Since there were no particular missions today, I sat blankly, simply waiting for time to pass.
'So when you die and come back to life… you can't sleep either.'
I glanced to the side and saw Senior Yeonu, exhausted and slumped over the desk, asleep.
It was a day where she could have gone home after finishing work, yet she forced herself to stay behind, saying the processing couldn't be delayed, writing reports.
It was a moment that made clear she was fundamentally a good person, even if she acted like a thug to Entities.
Of course, since I was an Entity, she wouldn't show me that side either.
To be honest, just now, reality had fully hit me when Senior called me an Entity.
I sighed and stared blankly at the clock when I felt a gaze.
The gaze I had been deliberately ignoring was staring at my face as if trying to pierce through it.
"E-Excuse me……."
As I said that and turned my head, a man blankly staring at me came into view.
His name was Bak Minjun.
He was the ace of Action Division 1 and a peer of Senior Yeonu.
And his goal was.
'To date the Surveillant.'
It was probably a joke, but it was a goal that roughly showed he was a crazy person.
I had been ignoring him for now, following Senior Yeonu's advice not to get involved with him.
But it seemed he was interested, as he kept looking at me.
"Your name is I Sion, was it?"
"Y-Yes……."
"Hmm."
Senior Minjun rubbed his chin as he looked at me, then soon approached, grabbed my face, and turned it this way and that.
"Urp……."
"Tsk, you're not human?"
Even while asking if I wasn't human, Senior Minjun handled me like an object, as if certain I was an Entity.
I tried to ask him to let go, but.
"Leh… leth go……."
"What? Speak properly."
He only snickered and mocked me.
He definitely didn't do this to the Surveillant.
I turned my head to look at the Surveillant.
"Stop that."
She only giggled and half-heartedly held Minjun back.
And Senior liked that the Surveillant had laughed.
'Crazy people…! I'm scared…!'
At this, tremendous terror flooded over me.
"Ouch……."
"So, you're not human?"
Senior Minjun said that and stared at me for a long while.
I nodded at that, and he looked at the X marks in my eyes for a long time before nodding.
"Alright… let's get along."
Senior said that and held out his hand.
When I only warily watched him, Senior tapped my head a couple of times and returned to his seat.
"I don't really discriminate against Entities, so relax."
"Ah……."
"Right, Surveillant?"
When Senior shifted his gaze to the Surveillant, she nodded, shrugging as if fed up.
"Well… if there is no discrimination, then there is none."
"See."
The Surveillant's fed-up expression was truly suspicious, but.
Feeling grateful that she was at least treating me without discrimination for now, I nodded.
* * *
Time passed, and before I knew it, it was lunchtime.
'Senior Yeonu told me to wake her up now…….'
Before going to sleep, Senior Yeonu had told me to wake her up so we could go out together during lunch, so I slowly shook Senior Yeonu.
"S-Senior Yeonu……."
"……."
"It's l-lunchtime… please wake up……."
"Ah……."
Then Senior woke from sleep and rubbed her eyes.
Without a word of thanks, she simply let out a deep sigh and checked the time.
"Hey."
"…Y-Yes…!"
When I answered nervously, she chuckled and asked if there was anything I wanted to eat.
"Isn't there anything you want to eat?"
"S-Something I want… to eat?"
"Yeah, you saved my life, so the least I can do is buy you food."
Senior said she would buy me food.
Since it didn't feel real, I was blankly staring at Senior when Senior Minjun, who was beside me, cut in with a flat voice.
"Sushi for me."
"Huhu, will you?"
"Probably not."
"Fuck off, you pervert."
It was the first time I had seen Senior curse at a person besides me and the Surveillant.
At this, my eyes went wide as I looked at Senior, and Senior scrunched up her face looking at me.
"What, why are you looking at me like that?"
"Ah, no… I've seen you curse at me and the Surveillant, but it's my first time seeing you curse at a person……."
When I said that, she sighed, then grabbed my cheek and fixed her gaze on Senior Minjun.
"Watch closely."
"…?"
Just as I felt puzzled by that.
"Ah, please stop."
"…."
"…It hurts my eyes, stop it."
"Come on, let me."
I saw Senior Minjun taking the Surveillant's hand and tormenting her eyes.
'…What is he doing?'
Just as I was wondering what he was doing, Senior Yeonu continued.
"That guy, he likes doing stuff like that."
"Huh…?"
"Bothering and hitting others."
"…!!"
"The Surveillant is dull to that kind of thing so she doesn't really complain? He's gotten fixated and is trying to win the Surveillant over, that's what that is."
Senior Yeonu looked at Senior Minjun with as much disgust as when looking at a real Entity.
As I trembled at this, Senior Minjun cleared his throat and continued.
"Hah, to think you'd mock my pure love."
