The Yellow Raincoat (6)
And so, my walking exercise began once more.
My ears and tail had long since wilted at the news. Naturally. Who wouldn't feel that way after walking for nearly four hours straight?
"Ugh… What is this, a chamber of pain and torment?"
Ah, no. A chamber of mind and time, more like.
Anyway, this anomaly really seemed to love walking. What kind of daily life did it lead, to come up with ideas like this? An ordinary human would have given up ages ago. Not me, of course!
"Haah. Still, I'd better get something out of this."
After sighing and walking for about an hour, I noticed my surroundings had changed once again.
"Hmm. This is the research institute."
It was Noah Research Institute, the place I currently called home. It seemed the anomaly was scheming to do something with the institute this time, and I was a little curious what it would be.
"What, will every single researcher turn on me with murderous intent? Or will everyone adore me instead?"
Honestly, the former sounded a bit sad, so I'd much prefer the latter. Normally only Jia liked me — but the whole institute liking me? Wow! Just imagining it was delightful!
My tail started swaying at the happy thought. But I quickly snapped back to my senses. I wasn't about to get swept up in this and forget my goal.
Still, my tail kept wagging at the thought of meeting the researchers here. I was looking forward to it too, a little. I was just nervous as well, that was all.
I walked slowly toward the institute entrance. But little by little, I couldn't help but grimace — because the smell of blood had begun to drift through the air.
"No way…"
My swaying tail went still. At the same time, my mood began plummeting to rock bottom.
I glared at the institute's main entrance. It was definitely a glass door, yet I couldn't see anything inside at all. Why? Could it be connected to the smell of blood I was breathing in right now?
"If my guess is right… then I'll have to kill this anomaly."
Very, very painfully.
I steadied my heart, which was overflowing with anxiety and suspicion, and pressed forward. But I couldn't stop my hands from clenching into fists so tight they turned white.
When I finally stood right in front of the main entrance, I took a deep breath. Praying, desperately, that my guess was wrong.
Then I laid my hand on the handle and pulled the door open. In an instant, the smell of blood flooded my nose, and my vision filled with red.
"…Son of a [CENSORED]."
I gritted my teeth so hard it ached at the sight sprawled before me.
Not a single spot on the walls was free of blood, and they were shattered in places. Corpses lined the floor — the very people I'd seen coming and going at the institute, all of them dead with their eyes still open.
"Haha. Even for an anomaly, hasn't this crossed the line?"
The door handle I was still gripping shrieked and crumpled in my hand. I didn't care in the slightest. Instead, my face twisted further as I resolved, absolutely, to kill this anomaly.
"So this time, you're using the people I care about?"
Among all the anomalies I'd met so far, few had refrained from killing people. Some had slaughtered far more brutally than this.
But there was one difference between them and this thing: they acted on instinct. This anomaly, on the other hand, was unmistakably intelligent.
Intelligent enough to understand another's emotions — or at the very least, to grasp the concept of emotion itself.
Given its behavior so far, it was nearly certain. First it had probed my instincts, then it had probed my trauma.
And now, it had violated and desecrated the people dear to me.
A being with clear intelligence, harboring clear malice. Of course I was furious.
"Whew… Calm down, first."
I settled the rage boiling in my heart. But I hadn't suppressed it — I was merely sharpening the blade that would visit agony upon this anomaly.
Only once I'd barely calmed my mind did another realization dawn on me.
"Wait. If the entrance looks like this…"
What state was Han Jia in?
The moment I thought of Jia, it felt like my heart dropped out of my chest. When I'd seen the researchers, simple fury had surged up — but now, fear was trying to swallow me whole.
And so I began to run toward my containment chamber. Collapsed ceilings and sheer numbers of corpses slowed me down along the way, but somehow, I made it.
"Hah, hah, hah."
I was an anomaly; this shouldn't have left me winded. It shouldn't have. And yet, somehow, I couldn't catch my breath.
But there was no time to steady my breathing — because the inside of the containment chamber was hidden from view, exactly like the entrance had been.
With trembling hands, I carefully took hold of the handle. I opened the door with care, and the smell of blood came pouring out.
"Ah…"
The first thing I saw was the interior of the containment chamber, drenched wall to wall in blood. The bed where I usually lazed around had already been stained through, and the books and newspapers were torn beyond recognition.
And at the very center of it all lay Jia, collapsed and covered head to toe in blood.
"Ah… Fox…"
At the sound of the chamber door opening, Jia forced her eyes open and gave a faint smile. I searched for something to say, searched and searched, and in the end found nothing — I could only call her name.
"Jia, you…"
One look at Jia's body said everything. Unlike the people outside, she hadn't been split in half — but even at a glance, it was clear she couldn't survive.
I didn't know what expression to make. She spoke to me, as if to tell me not to worry on a day like this.
"Welcome home… Fox…"
That must have been her last strength — with those words, she closed her eyes. I approached her and quietly bowed my head.
Snap—
Somewhere inside me, I felt a thread break. And at the same moment, my mind filled with a single thought: kill the anomaly, no matter what.
'Behind you!'
My Future Sight screamed a warning out of nowhere!
I ducked low and rolled to the side, evading it. And by then the research institute had vanished, replaced by the anomaly in the yellow raincoat.
"Huh? Huh? What— how?"
The yellow raincoat anomaly seemed utterly unable to comprehend the situation. But unlike it, I was already radiating killing intent.
It hunched its shoulders, flustered. Seeing that, I twisted my face and let my rage explode.
"You — I've finally found you! [CENSORED]!!!"
After unleashing a torrent of profanity that deserved the censor beam, I lunged at it.
