Satsuriku no Tenshi:Volume 1 Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - Floor B5

With a terrible vertigo, Ray gets off the elevator. As she takes deep breaths to calm herself, she’s suddenly aware of the strong scent of antiseptic.

(Is this a hospital…?)

Her blurry vision slowly returns to normal, revealing that the current floor is utterly unlike the floor she had been on previously. It’s like an extremely clean hospital, and reminds her of the floor she had woken up on. But the atmosphere is different. That floor didn’t give her even the slightest impression of vitality. This floor feels as if someone was just recently hard at work here – it feels alive. Taking a single glance at the ground, she can see that every single tile shines brightly from having been freshly polished – someone has obviously recently been cleaning.

But, because the light isn’t on, it’s very dark.

The single source of light she can see is at what appears to be the reception desk, where a large computer gives off a pale, cold light. As if drawn in toward that light, Ray briskly walks toward the desk.

Behind it are numerous tall glass shelves, filled with various medications arranged in a peculiarly tidy manner. Small lightbulbs shine upon them from within the shelves, almost as if they had been placed there for display purposes. The medicine bottles shimmer beneath the light.

On the computer screen is a slideshow of eyeballs scrolling past, one after another.

(I feel sick…)

There is a small analogue clock near the computer. Ray has no way of telling whether it is day or night, but the time has stopped near eight o’clock.

(So I guess it’s eight…)

An image of a clock surfaces within the girl’s mind. But it isn’t the clock she sees right in front of her right now – it’s a wall-mounted clock with a cute little bird motif.

(Is that the clock in my room…?)

That’s the feeling I get, but I can’t remember…

And for some reason, when she tries to remember – she feels afraid.

(Anyway, I have to find a way to get out of here, before that thing finds me…)

She’s certain that if he finds her again, he’ll kill her. She completely lacks the confidence that she’ll be able to escape should he chase her again.

(I wonder if I can find a map or something of this place…) Gulping, Ray begins opening various drawers.

However, she’s unable to find anything that might tell her about the building. Instead, she finds various patient charts, likely containing information about the patients’ data and symptoms. Unfortunately, the handwriting is no better than chicken scratchings, and Ray is unable to read them.

(Looks like there’s nothing here, then…)

Feeling rather disappointed, Ray leaves the reception area –

And that’s when she sees someone tall leaving one of the examination rooms, heading straight for her.

(…!)

She doesn’t know who that is. But she instinctively feels that she must run away. Alas, the moment she begins to flee, that mysterious person grabs her dainty arm and calls out to her.

“Wait, Rachel! It’s me.” The slightly urgent tug on her arm prompts Ray to turn toward him, even as she forcibly tries to pull her arm away.

(He said my name…?)

“Rachel, have you forgotten me?”

“…Eh?” Ray’s eyes widen a little. Unlike that man from before, this one has a gentle face.

“Listen…I’m the one who examined you. Don’t you remember?”

(…Examined?)

“I’m your counsellour!”

In that moment, the sound of a bell resonates in Ray’s ears. It’s certainly the same sound she heard when she first opened her eyes.

“You’re…the doctor who examined me…?”

“Yes, that’s right. I’m your physician, Doctor Danny.”

(Doctor…Danny…)

That name sounds familiar. And, dimly, she can remember some kind of counselling session.

That’s right…the doctor that always looked over me in that counselling room…wore a white lab coat…and had glasses…

The man in the faint memories called back to her looks quite similar to the man standing in front of her right now.

“…Doctor Danny…my counsellour…”

Ray repeats those words as if to revive more of her memories. However, despite the fact that she’s able to recall the appearance of the counselling room, she’s unable to clearly remember the face of the psychiatrist who had examined her.

…But…I’m sure that it was Doctor Danny.

“Rachel, you seem a bit scared. Well, I suppose that’s to be expected…this place is quite scary, after all. But relax. I’m most certainly your doctor. …Right?”

As if to calm her, Danny smiles gently at her.

(…I feel as if during our sessions, he would always smile at me like this, too…)

“…Okay, doctor.”

As she faintly remembers that smiling face, for an instant, Ray feels as her strength is about to leave her – and she finally looks at Danny with the same empty eyes she had had when she had awoken.

“Ah, you’ve remembered me. And…it’s good you’re all right. You’re smart, though, so I figured you would make it this far.” Danny sinks into silence. His expression morphs into one of severe brooding as he stares into her tranquil blue eyes.

“…Doctor, why are you here?” Ray finds his expression somewhat suspicious, and can’t help but pose this question.

“I…before I realised it, I found myself here. I can’t find the exit, you see, and I’ve been here for quite a while…but there’s no one else here on this floor except for me anymore.”

Danny answers her after what seems to be a bit of thought.

(No one else…)

Thinking back on it, there had been no one on B7, either – and B6 had only housed that grim reaper-like man.

