Darkness was slowly spreading.
Everything was caught in a cycle of breaking apart and restoring itself over and over again.
Piercing screams, frenzied roars, and the grating roar of the chainsaw echoed continuously in overlapping waves.
The corridor, which had shown no abnormalities before, was now stained a deep crimson. In an instant, figures seemed to appear—collapsed on the ground, twitching—only to vanish again just as quickly, as though they had never been there at all.
Cracks spread across the walls. Lines of text seemed to surface upon them—yet whenever one tried to focus, there was nothing there.
Murmured voices spread endlessly throughout the building. Some were crying. Some were shouting in despair. They seemed to have lost their souls, lost themselves—nothing left in their shells but faint lingering echoes.
[Alice!]
They were shouting.
[Alice.]
They repeated.
[Alice…]
They whispered.
Their voices grew more and more confused—and more and more furious.
After that sudden intruder appeared… after that thing, occupied by multiple different Aberrations from other areas, forcibly entered this place without reason…
Everything here had fallen into an extremely violent stress response.
At that moment, Miko quietly slipped out of her ward.
During the earlier quake-like chaos, the door to her room had been partially damaged, leaving a small opening. Taking advantage of the opportunity, she reached through the gap, twisted the handle, and quickly escaped.
At this moment, the corridor was completely empty. The lights flickered on and off.
In Miko's vision, she could see that some wards had fallen into complete darkness—so dark that even when the lights brightened, they could not illuminate them. Certain sections of the corridor were also shrouded in shadow, as if something unseen was blocking the light.
"Ha…"
The girl could feel her breathing becoming uneven.
She knew very well that she had no real power. If she encountered danger, there was a high chance she wouldn't be able to escape on her own.
But she still had to come out.
No matter why this hospital had become what it was now, this was an opportunity that would almost never come again.
Slowly and methodically exploring this place was not a wise choice. There were people behind this place—people far more malicious than the savage Aberrations themselves, orchestrating everything from the shadows. Following the rules step by step would almost certainly lead straight into a trap.
But her eyes—these eyes that were different—and her powerful perception… gave her a chance to bypass the rules and do what others couldn't.
So she had to take this opportunity and find a way to uncover more about this hospital.
She had to bring this information back to Takumi.
Even if she failed this time, then when everything reset again—she would tell him everything she knew.
The Miko from the very beginning… probably didn't have this kind of courage or decisiveness.
However, as those vague fragments of inherited past experiences accumulated—and as the pain from the two deaths etched into her memory lingered—Miko's heart had gradually grown resolute.
She knew what she was capable of.
And because of that, she could now act without hesitation, taking the initiative to do what she could.
Rumble—!
The ground trembled once again.
"Uwah!"
Miko lost her footing and fell, tumbling to the ground.
She smelled blood.
She sensed something terrifying.
Turning her head, she looked through the window—and saw that within the central courtyard of the hospital building, roughly half of the structure had transformed into a blood-red slaughterhouse.
Dissected cattle, sheep, pigs—and human corpses—were all mixed together, hanging from iron hooks.
A man wielding a chainsaw was wailing, tightly entangled by orderlies and patients. At this moment, their flesh was fusing together, tearing into one another—like an incomparably gruesome feast of carnage.
Miko saw three lumps of flesh growing from the man's back.
Those three lumps twisted and transformed into the shapes of three people.
One of them held a pen, writing something without pause.
The second held a measuring tape, muttering to himself as if trying to measure something.
The last one, with a crazed expression, grabbed the man's hand that held the chainsaw. It was speaking to him, laughing wildly at him—and then it lifted its head and glanced in Miko's direction, revealing an ugly grin.
What… is that thing?
The girl couldn't understand it at all.
No—was he even human?
He kind of felt like one… but those three things on his back definitely weren't human, right?
What exactly was going on here?
What had happened to this person?
Why had she never seen him before when she was acting together with Takumi?
Confusion flickered through Miko's mind, but she didn't dare stop to figure things out. Without hesitation, she turned and continued forward.
She could feel that the hospital itself was gradually suppressing the three things on that man, trying to completely expel them.
This place was, after all, the home ground of the Aberrations within the hospital. No matter how aggressive an outsider was, it would still gradually fall into a disadvantage.
