by Jace Kang
Aya’s eyes glazed over for a second. “Rubber filled with air.”
Ryu gawked. “You don’t have balloons?”
“We don’t use rubber anymore,” Aya said.
“Well then, imagine the air filling you. The primary organ of Metal is the Lungs,” Ryu said. “By strengthening the Yin aspects of Metal, Aya’s lungs will be able to clear her phlegm more efficiently.”
“You said my phlegm came from my Spleen!” she protested.
“It does.” Ryu smiled. “The adage is that the Spleen creates phlegm, and the Lungs store it.”
While they practiced, Ryu executed an Earthshaping form, creating furrows in the ground around the two. Like before, he drew a Yin-Yang symbol, centering Ken in the middle of the Yin side, and Aya in the middle of the Yang side.
He then drew the Eight Trigrams around them, with the Mountain Trigram behind Kentaro, and the Earth Trigram behind Aya.
When he was done, he said, “Metal relates to your skin. Typically, this Yin Cultivation would be combined with Yang training to toughen your skin. For example, hitting a canvas bag filled with mung beans with the palm, fist, and blade of your hand, followed by a soaking in herbal liniment to speed the healing of microfractures. Later, you would fill the bag with ball bearings, and then gravel.”
Aya and Ken exchanged confused looks.
“I guess you don’t have canvas, mung beans, ball bearings, or even gravel anymore.”
The both shook their heads.
“Just trust me on this. In any case, we don’t have access to these materials, so we’ll have to focus on the Yin side. If we had the right food, too, we could start to reinforce your skin cells with metal.”
“Is that how you were able to stop the miniguns without damaging your fingers?” Aya asked.
Ryu grinned. “Well, I did sprain some ligaments…”
Ken shook his head. “It would’ve taken an ordinary person’s fingers off.”
“And you healed fast,” Aya added.
“Yes, that’s all the various aspects of Cultivation working together for defense and healing. The salient point is that what you are learning now is incomplete.”
Hopefully, it would be enough to confront the nightmarish creature Ryu thought was stalking the streets of Kyoto.
Chapter 27:
The Hacker
A mix of admiration and jealousy swirled in Aya’s gut at Kentaro’s advancement. The change, manifested by his new ebullience, was palpable.
And she was happy for him.
Watching how easily these exercises came to him, Aya realized that the more intricate her immersive interface with the EtherCloud, the harder it was to feel the Qi. It was obvious from how much easier it had become after the MoD Sentinels had decompiled parts of her Avatar code. This wasn’t a problem that more algorithms could solve, because the very act of programming a solution would likely make Cultivation that much harder.
Now, though, she could feel each breath getting stronger the more she practiced what Ryusuke called the Yin Iron Shirt. The phlegm congealed less in her bronchial tubes. More than wanting to be healthier to stay jacked in to the EtherCloud, the idea of actually living in the real world became more appealing.
To have real human relationships beyond the circle of anonymous hackers. Her eyes strayed to Kentaro.
Kentaro? Since when did she care about having any kind of interaction with him? Well, he had shown more concern for her than her family ever did. Over the last few days, he’d been kind, and part of her might be growing fond of him.
Such a silly thought. She had to concentrate on Cultivation.
Earth. Its weakness in her was the reason she produced so much phlegm.
Metal. Its weakness was the reason the phlegm stagnated in her lungs.
Water, her Path, if she should choose it. Its weakness kept fluids from being evenly distributed in her, allowing them to congeal.
Wood. Its stagnation, like the entanglement of roots and branches, drew too much from her Earth, weakening it.
Fire. Her weakest aspect, unable to fuel the process of digestion, weakened her Earth.
It was also Kentaro’s strongest point, but excessive to the point that it made him fidgety. With his absorption of the Kappa Core, perhaps that was more in balance. He, a Purebred, was paired with her, a flawed XHuman.
