Chapter 17
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: I've Prepared a Surprise Gift
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The kids cafe had been fun.
It was a bit boring to experience it myself, but tearing it apart and putting it back together was a real blast.
But even fun things get old eventually.
After eating the cake Yuna brought, my interest in the kids cafe had already faded away.
"Hmm. What to do."
So now I was back in bored mode.
Dasomi was playing around with Joey's nicely decorated body in one corner of the room.
Ah, the real Joey is at the kids cafe right now.
That's just an empty shell.
I deliberately didn't tell Yuna, since she'd freak out for sure.
"Uuuuum."
I'm bored!
I need something new to do!
Unfortunately, things are quiet on the 'Elena' front.
The company folks escaped ages ago. 'Kiriko' isn't constantly connected either, so it's silent now.
And going out to meet another anomaly sounds like a hassle.
"Great idea!"
In the end, there was only one thing worth doing in a situation like this!
I sprang up energetically from the bed and pressed the bell on one wall.
Beep-.
This was what I called the Yuna summon button.
Whenever I pressed it—except when I was sleeping—Yuna would come running, no matter the time.
It used to be off-limits after work hours, but lately she was basically living at the Foundation.
Yuna clearly didn't want to be away from me either!
Beep.
But why wasn't she coming?
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
She usually showed up by now. Hmm. Yuna must be busy with work.
I'll just wait patiently!
Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep...
......
Ding-!
See!
Patience paid off—Yuna finally arrived.
I grinned widely and opened the door.
"Huff, huff. Y-you called?"
Yuna panted heavily as she answered.
I turned to her and said,
"Yeah! I wanna tour the building!"
"Huh?"
"Show me around!"
At my words, the corners of Yuna's mouth twitched.
She must be tired from rushing over in the middle of work. I get that much.
But Yuna should be grateful to me too.
Back in the day, I would've just wandered off without saying a word.
"If it's a hassle, just say so! I'll explore on my own from now on!"
"No no no! It's no hassle at all! Call me anytime! You wanna tour the building? Hold on a sec."
Yuna immediately grabbed her phone, called someone, and started requesting permission right there on the spot.
Since this wasn't her first rodeo, the process went smoothly and quickly.
A moment later,
Yuna asked me,
"Um, if it's just a tour, you won't need to move around yourself, right...?"
"Yeah!"
This time, I really planned to just sightsee obediently, so I nodded readily.
In truth, I could sneak around anytime I wanted.
I could even blink and check everything out.
But I called Yuna specifically because I wanted to wander around with her.
Touring alone would be boring!
"It's here!"
After a short wait, our ride for the stroll finally arrived.
It was a doll with striking silver hair.
"It looks like me?"
"Right? Isn't it even cuter because of that?"
Yuna smiled as she said it and held the doll out to me.
"Take a close look at its eyes?"
"Okay!"
I did as instructed.
Staring intently at the doll that resembled me, I soon felt my consciousness getting pulled in.
It was easy enough to resist.
But I let it happen.
Flash-.
A moment later,
I opened my eyes in the stuffed body.
Ahead of me lay my original body, sprawled out.
-Ngh.
New discovery: this doll body could even make sounds.
And I could tell roughly how it worked.
It was different from that mannequin I used before.
This one had far, far stronger 'sealing' capabilities.
Returning to my original body was a breeze.
It felt like I could do it anytime I wanted?
But using any power in this body was incredibly tough.
If I had to quantify it... maybe 1/1000th of my normal strength?
"You okay?"
Yuna carefully picked me up and asked.
I nodded.
-Yeah! Let's go!
I'd said moving was hard, but my voice worked fine, and so did my limbs.
Yuna gave an awkward smile at the sight, then carried me out.
Foundation tour, commence!
Where the researchers were gathered.
A bunch of people were chatting while staring intently at their screens.
"That was resistance just now, right?"
"Yeah, definitely. The reaction was delayed."
"Insane power."
They clicked their tongues in amazement.
And they had good reason.
That doll wasn't just any doll.
It was a genuine treasure, no exaggeration.
