Paranormal Link - 21
A strange silence hung in the air inside the workshop. A weird atmosphere—you get the idea. Me, sitting on the floor near the entrance. Blanca in the workshop's one and only chair. The woman from next door leaning against the workbench. We all kept a subtle distance, mouths shut.
'Your face like that would worry your parents, so rest a bit before you go home.' At Blanca's request, spoken with a face drained white as a sheet, we'd decided to take a break here in the workshop.
"……."
Rest? More like we were all just eyeing each other. To be precise, Blanca didn't seem to have the bandwidth to notice us—she was out of it—but the woman and I were definitely watching each other. Or rather, both of us were watching Blanca out of the corner of our eyes.
Felt like I should say something, but nothing came to mind. And as for me? I'm infamous for making kids who aren't crying burst into tears, or making criers sob even harder. I've got no clue how to actually stop it. They say assembly is the reverse of disassembly, but weirdly, doing the opposite of what made a kid cry never calms them down. Shouldn't reversing the trigger fix it? Anyway, a guy like me hesitates to step up in situations like this.
"……"
Couldn't just sit there silent, so I shot the woman a look like say something, but she shot one right back like you say something. Our eyes kept meeting for no good reason.
"…You were messing with this thing here?"
In the end, she broke the ice first. Lousy topic choice—made me regret not blurting out some nonsense myself. Who starts comforting a shaken kid by talking about disassembled cyberware? A real killer move.
Comfort's supposed to be warm concern and empathy, right…
"Huh? Oh… yeah."
Blanca, lost in thought, perked up right away.
…Huh?
"Wolftech power arm, right? Hmm…"
"Why…?"
Blanca hopped up from the chair and peered into the woman's face as she examined the disassembled cyberware with clear interest. Her expression, staring expectantly, had lost its pallor—vitality returning.
…What about the warm concern and empathy?
"The joints… cut clean as hell."
She methodically scanned the arrayed parts, paused at one nearby piece, glanced at me, then refocused intently on the workbench.
"Ripped out the proxy nerves and signal converters entirely, and the drive unit…"
"……."
Blanca watched her mutter on, eyes sparkling so bright I could practically hear her heart pounding.
…Women are impossible to figure out. Is that the kinda talk that gets your blood pumping…?
"Planning to turn the power arm into some kinda reinforced exoskeleton?"
"You figured that out just from this?!"
"If not, no need to strip out just the neural bits here. Drive unit and spine core all broken down—you wanted a proper look inside."
"Whoa…."
Blanca, eyes wide and gleaming, snatched the covered pad from beside her.
"But doing it this way… causes a problem."
"Yeah, yeah! Exactly. It bottlenecks right here."
"You'd bypass it… like this…."
Suddenly, the two dove headfirst into geek-speak, all fired up. I clamped my mouth shut and just watched.
"……."
Chattering voices—one bubbly, one flat—blended amid the dim glow of the desk lamp, casting shadows on the pale and brown profiles of the two women. Somehow, their faces looked uncannily similar.
"Oh, about that Dex guy—we settled on paying for the door repair. Should I go collect it myself, or send the one who actually clashed with him?"
I tossed it out casually, since the call seemed more worried about the woman than me. Whispers came from the other end—talking to someone nearby.
[…We'll handle that on our end.]
Just as I'd hoped—they'd take care of the hassle. I thanked them and hung up. Then the woman from next door approached from behind.
Feeling her stare, I spoke first.
"…You two hit it off, huh?"
No need to relay the call—she'd heard it all anyway.
"Coincidence. I just happened to know about her interests."
Her response sounded normal enough, though my neck prickled.
"Knew 'em well, did ya? That your old line of work?"
"…Just someone I knew back in the day who was into that stuff."
"Someone you knew back in the day, huh."
I turned to face her. She wore a smile.
"Yeah. Someone I knew… back in the day."
The forced smile on her face looked nothing like Blanca's.
"Hey! Help me close this door!"
We'd been staring each other down when Blanca called out. We both turned her way at once.
…Door duty fell to me.
On the way home. Blanca chattering away, the next-door woman responding. I trailed behind, watching closely.
She seemed to have shaken off the shock completely, but….
I glanced at the woman beside Blanca. Her eyes barely twitched—cyberware, so no surprise—and her voice stayed steady.
But….
Eyes on her fidgeting fingers, constantly twisting, I slipped between them.
"So… why?"
"'Cause you're leaving me out."
"Huh?"
"Don't talk shop only you two get—include me!"
"…Jealous of me chatting with sis?"
"Jealousy? I ain't swayed by base emotions like that."
"…Then what's with butting in and ruining it? We'll train alone later anyway, right?"
"……."
Yeah, nothing to say to that.
But still….
I glanced sideways. Our eyes met, and she got it—mouth opening in an ah.
"It's fine."
She said it with a smile more artificial than usual.
"For now."
Her eyes fixed on Blanca. A piercing vibe aimed my way. Fingers still twitching restlessly.
Unconscious tells.
'For now' means it'll blow up soon if this keeps up, right?
I eyed her suspiciously. Then Blanca's innocent voice piped up beside me.
"Huh? What is?"
"Nah, let's just hurry home. They'll be worried."
She answered Blanca coolly. Smooth lie, straight out of a killer's playbook.
"…Yeah, later than usual."
"Not that—he made a call somewhere earlier."
"A call…?"
Spotlight swung to me.
"No number for you, so I asked old Rom to check in."
"…Oh, that call earlier. Wait, so…?"
"Blanca!"
Her name rang out from afar. Beyond the flickering busted streetlight, the Lopez couple and Gustaf came running.
"You okay?!"
"No injuries?"
They swarmed her, checking her over. I stepped back a bit.
"Ah… sorry to worry you. It was nothing."
"What happened?!"
"Just… went shopping and… no big deal, Mom."
Blanca gave Lopez Wife an awkward smile amid her fretting. I felt her glance my way, but said nothing as the giant lumbered up.
"This one's the helper."
"…Thanks."
I pointed to the woman beside me; Gustaf grunted his gratitude.
"No trouble. Was just out for a walk nearby."
"Walks are her thing. Run into her all the time."
"……."
Gustaf shot me a dubious look. The woman beside me flicked her eyes my way—seemed annoyed.
"Anyway, thanks to you, Blanca's safe."
She just smiled silently at the beggar's repeated thanks.
"So what went down?"
He muttered low, pitched so Lopez Wife wouldn't hear. Guess Iron Valley's secret base stays secret from the wife.
"Mercs hunting something, tried busting down the door."
"…Hunting what there?"
"Ask old Rom—guild knows all about it."
"Guild?"
…This old bum.
"It's guild now, not union. Union's some 30-year-old relic term."
"……."
Before the beggar could yap more, Lopez Wife came over with thanks. We traded polite nothings and headed home. Homeowners to the upstairs, neighborly us to our rooms. Beggar to the streets.
We split at the house. Felt like an eternity of a day, but training awaited. Changed, grabbed my blade, headed out.
As I shut my door and passed next door, it swung open like timed.
"Hey…."
A porcelain face peeked through the crack, calling me.
"……."
Her voice clung sticky-sweet, putting me off answering. I just stared instead.
Our eyes met; she smiled—more killer-like than ever.
"Figured tonight might run long… wanna keep me company?"
…Whoa. Even the pickup line screamed murderer.
Strip that away, though, and it was kinda seductive. I smiled back.
"We don't do that."
"……."
"Gotta stay tight for training. Later."
"……."