Confessions Over Soju
She released my restraints, perhaps sensing that this would be a long story, and refilled the paper cup she had emptied earlier with soju. Was she planning to keep drinking?
"Maybe you should stop now..."
"It doesn't matter if I'm staying the night anyway, right? Tomorrow's Sunday too."
I had expected as much the moment she brought out the alcohol, but she really intended to spend the night here. Watching her show no signs of stopping, I let out a quiet sigh in my mind.
"Got any snacks?"
"...Want me to boil some ramen?"
"Yeah, that sounds good."
Whether she knew my growing worry about tomorrow or not, she smiled pleasantly and poured soju into my paper cup in advance. Well... since this was a rare vacation after working without a single day off, she probably wanted to rest properly and enjoy the holiday too.
Glug glug... The water began to boil. I took out two eggs and waited for the noodles to cook when strange sounds came from behind me.
"Hyaaaak..!"
"Kyaa...!"
...What?
"What are you two doing right now?"
The Field Team Leader, who had been quietly lying in the corner, had somehow approached Nero and was now mimicking her pose while growling right in front of the cat girl's face.
"Hyaaak...!"
'What, is she picking a fight?'
Nero, who had been still until now, couldn't hold back anymore and unsheathed her sharp claws at the woman who kept coming closer. This was going to end badly.
"Nero, please! Just hold back! She's drunk, that's all, okay?"
'Master, sorry, but I only give one warning.'
"Huk!"
At the firm voice and the sight of her raised paw swinging toward the woman's face, I squeezed my eyes shut, unable to watch what came next.
"Hm? Want to play tag?"
But instead of the short scream I expected, I heard the Field Team Leader's calm voice. I cautiously opened my eyes to see her twisting her body fluidly, turning her head at the same time to effortlessly dodge Nero's claw swipe like an acrobat.
"Nya...ang?"
Seeing that relaxed display, Nero stared at her own paw that had sliced through empty air, then narrowed her eyes sharply.
'This... Hah, fine. You want to do this?'
Now Nero charged straight at her, swiping with her front paws, but each time the woman simply tracked the attacks with her eyes and dodged them with ridiculous ease, as if performing tricks. She didn't even move her body much. To an outsider, it would have looked like she was just playing with Nero, and I could only stare in disbelief.
"Nyaaak... kak.."
'Hah... What the hell is this...?'
In the end, Nero tired out first, panting heavily with her tail drooping.
"Your personality is the complete opposite of Ung's, but you're just as cute, huh?"
"Hyaaaaak..!"
'You... You, I'll remember this... If I wasn't in this form...'
Grumbling in a thoroughly sulky voice, Nero spun around and leaped up to a high spot on top of the closet. The woman kept watching her with a smile.
Now calming her down was my job...
"Alright, now that the nuisance is gone..."
"...I brought the ramen."
"Thanks. Maybe I should get a cat too?"
It was hard to believe those words came from someone who had just finished that intense battle, but the topic had already shifted.
"Wow~ You make ramen really well. Even when I boil it for overtime meals, it never tastes like this."
"I've been living alone for a long time, I guess?"
"...I see. Want a drink?"
She gestured toward my cup, which she had already filled earlier. Even though a paper cup was smaller than a regular glass, it was still much larger than a soju shot glass... and she had filled it to the brim. Even if she got drunk, I couldn't afford to. I had all sorts of worries.
"Cheers~"
"Haha... Cheers."
We clinked our paper cups together, making the sound with our mouths instead, and toasted. Watching her down hers in one go, I forced myself to empty mine too. Heat spread from my stomach and my head started spinning.
"Huh...?"
While I was still dazed from the sudden rush of alcohol, she had somehow moved from across the table to right beside me, linking her arm through mine and pressing close.
"Ung, when did you first start hearing voices?"
Before I could even react to her suddenly linking arms, the question reset my thoughts.
"...Not going to answer?"
"..."
She was asking when I first started hearing other people's inner voices, right?
"I think... it was after I learned to speak. I was too young, so I don't remember exactly."
"Mmm, I see... For me, it was right after elementary school graduation, when I entered middle school. Around fourteen?"
Unlike me, she seemed to remember it very clearly. But the way she continued speaking felt strangely slow and heavy compared to before, giving me a slight sense of unease. Because of our height difference, though, it was hard to look at her face while she clung to my arm so tightly.
"My mom and dad... were usually fine, but they fought sometimes. Every time, I felt really upset. When they raised their voices, I'd go into my room, close the door, cover my ears, and pretend I didn't know."
