leaf-words

[leaf-words]

As "Hillary" turned his focus to the rest of the room, Clover breathed a small sigh of relief. She pondered the information they'd just been given; although the rules didn't seem to be exactly the same, it seemed as though this Nonary Game was most similar to her third one. Were these 'zones' different to the puzzle rooms she'd encountered previously, she wondered? Zero III's comment about running out of time made her uneasy, and she figured it was best to get started as soon as possible. Judging by everything she'd heard, one could probably not enter a "zone" alone, so who should she partner with? She stared at the rest of the players - other than Sundown and Hilarius, there was a shy-looking girl who looked to be around Clover's own age talking to a blue-haired teenager. There was also a tall - compared to Clover, at least - blond man... and of course, Santa.

As ridiculous as it sounded after everything that had happened between them, she had to admit that Santa was probably the most trustworthy person in the room at the moment. Even if she was still at least a little suspicious of him, he wasn't a stranger to her, and she felt safer teaming up with him than with any of the others. 

"Hey..." she whispered, moving closer to Santa as she addressed him, "D'you think we should explore?" Of course, they likely still needed at least one other person to access the puzzles, but Clover felt it was a good idea for them to stick together. At least for now.

[leaf-words]

Clover flinched as the all-too-familiar rabbit appeared onscreen, but said nothing. Even if Santa knew nothing, she suddenly suspected June far more than she had previously. Although, June hadn't been the only one behind her third game; it was possible Sigma had staged this one too. Even if this game used digital roots, from what the rabbit had said, the BP system was very similar to the previous game. 

She gulped as "Hillary" spoke to them again, intimidated by his slightly threatening tone. "Yeah. It's always someone called Zero," she added when Santa had finished speaking. "I think there were different groups behind each game, though... So this game's Zero might not have anything to do with the other ones."

"The first time, we were kidnapped by some sorta company, I think... Like he said, they made us work together to solve puzzles. We were just kids at the time... I was only nine, so I don't really remember much about it..." (She was lying through her teeth, of course. The nightmares - her brother was on the Gigantic, sinking, and it was her fault, all her fault for not being able to give him the information to save himself - kept every detail of the game fresh in her mind.) She trailed off, eager to change the subject. 

Clover suddenly realised that Zero III hadn't been as informative about the game's mechanics as she'd hoped. Maybe Sundown and "Hillary" knew more than they did? "Hey, uh... Did the rabbit give any other announcements before we got here? Like, how to gain points and stuff? I mean, if we have to get nine points to escape, there must be some way to get more, right?"

last game?

[leaf-words]

Clover glanced between Santa and the two strangers. This was not good. How much had they heard? And how much should she tell them? ...Besides, which game - or games - should she even tell them about? Part of Clover wished she and Santa shared the connection they did with their siblings so they could figure out what not to share with their new company. It was probably better they didn't find out exactly how many Nonary Games Clover had lived through, at least not at the moment. The story was long and difficult to explain; and while the man who called himself Sundown seemed friendly enough, something about the other stranger made her very uneasy.

"Um, well... I- uh, we were kidnapped and forced into a game kinda like this before. Well, I don't know exactly how similar it was, but it was called the Nonary Game. Like he said," she gestured vaguely in Santa's direction, "There were bracelets like these, too... I dunno if any other things have changed, though. We only just got out of the room. We have no idea what's going on. There was an announcement telling us to come here, but... Nothing's happened so far. Maybe there'll be, like, another announcement or something?" 

There. Hopefully that was vague enough. Even if Santa was Zero this time, she didn't want to cast suspicion on him; having knowledge of prior games probably made them both suspicious enough.

last game?

Sayaka ran off before Sundown could say anything. He shrugged. He would’ve agreed to wait for her anyways. Best to stay in groups than brave this strange place alone. But he could still do other investigations of his own without leaving the area. He paced around, thinking for a bit. Almost nothing had come from visiting the living room except more mysteries. As he sat and lowered his hat to think. Not long after, he heard a loud voice from the opposite corner of the room.

"ᴇʟᴀʙᴏʀᴀᴛᴇ ᴜᴘᴏɴ ᴛʜɪs… ʟᴀsᴛ ɢᴀᴍᴇ ᴏғ ʏᴏᴜʀs.” Sundown knew the voice— it was that big fellow with the goggles from earlier. He looked over in his direction. Though his view was partially blocked by Hilarius’s large frame, he could see that there were two others in this conversation. Sundown knew neither of them yet— but it sounded like they may know something. Sundown stood up and slowly walked over, raising his hat in order to make eye contact with the new players.

