999 ~First Nonary Game~ ((1x1 w/ Cinderfall and Sharubii))

[Cinderfall129]

(( >D ))

Light followed Houngou, after the other children had gone ahead. He brought up the rear, walking silently behind them.

Akane followed her brother, looking ahead and looking behind her shoulder from time to time.

[Sharubii]

Near the second to last step, Aoi halted where he was, unwilling to go any closer to Hongou. He stared at the man for a moment, eyes narrowed -- and then Hongou caught his gaze, and smiled at him in turn.

It gave Aoi chills.

"Now that most of you are here," Hongou announced, seemingly unaware of the discomfort he had just caused, "I'll continue. Come with me, to these two doors." Again he turned around and walked off, though this time he only went to the other side of the room, then stopped and faced the children again. "These are the Numbered Doors," he announced, using his hands to point to the two doors that he stood between: made of heavy iron, with a number '4' painted on one, and a number '5' painted on the other. Both numbers were red and reminded Aoi startlingly of blood.

"Well," Hongou said, considering. "These are two of them. There are nine total."

[Cinderfall129]

Light halted by Aoi for a moment, looked at him, then continued forward without another glance, putting his hands in his pockets. Nine doors total...huh... He thought blankly.

Akane watched Light as he passed by, then looked back on Hongou, as he pointed to the doors. 4 and 5... Akane blinked as she thought to herself, So, there are others...

[Sharubii]

Now Hongou used his right index finger to point at his left wrist. "Here's where your watches come in," he said, overly gleeful in his explanation. "Do you see these panels next to the Numbered Doors?" He stepped towards the closest one and gave it a tap. "These are called Recognition Devices, or REDs. In order to get into a room, you have to scan in a sequence of numbers whose digital root is the same as that on the door."

Now Aoi couldn't keep himself quiet. "Digital roots? The hell?"

Hongou's teeth flashed in an ugly smile. "Patience," he reiterated. Aoi thought that it was his favorite word. "I was just about to get to that. To explain digital roots as simply as possible, you just keep adding the digits of a number together until you get a single digit number. Don't interrupt, now." He cast a stern gaze over the group of children, as though he were ready to rebuke them as a father would have. "Let's say you have the number 483. You add all the digits up -- 4 plus 8 plus 3 -- which equals 15. Then you take 15 and add up the digits -- 1 plus 5 -- and you get 6. Therefore, the digital root of 483 is 6. Understand?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Aoi said, bad-tempered. "Just get on with it already, gramps!"

Hongou turned his eyes towards Aoi, and chuckled. "Eager to cast yourself into danger, aren't you?"

Aoi gritted his teeth, but didn't reply.

[Cinderfall129]

"So," Light mumbled, "How to define a digital root is to keep adding until you get a single number...?" He didn't quite understand, but he got the basic concept of it. He crossed his arms and waited for Hongou to continue.

Akane looked up at Aoi as he spoke, then listened to Hongou as he explained these 'digital roots.'
...
After he had explained it, Akane drew herself closer to her brother, not liking the idea of going through these 'numbered doors.'

[Sharubii]

"A single digit," Hongou corrected. "And open your eyes, lad. You'll trip and fall if you don't.

"Now, back to the numbered doors. You will have to scan in the bracelets of the people whose bracelets make the digital root of the door number." He waved vaguely at the RED. "You have to scan it on this, then pull the lever when you're done. The door will then open if -- and only if -- the digital root is correct, and you follow the rest of the rules pertaining to the numbered doors. The door will stay open for nine seconds, and only nine seconds." Now he strode a pace or two closer to one of the numbered doors. "Inside, your watches will activate and you will have 81 seconds to find the Deactivation Device, or DEAD, before your time is up. To deactivate your watches, you have to do the exact same thing you did with the RED."

"And what if we don't?" Aoi asked, putting a protective arm around Akane.

"Well." Ace looked up at the ceiling for a minute, then said, "After 81 seconds, if you don't deactivate your devices with the same people who activated on the RED, your bracelets will signal the bombs I've planted inside you to explode. And you'll all be dead."

"...dead?" Aoi's hand tightened around Akane's shoulder. His eyes grew wide, and the rest of his body tensed up. "You mean... we'll really be dead?"

"What else would I mean?" Hongou asked, the ugly smile on his lips again.

[Cinderfall129]

Light blew a piece of hair from his face in annoyance, oblivious to what Hongou said. I'm blind, why would I open my eyes? He retorted silently in his mind.

"Dead?"Akane whispered, holding onto Aoi as he put his arm around her. Hongou's smile made Akane shiver in fear, I don't want to die... She glanced up at him, "Aoi..." She said quietly, "D-do we have to go th-through the doors?"

[Sharubii]

"I don't know," Aoi whispered back, keeping his eyes on Hongou the whole time. "I'll see if I can find a way around them though, Akane. Don't you worry."

"Ah," Hongou piped up, having heard the quiet exchange, "but there's the thing. You can't get off this ship without going through the numbered doors. Indeed, the only way out is behind a door that's marked 9." He paused, whether for the information to sink in or for dramatic effect, Aoi couldn't tell. "You'll need to travel through the different doors in order to get to door 9. Now then. Good bye, and good luck." Without another word, Hongou raised a hand in farewell, then walked past the children and up the stairs once again.

"H-hey!" Aoi released his hold on Akane and ran to the base of the steps. "Come back! Are you just going to leave us to die here?!"

"You have nine hours," was the only reply; then dead silence.

[Cinderfall129]

You have nine hours. The words chilled Light's blood and sent a shiver down his spine, he heard Hongou walk up the stairs, and turned his head to the other children, staring at them through closed eyes, "So," He began, 'What do we do now?"

Akane stayed silent, not sure. She glanced at all the other kids, then glanced to her brother.

[Sharubii]

(( Eep sorry, I completely forgot about this rp. D: ))

"I... I don't know."

Aoi kept his eyes transfixed on the stairs where Hongou had disappeared, his mind whirling as he tried to process all this information. He couldn't... be dreaming, could he? This was so unreal, and yet everything his senses were telling him was that he was indeed not in a nightmare. Or perhaps it was a nightmare, but he wasn't sleeping.

When he finally could think straight again, he realized that he was shaking. Dammit... Stiffening his muscles to try to stop the trembling, he turned to face Light. "I... I dunno how this will help us, but... maybe we should find out each other's names. And bracelet numbers." To try to get the flow of conversation going, he held out his watch so that everybody could see the glowing number on it. "I'm Aoi. My number's three."