Chapter 8: Anomaly Catching Anomaly

New Anomalous Entity, 163-19 (7)

Thwack!

A bursting sound, as if something is receiving a strong impact, erupts in the air.

The source of that not-so-pleasant, slightly unsettlingly realistic sound effect was none other than,

My hand, held straight and swung somewhere—

"――――?!―!?!?"

—coming from the face of some unidentified creature,

Who I lightly smacked and was now rolling vigorously on the floor as a result,

I hadn't even noticed it enter the room.

'Ah, the lights are back on.'

Looking around the now brightly lit room, I gazed up at the ceiling where the light was coming from.

The lighting fixture was still shining brightly, looking no different than before, with no signs of being broken or damaged.

So, the reason the room went dark earlier was probably because that creature covered the room with its body.

I thought it was strange that there wasn't even an emergency light in a room like this.

'So, what kind of creature is that, anyway…'

I stared at the thing rolling on the floor, if it can even be called rolling, what should I call it?

Anyway, it wasn't making any noise, but it was clearly writhing in pain.

As I had thought earlier, I was planning to play the part of a frail girl as much as possible and get as much cooperation as possible from the people here,

But in the midst of that, that thing came in from somewhere and started to darken the room.

Whatever its intention was, as it approached me,

…Before I knew it, my hand instinctively went out.

'…Oops, I might have misjudged my strength a bit.'

I felt a little worried seeing the creature still writhing in what looked like a frenzy, as if it was in a lot of pain.

Even though it wasn't a punch but a chop with the side of my hand, and I didn't intend to kill it at all.

Still, I didn't expect it to be in so much pain.

Judging from the sensation I felt earlier, it seemed to be at least the size of a large dog, so I might have hit it a little harder than necessary….

Well, considering that this might be some kind of shelter, maybe hitting it in the first place was the wrong thing to do.

It might not have been trying to bite or eat me, but just expressing its affection.

Like licking my face, rubbing its head against me, or something like that.

'Well, it doesn't look like that thing has a tongue to lick anyone with…'

The thing was still wriggling all over the floor.

It wasn't an animal or an insect, just a formless shadow.

It looked like nothing I had ever seen before, not even in the dimensions I had passed through, let alone on Earth.

But even so, it wasn't like I hadn't seen rare or never-before-seen creatures before, so I started to approach the creature with an open mind.

Step, step.

Something resembling a shadow, trying to escape from me as I took each step.

Naturally, as I tried to approach, it tried to move its body to escape from me like a wounded animal.

But I didn't want to play tag and torment it in this situation, so I quickly ran over and started to lift it up to prevent it from escaping.

"――――!!?!"

The thing that had been stuck to the floor was being rolled up into the air along with my hand.

It felt less like a slime and more like lifting up hundreds of sheets of thin paper rolled together.

The lifted creature seemed quite flustered, twisting its body back and forth trying to get away from me,

But unfortunately, I was quite strong, despite my appearance.

'This thing just won't stay still.'

Well, maybe that's to be expected.

Even the gentlest dog would react no differently if you slapped it in the face on the first meeting.

You'd be lucky if it didn't try to bite you to death, let alone run away.

Of course, it's not like this thing isn't responsible for creeping towards me without any warning,

But anyway, it would be strange to blame a speechless animal for that.

So, in the end, it was up to me to soothe it.

'The problem is, how do I soothe it…'

Words… obviously wouldn't work.

Even if they did, I couldn't speak at all if I wanted to maintain my 'frail, mute girl with amnesia' persona.

Of course, the moment I opened my mouth, the hidden camera in the corner would record the voice coming from my mouth,

And the moment that happened, my amnesia-whatever persona would be exposed.

Of course, it wouldn't be difficult to break the hidden camera without being noticed,

But if a camera that was working fine suddenly broke down, wouldn't there be at least one person in this facility who would think it was strange?

As I've been saying all along, I didn't want to cause any trouble in my hometown,

And to do that, I had to pretend to be docile at least until I got out of this facility.

'I guess that's the only way.'

Trying to teach it a lesson with force in this situation would be counterproductive.

It would be one thing if I was disciplining a pet, but this was a situation where I was trying to reassure an animal that was trying to escape from me.

Of course, I still don't know what kind of creature this is,

And even if what it was trying to do to me was literally trying to harm me.

If I'm right, this thing also came here from another dimension,

And in the process, it lost its home and is being imprisoned in a foreign land.

As someone who understands what it's like to lose a place to return to,

I didn't want to instill another sense of unease in this thing.

Still held in my grasp, struggling to get out of my hands.

I lifted the frantically writhing thing with both hands to my eye level.

After making eye contact with the creature's eyes, which I couldn't even tell if it had,

I carefully adjusted my strength so that it wouldn't get hurt or injured as much as possible and pulled it into my arms.

