Quantum Cultivation

by Jace Kang

  Then, she stepped to the side.

  Everyone froze, gawking at the two Ryusukes, the real Ryusuke included. Once the Peacekeepers gathered their wits, the shooting resumed. Ten of the twenty-six beams were aimed at her projection. With her perception sped up, Aya dodged with ease. Ai smoothed the hologram’s movement so it resembled Ryusuke’s techniques.

  Though she couldn’t affect the material world directly, the distraction was all Ryusuke needed to neutralize the remaining Peacekeepers in a matter of moments. With all of them sprawling and groaning, the dirty little Purebred ventured out of the maglift and slunk over.

  Panning out of the simulation, Aya shut down all of the hall’s cameras by burying code in their controllers disguised as regular subroutines. Around her, in the EtherSpace, Avatars scrambled to bring them back online, but their perception was limited by humans in real time. They were probably wondering why the Sentinels weren’t trying to locate the source of the hack.

  Ryusuke turned to her, or rather, the holoprojection of himself. “I thought only masters of both Water and Fire Paths could create duplicates.”

  “So can technology.” On a command, Aya changed her projection of Ryusuke back to Bodhi and grinned. “Now, you had better get out of here.”

  “I need my robes and directions to Honnoji Temple.”

  Pulling her perception back, Aya scanned the EtherSpace. Accessing maps from this part of the system would be too obvious to a passing Avatar or Sentinel, and really, she was tempting fate running so many hacks for so long.

  She said, “There are enough projectors between Kyoto Central and Honnoji for me to guide you there. We will need a plan to reacquire your clothes, though, and that will take time given the level of security around it.”

  “Come with me to Kujo Ward.” Kentaro bent over to work a jacket off an unconscious Peacekeeper. “It’s very close, but there are fewer cameras there.”

  Aya couldn’t keep the shock out of her voice. “Those are the slums.”

  “I seem to remember that, even back in my time.” Ryusuke slipped into the jacket, which was tight. Its sleeves only went down to his forearms, and there was a gap between its hem and the line of his hemp loincloth. His legs and feet were bare. It was a look that might go over well in a kink club in the Gion District, but not in the streets of downtown Kyoto.

  Of course, it made sense that Kentaro, as a Purebred, would live in Kujo. And he did have a point: there were fewer cameras and patrols there.

  Aya’s tether on her Avatar tugged. It was time to return to the real world to clear her lungs. “I’ve shut down all cameras in a four-kilometer radius around Central, which will cover your path to Kujo. I will start working on a plan to get your robes back, and find you in the slums.”

  Just as she jacked out from the EtherCloud, colors flashed from Peacekeeper Central’s outdoor camera feed.

  A team of six Peacekeepers had just let through a delegation of pointed-eared Elestrae science envoys, while blocking the advance of ten soldiers from the Ministry of Defense. With the time it took to clear her lungs, Aya wouldn’t be able to help Ryusuke.

  Chapter 7:

  The Purebred

  A s soon as the holographic monk disappeared, Ken started to blow out a sigh of relief…only to straighten his spine when Master Ryusuke glared at his stance. Whoever was behind Bodhi might not have the best of intentions. The whole story about a journalist monitoring Peacekeeper activity sounded too suspicious.

  Still, a little part of Ken had to admit that their mysterious benefactor had been far more help in their escape from the bowels of Peacekeeper Headquarters than Ken could’ve ever been.

  This, after Master Ryusuke had apparently started teaching him!

  He had to prove his worth now, if he were to have any hope of going past trying to learn martial arts from movies and delve deeper into true martial power with a master. Trying to maintain correct posture, he picked his way through the unconscious Peacekeepers.

  The steel front doors parted, letting in the damp scent and sound of pattering rain. Pushing past a cordon of Peacekeepers, who apparently had yet to learn about Master Ryusuke’s escape, was a male officer. Three shorter, pointed-eared beings in silken robes and glistening jewelry followed, gliding in with the grace of poetry made tangible.

  Ken had never seen an Elestrae in person, let alone three, since they very rarely left their embassy compound. He couldn’t suppress his gasp. Their long, billowing hair ranged from bright gold to lustrous silver, and all had large, almond-shaped eyes of emerald, sapphire, and amethyst hues.

