Creak—creak—
The wheels of the metal bed scraped across the white floor, producing a harsh grinding sound.
The man strapped to the bed had his eyes half-open and half-closed, his body swaying slightly with the movement of the frame. His eyes, crusted with discharge, were dull and unfocused—impossible to tell what direction they were looking in, or whether they were looking at anything at all.
His face had clearly been beaten badly several times—swollen, bruised, with patches of redness and dark discoloration, along with wounds that looked like they were still in the process of healing. Saliva leaked from the corner of the man's mouth, and greenish mucus dripped down from his nose. No one made any move to wipe him clean.
No matter how you looked at it, he seemed like nothing more than a mental patient that instinctively made people want to keep their distance.
But Takumi knew—this was the target he had to face if he wanted to destroy the Fujihana Middle School Instance. Something he had to understand, had to analyze, and ultimately find a way to lay to rest.
To be honest, he hadn't expected to run into him again so soon.
It was just that… the way they were meeting this time was, in every sense, pretty strange.
He himself was being dragged along by the arms, held between two burly men.
And the core Obsession—this Instance's core fixation—was tightly bound and strapped onto an iron bed.
Why does this suddenly feel like we're brothers in misery…? Tch, just thinking that gives me goosebumps.
Takumi clicked his tongue inwardly. Then he noticed that the two men holding him both wore extremely tense expressions. Their grip tightened noticeably. One of them even looked like he was grinding his teeth, as if the man tied to the bed was his sworn enemy.
The force dragging him forward suddenly increased.
Before Takumi could take a closer look at the core Obsession, the two nurse-uniformed brutes yanked him away rapidly, dragging him toward the other end of the corridor.
In the end, he only managed to catch a glimpse of the name tag left on the man's bed.
[Hirano Sōsuke]
The true core of the Fujihana Middle School Instance—the name he had borne when he was still human.
Clearly, this core Obsession was like Andres: even if someone learned information about him, it wouldn't trigger curses or contamination. He was the type that wouldn't be affected by being "observed."
And yet…
Compared to how this core Obsession had looked when it killed him at the end of the previous loop, the current version showed a significant difference.
Even though their interaction back then had lasted less than three seconds, Takumi clearly remembered: the one who killed him had been wearing a formal uniform. Dirty and stained though that police outfit had been, the man's demeanor and presence were completely different from this mad prisoner.
If not for his perception confirming the identity, Takumi would never have believed these two were actually the same entity.
No… calling him a "person" wasn't quite appropriate anymore.
Because no matter what form he took, his essence was already that of an Aberration.
Even if this place maintained a superficial normalcy—looking like an ordinary mental hospital at first glance, aside from being excessively guarded—its true nature had not changed.
That ever-present, cold, lingering aura hanging in the air was more than enough to keep Takumi on edge.
From a distance, he heard the sound of girls arguing. At the end of the corridor, he saw a figure pinned to the ground, screaming and struggling.
A caretaker pulled out an electric baton, activated it, and pressed it directly against the girl.
With a crackle of electricity, the girl who had been shouting just moments ago rolled her eyes back and collapsed unconscious. Soon, a puddle spread across the floor beneath her.
One of the caretakers cursed under his breath, glaring at the unconscious girl with undisguised disgust.
A female attendant stepped forward, grabbed the girl, dragged her back into a room, and even kicked her hard before letting go.
The other girls fell silent, too terrified to resist. Under the watchful gaze of the baton-wielding, physically imposing nurse attendants, they obediently moved forward toward a large door at the end of the hallway.
The place Takumi was being taken to wasn't the same as where the girls were, but the direction was roughly similar. He guessed he would be brought to some kind of central area—perhaps a courtyard—where men and women were separated, though possibly still able to see each other.
As it turned out, his guess was correct.
He was soon taken to an indoor activity area roughly the size of a small plaza. Inside, around twenty to thirty patients in hospital gowns wandered about, while a group of caretakers—roughly half their number—stood guard in the corners.
A wall divided the space into two sections. From the ground up to about one meter, it was solid concrete; above that, it was a thick transparent glass barrier.
The side Takumi was on housed only men. The other side was for women.
Among them, dressed in a patient gown, Miko cautiously blended into the crowd. Her golden eyes scanned the area continuously—searching for something.
And when she saw Takumi, her eyes visibly lit up.
For some reason, at that moment, Takumi felt like she had a bit of a puppy-like vibe to her.
Beside her, Yoshino Rika and the others were also present. Seeing their terrified, helpless expressions, Takumi had no interest in paying them further attention.
But then—
For some reason, Miko suddenly avoided his gaze, and a faint blush appeared on her face.
What's wrong with her?
Takumi had already quietly moved closer to the glass wall, frowning slightly at her strange reaction.
As for Miko herself, she couldn't explain it either.
Just moments ago, after finally spotting Takumi, she had instinctively felt a sense of relief—as if she had found her anchor again.
