by J D Astra
Jittery nerves bounced around inside me as I mindlessly loaded my tray with rice porridge, eggs, and pork belly. Mae wasn’t going to keep me from pork belly today. I set my tray down at Hana’s table for the first time in what felt like a lifetime and turned to her.
I bowed down to the floor and placed my forehead on the ground before rising. I gazed into her crystalline eyes and felt hope swell in me. She was no longer a Jun, but she was still here, following her dream. “You have taught me more than I thought possible. You’ve shown me true courage, passion, and hope. Many more challenges lie before me, and I want you to be there for every one of them.”
She smiled, a blush coming over her cheeks. “I can’t wait. And Jiyong?”
I cocked my head. “What is it?”
With a wince, she put her hand on mine. “I’m sorry for yelling at you after my duel. I...” She looked down in shame. “Lyjin was my good friend in Primary. I felt so betrayed, and I took that out on you.”
I smiled and gripped her hand tightly. “I understand.”
Yuri put her tray down and looked between us. “Are you guys dating now?”
Heat filled my face, and I rubbed the back of my neck.
Hana laughed nervously. “Let’s say we’re on speaking terms again.”
I turned to face Yuri, a swell of thankfulness and apologies washing over me. I couldn’t hold anything back. “Yuri, thank you for being here for Hana. Thank you for your grace, your candor, and your kindness.”
She grinned. “You’re welcome.”
I exhaled hard. There was one more apology that had to come out. I stood and found Shin-soo at the center of the room. Perfect. I strode over to his table, and the first-year eyes around the room followed me with anticipation. Would I pummel him again? Would I challenge him to a duel? The tension was palpable.
“What do you want, ganhan?” Shin-soo spat the word, and his cronies puffed up their chests.
I knelt beside him and bowed low—but not as low as I had to Hana. I rose and met a confused expression on his face. “I’m sorry for how this year has gone. I’m sorry that I’ve antagonized you, whatever I’ve done. I’m sorry for what I did to you in anger.” Shin-soo brought his hand to his swollen cheek and gritted his teeth. “I want to duel you, on the second to last day of school, before all grades are final.”
Shin-soo tutted. “Why on the second to last day? Need some extra time to get your cheating powers back?”
I shook my head slowly. “Eventually your words, stature, and money will not take you where you want to go. You will have to work hard. I want you to rise to my challenge and work hard. I want you to be here, every year, forcing me to be my best.”
“What a fujek ganhan,” Tae-do, the beef slab, blurted and the others jeered.
But Shin-soo didn’t laugh. His eyes stayed locked on mine as he sized me up and considered my offer: Challenge me. Chase victory with me. Be my rival.
“I’m going to kick your ass on the second to last day of school,” Shin-soo said as he turned back to his meal.
I placed my right fist against my left palm—recognizing him as my equal—and bowed. “We’ll see.”
I returned to my table, exhilarated. It worked.
“Nice job,” Mae chirped. “Now, can we please focus on what’s important? It’s time to fill that reservoir with ma munje.”
Chapter 37
QUEASY SOURNESS CREPT up the back of my throat as I stared at the blinking sign of the Rabid Rabbit. That sour flavor burned with eel-kip bitterness, and I swallowed back a burp that threatened to spill the meal all over the road. There was more in a bento in my backpack, but I didn’t want to have to eat my dinner so early.
I’d get one slightly longer break halfway through, and I’d need every second to choke down eel and bitter melon to help create the core strengthening ma I needed to amplify my power. I sucked down a deep breath and shook off the fear.
When I looked back up at the neon sign, all I could see was the smiling image of Eun-bi. Instead of the typical soothing effect, her face only served to intensify my nerves.
That smile was on the line tonight.
A heavy slap on my back pulled me from dark thoughts. “Are you going in?” The gate guard grinned as he stepped up next to me.
I nodded.
He raised a brow. “Nervous?”
I swallowed hard and nodded again, slower.
