In an instant, his consciousness grew dazed.
It was as if a force were controlling his body, forcing him to open his mouth.
As though something had taken over the existence of the self, making him speak and agree to what the other party had said—to become that so-called "Alice's friend."
"I…"
Takumi had already realized that something was wrong. At this moment his voice trembled violently, yet he had no way to control himself.
"I…"
He saw something.
At this moment, after strongly sensing Alice's presence, he saw something.
That seemed to be… a stage?
A dense mass of people, layer upon layer.
Everyone was cheering.
Every face was filled with worship and infatuation. They were completely immersed in the figure on that stage, as if even their souls had already been entirely occupied by it.
[Alice!]
Takumi heard their cheers.
[Alice!!]
Takumi saw the look of tearful excitement in their eyes.
[Alice!!!]
Takumi saw them shouting themselves hoarse, jumping, waving glow sticks in their hands, and gazing with burning eyes toward the stage, at that slender figure standing there.
That was a girl.
A girl with long golden hair, whose face seemed as though it had been carved by demons and gods—beauty that no human should possess, so breathtaking that it felt as if it could truly seize a person's soul.
[Hello everyone, Alice wants to become friends with you all~]
[With everyone, with every single person, to become very, very good friends~]
[Alice likes you all the most~]
She was smiling.
Her blue eyes were so brilliant, like crystal-clear gemstones.
Her golden hair shone like sunlight.
The slight curl of her lips alone made one's mind grow dazed.
Too beautiful…
Truly far too beautiful…
Could such a person really exist in this world…
Takumi could not suppress the growing daze in his mind.
He felt as if his consciousness were slowly sinking into the sea.
His palms seemed to have begun sweating, becoming slightly damp.
It felt as though everything else no longer mattered.
The only thing that mattered was approaching the girl before him—coming to her side, staying by her side. Everything else could simply be ignored.
Yes, doing only that would be enough.
There was no need for any hesitation.
'Just… just… damn it… what kind of mermaid charm skill is this? My mind isn't broken—why the hell would I abandon Maki and Chika, my two beautiful wives, just to be with a dead piece of human skin like you?!'
Blood seeped from the corner of Takumi's mouth.
He had almost bitten his tongue off on the spot.
The pain stimulated his nerves, and in that instant his scattered consciousness completely recovered.
Takumi's vision became clear again.
He was now standing in the fourth-floor corridor of the Teaching Building at Fujihana Middle School. Around him were shattered stones, desks, chairs, books, and all kinds of debris scattered across the floor.
Directly ahead of him… there was no one.
No one?
The human skin that had originally been standing before him—the one that had risen from Miko—was now gone.
A cold presence emerged from behind him.
Realizing something was wrong, Takumi suddenly turned around and saw Miko standing with her back to him.
Rika had already collapsed.
One of her eyes was wide open, tears carving a streak across her cheek. The other eye was gone, gouged out into a deep hole.
Squelch—
Miko pulled out the pen that had been stuck into Rika's eye.
It was a black gel pen.
It had been completely driven into Rika's head—from the pen tip to the pen end, fully buried inside—before being pulled out again.
A blood-red color had already soaked through the pen.
Now, it had already become a red gel pen.
[How wonderful.]
Miko, whose head had already returned to its proper position, turned around and looked at Takumi with a smile.
[Teacher is really amazing. Something as frightening as biting off one's own tongue—I definitely wouldn't be able to do that.]
[So then, I'll give the item for winning the game to Teacher.]
[Come on, Teacher, you've already won.]
As she said this, Miko extended her hand, about to pass the blood-red gel pen to Takumi.
Behind her, long hair had already grown from the faintly visible human skin. Black… no, not black—it had been soaked in blood and dyed black by it. It hung down like that, covering the human skin itself.
Takumi stepped back.
The girl in front of him smiled and stepped forward.
So he no longer hesitated. He turned around and fled at full speed, using the physical enhancement from the Rescue Team Badge to run at a speed that surpassed human limits.
In the next instant, Miko's head protruded from behind Takumi's shoulder on one side, turning to look at him.