But when she was about to walk toward him—
For some reason, she suddenly had the bizarre feeling that her entire body had somehow been seen through by him.
A surge of intense embarrassment rushed over her, instantly leaving the girl flustered and at a complete loss for what to do.
Of course, that flustered feeling only lasted for a very short moment. Having already snapped back to her senses about the situation she was in, the girl quickly moved forward, running up to the glass wall and lifting her head to meet Takumi's gaze.
Judging from the way the "physics engine" behaved while she ran over, Takumi suspected that underneath the hospital gown, she was very likely still in her original state.
The girl opened her mouth, wanting to speak to him.
But the thick glass wall had excellent soundproofing, to the point that her voice couldn't get through at all.
That wasn't a problem for Takumi. He possessed unusual abilities related to language comprehension and communication, so he could directly understand what Miko was saying just by reading her lips.
[Takumi-san, are you okay? Do you know what this place is? Some of my classmates said these people might be filming some kind of reality show, maybe even an underground illegal one run by the mafia, but I remember we were dragged here by something really terrifying, right? So why did we end up here? And ever since earlier, I've felt like it's really cold here, like something is watching me, but I can't find where it is…]
The girl talked a lot.
During the previous three loops, Miko hadn't been this talkative. But now, after meeting Takumi again, she unexpectedly became quite chatty—like a curious child—firing off a string of questions without pause.
Takumi could tell that she was using this as a way to relieve the fear and helplessness in her heart.
Still, her attitude seemed noticeably more intimate than in the previous three loops.
The moment she sees me, she immediately relaxes… This kind of change is a bit… concerning.
"It's fine, it's fine. As long as you act carefully, things shouldn't be a big problem."
Takumi deliberately slowed his speech, trying to make it easier for Miko to understand him through lip reading.
The attempt very clearly failed.
Miko stared blankly at him for quite a while, then began speaking anxiously—things like "I can't hear you" and "What do we do, what do we do"—her agitation starting to rise again.
So after a brief moment of thought, Takumi stepped closer to the glass, breathed onto it to fog the surface, and then began writing on it with his finger.
[I'm fine on my side. For now, it looks like as long as we follow the caretakers' instructions, there shouldn't be any immediate danger. Try to calm your classmates down first—don't let them panic. If you can't calm them, then keep your distance from them as much as possible, so you don't get dragged into danger.]
[Try to find any rule sheets with written requirements, or see if you can get information about prohibited actions from the caretakers. Be extremely careful. If you feel anything is off, don't act rashly—your safety comes first, understand? I'll find a way to get to your side as soon as possible.]
[Also, you don't need to write on the glass. I can read lips—I understand what you're saying.]
Thanks to his now superhuman physique and lung capacity, Takumi could manage writing all that. For a normal person, it would have taken who knows how long. And to account for Miko's opposite viewing angle, he even had to write everything in reverse—honestly, it was quite a hassle.
The girl carefully read everything Takumi wrote, nodding repeatedly, earnestly indicating that she would definitely be careful.
At that moment, a caretaker noticed the two of them and immediately walked over, electric baton in hand.
[Hey, what are you doing? Back off, back off. No approaching the isolation wall.]
The caretaker waved the baton impatiently at Takumi, looking ready to swing it at any moment.
He looked completely human.
If Takumi's perception hadn't confirmed the truth, there was no way he could have determined with the naked eye whether this thing was human or an Aberration.
"Sorry, sorry for the trouble. I just wanted to talk to my girlfriend. It's hard to see her after coming into a place like this, so I got a bit carried away. I'm really sorry."
Takumi casually spun a lie and apologized sincerely.
The caretaker simply let out a sneer, muttered "Another delusional one", and couldn't be bothered with him anymore.
From facial expressions to tone of voice to body language, every detail was indistinguishable from a real human.
Takumi stepped back a few paces, leaving the glass wall area, and turned to scan his surroundings.
He saw two caretakers already slacking off, huddled together reading a newspaper and discussing horse betting.
Another patient tried to take off his clothes, only to be struck on the head by a caretaker's baton and knocked to the ground for a beating.
Three patients were gathered together: one pointed at the girls on the other side of the glass wall, shouting that their faces were covered with cards; another raised both hands and praised the sun; the last clutched his head, pretending to be a sun-shroom.
Each had their own… unique style.
Everyone looked like a normal person.
Everyone here appeared alive, as if they were truly patients and caretakers living in an ordinary mental hospital.
But that wasn't the truth.
Just like the Lost Ones in the Red Nut Grey Cave, Takumi knew—this was only the surface presented by the Aberrations, merely a façade of normality.
The reason these things moved like humans was simply because no one had triggered the specific death conditions. As a result, they hadn't exited this special state, and remained locked in this unconscious mode of role-playing.
Takumi didn't pay them much attention.
He simply walked back and forth through the activity room, observing every place he could.
Even though he himself didn't feel anything unusual, Miko had said she felt that "something was watching her."
That meant beneath this seemingly normal hospital, something was definitely hidden.
