It seems like the time has come.
I thought so deep down in my heart.
If someone were to ask me what time I was talking about, well, it was obviously the time to leave this room.
“What are you staring at?”
Next to me, a familiar voice greeted me.
When I turned my head, the owner of the voice, Sophia, was looking at me.
A blonde woman, Sophia.
And now, about a week has passed since I returned to my hometown, meaning she was the person I’ve met the most.
In particular, I met a few people during the first week, but recently, apart from her, I hadn’t seen anyone else’s face.
Thanks to her visiting this room every single day, I didn’t really feel lonely.
But somehow, lately, I wished she would tone down the physical affection a bit.
I wasn’t just some plushy doll to be petted, you know.
After swallowing the complexity of feelings in my heart, I pointed my finger in a certain direction.
“Huh? Over there…”
Her voice followed, a bit surprised as she turned her head in the direction of my finger.
That was because the only exit in the room was located there.
Right.
I was indeed feeling quite strongly that it was time to leave this room.
“Entity 19, do you want to go outside?”
Of course, it was a given.
After spending two weeks trapped in this closed space, the time had felt neither short nor pleasant at all.
Especially considering I had just returned to my hometown after a long and distant journey, it was even more so.
Thump, thump
As I nodded, Sophia’s expression turned troubled.
While I felt I was weakening at that expression, there was nothing I could do.
I did feel grateful for the somewhat awkward affection she gave me, but no matter what, I didn’t want to spend any more time in this closed space.
I guess she had anticipated that I would feel this way. She had brought me some things…
But even if I was buried under girl-themed dolls, I couldn’t keep occupying my time happily like this.
“Ah, but the outside is full of dangerous things. You might get hurt.”
Well, isn’t that a bit underestimating me?
Unless a nuclear war broke out while I was gone, setting the entire planet ablaze, my hometown shouldn’t be that dangerous.
Even if it had turned into a hell on earth, I was sturdy enough not to worry too much about getting hurt.
Moreover, when I first returned here, the sky I saw was just like the blue sky I knew.
It wasn’t like I needed someone to worry about me that much, like I was some little girl.
… Although, to be fair, looking at my appearance does make it a bit hard to completely deny that. But anyway.
Shake, shake
“Hmm…”
Shake, shake, shake
In order to express my dissatisfaction, I squinted my eyes and shook my head vigorously.
She let out a little whimper. It didn’t seem like she was going to easily grant my request.
However, I had no intention of backing down today.
I had tried to show gestures wanting to leave a few times before, but I had always heard her apologetic “you can’t” in response.
The idea of being stuck here for the rest of my life made me want to adopt a more assertive attitude today.
“Do you really want to go out that much?”
Thump, thump
“Why? You’ve never been outside before, so aren’t you scared of what might be out there?”
Shake, shake
But Sophia wasn’t backing down either.
She seemed intent on making sure I wouldn’t want to go outside no matter what.
If I truly were a girl suffering from amnesia, I might have believed her words, but unfortunately, I was someone who still held some longing and nostalgia for the landscapes of my hometown.
There was no reason for me to fall for such basic gaslighting.
“…Hmm, that’s troublesome.”
This isn’t working. This conversation is going nowhere.
I couldn’t express myself like this; it was frustrating.
I felt embarrassed for not being able to advocate for the rights of the disabled in my previous life.
“….”
I paused my head movements and fell into deep thought.
Nodding or shaking wasn’t enough to convey my emotions, after all.
What I needed was some powerful gesture to express my desire to leave this place.
Something to show that being trapped here was suffocating…
‘Ah.’
At that moment, something clicked in my mind.
Now that I think about it, I had something in mind.
Having spent quite a while with no one to communicate with, I must have forgotten something as simple as this.
Having recalled what I needed, I quickly locked eyes with Sophia and began to pound my chest with my fist to let her know I wanted out.
Thump, thump, thump
With a dull sound, I pounded my chest rhythmically.
It’s usually an action done when you’re feeling stuffed or something’s heavy on your chest, but it could also indicate that I felt suffocated.
Surely she’d understand what this meant.
‘…?’
However, after I thumped my chest three times, when I looked up at Sophia to gauge her reaction, all I saw was her hands covering her face, making strange sounds as she exhaled deeply.
‘…Is she hurt?’
That was the only conclusion I could draw from her behavior.
