Chapter 12: 2/2 All Eyez On Me

The van progressed back toward the core of the 16th district, jolting, with a dull engine hum. In the interior, the tension slowly tamed into exhaustion. Ren leaned against the metal wall in the corner, with his eyes closed, replaying Sora's incomprehensible speed wrapped in cyan-blue smoke in his mind over and over again.

He knew he still had to grow a lot stronger if he wanted to survive this world.

When the vehicle finally rolled into the basement of the "Jackpot", Gaiku jumped out first.

"Everyone to the medical bay, get yourselves treated! Rest after that!" the captain issued the order, then reached into his pocket, where the black, wax-sealed envelope lay hidden.

For the first time, Gaiku did not stop on the surface of the Jackpot. He headed straight for the deepest, isolated sector of the base. Here the walls were no longer covered by colorful graffiti, but by thick, black Ink-filter pipes.

Tetsuo stood in front of the monitors in his laboratory, bloodshot eyes analyzing the data collected that day. Gaiku stepped silently beside him, and threw the black envelope onto the metal table.

Tetsuo glanced at the seal, and his eyes narrowed.

"The seal of the 12th district and the Tengu clan."

"He had it brought to us personally with an elite squad by his side," Gaiku said, as he lit up. "They gave an ultimatum. They want territory in our industrial zone, otherwise they will attack us. Because of Shirakawa's Hybrids, they will have to take in all the refugees."

Tetsuo's face darkened. He picked up the envelope.

"The Boss has to see this too. Come with me."

The innermost level of the base was sealed off by a simple wooden sliding door, which was overrun with a ribbed pattern painted with Ink. Inside, almost complete darkness reigned, only the pale blue LED lights of the machines and the dull hum of the massive, floor-to-ceiling Ink-filter tanks broke the muteness.

In the middle of the room, in the web of pipes and cables, a thin, broken figure could be seen shrouded in shadow. The Boss. Many legends circulated about him, but Gaiku knew the truth: the man, who was the First Canvas, sacrificed the majority of his body and a piece of his humanity on the altar of Ink-overload to save them years ago.

Tetsuo stepped forward respectfully, and placed the envelope on the Boss's desk.

"Tengu clan from the 12th district. They demand territory, otherwise they will launch a war against us."

From the darkness, a deep, authoritative sigh could be heard. The Boss did not open the envelope. His hand, hiding in the dark, rested on the paper, then he suddenly spoke.

"Agree to it."

Gaiku frowned, and took the cigarette out of his mouth.

"Boss, if we let them into the industrial zone, we'll bring the entire military force of the 12th district down on our necks. Tengu's people won't play by our rules. If we show weakness..."

"Gaiku," the Boss's deep, vibrating voice interrupted him. "Look at the map. We are not strong enough to defeat the 12th district while Shirakawa's Hybrids are panting at our borders. If we step into a two-front war now, the Recyclers will be destroyed. Besides, from now on we have to watch the Shirakawa clan's moves with all our might.

Our spies have already infiltrated, and I've acquired very important information through them that will put us one step ahead against all the districts. But for this, we need peace at our backs." Gaiku looked visibly nervous, but he didn't argue. He knew that the Boss was right.

"But this submission is only temporary," the Boss continued, and his voice was no longer defensive, but threateningly forward-looking. In the dark, two glowing eyes flashed up.

"The Shirakawa clan is preparing to do something that will permanently upset the balance. It will eradicate the lower districts. We can't hide anymore. Sooner or later, we have to rally all the peripheral districts to our side, and to do this, we must defeat them by force. The 12s, the remnant of the 14s, the Kabi Syndicate... everyone. We have to forge a single, unified army out of the Underworld."

Tetsuo flinched from the weight of the words.

"With an army this size, we would launch a war against the Upper World."

"We will tear down the Wall," the Boss said relentlessly. "Only in this way can we put an end to the Shirakawa clan's terror. If the Upper World sends its own garbage and trauma down on us, we will turn all of this back towards them as a weapon." The Boss slowly turned his head toward Gaiku from out of the shadows.

"And for this, I need the strongest discards, Gaiku. Tell me about this girl named Sora."

Gaiku took a deep breath.

