Side Story: The Agency
The village was not marked on any maps. Since long ago, its existence had been kept a secret. It was left out of all official records, and its residents were not included in any census. In effect, it was a town that didn’t exist. But that didn’t mean it was an undeveloped, stone-age settlement. It was impossible for the people who lived there to be completely disconnected from the outside world so it was known to the settlements around it as a bizarre place that shouldn’t be dealt with.
As people are wont to gossip, there were those who took an interest in the village. No matter how well it was hidden, Japan was only so big. It wasn’t difficult to understand how it came to be seen as special, like a solitary island in a sea of wilderness. And once people found out about it, it was only natural that some of them would attempt to visit.
The area around the village was under perpetual surveillance by the state, but that surveillance wasn’t perfect. The perimeter had to be structured in a way that nearby residents wouldn’t notice, so it was set up over an exceptionally wide area. As a result, those who were serious about infiltrating the settlement didn’t find it especially difficult to do. But of those who succeeded, not a single one returned home. So no one knew what went on inside the village, and its contents and purpose remained a mystery.
This was true even for the very government that kept it hidden and under surveillance in the first place. All they knew was that they had been told to monitor the place. And while that was strange, it wasn’t an entirely unique situation. There were plenty of things in the world that were off limits, and the number of countries that had been destroyed for not respecting those boundaries were too great to count.
Although Japan’s head of state changed, the system of government didn’t. As such, the details of the taboo were handed down rather effectively. Even if they didn’t understand why, keeping that area under observation was something that came to be taken for granted.
That is why they only came to know the reason for that taboo when the surveillance network around it was breached from the inside.
Having finished her meal consisting entirely of instant food, Asaka Takatou made her way to the porch. It was pitch black outside.
“I wonder how they are doing this. Is it like a planetarium?”
It was a totally impossible sight. The village was deep underground, so there was no way they should be getting weather down there. Although Asaka had yet to get a handle on the exact details of the area, she could guess that it was a rather small, hemispherical shape. The day and night cycle was likely done through some sort of projection mapping. The movement of the sun in their underground world seemed to match that of the sun outside.
“Wait, am I going to have to stay here forever? Things are looking pretty grim.”
While she’d been well aware that she would be living at her workplace, she had never imagined ending up stuck somewhere like this.
“Hey, what did the last person do at night?” she asked the young boy as she walked back into the living room.
“She went home before it got dark,” the boy answered politely.
Asaka’s job was to take care of this cute little kid, who was still overflowing with innocence. His name was Yogiri Takatou. He hadn’t had a name of his own originally, so Asaka had given him one. She hadn’t intended to give him her last name as well, but the boy had understood enough to feel that he needed one, so she’d let him take whatever name he wanted.
“Home, huh?” she murmured, looking through the instruction packet that she’d been given. Apparently, there were some lodgings for staff a little ways away from the mansion. “I guess I should probably go too, then.”
“It’s dangerous to go out at night.”
“Of course these rural country roads are dark, but I’m an adult. If I had a flashlight or something...” she muttered, peering out at the night.
Relying only on the moonlight would make her uneasy, but if she had a light source of her own, she figured she could find her way. Or at least that’s what she thought for a moment, but immediately changed her mind.
There was a dark figure beyond the window. The moment she saw it, she began to doubt her own eyes. The figure was an inky black, as if it were someone’s shadow that had just stood up in three dimensions.
“Those things come out at night,” the boy explained. “If you leave the windows open, they feel like they’re welcome to come inside, so you have to close everything up tight before the sun goes down.”
As Asaka watched, the shadows began to multiply. She hurriedly ran back to the porch and slammed the storm shutters closed.
“What are they?!”
They were only a hair’s breadth in width. If they truly wanted to enter, the wooden shutters would likely prove no obstacle, but for some reason they simply stood outside and watched.
“I don’t really know.”
“Do they always come?”
“Yeah.”
Judging from the way he had set about readying his futon for the night without the least bit of concern, it appeared this was an everyday occurrence for him. Most of his life seemed to take place in this living room.
“I guess you could call it being a shut-in...” Asaka murmured to herself.
Shortly after finishing dinner, they began preparations to sleep. Maybe there was just nothing else for them to do, but it seemed like a rather dull lifestyle.
“Well, I suppose I can’t go outside now...I guess I’ll have to spend the night here...” Never mind going outside, she wanted to avoid even leaving this room if she could. With weird things like that lurking around, she wasn’t going to let herself be caught alone. “Are there any other futons?”
“No, this is the only one.”
“Well, I guess I’ll have to deal with that, then.” Yogiri was just a child, and the futon was fairly large. There was plenty of room for them to share. “Actually, I don’t even have a change of clothes here, do I? I guess there’s nothing I can do about it now.”
In the end, her concern for the figures outside kept her from sleeping much at all.
