A walked forward through the endless white light until the scene before him distorted once more, and he came to a stop.
The break room of the Architecture Team appeared before him again, but compared to yesterday, it was now warped beyond mortal comprehension.
Scattered throughout the room were photos resembling the Sephiroth as seen through the Cognition Filter, yet not quite identical. Distorted containers holding twisted brains were stuck haphazardly into the walls and floor.
A photograph that appeared to be of Carmen hung on a mechanical cabinet covered in tumors and tinged with a decayed blue. The photo caught A's attention. He stepped over the putrid fluids and debris on the floor, making his way toward it.
However, just as he was about to reach it, a young man with long white hair and a proud, confident smile blocked his path.
The man wore a pure white robe, his left arm, covered in tattoos, exposed. He looked A up and down with his yellow eyes before offering a faint greeting:
"Welcome. I have been waiting here for a long, long time."
"Hmph. Utterly boring."
"As you know, the world holds no more amusement for one who knows the highest good."
"Consider this miserable world. 'Singularities' make everything around you fickle and unstable. The 'Wings' control the entire world; no one can survive outside their grasp. Mortals know full well how cruel the Wings are, yet they can only remain silent. Those who refuse to obey are destined to become failures, cast out of this world alone. And this... is your current predicament."
The youth, clad almost entirely in white, spoke eloquently before A. His tone was a mixture of arrogance and pity, but to A, his words were nothing but adolescent pretension, devoid of any real substance.
"This is supposed to be a part of my personality?"
A began to wonder if the young man before him was some kind of prank. He even suspected that Angela or one of the Sephiroth might have disguised themselves as this youth after yesterday's work had ended.
Of course, he knew Angela wasn't capable of such a thing, and the Sephiroth were all "box-heads" who couldn't possibly impersonate someone else. Still, it was incredibly difficult for A to admit that this young man was, in fact, himself.
"What was I in the past? What should I do in the present? Where am I headed in the future? The questions that drive human growth have long since faltered. Mortals are dying, merely scraping by. As I watch this foretold decline, the hollowness in my heart is beyond words."
A's face was tense as he stared at the young man. An overwhelming sense of second-hand embarrassment made him want to curse internally. However, he could only face this personality head-on, enduring the torment of his own cringe.
At that moment, he even began to miss the monitor he used to direct work. He would rather deal with every Sephirah melting down simultaneously than have a conversation with this pretentious teenager.
But unfortunately, he could only continue to listen...
"And because of this, I discovered it—the 'Light' within the mortal heart. Alas, most people go their entire lives without ever glimpsing it. To forsake reality and pursue falsehoods is truly pathetic. Mortals began to seal this light deep within their hearts."
"And Carmen resolved to draw that light out."
While A was beginning his ordeal of enduring his own teenage persona, Ye Lan awoke from his slumber.
He went through his usual morning routine in the bathroom, and the communicator disguised as a decoration lit up with a new message.
Central's face appeared on the light screen with more bad news. To summarize: he was being abandoned. The organization's operations in the Ruins had led to disastrous consequences. Their actions had drawn the gaze of strange monsters hanging high in the sky. Any living thing they looked upon was twisted and assimilated, becoming part of the Ruins.
"Well, that's rough," Ye Lan commented upon hearing the news.
But looking on the bright side, the organization had abandoned him. In a way, it wasn't much different from being fired. As compensation for being forsaken, the organization would, by regulation, no longer concern itself with his life or death.
While most abandoned agents died at the hands of enemy forces, Ye Lan wouldn't. His mission was infiltration and technology theft. So far, aside from Angela, who was impossible to fool, no one even knew he was an agent.
"Looks like I'll just have to become a librarian with Angela~" he thought to himself.
He left his dormitory and took the elevator to the employee cafeteria. For some reason, all the Sephiroth were present today. The department heads were gathered at one table, chattering loudly about something. Of course, it was mostly the upper-level Sephiroth talking; the others were just listening.
Ye Lan got a plate of Kung Pao chicken over rice from the counter and squeezed into a seat between Hod and Malkuth.
"What's the chat?" he asked as he shoveled rice into his mouth.
Why the company cafeteria served this kind of Chinese dish, and why they served it for breakfast, was a question no one ever thought to ask.
"Little Ye, don't talk while you're eating," Hokma, the head of the Record Team, chided him before going back to quietly listening to Malkuth, who was explaining the contents of the clipboard in her hand.
"In conclusion, based on the records I found, I've discovered something. It's highly likely that WhiteNight, who moved to the Welfare Team on its own today, is an Abnormality extracted based on Ayin as a prototype."
Tiphereth stared at the food on Ye Lan's plate for a long time. Unfortunately, as a box-head, she couldn't share any of it. After a moment, she said to Malkuth, "Wait, so that guy was really that much of a chuuni?"
"Everyone's young once. And all the mistakes and embarrassing history from your youth eventually turn into knives that stab you when you mature," Ye Lan said cryptically, putting down his spoon after finishing his meal. He then stood up, tossed his plate into the recycling bin, and headed for the locker room.
He knew in his heart that as long as he completed today's work, the path to the Seed of Light project would be wide open.
Wide open, really?
As Ye Lan walked into the locker room, he turned his back to the Sephiroth and revealed a dubious smile.
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