It had to be said that the Aberrations in this Instance were quite creative; they were extremely skilled at playing tricks like jump scares.
Almost at the very moment when the teaching building's lights went out and darkness fell, students with their heads cut off and flowers inserted into their necks appeared one after another, densely surrounding Takumi and Miko and completely blocking them in. From every perspective, the scene was rather terrifying. Of course, only Miko was startled badly—Takumi himself showed no reaction at all.
Bang!
Along with the sound of the restroom wall shattering, Takumi rushed out of the restroom with Miko and arrived in a hall.
Turning his head, Takumi could see a door not far from the restroom, as well as the sign on it reading [Second-Year Archive Room]. It seemed that the two of them had returned to the place where they had started. What he could not understand was what kind of structure this cursed place had, and why the two of them had returned here despite never once turning back.
In the corridor ahead, on the side where the corridors of Second-Year Classes 2, 3, and 4 were lined up together, the students whose eyes, noses, and mouths had been gouged out could already be faintly seen. One after another, they were slowly walking toward Takumi and Miko.
Meanwhile, the headless students from the restroom were lying scattered on the ground, now slowly crawling back up. They looked like elderly people one after another, completely lacking the frightening feeling that Aberrations should have.
"They… seem different from the hanging students upstairs?"
Protected by Takumi as they rushed out together, Miko looked back at the students lying on the ground and could not help showing a somewhat puzzled expression.
"These ghosts have been suppressed."
Takumi had already seen where the problem lay.
Although these headless student ghosts could still chase people and still possessed the vicious nature of Aberrations, their mobility and the supernatural properties of Aberrations themselves were in a suppressed state. Because of this, even after surrounding Takumi and Miko, he had still been able to find an opportunity to escape easily without being injured, and they had even tripped over him and rolled onto the ground one after another.
Those flowers were actually Obsession Items.
He had already realized the true nature of the white chrysanthemums inserted into the severed necks of the students.
Each flower inserted into a student's neck was an Obsession Item, and the function of that Obsession Item was only one thing—to suppress the students' Aberration side, making them as harmless as possible, allowing them to… rest in peace?
A hazy scene was felt.
Among the dilapidated ruins of the school, a hand placed a flower onto a desk.
The scene and the sound stopped abruptly immediately afterward.
It was as if they had been forcibly cut off by some kind of power, preventing Takumi from seeing more clearly or more closely.
Was someone mourning those dead students?
After the school had already been abandoned.
After everything had already ended, who had come to the school to mourn those students?
Seeing that abruptly cut-off scene, Takumi could not help but begin thinking about such a question.
But for now, to be honest, he did not have much time to think further about it, because those faceless students who had not been suppressed by the white chrysanthemums had already caught up at an extremely fast speed. Unlike those headless students, Takumi could feel the extremely intense malice emanating from these Aberrations. It was certain that if they got close, something very bad would inevitably happen.
"Howard!"
Without hesitation, as Takumi lifted Miko with one hand, he simultaneously used the Rescue Team Badge to summon a second rescue team member.
This was the firefighter Howard whom Takumi had encountered in the Red Nut Grey Cave. As another special existence who, after Kyosei, was able to retain a certain degree of self-awareness inside an Instance, Takumi had ultimately succeeded in persuading Howard to leave his Obsession behind with him and merge it into this Rescue Team Badge.
Unlike Tanaka, that free extra whose strength was insufficient, the rescue team member formed from Howard's Obsession was much more powerful. At this moment, Takumi did not even need to issue an order. He simply said softly, [Mission start. The fire brigade has been deployed]. Then he stepped forward to meet those students, spreading his arms to block the corridor and forcefully intercepting the students charging forward, preventing them from immediately reaching the position where Takumi and Miko were.
Taking a step forward, Takumi carried Miko and quickly ran toward the corridor on one side of the hall. Or rather, he moved in something like a race-walking posture, maintaining high speed while continuing forward with almost no sound.
This special way of moving was something Takumi had deliberately practiced earlier.
The rules of [Sheep Mom] and [Teacher Duck] emphasized that one must not run or make noise in the corridor, while the rule of [Sister Flashlight] stated that upon encountering her one must immediately flee. Takumi naturally could not ignore this contradictory set of rules, so he had prepared in advance. He had specifically practiced a fast race-walking posture, ensuring that he could move while simultaneously satisfying the three conditions of "not running", "moving quickly", and "making no noise".
Through the badge worn on his chest, Takumi could sense that the second rescue team member had already been pushed to the ground by those students.
What remained within this badge was merely the lingering Obsession that Howard himself had been unable to let go of. His true self had ultimately already disappeared inside the Red Nut Grey Cave. Therefore, this remaining Aberration-like summon, which possessed only a certain degree of autonomous traits, inevitably still had some flaws in its performance and could not block those students for very long.
