Warm-water port

chapter two

“Hey..hey..Ema.Listen carefully.”

My head hurts.

“You have to remember his real name!”

Everything is a blur.I can only hear a girl's voice.

“He is a liar!Don’t trust him!”

By the way,who is talking...?

“Ema!Ema!”

At that voice,I felt a sharp sting in my head.

Will you shut up...?!

I struggled to open my eyes, and a handsome face appeared in front of me and those iconic bandage.

“Rise and shine sleepyhead~I'm here to pick you up.”

Man with bandage on his right eye streched out his hand toward me,and I slapped his hand away all at once.

There's a hint of danger hidden in his smile, but his voice was gentle,“The anwser is still no?Would you rather be his maid than my monarch?Forge the contract with me and I’ll grant your deepest desire.”

“I will refrain from doing so.Don't pretend to be good for me,you just wanna ravish my soul.Dylan,do you need me to remind you?You’re a demon.D-E-M-O-N.”

“You’re saying you have a soul?Haha...”

“No soul is better than your tainted soul.”

“That word hurts me....”

“Listen,Dylan.I won't make a deal with you, let alone make a contract with you.”

“Ema,who am I to you?”

I looked into his eyes.

“You’re...You were my childhood playmate.”

“Just playmate,huh?If you didn't have a soul, you couldn't have summoned me.Remember it.”

He took my hand and put it on his right eye.There was a faint red light under the bandage.I smell a hint of danger, but I'm used to it.

“I figured you’d say as much.I have to remind you that although my body is full of bionic organs, my heart comes from Miss Ema.That could be the answer to the summoned stuff.”

“I know why you talk so aggressively.You seem to be in a bad mood, a nightmare,huh?”

I stopped talking nonsense to him, packed up my things and went to the training ground.

Due to the exceptional excellence of my body organs, I am almost all-rounded, I can learn everything very fast, and some of them can even be achieved to a degree that normal people can't. But more than playing an instrument or drawing or anything like that, I preferred physical training, it would give me an inexplicable sense of security.

I arrived at a shooting-specific training range, an open field with unruly steel frames wrapped around and above the beams of the house, and plywood targets tied with steel cables hanging from the center of the steel frame's pillars. The targets were cluttered with bullet holes of varying sizes and fake bullet marks for training. He looked around the room and headed straight for the cabinet he cared most about, and as soon as he opened it - there were a lot of real guns lying around in seven different places.

I casually picked up a pistol and his voice rang to my ear.

"This is a Luger P08 artillery model, Germany made 20,000 of them in the early 1900s, it's considered a rare model, very accurate and can hit a portrait target at 200m."

He picked up another pistol and continued, "This is a Mauser C96, the rate of fire is quite impressive, comparable to a riflegun,though the muzzle jump is a bit noticeable."

"You're still as obsessed with guns as you were then."

"After all, it's a creative item that no demon could even think of. The cruelty of mankind sometimes makes even me ashamed of myself."

Before he could say anything, I raised the gun and aimed it at him.

Looking through the sighting star on the barrel, the smirk on his face grew.

"That's how you entertain an old friend."

"Bye-bye."

I pulled the trigger.

He dissolved into a flash of purple smoke, his voice still hanging in mid-air.

"You need me in the future."

I have no memories of Ema, and the memories of my own body are missing for a long time. The process of making me was a long one, and I have memories of being in a lab since I was a young child. Although those memories are fuzzy, I remember tubes all over my body, my entire body being submerged in water, and lots of people in white coats standing in an observation room observing me while taking notes on what was going on.

I had no parents, no friends. But I only remember Dylan being by my side throughout my early childhood. Dylan hadn't been possessed by a demon yet, and I remembered that he was an organ donor at the human experimentation facility. the year Ema died, there were huge changes at the facility, and I think whoever wiped that memory out of my mind made my memory of that time very fuzzy, except for the corridors being covered in blood, and Dylan covering his eyes and yelling something at me. Then Dylan was possessed by a demon. I'm very angry that the demon took his body, but so far I haven't found a way to undo the summoning.

I don't know how long I was alone at the training ground until my master came looking for me.

"You're here."

"How may I serve you,boss."

"You will accompany me to the main hall."

Soon, I realized what he meant.

The main pavilion in Simon's family's territory is where the current boss of Simon's gang resides, Simon's father has many bogus names, and everyone prefers to call him by his nickname Burattinaios, which means Puppet Manipulator in Italian.

My master Simon has two weaknesses, one is his old flame and the other is his father. Despite the constant drama to the outside world of a loving father and a great father-son relationship, however, this is not actually the case. The one Simon is most wary of is his father, and he brings me with him whenever he goes to meet his father. Although my combat strength can defeat a hundred with one, technically I'm not his strongest personal bodyguard, and every time he called for me to come along, he was probably afraid that he wouldn't have the chance to see me again if he wasn't careful.

We arrived at the main hall that was as opulent as a castle, our feet stepping on the expensive carpet to the door of the beautifully carved hall.

Simon's voice was less provocative than usual. "No matter how the world changes, you'll stay by my side,right?"

"Of course, Boss. I'll be right outside waiting for you."

He gave me a tender look, then raised his trademark wide smile, pushed open the door and walked inside.

There was a heavy muffled thud the moment the door closed.

I turned around to find a little girl dressed like a doll standing in the center of the large room.

She stood there dragging a rabbit doll and looking at me. I was a little creeped out.

I knew who she was. She was the illegitimate daughter of Simon's father, the most mysterious and valuable being in the Simon family.

I was about to speak when she made a silent gesture.

"Shush.Father-sama doesn't like to be disturbed, let's go play in the courtyard."

"Yes, your highness."

I took her for a walk in the beautiful courtyard. A vein of stream surrounded down with the sound of gurgling water, in the distance a small bridge could be seen faintly, and deeper still were woods shrouded in thin clouds and mist. Simon's domain covers an area comparable to an independent island.

“You have the same look on your face as the dolls I play with.The doll-like look.”

This little girl is a good observer.Simon often gets mad at me because of the look on my face.

“I'm sorry, Missy, I was born looking like this.”

She fluttered her big eyes and said, "No, I think all your feelings are hidden in your heart."

“I’m a Cyborg...”

“You're human because you do things that only humans do.”

“Like...”

“Like dreams.”

I froze for a moment, finally reacting to what was really in front of me.

“Dylan....you’re not a demon,you’re a ghost.”

The little girl's right eye slowly turned into a red pupil. Yes, when Dylan possesses someone, the possessed person's right eye turns red.

“Come with me so you don't have nightmares anymore. Worrying about things is all boring stuff that only humans do.”

These word coming from a little girl.The scene is really weird.

“You've been coming to me for several days lately. What's it all about?”

“I'm afraid you've really become Ema,the true Ema.”

“But isn't that what I was created for?”

“No!You are you,not Ema.You didn't inherit Ema's memories in the first place because there was less Ema’s blood. Now, Simon is desperately searching for EMA's blood that was stolen by the Russian thieves group, and if that blood is injected into your body, you will become the real Ema.”

“I'm a little confused why this bothers you.”

“Ema?Who are you talking to?”

I noticed that Anna's right eye had returned to its normal color.

“No one,missy.Let’s go back to the main hall.”