The next morning, Asaka was getting breakfast ready. It was the first time she had ever worn an apron, but it was handy to have on while doing housework. She wasn’t all that excited about the Fifties-era housewife look it gave her, but since the only ones there were her and Yogiri, it wasn’t that big of an issue.
“Hmm...does this actually qualify as miso soup?”
It was hard to say she was truly working when all she’d been doing was feeding him instant food. So Asaka had gone to the kitchen to attempt some actual cooking, but that turned out to be easier said than done.
“It’s kind of hard to call it miso soup when it’s just water with miso in it. There’s stuff here to make soup stock too, isn’t there?”
When she tested it, it had tasted like straight miso. She had tried to recreate the soup she was used to from her own home growing up, but she hadn’t even come close. The ingredients on hand here were just too good. There were plenty of sardines and dried bonito, which looked ideal for making soup stock, but she had no idea how to actually make use of them.
“If we had the Internet here, I could look up some recipes, but...”
This place was completely cut off from the outside world, so it didn’t even have normal phone lines. There was a rotary phone in the mansion, but it was only connected to the facility’s own network.
“At least give me a rice cooker or something!”
Cooking rice with nothing but a pot and a stove was downright unreasonable. Piecing together her own limited knowledge of the subject, she tried using the portable gas burner instead. The results of her previous similar best-guesses were now sitting on the dining room table, although they were hard to look at. The fish was totally charred, and the eggs that were supposed to be sunny side up were completely unrecognizable.
“Yep, this is impossible.”
Asaka’s first attempts had been awful. The rice seemed ready, at least, so she brought that and the miso soup to the table. With that, a breakfast of a sort was good to go.
“It’s bad,” Yogiri remarked after a single bite, just as Asaka had expected. “The rice is sticky, but it’s still hard.”
“Is that really what you should say to someone who just made food for you?” Being honest with herself, she had thought the exact same thing, but being told that straight to her face was still upsetting.
“But it tastes awful —”
“Shaddup!”
“Uhh...what?” Hearing Asaka’s distorted English, Yogiri grew puzzled.
“Listen, if a girl makes food for you, you should absolutely never say that it tastes bad! You won’t be popular at all if you say such things!” she scolded him, putting aside the question of whether she could actually be considered “a girl” in this context.
“What do you mean ‘popular’?”
“Unpopular means that no one will like you. You’ll be treated like a hairy caterpillar. People will scream when they see you, they’ll think you’re gross, and no one will ever want to be your friend.”
“Caterpillar...I know what that is.”
“Good. I’m glad you at least know that much. In this case, it’s clearly impossible to hide that the food is bad. So the person making it already knows they screwed up. But as a man, you should eat all of it and say that it was delicious anyway!”
“Okay...I’ll do that. It’s delicious...”
It seemed that she’d been able to convince him with a bit of forceful wording. Then again, acting all depressed about it would just make him feel guilty, which was unfair. And anyway, the food was so bad that even Asaka herself could barely stomach it. She could hardly blame the kid.
“Thanks for the meal,” Yogiri said, polishing off all the food in front of him.
“Hey, are you serious?!”
The charred fish, the pathetic eggs, the miso-water and the crunchy rice were all gone. He had actually eaten everything. At this point, Asaka would have to eat everything as well or risk being a hypocrite. Swearing to herself that she would learn to cook as soon as possible, she powered her way through the awful meal on spirit alone.
“Okay, that’s that. Please wait a minute; I’ll clean up.” Once she had finished, she collected the dishes and made her way to the kitchen. “This is quite the situation, isn’t it? If they’re going to force me to do on-the-job training, they could at least put someone here to teach me.”
Quickly washing the dishes, Asaka retrieved the instruction manual from her pocket. Her job was to take care of ?? and to give him a minimum level of education as a Japanese person. The packet provided nothing more specific than that. It seemed they were leaving it all up to her. In short, they had tossed her in without a second thought.
“What do you even want me to do?! This doesn’t make any sense! Is this even legal? Is there any oversight here at all? Will I even get paid for this? Doesn’t it seem like I’ve just gone missing to everyone else?!”
Of course, she had basically been kidnapped by an organization that operated above the law, so the law likely didn’t care one way or the other about her. Getting caught up in all the small details wouldn’t do her any good.
“Well, I guess for now, I can at least teach him at an elementary school level...”
He seemed to be about that age, so it was probably a good place to start.
The morning would be spent studying. The afternoon would be reserved for playing outside. That’s what Asaka decided for the time being. Now that breakfast was done, she wanted to get right to the studying, but first she needed to get a grasp of Yogiri’s academic abilities.
“First, let’s work on your writing.”
In a way, it was a relief for Asaka. While she was indeed certified as a teacher, she was a total novice. She had no idea what to teach someone of Yogiri’s age. So to start with, she wrote some examples for him to try to copy.
Just as they began, she heard the sound of the front door opening.
