Ch.121Night of the Stars for Returned Children (2) – Work Record #019

The back of my hand covered in artificial skin looked just like it did when I was young. It was from before I even entered Belwether. When I joined Belwether, the back of my hand was matte black.

At least the quality was decent enough that it didn’t give off that shallow fishy smell typical of artificial skin. That alone was satisfying.

Ms. Eve approached as I stood in front of the full-length mirror at the changing room entrance, staring blankly at the back of my hand covered in new skin.

“Does it feel strange?”

“You know my hands were basically just tools for holding guns. They would have been this color before my latest modification too, but it doesn’t feel real yet.”

Eve finally looked somewhat like an older figure. Seeing me standing there awkwardly with an expression that said “better than I expected,” the corners of her lips turned up slightly in a smile.

“I know you weren’t involved in the Belwether coup, but… it seems whoever you met then was helpful. You’ve moved past the days when you couldn’t even care what color your hands were and only talked about needing to settle scores.”

“If I’d given up on settling scores, I probably wouldn’t have cared what was covering the back of my hand. It’s because I decided to settle them that I met that person I’d never met before, and now I can care about these things.”

Eve gently adjusted the line of my necktie collar and smiled leisurely. She was pointing out what had been censored and become reality.

“You didn’t do anything. That must have been their own form of consideration. Don’t you think?”

“Ah, that was my suggestion. Just… that person who appeared instead of me couldn’t help but care.”

Eve’s eyes widened slightly at the fact that erasing everything about me had been entirely my choice. She didn’t seem to doubt me. I was a trustworthy person.

“The person who appeared on Turner & Tucker’s broadcast?”

“Adrian. I didn’t even know his name until halfway through.”

That was for maximum efficiency. The one to stop Walter had to be someone under Walter’s command. The one to suppress Belwether’s coup had to be an insider, not an outsider.

“What kind of person was he?”

“I don’t know what kind of person he was or what kind of life he had. All I barely know is his death. Still, we shared the same body. We were both Belwether employees. I was lucky, but he wasn’t.”

Perhaps Adrian had volunteered for the experiment knowing about the coup plan. Perhaps he too was one of those who deserved better. I could have doubted, but I chose not to.

Adrian remembered me and apologized to me. He apologized for killing me even though I wasn’t dead. That made him fully human, worthy of having his life returned.

“So?”

“I decided to share my luck. All I needed to do was return to the night shift, push open the door, and awkwardly smile while asking, ‘Am I late?'”

Eve, having finished adjusting my clothes, gently pressed my cheeks with her two prosthetic hands. Her smile became more distinct, and even with my cheeks pressed, the corners of my mouth turned up.

“You’re too kind. Was that all?”

“To be honest… no. I wanted to give Walter, who had used even his own sister in his plans, one final blow. It was fifty-fifty. You know I can’t just be kind and stupid.”

Her thumb traced from my cheek along my cheekbone. She too was letting out a slight laugh.

“Kind and stupid people make everything more complicated. You’re the opposite. That’s only natural.”

Both goodwill and hatred are mine. I had no intention of denying either. Goodwill makes you take the first step, and hatred makes you endure until the last. Both are necessary.

From that position, I naturally wrapped my arms around her. Looking up at Eve, I met her gaze and smiled.

“What are you going to rent, Ms. Eve? Outside, they seem to be discussing what color dress would go best with a navy blue suit.”

It was a leisurely lie. Eve took a short breath as if she wouldn’t fall for it this time, or had she already fallen for it? Anyway, slightly swishing her deep blue hair, she blurted out:

“Finding a dress that matches blue hair would be difficult. Let them try their best. I’m thinking a suit might be better… Honestly, dresses were terrible. I wore one to prom.”

Hollow Creek’s prom… must have been terrible. Just the thought of hundreds of people gathering in one place wearing the same clothes, having the same hair color, using the same names makes my skin crawl.

“I think anything would have been terrible in Hollow Creek. Looking around…”

“Seeing hundreds, thousands of people with the same hair and same clothes. Would Los Angeles be any different?”

“The word ‘Eve’ meant something different in Los Angeles too. The phrase ’20 credits per hour paradise’ also meant something different in Los Angeles. How could they be the same?”

We were killing words painted in Hollow Creek’s colors. Filling the definition section of the dictionary with new meanings is a joyful task. I savored the phrase “humans enjoy.”

