"Did you remember your gloves?"
Nezumi pulled one leather-clad hand from his pocket and waved it in front of Shion. "I don't see yours, though."
Shion raised his own hand and Nezumi frowned at it. He was wearing a worn sock, his thumb poking through a hole in the cloth so that it looked like some sort of sock mitten.
"Recycling," Shion said and smiled slyly.
Nezumi tsked. He adjusted the bag's strap on his shoulder and returned to assessing the houses around him.
A few days ago, Shion had been struck with the idea that it might be more expedient and economical if they tried to scavenge parts for Nezumi's projects. Before the formation of No. 6, a fairly sizeable town had existed where West Block now stood. Since electronics were of no use to those in the West Block, Shion was confident that they would be able find at least a few of the more commonplace pieces, and he had it on good authority that there might be some items worth looking at in a dump in the northwest sector.
"Who's this 'authority' you got your information from?" Nezumi asked.
"Yoming's niece, Lili. Don't make that face. She and her friends are always exploring the outskirts of West Block. They're experts at finding things. With their help, I'm sure we'll be able to salvage something."
Nezumi wasn't sold on the profitability of dumpster diving for computer parts, but it was better than sitting around in headquarters being glared at and insulted. After a few choice words with Yoming, Shion gained approval.
The only thing left now was to pick up Yoming's niece. They had left the main street behind and were now wandering down a quiet path flanked by homes. This area was in much better condition than the neighborhoods he had hitherto seen. There were less broken windows, and although most of the facades of the houses had been blackened and worn down with neglect, they looked high-class in comparison with the rest of the West Block. Every now and then Nezumi's boot would scuff against a stone underfoot, and at first he thought these were discarded pieces of the homes. However, he soon realized there was a distinct pattern to their placement. Dirt and time were slowly working to erase all vestiges of it, but there was still enough visible to discern that there had been a cobblestone path laid out between the buildings some years before.
Still, despite its tenuous hold on presentability, the area felt just as dead as the lesser neighborhoods. The street was nearly deserted, and those he did see had an air of stoic determination as they passed. Nezumi made eye contact with a man sitting out on the stoop of one of the buildings. He must have been at least sixty, and appeared to have no other purpose for being there other than to show off the huge machete he had resting between his knees. The old man shifted the machete when their eyes met, and Nezumi looked the other way.
One of the houses ahead caught his attention. It was a two-story affair with the usual weary exterior, but what caught his attention was the squat van out front. He could count the number of cars he saw in West Block on one hand, so whomever owned the house must have been pretty well off, well connected, or both. He scanned the house, and noticed that there were bars mounted on every window.
"What's that guy's problem?"
Shion glanced at Nezumi and then to the house he nodded at. "Ah. Well, that's Yoming's house, so, you can imagine why he might be a little cautious."
"Yoming's family lives altogether?" Shion nodded. "Wonderful. I love paying house calls to the fortresses of homicidal maniacs."
Shion snorted. "We're here for Lili, not Yoming. Besides, he won't be home."
Nezumi grunted and rubbed the back of his neck. His head had been aching dully since the morning, but he felt that the throbbing was getting more insistent the closer they got to the day's main objective.
"It's strange, though," said Shion. "Lili should've been waiting outside for us, but I don't see her."
"Maybe she's on house arrest."
The windows of the house were completely dark. It wasn't until they got closer that he realized they had been blacked out as well as barred.
Shion knocked on the door. It opened almost immediately, revealing the barrel of a shotgun.
"Good afternoon, Getsuyaku," Shion said pleasantly.
The barrel lowered a bit and the older man stepped out into the doorway. "Oh, it's you." He gave a curt nod to Nezumi, and Nezumi was reminded of his less than civil dismissal of him a few nights prior. "You're here for Lili, right? I think she's—"
"Shion!"
Before the delighted shriek could be processed, a small girl rocketed past Getsuyaku and threw her arms around Shion's waist.
"You're finally here! I missed you so much!"
"You just saw me the other day, Lili," Shion chuckled.
"I know, but I hardly ever get to see you. You never come over anymore," she mumbled into his shirt.
"Sorry." Shion ruffled her hair. "Lili, this is Nezumi. Nezumi, Lili."
The girl released Shion. "Pleased to meet you. I'll be your guys's escort for today." The girl beamed up at him, revealing a gap in the lower left-hand corner of her mouth.
