In Kaien City, covered by a special mist, the morning sun never rises.
Even at high noon, only a dim, hazy light illuminated the city.
That was why, by four in the morning, regardless of the season, the surroundings were still pitch-black, with only special streetlights engraved with syntax standing here and there, casting their lonely glow.
“Hah, hah, hah—”
Senano was running alone along the still dim road.
Wrapped in her usual training wear, she ran through the maze-like city at a steady pace.
From time to time, human figures appeared ahead of her on the road. An old man walking with newspapers under his arm, a merchant pushing up a shutter to open shop, a sleepy-looking young person hurrying along their commuting route.
Without averting her gaze, the girl lightly dipped her head or gave a faint smile in the brief instant as she passed them by.
A sight you could find in any town.
And yet, every last one of them was someone connected to the irregularity of this world known as Aberrant Entities.
In the midst of the silence, the city was gradually regaining the rhythms of human life.
To an outside observer, the scene of people beginning their activities in what looked like the middle of the night was somewhat strange.
“Senano-senpai!”
Hearing a voice from behind, Senano slowed down just a little.
Before long, a small girl appeared beside her.
The blue-haired girl, dressed in slightly oversized training wear, looked up at Senano with her ponytail swaying.
Perhaps because she had already been running for quite a while, her cheeks were flushed and her breathing was slightly ragged.
“Oh my, isn’t that Hakane. That’s unusual, being out at this hour.”
“Senano-senpai, you finally made S-Class, didn’t you? So I thought this Kuchiha Hakane had to work hard too! I decided I’m going to do double the training starting today!”
“…Ah.”
Senano let out an awkward sound.
Then, after hesitating for a moment, she began apologetically.
“Actually, I’m still not S-Class.”
“Eh…”
Startled, Hakane nearly stumbled, but she quickly regained her footing and caught up again.
Then she looked at Senano uneasily.
“Did you fail? But even so, you’re completely unharmed, or rather… honestly, if you failed and still made it back alive, that would be amazing in its own way!”
“Ahaha, actually, by the time I got there, the target was already gone. I couldn’t even take the test in the first place.”
“So that’s what happened!”
Hakane’s expression visibly brightened as she nodded.
In her eyes, the color of admiration shone strongly. Understanding that perfectly well, Senano put on a self-satisfied smile.
“Hmph, as if I’d ever fail. Besides, I’m busy with a special mission right now. I can’t tell you the details yet, but… well, it’s a direct request from the Enri Agency!”
“From the Enri Agency!? That’s amaz—”
“Hmph, of course it is! I’m an elite, after all!”
“As expected of Senano-senpai, you really are top-class…”
Hakane looked at the girl she aspired to become and renewed her determination, while Senano felt rather pleased with herself.
With their interests aligned, the two smiled brightly at each other.
“Oh, speaking of which, did you hear, Senano-senpai? That rumor about the Aberrant Entity that completely wiped out two entire professional Enri Bearer teams.”
“You still love rumors as much as ever. There’s no way something like that could happen.”
Senano dismissed it without even giving it much thought.
The very person who had brought up the rumor apparently did not truly believe it either, because she laughed and said, “Right?”
“There’s no way professionals would lose twice. Once they observe it, they’d be able to establish a method to deal with it.”
“So then, what exactly is the story behind that rumor?”
“Huh, even if you think it’s impossible, you’re still curious?”
“It’s just about right as something to listen to like background radio.”
Saying that, Senano gave a light, playful shrug.
However, instead of slowing down, the speed of her running increased even more, and Hakane was barely able to keep up.
Trying to cover for the fact that her legs were starting to fall behind, Hakane somehow steadied her breathing and began to speak.
“So apparently, there were these strange blank spots in the Enri Bearer database, enough for two teams’ worth of people. It was like someone had been registered there until now.”
“It was probably just the observation team slacking off.”
“But apparently, around the same time, two blank observation points were found in Aberrant Entity surveillance. Doesn’t it line up if the Enri Bearers who disappeared had been managing those two places until then?”
“And which prefecture, exactly, were those blank points in?”
“…Iwate Prefecture.”
With the face of a magician whose trick had been exposed, Hakane confessed.
