His Last Song- "Ji'de Tas Anse"

Chapter Nine 9.2

"When and how did you and Ai meet?" I ask Adrian.

"Adrian climbed over the wall to my mansion," Ai writes. "Then I took Adrian in as one of my own."

"I didn't want Ai to be here all alone," Adrian says, "so, I stayed."

I nod, "Ah. You seemed as though you've known each other for longer, though."

"An apocalypse will do that," Adrian says.

"So this is your mansion?" I ask Ai.

"Mm-hm," Ai writes. "My uncle was very rich."

"Where is he now?" I ask.

"I don't know, probably still in America. He left for a business trip before everything went down."

"What did he used to do for work?" Adrian asks as Adrian slouches in the chair, the plate Adrian used sits empty. "This is one terribly big mansion."

Wow, Adrian eats fast.

"He was the *Tāengeol."

"Ah..." Adrian and I say.

"That means...?" Song asks.

"Second in power," I say and he nods.

"But, yeah, that's why he's rich. The higher ups hoarded the wealth and saved it for themselves–learned from the Americans. Yet that old man never got me a tutor for sign language or bought anything to help me talk. I had to learn sign language online; I know Lyi'arda sign language, but I don't know much English or anything else. Like, if I wanted to say, 'Watch out, there's a tiger behind you!' I wouldn't know what to sign and that is an extremely useful phrase in the world we live in now."

"Do you know the English alphabet in sign language?"

"Yes," Ai writes. "But if you are going to ask, 'Why can't you just sign all that out using the letters?' It's because you'd probably be dead by the time I finish signing."

"Ah, I see."

"You said that Adrian climbed over the walls that go around the mansion." Song looks at Adrian, "How did you climb over the walls? They're more than ten feet high."

"A grappling hook," Adrian says. "I made a retracting one. I used it to pull myself to the top of the wall."

"Woah, you made a grappling hook?!" I ask.

Adrian nods, "I've made plenty of things. After all, I majored in engineering at Conderlandt University in Bardoni. The university ranked fourth in the world."

"Ah, that's so cool!" I say as I swing my feet, though I accidentally hit Song. He looks at me, so I nod an apology. I look back at Adrian, "I want to be able to make things myself so that I don't have to go out and buy it."

"That is smart," Adrian says. "But you still have to buy the supplies. Or at least find and forge them yourself."

"Oh, yeah," I say as I touch Song again, he looks at me but I don't look at him this time. "But I would also like to feel accomplished whenever I use something that I made; it's not just about money."

I wonder if he'll straight-out tell me to stop.

"That's what I wanted," Adrian says.

"Why did you become a teacher? You don't give off the energy of a teacher," Song asks as we all start eating again. I touch him with my toes again and he moves his leg.

"I want to help people with my inventions," Adrian says. "And in order to help people with my inventions, I have to learn about who I'm trying to help. Schools are very diverse places, so I decided to work at one to learn about the people who need help; and I mostly wanted to help young people because they're our future. Take Itsuki for example, I wanted to create something that would help him walk longer distances and for longer times once I learned about his disability. And with Ai, I wanted to create something that would help them have a voice that others will listen to. But I also wanted to teach others to better accommodate us who are disabled or not "the norm"."