Victory Has Many Faces
The moment I stepped into the room, Victory’s face was already wearing several different expressions.
This time, at the Director’s suggestion, I had to go meet Victory, the girl I had rescued last time. But Liberty had to part with me much sooner than expected, and she became incredibly sulky. She immediately made her displeasure known.
Crunch!
“Ugh?!”
“Whine…”
I felt the sharp pain of fangs piercing my skin. Of course, it only hurt a little. Since she was fully capable of tearing off my entire upper body if she wanted to, this was nothing more than playful roughhousing.
Today, too, Liberty left another set of tooth marks on my shoulder before finally climbing down from me.
“See you later, Liberty.”
“Huff huff huff… Bark bark!!”
After somehow managing to separate from Liberty, I stood in front of the door to the room where Victory was being held. She was probably bound tightly, just like when I first met Gloria. But since she had recently turned a person into minced meat, I needed to be cautious.
Steel myself, I opened the door and stepped inside.
Creeeeaaak…
The eerie sound of the door echoed throughout the entire room. Deep inside, I found Victory floating in midair like a butterfly caught in a spider’s web. She lifted her head and looked in my direction.
The instant she saw my face, her pupils dilated dramatically and her cheeks flushed bright red.
She must remember the last incident clearly.
Since Victory had originally wanted to meet me, this was truly fortunate. I smiled warmly and spoke to her right away.
“Victory, how are your legs now? Are they feeling better?”
“Y-yes!! Of course they are!!”
She answered more enthusiastically than I expected. That meant improving our relationship would be much easier.
I pulled over a chair just like before and sat down in front of her. I asked how she found the new containment room, whether the increased restraints were uncomfortable, and apologized for not being able to release her. We continued with very ordinary, everyday conversation.
Of course, her reactions were extremely intense, but still—how wonderful it was to actually have a real conversation. Compared to Gloria and Liberty, she felt like a fairy by contrast.
As we kept talking, the bound Victory began to squirm and made a request.
“M-Maxwell, sir… Could you… like last time…”
“Like last time?”
Victory’s gaze had stopped on my hand as she spoke. It was true that during her treatment I had stroked her to calm her down. Since there was no reason to refuse, I placed my hand on her head. Unlike Liberty’s messy, rough hair, hers felt silky smooth.
“Hehehee… Maxwell’s hand…”
“I’m glad it feels good.”
Victory looked utterly blissful as she kept pressing her head into my palm. Seeing how similar the current situation was to how Liberty had behaved before… it seemed that mutant children who suffered discrimination and persecution were, by nature, severely affection-starved.
But then, while she was enjoying my hand, Victory suddenly went completely expressionless. I wondered why—until a very familiar reaction burst out.
“…What is this smell?”
Let me repeat: Victory was a rabbit mutant. Her sense of smell was far superior to a human’s. Since I had just come from seeing Liberty, she must have caught that distinct scent, just like Gloria had.
To prevent the same fight that had broken out between Gloria and Liberty at their first meeting, I told Victory the truth.
“Do you remember those two girls who were fighting last time? I’m living with them now.”
“Ah…”
The moment she heard that, Victory looked like she understood. But then her expression changed again. She clicked her tongue, frowned, and seemed genuinely angry.
Of course, when I showed a slightly puzzled look, she immediately switched back to a flushed, adoring face and stared at me. After that, her expressions kept shifting as if she were performing some kind of face-changing trick. She would definitely be like this in the future too.
In the comic, it had simply been described as bipolar disorder. But seeing it in person, I finally understood what it really was.
Dissociative Identity Disorder…?
In other words, multiple personalities. Most of Victory’s personalities seemed to like me, but this meant I would have to handle her even more carefully than Gloria or Liberty.
I spent the rest of the time observing her various personalities. But, as expected…
“Why does the smell of those beast bastards keep getting stronger every day?”
“Ahem… Gloria, there are circumstances—”
Today, too, I got scolded by Gloria and her super nose.
I was now solely in charge of three young test subjects: Gloria, Liberty, and Victory. At this rate I was going to develop real atopic dermatitis, but our Gloria showed no mercy.
“Um… Gloria?”
“…..”
If something didn’t meet her standards, she would sometimes refuse to eat at all, just like now. In that sense, she really did act like a child her age. On the other hand, even though I was using an extremely gentle approach, her esper ability usage and physical strength were growing steadily. The Director had been astonished when she received Gloria’s latest analysis data.
“Sometimes the moderate path really is the answer.”
“Truth is always found in the simplest places. But Black Cell isn’t looking for something so ordinary, is it?”
“Exactly. For the era to advance, we need to move much faster than this.”
“You are absolutely right. However…”
The organization had already tried nearly every possible experiment on Gloria. The results were, naturally, that all the researchers had been killed or nothing had changed at all—complete failures. In short, what I was attempting now was the only success so far.
“Still, Maxwell, isn’t this kind of thing fun? I really enjoy finding problems with no answers.”
“In the end, time will provide the answer. Though I suppose the impatience that comes with waiting can’t be helped.”
“Heh heh heh… Are you sympathizing with me?”
“Just consider it part of workplace social skills.”
