At long last, nighttime finally graced New Bangkok once more. The string lights, paper lanterns, and various other sources of radiance vendors loved to use illuminated one by one like a wave of warm honey blanketing every street, corner and whatever urban clearing a night market managed to set up in. Growing up in Vanity gave Kanashima a love for the traditional style night markets, full of people in similar circumstances coming together, doing anything they could to make it without submitting themselves to the very corporations that kept them in poverty. She used to have such illusions of grandeur, picturing her and her brother making enough money to finally move out of the sorry district.
Getting older and enduring the harsh reality checks broke her dreams. There was just no escaping the iron grip the ruthless companies held over the city, and by extension, the mega nation as a whole. Despite this, she learned to love the night markets all the same again, appreciating just how a maimed community like Vanity could gather, eat food, share life stories, and relax together, even in the face of a not so great life and the horrors overlooking them at all times.
Ah, I wish I could go to one with Morgan just one last time. The Moo Ping was his favorite.
Her gaze lingered as she walked past each and every stand and back toward Vanity Square. The local music and smell of grilled meats begged her to stop by, but she already drank the cups of water she came for. Recently, there has been a development for basic tap water to no longer be provided free of charge by the market organizers, rather now only selling bottles of overpriced water. Luckily, the one closest to her apartment hadn't followed suit yet, and thus, she simply waited until they went live to drink her fill. Refreshed and rejuvenated as much as she could without receiving any medical care, she finally made it back to the great willow tree.
Her grey eyes lingered at the apartment building from her normal spot against the tree as she got lost in thought. She was really going to break into what used to be her own home, rob herself, and hopefully avoid whatever headhunters they send to collect or clear the place out. Granted, she wasn't sure if that last one would actually happen tonight, and hopefully, she wouldn't have to find out. All she had to do was be fast enough to pick up a few trinkets and a stack of cash with one functioning arm, and get out before nobody was the wiser. Easy enough, right?
"Big Sis, You're back!"
Oh, right. This kid.
"Hi."
Kanashima rolled the gunmetal grey orbs in her face. In the simulation, there was nobody else to speak to, and she quite appreciated that. Eight whole days of not having to uphold a conversation, and yet, the two she had after coming back exhausted her already. Where did a girl have to go to plan a burglary of her own place in peace?
"Can I have some more fruit?"
Wordlessly producing the Bountiful Basket from storage once more, she opened the lid a few seconds later, angling the box towards the kid. The burnt orange skin glistened in the soft moonlight.
"You're the best, Big sis!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Hey, listen. If anyone asks, you didn't see me tonight."
"Wait, what? Why would I lie? My mom always says lying is bad, and I shouldn't do it."
Which Saint is this kid's mom?
"Would you like more fruit?"
The child's head bobbed up and down, taking the sweet snack from the container in front of her. With a smile of understanding plastered on his small face, he laughed. Finally emptying the basket, keeping one in her hand, she closed the lid again, letting the basket replenish its wares.
Marcel sat down on a root diagonally across from the box and its owner. Taking another one of the drupes, Kanashima enjoyed her own as Marcel made a mess on his face. Together, they finished off a few more.
"Marcel, get your ass over here! Who's your new friend?"
"She gave me fruits, mom!"
"Fruits? How many times have I told you, you can't take things from strangers!"
A much older woman approached the willow tree and picked the kid up off the root. Setting him down on the other side of her, she addressed the bearer of said fruits.
"I'm terribly sorry for my son."
"It was no big deal, ma'am."
Once again, Kanashima adhered to the generally accepted notions of respect, especially to the older citizens of the city. Why did she say it wasn't a big deal? She just wanted to be left in silence and this kid came and ruined that. If anything, it was a big deal and she should be thanking her for removing the bother. Yet here she was, defending the kid and offering the same kid's mother one of her sweet morsels.
The mother left soon after with the kid in tow, both taking a couple of the fuzzy balls of goodness, leaving her alone once more in the square. She took a couple more of the goods she shared out of the Bountiful Basket before dismissing it, enjoying the delicacies herself. It was already a good bit into the night, soon enough it will be the perfect time for her to strike. Time continued to tick, more and more kids leaving the sweet embrace of the tree as it got closer to minor curfew, until only one young girl was left in the square. Now there's no unlucky observers to rat her out.
Yep. Robbing my own place. No time like the present.
Outside the stunted window, Kanashima knelt on the ground, her right hand holding a tarnished silver picture frame. Who knew these windows were so incredibly hard to break? She managed to leave the lights on, but never forgot to lock the window and make her life easier just this once? Also, the silver was definitely the wrong metal for smashing the reinforced glass, but it was the hardest material she had at her disposal. Maybe if she had access to both her arms' frail muscles, it would've done more than leave tiny scratches on the rattling glass. This was supposed to be the easiest part of the little heist she had planned, but she couldn't even get through the first step.
What if I blew a hole in it like that guy?
It would've been a great idea if she actually knew how her own purple tinted electrical charges dropped the tatted Nihility guy in a second flat. The blazing sensations were all there fresh in her mind, every single feeling down to the amaranthine electron leaving the tip of the thin pinky, but actually replicating the same surge was a whole different story. She imagined the violet bolt forming from all of the nerve endings on her hand, but that didn't do anything to the glass, much less build up the charge she felt in her core the other night. Maybe her core was the central part that made everything else flow. The system said something about her battery whatevers opening up, hopefully she drew from that? Her own power bank would make sense, seeing as the virus needed electricity.
