Only the Action Division and Research Division were permitted to monsters, so that was the extent of my introduction.
There seemed to be welfare facilities, too.
“You can’t get in without me anyway, and I can’t rest right now, so I’ll take you on my day off.”
“Ah… yes….”
Then the senior checked the time briefly.
“…It’s quitting time.”
“Uh… then, are you going home now, Senior?”
“Obviously.”
The senior nodded.
When I tilted my head, wondering if I could go home too, the senior snorted and tossed out a remark.
“You think that’s possible?”
“…Ah… it’s no use?”
“…….”
“I-I’m sorry.”
When I bowed my head deeply, the senior sighed and waved their hand dismissively.
Then they told me that I would be able to go home later, once my safety level dropped to Level 1.
“So build up some merit.”
“Yes….”
When I nodded, the senior said they would guide me to my quarters.
I nodded and watched the senior head back toward the isolation room, feeling slightly uneasy.
* * *
My bad premonitions are never wrong.
I had wondered why we were entering the isolation room rather than the dormitory, and the place the senior guided me to was a cold, white room.
It was even fitted with a one-way mirror through which I couldn’t see the outside from within.
“…….”
“Why do you look so rotten? It’s got everything you need.”
“…A mattress, a food bowl… a water bowl….”
“There’s even a computer.”
A computer, a place to sleep, a dog bowl, a water bowl, and pee pads.
No matter how I looked at it, this treatment seemed too harsh. When I looked at the senior, they were staring back at me as if asking what I was dissatisfied about.
“…Really?”
“Yeah. This is your home.”
“…This is completely treating me like an animal.”
I felt like I was about to cry.
To think that the senior whom I had just started to trust and who had even seemed somewhat cool was treating me like an animal.
I was beginning to viscerally feel that there was nowhere for me to rely on.
A mixture of frustration, hurt, and confusion made tears well up.
Holding them back, I looked at the senior, who then threw out a single line.
“You’re not human.”
“…!!”
“…….”
Watching the tears stream down, the senior gazed at me without a shred of emotion, then scratched their head.
“A pet… that’s exactly what you are.”
“…I-is that so.”
“No matter what you think of yourself, you’re not normal.”
“…….”
“Remember, it’s not you who decides that you’re a monster—it’s the world. Don’t let it hurt you any more than this.”
Saying that, the senior left the room.
Watching them leave, I stood blankly for a moment before going to a corner of the room and crouching down.
The slightly oversized uniform slipped off my shoulders.
I had a feeling tonight would bring nothing but nightmares.
* * *
The cold isolation room.
Not a single sound reached my ears.
The lights never turned off, shining down on me.
Only I wasn’t being experimented on; otherwise, was I any different from a lab rat?
‘…What… am I?’
Now I didn’t even know what I was.
My mind was clearly Ision’s, but was my body still Ision’s as well?
I felt around here and there.
It was a soft body. The firmness of a male’s body was nowhere to be felt.
I… had completely changed.
At that confusion, nausea welled up once more.
“Urp…….”
Covering my mouth, I held back the nausea and shed tears.
It was too hard, mentally.
I was lonely… far more so than before.
The feeling of being unable to escape from hateful gazes for twenty-four hours a day was nothing but bitter.
The only small comfort was that a lone computer sat here.
I got up from my spot and trudged over.
Though I had become an urban legend incarnate,
there was nothing as comforting as urban legends at a time like this, so I spent a long time browsing.
Perhaps, just perhaps, hoping I might find some trace of myself.
‘…I want to know a little more.’
About my body, I wanted to know even a little more.
* * *
[Title: The Story of the Jangsan Beast Spreading in Seoul Lately]
[There’s been talk lately about the Jangsan Beast appearing often.
Honestly, at first I thought it was just bullshit and didn’t believe it,
but I think I saw one.
(Photo)
(Photo)
(Photo)
(Photo)
Isn’t this white blurry thing the Jangsan Beast?
Where did it come from?]
[Comments]
-It doesn’t live on Jangsan, so why is it called the Jangsan Beast
-Oh…….
-It does look plausible
-Nice Photoshop
-Isn’t this that monster thing people have been talking about lately
A post I’d found while surfing the internet until the early dawn.
I stared blankly at the post, at photos that were undoubtedly of the monster I had met.
‘Jangsan Beast…….’
How on earth had it been able to enter and run rampant inside the domain created by the homeroom teacher?
Even the observer had entered freely, but couldn’t leave, so it had waited meekly for the senior to open the door.
“…Can a Jangsan Beast open the door and enter on its own, too?”
