Everything happened in less than two seconds.
Shigeno Rika barely had time to let out a desperate scream before she—along with the trash can—was hurled across the room by Takakai, crashing into the corner of the classroom.
A bone-chilling cold followed immediately. Even in the darkness, Rika couldn't see anything, but the overwhelming sense of impending death told her that the [Big Bad Wolf] had appeared and was now moving toward her to claim her life.
Am I going to die?
Mid-air, the girl's eyes widened as she caught sight of the terrifying man wearing the grotesque ram's head mask—and Yotsuya Miko, standing beside him with an innocent smile on her face.
Is she… smiling at me?
For a moment, Rika's mind went blank.
BOOM!
A bloody light seeped from the ram's hollow eyes.
With a single stomp, the ram-headed figure shattered the classroom floor, sending debris and desks flying.
In the flickering candlelight, Takakai could now see the shadow of the enormous wolf moving through the wreckage, closing in on Rika.
I can only see its shadow, but Miko can see its form. Does that mean it's just invisible? Even without a physical body, can it still be touched—or even harmed?
Takakai took a step forward.
He had already pushed his blessing to its limit, enhancing his physical abilities far beyond human capacity. In an instant, he lunged toward the wolf's shadow and grabbed at the empty air.
His hands closed around something.
Coarse, like animal fur.
The thing was massive—judging by the resistance, it had to be at least three meters long, the size of a lion or tiger, if not larger.
And it's strong. This thing must weigh several tons.
"Get lost!"
With a roar, Takakai hurled the invisible beast aside.
The overwhelming aura of the anomaly assaulted his senses. This [Big Bad Wolf] was a terrifying entity—if it came to a direct confrontation, Takakai wasn't sure he could win. But the creature showed no interest in attacking him. Its focus remained solely on Rika, whose candle had been extinguished.
So when Takakai flung it away, it immediately turned back toward her.
But this time, it stopped halfway.
Because Takakai had already snatched up Rika's extinguished candle and relit it with his own flame.
In the candlelight, the wolf's shadow hesitated—then lunged toward the newly lit flame.
But Takakai wasn't about to let it return.
He pressed the candle against his watch, and it vanished into storage.
The wolf's shadow froze, glitching violently before finally dissolving into nothingness.
"If something is tied to your life, you'd better protect it."
Only then did Takakai turn back, retrieving the candle and handing it to Rika, who was still sitting dazed on the floor.
"O-Oh…"
The girl took the candle numbly, her mind struggling to process what had just happened.
In the span of three or four seconds, Takakai had:
Shattered the floor with a stomp.
Grappled with an invisible monster mid-air.
Caught Rika's falling candle.
Relit it before landing.
The sheer speed left Rika completely bewildered.
"It dissipated when its rules were disrupted. So it doesn't have a true 'body'—just a derivative anomaly."
Takakai barely spared Rika a glance, his attention fixed on where the wolf had vanished.
Derivative anomalies…
He'd encountered similar entities in [Shirakawa Apartments]: the invisible debt collectors, the porcelain dolls. These weren't ghosts of the dead, but distorted echoes of their memories—formless, dreamlike.
If you could exploit their rules, they'd glitch out or even vanish entirely.
The [Big Bad Wolf], which seemed to lurk in every candle, was clearly one such anomaly.
But whose memories had spawned it?
Probably… Alice herself.
Takakai's gaze shifted to Miko—or rather, the thing standing where Miko had been.
No, that wasn't Miko anymore.
He wasn't sure when the switch had happened. By the time he noticed, she'd already changed. And with the ram's head mask still corrupting him, he couldn't remove the Rescue Team Badge to counteract it.
So he'd played along, observing carefully—until Rika's candle was blown out.
That was when he knew: He had to act.
[Teacher, why did you help someone else light their candle?]
The thing wearing Miko's face tilted its head, black umbrella still in hand.
"You're Alice, aren't you?"
Takakai's voice was cold.
[Wow, Teacher is so smart~ But I'm Yotsuya Miko from Class 2-015, not Alice. Alice is here—I'll let her talk to you now!]
Still smiling, the thing grabbed its own head—
—and twisted it 180 degrees, revealing a bloodied woman's face grafted onto the back of Miko's skull.
[Teacher, why did you help someone else light their candle?]
The same question, spoken in a voice like shattered glass and honey.
Beautiful.
That was Takakai's first thought.
The face was stunning—so lovely it felt like salvation just looking at it.
This godforsaken thing—how had it possessed Miko without him noticing?
Wait… my senses were fooled. I never put that umbrella back in storage.
Which means… the umbrella is the key?
