William walked to the group led by Yondu and bowed to the tall man. “It's a pleasure, sir.”

  “Hm. Young. crimson.” Yondu sized him up and down and noticed his Emblem, which was visible yet surprisingly calm considering the circumstances with Tao.

  “I heard you knew my father a lot,” William said right away, waiting for nothing.

  “A lot is an understatement, boy. I grew him, watched him, and trained him. You are quite swift in words, aren't you?” Yondu said, frowning and touching his relatively short beard, which most military men did not have.

  “Direct is better. I learned a lot in this place and from your Pillar, sir.” William argued, gesturing to Mi-Yung, who scoffed in response.

  “I guess Mi-Yung really taught you... well?”

  “Sir,” Mi-Yung said in forced embarrassment and felt a bit sorry. “William should act accordingly and not spout nonsense.”

  “He should, yes, but why not be more direct?” Yondu said playfully and had quite a bit of attention on William. “For example, your father was a broad figure. A lot of people still know him and remember him. It is both powerful and rugged memory. It is about respect. It has been what? Sixteen years or more?”

  “My age?”

  “Yes... your... Well, not that. Let's not get ahead of ourselves and talk about history. We came here for business. The Association is busy, and here is you... and her. Start already!” Yondu ordered and turned quickly to the side of the arena without being harsh. There were some benches, so he fled from this unsettling conversation that Mi-Yung appreciated. William swore it reminded him of Dreadus.

  Mi-Yung wouldn't mind if he talked a little more, but it was too late to cry over spilled milk. William knew Yondu must have been fond of his father. It was an obvious form of affection, words, and documented significance. Mi-Yung was even stronger, though she wasn't as talkative about him because of her current work and personality. It also seemed William wasn't keen on it either, so their talks about his father were far and few between.

  William figured he shouldn't hurry, so he glanced at Mi-Yung. “Should I say what I have to do or show it?”

  “Against whom?”

  “Nobody matters, really. Darks would be a greater method, I think.” William suggested.

  “We don't have them here.”

  “Then a person or a Walker is fine.”

  “Person? Well, for what?” Mi-Yung frowned and felt his choice of words wasn't very sensible. Just what was he about to do?

  Unwilling to answer, William looked at the group and approached them. He promised.

  “Does someone have a knife?”

  There was a pair of potential officers working with Yondu. Their purple uniforms expressed it enough, and their Rank shouldn't be small, but William wasn't sure.

  One of them had a knife and tossed it to William. It was quite heavy for a simple knife, but it will do.

  “Knife?” Mi-Yung asked.

  Yondu clapped his hands. “Leave the arena already. What's the target of this show, hm? YOU?”

  Mi-Yung cursed and stayed aside in silence.

  Then, William pointed to Tao, who was convenient enough as is, so he gestured for him to come forward. Tossing the knife up and down as he did so, some people thought they were about to fight. William also wanted to show Tao that he wasn't a sorry person anymore, even if he was pushed to a corner.

  Tao smiled, wondering what was about to happen, though he still feared that Yondu was angry about his unfilial duty to touch Gale's son.

  Noticing his reluctance, Yondu waved a hand for him to have another mark on it and move on, or...

  Tao breathed and let his arms grow. It affected the cardiovascular system and the overall Physique, as he was a great Brawler. It was a nice Class of the Vector Type that submerged the Vectors deep into the body and left fewer possibilities for other practices. That was a big downside, but the strength! The Recovery! They had great strengths and even bigger survivability, though they weren't Tanks.

  William kept tossing his knife, wondering if this was good timing or a terrible one. His morning had already shown it was a horrible idea. Either way, with the promise close, he should act like a man.

  Catching the knife, he shifted his steps, pointed to Mi-Yung, and began his own, restrained report. Whether the rest of the people would make something out of it wasn't his concern.

  “I was young when it all started. Emblem. Fighting. Death. Blood. I was in many corners, with people, and Darks who wanted me, or I couldn't do, or couldn't want me.”

