Come to think of it… this seems to be the second time.
The scene before him made Takumi recall his first run in the Red Nut Grey Cave, when he and Chika had entered the research base together, only to end up having to be completely honest with each other in a bathroom.
Although Chika herself had no memory of that run, and now bathing together with her had already become something routine, the fact that something like this was happening again—and this time with another girl—made Takumi sigh inwardly. Wasn't this basically the kind of treatment only a harem light novel protagonist would get? Being forced by circumstances to end up in a bath with a beautiful girl… this was way too pandering.
Alright, alright, I'll stop here. If I keep going, it'll start sounding like bragging.
Thinking this, Takumi kept a straight face as he soaked motionless in the pool, his gaze occasionally sweeping over the vast, empty bath—there was no one else here besides himself and the girl behind him. Meanwhile, his body grew increasingly aware of the sensation of the girl's skin pressed against his back.
Miko was panicking.
At this moment, her emotions were in complete chaos.
Although after entering the bath, Takumi had used the bull's head to drive away all the aberrations inside, clearing the place so she wouldn't have to endure bathing under countless gazes, even with those aberrations gone, she could still hear them—still feel the traces they had left behind.
She could hear the voices they had uttered at the moment of their deaths—their desperate, broken pleas for mercy.
On the other hand, the tall man pressed back-to-back against her, their bodies touching, also made it impossible for her to stay calm. The rough feel of a man's skin made her heart pound fiercely, especially since this man was the very one who had kept protecting her, and Miko had already begun to develop faint feelings of a different sort toward him, which only made it harder for her to remain composed.
"Don't be scared. They wouldn't dare do anything to us."
Takumi noticed that Miko, leaning against his back, was trembling a little, so he softly tried to reassure her.
Not a single one of those students who had already turned into aberrations dared step into the bathing area now. Even while soaking in the water, Takumi was still holding that bull's head in his hand. Incidentally, because aberrations could not truly be killed and would gradually recover after being dismembered, that bull's head had twice regrown part of its flesh along the way. Because of that, Takumi had no choice but to keep cutting it apart over and over again to ensure that this thing he was using to bluff and throw his weight around would remain quiet.
"How... how long do we have to stay here?"
Miko asked in a small voice. At this point, she only dared keep her head lowered and look at the surface of the water in front of her.
"Maybe until lights-out. Relax, just relax. Nothing's going to happen."
But while answering Miko, Takumi had already turned his gaze once again toward the entrance to the pool.
According to the rules of the bathing area, once the lights came on—that is, once Fujihana Middle School returned to its "surface order phase"—he and Miko had to find somewhere to shower. But this time, Takumi could not be sure how many school rules he and Miko had already broken. On top of that, if they separated, Miko would most likely run into trouble again. So after thinking it over, Takumi decisively chose the lowest-grade area, the "Livestock Washing Pool" meant for Bad Students. After all, only a bathing area of this grade could absolutely ensure that neither he nor Miko would violate school regulations.
To be honest, Takumi had originally braced himself for all kinds of disgusting possibilities—something like a blood pool full of mangled corpses, or a foul pool reeking of piss and shit. But in reality, this so-called washing pool was spotless, and the water was even warm. There was absolutely nothing wrong with soaking in it.
It might also be because he had brought Grandpa Bull's head in with him. No matter what, Grandpa Bull was still a teacher. In a place where a teacher was present, even a washing pool could not appear too outrageously filthy. After all, how could those high-and-mighty researchers possibly tolerate treatment that was too terrible?
Still, Alice was probably coming soon.
Takumi silently calculated the time in his heart. The three minutes during which Mai had immobilized Alice had long since passed. That thing could show up at any moment now.
And to guard against a situation where she arrived and he failed to react in time, Takumi had already summoned his second Rescue Team member and stationed him by the pool, having him observe the surroundings from time to time.
When would she come?
As the quiet wait dragged on, Takumi gradually began to feel uneasy.
Tap—
As if deliberately toying with Takumi's nerves, a nearly imperceptible footstep sounded from deep within the corridor.
