A Tiresome Day
Fu Ming keeps his hands up. His face remains static and focused while keeping his eyes on Eta and Kei who are facing him down.
Fu Ming’s guard is up. His arms are intact but most of the fake skin on his upper body has been cut or scratched by Eta’s two-handed sword.
Kei’s sporting a bloody nose and mouth and is spitting on her white shirt. She’s holding her cane with her right hand. Eta’s gripping her two-handed with her dominant arm. Her spare arm is dangling around like a rag.
Eta’s barely dressed. With her coat torn open and loosen. I can see augment lines under her breast and she’s sporting nasty bruises from Fu Ming’s blows.
“Alright. You dimwits. Break it up.”
I look at the entrance where the voices come from. A man in a leisure suit followed by OB Agents entered the hallway. Eta squints at the man and sighs.
“Sato.”
Next to this Sato is one that is dressed so casually with his steps that are so light. I can’t hear his shoes make contact with the floorboard. As if he is floating.
Fu Ming lowers his guard and greets him with a fist in his palm greeting.
“Brother Chen! Forgive me for this!”
Sato sniffs and introduces him.
“This is Chu Chen. He’s the Lead Enforcer of the Ji Ceng Syndicate. He called me cause I heard that two of my associates have been making a ruckus. Kei, explain.”
Kei explains the situation. Sato’s face grew dark and I can see him building up pressure as he listens. He clicks his tongue and pockets his hands inside his pants.
“Vaun called me Kei. He told me you told him to bust Mr. Chen's cleaning company.”
“They tried to ruin my business and I tried to ruined theirs.”
Everyone thinks how arrogant it is for her to say that. But this Chu Chen seems to understand something. His snake-like eyes watched Kei, Eta, Me, and Fu Ming before nodding respectfully to Sato.
“Enough bloodshed. It’s shameful this started because of my men." He turns to Fu Ming. "Are we paupers, Brother Ming?”
“N-no!”
“Then teach your fools that the information we get from Anomaly Hunters decides our life and death! You dare to provoke them. This will not happen again. Do we have an understanding, Brother Sato?”
“Of course. We have no qualms.”
He turns to me.
“Hand over the data you extracted from them.”
I point at the hard drive on the table. It is sitting next to the site manager’s head. Chu Chen lifts the head.
“Vaun killed this man?”
“Yes.”
“I see.”
He hands over the decapitated head to one of Fu Ming’s men.
“We shall go now.”
He turns around to the entrance. Fu Ming follows him with his head lowered. Sato inspects the men around and finally turns his eyes back to us.
“Sheathe your blade, Assistant. Kei, we need to talk NOW.”
“Do we need to do that here?”
Sato did not reply and just pointed at her to sit down.
I sheathed the spare sword that Eta gave me and let it dangle on my belt. I approach Eta with a medkit and a towel I got from the bathroom and started patching her up while Mr. Sato and Kei are having a serious discussion.
“How are your augments?”
“Beaten. That Fu Ming packs a punch. It’s like getting hit by a truck.”
I lift her left arm.
“You’ll need a doctor for this.”
“No shit.”
Eta grins a little.
I took off her ruined coat first. Then go around her bra to unhook it since it's blocking a wound. I started cleaning the wounds on and under her breast and stomach. Around her left chest I can see that a rib got cracked and is poking out.
“That ain’t good.”
“Yeah. His jabs with those arms of his is masterful. I try to swing at his head, but he just weaves around it and gives me a counter on the kidneys.”
“Kidneys eh.”
I check where her kidneys should be and see it’s purple as well. I gave her side a press and she flinched.
“That’s fucked.”
“Like I said. He hits like a damn truck.”
I lifted her left arm and carefully wrapped it with a bandage. There were towels in the bathroom so I made use of that as a brace for her left arm.
She has a lot of cuts too, but it isn’t as bad as the bruises on her body and the bones that got cracked and poked out.
“Can I borrow your coat?”
I froze. Seeing the look on my face. She gave a laugh and then pointed at her coat.
“Guess you liked that overcoat of yours too much to let me borrow it.”
She makes a tiny smile.
I do. Washing it is troublesome.
Helping her get up, I grabbed her two-hander and supported her until she got to take seat. Eta is monitoring her own breathing. The wounds she has right now is extremely painful.
“Got it.”
Sato stands up and approaches us. Kei has an annoyed look on her face. Sato seems to be cherishing her current look of annoyance.
