Arknights, Suika's Messenger Journey

"Hmm? It does look a little similar..."

Suika's expression grew conflicted. She racked her brains, and the words on that Facehugger really did seem a lot like Chinese class.

Hoshiguma nodded. For now, she could be sure that the girl before her had a learning talent much like her own—the kind that made her sleepy the moment she looked at a book.

"I'm leaving first." After finishing breakfast, Hoshiguma walked out, leaving Suika to nibble absentmindedly at her food while still agonizing over what exactly had been written on the Facehugger.

"Forget it. Who cares what was written on that bug? It was just a dream anyway, right, Hoshiguma...

Hmm, where is she?"

By the time Suika emerged from her thoughts, Hoshiguma had already been gone for who knew how long.

She looked up at the time. More than an hour had already passed since she got up.

"Ah!" Suika wolfed down the food in front of her, slung her messenger bag over her back, and dashed toward the post office.

There were not many letters today. By the time she had delivered them all, it was only noon. Remembering Exusiai's earlier invitation, she decided to stop by Penguin Logistics first.

Emperor was a Beast Lord who was relatively friendly toward humans, and he was also very protective of his own. Making friends with him could only be beneficial.

She knocked on the door. As soon as she entered, she saw Emperor hop down from the bar counter.

"Oh, my dear sister from another father and another mother! You finally decided to visit."

The moment Emperor opened his beak, Suika wondered whether she had come to the wrong place.

"Sorry!" She turned around, stepped outside, and closed the door. After checking the sign, she confirmed that this was indeed Penguin Logistics.

Only then did Suika open the door again.

Emperor was left rather baffled by her little stunt.

"Sis, what was that about?"

"Uh... is your boss all right in the head?"

Texas was tending bar today, so Exusiai, who had no work to do, was sitting nearby. Suika looked at her and pointed at her own head.

Exusiai shook her head while holding back a laugh.

Suika looked at Emperor, who had come before her, and reached out to press both hands on his shoulders. Do penguins even have shoulders?

"Emperor, calm down..."

Once they sat down at the bar, Emperor told her about the miserable experiences he had suffered over the past few days.

Ever since he had gotten drunk on Suika's liquor before, he had found all other alcohol bland and tasteless after waking up. The wines that had once been quite decent now tasted unbearably cheap.

That made Emperor miserable.

After all, he was a rapper. He needed alcohol to numb his nerves and make his thoughts more free-flowing.

But now, the moment any other alcohol touched his tongue, he felt uncomfortable all over. How was he supposed to endure that?

The key problem was that Lungmen was not small. Even knowing Suika was a messenger, finding her in such a huge city was incredibly difficult unless he had someone lie in wait for her.

Penguin Logistics was short-handed already. He could not arrange a stakeout, so he could only tell Texas and the others to keep an eye out and invite Suika to the bar if they found her.

When Exusiai and Texas returned yesterday and told him they had run into Suika and invited her over, he had been ecstatic.

Though he had not seen her last night, he was already satisfied to be able to meet Suika the next day.

"So that's what happened. I understand..."

Suika nodded, then took the cup Texas handed her and poured Emperor a drink.

After taking the drink, Emperor did not eagerly gulp it down. He first sniffed it, savoring its distinctive aroma, before finally taking a small sip.

Seeing the eager look on Texas's face after she caught the scent, Suika picked up her wine gourd, gave it a shake, and poured her a small cup as well.

"Want to try some? It's pretty strong."

"I can give it a try. A small cup won't be a problem." Emperor glanced over before turning his attention back to his own glass.

"Thank you." Texas thanked her politely before accepting the cup.

"Let me try it too. I want some too."

Seeing this, Exusiai scurried over from a distance like a college student spotting food brought back by her roommate. It did not matter whether it tasted good or not—she had to have a bite first.

"Wow, spicy!" After licking it once, Exusiai sprang up like a cat with its fur standing on end, covered her mouth, rushed to the back, grabbed a can of soda, and chugged it in one go.

Suika could only say that she had no idea how well Exusiai held her liquor, but this was the first time she had seen someone lick alcohol with their tongue like a cat.

Texas, meanwhile, seemed long accustomed to Exusiai's behavior. Without changing her expression, she picked up the cup that had been licked and took a sip.

"Not bad. This liquor is a little strange, though. It doesn't taste very strong going down, but it really hits you afterward."

After savoring it briefly, Texas opened her eyes and spoke.

"Texas, you have a good eye. Compared to Yumen's Burning Knife, this liquor really isn't as strong.

"But its aroma and aftertaste are several levels better than Burning Knife's. Most importantly, it doesn't burn your throat like Burning Knife does."

Emperor picked up where Texas left off and praised the liquor.

By the time Suika walked out of the bar, it was already past four in the afternoon.

Inside the bar, Exusiai was holding Emperor's head while Texas held his feet, preparing to toss the drunk Emperor into the backyard once again...

Chapter 27: This Land Never Chooses Its Meals When It Eats People

A week later.

Following her usual routine, Suika finished breakfast and strolled to the post office.

While sorting through the letters, she spotted one addressed to Granny Wang's home and smiled.

After putting that letter and the others into her small backpack, she headed back out to deliver them.

Granny Wang was delighted when she received the letter and even gave Suika a tiny sugar cube.

