The Hound and the Mercenary
"Who's the kid?"
"A Hound. You know, the one I mentioned running into before."
"That's the one? The corporations have really lost their minds. Did you know about this?"
"She didn't always look like this. Even they're not crazy enough to send a child into the field in their original body. She used to look completely different, but they swapped her out after the war ended."
"Those monsters..."
"Still, isn't it interesting? These are the same people who treat implanting cybernetics into the central nervous system like it's nothing."
"That's what makes it even more disturbing. Is she even human?"
"Who knows..."
The woman pulled off her gas mask, flashing a mysterious smile at the man's question.
* * *
When I opened my eyes, I was lying on a cot. All sorts of conductive tubes were plugged into my body, treating me like half a corpse. The maintenance procedure felt strangely familiar. Had some corporate handler picked me up? My mouth was bone-dry. There was no strength in my limbs; even breathing was difficult. The smells wafting from every direction were overwhelmingly toxic. The sight of mold growing across the ceiling told me this wasn't any proper medical facility. So not a corporation, then.
I lay there for a while, staring blankly at the ceiling, until a voice came from beside me.
"Throwing away even your own life for a comrade's revenge. What a touching friendship."
It was a woman's voice. Thinking back to the last thing I'd seen, it was probably that birdbrain. Strange. She'd been in the middle of having a corporate implant installed. She'd seemed like a corporate soldier. So what was this rundown facility?
Had she been discarded by the corporation too, just like me?
With that thought, I turned my head. There she was, gas mask removed, staring at me intently. Her green eyes were quite striking. I glanced at her once, then looked back at the ceiling.
"...Revenge for a comrade? It wasn't anything that grand."
The reply came back immediately, as if she'd been waiting.
"I know. Hounds don't get worked up over something like that. It's just another day on the job for you people."
She wasn't wrong. She waited as I stayed silent, then asked another question.
"Then why did you fight at all? Was it really worth staking your entire life just to wipe out one mid-sized gang?"
It was a difficult question. But not one I couldn't answer.
"I just felt like it."
"You're even crazier than I thought."
"It felt like my body was itching."
Whether you lived addicted to drugs or addicted to gunpowder, the words were different but the essence was the same. After sinking into the past for a moment, my body began to stabilize. Returning to the past through drugs, or returning to the past through gunpowder. The only difference was the method. I was still trapped in the obsession that I had to prove my worth through constant struggle and combat.
"So instead of taking the drugs, you decided to throw yourself onto the battlefield."
"It wasn't a decision. I just came to my senses and there I was."
"Pushing yourself into endless self-destructive urges. Don't you think that's dangerous?"
I stared blankly at the ceiling.
"Just because the body has left humanity behind doesn't mean the mind has. Have you developed a taste for slaughter? Simply wanting to fight and shooting guns everywhere you go makes you nothing more than a beast below human level. Which one are you?"
This woman seemed to be asking quite seriously. I couldn't tell what she was trying to confirm by questioning me.
"I don't fight without reason either."
"Everyone says that."
"No matter how much I want to fight, I at least find a reason first."
"Trying to find justification and rationalize it. That's surprisingly naive coming from the mouth of a mad war fanatic."
She dragged her chair closer to me. Then she grabbed a fistful of my hair, forcing me to face her, and stared directly into my eyes.
"...You don't look like you're lying. I see an unpleasant flame, but it seems you haven't crossed the line yet."
"What are you talking about?"
"I thought you were just another mindless Asura bastard, but you're still a sentient being who retains some human qualities."
She stood up from her seat. Then she pulled out some unidentified drug from her coat and injected it into my neck.
"Ghk, cough!!"
My whole body suddenly burned as if a fireball had been shoved inside me. My previously stuffy lungs cleared and grew cold. I gasped for breath roughly. Without any explanation, she grabbed my arm and dragged me off the cot.
"Follow me."
"Cough, cough... what...?"
"At least if you're not an Asura but a human I can talk to, there's room to make use of you."
She roughly ripped out all the conductive needles embedded in my body and dragged me somewhere. My body was burning like fire and the situation was confusing, so I couldn't think straight. I stumbled after her footsteps in a daze.
The place she led me to was a small dirt clearing outside the building. It looked like a training ground; weapons were scattered around, and there were even shooting targets. She threw me into the middle of the clearing and said,
"What's your specialty? What field are you most confident in? What's your main weapon?"