“‘Scuse me, lady n’ gents. I overheard somethin’ just now… Did ya say ‘last game’? As in, this’s happened before? N’ one of ya’s played before…?”

He tried to not sound too accusative. While it’s true that anyone in the facility could’ve been Zero, and their involvement in some previous game did make them more likely to know what was happening, they could be victims just the same. Just because they knew about the existence of this Game doesn’t mean they organized it, necessarily.

"Oh, rude o’ me to ask questions before introducin’ myself.. I’m a wanderer… Ya can call me Sundown."

[leaf-words]

"...Fine. June, then." Maybe using their code names was a good idea, especially given they didn't know who was behind this game. If that was the case, maybe she should come up with an alias that wasn't her actual name?

"Anyway, I've been trying to contact Li- I mean, my brother, since the start of the last game. And yeah, I am better at transmitting, but... usually I can at least get something from him, you know? Even before we started training, I could kinda... sense our connection, if you know what I mean. Now I don't even have that."

Clover looked at the floor, worried. The lack of contact from her brother was definitely not a good sign, but if Santa couldn't contact his sister either, maybe there was a third, more powerful esper in the game. Perhaps it was Phi or Sigma, or even a stranger. It might even be this game's Zero.

Santa was quiet for a long time, glancing around the room and at the furniture and participants all the while. It was unclear what exactly may have been going through his mind.

It wasn’t until Clover addressed him that he looked to her, arching an eyebrow curiously.

"Call her June," he instantly demanded, straightening himself back out in a sort of dominant fashion. it was too risky to call each other by their real names here, even if Akane wasn’t actually with them. There was the possibility that they could find her later, or something…! After all, they had no idea what was going on yet.

"…No, I’m not getting anything from her. Are you trying to contact Snake? Aren’t you, like, a transmitter, though?"

Of course, he knew that everyone could transmit and receive, but as he wasn’t a transmitter, he wasn’t sure exactly how much she could receive through the field.

[leaf-words]

The screen was still blank. Clover kept eyeing it nervously, expecting the rabbit to pop up at any minute. Maybe they were waiting for someone? She did a quick headcount of the room; assuming there were nine participants  (there were always nine participants), there were still a few players missing. Maybe they wouldn't get information until everyone else showed up. In the last game, she and K had been the last ones out of their elevator - Clover hadn't even been conscious when it happened - but Alice had been the first and from what she'd said, Zero III had given out no information until all participants were present.

Well, if they were going to have to wait for the others, she might as well use her time productively. She sat down against the wall, arms wrapped around her knees, closed her eyes and focused on accessing the field.

Light? Can you hear me? It's Clover. If you're getting this, give me some sort of response.

She felt nothing. 

... I'm in another Nonary Game. Sant- uh, Aoi's here too. He says it's not him this time, but... Anyway. If you can hear me, I want you to know that I love you and you're the best big brother anyone could hope for. ...Please be alive. I miss you.

She concentrated until her head hurt, but nothing happened. No response whatsoever. Either Light was somehow unable to respond, or something was blocking her powers. Or someone. Were Santa's powers strong enough to block her own, she wondered? 

"Hey, um... Santa?" she began tentatively. "Are you getting anything from Akane...? Like, through the field...?"

He looked around the room once more as she did, eyes darting to every single thing that was within this time, rather than a quick scan. He noted that he didn’t recognize any of them, either, so he was fairly certain that he wasn’t the one behind it this time. But if not, who was?

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as the familiar feeling of dread crept into his soul. His hands slid out of his pockets so that he could wrap them around himself in a sort of holding way. The expression on his face was a mix between disgust, anger, and… was that a hint of fear? It was hard to tell, because he portrayed himself as a hardass and wanted to refuse to let it show, but perhaps a bit of it was leaking out without his knowledge.

He never showed any genuine fear the last game he was in, but he did already know everything that was going to happen. He was the one who helped set it up, after all!

There was no response from him. He was very oddly silent, for once.

[leaf-words]

Santa stared down at her, barely looking concerned at all. "I'm... I'm f-fine-," Clover began, then broke off and shook her head. "It's just... it's the same. A-As the other game. The one I just did. ... Not exactly, but..." She trailed off, glancing around the room. These other people were presumably her fellow participants, but Clover didn't recognise any of them. That was good, right? If Light and Alice weren't here, they weren't in danger. Santa, on the other hand...

