Chapter 2:

A Bounty At the Bar

The Artificial Lights of R'veno


After Rei dropped her bike off at the shop to be fixed up, she headed to a ramen shop down the road, and took a seat under the dim yellow lighting and placed her usual order. If any gang members came down this way they probably wouldn’t recognize her without her helmet. If they did, well, she’d have to resort to violence.

Rei was a bounty hunter in her young twenties, her black hair straight and down her back, dressed in her usual dark clothes, a large jacket and comfortable pants, her cap keeping her hair out of her face. Her left hand and arm were mechanical, made of some outdated technology from five years ago, though her fingers still smoothly handled her chopsticks as she slurped the noodles from her bowl.

“Yo, did you see what happened with the lights earlier?”

Two people passing by behind her were discussing animatedly about earlier, and Rei’s ears perked up.

“Freaking wild, man. Did someone try to cut the power lines or something?”

“What, you think it was a terrorist?”

The other guy chuckled. “A terrorist? In this day and age?”

Their voices faded in the footsteps of the street, and Rei returned to her noodles, a couple of drops of soup landing on her nose. She doubted someone would cut the lines as a practical joke. The cops would nab them, and the price they would pay wasn’t worth the few minutes of fun and havoc. A terrorist, on the other hand…slightly more concerning, but as Rei had dealt with a few suicide bombers before, she knew that, if need be she could deal with them. Not that she wanted to. She slurped the rest of the soup from the bowl, wiped her nose, paid, then hopped off her stool and headed back towards the bike shop.

After she retrieved her bike from the repairman and paid what was due, she checked her credit balance, and let out a deep sigh. She was going to have to find another job immediately if she wanted to eat next week. Bounty hunting really didn’t pay all that well, plus the jobs were downright difficult at times.

She could use a drink…

Rei decided to head to a bar a couple of blocks away. She knew that she could pick up jobs there, and she wanted to see if there was anything that paid better than what the shop had to offer her. Plus, she really wasn’t in the mood to see the shopkeeper twice in one night.

As she pushed the door open, she was embraced by a noisy bustle, but she pulled her hood up over her cap, and made a beeline for one of the stools at the edge of the bar. As long as there weren’t any gangsters from earlier today or any strange men, she should be fine. And since it was crowded here, there was a lesser chance that anyone would make a scene.

“What’ll it be?” the bartender asked, a young man with neat black hair dressed crisply in his uniform, though it was certainly less fresh than it had been this morning.

“I’ll have a Midnight Temper,” Rei replied, pulling up her credits. Something dark and chilling that would send shivers down her skin…

“Sure thing,” the bartender replied. He poured several drinks together into a blue concoction with ease, then slid it to her with a slice of strawberry on top. “We’re all out of cherries today.”

“It’s fine,” Rei took a sip, wincing at the strong but refreshing flavor. Cold yet burning up her insides all at once. She put the glass down and tapped the rim with her metal fingertip, trying to think of what to do.

“Did something happen at work today?” the bartender asked.

“I’m looking for a new job,” Rei replied shortly.

“Why, what a coincidence. So am I.”

“What, you don’t like working here?”

“No, no, I do. But it simply doesn’t pay enough anymore, you know? Anyways, there was just a brand new job posted just a few minutes ago on that board over there. Why don’t you check it out?”

Rei took her drink with her and slid off the stool, heading over to where all the jobs were posted. There, on the top, on a bright, flickering screen, were the words:

INVESTIGATE THE SOURCE OF THE FLICKERING LIGHTS: 20,000 CREDITS

The lights again? And so soon? Someone must be concerned. Perhaps it was more than a practical joke, or a terrorist. Or maybe it would be surprisingly easy. But something suspicious and uneasy still lurked around the whole idea, and Rei wasn’t sure if she wanted to associate herself with more trouble than she could get herself out of. But out loud she said:

“Oh? Not bad. No one’s taken this job yet?”

“It’s still pretty new,” the bartender replied. “And no one seems interested in the artificial lights of R’veno. What do you say? Looks like a job you might want?”

“Seems mighty vague,” Rei replied, “but sure. Why not. Beggars can’t be choosers.”

She tapped on the screen with her metal hand, and the screen flickered over with a TAKEN message. Others could still claim it, but the less people she had to fight for money, the better.

Then she sat back down, leaning against the bar, and downed the entire rest of her drink, spilling a little onto her collar, but she ignored it, and set the glass down firmly with a clunk, wiping the edge of her mouth.

“Careful,” the bartender cautioned. “That’s pretty strong.”

“Not too strong,” Rei replied, checking the time. Not too shabby. Not yet time for the guards to be out patrolling, and just the time for the night life to awake. In other words, the perfect time to get started. She got off her stool, sticking her hands deep into her jacket pockets, and began heading out.

“Where are you going?” the bartender called above the clamor.

“Checking out this new job!” she replied, not bothering to look back. “I didn’t feel like sleeping anyways.”

As the bar’s doors closed behind her, however, she was hit with a gust of cold wind, and the lights flickered, once more, and she suddenly felt very scared and all alone, maybe because of the influence of the alcohol, but without the lights, she couldn’t even see the stars.

It felt like that day, when she was sitting on the pavement, unable to move, watching the flames rise higher and higher…

“Hey, hey, wait for me!” A familiar voice sounded as she boarded her bike, and she looked up to see the bartender, pulling a black coat on over his uniform.

“Huh? What are you doing here?”

“I’m looking for a job too, ain’t I?” He ran his fingers through his hair, messing it up. “Name’s Calix. Bartending’s just a side job of mine.”

“Well, Calix,” Rei said, helmet in hands, “I’m not quite sure my bike is big enough for the both of us.”

“No need to worry about that, sweetheart,” Calix replied, swinging his leg over the back of her motorbike. “I can hold my own.”

Under any normal circumstances, Rei would have politely declined and pushed him off her bike. But the lack of lights in the darkness had made her feel so incredibly lonely and scared that something inside her decided that having a companion this time was probably not bad at all. And besides, with the sinister vibe that she sensed around this job, she had a feeling that he would be very handy.

“Hold on tight, then!” she said, starting her engine. “Can’t guarantee your safety here.”

Off to fix some rogue lights, that had never been broken before. Shouldn’t take more than a night, no?

Steward McOy
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Tomoyuki
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Parademero
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Dracors
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