Kenmei's nerves rattled her mind as she went through an uncomfortably long session of basic interview questions. She told a little about herself, her job experience, how she would benefit the company, and other mundane topics that made her nearly want to pull her hair out. After finishing writing down her answer to the most recent question, Sinbad placed his pen down. With a small sigh, he leaned back in his chair, ignoring the small squeak it made in reaction to his movement.

"Well, you don't have much work experience, but that's normal for someone your age. I think that's something we could ignore in this case." Sinbad smiled at her, though Kenmei could tell he was about to get into the serious topics. Still, she gave a small nod, keeping the pleasant smile still plastered on her face. "I appreciate that."

Sinbad glanced at Keneiji before he picked up a piece of paper on his desk, observing it for a moment. "So I want to talk about why you are here. Keneiji mentioned, just in a passing text this morning, that you said you wanted to get back at these creatures. Because one used you, is that correct?" His eyes moved to her, peering at her over the top of the paper. "This one here. Judar is its name. Mind explaining to me a bit about what happened?" He put the paper back on his desk and pushed it towards her, prompting her to take it.

Trying to fight back her anxious trembling, she took the paper and looked it over. She avoided actually reading the words, scared they described his torment. "Yes, it did. I believe that it used the grief I was feeling against me, trying to lure me into being comfortable so it could do whatever it wanted. I'm not really sure what its goal was, but once it was taken here and I could no longer see it, any feelings I thought I had were gone. That's why I assume it was some type of trick it was using against me…"

She decided to use the emotions welling inside of her to her advantage, hoping it would make her seem more believable. Trying to play off her trembling and rising tears as expressions of rage, she roughly put the paper back down on the desk. "They are just animals, and should be treated as such. And learning that my father works here, benefiting off of them… I wanted to be a part of it. To take from them, like that one did to me." Taking in a deep breath to calm her shaking voice, she observed Sinbad's face behind her tears. It was unreadable, and she hoped he couldn't see through her lies.

With a small nod, Sinbad sat forward in his chair, taking the paper back to look it over again. "They is typically how their kind lures human females in for breeding. Especially this particular strain of species that has evolved to live more around land and the surface of the ocean. You're lucky that it was taken when it was, I imagine it was close to getting what it wanted."

"I'm not entirely sure what step in it's process it was." She fidgeted in her seat a bit, reaching up to move some hair out of her face as she grew a bit flushed. Placing the paper back down, Sinbad grabbed his computer screen, turning it so she could see. Kenmei felt as if electricity shot through her body at the picture on the screen, having to grip onto her purse tighter to keep herself from physically reacting to it.

It was of her and Judar, when he first arrived to the pool and before he gave her the pearls. As Sinbad hit a button on his keyboard, images of them flashed by, and Kenmei was worried her sadness would overpower her. He finally came to a stop on an image that clearly showed Kenmei holding the vial of red liquid, and he brought a finger up to point at it. "This here? If you would have drank that, that would have been the end for you, unfortunately. I'm sure that it lied and said that it was something special, but it wasn't."

Kenmei was no longer able to keep her composure at such an accusation, looking away from the image as she fought back tears. So much of what he was saying made sense, but she refused to believe it. There was no way that Judar wanted to do such a thing. "What a horrible creature…" Still trying to pass off her sadness as frustration, she glared at the ground. Every inch of her was trembling, and she assumed her trickery was successful as Sinbad turned his computer back around with a sigh.

"What they do is awful, and many young women have lost their lives to them. You should consider yourself very lucky. In fact, I'm sure you must be grateful to your father." Sinbad spoke as he stood, taking a moment to adjust his tie. Kenmei glanced up at Keneiji at the mention of him, and she felt only anger as he started down at her with a smug expression. She felt the urge to slap that smirk right off his face, but instead, she merely smiled. "Oh yes, I am incredibly grateful for him saving my life."

Her gaze moved back to Sinbad as he walked around his desk to stand beside her. Leaning forward a bit, he held his hand out, pleasant smile on his face. "Now… The pearls?" Kenmei felt her stomach churn a bit at the dark look in his eyes, which was barely hidden by the smile. With a small nod, Kenmei reached into her purse and pulled out the small brown bag. It was not completely full, as Keneiji had forced her to let him keep some for himself, but the majority of them were present. Reluctantly, she placed the small bag in his hand, doing her best to restrain her sadness as he took them away.

