“Haa.”
“Team Leader, are you all right?”
The deputy team leader’s question made him realize it.
That he’d let it show far too openly.
“Don’t worry about it. It happens every so often, just when you’re about to forget.”
“Didn’t you do your best, Team Leader?”
“This is why humans are so inefficient. Because they regret shit to death.”
Just then, as he sat with his eyes closed and his brow furrowed.
He opened his eyes at the sound of someone calling him.
“Team Leader Cracker, are you here?”
“What is it?”
“They’re in a meeting about the disposal of the Scrap Metal Doll, and they’re calling for you, Team Leader.”
“What kind of bullshit is that? Wasn’t the Scrap Metal Doll already decided for disposal?”
“I’m not too sure either. It would be faster for you to come and hear it yourself.”
He exchanged a glance with the deputy team leader, then sprang up from his seat.
Don’t tell me the decision on how to handle that thing had changed?
There was no way.
No, that couldn’t happen.
+++
He burst into the conference room as if he were about to break the door down.
The team leaders of the teams that had participated in the operation were there.
And so was a face he had forgotten.
“You’re the director of Area 09, correct?”
“You were Team Leader Cracker, was it? You’re late.”
Words boiled up inside him, but he decided to hold them back.
If he said them here, he’d just get branded as the strange one.
“I heard that the disposal of the Scrap Metal Doll is being changed.”
“That’s right. Originally, by now, an order to kill the Scrap Metal Doll should have been issued.”
“Isn’t it simply that the execution period was delayed? Has the disposal really been changed?”
“Calm down. I know your men were sacrificed. But what can we do?
We had no information whatsoever on the Scrap Metal Doll. That made it difficult to respond.”
You son of a bitch.
That attitude, speaking as though he understood everything.
He didn’t like it.
He wanted to bring a rifle butt down on that head right this instant, but he had to endure.
“That was too long-winded. I’ll get straight to the point. The Scrap Metal Doll will be sent to Area 469.”
“Area 469, you mean.”
“It was originally a place that studied supernatural phenomena, but now it’s a place that holds those that have caused human casualties.
In other words, Unknowns.”
“Why not kill it?”
The director quietly looked into his eyes and sighed.
“Don’t look at me with such frightening eyes. We tried everything while you were handling the aftermath.
We dunked it in toxic substances, and we even threw it into a furnace.”
“And yet you’re saying it survived?”
“To explain, it entered an inactive state.”
“You mean the same state it was in when we first captured it?”
“We concluded there’s no limit to how long it can maintain that state. Once the threat disappeared,
it began moving again, and naturally, we still couldn’t remove the cocoon.”
Hearing the director’s words left him feeling powerless.
He had cursed the thing, telling it to go to hell, and yet it couldn’t be killed.
Reading the room, the director held out a report.
“In any case, when we send it to Area 469, I’d like you to handle the escort.”
“Me, you mean?”
“When it comes to an Unknown that has caused casualties, it’s best to have people with experience facing it.”
“Hah.”
“I’m not forcing you, but let me know your answer quickly. The sooner the escort happens, the better.”
+++
“Fucking hell, seriously.”
“Did something happen?”
“They canceled the kill order on the Scrap Metal Doll.”
“What? No, what does that—”
“They say it won’t die no matter what the hell they do. They’ve also given up on removing the cocoon.”
“Then what are they going to do with it?”
“They’re sending it to Area 469. Fucking fantastic, really.”
“They’re really sending it there?”
Heat surged up inside him.
He barely restrained the urge to smash something to pieces.
Then, suddenly, one thing occurred to him.
“Deputy, weren’t you dispatched to Area 469 last year?”
“Ah, yes. It was only for about a week, though.”
“What’s the atmosphere like there? Everything we hear is always just rumors.”
“Ah, one thing’s for sure: there probably isn’t a single person who goes there because they like being dispatched. Whew.”
“What the hell happened there? Tell me.”
“Team Leader, you’re not going to go around blabbing about this, are you?”
“What kind of story is it that you’re putting on airs like that? Just hurry up and tell me.”
When he raised his arm toward the deputy team leader as if to intimidate him, the man finally began to spill.
“Would you believe me if I said someone died on the very first day I was dispatched there?”
“Does that even make sense? Someone died on the first day of dispatch?”
The deputy team leader waved his hands violently.
“If it had been anywhere else, there would’ve been an uproar. Even that day, you wouldn’t believe how many people were radioing the person in charge saying they wanted to return.”
“What the hell happened?”
“There was a job to move the isolation room of an Unknown entity. It happened in the blink of an eye.
Three or four were seriously injured, and one person’s head—”
“Fuck, I shouldn’t have eaten lunch. And then?”
