Chapter 51
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 51
The hospital in the Lower District was in shambles. Every time the door to the room swung open or shut, a cobweb-draped light fixture creaked and swayed overhead. If the place had been cheap, I might've let the complaints slide—but even a dump like this charged a fortune by Lower District standards.
Gabriel, fresh out of surgery, woke with his face still slack from the anesthesia and looked at me.
"I only paid for one day. You're discharged tomorrow," I told him.
Gabriel had taken four bullets to his chest and abdomen. Fortunately, none of them had hit anything vital.
"You don't have to be so cold about it. I was planning to leave anyway. No way I'm lining these money-grubbers' pockets either."
"What happened?"
"I got a warning. Things have been getting ugly around here. Everyone's scrambling to expand their turf."
"You're not in a gang."
Gabriel was a freelancer who made his living through violence. He fought in the Arena and took odd jobs like a fixer.
"That's exactly the problem. In peaceful times, they leave guys like me alone. But once a turf war kicks off, you're either with them or against them. Bastards opened fire out of nowhere just to tell me not to get cocky. I don't even know who the hell they were."
Gabriel ground his teeth.
"They can't have meant to kill you. They didn't shoot you in the head."
I formed a gun shape with my hand and tapped my temple.
"It was strictly a warning. For most people, this much is enough to put them out of commission for good. Or scare them shitless into crawling to some faction for protection."
"Then join a gang. Looking at the state of you, I don't think you'll last long on your own."
That was my version of giving advice.
"I'd rather die. No chance. If I join up, I'd be taking orders from every kind of human garbage there is. More to the point—why the hell did you come looking for me? I haven't seen your face in months."
"I've got business around here. I'll be back at this time tomorrow. Get yourself pumped full of the strongest painkillers they've got and be ready."
"I literally just had surgery."
"That's exactly why I said take painkillers. Is there a problem?"
I crossed my arms and tilted my head. As I stared him down, Gabriel's face twisted up even more.
"Yeah, yeah. A measly gunshot wound is nothing, of course!"
Grumbling aside, Gabriel would do as I told him. He was the type who valued loyalty and could never betray someone he owed a debt to. That was precisely why I kept 'investing' in him.
I left the hospitalized Gabriel behind and stepped out of the room. Armed guards patrolled the halls. He'd be safe here.
Find the traces Kinuan left behind in the Lower District.
I'd heard before that Kinuan had been fairly close with the 'former Arena manager.'
If I can find out what Kinuan did down here in the past... I might get a clue.
I didn't return to my lodgings in the Upper District. I planned to stay in the Lower District for a few days.
Stepping out of the private hospital, I found myself on a bustling street. Being a medical district, it was mostly lined with more hospitals and cybernetic repair shops.
'Kaimen Corp's newest combat prosthetic—special sale! Guaranteed genuine! You'll never see this price again! Extra discount with a full-body prosthetic purchase!'
'Notice from the 7th Welfare Center. Our friend, Reven Purin, passed away today. However, Reven's heart still beats strong, and his lungs are perfectly healthy—not a single tumor. Please purchase his fresh organs for the sake of Reven Purin's surviving children.'
'We manufacture rainbows in-house. Selling cheap—apricot to red-green only. Inquiries from those in the know.'
Cheap holographic ads flickered and slid right through my face with every step I took. I frowned.
Everyone else passed by without a second glance, clearly numb to the eye-searing light pollution. Watching them, I figured I really had gone soft living in the Upper District.
Whirrrr!
At a fairly large hospital, a rusted, dilapidated aerial vehicle was carrying out an emergency transport off the rooftop. The one Gabriel and I had ridden in was exactly like that.
I walked through the night, taking in the sights of the Lower District. As if letting the rhythm of the city soak into me, I wandered from the bustling streets into the high-crime zones, pausing now and then at the boundary where the Upper District loomed high overhead.
And then... my steps stopped in front of a run-down building.
'72nd Orphanage.'
It was where I grew up. The wide, four-story structure had walls peeling away to expose bare concrete underneath. Around it lay a plot of land that served as both playground and vacant lot. Off to one side stood a warehouse.
Since it was late at night, most of the building's lights were off. The orphanage had strict rules for communal living. Get caught wandering around after dark, and you'd be punished. Of course, none of that mattered as long as you didn't get caught.
It hadn't even been four years since I'd left. Yet it felt like a hazy memory from another lifetime. Life as a cadet had been that intense—I'd lived each day like it was three or four.
My memories of orphanage life were far from comfortable. Still, we'd been better off than the street orphans who couldn't even get in. At the very least, the orphanage gave you a cramped place to sleep and a meager scrap of food. The bare minimum for survival was guaranteed.
I stood across the street, staring at the building.
Screeech.
A truck rolled up and stopped in front of the orphanage. The front gates opened, and the truck pulled inside, backing up close to the warehouse.
I watched in silence. Before long, the fat orphanage director finished a transaction with the driver and pocketed a credit chip.
Embezzlement again. Fat pig.
It was a familiar sight. The director was skimming off the supplies meant for the children and selling them on the private market. The low-level bureaucrats who were supposed to monitor for embezzlement looked the other way—they were on his payroll.
Even if I stepped in now, nothing would change. At best, the director would keep his head down for a few months. Unless someone watched him constantly, he'd slide right back to his old ways. And even if things did change, it would only change here. It wasn't as though I could visit and monitor every single orphanage across the Empire.
