Team Leader Back Room No. 2
The chat went silent for a moment. Yukel glared down at her phone screen, drumming her fingers against the table with mounting unease.
Slow to respond... Don't tell me the other Team Leaders got hit too? If they read this, noticed something was off, and undid the rework on their own... is that even possible?
That anomaly's power had looked invincible at a glance — impossible to counter — but in truth it had one clear weakness.
Her memory of the operating table explosion, and her memory of naturally accepting Sirin as a researcher... both had apparently returned to their state from before the rework.
If you had the mental fortitude to break through it, or managed to shake the power off even once, everything that had happened before came flooding back — and after that, you wouldn't fall for it so easily again.
You just build up a resistance, little by little.
And since I already know Aisha... even if I got caught in a rework again, someday I'd find my way back to her.
Ding.
Her phone chimed.
"Hah...?!"
Yukel's eyes flooded with orange. An emotional response.
Yukel set the phone down on the table and gave her head a moment to cool. Her blood pressure was climbing.
She picked the phone back up and typed. At this point, she needed to see their faces in person before any of it would sink in.
End of conversation. Now there was nothing to do but wait.
The Archive was a room for storing antique books and objects kept in paper form. Ever since the collection had been relocated to another wing, the Team Leaders had made it their favorite spot for gathering behind the Director's back.
Thick walls, no internal cameras, and even a door that locked from the inside.
When Yukel opened the door, the leader of Research Team 3 appeared.
Whip. A petite woman with a silver bob and blue eyes — an android in a black business suit beneath a white research coat.
One of the mutants recovered near the Black Gate. This woman, who claimed to be an artificial-intelligence android, had destroyed twenty-three combat vehicles before being captured in the middle of a public road.
More than enough qualification to become a Team Leader.
"I've already reviewed the full briefing."
"First things first... how long have you known about Sirin's ability?"
"Since the day she came in for her employment interview."
"...From the very beginning, then."
"She insisted, while looking directly at me, that star-shaped pupils were a common physical trait. A rework had occurred. I confirmed a discrepancy between the external data and the internal data."
Whip tapped her own head lightly with a finger.
"...What do you mean?"
"I am an android. My memories and judgment data reside on cloud servers outside the Facility. When a mental attack is detected, I retrieve data from a past point that was verified safe, compare it against my current data, delete the contaminated portions, and restore my previous state."
"That's actually possible?"
"Yes. Might I ask — do you not find humanity's inefficient methods inconvenient? I would be happy to modify you, if you wish."
"I'll pass."
Yukel's eyes flashed crimson. Whip, unbothered, crossed the room and took her seat.
"Incidentally, have I not informed you of Researcher Lee Sirin's abilities on numerous occasions?"
"Huh? When?"
"...Do you check the emails I send you?"
"Ah."
"Those are not 'mere' emails. They are the 'resonance' of my 'soul'—"
"Can you please drop that fucking speech pattern."
A wet gurgle sounded from above. From the ceiling vent, a greenish fluid dripped down in thick, viscous strands.
The puddle on the floor squelched like wet clay, gathered itself together, and molded itself into the shape of a person — a very small slime girl, roughly fifty centimeters tall.
Long green hair, semi-translucent skin, and a strange silhouette that looked like a poorly disguised imitation of a research coat.
The leader of Research Team 4 — Slimslim. The proud owner of a cat-like temperament who adored wedging herself into any cramped space her body could squeeze through: sewers, ventilation ducts, the gaps between walls.
A mutant who had transformed into slime form, gifted with the powers of division, regeneration, and fusion.
"Here. Hi."
"...Why are you so small?"
"Big body's napping."
Slimslim clambered up onto the table with her miniature body and crammed herself into a teacup, leaving only her head poking over the rim. The sight was oddly unsettling.
Yukel slid the teacup discreetly away from her own place at the table.
"...Have you ever been hit by it too? Sirin's ability."
"Plenty of times."
"Then how are you fine?"
