Search for the Inflection Point (before battle)

<Okay. So...>

More often than not, first impressions are prone to change.

The Bamboo-hatted Kim I remember was a man who'd drowned in his own fathoms, blaming himself for his powerlessness with a listless, heavy voice...

That, however, had been while he was Distorted and sunken into himself, so I figured his original personality might be somewhat different.

But this is not just "somewhat."

<His personality isn't even in the same ballpark as my expectations...>

<You're telling me, this guy here is Bamboo-hatted Kim?>

Yup. We double-checked with Ezra, and she said he really is the same guy.

Whoa, that fire on your head's not hot at all? Fascinating stuff...

<Can you... Okay, can we check again? Just in case...?>

<I really can't wrap my head around the fact that this is the sullen, serious man whom we'd fought! Just look at what he's doing. He's... He's rubbing my face all over like he's checking out some kind of mantelpiece ornament!>

Lotsa ticking and tocking going on...! That's supposed to sound like them talking to you folks, huh?

... Further confirmation would be redundant, Dante. This individual is conclusively identical to the one designated as Bamboo-hatted Kim.

I've got no idea what you folks are so suspicious about...

Aeng-du, just what exactly have you been telling people out there about me? They're all staring like they've seen a ghost.

I told them you are a gallant and formidable warrior, Mentor.

Uh... But they don't look like they've heard the most flattering things about me.

There, don't you hear it? The faint undercurrent of disappointment in the ticking.

<*sigh*>

I also told them that you are a man of few words, but with much affection for the followers under your command.

... Aeng-du.

Yes, Mentor?

That's a complete and utter lie. "Man of few words" is definitely not something you can say about a guy who's as talkative as me, don't you think?

Yet I spoke no falsehood. Although your conduct is rather shallow and perhaps less refined for a leader of an organization, you are much more reserved and taciturn when conversing with those unfamiliar to you, are you not?

No matter who one may be, one is bound to inspire either approval or disapproval from those around him, so... I refrained from mentioning any truths that might invite the latter. To even hint at anything that might tarnish the reputation of my master would not be unlike spitting on his name - and mine, by extension.

I simply had no reason to put on airs in front of my own folks. In any case... Oho, so you can't see anything if I block this part, hmm? Do tell - how many fingers am I holding up?

<Those are not my "eyes," you know...>

"Your own folks," huh. Then you have already acknowledged and accepted that you now belong to Limbus Company.

Why didst thou not pay a visit to the LCE? Verily, when one's mind is plagued by the absence of tranquility, venturing forth into the open air and touchable field of grass cleareth the storm of the heart!

An asset of the company is expected to act in the company's interest. Yet, for whatever reason, I didn't see you fighting on the field of battle during Operation Spider Pyre.

You will have to account for your absence in the mission.

Outis addressed Kim as though she were conducting a formal investigation, every word flat and hard. It was obvious she was not about to let her guard down anytime soon.

What mission...? Oh, oh. That one...

Kim finally seemed inclined to assume a more serious disposition. He stopped peering into my face and turned toward Outis...

... although his hand was still on my head.

All right. Clearly, there's some disconnect in expectations here...

Listen here, you...

I'm really not all that about hard, bothersome work... get what I mean?

... The real disconnect was between his stoic expression and the words coming out of his mouth.

Wha...?

So let's talk about the kind of fellow I am. Meet the resident layabout, who's forced to do his job - with a frown, too, I might add - only when he's got absolutely no other choice. I'm really not some big shot Aeng-du's apparently been promoting me as, folks.

And I'd very much like to stop getting roped into stuff that keeps putting my life on the line....

Fine, then why did you join the LCD in the first place if you'd rather be unemployed...? No, never mind. They probably forced you to stay.

You catch on quick. First they spout this nonsense about Distortions and all, and then force-hired me, calling me a "company-owned resource" or whatever.

And the other day, they were again on about, uh, whatsitsname, Golden Bough...? Yes, they invited me on a tour to another department to listen in on some important presentation...

And I accepted. I thought it would be a fine opportunity to broaden my perspective.

Aeng-du, dear, there are times when your commitment to duties shines brighter than the sun. I find that attitude so dazzling that I have to squint when I'm looking at you.

Who knows, maybe that's why I'm wearing this bamboo hat. To shade my eyes from your utter brilliance.

Do you mean to say that you are in need of a shield to protect your eyes?

Lady Ezra, might I submit a request for a pair of sunglasses for my Mentor? Only if it's not too much of an imposition on the budget, that is...

That. That right there. That's what I keep tellin' ya not to do! You can't just say yes to every silly thing he says and turn it into a supply request. Small expenses add up to a lot, y'know? You gotta save up everything you can in the piggy bank while you still can - or you'll end up broke.