"Sora. She is incredibly fast, and moves like a ghost. She controls tens of meters of suffocating silk from her body. I have no doubt that she carries one of the 32 strongest discards within her."

"People with such special, abnormal power, like Sora, or the elite warriors of the other clans, must not be destroyed," the Boss declared. His words echoed almost like a command in the room. "They are our true weapons. We must convert them. We must rally everyone to our side, by force if necessary; only with the power residing in them do we have a chance against the Shirakawa clan's armies and Hybrids."

The Boss slowly leaned back in the dark.

"Prepare the industrial zone for the clan of the 12th district. And Gaiku... keep your eye on that girl. Sooner or later, Sora will realize that the real enemy is not down here. When the time comes, she too must stand in the ranks of the Recyclers. If not, then you know what you have to do... Free the discard's power from the host body and bring it to me."

Gaiku nodded. And together with Tetsuo, he left the room.

In the basement medical bay of the "Jackpot". The substitute doctor for Tetsuo rubbed her eyes tiredly after applying the last bandage. Gaiku's van had recently returned after the tense encounter with the elite squad of the 12th district. The team was mostly physically intact, but the events of the past hours had driven everyone to the edge of mental exhaustion.

"You are done," she muttered, and threw a bloody gauze pad into the trash. "Your Ink-levels have stabilized. Ren, your porcelain arm still hasn't fully fused together, so don't force it. Ryaku, the cuts on your wrists are shallow, but if you tense those wires like that one more time, and you can't control them, you're going to cut off your own hand."

The "doc" raised her dark-circled, tired eyes to them.

Tetsuo said: "You get twelve hours of leave. So just get out of my sight, go up into the district, eat something that isn't canned, and sleep. We don't even want to see you until tomorrow morning!"

As they stepped out of the base onto the streets of the 16th district, the dark, oppressive Walls were replaced by the pulsating, chaotic life of the Slums.

The core of the 16th district was like a steaming labyrinth dressed in neon lights. The narrow streets were covered by thick, rising columns of steam, which were painted eerily colorful by the yellow and red neon tubes mounted on stretched tarpaulins. In the one-way street where they stood, the walls of the buildings cobbled together from rusted metal sheets and concrete blocks were covered everywhere with raw, angry, Ink-based graffiti.

Chaos reigned here, but this chaos was alive.

Kana stretched hugely, popped a bubblegum bubble, then suddenly grabbed Saki's arm.

"Well, come on, Chain-girl!" the purple-haired girl grinned, her eyes sparkling excitedly.

"We got free time. The boys are boring, and besides, there's too much testosterone here. We're having a girls' night!"

Saki flinched from the sudden touch.

"I-I... Kana-san... I'm not sure this is a good idea. I don't usually... have fun."

"Then it's about time!" Kana did not take no for an answer.

"We're going to the market. We'll buy some normal food, and maybe you'll get a few new clothes too, if you're behaving good."

Saki saw with what genuine enthusiasm Kana was pulling her along. She slowly let go of the tension. She had never had a female friend in her life; Kana was rough, unpredictable, and sometimes behaved in a psychopathic way in battle, but now, as she dragged her laughing through the crowd, Saki felt that the girl really cared about her. A tiny, genuine smile appeared on Saki's face, and she let Kana lead her into the neon-lit swirl.

After the girls disappeared into the crowd, the three boys remained there at the exit. Ren shoved his hands into his pockets, adjusted his new coat to hide his porcelain arm. Ryaku stood two meters away from him, leaning against the wall, with his usual ice-cold, disgusted expression on his face. And Kenji was hanging upside down above their heads on the grating of a rusted balcony.

The silence was awkward and tense.

"Why the hell are you still standing here?" Ryaku broke the silence.

"The woman looking like a doc said to disperse."

"I'm not standing here because of you, but because the base's exit is one-way," Ren fired back.

"Not that your company is such a great experience, Ryaku."

"Then go about your business, instead of causing visual environmental pollution here. Go, eat some garbage, maybe it'll make you feel better in the Underworld," Ryaku muttered, and set off toward the market.

Ren sighed, and since he had nowhere to go, he set off in the same direction. Kenji chuckled softly, then followed them like a spider on the wall, jumping from one rusted pipe to another.

