Hamazura Shiage was in a very large space.
The job that remained for him after having escaped the pursuer from School was to incinerate some unknown object.
He was in an old abandoned building that wasn't used anymore. In the middle of the remnants of one of the building's floors, a huge device sat as if enshrined. The container-sized mass of thick metal was an electric furnace normally used to dispose of lab animals. It used an enormous heat of approximately 3500 degrees to sterilize and destroy the animal corpses, and the various germs they may have.
"…How is this thing getting its power? I doubt plugging it into the wall would suffice," Hamazura mumbled while looking at the large out-of-place device.
His job was simple.
He would open the metal cover that had a huge wheel on it like the door to a large vault, throw a black sleeping bag inside, close the metal cover again, and then operate the electric furnace. And it was preset, so all operating it involved was pressing the conspicuous red ignition button.
It was best not to think about what was in the bag.
Mugino Shizuri of Item had told him as much.
And Hamazura thought it was good advice.
A subordinate like Hamazura didn't think too much about what the secret organizations like Item and School did. He was only there because it was necessary in order to survive in the city.
(…)
But as he felt an oddly raw weight in the black bag and felt the soft texture of a thick synthetic cloth when he grabbed it, the face of someone he had never met appeared in the back of his mind. Hamazura tried to shake it away, then threw the bag into the furnace and both shut and locked the thick metal cover.
Now he only had to press the red button.
The electrically created 3500 degree heat would dispose of the body, destroy the genetic information, and turn a human into nothing but ash in no time.
Hamazura thought for a second about the person in the bag, but he still brought his thumb up to the button.
He tried not to think about anything at all and all expression left his face.
That scared him a bit and his fingertips began trembling. When they did, the bottom of his thumb pressed the red button without him meaning to.
The "disposal" began with a low rumbling noise.
Hamazura stared at it without saying a word and finally took a step or two back before sitting down on the dust-covered floor.
"…"
Who had been in that bag?
It may have been a subordinate just like him and it may have been a major esper. It wasn't necessarily a kid and he couldn't rule out the possibility that it was an adult. It was probably an enemy, but Mugino very well could have killed an ally who screwed up. He didn't know the circumstances surrounding the person's death and it even could have been someone completely unrelated who happened to get caught up in it all.
And it was all being burned away to nothing.
Inside the thick metal device, a human was turning into something completely different.
Once the person became "ash" and was no longer legally recognized as a "human", they would have disappeared without a trace. They might be thrown into the automated kitchen waste device, churned up, and shipped off as fertilizer. Even if "ash" was found in the trash, it wouldn't be treated as having been a person. A body that had lost all genetic information wouldn't be acceptable as material evidence.
"Hamazura."
Hamazura Shiage heard a voice call out to him from behind, but he still didn't move for a bit.
The electric furnace emitted a high-pitched beeping and a symbol indicating the incineration was complete appeared on the monitor.
"Hamazura. What's wrong?"
The person calling out to him from behind was Takitsubo Rikou of Item.
Her esper name was AIM Stalker.
Unlike Hamazura, she had a Level 4 power.
He would probably have gone down the wrong path with power like that, but he was still quite envious.
"…What exactly is a human life?" Hamazura said while staring blankly towards the furnace.
It wasn't the first time he had seen a corpse, but he still felt a great weight in his chest.
"Damn it. When did a Level 0 life become such a cheap thing…?"
He heard the girl's voice call his name again.
He ignored her, got up, and opened the cover to the furnace in order to gather up the ash.
Hamazura Shiage's job wasn't over yet.