The bodily enhancement blessing from Hedda was activated once again. Takumi accelerated again, crossing the corridor in an instant and shaking off the girl following behind him.
No—he had not shaken her off.
Takumi could hear the sound of her footsteps tightly trailing behind him.
Even with the power of Hedda's blessing, he still could not shake her off?
[Teacher tells you to stop. Stand where you are and do not move. You may only move when I say you can.]
Takumi tried activating the power of the Sheep Head, issuing a command to Miko behind him.
And so she truly stopped walking, standing in the corridor, completely motionless.
"T-Takumi-san?"
Miko's bewildered voice sounded from behind.
It was completely different from the eerie voice just now—clearly the girl's own voice.
She was still alive?
After being possessed by that aberrant power, she had still not died?
Takumi's astonishment lasted only for a very brief moment—less than a second. Then he continued running forward, with absolutely no intention of stopping, passing through the corner of the corridor and disappearing from Miko's sight.
"Takumi-san, wait! Please wait! Don't… don't…"
The girl's voice gradually faded away.
Meanwhile, Takumi continued running forward in silence for some distance. Only after confirming that he could no longer hear Miko's voice did he finally stop.
Turning back, the pitch-black corridor was empty.
That "Alice" seemed to require possessing Miko in order to act. Once Miko herself was restrained, it could no longer come before him.
In the end, in just a little over an hour, all twenty-four students had died completely. Even Miko, whom he had tried his best to protect, had already been possessed by "Alice"—which was hardly any different from death.
After being left alone in that corridor, what would she do next… Forget it. Thinking about that now was already meaningless. And who knew whether the words she shouted to him at the end had truly been shouted by her herself, or whether that "Alice" had shouted them through some kind of disguise ability. After all, her neck had already been twisted completely earlier—under normal circumstances, she should have died long ago.
Still, this was truly difficult.
From the moment he entered Fujihana Middle School until now, he had been struggling the entire way. Yet he still had absolutely no clue how to clear this place. From the information he had obtained so far, there was not a single piece of decisive intelligence. At this point, he did not even know where he should go next.
In any case, he could not complete Alice's game.
If this damned thing's game were completed, it would absolutely be a situation with no chance of survival. But if he did not complete the game, then he had no way to leave the Teaching Building. In that case, the scope of his investigation would be limited to this place.
Where should he go next?
Before reaching a dead end, he had to do his best to obtain more clues.
In Takumi's mind, a faint realization had already formed: after losing Miko, the helper who possessed powerful sensing abilities, the possibility of him leaving this place alive had essentially dropped to almost nothing.
So before he died, he had to make the value of this life reach its maximum.
Only then could he establish greater advantages when the next round began, and only then would he have a better chance of clearing this damned place.
So among the information he had obtained so far, which place still held value?
The basement.
Takumi immediately thought of this answer.
Fujihana Middle School had underground floors, and there were even teachers specifically responsible for managing those underground floors.
In the illusion he and Miko had previously seen, the place where the students were punished by the teachers was very likely located in the underground area.
Would it be inside the Teaching Building?
Takumi spent some time locating the stairwell. Holding the red pen, he walked down the stairs and headed toward the lower levels of the pitch-black Teaching Building.
Bzzzt…
While walking in the stairwell, Takumi heard a noisy sound echoing throughout the Teaching Building, reverberating through every floor, every classroom, and every corridor.
It was the school broadcast. Was someone using the broadcast?
While thinking this, Takumi soon heard singing coming from the broadcast.
It seemed to be the voice of children singing.
It was a somewhat strange nursery rhyme.
[I stepped on a cat~ I stepped on a cat~]
Children were giggling and singing.
[I stepped on a napping little cat~]
From the broadcast—and also as if it were sounding right beside him—the singing voice of children rang out.
Takumi simply continued walking downstairs.
Step by step, in the faint glow of the candlelight, he kept descending.
He did not encounter Teacher Turtle. The stairwell seemed to contain only him alone.
But the singing grew louder and louder.