"More importantly, kid, that cute junior there came back to life even after dying?"
"…!?"
The Surveillant giggled and looked at me.
I panicked at this, and Senior Minjun's eyes looking at me had changed.
"Really?"
Senior asked seriously, truly seriously.
I wanted to say no, but.
"Kk-heuk…!"
"You're screwed."
"You're done for."
Because of the contract, I felt my throat tightening and couldn't lie.
The Surveillant and Senior crowed that I was done for.
Just as a terrible future was imaginable and tears were about to trickle out.
"Minjun. Don't bully Sion."
The Section Chief's voice was heard as she returned from buying coffee.
"Why, you insolent human…! Why is this one left to be bullied without intervention!"
"It's because only with you around does he not bully Yeonu or Sion."
The Section Chief mocked the Surveillant, and the Surveillant looked at the Section Chief as if dumbfounded, gnashing her teeth and letting out a sigh.
"Hey, wench… buy this one some sushi too."
"…I never said I was buying sushi."
"Did this one not help? Had it not been for this one, both would have died. No, at the very least, you, wench, would certainly have died."
The Surveillant grumbled, saying she had ignored procedures and whatnot.
At this, Senior sighed and nodded, saying she understood.
"Yeah, yeah… I got it."
"Yaay."
"Me too."
"Not you, Bak Minjun."
"Come on… ha."
Senior Minjun sighed.
Not knowing what to do at this, I bowed my head and apologized repeatedly.
"P-Please don't kill me, please don't kill me, please don't kill me…!"
"Hey… Yeonu. How much did you torture the kid for them to break down like this…?"
"...I just thought they were an Entity imitating a person."
"You crazy bitch……."
The two people calling each other crazy.
Between those two people, I desperately bowed my head.
Because, after all, I wanted to live.
* * *
An everyday street after a long time.
When it was 'Forget Me' time, I had been isolated in the car and only moved around in a limited section, so it had been a bit stifling, but.
"……."
Now, wearing just an eyepatch and coming out into open space, it felt somehow different.
And above all.
'Senior isn't wearing her sword.'
Senior wasn't wearing her sword.
It really felt like she had just come out for a stroll.
"You want to eat sushi? For an Entity, you've got quite the picky palate."
"What? You wench must be crazy, talking like that to your lifesaver."
"…We can do without it."
"…H-Hang in there."
"Forget it."
The Surveillant was flustered by Senior's words and awkwardly cheered her on, but Senior said forget it and looked for a sushi restaurant.
Watching this from behind, I awkwardly smiled and followed the two.
'…Come to think of it, the Surveillant looks a little different right now.'
Black hair, normal pupils, and even the eyes on her hands were gone.
As I blankly stared at that appearance that looked like an ordinary person, the Surveillant looked at me and began to giggle.
"Is it wondrous?"
"Ah……."
"It is merely an illusion, so do not be mistaken. I have not transformed."
Having said that, the Surveillant deliberately peeled away part of her face to show me.
On the part of her face where the illusion had truly lifted, her hair was white and her eyes were properly reversed.
I nodded at this, and the Surveillant continued with a spine-chilling smile.
"Know ye how many humans this one has killed in this form?"
"…H-How many?"
When I asked this, the Surveillant raised five fingers.
At this, I carefully offered a guess.
"F-Fifty…?"
"Ah… a tad disappointing."
"Th-Then how many…?"
The Surveillant grinned and whispered to me.
"Five hundred."
"…!!"
"Five hundred with this form alone."
The Surveillant was trying to scare me.
Watching such a Surveillant, I hiccupped and showed slight tears.
I thought it was fortunate that the one before me was an ally.
If she hadn't been an ally… I felt it would have been terribly difficult to fight her, like with the Masked Owl or the homeroom teacher.
In the meantime, we arrived at the sushi restaurant.
"Hey, two Entities."
"…!!"
"What is that wench thinking, acting like that when she'll be found out……."
From afar, Senior waved her hand and urged us to come in quickly.
I forced my trembling legs to move and entered the sushi restaurant.
* * *
Hun and Minjun.
The office of Action Division 1, with only the two remaining.
There, Minjun discovered an exceedingly interesting report.
"…Did Action Division 2 get annihilated, Section Chief?"
"…What?"
"No, it says they were annihilated? At the same time, the Entities disappeared too, and the Strange Phenomena are gone too……."
"…?"
A bizarre incident had occurred.
A report that Action Division 2 had evaporated without any warning signs.
And a story that at the same time, the Strange Phenomena and Entities had also disappeared.
"What the hell……."
One mustn't apply common sense to Entities, but this was so far beyond common sense that Hun couldn't continue speaking.
Because of this incident, it seemed the Management Bureau would be extremely busy for the time being.