Branch D-02

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## Branch D-02

### Bosses

Ebony Queen's Apple
Doomsday Calendar

## Story

### Floor 1

The Sinners and the Fixers previously introduced enter the decrepit Lobotomy Corporation Branch. As they enter, they encounter a group of old G Corp. veterans, who initially seemingly allow the Sinners to pass, but their façade of kindness was soon uncovered after they noticed Gregor——a center of propagandization for the Old G Corp. during the war, who they considered a traitor for being able to live on mostly as a normal person after the war, and thus "deserting" his former comrades.

After defeating the soldiers, the Sinners encounter a group of Peccatula. Hopkins chastises Yuri for not being able to identify these Abnormalities, but the Sinners root for Yuri by suggesting these Abnormalities to be of a new, unrecorded variant. The conversation ends awkwardly.

Later, after a break at a checkpoint (where Dante heals up the Sinners by "gazing" into their star), the Sinners move on as they prepare to enter the second floor. As they walk, however, Aya was impaled by a wooden tentacle emerging from the walls. The Sinners then brace for battle with the first proper Abnormality they encounter——Ebony Queen's Apple.

After defeating the Apple, Heathcliff comments on the weakness of the Abnormality. Faust reveals that the ease with which they suppressed this Abnormality is due to the effect Qliphoth Deterrence in action——a force with which the Lobotomy Corporation weakens Abnormalities to keep them in containment. Dante then wonders where the corpse of the Abnormality went, and it is revealed that Abnormalities are immortal——they revert to an ovate form once suppressed, which will hatch given enough time back into the full Abnormality.

### Floor 2

Shortly after the Sinners descend to Floor 2 of the L Corp. Branch Facility, they encounter the leader of the old G Corp. veterans outside——Gregor's former head manager. The old commander is angered at finding Gregor's desertion of the other veterans and G Corp, and how he seems to be living a decent life as his former comrades rummage in the trash for a living. A scuffle ensues, and the G Corp. head manager is defeated. Before his death, he learns that Gregor has been forced to sell his medals away for rent——leading him to comment that "[Gregor] is no different from us… /In the end, we’re… /Nothing… but disgusting pests…". Gregor borrows a cigarette from Ryōshū, and tosses it onto the corpse of his former boss as a measure of final respect.

Moving on, the Sinners encounter a section of hallway large amounts of former L Corp. employee corpses can be seen. Ishmael senses a weird smell, and several of the Sinners, along with Yuri, begins to bleed from the ears. Hopkins then puts on a gas mask, and reveals that their Office had previously bought an expensive device which informed them of the toxic gas leak in this area of the facility (which, according to Yuri, is due to a dead employee's anti-Abnormality gas grenade going off). Yuri was nor informed of this or provided with protection equipment due to her lack of value to the Office. He then leaves the team for dead, having collected some Enkephalin for the Office on his way.

Before Yuri dies, Gregor gave her a gas mask which he was saving for Yuri to keep in remembrance for Aya, which allows her to survive until the gas disperses. Being shocked by Hopkins' claim of her small value, Yuri asks whether it is a sin that she should survive, while all her coworkers are buried under alongside the Abnormalities in the facility. Gregor, before dying, answers: "It is a sin. At least down here."

Dante was unaffected by the gas, so he was able to revive the Sinners and move on. As they arrive at the employee canteen of the branch facility, they encounter a survivor wearing a mask of one of the clay dolls they encountered earlier, apparently to protect from herself from being sacrificed. The survivor was hardly aware of her surroundings, babbling around about the drawing of lots. Yuri says that the drawing of lots is due to certain Abnormalities demanding regular sacrifices as part of their managerial procedures, so the employee to be sacrificed is chosen via this method.

Heathcliff notes that many of the corpses display signs of wounds left by weapons, and theorised that the survivors fought over rights to not get sacrificed——the last survivor being the Statuehead.

