Part 188: NGAE: ~/yellow/ally/red/ally sigma\$ quark.exe

...
...
Mm...?

Listen in: [English/Japanese]


Sigma!


Sigma!


Finally awake, huh...


Where am I...?



I rubbed my eyes and slid my legs off the bed to stand up.

...Well, to be honest, it was an examination table, not a bed.
Which meant...



VLR OST: [Placidity]




You guess?


Well, I wasn't there to see it.
I was out, just like you. But I was in the AB room.


Why?




I can't believe him. He didn't want me voting, so...


Whoa...
And after he knocked you out, he voted "betray," which brought his BP up to 9.


Yes.


So...where is he now?




With Dio.


You told him to go. Remember?


Oh... Yeah...




Arm...?


I heard what happened.
Cybernetic arms, huh?


Can't say I'm surprised.
I was starting to get a feeling something was up with you.




Oh yeah... How's Quark?


I'm right here!




Man, I'm glad you're all right. Feeling better?


Yup! Thanks to you!


You got the medicine from that jerk Dio, right?
Luna gave it to me and now I'm better!


Thanks!
You're the best, Mr. Sigma! You saved my life!

[Music fades out]



It seemed they'd shared stories while I was asleep.
Everyone knew now how I'd made a deal with Dio, and about the journal we'd found with the Latin in it.
Clover and Phi seemed to have done most of the talking.



999 OST: [Riddle and Puzzle]




We're not infected, the rest of the world is!
That means this place isn't a quarantine facility... It's more like a shelter...




I thought the same thing you did, but then Sigma pointed out a couple discrepancies.


Yeah.
Phi and I have already gone over it, but...



I explained what I'd noticed.







Listen in: [English/Japanese]




Maybe someone anticipated the pandemic.
I donno who. Probably Zero.
Anyway, they grabbed us before the pandemic really started.
Then they put us in the shelter.


But then after a while he got bored, so he decided to have us play this game to kill time.


Who on Earth would make people he rescued play a game where they could die just because he was bored?




What...?


You're the only one who's gotten injected so far.
And when you did, it was only Soporil.


What are you saying? That what I did at the number nine door was all pointless?


No, that's not what I mean...




I'm sure there's tubocurarine in the bracelets.
The ADAM's analysis confirmed it.


But what if the ADAM is lying?


If you're going to do that, then we don't have anything to base any speculations on.
You could say the newspaper article was fake, or that the Latin journal wasn't real.


Or the journal was real, but my translation was a lie.


You made it up?!


No. My translation was accurate.
I'm just making the point that once you start talking about this stuff being fabricated, it doesn't stop.


...
...




What...?


Uh...
I was just trying to stress that I don't think Zero would do this to pass the time.


(How do you make that mistake...?)


However, I do think Clover has half a point.


Meaning?




That part seems reasonable.


Well, if the virus was spread on purpose, then I could see how that might make sense.


Yeah.




He went around before the rain started falling to gather them all up... Right?


Are you saying that we were rescued because we're all that's left of humanity?


We were brought here because someone knew there would be a pandemic that would turn us into an endangered species?
Does that mean we're supposed to...repopulate the planet...?


...
...


_{Repopulate... Hm...}


I looked around and did a quick inventory.



Four women, an old man, and a kid...
That meant I was the only young, fertile male...



If that was the case... Maybe there wasn't any reason to escape.
If the newspaper and the journal were right, then the world outside was crawling with a deadly virus.
Why would we go expose ourselves to that?
This would be the safest, happiest place on Earth...
...
...

VLR OST: [Sinisterness]




There's no point to any of this now.


No, that's not true.
The game might be over, but we've still got a lot of unanswered questions.
In fact, we've got even more questions.


So? Are those answers going to open the number nine door again?


...
...


It's all over.
Why we're stuck here doesn't mean shit.
The eight of us aren't leaving, ever. That's all that matters.


Eight...?




You...you're including the old woman?


Yeah...


...
...


...
...


...
...




What if the old lady is Zero Sr.?




We never even considered that.


But that would mean the person in charge of all this was murdered by somebody. That doesn't make sense.


Maybe she wasn't murdered...


Huh...?


Are you saying...she was infected with Radical-6?
And killed herself?


But we didn't find a knife or any kind of weapon in the AB Room with her.


Maybe she was killed somewhere else... And then someone carried her in there...


What? That's ridiculous...
...
...




Maybe we missed something.


S-Sure. Okay.



After a few silent minutes, Phi suddenly stopped.

She pulled something from one of the old woman's sleeves, and held it out toward me.



Listen in: [English/Japanese]


It looks like an ID card for this place.
Since it's got her picture on it, I'd say it's a safe bet the card is hers.


Huh... Looks like her name is...
K U R A S H I K I...
Kurashiki...
Ever heard it before?


Nope. You?


No...
Anything on the back...?




It says... "JUMPYDOLL."


Well, actually it says "Pass = JUMPYDOLL," so I'm guessing "JUMPYDOLL" is a password of some sort.


What the hell does that mean?


Beats me.


Looks hand-written... She must have put it on here herself so she wouldn't forget it.


Yeah.



We were still looking the card over when I heard a commotion from the other part of the room.






Alice!


Oh no...


What're you planning to do with that?!



999 OST: [Trepidation]

Phi and I turned around and gasped.


Damnit!



We ran to the other end of the room, and skidded around the partition—



There stood Alice, her hand wrapped tightly around the scalpel.

She didn't seem...stable.
Her eyes were flat and hollow. Her face was an emotionless mask.
She was not well.
The look on her face was all too familiar...



...Quark.
She looked just like Quark had before he went insane.

But that meant...

[Music cuts out]







Her hand moved, lifting the scalpel up high in the air, then driving it down toward her heart—!







Haha, fucking welp.



Let's take stock;

Dio - at large
K - ???
Alice - dead, AGAIN
Clover - probs traumatised af



Quark - not dead
Radical-6 - still extant so everyone except Quark is probably fucked

...Yep, we done well. At least we found a password for something, though!



And hey, we are getting dangerously close to the end.

Next time. we'll hit up the second most popular poll option, and go see what the nineth lion is up to.