Once he confirmed that Sion had fainted, the blonde roughly wiped away the drool and left the interrogation room.
Seeing how calmly she had settled down, the man in sunglasses, her superior, spoke to her.
“Wasn’t that a bit too much? His personality is unmistakably human.”
The woman stared blankly at him, then gave a faint laugh and continued.
“…He’s an anomaly. That’s how the Bureau classified him. And he isn’t human, is he? The one being too much is the Bureau, assigning me something like this the day after I return from vacation……”
The blonde let out a sigh, as if genuinely displeased.
Looking at her, the man with the dry expression continued.
“He’s still just a high school student. In a way, isn’t he in the same boat as you?”
“……”
She flinched slightly, then glanced at the glass window looking into the interrogation room.
Inside, Sion lay unconscious, twitching.
In the same boat—being lumped together with that monster simply disgusted her.
“An orphan, suffering because of an anomaly, with nothing but misfortune piling up.”
“…After joining the Bureau, I haven’t had any misfortune, Section Chief.”
The blonde said that as life returned to her eyes.
At that, the man shrugged and turned his head.
“Do you pity that monster?”
“A little.”
“…I don’t understand. To me, it only looks like it’s merely imitating a human.”
“You seem empty too. Weren’t you lively during the day?”
“That’s because…I had the best vacation.”
“Then it’s time to get back to work.”
Hearing the man’s words, the blonde woman let out a sigh and trudged away from the place.
The man, watching her from behind, was still staring at Sion in the interrogation room.
‘Is this the first time an anomaly has joined Action Division One?’
The man wore a doubtful expression.
As an employee of the Bureau, he too did not trust anomalies all that much.
“…We’ll have to watch him. When he wakes up, we should give him something to eat.”
Of course, he had no intention of treating Sion, who would now be moving as part of their team, as an enemy.
* * *
A dark space.
Within it, I was crouched down.
Not in my original form, but in the form I had taken after becoming an anomaly.
‘…I hate this…I want to go back.’
I want to go back.
To the way I originally was.
But that body no longer exists anywhere.
No, to be precise, it’s here—inside me, asleep, mixed together with the anomalies.
Tears flow down.
I’m scared. I want to live.
Please, I wish someone would get me out of here.
The moment I had that thought, I sensed a presence beside me.
“…!”
Startled, I looked to the side and saw a white object.
As I tilted my head at it, a familiar voice spread out.
“My son.”
“…Mom?”
A warm voice.
It was my mother’s voice.
My tears stopped.
Mom had come. Mom had come to save me, to end this hell.
I got up and ran with all my might.
Even though I had become like this, I firmly believed that at least my mother would still love me.
My legs hurt.
The white shape gradually drew closer.
And when I smiled brightly, the being on the other side was smiling brightly too.
“Let’s go.”
With its maw spread wide, filled with blood, flesh, and hair.
In that instant, my body froze.
It was that anomaly I had seen then.
“…!!”
It wasn’t Mom.
I couldn’t run.
I had already entered the anomaly’s maw.
I tried to turn back and flee, but—
—Crunch!!!
At that moment, the anomaly’s mouth closed, and my left arm was severed.
“Gaaaaaah…!!!!”
As pain flooded in, my vision went black.
* * *
“Huuuuup…!!”
I woke from the dream, gasping harshly for breath.
I whipped my head around, frantically checking the space I was in.
A hospital bed with curtains drawn around it.
Having opened my eyes on it, I shut them again and took deep breaths.
“…It’s okay, it’s okay, Lee Sion…you, you’re alive.”
I opened one eye and checked my trembling hand.
Taking deep breaths, I gathered my wits and slowly raised my head.
‘The smell of medicine… Am I in a hospital?’
Thinking that, I looked to the side and saw a man sitting there without the slightest presence, reading a newspaper.
“…!!”
“No need to be so startled.”
Seeing me flinch in shock, the man said there was no need to be so surprised and calmed me down.
So I asked in a slightly trembling voice.
“M-Mister, who are you?”
“……”
“Mister…?”
Instead of answering my question, the man stared blankly at me, then murmured quietly.
“…What are those X marks in your eyes? Do they have a function?”
“What?”
“No… Well, I suppose you wouldn’t know either. Never mind.”
I didn’t know what this man did.
But thinking he was much better than that fierce blonde, I was able to calm myself down fairly quickly.
“Is your body all right? How about your neck? It must be attached properly.”
The man asked that with a dry expression.
I nodded, then carefully watched his mood.
After all, I didn’t know when this person might suddenly change and treat me like a monster or an object too.
Whether I did or not, the man introduced himself to me in the same dry expression and tone.
