“I can hear it. Your pulse is getting louder and louder like that of a chicken put under the knife.”

“Shut up. Say something like that again, and I might kick you through the floor to the eleventh deck.”

“Oh, my. What’s going to become of your foot then?”

“Just shut your mouth and focus on the game, you sack of shit. Winning against me is as hard as humming while holding your nose!”

“Well, winning against me will always be a dream for a little cunt like yourself.”

“Yeah, says someone whose confidence is as fake as my grandma’s golden teeth.”

Six guys dressed in brown uniforms were playing cards in a room; they seemed partly drunk, though alcohol wasn’t publicly sold anywhere on the twelfth deck. In the same room, there were old rags piled up in the corner with wheat and corn grains sprinkled on them. Rats were touring in and out of the pile, only to eventually get caught in the variety of traps set around those piles of clothes; these captured rats would either be used to catch cats or get sold to the referee for a fair price.

A young fellow came rushing to that room, seemingly out of breath. He was probably a little over eleven years old. “All of you wipers are here. Good.” He took a breath and continued to speak in a low tone, “I’ve been looking for you guys everywhere.”

“What’s wrong?” some of those men showed a hint of worry before even hearing the story.

The young fellow panted for a few seconds before saying, “Brace yourselves. Jehez’s dead.”

A pin-drop silence formed in that room for a couple of seconds.

“What? Come again.”

“Jehez’s dead. He’s no more.”

“That’s impossible! Are you sure?”

“Hundred percent sure. Jehez hanged himself, as far as I know.”

“That bastard…” the six men didn’t look pleased, and they were already having thoughts about their future. After all, being the wipers that they were, they all got their jobs by secretly bribing Jehez, who quietly got them into their jobs by finding faults in the previous jobholders whenever he could until eventually replacing them with those who worked for him.

Wipers were also hollows, but they had a job. It was to keep the deck clean. Especially given how much nuisance cats could cause, the position of the wipers wasn’t low on the twelfth deck. They received secret payment for cleaning rooms and streets that cats often spoiled. After all, not just anybody could clean after the mess of the cats. Moreover, they often than not knew what was happening on other decks better than most people, for their job allowed them to eavesdrop on others’ conversations without inviting doubts.

“That punk… To think he committed suicide right after losing his job, even a chicken has a stronger heart. I can’t believe I took his help to get into this cleaning job.”

“But he was just fine the last time I saw him. Though he looked tense, he didn’t look that lost to me.”

“C’mon, all it takes is a flood of emotions to make you feel like shit. Not just everyone can control themselves. He probably couldn’t take it anymore, and...”

They looked at the young fellow who brought them the information and tossed a silver coin before saying, “How many know of this incident?”

“Not many, yet, but… ears are everywhere, right? Sooner or later, the news will spread like wildfire,” the young fellow said and then paused a moment before continuing with a stronger voice, “there’s also another news.”

“What’s that?” they asked together.

However, the young fellow stayed silent.

One of the guys was about to flick another copper coin, but he was stopped by another one, causing the young fellow to lose some glow in his face.

“First, tell us, and if it’s worth it, then you’ll be rewarded.”

The young fellow didn’t take time to realize that he had to take a gamble. If even one of those six guys would successfully keep their job, it was worth it to stay on their good side, so he didn’t hold back, “Someone saw the Hardy brothers enter Jehez’s room before he was found dead in his room.”

“Someone?”

“Don’t know the details, but things are getting crazy...” as the young fellow said, a copper coin was thrown toward him. After catching it, he smiled big time. “I wish you guys good luck.” Saying that he left like the wind.

The six guys looked at each other’s faces.

“If Jehez’s death isn’t due to suicide, this is no ordinary matter anymore.”

“Yeah, things will heat up on our deck pretty quickly.”

“You think our commander was informed?”

“The story sounds as tall as a fool’s tale, but it might be true, so we shouldn’t waste this chance. Aryan, use your crycall.”

“What crycall? I don’t have one.”

“Hmph! We are talking about the one you’ve recently stolen from a rich woman.”

“U-Uh, Mmm, okay,” Aryan once again understood that hiding things from their eyes was as impossible as going home after just one beer. “I didn’t exactly steal it. She just lost it, and I happened to find it, that’s all.”

