Chapter 5: The Saint of the Back Alley (5)

Let’s go back to the beginning.

Around the time I had just started my part-time job.

I had somewhat adapted to life in this city and was searching for clues that might lead me back to my original world.

And then it hit me—I should revisit the place where I first woke up.

It might sound like a joke, but honestly, I figured it was worth checking out at least once.

After all, I was in such a panic back then that I didn’t have the chance to check anything properly.

Maybe the reason—or some clue—behind how I ended up in this world was still lying there.

That was the hope.

Honestly, I didn’t have high expectations… but at the time, I couldn’t think of any other ideas.

It was more like grasping at straws.

So, on a day when my shift ended early, I decided to head out.

Retracing my steps, I arrived once again at that back alley from before.

“Still creepy.”

All I could see were shattered windows and rusted, dust-covered wrecked cars.

The grim atmosphere made me instinctively touch the object I had brought in my pocket.

The pistol Kyla had given me.

I really hoped I wouldn’t have to use it…

Fortunately, from what I’d looked up beforehand, this wasn’t anyone’s turf—so the likelihood of running into trouble was lower than expected.

It was more of a deserted spot, which meant there weren’t even people around.

That’s why I was able to come alone—but still, the place had a pretty eerie vibe.

“……”

Looking around, I stepped a little deeper into the alley, where I found a lot that was basically a dump.

Behind a rusted wire fence lay a field strewn with discarded junk.

“A bust, huh…”

I searched every corner for a while, but couldn’t find anything.

Just piles of trash.

Nothing meaningful turned up.

I told myself not to get my hopes up, but even so, seeing my expectations be this spot-on left me feeling a bit deflated.

I let out a sigh.

And that’s when it happened.

Rustle— Suddenly, something moved among the junk piles.

Startled, I instinctively ducked behind a wall.

“Wh-what was that? Is someone there?”

I held my breath in tense silence.

But the presence vanished just as quickly as it had come.

The area fell quiet again, so much so that I wondered if I had imagined it.

What was that just now? A wild animal? Just the wind?

Maybe it was the creepy setting, but I was starting to get a bit nervous.

Still—since I came here to find clues, I had to check it out if there was something.

Gripping the pistol in my pocket by reflex, I cautiously approached the spot where I’d heard the noise.

“This is…”

There was a person.

Someone crumpled between piles of garbage.

At first glance, I thought it was a homeless person.

But as I looked closer, I realized something was different.

They were in terrible shape.

Their clothes were soaked in blood, and there wasn’t a single uninjured spot on their body.

Sparks were even flickering from several cybernetic implants.

Judging from the build and hair length, it was a woman.

But her face was so swollen and beaten that it was impossible to make out.

Her complexion was deathly pale, like someone on the verge of suffocation.

If it hadn’t been for the occasional twitch, I’d have thought she was already dead.

“What… should I do?”

Thinking coldly, the no-risk move would be to walk away like I saw nothing.

In a sketchy alley like this, you never knew what kind of story lay behind someone in that state.

Best not to get involved.

Even so, I couldn’t bring myself to walk away.

Because we had already made eye contact.

Golden eyes stared out from between her tangled hair.

And in those eyes, there was no plea for help, no resentment for being ignored… only resignation.

Quiet despair from someone who knew death was near and made no effort to resist it.

Even the basic instinct to cling to life had faded—how tragic must a life be, to reject even that?

No cries for help.

Not even a wave of the hand…

Some useless memory bubbled up, leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth.

“Ah, seriously…”

Someone once said, when people see a child fall into a well, they instinctively try to save them—not because of gain or loss, but because compassion for a child in danger is a natural human reaction.

Helping someone without expecting a reward—it’s just part of being a social creature.

So, just once…

Just once, couldn’t I act on impulse without thinking it through?

“Yeah. Just this one time.”

Resolving myself, I stopped retreating.

And then I stepped forward again and gently placed my fingers against the stranger’s forehead.

---

The last thing Agent ST-780199 remembered was someone’s voice.

“You’ve done well. Time to retire.”

That hazy voice didn’t mock her, nor did it pity her as it announced the end.

It was cold—like someone discarding a tool that had outlived its use.

“Who…? Who said that to me?”

Reflexively, she tried to recall more details—but the more she tried, the more intense the headache became.

“My head… it hurts…!”

Even through the pain, ST-780199 had a single, terrifying thought.

The fact that she could feel pain was itself strange.

The procedure she underwent should never have ended with just “pain.”

What her superior had activated in her brain was the Apoptosis Protocols.

A system built specifically to terminate employees in ████████’s ████ field ops division, when they were no longer useful—or too dangerous to keep.

The effect was simple: total deletion.

Everything the agent knew—corporate secrets, access permissions, records, assets, identity, memories, and even life and existence itself—

—could be wiped with a single button press.

That was the function of the system.

So, the fact that ST-780199 was still capable of thought right now was unbelievable.

Once the button was pressed, all implanted memory and neural circuitry should have fried, leaving only an empty shell.

No need to worry about the body, either.

Just dump it in the slums and the scavengers would dismantle it neatly.

No grave, no cremation—just a tidy cleanup.

If the corpse still had valuable parts, they’d even take the fingernails to sell.

Once chopped to bits and sold on the black market, the body was practically untraceable.

Such was the erasure of existence made possible with a finger twitch.

That’s how ████████ controlled their most dangerous hunting dogs.

She had carried out “retirements” like this herself.

She knew the process well.

That had been her own fate, just moments ago.

And yet—somehow—she was still alive.

“How…?”

There were gaps in her memory, probably remnants of the deletion.

But even so, it didn’t make sense that she was this intact.

Apoptosis Protocols weren’t prone to malfunction.

They were rock solid.

Not a single failure reported in decades.

████████’s obsessive thoroughness needed no explanation.

“Then how am I still alive?”

A memory surfaced.

In the gray, discarded ruins, just as she was collapsing—someone had approached her.

A girl dressed in near-white.

In that fleeting moment, she had thought the girl beautiful.

Even as she died.

She had never believed in an afterlife, but just then, she thought perhaps an angel had descended from the heavens to welcome her.

And then—something utterly incomprehensible happened.

“……”

As she tried to piece it together, she slowly rose to her feet.

The memory of her body being crushed under its own weight, stripped of all cybernetic control—was now a lie.

The body that couldn’t even breathe properly was moving freely again.

Her heart, which should’ve stopped when the neural connections were severed, now beat vividly.

Only one thing was gone: the collar.

“……Ah.”

Even the control chip embedded deep within her nervous system had been burned away during the protocol.

Now the ever-buzzing communication implant—once relaying constant orders—was completely silent.

The forced security link had vanished without a trace.

And at the moment she realized she was no longer bound to anyone…

The golden eyes of the hunting dog—once too dangerous to release—flashed brightly in the dark.