Happy New Year, everyone!
08:17 PM.
I couldn't find anything on Theresa Apocalypse, much like her relative, Otto, on the world-wide web. Neither had I discovered the type of ailment or syndrome that Theresa is suffering from.
Perhaps it isn't a syndrome at all. She's most likely just short...
I gave up eventually. Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" from the 70s plays on my phone. The melancholy beats and the enticing vocals cloak the space and put me at ease. I stretch my arms to release the tension building in my muscles, before my eyes flit to my journal's deteriorated cover on the table.
My thoughts wanders back to Lahti. I didn't know what to do other than hoarding whatever supplies I could get on my hands, stockpiling them at my hideout, and waiting for an eventual at the sinking sun every single day was soothing, but it didn't do much to fill up for that tiny lack of serenity. That was when I thought I could write something on a book. Anything. Just to end that boredom.
And wrote I did. It geared my brain and kept me busy. But, no matter how many words—how many letters and sentences—I manifested onto the pages with the tip the pen rasping each papers, the water couldn't be filled all the way up to the edge.
I heard the door knocking. I mute the music on my phone, snatch my journal, and tuck it away from my closet before I answer it.
After I open my door, the sight of her white hair clenches my stomach as though I just ate a bad food.
"Ya-hello!"
It's none other than the resident, Kiana Kaslana, standing in front of my room, clutching a book on her chest. Although I make an effort to smile as warm as possible, it just comes off as forced as faking it.
"Hi... Anything I can do?" I ask, leaning on the side of the door frame as she still grins ear-to-ear.
"Weeeell, kinda..." Her wide smile slips into a wry one. "Can you help with this?"
She flips and shoves the book to my face, and I raise my brows at the title, deducing what she was trying to get at within a second.
"You want me to help you with mathematics?"
"Yep. I have a bit of a trouble with math." She eyes to the side while tapping the back book, ears redden.
I rub my eye to get rid of the sleep. "Uh... I'm a bit busy at the moment."
"Eh?"
"Reading a book of my own."
"But you don't have..." Her voice trails away as leans her body to the left, taking a peek into my room to which I side glance at her.
"Digital book," I say and she snaps back in place. "On my phone."
"Ohhh, those kinds..." she bops her head up and down acknowledgingly. "What about your er, physical books, though?"
"They're in the closet." I smile.
"Why?"
"Because I don't know where to put them."
Kiana raised a brow. "You can just leave them on your table, you know."
"That's a good point"–I nod–"but picture this scenario where I've lost them for some reason?"
"How?" Kiana recoils, confused and wondering about. "That's a wild imagination you got there."
"Better to be safe than sorry." I shrug. "You know the librarian and how she speaks, right?"
"Oh yeah, true! That old hag always gives me the heebie-jeebies..."
As Kiana shudders at her own thoughts, I let out a long breath as quiet as possible through my nose. Suffice to say, I don't feel... exactly comfortable talking to her. I hope this will end soon. The weariness is also getting to me as I resist a yawn out of my mouth.
"Now that I've told you about it." I take a step back and push the door by the handle. "Have a good night."
"Yeah, g'night— Wait, wait, wait!"
She slams a hand on it to stop me before I can shut my door. Her inhuman strength manages to flinch my body as I hiss.
"What about my math?"
Her hand still glues on the door, tilting her head to the side so that she can face me.
After some time, I give up on the needless struggle as I carefully swing the door in, but not as spacious enough so that she couldn't enter.
"Have you asked your other friends?" I ask.
"Uh-huh, busy as bees."
"Bronya?"
"Yuck, no." She shakes her head while grimacing for a reason.
Of course, her and Bronya are like a cat and a mouse in this modest house based on my impression. So, that was to be seen.
"Mei? She would gladly help you."
See, now that's a good choice. Concerning how close you are to her.
"I-I don't wanna bother her." Kiana scratches her cheek and whispers, "As much as I want to be with her..."
There it is.
"Miss Himeko, then."
"She'd either avoid me, or would give me a long lecture instead like my jerk class monitor. She's gonna say something like: 'It's easy, you should do this on your own', yada-yada..." She pouts. "Plus, Auntie's not home yet."
"Christ," I mutter while scratching my head.
Is it because of Theresa's words of appraisal to myself back at the dinner that let her thinks I'm some sort of prodigy and ends up asking for my assistance?
"Oh." She suddenly perks up as she grins at me. "Since you aren't in any classes, why don't we study together? Maybe we can learn some new things. It's a fair-fair trade!"
I really don't see it that way. Moreover, I can seek the knowledge needed on my own. However, knowing how stubborn this girl can be, we could go all night long with me trying to avoid her—I don't have any choices, do I?
After a moment, I dart my chin to her door. "Grab a notebook and an extra chair from your room. And please hurry."
She beams, "Right away!" and spins her axis and bolts to her room. I only wait for a few seconds for her to come back as I swing the door wide enough for her and her chair–with cat eyes printed on its back–to go in.
"So." I close the door and follow her behind. "What part are you stuck on?"
"Er, something-something called ar-zaa-brah." Kiana places her chair down–I move my chair a bit further to the edge of the desk so that our shoulders won't touch or rub which will be, well, awkward and unpleasantry of me–and we take our seats.
"Algebra? That one?"
"Ah-huh. I get confused everytime I need to, like, do the switch-a-roo to find the "x" or the "y" or to find the alphabet nonsense," Kiana says with a wry smile while flipping her book.
"Everything makes sense once you understand the rules well enough."
"How so?"
"Accept it as it is...?" I say with apathetic shrug.
Her expression becomes flummoxed.
"It's how I've come to terms with everything... mostly." I then, double tap my finger at the page. "Okay so, what do you know about the rules of positives and negatives?"
"Uh, if the thingy is positive meets with another positive thingy, the result is positive, too?"
She has an interesting way of intepreting the knowledge into her brain, I'll give her that.
"You already know the basics." I nod.
"Yeah, and in math, multiplication and division are the strongest of all. That's why, we count them out first."
"Right. In Algebra, the numbers that have pluses or minuses become the opposites after they switch around. Same goes to the variables, x, y and z, and so—"
"Whoa, whoa, time out." She raises her hands, eyes widen in confusion. "Can you slow down a tiny bit?"
I personally wouldn't think she will get everything correct even if I explain how they work. I'll need to improvise for this one.
"Imagine, if you will, a world where there are only sheeps." I point a space on my left in front of her before moving to the right. "And wolves are divided by a giant wall." I raise my left hand vertical position in front of me as if I was about to chop someone.
"What?"
"Both groups have the ability to jump over the wall." I demonstrate by hopping my fingertip over my hand, acting as the wall, again and again. "At a cost of transformation though—the sheep will become a wolf, and the wolf will turn into a sheep."
"Shouldn't it be wolf disguises as a sheep? A wolf in sheep's clothing? How does that even work...?"
"Don't question the guideline."
"I–"
"The guideline," I say. "It's the part of Algebra. The rules. The wall is the "equals symbol". Every time the numbers switch places, they will and must transform. Do you get that?"
"I... I kinda grasp it now." She ponders. "Negative becomes positive–vice versa."
"Good. Then let me give you some variables."
I flip through the pages of her white notebook, avoiding the scribbles, until I find a blank page where I can write off five algebra problems. While I'm writing with my pen at hand, I shoot a side glance at Kiana, observing her for a moment.
She wiggles her legs side to side, tapping her fingers on the table and sometimes gaze around at nothing, or anything that somewhat interests her. To which I found out she's... certainly an active girl, so to speak.
What am I talking about, our first meeting was surreal. Like a literal kick in the head.
"What book were you reading, by the way?" She asks out of blue as I blink a couple of times elsewhere before going back to my work.
"A novella."
"Really?" She looks at me. "Those books with no pictures in it and just have thousands of words?"
"Yeah."
"Hmm, I don't understand how you can read them without any cool art."
"Have you tried reading one before?"
"Yep." She nods. "I did try to read a nofellah called 'The Lord of The Rings'. Ended up falling asleep, though."
Kiana leaves off with an odd chuckle. The motion of my pen comes to a stop and casts all my focus onto her.
"That's a novel. It's much different than a novella."
"Eh, aren't they the same thing?"
"They are not–Novella is shorter compared to the word counts of a novel. The former is more focused on its linear plot, no chapters or volumes, and has less themes to explore with."
"...I don't get it?"
I raise a brow as she smiles sheepishly. Instead of going on about, I sigh and continue writing her task down.
