Rusting Homo Sapiens

Clang! Clang! Clang clang...

To the accompaniment of crisp metallic clattering, Youji ran happily down the street, dragging a huge pile of scrap metal behind him. Whenever he saw someone, he shouted, "I have a dad now! I have a dad now!"

Most of Scrapheap Town's residents watched this scene with smiles on their faces—specifically, sneers. Youji's biological father had died many years ago when Lithium Bacteria invaded his biological brain, leaving behind a woman and seven children.

To feed seven children, the woman had no choice but to sell her spine, cerebellum, and brainstem in exchange for a piece of engineering machinery. Scrapheap Town was called Scrapheap Town because a landfill from the era of the "Sublimation War" had been excavated here. Everyone in town lived off the resources from that dump. Some alloys and other materials from the Sublimation War era had to be transported to the cities, creating a huge demand for freight hauling.

After becoming engineering machinery, the woman no longer had the hands and feet to care for her children. Of the seven children, four gradually died of illness. One was taken away by a tax collector as a genetic tax, to preserve the diversity of the human gene pool. The eldest son had gone to the city to make a living long ago. Only the youngest remained. He had been bullied ever since he was little.

Most residents had no interest in Youji's "new dad." Only a few children roughly shoved Youji. His body fell to the ground with a loud clang—a characteristic of cheap prosthetics.

"Ha ha... you fatherless bastard, where's your dad? Huh? Let us see him, then?"

The oldest of the children burst into laughter.

Youji snorted and raised the head in his arms. "Look! This is my new dad!"

It was a... very, very miserable human head. The top of its skull had completely vanished, and the edges of its metal cranium were still twisted, as though they had been mangled by tremendous force. Inside was a charred black mass, seemingly melted residue, making it impossible to tell whether the biological brain remained. It had probably once possessed a layer of synthetic skin, but now only its metal shell remained. Its eyeballs had been retracted behind metal eyelids. A large part of its jaw was missing as well.

The older boy froze for a moment, then erupted into loud laughter. "Ahahaha... hahahahaha! It's a dead man's head! Hahaha! It suits you perfectly! Dead man's head! Bastard... hahaha!"

"It's not a dead man's head!" The boy was furious. "He's still alive! As long as you give him a little water, his eyeballs can still move!"

"Hahahahahaha... that's hilarious! A dead man's head!" At that point, the older children had lost even their interest in bullying Youji. Laughing wildly, the boy waved his hand to tell Youji to get lost.

Youji hugged that... or rather, that half-head, and quickly ran home.

He had found the head deep within the garbage heap. He had accidentally dug into a new soft area—a certain kind of cushioning structure from a warship. Polymer nanocushioning material was still worth some money in this era. The head had been lying there. At first, he had thought it was relatively rare scrap, and had been delighted for quite a while. But when leaving the garbage heap, he accidentally dropped the head into a puddle of filthy water.

Then, he saw one of its eyeballs move.

"I'll definitely fix you!" the boy told the head. "Then I'll have a dad."

The man had a dream, a dream about "martial arts."

In the dream, blades flashed and swords danced.

Vector Thrusters, steel rods, Ship-Cutting Blades, Vulcan Cannons, wireless signal receivers...

Every one of them was an earthshaking weapon.

Mobile Step, Demon-Subduing Staff, Ship-Mastery Art, Gunlock, Cloud Dragon Hacking Method...

Every one of them was a renowned martial art.

Consciousness returned to his flesh. He opened his eyes, and the world before him swayed unsteadily. Everything was distorted by ripples.

"You child... why did you soak this head in water? And you even put copper candy in it? You don't even have enough to eat yourself..."

"Mom! Look! Look! His eyelids are really moving!"

"Huh? They really are moving?"

"Then I'll have a new dad!"

"We can't keep this dead man's head..."

"Mom!"

It seemed an argument had broken out.

Then came the sound of a vehicle starting.

"All right, all right. I'll go get the mayor to come take a look."

The conversation made no sense.

The man could no longer continue thinking.

So he fell asleep again.

But this time, he had a nightmare.

Countless fists and palms clashed. He could no longer remember the moves.

Then... a cybernetic body five meters tall... one... one...

"Yawg..." the man said through gritted teeth.

"What did you say? Is that your name?"

Unexpectedly, another voice answered him.

The man opened his eyes. Before him was a wrinkled face. It seemed to be natural flesh, but the upper half of the skull had been replaced with machinery, and cylindrical lenses protruded from the eye sockets.

The man was somewhat stunned. "You... who are you?"

"The mayor of Scrapheap Town." The old man smiled. "Who are you? 'Yawg,' is that your name?"

The man pondered for a moment. But unexpectedly, his mind was completely blank.

"I am... I..."

The man wanted to shake his head. Only then did he realize that he seemed to have nothing left but a head. The discovery startled him. He could only answer, "I don't think that's my name... 'Yawg' is not my name."

"But that was the first word you shouted after waking up." The mayor pondered for a moment. "Then, for convenience's sake, shall we call you 'Yawg'?"

The man hesitated, wanting to nod. But he discovered that he still could not nod. He could only say, "For now... let's do that?"