Around them, Ryusuke had created yet another Eight Trigrams pattern; unlike the first time, the flow of Kentaro’s energy felt stronger. Now Ryusuke was adding more lines to them.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“You and Ken-kun are sharing energy, and I am trying to influence how that transfer works—especially since he has advanced to First Rank. Right now, the Trigram for Mountain is above him. For you, the Trigram for Earth. I am now adding a Heaven beneath his Mountain, creating a hexagram to represent control of great power.”
“Why?” Ken asked.
“Fire is your great power, but you must learn to contain and focus it. Even though you advanced to First Rank in Water, Fire will always predominate.”
“What about me?” Aya ventured.
“I’ve added the Wood Trigram. The image is of a tree, pushing up from the ground. The Hexagram for rising up. All this, within the Metal Path training, so that your lungs function better in clearing out phlegm.”
Had she not been concentrating so much on breathing, she might not have noticed the truth in his words.
“I fail to see how drawing lines in the dirt can affect energy,” Siena called from near the river bank.
Kentaro frowned at the Elestrae. Aya might have, too, but with her scientific mind, none of this really made much sense.
“These lines are invisibly etched into our meridians and the flow of the energy of the Earth,” Ryusuke said. “Are you familiar with Feng Shui?”
As she had whenever Ryusuke mentioned these archaic terms, Aya disappeared into the EtherCloud to search for information. “Ai, what is Fengshui?”
The nine-tailed fox appeared with an image of the old writing system.
Literally meaning Wind and Water, Feng Shui was a means of inviting good luck into a working or living space. It could also be applied to buildings’ positions in a city, or the layout of a city, or the position of a city within a nation’s boundaries. Sometimes translated as Geomancy, it followed the superstition that the Earth had energy patterns.
A new image appeared, shaped like the Yin-Yang symbol, surrounded by the Eight Trigrams; each cardinal direction related to different areas.
Just like Ryusuke had drawn around Kentaro and her.
Superstition or not, something was clearly working with Aya’s health. She jacked out, after only a fraction of a second had passed in real time. Through the fog in her head from leaving the EtherSpace, she was still able to answer Ryusuke’s question. “Feng Shui assumes there’s energy in the Earth, and that we can harness it for luck.”
Ryusuke smiled, making her heart flutter. “You always have the right answer.”
If he knew she had to search for the information, he might not be so impressed. She just smiled back.
He waved his hands at the surroundings. “By Feng Shui principles, Kyoto itself is in an auspicious position. The location of the mountains surrounding it, the flow of the rivers through it, as well as the streets—they’re laid out based on Chang’An, the ancient capital of China. Here we are, along the Kamo River, where Qi flows smoothly. “
Kentaro’s eyes strayed to the river. “How does that help us?”
“Humans occupy a space between Heaven and Earth, and we are metaphor for both. If we are in a place where Qi flows well, our body’s Qi will be strong as well. Now, keep Cultivating.”
Ryusuke went off to join Siena, and they proceeded to engage in another romp in the grass.
By now, both Aya and Kentaro had learned to ignore the amorous couple; whereas it used to make Aya feel jealous, the same envy for the Elestrae didn’t churn in her gut anymore. They continued their I
ron Shirt practice, and the Elestrae’s invisibility cloak kept them hidden from the passing Peacekeepers and military aircraft.
By the time the sun set, her and Kentaro’s sweat stank.
Returning from his supposed pair Cultivation with Siena, Ryusuke waved his hand in front of his nose. “Good, you are expelling toxins from your body. As always, Ken-kun has flushed more out. If you keep doing this, you will be more open to the reconstruction of your skin structure if we can find the right food and herbs.”
Again, Aya was lagging behind Kentaro.
“Go ahead and rest now,” Ryusuke said, then gestured Aya to the side. “I want to ask a favor.”
Her heart soared. “What can I do for you?”
“I need to complete my mission soon. I know you’re hesitant to hack into the Peacekeeper headquarters remotely, but could you at least probe around? Find out more about my pills.”
