Copyright Notice:This story is an original work by Muntasib_Ihshan789. All rights reserved. Do not copy or redistribute without permission.
13th December, 2023
The sun could barely be seen as the grey clouds covered up the whole sky when Shuhi stepped out of her house, her backpack was on one shoulder and her new red scarf loosely hanging from her neck. The morning chill bit at her fingers, but she felt strangely energized. Maybe it was the breakfast. She'd eaten more than usual. Two boiled eggs. An apple. Toast with peanut butter. She never ate this much in the morning, but something told her she'd need her strength.
They were going back to the beginning. To the first house. The one where the nightmare had started.
In video game's language, Square Zero. The origin point. The origin of the puzzle and loop.
When she arrived at the quiet neighborhood, the house stood there like a dead man. Completely silent and forgotten. It had that look. You could tell people had died there. Some buildings hold the memory of a person's murder like dust in the walls.
Utaro was already there. Standing against the outside the gate, sipping from a familiar plastic coffee mug. The dark red color of the drink caught her eye.
She smiled slightly.
"Red tea-looking coffee again?" she asked as she approached.
Utaro looked at her and gave a small nod. "It's not tea. Just my own blend. One type of a coffee you can say. Keeps me awake without frying my nerves."
She chuckled. "You always have this in the morning. Every time we meet early, it's in your hand."
"Maybe I made this some kind of ritual of mine," he said, tapping the side of the cup. "You know… we all need something to hold onto."
They didn't say much after that. Talking were unnecessary. The house was in front of them, heavy with the weight of everything that had already happened, and everything which was about to come.
Inside, the air still held that coldness. That lifeless feel. But something was different this time.
Shuhi realized it only after walking through the corridor.This time, she wasn't shivering.Not like the first time. Not even like the second.She had adapted. Her body had learned to stop fearing the ghost of this place. Of course in her mind, ghost meant the cold, sick and lonely sensation the house gave before.
Utaro, of course, had always looked unaffected. Sometimes she wondered if anything could unsettle him.
"Maybe it's his experience. Adapted from it I guess. He is still young in terms of gathering so much experience. I wonder how many cases he handled before." She thought.
They entered the victim's room. The upper floor room leading by staircases. The crime scene.
Though the police tape had been removed, the outlines of the body made by chalk still remained on the floor like scars. The marks on the wall had already been dried. Silence was filling the room like fog.
Shuhi placed the doll photo on the floor, right in the center. Utaro unfolded the clock sketch and laid it beneath the phone screen, aligning it just like they did before.
This was their ritual now. As strange as it was, it made sense to them.
"I think this time…" Shuhi began, kneeling beside the diagram. "Let's consider the left leg as the second hand. Left arm as the minute. And head's still the hour."
Utaro glanced at her. "You sure? We assumed the right parts the last time." Utaro said while getting out a small notebook from his hand bag.
"Don't know that. But it feels like the next logical change. Each clue adds something more. We're escalating. Look at it. considering the right parts of the doll as clock hands isn't making sense."
"Let's see. The first letters of the pages are not matching, not the last one either. Looks like you are right" Utaro said looking through the pages in his phone gallery and noting the letters down.
"Alright," she said. "Let's roll with it."
They rotated the doll's limbs on the diagram, matching positions.
They worked out the usual, converting to page numbers: 11, 123, and 240.
Utaro opened his phone gallery again. They read the first words on each of those pages.
"Cobra High School."
Shuhi blinked. "What kind of name is that?"
"Cobra…?" Utaro echoed. "Like the snake?"
"Yeah. But that's not even a real high school, is it?"
She stared at the words a moment longer.
"Hey senpai, You have any idea? What could this possibly mean?"
This was the first time Shuhi asked Utaro directly about a problem. Normally she tries to find solution by herself. This time was different.
"…Maybe it doesn't mean a school named Cobra. Maybe it means… the killer is in a high school. And the clue is calling the killer a 'cobra.' A predator hiding in plain sight."
Suddenly the phrase wasn't just nonsense. It was a message. From the killer. Or… from the system behind all this. Then it hit her. Like a strike of lightning behind the eyes.
"Wait," Shuhi muttered. "Say 'Cobra' again."
"Cobra." Utaro said.
"Now listen carefully—Kobama." She pronounced it slow and clear. "Kobama High School. That's my school."
Utaro froze. "…They sound similar. Cobra… Kobama."
She nodded quickly. "Almost identical if someone whispered it. What if it's meant to be misheard? Like a pun. A sound trick."
"Which means…" Utaro stood up, suddenly alert. "The next murder is going to happen at Kobama High School."
Shuhi could feel the blood drain from her face. Not just because her school was now part of the crime but because she knew the rhythm of these killings. Knew how the loop increased in intensity.
"This is the next part of the loop, Three clues last time. This time there are four. The complexity's growing." She said in her head.
Utaro turned to her. "You knew that?"
She didn't answer. Just stared at the notebook where they wrote the letters.There was something inside her that she hadn't told him yet.Some part of her that was beginning to feel the rhythm of this game. As if the loops were teaching her. Evolving her.
They packed up the notebook and photo. Before leaving the room, Shuhi glanced one last time at the faded outline of the body.
There was a whisper in her mind.
"What if it's someone I..." She hesitated.
She shook the thought off.
Utaro looked at her. "We know the time. 20th June. 2:42. Either AM or PM. All we have to do is wait at Kobama High. The killer won't expect us."
There was a flash in his eyes. For a moment, he seemed excited. As if he enjoyed the thrill of outsmarting someone inhuman.
But Shuhi didn't share the excitement.
She nodded silently, then turned to the window. Light snow could be seen falling outside, like ashes of a distant fire.
"This time," she thought, "I'll be ready."
Dead Logic © 2025 by Muntasib_Ihshan789 is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International