She looked back at him, still breathing fairly heavily. "...What now...? I bet Zero has a message for us, but... the screen doesn't seem to be doing anything..."

He simply ran after her, although much, much more slowly than usual so that he could keep an eye on her from behind.

Once he entered the living room, he gave a quick look around, to the occupants, the furniture, the big tv-like object… but then he looked back to Clover. She was his biggest concern right now. Making new friends could wait.

He still didn’t physically appear to be very worried, but he was, even more so now that she was so out of breath. He didn’t believe that such a short run would tire her out this badly under normal circumstances, especially considering how… slow it had been.

Normal circumstances, though, were a far cry from being in this place. He had to give a small, humorless chuckle at that thought as he shoved his hands into his pockets and loomed protectively over the redheaded girl.

"You… uh… okay? You seem kinda… uh…"

He looked away as he tried to figure out a way to ask her questions without seeming like he cared too much.

[leaf-words]

Santa was calling after her, but she ignored him, running as fast as she could. This had to be a dream, right? Well, more like some fucked-up nightmare, technically. She'd had her fair share of nightmares after the first two games (she'd never forget the incinerator, or the sight of the corpses behind doors 5, 3, and 1. Especially not the one in the shower room; Clover still had nightmares that the corpse was her brother's and not Nijisaki's.) Even though nobody had died - in this timeline, at least - it made sense that the third game would haunt her dreams, too.

She slowed down as she reached the living area. Well, if this was based on her third game, she knew exactly what the rules would be, didn't she? Pairs shared a destiny. ... Were they a pair, though? Clover's bracelet didn't say pair or solo- were the different games merging in her dreams now? Breathing heavily, she leaned against a wall, arms wrapped around herself protectively as Santa ran into the room just after her. She stared blankly in his general direction, but all of her anger from earlier had been replaced with fear.

Clover's voice was barely a whisper. "This... None of this is real... It's just another nightmare... right...?"

He slowed down when she originally cried out to him, just a little bit concerned for her well-being. She seemed… sick, somehow? And, even if she weren’t, it was still Clover, and somewhere, deep down, he felt he had to protect her. She was rather small and innocent-looking; an easy target for anyone potentially bigger and stronger than herself. On top of that… she was someone’s little sister, and he was a big brother.

Of course, he wasn’t about to really show concern for her, instead pretending to blow it off to focus on another conversation.

He was about to say something until the voice spoke up, causing him to stop in his tracks and look towards the speakers it was coming from and allowing Clover to fully catch up with him.

When it was finished, he seemed to be in a bad mood once more, grumbling and looking over to the redhead.

"Clover?"

And then she ran, so he ran after her.

"Hey, wait!"

[leaf-words]

"I bet you'd like to. Ooh, Light would murder y-" Clover was cut off as Santa pushed past her. He moved fast - so fast it made Clover's head hurt - had he always moved this quickly? She clutched her head and blinked briefly. It only felt like a few seconds, but by the time she'd looked again, he was swiping his card and halfway out the door.

"H-Hey! Santa! Wait!" She ran for the door, calling after him. "Don't... Don't leave me here! Aoi!" She hoped she'd catch up to him before he went too far. Suddenly, an announcement rang out.

"…Ahem! Would everybunny that’s escaped their dorm rooms please hop over to the living room~? And hurry up! Or else…. Hehehe, well, I can’t really say what will lapin~! But I recommend you hare-y up if you want to win this game. Have a nice trick!"

Clover froze.

Everything about it was the same. The voice, its mocking tone, even the stupid rabbit puns. It had to be Zero III. If the rabbit was running this, then... Was Akane still controlling it? 

If that jerk of a rabbit was here, then was everything else the same too? Shaking like a leaf, she eyed her bracelet nervously. If she didn't obey his instructions, would she be ... penalised? 

She ran as fast as she could. The sooner the game got going, the sooner she'd get out of here and back home. 

"Fuck you."

That was the only thing he said as he opted to finally get out of his bed. Perhaps he was tapping into the Morphogenetic Field, but he instantly felt as though he needed to search his pockets and promptly did just that. He only needed to glance over the note to find what he needed, and it didn’t take him long at all to know what he needed to do.

Done with her conversation, he pushed past Clover to get to the box at the end of his bed and proceeded to press the buttons in the sequence that was required, getting it open in very little time.

