Anomaly

I won’t deny it, the difference between what we expected to find and what we actually found was so vast that it bordered on the absurd. Supposedly, we should have been facing an anomaly, something out of the ordinary, but what we saw was nothing more than an ordinary human child, just like any other you could see anywhere. In other words, it was completely normal — too normal to be true.

"Why did we stop here?" Arthur asked beside me, furrowing his brow in confusion as he looked around, as if trying to figure things out for himself.

As mentioned before, only I could sense the intense nostalgia radiating from that little girl. There was something about her — something undefinable, yet deeply familiar — that made me want to call out to her. Plus, for some reason, she was also staring at me intently, her eyes locked on mine as though, somehow, she recognized me too.

(Nostalgia...) I replied to Arthur's question telepathically, without taking my eyes off the little girl who was silently watching us from the balcony, her attentive gaze fixed on us.

Arthur seemed to pick up on my thoughts, as his next reaction was simply to watch the girl on the balcony closely, as if evaluating the situation. By the way, you’re probably wondering how the heck I'm walking around without drawing attention, right? The truth is, we’re drawing quite a bit of attention.

However, Arthur decided to handle the situation casually, saying that I was so into Halloween that I was already dressed up for it — even though it was almost two months away.

Honestly, I didn’t expect it to work, but somehow, everyone just accepted it without questioning. As they gathered around me, patting my head and complimenting how incredibly realistic my costume looked... The problem is, it doesn’t look realistic — in fact, it’s not even a costume. But, of course, I just stayed quiet, letting them keep believing.

Anyway, back to the present, Arthur, the unknown girl, and I continued staring at each other. I wasn’t sure why Arthur was doing it, but for me, it felt like something was about to emerge from my memory if I kept looking at her long enough. The feeling was vague, an unsettling intuition I couldn’t ignore, even though I couldn’t explain why.

Unlike us, the girl didn’t hesitate at all to be the first to interact. The next moment, as she touched the frame that served as protection for the balcony, something strange happened — the structure began to disintegrate before our eyes.

As if obeying an invisible command, the wood or metal it was made of slowly disappeared, leaving no trace, as if it had never existed. Then, with no apparent concern, the girl simply moved forward.

Watching the scene, I thought she might fall, after all, the balcony was on the second floor. However, completely defying my expectations, her feet touched the air with an almost unreal lightness. Instead of falling, she began descending gently, as if walking on invisible steps.

There was no visible support, nothing that would justify that impossible movement, yet she moved with the natural grace of someone walking on solid ground.

Slowly and steadily, she approached us, gently descending until her feet touched the ground with no sound. In the next moment, she continued forward with the same calm, but something peculiar began to happen.

The front lawn of the mansion, once perfectly manicured, transformed under her steps — flowers suddenly sprouted, blooming in a silent spectacle, as though they were greeting her in reverence.

Moreover, butterflies in vibrant colors, in every imaginable shade, and small birds with delicate feathers danced in the air around the girl, creating a magical scene that seemed straight out of a fairy tale. The soft, serene smile on her face never faded, and within seconds, she was standing in front of us, as if time had slowed down around her.

"Can I help you with something?" she asked, her tone soft and innocent, as butterflies danced around her head, accompanied by the peaceful flight of birds fluttering nearby, creating an almost magical scene.

Arthur watched her with a careful gaze, a look of mild disbelief appearing on his face. With a hesitant voice, he asked: “Are you... a conceptual virtue?”

The girl didn’t respond right away. Instead, she gave Arthur an amused look, as if his question was a riddle she couldn’t quite grasp. It was as if she was silently saying that his doubt didn’t make sense to her.

Well, conceptual virtues, by their nature, probably wouldn’t know how to react, after all, that’s a nickname Arthur himself gave them. Not even the organization knew about them, so it was unlikely she’d recognize herself by that name. Anyway, there was something I felt the need to ask her, a question that, suddenly, seemed like something I should have asked earlier.

(You... know me?) I asked, my voice laden with uncertainty. My golden eyes, intensely bright, locked onto the little girl in front of me, who smiled innocently as if there were no mystery in her expression.

My telepathic thoughts seemed to flow toward the girl, and as soon as she turned her gaze toward me, I noticed her eyes widen slightly. Her head tilted slightly to the side, as if processing something, but then she returned to her normal position with no further changes. In the next instant, a soft and clear voice echoed in my mind, breaking the silence.

(Yes, I know you)

The voice sounded strangely calm, but there was something in it that brought an inexplicable sense of comfort. Somehow, it calmed me, making me feel peaceful and at ease, as if the world around me disappeared for a moment. I got lost in my own thoughts, until, suddenly, the girl turned her gaze back to Arthur, interrupting my reflection.

“Sorry, but I’m not exactly sure what you mean by this conceptual virtue thing. However, if you’re looking for something like that... Oh, yes, the term humans used... anomaly! Well, if that’s what you’re looking for, then... maybe I’m your answer” The girl said playfully, her pure and innocent smile lighting up her face, as if the very idea was a funny joke.

