Osamaru

  Jeremiah expanded the mission requirements and froze, cocking his head and frowning.

  “Mero?” Jeremiah said.

  “What’s up?” the fairy Guide responded.

  “Is… there something wrong with the system?” Jeremiah asked, once more scanning what was written on the screen in front of him.

  Mero frowned and waved his hand. To Jeremiah’s surprise, a dozen AR screens appeared in front of the fairy. The tiny man scanned the screens as data scrolled past faster than Jeremiah could ever hope to read. Then, as quick as they came, the screens colpsed into fractal shards of light.

  Mero turned to Jeremiah and shook his head. “Na, everything looks like it’s workin’ fine, kid. Why?” he asked.

  Jeremiah gestured to his own screen. “These requirements don’t make any sense. Why do I need kitchen space? Or spare rooms? What’s with so much shelf space?! Does the System not know what a menagerie is? Because this reads like an inn or a…”

  “Shop?” Mero finished Jeremiah’s thought with a smirk.

  “Ya…” Jeremiah muttered.

  Mero ughed. “Hey, don’t sweat the small stuff, Jerry. The System’s got it covered. You just do your thing and let the System care for the rest. What’d Sarah always say? ‘Trust the madness’ or somethin’ like that?”

  Jeremiah gred at the man for a long moment before his shoulders sagged, and he sighed.

  ——————————————————

  ————————————————

  Friday, September 23rd, 2253.

  9:32AM - (68 Hours: 8 mins remain)

  ————————————————

  Jeremiah leaned back on his couch and rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands as he groaned. He had forgotten how painful surfing the web on a HUD was. There was a reason most people still used a tablet or desktop.

  “No luck?” came a voice from Jeremiah’s small dining area. Jeremiah turned to see Mero sitting at his table with what remained of an entire block of colby jack cheese beside him. The fairy didn’t even break eye contact as he reached over, pulled a handful of cheese off the block, and took a bite.

  The Guide had been destroying Jeremiah’s supply of cheese and bread since he arrived, and Jeremiah was tempted to ask where the tiny man — no bigger than Jeremiah’s head — had put it all. Instead, the young man sighed and leaned forward on his couch.

  “No luck. I was right; the only pces in the city even coming close to matching the requirements are storefronts, and those don’t come cheap…” Jeremiah’s words trailed off.

  Maybe he could get a loan... Ha! Like that was happening. Had it been st year, getting a business loan would have been simple. As the brother of one of the city’s most successful and well-loved tech-Gifted, the banks would have practically thrown themselves at him.

  Now, however… Jeremiah would be lucky if he could make it past the front desk. Even trying to get an emergency loan when Sarah’s accounts were first frozen had been a test of willpower.

  Of course, there were other, more… risky, methods to get a loan. This was the Outskirts, after all. It was just a question of which sharks wouldn’t go for his throat as soon as they smelled blood — the banks or the gangs. With less than three days until the mission failed, it would be a miracle if he could find a loan that didn’t cost him his soul. Maybe even literally.

  Jeremiah pushed himself up and stretched, then walked over to Billy’s fishbowl to distract himself from his predicament. The tiny, half-asleep octopus sluggishly pulled himself from the pstic castle and managed a small wave of his tentacles as Jeremiah peered through the thick gss wall. Jeremiah smiled at Billy as he softly spoke, “Good morning, Billy. Are you ready for breakfast?”

  Billy suddenly perked up and waved several tentacles excitedly. Jeremiah ughed and shook his head. Sometimes, he would swear the little octopus could understand him. Jeremiah picked up Billy’s bowl from the bedside table and sat it back down on the dining table across from Mero.

  Jeremiah entered the kitchen, opened the freezer, and pulled out Billy’s shrimp bag. When he returned to the table, Mero was sitting beside Billy’s bowl, staring at the baby octopus through the gss with an odd look. Billy returned the fairy’s stare, though with more weariness in his rge eyes.

  “Who’s this, now?” Mero asked, his eyes never leaving the bowl.

  Jeremiah didn’t respond immediately, opting to pull out the far chair and sit down first. “This is Billy. He was a… gift from one of the other residents.”

  Mero raised a brow. “Well… that expins some things,” he muttered.

  “What was that?” Jeremiah asked, having not quite heard the other man.

  “Nothin’ for you to worry about, Jerry boy,” came Mero’s response, the fairy smirking.

  Jeremiah sighed, “Well, I like Billy better than you, so stop scaring him.”

  Mero only chuckled before pinching off a bit of cheese, then tossing it over the rim of Billy’s bowl. Billy’s eyes instantly locked onto the sinking cheese chunk before a tentacle shot forward and wrapped around it.

  “And stop feeding him strange things!” Jeremiah said as he reached into the feed bag and removed a bright blue shrimp.

  Mero quirked a brow. “Sarah was right… you are a nag.”

  Jeremiah gred at the fairy. “I’m not a nag. Sarah just didn’t have any common sense, and I had to stop her from killing herself every other weekend. Did she ever tell you about the cyborg duck incident?”

  Mero burst into deep ughter. “Sure did, kid. She seemed pretty upset the Five stole all her research, too.”

  Jeremiah pinched the bridge of his nose. “They didn’t ‘steal’ it. They confiscated it after 60% of the flock triggered into some kind of hive-mind and tried to take over the city. It took a week to capture all of them because no one could figure out Sarah’s spaghetti code well enough to track them… not even her.”

