The man was obviously omitting certain details which she caught onto. She slashed her rapier far too close to his head, cutting away some of his hair while scratching his cheek. The man panicked as he crawled back, but had to stop before he fell of the roof.
"That cyclist from earlier, he had a different armband from the rest. Explain it. Or you can say goodbye to your head."
"He's a hero! Well... he's kind of a hybrid between the white and yellow classes? He can act as an enforcer, but his main role is an entertainer."
This explained why everyone was laughing at him, while not taking his attempt at heroism seriously. Since a white armband was above the laws, Metro Rider couldn't arrest him even if he tried, and thus his attempts at heroism was seen as a comedic act.
In this city of darkness, he was their hope, an artificial one granted to them by the unison council.
Shinomiya's expression then grew dark, while her tone of voice became more aggressive, causing the man to feel a sudden pressure on his chest.
"Those white armbands. That's what allow the Black bone gang to exit and leave the city whenever they want, right? Why are they being granted such permission. Because of them, the outside is being terrorised almost everyday!"
"I don't know! They only appeared a little after I was born, which was 25 years ago. But I heard that they only got the armbands 5 years after."
After some calculations, the dates he gave lined up with when they first started to show up. Shinomiya asked why they caused trouble instead of telling everyone what was going on in this city, but the man just said he didn't know why.
Something else was also strange. There was a mine, yet there were many Borrower abilities and technologies that could create materials from Aether. Mining and harvesting minerals from the earth was outdated, and this place was pretty small. Shinomiya asked him this, and he responded with a very strange answer,
"I don't know... but there are rumours about it. Us miners are forced to show the Administrator everything we dig out. Apparently there's something in the mines that they're looking for, and if we find and give it to them, then they'll let us out of this place."
Satisfied with these answers, Shinomiya sheathed her sword. She then turned back around to Akira and Min-Su, both of which were half asleep.
"HEY!"
Akira suddenly woke up but Min-Su still remained half asleep. It took a second powerful scream to alert him awake. With a death stare she then said,
"You guys did get all of that, right?"
Akira half-heartedly said, "Yep!", meanwhile Min-Su just nodded.
"As I've said before, I'll figure out a way to get into that tower. You two should investigate down here for a bit, and see what more you can learn. We'll meet back at this spot in 12 hours, understood?"
They both nodded, making their missions clear. The man just looked in wonder as he realised what was going on. These people, they were here to save them.
"Who.. who are you guys???"
Shinomiya just looked back. Ordinarily she would've just told him to shut up, yet a different answer came out of her mouth,
"We are Blacklight. The light that shall expose the truth in this world of darkness."
**
2 or so hours later, Shinomiya had long since left. Akira, Min-Su and the man were walking through the city streets, both wearing red armbands.
The man from earlier, for the first time in his life had felt hope in seeing the three. From that point forwards he vowed to help them through all their trials, and would assist them in anyway possible.
"Oh yeah! What's your name by the way?", Akira asked.
"It's Melon. Strange, right? It was the last fruit my mother got to eat before being sent here, so she named me after it. She hoped that I could eat it with her some day if we ever got out of here."
Common fruits like apples and bananas, although scarce, existed in Gehenna. However more exotic fruits like Pineapples, Melons or peaches were reserved for the unison council members, or sometimes weren't even brought in at all. Melon himself was born in Gehenna, so he never got to eat, nevertheless see one for himself.
Akira smiled, "Don't worry. Once we break all you guys out of here, you and your mother can eat as many Melons as you want!"
This somewhat cheered him up, but then he bluntly said,
"She's dead. 18 years ago it happened. I barely remember her face, but I'll never forget our dream. As long as you guys are here though, I can achieve it for her. There's finally some hope in this abysmal place."
Although he seemed sad, he had a soft smile on his face. This only made Akira more determined to free these people. He looked back at Min-Su which replied with a steady nod of confirmation.
"Wow, you really don't talk a lot do you?"
**
After 2 hours of taking a tour of the city with Melon, Akira and Min-Su got a rough mental map of the city. In the centre was the tower, which acted as a sort of divisionary point between 4 sectors. as well as the main base for the unison.
The first sector was the entertainment and distribution district. The place where civilians would go to both collect rations, and boost their moral with many of the activities there. You could go there and gamble with fake money for fun, drink yourself to death from poorly made mead, or even visit a brothel where the women... or even men... who were too weak to mine had to go to be qualified for rations.
The second district was the residential zone. As the name implies, it's where the civilians lived, couped up in tight housing.
The third district was also partly a housing district, but some of it was covered by the massive crater. As it turns out, it was their blast zone room.
When a Borrower awakens their abilities once they turned 10, some of the Aether they first withdraw will immediately be released as an explosion. This can range from just a blast that couldn't even harm a baby, to a nightmare that could wipe out a city.
In Babel, there were specialized facilities called blast rooms, where all 10 year olds were taken just in case they did awaken their powers. Here, they could safely carry out their explosion without hurting anyone or anything.
For Gehenna however, they had this massive crater. When Akira asked more about it, Melon replied,
"Well... we didn't have one in the past, but some kid made it 15 years ago when he awakened. I guess he would be about my age now if he survived."
"Survived?"
The child had naturally killed a great deal of people in his awakening. Since he was so powerful as a Borrower too, the unison council had him killed before he could become a problem.
The fourth district was special as it was not only a residential spot for the Unison council guards, but it was also the entrance to the mines.
With a breath of exhaustion Akira exclaimed,
"That's everything right? We still have a couple hours left."
"You two could come back to my place? It's small, but you can rest there."
"Sure! Sounds like a plan!"
As the group walked, the density of people slowly began to increase. Eventually, they came upon another fight, but this time it was between a gang member and a small boy.
"I FINALLY FIND A STALL THAT STILL HAS SWEET BREAD, AND THIS SHITTY BRAT THINKS HE CAN STEAL IT?"
It was the same man that fought Metro Rider earlier. This time, he appeared to be fighting some random kid.
He looked unusually healthy for a boy living in these parts, but still dirty and ragged much like everyone else. As he laid on the floor with some of the stolen sweetbread the man just kept kicking him even more.
Akira obviously enraged, was about to step in, but Min-Su quickly grabbed him by the wrist as he struck a hard stare. Although he didn't speak, what he meant was pretty obvious.
"Sorry, but your not as scary as Shinomiya."
Akira quite easily broke free from his grip, startling the mute. He quickly pushed through the crowd as he lifted his hood up, and ended up in the centre of the conflict. The large man quickly noted his presence, and Heepishly said,
"What? You want some of this too?"
Without even answering, Akira quietly smashed his fist into the man's gut. The punch was so heavy you could see a bulge in his back, opposite to where Akira had hit him.
The punch was destructive, portraying inhuman physical prowess without the use of Aether. It was a punch that no human should've been able to take, which was the case with this brute. As he coughed up some saliva, he collapsed to floor. Seemingly being knocked out in one hit.
The crowd was quiet for a moment. A Miner just took out a Black bone gang member with relative ease. This should not have been possible, and it was very much illegal in these parts. And yet, rather than looking at Akira as a criminal, he was met with cheers instead.
For years the Black bone gang had been seen as an unstoppable force in these parts, with everyone being a victim to their abuse. And yet, today, a mere miner had taken one out. This was a cause to celebrate, as the impossible just became possible.
The kid who was being harassed slowly opened his eyes, with the first thing he saw being Akira's light smile, and his hand being extended out to him.
"You okay?"