[Teacher, why aren't you saying anything?]
A gentle girl's voice rang out.
[Teacher is really being naughty, you know. You're not following Alice's game rules, and you even stole Alice's friend.]
The crimson spread was slowly widening.
[But even so, Alice can still forgive Teacher. As long as Teacher tells Alice how you stole Alice's friend, and gives back both Alice's friend and Alice's things, then Alice can still be friends with Teacher, okay?]
In the dark plaza, Alice, who had now completely taken over Miko, was smiling.
And behind her, that monstrous thing made of countless incomplete, twisted chunks of flesh piled together was steadily taking over the underground space. The way he had come was no longer passable, and as for any other route that might have existed, Takumi honestly hadn't seen one. Or rather—even if such a path did exist, it had probably already been hidden and obscured by Alice's power.
A dead end?
From the start of the second loop until now, about an hour and a half had passed in total.
Compared to the first loop, it didn't seem all that different. Even though Takumi was now capable of fighting against most of the Aberrations inside Fujihana Middle School, when it came to Alice, he still had no truly effective way to avoid her. Even if he had already partially unraveled Alice's very existence, and had discovered a method that could completely lock down her movements, it still didn't change much.
In the end, one of these unreasonable ghostly things was already more than enough to torment anyone. But this damned school had more than a dozen of them. After finally managing to pin one down and restrict its movement, before long a second one would show up right after it. And it was certain that even if he found some way to lock down this second one too, a third, a fourth, or even more Alices would follow. For Takumi, who could no longer use most Obsession Items, this kind of enemy was simply disgusting to the extreme.
But at least this time, he had finally found the core of this place.
Takumi turned his head and looked at the cane placed on the platform—the cane made from human bones.
At the moment, Alice was still some distance away from him. This time, he had not become her friend, and that flesh-mountain monster was not very fast. With this last bit of time, there was absolutely enough time to rush over, grab the cane, and smear it with his blood.
So as long as he gambled once—got there before her—
Sensing something, Takumi turned his head and looked at Alice, who was still standing where she was, motionless, smiling at him.
After a brief silence, Takumi did not move closer to the human-bone cane. Instead, he took a step away from it.
[Eh? Teacher, what are you doing?]
Alice blinked, a rare look of confusion appearing on her face.
"Which Alice are you?"
Takumi stared seriously at the Miko in front of him and slowly asked.
[Alice is just Alice, of course. Teacher is asking such a strange question.]
The girl raised a hand to cover her mouth and let out a soft laugh, as though Takumi had just told a joke.
"..."
Without saying a word, Takumi merely turned to look at the platform again. Just as expected, that human-bone cane was no longer there.
What had tipped him off was the simple fact that Alice had appeared at exactly the right moment.
It was as if she had deliberately constructed a hopeless situation with no possible survival, forcing him to rush for the cane—using that to observe his trump card and confirm exactly how he had been taking away one Obsession Item after another.
And the reason Takumi had managed to react was simple as well: he remembered how he had died in the first loop—by taking out that black umbrella.
Once Alice's Obsession Item returned to the Fujihana Middle School Instance, it became equivalent to Alice herself. So would an Alice Obsession Item that had already existed inside the Instance, one that had never been taken away, really lie obediently in place like some kind of game item waiting for him to pick it up?
It had been a trap from the very beginning.
The Alice beneath the ground had most likely been following him and Miko from the very start, merely hiding her presence the whole time. She had not possessed Miko immediately, but had waited until after Takumi left Miko alone before doing so. As for Takumi thinking he had twisted off the doorknob, that was probably only what he thought he had done. After that, the thing had continued trailing him from afar, using the power of illusion to guide him all the way here.
So where exactly would it be?
That hidden Obsession Item that, by all rights, should exist here.
Takumi took a step backward—and bumped into a wall.
The underground plaza had vanished. The place he was in now was nothing more than the end of a narrow corridor.
Just a dead end.
And yet the Alice in front of him was still standing there, unmistakably real, blocking his way.
Behind her, that twisted mass formed from the flesh and blood of countless dead students was still spreading toward him.
"...Hah."
Takumi's breathing had already steadied.
He turned his head, looking at Alice standing not far away, and then slowly spoke: "I've already broken the rules of the game. So why are you still saying I can become your friend? Doesn't that contradict your own rules?"
As he spoke, Takumi had already closed his eyes. In that instant, his mind became completely focused, carefully distinguishing between what was real and what was false.
[That kind of thing isn't important at all. The purpose of a game is to have fun—it's for everyone to play together and find friends. Even if someone doesn't follow the rules, it's not really a big deal. As long as we confirm they're the right kind of person, someone who can become a friend, then isn't that enough?]
Alice tilted her head. Her attitude seemed casual, yet her voice sounded unexpectedly serious as she answered Takumi's question.