“I saw your fight against The Ripper. You’re skilled. Take a few deep breaths. It’ll be fine.” He patted me again, gentler this time, and left me on the street. “See you inside!” he called as he disappeared behind the jingling door.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I wanted the peace of silence, like when I meditated with Woong-ji and achieved complete emptiness. The air filled and left my lungs three more times, but the quiet didn’t come. My mind was as busy with the tightness in my gut, the trembling in my fingers, the fear of losing, the consequences of failure—
“Be here,” Mae boomed in my mind, and I jumped. “There is no tomorrow. There is no yesterday. There is only now.”
Be here. Breathe. Be here.
“Look who I found at the train station,” Hana said behind me, and I opened my eyes.
I turned to see Se-hun, dressed in his mail courier outfit, side by side with my new school friends. He gave a cheesy grin and wave. “I can only watch the first fight, but I couldn’t miss seeing you smear the floor with these kingdom pungbahn.”
Hana and Yuri both pursed their lips, and I grimaced. I spoke up at their discomfort. “They’re not all pungbahn.”
Hana smiled, and the fear in my heart melted. It was going to be fine. Even if I lost, I would figure something out, anything. I would get a small cut from the house for however many rounds I made it through. Then I could sell Tuko—or whatever’s left of him—to get some of the debt paid and ask for another extension...
But would the debtor give another? They’d been firm on getting their money or Eun-bi getting the first train out to the mines. I took another deep breath and tried to forget the tomorrow that wasn’t even here.
“What are we doing?” Cho asked, pulling me from thought.
“Let’s go in,” my voice cracked, and I coughed to hide it as everyone laughed. Couldn’t wait to hear about that for the rest of my life from Se-hun.
Hana and Yuri led the way to the Rabid Rabbit, and Se-hun fell back to walk beside me. He nodded his head toward Hana and raised his eyebrows then nudged me with his elbow. I frowned and mouthed, “Stop,” but it only made his grin widen. He started a goofy shimmy from side to side as we walked, mouthing, “Oh yeah.” He bobbed and weaved a cocky strut, elbowing me to mimic him.
Cho joined in, and I gritted my teeth, whispering, “Enough.”
“Something the matter with your legs, boys?” Hana asked as she held the door open.
Cho’s face turned beet red, but Se-hun just smiled. “Happy to be here and I gotta show it.”
She gave him an incredulous one-eyebrow-raised smirk. “Uh huh. Come on.”
“Oh, where’s Woong-ji?” I asked, realizing she wasn’t with Hana and the others.
Hana nodded me in. “She said not to wait. She’ll be here to walk you home tonight, don’t worry.” She poked fun at me, and I rolled my eyes.
Mae appeared in the corner of my vision as a floating spectral ghost. I blinked, dumfounded, before realizing she was only visible to me. “Don’t forget, there’s an artifact room here with that piece of me. Ask about betting for it.”
I dipped my head in acknowledgement, half aimed at Ryni and half for Mae. The bar section of the Rabid Rabbit was always crowded to the brim on rest day. Ryni nodded to me then pointed to Se-hun. “No kids allowed. Mail drop’s around back, anyway.”
“He just turned twenty-five, can’t you tell?” I asked as I gave Ryni a wink. She shook her head and waved us on.
We fought our way through the room to the stairs that led down to the arena. No line had formed at the bat
hroom yet, but I was already hearing activity from the stage. We passed the doorman, and I promised we’d pay from my earnings. I’d been good on my word from the last time, and so he waved me in with an annoyed grimace.
Lights of all colors blasted from the bottom of the ring as we stepped through the door. The music beat against the walls at a fast pace, and there was ghost music playing through the overhead speakers. The technical beeps and tones were easy to pick out from the violin being played in the room with us.
I took the steps two at a time to the bottom to get a better look of the action. A man in a flowing white robe that sparkled at the neck and arm cuffs sawed the bow across the violin’s strings with hurried jerks of his wrist. Red light flared across my face as the crystal at the center of the arena bled crimson through the room.
