The Seas May Change, but the Enemy Remains

Youji sat rather stiffly in front of Xiang Shan. For some reason, he felt that the "Yawg" before him seemed different.

Humans were born knowing how to convey their feelings through means beyond declarative language. It was like a natural compiler. People could turn their emotions into code conveyed through body language, expressions, demeanor, and tone, while the means to decipher that code existed within the human brain as well.

And from every little detail about "Yawg," Youji had deciphered that message—he was different.

Youji himself did not realize he had gone through that process of decoding. He only felt uneasy. His room looked as though a storm had swept through it. All sorts of parts had been roughly pulled out and scattered around. The dog lay on his only table, its chest and the back of its head opened up.

"Sorry, kid." Xiang Shan scratched his head. "I lost control of my emotions for a moment... Made quite a mess in here."

He currently had a kettle lid on top of his head. Cybernetic humans had no need for extra structures such as airways or esophagi, so their biological brains sat lower than those of natural humans, leaving room in the cranial cavity for electronic components. But Xiang Shan had lost all his electronic equipment. Aside from his biological brain, his cranial cavity was empty, with his brain-computer interface directly exposed.

He was rather worried that static electricity would cause dust to get inside.

Youji looked at the head topped with a kettle lid and simply could not keep a straight face.

"Did you remember something, Yawg?" Youji asked.

Xiang Shan nodded.

He hesitated. Youji was a cybernetic human, which meant his memories might not belong solely to him—Xiang Shan did not know what modification procedures in this era were like, or whether they left surveillance backdoors in the brain.

Nor did he know what status his enemy held in this world. Would speaking that name bring danger upon them?

After a long while, he finally said, "Youji, I'm going to tell you some things. You absolutely cannot tell anyone about them, or you and your mother could be put in danger. Do you understand? Of course, you can choose not to listen. I won't force you..."

A nervous expression appeared on Youji's face. But it was quickly overwhelmed by excitement. "You remembered, right? You used to be an important person, right? And you have some really formidable enemies..."

Xiang Shan sighed and pressed a hand against Youji's head. After several months together, he had come to understand that this boy had an excess of curiosity. His expression turned serious. "If you really want to hear it, then you have to swear that you won't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you. Can you do that?"

"I can!" Youji nodded excitedly.

Xiang Shan sighed. Right now, he had no one else he could trust. If he wanted information, he could only start with this boy.

Xiang Shan said, "Youji, have you ever heard the name 'Xiang Shan'?"

"'Xiang Shan'... So your name is Shan?" The boy was immensely excited. "'Xiang Shan' sounds so imposing!"

Xiang Shan was a little dumbfounded. His grandfather had given him that name, and it had no especially profound meaning. But in his own era, that name should have made everyone gasp in amazement...

—My name has disappeared?

—That enormous historical event has now vanished from humanity's awareness? The event that changed the course of Earth's evolutionary history...

—Just how long was I asleep?

Xiang Shan gripped Youji's shoulders. "You really can't remember anything? About that name? Or perhaps a similarly pronounced name—do you know anything at all related to this name? Titles like 'Hard to Move Xiang Shan' or 'Hard to Shake the Mountain'?"

Youji shook his head.

Xiang Shan collapsed onto Youji's bed. For some reason, Youji felt as though Xiang Shan had suddenly become utterly dejected.

"Xiang Shan, were you very famous before?" Youji asked curiously. "Was it that big a blow that I'd never heard of you?"

Xiang Shan nodded. "I really was quite famous before... Maybe everyone in the world knew my name?"

"Hah, what a boast. 'Everyone in the world'?" Youji laughed without much sympathy. "It's not like you were a Paralympic champion! Why don't you tell me what great things you did before?"

Xiang Shan held his head. "I still can't remember."

Though he had recalled his own name and some other things, he still could not remember the events he had personally experienced.

Xiang Shan roughly knew why. In pursuit of the pinnacle of martial arts... in pursuit of the limits of a biological brain's performance, he had transferred all declarative memories that could be losslessly converted into machine language into external information storage devices. Within his brain, he had retained only non-declarative memories that could not be precisely converted, along with pure knowledge.

He had lost too much.

Even if the memories within his biological brain could still be recalled, the information storage devices that had physically disappeared could never be recovered.

Now, all he could remember was his own name, his enemy's name, and every other kind of technical data.

Xiang Shan looked lost. "Hey, Youji, if you no longer remember 'Xiang Shan'... then what about the name 'Yogmov Voigt'?"

Youji vigorously drove his memory hard drive, searching for the word, but still found nothing. He shook his head, looking at Xiang Shan with concern.

"How strange. No one remembers my name anymore, but as the 'victor,' it's impossible that he was forgotten by everyone too, right?" Xiang Shan looked bewildered. "Could it be that I wasn't asleep for decades, but for thousands of years?"

Youji burst out laughing. "Xiang Shan, are you stupid? Even a fully modified brain couldn't have its brain cells hibernate for decades without nutrients. At most, you were thrown in there five or six years ago!"

As he said that, the little boy stopped laughing. "Then your relatives and friends might still be alive! Now that you've recovered your memories, maybe you can..."