Instead of going back to his desk, Sinbad walked over to a small cabinet against the wall, poking around inside the bag as he walked. Seeming satisfied that they were genuine, he opened the cabinet, revealing what appeared to be a safe. His body blocking the number pad, Kenmei could only hear beeps as he typed in the code. Unlocking with a loud clunk, Sinbad opened the safe only wide enough to place the pears inside, before shutting it again. The sound of it locking back filled Kenmei with dread, and she knew she would never get those pearls back.

Once the cabinet was secure, Sinbad turned back to her, a genuinely kind expression on his face. "Thank you for your gift. Those will greatly benefit the company. Ja'far-" He looked towards the man sitting at the far end of the room, who promptly stood at the sound of his name. "Let's go ahead and move on with the tour. If she's satisfied, we can continue with the hiring process." At the motion of approval, Kenmei stood and followed Ja'far out of the room, glancing back at Sinbad and Keneiji as they began to converse.

...

By the time they reached the second floor of the building, Kenmei was nearly exhausted. Ja'far had gone through every inch of each floor, and was excessively thorough in his explanations. All of the floors from seven down to three were all research, marketing and sales based, and it bored Kenmei greatly. Now, they were heading down the elevator to the second floor, and Kenmei couldn't be more grateful that the tour was almost over.

"The second floor is the most important floor of the whole facility. It's where everything happens, from the extraction of materials, medical center, access to the underwater tunnels and above service bridges, food storage and maintenance. This is where you would be spending most of your time, assessing inventory. But we'll get into more of that later." Ja'far glanced up as the elevator opened, promptly stepping out. Kenmei followed him, unable to believe how much he could talk. "I see. Would it be okay if I take notes about this floor?"

Ja'far glanced back at her as he walked, and Kenmei noticed a sharp look if distaste before his expression was covered by a wary smile. "Ah, I'm sorry, but we don't allow written notes to be taken. This includes anything typed or handwritten that is not on company property or secured. Don't worry, everything will be given to you in time." Kenmei gave a small nod, glancing down at her purse. She had wanted to take notes, but not of the processes of this particular floor. She wanted to make notes of where everything was, how heavily guarded or secured it was, and if there was easy access to the cages outside.

Right away, this floor required a card to open the main door, which Ja'far held up to the sensor. As they continued down a small hallway, they came upon a large circular room, with more locked doors and large windows to the rooms beyond them. Ja'far walked up to the first window with Kenmei in tow, though she had to stifle a gasp as she peered inside the room. Ja'far was talking, but Kenmei could only hear a muffled sound behind the horrors she observed within.

One of Judar's kind was laid out lifeless on a table, with multiple people standing around them in surgeons attire, faces half covered with white surgical masks. One of them was currently bent over the creature as it rested on its stomach, using a tool to pry the large scales out of it's skin along its back. As each scale was pulled out, another person gently patted away the blood with gauze, keeping the surface as clean as possible. After being placed in a container, a third person took them out and cleaned off the excess skin tissue from them, before placing them in another tub of some clear liquid.

Kenmei nearly lost her control, having to look away from the raw skin and muscle tissue before she vomited. It was disgusting, and she could only hope that the creature was unable to feel anything. As this crossed her mind, the memory of what Keneiji had told her came to her, and she clenched her eyes shut tightly to not cry.

"You're filth. And because of all the trouble you caused, I'm going to pluck out its scales while it's awake. It'll feel everything, and it will think of how you betrayed it."

"Miss Kenmei?"

Unable to help a small jump, Kenmei quickly turned back to face Ja'far, feeling her face flush from shame at the look of concern on his face. With a sigh, Ja'far turned back to look inside of the room. "I apologize, I guess I should have prepared you for this. It isn't an easy thing to see at first, but I can assure you that they are completely anesthetized and cannot feel anything. Afterwards, they are given proper pain medication and we inject further medicines into their food to help with healing. It would be counterproductive for us to treat them badly, after all. If we need these resources, we have to make sure they are healthy." He walked over to the other window and Kenmei gladly followed. "T-that is reassuring."

The next room was another hospital-esque room with only one surgeon, treating the wound on the arm of a human. Ja'far gestured his paperwork towards them as he spoke. "Sometimes we get injured working with these creatures. Sometimes they don't go easily, and things happen. We also treat the creatures in this room if they get injured in a similar way, or if their back breaks out in infection. You'll learn eventually about the things that can go wrong and workplace accidents, but you won't be working directly with them, so it shouldn't be a problem for you."

Kenmei could only nod, trying to control her disgust. After explaining the remaining two rooms, which were for hair collection and the disposal of the deceased, Ja'far headed over to a door at the far side. Pulling out his card, he glanced back at Kenmei with a small smile.

"Now we will go below to see the cages and how the creatures are kept. Please take a moment to ready yourself."