Chapter 7

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Translator: penny

Chapter: 7

Chapter Title: Shall We Go for a Walk?

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Anomalous Phenomena Management Foundation.

This place lives up to its name, housing and managing countless anomalies.

Unlike that 'Corporation' trying to exploit them, or the cults worshipping them.

The reason starts from a very basic premise.

An anomaly can be repelled or killed depending on the countermeasures.

But it's all pointless.

Because they come back to life eventually.

In another dimension from this place.

The Foundation calls it the 'Backside World'.

The revived anomaly then crawls back in search of new prey.

In other words, all that hard work repelling them is just a waste ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of effort.

So the Foundation doesn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠eradicate anomalies—they manage them.

Thoroughly managing them and blocking their dangers.

"Hoo."

Yuna ran her hand over her face.

Her reason for working at the Foundation was simple.

She believed their work was right.

Of course, she didn't think the Foundation was purely benevolent.

But she felt their approach was closest to the correct answer.

In reality, many of the anomalies confined here were extremely dangerous.

Some could wipe out an entire city in an instant.

That's why Yuna empathized with the Foundation's mission and took pride in it.

"This is driving me crazy."

The reason someone like Yuna was struggling like this was the anomaly they'd recently contained.

Not sure if you could even call it containment.

"Team Leader, are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine."

Yuna gave a perfunctory reply to her team member's question.

But anyone could see her face didn't look fine at all.

Her team member cautiously asked again.

"Um... Is it because of that? The anomaly we captured recently?"

Yuna let out a hollow laugh at the words.

Captured?

"Captured? No, it walked right in on its own."

Yuna still vividly remembered waking up to find that 'girl' standing by her bedside.

A girl with an unrealistically beautiful appearance.

The moment their eyes met, Yuna thought she was done for.

She'd fallen asleep in a special containment room, and there was someone standing right in front of her.

Before entering that special containment room, Yuna had gone through every procedure imaginable. All tests came back normal.

And then—bam!

Suddenly, something popped up in the containment room!

'An anomaly powerful enough to fool all inspection procedures.'

She couldn't think of any other explanation.

But surprisingly, it surrendered without a single act of resistance.

No, even 'surrendered' wasn't quite right.

It just walked into the containment room on its own two feet.

"But if it's that cooperative, isn't that a good thing?"

"You didn't go to that last site, did you?"

"Oh, right. I was off duty then."

"That place... it was horrific."

She'd seen horrific sights plenty of times in this line of work.

But it had been a while since she'd seen a scene where dozens of people had been torn to shreds.

What was even more chilling was something else.

"And there wasn't a single anomaly there."

"Yeah, they said no anomalies were found on-site."

"None. Not even any that had fled. The anomalies had just vanished cleanly. Though traces of their existence remained."

If they'd fled, there should have been traces of escape.

But there were none.

Instead.

Just one thing remained.

"That girl."

The memory was still crystal clear.

The girl with skin pale as porcelain looking up at her.

All that was left at the scene were corpses, that girl, and an ugly doll.

"At first, I thought she was a lucky survivor, but now she's been classified as an anomaly."

Yuna looked up at her team member after saying that.

"So. Where did all the anomalies rampaging there go, leaving only that one behind?"

Her team member swallowed hard before barely managing to reply.

"Uh, yeah... that's dangerous."

"Exactly. And that's why the containment breach happened today."

"Wait. You don't mean the breach was...?"

"Right. It was her who got out."

Yuna gave a weary smile to her team member, who hadn't grasped the situation yet since she'd just arrived.

"She'd swiped an anomaly from another floor's containment and decorated her room with it."

"...A-And what happened?"

"Nothing."

"Pardon?"

"Nothing at all. That's it, just like that."

That was right.

A containment breach had occurred with an anomaly whose level classification wasn't even complete.

Yet there were zero casualties.

Even more bizarrely, the anomaly had returned to its room on its own and was still being perfectly cooperative.

Yuna slowly turned her head to the screen beside her.

"What on earth does it want?"

Displayed there was a provisional document constantly being updated.

Yuna read through it all and sighed.

For the time being, she was stuck confined to this branch.

The rest of the personnel couldn't return to headquarters either.

They couldn't risk letting 'it' discover HQ's location.

Really, all she could do was sigh.