You've gotta be kidding me.
Nezumi stared down at the pint-sized girl. She was a wisp of a thing, and her oversized t-shirt and jeans emphasized her small stature all the more. Her bright eyes and round cheeks indicated that the bagginess of the clothing was a stylistic choice, but why she wanted to look thinner than she already was, Nezumi could not imagine.
This is his professional. I should've guessed. He had neither the skill nor the inclination to guess the ages of those younger than him, but he approximated her to be between seven and ten.
Shion seemed to be able to read the incredulity on his face, because he explained in a conciliatory tone, "Lili's the best at what she does. If she and her friends can't find something, no one can. Right, Lili?"
The girl nodded sagely. "Sorry I couldn't wait for you outside like I promised. Daddy made me come inside. He still thinks I can't take care of myself…"
"It's dangerous," Getsuyaku rumbled.
"He just wants to make sure you're safe. It was my mistake." Shion inclined his head at the older man. "Sorry."
"Dear, the door."
A woman stepped out from a doorway in the back of the house. Getsuyaku became animated at the sight of her. "Renka. Right. Sorry. Is it too cold?"
She was modestly pretty, although her loose-fitting clothing drained her. She looked about thirty, but there was an air of weariness about her that made her seem older than that. She paused on the threshold when she saw Shion and Nezumi.
"Hello, Shion. Oh, that's right. You're taking Lili out today."
"I'm taking him out, Mama, not the other way around." Lili pouted.
Renka smiled vaguely and turned back to Shion and Nezumi. "Won't you boys come in?"
Getsuyaku ushered them in and closed the door before he crossed the room to stand at his wife's side. Nezumi shifted. He was in no mood to engage in small talk.
"I have some tea, if you'd like," the woman offered, but Shion declined it.
"We're not staying long."
"I see. Lili, why don't you get your coat? It's too cold to go out without it."
"I was gonna get it. I was only saying hi to Shion and his friend." She huffed and trudged out of the room, while all but Nezumi smiled fondly after her.
After Lili had disappeared into the next room, Shion turned to Renka. "How have you been? Has the morning sickness died down?"
The woman placed a hand on her stomach and smiled at him. "Oh, yes. I've been much better, thank you."
"That's good. Sorry I wasn't too much help…"
"No, it's fine. The tea you gave me has worked wonders. I haven't had any trouble for a few days."
"Mommy's going to have a baby," Lili announced, startling everyone with her sudden and silent reappearance. She was now wearing a mustard duffle coat and a paperboy cap.
Nezumi assumed that, as the only stranger in the group, this revelation was meant for him. He offered a brief congratulation to the woman, who accepted it graciously.
"You must be Nezumi," she said with a motherly smile.
"Yes, Ma'am."
"I'm Renka. I suppose you've already met my husband and daughter—and my brother. I heard you joined his cause recently?"
"Yes, Ma'am," Nezumi agreed wryly. He didn't miss the quietness of her tone or the vague way she referred to the Resistance. However, he couldn't be sure if that indicated a hidden disapproval or simply that she was timid.
"You don't wear the bandana? Do you not like it?"
Shion twitched beside him. Nezumi gave him a cursory glance before answering.
"I'm not one for accessorizing."
Shion relaxed. Nezumi learned the reason for his nervousness when Shion explained that Renka was responsible for making the bandanas.
"Mommy's the best at it. Everyone says so," Lili gushed. "She made mine special." She pulled the fold of her bandana straight, so that the small lily flower sewn into the corner was visible.
"It's a small thing, but I like to do it. I used to be a tailor in town, but… Well, some things happened." Nezumi didn't miss the way Getsuyaku fidgeted, but the reason for it was impossible to guess. "And now I've got this little one," she continued in a brighter tone, brushing her stomach. "My husband is always worried about me overexerting myself, but if I didn't have those bandanas to occupy my time, I'm sure I'd go crazy all cooped up in here." She laughed lightly.
Nezumi could only smile politely in response. Luckily, the small talk ended soon after, and Shion insinuated that they should probably be heading out.
Lili nearly bolted from the room after her mother murmured an assent. Shion and Nezumi turned to follow when Getsuyaku called Shion back.
"Here." He held out his gun.