“Hey! Is someone here?”
“Probably one of the delivery people.”
“Keep at it,” she told Yogiri, standing up and heading to the entrance. A woman with a huge basket on her back was standing there. Without any sort of greeting, the woman took off her shoes and made her way into the house.
“Umm, can I ask who you are?”
As Asaka called out to her, the woman slowly raised her face to look up, earning a surprised exclamation. She was smiling, but there was no movement or life to it at all. It looked more like it was painted on.
“You are Asaka Takatou, correct? I am an Autonomous Humanoid Operational Mechanism. I have brought you food supplies.”
Though her speech was fluent enough, it was completely lacking in emotion. Asaka had thought it strange that they had so many fresh ingredients on hand, but apparently this robot was bringing them in now and then. She remembered being told there was an autonomous robot working here earlier, but she didn’t expect it to look so unnerving.
“If things like this are an everyday experience for him, I worry about his upbringing...”
While it seemed the company had made it humanoid out of consideration for them, it felt like they were working hard in the wrong direction.
“Uh, excuse me, do you deliver anything other than food?”
“Yes, if anything else is needed.”
“In that case, do you think you could get me an elementary school curriculum or some textbooks? Also an introductory book on cooking, a microwave, a rice cooker, and an electric kettle would be great. What else? We could use a television, a Blu-ray player, and some game consoles for our free time. Any games or movies are fine. Maybe some magazines, novels, and manga would be good too. And a change of clothes for me.”
Asaka had rattled off a list of just about everything on her mind. There were likely plenty of things that she wouldn’t be allowed to have, but there was no harm in asking.
“Very well. I will convey your requests.”
Apparently having decided that their conversation was over, the woman stepped up into the house. It seemed this was a regular enough occurrence. Accepting it as such, Asaka returned to the living room.
“I finished,” Yogiri said, proudly showing off his writing.
As she’d expected, if he put his mind to it, it wouldn’t be that difficult for him to progress. At this rate, he would have no problem with elementary school material.
“All right, it’s a bit early, but let’s go outside. We don’t have any textbooks yet anyway.” She didn’t really know what it meant to give him an “education in being a Japanese person.” Kids these days likely didn’t spend much time playing in rice fields, but for now, she figured they would try it and see how it went.
Obviously remembering what Asaka had told him before, Yogiri set about searching for creatures in the rice paddy.
“It’s so strange. This all has such a nice rural feel, but we’re still underground, aren’t we?”
It was a standard countryside landscape, one that looked especially lonely, like it had been left behind by the flow of time. It was early autumn, so the rice fields were still full of water.
Yogiri crouched down at the edge of the field and stuck his hand into the water, trying to catch something. Given how deeply interested in the activity he seemed to be, it was like he had never done such a thing before.
“It’s so light,” he said, inspecting his catch. Most of what he had caught were green, transparent little creatures, which he scooped up and put into a bucket.
“What do you call these things? Are these the ones that are good luck for the harvest?” Asaka wondered to herself, adding an illustrated dictionary to the list of things that she wanted.
She looked out over the scenery around them. She definitely hadn’t seen them yesterday but there were people working in the fields. She couldn’t tell from this distance, but she assumed they were robots too. Despite their perfectly human-like movements, they all seemed to have the same pasted-on smiles as the automaton she had met earlier.
“This is what they call the uncanny valley, isn’t it? Though if they can imitate humans that well, it’s actually kind of impressive.”
Japan was vigorously advancing the field of robotics, but there was no way they should have progressed to this point already. It wasn’t her specialty so she didn’t know the details, but they seemed to be at least several generations ahead of modern robots. They must have been developed in secret and put to work where no one would find them. As expected, maintaining this place must have been a tremendously expensive endeavor.
“It’s not really feeling like I’ll be able to leave here alive...”
Wouldn’t she simply be erased in order to keep this place a secret once they had no more use for her? Asaka felt a vague sense of unease growing within her.
Asaka was back in the room where she had first been interviewed. She had been called up to the surface to make the first of her monthly reports.
“Thank you for your hard work, truly. I never thought someone would make it a whole month. Your boldness is something that’s hard to find in most people. What do you call it, your human ability? With that, I’m sure you could have found employment anywhere.”
The man thanking her was the same white-coated young man who had interviewed her in the beginning. Asaka made a bitter face, the memories of her repeated failures to find a job resurfacing.
“Well, actually, corporations tend to prefer someone who has the ability to read the atmosphere and cooperate and communicate well with others, don’t they?”
“Yes, it’s become something of a modern problem. They’ve focused so much on finding people with good communication skills that they’ve ultimately developed a workforce that’s only good at dodging responsibility despite their general lack of abilities. Companies these days are finding it tough to keep things going.”
“You didn’t call me here to talk about all of that, though, did you?”