Although a voice deep in his heart was shouting, reminding him that this name definitely held profound significance... that it was definitely not his name. Even if he forgot himself, he absolutely could not forget this name... he simply could not remember why.

Youji jumped up. "Mayor, Mayor! Could my dad be a warrior from the old era? The super powerful kind!"

The man was startled... though he could not jump. "I have a son?"

"No, no, no. You were picked up," the mayor explained. Then he said, "The whole dad thing is this child's idea. He lacks... necessary affection."

"Mayor!" Youji stomped his foot. "You still haven't said whether he is or not!"

"Hehe... this landfill was excavated fifty years ago. And the Sublimation War took place even earlier. No brain cells could possibly have lived for that long." The mayor wanted to explain further, but realized that Youji could not understand at all, so he could only shake his head.

"He's probably trash that came from the city a few months ago, right?" An unusually mechanical voice came from outside the window.

The voice was nearly noise, making the glass tremble. The man rolled his eyes and saw a truck parked outside...

That vehicle could probably be called a truck? The man did indeed see a huge cargo bed. But the cab was tiny, too small to fit a person. A camera on the cab was watching him.

Only then did the man realize that he... or rather, his head, was lying on a bed, with a large lamp positioned above him. The lamp had probably been brought by the mayor, its power cable plugged directly into a socket on the mayor's neck.

And this bed faced the window directly.

"To raise money to treat her child's illness, Yulia sold her spine, cerebellum, and brainstem, then used the remaining money to buy engineering machinery." The mayor pointed outside. "She earns a little more this way than before, but a body like that can't enter the house, so this was the only way to arrange the room."

The man was somewhat stunned.

He vaguely felt that... humans should not be like this. This was not what people were supposed to look like.

Youji looked at the mayor expectantly. After thinking for a moment, the mayor said, "Maybe he really was someone important before? Perhaps an athlete?"

"Wow!" Youji cried out in delight.

The man, however, remained completely confused.

"All right, thinking like this must be exhausting, right?" The mayor turned to the man and shook his head. "I still have a driver chip here. My grandson just replaced it—I don't know what you went through before, but all the equipment on the outside of your biological brain was burned out. Only a few components remain. Fortunately, your brain-machine barrier is very reliable..." The mayor placed a hand on top of the man's head. "I cleaned it up a little. It seems there are still a few usable ports. I'll install it for you!"

Only then did the man realize that he seemed to have only half a head. He had no tongue, and a voice synthesizer had been directly installed in his mouth.

Why am I only realizing something this important now... ah!

An electric shock-like sensation ran through him.

[New device detected]

[Installing necessary drivers]

New signals raced through his nerves.

The man suddenly felt that his body had "come alive."

His only remaining body suddenly became vivid and alive!

"Without a driver chip, it's hard for a biological brain to control a prosthetic body... Your eyes look pretty good. They might be worth quite a bit. Want to consider it? Sell them to me, and I can get you a prosthetic body."

The man wanted to shake his head again. He quickly refused. "No, thank you for your kindness. But I think... perhaps my eyes contain clues about my past. I don't want to replace them yet."

The mayor shook his head. "Then there won't be any free prosthetic body for you..."

Youji jumped up. "I can look for one in the garbage heap!"

"It won't be that easy." With his hands behind his back, the mayor simply shook his head and left.

Youji jumped up. "Pah! I can find one..."

"Enough!" Yulia's loudspeaker sounded a stern honk. Youji immediately shut his mouth.

That evening, Youji fell asleep with the man's head in his arms.

Outside the window, Yulia's camera focused on the man. The man, meanwhile, seemed unable to sleep at all.

What is this "Yawg" thinking about?

Yulia could not help feeling curious. She did not possess much of the embarrassment that women from the old era might have felt. Other than her biological brain, every other part of her body was steel. What was there to be embarrassed about with a body like that?

She had only one wish now: to watch Youji grow up, give him a decent prosthetic body, and then... then...

She could not imagine the future anymore.

That was also why she had not firmly demanded that Youji throw away that human head. Maybe it would make the child a little happier.

It was simply impossible for their Household to buy a prosthetic body, no matter how cheap it was. All their money had to be saved to replace Youji's body with an adult prosthetic. In a few more years, Youji's biological components would exceed the maximum limit for children's prosthetics.

But adult prosthetics were expensive.

Sometimes, Yulia even wanted to sell her temporal and frontal lobes as well. But she had heard that people who sold their temporal and frontal lobes were no longer human, only machines.

Becoming a machine was not a big deal. But if she could no longer love Youji, could she still work?

She had to save money faster!

Hopefully, this dead man's head would be able to work in the future too!

It could count as repayment for Youji's kindness in saving him.

The man also noticed Yulia's gaze. Honestly, the "gaze" of that camera always made him uncomfortable, though he did not know why.

That was not the only thing making him uncomfortable. Now, "Yawg" had temporarily become the name used to refer to him. But that felt deeply wrong.

In the darkness, he finally confirmed one thing.

The true owner of the name "Yawg" was absolutely, absolutely his enemy.

An irreconcilable enemy.

I am... a rebel...

What am I rebelling against?