"I've got tons of cores, duh. Several heads, several bodies. If the me sitting here starts acting weird, I just call up a me stationed in another sector. Problem solved."
"......"
"Your face is screaming 'but what about the memories?' Mix them back in the right way and they come back."
"The right way? What does that mean?"
"It means the right way, obviously. Aigoo. Our dear Team Leader got played by her own junior researcher, huh? BWAHAHA!"
Slimslim burst out laughing, her whole slime body rippling with it.
"...Hah."
"Anyway, Sirin's pretty strong, FYI. Three of the divisions I had in storage spoiled at the same time. That's why I'm here in my fridge body."
"Right. Got it."
"Did the Director really not say anything to you? He ordered me and Whip to leave the whole thing alone. Said Seolrin was handling it personally."
The Director again. Yukel's brow furrowed.
"Is there any chance the Director's been manipulated?"
"The probability of a mental attack succeeding against the Director is extremely low."
"On what basis?"
"I verified it firsthand recently. The Director split his own skull open with both hands."
"...What?"
"A hand emerged from the inside, extracted the contaminated brain, and installed a fresh one. Once the procedure was complete, he closed his scalp and tidied his hair quite neatly."
Slimslim chimed in from inside her teacup.
Mm-hm. That is — nodding all the while.
"Saw it too. Gross."
"...Ugh."
"You're ex-mutant stock yourself, and you're going to discriminate against the guy just for cracking his head open a little?"
"Hey."
Slimslim had landed a pointed jab. If she was being honest, in this facility... things wearing human masks vastly outnumbered actual human beings — so that jab was, by any logical measure, entirely fair.
"So, to sum up... the Director knew about Sirin's ability. You two knew as well. And knowing all that, you still kept Sirin right beside Seolrin?"
Whip and Slimslim nodded in unison.
"Are you insane?"
"It is the Director's judgment... Lee Sirin is an Outer God-class entity displaying excessive fixation on Team Leader Seolrin. She ranks above Black grade. If we attempt to separate the two, Sirin will move to touch the entire Facility once more. In other words, utilizing Seolrin as we do now is the correct course."
"What ability does Seolrin even have?! The Black Cube is undeniably powerful, but that isn't Seolrin's ability!"
"...Pardon?"
Slimslim exploded with laughter.
Hugely.
"BWAHAHA! Is this dumbass bitch a social outcast or something?"
"...What?"
"You seriously know nothing about Seolrin's ability? Or her true body? For real?"
"......"
"Seolrin is pushing Sirin's rework back out right now, intermittently. How do you think she's managing that? You're the Hero, and even swinging that holy sword of yours you got your ass handed to you!"
"Sh-she's pushing it back out?"
"Seolrin's ability bends reality to fit common sense. Same thing! Rework!"
Whip pulled her chair closer and attempted to explain the situation in concrete terms.
Unfortunately, her characteristic artificial-intelligence brain omitted an enormous quantity of intermediate reasoning steps — and so the words that left her mouth soared far beyond anything Yukel could process.
"Hmm... Sirin has been getting beaten down by Seolrin, you see."
"...What?"
"Only yesterday, she was trembling in the legs while Seolrin supported her by the arm."
Yukel couldn't find a single word to say. So Sirin's languid, self-satisfied face in the recovery room had all been an act — and in reality, Seolrin was the one holding all the leverage?
Good lord. Her unease only swelled further.
"So in the end, you're sacrificing one person and using her as a leash."
"Allow me to offer a correction. We do not yet know whether Seolrin is Sirin's leash — or whether Sirin is Seolrin's."
"......"
"Seolrin's reality-rework ability is a higher-order concept than Sirin's. The proof lies in the fact that Sirin's power does not properly function against Seolrin."
Ding.
All three phones on the table lit up at the same moment.
Ah.
Every face at the table froze solid. The leaders of Research Teams 3 and 4 fled at the speed of light, leaving Yukel standing there alone and abandoned.
Yukel's misery sank to even greater depths.
Sob... sob...