Miko tilted her head slightly, glancing at the window from the corner of her eye, then casually shifted her gaze away.
From this angle, she could faintly see moving silhouettes reflected on the glass.
She couldn't be sure what those reflected shadows were, but there was a high chance she was still being watched by those things. So she couldn't reveal the information about what she had seen to Takumi here.
But then… where could she talk about it?
The girl continued to think to herself while observing the actions of the other two.
Takumi, sitting off to the side, had his eyes closed, continuing to rest.
Mai was flipping through the booklet Miko had brought. Inside were records of some of the hospital's patients, as well as rules that the orderlies were required to follow. Although they had already gone through its contents once after entering this safe room, Mai, out of caution, decided to study it more carefully again. As she read, she kept her blessing active at all times—ready to reset her personality the moment she detected any signs of mental contamination.
[Hospital Personnel Records]
[Male Ward Patient Record Sheet]
[Patient No. 301]
[Days Hospitalized: 17]
[Treatment Progress: Initial Cognitive Therapy completed. Deep Perception Therapy progressing smoothly.]
[Patient No. 302]
[Days Hospitalized: 48]
[Treatment Progress: Both Initial Cognitive Therapy and Deep Perception Therapy successfully completed. Idol Faith successfully established.]
[Patient No. 304]
[Days Hospitalized: 0]1
[Treatment Progress: Initial Cognitive Therapy about to begin. Confirmed to possess treatment-avoidance tendencies. Has already been returned to their ward. Supervision must be strengthened in the coming days.]
[Patient No. 305]
[Days Hospitalized: 14]
[Treatment Progress: Initial Cognitive Therapy failed. Subjective self-awareness excessively strong. Approval granted for the Full-Spectrum Perception Therapy Program.]
[Patient No. 306]
[Days Hospitalized: 135]
[Treatment Progress: Idol Faith successfully established. Signs of Faith Resonance successfully detected. Confirmed to be approaching complete recovery. Will participate in tomorrow's Idol Reception Ceremony.]
…
The patient records were extraordinarily detailed.
Although they deliberately used specialized terminology to avoid making the contents too obvious, Mai was not about to be fooled by such low-level tricks. She could say with certainty that this Hiromoto Psychiatric Hospital was absolutely making use of the same "Urban Legend" concept once employed by Yoruyama Middle School.
That is to say—using rumors spread from person to person to reinforce the image of something that did not truly exist, then employing some method to create a dead victim filled with intense resentment, directing those accumulated concepts toward that victim until the concept itself became reality, ultimately creating an Aberration with specific tendencies.
For example, the "Slit-Mouthed Woman" that wandered the Athletic Field of Yoruyama Middle School had originated in exactly this way.
At the very beginning, it had merely been an innocent girl deliberately selected and murdered by the school, with her mouth intentionally cut apart after death. But afterward, the school intentionally spread rumors among the students while also murdering several more girls, successfully causing the students to form the legend that:
If a student enters the Athletic Field alone after 8 PM, the vengeful ghost of a female student transformed into the Slit-Mouthed Woman will kill them and cut open their mouth.
And in the end, that girl—who had never done anything wrong in the first place—really was transformed into such a thing.
Moreover, this had only been one of the earliest successful results from Yoruyama Middle School's experiments. According to the information Mai knew, by the final stage they had already succeeded in creating what they called a "perfect Aberration"—something with no actual origin whatsoever, an entity born purely from human cognition and deliberately targeted acts of cruel slaughter. An Aberration that quite literally "did not exist."
If the earlier intelligence had been correct, then the entire research staff of Yoruyama Middle School had ultimately been wiped out by that very Aberration. And among the school's three Core Obsessions, only that one had never been conquered.
Or rather, it was theoretically impossible to conquer.
It possessed no obsession at all. It could never truly rest in peace. It was a bug-like existence.
After all, how could something with no root cause whatsoever—something that had never possessed even a single moment of selfhood—possibly have an obsession?
So then… was this hospital attempting to replicate the final results of Yoruyama Middle School?
Trying to create Alice out of nothing?
That possibility made Mai frown involuntarily.
It was impossible for them to succeed.
In reality, Yoruyama Middle School had continued operating until after the war. Among the three schools on the Japan side, it had existed for the longest period of time. That was because it managed to preserve the appearance of "normalcy."
The students studying there at least believed they were living ordinary school lives. Combined with a few tricks played behind the scenes by the hidden researchers, they managed to avoid becoming liquidation targets and were able to continue their experiments.
Well… until several years later, when everything catastrophically collapsed, the entire school died out, and the school itself disappeared from reality and entered the world of the bizarre.
Even researchers as capable as the ones inside Yoruyama Middle School had required an extremely long period of time to gradually complete the final steps—and in the end, they had still failed.
And the resources possessed by this psychiatric hospital clearly could not compare to the level of military support once granted to those three schools.
Combining this with all the information Takumi had gathered, Mai rapidly constructed a likely scenario in her mind.
The physically manifested "Alice," the idol activities, and the establishment of this psychiatric hospital were probably all the work of the same individual.
That person had likely inherited the legacy of Fujihana Middle School and obtained some of the resources left within it. Only then could something like this have been accomplished.
Could it be that mysterious seventh principal who left behind no records?
After all, according to the intelligence Takumi had investigated, the school may very well have already been destroyed during the tenure of the sixth principal—that is, while Fujii Goro was serving there.
Yet according to the official records, that principal's term continued all the way into the 1960s.
If that was true, then the timeline did not entirely line up.
Or perhaps, after slaughtering everyone inside the school, the incorporeal Alice had continued maintaining the outward appearance of normal operations?
And if that was the case, then under what circumstances had the seventh principal entered the school afterward?