After studying the keycard for a moment, he looked to the piece of paper that came with it. Digital roots, huh? He didn’t need that, so he tossed it aside.

After one last glance to Clover, he turned and swiped the card, quickly stepping through the door once it was open.

[leaf-words]

Clover rolled her eyes angrily. "Ugh! I'm not stupid, Santa! I know she's been planning the game I just came from for, like, half a century! But if you expect me to believe you didn't know anything about it, fine! We'll pretend she kidnapped me in 2019 just in case she felt like staging another Nonary Game and infecting us with some weird-ass virus once she hit retirement age!" 

She met his glare with one of her own. "Hey, don't give me that look! For all I know, you could be as old as Junpei! He's, like, super old. Like, older than Seven and Lotus put together, probably." Clover couldn't help but giggle a little bit. "Well, maybe not that old. That would be super super old."

Maybe he was right, though. "I didn't think it was gonna happen this soon, but... if this really is 2019, I guess whatever Akane had planned really did work."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

He knew exactly what she was talking about, and she probably knew that he would know. However, as far as he knew, that game hadn’t happened in the timeline he was from yet, so he responded in a way that would hopefully make her realize such. At least, he didn’t think that he was on the moon, or anything like that.

He glared at her again when she decided to inspect him.

"Of course I’m not fucking old!"

But… he did go silent again after this, looking away from her and to something that he decided was more interesting at the moment. Honestly, he didn’t really want to go into any more detail about the whole situation. It was a tad upsetting, and he didn’t want to look or sound upset in front of her.

"…Guess it worked, huh?"

[leaf-words]

Clover was too worked up to pay much attention to Santa's words, but there was one thing he said that caught her attention. Still sniffling slightly, she whirled back around.

"What do you mean only a year?! Did you, like, miss the half-century of post-apocalyptic wasteland that the Earth apparently became while I was FROZEN ON THE MOON?" Clover could feel her temper rising again and tried to stay calm; she wanted answers from Santa and no matter how good it felt, smacking him with pillows was probably not the way to get it.

"... Wait a second." Clover suddenly realised she'd overlooked something really important. Junpei had been roughly seventy the last time she'd seen him, but Santa... Santa was exactly the same as he'd been in 2018. How?

"You're not............ old...? Did she freeze you too? Or... did it work? Did she really get us back to our proper time?" That still didn't explain the lack of contact from Light since she'd woken up here, but one year was better than half a century, right?

"Last time?"

…Ah. She must mean the future Nonary Game that Akane had planned. Of course he knew about that. His sister told him everything that she knew. Clover must have just returned to the present from participating in that game.

He was silent for what felt like a long time, at least to him, just listening to her as she ranted, allowing her to get all of her frustrations out. He refused to look at her, though, a mix of guilt and depression overtaking him. Sure, he felt kind of bad that Clover had to be kidnapped repeatedly to participate in these games, but she was important!

She did have a point that they could have picked any of the other children that had been taken, but he didn’t have a response to that.

"Look, I—"

He was cut off as he received a pillow to the face. The object didn’t knock him down, but he didn’t look happy once it was no longer blocking the view of his face.

As much as he wanted to, he decided not to argue about being hit in the face with the pillow.

"I dunno… I’m pretty sure he’s not dead. It’s only been like, a year, I think."

Perhaps that would calm her down.

[leaf-words]

"Don't give me that shit!" she retorted angrily. "See, that's what I thought last time! Oh, Santa and June can't be behind this one! They've done everything they needed to do! And then your sister was in the fucking suit of armor the entire time! So excuse me if you two have kidnapped me a few too many times for me to believe you!"

Clover glared at him suspiciously. Was he really not involved? He did seem just as surprised as she was, but as she'd found out in the second Nonary Game, Santa was a very good actor. "Look," she said, taking a deep breath, "I know if you've staged one of these, it's for a good reason! I know the other two games were important! But I'm not exactly happy about being your sister's pawn! The first game had fourteen other espers in it, and you could've picked ANY of them! I literally just came out of the last one, like, four hours ago - it's NOT FAIR!" (Had it actually been four hours, though? Clover wasn't sure how badly the lingering effects of Radical-6 had affected her perception of time.)

