The expulsion notice felt almost weightless in Takakai's hand.
The pen tip touched the paper's surface, then slid swiftly across it, leaving behind ink strokes that formed distinct shapes and characters.
[Hachiya Chiyo]
It took Takakai less than a second to write this name on the "Student Expulsion Notice."
According to the so-called "Watanabe," simply writing a name on this document with the required signatures could allow players to escape this place. The explanation sounded plausible enough—except Takakai would never fall for such an obvious trap. He had already seen through this entity's true nature and suspected the potential dangers hidden within this signature mechanism.
Merely helping players escape was never the goal of these Takamagahara remnants. As a top-tier Crimson Moon dungeon, the "School Horror Tales" had been repeatedly explored and partially conquered by numerous player teams, with some core grudge items even being seized. During this process, it would have been easy for Takamagahara's entities to possess players. Yet according to Kumami's observations, they still couldn't escape—proving they needed different conditions to break free.
Analyzing Kita Ikuyo's situation further clarified this: Takamagahara believed that once this girl left the dungeon, they too could escape their prison. Currently, ikuyo existed in a half-human, half-specter state after being parasitized. This suggested that sending back players who had been contaminated by spectral forces—those transformed into neither fully alive nor fully dead states—was the key to these monsters returning to the real world.
Therefore, using the principal's office signature likely wouldn't result in a clean escape, but rather infection by spectral forces or even direct possession. Knowing this, Takakai decided to write the name of the dungeon's final boss instead—let's see who would come out on top in this confrontation.
[You—why would you—?!]
Takakai heard the thing attached to Hayasaka let out a piercing shriek.
But clearer than that scream was a man's dark, gloating laughter. The signature Takakai had written on the notice began bleeding, and he felt something seep out from the paper, reaching for him with one hand while its other hand stretched toward the other name written there—
[■■■■■—!!?]
This was the first time Takakai had ever heard a specter emit such an earsplitting scream.
Crimson hues instantly flooded the entire office.
A small girl with an expressionless face appeared in the room, a cleaver dangling from her hand.
Takakai could see the man cowering in the corner—a pitiful figure who had wet himself in terror, still desperately trying to scramble backward despite having nowhere to go.
A portrait of this man hung on the wall, showing him in military uniform with a smug, self-satisfied smile.
He had been one of Satou's trusted associates in the military, assigned as the school's nominal principal to oversee teachers, researchers, students... and test subjects.
For him, it had been a wonderful time—he had always enjoyed tormenting ignorant children. And the expulsion notices in his hands represented the desperate hope of many suffering students for salvation.
Of course, that salvation never came.
Students who received expulsion notices would only be sent—along with their families—into the school's underground incinerators. And thanks to the principal's particular tastes, most victims remained fully conscious throughout the process.
Now, the blood-drenched girl smiled at him.
She didn't cut him with her cleaver.
[Principal~ won't you go keep them company in the fire?]
As flames engulfed him, the man's agonized screams and desperate pounding against the furnace glass mirrored his victims' final moments—until at last, he too fell silent.
Blood dripped from the ceiling.
The room's lighting grew dimmer, yet the stench of blood became so thick it was nauseating.
Takakai could feel the flesh-corrosion rules had stopped—replaced by the presence of this petite girl barely over 120cm tall, now turning her gaze toward him. Her originally soft features were now distorted into a grin, all traces of human reason and emotion erased, leaving only pure madness.
His body was stiffening.
If he didn't act now, death was certain.
"Hah..."
In one smooth motion, Takakai's pistol materialized in his hand again.
But this time, the barrel wasn't aimed at the twisted specter—but at the golden-haired girl beside him, who was nearly collapsing from the oppressive spectral aura.
"Eh?"
Hayasaka's eyes widened in confusion at Takakai's action.
She had no time to process further before Takakai pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Bang!
The gunshot rang clear—yet no wound appeared on Hayasaka's body.
But from behind her came the sound of stumbling footsteps.