"It's spacious!"

I toured my new room.

After bringing in my new Pierrot friend, people suddenly rushed around busily and moved me to this new room.

"Hm. Nice."

I'd planned to just go back to my old room if I didn't like it.

But this seemed fine enough to stay.

Much bigger, better bed, and even a display shelf on one side.

The only downside was the outside.

Deep underground, with the entire floor empty.

And above, thick metal walls and doors.

It felt exactly like a monster pen.

"Eh, whatever."

But thinking it over, it didn't really matter.

It meant nothing to me anyway.

Still, I should hold off on pranks for a while.

Would be a hassle if they made me move rooms again.

"Heave-ho!"

So I flopped onto the new bed.

The bed was covered in all sorts of dolls.

These were new ones they'd brought.

When they asked why I took the Pierrot doll, I said it was cute and I liked it, so they gave me these as gifts.

"Well, they are kinda cute!"

Not as good as bear dolls, though.

I used to have an aversion to dolls, but now I was okay with it.

Guys could like cute things too, right?

I wasn't playing dollhouse or house with them or anything.

Plus, hugging a bear doll really calmed me down.

I looked it up online—there's doll therapy and stuff.

Holding something soft and fluffy actually lowers stress levels.

"Mmmph!"

So rolling around on the bed hugging my bear doll tight was purely therapy. Therapy.

Anyway.

Maybe noticing I was bored, the people here gave me another new toy.

A list of all the anomalies contained here.

They even said I could go meet them if I wanted.

I hadn't said much.

When they asked if I could behave, I just said I might want to meet another friend if I got bored.

They went pale and vanished, then came back with that offer.

Still, like I thought earlier, no plans to meet another friend right away.

Too much hassle.

And if I brought a new one immediately, wouldn't Joey feel left out?

"Right, Joey?"

Pierrot Joey nodded enthusiastically in agreement with me.

Unlike what the document said, she was such a good, obedient kid.

I smiled at Joey and picked up my phone.

Time for a fine adult male pastime: zoning out while scrolling.

"Hmm."

I wondered what to look at, then went to the Explorer board after a while.

I hadn't checked it much since coming here—too many interesting things happening—but now I had some curiosities.

The community was always the same vibe.

Exploring that world. Sharing anomaly info.

Posts like that.

But today, instead of browsing, I typed directly into the search bar.

[Search: Foundation]

Search results poured in.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

I skimmed through the posts.

"Hm."

Lots of hate for the Foundation. Overwhelmingly so.

Like 8 to 2 ratio?

Just more hate.

For reference, the other 20% weren't praise either—just neutral info posts.

I wondered why they got so much flak and dug deeper. Then I got it.

The Foundation was basically hostile to explorers.

They saw them as reckless troublemakers poking into dangerous places for selfish gain.

Apparently, when they crossed paths, they didn't kill them but treated them harshly.

Confiscated anything anomaly-related by force.

The only thing they'd trade for was 'information' on anomalies.

"Hm."

Well, seeing posts badmouthing the Foundation didn't stir any ill will in me.

I had no sense of camaraderie with those explorers anyway.

To be precise, I thought they were idiots.

Why abandon a normal life to wander those places?

And.

Why did I do it?

Why did I stupidly step into that world and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lose everything?

Yeah. It was probably a mix of self-loathing and envy.

Loathing for those who did the same dumb shit as me.

Envy that they hadn't lost everything like I did.

"Heh."

So I just laughed.

I infused the laugh with my emotions to scatter them, then thought of something else.

"So bored."

I tossed my phone aside.

And snapped my fingers—tap.

My vision shifted.

A weary-looking someone was staring at documents.

One of the researchers I'd attached a shadow to.

"Bored."

At those words, the researcher's body stiffened.

I kindly informed the researcher.

"If you don't bring Yuna in 10 minutes, I'm going for a walk."

The researcher shot up—then tripped over their own feet and crashed down.

"Hehehe."

This one.

Not quite Cult Leader level, but decent at physical comedy?

Feeling a bit lighter, I waited for Yuna. Exactly 8 minutes later.

"Y-You called?"

Yuna came to me.

She wasn't using formal speech, so less freaked out than before.

I told her.

"Bored. Show me around the Backside World."

Yuna's lips quivered.