Chapter 3

When they escape the laboratory, they run along a long hallway that leads them back to the large hospital room, like Rikona told them. They're all relieved to see that she's unharmed, and Keiichi and Nona are at peace to see Aya again. Ryota is behaving well it seems.

The children begin to discuss their next plan of action. They have managed to acquire a set of keys and cards, and inform each other how they have obtained them behind Door 3 and Door 8.

"What about Door 7?" Akane wonders, before Keiichi can open his mouth to suggest that they should look for the doors that will open with the keys they have found instead. "Is there anyway we can check out that door?"

Fumio slides his glasses up his nose. "We can split up. One set of us can look a-around for more doors, while you guys go off."

"Perfect!" Akane beams at him, causing his cheeks to flush slightly.

So, as the others look for other doors with the new keys, Keiichi, Akane, Aoi, and Rikona go to check out Door 7, and all the while, Rikona, who has learned from Fumio, explains how to solve each puzzle.

"And what is the code to the safe?"

Rikona huffs at Akane. "I thought I already told you. You have to figure out how many atoms are in Carbon Dioxide, Ammonia, and Ethanol."

Keiichi racks his brain, struggling to remember what he learned in his chemistry class last year. "So, 3, 4 . . . and 9?" he guesses.

"Yes."

"Alright, 3,4, and 9." Akane nods to herself, which makes Keiichi suspicious.

"Why are you – ?"

Akane shrugs. "I'm just wondering."

But the way she bites her lip nervously makes Keiichi think there's more to what meets the eye.

When they return from Door 7, the group discovers from Light, Aya, Fumio, and Ryota that the E-Deck isn't flooded, and that they have found Doors 1, 2, and 6.

Keiichi directs the group once more, though, this time Aoi insists he wants to go through a door with Akane. Keiichi and Rikona's calculations, however, do not allow for him and Akane to go through the same door as Aoi.

"Why do you have to be the one to figure out what doors we go through anyway, Keiichi?!"

Shit. Keiichi quickly racks his mind for an excuse. "Because I'm following the same way the others in Building Q have been going through the doors! My sister has been transmitting me the information, and I think the best way to go about this is to follow what they've been doing!"

It's actually quite the opposite.

Keiichi has been transmitting the way he's been leading everyone on the Gigantic to Keiko. She, in turn, has been directing everyone in her group which doors to go through based on the information she has been receiving from him. It's a lie that works out splendidly, actually, because everyone here has been receiving information from their siblings about the doors they have gone through, and they all think that Keiko – who has been being led by her brother – has been leading their siblings in Building Q.

It makes him wonder if that's why he's on the Gigantic and Keiko is in Building Q, instead of the other way around – the way it really should be – considering he is the transmitter and she's the receiver.

Thankfully, Light interjects before Aoi can protest any further, and asks him not to fret, since they'll reunite soon. He also calmly adds that they also don't have the time to be arguing over this. With a scowl, Aoi reluctantly agrees.

So, they divide up into teams of three: Aoi, Nona, and Rikona to Door 1, Light, Ryota, and Aya to Door 2, and Keiichi, Akane, and Fumio to Door 6.

Keiichi is nearly positive now that Rikona knows why he needs to be sorting the groups and is trying to help him out.

Keiichi is secretly afraid of heights, but sucks it up and steps slowly down the stairs of the big Steam Engine area, with an also reluctant Fumio, and a confident Akane who flies down the stairs ahead of them.

Throughout their time in escaping the area, he notices Akane touching her cheeks and forehead occasionally, as if she has a fever, and he even asks her a few times if she's alright, but she quickly assures him that she is.

As he climbs up the steep stairs once more, on his way to the final puzzle that is near the exit door, he swallows back the bile that rises up his throat, wondering to himself if this is father's way of personally punishing him.

.

Keiichi squints and brings the card closer to his face. "These cards . . . are they supposed to be blurry mugshots of us?"

"Everyone's faces look the same," Akane, who has been helping him find the cards, comments. "Why are they blurry? They shouldn't be blurry." The last bits of her words are in a murmur, but Keiichi catches them anyway.

Fumio walks down the metal staircase of the Cargo Room, to where she and Keiichi are standing. "I wonder . . . is this puzzle supposed to show how people with p-prosopagnosia see faces?"

Akane's eyes widen. "Prosopagnosia," she whispers to herself in shock.

"Huh? Progo-what?"

Fumio slides up his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his index finger. "Prosopagnosia," he corrects Keiichi. "It's a d-disorder where the mind can't tell between human facial structures. I heard m-my father talk about it once."

Akane swallows and then nods. "Y-Yeah, and everyone's faces look all the same. It's kind of like with animals. If you go to the zoo and look at all of the monkeys, you can't really tell the difference between each of them, right? It's supposed to be kind of like that."

"Mm-hm." Fumio nods back. "There are t-two types: acquired and congenital. Acquired prosopagnosia happens when the part of your brain that can d-distinguish between faces is damaged, and congenital prosopagnosia is when you're born with the disorder."

Keiichi has never heard of anything like that before. "So, if you have prosopagnosia, how are you supposed to figure out who is whom?" he wonders, his eyes flitting to the cards in Akane's hands.

"Y-You're supposed to go by the p-person's voice or visual cues, like a person's hair and s-skin color, their clothes, and their b-body," Fumio explains, as he looks around the crates and barrels for anything they might have missed.

"But it would be easy to mistake relatives, even with those cues," Akane argues, as she shuffles through the cards. "Hey!" She holds one up. "I think this one's of you, Keiichi! I don't think anyone else has that kind of hair!" She giggles. "It reminds me of a lion."

Keiichi smiles weakly, taking the card from her and inserting into the slot of the box with the 9 on it. "Yeah. That's why my dad calls me his cub . . . now, come on, let's get out of here."

The three of them sift through the cards and put them in their proper slots, and then retrieve the pins from the boxes that have now opened.

They use the pins to solve the puzzle at the control panel and a slot opens to reveal a rusty key. Akane is bewildered, muttering something to herself about the lack of a Pushmaster 5000. Keiichi holds back his chuckle at her weirdness as they all walk back down the stairs to the exit, and use the key to open the door.

Akane and Fumio walk through the exit, but Keiichi feels himself stop in the doorway. His feet are planted in the ground and he feels immobilized, unable to move, heavy with the realization that has just dawned upon him.

He turns once more to stare at the 9 blue boxes intently, as the faces of Papa's servants, Yori and Norio, come into his mind.

"Keiichi?" Fumio calls out questioningly.

Akane, too, is confused by his behavior. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Keiichi is silent for a moment before he answers in a small whisper, "I think . . . I think the person who has been making us play the Nonary Game has prosopagnosia."