"Home"

Bai Yuze carefully checked the clock over and over. Once he was sure he hadn't missed anything, he went to Room 106 and prepared to push open the wooden door.

Just as his hand was about to touch the door to Room 106, the door to Room 101 opened first.

Yuigahama poked her head out. When she saw Bai Yuze, she beckoned him over.

Bai Yuze froze for a moment, then withdrew his hand and walked toward Room 101, carrying the clock.

It was daytime in the residence, so Bai Yuze wasn't worried that anything terrifying would suddenly happen.

He walked up to Yuigahama and gave her a puzzled look.

"What's wrong?"

Yuigahama looked at Bai Yuze, then asked a question haltingly.

"Um... may I ask what your name is...?"

"My name? My surname is Bai, and my given name is Yuze. What about you?"

Since Bai Yuze had known the characters from these books in his previous life, he'd instinctively skipped the introduction.

"My name is Yuigahama Yui. Nice to meet you, Xiaozawa!"

Tuanzi gave him a bright smile. Though the situation wasn't exactly suited to smiling, her smile still comforted Bai Yuze a little.

"Nice to meet you... But what's with 'Xiaozawa'?"

Bai Yuze didn't mind people calling him by a nickname, but why add the word "little"?

Tuanzi just gave a silly smile, then pulled Bai Yuze into Room 101.

"Hehe, this is Xiaoxue! Yukinoshita Yukino. Xiaoxue, this is Bai Yuze!"

Tuanzi played matchmaker between Bai Yuze and Yukino, but Bai Yuze wanted to say:

Tuanzi, she got here before you!

"Mm, I've heard of you."

Bai Yuze nodded. Tuanzi and Yukino didn't say anything more in response. After all, the Yukinoshita Family was fairly well-known in Chiba, so the two girls assumed Bai Yuze lived there too.

"You said earlier that you had three scratches on your wrist? Can I see?"

Yukino, who was standing nearby, asked Bai Yuze. He readily showed her his wrist.

"Ah! Those marks are so deep! Xiaozawa, do you have a habit of self-harm?"

"Idiot, I'm not ready to die. Why would I do something like that?"

Bai Yuze glared at Yuigahama. The saying "big breasts, no brains" had taken on a very real form in his mind.

Perhaps sensing his gaze, Yuigahama instinctively covered her chest and took a few steps back.

"Heh. You really are a shameless kidnapper, aren't you? Even in a situation like this, your mind's still full of dirty thoughts. Your presence is starting to threaten our safety."

Yukino's sharp tongue came out, and Bai Yuze shot back without hesitation.

"Don't worry. If I ever gave in to my animal instincts, you'd be the safest one here. I'm not interested in titanium-alloy steel plates."

"You!"

Bai Yuze's words made Yukino a little angry, but this wasn't the time to argue. Yuigahama hurriedly tried to smooth things over.

"Ahaha, Xiaozawa, you should say a little less. Xiaoxue, you too. We need to stick together if we're going to get out of here!"

Yuigahama's words left the other two silent. It was true: in their current situation, another person meant another pair of helping hands. They had no reason to argue.

Yukino was a little puzzled. She could be sharp-tongued, but she didn't snap at everyone. Yet just now, the words had come out of her before she could stop herself.

Bai Yuze also thought back to his own odd behavior. He believed he had good control over his emotions, but just now he hadn't been able to stop himself from snapping back. It was all too strange.

Could something here be affecting their emotions?

"Wait, I have a theory!"

Bai Yuze suddenly called out. Then he told the two girls what had just happened and explained his guess.

Bai Yuze took Yuigahama's phone out. The time on it still read 21:30.

"Um... you mean this clock can control time?"

Yuigahama looked curiously at the clock in Bai Yuze's hand.

"Exactly. The note on the clock said, 'If you want to stop time.' So when I moved the clock's hands, time inside the residence changed, while time outside remained frozen.

"Right now, it's daytime in the residence, which is safe. But our schedules are based on the time outside, so we should be resting according to the outside time.

"The rules also warned us that even if we don't sleep, we have to stay in our own rooms. So we need to go back to the rooms where we first woke up."

"Huh? Really? Do we have to go back...?"

Yuigahama asked timidly. There was a corpse in the room she'd woken up in, after all. Having a corpse for a roommate was pretty creepy...

"I'm afraid so." Yukino sighed. "We'll be punished if we break the rules. We only had a brief spell of emotional instability just now. Who knows what might happen if it goes on longer?"

"...O-okay..."

Yuigahama answered dejectedly. She hadn't expected to get her way; she'd just wanted to try her luck...

Seeing her reaction, Bai Yuze put the phone in Yuigahama's hand.

"Keep the phone. When the time changes to morning, come find us right away. As for what time counts as morning..."

Bai Yuze glanced at the clock.

"Come by at nine in the morning."

The scene shifted, and the three of them returned to their original rooms. Bai Yuze's theory was confirmed: as soon as he returned to Room 104, the restless feeling inside him settled at once.

It felt like "home."

"You should get some sleep. I'll stay here and keep watch."

Bai Yuze said this to Yukino. He looked at the light in the room and fell into thought.

Why doesn't the light in the room turn off like the ones in the hallway? Heh, this really does feel a bit like home. After all, only at home can you be this carefree!

"I'm not tired yet. Thank you for telling us about those rules."

Yukino shook her head and thanked Bai Yuze. The more dangerous and unfamiliar the surroundings, the more precious it was to share information like this.

"It's nothing. It was the least I could do. In a situation like this, we can only survive by helping each other. One more person means one more source of strength."

Bai Yuze was actually lying. In some situations, he didn't think one more person meant more strength. Instead, he thought one more person meant one more pair of chopsticks.

He trusted Yukino and Tuanzi because he'd known them in his previous life. That was why he could share information with them without holding anything back.

"I have marks on my body too," Yukino said calmly.

"But my wounds aren't as bad as yours. I have bruises that appeared for no apparent reason."

"What about Yuigahama?"

"Yuigahama has large patches of burn marks, and some others... I'm not sure about them."

"Not sure? Why?"

Bai Yuze was puzzled, but when he saw the way Yukino was looking at him, he understood at once.

"Ahem. That really is strange."

Bai Yuze clumsily changed the subject, then glanced at his left hand.

Does my left hand really have that much strength?