And what Takumi needed to do now—
was to find it first, before that hidden thing revealed itself and came for him.
He first walked over to the window and looked outside.
Through the glass, Takumi unexpectedly saw Fujihana Middle School—long abandoned, lying silent under the sunlight. It stood about one to two hundred meters away from this mental hospital, with only a few low-rise apartment buildings of three to five floors in between, not nearly enough to obscure the school itself.
The surrounding buildings all looked desolate, with no signs of anyone living in them.
As for determining architectural styles or exact time periods, Takumi couldn't do that. But he could still tell that these were the kind of old-style apartment blocks built in the last century, the type usually constructed around factories or schools.
Yeah… definitely not something built in the 1940s. After all, there were all kinds of electrical appliances visible. This mental hospital even had a television mounted on the ceiling.
So… could the current time be when Idol Alice was active?
Thinking this, Takumi took a few steps forward, his gaze drifting toward a wall to the side.
Then, he suddenly stopped.
He had seen a poster.
A poster pasted inside this activity room, featuring a real photograph—looking quite new.
A poster of Alice.
From the nearby television came the sound of singing.
Even though the TV's quality was terrible, making the audio extremely muffled and hard to distinguish, it was still enough for Takumi to recognize the voice—to realize exactly who it belonged to.
He lifted his head and looked toward the television.
Dressed in idol attire, looking unbelievably cute, Alice smiled at him from the screen.
[Alice loves you all. Everyone is Alice's good friend—Alice's very, very best friends. So next, Alice will present this song, "Best Friends," to everyone—]
The girl's singing voice was like something from heaven. Even the poor-quality speaker couldn't diminish its charm.
One by one, patients gathered around, staring at the screen with dazed expressions.
Even the caretakers stepped forward, their gazes locking onto the girl singing and dancing on the screen, gradually becoming fervent.
[Alice…]
Someone murmured softly.
[Alice, Alice, Alice—]
More people began repeating it, their voices growing louder.
[Alice, Alice, Alice, Alice, Alice, Alice, Alice, Alice, AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH—!!!]
All the caretakers and patients began to roar.
For a moment, it was like a demonic frenzy—patients and caretakers alike becoming wildly agitated, as if they were turning into puppets controlled by the sweet girl on the screen. As if they had already become her slaves, body and soul stripped of self, they shouted madly, worshipped obsessively, and longed desperately.
On the other side, in the female activity area, the same scene was unfolding.
Those high school girls had not expected something like this at all. Many stood frozen in place, at a loss for what to do.
Some girls with weaker wills showed signs of dazed fascination upon seeing the girl on the screen, as if they might join the frenzied crowd at any moment.
A few others quietly edged toward the exit, trying to escape the activity room while no one was watching.
And then—
There were a few girls who were utterly confused by the behavior of these fanatics.
One of them couldn't help but mutter under her breath, saying something like, "They're insane. Is that celebrity really that great?"
The frenzy stopped instantly.
Everyone turned their heads.
All eyes shifted toward the girl who had spoken.
A chilling aura began to spread.
Miko shuddered, fear creeping into her expression.
And Takumi could already clearly sense it—the surface layer of "normality" these Aberrations had been maintaining was beginning to peel away.
Their true forms were about to reveal themselves.
He had already braced himself for those things to tear that loose-mouthed girl apart on the spot.
But unexpectedly—nothing happened.
Creak—creak—
The activity room doors opened once more.
A tightly bound figure was pushed inside by the caretakers.
Every patient and caretaker's expression changed.
A caretaker turned off the television. A patient silently moved to block the poster.
They all looked toward the bound figure on the iron bed, unable to hide the intense hostility in their eyes.
And yet—they also seemed deeply afraid of it.
The moment that thing appeared, they all lowered their heads, not daring to look at it, not daring to display their worship of Alice in its presence.
Just like that, they reverted back into ordinary mental patients and caretakers.
Two girls who had tried to escape were thrown back into the room a minute later. Each had taken a heavy beating—both lying on the ground, convulsing, snot and tears streaming down their faces.
Takumi silently stood in a corner, observing everything.
He watched as the caretakers pushed the bound man to the center of the room, then turned and left—exiting quickly and shutting the door behind them.
The caretakers who remained in the activity room all showed uneasy expressions, as if being forced to coexist with something extremely unpleasant.
At that moment, Takumi quietly slipped over to the poster again and looked at it once more.
[Welcome Miss Alice to our institution for a special guest performance]
His gaze locked onto that line of text.
"When does this performance start?"
Takumi looked at the patient standing in front of the poster and asked softly.
[Tomorrow… hehe, tomorrow we'll get to see the cute Miss Alice… hehe… tomorrow… tomorrow…]
The patient, who didn't seem mentally stable, drooled as he spoke, giggling.
After hearing this, Takumi glanced once more at the tightly restrained figure placed in the center of the activity room.
And in his mind—a rough guess had already begun to take shape.
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