Chapter 306 Using This Body as the Prison, Reversing Everything Within This Place

Takumi sank his consciousness into the interior space of the black watch.

Within this boundless dark-red world, he quickly found what he was searching for.

An umbrella, a bone staff, a bowl of meat soup, and a necklace.

The four Obsession Items split apart from the body of [Idol Alice], representing the artificial monster known as Alice herself.

The foundational objects maintaining Fujihana Middle School's Surface Layer. The things sustaining the false appearance of this regional Instance.

Even now, despite already being sealed within the watch's internal space and incapable of causing any harm, they still filled Takumi with overwhelming unease.

Takumi could sense that the moment even one of those four Obsession Items was released from the black watch's seal, the Surface Layer of Fujihana Middle School—which had already disappeared—would rapidly restore itself. Unless it could immediately be brought under control, that outcome was only a matter of time.

Which meant the operation had to be completed in the shortest possible window. The moment those things were released, they had to be controlled immediately.

And the only way to accomplish that…

"Are you ready?"

Holding up the thick spiked needle attached to the device that absorbed flesh and consciousness, Mai asked in a low voice as she aimed it at Takumi's arm.

She did not ask how confident Takumi was. She did not ask whether this device could truly absorb Alice's Obsession Items. Nor did she ask whether Takumi would actually be able to control Alice after absorbing her. In Mai's eyes, none of those questions mattered. As a player, once someone decided to take this kind of action, the danger, the chances of success or failure—those were things they alone had to face. The situation had already reached a deadlock. Rather than worrying endlessly about this or that, it was better to act decisively first.

"Yeah. Go ahead."

Takumi merely nodded lightly. His expression remained perfectly calm, without the slightest ripple.

So Mai immediately drove the thick needle—roughly the size of a little finger and more than ten centimeters long—straight into Takumi's arm.

Dark red blood quickly seeped out.

Yet Takumi did not even frown. He simply maintained his focus, keeping all of his attention fixed on the four seemingly harmless Obsession Items inside the watch space.

The first item he took out was the black umbrella that had killed him during the first loop.

The instant it appeared, Alice's figure emerged from the umbrella. The umbrella itself, which had originally looked perfectly normal, gradually shifted from pitch black into the color of human skin. Beneath the canopy, vague human limbs could even be seen writhing faintly.

[Hehehehe—]

It almost sounded as if the thing were giggling softly.

Takumi suddenly felt a faint sense of disorientation. He was certain the Aberration had already used its illusion ability. Yet under Mai's watchful gaze, no illusion appeared. Nothing obscured either of their vision. Thus, the moment Takumi took the thing out, Mai viciously plunged the device's second needle down into it.

Pshhk—

The writhing human-skin umbrella was pierced with ease.

The device, now itself transformed into an Obsession Item, automatically activated at that moment.

Takumi felt as though something extra had suddenly appeared inside his body. He could feel some incompatible foreign entity writhing and struggling within his flesh and consciousness.

It seemed to be screaming.

Takumi himself took a deep breath, and the expression on his face quickly returned to the same calmness as before.

"No problem?"

The black umbrella had already vanished. Holding the sharp needle in her hand, Mai stared at Takumi as she spoke, fully prepared to blow his head apart the moment he lost control.

"No problem. Continue."

Takumi's voice remained utterly steady. There was no sign whatsoever that an Aberration had just been stuffed inside his body.

The second Obsession Item was the staff made from human bone.

Though the bone staff looked incomparably sturdy, Mai pierced straight through it in a single thrust. Then, amid the roaring of the device, the staff rapidly disappeared. At the same time, Takumi could feel the thing inside him becoming more complete, like a puzzle slowly filling in piece by piece as it grew increasingly powerful.

"Continue."

Takumi's voice remained completely flat as he calmly spoke again.

The third Obsession Item was a bowl of meat soup.

Though it was called meat soup, once the Obsession Item was released, it rapidly swelled outward. Flesh and blood continuously churned and spilled out from within it, as though all of Alice's flesh and internal organs had been stuffed inside.

Without the slightest change in expression, Mai drove the needle into the twisted mass of filth.

Takumi closed his eyes, sensing the monster imprisoned within his body becoming more and more complete. He slowly let out a deep breath.

"Continue…"

The final Obsession Item was a necklace made from Alice's eyes.

Skin, flesh, bones—the first three Obsession Items each corresponded to part of Alice's physical body. But the fourth Obsession Item consisted only of her eyes. Takumi guessed that Alice's abilities likely relied on vision, which meant the "eyes" occupied an extremely important position within her overall composition.

But compared to what he was about to do now, such a minor detail hardly mattered.

There was no longer any need to use the device.

