"Welcome! What can I do you for?"
The man behind the counter had coarser, darker skin as opposed to the whiter tones of the people Genji had seen so far, with lively green eyes almost hidden by a fringe trailing from a messy mop of hair atop his head. He had on a brown shirt stained at the sleeve, where large, hairy arms protruded from each side. They looked strong and muscular despite his considerable paunch. His manner of speaking and general behavior reminded the cyborg of another tanned-skin individual he last seen on the watch point. He still felt bad about the chili incident.
It was clear that the man paid as much attention to tidiness of his store as his person. Wires of every shade of grey trailed down from shelves stacked against the walls of the room, tangling into each other between metal things set precariously upon them. All of them looked broken beyond repair; random parts littered the shelves and floor alike which Genji carefully stepped over, shifting the sleeping girl nestled on his arm ever so slightly to gain a better view of where he was going.
"Greetings," he said, pulling out the enigmatic black cube, "I hear this is where I can get this repaired?"
"Well, isn't this something?" The shopkeeper took the device from Genji, held it up to the light and examined it closely. "Mind me asking where you got something like this?"
"It was given to me."
"Given to you, huh?" His eyes flicked up to the cyborg, his countenance cool and impassive. His gaze softened somewhat as he moved his gaze to the girl sleeping into his shoulder.
Reaching beneath the counter, he retrieved a small case and popped it open, revealing intricate, tiny tools which with a deftness Genji would not had believed was possible from him, pried open a panel from the strange device. He leaned down with a magnifying glass and inspected the inner-workings.
"Imaging capacitor's busted," he muttered, and looked up at Genji. "I have a spare one, but I warn you, it's not going to be cheap to get it fixed."
"Cheap?"
He raised his eyes. "No, not cheap, I said."
The cyborg kept his silence. The soft breathing of Hana and the quiet hum of the air-vents occupied the room.
"Money?" Genji finally said slowly.
"Yes," the shopkeeper replied, just as slowly, raising an eyebrow. "Money, and quite a bit of it. Do you have enough to cover this?"
Confused, Genji pulled out his wad of notes, placed it on the table, and selected the larger pieces. With these, he carefully placed them over the top of the device, obscuring it from view. "I have finished."
The man looked up, drawing his lips into a line. "Do you want to get kicked out?"
"But I—"
"That's not enough," he cut in, leafing through the notes on the counter. Using the same tools, he carefully affixed the panel back on and pushed it towards Genji, along with the money. "Come back when you have more."
"The device, I'm supposed to—"
"Have a good day, sir."
Genji deflated. He collected his things and began negotiating his way back out. "How will I explain this to the commander?" he murmured.
"Hey, stop there."
Genji turned around.
"Commander?" His face was inscrutable.
"Yes," he answered. "Commander Morrison."
The shopkeeper stared at him for a moment, before bursting out in laughter, hands on his belly. "It's no wonder! Of course!"
"I'm sorry?" Genji asked, bewildered.
"No, I'm sorry," he said, beckoning him over. "Get back here. You should've mentioned Morrison right off the bat. How's the lad doing? I assume he's finally back?"
"He is well, and yes, you assume correctly."
"I should've guessed, the company he keeps… oddities! Every one of them." He shook his head. "Here, give that over. Keep the money. The lord knows I owe Morrison a lot more than an imaging capacitor." The man looked up, once again beginning the process of disassembling the device. "And what's with the girl? Looks like a local."
Genji glanced at the girl sitting on his arm. "I happened across her when I was making my way here. She was lost. We spent some time wandering before she grew tired."
"Doesn't explain why she's snuggled into you, peaceful as a kitten by a fire. Now that in particular, is unusual."
"Am I really that strange?" asked the cyborg, his tone slightly amused.
"You might be to some, but not to most, I reckon," he said, bending his head down for a closer look inside the device. "No, it's clear to see you aren't from around here."
"Because?"
"Because you don't seem to know that this isn't the right time to show yourself around. Don't take it the wrong way, any friend of Jack's a friend of mine, but have you seen any other omnic here so far?"
