-Crack
-Crunch, crack!!
Sion’s bones twisted grotesquely as she rose to her feet—no, the unidentified anomaly did.
The Chameleon, watching her, was visibly flustered.
“Ahh… I’m hungry.”
The anomaly cracked her neck a couple of times and muttered.
Then she lifted her head.
On the face now revealed, white X marks shone clearly in both her eyes.
“You.”
“…?”
“Are you tasty?”
The anomaly asked with a slightly grotesque, beaming smile.
When the Chameleon took a small step back—
-Crunchhhhh!!!
“I’m talking to you.”
The anomaly, having changed her left arm into a black blade, bared her teeth and spoke.
Then, as if to encourage him, she lightly patted his shoulder with that arm.
If there was one problem—
-Slash!!!
“Oops, my mistake.”
It was that Sion had sliced off the Chameleon’s arm with the blade.
That was all.
His arm flew through the air, scattering fresh blood.
And when the Chameleon saw it—
“Kieeeeeeeeeek!!!!!!”
“Wow… noisy.”
He began thrashing about, letting out a scream that seemed ready to tear the air apart.
He slammed his head into the wall and clawed at his own wound, as if trying to forget the pain somehow.
But the more he did, the more he was the one who suffered.
Of course, that was none of the unidentified being’s concern.
What had been given to her was—
“You know…”
“…!!”
“You bullied her, didn’t you?”
Only to properly fulfill the contract.
Smiling brightly, she picked up the Chameleon’s severed arm.
Her smile was nothing short of grotesque.
Her face was distorted, and perhaps because she was clumsily trying to imitate a human smile, tears were streaming down her cheeks.
In that state, white light in the shape of Xs seeped from her eyes.
“Then I’ll have to take payment… and you’re not even human anymore.”
-Crunch…!!!
The anomaly’s neck turned 180 degrees, and the sound of bones snapping rang out.
But as if this behavior posed no problem whatsoever, she smiled brightly.
“Shall we play that hunting game you like so much together?”
Her chilling voice echoed throughout the entire school.
And before long, it reached the Chameleon’s main body far away.
* * *
Yeonwoo came out of the classroom and activated her earphones.
To be honest, she no longer trusted them.
Because she had already confirmed that the anomaly could alter the song.
‘At least… I should be able to hold out a little.’
With that flimsy belief, Yeonwoo squeezed her eyes shut.
Beside her, the Watcher was blocking out the sound of the song as much as possible.
“You need not go to such troublesome lengths, you know.”
“…Mind your own business.”
“How foolish.”
“I still need to communicate with the Chief.”
“Ah… I see.”
“…You goddamn idiot.”
Yeonwoo sent her a look of disgust as she said that.
Receiving it, the Watcher sighed and strode confidently down the hallway.
And what appeared before them was—
“…It’s gruesome.”
“Gruesome indeed.”
Fresh blood, desks, chairs, chalk, and more were scattered across the floor.
Since they could not hear the song, the hallucination was not taking effect.
‘Then does that mean it completely transforms them into desks?’
A question arose in Yeonwoo’s mind, and she raised her camera to check.
But the corpses were captured on camera far too plainly.
“……”
“How is it?”
“…They look like corpses, properly.”
“Hmm… Perhaps a barrier has been placed over them. Not a confusion-type effect, but a spell or the like.”
“Haa… disgusting.”
Yeonwoo and the Watcher slowly walked to the teachers’ office while covering their noses.
According to the Watcher, everything here was fake.
In other words, they were clones, so Yeonwoo felt at least somewhat relieved as she opened the door to the teachers’ office.
‘If they’re fake… they’ll be easier to deal with.’
What she saw then was chalk dust scattered in every direction, and the Chief covered in that chalk dust.
“…Ch-Chief.”
And Yeonwoo, who knew what that chalk dust meant, froze on the spot and could not move.
Sohun had killed people.
Even amid that, he was waiting for them with an utterly calm expression, drinking coffee, one hand in his pocket.
“……”
“Hah, have you gone completely mad?”
Sohun said nothing.
The Watcher asked Sohun if he had gone mad.
At that, Sohun lowered the mug from his lips and asked a question.
“Was there ever anyone in the Administration Bureau who wasn’t mad… no, any life that wasn’t mad?”
His voice was low and sunken.
It was not as though he was in a good state of mind either.
However, this one thing was certain.
“They interfere with the operation. Humans who have been taken by an anomaly may be disposed of on the spot without issue.”
He was a person who had gone completely insane.
Sohun had become a killing machine, his switch flipped, leaking no emotion whatsoever.
And Yeonwoo shouted at him.