“Ah, the Assistant. Sorry that you had to deal with these two. I assure you that no member of Shichinin no Ken acts as rash and unprofessional as these girls.”
I said nothing. Sato nods his head and turns his head to Eta.
“And you, Eta. It’s good that you don’t allow anyone to disrespect your employer, but know this.”
Sato clawed Eta’s head. I can hear Eta gritting her head as Sato puts pressure on his fingers.
“This doesn’t happen again, okay? Listen to Kei. She’s smarter than you. Try it again and I’ll make sure that I’d take what you have and transfer it to someone who can do this job better. Simone’s waiting for you in his clinic. Get fixed up.”
Sato leaves the building while muttering to himself. Eta holds her head and clicks her tongue loudly.
Kei fishes out a cigarette from her pocket and lights it.
“What a fucking mess.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright. It’s done. None of what you say now will make a difference. Ah, fuck, my tits hurt. That Fu Ming bitch doesn’t hold back at all doesn't he?”
Kei studies Eta’s wounds.
“Rare to see you like this.”
Eta said nothing and groaned.
I lend my shoulder to Eta. Kei looked at the car service Sato provided and got in the front while Eta and I rode in the back.
We arrived at Simone’s clinic. Simone, the gearhead doctor, who has pretty much scraped his head off his face with metal and fake skin eyes Eta and Kei. He turns toward me. The artificial skin on his face barely made any movement.
“You got injured?”
“No.”
“Then you wait. All expenses are paid by Shichinin no Ken.”
Doctor Simone got to work. Kei got out of the operating room first while Eta was stuck there for the next few hours.
“You okay, Ma’am?”
Kei stares at me for a minute and sits down.
“Told you to fuck off with that, Assistant.”
“Okay.”
She lights a cigarette and glares at the nurse.
“Thanks for going through that shithole for.”
I never really did get what was the point of that.
“May I ask why you sent me there?”
“Cause I want to make a point, that’s all. I can ruin their business if I like and I made that point. My office isn’t easy to bully you know? I might be able to pull a HG Graded Agent again to work for me if shit like this happens again. Or have the Shichinin no Ken do me a favor.”
Can she? But despite the scolding. Sato doesn’t seem to mind what Kei did. Eta on the other hand seems like she got into Sato’s nerves.
“Hey, I see doubt on your face.”
“Forgive me, but are they really going to be easygoing after all of this?”
She blows smoke out of her mouth.
“Assistant, what is the greatest threat that the world has?”
“Monsters and warpers probably.”
“Nope. Not now at least. The Anomalies are the greatest threats that mankind has ever faced. We have a small office, but I can pay you a lot. Know why? Because shutting down Anomalies and selling what we know of them pays. But killing them. Hunting them. That’s a one time thing. But learning about them. Compiling data on them and mass-selling them for profit? We earn a lot of them. Changye’s a hotspot of Anomalies. Everyday there’s at least 135 people that encounter anomalies. There’s a lot of Anomaly Hunters too, but unlike us, they’d rather kill them than gather data.
She takes a long drag of her smoke.
“You getting me?”
“Somewhat.”
Information sells more than killing them. I wonder if Shichinin no Ken and the office has the rights to the information? Seeing that she's so sure about all of this.
“So yeah. We might not look like it, but we were able to gather a lot of info. And Sato likes useful people. He’s harsh to Eta, but you know Eta. The Augments fried her brain… I think.”
“I think she’s just a chirpy and positive individual.”
“Hah, I wish. She wouldn’t have done that stupid shit. Not really her fault that the arrogant idiot with Fu Ming tried to grope her tits.”
My head halted to a grind for a second.
“How did that come to be?”
Kei sniffs.
“They wanted her to whore around. Earn 100k and said they’ll forget about it and keep this incident quiet. Eta was quite patient until they tried checking her tits out.”
“Shit, but it's quite cheap price to pay to be honest. Pissing off a syndicate doesn’t usually bode well for anyone.”
“Fu Ming was giving us face. We have enough problems and they have bigger problems than this. Hell, honesty? I think they just wanted to know if a busty warrior girl is popular with customers. Gotta say, smart man. Good at duking it out too. Haven't felt this excited for a while.”
I rub my chin. I can hear some bone grinding in the operation room.
“Another metal for Eta. Girl’s going to groan at her weight now.”
“You think they’ll try anything?”
“Nope. Sato settled it with them.”
“How?”
“Dunno.”
I wonder how the pay’s going to be.
“Will there be pay cuts?”
