Chapter 74: It’s Less of a Scream and More of a Wail of Despair
I’d love to tell the grand tale of how Kuwajima ended up like this.
Unfortunately…
There isn’t one.
No dramatic childhood trauma.
No tragic turning point.
No life-changing incident.
Nothing of the sort exists.
Taketsuru and Meiko split up according to plan.
Meanwhile, Kuwajima and Niwashita-san carefully made their way toward the southern part of the village, heading for a concealed hiding spot.
As far as choosing the location went, there shouldn’t have been any problems.
Meiko had personally selected it, after all.
But…
Partway there, they accidentally stumbled into the villagers.
Kuwajima turned to flee—
“Bweh!”
—promptly tripped over absolutely nothing, crashed face-first into the ground, and was captured exactly as anyone would expect.
The villagers casually hoisted her up and carried her back toward the watchtower.
Watching the entire sequence unfold, Niwashita-san merely let out a resigned,
“Ahh…”
…and watched her disappear.
That was intentional, actually.
In this version of the event, whenever participants traveled in groups of two or more, the balance was designed so that if one person got caught, the other would be able to escape.
Meiko had once passionately explained that every perfectly ordinary male university student secretly dreamed of having a moment where he could shout,
“Leave this to me! You go on ahead!”
So I’d built the mechanic around that fantasy.
If some guy wanted to look cool in front of the girl he liked…
By all means, let him have his heroic moment.
If it came to that, the villagers would even prioritize chasing the guy, no matter how the groups split up.
Well…
In Kuwajima’s case, looking cool had never entered the equation.
The words she actually shouted were—
“If three people make it out, the survivors win!! More importantly, isn’t having more killers than survivors completely broken game balance!?!?!”
Close enough.
The spirit of the thing was there.
Then, while being carried away like a freshly cut log…
Kuwajima calmly reached into her bag and produced a roll of bandages.
…Somehow.
Without using her hands.
At some point she’d apparently learned to manipulate her curse well enough to wrap the bandages around herself automatically.
When exactly had she unlocked that ability?
I had absolutely no idea.
The moment the bandages settled into place, Kuwajima underwent a miraculous transformation.
She ceased being…
“The idiot who tripped while running away.”
And instead became…
“The great Goetheschwarz Sanzen Sanbyaku Sanjuuin, who deliberately allowed herself to be captured.”
Mentally speaking…
She’d achieved total victory.
As for my first reaction…
It was this.
“Outstanding, Kuwajima! I knew you’d somehow mess up and get yourself captured even if nobody did anything—but you’ve exceeded every expectation! Now I get to test what happens after someone is actually captured! Every proper escape scenario needs a rescue mission!”
“…She really is kind of a pitiful girl, isn’t she?”
“She might have a hard time fitting into modern society.”
Incidentally…
The villagers carrying Kuwajima were making a conscious effort not to touch anywhere inappropriate.
If someone genuinely resisted after being captured, things could become rather dangerous.
Fortunately…
Kuwajima had seemingly accepted her fate.
She offered no resistance whatsoever, making the process incredibly easy.
That said…
The exact rules surrounding captures were probably another area the game should define more carefully.
“So the real question is… what will the others do now?”
“Niwashita-san saw everything happen, and Meiko’s hiding near the watchtower, so they’re both aware. Taketsuru, on the other hand, has no idea Kuwajima was captured. It’ll be interesting to see how he reacts.”
At present…
Niwashita-san had reached the planned hiding place.
Taketsuru was waiting at his sniping position with a stone in hand.
And Meiko…
…was crouched atop a rooftop near the watchtower, watching Kuwajima with both hands pressed against her head in exasperation.
If nothing unexpected happened…
Taketsuru would destroy the shrine with his thrown stone before escaping.
Meiko would decide on the fly whether to rescue Kuwajima.
And Niwashita-san would deliberately wait for Taketsuru so she could inform him what had happened.
At least…
That was the expectation.
“Should the voice tell them about Kuwajima’s situation? We could make ‘everyone survives’ the ideal clear condition. Or maybe have the prisoners face execution sooner once the shrine is destroyed. That would make the timing of destroying the shrine much more complicated…”
“…Aren’t you suddenly overthinking things? I’d be completely lost if you sprung rules like that on me out of nowhere.”
“…You’re right. Forget I said anything. Suddenly making the rules more complicated isn’t a good idea. Let’s just quietly watch how things play out.”
Without realizing it, my thoughts had drifted toward game mechanics again.
But this wasn’t supposed to be a game.
At its heart…
It was a traditional haunted village experience.
If it stopped feeling like a believable cursed village, immersion would fall apart.
Likewise, imposing too many artificial restrictions on how the villagers behaved wasn’t desirable either.
Participants should solve problems through their own ideas.
