The President's Intervention
A wet thud rang out. It was the sound of Nero hitting the floor after the Management Team Leader dropped her by the tail, her limbs dangling limply and her head hanging low. The moment the blindfold was torn from my eyes, the first thing I saw was the Field Team Leader standing with her arms crossed and a sullen expression, and the bloody lump sprawled at her feet.
Nero’s usual sleek, glossy fur was nowhere to be seen. Matted with dried blood, she lay crumpled on the floor like a discarded rag. The sight was so far from her normal appearance that I couldn’t even recognize her at first. For several long seconds I stood frozen, mouth shut tight, until a growl finally tore its way out of my throat.
“What the hell did you do?”
Honestly, none of it felt real. Too many shocks had slammed into me at once before I could even process what was happening. My nerves were screaming, and my jaw trembled like it might come unhinged. No—not from fear.
“I asked you what the hell you think you’re doing!”
The rage that had never once reached its peak in my entire life now boiled over, twisting my insides and flooding up my throat until it burst out in a roar. For a single instant, it almost felt as though our emotions had connected—mine, the clown-masked woman’s, and the nine-tailed fox’s—all three of us linked at once.
Thud!
“That’s enough.”
“Guh…! Cough!!”
A second, even heavier punch drove into my solar plexus. The pain shattered whatever fragile link had formed, snapping it cleanly apart.
“I understand your anger. But we have our own positions to consider. If you had come quietly, we wouldn’t have had to go this far.”
So this was all Nero’s fault now?
“Don’t give me that bullshit…!!”
Crash!!
“!?”
“What… what just happened?”
I thought I’d been hit again, but no new pain came. Following the Field Team Leader’s startled voice, I turned and stared in disbelief at what had just occurred. The overwhelming hatred and fury I felt toward one person had surged through the emotional link once more—and this time the result was immediate.
The Field Team Leader stared at her own outstretched fist, then shot a wary glance my way. Meanwhile, the Management Team Leader had been launched straight through the containment room wall and into the hallway beyond.
A rush of vicious satisfaction flooded me, but the moment I realized I had done it, a strange, uneasy worry rose to meet it, quickly cooling the peak of my rage. My ability only shared emotions. What had just happened wasn’t mind control or hypnosis—it was simply raw emotion pushed to its limit. I hadn’t expected it to manifest like this.
“Cough… cough… So that’s possible too. People who don’t usually get angry become terrifying when they finally do… Is that it?”
“…!”
She had been thrown hard enough to smash through the wall, yet the Management Team Leader simply brushed the dust from her suit with a gloved hand and walked back into the room as if nothing had happened.
“I already hit you once, and I’ll hit you again if I must, so I’ll chalk this one up to my own mistake. But I strongly recommend you don’t attempt any further hostility toward me—the Management Team Leader.”
“…”
“Still, I clearly misjudged you. I thought you were just an ordinary house cat someone kept around. That was a mistake. And mistakes like that tend to get worse.”
Step. Step. Step. Without her usual unsettling, swaying gait, the clown-masked woman walked straight toward me. Behind the mask, a quiet but crushing pressure filled the air. My body reacted before my mind could—my bound limbs trembling—yet I clenched my teeth and forced myself to stay upright.
“It’s enough for you to simply say you knew nothing. Then you can return to your normal life. You can continue spending pleasant days with Miss Harpy and Miss Lav, just like before.”
“…”
“From both the Observer’s confirmation and your own reaction, it seems this creature has been living quite comfortably, pretending to be an ordinary cat and receiving plenty of affection. However, I cannot allow you to remain involved with them in any way.”
I wanted to demand they tell me what exactly “they” were, but the sheer weight of the Management Team Leader standing right in front of me pressed down on my shoulders and sealed my mouth shut. All I could do was grit my teeth and endure.
“So I’ll play the villain, as usual. You’ll come to hate me with a loathing far beyond anything a cute word like ‘hate’ can contain. Even so, I know you’ll never be able to give up Miss Harpy and Miss Lav.”
Click.
The Management Team Leader drew her pistol, disengaged the safety, and racked the slide without hesitation. She leveled the barrel at Nero, who still lay motionless on the floor.
“…Please don’t. I’m begging you. Please! Nero hasn’t done anything wrong!”