Thus the three of them proceeded in the thick of the 16th district. Ryaku in front, angrily forging a path for himself in the crowd, Ren lagging a few steps behind, and Kenji above their heads.

"Don't follow me!" Ryaku called back after ten minutes of walking, while stopping in front of a steaming noodle counter.

"I'm not following you," Ren replied with a straight face, and stood next to Ryaku at the counter. "I just happen to be hungry too. And I don't know a single place, and even so I hope I don't get roasted rat here like what Kana always threatens me with."

Kenji suddenly dropped from the sky, and fell right in front of the counter, landing on all fours.

"I like rat!" he declared cheerfully. "Although it's a little stringy, but if you put a lot of soy sauce on it, it tastes like chicken!"

Ryaku rolled his eyes in disgust, and ordered himself a bowl of spicy ramen, and Ren bought three skewers of roasted meat. They ate in silence leaning against the counter, while the residents of the district came and went around them.

The initial tension slowly, very slowly started to dissolve. They didn't suddenly become best friends, but the fact that all three of them almost died in the hospital wove an invisible bond around them.

"Your wires," Ren suddenly spoke up, while twirling the skewer in his hand. He didn't look at Ryaku, just watched the street. "When that girl, Sora attacked us... you tried to protect Saki and Kana with your wires, before you were slammed into the wall."

Ryaku stopped eating. "And?"

"Just that you always proclaim how much you hate everyone, and that only the mission matters," Ren continued quietly. "But in battle... you never protect yourself first."

Ryaku's ice-cold gaze fixed on Ren.

"Don't imagine things that aren't there, Upper Worlder. I only protected the girl because she was the key to defeating the alleged hybrid. If she dies, we die too. Pure logic. Kana is just Kana, I don't care about her."

Ren smiled, but didn't say anything. He knew that Ryaku was lying. Behind the cold, hateful mask hid a guy who was at least as traumatized as anyone else in this district, and who desperately tried to protect the handful of people he considered his own.

"Ren is right!" Kenji smacked his lips, while shoving a whole skewer into his mouth, wooden stick and all. "Ryaku's heart is like pudding."

Ryaku angrily smacked Kenji's head.

"Shut up, Kenji, or I'll shove the next skewer down your throat!"

Ren laughed out loud. This was a real, genuine laugh, which had not left his lips in a very long time. His laughter spread to Kenji too, who started chuckling with a strange, clicking sound. Ryaku turned away from them grumbling angrily, but Ren noticed from the corner of his eye that the corner of the boy's mouth curled upwards for a moment, a very tiny, imperceptible moment.

The Girls' Night

Meanwhile, Kana was forging a path for herself with determined steps in the surging, noisy crowd, while tightly holding Saki's wrist with her left hand. For Saki, the whole place was overwhelming, due to the sheer density of life. Since her parents' death and the Padlock's attack, she had lived almost entirely in the dark, and in the captivity of her chains.

As an outcast, she was used to people running away from her when they heard the clinking of her shackles. Here, on the other hand, vendors were yelling, meats were roasting on open flames, and the air was thick with the smell of spices and cheap perfumes. Nobody ran away from her. She was just a girl in the crowd, being dragged along by her friend.

"Well, listen here!" Kana suddenly stopped in front of a huge clothing stand cobbled together from tarps and corrugated sheets. On the counters, discarded clothes from the Upper World stood in mountains, but recycled, washed, and altered here. "You can't constantly walk around like someone who just stepped out of a funeral. You need something... less depressing."

Kana threw herself into the piles of clothes, and started digging through the coats and shirts like a bloodthirsty Discard who had found prey. Meanwhile, she continuously threw pieces of clothing backward toward Saki.

"This is too dark... this is too big... and this one has a blood-stained collar, eww," Kana muttered, while Saki tried to catch the flying rags while balancing with her chained hands.

Finally, Kana cried out, and pulled a slightly worn, oversized, dark blue bomber jacket from the bottom of the pile. On its back was a faded but cool cherry blossom pattern embroidered with silver threads.

