The Black Swan Behind (Beauty of Fire)

193 We Are Black

Emma looked at Rachel with her big round eyes and a questioning face.

“Do you think I cooperated with you yesterday just because I wanted to save my grandfather? If you think so, then you are wrong, Emma.” Rachel said.

Then she took a deep breath and started to continue, “All this time, I’ve lived on my own. I don’t have any friends because everyone sees me as a monster. My big body, my scary face, and my introverted nature make people think I’m weird. My dad was a boxer. I love autos and like to get my hands dirty with oil. I also love martial art sports and wanted to be free to get along with them. But I tried to all my passions cover-up for fear that people would look at me as a freak. Maybe they would say it was natural for me that I liked rough and dirty things because my physique alone was not graceful at all.” Rachel explained. Then she removed her hands from Emma’s shoulders.

“When I first saw you, I thought you were a perfect elegant lady. You were beautiful, gentle, and smart. But when I saw you practising ballet with unusual moves, I started to notice your difference. I felt there was something special about you. Maybe.. in the end, I could have at least one friend who was a little bit like me. And when I found out what you were doing behind people’s backs, Gosh! It felt like I won a lottery. I finally found someone who could accept me and allow me to be myself and freely do what I love. I was like a monster released into the wild after being locked up in a dungeon for so long. That was how I feel because of you, Emma. And all those adventures.. I really love them.”

Emma’s eyes flickered. Her face looked tense at the outpouring of Rachel’s heart. Emma had no idea that Rachel had been going through such heavy mental torture all this time. She did not expect what the environment could do to make a person judge herself to such a low level.

In fact, Emma had always admired Rachel Markway, who she thought was wise and had a strong personality. She even relied on Rachel in many ways. But it turned out that Rachel had that much fear of the world. It was so painful to know that a girl as strong as Rachel had to think of herself as a caged monster.

“Please give me a chance, Emma.” Rachel said again, snapping Emma out of her daze.

Emma immediately shook her head. She rubbed the corners of her eyes that were starting to water, “I’m so sorry, Rachel. It seems that I’ve been careless about your feelings all this time. Sorry I misunderstood and thought that you were willing to help me just because it had to do with your grandfather and his workplace.”

“You don’t need to apologize, Emma. You’re honestly the only person I can tell about my feelings to. And I feel sorry that I have to put this burden on you. However.. I just couldn’t help it. Sorry for that,” Rachel said in a low voice.

.....

“You never burden me at all, Rachel. I feel so honoured to be the person you could trust to share your feelings with. I just didn’t think that all this time.. you had that much mental pressure. I’m a girl who grew restrained and is out of my cage to fly freely. I want you to have the same opportunity, Rachel.” Emma smiled softly as she looked at her best friend.

Rachel’s eyes were filled with tears, “I promise you won’t regret it, Emma. When I said that I would fight with you, it wasn’t just fighting once or twice. What I meant was that I will continue to fight with you. If your dream is to see a clean Handway City, then I’ll join forces to make it happen.”

“Thank you, Rachel. Really. I appreciate that.” She said and hugged her.

Emma was deeply moved by Rachel’s words. Knowing that she was not alone anymore in achieving her dreams made her madly happy. Emma admitted that she was not without difficulty in her actions all this time. The problems that come and go that seemed endless, frankly made Emma overwhelmed in every decision.

She realized that she was not mentally mature enough. Emma still didn’t know much about the outside world and life. Because of that, she was usually afraid of making a wrong decision every time she had to. And she only had to rely on her own brain.

Emma once had thought about how nice it would be to have Rachel as a partner in carrying out all of her missions. But Emma dared not hope for more. She understood that her job was dangerous and she didn’t want to involve anyone in it, let alone her best friend. But apparently, what Emma thought was wrong. Rachel naturally wanted to help her. It was like a dream come true.

“So, Black is still two, isn’t it?” Rachel let go of her arm with a smile.

Emma nodded, “Black is still two people. We are Black.”

With that, officially and suddenly, Black was formed. A small group of two girls disguised under masks and black clothes. They became mysterious figures to everyone in the dark world.

