13. Circus Charlie (7)
13. Circus Charlie (7)
The moment August spotted them, he acted. He was the biggest and strongest of Charlie's group, and also the most hotheaded. Before his companions could stop him, he ripped a tombstone from the ground and hurled it at the entrance.
A cloud of black dust erupted with a muffled thud. Grinning, satisfied with his response, he turned to find the other three staring at him in horror.
"August! You should've at least asked who they were first!"
"Yeah, what if you'd killed innocent people?"
"That, and you ignorant bastard — we're underground! What if you bring the whole place down?"
August picked at his ear while his friends laid into him.
"Stop overreacting. I pulled my strength. You think I can't do that much math? And did I actually kill anyone? I just wrecked the entrance a little so they couldn't get in."
As the dust settled, his boast held up — on the surface, anyway. Nobody on the other side was hurt. The cave was fine, too. Suspiciously fine. The entrance he'd meant to demolish didn't have a scratch on it.
August and his companions couldn't hide their shock at the scene before them. Someone had caught the tombstone — a chunk of rock weighing dozens of kilograms — and was holding it. Even more unbelievable was the identity of the catcher: a little girl who looked no older than five or six.
Ruelo cradled the stone, easily as large as her own body, in one hand without any visible effort and carefully leaned it against the wall.
"Th- throwing a tombstone... th- that's gonna bring down divine punishment..."
"What the hell are you?"
August glared at her, growling. He couldn't accept that a timid little waif who flinched under his gaze had caught a boulder he'd thrown with all his strength.
The answer came from Reina, standing behind Ruelo.
"We're here to get back the person you kidnapped."
The darkness obscured faces, but height and build were visible enough. August thought he'd seen the masked speaker somewhere before.
Just as a name surfaced on his lips, Maya stepped forward.
"Where did you take the Troupe Leader?"
Her voice was raised, unusual for someone who was always so expressionless.
Until moments ago, she'd been waiting in Arena Number 2 for the auditorium team to arrive.
Her telekinesis could have helped rescue Ella, but she was no engineer — reckless use of her power in the collapse zone might only worsen the cave-in. So she'd stood by, watching the safety crew clear debris from the ruined chamber.
The rescue operation hadn't been underway long when the auditorium team reached Arena Number 2. Maya scanned them and noticed Wonderstein was missing.
"Where's the Troupe Leader?"
She asked Yurakne, who'd entered last. With a casual expression, Yurakne pointed behind her.
"He'll be along. Looked like he was going to collect Miss Reina."
"The Troupe Leader... alone with Reina?"
Maya shook off Yurakne's restraining hand and bolted out of the arena. She knew exactly what Reina got up to when she had the Troupe Leader to herself. The girl had pulled brazen stunts even during their temporary stay — now that she'd officially joined the troupe, there was no telling what she might try.
Outside, Maya spotted Reina heading beyond the school grounds, found it suspicious, and tailed her. Karen, who'd acted as Maya's dedicated supporter in the stands throughout the trials, sensed her sudden move and followed. And Ruelo, waiting at the track with bouquets to hand the Monster Circus members when they brought back their trophies, saw the four of them slipping out in succession, thought it strange, and chased after them.
This daisy-chain pursuit was, in a way, a stroke of luck. Four people trailing them all at once — there was no way Charlie's friends wouldn't have noticed.
However it happened, all four converged at the sewer entrance. Once Reina filled in the others, they joined forces and descended to rescue Wonderstein.
"You're all dead. Our Maya's furious now that she's heard her beloved Troupe Leader has been kidnapped."
Karen cracked her knuckles, threatening them. Her voice carried a teasing lilt, but her eyes were those of a predator locking onto prey.
Thanks to the staggering display of strength Ruelo had just put on, the four kidnappers weren't about to underestimate their opponents just because they were girls. They exchanged glances. What mattered now was buying time for Charlie to interrogate Ella.
Their target had always been Ella alone. They had no desire to fight anyone else to the death.
"Guess this is the only way."
"Take one each."
"Good luck, all of you."
"Right. Scatter!"
The catacombs were a place where anyone unfamiliar with the layout could easily get lost. The four each picked a passage and sprinted down it, snatching up nearby objects to throw or shouting insults to provoke their pursuers as they fled.
"Hey, cliff-face lady — you sure you're a girl?"
The youngest of Charlie's group yelled that and vanished down his tunnel.
"If they're splitting four ways, we split four ways!"
Karen shouted, voice alight with excitement, and chased after him.