“You know, doctor, I’m really scared…I was even chased by something earlier, too… What is this place…?” Ray asks, her small shoulders shaking. That insane laughter still reverberates through her ears. It had sounded like something out of some terrifying movie.

“Rachel, the one who was chasing you was most likely…a serial killer. This place is kind of scary, you see – it seems to be some kind of game for them. The murderers give chase, and kill whoever they manage to catch… I’ve heard the ones being chased are called sacrifices.”

“…Sacrifices?” Ray recalls the broadcast she had heard in the elevator when she had been going up to B6. Though she hadn’t heard it properly, she feels like she had heard that word.

“I don’t really know the details, either. Anyway – let’s go. If possible, I’d like to survive this place with you.” Danny takes the girl’s slightly cold hand and smiles gently at her.

“Yeah…”

(Is Doctor a sacrifice…too?)

An angel, or a sacrifice?

Those words, that had seemed like magic, surface in Ray’s mind as she gazes at the doctor’s somehow nostalgic smile.

▲▽

After that, the two of them walk in a silence so deep and profound, they might as well be beneath the sea.

Danny walks briskly and surely, like he knows this place by heart – even though neither of them can see the end of the hallway. There is not the slightest bit of hesitation in the man’s actions.

“Doctor, have you been trapped here for a long time?” Ray asks, looking up at Danny’s face. Truthfully, the man is so calm that the word trapped seems to be inaccurate, and she feels rather uncomfortable in his presence.

“I guess you could say that… Rachel, are you worried you won’t be able to leave?”

“I think I’ll be all right if I’m with you…” Ray says this a bit breathlessly. Though, truthfully, she doesn’t feel that way – she merely has the unconscious feeling that this is what she must say.

“That’s true. Even if we aren’t able to get out, so long as we leisurely spend time together like this, something good might happen. Something good for you, as well as for me. Ah, I’m truly happy that you came, Rachel.” Danny glances toward her as if an idea has suddenly occurred to him.

“…? Yeah…”

(Was he…always like this?)

She tries to remember her counselling sessions with him. But she can’t recall even a fragment of what she had talked to the doctor about or why she had come to him for counselling.

After a while of walking down that dark hallway, the two of them come to an enormous pane of glass blocking the rest of the way.

“…A dead end,” Ray murmurs with a sigh. Framed behind the glass, she can see the hallway continue on; it’s like looking at an exceptionally strange painting.

“Yes…we can’t go any farther. Since this glass is very sturdy.” With a slightly troubled expression, Danny knocks on the glass a couple times.

“I see…”

(…Because, he’s been locked up for a long time, right?)

And as that thought surfaces in Ray’s mind –

“It seems that the two of us are locked up here together, huh?” Danny says pleasantly, gazing through the glass.

“…Eh?”

It could be a joke to relieve the strain on Ray’s mind. But that statement seems far too unnatural.

Because, just a while ago, he said he wants to leave this place with me…

“…Come, Rachel. I’ll take you to that room. The door is unlocked.” Turning his gaze away from Ray, whose brows are furrowed in consternation, he points toward a door they had passed when they had been walking earlier.

▲▽

“A special patient once stayed here.”

In the room is a single pure white bed, its frame composed of stainless steel. The bed is surrounded by a tall enclosure. While it appears clean and tidy, there is a scent in the air that reminds Ray of blood. The two IVs arranged near the bed still have some sort of liquid inside them.

(This is…?)

Near the pillow is an emergency button. However, as the girl looks closer, she notices that the button has already been pressed. Not only that, it even has a small crack in the centre.

“Have you met this patient, doctor?” Ray asks, staring at that strange crack.

“Yes. But she died shortly after I arrived here.”

“Why?”

“An illness.”

“She wasn’t being treated?”

“I…am a psychiatrist. I can do nothing but give my support to those whose minds are ill.”

(A sick mind…?)

Was my mind sick…?

Surely it must be something like that – though she cannot remember what occurred before she came to the hospital. That’s why, in this moment, Rachel can only think of herself as a completely normal girl.

“…Doctor, what did I come to you for counselling for?”

“You really can’t remember, Rachel?” The doctor stares intently at her eyes, as if he’s been torn from something desperately important to him.

“…No.”

“I see. Then I’ll have to remind you immediately… More importantly, take a look at this. Try to read it.” Looking a bit eager now, Danny points toward the writing on the wall.

“Do you know your own wish?

“Do you have something you desire?

“If that is your instinct, then fighting against it is meaningless.

“For if it were not, you would not be here.

“Every wish has a price.

“Do not break the rules.”

“Do these mean anything…?” Ray recalls the other words she read on the lower floors. They were all like this – written in white chalk.

“Yes, probably. I only noticed this recently, but there must be some rules for this place. After all, that killer didn’t follow you here.”