Everything had been normal when Suika went out the next morning. But when she returned from the post office with the letters, she found a fire blazing in the street.

She hurried over to see what had happened.

When she reached the burning building, Suika's face went pale.

The house on fire was Granny Wang's home.

She immediately ran toward Granny Wang's breakfast shop, hoping that she had followed her usual routine and was out selling breakfast tea that morning.

But when she arrived, she found the breakfast shop completely empty. Granny Wang had not opened for business at all that morning.

By the time Suika turned around and headed back, the Lungmen Fire Brigade had already arrived. Half an hour later, the flames were extinguished.

But the place where Granny Wang's family had lived had burned so badly that no human figures could be made out.

The Guard Department officers who arrived afterward took over the area.

When she saw Hoshiguma, Suika was still anxious, but she did not interfere with the Guard Department's work.

She merely stood some distance away, watching everything unfold.

At that moment, she could not understand why Granny Wang's home had caught fire in broad daylight, or why Granny Wang had happened not to set up her stall that morning.

To Suika, it all seemed far too suspicious.

After finishing her inspection of the scene, Hoshiguma stepped outside to get some air and saw Suika standing blankly in the distance.

She walked over and rubbed Suika's head.

"Go home first. Don't just stand here foolishly."

"Is Granny Wang dead?" Suika asked.

After considering it, Hoshiguma lowered her voice.

"I don't know. But two charred bodies were found inside. The forensic examiner is still conducting an autopsy, but..."

Suika took a deep breath and tried hard to calm herself.

"I understand. I'll go deliver the letters first."

As Suika turned to leave, Hoshiguma saw the glistening tears at the corners of her eyes.

Suika had always thought of herself as a fairly strong person. Even after being sent by Dayun to the unfamiliar world of Terra and turned into a girl, she had been able to face it calmly.

But Granny Wang's death was something she found hard to accept.

She had clearly been a good person. She had clearly done nothing wrong. How could she suddenly die like that, and in such an inexplicable, miserable way?

At that moment, she somewhat understood the saying from the game called Arknights: "This land never chooses its meals when it eats people."

But she was not a professional detective and knew nothing about such matters. She could only wait for Hoshiguma to return and see whether she could get any clues from her.

She wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes, delivered every letter in her hand to its destination, and went straight home.

Sitting in the house, she picked up a book and used it to suppress the restless anxiety in her heart.

That evening, Hoshiguma returned, exhausted from head to toe.

When she saw the light inside the house, she sighed.

Since the fire had broken out in the neighborhood where she lived, she had volunteered to come here as soon as she heard about it.

She had also been surprised when she saw the family home that had burned down.

Granny Wang had been an old resident of this street, and she and Uncle Wang had lived here for many years.

The elderly couple had always been kind to others. No one had ever heard of them arguing with anyone or getting red in the face with anybody.

Their only concern had been their children living elsewhere.

No one had expected that these two elderly people, beloved by all their neighbors, would suddenly perish in a sea of flames.

The moment Hoshiguma arrived at the scene, she instinctively sensed something was wrong.

The two bodies that had died in the flames were posed too normally. They did not show the instinctive curling posture of living people being scorched by fire.

After examining them, the forensic examiner determined that neither had died in the fire. They had been strangled before the fire even began.

Clearly, this was a murder case in which the killer had set fire to destroy the evidence.

But the scene had been burned clean, leaving nothing behind. And since the area was full of residences, it was difficult to find traces on the ground.

Today, she and her teammates had gone through all the witness statements collected that afternoon, but they had found no useful clues.

They could only infer from the examination reports that the culprit had likely sneaked into Granny Wang's home late last night, strangled the two elderly people in their beds, splashed flammable liquid throughout the house, and finally used some method to make it catch fire in the morning.

The rapidly spreading blaze meant that even though the nearby residents noticed it, they had been unable to rescue the people inside.

They could only watch helplessly as the house burned to ashes.

Thinking about how kind the couple had been to Suika, and how Granny Wang's family had been the people Suika knew best on this street, Hoshiguma did not know how to explain it to her.

When she entered the house, she saw Suika sitting on the sofa. On the table in front of her was a square wooden board about a meter wide, which she was staring at without blinking.

When Hoshiguma walked over, she saw "Granny Wang" written on the board, along with several notes pasted onto it.

She took down one note. It read, "Motive?"

Then she removed another. It read, "Method?"

"You're that certain Granny Wang's family was murdered?"

Hoshiguma looked at the other notes. They were mostly related speculations.

"Yes. Because it's too strange, and too much of a coincidence." Snapping out of her thoughts, Suika sat up straight and looked at Hoshiguma.

Hoshiguma walked over to the board, picked up a note, and held it out to Suika.

"Tell me why you think there's over a ninety percent chance this was murder."

With her own investigation at an impasse, she wanted to know whether Suika might spark some inspiration and help her find a new direction.

Suika took the note. In her own handwriting, it read, "Probability of murder: over ninety percent."

"It's simple. When I left home in the morning, there was no sign of anything happening here, which means the fire started in the morning.

"Granny Wang was a very punctual person, and she loved running her breakfast tea business.

"Except for the day after she was injured, when she had no choice but to close, her breakfast shop always opened on time, rain or shine.

"After I arrived at the fire scene and found out it was Granny Wang's home that had caught fire, I went to check the place where she ran her shop. She had not opened at all today."