Hearing that, Senano reacted exactly as if it were what she had expected all along.
“It’s always there, isn’t it? The place is pointlessly huge, so blank spots get found there all the time. Aberrant Entities also show up there in one of the highest numbers in Japan, so the observation districts are split up in fine detail and updated practically every month.”
“That’s true, but still! Then then, do you know this rumor!?”
“You really never get tired of one after another, do you.”
“—That there’s a calamity-lord-class in this city right now.”
“!?”
Senano almost let out a sound, but she forcibly held it back and looked up at the sky so her expression would not be read.
The dim, heavy clouds stretching across her entire field of vision helped calm her heart.
“T-There’s no way that’s true.”
“That’s what I thought too. But apparently there are rumors like that among the operator teams.”
“Hmm.”
Senano deliberately increased her pace even further.
She absolutely could not let her junior read anything from her expression. That pride worked unconsciously through her actions.
“W-Whoa, Senano-senpai, you’re fast…”
“Good grief, it still seems too early for you to see real combat. Build up more stamina. If you’re going to handle NARROW, then at minimum you need to be able to run this much.”
“Cough, uugh…”
Hakane tried to keep up, but her legs quickly failed her and the distance between them widened.
Without even turning around, Senano lightly raised a hand and waved it flutteringly in farewell.
“Well then, let’s meet again at this time tomorrow. Assuming you’re not too sore.”
“Uugh, see you tomorrow—!”
All Hakane could do was shout that with every bit of bravado she could muster.
■
After finishing her daily run, Senano returned to the apartment that had become her home since yesterday.
“…I feel like I’ve gotten rich.”
On the heights of Kaien City, in a quiet district overlooking the entire town, stood a pure white building that drew the eye above all others.
The obsidian window frames arranged across its whole surface and the deep crimson balcony decorations were refined, yet possessed a certain alien quality, as though they repelled the gaze.
The entire building was smooth like white porcelain, with not a trace of dust or soot anywhere.
That was only natural, because the outer layers of the building materials themselves were made from a substance that rejected the abnormalities caused by Aberrant Entities, processed so thoroughly that not even traces of rain or wind remained.
The entrance was adorned with gold-trimmed decoration, and the residents’ auto-gate opened and closed without making even a mechanical sound.
Standing in exactly the same posture as when she had left, the doorman welcomed her back.
However, she could not properly recognize their face.
“Good work.”
Senano gave a small bow and went inside.
Then she headed for the elevator.
When she reached out to the control panel, the symbol inscribed on the button slowly changed, and the character 『≒』 floated to the surface.
Who could possibly understand that this was a symbol indicating a floor?
The instant her finger touched it, the doors parted silently to either side.
Without hesitation, Senano stepped forward and entered the elevator.
The doors behind her closed slowly, and then, all at once, sound disappeared.
Silence.
And yet, mixed within it, she felt something like the sound of a heartbeat.
But it was not her own.
The moment she realized that the elevator itself was pulsating, the floor sank slightly.
That was the signal.
To a floor without numbers.
Speak of it, and it cannot be reached. Write it, and it smears.
With a tension that made it feel impossible that she was merely standing still, Senano was delivered to the one who should not exist.
When the elevator doors opened, there was a single door at the end of a corridor without windows.
At first glance it was hardly different from one in a luxury apartment building, but Senano knew that many layers of syntax had been applied to it.
It was lethal syntax so powerful that any ordinary Aberrant Entity would turn to dust just by touching it.
“I wonder if he’s awake…. Or rather, what should I do about breakfast…? I’ve only got one frozen meal.”
Because her attention had been focused on getting away from Hakane, she had accidentally forgotten to stop by the convenience store.
But she did not feel like going back now.
“For now, I’ll take a shower and think about it after.”
As though telling herself that, Senano opened the entrance door.
At the same moment, she heard the sound of running water.
“—Eek, cold!?”
Apparently, the owner of that clear, refreshing voice had been startled by something.
Senano immediately grasped quite a lot from that and covered her face with a hand.
“…It’s true, that kid was surprised when he saw the shower yesterday… so of course he’d want to try using it again…”
It seemed there was already someone using the shower, and Senano let out a sigh.