Right when I was thinking such things,
-Thump! Thump!!
“…!!”
The black-tinted glass pane made a dull thumping sound, as if warning me.
My head turned automatically.
“Wh-what…?”
While I tilted my head and watched it, before long a voice was heard.
[Aah… Ision, lie down in your spot and sleep.]
“…….”
An unfamiliar voice.
Without lowering my guard, I stared intently at the glass, and a man knocked on the window once more.
-Bang!! Bang!!!
“H-hiek…!?”
[Lie down in your spot and go to sleep. Quickly.]
The man said that and urged me to go to sleep.
Trembling, I carefully settled onto the mattress and lay down.
Then, this time, a woman’s muttering voice was heard.
[…When sleeping, it lies down and goes to sleep like a human…….]
Even the sound of something being written down could be heard.
It seemed that just because I wasn’t being used as an experimental subject didn’t mean the observation wasn’t ongoing.
‘…This is hell.’
Human rights weren’t being protected at all.
Since I wasn’t human to begin with, there was no reason to protect them.
I was being treated like an animal, but in fact, I was recognized as a being even lower than that, so I couldn’t feel even the slightest sympathy.
I turned over to show my form through the glass window as little as possible.
And slowly shed tears.
‘I want… to go home…….’
How had my life ended up so ruined?
I didn’t know… I just didn’t know anything.
Sleep crept in gradually.
Just as my eyelids felt unbearably heavy,
the strength in my entire body faded, and I slowly drifted off.
* * *
“…!!”
The next day… no, honestly, at a time when I couldn’t even be sure it was the next day.
When I woke up, I couldn’t help but startle.
“…Blood?”
Because I was soaked in blood on the white floor.
Then, as I panicked, a voice was heard.
[We collected some samples while you were sleeping. We won’t inject drugs directly into your body, so rest assured.]
“…What?”
[We performed organ extraction and tissue resection. We properly cut your head off and reattached it, so it should have regenerated.]
Saying that, the research division employee told me to come to the X-ray room for an examination later, then disappeared.
My mind went blank for a moment, and soon I vomited into the provided dog bowl.
“Urp…!!!”
They had entered without permission while I was sleeping and extracted my organs?
I clutched my stomach tightly, but felt nothing wrong.
Holding back the nausea, I slowly looked at the monitor, where a single line was slowly erasing its trace, as if my neck had yet to fully regenerate.
“Haa… haa… y-you lied…!”
They’d said they wouldn’t use me for experiments.
They lied to me.
Tears poured down.
It was so disgusting.
I felt even more sorrow at the fact that they hadn’t even cleaned up the blood,
when—
“…?”
“…Se…nior.”
The isolation room door opened, and the senior came in, tilting their head as they looked at me.
“…Did you throw up in the food bowl? Why did you do that?”
Rushing over to ask me that, the senior met my blank eyes as I stared silently at the floor smeared with fluids.
“…….”
Then the senior stood still without a word.
Just when I thought, as expected, they wouldn’t offer any comfort,
“…Are you surprised?”
“…!!”
The senior asked if I was surprised and slowly stroked my back.
Surprisingly, it felt warm.
Tears poured out.
“Yes….”
“…This will happen often from now on.”
“…You said… you wouldn’t experiment on me….”
“This is surgery. It’s not like we administered drugs to you or anything.”
“…….”
When I said nothing and just rubbed my eyes, the senior stood up and helped me to my feet.
“Stop crying. I asked them to raise your clearance to Safety Level 3 yesterday. Then they won’t be able to do this.”
“…R-really?”
“Yeah. It’s because your ability is unusual that you were taken advantage of.”
The senior said they usually don’t do this and told me to clean it up.
I bowed my head in thanks, and they said it was fine, then told me there was somewhere we urgently needed to go today.
“Today’s urgent. We’ve got a mission starting first thing in the morning.”
“…Again?”
“There’s a personnel shortage, so they work people without rest.”
“…….”
“Action Division 2 is probably half dead by now, so don’t complain.”
Saying that, the senior spoke of Action Division 2, who had received the homeroom teacher monster from us yesterday.
When I asked if it was really true that half of them were already dead, the senior scoffed at me.
“As if.”
“…R-right?”
“All except one are probably dead. That’s why everyone’s rushing over to support them.”
“…!!”
Hearing even more horrifying news, I froze on the spot.
Seeing me like that, the senior said they’d leave me behind if I didn’t come quickly.
Saying no, I hurriedly followed behind the senior.
‘…Senior too, someday.’
A frightening thought crossed my mind, but I quickly shook my head.