“O-Ow...!” Thrown to the ground with excessive force, Sid raised his voice in spite of himself. His hands were bound together with a zip tie, so he could no longer get up under his own strength. He could only glare at the Reincarnators with resentful eyes.
Attached to the plastic zip tie digging deep into his wrists was a tag bearing a mysterious pattern of vertical lines and a thirteen digit number. The pale invaders from another world no longer paid him any attention. Instead they conversed in whispers as they continued their work with indifference.
“This isn’t what I signed up for.”
“We were tricked.”
“I want to return to the mainland.”
“This is the tyranny of the Project.”
The Reincarnators continued to whisper their complaints monotonously as a pair of them passed nearby. They had pale faces and matching work-clothes, over which they wore gray jackets with no distinguishing features.
“Profits this quarter have clearly fallen compared to last year. We should really go back to killing them before transportation.”
“Human rights groups have been making a fuss lately. What a joke! Maybe I should call them animal rights groups instead, huh?”
The Reincarnators looked at each other before laughing, low and mocking. Sid couldn’t understand most of the words they used, but their contempt was clear. Tears of frustration welled in his eyes. Damn it. Those bastards. I lost mom and dad to the likes of them.
“N-Nggh.” Nue, who had been thrown to the ground next to Sid, had been trying for a while to chew through the bindings on her hands and feet while the Reincarnators weren’t looking.
Sid shifted toward Nue and prodded her, a voiceless warning to be careful. Nue also realized the new threat and ceased her efforts.
As Sid squirmed on the ground like a caterpillar, a Sphinx strode over his head. The unnervingly silent bull belched in between mouthfuls of grass. Six biomachines like it wandered the surrounding area.
The Sphinx... A truly unsettling creature. They silently obeyed even quite complex commands from their masters, the Reincarnators. One might even have thought that they possessed intelligence comparable to a human’s, but as they apparently lacked vocal cords, they never so much as groaned, not even in battle or in death.
The most offensive thing about the appearance of the Sphinx was its fusion of flesh and machinery, resembling the gods of Redguard, the Ex Machina.
“Those things are kind of scary...” said Nue, after confirming that the Sphinx had moved on. “They don’t even look good to eat.”
“You really are kind of weird. But never mind that—do you think there’s a way out of here?”
Nue turned her head from side to side, examining the area once again. Having made sure that neither the Sphinxes nor Reincarnators were looking their way, she flared her nostrils and puffed out her chest.
“How about this!” The plastic band that had bound Nue’s wrists together had been chewed in two. Sid could see its ragged edges were wet with saliva upon Nue’s tongue.
“Now I’ll get yours off!”
“Wha... Hey! Please, don’t!” Sid’s voice was dangerously loud. Nue looked perplexed.
“Why not?”
“Because...well.” As Sid tried to get away from Nue, despite his hands and feet still being bound, there were actually tears in his eyes. “If you do that, won’t it almost be like we...kissed?!”
Nue’s red eyes fluttered. “Hai-ya!” She swiftly lunged forward and tore apart Sid’s bonds with her teeth.
Sid felt the sensation of her soft lips pressed against his skin, her damp breath, her hard teeth...even a hint of the tip of her tongue rasping against his skin.
“Thanks for the meal!”
“!!! ?!? !!!...!!!”
“You really are funny.” Nue laughed. Her red eyes disappeared into closed arcs. In return, her white teeth sparkled.
Sid, as expected, turned bright red. His pounding heart seemed to be trying to leap out of his mouth, toward Nue. His blood was rushing through his veins at twice the normal speed as the same idle thoughts played on repeat.
“I. Like. You! Let’s be friends! What’s your name?”
Oh no. Sid realized his lips were moving of their own accord. He was afraid of this feeling, which he had never experienced before.
He couldn’t breathe. His pulse was racing. But this wasn’t the time or place. They were still in danger, after all.
I’m falling for her.
“—is my name.” His strained voice sounded like a mosquito buzzing.
“Huh?” Nue looked puzzled, and asked again.
“Sid is my name. My name is Sid Faron...”
Upon hearing this, Nue’s face lit up like a flower in bloom, her red eyes shining brighter than before.
“Sid...Sid! Sid Faron! Ahh!”
“I found them! Hey, come over here,” said a loud voice suddenly.
Behind them stood a pale Reincarnator, looking at Sid and pointing straight at him. He called to the other Reincarnators around him, and they all started to approach.
As Sid dropped to the ground and pretended to still be tied up, someone grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back onto his feet.
“It’s a miracle. Besides his hair and eye color, he’s a dead ringer. With him, I can start over...”
Sid couldn’t speak a word, overtaken by the Reincarnator’s abnormal excitement. Then, Nue’s scream pierced the silence. The crowd of Reincarnators had realized that Nue’s bonds were missing and they had all exercised their Skills. Before one of their outstretched hands, Nue felt five times heavier as pressure was applied to her, causing her to sink halfway into the ground.
One of her red eyes looked at Sid. Help me, she seemed to be saying.
Yet another Reincarnator held his hand out at Nue. Her head plummeted straight into the ground at this gesture, but her black hair barely moved, tugging painfully at her scalp.
“Let’s do it now. You can carry it out. Thaw out the LC.”
“...you.”
The Reincarnator holding Sid by the shoulder was not paying him any attention, absorbed in the directions he was giving his comrades. At this utterance from Sid he turned to look at the boy. Hate-filled eyes stained with tears glared back at him.
“I’ll kill you.” Sid’s awkwardly thrown punch was intercepted without difficulty. The Reincarnator then twisted his arm, prompting a scream of pain.
“You have no manners,” muttered the Reincarnator. “It’s like talking to a pig.”
A Reincarnator wearing an apron, perhaps in anticipation of impending blood spatter, came and took Sid from the man. Sid, whose arm was still twisted, finally began to cry. “I’m sorry,” he sobbed, over and over, though he knew not to whom he was apologizing. The Reincarnators ignored him.
The man in the apron took out a box, skillfully selecting and removing a syringe. The thick syringe, which brought to mind acts of terrible violence, was equipped with finger-holes that made Sid wonder how much force they intended to apply.
Sid’s face turned as pale as the Reincarnators’.
“Well then—let’s get to it.”
And then, a moment later...
“My name is Dill Steel-Link.”