Crackborne

[Code Name] Crackborne

[Gender] Female

[Combat Experience] None

[Place of Birth] Ursus

[Date of Birth] Apr 18

[Race] Ursus

[Height] 155cm

[Infection Status]

Confirmed Infected by medical examination.

[Physical Strength] Standard

[Mobility] Normal

[Physical Resilience] Standard

[Tactical Acumen] Normal

[Combat Skill] Standard

[Originium Arts Assimilation] Standard

Crackborne, real name Tonya, is a former worker from Zelgrad, Ursus. She once launched a resistance movement in Zelgrad under the name of 'Reunion,' and later came to Rhodes Island for treatment on Crownslayer's recommendation. She now participates in Rhodes Island field operations as a full-fledged Operator.

Imaging tests show the indistinct outlines of internal organs, obscured by abnormal shadows. Originium granules detected in the circulatory system. The subject is confirmed to be infected with Oripathy.

[Cell-Originium Assimilation] 3.5%

Trace amounts of Originium crystals have appeared on Operator Crackborne's body.

[Blood Originium-Crystal Density] 0.17u/L

Operator Crackborne has a strong awareness of Oripathy prevention, and her long history of heavy physical labor has given her excellent physical fitness and physical resilience.

Tonya was born on a construction site in Zelgrad. Her mother was an optimistic and diligent construction worker, while her father was a silent, miserable firefighter. On the day Tonya was born, her father rode his bicycle to the construction site. Finding that Tonya's mother had already been wheeled out of the temporary delivery room, he said, 'Good,' then got back on his bicycle and left.

In Zelgrad, children of construction workers did not go to school. Taking care of her younger siblings naturally became Tonya's responsibility. Tonya liked to stare into her siblings' eyes. She always felt there was something very special hidden in them, but she could not figure out what it was.

Her mother died not long after giving birth to her fifth child, Nina. When she leapt from the tenth floor of the workers' dormitory, Tonya was sitting by the corridor railing, stacking a pile of empty detergent cans into the shape of a building.

After her mother's death, her father became even more silent, and all the housework fell to Tonya. She had no complaints. To her, if she did not cook, she would starve, and if she did not wash clothes, she would have nothing clean to wear, so there was nothing to it. One night, her father suddenly dragged her out of bed. Under her terrified gaze, he said in a trembling voice, 'I'm taking you to see a fire.'

By then, her father had long since been removed from the fire brigade and reduced to a drunkard, but that night he was still as nimble as he had been in his youth. He all but dragged Tonya as he sprinted up a hill of construction waste, then climbed onto an unfinished section of the city wall. Finally, he pointed at the flickering firelight within that towering stone wall and said to Tonya, 'There's a fire in there. They're on fire! They're all done for!' Then he laughed and laughed, until he fell to the ground and curled up into a ball.

The leaping firelight rose over the stone wall, and its shifting colors fascinated Tonya. The next moment, she heard the whistling of crossbow bolts from within the wall and the cold orders from the loudspeakers, and so she woke up. Tonya ran all the way back home. Her younger siblings were still sleeping soundly. In her panic, she climbed into bed and sang herself a lullaby.

A few days after her father was thrown back home by the Patrol Unit, he died, probably of liver disease. Tonya tried to ask around about what had caused the firelight behind the stone wall that night, but no one could give her an answer. The stone wall was as silent as her father.

On the day the formula tin ran empty, she took her mother's bloodstained work clothes to the construction site. A junior foreman pulled her aside and said many things. The gist was that every city in Ursus was built this way. Construction workers took root in the wilderness. They were the first residents of a new city, building their own city with their own hands, yet forever unworthy of having a home. The purpose of the stone wall was to block all prying eyes. It had been built that way not only for practical use, but to frighten anyone who stepped out of line. Only after Tonya promised she would never again ask about anything inside the stone wall did the foreman stuff a formula voucher into her hand.

In the end, that formula voucher could only be exchanged for a packet of coarse salt. Formula was scarce everywhere. She walked home with that packet of salt, passing by the stone wall, and wondered what she was supposed to do with a packet of salt. She thought of her siblings' hungry cries, of the construction workers' withered muscles and glistening sweat at the worksite, of her father's crazed laughter, of the firelight that night, and of the gleam she saw when she first looked into her siblings' eyes—

A shaft of sunlight brushed over the top of the stone wall and fell less than a meter in front of her. She only had to take one small step to walk into that light. In that moment, she understood why she had thought of children's eyes, the color of firelight, dripping sweat, formula, or salt... That was life, and that was what it meant to live, no matter what kind of life it was. So she raised her head and stepped forward to meet it.