  Ever since their species had met four hundred years ago, humans had idolized—no, envied, or even coveted—the Elestrae for their long lives, ethereal beauty, and ability to manipulate istrium radiation. No amount of DNA manipulation could recreate their eye and hair color, at least not without leading to severe genetic defects.

  “Fairies,” Master Ryu droned, eyes fixed on the impossibly gorgeous, golden-haired female with blue eyes.

  Fairies? Those mystical beings appeared in the 2D Asian media of the 1960s, and had enjoyed a resurgence in the 2010s. The Elestrae were decidedly not fairies. Ken shook his head. “They’re aliens.”

  “Aliens? No, they’re daughters, and occasionally sons, of the Gods, who have settled in the Land of Rivers and Lakes.”

  Gods? Ken buried a chuckle. “Just where is this land?”

  “Here, there, everywhere,” said Master Ryu, waving his hands in circles. He pointed up. “Just not up there.”

  The where seemed to fit with the master’s earlier description of planes stacked on planes. However, the master didn’t know everything. Ken shook his head and recited a passage from his history books. “We met the Elestrae in Alpha Centauri in 2392. They’ve told us how they first evolved on a super-Earth orbiting a white dwarf. The crushing gravity made them short and squat. The unforgiving ultraviolet light killed off all those who couldn’t heal quickly. When they formed a symbiotic relationship with spacefaring creatures, they escaped that hell of a planet and colonized others. Unbound from high gravity and ultraviolet light, their DNA allowed them to grow tall, thin, and healthy.”

  Master Ryu’s brow furrowed. “I’m telling you, there are immortal beings who look just like them in the Land of Rivers and Lakes. And these radiate so much power, I can detect their Cultivation level.”

  Cultivation? Were the fairies in the Land of Rivers and Lakes farmers? Ken started to shake his head—

  “Is that him?” The silver-haired male pointed his chin at Master Ryu.

  The Peacekeeper froze, then surveyed his fallen comrades with wide eyes. He drew his sidearm. “What…what happened here?”

  Master Ryu bowed to the female. “Your Illustriousness, your Humble Servant apologizes for the mess he has made.”

  Ken cocked his head. The Elestrae must’ve been just as confused, judging from the way they exchanged bewildered glances with each other. All but the female, who just studied Master Ryu though narrowed eyes.

  The Peacekeeper shot. The blue trail of a particle beam sped through the spot Master Ryu would’ve occupied, had he not shifted his position.

  “He’s the one you caught?” The female Elestrae clasped a bangle on her necklace.

  “Yes.” The Peacekeeper squeezed off another futile shot.

  Still not coming out of his respectful bow, Master Ryu dodged again, then looked to Ken. “Stand there. Knees slightly bent, arms relaxed in front of you as if you were hugging a tree.”

  In the middle of a fight? Ken stared incredulously.

  “Tuck your tailbone and grip the floor with your toes. Like this.” The master came out of his salute and demonstrated an upright stance.

  Well, no one was shooting at Ken. As usual, he might as well have been invisible to the XHumans and Elestrae alike. He imitated the pose, or at least tried.

  Master Ryu clucked while pointing two fingers at Ken, then closed the distance between him and the Peacekeeper in the blink of
an eye. He seized the gun, which folded like a leaf in his grip. Blue sparks flew from the ruined casing.

  The Peacekeeper stared at the remains of his weapon for a moment, then swung a fist. Spinning around, Master Ryu’s arms twirled, one catching the Peacekeeper behind the knees, the other in his chest. The scissoring motion sent the poor man thudding into the floor.

  The three Elestrae all clenched pieces of jewelry, which glowed a light blue as they chanted.

  The sounds were so beautiful. Ken’s heart ached at the melody, even as his mind screamed at him. Their jewelry was most certainly made of istrium, and if it was glowing, they were about to unleash some power. He came out of his stance. “Master, they’re about to channel!”

  Master Ryu turned back to him. “What does that mean?”

  “It means they might throw fire, lightning, turn you into a spider…they can bend reality!”