At those words, Eve thought for a moment and then nodded. As if it wasn’t decided yet, she shook her head briefly with a pleased expression.

“I’ll see what the party’s like. It would look ridiculous if I tried too hard at a casual gathering of twenty-two-year-old kids.”

“It’s not that formal, but…”

Even college parties had dress codes. It’s just that the dress code was Belwether intern uniforms. When the party started, someone from Belwether and someone from Panacea Meditech would come out…

Right, they would give speeches trying to somehow rebuild the hollow shell of friendly relations between the two companies. It was like a couple hosting their child’s birthday party a week before their divorce.

Last year, even the administrative team leader came to give a speech. Without needing to think further, it was that formal. I didn’t intend to sigh, but one escaped anyway.

“It is that formal. I almost forgot that I’m the only one with a close, family-like relationship with Belwether.”

“Pfft, have I caught myself a corporate aristocrat elite?”

“Just a returned child, that’s all.”

In a city where even real corporate aristocrats work as freelancers, I was nothing more and nothing less than a returned child. After releasing her waist from my embrace, I was about to leave the changing room in my suit when Eve grabbed my lapel.

The gaze that had been meeting mine just fine until now rolled slightly. After turning about half a circle and a bit more, I heard a voice wrapped in a shell of calmness and coldness, though its core was completely transparent.

“If it’s a Christmas party, will there be mistletoe decorations?”

“Probably?”

I deliberately didn’t say I understood her reason. Nevertheless, Eve made an excuse. The coolness that only wrapped the surface easily peeled away.

“It’s a silly reason, really. If I try after two drinks, I’ll end up doing it while drunk. And don’t make that face. You know exactly what I mean, yet you’re looking at me with that deliberately clueless expression. Let’s go.”

Without giving me time to respond, she rapidly spilled out her words and was the first to push open the door between the changing room and the store. Only then could I allow myself to giggle without holding back.

Eve went outside saying I’d stay a bit longer to look around, so I decided to take some more time as she suggested. Right now was at least business hours. Whispering was about as much as was appropriate.

Next to the inside pocket of the suit was a small protruding section designed to hold a tactical dagger. My first thought was that it was an unnecessary detail added just to claim it was for mercenaries.

I suppose some mercenaries would be happy about this. I should introduce this store to Jimon later. The mercenaries of Kanun Company would be quite motivated just by browsing this place.

As I was about to leave, someone else pushed open the door. It was Ms. Mila. She entered with quick steps, and her purpose seemed to be the full-length mirror. After smiling at me, she stood in front of the mirror and flexed her hands.

She kneaded her hands as if feeling the movement of her fingers or the softness of her palms, then said with a grin. Her expression was a very natural smile, but the awkwardness of her movements was unavoidable.

“There was no full-length mirror at the net cafe! Looking through a webcam always feels distant, and the quality is poor… This body is so wonderful, and I’m happy to finally see it properly!”

“What was your original body like?”

“You know what’s in the wasteland, don’t you? I could tell you if you don’t know… but it’s not exactly something I want to talk about to others. Yeah.”

People living in the wasteland, where even the possibility of natural cleansing of pollution had disappeared, were all in poor condition. Is even this ordinary body too healthy for Ms. Mila? I couldn’t tell.

“I know well. It seems a healthy body was more important to you than a home.”

“Of course! You only stay at home briefly, but you live in your body 24 hours a day. The body is much more important! I got a body first when I had the chance.”

I walked out of the changing room to avoid disturbing her. That was the end of the day’s schedule. Returning home, I set down the shopping bag with the tailor shop’s logo prominently displayed. The home was beginning to look more like a person’s home.

I thought I might end up hoarding useless things if I got happy every time I added some trinket, but I decided not to worry about the future based on tossing one shopping bag.

As decorations on the Christmas trees lining the streets increased one by one, preparations for attending the party progressed one by one.

It seemed Ms. Eve had chosen a dress too… but I couldn’t see it. We went together. To the store, that is. I heard we would choose together, but that was a lie.

While everyone was helping Eve choose what to rent, Volla kept me outside the store saying things like, “If you can wait for one minute, I’ll give you two marshmallows.” The message was to wait for Christmas.

I wondered if we needed to prepare so quickly, but all preparations were completed by the 23rd. Christmas Eve is meant to be spent with Eve of Christmas. I decided not to refuse at all.

As Christmas approaches, the city comes to life. From dawn, Farmers Company’s air purification drones begin to fly around, and the smell of smog lifts from the air.