"Idiot."
Maya muttered at her friend's back. Their intent to scatter and stall for time was obvious. Falling for a ploy that transparent.
Then the girl in clown makeup, fleeing down the farthest passage, cried out.
"I'm gonna be the one to bag that blond pretty boy!"
Cackling, she vanished into the dark. A beat later, Maya's body launched forward like a cannon shell with a boom.
"Maya! Wait!"
Reina called after her, but no other voice reached Maya's ears. Her head was filled with one thought: showing that wench exactly what happened to anyone who spouted nonsense about her teacher.
Watching Maya disappear, Reina shook her head as if there were no helping it. She'd have to take one herself.
"Fine. I'm going this way. Luri, don't do anything dangerous. Stay here. Got it?"
Reina picked a passage and ran. Only Ruelo remained at the cave entrance.
"Oh dear..."
Ruelo stood stranded, shifting her weight from foot to foot. She wanted to be dashing like the others — shout "Leave this to me!" and charge after an opponent — but her courage failed her.
Then, her hair stirred. A provocative smile curved across her lips.
Samson had run out of patience watching her dither. He seized Ruelo's mouth and shouted through it.
"We're going after the big one, obviously! Pay him back in kind!"
"B- but Reina said to stay here..."
"And what if the bastard circles back to help his team while you're standing around? Someone ends up fighting two-on-one. If that goes badly, it could turn into three-on-one, then four-on-one! Want to spend the rest of your life regretting it while you stare at your friends' corpses?"
Ruelo's face went pale white, then settled into a determined nod. No, she couldn't let that happen. She ran toward the tunnel the large man — the one who'd thrown the tombstone — had taken.
***
The monkey led me onward, glancing back now and then to make sure I was following.
Deeper in, the ceilings rose steadily higher and the gaps between pillars widened. The rough, uneven path grew smoother. A low, rumbling draft pulsed from farther down the passage, suggesting a vast open chamber ahead.
The catacombs, packed tight with the bones of the dead. The murals on the walls. The presence of whatever lay at the heart of this place. All of it was interesting. But more than anything, I couldn't take my eyes off that monkey.
I knew it. I didn't know its name, but I'd seen it in the game.
TTT was famous for its wealth of options. The game let you learn a staggering number of skills, which was a huge part of why replaying it never got old.
By picking different traits from previous runs, players could approach the game in fresh ways and enjoy subtle shifts in dialogue.
'Mysterious Helper' was a trait that had existed since TT1. Powerful and entertaining in equal measure, it was arguably the best value among the basic traits.
True to its name, it caused a masked magician of unknown identity to appear at random intervals and aid the protagonists. What made him remarkable was that his help always arrived at exactly the right moment, in exactly the right form.
TTT collected player data through online account integration — where players died most often, which branching choices they favored, how they tackled particular encounters. The Mysterious Helper used that data to decide what kind of assistance to provide.
Examples? Creating a foothold during a lethal fall, deflecting an instant-kill attack, appearing with an antidote while you were dying of poison, or booting a support character's backside to unstick them from a wall when the game wouldn't progress.
No one knew the masked magician's true identity. No information existed about him, in-universe or out. He was taciturn. If the Thief took the 'Silver Tongue' trait, a dialogue option to pry into his identity did appear, but even that yielded only a single line: "Let's just say I'm someone with a grudge against Wonderstein."
He was impossibly versatile. The game depicted dozens of his abilities. Sometimes he even borrowed the signature techniques of other characters — a phenomenon dictated by the system's logic of always steering events toward a resolution.
Players occasionally exploited this, manipulating him into using specific skills or doing absurd things.
He was the star of many of my comedy videos.
Fans took note of his secretive, polymath character and dubbed him 'Mysterious.' In Korea, they focused on the astonishing AI that calculated the perfect assist and called him 'TTPago.'
That blue-furred monkey was, unmistakably, Mysterious's creature.
The pristine white suit, cape, and hat. The mask covering his face. The monkey on his shoulder.
Those three things were his symbols.
Finding out he was behind this kidnapping made sense. He was a man who harbored a ferocious hatred for Wonderstein — I didn't know why, but I knew that much.
Now that I'd confirmed the kidnapper's identity, I adjusted my approach accordingly. I already understood his personality. Wonderstein was the only thing he hated. Whenever he encountered people Wonderstein had modified, his response was always pity.
Given that nature, even if he was holding Ella hostage, the odds were high he wouldn't harm her — so long as I appeared to cooperate peacefully.