Along with it came a softly humming voice.
[I stepped on a cat~]
[I stepped on a cat~]
[I stepped on a napping little kitty~?]
A voice like that of a child singing mischievously, drawing closer little by little.
So Takumi turned to look beside him.
And Alice, wrapped casually in a bath towel and sitting in the water as if she belonged there, was already right next to him.
No one knew what method she had used, but she had quietly slipped past the Rescue Team member's notice and infiltrated the space beside Takumi. She had even deliberately created an illusion to make him think she was slowly approaching from far away.
But Takumi was already so familiar with what kind of malicious little monster Alice was that the moment he noticed something off, he immediately began searching the area and swiftly used the Rescue Team member's vision to locate her position.
[Oh my, oh my, it seems I've been found.]
Alice, who had still been concealing herself, saw Takumi staring straight at her and voluntarily revealed herself, showing him a sweet smile.
That smile, full of inhuman charm, made even Takumi lose focus for an instant. But he reacted in the very next moment, reaching out to seize Miko by the shoulder and yank her hard into his arms, then covering her ears with his hand.
Already warned in advance by Takumi, Miko ignored her embarrassment and immediately shut her eyes, instinctively shrinking deeper and deeper into his embrace.
Even with Takumi sharing the burden of the mental corrosion, Miko's resistance against Alice was still far too weak. Because of that, whenever they encountered Alice, the only thing he could do was temporarily block the girl's hearing and vision, using this crude method to reduce as much as possible the exchange of information and contact between the two sides.
This was the only method Takumi could think of right now—and it could hardly even be called a method.
[You're very wary of me, Teacher. It seems you've already had some intimate contact with the other versions of me over in the Teaching Building, haven't you?]
Alice laughed lightly. Her body slid sideways, directly melting into the floor beside the pool, then emerging again some distance away, now already dressed.
Faintly, it seemed possible to see this Alice turn into shattered minced flesh.
That was the final fate of the students from one first-year Class One in the Dormitory Building. They had been sealed into the walls, fused together as pulverized flesh, becoming one of the stone pillars in the Dormitory Building. And the Alice born from those students was able to pass freely through walls and floors—an Alice who had already become one with those things.
So long as Miko and I remain inside the Dormitory Building, it'll be impossible to escape this Alice's sight. If I don't find a chance to immobilize her and lock her in place, then no matter where I run, she'll be able to monitor me in real time.
The moment Takumi understood the nature of her existence, his brows drew tightly together.
And also... the way this thing addresses me...
"Why do you keep calling me Teacher?"
Takumi stared at Alice as he asked.
[Because Teacher is Teacher. Even if nobody else thinks so anymore, Alice will still call you Teacher.]
The girl let out a soft laugh. There was not the slightest trace of hostility in her appearance.
"You Alices are all the same—every single one of you talks in this snide, cutesy, malicious way. Can't you speak normally?"
Takumi's voice turned distinctly rude.
[Hehe, Teacher is so strange. Alice is only speaking in Alice's own way. And Alice really wants to become friends with Teacher and Miko-chan too. So, Teacher, would you like to become Alice's good friend~?]
Alice had already moved onto the ceiling, where she simply looked down at Takumi and kept speaking with that giggling tone.
"Sorry, but I could never become your friend. In my eyes, maybe at first you were just someone pitiful, but the only place suited to the you that exists now is hell. There is no place more fitting for you than that."
Takumi's tone grew colder and colder. He could feel Alice's aberrant power causing harm to Miko. At this point, while taking on most of the mental damage Miko would otherwise be suffering, he was already beginning to feel a distinct discomfort building inside his own head.
[So at first I was just someone pitiful? I see. So Teacher can 'see' too. Though not very much. Does that mean Teacher and Alice could be considered the same kind? Mm, no, maybe not. After all, Teacher doesn't see all that much. In the end, Miko-chan really is the one who's the same kind as me~]
Unexpectedly, those words made Alice visibly start. The expression on her face shifted slightly as she looked at Takumi, but in the end she only shook her head in disappointment and turned her gaze once more toward Miko, who was curled up in Takumi's arms.
