Welcome to the Safety Team
"Ah..."
I sat slumped against the wall, staring blankly up at the ceiling.
My first day at Lobotomy. Managing Abnormalities. Surviving. It had been one hell of a day — and by any reasonable measure, an extraordinary achievement.
> DAILY WORK COMPLETE
"Oh.... It's finally over."
I pushed myself slowly to my feet. My legs nearly gave out beneath me — I must have been wound tighter than I'd realized.
A low mechanical whine filled the air, and a moment later the containment unit door slid open. A familiar voice drifted through.
"Oh~ so you survived? Your exalted Team Leader came all the way down here herself, so get up already — chop-chop..!"
Mir, Team Leader of the Safety Team. A woman with brown hair tied up in a rough, careless bun. Those vermillion eyes of hers always carried a playful glint, yet she was someone you could never afford to take lightly. Whether that was because of the predatory quality unique to those crimson irises, or simply because I was being overly cautious — I still wasn't sure.
"Still in one piece on your first day? Guess you're the lucky type."
"Seems that way... Luck is about the one thing I've got in spades."
"People who say that usually end up one of two ways."
"They die early — or they claw their way through to the bitter end."
In that moment, a head poked out from behind Mir's shoulder.
"Han...!"
It was Yuri. Her hair was slightly mussed and her face looked worn, but thankfully she didn't appear to be injured.
"You're unharmed..."
"You too, Yuri."
"Yes..."
Yuri answered in a drained, hollow voice. Something was off, though. A faint tremor ran beneath her eyes, and once I noticed it, I could see she looked exhausted through and through. Don't tell me something happened with a fairy-type Abnormality on her very first day?
"Alright, alright~"
Mir clapped her hands lightly.
"Both rookies made it out alive, so now we head to the official Safety Team welcome party."
"A wel...come party?"
"Yeah. Nothing fancy. Just a chance to put faces to names."
Mir smiled lightly and started walking down the corridor.
"I already told you our team used to be five people, right?"
Ah.... The mood sank, just for a moment.
"But two of them died, and the replacements who came after died too — that's how you two ended up here. So the remaining members are pretty curious whether this batch of rookies is actually normal."
"But don't worry!"
"I already told the rest of the team you two are decent, so they're probably expecting great things. Plus, we placed bets on how long you'd last. I put my money on you surviving more than a month, so you're not allowed to die on me. I've got a good eye for these things, believe it or not."
Wow... She just casually admits to betting on other people's lives like it's nothing.
Yuri's expression stiffened slightly. Mir, on the other hand, looked completely unbothered. Or more precisely — she looked like someone who had grown used to it.
"...Don't tense up too much."
Mir shrugged.
"The Safety Team dies a lot less than the other departments."
"Of course..! Because I'm here."
The darkened atmosphere lightened in an instant.
"That statement is already a contradiction, Team Leader."
"Huh..? Does our rookie not trust me..?"
"If you keep this up, you're going to make me sad."
She's completely insane...
But then... why had someone like her never appeared in the sequel? Even knowing nothing, I could sense her strength on pure instinct. She was not the kind of person who would die to a mere Abnormality...
After that, no one spoke. We walked the corridor for a few more minutes before arriving in front of a transit elevator.
"Let me introduce you.. This right here is the pride of L Corp — the instantaneous transit elevator."
"Rumor has it they used a W Corp singularity in the development process. Neat, right?"
A soft chime sounded. The doors opened, and we stepped inside.
"The area you worked in is near the Training Team, where the Abnormalities for new employees — rookies, basically — are all lined up. Where we're headed is the Safety Team, on the opposite side. Remember that."
While Mir was giving her elevator introduction, something on the control panel caught my eye. It clearly wasn't a floor that should exist for a branch of this size, and it hadn't been mentioned during orientation — yet the panel displayed a designation for Central Headquarters.
Yuri seemed to have noticed it as well.
"Um... Team Leader? What's Central Headquarters? It wasn't covered in the initial briefing... and unlike the other floors, it even has security locks on it...."
"Ah... that thing...."
"You don't need to know about it yet. Think of it as a special space unique to our branch."