In front of the Farmers Company headquarters stood a Christmas tree. A real tree planted in real soil. Last year it was probably displayed in nutrient solution without soil, but this year it was a tree planted in actual soil.

Above it hung a large banner reading, “Even this transition will eventually end.” This is what the hope of the day was saying.

No matter how much the past is just fog and the future is fantasy, it was enjoyable to see someone firmly grasping today speak about the future.

As I waited for the person who had set this as our meeting place while looking at that sight, soon a motorcycle stopped briefly at the roadside. A familiar thin silhouette appeared, and she removed her helmet.

Unlike how she would look tomorrow, Eve arrived in her usual aviation jacket. She looked up at the tall tree for a moment. With her gaze fixed on the tree for quite some time, she spoke.

“Biotechnology specialists are really different. What should I do, Arthur? I think I’ve already forgotten how they made Christmas trees in Hollow Creek.”

“Then another word has changed. Should I take a picture for you?”

Eve laughed softly at that half-joking remark.

“No, the atmosphere seems too tense.”

It couldn’t be helped. Even though Farmers Company’s security team wasn’t as strong as in their heyday right after the war, they still deployed their best forces in closed reinforced suits when setting up the Christmas tree.

This was what the company wanted. It was not something that could be damaged by one or two criminals or vandalism-obsessed fools. Farmers was still a mega-corporation after all.

Perhaps having heard our conversation, one of the Farmers Company security team members who had been standing by the Christmas tree with a reinforced suit rifle walked over. After a brief salute, he said:

“1:30 PM to 2:00 PM, 9:30 PM to 10:00 PM. Security team redeployment times. If you want to take photos, it would be better to come then. The company would want it on record too.”

“Ah, then we should come in the evening. Thank you for letting us know.”

The security team employee lightly stamped the ground with his reinforced suit, making a heavy sound, then shook his head.

“Not at all. What you give to freelancers comes back to you. And, taking down a Creek Inquisitor in front of the headquarters… your support for the Wasteland Restoration Institute… it’s all on record.”

If they remembered good deeds this well, there was no need to fear how long they would dwell on bad ones. I decided to believe that goodwill comes back to you. After a light nod in greeting, I set off.

New Magers Department Store was bustling. Security had been doubled, and today even the New Magers security chief wasn’t just waiting until the end but was walking around the first floor.

While the call signs of Belwether or Fitts & Morrison security chiefs were known only to those in the know, everyone knew the New Magers Department Store security chief’s call sign. It was “Champ.”

People crowded around wanting his autograph, but he seemed somewhat tired. If Shepherd is the commander type, and Talos is a battle elephant… that side must be from the battle elephant class too.

The escalator was so packed with people that I honestly wanted to just jump up to the second floor carrying Eve. The stores were crowded too, and there was none of the quietness from when I came to buy a hologram plant last time.

Is this also part of the holiday atmosphere? I’m not sure. It was my first time spending such a bustling holiday. Life had only existed within Belwether’s headquarters.

I decided to separate from Eve for a while to choose Christmas presents. I could roughly guess what mega-corporations were located in the direction Eve went, but I decided not to speculate.

As I wandered through the crowded place, I started to hear Chance’s voice in my head. The Christmas effect superimposed on the war-era American flag with sixty-one stars was quite amusing.

“What kind of gift are you planning to select, Agent Arthur Murphy?”

‘Good question. To be honest, I don’t think there’s a gift as good as the number of ways Ms. Eve will tease me tomorrow when she meets Robin.’

“Affirmative. Simultaneously negative. It’s true, but gifts are still necessary, Agent Arthur Murphy. Recommendation list… … cancel. Only data from just before the end of the war is available. Contaminated data.”

‘Contaminated?’

While conversing in my head, I headed down toward the N Entertainment Company logo. I stood in front of a hologram advertisement inviting people to experience Christmas from before the war.

“I’ve told you about despair spreading like a plague. It was contaminated by that. Since it’s not normal information… … … judgment. I will only help you choose a gift, Agent.”

Fortunately, Chance was incredibly useful in this regard. As an AI that remembered the pre-war era, he knew exactly what to choose among these numerous Christmas specials.

Christmas Eve ended with choosing gifts and taking a photo timed with the Farmers Company security team shift change.

It was quite an excellent day, but it’s inevitable that Eve of Christmas was more anticipated than Christmas Eve.