The school is the primary filter that blocks the monsters that are infesting the outside.
It was neither more nor less than that.
Even during my school days, I didn't particularly like school.
...But what is this feeling?
Why am I angry?
If Mary's stage is being moved to school, shouldn't I be afraid of Mary recovering her power?
However, strength started flowing into my hands.
Apparently, school ant more to .
"This is a precious place for ."
A place for mories with the children.
"...So?"
Mary responded coldly.
"So, give it back right now, you damn bitch!!!]
I lost my temper and rushed at Mary, attacking her.
Mary, who had regained her power, evade my attack with greater precision and speed.
Then she manipulated the vines to restrain my body.
Being lost in anger, I was easily caught.
Because I was restrained by the joints, I couldn't use my strength.
Mary appeared to prefer being sure, so only after she pinned to the hallway floor that she stopped floating and ca down.
"Urgh...!"
"Ella... It's no use. This is Mary's stage now."
"Let ... Go!"
I spoke, knowing it wouldn't work.
Like a child.
Even if I was an adult on the inside, it was nowhere to be found.
I barely regained my senses and tried to move to another mirror in the school, but it didn't work.
"It won't work. Ella. All the mirrors in the school were eroded by vines. Ella's mirror movent is annoying..."
"Shut up...!"
"Ella's mansion still has a mirror. Why don't you run away? You could just run away to the mansion... Is school that important to you?"
Every single word from Mary shook my mind.
The more I was driven to a crisis, the more desperately I tried to get out.
I was annoyed that I even bothered to explain it to Mary.
"It's annoying! Why is there such a difference even though we're both bosses! The mirror is older than the phone, so it has its own roots too!"
"Ah... Ella is angry again. Shut up. Mary doesn't like noise. But Mary is a good monster. She'll end it painlessly..."
Bzzt...
[Four... Four... Four... Four... Four...Four...]1
As Mary released her supernatural power, the speakers on the school ceiling activated.
A telephone is a machine that transmits sound.
It was going to slowly kill by connecting it to a broadcast speaker and sent out a cursed voice suggesting death.
[Four... Four... Four... Four... Four...Four...Four...]
My heart starts beating faster because of the curse. My head gets hot. A slight taste of blood began to waft from my mouth.
Mary whispers.
"You're lost, Ella. Just like Mary."
Am I really going to die like this? Why did I even ca into this ga?
To die in vain while playing a ga.
It's not even a funny joke.
What if this was all a dream?
"Getting lost and trembling with longing and fear, desperately looking for soone. Perhaps, Ella, isn't that how everyone feels before they die?"
Ah, yes, a dream.
If this was all a dream, like at the end of Alice in Wonderland, I'd wake up and play this ga again.
If that's the reality... If it's such a reality...
I don't like that either.
I laughed bitterly. Even if I die, I want this place to be real.
I quietly closed my eyes, conscious of the rose necklace the children gave .
I wanted to keep my promise.
[Four... Four... Four... Four... "One. Two. Three..." Four...]
"?!"
"?!"
A strange thing happened.
Soone else's voice ca through the speaker.
Did they interrupt the voice of the curse...? Besides, it's a very familiar voice.
It's Ha-rim's!
["One. Two. Three..." Four... "One. Two. Three..." Four... "One. Two. Three..." Four...]
The speaker's curse is weakening.
What happened? This thod was not even in the strategy of the ga!
...I think I know.
A gimmick-type curse that amplifies the power of the curse by repeating the ominous number 4.
By inserting another number in the middle, it weakens the aning of the act of repeating itself.
The act of repeating an ominous number has converted into an act of counting.
With that, the curse has lost its identity.
"Ella! Are you listening? I'm sorry for not following your words! But we're in the sa club. With Ella being apart it feels a bit off... Hehe! You know what I an, right?"
It would be dangerous for the children to be here... It's such a bad situation, so why am I so relieved?
Fools are incontrollable. Especially if the fool is in an equal relationship.
Mary murmurs.
"Ella's longing (death) has faded... What a sha."
Mary swung her knife at my head. Oh no. I should have sohow cut off the vines!
Clank-!
Woah. I though the knife would cut my head in two, but what I heard was an unexpectedly tallic sound.
When I opened my eyes that reflexively closed, I saw Suho holding his shield in front of .
"Suho..."
"Ella, you're always strong, but sotis it seems like you could use so help."
Suho skillfully used the shield to the extent that he could not be compared to the old him. It was like a wall that didn't move even though he dodges Mary's attacks as much as possible.
"I've seen you distant from the others before. It seems that it wasn't an illusion that you looked lonely."
Was I like that? I don't rember...
"Did you actually know that soday it would turn out like this?"
"..."
"Fighting alone, I an."