"Oh. Uh, I already have one." Shion opened his coat to show the handgun holstered between his waistband and hip.
Getsuyaku shook his head. "You should have one people can see."
Shion paused, but didn't argue with the seriousness of the man's expression. He uttered a brief word of thanks and gently took the gun from him. Nezumi eyed it as they left the house, wondering whether it was only Yoming's family that exercised such protective measures, or if this was the typical process when a parent let their kid go out in West Block.
"I trust you boys to keep Lili and her friends out of trouble," Renka called from the doorway. "Make sure you listen to Shion and Nezumi, Lili."
As he and Shion came up beside the girl, Nezumi caught her rolling her eyes. Having been an unruly child himself, he wasn't keen upon recognizing the symptoms in their temporary companion. Babysitting a kid was tedious, but babysitting a spoiled, disobedient kid was a nightmare. And, of course, Lili just had to be Yoming's niece.
Shion's carefree voice cut into his musing. "So how's business been lately?"
Lili turned to him, all smiles again. "Good! Yesterday I found some copper, and our client gave me a whole silver coin."
"Your client?" Nezumi couldn't help asking.
"Mm-hm," Lili hummed with satisfaction. "I gave it to Daddy, of course, but Ei says that if we keep looking around, there's got to be more copper. He says we'll be rich in no time."
"You're still friends with Ei?"
"Yeah. He's my best friend, actually." Shion frowned slightly and she continued. "He's waiting for us at the dump. He's gonna make sure everyone else is there, too."
Lili noticed Shion's less than ecstatic expression. She looked a little lost for a second, before her face brightened with realization.
"Oh! But don't worry, Shion," she said quickly. "I don't like him that way one bit. You'll always be my one and only prince."
Shion smiled and patted her head. "Thanks, Lili. You're sweet."
Lili beamed with starry-eyed wonder and clung to Shion's arm.
A smirk tugged at the corner of Nezumi's mouth. "Ah, I see. I was wondering how someone as simple as Shion managed to make it so high up in the ranks, but now it makes sense."
Shion and Lili turned to him with looks of reproach and confusion, respectively.
"You make a cute couple. The niece of the resident megalomaniac and the prince of West Block," he continued without remorse. "It's nice to see you dating within your age range, Your Highness."
"Very funny, Nezumi," Shion said with patient distaste.
"Hey! You're making fun of us, aren't you?" Lili growled, pulling away from Shion to glare at him.
"Not at all. I'm happy for you. I'm sure you'll make a fine bride in a decade or two."
She puffed up her cheeks. "Uncle Yo's right, you are a spoiled little prick!"
Nezumi cocked an eyebrow.
"Lili!" Shion gasped. Lili ducked her head with a look of immediate shame. "That was really rude," he said hotly. "You shouldn't say things like that. What would your mother think?"
"Sorry, Shion…"
Nezumi smirked wider with wry amusement. "Shouldn't it be me you're apologizing to? I'm the one you insulted."
Lili mumbled a woeful apology.
"My, the things they're teaching kids these days," Nezumi said with a dramatic sigh. "What has the world come to?"
"You know, you should apologize, too," Shion leveled at him. "You weren't acting much better."
"I didn't say anything that wasn't true."
"Technically, neither did she."
Nezumi's face broke into a wide grin. "Ouch," he laughed. "And here I thought you weren't equipped with teeth and claws."
"Well, you were wrong," Shion sniffed. "I'll bite back if the occasion calls for it. Now, you really should—"
Lili tugged on Shion's sleeve. "Shion, that man's calling you."
She pointed behind them, and sure enough, an extremely agitated looking young man was running toward them. He called Shion's name repeatedly until the boy stopped to wait.
"Mister Shion, please, my wife," the man wheezed when he managed to reach them. "My wife. She's having a baby, you need to come right now!"
Lili gasped. "Shion, you need to help her!"
Shion instantly assumed a serious demeanor. "Yes, of course. Oh, but, uh— Nezumi…" He turned to Nezumi with a fraught expression.
"What? Do you need my permission? Obviously you should go."
"But—" Shion bit his lip and looked back and forth between him and the man. "I mean, what about you?"
"What about me? Are you telling me you'd rather dig through trash than deliver a baby? If you want to go to the dumpster that badly, I'll go deliver the baby."
