“In the meantime, the inhabitants of Phoenix City are on tenterhooks,” Shahuang replied. “They all need to find something to do to occupy themselves.”
A-Ka didn’t say any more.
That night, Shahuang hummed the song of the Rebellion, “The Black Plains.” It was one that A-Ka had heard Feiluo sing multiple times. The lights had been extinguished very early on since the city was under curfew, so the room was dark as midnight.
After A-Ka fell asleep, he awoke to a knock on the door. Blearily, he climbed out of bed, but Percy had fumbled around and gotten to the door first.
“Who’s there?” A-Ka asked.
Shahuang, on the other hand, seemed like he had been waiting patiently. “Come in,” he said.
In the darkness, that person placed something on the counter before entering Shahuang’s parlor. The door closed behind them. A-Ka turned on a light, only to see that the object on the counter was a long-range rifle. He began to adjust it for the customer, thinking that he was probably another one of Shahuang’s so-called friends. As he worked, he peered in that direction curiously, trying to hear if the visitor had brought any news from the mainland. But Shahuang had shut the door tightly, so A-Ka couldn’t make out even a whisper.
The rest of the night, A-Ka didn’t sleep well. It was the second night in a row that he’d felt restless, since the night before Huixiong had come by and disturbed them. But a noisy hubbub outside woke him early the next morning. People flooded out into the streets, their cheers thundering forth—all of this because the leader of the rebel forces was coming.
A-Ka pushed open the window and looked outside, only to see that every street, no matter how big or small, was packed with citizens streaming toward the central square. Some had brought fresh flowers, others carried food, but they all tried to push their way to the front as they headed forward, waiting for that legendary figure to arrive in Phoenix City.
Never had so many people gathered in one spot in the city like this before. It was as if they were celebrating a grand festival. The sounds of the celebrations thundered in A-Ka’s ears, and he closed the window. The next thing he did was check on the visitor who had arrived last night, but they weren’t there, and Shahuang was still sleeping soundly.
Percy noticed what he was doing. “Are you looking for that guy from yesterday? He brought us something to eat.” On the table was a box of fresh fruit, which still had water droplets clinging to it. “He got up earlier this morning, and after washing the fruit and telling us to eat it, he went onto the rooftop.”
A-Ka clambered up the stairs to find him, only to discover that the door to the roof was locked from the outside. A-Ka knocked on the door. “Excuse me, are you out there?”
That man in a windbreaker propped the rifle up on a railing and wiped the lens. Turning his head back, he glanced at the securely locked door to the roof but didn’t respond.
“Thank you for the fruit,” A-Ka tried. “Why don’t you come down and eat breakfast?”
The man on the rooftop stayed silent. A-Ka waited a little longer, but when he didn’t get a reply, he comforted himself with the thought that everyone who came by Shahuang’s place was a little odd, so he didn’t pay him any more mind.
A-Ka and Percy were eating the fruit for breakfast when they heard people singing outside, their voices turning into a chorus.
“Oh wayward souls, we have finally returned to our homeland…”
“Our destined hero leads us forward…”
“The future is at our feet…”
The city had been lit by the fires of passion, and although A-Ka was not interested in the Rebellion and their affairs, he couldn’t escape being affected by the emotions in the air.
“Can I go outside and look?” Percy asked.
“No,” A-Ka responded, without even thinking about it.
An instant later, someone else knocked on the door. Before either of them could open it, it slammed open, and Huixiong appeared in the doorway.
“Macksie’s here!” Huixiong said. “Don’t you guys want to go out and look?”
“Eh, nah,” Shahuang said. “There’s two little ones in the house, though. You can take them with you.”
Huixiong grinned. “Are you going?”
Percy looked at A-Ka. A-Ka didn’t really want to go; his mechanical arm hadn’t been fully outfitted yet.
“Percy, you can go with Huixiong,” Shahuang said. “He’ll make sure you’re safe.”
A-Ka glanced at Huixiong in consideration. In the end, he said, “That’s fine. Just make sure to come back soon.”
Huixiong took Percy’s hand and led him out the door.
“You know,” Shahuang said once they were gone, “Huixiong once destroyed a graveyard with his bare fists alone, so there’s no need to worry about your little brother.”
“Instead of worrying if he can protect Percy,” A-Ka replied, “I’m more afraid that he might do something to Percy.”
Shahuang began to smile. “He doesn’t like little kids like that. You don’t need to worry there. Now that your bodyguard has come, no one really needs to be afraid anymore.”
“What?” A-Ka asked, confused.
Shahuang finished his breakfast. Without answering A-Ka’s question, he went back to his room and sat down, slumped in his chair as usual, using his cap to cover his face. He turned on the radio, which was broadcasting nothing but the news of General Macksie’s tour.
A-Ka returned to his spot behind the counter, adjusting his mechanical limb. He had used the scrap parts in Shahuang’s store to put together this arm and hand. Now, he held it up to inspect it. It creaked as he added a light slingshot to it.
What was the visitor upstairs doing? He had gone onto the rooftop in the morning, and he hadn’t come down since.
A-Ka pushed open the window and peered outside only to see the square that was swarming with people. The crowd seemed endless; A-Ka had never seen so many people before, and they kept rushing in from all sides, as if they all wanted to bear witness to such an important moment in history. In the center of the square was the steam coach station that led to the south. The railroad tracks stopped at this point, as if they could not extend even an inch further into the hitherto unknown, uninhabited part of the world.
The hands of the large clock pointed at 9:50 as a steam coach pulled into the Shakespeare District of Phoenix City. When the doors of the car opened, the crowd went wild.
“Macksie—”
“Macksie, you’ve come!”
Countless people shouted Macksie’s name, and several Rebellion officers left the carriage, followed by a squat middle-aged man.
A-Ka couldn’t help wanting to take a look outside, so he climbed up the outer ladder. Not far away was the rooftop, where he saw the long black windbreaker of the man who had arrived last night. His two hands were pushed deep in his pockets as he stood still in the corner, looking into the distance.
“Hey!” A-Ka shouted to him.
That man was about as tall as Heishi and wearing a pair of earmuffs. A-Ka bet that he heard; he just didn’t turn his head.
A-Ka stood on his tiptoes, staring toward the square. He knew that many people in Phoenix City had been anticipating Macksie’s arrival, since his actions in the Rebellion had become the stuff of legend. The news on the radio said that he had participated in the battle at the City of Steel and had single-handedly destroyed two large-scale Exterminators. Carrying orders from the deceased General Liber, he had come to assemble the Rebellion troops in the north and lead them in establishing their front lines, but for now he had returned to Phoenix City. Right here, humanity was going to raise the banner of revolution and march to regain their stolen homeland.
The sound of “The Black Plains” song was so loud it echoed in A-Ka’s ears, but it slowly died down, and Macksie began to speak.
“Today is a momentous day in history,” Macksie said. His voice was rich and vigorous, and he took off his cap as he continued, “We’ve fallen victim to the cruelest blows in all of history, and at the cost of the lives of countless soldiers, we’ve whittled away at Father’s menacing power, but this is nowhere near enough! We will gather…”
Every structure in Phoenix City shone with a stark white light that was thin as a surgeon’s needle. On the rooftop of the repair shop, Heishi clenched his teeth around a bullet, set the rifle in place, loaded it, and pointed it at the center of the square—right at the platform where Macksie stood.