“That hurt, Nuk! You almost broke my neck!”

“There, there.” She responded while patting Ellie’s head.

Blushing, Ellie looked away and increased her pace. They were almost home. Both lived in an apartment gifted to them by the Scout Korps for their status and performance in the field. Nuk also had her apartment, but she usually rented it for extra cash, while using Ellie’s place to live in between missions.

“Say, should we eat out tonight? There’s no food at home.” Nuk didn’t respond. Without turning back, Ellie listened for Nuk’s pace, checking whether she was still walking behind her. She was.

“Did you hear me?”

“Yes, I’ve already booked a place nearby.”

“Wah, that was fast. I’ve got to take care of something really quick. Send me the address, I’ll meet you there.”

“Mm.”

With that said, Ellie ran away. A few minutes later, she abruptly stopped from her mad sprint and forcefully grabbed her shirt. A dim light permeated her chest, not bright enough to be noticeable through her clothes. A burning sensation gradually grew in intensity. Her hand formed into a fist and crashed into a nearby wall.

“It hurts...”

The light and pain continued to grow in intensity for a few more moments, then, they stopped, as if nothing had happened in the first place.

“Damn it...”

With teary eyes, Ellie regained her composure.

A small icon appeared in the corner of her field of view, indicating she had just received a message. By focusing on it, the contents flowed out. It was from Nuk, giving her the location of the food place and a cartoon of her expressionless face with a pair of cat ears.

“Pff!”

That small cartoon was enough to bring back Ellie’s smile. She brushed off her shirt then bolted away.

A few hours later, down in the second layer of The Omnipresence. Nuk sat by herself at a corner table in a fairly empty bar. She looked at the time. Ellie was half an hour late. She wasn’t worried about her safety, especially on their home carrier. Also, Ellie was one of the strongest people she knew. Rather, Nuk started to wonder whether her friend had forgotten about their meeting. She could eat alone, then return home, but it was Ellie’s idea to eat together.

After a few more minutes, the door opened. Nuk didn’t try to look. For the past 30 minutes, she had turned around at least 15 times.

“Sorry for the wait!”

“You came!”

“Of course, I did! I wouldn’t have missed our night out for anything.”

As food and drinks were served, both girls were ravenously devouring plate after plate.

“I’ve missed this taste so much!” Ellie loudly exclaimed. Nuk scanned the bar for other people that Ellie might bother with her loud voice. Since a while ago, a group of people started to form in the opposite corner. Until now, they’ve been quietly drinking and talking among themselves, but as alcohol kept coming, their voices also grew in intensity.

Besides the girls and the other group, there was another man, sitting in between the two groups. Nuk watched him as he listened to what the other group was talking about and wrote down bits in a small notebook. It seemed that he was a sort of informant, keeping a tab on the other group and relaying information to a third party.

“Nuk? Are you listening?”

“Huh?”

“I asked you, do you think I could win against Blanc?”

“10th Scout Team’s captain? It might be a bad match-up for you...”

“That’s what I was thinking. He is great at dodging but is also really durable. He could probably outlast me in a 1v1.”

“With preparation time, you can probably find a way to negate his advantage.”

“You’re right. That armor of his can be disabled with electric pulses.”

The informant guy seemed troubled by something. Nuk switched her attention from Ellie to him, from time to time. He stopped taking notes a while ago and his feet are pointed outwards. He’s either ready to leave or is about to storm right into that other group.

“You could probably take him 1v1 though. One of your kicks could break through his armor.”

“Kicks? Maybe.”

“Yeah, you’re really strong in close combat. Why are always using rifles?”

“It’s easier to shoot from a distance. Walking all the way to a target is a drag.”

“Hmm... That’s... I guess you’re right. What are you looking at?”

Ellie turned around. Just as she did, the informant guy stood up and walked over to the group in the corner.

“You are wrong! You’re here talking about those filthy machine spawns as if they’re human! I’m telling you, that way of thinking is the reason your group’s ideology is so unpopular. The human form is the purest form of life! The machine spawns aren’t human, or a percentage of a human, they’re machines! A human can only be pure!”

The group seemed to resonate with that man’s words. One after another, their angry looks turned to smiles, then cheers. They were a human supremacist bunch after all. The so-called informant seemed to share some of their beliefs, and after failing to suppress his urges, he went ahead and joined their group.

“Our ancestors had lived for hundreds of thousands of years as pure humans. Their civilization reached peaks that our pitiful imitation can never hope to achieve. The reason for our degradation is the machines! Their filthy black blood is filling even our veins! They use the black blood to control our minds, turning us into their puppets! They break your children’s limbs, replacing them with those abhorrent machine parts!”

The entire bar was listening to the man’s rambling. Hearing his words, Nuk dropped back into her seat, covering her right arm and legs. Human supremacy was an underground ideology in the Danube Karawan, with most of their followers being the easily impressionable worker folk. They preached about human purity and a better past that never existed. Their discourse made Nuk feel sick.

“Ellie, we should go...”

Ellie was already gone. She had left her seat a few moments ago and was now angrily walking towards the corner group and their revered preacher.

“Hey, you! You’re talking a lot of shit for a weakling!”

“Who is this? A girl?”

Ellie stopped in front of him. Everyone stood up and surrounded her.

“So, you’re one of the machines! This is what I’m talking about! She’s come to end our meeting! The machine overlords don’t want you to be free to think!”

Out of nowhere, his face caught Ellie’s fist, sending him flying through the window.

“Oh... I should leave.”

Nuk packed up her stuff and quietly left the bar. Fists started flying from all sides. Shouts and screams echoed throughout the street, with people gathering to see the commotion. A few minutes later, Ellie was the only one standing, in the middle of a pile of beat-up people. By the time guards had arrived at the scene, she was long gone. The informant was found a few blocks away in a trash container, tied up and blindfolded, alive, but shaken.

The girls went back home, laughing their way into the apartment.

“His face when you sent him flying through the window! That was great.”

“Of course! How could I let those insects badmouth my best friend? Besides, I was in the mood for a bar fight after today’s report.”

“Thanks.”