Papers & Dust

«⟨ Papers & Dust ⟩»

Chitose stood before the room with the double door. To his front was Hazel and Fryd. And just above the beaten up doors was a plating with the word “Archiving” on it.

“Is it fine to have doors to our documents and whatnot looking like this?...” Might as well leave it open at this point.

“Can't really do anything with our tight budget right now,” said Hazel.

What a lack of security…

Hazel pushed the door open. Revealing the room within.

It was as he had seen when he was walking around the station just now. Papers on the floor, boxes stacking and cabinets left open. It really is messy here…

Hazel poked Fryd by her shoulder, “Fryd, help me find the latest encounter report.”

“o-okay…”

“Thanks.”

The two seemed fine with each other. Perhaps what Hazel said regarding her status here might be true.

Fryd tiptoed herself across the room, heading towards the rows of cabinets at the back.

She should really wear something lighter, that thick coat seemed like a hindrance…

Chitose looked at the girl catching herself from fumbling here and there.

“Okay then,” Hazel turned around, now looking at Chitose, “Let's go over the basics of our daily routine here.”

“O-Okay…” Quite sudden…

“As you already know, our operation revolves around dealing with anomalic entities,” she then extended an index finger close to Chitose’s face, “HOWEVER, that's not what we be doing here all the time — So you don't need to worry yourself with 24/7 combat.”

That's a relief…

“Then I assume you guys do patrol most of the time?” Chitose asked.

“Exactly,” she continued, “It was quite unfortunate that no one cares to show up during roll call, but I can guarantee you that they're already out there patrolling for any anomaly.”

That would explain it…

If that's the case, perhaps the other automatas–despite having bad terms with management–still would like to stay here after all.

However, it still pricked his heart quite a bit that no one even cared to greet this newcomer. Ugh…

“...h-here…” Fryd came back, hugging a box filled with a lot of thick folders. She then dropped it on top of another random box on the floor.

Thump!...

A cloud of dust spewed from beneath the boxes.

“*cough* What are we gonna do with these?” Chitose asked.

“I need you to read through all of these,” Hazel said.

Huh?... All of these?...

Perhaps catching on to Chitose's silent sigh, Hazel opened her mouth, “What? Got a problem?” She threw a sharp gaze at him.

“N-no miss…”

Chitose lowered himself, and sifted through the folders within.

There's black and blue, orange and red. Some with markings, and others with none. One folder had a thickness of about a hundred papers, and some even got only a single sheet inside.

“What the hell are these… What the hell am I looking at…” Chitose said.

None of the folder categories made any sense. And it didn't help either that none of them had any labeling to it.

“Just hurry up and grab any one, will ya?”

Any one?

Chitose took out the most lightest folder he could find–within it was a piece of paper torn in half.

This could do!

A sudden puncture stabbed his back–it was Hazel's shoe.

“Oi… You messing with me?” She continued stabbing his back several times.

“It was a joke! Please stop!”

The torn paper then slipped from the folder, and landed itself next to Chitose on the floor.

…??... Written by… Violena Mancester…

Chitose grabbed the paper,

—At least, he was about to when Hazel suddenly snatched it from him, and crumpled the paper before putting it into her pocket.

“Enough with the joke, grab something more practical, will ya.”

Albeit for a second, he caught a glimpse of something he shouldn't have seen.

…….

…That report…

“....m-maybe you can start… with this…”

He felt a sudden poke to his left shoulder. It was Fryd’s, and in her hand was a black folder with the label August Week 4 Report.

Oh? This one has a label it seems.

“T-Thanks… uh… Fryd?”

“...welcome…”

Chitose was a bit reluctant to call her by the name, worried that it might've been a nickname only her colleague called her with–but it seemed that wasn't the case.

Chitose grabbed the folder from her, and flipped through the inside.

“...??.....”

It was quite surprising.

Not because the report was messy or anything–quite the opposite in fact–as it might've actually been the only decent folder he had seen today.

“Oh that? I wrote those,” it seemed Hazel had caught him admiring the beautifully written report.

“You sure you wanna start with that? The jargon I used was quite rigid.”

It was in fact somewhat rigid. With formal words, and how stiff it sounded. If someone were to read this, they wouldn't even have thought that it came from a person with such a sharp tongue.

As he flipped through more pages, something caught his attention.

Weird… Feels like it's just more or less about the leader’s contribution…

I thought the previous leader was bad?... Was it not?...

Hazel then lowered her peak cap, somewhat hiding her eyes.

With a whisper, she muttered,

“It's nothing but lies anyway…”

……..

= = = =

12:12 a.m.

Chitose took a peek on his phone's screen, lying just across him. It's already been two hour since then.

He now sat on top of a stack of tied up papers, with several boxes as a makeshift desk.

In the corner of the room, the two girls busied themselves with the wooden shelves. Rearranging the things within while engaging in some small talk.

‘Just call out to me if you have any question,’ was the word Hazel had said before leaving him by himself to read through the pile of documents.

Man is this a lot…

Perhaps it was because of his capabilities to read fast, or maybe how well-written the report was–he had no problem understanding even the intricate details within.

In short, the daily routine here was pretty basic: Gathering, patrol, encounter, report and recovery.

Gatherings are roll calls and meetings.

Patrolling just watching out the area perimeter.

Encountering is combat.

Reports are basically what I'm reading.

And recovery meant maintenance and sick bay.

At least–on the fundamental level–that was all the agenda that mostly appeared within the reports. Although there are some special cases like emergencies and others, he should first concern himself with what he would most likely do from today onward. Can't prep for an emergency if I can't even prep for something basic anyways…

With a hefty sigh, he closed the fourth folder and put it inside the box to his left, where three other folders–he had read–were.

He then looked to his right, where another box was. A mountain of folders stack on top of each other.

Like twenty or so to go?….

Despite already having the basics at grasp, he felt like reading any more status report would pop his brain out.

Well, I can't really stop now, can I?

BRING IT ON!!

“Oi…” A voice sounded from his side.

It was Hazel, and her face had a somewhat disappointed look to it–perhaps because Chitose just punched the air for no reason.

“W-What's up?...”

Chitose dropped both his hands, slightly flustered by his own behaviour.

“Wanna grab a bite?” Hazel said.