“We don’t have anything in particular to talk about at the moment, but we can’t just leave you down there on your own forever, can we?”
“Wasn’t this a very important assignment? Something about stopping the world from being destroyed?”
For such a heavy situation, it felt to Asaka that this guy was taking things rather lightly.
“?? is pretty quiet, isn’t he? Even if we left him to his own devices, he would probably remain just as he is, or at least that was our conclusion. But that thing will keep growing, so there’s no telling what might happen if we simply leave it alone. Our goal is to introduce a bias to the direction of that growth. I read your report. It appears he’s reached the academic level of an elementary school student. That’s quite impressive.”
Yogiri’s academic ability was genuinely incredible. Though he looked to be the age of a third grader, he was already working on sixth grade materials now.
Asaka nodded. “I think middle school material will be beyond my ability to teach, though.”
“Well, I’m sure you’ll find a way. We can also arrange a sort of correspondence school program if we need to.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to hire actual teachers? We could use some more people down there.”
“If we could do things like that, life would certainly be a lot easier for us. Did I mention that you had a predecessor?”
“Masaki, right?”
“Yes, she lasted longer than others. Most people give up after the first night.”
“I see. What are those things, by the way?”
At night, the shadows appeared. They didn’t force their way inside if the doors and windows were closed, but they tended to moan as they circled around the building, which was unnerving enough.
“I have no idea. We don’t know anything about them except what you and the others have written in your reports. We do know that there are beings out there trying to hurt ??. I’m not too well-versed in the occult, but apparently there are a number of roadblocks set up to keep them away. For instance, there is something like a barrier preventing those who aren’t invited from entering the house.”
The whole concept was far beyond Asaka’s understanding, but there was little she could do other than accept that it was real. She had eventually grown accustomed to the shadow creatures, so she had no issues sleeping at night now. If that’s what this man considered “bold,” she couldn’t really disagree.
“How about the robots, then? Shouldn’t you be able to do something with them?”
“Are you comfortable with robots stealing your job?” he smiled. “Well, in truth, those androids aren’t at a level where they can teach people yet. They still lack that kind of adaptability. But, more importantly, how are you doing? Do you dislike your current workplace?”
“Of course I do. Why do we have to be stuck down there in such an isolated place?” she snapped. She felt bad for Yogiri, of course, but if she was going to be forced to live in some bizarre hidden village for the rest of her life, that was an even bigger concern.
“Yes, well. That is something we have to take into consideration. Right now, your results have far exceeded our expectations. Your evaluations have been quite satisfactory, so we’d like you to continue your work. We’re currently thinking of the best way to set up a strong welfare support and care system.”
As he spoke, he pulled a fat envelope out and put it on the desk. Realizing that it was being offered to her, Asaka took and opened it. It was filled to bursting with cash.
“Wait, this is —”
“Your salary for the month.”
“Seriously? There are five stacks in here.”
“Yes, it should be about five million yen after taxes. Of course, considering you’re protecting the world, it doesn’t really seem like all that much...”
“Well, uhh, no matter how much you pay me, if I’m stuck underground for the rest of my life, there’s no real way for me to use it, is there?” Her initial reaction had been shock, but the reality of the situation grounded her rather quickly. No matter how enormous her salary was, it was entirely pointless.
“Oh, it seems like you’ve misunderstood. You’re more than welcome to go outside if you want to.”
“Wait, really?! Why wouldn’t you tell me that from the start?!” she complained after a sudden spark of relief.
“Well, we can’t just have you coming and going as you please, but if you let us know in advance, we can manage it. For instance, if you wanted to go somewhere right now, that would be fine. You’ve already come all the way up here, after all.”
“Are you sure? But who would take care of him while I’m gone?”
“If it’s just two or three days, it should be no problem. The robots can handle the cooking during that time.”
“Wait, are you serious? Then what was the point of me learning how to cook?!”
After taking great care to follow the recipe book, Asaka’s efforts had finally ended up producing something approximating food as of late.
“Don’t you think that food cooked by a robot will taste strange? Cooking is all about the love put into it, isn’t it?”
“It would be totally fine! Come on! Why didn’t you tell me that from the start?!”
“Well, we figured you would either die or quit right away.”
“Could you not say such disturbing things so lightly?! And wait, really?! I can just quit any time?!”
“It’s rather delicate work, so having someone who hates the job would be problematic.”
“But didn’t you make me sign something like a slave contract?”
“That was just a waiver in case of your death. At this point, we’ve decided we can make good use of you, so we’d like you to stay for as long as possible. That’s why I’m explaining all of this now. If there’s anything you’re unhappy with, please let us know right away. We’ll do everything we can to provide what you need.”
“Well, in that case...I need a break.”
In the end, she decided to take a three-day vacation, and left the facility for the first time in a month.
When Asaka opened her eyes, she was in an unfamiliar room. It wasn’t the mansion underground, nor her own home, nor was it the hotel she had been staying in. She was in a stark white room, inside of which was nothing but a bed.
