Dazed.
My head was filled with a murky haze.
“…Ah.”
What was I doing?
I looked around, but I couldn’t see anything.
It felt like someone was calling me…
“……”
I didn’t know.
Did I want to go back? Back the way I came?
Without a word, I turned around and looked behind me, but I still couldn’t see anything.
It felt frightening. For some reason, I felt like I had to walk forward, so I moved my feet.
I walked through the hazy smoke and headed onward.
I couldn’t see a thing.
I was thirsty, and hungry too.
Just as my strength was slowly beginning to drain away—
“…Meat?”
I saw meat.
It had fallen on the ground, but it was unmistakably well-cooked meat.
Steam rose from it in wisps, along with a delicious smell.
“…B-but it fell on the ground.”
As for asking how I could eat something that had fallen on the floor—
I was far too hungry, and the meat before me looked huge and delicious.
After agonizing over it for a long while, I finally picked up the meat and put it in my mouth.
* * *
Sion was greedily picking up meat and eating it.
Watching him, Yeonwoo tried to grasp the situation.
‘…What is this all of a sudden?’
He had thought that if someone died and came back to life, they would simply return to their original personality.
It certainly looked similar to Sion, but the anomaly before his eyes was twisted.
As if it were imitating Sion.
After chewing down the owl’s corpse with loud crunches, Sion straightened his bent back and turned around, laughing like a madman.
“Kahahahaha…!!”
“…What are you?”
Yeonwoo took his stance.
This had become troublesome. It seemed he would have to dispose of Sion here.
As he prepared for battle, the anomaly tilted its head.
“Senior, you shouldn’t fight me.”
“…Where did Sion go?”
“He’s not here.”
The anomaly said so and smiled unpleasantly.
“Because I ate him.”
“……”
“I’m hungry. So hungry. I waited far too long.”
Saying that, Sion let out a sigh, then turned around and looked at the female anomaly.
“That… Can I eat it? Can I kill it?”
Sion seemed to be asking permission.
Seeing that, Yeonwoo asked why he was seeking permission at all.
“Why are you asking permission? You’re an anomaly anyway.”
“……”
Sion thought for a moment, then clutched at his own throat.
“This thing won’t come off, you see?”
“…!!”
He was talking about the pet anomaly contract.
“How are we supposed to believe that?”
[I’d like you to finish this quickly. It’s getting hard to hold out.]
The Watcher’s voice struck Yeonwoo’s ears as he hid the two of them within smoke.
At that, Sion merely sneered at Yeonwoo.
“Now that I’ve become a real anomaly… the atmosphere’s completely different. I can already see the hard road this kid’s going to walk from now on.”
“……”
“Well, I like it.”
A bloody smile.
With that smile on his face, Sion leapt out of the smoke and began fighting alone.
* * *
“…I’m full.”
I stared blankly at the gray emptiness.
Now that my stomach was somewhat filled, my surroundings came into clearer view.
“…A gray sky, grass, a road… Is this some country road?”
I looked around, wondering if I had ended up on some rural path.
But that didn’t seem to be the case, as pale gray mist lay thick all around.
Mostly behind me.
As if it wanted to hide something.
I felt a fear of the unknown.
I could also feel that it was pushing me away, as if telling me it wasn’t time yet.
“…Still, if I want to get out of here…”
I felt like I had to go that way.
That was the feeling I got.
“For now, let’s go.”
Feeling like I had to do something, I ignored the meat scattered around and headed in that direction, one step at a time.
Then voices began to reach me.
“My son, what a good boy.”
“You can’t go that way.”
“Lee, Sion, found, you.”
“Not yet.”
“Wait.”
“……”
I had no idea what was going on.
Aside from my mother’s voice, every last one of them was filled with grotesque sounds.
* * *
A maniacal laugh spread through the air.
It was truly overwhelming.
Sion, who had shot out, cut down the owls in an instant.
Then he approached the woman, who was floundering in panic.
She seemed to specialize in mental attacks, but—
“Looks like that kind of thing doesn’t work on this bitch!!!”
Shouting that, he simply cut off the woman’s arms and legs with eyes full of madness.
For a while, a rather gruesome scene unfolded.
‘…An anomaly. I have to kill it.’
Thinking that, Yeonwoo drew his blade.
He had thought he might finally be able to grow a little attached.
But that wicked anomaly had snatched that away.
Even if he could not call him precious—
He had been the only member of Section 1 to whom Yeonwoo could show not a false face, but his true self.
“…You took that from me?”
The anomaly, holding the female anomaly, swallowed one of its arms, then turned around and looked at Yeonwoo.
Then, covered in blood, it grinned and slowly approached him.
“You know, I caught this.”
“……”
“No praise for me?”
