REND

Reo Hinode (Oberon) – Part 1

 

“Right-o, it is, Erind-o,” Reo said with fake enthusiasm. He gulped before leading the way.

What the fuck am I doing? he asked himself. Why was he still here instead of returning to the buffet, stuffing his face to challenge Everett’s eating record?

Reo wasn’t a coward—he could say that to himself without shame. His ancestors would agree. Probably. There was a huge difference between being a coward and not wanting to die. That was practically his motto at this point. Same as the next person, he wasn’t rushing to exit this mortal plane of painful existence, even if it was shitty.

Those raring to jump into a fight against Adumbrae were the crazy ones, like Myra who always wanted to be at the front and center of every battle. Her bullshit wasn’t bravery. It was stupidity.

Reo had brains-tempered bravery. He was brave, he could claim. A coward wouldn’t toss away his humanity and risk his life for… nothing.

That made him pause. Was his bravery also stupidity? What had their group accomplished so far?

Not much was the depressing answer. The 2Ms’ base getting totaled wasn’t their work. Before that, all they had done was be a plug up the 2Ms’ butt. Nothing they accomplished changed anything at the end of the day. This gung-ho mission of infiltrating this cruise ship was also a foolish errand that’d result in a whole pile of nothing.

Or maybe worse than nothing, if they died—that had a fat chance of happening. So… nothing new.

But this time, something was different. Reo didn’t think he could hold up his motto. Each step he took required willpower to keep his knees from wobbling. His mouth was dry and his palms were sticky from nervous sweat. He was as stressed as the day he had to tell his parents he got kicked out of college.

At that moment, he was a coward who didn’t want to die.

It’s Erind, Reo realized.

In all of the life-and-death situations he had been in—except that fucking one—he was always with the others. At least one person. He had someone to rely on, someone stronger than him, someone to hide behind and push on all the blame if things went to hell. He wasn’t the protagonist of the story, and he was happy about that. Less burden, less pressure, more security. No blame.

The one time he was alone during a mission, he got stabbed by the parrot-mohawk Rofirio! Reo had a fairy out and was caught unawares. Luckily, Rofirio thought Reo was a normal human and decided to toy with him, stabbing him several times.

Toy or torture?

Both.

If Rofirio had decided to chop Reo’s head off while he was kneeling like some involuntary seppuku, Reo would just die immediately with no chance to regenerate or fight back.

Memories of that time came flooding back now that Reo was again alone. True, he had Erind with him. But what could she do? She couldn’t protect him. It was the reverse. He had to protect her—this was worse than if he was alone. Worser… everyone would blame him if anything bad happened to her! This was a loser position if he’d ever seen one, and being a loser for most of his years on this shitty ball of dirt, he’d know.  With each passing second, the temptation to execute the sickest ankle breaker Erind had ever seen, and leave her behind became stronger and stronger.

No, I can’t leave Erind. Deen would kill him. Though that sounded preferable to everyone blaming him.

What if he grabbed Erind and dragged her to the elevator? She wouldn’t be able to resist. Okay, that sounded sketchier than an artist’s draft.

A sound plan. However, Reo pushed onward, further and further away from the elevator.

Why?

Erind was again the answer. Because of her, Reo couldn’t retreat even if he wanted to.  

What he said about not wanting to leave Erind alone because she’d continue investigating even without him was true. She’d pull something crazy and dangerous like that after he would bring her back up. But the real reason was—and he couldn’t believe this was happening—that she inspired him to continue fighting the Adumbrae.

Reo had mostly lost the will to fight that pushed him to Melding with the artificial Core, after no results to show for it. Then there was Erind, a normal human, experiencing shitshow after shitshow—getting kidnapped by the 2Ms, her condo leveled, her neighbors turned into monsters, and the Tech Fair she attended also got gatecrashed by Adumbrae-making terrorists. Despite all that, Erind was still hanging around.

If it were Reo, he’d think some Egyptian mummy curse was on him to have that much bad luck. He didn’t know the Japanese equivalent. Malevolent samurai ghost curse or something?

Reo looked over his shoulder. Erind followed him on tiptoes, warily looking around their surroundings. Concern glazed her eyes, her lips pressed together, her breathing shallow. She was stressed and scared, but still here.

I’m jealous of her, Reo thought. He felt like a burnt-out office working next to a wide-eyed fresh intern.

She still had that drive. The drive to fight for what was right.

Sounds cheesier than a four-cheese pizza.

Reo lost his drive. Unfortunately, he couldn’t return the artificial Core stuck to his chest and get his normal human body back.

“What?” Erind asked, meeting his eye. “Is something wrong?”

“Uh, well, everything’s wrong here,” Reo mumbled, facing front again. He fumbled through his pockets. Needed something in his mouth to distract him. He had cigarettes; he was supposed to smoke once he found the employee’s pool. Cigarettes weren’t what he was looking for. Gum. He forgot to bring any.

“Are you okay?” Erind asked.

