A red-lit sign hangs from the ceiling. Please Refrain From Interacting With Our Akuma Cell Subjects.
I’ve never seen any of this stuff up on the higher floors. I walk further down. Rooms get names. Gene Isolation Room. G.O.D. Revival Unit. Mech Storage Room.
Gene Isolation? For the Akuma cells? Mechs? Is Heaven working for Showguns? But if she does, I’m sure she would’ve told me already. But if not I can’t think of what else this is for. It certainly doesn’t sound like it’s for games. And Heaven sure didn’t say anything about Akuma-altered things being used in the simulator.
Further down the hall, a door chuffs and Heaven comes out. She waves to me. “Hello there."
I wave back and jog to her. “Hey, did you get my text from yesterday about the passwords?”
Heaven nods. “I did, but I just haven’t been home to try them with the phone. I got back to Tokaido this morning and there wasn’t any time to stop before work.”
“Ooh.” I grimace. “You flew all night? Are you sure you’re up for this?”
Heaven rubs her neck, then yawns. “Eh, don’t worry about me. I just finished my nap. And besides, I said that I’d help you out so I’m sticking to that. So let’s get to that lesson.” She leads me down to a pair of double doors at the end of the hall. B85.
“Just out of curiosity…” I begin. “Is there any reason why this has to happen down here?”
Heaven swipes a finger on the touch panel. The glowing Yang sign switches to Yin. The doors wheeze open. “No cameras. Wouldn’t want someone to see our magic show, now would we?”
“Do we absolutely have to keep our identity a secret?” I ask.
“Look at it this way…” Heaven disappears into the newly-revealed darkness. A wisp of gold fox-fire lights up her back. “What’s the most powerful thing in the world?”
“Money?” I ask, following.
“Nope.”
“Magic?”
“Nope.”
“Chi weapons?”
“Nope.”
“Love?”
“Eww. So cliche. Nope.”
My eyebrows furrow. “Gods?”
There’s silence for a while. Then her giggle in the dark. “Nope.”
Then what else is there? “So what is it then?”
“A well-kept secret.”
I snort. “That’s stronger than magic?”
“There’s a lot more to the world than force and power, Jun,” Heaven says. “Take for example, you have an army and I have an army. Equal size. Equal strength. Who wins?”
I scratch my elbow. “I don’t know. The richer guy? The one with a bigger army?”
“Not quite.” Heaven claps her hands.
The room lights. We're in a gymnasium. Stripped of courts. Stripped of equipment.
"Then who wins?" I ask.
"Whoever knows more," Heaven says, turning to me. "If I know where you're coming from, what routes keep you supplied, how you’re organizing your men, and you know nothing about me, that puts you in quite the predicament, doesn’t it?”
“I guess so, but…if I have better weapons?”
“You would still lose.”
“If I have magic?”
Heaven shakes her head. “Doesn’t make a difference.” She dissolves her fox-fire with a hand wave. “You’re overestimating the power of force.”
I fold my arms, pausing mid-fold as I remember the stuff I picked up earlier. "Before I forget, I found these out in the hall. I tried to catch who it belonged to, but she ran off."
Heaven's eyes widen. "You saw someone else down here? Where?”
“I don’t know. I think it was a girl. She was coming out of that ICU room,” I say. “Her wallet didn’t have any ID in it. But it looks like she’s filling out an application to Bo’s Reservation.”
Heaven takes the wallet, then her mouth slowly falls open. Her gaze snaps back up to me. “How long ago did you say this was?”
“Like ten minutes, she—”
Before I can get another word out, Heaven is already on her way out with her phone on her ear. “Hello? Bastet?” Heaven stops at the doorway. “…Please ask Bo. I don’t which of the twins it is, but they’re probably doing this together…Eh? Alright, take Flame with you, incase things get out of hand. And be on your guard…Okay. Good luck.”
I open my mouth, but Heaven turns to me and says, “Wait here.” She disappears into the hall.