(…Rules…)

A flash of realisation overcomes Ray as she thinks. Certainly, the door for the elevator to B5 is now open. So if that man was still chasing her…surely he would have already caught up to her by now. But it seems as if he has no intention of pursuing her.

(Is that because that’s one of the rules…?)

“Then, what about the ‘wish’?” Ray asks as she thinks.

“Who knows? I guess everyone has their own. But…yeah. I…want pretty eyes. My right eye is bad… I don’t like the colour, either. If I had eyes like yours…I’d be overjoyed.” Danny’s answer comes quietly, as he looks down at her pretty face, yet with some vestiges of immaturity.

(He doesn’t like the colour…?)

As Ray looks up at Danny’s right eye, she sees that it certainly doesn’t seem to shine very brightly; however, it still looks like a normal eye to her.

I wonder what he means when he says he wants pretty eyes…

As suspicion begins to cloud her mind, she notices a small window out of the corner of her eye. Seized by some strange sense of anxiety, the girl runs to the window. There’s no light. No matter how hard she looks, she can’t get any sense of depth of what lies outside; in fact, she can’t see anything at all. All she can see are several scratch marks, as if someone has torn at the material with their nails with all their strength.

“Rachel, do you know what these marks are?” Softly coming closer to her, Danny begins to trace the markings with his finger.

Ray shakes her head slightly.

“…I’ll give you a hint. A patient made these marks. …Now, do you understand what they mean?”

(What they…mean?)

“…No.” Her reply is quiet. No matter how much she thinks, she can’t come up with an answer.

Seeing her puzzled expression, the doctor looks somehow satisfied. It’s almost as if he’s pleased that she doesn’t know the answer.

“Then that’s fine. You don’t need to know the meaning of these marks.” He smiles with his usual, soft smile.

“Do you know the answer, doctor…?” Ray asks quietly. His manner of speaking implies that he does.

“No, and I don’t want to. More importantly, let’s go find the exit.” As if dodging her question, the man simply produces a beaming smile, and grips Ray’s hand as if to lead her away.

(…Ah.)

However, in that moment, Ray’s eyes land on another set of markings on the wall – they look like words.

“Doctor, I have the feeling there’s something written over there.”

Shaking his hand off, the girl runs to the other wall.

…lp…help me… I’m sca…

There…three… …I’m…only one he…

…’re coming...kill m… …only…one…

Most of it is covered in dust, so Ray can’t read it completely. She lifts a hand to begin wiping the dust off.

But in that instant –

“Stop! You’ll get dirt in your eye!”

Until now, he’s been so calm and gentle – but now his expression has completely changed as he shouts those words. Grabbing her arm roughly, he tears her away from the wall.

(…?!)

Doctor, that hurts.

Despite wanting to say that, Ray keeps her mouth shut. Somehow, it doesn’t feel as if she can say that right now. Danny’s facial expression is wildly different from earlier – until now, he’s been able to seem completely normal.

“Rachel, take care of your eyes. Because they’re so beautiful that I can’t help but want them.”

He speaks as if scolding her, gazing at her blue eyes as if they might be unpolished raw gems. Her eyes are reflected in his own.

“But, there’s something written…” She speaks hesitantly, unnerved by his insistent speech, as she glances at the wall once again.

“It’s surely just the patient’s boring whining. Just a regular person’s complaining.”

“You can read it, doctor…?”

“No, one of my eyes isn’t good…but it’s definitely something useless. Now, Rachel, your eyes must be a bit worn out now. How about you take an afternoon nap in my room?”

“A nap, now?” she asks quietly, confused by his usage of the words afternoon nap.

“…You’re right! That was silly of me. You’re so smart, Rachel!” Once again, he smiles sweetly, evading her question.

“…Is it noon?” Feeling somewhat distrustful of his attitude, Ray asks once again.

“Hmm, if you think it’s noon, then it must be noon.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have no idea. I’ve been here for so long that I can’t tell what time it is. Come along, Rachel, let’s go to my room.”

▲▽

Danny pulls Ray down the hallway somewhat forcibly. Tugging her down a bend in the corridor, he makes his way to a room at the very end of the hall.

“I found this key shortly after I arrived here.” And, taking a small cardkey from his lab coat, he opens the door.

(It looks like that other card…)

Ray is immediately reminded of the card she picked up after she buried the bird. It had opened the door for the hallway that lead to the elevator.

I wonder if his key could open the special patient’s room, too…

“Is this an operating room…?” Whilst thinking, the girl looks around the room from where she stands in the doorway. It looks precisely like an operating room. Against the walls are cold, stainless steel shelves, upon which are numerous sorts of tools and utensils. When Ray concentrates her gaze, it looks as if the tools are smeared in some sticky, dark substance, like blood.

(I thought this place wasn’t used anymore…)

Grimacing slightly, Ray steps into the room.

“I always spent my time here.”

