the school fixed up. The thing is, there isn't any of that stuff… exactly."

"Exactly?" Leo asked.

"There are quite a number of bottles and boxes that look like they'd hold cleaning solutions or something. But none of them are full. Most of them are completely empty, actually," Marcus followed.

"Was there anything else on the shelves or somewhere that stood out?" Ian asked.

"Not a damn thing," Boxcars replied, crossing his arms.

"Wait." Robin weakly held up a hand in thought. "You said only most of them are empty, right? So I'm assuming some of them have at least something in them?" Marcus' eyes widened slightly, but he nodded, allowing Robin to continue. "Maybe we should see which ones they are, in case there's some kind of hidden information or something."

"Okay, doesn't that seem a bit ridiculous?" Leo chided. "It's probably just random stuff, dude."

"The worst that could happen is we waste a couple of minutes," Delta shrugged. Robin was a bit surprised he hadn't spoken until that point, but he figured it unwise to question someone who had just shown support for his idea.

"Ah, what the hell," Boxcars agreed. Thus, he and Marcus sorted through the containers in the closet. They handed the few items that were not empty to the other participants, who sort of awkwardly gripped them in silence. "Yeah, I think that's it." All told, there were two boxes and an opaque bottle, which Robin was holding. He examined it closely, wondering why anyone would paint what he figured was glass so that its contents could not be seen.

"Does anyone have any idea what this stuff is?" Leo asked, gazing with uncertainty into a box of small, white chunks.

"Your box says MgSO4, so magnesium sulfate," Marcus stated.

"...Which is…?" Leo asked.

"Epsom salt. Uh, sort of. I think it might be anhydrous…" Marcus replied. Given the uncomfortable look that came over his face, Leo decided to return the box to the shelf. "Wait, we should see if there's anything stuck in there. It shouldn't be dangerous, so…" Slowly, Marcus began to pour the contents of the box into another, empty one. "Ah," he said softly, reaching into the near-empty box he was still holding. "Look at this," he called, holding up a small key.

"Whoa, that looks familiar," Leo stated. The key looked to be almost identical to the one they'd found in the men's restroom only ten minutes prior.

"Maybe you all should tell us what you found," Boxcars suggested. With a sigh, Robin decided to do so.