"Well, this is it!" Kana stepped over to Saki, and snatched the many clothes from her hands, then with firm movements she put the jacket on her. The material was soft, and its size was just big enough to comfortably fit the girl's chains underneath without them getting caught. "Look at yourself!"

Kana turned Saki toward a scratched, half-broken mirror. Saki blinked. The dark blue coat and the silver pattern somehow made her otherwise pale face fuller of life. The chains didn't look like a Curse now, rather just a fashion detail among many.

"I... this... this is very beautiful," Saki whispered, and her fingers carefully smoothed over the material. Even a tiny, grateful smile appeared on her lips. "Thank you, Kana-san. But I have nothing to pay with."

"Don't be silly, after today, the least is that Unit 7 foots the bill! Just don't tell Gaiku that I'm pilfering the cash register." Kana, after paying, took Saki by the arm with satisfaction. "Come on, we're celebrating with a sugary sweet."

As they sat down at a slightly sticky, plastic table at the edge of the bazaar row, Saki started to fidget. She wrung her hands in her lap. Her head was full of today.

"Kana-san...?" Saki began softly, almost inaudibly.

"Just say it, Chain-girl!" Kana took a huge bite of her syrupy sweet, her face got full of smudge.

Saki looked at the scratches on the table, and her face slowly but surely began to take on a strengthening tomato shade.

"In... in the hospital. After that girl, Sora left... too," Saki swallowed, trying to gather strength.

"You told Ren... that he was surely into... sadomaso."

Kana stopped chewing.

"What... what is sadomaso?" Saki asked, looking up at Kana with completely sincere, innocent eyes.

"Is it some kind of weapon? Or the elite combat style of the 12th district? Because Ren got very angry when you said it."

Kana's eyes grew huge. Then a moment later she started coughing, choking, as the sweet almost got stuck in her throat. With teary eyes, slapping the table, she laughed out loud. Her laughter was so loud that even the figures standing at the neighboring counter looked over.

"Oh my God..." Kana panted, while wiping her tears.

"Chain-girl, you seriously... you are a real innocent little loser! It's strange that you've remained completely untouched by the filth!"

Saki blushed even more, and pulled her neck into her new bomber jacket.

"Did I ask something wrong? I just... wanted to understand what Sora attacked Ren with, and why he was the most angry at you."

Kana took a deep breath, trying to calm down, but the corner of her mouth was still twitching from the suppressed laughter. She leaned her elbows on the table, and leaned closer to Saki.

"Listen, Saki. Sadomaso is not a weapon. Or rather... a matter of perspective," Kana winked. "It's something when people... ahem... like it if pain is inflicted on them, or if they are tied up. Adult things, you know? When, say, a chick presses a knife to your throat, and for some reason this... turns you on."

Saki's mouth stayed agape. Her face was now not only red, but in flames.

"I-I... oh!" Saki whispered with a dying voice, while she covered her face with her chained hand. "And you said this... to Ren..."

"Of course I did!" Kana grinned with satisfaction. "Porcelain takes himself too seriously sometimes. He has to be messed with a little bit to snap him back to reality. The Main Character syndrome he puts on is very annoying. And besides, Sora was a pretty fiery chick, couldn't miss the easy shot."

Saki stayed silent, trying to cool her flaming face between her fingers. Kana then took on a slightly more serious, softer expression. She reached over, and gently patted Saki's hand.

"Hey. Don't worry. Ren doesn't get turned on by that chick," Kana said more sincerely.

"But as for you... If that guy is really important to you, then don't just stare at the toes of your shoes when he talks to you."

Saki slowly lowered her hands.

"I... I'm afraid, Kana-san. It's just I've never been anyone's friend before. And I don't want to lose him." Saki crumpled the sleeve of the new bomber jacket, but then a tiny, determined spark appeared in her white eyes. She nodded.

"But I'll try, Kana-san," she said, and this time she didn't cast her eyes down.

"Right!" Kana leaned back with satisfaction, and popped a piece of gum. "And now eat your sweet, before I eat that too."

Saki obediently took a bite of the sticky sweet, but the food slid down her throat with difficulty. Her chest still felt tight from the realization of how little she knew the world, and from the oppressive fear that with one wrong step she could lose everything.

