20 A qi master in the Work-Lair

“I looked, like, everywhere but I couldn’t see her,” Zeeta said. The three of us had just entered the Work-Lair from the docks. Zeeta added in a whisper: “You sure they didn’t make it up just to lure you?”

I frowned. That was a possibility but…

“If we really don’t know where she is, let’s just ask them directly. Well then… let’s part ways here.”

Zeeta and Ray glanced at each other. Ray was wearing a flashlight around his neck, lighting his way like it was daylight. I seriously didn’t get why he insisted on coming along. Despite being the son of the Lord Necromancer, he totally wasn’t familiarized with the Underworld life.

“Be careful, Armen.”

“I will. Don’t get too close, Ray. The same goes for you, Zeeta. If they know I’m not alone, things will get worse.”

I left, turning a corner and picking up the pace. The streets were really intricate, and I barely found my way to the half-constructed building where, months ago, the Cheetahs had been interrogating the Hell Hounds.

When I finally reached the building, I was under the impression that I was being watched, but I saw nobody as I stepped between the pillars, on the cemented ground. If those guys were so good at hiding… I just hoped Ray and Zeeta would stay at a fair distance.

I finally saw a light bulb in the dark, shining over a dozen of people: some were lazing around, some were training in hand-to-hand combat, others were just staring at their phones with bored faces. Crap. They were that many? My eyes searched for Erma, but I couldn’t see her at all.

“Oh? Look. He really came!” The merfolk stepped forward, obviously pleased.

I stopped. Those gangsters’ eyes were looking at me with mingled curiosity and mockery. I asked:

“Where is Erma?”

Several of them snorted with laughter.

“He really fell for it!”

I widened my eyes as the merfolk sauntered towards me. Despite being in winter, his tattooed, blue arms were showing. His golden eyes glared at me.

“Too bad, Mr. Smiley. You came to rescue a princess who’s never been kidnapped.”

As soon as I heard that, I turned around and ran.

Crap, crap, crap… Zeeta was right! It had been a trap all along. Those guys had lied. Erma had never been there.

I was thinking that when I realized they weren’t even trying to catch up with me. Only the merfolk was running on my heels, looking as if he was just playing around.

“Oh, oh, Straw Head! You forgot your wallet!”

Right. I didn’t care about the money in it, because I was pretty sure they wouldn’t give it back, but my ID papers were another story. If I had to remake them, how would I be able to enroll in that Experimental Program in January? Ray would say I was crazy but… I hated bureaucracy so much I would rather get thrashed by those thugs than spend all my holidays running from office to office in the administration.

Still, I was pretty sure the one keeping my wallet and my phone was none other than the merfolk. If I managed to lure him away from the others…

I tripped on something—a heap of metal bars I couldn’t see because I had been running in the dark. I was getting to my feet when the merfolk lit up a flashlight. My undead eyes immediately saw what was going on: the merfolk wasn’t alone. There were two other guys: one of them, a black-haired teen, seemed to be the one who had been following me since I had entered the building; the other one was taking a martial artist stance, ready to leap at me. They were blocking my path.

I understood two things.

First, they didn’t even think I could get away from them: worse, they had let me run on purpose.

And that was because… they were having fun.

In situations like these, when I was about to panic, I always smiled instead. I forced myself to calm down.

“Oh, you got me good!” I admitted. “Now let’s get to the funniest part, guys. You have to scare me as much as I scared you back then, merfolk. How are you gonna do it? Are you gonna beat me up? Yeah, right, violence is the only way you guys have to solve things—”

“Shut your trap, jerk!”

“—Too bad punching a weakling like me won’t satisfy you.”

“Now I really wanna wipe your smile off your face.”

The teen laughed.

“Don’t you get it? He’s smiling because he’s scared.” He pulled out a knife. “I wonder. Will you still be smiling when I cut off your nose?”

His voice totally didn’t convince me. I bet that kid hadn’t cut off the nose of anyone in his life. I let out a sigh.

“I wouldn’t of course. A nose is a very important part of the human body, after all. You’re what, fourteen years old? You shouldn’t waste your holidays scaring people, you know—”

“Like you’re one to talk!” The kid drew his knife closer. “Who was wasting his holidays scaring people in summer? And I’m sixteen by the way!”

I raised my hands peacefully.

“Haha, sorry, I guess I misspoke.”

“Ryu, don’t get in my way,” the merfolk then said as he stepped forward.

