We had mashed potatoes for dinner; my sister made them herself because she never trusted anything that was bought here except potatoes.

Because potatoes were massively produced in the war, most potato farms were still intact and used.

Once in a while, a potato seller came to the block and sold potatoes from a farm somewhere in the wasteland, and since my sister had a good relationship with that seller, she was able to buy the potatoes for a cheap price. We then would eat them every day, prepared and cooked differently each day by her.

My sister was 10 when I was born, and since then she had been raising me the best she could.

She never told me what happened to our parents; she was also the one naming me Axiel after a book she loved to read, Axiel—the hero.

Ariel: “What? How did you get all that money?”

She replied, shocked by the number of coins that I brought with me back then; now that I think of it, the seller probably lied to me, and I could have gotten even more money out of him, but who cares.

Eisha: “And if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have a single coin.”

She proudly said, laughing afterwards.

Eisha: “Ariel, those eh…potatoes or whatever they are called are delicious.”

Axiel: “Wait, you are telling me you never had potatoes before?”

I asked; I never knew that it was a luxury to eat potatoes, but afterwards it made sense since the seller only came to our block since he knew that only here would he get people to buy potatoes; if you have the money to pay your rent, you probably have the money to buy a potato.

After eating, Ariel asked Eisha where she lives, but after learning that Eisha has no home, she kindly offered her to live here for a while.

Even though Eisha has that overly proud personality, she wouldn’t have declined such an offer.

Who had guessed that I would become the one to give up my bed and sleep on the ripped couch so that Eisha has a comfortable place to sleep? If I had known back then, I probably would have kicked her out, but she was lucky that I was too tired to think about it.

The next day I left to go pursue my usual duty as a garbage hunter, but for the first time ever I was accompanied by someone, and to top it all, by a girl, sadly a hothead, overly proud one.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Eisha: “With me by your side, we will for sure find another GX-140 core.”

She gave out of herself while we walked past the buildings made out of junk.

Axiel: “I hope so; anyways, where did you learn to build a mechanical arm?”

I asked, curious how an idiot is able to build something as cool and complex as that,

Eisha: “It’s me who had taught myself to build something cool like this; I am surely the best.”

I should have guessed that I wouldn’t get a proper answer; I later learned that it has something to do with her esper powers, something like everything she finds cool she is able to do, pretty OP, but for someone as dumb as her, I guess it fell to the wrong hands, or maybe the right hands…

After a short walk we had reached the junk hills outside of Zeroth Haven; as always, many had gathered to look for freshly brought junk.

Eisha always brought useless things that she thought looked “cool,” but on that day I also had not found anything with some kind of worth, as if that core robbed me of every ounce of luck.

After hours we left the third junk hill, wanting to call it a day, but Eisha stopped me because she found something shiny in the distance that looked “cool.”.

So, we walked to the shiny thing that was stuck in the junk, but it was only another useless garbage.

???: “I-I am sorry; please tell Hellfire that I will do everything for forgiveness.”

A voice said in the distance.

Eisha: “Did you hear that?”

Axiel: “I did; don’t play the hero. We don’t know what he is involved in, and he said the name Hellfire; this always is bad news.”

Hellfire was the biggest fish around here, the boss of every gangster's boss. The thing about him is that no one ever saw his real face, and if someone ever claimed to have seen his face, they went missing the same day.

Eisha: “Who? I don’t know a Hellfire.

Everyone had known Hellfire; even the drunk homeless people had known who he was.

Eisha: “Either way, being the hero is cool; I will save that pure, helpless man.”

Axiel: “Eisha, no, stop.”

It was too late; she ran off to save that poor man. The only thing I could have done was to chase her and try to stop her, but even that miserably failed.

Eisha arrived at the place where the voices had come from, confronting three gangsters with bats and knives while they were beating up a poor man who had been involved in the criminal underworld. I arrived shortly after; not my proudest moment, but I hid behind junk.

Eisha: “Leave that poor man alone.”

She said, posing a little to look cooler,

Gangster (1): “Huh? What did you say?”

Gangster (2): “Looks like someone wants to play the hero here.”

Gangster (3): “She looks cute; we should be careful with her face.”

They said, laughing about Eisha’s heroic act.

Eisha became angry. “So you think I can't be a hero because I am a girl? I hate you guys; you guys are the worst!” She said to them, completely losing her mind, and I say that because she was clearly outnumbered.

The three gangsters already had their focus on Eisha, completely forgetting the guy they had beaten up, leading to him running away without even thinking about Eisha.

But Eisha did not care; all she could think about was how to beat them up while looking cool.

I couldn’t just hide; even though I was scared, I couldn’t let her die like that, so I stood up and approached them.

Axiel: “H-how about we all talk this out and forget what happened here?”

I said, making the gangsters burst out into laughter while also leaving Eisha disappointed.

Again, not my proudest moments, for sure…