“Depends on whether we have an Anomaly to catch for the next few days. Sato was gracious enough to understand who crossed the line here. So as long as we play by the rules and earn some cash without lifting a finger. We'll be fine. Besides, I think Ji Ceng had a good business deal with our Association a while so they don't want to muddy the waters for now."
"What if the guys Eta killed have friends and a deep grudge?"
"Who knows? We made peace with them and with Sato around, they won't try anything for now. I do admit there are psychopaths in this city, but even they aren’t so eager to fight all day and night. Who’d want that? They have to work. They have to fight too and avenge their friend? It’s too troublesome.”
I have to agree with her. Fighting means you’re using your body. And your body is the most reliable asset you can have in this city.. It won’t betray you as long as you don’t try to betray it. You feed it and train it well. Then it keeps you fed.
“Anyway, this day has been a mess. Oh, for your trouble.”
She hands me some cash to spend.
“Thanks. Ah, that reminds me. Vaun told me to tell you this, you shouldn’t mingle with Von-Abel too much. The Shichinin no Ken is reasonable most of the time, but like every associate of the OB. They are worshippers of Plutus and Caishen.”
Kei groans and snaps.
“That man is irritating. Does he think that I lost my wits already? Of course, these idiots worship the God of Money! Really, why does he say so much nonsense!?”
I pocket the cash and think of getting some steak.
“Do you mind if I take my leave for now?”
Kei blinks and lights another cigarette. She throws butt of the cigarette and it flew straight into the trash bin on the side of the room.
“Sure. I’m going to wait for Eta and bring her home. She’s going to need someone to take care of her.”
“You two sure are good friends.”
“Unfortunately, we are. Thanks for today, Assistant.”
“Take care and try not to pick a fight with anyone.”
“Hey, you should say that to Eta, not me.”
I left the clinic and found myself a good steakhouse. After I was done with my steak. I washed my face in their restroom and got on a service train heading back to lotus lane.
I was on the very back of the cabin. Something might have happened since the cabin was a bit empty which is rare for this city.
It was quiet.
Right now I am looking into a reflection of myself in the mirror. Behind me is the starless and dark sky placed between two towering buildings. Looking at the dull face staring back. I thought to myself that it was a good thing I didn’t lend my coat to Eta.
It was just another tiresome day in Changye.
A Tiresome Day
Fu Ming keeps his hands up. His face remains static and focused while keeping his eyes on Eta and Kei who are facing him down.
Fu Ming’s guard is up. His arms are intact but most of the fake skin on his upper body has been cut or scratched by Eta’s two-handed sword.
Kei’s sporting a bloody nose and mouth and is spitting on her white shirt. She’s holding her cane with her right hand. Eta’s gripping her two-handed with her dominant arm. Her spare arm is dangling around like a rag.
Eta’s barely dressed. With her coat torn open and loosen. I can see augment lines under her breast and she’s sporting nasty bruises from Fu Ming’s blows.
“Alright. You dimwits. Break it up.”
I look at the entrance where the voices come from. A man in a leisure suit followed by OB Agents entered the hallway. Eta squints at the man and sighs.
“Sato.”
Next to this Sato is one that is dressed so casually with his steps that are so light. I can’t hear his shoes make contact with the floorboard. As if he is floating.
Fu Ming lowers his guard and greets him with a fist in his palm greeting.
“Brother Chen! Forgive me for this!”
Sato sniffs and introduces him.
“This is Chu Chen. He’s the Lead Enforcer of the Ji Ceng Syndicate. He called me cause I heard that two of my associates have been making a ruckus. Kei, explain.”
Kei explains the situation. Sato’s face grew dark and I can see him building up pressure as he listens. He clicks his tongue and pockets his hands inside his pants.
“Vaun called me Kei. He told me you told him to bust Mr. Chen's cleaning company.”
“They tried to ruin my business and I tried to ruined theirs.”
Everyone thinks how arrogant it is for her to say that. But this Chu Chen seems to understand something. His snake-like eyes watched Kei, Eta, Me, and Fu Ming before nodding respectfully to Sato.
“Enough bloodshed. It’s shameful this started because of my men." He turns to Fu Ming. "Are we paupers, Brother Ming?”
“N-no!”
“Then teach your fools that the information we get from Anomaly Hunters decides our life and death! You dare to provoke them. This will not happen again. Do we have an understanding, Brother Sato?”
“Of course. We have no qualms.”
He turns to me.
“Hand over the data you extracted from them.”
I point at the hard drive on the table. It is sitting next to the site manager’s head. Chu Chen lifts the head.