The merfolk was stronger and faster than I was, but the martial artist was the most problematic of the three, I think. He was barely blinking, ready to dash and block my way if I were to run away again. He wasn’t wearing any thorned choker around his neck nor any tattoo. Did that mean he wasn’t a former Hell Hound?

When the merfolk was only two meters away from me, I stared at him. He flinched and stopped. I was surprised. Back then, I had never thought about the aftereffects of my power. How many people had I traumatized under the Tiger Clan’s wing? I didn’t really feel sorry for most of them, but as for that merfolk before my eyes… I remembered him well, begging on his knees as he was spitting out everything about the Hell Hounds and even about his life. It was like in a drama: he was an orphan, had a little sister to take care of, and debts to pay inherited from his parents. He and his friends were somehow approached by the Hell Hounds and ended up working for them. It reminded me a little about myself, so… yeah, I think I was a bit sorry for what I did to him.

I bowed my head under his astonished eyes.

“As I said this afternoon, sorry for what I did to you.”

There was a silence… then the merfolk grabbed me by the collar, and half lifting me, pushed me until my back crashed into a pillar.

“You…!” He was shaking. He lowered his voice. “If you tell anyone what happened on that day, you’re dead.”

I breathed in. Damn. Now that I thought about it, his lifeforce was particularly tasty. Was it because he was a merfolk? Merfolks had seemingly been normal humans before the Big Blend, so it wasn’t surprising that an undead like me could absorb their lifeforce.

As my body was eating without restraint, he punched my head against the pillar.

“Did you hear me?”

Wait… What was I doing, eating while being knocked around?

“I heard you. But tell me the truth… Is Erma really not here? Where did you get that photo from?”

The merfolk smirked.

“Man, you sure you’re a friend of her? Last month that kid was a finalist for the title of the Farskyer Idol Girl of the Year. She didn’t get chosen in the end and called the jury idiots who couldn’t recognize the worthiest and cutest idol even when she was under their nose. That a snot-nosed, stuck up and ugly brat like her was a finalist is already insulting.”

“I know, right!” the teen, Ryu, laughed.

I stared at the merfolk, stunned. Erma had tried to be an Idol Girl? The heck? It didn’t sound like something she would do, but if she did… I couldn’t either imagine her accepting her defeat without making a scene in front of everyone. So that was why she was crying in the photo. I smiled with relief.

“So she’s safe. I’m glad.” I blinked. “Oh, but… do you guys follow those kinds of things? Farskyer Idol Girl of the Year,” I chuckled. “Does such a funny title really exist?”

“You… Smile again and I’ll break all your teeth!”

My smile died on my lips. Ray had said that undead skin and muscles were quite easy to heal but that growing new teeth or new bones was much more difficult.

“Hoho? You scared?”

I was. But I tried to rifle through his pockets with my hands anyway. If only I could find my wallet and phone, I could then just focus on running away.

“You! Whatcha doin’, you scumbag!” I crashed into the pillar again. Did any of my bones break? I couldn’t tell. I couldn’t feel any pain… “Idiot. I’ll give your things back only when I’m done.”

“Jonnie,” the martial artist said then, raising his eyes from his cellphone. “The boss says he wants to see the boy.”

“Hah?” The merfolk clicked his tongue. “The hell? Why? What boss?”

“The big boss. Lei.”

“… Andris, you’re kidding, right?”

“I’m not. See for yourself.” The martial artist nonchalantly put his phone under his companion’s eyes. “Looks like one of your friends talked about that guy’s power. Maybe the boss wants to use him?”

Jonnie got over it pretty quick and pulled at me grunting:

“Can’t be helped. Let’s go see the boss.”

I had a bad feeling about it. That merfolk Jonnie had lured me for revenge, but… what about his boss, that “Lei”? As for Zeeta and Ray… I was hoping they wouldn’t step in without a plan. We went to the second floor. Maybe curious to see what was going on, the people I had seen lazing around earlier followed us upstairs. There, the place was well-lit, but we were still in a building in construction: there were no pieces of furniture nor walls, just a lot of columns and iron bars all over the place.

“Boss, I’ve brought you the man,” Jonnie said, finally stopping. “Whatcha wanna do with him? I was planning to beat him up, y’know.”

The boss of their small group was surprisingly young. He looked my age. He wore a long, low, and black braid, and was just now sitting on a bamboo rug, stretching his legs. Another martial artist? He looked up our way. His blue eyes sparkled.

