Chapter 3: Compass to Freedom
-Ishimaru Kiyotaka-
The moment Ishimaru Kiyotaka heard that the workers at Lobotomy have been 'stuck' for ten years, working non-stop trying to reach the end of the 50 days cycle… and that his friends and himself will join this Hell… He'll have to give it his all for everything to go smoothly and be done as fast as possible.
He saw his friend die a horrible death right in front of his eyes once… Sure, Naegi came back, and everyone would come back from death if it happens again. But he'd rather never experience the same… despair… ever again.
And so, he decided that he will be an exemplary employee. He will do his utmost best, learn from the training, from his superiors and from every tip he can find to be helpful and reach the end of that cycle the earliest possible.
His father and his friends' families were waiting. They couldn't waste their lives in this Facility.
That's why, even after the training Day with the Training Dummy Rabbit Abnormality ending with a success, he asked to do the training again, despite Hod and the members of the Training Team telling him he did a good job.
But a good job is not enough. He needs to do a perfect job.
Until he gets called to join the working team, everyday was either training with the Dummy, reading the files of all the Abnormalities and how to take care of them, or reading the Employee manual over and over until everything is stuck in his head. Mondo was a bit worried to see his boyfriend work himself to the bone like that. The (ex-)biker has been working as an employee for a few days now, and so Taka had a lot of questions about his experiences.
Mondo did tell him that in the end, like many of their colleague with experience, learning and knowing the basic was all that was really needed since even if you knew the Abnormality you're working on, they didn't know you and if they didn't like you, no matter your knowledge, it'll be for nothing.
"..."
Day 13, Cycle 1 S.A
Today was Taka's first day ever as an Abnormality Worker of Lobotomy Corporation. And his very first job was some 'Insight' work with the Abnormality known as 'Rudolta of the Sleigh'.
The red eyed young man had to push back the bile that was threatening to come up his throat at the sight of the creature as he knew that it could see his vomiting as offensive and ruin his chances of a perfect job.
But to be honest, the Abnormality's appearance was not helping in any way…
Rudolta was a three-piece Abnormality; Rudolph, Santa, and the Sleigh.
Rudolph was a hornless reindeer with a long neck, black hooves, bulbous ears, and silver shackles chaining its legs together. Its body was made of red, white, and green materials sloppily stitched together, and it wore two collars of Christmas lights with red, green, and yellow bulbs. Rudolph has bloodshot, bulging eyes crudely stitched onto its face, a white beard, a round nose, and lipless teeth. It also had a hole in its stomach but Ishimaru couldn't see it from where he was standing.
Santa was a red statue on Rudolph's back inside a transparent bag of blood and human organs that are said to still be functional. The bag was wearing a Christmas hat made of intestines. That was mainly the reason for Taka's growing urge to vomit.
And finally The Sleigh was connected to the Christmas lights around Rudolph's neck. It was brown and held together by more stitch work. It had two white runners, and two green hands mounted on the front of the sleigh. The sleigh carried a black bag tied with a yellow ribbon, which was twitching, clearly alive or something of the sort.
Yep, completely disturbing.
His work with the Abnormality was very simple: clean the room from all the snow and bloody mess around.
Thankfully, the thing was completely still, just staring at him with unblinking eyes… Which was very unnerving but Taka could manage… He thinks.
But still, every time his eyes would cross with the Abnormality's stare, he
would feel a slight migraine as for some reason, Christmas bells and carols would resonate in his mind, weakening him…
It didn't take long for the Abnormality Worker to understand that what he was experiencing was WHITE damage…
Again, Thankfully the creature didn't move an inch during the cleaning process, except for 'Santa' which would sometimes shake around, splashing droplets of blood around, giving Taka more work and inflicting more damage to his mental health. After a while, the door behind Taka opened, a sign that his work was done and he needed to leave the room.
Taka left the room and let out a heavy sigh once he reached the halway.
This first task went… not so bad in all honesty. But it wasn't perfect. He knew that, and yet he still looked at the result… It was a good result but the 'score' was at the minimum to get this outcome…
He sighed again, he knew that it wouldn't be easy. He freaked out in there and he guessed the Abnormality didn't like that, which could have caused the result of 'not perfect'. Next time he'll try- no, will be more focused on the job rather than the abomination.
Though… hopefully not too soon.
Day 21, Cycle 3 S.A
Taka was speed walking towards his next assignment, still feeling frustrated from what Armageddon, one of his more experienced 'senpais' from work, said last night…
During those last cycles, Taka has been doing his best and learned by now that no matter how hard he tries to understand an Abnormality, if they don't like you, they won't… And that would jeopardize a 'perfect' score in the work.
