Choices (7)
“Another suicide…? She just suddenly ran off?”
“……Yes.”
“Hmm… So you two were chasing after her because it looked like she was about to jump.”
“Yes….”
Right after Noel died.
I reported Noel’s death to the academy’s security department through Ellie.
Just like the murder during the movie theater ghost story or Sera’s death during the board game.
They came, collected Noel’s body, and confirmed the circumstances.
“Alright, you must’ve been shocked. Go back and get some rest.”
“……”
Noel’s death was ruled a suicide.
Our testimony as witnesses matched up, and other students had seen Noel jump on her own, so neither Ellie nor I came under suspicion.
“……”
“…Ares.”
After witnessing a girl’s head explode right in front of us that morning, Ellie and I headed back to the dormitory together.
On the way, Ellie looked at me with a worried expression.
“Something’s going on, isn’t it…?”
She asked, clearly realizing I’d gotten caught up in something again.
Of course she would notice.
We’d been through multiple ghost stories together by now, and Noel’s actions were impossible to explain as anything other than a ghost story event.
“I want to help too…! What’s the situation right now? Tell me!”
“……”
Ellie helping.
There is one thing only Ellie can help with…
Her diary.
If Ellie watches everything that happens to me from now on and writes it down, I could get concrete details about future events.
But.
If, by some chance, this ghost story notices Ellie’s involvement…
She’ll end up just like Noel.
If Ellie is given the same choice, there’ll be no way to save her once the selection appears.
It would basically be a guaranteed dead end.
Ellie dies.
I have to avoid that at all costs.
“It’s fine. Don’t worry so much.”
“…Ares.”
Ellie stared at me with trembling, anxious eyes after my answer.
I just smiled and replied.
“I’m really okay. If something does happen, I’ll definitely ask for your help.”
“……Really?”
After that, Ellie stopped asking about the ghost story.
She just kept glancing at me nervously until we reached the dormitory.
Somehow… I have to solve this without dragging anyone else in…
According to the diary, me cutting off my arm was still listed for Thursday.
But there wasn’t much information about what other missions I received.
It mostly covered missions that happened during the daytime at school.
Even then, it was only from Ellie’s perspective as a third-party observer.
There was nothing written about today—Sunday—or the missions that happen every night.
Of course. Because if Ellie gets involved, it’s dangerous…
Thanks to Noel’s death, I now knew that once a dead end was triggered in this ghost story, the game was already over.
The future me was probably keeping his distance from Ellie on purpose to prevent her from getting dragged in.
So I can’t rely on the diary.
What I can do is figure out the ghost story’s goal before Thursday, when my arm gets cut off.
If I can figure out what it wants, maybe I’ll find an answer.
That’s why, on the same day Noel died, I started wandering around the downtown area alone from around lunchtime.
A place packed with students enjoying their weekend.
If I loiter around here, the ghost story will definitely throw me another choice at some point.
And then—
“Ah, student~! We’re running an event right now, come take a look~!”
“……”
A store employee handed me a flyer as I passed by a supermarket that usually sold cheap goods.
Without thinking, I accepted it, and the employee continued naturally.
“We’re doing a buy-one-get-one-free promotion right now. You can choose between cleaning the bathroom with bleach mixed with vinegar, or buying a cute teddy bear.”
“……”
As expected, the ghost story immediately presented me with a choice.
Bleach mixed with vinegar… that’ll kill you.
I knew that much without even asking the gallery.
Mixing bleach and vinegar produces chlorine gas.
The same stuff used as poison gas in wars.
The other option was… simply buying a teddy bear.
The answer was obvious.
“……Then I’ll buy the teddy bear.”
“Thank you~.”
In the end, I bought one of the teddy bears on display.
A doll…
After buying the doll, no more choices appeared.
The doll feels… strangely ominous…
At first I thought it was just some incomprehensible choice, but thinking about it, dolls in ghost stories are always ominous items.
Even the cliché one of the gallery members mentioned—throwing it away.