Danny smiles as he scratches the pale green surgical table. It looks as if someone has left marks on it.

“…I’m a little scared.” It’s an instinctive feeling, borne of the terrible stench that assails her nose as she looks around the room.

“Are you? There’s no need, Rachel. This is just a normal room. More importantly…would you let me look at your eyes, Rachel?” Smiling as he approaches the trembling girl, Danny grasps her by the chin and tilts her head up. And then he speaks, earnestly, as if reciting poetry –

“Oh, Rachel, your eyes truly are beautiful…but they’re so full of fear… Almost like normal eyes… I’m so sad. I want to see your real, lovely eyes… I wonder if they’ll return to that exquisite stillness, like that blue moon, once you wake up from this nightmare…?”

(Nightmare…? Normal eyes…?)

Ray doesn’t really understand what Danny is talking about.

“Listen, Rachel…I’ve always wanted to live with those eyes of yours.” Danny’s expression almost looks as if he’s about to burst into tears as he gently traces the flesh around the girl’s eyes.

“Doctor…?”

(Why is he sad that my eyes are “normal”…?)

She doesn’t understand… And I feel like he’s acting differently than before…

She’s suddenly bombarded by a thick, oppressive unease. Instinctively, she takes several steps away from the man.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’ve always been alone, so I’ve picked up this habit of talking to myself. It’s strange, I know.” Speaking rather offhandedly, he picks up a cup from among the various tools and splashes in some pure black coffee from the coffee maker. He takes a sip before he speaks again, his ring finger tracing his lips contemplatively. “Speaking of which…it seems I’ve forgotten something in the back room.”

“You forgot something…?” The girl stares blankly at the man’s retreating figure, unsure of what to make of his sudden statement.

“But it’s really dark in there…and my eye isn’t good, so I’m sure I won’t be able to find it… Do you think you could get it for me, Rachel?”

“What is it…?”

“You don’t remember?” He smiles softly.

“…I don’t.” Ray shakes her head.

“I see…I’ll give you a hint.”

“My eye is alexandrite.”

With his gaze downcast, the man recites those words as if they might be a spell, playfully holding his index finger against his mouth.

▲▽

(What did he forget…?)

He said something about alexandrite…is he talking about a jewel?

Encroached by a growing anxiety thanks to the ineffectual hint, Ray continues down the short hallway in the surgery room.

She finds herself in a small, dimly lit room, similar to a shed. The orderliness with which it appears to be organised is almost odd. The only source of light in the room is a small blue light bulb flickering in the ceiling.

It would appear that this room is supplied by water; she can hear water droplets trickling from a facet somewhere in the room, falling in even intervals. The room smells faintly of rust.

(I wonder if that coffee was made from this water…)

The tall steel shelves are lined with clear jars, all filled with various specimens. One especially large one is filled with some sort of liquid, and contains a countless number of small round objects bobbing up and down.

(These are…eyes…)

“They’re…all blue…”

Unthinkingly, she takes several steps back from that ghastly sight, and stumbles over a large white box. With a loud crash, she tumbles to the ground along with the box – and from it spill a vast number of fake eyes. Red, green, blue – the three colours roll about the floor chaotically.

“…Rachel, have you found my eye?”

Her heart jumps. She hears Danny’s voice sounding out behind her.

“Doctor…what are these…?”

Despite understanding that these are fake eyes, Ray wants confirmation. She hadn’t even considered the possibility that Danny’s forgotten item might be an eye. Because, after all, as the doctor had peered at her above the rims of his glasses in the darkness – she had clearly seen herself reflected in those eyes.

“Those are eyes. Say, Rachel, which one do you think is mine?”

(His eye…?)

Still completely bewildered, the girl looks among the scattered eyeballs, and finally points at a blue one, the same colour as her own eyes.

“I…want pretty eyes. If I had eyes like yours…I’d be overjoyed.”

(That’s what the doctor said…)

“Hahah, Rachel, I’m happy. You mean the blue one, right? I really do adore blue eyes. You have them, too. But…I don’t need that blue one. It’s nothing but a poor imitation…compared to your eyes. The only blue eyes I need are yours.”

For a single instant, he glares at the eye Ray has pointed out, then curves his mouth as he looks toward Ray’s. It isn’t – a real smile. After all…Ray’s eyes as they are in that moment aren’t the ones he desires. Danny knows better than anyone else what Ray’s eyes truly look like.

“Come, Rachel. Would you look at me with those lovely eyes of yours? What sort of face did I make back then? Try to remember our private meetings…the ones outside the counselling room.”

(Outside the counselling room…?)

But Ray cannot remember anything about herself prior to coming here. The only thing she can recall are her counselling sessions with Danny – but even those memories are faint and indistinct.

“…I don’t remember meeting you outside the hospital.”