He did get a few perfect works that ended with a good result but it felt that there weren't any… rewards from those. It's not like he wanted a reward. Not at all, he just wanted to make a difference, be an example for his coworkers who still had trouble doing their job well… But there was nothing.
Armageddon told him, in a pretty cold tone and without any tact, that perfect scores do not matter. In Lobotomy it's either you get the job done or not. As long as you do your job and don't die too often, it's good. No special cases. This wasn't a school where when you get a perfect score you can flex to your classmates and make daddy proud. You become an example by leveling up and taking down big monsters, not by being good at handing them.
After all, Armageddon was one of the 'top level employees' in the facility, he and many others had perfect scores with ALEPH level of Abnormalities (a kind that Taka hasn't encountered yet and really hope he doesn't anytime soon…) but it didn't change anything in the Facility.
All this discussion left a bad taste in Taka's mouth… It felt like his senpai was flexing on him. It made him frustrated enough that Mondo didn't dare to start their nightly cuddles after a particularly hard day at work.
Now back to today.
He was still feeling frustrated and suddenly getting an assignment to challenge the Snow Queen in a duel to rescue Hagakure, was really starting to fill him with rage.
He arrived in front of the containment chamber in the yellow corridor of the Central Command Department, he could already feel the chilling air escaping from the cracks under the containment door.
He braced himself and walked into the chamber. Snow was raining down in the chamber, a freezing mist was clouding the floor… And there she was, the Snow Queen, waiting at the other end of the room, dressed in the ice blue robe, glaring at Hagakure who's stuck in ice and somehow making a stupid frozen face.
"How do we do this, Ma'am?" Taka asked after bowing to the Kingdomless Queen.
The Abnormality didn't answer, she just stabbed the floor with her longsword and summoned another blade for the ex-student to use.
She raised her blade and got ready for a fight.
She must be very pissed because normally she would explain the rules of this duel, even if everyone knew it.
The fight thankfully wasn't very hard. He did a lot of Instinct work this cycle and he didn't die once, so he had enough stamina to resist and counter the Queen's attacks.
After barely five minutes, he knocked the Abnormality's sword out of her hands, he won.
The Snow Queen nods and unfreezes the Clairvoyant from his ice prison.
"Be it the last time you bother me… next time I'll cut you down where you stand, without warning." She glares as she gives her EGO gift to Taka and to Hiro(reluctantly): a piece of indestructible ice stuck on their left cheek.
The two employees leave the room and before Hagakure could try and escape a confrontation, Taka grabs him by the collar and asks him what the hell he did.
"W-Well, she's a Queen you know? So, she must be loaded, right?… So I thought I could sell her some readings…" he whines.
This is so dumb…Normally he would be giving him a lecture but his mind was still angry about the last day's discussion… Taka was about to let him go but then remembers something important about the Abnormality.
"Wait a minute… The Snow Queen activates her ability after two bad works by the same employee… Why did you get frozen when you went back?!"
"I… She did say no the first time… And I miiiight have tried to convince her the second time…" Hiro laughs nervously.
… How on Earth was Hiro's X-Key not collecting dust in the back corner of a drawer was a mystery for everyone…
The Day reached the end of its energy quota and everyone was free to do what they wanted before bedtime. So Ishimaru was ready to ask some senpais for some advice, just not Armageddon… He was still bitter about his last talk with the bald man.
He walked into his department's resting room and saw Sakura, Connor McIlton and Pauline Frikss. But the long haired man looked distressed. Maybe… he could be of service?
"McIlton senpai, is something wrong?" he asked cautiously. Taka knew that he wasn't the best to help emotionally… But still, "Can I help?"
Pauline noticed him and smiled sweetly, "Aww, it's alright Taka. Nothing very grave. It happens a lot when you're stuck here for too long." her sweet smile then turned into a vicious grin, "He's just worried about his booty call."
Any form of worry that was present on Taka's face disappeared in a flash, leaving the young man with a deadpan face. Sakura shook her head with an annoyed, but still somewhat amused, sigh while Connor glared from the corner of his eyes at his green haired, small and grinning friend. At what he just heard and witnessed, a single word escaped the ex-Moral Compass' mouth.
"What."
"For the last time, Pauline. Moriko is not a booty call." Connor spat.
"Yeah yeah, just kidding. You two are just friends with benefits." she winked.
"Who is Moriko?" one of the ex-students asked.