As it spoke, the anomaly licked the blood from its own hand.
Looking at it, Yeonwoo felt nothing.
The guilt he had felt when he placed his hand on Sion’s back and tried to push him—
It had vanished, as if it had been an illusion.
He simply looked at the anomaly with a cold gaze.
“Die.”
“……”
When he aimed his blade and said that, the anomaly stared blankly for a moment, then pointed to the half of its face that had not yet transformed and asked,
“Does this bitch really look human to you?”
“……”
“Interesting.”
Saying that, the anomaly clapped its hands.
He did not know what it truly was, but it seemed certain that it was something that had latched onto Sion, who had been human, and turned him into an anomaly.
“Now I understand…”
“…?”
“I… shouldn’t have hit Sion. I should have hit you.”
With an expressionless face, Yeonwoo raised his fist and struck the anomaly in the face.
It was quite a heavy blow, but the anomaly did not budge, merely smiling foolishly.
“Cut me. With that.”
“……”
“She’s an anomaly too, anyway. No different from me.”
The anomaly said that with a bloody smile.
Still holding his stance, Yeonwoo muttered to the anomaly,
“…That kid was afraid of dying.”
And then, just as Yeonwoo was about to cut the anomaly down—
“…Sen…ior…?”
“…!?”
The anomaly had returned to Sion before he knew it.
Startled by that, Yeonwoo ended up cutting off Sion’s head as it was.
* * *
I heard countless voices.
But in the end, I stepped into the smoke, and at the same time, I closed my eyes.
Then I began to feel as if something hot were touching my neck, and when I opened my eyes—
“Sen…ior?”
My neck had been cut, and I was in the middle of toppling over.
I didn’t know the reason either.
Only that Senior was wearing an incredibly cold expression.
“…Cough…!!”
My neck had been cleanly severed.
But for some reason, I could still move my body.
“Sa…ve me…!”
I clutched my neck in terrible pain and said that.
Then Senior looked at me with eyes full of shock.
Now my voice would no longer come out.
“Kek…!”
[You’ve finally gone insane.]
“…I, I…”
Senior seemed flustered for a moment, but then he gripped his blade tightly and whispered to me.
“You’re… an anomaly.”
“…!!”
“So there’s no problem.”
I had thought that, just a little, the door to his heart had finally opened.
It seemed that wasn’t the case.
It was the moment when pain began to mean nothing to me.
The pain called loneliness wrapped around me.
‘Even if I throw my life away… being acknowledged as human…’
It seemed that was a wish that could never come true.
“…I don’t… want this. I said I don’t want to be an anomaly…!!”
I said that while coughing up blood.
But without answering, Senior merely collected the still-breathing carcass of the barn owl.
“Let’s go back.”
—Slice!!
With Senior’s words as the last thing I heard,
my head, which had been regenerating and reattaching itself, rolled across the ground.
After securing the carcass, Yeonwoo returned to the campsite, turned on his phone, and filmed the anomaly as he submitted a report.
“…Current time, 3:22 a.m. After combat, succeeded in capturing the anomaly alive. It is currently asleep through the use of anesthetics. Whether it will regenerate again is unknown. I sustained a minor wound on the back of my hand, but confirmed that there is no poison or anything of the sort.”
After saying that, Yeonwoo hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth.
“A medical team… is required.”
“……”
Looking at Sion, who still could not get up and was sprawled out beside him, Yeonwoo said that.
That a medical team was needed.
* * *
Early morning.
“……”
I opened my eyes at the campsite and stared hollowly at the barn owl beside me.
‘…It’s alive.’
Then what meaning was there?
Now this barn owl would suffer horrible things.
Unlike me, who had at least been treated somewhat like a person, it would be something utterly dreadful.
Well, it was an anomaly anyway, so I decided not to care and looked around.
“…Watcher?”
It seemed the Watcher had gone back.
Since the incident was over, he must have quietly disappeared before being discovered.
“Must be nice… being able to work from long range.”
That was far better than me, who kept repeating death after death.
“…Where did Senior go?”
Wondering if I had been abandoned here, I hurriedly tried to go outside.
“…!!”
“Ah……”
When I came out, I found Senior poking at the campfire with a branch.
“……”
“……”
I sat down without saying a word, and Senior stared at me blankly.
“Your body.”
“……”
I didn’t want to talk.
Because in the end, this person hated me.
‘…I only wanted to help.’
For some reason, had I gotten in the way? Senior Yeonwoo had killed me without the slightest hesitation.
At that, tears slipped out a little.
“Are you crying…?”
Senior asked that, sounding slightly surprised.
I shook my head and told him no.
“No… I’m not, crying.”
“Just cry. Let it all out.”
Senior said that and let out a sigh.
At that, the tears I had been holding back burst forth all at once.