  The master dropped into a low fighting stance, hands raised. The chanting stopped, and Ken braced for whatever would happen next.

  Nothing.

  The Elestrae exchanged glances with each other, then turned to Master Ryu and pressed their palms together and bowed.

  “We have no quarrel with you.” The golden-haired female extended her hand toward the exit.

  Just like that? Ken eyed them for a long moment before looking to the master.

  Coming out of his stance, Master Ryu returned their salute. “Thank you.” He took Ken by the arm as he walked by, heading toward the front steel doors. The female Elestrae’s eyes roved over Master Ryu as they passed.

  The doors slid open at his approach, letting in a warm breeze and the hammering of rain on flexcrete.

  Ken jumped back.

  Six Peacekeepers with drawn particle guns stood with their backs to the exit, their enhanced skinsuits soaked by the rain. Unlike regular civilian clothes, the current generation of combat suits’ functions would interfere with the evaporators that many civilians wore to keep dry in the rain.

  They might not be a threat this second, because facing them were ten—no, twelve soldiers from the Ministry of Defense. Four shocktroopers in heavy power armor held both ends of the line. Most likely there for the intimidation factor, they were doing a good job. Six more shocktroopers in enhanced light plate occupied the middle, assault rifles in hand. At the fore of the formation stood two XHuman officers in tactical skinsuits, both male, their bare heads drenched by the downpour.

  “Again, I’m sorry,” the lead Peacekeeper said without a hint of apology in her tone. “We cannot grant you access to the prisoner or his effects until our ministry approves the request.”

  Ken chewed on the inside of his cheek. Unless Bodhi had hacked internal communications, surely every Peacekeeper from Kyoto to San Francisco to London would’ve heard about Master Ryu’s breakout. Was she just stalling?

  “Our ministry has waited long enough.” The MoD officer raised a hand.

  The soldiers took aim. Miniguns sprouted from the shocktroopers’ power armor. The Peacekeepers responded by levelling their own weapons.

  Though hushed whispers spoke of a rivalry between the MoD and the Peacekeepers, it was unheard of for them to come to blows! But maybe this would be for the better. Let them fight each other, and it would be easier to esc—

  “How about if we tone down the hostilities.” Master Ryu shouldered past Ken and through the Peacekeepers, seeming unconcerned that all he was wearing was underwear and a uniform coat. “Nobody has to get hurt.”

  The Peacekeepers reached for him, but he avoided their hands without even looking as he came to stand in between both sides, without a care in the world.

  The tension melted from Ken’s shoulders. The master had only been taken prisoner because he didn’t want bystanders hurt; now, it was two opposing factions that both wanted to recapture him and do who knew what. He was going to avoid their shots and let them shoot each other.

  In a rattle of armor and swishing of cloth, both sides trained their weapons on him.

  “What the—” the female Peacekeeper said.

  “You!” the MoD officer said, squinting through the rain. “You’re coming with us. Hands on your head.”

  Here it was, another superhuman display of martial ability about to unfold. Ken backed up, lest he get hit by a stray particle bolt.

  Master Ryu sighed. He raised both open hands.

  Ken gawked. Surrendering, just like that? After all it had taken to get him out of Peacekeeper Headquarters? He’d been serious about not wanting anyone to get hurt!

  With a slow, deep inhalation, Master Ryu lowered his arms as he closed his fingers into fists.

  Raindrops froze into sleet. The water on both Peacekeepers and military iced up. Shocktrooper visors frosted over. Though the ones in power armor could move, their plates crunched at the joints. The rest could only turn their heads.

  “I…I can’t move,” one said.

  Amazing. With some effort, Ken was able to close his mouth. To think, maybe one day he could do something similar. He looked over his shoulder back through the open doors.

  The Elestrae stood just inside, eyes locked on Master Ryu as they huddled close and conferred among themselves. Their istrium jewelry was glowing.

  Just what were they doing? Had they known about the standoff between the Peacekeepers and the Ministry of Defense? They had to, since they’d just passed through the cordon moments earlier.

  Master Ryu followed his gaze to the aliens. He pressed his palms together and bowed his head, then turned to Ken. “Lead the way.”