"Moriko is my… friend… And my neighbor. Pretty much the closest person I have outside of Lobotomy." Connor explained, his cheeks a bit red.
"...Why are you talking about… That kind of relationships?" Taka coughed, 'slightly' embarrassed by the subject.
Sakura reassured her friend that this wasn't the actual topic of this conversation. They were talking about the people waiting outside that they wanted to see as soon as possible. Upon hearing that, Taka took a seat with them. The small group started to talk about the one they miss, for Sakura it was mainly her lover Kenshiro who was at the hospital before the whole Tragedy began and has no idea where he could be now, if he escaped Towa City… For Taka it was his father who was also sent to Towa City as a hostage for the first killing game they escaped. He really hoped that he was fine. For Connor it was a young woman named Moriko, purple haired and energetic. She was fun to have around for relaxing and 'more'. Last time he saw her was right before the Tragedy began. But for Pauline, no one was waiting for her. Her pet cat Bibi was killed in an accident the day before she died for the first time during Naegi's internship at Lobotomy.
All in all, it was not a very lively and happy conversation.
But at least, Sakura noticed that something was bothering Taka. And he told them his worries… He was glad that their words about being a model to others was more motivating than Armageddon's.
"Hey! What are you lot doing here?!" a young robotic voice called out to them, "Day's over! Go back to your side of the Facility while we Sephirah wrap up the day!" The Sephirah in question was Tiphereth, a rather small yellow and brown cubical robot with a section of metal possessing a screen showing her name on the bottom and single green eye on the middle section. And she had a brown bow on the side.
"Yes miss Tiphereth!" they all said in a singing way before leaving the room.
Taka took another look at his Department manager, he had to wonder, how on Earth does this AI that sounds awfully a lot like a child was in charge of such a large Department… He asked her once but she just said that he didn't have to worry about it, she was more than capable of making the right decisions for the good of the Facility.
Day 26, Cycle 5 S.A
This cycle has been going pretty well so far! Taka was feeling confident. Maybe it won't be the one that reaches day 50 but it's rare for a cycle to go this well. He was again under Tiphereth's command in the Central Department, and everything was going rather well.
Today he had some Consensus work with an Abnormality he never met before: the Knight of Despair.
The name first filled him with dread but he was very surprised when meeting her.
The Knight of Despair was also known as one of the Magical Girls in the Facility, she was a humanoid Abnormality with the appearance of a pale skinned woman with blue hair that gets darker and turns to black at the ends. Her head was topped with a tiara that had three, spade shaped endings. Half of her head was black with sharp horn segments protruding out of it. The other half being her pale skin tone with a black tear on her cheek.
The upper part of her arms show her normal white skin, while her forearm was covered by the black coloring. Her dress starts with a gray coloring and black spade on her breast. As it moves down, it turns to blue - and then to black at the end. There was a noticeable galaxy-like pattern in her hair and dress. A white translucent cloak comes off of her back.
She was beautiful in the eyes of many.
Unnerving to others.
For Taka, it was somewhere in between. But thankfully, she was very nice and polite.
"So you are Ishimaru Taka, the Ultimate Moral Compass?" she asked after he introduced himself.
"That's me, nice to meet you." Taka nodded, "How did you know?"
The woman let a small smile adorn her face, "I met your boyfriend before, you look exactly like how he described you."
The now level 4 employee couldn't help but blush at hearing this, the woman then started listing everything Mondo said about him. Wow, looks like someone's getting a big hug and kiss once this day ends.
Taka and The Knight of Despair kept talking during the duration of this work, she was very pleasant to be around with, a bit depressing because of her sad stories but she did briefly said that she's happier now as she has a lover in this Facility, another Abnormality by the name of 'Der Freischutz', someone he hasn't met yet.
She was definitely in the top 10 Abnormalities Taka liked to be around with.
Eventually, their time together came to an end.
"It's going to be pretty dangerous today… I can feel it. Here. Have this blessing, you'll be stronger and it will set you free from the orders of the Manager for today." she offered as she focused her energy towards the young man.
Taka felt some power running through his body, he couldn't quite describe it but he liked it.
"Thank you very much!" he bowed deeply in gratitude, making the woman giggle.
"Be safe. Please don't die."
For the rest of the day, Taka felt himself stronger and was very helpful thanks to his blessing against the Ordeals of the Day and some breaching Abnormalities. The blessing of the Knight of Despair made him more resistant against the assaults from his enemies.