“…I see. You still can’t remember everything about me.” With an exaggeratedly keen expression, the man continues – “Oh, I see. I remember. My eye is in that drawer. Could you open it? It’s dark, I can’t see very well.” All at once, he’s gently smiling again, pointing toward a small drawer amongst the shelves.

“Okay…”

For some reason feeling as if she mustn’t disobey him, she approaches the drawer as prompted and opens it. Inside is a single artificial eye. Ray picks it up – and nearly drops it.

(…! This eye…has two irises…)

A red and a green eye seem to glare at Ray from within the glittering white eyeball.

“Rachel, that’s my eye. You still can’t remember…even if you look at that?” Quietly creeping closer to the girl, Danny whispers in her ear.

“…No.” Fearfully, the girl twists her neck to peer at the man over her shoulder.

“You’re…still trapped in that dream. Would you give me that eye now, Rachel? I guess I’m not really myself without it. For you, and for myself, I need to put it in.”

(In order to regain your memories…)

Smiling sweetly, Danny holds out his hand.

(For him and for me…?)

Her eyebrows furrow at his words – but she still extends her hand to give him the eye.

“Thank you, Rachel. I’ll put this on now, so…would you wait a bit in the other room?”

Having received the artificial eye, Danny brushes his bangs aside and slowly pulls his right eye out of its socket.

(He…doesn’t have…an eye…)

The empty darkness gaping at her from the man’s skull looks like nothing more than a black hole.

“I won’t forgive you if you run away.” That darkness seems to glower at her.

▲▽

Returning to the operating room, Ray recalls each and every one of Danny’s strange actions around her.

(It’s odd…)

I can’t remember anything, but…the doctor who acted as my counsellour didn’t behave like that… I’m certain of it.

(Is it okay to just wait here like this…?)

I’m kind of scared…

She wants to leave immediately. Filled with a growing unease, she pushes on the door. But it seems to be locked.

(…Did he do this?)

Danny is the only one on this floor… He used to be the only one on this floor. That patient died…after he came…

I have to run! I have to get away from here…!

“I have to…!”

Her voice trickles out – and someone gently rests a hand on her shoulder. That soft touch seems to say, I won’t let you run. And then the grip tightens.

“Rachel, where were you going…?”

Danny whispers against her ear.

“…Doc…tor…”

(What should I – )

Her entire body trembles.

“I just said you can’t run away, right? This is…my floor.”

“…Your floor…?”

“Ah, yes. So if you run away to some other floor…I won’t be able to do anything to you myself.”

“On this floor is someone befitting of it.

“This individual is not permitted to leave their own floor.

“If you do not wish to be killed by this person, you must progress to the next floor.”

Ray recalls those words. Those are definitely the rules Danny spoke of.

(…He – isn’t a sacrifice…)

So that means…?

He’s going…to kill me.

The instant she realises this, she begins to scream.

“…No, doctor…! Let me go!”

If she’s killed, she won’t be able to go home anymore. And she doesn’t want to die yet.

But Danny ignores her cries, and pulls roughly upon her dainty wrist. He hauls her onto the operating table.

“You know, Rachel, I…wished to gaze at your living eyes forever. But, I have to do this. After all…you no longer have my ideal eyes…” Pinning her to the table with his hands, he speaks as if about to weep.

“So, Rachel…give me your eyes.”

That eye, split into two, looks down at her in contempt.

(Give him my eyes…? No…I’m scared!)

I want to go home…!

Those grotesque eyes stare down at her as she struggles wildly – and Ray loses consciousness.

▲▽

She has a tiny dream.

In the dream, she sits on the living room sofa, listening to her favourite music box. She sews her dolls as if in a trancelike state. The exact instant the music box stops, the dolls are complete. And they are quite a bit larger than herself.

(Ah, good. They’re done…)

The moment she squeezes them tightly to her chest, she regains consciousness.

(A dream…)

Realising she has returned to the real world, she timidly opens her eyes. Her dainty arms and legs have been restrained against the operating table. She can’t move.

“…Ah, Rachel. You’ve awakened.” Danny’s bicoloured eye seems to glare at her blue ones.

(Rachel…how can you look at me like that? Like you’re nothing more than a frail little girl…)

Your eyes really have become just plain blue eyes. Rachel, I’m so sad…

“Come on, can you really not remember why you’re here? Or why you’ve ended up like this…? If you do, you’ll be able to reclaim yourself. Take back those wonderful eyes of yours and live with me, Rachel…!”

He grips her hand tightly, his expression like that of one in prayer. It’s like he’s desperately waiting for her to come back to life.

“…” Looking at him, for a single instant, Ray feels like she might already be dead. She feels as if she’s become nothing more than a doll, like the one she was sewing in the dream.

“…It won’t work, huh.” Grimacing, Danny bites at one of his fingers in frustration.

(…When I woke up, I was here… I don’t know why… I want to go home.)

