The New Employees' First Lesson in Anomaly Appreciation
The Amryu Association members tried to open their mouths, but I placed my hand over them.
“Shh. I already know the answer.”
I knew they’d like it. The moment they heard me, they couldn’t hold back and tried to speak right away.
It was my intuition, but more than that, the ghosts in our gallery all agreed. I’m not the kind of person who acts purely on gut feeling.
(Photo of the infiltrated organization members)
They were furious at first, but the moment I said I’d introduce them to anomalies, they calmed right down. This has to mean they like anomalies, right?
People can get hurt from liking something too much?
Liking something can lead to injury. I guess I should give them something to bite on.
If I remove the barbs, they’re all squishy and feel nice. It should be fine to let them bite on these, right?
When I tried one myself, the only issues were a sharp, tingling taste, slight paralysis, numbness, and a ringing in my head.
I stuffed Raopf’s tentacles into their mouths.
“Mmmph—!”
They all went quiet as they tried to speak. Their eyes had gone glassy; they looked quite satisfied.
I’d even chained them up tightly in case they got too excited and hurt themselves thrashing around. Maybe that had been overkill.
I decided to trust what the ghosts said.
I was originally planning to keep this to myself.
What I was holding now was a video that captured the full charm of anomalies.
It contained every detail of what made each part attractive and exactly how it had felt to me. That was all thanks to Raopf and the broadcasting staff I’d brought from the station.
I hadn’t even shown this to the ghosts yet.
I played the video for the organization members.
Just in case they might miss the appeal points I felt, I even explained them softly beside the screen.
Maybe some of my heart had gotten through. They began writhing in joy.
Watching their movements now, I was certain that giving them something to bite and chaining them with iron had been the right call.
They even fainted from ecstasy several times.
I know that feeling all too well.
I’d felt something similar while managing the anomalies. It seemed they felt the same.
I woke them up and made them watch the video again.
There was an overwhelming amount of audiovisual material to show them. Once they got used to it, I planned to let them meet real anomalies and begin hands-on management training.
When the lesson ended, the look in their eyes told me they were fully prepared to face actual anomalies.
“Who did you say you were again?”
The organization members—now the Response Bureau’s first employees—stood at perfect attention. Maybe because they were gangsters who loved formalities, their posture was impeccable.
“I am an anomaly enthusiast. My parents were anomaly enthusiasts as well.”
“Very good. Shall we begin proper management training?”
I led them to the divers. These were among the most numerous anomalies in our bureau.
No matter how many times I saw them, their rough, textured surfaces were always charming.
“Watch carefully.”
Dealing with anomalies came in two stages.
The first was containment.
Before forming a connection, you had to place the anomaly in an environment where it could remain stable.
According to the ghosts, the environment had to satisfy the anomaly while also making escape extremely difficult if containment failed.
If physical containment was possible, that was ideal. Most of the anomalies I contained, including the divers, fell into this category.
Sometimes physical containment was meaningless. In those cases, special containment procedures had to be used.
Looking at past records, in Mary’s case, while physical suppression was important, she also frequently tried to escape by spreading through communication devices.
That was why communication devices were forbidden when entering her containment chamber.
For some reason, she never tried to escape through my devices. It was a shame; that would have been the perfect chance to stay with her all the time.
The second stage was management.
It was both the alpha and the omega.
The ghosts periodically suppressed anomalies, but I was a little different.
What I did was love them.
“First, you just enter the containment chamber. The divers are relatively simple.”
Was it because there were people watching?
She’s acting unusually shy today.
The diver resisted more violently than usual.
I dodged the harpoon she swung, approached, and snatched it away to neutralize her. She threw a punch.
Aww, darling~
Wasn’t that what it meant?
She’s certainly full of energy.
Every time I sucked in her vitality through the breathing hole, the diver collapsed easily.
“First, you have to remove the barnacles from the diver.”
In the divers’ case, each had uniquely patterned barnacles, almost like Mongolian spots. The barnacles were alive; they created an environment of suitable sea fog around the diver to make it comfortable for themselves.
Because of the sea fog, the diver’s containment chamber corroded quickly.
“The diver doesn’t like the barnacles, you see.”
Right?
At my glance, the diver nodded knowingly. She had no vocal cords so she couldn’t speak, but she was quite clever.
“You remove them one by one like this. The diver may feel some pain, but most of the time she says it feels refreshing. Right?”
The diver shook her head… then nodded again.
“Good girl.”
Managing everything from the anomaly’s condition to the containment chamber environment—this was standard management for stable containment.
“Understood? From now on, this is what you’ll be doing.”
“Yes, sir.”
“If it ever feels difficult, what should you do?”
“We will solve it with the power of love.”
“Excellent. If the information gets confusing, I’ve posted the management methods in front, so check those.”
They were all sharp and quick. The training had clearly taken hold.
“As for non-standard management……”
“Ah-ah. You’re still far from learning that.”
Of course, ‘initial management’ and ‘special management’ were different. A newly contained, confused anomaly needed shock therapy. The person performing containment also needed a deep understanding of the anomaly.
The new employees looked quite worried. I offered them comfort.
“Don’t worry too much. All the anomalies here are kind. If you need help, go find Mary or Raopf.”
“Who are they?”
“They’re anomalies. Would you like to see them?”
“……We’re fine.”
“Come on, let’s go see them. Follow me.”
Jeongchan’s endless explanations about anomalies eventually caused the Response Bureau staff to completely zone out.
Even so, the explanations did not stop.
The former organization members, now employees, continued to hear Jeongchan’s near-brainwashing praise on top of the mental contamination they suffered from meeting the anomalies.
That way, without even realizing it themselves, they were slowly transforming into the exact kind of Response Bureau agents Jeongchan wanted.
All of this had been orchestrated by the gallery ghosts who simply couldn’t stand to suffer alone.