" Every Abnormality may not have a reason to exist, but they all have a will to persist "
X closed the folder, leaning back into his chair. His eyes closed, hands drumming a random tune.
-Manager?
From behind him, a woman dressed into a neat lab coat, who could have been called a doll if she stood still, decided to ask about his thoughts. This wasn't curiosity or concern on her part, though.
She, frankly, couldn't care less.
The tune he drummed? She had heard it a thousand times before.
The pose he took? She had seen him take this position over a million times at this point.
She could name the exact number.
But her processing powers, as per her programming, had to be put into figuring out why the biomonitoring system showed slight peaks in his brain activity, largely similar to those registering when someone is concerned and/or is bothered by something.
So she did.
-Hm? What is it, Angela?
-Was something in the file of concern to you?
The chair now had all four of its legs on the floor as X stood up and started pacing around the room.
On her part, Angela took notice of several other spikes of brain activity. Mostly related to thinking.
The man made a few more steps, before turning to her, eyes unfocused, deep in thought.
-Where do the abnormalities come from, Angela?
She tilted her head slightly, before giving a response she had already given 1176 times.
-I believe Binah has already…
-No, I ask what exactly Abnormalities are, and not the roundabout way of saying: collective unconsciousness.
This was within expected parameters. This had happened 363 times already.
-Unfortunately, Manager, I cannot give you an answer.
-You don't want to or you don't know?
She stood silent for a second.
-The later.
It failed to sate his curiosity.
-And the "meadow" that she mentioned... Do you know what that is?
This was the fifth time this question was uttered.
-I do not know. Here, in Lobotomy corporation, while we have extensive research on the subject, we do not have the means to safely peer into the "well" as Binah called it.
-Hm,-X was clearly not happy with that answer. He sat back on his chair, but before returning to managing abnormalities, he asked one last question.
-And what if humanity disappears? What happens to the "Well" and the "Meadow"?
This was something new.
-Unknown.
-And what are your thoughts on the subject?-he said, between giving out commands and monitoring different works being done.
He must be really curious if he is asking her, a "machine" for an opinion.
However, she was just as curious, which is why she didn't shut his line of questioning.
Theories filled her head.
The stream might be gone, but what of the meadow, something that was collecting humanity's nature for centuries?
Will it dry out in time? Or will the formless boundaries holding it together fall apart, under the persistent charge of remaining human will, murky and impure as it is? Eventually starting a new stream. Although, just a shadow of the original, whatever remains, will try to steer itself to survive. After all, human consciousness might be a stream, but the qualities of it are not akin to water.
It will be bound by an endless desire to survive, inherited from its progenitor.
Who might not have reason to exist.
But enough will to persist.
For X, it might have been a second.
Angela had a hundred to figure out her answer.
-I do not have enough data to make an accurate prediction, however… I think it will persist, in some kind of form.
It was a completely illogical statement, spoken by what was supposed to be a perfect machine.
Yet Angela believed it.
She had witnessed the tenacity a human can exhibit. Clerks, agents, sephirah. Most of it might be second hand for her. She was a bystander for many a carnage in this facility, some, she was the direct instigator of, but she had an ample opportunity to witness the perseverance a human can show in face of something beyond them. Even if she had to rip their hopes in the bud.
But... She deserved to be called that as well. For all the millions of years of suffering. Where even with her eyes closed she was forced to watch. And could never go crazy.
And if whatever part of her was part of the stream flowing down the City… she was sure it would go out kicking and screaming, fighting to survive.
Hm, now this was a very silly thing to imagine.
With a hum of acknowledgment, X proceeded with the day. Angela stood beside him.
…It was going to be over soon. There were only ten days of the cycle left.
******
"The meadow" as Binah called it, was a place where humanity's darkest desires resided. The most broken and unspoken. The more questionable and incomprehensible. Daydreams and bad memories. Excessive devotion and complete apathy.
A paradoxical place where absolute purity could neighbor the filthiest of emotions.
It was all here. And it wanted a way out.
And when Alaya bit the dust along with humanity, it found itself free to do as it pleased.
There was a caveat, however.
There was no concept to latch itself onto. No solid form to take. No mystery associated with it. Moreover, the rules of the world could not permit its existence.
Until someone came. Someone who had a concept for it.
And how fortunate it was, that not only had it now a concept, but also a "place" that, just like them, should not exist.
For the odds to coincide so… some might say that it was fate.
They couldn't manifest all at once, no. But the rare drops that had a sense of familiarity with the one who understood what they were, they could freely leave.
The Grand Order now had a new variable in its proceedings.
********
Cu Chulainn Alter walked the bloodied plains with practised ease.
This wasn't the first time he traversed a gory battlefield. His eyes, scanning the surroundings, showed no aversion at his fellows dying a torturous death. Some had their throats torn, others had their insides spilled. Limbs scattered, faces of the fallen strained with… fright.
Yes, something that was supposed to be impossible to accomplish, their summoned warriors to be scared. Something that was not put in them in the first place.
Yet the thing prowling this plains had it in its very nature to make someone who had no fear by definition, experience it.
In the past, Cu would have grinned at the prospect of facing one such foe. With giddiness in his step, an excited gleam in his eye.
Now it was all removed, leaving only a "King". Who had shed not a tear for those who had passed and paid their bodies no heed.
*MUNCH-MUNCH*
Vultures fed on the remains… all of them staying away from the part of the field ahead.
Silent, Berserker trod forward, his spear appearing in his hand, thrumming with power and bloodlust.
-Rrrgh!- as Cu looked up ahead, his eyes crossed with the beast ahead, a low growl escaping the creature's mouth.
He spun his spear, his stance now guarded, ready for battle.
Likewise, the wolf did the same.
A second passed between them, before a hound and a wolf tore at each other's throats.
The later found itself overwhelmed in less than a minute. The prey… nay, the hunter in front of it was a ferocious beast not unlike itself, doing what needed to be done. His movement precise, his stance not showing a minute weakness, spearwork ferocious.
And the man was holding back, that it knew.
The wounds covered its already bloodied and scarred body, its eyes blazing with azure, with each strike making it more desperate, the thirst, to feast on the stranger's flesh pushing it forward when it should have retreated.
It never retreated. Not when the blasted Hood came for its scalp, not when it battled the Red Haired woman.
The end of the battle was abrupt. With a swipe of the spear, the wolf lost its footing, the stranger quickly mounting it. It tried to bite into his arm, but instead bit into his spear.
Cu started to pull the spear on one side, aiming to make the mutt's neck snap by letting go, making the physics wring its neck. Just what he did many years ago…
And as the wolf's neck turned to face Cu, two single-minded creatures stared each other in the eye.
The King that was destined to be one, regardless of his choice. And who found no joy in it.
A Wolf, that will always be bad. Destined to feast on everyone, out of its nature. And because it had never known better.
The moment wasn't long. Yet a tacit understanding of each other passed between them. A comradery of creatures devoid of choice. And they were willing to play their roles until the end.
-I will spare you if you join me. You are strong, and I will let you fight opponents just as strong. In exchange, you will be guarding my queen. Understood?
A small nod let him know that the Wolf was now on his side. Recognizing the man as a predator both stronger and more respectful than itself.
It wanted nothing more than to tear into man's throat, continue its assault.
But its instincts screamed danger.
And wolf respected those stronger. If only to overcome them later.
Slowly, Cu turned the neck back to how it was supposed to be. The wolf let go of the spear. They stood up silently, without any words exchanged and trod back to Washington.