“Please, doctor, let me go. I want to go back to my mom and dad…!” Ray gazes at Danny with earnest eyes, like those of a regular girl.

“…Rachel, I can’t do that. Certainly, your eyes are ordinary now…but they are far, far more beautiful than anyone else’s I have ever seen…” He gently touches her cheek.

“You can meet your mother and father very soon…” His words have a hint of laughter behind them.

“…How?”

“Right after I kill you.”

“…If I die, I won’t be able to meet them…”

“That’s not true. Because your mother and father…are waiting for you in hell.”

That ringing sound reverberates against her eardrums.

“Come, Rachel, look at me…”

Ring. Almost as if in response to Danny’s words, that sound resonates once again. It’s louder this time.

Suddenly, she remembers that full moon.

(That moon…)

…It was a blue moon.

An unnaturally blue full moon…

“Rachel…?”

Yes…that night…a blue full moon floated outside the sky in the window, as if she had been looking at a completely different world.

(…I…)

“…”

The sound rings out again, and Ray’s long eyelashes gently flutter against her cheeks as she slowly blinks. And, with eyes dull, as if she’s seen the end of the world – with eyes just like from before she lost her memories, she gazes at Danny.

“…Doctor Danny.” Despite her the wavering in her voice, her tone is clear as she calls his name. The girlish insecurity that had coloured her voice previously is no more. It’s a voice devoid of emotion, a voice that conveys she has recalled her memories, completely lacking in falsehood – and, at the same time, reclaimed her true self.

“Ahh…Rachel! You remembered me?! Ahh…your eyes…your eyes are so beautiful!” With a face full of ecstasy, the man gazes at her blue eyes that have shed all vestiges of normality.

(Yes – these are the eyes I wanted…eyes that have neither despair nor hope, just beautiful eyes…)

“…Doctor, I…shouldn’t be alive…” She looks at him with emotionless eyes as she speaks quietly.

I…remembered everything. About the counselling sessions I had with the doctor everyday…about mother and father…the tragedy that happened on the night of that full blue moon…and about the book I read beneath the moonlight…I remember everything.

(What lovely eyes…!)

Danny quivers in delight as he practically devours the sight of her eyes submerging beneath the weight of her hopelessness.

“That’s not true at all! I’ll take these off now. And then, live with me forever, Rachel!” Breathing roughly, the doctor hurriedly unfastens the restraints. He cries out as if to shout his emotions with his entire body –

“Oh…I’m so happy!”

▲▽

A man in a dark hooded sweatshirt strides down the hallway, a hand wrapped tightly n bandages grasping a large scythe that glints in the light. Zack is on a floor very different from his own, B6 – the hallway gleams immaculately in the meagre illumination.

(Damnit…where did she go?)

He doesn’t understand why. But through some sort of impulse, Zack has followed after Ray all the way to B5. He doesn’t usually follow a sacrifice to a different floor, even if they escape him. But right now, letting that girl go leaves his stomach whirling in dissatisfaction.

(I’m definitely gonna kill her.)

With a small tch, he grips his scythe tighter.

And it’s then that he hears Danny’s voice – the owner of this floor – resounding from the other side of the wall.

Oh…I’m so happy!

(…Happy, he said?)

The instant he hears that thrilled tone, the man is overcome by a boiling vexation. It might be the only emotion he’s ever felt since childhood.

(…Fucking bullshit.)

Fuelled by that terrible irritation, he thrusts his blade into the door of the operating room, slicing it open. It’s destroyed in the blink of an eye. Danny whirls around. His expression turns grim as he sees Zack standing there in the doorway. His teeth gleam through his bandages as he sneers out a laugh.

“Hyahahahahah!”

Zack’s insane laughter resonates in the tense atmosphere of the room. There’s not really anything particularly funny occurring. It’s just that he simply doesn’t like people who are enveloped in happiness.

Staring blankly at the ceiling, the girl finally reacts to that laughter.

(It’s that man…)

She immediately realises it’s the murderer she met on B6 – the master of that floor.

Zack doesn’t hesitate – he simply obeys his instincts to stride into the room, and immediately slices Danny’s belly. The girl, whose eyes only reflect despair, doesn’t react at all like when that small bird had been killed. Flecks of blood splatter in her vision, like in her restored memories.

“Y-you…”

Why.

(I was finally…finally about to make Rachel’s eyes my own…! I can’t…I can’t die like this…!)

His vision rapidly begins to pale and blur at the edges due to the immense pain he feels. And from that line between death and life, he looks up at Zack.

“Hey now, Danny…ya sounded so happy just now, I couldn’t help but just cut ya open!” Watching Danny’s consciousness slowly fade and seeing the despair clouding his expression causes the man to laugh contentedly.

“…” He wants to say something back, but he can’t. His hazy eyes begin to close as his surroundings fade away completely. For an instant, he sees Ray’s blue eyes floating in his vision – those eyes that have lost all emotion. As if they had become his.

