Back in the former target-hall-turned-workshop space, Wei bit a piece off the bare, plain longbread; already half-gone and quickly disappearing. The crust was hard, the innards tough, and as another piece passed into his mouth he winced.

“Oy, you finished?” Shirin shouted from the other end of the room, pulling on a rope and dragging it all the way down to the floor, her muscles tensing up as she latched onto the rough, coarse strings.

“Gimme a sec…” He muttered, before shoving the rest of the bread into his mouth and rushing over to the other end of the medium-sized machine, his footsteps ringing through the room. Past the massive blast furnace towering to his left, its bottom stained black, he grabbed a large stone block at its base.

“Lift it, you fuckin’ idiot!” She shouted, her hands turning red.

Wei, lifting the stone block up while grunting, shouted “Got it! Got it!” His hands shook and flushed red, while he panted faster and faster, lifting the block higher and higher until it shifted on its own, shifting forwards and crashing onto the contraption. He stood up and wiped off the sweat accumulating on his face.

With a clouding gaze, he asked, “Is it ready yet?”

“It’s clear! It’s clear!”

As he walked over to the other side of the machine, he observed the spinning tube in the middle drill a long metal pole into a small, sharp pike. A whirring sound continued to emanate from the drill and little silvery bits twirling out of it; and Shirin, her hair growing down to her ears, with cuts and bruises all over her body, continued to hold onto the rope, heaving a sigh of relief.

“How fast does your hair grow? It’s been at most like three weeks…”

“Don’t ask me, never bothered to do tests on it…”

He grabbed the rope as Shirin let go, tying it down to the series of slabs stacked upon one another before sitting down on the floor, grinning.

“Bloody hell, that was exhausting…”

“Yeah, you doing okay?” He asked, letting go of the rope.

“I’m fine.” She muttered, scratching her arm. The sound of scraping metal still burned into the air, accompanying the subsequent silence. Wei grimaced.

“Why do you always do this ah? When you get a break talk to the people around you.”

“Not exactly the most comfortable with someone who goes up and talks to an Avisen member seemingly so easily.” Not even turning to look at him, Shirin continued to scratch herself.

Wei sighed. “You’re still on that? Grow up lah, it’s life, you have to deal with some people that you don’t approve of.”

“Need I remind you that ‘some people you don’t approve of’ are literal murderers who kill people basically at random?”

“I get it, I get it, but we have to make compromises to do things.”

Shirin glanced over with half-closed eyes. “Eh. Never compromise with someone you know you can’t deal with, is my motto.”

Wei rolled his eyes. He himself stopped looking in her direction and started scribbling with the pen on the blueprint; it still swaying wildly as he did.

“Also, you take a break. You replaced my last shift anyways, no point in doing another one.” He remarked.

“I am completely, one hundred percent, fine.” She curtly replied, before saying in a significantly softer voice, “but I’m also entirely sapped and I am going for a bite and a break.”

Shirin gave him a thumbs-up before slowly limping past the foot of the blast furnace and quietly taking one of the hard breads on the small table they’d lain closer to the entrance of the room. She threw it into her mouth and chewed on it, still sticking out of her mouth, as she passed the dozens and dozens of tools and materials strewn across the room before disappearing into the open door. Wei could only respond with a sigh.

Hee took a glance over before bending to the foot of the machine, looking over a series of containers in a long line. All the containers were filled with metal weights attached to strings, with small knots at the ends of the weights. He tapped on each one from left to right, muttering, “...three, four…” before picking up one of the weights and pushing it upwards, disappearing into the machine.

*whirr*

The noise ran through the machine before *clink* and *cling* rang out and the weight fell out on the other side of the machine’s base, in another line of containers with significantly more weights stacked upon one another.

“That should do it…” He muttered. “...how did that girl come up with an entire system to control levels and what not off the top of her head?”

He scratched his chin. Hairs grew out of it once more, and once more little hairs took to occupying the area around the side of his face. The two rectangular marks on his face had turned entirely brown and were now just elaborate scabs.

“Kiss me goodbye and write me while I’m gone~”

Wei hummed.

“Goodbye my sweetheart, hello Siberia…”

Walking over to another of the contraptions behind him, he came upon a small metal plate sticking out under a large roller and flat stamp, feeding into a curved groove which curved perpendicular to the direction of the plate’s entry. Attached to it was a large crank. Pushing down on a lever, the metal plate suddenly slid further into the groove, before he bent down below the machine itself.

Picking up two wooden sticks, he rubbed them both together quickly and swiftly, a spark and then orange flame engulfing the tips of both sticks. He dropped them into the pile of wood below the machine, then pushing the walls of the wood’s container up and tying it together.

He sat down and watched the orange flame slowly but surely balloon into a massive blaze, crackling away.

Peering into the small gap between the stamp and the metal plate, before his eyes the plate began to slump; quickly he latched onto the crank and yanked it down; the sound of metal falling upon metal as well as a simmering noise firing out of the machine. Amidst the noise he continued to hum,

“-a hill to take, a battle to be won~”

*pssssssssssss*

“-kiss me goodbye and write me while I’m gone~”

Wei let go of the crank, which quickly flew back up into place; he pushed it down the other way, lifting the stamp and roller above the groove. He silently smiled; the plate had indeed been bent properly, and smoke billowed out.