Kana chewed her gum silently, her eyes scanning the hunched, chained girl sitting opposite her. The purple-haired girl was not usually a person of words and soul-searching; she had felt anything towards very few people since her childhood, she very rarely had emotions, but now something stirred within her. She sighed once, then leaned her elbows on the table.

"You know, Chain-girl..." Kana began, and the usual, mocking edge was now missing from her voice. "When you said earlier that you had never been anyone's friend... that is no longer true."

Saki slowly looked up, uncertainty reflected in her white eyes.

"Porcelain is maybe the first one you're attached to, okay. He is your little knight," Kana continued, and swung her hand loosely. "But Unit 7 is not just a damn workplace. Look at us! Ryaku is a tense, annoying guy, Kenji is a cracked idiot, and Gaiku is a lazy, chain-smoking bear. And I... well, I am me. We are a bunch of rejects that the world spat out."

Kana leaned forward, and with her index finger gently poked the Unit 7 patch on Saki's top.

"But we take care of each other. And you didn't just get that patch for decoration. You joined us, you fought with us. So, whether you like it or not... I am your friend too. And Ryaku, Kenji, and the Captain as well. So get used to the idea urgently that you are no longer alone."

Saki's breath caught. The noise of the bazaar, the sizzling of the neon lights, the shouting of the vendors seemed to suddenly dull into a distant, muffled rumble.

Friends. Not just Ren. But all of them. The people she had only known for a few days, and of whom she was terrified at the beginning, had now accepted her. Her, the outcast, who was considered a monster even in her own district.

Saki's eyes filled with tears. She tried to hold them back, blinking heavily, but the dam burst. The teardrops started to flow silently, unstoppably down her face, rolling down her pale skin. Her hands trembled.

"I... I..." Saki tried to speak, but her voice cracked from crying. She just pressed her chained hands to her chest as she struggled with her tears. "Thank you... Kana... thank you..."

Kana froze for a moment. Her eyes widened, and she looked around in alarm. "Hey, hey, Chain-girl, don't cry now!" Kana said, suddenly embarrassed by the sudden emotion. She quickly grabbed a handful of napkins from the counter and handed them to the girl. "Damn it, everyone is going to think I beat you up, or took your food! Stop it."

Saki took the napkins, and wiping her tears, sniffled and laughed out loud. This was the first time Kana had heard her laugh. The laugh was weak and tearful, but completely genuine.

"S-sorry," Saki sniffled, with a smile on her face. "It's just... I'm so happy."

Kana blew out a breath in relief, and leaned back in her chair. "Well, that's better. A snot-nosed face doesn't suit the cherry blossom jacket anyway."

Saki wiped her face, then took a big, determined bite of the sweet.

"Then..." Saki spoke up after swallowing the bite, and her voice was already a little braver. "Will you tell me more about the... adult things? Just so I know what not to say to Ren."

Kana's eyes sparkled mischievously, and she blew a huge bubble from her gum, which popped with a loud smack. "Chain-girl... you and I are going to be very good friends. Get ready, because we're going to have a long night!"

All the bowls were already empty when Ryaku suddenly stood up.

"I'm off."

"Are you going back to the base?" Ren asked.

Ryaku's eyes narrowed suspiciously for a moment. His gaze scanned the crowded street, then flashed back to Ren. "It's none of your business. I still have... things to take care of. Alone."

With that, he turned on his heel, and with quick, tense steps, melted into the crowd of the 16th district.

Ren watched him go, keeping the chopstick in his mouth. His old Kurogane-clan courier instincts immediately kicked in. Ryaku's body language was textbook: he constantly glanced behind his back, walked along the walls, and clutched his coat pocket as if hiding something very illegal and deadly inside.

"Meeting an informant?" Ren muttered to himself, his brain already spinning. "Or buying a weapon on the black market? Maybe working for the Shirakawa clan?"

"Maybe he just has to go to the toilet," Kenji noted, while chewing on his own empty bowl.

"No, Kenji. This is something else. Something dark." Ren put down the chopstick, and his face took on that cold, focused expression he used on the most dangerous missions. "We follow him."

"Why?"

"Because he is a member of the team. We have to know if he poses a threat."

