"Fujiwara-san, you're..."
In the dark cavern, Kaguya Shinomiya's gaze locked onto Chika Fujiwara.
To be precise, it was locked onto Chika Fujiwara's chest.
It was too small.
Kaguya's gaze was incredibly sharp.
It was simply too small.
This was fundamentally not the scale Chika Fujiwara should possess.
Although it was still larger than Kaguya herself, larger than Maki, and larger than the two heiresses combined, it was still too small.
Even though Kaguya had long felt displeasure due to the massive disparity in physique between her and Chika Fujiwara—even feeling murderous intent (figuratively, of course) when Chika intentionally or unintentionally flaunted her figure—regardless of all that, this was absolutely not the size Chika Fujiwara should have.
Did she do something? Why was there such a huge change?
Kaguya was somewhat curious.
The pink-haired girl turned her head and immediately noticed Kaguya's gaze.
She looked down, and upon realizing Kaguya was looking at her chest, she revealed an expression of sudden realization.
Then, Chika blinked, clenched one hand into a fist near her forehead, and smiled slightly:
"Ehehe~"
A perfectly standard '2D beautiful girl sticking out her tongue to act cute' move was displayed with incomparable naturalness.
No, what does 'Ehehe' mean? Are you too lazy to even give a reason?
Kaguya's brows knit together tightly, but in the end, she said nothing and continued forward, heading back toward the research base.
The time for the operation had arrived, and the current priority was returning to the research base.
Therefore, although she was still very curious, Kaguya did a good job of diverting her attention and focusing her mental energy on the task at hand.
As for why Chika, who was following beside her, was maliciously acting cute... well, to be honest, it was because she really didn't know how best to answer Kaguya, so she just fudged it over with that method.
After all, the fact that she had a sudden whim before coming here to have Gao Hai wrap her in chest-binding cloth was indeed a bit hard to explain.
Chika thought with a slightly guilty conscience.
She knew that Gao Hai and Maki had a very good relationship. Originally, in the second loop, she had prepared herself to give up. She had decided to suppress her feelings and pretend nothing had happened.
But later, after learning that Gao Hai himself was likely trapped in the instance, knowing he possessed the ability to Return by Death, and realizing he was probably stuck in a fate worse than death, unable to move... upon seeing Maki's resolute determination to save Gao Hai, Chika Fujiwara didn't hesitate. She joined in and returned to the Red Nut Gray Hole.
And then, well, because she knew everything would eventually restart, that all events would be retraced to a point where nothing had happened, the girl chose to face her own heart in that dark cavern.
Facing Gao Hai, she expressed the truest feelings in her heart, that newly budding love.
Originally, that would have been enough. Chika had always felt that since she was going to die anyway, and everything would start over, the only ones who would have to worry about this issue were Gao Hai and the other version of herself.
However, when the explosion ended and she opened her eyes again, she found herself back at the very beginning of the Red Nut Gray Hole instance, and immediately saw Gao Hai.
It was only then that she learned that besides the ability to Return by Death, Gao Hai also had the ability to bring people back with him. However, the prerequisite for this function was that Gao Hai and the person he decided to bring back must have sufficient mutual affection.
When he told her this, Chika could see that Gao Hai's expression was very complicated. This was because Gao Hai immediately followed up by telling Chika that he had already been able to bring Maki Shijo back during the first instance. Chika, naturally, understood immediately what that implied.
Becoming a third wheel during one's first love really isn't something to be happy about.
But, A-Hai has affection for me... Ugh, to actually be happy about something like this, I feel like I'm really turning into an idiot.
Chika Fujiwara sighed softly, unsure how to describe her current mood.
Finally, perhaps due to some petty motives, although the superficial excuse was "precautionary measures in case we encounter narrow caves," asking Gao Hai to apply the chest binding cloth was actually partly to test Gao Hai's reaction, and partly to create a small disguise for herself.
The scene at that time was quite heart-pounding, especially Gao Hai's hands, whether intentionally or unintentionally... Ah, let's not talk about that. It's better not to recall such things.
In any case, harboring her little secret thoughts, Chika put on the binding cloth, changed into the explorer's outfit, and then returned to the research base with Kaguya as explorers. They followed the fixed procedure: inspection, shower, and finally heading to the staff lounge.
Because Maki Shijo had gone to steal two white lab coats for Kaguya and Chika to change into, she didn't check the monitoring area and had left early to act. At that time, the monitoring area was still guarded by researchers played by anomalies, so Maki could leave in advance.