“-I hope and pray the world will learn-”

He picked up a small, ragged cloth from the floor.

“-that fires we don’t put out will bigger burn-”

He waited.

“-we must save freedom now at any cost…”

“Nan-shiru noka?” The slightly higher-pitched and groggy voice arrived from behind him. Wei turned to see the messy-haired Tooru staring back at him, his stained and torn brown shirt; the sailor’s collar of his emblazoned with markings and emblems peeling off by the second.

“Oh…” He stood there with a blank expression, nervously glancing everywhere but Tooru. “Hey…”

*pssss*

The noise softened. Wei turned around and grabbed the bent plate from the machine, the cloth between his hand and the simmering metal. Slowly lowering it onto a table, he watched Tooru’s eyes glaze over, and Wei couldn’t help but take small peeks at the boy.

Then, Tooru stepped forward.

Wei turned around, the sight of Tooru hovering his hand over the plate immediately striking his eyes. His eyes widened, and he scrambled over, pushing Tooru away from the table and shouting, “What the hell are you doing?!”

“Ka-kaze ni mate…”

“Look, I don’t even know what you’re saying but…” He pointed to the metal plate and then crossed his arms. “No. don’t do it. No.”

Tooru stood still, tilting his head slightly. The black lines under his eyes and his paling skin showed especially clearly in the bright lighting of the workshop, and Wei groaned as he saw it.

“Want some food?” Wei muttered, walking down to the table at the other end of the room and grabbing one of the several pieces of bread and a small water canteen; going back to the younger, dazed boy and presenting them to him. “C’mon…”

Under his head of navy blue hair, Tooru stared at the food. Wei raised it to him once again, sighing, and Tooru finally took the bread. Wei, rolling his eyes, placed the canteen on the floor next to him before turning around again and moving towards one of the stacks of materials in the corner.

Tug.

The tugging feeling on his sleeve was undeniable. Looking back he saw Tooru pulling on his sleeve, before grabbing onto his arm and-

*bzzzzz*

“AGGGGGGH!” Wei screamed, jumping back. Electricity had once again jumped through his veins and the incessant sting of this time burned.

“What the fuck…”

“Sorry.” The same young voice said, with a clearly apologetic tone. Wei turned to look at Tooru.

“You used some kind of - magic translation - is it? I don’t know…”

“Sorry… I’m not very good at that.” He sulked.

Wei blinked, then let out a wry grin. “No, no… it - it’s fine. It’s fine. After you’re done with the bread drink that water okay? You need to drink.”

“Thank you…”

“It’s fine, it’s fine.”

Smiling, Wei went back to the lathe, still whirring away. The little shiny shavings littered everywhere beneath the mechanism continued to pile up - he glanced over the pole-turned-pipe, and watched a hole slowly hollowing. Going back to the weighted controls, he moved a few weights; then proceeded back to the blast furnace.

Below the towering structure he pulled a lever and began to heave as many iron ores as he could, dropping them into a large sack and climbing up a rickety ladder attached to the side of the furnace. The weight etched itself on his shoulder, slowly scaling the ladder one-handed, before he began to dump the ores into the furnace. He dropped the sack before climbing back down.

“Why?” He heard Tooru ask as he picked the sack back up.

“Why what?”

“Ms. Kodai said you didn’t need to make this. Why did you do it then?” He said, referring to Shirin.

“...time, I guess.”

“Time?”

“I couldn’t think of anything. So I made up a really long excuse to the woman that I needed a larger space and stuff for a blast furnace when in reality we didn’t need this. Basic oxygen furnace, yes, we did, and we have that smaller one over there,” He remarked, pointing over to a large circular container in the corner suspended with multiple inlets and outlets.

“That, and I was really tired, ahaha…” Wei said, sitting down.

“Nngh…”

*thump*

Wei looked over to see a large plank on the floor, and Tooru staring at his hands. “Did you… did you try to lift it?”

“...yes…” Tooru looked down on the floor, the frown on his face part of a disappointed expression.

“Good attempt lah. You tried your best.”

He patted Tooru on the back with a kindly smile. Tooru still looked at him with a sullen face; his eyebrows ticked up.

“I’m not good at this…”

“That’s fine. In fact, that’s normal. We don’t start out good, that’s just how it is.” Wei reassured him.

“...but I should be better…”

“You do what you can and that’s good enough. That’s all anyone can ask of you. Then you try as hard as you can and you slowly get better… and always get someone to be there to make sure you don’t trip on the way.”

Tooru looked up at Wei with wide eyes; then broke into a gentle smile.

“Thank you.”

Wei didn’t respond immediately; looking into the distance with glazed eyes.

He tapped Wei’s shoulder. “Mister?”

“Oh - oh yeah - it’s fine. It’s fine… everything’s fine…” His voice trailed off; his mind elsewhere. His words had not fallen on deaf ears, but it most certainly seemed like he'd not have heard them himself.