Anomaly Catching Anomaly

――Shaaak!

From deep within the underground passage, the sound of skin colliding echoed.

The noise came from the space where the girl and the monk were facing each other.

The girl slowly reached out her hand towards the extended palm, but ultimately, she did not grasp his hand. Instead, she repelled the monk’s hand, clearly indicating her refusal.

“…Can I ask why?”

The monk asked, rubbing the reddened back of his hand.

Considering the conditions and merits, he couldn’t understand why the girl had rejected his proposal.

Any sentient being, usually under some kind of confinement, would feel considerable frustration.

In that sense, his offer to the girl must have sounded quite tempting.

“How can I trust someone who threatens my family?”

“Ah… well, that’s true.”

Of course, that was assuming the proposer hadn’t made any crossing-the-line comments beforehand.

“I’m sorry. I think I just needed to draw attention somehow.”

“Drawing attention through threats won’t yield good responses. Are you perhaps a bit dim?”

“Hey, isn’t that a bit too harsh…?”

The girl narrowed her eyes and glared at the monk.

His body instinctively shrank back under the relentless criticism.

There was no help for it. The girl’s attacks could be quite painful for an adult to hear.

Naturally, that rightful criticism almost transformed into a personal attack by the end.

Sadly, at this moment, the monk had no way to refute those words.

“Haah… Well, what can I say? The fault of making a bad first impression is entirely mine. If we meet again, I hope your perception of me has improved slightly.”

“Well, I don’t think there’ll be a next time.”

“Well, you never know how world events will unfold, do you? Ah, the exit is that way, as you expected. It seems someone is waiting for you above, so please hurry up.”

With an almost wistful sigh escaped, the monk looked a bit reluctant, but perhaps realizing it wouldn’t be good to keep the girl any longer, he promptly indicated the way out.

“…Please, keep your promise. If you don’t want to regret it.”

“Of course. We have no intention of being on bad terms with you. I promise not to touch your family or anyone around them, no matter what happens in the future.”

“I’ll be watching.”

“At any time. I hope this clears up some misunderstandings about me.”

Of course, the girl’s suspicion towards the monk hadn’t been lifted.

It goes without saying that few people could view favorably someone who introduced themselves with, “Sorry, but I’ve taken your parents hostage.”

However, he wasn’t necessarily demanding anything from her.

More than anything, since he had her family’s lives in his hands, she couldn’t kill him.

So, for now, all she could do was glare at him and slowly step toward the top of the stairs to escape this place.

“Oh, by the way, if you ever change your mind, please feel free to contact us! We’re always ready to welcome you!”

Just as the girl made some ascents up the stairs, from below came the voice of the monk, still reluctant to let go.

“Forget it. I’m never going with you.”

“Is it because I mentioned your family? As I said before, that was just to grab your attention! Plus, I needed to save my own skin, but I really had no intention of threatening you!”

“No, it’s not just that. To be honest, the conditions I mentioned earlier were quite appealing.”

“Eh? Then what is it? If you want something, say it! At least we can negotiate!”

“This isn’t something that can be resolved through negotiation. See—”

The girl’s surprisingly optimistic reply reached the monk’s ears.

An unexpectedly fruitful harvest.

In a faint hope that perhaps there was still room for negotiation, the monk called out to the girl with a louder voice.

“It’s because you smell!”

After that, he was hit with an answer he hadn’t expected at all.

He froze in place, as rigid as a stone.

“…Huh? Ah, wait a moment. What do you mean by that—”

Right after hearing the girl’s reply, he attempted to refute, but perhaps due to the mental shock, he suddenly began to stutter.

Well, could one blame him?

For a normal person, hearing that someone else smells bad would usually inflict considerable psychological damage, not to mention a blow to their ego.

Especially when it was a surprise attack.

“What are you talking about?! I’m a person who washes every morning and evening! I think that was quite an unfair personal attack!”

“…I didn’t say you smelled because you don’t wash.”

“Then what kind of smell are you talking about?! If you don’t give me a plausible explanation, I will be genuinely disappointed?!”