The doll you threw away suddenly comes back.
Or a murderous doll possessed by a spirit tries to kill its owner.
There were all kinds of stories like that.
“Alright.”
So I decided to prepare countermeasures.
“Huh? That much holy water…?”
“Yeah. And can I borrow some crosses too?”
“Lending them is fine, but… is something going on?”
It was still afternoon, before sunset.
I headed straight to the cathedral with the doll.
I asked Claire, who was spending the weekend there, for a large amount of holy water and some crosses.
━ I heard something big happened at school today…
━ Are you in danger again…?
Claire seemed to have roughly figured out my situation.
“It’s fine. I just want to practice exorcism rituals after a long time.”
“…You know exorcism rituals are normally performed by qualified priests, right?”
“But this holy water is the real deal, isn’t it?”
“…It is, but… you’re really okay, right?”
“I’m fine. If something happens, I’ll tell you.”
“Please do. I’ll help however I can.”
That’s how I received a large amount of holy water and several crosses from Claire.
This should be enough to handle the possibility of a murderous doll…
The moment it appears, I’ll smash its head with holy water and beat it with crosses.
Even without a priest’s full exorcism ritual, that should drive away any evil spirit.
With Claire’s holy water in hand, I returned to the dormitory feeling reassured.
“Hmm…”
Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock.
Night had fallen.
The dormitory’s eerie nighttime atmosphere, which I’d grown used to.
I stared at the teddy bear sitting in one of the closet compartments.
A bowl filled with holy water.
Three crosses standing upright.
Just in case, I’d even lit a candle softly.
……Did I go too far?
Looking at it like this, it felt like I was performing some kind of summoning ritual.
…More importantly, it was getting late and there was still no reaction.
What the hell…?
If nothing happened, it would be hard to fall asleep.
Because something might happen while I was sleeping.
Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock.
And then—
Tick.
The moment the clock struck midnight—
—Knock knock knock.
“……”
[Ares, are you awake? It’s the dorm supervisor.]
The dorm supervisor who had been giving me choices every night had come again.
Here it comes.
Thinking that what I’d been waiting for had finally arrived, I answered immediately.
“Yes, I’m awake.”
What kind of choice would it be this time?
And after my answer—
[Sorry for the late hour, Ares. Right now, run to the school immediately, or…]
The dorm supervisor presented the choice.
[—Throw away the crosses and water you received today, leave the closet open, and go to sleep with the blanket pulled all the way over your head. …Please choose one.]
“……”
Once again, it gave me an incomprehensible choice.
One was a dangerous option that would almost certainly get me killed.
The other was some random, inexplicable instruction.
Of course… my choice was already decided.
“…I’ll go with the latter.”
[……]
After I answered, footsteps faded away outside the door as the dorm supervisor left.
“…I’ll have to pick up the crosses tomorrow.”
After that, I immediately got up and approached the doll.
I poured the holy water down the toilet and opened the window to toss the crosses outside.
Since I had to return the crosses, I could just pick them up from where they fell tomorrow morning.
Telling me to throw away the holy water and crosses… does that mean they actually work against whatever’s in the doll…?
The teddy bear felt even more unsettling now.
After glaring at the doll sitting in the candlelight, I lay down on the bed.
Then, just as the choice instructed, I pulled the blanket all the way over my head and prepared to sleep.
I opened the gallery while keeping the blanket pulled over my head and posted about the mission like usual.
If I kept sharing each mission with the gallery members, someone would eventually figure out the ghost story’s goal.
And then—
Swish.
“Oh…?”
One of the familiar usernames had commented right on time.
They seemed to have noticed something.
Annoyed by how long the guy was taking to get to the point, I urged him for a summary.
And in response—
Hikikomori gave a short answer to his own theory.
“……”
Chills ran down my spine.
“……Shit.”
The blanket pulled all the way over my head.
The open closet and the teddy bear outside it.
…Somehow, this already ominous night felt even more dangerous now.