Kyeong-min ca next to and said.
"Hey, Ella. Just as you protect us, we want to protect you too. Suho and Eun-jeong too. I've long forgotten the day we first t."
"That's right. Ella is our friend! I... I'm scared, but I want to stay by your side!"
Eun-jeong also spoke, with them talking one after another like a boy's cartoon.
I was inexhaustibly ashad, but I decided to not show it.
I tore off the vine with my teeth and stoop up. Then I made a joke for on reason.
"Kyeong-min, is it pretty? Is Ella pretty?"
"What?!"
"You're hesitating? Didn't you say Ella's eyes were pretty? You're such a flirt!"
"Haa... Seriously... Aren't you too easygoing..!"
I smiled lightly.
Mary said bluntly, as if offended by my appearance.
"Even if the number increases, nothing will change, Ella. Mary regained her strength and Ella is still weak."
"Huh? I can't properly hear soone who has no friends."
"..."
Mary attacked even more violently.
Suho focused on defense, and Kyeong-min's chain was effective against Mary, who was light despite her high strength.
Mary, unable to inflict significant damage, cast a wide area curse, but when Eun-jeong shook the bell, it was purified.
"Tsk."
When Mary gestures, the vines aim at the kids. I cut them right away.
The stage gimmicks are clear in my head.
If we focus only on defense, we won't be defeated.
If Jas and Maria succeed in the house robbing, it's our victory!
"Ella. You're hopeful, but you're an idiot. Even if Ella's strength is perfect, Mary can still kill everyone in an instant. In other words, it's a matter of ti."
"You are the idiot, Mary."
POV Switch - 3rd Person
Mary tilted her head and raised a question mark above her head.
As she thought about it, she noticed a sense of incongruity.
Mary checked the playground. The sunflowers stems that used to grow there were no longer growing!
"Why...?"
"Ella is also surprised right now. As expected, it's not impossible for Ha-rim."
"...!"
There is only one reason why the stage isn't growing!
Because Ha-rim is demolishing it!
-Umm... Since this phone box has grown like a plant, wouldn't it stop working if I dig up the ground?
-Whenever I hear an incoming call, I impulsively want to pick up the receiver. I should use earplugs.
-Urgh! Ignoring the public phone and throwing away my cell phone, a phone grew out of my clothes and forcibly connected to ! And if I hold a cell phone, it connects forcibly to soone! What? Who is it? Satoru?
-Ah, looks like that if I hold a dium like a cell phone, it will always connect to another dium of the sa type! So, if I use a walkie-talkie and just keep talking to myself, I won't be attacked! because the walkie-talkies are half-duplex! Strategy discovered!2
-What would happen if I let other monsters hear the cursed voice coming from the receiver? Ah. It stopped. Can you hear , Satoru? Hello?
POV Switch - Ella
"If you dismantle the traps and monsters on the stage, the erosion will weaken. I just realized it too. Mary. I wasn't the enemy you had to deal with."
She is the main character because she is an existence that can advance even if you don't tell the strategy.
Even if she hadn't t , she would have survived.
Mary said nothing.
She just kept attacking. We fended off Mary's attack and ti continue to tick away.
As if in a fierce tug-of-war, we fought with both sides equal.
Jas... Are you not done? Ha-rim must be at the limit of her stamina...
"...Ella."
Mary suddenly stopped attacking and retreated.
She seed to think for a mont.
Then she nodded.
"Are you buying ti?"
"...!"
You noticed it!
"You sent soone to Mary's house. Ah. If this continues, Mary might lose. Then, Mary won't be able to find them."
Mary anxiously pulled her hat down and nervously stirred her legs around.
We were just looking at her figure.
Because our stamina was depleted from fighting, everyone was breathing hard.
"...Then I should use it."
"...? That?"
"I received it."
The item in Mary's hand is the sa M.P series as the previous necklace.
It's a trauma music box.
But it was an item I had never seen before in the ga.
An item that only existed by na in the ga files.
You have that?
Unless you're the creator, how did you get it?
Mary activated the music box.
In a dark place, the lody of the music box gave off an eerie atmosphere.
It is sothing often used in horror movies.
I tore the amulet of ntal protection I had prepared just in case.
It's a waste because it's disposable, but it's better be safe.
"...?"
Wait a minute, why isn't it working? Shouldn't there be a bright and shiny effect?
"Ella! Wake up, Ella!"
Kyeong-min yells at .
But my eyes slowly started to close.
My vision was stained with darkness.
[Status Abnormality: Trauma]
...
I was at the cinema.
A dusty, run-down cinema.
Most of the chairs were broken due to poor managent.
Even the screen had a lot of torn parts, but it didn't interfere with watching the movie.
I stared at the screen expressionlessly while eating the popcorn next to .
