The Security Team mbers looked up.
A dark pantry.
From beneath the shadows, the sales representative had fallen to the floor and was holding his breath. At that mont, he locked eyes with them as they erged through portable transport equipnt.
“Little one…… no.”
The one wearing an animal mask drawn like a child’s crayon drawing, a badger, suppressed his own triggered contamination.
Soon, a calm and businesslike voice followed.
“Employee from Sales Team 4.”
“Y-Yes…”
“Identity confird. We will now begin calculating the fee.”
The sales rep swallowed.
Clad head-to-toe in black uniforms, faces covered, equipped with all sorts of strange devices, they themselves were like living ghost stories.
Supernatural, unmistakably assigned to special duties. Yet, for a mont, their presence brought a sense of relief.
Of course, the very next mont, the incomprehensible situation flooded him with fear again.
“Um, so, what am I supposed to do…?”
As he rolled his eyes, trying desperately to grasp the situation, the sales rep spotted sothing.
The Security Team mber who followed was carrying a black portable carrier in his hand.
A tal carrier, seemingly for animal transport.
…Wait a minute.
“Y-You’re not going to put in there and take out, are you…?”
“No. Of course not.”
Badger gently patted the carrier.
It was a mont of relief for the sales rep.
“There’s already soone inside.”
“……Huh?”
“Don’t think too much about it.”
The sales rep, who seed half-crazed by this incomprehensible situation, looked on as Badger gave a bittersweet smile inwardly.
And then…
“It’s cramped…”
Holding the carrier in one hand, J3 seed to have little interest in the situation itself.
Of course, it had been a very long ti since he’d been ‘out’ for ‘work’ not wearing his security guard uniform.
Though calling it ‘out’ was a stretch, considering how cramped their current location was.
In the anti, Badger displayed an absurd level of courtesy for a Security Team mber like himself. He announced in a businesslike tone,
“All received details have been confird. We will now proceed to…”
“Who is it?”
“Who’s there?”
“…!”
Tadadadadadak.
A sound like raindrops hitting the door gnawed at their nerves.
Fingernails were scraping.
Ten fingertips scratched at the door.
“There’s soone else.”
“There’s more.”
The voices whispered, as if gasping for breath.
The sound was terrifyingly close. Because…
They were pressing their heads to the gap in the door, whispering through it.
“Too late.”
“It’s too late.”
The couple was peering inside.
Into the very room they themselves had locked.
The sales rep felt frozen to the marrow of his bones.
But…
“Are they human?”
“Can’t say…”
The astonishingly calm conversation of the ‘Security Team’ ca from right beside him.
“Maybe… they used to be?”
Out of habit, J3 reached to adjust his nonexistent security cap, and instead patted his mask.
Sothing like the faded eyes of a beast flashed over it.
Then he carefully set the carrier down on the pantry floor.
Right next to the sales rep.
“Um… Can you wait here…?”
“Y, Yes?”
But it wasn’t directed at the sales rep.
“You alright…?”
…Tap.
The iron bars of the black carrier rattled softly.
As if the animal inside was responding.
“I’ll be… right back. Wait here……”
Tap.
Another response ca.
J3 gently touched the carrier, then straightened up.
“Um… if you don’t want to get hurt… stick close to this side, over here……”
This ti, the words were for the sales rep.
“Absolutely… do not handle it carelessly.”
“……”
The sales rep swallowed and nodded. And he pressed himself to the side of the black carrier.
Sensing that this was a form of protection.
…A strange chill radiated from within the carrier.
“Then, we will begin.”
Leaving the sales rep behind, the two Security Team mbers moved to the pantry door and opened it with force.
“…!!”
Their bodies blocked the view, so he couldn’t see outside, but he heard the rain get even louder. The sales rep shrank himself as small as possible. He caught a glimpse of the Security Team mbers heading outside…
The door closed, and the sound of the rain faded.
Thud.
……
Screeeeech, screeech, scritch.
Sothing was being ripped apart, the noise was thunderous.
The sales rep, without realizing, gripped the carrier tightly. He did it to avoid imagining what was happening outside.
The cold kept him alert.
Inside the carrier, sothing like strange smoke seed to slither up and rise…
After a single mont that felt endlessly long.
BOOM.
“…!”
The roaring stopped, and even the rain ceased.
The door opened.
And there were the two Security Team mbers, standing as if nothing had happened, checking their equipnt…
“Suppression complete.”
“……!”
They’re fine.
A faint hope rose in the sales rep’s heart, nearly causing his legs to give out.
Then… can he leave now? The employee got to his feet and looked out the door.
And in that instant, he understood what ‘suppression’ ant.
“Ah— mmf.”
He suppressed a scream.
The hallway was slick with moisture.
The wallpaper and floor were soaked, shining with a dark, clammy reflection like spattered bodily fluids, almost like blood.
And directly opposite the door.
There was the bizarre form of the couple, their bodies twisted and fixed, all their limbs bent backward and locked in place.
“…!”
As if determined to break and crush every possible ans of movent, to thoroughly prevent any resistance, the two were twisted into monstrous, centipede-like shapes, each joint pinned in place with colored push pins, like oversized tacks.
Overwhelming force and violence.
And alongside that, childish school supplies.
From every hole in their faces, fluid was running down, as if displayed on the dark hallway wall.
Just like his dead superior.
No, even more inhuman.
“……”
“Ah… right. It was a collection job.”
Collection?
“Starting with information gathering?”
“Mmh…”
The security team mber, gaunt and slow-moving, approached what had once been the ‘couple’, whom he had smashed and pinned in place…
He pulled a push pin from the mouth.
“……!”
“Hey… is there… a child here?”
It was one of the things the sales rep had said into the pager.
A chill ran through his chest.
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