Something had been forcibly detached from her, the sealing bullet's power breaking the possession.
For a fleeting instant, Takakai glimpsed an umbilical cord—and a vague humanoid figure collapsing to the ground, connected by a translucent purple cord.
In the next moment, Chiyo was there—her face twisted in that grotesque grin—standing before the figure and raising her cleaver for a downward swing.
[AAAAAHHH—!]
This scream sounded far more human. Almost pleasant to hear.
Just as Takakai predicted: compared to players, entities from Takamagahara triggered Chiyo's killing priorities much higher. Even with Takakai already marked for death, she would immediately switch targets to execute the intruders from that accursed place.
This was their only chance to escape.
Takakai grabbed Hayasaka's hand, pulling her into his arms as he rushed out of the office into the hallway. On the way, he snatched several blank expulsion notices, noting with surprise that these could be stored in his watch—apparently they were consumable grudge items.
The hallway now pulsed with crimson light as the Butcher's massive frame approached from the distance. Without Chiyo by its side, Takakai could finally observe the differences from their previous encounters:
Several obvious gunshot wounds
Blackened, rotting flesh around the injuries
A face seemingly destroyed by some corrosive substance
Its movements were stiff, like a marionette on strings.
It could see Takakai and Hayasaka clearly, yet didn't transform them into dogs like its surface-layer counterpart would have.
This wasn't the same Butcher from the surface.
This was just a corpse—
A corpse that had been dead for some time, that should no longer be moving.
A corpse that a girl who had lost everything pretended was still alive.
Only with Chiyo absent could Takakai perceive its true nature.
Only now could he verify the authenticity of one of the dungeon's clues:
[Clue 4: I need nothing. I'm no lesser than anyone.]
A girl who truly needed nothing wouldn't reanimate a dead body to keep her company, wouldn't pretend it could still pat her head.
She was play-acting at normalcy, lying to herself that everything was fine.
Which meant she still yearned.
She still needed someone to truly understand her, support her, care for her.
This clue—posed like a self-affirmation—was undoubtedly false.
The core grudge of the girl named Hachiya Chiyo was likely just that simple.
Thud—
The moment Takakai's foot landed, he was already charging toward the stench-ridden Butcher.
"Mr. Takakai?!"
Hayasaka—already terrified of the monster—shivered violently at his actions, nearly fainting on the spot.
"Don't worry. I'm here."
Takakai's calm reply came as he closed the distance to the Butcher.
From up close, Takakai could now see a third type of wound on the Butcher's body—likely from bayonets, and judging by the patterns, probably multiple thrusts simultaneously.
He could almost picture the scene: soldiers shooting the Butcher, moving in to stab him with bayonets after wounding him, then finally mutilating his face post-mortem.
What he couldn't determine was the context—was this disposal of a failed experiment? Or deliberate torment to provoke Chiyo?
Regardless, the Butcher's death had certainly occurred before Chiyo destroyed the school. Probably after the orphanage massacre too.
As these thoughts flashed through his mind, Takakai closed within three meters of the Butcher.
Even at this distance, his body showed no signs of transformation—no indication the rules were affecting him.
So in the next instant—
Takakai reached out and grabbed the stiffly moving corpse.
And stored it in his watch.
"It actually worked..."
Even Takakai was momentarily stunned. He hadn't expected the Butcher's corpse to qualify as a grudge item, having mentally prepared to carry the body while fleeing.
The moment the corpse disappeared, the entire hallway convulsed violently.
Everything grew indistinct, as if some foundational support had been removed.
Just like in the surface layer, the [Butcher]'s presence had served as a stabilizer here too—exactly as Takakai had anticipated.
An earsplitting shriek came from behind.
Turning, Takakai saw the grotesquely grinning girl materialize instantly before him.
Pain flared—
His abdomen was pierced, a wound nearly bisecting him gushing blood.
As Chiyo raised her hand for the killing blow—
The crimson hallway disintegrated.
Everything dissolved into absolute darkness.