“Ah, yeah, thanks, Connie.”

“It’s Jonnie, though,” I heard the merfolk mutter under his breath.

“I was just wondering,” the boss added, “I’ve seen that photo you showed to that… Meow Head. The girl. Erma, was it? Do you really know her?”

Jonnie pushed me forwards.

“He’s talking to you, Straw Head.”

“Ah…” Under Lei’s slanted, calm gaze, I blinked. He didn’t look like a bad person, or at least not a really bad one. “I know her, yes.”

“Friends?”

“Yeah. Why? Don’t tell me you kidnapped her for real?”

“Mm? No, why would I bother kidnapping girls? I’m not that bad-looking, am I?” He elastically stood up, placed his hands on the ground, pushed his body vertically, head down, and began doing push-ups like it was nothing as he asked: “Say, Flaw Head. Is it true that you could scare people to death when the Spider Clan gave you the pills?”

That guy… He totally had a problem with names. I nodded as I admired his push-ups. He didn’t even look that muscled…

“It’s true. I could. But I can’t anymore.”

“Because you’re not given the pills?”

“No. Because I experienced a quirk.”

He paused.

“Oh? So you’re a power-holder? What kind of power?”

I fixed my eyes on his braid falling on the ground. I lifted it under his gaze.

“That kind of power.”

“Oh! Telekinesis!” He landed on all four with a grin. “Want to join my group?”

I heard the gangsters around me snort under their breath. I smiled back.

“Thanks, but I’ll pass. I quit my gangster’s life.”

Lei’s eyes had a cunning glint.

“Aya-aya, Hawk Head, you can’t quit something like that that easily, you know. Listen. Coincidentally, I know that ‘Erma’ too. And her cell number. If I call her and tell her you’re here, do you think she will come?”

I froze. What? That guy knew Erma? Lei smiled, took out his cell, and began typing. Was he bluffing?

“Linah? I mean, Erma. Don’t hang up, dear, I’ve got something for you.”

He took a photo of me as I swallowed hard. The hell? He went on:

“Do you know him… Oooh, I see. You do know him, then. Don’t yell at me, I did nothing to him, I was just passing by when I heard some guys talking about that Yawn Head. Guess what? He came here thinking you had been kidnapped! Is he your boyf… Eeeeh, where is ‘here’, you ask? Well, you probably know that already. He’ll explain it to you…”

« Straw Head? » Erma’s voice was real.

I clenched my teeth. I didn’t want to get her into trouble…

“Boss!” a gangster said then. “We’ve found a suspicious guy wandering around. He says he’s called the police!”

The gangsters burst out laughing. My heart sank when I saw Ray pushed by two men. I screamed:

“Ray!”

He fell to his knees. I hurried to his side, worried to death. For some reason, Ray didn’t have his flashlight anymore, and he was huddling on the floor, shaking violently, and mumbling:

“Stay away, stay away…”

The only time I had seen him in such a state was when, back in middle school, on a field trip, the teachers made us climb a small hill in the dark to go see the stars from a space observatory. It was supposed to be a fun, touristic walk without any risk, but Ray had been paralyzed by fear almost from the start. After some encouragements and jokes to belittle his fears, our classmates and teachers had left him behind, telling him to go back to the inn… Maybe they thought he was just too lazy to climb up the hill? If they had stayed by his side as I did, there’s no way they would have thought that after seeing the whole thing. I would never forget Ray’s shaking face full of dread… I wished I never saw it again.

“Who the hell…” I groaned. My anger burst out, and I think my mind blacked out for an instant. “Who the hell took his flashlight away?!”

The gangsters fell quiet, surprised by my outburst, and for a moment, the silence was only interrupted by Ray’s irregular panting. He was calming down, though. Thank goodness, the room was well lit.

“You’re talking about that?”

A gangster was fidgeting with Ray’s flashlight.

“He was holding at it so tightly, I thought it was some kind of weapon,” he laughed.

I jumped to my feet and held out my hand, furious.

“Give it back.”

“Could it be,” Lei intervened, “that your friend’s afraid of the dark?”

I heard them laugh. Lei stopped beside us, glancing at Ray.

“Hey, Baseball Cap, is it true you called the police?”

Ray murmured:

“It’s… not. Sorry, Armen, I—”

“Don’t apologize,” I said, giving him a gentle knock on the head. “Are you all right, now?”

Ray nodded.

