T-01-31

This was my chance. There was no [no way in hell I'm not doing this again, sorry Yesod] papers pasted on the new abno's wall. That meant that fucking Inspector had yet to check it out. Hah! As if I would let that pussy haul all the glory! Fuck that! I am the great Gregory, a member from a Finger subsidiary! There ain't no bullshit monster stopping me!

"A fucking conductor? Well, I'll be taking the credit for reporting the description."

T-01-31 was an Abnormality that resembled a freaking orchestra's conductor. It was similar to a limbless mannequin, held up by a pole stabilized by a base. It dressed like the conductor of an Orchestra and had eighth note patterns on its head. No hands. That's about it.

"You're white, so you must enjoy Insight Work. Fucking easy!"

A white noise filled my head. It was so intense I tried to scream to hear my own voice, to no avail. I exited the chambers and ran like a madman, trying to impale anyone with a Fragment from Somewhere. I got to kill a couple of retard clerks before someone overwhelmed me with a barrage of shots.

My consciousness faded.

"I'm happy you took my bullets!"

"Save it, Kickass! Hmph!"

A cross impacted on my chin, which sent me flying. The noise finally finished. I grumbled after discovering the person who lowered next to me. Literally the last bastard I wanted to see at that moment.

"You're barely conscious, so I'll save the scolding for later. What containment unit did you enter?"

"Fuck you. Ghhhhh!"

They tried to suffocate me! Even if I was almost dead!

"Look, I know you think you're the center of the universe, but you are not the only employee in this corporation." They raised me as if I weighted nothing. "If you don't answer my question, I will hurt you, before your cocky actions gets literally everyone killed." The Inspector pressed harder. "This is not your turf, Gregory. This is hell."

"Okay! Okay! It was that… fucking white mannequin our department just received today… Cough!"

I pushed that crook aside to facilitate the evacuation from the Safety Department. The manager just hired some more employees and I wasn't going to let them die on their first day. I turned to my trusty second-in-command.

"Keep everyone away while I deal with this, Ek, and sound the second trumpet."

"The second?! What grade is the abno, captain?!"

"We jumped a few steps with this one. It's ALEPH."

"ALEPH?! Then you should take some EGO with you! Ever since Kickass became like this, you've been refusing to wear any, but this is an emergency! You'll be killed!"

"Nooo! I don't want my Inspector to die! I'm happy you're still alive!"

Enduring that stalker's overbearing hug, I scratched my head and glanced at my old bully. Gregory went nuts, but their vigor was high. The ALEPH dealt either White or Black damage. If it's the former, I'll do just fine. If it's the later… my HP may run out before my SP does.

Being passed by the running clerks and employees, I sighed while Ek forcibly removed Kickass from my side.

An EGO, huh? After sharing with X's cameras that I didn't enjoy wearing those, I was granted permission to stick to my standard issue suit. In the current state of emergency, I didn't want to tempt fate by going back to pick anything. If the ALEPH's Qliphoth Counter's maximum capacity was 1, then it was about to breach and we needed to head there immediately. If it was higher, until we discovered what type of particularities caused it to go down, we were in grave danger.

"I'll be going now. I'll trust you to evacuate everyone from Safety Department, Ek."

"And me? And me? I'm happy to help!"

"You… keep watch outside the ALEPH's unit. If I go insane, suppress me."

"Will do! I demand a kiss as my reward!"

"Sure, I'll kiss you if you do a good job."

Whatever it took to keep Training Team's captain motivated. Besides me and Ek, they represented our best fighting chance against the abnos and the ordeals. Our Control Team was slowly raising their levels, but they lacked the drive to excel.

I gave my best friend one last look before closing the elevator's door. I didn't need to fill the silence during the short trip. Kickass was humming and dancing in my stead.

"Hello. You made my rude colleague go berserk on everyone. Do you deal Black damage or White damage?"

A white sound filled my mind, giving me the answer. That was actually pretty nice. It kept the explosions away. The conductor kept producing music inside my brain. Since it was about appreciating art, Attachment would work the best. I took seat and closed my eyes. A wide selection of weird noises and odd sounds kept reproducing around me.

It was… well, it was so trippy not even drugs could replicate the experience.

The silent music was meant to crush my sanity, but, for some reason, it just didn't work on me. Have I turned into a monster as well? Or am I insane all the time? If I were the old me, that defenseless person Gregory used to torture, I would die on the spot.

Instead, I dozed off.

When I woke up, I saw a neutral yellow face on the door's window. I stretched my arms.

"That was an interesting piece, white conductor, but you didn't keep at bay the explosions or the agony all the way through, so I will give you a B-. Keep practicing. Until the next time…" I yawned as I exited the chamber, wondering why I sounded so raspy.

"-! -!"

"Hey, now. Keep your distance. Now is not the time for kisses. The abno may have done something to me we don't know about yet."

"-!"

"You listening? Why don't you say anything?"

"-! -!"

A feeling of dread shook my very core.

Explosions. Screams. Wails. Shots.

"-, -." I mumbled.

Going inside the chamber without protective EGO had rendered me deaf.