A-Ka lifted his head to look at Shahuang. He had rough skin, and the hood of his black windbreaker shadowed half of his face. His nose was aquiline, and he wore earrings, while an inch-long scar sliced down the side of his face. His black windbreaker had an insignia pinned to it, on which was written “The Iron Blood Fighters.”
“What are the Iron Blood Fighters?” A-Ka asked.
Shahuang stiffly lifted up his collar, using his arm to block the insignia. “A name,” he said coldly.
A-Ka furrowed his brow. “I’m A-Ka, and this is—”
“I know he’s Percy,” Shahuang said.
“I’ve heard your voice before,” Percy said. “In the energy supply store.”
A-Ka remembered that morning, when he’d taken Percy job hunting. At the clone-run store where they’d menaced A-Ka and Percy about being taken away for organ harvesting, this man had been present. He hadn’t been wearing a windbreaker then.
“Your eyes can’t see, but your heart’s very clear.” Shahuang tossed the cigarette stub away. “You’re really that bastard Feiluo’s son?”
Percy stopped walking. With a frown, he said, “If you say bad things about my dad, then I won’t go with you.”
Shahuang grinned crookedly and peered out from under his cap at Percy. “Though you’re small, your temper’s fierce. Ah, well. Let’s pretend I didn’t say that.”
With that, A-Ka and Percy followed Shahuang forward. In a small alley darkened by the night, the eaves of the houses sagged with dripping water, but one light shone out in welcome over a door there.
“On Feiluo’s behalf, I’ll take you guys in.” Shahuang pushed open the door under the light and went in.
“I don’t need someone to take me in! I can work,” A-Ka said.
Shahuang hit the lights, and the dim yellow bulbs flickered on, revealing the interior of the room. To his pleasant surprise, A-Ka found that they were inside a weaponry repair shop. This was a good opportunity!
“Let me work for you!” A-Ka offered with enthusiasm. “You just need to cover our food and housing.”
“You can handle that? Don’t break my things while you’re fixing them.” Shahuang took off his cap as he considered A-Ka. He shrugged out of his windbreaker, before asking, “Do you know how to fix firearms?”
A-Ka had Percy sit down before he went to the counter to look at the weapons that Shahuang had. He pulled out a firearm, which let out mechanical clicks as he tugged at various parts, his fingers moving nimbly and professionally. Shahuang watched A-Ka, then nodded.
“They’re all older models, though,” A-Ka noted.
“A small medieval knife can kill people just as well,” Shahuang said easily. “The ability to take lives has nothing to do with the time period they’re from.”
A-Ka could tell that the person in front of him was either a killer or someone who used a gun very often; his wrists had traces of bullet scars.
“You can sleep behind the counter, and this little one can go sleep under the stairs,” Shahuang said. “Starting tomorrow, help me watch the store.”
A-Ka had found a place to stay at last, and though it wasn’t quite what he’d imagined, just having a place to settle down with Percy was the best outcome he could hope for. Shahuang tossed them two sets of bedding. The blankets had the smell of damp and mildew, but A-Ka still spread them out on the floor and prepared to sleep.
He smiled at Percy, who was tucked nearby under the stairs. “Good night, Percy.”
“Mm. Good night, A-Ka.”
A-Ka turned off the light, and the room sank into darkness. The only sound was Shahuang’s snoring upstairs.
During the dark of the night, in their quiet little corner, Percy’s transmitter suddenly buzzed to life with a series of beeping noises.
A-Ka immediately pulled the transmitter from Percy’s bag, and after he plugged in a data cable, a line of words appeared on the screen. This was a decoder that A-Ka had made out of some spare parts, and though the frequency band was not stable, it could still manage to receive a portion of the messages.
Percy, this is Heishi. I’m looking for A-Ka.
A-Ka ducked his head to enter a message.
This is A-Ka. Heishi, what’s up?
No response from the other side. A-Ka then entered another line of words.
Heishi, are you able to send and receive sound on your end? I’ll see if we can use the radio frequency of the transmitter so we can talk.
Heishi’s message came back.
