Under the bright lights, the once-dilapidated hallway had now been restored to a pristine state.
All signs of damage had vanished without a trace.
An overwhelming sensation of being watched suddenly intensified.
So it's here?
Takakai already knew what was locking onto him now.
[The Elephant Principal]—the entity he hadn't yet faced head-on since entering Fujika Middle School. Miko had always harbored a deep fear of this thing, so Takakai had decided to tread carefully, avoiding provoking it. But now, he had failed to evade it.
He turned his head toward the end of the hallway.
There stood Alice, her hand resting on the light switch, watching him.
If I had a gun, at this distance, I could easily... No, now's not the time for that.
He had to escape—immediately—and vanish from that thing's line of sight.
Without Miko's visual assistance, Takakai couldn't even confirm the creature's exact location. No, he could confirm it. Because right now, in the principal's office on the seventh floor, three screens had lit up, displaying his own image.
Keeping the second rescue team member stationed in the office was the right call. Now, I have to—
[Attention: Student Takakai Kai of Class 2-15, report to the Punishment Room immediately!]
A crisp announcement echoed through the hallway.
All of Takakai's movements came to an abrupt halt.
Like a puppet controlled by strings, his body stiffly turned and began marching back the way he came, toward the staircase.
He had lost control of his own body.
His breathing became unnaturally rhythmic, no longer subject to his will.
Even his thoughts grew sluggish, as if his mind could no longer focus on anything beyond [obeying the order].
One step. Another. Each stride perfectly identical.
In his dazed state, he caught a glimpse of a figure trailing behind him.
[How pitiful, Sensei. Do you know what's about to happen to you?]
Her laughter dripped with malice.
[You already figured out it's Principal Fujii, didn't you? After all, you seem to have some kind of mental link with those two things. Are they your puppets? Your slaves? Or something else? A "hero" who manipulates such things—how hypocritical. Or are you just a liar who preaches one thing and does another?]
[No, no. The weaker one was a true scumbag in life, so using it isn't so bad. But the stronger one... it really was a good person, wasn't it? And it willingly let you control it. Ugh, that's even worse. Even in death, it refused to give up its so-called "righteous cause," willingly erasing its own consciousness until only a hollow shell remained. Don't you think that's just boring, Sensei?]
Her voice carried a mocking lament.
[Alice]hated Howard.
After Takakai had exposed her true nature, she no longer bothered hiding her malice.
She despised people like Howard—those who would sacrifice their lives to save others, those who channeled their deepest obsessions into vengeance against evil, who would rather be torn apart than let darkness prevail.
Why did she harbor such intense hatred for them?
Takakai suddenly recalled the corpse he'd seen near the underground platform.
That dead man had been one of Alice's fans during her idol days.
From what he'd pieced together, [Idol Alice] had treated all her fans as [friends]. It wasn't hard to imagine what she'd done to those adoring followers beneath her saccharine facade.
But that fan had been shot.
Bullets had entered from behind.
Two to the head, one to the chest—a Mozambique Drill.
Someone armed had broken into Fujika Middle School's abandoned underground facility and executed Alice's fan.
Who was that shooter?
Could the person Alice despised be that mysterious gunman?
Takakai struggled to think.
But his mind grew slower, heavier. Soon, only the instinct to [obey] remained.
I can't let this happen.
I have to... break free...
He was still conscious. He wasn't completely helpless yet. He had to act now—
[Alice] plucked the Rescue Team badge from Takakai's chest, opened a window, and tossed it outside like trash.
Without the badge's supernatural reinforcement, Takakai's thoughts dulled further. His body no longer felt like his own—he could barely sense his limbs, as if his mind and flesh were separating.
Am I dying?
He could only vaguely tell that he was descending the stairs.
The [Alice]-possessed Miko skipped alongside him, humming cheerfully.
The tune was familiar—one he'd heard many times before.
[Stepped on the kitty~]
[Stepped on the kitty~]
[Stepped on the napping kitty~]
The song conjured vivid images.
A golden-haired girl with inhuman beauty, gleefully grinding a kitten beneath her shoe, dancing in a pool of blood.
The sheer joy on her face as she extinguished life.