Truth be told, if I were to read books and novels, I need to be in a certain mood so that I can feel drawn to it, to have this sense of immersion just like whenever I watch movies.
Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" is an exceptional work of fiction that expresses a lot of meaning behind the narrative through the perspective of a man that one day transformed into a giant bug, and that many people in the community are still debating about today, posting questions around it. Like, is it about the criticism on how abstract and messy the system of our world sometimes can be. It is also the only literary work I have read before the outbreak in Lahti.
"That means you've read some light novels too, haven't you?"
Once again, I stop and turn to Kiana with a confused look on my face.
"What's a light novel?"
"You don't know them?" Kiana widens her eyes slightly, shocked at my question. "They're so popular among the anime fandom right now. It's not as great as manga, but light novels still have some cool arts in it."
"Oh, really?"
"Yep! You gotta try reading 'em some other time. There's this one where the main character is reincarnated into another world along with his phone. And the phone can do awesome magic stuff!"
Sounds rubbish.
"After I finish with my current one. Maybe."
Reluctantly as I put a mental note in my head, I've finalized everything amidst our small talk. I wouldn't dare to give her anything that involves decimals just yet, otherwise I'd be stuck here with her for days.
"There." I shove the notebook and the pen on the desk to her. "Five equations, I'll give you ten minutes to work them out."
"Okie-dokie."
While leaking out the air of confidence as she smirks, she picks up the pen and proceeds to solve the questions and I start the stopwatch on my phone. All while her heel is tapping the floor as I can hear the muffled, chaotic rhythm.
I attempt to ignore her impulsive behavior. I am left with no choice except to watch Kiana perform her duty or idly scroll through the media on my phone because I have nothing to occupy myself.
Theresa's symptoms were something I was contemplating on looking into again, but with Kiana here, I knew for sure she would question me endlessly—Forget that, she would do so no matter what after I turn on my screen.
"Whatcha looking at?" "Why are you searching all these weird stuff?"
Same repetitive questions; same plain answers. It's as if history keeps repeating itself, as though I am in some kind of twisted loop.
Would she get through me, like they did, again...?
"Done!"
I turn the stopwatch off, look at Kiana as she lets go of the pen with it falls with a silent thud and hands me her notebook, which I accept, albeit reluctant. After a moment of checking the answers out, I nod at them and place the book back on the table, and I glance at the bubbly girl.
"There seems to be something wrong."
Her smile becomes a bit flat. "I've failed all of them?"
"Well, the steps you've used are mostly correct, but the results aren't right at all. Look at the first one here, you didn't even bother to change the variable x after you moved it."
"Oh..."
As she scratches her head out of slight distress, I sigh at the inevitable situation I'm in right now.
Guess I'll really be stuck with her for a while.
"This is really frustrating."
"Just don't forget about the rule of thumb I've told you before."
After she nods in larghetto, Kiana goes back to her notebook and tries to fix her task. I don't give her any time limit for this one, I suppose that would give her a huge amount of stress.
She would sometimes ask for my guidance and I simply point out, correcting her false ways. I'm not sure if my words do reach her, as she just bops her head up and down, and her face is unreadable with that permanent smile of hers.
"So, why does this result of variable n equals two-x plus five?" She raises a brow. "I don't understand how that is an answer?"
"It only asked you to find the variable in question, not to... "I pause and hum for a moment. "Dissect it into pieces, if you get what I mean."
"I just leave it and be done with it?"
"Yeah."
It seems my explanation manages to reach her out as she purses her lips, hand on chin and begins to wonder.
Until she grumbles and slumps back to her seat.
"Math is so dang hard! Why does it have to exist in the first place?!"
I roll my eyes. "You may use them in some fields if you're interested in them, so it's not that bad to learn some."
She buzzes her lips and deliberately lowers her figure as if she's melting on the chair.
"Feels like it just killed my interest in them, instead."
Well, that's a you problem, then.
Kiana groans again. "My grades will pummel..."
"Then just study more."
"Easy for you to say."
Ignoring her whines, I implore her to continue practicing for the sake of my time. I have better things to do, that is to...uh, well, sleep.
Moments have passed since. Surprisingly, it's still 08:45 PM, even though I felt like it's way longer than that. Much more so that I had to correct some of her mistakes here and there, but nothing too extreme.
I made another six new equations for her, and most of them are total failures as I shake my head. Maybe it's my imagination but I can see plume smokes coming out from both of her ears.
I mentally slap myself, and the smokes have already gone. I must have been exhausted.
So we finally reach the third trial for tonight—
"Yet again," I say as I underline her mistakes and write the solution down to the side.
"Not again," she mumbles.
"Well." I click my tongue. "You got one correct. So, I guess that's better than nothing..."
Quietly, I look to the side and avoid her gleaming look that may or may not be her own ego shining in this room. Within such a short time, she pretty much makes an extraordinary progress, if I do say so myself. That is, having one out of six new equations done right.
"Seriously!?" She almost jumps from her seat.
"Take a look for yourself." I hand her the book and she quickly snatches it away.
"Huh..." Kiana grins, her eyes bright up like a Christmas tree. "I guess I'm slowly becoming a genius myself, hehe..."
Right.
"If you keep practicing then you probably will be in no time."
She doesn't seem to notice my dispassionate look of my frown and my snark, as her gaze is still glued to her book. In a subconscious way, I actually motivate her to the core.
"Surely!" Then her face distorts into a sullen look. "Hate to admit that she's right about everything though."
I turn to her. "Who?"
"Our class monitor. She's the most stern gal I've ever met. Every time I see her, I know she's gonna scold me over anything. I really can't stand her and her glasses."
I ignored her grumbles, but as soon as she finished, a sudden curiosity strikes me. Stern? Glasses?
"Say, this girl you're talking about. Is she stronger than she looks? And a Shenzou person?"
To my expectation, she nods two times to both of my questions.
"How d'ya know?"
"Just my assumption." I quickly dismiss her.
So, it's none other than Fu Hua. What a happy coincidence we have here.
"Speaking of which, I did challenge her to a fight because I was kinda mad when we first met. Her complaints about me just made me mad! And in the end, she has...and err..." Kiana scratches her cheek, ears redden for some reason.
"The upper hand."
"D-Don't say that out loud, sheesh..." She crosses her arms and frowns at me, embarrassed.
When I think about it, knowing Kiana Kaslana and her brute force (from my personal experience first hand) and taken into account how powerful Valkyries are, that would imply that Fu Hua's immense strength is on a new level.
I can't picture myself confronting her head-on. I'd be dead before I even know it.
"Then there's Auntie, I asked her for a fight, too. Aaaand, she swept the floor with no sweat."
Are you that battle hungry?
"Like, she went *wooosh* and then swings her sword down like *bam* to the ground!" Kiana frowns and nods to herself with a solid sense of resolution. "One day, I'll be as strong as them both. Hell, I'll even surpass them!"
"Right. Just don't go lust over power and all that."
"Hah! A Kaslana like myself will never succumb to such whimsy seduction."
Except when it comes to Mei, right?
They're probably friends but, exactly what did she do to have Mei become attached to her? I don't get it— Is it her happy-go-lucky personality, her look, or something else entirely?
"Uhh, you alright?"
Kiana snaps her fingers and I blink in vigorous manner, as though I was pulled back to reality by force.
"You were frowning for a while now, again," Kiana says with the same concern eyes.
"Well..."
My mind immediately thinks of a diversion, as I pretend to glance at the clock ticking on the wall and rub my eyes.
"Sleep's getting to me. I think we should continue this tomorrow night. You don't want me to slam my head on the table or fall over now, do you?"
I chuckle weakly. I didn't put any effort into masking my intention. Fortunately, she doesn't notice this. A newfound spirit bursts out from within her as she stands with eager and gathers her things up.
"Ooh, you're just tired then!" She says, "You could've told me before, I wouldn't press you further like that."
Yep, it's more like that she's excited to crash onto her bed rather than worrying about me.
"I'm happy to help." I put up a wan smile. "I guess you're the only person here to ever study here–and not me."
She laughs heartily and gives her gleeful smile to me in return as she carries her chair and her stuff with ease, heading to the exit. Kiana eventually stops after mid-swing however, glances at me–scanning me up-and-down–and I hold the urge to sigh.
"What is it?"
For a few good seconds, her lips finally come to a smile again.
"Hmm, yeah... you're not that bad of a person, after all," Kiana says, "see ya tomorrow!"