  “Couldn't?” Adam inquired and gestured for his people to create their points. They had cameras and notebooks for notes. Adam himself was observing any small changes. As a thirty-year-old man, he looked young, but he had been part of the Association since he was seven. His intellect was great, and his work was evident when he worked under people like Heads. From time to time, even Assembly members sought him out for their private interactions or opinions, as was the case today.

  William continued talking and raised his right arm towards Mi-Yung. His Emblem faced the ceiling, so that made his open palm appear as if he were asking for money like a beggar.

  He tapped his Emblem with a knife. Nothing happened.

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  “Emblems are strange. As someone with one, I've noticed many things about it, and it... Well, it is alive. It is listening. It is speaking. Voices. Noises. There is a lot of nonsense in everything, and it protects, growls, pushes, and listens too. I read about a lot of things recently, and I am just getting into why it's so weird, menacing, and hard to figure out.”

  “Rank 0s have countless variables, boy,” Adam said as if he couldn't stop his mouth.

  Yondu let it slide and listened to what William took from being rough, uncut freak by being Outside for so darn long. It might spark some curiosity, yield nice answers, or... William. It was indeed a very curious, personal matter.

  While the camera was already rolling, William found it was an inevitable part of Mi-Yung selling him off. It would happen sooner or later, so this was fine if that's what she wanted. He wondered what she got out of it.

  “Variables, yes. Say it to a seven-year-old without knowing what it could mean, or... I don't know. I think I was younger, but whatever.” William argued, and Adam couldn't refute it. Many Walkers had unusual childhoods and experiences with the Emblem, for sure. “How to see it? Emotions. Fear. Conflict. The Darks come and bury fear and stress, and Emblems wants them —or us —or everything? How they move is for food. Who is that? Me? Emblem? Darks? Everyone wants to grow and eat. It sounds natural.”

  “Are you gonna feed it or what?” Tao asked, getting impatient.

  “No. It's about opening a mouth. Shoving it off like a mouth and forcing it to feed. I am very hungry.”

  “That is the first.” Adam nodded, wondering if this boy's silly words held any weight or validation.

  “Show it!” Yondu demanded.

  William nodded and had few words left. He stabbed his Emblem. It slid off, leaving no dent or change on the Emblem. A poke was not enough, and everyone knew it.

  But when William started cutting himself, some people didn't expect what would happen next —or what would come with it. William didn't even hesitate a little bit.

  Blood dropped, and he kept showing his arm to them.

  Then, it stopped as a slash of blood around his Emblem began to show a little red mist, and blood began to dance and stopped dropping.

  “How long was it?” Adam frowned and forgot about his stopwatch.

  “Half a minute,” Yondu said aside.

  “Half. What was the level of that cut? What about the flow? Regeneration... It isn't as rare.”

  “Rate is,” Yondu argued. “What was the damage? The past?” he asked William, who shook his arm and wiped the blood with his sleeve.

  “I can't say that. Don't know it, you see. Wounds... or deaths. Could even a Walker half a step into it get up and recover? I think so, right?”

  “They can.” Yondu nodded and appeared indifferent yet expectant of what his talk about a mouth and feeding was about.

  “I lost count of Darks many times, and even myself. On my Emblem, I don't know everything, but I know what it can do. I made... experiments. It did, too, I suppose. What can it do? It can bring bad omens. Kill. I know at least this much.... so,” William stabbed deep and right beside his Emblem, reaching the bone. The pain wasn't fun, and his promise wasn't either.

  Adam gasped. Mi-Yung was a bit worried but clenched her fist and looked ahead.

  Then, nothing happened. William grunted and figured this knock wasn't enough. Yeah. It was a shitty morning with ominous omens. He pushed the knife out and pointed it at his neck. “Sorry...” Then, something finally happened. His right hand snatched his knife after the push of crimson surged out of his deep wound. Veins surged, and his right arm was no longer his, since he used just his left for everything before.

