Sion sat there blankly.
Yeonu stared at Sion like that for a long while.
To be honest, he no longer really knew what it was that sat before his eyes.
Should he treat him completely as an anomaly, or……
“…Senior, a-are you all right?”
“…!!”
Sion was watching Yeonu’s expression as he sank into thought.
Seeing Sion covered in cold sweat, his face uneasy and anxious, Yeonu nearly frowned.
‘An anomaly…….’
He was only an anomaly.
Yeonu wanted to think of him as simply that, but—
“I’m fine.”
“…Th-that’s a relief.”
“…….”
Thinking that he was far too human, Yeonu drank the instant coffee mix he had made.
“When we get back, let’s have you investigated again.”
“…Pardon?”
“You’re Lee Sion, right?”
As Yeonu asked that while poking at the fire, Sion stammered for a moment before nodding.
“Y-yes… I’m Lee Sion… That’s my name.”
“Right…….”
Honestly, at this point, Yeonu no longer cared either way.
Whether he was human or an anomaly.
He decided to just think of him as a subordinate.
“When we get back, there’ll be a friend who’s a little off in the head, so don’t get too scared.”
Saying that, Yeonu rose from his seat.
When Sion tried to get up as well, Yeonu held out the coffee to him and told him to rest.
“Rest.”
“Ah……”
“You’re not hungry, are you?”
“Uh… no……”
“Right. After eating that much.”
Saying that, Yeonu finished the rest of his coffee and crumpled the paper cup.
Watching him, Sion merely tilted his head at the feeling of fullness inside him.
‘Aside from what I ate in the dream… I haven’t eaten anything, though.’
* * *
Until the car arrived, I stared blankly into the air.
As if it had all been a lie, the weather had cleared.
The plants, too, slowly began to unfurl.
In the meantime, Senior got up and went into the tent.
Senior warned me not to come inside.
“Don’t come in. I’m going to half-kill that thing.”
“It’s… already almost dead, though.”
When I said that, Senior sighed and shook his head.
“No, it can’t be used anyway.”
“…Pardon?”
“It didn’t surrender, and it doesn’t have particularly outstanding regeneration either.”
Saying that, Senior drew the blade from its sheath.
“Then we keep it barely alive and squeeze out as much of its ability as possible.”
“Ah……”
“That was originally the plan for you too. If you hadn’t gone and revived yourself on your own.”
“…….”
“Sorry. Don’t be hurt.”
After saying that and warning me once more not to come in, Senior entered the tent.
A moment later, the sound of flesh being crushed rang out, followed by something rather horrifying.
I was grateful for the fact that those sounds were not coming from my body.
And I sipped the instant coffee mix Senior had brought me.
‘…It feels like I went camping.’
It was a morning that felt as though I had experienced something ordinary.
What had happened last night felt like nothing more than a dream.
Though I wasn’t sure if it was all right for me to feel that way.
* * *
7 a.m.
Hun, unable to get off work, let out a sigh and rubbed his face with dry hands.
“…I can’t even go home.”
“I, for one, am glad I cannot go home. I’m frightened of what those researcher bastards might do.”
Cutting off Sohun’s words, the Watcher clipped her nails.
—Snap!
“Ah, it broke again.”
“…….”
“Give me a new one.”
The Watcher demanded it with confidence.
Hun sighed and tossed her another nail clipper.
Then the Watcher diligently began trimming her nails again.
“Why don’t you just live with him? Why are you being so stubborn? Watcher, you had no obligation to stay there in the first place.”
“Ah… because that bastard is insane.”
Saying that, the Watcher shuddered.
The Watcher, who had said she would rather be dissected to death by the Research Division bastards than live with that man, let out a sigh.
“Then there’s Yeonu too. Why insist?”
“…I wonder whether I’d be able to wake up intact the next day.”
Yeonu, too, was not especially favorable toward the Watcher, who was a pure anomaly.
If they were not merely working together but actually living together, would the Watcher not be found dead under mysterious circumstances within a few days?
Hearing that, Hun sighed.
‘Haa… I’m tired.’
Well, it was not as if he believed anomalies and humans could get along amicably.
He, too, harbored hostility toward anomalies.
It was only because she was someone on the level of the Watcher that he regarded her as a colleague.
Otherwise, Sohun was the kind of person who would think he wanted to kill them all.
“Anyway, he’s coming back today.”
“Haa……”
“When he actually gets here, don’t the two of you get along rather well?”
“…Well, he is a brat with some taste, at least.”
The moment the Watcher said that—
—Bang!!
“Yay! I’m back!!”
A man wearing a Hawaiian shirt, shorts, and black sunglasses, with a black Bureau suit jacket slung over his shoulder, kicked open the door to Action Section One and entered.
“What, there are people here.”
“…Minjun.”
“Yes, Chief.”
“Don’t you think that’s a bit much?”
At Hun’s fed-up expression, the man called Minjun tilted his head.
His name was Park Minjun.
