A classroom where nothing remained,
and inside it, I blankly wiped away the tears streaming down my face.
With little hiccups, the tears kept preparing to spill out again.
I tried somehow to hold on as I wiped them away, but—
“…No, stop,”
the tears would not stop.
Perhaps the pain of having my entire body shattered to pieces was not something that disappeared so easily, because I still had not escaped the shock.
Even now, if I simply stayed still, terror welled up in me, as if something might come flying from somewhere and cut me down.
Overcome by that fear, I hugged myself and cried.
Then I felt something warm and gentle on my shoulder.
Startled, I looked to the side.
“You’re awake.”
Saying that, Senior Yeonwoo was there, examining my condition with a faint, expressionless smile.
“…You’re going to be reassessed.”
“……”
Reassessment.
I knew better than anyone what the reason was.
My ability, the one even I hadn’t known about. It was probably because of that.
“It was scary.”
“……”
“I didn’t even know you had an ability like that. How did you hide it?”
Senior’s voice contained no emotion.
At that, I sniffled and slowly answered.
“I, I… didn’t know either.”
“Is that so?”
Saying she understood, Senior rose from her seat.
When I lifted my head and looked up at her, she answered calmly.
“It’ll probably go up.”
“……”
She must have meant my classification grade.
I had only just been going down.
To be honest, it felt unfair.
Because if my grade went up any higher from here, far from being a pet anomaly, I would simply become a test subject.
Then I would have to experience something horrible every single day.
A life where I could not even die, trapped in the curse called life, resurrecting again and again…
It was horrifying just to imagine.
But there was nothing I could do.
All I could do was accept it.
That was all I could do.
As tears fell from my eyes, Senior murmured quietly.
“…It is controllable, at least.”
“Yes…?”
When I tilted my head at the words that it was controllable, Senior Yeonwoo stared blankly at me for a moment, then turned her gaze away.
“Let’s go. It’d be better to talk after we get there.”
Saying that, Senior Yeonwoo stood up.
I asked her one question.
“Wh-what happened to Senior Minjun…?”
“He’s alive.”
Senior said that with an irritated expression, then sighed and turned around.
Senior Minjun was alive.
I had no idea what that was supposed to mean.
I had clearly witnessed it with my own two eyes.
“N-no, how…?”
“Let’s go. I’ll tell you.”
Saying that, Senior reached out her hand toward me, who was still sitting there.
Though I looked at her suspiciously, I took that hand.
* * *
When we came down, I saw the Section Chief waiting in front of the car.
“Sion.”
After calling my name, he checked my arms and legs.
He looked at me with a deeply worried expression, but since I did not know what had happened, I could only feel bewildered.
“S-Section Chief?”
“Looks like nothing’s wrong… I was just checking, so don’t be nervous.”
Saying that, the Section Chief patted my shoulder.
I nodded and followed him into the car.
The car set off right away.
Senior seemed tired, leaning against the door with her eyes closed.
The Section Chief drank coffee as he tapped away at his laptop.
The atmosphere was terribly cold.
In that frozen silence, enough to make me wonder if things had ever been like this before, I clutched my chest and tried to recognize reality.
No one was trying to hurt me.
I was not in pain right now.
“…I won’t get hurt, I won’t get hurt, I won’t get hurt, I won’t get hurt.”
When I muttered that, Senior beside me looked at me expressionlessly.
As I shut my mouth, gauging her reaction, Senior closed her eyes and sighed.
“I won’t hit you, I won’t kill you, and you won’t get hurt, so calm down.”
“…!!”
“…Sorry. I want to sort out my thoughts.”
Watching Senior gaze outside with vacant eyes, I timidly nodded.
‘…Just what happened?’
I, who had been trapped inside my mind, did not know.
All I had were memories of suffering.
The moment I thought of those moments, chills ran down my spine, and I swallowed my breath.
‘…It was probably something horrible.’
The fact that I could only make such a guess made me feel utterly pathetic.
It was then, while I was submerged in helplessness and fear.
“When we return, Minjun, I, and Yeonwoo will proceed with the reassessment.”
“…I-is that so?”
“……”
“……”
The Section Chief looked at me without saying anything.
When I awkwardly smiled, he quietly opened his mouth.
“You did well. Holding on.”
You did well holding on.
As though those words had touched something inside me—
“…Ah.”
Hot tears flowed down both my cheeks.
* * *
The office of Action Section 1.