“We’re on a cruise with Adumbrae. To be more precise, we’re in a disguise a third-grader can see through while walking through the secret part of this ship. Yeah, I’m okay.”

“No need for that sarcasm,” said Erind. “I’m seriously asking if you’re okay. Like if you’re feeling sick or something, because you’re walking funny.”

“Walking funny?” Reo stopped mid-step. He was so hesitant in his footing that he almost fell forward. “I was just pretending to be drunk!”

“Keep your voice down,” Erind hissed at him, her brows bumping together. She looked like an angry cat. “Let’s go here,” she pointed down a path to their left. “Looks like something’s important ahead.”

“Something important? There’s nothing—”

Erind pushed him to the left corridor. “Why were you pretending to be drunk anyway?”

“Like I said back at the buffet, I missed being drunk.” Reo didn’t dare look back at Erind. He didn’t trust himself to keep the lie off his face.

“Is that why you drank lots yesterday? Poor Deen had to pay for all that booze.”

“Oh, come on. Deen said she didn’t mind. I do miss being drunk, so I tried really, really hard yesterday. Someone should give me a medal for it.” Reo didn’t tell Erind the other reason. The real reason.

He wanted to get hammered so much he’d pass out and be a sack of potatoes the whole night.

He didn’t want to stay awake, wallowing in all the scenarios he wasn’t getting back to shore alive. And he wanted to prevent nightmares. Though Reo had no way of knowing, he suspected he sleep-talked. Just a hunch. No way he was going to let Everett hear that.

Passing out drunk should stop that… right?

It seemed his plan partly worked. He didn’t pass out from the alcohol—his inhuman constitution wouldn’t allow it—but he fell asleep fast enough. Waking up the next day, Everett didn’t act weirdly towards him. Either no nightmares or embarrassing ramblings occurred, or Everett was a really good actor. Reo knew Everett was godawful at acting—Everett couldn’t even put a lid on his feelings for Deen, even if he had zero chance.

Reo shook his head, snapping out of his reverie. He was walking in a dangerous place while deep in thought. His focus should be where they were going.

Where are we going?

“Erind,” he began to say. “Maybe we should backtrack and—” He froze, holding his arm out to stop Erind too. A murmur of voices reached them. Footsteps echoed.

Reo turned around. Erind had a fear-stricken face. Behind her was a straight hallway. Could they reach the corner before the approaching people found them? It was impossible unless they ran. But if they ran, they’d make a lot of noise.

They also couldn’t stay. There was no way in hell their disguise was going to work! Judging from Erind’s expression, she also thought the same thing.

“Go, go,” Reo urgently whispered. “Be quiet. The pipes.”

Midway through the corridor were thick pipes attached to the wall. They ran from the floor to the ceiling. A possible hiding spot. Reo and Erind hurried to the pipes. They then flattened themselves on the wall behind the pipes, Erind on the left side, and Reo on the right.

Erind intently stared at Reo. If he had to guess, she was asking him if this was going to work.    

He was tempted to shrug his shoulders. That was the sort of question he’d ask Dario.

However, Reo was the ‘leader’ in this situation. He wore the most ‘in-charge’ face he’d ever conceived and nodded at Erind. He couldn’t have her panicking and revealing their location. Then he looked down and nodded at his feet, flicking his eyes to hers.

Erind got the message and spread her feet open, trying to align their length to the wall. If she had her feet straight, they’d stick out from the cover of the pipes. Both of them were quite thin. The pipes could conceal them. If he was with Deen, her humongous chesticles would give them away.

Then again, if Deen were here, they could avoid this situation with her powers.

“Have you seen the game last night?” said a gruff male voice. The footsteps were getting louder. The man and whoever was with him turned the corner, traversing the corridor Reo and Erind were in.

Damn, my fucking luck! Reo cursed. 

“What game are you talking about?” It was another guy.

Only two of them? The footsteps didn’t sound that many. Human or Adumbrae?

“You know, the game?” said the first man.

“What game? Basketball? Baseball? I follow many sports and don’t think there was any significant game last night.”

“No game?” The first man’s voice cracked. Then he burst out laughing. “Oh, that’s right. You absolutely had no game trying to hit on Mercy last night!”

That’s a good one, Reo thought, stopping himself from snorting. He filed the awesome line in his memory, planning to use it on Everett. But he might not get the opportunity to do so if he made the wrong choice now.

Fight? What other option was there? He had the element of surprise on his side. Attacking first, should he give it all he got? What if they were humans? Would Adumbrae joke around like this?

Questions whirled in Reo’s head. Part of him just wanted to get found to simplify things.

He narrowed his eyes at Erind. Then he nodded.

She shook her head at him. Was she telling him not to fight?

“I wasn’t trying to hit on Mercy last night.” The second guy’s voice was closer. They were about to pass Reo and Erind.

Reo clenched his fist.

Again, Erind shook her head. She didn’t want him attacking the two people. Reo also thought they were humans too. But should he take the risk a second time?

Erind pressed her body more against the wall, turning her head sideways.

