Click...!

Enarky felt his throat constrict. A gun was now pointing directly between his eyes; Liberi had straddled on top of him. As Enarky was lying on his back and the chair was overturned, the non-human mercenary had sat down on his abdomen, bracing himself unabashedly against his legs. Bound and in pain, the boy saw more closely the human skin of his attacker, which ran only from the lower half of his face down to the base of his neck. The rest, below his outfit, was clearly made of a charred black, bony material, covered in crystalline crumbs like tiny, indistinct scales, and his two legs resembled the narrow, spindly limbs of an insect.

Furthermore, it was impossible to miss those two streams of flame—or rather, smoke—that seemed to continuously billow from both sides of Liberi’s ghastly face. These two slow, weak yet readily visible wisps of vapor almost made the young man wonder if the person he was facing wasn’t just as much in suffering as he was.

"Say sorry." Liberi spoke, still holding the barrel of his gun straight at the boy’s forehead.

Enarky: “…W-what…?”

Liberi: “I told you you were pissing me off, but you keep yelling like a dimwit. Maybe that’s just what you are, huh? If you were weak enough to get yourself into this situation, how do you have the nerve to raise your voice? You worm…”

He pulls the slide, chambering a round without hesitation.

Liberi: "Whenever it comes down to a matter of life and death, you humans never cease to boggle my mind. There are times when I laugh my head off, but other times I’m so perplexed that I pull the trigger without even meaning to."

Enarky didn't reply, his pupils were shrunk in his eyeballs, his face was pale, all his joints were numb.

“Say sorry for getting me all mixed up." The mercenary concluded.

A pause in the moment passed, but the quiet lingered.

Enarky glared straight into the eyes of the figure threatening him. It was plain to see he was afraid, petrified, but he said nothing at all, and Liberi’s wait seemed to drag on forever.

"...I don't understand."

There wasn't much left of the calm in Liberi's gaze. It was that unsettling behavior. Was it ego? Despair? Or something more like an obstinate hope of staying alive under any circumstances?

Liberi: “...!”

All of a sudden, the gun slipped from his hand, a misguided gesture, right at the critical moment when he thought he’d inadvertently hit the trigger. Liberi jumped, quickly grabbing his weapon, a pale look on his face.

Enarky's eyelids fluttered frantically. Liberi gritted his teeth, but then—

Koncel: “There's no one here.”

He was already back, rubbing the back of his neck as he approached to take in the scene. Liberi had straightened up as soon as he heard him return. He holstered his weapon and moved away from Enarky, who still lay on the floor, slumped over the chair.

Koncel: “At least we got some intel on the other hideouts. I guess we need to give it another round…”

Liberi: “Hm…”

Koncel: “They’re just small-time thugs to us; we can take care of this in no time. Come on, let’s go.”

Liberi looked down, silent. Koncel was starting to become aware of this attitude of his. The truth is, this is their first mission together. They haven’t been a team for very long, but he realizes that whenever he’s deep in thought, it’s impossible to communicate with him.

But just then, Koncel watched his colleague pull out a knife, lean back over the young man on the ground, and swiftly cut through his bonds one after the other.

Enarky also watched, his mouth slightly agape.

“Get up now,” Liberi told him once he was free to move. With a dry palate, Enarky barely had time to laboriously stand back on his feet before Liberi and Koncel began walking toward the exit without saying another word.

He looked at their backs, gently massaging his arms, bringing a delicate hand to his face, still in shock from the altercation. In fact, between waking up and now, he had fallen back into that trance-like state that had led him to put himself in danger originally, and to end up here in this godforsaken warehouse. His instincts were in shambles, his priorities transformed, but in spite of that and the unnerving taste of blood on his tongue, he took in the undeniable fact his two legs were still functional...

                                                                                        • 

     The pair of mercenaries quickly rejoined their vehicle and prepared to drive to another location where the criminals were holding the kidnapped victims.

In the van, Koncel turned the ignition, but as he was about to drive off, Liberi suddenly grumbled—

Liberi: “Damn...”

Koncel: “Hm?”

Liberi: “If there weren’t any captives in that warehouse, you know what that means?”

Koncel: “Probably that our chances of losing them go up if we don’t get our asses in gear—”

Liberi: “No! It’s worse than that! It means the guy in the derelict building lied to me about this address!”

Koncel: “Oh... And?"