Is there truly no room for reconsideration...?

No means no.

Then pray make the purchase for me. I shall cover the cost myself.

No can d - wait, what?

My poor mentor is in a state of great discomfort, yet I possess neither the wisdom nor the knowledge to navigate the silver tongue of merchants and the maze of stalls to locate the very best item... so I must beg this favor of you.

... You're giving me a frickin' headache, girl.

I am aware that you and yours are no strangers to such dealings. There is no one else I can trust to complete such a procurement with the swiftness of the wind...

*sigh* You know what, never mind what I said. I'll just get you what you want...

You heard the gentle lady, Mentor. Your suffering shall soon be alleviated.

... R-right.

My apologies for interrupting you amid conversation. Pray, continue.

You had reached the part where they invited you to tour another department.

... No sooner Aeng-du's words left her lips than her eyes glinted with something I couldn't really put my finger on - but it was a strange intensity that sent a chill down my spine.

Uhh... Yeah. So that day, I was just gonna relax here and watch some TV. Hm...

Well... Good on you for showing up to work today, I guess?

Let's say there's a debt to be repaid.

... At least you understand that we are indeed indebted to the company.

Uhh... Yeah. I suppose I do.

Kim's gaze lingered on Aeng-du's prosthetic arms as he answered.

Oh, Miss Aeng-du, your arms...

Only after following Kim's gaze did Sinclair seem to notice Aeng-du's brand-new prosthetic arms.

The last time we saw her, Aeng-du had lost both her arms... and I remember Ezra asking her to sit tight and choose what type of prosthesis she wanted. Those arms are probably it.

It's not just the arms. Even her clothes are different now. And that sword...

Mm. I had these arms fitted anew as soon as the operation was concluded. The gracious hosts in one of the LCD's teams had prepared them in advance.

With evident satisfaction, Aeng-du held up her dark metallic wrists as if to showcase them.

The components fixed along her arm clicked and rattled, unfolding for a moment before neatly folding back into place.

Oho!! Such graceful smoothness, wed to machine articulation! 'Tis as though I am beholding the marvelous prosthesis of the illustrious Siegfried himself!

... Yup. The showcase would've gone lackluster without that trademark reaction.

Those are strikingly similar to Schwarz Industries's N7 lineup... But I thought that model was discontinued...

Nah, not theirs. It's one of the prototypes developed by LCD's Phenomena Deciphering Team, and they put 'em on her for trial!

Doubt you'll find another like them. They're based on technology spun from Distortions.

Oh! I...

I see...

For a brief moment, Sinclair's eyes lit up as if he had glimpsed something that brought him back to a memory... Then just as quickly, he fell silent, whatever he'd wanted to say next catching in his chest.

Does something trouble you, Master Sinclair?

It wasn't hard to understand what struck the tender memory for Sinclair. And why it cast a shadow over his face.

But...

... Sorry. Just reminded me of something from a long time ago.

My dad used to work with prosthetics before he passed away - I thought this was the exact same model I saw back then.

... It appears I lacked tact. These arms have stirred a painful memory within you. For that, I apologize.

Haha... It's all right. I'm fine now.

Sinclair's voice still carried a faint tremor, but beneath it, there was a firmness that had not been there before.

He really had grown a great deal.

You can thank yours truly for picking the sword! I was there with her.

I did inform Lady Ezra that any blade that could serve as a weapon would suffice, but she insisted on browsing the goods. I daresay I was given the opportunity to lay my eyes on every type of sword I could ever hope to see in this life, walking through the Workshop street that day.

Oh, please. Girl, we walked for just 4 hours. That's nothing.

......

While everyone was distracted taking in Aeng-du's new outfit and equipment, Kim had quietly slipped away from the crowd and crouched down in a corner.

He was rummaging through things scattered on the floor, picking them up... Is he pocketing them?

<Anyway... What is this place supposed to be? What are all these things?>

It's basically a wreck now, but... there are strobes and that cloth backdrop over there. Maybe it used to be a photo studio?

<Oh. That could explain why there are so many photos stuck around the place.>

Uh... Probably? This thing definitely looks like a camera, at least...

Sinclair picked up a small cylindrical object and turned it over in his hands, studying it with curiosity.

What do you suppose this is? A battery, maybe...

Ah! There's some kind of strip inside. Lemme just pull it out -

No, that's...

...!

Outis shouted a sharp warning at Sinclair as if she had realized something...

But Meursault's hand shot out before she could even finish, clasping over Sinclair's wrist before the strip could be pulled out.

W-what? What did I do?!

Exposure to sunlight damages these objects.

I... I already pulled a little bit out, though...!