As expected—the core rule this thing followed was simply "friend" itself. While the rules of Alice's Game imposed many restrictions on players, when it came to Alice herself, whether the parts involving her actually applied or not probably depended entirely on her mood.
In that case… I might already know what to do to ensure I will never become her friend.
"I will never become your friend."
As if he couldn't feel the approaching mass of flesh at all, Takumi stood where he was, answering Alice in a cold voice.
[Oh my, Teacher, don't be so absolute. Alice thinks we'd make great friends. Ah, right—how about we exchange gifts? As long as we exchange gifts, we can become good friends~]
Alice only giggled, reaching out and taking out a red-stained pen.
"No matter what you say, no matter how you try to dress it up, I will never become your friend. There is only one thing I will do to you—and that is send you to a real hell, where you'll receive the punishment you deserve."
But Takumi remained standing still, eyes closed, continuing to speak.
[But Alice has never done anything wrong. Alice has never hurt anyone. Alice only wants to become friends with everyone. How could someone like Alice possibly go to hell?]
Alice continued smiling.
"You've made mistakes. You've done wrong. No matter how well you disguise it on the surface, your nature won't change. I understand that perfectly. So no matter what you say, it won't change what I'm going to do. I will destroy this school. I will tear this place down completely. I will free those innocent people and let them rest as they should. And as for things like you—I will send every last one of you to hell."
Takumi's voice grew colder and colder.
This time, however, Alice did not respond immediately.
Silence lasted for about three or four seconds.
Then Takumi heard Alice's voice again—but this time, it sounded completely different from before.
[But Teacher… you're about to die right here, you know. There's no one you can save anymore.]
Just a single, casually spoken sentence.
And yet it carried an indescribably intense malice.
Takumi knew that what he was hearing at this moment was the inner core of Alice—her truest nature, hidden beneath that surface disguise.
There was no empathy whatsoever.
A baseless, purely innate malice, and a completely twisted way of thinking.
That was her true essence.
And now, she had revealed that side of herself to him.
As for Takumi, all he had done was think about how someone like Howard would react when facing something like Alice, and imitate it to a certain degree.
Takumi had already understood the kind of people Alice truly hated—the kind she could never, under any circumstances, become friends with.
The rescue team member that Howard had turned into was hated by Alice not because he was a fundamentally kind person, but because after dying and becoming an Aberration, the obsession that formed his existence was to eliminate the root cause that had created all the tragedies. It was that deep-seated hatred of darkness and evil—something etched into his very obsession even after death—that provoked Alice's disgust.
In other words, those who hate evil with every fiber of their being are precisely the kind of existence Alice can never tolerate.
"Maybe I really will die here. But soon enough, it'll be your turn. That day isn't far off."
As he spoke, the surging mass of flesh finally reached Takumi's feet.
And in that moment, his eyes turned a blood-red color.
Slash!
A streak of crimson light cut through the writhing flesh.
Relying on the drastically reduced damage taken from Aberrations granted by Hedda's berserk blessing, Takumi charged straight into the body of the flesh monster.
The machete in his hand swung down with all his strength, slicing into the twisted mass.
The writhing flesh attacked him from all directions, merging with his own flesh—only to be forcibly torn apart again by the power of the blessing.
In a distance of less than ten meters, every inch of Takumi's clothes and skin was completely shredded. His entire body was drenched in blood, with not a single intact patch left.
The miserable cries of the students as they died echoed in his ears.
Scene after scene of hellish visions unfolded before his eyes.
But Takumi did not look at those students.
Instead, he looked at the one who was always standing to the side in those scenes of death—the observer who watched it all.
Alice was smiling.
At every moment those students died, she had been smiling.
She was appreciating those cruel, horrifying scenes—and from the bottom of her heart, she loved them.
This was the true face of that cute girl with a perfect appearance—the one cultivated over many years within Fujihana Middle School.
"Ha… ha…"
Soaked in blood, Takumi forced his way out of the area occupied by that massive flesh monstrosity.
Although his flesh had been completely torn apart, his left arm ripped off, and his intestines hanging out—missing a large section at that—he had truly made it out alive.
But the price was that Hedda's berserk blessing had already been pushed to its limit, and his stamina had been drained to the brink. If he couldn't escape quickly, he would likely collapse unconscious on the spot.
Step by step, he staggered forward.
The Rescue Team Badge he had carefully protected manifested a rescue uniform over him once again and began repairing the injuries on his body.
And then—
Just as Takumi stumbled forward, trying to keep moving—
A pair of soft hands reached out from the front and gently embraced his body.
[You've worked hard, Teacher. You really did your best~]
In that gentle voice, those fingers dug into Takumi's chest, pulling out his heart, lungs, and intestines all at once.
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