After absorbing the three Obsession Items carrying Alice's existence, Takumi directly swallowed the fourth one whole, forcing the necklace down into his stomach. The four Obsession Items then completely merged together, restoring Alice in her entirety.

Every muscle in his body, every pore, seemed to spasm violently.

The Aberration fused into his body was trying to seize control of Takumi's consciousness and completely destroy his sense of self.

Behind Takumi, the figure of Hirano Sōsuke had already appeared. Dressed in a filthy police uniform and holding a handgun, he stood there silently. Yet unlike the previous three loops, he did not kill Takumi this time. He simply remained motionless where he stood.

Mai silently took a step backward, vigilantly staring at the unmoving Takumi. Even though she was deeply worried and silently cheering him on in her heart, she still had to prepare for the possibility that Takumi's attempt might fail and everything would return to how it was before.

As the only Red Moon-level player currently inside the Instance area, if something really did go wrong, she would have to be the one standing at the very front.

And the only one capable of standing there.

However, this time, perhaps fortune truly was smiling on him.

Takumi stood trembling in place for a long while. In the end, he opened his eyes, let out a long breath, and lifted his head to look toward the courthouse not far away.

"...Let's go."

He was still Takumi.

Even though Alice's voice nearly drowned out all of his senses. Even though the endless twisted hallucinations were on the verge of tearing his nerves apart. Even though an increasingly intense sensation of something trying to seize control of his body was spreading through every inch of him. He still endured. He remained conscious. He maintained absolute control over his own body.

He took a step forward and continued toward his destination.

The figure of Hirano Sōsuke walked at his side, silently following behind him.

At that moment, the victims scattered throughout this distorted region also appeared, silently falling in behind him.

The students in school uniforms whose bodies had already become so twisted that their original appearances were unrecognizable likewise joined the victims, advancing together toward the courthouse.

Mai attached a small ornament to Takumi's body. It was a little trinket that Gotō Hitori had managed to smuggle in using the power of an Obsession Item. With it, other players would regard Takumi as "Gotō No. 1" unless they were inside the Instance and conducted a detailed investigation, preventing him from attracting excessive attention.

Creak—

Takumi pushed open the courthouse doors.

Behind him, the teachers, the researchers, the psychiatric hospital attendants and administrators—all of the Aberrations who had been perpetrators—had already caught up at incredible speed, accompanied by an ever-intensifying wave of coldness.

[Guilty!]

The voice of judgment rang out once more.

[Alice, who was created by Fujihana Middle School.]

[The researchers who turned Fujihana Middle School into a living hell.]

[And all those who aided and abetted evil, who served as Alice's accomplices, who committed atrocities out of greed for Alice's power—they are all guilty!]

Having already received Mai's notification and prepared in advance, the players had begun the trial once again.

And this time, everyone could clearly sense the disturbance spreading through the entire Instance. They knew they were finally walking the correct path.

[Alice hasn't done anything wrong. Alice just wants to make friends.]

Takumi could hear the thing speaking.

He could hear it leisurely speaking from within his own body.

[Harm and death are visible facts. No amount of justification can change the nature of evil deeds.]

[Evil is evil. No matter who commits it, the harm inflicted upon others remains unchanged.]

[You are guilty.]

Takumi could no longer tell whether these were truly the voices of the players or whether something else had mixed into them.

All he could sense was that more and more voices were joining together.

More and more people were speaking in unison, refuting the monster imprisoned within his body.

[Alice doesn't know anything~]

The thing deliberately continued in a playful tone.

[Alice can't make mistakes. Alice just wants to make friends.]

[Everyone knows that Alice has never done anything bad. None of those things had anything to do with Alice.]

[So of course Alice is innocent~]

The girl's voice, and the voices responding to it, no longer seemed entirely synchronized with the proceedings taking place inside the courthouse.

In a moment of clarity, Takumi realized what was happening.

By gathering and imprisoning Alice while the players activated the courthouse, they had essentially brought together two separate sources of power that existed within the Fujihana Middle School Instance.

In a sense, the voices of the players he was hearing were actually the voices of the victims—the murdered students and Hirano Sōsuke.

Meanwhile, Alice's voice represented Alice herself, along with her creators and accomplices—the beings responsible for countless tragedies.

[Alice is guilty.]

[The researchers who created Alice after completely abandoning their humanity are guilty. Those who assisted Alice's crimes are guilty.]

[All of you are guilty and must pay for your actions!]

[Alice is innocent~]

[None of us did anything wrong. Everyone will like us. No one will blame us. That's how everyone is. It's only you few odd ones who insist on being different. You're the ones who are wrong.]

[All of us are innocent, while you slanderers are the ones who committed mistakes. You're the ones who deserve punishment~]

The voices collided against one another.