If she kept pursuing this line of thought, there would be far too many possibilities. Mai did not dare speculate too wildly, so she forcibly stopped herself from continuing.
At that moment, Mai noticed Takumi discreetly giving her a look.
So, with what appeared to be a completely casual movement, she slightly raised her head and glanced toward Miko on the other side.
Mm.
That expression of wanting to say something but not daring to speak… so something really had happened after all?
Although Miko's disguise was fairly convincing, Takumi and Mai both possessed exceptionally sharp senses. One way or another, they had still noticed that she was hiding something she wanted to say.
She was not the type to deliberately conceal information.
Which meant there had to be some reason preventing her from directly "speaking" about it.
For example, perhaps the Aberration was already inside the room—perhaps even among them—yet remained impossible for them to detect or perceive. Perhaps certain specific conditions had to be fulfilled first.
Such as Miko verbally "speaking" of its existence.
Takumi might have looked relaxed on the surface, but in reality he had already entered a state of extreme vigilance.
And after noticing that something was wrong with Miko, Mai immediately became just as alert, preparing herself simultaneously for both escape and combat.
What was going on?
Could something have happened on the hospital's side? But those orderlies whose uniforms had been swapped out had clearly already been treated as substitute patients and dragged into the wards instead.
Or was this room actually unsafe? Was there perhaps something hidden here—something extremely concealed yet terrifying?
While carefully observing Miko's expressions and movements, the two of them cautiously turned those thoughts over in their minds.
As for Miko herself, while anxiously thinking about how to communicate the information, she was also trying to figure out what exactly those things inside the mirrors were.
Those things. Those entities that claimed to exist within "Takamagahara."
It seemed they could observe the outside world through mirrors, glass, and other reflective surfaces.
For the moment, they appeared to possess no abilities beyond simply "watching." But was that really all they were capable of?
They had mentioned before that they attempted to act once during the events at Yoruyama Middle School, only to be stopped. In other words, they clearly possessed the ability to influence the real world.
If the way she conveyed information to Takumi-san and Kumagai-san became too obvious, then even if they were not in a place containing mirrors or glass, was it possible those things would still notice?
And once they noticed… would they immediately be able to do something?
Miko was not someone particularly skilled at deduction, planning, or strategic thinking. As an ordinary girl who had once lived a completely normal life, aside from her cheat-like perception ability, her greatest personal talent was probably her unbelievably refined acting skills.
Well… "acting skills" was not entirely accurate either.
After all, Miko only knew how to play one specific role:
A person pretending that nothing unusual could be seen.
If placed in the acting profession, she would absolutely be the type hopelessly typecast into a single role.
Of course, this was not something Miko particularly needed to worry about now.
No matter what, a person needed self-awareness.
And Miko understood very clearly that she had far too many shortcomings in terms of ability. If she were forced to personally test the observation capabilities of those things in order to determine the correct timing for communication, then she was almost certain she would never be able to pull it off.
In that case… the only option was to try giving Takumi-san and Kumagai-san hints instead.
Though whether they would understand those hints was another matter entirely.
Completely unaware that the two people beside her had already been nervously staring at her for quite some time, the girl quietly sighed. Meanwhile, Takumi and Mai—too wary to interrupt her—had each already imagined all sorts of terrible possibilities.
Such as:
Miko being possessed by an Aberration.
Miko currently seeing the two of them sitting among a massive crowd of Aberrations.
Or Miko witnessing the two of them gradually turning into corpses.
…And countless other horrifying scenarios.
No, seriously, what exactly was this girl doing?
Takumi frowned, ultimately deciding he should at least try asking Miko directly.
But before he could act, something else happened first.
Step— Step—
Clear footsteps, forceful enough to sound as though they were stomping directly against the floor, rapidly approached from nearby.
"Hm?!"
Takumi froze abruptly.
He felt the power of a Blessing unlock.
He felt a Blessing that previously could not be used suddenly become available.
It was Andres's Blessing—the ability that allowed spatial teleportation to the side of one's "Beloved Ones."
A Blessing that was completely useless in the hands of a single guy with nobody he loved.
Why had it suddenly unsealed at this moment?
Could it be those two…?
Knock, knock, knock—
Someone knocked on the door.
Then the person outside directly pushed the door open and walked in.
Takumi saw pink hair.
Assuming instinctively that it was Fujiwara Chika, he immediately stood up—only to instead see the slightly soft-looking face of Gotō Hitori.
Bocchi-chan?
Andres's Blessing was giving him extremely clear feedback from this girl's body.
Not just one reaction, either. Two overlapping reactions were coming from her simultaneously, as though Shijō Maki and Fujiwara Chika had somehow fused together with Gotō Hitori into a combined form, causing overlapping ally markers to appear on Takumi's internal minimap.
What the hell was going on here?
And more importantly… was this really Bocchi-chan?
Takumi's thoughts became increasingly chaotic.
Then he noticed the wildly arrogant grin spreading across the girl's face—a grin absolutely impossible for Bocchi-chan to possess.
"Gotō-san?"
Having recognized the girl, Mai also spoke up in surprise.
Then the three people inside the room watched as this obviously very-off-looking "Bocchi-chan" pulled out a ridiculously flashy pair of glasses and put them on.
One hand planted on her hip.
The other clenched into a fist and raised before her mouth like a microphone.
Then she started bouncing both feet while samba dancing her way into the room, singing as she went:
"Yo, yo, yo! Takumi-san here, and Mai-san too, plus somebody I don't know, but y'all lookin' pretty good! Everybody relax now, support has arrived somehow! It's Gotō Number One on the scene, check it check it yo~!"
Takumi: ???
Mai: ???
Miko: ???
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