“Hey, Marcus, are you alright?” After around ten minutes, Kevin got to the unity care ter before any police officers, and he was very siderate to have brought a metal jug of coffee and an insuted bento box: “I brought some food, in case you’re hungry.”

  “Oh god, thank you Kevin.” Marcus took the bento and started shoving his mouth with food. Almost everyohought the first thing one needed after a brutal fight was medical supplies. They were n, just that a lot of them teet about food - especially warm, fresh and energizing food, like tender and thin pieces of steak and some warm, steamed rice, with some sesame seeds sprinkled on top. After the first few mouthfuls of food and gulps of coffee, Marcus looked up and asked Kevin: “Wait, they just let you in? No additional questions?”

  “Yeah, apparently they knew me.” Kevin shrugged and sat down by Marcus: “I suppose that’s all because of you.”

  “Sorry.” Marcus sighed and shook his head: “I’ll expin in full.”

  “Well, we have some time now.” Kevin shrugged and raised his eyebrows: “I don’t suppose yoing anywhere anytime soon?”

  “You’re right.” Marucs chuckled: “There’s never gonna be a perfect time. So … you know when I was a kid, I spent quite a few years here in this district right?”

  “Right, until it’s almost time for you to go to college, and your dad moved to the South-Western Distrid got you in a high school with a little better ce for you to get in one.” Kevin nodded: “But I guess that’s where you got to know the people in this district, am I right?”

  “Yes. And even after I joihe academy, I kept in touch with them.” Marodded: “And as you guess, I got my starter courses on mystic martial arts from that experience. One of my earlier mentors was Bulu Wang, also known as …”

  “‘Old Wang’.” Kevin said it with Marcus: “I see, he’s built himself quite a name, hasn’t he? I know very little about the unity collective, yet I’ve heard of him.”

  “Yeah, he’s a pretty high level executive right now, and is in charge of handling anythied to the social order and public safety of quite a rge area.”

  “Then I guess that’s why they would know me then.” Kevin shook his head and smiled: “If it was me, I would definitely spend some mao find out intel about those affiliated with you just in case. But you know, you tell me more about your personal history ter - what happe the docks? Why are you injured?”

  Marcus looked around, then described everything to Kevin with a lowered voice. He was not overly worried that people with “gifts” like the Taoists and Chef Tang would hear him, still he would like to keep the information to a smaller crowd.

  The expression of excitement fshed through Kevin’s face for a mere moment, for this would no doubt prove some of his theories and help both him and Marcus make better sense of what was going on iy. Yet his facial expression immediately turned sour and worried, for it would be easy to see how worrisome the situation would seem to anyone.

  “Well, I ’t believe I’ll be saying this to you in this close succession, based on different is.” Kevin shook his head and patted Marcus on the shoulder while Marcus ed up his bento and chugged down the rest of the coffee: “But I’m just so happy that you’re alive.”

  “Yeah, me too.” Marcus looked around one more time, then handed a small pieetal to Kevin and whispered to him: “I don’t know what you do with this, but this is a piece of the that got in my shoulder. There’s some kind of pattern on it, but I ’t make it out because the other part probably flew into the water already. ”

  “I’ll see what I do.” Kevin tucked the small piece of brokeal in his jacket: “Now, have you decided what yonhe captain whes here?”

  “Captain Ko must have known more than we imagined.” Marcus scratched his jaw, frowning: “He’s always grumpy, sometimes judgmental and too much of a stickler for rules as well, but his cavalier attitude is just… curious, to say the least.”

  “Good point.” Kevin thought for a mihen agreed.

  “And, oher thing.” Marcus turo Kevin: “This time, no Blood Rainbows.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I looked around in the sky, when those creatures from the water appeared, there’s no Blood Rainbow in the sky.” Marcus expined as he was thinking: “It’s not there, I am pretty sure. But those three men - they must be media of some kind, I mean, I have seen my fair share of Qi users. But I have never seen anything like them, well, maybe aside from those Taoists that came with Chef Tang.”

  “I have heard of them before, and I have met a few in real life.” Kevin nodded: “But I have never seen them actually in a. What’s the differeween what they could do and your Qi from your mystic martial arts?”

  “Well, all I could tell is that when the smoke skeleton attacked me, I could feel the same kind of cold energy invading my body.” Marcus thought for a while, then answered with hesitation: “It’s probably still some kind of Qi. Or Qi - like energy that derived from a different source.”

  “Okay, and what about ghosts?” Kevin asked again while scratg his jaw: “I remember you mentioo me that when you were attacked by those ghosts. Do they feel the same?”

  “... you’re thinking that spirits are some kind of beings with Qi?” Marodded: “That's…”

  “That’s a bit of a stretch, I know. But I am indeed w what they are, the spirits, hosts. I mean, humans are able to fun a thanks to our physiology, but what of ghosts and spirits?” Kevin shrugged, “And Qi, from what I uand, is something that es from the body and flows through the meridians. So, where do ghosts and spirits get their Qi?”

  “No, that’s not what I was trying to say.” Marcus shook his head: “I meant to say it’s a good theory. In fact, it might not be too much to say that they might be all made of Qi somehow. Think about it… ”

  Just this moment, sirens came from a distance, and many men waiting at the unity care ter started moving - some of them left, and some of them moved to the gate, ready to meet the ining police officers.

  Chef Tahe care ter through a side gate, hopped onto a bck car a with the Taoists. Marcus could definitely uand this choice, he would do the same. And he was curious as to who those remaining were. Were they also members of the unity collective?

  “You might wanhere, just in case there’s flict.” Keviated for a brief moment then said.

  “Yeah I know.” Marcus sighed and finished his coffee: “What’s your stonna be?”

  “This.” Kevin pulled out a rolled up and slightly dirty poster of the m market: “I was in the neighborhood, I decided to stay for one night, then I got your text so I came early. No one could fault me for that.”

  “Good.” Marcus chuckled: “And just so you know, I was here because I was following up on one of the missing children’s cases. ”

  “What if they wanna know what you found?”

  “...well, I’ll just tell them I found partially burnt clothes by the ptform. ” Marcus looked up at the sky and sighed. There was no Blood Rainbow tonight, yet the moon appeared to be dim, and slightly red.

  Shout out to my dear patrons: mant06, Jonathan. The path of writing would be so lonely without you.