"Are you really Moon's kid?"
"Yes."
"What is your Aspect?"
"None of your business."
"How powerful are you?"
"None of your business."
"Is the rumours about Moon being associated with the strongest mercenaries of the underworld true?"
"Don't know, don't care."
"You've said you've been living at Samara all these years. How is it like over there?"
"Don't mention it."
"Is it true that Samara is under the occupation of a terrorist group?"
"Finally, a question that everyone need to learn as the truth."
"How powerful are the people of Samara?"
"Barely any food."
"Are their Aspects powerful?"
"Their faith surely are."
"What was your job at Samara?"
"No, just no."
"What is the current condition over there?"
"Those warlords are still searching for the recipe for hummus."
Karen can't helped but sighed as he answered the youth's question half heartily.
The youngster as he now came to know as Makoto basically doesn't know what personal boundary means.
It's almost half an hour after he had arrived and the youth had been asking him questions.
Karen is annoyed and Makoto seems to love seeing his reaction. With every questions asked, the youth would inched closer to him.
The corner of Karen's lips twitch.
His hand grabbed the youth's face, pushing him away.
"I'm eating." Karen grumbled as he continues to eat the mashed potatoes that Wak Tolak had prepared.
His hand continue to hold Makoto's face, holding him in place.
Makoto tried to push forward, but much to his surprise he can't move. Karen is holding his face so firmly, he can't escape.
His hand reached out, clawing the white haired boy's arm in an attempt to escape.
Makoto grabbed a knife from his pocket and slashes at Karen's arm.
Not even a scratch can be seen on Karen's arm.
"Iffff thish yur ashpek?" Makoto blinks his eyes as he stared at Makoto.
Karen flicked his wrist, sending the redhead flying into the air.
Makoto's body flew into the air. His figure arched across the room, descending into the ground before landing with an elegance with both feet.
The red haired youth even gave a slight bow to tje none existence gusts.
Karen merely scoffed at the latter's performance. In his eyes, it is nothing but a show off.
Wak Tolak walked down the door. An envelope in his hand.
Walking towards the bar, he placed the envelope right before Karen.
Karen eyed the envelope before him before turning back to his meal.
For a place known for it's high crime rate, the meal here is not that bad. Disgusting, but consumable.
"Your old man sure knows how to pick a problem for himself." Wak Tolak spoke, breaking the silence.
Karen raised an eyebrow.
Even Makoto can't help but tilted his head in confusion.
The envelope was something that his adoptive father, Moon Brandon had have to him before his death.
As for what was written inside, it's none of his problem.
"Telling you to come to this city is no different than sending you to death." Wak Tolak calmly added.
"I survived Samara for years. Surviving here is no different." Karen calmly said, opening a can of soda before taking a small sip.
Wak Tolak placed a handgun on the table.
Karen eyed it.
"Eagle - XIL. Easy to carry, not too heavy, can easily pierce through the wall of a building. Powerful, however useless against anyone with a B rank defence related Aspect." Karen calmly examined the gun in his hand.
"You are quite knowledgeable," Wak Tolak nodded his head, his eyes can't help but trailing down to the ring on the youth's finger, "Considering who your old man is, that is to be quite expected."
"The old man was harsh, but his training was efficient"
"Makoto!" Wak Tolak calls out to the youngster who had been watching their interactions.
Makoto's ears perked when he heard the old man's voice calling out to him.
"The task this morning. Have you finished it yet?"
Makoto smiled sheepishly, "Nope."
"Then brings Karen to see around town." Wak Tolak ordered, "Let's take this as a little test."
"Hang on," Karen raised his hand.
"What?" Wak Tolak turns to him.
"There is something I need to do before anything."
"What? Are you scared?" Makoto teased.
A few moments later, Makoto can be seen vomitting all of his breakfast and lunch into a sink inside the toilet.
"Get all of those disgusting bags out of my sight!!" Wak Tolak's voice resounded.
The next second, Karen walks into the toilet with a few small bags in his hands. The bags look to be made out of leather, looking somewhat damp and exuding quite the disgusting smell.
When Makoto thinks about how Karen had been carrying the bags, he continues to vomits into the sink.
Karen rolled his eyes as he walked passed him, putting the bags into the sink and turns on the water. Karen picks out a hand soap from the side and pours all if it down.
