Drip, drip...
Water droplets fell from the showerhead, continuously making clear splashing sounds that echoed in the small bathroom.
Right now, Hoshino Ai realized with creeping horror who that woman in the mirror truly was.
It was her.
The purple-black-haired girl immediately spun around, unable to bear it. Her gaze no longer dared look at herself in that merciless reflection. For the first time in her entire life, she'd seen such an ugly, monstrous appearance on her own face.
Having seen it once, she absolutely didn't want to see it ever again.
"We're... both infected. What... what do we do now?"
Even Hoshino Ai understood that if the infection degree deepened any further, they'd be inching closer to death with each passing moment.
"It's, it's the water's fault, right? After Hayato-kun touched the water, we became like this."
"The water's effect, if nothing unexpected happens, is to eliminate the influence the moaning sounds next door had on us. It matches with Rule 8's health recommendation."
Hayato's mind was already working through the puzzle.
"The sounds next door didn't just affect our desires and impulses. They also made us hallucinate, made us unable to see our own condition. That's why we didn't discover our body's mutations for so long."
As for why they still saw their bodies as normal even after eliminating the influence, Hayato could only temporarily attribute it to the hotel's special supernatural rules.
"So does that mean the influence of those sounds is what actually caused our infection?"
"That's the most likely possibility right now, yeah."
"Then we should be safe now, right?! We can't hear the sounds anymore. They're not affecting us anymore."
Hayato wasn't so sure. He didn't know if the sounds had stopped on their own or if they simply couldn't hear them anymore because they'd eliminated the sounds' influence with the water.
But she'd clearly bathed before the sounds even appeared. So why did she still hear those sounds afterward? Did they need the sounds to appear and affect them first before they could use water to resolve the influence?
That doesn't make complete sense either.
She'd touched the water before I did. Yet the flames of desire in her heart remained burning. Only after I also touched the water did those flames and impulses rapidly recede for both of them.
Did both people need to touch the water together for it to work?
Hoshino Ai was clearly racking her brain too, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation that made sense.
"We're safe for now, at least. Put your clothes on first."
At Hayato's reminder, Hoshino Ai immediately reacted and realized her current completely naked state. Her face flushed despite everything. She grabbed her clothes and quickly put them on with fumbling hands.
Although she knew exactly how ugly and monstrous she looked in Hayato's eyes right now, she was still shy about being exposed.
Two minutes later, Hoshino Ai finished arranging her clothes and tried to adjust her currently terrible, shameful, overwhelmingly complex emotional state.
Time passed midnight.
Standing in front of Hoshino Ai and chatting with the girl, Hayato noticed at a glance that the degree of dark gray patches spreading across Hoshino Ai's face had visibly deepened.
Hayato opened his mouth to say something—
Knock knock knock...
The door was suddenly knocked, sharp and urgent.
"Hayato-senpai, it's... It's me."
"We, we feel... something's wrong."
"Sawanaga-kun, he, he can barely... control himself now."
"Please, help us..."
That was Kuroda Hikari's voice, desperate and scared. She was begging for help outside their door.
"It's Kuroda-san..."
Hoshino Ai swallowed hard and looked at Hayato with uncertainty.
"Should we..."
"According to supernatural horror novel plots I've read, there's a high chance what's outside the door is something supernatural, trying to trick us into opening it and letting it in."
"I understand."
Hoshino Ai nodded as if understanding the danger, putting away her instinctive sympathy.
But then she saw Hayato turn and walk straight toward the door anyway.
"Hayato-kun, you..."
"Wait inside where it's safe. I'll go check the situation."
After the moaning sounds had stopped, he'd noticed that Hoshino Ai's infection degree had clearly increased at a visible rate. His own situation probably wasn't much better.
Hayato needed to collect more information about this hotel's mechanics. Continuing to hide in the room doing nothing would be no different from passively waiting for death.
Hoshino Ai felt deeply uneasy watching him approach the door, but in the end, she gritted her teeth and followed close behind. Her fate was already completely tied to Hayato's at this point. Rather than staying in the room anxiously worrying herself, it was better to follow along. Maybe she could even help provide some assistance somehow.
Click...
The door unlocked and swung open.
"Hayato-senpai, help... us..."
The moment she looked up and saw Hayato standing there behind the door, Kuroda Hikari's eyes immediately changed. The thin thread of rationality she'd been desperately maintaining seemed to snap completely in that instant.
"I... want...You...."
Time stop activated!
Bzzt...
Everything came to an abrupt halt mid-motion.
Only Hayato could still move freely in this frozen world.
Hayato looked at Kuroda Hikari frozen before him. The chestnut-tailed girl's face had a deep flush of red spreading across her cheeks. Her hair was disheveled and messy, strands falling loose. Her left hand clenched into a tight fist as if she'd been using it to desperately control her inner raging emotions. But her skin looked completely normal, without any of those mutated dark gray patches.
She hasn't been infected yet. Or I can't see her own infection because we're not roommates?
Hayato bent down and carefully lifted the girl, carrying her into the hallway.
The hotel hallway past midnight was much dimmer than before, shadows stretching long. The emergency exit indicator signs' emanating green light mixed with the hallway's weak yellow lights, adding an even richer, eerie atmosphere to the dark red carpet beneath his feet.
Hayato looked toward room 307 directly across the hall.
Sawanaga Taisuke had just opened the door to his room, frozen mid-step. His eyes were bloodshot and wild, pupils dilated. His body hunched forward aggressively, hands reaching out with grasping fingers, trying to grab the escaping Kuroda Hikari. But his skin showed no visible traces of mutation either.
Interesting...So it's not the sound that causes the infection....
Hayato carried the girl's lightweight toward room 307. His left hand pushed Sawanaga Taisuke's frozen form aside like moving a statue, and he successfully entered the room.
Finally, he grabbed Sawanaga Taisuke by the back of his collar and dragged him like a sack of dead weight into the bathroom, not being particularly gentle about it.
"Now's the time to verify my theory about how this all works."