As she shuts the door, my brow twitches, and slowly morphs into a frown. Dazed still, I lean back on my chair. Her words keep repeating in my mind. One. Two. Four. Six times. Every spoken word she spouts weight my shoulders down as it grows heavier and heavier. The entire room turns cold. My breathing runs haggard as the flashes of those memories return to haunt me.
I rub my hands, trying to get rid of the cold sweat, clenching them altogether until they're white. I try my best to control my breaths—In, out, in and out, slowly—as the way it usually goes.
Close it.
Close it...
"..."
I wet my parched lips... I need something to drink.
Days have gone by.
Every morning, Mei offered us a basic breakfast on the table ranging from Chinese to Japanese cuisine and repeat. No matter how simple the dishes turn out to be, they always have divine flavors. It is perfect, down to the last minute of details. The taste would never leave my mouth, and I don't want it to go away, either.
Even the daily cup of hot, sweet choco. Oh, how the sugariness dances around in my tongue when I drink it.
Then—Each night, Kiana asks for my help. Nudges me about tons of subjects of her school: History, English, Physics, et cetera. Her antics pain me to the bone, part of me regrets lending her a hand, but I have to bear with it until her exam is done.
On top of it all, I was given various tasks from both Miss Himeko and Madam Principal. And I have a considerably horrible short amount of time to finish them. They gave me six days due to 50 essays on Geography, Biology—all kinds of that. The questions on the paper weren't precisely basic, either, as they allow me to borrow some books from the library and use them as references.
Yes, I had to face the welcoming kindness from Mrs. Wang...
"Consider this as your own special exam!" quote Miss Himeko.
Somehow, I can still hear the red head's haughty laugh every now and then, mocking my miserable existence.
This forced me to prepare my schedule: After lunch, I study for a little while before heading to the dojo to meditate, again, for two hours and then going back home, and write down my papers bit by bit until dinner, and helping Kiana at the end of the day.
I'm positive I was almost on the verge of tears from the pressures if it weren't for Mei, Electric Light Orchestra and The Beatles accompanying me throughout. I smile with my utmost appreciation to them. Mei, especially.
So, comes the last day—August 29th. The injury on my cheek has healed, and I've removed the plaster and dump it to the trash. My face looks good as new, as if the wound was never there.
I hand over my assignments to Himeko, sitting in the living room, TV turns on showing a bunch of commercials while scrolling something on her phone, as I was told by Kiana that today's her day off. She looks perplexed at first but nonetheless amused when she sees me and place her device on the restarm.
"Huh, wow," Himeko mumbles, flipping the papers and does a quick check, "shouldn't have doubted you, initially..."
"You look like you're losing a bet, miss," I joke, noticing her slight jaded expression.
"Yeah, well, I did put money on you failing to submit on given time, haha."
My eyes twitch from her brutal confession, and I can already tell she knows my distraught look on my face without looking at me.
"I'm gonna see these later night. If I see more than fifteen errors, expect no quarters from me." Himeko says. "Oh, wait, check this out."
The redhead shows her phone to me and I take a look on the screen. Long lines of paragraph and flowery words printed under an article to what I suspect to be one of Frank's and his friend's works. Well, "The Millawette" is on the URL.
"Thanks to your effort, we're gonna be like rising stars walking on every corners of Soukai streets now." She smirks and continues to speed-reading it.
Is... that a sarcasm? I feel like she's being sarcastic about it.
"And yep, he's got better writing than you do!"
That one is not a sarcasm.
Despite her saying that, I keep telling myself that this is all a senseless tease, that it's just another habit of her, that I should turn a blind eye from her remarks until the day I fall and die...
As Himeko pockets her phone, turns the TV off and stands up while giving me one last smirk–which almost makes me roll my eyes–I step back to make room for her. However, I lift my hand up and manage to grab her attention as I remember something.
"Shoot."
"Uh, I wanna head out for a moment," I say, smiling.
"You've been leaving the house quite often lately even when I'm not at home—Where have you been going?"
"Just simple sightseeing. I would like to get myself around the city."
"Surely it's not a person you would love to meet, right?" Her deadly smirk returns and she sides her head close to mine. "Did you find yourself a girl, hm? What does she look like?"
An apparent purple hair comes to my mind.
"What, no," I casually dismiss her words, "I'm not interested in all that. I mean, look at myself, I have nothing."
"Whoa-kay, sorry if I offended you, mister," she says, raising her arms with a mocking tone while stepping back. "Some advice though, go find someone else you can spend your time with."
"I'll be fine."
"I mean it," she says. "Don't come home late, champ."
As I watch her going upstairs, I roll my eyes at the thought of her gambling—
"For my fall..." I mutter, "really?"
I shake my head and look at the clock. It is time to meet Fu Hua.
I don't bother changing my casual attire as I suspect it will be another meditation training. What about my newly bought gym clothes? I believe they are decaying in my closet.
I pat my card for the entrance door on my left pocket to check if it's there. Relieved that the object is still in my possession, I walk myself out of the house. It doesn't take me a while to arrive at the dojo. As I kick my shoes, pick them up and go in.
I immediately find Fu Hua sitting crossed leg at the center—eyes closed, back straight. Which makes me groan as I glance at her while placing my shoes on the rack.
She clearly notices my presence before I could make a footstep towards her. I stop on my usual position, a few meters in front of her.
"..."
I don't sit. Instead, I stare at her form for a few seconds...brows knitting afterwards.
"Excuse me," I call, yet there's no response. I continue as the tone of my voice becomes hard. "For how long do I need to do this? Like, when will I proceed to the next phase?"
"Until I say so."
My brows furrow even further deep.
I don't get it. It has been a week and it doesn't appear that my training has advanced. Is this what she meant by teaching me "half of the basics"? I thought she would help me throw a punch well, not becoming a monk.
"Look, if this is about my emotional checks, I am fine... I can control myself well enough."
Finally opening her eyes, Fu Hua stares up at my figure with a solid expression. Her eyes bear deep within mine. And she still doesn't relent.
I sigh. "I've been focusing my mind for a week now, don't you think we should—"
To my surprise, she stands on her feet, taking her sweet time to do so, but my body trembles in slight anxiety with every moves she has done.
A moment of silence, before Fu Hua rolls her right sleeve up to the elbow and lifts her palm in front of me.
"Hit me."
Huh?
She notices my bewildered look as she continues, "Show me the progress you've made."
This...I don't understand. What will I achieve on doing this?
But, well, if she wants me to do it, then I won't back down.
I ball my right hand, making a cautious step towards her and I raise my fist and throws it at her palm—
—She chops my wrist away with no difficulty as I stumble to the side from the stung. Nonplussed, I turn and find Fu Hua, posture straighten, unmoving, still.
"Again," she says, stern cold on her tone.
My confusion disorients into determination.
Once again, I rush and swings my left fist at her.
Once again, she slaps my wrist with the palm.
"Again."
I swing at her. Another slap.
"Again."
I jab right at her palm. Another same result.
"Again."
No matter how hard I try, the end result remains the same. I have lost count on how many times she commands me. My breathing become heavier by the time passes; Exhaustion will have taken over as my hands red. The familiar sensation turns my insides upside down, as I fail and fail and fail and fail.
"Again."
"..."
I halt my relentless attack, and only frown at her this time while rubbing my burning wrists.
"Why do you stop?"
"What do you want from me?"
"Nothing," she replies. "Again."
Anger bubbles in my chest, and bursts from my mouth.
"Stop it..." I hiss.
After a moment, Fu Hua lowers her hand, sighing through her nose.
"When I first saw you, you had nothing but fear, doubt, pain... " she says all of a sudden, "Rage."
So what, people will occasionally get mad all the time when something bad happens to them.
"They cloud your judgment... You are certainly not weak-minded, but you lack the patience to reconcile with them." She says. "You seem to know how to play emotions onto others...But you don't know when it will bite back."
Her words silence me as my hands come down to my sides. All the gripes I was holding in my throat have completely snuffed out of existence as my eyes slightly widen. She knows. Of course, she knows... Does she not?
"You wanted to seek my guidance—I accept it—That was your decision, and you must forge it. Yet, here you are, having second thoughts."
She has torn down everything as if it was nothing, no more walls in my construct; no more barriers to break through this mold.
"What is it you want." My voice is small, and my gaze grows distant, trying not to catch her eyes preying me over.
"I desire nothing out of you—I want you to be better."
"..."
The longer I stand here, the more I want to leave. I could forget about any of this happening, and we may not run each other again. Back to complete strangers. I don't think she will mind that as well.
However, this... shameful vilification coming from her must be corrected. If I run away, that just means I'm no different than those cowards. And I will lose.