It had bought roughly seven seconds of time, and it had not been damaged. In that case, later, after those students left, he could let this rescue team member try entering the Archive Room.
While thinking this, Takumi had already carried Miko to the corner of the corridor.
After passing this corner, he could proceed to the Printing Room and Office No. 3, or go further ahead toward the classroom of Class 1, Second Year.
However, there was only one problem: at this corner, there was a staircase.
And inside the staircase of the Teaching Building there existed an Aberration called [Teacher Turtle], so one had to remain cautious.
Would he encounter it?
Looking at the staircase entrance gradually becoming clearer in the darkness ahead, Takumi could not help but think this in his heart.
One step, two steps.
Takumi's gaze focused on the road ahead.
Five steps, six steps.
Behind him, the footsteps of those more than twenty faceless students had already begun to sound.
Eight steps, nine steps.
The staircase entrance ahead finally became clear.
The blurry figure standing at the stairway and looking in this direction also emerged right after.
Bang!
The black umbrella opened in the next instant.
Takumi did not stop moving. Just like that, he passed the corner of the corridor and ran further ahead.
Meanwhile, the thing standing inside the stairway slowly turned around and began moving step by step toward the lower floor.
It wore a turtle headpiece—or rather, a gigantic turtle head had been sewn onto its neck.
Its hands hung downward.
Connected to them were bodies lying on the ground, fused together with one another, still struggling and wailing even now.
[Ah… ahhh…]
The agonized howls remained so clear even from a great distance.
Miko protected the candle with both hands, closed her eyes, and pretended she could not hear those desperate cries.
She heard the voices of several of her own classmates.
She knew that while she and Takumi were struggling to survive, more of her classmates had already died, and it was even possible that they had already been completely wiped out.
But right now, the only thing she could do was close her eyes—pretend not to see, pretend not to hear, pretend that she did not know such things were happening. Otherwise, she did not know what she could possibly do to calm the trembling pain inside her heart.
[Ahhhhh—]
Even more piercing screams echoed through the corridor.
Those were the students—the students whose facial features had been gouged out.
After seeing that teacher, they stopped chasing and directly knelt on the ground, continuously kowtowing toward that teacher.
Amid the dull thudding sounds of "bang, bang, bang," these students struck their heads until blood splattered everywhere. Blood kept flowing uncontrollably from their hollowed-out eye sockets, nasal cavities, and mouths, covering their entire bodies and dyeing the whole corridor with a glaring crimson color.
Miko could hear their cries.
They were speaking.
They kept speaking, speaking continuously without ever stopping.
[Please forgive me, Teacher, we know we were wrong.]
[I'll do anything you ask, please—don't give me another warning punishment.]
[I—I'll listen to the teacher properly, don't do this, please, please!]
[Don't send me to the basement. No, no, don't—]
[Mom… Mom…]
The sound of chains began to clatter.
The shrill wails echoed together with harsh noises that were impossible to understand or distinguish.
The color of blood appeared.
It dyed every corridor red, dyed every classroom red, dyed everything red, dyed everyone red—until at last the entire world was stained red.
…
Takumi put away the umbrella.
After using Howard to block the pursuing Aberrations and running through two corridors, he had now arrived near his first target location: Office No. 3 on the map.
Lowering his head, Takumi looked somewhat unexpectedly at the black umbrella he had just put away. This Obsession Item, which he had originally thought could not be used, and which had carried a considerable risk of going out of control even in the Dark Night-level Instance of the Red Nut Grey Cave, had—after testing—turned out to be usable inside the Instance of [Fujihana Middle School]. Moreover, compared with the Red Nut Grey Cave, the risk of losing control seemed to have decreased quite a bit.
What exactly was going on? In a Dark Night-level Instance it would lose control after being used a few times, yet in a Red Moon-level Instance the risk of losing control actually decreased. Could such a strange Obsession Item exist?
Although he could not figure out the exact reason, at least one thing was certain: that umbrella had indeed concealed the presence of both himself and Miko.
"We're here. How are you?"
Takumi put the umbrella back into his watch and set Miko down. Seeing that her expression seemed somewhat dazed, he spoke to ask her.
"…N-no… it's nothing. I just feel a little dizzy."
The girl gently shook her head and could not help but look back toward the direction they had come from. Yet all she could see was a corridor shrouded in darkness.
Did she just see something?
Strange… why couldn't she quite remember it?
But there was no need to worry about it. Yes, that was something unrelated to her. That was something only Bad Students needed to care about. That was something only Bad Kids needed to face… it had nothing to do with her, nothing to do with her at all…
Frowning slightly, the girl quickly gave up trying to recall or think about it further.
She followed Takumi and the person standing beside him, and just like that they walked forward together, heading in the direction of the office.
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