At the exact moment Nothing There tore open its own skin and lunged at X , he finally understood those employees from back then.
This really wasn't something you could blame them for screaming instinctively.
Seeing someone familiar ripped apart from the inside right in front of you—only for a horrifying mass of flesh to burst out—anyone's heart would go into overdrive.
However, the expected spray of blood and flying gore never came.
Bang—
A tremendous force knocked X flat onto the ground, like a massive crate of meat slamming straight into his chest.
Crunch—crunch—
Accompanied by the grinding sound of teeth against flesh, Nothing There's enormous maw—packed with jagged fangs—clamped down hard on X 's arm.
At the same time, the disproportionate pale human hand on top of its head clawed fiercely at X 's chest.
And… that was all.
The biting felt less like an attack and more like the rough mouthing of a large dog playing with its owner.
As for those claws—strong enough to pierce steel—they only left a few insignificant scratches on his clothes and skin, despite the frantic effort.
Rather than tearing him apart, it felt closer to a lover's irritated scratching.
—Of course, that was an extremely exaggerated comparison.
There was still pain, but it was mild—no worse than getting your fingers caught in a door, nowhere near enough to cause lasting damage.
"Shh… ha…?"
Failing to skin and kill this human as it always had before, all four of Nothing There's mismatched blue eyes reflected deep confusion.
Why couldn't it tear off this human's skin?
X could read that question clearly from its vacant stare.
He lay quietly on the warm, soft membrane of flesh beneath him, feeling the futile gnawing at his arm as most of his fear drained away.
Putting aside the horrific visuals, this "floor" honestly rivaled the high-end mattress in his bedroom.
As expected—most fear really does come from insufficient firepower.
If this terrifying-looking creature couldn't actually hurt him, then in X 's mind, its danger level within the Inner Lobotomy Corporation needed to be adjusted downward.
"You want… to communicate with me, don't you?"
X looked at it and asked calmly.
His mental state had completely stabilized.
The scene now looked like nothing more than an overexcited pet dog tackling its owner the moment they came home.
"…"
Nothing There said nothing, stubbornly remaining sprawled atop X , its mouth and claws still scrabbling uselessly.
The bone-made right foreleg scraping across his body wasn't painful at all—if anything, it was oddly ticklish.
"But in this state, you can't talk to me."
X 's voice grew even steadier. He even raised a hand and rubbed its square head, as if instructing an unruly child.
"You need a 'form.' A form that lets me understand what you're saying."
"…I love you?"
But the only response was still that awkward confession it had learned from dead employees.
It was hard to imagine such a young, clear female voice coming from such a horrifying body.
That overwhelming contrast was… strangely, unsettlingly cute.
Especially when it kept pawing at you without being able to hurt you at all.
X even began to wonder whether having such thoughts meant he'd finally gone insane.
"Shh… ha…"
Nothing There seemed to finally realize that no matter what it did, it couldn't kill this human.
It jumped off X in confusion and began circling him, over and over.
"Hello?"
As it walked in circles, it occasionally spat out simple English greetings it had picked up.
Whenever it lifted its head to look at X 's face for a reaction, the words inevitably reverted to—
"I love you!"
"…"
X sat up and watched it pacing around him in silence for a long time.
Only then did a realization truly settle in.
This ALEPH-class monster—this Abnormality named Nothing There—the reason it kept killing, changing skins, and learning over and over again—
Was simply… that it wanted to become human.
It wanted to be treated as a person.
The problem was that its understanding of "human" had been catastrophically wrong from the very beginning.
Whatever its first learning sample had been, it had somehow learned that "liking someone" and "being close" meant killing them and wearing their skin.
And it had come to understand daily human interaction as endless slaughter.
In its eyes, killing its own kind seemed to be part of everyday life.
"…"
Perhaps it had grown tired of running, or perhaps its urge to learn had resurfaced.
While X was lost in thought, Nothing There stopped in front of him and began imitating his posture—sitting down in the exact same way.
Only, its version of sitting looked as though someone had forcibly snapped every joint in a human body, then crudely posed what little soft tissue remained.
Blood flowed from torn flesh where broken bone spurs jutted out, and bits of organs occasionally fell free, yet it stubbornly maintained a pose similar to X 's.
"You get angry…"
X came back to himself, looking at Nothing There, and spoke softly.
"You're not someone who has nothing at all."
"At the very least, you have emotions of your own."
He looked at the dog-like creature, whose organs and eyeballs had shifted positions several times within mere minutes.
"If you had no emotions of your own—if you had to rely entirely on copying others just to express yourself… that would be true nothingness."
"You're just… too empty."
X paused, thought for a moment, then spoke again.
"In that case, I'll call you… Null."
"Starting from zero, I'll teach you how to become a real 'human.' How about that?"
Crunch—
The answer X received was Nothing There once again lunging at him, teeth and claws bared.
—
Name Note
Nothing There — when spoken quickly, taking the first part of Nothing and the latter part of There produces a sound close to Null (meaning "nothing").
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