I hope everything is okay. Maybe I should’ve tried to stop that girl. Though it’s probably better that I didn’t. In Red Dragon Academy, the combat portion of my training was hard-tailored toward killing quick and disengaging quicker, not an actual drawn-out fight. Subduing someone was never a thought there.
Heaven returns with furrowed eyebrows. “Sorry about that.”
“Is everything okay?” I ask.
“Oh, it’s just family stuff. It’ll be fine.” But the way she scrubs a hand over her face doesn’t convince me. With another yawn, she shakes her head and asks, “Where did we stop?”
"We didn't even start." I put my hands down. “How are we going to do this training thing?”
“That’s a tough one. It depends on what your body can handle. The stronger you are internally, the more you can do. The more skilled you are, the less repetition you need. But there are so many other factors that matter like user polarity, element, medical condition, discipline. Can’t really say until I see you do something.”
Her words are flying over my head. I can only hope I’ll understand what half this shit means when we start. “It already sounds complicated.”
Heaven faces me, taking a few steps back. “Do you by any chance have any background in music, Jun?”
The question catches me off-guard. “What?”
She rocks on the balls of her heels. “Just curious.”
“I used to play the saxophone in high school.”
“But not anymore?”
“No. It was only for jazz band,” I say. “I still know how to play the sax a little though.”
Heaven’s gaze wanders away for a little bit. “Close enough I guess. Do you remember how to read music? Or at least time signatures?”
“Not really.” I rub my arm. “I was always kind of bad at reading and memorizing the terms. But I can play things by ear. Do I need to know for magic?”
“Eh… no. But it helps a lot to think of magic and music as the same,” Heaven says. “You’ll see in a moment. But first, I want you to hold out your hands. Take a few deep breaths, and just relax.”
I do as she says, getting comfortable in place. "Alright. What next?"
"Focus your energy inward. You should feel a push and pull sensation,” Heaven says. “It’s the chi in your chi pathways.” Heaven runs a finger from the inside of her wrist all the way up her arms. "If you leave it alone for a bit, it should settle into its own time rhythm. That's called your resonance."
"So it's like having a song inside of me?"
"Kinda. Not really a whole song persay.” She puts her arms down. “You have a tempo and a time signature. Your time signature will always stay the same, but the pacing can change if you’re distressed.”
I fold my arms. “What about time signatures then?”
“It can change, but…” Heaven eyes me thoughtfully. “Don't worry about that right now. However, everything you do relies on that time signature. From how fast you can make a spell, how often, how strong that spell is, and to how quickly you can counter when one is being thrown at you. To be efficient, you want to cast most stuff when you feel your resonance push.”
“Sounds simple enough, but how do I do anything?” I open my hands. “I feel it, but it doesn’t do anything.”
Heaven chuckles. “That's because your body has natural stoppers at the end of your chi pathways so nothing comes out by mistake. To uncap them you need an elemental mudra like this.” She closes her hand into a bird-head gesture. "Here's the crane. For Light, spirit, shadow.” Then she raises her index finger and
pinky, making a horned animal. “The fox mudra. Fire, river, earth.” She then holds up her hand, fingers altogether as if in a stop gesture. “The mountain mudra. For mountain, thunder, and wind.” Turning her palm upside, she spreads her fingers, curling them inward toward her palm. "And the lotus. Sound, forest, and ocean.” She lowers her hands again. “Each is tied to a specific trio of elements, so I can’t for example summon fire with my lotus mudra or wind with my crane.”
I make the fox mudra with my hand. Vampire made this mudra back during the game. She must know magic. “Then how do I get out a certain element? And what’s the difference between ocean and river? How come that’s not just water?”
“River and ocean is a matter of the scale of the spell, and chi cost. Which reminds me— All of this is costing you chi from your body, so don’t think you can use it freely,” Heaven warns. “But as for your first question, it’s just mental intent. If I’m thinking of burning something with fire, fire comes out. Simple as that. But before any of that.” Heaven places two fingers on the inside of my wrist, moving them along my forearm. “You are a natural 4/4 signature. So I'll teach you light, spirit, and shadow."