"Don't worry, Shion," Lili piped. "I'll stay with Nezumi and be his escort. You go help that lady."
Nezumi narrowed his eyes at the girl beside him, but after a moment, he shrugged. "Yeah. Lili's more or less a part of the Resistance, isn't she? It shouldn't be a problem. Go ahead, your Majesty. Your subjects need you."
Shion still looked a little unsure, but in the end he nodded. "Okay then. I'm going."
The man and Lili breathed a sigh of relief.
"Here, Nezumi. Take this."
Before Nezumi had a chance to question it, Shion pushed Getsuyaku's gun into his hands. It was heavier than he expected, and he wondered fleetingly if it was because it was loaded.
"What I am supposed to do with this?"
"Nezumi, that's a shotgun. No one's going to bother you. Just carry it."
"Mister Shion, please, my wife," the young man whined a second time. "We have to go."
Shion perked up at the words. "Right. Okay, I'm going. Sorry about this, Nezumi. I promise I'll make it up to you."
He and the man turned and ran in the opposite direction. Nezumi watched them disappear around the corner and sighed.
Today appears to be a big day for babies. And guns.
He scowled down at the gun in his hands.
"Do you not know how to use that?" The look Lili gave him was baffled and just the slightest bit amused. Nezumi never imagined he'd see the day he was condescended by a child.
"I can teach you, if you want." She stood up on her toes to peer at the top of the gun. "The safety's on, so you shouldn't be able to shoot it right now, but Daddy says that doesn't always work, so keep your hand away from the trigger anyway. Once the safety's off, you pretty much just point and shoot. Most of the time you can just point it at someone and they'll run away, but Ei—his Mama lets him shoot her guns sometimes—says firing it into the air or at the ground is a good way to show you mean business."
Nezumi stared blankly at her.
Lili pursed her lips. "I can carry the gun if you don't want to, but I can't shoot it, because it has too much recoil in it."
"—How old are you?"
She crossed her arms. "That's none of your business. Geez, don't you know you never ask a woman her age?"
Nezumi raised an eyebrow. "My apologies. I didn't know West Block residents became women at the age of four."
"I'm not four! I'm—"
Nezumi walked away from her.
"Hey! I was still talking!" she howled.
Nezumi smirked to himself and kept walking so that the fuming girl had to drop her protests and run to catch up.
XXXX
There were no signs or markings for the dump. The buildings simply funneled down and then one was upon it. Although, he supposed the stench of dirt and garbage were as much a sign of its proximity as anything else. There was nothing to mark the boundary between the edges of the town and where the dump started but a line of garbage bags. Many of them were eviscerated, allowing the wind free rein with their contents.
He had expected to see a few people scrounging, and, indeed, there were some milling about by the entrance. He hadn't, however, expected the birds; they dotted the expanse of the dump as far as the eye could see. They perched on the mounds of refuse and pecked at them with casual concentration.
When Shion mentioned that the dump was from before No. 6's time, he had automatically assumed that it was no longer in use, but this did not appear to be the case. There were several piles of trash that looked fresh, and the likelihood of this being so was made more certain by the density of vultures picking at them.
"Ei!"
Lili ran toward a group of kids standing near the entrance, and stopped to talk animatedly with one boy in particular. He had a brown hunting jacket slung over his shoulders and there were several small tears in the knees of his dark wash cargo pants. Nezumi noted the bandana tied around the boy's neck, however, it was red instead of the Resistance gold.
The boy greeted Lili with a friendly smirk, but stared past her at Nezumi with a look of guarded curiosity.
"Nezumi!"
Nezumi's ears pricked at the sound of his name. A small boy trotted over to him, and an older girl followed behind with a resigned expression. The children looked vaguely familiar, and after a moment he placed them as the pair of siblings that he and Shion had run into all those nights ago.
Small world.
The little boy grinned up at him. "Do you remember me?"
"I remember you." But despite this, he couldn't quite recall the boy's name. He settled for, "You're that kid Shion takes care of."
The boy giggled. "Right! I'm Eiji. And that's my sister Saki. We're gonna help you find stuff!"
Unaffected by her brother's exuberant introduction, Saki continued to frown at Nezumi. However, she did make a noise that might have been construed as a form of greeting.
"He's Nezumi? The No. 6 guy everybody's talkin' about?"
