F-01-87 & F-05-32
"Where is Kickass?"
"Off to train some rookies, they said. They wouldn't be much help with this anyway."
"True. Paperwork was never their strong suit. You, on the other hand, are better at this than I expected."
"What do you know, Ek? Being a captain teaches you things. By the way, pink-demon, how is my salary looking like? I violated at least half your list of rules yesterday."
"Since your acts saved the lives of many, I put a good a good word for you in front of Yesod. Forget about that. You should get those scratches on your face treated."
"These aren't simple scars. It's a beast's gift."
"And your scarf?"
"Revenge. Little Red took my Syndicate friends' lives, I take her trademark scarf."
"…Are you okay enduring two EGO gifts?"
"Three." I pointed at my sheep-like hairband. "And I am. As long as I don't complete the set, the Blue and the Crimson Scars will lend me their strength without messing with my mind. Here are the results of the psychological tests I took."
Lin glanced through it quickly before handing it to their adjutant, Martin.
"What happened to the Big and Will Be Bad Wolf?" I wondered.
"He was sent back to the branch and we issued a red warning to them for sending us the wrong abnormality. That way, Little Red won't be going rogue each time she hears his howl."
Ek continued Lin's explanation. "The Control Team took care of welcoming the new abnos. F-01-87, who we expected yesterday, and F-05-32 are already at their units in Welfare Department."
My adjutant, Lizt, expressed our gratitude. That task usually belonged to Safety, but our department was busy installing the new and improved pulse-expanding healing dispensers. With those, half the healing factor would reach the hallways between rooms, allowing for a greatly increased survival rate of our employees.
"By the way, Gregory. I thought you made a bet with Netzach about paperwork. What happened to that?" Lizt mentioned.
"Ah, that's right. I made a bet, huh? I'll ask something else from him later."
The attendees of the meeting frowned at me, sensing something wasn't right with my behavior. I referred them to my counseling examination in order to eliminate suspicion. I wasn't Nothing There in disguise or anything like that.
I was just… distracted.
I punched the gates to the Main Room with my Gold Rush until they broke open. Netzach laid on the center of the room, but the humming stopped.
"Where are you, [DATA EXPUNGED]?! Show yourself!"
"Who are you talking to?" My boss complained.
"Someone was humming around here! Did they have black empty eye sockets? A robotic arm? Did they snap their fingers?"
"…I just went through hell and back. I'm not feeling like answering questions I don't know the answers for…"
I released his chassis and let out a frustrated shout. I removed my EGO weapon and collapsed onto the floor. My hand didn't feel right, as if its shape would lose its steadiness at any moment. The regeneration system was rebooting. In the meantime, I breathed heavily.
Netzach seated upright.
"It is as you said, Gregory."
"Of fucking course it is."
"I thought I was ready to give up on life, that I was so desperate for respite I would do anything… This experiment was a failure."
"Whenever we completed a Qliphoth Counter, a vitality pulse coursed through the facility. Do you know what that was?"
"…I do, even if I wished not to…"
"Despite you being the worst Sephirah in this place, nobody is more desperate to live than you. You're fearless, lad. Fearless enough to keep on living in this wretched place. That's why you are the Safety's Department's head."
"I dunno… I guess I will try having a little more hope. Maybe X will manage to reduce the number of deaths. With employees like you around, he might actually do it."
X, huh? The only things I knew about him were the things [DATA EXPUNGED] told me.
"Who were you looking for?" The lad continued.
"A friend. They went missing a few days ago. Nobody knows where they are."
"Why did you think they were here?"
"Because they always hum wherever they go. Their mind got messed up, broken apart, pulled into despair and worse, but they still were able to sing their silly tunes and push on. They were an icon of hope for many. Their disappearance is making everyone anxious. We need them back."
"…I'll ask the other Sephirahs."
Please, do, lad. I hope you have more luck than me. I don't care what it takes. Just… Just return [DATA EXPUNGED] to me.
Training's new adjutant, Stephan, portrayed the news in Kickass' stead.
"The growth from Central Team B is progressing satisfyingly. Both A and B have enough employees to manage their own abnormalities, despite their high threat level."
"That's great." Ek sang. "With that out of the way, my team will be able to spread out more and give some support to Discipline and Welfare. Transmit my congratulations to your team and your Sephirah. Recruiting employees directly at level 3 will save us so much training and time we might be capable of getting back on schedule!"
Lin straightened the documents from Welfare.
"We still need to find a replacement for the Inspector…"
"Are you giving up searching for them?!" I roared. Their tired eyes looked at me through their glasses.