I could feel something squirming and thrashing in my arms.

Biting, ramming, scratching, tearing.

Of course, it didn't actually have claws or teeth.

But considering the unidentified attacks I was currently being subjected to, the expression 'tearing' was actually on the cute side.

'There, there. Good, good.'

A mass of powerful energy that would have swallowed an ordinary person whole.

Despite its resistance, as if it was trying to absorb me completely, desperately sucking on my body, I continued to stroke it without paying any attention.

It also struggled for a long time trying to resist me,

But soon, as if all its strength had run out, it stopped moving and began to calm down.

When the creature had finally become completely quiet, I released it from my arms.

It seemed to have calmed down to some extent, and I felt like it would only feel stuffy if I kept holding it any longer.

The thing I put down on the floor began to be absorbed back into the ground.

From the outside, it looked exactly like a wriggling shadow.

"――――――"

The thing that had fallen away from me seemed to be looking at me.

It was facing me with a part that I couldn't even tell if it was a face or not.

Then, without any reaction,

It turned its back on me and began to disappear, slipping through the gap in the door.

'It just left…'

I thought it was a very unaffectionate thing, considering how hard I worked to calm it down, and it didn't even give me any reaction.

But well, I didn't really feel any regret.

There was nothing more meaningless than craving affection from an animal that I wasn't even going to raise.

And if it's in the same facility, it wouldn't be that difficult to see it again.

Especially since some unknown creature can easily invade my room like this.

Anyway, a creature that doesn't receive much physical interference—

To be honest, I was a little. No, I was very surprised.

Partly because it was a creature I had never seen before in my previous life.

But also because, given the characteristics of my hometown, where there isn't really any magic, a creature with such characteristics would definitely be quite difficult to handle.

At least, it's not safe enough to be let loose freely in a protection facility like this….

…Well, it seems that science and technology have really developed a lot.

I roughly imagined the scenery outside, which must have changed a lot,

And with worries about whether I would be able to adapt to my hometown, I began to sink back into thought.

―――Splatter

A human is ejected from the black shadow.

Naked from head to toe, in the same state as when they were born.

The humans, unconscious and motionless,

Were being ejected as if they were being banished from the shadows.

―――Splatter

The shadow undulates, spewing out what it had swallowed in all directions.

It was as if it was vomiting.

What it had just experienced, what it had felt, what it had confronted, what it had faced.

Everything about the shadows was unknown to it.

It was the first time in its life that it was feeling nauseous.

―――Splatter

It felt sick.

Being touched by something,

Being subdued by a small lump of flesh,

Not being able to escape from it even with all its strength.

It had never experienced any of it, and it didn't like it.

―――Splatter

And what it disliked the most was what it had suffered at the end.

The feeling of being covered by the small lump of flesh, touching an unfamiliar and unpleasant temperature.

It knew what that feeling was like.

It was what it felt every time from that intense something floating in the sky that made it weak and slow.

That was why, as soon as the little thing let go of it, it had no choice but to run away as fast as it could, even though its pride was deeply hurt.

―――Splatter

But this time, something was different.

It felt an unknown emotion, different from when it faced the thing in the sky.

But the shadow didn't want to know more about it, and it didn't feel like finding out.

It just endured the nauseating feeling and crawled into the maze of light that it hated so much.

―――Splatter

Just as the last human being who had finally lost consciousness hit the desk and fell to the floor.

The shadow reached the room where the humans had trapped it,

And soon, it began to enter the hole it had escaped from on its own.

Blinding light enveloped it, and strength drained from its limbs.

The unpleasant, disgusting, and even hateful light began to constrict it.

But even that was rather comfortable compared to what it had felt a moment ago.

The shadow went inside and stopped moving.

It had learned the emotion of fear.

And along with it, it had also learned another emotion,

But it would be a little later before it realized what it was.

Report
Report on the dispatch of the 17th base following the escape of Anomaly No. 871
Task Force: Special Task Force Bravo-█ and additional personnel ██

On September 7, ████, an escape occurred for Anomaly No. 871.

Special Task Force Bravo-█ was immediately dispatched to the 17th base.

When the task force reached inside the 17th base, some of the personnel inside the base were found collapsed in a nude state.

These personnel showed symptoms corresponding to mild amnesia and did not remember anything related to the Anomaly escape.

Anomaly No. 871 was inside the damaged isolation room, and the isolation room repair was immediately started according to the isolation room sealing procedure.

Most of the recording devices inside the 17th base bulkhead were destroyed during the escape, and it was confirmed that the video and audio recorded within that time could not be recovered.

Currently, a detailed examination of the personnel who lost consciousness inside the bulkhead is underway.

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