#yehidah

As requested, you gathered in Yehidah’s office. He hadn’t left his office since the meeting ended, and before you’d seen him looking paler than before, older than you remember. But now, he seemed perfectly calm, seated at his desk. Just quietly watching you until everyone remaining had gathered before him.

Once present, he started speaking slowly.

“The choice we have in front of us is a simple one.”

He leaned forward a little, sighing.

“Having come this far, do we continue forward and chance breaking the cycle? Or do we return to the beginning, when things were safer and you were ignorant to the darker truths of this reality?”

Looking you over again, his face grew darker.

“In truth, we’ve made it to this point only a few times before. And each time, there has been significant loss to get here. So the question becomes - why should we continue? When we could simply continue this cycle, live in ignorance, but together with those we still have? When the alternative is stumbling blindly forward into the darkness, attempting to follow an unclear trail left behind by those long past?”

His tone had quickened somewhat, though he didn’t seem to realize it.

“Perhaps Ms. Natsugi had the right idea all along. If the cycle always leads us to such misery, is it even worth breaking?”

He lowered his head into his hands a moment, sighing.

“Outside is an imperfect world at best, a cruel and unforgiving world at worst. But you need not fear the ticking clock at the end of the line in these halls. In the end, I will always be here. prepared to see you off back to the beginning.”

Standing up, he crossed his arms.

“You never were ready to see this through, anyways. And you never will be.”

He waits for you to leave. But you remain. So many of you had wished for an end to this misery, had deemed the world not worth the pain without those who were lost. But yet here you stand, holding your ground.

“Why do you stay here? There isn’t much time left, before we reach the end of this cycle. So isn’t it better to go back now of our own will, before we are forced to by the inevitability of time?”

You waited, uncertain how to answer that question. He waited as well, silence falling over the room. After a bit, his will gave way first.

“I lost my daughters to this project. You still have the luxury of being able to see those lost to this place again, when tomorrow comes. I am not afforded such a luxury. Even face to face with the being created in their image, I can never truly see them again. So why are you still here? It’s time for you to leave.”

He turned toward the door, gesturing towards it. But you remain.

“Do you really insist on seeing what lies at the bitter end of this cycle?”

Yehidah glares back at you.

“If you really intend to do so, then I will be forced to stand in your way, and stop you. Return to the cycle, and forget this pain. For your own good.”

==============================================

Yehidah sighs and rests his elbows on his desk.

“I understand there have been several pressing questions on your mind of late… Namely, the ordeals, the trials afterwards, and the summary executions after.”

He takes a deep breath, before starting.

“We should start chronologically, then, with these ordeals. Allow me to recap what you understand about them so far. They have similar properties to that of abnormalities. They appear with no clear frequency, and with minimal warning. They are uncontainable.”

He nods.

“Let’s start with that for now. I’ve explained how we extract abnormalities from the river of subconscious deep below the earth. But occasionally something else is drawn along with an abnormality or EGO gear. Like how occasionally you reel in a fish and pull in a mess of seaweed as well.” He chuckles, before letting the humor quickly fade from his face. “These concentrated drawings, unfortunately, are nigh impossible to contain when they get drawn in through our bucket. And as such, they begin manifesting in our halls nigh instantly when it happens. At best, we can detect when we’re reeling in something extra now, at least giving us some forewarning.”

A pause, to collect his thoughts.

“I am going to skip over the trials we hold in favor of talking about the summary execution afterwards. Let me explain one thing about the ordeals - they are concentrated pieces of human subconscious, and as such, can exert a powerful influence on humans. Consequently, it can also be affected by humans in the area, as well.”

He leans forward, eyes staring you down.

“Case in point - one of the earliest points we were affected by an ordeal, we lost an employee before we were able to suppress the ordeal itself. Two weeks later, a new ordeal broke free, devoured employee N, and rampaged throughout the facility, killing twelve of you.”

A slow, tired sigh.

“Further analysis of that incident indicated that employee N murdered this employee during the ordeal. And given that the later ordeal targeted them personally, we came to the conclusion that the ordeal reacted to N’s guilt, feeding on it, before finally breaking free and going on a rampage.”

He crossed his arms, glaring across at you.

“So this is why we started holding meetings afterwards when someone turns up dead. Because letting this guilt linger and fester only brought about large-scale disaster in our halls. But if we could identify the culprit in advance, we could contain the resulting abnormality before it gets out of control.” His stern glare fades into… sadness? “I am aware it is barbaric of us, we are complicit in this, but I assure you… the alternative is far, far worse.”

Sitting up a little, his professional expression returned.

“So I understand if you want to hate us. I will not blame you in the slightest. However, I just want you to understand that the only way out of this, for any of you to survive in any meaningful way, is to see this project through into the end. We are closer than we’ve been in a long time.”

A hint of sadness comes over his expression once more.