  William felt every point of his hands moving and screaming at him, and there were howls, screams, complaints, and voices entering his mind. Searing pain returned, and so did heat and the feeling as if a thousand cuts entered his being. And a shit ton of painful reminders, and the pain itself, of course.

  The knife became a mangled mess before it entered his neck, and it soon became nothing but mist when his whole arm contorted with mist and red, crimson outbreak, or was it the other way around? Some people in this room thought so and knew the answers, but were they correct? Yondu frowned at this level of Ego and reconciled with his mind from that day onwards.

  “You said something about seven?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” William answered, fighting with his arm out of his control, waiting and barely taking Yondu seriously.

  “Spar... right? I can't get this further, and I'd rather not. Falling. Drowning...”

  “Oh,” Yondu forgot about that and gestured to Tao to get going.

  He was ready, but was slightly taken aback by how William almost killed himself. How did he know what to do? What of those experiments? How many times had he tried to do this? It felt weird, tragic, if not blasphemous and incredulous. It was crazy...

  There were questions people didn't want to know the answers to. William was the same. His right arm was no different, and blood dropped from the big wound in a little stream until it too stopped.

  Then, Tao came, and his right arm moved. William seized that fist, though his feet were unstable. He fell, but his right arm still snatched that incoming fist and held on. Tao was unable to free himself, so he kicked William until he coughed and backed off.

  Then, something changed again. Blood splashed around him, and William gestured with his arm forward. From the arm grew a ghost, misty crimson claw, extending and snatching at that palm, and pushing Tao away.

  Tao grunted as he stepped aside, taking this force for a pinch, and was ready to roll—

  His right arm dropped numb, slipping beside his hip, and Tao was confused, conflicted, and aware. Had it moved through him?! That claw?

  He felt he caught it, yet it didn't matter if he did or not, because his hand was dumb and heavy like a mountain. Tao knew his body. He knew his strength. Even if he lowered his efficiency, his internal defenses were tight, for there were things that he couldn't stop or sway.

  William was lying on the ground, with his right arm stretched upward, where the ghostly claw winced. His left hand touched his Emblem, clutching it, intercepting the flow, but he couldn't do it enough, or perhaps that's the thing.

  By will, he wanted it. By action, he allowed it.

  Mistakes were made and accepted.

  “Well... it is something like this,” William mumbled in pain, glancing at Mi-Yung, who got it. By now, she was full of worry, and her expression was ugly. Still, she couldn't move herself because the business wasn't over.

  Adam and Yondu were both intrigued and moved on because a single exchange was enough for an agreeable settlement. Tao didn't engage this freak again.

  “That is fascinating. It moves alone. For itself, for everything. On its own, it feeds. It lives. It moves unlike Rank 0 sequences for sure,” Adam put forth his guesses.

  “Nay. It attacks because death is worse, or humiliation. Pride.” Yondu said.

  Tao huffed and overcame the weakness of what happened in ten seconds, but it took some force and effort well out of Rank 3. His right side was still numb, and his face was serious. “Alright. Sir, it is presumptuous of me, or wrong, but this is...”

  Yondu shook his head. “I wouldn't go further. The boy is already happy to remain on the ground.”

  “Not... as if I want...” William grunted, and that claw seized the ground and pushed William upward. It was about ten feet long, coming from his right arm like a wavering form and existence out of dreams.

  Its pattern was weak yet still very physical, and nobody could tell whether it was Arcana or Vectors. Then, originating from this flow, his right arm was there, but that clay held his body upright. It helped him to his feet, where William coughed and felt himself slipping down again.

  A singular, deep voice said in one mindless, powerful noise. It was distinct enough to recall itself and clear things up for him. William blinked. Remembering, he opened his eyes and saw no change in pace. Good. A lot had changed.

  he murmured and looked at Yondu, who came before him like a judge of heaven.