But Unfortunately… Judgment Bird escaped that day… and as it dealt PALE Damage… Taka's blessing couldn't save him from the bird's hanging execution… He died quickly that day, and the Knight knew… and went on a rampage.
Way too many deaths to continue the cycle. So it ended that day.
Day 34, Cycle 10 S.A
"There are two in the corridor beyond the door in front of us! Let's go." Kirigiri shouted to Taka.
The two of them just got tasked with dealing with the annoying Sweepers from the Ordeal of Indigo, a group of those monsters was stationed at the Welfare Team. The two ex-classmates entered the blue corridor and saw two Sweepers at the end of it, bringing a poor clerk to a gruesome end. After they killed the man, the monsters consumed the body with strange straw-looking appendages while slashing the corpse into tiny bits. In no time, only an X-key was left behind, ignored by the Sweepers.
The Sweepers were humanoid creatures covered from head to toe with dark blue metallic armor. They had red eyes or visors (it was hard to tell) a gas mask, large red hook hands, and a tank on their backs.
"Alright, let's do the usual. I keep them at bay and you shoot them, Taka." Kirigiri said as she pulled out her weapon.
"Roger!" Taka answered as he pulled his.
Taka's EGO suit was known as 'Magic Bullet', it's a gray suit and tie under a blue coat of yellow borders and dark interior, with a black belt and yellow attachments. The suit was a scaled down replica of the clothes of the Abnormality it was extracted from. As for the Moral Compass' weapon, it was 'Exuviae', a large brown, almost musky looking arm cannon that fired huge blasts of Red Damage but was very slow to reload.
Thankfully, Kirigiri's weapon was good for keeping the enemies away from her friend. She was wearing the EGO suit 'Feather of Honor', extracted from the Abnormality 'Fiery Bird': a coat and tie suit that made her look like she was ablaze, the color pattern kept changing the same way a flame frizzle, people could even say they could feel the heat from her clothes when standing near, but that's just a myth. Her weapon was 'Gaze', a staff-like weapon that has a dark blue circular saw at the tip of a metallic stick of the same color.
She activated the weapon and held it in front of her, thankfully the Sweepers were complete morons as they walked straight into the circular saw, keeping at bay while damaging themselves. And meanwhile, Taka aimed the cannon and fired.
One of the Sweeper screeched before falling to the ground, dead. Having no sense of morals, the last remaining Sweeper looked at where its companion got blasted to and walked towards its body, ready to consume it.
But Kirigiri and Taka were not going to let it heal itself.
While it was distracted, the lavender haired detective kicked the monster's legs, making it fall to the ground and slammed the circular saw on its back, trapping it on the floor.
"Whenever you want!" she shouted.
"Reloadiiiing Ready! Move out of the way!" Taka exclaimed as he aimed the cannon to the remaining foe.
Kirigiri jumped out of the way right before Taka pulled the trigger and blasted the monster to the next cycle.
The two employees stood next to each other, staring at their handiwork, they barely broke a sweat… they really were getting used to the chaos of Lobotomy Corporation.
Taka raised a fist towards her, normally it was always Mondo or Naegi who would initiate a fist bump after a good day of work. But it never hurts to try to be the one to start one.
Kirigiri let out a low chuckle as she bumped her gloved fist against his.
Looks like Naegi was rubbing on his girlfriend too just as Mondo was with his boyfriend.
Day 39, Cycle 10 S.A
Taka walked into the Welfare 'end of the Day' resting room, exhausted. That place was always a good room to rest without having to rush to the Employee's side of the Facility since Chesed, the Sephirah was pretty nice and relaxed.
He wasn't surprised to see the robot in question already waiting for his briefing call in the room, but he was surprised to see Naegi and Mondo there so soon. Well, it was a nice surprise so he didn't question it when he waved at them and told them 'Good job today'.
"How are you doing today Taka? I heard the Department got into a huge mess when we were busy hunting the Wolf today." Naegi asked.
Taka's smile stiffened then disappeared, that was why he wanted some relaxing time, he felt pretty responsible about what happened in his Department… if the day hadn't ended as soon as it did, the cycle might have had to restart…
"I saw, don't worry too much about it, Ishimaru." Chesed chimed in.
Chesed's body consists of a dark gray rectangular box with two protrusions to the top and the side, as well as mechanical limbs, one of which was holding a coffee mug. Two openings are visible on the front, with the right one displaying a blue digital eye and the left one resembling a mouth into which his coffee is poured, with his Sephirah name being displayed on the bottom half of his body.
