"Marfa, that's where you come from, right?"

'What I am.' Why did she say that?

"Correct, you called it America light."

"I just said that because of the way you talked about it."

"That's not a bad way to describe it, Marfa, or Maarifa in certain regions, is the world's most advanced nation, boasting technology far above the reach of its neighbors. It was founded in the south-western part of the Karetian continent by the gods of grief and knowledge in 14 A.R. It quickly expanded, and by 156 A.R, it counted nearly 25% of the continent within its territory."

"What stopped them?"

"This." She pointed at the floor under us. "Karet's unique design makes this place a natural choke point."

"Huh."

"If they had satellites in this world, pictures of the continent would look like this."

She pulled out a piece of paper from the suit on the ground and sketched something on it.

"An hourglass?"

"Rahma's position at the neck makes it a hindrance to any expansion efforts."

"Rahma the immovable, that's how it got the name."

"Hm? How do you know that?"

"I told you that I met a guy when I went out with Leon, he told me a lot about Rahma."

"Well, that saves me some time. Maarfa tried to invade Rahma a few more times, but was always met with failure. So instead, they expanded outwards. Before 200 A.R, they had control over all the free land and isolated mutant villages and made peace with larger settlements to focus on destroying Rahma, but since they hadn't made progress..."

"They destroyed those settlements?"

"They captured the ones who gave up, killed the rest. The land where Maarfa lies used to hold nearly a hundred thousand mutants. Hundreds remain. In less than 90 years, Maarfa had wiped out all significant populations of mutants and took over their lands; the ones who remained had no choice but to follow all of Maarfa's unreasonable demands."

A story as old as world powers.

"What happened to those who got captured?"

"They faced a much worse fate than their brethren; the majority of them were used as hostages to broker peace with the remaining resistance, but discreetly implanted with explosives. Even they didn't know in most cases."

"Two birds with one explosion, what about the rest?"

"Used as test subjects, human knowledge of the species known as 'mutants' was sorely lacking before the first expansion. Those experiments revealed the abnormality that is the mutant body. Do you remember when I told you that mutants could recover from small wounds?"

"I kinda remember you saying something like that."

"I wasn't completely accurate. With enough time, mutants can recover from almost any injury. I can't explain it well, but they can essentially control random mutations."

"Like the evolutionary kind?"

"Precisely, while we evolved throughout hundreds of millions of years through random mutations that weren't always helpful, mutants can control that process to a certain extent, creating helpful mutations within a couple of generations, hence the name."

"So they rapidly evolved to get some mechanism that stimulates rapid cell reproduction, or something like that."

"I'm no geneticist, but that's my understanding of the matter."

"Wait! Can they grow wings?"

"I suppose so, given the right kind of environmental pressure."

Damn that's cool!

"Then why kill them all? I get stealing their lands and resources, that's a classic, but if they subjugated them, they'd make excellent workers and soldiers."

"They found a more convenient solution, one that carried far fewer risks... What's my name, Jack?"

"May?"

"Yes, that's the name I chose..."

She trailed off

"The name you chose? So it's not your original name?"

"No, it's... fuck."

The swear was barely a whisper, even with my subpar perception, I could tell she was having a hard time talking about this, so I had to interrupt.

"You don't have to say anything else, I'm already satisfied after learning about Maarfa."

"I thought I could do it already."

She mumbled.

"Hey, it's alright, you don't owe me anything, isn't that what you said?"

"You only hear what's convenient."

"Cmon, I always hear you out."

"But you never listen. Why are you even helping me with this?"

I could tell this was on her mind for some time, but it's only natural.

"Because we're friends."

"Are we?"

"Ouch! How couldn't we be after everything we've been through so far, that had to build some affection."

"Is that how you see me? You don't know anything about me; I haven't told you anything, despite how much you've risked your life. How could you put your trust in me?"

Her face, usually free of expression, was now openly vexed, it seems I hadn't done a good enough job easing her worries in the warehouse.

"I trust you because I feel like it, I don't need to know everything about you to like who you are, that's enough for me, but it's not like you hadn't told me anything. I know you're from Cuba, and you're the only person I can share my hatred for America with. I think that alone is worth it."

"You'll repeatedly risk your life out of spite?"

"Isn't that what you did?"

She didn't suppress her chuckle this time, it felt weird seeing her smile like this.

"You do listen, when it suits you."

"Love is all about selective hearing."

She put her suit in the bag and got up.

"Good night, Jack. Tomorrow will be a busy day."

I got up with a quick hop and walked out the door before taking a right.

"Night."

"Isn't your room the other way?"

"I'll have to take care of some business first."

I tried to sound as cool as possible.

"As in, use the restroom."

But it fell short.

"Just leave it as taking care of business."

She closed her door with a scoff, not understanding the vital importance of my task, but oh well. I went back to my room afterwards, Leon still lying on his bed.

"Are you still pretending to be asleep?"

"I'm trying to."

"If you have to try to pretend, you're clearly not cut out for sleep."

