The stage had finally fallen silent.
All the restless things and all the maddened screams had subsided.
Those muttering creatures had already turned into shattered chunks of flesh, while the monsters that had been shrieking madly were now reduced to nothing more than writhing fragments slowly pulling themselves back together.
At least for the next few hours, nothing inside the entire hospital would pose any threat to Takumi and the others anymore.
The stage itself, which had previously trapped them and prevented escape, had now completely lost its seal. They were free to come and go and could finally move toward the areas along the edge of the stage. More accurately, though, the restrictions had probably vanished the very moment Miko's perception ability detected "Hirano Sōsuke" and caused the core Obsession to appear.
After all, Mai had only recently been thrown clear off the stage and smashed into the rows of chairs below. Even now, the injuries on her face still hadn't fully healed.
Was it because the source of the stage's restrictive power originated from "Alice," while Hirano Sōsuke's existence could completely overwhelm Alice herself, causing the stage to change like this?
Takumi silently formed that hypothesis in his mind.
No matter what, this adventure into the damned place had undeniably yielded far deeper and more valuable information. Looking at the results alone, it had absolutely been worth it.
{Hirano Sōsuke—the core Obsession of this Instance—was a survivor of Fujihana Middle School. When "Alice" destroyed the school back then, some survivors did manage to escape alive. Based on all the clues we've gathered so far, we can at least confirm there were two survivors. One was a teacher, and the other was a student. That teacher was executed by the school while trying to protect the students, but Alice had already gone out of control before the execution. It was probably under those circumstances that the teacher managed to protect the student and help him escape alive.}
Amid the shattered seats beneath the stage, Takumi moved forward while exchanging information with the others through their mental link.
{So the two people who offered flowers and lit the red candles back then... were Hirano-san and his teacher?}
Miko's voice sounded within the mental connection, her tone cautious and tentative.
{Possible. And as a survivor of Fujihana Middle School's destruction, I strongly suspect Hirano Sōsuke himself was also something special, just like Alice. Otherwise, slaughtering his way alone through the concert venue and then openly hunting down fanatic fans right in front of Alice herself is honestly way too absurd.}
Takumi agreed with Miko's guess while adding even more speculation of his own.
{The hallucination Yotsuya-san saw earlier—the scene where Hirano Sōsuke was burned to death and then suddenly reappeared to massacre everyone—was probably the final moment this Instance was formed. The moment Fujihana Middle School completely transformed into an Instance world and split away from reality. He became an Aberration driven by intense hatred and obsession, destroyed everything around him, and dragged it all into the Instance World to create an entirely new domain. But even then, there are still things that don't add up. There's still no explanation at all for those four Alice fragment Obsession Items. And according to the information Yotsuya-san obtained, before victims came begging him for help, Hirano Sōsuke somehow didn't even know about Alice—the super idol who had swept across all of Japan?}
While speaking through the mental link, Mai bent down and helped "Gotō Number One" back to her feet.
Although the chest and abdomen of the girl—who looked exactly identical to Gotō Hitori—had been completely pierced through, she had not died. Or rather, as a controllable "shell" created from an Obsession Item, the thing already possessed the traits of an Aberration to begin with. It was not something that could be killed easily.
By now, most of the wounds on her body had already nearly healed. Only her spine had yet to fully regenerate, leaving her body limp and unable to properly support itself.
Come to think of it, when that gunman made his move earlier, Bocchi could've tried using that identity-swapping Blessing, right? Was it because she simply failed to react in time, or was there something special about that gunman that allowed him to bypass her Blessing?
Clack—
While thinking about that, Takumi noticed a chunk of shattered stone fall from "Gotō Number One's" hand as Mai helped her up.
Judging from the fragments, it looked as though it had been blown apart by a bullet. The girl's palm had likewise been cut open with wounds from the shattered stone, though earlier the massive wound through her chest and abdomen had been so eye-catching that nobody had noticed her hand injuries.
That stone... had probably been used to transfer someone's identity.
But thinking back on the fight just now, every target Sōsuke aimed at had remained targeted no matter what. None of the attacks had ever successfully been redirected. Which meant the core Obsession likely targeted not only "people currently possessing the target's identity," but also "people who had previously possessed the target's identity."
In other words, even if the identity itself changed through a Blessing, it was useless. Once this thing locked onto a target, it would continue firing no matter how the target's identity changed afterward.
That utterly deranged targeting mechanic...
It really carried the feeling of a lunatic willing to kill the wrong person rather than let anyone escape. Could Alice have actually conditioned him into becoming like this?
After placing the still-repairing "Gotō Number One" onto a chair, Mai immediately began walking around the area again.
Despite having just survived a life-and-death crisis, she resumed scouting without the slightest hesitation, once again taking the role of vanguard. She moved in silence, wiping the blood from her face with one hand as she walked.