Genji didn't bother to correct him. "No."
"Exactly. That's because they're hidden away right now, and only come out to handle their own affairs when people, that is to say, humans, are asleep. It's become a bit of an unspoken ritual which started soon after the first Incident."
"The…"
"A number of years ago," he started, anticipating the question, "a massive colossus of an omnic, wide as two whales swimming abreast and twice as tall, came ashore and started assaulting the coastal cities and towns of Korea. Why? From where? Who built it? Nobody knows. But if there's one certainty, one constant that everyone agreed on and clung to as if it would bring them comfort, as if it mattered, is that it's an omnic. You follow me?"
Genji nodded.
"One thing you must understand, my good omnic, is that this country is one seeped deeply in tradition and superstition. For all the talks and reassurances from the local government and international omnic engineers, the voices of old women of the towns and cities hold sway over the opinion of the population. And it is in them old legends, myths, and superstition reign."
"Myths? Superstition? What does that have to do with me?"
"Have you not understood? Come now, even a toddler would have already connected the dots, for only remembering a time a jar of sweets shattered onto the ground. After the giant lumbered back into the ocean and the dust settled, the people overcame their shock and sought to explain what happened. But no one knew what happened or how, so they instead settled on the immediate omnic residents, who mind you, were also victims of the disaster. At first, there was fear, which bred anger, which spawned blame, which festered into resentment, which simmered into indifference, directed to the omnics. They walk the streets masquerading; like there aren't any omnics in their city, like they never existed."
Genji watched the shopkeeper work in silence for a moment. "And no reconciliation was made? No explanation?"
"Oh, they tried," he answered, now using a very small pair of tweezers to extract a bright blue module from the chassis. "They really did. But broken cities and sea-soaked corpses are no trivial thing. The Incident, all those years ago, was so much more than a broken cookie jar. So much more. Before you know it, friendly neighbors and friends turn hostile and cold, and the frigidness worsens with each subsequent incident."
"It's still happening?" Genji asked, aghast.
"Unfortunately," he sighed. "The sequence is seemingly random, but it's always a span of five to seven years between each one. The worst part is that it learns. It adapts, and comes back each time with armor in identified weak spots and weapons which decimates frontline defenses, and leaves each time in a wake of death, smoke, and screams, never straying too far from the sea."
"But why? What does it want?"
"Why, indeed? I'd like to know myself. Recent times though, has made me fear less about its coming and more about what it leaves behind."
"Death? Destruction?"
"Aye," he said, "there's that, but no. For it also leaves behind an insidious hatred which seethes in the hearts of the people for something right in front of them that they can see, something they can blame in all their confusion, and an uncertainty and fear which gnaws and grows more eerily quiet with each passing day, to a point where it's even taboo to mention it anymore." His hand was steady as he guided a similar blue module back in. "Fools."
"And so despite the efforts of local authority," he continued, "the people turned to their elders in panic, like children hiding behind the skirts of their mothers, and it is there they found solace in attributing the colossus's existence to the local omnic population. 'Machines! Monsters! Things of metal and made by men!' the elders screamed, the young'uns quickly taking up the choir. 'This is how you thank us for giving you life? Whispering secrets to an evil giant, commanding it to destroy our city? Hive-mind scourges!' Would you believe, one day before they were sharing conversation and laughter? It is a sad and fickle thing, but there you go."
"And you?" Genji sounded pained. "What about you?"
"I know better." There was no hesitation in his voice. "I don't believe in the so-called wisdom of the elders. And it's like I said, it's all very hush-hush. I can't blame them though, I can see why they would want to put something like that behind them and get on with their lives. But blindly connecting all omnics to it?" He shook his head. "'Tain't fair."