"Your encouragement's always helpful."

"I could knock you out instead."

"Thanks, but I'm unfortunately quite durable."

"Oh yeah! The tonfa lady was beating your ass, you changed your mind about telling-"

"No, and never will, so please don't ask again."

"Oh I will, and I encourage you to tell me to shut the fuck up, I prefer you this way."

"Huh? Why keep trying then? You like pissing me off that much?"

"Of course, but that's beside the point."

"I don't see one in something this meaningless."

"We're born dying yet stubbornly persist, nothing's useless in life."

"Yeah, my fault for trying to understand you, Godsdamned Hayaties."

"Cmon! Don't be such a downer."

"We're about to die tomorrow!"

"No, we're not, you're just stressing too much."

"How could you say that? You haven't met Arthur."

"And he hasn't met me, and probably won't, but we have you just in case."

"I'm not that durable."

"Shame." I lied down on the soft bed, reminiscing on the beatdown I've witnessed a few hours ago. "Though I'm still curious, how does that nail string thingy work?"

"My contract? You want me to just, tell you how it works?"

"Yup, I'll tell you about one of mine so you don't feel too exposed. If you're so afraid of what'll happen tomorrow, this should help us make better decisions."

"Fine."

"Really?"

"Don't sound so shocked." He chuckled before sitting up in his bed. "My nails are flexible."

He pulled out a pocket knife and used it to clip a small portion of his right pinky nail. His mastery of it was impressive, but that makes it two for two of people I'm talking to at night having a knife on them, maybe I'm dying with the wrong crowd?

"First things first, what did you name it?"

"I didn't."

"Boriiiiing."

"It works just fine."

He started tugging on the nail from either end, and to my surprise, the nail relented, extending and stretching until it was as thin as a string.

"WOW! That's cool."

"This isn't the impressive part."

Leon said with a troubled expression, maybe he thought I was making fun of him, but I was genuinely impressed.

"So what can you do with the string?"

"You've already seen one application."

He wrapped the string around his fist.

"I guess Nak was a big inspiration on this one."

"Yeah, it's helpful for hit-and-run tactics."

"Or knocking unsuspecting foes into the arms of a giant."

"Yeah, that as well..." He was staring deeply into the white string, as if it held something only he could see. "...Anyways, I could wrap it around different things to get a variety of effects."

"Like what?"

"If I use it on a projectile, I could track any target that received a direct hit. I can even get some information about them if I use more and thicker strings."

"Oh! It's a flexible contract, sounds like you."

According to May, one's contracts are shaped by biases, conscious or otherwise. A contract that can be used in almost any scenario suits him.

"Thank you?"

"What about the time you flew at me? Did you tie your knee-string around your leg?"

"No, that's a different contract. That one repels me away from people I mistrust or attracts me to people I trust."

My eyes were shining as I thought through the logistics of floating away from the tonfa lady.

"So does that mean that your contract nullifies all other massive objects' gravitational pull on you, then creates a theoretical mass depending on your concept of trust?"

"I never thought about it that deeply..."

Leon had a perplexed expression.

"Booooring."

"Sorry?"

"Ehhh, it doesn't matter, now ask away."

"Well, I have to ask about..."

He'll probably want to ask about my swords. I'll try to be as honest as I can, but...

"Your suit."

"My what?"

"Your suit, man, it took a sniper bullet and spat it out, it doesn't hamper your movement, yet it's strong enough to take a stomp from Zak."

"It sounds more impressive than it is when you put it like that."

"Modesty, from you?"

"Nah, Azalea is a parasite of the highest order, it deserves some humbling from time to time."

Leon's only response came as a curious tilt of the head. This man really had no curiosity in him, can't even come up with a hypothesis.

"The suit sucks my blood passively in exchange for protection. And some perks."

"Is that so? Good to know."

"That's it, aren't you curious?"

"Not really."

"Cmon man, get some curiosity in your system. Where's your sense of wonder?"

"You want me to know more about your strengths and weaknesses?"

"I want you to try, show me you have some kind of drive."

"What good would that do?"

"I don't see the harm neither."

"You trust me that much?"

"Yeah"

Though it's not a high bar.

"I don't."

"You'd say that after we shared Keskso!?"

"..."

"Hey!"

"..."

Leon turned away from me, ignoring any further prodding. The fucker knew I couldn't scream in this setting.

"Why..." I could hear him murmur from time to time.

Why indeed, I didn't know why I was so adamant about shoving my nose into his business. I guess it's just something about his attitude that pissed me off, the way he acted, as if utterly crushed by his own trivial weight, made me want to push him.

"You're a free man, so act like it. If you keep concealing yourself, you'll forget your own soul."

"My soul..."

I stayed awake for another half hour waiting for a continuation that never came, the piece of shit just slept on me. Oh well, at least he finally slept. I can choke him out tomorrow.

I inwardly cursed out Leon before letting myself drift off to sleep, putting an end to a day that dragged on for far too long.