The Orphanage, Midday, Present
Niche and Ryota approach the building. The sound of rotors is heard overhead.
Ryota docks the boat while Niche ducks and hurries inside the orphanage property just as the helicopter passes overhead.
Arius’ Room, The Orphanage, Present
A man, different from the one on the helicopter, leads Arius down a long hallway. This hallway is long and anything but bare; the walls and floors are covered in what appears to be home décor.
he thinks.
Arius is eventually led to one of many of the rooms in this long hallways and is told to wait there until his turn.
he thinks,
Arius shifts his form into Ryota.
Orphanage Landscape, Present
After Ryota docks the boat inconspicuously, he joins Niche, who hides in some bushes far from the entrance of the orphanage. As Ryota approaches Niche, he realized Niche is deep in thought.
“Niche? What’s wrong?” Ryota’s words falls on deaf ears, but Niche responds instinctively.
“What the hell? Arius is in there.”
“What? That’s a joke, right? How the hell would you know that?”
“I don’t know. I feel like I can just sense him. I don’t really know how, but I know he’s in there. Whatever this is, I’ll go in the front and check it out. Please, Ryota, go in the back and save Arius.”
“First of all, how do we even know he’s there? What if it’s a setup, and I get myself killed just because your intuition was wrong?”
“You’re right. Wherever Arius is, he didn’t go there on his own. To make sure you don’t receive the same fate…” Niche holds a flame up.
“Hey! What are you doing?! Get that thing away from me!”
“Trust me,” Niche says, cocking his arm back while looking straight at Ryota.
Ryota thinks. “What do you think -”
Before Ryota can finish, Niche throws the ball, which lights up Ryota’s shirt.
After the initial expected shocked reaction from Ryota before he realizes the flames aren’t harming him, Niche explains what happened.
“Eternal flames. These flames can’t be put out, and their combustion that starts this reaction can be controlled by me. This means when this mission ends, you have to change your shirt. The good part is that no one else can touch you without being burned. They’ll think you’re cursed or something and let you go.”
“How isn’t it burning me?”
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
“That’s the cool thing. I can choose who it hurts. Raizen taught me this, and it’s proved to be useful. Now go in, quick.”
Ryota reluctantly goes around the back. Niche blends in, making his way to the front via the bushes. Taking a good look at the entrance, he notices a crowd of people walking into the orphanage and sneaks in with this crowd. As he walks along the path with what looks to be hundreds of other people, Niche notices how grand this orphanage. Niche is taken to a large, curved room with descending floors that meets at a stage in the center. Chairs line these floors to form a large half circle. On the other part of the semicircle lies a giant screen that appears to be a few hundred feet long.
Arius’ Room, Present
Someone comes into Arius’ room. A man - again different from the previous ones - holds a camera up and takes a pic of Arius. “State your name, visitor.”
“Uh, it’s…Ryota. That’s me.”
“Number #277, Ryota. Got a last name, champ?”
“Uhhh…no?”
“Whatever.” The man leaves the room.
Back of the Orphanage, Present
Ryota, sneaking around the backside, seems puzzled as what he is supposed to see. He encounters a door, and, seeing this to be the only way to progress Niche’s task, approaches it. Shaking the handle, the door is locked.
Ryota thinks, turning around and walking away before realizing.
he thinks.
Revisiting the door, Ryota nears himself close to the handle and holds his arm out to the handle. The arm sleeve, touching the door handle, turns the doorknob red before the knob starts to sizzle. The form of the knob gradually distorts until it melts off, along with the lock. Ryota, satisfied with his ingenuity, opens the door and walks into what he identifies as the backrooms.
he thinks, raising his sleeve.
Pressing his arm sleeve against the door to his left, the wood burns to reveal a small crevice that he peeks into.
he thinks.
He goes to the door on the right and tries that one.
Still a bedroom. Different layout. No people. No Arius.
Eventually, Ryota makes his way down the rooms. About halfway down, he burns a hole in one and, on the other side, he finally sees a person, but it is not who he ever would’ve guessed he would’ve seen.
“What the hell?” Ryota says confused. “Who are you and why are you…me?”
“Ryota.” Arius turns around, recognizing Ryota and switching back as Ryota burns the door open.
“I’m not even gonna ask what the hell you just got me into by playing as me but-” Ryota starts.
“We gotta go,” Arius interrupts.
“Yeah.”
They turn to leave but, at that moment, someone appears in the doorway.
“Number 277, Ryota. Come with me.”
He tries to grab Ryota’s shirt, but his hand is engulfed in flames. “Ahhhh fuckkk!!!!! What the hell did you do you fucking witch!” The flames eventually spread to his whole body.
More people come in to see what’s happening.
Ryota thinks.
“I got him!” Arius screams, stabbing Ryota’s side with a cattle prod he took from the man on fire. Ryota groans and falls to the ground in pain.
“Fuck you, Arius,” He says quietly - not out of his own choice - as he falls, rendered immobile.
“I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you,” Arius whispers, kneeling on the ground next to Ryota’s ear as the device continues to deliver electricity into Ryota’s body.
When Ryota looks unconscious, Arius removes the electrical current.
To his ignorant surprise, after a few seconds, Ryota slowly sits back up.
“What the fuck?” Arius says, shocked.
He drives the prod into Ryota’s neck for a few seconds, stunning him a second time. To make sure Ryota is unconscious, after Arius removes the current, he hits Ryota with a right elbow to his temple, which is enough to finish the job.
Frantically sweating and panting, Arius stands up, chuckling uncomfortably.
“Alright, we got him,” someone says.
“Yeah. Anyways…I’ll get back to my job now,” Arius says, hurrying out of the room.
The man engulfed in flames is still burning, but his cries, now ignored, are tuned out by everyone, who goes back to their jobs after the breach is controlled.
Arius thinks, running down the hallway.
He follows the trail, which leads him outside and around to the front entrance.
