The train went dark. It wasn’t unusual, it happened when they went through a tunnel. It should have been the same deal; the lights would flicker off here and there, then turn back on. That was not what happened. The train rocked left and right, almost unstable, and the lights completely shut off. Total darkness reigned. Not even Kazi with his superb vision was able to see.

Kazi raised his voice before panic settled. “You guys alright?”

Again, darkness wasn’t new. However, this was on another level and just because something similar had happened before did not make the situation less terrifying. Kazi could see well in the dark, though in this case, not well enough.

“Is someone leaving?” he asked, hearing a weight leave the seat beside him. “John? Hello?”

“I’m right here,” John replied. “Someone grabbed my arm—”

Another voice, muffled and unrecognizable from the noise. “Someone grabbed me too—”

Several voices continued to speak all at the same time, all ruined by the screech of the train. It didn’t end either. It just kept going and going and going—

“Jesus!” Hugo stood up and stomped his foot down, and Kazi swore someone else had entered his dark peripheral. A new, small shadow that grabbed a seat from two tables behind and forced themselves to sit due to the unsteadiness of the train.

Kazi yelled, “Is everybody alright!?”

“Yeah!”

“I think someone stepped on my foot! Ow!”

Hugo and William answered. Everybody else, even if they did answer, were overruled from the whistle of the train.

The darkness persisted for too long. This had been the longest tunnel yet. It was…too long.

‘The map.’ Remember the map of Japan. Estimate where they would be. ‘Past Tokyo, past Sendai…that means we need to cross Honshu and Hokkaido. Two main islands divided by water. Wait, is this…’

The darkness didn’t end.

‘An underwater tunnel! That’s why it’s taking so long and why everything is so shaky!’

This wasn’t modern Japan. In other words, this specific rendition of the underwater tunnel likely wasn’t sophisticated as the real life version. In all likelihood, they were on a narrow-gauge railway. Reduced lateral stability, endless darkness, and a mediocre locomotive was a recipe for a disaster. He felt the train turning and his stomach dropped.

“E…verbody…!” The speakers rose to life, the muffle stronger to the point of gibberish. “Stay…your seats! We—mhgggphh! Pssht! Speed up!”

“D-did he say speed up?”

William’s question was answered a second later as a hard invisible force suddenly hit them. The shadowed riders, seated or standing, felt the force of acceleration press them back into their seats or pull them forward, depending on their position. The air inside the train seemed to thicken.

There was a new screech—the sound of the wind leaking through the windows. Kazi held onto the side of his seat with white-knuckled intensity.

A tightly confined space, excess speed, darkness, and the natural response would be fear. Fear that was so palpable that the darkness could not hide it. They held on. Minutes passed. Ten, fifteen, no, over twenty minutes. A long period of time that drained the life out of them.

Out of nowhere, to the side, he heard someone topping over another. “Watch where you’re going!”

That was Ksenia. She must have left her seat and bumped into someone. But who? The person didn’t respond—or was the wind howling too loudly for him to hear?

Minutes of chaos passed. Voices argued and called for one another.

“Paul?” Ksenia called. “Is that you?”

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No response. What was going on? ‘Should I activate my fire?’ The train lurched to the side and he smacked into the window. ‘O-okay, maybe not, the speed is too much—’

Light emerged ahead. Daylight spilled into the train, gradually illuminating the passengers' faces. One by one, he saw everyone. At the window seat to his right was William and to his right was John. To the side was a standing Hugo and Matasaburō Watanabe, the former having grabbed the latter by the collar.

Way up ahead, standing at the door to the third compartment was Ksenia. The door slid open and stumbling through was a light-skinned woman in a white hijab and…Noor? Her outfit had changed though the colour had not. A purple.

He had seen her on the train. Seeing her wasn’t a surprise. However, this close, he could see the magic on her clothes. The vibe in the air shifted simply by her entering the room. A lavender, sparkling straight-cut lehenga choli that would earn the envy of a royal, on top of a Kundan and a golden septum. Everything about her was magical—and not just from a physical standpoint. She was brimming with magical energy.

A minute later, the steam train emerged from the tunnel and a collective exhale echoed through the carriages. The once-terrifying acceleration subsided, giving way to a gradual deceleration that alleviated the gripping fear. The clatter of the wheels returned to smoothness.

