“…A key, huh?”
“It’s a key, alright.”
It was indeed a key. Baka stared at it intently, but it was still a key. No matter how he looked at it, it was a key.
“A key… huh? Where does it go?”
However, no one answered Baka’s question. …That’s right. No one could answer. No one knew the answer.
“…Let’s try searching a bit. Maybe there’s something this key opens,”
Eventually, Tsuchiya said, standing up. Looking at the clock, there seemed to be more than 30 minutes left. It was certainly possible to search the room a little.
“Mina-san, could you try taking down another fish?”
“Huh?”
Furthermore, Tsuchiya gave such an order. Mina tilted her head, Venus tilted her head, and Baka nodded deeply in understanding. Baka thought, I see, Tsuchiya-san is hungry too.
“I want to check if the other fish have the same thing inside. …I want to know if we just happened to find this, or if it was placed here for us to find.”
However, Baka’s guess was completely off. Apparently, Tsuchiya had his own ideas. Baka didn’t quite understand though…
“O-Okay! Um, Kabashima-san!”
“Got it! I’ll go get them!”
And so, Baka immediately moved. Baka was quick when given an order. He was a bit bad at thinking for himself, but he was good at doing what he was asked.
And then.
“I brought 10!”
“We don’t need that many…”
“Eeeh!? Isn’t more better!?”
Baka returned, holding a bunch of Goliath Tigerfish in both hands. Tsuchiya, Mina, and Venus each looked distant, dumbfounded, or worried, thinking, I wonder if we can handle this many…
Now then.
With Mina starting to work hard on gutting the fish, Tsuchiya, Venus, and Baka began exploring the room.
“We just need to find keyholes or things that look like they’re locked, right?”
“Yes, that’s right. …Kabashima-kun, you’re quite big. You should be able to see the ceiling and high parts of the wall well. Please take a good look at those places too.”
“Okay, leave it to me! I have pretty good eyesight, you know!”
“…That eyesight is probably not 1.0 or 1.5, is it… I feel like it’s 10 or 15, a different order of magnitude…”
While Venus looked like she had a headache, Baka’s eyes sparkled as he diligently began searching for keyholes.
First, as Tsuchiya had said, from the ceiling.
“Hmm… there’s nothing in particular.”
He strained his eyes, but couldn’t find anything that looked like a keyhole. Next, he decided to look at all the walls, but there was nothing there either.
After the ceiling and walls, the next was the floor. Baka crawled around the room, checking the floor. But there were no keyholes there either.
“There’s nothing…”
Am I just missing it? Baka thought, and started crawling on the walls, and then on the ceiling, but Venus said, You look like a bug, it’s creepy… so he fell to the floor, dejected.
“There were no keyholes on the floor, walls, or ceiling.”
“I figured. Sigh…”
He reported, and was sighed at, making Baka even more dejected. …But.
“If there is one, it’s probably over there where Tsuchiya-san is looking.”
Venus pointed towards the water tank, the one where someone was supposed to get inside and have water poured on them, where Tsuchiya was investigating.
…And then.
“Hey! I found it!”
Yes, it was Tsuchiya’s voice that was heard.
…Venus said, See? so Baka clapped and said, Amazing!
“I found it. Look, it’s here.”
Looking, there was indeed a keyhole as Tsuchiya had said.
…It was on the bottom of the water tank. There was indeed a keyhole on the part that touched the floor.
“Should we try opening it?”
“That’s right… Hmm, let’s check with Mina-san first.”
However, it was better to open it together. Following Tsuchiya’s suggestion, Baka went out of the water tank and called Mina.
“Ah, Kabashima-san! Look! All these fish have keys inside their bellies!”
“Whoa, there are so many keys!”
…And there, he was surprised to see a total of 10 keys lined up, apparently taken from the bellies of the fish!
Then, Mina joined them, and they checked the keys in front of the water tank.
There was one key that Baka had spat out at the beginning. And now, there were 10 keys that Mina had taken out from gutting the fish. …A total of 11 keys were here!
“Considering that all the fish had keys inside… it means that keys were supposed to come out no matter which fish we gutted. In other words, finding these keys wasn’t that difficult, I think. In other words, it was set up with the assumption that we would find them, or rather…”
“Is that so? I don’t think there would normally be a reason to gut these fish. Catching the fish. And then, gutting them. …If you were playing the game normally, you wouldn’t do that. Well, this time, Baka-kun was hungry, so he went out of his way to open the fish’s bellies…”
Venus countered Mina’s words. Certainly, both opinions sounded reasonable. Baka nodded greatly. He didn’t understand much.
“…Well, it’s not something you’d normally do. But it’s true that if you cut open a fish by chance, you’d find it relatively quickly. I think it’s safe to assume that the keys were made to be found if you took an action you wouldn’t normally take.”
Tsuchiya gathered Mina and Venus’s opinions and made a difficult face.
“If you were to say it, it’s like a ‘bonus’?”
“A bonus?”
As Baka tilted his head, Tsuchiya nodded strongly.
“Yes. You can clear the game without finding it. But, for example, if you used your Unique Ability, Hibana-kun could have defeated these fish too, right? Well, if you happen to find these keys… you’ll get something.”