Takumi felt as though his eardrums were about to tear apart.

The voices on both sides grew increasingly shrill, increasingly piercing, crashing against his nerves and thoughts like an apocalyptic earthquake and tsunami.

The voices belonging to the players and victims gradually began to weaken.

Most of the victims remained silent.

At this point, almost all of the speakers were players. But those players were ultimately outside the Instance. Their projected forms, manifested through borrowed power, simply could not match the strength of Alice and the Aberrations who had already stormed into the courthouse, filling it with their clamor.

[Guilty... gu... in... innocent...]

The situation was slowly reversing.

Step by step, it was returning to the way history had originally unfolded.

The Alice imprisoned within Takumi's body was gradually breaking free of her restraints.

Using the courthouse's judgment ritual itself, she was beginning to escape the Cage that Takumi had imposed upon her.

Were they really going to lose because their side wasn't loud enough?

Takumi's eyes widened.

He had never imagined the ritual would encounter a problem like this.

Struggling desperately against Alice's will, he opened his mouth, wanting to shout at the top of his lungs and join the players' side in condemning Alice.

But before he could do that, Takumi had already sensed the emergence of another force.

[What kind of joke is this? This is absolutely disgusting!]

[Anyone who would idolize someone like that has to be mentally unwell. People like that should all be executed.]

[How could this possibly be ruled innocent? You can't even compare it to the Ayase case! The people involved in the records of this case were already adults! What kind of judge could possibly make a ruling like that!?]

The voices on the players' side were growing louder.

Their momentum was becoming increasingly overwhelming.

What was happening?

The number of players hadn't increased.

Nor could he sense the activation of any particularly powerful Obsession Item.

Then what exactly was this...?

{Takumi-kun, we've removed the supernatural elements from the Fujihana Middle School Alice Case and released the case information to the public. The exposure is increasing right now, and it won't be long before it forms a consensus accepted by the overwhelming majority. How are things on your end? Hold on a little longer!}

Maki's voice suddenly echoed through their mental link.

The power on the players' side, which had gradually been suppressed, began expanding once more.

More voices emerged.

More and more voices began drowning out those on the other side, completely overwhelming the so-called "mainstream" opinions that had once dominated the courtroom decades ago.

Guilty!

More and more people were giving their answer.

More and more people were expressing their position.

Guilty!!

An ever-growing collective awareness began to gather.

Through their manipulation of online platforms and the influence of Obsession Items, the players were consolidating a vast force of public perception, steadily crushing the lingering voices that haunted this place.

Guilty!!!

At last, Alice's voice could no longer be heard.

At last, those noisy, clamorous voices defending Alice, those voices making excuses for themselves, had been completely drowned out.

Not a trace of them remained audible.

In a sense, what had once resembled a proper trial had devolved into little more than a contest between two sides shouting to see who could be louder.

Yet absurdly enough, this crude and direct approach had actually worked.

Perhaps it was because the trial back then had fundamentally been the same.

Alice's supporters had simply shouted louder than the victims, leaving those victims with nothing but silence.

[...I reject this verdict. I refuse to accept it.]

A faint voice mixed itself into the players' chorus.

As Alice's influence weakened and the pressure on him eased, Takumi turned his head.

He saw the phantoms of the victims.

Among those silent figures, he saw one person's lips moving gently.

[Mr. Hirano isn't a criminal. He's a hero. A real hero...]

Another voice joined in.

Takumi saw yet another previously silent figure begin to speak.

[Alice killed my daughter. I don't care why she did it. Murder is murder. She's guilty. There is no reason she should escape punishment.]

[The truly guilty ones are you people—the bastards who enabled Alice!]

[That's complete nonsense! The evidence is right in front of you! You're the criminals who belong in hell!!!]

More and more voices rose up.

Every silent figure lifted their head.

Every silent figure found their voice.

Their voices erupted into a thunderous roar that shook the entire courthouse, sending violent tremors through this shattered and twisted world.

Takumi could still sense Alice.

She should still be saying something.

Whether it was a defense, an excuse, or something else entirely.

She should still be speaking.

But Takumi could no longer hear its voice.

Along with the voices of its supporters. Along with the voices of every Aberration that stood on the side of the perpetrators. At this moment, all of them had become completely inaudible.

The balance had been utterly reversed.

Those evil things had become the silent side.

The conditions had been fulfilled.

Takumi knew that what came next would be the change.

Crack—

A tiny fissure split open across the ground.

Crack—crack—

Countless fractures began spreading in every direction.

Crack—crack—BOOM!!!

Everything was swallowed by those cracks.

Until nothing remained intact.

Until nothing could remain untouched.

Shattering engulfed the entire world in that instant, and with a terrifying roar, destroyed everything.

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