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I met Captain not long after I was taken into the facility.

Pandora Institution, Japan Branch, Sector 0. A secret organization dedicated to capturing and sealing away Unknowns—monsters and beings with abnormal powers that appear all over the world.

Their containment facility, which sounded like something straight out of an anime or manga, was a classified zone disguised as an ordinary town, using an entire suburban area of a regional city as cover.

As soon as I was captured by one of their agents, I was immediately taken to Sector 0.

I was locked up in a room I couldn’t open myself. While I sat there, listless and detached, a security detail of mercenaries suddenly appeared before me.

A stylish foreigner, and a mixed bunch of people with complicated pasts. Any one of them could have been “disposed of” at any time, yet they had learned how to live each day to the fullest regardless.

Among them, Captain stood out the most. He dragged me—someone who knew nothing about anything—into an almost-successful escape attempt, introduced me to other Unknowns even though it was prohibited outside of experiments, and pretty much did whatever reckless thing he pleased.

At first, I only went along with him because I was being swept along. But at some point, I realized that around him, I might actually be able to act like the “normal kid” I’d always longed to be… and after that, it started to feel kind of fun.

The reason Captain wasn’t dismissed despite all his antics was partly because none of his stunts ever caused catastrophic damage. Another reason was that I constantly pleaded for him to stay.

But the biggest reason was that Captain and his crew were seasoned veterans, well-connected with the higher-ups… and considered people who didn’t mind risking death at any moment.

Most Unknowns are dangerous. The security detail assigned to a facility that held so many of them was, naturally, a job where dying in the line of duty was an expectation.

Maybe that’s why Captain was always pulling some pretty reckless stunts.

I guess that’s what people mean when they say someone is rushing headlong through life.

■■■

It rained, too, that day.

The weather had been wonderful all morning, but by the time afternoon rolled around, the sky suddenly clouded over and a light drizzle began to fall.

“Ahh, what a shame.”
“…Yeah.”

Captain, who apparently held a decent amount of authority, often managed to wrangle permission for us to go outside.

I’d been baffled that he could get away with so much mischief and still drag staff around like that, but he once gave me a wry smile and said, “There are people who think it’s too dangerous to authorize experiments, but a reckless escort officer’s antics are somewhat inevitable.”

In short, Captain’s “mischief” was apparently considered part of the experiments. I seemed to fall under the category of an “Unknown that can control other Unknowns,” and because I was such a valuable and important experimental sample, careless experiment approvals were apparently off the table.

Seeing that their solution was to forcibly take me outside under the guise of mischief, I could only sigh at how dirty adults could be.

“No helping it, let’s head back inside.”
“Back to grinding, I guess…”

As he roughly ruffled my hair, I turned back toward the entrance to head inside. Just then, I saw a vehicle I didn’t recognize parked in front of the facility.

“…Who’s that? A new staff member or a guest?”
“No such plans on either front… This is Wolf One. Suspicious vehicle spotted at the entrance. Pulling the runt back to a safe zone. Over.”
*“Wolf Four, roger. Over.”*

It seemed this was one of those “uninvited guests.” Following Captain, whose expression had shifted to his work face, I started walking back into the facility.

“So a guest, then?”
“Quit with the wordplay, you’re a hundred years too early for that.”
“If Lenny’s a proper Englishman, a little sarcasm shouldn’t be too much to ask.”
“Island nation or not, you’re Japanese, aren’t you? Come on, get in.”

I slip past Captain, who’s holding the elevator door open, and step into the cramped box. When I glance back, what I see is a squad in something like powered suits smashing down the front door.

The crash and shock from the impact reach us even here.

“Reckless f̲u̲c̲k̲e̲r̲s̲! Which occult group are they!?”

The Pandora Institution’s goal is to secure and contain anomalous objects and entities. Some Unknowns aren’t just dangerous but also useful, but their stance is to seal anything they can, regardless.

But there are people in the world who think that if there’s a powerful magical item out there, it ought to be used. Organizations like that are a dime a dozen, but they’re all lumped together under the name Occultists.

Naturally, the conflicting stances of these two groups often clash, and minor skirmishes aren’t uncommon. Raids like this one are basically a common occurrence—it should have been.

The reason security details like Captain’s team are necessary is to protect me from occults like them.

“Damn it! Do they even realize where the hell they’re attacking!?”

Captain scrambles in, jabs the button for the tenth basement floor, and mashes the “close” button. The squad in power suits vanishes behind the narrowing doors.

A moment later, a sense of weightlessness washes over me. The elevator’s moving.

The Japan Branch’s Sector 0 is a rather special place. It’s where the most dangerous Unknowns discovered in and around Japan are sent.

And the reason for that is me.

There are some of them that my supposed ability doesn’t seem to affect, though I’m not even aware of it myself. But most Unknowns will listen to me if I ask.

If they’re animals or have some kind of will, they might even become my “friends.” If they’re objects, they’ll stop exerting any harmful effects that could involve me.