She continued to rant. "And I want to know where my brother is, too! I... I couldn't contact him for the entire third game! Nothing I'm sending him is going through! It's been forty-seven years, he probably thinks I'm dead! ...Wh...What if HE'S dead and I never got to say goodbye because SOMEONE KEEPS FUCKING KIDNAPPING ME?!" Clover's voice again reached a frustrated screech as she hurled her pillow - the only object within reach - into Santa's face as hard as she could.

She turned away from him, hurriedly trying to wipe away her tears. Part of her knew it was probably unfair to take this all out on Santa; Akane was more likely to be the mastermind, after all. Then again, Clover remembered how their last meeting had ended - Santa had called her a stupid bitch and threatened to shoot her - so she didn't feel like her anger at him was too unfair.

Clover’s third Nonary Game had concluded. All the participants had reached 9BP, and they’d escaped - well, they’d left Dio behind, but he had tried to blow them all up - but they’d returned to the facility for some answers. Quark and Tenmyouji - no, he was Junpei - had gone...

[leaf-words]

déjà vu. (VLR spoilers)

Clover's third Nonary Game had concluded. All the participants had reached 9BP, and they'd escaped - well, they'd left Dio behind, but he had tried to blow them all up - but they'd returned to the facility for some answers. Quark and Tenmyouji - no, he was Junpei - had gone back to Earth. Clover hoped Akane's plan to get her and Alice back to their original time would work. She was desperate to see her brother again, or at least be able to contact him through the Morphogenetic Field. So Clover was more than a little distressed when she found herself in an unfamiliar bed, but with a very familiar weight around her left wrist. With shaking hands, she pulled out the note slipped beneath the watch around her wrist. She registered that it was a five this time. Would this game use digital roots, or did she have five BP this time? 

Welcome to the Nonary Game. I am your gracious host, Zero. I thank you for your participation in this game.

Clover's heart sank, although some part of her knew she shouldn't be remotely surprised. Talk about déjà vu. The note had triangles and numbers scrawled at the bottom; some sort of a clue? She sighed and started to examine the room. There was a small box at the bottom of her bed. The other side of the room had an identical bed and box, and there was a door in the wall between them. It seemed as if the occupant of the other bed was still asleep. Clover figured there was no point in trying to wake them. After all, if this was anything like the other games, her fellow participant was probably still under the effects of Soporil or some other drug. She supposed she was too, although her dizziness could just as easily be attributed to the after-effects of Radical-6. (When Light found out about the Radical-6, he would probably murder Akane on the spot, Clover thought.)

She took a closer look at the box at the foot of her bed and quickly pressed the triangles in the order indicated on her note. "Wow. That was kind of anti-climactic," Clover joked to herself to keep calm as she pulled out the keycard and read the note. "Like, back in my day we had to navigate torture rooms and escape incinerators! Even the Ambidex Edition's first room was more hardcore than this!" 

It would be only polite to wait for the other person to wake up before escaping, right...? In the meantime, Clover explored the door at the back of the room. A closet, bathroom and toilet - nothing helpful. "Give me a P..." Clover began as she stared at the pipe under the sink, but trailed off as she realised nobody was there to complete it. She couldn't believe she was missing Seven, of all people. Deciding it was time for her roommate to wake up, Clover returned to the main room. 

"Hey, uh... Can you hear me...?" she said loudly, slowly approaching the other bed. No response. She reached the bed and shook their shoulders lightly and stopped suddenly as she had a proper look at their face for the first time. 

Santa- no, Aoi Kurashiki!

Clover staggered back in horror as she stifled a scream of shock. "N-No... No way... Why the hell is he here?!" But the more she thought about it, the more obvious it became. Zero. He had to be Zero. And he and Akane had kidnapped her for yet another one of their Nonary Games. 

Clover saw red.

She shook him again, more violently this time. "Hey! Wake up! I said, WAKE UP, YOU FUCKING JERK! WHY ME? WHY DOES IT ALWAYS HAVE TO BE ME?!?! WHERE'S ALICE? WHERE'S LIGHT!?!" As Clover got progressively angrier, the pitch of her voice increased, "YOU'VE GOT TEN SECONDS TO EXPLAIN YOUR PATHETIC ASS BEFORE I MAKE YOU REGRET EVER KIDNAPPING ME!" By the end of the sentence, her voice had become a furious high-pitched screech.

If this didn't wake Santa up, nothing would. 

[leaf-words]

Hey! What the hell did you just say about me and that JERK?!?!?!?

Apping Clover from Zero Escape~

You’ll be in Room #8… with your boyfriend. tee hee