Wait. What does this thing mean by that?
Takumi's pupils tightened slightly in that instant of thought.
The Alice of the first loop and the Alice of the second loop had both very clearly shown special interest in Miko, and in the end both had successfully possessed her body.
And this Alice—whether she was speaking the truth or lying—by calling Miko the "same kind," had still revealed an extreme degree of interest in her. And taking into account that across both loops, the only living person Alice had ever possessed was Miko alone, while none of the other schoolgirls had ever been possessed, and even Ogawa Kyoko had only been manipulated briefly after death, then perhaps...
"You need Miko—and you need Miko alive."
"Because she has something in common with you. When you were alive, you had the same kind of overly powerful sensory perception that Miko does, and that common trait is what makes it possible for you to possess her."
"That's why you care so much about Miko. Because only through her can you escape this school, only through her can you go outside, only through her can you become your idol self, only through her can you experience the colorful richness of life as a human being. Isn't that right?"
Takumi's voice was extremely steady.
At this moment, he had finally managed to piece together a few fragments from the chaotic fog of Fujihana Middle School's past.
The intangible Alice born within Fujihana Middle School had been unable to leave this place until the very destruction of the school. At that stage, she was no different from an invisible, untouchable ghost. Only when a suitable vessel entered Fujihana Middle School was she able to break free, able to become "Idol Alice."
But "Idol Alice," as a human being, had ultimately died. That body had even been cut apart; of the pieces he knew of, one had become a human-skin umbrella and another a human-bone staff. Whether that dismemberment had carried some deeper meaning was unclear for the moment, but afterward, the Alice who had once been able to move freely through the world had most likely been trapped inside Fujihana Middle School once again, becoming one of this area's Obsessions.
No matter how special she was, the restriction that aberrations could not remain outside an Instance for long still applied to Alice in the end. Even if she forcibly left the Instance through an Obsession Item, she could move around for at most a few minutes before being dragged back by force.
So Alice longed for a vessel.
A vessel suitable for her, a vessel similar to her.
And Yotsuya Miko, this girl with incomparably powerful perception, was a sufficiently suitable vessel.
At the same time, this also implied that the Alice originally chosen by Fujihana Middle School's experiment had likely been a girl with powerful sensory perception just like Miko.
[Teacher really is smart. I'm getting more and more curious how Teacher managed to take away the core over in the Teaching Building. Mm-hm, then will Teacher play with me for a while?]
Alice grinned widely, but that gaze of hers was enough to make one's skin crawl. There was not the slightest trace of a smile in it.
And at that very moment, Takumi felt some intensely chilling presence drawing closer and closer, little by little approaching where he was.
What was that?
Wait, this feeling... was it from the place where he had torn down that door? Was it something that had come out from inside there?
The instant he realized it, a long arm had already shot violently into the shower room.
The badge pinned to Takumi's flesh changed at once, covering his body in a Rescue Team uniform.
He tried to dodge in that moment, but the thing was simply too fast. In the blink of an eye, it had already seized Takumi by the shoulder. Then his whole body was dragged out of the water and hauled into the corridor. Just like that, he was dragged all the way along—along with the Yotsuya Miko he was holding in his arms, and along with a door scraping across the ground—before all of them were yanked in one breath into the hole he had torn open in the wall.
[Shh, have you heard?]
[In this Dormitory Building, there's a floor that doesn't exist.]
[A lot of people say it's Floor -1, but the people who've really seen that floor all say it's completely different from the Dormitory Building's real Floor -1.]
[And then... those people who saw that floor, one by one, little by little... they all disappeared.]
[Do you want to know where they all went?]
Alice's giggling voice, overflowing with malice, gradually faded into the distance.
Takumi, still holding Miko—whose eyes remained tightly shut even now—rose from the ground, only to see that the crack in the wall behind him had already disappeared.
On the white wall ahead, the writing "-1 Floor" gradually changed into a blood-drenched "0 Floor."
Creeeak—
Then one of the room doors beside Takumi slowly began to open.
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