The reason I ended up confined here has everything to do with that.

The first time I encountered someone from the Institution was when I was around five years old. My mother, who had been away for several months, came home for the first time in a while, and I couldn’t stay at the apartment anymore. And so I wandered around town with my dog.

Apparently, the dog I had back then had been an Unknown, and when someone from the Institution spotted me wandering, they captured us both.

I hadn’t felt comfortable at home anyway, and later I heard that my mother was relieved when she thought we’d gone missing. Looking back now, I guess it was a blessing in disguise.

Both for me who had no place to belong, and for my mother too.

Her problem child has now grown into a full-fledged shut-in gamer, trading my ability for every convenience I could get. I can’t help but wonder what kind of person I’d have become if I’d never met Captain.

“They sure seem desperate to get their hands on our little squirt.”
“Guess I’m in my popular phase, huh?”
“Color me f̲u̲c̲k̲i̲n̲g jealous.”

Captain cracks a joke as he flicks the safety off the handgun he drew from his coat.
He says it’s important for adults to maintain a calm demeanor at times like this.

As long as I stay mentally composed, Unknowns tend to remain relatively friendly toward humans.

A stone statue that used to snap human bones the instant it left your line of sight started playing “Red Light, Green Light” instead.

A monster that ate people learned to somewhat restrain its appetite for human flesh. A tool that had once led to unavoidable deaths while offering benefits now barely provides only the benefits.

For those who deal with such entities, simply having me around is useful.

Well, things aren’t quite that simple, though.

There had been a researcher who argued that if my mental stability was the key, they should just surgically implant electrodes in my brain to keep me calm at all times.

Naturally, there were also those—among them the head researcher of Sector 0—who opposed the idea, saying, “This is a one-of-a-kind specimen; once it’s damaged, there’s no replacing it.”

After much heated debate, that researcher exploited a gap during a guard rotation to forcibly drug me and drag me to the operating room without permission.

The researcher seemed to believe that as long as they produced results, convincing everyone else afterward would be easy.

They weren’t exactly wrong; had the procedure succeeded, there was a real chance their little transgression might have been overlooked.

From my perspective, though, it meant being cut open while fully conscious—because they said they’d be tampering with a delicate part of me—and I was trembling with terror at such an inhumane treatment.

To monitor my reactions, they avoided using general anesthesia. Forced to stay awake and watch as they prepared for surgery, I, being only seven or eight years old at the time, completely lost it.

The result: Sector 0 was partially destroyed.

Not only did my dog, Kuro, and my other “friends” respond to my mental breakdown, but several non-human-type Unknowns also went berserk in reaction to my fear. Following their lead, numerous other Unknowns began escaping, plunging the entire sector into utter chaos.

I fainted from the sheer terror. By the time I came to I was in Captain’s arms, being carried around as he ran from rampaging Unknowns. The rampage was only barely suppressed once I regained consciousness and returned to my guardian’s side, calming down in the process… but the damage was catastrophic.

Dozens of confirmed deaths, over a thousand missing. And if you count those whose very memories were overwritten, there were even more victims.

The additional task force sent in was nearly wiped out. Around half of the Unknowns that went berserk remained uncontained and vanished without a trace.

The remaining staff members—including the one who caused the incident—were eventually found beneath the rubble of the operating room. It seemed they had remained alive in that state until the rampage was finally subdued.

It was nothing short of a massacre. That’s the only way to describe the scars that incident left behind. From that point on, the organization kept any action involving me to an absolute minimum.

As a side effect, my petitions and requests started being granted much more easily after the incident. Not that I could possibly feel happy about that, considering the cost.

I couldn’t allow myself to be shaken unnecessarily. I couldn’t afford to act carelessly.

If anything happened, the Unknowns who responded to me would go berserk again.

Even if something happened to the friendly guards who looked after me, I had to keep my mind calm and steady.

“Let’s go. Keep up.”
“I know.”

At last, the elevator reached its intended floor. The doors opened, revealing a white corridor. Captain stepped out first, gun at the ready, scanning the hallway before I followed him.

When we finally reached my room, all the guards were already gathered there.

They were all capable bodyguards. I figured, just like always, they’d fend off the intruders and it would all be over. With that thought in mind, I started to step into my room—and then the ground shook violently with a deafening boom.¹　

■■■

“Alice, you okay?”
“…Mm.”

When I opened my eyes, Sufi was leaning over me, peering into my face with worry. Looks like I’d been dreaming again.

“You were tossing and turning.”
“…Had a bad dream.”

Sufi gently stroked my head, and for a moment I felt like crying, but I bit down hard on my lip instead.

It really was a horrible dream. A dream about the day I died in my previous life. I can’t remember everything, but I know something awful happened.²　

That day was rainy too, just like today.

The sky I could see through the collapsed ceiling was filled with gray clouds. It didn’t seem like the rain was going to stop anytime soon.