She tried to recall what had happened before she’d fallen asleep. In the morning, she had taken a car from the research facility to the station, where she boarded the bullet train to the city. On her way, she contacted a number of people. When she checked her mail, she found a huge amount of unread messages. She responded to most of them with an apology, saying her training at work was so intense that she just hadn’t had time to contact anyone.
She’d also contacted her parents for the first time in a while. Asaka wasn’t one to talk to them all that frequently, so they hadn’t thought it strange when she’d failed to come home. She had told them that she’d found work but wasn’t sure how long it would last.
After reaching the city, she immediately went in search of lunch. Since she had plenty of money, she decided to go for something luxurious, finding a teppanyaki restaurant to dine at. After eating her fill, she went shopping, determined to exhaust her supply of five million yen.
She didn’t think she had worked hard to earn the money at all. Really, it seemed like easy money. As such, she felt no obligation to be stingy with it. So the first thing she went for was a handbag she had long admired but had never been able to afford. An item from a store so high-class, it had its own private security team to guard the entrance.
But she certainly couldn’t go there in her interview outfit. So she first needed to get some clothes worthy of such a store. She spent most of the afternoon shopping for outfits, shoes, and watches, then bought the bag she had long been waiting for, and spent the remainder of her money on a suite in a city hotel.
The next thing she knew, she was here in this empty room.
“Nope, no idea how I got here!”
It appeared she had been brought there while sleeping, as she was still wearing the pajamas that she had put on before going to bed.
“Ah! What about my Birkin?!”
She had nothing on hand now but the clothes she was wearing. Everything she had bought earlier was missing.
“No, this isn’t the time to be worrying about my bag!”
In a panic, she checked on her own physical condition. It didn’t seem like she was injured, nor did it seem that anything had happened to her. But for a woman her age, this was a bad situation to be in.
“Was I abducted or something?”
If that was the case, it was likely the work of some organization. Kidnapping someone while they were sleeping in a fancy hotel was hardly something an ordinary person could pull off. And if she had been abducted, there was only one reason she could think of.
“It’s something to do with that research facility. So, probably about him...”
“That is correct, Asaka Takatou,” a woman’s voice called out to her from somewhere beyond her line of sight. “We have no intention of harming you, so please be at ease. We just wish to ask you some questions.”
“That’s a funny thing to say since you’re holding me captive here, aren’t you?”
“That depends on your perspective. From our point of view, we’ve saved you. Though it may already be too late, in the end. If that’s the case, we’d like to get some information from you before you die, to save this world.”
“What? I have no idea what you’re going on about. Are you sure you took the right person?” She figured it was pointless, but decided to try and play dumb anyway.
“No, you have been confirmed as a Level C employee, so there is no mistake. We have a full list of the facility’s employees. While their internal security is tight, it seems they have a weakness to hacking. All we had to do was wait for someone from the facility to leave.”
“You’re going on about a Level C employee, but I don’t even know what that means.” Did the workers at the research facility have levels like that? It would make sense, but she didn’t know anything about it.
“You don’t know?”
“That’s what I’m saying! Why does everyone talk to me like I know everything that’s happening?!”
“Those who have met Lord Okakushi, or ??, as he is called within your facility, are designated as Level C.”
“And?” While she obviously worked there, she had no idea what value it was to these people.
“My, my, to have you work with that thing without even telling you that much. How cruel your employers are. Lord Okakushi can kill those he has seen at any time, you know.”
While she found that hard to believe, it did make her think. The researchers at her workplace took every precaution to avoid meeting Yogiri themselves. In short, they didn’t want him to see them.
“It should be clear to you now who the true villains are. We are an organization working to prevent the destruction of the world, end this calamity, and seal it away forever.”
She didn’t fully understand what the woman was talking about, but Asaka knew instinctively that she had been caught up in a very bad situation.
“Hey, where did Asaka go?” Yogiri asked the Autonomous Humanoid Operational Mechanism.
“Asaka Takatou is currently on holiday.”
“I see.”
How many times had he asked now? The robots always gave him the same exact answer.
Yogiri returned to the living room. He was bored, which was a new feeling for him. Not knowing who or what he really was, he had just spent his time mindlessly sitting around doing nothing before he met her, but he had already forgotten what that old life was like.
The living room was now full of things that Asaka had brought in. A TV, a Blu-ray player, game consoles, bookshelves, manga, textbooks, an exercise bike, dumbbells, board games, puzzle rings, a transformation belt, a magic stick, dolls, plastic models, writing tools, a bug catching net, a fish tank, a dog, a hamster, and a decorative plant. Most of her requests had been approved, and Yogiri remembered her getting excited every time something she asked for had arrived.
