Molar Boatworks Fixer: Ishmael's Story

Gah... I'm getting steamed alive in here...

The sounds of ponderous sighs and crab shells cracking open filled the green, squelchy mudflat.

Come on, pop right off, come on... Agh!

After a few labored grunts from the child, a metal scrap sploshed onto the mudflat.

It was soon added to the pile, which had grown taller than two trash crabs stacked together.

Where'd the kid run off to...? I thought he went to get the wagon, not cobble together a whole new one from scratch.

Whew, I think I need a break...

She wiped the sweat off her brow and plopped herself on top of a trash crab's shell, which had now become a rather serviceable stool.

To quench her thirst, she raised the canteen she brought to her mouth... and scowled.

What the... I thought I got a bottle full of iced water? When'd it go lukewarm on me?

Besides... Pah! It's salty... Ugh, the top must've come loose or something.

The child glowered at the canteen, at the lake, then back at the canteen. She again sighed deeply, and dumped the entire canteen on her head.

She probably thought that the water would at least cool her down.

Haah... How much longer do I have to keep doing this crap?

Brushing through her now soaked hair, the child began to contemplate.

She was thinking back... back to when she first woke up on this mudflat.

She was glad that she was able to come back from the books, but it was unfortunate that she couldn't choose where to come back to.

Of course, the child didn't have a penny to her name... and even before she could find her bearings, she noticed a trash crab aggressively crawling toward her.

All she could do was to face it, completely unarmed.

Perhaps her Fixer days weren't for naught, after all.

Watching her beat down a trash crab with her bare hands, the owners of nearby boatworks offered to buy the scraps off her quarry...

...It's thanks to their help that we were at least able to open our own boatworks.

And whew, even that would've been a challenge, had the other guys not returned as well.

The child's goal was to return to V Corp, District 22.

Back to where their office used to be... To get their old lives back.

...Still a ways to go to earn enough for the ride back.

Phooey, I'm wasting time. The wagon'll get here at some point, I might as well kill some more crabs until then.

She dove back into the lake after muttering to herself.

She whispered, aiming her weapon at the trash crab hiding in the depths of the lake.

Sit still... No use strugglin'!