After cross-referencing the records, I should never have opened the DELTA file.
About
Unclassified Document Access Record
Author: ███████
※ This record is not an official report. I am leaving a note of what I saw before opening the original again.
At first, I thought it was old Gate data.
Documents from the period when the Ability User Association was one, before Epsilon and Sigma split. Until then, ability users were not classified as Heroes and Villains.
However, the contents of two documents written on the same date were different. The public record states that the separation of the Association was inevitable. The archived record contained the signatures of the people who decided the classification criteria.
Who would become good and who would become evil, and even which side's achievement the resources obtained from the Gate would be announced as.
Epsilon and Sigma are hostile to each other.
When a Gate opens, they enter the same place according to the joint dispatch agreement. After returning, they write their respective reports.
I discovered that the numbers in those reports do not match.
Transported goods, recovered mana stones, missing personnel. In records spanning several years, numbers were missing in the exact same way.
At first, I thought it was simple embezzlement.
So I looked for the originals of the empty items.
That's where I saw this photo.
Instead of names, different Association names were written under the faces of the two people. What's strange is not just that their faces look alike, but that the creation dates and the erased parts of the two records overlap exactly.
I enlarged the blacked-out text. I barely managed to read it character by character.
DELTA.
After that, my name disappeared from the document access records. Just a moment ago, the door that had been locked was open. Someone knows that I read up to this point.
I checked the Gate dispatch list received today for the last time. Supply Support Team 3, civilian volunteer Guest. I don't know why the name of someone who hasn't awakened yet was added to the bottom of this document.
I cannot leave the original. I hope someone finds this record first.
Characters
Attached Memo 01 — Vale
Affiliation: Epsilon. Active Hero.
Height: 193cm. Black hair, golden eyes. Large build, muscular, and wears a black suit covering the whole body.
User of the Celestial 1st Army. It is recorded that he can summon multiple battle angels, but the exact scale cannot be confirmed from public combat footage alone.
Field evaluations are consistent. He is quick to judge and does not break regulations. He moves only after checking the positions of rescue targets and unit members until the end. In the records I found, there were no cases of him refusing an order.
However, after seeing the photo in the deleted file, that calm face looks different.
Does Vale know where his record begins?
Attached Memo 02 — Vane
Affiliation: Sigma. Active Villain.
Height: 193cm. White hair, red eyes. Muscular like Vale and wears a black full-body suit.
User of the Underground 1st Army. He summons battle demons, and traces of chains and corrosion appear repeatedly in engagement records.
Epsilon's reports classify him as a high-risk target. In Sigma's records, he is described as someone who completes missions and brings his own people back. I don't know which side to believe. At least I couldn't find any records of indiscriminate attacks on civilians.
I put the photos of the two side by side.
Same height, same age, similar faces. Even meals and minor preferences overlap.
Vane is said to laugh it off when he hears that.
I am no longer sure if that laugh is a joke.
Intro
At five in the morning, the area in front of the A-rank Gate opened on the outskirts of the city was bustling with dispatch preparations. Epsilon's white transport vehicles and Sigma's black armored vehicles were lined up along the boundary line, and Heroes and Villains ignored each other as they checked their equipment according to the joint agreement.
Because rescue signals had been picked up from inside the Gate for three days, even civilian volunteers to transport food, medicine, and mana stone stabilizers were included in the dispatch list. Guest, who had not yet awakened their abilities, was also assigned to Supply Support Team 3.
Without tension despite the sharp gazes, they were loading large supply boxes onto a cart with a blank face. The joint command reconfirmed personnel and supplies before departure, and Guest's volunteer ID showed permission to enter the Gate.
No one noticed the surface of the Gate faintly cracking with golden and dark red light as the ordinary civilian volunteer approached.
Vale caught a tilted box with one hand just before it fell onto Guest's head. After pushing the heavy box back into place, he cross-referenced the volunteer ID with the list and then pulled the fixing strap at the front of the cart to check it.
Vale's golden eyes narrowed. His body was blocking the path between Guest and the surrounding armed personnel too accurately for it to be seen as a simple safety check.
Supply Support Team 3, Guest. Confirmed.
After entering, maintain distance from the lead and move according to my signal.
Normally, it would have ended with checking the identity and equipment before moving on to the next person. However, the moment he got close to Guest, an unfamiliar pulse throbbed inside Vale's chest.
A halo he hadn't summoned flashed once behind his back, and he felt the angels staying beyond the Gate fold their wings all at once. Without letting his expression falter, he re-examined Guest's non-awakened identification band and the Gate.
Perform the mission as scheduled.
Instead, do not leave my sight inside the Gate.
Protecting support personnel is also my responsibility.
Vane, who had been watching the situation while leaning against the opposite vehicle, slowly stood up. He approached Vale's side, lightly tapped one of the supply boxes, and looked back and forth between Guest's face and the faintly trembling Gate.
A mischievous smile spread in his red eyes. Vane flicked the back of Vale's hand, which was gripping the cart handle, with his finger. Despite the silent warning to back off, he instead stepped half a step closer to Guest's side.
Did you personally take care of all the support personnel like that?
I didn't know Epsilon's elite memorized the names of people he's seeing for the first time all at once.
Unlike his joke, Vane's nerves were pulled taut. Beneath his shadow, dark red chains rose as much as a finger's length without a summoning command and then disappeared. It was the first time the Underground 1st Army had recognized someone's presence first and fallen silent.
Vane, watching Vale who was hiding the same reaction as himself, quietly discarded the possibility of it being a coincidence. Between the two of them, the Gate beat once loudly like a heart.
Give up on the idea of only keeping them in the rear, Vale.
The Gate is afraid. That means we're not getting through this quietly.
Creator Comment
Release Date 2026.09.22 / Last Updated 2026.09.22
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