"There's a way out here. Mm... and there's also a hidden room."
It did not take Mai long to locate the entrance and exit point of the underground stage.
The place itself was not especially difficult to find because the door had already been left slightly ajar. Once they approached it, they could vaguely see dim light leaking out from inside.
The second hidden room, however, required considerably more effort to discover. Had they not noticed that one section of the wall was unnaturally smooth, then touched it and realized it was hidden glass before attempting to smash it apart, they likely never would have found the room at all.
Behind the door glowing with faint light was an upward staircase, seemingly leading toward some part of the hospital—or perhaps somewhere near the hospital itself.
The hidden little room, meanwhile, was an extremely concealed space that seemed to exist specifically to provide someone with an observation point where they could watch everything without being discovered.
Inside, Takumi and the others found a layout similar to the director's office, along with some documents left behind by Fujii Hiroshi himself.
One thing worth mentioning was that all of these documents carried a considerable degree of contamination. However, because the source of that contamination—the director himself and the various Aberrations within the hospital—had already been suppressed, Takumi and the others no longer faced much danger even if they read the files now. At the very least, it would no longer attract attacks from anything lurking nearby.
Most of the documents were observation records.
From these records, it became clear that Fujii Hiroshi had been carrying out continuous research step by step. He had documented numerous "performance records" from the stage experiments. As more and more people were brainwashed, and as more and more people came to believe wholeheartedly, strange phenomena really had begun occurring onstage. The figure of the idol Alice had gradually started appearing as though she were performing once more.
But as the experiments continued, Hiroshi discovered that no matter how much he increased the number of fans, the result merely reproduced Alice's performance with greater and greater accuracy.
It still could not truly resurrect Alice.
At the very end of the observation logs, Hiroshi left behind one final page of notes:
[This will be the final observation experiment. I've already wasted enough time on this... and besides, I do not possess Alice's power. Even though I exhausted all my connections and made the greatest effort possible, more and more people have recently begun trying to investigate this hospital.]
[I do not have much time left. Those pitiful fools... they are gradually forgetting Alice. Little by little, they are forgetting that Alice even existed. Sooner or later, the only people left who still remember her will be those inside this hospital. And when that happens... I...]
[This cannot continue any longer. These materials... perhaps they were wrong from the very beginning. I believed in the wrong thing.]
[Continuing to repeat observations that have already been repeated countless times will produce no results. So this time, I will change the nature of the experiment. I will carry out an execution.]
[Hirano Sōsuke... he stole away my love. He stole away my entire world. He shattered the hearts of every person who loved Alice. I subjected him to the highest-grade treatment more than ten times, yet he remained motionless like a corpse every single time. Of course... how could trash like him ever deserve Alice's love?]
[So he can only become a sacrifice. I will offer him up as a sacrifice. If everyone wholeheartedly believes that his death will bring about Alice's rebirth, then surely the result will be different this time. And even if it still fails... at the very least, I can ensure that the murderer who killed Alice receives the punishment he deserves.]
[Ah, right. And those people who sought his help—the list is nearly complete already. It is time to reel in the net. Those utterly wicked scum who dared reject Alice... I will execute every single one of them. Every. Last. One.]
[Tomorrow will be the day. Alice... my beloved Alice... watch carefully. I will make the one who hurt you pay the price. The justice and fairness that belong to you—I will personally deliver them with my own hands!]
[Alice, Alice, Alice, Alice, Alice Lov—]
The further down the page the writing went, the more chaotic and distorted the text became. It was obvious that the mental state of the person writing it had deteriorated into something deeply abnormal.
Takumi frowned as he finished reading it.
Feeling the intense corrosion radiating from the words themselves, he could not help but feel a wave of nausea rise in his stomach, though at least he managed not to throw up.
After setting down the record sheet, they continued searching the small room.
This time, Miko discovered a locked drawer. After Takumi forced it open, they found a concert ticket inside.
It was a handwritten ticket, seemingly from Alice's very first concert.
The thing was an Obsession Item.
Judging from the circumstances, it was most likely Fujii Hiroshi's own Obsession Item.
Even though Takumi had absolutely no favorable opinion toward that brainwashed obsessive lunatic, when it came to Obsession Items, he still accepted it without hesitation. In the end, he could just toss it into the watch's storage space anyway.
And it was also at that moment that Mai—who had gone to investigate where the staircase led—finally responded through the mental link.
Judging from her tone, she had found something.
{Found where the exits lead. There are two exits.}
{One of them leads to the side entrance of the hospital staff cafeteria. Taking that route lets you enter the cafeteria through a hidden door.}
{As for the other exit... mm, this one leads directly outside the hospital. From there, you can leave the hospital entirely.}
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