Thud—
The moment the corpse sprang up, its feet hit the ground with a dull sound.
The girls who had just been shouting insults instantly fell silent. Several of the more timid ones screamed on the spot.
Standing behind Takumi, Miko—who had originally stepped forward to see what was happening—went completely rigid from fright, her breathing stopping for a moment.
As for Takumi himself, the one closest to the corpse…
Holy crap!
This damn thing just came back to life?!
Keeping a blank expression, Takumi silently complained in his heart.
It had to be said, when he saw the corpse—with its head blown apart—suddenly spring upright, Takumi was indeed startled.
Of course, he wasn't frightened by the thing itself. No matter what, he wasn't the type to be scared by a scene at this level. It was just that the transition from completely motionless to explosively springing up happened in an instant. Even with Takumi's physical condition and neural reaction far surpassing that of an ordinary person, he still failed to react at the moment it burst into motion, unable to take any effective countermeasures, and was immediately startled into breaking out in a cold sweat.
But right afterward, Takumi realized that the thing had merely stood up. It was still a corpse; it hadn't revived into a living person, nor had it directly turned into an Aberration. It seemed that once the candle was relit, the thing had shifted into a state of being "alive" under the power of the Aberration's rules, and its body was therefore being forcibly driven to move on its own.
Quite an interesting mechanism. Still, further testing was needed.
Takumi stood up, holding the candle, and stepped back.
Step—
The headless corpse followed suit, taking a step forward, staggering after Takumi—or rather, following behind the candle.
So Takumi suddenly accelerated, retreating several more steps at once, moving the candlelight's range away from the corpse. In response, the corpse also sped up, scrambling and stumbling toward Takumi. It even tripped during the process, yet the moment it fell, it bounced back up and stood again.
This scene was rather absurd.
If the performer had not been a corpse with its head bitten to pieces, Miko felt she might actually have been able to laugh.
But she quickly noticed that Takumi's expression had already turned grave.
He placed the candle on the empty desk beside him.
Takumi watched as the corpse staggered over to the candle and stood there without moving. He circled around its side, tossed a lighter to Miko, then took out a second one himself and quickly walked toward the other corpses on the ground.
"Once the candle goes out, the dead will very quickly turn into Aberrations. Move fast—we can't let the candles of these dead remain extinguished."
The moment Miko heard Takumi's warning, she felt the hairs all over her body stand on end. She immediately hurried toward the corpses lying on the ground to relight the extinguished candles.
Most of the girls around them continued watching from a distance. After being intimidated by Takumi earlier, and then after the accusations and insults directed at him by some of the girls, the majority no longer dared approach Takumi and Miko. As for the girls who had just been shouting abuse, when they saw the corpses on the ground stand back up and Takumi and Miko rush to relight the candles, they each fell silent as well, their current thoughts unknown.
Thus, under the watch of the remaining nineteen girls, Takumi and Miko each found a candle to light, guiding the two headless corpses to one side of the classroom. Three blood-soaked headless girls stood together, facing the three candles placed on the desk, maintaining a completely motionless state.
They appeared harmless at first glance. However, when Takumi had earlier moved away from the headless corpse while holding the candle, he had clearly sensed a malice growing and spreading within its body. That was enough for him to confirm that these dead students would, like those killed by the knocking Aberration in the Shirakawa Apartments, gradually transform into companions of the Aberration. And this candle, which in some sense seemed to "represent the living," could suppress that transformation as long as it continued burning.
After observing the other three corpses, Takumi likewise detected the spread of that malice. There was no doubt that this malice belonged to something aberrant, yet it was extremely concealed—so concealed that unless Takumi actively observed and examined it carefully, his blessing would not react at all.
Perhaps the ghostly hand from before had been the same. A Red Moon-level Aberration already possessed a certain ability to screen or suppress his blessing. That was why, with his eyes closed at the time, he had been completely unable to perceive the existence of that ghostly hand. He had needed to open his eyes and fix his gaze directly on the hand holding his for the blessing, even under suppression, to take effect and make him realize he was holding the wrong hand.
However, this kind of hindsight did not carry much meaning. Of course, realizing this now was not too late either.
With that thought in mind, Takumi turned his gaze toward the candles surrounded by the corpses.
It was obvious that these candles were burning faster than those held by living people. He roughly estimated that they would last at most about ten minutes before all going out.
As for what these dead students would become afterward, honestly, he had absolutely no desire to find out.
On the other side, Miko had walked up to the last corpse, but she could not find the candle beside it. After Takumi's reminder, she had also noticed that although the corpse appeared normal, it faintly gave her an extremely uncomfortable feeling. So she hurried to help Takumi look for the candle, only to discover that there was none in sight here.
"Are you looking for this?"
At that moment, a hand extended from the side, offering Miko an extinguished red candle.
"Eh? Yes, that's it—ah, Yoshino-san?"
Subconsciously reaching out to take the candle, Miko paused slightly and looked up, only to find that it was the vice class representative, Yoshino Rika, who had previously stood on her side and spoken up for her.
As for this bespectacled girl with braided hair, Miko had not known much about her before. Their relationship had been fairly ordinary, and they had not spoken much.
But now, Yoshino Rika glanced from time to time toward Takumi in the distance. After taking a deep breath, she gathered her courage, ignored the corpse on the ground, and moved closer to Miko.
"Yotsuya-san, um… you and that Takumi-san know what's going on right now, don't you?"
As she spoke, Rika carefully shielded the candle in her hand. The few girls behind her were doing the same. This small group had all taken their own candles and the rule sheets from the desks. When those girls had been accusing and insulting earlier, they had either remained silent or spoken up for Miko; they had not sided with those hostile toward Takumi and Miko.