I return the gaze to Fu Hua. A sense of grit slowly comes by. I make up my mind as I take a long, deep breath. I sit down on the floor and begin meditating.
The next day. August 30th, Saturday.
Fu Hua texted me through a chat app in the early morning as follows:
[Kilo.]
[Feel free to use the dojo without my attendance for today.]
[Do not touch the equipment.]
[Good morning, Fu Hua.] I typed as nice as I could. [Noted. But, is something up?]
Aaand she ghosted me. How did she contact me through an app, is one of those mysteries remains unsolved. I didn't even remember when I gave her my ID.
Frankly, with what happened yesterday, my mood isn't in the greatest as it were, so I made the decision to take a pleasant trip to the town.
This time, I'm heading to the south-western section of Soukai. When I was listening in on Kiana and Mei's conversation this morning, they mentioned there's a street vendor selling steamed pork buns at the amusement park near the beach. Apparently, it's delicious. I never had some of their local foods other than their noodles, so I might as well try this one out.
I was told the weather will be awfully cold, so Kiana, from her blind goodness, lends me her jacket again, much less in front of everyone. I had no choice but to accept.
I board a bus for a 40-minute trip, and I get off near the park. Perhaps it's the weather, but the air smells like a mixture of salt and warm, coarse sands. Cheers assault my ears as I see families and couples roaming around. Locals and foreigners alike–And a packed one at that.
"—near the Mistress Kim's Pet Shop...That one?"
Mei's words ring in my head. The shop is around the corner as I see a curly-coated retriever distracts me from the window. I can't help but to wave when it sees me. On the other side, my eyes are drawn to the vendor and its proprietor. The Shenzhou man acknowledges my presence and beams broadly, as if I were a living, breathing cash.
One bun costs 4 yuan—Reasonable price for their big, rounded sizes. I order out one. As the name goes, "Steamy", I can feel the heat on my fingers even with the plastic wrap on the food. I tear the center of the bun a bit to let the meat cool down. The white layer is surprisingly soft and the smell camouflages the spaces around me making my stomach gurgles.
Few seconds later, I munch the food. The white layer is fluffy. Soft. The hot pork, a bit salty, has a decent crunch to it. Both the taste and the texture compliment each other quite well.
I don't know how they make these types of food. But, hey, it's pretty good! Perhaps I should bring these home back some other time, Mei will certainly like it.
I order one more for myself, and begin to stroll while devouring the snack. Well, I suppose I have some time to kill. Wouldn't hurt to walk around this neighborhood before 4 PM strikes, would it.
"What should I do..."
I take more deliberate steps as I shift my focus to the left. On the outskirts of an old warehouse, near the fences, three kids are talking about something while sporting concerned expressions on their faces.
"Just climb it. We'll watch your back!" A girl suggests, with a hint of small hesitancy in her voice.
"N-No way! You saw those angry men at the entrance, they wouldn't even let me in..." The boy wearing a hat frowns.
"Yup-yup. If they see you sneaking in, they would abduct you like those UFOs!" The last boy with glasses chides in.
"UFOs aren't real, dummy..."
Ah, just another random topic from the kids that I shouldn't think too much about.
"What if we bring a strong dude?"
"Strong dude? Hm..." She eyes me and I break eye contact and starts walking.
"Ah! Wait, mister stranger!"
However, she immediately runs in front of me and blocks my path.
"Can you please help us with something?" She asks with a solid confidence in her tone.
"Lulu, what are you thinking?"
The boys catch up to her side.
"Uh..." I furrow my brows down at the kids.
"I've thought of a thing. We could ask him to go grab it from that place."
"W-What? But he's..." hat boy whispers, "He's a little creepy..."
I heard that.
"Which is the point!" she nods.
What?
"Relax, Fei. I'm sure he will help us out." She looks at me with much enthusiasm. "Right, mister?"
"I don't even know who you are," I say in a plain way of speaking.
Gotta give them credits though, their English is fluent enough to not create a sort of convoluted scenario.
Meng places a hand on his hip. "See? He doesn't wanna lend a hand."
"Y-Yeah. C'mon, let's find another way."
"C'mon, it's either you or—"
"Okay, hold on just a second." I hold up my hand to stop them. "What seems to be the problem here?"
"Well, we want you to help us up!" Lulu says.
"Please be more specific?" I sigh through my nostrils. "What kind of problem that you kids couldn't handle and why would you need a random passerby like me?"
"Err, so, this is our usual playground, you see," The glasses boy speaks up and gestures around. "Here, and that warehouse over there. But then, some tough-looking dudes showed up while we were sneaking in and told us to scram."
"They brought some huge, odd boxes in with a truck a while ago as well," Lulu adds.
I blink multiple times at their jumbled information before taking a deep breath. "Rewind that a bit, why did you wanna sneak in?"
"W-We were playing handball," Fei speaks again. "I threw it so hard that it went through one of the windows there."
As he points up towards the warehouse, I follow his direction to one of the empty spaces that were once intact windows, some shattered, sharp remains still lie. While on the subject, A rusty emergency staircase with a drop ladder links on the wall and leads to the aforementioned window on the second floor.
"Oh." I nod and turn to the children once again. "Then what are you waiting for? Go and grab it."
"There are a couple of scary men in there!" He shudders in horror.
"Yes, yes. What if they capture us and turn us into a cyborg bug?" Glasses boy says with a hard tone as if he knows what is about to happen. "Cyborg bug would be cool, honestly..."
"You mean a 'Kamen Rider'? " Lulu mutters, raising a brow.
"Oh, yes! They're gonna pin us down on some laboratorium and chug us some nasty liquid down through our mouth!"
Kids and their stupid assumptions these days...
"Shush!" Lulu jabs his shoulder. "You've been watching too much of those stupid movies—and that's not even the starting plot of the show."
"It is, though," the boy says, looking as if he's right. "Big googly eyes and cool belt, right?"
"Yeah...but...Wait, which show were you talking about, I didn't remember any of that."
"It's just called 'Kamen Rider'! "
I pinch the bridge of my nose. "To summarize, you want me to go and get your ball back," I assume, raising my voice to break their banter.
Which Lulu nods at it. "Yes, mister. Can you please help us?"
"No."
"Pretty please?"
"Goodbye."
I give them a solid response and I walk right by them.
"Wait!" Lulu skids in front of me while taking something out of her pocket. "I can offer you a piece of candy."
A normal, chocolate candy wrapped with brown plastic of a well-known Shenzhou brand. I sigh not because of the candy, but to her amateurish persuasiveness into attempting someone to do what she wants. She needs to work on that.
I look at the candy, the girl, and her friends behind me. The glasses boy isn't worried, but the one with the hat, Fei, stares at the ground for a while now. The familiarity of his guilt is not absent in my mind, and the dread of his own punishment has foreseen right in front of my eyes.
I place my hands on my hips and huff.
"Fine," I say, still with slight disinterest, "Keep the candy."
"You mean it?" she awes. I can tell the hat boy behind me lights up with optimism at my sudden response.
"Just please don't make me doubt myself." I turn heels and head towards the entrance.
"Wait, mister! It's this way! The front gates are locked and we have a way to go in undetected."
Lulu's voice calls to me and I glance back at her again. They walk to the metal fences, and she pushes a broken fabric of it.
"Our super-duper-secret passageway." Glasses boy exclaims with an exaggerated gesture to it.
Well, not much of a secret left now.
I wave my hand to Lulu, ask her to stand aside as I crouch down, push the metal and head in.
"Oh, by the way, I'm Lulu!"
"Meng."
"I'm Fei..."
My attention fully immerses with the abandoned construction colonized with dead roots and plants. I left wondering why they couldn't tear it down apart, like that old building in St. Freya.
"If something ever happens, just yell at us, mister."
I roll my eyes. "So you guys can run away first?"
"Yeah—" Meng's voice causes me to whip my head around. "I-I mean, so we can come and help you!"
Yeah, right. I shake my head.
"Good luck, mister."
The frustration in my chest finally erupts from Lulu's words.
"Just—" I raise my voice with my finger up. "Don't call me 'mister'...Okay? My name is Kilo. Just Kilo."
"We got it, Just Kilo."
My eyes snap at Meng and my lips turn flat. Fei and Lulu share the same idea as I do, as they give him a look.
"W-What?" he explodes, "What did I do?"
I'm starting to regret everything.
"For Christ's sake..."