“I’m well aware that the prisoners they keep have no sins of their own.”
“Then why?!”
“Haa…”
Still aiming at Nero, the Management Team Leader let out a small sigh and glanced toward me. For a fleeting moment I dared to hope—only for that hope to shatter.
“Because the Stigma is such a troublesome ability. Even if this creature bears no malice, the true owner—the prisoner sharing her soul—is another matter. That woman will give orders, and this creature, bound to her, will obey regardless of her own will.”
She turned her gaze back to Nero, as if the explanation was finished.
“I am not soft enough to leave such a danger at your side for the sake of personal sentiment.”
“Wait…!! Nero! Get up! Run! No…!!”
Without hesitation, she pulled the trigger.
Bang…! Bang! Bang!!
Unable to watch the horrific scene, I squeezed my eyes shut. Every gunshot made my body jerk as if struck by electricity. My heart pounded wildly, my breathing grew ragged, and cold sweat poured down my face even as my mind and body turned icy.
“A… aaah…”
I wanted to believe this, too, was just another one of the Management Team Leader’s cruel jokes. If she said it was all a prank right now, I might even forgive her. But the gun was still pointed straight at Nero, and the thick smell of gunpowder in the air was no illusion.
Then…
Thud-thud-thud… Clink. Clink. Clink.
The sound of something sticky dripping onto the floor was followed by small pieces of metal rolling across the ground.
“…That was close. Maybe because the distance was so short. It might’ve gone through if I’d been a second slower.”
A voice that wasn’t the Field Team Leader’s or the Management Team Leader’s reached my ears. I cautiously opened my eyes. They were blurry with tears I hadn’t realized were falling.
“Haha, what brings you here at this hour, President…?”
Thud!! Crash—!!! Thud-thud-thud… Thud! Fsssh…
I didn’t need to see who had just been slammed into the wall like a cannonball, or recognize the husky voice thick with cigar smoke. The President stood there, blood dripping from her clenched fist, veins bulging at her temples.
She looked as though she had rushed over in a hurry—wearing only a black sports bra on top and dress pants below, completely mismatched. The Field Team Leader had already slunk away through the hole in the wall, tail between her legs, while the Management Team Leader staggered to her feet and limped out the door.
“…”
Now only three of us remained in the containment room: the President, still breathing hard; Nero, still motionless; and me, staring blankly at them both.
Click. Thud!
Fsssh…
“Whew. My kids are all good at their jobs, but they’ve got no flexibility. Sorry about that. Your cat won’t die from something like this, so don’t worry.”
“Ah… How did you…”
I asked as the President casually pulled out a cigar, struck a match from a box in her pocket, and lit it. The last thing I remembered was the Management Team Leader’s finger tightening on the trigger. After I closed my eyes, I’d heard the gunshots…
“Ah, the Response Team Leader contacted me. I didn’t know exactly which containment room it was, but luckily there was already a hole in the wall, so I wasn’t too late.”
That hole in the hallway… the one I’d accidentally created when I used my ability to launch the Field Team Leader into the Management Team Leader.
“My hand’s a bit… well, shredded, but it’s fine. This is a good excuse to go see Miss Undine.”
The President smiled awkwardly and waved her bleeding palm as if it were nothing. Three crumpled bullets lay scattered around the bloodstain on the floor—none of them had reached Nero. She had blocked them with her bare hand?
A pistol at point-blank range, and all she got was a few torn scraps of skin? I hadn’t even had time to open my eyes before the shots rang out. There had been no one else in the room until then… How had the President…?
“Anyway, I really am sorry. I’ll make sure those two apologize properly later, but for now, I’ll do it in their place.”
“…No. You’re the one I should be thanking, President.”
“Huuu… Yeah.”
Whoosh. Whoosh! Clang! Clang!
While I watched the President take a deep drag from her cigar and exhale, a chilling gust of wind swept past my body. It felt as though she had just swung her arm—and the next moment, the metal restraints binding my hands and feet fell away, sliced clean through as if they were butter.
When I looked up from the pitiful pieces of metal on the floor, the President had already turned her back and was heading toward the hallway. She paused for a moment, then spoke without looking back, snapping me out of my daze.
“What are you waiting for? Pick up your cat and come on. We’re going to see Miss Undine. You can ask your questions there.”