Hannibal Lecter's office resembled a private art gallery.
A reproduction of Uccello's The Battle of San Romano hung on the wall, its geometric composition creating a perfect tension with the chaotic battle scene.
Dr. Hannibal Lecter sat down, his fingertips tapping lightly on the keyboard.
The encrypted database authorized by Motoko Kusanagi unfolded before him.
Inside were thousands of names.
Thousands of superpowered individuals who had been flagged by Vought as "potentially unstable factors" following S.O.M.S.
For Dr. Hannibal Lecter, this was a list of top-tier ingredients to choose from.
He browsed through it, as if strolling through a slaughterhouse of exotic Beasts open only to him.
The first candidate's file popped up.
[Resonator File]
Real Name: Evan Clark
Age: 42
Identity: Former Local Council Member
Ability Description
Emotional Interference: Can cause the target to lose emotional control for a short period (panic/embarrassment/anger, etc.)
Rhetorical Sabotage: Can cause opponents to misspeak or behave abnormally in public settings.
Effective Range: Within 20 meters.
Duration: 10 seconds to 3 minutes.
Personality Traits
Outwardly gentle and polite, but mentally sharp.
Holds grudges, especially sensitive to humiliation.
Likes to be in control of the situation.
Dark History / Leverage
Unstable mental state after losing the election.
Previously used his ability on political opponents, causing them to lose composure in debates (already covered up by the company).
Needs constant "validation"; fears losing control if ignored.
——
A local politician who awakened the ability to manipulate others' short-term emotions after losing an election.
He used this ability to make his political opponents make a fool of themselves during public speeches and to make his biggest sponsors obey his every word.
Dr. Hannibal Lecter's gaze lingered for only a few seconds.
"The desire is too straightforward, lacking aesthetic appeal."
His inner voice provided the critique.
"He is merely a clumsy puppeteer, obsessed with pulling visible strings, failing to understand that a true master makes the puppets believe they were born to dance that way."
He crossed out the name.
[Angel of Peace File]
Real Name: Irene Mason
Age: 38 (appears about 23)
Identity: Hospice Nurse
Ability Description
Life Drain: Can slowly absorb a target's life force through physical contact.
Effect: Delays her own aging and physiological fatigue, maintaining youth and vitality.
Limitation: The rate of absorption increases as the target's life force weakens.
Risk: Long-term use creates dependency; cravings are difficult to suppress.
Personality Traits
Gentle and considerate, with a soft tone and highly soothing presence.
Outwardly empathetic, but internally obsessed with "a sense of existence and continuing to live."
Views death as an "exchange of gifts" rather than a sinful act.
Dark History / Leverage
Exhibits clear life-force dependency; goes through emotional imbalance and weakness if not absorbed for long periods.
Multiple terminally ill patients in the hospital died earlier than expected (the company has already handled the records).
Surveillance footage shows her engaging in abnormally long periods of physical contact and whispering into patients' ears while they were dying (footage has been sealed).
——
A hospice Nurse whose ability is to absorb the life force of others to delay her own aging.
The report attached to the file detailed how she would, while patients were on their deathbeds, offer gentle comfort while greedily consuming their last spark of life.
There was not even a look of disgust on Dr. Hannibal Lecter's face, only the disappointment of a gourmet tasting an inferior imitation.
"The motive is jealousy; the technique is crude."
"A greedy parasite that only knows how to take, unable to transform this life force into anything more sophisticated."
"Her fear is merely a fear of death. Too... mediocre."
Three hours later.
Dr. Hannibal Lecter leaned back in his chair, fingers tapping lightly on the desktop.
He looked at those so-called "villains" on the screen, his face wearing an expression of near-boredom.
These souls, driven by anger, greed, and jealousy, possessed destructive power but lacked an inner philosophy.
They were Beasts driven by desire.
This was not the "artwork" his boss wanted, the kind that could stand in opposition to "Order."
Their evil was too shallow, too straightforward.
Like a horror movie with nothing but gore and screaming, without a single scene worth savoring.
Suddenly, a special file caught his attention.
This file was marked as "Low Threat, High Research Value."
Dr. Hannibal Lecter's interest was piqued.
He opened the file.
Name: Adrian Dubois.
The man in the photo possessed the melancholic temperament peculiar to an artist, his gaze distant, as if trying to see through the soul of architecture.
He was once the most prestigious architectural designer of this era, the youngest winner of the Pritzker Prize.
His works were hailed as "frozen symphonies."
Ability: Structural Dissociation.
An extremely rare ability that allowed him to perceive and manipulate the internal structural stress and molecular bonds of any non-living object in a way that transcended physics.
Dr. Hannibal Lecter's gaze moved downward, landing on the incident report marked "Turning Point."
On the day the S.O.M.S. broke out, the Élysée Grand Opera House—designed by Adrian himself and hailed as a "modern architectural miracle"—was hosting a charity gala.
His wife and daughter were in the audience.
The file did not describe in detail how that accident occurred.
It only recorded the result: Adrian's ability went out of control for the first time.
That magnificent opera house did not explode, nor did it collapse.
It simply disintegrated and dissipated silently like a sandcastle before everyone's eyes.
Ultimately turning into dust filling the sky.
His wife and daughter, his most perfect work, the pride of his life, all vanished at that moment along with the building.
From then on, Adrian Dubois vanished without a trace.
Dr. Hannibal Lecter's breathing became somewhat rapid.
He clicked on the surveillance video attached to the file.
The footage was very blurry; the filming location was an industrial ruin on the edge of the city.
In the frame, Adrian stood in the center of that graveyard of steel and concrete.
He was much thinner than in the photo, the melancholy in his eyes having turned into a kind of emptiness after everything had burned out.
He raised his hand.
The load-bearing wall of an abandoned factory in the distance turned into a mass of gray dust suspended in the air.
Immediately after, those dust particles, under his will, re-condensed and reshaped, becoming a spire.
The camera zoomed out to reveal the full picture of the ruins.
This place had become Adrian's personal gallery.
Bent rebar was sculpted by him into painful human figures kneeling in prayer.
Broken concrete blocks were reassembled by him into faces wailing toward the sky.
This was an open-air museum, grotesque and magnificent, constructed from destruction and sorrow.
The camera locked onto his largest and most central "work."
It was a statue of a "Weeping Madonna" constructed from countless twisted steel bars and concrete fragments.
The Madonna's form was incomplete.
Her face was hollow, her head bowed, as if weeping for the entire human World.
And the rust seeping from the steel bars was like streaks of blood and tears that never dried, staining the pedestal beneath her red.
A gleam of near-fanatical excitement appeared in Dr. Hannibal Lecter's pupils.
"The pain is sufficiently profound."
"The destruction is full of artistic sense."
"The ideal has shattered, leaving only hatred for structure itself..."
He murmured softly, as if critiquing a peerless masterpiece.
"He is not destroying; he is using his own unique way to find a concrete expression for that unspeakable tragedy."
"This is an uncut gem worth carving."
A rare, pleasant expression appeared on Dr. Hannibal Lecter's face.
He had found it.
He had found the most perfect tragic soul capable of carrying all of Lynn's crazy ideas.
He closed all other files in the database, leaving only the pale and hollow face of Adrian Dubois.
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