The monk started to throw a tantrum, evidently very agitated by the girl’s previous comment.

His voice rang through the underground passage, crying out as if wronged.

In response to his desperate demeanor, the girl scratched her head a few times as if annoyed, then seemed to make a decision.

She paused on the stairs, standing still for a moment—and then—

“Blood.”

Turning to face the monk, she looked at him with a distasteful expression, as if saying not to play dumb.

“You’ve got a strong smell of blood.”

As she began to move her feet once more.

The girl, who had been slowly climbing the stairs, finally reached a height so great it was no longer visible.

At one moment, just as if she had vaporized right in place, she suddenly vanished from the underground passage.

“…Wow, I didn’t expect that.”

The monk murmured quietly.

In his demeanor, there was no trace of the earlier playfulness or ridiculousness, and even the exaggerated act he had put on was gone completely.

“It’s more astonishing than I thought. Much more human-like… If I had known about our actions beforehand, this meeting could have been quite troublesome.”

His words sounded analytical.

It was unclear exactly what he meant, but at the very least, it was clear that this encounter had been quite a risky adventure for the monk.

“Well, at least it ended well. It seems like the next step should go smoothly… Hmm?”

Suddenly, as he continued muttering to himself, his mouth stopped.

One of his arms slipped into his own jacket.

It seemed he was searching for something, rummaging through his pockets for quite a while.

Eventually, he pulled out a slightly worn communicator.

[Listener, I’m reaching out for a routine check during your mission. Is everything alright?]

A woman’s voice came through the communicator.

Just listening to her tone, one could tell she had a rigid and business-like demeanor.

“Ah, yes. Sister. The mission is complete. Please start returning with the others.”

[How did the acquisition of the target go?]

“Well, it was a pretty good failure, if I may say. She turned out to be much more human than expected.”

The monk said with a smile, his voice mingled with a strange sense of amusement.

Of course, this reaction was terribly uncharacteristic for a leader of an organization, but interestingly, the woman on the other side of the communicator showed no opposition to this.

[If you allow me, I can take care of the negotiations.]

“No, no! Don’t even think about it. Especially, do not lay a finger on her family.”

[You know they will understand later, right?]

“Sister, I understand your impatience with the big events ahead, but sometimes charging ahead can delay things significantly.”

[But…]

As their conversation continued, the woman’s tone began to shift.

The rigid speech seemed to carry a hint of elevated spirits.

However, that change in tone was still somewhat difficult for others to perceive.

But the monk noticed the brief change in her emotions within that short time and, as if comforting a child, he cautioned her.

[…I apologize. I got a bit carried away thinking the time was near.]

“It’s alright. I feel the same way as you do, sister.”

[You too, listener?]

“Yes. I’ve lost count of how many nights I stayed awake in anticipation… I’m sure all the other brothers and sisters feel the same.”

From the communicator, the woman’s voice, now calmed once again, reached his ears.

The calmness in the monk’s words sought to soothe the woman.

“Of course, I understand. It must be unbearable. You probably don’t want to wait either. I can’t count how many times I wanted to throw caution to the wind and stab myself in the heart while the thought crossed my mind hundreds of times.”

However, even though he had just been comforting her, there was something strange about the monk’s voice.

It somehow seemed to grow louder as their conversation continued.

“To have to hold back even when the culmination of our long-awaited desires is right before us, how painful is that? The path to realizing our wishes is right there, and spreading everyone’s blood to illuminate that way is surely—”

Before long, expressing even more fervently than the woman earlier, he began to grow more intense—

“…But we still have time left, right? The time we’ve prepared for this moment.”

At a certain moment, it simply stopped.

As if nothing had ever happened, he returned to his previous composure.

“So, let’s at least wait quietly until that time arrives…”

Slowly, the monk walked deeper into the underground passage.

Thump, thump, thump.

The lights along his path flickered out one by one.

Finally, when the last light extinguished, that place, where not a shred of light fell, had turned into complete darkness.

It was as if nothing had ever existed there.

Only a profound silence lingered in that place.