Lili's scruffy friend, Ei, was leering at him with more intensity than before, and Nezumi found himself rather bored with the amount of staring and glaring directed at him that morning.
"Yup," Lili chirped. "He's Shion's friend."
"He don't look so tough." Ei stuck out his chin. "I could take him."
Nezumi had to stop himself from laughing. "You picking a fight, kid?"
"I ain't afraid of you. You're on our turf now. Try anything funny and I'll make you regret it."
"Oh really? You and what shotgun?"
There was no way Ei hadn't noticed the gun, but he now glanced at it with more attention.
"You won't use it," the boy said at last. "Everyone knows all the people in No. 6 are gutless turds."
"You may be right," Nezumi said, taking a step closer to the youth. "However, you're forgetting one thing: I was kicked out of No. 6." A wolfish smile spread over his features. "There was a reason for that."
Nezumi was satisfied to see the immediacy with which the smugness disappeared from Ei's face. In fact, the scare tactic was even more successful than he anticipated. Lili stared wide-eyed at him, and Eiji took a step away. Saki reached forward and pulled her brother back further.
Nezumi scanned the group, letting his gaze rest a moment on each individual child, before sweetly saying, "Shall we get to work?"
Ei was the first to regain his bearings. He trembled with anger, but instead of retaliating against Nezumi, he directed his rage at Lili.
"Where's Shion?" he demanded. "He was supposed to be here."
"Some lady was having a baby and he went to help her."
"Why'd he go and do that?" Ei snapped. "He's the one who asked us here, and he ditched us?"
"He can't help it," Saki muttered. "That's his job."
"Besides," Nezumi cut in, "you're here to find things for me, not Shion." The children stared mutely and he continued, "Have any of you ever seen a computer? An old one? It's a big box with a screen and a keyboard."
"We know what a computer is," said Ei.
"Wonderful. That's what I'm building. I need you all to find me parts for it—mechanical parts and electronics are best."
The children were proving slow to move, so he took the initiative and walked into the maze of trash bags.
"If you find anything you think might be of use, bring it to me."
The kids dispersed, some more eagerly than others. Lili came up beside him. He spared her a glance before saying, "We'll cover more ground if we split up."
"I can't leave you. I'm your escort," she stated with an air of importance.
He had expected such an answer, and sadly, since he had more or less agreed to the arrangement, there was hardly a point in complaining. He only hoped she wouldn't talk too much.
Neither man nor beast seemed much concerned with them as they made their way past the recent piles to the older sections of the dump. The droves of birds squawked irritably and parted for them, but either emboldened by their numbers, or jaded by human presence, none bothered to take flight. Since that was the usual, Nezumi took special notice when a murder of crows shot into the air. A dog crested over the top of the mound on top of which the birds had been scavenging and stared down at them.
It was an ugly creature with scruffy, matted fur and a watchful look that put Nezumi on edge. The dog was scraggily from hunger, but it was fairly large, and certainly capable of seriously wounding a person. A young child like Lili would be doubly at risk should it decide to attack. He gripped the shotgun tighter and the mutt's ears twitched.
"Nezumi," Lili said in a low voice. "Don't stare at it."
She tugged his sleeve and he broke eye contact with the dog to follow her a little ways away. Lili sighed.
"There are a lot of those out here, but they won't bother you long as you don't bother them." The dog trotted down the slope, and Lili and Nezumi pretended to ignore it as it slunk past. "If they do get angry, just throw something at them," the girl added as an afterthought. "That doesn't work on the mad dogs, though—"
"Hey! Hands off, that's ours!"
A shout from Ei diverted Nezumi's attention. The boy appeared to be addressing an older woman. She was in the process of picking something off the ground, and when she heard Ei bellowing at her, she snatched it up and held it close to her chest.
"It's mine. I found it," she hissed.
Ei stopped a few feet away from her, crossed his arms, and gave what Nezumi assumed was his best impression of a small town gangster.
"This is our turf, and that means everything here is ours. That's our copper."
The woman snorted and Nezumi was apt to do the same. The kid was ridiculous. But the next moment Ei reached behind him and whipped out a pistol.
"Give it, or I'll blow your brains out," Ei growled.
Holy shit.
The woman's expression soured, but it appeared she didn't want to take any chances. She dropped the piece she was holding and hobbled off. Ei pounced on the discarded copper and inspected it with a grin.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, kid?"