Unlike any villain Takakai had encountered before, [Alice] radiated a disturbing purity.
A pure delight in the act of killing.
A pure revelry in others' pain and despair.
Not for wealth, not for power, not for any tangible gain—just... because it pleased her.
In his fading consciousness, he glimpsed something deeper.
[Alice] walking through fields of mutilated corpses.
[Alice] silently observing countless executions.
[Alice] growing up in this hellish school, her childhood shaped by cruelty, her very being forged from the suffering of others.
[You saw it, didn't you, Sensei? Not as clearly as little Miko or me, but you saw enough. You understand now, don't you?]
The girl beside him giggled.
[This is who Alice is. The idol everyone loves. The Alice who just wants to be friends with everyone.]
[It's such a shame we couldn't be friends, Sensei. Why did you have to be so unfun? Most people wouldn't choose that, you know.]
She twirled around him, her voice singsong.
[When others are in trouble, people pretend not to see. If it affects them, they scold the victim for being a nuisance. But when they cause problems, suddenly the world is unfair. Jealousy over what others have. Resentment toward neighbors whose children outperform theirs. A thousand excuses to avoid responsibility—even blaming firefighters for "disturbing the peace" while rescuing someone.]
[Everyone acts in self-interest. Sacrificing for strangers without personal gain? That's wrong. People like that are freaks—outcasts. They end up alone, struggling just to survive.]
[And you, Sensei... you weren't like that originally, were you? You have strong desires—you like pretty young girls, you're controlling, you don't hesitate to crush threats. You should have been like everyone else. So why say those things to Alice? Why become so unfun?]
[Were you just trying to make Alice angry so you wouldn't have to be her friend? If that's all, Alice can forgive you. It's not that big a deal, after all.]
Her fingers brushed his cheek, her tone gentle, as if indulging a child's tantrum.
Which floor am I on now?
Takakai's vision blurred, but based on his earlier pace, he guessed they'd reached the first floor—or perhaps were descending underground.
Click—
The girl pressed something on the wall.
Takakai's body lurched forward into deeper darkness.
I thought the elevator was the only way down. So there's a hidden staircase too? Damn it, I can't see what she activated, but there's definitely a new set of stairs now.
I can't keep going... I have to resist...
His Blessings wouldn't respond.
His body was no longer his to command.
Just staying conscious took every ounce of willpower.
[The Elephant Principal]'s power was terrifying. Even with the goat mask, Takakai doubted he could have resisted. The principal's authority in this dungeon likely ranked just below Alice's—no identity here was safe from its control.
Step by step, he entered the underground level.
Dim yellow lights flickered on.
Cold chains rattled.
Takakai's body was hoisted into the air, a single spotlight illuminating him in the darkness.
[Student Takakai Kai: Failure to attend designated classes. One disciplinary mark. Twenty strikes.]
The iron rod fell.
Once. Twice. By the fifth strike, his back was a bloody mess.
The blows kept coming—chest, abdomen, legs, feet.
By the tenth strike, over half his ribs had shattered.
The fourteenth strike pulverized one knee and shattered an ankle.
A brutal strike to the head made one eye bulge grotesquely, blood streaming down his face.
By the twentieth strike, all his limbs were broken, most ribs fractured, internal organs hemorrhaging, half his vision gone.
"Cough... ugh..."
Still alive.
Despite twenty full-force strikes from a solid iron rod, Takakai clung to life.
A sliver of control returned to his body.
But his mind was failing—the head injury had taken a severe toll. Dizziness and pain warped his perception. He couldn't tell if he was still in Fujika Middle School or trapped in some endless nightmare.
He dragged himself forward with one arm.
Then—a small foot pressed down on his back.
[Even like this, you're still alive, Sensei. So tenacious.]
[But it's hopeless. No one survives these injuries. What's the point of struggling for these last moments?]
[Unless... you still have a way out? You did steal Alice's friend and pull out that little thing Alice had never seen before. Things you shouldn't have been able to do.]
She leaned down, pressing her cheek against his bloodied face, uncaring of the mess. Then, lips brushing his ear, she whispered:
[Hey, Sensei.]
[Tell Alice how you did it.]
[Do that, and Alice will let you live. Okay~?]