"I can't remember what they looked like at all..." Xiang Shan shook his head, still looking lost. "I don't even remember who they were."

Once again, he fell into confusion.

"Hey, Youji, what year is it?"

"What year... You mean that thing..." Youji thought for a moment. "The year 209?"

"Year 209 of the Common Era?" Xiang Shan froze. "Common Era?"

"What's the Common Era?" Youji shook his head. "Everything you say is so strange."

"Youji, do you know what major historical event happened in Year 1—or rather, Year 001?"

The youth shook his head. "I only remember that there was a historical event called the Sublimation War in Year 03..."

"Sublimation... War..."

He had absolutely no impression of that term.

Humanity had completely forgotten the Common Era calendar and adopted a brand-new system. Had he been asleep for 209 years? No, that was far too absurd. His brain cells could never have lasted 209 years without taking in any nutrients.

Or was this "first year of the new era" actually within his own time, only for later generations to have redefined the calendar around a historical event he knew?

For example, perhaps people now habitually called the Second World War the Sublimation War...

—Ha... How could that be possible...

Xiang Shan laughed at his own thought.

That feeling of his prosthetic eyes having a bug appeared again.

Really, judging from the landfill that Recycling Station Town depended on to survive, the Sublimation War must at least have taken place during the Information Age.

Xiang Shan had been asleep for even longer than he had imagined.

Why had he come back to life?

His rebirth seemed utterly meaningless. His own name had been buried beneath the dust of history, and his enemy appeared to have met the same fate. No one remembered either of them anymore. Yet under such circumstances, he had still awakened from that landfill with his enemy's name on his lips.

Why?

—No, that's not right.

Xiang Shan told himself.

"Yawg and I used the same batch... The same batch of what... Damn it, I can't remember. Our biological components used the same technology. If I can still be alive, then he has even less reason to be dead."

"And this twisted world... The Earth becoming what it is now must have an enormous connection to that so-called 'historical event that changed evolutionary history' in my memories!"

Xiang Shan unconsciously clenched his fists.

"Even if I'm nothing but a head... I still have to find out who I am, and what happened while I was asleep. I have to... I have to..."

"Xiang Shan..." Youji shook Xiang Shan's hand.

"Hm? What? Sorry, I drifted off."

"I'm sorry..." Youji lowered his head. "I'm too ignorant. If I knew about your past, you wouldn't be this sad, would you?"

"No, it's my fault." Xiang Shan shook his head and smiled. "Who told me not to be famous enough?"

"Were you just thinking about your old family and friends?"

"No..." Xiang Shan shook his head. After thinking for a moment, he said, "I'm going to tell you a secret next. A real, huge secret. If you find it too frightening, I'll leave here immediately..."

Youji grew nervous again. "What is it?"

"Besides my name, I also remembered my identity." Xiang Shan looked at the dog lying on the table. "I'm sorry, kid, but I'm not the athlete you admire. I'm a Vagrant—a very formidable Vagrant."

"So you're a... What?" Youji's expression froze. "A Vagrant?"

He stared at Xiang Shan. "A Vagrant?"

Xiang Shan nodded, his tone solemn. "A very formidable Vagrant."

As the festive atmosphere gradually faded—or, to put it another way, as the sounds of street brawls gradually died down—the doorbell of Mr. Dresden Schultz, the mayor's nephew, rang.

Mr. Schultz was heavily modified. His entire face had been replaced with metal: flat eyes and an abstractly stern expression fixed to his head as decoration—supposedly modeled after an ancient mechanical hero.

When Xiang Shan saw someone with Iron Man's face come to open the Door, he was completely dumbfounded.

Fortunately, Youji knew nothing about things like "Iron Man." He sprang up and shouted, "Doctor, Doctor! Xiang... I mean, Shan needs some parts. He heard you have them, so he came here. He wants to make himself a..."

"Slow down, kid. You're too excited." Xiang Shan reached out and pressed down on Youji's shoulder. "Dr. Schultz, is it? I may need to make myself a more convenient prosthetic body, but I'm indeed missing quite a few parts. I heard that your parts are the most complete in town."

Dr. Schultz nodded. "I understand. Please come in."

He unfastened the door chain and let Xiang Shan and Youji into his House. Youji darted inside at once. After taking a few steps, he even turned back to look at the doctor, his eyes filled with both the desire to show off and frustration at being unable to do so.

Dr. Schultz scratched his head. "That's the first time I've seen that child so excited..."

"Maybe he's just overly excited." Xiang Shan explained, "I remembered some... things from the past. I told him earlier that, as repayment for saving my life, if he can help me out in the days ahead, I'm willing to teach him a few skills."

Dr. Schultz became somewhat wary. "Repairs?"

He knew this man understood a little about repairs.

This town only needed one doctor. The Schultz Household had three children and planned to have another. If their next child did not enter the human gene pool, the doctor wanted to train all four children as upper-class professionals. Yet one town only needed one doctor. He did not even have enough opportunities to divide among his own children; how could he let others get involved?

"Maybe some simple repairs, maybe other skills." Xiang Shan patted the doctor's shoulder. "Of course, my little skills are nothing compared to yours!"