"Y'know," The man continued, taking a strange, long contraption from the desk which emitted sparks from the tip, and proceeding to delicately jab the inside of the device with it, "I know it sounds horrible—and that because it is, but there's a reason why I'm still here. The last time the thing resurfaced was just a couple weeks after when I moved here with my family. My… niece. In the inferno, under all that rubble, it was Commander Jack who pulled her out. Weak, covered from the tips of her hair to her toes in white dust and bloodied, but alive. I vowed to leave this wretched place as soon as she was able with the rest of my family, but the people—they can be stubborn, unreasonable, cold and unfair, but they can be kind, caring, and capable of sacrifice."
Genji watched intently as the insides of the black cube lit up with every contact the contraption made, buzzing and sputtering as it did so. He kept his silence.
"I owe them as much as I do the Commander," he continued. "When he yelled for people to help him lift the slab trapping my niece, they did. They bowed their heads and prayed for her as we stood outside her operating room, when they barely knew us. Yes, they can be kind, they're just misguided by their fear." He shrugged. "Besides, I'd had already set up shop here tinkering with gizmos and gadgets, seems to be the only thing I'm good at. Been doing this in my hometown in Ohio for as long as I can remember."
The cyborg remembered a similar story told to him, while he rested immobile on an operating table. He pulled the girl closer to him subconsciously. "I'm sorry."
"Why should you be? Ain't your fault, and things turned out fine for young Victoria," he said, giving the cyborg another hearty laugh, before growing serious once more. "Listen, the only reason why I'm telling you this is because you deserve it, at least. It doesn't matter how long you stay here, just understand—and harbor no resentment toward the people. The lord knows there's been enough of it around here."
"I understand," he asserted, pausing. "How long ago was it, when you first arrived?"
His eyes grew haunted. "Seven years ago." He quickly yet carefully screwed the panel back on, and pushed it back across the counter. "Here you are. Try to avoid banging it about, it's not very shock-proof." He turned towards a sink to the back and started rinsing off his hands. "You still haven't told me, how did you manage to have her so comfortable with you?"
"She was desperate. And I was the only one there who noticed her."
"She wasn't afraid?"
"Very much so," he said, watching her small figure rising and falling as she breathed, "but she calmed down as we continued to talk, and I promised to help her find her way home."
The shopkeeper turned back with towel in hand, studying Genji. "Still, that is unusual. Very unusual…"
Genji grew uncomfortable under his stare. "What?"
"Nothing, nothing. The girl looks awfully familiar. You spoke with her, you said? Did she give mention of a name?"
"Her name is Hana."
"Hana, huh? Last name?"
"I didn't think to ask for one," Genji replied, feeling foolish.
He laughed and shook his head. "Don't worry about it. If memory serves, she's a Song. I recall her mother complaining about a particular daughter never leaving the house, always on this video-game which name escapes me presently, but I've seen her once before. Yes, I'm sure of it now. You can find the Song residence just turning right as you leave, and continue up till you reach a hill. Keep your eyes—er, scanners?—open to the right until you see a clay dove statue through some gates, that's your destination."
"Thank you. May I ask you one more thing, before I go?"
"Go right on ahead."
"Would you know anything about the… Revolution?"
"Ah, that's a curious subject. It's best not mentioned to the locals here. There's been some speculation going around that the omnics of the city—and welcome, Madam Wong! How are you this fine evening?"
Genji turned round. In the doorway stood an old lady in a grey coat which matched her hair. "I'm well, thank you. Good evening to you," she greeted warmly, slowly pacing up to the counter, pointedly ignoring the cyborg.
"And what can I do you for today?" He lowered his volume and said, "give my regards to Jack, and you're welcome to return any time should you need anything."
Genji gently bowed his head in thanks, careful not to shift the weight on his arm. Once again navigating through the rug of wires, he stopped with one palm on the door and called over his shoulder, "May I have your name?"
The shopkeeper raised his eyes, and smiled. "Joe."
"Genji," he responded. "Thank you for all your help." With that, the cyborg pushed open the door and left.
Industrial buildings and business offices dissolved with traffic into a quiet, suburban area where concrete houses tiled with ceramic shingles were enclosed by gates and fences. The occasional car drove by as Genji took his time pacing up the hill, the purr of engines and scraping of tires on roads briefly muting the ambient noises of the night. The things around him slowly transitioned to different shades of green as the sky grew darker away from the heart of the city, with noise at the edges of his vision.
