Arknights: Suika's Messenger Journey

Just as she stepped out onto the street, a van pulled up beside her from behind.

"Yo, little messenger. What luck, running into you here!"

Exusiai poked her head out the window and said with a grin, showing none of the awkwardness from earlier when Hoshiguma's presence had cowed her into silence.

"What are you doing here?" Suika tilted her head, noticing the vehicle was loaded with quite a few things. It looked like they were making deliveries too.

"We've got a big order to deliver, and we happened to pass through here. Where are you headed? If it's on the way, you can catch a ride with us!"

Exusiai said it without the slightest hesitation.

"The post office. Going there?"

"Of course. We're heading to the North Gate, so that works out perfectly." Exusiai clapped her hands, opened the door, and Suika climbed in without ceremony.

"Haha, you've got some nerve! This is only the second time we've met, and you're already getting into my car."

Exusiai was surprised by Suika's actions. Ever since leaving Laterano, she had rarely seen a child this bold.

"Didn't you say I could hitch a ride if we were headed the same way? What's there to be afraid of?" Suika folded her arms and leaned against the seat, looking around the interior.

As a Terra vehicle that did not run on gasoline or diesel, it lacked that unpleasant smell of fuel.

That was extremely friendly to someone like Suika, who got carsick.

Since it was a car driven by girls, there was no incense or fragrance inside, yet a faint, pleasant scent still lingered in the cabin, making Suika quite comfortable.

Before long, the vehicle arrived outside the post office.

Just as she got out, Exusiai spoke.

"The boss really hopes he can see you again. If you have time, come by the bar and visit him. Think of it as showing some love to a lonely Emperor!"

Exusiai pressed her hands together in appeal.

"Sure. If I get the chance, I'll go." As the saying went, you didn't slap a smiling face.

Besides, the people from Penguin Logistics all seemed pretty nice. Suika wanted to be friends with them too, so naturally she did not refuse Exusiai's suggestion.

Only after watching Texas drive away did Suika head into the post office.

After dropping off the letter at the mailing counter, she decided to take a walk down the street beside Penguin Logistics, somewhere she had not visited before.

She had not gone far when she stopped and looked up at the sign on the wall—Lee's Detective Agency.

She was a little surprised. So Lee's agency was here. It was not far from Penguin Logistics, and it was also quite close to where she lived.

"Little miss, is there anything you need help with?"

A figure whose voice alone made him sound somewhat unreliable appeared behind Suika.

When she turned around, Suika could not help shouting in surprise.

"Wow, a carp spirit!"

"It's called an Ancient, all right... Forget it, I'll take that as a compliment.

"You're Elafian?

"No, wait. An Oni?"

Lee was speechless. He had thought himself handsome, dashing, and imposing, only for this little brat to open with "carp spirit"... Was there a carp spirit as handsome as him?

Yet as he looked at the child before him, even Lee, who had always considered himself widely experienced and well-informed, could not pin down her race.

In his memory, only Elafians had horns as enormous as hers.

But upon closer inspection, her horns differed somewhat from those of Elafians. They looked more like the style of Oni from the Eastern Country.

"That's right, I'm an Oni!"

Suika nodded.

"So, little brat, do you need someone to help you with something?" Still holding a grudge over the carp spirit remark, Lee decided to stick the label "little brat" on her since she was an Oni child.

A Good-Hearted Carp Spirit

"Huh?"

Suika looked utterly bewildered. Why would she need the detective agency to handle something for her?

"You don't need help?"

Lee was puzzled. If she had not come to the agency to have some trouble solved, why had this little one stared at his sign for so long without leaving?

"No, I was just curious what a detective agency was..."

Suika pointed at the sign, curious why Lee had given his shop such a neither-here-nor-there name.

"A detective agency isn't some thing...

"Pah, a detective agency is a thing...

"Wait, no...

"Just forget whether a detective agency is a thing or not. It's just a place that takes people's money and handles their troubles."

Lee had barely spoken two sentences before tying himself into knots. In the end, he could only give up and muddle through.

"Oh! Then there's no problem..."

Suika nodded and prepared to leave.

"Little brat, you're just leaving like that?" Lee was unwilling to accept having been talked in circles by a child and wanted to regain some ground.

"What else would I do? I have no money, and I don't need anyone to do anything for me. Why would I stay here?"

Suika answered as if it were only natural.

"Uh..." Lee had no response.

While the two chatted by the roadside, the window above them opened, and a sturdy-looking girl poked her head out.

"Uncle Lee, what are you doing?"

"Nothing much. There's an interesting little friend here, so I'm chatting with her!" Lee had been bored with nothing to do and happened to see Suika standing at the door, which was why he had struck up a conversation. But the more they talked, the more competitive he became.

After all, if his acquaintances found out he had been left unable to respond by a little girl's words, they would laugh themselves to death.

Lowering his gaze, he noticed Suika's backpack.

"Hmm, you're a messenger?

"The post office is quite far away. If you deliver letters often, do you still have time to go to school?"

"School? I don't go to school." Suika was basically illiterate.

"Uh...

"How can someone your age not be in school?" Lee still could not quite approve after hearing her answer.

"Can't be helped. I'm on my own and currently staying at someone else's home.

"I don't lack food or clothes, but I can't afford the expenses of going to school."

Though Suika said it casually, Lee fell silent after hearing it.

There were quite a few people in Lungmen with circumstances like Suika's.

