The Unmaker

Dahlia’s knees buckled the instant Issam plunged his broken sword into the beetle’s head, and the rest of the giant bug’s body went limp after a few more seconds of quiet twitching—it wouldn’t be walking off its injury this time around.

They’d won.

They’d slain a giant insect together.

[... I have narrowed down your temporary insect class,] Eria said, in a much more metallic and lifeless voice than usual, and Dahlia finally sucked in the breath she’d been refusing to take the entire last minute. Blood-tinged air rushed into her lungs, warming her throat; she knew she couldn’t fall asleep now and become a burden on everyone else.

As she blinked and struggled to stay awake—looking at Jerie helping Amula up, watching the twins climb over the railings, and Issam yanking his broken blade from the beetle’s head—Eria tapped her cheek from atop her shoulder and asked again.

[Your temporary insect class has been narrowed down,] Eria repeated. [Would you like to check your status now?]

…

While everyone else limped over to the giant beetle carcass, chortling and slapping each other’s backs, Dahlia finally managed to let go of the chisel she’d used to dismantle it alive. Her hands were trembling. Her eyes watered and burned with overexertion. She hadn’t ‘killed’ it by herself, no—if the twins hadn’t weakened its legs and the seniors hadn’t kicked its elytra down and Issam hadn’t jumped in for the finishing blow, all she’d have done was strip off plates of its armour for no real purpose. It wasn’t like she’d overcome the beetle by herself.

Still, she’d dismantled it while it was still alive.

She’d followed that steel thread with her chisel, and that faith… paid off.

… Show me my status.

[As you wish.]

[Name: Dahlia Sina]

[{Temporary} Class: Hemiptera]

[BloodVolume: 4.5/4.8 (94%), Strain: 285/837 (34%)]

[Unallocated Points: 0]

[// BASIC ATTRIBUTES]

[Strength: 1, Speed: 1, Dexterity: 8, Toughness: 1, Perceptivity: 3 (+8), StrainLimit: 837]

[// MUTATION TREE ]

[// UNIQUE SWARMSTEEL LIST]

[2x Cave Cricket Bracers (Quality = F)(Per +8/17)(Tou +0/1)(Strain +186)]

The little black box next to her head was as bright and foreign as ever, and she had trouble squinting at the tiny words at first. Quickly, though, she was able to pinpoint the exact boxes that had changed and the words that had been added—and there, in the box right under her name, was the word ‘Hemiptera’.

Her brows furrowed almost immediately as Eria hopped onto her shoulder, peering at her status alongside her.

... The ‘True Bugs’ of the insect world, she thought.

[You know the colloquial term for Hemiptera, I see.]

They're… um. How does the saying go again? All bugs are insects–

[But not all insects are bugs,] Eria finished, nodding slowly. [Hemiptera include, but are not limited to: cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, and shield bugs. All of them are insects who do not undergo complete metamorphosis like ants and beetles and butterflies do. Hemipteras emerge from their eggs as ‘nymphs’, and remain roughly the same shape as they moult and grow. Quite unlike normal insects who go from egg to larvae to pupa to their fully fledged adult forms.]

I know.

[It is quite common for an Altered Swarmsteel System to determine someone as being best fit for the mutations of a Hemiptera insect class,] Eria continued. [Of the many temporary insect classes you could have been given, Hemiptera is one of the least specific. There are a lot of insects that fall under the Hemiptera classification, which means most people in the world, if given a Swarmsteel System, would gain an insect class that falls under the Hemiptera classification, but I wonder why I still cannot give you a specific…]

[...]

[... Ah. This is one of those troublesome scenarios, I see.]

She bit her tongue and looked down, trying not to look at Issam or the twins as they chatted about breaking the giant beetle down into raw materials.

Troublesome? she thought. What do you mean by that?

[Most likely, I cannot assign you a specific insect class alongside its mutation tree because of an underlying biological condition,] Eria said plainly. [Simply put, there is something fundamentally strange about your body that is preventing me from analysing you properly.]

Dahlia furrowed her brows. So, you're saying I won't get my insect class no matter how long I wait?

[Correct. As a demonstration, allow me to show you how I am normally supposed to assign someone an insect class.]

