Chapter 195: Hodell, Who Suffered Cruel Torture
"The difference between the illusion and reality, huh..."
Hearing Iwanaga Kotoko's words, Kato Megumi recalled the scene she had just experienced and began thinking seriously.
"In a bustling mental hospital... what place would we be least likely to go to...?"
"No, perhaps the mastermind is even smarter than that."
Iwanaga Kotoko murmured to herself first, then swept her gaze across the hall before suddenly smiling.
"So that's how it is. I understand now. The enemy knows that a mere illusion probably wouldn't stop us completely. It also knows that I wouldn't panic or lose my composure even if I were trapped in one. So the flaw it deliberately exposed was, in itself, a trap."
As she spoke, Iwanaga Kotoko walked over to the wall of the hall and pointed at a certain spot.
"In the illusion just now, the structural map of this floor was posted here. In reality, it isn't. It was probably destroyed by the mental patients or something along those lines. I remember it clearly. There were four areas in total: A, B, C, and D. We're currently in Area A, and the safe passage leading to the upper floor is in Area D. That means, on the route from our current location to the safe passage, the one area we would absolutely not pass through is Area C. There are three possibilities."
"The first possibility is that the route to the safe passage is genuine, and the mastermind that created the illusion wants us to leave quickly without interfering with whatever it is doing. That is why it deliberately exposed the correct route."
"The second possibility is that the so called safe passage is not safe at all. After all, Kyozan Mental Hospital has now become a bizarre zone. The route marked on the structural map as a safe passage to the upper floor might actually hide danger."
"The third possibility is that it already anticipated all of my thoughts and deductions, so it used reverse logic. The Area C it seemingly doesn't want us to enter is, in truth, the most dangerous and terrifying place of all."
After laying out her reasoning in one breath, Iwanaga Kotoko looked at Kato Megumi, Yuuki Asuna, and Asagiri, then smiled.
"So, what do you think?"
"Hmm..."
Kato Megumi looked as though she were thinking very seriously. After a few seconds, however, she honestly shook her head.
"My head is spinning. I didn't understand any of it."
"You didn't fail to understand. You just weren't listening carefully at all, were you?"
Puffing out her cheeks, Iwanaga Kotoko shifted her gaze to Yuuki Asuna.
"Violet, what do you think?"
"It feels... kind of pointless, doesn't it?"
Yuuki Asuna pursed her lips and reminded her cautiously.
"Didn't Leader receive a special hint about the location of that orderly, Hodell? He's in Area C on this floor. In that case, we have to go to Area C no matter what. So whichever possibility it is, our choice doesn't really change, right?"
"That is incorrect."
Hearing Asagiri answer in such an oddly formal tone, Yuuki Asuna instinctively frowned, wondering whether she had missed some crucial detail.
A second later, she realized she had simply overthought it.
"If Necro doesn't analyze things first, how is she supposed to demonstrate her ability as the God of Wisdom? Besides, after seeing through the enemy's intentions, choosing to head into Area C is obviously cooler than just charging in without knowing anything."
"Exactly~"
Iwanaga Kotoko nodded repeatedly, beaming.
"Leader really does understand me best~"
"As expected of the two of you. Your strange thought processes are perfectly in sync in the weirdest places."
Yuuki Asuna let out a helpless sigh, tightened her grip on the rapier in her hand, and slowly said,
"Let's go."
...
Fifteen minutes later, on Floor B2, Area C.
"Is that... a scream?"
Hearing the mournful cries coming from ahead, Yuuki Asuna, who was walking at the front, immediately became alert. Behind her, Asagiri lowered his voice and called out,
"Phantom."
"Understood."
After Kato Megumi applied her presence reduction skill to everyone, the four of them continued moving forward.
After advancing another twenty or thirty meters, they found a room with a transparent observation window. Through the glass, they saw two figures conducting some kind of experiment.
One was a person in a white coat, wearing a bloodstained white mask and looking like a Doctor.
The other was a headless nurse, with only a mangled, bloody neck stump left above the collar.
The subject of the experiment was a monster nearly three meters tall, strapped firmly to a vertically positioned metal bed. Its face was covered in blood, its skin had been brutally torn away, and the entire sight was horrifying.
The instant they saw the experimental subject, both Asagiri and Yuuki Asuna recognized him.
It was the blood faced orderly.
Asagiri had once carefully studied that face. Even in this state, he recognized him immediately. The one tied down and tortured here was Old Man, Hodell Franklin, the very same person he and Yuuki Asuna had met before.
"Pain experiment, begin."
The headless nurse stepped onto a raised platform and took out something that looked like a syringe. She tapped the end of it a few times, pushed out a little of the liquid inside, and then, with movements that looked strangely professional, slowly drove the gleaming needle directly into Hodell's eyeball.
At once, Hodell let out a miserable scream.
His huge body convulsed violently from the pain, but the restraints fixed him in place with what seemed to be some strange power. His eyelids had been taped open, so he could not even shut his eyes. He could only continue screaming.
Even for Yuuki Asuna and Kato Megumi, who were only watching through the glass, the sight was unbearable.
"Can his consciousness still be maintained?"
The Doctor in the white coat showed no reaction at all to Hodell's agonized cries. In an emotionless voice, he simply asked his question.
"This is the price for helping humans escape from this place. Since they could not become test subjects, you will take their place."
The moment Yuuki Asuna heard that sentence, her pupils contracted.
So Hodell Franklin had been tied up here and tortured by the nurse and the Doctor because he had helped her and Asagiri escape from Kyozan Mental Hospital.
That was why he was being subjected to such cruel punishment.
At that moment, Yuuki Asuna felt not only shock and disgust, but also a fierce surge of anger.
Hodell Franklin still had kindness. He still had a conscience. And simply because he had helped her and Asagiri, he had been reduced to this state?
Just then, Asagiri suddenly whispered,
"Let's go in."
The next moment, he kicked the patient room door open without hesitation.
Bang!
"Old man, I'm here."
Looking at the headless nurse and the demon like Doctor standing nearby, Asagiri did not hesitate for even a moment. He raised the black gun shaped summoner, pressed it to his temple, and pulled the trigger.
"Persona, Human Asura!"
.....
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