“We know that, so hurry up! We have to relay the message before others do!”

“Alright, alright,” he then took out a device from within his underwear. It was a greenish glassy sheet with a parrot figure carved on it. On the back of that sheet, there was a unique identification number at the bottom, also engraved on it. He pressed on the parrot’s nose, and the whole thing glowed just for a moment. He then slowly said, “Wipe your own ass.”

When he said that, ten numbers from zero to nine appeared on the backside of the sheet.

“Wipe your own ass,” when he said that for the second time, the parrot figure moved. The entire glassy sheet shape-shifted into a small parrot that looked to be made out of tiny crystals of different shapes and colors. And numbers from 0 to 9 showed up as a cluster on some crystals on the back of that parrot. There were a volume knob and other controllers on its neck.

“Wipe your own ass,” the parrot replied in Aryan’s voice with the same wording, a code phrase, which meant that the device was now fully unlocked and ready for use.

Aryan pressed a few numbers in sequence and then waited. A couple of seconds later, the parrot’s eyes glowed momentarily, which meant that some connection was established. The parrot raised one of its wings, where there was a voice input mechanism, “Commander, can you hear me?” Aryan hurriedly asked.

The parrot lifted its other wing, where there was a voice output, and a few seconds later, another voice came out of the parrot as it cocked its head and then randomly moved its head in different directions, “Yeah, who’s this?”

“C-Commander Zentzu, I’m Aryan, one of the wipers from the twelfth deck. I called you to give you some important information.”

“And that is…” the voice on the other side sounded casual, almost disinterested.

Aryan then quickly began to explain.

On the other side, Zentzu was listening by placing the crycall near his mouth while the device was still in its base form, which looked like an almost see-through glassy crystal sheet, and the carving of a panda could be seen on it. He was sitting on the back of his panda, Pupuu, which was snoring while standing on its four limbs.

After the explanation was finished, Zentzu leaked out a faint smile. “How sweet… If your information really puts me ahead of others, then you’ll be fairly rewarded, Aryan.”

“Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.”

Meanwhile, as time passed, the news quickly spread, albeit with rumors added per every few tongues. Worry began to spread among the entire twelfth deck members. The death of a former referee was totally unexpected. If it was a suicide, that was one thing, but if it was a murder, then it was one of the taboos on the ship. Not only would the occurrence of such a thing ruin the reputation of its staff, but it would also ruin the reputation of the ship itself if the culprit was not caught and punished soon.

Extensive Voyage’s prestige was too big as compared to its staff, so none of the twelfth deck members yet had an idea of how grave a mistake the culprit had committed. By the time everybody began to slowly realize the gravity of the situation, it seemed like they were a little too late because new rumors kept burdening their hearts, especially because one of the tales told that the captain of the belt was coming.

For the next few hours, the news had stirred quite a stitherum on the twelfth deck. Nobody slept. Nobody was in their rooms, either. The streets were full, and so were the booths. Everybody discussed nothing but one thing, the death of Jehez and what could have caused his death. They couldn’t take the matter off their minds, for the referee of any test hall was someone that most people supposed the sun would rise and set on.

The news also reached Lirzod’s ears, and he just stared into the distance.

As time passed, tensions raised, and many people kept visiting the test hall to know what exactly was going on.

The next morning, at around seven o’clock.

Still sporting the old chest armor, Lirzod also reached the test hall, holding two bouquets. At the entrance, while resting his back against a wall and his bottom on the floor, a dirt-covered golden-haired street singer was playing violin with his hands and simultaneously struck drums with sticks gripped by his toes. One of his eyes, the right one, was pure white, and sadness dwelled in the other. Two tiny silver trumpets were his earrings. The melody he crafted was easy on the ears as befitting a funeral ceremony.

“Sorry, I don’t have money,” Lirzod dropped a banana in the beggar's bowl, which was actually a small convex shield put upside down, before entering the hall.

“May your parents live more than a hundred years, child,” the street singer said in a pleased tone. It was the first offering he received on that day, so the street singer opened his mouth and uttered a song that went well with the melody.

“Every life exists

To live and multiply.

Every note exists

To compose marvelous melodies.

Imagination exists

To see the worlds that cannot be seen.