Sitting in front of the dining table, Yogiri flipped through a textbook. They had already finished going through all the elementary school materials, so there wasn’t anything that he hadn’t already read. Asaka had told him he wasn’t allowed to play video games without permission, so that was off the table for now, and he had already read all of the manga they had on hand.
Nikori, their Shetland Sheepdog, came up to his side. Petting the dog made him feel better, but it didn’t make him any less bored.
“I wonder when Asaka will come back. You miss her too, don’t you?”
The dog replied with a bark. Yogiri decided that must have meant she was lonely too.
As Yogiri was playing with Nikori, the robot brought him lunch. Though it was made perfectly well, he couldn’t help but feel it wasn’t all that good. The feeling brought him back to before Asaka had come, when he was always eating alone. Her predecessors had made food for him, but after they brought it in, they would leave immediately.
He was so bored. With that thought in mind, he spoke to Nikori. “Wait here for a bit. I’m going to go look for Asaka.”
As Nikori saw him off with another bark, Yogiri set about searching for his caretaker. Stepping outside, he looked around for some of the working machines.
There was a robot nearby in a field, so he called out to it, “Hey, where did Asaka go?”
“Asaka Takatou is currently on holiday.” The same answer as always, but this time he wanted more information.
“I’m asking where she is now.”
“I am unaware.”
“Then tell me someone who does know.”
As he said that, the machine went stiff. He didn’t know what thoughts had gone through its head, but eventually it answered.
“I believe the researchers would know.”
“Okay, please take me to them.”
“Understood.” Stopping its work, the robot began guiding Yogiri across the landscape.
Following the machine, the boy was led outside of the village, to the end of his tiny world. Though the road appeared to continue far into the distance, it was only an illusion. In truth, they had reached a wall with a door set into it.
“How do you open it?”
“It cannot be opened from this side. It must be operated from the control room.”
Yogiri wondered what he should do, then immediately came to a conclusion. When he looked around, he saw that someone was watching him through a camera. Now that he had noticed that, the rest was easy. He could tell that whoever was watching was surprised when he suddenly turned to look back at them.
“I want to leave. Open the door.”
If someone else had to open the door, then he would just ask them instead.
After a brief moment, the door opened. It really was quite easy.
When Head Researcher Yukio Shiraishi arrived at the control room with security in tow, he found a scene of total chaos. One of the employees had opened the door that sealed off the underground village. Not stopping there, she had continued to open all the doors blocking ??’s progress along the way. It was unexplainable. A scenario where the staff went mad and simply let ?? out into the world was beyond anyone’s imagining. They had no procedures for dealing with such a complication, so all they could do was address the developments as they came.
A young woman was operating the console intently. Occasionally, they would hear ??’s voice, and she would do as he said, like an idiot. The other staff members who had tried to stop her were lying on the ground around her.
“Can’t we lock her out of the console somehow?” Yukio asked the other employees standing nearby.
“We could, but...we can’t. Anyone who tries to get in his way ends up like that! Would you take that risk?!”
“This was ??’s work?”
There were no external injuries on the collapsed employees, and the woman operating the console wasn’t particularly athletic-looking, yet everyone around her was lying motionless on the floor. They were likely all dead.
“Yes. Anyone who even tried to stop her died the moment she looked at them!”
“That’s impossible...” Yukio muttered in shock. If ?? was capable of that, there was no point in sealing it underground in the first place. Any time it wanted to leave, it could. He turned to one of the guards. “Do you have your gun?”
“Yes, but...”
“This is an emergency. I’ll take responsibility. Please shoot her.”
The guard was clearly nervous, but this wasn’t a normal research facility. The fact that a situation like this might occur was the reason they had guns in the first place, and they were trained well in the use of them.
The guard pointed his gun at the woman handling the console. But before he could even put his finger on the trigger, he fell to the ground.
Yukio immediately threw in the towel. “Well, we’re out of options, then, aren’t we? I never imagined he would be capable of doing something like this.”
There was nothing they could do. They could try to destroy the facility, but they would probably be killed the instant they made the decision. They didn’t know the boy’s objective, but he had clearly decided to leave, and no one could get in his way.
After a while, ?? reached the surface. He had now seen everyone in the control room, making them all Level C employees. Yukio immediately became aware that it was a far more dangerous, far wider classification than they had previously thought. Judging from what had just happened, ?? might be able to go through those he had met before to use his power. If that was the case, the danger he posed to the world was far greater than they had ever anticipated — and now that danger was standing right in front of them.
“Hey, where is Asaka?”
“She’s on holiday, so she left the facility,” Yukio answered him.
“When will she come back?”
This was also beyond their expectations. They had never thought he would grow so attached to his caretaker. While that meant she was even better at her job than they had imagined, there was no room for celebration right now.
“She won’t be coming back,” Yukio answered honestly.
They were aware that Asaka had been captured by the Agency. Yukio also knew that the higher-ups had decided to abandon her to her fate. They had felt she wasn’t valuable enough to go through the trouble of trying to rescue her.