If that weren’t the case, perhaps she had witnessed something shocking.
But no matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t imagine her thinking my gesture of pounding my chest was something horrific.
Unless some grotesquely hideous creature did that, then maybe it would be seen as unseemly.
Even then, it wouldn’t be the gesture itself that was the issue, but rather the creature’s appearance.
And given her tendency to want to pet me, she probably didn’t think my looks were all that bad.
Sophia stayed silent for a moment, not showing her facial expression, and after several seconds of calm, she finally settled into her normal expression and started lowering her hands back to her knees.
“…Cough, cough, even after all that, I can’t grant your request.”
What do you mean “even after all that”? I don’t remember doing anything that spectacular.
It seemed that merely showing my frustration wasn’t going to cut it…
At this point, maybe I’d have to start banging my head against the wall to get my point across—
“But I understand how much you want to go outside, Entity 19. I can’t let you do it right now, but I’ll do my best to see if we can get you out later.”
While I thought I might need to perform some self-harm show, Sophia offered optimistic words.
That meant I would be able to see the outside world soon, right?
As long as her “later” didn’t mean a few months or years down the line, I figured it would probably be reasonable.
“So until then, you have to be good, okay?”
In response to her request, I nodded.
After all, I had already been good up till now.
If it seemed like she wasn’t going to keep her promise even after some time passed, I’d just headbang as I’d thought earlier.
As I nodded, Sophia, as always, reached out to pat my head, and I accepted her touch with a somewhat displeased expression.
Whirrrrrrr
With a mechanical sound echoing in the air, the isolation room door opened with a click.
Stepping out was Sophia.
She was a researcher in charge of the anomalous entity, casually referred to as Entity 163-19.
“Huh…”
As the door closed, Sophia stood still in the hallway and let out a heavy breath.
The reason for this was clear…
What more could she hide?
It was all due to the anomalous entity she was in charge of.
The reactions of Entity 19 had been even more intense and diverse than before.
Anyone wouldn’t be able to call those behaviors anything other than cute, and because of that, she nearly lost her composure.
‘That was a bit dangerous today…’
Calming her racing heart, Sophia thought.
Earlier, when Entity 19 proudly puffed its chest out and began pounding it with those soft little fists, it had truly been a miracle that she didn’t entirely lose her reason at that moment.
The shock she felt then was enough to make her want to hug Entity 19 and roll around on the ground for a few laps.
As Sophia rubbed her face in frustration, she felt a desire to reward herself for holding it together.
‘Though if I do that, I’m sure it will begin to avoid me.’
The child didn’t like it when someone even touched their head.
During the time she spent with Entity 19, she had opened her heart to some extent, and while she managed to pet it for a longer duration than before, it still felt more like a ‘permission’ rather than something genuinely welcomed.
If she were to take liberties and engage in intense physical contact without the child’s consent, Entity 19 would most likely start becoming cautious of her.
If that happened, she would lose her only means of emotional recovery, and there would be no way she could endure the challenging work environment anymore.
‘More importantly, wanting to roam around outside… What a handful this child is…’
Sophia reflected on the promise she made moments ago with Entity 19.
The promise of allowing the child to roam outside someday.
It was a promise made without much thought, taken in by the cuteness of the child, but now, thinking it over coldly, it was a ridiculous notion.
‘There are hardly any cases where anomalous entities are allowed to roam outside.’
The liberation of abnormal phenomena and its derivatives.
Sophia well understood that such things were never granted under normal circumstances.
Of course, it wasn’t entirely impossible.
She had heard of a few cases where anomalous entities roamed within the base.
However, those were limited to very special conditions or entities that had proven safe over an extended period.
There was no way a newly discovered anomalous entity, barely a month old, would receive such permissions.
The Research Department had been deceived and played for fools far too often in relation to such matters.
Even if she wanted to let Entity 19 out, there was no way upper management would ever allow it.
‘It can’t be helped. I’ll have to explain this to the child later and find a way to apologize—’
Thus, realizing that it was an impossible endeavor, now she had to find some things that would delight Entity 19 as she was about to leave.
“….”
However, the moment she recalled the eager look in Entity 19’s eyes when they made their promise, it wouldn’t leave her mind.
“…Well, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to at least try.”
With that, she roughly scratched her head a few times, and with a mind ready to accept whatever came next, she began to walk toward somewhere.