That's the crane mudra then. I close my fingers into the bird shape.
“Focus on your resonance while picturing the brightest light you can. When you feel it push, hold it with your will,” Heaven says. “And that’s it.”
I hold my hands out and concentrate. The resonance thrums under my skin. A stressed. One. Two, three, four. One. Two, three, four. I fix my mind on the sun, the brightest light I can think of. The measure starts again. One. Two, three, four.
Stop.
Warmth rushes through my veins. A spark lights at my fingertips.
My heart skips. “Hey! I see something.”
“Good. But you need to keep it in a steady flow.”
The spark turns to a few more sparks, then balloons into a bright circle. But then it flickers out, leaving me breathless.
“What happened?” Heaven asks.
Trying to catch my breath, I say, “I don’t know. I just got tired.”
“But you’re not hurt, are you?”
“No.”
“It’s probably just because you’ve only just started. You’ll build more stamina with practice,” Heaven says. “Try it again.”
Gathering my concentration again, I do as she says. This time it goes straight to the bright light. Holds for a few more seconds. Then fizzles out.
Heaven's eyes narrow. "How odd. Again."
Three more times. All the same result. By the end of it, I’m light-headed.
“We’ll stop there for now,” Heaven says. “Go rest up in the Review Room.”
I clutch my head. “That’s it?”
“Better not to push things when you’re tired,” Heaven says. “And magic blockages could be a sign of a deeper problem.”
I start to walk away, but stop at the double doors. "Heaven?"
"Yes?"
"About magic…It's possible to use it in the simulator, right?"
“Technically yes. But the simulator has its own magic presets,” Heaven says. "The magic is a bit less potent, but more efficient for using for long durations.”
“Does it still use the mudras?”
Heaven’s eyebrows contort close at the question. “The simulator presets? No. Why?”
Hmph. Vampire's got a lot of nerve then. How dare she get on my case when she's hacking the game with magic? If she says anything else, I've got a surprise for her. “No reason. Just curious.”
Secret Room 4-6 (Heaven) 'Ah'
“Moalu, I’d really recommend an in-person examination.” Doused in your Gene Watches blue holographic light, your younger sister, Shalar rises from her knees, folds a gold-edged prayer rug in half, and tucks it away into a drawer. “But if she’s not physically ill or been chi-blocked by something, it might not even be chi related, she might just not be compatible the elements.”
You comb your hands through your hair, casting an idle glance toward your phone as Shalar speaks. It hasn’t rung since you last called Bastet, nor has the Egyptian goddess picked up her phone since going after Mura and Masah. Realizing that Shalar isn’t talking anymore, you sit up straight in your seat and ask, “What do you mean?”
“Remember when Cousin Zivu couldn’t use any magic and nobody knew what was wrong?” Shalar plops down onto her bed.
Your cheeks heat a little. You don’t. The party at Dragon Palace was the first time you’ve seen all of your extended family in years, and you might as well have been there as a stranger, or a completely different kitsune race altogether. But you’d rather pull out your own tails than admit that. The last thing you want to hear from Shalar, or any Pua Moana for that matter, is how shameful it is for you to be out of touch with your own family. “Yeah, what about it? I don’t remember what the guru said.”
Shalar sits in a lotus position. “It wasn’t that Zivu couldn’t use the elements at all, just not in a traditional way. The guru said that Zivu would be better off for Vinussashi Fawhelu.”
You haven’t heard the phrase Vinussashi Fawhelu in a long time. It literally means, wayfinding: helping lost and traumatized spirits transition safely from the material world. You bring a finger to your chin.
You’ve only know magic-users to fall into a few basic categories: Yin style, Yang style, the occasional hybrid, but then there’s the strange fourth category: the natural wayfinders, still capable of elemental magic, but in a more unorthodox way. Could Jun be a wayfinder?
