Companion
(Photo of a green notebook, knocked over and soaked in coffee water)
(Photo of a twitching bag)
There was this thing like a notebook that moved on its own, along with a bastard who'd been spying on me and copying my appearance, so I one-shot the copycat and stuffed the book into my bag.
I figured it was loot, but it's still moving around in there on its own;
Didn't mean to, but I've basically imprisoned it in the bag.
Is this a magic book? A spellbook? Something like that?
It got out after being trapped in there, by the way;
(Photo of a pure white world)
Opened the gallery while still trapped inside, and none of the text was visible. Luckily the photos still came out.
(Photo of a blurry human figure)
Oh, and there was also that thing that tried to copy me. Could it be the caster or something?
So it seemed none of the gallery regulars actually knew anything about this book.
"Hmm... so nothing, huh?"
Papak! Pak!
Inside the bag, the book thrashed about all by itself.
"What am I supposed to do with you..."
It seemed to have burned through whatever power it once had — Yagwang-i wasn't even bothering to avoid the thing anymore.
I wondered if the copycat bastard had become this book's main body, but since it kept moving afterward, apparently the two were separate things entirely.
Or maybe the thing Yagwang-i had been wary of was this one.
I sat down in a chair and rested my chin on the desk, thinking.
It was making such a racket that I couldn't even keep the bag on my shoulder.
I tried whacking the whole bag, but being a book, it didn't seem to take much damage.
Since I was already holding a pickaxe, maybe I should do something with it.
"Maybe I'll just dig a hole and bury this guy."
Flinch!
The book stopped its tantrum inside the bag.
"Oh? You understand what I'm saying?"
No way. Are you a fellow countryman... er, fellow being?
Come to think of it, with this familiar-looking desk and chair, and a notebook on top of that, it really was quite likely.
"Hey. Let's negotiate."
"Ge-ek—"
Yagwang-i, right beside me, immediately voicing its objection.
"We don't have a choice, though. We can't stay tied up here forever."
There was still road left ahead, and leaving the bag here, taking only what we could carry and abandoning the rest — none of that made sense.
"The ground here's a bit frozen, but it's not impossible to dig. And you don't want to be buried, do you?"
Papak!
Talking to a wriggling bag was genuinely awkward.
"You've used up all your power anyway, haven't you? And you don't want to stay trapped in the Backrooms forever, do you?"
We have to get out. Whenever that might be.
I did wonder whether I should really take a ghost-possessed book like this along with me.
"I don't know what grudge you're holding, but even if you do something to me, you'll still be stuck in this place afterward."
And moving itself seemed to drain its strength, judging by the way it acted.
Left all alone, wouldn't it most likely still be inside the Backrooms after eons more had passed?
"Somehow, I just don't get the feeling that you hate me."
Maybe because it looked a little familiar.
"Let's say that copycat bastard just picked a bad collaborator. He didn't have a body to begin with — he had to tear apart other people's forms to use them, didn't he?"
...Papak!
The bag's movements grew a little calmer.
I couldn't tell if that meant it agreed to leave the Backrooms with me, but it definitely agreed that the copycat was a bastard.
I approached the bag and gripped the zipper.
"Then, opening it? No more funny business, got it?"
Ziiiik!
Flutter!
Through the slightly opened bag, between the pickaxe and the flashlight-coffee, the book shifted its cover and a page or two, just barely.
"Ge-ek!"
Seeing that, Yagwang-i cried out as if some feeling still remained, and I gently stroked its head to soothe it.
"Honestly, it'd be easier for me too to just dig a hole and bury you. But somehow, I keep feeling like that's not the right call."
I couldn't say exactly what it could do, but I had a feeling that we needed something carrying even a shred of mystery — more than just one ordinary human like me and one tough lizard like Yagwang-i.
Even if all it could do was get stuffed inside things, it could clear the rock pile in the third passage, and maybe — just maybe — it could trap the giant trunk in the second passage too. That would raise our odds of escaping this place, wouldn't it?
These were ideas I'd only just come up with.
Flutter!
"There we go. Now I can use my bag again. Let's sort out our gear and head on."
Having finally managed to sling the bag over my shoulder, I decided to press onward.
One fragile ordinary human. Me.