Ei stuffed his prize into his pocket and glowered at Nezumi as he approached. "I'm protecting our claim. You got a problem with that?"
"Unfortunately, I do. Not that I have any particular regard for you, but you shouldn't be waving around a gun like that. You're going to get yourself shot."
"What do you care? It ain't none of your business."
Was it his business? Common sense told him that anyone brandishing a weapon was announcing that they were prepared to have similar weapons turned on them. They were as good at attracting violence as they were at deflecting it. As much as he'd like to wash his hands of Ei's foolhardiness, his conscience unfortunately forbade him from allowing the child to continue such dangerous behavior without at least commenting on it. Plus, he could think of a few people who might be extremely angry if Ei was shot on his watch.
In short, it was, indeed, his business.
"Like I said, if you want to carry that gun and be a walking target for every other halfwit with a gun or knife, that's your problem. But," he glanced down at the bandana fastened around Ei's neck, "you want to join the Resistance, don't you? I guarantee you won't make it if you're dead."
Ei snorted and turned aside, but despite his pretence at nonchalance, Nezumi could see a trace of uncertainty in his features. Some part of what he said resonated with the boy.
"Nezumi's right, Ei," Lili said. "Your Mama would be real mad if she saw you with that. And the gun's broke, anyway."
Nezumi studied the gun in Ei's hand more closely. There didn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary at first, but then he realized that Ei's hold on the gun was odd. His fingers were wrapped entirely around the grip as one might clutch a hammer or bat; the pistol had no trigger.
Ei wheeled around on Lili. "You traitor! How stupid can you get?"
Lili looked taken aback. "What're you yelling at me for?"
"Why'd you tell him it's broke, you dumbass!"
Lili's face colored in anger. "Don't call me a dumbass, you little prick!"
"Both of you shut up," Nezumi snapped.
The children quieted, albeit with looks of mutual discontent.
Nezumi sucked in a sharp breath. "You," he turned to Ei, "get rid of that gun, or I swear I will tell your mother. And you," he turned to Lili, "stop calling people pricks."
He cut between them and headed for the area with the least amount of people. These children were nightmares, the West Block was screwed to the nth degree, and now he was seeking refuge from the thought of both by digging through a pile of decades-old trash. To top it all off, his headache had grown into a full-blown migraine.
He halted at a mound that advertised a mystery of stuffed trash bags and concentrated on the singular act of ripping every one of them open. He had succeeded in emptying seven or so before Lili joined him. Thankfully, she had enough sense of his current mood not to say anything.
Nezumi huffed. Not one so far had anything remotely close to what he needed. There were plastics, old shoes, shards of glass, and torrents of pulped papers and wrappers, and these merely the inventory of one pile in a hundred. He straightened and stared out at the expanse. He could see the opposite end of the dump in the distance, but so much lay between that point and where he stood. The remnants of an entire civilization were heaped at his feet, reduced to fodder for whichever scavengers found use in them.
He did not know much about the town that once stood in the spot where No. 6 now existed. It was barely a footnote in the history classes taught by the Gifted Curriculum professors. They waxed poetic about the war, the Babylon Treaty, the triumph of the six city-states, but said precious little about the Town of Roses out of which the last and most prosperous of those six had sprung. They spoke only of the town's renowned beauty—a facet that the budding No. 6 government determined to preserve by building a wall around the better parts of the town. The greatest minds were collected to engineer a utopia for the rich, the ambitious, and the ignorant, while the rest were abandoned to squalor. It wasn't long before the bloom faded and revealed the thorns beneath. All those pretty ideals thrown to the wayside with the rest of the refuse of the past.
Nezumi scowled and cast another bag aside. No. 6 was a parasite. It deserved to be exterminated.
"Is this helpful?"
Lili held out a rusty toaster to him. His mind went through the components of the machine, and he shook his head. Lili stuffed it back into the bag she found it in.
"Are you and Shion good friends?" she asked a moment later.
"Do we look like good friends?"
"Well," the girl lilted. "I don't know. You guys seem pretty different, is all."
"Hm. You and that kid Ei don't seem to be too friendly, so how is he your best friend?"
"Ei's in a real bad mood today. Usually, he's less mean."
