Mash-up Anime World: Creating the SCP Foundation to Contain Anomalies

"This place is practically in a paralyzed state. Something must've happened... maybe it was attacked."

Misaki looked over the current state of the Talent Workshop and concluded something close to the truth.

Haruto nodded.

"Not long ago, this place was indeed attacked."

Misaki recalled her own condition back then.

Wearing a strange lab uniform, she wandered aimlessly through the streets. Like an empty shell, with no direction or purpose. Eventually, she collapsed and lost consciousness.

Linking this to the attack on the Talent Workshop—

Misaki began to form a rough hypothesis in her heart.

Perhaps, she had once been trapped inside the Talent Workshop. Until someone attacked it, or maybe amidst the chaos, she escaped from the facility.

And after making it out onto the streets, she chose to erase her own memories.

It all made sense and fit with the facts they already knew.

Then, only two questions remained.

What exactly had she experienced inside the workshop that made her choose to erase her memories?

And who was it that attacked the Talent Workshop—and why?

While she pondered, the two of them stepped further inside the facility. There, they found many rooms filled with a particular kind of cultivation pod.

These were special cloning and incubation containers.

It was here that the Misaka clones were created.

But now, these pods were all empty—and not even connected to a power source.

Clearly, they had been abandoned.

Misaki stared at those vacant cloning chambers.

A strange ripple stirred in her heart. She even began to hallucinate, as if someone was supposed to be inside one of them.

She must have seen that scene before.

The hallucination came with a splitting headache.

Misaki raised her hand to hold her forehead, fine beads of cold sweat forming along her temples.

The pain drained the color from her lips.

And yet, she said nothing, simply continued staring at those pods.

At that moment, Haruto gently placed his hand over her eyes, then pulled her trembling body into his arms.

"You don't have to force it. Obsessing over one point too hard never ends well."

Her trembling gradually subsided as she leaned against Haruto's shoulder, as though she'd lost all strength.

It took a while before she stood up again,

Pulling away from his embrace.

Misaki no longer looked at the cloning pods.

She wanted to see everything—only after that would she allow herself to think about what had happened.

She wouldn't let a single image push her to the brink.

She wasn't that fragile.

Seeing her recover, Haruto nodded and pulled her along to continue deeper inside.

They passed through countless laboratories.

Misaki saw some neural-assist devices. Many of them were explicitly banned by Academy City.

These devices enhanced a user's brainwaves.

The principle was simple—microcurrent stimulation, computer-assisted processing, and so on. But all of these methods caused irreversible damage to the user's brain. Just by seeing this, it was clear—

The Talent Workshop's research had focused on cloning and psychic ability enhancement.

At least, it had up until recently.

In the midst of these labs, Misaki even spotted a place resembling a cafeteria.

The setup was extremely crude.

Metal tables and benches were bolted to the floor, already covered in dust. Nearby was a container for utensils—

Cheap, soft plastic trays and cutlery.

Clearly, this wasn't meant for the researchers of the Workshop.

So, who was it meant for?

Misaki brushed the dust off one of the benches and sat down. The cold steel of the bench pressed against her skin.

"I must have sat here before..."

She said to Haruto. ƒгeewёbnovel.com

Haruto sat beside her.

When Misaki turned her head to look at him, another hallucination flickered into view.

Once, someone else had sat beside her too.

Where were they now?

Were they safe?

Had they escaped as well?

What kind of person were they?

These thoughts began swirling in her mind and wouldn't let go.

Agitated, Misaki stood up and pulled Haruto further inside.

After passing several tightly sealed alloy doors—

They arrived at the main control room of the Talent Workshop.

Massive screens lined the walls.

Footage from the facility's internal surveillance was displayed on them. Besides that, there was an enormous central computer.

The most powerful computational unit in Academy City was the Tree Diagram—

A massive pseudo-quantum computer mounted on a satellite.

But despite the name, it wasn't a true quantum computer. Its immense processing power required vast physical hardware.

Naturally, it had an enormous size.

The Workshop's computer was about a third of the Tree Diagram's size.

Its overall performance was roughly 1% of the Tree Diagram.

Even so, such power still ranked among the top in Academy City.

Clearly, the Workshop had once been supported by tremendous funding and state-of-the-art equipment.

Misaki tried to access the mainframe.

Haruto tapped it lightly with a finger, pulling the machine out of its time-stopped state.

Misaki quickly began scanning through the system's contents. Unfortunately, most of the data had been deliberately wiped.

Most likely after the Workshop was attacked, its original plans fell through.

Before fleeing, the higher-ups erased the evidence. But among the fragments that remained, Misaki still found something useful.

For example—a girl named Dolly.

She had been a key part of the Workshop's experimental plan.

Many tests had revolved around her.

Misaki's hand, gripping the mouse, gradually stopped.

She stared at Dolly's file on the screen.

Then, a droplet of water fell onto the display and splashed outward.

Misaki only then realized—

She had started crying without even noticing.

"Haruto... it seems I knew her. But isn't she just like the Misaka Sisters? Then why... why does this hurt so much...?"

Her hand pressed against her chest, tears streaming down uncontrollably.

Dolly was one of Misaka Mikoto's clones.

That much was obvious.

Her designation was No. 0—she was the very first sample of the Misaka clone project.

Compared to the others, Dolly had been even more disposable. She was cloned from a DNA-derived somatic cell.

And somatic cell clones naturally had shorter lifespans.

Worse still, for the sake of experimentation, her cultivation process had used a large amount of catalytic drugs.

Her lifespan would have burned away even faster.

According to the records—

Unless a miracle occurred, Dolly would have passed away before Academy City even connected with the main world.

Haruto said nothing.

Right now, no words could help.

Some things, if you truly don't want to run from them, you have to face yourself.

No one else can do it for you.

The tears fell one after another.

Some hit the computer screen and froze midair in suspended droplets. Others stopped on the floor, unmoving.

Misaki was not a weak girl but this time, she couldn't stop crying.

"...Haruto, I'm sure I knew her. We must've been close. What should I do?"

She asked him helplessly.

She knew full well—according to the documents, Dolly was already gone.

No miracle.

Otherwise her heart wouldn't be hurting this much.

Her crying lasted a long time.

Eventually, as her body began to sway, she pulled a remote from her bag. She pressed it against her temple, finger poised over a certain button.

Haruto didn't stop her.

He simply waited quietly for her decision.

Memories could be painfully cruel—just a touch was enough to scorch her entire soul. Letting them go wasn't a coward's choice—it was a real, viable option.

But ultimately, the choice was hers to make.

After a long while, Misaki's arm slowly lowered.

In the end, she couldn't press the button.

"Haruto... isn't it strange? I don't even have the courage to press the button anymore. The me from before could at least do that. Have I become weaker?"

Tears still shimmered in her eyes as she asked softly.

Haruto simply reached out and gently wiped the tears from her cheeks.