Eria pointed a leg at Ayla, who was mumbling something to Jerie as he grimaced and pulled a small wooden shrapnel out of his leg. By the time Dahlia managed to blink, there was a second black box hovering next to the shorter-haired sister’s head, but this one was only half-formed—though the words were fairly large, so she could still read them clearly from a distance.

[Name: Ayla Danri]

[Class: Determining]

[...]

[Class: Angle Moth]

[... You can see the Altered Swarmsteel System assessing her in an instant, yes?] Eria said. [Typically, that is what is supposed to happen. The Altered Swarmsteel System analyses its users physiological capabilities, and then determines the insect class with the mutations best fit for them based on their characteristics. Assigning an insect class should be something done within the first minute of system integration, so, for you, I do not know why I am unable to–]

It’s just as you said, then.

She looked glumly down at the little black bug, at its teardrop-shaped body and its slightly elongated neck… and she felt she already knew, right here and now, what her ‘best fit’ insect class was supposed to be.

The air felt heavier around her shoulders. Her skin on her neck itched, her bruised nails felt like they were about to slide right off her fingertips, and when she chewed on the bloodberry candy she popped into her mouth with her knees pulled to her chest, she felt her nails really were coming loose—had she been injected with some sort of venom by the beetle’s attacks, after all?

She started scratching her bracers.

She started biting her nails and sucking harder on her candy.

She couldn’t… control herself.

[... Dahlia.]

[Do you know what condition you have that is preventing you from eating insect flesh and preventing me from assigning you your insect class?]

[Do you already know what insect class you would be best fit for?]

…

[It is this little black bug I am currently taking the form of, is it not?]

[I chose this form because it was the image of the first insect I could glean from your shallow pools of memories, but I am not able to identify it. Its physical appearance is rather… plain. And unassuming. Cross-checking between hundreds and thousands of Hemiptera species matching my current physical appearance would take me a few years, and even then, my conclusion may well be incorrect.]

[But if you know exactly what insect class you are best fit for, then please tell me. I may be able to override the system and manually assign you–]

‘Best fit’ for, huh?

Her index nail cracked and split in two as she bit down a little too hard, and everyone whirled to see what she was doing, sitting far and away from the dead beetle by her lonesome. Warm blood trickled down her finger, but before she could bite on them again to rip out the already splintered nail—Issam dashed over and grabbed her hand, stopping her from continuing to bite in a daze.

He had her pinned under his piercing gaze, eyes dark and half-lidded, brows curled in a sad, almost sleepy, expression.

Then she blinked the muddy black haze in her mind away, and there was no hiding the tears that started welling in the corner of her eyes.

… Ah.

I’m doing it again.

What was she thinking?

What was she doing?

To nearly bite her tongue off and wound herself after an almost flawless victory against the giant beetle, it just didn’t make any sense whatsoever. Had what Eria told her rattled her so much she went back to her old habit of biting her nails out of sheer anxiousness—the habit she’d fought tooth and nail to get rid of two years ago?

“... You did well,” Issam whispered, patting her head as she lowered her gaze, breaking eye contact. She sniffed hard to keep her tears in the corner of her eyes, and they didn’t quite fall. She was still holding. She was still the victor. “You… can fight as well, huh? Sorry we just charged in like that without waiting for you. I wouldn’t have this piece of wood in my shoulder if we’d just let you strip its armour beforehand.”

At the mention of his shoulder wound, she pushed him away gently and stared through his blood-stained fabric. It wasn’t a terrible or debilitating wound by any means—she’d seen him shrug off worse during training—but regardless, her voice still came out as a croak when she called for Jerie and Amula to give him some help.

Maybe she actually said a few words. Maybe she didn’t. Her throat was dry and all she could manage was a few more pleas for bandages before Amula tossed her a roll from his satchel, while Jerie was still too busy letting the twins bandage his leg up.

Issam grimaced softly and leaned back where he sat as she rose to her knees, carefully peeling his sleeve back to grimace at the sight of the little wooden shrapnel sticking out his skin.

