[Lobotomy] Why am I an Abnormality?

Tea! Party - 17

It took him a few minutes to arrive, perhaps because he was coming from the Safety Team to the Welfare Team. When he came yesterday for work, he came straight from Central Command after finishing him tasks, so did he come faster then?

As I was thinking this, having finished preparing for the tea party and sitting down, the closed isolation room door opened, and the employee I saw yesterday entered.

"Gemini of the Safety Team, I will proceed with the tea party operation for O-01-25."



His expression is worse than when I first saw him. Is this natural, and were the Evangelina employee and the other office workers I saw earlier the strange ones? If they are people who know what I've done, it would be natural for them to make such a face. I should be grateful they're not cursing at me.



Just as I was about to feel a little down, Gemini, for some reason, just stood there awkwardly after informing the manager via radio that he was starting the operation. Is there some intention behind it? Or, perhaps?



"Hmm? I'm just asking, just in case... you do know what a tea party is, right?"


"...!"



At my words, his face turned slightly red, and he moved his still legs to sit in the chair in front of me. No, I wasn't trying to tease him... maybe Mika's way of speaking made it sound like I was teasing him, further ruining my already ruined image.





"......"



"......"

It became awkward after I asked if he knew about tea parties. The atmosphere turned sour. Did I sound too dismissive? But if we just stare at each other awkwardly like this, it wouldn't be a tea party, would it? Still, this is an operation, so I can't just stay like this. I mustered my courage.

"Ahaha☆ Do you have any favorite type of tea? I think we have most kinds, so feel free to tell me!"

"...Then, anything that's the most delicious."

That's the most difficult answer. But honestly, I don't know which tea is the most delicious either, so I just chose a pretty-colored one and brewed black tea. If it's black tea made by Mika, it must be delicious! I've never tried it, though.

I placed the carefully brewed tea in front of him. And I looked at him with expectant eyes. As I kept looking at him with sparkling eyes, Gemini avoided my gaze. Moreover, he wasn't drinking the tea.

"Is it because you think it won't taste good? I can guarantee the taste, you know☆"

"..."

When I said that, he looked at me with a distrustful expression. Does he think it's poisoned? Now that I think about it, maybe one shouldn't accept anything offered by an abnormality. Or, if I think of it in terms of the Lobotomy Corporation game, you shouldn't just eat it. Employees who eat it usually end up in a terrible state... I felt somewhat sorry.




"It's okay if you don't drink it! It was just a suggestion, not a demand, after all."

After responding to him with a smile, I drank the black tea in front of me.

?

What is this ambiguous taste? I was flustered as soon as I drank the black tea. It's not completely tasteless, but it's not well-brewed either. In fact, I've never had black tea before, but it felt like Mika's taste buds were screaming that.

I elegantly put down the teacup I had elegantly lifted. It's not that I don't want to drink it, but I don't particularly want to either.

"Yeah, you're right. It's better not to drink this black tea."

"What?"

When I said that, he seemed a little flustered.

"I-It's a tea party, but you don't have to drink tea...!"

"Is that so?"

It's fortunate that Gemini doesn't know much. Honestly, I don't know much about tea parties either, but it's a relief that he seems to know even less. I could pass it off naturally.

"Yes☆ Just talking to each other! Icebreaking is enough!"

"I don't think we have anything to talk about."

"..."

"..."

With his one sentence, the atmosphere completely froze again. I sipped the black tea again in the awkward atmosphere. Even if the taste is ambiguous, I drank a cup. Maintaining that strange atmosphere, at the manager's words that the operation was complete, he immediately left the isolation room.

He, he really hated it...

I looked at the isolation room door he had exited, then at the cooled black tea in front of me, and in front of where Gemini had been sitting. The isolation room, left alone like the cooled black tea, felt somehow lonely. Is it because of the bright atmosphere of the tea party table? Somehow...

"It feels nostalgic."

I don't have any memories of tea parties or tea ceremonies, but for some reason, the feeling of nostalgia kept surfacing. Is this the emotion Misono Mika is feeling?










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The manager, looking at the E-Box that came out from O-01-25's tea party operation, said.

"Even for a normal section, if it's this much production... it would be ALEPH grade."

Angela responded to his words with a slight nod. The manager swept his hair back and let out a sigh.

"Why does it seem like ALEPH grades come to our company so often?"

"Perhaps it is fate, Manager?"

"... Now that you mention the grade, a question arises. I don't want to contradict your opinion, Angela, but is it okay to let an ALEPH grade abnormality roam so freely?"

X mostly accepted Angela's opinions, but this time, he felt a little doubtful. He felt like his heart wouldn't be at ease unless he resolved this doubt, so unlike usual, he expressed his opinion to Angela.

"As you have seen, Manager, the isolation room door cannot stop her. It's inefficient to keep issuing suppression orders every time she escapes. Moreover, based on my observations, unless we issue a suppression order first, she is quite docile, like the Judgement Bird abnormality."

He responded to Angela's words with a nod, without saying anything. Angela continued.

"And have you forgotten how your employees were helplessly defeated yesterday?"

"...That's right."

The manager remembers better than anyone how the employees were helplessly defeated yesterday. After hearing her response, he silently looked back at the monitor for abnormality management. Then, as if another question came to mind, X spoke to Angela behind him.

"You must have felt it too, Malkuth's condition hasn't been good lately. Is there a problem?"

"It's not a big problem. If you resolve it, Manager, she will surely be fine."

"...?"

At that time, the manager didn't understand Angela's words, but soon enough, he would come to know their meaning. Of course, forcibly.