“The last ones to see it were you lot.”
The three team members looked somewhat stiff.
The Director began looking back and forth between them with a dumbfounded expression.
“We’re sorry.”
“It’s just, it kept begging us to let it go.”
“Give it a little longer and you’ll be letting it out of the facility entirely, huh?”
“N-no, sir!”
“Where was the last place you let it loose?”
“Th-that’s…”
“Looks like you can’t remember?”
“W-we’re sorry.”
“It’s fine. I’m sure you’ll remember once I break one of your legs.”
When the Director raised the rifle butt, they finally started spilling it.
“The control room! We let it go in front of the control room!”
“You’re making my job difficult. All of you, follow me.”
+++
Those shitty bastards.
That thing is an Unknown entity, plain and simple.
And they just let it loose because it was cute?
I did still judge it to be low-risk so far.
But that only meant low among Unknown entities.
If certain conditions were met, there was still a possibility it could turn aggressive.
‘But I can’t just block it off unconditionally, either.’
Of course, I also knew it was loved among the team members.
I had considered bringing some kind of pet into the facility as well.
But that was a tricky issue after all.
If even one entity escaped, the inside of the facility would turn into a complete mess.
And it was obvious the pet would get caught up in it too.
If possible, I needed something sturdy that wouldn’t die easily.
Naturally, most animals were out.
And while I was searching for a good solution, this entity was captured.
We investigated it for quite a long time, but no particular danger was discovered.
So I allowed the team members to approach it.
Maybe I’d indulged them too much.
Just as I was about to go find the thing…
“Hm?”
Perhaps startled by the sound of footsteps, something hurriedly scurried away.
‘The fact that it likes people comes in handy at times like this.’
I lowered myself and reached into a dark corner.
Something was struggling to slip away.
It had to be that thing.
“Hide-and-seek time is over, Hugmon.”
Hugmon emerged from the corner.
An entity that looked exactly like a cat.
If there was anything different about it, it was that it walked around on two legs.
And that its body stretched really, really well.
It wasn’t something that could be explained by simply saying it was flexible.
How much, you ask?
This thing, normally the size of an ordinary cat, could become as tall as a person.
It was effectively the only entity whose danger level had not been confirmed to be anything noteworthy.
But as long as it was an Unknown entity, the rule was to confine it in an isolation room.
“Go back to your isolation room.”
Its expression didn’t change, but it was trying its best to look pitiful.
One of the things it hated was going into the isolation room.
But it had picked the wrong opponent.
“Keep dreaming. Get back there already.”
I still hadn’t given my heart to it.
I was probably the only person here who wasn’t close to that thing.
Maybe it realized it had chosen the wrong target.
Still caught in my hand, it turned its head and began looking at the other team members.
Soon, they immediately reacted.
“Director, it hates going back to the isolation room that much.”
“Wouldn’t it be all right to leave it out just a little longer?”
“That’s right. It’s not like it’s the type to cause trouble.”
These bastards?
In that short time, it had made allies of them and was using them to pressure me.
Somehow, it seemed to be getting craftier by the day.
I’ll deal with those guys later.
For now, I decided to send it back to the isolation room.
“You’d better brace yourselves.”
+++
“Oh, so there are some that aren’t hostile to humans.”
That was something I couldn’t even imagine where I came from.
An Unknown entity roaming around the facility?
Most entities recognized humans as targets to attack.
I wanted to meet it.
Wait, could it be wary of other entities?
I don’t think I heard anything like that.
An entity that looked like a cat. I was looking forward to it.
Maybe it was because I’d seen so many awful bastards who killed people for fun.
If the team members liked it, then at the very least, there probably wasn’t anything wrong with its appearance.
“Tsk, it really is a bit disappointing that I can’t go out.”
From the looks of it, things like this happened often.
I thought I might be able to meet it soon.
+++
“Director, did you scold the kids again?”
“Why?”
“They came as a group and asked us to increase the time Hugmon is allowed out?”
“They what?”
“They would like you to increase Hugmon’s free-roaming time. Please consider it positively.”
“These bastards have gone collectively insane.”
What should I do with them?
Part of me wondered whether I should beat them while saying, This is my fault.
If you asked me whether I couldn’t even do that much for people who worked while risking their lives…
Hm, looking at it that way, I sound like a real petty bastard.
“Should we just ignore them?”
“Tell them they have to make sure it returns to the isolation room when the time is up. Starting today.”
“You act all strict, but you still give them what they want.”
“Am I the strict one here?”
“If the majority likes something and the minority hates it, how do you think the majority feels?”
“Like it’s fucking annoying.”
“You put it pretty harshly, but roughly speaking, yes.”
