Gun of Ashes

Like a strange meeting, in the narrow back kitchen, amidst pots and pans, two humans and a rat.

Kamu was still mopping the floor, the water rinsed again and again, finally washing away the bloodstains, like the usual business in the Lower City District. He laboriously carried the dead bodies, throwing them into the nearby Thames River, not knowing where they’d land, but surely they’d be out of sight.

Occasionally, gunshots echoed, finishing off those who hadn’t breathed their last, then throwing them into the river. By Kamu’s practiced moves, this sort of thing surely wasn’t the first time.

In the back kitchen, Lorenzo looked at the excited Heracles, hesitated briefly, but eventually extended his hand for a handshake.

This is a harmless fellow, just as he said himself, Heracles even pants after running a few steps, yet he remains incredibly dangerous, with his peculiar calculations and control. He is able to deduce the beginning and end of events, not relying on extraordinary powers, merely a strong enough memory and deduction ability.

”So how do the other Inferior Rats achieve it, your organization’s connections and records preservation?”

”It’s simple, train the rats. Different colors represent different situations and symbols. As for documents and intelligence, this kind of memory capability isn’t irreproducible. With a certain degree of training, ordinary people can become like me, although they may not reach my level.”

He pointed at his head again, speaking earnestly.

”Train yourself, construct a library, a memory palace in your mind that belongs only to you, placing everything you need within.”

”Do you want to learn, Mr. Holmes? I can see your curiosity. With your wisdom, you’ll learn quickly.”

Lorenzo didn’t rush to respond, he simply observed this somewhat manic man, starting to find the event intriguing.

He had experienced too many extraordinary incidents, even Lorenzo himself could be considered an embodiment of the extraordinary, with Secret Blood flowing in his veins. So in many instances, when things exceed ordinary logic, he tends to think of demons or some other more complex elements, but Lorenzo hadn’t anticipated that the final truth would be so simple.

All of it was merely one person’s deduction, synthesizing stories from vast information, eventually discovering their loopholes.

If Lorenzo hadn’t witnessed those outrageous events, perhaps no one would believe Heracles’ words, likely thinking his mental illness had relapsed again, ready to send him to some sanitarium.

”You have redefined the limits of humans in my eyes.”

”But aren’t human limits always immeasurable, aren’t they? Just like this city.” Heracles replied.

”Too many people live in this city where steel and miracles coexist. The longer they live, the more they revere it, yet never thinking that every inch and piece was once constructed by ordinary humans.”

Lorenzo didn’t speak, but today’s conversation with Heracles had already stirred many thoughts in him.

”Then, after doing all this, searching for ’us’ for so long, even willing to confess everything now, what is it you ultimately want?”

Lorenzo asked again.

”Knowledge, curiosity, too much, too much!” Heracles said.

”Under that morbid control desire, the more I know, the more curious I am about Old Dunling’s mists, like another invisible roommate in your room. Initially, it’s fear, then endless curiosity.”

He said to Lorenzo.

”Who are you really? What do you want to do? What is it for?”

”But you never interacted with us before, yet suddenly you’ve come forward now, why is that?” Lorenzo didn’t answer those questions, instead asked about something else.

With the Purification Mechanism’s style and casualty rate, once they discover someone like Heracles, they either lock him in the Perpetual Motion Pump for brain slice studies or recruit him to work, battling wits with demons until death.

”Because I was never sure what you were before.” Heracles said, ”I didn’t know your stance or your purpose, perhaps once I appeared, you’d just kill me, wouldn’t you?”

”As for appearing now, it’s because we share common interests. In certain aspects, we are aligned. If not for this alignment, I might have kept hiding from you, like a rat in the sewer, yearning for light but also fearful.”

Not waiting for Lorenzo to ask anything further, Heracles rummaged through a nearby cabinet, soon pulling out a row of reagents. Looking at those familiar items, Lorenzo was momentarily at a loss for words.

It seemed that Heracles indeed had some mental issues, leaving such dangerous items openly in a cabinet.

”You should be familiar with these, right? Hallucinogen.”

Heracles placed a row of hallucinogens before Lorenzo, varying in style, with differing degrees of surface wear, but the commonality was the eerie, restless power within them.

”I discovered these special hallucinogens about a year ago. Unlike ordinary ones, they seem to contain the blood of demons. Those who use these hallucinogens become mad and violent.”

As Heracles spoke, he carefully observed Lorenzo’s expression, not missing any subtle changes.