Alice's face was plastered with a grin so wide it practically oozed smug satisfaction. To her, Takakai was already checkmated—no possible moves left to turn the tables.
I can actually predict this thing's thoughts now.
The realization made Takakai grimace. After being killed by Alice multiple times, he'd somehow internalized her warped logic. Disgusting. I hate that I understand how this monster thinks.
What Alice didn't know was that Takakai had already recalled the rescue team member, ordering them to search the lab for her true artifact. This oversight made sense—the different Alice entities didn't share information. In fact, he suspected they might even be hostile or indifferent toward each other.
[Counterattack? Alice doesn't understand that word~ Does Sensei think he can still change the situation? Alice doubts it~ What could Sensei possibly do now?]
Her giggling voice slithered through his mind as the invasive presence intensified, gnawing at his consciousness like termites in wood.
This was his third time experiencing this corruption. Each instance had been worse than the last, but now, even as Alice's "friend," Takakai clung to his sense of self—unlike his first loop's helpless collapse.
"...So it's a bowl of meat soup."
Alice's grin shattered.
Through the rescue team badge's shared vision, Takakai saw it:
A steaming bowl of crimson broth on the cafeteria table.
Beside it, a fresh corpse—unlike the withered researchers—slumped over the table. Two gunshots to the head, two to the chest. The killer had entered, fired at the seated victim's skull, then executed point-blank shots to ensure death.
In the corpse's pocket—a concert ticket. The same event as the ticket found in the Classroom Building's underground lab.
The soup bubbled hot, meat chunks floating in scarlet liquid.
The dead man's lips were smeared with drool.
Just the sight conjured the scene:
Alice's skin became an umbrella, her bones a cane, her flesh this soup. The last artifact—likely another body part—had been taken by some team.
The rescue member picked up the bowl.
Even when tilted, not a drop spilled. The contents clung unnaturally, as if bound by invisible rules. Perhaps it could only be transferred by consumption?
Irrelevant.
Takakai locked eyes with the Alice before him, savoring her stunned expression.
She'd definitely sensed her artifact being seized. Yet instead of retreating, she doubled down, flooding Takakai's mind with excruciating distortion while lunging for his rescue team badge.
Trying to kill me fast before I capitalize on this? Predictable.
Takakai grabbed her wrist, slamming her to the ground.
The wolf-shadow pounced—
Nothing happened.
Illusions froze. The wolf's attack fizzled.
The invisible entity chewing Takakai's back still feasted, but its slow, torturous nature let him endure via the badge's regeneration.
Or rather—
This wasn't Takakai enduring.
"I said it was time for the counterattack. Understand now?"
The icy voice wasn't his.
It was Kumami's—a personality fragment implanted via her blessing before jumping into the 0th floor.
True blessings don't vanish with death.
At this critical moment, it severed Alice's rules.
Because Alice wanted to befriend [Takakai].
But with this nameless fragment in control, he wasn't fully "Takakai" anymore.
The wolf-shadow dissolved, its derivative existence crumbling without rules to sustain it.
Alice stared blankly before her expression darkened.
[Why do Alice's friends always hate her? Kumami-san died and still ruins Alice's new friendships. So mean~]
She wrenched her arm back—
SNAP.
Miko's forearm tore off at the elbow, blood spraying Takakai's face.
[Alice just wanted to be Sensei's friend. Why hurt Alice?]
She tilted her head, feigning innocence.
"This isn't 'hurt.' What's coming next will be."
Takakai stabbed his own chest, the blade piercing through to impale the invisible entity behind him.
Kumami's fragment shattered, but its purpose was served:
By playing the "righteous avenger", he'd tainted Alice's friendship ritual with unacceptable elements.
The rescue member was seconds away from breaching the sealed door.
Once reunited, Takakai would seal Alice with his watch and shatter Fujika Middle School's facade.
"You forced Kumami to sacrifice herself. Possessed Miko. Killed me twice in loops you don't remember. I haven't forgotten any of it."
Picking up the severed arm, he reclaimed the toothbrush Alice had placed in its grip.
His torso was half-eaten, organs glistening through ragged wounds. Yet his aura burned hotter.
"I will never accept you, Alice."
"The only thing I'll give you is annihilation. That's your only atonement."
"So tell me—do you still want to be friends with me?"
The taunt hung in the air.
Alice's possessed body locked up, movements turning jerky and stiff.
This mirrored Loop 2's confrontation with the rescue member's red pen—but now, with the half-completed friendship ritual corrupted, Alice's logic short-circuited.
[...]
Silence.
Her systems were overloaded.
Takakai knew it wouldn't last—this Alice was stronger than the dormitory trio. But the bought time was enough. The rescue member was at the door—
CRUNCH.
He swallowed two pills, accelerating regeneration before the feasting entity devoured him whole.
Tap—
A footstep echoed in the rescue member's hearing.
Something was following it.
Takakai whirled the rescue member's view around—
Shirono Rika stood there.
Her skull split down the middle, brain matter blooming like a flower between the halves. Both sides of her face smiled, muscles twitching as tongues writhed behind exposed teeth.
Behind her—
Twenty-two students, all with identical split skulls, all smiling, all advancing.