  Looking back, Ken confirmed the Elestrae weren’t following. He hurried south through the rain, with Master Ryu a step behind. With citizens now getting off work, the streets were packed with people. Enough had activated personal water evaporators to keep the rain off of everyone, at least until they made way and stared as he and Master Ryu hurried to the south.

  This was bad.

  Although the government had suppressed news of the fight earlier in the day, and nobody outside of firsthand witnesses knew of Master Ryu at all, he stood out like a beacon in the middle of a storm. Here was a man, standing a head above everyone else, and walking around barefoot, wearing only an ill-fitting jacket and underpants that might’ve belonged to a sumo wrestler from history books. Of course he would draw attention.

  “I recognize this place.” Master Ryu pointed to Kyoto Station, a blocky silver monstrosity beneath the glittering skyscrapers. “The train station. It hasn’t even changed much.”

  “On the outside, maybe.” Ken only knew what trains were because of the opening credits to Once Upon a Time in China, and no one had used one since the Onslaught. It was amazing to think that the building had remained so similar that Master Ryu was able to recognize it after eight centuries.

  “What’s inside?”

  “You have to see it to understand. We need to go in, anyway.” Ken scanned the area for Peacekeepers. Seeing none, he joined the moving, orderly lines of people filing briskly into the transport hub.

  Chapter 8:

  The Cultivator

  W hatever else the boy said, the beings they’d encountered in Kyoto Central were fairies. Though Ryu hadn’t been able to discern their rank, he’d gotten a sense of their vast Cores. All three had enormous reserves, even more immense than the only fairy he’d encountered before: an impossibly beautiful woman with large eyes and pointed ears, she’d been head of a sect he’d tried to join a decade after he entered the World of Rivers and Lakes.

  He shook the memories out of his head. How naïve he’d been in his youth, to think he’d ever have a chance of sleeping with a fairy! And here Kentaro was, taking the first steps of a similar journey.

  Ryu turned back to Kyoto Station, now called Downtown Kyoto Transport Hub. So far, he’d seen levitating vehicles and people walking, but no trains or other types of mass transportation. Just how did people get around these days?

  Once they cleared the doors, he halted. The line behind him jumbled up
in a cacophony of annoyed babbling.

  The soaring ceiling of gridded steel beams looked the same as he remembered eight hundred years ago. All similarities ended there. Instead of ticket kiosks and passageways leading to train platforms, there were dozens upon dozens of archways stretched across the center of the vaulting hall.

  XHumans in their flamboyant fashions disappeared as they walked through arches on one side of hall, while more people appeared in archways on the other side.

  “Come along, Master.” Kentaro gave him a tug.

  “What…what are those things?” Ryu said, resuming his walk.

  “Folding space apertures.”

  “Space…” Ryu stared so wide his forehead hurt. “You can go to other planets from here?”

  Covering his mouth, Kentaro shook his head. “I guess that is possible in theory. However, this hub’s geothermal generators barely produce enough energy to open a portal to Shanghai long enough for a person to make it through.”

  Geothermal? How fascinating. “There must be hundreds of people using the portals at once. That must expend a lot of power.”

  Ken stared up for a moment. “It takes minimal energy for one person to jump a short distance, and increases exponentially the farther more mass travels. To move a starship across space, you’d need a lot of istrium, with aquaryl-titanide amplifiers.”

  The kid might as well have been speaking Spanish, except that language apparently didn’t exist anymore. “I’ve never heard of those.”

  “They’re minerals that now are exceedingly rare on Earth,” Kentaro said. “Engineers and scientists studying alien relics think the Tivarae mined most of it thousands of years ago.”

  Tivarae. He’d mentioned that word before. “And who are they again?”

  “Aggressive blue humanoids with tusks.” Kentaro snarled and pantomimed fangs coming from his bottom line of teeth. “They’re the ones who caused the Onslaught. They controlled Earth thousands of years ago, built the pyramids and whatnot. Anyway, the stones that glowed blue in the Elestrae’s jewelry were istrium. It can generate a lot of energy, and the transparent aquaryl and titanide stones amplify it.”