novelraw Chapter 217.1
Chapter 217.1
The red thread of Nostalgia wrapped around my neck.
The first thing I felt was clarity.
The sense that everything was distinct and in its proper place.
“……”
I blinked.
I could blink.
Eyelids and eyelashes. A clear vision through the cornea…
I looked down at my hands. There were no black rubber gloves. Only the bare skin of a human hand lay exposed there.
I clenched and unclenched my bare hand.
Yes. This was how it used to feel.
This was the sensation.
The shock faded naturally, leaving only a trace, and what remained was familiarity.
Natural feelings and sensations.
And in their place, a forgotten sense of familiarity entered again.
Yes. A feeling.
I clearly remembered this…
Thud.
……
……
I lowered my head.
The bare hand was gone.
All that’s left visible were divine hooves and scales, attached to amorphous, melting flesh…
Forcibly, I put on the gloves.
Forced on.
Forced more.
“…Roe?”
More.
And more.
Done.
Human fingers.
Fingers with a silhouette resembling those of a human could be seen.
And through them, I saw it.
The floor.
On the floor lay a single thread, as if worn out and frayed.
Pilled, dirty, discolored, now completely worthless.
The thread had snapped.
“…!”
“Wait…”
It was a delusion.
Did you think Nostalgia Kitty could help you?
Did you think what you are experiencing now was contamination?
Did you believe there was a chance you could return to a time when your body and mind had been healthy?
Did you believe you could return to the comfort of ignorance, embraced by the peace it offered? That by taking a hint from that, you could know the directiontowalkdiscoverawaytonavigatethisworldresetyourgoalsreturntobeinghumanreturnhomefinallyreturnhomedidyoureallythinkofsuchthings?
Did you hope for that?
Did you believe it could happen?
Truly?
By making an absurd wish, the wrong wish, youcametorealizethingsthatyoushouldneverhaveneededtoknowyouawakenedinagrotesquebodyyouhavestayedintheundergroundforsixmonthsalonewithnothingbutghoststoriesandcorpsesandthefearofitallrushingin
Wearing the Nostalgia Kitty was a mistake.
Not all of its effects could be good. Havingonlyahumanshapeonlyabodycapableofinteraction is impossible. In other words these are emotions youshouldhavefeltinthefirstplace hadyoutrulybeenhuman.
It means my fear and despair would return too.
And once experienced, they do not disappear, even if the brain and body collapse like mush in an instant.
They remain.
Unbearable.
……
Smoke rises.
It keeps rising, filling this space completely, until there is no gap to escape through. It could fill everything, and yet it is not enough…
……
The space.
Is not enough.
“Roe, wai—”
I stood up.
The one in the badger mask fell into the thick smoke. I carried him to the bed. Let him rest.
I faced the sergeant.
He said nothing.
Because work hours were over, and he had neither the duty nor the authority to control me.
So, pardo
“Um…”
.
“Is there… nothing I can do… for you?”
I opened the door of the isolation chamber.
And walked out as I was.
The black smoke pouring out filled the isolation corridor.
Red and blue lights flickered on.
Just like the 13th basement floor of the annex.
[Evacuation alert. High-grade Darkness containment failure. Evacuation alert. High-grade Darkness containment failure. Evacuation alert. High-grade Darkness containment failure…]
The alarms rang through the corridor.
And also inside my head.
You cannot leave the designated area!You cannot leave the designated area!You cannot le
You people did not assign me a designated place to remain after work hours. You only assigned me a new workplace. You did not designate my space, not through words, not through a signature, not through implication.
Therefore.
I can choose my own place of rest after work hours.
I can go anywhere.
The
I stopped.
But the unbearable weight did not vanish.
Why doesn’t it vanish? Why? Why……
Ah.
Right.
I kept moving my feet.
Riding the smoke, the distance narrowed.
The isolation corridor soon ended. The rental storage front appeared.
Because the guards had left their posts to prepare equipment and arm themselves to subdue the escaped containment entity, only a few remained at their stations.
I knew.
That there was a miscalculation in their numbers.
Since no unrealistically rapid movement ability had been observed in Contained Entity (130666), the miscalculation that it would require at least three times longer to reach the rental storage led to the incident.
A situation that could be recorded in exactly those terms.
“N—”
The few remaining Security Team members sank into the smoke.
From one of their bodies, I found a key, and with it, I opened the door of the rental storage and stepped out.
I kept walking, until I arrived at the central elevator.
Ding.
The elevator stopped. I boarded it.
The floor I had to go to was already decided.
– The 17th floor… is where the researchers who scout for new Darkness work.
17th floor.
[The doors are opening.]
What appeared was a neat office space of glass and marble, which I had once visited in another form.
The smoke that had filled the elevator poured outward, pressing down on the office.
[Evacuation alert. High-grade Darkness containment failure. Evacuation alert. High-grade Darkness containment failure. Evacuation alert. High-grade Darkness containment failure…]
“Aaagh!”
“Run! Run…!”
Those in lab coats rushed toward the emergency exits.
Someone who inhaled the smoke collapsed. Others wailed, sobbed, burst out laughing, clutched their heads and muttered. Some prostrated themselves.
All of them, melting mosaics.
I stepped forward among them.
Until what I sought appeared.
Toward the office I already knew.
[ Research Team 1 – A ]There, in the clean and spacious room at the far end.
Before he could run.
Before he could hide.
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