[3]

The boy with the pen

1:40 left

"we're taking turns opening the doors, and it's your turn" karube points a finger at the lady

he walks over to her and grabs her arm dragging her to the door that says live

"open it"

"no" she immediately retorts

karube sighs and turns to arisu

"do you have any ideas?"

"ideas?" arisu speaks up softly

"yeah! you always say that there's a solution to every game, right?" you step into the conversation

"but this isn't a game" arisu says

"you're the smart one! surely you must know what to do" chota whines

"you've always been good at puzzle games.. you find a solution to every single one of my problems" you walk over to arisu

"so what's stopping you now?" you finish your sentence

"this isn't a game, it's all about luck" he sighs into his hands

"just think arisu!" karube walks over to you both

1 minute left

"there might have been a hint somewhere" you look at arisu in hopes he would have seen one

"yeah, first we walked into this building, then the elevator took us here-" karube starts but was cut off by arisu walking away

"i can't do this!" arisu yells in a frustrated tone

"don't give up arisu! if we don't think of something now then we'll all die here" you say

"it's impossible to win, i'm telling you guys!" he says

"shut up and just think" karube tells the panicked boy

"you should know what to do! i've been working my *** off, while you just play video games!" karube screams

"what does that have to do with this? all you know how to do is beat people up so what makes you so big?" arisu screams back

"well, i'm sorry about that!" karube throws a punch to arisu's face

"stop that!" chota holds karube back while arisu lays on the ground

you rush to the ground where arisu is laying and bend down to meet his gaze

"don't worry about him right now, just think, please" you tell him

"wait a minute" he thinks back to when you all first walked in the building

all the screaming immediately stops and all of you look at arisu with eager faces

"what is it, arisu?" karube asks

30 seconds remaining

arisu stands up as the smoke starts rising from the vents

"BMW 523d, it was a BMW 523d" he whispers

"so? what about it? karube asks

"the answer is die" arisu says abruptly

"how do you know?" the lady asks

10 seconds left

"there's no time!" you say

"i'll open it!" you run towards the door with the word die on it

"arisu! are you sure that the answer is die?" karube asks

5 seconds left

seconds left

"please be right" you whisper to yourself and open the door

safe. you're safe

the others soon run in behind you and slam the door shut

1:30 left the new timer begins

"do you asks know which one it is now?" karube

"the length of a BMW 523d is 4 meters and 94 centimeters, there was one parked outside here. the length of the building is equivalent to four of those cars, this means that this building is approximately 20 meters in length" arisu says

this was the exact moment you put all your trust in arisu

"my feet are 28 centimeters long" arisu says and backs up into the wall, then proceeding to measure the distance between the tiles with his feet

"it should be around 6 meters and according to the evacuation map, the elevator is at the corner of the building. the shape of the building is square, these rooms are all square shaped too. so assuming that one side of the building is square, these rooms are all square shaped too. so assuming that one side of the building is 20 meters, and the rooms are 6 square meter in size, there can only be three rooms on one side" he says

1 minute left

"is there something i can write on?" arisu asks

the woman hands him a pen and chota hands him a small sticky note

arisu starts by making a big square along the paper and continuing by making smaller ones inside of the bigger one, symbolizing the rooms of the building

"it's just like a puzzle game" chota speaks up

"it's arisu's forte!" karube slightly smiles

"So we started in this room" arisu points to the corner room on the piece of paper "the high school girl died in this room, and this is the next room" he points

"thanks to y/n, we moved forward. this means that the door to the right cannot be accessed" he continues

"and then y/n opened the door to this room" arisu draws and arrow the the next square

20 seconds left

"through the process of elimination, these two rooms are a no-go" he x's the two squares out on the paper

10 seconds left

you now fully understand what arisu is saying while the other three still look slightly confused

"the answer is die!" you and arisu both say at the same time

4 seconds left

arisu opens the door and you all run through, making it in safely

1:20 left

"if your reasoning works, we'll be able to survive!" karube smiles

"you two are so awesome" chota looks at you

and arisu

"this game is not based on luck and we can clear it together" you say

arisu takes out the sticky note and starts the process again

"according to my drawing, the next answer is die too" he holds up the paper

"what do you think y/n?" he hands drawing you the

you study the paper before giving your answer

"yes!" you agree with him

"all right!" karube says

you all walk towards the door

"ready?" arisu asks

you all nod your heads yes and he opens the door

as soon as you're all in the room safely, arisu pulls you, karube, and chota into a group hug for a mini celebration

