Kisaragi Station || Apocalypse Paradise #3

208: That's Not My Sister!

"Wait. Let me make sense of things," Mrs. Manas's slightly frantic voice buzzed. Following this, a few lines appeared on the blackboard of Lin Sanjiu's [School of Higher Consciousness] with a scratching sound. That was the first time the blackboard had been used in this manner since it was created.

The few lines showed a simplified drawing of a building. The crude drawing consisted of two horizontal lines with multiple vertical lines in between. Each cell was labeled with a number indicating the floors. However, when Lin Sanjiu and Mrs. Manas tried to place the numbers representing each floor, they had quite a problem.

"There are a total of 30 floors, according to the buttons in the elevator. Logically, that would be 1 to 30. But..." The white words on the board stopped appearing momentarily. "When did the numbers get jumbled up?"

Lin Sanjiu gave a wry smile inwardly.

When she saw a second pair of siblings on the 15th floor, she stopped flying forward. Before the siblings saw her, she left in the opposite direction. Which pair of siblings was the real deal? Where was the real 15th floor? She was completely baffled.

Lin Sanjiu remembered an experiment she had heard about before the apocalypse. Using a unique slope for the stairway, the person climbing up the stairs would have the illusion that they were climbing up an unending staircase. If someone designed the stairway in that manner from the 15th floor onward, it was possible that when Lin Sanjiu walked downward, she was flying upward, thus, returning to the same 15th floor. However, she quickly dismissed that idea.

She turned and flew back to the original 15th floor—where Reno's almanac page hit Rena. Though the siblings on this floor were also playing cards, they were in the apartment unit, not the corridor. This showed a problem, but Lin Sanjiu didn't want to accept this. Afraid that this was one of Reno's pranks, she broke the glass of the fire hydrant cabinet in the floor corridor to mark the location before flying out.

She flew out of the window and exited the building, then flew two floors down before rushing in again.

She saw the same 15 on the wall. There was also a similar pair of siblings playing cards. However, the glass of the fire hydrant cabinet was not broken here. That indicated that there were two 15th floors and two pairs of siblings.

Lin Sanjiu also tried to fly up from the ground floor, counting 15 floors. This was supposed to be a surefire way of reaching the 15th floor. Unfortunately, after trying twice, she discovered that the 15th floor was slightly different each time she entered the building.

Furthermore, these two 15th floors were accompanied by a segment of corresponding 16th, 17th, 13th, and 14th floors. Lin Sanjiu couldn't even identify the real 15th floor, much less distinguish between the siblings who looked the same.

"In any case, the Reno here isn't the real thing, right? He doesn't have a mark." Mrs. Manas was so absorbed in this situation that she had forgotten not to speak. Lin Sanjiu was worried, but Mrs. Manas seemed to just be an audience member with popcorn. "You're lucky that you are in your Higher Consciousness form. No matter what ghost haunting this is, they can't hurt you."

Mrs. Manas had already decided that her role as a nurturer only applied to Lin Sanjiu alone.

"You're right," Lin Sanjiu didn't want to respond to the second half of what the teacher said, "I saw with my eyes that the Reno with the mark used his almanac ability. He shouldn't be an imposter." Even though Lin Sanjiu could not confirm Rena's identity, she was glad she knew who the real Reno was. Considering that this thing in front of her had seen her dead body and was nearly in the position to misuse it, Lin Sanjiu couldn't help feeling some lingering fear. However, she couldn't attack immediately, even though she had already recognized that it was an imposter.

If this Rena was the real one, she would defend the imposter, thinking he was her brother. However, if she was an imposter as well, she would probably still protect the fake Reno, her companion. So, Lin Sanjiu could only attack this Reno, with no mark on his wrist mark, when Rena wasn't present. Otherwise, she had to confirm this Rena's identity too before making any plans.

'Regardless, I have to act normal.' Lin Sanjiu floated into the corridor, acting nonchalant.

Rena, frowning as she held a card, immediately lit up when she saw Lin Sanjiu. "Lin Sanjiu is back!" she chuckled. When 'Reno' turned to look at Lin Sanjiu, the girl secretly swapped the card in her hand.

'Judging from that action, should she be the real deal?' Lin Sanjiu thought with some uncertainty.

"Why did you disappear all of a sudden?" After this, 'Reno' looked at her with the same cheerful, composed attitude. He even yawned a few times lazily. He grumbled, "Isn't it just fine that the curse is over? Why did you force me to play cards with you?"

Lin Sanjiu hesitated, thinking, 'Did the events play out differently on this floor?'

Before Lin Sanjiu, who was now beside the siblings, could think further, Rena asked, "Where did you go?"

Giving it some thought, Lin Sanjiu replied simply: TOOK A WALK.

No matter what those imposters were, they probably couldn't affect or harm her. Lin Sanjiu decided to use this to her advantage.

"You're bored too?" Rena glanced sidelong at 'Reno.' "I don't know what that coward is afraid of. He probably felt a cold breeze and started being paranoid. We've stayed here for almost a night, yet nothing happened. I am so bored."

"Well, something did happen, but you're unaware," Mrs. Manas mumbled from Lin Sanjiu's mind. Oddly, Reno did not retaliate after hearing what Rena said. Instead, he gave Lin Sanjiu an odd look. Before this whole shenanigans, the siblings would have argued there and then. The more Reno could hold back his temper, the more suspicious he seemed.

When he did not respond, Rena seemed slightly embarrassed by her actions. She mumbled something before the teenage boy asked, "Did you drop an ear stud?"

Rena suddenly froze. Lin Sanjiu was also stunned. Rena wore too many little accessories. She could probably decorate a Christmas tree with them if she took them all off. It was quite extraordinary that Reno would notice that detail.

'Since he could point that out, is he the real Reno?'

"The shiny one made of rhinestones that looks a little like a pink starfish... Didn't you like that pair very much?" Reno crooked his head and looked at the girl's left ear. There were already many other crystal earrings on Rena's left ear, and it was hard to differentiate between them. Lin Sanjiu wouldn't even notice if the girl lost an earring.

"Oh, yes!" Rena touched her ear and jumped up. "I must have dropped it that time when removing or putting my accessories back on!"

"It might be under the bed," Reno said while looking at his cards with a seemingly disinterested expression. "You don't mind losing it?"

"How dare you say that when it's all your fault," Rena stood up and complained. She turned around and opened the door of the renovated apartment unit before entering to look for her earrings. When she walked past Lin Sanjiu, Lin Sanjiu noticed through the image created by her Higher Consciousness that the white socks the girl wore were clean. There wasn't a streak of dirt.

She intuitively sensed that something was wrong. If she thought carefully, the events that happened in between must have been different. The Rena with the dirtied sock was upstairs. However, this Rena had never searched for anyone climbing through the stairways.

'It doesn't help if I know this,' Lin Sanjiu thought. Just as Rena stepped into the other apartment, Reno rushed forward.

'Is he going to attack now?' Lin Sanjiu was alarmed and quickly backed away. It was only then that she realized that he didn't intend to attack her. Instead, he showed her a strip of paper he had scribbled on.

That's not my sister!!

The exclamation marks were bolded and emphasized. It was quite shocking.