by Greg Bear
I have never seen an adult turn so furious. “You are expelled, too, Mistress Yoneko! For disrespect to a Sensei. Now get out of here!”
That night, after Lin-En and Yoneko are escorted out by the evil nuns, we also learn that Sensei Madame Tong calculated the rankings in a different way from how I thought. After expelling Lin-En and Yoneko, 21 girls were left. Thus, Doi Liang’s finishing last means that she finished in 21st place. However, that combined with her second place ranking in First Motivation means that she averages out to between eleventh and twelfth place overall. Not last place. And not expelled. Instead, the tall girl with the beauty mark on her chin averages in last place and is expelled.
Piss me off to death. The girls all want to make Doi Liang pay for what she did to Lin-En and Yoneko and they want to enjoy watching her pay.
But I know it was not Lin-En and Yoneko that she was trying to hurt. It was me. And she succeeded.
Poor Lin-En. We were becoming friends. And she slapped Doi Liang’s teacup to get revenge for me. Now she is going to pay with her career. There is no way that she is going to get into Pearl Opera Academy with an expulsion on her record, especially for cheating and lying to a Sensei. Such a waste of talent. And what is she going to do with her life now? The world is not a kind place for homely girls. I should know. It is people like me that make it so. Ah, poor Lin-En!
And poor Yoneko! She was only speaking up for Lin-En, as I should have. But did not. And now her career is ruined, too. And she comes from an important, public family. Oh, how they will punish her for the shame she has brought on their public face.
If I accomplish nothing else in this life, I will at least see that that Doi Liang is destroyed.
For the next two weeks, I look for opportunities to sabotage Doi Liang without breaking any rules myself, but there is no opportunity since there are no tests until the Final Motivation at the end of the month. For the entire time, we only practice pairs Wu-Liu.
We are surprised at how long this training lasts. We all hate it. It is very difficult work because you have to be careful not to strike or kick your partner with your skate blades, while learning to use her as a second pair of arms and legs, while taking on an opponent. None of us is feeling very confident about how we would test in pairs work right now.
Except for me, of course. I am equally trained in single and pairs combat. I am skilled in all twelve of the zodiacal pairs moves, in either head or rear position.
The only small beacon of joy during this time is that that Doi Liang is doing horribly! She tore a cord in one arm defending herself during the Imperial Tea-Service examination and has had it in a sling ever since. Watching her have to work so hard during training to reroute her Chi around the injury and watching her Wu-Liu suffer terribly for it fills my heart with peace.
Sensei Madame Tong is furious at our lack of progress in pairs work. After two weeks of nothing but pairs drills for twelve hours each day, she gathers us on the training court for a speech.
“Worthless Girls of Pearl Rehabilitative Colony. Your performance in pairs Wu-Liu has been disgraceful. If I were you, I would beg my parents for permission to commit ritual suicide out of shame for how I have disgraced my ancestors with my laziness and lack of excellence. You are all of you selfish, conceited girls. None of you has learned anything about the virtue of teamwork.
“There is going to be a change to the Grading system. For the rest of the term, you shall work only in pairs. For the Final Motivation, each pair shall receive one grade so that every girl’s grade shall be tied to her partner’s.
“You are all allowed to choose your own pairs partner. Choose wisely.”
There is much chittering among the girls at this. You can imagine all the drama and possibility for wounded feelings this will create.
“One exception to the right to choose. It is clear from the Second Motivation that none of you shall choose Mistress Doi Liang as a partner. Yet, she needs a partner, so Mistress Doi Liang has the right to choose anyone she wants as her partner.”
All eyes turn to Doi Liang.
Doi Liang looks at Sensei Madame Tong.
Then Doi Liang turns her head and looks straight at me.
No, no, no.
No, oh, no, no, oh, no, oh, no, oh, why, oh, why, oh, why me?
Why me, why me, why always, always me?
Aiyah! I want to die.
Doi Liang raises her one good arm, points a finger at me, and says, “Her. I choose her.”
That night, I write a letter to my father and my mother.
“Esteemed and Honorable Parents,
“I know you think I am a worthless daughter, but how could you send me to such a stupid, stupid place? Why did you not just tie me in a bag and throw me into the ocean when I was born? I know you wanted to, because I was not born a boy. Tell me the truth. I was adopted, was I not. I always knew it. That is why you never loved me, no matter how gentle and sweet a daughter I was. But even if you never loved me, you did not have to send me to a stupid place like Pearl Colony to be horribly tortured to death like an animal. I hate it here, but not as much as I hate you. I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.
“Your Worthless, Unloved, Female, Adopted Daughter, Suki.”
How am I going to survive this term at Pearl Colony? My first place ranking combines with that Doi Liang’s eleventh place ranking so that it averages out to somewhere around sixth place. The evil nuns keep saying that the brutal training at Pearl Colony prepares all girls for the examination to get into Pearl Opera Academy but everyone knows that no one but the top two or three finishers here ever get into the Academy.
