Takumi raised his hand and blocked her head, preventing her from actually kissing him.
"What are you doing?"
He stared at her clearly abnormal, unfocused expression and asked slowly.
"I… I'm fine… mm… it feels like you're getting farther away, Takumi-san… I want to get closer… closer…"
The half-dazed girl murmured with her eyes half-open, still trying to squeeze forward, attempting to get closer to Takumi. There was an obvious, unnatural flush on her cheeks, and a faintly seductive expression had appeared between her brows and eyes—one that Takumi couldn't help but associate with the look he had seen on Maki and Chika back when he had faced off against those two girls.
To be honest, Takumi quite liked scenes of beautiful girls acting spoiled like this. For someone as inherently lewd as him, there was probably no better stress reliever than a cute girl.
But the problem was that Miko suddenly pulling something like this out of nowhere left him completely baffled. After two full playthroughs of interacting with her, she didn't seem like someone who would act this casually at all. And even if she did have feelings, she wouldn't be this direct, right?
"Hold on, stop for a second. I'm wearing a half-rotten sheep-head hood here. You're really sure your sense of aesthetics is okay if you want to kiss this thing?"
"It's fine… it's fine… if it's Takumi… then it's fine…"
The Blessing's perception didn't detect any major abnormalities. Takumi pressed one hand against Miko's head, but seeing that the girl still refused to give up, he thought for a moment before grabbing her shoulders, flipping her around, and lifting her sideways by the waist.
Even then, the girl continued to struggle, wriggling non-stop like she was throwing a tantrum.
But with Takumi's physical abilities already far beyond human limits, this level of resistance meant nothing to him. So he simply carried the dazed girl like that and quickened his pace forward.
The abnormal state Miko was in… was likely left behind by Alice.
Lowering his head, Takumi looked at the girl's completely undisguised affectionate expression and her unfocused gaze, raising a brow.
Of course, it was the sheep-head hood that was raising a brow. That thing had now completely fused with his head—Takumi had essentially turned into a man with a sheep's head. Even so, he could still speak normally, and he had no idea what kind of principle this bizarre headgear operated on.
No matter what, Takumi didn't believe that Alice had turned Miko into this just for fun.
After confirming that Miko was completely dazed and no longer capable of handling reconnaissance duties, Takumi found a sealed small room, placed her inside, then turned and left—before leaving, he even pulled off the door handle entirely.
During the whole process, Miko remained in a dazed state, still trying to get close to Takumi, persistently attempting to kiss him, her hands even groping him a few times.
But Takumi simply expressionlessly moved her hands away, shut her inside the room, and turned to leave.
"If I'm still alive when I come back, I'll let you out."
Before leaving, Takumi said this to the girl inside the room.
"2… 2…"
Faintly, it seemed like the girl murmured something under her breath. But Takumi had no intention of continuing to engage with her and simply walked away.
This underground complex clearly had quite some age to it. The corridors inside were intricate and tangled. Some rooms contained strange instruments of unknown purpose, while others were filled with blood, looking like slaughterhouses.
Takumi couldn't find the room where Alice stored the dolls.
Nor could he find anything like a map to help him navigate.
Meanwhile, the rescue team on the seventh floor had successfully entered the principal's office. They discovered that the walls were densely covered with surveillance screens of various sizes, divided into four zones: the [Teaching Building Area], the [Residential Wing Area], the [Athletic Field Area], and the [Swimming Pool Area].
Rather than a principal's office, this place felt more like a security control room. It seemed that the former principal of Fujihana Middle School had been monitoring the entire campus, which explained why the anomalous manifestation of Principal Elephant was related to surveillance.
Come to think of it, surveillance equipment and magnetic card systems weren't invented during World War II, right? Weren't those things from around the 60s or 70s? Was technology in this world more advanced? …Well, probably just differences in a parallel world. No need to dwell on it.
After searching for a while, the rescue team on the seventh floor found a hidden compartment behind a bookshelf on one side of the office. Inside were some letters and notes seemingly left behind by the principal.
Opening the first page, the first thing they saw was a line written in bold, forceful handwriting.
[Fujii Goro]
The sixth principal of Fujihana Middle School.
Takumi wasn't surprised to see this name. While continuing to explore the underground area, he immediately ordered the rescue team to go through the records—very likely left behind by one of the masterminds behind the twisted darkness of the school.
The first document was an official written order from the military.
Takumi ignored the meaningless formatting and focused directly on the content.
["God-Making Project" has commenced. Your school is assigned to undertake one of its research programs.]
[You must fully cooperate with military researchers. This is the highest honor. Devote all your efforts to serving the great empire.]
The date at the bottom was around the 1940s. That essentially confirmed when this bloody project had begun.
The second document was also from the military, but unlike the previous one, it seemed more private—likely a reply meant to reassure Fujii Goro.
[To Fujii:]
[Your concerns are unnecessary. Please rest assured that this research will not harm your interests or your personal safety.]
[As for the newly enrolled students whose names and appearances cannot be identified, this is not a problem. On the contrary, it proves that our experiment is progressing correctly. Extraordinary power is gradually accumulating within this school, and genuine anomalous phenomena are beginning to manifest. You should take pride in this—this achievement is partly due to your efforts.]