### Floor 3

**Potential Spoilers**

After the Sinners defeat the Abnormality blocking the entrance to the 3rd Floor and descend, they are greeted by an unusually large population of maggots. Gregor begins hearing something, and opened the door to a containment unit following it. The team is greeted by a wave of golden light pouring from the room before being transported into the midst of a battlefield in the Smoke War.

Soon after they enter the battlefield, Heathcliff's coat is tugged from behind, and a young soldier named Tomah greets them. After a short conversation to dismiss Tomah, Gregor asks Faust about what exactly is happening. Faust replies that Gregor has resonated with the Golden Bough, and they have been transported into the fathoms of Gregor's ego.

After a vignette into Gregor's past: his operation for the bug arm by the Old G Corp. (specifically by a director of the corporation, Hermann) and his training to cut objects (a hanging apple) with his new arm, they were greeted by Tomah again, with the exact same opening conversation from him taking place. However, just after Tomah offered them a ride with his wing enhancements, Gregor spoke his heart that he neither wanted the enhancements nor the honor. At this, Tomah's enhancements mutated, indicating a breaking down in Gregor's psyche.

After another vignette into Gregor's experiences immediately after the war (and the collapse of the old G Corp.), Tomah emerges again, though this time he simply points upward (and saying, "I don’t want to die—") before being crushed to a pulp by giant hands descending from the sky. The Sinners proceed to run. However, as the team is tiring out, Gregor postulates that since this world is his heart and mind, they should not waste energy running away——Gregor himself has never been able to flee from the owner of these hands in real life. The Sinners decide to give the plan a try, and the descending hands take them out into the containment chamber of the Abnormality containing the Golden Bough.

The holder of the Golden Bough is an Abnormality that resembles a Golden Apple with thick, branchy stalks acting as arms and legs. After defeating the Abnormality with relative ease, Yuri approaches its "egg" to retrieve the Golden Bough. However, the Abnormality suddenly consumes Yuri, transforming into its second form: a rotten apple with a grotesque, monstrous head and long, lanky limbs——all made out of maggots. Gregor was quite shocked by the occurrence, and was further traumatized when the defeated False Apple used Yuri's head and voice in an attempt to lure the Sinners into giving it time and material to regenerate. The sight, along with Dante's calls for Gregor to cut the lure down, leads Gregor to a flashback regarding his arm growing uncontrolled and cutting down civilians after the war.

However, the False Apple's trick was foiled when Yuri's head was cut down by a team of strangers, led by the previously-mentioned Hermann, who then took the Golden Bough. Several of the Sinners recognized members of the rival team as family members or former comrades, and both sides exchanged tense chatter before Jia Huan clapped twice and all the Sinners lost consciousness.

Back on the bus, Vergilius chastens the Sinners for their failure to retrieve the Golden Bough. and Gregor decides to take up all the blame for the failed mission. He then hangs the gas mask worn by Yuri as a memento to her. Vergilius asks Charon whether it will interfere with her driving, and lets it be after receiving a negative response.
## Trivia

* Two of the three Abnormalities in this Story Dungeon are related to apples, and the third is related to sacrifice. Both concepts hold special importance in the literary source for the character of Gregor, Franz Kafka's *The Metamorphosis* (*Die Verwandlung*).
	+ The apple is a symbolism, or manifestation of Gregor Samsa's family's apathy, or shame (as in feelings of being shamed at having a family member such as) towards the insectified Gregor. Specifically, Gregor's father throwed apples towards Gregor when he escaped his room, one of which lodged "in a soft part of his back", and stayed there until his death, during which time it caused him great pain.
	+ In a sense, Gregor Samsa is an object of "sacrifice" by his family as his insectification and death ultimately led the family to free themselves from debt and achieve a better life.
* The stigma of being "alienized" from general society is also a theme played upon in both the events of this Story Dungeon and the original *The Metamorphosis*, whether by the modifications of the G Corp. veterans that turned them into literal vermin, or by former Wing employment in general in the character of Yuri.