“What is ‘something’?”
As Baka tilted his head even more, Tsuchiya laughed… and then, stepping into the water tank, he crouched down in front of the keyhole on the floor.
“We’ll find out now.”
Click, the key turned. Everyone watched with tension, and then…
“…This is…”
“Ah, it’s cute!”
What Tsuchiya took out from the small door in the floor was a doll.
“It looks like Kaito. Heh, it’s kinda cute.”
The doll looked like Kaito. Since it was a doll, it had a somewhat cute appearance, but its build, clothes, and even the hmph! expression were made to resemble Kaito.
The real Kaito was a nervous and somewhat unpleasant guy, but Baka could understand that he was somehow cute when he was deformed into a doll like this.
…But.
“…This is bad, isn’t it…?”
“Huh? Huh!? Are we gonna eat it!?”
“No, that’s not it. It’s not about the taste! Um, what is it, that…”
Tsuchiya said hesitantly, staring at the doll…
“…It’s not a Cursed Doll, is it?”
A Cursed Doll.
When Baka heard that, an image began to form in his head. And then, Baka had a flash of insight.
“A Cursed Doll… Ah! The ones you can get from the trees at the shrine!”
“G-Get…?”
“Yeah! My senior at work got a bunch from the shrine trees and made natto with them!”
“I don’t even know where to begin with that.”
Baka smiled, remembering how delicious the natto his senior had treated him to was.
At the same time, he also remembered his senior’s words.
His senior had said, Listen, Kabashima. Originally, these dolls are filled with human grudges. But if you fill them with soybeans and ferment them, I feel like all that will be blown away, don’t you think? That’s why I’ll keep making natto with this. As long as there are human grudges and straw dolls in this world, forever… The profile of his senior, boiling soybeans while saying that, was cool.
“Well, putting natto aside… hmm, there’s an image of hammering five-inch nails into straw dolls, so I think this is something like that. It’s called a devil’s Death Game. It wouldn’t be strange if there were dolls with such unrealistic effects, right?”
Baka understood, I see, straw dolls are filled with human grudges. That’s why his senior made natto with them.
…At the same time, Baka became a little worried that this Kaito doll might be filled with something like that too.
“Right. Does everyone know about Voodoo dolls?”
In the midst of that, Venus began to speak.
“It seems like they were originally tools for curses. You’d use them to represent someone you hate and stick needles into them. That way, you could inflict pain on the other person. But in modern times, they’re treated as charms that take your place or goods that bring good luck. I don’t think you need to worry.”
Venus said, smiling and holding out her hand to Tsuchiya.
“Can I have it? It’s quite cute, and I like it.”
Tsuchiya stares intently at Venus.
Venus, with a smile still on her face, stares back at Tsuchiya.
“…Come to think of it, Venus. You said Kaito-kun tried to kill me, right?”
“Yes. I saw it.”
“Then it’s best if I have this. Don’t you think so?”
At Tsuchiya’s words, Venus looked slightly surprised.
“Oh? Are you going to say it’s a cursed item? Surely, you don’t think that sticking a needle in it will actually make Kaito suffer?”
“Who knows? You seem to know more about that than I do.”
Then the two stared at each other again… but it was Venus who gave up first. Venus sighed, and shook her head as if to say, “Good grief.”
“Fine. Then I’ll leave it with you. …You’re a really unyielding old man.”
“Well, thank you. Unfortunately, I’m the kind of old man who’s known for being stubborn.”
Tsuchiya chuckled, wrapped the Kaito doll in a handkerchief, and carefully placed it in his chest pocket. Venus wore an amazed smile, and Mina looked a little flustered.
And Baka was convinced, thinking, ‘So, Tsuchiya-ossan likes those kinds of dolls…’
“…Ah, it’s almost time.”
Then, Tsuchiya looked at his watch and muttered that. Baka checked as well, and it was just about the end of noon.
So, everyone moved together and arrived at the Antidote Device room. Almost at the same time, the sound of a bell, ring-a-ling, ring-a-ling, could be heard from the other side.
“Alright, let’s go… huh?”
But.
“…The door, it won’t open…?”
For some reason, the door remained closed.
Tsuchiya approached the door with a suspicious look and pushed it with a “gu.” But the door didn’t seem to budge.
“Eh? It won’t open?”
“Ah, yes… Hmm, what should we do?”
Tsuchiya was putting more strength into the door, “gu-gu,” but… it seemed he couldn’t open it.
…And so.
“Well then, I guess it’s my tackle’s turn!”
“…That’s right. You’re here.”
While Tsuchiya gave a warm, indescribable smile, Baka raised his hand energetically.
Baka, it’s your turn!
And so, Baka went out with high spirits. Baka took a sufficient distance from the door for a running start, and lowered his stance into a tackle position. Meanwhile, the other three moved as far away from Baka and the door as possible. It seemed to be so that they could manage if Baka or the door went flying.
“Alright! Here I go!”
“Yes, please be careful.”
And so, Baka finally kicked off the floor towards the door…
But.
“Ugh…!”
Hearing a groan, Baka stopped in his tracks and looked over there.
…There, he saw a dumbfounded Tsuchiya and Mina… and Venus, who was spitting up blood, “gop.”