I huff and move my way towards the emergency staircase and stop under the ladder. I try to test the sturdiness out by wiggling the ladder as hard as I can. If the nails break, then I might as well just give up–I don't owe them anything, anyways.
But much to my sadness, it didn't. This isn't going to help, I should go find the ball and get out. Simple as that.
The oxidised metals rub my hands as I climb up that I thought I should've bought some gloves to avoid the risk of getting tetanus. I just have to be more careful not to get prick by nails or something corrosive. I spare a look to the trios as I reach the middle of it. Lulu waves at me, and Meng just gives me a thumbs up. I vault over the window and my feet gently lands on the cemented ground.
Thank god, the place isn't as dark as I expected it would, as the sun shines through the large cracks on the roof, giving me a clear sight of the interior: On my right and left, stands the lines of old racks, consisting of several tools I couldn't name of. Two stairs lead down to the first floor. A platform with railings in front of me that is all corroded by time. The whole place could another house in it.
Across, I can see a door which leads to another room from what I presume from the window on the side. Wooden boards barricading it, however, blocking the inside's contents.
"Hah, easy money!"
A bright voice echoes and I quickly duck the moment I hear it.
"Better watch out, Lin, he'll be coming up for your ass."
Then comes another man's voice as he speaks with rough tone. Stepping on the metal mesh, I carefully make my way behind a barrel near the rails, stooping to the side to obtain a good look from the eagle's nest.
Two rough-looking men and a young boy sit around a makeshift plastic table where a couple of yuans and poker cards stack each on top; Two persons are having a chat or a banter on the far side; And one is playing around with... a pink ball.
That must be the kids' stuff. Beyond that, the boxes mentioned are at the corner stack on top of each other.
"Oh?" The same bright voice speaks up as he looks to the gruff man, "Ooh, do you, now, Aki?"
"Look at his face." A blonde man who sits on the opposite side of him shoots a chin across. "It screams bloody murder."
"I'm not," Aki says, though his strained vocal betrays his upset look.
"Aww, why do ya look so sad? Don't worry, I'll let you eat my ass after I hoard all your cash." Lin laughs as he lightly punches Lin's shoulder.
"Buzz off, dickhead!"
The older man slaps his hand and just hypes up the rascal as he barks out a laugh.
"Boss picked the right day, eh—No cops to be seen out here—None of those dirty rats crawling around."
"Aye, but what's taking them so long anyways."
"Relax." One guy checks his watch. "We're still on the schedule."
I move my attention to the man tossing the ball up and down in repeat as he yawns. I have formed some plans but none of them seems like a good idea. I can't think of anything else rather than causing a distraction outside, and snatch and grab.
I don't even think that would work. It will end poorly with a fist fight. Maybe.
The loud cranky sound interrupts my thoughts as the wide, warehouse door rises on itself. An old, white pickup truck reverses into the warehouse and stops on the center. Then, a new guy exits the vehicle.
"Move these last ones onto the back." A short haired English man speaks up between ragged breaths as if the devil caught up on him. "Boss'll come back in thirty. So, put your skates on!"
Three men who were on the sides move towards the back of the vehicle. Including the guy who holds the toy as he tosses it away to the side, near the boxes.
"You kiddin' me," —Lin stands up— "we have to wait again!?"
"That's the true bit," the English replies as he helps unloading the supplies while the entrance door closes itself back. "Now, no more questions, get your arses here."
"But—"
"Another word, and I'll shut your bloody mouth with a stapler."
"The hell's wrong?" Aki gets up, stands in front of bewildered Lin and eyeing the English. "Sean!"
Sean slows his speed until he reaches back to the truck, placing a hand on the back and taking a few deep breaths.
"They found out."
"What!?" Aki shouts, moving closer to Sean. "How—Who ratted us to the Schicksal?"
My eyes slightly widen at the mention of the name.
"I don't know." Sean shakes his head.
"I-Is it the insider who did it?" Lin's voice becomes small.
"Did that bitch set us up?!" Someone shouts behind them.
"No, no, that doesn't make any sense. What would she gain with all of us failing?" the blonde man says.
"Like you know Cocolia anyways." He scoffs. "She probably wants to get rid of us 'cuz we're expendable."
"Wh-What about Boss—"
"It's my fault!" Sean whips his head at them. "Alright, it's my fault! I dropped the last box on our way out—the security saw us, and he told me to go first."
"...And you left him?" his companion's tone turns dangerous. "Alone? While you stand here, you son of a bitch!?"
Aki holds Sean by the collar. The unexpected turn of the random event causes me to be perplexed.
"Hey, hey, enough!"
The blonde and Lin steps in, pulls and drags Aki guy away. He was so close to punching the Englishman on the face from the unfiltered anger.
"Akira look at me, Akira...Look, he won't go down that easily. You hear, we should stand together—Like we always do—We ain't fighting no more, we wait until he comes back, you hear?"
Akira can't look away from Sean who's shaking as he's sweating bullets. Then he looks at the blonde holding him back. Shrugging their arms off, he steps back before cursing out loud and kicks the car.
Well...This is getting worse and worse. I ran into a group that I suspect to be a third-party, a group that opposes Schicksal. The chances of my plan have gone dim. Ball's a lost cause, anyway, I want no part in any of this. It's better I just leave the scene.
Creak!
But, all of a sudden, I hear a loud ugly noise while I was trying to get up. The sound is distinct, almost as if it came from...below.
I look down. The beam supporting the part of the platform trembles, and before I can move away from it, it finally breaks. My vision tilts, and gravity tugs my body back to the railings.
"Guh!"
"Who's there!?"
The bar breaks—I scream as my body and the barrel fall until my back hits something. Dust, papers and cards flies around. The pain shoots up on my back like fire, akin to someone kicks a soccer ball towards you with high velocity.
"The hell..."
When I hear footsteps coming closer, I struggle to get up from the broken table.
However, someone grabs the back of my arm and roughly brings me back up to my feet.
"Hey, who are..."
Painfully, I stare at the man's brown eyes and I think of any reasoning that can get me out of here through many scenarios until I found one as I raise my voice.
"I—"
"Oh, shit." he glances down at my clothes, eyes widen at my left chest and quickly steps back. "Schicksal!"
My heart pounds faster. I raise my arms and my eyes gaze back and forth to the men in front of me.
"W-Wait, I'm not with—"
"Hold him up!"
"—Wait, please listen to me!"
Two people run towards me, and the next thing, pain erupts on my abdomen as one of them jabs me. I cough out of air and they're both holding each of my arms up. I struggle to break free from the clutches. But it only makes things worse for myself as Akira storms towards me, grips my hair up, forcing me to eye at him.
"How many are you out there?"
"..."
"Talk! "
His demanding tone and his tobacco scent invade my sense of sound and smell, and I have no choice but to comply.
"I swear...I'm not." I swallow my saliva. "I-It's an accident..."
"Oy, ain't he a bit too young?" I can hear Sean talking.
Akira raises his fist and swings at my left cheek. Hard. Merciless. He also struck me on the same side of my mended cheek.
"We're surrounded?" the guy on my right asks, tone dry.
"Can't be, I already checked outside a while ago," the blonde man responds. "Trust me, if I saw one, I woulda told you all."
"That means they just arrived here," Lin adds. "Shit...Shit!"
On the corner of my eyes, there is another door beside the workshop door. I can try that. Unless it's locked, I have to rush back upstairs and out of where I came from.
But how should I get out of this...
"We should take him with us. It builds our chance to escape to the docks."
"No, we ain't leaving him! He's gonna tell us where the Boss is, right NOW!"
He slaps me with the back of his hand, yellow nails cut my skin and I feel my cheek hot with a tinge of blood tickling down.
"Aki!"
"Where is he!?"
Something swells up within me. Something primal. Not from the tension, nor is it a sense of dismay. It is the same emotion which tags me along like an old friend. My muscles tense as my heart beats to a steady drum.
I'll take the gamble.
"He's..."
My voice was small and fragile as I stare at the ground. The older goon draws closer to me with little to no patience just to hear what I was saying. A few meters away as I can feel him breathing on the strands of my hair.
Right where I want him to be.
I quickly pull and throws my head—hitting his nose as an audible pops echoes. He yells in anguish while tipping backwards, holding his bleeding nostrils.
The entire group is left speechless, shocked by what just happened, the grips around my arms slightly loose. And I take this opportunity to break free from the clutches as I yank down my right arm, elbows the captivator to the jaw and he falls back. I ball my hand to a knuckle and strike the other guy to the face. Stunned, he finally releases the grip.