One glowing salamander.
And one unintentionally added companion... companion book?
Wouldn't it be a bit of a waste for my brilliant talent to rot away in this Backrooms?
No, think of it the other way — isn't it precisely because it's me that I even ended up in the Backrooms at all?
Am I not the gifted explorer of the unknown, the one who finds and illuminates a Backrooms no one else can reach?
(Photo of a docile book inside an open bag)
Spellbook (not) — you're mine now!
Anyway, after sharing the news with the gallery, I headed deeper into the chilly passage.
I walked for a long while past the icicles crowding the ceiling and walls all around me.
"Doesn't feel like it's getting any colder, though."
The temperature seemed to be holding at just that mildly chilly level.
Then it occurred to me — maybe the book knew something about what lay deeper in. I took it out of the bag and asked.
"Do you know what's further down this path?"
Scratch, scratch...
[NO IDEA]
Excellent. I'd been half-doubting, but thankfully it can communicate through writing.
A shame it doesn't know, though.
Well, if it had just stayed put where the desk and chair were, it could only have moved so far.
The one who was supposed to carry it has no body and can't act, and flying on its own takes too much strength.
"Can't be helped... So where did you meet that guy?"
The copycat bastard — I couldn't even see him to begin with, since he had no body.
But Yagwang-i and the book had apparently been able to sense him.
[GRUDGE]
"A grudge? Can't you spell it out a bit longer?"
Scratch, scratch...
[POWER CONSUMPTION HIGH]
"Ah, right..."
Scratch, scratch...
After a few more rounds of short question-and-answer exchanges like that, I got the gist.
"So it wasn't you that was attached to that desk and chair — that stuff was his."
[CORRECT]
"And your first memory is falling into this passage all alone. You gained life by entering the Backrooms — something like that?"
In terms of seniority, this guy is the great elder. The copycat is the senior. And then there's me. Yagwang-i, who knows. Speak words, not just ge-ek.
Still, that means the possibility of this being a book from the Magic-World hasn't entirely vanished, has it?
Honestly, claiming to carry a spellbook is way cooler than lugging around some ordinary-looking ghost-possessed notebook.
And then—
"Ugh, cold..."
The chill surged sharply from the passage ahead.
"Well, I did figure it might get colder."
Beyond the frozen floor, my shoes threatened to slip at any step.
But a change like this is a good clue, isn't it?
It might mean we could finally escape this unknown cave Backrooms.
"This time, for real — escape!"
Nursing a flicker of hope, I tucked the book back into the bag and picked up the pace, quickening my steps.
As I passed, the color of the icicles around me grew gradually darker the further I went.
I wondered if the flashlight was wearing out and dimming, but switching to another one changed nothing.
By the time the icicles around me had darkened to near-black—
As I pressed forward, sweeping my flashlight ahead, a human silhouette appeared in the distance.
A person...?
They'd said the Backrooms weren't only home to Backrooms gallery regulars.
Wondering if this might be another human of the Backrooms, I drew closer.
And gradually, the human figure grew more distinct.
But no face appeared — only the silhouette kept sharpening.
What does that mean?
It meant exactly this: it was nothing but a black human shape, as if a shadow had stood up and started walking.
"Got my hopes up for nothing."
Well, from what I could see, didn't it feel like a subspecies of the Mud Men?
And I've still never lost to a Mud Man.
I pulled a pickaxe from the bag.
"What's this? Why did you come out?"
In the meantime, the notebook had slipped out through the opened bag along with it.
Flutter!
It flapped in the air as if to declare its confidence.
"I think we'll be fine, honestly? Nothing's as easy to deal with as these guys."
Flap-flap!
"Just watch and learn."
Tatadak!
The black shapes, having noticed us, came charging.
They didn't squelch — so not mud after all? Maybe they'd simply frozen in the cold.
I raised my pickaxe in time with their charge.
"Your movements are so predictable. No different from the Mud Men."
The pickaxe swung down onto the head of the one charging in front—
CLANG!
"Huh...?"
The pickaxe struck its head and bounced clean off.
"Whoa..."
Isn't this thing almost as hard as Yagwang-i? How am I supposed to break this?
Flutter!
I looked up at the book flying beside me and opened my mouth.
"Help."