“Why?”
“She was kidnapped. She is probably still alive, though.”
Surprise rose to ??’s face. He looked like nothing more than an innocent child. “Aren’t you going to save her?”
“Well...”
The facility itself didn’t really have the manpower to undertake those kinds of operations. And even if they asked other departments for help, their opponent was a difficult one. The Agency that had kidnapped Asaka was a global organization, so it wasn’t hard for them to find a place to hold her where the Japanese government couldn’t reach them.
“Then I’ll go save her. Do you know where she is?”
“Shouldn’t you know already?”
could track the location of anyone he had previously met. That’s what they had thought, at least, but from his expression, it seemed that wasn’t always the case.
“Masaki got super scared when I did that, so I didn’t do it to Asaka. She would probably get really mad at me. So please don’t tell her about all the stuff I did here either, okay?” he said with a bright smile.
No one dared to disobey.
It came straight at them. There was no plan or strategy, it just looked like it was moving directly towards its target. It was a young boy, dressed in old-fashioned Japanese clothes, entirely in white. The boy headed straight into the base, walking from the gate to the interior buildings like he was strolling through an empty field.
Of course, the soldiers guarding the area attempted to stop him, but they were all killed to a man.
“Hey, where is Asaka?” he asked each of them one by one.
If they didn’t answer, he killed them. And anyone who tried to attack him died as well. The fact that the Agency had a facility within this base was a closely guarded secret, but keeping that secret seemed meaningless before the opponent now facing them. It was only a matter of time before they broke and gave him what he wanted.
Naturally, the entrance to the building was restricted to related personnel. The interior was also divided into sections, each of which had strict security measures in place. But before the strange boy, none of them even served to slow him down. The latest in cutting-edge electronic security folded just as easily as the heaviest physical doors that blocked his path.
“Well, even if they’re Class 3, normal soldiers would be helpless against him,” a woman dressed as a shrine priestess muttered, watching his progress from the control room.
“Anyone he sees dies? Calling something like that rare doesn’t quite do it justice in this world,” a man in a cassock noted.
“Maybe it’s a kind of magic eyes deal. Simply put, you just have to kill him before he sees you, right?” a soldier with a sniper rifle interjected, focused intently on inspecting his own equipment.
But they never had a chance to put their thoughts into motion. As far as the boy was concerned, they were pebbles on the roadside. As he walked, they’d be kicked out of the way. They were nothing more than that.
Asaka lay on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. There was nothing there in the room, so there was nothing for her to do. They had interrogated her, and she had answered everything they’d asked. It was a problem as far as her nondisclosure agreement with the research facility went, but in this situation, the contract didn’t exactly mean much. Her survival was her number one priority.
In the end, her kidnappers had already known almost everything she had told them, so they’d ended up disappointed. They initially said they would release her if she told them everything, but now they were telling her to “wait a little longer.” Though they claimed they were the heroes, they had no inhibitions about behaving in a way that was incredibly illegal, so she doubted she could trust them. Now that she knew about this place, they couldn’t let her live. She wouldn’t be surprised if they told her to die for justice’s sake.
“I really should have found a more reasonable job...”
She had never thought that picking the wrong place of employment would have landed her in a situation like this.
“I wonder what Yogiri is up to...”
Though he was technically the source of her current misfortune, she could hardly blame him for it. Yogiri was himself little more than a victim of that place. Not only did he have no idea what was going on around him, the researchers there treated him like a monster to be locked away. For her part, Asaka could see him only as a somewhat naive child.
Getting up from the bed, Asaka stretched and looked around, feeling that she couldn’t quietly await her fate in this room. The first thing that stood out to her was the bed. There were also two doors. One led to a bathroom, but it had no windows, so she couldn’t escape from there. The other led to a hallway, but it was locked from the outside. She couldn’t break the door down, and even if she could, she was under constant surveillance, so she’d be discovered immediately if she tried anything.
Her motivation left as quickly as it had come. “Looks like there’s nothing I can do right now...” This wasn’t a situation she could solve with hard work or clever thinking alone.
As she sat back down on the bed, she heard a noise. Pressing her ear to the door, she tried to figure out what was happening outside. It seemed there was some sort of panic in the corridor. She could hear the sounds of people running, something crashing, screams, gunfire, and explosions, distant at first, then louder and close enough that it became impossible to ignore. Something serious was going on out there.
“Maybe I can use this as a chance to escape?”
Though she still had her doubts, she began to feel a faint hope as the door to her room burst open. A woman entered, pointing a gun at her as she stepped inside. It was the woman who had been interrogating her.
Asaka stood there, confused, as the woman circled behind her, pressing the gun to her head.
“Hey! What’s going on?! I thought you said you weren’t planning on hurting me!”