Ksenia, who had apparently been on the floor so far, finally got up.

“Well, that was fun,” Noor murmured. “I almost tripped over my own goddamn skirt.”

Her boisterous comment aside, Kazi checked on Sun-young. She was hurled over, her arm on her stomach wound.

Kazi came over and asked lowly, “You alright? You want me to bandage up the wound again?”

She let out a shaky breath. “I-I’ll be okay.”

Days. Literal days had passed yet the System hadn’t healed. It was like she was inflicted with a magic that was too powerful for her to heal through. It was the same with William when the Wendigo tore his shoulder.

‘Open inventory,’ he said in his head, handing her a bottle of water. She greedily drank it.

“I’m going to the bathroom,” Sun-young said, “to patch it up.”

His lips set into a line. “Okay, just be careful. You know how to contact me.”

Everybody else was okay, more or less. That was fine. Although…

‘Where is Paul?’

***

Kazi had been keeping track of the time. A little over an hour had passed since things went haywire. Ksenia swung on by the bathroom to check on Paul but she said he didn’t need help. He muffled a lot, which was really weird. Other than that, he sounded fine. Ksenia jokingly said it must have been a super massive shit. Kazi's intuition was telling him that wasn’t the case.

‘Seriously, why hasn't Paul come back? Should I go check on him?'

In the end, he decided not to because of Sun-young. She was in too dire a state to be left alone. Every ten minutes, he had to feed her elixirs to numb the pain and fight the injury. Their friends assumed Kazi was giving her weirdly coloured juices. That was what Hugo and William thought, anyway. He suspected John knew what was up.

Another hour passed. Sun-young was asleep, as was William. Something about a headache, he said. Kazi, Hugo, and John were playing cards. His hand was decent. Glancing at John, he knew he would win. His poker face was getting easier and easier to read. In fact, in the last couple games, the old guy had been outright terrible.

“H-hey! HEY!”

The passengers of their compartment were minding their own business when someone ran inside. A disheveled figure stumbled in, panting heavily, eyes wide. The man was tall and handsome. Kazi recognized him. Asher Trent—a popular streamer. He went to the same cafe Kazi did and was quite smooth with the ladies.

"You have to... you have to come quickly.” Asher gulped. “S-something's happened in the bathroom."

The compartment occupants exchanged uneasy glances. The urgency in Asher cast a sudden pall over the once serene atmosphere.

Ksenia slowly rose from her seat, eyes narrowed. "What happened? Is everything okay?"

Still catching their breath, Asher struggled to find words. “It wasn’t me! I-it wasn’t me! Somebody in the bathroom, they—”

Ksenia slammed the table with her fist. “What. Happened?”

Asher took several deep, panicked breath. “S-someone is dead!”

Ksenia recoiled. “Excuse me—”

Kazi didn’t waste a second and started running. He didn’t need to think, he simply ran. He ran till he reached the bathroom in between the middle class compartment and the storage area.

He ignored the smell of blood. He ignored the smell of despair in his stomach.

The lock was broken. The door creaked open.

[ Main objective found! ]

[ Gate 8 : Nisekisha

Main Objective: A player has been murdered! Figure out who the killer is before you arrive at Sapporo Station and capture them!

Prize Pool: 66,00,000 PP

SPECIAL OBJECTIVE: ?

SPECIAL PRIZE POOL: ? ]

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

A kitchen knife was plunged through his heart and into the wall. Small dribbles of red liquid fell from the end of the handle.

Ksenia arrived ten seconds after him and was petrified. “W-what the hell—”

Others arrived. People from various compartments. The train operator, Danzaburou, leapt onto his shoulder. The red tanuki stared at the body, then snickered.

“So it has begun.” Danzaburou spun to face the others. “Everybody! Let it be heard now! The games have begun!”

Kazi ignored the tanuki. He ignored the weight on his shoulder, the cheery voice that seemed to be thrilled by the stench of human death. He burned the body into his head. He burned every inch, from the thickness of veins to the knife deep in the heart.

He stopped forward, to the surprise of the tanuki, and touched the body’s wrist.

‘Cold.’

Hanging on the bathroom wall was an absurdly tall, bald man decked in thin metal armour that clinked softly.

The dead body was plainly identifiable: it was Tony, Nash’s friend.