“So, Jita Kyoei will still attack RJC?” Rachel asked from the kitchen counter, looking at Emma who was busy cooking.

Emma nodded while stirring her Spaghetti Carbonara, “Isn’t that weird? If RJC doesn’t have any enemies anymore, that should mean they’re not recruiting martial arts students anymore. Then why does Jita Kyoei still intend to attack them?”

“How do you know if RJC hasn’t recruited members from the studio?” Rachel asked.

Emma stopped stirring and then turned to look at Rachel, “That’s.. just my guess,”

Rachel nodded slowly, “You can’t rely on a guess. That’s why there’s such a thing as research.”

Emma turned off the stove and poured the contents of the pot into a pan made of heat-resistant glass.

“Do you need a hand with that?” Rachel asked, getting ready to stand up.

Emma immediately shook her head, “Don’t try to get involved in someone’s cooking. I can do everything myself.”

“Okay,” Rachel raised her palms beside her head.

After she finished pouring, Emma spoke again while thinking, “So we should investigate first?”

“I’m sure we should,” Rachel answered. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t know why Jita Kyoei was planning to attack RJC. Let alone me, even you pretty much recognize those guys, right? I’m sure Calvin and Troy aren’t bad guys who would suddenly attack someone.”

“Sure. I agree with you to investigate. But I have one question. How?” Emma asked while grating the cheese.

Rachel didn’t answer. She had been thinking about that too. Previously, to find information about Creeper, they could disguise themselves as Chingsu District’s employees.

But for RJC, they couldn’t do the same because there wasn’t any woman in the base. It was a male nest. They also couldn’t possibly ask Marcel directly because that would make him suspicious about them. After all, they had officially broken up the tie with RJC now.

“Oh!”

Rachel immediately looked up at Emma.

“My hand touched the hot pot. Damn it!” Emma exclaimed by blowing her burned hand.

Rachel just sighed deeply. She thought Emma had an idea.

“But I have an idea,” Emma continued.

Rachel’s eyebrows shot up enthusiastically, “What’s that?”

“Is it possible if we install a bug in the old radio room?” Emma smiled widely.

“Old radio room?” Rachel repeated. “Oh.. Is it the room that Calvin and Jita Kyoei use for meetings? That’s fine a pretty fine idea. But, do you have the device?”

Emma smiled widely, “That could be arranged.”

***

A box car stopped in front of a house with a high wooden fence. A man got down from the passenger door and took a quite large box in his arms.

He stood in front of the fence and difficulty pressed the bell button. Not long after, the fence door opened and revealed a charming girl with two big brown eyes who was wearing a cooking apron, “Ms Emma Wind?” the man asked.

Emma nodded, “That’s me.” Of course, that was not her real name. Jonas had arranged for the identity of the girl and himself to be safe.

“This is a package from Jonas Wind. Please sign here,” The man said by pointing his chin at the two pieces of paper stuck together.

Emma took the pen on top of the box and signed the paper, “The red one for me?”

The man smiled, “That’s right,”

“Thanks,” Emma said taking the red sheet on the paper along with the package.

She immediately went into the house and opened the box. She smiled broadly at its contents. After that, she took the phone from the table and took a picture of the opened package and sent it to someone.

‘The package has arrived. Thanks, Jonas!’ Emma clicked the send button.

Not long after, a reply message came, ‘You’re welcome. But, I beg your pardon, Miss. You haven’t explained what you’re going to do with the thirty bugs.’

‘This is a college assignment. We will perform a drama.’ Emma answered.

‘You expect me to believe that? Indeed smart. Don’t get involved with the police, young lady. I’ll be in trouble too then. Your papa would kill this innocent human, you know?’

Emma laughed when reading the message. Then she continued to type, ‘What kind of police will interfere in the affairs of students who are doing their college work? Jardin University is weird. You will know for yourself if you study here.’

‘Right, it’s up to you. Take care of yourself. I’ll call you tomorrow.’

‘All right, Sir!’

With a smile still on her face, Emma put her phone back on the table. But not even after five seconds the cellphone had been lying there, it was now ringing again from an incoming call.

Emma looked at her phone screen and immediately picked up the call, “Yes, Rachel?”