“Quiet!” The woman used her free hand to squeeze Asaka’s neck, cutting off her voice. “Follow me.”
“It’s kind of hard to walk like this...”
“Asaka! I finally found you!”
A young boy in white clothes came into view. There was no mistaking his little form. It was Yogiri Takatou, the child who was supposed to be awaiting her return in the underground facility.
Ecstatic to see her, his face lit up with a bright smile.
“Wait, why are you here, Yo—” Asaka was once again choked into silence by the woman tightening her grip on her throat.
“Don’t do anything! Understand?! If you so much as move, this woman dies!” the woman yelled, pressing her gun to the side of Asaka’s head.
Asaka finally realized that she was a hostage. “Ow! Hold on, what are you doing?!”
“You tell him too! Tell him not to do anything! If he does, you’ll die —” The woman’s voice suddenly cut off as she slumped to the floor.
Stepping up to Asaka, Yogiri gave her a big hug. Asaka herself had no idea what to make of the situation.
“What is going on here?”
“Let’s go home. Nikori is waiting for us.”
“Uh, we can just walk out of here?”
“Yeah, I came to get you,” Yogiri said, grabbing her hand and pulling her along. As she followed him, she saw heavily armed soldiers lying all over the place.
“Don’t tell me...”
They were all dead. It was obvious that Yogiri had done all of this. Even now, people were dying. Bodies continued to fall from hiding places around the hallway. As they entered the stairwell, more corpses tumbled down the stairs from above them. When they stepped outside, there was an explosion ahead of them. Even with their chain of command in tatters, the soldiers still had a sense of honor in their work, but they clearly had no idea what they were fighting.
“Yogiri...”
She paused. Telling him to stop would be easy, and he might even listen to her if she did. But that would mean the two of them would die. They had long since passed the point of being able to talk their way out of the situation.
The two of them headed straight for the exit. They hadn’t done anything wrong. They were the victims here. She had been kidnapped and he was only rescuing her. But seeing the base collapsing into ruin all around her, Asaka couldn’t help but wonder if it was really necessary for him to go this far for someone like her.
For the first time, it crossed her mind that Yogiri was terrifying.
Once they’d left the base, everything had gone smoothly. A car from the main facility had been there waiting for them, so they’d gotten inside and were quickly whisked away to a government base. From there, they’d boarded a helicopter that brought them back to the research center in no time at all.
“We’re home!” Yogiri shouted as he walked inside, where he was immediately greeted by Nikori jumping on him.
“Yogiri, go play with Nikori in the living room.”
“Okay!” Taking Nikori with him, the boy went on ahead.
Asaka remained outside, a short distance away from the house, accompanied by Yukio Shiraishi. Figuring there was no point in hiding from Yogiri now, the head researcher had accompanied them down to the underground village.
“So, what now?”
“In all likelihood, nothing at all. We were unexpectedly shown ??’s true power. The higher-ups won’t be able to do anything until they come up with a plan for dealing with that.”
“What, they’re just going to let it all slide?”
“Well, there isn’t much anyone can do about it.”
“And me?”
“Ah, sorry, but I’m afraid we can’t let you quit anymore,” he chuckled nervously.
“This isn’t a joke!”
“Truthfully, we’ve learned there’s really nothing anyone can do to stop ?? at this point. Actually, we knew from the start that hiding him underground was merely to provide a false sense of security. Once the details of this event get out, I doubt many people will target you anymore.”
“Yeah, about that. Didn’t you know I might be taken in the first place?” She couldn’t help but think it was possible that all of this had been part of someone’s plan to draw out the Agency, using her as bait.
“No, we never thought a low-ranking employee like you would be targeted. From now on, we’ll be sending a security detail along with you on any excursions. We’re working hard to make this a better place for you. So, how about it? Do you think you can continue?”
“Wait, are you saying it’s okay for me to quit after all?”
“We don’t want you to, really. But if we tried to force you to stay, there are concerns about how ?? would react. Basically, we have to be very careful about how we deal with you going forward.”
“Well, I can’t say I’ll stay here forever, but I have no intention of quitting just yet.”
Asaka glanced at the mansion. Yogiri was playing with Nikori in the living room. He was dangerous. If he was left as he was right now, she could imagine something even worse happening in the future. In order for him to become a good person, there were many more things that he would need to be taught.
Asaka was afraid of him on some level, but more than that, she felt bad for him. She didn’t know how much she could do, but she wanted to help him in any way that she could.
“Asaka! Can I play some video games?” Yogiri called out, having looked out and found her in the front yard.
“I’ll be right there!” she answered, then turned back to Yukio. “I’ll talk to you later, then.”
Having said her goodbyes, she made her way to the porch. The situation had been resolved for now, so she couldn’t help but feel a little relieved.
“Wait, aren’t I forgetting something...? Oh! My Birkin!”
Asaka had lost every single thing she had bought with her first paycheck.
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