OMOI
Memories… Memories floating in him, through him, poured from some unknown place, from some unknown mind, directly into his…
*crackles* “Where ya at…?” *crackles, muffled sounds on the line* “…amn storms… oken Shores… Grid problems… ‘re ya’ll?”
Heiji picked up his comm with an annoyed look, and checked at his list of contacts. Cory. That was no doubt Cory, once again stuck in the far town where he so much liked to hang in. The young Fixer had himself never liked Home–all those Priests clad in dark cloaks, wandering the streets and half-scaring people with their penetrating gazes, the Guards staring at everybody, their ugly faces made even more frightening by their ritual tattoos, the eerie atmosphere, the imposing temple, chants echoing at times through the narrow streets, and always, always those storms cracking up above the plains, making every communication a haze… All of this without even mentioning the odd location of the Grid terminal. The one who had designed this place surely had made too much use of sake before drawing the plans.
“‘Allo, Cory”, the young man sighed, taking on his most annoyed tone. “Ya fell in the waters from the Grid platform again?”
Some more crackling on the line, a few seconds of garbled sounds, then Kinlay’s voice again. His contact’s voice was now carrying a note of relief, but worry was still what got out of it the most.
“…Ah, ‘ji… guys from the Clans… more than expected… need yer help to retreive the st…” *crackles* “…can help?”
Oooooh, goddammit! Heiji thought. I really hate when he does this!…
He looked at the sky of Rome above him–blue sky, trees in the Park, a beautiful town, so diferent from Omni-1, and far more crowded than it would be only a few years later–, then got back to his feet, brushing his coat with a hand, seizing his Mausser with the other. Time to take the Grid again. He wished he was already able to Grid in at will, as he had already seen some older, experienced Fixers do. He had learnt some tricks from them, of course, but they were anyways more ‘contacts’ than true friends. He was so young–so new to this world. And sometimes, he wasn’t even able to realize that it was only three months he had left home and told Kaa-san he’d never come back… when it was already feeling like an eternity.
Yet he was at least able to hack his way through the exit to Home, and help one of the few people he was feeling close to, although Cory had an annoying habit of only calling him when things were going wrong. Without paying attention to what was around, the boy let the Grid terminal materialize his body again, then ran on the stone gateway leading to the shore, oblivious to all the people crowding the platform, wishing he could run even faster, faster, to avoid their presence, to avoid…
Heiji bumped into someone, someone who almost sent him rolling on the ground, and found himself face to face with a tall and slim Opifex wielding two twin blades, looking at him sharply.
“Not a good place to be in a hurry like this… boy”, the man said, raising a mocking eyebrow, casually balancing one of his swords over his shoulder while studying the young man. Heiji frowned back, taking a step forward; heas only sixteen, but he wouldn’t let anyone look at hime this way! Never would he let someone despise him.
“Ya have a problem with me, ‘fex?” he answered, his fingers grasping the Mausser more tightly now. The town was dangerous for him, and his usual way of getting out of such situations alive was to run before a guard could spot him, and praying that no creature from the desert would find its way through the streets, like the Sandworm he had once spotted. He didn’t need more than a second to quickly check what was the man’s official identity on his built-in scanner–Harlan “Kinlay” Ganzer, his callsign announcing him as an Adventurer performing jobs for the Company. Kinlay. He’d have to remember this name.
But then “Kinlay” grabbed him by the collar–darn it, he had been so quick to sheathe one of his swords that Heiji hadn’t even noticed it. “Hold on, boy. Whatcha doin’ in here? Dangerous town for kiddos like you. Why ya ain’t at your mommy’s, eh? Ran away from home?”
“Ain’t none of your business, ya feckin’…!” Heiji began to growl, when all of a sudden a woman’s laughter echoed in his back. From the corner of his eye, he spotted another person quietly walking toward them, a tall and lean Solitus with piercing green eyes and long red hair flowing over her trenchcoat. For a second, Heiji didn’t even feel like throwing an insult at her too; there was something about her, about her way of simply standing, that made him simply shut his mouth.
“Let him go, Kin,” she mischievously smiled. “We were all kids. Let him learn his ways, m’friend.”
And Kinlay looked at her, then at him, then at her, then at him again, and bursted out in laughter. Kid. They were right, in fact. He was only a kid, pretending that he could also perform jobs like theirs,trying to make his way alone in the world, without relying on Kaa-san or on anybody else… and he was trying so hard, so hard that their laughters were hurting him badly.
“… Teme… bakayaro!” he spat in a harsh voice, looking at the Adventurer straight in the eyes. “Gonna show you what a ‘kid’ can do! Gonna show you that I ain’t a…”
The woman laughed again, yet this time it sounded slightly different. “Looks like yer gonna be good friends, Kin. Maybe ya should consider… apologizing?” And she went away, still chuckling, the harsh wind of the shores playing in her hair.
“Haaaa!” Kinlay suddenly sighed, after a few seconds of silence. “Can’t say ‘no’ to a gal like her, dontcha think, kid? So. Ya didn’t answer. Whatcha doing in Home? And stop looking at me like that. I ain’t gonna kill ya.”
Why should I tell a baka like ya? Heiji thought, still angry. Why should I… why…
“… I’ve come to help a pal…” he found himself answering, almost ashamed of having to admit it, not understanding why he was actually giving an answer. To his own surprise, Kinlay nodded, and his dark eyes suddenly took on another look - a look that was now closer to acknoweldgment.
“Helping a friend. Now that’s a good thing,” the Opifex muttered. “Hey, tell ya what, I have some time on my hands at the moment. Maybe I can give ya a hand…”
Why it had happened, none of them knew. Why he had talked and Kinlay answered, none of them understood. But these people were different from all the others he had met until now; Heiji was still young, but having been brought in his childhood with a strict education from Old Earth’s Japanese customs had given him a keen and sharp sense of understatement and hidden meanings, and he knew that something had happened in this moment, that something was still to happen, and that becoming friends with this man could be a good thing.
It would make a mess of his life, in the end. But for the moment…