Anomaly.
The so-called "Anomaly" phenomenon had been under continuous study by the Human Conservation Federation, but the detailed cause and progression of anomalies remained largely unknown.
Anomalies could occur anywhere in the world, with a wide and diverse spectrum of manifestations.
Outdoors, indoors. Underground, in the air. Sometimes as small as a single room; other times large enough to engulf an entire art museum.
Inside an anomaly, not only humans, animals, and plants but even time and space twisted and distorted.
Existing laws carefully defined by humanity were broken, and the anomaly took on its own independent flow and identity.
No two anomalies were identical; none ever repeated, each existing as an independent phenomenon.
Yet the Federation was certain about one proposition regarding these complex and unpredictable anomalies:
"Observable anomalies can be eliminated."
What lives can be killed.
What breathes can be consumed.
Thus, anomalies in a state observable by humans—that is, "born" anomalies—can be "removed" to a state unobservable.
A simple truth and proposition upon which the Human Conservation Federation was founded.
Accordingly, the Federation prioritized developing methods to observe anomalies.
After much research, sacrificing many lives and capital, several tools and methods emerged to observe anomalies.
One of these was the monocle in Friedrich’s hand.
Before the autopsy room glass—empty as researchers and cleaners hurried out following safety protocols—stood only Cosette and Friedrich, monocle pressed to his left eye.
Amidst chaotic sirens and flashing red lights, Cosette raised her voice.
“How large is it?”
“It won’t extend beyond the autopsy room. At least, from outside, it looks that way. For a sudden occurrence, it’s small.”
“There’s never been an anomaly detected among the staff inside the research building before. We don’t have proper weapons now, so immediate entry is difficult.”
“Well, it’s just an autopsy room. The Federation must have plenty of other spaces. If you’re that uneasy, you don’t have to enter.”
“What about the corpse inside? What do we do about that?”
“Since it’s confirmed not an associate of the Red Witch, it’s just an unidentified corpse. Leave it to rot inside the anomaly.”
“Say that again…”
Cosette muttered in frustration but checked the device on her wrist.
About fourteen minutes had passed since the anomaly alert and evacuation of all staff.
Enough time, by field team standards.
She looked at Friedrich.
“Friedrich Payne, I officially commission you under the Federation’s external contract to investigate this anomaly. Following the Federation’s anomaly securing manual, designate this event temporarily as 'No.101', and please collect information on its classification and 'impressions.'”
“Just as expected. External support acknowledged. I trust you’ll do well.”
“Please secure the corpse as well. Leaving it be would be unethical.”
“If you wish.”
“Beware of corrosion.”
“You just need to monitor well.”
Friedrich replied nonchalantly and entered the autopsy room.
Though only the half corpse lay on the autopsy table, the black shoes entered the space, but Cosette outside could no longer see Friedrich.
Only the corpse bathed in red and white light and the scattered dissection tools remained as if nothing had happened.
The autopsy room closed, and the red numbers appeared on the square display of Cosette’s wrist device.
[Heart Rate – //]
[Vital Signs – Within Normal Range]
[Anomaly Corrosion Rate – 13%]
Friedrich watched children lined up ahead, creaking as they walked.
The crumpled children marched in neat rows singing.
Impatient children were blotchy like crayon-scribbled drawings.
Their stiff marching cheeks were red, faces orange, and their eyes a black brown reflecting no light. A disturbing giggle cut through.
Friedrich followed the paper doll procession. A damp, sharp, stinging odor lingered.
Across the uneven brown fence lining the path, there was nothing.
No flowers, trees, sky, grass, or adults. As if the world’s owner forgot to draw the background, only the path and children existed.
At the path’s end, a building stood, as if trying to depict the word "heaven."
White pillars scraped harshly against the black background, with large, bright golden symbols shining.
Not even Friedrich could help but look up in awe.
Is this what the gate to heaven looks like?
It seemed open and generous, welcoming all.
But Friedrich knew well the process all humans must pass before reaching heaven.
At the front of the paper doll line, an unidentified paper figure rustled, trying to enter the gates of heaven.
But before that, a huge hand descended from the sky and grabbed the doll’s head.
Held between long index and thumb fingers, the doll struggled while another hand brought ragged paper objects before it.
A tattered skirt and pants cut from crumpled paper, a bowl of unknown porridge, a thick book with golden symbols, and a whisk made of twigs.
The doll shook its head every time the large hand offered these crumpled paper items.
The massive hand, pondering how to handle the doll refusing everything, dropped what it held and began tearing the arrogant paper doll apart.
The sound of tearing paper mixed with screams.
Kyaa! The doll’s head, arms, torso, and legs ripped off, no longer resembling a human form.
The hand balled the torn doll like tissue and tossed it aside.