Before I could even run, the blonde man kicks me to the wall and I see a flash of his figure trying to tackle me down. But, I sidestep, as he rams the brick wall, instead.
I make a hasty decision to take the stairs and I waste no time doing so. I turn heel, and dash towards it.
I come to a skid in the middle of running as someone pulls me by the hood of the jacket with force. The fabric holds my two arms down like a chain. I dare to look behind, Lin tries to pull me down and another charges from the left.
I shouldn't have taken the jacket...
Gritting my teeth, I swiftly pull my arms to remove the jacket from my possession. One limb breaks free in quick succession as burning sensation runs on my flesh.
While the other remains stuck in between still—Instead of trying to slipping it out—I grip the fabric with both of my hands, and tugs it towards me with all my might.
Lin's eyes turn wide and yelps in surprise and the other guy accidentally runs onto him. However, as my hand is still stuck, we slam ourselves to the ground with loud thuds.
The pain subsides from my adrenaline rush—All of my focus pays onto removing this damned sleeve and getting out of here. I jerk my hand while getting up. At the same time, Lin and the man rise to attack me. I duck under the man's swing, and uses the jacket to extend and entangle his legs. The poor guy falls face flat and is knocked out.
With Lin still grasping the hood, and looking dazed and not knowing what to do next. A fragile, young boy. Flashes of unpleasant memories in Lahti reside my mind... I will use their method: I wrap the outer garment around his face and neck, multiple times, enough for him to breathe.
The blonde man along with two others who were about to come in for the assault, stops as he sees me holding the boy hostage.
"Get back!" I shout.
Lin's words are muffled, wiggling his head side-by-side and limbs thrash around. A couple of times he tries to claw my face but I evade them all. I pull him—eyeing behind me for a second—and walk backwards. Then, a panic thought crosses my mind as I only counted three of them.
Where is Akira—
"Hands off him! "
Another sting on my face. My body gets sent to the wall again from a strong push as my cheek pulses in pain. Instead of aiming after me again, however, Akira's hellbent on letting Lin free.
I take this opportunity and soon head to the stairs. I can hear thunderous stomps coming from behind me and, a mob grabs the sling of my satchel once I get up.
I eye the racks on my side, and my hand reaches out to a short pipe in an instant, and swings to the person's head behind me. It manages to hit, but the pipe slips from my hand as it falls down to ground floor. It didn't knock the guy down, but he releases his grip.
Behind him, another man storms in by his side. However—There are still a lot of tools in the many racks. By that, I grab the stuff: Screwdrivers, small wrenches, pliers, anything I can get my hands and throw those at them like throwing an axe, one for each, to slow them down.
They put up their arms to block their heads from getting hit, flinching every time, so I try to aim at their lower torsos while walking backwards to the window.
"Gah!"
A sharp metal hits my back as I recoil forward. When I look back, I immediately raise my forearms and shield my head. Two wrenches and multiple tools slam onto my bones as I yelp. The blonde man came on the other side from the other stairs, slowly approaching me and throwing the same tools I use for the guys behind.
All of a sudden, my vision spins around and before I can know it, my jaw was met with an uppercut. My senses become a mess; I hear voices ringing in my ears, my sights blur. A man zooms in front of me, I can feel the air has taken away somewhat, bit by bit, as he pushes me and my waist hits something.
After that, the same creaking sound—and soon, we yell on top of our lungs as if my body motions down like a bullet train. Falling like in an endless hole. That is, until my aching back hits the surface.
I blink. I groan. I cough. There is no time to stay put. As soon as I regain my conscience, I flip my body to the side. My body screams, the whole tendons of my limbs are burning.
I crawl my nails on the dirt. My eyes are fixated on the unknown room with the barred windows. I must go to the door. Ignore those screams behind you—don't look back.
I stand up and run forward, and bash my shoulder to the door.
"Stop!"
I shut the door, looking around before finding a wooden, dusted up shelf on the side. No think twice, I go to the side and push the furniture down with a loud thump, sands flying around.
"Shit, he blocked the door!"
"There's no way out there, he's trapped... Here, help me take these woods down."
True to their words, no air vents or small windows for me to crawl out. It's like a box with multiple components of machinery on the side, barrels and the stacked brown bricks on the solid surface.
An ugly, scraping sound erupts behind. As I turn around, I can see fingers pulling the wooden boards on the sides, and the corroded nails are starting to break.
No, no, no! What should I do!? The machinery here is useless, the workshop tools won't do anything.
"—patience—"
No...no... breathe. In and out...There has to be a solution. There has to be something I can use as a weapon...
Wait.
I stare at my satchel and the bricks. An idea pops in my mind. I skim to the nearest stack of bricks, remove my bag, unzip it and let it fall to the ground.
Dragging my feet around, I search for a vulnerable set of the material. The ones that have shown their ages. Eventually, I find one that has a crack on the middle of it. At the same time, one of the wooden boards breaks behind me. I quickly take it with both of my hands, heave it and throw it on the surface. It breaks into multiple pieces as clays scatter around.
"What the hell is he doing!?"
"I don't care! Keep pulling!"
A snap comes from my back—My breathing almost goes out of control, a sweat threatens me as it tickles down my neck. I collect every material and, once the piles are on my palms and do seem heavy enough, I move to my where I put my bag and pour the contents into it with haste.
The last board has been pulled out, and I've already done with my plan. A roar and hasty steps come behind me as I quickly zip my bag, gripping the straps with my two hands—
—and swings it around with clamour.
"AAAARGH...!?"
Akira howls as my heavy bags connects to his ribs. He stumbles to the side, crouches and grasping his side, writhing while still screaming in agony. The bag proves to be heavier than I thought it would, as I try to balance myself due to my increasing fatigue.
"Holy shit..." Lin mutters with wide eyes.
"Jesus—" the blonde man's face filled with mild concern as he tries to hop over the space. "Aki!"
"Don't!" I roar, staring at them while my bag dangling on my side as if I'm holding a morning star, or even a flail.
The blonde responds as he steps away, staring at me and Aki. Back and forth.
While moving past the shrieking man to the way out, I wrap the end of the strap on my left wrist to get a better hold of my satchel.
"Get away...Get the hell away!" I say. They start to cautiously comply.
The exhaustion creeps up to me a little by little as I can feel my muscles doubling its weight. I vault over, sight keeping still on them just in case one of them makes a move on me.
But, they didn't. The blonde was contemplating getting me from another angle or to check on his companion... He chooses the latter. Agitated expressions cross the faces of Lin and the other guy as we look at each other.
From the corner of my eyes, my shoulders jolt and are ready to attack. But when I look at the Englishman, Sean, I tense down. He's staring at me with dread, knees trembling and he's holding the back of the car like he could tear it anytime.
All this time, this guy is standing in the background. Scared...
Seeing they won't do anything to me anymore as three of their men are on the ground, unconscious and hurting like hell, I make haste to the entrance door.
A wave of relief washes over me as I will soon escape to safety.
But then, the door opens as we change our attention to it. A new person enters the warehouse. Calm steps on the dirt as the sound echoes throughout.
A tall Japanese man with short, slick back, platinum hair, and broad shoulders, wearing a penchant of a sharp, unbuttoned crimson suit and pants with white shirt underneath, sporting white, glossy business shoes. Behind his sable-rimmed glasses, a set of sharp dark eyes scans the whole area, and he wrinkles his brows.
"What the hell is this?"
His voice is heavy and brute. And as his glance meets with mine, hundreds of unseen masses drop on to me as I lower my bag a bit. His eyes are steady and vicious. The eyes of those who have experienced a lot in their times. Good and worse.
"Boss..." Sean mutters.
"Boss!" Lin grins at the man. "I knew you would still be alive!"
"Care to fill me in?" his gaze still fixes on me and a grip that never was there curled around my throat.
"T-This guy just came in and wrecked us all apart," Lin says. "He must be one of those Schicksal men!"
"Wrong."
"Huh?"
"The boy has no principles." With slow steps, he walks to the group. "Well...Unless Otto has some funny ideas for his new, disgusting collection of Knights."
And stops in front of them as I look up. The overwhelming atmosphere urges me to take a step back—Two, just to be safe...
For a while, as he continues to stare at me, a smirk creeps up on the side of his lips.
"Hmph," he grunts before raising his rough voice a bit higher. "Put the materials in."
"S-Sir!" "Yessir!"
Everyone responds in unison. The blonde carries the moaning Aki onto the cargo bed and then goes to the other two guys. Lin and the last man run to the box and move them to the truck.