He passed homes of varying design of its gates and exterior decorations and structures, until he came upon one with a clay pedestal at the center of the courtyard with a clay dove atop, wings splayed to either side, in a perpetual stance of posturing to take flight. It stood beneath a wooden balcony which peeked from the second floor.
Genji looked around and found a white button by the side of the gate. He pushed it. Nothing happened.
After several tries to no avail, and peeking through the grates in the gate to see a dark, seemingly empty house, he sat down slowly on the asphalt pavement cross-legged and leaned against the wall, shifting the girl slightly to a horizontal position in a cradle of his arms. He worried that the metal would feel cold to her, not that there was much he could do about it.
He looked up at the carpet of stars. Here, he could hear the soft sounds of the creatures of the night as they awoke. He wondered if any of the stars he was looking at at that moment were the same ones from the shores of the Rock. It was in this moment, Genji suddenly felt overwhelmed. His purpose, his confusion and everything in the world around him. So small, so insignificant. What is there to behold, in the land beyond the horizon, which separates heaven and earth? he wondered, I follow a path blindly, unable to see two steps before me, but where does it go? And where does it end?
The cyborg lost track of time as he contemplated these questions. A Shimada. The youngest son of the most notorious crime syndicate in Japan. He thirsted to know more. Who was he? What was he like? What family did he have? Were they kind? Were they evil?
Why was he exiled? Why was he left within an inch of his life? By whom?
The images of him from his past life swam into his thoughts. Was he arrogant? Shy? Quick to anger, or patient and kind? He didn't participate in any violence, but did he try to do anything about it? An alternative solution?
"Papa?"
Genji looked down. The little girl slowly blinked bleary eyes. He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Hana, but I am not your father."
"It's okay," she said, her voice thick with sleep. She wiped her eyes with a sleeve and sniffed. "Then you won't go away." The specks of light overhead drew her eyes.
The cyborg too turned his gaze skyward. For a long moment, they just stared up into infinity, punctuated by twinkling stars, before—
"Hana?!"
They turned to see an almond-haired woman standing by the side of the road, a little away from them down the hill. Her eyes were swollen and red, which at present were widened in shock and disbelief.
"Momma?" the girl said. Genji stood up and put her down.
"Hana!" With impressive speed, the lady all but sprinted to her. Without breaking momentum, she swung her arms out, catching Hana, lifting her into the air and pulling her close to herself, spinning. "It's really yoooou! Hana! Oh, I'm so, so sorry. I'll never let you out of my sight again, my precious baby girl… Hana…"
"It's not your fault." She patted her mother on the shoulder as she sobbed into her hair. "I wandered off. I'm sorry, momma."
"It's okay… everything's all right now. Don't cry…" the lady whimpered.
"But I'm not crying."
"I know. I'm talking about me."
"Ma'am?"
She turned to the cyborg.
"I apologize for not being able to return your daughter sooner. I am not very familiar with the city and—"
Alas, with all the stress, anxiety, and feelings of helplessness built up over the course of the last few hours, only to have it all dispelled in a single moment of catharsis, the sight of the cyborg might had been the final nail in the coffin as she swayed, eyes glazed over, before losing her balance and falling toward the ground.
Genji caught her, of course, but not without a sigh.
Author's Notes:
Another long wait between chapters. Never fear, however, as it's time well spent for me to consider where to take the story, and what parts I may want or need to omit. On that note, I suppose it's worth mentioning that every chapter so far has never needed a rewriting except for chapter 17, the one before this. I'm at a stage where I actually plan ahead now-crazy, right? But I totally underestimated the difficulty of bringing life to a new city and what it can teach our cyborg friend. You're going to have to trust me on this, though I'm not very sure if I can really trust myself. XD
I'll see this story through, and I'll make sure every sentence of every paragraph of every chapter is a product of me doing my best. I refuse to put out anything less.
Thank you all so much for your patience and reviews, and stay tuned for the next one!