“Vaun killed this man?”
“Yes.”
“I see.”
He hands over the decapitated head to one of Fu Ming’s men.
“We shall go now.”
He turns around to the entrance. Fu Ming follows him with his head lowered. Sato inspects the men around and finally turns his eyes back to us.
“Sheathe your blade, Assistant. Kei, we need to talk NOW.”
“Do we need to do that here?”
Sato did not reply and just pointed at her to sit down.
I sheathed the spare sword that Eta gave me and let it dangle on my belt. I approach Eta with a medkit and a towel I got from the bathroom and started patching her up while Mr. Sato and Kei are having a serious discussion.
“How are your augments?”
“Beaten. That Fu Ming packs a punch. It’s like getting hit by a truck.”
I lift her left arm.
“You’ll need a doctor for this.”
“No shit.”
Eta grins a little.
I took off her ruined coat first. Then go around her bra to unhook it since it's blocking a wound. I started cleaning the wounds on and under her breast and stomach. Around her left chest I can see that a rib got cracked and is poking out.
“That ain’t good.”
“Yeah. His jabs with those arms of his is masterful. I try to swing at his head, but he just weaves around it and gives me a counter on the kidneys.”
“Kidneys eh.”
I check where her kidneys should be and see it’s purple as well. I gave her side a press and she flinched.
“That’s fucked.”
“Like I said. He hits like a damn truck.”
I lifted her left arm and carefully wrapped it with a bandage. There were towels in the bathroom so I made use of that as a brace for her left arm.
She has a lot of cuts too, but it isn’t as bad as the bruises on her body and the bones that got cracked and poked out.
“Can I borrow your coat?”
I froze. Seeing the look on my face. She gave a laugh and then pointed at her coat.
“Guess you liked that overcoat of yours too much to let me borrow it.”
She makes a tiny smile.
I do. Washing it is troublesome.
Helping her get up, I grabbed her two-hander and supported her until she got to take seat. Eta is monitoring her own breathing. The wounds she has right now is extremely painful.
“Got it.”
Sato stands up and approaches us. Kei has an annoyed look on her face. Sato seems to be cherishing her current look of annoyance.
“Ah, the Assistant. Sorry that you had to deal with these two. I assure you that no member of Shichinin no Ken acts as rash and unprofessional as these girls.”
I said nothing. Sato nods his head and turns his head to Eta.
“And you, Eta. It’s good that you don’t allow anyone to disrespect your employer, but know this.”
Sato clawed Eta’s head. I can hear Eta gritting her head as Sato puts pressure on his fingers.
“This doesn’t happen again, okay? Listen to Kei. She’s smarter than you. Try it again and I’ll make sure that I’d take what you have and transfer it to someone who can do this job better. Simone’s waiting for you in his clinic. Get fixed up.”
Sato leaves the building while muttering to himself. Eta holds her head and clicks her tongue loudly.
Kei fishes out a cigarette from her pocket and lights it.
“What a fucking mess.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright. It’s done. None of what you say now will make a difference. Ah, fuck, my tits hurt. That Fu Ming bitch doesn’t hold back at all doesn't he?”
Kei studies Eta’s wounds.
“Rare to see you like this.”
Eta said nothing and groaned.
I lend my shoulder to Eta. Kei looked at the car service Sato provided and got in the front while Eta and I rode in the back.
We arrived at Simone’s clinic. Simone, the gearhead doctor, who has pretty much scraped his head off his face with metal and fake skin eyes Eta and Kei. He turns toward me. The artificial skin on his face barely made any movement.
“You got injured?”
“No.”
“Then you wait. All expenses are paid by Shichinin no Ken.”
Doctor Simone got to work. Kei got out of the operating room first while Eta was stuck there for the next few hours.
“You okay, Ma’am?”
Kei stares at me for a minute and sits down.
“Told you to fuck off with that, Assistant.”
“Okay.”
She lights a cigarette and glares at the nurse.
“Thanks for going through that shithole for.”
I never really did get what was the point of that.
“May I ask why you sent me there?”
“Cause I want to make a point, that’s all. I can ruin their business if I like and I made that point. My office isn’t easy to bully you know? I might be able to pull a HG Graded Agent again to work for me if shit like this happens again. Or have the Shichinin no Ken do me a favor.”
Can she? But despite the scolding. Sato doesn’t seem to mind what Kei did. Eta on the other hand seems like she got into Sato’s nerves.
“Hey, I see doubt on your face.”
