Chapter 308 The Destruction That Awaits All Evil Things

Crimson blood slowly seeped outward.

She couldn't understand.

Pain itself meant nothing to her.

Born from endless bloodshed and death, no amount of suffering—no matter how cruel—could move her.

What she could not understand was this.

She could not understand that person.

When that figure pushed through the ranks of her fanatical supporters, knocked down the security personnel, and finally reached her...

The only possibility she had ever imagined was that he was simply another fan whose violent tendencies had spiraled into obsession.

Just another fanatic pursuing her with extreme devotion.

But what that figure did next...

Was draw a handgun and pull the trigger at her.

Bang!

The gunshot rang out.

Alice stood there blankly for a moment before realizing what had happened.

She took a step backward.

Then two more bullets punched through her body.

Her eyes widened as she collapsed onto the stage.

Meanwhile, the figure had already stepped over her corpse and sprinted toward the rear of the stage, with absolutely no intention of sparing her another glance.

The furious roars and screams of the fans.

The sound of pursuit.

The crack of gunfire.

Amid the chaos, he engaged in a fierce chase with her fans.

But for Alice, her consciousness remained frozen on those three bullets that had pierced her body.

Frozen on the moment when he had pointed the gun at her.

Why?

Alice couldn't understand.

Everyone liked her.

Everyone was deeply infatuated with her.

No one had ever shown her disgust or rejection.

All her life, everything had gone smoothly.

She had never encountered any real obstacles.

Never met anyone who harbored genuine malice toward her.

Even the relatives and friends of her victims—those who could never love her after losing someone precious—were incapable of developing truly intense hatred toward her.

That was her talent.

That was her power.

A gift she had possessed since the moment of her birth.

To her, it was as natural as breathing.

So why...

Why did someone like this exist?

She couldn't understand.

She simply couldn't understand at all...

She still remembered that night.

After losing her Living Body, the Aberration side of her existence had begun growing stronger.

As a result, she had no choice but to return to Fujihana Middle School.

Return to the place where she had been born.

To ensure she could fully regain control over Fujihana Middle School, she manipulated several selected fans into dismembering her body and hiding the pieces across four different areas of the school.

And during that process, she recalled the assassin's identity.

She learned that he was actually a survivor of the experiments conducted at Fujihana Middle School.

Then he came after her.

He pursued her all the way to the school.

One by one, he tracked down the four fans and entered the four underground research sectors beneath Fujihana Middle School.

As for the Aberrations that had begun awakening and becoming active again with Alice's return...

Hirano Sōsuke had encountered most of them during his years as a student.

Because of that, dealing with them wasn't particularly difficult for him.

At most, they could delay him for a while.

He eliminated the first fan.

Then the second.

Then the third...

Until he faced the very last fan, when some abnormal power finally began to manifest.

That was when he realized Alice's power was affecting his perception, subtly and steadily eroding his mind.

Bang!

Yet he pulled the trigger without the slightest hesitation.

[Why don't you like Alice?]

At last, she voiced the question that had been troubling her.

Compared to the pain of her own death, compared to the casualties among her fans, this was what confused Alice the most.

[I will never like you, and I will never become your friend. The only reason I stand here is to destroy you, to ensure you can never harm anyone again. There is no other possibility.]

Sōsuke answered in a cold, indifferent tone.

[Hehehe, but Alice wants to be friends with you. Let's be friends together.]

At that time, she still had not realized what made him different. She simply intensified her power, invading his mind even more fiercely, trying to completely break him down and turn him into something no different from her other fans.

But she failed.

Even for a survivor who had escaped from Fujihana Middle School and possessed some resistance, no one should have been able to remain rational after such careful and relentless mental erosion.

Yet her efforts truly failed.

That man remained standing.

His mind was like steel.

No matter how much power she exerted, she could not bring him down.

She could not transform him.

[Why can't you become Alice's friend?]

She asked again.

Bang!

He did not answer.

Instead, he fired two more shots, making sure the last fan was truly dead.

[Everyone wants to be Alice's friend. Alice wants to be everyone's friend too. Why can't you?]

Her voice came accompanied by overwhelming hallucinations that continuously ravaged his senses.

Yet he remained standing there coldly, without the slightest trace of wavering.

[The only thing I will ever do... is destroy you.]

He spoke into the surrounding darkness.

[Even if I don't yet know how to fight someone like you, who has no body and exists only as consciousness.]

[I will still destroy you. I will eradicate you completely, the last remnant of Fujihana Middle School.]

[You monster who cannot understand what a real friend is, who cannot understand emotions or humanity, who knows nothing but cruelty. Destruction is the only ending you deserve.]

He tried to search for the scattered pieces of Alice's corpse, but under the influence of her hallucinations, he could no longer find where those four fragments had gone.

As for Alice, who could not understand his anger or resolve in the slightest, she no longer bothered hiding her confusion.

[Why destroy Alice? Alice has always been a good child.]

[Alice only did what everyone told her to do. Alice was only trying to make friends with everyone.]