“Yeah… sorry. I blundered.”

“I blundered too.”

Lei looked at his phone.

“Oh, looks like Linah hung up. She probably is on her way right now. Let’s have some fun until she gets here, okay? I’m curious to know what kind of guy you are, since my little sis seems to care at least a bit about you.”

Little sis?! What did he mean by that? Erma was his little sister? But why did he call her Linah? Was Erma not her real name? No way… Perhaps he was just trying to confuse me, but why? Beside me, the former Hell Hounds Ryu and Jonnie were as lost as I was.

“She got angry at me,” Lei continued. “You’d better compensate with a good fight. I won’t use my power, so come at me. If you land a hit on me, I’ll let you go. If you can’t do it before Linah gets here, you join my group.”

“Are you insane?” I replied. “I won’t join your group.”

“Why not? The pay is fair, it’s fun, and I give martial arts lessons for free!”

From his subordinates’ grimaces, I bet those “lessons” weren’t funny at all.

“I even teach a strengthening method to my most loyal disciples. So?”

“Strengthening method? What’s that?”

“Aya-aya… You’re interested, aren’t you?”

“I’m not.”

“Martial arts are all about qi and circulation techniques,” he explained despite my quick reply. “Strengthening methods allow you to harden your body by using not only muscle power but energies as well. And some of those methods are really, really powerful. That’s why they are not taught to just anybody… Did I lose you?”

“Yeah.”

He chuckled.

“Well, enough talking. Come at me.”

“Don’t wanna.”

A punch flew in my direction. I fell.

“Armen!” Ray cried out.

“You, the scaredy-cat, just step aside,” Lei said. “Nyaw Head, bring it on.”

I was pissed off. I lunged at him. He dodged my punch, and the next ones as well. He moved swiftly, slightly smirking.

“Is this all you can do? And you call yourself Linah’s friend?”

“Sorry, but I’m a friend of Erma’s, I don’t know that Linah,” I grumbled.

“Oh?” He laughed. “So you don’t even know her true identity. That’s funny. She is funny. My little sis.”

What did he mean by that? I stopped thinking when I saw a palm of his hit my chin. Though I didn’t feel any pain, my whole body was shaken.

“You’re sturdier than I expected.”

The gangsters around us commented:

“I would have passed out after a blow like that.”

“The boss sure is a master.”

“Sure is.”

“But then is the Straw Head a martial artist too?”

“Clearly not. But he’s a stubborn one.”

In the end, I kept struggling and being hit without even being able to land a hit. I even tried to use my telekinesis and shut his eyes, but he barely slowed down. Not only that: way too soon, he figured out that he just had to pass an arm on his eyes to make me break contact. Ray was cursing under his breath, flanked by two gangsters, when he suddenly yelled:

“Now I remember you!”

Lei stopped, surprised. My punch hit him in the chest. I grinned.

“Thanks, Ray, I landed a hit!”

It didn’t look like it hurt, though. Lei frowned at Ray.

“What do you mean, you remember, scaredy-cat? Do you know who I am?”

Was he ignoring me? Ray was staring at the young martial artist with amazement.

“How…?”

“Boss!” a sudden voice cried out from the stairs. “Your sister… Your sister is coming!”

Lei grimaced.

“Aya-aya… So soon?”

We heard several voices yell, then one shouted:

“Boss, your sister is totally out of contr—Aaaargh!”

The gangster that was running towards us while screaming was struck by something in the back and fell head over heels.

“LEI!”

The scream of rage tore the air. Lei whistled, sent a thumbs up to his subordinates, and said:

“Soldiers, keep your positions.”

He fled. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Was he afraid of his little sis? What was going on?

Then I saw her. The pink pigtailed girl appeared from the shadows. She was not just using her power to detach her left hand; she was sending it flying at high speed. And not only her left hand but her right hand too, as well as her forearms: at that moment, they were darting projectiles that flew away at an incredible speed and returned to their owner as boomerangs to be sent away again. The gangsters in her path were being hit one by one; the others were fleeing, cursing their boss and running for their lives.

I stood still, in awe. She was Erma, wasn’t she? Her round face was pale from anger, her blue eyes ignited with a dangerous flame. It seemed as if the Wrath in person had come into the building to wreak havoc.

Soon, we could only hear the wind caused by Erma’s limbs flying back and forth her main body like a storm. I had never seen something so creepy and cool in my life.

I called out her name.

“Erma!”