Aya shuddered. “I—”
Siena appeared over his shoulder, with a tablet in hand. “I’ve downloaded some updated research that my team has done into your pills. We are very fascinated by the pills’ energy signature.”
The tablet flashed, and its projector displayed the image of two chemical compound structures side by side.
“See this?” She pointed. “This was the red pill. Its chemical bonds are identical to starfighter power cores, but much denser.”
Aya studied the two diagrams. Indeed, the pill had a hundred times the amount of bonds in the same amount of space.
“But that’s not all,” Siena said. “The molecules vibrate with a resonance that doesn’t belong to this universe.”
“Probably because it belongs to mine,” Ryusuke said.
“It could prove to be an alternative to istrium.” Siena’s voice rose with excitement. “It could end twenty thousand years of war with the Tivari.”
Aya gasped. “What does the red pill do?”
Ryusuke shuffled on his feet. “It will give me the power to close the portals, leaving only a handful open to anyone who has Advanced to at least First Rank in all five paths.”
How fascinating it would be to enter the World of Rivers and Lakes! It would be even more alien than the EtherCloud. Still… “How did you first enter, then?”
Ryusuke grinned. “I had Advanced to First Rank in all five Paths.”
“In this world?”
He nodded. “It’s a very long story, but the gist is that there have been a handful of high-ranked masters who left the World of Rivers and Lakes, and decided to remain here.”
“You found one?” Aya asked.
Ryusuke waved off her question. “Could you see if you can find out about my pills?”
Aya nodded. Maybe he’d answer her question later. While he headed off to check on Kentaro, Siena sat down across from her.
Ignoring the Elestrae, Aya jacked into the EtherCloud and stepped into her own EtherSpace. She’d had Ai monitor unencrypted chatter from regular citizens, as well as low-security messages coming to and from Peacekeeper Headquarters.
She looked first at the chatter. Hundreds of people had commented about having seen the press conference. Knowing that the government monitored communications, most had only left messages expressing concerns about the attacks, or sympathy for the victims. The general sentiment, though, was that the government wasn’t doing enough to ensure public safety.
Embedded within one of the messages, discernable only through a cipher program, was a hidden connection. The set of coordinates, changed hourly, took her to a hidden, rotating EtherSpace where hackers met.
The clean lines of the EtherSpace weren’t exactly like that of the Purebred coffee shop she’d visited with Kentaro and Siena, but they shared the same simple aesthetic. While research had shown that the former could be described as Scandinavian modern, this fell in the category of mid-century modern. What century, it was impossible to tell, and neither could be considered modern.
Leaning back in a white chair with sleek curves and a cushion, booted feet up on a white table with matching design, was Slash. Whether he really had frizzy black hair in real life, or if he was really a he, was impossible to know.
“Heya, Zip,” he said, using her hacker moniker. He tipped his black hat and lowered his dark sunglasses as he looked at her. No doubt he’d programmed his SI to make the EtherCloud look like the so-called Heavy Metal era of Earth, where humanity had heavily polluted the water, earth, and air with heavy metals.
“Zip!” Another man in a checkered pink shirt beneath a striped black blazer waved from a plush green sofa. As host, Slick’s ancient fashion mirrored the décor.
Like her, these two had taken extreme measures to maintain their anonymity. The rotating ServerSpaces were always hiding in plain sight in the EtherSpaces of mundane entities. And they, along with the sixty-some hackers who glided through the EtherCloud through advanced SIs, knew how hide their trails.
“Good morning, honorable sirs.” She bowed in the fashion of the ancient Japanese, intentionally using morning so as not to give away her time zone. “Is anyone following the attacks in Kyoto?”
“Of course,” Slash said, mimicking the playing of a guitar.
“Hard to find any real information, though.” Slick combed his hair back. “Government is hiding shit. Peacekeeper EtherSpaces might not be on lockdown anymore, but they’re on high alert. I’m not going to risk myself with those Level Nine Sentinels.”
Slash tipped his hat again. “I have a code shell that can get an Avatar by the Sentinels once.”
Aya and Slick both stared at him.