That would explain the way her magic started and stopped. But to teach wayfinding? Yes, you know how, but holding on to a dead spirit long enough to get it to Jun is another problem altogether. A spirit tethered to this realm is unstable enough, capturing only agitates its misery. Not to mention that wayfinding isn’t pleasant, even for the experienced. “Is there anyway I can check to see if she’s capable?” You ask.
Shalar tilts her head. “Well how did you find out you were a wayfinder?”
You roll your eyes. “Mele, I’m a Tao Master. That’s practically wayfinding already. And spirits came to me when I first found out. Jun doesn’t have that problem.”
Shalar’s cheeks fill with air. She shrugs and looks at you. “I don’t know what else to tell you to try then. At least with wayfinding you know right away if there’s another problem.” Even from the veil of the hologram’s light, Shalar’s blue eyes seem as deep as the ocean themselves and you are reminded bitterly that you still have not found the Azure Dragon or the White Tiger. But with the twins missing and Amaterasu unstable in the ICU, you not even sure if Bastet was right to choose you for this. Your sister’s head tips. “Moalu, what is wrong?”
Reluctance fills your throat like a thick sour gob. More than anything, you wish you could confide in family, but what would Shalar know of gods and your mission? What would she know of the dragons and war? All Shalar has ever known is the cushy job she has with the Blackfoot Tribe in the Sister World. “Just waiting for a phone call, mele,” You say. “Nothing more.” Before she can get ask another question, you say, “I need to get some work done.”
“Alright, if you want to talk, I’ll be here,” Shalar offers with a smile.
You give a noncommittal grunt and hang up your Gene Watch, more irritated than when you began the call. A thread of guilt needles into your heart. Shalar didn’t deserve that, but you can’t help it when you’re this worked up. Feelings you thought were locked away are spilling out of control.
The sun is just a sliver on the horizon beyond your window now, clinging to the last minutes of day the way your own breath seems to cling in your throat, refusing to leave as if Mura and Masah would be gone forever if you ever let it out.
It’s all my fault. You can’t pinpoint what exactly caused this mess, but you’re sure that it has something to do with you. Your fault for creating them the way that you did. Your fault for experimenting with the Akuma cell without knowing the full consequences. Your faul
t for not believing Flame. Your fault for ignoring what the Vermilion Bird is inside. Your fault for trying to treat them as normal children instead of fearing them as gods. Your fault for daring to try to be a mother to them instead of treating them as the tools Bastet intended.
From the edge of the bed, Taro watches you while his tongue flicks toward his untouched rawhide bone. The black dragon hasn’t touched his gift since you came home and hasn’t showed any interest in it since you called your sister. “Taro what’s wrong? Any other time, that bone would be gone already.”
Taro only tips his head much in the way that Shalar had moments before. You can only assume that he didn’t miss your brusque hang up.
“Don’t look at me like that, Taro. You know what could happen with the twins on the loose,” You say.
He blinks a liquid-wet crimson eye at you and shifts his head so that he isn’t looking at you anymore. But he leaves the bone where it is.
With a pursed mouth, you look at your planner. You’ve still got a meeting with Genji to contend with tomorrow morning in Taitai prefecture, but honestly you don’t have the stomach even thinking about that. Your gaze trails to your phone. Now that you think about it, you haven’t checked out the passwords that Jun gave you. I should try and see if there’s anything on that phone.
You pull out your desk drawer and grab Megumi’s phone, then you reach for your own. Your hand trembles as you scroll through your texts with Jun. And you can’t help but think of that Bo’s Reservation application that she found. Is that where they’re hiding? Would Bo even admit the chicks? He only seems to ever let in kitsune and you didn’t give either chick any kitsune DNA. But you’re not completely certain that’s definitive, after all, Flame’s true form is the Black Tortoise, yet he can shift into a fox anytime.
You power on Megumi’s phone and at once you’re prompted with a password. You type in the first.
Password Incorrect. Please Try Again.
You skip down to the next.
Password Incorrect. Please Try Again.
Vicissitude Yang Side Page 33