"Boy," he suddenly calls, and I snap my eyes at him again, "how did you get in here?"
"I...I fell."
He notices and follows the direction of my gaze as he turns his head on the area of the second floor.
"Oh..." He returns his glare. "So that's how."
"..."
"Then, why did you beat the living shit outta my boys?"
"..."
Is...Is he toying with me? What's going on?
"It's..." Sean says, "We caught him, and then Aki...I-It was Aki's..."
"Aki's mess, huh."
"H-He was trying to escape..."
The Japanese stay dead silent. Only the sounds of his men working with full speed as their shoes drag the dirt.
A hunch tells me I should keep my mouth shut and pretend to be stupid, so I obey my own desperate thoughts.
He heaves a sigh.
"You have no resolve at all," he says. "Then again, how a punk with no sense of rights like you could ever be a Knight."
I am left confused at his statement. That is, until he takes a step forward to me and I am at full alert.
"Well, we'll see if your pettiness can last long."
He fastens his steps. There is a rush of emotions building into my heart as I tighten the grip on the leather, and swing my bag-filled clay up at his face when he gets near.
However, he merely raises his hand to the side of his head. My bag even bounces back resulting in me almost tipping off my balance.
I control my footings, and swing it again. And the worse comes to wear as he grabs the side of the bag with one hand.
A demon—
My eyes widen in fear as he grabs my collar and easily throws me over to the far back of the entrance.
I roll on the dirt, helpless, until I somehow stop. Though, there's another way out: The stairs, the distance of it is short. And now's my chance. I immediately get up and run to—
"Where do you think you're going?"
The next moment I know, my body motion backwards and he sends me flying to the wall with a painful scream.
"Your obstacle is right in front of your very eyes." I struggle to look up, his brows knit into anger. "And you're running away like a goddamn pussy."
"..."
"Stand your ground... Man the fuck up!"
Another spark of fire. Frowning, I glare back at the man. I lift my right hand and find a metal bar to support myself as I slowly stand up. The inflammation scorching through my body is begging me to just sit down.
What am I doing? There's really no escaping this. They will capture me and lock me away and let me rot as far as my concern. I can lessen the pain, I can just give up. Be smart about this.
But why do I keep fighting? This fermentation within my heart craves for something. Chaotic; Rationality be damned.
I tighten my jaw... and throw my fist.
But, the blow never reaches the end of his face. A sting in my abdomen ramps up the from stiffness all the way to searing, blinding agony faster than I can blink as if I was being pierced through by a spear. I hack out an air mix with saliva, clutching my stomach and falling down as my back skits the wall.
The Japanese man retracts his knuckle. "Don't even try to get up. Unless, you want another dose."
The turmoil slowly fades into a dull throb, and so does the fire, fading into nothingness.
"Well, that was a good attempt, I'll give you that," he says, rather dully.
"We're almost done, Boss!"
"I don't know what the hell's up with you, boy. And I don't give a damn, either... But take this friendly advice from an old man and nail it into your head: chewing other people up will bring you nothing."
What is he talking about?
I strain to lift my head and stare at him. But as I stare at his outstretched, dry hand, signaling for me to take it, all the slight turmoil subsides and is replaced by a slight sense of perplexity.
I then meet his eyes once more. Pity glints on both of his orbs. Why? Is this a trick? Is this some sort of sick joke?
As I'm trying to figure out his intention, I hear a stomp on the ground coming down from the second floor.
"Boss, look out!"
The giant man turns to the side at an incoming figure, rushing to him like a bullet train. He deflects a punch by raising his arm. The impact somehow blows the air around it as the wind caresses my skin.
I quickly identify the assailant when I see her blue outfit, face, hair and glasses.
Fu Hua delivers a kick. The man shields his head with his left forearm. She delivers another forceful swing of her leg, as if trying to move him away from me.
And it works. He was pushed back. In a way to not make himself stumble around, he stomps his left foot on the back to balance himself, causing the ground under to crunch and crack. In a moment, I can see his look of surprise when he glares at the Valkyrie.
He bends his knees a little, both knuckles raise to the front like a boxer, and he moves—shooting fast jabs and hooks to Fu Hua. His attacks are easily read by her, as she swivels her head from side to side, ducks, and sometimes blocks his knuckles with her elbows.
Eyes bar deep into the rush of assaults—Never leaving her focus into the enemy.
Each and every time she guards herself, I feel the ground tremble and the air being pushed back, again.
Fu Hua bends back to avoid a swing. She takes a step behind, and in one single quick motion, plants a foot behind the other, folds her knees a bit, and clenches her fist above her right waist. Inhaling a decent amount of air through her lips.
Then, she thrusts her right side forward and launches the fist at his chest, like throwing a javelin. The man's eyes turn wide and hastily crosses his arms to an "X" in front of his lungs.
The next thing happens so fast—The giant man's body sends back so far back to the vehicle. His shoes skid on the dirt, leaving deep trails on the surface, before his back touches the tailgate of their truck. The man slowly lowers his arms, a noticeable smoke hissing out of his sleeve.
"Are you alright!?" Lin says as he rushes to his side.
He doesn't say anything, only holding a hand to his men while still glaring at Fu Hua as he frowns.
"Well, I'll be damned..."
"Boss?"
"Guess that pervert was speaking the truth."
The Valkyrie glances over me, frowning for some reasons, before going back to her stance, ready for another fight; but the man eases his figure and brushes the sands out of his sleeves and pants.
"That's enough. I know I wouldn't win against you."
"What are you doing here." I hear Fu Hua speaks as I stare at her back. "Daigo Arataki?"
That's his name?
"That's supposed to be my line," he replies. "I thought you were dead..."
"..."
Daigo grunts with a small smirk. "No wonder the population of the rats have gone low. Last time I was here, the whole streets were full of shit. Really brings me back to the old days."
"Hand yourself over to Schicksal."
"I'd rather chop my fingers off. You can send those to them as a parting gift."
"I'll break each and every bone of yours if I have to... Don't make me repeat myself."
Fu Hua's voice is full of threats, and Daigo doesn't buy it. Instead, his face churns into distraught.
"You... What have they done to you?"
Daigo's tone hints a slight worry and tranquil fury. Before he moves forward, The blonde man grabs his shoulder from the cargo bed.
"Boss—we should go."
"...Yeah."
Daigo breaks his eye contact from Fu Hua and walks to the passenger seat.
"Wait!"
"You should worry about that brat. I know you still wouldn't turn a blind eye on the weak." He raises his voice, swinging the door and spares one last look to the girl. "Later, birdie."
The engine roars as he enters while the gate opens. Lin and two others send glares at us from the cargo until they make a turn.
They're gone... They're gone...
Fu Hua takes a slow step back, spins her axis and crouches on a knee in front of me, analyzing my wounded situation within a moment before looking at me straight to the eyes.
"The kids told me about everything. They're worried sick of you not coming out."
I don't have to explain anything then. Well, I don't think I can even say stuff to her. My lungs and my entire body feel heavier in any second.
I push the words out of my dry mouth. "T-Thanks..."
"Control your breathing, try not to talk too much. That will ease the pain for a little while." She then stares to the side while tapping her glasses with a finger.
"This is Fu Hua—They have left with the stolen Souliums." the Valkyrie mutters to herself. "I found a victim, alive—In need of medical attention."
Oh... she's calling the HQ. I thought she was talking to my reaper or something, haha...
I move my head to the side to relax my muscles. My eyes catch the pink ball on the corner. I groan.
Yeah, I truly regret everything... Because of that stupid, goddamn ball...
"White, Honda pickup truck, no plates, ninety-four model... Affirmative." She ends the call as she looks at me. "Can you get up?"
I'll try. Using a free hand to support myself, I winch, my butt rises a few meters... and then I drop. The slight bump just sets fire in my stomach. I shake my head in dismay.
"I see." She nods and reaches something behind her. "Let me—"
"H-Hey, uh... Can you grab...that? It's for them..."
Fu Hua follows the direction of my tired eyes to the ball. I can tell she's glancing back at me as if wants to say something. But instead, she gets up to her feet and takes the ball.
"All these happened just to get their toys back," she says, casting a slight disbelief.
"Well... They did offer me a candy—"
I inhale an air in an accident and rapidly cough. The jolts cause my sore muscles even more hurt than before.
Fu Hua comes to my view and places a hand on my shoulder, gentle as a feather. "Speak no more," she says.
My fatigue is probably messing with me... but I swear I see a tiny smile on her lips.
"You have done a good thing, Kilo."