Liberi: “Oh, I don’t know—you tell me, Mr. homo sapiens. Is it really that normal for people of your species to act like certified cretins when your life is on the line?”

Koncel: “Well, maybe you’re mistaken. Maybe that guy simply didn’t know there was no one being held here. On top of that, there was that beat up dude, so he didn’t totally mislead you."

Liberi glares at him only a few seconds before realizing his lack of rationality.

Koncel: “Relax, Liberi. I don’t really know what you’re looking for. This is our first mission together, but when I teamed up with you, the office told me you were someone special—though they didn’t say anything about your background.”

Liberi sighed, propping his elbow against the passenger door, his mouth cupped in his palm, muffling his words, “Yeah, right…”

The van finally set off through this drab city that had seen better days. After a hundred meters or so, however, over the gray atmosphere, it began to snow...

Koncel: “Hm... That kid. You don’t seem afraid of people seeing your body, but you have a bad reaction when someone makes fun of you, huh?”

Liberi: “It’s called having a conscience. It doesn’t make me human, but I’m still a conscious and intelligent being. The main difference between me and the lot of you is the only thing that makes me think: your fucking stupidity.”

Koncel: “Oh yeah?”

Liberi: “Yeah.”

Koncel: “Damn, so you really don’t think about anything else? Ever?”

Liberi: “No. I don’t need thoughts very often.”

Koncel kept his eyes on the road, but this helped him to better understand his partner’s personality. So is it because he’s so unaccustomed to thinking that he completely zones out when it happens?

The van continues to wind its way along the roads, sometimes littered with piles of debris.

Koncel: “I hear you know a thing or two about the masterminds behind this trafficking. Are they the ones who created you?”

Liberi: “Heh, so you guessed I was artificially created. But we’re not going anywhere near confronting them, so there’s no point in me explaining.”

Koncel: “I’m not just a mercenary. I was part of a Neherval special forces brigade. Basically, I was a government operative. So don’t you go explaining to me who the Alchemists are.”

Liberi: “Oh, really? I guess because of the revolution, there's not really a government you'd wish to operate for anymore.”

Koncel: “Yeah, but that doesn’t concern you, does it? You were born in a test tube—a Homunculus, right? Uh, no, was that the term...?”

Liberi: “You weren’t far off... An Essoculus.”

Enarky: “Stop saying all these complicated things, for fuck’s sake, my head’s spinning…”

The van halted abruptly. They both swinged their heads over their shoulders.

                                                                                        °

                             

     Click...!

They didn't hesitate a beat and pulled their guns on him.

“Don't kill me!!” Enarky bellowed in fear, throwing his hands in the air, a bead of sweat glistening on his face.

They replied in unison with exemplary composure, “You’ve got five goddamn seconds to say your prayers.”

Enarky: “No! Please…! I swear I won’t bother you!”

Koncel: “We give him the choice for his last words, and this is all he can come up with?”

Liberi: “See, I told you your stupid species was weird.”

Enarky: “Please, listen to me… There’s nowhere I could go back to live with my dad. Whether it’s a matter of means or a matter of… conviction—which I’m only just starting to have, by the way…”

Enarky: “I can’t pretend this day never happened. At least let me ride with you to this van’s stop—you won’t even know I’m here."

Koncel: “...”

Enarky gulped, his shoulders heaving up and down with his frightened breathing. After exchanging a tense glance, Liberi eventually lowered his gun somewhat and said to him, “…Answer this: why did they tie you to a chair in a mobster’s hangout in the first place?”

Enarky’s breathing appeared to stabilize, “…Because I wanted to kill one of them.”

Koncel glanced sideways to gauge Liberi’s reaction, then he was next to put his weapon down. Liberi questioned the young man a second time, “Why did you wanna do such a thing?,” but Enarky sucked in his quivering lips, finding himself unable to say anything to that. He frowned, staring into space, his fists clenched around the fabric of his pants.

In front, Liberi serenely shut his only usable eye and faced the windshield again, settling in more comfortably as he crossed his hands at the back of his head.

Liberi: “Oh well! I suppose you’d actually like that… If you could come along and give them a piece of your mind too.”

Koncel's mouth fell open in surprise... though not for long, as he too gave a resigned sigh and refocused on the road ahead under these new circumstances.

Enarky’s eyes widened. Although his pain hadn’t gone away, his platitudes and lack of confidence had apparently succeeded in conveying his current mindset.

At least now, he was free—perhaps, even more now than before.

to be continued...