“I’m So Hun, Section Chief of Action Division One at the Anomaly Management Bureau. I’ll be the section chief of the department you’ll belong to from now on, so you’d do well to remember that.”
“Y-yes……”
“For reference, your direct superior isn’t me. It’s Han Yeonwoo, the blonde from Action Division One who interrogated you.”
“…!!”
“No need to be too scared. She’s only that fierce toward anomalies.”
This man said that as if he didn’t care at all that I was classified as an anomaly.
‘He has no interest in me.’
Realizing that at once, I curled up again and hugged myself.
The Bureau is frightening.
People are unsettling. Everything is full of things that send chills down my spine.
“I look forward to working with you, Lee Sion.”
“…!!”
The Section Chief extended his hand for a handshake toward me as I trembled.
When I glanced at his face, he jerked his chin as if telling me to take it already, so I slowly took his hand.
“Welcome to Action Division One. Do you need an explanation of your duties?”
Saying that, the Section Chief handed me several manuals.
When I timidly nodded, the Section Chief slowly began explaining the Action Department.
“…There are several departments in the Bureau. Security, Action, Medical, Research, and Audit.”
“I-I see.”
Security was mainly in charge of facility security and anomaly isolation.
Medical handled the health of employees and the pet anomalies under contract.
Research studied anomalies’ behavior patterns, habits, weaknesses, and so on.
Audit was in charge of inspecting each department.
And above all those departments was the Director of the Bureau.
Beneath the Director were the section chiefs of each department, and below them, ranks were formed in the order people joined—that was the explanation I heard.
“That’s it. Did you understand?”
“I-I understood… Would it be better if I used military-style speech…?”
“No. This isn’t the military, so it doesn’t matter, though most people do. It makes communication easier.”
“Ah……”
“You’re an anomaly, so there’s even less need for you to worry about your manner of speech.”
The Section Chief said that while looking at me with strange eyes.
Unable to get used to that gaze, I lowered my head and listened to the rest of the explanation.
“Action Division One is where exceptional talent enters, even within the Action Department, and it’s one of the busiest divisions.”
“I see……”
“The members are me, Han Yeonwoo, and one person currently on vacation. As for anomalies, there are two assigned here, including you.”
“S-so you do use anomalies too.”
“It won’t be easy to get close to the other one. There’s a limit to being arrogant, honestly.”
The Section Chief sighed and pressed a hand to his forehead.
Watching him, I smiled awkwardly, and the Section Chief raised his head and stared at me intently.
“Ah……”
“……”
“…I-I’m sorry.”
When I said that, the Section Chief told me not to smile only when I was caught up in anomalies, then rose from his seat.
“If your body is all right, rest for a bit and then get up. We still have something to resolve.”
“W-what is it?”
“It’s about your school. You saw those desks there, didn’t you?”
Now that he mentioned it, there was still something I was curious about.
Even if I set the guard aside.
What on earth had the piano sound coming from that school been, and the desks and chairs scattered and overturned everywhere, and the broken chalk?
Thinking he might be able to answer those questions, I nodded.
“Yes…I s-saw them.”
“They were scattered everywhere when Han Yeonwoo and I entered too.”
“……”
“I’m checking just in case, but you weren’t the one who did it, were you?”
Me?
When I had been busy running away, why would I do that to all those desks?
Since there was no reason for me to have done it, I nodded, and the Section Chief also nodded as he continued.
“…There was also an anomaly in the music room. It was an anomaly that kept playing the piano endlessly while ignoring humans. When we cut off that anomaly’s head, the piano stopped.”
“Yes……”
“And after that… It would be better for you to see it in a photo.”
Saying that, the Section Chief took two photographs from inside his clothes.
“This is a photo taken before the performer was cut down.”
“…This is the same scenery I saw.”
“Right?”
With an expression of interest, the Section Chief showed me the next photo.
And when I saw that photo, I was struck by a shock as if I had been hit in the head.
“…!!”
“This…is a photo taken after the performer died.”
That photo contained hundreds of corpses.
A hallway soaked wet with blood.
People who had failed while trying to escape through the windows.
People who had collapsed on the floor and died.
People who had been crushed beneath others and died from the pressure.
I could even see photos of the teachers.
The positions of the desks and chalk matched exactly with the placement of the bodies.
“Uuup…!!!”
Bile rose in my throat.
As I ended up soiling the blanket, the Section Chief continued in a dry voice.
“It seems it was an anomaly that showed hallucinations. I’m sorry. I hope your friend wasn’t in the photo.”
Only now did it feel as though the strange unpleasant feeling I’d had when stepping on the desks and chairs had finally been resolved.
Along with a disgust far more intense than it had been then.