A woman in a sheer black dress twirled around the stone, dancing with it as she pushed and pulled the ry munje and the crystal’s energy. Her feet stomped to the beat as she made her way around, and the man’s song shifted to something deadly.
The audience was swaying and jumping in time with the music. Some threw their arms in the air, others gyrated their hips, and a few seemed to move like a wave was washing down their body.
Hana pulled up close and put a hand on my shoulder as she spoke over the music. “Never seen a rave before?”
I shook my head, my mouth still hanging agape. Yuri was bouncing on her toes and throwing her fists in the air as she followed Cho to the registration desk.
“Jiyong!” Cho waved me down, and I sped up my leisurely walk.
I stepped up to the desk and looked over the paperwork in front of me.
The attendant droned in a bored voice, “This says we’re not liable for damages to you or your property during the gauntlet or between matches.” Silvery ry cultivated at the tip of my finger, and I scribbled a hasty signature where the registration aid pointed. “This one says we’re not owed you anything until you complete the fourth match. You’ll get ten percent if you fail out on match five, and another ten percent if you fail out on six. The pot is sitting at eight thousand guli now, estimated to go up another five thousand if you make it to the fourth fight. Fair?” he asked, and I nodded.
Twenty percent wasn’t going to be enough, though. I would have to win if I was going to save Eun-bi. I scribbled another signature where he pointed and grabbed the sheet he held out to me.
“There’s one more thing,” I said as I leaned in so he could hear me clearly. “There’s an artifact somewhere in this building, something I want to wager for. Will you ask the boss?”
He furrowed his brow, his eyes glimmering purple for a brief flash. “What will you wager?”
I swallowed hard. “Tuko. On a lien.”
He sighed as I haggled. “How long?”
“Six months.”
He raised a brow. “That’s a long time for a bot lien.”
I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. “I think when you see his modifications in action, you’ll feel it is an appropriate amount of time for his value.”
He guffawed, putting his hand to his belly. “Okay, kid. You’ve got a deal.”
“But I didn’t say which artifact it is,” I said, scowling.
He tipped his head. “The boss knows which one you want.”
My gaze darted over to Hana for the briefest flicker to gauge her expression. Had she said something? Had news of our street brawl and resulting incident spread? How did they know?
Mae spoke fast. “When you were passed out on the bench in the cellar, they healed you. I wasn’t certain if she detected me or not, but she was poking around in my cortex...”
The man grinned at my surprised expression. “The boss knows.”
I bowed. Mun-Jayu be damned. We turned to walk down into the arena staging, but the gate guard stopped me and my entourage of friends. “You can only have one coach with you.”
I turned to each one of them, a grimace pulling down my already lowered mood.
“Cho and I will go sit in the stands,” Yuri offered and pulled Cho away.
“I can only stay for one match anyway,” Se-hun said with a shrug.
I grinned and then pulled him in for a brief hug.
He waved as he headed back up the steps to the seating area. “I’ll see ya in a few weeks!”
Hana looped her arm in mine, and the muscle in my bicep gave a reactionary flex. We walked down the steps, and she grinned. “Not sure how good a coach I’ll be, but I guess you’re stuck with me.”
“I have no doubt in your ability to push me to my limits,” I said, and she gave me a sidelong glare.
“Bet your ass I will,” she muttered we walked to the staging room. She closed the door behind us, then grabbed my arm. “Don’t kill yourself for this, okay? And Mae,” she said as she looked down toward my chest, “be careful how much you help.”
“Roger that,” Mae said through the broken speaker on my chest.
“No.” I shook my head, thinking of the rules. “Mae, I don’t want you to help.”
“Why not?” Hana said with a scowl. “Use everything you have to your advantage.”
I took a deep breath and pulled the collar of my dobok aside to reveal Mae’s device burned into my skin. “Because I’ve learned what happens when we play with powers we don’t yet understand.”
Hana looked to her feet and nodded. It was just too great a risk. If I died, there would be no one to care for my family. If I lost, I could still sell Tuko and take out my own debt, then work in the mines for a few years.