“Ugh, I shouldn’t even bother talking. I’m used to playing the villain anyway.”
“Pardon?”
“What is it this time?”
“Even if someone who was originally the villain says that…”
“No matter how fit you are to be Director, that one irritated me a little. Come here.”
“Uh, uh, don’t come any closer.”
+++
Tudududu.
“Hm?”
I heard something pass by incredibly fast.
Did I mishear it?
I lifted only my head, which had been almost touching the floor, and checked what was going on.
Then I saw a strange thing sitting in front of the door.
‘What the hell is that now?’
Could that be the so-called Hugmon?
Was it an Unknown entity after all?
For something that looked like a cat walking on two legs, it felt incredibly unfamiliar.
No, a cat walking on two legs was already bizarre to begin with.
“?”
“Is this Hugmon?”
“Hii!”
“Eh.”
?????
Wait, did that thing just speak human language?
Or was its language being heard in my ears?
Among the entities I’d met so far, there hadn’t been a single one I could communicate with.
“You, can you understand what I’m saying?”
“Yeah.”
“Really? None of the ones I met understood me.”
“Me too! No, to be precise, there weren’t any friends who wanted to talk.”
Thinking about the Iron Insect and the Second Gate, that might be true.
The Iron Insect attacked me the moment it saw me, and the Second Gate was the same.
Usually, it seemed they were on bad terms with it or ignored conversation altogether.
“Are you not scared of me?”
“How should I put it? I like people! You kinda smell like that too.”
Huh?
I smell like a person?
Sure, if we’re talking about smell, then it would be something coming from a person’s body.
Uh, I guess that would be a person’s smell too, if you wanted to call it that?
The smell aside, it felt a little unsettling somehow.
Because it was very different from the usual expression of smelling human.
Still, if there had been some kind of problem, it wouldn’t be roaming around like this.
It would be easier on my mind to just think of it as an unusual one.
“How did you end up coming here?”
“I was living on this island. Then I saw the people who came here.”
“So you got caught?”
“I stretched my body a bit to ask them to hug me, but at first, everyone looked at me weird.”
Well, yeah.
I’d heard that cats stretched a little when you picked them up.
But there was no way they wouldn’t find it weird when it stretched on its own until it was as tall as a person.
And on top of that, it walked around on two legs like that.
If it had done anything even a little stranger, it would have been immediately isolated.
Wait, is it named Hugmon because it asks to be hugged whenever it sees a person?
“How did you end up here?”
“You could say I caused a bit of trouble.”
“You must’ve caused a huge amount of trouble, huh?”
“Something like that.”
Strictly speaking, it was what this body’s original owner had done.
But even if I told it, it probably wouldn’t understand.
Let’s just skip over the minor details.
“I was curious. I heard there was a friend who dealt with other entities.”
Did it hear that from the team members?
Even so, was it okay for them to mention information like that?
Tsk, I don’t know.
It’s not my fault, so I’ll generously forgive them.
“Ah, I’ve been away from my spot too long. I’ll get going now!”
Tudududu.
It really did seem to like people.
It busily disappeared in the direction the footsteps were coming from.
I did want to see the way its body stretched.
No, I’ll probably have a chance soon enough.
“What do you think?”
Rustle.
“You don’t know? If you felt it was dangerous, you would’ve done something about it.”
Rustle, rustle.
“What do you mean, it’s not an enemy but you don’t trust it?”
Rustle, rustle.
“Still, it’s better than the Iron Insect or the Second Gate. Those guys openly attack.”
Rustle.
“A cheat key? Hm, you’re not wrong.”
For now, the Cocoon’s stance was neutral.
It wasn’t that I couldn’t understand its position.
What if Hugmon was acting?
It might be needless worry, but you never know.
It could be some unbelievable monster beyond imagination.
Though I wanted to believe the Cocoon was just being sensitive.
At the very least, there was no reason it would hurt to be careful.
‘Still, I’m glad there’s someone I can talk to.’
+++
“Are you sure about that?”
“Yes. It was definitely talking with the scrap-metal doll.”
“Has anyone ever seen Hugmon speak?”
“Not as far as I remember.”
“So it had interaction with the scrap-metal doll.”
During the times Hugmon had been allowed to roam, it had shown interest in other entities.
That interest hadn’t lasted long, though.
But what if the other entities had been rejecting communication all this time?
And what if the scrap-metal doll had responded to its attempt to communicate?
It might turn out to be an entity more capable of conversation than we thought.
It was still too early to judge, though.
“Schedule a meeting between the scrap-metal doll and Hugmon for tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow right away, sir?”
“We might get something out of it.”