"As for the specific situation, only Takumi-san knows. He… was dragged into this place because of me. Originally, he would not have been involved in this matter at all…"
Miko lowered her head slightly, lighting the candle as she softly answered Rika.
The girl's feelings were conflicted.
She knew that at this moment, only Takumi had the means—the corresponding experience and ability—to deal with this aberrant and terrifying place, and only he might be able to protect her and lead her out alive. Moreover, for someone like her, who possessed special "vision," Takumi would certainly not treat her the same as the other students; he would devote more effort to protecting and guiding her.
But at the same time, even Takumi did not have complete confidence in the current perilous situation. Being dragged into this deadly place was, for him, nothing but an undeserved disaster—and she herself was the true culprit who had caused him to face this danger.
It was difficult for Miko to describe this feeling.
Guilt and self-reproach, along with a secret joy at having a greater chance of survival than the others—these conflicting emotions tangled together, leaving the girl unable to calm down for a moment.
Even so, her movements did not slow. She quickly used the candle to guide the last headless corpse to one side of the classroom, where it stood together with the other three corpses.
Incidentally, even now, there were still students who had not taken their own candles, leaving them on the desks without paying them any attention at all.
Although Rika and the small group she belonged to were filled with fear toward that row of headless corpses, under the leadership of this vice class representative they still moved closer to Miko and Takumi, apparently intending to seek shelter here.
Takumi showed no particular reaction to this. Holding the candle, he lifted his head and looked toward the ceiling lights in the classroom, which remained extinguished.
The lights were off—meaning this Instance was currently in the "night" phase, right?
There was no sign of anything like "Principal Elephant" or "Inspector Giraffe." From the half-drawn curtains, it was clear that the corridor outside was pitch-black, with no light at all. The likelihood that it was "night" was therefore very high. In that case, the main things to watch out for would be "Sister Flashlight" and "Uncle Statue." Wait—and "Teacher Duck" also needed attention.
At that thought, Takumi suddenly realized something, and his expression shifted slightly.
He turned his head toward the direction of the classroom's main door.
One girl had been trying to twist the handle and open the door for quite some time without success. Now she was leaning against the wall beside the door, catching her breath.
She had not taken a candle and appeared to be one of those who did not believe in all this. However, that was not why Takumi was paying attention to her.
The power of his blessing was stirred.
It was Hedda's blessing—the one that judged "abnormal humans."
The target was not the girl attempting to open the door, but the space behind the closed door itself. Something behind that door had approached and pressed against it, and thus was sensed by the power of Takumi's blessing.
Click—
The sound of a key being inserted into a lock and turned rang out.
The next moment, the door that had refused to open no matter what was slowly pushed open.
And by the candlelight, Takumi had already seen, within the faint illumination, a pair of eyes looking out from the darkness behind the door.
"It's time to go…"
Turning his head back, Takumi said expressionlessly to Miko, who had walked up to him.
"Ah—ah! The door's open, we can get out!"
At that moment, a girl near the door shouted in delight. Already pushed to the brink by tension, she rushed forward recklessly, trying to dash out of the classroom.
From the darkness, a pitch-black arm immediately extended, seizing the girl—who had no time to stop—and violently dragging her out the door.
Crack—
A crisp sound of bones shattering rang out, accompanied by the girl's miserable scream at the moment of her death.
At the same time, the classroom's back door gently opened as well.
Behind the half-drawn gauze curtain of the window, a small hand reached out and lightly lifted the curtain.
From behind the window that had been completely covered, noises began to stir.
Screams rang out once more.
The scent of blood spread through the air. A candle rolled to the ground, its flame flickering slightly before going out.
Before the light disappeared, at the edge of the firelight, one could see those things densely filling the corridor—and their opened eyes, fixed upon the classroom.
The piercing cries had not yet stopped.
The girl who had fallen to the ground struggled as she was dragged into the darkness, and then her voice went silent.
Takumi saw a tall man—at least two meters in height—with a duck mascot head covering his own, standing silently in the corridor.
He reached out, grabbed Miko by the shoulder, and pulled her directly into his arms.
Without looking again at the situation of the other students, Takumi turned around and, in a single step, rushed to the rear wall of the classroom. Turning his back to it, and with a flash of blood-red light passing through his pupils, he smashed straight through the wall with a thunderous crash and landed in the adjacent classroom.
The power of his blessing was activated and then swiftly shut off.
As the dust settled, Takumi had already seen the appearance of this classroom.
He saw the burning candle flames, the irises and white chrysanthemums neatly arranged on the desks, and the students in school uniforms sitting in every seat, their hands covering their faces.
At the moment Takumi burst into this classroom with Miko—at the moment he clearly saw these things—all the students slowly lowered their hands, revealing the empty eye sockets where their eyes had been gouged out, the cavities where their noses had been removed, and the gaping, blood-soaked holes where their lips, teeth, and tongues had been torn away.
"H-Heavens…"
A girl who had followed Takumi into the room screamed in terror at the sight, her legs giving out as she collapsed to the floor.
Takumi had already clearly seen that the candles on these students' desks began to burn down rapidly the moment he entered. In the blink of an eye, more than half their height had been consumed, and they were on the verge of burning to the base and going out.
Ring—ring—
A crisp bell rang out in the next moment.
White light suddenly flooded down, illuminating the entire classroom in a stark, funeral-white brightness.
All the students lowered their heads, picked up the books on their desks, opened them, and then sat motionless in their seats.
Takumi could hear the crying and pained screams coming from the classroom he had escaped from.
At the same time, he could clearly see a woman passing by outside the classroom window, in the corridor—wearing a plush sheep head hood.
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