Not because the rules forced them to.
The first person to move was Meiko.
While Kuwajima confused every nearby villager by loudly rambling away in her usual Kumamoto dialect…
Meiko quietly slipped off toward Taketsuru.
Apparently she’d decided sharing information took priority.
Incidentally…
The reason Taketsuru hadn’t thrown the stone immediately despite already reaching the sniping point was simple.
Everything had been synchronized by time.
Inside Fushijishi Village, smartphones couldn’t communicate.
But they still worked as clocks.
(Though turning on the screen risked revealing your location.)
The villagers suffered from the same communication limitations.
So if the participants coordinated their timing correctly, they could deliberately throw the villagers’ information network into chaos.
Watching Taketsuru and Meiko build plans together had reinforced something I’d noticed before.
The moment those two stepped even slightly outside ordinary daily life…
The abnormal parts of them immediately surfaced.
Still…
It wouldn’t have been fair for me to eavesdrop too much on their strategy.
I didn’t even know how detailed their planning had become.
Which meant…
Kuwajima’s capture had the potential to throw every subsequent action completely off course.
Ordinarily, the first response would be informing everyone, then devising a rescue plan.
But…
When Meiko finally reached Taketsuru…
She simply said,
“Tae-chan got captured.”
“Then we’ll switch to Plan B.”
“Right.”
Oi, Kuwajima.
Turns out…
We’d both expected you to get captured.
The fact that Meiko didn’t bother mentioning Niwashita-san’s safety made it perfectly obvious.
They already had a contingency plan prepared specifically for the possibility that only Kuwajima would be caught.
If Niwashita-san had been the one captured…
Well.
That might’ve escalated all the way to Plan: Holy Sword.
“…Why are these children so calm after one of their companions was captured?”
“That’s what trust looks like. They trusted Kuwajima enough to believe she’d absolutely pull something like this.”
“…………”
The disembodied voice somehow managed to radiate sadness.
No, really.
She wasn’t a bad person.
She just had this unmistakable aura of someone who’d inevitably mess up at the single most important moment.
Honestly…
Expecting the eternally winging-it Kuwajima to follow a carefully prepared plan might’ve been unrealistic from the very beginning.
Having switched to Plan B, Taketsuru glanced at his watch before speaking.
“Five-minute adjustment. Could you meet up with Sumire-neesan first?”
“Be careful.”
“Who do you think you’re talking to?”
That brief exchange was all it took.
Meiko dissolved back into the darkness, vanishing as though she’d never been there.
Apparently she intended to rendezvous with Niwashita-san and inform her of the revised plan as well.
Now then…
What exactly was Kuwajima doing?
I casually turned the local deity’s clairvoyance toward the watchtower.
“—Ku-hahahaha! Changing the subject, my powers grow stronger at night! It’s because my affinity with the darkness reaches its peak after sunset! However, this blessing carries grave danger! Should you continue restraining me, the overflowing magic within my body may erupt uncontrollably and endanger all of you as well! Are you certain you wish to keep me bound!? Ein!?”
“…………………………..?????”
As usual…
She was speaking entirely in thick Kumamoto dialect.
Not a single villager understood a word.
Although…
Even if they had understood, they probably wouldn’t have done anything differently.
Just as I was thinking that…
A hallucination window suddenly popped into existence.
──────
Goetheschwarz Sanzen Sanbyaku Sanjuuin
Inner Thoughts: “U-Um… if I’m tied up all night… that’s… kind of dangerous. I mean, not dangerous yet, obviously… but… what happens if I need the bathroom…? Don’t tell me nobody thought about that…? Kirishiro-kun!?”
──────
Don’t worry, Kuwajima.
I’d already planned for that.
Quietly…
I decided to show her one of the props I’d prepared specifically to heighten the terror.
“Voice. Apparently Kuwajima’s been worrying an awful lot about the bathroom. Show her… that.“
“Eh? You’re really going to use that?”
“No. Just show it to her.”
The mysterious voice relayed Kuwajima’s private concerns to the village chief.
Hearing that the local deity had spoken…
The chief nodded solemnly and ordered someone to bring out the prepared item.
A villager soon approached the bound Kuwajima…
Holding it carefully in both hands.
Yes.
It was a portable toilet.
An old-fashioned chamber pot.
“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!”
──────
Scream Count
Taketsuru Yuu: 0
Nekoyanagi Meiko: 0
Kuwajima Taeko: 8↑
Niwashita Sumire: 3
──────
“That was definitely today’s best scream.”
“That wasn’t a scream… that was the cry of someone drowning in absolute despair.”
If fear produced it…
Was there really much difference?
Although…
Niwashita-san’s earlier cheerful “Kyaa~!” had sounded more like she was having fun than being frightened.
