Second Customer – The Rebelling Boy

"No matter how much money it takes, you have to help my eldest son", The chubby woman said with some agitation.

"Madam, please rest a.s.sured." The man pulled a chair out and invited the woman to sit down before sitting on a chair across from her. "Now then, can you please tell me what problems your son has encountered?"

"No! He doesn"t have any problems!" The woman loudly retorted, "He is an outstanding child, and he is extremely normal!"

"Yes, madam. Please forgive my inappropriate choice of words. Then has your son encountered any problems recently?"

"Yes, he has encountered some very troublesome problems." The woman tightened her grasp on the handbag that was sitting on her lap, her complexion a little bit unsightly as she continued, "He met a group of fair ideologists, and recently, he"s actually mentioned that we have to give our gray thing some break time!"

"Gray thing? Are you talking about mixed people?"

"Yes sir, but how can you even call them people? They"re only goods! Of a lower cla.s.s even! And they"re so dirty!" The woman became so emotional that she stood up, but very quickly she realized that she had neglected her manners and sat back down. "Sorry sir. Due to some things that have been happening at home, I"ve become a little more emotional."

"I understand madam. Very soon you won"t have to be this worried." The man pressed on a b.u.t.ton on the table, and a cup of hot tea appeared in front of the woman. "Please have a drink."

"Thank you." After drinking a mouthful of the perfectly warmed tea, the woman calmed down. "I"m just trying to think for my son but he actually refused to break off his relationship with those madmen. Could it be that he can"t see how other people will see him and our family?"

As the woman spoke, she cried, feeling sad. "Has he never thought about how I feel?"

The man silently listened to the woman recount her grievances. Then, he took out several  tissues, one after another and gave them to the woman.

"Please rest a.s.sured, madam." When the woman began crying less, the man left his seat and held the woman"s hand, letting her look into his eyes. "As long as you bring your eldest son here, everything will return to normal."

"Yes sir, I believe you." The man"s eyes seemed to have a magic power that allowed one to feel at ease, and the woman did not continue to jabber on.

Several days later, the woman"s son came to Cotidia.n.u.s.

"I"d like to give you a big welcome sir. I"ve waited for you for a long time already."

"h.e.l.lo mister." Tom nodded and then brought up some of his doubts. "Actually I"m not sure why my mom made me come here."

"You will know why very soon sir." The man took out an elaborately designed electroshocker from behind his back shocking Tom. After that, Tom went unconscious.

When Tom woke up again, he saw his own face looking back at him. Frightened, he shot backwards, but ended up b.u.mping into an iron pillar behind him, producing some noises.

"You"ve awoken sir." The man put his greatly enlarged face in front of Tom and only then did Tom realize that everything around him had become bigger.

"Meow!" When Tom wanted to ask what was going on, he found that he could only mewl. It turned out his body had turned into a cat.

"I am so sorry sir, I forgot to install the translation device." The man put a collar around Tom"s hairy neck.

"What"s going on?" Tom asked, unable to grasp the situation.

"To fulfill your mother"s wishes, I have made "you" normal. His actions will be exactly the same as your actions, but he will no longer a.s.sociate with the fair ideologists and he won"t want to be one of the members in their group."

"h.e.l.lo Tom, I am the new you." TOM introduced himself.

"You"re committing a crime here mister! My mother will find out!" Tom furiously yelled.

"No sir. Your mother won"t have any reason to suspect a normal TOM." The man checked his watch and then silenced the translation device. "All right sir, your mother will be coming to take her TOM away now."

The moment TOM saw the woman, he apologized to her and promised he wouldn"t contact the fair ideologists at all. The woman cried tears of appreciation as she thanked the man.

"What a pretty cat. Tom, its eyes look just like yours." The woman suddenly noticed Tom who was in the cage. Tom immediately used his claws to paw at the door of the cage.

"Of course mother", TOM replied.

"What type of cat is this?" The woman asked the man.

"I"m sorry madam. This is a mixed cat", The man replied.

"Really? What a pity." The woman immediately showed a disgusted appearance, unwilling to glance at Tom anymore.

Tom saw that the woman"s expression had quieted. He didn"t try to get her attention anymore, but only quietly watched as she left with TOM.

If the woman had observed a little more, she would have found  a birthmark on the cat"s left ear while the TOM beside her didn"t have one.

Afterwards, the man put the translation device back on, but Tom didn"t mewl or produce any sounds anymore. From then on, a strange and quiet cat was added to Cotidia.n.u.s.