She still loved that numb, agonizing life.

Operator Crackborne's personal record for working at Rhodes Island is twelve jobs in one day, which, according to her, is slightly below her record in Zelgrad. 'Working' is not entirely accurate, nor is it formal enough. The paid volunteer services she performs in Rhodes Island, and her work as a subject in medication trials in exchange for nutritional supplement vouchers, do not strictly count as jobs. Still, 'working' really is the most appropriate word to describe Crackborne's situation.

Crackborne often divides her schedule into fifteen-minute units, and sometimes, the timeslots for certain tasks will even overlap. This is why some people have seen her preparing sports drinks for one of the teams in the Rhodes Island Operators' Basketball League, only to suddenly pull out a fan banner for the opposing team and start cheering.

Even Crackborne's only rest time during the day overlaps with other parts of her schedule. According to Medical operators, Crackborne falls asleep the instant she lies down on a bed, and not even injections or wound debridement can wake her. Once her treatment is over, as soon as the alarm she set in advance goes off, she wakes up without the slightest reluctance, gets up, and heads off to the location of her next odd job.

Crackborne has her reasons. Everyone who knows her can easily see how much she loves her younger siblings. She always arrives at the pediatric ward five minutes earlier, waiting for them to finish their treatment, come out of the ward, and hug her. During those five minutes, she does nothing at all.

When she first joined Rhodes Island, HR helped her apply for every subsidy she was eligible for, which essentially covered the medical expenses for both her and her younger siblings. As her time with Rhodes Island has continued to increase, her various employee benefits have also gradually come into effect. So, when HR discovered during a follow-up visit that she was still 'working' at such an intense pace, their first reaction was to apply for a special medical assistance program for her. This time, however, Crackborne said there was no longer any gap in her and her younger siblings' medical expenses, and that their quality of life was steadily improving. Those medical assistance programs should go to people who need them more.

'But,' asked the HR operator, 'why are you still working so hard at these part-time jobs?'

Crackborne answered as follows:

'I want to buy a dress. I don't wear dresses, and I don't like dresses, but I want to own one. I don't care about the pattern, the style, or the price, because there's a very good chance I won't ever wear it in my life. But I want one. I'll earn the money myself, and I'll buy it myself. It doesn't necessarily have to actually be a dress, but I have to own it.'

Operator Crackborne said this with absolute conviction, as if she intended to purchase an entire country, or the happiness of an ordinary person's whole life.

[Lawn Mower]

Definition: A mechanical device powered by Originium energy that uses high-frequency vibrating blades (or energy flows) to remove excess vegetation.

Example sentence: I was going to use the lawn mower to mow the yard this afternoon, but I saw the sunlight warming every blade of grass on the lawn, so I decided to let them keep growing freely.

Make your own sentence: (crooked handwriting) The yard downstairs from my home only has piles of sand and rocks. There is no grass, and no lawn mower either. We use chainsaws, bulldozers, and fire to clear excess vegetation.

[Vow]

Definition: A binding promise founded upon a person's words, actions, or Originium Arts. Generally speaking, making a vow or breaking one is an extremely important choice, and sometimes the significance of that choice itself can outweigh the contents of the vow.

Example sentence: They read their vows at the wedding. The guests did not know whether the newlyweds would honor their vows in the future, but were still willing to clap and cheer for that moment.

Make your own sentence: (a question mark)

[Family Gathering]

Definition: A gathering held by a family, usually on important holidays or for celebrations. The family here does not specifically refer to the 'Siracusan Family' from the previous entry. Please note the distinction.

Example sentence: He had grown tired of the crowded and dull family gatherings, so he decided that this year, he would just send a greeting card back and have it attend in his place.

Make your own sentence: (blank)

[After-Meal Dessert]

Definition: A food with relatively high sugar content enjoyed after a meal, such as muffins, caramel pudding, or scoops of ice cream.

Example sentence: I deliberately ate a few fewer cutlets to save room for the after-meal dessert.

Make your own sentence: (a crossed-out 'Why?') If dessert is also part of the meal, then it doesn't make sense to call it an 'after-meal' dessert.

Crackborne cut out some common vocabulary entries from her writing lesson textbook and slipped them into the case of her operator pass, so she could take them out and memorize them at any time.