After some time, Miko reached the middle section of the corridor—the connecting point between the male ward and the female ward.
The barred gate here was sealed shut.
Since she didn't know how to pick locks, she naturally couldn't pass through to the other side.
However, the medical staff duty room was currently open.
Carefully, the girl slipped inside. After confirming that nothing seemed to be present, she cautiously stepped in, casually took a document from the desk, then opened the door on the other side of the duty room and entered the male ward area.
Which room would Takumi be in?
Miko glanced at the ward map on this side and saw that there were twelve single rooms and three shared rooms.
Trying to find Takumi among them wouldn't be easy.
Still… he should be taking advantage of this situation to do something, right?
Given his personality, if something like this happened, there was no way he would just sit idle.
In fact… it might even be something he had planned from the start.
'If only he had told me his room number earlier…'
But Takumi's instructions to her had been to stay put.
She was the one who disobeyed.
But now that she had realized something was wrong, there was no way she could just remain in place and do nothing…
'Ugh, why am I thinking so much?! I'm already out—stop hesitating and just find him first!'
After forcibly sorting out her messy thoughts, Miko carefully moved forward.
She approached a ward that wasn't engulfed in darkness and peered inside through the observation window on the door.
Inside the ward, more than half of the space had already been completely swallowed by darkness.
Sobbing sounds came from within that darkness, filled with despair and pain.
This was definitely not Takumi's room.
After only a glance, the girl immediately pulled back and retreated.
However, she still heard a faint murmur coming from inside.
[Alice… don't leave us… Alice… don't go…]
Was that the patient inside speaking?
The way they called out to Alice sounded as if… Alice were already dead.
Miko had already passed the second ward.
[Unforgivable… my Alice… why…]
From this ward as well, she heard murmured whispers.
Was that patient hating someone?
Such bone-deep resentment—what could have happened?
Continuing forward, Miko passed one ward after another, listening to the whispers coming from within.
They seemed to be the final words left behind by these patients before they became Aberrations—perhaps things they had said right before death.
[Alice… take me with you…]
[My beloved… my only love… Alice…]
[Please… stay by my side… Alice… Alice…]
[Bastard… why… you criminal, you scum, you piece of trash who deserves to die… Alice… my Alice…]
[I'll kill you… I'll kill you I'll kill you… how dare you do that to my Alice… my Alice… Alice… Alice…]
All of the voices had already become completely deranged.
Their hatred and despair seemed to have condensed into something tangible, pressing down on Miko as she walked among them with an unbearable weight.
She clearly realized—these patients actually knew that Alice was already dead.
Yes.
Here, in this place, Alice existed in a state of being dead.
After Takumi destroyed the surface illusion of Fujihana Middle School and reached its true inner reality—in this place, Alice was someone known by everyone, loved by everyone… and also known by everyone to already be dead.
But earlier, in the activity room, she had clearly seen a promotional poster saying that Alice would be coming to the hospital tomorrow to give a goodwill performance.
Could it be that two different timelines exist here?
Ugh… things like Aberrations really are impossible to understand. Can Takumi figure something like this out?
While she was thinking, Miko had already passed by many wards.
She noticed that the completely dark areas in the corridor were receding.
The blood-red color in the central courtyard had almost completely dissipated as well.
This hospital was about to return to normal.
The despairing cries from the wards she had passed were gradually turning back into sounds of joy and laughter.
There wasn't much time left.
Just where exactly was Takumi—
"What are you doing here?"
"Well, this saves us the trouble of looking for you."
At that moment, a hand grabbed Miko's shoulder, lifted her whole body, and stuffed her under the curtain of a pushcart, hiding her inside.
Those voices?!
Miko hurriedly looked up—and saw Kumagai Mai and Takumi, both dressed in orderly uniforms.
For some reason, Mai managed to wear the orderly outfit with the air of a gangster boss lady, while Takumi gave her a faint smile and a look. He mouthed the words, "Stay hidden, don't move," and in the next moment, the curtain of the pushcart fell, leaving Miko unable to see anything.
Even though she couldn't see, the weight hanging in her heart seemed to suddenly drop away.
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