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[isdf]

HELLO

"Greetings. This is Kisaragi Yuma."

GOODBYE

TEXT | VIDEO | VOICE | ACTION

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[isdf]

[His gaze wanders for a beat before flitting back to her.]

Like the others, I accepted the flower.

[paenitete]

Flower?

[isdf]

Yes. Our borrowed lives were represented by flowers in a jar.

[paenitete]

Huh.

[ weirder things have happened in this hellhole so she's accepting this ]

So what happened after you took the flower?

[isdf]

After that . . . our collective objective came to an end, and we soon returned to this side of the maze.

[paenitete]

So that was it.

[ ... ]

Did you see anyone you knew?

[isdf]

Yes. In total, I saw Tsukasa, Hien, and Soo-won, as well as the commander and the admiral. There were also the likenesses of Reirin, Elysium, and Yosuke.

[paenitete]

[ oh yuma. she bites her tongue and tries not to tell him to stop sounding off names like that. ]

Were they... okay? Nothing happened to them?

[isdf]

I can only speak for Tsukasa and Soo-won . . . but they were fine. I did not actually meet Hien, though I had memories of him.

[paenitete]

So nothing bad happened to them. There's that.

[ ... her voice gets softer, more careful. ]

If you don't mind me asking, what exactly happened with you and Hak?

[isdf]

. . . We were separated from Medea and Thorns when I was pulled through a doorway. I believe Hak followed me outside. There, I played against the commander in a board game where the pieces represented people with Soo-won as a spectator.

In the end, we took our positions on the board and lost, which resulted in our deaths.

[paenitete]

So the mistake you were talking about... was a wrong move in a board game?

[isdf]

[He nods.]

It was several moves, though.

["He" was supposed to be quite good at it, yet all those memories amounted to nothing in the end.]

[paenitete]

[ JAE YOUR ROLLS ]

How do you know he wasn't cheating?

[isdf]

[There's a funny story to be told about that, actually.]

The commander wouldn't cheat. He wished for me to win, and Soo-won was observing.

[paenitete]

So Soo-won was the one who would execute whoever lost?

[isdf]

The damage inflicted to a piece would transfer to the person it represented. If the piece fell, so, too, would that person. Soo-won was one of the pieces played by the commander; however, his piece wasn't removed for the duration of the game.

[paenitete]

So he stayed alive. While you and Hak...

[ she won't ask for details about how they died. ]

[isdf]

. . . Correct.

[And he won't volunteer them. Those are unnecessary details compared to the important key points.]

[paenitete]

[ moving on... ]

Did anything else happen to you?

[isdf]

Those were the most pertinent events. [He pauses.] Oh, that's correct. There was also a giant rat before we separated.

1/2

[paenitete]

2/2

[paenitete]

More giant rats?!

[isdf]

There are quite a few of them, aren't there?

[paenitete]

There was one today too, when we were trying to get you guys out of the bar! I just kept getting cursed so I didn't pay attention to it!

[ is this to yuma or to herself ]

Why do they keep showing up?