Amour Propre (OMORI)

Necrogenesis

Dell wiped his brow as he finished filling another tube of transfer fluid. "Biran is–" he began to ask, but Biran interrupted.

"Herring's back. He's got a corpse."

Dell smirked to himself, "Fantastic." A few moments later, Herring came through the doorway with a cart. The kind you'd usually see in a hotel. There was a pile of boxes on the cart. "Is... you better have kept the body in one piece, boy." His southern drawl creeping into his voice right next to anger.

"It's in the bottom box. I had to make it look natural that I was carting it around. It's in one piece," Herring assured.

Dell's frown dissipated, and he sighed with relief. "Good man," he said, patting Herring on the back, "Let's get the thing hooked up to the machine."

The two men unloaded the boxes from the cart until the bottom box was accessible. At which point, they opened the box, hoisted out the corpse, and placed it in the seat of the machine. "This body belonged to a person with a quirk, right?"

Herring shrugged in response. "Well, here's hoping, then," Dell said as he pulled out a cigarette box. He offered one to Herring silently after placing one in his own mouth.

"Oh, sorry, I don't smoke," Herring said while shaking his head. Dell shrugged and lit his cigarette with a candle lighter he left nearby.

"Don't worry about the smoke. There's a vent on the ceiling," he explained before taking a drag. He tapped the side of his cigarette on the ashtray, then left it as he walked over to the machine, which had the corpse successfully strapped in, and pulled a lever. On a person, this would take their quirk and seemingly store it in the transfer fluid. He needed to check if it worked on the dead, too. Just in case.

Surprisingly, the fluid began to glow after the machine whirred for a few seconds. Dell smiled, a bit surprised at the successful quirk stealing. "Looks like this is gonna work even better than how I thought it would. Ain't that a gem?" Dell clapped his hands together, then stretched his palms. "Let's put that quirk back in."

He pulled the lever to activate the machine once more. Whirring filled the room once more and then stopped. The fluid was still glowing. "Did... did it not work..?" Dell asked, completely dumbfounded that he could've been wrong.

The corpse stood up.

Dell almost jumped out of his skin, as did Herring. The only one in the room who seemed unfazed was Biran. "Looks like something worked, Dell," Biran casually pointed out.

The corpse remained standing upright, taking no action. "Hello?" Dell cautiously spoke to it.

The reanimated man said nothing. It sat there, mouth slightly open and yellowish eyes vacant.

Dell held out his hand. "...if you can hear me, shake my hand."

The zombified man shook his hand intensely. "STOP, STOP!" Dell begged. The zombie stopped, and Dell held his arm, now hurt by the violent handshake.

"Hold on, Dell. I think this thing will do anything anyone says." Biran suggested.

Dell nodded. "I figure you're right, Biran. Try it out, Herring. Tell him to do something," Dell directed his subordinate.

Doing as ordered, Herring quickly said the first thing that came to mind. "Uh... high five?" He said, holding up his hand.

The reanimated corpse slammed his greyish hand into Herring's as hard as possible, knocking him to the ground. Dell snickered a bit, "Yep, looks like the thing will do anything anyone says. This is fantastic!"

Biran was skeptical, "Doesn't that mean they'll do anything the heroes say as well?"

"You know, deaf people can still feel vibrations. If close enough to their brain, it could almost simulate hearing," Dell explained, "If we get the right vibrations to simulate a voice telling them what to do, then we can eliminate the problem at the source."

"What, destroy their eardrums?" Herring asked, cringing at the idea of seeing such a thing.

"They ain't alive, so why not? That'd make them real useful with their quirks and their strength. Herring, you're being trained as a doctor... you can identify quirks, right?"

"Er... rudimentarily, kinda..." Herring responded nervously. He moved towards the zombie before looking around. "Do you have a quark detector around here?"

"Son, do I look like a physician? Why in Sam Hill would I have a quark detector?" Dell asked.

Herring gave an awkward smile, "R-Right. Uh... I'll see if I can buy one online."

"I'll find one, I'll find one. Nothin' about ordering that would compromise our operation. I'll figure out what to do with our zombie friend for the time being," Dell said with his hands on his hips.

Dell took only a moment before opening a nearby closet space, expected to be used by janitorial staff. "Hide in here, would you?"

The zombie obeyed. It walked into the closet, went into the corner, and hunched down into a seated position to make itself as small as possible. It kept perfectly still, making Dell hum with surprise, "He's good."

After shutting the closet door on the zombie, Dell turned to Herring. "Alright, let's go over what we're gonna do on the day of the festival, we have to send a message... wait, Geralt was supposed to stop by today and bring those two sprouts. Damn it, Geralt..."

Dell and Herring left the room, Herring following Dell like a lost puppy. They entered the main room, a bar area leftover from previous owners. He grabbed the landline and began to dial Geralt's latest throwaway number.

Before he finished dialling, there was a knock on the door. Dell knew he had to be cautious when someone knocked, so he moved to the front door to answer it himself. The man opened the door and was greeted by a grey haired man.

"There you are, Geralt, you late bastard. Where's the ones joining us?"  Dell asked his old business partner. Geralt gave a tooth grin before his reply, his small black pencil mustache contrasting with the white of his teeth.

"They're comin' up behind me. Told them to walk far apart from me, don't want any suspicion cast on me after you finish with whatever crazy plans you have goin' on," he said, stroking his beard. He signalled whoever was behind him to come and then stepped aside.