(What lovely eyes…)

Beckoned by that fantasy, his eyes finally shut as he falls into a deep sleep.

The instant Danny stops moving, Zack appears to lose interest, his expression cooling. He abruptly turns toward the table.

“…Hey, I found ya in a hell of a mess, didn’t I?” He grins happily at the girl sprawled on the table.

“C’mon! If ya wanna live, run for it! Run, struggle! Cling to hope! And then I’ll slice ya open!” Zack’s loud voice, filled with a bizarre excitement, echoes throughout the room as he lifts that enormous, grim reaper-like scythe up.

But Ray doesn’t hear the man’s words at all. She is at the utter bottom of despair. Her head is filled with the memories of what happened that day of the full blue moon.

“…Ah?” Having been completely and utterly ignored by Ray, the man utters a sound of disapproval.

(…What’s going on?)

Ray, lying on the table with an unsettling vacantness upon her face, seems like a completely different person from the girl he met earlier.

“Hey, how come yer makin’ that boring face? Ya don’t want t’ live, not even when I’m pointin’ this blade at ya?” Zack asks her. Her eyes are those of one who isn’t looking anywhere, eyes that don’t reflect anything – it’s like she’s already dead.

“…”

I don’t.

She reflexively wants to say this, but her voice won’t come out.

“Hah…how boring. I’m a grown-ass man. I don’t like cuttin’ up dolls.” She looks like a dead fish lying on a cutting board, waiting to be diced up. Sighing, he lifts his scythe away from her. For some reason, he’s unable to want to end the life of someone who has no attachment to the world of the living, even if they lie at death’s door.

(Should I go back…)

Beep beep beep.

Just as he makes the decision to leave, a speaker somewhere in the room crackles to life. And, like before, a church bell chime rings out.

Betrayer alert.

The master of B6 has attacked the master of B5.

This is a violation of the rules.

The betrayer has become a sacrifice like Rachel.

According to that broadcast, Zack has just become a sacrifice.

“…Damn, they’re not fuckin’ around. Guess I should run.”

(…But where’s the exit?)

With a slightly foolish expression, he leaves the room without casting a second glance at the doll-like girl on the operating table. He doesn’t really have a reason to want to live, but that absolutely doesn’t mean he’s going to just let himself get killed.

(A sacrifice…)

Left alone in the operating room, Ray stares at the ceiling, quietly thinking to herself.

That’s right…I shouldn’t be alive…

After Zack leaves, she forces herself to stand up.

On the floor is Danny’s grotesque, bloodstained, still-warm body, splayed on the ground.

(The doctor…can’t see anymore.)

With sad, faded eyes, Ray stares expressionlessly down at the man. He looks as if he might only be sleeping. She pokes his cheek as if he were nothing more than a toy.

(I wonder if he’s dead…)

“…”

His body doesn’t even twitch.

Suddenly, she catches a glimpse of the cardkey inside the pocket of Danny’s once-white coat, now dyed red.

(I…might be able to use this on the other doors…)

Without hesitation, she thrusts her hand into his pocket and fishes out the card, dropping it into her own pocket.

▲▽

…I’ve woken up from that happy dream.

That’s the only thing she clearly understands in this world as she unsteadily totters out into the hallway, leaving Danny behind. She walks down the hallway, overwhelmed with the despair brought by her reawakened memories.

As she walks, she passes by the door to the special patient’s room, and recalls how Danny had stopped her from brushing aside the dust covering the writing on the wall.

(I wonder what it said…)

Curious, she pauses in front of the room, and lifts a hand to push the door open. But the room is locked. She doesn’t doubt for a second that Danny was the one who had locked it. So – the card she’d taken from him should work.

Ray pushes the cardkey into the door’s slot. With a clunk, the door opens, as she had suspected it would.

(So I guess this key works on all the doors on this floor…)

Confirming this to herself, the girl pushes the door open and slips the key into her pocket.

(…Let’s take care of that dust…)

Brushing aside most of the dirt reveals insane, heartrending words carved into the wall, stained red.

Help me, help me, I’m scared, I’m so scared!

There were three of us, but I’m the only one here.

They’re coming to kill me, they’re coming to kill me. Out of the three of us, I’m the only one who’s going to be killed.

They’re coming to kill me as if it were only natural.

Who allowed them to do this?

Help me, help me, God…!

(I knew it. The patient was killed by the doctor…)

“…God.”

Whispering that final word in a strangely meek tone, the girl leaves the room.

▲▽

Feeling as if she’s been trapped in a nightmare of some sort, Ray once again advances down the hallway.

She notices countless glimmering fragments of – something spilled all over the floor. It’s that glass wall – it’s been utterly shattered into tiny pieces. She quickly comes to the conclusion that this must be the work of the man who had killed Danny – the man called Zack.