The noisy singing—no, it seemed that some kind of clamorous noise was drowning out the song.
A tumultuous sound, as though filled with anger, as though it had descended into madness.
Step—
Takumi's foot landed on the first floor.
Something fell from outside the stairwell entrance, from the small garden outside the corridor windows.
One after another.
They were students.
Students wearing refined school uniforms different from those of ordinary students.
Their corpses were being thrown down.
Tortured until they were almost no longer human—only their uniforms remained as bright and new as ever. The corpses of those Outstanding Students were thrown down from upstairs one after another.
Each time a corpse was thrown down, many people would burst into cheers.
Takumi raised his head and saw that in front of the windows on every floor there were people standing there—many students standing there. And on the rooftop, a group of students were shouting while throwing the corpses of one Outstanding Student after another down below.
Blink.
All the sounds vanished.
There were no students' corpses being thrown down, and no shouting students.
Only the ruined Teaching Building stood silently in the darkness. Other than that, there was nothing.
Takumi turned his head and looked at the corridor where he was now standing. He saw blood covering the ground—splattered on the walls, pooled on the floor, dripping along the path, even staining the ceiling—blood that had almost filled the entire corridor.
[Something very terrible once happened here.]
Someone slowly spoke behind Takumi.
[Although the students were originally divided into different student ranks, the Outstanding Students used their special status to turn more and more students into Bad Students. Gradually, there were no more Good Students, no Ordinary Students, and no Delinquent Students left in the entire school. All of them had become Bad Students.]
[They believed that by doing this they could completely rule the entire school and do whatever they wanted without restraint. Especially after they discovered that the teachers had no objections to this and completely allowed them to act this way, they had even fewer worries.]
[Until one day, a Bad Student attacked an Outstanding Student, killed them before the other could issue a command, and seized the Outstanding Student's badge.]
[And then that Bad Student—who originally could never change their identity or status—was acknowledged by the Principal and became an Outstanding Student.]
[Do you want to know what happened next in this school, Teacher?]
That voice was laughing softly.
As though everything were still vividly remembered—still so bloody, still so laughable.
Takumi slowly turned around and saw Miko standing within the shadows at the stairwell entrance. She stood in the darkness, the corner of her mouth curving into a smile directed at him.
In her golden eyes there was none of the vitality that a living person should have. Just meeting her gaze made Takumi feel an intense discomfort.
Her clothes had already been soaked with blood. That blood had dried, turning into a pitch-black color.
Her candle had gone out. It lay not far behind her, yet no monsters appeared to attack her.
Only a black shadow extended out from behind Miko. From within the foul-smelling long hair, one eye was revealed—also staring at Takumi ahead.
There were no stairs inside the Teaching Building that led to the underground floors.
Takumi guessed that those stairs might have been concealed by some kind of force, or perhaps some other method was required to enter.
But immediately afterward he realized another problem. Lowering his head, he looked at the dark red gel pen clutched in his hand.
When had he grabbed it?
Amid his confusion, Miko in front of him spread her hands, revealing empty palms from which only blood was dripping.
Clatter!
The pen fell to the ground.
At that moment, his consciousness began to blur.
Faintly, he seemed to hear the humming sound of an elevator in motion.
Then there came a world of darkness, yet faintly lit.
[I stepped on a cat~]
[I stepped on a cat~]
[I stepped on a napping little cat~]
His body seemed to be dragged by someone.
He could not move—even a finger would not obey him.
It seemed his body was no longer under his control.
He could only barely see the surroundings and hear some sounds.
The one dragging him… seemed to be a girl?
He could also hear the other person humming a song.
It seemed that he had been dragged into some sort of room.
Those things around him… were they stuffed toys?
Animal plush toys about half a meter tall were arranged in rows on both sides of the room—three rows on each side, six rows in total. The rows stretched far into the distance, so long that the end of the room could not be seen. There appeared to be at least more than a hundred plush toys placed there.
There were sheep plushies, elephant plushies, turtles, giraffes, ducks, cats, rabbits, and many other kinds.
