Kisaragi Station || Apocalypse Paradise #3

212: According to the Diary Card's Hint...

When the information recorded on the Diary Card integrated into her consciousness, Mrs. Manas understood its content, as she was part of Lin Sanjiu's [School of Higher Consciousness]. Thus, without asking Lin Sanjiu what was wrong, Mrs. Manas immediately said, "Hurry! Go back!"

Even without her urging, Lin Sanjiu had already broken a window along the corridor and exited the building. She flew upward as fast as she could but was still too late. When she reached the 15th floor upstairs, the siblings standing at the entrance of the stairways had disappeared.

'Damn it!' Lin Sanjiu drifted hopelessly around the corridor a few rounds but, unsurprisingly, found no trace of the siblings.

"This is weird. I rushed up as soon as I read that Diary Card. It took less than a minute." Lin Sanjiu was pissed. "How can that thing act so fast? It's as if it can predict my actions!"

Feeling furious and disgruntled, she recalled what she read on her Diary Card.

The card didn't show much. Nothing unusual happened in the first two and a half hours recorded. However, a little more than 30 minutes after she and Reno 1 left the apartment unit, things started to change.

1:43 pm, Lin Sanjiu and Reno 1 opened the door of apartment 1520 and stepped into the corridor.

1:44 pm, Lin Sanjiu and Reno 1 took the bend around the corridor.

1:45 pm, the two people left the recording range of this Diary Card.

1:56 pm, the door of apartment 1520 opened. Reno 2 peeked out and yelled, "Lin Sanjiu, where are you?"

At 1:57 pm, Reno 2 walked out of apartment 1520 and entered the corridor. He looked around.

2:01 pm, there was a ding sound from the elevator.

2:03 pm, Reno 2 seemed to be talking to someone. Reno 2 was at the edge of the recording, so the conversation was not recorded.

2:07 pm, Reno 2's voice was now in the recording range. He said, "Wait for me, I will come back. Don't go anywhere."

2:08 pm, Reno 2 appeared at the end of the corridor and rushed into apartment 1520.

2:08 pm, a 'head' peeked out of the bend of the corridor. It was a brain with half a skull.

2:08 pm, the brain quickly hid again.

2:09 pm, Reno 2 ran out of apartment 1520 with a few black security alarm devices in his hand. He ran past the corridor bend and said, "Let's go!"

2:10 pm, the sound of footsteps faded and exceeded the recording range.

2:23 pm, this Diary Card was retrieved.

Lin Sanjiu was the only one who was a brain with half a skull. When Reno 2 was with the said 'brain with half skull,' Lin Sanjiu was with Reno 1 and had just met Rena. From these recorded events, things became clear. The Reno whom the fake Lin Sanjiu successfully tricked or found worthwhile to trick was the real Reno. Lin Sanjiu realized that if Reno 2 was the genuine Reno, that would mean that Rena was currently unaware of the non-human creature by her side!

Perhaps the thing pretending to be Lin Sanjiu was the fake Rena from before.

Both siblings were now alone with one of those non-human things. The worst part was that they probably wouldn't suspect the other party next to them due to Lin Sanjiu's previous actions. With her around, Reno 1 (fake) told Rena that they fought off a spirit resembling her. That was certainly convincing. Meanwhile, the real Reno, who had seen Lin Sanjiu saving his life, trusted her fully and wouldn't think more about it. Lin Sanjiu couldn't help feeling anxious and guilty even though she knew it wasn't her fault.

Lin Sanjiu could not figure out how the two things could act faster than her. It couldn't have taken her more than two or three minutes to reach the current floor, and she took less than ten seconds to react after reading the Diary Card.

"How can they disappear so quickly?" Lin Sanjiu mumbled as she flew into the stairways, trying to look for the siblings. Unfortunately, it was quiet when she went up to another floor; she didn't hear anyone. "Noise reverberates through stairways. I should be able to hear footsteps even if they're two floors away. If they left, I should be able to hear... Ah!"

She chided herself for her stupidity and rushed to the elevator. "If I didn't see them in the stairway, they must have taken the elevator!"

Without hesitation, she flew out of a window and up to the 26th floor. When she saw the bright red 26 on the wall in the corridor, Lin Sanjiu smashed the glass window. Broken bits of glass fell to the floor like ice, creating a loud racket.

"Who's there?" a teenage girl called out in alarm. A pair of eyes, hidden under the fringe of a pink wig, appeared at the end of the corridor. Rena spotted Lin Sanjiu and sighed in relief before walking out. There were streaks of dirt on her white socks.

"I've had it with you!" Rena was so furious that her lips turned white, and her eyes glowered. Then, she prattled like a machine gun, "Do you know there's some weird-ass shit going on here? Can you stop flying away like that?! You're an adult, so be sensible! We came up here to look for you. Then, I lost my brother!"

'Hey, I came up here to save you.' Lin Sanjiu felt an unspeakable bitterness. After the young girl berated her angrily, Lin Sanjiu didn't want to waste more time. She quickly thought about what to say and explained the situation in a few curt sentences.

This wasn't merely to defend her actions but to let Rena understand the situation. It was hard for her to find the real Rena, so Lin Sanjiu wanting to avoid further confusion as much as possible.

After reading what Lin Sanjiu wrote, Rena whispered, "You mean that that was the imposter beside me?"

Explaining everything wasn't easy, even if Lin Sanjiu were to have a mouth. Plus, many questions remained unanswered. Despite this, she managed to summarize the key points to the best of her ability.

Finally, Rena nodded. "Okay, got it. If that's the case, we must not lose sight of each other from now on. Let's go look for my brother."

Just then, there was a ding from the elevator.