“Right after it happened, the director there said, ‘How much honeyed shit were you all licking before you got here that you’d offer up your own necks like that?’ He sounded genuinely baffled.”
“Seriously, I don’t think connections are what you need to become a director. Was being a psycho the promotion requirement?”
“Because of that incident, we protested as a group and made a huge fuss. Thinking back on it, I think that might be when the rumors about Area 469 started spreading like crazy.”
“Maybe sending that thing there would be better after all.”
“Pardon?”
“The director there is a psycho. If they send it somewhere else, they won’t be able to touch it anyway.
Who knows? Maybe he has some nasty hobby of secretly tormenting Unknown entities.”
“I want to deny it, but if it’s that place, I feel like that really might happen.”
He suddenly grew curious.
If the deputy team leader, who was the worst at exaggerating things, was saying that much.
What kind of entities were being held in Area 469?
How dangerous were the ones inside?
And what kind of psycho would the director of an area that kept such things locked up be?
“We’ll take the escort for the Scrap Metal Doll.”
“Will you be all right?”
“If I’m not, what can I do? We won’t be seeing it again after this.”
“If that’s what you want, Team Leader, then all right. I’ll tell the guys.”
“Yeah. Good work.”
Once the deputy team leader left, he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.
“Let’s see just how thick-skinned that bastard is.”
+++
Area 09 entered the final stage of wrapping up the Scrap Metal Doll escape incident.
The majority of the entities were in a state where they couldn’t move on their own.
“Whew, we were holding on to one hell of a time bomb, weren’t we?”
“You’re telling me. Thanks to that, at least the work should be a little easier.”
“Right. It’s only proper that someone else gets stuck with all the hard work at once.”
Just as they were checking the storage room to see whether anything had been damaged or needed reinforcement.
“Hey, hold on. Wasn’t there something here?”
“Here? What was there?”
“I-I’m sure there was an entity here, tied up with chains.”
“Come on, if that were the case, the entity information would be written down.”
“That’s strange. I’m sure there was.”
“You’re losing it because of all the extra work. Let’s go take a break.”
“Uh, yeah. Sure.”
Leaving his confusion behind, the researcher exited the storage room.
+++
“As expected, they seem to hate it a whole lot.”
“Indeed, Team Leader. This may be the first time an escort has ever been carried out this quickly.”
“Who’d want to keep a monster like that around? Everyone must have thrown every kind of fit, saying they didn’t want it.”
“I can’t say I don’t understand, but still.”
Five helicopters were waiting on the landing pad.
They had attached them under the pretext of using firepower to incapacitate it if necessary.
Though, in the first place, he wondered whether pursuit would even be possible if it escaped.
No, let’s not even think about such an ominous future.
“Are we flying straight to Area 469?”
“Yes. Area 468 is located on an island, so this is the only way to safely enter the interior.”
“What an unpleasant place to have it.”
“There must be a reason nothing’s escaped until now.”
He turned his head and checked the state of the Scrap Metal Doll.
It was trapped in a narrow cage, unable to move.
Electric current was flowing through the bars, so escaping wouldn’t be easy.
Contrary to his expectations, the Scrap Metal Doll didn’t so much as twitch.
“But it’s awfully quiet today. There’s no way it gave up.”
“Don’t jinx it. It’s finally starting to be useful.”
All he could do was pray that it would stay quiet until they arrived.
“Team Leader Cracker, we’ve received permission to approach from Area 469.”
“Phew. Tell them we’re getting ready to depart.”
“Yes, sir.”
Leaving his ominous thoughts behind, he boarded the helicopter.
+++
“Director, we’ve been told that the entity identified as the Scrap Metal Doll has just departed.”
Thick smoke poured from the director’s mouth.
“That means the pile of trash I’m responsible for is about to get bigger.”
“Then should we request an increase in personnel?”
“Where the hell would there be bastards volunteering to come here? I don’t need those dregs whining that they don’t even want to be dispatched.”
“Yes, understood.”
A bizarre sound rang out as if it would tear the ears.
An unpleasant sound like something scraping against the outer wall of an isolation room.
Footsteps moved in perfect order.
“Why is it so noisy today?”
“They must have sensed it.”
“Sensed what, sir?”
“It’s just intuition, but that Scrap Metal Doll bastard is absolutely not going to be easy.”
“Well, considering just the number of human heads it’s taken—”
“That’s not what I’m talking about.”
“Pardon?”
“Perhaps the unspoken hierarchy among the bastards kept here is about to collapse.
All because of one stone that rolled in from outside.”
+++
My head hurts.
No, am I just dizzy?
I don’t know.
My body won’t listen to me.
To be precise, it feels strange.
As if it isn’t my original body.
That abnormal creaking sound.
It grates on my nerves, but there’s no way to know where it’s coming from.
I want to sleep a little longer.
Surely nothing could happen.