My eyes snap wide. A sudden warmth engulfs my right shoulder.
I—
"Fenghuang Down"
Fu Hua watches as his eyes roll and falls into a deep slumber, she gently rests his head against the wall.
The feather swaying in his mind, whispering sweet-nothings, that should block his wounds from reaching his psyche. She just needs to wait until help arrives.
She sighs. A string of shame and guilt prances for letting an acquaintance to get hurt like this. It was to be unexpected, yet, Fu Hua doesn't have anyone to blame, but herself.
The feeling she has right now haunts her like an old comrade... but she can't pinpoint it out. On what day. What year. Nothing.
Fu Hua gazes at the thing she's holding on both of her palms, the toy and then to the feather on her other.
Fenghuang Down—A Divine Key that takes forms of vermilion feathers—has the ability to manipulate those with consciousness, altering their minds and perspectives, even erasing the memories if the user wishes to. She once thought she had to use the feather on herself for reasons unknown; using it against someone.
Or something.
She could list an entire probabilities of it happened. She left the insignificant thoughts behind. Now, she must focus on the present.
7 pieces of Fenghuang are in her possession. One she used on Kiana during one of their sparring, and planted it within in order to track her down. She will have to use it against her, whenever the unavoidable disaster happens.
It is then Fu Hua has a rather foreboding idea. She has to plant one on the person in front of her. His nature to attract chaos and/or mischief is quite... reputable. It is something that she should watch over.
How could he, of all people, survived the pseudo-Honkai eruption in Lahti? Didn't even have any signs of infection, as well? Luck certainly wasn't the play here, Fu Hua waved it as nothing but a child's fairy tale. They must not underestimate the Honkai and its potential to bring a massive scale of destruction and misery.
She focuses her mind on Fenghuang, channeling her Honkai energy once more as the barb glows and soon the vanes with bright vermilion color, and the same warmth returns. Fu Hua directs the feather to Kilo's chest—
"Hm?"
But, the feather did not slip into him. The vanes tremble as Fu Hua watches with oddity.
"Fenghuang... denies him?" she mutters, staring at Kilo.
It's as if something is blocking the feather. The Divine Key successfully removed his memories and tended his injuries and had no problem of doing so. Then, why does it refuse to be attached to the boy?
"Miss Fu Hua!"
Fu Hua sways her hand to hide the Fenghuang into her body in a swift. She glances around, only to see the three children approaching her from the entrance door.
Lulu, Fei and Meng—the trio small resident of Soukai city—the three who Fu Hua had met and sometimes played together when she was out of the class, or when holiday came around. Well, she got nothing to do during vacation, anyways, other than an urgent mission from the HQ.
While she was looking for the thieves, Fu Hua stumbled upon the trios running around and begging to help them to rescue a person in some warehouse.
"We saw them leaving and—"
"oh MY GOD, HE'S DEAD!" Meng's eyes glue at Kilo, shocked. "I-I think I'm going to puke..." and he clenches his stomach as he turns green.
"He's not." Fu Hua shakes her head, smiling at the boy. "Just unconscious."
"Why—What happened?" Lulu asks.
"He-"
"It-It's all my fault! I shouldn't have asked Lulu and Meng to play together today. Mister Kilo got hurt because of me..." Fei stiffles with a cracked voice, staring at the dirt.
Fu Hua contemplates on how to explain this to them. Until she gets up and shows them the toy, still with a smile.
"He fought those bad men away for helping you. If it weren't for him, who knows what would happen to your toy."
"B-But..."
"He's doing this for his own goodness, too. So, please make sure to thank him whenever you meet him and..." Another quick glance behind from the corner of her eyes. "Promise me to take good care of him—Show him your kindness like you three always do to others."
After saying this, the three perks up and nods to her. The aura of friendliness and familiarity hovers around them even when she first met them. They wouldn't let her down.
"Now, off you three. It's getting dark and-"
"Never go outside after four PM!" Lulu chides in.
Meng stammers. "Oh, huh, yeah, that!"
Fu Hua breathes out a small chuckle. After handing their toy, the kids skip out of the warehouse. Leaving her and the sleeping boy alone.
She can think about the causes of the unnatural phenomenon of Fenghuang's rejection later. Now she has to get him to safety.
She saw a bench outside of the construction. Guess she'll move Kilo there and wait.
Gears. Rotating. Pipes. Flowing. Vents. Humming. Lights. Blinking. Window. Looking.
"—adiation at normal level. Nothing too abnormal."
Computer. Six. People. Two. System. Entering.
"Uwah! It just moved!"
People. Two. System... System. Failing.
"Relax. Doctor MEI had tempered it with more components. It cannot go anywhere nor will it force its way to our mainframe."
People. Talking. Computer. Entering.
"I just saw a crack on that thing!"
Failing...
"Please stop joking around."
Window.
Observing.
Detail.
Detail.
Two humans. Females. White garments. One typing. White space. Far. Lab tools. Glass. Window between us. Actions fabricated by an unknown force. Impossible to reach.
One has a red strand of hair. One has a blue strand of hair.
"Sorry... It's just you're so stiff for, well, like two hours now. Klein's at the Courtyard, so, I figured you wanted someone to talk."
The red female watches the blue female. Negative expression. Worry.
"We still haven't received the full reports on the casualties."
"I know...I know... We just hope that-"
Door opens. A New human with a strange dress. Small. Green hair. Floating. Floating machine. Fast movement.
"Thirty-one thousand and twenty-two."
Red female is shocked. Blue female has stopped typing.
"W-What?"
"Area FO, GM and KN were annihilated—No survivors according to the scout team—Do I need to repeat myself on that?"
Green female is furious... A negative expression. She slumps on a desk and massages her temples. Red stares at empty space.
"Ah... haha, y-you're joking, right? This has to be a joke!"
"..."
Green looks at Red. Red's eyes trembles.
"You're serious... S-So...we're the only ones left."
"Most of my research tables were in those cities, along with that newest project I just worked on... Now, I have to start ALL over."
Room silenced. Nobody is talking. Green turns her head to the window. To me. For twenty-five-point one seconds. Green smiles.
"...Do we still have those data? The ones under the sub-category of Honkai Weapon Transfusions?"
Blue quickly rotates her chair. "Doctor Mobius, you don't intend to—"
"Yes, I do."
Green floats to the window.
Looking at me.
"Doctor–"
"All plants will die. The animals that are reliant on it will eventually starve, and they will eat each other."
Her slit-like pupils observe me with an intent as if she will dissect me over and over and over until it is done. Until she is satisfied with her delirious experiments. And until then–
"We are no different than those animals."
–I will not yield.
Honkai Restoration in progress...
2.3%
2.3%
2.4%
2.4%
I'll stop beating you around the bush, my family and I were suffering from COVID. And, at that time, I somewhat lost my motivation to write. For days, I laid on my bed, felt like total shit. Movies and games served as nothing the passing time and not entertainment anymore. Later on as we slowly recovered, I tried and had a struggle to type anything down on this blank page. It's like a fog blinding my insight. What are words even?
It was not only around October, I stumbled upon Hello Future Me's and Quotidian Writer's YouTube channels. Their well-crafted, thorough writing videos help me throughout. Their videos also help me to construct a better format of the story, and I really am grateful for it.
And lastly, Elysia, ironically put me back together, as I finished the ER arc. I was neutral to her at first, but as the story progresses, she easily becomes my top fav characters. Instant number one. She's just so sweet!
This one is pretty much coming from my own. After finishing the first draft, I've been binging Yakuza franchise after finishing GoW Ragnarok with my dad when it came out. So uhh, I didn't revise shit lol
Currently starting Yakuza spin-off: Judgment. They're all slow-burn type of stories with a lot of things to do, a lot of interactions between characters, and its Side-stories are absurd, hilarious and sometimes can be emotional—Including the main stories. I highly recommend them if you haven't known, or played it, yet.
Speaking of which, I just realized not long ago that this site has ways to PM users of its own. I'm a fool. A clown. I should've PM you guys before.
But I'll say this: Honkaiverse has sooo much potential (Honkai Multiverse is wack, baby) that I wish all of you will take up your notes and start outlining your own stories. It is a blessing of Fanfiction. So, please, don't be shy about it! Practice and improve, rinse and repeat!
Anyway, I've been working on the first draft for the next chapter and it'll take some time to season it. Until then, thank you so much for reading this. You can't imagine how happy I am for going back to writing (and how much dopamine I got after publishing the new chapter). Hope you all have a great day/night. See ya!