The Director gave a small snort of laughter at my words and told me I could leave. It had been another good day of scoring points with the boss.
But not long after, a strange broadcast echoed throughout the entire organization.
I had just finished meeting Gloria and was on my way to Liberty when the organization suddenly called every single employee to the Convention Hall. Since the hall was a large multi-purpose space designed to host corporate events, I assumed there must be some major announcement.
But when I arrived, the hall was completely empty. And there stood the Director, her face twisted like a malevolent demon. While the other researchers and managers looked around in confusion—
“Seal this location immediately.”
Clack clack clack clack!!
The moment everyone had arrived, Black Cell’s special agents blocked all the exits. The Director must have decided the time was right, because she finally explained the reason.
“Everyone, check your phones right now.”
Actions over words? Following the Director’s order, we turned on our phones and opened the web. What we saw made us doubt our own eyes.
“There’s a rat somewhere in here.”
It looked like there was another whistleblower besides me.
Seeing the Director’s eyes completely bloodshot, she looked exactly like she had in the comic. And right now, it seemed there really was a whistleblower inside the organization. Of course, it definitely wasn’t me. Unless an incredibly good method appeared, the chances of getting caught were far too high. That was why I had left behind no records whatsoever.
So this must be why the Director had gathered every single employee of Black Cell.
Then are they searching through every employee’s computer and desk right now?
There was a very high chance they were even raiding the company-assigned dormitories. Since I had nothing to feel guilty about, I could remain perfectly calm.
I was busy praising my past self for being so cautious when the Director, faced with a major obstacle to her plan, took a pistol from the special agent beside her—
Click.
BANG!!!
She suddenly fired at the ceiling, then pressed the gun against a low-ranking manager’s head. With special agents guarding her directly, the threatened manager could only stammer out excuses.
“D-Director Aileen!! It wasn’t me!! It absolutely wasn’t meee!!”
“Really? You’re sure?”
After that, the Director walked from employee to employee, pointing the pistol at each one and saying that if they confessed honestly, she would show some leniency. But some people fainted the moment the muzzle was aimed at them, while others burst into tears from the sheer injustice. The Convention Hall grew colder and colder.
By the time every person there felt like one minute was stretching into an hour, my turn finally came.
“Hohoho, it’s our Maxwell. I wonder what kind of excuse the genius of the century will come up with~?”
The cold barrel of the pistol pressed against my chest. But I had been carefully analyzing the Director’s personality from both the original story and real life, and I had been constantly flattering her. To make my future life in the organization even easier, I gave her exactly what she truly wanted to hear.
“Director, why are you getting so worked up over this incident?”
“What…?”
Caught completely off guard by my unexpected response, the Director blinked. The surrounding employees looked shocked, but I had no intention of stopping.
“The public are nothing but pigs and dogs. Why waste your energy caring about those beasts? They’ll bark for a while and then quiet down on their own.”
“Uh… Maxwell?”
“Shall I be more direct? What those beasts want is just some snacks to chew on while drinking or surfing the internet. They’ll gossip for a bit, get bored, and spit it out. In the end, what pigs and dogs want isn’t the truth.”
Ever since I joined Black Cell, I had always maintained a gentle attitude. Perhaps she never expected me to say something so harsh. The Director remained silent for a long moment, staring at me intently.
Then the corners of her mouth slowly rose—
“Ahahahahahahaha!”
She burst into laughter. Everyone in the hall shrank back at the maniacal cackling that filled the entire space, but the way the Director looked at me had completely changed.
“Heh heh heh… I must have lost my mind for a second. So, Maxwell, what do you think I should do now?”
“In the game of Go, there is a saying: when the opponent plays a reverse move, maintaining a normal flow actually becomes the reverse from their perspective.”
“So you’re telling me to respond in the standard way?”
“Exactly. This is something that can be cleanly ended with a single lawsuit. And whoever did this was truly stupid.”
“…Explain what you just said in more detail.”
“If it were me, I wouldn’t have leaked it to the press. What they want isn’t justice—they want money.”
Black Cell was, on the surface, a world-renowned pharmaceutical company—one of the largest corporations on the planet. With money, authority, and the law on our side, neither individuals nor the media could do anything.
“Even if a ‘hero’ gets involved.”
“Pfft… You really do know exactly what kind of stories I like to hear.”
The Director truly enjoyed harsh, cold reality. Just then, the special agent beside her received a transmission.
“Lady Aileen, they report no abnormalities.”
“Tsk… Maxwell, I’m truly sorry for suspecting you. Still, you understand how I feel, right?”
“It’s fine. Running a massive organization like this must be far more exhausting for you, Director.”
So they really had searched my quarters as well. The Director was truly thorough.
Thanks to me, the atmosphere in the hall had eased slightly, but in the end they failed to catch the whistleblower. Still, the Director looked much more relaxed. And after she took various measures, the media switched to neutral within just one week.
Of course, those suspected of being the whistleblower were reassigned to special facilities, and the company’s stock price took a small hit. On top of that, an unwelcome guest arrived.
“You want me to personally entertain the hero who’s coming this time?”
“Yeah. Turns out you’re the only talent I have for the job, Maxwell.”
It really was one mountain after another.