And with her stupid crippled arm, how are we ever going to complete the Final Motivation successfully? It was fun to watch her struggle during training to compensate for the injury and try to perform the moves with only three fourths of her limb strength. We all loved watching her fall and splatter flat on the pearl again and again as she tried so hard to reposition her center of Chi to balance out the injury. We all laughed so hard and it was beautiful, but now it is not funny any more. Piss me off to death.
Also, this girl is dangerous and insane. And she hates me for no reason. I am afraid that it might be more important to Doi Liang to see me get kicked out and to ruin my career than for her to save her own career. What would it matter to her? She will never again be as famous as she was when she was Baby Swan Doi. She was already used up at ten years of age.
We train the twelve zodiacal animal pairs moves. For moves where one skater plays the head and one skater plays the rear of the animal, there is always a silent struggle between that Doi Liang and me about who will play the head, but she always yields.
The side to side pairs moves are easier with her, but I hate having to hold her cold, rough hand and we keep having to modify the moves to accommodate her stupid injury.
Two days before the Final Motivation, Sensei Madame Tong announces that she is going to have us fight against actual Pearl Opera Academy students at our Final Motivation. Aiyah, we are so unready for this.
On the last day before Final Motivation, Doi Liang and I are training in the Swinging Monkey routine together. During the entire final week, she has said nothing to me. Not one word.
As we practice racing along the perimeter wall of Pearl Colony, I finally grow tired of her silence.
“Why do you not ever talk,” I say. “What is wrong with you?”
She says nothing.
I say what I suspect is going to be a sore spot, to try to provoke a reaction from her. “Everyone knows why you disappeared for four years after you got famous as Baby Swan Doi.” Actually, I am still working on learning exactly what the trouble was that she got into that made her have to hide from public view all those years but I figure that it is worth a try. “You and your parents think you were so clean in covering it up, but everybody knows. I cannot believe you do not realize that. We all talk about it and we all think it is just disgusting.”
No reaction. “But what doe
s it matter now? You are much too old and used up to perform ‘The Dragon and the Swan’ ever again. You will never be limber enough again to do that little swan move where you grab your skate behind you and spin like a blossom. Which was a vulgar little gimmick anyway.”
Still no reaction. Piss me off to death. I have to be more creative. “I know about your brother.”
She does not look at me.
“I know what you are thinking,” I say, making it up as I go. “Your mother had a difficult pregnancy with twins. And you know that if they had had to choose one twin to sacrifice to save the other, you would not be here, would you. See, there is nothing about you that I cannot see.” I shoot this arrow into the air to see where it will land.
She still says nothing. She still does not look at me. However, I can tell that she is not looking at me only through great self control. I can see these things.
“Well,” I say, “do not think that you have some special right to act so tragic just because of that. My parents wanted a boy. And I think that I was adopted. But you do not see me going around feeling sorry for myself about it.”
Aiyah, just thinking about it makes me start to cry. It is so unfair. Why me? When all I have ever wanted was for them to treat me like a human being, not some worthless embarrassment.
As we skate towards the central minaret in the middle of the perimeter wall, we begin swinging each other in half-moon sweeps and passing the fulcrum of our collective Chi back and forth between us. I hate having her evil Chi in my body, even for a moment. As we approach the minaret, we press our bodies together. We launch our bodies off into the space to one side of the minaret. We whip in orbit around each other like a pair of thrown nunchaku, but we wobble because of her stupid injured arm throwing us off. The centripetal force is barely enough to arc us around the minaret and land us on the other side.
As we land, Doi Liang says, “Do not be stupid. It cannot be both.”
I am so surprised to hear her speak that I say nothing.
She continues in that low, hoarse voice, “If your parents wanted a boy, why would they have adopted a girl? They are certainly rich enough to adopt a boy if they wanted. Either they wanted a boy, or you are adopted. It cannot be both.”
I am stunned by her outrageous presumption. How dare she bring up my private family matters.
That evening, I keep thinking about that Doi Liang’s words. “If your parents wanted a boy, why would they have adopted a girl? Do not be stupid. It cannot be both.”
My face grows hot again thinking about her daring to talk about my private family matters.
But I cannot stop thinking about her words. “It cannot be both.” If my parents were rich enough to adopt a boy . . . either they wanted a boy and I am not adopted, or they did not want a boy, and they adopted me.
Who is this girl to be trying to twist my mind. So arrogant! So unfeeling!
Yet, somehow, I am not as angry about it now as I was this afternoon.
It must be because I am exhausted from the week’s training.
When the Final Motivation begins, we see that there are eight students from Pearl Opera Academy. Three pairs of girls and a pair of boys. Each pair representing a different difficulty level. We get to choose which difficulty level we want to attempt, and the boys are the highest difficulty because they are boys. And third year boys!
Most of the girls choose to fight against other girls. We all trained with the assumption that the pair we would have to defeat are girls, and all the girls have been training in moves that are focused for girl to girl combat.
Then, one brave pair of girls chooses to fight the Academy boys. So stupid of them. They find themselves unable to use their all-girl pairs moves to knock the boys off their skates and make them fall down. They make the mistake of flinging themselves directly at the boys. I watch them get knocked down by the boys before even completing one circuit of the perimeter wall of Pearl Colony. Stupid girls, why did they not lead the boys off of the campus and into narrow streets in the city? Combat on an open plane does not take advantage of girls’ flexibility over boys. Sensei Madame Tong never said that we must limit the combat route to the campus.
