0-00-00
Hi. I am [DATA EXPUNGED]. I was scouted to join L Corp's Wing. I mean, who in their right mind would say no? Do you even know how luxurious it is to belong to any Wing? No Backstreets! No Finger abuse! Sure, the taxes suck, but working for a Wing earns you enough money to get your daily necessities and even allows you to save. Savings! What a sweet sweet word!
However, that life of mine will have to wait until whatever project we're meant to do is over. That's right. When I first entered the company, I had to sign some documents and was assigned a lodging inside the department I would belong.
After receiving my standard employee suit and a standard issue stick, a long cyan-haired lady appeared before me as if W Corp shared with her their singularity of teleportation.
"Welcome, [DATA EXPUNGED]. All the necessary procedures for the start of the [REDACTED] project have been completed. You are the first of many employees to join the company, so I wanted to offer you a brief explanation about how orders are delivered at this place."
A cursor popped next to her. I was weirded out by it at the start, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. The manager was the person responsible for giving out orders and coordinating every action inside the facility. For them, we are nothing but people on a screen. To interact with said screen, one needs a cursor. I wondered the kind of technology that materializes cursors, attaches them to two spatial axis and allows them to phase through everything.
The lady in the white lab coat, on the other hand, was not really human. Angela was an AI designed to complete every task necessary to keep the corporation running flawlessly. What that entitled, I didn't know, nor did I have the clearance level to be permitted to know. Being denied of my every question taught me my place and I accepted my station.
So, in order to complete the Tutorial, the manager asked me to work Instinct on 0-00-00, an abnormality deemed so defenseless it was fitting tutorial material. The metal rounded legless rabbit stared at me with its unchanging features. Its body was white, while some of its features were yellow. It had some markings resembling eyes and a mouth. If not for the protrusions on its head, I would have questioned why it was called a rabbit.
"Hi there. I've been tasked to Work Instinct on you."
I checked once again the document in my hands.
My main duty as a Lobotomy Corporation employee was performing works on some creatures known as abnormalities. By interacting with them, Enkephalim Boxes would be extracted, which was the main way L Corp had to produce energy for the City. I didn't have the clearance level to know where the abnormalities came from or how Enkephalim was produced from them.
All I had to worry about was filling a basic information sheet of every abno I encounter and take notes of everything that happens during my work with them. Angela put emphasis on the importance of obtaining information for the manager. That would be the deciding factor… between life and death.
"Does this count as Instinct, 0-00-00?" I asked while rubbing its ears. It didn't really move or speak, so I wasn't really sure how to get an answer. However, whenever I entered the containment unit, it always approached me and started circling around me. I took notes.
It seems 0-00-00 likes people.
Insight and Attachment works followed. As reported by the smiling face shown on the door's circular window, they were very effective methods for the extraction of Positive Enkephalim.
0-00-00 is very sad that [DATA EXPUNGED] has to leave so soon. It seems that it wants to follow them.
Repression work… I didn't enjoy stepping on that machine and telling of its future life as a tutorial tool for future managers. I pitied it, but I wasn't meant to show that. The work was… less successful, so we produced Negative Enkephalim instead. Standard Training-Dummy Rabbit -0-00-00's name- even struggled free from my abuse and tackled me. I was a bit stunned at first, but I suffered no major injuries.
I kept working on 0-00-00 a bit more. Then, when I thought the manager's pointer was about to tell me to go back at it a thirtieth time for good measure, I noticed it didn't instruct me to go back to cell number 1. Instead, it told me to suppress the little metallic thing that followed me after I left.
I literally jumped from my seat in the Control Department's Main Hub.
"You breached?!"
When I shout at it, it jolted and began trembling. That pulled my heart's strings. The poor thing just wanted to go with me and help me in my job. It was that good-natured. From hugging it and sharing with it the content of my mind, I grew fond of the rabbit. It even gifted me a black and yellow medal resembling the symbol on its chest.
Nonetheless, I had to grab my suppressing stick and beat it senseless.
So I did that. I thought it would suffice with a couple of strikes, but the manager told me to keep going.
A bunch of scrap stained the departments floor. The circuits, the metal shell, the yellow features… all of them were reduced to rubble. Then, I was instructed to go back to its containment unit to perform Insight Work.
"W-What? How are you…? But I just…!"
Before me, Standard Training-Dummy Rabbit stared at me with its usual relaxed silence, oblivious to the beating I just gave it.
"Oh… I see… You're not the same one, are you? Do you… remember me?"
As it usually does, it gave no answer. Although I was meant to talk insightful things with it, I hugged it. Later, I was scolded by Angela for disobeying the type of work I had to do. Promising it wouldn't happen again, she then introduced me to yet another scrap of metal. That time, however, it was not another abnormality. It was my boss. A Sephirah.
