Chapter 7: But if you saw that which no eyes can see

I stood in front of the cassette store in downtown Chenhyongshi, a city in South Ganhuogh, waiting for his order for me to proceed. My gaze fell upon the crowd of dead corpses that lay strewn across the street, as their oozing blood pooled near my feet. I heard the faint melody of a song floating in the air from the store nearby.

If I recall correctly, it was the title track from A*ri’s hit 1986 album. Funny to hear it even here in Ganhough, I thought, she’s truly become an international sensation… So cool…

“Xiaolei, you mustn't allow for yourself to get distracted so easily during a mission,” I heard the voice of the man as he walked out of the alleyway, wiping the blade of his custom made sword that was modelled after a Qing era piandao, cleaning the blood off it. He looked at me, with a light and gentle smile on his face.

“I wasn’t distracted, master!” I protested timidly, as I hopped over the blood and guts spilling out on the streets, using the corpses as stepping stones, till I stood at his side.

The man, who stood at a freakishly tall six feet and a half, looked down at me, his sleep deprived and almost dead-seeming eyes looking at me with amusement, his face curling into a smile, as he ruffled the hair on my head playfully.

“Sure you weren’t. Come now, there’s still a lot we must do.”

“Yes master!” I replied to him, as I followed him. I looked up to him, his loose fitting robes that almost looked like those of a monk, paired with his sunken cheeks and long tied up hair, made him stand out like a sore thumb as he walked the streets. His stride in his cheap ceremonial sandals, and the prayer beads that hung from his neck gave him the dignified appearance of a priestly doorkeeper for the gates that led to hell.

His name’s Yang Ruoxuan, and his age I do not know. In fact, all I know about him is that he used to be a priest at some temple, before he was excommunicated for going against the Budhha’s word. I don’t know the details, and it feels insensitive to just up and ask him about it… I am curious, though… How does a man of God end up becoming a mercenary for hire? And more importantly… Why did he save me, and make me his apprentice?

“We’re here,” he said, as we approached a building that looked ancient.

“An orphanage…?” I asked, with confusion in my voice, as I studied the mini mansion that stood before us. It was clearly a shelter home for orphaned kids. But what business could we possibly have here?

Then it struck me, panic filled my body, as I took a couple steps back. There’s no way right…? No… Master Yang wouldn’t… But why else…?

Sensing the panic behind my sudden movement, he broke into a soft laugh, before waving his hand to me, “I’m not here to put you up, calm down kid.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, as Yang continued explaining himself, “There’s a Ghuozho-Bespian girl here. She should be…. Around your age, I think? I’m here to pick her up.”

“Is this girl your daughter?” I naively and bluntly asked him, to which he didn’t respond. But his ensuing silence spoke volumes.

Later that evening, I would meet the girl for the first time. She didn’t speak many words, especially not to her father who had abandoned her for the twelve or so years of her life thus far. Over time though, the two of us would end up becoming friends.

—

“Motherfucker!” exclaimed Elise as she walked up to me.

“Certainly one way to start a conversation,” I responded with a chuckle, internally steeling myself for the words that were about to come out of her mouth next.

She grabbed me by my collar, and yanked me a bit off balance as she screamed, “You got the journalist to join our agency? Have you lost your mind?”

I held my face in my hands, straining my eyes closed as I rubbed my fingers against them in frustration. “This is the thirty eighth time I’m having this exact same conversation. I’ll shoot myself in the head. I’ll actually do it”

Elise paused for a good minute, before she softly said, “Are you sure this was the right choice?”

“Am I sure? No I’m fucking not. But what other choice do I have?”

“Well, the Liahan that I know would’ve normally killed the target if they seemed like too much trouble”

I scoffed. “Well too bad, we can’t have the Liahan you know doing all of that. If the kid ends up dying, it will spell even bigger problems for us”

She raised an eyebrow.

I sighed as I explained myself, “The fella has an abnormally high amount of vitalis energy to him. The ratios are all normal, but the amounts are stupidly high”

“I know that. I’ve read the reports too. What’s wrong with that? A lot of uninitiated people have a high vitalis presence.”

“Right. But this guy seems to have a subconscious affinity of some sort. I’m not sure about it entirely, but he vanquished a Corroded with sheer presence alone. He doesn’t realise it but he’s at least Major-level. Now, picture this; A random person with a subconsciously high Vitalis affinity and control is killed. What do you reckon will happen?”

“Most likely scenario, his corpse will become a high grade artefact?”

“Keyword being, “most likely.” Now what if a less likely scenario were to take place?”

Her eyes widened as she probably felt stupid at not having come to that conclusion sooner by herself, as she said, “No way… But that’s…”

“You’ve read about the prophecy that’s been floating around on the web, right?”

A brief pause followed my words as the dots fully connected inside her head.

“I apologise… I am actually so sorry… I should’ve known better than to doubt your decision making skills…” she said, the sincerity clear in her voice.

I waved her off dismissively as I said, “Sure thing. I’m getting tired of having to explain this same thing over and over all day”

“What do you think he would do in this case…” she muttered softly after a few minutes of silence.

“Your father?” I asked her

She remained quiet, but I could tell that she was in fact talking about him.

I continued, “Well… Who knows? All my years knowing that man, I still know so little about him…”

“Figures...” she said, “Despite being his flesh and blood, I know almost nothing about him either”

“But… The one thing that I think we can agree on…” I began

“He’s never been up to any good,” she finished my sentence, as she looked up at me, a smile on her face.