"There's nowhere left to search, Gregory. We waited for [DATA EXPUNGED] to come back, but… … You know there are many ways an employee can magically disappear. We cannot keep deluding ourselves. We need a new leader."
As I slammed my wounded fist onto the table…
"Some- BODY once!"
…someone kicked the door to the meeting room. A punk employee with spiky red hair dragged inside a couple of corpses. One of them had their brain sucked out from a hole on their skull and the other was stolen of their heart, their chest cavity opened with a giant sharp object.
"I'm here to hand in the report of about Scarecrow Searching for Wisdom and Warm-Hearted Woodsman! I thought about bringing these two directly to the morgue, but I wanted to warn my seniors about their tendency to breach and kill whenever F-01-87 meets an employee with high Prudence or F-05-32 meets an employee with high Temperance. Those abnos were tough to suppress, but they were only HEs! I followed Kikas-senior's instructions and pasted some memos next to them. Please, make sure to give them a read later!"
They gave Lin a bloodied report and continued their stroll towards Safety, where the corpses were dealt with. The new Control captain was the first to react.
"One of Kickass' disciples?"
"Izzy, from Control Command B, self-proclaimed rival of Zero and colleague of the clerk who joined the Discipline Team." Lin read their profile.
I frowned and clenched my fists.
"Are we really giving up on [DATA EXPUNGED]?"
"I hate it as much as you do, Greg…" Knowing them, maybe even more. "…but the captain is gone. We need to think of the future as we move on."
Move on? What were the hums I heard, then? Am I going crazy over their disappearance? Do I really have to let go of their memory? I… I was so sure they would always be there… not even once did entertain the idea of a Lobotomy Corporation without them.
It just didn't make any sense! What did I witness? Why was Safety's Main Room sealed shut? What the hell is going on in this place? Who can answer any of this?
I thought about it so much my Prudence level rose up.
Report on F-01-87, by employee 00512.
The scarecrow was held up by a pole and wore a red shirt with white stripes with an exposed torso and an orange bowtie with white dots. The belts from its blue overalls were not attached. I also wore a straw hat that fully covered its head. Its hands are made of a rake and a scythe. Blood paints parts of its clothes and limbs.
I attempted to carry the inspection on F-01-87 as instructed by my teacher, Kikas-senior, but employee 00702 rejected my intromission and stole my chance. They correctly deduced the scarecrow appreciated Insight work, so they engaged in telling them some standard distribution riddles for Insight tasks and entertained the scarecrow.
When the work was over, however, its hat was removed and revealed a head that lacked its upper half. Its eyes were empty and had a stitched smile. The pole moved and revealed those were actually legs. Scarecrow Searching for Wisdom was so enticed by 00702's rich mind that it implanted a 'straw' onto 00702's head and sucked its brain.
It took a 5 minutes to suppress the abnormality with the help of my seniors. Many employees thought Kikas-senior was no longer fit for fighting tasks, but Discipline's Sephirah was proof that the body minimally hindered the fighter as long as they bore a powerful spirit. I want to reflect on this report how cool machines who carry every type of EGO handgun extracted look like.
That concludes the events about F-01-87, also known as Scarecrow Searching for Wisdom.
About F-05-32, I also tried taking it upon myself to study its behavior and deduce its rules, but employee 00701 already did some reconnaissance. According to them, the Warm-Hearted Woodsman was a large mechanical humanoid entity made of metal with some parts covered in moss. It possessed a knight helmet and had an open empty cavity in its chest that was covered in blood. It held a giant axe above its head.
I took the notes to properly credit them for their valiant efforts, but when they reentered the chamber, the woodsman buried its axe into 00701's chest. Then, the abno stole their heart and placed it inside the cavity of its chest. Then it found me.
The Woodsman seeks the warmth of the heart, which is manifested by a kind nature and a high level of Temperance. Anyone who considers themselves to be more or less kind or courteous should keep away from this abno.
It took the lives of 3 clerks and stole their hearts before we managed to suppress it, 7 minutes after its breach.
That concludes the events about F-05-32, aka Warm-Hearted Woodsman.
As a side note, I believe these two abnormalities show great potential. They yield great results when worked with Insight and Attachment, the higher the better. However, if the employee's level is too high, their Qliphoth Counter will deplete and they will breach. Since we can't have that, we should reconsider the basic training the new recruits go through and lower the minimum of Prudence and Temperance to level 2. That way, these new recruits will be able to efficiently train their virtues with these two HE abnormalities and quickly reach a high level of proficiency. -Izzy