  Mero’s ughter grew even louder, and Jeremiah smirked. Ok, so maybe it was a little funny. At the end of the day, the cyborg ducks had proved rather… harmless. Most of the hive mind’s pns had boiled down to how to steal all the city’s stale bread.

  Jeremiah tossed Billy’s breakfast into his bowl and chuckled softly as he watched Billy struggle to choose between the tasty shrimp and the new cheesy experience. The young man smiled as the room fell into soft silence.

  A few moments ter, Jeremiah sagged into his seat. “What am I going to do?” he mostly asked himself.

  Mero, still devouring Jeremiah’s cheese block, shrugged. “I couldn’ tell ya. You need to figure that out yerself. It’s all part of the process.”

  Jeremiah stood and stretched. “I think I’ll go for a walk… maybe that’ll help clear my head.”

  Mero smirked and shoved another chunk of cheese into his mouth. “Go for it, kid. I ain’ your mother.”

  Jeremiah grabbed his jacket and walked toward the door. As he exited and closed the door behind him, he didn’t miss Mero tossing Billy another chunk of cheese.

  ——————————————————

  Jeremiah walked down the empty streets of Outskirt District 11 — or ‘The Crossroads’ as the locals called it — with his head down and his eyes firmly on the sidewalk in front of him. He’d lived in this part of Prima City for only a few weeks, but had quickly learned the ‘rules.’ Keep your eyes to yourself, don’t talk to anyone you don’t know, and keep a hand on your wallet… or weapon.

  Jeremiah’s own hand was shoved in his pocket, wrapped around the switchbde Mero had given him. Not that he would ever actually use the cursed thing on anyone. Shooting a mugger would have been a mercy in comparison. But the threat of the knife would be enough to scare away all but the most desperate of thugs. Or, at the very least, it would be more effective than the bear spray he typically carried.

  The Crossroads wasn’t the safest pce to live, but it was better than trying to live outside the city barrier like those discontent with the government tried to. At least in the Outskirts you only had to deal with people. Out there? In the Outer Wilds? You had to contend with the beasts — both mundane and mysterious — or even worse things, if the rumors were true.

  Jeremiah wasn’t quite sure where he was going. He just wandered the morning streets, lost in thought.

  “Maybe I’ll walk into town…,” he muttered. It might have been early morning, but it was far too te to consider going to work. Even if any jobs were left in the CSA office, all the decent ones would have been long gone by now. Maybe he’d try to find some lunch in Central; It would be expensive, but Jeremiah felt he had earned a treat after the night he just had.

  “Dammit, Mero… where am I supposed to find a shop?!” Jeremiah sighed as he turned toward the nearest bus stop. He would still have to walk several miles, as not even taxis would stop at the Crossroads anymore. The taxi driver, Mark, who had brought him to his new home, had made it clear that it was a onetime courtesy. The area was simply too dangerous.

  A voice suddenly called out as he passed by an alleyway. “Looking for a shop, are you? I might be able to help… for a price.”

  Jeremiah’s heart skipped a beat, and out of the corner of his eye, he could see a shadowed figure. They leaned up against the nearby building, hidden by the corner, as if waiting for some poor fool to pass by. Jeremiah clutched the bde in his pocket tighter as he quickened his steps. Even in the nicer parts of town, you didn’t talk to the shady characters in dark alleys. That was just common sense, and it went doubly so for the Outskirts.

  Yet, as he passed by, something about the figure’s voice tickled Jeremiah’s brain, and he gnced over at the figure.

  Only to freeze. Jeremiah frowned, turned, and crossed his arms as he stared at the person standing in the shadows.

  “Mani… does your mother know you skipped css?” Jeremiah said, his voice ft.

  The shadowed figure leaning against the building suddenly choked and stumbled into the light. Mani Grim, the youngest of his nddy’s children, chuckled nervously, refusing to meet Jeremiah’s gre.

  “H-hey, Jerry! Fancy meeting you here! I see you’re busy, so why don’t I ju — GAUK!” the young boy said as he turned around and tried to move deeper into the alley… before Jeremiah grabbed onto the heavy, bck woven scarf he never seemed without. “Hey man! Let me go! I did nothin’, I swear!”

  Jeremiah raised a brow. “Unh-uh, right… I don’t remember implying you did. Which makes me suspicious. No matter. Whatever trouble you’re up to, that’s for your mom to deal with.”

  Mani suddenly froze, his eyes going wide. “Wait a moment, now Jerry! There’s no need to tell mom about this, right?! Look, you said you were looking for a shop, right? I know all the shops in the Crossroads! What are you looking for? Groceries? Hardware? … Por — OUCH!”

  Jeremiah flicked the kid’ in the forehead and dropped him on the ground. “I’m looking for an empty shop, Mani. Preferably one I don’t have to sell my first-born child for. Though I don’t know why I’m telling you this…”

  Though his mouth was covered by his scarf, Jeremiah could see the wide grin in the boy’s eyes. “I know some of those! Tons of empty buildings, cheap too!”

  A silent moment passed as Jeremiah’s frown deepened and the young man grinned wider. Finally, Jeremiah rubbed his temples and asked, “You know what? Fine. I know I’m going to regret asking this, but where, exactly?”

  Mani’s grin grew even wider, somehow, and he stuck out his hand. Jeremiah looked down at the young boy’s hand, then back at Mani and sighed.