If it had been the scenario in the first loop where Gao Hai and Chika suddenly appeared after the exploration ended, Maki and Kaguya—who were role-playing researchers then—would have had to go over and watch because the monitoring area was empty. But in the third loop, they couldn't possibly know about that event.
Because of this, Maki didn't see Chika's true scale this time. When she placed the replacement clothes in the staff lounge and waited for Kaguya and Chika to change and come out, what Maki saw was a Fujiwara Chika whose figure wasn't particularly outstanding.
Hmm, although she is indeed very cute, giving off the feeling of a lively puppy, it shouldn't be a big problem.
Although Hai-kun is an unmitigated lecher, the threat level of this one isn't high. After all, her figure isn't vastly different from mine; at most, she's just a tiny bit bigger than me.
Maki Shijo consoled herself in her heart.
She didn't notice that Chika, standing to the side, was actually secretly observing her as well, sizing her up seriously.
As for Kaguya standing nearby, if the expression on her face were translated into text, it would probably be something like: "What is with these two? Why is there a weird vibe? Are they observing each other? Why are their eyes so strange?"
"Hai... Gao-kun passed these Obsession Items to you. The next part is up to the three of us. He can't participate in the core obsession here, so we three must find its source and the method to break it."
Chika took out the blood-colored cloth doll—the Blood Doll—two scalpels, a necklace, and a medicine bottle.
Gao Hai had naturally told Chika early on how to use these Obsession Items and their potential dangers. She quickly explained this to Kaguya and Maki. The three then distributed the Obsession Items and began preparing for the upcoming operation.
In the previous two loops, Kaguya and Maki had faced more or less significant obstacles in gathering intelligence, mainly because the research base was under surveillance everywhere, with many sentries on guard and soldiers patrolling. This caused immense trouble for intelligence collection. Now, what the three had to do was find a way to solve this problem.
The first step of the plan was to blow up the monitoring room.
Currently, it appeared that most areas of this research base were under the shroud of surveillance. Only by disabling the monitoring could the girls' actions be liberated.
But just doing that was certainly not enough, so a second step was needed: destroying the power supply within the base.
Although doing so might bring about some unpredictable consequences, Kaguya and the others could simply change into explorer outfits or some other identity to flee this place if things went south, leaving the doll behind as a monitor, and return to continue the investigation after everything returned to normal.
After all, the time limit for this mission was 15 days; there was still plenty of room for trial and error.
And this was the plan Chika Fujiwara had named the "Great Detonation, Great Bombardment, Crackle-Crackle-Pop Plan." Incidentally, this plan name was jointly vetoed by Gao Hai, Kaguya Shinomiya, and Maki Shijo.
"Then, I'll control this doll."
Maki Shijo took the cloth doll, placed a strand of her own hair into the zipper on the doll's back, and stuffed it into the blood-stained cotton inside, completing the activation and remote control of this Obsession Item.
As a very peculiar Obsession Item that almost never lost control, the Blood Doll could run, jump, and even turn invisible. It could be said to be quite a useful item. The only side effect was that if this thing got hurt, the damage would be reflected back to the user doubled, so it had to be used with extreme caution.
At this moment, the doll was holding a stick of homemade dynamite in its hand—explosives that Lao Guo, who died in the Shirakawa Apartments, had sold cheaply to Kaguya and Maki. Utilizing the Blood Doll's invisibility, the dynamite was silently carried into the monitoring room, while Kaguya and the others had already returned to the research zone, putting a considerable distance between the two parties.
They completed the work in the analysis room.
Just as if they had truly become researchers in this base, the three honestly pressed buttons, waited for the process to end, and then headed to the second floor to hand the report to Professor Fulen, who was waiting in the corridor.
And it was right at this moment—after handing over the report, as the gloomy Professor Fulen, radiating a chilling, anomalous aura, turned to return to his office—that Maki manipulated the doll to detonate the dynamite.
BOOM—
A dull, muffled explosion sounded, accompanied by a slight tremor of the ground.
Maki and the other two noticed the other researchers and soldiers passing by nearby. Upon discovering that these researchers and soldiers remained expressionless and had no reaction whatsoever, they also kept their faces taut, standing in place pretending to know nothing.
And it was right at this moment that all three of them clearly saw it.
Professor Fulen, who had his back to them and was about to step into his office... his forward-striding step paused in the instant the explosion rang out.
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