That man cut through the glass, just like that…just like he killed doctor Danny…in just an instant, he left this world.

(God? …Oh, God, would you forgive me if I were to be killed…?)

“…”

I want…to be killed…by that man…

Spurred by her instincts, Ray runs over the fragments of glass toward Zack.

“…It won’t open! Even if I hit it, it won’t break… Damnit, what should I do…”

She sees Zack struggling to open those unmoving doors. There’s probably an elevator behind them.

“…What are you doing?” She calls out to him with renewed willpower, the knowledge of what she will ask him to do bringing her a little bit of hope.

“Hah? …What are ya doin’, waltzin’ up to me like that?” Reflexively turning upon hearing her voice, the man speaks threateningly, glaring at the girl. But Ray no longer feels afraid of him.

“…Um…I have a favour to ask.”

Taking a deep breath, Ray looks up at his face, covered in filthy bandages, and sees his eyes peering out at her like slits from between the layers of linen. Fixing her gaze upon that pretty golden eye, she speaks:

“…Please…kill me.”

Zack’s eyes go wide, and, for an instant as he stares at her, he’s utterly fascinated. With the expression she wears right now, he would have never thought her to be a thirteen-year-old girl.

(…She asked me…to kill her?)

I’m gonna be sick…!

The moment he comprehends Ray’s desire, he vomits everything he had eaten that day – or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he expelled all that food with the intention of ridding himself the strange shiver that welled up within him.

“…Ueghh!”

No one had ever requested something from him like that before. No one had ever desired anything from him before. And from the bottom of his heart, he truly doesn’t understand why a girl he just barely met would ask him such an insane thing without even any forewarning.

“Shit! Don’t ask me for creepy stuff like that! I don’t have time t’ screw around with weirdoes with fucked up faces like yours!” The man shouts at her, wiping the puke staining the bandages near his mouth with the sleeve of his hoodie in order to suppress the hellish disgust he feels.

“…So you won’t?” Her expression twists into earnestness as she looks at him, avoiding turning her gaze to the mess on the floor. She can’t understand why Zack is so repulsed by her wish. After all, he had dispatched of Danny in the blink of an eye. It should be easy to kill her.

“Whether I will or won’t ain’t the problem! What’s a kid like you doin’ here, anyway?!”

“…I was here before I realised it.”

It’s not a lie. She remembers far too well what occurred before she came here. But she still doesn’t know why she’s here.

“Hah? Ya don’t remember anything before ya got here?”

“…I don’t.” She answers after a small pause. Certainly, she could answer that she remembers, or that she doesn’t remember. But it’s definitely better to say she doesn’t.

“Well, guess it doesn’t matter. If ya got time to say creepy shit, do something about this door!” Kicking the doors leading to the elevator, the man raises his voice yet again.

“That should open with this cardkey.” Ray retrieves the key she took from Danny and holds it underneath the card reader. The patient’s room and the operating room had both opened with this card…so she’s certain that this door should open as well.

With a sharp sound, the doors slide open, as Ray suspected. And the elevator to B4 reveals itself to the two of them.

“…Hahah!”

The moment he sees the elevator, Zack smiles gleefully. It’s as if his irritation seconds before had been nothing more than a lie.

“Come to think of it, ya got here all by yerself, right?” he asks, looking at Ray, his expression akin to a child who has just come up with a fantastic idea.

“Yeah.”

“Ya see, I’m kinda dumb. So…help me get outta here together.”

“Together…?”

Stooping over to match her height, Zack gazes deep into her eyes. They seem to convey that she’s surprised about something.

“Oh, right. Ya said ya wanted me t’ kill ya.”

“…I did.” She responds with a serious expression.

“Killin’ ya’s easy, but I ain’t feelin’ up t’ it when ya got such a damn boring face. So when we get outside, you’ll be able t’ show me a better face, won’t ya?” Looking into her blank face, Zack laughs like a mischievous child as he makes his offer.

“So, when we get outta here together…I’ll kill you.”

She hears a bell ringing, somewhere. It might be nothing more than an auditory hallucination. But that sound has been the clearest thing she has ever heard thus far.

“…Really?” She looks up at Zack with hopeful eyes.

“Yeah. But make sure t’ behave. And don’t run around all happy like. …Whenever I see someone lookin’ too happy, I…just get the urge to kill ‘em.”

“…Okay.”

(…I definitely can’t make a happy expression.)

Thinking this, Ray nods her head.

“Well, seein’ yer dead eyes, I guess I don’t have t’ worry. Let’s get outta this place.”

“Yeah.”

For just a moment, as the two exchange their vows, they stare at one another. Then they advance into the elevator.

“When we get outta here together…I’ll kill you.”

As the elevator begins to move, those words reverberate through Ray’s head over and over. Those words are like a dazzling beacon shining within this colourless world of despair and sadness.

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