The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 646: Raven Shark

Raven Shark’s unfocused gaze moved up to Vermilion Bird’s face.

She stayed quiet, waiting.

Raven Shark finally remembered that he should greet people when he met them. He said quietly, “Hello, Elder Vermilion Bird.”

Vermilion Bird nodded contently, lifting the bag of milk tea in her hand. “Raven Shark, I brought milk tea for you. Would you welcome my visit?”

Raven Shark held onto the door with both hands, his gaze falling again. “I’ll ask them.”

“Okay.”

He closed the door.

Vermilion Bird sighed softly. Raven Shark was born with serious autism, and his parents had almost given up on him. When he was fourteen, Raven Shark awakened with a strange power. Thankfully, his parents were both wanderers and automatically modified their memories and logic.

Three months later, Vermilion Bird found the boy suspected to be an awakener and took him away, claiming to be a teacher specializing in treating neurodivergent teenagers. Under her patient care and guidance, Raven Shark took three years to slowly open himself up to the outside world. And through continuous learning and training, he could now lead a relatively normal life—only he still acted a little strangely.

Click. The door opened. Raven Shark said happily, “They agree.”

“That’s great.”

Vermilion Bird walked in with a smile. The place was messy with the sofa, table, and floor covered in heaps of clothes, toys, and drawings. There was almost no room for her to walk. Thankfully, the air was clear, and there wasn’t the sweaty smell typical of a boy’s room. Raven Shark took baths many times every day.

The walls were plastered with doodles made with crayons, featuring all kinds of marine animals ranging from small gobies to large whales, as well as jellyfish, octopi, sea turtles... There were many that Vermilion Bird didn’t even recognize.

Raven Fish didn’t have art training, and his technique left something to be desired, his style childish. However, he could always capture the most identifiable features of a creature, making his drawings vivid.

Raven Shark had named each of the fish. They were his friends. And earlier, he was asking for their permission.

Vermilion Bird put down the milk tea, looking down at an unfinished painting on the table. It was of a large black shark.

Raven Shark put a straw into a cup of strawberry milk tea and picked it up to take a sip. Then he extracted the straw, reaching for another cup of milk tea.

“Wait, these three cups aren’t for you,” Vermilion Bird stopped him.

Raven Shark took two seconds to understand and accept it. He didn’t seem unhappy at all, and he put his straw back into his cup of milk tea, enjoying it.

“I have a mission for you, Raven Shark. It’s going to be difficult, but you’re the only one who can do it.”

Raven Shark’s head remained low as he drank his milk tea, as if he hadn’t heard her.

Vermilion Bird waited for thirty seconds before Raven Shark looked up.

“What is it?”

Vermilion Bird smiled. “Find someone for me, please.”

This time, it took only a few seconds for Raven Shark to nod. Then he went back to his milk tea.

“We’ll talk about the details with our phones.” Vermilion Bird took out her phone and sent him the details of the mission even though they were in the same room.

Raven Shark lowered his cup of milk tea and took out his phone, his eyes lighting up as he quickly browsed through the messages. His fingers flew across the screen, typing out a response.

Vermilion Bird’s phone rang.

[Raven Shark: Don’t worry, Elder Vermilion Bird. Raven Shark will complete the mission!]

“Okay.” Vermilion Bird nodded with a smile. Raven Shark could talk like a regular person through text; in fact, he could get quite talkative.

He typed away on his phone again.

[Raven Shark: Elder Vermilion Bird, I had a dream about Brother Scarlet Fox. He said that he missed you a ton, and that you really should stop smoking.]

Vermilion Bird’s smile stiffened for a moment before smoothing out. “If you have another dream of him, tell him that his sister misses him a ton, too, and that I haven’t been smoking.”

[Raven Shark: Got it, Elder Vermilion Bird.]

“I’ll get going then.”

Vermilion Bird picked up the remaining three cups of milk tea and walked out of Raven Shark’s room, closing the door behind her.

Standing in the empty corridor, she fished out a pack of cigarettes and her lighter from her coat pocket, shaking one cigarette out of the pack and popping it in her mouth. With practiced ease, she lit it.

She took two steps back until her back pressed into the wall. Tilting her head, she looked at the window at the end of the corridor, where white light shone in. A breeze ran along the corridor, sweeping her hair. Time seemed to blur at that moment.

Vermilion Bird quietly smoked, her head empty of any thought.

...

Room 5003, 50th floor of White Lake Hotel.

The large suite consisted of four rooms and three living spaces, including a kitchen and a bathroom. Two floor-to-ceiling windows allowed the sunlight to shine in. Dressed in simple but elegant pajamas, Ke Yo lay on the sofa with her arms widened, her hands digging into the leather of the sofa as a woman lifted her left leg and held onto her bare foot.

The woman was in her mid-thirties. She was tall and skinny, wearing a loose sweater and wide-leg jeans.

Her long black hair ran down her shoulders naturally, the front of her hair lifted with a black fringe sticker. Free of makeup, she wore a delicate pair of gold frame glasses, making her look well-educated.

Holding Ke Yo’s left ankle, she balled her other hand into a fist with the middle finger’s knuckle protruding, massaging the acupuncture points of Ke Yo’s footsole.

She was One Stone, with Talent: Pharmacist, serial number 86, Knowledge-type.

She wore many hats in the mundane world: nutritionist, acupuncturist, elite massagist, and popular online novel author.

Before Scarlet Fox’s sacrifice, she had been an Elite of Team Vermilion Bird, mainly staying in the back to develop and create medicines that had been popularized. Medicine C, Medicine D, and Medicine M were all her handiwork.

After the Crimson Tide, she comprehended Seed of Resentment, and considering her experience and contribution, she was promoted to Protector.

One Stone went to the same school as Vermilion Bird. Vermilion Bird was her senior. With Vermilion Bird’s Talent keeping her look young, though, One Stone seemed more like the senior, or even her professor.

The two were quite close, and since they were both single, they had been living together.

Now that Ke Yo had been let out after an observation period, she was assigned to Vermilion Bird, and she moved in. On one hand, it was to make it easier for Vermilion Bird to keep an eye on her; on the other hand, Vermilion Bird wanted to make her a companion.

“Ah, aghhh...” Ke Yo cried out again. “Hurts! It hurts!”

“You have a stomach problem, don’t you?” One Stone went easier on her.

Ke Yo nodded. “Yeah.”

“Then you should eat less sweet, spicy, stimulating, raw or cold, and pickled food. Glucocorticoids, too.”

“Then what’s the point of living?”

One Stone laughed. “You have a point.”

“Come on. I’ll do your other foot.”

Ke Yo pulled her left leg back and lifted her right leg. One Stone took off her sock smoothly and started massaging her sole.

Ke Yo started screaming again.

“Oh, did you finish the mission I gave you last night?”

One Stone asked as she massaged Ke Yo’s foot.