Two minutes later they were in one of the dark, abandoned industrial alleys of the 16th district. Ren applying his finest stealth technique, while Kenji crawled on all fours right above him, not caring about stealth at all, occasionally making soft clicking sounds with his neck.

"Kenji, stay quiet!" Ren said upwards, while diving behind a rusted container. "If he notices us, he'll tie us up to the pole and we'll stay here all night! This is enemy territory, we need all our senses."

"But I see him," whispered Kenji hanging from the wall. "He went into that dead end. He stopped. He's rummaging in his pocket."

Ren's stomach clenched. A weapon exchange? Or some hard drug? Carefully, centimeter by centimeter, he leaned out from behind the container to get a view of the dead end.

Ryaku stood with his back to them. His shoulders tensed, his head was constantly moving. It was visible that he could kill if disturbed. Then slowly, with a theatrical movement, he pulled something from his pocket.

Ren held his breath. A grenade? A data drive?

It was a metal tin can.

Ryaku tore open the top of the can with a single, aggressive movement. The smell of fish immediately filled the alley. The boy crouched down next to the trash cans, and his voice—that voice which was ice-cold and cruel even in the bloodiest battles—suddenly changed.

"Well, are you here?" asked Ryaku, but his tone was unjustifiably... soft. "Come out. I know you're hungry."

Out of the dark, a disheveled stray cat walked forward.

Ryaku put down the fish can, then when the cat started eating, he reached out his hand—the very hand from which deadly wires usually sprang—and started intensely, but carefully scratching the base of the cat's ears.

"You are a good boy. Yes, you are the toughest predator in this junkyard, huh?" Ryaku said, while the cat began to purr loudly. "Just eat. But if you tell anyone that I fed you, I'll strangle you, got it? Yes, you little furball."

Ren froze behind the container. His brain simply refused to process the sight. The boy, who was the sworn enemy of the Upper World, who killed without batting an eye... was now talking baby talk to a cat.

"Kenji..." Ren whispered in shock. "Are you seeing this too, or has Tetsuo kept me in a coma for two weeks?"

"Yes," answered Kenji from the wall, totally deadpan. "I wonder, if the cat eats the fish, will Ryaku eat the cat? Is this the food chain, Ren?"

"He is not eating the cat! He is petting it!" said Ren, running his hands through his hair. The illusion of the professional courier and espionage shattered to pieces. "This makes no sense! What the hell is going on here?"

Before they could analyze the situation further, Ryaku suddenly stood up. The cat rubbed against his leg once, to which Ryaku cast one last, stern glance at it. "Get lost. Don't follow me."

Ren and Kenji retreated into the shadows as Ryaku stepped out of the alley and headed toward a suspicious, secluded market.

"Where is he going now?" Ren refocused.

"That was just a detour. The cat is an alibi! He's preparing for something darker, I feel it."

They started following him. Ryaku stepped up to a stand covered with rags deep in an alley. Behind the counter sat a suspicious-looking old man. Ren was certain that this was an illegal arms dealer.

Ryaku slammed his hand on the table, and pulled out his deadliest, most terrifying glare. "I want that green one. Back there," he growled, and pointed with his finger.

The old man pulled out a small, slightly drooping fern planted in a pot.

"This is a delicate kind, my boy. It needs watering twice a day, and..."

"I know what needs to be done with it," Ryaku cut him off, snatching the pot from his hands. "But if this one dies in two days too, I'm coming back, and I'll get all the plant food for free. Clear?"

The old man nodded in terror. Ryaku grabbed the fern, tucked it under his arm, and set off back toward the "Jackpot" base, continuously glancing around ninja-like to ensure no one saw him with the little green plant.

Ren watched the whole thing from behind a rusted pipe. His mouth hung open.

"A fern," whispered Ren, staring into nothingness. His sense of reality had finally collapsed. "For the past half hour I've been sneaking after him as if he were the president of national security, and for this he buys a damn fern."

Kenji crawled in next to Ren behind the pipe. "Maybe the fern is a disguised bomb?" asked Kenji hopefully. "Or he wants to eat it. Green things crunch when you chew them," he said proudly.

Ren slowly looked at Kenji, and a strange, almost fanatical light appeared in his eyes. The "Main Character" syndrome that Kana had mentioned was now spinning at full RPM.