He had a somewhat excitable personality and was the only one in the Bureau—
“You’re as pretty as ever today, Miss Watcher.”
“…Still a brat with good eyes, I see.”
“That’s why I keep telling you to live with me.”
—who was favorable toward anomalies……
No, rather than simply favorable, he was a human who liked anomalies.
“Your gaze is unpleasant. Where are you looking?”
“Your necktie.”
Minjun answered flatly, saying it was her necktie.
The Watcher sighed, then giggled and said she would leave it at that.
And Sohun, watching the two of them, said nothing.
“…….”
He simply closed his eyes.
And inwardly, he prayed.
‘…Yeonu, Sion, please… please… hurry back…!!’
Please come back quickly.
* * *
After getting into the car, I looked at Masked Owl, who was unconscious and out cold.
And I also looked at Senior, who had packaged Masked Owl up nicely.
“…Senior, wasn’t this one naked?”
“I had to put clothes on it.”
“…I-it will wake up again, right? You didn’t… actually kill it, did you?”
“I’m joking. I didn’t kill it. Why, do you want to die?”
Saying that, Senior fiddled with his knife.
When I shrieked and shook my head, Senior smiled faintly and told me he had only knocked it out.
“They’ll probably find some way to use it somehow.”
“…….”
“It seems like it’ll do anything, as long as it doesn’t involve hurting people.”
Its ability certainly was useful.
Things like infiltrating communications equipment, for instance.
Though it strongly felt like an inferior version of the Watcher.
“Hey.”
“…Yes?”
“What’s your goal?”
Senior, using his phone, asked the question indifferently.
Unable to understand Senior’s intention, I floundered, and Senior sighed before looking at me.
“What, are you afraid I’ll hit you again?”
“N-no…!”
“I won’t hit you, so speak freely.”
“Ah… I……”
A goal?
Even if he suddenly asked me something like that, nothing came to mind.
Senior stared at me for a long while with blue eyes, then put his phone into his pocket and asked again.
“You don’t have one?”
“Ah… no.”
“…….”
Senior looked at me with a displeased expression.
When I shrank in on myself, Senior sighed and said never mind, then crossed his legs, propped up his chin, and began talking about himself.
“My goal is to kill all things like you.”
“…!”
For an instant, I felt murderous intent, and it sent a chill down my spine.
Senior looked at me as I trembled, then quickly hid that murderous intent with an expression as if he had lost interest.
“And the other one is… to make sure there are no more victims like you.”
“Yes…?”
Victims?
It was surprising to hear such a word come from Senior’s mouth.
Not the Chief, but Senior.
When I opened my eyes wide, Senior hesitated for a moment, then said he was sorry.
“…Sorry.”
“…….”
“I think I haven’t been treating you like a person at all.”
“Ah……”
“I guess I wasn’t certain. But now I know for sure. Though I don’t know if you remember yesterday.”
Yesterday?
I tilted my head, wondering what he meant, and Senior smiled brightly as he told me it was nothing I needed to know.
“Anyway, those are my two goals.”
“Yes……”
“You need a goal to survive in the Bureau.”
“…….”
“If you don’t have a goal, then just go insane. Then you’ll live.”
Senior’s expression twisted for a moment.
Then he murmured quietly, “Though it’s hard to call that living, even if you survive.”
It seemed all sorts of people had come and gone here.
“…What about the Ch-Chief… what’s his goal?”
“The Chief’s… is to meet a pretty bride and get married.”
“Pardon…?”
“They said that’s all he has.”
It was the moment I unexpectedly wondered whether the Chief liked women.
“Anyway, I’ll be counting on you, junior.”
“…!!”
Senior said he would be counting on me while I was slightly flustered.
At that, I hesitated, then nodded.
It felt as though we had captured an anomaly together and I had been acknowledged……
That sort of indescribable emotion wrapped around me.
The car continued to drive on.
Although, once I returned to the Bureau, I would be treated as an anomaly, a consumable that did not get consumed.
At least in Action Section One—
‘There… I can be somewhat at ease.’
I could be somewhat at ease.
The only sanctuary left to me in this world.
I was on my way there now.
To the only sanctuary left to me in this world.
The scenery changed swiftly.
* * *
In front of the office of Action Section One.
When we arrived there, Senior drew in a breath, then opened the door in a bright voice.
“Good morning!”
“Oh, you’re back.”
The Chief, having found us, rose from his seat and approached us.
“Good work. Sion, it was your first mission too, so you worked hard.”
“Th-thank you.”
“I’ll record your contribution. Your classification will probably be lowered further.”
“…!!”
When I bowed my head in thanks, the Chief responded expressionlessly.
He looked very tired, so I decided to let it pass and smiled brightly at Senior.
Then—
“…That’s unpleasant. Don’t smile like that when you’re just an anomaly. Crying suits you better.”
“Pardon…?”
“Ah, sorry. My true feelings slipped out.”
“…Se-Senior.”
“Congratulations.”
This person really was a split-personality psychopath.
I was certain of it.