Then, a white sheep plush toy was placed in front of Takumi.
That figure continued singing.
And Takumi, who had finally regained a little more clarity, was still forcing his eyes open, trying to figure out the exact situation of this place—trying to obtain more useful information before it was too late.
In the next moment, intense pain began to spread.
The first thing to be dissected was the chest, followed by the abdomen.
Skin and flesh separated, fully exposing the internal organs.
Next the nose was split down the middle, followed by the lips and teeth.
The sound of bones being crushed rang out clearly.
Just like tearing apart a cake, the entire human face was split open down the middle, revealing the blood-soaked flesh and sinews beneath.
Consciousness became even clearer.
Amid the intense pain, the power of the blessing clearly responded.
This room was full of people.
Not Aberrations, but people—people who had fallen into endless suffering, completely mad and stripped of all sense of self.
People who could not die, people forever and ever imprisoned here.
One by one, the internal organs were taken out.
Pain…
The zipper on the back of the doll was pulled open, and the stuffing inside had already been completely removed.
It hurt very much…
The nerves were being torn apart, while the blade continued to cut carefully.
It really hurt…
[You stepped on the cat~ You stepped on the cat~?]
That voice was still singing.
The eyeballs were removed and used to replace the doll's eyes.
The flesh was cut into suitable pieces, then stuffed into the doll together with the internal organs and part of the bones.
On the ground there remained only the hollowed-out remains of a human body.
And the zipper of the doll had already been closed again.
Takumi was still alive.
The violent pain kept crashing endlessly against the remnants of his thoughts and perception.
He felt as though he had already merged with this doll, yet was unable to fully fuse with it.
This doll had already become a part of himself, yet at the same time it was like some kind of foreign object constantly grinding and tearing through his body, repeatedly destroying his internal organs and flesh.
He could feel that the entire room was filled with living people.
Inside those cloth dolls.
Inside every blood-soaked cloth doll.
People just like him.
People enduring endless suffering, yet unable to die.
[Teacher, you must become Alice's forever good friend, and stay with Alice forever, okay~]
Someone embraced the doll and spoke to him in a low voice.
[Alice loves making friends the most]
[This place is Alice's and Teacher's secret little house. It's a place only Alice's friends are allowed to know]
[You have to stay here and keep Alice company forever and ever, okay? Hehehe~]
Amid the girl's cheerful laughter, the light in the room vanished completely, leaving behind nothing but endless darkness.
And as Takumi endured that endless, overwhelming pain, he could only focus the last of his attention and send the only command he could still issue—to the black watch that had been stuffed into the doll together with the flesh.
{I now submit a request… initiate the self-termination function…}
He could feel something responding to him.
Having completely become a toy doll and unable to move at all, Takumi could only silently count down, waiting for the one-minute timer to end.
50 seconds… 45 seconds…
It seemed that he had been placed on some kind of shelf.
30 seconds… 25 seconds…
That female voice was still softly humming, seemingly wandering around inside the little house.
10 seconds… 5 seconds…
It seemed he heard the other party murmuring to herself.
[The key to the Swimming Pool has been brought back, that's great. Alice can make more friends now, and can play games with more friends~]
[Alice wants friends~ wants friends~ wants good friends~]
Time reached zero.
Takumi did not change his request.
Thus, in the next moment, he felt a certain force flow through his entire body in an instant, rapidly destroying this mutilated flesh that had been forcibly kept alive by an Aberration's power and could not die. In an instant, the white sheep doll was burst open, scattering everywhere across the room.
Before his consciousness dissipated, he seemed to hear that female voice let out a scream.
A chilling, terrifying sound—absolutely not something a human could produce—made Takumi's heart tremble for a moment, giving him the feeling that something was about to seize him.
Click!
But in the very next moment, he heard the crisp sound of the watch's hands moving.
The hands on the black watch had already moved from the position of 1 to the position of 2.
Thus everything disappeared from Takumi's perception, together with that terrifying existence, vanishing without a trace, leaving only the sensation of sinking downward into the void.
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