“Fuck that guy” I said

“Fuck that guy indeed” she echoed after me, giggling.

Deep in our hearts, we both knew that it was but a matter of time before her father and our master, Yang Ruoxuan, would get involved into this already convoluted matter.

“Where’s Lupin?” she asked, “is he informed?”

“We haven’t talked,” I replied, “But he probably already knows, nothing escapes that devil’s nose of his.”

She laughed, as she asked, “I think you need a break, my guy. Go to college or something. Could be a nice change of pace for you.”

“Pfft, yeah right”

“I’m serious. You could use some time off work right now”

“I’ll think about it.”

—

I sat at a bench in the far back corner of the cafeteria, letting the smoke out of my lungs with an exhale, as I dusted the ash off my cig.

I felt someone’s presence creeping up on me from behind, a familiar one. I turned around to see Jamie pouting as she pulled the cigarette out of my hand, stubbing it against the table top. She opened her mouth to say, “It’s a no smoking zone here.”

“Awh get off my dick already, I’ve got a lot on my head,” I said with a slight annoyance in my voice.

“Why’d you even come then? Go spend more time on your work, Mr. Too Busy for School”

“I’m here because I don’t want to think about work”

“Oh yeah? Then behave. I better not see you smoking here or I’ll tell on you to the professors”

“Fucking rat”

“Love you too~!”

I got up from the bench, making my way outside. The entire business from earlier kept nagging in my head. After standing in the yard for about twenty minutes or so, and doing literally nothing but standing and staring at the sky blankly, I decided to go back and see ‘ey face again.

Walking up the stairs nearby, I barged through the door to the clubroom where Jamie usually spends her time outside of class. Having located her, I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her outside the room. She yelped in surprise at first, but one glance at me, she sighed and excused herself to her friends before the two of us stood outside in the corridor.

She looked at me unamused, “So? What’s that about? I was in the middle of something there”

“Sorry, I’m just… Not doing too well right now”

“Yeah, no. I could tell” she said, before pausing for a bit. She then raised her eyebrow a little as she spoke, “So…? What do you have on your mind?”

“Let’s ditch school and head home”

“Liahan, no” she said, her voice firm. “We are NOT doing that. Your attendance is already hurting. You can’t afford to miss out on any more classes…”

“You think I care?”

“Okay, but I do!?”

“James please”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Jamie, please…”

She looked at me, her tired expression saying more than the words that followed, “Why are you like this?”

“Can’t help it”

“And then? What do you intend on doing after we ditch school?”

I didn’t say anything to answer the question. But the light snicker that involuntarily escaped from me, and the smirk that played on my lips conveyed the message.

“You’re impossible!” she said.

“Oh trust me baby, I know”

“Fine, let’s just go home…” she mumbled, her face slightly flustered.

I took Jamie’s hand in mine, as we began to walk.

My day so far had been utter shit, but hey at least this is gonna be some fun.

“You don’t wanna say bye to your friends first?”

“I’ll fucking kick you in the balls if you don’t shut your mouth”

—

My hair looked far from perfect, but I didn’t have the time to think about that now. My target was on the move, and I could not afford to let him slip.

HQ has been perturbed enough as it is, I need to do the best I can. I thought. Liahan hasn’t been doing too well either. I’ll go check in on that William kid later, in his stead, after I’m done with this job.

I found my target, one Mr. Johann Faust. Goes by Jude now, runs a clinic, and appears to be a doctor by profession. I was thorough with my research on him, and it had for sure yielded some interesting results. Marl would love to get the full report on this… I might even get a raise hehehh

I followed the man with the slicked blond hair, dressed inconspicuously in black as he walked his steps with inhumanly silence, quickly sneaking his way through the network of dirty and narrow alleyways that almost make up the entirety of the Crater City downtown. He was headed somewhere with purpose, and his body language gave away that he was on high alert. Something had been bugging me since the very first moment I’d been in this guy’s proximity, and it was that his V readings were different in some way that I couldn’t quite place. I can’t put it to words, but there was something about him that seemed off perpetually. However, I was experienced enough in my vitalis reading skills to be able to tell with about ninety nine percent certainty that he didn’t know he was being tailed by me.

I’m too good at this spy stuff, I should lowkey transfer to division three… But I like being able to kill people… Well whatever Jacob, you can think about this later. Don’t get distracted now. Focus on the task at hand!

Mr. Faust, or well, should I call him Dr. Faust, hahh funny name though, according to my research, has almost no regular patients. It’s only ever people dropping in to get first aid, and such. His only regular patient, as one can easily guess, is our boy William. He’s been administering medicines to him, and of course I broke into the boy’s house while he wasn’t around and sent off a sample to be checked out by Division 12, they still haven’t found anything weird in them. They’re just regular antidepressants and stuff.

This is the only way I can find more info, and as a result I’ve taken to following him around whenever he leaves his clinic. So far it’s only been visits to grocery stores and the hospital to get supplies, but tonight will be different for sure.

As I made my way through the concrete labyrinth of the commercial district, keeping every single bit of my vitalis flow concealed and walking about four miles behind him, I realised where he was headed. My supremely honed sensory skills allowed me to keep track of his movements without having to see him. I knew that I was soon about to find myself in the very heart of the city which had been its namesake — the giant crater.

Well fuck me, this can not be good.

> To be continued

Author's Note:
Well that hiatus lasted a lot longer than expected. Really sorry about that. Updates will be sporadic, but I WILL finish the novel before this year ends. I promise