"Melting Love is a very hard Abnormality to deal with, especially when you are tagged her 'lover'~" the robot added while brewing some coffee for the newcomer.
"What?" Mondo asked, confused and pretty jealous too, cute.
"So that's what happened… I was 'blessed'..." Taka sighed, understanding exactly what happened during work hours.
"What are you guys talking about?" Mondo asked again as he saw everyone else in the room nod in understanding of the events.
"Uh? Have you not read the Abnormality files? Pretty sure Taka forced all of us to memorize them." Naegi asked back, scratching the side of his face with an uneasy grin.
"You haven't? It was nine cycles ago, Mondo!" Taka exclaimed.
Chesed let out a low chuckle at seeing everyone still so high in spirits.
Mondo answered embarrassingly that it was too much for his brain to register so he just reads the files of the Abnormality he goes to work with before entering their room. Taka, with the help of Naegi, then explained what exactly being the 'lover' of Melting Love meant: basically it was a huge mess that could have brought the day and cycle to an abrupt end if Taka left the Departement as being 'blessed' by the pink slime girl Abnormality means that the 'lover' would infect everyone around them and the infected people can infect even more people before dying and turning into a blob of living, dangerous slime.
"But tell me~, did you see any of those infected 'transform' before you?" Chesed asked the Moral Compass while handing him a cup of milk coffee, like Taka likes them.
"I… I did, Pedro was his name I think?" he said before drinking the cup, thanking the Sephirah afterwards.
"Aaah Pedro… So that's an espresso to prepare~… Actually, I'll prepare the bar for everyone who died… After Angela's call for a reunion, hehe~" Chesed chimed.
Chesed's Welfare Department's clerks were always happy to work under him, and even though they died almost constantly whenever an Abnormality or some Ordeal creature roams the blue corridors of this section of the Facility, they never die with a scared or angry frown. With Chesed, their deaths, no matter how gruesome, are always after a comfortable moment before the start of the day.
Taka noticed this, and would love to be able to learn Chesed's ways to make his colleagues and friends comfortable around Lobotomy before they eventually die. It's cycle 10 since they arrived and there were still a few classmates who would rather be facing Despair than stay here.
Maybe he could ask the Sephirah for some tips one day?
Day 20, Cycle 11 S.A.
In the purple corridors of the Information Department, Taka and Hina were searching for the Abnormality that breached not too long ago: the Meat Lantern.
That particular Abnormality was extremely annoying to control when breaching which is why it's rarely seen in the Facility… Taka could feel another cycle ending very early. The Meat Lantern is almost invisible when breaching, there's no indication where it might be hiding so the Manager has to look along the employees for the beast.
But Taka read the files so he knew he had to beware of a glowing white-ish yellow flower somewhere in the corridors.
Taka was on high alert, his weapon, this time a small black mace with many red eyes, in his hands, he looked around, ready to attack the flower when spotted.
But he was also very worried he read in the files that employees get… mesmerized by the flower, the same way prey get hypnotized by the lantern of an anglerfish… It's only the Manager's orders (somehow) that can break the spell and have them focus on suppressing the Abnormality… Hopefully neither he or Hina gets attrac-
"Uh? What's this? Taka! Look!" Hina exclaimed behind him.
He turned around to see her clutching her weapon, an orange spear, with one arm as she pointed at something down the corridor with her free hand. She was absently walking past Taka. When he looked at what she was pointing at, he saw it: a lone flower in the middle of the corridor. Lonely,swaying back and forth as if waiting for something.
It's the Meat Lantern. It did its thing. Before Taka could scream or do anything, he found himself walking down the corridor with Hina. In no time, they were standing barely half a meter away from the flower.
It was too late.
The floor started shaking around them.
"Oh no! Is that?" Hina asked, understanding her mistake.
"Yes…"
Large white teeth with some green drool dripping from the tips started protruding from the ground, not even breaking the floor, almost as if it was phasing through it.
There was no time to run or scream, but they still tried, the giant mouth emerged from the floor.
And it snapped as fast as it came out, then retreated back into the floor, leaving just a puddle of blood and gore with two X-Keys on top of the red pile.
Well, these kinds of horrible deaths were normal in Lobotomy Corporation, see you tomorrow Taka, Hina.
Baka's notes: Heey, it's been a while! Well here we go! a new Chapter of Despair in Lobotomy! With Taka as the main character.
Next upload from me would be of (yet) a new project with OMORI! I had that idea for a looong time now, hopefully you guys will like it!
After that it will Spider Hope!
So stay tuned! And see you soon!