There, Minjun was wearing an eyepatch and unable to see, while the Watcher held his hand beside him and snickered away.
The Watcher mocked Minjun as she giggled.
“How didst thou come to lose both eyes?”
“I thought I could win……”
Minjun said that in a deeply dejected voice, waving his hand through the air.
Then he snatched the Watcher’s hand and continued in a pitiful voice.
“Miss Watcher, you have four eyes, so can’t you give me the two in your hands……?”
“…The symbol of this lady is the eye embedded in each palm.”
“The two inverted eyes on your head are your real eyes, Miss Watcher.”
Minjun whined as he said that.
He, too, had no memories of the incident.
All he had heard was that after the chameleon died, Minjun had popped out of the school broadcasting room with both eyes blinded.
On top of that, something resembling his clone had fought Sion.
‘And I heard that meat shield… won.’
He had also heard that Sion had torn the clone apart and been killed.
At first, he had thought it must have been a coincidence.
After all, Sion had been a weak anomalous being who clung to his pant leg and begged him to stop killing him.
But after watching the footage of the battle recorded by Yeonwoo, his thoughts changed completely.
Because in that video, Sion was quite literally flying around.
As though he were an entirely different being.
And now that Sion had awakened at the school,
the Management Bureau had issued a single order.
[Confirm Lee Sion’s existence and controllability once more.]
A reassessment.
It was a disposition that was not handed down easily.
There had only ever been one anomalous being in the Management Bureau to receive it.
The first pet anomaly, who had annihilated the former Action Section 1 and was then disposed of.
“What was its name again?”
“Thou didst not tell this lady what ‘it’ is, little one.”
The Watcher giggled, and Minjun smiled as though to say she already knew anyway.
“Will thy eyesight not return?”
“…It comes back when I become an anomaly. But that’s a bit much.”
“Indeed, the treatment is poor, after all.”
The Watcher smiled and soothed Minjun, telling him not to worry because she would help him.
“Do not worry. This lady shall assist thee so that thou mayest see.”
“Then I’d be grateful, Miss Watcher.”
Minjun said thank you.
That peace lasted only a moment.
—Creeeak.
“Ha… you are here.”
“What, is that you, Yeonwoo?”
“……”
Yeonwoo had arrived at the office.
* * *
When we arrived at the office, I saw Senior Minjun with bandages wrapped around his eyes like Ri○.
“Sion. Go in.”
“Ah… yes, Section Chief.”
The Section Chief told me it was okay and to go inside.
I nodded and hesitantly entered the office.
Then Senior waved his hand gently, as if he could see me.
When I tilted my head, the Watcher was also waving at me.
“I can see if the Watcher helps me.”
“Ah… th-that’s a relief.”
“Is it?”
Senior Minjun giggled and tilted his head.
Thinking that he had become somewhat like the Watcher, I awkwardly sat down.
Then Senior Yeonwoo placed a laptop in front of me.
“…Watch that and understand the situation first.”
“Ah… y-yes……”
Perhaps she was tired, because Senior Yeonwoo slumped down and tried to sleep.
I glanced at her, watching her reaction, then played the video.
And there, it showed a version of me that even I did not know.
A version of me drooling, perhaps because I was extremely excited.
“…!!”
“Do you remember?”
Saying that, the Section Chief came over and pointed out each part of the video for me.
And every time I saw an injury I received in it, the memory was carved into me once again.
It matched exactly with the injuries I had received one by one inside my mind.
Being shot, leaving holes in my chest and stomach.
Being cut by a sword, causing my arm to fall off.
However, there was one thing different.
“…I, I received all the other injuries.”
“Where?”
“In my mental space… B-but the part where my head falls off here, and where my arm gets cut off here……”
I had never suffered those.
And the only thing those attacks had in common was that they had happened when Senior used the Jinsa Sword, imbued it with the power to suppress anomalies, and attacked me.
“……”
When my thoughts reached that point, I realized one thing.
The me inside my mind was not affected at all by attacks that suppressed anomalies.
Which meant—
“…Does that mean my mind… is human?”
That at least my mind was human.
When I turned my head and asked, the Section Chief adjusted his sunglasses and nodded.
“…I had suspected as much.”
“……”
“Haa… this has become troublesome.”
The Section Chief said the problems were anything but minor.
Looking at him, I broke out in a cold sweat as well.
I could not tell whether the emotion blooming inside me was joy, excitement, fear, or worry.
‘I have no idea.’
All I could think was that I had no idea.
In the first place, just who was I in that video?