Then she headed in the direction the voice had come from.
The door in front of the changing room had been left carelessly open.
When she looked inside, she found a one-piece dress folded neatly, and the strange imbalance between carelessness and tidiness left Senano feeling rather conflicted.
“Ei, what are you doing up so early?”
“Ah, Senano-san! Good morning.”
Through the frosted glass, she saw the silhouette move and turn toward Senano.
(From this angle, that silhouette really is like a woman’s.)
While carefully observing the silhouette through the frosted glass, Senano made that assessment.
“Listen, unlike yesterday, this shower isn’t giving me hot water. What should I do…?”
“It’s fine, I’ll show you.”
“Thank you very much. I’m sorry for troubling you first thing in the morning.”
As soon as they said that, Ei calmly opened the bathroom door before Senano had even stepped back out of the changing room.
“Wait—”
Senano instinctively tried to avert her eyes.
However, perhaps because she had disturbed her usual pace during her run today, or perhaps because the change in her home had left fatigue built up in her, she could not say for sure, but by pure coincidence she was just a little too late in turning her gaze away.
“I-I’m sorry!”
At that moment, her powers of observation as an Enri Bearer worked against her in the worst possible way, and by pure chance, Senano ended up carefully observing Ei’s completely naked body from top to bottom.
“I’ll get out right aw—”
Naturally, she noticed the anomaly.
Something that should have been there, which she had confirmed yesterday, was gone, and something that should not have been there was now there, if only slightly.
The color drained from Senano’s stunned face in an instant, and within her mind, enormous and countless 『!?』 floated up one after another.
“！？！？！？！？！？”
“Senano-san?”
“Eh, eeh…? But yesterday, you were… eh… wha!?”
“What is it? Is there something strange about my body?”
Ei twisted around anxiously, inspecting their own body.
Seeing that, Senano unintentionally raised her voice and said:
“You’re a man, aren’t you!”
“A man…?”
“Your sex, your sex! Because yesterday, um, y-you had one attached!”
“Attached… ah!”
Ei, apparently understanding, lightly clapped their hands together in front of their chest and answered with a lovely smile.
“Today I’m a girl. We match, Senano-san.”
“……..??????????”
And so, Senano’s new day began with questions and shock.
■
【Urgent Report: Regarding the Gender Observation Anomaly Concerning EN-XF-SORA-0815-ACT2】
Submitted by: Mikama Senano (Rank: A)
Affiliation: Enri Agency, calamity-lord-class Oversight Section Special Cohabitation Surveillance Target
■ Report Time
Reiwa ██, August ■, 5:12 a.m. (※handwritten)
※As this has the urgency of a report based on observation made immediately after waking, application for simplified format has already been filed.
■ Overview (Brief)
A visual confirmation was made of a change in sex form in cohabitation subject EN-XF-SORA-0815-ACT2 (common name: Ei).
※Yesterday: male genitalia present → Today: female genitalia state
There is a possibility that the physical structure itself is changing reversibly.
■ Sequence of Events
At approximately 4:58 a.m., after returning home, a voice was heard from the bathroom.
As the subject complained that “hot water won’t come out,” I approached the bathroom for the purpose of giving instructions.
As the door had been carelessly left open, I accidentally and consequently visually observed the subject’s nude body.
(TL Note: lmao ‘oh no, my supernatural abilities accidentally let me look at your naked body’ wtf)
There were clear differences in sexual characteristics compared to yesterday. Structural change was confirmed through visual observation.
The subject themself appeared either unaware of the change, or at least not to regard it as especially important.
(Statement: “Today I’m a girl. We match, Senano-san.”)
■ Emergency Request
I request an immediate examination by the syntax medical team and the acquisition of a biological record.
As no response manual exists for cases in which sex change has been observed, I request consideration be given to establishing a new category: “fluid-form mediator.”
I further request that consideration be given to mental hygiene measures on the observer’s side concerning sexual contact and unintended interference in private spaces.
■ Additional Note (Personal Opinion)
They were definitely a man until yesterday.
I dread what lies ahead. Please help me.
Recorder’s Signature: Mikama Senano
Submission Format: Temporary internal report memo; copy also scheduled for submission to the Recognition Hazard Team