Does she seriously think this is going to work? However, Reo copied her. This isn’t going to work, he kept repeating in his head. Adrenaline course through his body like an electric shock. He was raring to go. One wrong thing, just one, anything at all, and he’d jump these two bozos.

“You were, don’t deny it,” said the first man. “You were telling her you got a summer house in Thailand.” He walked past Reo and Erind without stopping. From a sidelong glance, Reo saw that the first man didn’t look left or right.

“It’s true, you know that. What’s wrong with sharing true things?” His companion came through next, also looking straight ahead, at the back of the first man. Both of them wore the same uniform as the other guy Reo knocked out.

These two idiots didn’t notice us? Reo thought the universe was bullshitting them. After the men passed, a wide-eyed and disbelieving Reo looked at Erind.

She nudged her head down the corridor. She then shifted to the other side of the pipes and hid herself again from view. Quickly, Reo followed her, doing a twirl across the pipes. Were they in the clear?

One of the bozos stopped. The other guy also halted walking. “What’s the matter?” someone asked.

“I thought I saw…”

Reo gritted his teeth. With narrowed eyes, he met Erind’s stare. She nodded. If they came over to check, he’d snuff out their very dim lights. But Reo still couldn’t decide how much force to use.

“Saw what?” asked the other employee.

“I-I… don’t know. Must be my imagination, huh.” The footsteps resumed. “I can admit if I’m imagining things, unlike you who imagined he has a shot with Mercy!”

The bozos continued their banter as they walked away, seemingly oblivious to Reo and Erind. Reo took a quick peep and saw the backs of the two disappear around the corner. He held a finger to his lips and shook his head at Erind. They stayed still until they could no longer hear any sounds.

“Let’s go,” Reo whispered. They continued where they were headed before. There was no use going back anyway, with those two there.

“I think they were humans,” said Erind.  

“How unlucky we ran into them,” said Reo, changing the topic. He knew what Erind was getting at.

“We’re lucky we got past them with no issues,” she replied. “Maybe you’re a lucky charm, Reo.”

“If we’re talking about luck, those two are lucky I didn’t… knock them out.” Reo was about to say kill them, but he didn’t want Erind to think less of him.

“And lucky for us too that you didn’t have to knock them out. Like, where are we going to hide them?”

“Yeah… you’re right,” Reo absentmindedly replied. He was focused on what was ahead.

The corridor opened into a wider path that eventually branched into intersections. True, it did look important, whatever was there. Reo didn’t know how Erind guessed it, but she was lucky, he supposed. Luck seemed to be the important ingredient of the day. Here came the unlucky part.

“Is that a bioscanner?” He pointed at the glowing frame at the end of the corridor. The space inside it shimmered as if a highway on a boiling summer day, the concrete giving off heat. It looked different than the other bioscanners they found on the ship.

“For humans or Adumbrae?” Erind wondered.

“No way of knowing,” said Reo. “And no way we’re going to test that. If only Adumbrae were allowed to pass, both of us couldn’t get in anyway. I don’t know what’d register.”

“But someone can get in…”

Reo sighed. “Yeah, yeah. I guess I’m really doing this.”

---

 

“I can’t believe I’m doing this out in the open,” Reo moaned.

“We’re not out in the open,” Erind said.

“Fine, I concede that it’s pretty closed,” said Reo, reminding himself to cut back on the whining.

They found a small room, barely bigger than a closet, down another hallway. Boxes were stacked against the wall, and there was just enough space for Reo to set himself up while Erind tucked herself between the boxes. Luckily, they didn’t run into anyone else while finding a spot for him to do his summoning.

“But I still can’t believe I’m doing this,” he added. A little whine to release pent-up stress.

He didn’t elaborate to Erind that he made a promise to himself not to summon without a guard. Erind could hardly be considered a guard. She’d feel guilty and useless if he told her that.

“You should do it,” she urged him. “I’m feeling we’re near something important we should learn about.”

Or not learn about, Reo grumbled in his head as he settled into a kneeling position. His heart was doing a drum solo. His guts—both the large and small intestines and maybe his stomach counted too—were telling him not to do this in Japanese. His innards were speaking in Japanese, saying this was dangerous and stupid.

In Japanese! And he didn’t even understand Japanese.

“Just a quick scout of the place,” said Erind, peering at Reo with a concerned face. He blinked, looking away. She continued in a coaxing tone, “Don’t worry, nothing will happen to you. I mean, I know I’m not much use in protecting you, but—”

“It’s not that,” he hastily said. It was that.

“Sneak should be able to do it fast enough before anyone comes here,” Erind said. “I promise I won’t push it after this. I’ll come with you back up. Deen’s probably worried about me not responding, anyway. Have to call her soon before she panics. There’s no telling what she’d do.”

Reo stretched his arms. “She really cares about you, huh? I’m jealous.” Did he say it too seriously? He chased it with a chuckle.

“She cares about your safety too, I’m sure of it,” said Erind. “And I care about you too.” That did tug at Reo’s heart.

“I’m starting,” Reo said, before he blushed.