No need.
A-Ka didn’t understand. What was wrong? He found the talkback module, connected it to the miniature transmitter, and began to adjust the frequencies—but the earpiece was dead silent.
“Heishi?” A-Ka murmured. “Where are you? Can you hear me? Maybe there’s a problem with the earpiece? Heishi… Hm?”
“I hear you,” Heishi said on the other end.
A-Ka began to smile as he squirreled deeper into his blankets. “Where are you?”
“Still on the Eastern Mainland.”
“When will you come here?”
Heishi sat in the darkness on a distant shore, watching the rolling tides. A gentle breeze blew past, bringing with it a slight hint of salt. He didn’t answer A-Ka’s question.
“Do you remember the day that you found me?” he asked instead.
“What about it?” The question was out of the blue, and A-Ka didn’t know why Heishi wanted to contact him in the middle of the night to ask it.
“It’s nothing,” Heishi said quietly. “I suddenly had a strange feeling, so I wanted to chat with you.”
A-Ka’s smile grew gentle. He lay in his blankets, the side of his head on his pillow, as he asked, “What feeling?”
“I can’t describe it clearly,” Heishi answered. He looked off into the distance.
A-Ka mumbled, “Why did you have this kind of feeling?”
“My father,” Heishi answered.
“‘Father’?” A-Ka furrowed his brow.
“Not Father, but rather…the person who made me,” Heishi said. “My father.”
A-Ka’s drew in a sharp breath. “You remembered your past?” Heishi didn’t respond, so A-Ka followed up with another question. “Who created you?”
“Why did you save me?” Heishi said, not answering.
A-Ka thought of the day he had discovered Heishi. “Well, for…for no reason at all. I saw that you were on the beach, so I just… Speaking of which, your temper seems to have improved a lot. Did something happen?”
“Was my temper that bad?” Heishi asked.
A-Ka smiled. “I still remember the first day we met. You almost choked me to death, and you were very annoyed with me.”
“Hormones,” Heishi said quietly. “My scrambled memories, my logical side telling me to accept a master, and my inner aggression were in conflict.”
“What does that mean?” A-Ka asked.
Heishi dodged right by that question too. “That day, when the robotic guards were about to kill me, why did you stand up?”
“I’d found you, so I couldn’t let you die just like that. My conscience wouldn’t let it go. What about it?”
“It’s nothing,” Heishi said.
“Have you found a clue related to your father? Who is he?”
“He has no name. He’s already left this place.” The communicator went silent before Heishi added, “My master is already long gone.”
Suddenly, A-Ka understood how Heishi was feeling. He had matters weighing on his mind but couldn’t tell anyone, or perhaps he was trying to think things through. After experiencing so much confusion, he had no way to keep it all to himself and needed to find someone to talk to.
“The feeling in your heart is called loneliness,” A-Ka told him.
“Is it?” Heishi said, though he didn’t sound like he cared. “It’s very strange. I just want to find someone and sit with them.”
“Where’s Feiluo?”
“Not here.”
“And when will you come back?”
“As soon as I can.”
“Will you come and live with us?”
“Live?” Heishi repeated.
“We’ve already found a place to stay. We’re currently in the shop of a person called Shahuang.”
“Shahuang…” He paused, thinking. “Do you recognize the leader of the Mercenary Association, Huixiong?”
“Who’s that? Your friend?”
“Feiluo helped me get in contact with him. Tell me about your current situation.”
A-Ka, nestling further beneath his blanket, quietly shared his experiences with Heishi. On the other end, Heishi didn’t speak for a long time, listening intently to the story until A-Ka had spoken for almost ten minutes, getting up to the point where they had arrived at Shahuang’s shop.
He was almost nodding off, when he murmured, “Heishi?”
“I’m listening,” Heishi said. A-Ka hummed, and Heishi heard his tiredness. “I’ll come to you very soon. Before that, do your best to stay put.”
“All right, Heishi, be careful. Don’t do anything dangerous.”
Heishi broke off the communication, and A-Ka gradually fell asleep to the static of the radio waves.