In the movie, my parents appeared. The old also ca out together, but it was sohow awkward.
In the movie, my parents and I t eyes on my way back from school, but both of them just passed by.
They seed to avoid any contact and quickly ran away instead.
At ho, we didn't encounter each other. Rather, they even left the food outside the door for .
This awkward situation continued until one day.
Both of them died in a car accident due to drowsy driving.
I held a simple funeral for them, and as if nothing happened, I ca back to school and attended classes.
My only friend, a senior, reacted strangely after seeing like that.
-Why the hell are you acting like this?
-What are you talking about, senior?
-It's easier if you just cry out loud. At least you will look like a human if you frown, get annoyed, and rant.
-Saying that all of a sudden makes uncomfortable. Did I do sothing wrong?
-You're totally abnormal. There's sothing lacking in you. Do you have a ntal illness?
-You're being harsh.
I reacted to the pranks played by my senior, laughing and getting angry at him.
I don't think there's anything wrong with my mind.
My senior despised .
-When your parents died, you didn't shed a single tear.
-...
-Will you not cry even if I die?
-...
My senior passed away in an accident after he said that to .
People who normally wouldn't approach for bringing misfortune looked at like a murderer after my close friend died.
My parents passed away and my senior also got into an accident.
The next day, I stood in front of my senior's grave.
-Will you not cry even if I die?
What the senior said at the end lingered in my ears.
A normal person would have cried here.
But still, there are no tears.
What the hell am I.
An abnormal person who doesn't shed a single tear.
I was a person who didn't deserve to have a friend next to .
Maybe the reactions I showed to the pranks played by my senior were deliberately did in consideration of the reactions he wanted.
Was it right to reveal my emotions?
Was the senior really my friend?
I threw the popcorn in my hand.
Hallucinations are heard.
I grabbed my ssy hair with one hand and looked at my other hand, and there was a hand mirror help up.
The mirror reflected . Ela was standing there. Ella, not .
I had entered Ella's body.
Acting with Ella's personality, my impulsive behavior was also influenced by her body.
But after I got used to my body, I was less influenced by it.
To so extent, I thought I was acting on my own judgent.
The feelings towards the children are also mine.
But I've beco a monster.
Monsters are influenced by people's thoughts.
Because the kids thought of as a friend, I ca to think of them as a friend too.
The angry personality and everything I showed after adapting my body were all because of the way I acted when I was affected by Ella's body, so my personality ended up being corrected to that.
Hallucinations tell .
[You are a mirror! You can't express anything if you don't have a target to shine on!]
My feelings for the children are not my true feelings.
[Your friend died and you can't cry, there's no way you could have that kind of heart!]
"Ah... Ah..."
I only pretended to be Ella in front of the kids while using her body.
Even though my best friend died.
Even though I went through a painful thing, I couldn't have possibly felt any friendship towards the children.
"Ahhh...!"
I am a mirror. I am a mirror.
A person who does not shed a single tear even when a friend dies, no, not even a person.
So, my relationship with the kids is just an empty lie- No relationship I've ever made on my own.
I look in the mirror. Only Ella is standing.
It's futile. I rather die.
I closed my eyes.
"Wait a mont!!! What are you closing your eyes for?!"
Ah?
The screen rips open and soone jumps out. And they hit my stomach-?!
"Kyaa?!"
I rolled across the floor. Why do these bastards like to hit so much...!
"Urgh..."
"Older brother! It's not fun like this, you know?! Can't you see that the kids are barely holding on outside?!"
"You're... Ella?"
Ella was standing in front of . She was looking down at with a pathetic expression.
"What. First ti seeing Ella? Well, outside, Ella's image is not reflected in the mirror. How is it? How do you feel seeing such a pretty Ella?"
"No, weren't you dead?"
"..."
"As soon as you took my body, you were hit by a chandelier and died."
"..."
"...? Are you embarrassed of... Kya!"
Ella in front of swung her knife to prevent from opening my mouth.
She seed ashad that she took my body and died while laughing.
The corner of Ella's mouth lifted slightly when I let ou a squeal.
"Wow. Co on! Are you completely a girl? Should I call you sister? That's too funny!"
Making fun of soone when she sees a gap is totally like the original Ella.
It's annoying...! Kyeong-min, who was teased by , must have felt the sa way.
I'm sorry, Kyeong-min!
"I'm a guy, even if I'm in a girl's body! It's just that I got a bit used to the female body!"
Even thinking about being in a woman's body still makes feel uncomfortable.
"I think I know what you're thinking. Older brother's body is, no, because this is a special place. Is your soul still a girl?"
"What?"
I looked down at my body.
This place is not real. I thought it was a place similar to a imaginary world that you see in cartoons, so I believed I was in my original male form.
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