Damn it, is that thing connected to this dungeon? But how could the Women's Mask Society get their hands on a Crimson Moon-grade Obsession? And the umbrella's power level was all wrong—it malfunctioned after a few uses in a Twilight-grade dungeon, meaning it should only be Dusk-grade. How could a Dusk-grade Obsession be linked to a Crimson Moon dungeon?!
Takakai had so many questions.
But all he did was take a deep breath and step back, hyperaware of his surroundings.
[Alice] could deceive the senses. From now on, he couldn't afford to drop his guard.
A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead.
Facing this incomprehensible entity, Takakai was terrified—but also confused.
Because he wasn't feeling the overwhelming pressure that usually came from a dungeon's Core Obsession.
Is Alice hiding her aura?
Or is she not Fujika Middle School's Core Obsession at all?
No, more fundamentally—is Alice even a ghost?
She deceived, schemed, set traps, and ran the deadly [Alice Game].
She acted too human.
Is she like Lin Xusheng, Howard, Wilbur, and Fernand—a human who retained their will while wielding supernatural power?
That made some sense, but even then, it was too extreme.
Xusheng had to return to the Rescue Team's ranks every weekend.
Wilbur attacked on sight, unable to resist his ghostly instincts.
But [Alice]?
She behaved like a supernatural being in complete control, as if no rules bound her at all.
Is she even a ghost?
What is she?
Why is she so different from every other anomaly I've encountered?
What are her rules?
[Teacher, why aren't you speaking? Did Alice make you uncomfortable?]
A giggle.
The thing peeled away from Miko's body, revealing itself fully.
It was a human skin—
—flayed from head to toe, dripping blood.
The umbrella Miko had been holding was now gone, its canopy replaced by the stretched-out skin.
Black markings covered its surface—words, carved into the flesh.
In the umbrella's original form, they'd been invisible.
Now, they were clear as day:
[I love you, Alice. You are the flame that ignites my soul.]
[My guardian angel, my only dream, you are my everything.]
[Please accept my love, Alice. Stay by my side forever.]
[My savior, my god. Even in death, I will keep you. I will keep you forever.]
Four different handwriting styles.
Four different people had flayed Alice's skin and carved these words into it.
Earlier, in Class 2-001, Takakai had seen visions suggesting Alice was the "13th student" who appeared after the original 12 killed each other.
He'd assumed she was artificially created—a constructed ghost.
But this skin umbrella and its inscriptions contradicted that theory.
Alice had once been human.
She had died, and her skin had been made into an umbrella.
[Don't be scared, Teacher~ Alice would never hurt you. Alice will always be Teacher's good student.]
While Takakai was lost in thought, the skin-wrapped abomination took a step toward him.
"What are you?"
After a long silence, Takakai decided to test communication.
[Alice is just Alice~]
The skin fluttered slightly, the decapitated head of "Miko" swaying with it.
[Oh, I know! Teacher is wondering why Alice is so special, right?]
As if suddenly understanding, the thing clapped its hands—both Miko's and the skin's.
[To be honest, Alice isn't really sure either.]
[Alice's mommy told Alice many times that Alice's daddy was a great man from overseas. She took Alice to a big, pretty airport lots of times, saying they'd go find him together.]
[But every time, the soldier uncles at the gate chased Alice and mommy away. They said mommy was a liar. Then mommy would go home and hit Alice—really, really hard. Alice would cry and beg her to stop, but she never listened.]
[Then mommy stopped giving Alice food. She wouldn't let Alice come home anymore. So Alice had to eat from the trash. But the airport trash had lots of yummy things! The soldier uncles threw away half-eaten meals all the time, so Alice never went hungry.]
[Alice thought mommy had abandoned her. But one day, mommy came back! She gave Alice a bath and new clothes. Alice thought mommy missed her, that they could live together again. But then mommy brought Alice to Fujika Middle School, saying the big brothers and sisters here would love Alice. Mommy left right after. She was wearing new clothes, and the house had new furniture. Alice wanted to stay home, but the school said Alice had to live in the dorms. So sad~]
[But school was fun too! Everyone was so nice to Alice. And the headmaster uncle visited every day. He'd smile and say Alice should grow up fast, grow up well. Then one day… he took Alice to the basement. He said he'd carry on Fujii-sensei's will, finish what the old man couldn't. And Alice… was his hope.]
Step by step, Alice closed the distance, stopping just five meters away.
The skin's empty eye sockets stared at Takakai, though he swore he could feel a gaze.
Then, abruptly, she stopped speaking.
Tilting her head, she clasped her hands together in a gesture of childlike hope.
[Alice heard that if you tell someone your story, they become your friend. Teacher listened to so much… does that mean Teacher is Alice's friend now?]