“It really isn’t a big deal, you know?” he said in his usual sing-songy voice, but that quickly turned into a wince when she pinched the shrapnel out and daubed the small wound with the cotton. He stopped moving as much once she started bandaging his shoulder, trying not to limit his range of movement so much. “More importantly, you should probably wipe off the blood on your cheek. You got grazed there once. That stray leg almost tore your throat out. You need to be a bit more aware of all its possible avenues of attack if you’re fighting closing range–”

“Quiet,” she mumbled.

“Okay.”

The steel thread didn’t guide her to bandaging someone up. It was a thread she could only see with something sharp in hand, like her chisel or a kitchen knife, so she struggled with tying the bandages off more than she really should. It was embarrassing, really, that Issam had to help her do it himself, before pulling his sleeve down and patting her head once more—and this time, she didn’t feel like being consoled in such a manner. It made her feel small, like a little animal to be taken care of, and she felt… that maybe, to Issam, she really was something he had to protect.

She didn’t like the thought of that.

Not one bit.

“... I’m sure we all have things we wanna talk about, but it’s best if we all get into the school first,” Issam announced, as he rose to his feet and turned to address everyone with firm, narrowed eyes. “Bridge’s gonna crumble soon. Half of the supporting pillars are broken, and the other half are surely weakened. We harvest what parts we can easily rip off the beetle, get onto school grounds, and then we go straight for the armoury where Dahlia can make something strong for us—we don’t wanna get into another fight when we’re all already weakened like this, do we?”

The twins nodded, and the seniors didn’t have much to say, either. Amula had to support the Jerie with an arm under his shoulder while Issam extended a hand down for Dahlia, his lips arched into a smile that failed to reach his eyes; she could tell he was a fair bit tired, just like her, but unlike hers, his eyes still shone like the sun beyond the hole in the ceiling.

She hesitated for only a moment before taking his hand gingerly, and he pulled her up towards the beetle with his broken blade twirling in his hand.

“You’re gonna have to tell me which parts I have to cut,” he whispered, smirking as he jumped onto the beetle to position his blade between the seams of its massive chitin plates. “I don’t pay much attention in insect physiology classes, after all.”

“That’s because the classes are boring,” Ayla mumbled, supporting Aylee and getting supported in return. “Seriously. Who cares about dissectin’ a bug to see what its innards look like? They’re all the same when covered in blood, anyways.”

Issam scowled back at her. “That’s why I’m asking Dahlia, not you. She’s the only one here who tries to study.”

“That’s a disservice to Jerie,” Aylee muttered.

“And me,” Amula snapped.

“Jerie, I can believe, but you? Not so much.” Issam laughed pointedly and ignored Amula kicking the beetle’s head in irritation, turning instead to wink at Dahlia. “Well? Where do I start?”

Drawing in a slow and steady breath, Dahlia pointed and directed the far more precise swordsman into cutting out all the parts she’d be able to turn into something useful. She was more than familiar with beetles of most varieties, after all; of the countless insect parts she’d worked with before, beetle carapaces were probably among the more flexible parts she’d ever had the opportunity to play with. They could be bent and shaped and weaved into most shapes, so to say she wasn’t even the least bit excited to work with giant beetle chitin for once would be a plain black lie.

She allowed herself to get a little carried away with telling Issam which parts to cut, and which parts to ignore.

… I have a feeling that we don’t share the same meaning for ‘best fit’, she thought, answering Eria’s question. It’s… nothing of the sort.

That insect is nothing I ‘want’ to be.

Eria blinked up at her, tilting its little head.

[Then, what is it?]

[What is this insect I am currently taking the form of?]

…

… Couldn’t you just assign me another insect class? she thought. I don’t… I don’t mind not having an insect class right now. It’s not like I can eat insect flesh and get points to unlock those ‘mutations’ or whatever, right? Does it even matter whether I have a class or not?

Silence.

Eria thought for a moment before sighing.

[... You are correct] Eria said. [Even if I were to assign you an insect class right now, with your body actively rejecting and throwing up insect flesh, you will not have any points to unlock any class-specific mutations anyway. If you do not wish to tell me what insect class you think you are best fit for, then I will not pry.]

[I will try to assign you another insect class by continuing to analyse your body.]