[As for the teachers who fail to notice the abnormalities and treat those students as normal, do not communicate with them, and do not attempt to remind them. Since they have already become like this, let things continue as they are. Reduce contact with them to avoid being affected yourself.]
[We are currently unable to send additional personnel. Military operations are becoming increasingly urgent. Endure for now. We have begun preparations for the next phase of the offensive. You should also accelerate your research and produce results that can be applied on the battlefield.]
[—Sato]
A new name had appeared.
This person seemed to be someone high up in the military—possibly one of the driving forces behind the experiments at Fujihana Middle School. Whether he had died inside this school was unknown.
The following documents were yearly enrollment records. They marked the proportion of students whose identities could not be identified versus normal admissions.
In less than three years, the proportion of those unidentified students had skyrocketed from 15% to over 92%. Eventually, only Class 1 in each grade remained entirely composed of externally recruited students. The rest of the classes had been almost completely replaced by those unidentified entities.
Based on these records, it could be inferred that the school had killed around two thousand students. Considering that each student's family had likely been wiped out as well, Takumi estimated the actual death toll to be at least over ten thousand.
All he could say was that these people were utterly monstrous.
It was also around this time that Takumi discovered a very hidden small room in the underground area.
This room looked like a safehouse of sorts. Inside were many empty cans and piles of trash. The door was reinforced, but now it had been twisted open as if something had torn it apart, leaving a gap large enough to pass through.
In one corner of the room lay a pile of filth, and beside it was a corpse—missing all four limbs and its head, its body cut open with the internal organs removed. Judging by the clothing, it seemed to be a researcher.
Takumi stepped inside and noticed a crumpled piece of paper next to the corpse. It appeared to be the man's dying message.
[I'm going to die. Yes, you're going to die, you idiot.]
The handwriting was extremely messy—even Takumi had to make an effort to decipher it.
[I never should have accepted this assignment. I should have resigned the moment I noticed something was wrong. Even being sent to the front lines would have been better than staying here. At least I would have died quicker, instead of living in fear every single day.]
[These people have all gone mad. Or rather, everyone has gone mad.]
[At first, those things mixed in among the students. They all thought this reduced casualties. Bullshit. Absolute bullshit. I studied those students whose identities couldn't be determined—their blood samples match those of students who had already died. Their clothing and behavior also match those dead students. These things aren't unknown students. These are the dead, coming back.]
[After that, some teachers and frontline researchers started having incidents. That was unavoidable. Even though we established rules for self-preservation, dealing with these things—one mistake, and you're done. Then those people came back too. They were dead, already thrown into the incinerator, but the next day, they came back. Some people can't see the problem—they've already been affected. Others notice something's wrong but pretend not to, letting everything continue.]
[Of course I know why this has to be done. At this stage, the experiment can no longer be stopped. If we ultimately fail to produce results, everyone will have to commit seppuku to atone. Damn it—even so, we can't just let things continue like this!]
[In the end, even the sealed underground research facility started showing the same signs. That's when I knew we were probably finished. Everyone was dealing with people who were already dead. Those dead people were mixed in among the living—whether they knew it or not, everyone was interacting with them as if nothing was wrong. From that moment on, I knew it was all over.]
[The person in charge of Yoruyama Middle School is also a complete bastard. "Producing usable results," my ass. If they really had results, why haven't we seen any major changes over there? I'd say it's just like that Enterprise that's supposedly been sunk multiple times—nothing but bragging and hot air. So far, not a single truly reliable project has managed to release anomalous power outside the area where the anomaly exists. How dare they spout such nonsense… It forced all of us to accelerate progress, forced us to lift every restriction, and that's how we ended up like this…]
[I can already hear the knocking… Alice… Alice has come to find me…]
[She treats all of us as her friends. Haha… I don't know how she did it. According to the rules, students aren't supposed to become friends with teachers or researchers. But now… there are hardly any living people left in the entire base.]
[She shouldn't be able to get in. When we designed her, we specifically added restrictions so she couldn't do things like pass through walls. So as long as this door stays properly shut, she won't be able to come in and harm me.]
[But the food is almost gone… the food in this shelter is almost gone… Why hasn't rescue arrived yet? What the hell is the military doing? I don't want to die. I don't want to die. This isn't my fault. This really isn't my fault… I was just following orders. I was only following orders. I shouldn't be the one punished…]
[I don't want to die…]
[I don't want to die…]
[I don't want to die…]
[I don't want to die…]
[I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die…]
The repeated, deranged handwriting covered more than half of the page.
Then, at the very bottom of the sheet, there was a line written in a distinctly cute style:
[Alice is already your good friend now~?]
At this point, there was no need to guess this person's fate. No—actually, just looking at the state of the corpse already made the outcome obvious.
After putting down the paper, Takumi turned his head—and saw a blood-covered researcher lying right beside him.
In the next instant, the thing let out a shrill scream, suddenly jerking upright. Its limbs and head snapped apart, its chest and abdomen split open as its organs spilled out, and the fragmented body lunged forward all at once.
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