Part 66: Uranus

[Music: Tinderbox]



Santa is...Zero...!?
And June was (9), not (6). On the contrary, Santa was (0), not (3). (+3) and (-3)...



Then that means that even though he set the whole damn thing up... Santa was still playing by the rules of the Nonary Game this whole time.
Precisely.



I'm not sure if he acted alone or not.



If...my hypothesis is correct.
...

Clover bit her lip. She seemed to be having some difficulty believing her brother's explanation.

Junpei...

Junpei remained silent, and thought.



All right, that's enough talking!





Door [9] opened.

They leapt through.

The DEAD was directly in front of them as they came through the door.

Quickly, they scanned their bracelets...



...And the detonator stopped.

Phew...

After pausing for a moment to catch their collective breath, Junpei and his companions headed down the long hallway in front of them.



They looked down. It didn't seem to be flooded.

After deciding it was safe, they headed down the stairs.

Before long, Junpei and his companions found themselves on the bottom deck.

They turned left, into another hallway, at the end of which they found another door.



It... it's a trident. I think most people know what a trident is.

Snake traced the shape of it with his fingers.




Clearly, it wasn't going to open this door.

After examining the door for a few more minutes, they gave up and headed back the way they'd come.

With a little more searching, they found a metal door.



This is the place...

He muttered to himself, and slid the card through the reader.

It beeped once, and the light on it turned green.

With a heavy metal groan, the door creaked open.

Junpei, Clover, Snake, and Seven looked at one another, nodded, and stepped through.

[Music: Silence]

The room they found themselves in was full of books.



He felt a little overwhelmed by the sheer number of books, but Junpei did his best to speak with authority.

All right, if we want to get through that door out there, we need the Neptune key.



Okay.
Very well.
Sure thing.
Good. Let's get started, then! We don't have a lot of time! Hurry!



As he began his search, for reasons he didn't fully understand, Junpei felt those particular words float through his mind.