“Wow, there must be at least a hundred lockers in here!” says Mitsuki, her eyes wide in surprise. To her credit, she is not speaking from the sense of awe obtained through a child’s narrow perspective: the room
is undeniably large. A hundred lockers is an understatement, at that. From the looks of it, there are
hundreds. The gloomy hall is – as usual – lit up by the emergency lights. Visibility is poor and you can barely see what is in front of you… but if you had to hazard a guess, it would be more lockers and benches. That seems to be all you can find in here. The lockers are set up in rows of ten, standing proudly in the middle of the room.
Tentatively putting a hand on one of the tall, metal lockers, you twist the handle and attempt to open the door. No such luck. A noisy rattling aside, the door remains steadfast; it is locked. “All of these lockers have been sealed by the forces of the dark,” comments Amanozaki from the row right behind yours.
“These ones are locked too. Let’s try and see if the key fits?” asks Uehara, standing at another row further back.
There’s nothing else but to give it a go. Tweaking your spectacles, you take out the key from your pocket and test it on the locker in front of you. It slides into the keyhole with no issues. That’s good. Then, you try turning it. The key does not budge.
Uehara laughs lightly. “Of course. We wouldn’t be so lucky as to get it right on the first try, right?”
You hear Mitsuki make a small exclamation of surprise. “What is this? Shinoseki-san, there’s something stuffed here.”
Turning around, you see her pointing at the gap between two lockers, where a corner of some paper is peeking out. “Hold on, I’ll… I’ll get it,” you call out as you walk over, wincing as you accidentally place too much pressure on your injured ankle; the dark bruise does not seem to be getting any better. You reach out carefully and pinch the corner between your fingers. The paper refuses to come out gently, as if snagged on something. It takes you a couple of careful tugs to finally shake it loose.
It is another of Hidetaka’s notes.
I came across yet another mysterious note in this room, though the key is yet to appear before me.
In this, as with the others, there is that recurring motif of the village of one thousand and six hundred, a witch, and death. I wonder what it all means?
I will copy it down, as always.
-Hidetaka Matsui
In a forest, in an empty village, the man came across the girl.
The girl was digging graves, and in the open ones already dug, she had placed within their earthen embrace coffins, one thousand and six hundred in all.
The man asked, who lay in there?
The girl replied, my fellow villagers.
The man asked, do you need my help to bury them?
The girl replied, they are not here for burial, but for a ritual of resurrection.
The man asked, in spirit?
The girl replied, in flesh.
The man assisted the girl in her arduous task. Circles upon concentric circles of graves were dug, one by one, until all of the coffins had a place in the earth, with the girl and the man at the center of it all.
Then, the girl started to sing a song.
The girl went to the first coffin, and opened it, revealing the corpse within.
The girl went to the second coffin, and opened it, revealing the corpse within.
The girl went to the third coffin and opened it, revealing the corpse within.
The man watched as she repeated it again, and again, spiralling outwards until all one thousand and six hundred coffins were open, and she returned to where she began.
Without a moment of rest or pause in her singing, the girl visited the coffins a second time.
The girl passed over the first coffin.
The girl went to the second coffin, and closed it, hiding the corpse within.
The girl passed over the third coffin.
The girl went to the fourth coffin, and closed it, hiding the corpse within.
And the walk ended, and she started for a third time.
The girl passed over the first and second coffins.
The girl went to the third coffin, and closed it, hiding the corpse within.
The girl passed over the fourth and fifth coffins.
The girl went to the sixth coffin, and opened it, revealing the corpse within.
She repeated the song and the walk, over and over, without rest or stop as the sun rose and sank in the sky, until she had performed it one thousand and six hundred times, once for each of the deceased.
The man watched it all.
At the end of the one thousand and six hundredth repetition, only a handful of coffins remained open.
And from those coffins, those who were once dead returned to the witch.
Something is scribbled in the margins, as an afterthought:
Number of open coffins… perhaps?
The handwriting, however, looks to be different from Hidetaka’s straight, blocky script… although that could be due to the hastiness with which the sentence was written.
“That ritual…” Amanozaki murmurs under her breath, “the details have a certain familiarity to them, but I am afraid the knowledge is buried deep within the vault of my mind temple at the moment. I shall have to meditate on this.”
“I don’t think it’s anything important to worry your vacant head over,” snaps Uehara, hostile as always towards the psychic. “It’s just a story. It might also be a puzzle, like the note said, so we can solve it without resorting to any nonsensensical occult knowledge.”
“Kukuku… who knows what manner of ill fate will befall you if the proper precautions are not taken? The words of the dead should be read with more care. You should watch out. People like you are always the first to fall victim to the spirits’ hunger,” Amanozaki hisses ominously. It seems that the note has motivated her theatricality to greater heights, as she gestures wildly with all the flamboyance of a street performer.
“A-Anyway,” interrupts Mitsuki quickly and awkwardly, “what do we do about the key? It fits, right? So does that mean the key can open the lockers here?”
“Probably.” Uehara nods, looking around dispiritedly. “There’s so many of them. I suppose we could try each of them one by one. It is not like we are rushed for time.”
***
02:09
A. You test out the key on each locker until you find the correct one. This is a surefire way of getting what you want open, if the key does work here.
B. You attempt the puzzle – it might lead you to the correct locker more quickly, although if you are unable to solve it, or come to a wrong answer, you would just have wasted time.
C. The sheer number of lockers is just too daunting for you. You consider searching for clues elsewhere first – perhaps the other locations mentioned in Hidetaka’s notes may have something to help you.
1. You head to the elevator room.
2. You head to the pool maintenance room.
