That thing seemed to be a human anatomical model.
After observing it carefully from a distance, Takumi roughly judged what it was.
One side of its highly plastic-looking body appeared to be a naked male form, though the lower half had no features that indicated gender. The other half of the body displayed cartoon-style images of bones, internal organs, and muscles, and the organs in the chest and abdomen even looked as though they could be detached.
It looked like the kind of human model used in biology class—those convenient, intuitive teaching aids that were fairly common in more formal middle and high schools.
However, its appearance here was definitely not a good sign.
Takumi guessed that the human model currently standing there stiff and unmoving was likely the "Uncle Statue" from the Alice's Grand Adventure Game—that ghostly thing described in the rules as "enthusiastically hugging anyone it sees." Moreover, according to the rule sheet's description, this "Uncle Statue" seemed to have some sort of connection with the location "biology classroom" and with Teacher Turtle. Perhaps they could be leveraged against each other.
From the dark rear of the hall, in the corridor from which he and Miko had just emerged, the sound of footsteps rang out.
Takumi tilted his head slightly and saw flickering candlelight, along with a young girl in a sailor uniform, her face full of terror.
She was one of the girls who had still been alive earlier. So she had followed them again?
"Um, excuse me, sir… may I follow you? Yotsuya-san, please—can I go with you?"
The young girl's tearful, trembling plea was quite a sight to behold, but under the current circumstances, Takumi truly did not want her tagging along. He was barely managing to protect himself as it was; simply probing the rules and investigating the school was already giving him a headache, let alone dragging along a few burdens.
Miko suddenly reached out and tightly grabbed the sleeve of Takumi's clothes.
Sensing that something was wrong, Takumi quickly turned his head back. He saw Miko staring in horror toward the direction of the human model, so he looked over as well—only to find that the model was still standing where it had been, completely motionless, with nothing unusual about it.
"What did you just see?"
Knowing that Miko had likely noticed something he had missed, Takumi hurriedly asked.
"That model… it—it just turned its head and was looking at us."
Miko, whose heart was pounding wildly from fright, took a deep breath and then softly explained the situation to Takumi.
It was also at this moment that, after carefully observing the movements of the human model, Takumi noticed that although it still appeared to be standing in place, one of its feet had shifted slightly, and the posture of the entire model looked as though it was about to turn around to face them.
'Just now, Miko and I were both distracted by the girl who rushed over from behind—so did this thing move because of that?'
"Keep your eyes on it. Don't look away. It might move when we're not watching it."
Takumi patted Miko on the shoulder and spoke to her seriously. The girl nodded obediently. Although her expression still showed obvious tension and fear, she nonetheless stood there earnestly staring at the human model, forcing herself not to blink as she tried to maintain her gaze.
"You there—what's your name?"
Considering that it was unreliable for just one person to keep watch on the model, Takumi then looked toward the girl who had followed them. Of course, he only decided to speak with her after observing her and confirming through the power of the blessing that she was still human and harbored no ill intent.
"M-My name is Ogawa Kyoko. I won't cause trouble. May I please follow you?"
The girl who called herself Ogawa Kyoko was quite short—around 1.45 meters tall—and looked thin, as if somewhat malnourished. Compared to Miko, who could control her expression relatively well, this girl's fear was written all over her face. Her legs trembled nonstop, as though she might collapse onto the ground at any moment.
"Go stand next to Yotsuya and keep watching that human model with her."
Takumi did not say anything more to the girl. After giving that instruction, he turned and left, carefully searching the hall.
On one side of the hall was a staircase leading both upward and downward. Here, Takumi saw the floor indicator for this level and confirmed that he was currently on the fifth floor of the Teaching Building.
Beside the staircase was another corridor leading into pitch darkness. Yet within that darkness, Takumi faintly saw what seemed to be a small red dot glowing on one side of the wall, though he could not clearly determine what was emitting the light.
He did not approach the staircase and instead quickly walked to the other side of the hall.
During this process, Takumi noticed the honorary wall displaying the past principals of Fujihana Middle School. It recorded seven principals in total. From the information shown, it was clear that the school had a long history, having been founded during the Meiji Restoration period and operating for over two hundred years.
There was nothing particularly noteworthy about the first five principals' information. However, the sixth principal—a man named Fujii Goro—had certain details that instinctively drew Takumi's attention.
His term of office lasted from the 1920s to the 1960s. He had held this position from his forties until retiring in his eighties, and during his tenure he organized multiple friendly exchange activities between students and young people of the same age from Germany? Germany from that era? Was this serious?
As for the seventh principal, no information about him was left on this honorary wall. There was only a reserved empty space. Judging from the remaining marks, the personal introduction panel of the seventh principal that had originally been hung there had been removed. It was unknown who had taken it down, nor where the removed panel had been placed.