It can be rewound. Carefully rotate the ridged section on the cylinder.

I am currently blocking the sunlight from reaching the exposed section. Damage is of no concern.

Oh, okay... You mean this one, right? This is the part that rotates? Yup, it went back in.

Mm.

With a quiet nod, Meursault took the object from Sinclair's hand.

It seems to be... a film roll.

There is something written on the outside... "Experiment #4"?

It appears to be a compact roll for a film camera.

You seem to have handled one before.

Yes.

Meursault's answer came without any further explanation, but the way he adjusted the camera on the table certainly didn't look like that of a first-timer.

Hmm. I once received a report containing photographs taken on film cameras during the war.

Film rolls used by N Corp. are particularly difficult to falsify - they were often used to collect intelligence during secret operations. The film fixes light directly onto the medium, from what I've heard.

.......

A peculiar expression flashed across Ezra's face as she regarded Outis. Perhaps it was the mention of "war" that caught her attention...

Anyway, we've managed to regroup in one piece! Let's come up with a plan to deal with these Distortions, guys! Hmm. Where should we begin?

... then, in the next breath, she returned to her usual bubbly self and steered the conversation away from the subject.

Both Ezra and I, we're... we are both still trying to be free of the misconception we inflicted on ourselves.

For all her unfailingly perky disposition, Ezra, too, may be carrying traumatic memories every bit as devastating as Gregor's...

Hmm...? Does there yet remain aught deserving illumination?

<Huh? Yeah, wait... you're right. Haven't we cleaned up the Distortion already?>

I couldn't feel any more traces of Distortions nearby... and it didn't seem like any of the other Sinner teams elsewhere were actively engaged in battle at the moment either.

Dante is asking whether the Distortion suppression has not, in fact, already been concluded.

Oh, not yet. These people we fought just now? They only got caught up in the Distortion - they didn't actually Distort themselves. We haven't even gotten close to the Distortion's "Inflection Point" yet.

<"Inflection Point"...?>

Uh... Anyhoo, finding an "Inflection Point" without the Team Leader around's gonna take some time... Maybe it won't be too bad with your help...

Ezra swept her eyes around the room with a look of frustration as though she had just been handed a puzzle box with half the pieces missing.

By "Inflection Point," are you referring to the point on a graph in which the directionality of its curvature changes?

Mm... Calling to mind the present context, it may less be a mathematical term and more a specialized polyseme referring to the point at which Distortion occurs - the motive, intent, or, indeed, the point in which "inflection" of the mind occurs.

Yup, that's about right. That's the kind of "Inflection Point" I was talkin' about. So in our department, we use that term to mean the "source" of a Distortion, the "Inflector" or "cause" behind it... stuff like that.

Y'know, Distortion's hard to treat if ya don't know the core cause~ Treat the symptoms you see on the surface all you like, but if ya never find the root cause, the Distortion's never gettin' solved.

Though I guess you guys never really had to look for that kinda stuff, huh? Your Boss Clock opens a door into their fathoms or whatever, right?

... You mean Dungeon of the Fathoms?

Yup, that! That's the one.

From where we're standing, Distortions are really high-maintenance, time-consuming headaches. It's one thing to somehow manage to locate the Inflection Point, but curing it is another thing.

But you guys can just march straight into someone's heart, knock the snot out of everything in there, and then, ta-da~! Patient ready for discharge! That's how it works, right? Ugh... Not gonna lie, I was so jealous when I heard about it, I almost bit my sleeve off.

Verily, I had thought your team would set about resolving Distortions once the foe was vanquished, as we are wont to do... Was that not so?

Course not! Why would anyone come to us with a Distortion suppression request if it were that simple in the first place?

But yeah, most of the time, peeps try brute-force approaches to it first, and when things go south, they send requests to the company or to our Detective's office.

That means the client this time must've been...

Bingo. Apparently, the residents of Butter Street had all chipped in to commission all kinds of agencies like the Zwei and the combat-specialized Fixer Offices... but none of them could actually do things right, and the job got passed on to us.

Meaning... the Distortion phenomenon related to this kind of photograph is still occurring unchecked somewhere on the streets.

Exactly. That's why... we gotta find something. Anything that might count as a clue...

Ezra gazed down at the people lying on the floor with a complicated expression.

Neat ash-gray suits, and the logo on the collar of their uniform and briefcases...

<Hey, Isn't that N Corp.'s logo?>

Come to think of it, wasn't Meursault...

... I was once employed by N Corp.

Wha…? You used to work with those people?

Yeah, he did mention that he used to work at N Corp. Maybe he can offer us some insight...

<Do you know who these guys are, Meursault?>

Yes, Manager.