"Less mean," he repeated with a short-lived smile. Something half-buried in the ground glinted. He bent down to pick it up, but it turned out only to be a piece of sheet metal.
"It seems we both have no explanation for the company we keep," he said absently. "Although, I hardly have a choice in the matter."
Lili furrowed her brow. "You don't like living with Shion?"
"I'd appreciate it if you'd focus on looking for parts."
"…But I always thought it'd be fun to live with Shion. He's always really nice and he tells good stories, too. I mean, I know it's safer if we live with Uncle Yo, but sometimes he makes me angry. Like, whenever Mama makes chicken, he always eats it all and I hardly get any!" A petulant shadow crossed over her face, but her anger soon deflated into a forlorn sigh. "But I should be grateful, since he works hard every day to provide for us."
Nezumi paused in his search and turned to her. He did not like the insinuation in her last statement. It sounded like a line that had been fed to her, and he had little doubt as to the source.
What a dick.
"Anyway," Lili said brightly, "I was really happy when Shion asked me to help today. He never comes over to play anymore. Mama says it's because he's busy."
Nezumi yanked a few stalks of rotted wood out of the ground and tossed them aside. This spot wasn't yielding anything other than chunks of wood and rocks. He picked up the gun from its resting place on the ground and walked over to the next pile. Lili followed and dropped down beside him to dig.
"Well, I guess it's better that he's busy," she continued. "If he's outside, he can't lock himself in his room like he did after Auntie Karan went away."
Nezumi reached for a piece of plywood that was sticking out of the pile, but sharply recoiled when something jabbed into his palm. He checked his hand, but, fortunately, the leather hadn't been punctured.
"You okay?"
"Fine."
He checked the underside of the plywood and discovered that there were several nails jutting out of it.
"Who's 'Auntie Karan'?"
"Hm? Oh. Uh…" Lili frowned and pawed through a few gutted bags. "Shion's mama."
"…I see." Nezumi returned to sorting through the junk in front of him.
"She was a really nice lady," Lili enthused. "She made these really delicious biscuits and she always brought a special batch for me. And Shion came over a lot more to play."
Nezumi flipped over another piece of plywood with his foot, but this one was clean of nails. He kicked it out of his way and moved to the opposite side of the rubbish pile.
Lili trailed after him without so much as a breath spared in between. "Everyone was really sad when she went away. But Shion was the most sad. He wouldn't come out of his room, and Mama and me had to bring him his food."
"Kid."
Lili paused in her rant and blinked up at him.
"I don't need any of this stuff." He gestured at the mound of broken glass and plastic. "It's all junk."
"I didn't make the piles," she said in a slightly defensive tone.
"Let's move on."
"Alright… By the way, Nezumi, don't tell Shion I was talking about Auntie Karan, okay? Mama told me not to talk about it because it makes him sad."
"You have my word," he deadpanned.
Conversation halted as both he and Lili made a more concerted effort to search through the piles. Every so often one of the children would come up to him and show him a piece they found, although most of it was useless or broken beyond repair. Eiji was his most frequent visitor and Nezumi was growing more exasperated by the minute. The boy was certainly the most dedicated to the task and worked quickly, but no matter how many times Nezumi explained they specifically needed electronic parts, Eiji continued to bring back anything and everything he found that was remotely metal.
"Nezumi, what about this?"
Nezumi steeled himself before turning around. "That's a bicycle wheel," he said with passable calmness. "And a very rusty one at that."
Eiji stared down at the browning ring in his hands. "No good, huh?" He dropped it on the ground and turned away.
"Hey, kid." Eiji paused. "You're looking with your sister, right? From now on, when you find something, ask her about it first. If she thinks it's good, then come show it to me, okay?"
There was just a hint of sheepishness to the nod Eiji gave him, and then he jogged over to his sister. She was searching with another girl who appeared to be part of the ragtag group of children, although he couldn't for the life of him remember her name, or even if they had been introduced in the first place.
Nezumi plopped down on the ground and laid the bag and gun he was holding beside him. Lili glanced at him, but made no comment and continued working. He scanned the area for Ei. So far, he was the only child who hadn't checked in with him. He caught him milling about some fifty yards away, keeping as wary an eye on the people around him as he did on the ground. Nezumi suspected he was thinking more about copper than computers. He supposed he couldn't blame the kid. He wouldn't want to do this either if it weren't for his own benefit.