“How does it work?” she asked.
“It uses the biometrics of a real person with access to the system. Problem is, there are only two layers between it and your Avatar code. On review, the Sentinel AIs’ redundancies will realize their error. They’ll write a counter-code to recognize you within the system. It’s like an animal’s immune system recognizing a virus the second time it infects the subject.”
Aya sucked in a breath. “How long before they realize what’s going on?”
“A Level Nine Sentinel? Maybe two seconds of real time.”
Two seconds of real time. That would feel like ten minutes in the EtherCloud. Hidden from all Sentinels, she could acquire all kinds of information. “How do you know it won’t work again?” she asked.
Slash grinned. “Let’s just say, I haven’t been in the Peacekeeper EtherSpace for several months now.”
“What do you want for that code?” Aya asked.
“What are you offering?”
Aya projected some of Ryusuke’s files. “This is all the Peacekeeper’s information on Ishihara before the lockdown.”
“Before the lockdown?” Slick raised an eyebrow. “Were you the one who caused it?”
She grinned. “What if I was?”
Both stared at her.
“Just what did you—assuming it was you—do?” Slash asked.
Aya blinked innocently. “I may or may not have helped Ishihara escape.”
Slash grinned.
Slick, on the other hand, gawked. “What if he’s behind the murders?”
“He’s not,” Aya said.
“How do you know?” Slash lowered his sunglasses again to eye her.
If she told them, they’d know she was in Kyoto. “I’ve seen Peacekeeper footage. Plus, it’s pure logic. Last night, there were seventeen deaths, all between 20:00 and midnight, spread throughout the city. He couldn’t have possibly done it all.”
Slash held out a playing card and flipped it through his fingers. “This is the code. Thing is, I already have Ishihara’s file from Dig.”
Aya frowned. She’d seen fellow hacker Dig near Ryusuke’s file. Of course, Dig hadn’t gotten as involved as she had, and hadn’t triggered the lockdown. “How about some Level Three combat codes?”
Both Slick and Slash perked up.
“Since when did you achieve Level Three combat?” Slick asked.
“A girl’s got her sec
rets.” She held out a scroll.
The other two exchanged looks.
“Well, I want to find out.” Slash flicked the card at Aya.
She caught it, then bowed low in the manner of Old Japan and handed it to him in two hands.
He plucked it from her palms. “I can’t tell you how much I love your aesthetic.”
She bowed again. Starting to jack out, she paused.
Slick was staring at Ryu’s file. “How about a Level Seven Sentinel Shell for Ishihara’s file?”
Level Seven. It might take some time to integrate into her Avatar code; for now, it would operate at Level Six, which would restore what she’d lost to the Peacekeepers.
Slash whistled. “I would’ve liked that.”
Luckily for Aya, the hacker code prevented one hacker from trading something he’d acquired from another hacker…though part of that was based less on honor, and more on the fear that a new copy would unleash a virus.
With a nod, she offered Slick a copy of the scroll. He gave her a small geometric painting that would’ve fit the décor of his EtherSpace.
With another bow, she jacked out. Only a split second had passed in real time. Once her mind acclimated to the real world, she hurried to catch up to Ryusuke.
“I have a way into the Peacekeeper EtherSpace,” she said, “but once I use it, I will never be able to hack into it again, even from the inside. I’ll do it for you, but I recommend we not use it until you’re ready for your attack.”
Ryusuke held up a hand. “I sense the arrival of our quarry.”
At his side, Siena’s pointed ears twitched. “There’s a chirping sound I’ve never heard from any bird on this planet…”
Chapter 28:
The Purebred
W ith his body invigorated by Advancement to First Rank in the Water Path, Ken joined Master Ryusuke, Siena, and Teppin in following Aya.
With all the vitality brimming in him, he could sense her more deeply now—while visibly frail, her internal energy felt stronger than that of an XHuman man who stared at them as they passed. Even so, her Qi felt miniscule compared to his now, and also didn’t flow smoothly.