Arthur didn’t seem truly surprised by the girl’s revelation about being an anomaly... or rather, it was practically impossible that he hadn’t noticed it before, considering that, suddenly, the garden around us had transformed into something worthy of a painting, with colors and shapes that seemed to defy reality, as if every petal and leaf was dancing to the rhythm of an alternate reality.

"Anyway, let's go in. My parents aren’t home today" the girl said in a calm tone, as if it were an everyday thing, turning around and starting to walk toward the house, her soft footsteps echoing in the quiet street.

I won’t lie, what she said left me completely stunned. She had parents? Was it possible for anomalies to have parents? Nothing made sense, and the questions piled up in my mind without answers.

Who the hell was this girl, anyway? The more I tried to understand, the more everything seemed to slip away from logic. What was going on? But with little choice and uncertainty hanging in the air, Arthur and I followed her in silence into the house.

A few minutes later, inside the cozy living room, we were surprised by freshly baked cookies and steaming tea that appeared magically on the table, all with a simple snap of the girl’s fingers.

While Arthur watched with a skeptical expression, as if suspecting something so unusual, I, without hesitation, picked up one of the cookies and brought it to my mouth, ignoring the unspoken questions hanging in the air.

(Chocolate, my favorite) I thought, savoring the sweet melting slowly in my mouth and filling every corner with its rich, captivating flavor. The velvety sensation spread, making the moment even more enjoyable.

Although I hadn’t communicated telepathically with anyone, the girl seemed to have heard my thoughts, as a soft, genuine smile bloomed on her face. I kept eating the cookies almost automatically, the crispy pieces breaking lightly with each bite, while my eyes were fixed on Arthur and the girl, observing their gestures and expressions with distant attention.

"Can I ask a few questions?" Arthur began, his voice soft but firm. He hadn’t touched the tea or the cookies yet, and honestly, I didn’t care much about that. I knew I’d end up with more for myself anyway.

"Sure, go ahead. It’s human nature to question what they don’t know" the girl said, her voice surprisingly compassionate, as if trying to understand someone else’s confusion without judging it.

"Since you think that way, I won’t hold back" Arthur said, his voice firm and carrying a cold determination. He stepped forward, locking eyes with the girl with an unusual intensity: "Earlier, you said your parents weren’t home... what exactly do you mean by that? Anomalies don’t have descendants. They just appear out of nowhere" he added, his gaze incredibly serious, reflecting a mixture of distrust and skepticism as he carefully observed her reaction.

"Well... that's true, but to start, my mother... the woman who gave birth to me, she couldn’t have children. The most important part, the one that nourishes life, was dead. So, I decided to fulfill her wish, while also trying to better understand humans. What better way to do that than by becoming one of them?" the girl said, in a serious tone, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, without hesitating for a second.

"So, you became a human now?" Arthur asked, with a curious expression, his eyes narrowing.

Hearing Arthur’s words, the girl slowly shook her head from side to side, gently denying what he said: "It’s impossible to change my essence. To begin with, the soul—this thing that all humans have—is something I don’t possess. I am a being made of creation’s particles, what you see now is just the shell that sustains me. Well, you might think what’s inside is another being, but the truth is, I am completely independent of this body"

I won’t lie, her words surprised me in several ways. In other words, even though her appearance was that of an ordinary human, there was something different, something I couldn’t immediately identify. What she was wearing seemed more like some sort of costume or something—at least that’s how I interpreted it at that moment.

Arthur stared at the anomaly, his gaze heavy with a mixture of distrust and bewilderment: "What exactly do you hope to achieve with this experiment? Why so much focus on humans? This doesn’t make sense to me. The current perception of anomalies is clear—they want to exterminate humans as soon as they see them. But you... you’re different. You even transform into a human. What’s your real intention?" His voice was firm, but carried a slight tone of confusion, as if he were trying to decipher something impossible to understand.

Although I hadn’t spent much time with Arthur, this was the first time I had seen him so serious. Honestly, I thought the anomaly would simply disregard the question.

Nekra, on the other hand, always seemed indifferent. Instead of showing ignorance about things, she simply seemed oblivious to them, as if what didn’t interest her didn’t even deserve space in her mind.

However, to my surprise, the anomaly actually gave us an answer. But instead of clearing up the mysteries Arthur was trying to unravel, her response seemed to leave him even more thoughtful than before.

With a still innocent and sweet smile, the anomaly spoke, her voice soft but full of a peculiar understanding: "Anomalies are imperfect, unfinished. They don’t have their own light; they live in constant disorder and darkness. That’s why they seek to complete what’s missing, taking the light from others. And humans... you’re perfect, in every way. The light that beings known as anomalies don’t have, is exactly what they seek in you, who are already complete and whole by nature"