“Chief…!! Even so, this is—!! They’re civilians who’ll all be saved once we just catch the anomaly…!! How could you do something like—”
But before she could finish, Sohun cut her off.
“So.”
“…?!”
“So you treated Sion that cruelly? Because she can’t return to being human anyway? No… That child may already be human.”
“……”
Yeonwoo lowered her head at that.
Sohun, showing not the slightest fluctuation of emotion, gave an order to the Watcher.
“Watcher, cover me.”
“……”
“Now.”
“…!!”
The command fell heavily.
At that, the Watcher hurriedly wrapped Sohun in smoke.
Only then did his expression ease somewhat.
“Some of the earphones’ functions are damaged. We don’t have time to dawdle.”
“…Yes.”
“U-understood.”
Yeonwoo answered soullessly and, with trembling hands, took a photo of the teachers’ office with her phone camera.
Then the horrifying scene was revealed.
“Try not to look on purpose if you can, Yeonwoo.”
“…!!”
“You can feel guilty after the operation is all over.”
“……”
“They were anomalies, not humans.”
“…How can you be sure of that—”
“…How are you sure Sion isn’t human?”
“……”
Yeonwoo was left speechless.
When she lowered her head once more, Sohun asked another question.
“No, let me change the question.”
“……”
“Which are you more favorable toward: Sion, who does not attack you, or humans driven mad by an anomaly and blindly charging at you?”
“…Th-that’s…!!”
She thought she would be able to answer without hesitation.
But no answer came.
“…The correct answer is humans. Here, we have to dispose of the humans. It is reasonable to regard them as anomalies already.”
“……”
“A pet dog raised at home and a feral dog. Naturally, you choose the pet.”
Saying that, Sohun stepped out of the teachers’ office.
Looking at him, Yeonwoo clenched her teeth and bowed her head.
“Thank you… for your cooperation.”
“Come, you.”
“…I’m going. Get lost first.”
“…Very well.”
The Watcher slowly moved away.
Yeonwoo, too, let out a sigh, slapped her cheeks a couple of times, and hurried after the two of them.
* * *
The schoolyard after sunset.
There, with a slightly chilly wind blowing, the three doubted their eyes.
“What in the world is all that…”
The Watcher could not hide her shock as she spoke.
Beside her, Yeonwoo also clenched her teeth.
‘It’s horrible…’
It was a truly horrible sight.
Blood had drawn a massive circle across the schoolyard.
And following that blood, corpses and half-corpses were going round and round.
Desks, chairs, and chalk were also floating in the air, circling round and round above it.
When they held the camera up to it—
“…Chief, look at this.”
“Haa… this is dizzying.”
A shocking scene was captured in full.
People walking without consciousness, dragging blood behind them.
That much was already visible to their own eyes as well.
But what was even more shocking was that the corpses were floating and walking in formation.
As if they were being controlled by a puppeteer.
“Tsk… revolting.”
The Watcher glared at the phone as she said that.
At that, Yeonwoo muttered, “Could it be more revolting than you?” and turned off the phone.
“Stop fighting. What do we do now?”
Sohun stopped the two of them and thought.
‘First… we came out to the schoolyard as it said on the blackboard and the teachers’ messenger.’
There were about twenty minutes left in twelfth period.
Whether they had to take some action within that time, or whether they had to simply wait until the period ended.
Feeling their heads throb, the three began to seriously ponder.
“…For now, we’d better go down.”
“And what will you do if the anomaly appears?”
“Dispose of it.”
Sohun gave a simple answer, and the Watcher asked him if that would be easy.
At that, Sohun frowned and gave an order.
“Watcher, you’re too arrogant.”
“…!!”
“Just follow me without complaint.”
“……”
Unable to say anything, the Watcher merely nodded timidly.
“…Tsk. We’re entering.”
“…Yes, Chief.”
The three descended to the schoolyard with lingering doubts.
And those three did not know.
Just how horrific the thing they had to do before twelfth period ended would be.
* * *
“How is it!? How does it feel to be chased?! Huh?! Kyahahahaha!!”
The unidentified anomaly chased the Chameleon’s puppet like a madwoman.
At that, the Chameleon’s main body, disguised as the school nurse, felt maddening pain.
It was not physical pain. Rather—
“I’m going to die…!!”
Pain caused by tremendous stress.
A human heart agitated as if it would burst, and a consciousness that felt as if it would be cruelly torn apart.
The pain tormented her without pause.
And she collapsed to the ground, unable to resist.
“I-I have to move bodies…!!”
There in the broadcasting room, she spat out the body she had eaten and sent her main body somewhere else.
With this, her main body would flee to a place where it could not be found.
The Chameleon let out a sneer.