Third Customer- The Old Man with One Arm

"Who are you?"

"A man."

"I know what you"ve done, don"t act dumb!"

"Sir, have you forgotten where you are right now?"

"I know you aren"t in the same group as them!"

"But I"m here."

"SWAT Officer Fa.s.sett, visiting time for patients is over!"

"I will catch you."

"Good luck, sir."

　　–　　

The sun descended on the west and another night arrived.

An old man walked out cautiously from where he was hiding. His footsteps were extremely steady, he stood upright with an energy unbecoming of his age, and a pair of sharp eyes rested on his worn face.

A rustling sound came from a nearby garbage heap. The old man took out a short knife without the slightest hesitation as he slowly walked towards the garbage heap.

A shadow threw itself at the old man"s arm. The old man sidestepped to dodge the shadow"s teeth and then thrust the knife into the shadow"s back.

The shadow who had fallen on the floor let out an angry roar and then threw himself at the old man again. When the old man moved sideways again, trying to dodge the shadow"s attack, another head suddenly grew from the shadow and bit the old man"s right side.

The old man seemed immune to the pain as he continued to stab his short knife into the shadow. Before the shadow could stop breathing he ripped the old man"s shabby shawl off with all his strength, revealing the old man"s broken arm. It turned out the shadow hadn"t actually  bitten the old man"s body just a moment ago.

The old man took off the shabby shawl that he no longer needed. After putting his short knife away, he used his left hand that was barely left to drag the shadow"s corpse into his hideout.

After dealing with the corpse, the old man threw some of the meat into the boiling hot water, and threw the rest in salt water to marinate it.

When the scarlet red flesh faded into a dull gray color, the old man took it out of the pot.

The old man held the bowl with the flesh inside of it, his two eyes staring at the bonfire fixedly. For awhile, it didn"t seem like he was going to start eating.

He put down the bowl in his hand and the old man pressed onto the joint where his arm was broken. His originally sharp eyes became confused.

Suddenly, the wind gusted over, blowing a piece of paper on the road over to the old man. The old man caught that paper and was about to throw it into the fire when a line of words on the paper caught his eye.

The old man shoved the paper into his own pocket and then quickly finished the tasteless dinner.

Afterwards, the old man took his short knife and cleaned it before using some extremely old equipment to polish the knife.

Under the light of the bonfire, the old man"s blank eyes intermittently burst with a crazy light.

The next day, the newly sharpened short knife was put to the neck of the owner of Cotidia.n.u.s.

"I heard you can make people normal here?" The old man asked.

"Yes sir." The man coldly replied. He didn"t feel any fear from the knife that the old man had put to his neck.

"Then, fix it!" The old man moved his broken arm. "Fix it and I won"t kill you!"

"Sir, do you think you"re abnormal because you lost an arm?" The man asked, looking at the old man"s broken limb.

"Shut up!" The old man panted with rage as he ruthlessly waved the knife in the man"s face. Then, he grabbed a cloth to cover up his broken limb.

"If my words offended you, then I will apologize sir." Wiping off the blood at the corner of his mouth, the man deeply bowed.

"Can you fix my arm?" Perhaps the old man calmed down because of how this man treated him.

"Why do you want to fix it?" The man curiously asked.

"What?!" The old man became furious when he felt other people were making fun of him.

"Sir, I"m not trying to make fun of you." The man earnestly said this while opening a drawer in his cabinet.

"What do you mean by this?" The old man asked, suppressing his anger upon seeing a knife.

"Please wait a moment sir." When he finished, the man actually used the knife to cut off one of his arms. His clean and agile technique made the old man astonished.

"You?!" The old man completely couldn"t understand what the man in front of him was trying to do.

"Now you"re normal sir." The man pressed onto his wound. "Isn"t that right?"

"Haha!" The old man finally understood and laughed. "That"s right. Why didn"t I think of this!"

　　–

"The suspect was shot dead after chopping off the arms of 33 people. Preliminary investigations have found that the suspect was a retired soldier. He lost his right arm in battle and was unable to receive the appropriate treatment, so he became a wanderer for nine years. In the end, he became crazed and began attacking people."

"Is this already the fifth case of a retired soldier going crazy?"

"Yes. The head has already ordered us to find all retired soldiers with a similar experience."

"Hmph, so now he wants to compensate them?"

"No, the head wants to euthanize all of these soldiers."