Whether that one counted as genuine terror was questionable.
Incidentally…
Ever since the event began, neither Meiko nor Taketsuru had uttered a single unnecessary word.
I’d really like to make those two scream at least once.
The question was…
How?
Before long…
Meiko reached Niwashita-san without incident.
She was currently hiding beneath a small bridge spanning the stream that flowed through the village, tucked away in a recessed spot farther underneath.
It wasn’t particularly easy to enter.
Precisely because of that…
The villagers subconsciously assumed no one would choose it as a hiding place, delaying their search.
Meiko loved exploiting psychological blind spots like that.
“Sumire-san. Tae-chan got captured, so we’re switching to Plan B.”
“Ah…”
“It was her destiny.”
After quietly exchanging those few words…
Meiko checked the time.
About five minutes had passed since leaving Taketsuru.
At that exact moment…
Taketsuru, standing alone at the sniping point, muttered to himself.
“Time’s up. Let’s hope I haven’t gotten rusty…”
Drawing back his arm, he gripped a stone roughly the size of his palm.
His eyes sharpened.
His target…
The shrine in the north.
Ordinarily, the villagers blocked every route leading there, making it one of the hardest objectives in the entire haunted village.
The stone cut through the darkness in a beautiful arc.
It wasn’t some perfectly balanced baseball.
Just an ordinary rock picked up off the ground.
And yet…
It flew as though every irregular contour had been accounted for, slicing cleanly through the night.
It sailed effortlessly over the heads of the guards stationed near the shrine…
Then…
As though drawn by fate itself…
It slammed directly into the shrine.
GOGAN!!
A thunderous crash echoed across the village.
The shrine, intentionally built to be fragile for this very purpose, stood no chance.
It exploded into countless splinters beneath the impact.
“…!?”
“────!!”
The villagers froze.
Confused voices erupted everywhere.
It would take them precious moments to realize the shrine had been destroyed by a thrown stone.
By then…
Taketsuru had already abandoned the firing position.
Without hesitation, he sprinted across fields, embankments, and tall grass as though they were perfectly paved roads.
His destination…
The bridge where Meiko and Niwashita-san waited.
Only a few minutes later, he arrived.
The three of them reunited as naturally as though nothing had happened.
“The shrine’s destroyed. The strange atmosphere around the village feels weaker somehow.”
“Perfect. It’ll take a little longer before everyone realizes what happened.”
“And once they do…” Niwashita-san looked between the two of them. “…we move on to Plan B, right? Are you two really sure about this?”
Taketsuru and Meiko exchanged pained expressions.
Expressions so exaggerated that anyone could tell they were acting.
Then they spoke in voices that sounded almost as if they were performing for me.
“Given the current situation… this is the best option, Sumire-neesan.”
“Can’t be helped. It’s probably the most effective strategy.”
“I see.”
Hmm.
Apparently…
Plan B was something Niwashita-san wasn’t entirely comfortable with.
Now then…
What would the Hero, the Ninja, and the University Student do from here?
Show me how you’d rescue your captured companion.
As the perfect test case for unconventional participants…
Let me see your answer.
Perhaps she hadn’t actually heard my thoughts.
Even so…
Niwashita-san spoke.
“Well, if that’s how it is… then we’ll just abandon Tae-chan. Goodbye, Tae-chan. We’ll survive without you.”
“TAKETSURUUUUUUUUUU!! MEEEEIKOOOOOOOOOO!! IS THAT REALLY HOW BEST FRIENDS AND CHILDHOOD FRIENDS ARE SUPPOSED TO ACT!?!?!”
The cry escaped my mouth before I could stop it.
T-These idiots…
They’d actually thrown away poor baggage-Kuwajima without the slightest hesitation!
You’re kidding me!
That was the one thing you absolutely weren’t supposed to do!
Forget being an ordinary university student—
With your character archetypes, choosing that option wasn’t just out of character.
It shattered the characters entirely!
A best friend!
A childhood friend!
There shouldn’t exist a single situation where either of those archetypes happily abandons their companion!
That’s not normal!
What’s wrong with you, Meiko!?
None of the light novels in the textbook ever prepared me for this!
…Wait.
Could it be?
Did they think this was just a comedy chapter?
Sure, side stories that didn’t affect the main plot often revealed unexpected sides of characters.
And gag chapters practically encouraged everyone to act out of character.
Even so…
This still wasn’t the choice a best friend or childhood friend was supposed to make.
“…What will you do if they don’t all survive?”
“…Then I’ll have to make one.”
I let out a defeated sigh.
“A Normal Ending.”
“…You’re actually going to keep it fair?”
Damn it.
I never imagined the Hero from another world would abandon his friend and run.
Fine.
Looks like the Traditional Village Test of Courage was going to need a multiple-ending system after all.