These are N Corp. Class 2 Staff members. Given the camera briefcases in their possession, they are likely members of the Pinframe Team of Service des Clous.

Meursault recited the information as though he were pulling it from a file he had already sorted and placed in the back of the shelf in his mind.

<Okay, "Pinframe Team," huh. Anything you can tell us about them?>

Yes.

It is one of N Corp.'s many field departments related to information gathering and processing. Their primary duties include the handling of N Corp.'s internal information, analysis of N Corp.'s internal intelligence, the sorting and arranging of N Corp.'s internal information, and inter-sector -

<Th-that'd be enough...>

.......

Whoa~ Is he a talking encyclopedia or something? Yeah, another thing to be jealous of... You think it'll be okay if we borrow him sometimes?

Might be an issue for us if you just went and borrowed our team's encyclopedia...

Looks like everyone agrees that he's an encyclopedia...

Anyway, your encyclopedia's right. They're from N Corp.'s Pinframe Team. Seen them a few times before in N Corp.'s Nest.

But why would people already busy enough dealing with Nest affairs come all the way out to a shabby Backstreet like this? Hm... Got any guesses?

.......

I am unable to determine that.

Eh?

The possible range of connection between the two pieces of information is exceedingly broad. Listing every relevant reason as to why they may have come here would require a considerable amount of time.

Therefore, I will not present a determinative answer to that question.

...?

Ezra, staring holes into me with an unspoken "Is this dude always like this?" wouldn't pull any answers from me, you know...

Because aside from combat situations, I've still got no way to figure out what's going on in his head.

Okay, then...

<Okay, then, Meursault, maybe this'll be easier to answer? From an objective point of view - >

And that was when I noticed something I'd never imagined would happen.

Meursault's eyes widened, his gaze fixing me with such force that I could almost feel the faint tremor in it.

A leveling stare that came with...

There is no such thing as an objective point of view,

Manager.

... a clipped tone and a look almost bordering on rebuke.

<Uh...>

A given judgment may seem infinitely close to objectivity, but ultimately, all things are subjective, without exception.

I fell silent for a moment, lost in thought.

Part of it was because Meursault's reaction had caught me off guard, but I also wondered whether this response might be connected to why he would always refuse to make judgments for himself.

And if this has something to do with his turn, which I know is just around the corner...

<Got it. Then tell me three subjective reasons you think are most likely for why these people had to come all the way into the Backstreets.>

... I need to understand who he actually is as much as I can.

Because I'll never know when I'll get another chance to really get to know him if I brush this off with a simple "Oh. I see, my bad." as usual.

Yes, Manager.

I would presume that their mission was one or all of the following: retrieval of a video recording or recordings in violation of N Corp.'s Taboo; prompt elimination of the violator; contact with an informant in the Backstreets collaborating with N Corp.'s Nest; or identification and arrest of a wanted individual or individuals designated by the Nest.

Taboo...? You mean these people could be Taboo Hunters?

Nah, no way. They don't send out Taboo Hunters for every single violation, y'know~

Like, Wings usually leave minor Taboo violations to be handled by subcontracted Fixer Offices or employees of the department in charge. I'd say these guys here are N Corp.'s staff!

......

Um, Miss Aeng-du? What are you looking for in their pockets...?

I am looking through their belongings, for enlightening clues yet be hidden in the sleeve or the fold of their garments. Lady Moses has been gifted with the art of discerning the truth from what lies before her with but a single glance, yet my eyes are foreign to such a feat.

Lemme take a look too! Hmm, this is an employee card, and... okay, this one's a wallet, so let's put that back. We don't wanna be robbers...

Aha! This might be it. It's an order missive!

Ezra pulled a sheet of paper out from an N Corp. staff's coat and read its contents aloud.

"Work Details: Elimination of the individual of a Category 3 Taboo Violation. Address: Butter Street..."

... This is the place!

<Which means...>

Which means all of this might be pointing to something. Whoever used to work in this studio and the Distortion phenomenon might be connected.

Yeah. Now that you mention it, when that whole pop-and-change thing happened, it did kinda feel like a camera flash...

All right, let's start by combing through this place. Lemme know if you find anything suspicious!

Oho...! At long last, hath the hour arrived for my debut as a detective, forsooth!

Don Quixote must've been miffed for not getting to play detective back in T Corp. - no idea where she'd been keeping them, but she immediately pulled out the detective props that'd been given to Rodya, Ryōshū, and Hong Lu back then...

Verily, I had foreseen that the day would come!

... Fortunately, Outis wasted no time putting an end to Don Quixote's badly-timed shenanigan. A sharp dressing-down from her was enough to make our dejected chivalric adventurer stuff the costume away.

Okay, then... We should get moving, too...