Water rolls down, creating bubbles as it made contact with the soap on the leather bags.
"So, what's the mission?" Karen suddenly asked.
Makoto looks at him as if he is staring at a madman.
"Cybercity is divided into various districts. However as you already know, the city mainly divided into two parts. The upper city that you always seen on TVs and commercial and this area of the city, the Undercity." Makoto explains as both youths walks down the empty streets of Cybercity.
"Cybercity is a sovereign city, meaning it is not a part of any country or sovereign nation. However, never looks down on this city as this city alone is already the size of a small country alone."
As they walks, Karen can't help but notice something. As they continue to go deeper into the heart of Undercity, the buildings start looking more rundown, more unkept and even broken. Some even only has the pillars left.
At one point, the road is nothing but rocks being put together to form a small layer of protection from the earth.
"A small country, or to be more precise a resourceful land that is previously a part of another country." Karen bluntly commented. As he said so, his eyes caught the sight of a few homeless people huddled together under a thin blanket.
Karen pulls out a match sticks. Hardening his skin, he flicks the match stick against it. The match stick flickered, a small fire flickering on it's end.
With a flick of his fingers, the match stick was thrown and landed on a dying campfire. The campfire lit up,
Makoto chuckled, "Don't blame our ancestors. After all, after the Great Cataclysm that destroyed more than half of the world's population, most countries had already been destroyed at that point."
"Now where was I? Oh yes, the Undercity. This is the bad part of this city nation. Crimes are high, disgusting and rotten to the core, and is a hideout to many small villain groups."
"Heroes? Law enforcers? It's nothing but glorified titles in this place." Makoto commented as they walked passed a wall. Graffities and degrading words that curses at the heroes can be seen.
"Death to the heroes"
"All lives matters!"
"There is no such thing as a superiority in humanity."
"Corporate lies!"
"As for the Uppercity, it is the complete opposite. A place no different to Dubai before the Great Cataclysm but many times better."
"Heroes littered the streets, protecting the civilians, corporates basically controls the entire city with corruption hidden by the lights of heroes."
"The haven of heroism, the mecca of advancement and the future of Aspect society."
The two walked down a bridge. Underneath, Karen can see the dark murky water flowing.
Karen looks down, staring at his reflection on the river that is connecting Undercity and Uppercity.
He glanced to the side, staring at the tall sky high buildings in the distance. Neon lights adorned the buildings of Uppercity, giving it life in the dark night.
"Cybercity, although is known as the capital of heroism, is not as simple as it sounds. Especially in Undercity."
"Rival gangs, villain groups, freelancers and mercs are everywhere across Undercity. Of course, in the eyes of the law they are all no different than villains. But what makes Undercity special."
"Can you imagine that? An ecosystem of villains." Makoto raised both of his hands into the air, emphasising on the words 'ecosystem of villains.'
"So what are we?" Karen can't help but asks as they walked passed a group of men.
The group of men glance at them with suspicion but chose to continue walking.
"We? We are freelancers, mercs or paid sword whatever you want to call. With a good pay, we do everything we could to accomplish a mission." Makoto proudly exclaimed.
Karen did not respond.
He stare at the back of the youth who is walking in front of him. Makoto is slightly taller than he is. From the look of it, he should be older than he is.
At least 16.
A 16 year old who had learnt how to take the lives of others. Such is the life in Undercity.
Who am I kidding?
The corner of Karen's lips curls into a smile
Samara, Cybercity, Uppercity or Undercity.
Karen pulls down the black facemask covering his face.
All of them are the same.
He pressed his lips against the can of soda before tilting his head up.
The sizzling liquid pours into his mouth before entering his throat.
It's just from one hell to another.
Suddenly, a scream is heard, causing the two to froze on the spot. Makoto wasn't able to react when Karen had dashed passed him, crimson red eyes flashing in red under the night sky.
To be continue
World Builder Note
Samara, a country that is rich with resources and minerals. Rich in culture and history. However it all ends when a certain country accused this once beaitful country for possessing a nuclear weapon, resulting in decades of occupation.
Billions of dollars wasted, soldiers traumatised and many had lose their heads, and the country of Samara have lost it's sovereignty.
Now, various terrorists group lead by poweful warlords controls huge percentage of the country with weapons being illegally sold by many corporations from all over the world to continue the conflict.
As it turns out, war is the most profitable business.