The world doesn't change.
The only thing I can change is myself.
I lifted my eyes to the windows. Children who'd woken were poking their heads out, watching the scene below. The older ones surely knew exactly what the director was up to. Just as I had, back then.
But they had no power to stop the embezzlement. Confronting him would only earn them punishments several times worse. Or they'd be tossed out onto the streets, only to turn up as corpses a few days later.
The weak children could not defy the strong director.
I lowered my head and scratched at my hair. After a moment's hesitation, I crossed the street and walked onto the orphanage grounds. The men hauling supplies between the lot and the warehouse stared at me.
This is pointless.
I knew it. Doing this wouldn't change the world. At most, the kids here would eat well for a few months.
...And if even that much of a change was possible, then it was worth doing. That was what I thought, right now. You've gone soft, Luka.
"Who the hell are you? Get lost!"
One of the men carrying cargo glared at me. They weren't fighters. Just laborers hauling boxes.
Crunch!
I kicked his knee. It didn't just bend—it shattered and burst apart. Cybernetic parts scattered in every direction.
"Wh-what?"
The truck driver and the other men gawked at me. A few of them clumsily drew their guns.
My hand twitched. I suppressed my combat reflexes. If I hadn't, the head of the man aiming at me would have exploded under my fist.
"Put it away if you don't want to die. That's assuming you'd rather walk out with just a lost limb."
I leveled my index finger, warning the man with the gun. I knew, of course, that empty threats wouldn't do a thing.
Bang!
A shot rang out. I extended my palm, then closed it into a fist.
"Ah..."
The man who'd fired gaped, mouth hanging wide open.
I opened my palm. A crumpled bullet dropped to my feet. A low-caliber pistol like that couldn't even scratch my prosthetic body.
"Move."
I walked straight between the men and the driver. None of them dared attack, edging backward to clear a path. A threat backed by action works wonders.
"Y-you, Lu... Luka?"
The director recognized me and let out an awkward laugh.
"It's been a while, Director."
"It really has. The Impe—Gah!"
I cut him off with an upward strike to the chin. The director rolled on the ground, writhing—it looked like he'd bitten his tongue.
"You're still living like this? You've surely piled up more than enough money by now."
"W-what is this? Lu... Luka. I treated you well. Later on, I gave you more rations than the others, didn't I?"
Once the results of my selection test came in, I had indeed gotten special treatment. I stopped going hungry. Even when the other kids starved, I got to eat my fill.
"I'm grateful for that. That's the only reason I'm not snapping your neck right now."
I said it with a smile. At my chilling words, the driver and the laborers started inching toward escape.
I turned and looked at the driver. The glow of my eyes must have felt like it was drilling straight through him.
"I don't know what's going on here... but we're out."
"Smart choice. I came from above. You know exactly what happens if you're caught dealing with this orphanage again, don't you?"
I pointed a finger upward, threading truth into the lie.
I had no authority to stop them. I couldn't watch this place around the clock. But if they valued their lives, they'd lie low on their own. The effect would last a year at most, though.
The driver nodded and signaled his men. They beat a hasty retreat, leaving only the director behind.
"I-I was wrong! I was wrong! Tell me what upset you! I'll apologize for all of it!"
Left alone, the director cried out, his face gripped with terror.
"I didn't come for an apology. I just happened to be passing by, got annoyed, and decided to stick my nose in. It's all coincidence."
I had no intention of looking after my old orphanage out of some sense of duty. Charity was best left to the whims and hypocrisy of the rich.
"This will never happen again. I-I'm reflecting on everything. Until now there was no one to stop me, no one to punish me. Today, I've been reborn. Thanks to you."
I listened quietly to the director's nonsense.
"...Feed the children well tomorrow."
I felt drained. He wasn't even worth beating or killing. Even if the director changed, nothing much would be different.
I looked up at the children watching from the windows. One of them waved at me, eyes sparkling.
I turned to leave the orphanage. It felt like I'd meddled for no reason. It wasn't like me at all.
I stopped at the front gate.
Suddenly, memories of my starving childhood flooded back. Sneaking out at night because the hunger was unbearable, rummaging through trash cans on the street. And yet the fingers of the director who used to pat my head had been so plump that his knuckles barely creased.
Ah. I'm actually a little pissed off.
"Luka?"
I turned around and walked back toward him.
Crunch!
I drove my fist into his face. His skull caved, molding itself around the shape of my knuckles. The pressure forced one eyeball halfway out of its socket, and the impact shattered every one of his front teeth. His nasal bone crumpled inward, fragments driven deep.
I held back my strength. He wouldn't die. Had I punched with everything, his head would have burst.
"Guh... cough..."
The director clutched his ruined face, letting out a wet, bloody groan.
"On second thought—yeah, I was a little pissed off."
I left the broken director behind and walked out of the orphanage. The street was quiet.
I planned to head back to the hospital where Gabriel was. Catch some sleep there, then hit the Arena with him.
I retraced my path through the night streets to the hospital. Sinking into the visitor's chair in the room, I fell asleep. My training usually let me sleep deeply anywhere, but tonight I slept so well it was hard to believe I was in a chair.
I woke to a refreshing morning for the first time in ages. I wasn't even irritated, despite Gabriel's ugly mug being the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes.
Yeah, I knew why I'd slept so well. Beating the crap out of someone you can't stand does wonders for your mental health. I had to admit it.