As I was contemplating that, I heard the sound of a sliding shoji door from behind. I slowly turn around, accompanied by a strong sense of unease.
A tall man holding a creepy chainsaw and a Nanban clown with white makeup and red hair and nose were standing there. Well, they clearly looked like Jason and Pennywise.
(Oh, come to think of it, the author of this room was a fan of foreign horror.)
I remember such a thing with a sense of escaping from reality. A pursuit of humans rather than dogs. The space of those who drive people. This room, which seemed to play around with the theme, was surprisingly dangerous.
'Vroom Vrooom!!'
'Ahahahaaha!'
The big man revs the chainsaw while shouting. The clown, with a wide grin, lets out peculiar laughter. And I shout at the kids.
"Alright... Run!!"
And now, the chase of humans has resumed.
* * *
"Cough, cough... Haah... Haah... Damn it, I can't take it anymore! Absolutely!!"
Shishimai Asami, carried by the waves on the sandy beach, continued to curse as much as she could while coughing. And there was Tamaki, in a form being carried on her back. Both of them were drenched to a pitiful extent.
After escaping from a swarm of bats by smashing through the ceiling of a cave, the price they had to pay was being submerged in the cold sea.
Shishimai swam through an underground lake while assisting Tamaki, who was struggling with an injured leg. And they arrived at this shore. How did they go from an underground lake to the shore? Such reasoning didn't hold much meaning in this place. Inside the monster's (Mayoiga) belly, everything was beyond the boundaries of common sense and reason.
"Cough! Cough!? Are you okay? Are you alive?... Ah, d*mn it! She's unconscious!"
Shishimai noticed that Tamaki was suffocating and losing consciousness, so she dropped her onto the sand. She hugged her from behind to administer first aid, patting her back. She forcefully opened her mouth to secure her airway and pounded her chest. She did it over and over again.
"Geho!? Ugh!! Blegrh!!?"
After a while, Tamaki suddenly began coughing. She spat out water from her mouth. She continued coughing and gasping for breath, taking in shallow breaths.
"Alright! You're alive, right? Do you know your name?"
Kneeling down, Shishimai asked Tamaki, lightly tapping her cheek to help her regain awareness. It was said that even after resuscitation from suffocation, there could be lasting effects. If it was mild, there would be no problem, but if it was severe... unfortunately, at that time, there was no choice but to abandon the girl before her eyes. Surviving in the belly of this monster with a burden was not easy.
"...H-Hotoya. Hotoya Tamaki...?"
"Good. Your affiliation? Your occupation? Do you know where this is?"
"Affiliation...? Cough, exorcists. My... cough, family's... Uh, the Onitsuki family's member! And... and... is this...? Have we made it outside!?"
Tamaki screamed as if finally returning to reality. She looked around at the surroundings and asked Shishimai. However, Shishimai shook her head in response to Tamaki's question.
"Unfortunately, no."
Saying that, Shishimai stood up and suddenly began taking off her outfit. Tamaki, momentarily startled by the act of suddenly exposing her bare skin, quickly understood its meaning.
The clothes of the two, who were in the water until recently, were soaked and clinging to their bodies. Even as they stood there, water droplets continued to drip down like rain.
"This guy did well. To have a fake sky."
While removing her undergarments, Shishimai spewed her words with genuine loathing. The vibrant sky, compared to the impression one gets from seeing it, wasn't that great.
"This... is a fake?"
Tamaki gazed at the sky in disbelief, muttering as if unable to believe it. The sky she looked up at seemed so vivid.
"No matter how elaborate it is, it's still a fake, an imitation. It's detestable, isn't it?"
Wringing out her soaked clothes like a rag, Shishimai scoffed and spat out her words with a mocking tone. Water cascaded down from the clothes that were squeezed by the semi-youkai's strength. When it formed puddles, it seeped into the sand and disappeared...
"You should hurry up and wring out your clothes too. It's heavy and uncomfortable when they're soaked, you know?... Fortunately, there are no youkai around here."
Following Shishimai's instructions, Tamaki hastily followed her instruction and removed her clothes to wring them out. Her gaze turned to the surroundings, not out of caution but more out of embarrassment. Even though there were no harmful beings in the vicinity, Tamaki still felt embarrassed about being completely naked with no coverings. At the same time, she couldn't help but admire Shishimai's boldness. Was it the same for half-youkai like the wolf who was her friend? Did they have no sense of resistance or embarrassment about undressing?
"This place... Well, let's go. If we stay here any longer, we'll dry up."
Wearing the clothes that had been drained as much as possible, Shishimai declared. She clicked her tongue at the unnecessarily strong sunlight and climbed the sandy beach's hill.
"..."
Ignoring Shishimai's words, Tamaki, also dressed in her outfit, looked up at the sky. She sighed. The cold sea breeze brushed against her cheeks. It calmed her heart. And then... she suddenly remembered the memory from a while ago.
"What was that...?"
In the darkness of the cave, while drowning, a fleeting scene flashed through her mind, causing Tamaki's expression to darken. Was it a delusion? A hallucination? Or... she didn't know. It was too ambiguous, too blurry. Was that scene something she had created, a memory from her childhood, or something completely different? She didn't know. She couldn't tell.
"Hey, what are you just standing there for!? Come on, let's go already!!"
"Huh!? W-Wait!"
Called out loudly once again, Tamaki snapped back to her senses. She started running along the sandy beach to catch up with Shishimai, leaving the hill behind. But as soon as she reached the top, she stopped in her tracks, captivated by the sight before her.
"This is..."
Before Tamaki's eyes stretched a vast land of sand, an expanse of desert...
* * *
"Alright, it worked!!... Ouch, that hurts!?"
'('∀ ') We have arrived!! (. >д<) Ow!?'
Having successfully eluded the pursuers who seemed to anticipate our every move, I performed the ritual in the kitchen... throwing salt while performing the Awa Dance and tossing daikon radishes in the corridor... And right after, the scenery in my field of vision suddenly spun around and transformed. I confirmed the sudden change and shouted with joy, only to end up falling on my backside and hurting my back. Ouch... that hurts...
"Ow... Are you all okay? Did anyone get left behind?"
"W-We somehow...?"
"M-My butt..."
"Ugh..."
Until a moment ago, the kids were taken aback by my eccentric behavior, but now they were rubbing their own behinds just like me. Well, as long as nobody got left behind, I don't care.
"Well then... Ouch, that hurts... We managed to find a good spot."
Getting up while rubbing my backside, I wrinkled my nose at a certain smell. At the same time, I relaxed my mouth as I surveyed the surroundings.
Performing that shitty ritual in the kitchen of the 'Room of the Pursuer' area allowed us to access three rooms. Which room we could go to was purely luck-dependent. Well... it seemed like we had successfully translocated to the best of the three rooms.
In games, player refer to safe areas as "safe spots," and according to that definition, this room undoubtedly fell into that category.
