Creak—
The door opened gently, closed quietly after a moment, then opened again shortly after.
A female orderly walking down the hallway with a small medicine box suddenly froze mid-step, standing completely still. Moments later, hands reached out from a nearby room, grabbed her shoulders, and dragged her inside. After another brief interval, Takakai, Kumami, and Yotsuya Miko emerged calmly from the room, all now dressed in orderly uniforms, leaving behind only the immobilized entity now wearing patient garb.
After multiple collaborations, Takakai and Kumami had become remarkably proficient at the clothes-stealing routine. Kumami even praised Takakai, saying he had the makings of a veteran player - that to become a truly skilled veteran, one must master the T0-level skill of quickly stripping clothes off others and donning them oneself.
This revelation gave Miko quite the mental shock. The perfect image she'd built of Takakai through her inherited memories cracked slightly. And since she'd now participated as an accomplice in this act, wearing stolen clothes herself, she felt an odd sense of belonging to this small team.
As for Takakai? Well, he felt rather proud of the compliment. All that practice stripping clothes off Chika and Maki had finally paid off... though it did make him miss his girlfriends. With them around, the first three loops wouldn't have been so difficult, and his mental state would've been much better.
Sigh, how he missed them. For them, he'd only disappeared for an hour or two, while he'd suffered through multiple loops. But he supposed this was the price for his gains.
Shaking off these thoughts, Takakai refocused on the present.
"So what's next? Should we head to the director's office first?"
After finding an unused small room that seemed unlikely to have visitors, thoroughly checking for hidden threats, and spreading the stolen hallway map on the floor, Takakai sat cross-legged and pointed at the isolated building marked on the map.
"That place does look like it would hold major clues," Kumami replied, lounging casually on the floor with an unlit cigarette in her mouth. "But I checked the floor plans - this hospital has surveillance rooms. While the areas we've been lacked cameras, that special director's office definitely has them, along with some warning system. Charging in blindly would be unwise. If we want to breach it, we first need to confirm what kind of 'identity' can enter there. I doubt regular orderlies would suffice."
"Fair point," Takakai nodded, thinking deeply. "The documents Miko retrieved don't mention anything about it either. If we're investigating 'identities,' maybe we should check the staff cafeteria? Observing who returns to work after meals might reveal who has access to the director's office."
"That approach has merit," Kumami acknowledged, "but entering the cafeteria risks drawing attention and being assigned tasks. Also, I suspect clues in that building might not point to the core Obsession. From what we've seen, many elements of this scenario seem disconnected from the core Obsession, especially based on your earlier investigations. Honestly... I get the sense this scenario could function without that core Obsession, that it might have forcibly inserted itself into a central position through some special circumstances. To find traces of the core Obsession itself, we might need to look elsewhere. My thought... is to temporarily leave this mental hospital and investigate the external ruins, like the Fujisaka Academy remains."
Her well-considered suggestion showed she'd been organizing these thoughts during their journey.
"That makes sense," Takakai agreed with a serious nod, frowning as his eyes darted between the director's office and academy ruins on the map. "But focusing on just one might not leave enough time. According to the orderlies, 'Alice' will arrive for a performance tomorrow. Even with Alice's Obsessions sealed, when tomorrow actually comes, the situation could turn dire - possibly instantly fatal. Hmm... Miko, any thoughts?"
Suddenly shifting focus, Takakai turned to the quiet girl kneeling properly to the side who had been serving as a background decoration until now.
"Eh? Me?"
Miko froze, unprepared to be brought into the decision-making.
"We're completely in the dark right now," Kumami yawned, surprisingly casual despite the gravity of their situation. "Hard to decide on an approach, so more opinions help. So kid, do you lean toward investigating outside or staying in the hospital?"
Me? Offering direction?
Miko tensed. In her view, both Takakai and Kumami were far beyond her league - she'd assumed she should just follow their lead. But if they were asking...
She lowered her head to study the hospital map, then looked out the window at the ruined Fujisaka Academy.
"I... I can't claim to have good ideas... but I feel like if we leave this place, coming back might not be easy."
After long hesitation, she tentatively offered this observation.
"Great, then it's settled - we'll investigate the hospital first," Takakai clapped once decisively. "But as mentioned, with our orderly identities, we shouldn't wander randomly. Let's observe the cafeteria when people head there."
"I'll scout with my personality fragments during this time. We'll stay put here for now," Kumami agreed without hesitation.
Eh? Just like that?
Miko sat stunned, unprepared for how readily they accepted her input.
"Speaking of which," Takakai mused, shifting topics, "from the patient work schedules I saw, orderlies are worked to death - escorting patients everywhere, constant patrols, monitoring during yard time, night shifts... classic corporate slave conditions. Hope no boss orders us around when we hit the cafeteria."
"Tell me about it," Kumami sighed, her expression turning world-weary. "Like my pre-player company boss - always hyping overtime while he drove sports cars and banged foreign models. Then he'd have me make sexy jiggle physics models, dock my pay when they got reported and censored. Fucking bastard."
"Same in my writing days," Takakai commiserated. "Write serious plot? 'Too heavy!' Write slice-of-life? 'Boring, advance plot!' Back to plot? 'Where's the daily life?' Harem story? 'Don't add too many girls!' Introduce female characters? 'Hurry and add more!' Never any peace."
Um... aren't we supposed to be planning our next moves?
High schooler Miko fidgeted awkwardly, lost in this working adults' lament she couldn't fully comprehend.
Though she did notice something - Takakai seemed much more relaxed now.
In the previous two loops, she'd sensed his constant tension, exhaustion, and oppressive stress with no chance to unwind.
But now, his mental state had improved noticeably.
Unaware of Miko's observations, Takakai's thoughts raced elsewhere.
Miko retains loop memories - I've confirmed that.
After their fusion through the flesh instrument, it seemed she could now preserve memories after death like him.
Did the Black Watch recognize us as the same person due to the fusion? If so... if I can develop a reliable method for flesh-spirit fusion with others, I could bring more people into the loops without consuming extra resets - strengthening our forces without wasting wishes.
Even as he kept up the casual banter, his mind buzzed with potential methods.
"The orderly I planted a personality fragment on got captured and taken into the hospital."
Kumami's sudden serious tone snapped the mood.
Through the captured orderly's eyes, she'd seen other orderlies subduing and dragging it back into the patient wards.