Especially in the slums, there were even more who had never attended school, never read books, and never learned to write. Some could not even write their own names.

Yet there was no doubt that they too were an important part of what made Lungmen what it was.

Like Waai Fu, who had just poked her head out. Her family was not poor, but if she had not met him, then with that irresponsible father of hers, she probably would have gone down the same path of neglecting her studies.

"Wait, you're not pitying me, are you...? That's not necessary. Hoshiguma got me a whole pile of books, so reading and writing aren't a problem. I just can't get one of those degree certificates.

"But what use is that thing anyway? I've got legitimate work experience now, and it even counts toward my years of service..."

Suika noticed the change in Lee's gaze. It was like the look she gave stray kittens and puppies, so she took the initiative to explain.

It was fine at first, but by the end, Lee could barely hold it in.

Come to think of it, while messenger work had age and identity restrictions, it did indeed accrue years of service as Suika said.

Once she grew up and joined the post office as an Intercity Postman or Catastrophe Messenger, her work experience from these years would count toward it. Her salary would be considerably higher than those who joined at the same time.

Of course, the former was easier. As an organization responsible for delivering mail throughout Great Yan, Intercity Postmen only needed a clean record, a useful skill, and diligence. A little girl like her, who had worked at the post office since childhood, could even join directly with a recommendation letter from the local post office once she came of age.

Catastrophe Messengers were different. Members of this organization, which traveled throughout Terra chasing forecasts of Catastrophes while delivering mail along the way, needed more than the ability to deliver letters.

They also had to understand astronomy above them and geography below, and be able to judge the scale and severity of Catastrophes.

Basically, only people with sufficient education could take on the role.

But in Lee's eyes, that was still far too early for Suika.

"Mm, the girl in my agency—the one who just spoke—is named Waai Fu. Her grades at school are quite good. If there's anything you don't understand, you can come here and ask her.

"I'll tell her about you. She's a helpful sort, so I'm sure she can discuss your studies with you."

Perhaps worried that being too direct would provoke a strong reaction from the child before him, Lee used a very tactful way to tell Suika that even if she could not attend school, she could still come to the agency and ask Waai Fu.

Suika looked at Lee in surprise. After a long while, she squeezed out a sentence.

"Carp-head uncle, you're a good person."

With that, she turned and ran off into the distance.

Of course, it was not because Lee's words had moved her. She was worried he would drag her upstairs and insist that she study together with Waai Fu.

It was not that she disliked learning. But in her previous life, she had only just managed to graduate from university and escape the sea of suffering known as studying. Throwing herself right back into it now would be asking for trouble.

Lee had not expected his kindness to earn him a good person card. He smiled helplessly and headed back inside.

After finding Lee's place, Suika considered the organizations in Lungmen that would later be connected to Rhodes Island. There were only two: Lee's Detective Agency and Penguin Logistics.

As for the scattered individuals elsewhere, she could not be bothered to search for them. Lungmen was not small, and trying to find them here would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

As someone committed to taking it easy, Suika believed in fate. If those people were destined to meet her, they would meet sooner or later. If not, then even if she searched all of Lungmen, they might still pass by one another without ever meeting.

Back at home, she thought for a moment before picking up an elementary school language textbook Hoshiguma had brought back, generously sponsored by Officer Chen Hui-chieh, who had declined to reveal her name.

Great Yan used Chinese, but its script leaned toward small seal characters, and many of them were traditional characters. Suika needed to match many of them with the characters in her memory again before she could smoothly read other books.

Besides that, Suika also had a set of Victorian books Chen had used while studying in Victoria. She had flipped through them a few times, then stopped.

Because, unsurprisingly, they were in English.

That put Suika somewhat at ease. After all, she considered her English fairly good, seeing as she had been able to watch television shows and movies from Britain and America without translations.

By her count, she understood three languages, more or less. If she could learn how to survey the weather, then perhaps she could become a Catastrophe Messenger in the future and happily travel around Terra at public expense.

The Indescribable Screams of Penguins

However, Suika discovered something terrifying.

Whenever she wanted to study and picked up a book, a void demon called the sleep bug would keep burrowing into her forehead.

After turning only two pages, her head had already drooped several times without her noticing.

Shaking her head, Suika stared uncertainly at the book before her, her face full of shock.

This was simply too terrifying. She needed a couple of drinks to calm down...

When Hoshiguma returned, she found Suika sprawled across the sofa, reeking of alcohol, with an elementary school language textbook covering her face.

Hoshiguma removed the book from Suika's face, carried her into the bedroom, then returned to tidy up the somewhat messy table outside before washing up and going to bed.

The next morning, Suika told Hoshiguma that she had a dream while half-asleep the day before. In it, a Facehugger had kept pressing against her face, making it hard for her to breathe.

It had taken her a long time to pull that Facehugger off.

Hoshiguma raised an eyebrow after hearing this. Based on her interactions with Suika over this period, she could probably guess what the Facehugger in Suika's story really was.

"What did that Facehugger look like?" Hoshiguma calmly asked, glancing at Suika, whose mouth was covered in grease as she ate.

"Hmm, let me think... I think it had two huge characters on its forehead. But you know how dreams are. I couldn't see what was written on it at all."

Suika spoke as if it were only natural. Everyone knew dreams were fake, after all. Telling them was just for fun.

"Two big characters, huh... Let me guess. Were those two characters these?"

As she spoke, Hoshiguma picked up Suika's language textbook from the side—the one from yesterday.