It didn't seem like a situation where I could talk my way out of this. I quickly gave up.
"......Explosives."
"Ah, explosives. How hot-blooded. Can that body even handle it?"
"It could before."
She acted like she hadn't heard me and walked over to where the weapons were laid out. She picked out several and tossed them to me. They were mostly normal-sized weapons that an ordinary person would use.
"Most people wouldn't call something bigger than their forearm 'normal-sized.'"
"Does it show that much on my face?"
"It's all in your eyes. Anyway, all you Hounds have a screw loose somewhere in your heads."
She pointed at the weapons she'd thrown me with her eyes.
"Anyway, pick one you like. What looks good?"
I looked down at the weapons piled at my feet. Most of what she'd thrown were things like high-explosive battle rifles or grenade launchers. There were some I saw often, but others I'd never seen before. They looked like civilian models rather than military issue. The strange part was why these weapons had adapter connection ports. They weren't Pangs, just ordinary firearms, yet they had standardized connectors.
"I tinkered with them a bit in case something like this came up."
"Are you insane?"
"As long as you know the specs, adapters aren't a problem. Even if there isn't one, you can just attach it."
The real question was how she'd figured out the specs. I sighed.
'I guess this could be considered a Pang in its own way.'
It was different from the usual reinforced exoskeleton-style Pangs, but since it could still connect to an adapter, it counted. I selected a few weapons. A high-explosive battle rifle. A 40mm grenade launcher mounted on top of it. And an automatic shotgun on the opposite arm. I connected the carefully chosen Pangs to my body. The adapter clamps clicked into place, and I felt my senses expand. I could control the weapons attached to my arms at will.
"How is it?"
"No problems. The structure is simple, so the neural terminals aren't burning out."
The automatic shotgun worked without any interference, and while the grenade launcher was a bit of a hassle since it needed to be loaded manually, it functioned properly. Seeing me equipped with the weapons, she spoke.
"Then let's go somewhere with me now. It's a request I received. I might as well see the Hound demonstrate their skills while we're at it."
"What are you talking about?"
"Work with me."
I frowned as I looked at her. There wasn't a trace of deception in those green eyes.
"Are you out of your mind?"
"Why?"
"You know full well that the corporation and I are enemies. What the hell do you mean, work together?"
"Are you worried about us?"
"No, I'm worried about myself. Aren't you a corporate pawn?"
Though I was starting to have some doubts. If there was something suspicious, it was better to dig until the end. She snorted at me.
"A pawn? That's the most insulting thing I've heard in a while. You seem to have misunderstood after meeting me once. The place I belong to isn't the corporation. No, I don't belong to anywhere in the first place."
"What do you mean?"
"You don't get it? A mercenary. I'm a mercenary. Back then, I stuck to his side under the pretext of a simple escort request. I took jobs from both the Jin Family and the corporation. To stab the corporation in the back, I ultimately sided with the Jin Family."
"Do you have a grudge against the corporation?"
"It's simply because of my convictions."
"A mercenary who keeps her own convictions. That's overflowing with more romance than necessary."
"But that's how you survive for a long time in this world."
I recalled what the birdbrain had said before. In the middle of that desolate gas station. As if she'd remembered that moment too, she opened her mouth.
"I told you before, didn't I? Humans without convictions don't last long in a world like this."
"So what's your conviction?"
"At the very least, I only strike clear enemies. That Darius you worked with only changed after meeting you. From what I dug up, his track record was no different from a street thug. That's why he died so quickly."
She meant he'd stirred up too many enemies everywhere and ended up dead. Even I had to admit she wasn't wrong. Thinking back to my first meeting with Darius, he'd tried to hit me from behind while I was out buying drugs. Still, I couldn't understand.
"What are you trying to achieve by doing that?"
"Then what were you trying to achieve at the end of your fights?"
Our questions drew parallel lines. In the end, we were asking for an ultimate answer to life that didn't exist, so there could be no answer now. It wasn't like the answer was 42. To my silence, she replied.
"Right. Everyone's just living to survive. Especially in a world like this."
"Living to survive, huh."
"One purpose chases the tail of another, and then another. That's how it is."
She fell silent for a moment. Then, in a voice so quiet it was barely audible, she muttered to herself.
"Even in such a desolate world, it's human to chase after ideals."
Her green eyes sank. A little later, she put me in a car and we moved out.