It would mean giving up Bastion, but that was a sacrifice I was willing to make to save the people I loved. I would figure out how to fix Mae some other way. I could build her a new vessel from scraps near my home. I could make it work.
“And they know I exist. Using me could be breaking the rules,” Mae noted aloud.
I nodded. “Good point. Don’t want to invalidate my win.”
Hana’s face soured. “Seriously? They’d invalidate it?”
“Welcome to professional bot fighting, where the house only wins big when someone cheats,” I said with a shrug.
Mae added, “Or is at least accused of cheating.”
I shook my finger. “Not all are like that.”
“Ha, right, you’re well known for tipping at the end, though. Maybe they’re only fair to you,” Mae mentioned.
“Are you calling me a bribe?” I asked with playful astonishment.
Mae returned with playful backpedaling. “I’m not saying you know what you’re doing, I’m saying they know how you behave.”
I rolled my eyes. “Now I’m back to being stupid, huh?”
Hana groaned and sat me down on the floor. “Shut up and cycle, stupid boy.”
Chapter 38
TUKO DID A FOUR-LEGGED dance across the arena, dodging the lancer-bot’s jabs. Lancers weren’t typically an issue for me and Tuko, and especially with the reinforced plating over the leg joints, it shouldn’t have been a problem this time. But this was the big league... this was a gauntlet.
All the best bot fighters came to participate in gauntlets because they had the best payouts for winning contenders. If they could get placed in the final round, it was almost guaranteed they’d take the pot home since most gauntlet headliners were running on fumes at that point.
It was round three, and I wasn’t running on fumes yet, but we were certainly pushing our limits. The lancer jabbed in at Tuko’s claw arm, trying to sever the connection in the joint and render it useless. I gave Tuko a little boost and the shot scraped along his underbelly. I contracted all four of the remaining limbs around the lance as it retracted, pulling Tuko along with it.
I slammed the claw down on the lancer’s neck joint, aiming down toward the reservoir. The claw gun belched fire, and a copper reinforced lead hollow point into the opposition. Gold munje exploded from every joint crack on the lancer, and the bot crumpled to the ground in a heap.
The crowd erupted in applause as blue and
green light danced across the arena. The announcer screamed in amazement. “Such a slick move by Tuko, so incredible! Jiyong wins again!”
I bowed to the young woman in the fluffy yellow jacket. She wrinkled her nose but returned the gesture. The kingdom folk were a lot nicer than the rich jerks who came to the outer-cities to fight. I wondered if they went to outer-city thinking we’d be easy pickings because we’re poor?
“Very likely,” Mae noted. “Bigotry is often accompanied by a lack of emotional control.”
The announcer cut over the dying cheer of the crowd as I made my way down the podium. “It’s the mid-break, everyone! Head on out to the bar and grab yourself another drink. Or how about sending out one of our runners to get you some street noodles for a reasonable fee!”
I retrieved Tuko and his severed limbs as the audience hopped to their feet and booked it for the restrooms. That had been a long fight. Much too long. I was exhausted, low on munje, and my stomach was groaning for some of those street noodles I’d been smelling all night.
Hana was grinning when I came to the back room. “That was great! But it did take you a long time. You’ve got thirty minutes, so I suggest you use up whatever munje you have right now to repair those legs and load fresh rounds as I get a meal in you. If there’s time, we can look at mending that crack on his belly.”
My brow furrowed. “Crack on his belly?” I flipped him over and inspected the area. Shu tae! When did that appear?
“The last hit,” Mae remarked, and I sighed. It was what it was now, and we were going to work with what we had.
I got to it exactly as Hana had instructed. The crack was a risk, but something we could deal with for one more round. Missing legs hampered me significantly more than the risk of further cracking the chassis.
Most of Tuko’s parts were fixed to more than just the chassis, so I wouldn’t risk losing anything, but it would definitely put me at a disadvantage if I had to protect my underbelly. No more high jumps, I supposed.
But a proper fix for him couldn’t be done in thirty minutes, and any hasty, cobbled together thing would only provide me with minimal gains.