Another pair of girls goes next and they choose to fight the pair of second year girls. After them, it will be our turn to skate. We still have not been able to eliminate the wobble in our combined center of Chi to compensate for her arm, especially when we are passing the Chi between us. And even if we could, how can I know whether she will go insane again just to take me down?
“You are better than they are,” I say to her. “You want to win this. More than you want to take me down.”
She says nothing.
But I see that I have struck a Chi point. I press all the way in. “You have people you want to say something to with this. So do I. If we win this, I will not have helped you and you will not have helped me. I will have advanced myself. You will have advanced yourself. It will just have happened at the same time. That is all.”
She turns to look at me.
“Deal?” I ask her.
She says nothing. She looks at the boys. They are lazing about as if none of this cost them the least effort.
“What do I get out of it?” she says.
“What do you mean what do you get out of it? You get to win! You get to hold on to your chance to get into Pearl Opera Academy! You get to not lose face! You get to not shame your parents.”
She says in that weird, low voice, “What makes you think I do not want to shame my parents?”
Oh, no, not now, she is going insane again. “What do you want, you crazy girl! Tell me what you want!”
“If we win,” she says slowly, “then you have to keep your mouth shut for a whole day.”
“What do you mean keep my mouth shut? What a stupid thing to say. Are you insane?”
“And if you break the promise, I get to grab and crease your hair every time you speak.”
“Fine! Whatever! Just do not mess this up.”
She makes me write down and sign the promise and rolls the scroll into her skate. She is so weird. “So do we have a deal?” I ask.
“Deal,” she says.
It is our turn. Sensei Madame Tong asks what difficulty level we choose. Without looking at each other, Doi Liang and I both point to the boys.
We join the pair of Academy boys and take our position behind them on the top of the perimeter wall.
They crouch in position to burst away from us.
We assume the position to chase after them and prepare to unleash a Warring Sisters move at their backs like the other girls did.
Sensei Madame Tong lifts the trumpet of whale bone to her lips.
The clarion call sounds.
The boys bound away from us along the perimeter wall in a flurry of powerful lunges.
Instead of chasing after them, we turn the other way and hop over to a parallel aqueduct leading out of the campus of Pearl Colony and skate as hard as we can into the city of Pearl.
We hear the cries of surprise behind us. We see the boys half a li away from us realize our sabotage. They scrape to a stop, do one-footed backflip half-turns, and come pumping towards us. Sensei Madame Tong and the remaining girls also skate in a flock to follow us and see what will happen.
The aqueduct we are skating on opens onto an elegant waterfront garden district and twists toward a half-moon bridge arching over a sculpted, false canal. We ride the aqueduct as it slopes down, approaching the bridge, then leap off in a powerful combination single-toe double-heel spin onto the bridge and into the little tea pavilion there.
The boys bear down hard towards us. As the aqueduct slopes down, they both fling themselves into a triple axel scuttling scissor blossom spin, aiming their skate blades at us.
Before they reach us, we do a double-toe roundhouse and spring off at an angle. The boys speed after us as we lead them into a forest of close, tall alleys, deep in a fashionable residential district.
We skate down the all
eys, whipping to the left and the right into side-alleys to try to lose the boys and double-back on them, but they keep up with us.
We lead them into a long straight lane of slender townhouses leading towards the waterfront. We see the glimmer of light on the water of Aroma Bay in front of us at the end of the lane.
Ah, but our center of Chi still wobbles! Piss me off to death. She is trying, but we cannot stabilize the Chi.
The boys pump hard towards us and crouch down, forming the Charging Ox position. When they have gathered their Chi, they spring at us.
When we hear their skates leave the pearl, Doi Liang and I entwine our arms together so that we join into a position with no arms and four legs. She winces as I grab her crippled arm, sending a wave rocking through our Chi, but we hold on to it. At the last possible moment, we get it right and execute the Leaping Rabbit pairs move and leap up out of their way.
The boys attempt to reposition and aim up towards us but they are unable to lock onto us as our trajectory wobbles. The unstable Chi is helping us! Like the Drunken Hen move, our random lurches are as unpredictable to our foes as to us.
As the boys slide under us towards the bay, they struggle to untangle from the Charging Ox position, but in this narrow residential lane, they cannot burst apart out of the position as they are trained to do and they used too much force in too small a space.
As they slide towards the bay, Doi Liang and I change in mid-air from the Leaping Rabbit position to the Charging Ram position. We curl our arms to form the ram’s horns and channel the rest of the Chi from our downward trajectory to batter into the boys.
Our impact, the remaining Chi from the boys’ Charging Ox move, and the boys’ own weight combine. The momentum is too much for them to stop in time. We send them crashing through a grove of false cherry blossoms planted by the water. They go flying off the edge of the boardwalk in an explosion of pink petals straight into Aroma Bay, ending in two splashes so far away that they look like little plumes of dolphin spray.
