Inner Lobotomy Corporation, Control Team Main Break Room.
The surroundings were familiar—cold, dead-silent furnishings, empty of any human presence, like a corner forgotten by time.
When his consciousness gathered here again, X was already used to this sensation—falling from one dream into another.
"…"
But this time, something was different.
X hesitated on the path he usually took.
Normally, he would go straight to the end of Corridor One without a second thought—toward that containment door, toward the Abnormality space that could give him a brief pocket of calm and conversation.
Talking with that nun who always listened in silence had helped him, little by little, push back the loneliness and unease of exploring the empty Inner Company alone.
However… after what happened, X didn't really want to see that "old bag of bones" right now.
It wasn't disgust. It wasn't rejection.
It was simpler than that—he didn't know how to carry himself.
He didn't know what expression to wear, what posture to take, how to face that beautiful nun again.
In the end, X turned around and headed for a different door—the one that led toward a secondary break room.
It was a route he rarely took. The corridor stretched on as if it had no end, and only his own footsteps echoed in the dead quiet, hollow and stark.
He took the elevator at the far end. With a faint mechanical hum, it descended and delivered him into the Information Team.
Then X opened the door to an Information Team containment unit and stepped into the Abnormality space.
White light flashed—
When his vision cleared, he found himself in a dim forest. The Abnormality called Punishing Bird was exactly as he'd first seen her: sitting all alone on a thick branch of a massive dead tree, legs swinging.
"!!"
The moment she spotted X, delight flared in her bright eyes—so obvious it was impossible to hide.
But it lasted less than a second before she seemed to remember some crucial "setting," shook her head hard, puffed out her cheeks, and put on an exaggeratedly angry face.
"Big brother! Why are you here again?!"
Punishing Bird huffed.
"Didn't I tell you last time? If it's not urgent, don't just run into the forest! That big monster is really dangerous!"
"Uh…"
X looked up at her with a helpless, wry smile.
"Honestly, I'm just here to take refuge."
"Taking refuge… in the Black Forest?"
Her carefully maintained angry expression froze on her cute little face.
She tilted her head, as if a whole string of invisible question marks were popping above it.
"Big brother, are you sure you didn't say it backwards? This place is the most dangerous one, isn't it?"
"Of course I didn't…"
X walked under her branch, found a comfortable spot, and sat with his back against the trunk.
"Outside isn't exactly safe either… There's even a people-eating nun—ah—there's even a people-eating big skull-head."
He almost let it slip.
Catching himself, he smoothly changed the wording and continued in a gentle, coaxing tone:
"Last time we searched such a wide area and still didn't find any trace of a big monster. Maybe it already left. Who knows?"
"And you staying alone in this forest… it's boring, isn't it? Lonely?"
"We can play games together. That still counts as waiting in place for your two sisters to come back, right? Two birds with one stone."
"Ugh… I-I mean… that's true…"
Punishing Bird wavered hard.
X had hit her right in the soft spot.
She was a playful little thing. If she were truly patient and content to stay put…
…then she wouldn't have secretly reduced her own Qliphoth Counter during work hours whenever employees went to other containment units—trying to draw attention—and she definitely wouldn't have broken out of containment.
"O-okay… fine…"
In the end, she gave up thinking and chose to follow her desire to play.
"Then… then keep me company and chat a bit, big brother."
With a flutter of the small wings at her waist, she hopped down from the branch and perched on X's shoulder.
"Of course," X said warmly.
He raised a hand and gently ruffled her hair, careful not to use too much force—he was afraid of hurting a fragile little porcelain-doll of a creature.
"Then let's start with your sisters," he suggested. "If our little bird misses them this much, I really want to meet them too."
"They must be amazing, right?"
"Of course they are!"
The moment she heard "my sisters," Punishing Bird's face lit up. Her whole body seemed to radiate joy.
"My sisters are the best sisters!"
"Then… let's start with the one you said you could faintly sense before," X said. "The one whose location you almost felt."
"Oh! You mean Judgement Bird!"
Punishing Bird's brows shot up, and she practically bounced with excitement.
"Judgement Bird is the smartest and strongest of the three! And she used to have a really beautiful eye! Really—super pretty!"
"But later, to protect the forest and keep everyone from getting hurt by the big monster, she gave her eye to Big Bird. She kept only that scale that can judge sin…"
Then she described carefully:
"So if you see someone tall and thin, with thick bandages over her eyes, always holding a balance scale… then that's probably Judgement Bird."
"Wow… that's definitely distinctive," X murmured thoughtfully. "Now I really want a chance to talk to her."
"And what about the other one?"
"The other one is Big Bird."
Punishing Bird continued.
"Um… Big Bird is kind of… spacey. Not exactly dumb, but… her way of thinking is just different from everyone else's…"
She tapped a finger against her lower lip, struggling to put it into words.
"Ahh… I don't know how to explain it."
"Anyway, if you run into a big sister who's always carrying a lamp, has a really great figure, but looks like her mind is always somewhere else…"
"Then try—try not to focus on her 'eyes' or the lamp she's holding, okay?!"
....
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