[Besides, you can't destroy Alice. You can't even leave this place. If you die here, you'll become just like the other students. And if that happens, you'll be even less capable of destroying Alice.]

Those voices entered his ears.

The voices he had long expected and prepared for.

Along with even more violent hallucinations that tore at his thoughts, along with countless images and screams of the dead Aberrations, they assaulted his consciousness without end.

Once again, he saw those dead students.

Once again, he returned to those days when he had been powerless, when every day had been a desperate struggle for survival, praying that he would not be chosen next.

Those nightmare years.

He had spent many years trying to escape them.

Yet he had never truly succeeded.

But now, standing before that nightmare once more, he realized he did not actually need to run away.

These things were not as frightening as he had believed.

As long as he was prepared, there was nothing left for him to fear.

And so, before the full force of Alice's power, he merely smiled.

There was not the slightest trace of fear in him.

He raised his gun toward the darkness ahead and answered in a loud, unwavering voice.

[Go ahead and make excuses. Go ahead and spout your nonsense. Go ahead and hide behind whatever justifications you want.]

[Even if I die here, I will never become like the others. My corpse, my consciousness, and my obsession will continue hunting you. They will continue trying to destroy you.]

[I will never be your friend. I will only be your enemy. I will be the one who judges you, the one who kills you. Other than death, there is no way for you to atone for your crimes. That is the only reason I came here. The only reason I stand before you now.]

She could not understand such a person.

Alice could not understand someone who hated her so completely, someone with whom mutual understanding was utterly impossible.

In her understanding of the world, everyone could become her "friend."

But this man—

A man immune to her powers.

A man unafraid of death.

Unafraid of pain.

A man whose resolve had become part of his very obsession—

Completely shattered that understanding.

And so, that night, the contradiction within her own cognition caused her to temporarily crash.

Only because of that did Sōsuke manage to escape Fujihana Middle School alive.

Even so, his mind suffered severe damage, to the point that he could barely remember the confrontation afterward.

From that day onward, a flaw appeared in Alice's Horror Story rules.

As her own perception became distorted, there came to exist people who were "unable to become friends."

But that was fine.

People like that were rare.

There was only one of him.

Everyone else—

Everyone besides him—

Still liked Alice.

They still wanted to be Alice's friends.

So if she simply ignored that one insignificant exception, wouldn't everything be fine?

Bang!

The gunshot rang out once more.

Amid the shattered ruins, Sōsuke fired again, blasting through Alice's head.

Muttering softly, she staggered backward and collapsed heavily onto the ground.

Just like a living person, blood gradually pooled beneath her body.

Yet she still struggled.

She still writhed.

She still refused to die.

[Alice... only wanted friends...]

Once again, she painfully forced herself upright, trying to reach out toward Takumi.

Bang!

A third gunshot rang out, knocking her back to the ground.

[Alice... didn't do anything wrong...]

But she still refused to give up.

She still tried to rise again.

Bang!

Another gunshot echoed out.

This time, cracks began spreading across her body. Thick black blood seeped from them—not the same blood as before, but a foul black fluid overflowing with twisted wails, reflecting the images of innocent victims struggling and dying within its depths.

[Ali... ce...]

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang—

The barrage of bullets finally shattered her body completely, breaking apart the beautiful and perfect shell that covered her.

From the black blood, twisted flesh howled and writhed.

Amid the scattered remains covering the ground, something began to rise.

There was no trace of beauty left.

Only a hideous and revolting monstrosity remained.

At that moment, the creature opened its enormous maw toward Takumi, ready to devour him whole.

[AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH—]

Its shrill scream no longer carried even the slightest hint of beauty.

Pure malice radiated from the abomination.

Its true nature was laid bare—a thing that desired nothing but slaughter and torment.

This was what she had always been.

This was her true form.

The final product of Fujihana Middle School's research.

The ultimate result born from countless sins.

Once the perfect exterior known as "Alice" was stripped away, her real appearance was nothing more than a grotesque monster so ugly it made one's stomach churn.

Takumi could see countless malformed heads writhing across its body.

The teachers.

The researchers.

The fanatics.

The politicians.

The military officials.

Every person who had enabled the evil of Fujihana Middle School to spread.

Every person who had helped those atrocities grow.

Every person who had profited from them and lost themselves in the process.

All of them had gathered within the malformed monster known as Alice.

They were the ones who had created Alice.

And in truth, Alice herself was nothing more than the fusion of all their sins.

Bang!

The final gunshot rang out.

The monster's body shattered layer by layer.

Takumi turned his head.

All he saw was the handgun lying on the ground, and the retreating figure of Sōsuke disappearing into the darkness.

He bent down and picked up the gun.

In a daze, the handgun vanished.

At the same moment, the Rescue Team Badge pinned to Takumi's chest underwent another transformation.

After examining it carefully, he discovered that in addition to his original two summon slots, he could now summon a third rescue team member—a rescue worker dressed in a police uniform.