"Why? Why? Why?"
The moment it saw me coming, it fell back, still spitting out that bewildered noise, as if it understood nothing.
"Why? You were clearly suffering! You were! So how did you notice my attack?"
I thrust my fist at it, but it dodged by a hair's breadth. Still, I used the speed I hadn't yet run out of and landed a kick.
My kick struck it square in the side, and it went flying.
"Gahk! Why!"
Oh, honestly.
It talks so much.
After sending it flying, I didn't bother chasing it. Instead, I swept the hair back from my forehead and answered its question.
"Of course I was suffering."
"Then why?"
"Isn't that obvious? When someone did that to the people precious to me, it would be strange if rage didn't boil up, wouldn't it?"
I swept the strands that had fallen across my shoulder back behind me and lunged again. This time, the thing apparently decided to strike back.
My fist flew at it, and its fist flew at me. And soon, our fists collided.
BANG!
But the exchange didn't end there. That was only the beginning — we traded blow after blow, deflecting and blocking each other's fists.
I didn't bother using Future Sight. Right now, I wanted to vent my fury — I had no desire to cheat my way through it.
Instead, I poured my rage into the thing with every exchange.
"I am angry at you! I've met plenty of anomalies in my time, but you're the first of your kind!"
"So what! And that makes no sense! If you're suffering, just give up! Why don't you!"
Give up?
That's what it's saying to me, now?
But at the same moment, I understood it — and regretted it. I realized that it possessed intelligence and nothing more. Not a shred of empathy.
It only made rough guesses at other's emotions; it shared none of them, understood none of them. So I vented my rage at it anyway.
Knowing full well it would never understand.
"You violated and desecrated the people I hold dear! How could I possibly give up? I'm not dead — I'm standing here, alive and well!"
Startled by my roar, it left a small opening, and I dove straight into the gap. I felt the bones in my clenched fist shatter against its body.
It flew several meters and rolled across the ground. Judging by the way it was hacking and coughing, it would struggle to move properly for a while.
Not that I had any intention of letting that chance slip.
"For the sin of violating and desecrating my people — take your punishment, and savor it."
I approached it and raised my fist high. The thing, apparently making its last struggle, began to scream.
"You too! You were trying to get close to my mom too! So why!"
"Then all the more reason for you to be punished. You made your own child devour people. No — if you had shown even the barest decency toward your prey, it would never have come to this."
It seemed to understand none of what I said. It didn't matter. I hadn't expected it to understand in the first place.
What could I possibly expect from a being that possessed intelligence, and yet chose to humiliate and toy with its prey?
I brought my raised fist down on its face. It was hard. So I brought it down again, and again, and after several repetitions, the yellow raincoat anomaly dissolved into dust and vanished.
And with the yellow raincoat behind me, I let out a long, deep breath.
"Haah… Honestly, I'm not so different from it."
True, I had killed it — but I hadn't tried to understand it one bit either. Of course, it had already vanished, so there was no taking it back.
Well, even if I found myself in that situation again, I'd act exactly the same way.
"Phew. What an unsettling feeling. I've met so many anomalies, but this is the first time one's left me feeling like this."
Determined to shake off the mood, I raised my arms and stretched.
"Hrrkk—hng! Whew. Now, let's finish up this place."
I looked around. Going by what the yellow raincoat had just said, there had to be a 'Mom' lurking somewhere nearby.
So I scoured the area, and before long, I found a black sphere that looked to be about a meter in diameter.
That had to be the 'Mom' the yellow raincoat spoke of. The thing that had created it, no doubt.
"Hmm… reminds me of the snails."
Back then, it had been a black sphere too. Much smaller, of course.
Anyway, I drove my fist straight into the sphere.
BANG!
The moment my fist connected, cracks began to spider across the sphere with a resounding crash, and soon it shattered completely and came apart.
And gradually, the scenery around me began to change. It didn't take long to go from a place of gray mist and white floor back to a place where people lived.
I looked around and checked once more whether this, too, was an illusion. Thankfully, it wasn't — this was reality. I was still basking in the relief when one person caught my eye.
"Oh. So you survived."
I hurried over and found it was the man who'd been devoured around the same time as me. I checked his pulse — weak, but nothing worrisome.
"Whew, thank goodness. You're lucky too, my friend."
First that journalist, and now this man — both of them fortunate. Well, partly because they happened to meet me, I suppose.
Anyway, I was about to figure out where this was and whether I could get home — and then I noticed something off about my own body.
"Huh?"
Did I just get… stronger?
I slowly examined my body, and discovered something astonishing: my strength had grown just a little!
But that puzzled me. I'd thought I'd stop getting stronger long ago — and yet here it was.
Ah, let me explain what I mean. This goes back to when I'd first become an anomaly.
Back then, I knew absolutely nothing, and every fight was an egg against a stone.
Then, by pure chance, I killed one anomaly. And my strength grew.
Not just my physical power — my Future Sight was enhanced too. As you can tell from this, my current abilities were never strong from the start.
After that, wanting to survive somehow, I killed a fair number of anomalies. And then I crossed paths with an investigation team from Noah Research Institute.
"Mm hm. Memories, huh."
I crossed my arms and reminisced. Though the bad memories came back along with the good, so I gave up on it pretty quickly.
"Well, anyway. All that's left now is going home."
The man… would manage fine on his own. Worst case, the police would find him.
With that thought, I began searching my surroundings, and soon spotted a taxi stand.
"Yikes!"
"You there! To Noah Research Institute, please!"
I asked, my tail wagging.
Time to go home!