1:10 left

"so which door is next?" the lady asks

"it's live" you tell them

they all look around and make eye contact with each other

"let's go then" karube runs towards the live door

with a small push it opens up and low and behold, you were right

"yes!" chota celebrates and pulls you all in for another group hug

1:00 left

"there's no door in the front" you point out to arisu while the other two boys mess around in the corner

"they're both on the side" he says to you

karube and chota walk up to the two of you and start looking, karube looking over your shoulder while chota looks over arisu's

"what's next?" chota asks

you and arisu start making arrows on the drawing trying to work it out

"since the right door is out of the question should we choose the one on the outer wall?" arisu says

karube, chota, and the lady all make their way to the door on the left while you stick by arisu, noticing something he didn't

"wait!" you scream out to the three others that were about to open the door

"but arisu said-" chota starts but gets cut off by arisu

"no, y/n's right. i missed something"

50 seconds left

"think. the room that we are currently in is in the back left corner of the building. the clear condition is to leave this building and we're being compelled to choose either the "live" or "die" door, which leads us out. but as i recall, there is no gap between this and the neighboring building. the "live door leads us to where the high school girl died... so why ain't through a door to the roar of the building?" you converse with arisu

"there must be something that we overlooked" he says back

"but what could that be? there is no space for any tricks in the rooms we've come through" you say

"if that's the case" arisu starts

"there's no time to waste! we'll die!" the lady shouts

smoke starts to rise from the vents

"wait" you say, gaining attention from everyone inside the room

you make eye contact with arisu and you can tell that he knows exactly what you're thinking of

"the video" you say

"yeah! chota! you took a video in the first room, right?" arisu asks

"we have no time for that" the lady yells

disregarding her comment you and arisu rush over to chota as he takes his phone out

30 seconds left

"i think we missed something" arisu says as he watches the video intensely

fear starts to spread across everyone's face as the timer ticks down

"there's no door!" you stop the video and zoom in on the room where the high school girl had died in

"there's no door in the room the girl entered" you say again

"So what?" the lady asks

"there's a door here!" arisu backs you up

10 seconds

"so this means the room where the girl died isn't square!" you say

"the answer is live!" you rush towards the door

four

three

two

one

you all make it out of the door alive, but fire catches onto the bottom of chota's leg

- the time limit for this room is ten seconds -

"ten seconds?" karube screams while he hurries to take his sweater off to put the fire on chota's leg out

"it's not live, it's die! don't be tricked" arisu yells

five

four

arisu opens the door and exits safely

"hurry up!" he screams

you were the second one out, followed by karube and chota, then the lady

"head downstairs!" arisu yells

you all fall to the ground once you reach the bottom of the stairs

...- game clear -...

...- congratulations -...

seeing something in the distance, you stand up and walk towards it, the others slowly walk behind you

it's a card

the three of clubs to be exact

it was just sitting on the table

you pick it up to examine it and there doesn't seem to be anything special about it

it's just a normal card

all five of your phones light up

- to the survivors of the game, we will now supply you with a visa -

- we will now supply all game survivors with a three day visa -

"visa?" arisu questions

groaning is heard from in front of you causing you all to look away from your phone and towards the direction of the noise

it's a limping man and he doesn't look like he's in too good of condition

"you guys, there is no end to this no matter how much you clear" he says

you all stare at him as if he has two heads

"my visa ends today, now finally this is the end" he says and within seconds the same red laser that killed the high school girl earlier shoots through his head

not wanting to see the sight any longer you turn and hide your face in arisu's chest. he immediately attempts to comfort you by wrapping his arms around you

"so our visas will end too.. and that's gonna happen to us when it does" arisu says

you remove yourself from arisu's body and stand on your own

"if you don't want to die then you'll have to keep playing the games" the lady says

a/n: don't worry Chishiya will come in the next chapter

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