The overflowing smile on Alice's face made her current smug satisfaction painfully obvious. There was no doubt that, in her view, Takumi had already been completely cornered—there was no longer any possibility of turning things around.
Takumi found that he could already guess what this thing was thinking.
Probably because he had clashed with it so many times—and had been killed by it every single time—that he had gradually come to understand the way it thought. Tch. Just thinking about it made him feel irritated. The fact that he was starting to understand how something like this thinks was deeply unpleasant.
However, what she would never expect was that Takumi had already recalled the rescue team member and ordered him to search the research base for the true location of the Obsession Item. Then again, that wasn't too surprising. From what he could tell, different instances of Alice were unable to share information. In fact, he even had a vague sense that there might be a certain degree of hostility between them—or at the very least, a kind of mutual indifference bordering on enmity.
[Counterkill? Mm, Alice doesn't quite understand that word, but Teacher must mean that you can still change the current situation, right? Can you really do that? Honestly, Alice is very doubtful. At a time like this, what could Teacher possibly still do?]
Amid the girl's giggling voice, Takumi could feel that the thing invading his nerves and thoughts was becoming increasingly vivid, gradually replacing his sense of self.
He had already experienced this sensation twice—and each time it had been more intense than the last. So even now, despite meeting the conditions to become Alice's "friend," Takumi still stubbornly maintained his sense of self, instead of collapsing into the helpless, limp state he had fallen into during the first loop.
"…So it's a bowl of meat soup."
Takumi spoke slowly.
And in that instant, the smile on Alice's face abruptly froze.
Through the shared perception granted by the Rescue Team Badge, he saw it—a bowl of meat soup sitting on a dining table in the cafeteria of the research base.
Next to that bowl of soup lay a corpse slumped over the table.
This corpse was clearly different from the others in the research base. It was fresh—very fresh—looking as though it had died only recently. The cause of death was gunshot wounds: two shots to the head, and two to the chest. It could be roughly deduced that the shooter had entered from the cafeteria entrance, fired at the victim's head from behind while he was seated, then approached and fired additional shots—two into the heart and one more into the head—to ensure a complete kill.
In the corpse's pocket was a concert ticket—the same event as the ticket held by the corpse in the underground base beneath the Teaching Building.
The bowl of meat soup was fresh. When the rescue team member approached, faint steam could still be seen rising from it.
The soup was blood-red.
The meat was fresh.
There was even saliva at the corner of the corpse's mouth.
Just looking at the scene, Takumi could almost imagine what had happened.
Alice's skin had been turned into an umbrella. Her bones had been made into a cane. Her flesh had become a bowl of steaming meat soup. As for the remaining Obsession Item—taken away by some unknown team—it was likely another part of Alice's body, something crafted from her remains.
The rescue team member reached out and picked up the bowl of soup.
His movements weren't particularly gentle; as he lifted it, the bowl tilted slightly to one side.
But this caused no trouble at all.
Because even when the bowl was tilted, the contents showed no sign of spilling.
It was as if the flesh and blood inside were locked in place by something invisible, held firmly within the bowl in a fixed state. Perhaps only by drinking it—or eating it—could its position be transferred?
Of course, that wasn't important.
Takumi simply watched the Alice before him, appreciating the look of shock that had appeared on her face. A faint sense of satisfaction rose within him.
She must have already sensed that the Obsession Item she relied on had been taken. Otherwise, she wouldn't be showing this kind of expression.
But just as Takumi thought this, he suddenly felt an even more intense assault on his mind—his consciousness being torn apart and destroyed.
Realizing something was wrong, Alice had chosen to escalate immediately, intensifying her attack in an attempt to completely shatter Takumi's will right here.
Not only that—she herself stepped forward, reaching out to tear off the badge pinned to Takumi's chest.
Because she realized I was the one controlling that rescue team member, she decided to speed things up and eliminate me directly to prevent further complications?
Takumi wasn't surprised by Alice's choice.
So he reached out and grabbed the hand she had extended, slamming her straight down onto the ground.
Above the floor, the shadow of the giant wolf lunged fiercely toward Takumi.
But nothing happened.
Neither the distorted illusions nor the wolf shadow targeting Takumi continued to take effect.
As for the Aberration clinging to Takumi's back and gnawing at his flesh, it was still feasting voraciously. However, this thing was clearly more inclined toward prolonged torment rather than an instant kill, so Takumi was still able to rely on the regeneration of the Rescue Team Badge to resist it and keep holding on.
Or rather, that might not be an accurate way to put it.
Because the current Takumi… was not "Takumi" himself.