"Is this something you can use?" a small voice asked.
Saki was standing behind him, holding out a computer keyboard. He sat up and took it from her. It was dirty and beaten, certainly unusable, but its existence was a welcome sign.
"Where'd you find this?"
"Over there."
He retrieved his property and moved in the direction she pointed. The other children stepped aside as he approached. A computer monitor was protruding halfway out of a pile of recyclables. Nezumi felt a flicker of hope at the sight of it. He dragged the monitor out the rest of the way and appraised the damage. The screen had been shattered to nothingness and the husk was cracked. He hummed thoughtfully. The condition of the monitor was of less importance than the system unit, however.
"Do you see any long, rectangular boxes around here?"
Lili and Saki looked around the general vicinity, while Eiji wandered a little further. Even Ei had decided to join them, though he seemed drawn more by curiosity than by any genuine intention to help.
"What're you doin'?" he asked.
"Long rectangular box. Look for it," Nezumi responded.
Ei harrumphed and walked away.
"Nezumi, here! Is this it?"
Lili pointed down at a black object and Saki came over to help her clear it of debris. He bent down and inspected the system unit closely. The casing was worn down, but he would not be able to ascertain the condition of the important parts like the motherboard and processor until he cracked it open. Unfortunately, at present, he lacked the tools to do so. The screws keeping it locked shut had rusted and he hoped that the contents had faired better. The largest hurdle now was how he was going to convey both the system unit and monitor back to headquarters. It would be difficult with just Lili and himself; he realized he might have to enlist the other children's help, and balked at the thought.
"Chocolate bar!"
Nezumi paused in his examination of the system unit and turned to see Eiji holding a short rectangle of candy over his head like a prize. Ei was nearest to the younger boy, and when he saw the chocolate bar, he descended on him with the ferocity of a terrier.
"Lemme see!"
"No, it's mine! I found it first!"
Ei grabbed at it, but Eiji dodged and ran from him in Nezumi's direction.
"Don't eat that!"
The kids froze at Nezumi's outburst, and remained shocked long enough for him to pluck the candy bar from of Eiji's outstretched hand.
"Hey!"
Ei and Eiji erupted into a chorus of protests.
Nezumi raised the dirt-encrusted wrapper over his head and far out of the reach of both children. "You can't eat this. You found it in a dump."
"We find everything in a dump," hissed Ei.
Nezumi had to concede that that particular argument was not the choicest given his audience.
"It's still wrapped," Eiji keened.
Why am I even bothering? If the kids want to eat a candy bar they found buried under piles of filth and rusted metal that's their problem.
"Fine. Here."
Nezumi dropped the chocolate into Eiji's hands while Ei leered at it with an air of insidious concentration.
"I just hope it's not contaminated with anything dangerous," Nezumi said as Eiji started to unwrap the candy. The boy stopped and stared up at him, and Nezumi continued without interest, "It's probably been exposed to all kinds of chemicals, what with it being out here for so many years. But go ahead and eat it if you want. It's your funeral."
"Erm…" Eiji glanced down at the partially opened wrapper. "I'm not really hungry, actually. You can have it, Ei."
He offered it to the other boy, who appeared confused by both Nezumi's musings and Eiji's sudden change of heart. Eiji went back to his sister and Ei was left staring at the forlorn rectangle of chocolate in his hands with notably less keenness. Nezumi raised his eyebrows in challenge when the boy met his eyes. Ei's face went bright red.
"You're an old fart!" he shrieked, chucking the candy bar at him and bolting in the opposite direction.
Nezumi's mouth twitched. I hate kids.
When he returned to the computer, Lili was watching him with a furtive smile.
"What?"
"Shion said you might be mean, but I think you're secretly nice."
"I think you're wrong."
It appeared she had already made up her mind, though, and his dismissal went unrecognized.
"You're not as nice as Shion, but you don't baby me like everyone else does. You're okay by me."
"As much as it pleases me to receive your stamp of approval, what I really want is for you and your friends to help me get this back to headquarters."
He gestured to the computer and system unit, and Lili frowned down at them.
"Since I have to carry the shotgun, you kids will probably have to do most of the heavy lifting." He gave her a winsome smile. "It's a good thing you don't like to be babied, huh?"