"Think about it, Kenji," said Ren slowly, almost whispering. "Ryaku is the guy who lives and dies for revenge. He hates everything that is beautiful. He can slit a man's throat with a single wire. And yet... secretly he feeds cats and buys houseplants."

Ren stood up, his face deadly serious.

"What must his room at the base look like?"

Kenji blinked once. "You mean Ryaku's?"

"That's it!" Ren clenched his human hand into a fist. "If he just bought a fern, then there are more there. His room is probably a complete botanical garden! This is the base's biggest secret. We have to see it."

"But Ryaku sleeps at the base. If we go in, he'll wake up, and he really will chop us up," Kenji interjected, exceptionally logically.

"I will handle the lock. And you will climb up into the vent, and distract him if he wakes up." Ren started pacing up and down in the alley, outlining a perfect tactical infiltration plan for a mission whose goal was to look at a guy's houseplants. "Kenji, this is not just curiosity. This is a tactical advantage. If we know he likes flowers, we can blackmail him with it later!"

Kenji's eyes lit up. "Infiltration! And if he catches us, I'll throw the cat on him!"

"Exactly! What, wait, no!!! Kenji, why do you have the cat, when did you bring it?"

"I just found it," Kenji tossed the cat to Ren, "but if you're going to be this aggressive then I don't want it anymore."

Two members of Unit 7, shrouded in shadows, set off back toward the Jackpot with deadly determination, to break into a room in which they hoped to find the answer to the question of what kind of person Ryaku really was.

It was late at night, the silence of the "Jackpot" base broken only by the dull hum of the ventilation system and the distant rumble of the district.

Ren, in a black hooded sweatshirt, pressed against the wall, approached the end of the corridor with silent steps, where Ryaku's room stood. Behind him, in the darkness of the ceiling, Kenji followed him spider-like, completely silently. Ren's pulse beat more fiercely than when they fought against the Feast. This wasn't a life-or-death battle, this was a matter of principle. They had to see that room.

When Ren finally reached the door, he knelt down, and pulled a lockpick he had fabricated out of his coat. He was just about to raise it to the lock, when from the darkness a sharp, smacking sound sliced through the silence.

Ren jumped up as if he had been struck by lightning, and Kenji almost fell off the ceiling in fright.

In the dark corner of the corridor, wearing loose pink pajama pants and a huge, worn-out t-shirt, stood Kana. Leaning against the wall, with her arms crossed, she chewed her gum in amusement.

"What are you two doing dressed like two retarded burglars from a B-movie?" Kana asked, with a mocking edge to her voice. "You don't happen to want to climb into the Icicle's room?"

Ren gasped for air, and hurriedly put away the lockpick. "Kana! What... what are you doing here at this hour?"

"I sleep here, you idiot, in the room next door," the girl rolled her eyes. "So? Spit it out already, what's with this big commando operation in the middle of the night."

Ren swallowed. He knew that if he lied, Kana would bust him in seconds. He decided to let her in on it. "Listen, Kana," Ren said with a dead-serious face and grabbed Kana's shoulder. "We followed him in the district today. You think you know Ryaku? The guy who is a walking thirst for revenge, right?"

"Yeah. And?"

"And today..." Ren leaned closer, dropping his voice to an even more dramatic whisper. "Today he bought a fern on the black market and threatened that if it died he would buy all the plant food. And he babbled to a stray cat. Kana, we think his room hides an abode of the senses! This is the base's biggest mystery. We have to get in!"

Kenji nodded from the ceiling, his eyes sparkling excitedly in the dark. "Maybe Tarzan is in there too! I want to eat his vegetables!"

Kana stared at them mutely for a second. Then she suddenly clamped her hand over her mouth, and her shoulders began to shake from suppressed laughter. A few moments later she was already giggling leaning against the wall, wiping her tears.

"Oh my God, Porcelain... you and your main character syndrome again," Kana gasped, trying not to wake up the base. "Did you really think you discovered the philosopher's stone? That you are the great detective?"

Ren blinked uncomprehendingly. "Why?"

"Because I've known this for months!" Kana grinned, and stepped closer.