Instead, she imagined power cells lined up near her core, focusing on them, drawing energy from the capacitors into the rest of the system, allowing them to course into its nucleus. Internal temperature in her tense core rose slowly as electrical charges flooded through her affixed circuits once more, surging with an electrified urgency through her nervous tracts. This time she was ready for the immolating fires of hell to wreck her internals, but instead it felt like she was brimming with power, blazing a track through each and every twist and turn inside the complex human body.
Is this what it's like to be in control? Powerful, I like it.
The glass was cool to the touch until she began to shift all of the electrons blistering through her system to the multiple nerve endings in her fingers. Responding to the electrons, the tips of her fingers heated up, transferring some of that residual heat to the cold pane. At this moment, the only reason why the charge wasn't blasting off were the gates she imagined right at the ends of each thin circuit. In just a single thought, she could let go of her control over the coursing charge and let all hell break out of her hands.
Moment of truth.
The sound of glass shattering rattled through the entire square, bouncing off the concrete walls and back again with a small purple shimmer just like the one under Marcel's shoe when he tripped. Being at the epicenter of the explosion, her small ears rang like hell itself brought all of its bells and started shaking them inside both canals. It was that sort of noise that made people glance up from anything, finding it hard to just disregard, even in a noise polluted district like Vanity. If she was lucky, only the people living in the perimeter of Vanity Square heard it, and at its worst, she'll have half of New Bangkok's Vanity Police Force on her in the matter of ten minutes right on her tail. If she could hear anything through the harsh ringing in her ears, the sound of doors opening for people to take a glance outside would have become apparent.
To reassure herself, she stole a quick glance behind her at the apartment complex on the other side of the square. A few darkened apartments turned on their lights, but nobody seemed too eager to check outside just yet. Whatever glass used to be there was completely removed from the actual structure and blasted glass shards throughout the entire small kitchen area. Scouting the few locations available for her torn up shoes to land safely, she sat on the ground and shifted her legs through the gap first, dropping inside and landing on her feet.
Besides the shards that promised to lacerate her, the apartment was exactly how she left it ten or so days ago. The ten yuan a slice pepperoni pizza was miraculously still safe for consumption, no doubt due to all the fake ingredients and preservatives in its makeup. There probably wasn't even a real ingredient in the entire thing. Against her better judgement, she still took a bite out of it, tasting exactly as she remembered it coming fresh out of the electric oven.
God, that's kinda gross isn't it? The things we do for food we can actually afford.
The red and gold cigarette box was the only other item on the kitchen counter, a couple of the addictive sticks sticking out from the top. There were only seven out of the normal twelve left inside total. Matching the same gold color of the package, a rather oversized lighter was the only thing present in the drawer below it. Kanashima pocketed both of them together, patting the outside of her pocket as if that secured them in place. If she couldn't hold onto the memento for her brother, she may as well carry the one of their mother. Maybe if she got out of here safe and alive, she'd light one up in her name.
The direction the glass shattered was in her favor at least, the curious residents who took a quick peek outside wouldn't see any glass shards in the streets, or anywhere outside her apartment for that matter. Hopefully people just glanced around for a brief moment, concluded nothing too out of the ordinary, and went back to whatever it was they did to fill their boring lives. Veterans of the slums were used to hearing odd random noises at all times, maybe her breaking a double stacked glass pane was just one of them.
There was only one more thing she deliberately came back to the apartment for; a small stack of yuan saved off in banknotes. Her savings weren't much in the grand scheme of things like a livable wage, it wasn't even enough for a month of rent for the place. Long ago her and Morgan decided that they would both save whatever they didn't use on housing, food, or any other unforeseen expenses that would come up, and stow it under one of the pseudo-wood floorboards. It was very little at a time, but it eventually grew to a respectable stack. She tried to continue the practice after Morgan, but her jobs simply did not bring home enough money, each place using her age and status as an excuse to have her at a lower wage. Still, the bills sat there patiently waiting for their debut moment on a rainy day. There were a few other useful items that Kanashima thought to take from her old residence, but the tangible currency would have to be the number one priority, the rest of her journey to her job would depend on it.
"Be advised Lady Kanashima. Two bandits approaching. Hundred meters out."
There's that voice again. It called itself The Void? That was just a simulated thing, why is it here? And did it really have to call me Lady? I hardly require that much respect.
She sped up her search, kicking up the correct floorboard the second time and pocketing the money, not even stopping to count it out. The voice was odd and mysterious, the last time she heard it speak to her was during that first encounter back in the real world, but she couldn't deny its innate helpfulness with the accurate information, inclining her to actually listen to the advisor in her head. Those two Nihility goons probably would have jumped her if it wasn't for the apt warning.
"Lady Kanashima, Fifty meters."
Could she even hide in the barren apartment? If those were the corporate cleaners, then she had to, regardless if it was possible. She heard the horror stories of taking the victims captive to ensure collection of overdue payment in whatever way they decided. There was only a mattress, no bed frame for Kanashima to tuck herself under. Hiding under the standalone mattress was an interesting idea, but the mound would likely be obvious to the so called bandits approaching her, no matter how thin and malnourished her body was. If the mattress was out of the question, then the singular bedroom itself was an entire bust. The dilapidated bathroom didn't have anything either, the shower encased in a translucent acrylic rather than an opaque curtain that was common in more expensive residences.
"Lady Kanashima, Twenty meters."
Maybe they aren't bad? Could The Void tell the difference between threats and neutral people? Bandits wasn't usually a friendly term, right?
Not giving her any more time to think in the middle of the room, the electronic lock at the front door buzzed a two tone chime, followed by the hum of a small motor. The door made a high pitched squeaking sound as it opened into the crude apartment. Two pairs of footsteps followed quickly after, going from the concrete to the raw polycarbonate posing as hardwood. Tapping impatiently on the floorboards, a second person stepped to the side of the vanguard.
"Hey! Anybody home?"