"I told you—it's time for the counterkill. Do you understand what I meant now?"
The cold voice that spoke those words did not belong to Takumi.
It was the fragment of personality that Mai had planted within Takumi's consciousness using her blessing, just before she jumped down through the broken hole in the rooftop.
The power of a sincere blessing does not end with the death of its wielder. It continues to function, and at this most critical moment, it forcibly severed the rule Alice had directed at Takumi, halting the power of this Aberration.
After all, the one Alice wanted to befriend… was "Takumi."
And when this temporarily implanted, nameless personality fragment took control of Takumi's body, the person before her could no longer be fully regarded as "Takumi" himself. As a result, the process of Alice's "friend-making" game could no longer continue.
The shadow of the wolf collapsed.
As a derivative Aberration without a true body, once its rule-program could no longer execute, it had no path left but destruction.
After staring blankly at Takumi for a long moment, Alice finally understood what had happened. The expression on her face dimmed slightly.
[Why is it that all of Alice's friends dislike Alice so much? Miss Kumagai Mai was already dead, and she still had to stop Alice from making a new friend. That's just too much.]
As she said this, the girl took a step back, trying to forcibly break free from Takumi's grip.
The body she was possessing—Miko—was naturally no match for Takumi in strength. So Alice abruptly yanked her arm—
Crack!
She tore it off.
Blood sprayed into the air, splattering across Takumi's face.
[Alice just wanted to become friends with Teacher. Teacher is really too much—why would you hurt Alice like this?]
As she spoke, the girl tilted her head slightly, putting on an innocent, cute expression.
"That's not even close to 'too much.' This is just the beginning. Before I send you to hell for real, there's plenty worse coming."
Takumi drove the machete in his hand straight through his own chest—piercing through the unseen Aberration behind him as well.
The personality fragment left behind by Kumagai Mai had already shattered and dissipated, but the time it bought was enough for Takumi to play the role of someone who 'hated evil and was determined to eliminate Alice,' completely disrupting her friend-making ritual.
On the other side, the rescue team member had already reached the doorway of this room. In less than half a minute, they would reunite—and then Takumi would use the watch to completely seal Alice, shattering the "falsehood" that covered the surface of Fujihana Middle School.
"Whether it's forcing Kumagai Mai-san to sacrifice herself, possessing Miko and hurting her, or the fact that you killed me twice—things you don't even remember—I've remembered every single one of them."
"Our ending will be one of two things: either I die here, or you are completely destroyed by me. There is no third outcome."
Squatting down, Takumi—his severed arm not yet fully regenerated—picked up the severed limb from the ground with his remaining hand, then grasped the toothbrush Alice had placed on it earlier.
His chest and abdomen had already been hollowed out by nearly half by the feeding Aberration. His entire body was drenched in blood, swaying on the verge of collapse—yet his presence only grew more intense.
"I will never acknowledge something like you, Alice."
"The only thing I'll ever do to you is destroy you and send you to hell. That's the only way you can atone for your victims."
"So—have you thought it through? Do you still want to become friends with someone like me?"
The final words sounded like pure mockery.
And Alice, still possessing Miko, had already gone expressionless. Her movements had clearly become stiff.
This was a reenactment of the process from the second loop, when the rescue team member faced Alice with the red pen. But the difference this time was that Takumi had already gone through about half of Alice's "friend-making" ritual before it was interrupted, forcing the ritual to incorporate elements she could not accept.
[…]
Alice said nothing.
Her behavioral logic had been completely thrown into disarray by Takumi, plunging her into a frozen, unresponsive state.
Takumi knew this state wouldn't last long. After all, this Alice was a being born from an Obsession Item—clearly stronger than the three entities in the Dormitory Building. But the time he had bought was already more than enough.
Because from the rescue team member's perspective, the sealed door of the hall was already right in front of him.
Taking out a medicine bottle, Takumi quickly swallowed two pills to accelerate his recovery, preventing himself from truly being eaten hollow by the Aberration still clinging to his back.
—Step.
At that moment, from the rescue team member's perspective, Takumi heard footsteps coming from behind.
Something had caught up to the rescue team member—it was following right behind it?!
Takumi controlled the rescue team member and made it turn its head to look back.
And so, through the rescue team member's eyes, Takumi saw Yoshino Rika.
He saw Rika—her head split cleanly down the middle, the two halves tilting outward like a grotesque flower in bloom. Both blood-soaked halves of her face were smiling, a grin that clearly revealed the writhing muscle fibers along the cut surface and the trembling of her tongue.
And behind Rika, there were twenty-two more students, all with their heads split open in the same way, all smiling as they walked forward.
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