There, instead of a trash bin, was a giant black cabinet with its doors wide open.
If this was heaven, that looked like hell’s fiery pit for sinners.
The doll march continued.
Under the judgment of the giant hand, every paper doll refusing the crumpled paper items was crushed or torn and dropped into the cabinet.
No doll passed through heaven’s gates to Friedrich’s arrival.
Not a single one.
Friedrich watched the hand dance above his head.
Soon, the hand grabbed his round head and lifted him into the air.
Despite the sharp pain as if his head was being pulled out, Friedrich calmly thought: quite an ugly hand.
“Whoever you are, I have a proposal. How about we find a peaceful way to settle this?”
The hand stopped.
It seemed to realize Friedrich was different from the dolls it tore apart and turned his head over and over.
After rolling the round glass ball-like head for a while, the fingers suddenly tightened.
—Smack!
Like a watermelon bursting, the index and thumb fingers soaked wet.
Blood and brain matter coated the fingers as they grabbed the thin twitching torso and threw it into the cabinet.
Clearly no longer interested.
The headless body fell into the black cabinet like a wooden puppet with broken strings.
The body bounced several times on the hard floor and slowly soaked the paper doll fragments lying there.
Then,
—Clack.
A strangely bent arm twitched. A gloved hand flinched and then lifted the body up.
The headless figure staggered in a grotesque manner.
Swinging its hands in all directions, it groped forward until bumping into a pile of paper.
It quickly found something: the torn head of a paper doll ripped by the giant hand.
Pressing it onto the empty head spot like assembling a robot, the doll’s head surprisingly came back to life.
“Nothing’s harder to convince than an uncompromising existence.”
Friedrich muttered.
Though the torso was human, the flapping paper doll head finally looked squarely at the surroundings.
At the cabinet’s bottom lay a massive mountain.
It was formed by torn, ruined paper dolls—discarded dolls with black eyes, red cheeks, orange faces, all identically plain.
Thousands, tens of thousands of dolls with missing limbs and half-faces, too incomplete to enter heaven.
The hymn of marching dolls echoed from outside the cabinet.
Friedrich began climbing the paper mountain.
Below his feet were sighs, sobs, and the voices of children praying for atonement.
At the summit of the paper mountain lay someone similarly incomplete and useless merely by existence.
Paper fragments fluttered incessantly. The half-body did not move.
As Friedrich approached with only a step left, the figure moved its cloudy green eyes to the left.
Their eyes met briefly.
Friedrich spoke first.
“I’ve never heard of a dead person causing an anomaly. Were you alive?”
The remnants of Raimund could only watch with his fluttering paper doll head.
The light head tilted to one side as if deep in thought.
Indeed, Friedrich was thinking.
He kneeled. The black-gloved hand lifted Raimund’s head.
The torso, connected to the mountain of broken paper dolls, was torn away, unable to bear gravity.
Creaking bones detached from joints, nerves and spine dropping.
Friedrich barely gathered Raimund’s mushy grey matter and tucked it under his arm.
“This will be a valuable sample. Better to take at least this.”
Since Raimund’s body was nearly gone, taking only his head was most efficient.
Muttering so, Friedrich slid down the paper slope, covered in all sorts of bodily fluids.
Having secured the corpse, he planned to follow the Federation’s orders to find the core “impression” constituting the anomaly.
But just as his light paper head fluttered noisily with growing speed—
—Kyaa! Garururuk!
Hearing the noise, he looked up to see intact paper dolls willingly jumping into the cabinet.
Each expressionless face had a bright red crayon smile drawn as if torn apart.
Cheerful hymn-singing dolls poured over Friedrich’s head all at once.
“Crazy!”
Friedrich raised an arm to block the ruthless pouring dolls but was swept away by the sharp tide down the mountain.
His arm, cut by paper, burned fiercely. Laughter echoed from all directions. "Caught, caught, caught, don't go, caught, caught…" endlessly.
At that moment, he grabbed something and pulled.
With a loud bang, he faintly saw the black door shake precariously beyond his vision,
and his world turned upside down.
Red flashing ceiling.
Pain from his numb head made him blink his blue eyes open.
“Mr. Friedrich! Are you okay? Did something happen inside?”
“Huh?”
A fierce force lifted him up.
Friedrich staggered, eyes fixed on the still alarming autopsy room door.
He hadn’t wanted to leave, so why was he outside the anomaly?
Confused as if forcibly expelled, Friedrich glanced at what he carried under his arm.
“Cosette.”
“Yes?”
“This person seems alive.”
He suddenly pushed the poorly conditioned head before her.
Cosette stared blankly, then checked the corrosion rate on her wrist device.
She muttered,
“You haven’t lost your mind already, have you?”