O-04-08

An employee with the standard issue suit was humming again while pasting pieces of paper next to O-04-08's door. After their important contributions to the department's wellbeing by inspecting the abnormalities in advance, the Training Team greatly anticipated their reviews and tips, which were usually more direct and clear than the official reports.

Don't put the Red Shoes on, just to be safe.

Also, they are nice, so don't repress them. Praise them. They like it. –Inspector

"The [profanity] is this useless piece of garbage?! Couldn't they write something better?!"

"Come on, Suan. The Inspector does this free of charge. As long as we follow their observations and the official reports, no harm will come onto us."

"Y-Yes, you're right, Berry. I… I don't know what got into me."

"It's okay, Su. It's really obnoxious to work with that Shy Look, so it's understandable."

Suan was certainly not fond of Emily. I was sure one of these days there would be an accident. I returned my gaze at the tips left by the Inspector. Tiffany was moving closer and further, switching between giggles and serious expressions. She had been taking Enkephalin again, hadn't she?

If those teammates of mine were not going to appreciate Hod's efforts to keep us alive, I wouldn't sacrifice myself for any of them. The previous day I also got tasked to work on 1.76 MHz, so I was feeling my Justice rising. It was too bad I couldn't use the Red Shoes to train Repression work. It was tiring to deal with Shy Look's unchanging happy remarks, and I didn't really want to make Scorched girl suffer more than she needed to.

"Do any of you remember how high our level of Temperance needed to be in order to resist this thing's charm of whatever?"

I did, but I wouldn't tell them. Hod prepared a really nice presentation to explain the requirements discovered by the clerks, but, as usual, I was the only one in class to listen to our teacher. I made the mental note to send the manager a petition to give Hod a raise.

Currently, none of the Training Team were capable of dealing with Red Shoes. Before that, we needed to raise our Temperance to level 3. The manager assigned me to visit Shy Look over and over and over… Attachment Work for days… During each recess, I thought of new compliment for the abno. When I entered again, there was a piece of smiling skin on the floor.

"What is this, Shy Look?"

"A Gift for you! You always make me happy! So I want you to be happy too!"

"That's… awesome! T-Thanks…!"

Well, I was gifted weirder things by the homeless guy who tried to rape me once, back at the Sewers, so I accepted it. I was already wearing a disgusting-looking brown suit covered by expressive skin, so I just put the mask onto my face.

My reaction was easy to plan out. Shy Look was happy, anyway, so anything would work.

"Hey, this is pretty neat. Now the others will think I'm always happy… … Yay. … Wooo."

"See? I'm such a genius! A happy genius!"

I was actually itching to see my coworker's reaction to my new EGO gift. Maybe that way they would realize how stupid they have been, worrying over meaningless stuff and taking it all out on our gentle Sephirah.

"Hey, Suan. Fancy meeting you here. Nice shoes."

Okay, I didn't expect her to try murdering me on sight with a red axe!

I kicked Suan away and shot her with my Today's Expression weapon. A couple of invisible bullets pushed their head back, but it didn't stop them. The red axe penetrated my shoulder. My new mask prevented Suan from seeing my pained expression, so they kept going until I was barely alive.

A puddle of my blood filled the corridor. I couldn't feel my limbs. My chest was torn open. I could even feel my ribs enjoying the fresh air. It was nice. I always wanted my lungs to breathe that good… Or did I?

"I'm… happy?" I painfully coughed. Confusion grew as the pain numbed my senses.

"You're disgusting."

Suan moved away.

"Kikas! Oh, no! Oh, no!"

A machine picked my dying body and brought me back to Main Room, where regeneration devices kept accumulating next to me.

"Hod… what's… my… expression like?"

She removed my EGO gift. Her virtual brown eye twitched from the shock.

This is a description of the footage of the events registered from the Corridor Camera Z3_493.

"So the work on your part is all done right? I just finished mine. That little match girl is still in the same state. It's so frustrating. Wanna grab some coffee at the lounge?"

"You know, Berry, there's something I've been thinking about for a long time."

"Let's talk when we get to the lounge. I'm just too tired right now. Hey, are you wearing shoes? Only staff footwear is allowed during work."

"That's not important, Berry. What's important is that we're alone at the moment."

"What are you talking about... Wait, what exactly are you wearing on your feet? Y-You didn't wear it, did you?"

"Berry, I've loved you for a while."

"Take it off, Suan. Do you even realize what you're doing right now?"

"I was thinking about why you wouldn't love me back. It's Emily, isn't it? You were so busy looking at Emily that you didn't even notice me, right?"

"I... I-Is that an axe you're holding? And you're bleeding from your ankles. Is that blood on your suit yours?"

Employee 00301 didn't respond to employee 00303's question.

"Suan, I'm begging you, please take that off."

"So all I need to do is get rid of Emily! Wait here for a bit, it won't take long. You have to stay still till I come back."

"Please snap out of it. Please..."

"If you wanted to stop me, you should have done that the day we first met."

Suan stunned Berry with their weapon and went to the lounge. Fortunately, no one else besides Berry and Kikas was harmed, including Emily. Suan was soon removed from the company database. They were entirely aware of what they were doing. They admitted that the shoes only encouraged them to do what they always desired. A response team from Control handled the suppression of Suan.

Afterward, the Red Shoes ran away, tearing Suan's ankles off their body. It took a total of 23 minutes for them to be suppressed, contained, and returned to their Containment Unit. Suan died from excessive blood loss. Berry only sustained minor injuries, but was elected to resign due to excessive psychological trauma.