Was this...

A lingering imprint born from Hirano Sōsuke's obsession with helping and saving others?

The presence of the police officer had already disappeared.

Throughout the ruins, the countless mangled corpses vanished as well.

The roaring sounds were becoming increasingly violent.

Miko opened her eyes from unconsciousness and struggled to sit up.

Then she saw the flesh monster lying on the ground, crumbling apart as it slowly faded away.

She also saw the umbilical cords connected to the creature snapping one after another.

A shrill scream suddenly echoed overhead.

The breaking of those umbilical cords and the disappearance of those Aberrations seemed to be inflicting tremendous damage upon whatever existed within Takamagahara.

Only after Hirano Sōsuke—the core obsession of Fujihana Middle School—found peace and faded away did those things seem to completely lose their ability to influence this place.

All they could do was let out despairing screams as they faced a reality they could no longer change.

At long last, everything here had finally reached its end.

"Hm?"

It seemed there was still something left behind.

Takumi stepped forward toward the corpse, which was already on the verge of completely disintegrating.

Within the remains of the monster, he found a door.

A door marked:

[Experimental Subject Storage Room]

He reached out and grasped the handle, only to discover that it was locked.

After a moment's thought, Takumi took out the Blood Key and inserted it into the keyhole.

Click.

The door unlocked.

Pushing it open, he stepped inside.

Beyond the doorway was a pure white square room no larger than ten square meters.

There was a person inside.

A girl with long golden hair, a small and frail frame, and aqua-blue eyes.

She was beautiful.

But she possessed none of that maddening, supernatural charm.

One of her eyes was missing.

Her face was covered in scars.

Her right arm had been severed at the shoulder.

Both of her legs were gone.

The little finger on her left hand was missing.

The stench of decay clung to her entire body.

Her hair was matted with dried blood, and patches of her scalp appeared to have been torn away by force.

The moment Takumi entered, the girl shrank back.

She curled up farther into the corner.

Yet the expression on her face was not one of fear.

It held only profound confusion.

[Alice will behave.]

Takumi heard the girl mutter blankly.

[Alice will listen to the teachers. Alice will listen to the adults. Alice will listen to everyone.]

[Don't hit Alice. Don't take Alice's things away anymore. Alice will learn how to make friends. Alice will do the right thing.]

[Don't hurt Alice. Don't hurt Alice. It hurts so much. Alice doesn't want it to hurt anymore.]

This...

There was none of Alice's madness or distortion here.

Nor was there any supernatural power at work.

What remained was merely the lingering shadow of an obsession.

What Takumi was seeing and sensing was nothing more than the faint afterimage left behind by an incredibly weak obsession.

Researchers emerged from behind him.

They grabbed the trembling girl and dragged her out of the small room.

Needles pierced her eye.

Blades cut into her flesh.

Fragmented, distorted voices poured into her ears.

The torment continued without end.

Body and mind alike were subjected to relentless abuse.

Until she finally died.

Until the little girl stopped breathing.

Then she was discarded.

She was no longer needed.

Because those people had already extracted what they wanted from her.

They had obtained the prototype of the thing they had pinned all their hopes on.

The thing that would go on to destroy countless lives.

The thing called Alice.

And so she was abandoned in this room.

A room that would never again be opened.

There she rotted in silence.

Until nothing remained but bones.

And not once did anyone return to open the door.

"...Another little girl, huh? Seriously... next time around, make sure you're born somewhere better."

Takumi let out a quiet sigh and stepped forward.

Then he gently lifted the shattered remains into his arms.

This obsession was simply too weak.

So weak that Takumi could barely even sense its existence.

As he walked out of the room, the white chamber began to decay alongside the monster's remains.

Together, they crumbled.

Together, they broke apart.

Miko froze for a moment when she saw what Takumi was carrying in his arms. Then, through her own perception, she saw what had happened in the past, and her expression dimmed.

"Hey! What are you two standing around for?! Get over here already!!!"

Mai's voice rang out from the distance.

Takumi and Miko turned their heads and saw her standing at the only structure left intact amid the ruins—the front gate of Fujihana Middle School.

At the same time, sinister energy began gathering once more throughout the surrounding wreckage.

Although Sōsuke's final shot had nearly destroyed Alice and blown apart all the Aberrations remaining within the Instance, those creatures possessed an immortal nature. And now that the Instance had entered the final countdown before destruction, they were regenerating at an insane speed under the influence of their extreme madness. It would not be long before they had fully recovered.

Looking down, Takumi found that the skeleton he had just carried out had already vanished without a trace.

He turned toward Miko.

The girl immediately understood what he meant. Without the slightest hesitation, she stepped forward, wrapped her arms around his neck, and jumped into his embrace.

That feeling of perfect understanding between them was honestly pretty nice.

"Alright, I'm going to speed up!"

Filthy black blood surged up from the ruins.

But Takumi had already burst forward, not allowing even a single hand reaching out from the blood to brush against the corner of his clothes.

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