The branch couldn't produce it with their tech alone, so they'd specially requested it from HQ.
Its effect was simple.
Anomaly sealing.
For a normal anomaly, just looking at it head-on would trap it in the doll.
But the 'girl' didn't fall for it.
All it managed was to suck in her consciousness.
And even that probably only worked because she allowed it.
But that wasn't the end of it.
"She can even talk."
"And her limbs are moving properly too."
"Man. She's a real monster."
Trapped in the doll, the girl could still speak and move her arms and legs.
She could probably walk on her own if set down.
By the researchers' knowledge, that was damn near impossible.
Normally, she'd be frozen like a real doll.
"At that level, isn't the seal basically meaningless?"
"Nah, not quite. Look how much the readings dropped."
One of the older-looking researchers pointed to a screen.
It displayed a bunch of complex metrics.
"Oh, yeah."
"Not super threatening anymore, huh."
"Then, if we contain her in that state..."
"Are you insane?"
"You out of your mind?"
The moment the newbie researcher spoke up, everyone glared at him.
"She let it happen on purpose."
"The second we try something, she'll rip out of that doll body."
The branch had the girl under 'containment' right now. They'd even assigned her an ID number.
But no one truly believed they'd successfully contained her.
The real 'containment device' was outside the building.
The barrier isolating the entire area.
So what were the people inside the building?
Sacrifices to buy time?
Maybe.
The newbie researcher, who hadn't been here long, didn't know that.
"If you wanna live long, watch yourself. Don't badmouth her even when you're alone."
"G-got it."
They wrapped up the chat and turned back to their screens.
A shame.
If they'd gone just a bit further, I could've played a fun prank on them.
"Hehe."
"...Something fun?"
Yuna, holding me, asked cautiously.
I shook my head.
She and the researchers would flip if I told her.
No one knew yet that I was watching almost everywhere inside this building.
"S-so, where to?"
We soon reached the elevator, and Yuna asked me for a destination.
I thought for a sec and picked a random number.
"Third floor!"
"Third floor? Okay."
Yuna looked a tad relieved as she pressed the button for 3.
The third floor housed various contained anomalies.
But they were all super low-risk.
Even if containment failed, nothing major would happen.
Ding-!
The elevator arrived at the third floor shortly after.
Yuna stepped out into the hallway, still carrying me.
"Lots of containment rooms!"
"Yeah. Most on this floor—about 32?"
Sure enough, doors lined the hallway.
Each room had a glass wall, letting you see inside.
They contained all sorts of stuff.
Notebooks. Statues. Computers. Toys. And more.
"What's that one?"
"That's a hide-and-seek doll, but..."
Yuna answered my questions carefully, one by one.
She seemed to be hiding the really important details.
But no biggie.
I only asked about stuff I already knew anyway.
The fun was just strolling around together and chatting like this.
After that, we wandered all over.
Cafe. Indoor garden. Empty labs. Gym. Etc.
We didn't do anything special, but it was a blast.
So I decided to give Yuna another gift.
When we reached the elevator again, I brought it up.
"How's your little sis?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Thanks to you, I found her in time. Really grateful."
"Glad you liked the gift!"
Yuna gave me a heartfelt thank-you.
I smiled back at her and said,
"Had fun again, so here's one more gift!"
"Gift?"
"Yeah! Let's go to the fourth floor!"
"Fourth floor? Our building doesn't have a fourth."
Yuna said it with a smile.
"There are too many creepy stories about four, so we went straight from three to five."
"Haha, everyone thinks that?"
"What do you..."
"The fourth floor is there."
From the moment I first arrived, I'd sensed it all along.
The people here really were 'disposable'.
Consumables they could toss anytime.
Wasn't it weird how many problems kept popping up?
Whatever, not my problem.
"Hold me closer to the buttons."
"Uh... here."
Yuna held me out with an uneasy look.
I stretched out and pressed the '4th floor' button.
The floor everyone in this building had forgotten about at some point.
Vrrr-.
The elevator slowly ascended.
Ding-!
We finally reached the fourth floor.
I smiled as the doors opened.
It felt just like coming home.