S1034A2
AAAAAHHHHH!
In my hand is a link of a chain, broken off when I ended the life of the thing I called Mother.
This is a symbol.
A symbol that protects me and allows me to remain on my feet.
People may capture me in their gaze as they please, but with these chains, I may remain standing, bound in place.
If I choose to exist by binding myself...
Then I may endure this terrifying, dizzying world...
... through all the nausea that comes with it.
Surrounded by the silence of the living room, I sat absentmindedly in a patch of sunlight peering through a gap in the windowsill.
The vacuum of what was once there. The warm chill circulating the air. The sun.
I come to a stop, bound in place.
To remain bound and still... that was the burden you were meant to bear.
Do you realize... what you are about to do?
Departing from the Grand Magasin's appointed ending will unleash a chain of events that can neither be predicted nor managed. Are you aware of what that future holds?
I do not. Nevertheless, I will leave this place.
... How irresponsible.
I do not want the Manager and the others to remain trapped here.
The Chaplain grows steadily more weary and decrepit.
It seems that even he cannot endure the eternity he had imposed upon this place.
... Time flowed... and there was nothing to do but endure it.
If Grand Magasin Sisyphe collapses, every inhuman monstrosity contained in here will spill out into the streets. Yes, the monsters you may know as Mannequins here - and as Distortions outside - will be let loose in N Corp., free to wreak havoc.
This department store... must have only two endings.
Why must it?
Because human beings... are capable of suppressing their desires.
Human beings do not eat one another simply because they are hungry, or burn down a house just because they are consumed by anger.
Beasts fall upon their food and gorge. Humans sit at the table, master the hunger clawing inside them, and raise a fork to their mouths. That restraint is the mark of humanity - not tearing into whatever is within reach and shoveling it into their ravenous gullets!
And that... is what makes the Sisyphe System the most "human" place in the City.
If barbarism is allowed to return... N Corp. will not hesitate to dive into conflicts against the other Wings. There will be war.
Its advocates will crack people's heads open and scrape out their experiences raw... Is that the future you want?
.......
I cannot... expend any more effort on the sinful one. I must withdraw here... for the continued existence of the Grand Magasin... the Sisyphe System.
By the time you realize you chose wrong, it will be too late. You will have plenty of time for regrets when surrounded by the ruins of your error...
... You are correct.
I may regret it someday. What I considered the best choice at the time may later prove to have been the worst. My decision may be wrong. All meaning is subject to change, after all.
However...
I want to try bearing the responsibility for my own judgments.
Once more, Meursault opened the door.
The Grand Magasin... must be eternally preserved... This department store... must be sustained...
<.......>
<Do you really mean it?>
I do, Manager.
<What made you feel that way?>
.......
I do not yet know what the reason is,
But I know it is here.