"..."
It was so sudden, and it was something I'd never experienced, so I just stayed silent. In response, she simply tightened her grip on my arm a little more and kept going.
"You might not believe it, but I was really poor when I was young. In the end, it always came down to money. Once I entered middle school, the burden and stress grew, and they started taking it out on each other."
"That's..."
"That doesn't mean my parents didn't love me. They were just clumsy. For every parent, raising a child is their first time, with no practice."
Following her silence as she seemed to recall old memories, I held my breath too. Sitting pressed together in the small studio apartment without speaking felt unbearably awkward.
"But that day was especially bad. I even heard glass breaking, and it was just so loud... So, you know?"
"...?"
"I came out of my room and yelled at them to stop. I was such an idiot. I should've just stayed quiet."
"...Don't tell me."
She was saying she had used her ability on her own parents. But when you use an ability...
"I was really flustered back then."
"Your parents... forgot about you?"
"That's how it turned out. Even then, maybe it could've been fixed. But I was too young... and just as clumsy."
The story about the 'small accident' she caused didn't end there.
"Seeing my mom and dad treat me like a stranger was so scary that I used hypnosis on them again. No... back then, I didn't even realize it was hypnosis. I just begged them. I told them not to do that."
"..."
"Of course, they went along with everything I asked. They became even kinder and gentler than before. After that, I stopped going to school, and I even stopped them from going to work and leaving me behind."
A dangerous ability had suddenly appeared in a child. As a result, she kept patching the slowly cracking dam with tape, making shoddy repairs.
"Eventually, my parents' coworkers and acquaintances started noticing something was wrong and came over. People from school came too. And what do you think I did?"
"You... begged them again?"
"Right. At first it was just one or two people, but it piled up to dozens... hundreds, growing more and more. Everyone even slightly connected to my family... even the people around them ended up under my hypnosis. Ironically, that might've been the happiest time of my life."
If everyone obeyed her requests, it would've been like a kingdom built just for her. But with so many people under hypnosis unable to live normally, the risk of her ability being exposed inevitably increased.
"In the end, the Management Team Leader found me."
"..."
"The facility quickly sent people to restore the area affected by my ability to normal, and just like that, I became someone who had never existed in the place where I was born and raised."
"But... what about family albums? There must've been photos with you in them."
"You should know this since you've been on the receiving end of counseling subjects yourself. What happens to a person's brain when evidence that completely contradicts their memories is shoved right in front of them."
I knew that. But still...
"Don't worry. I still visit my parents sometimes as a neighbor when I have time. Of course, they still don't remember me, but you never know, right?"
"..."
"I'm not giving up yet, so don't pity me. Got it?"
Poke! Still clinging to my arm, she lightly jabbed my side with her elbow. Her inner voice told me that this wasn't the end of the story.
"What happened after you were taken to the facility?"
"You're surprisingly nosy for someone who doesn't look like it."
"It has nothing to do with how I look."
She reached out, refilled the paper cup with soju once more, and downed another cup while leaning against me.
"The hardest part was when I learned about my own ability. Realizing that I had erased my parents' memories with my own hands."
"..."
"Other than that, there wasn't much to worry about. The scale of what I'd done was so big that I got locked up, but I worked desperately to earn the right to go outside, and eventually I started working normally at the facility and receiving a salary. Now I'm the Management Team Leader, after all. Of course... the basic training was tough, and it was a forced lifetime contract."
I finally understood why she couldn't quit her job whenever she wanted, why there were wiretapping orders and surveillance following her. I also understood why someone who had essentially grown up isolated from family and society in the facility showed such an unusual sense of closeness to me, someone the same age.
It probably wasn't much different from my own joy at meeting a relatively normal woman for the first time inside the facility.
"Haa... This is the first time I've told anyone my story like this. It's a little embarrassing... but also refreshing."
"You can talk about it anytime. Even if I can't do anything else, I'm good at listening. After all... I'm a counselor."
"Pfft, in front of you I can't hide my true feelings anyway, so the words just keep coming out strangely easily."
Just knowing that the other person was aware of my ability to hear inner voices made her this honest. If this was all it took for her to feel refreshed, I could listen as much as she wanted...
Twitch.
...?
"That's weird... Now that I've said everything... my stomach feels strange..."
"...Want some water?"
When I saw her still clinging to my arm but with her head hanging low, I sensed danger, but...
"Wait—"
It was already too late.
"Ugh..."