"That's why it doesn't show up in the standard orientation footage."
"But if I had to give you a little hint... you could call it my workplace."
"Once you two build up some experience and get settled in, you'll find out soon enough."
"Now then..! Let's move — the rest of the team is waiting."
For a brief instant, something in her usual demeanor shifted — then just as quickly, she was back to normal.
Before long, we found ourselves standing in front of a door marked Safety Team.
"Kids! Catch the rookies!"
With those words, she kicked us through the doorway. Caught completely off guard, we tumbled and rolled into what appeared to be a break room.
Seriously... that crazy woman. That absolute lunatic. What the hell is wrong with her? And she's ridiculously strong — I still had my gear on and my back felt like it was about to split open. She's definitely not normal.
I was still sprawled on the floor when, after what felt like several dozen seconds, a voice reached me.
"Oh... quite the entrance."
A low, composed voice. A man leaning back on a sofa turned to look at us. Dark navy hair, unkempt bangs, tired-looking eyes, and a quiet presence — at a glance, he seemed like a perfectly ordinary person.
At a glance, of course.
"The rookies the Team Leader mentioned?"
"Yep."
Mir pointed at us with a finger.
"This round's replacements. Got a good feeling about them."
The man studied us for a moment, then slowly rose to his feet.
"Doyun... Call me Doyun. Deputy Team Leader, Grade 5 employee. And the one stuck managing a tall brat with zero common sense and one complete psychopath."
His voice was low, his expression barely shifting at all. And yet, somehow, he was the type who put people on edge.
"Ah, hello...?"
Yuri offered a careful greeting. Doyun gave a small nod and said shortly,
"I hope you two are normal..."
Oh... so he's the Meursault type.
Just then — a click. The door at the back of the break room opened.
"...So noisy~"
This time, a woman. Small-framed, with long silver-gray hair cascading down her back, half-lidded sleepy eyes, and a bottle of suspiciously green liquid in one hand.
But the real problem was...
Why does she have that many bandages on her arms?
"Ah.. you're here~"
Mir waved a hand.
"This is Nova, your senior — also a Grade 5 employee. Three years ahead of you, of course."
Nova... a word meaning a brightly shining star, and also the process by which a star dies and explodes to form a nebula. It suited her appearance and presence perfectly. She seemed to shine at a glance, but like a final flame consuming the last of a life, she looked like someone who no longer held any attachment to living.
Nova gave us a once-over and spoke.
"This time... I hope you last a while~ You never really get used to goodbyes~ Of course, I'll end up the same way someday myself~"
"Hello..."
Yuri carefully greeted her once more. Nova looked at her for a moment, then took a sip from her can with a weary face.
"You've got a scared look on you."
"Pardon...?"
"Keep that expression and you won't last long here."
"Your previous seniors went out the same way — gone just like that. And those were easy newbie Abnormalities, too."
"The body freezes up when the heart does. People like that are destined to die quick anyway."
First impressions this brutal, huh.
But Yuri only froze even harder at those words. Hey, come on... go a little easier on the rookie's mental state.
"Alright~"
Mir cut through the atmosphere all at once.
"Then for the finale, how about our rookies introduce themselves?"
"You already did it for me earlier, but shouldn't you do it again for everyone?"
In that instant, every gaze in the room swung toward us simultaneously.
Wow..... The pressure is unreal.
After that, just as we had done for Team Leader Mir earlier, we managed to get through a brief round of self-introductions. There were plenty of sparse replies and remarks that could have been either encouragement or curses, but Deputy Team Leader Doyun — the closest thing to a normal person in the room — mediated, and we got through it reasonably well.
As an aside: Yuri and I were both in our late teens, Senior Nova was in her early twenties, Team Leader Mir in her mid-twenties, and — surprisingly — Deputy Team Leader Doyun was in his early thirties.
Based on build and looks alone, he's the one who looks the youngest...
"Then, as we wrap up the day's work, I'll leave you with one last word as Team Leader to our new members."
"You two.. welcome to hell. And a word to everyone — don't die."
"If things go well and you end up resigning or getting out of this place someday, we should grab a drink. Right?"
"That's all... Dismissed. See you tomorrow..!"