To her, these were things that were difficult to categorize, existing somewhere between what she once had, what she longed to obtain, and what she could not understand.

The 'lawn mower' entry is an exception. I just thought the example sentence was comforting. I like it.

—Crackborne

Zelgrad:

I'm writing you a letter. You are not a person, but yours is the name I know best, and without that name, I can't think of how else to begin this letter 'to the one I know best.'

During the writing lesson, the teacher compared our country and hometown to a mother, but I never saw you that way. Once, I saw you as my friend. When I was born, your stone walls were already half-built. The way I saw it, you and I grew up together, so of course we were friends.

But later I realized you didn't know me. I secretly carved words into the stone walls, and those marks would disappear the next day. You could never remember me. From then on, I stopped thinking of you as a friend.

You were like a stranger living in my home, one who never spoke to me. When I laughed, you could not see it; when I cried, you could not hear it; I wanted to curse at you, but I doubt you would have reacted then either. Back then, I thought you were arrogant. Your stone walls were taller than a hundred of me stacked on top of each other, and even if you did want to speak, I figured it would take a full day for your voice to reach down below. So I decided I would stop trying to understand you.

Then, Nina died.

A person's death can change many things, because with their death, that person changes the living, changes their thoughts, changes the way they see things.

I was changed.

I saw stains that could not be washed away. I saw that there were actually gaps in the stone walls. I saw that after the wind and rain and sun beat down on them every day, even stone walls would grow cracks.

Zelgrad, that was when I finally saw it clearly. The things the people inside the stone walls were doing were destroying you. And the only way for me to save you, to save my two little sisters and one little brother who were not yet dead, to save myself, and to save everyone else in the city, would destroy you just the same.

Selfishly, I thought that even if you were fated to be destroyed, you should be destroyed by the hands of the very people who built you.

I still remember that day, when I clutched Nina's swaddling blanket and listened to the shells flying overhead, I knew you were dying.

I left you, Zelgrad. Only when I left you did I realize that you were never the stranger in my home. You were home.

I cannot believe it took me so long to see that.

Zelgrad, you are already dead. But one day, I will go back to see you.

I will bring sand, soil, and tree seeds with me, because before either you or I were born, the first people who stood on that land had only these things.

Your friend, builder, family, and the one who destroyed you,

Tonya

[A Tribute to the Incredible Training Partner]

Thank you for helping me test 'Beepy.' As thanks, I've written my proudest creation on the back of this postcard—the improved recipe for Rim Billiton transport special stew! Potlid says you can ask her anytime you run into problems. Well, she's the real chef, after all.

[Happy Birthday, Masha]

Masha said last time that the dessert I made was delicious, so today I baked a birthday cake in the same flavor especially for her. Happy birthday to the little one. Also, I know you are a bit particular about cleanliness, but don't worry, I made it in a toxin-free bakery. The blue coloring used in the cake is a natural fruit jam, and is toxin-free as well.

[Thank You for Letting Me Have It]

Thank you for letting me have that pastoral poetry collection in the library. Two people choosing to borrow the same book at the same time is already a wonderful coincidence, and your courtesy made me feel a kind of beauty that speaks for itself. I noticed that you also borrowed some romantic novels and chivalric romances. If you are interested, I would like to invite you to a book club meeting.

Before she knew it, Crackborne had already collected a whole cookie tin full of postcards. It's a pity that when she first started receiving gifts and cards from other operators, she could not read that many words yet, and she was too embarrassed to take the cards to other people and ask what they meant, let alone write replies.

After spending a long time in Rhodes Island, Crackborne slowly realized that the way she acted back then may have been somewhat impolite. And so, she began reading and replying to those cards one by one.

The most recent one she received was an invitation to a social dance. Unsurprisingly, the date on it had already been several weeks ago. This had happened many times before, but perhaps because she had just written so many words, Crackborne suddenly felt an unprecedented sense of regret.

She was not very used to that feeling.

After asking someone to deliver all her postcard replies at once, she hesitantly sent a message through her terminal to the person who had hosted the social dance. She apologized using the most sincere words she knew, and cautiously asked whether there would be another social dance in the future.

Almost immediately after she sent the message, there came a knock at the door to her dormitory room. Crackborne opened the door, and an operator with a gentle smile quietly said that the timing was perfect—she had just happened to be passing by Crackborne's dormitory when she received the message, and as an even greater coincidence, she was just about to set out for tonight's social dance. Then, that operator reached out her hand to Crackborne.