“Forgive me, but are they really going to be easygoing after all of this?”
She blows smoke out of her mouth.
“Assistant, what is the greatest threat that the world has?”
“Monsters and warpers probably.”
“Nope. Not now at least. The Anomalies are the greatest threats that mankind has ever faced. We have a small office, but I can pay you a lot. Know why? Because shutting down Anomalies and selling what we know of them pays. But killing them. Hunting them. That’s a one time thing. But learning about them. Compiling data on them and mass-selling them for profit? We earn a lot of them. Changye’s a hotspot of Anomalies. Everyday there’s at least 135 people that encounter anomalies. There’s a lot of Anomaly Hunters too, but unlike us, they’d rather kill them than gather data.
She takes a long drag of her smoke.
“You getting me?”
“Somewhat.”
Information sells more than killing them. I wonder if Shichinin no Ken and the office has the rights to the information? Seeing that she's so sure about all of this.
“So yeah. We might not look like it, but we were able to gather a lot of info. And Sato likes useful people. He’s harsh to Eta, but you know Eta. The Augments fried her brain… I think.”
“I think she’s just a chirpy and positive individual.”
“Hah, I wish. She wouldn’t have done that stupid shit. Not really her fault that the arrogant idiot with Fu Ming tried to grope her tits.”
My head halted to a grind for a second.
“How did that come to be?”
Kei sniffs.
“They wanted her to whore around. Earn 100k and said they’ll forget about it and keep this incident quiet. Eta was quite patient until they tried checking her tits out.”
“Shit, but it's quite cheap price to pay to be honest. Pissing off a syndicate doesn’t usually bode well for anyone.”
“Fu Ming was giving us face. We have enough problems and they have bigger problems than this. Hell, honesty? I think they just wanted to know if a busty warrior girl is popular with customers. Gotta say, smart man. Good at duking it out too. Haven't felt this excited for a while.”
I rub my chin. I can hear some bone grinding in the operation room.
“Another metal for Eta. Girl’s going to groan at her weight now.”
“You think they’ll try anything?”
“Nope. Sato settled it with them.”
“How?”
“Dunno.”
I wonder how the pay’s going to be.
“Will there be pay cuts?”
“Depends on whether we have an Anomaly to catch for the next few days. Sato was gracious enough to understand who crossed the line here. So as long as we play by the rules and earn some cash without lifting a finger. We'll be fine. Besides, I think Ji Ceng had a good business deal with our Association a while so they don't want to muddy the waters for now."
"What if the guys Eta killed have friends and a deep grudge?"
"Who knows? We made peace with them and with Sato around, they won't try anything for now. I do admit there are psychopaths in this city, but even they aren’t so eager to fight all day and night. Who’d want that? They have to work. They have to fight too and avenge their friend? It’s too troublesome.”
I have to agree with her. Fighting means you’re using your body. And your body is the most reliable asset you can have in this city.. It won’t betray you as long as you don’t try to betray it. You feed it and train it well. Then it keeps you fed.
“Anyway, this day has been a mess. Oh, for your trouble.”
She hands me some cash to spend.
“Thanks. Ah, that reminds me. Vaun told me to tell you this, you shouldn’t mingle with Von-Abel too much. The Shichinin no Ken is reasonable most of the time, but like every associate of the OB. They are worshippers of Plutus and Caishen.”
Kei groans and snaps.
“That man is irritating. Does he think that I lost my wits already? Of course, these idiots worship the God of Money! Really, why does he say so much nonsense!?”
I pocket the cash and think of getting some steak.
“Do you mind if I take my leave for now?”
Kei blinks and lights another cigarette. She throws butt of the cigarette and it flew straight into the trash bin on the side of the room.
“Sure. I’m going to wait for Eta and bring her home. She’s going to need someone to take care of her.”
“You two sure are good friends.”
“Unfortunately, we are. Thanks for today, Assistant.”
“Take care and try not to pick a fight with anyone.”
“Hey, you should say that to Eta, not me.”
I left the clinic and found myself a good steakhouse. After I was done with my steak. I washed my face in their restroom and got on a service train heading back to lotus lane.
I was on the very back of the cabin. Something might have happened since the cabin was a bit empty which is rare for this city.
It was quiet.
Right now I am looking into a reflection of myself in the mirror. Behind me is the starless and dark sky placed between two towering buildings. Looking at the dull face staring back. I thought to myself that it was a good thing I didn’t lend my coat to Eta.
It was just another tiresome day in Changye.