Emotions exist

To express in languages that cannot be spoken.

Death, too, exists

To let the living taste the pain of losing.

All things exist for a reason

To make every mother’s son as they’re now.

So fret not, folks

For no one is an exception

To the wonders and woes of this world

Set in motion by the biggest yet gentlest hand of all.”

The moment the street singer opened his mouth, some people found his voice familiar, and they soon realized that this person was the most famous street singer on the ship. His name was Yohann Rosenthal. The story of how he had turned from one of the most famous singers in the world to a mere street singer was also pretty famous around the world.

Those who recognized him shamelessly asked for autographs. However, he turned deaf ears to them and never stopped playing the violin. Eventually, the people lost their patience and left him alone, cursing in their own unique ways. However, he was unaffected by their actions, just as how he was unaffected by the change in the drifting wind and the subtleties of the odors it carried. Still and all, to show his gratitude, he sang another one of his songs, ‘The Seven Bes,’ for all those who took the effort to approach him.

“Be

A fox in the desert

A tiger in the mountains

A lion in the prairie

An owl in the sky

A river horse in the rivers

An orca in the ocean

And a human in the world at large.”

Meanwhile, there were so many people gathered inside the hall, so many, in fact, that Lirzod had to gently force his way through people to make his way to the new cat home, which was still under construction. Most of the cats were temporarily being kept in child rooms, which were attached to the test hall as subspaces. These child rooms were made just for such situations. However, there were still a few dozen cats inside the partly built cat home. The design of the new structure was much better than the previous one, which was nothing but a simple hall. However, this time, the interior was being painted; there were more scratch poles now, and there was even a large sand knoll placed at one corner, where the cats frequented to shed their weight. This kept the remaining section a lot cleaner than before. It was Mikey who came up with that idea of putting a sand knoll inside the cat home, so he was even given some bonus for his contribution.

Though the child rooms were yet to be built, Lirzod didn’t feel at unrest, for he could already tell from a glance that the building plan included other subspaces as well.

Currently, no deck tests were taking place, and all the cats inside the cat home were pretty much in a relaxed state.

Lirzod didn’t go all the way in but stopped after he was about ten feet inside. The memories of Hardy stomping on the cats flashed in his mind. He gripped one of the bouquets tightly before getting down on one of his knees. He looked to be lost in thought for a moment, and then his other knee touched the floor. He placed one bouquet beside him, then put the second bouquet before him and kowtowed. “I didn’t mean to put any of your lives in danger. I’m truly sorry.” His heart grew heavy, and a layer of wetness clouded his eyes. “I know my apology won’t bring back even one lost life, but I hope, at least, you all found peace.” As his heart was burdened with feelings of answerability, something hit his head, causing him to lift his head. A cat was right before his face, sitting on its butt, and was playing with the flowers, trying to enter into the bouquet and hide inside the flowers. Seeing how its attention was all on the bouquet, Lirzod understood that it had probably hit him while it was playing with the flowers. Upon seeing the cat play, Lirzod’s face brightened up a bit. He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed the wetness away with his fingers before taking a deep but barely audible breath.

He then looked at the other cats. Though there weren’t even a third of the cats as there were in the past, at least now, all the cats looked a bit more healthy. He thought of Leggy, and his expression hardened a bit. Wanting to get his mind off the bothering thoughts, he decided to take a look around and see how the cat home was being built. He went and checked the blueprints lying on a desk, and he had to scratch his head a couple of times to comprehend it. Even though the drawing itself was simple, all the calculations and lines drawn on top of the design made it extremely hard for him to look through that. At first glance, it looked like a mess, but after straining his eyes for half a minute, he somewhat understood their idea. “Looks like they’re building six rooms with reduced sizes.” Though he wasn’t impressed with it, he could only sigh and tell himself that something was better than nothing.

As he turned around and was coming out, his eyes ended up shifting toward the center of the room where the milk bowl was. A couple of cats were quenching their thirst. Lirzod silently made his way over there, already expecting that much better quality milk was being fed to the cats. However, to his nerve-snapping shock, the milk looked as transparent as before, if not more.

“What is the meaning of this?” Lirzod’s heartbeat hardened, and his fingernails dug through the bouquet and pressed into the palm.