Takumi did not linger there. Knowing that the two girls not far away were still cautiously staring at the human model, he quickly walked past the honorary wall.
Ahead, he saw the third area connected to the hall—likewise a corridor submerged in darkness. Standing at the entrance of that corridor, Takumi merely glanced ahead. Seeing nothing unusual, he quickly moved away. Then he finally found something fairly handy: a mop placed to one side of the hall.
'Back in the day, I once dipped a mop into the school restroom pit and then took it to fight a few school delinquents who wanted to bully me. Those were truly hot-blooded days.'
With that thought in mind, Takumi returned to Miko's position holding the mop. Seeing that she and Kyoko were still watching the human model—and that the model itself was standing in place without any movement—he approached from the side, swung the mop, and knocked the human model straight to the ground in one strike.
Clang—
With a crisp sound, the human model rolled on the ground and shattered on the spot, fragments scattering everywhere.
Although Takumi immediately used the mop to block it, preventing the entire model from slamming directly onto the floor, a considerable noise still echoed through the hall. After waiting a moment, however, he did not see anything being drawn over. It seemed that this level of noise would not cause trouble—or perhaps the Aberrations that would be attracted by sound were currently being drawn elsewhere?
Thinking this, Takumi stepped back a few paces, avoiding one of the model's hands that had rolled toward him, and then used the mop to sweep it aside.
However, this human model did not seem particularly formidable.
It clearly emitted an eerie aura, yet it toppled with a single strike like an ordinary anatomical model, and once it fell, it shattered outright. This was somewhat beyond Takumi's expectations. He had already prepared himself for the possibility that it might grab the mop and attack him, at which point he would activate the power of the blessing and fling the thing away.
Or was it that only when someone approached it would it reveal its aberrant side?
"Look around and see if anything has followed us. I'll deal with this. Don't get close to the fragments on the ground."
After giving instructions to Miko and Kyoko, Takumi used the mop to sweep all the shattered pieces of the model to one side. Then he walked over to the map, his eyes quickly scanning the entire layout and firmly committing its contents to memory.
Just as the earlier intelligence had indicated, this floor map was completely chaotic—an arrangement that could never exist in a normal building.
From the map, the entire fifth floor seemed to be the area where second-year middle school students attended classes. There were a total of twenty-four classrooms, three teachers' offices, two restrooms, one storage room, one printing room, the second-year archive room, two staircases, and one elevator. Although the floor itself was severely twisted and disordered, one could still roughly tell what this place would have looked like when it was originally normal.
To complete Alice's Grand Adventure Game, the items they needed to find were mainly a neutral pen, an eraser, a homework notebook, a ruler, and a compass—all things used by students. By common sense, classrooms would be the easiest places to find them. The problem was that, judging from the current situation, each classroom likely contained twenty-five Aberrations. If he searched them one by one, it would not take long before the entire floor descended into chaos.
In that case, he might as well try the archive room.
Generally speaking, that kind of place should contain records of all the students. Perhaps he could find out exactly who "Alice" was. Then again, this "Alice" was probably the core Obsession of Fujihana Middle School, wasn't she? If so, obtaining information about her would most likely bring about undesirable consequences. Tsk. Come to think of it, he also did not know whether, in this situation of accidentally entering an Instance, the watch would still require him to achieve a perfect clear. What a headache…
"It's time to move."
Having made up his mind, Takumi said this to Miko and led her toward one side of the corridor.
From the moment they entered the hall to after completing a series of actions, Takumi had been silently keeping track of time. About three to four minutes had passed.
And after such a long time, aside from Kyoko, not a single other female student had entered the hall. The corridor from which he and Miko had emerged was now enveloped in silent darkness, without a single sound.
However, it was not long before Takumi heard a sound other than that of their group.
Creak—creak—
Not long after stepping into the corridor, the sound of plastic components rubbing against each other suddenly came from behind the three of them.
Kyoko covered her mouth, almost so frightened that she nearly collapsed onto the floor.
Miko also turned back nervously, looking toward the rear of the corridor.
Takumi, however, had already sensed the malice directed at him even before hearing the sound of footsteps, and thus already knew what was happening behind them.
The human model had followed them.
It had clearly been smashed and scattered all over the floor just moments ago, yet now it had silently restored itself to a complete state and was following behind Takumi's group. When the three of them turned around to look at it, the thing was still frozen in the act of stepping forward, standing motionless as if it were nothing more than an ordinary human model.
"So this is a budget version of 173 tailing us?"
After muttering that under his breath, Takumi then heard a faint sound, like water flowing. He turned toward the direction of the noise and realized it was coming from the restroom on one side of the corridor. And when he looked over, with the help of the dim candlelight, he saw something flash past at the restroom entrance. It seemed to deliberately slip inside, as if trying to hide from his sight.
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