"The other day I caught him at the market pressing his wire to a vendor's throat, just because he didn't want to give him a discount on premium cat food! Ryaku is secretly a real softie and a crazy cat lady."

Ren's mouth fell open. "You knew?! And you didn't tell?! And his room? Is it really full of plants and cat stuff?"

Kana's face suddenly darkened, and she sighed. "Well, that's the catch. I don't know."

"How come you don't know?" Ren asked puzzled.

"Because the Icicle is damn paranoid," Kana explained, and pointed with her thumb at the lock mechanism of Ryaku's door. "If you push that lockpick in there now, your hand will pay for it. He rewired the lock from the inside. If you touch it the wrong way, or if he's inside and you wake him up, he'll chop your fingers off out of reflex. I've tried to break in three times already, but it's hopeless while he's snoring in there."

Ren looked at the lock despondently. The operation seemed to fail even before infiltration. "Then we'll never know..."

"Of course we will," Kana interjected, and her characteristic wicked, mischievous light sparkled in her eyes. She stepped up to Ren, and conspiratorially put her arm around the boy's shoulders. "But we have to do it smarter."

"This weekend Ryaku is going on loan to Unit 3 for a border cleanup run. For two days, I repeat, for two days he won't be at the base," Kana whispered, and her grin grew wider. "His room will be empty. No reflex attack, no mortal danger."

Ren's eyes lit up. The professional courier saw the tactical advantage once again.

"Exactly," nodded Kana. "Then you two, and me, will nicely, comfortably pick that lock, and see what kind of pink bed linen our little icicle sleeps in. Are you in?"

Ren and Kenji looked at each other.

"I'm in," said Ren with a dead-serious face.

"Me too! I'll bring salt for the vegetables!" whispered Kenji happily.

"Great. Then disperse, before Gaiku catches us, and sends all three of us to clean toilets," Kana waved, then with a loose movement she turned on her heel, and everyone walked back to their rooms.

The next morning arrived not with blinding sunshine, but with the usual, rhythmic morning clanking of the pipes of the "Jackpot" base.

Ren opened his eyes, and for a moment just stared at the water stains on the ceiling.

As he sat up on the iron bed and looked down at his arm, the snow-white porcelain slashed with black cracks no longer seemed like the distorted legacy of a monster, but simply his own hand. The dark, feverish whisper of the Ink, which previously drove him to madness, was now quiet and obedient in his blood. Finally, he felt that he mastered his power.

He was just pulling his shoelaces when a pounding shook the thin door.

"Wake up, Porcelain!" Kana's voice was heard from the corridor, which was immediately followed by a loud bubblegum smack. "I hope you're not ironing your pajamas, because Gaiku is calling for you! And I suggest you move your legs, because the captain is even grumpier than usual."

Ren grabbed his black Unit 7 coat and stepped out the door. "Where is he?" he asked the girl, who was just pressing buttons on her Tamagotchi while leaning against a wall.

"He went down to the arena."

Ren nodded and set off toward the stairs. As he passed through the central hall, he saw that the base was waking up. Saki sat in the corner, wrapped in her new bomber jacket, and while sipping a mug of hot tea, she watched Kenji with a tiny smile on her face, who was just trying to eat a whole, unopened can.

The arena was the base's lowest, more spacious hall, which was used in the past as a warehouse for the neon-tube Pachinko machines. Now the floor was covered with thick, shock-absorbing rubber mats, and the walls were dotted with scratches and scorch marks of previous Ink-explosions.

Gaiku stood in the middle of the hall, with his back to the door. He was looking at a huge map nailed to the wall, on which the 23 districts of Kinkyo were sketched out, interwoven with dense red and black markings.

"You called for me, Gaiku," Ren spoke up as he entered the room.

Gaiku slowly turned around. His eyes had dark circles under them, it was visible that he hadn't slept a minute. He didn't have a cigarette on him either.

"We have no time for headaches. You have a mission."

"What kind of mission? A hybrid again? Or do we have to observe the Tengu clan's people?"

"No," Gaiku leaned forward, and that rare, sharp light flashed in his eyes.

"You're going home, kid."

Ren's heart skipped a beat. "Home?"

"Yes. To the other side of Kinkyo. Beyond the Wall."

The room fell silent.