by Jakob Tanner
Passive Skills:
Kokoro (Warrior Spirit)
What the heck does all this mean?
He reached out his hand to touch the words in front of him, but found that his hand and arm went past the words, not even touching them.
What’s happening to me, he wondered.
Then like a lightning bolt, he suddenly recalled Mr. Grimes tossing him into the tower-zone, the fight with the minotaur, the climber lady, and then...then what happened?
He couldn’t remember.
Was that lady okay? Someone needed to help her.
He jerked his hands, taking in the medical wires attached to him. He swung his legs so he that he was now sitting on the hospital bed rather than lying on it.
He paused.
He just swung his legs.
He thought for a moment and then tried to wiggle his toe.
His toes wiggled.
He suddenly felt nauseous.
Am I dreaming?
Since the car accident that had changed his life forever, he had yearned to be able to walk, run, and jump like everyone else. To wiggle his toes. He almost felt sick with happiness. Then fear that this happiness was fleeting because it was a just a dream, a cruel joke to wake up to.
“You’re awake!”
A woman stood at the door, smiling at him.
It was the climber lady from the fight with the minotaur. So last night hadn’t been a dream! Or was this just the most super involved dream he’d ever had?
“I’m sure you have a lot of questions,” she said, walking in and sitting down at a chair beside his bed.
“Where am I?” Max asked. “What happened? I thought you may have died.”
The woman laughed. “It would take a lot more than that to kill me. Well. The minotaur did give me a run for my money, but I’d underestimated the threat level, which was a grave error I won’t be making again.”
Max stared at the woman.
“I guess my wounded pride wasn’t the topic at hand, was it?” she smiled. “Let me answer your questions. You’re currently in a hospital in the tower-zone. As to what happened, you were attacked by a ruby-ranked monster, and if it weren’t for your courage and willingness to fight against the odds, both of us wouldn’t be sitting here having this conversation.”
A pain throbbed in Max’s head.
Tower-zone.
Monster.
Ruby-ranked.
He didn’t even know where to begin, how to even piece all these things together.
On top of all of this, his damn profile listing his stats wouldn’t go away, affecting his vision.
“Hold on,” he said. “Can we backtrack a moment? I can see—my stats? Almost like a video game. How do I make them go away?”
Sakura giggled. “That would be your profile. Every climber has one. Just like every climber has a trait. As you can probably see, yours is pretty special.”
He looked at his profile once more and read over his trait.
Trait (Unique): Mimic. Unleash the last move you were hit with at double the power.
Parts of the battle with the minotaur were coming back to him now. His arm glowing yellow and dealing a devastating punch to the monster.
“My arm—it glowed during the fight,” said Max, looking at his fist.
“As did the minotaur’s arm, remember?” said Sakura. “Your trait is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. When you were hit by that blow from the minotaur, your body retained the mana from the attack and was able to manipulate that with your own mana to deal a devastating blow.”
Max lifted up his hands and stared at them. These had been the hands he had his entire life and yet he felt like he was looking at the hands of a stranger.
“Did I really do all that?” he asked, looking at Sakura. “I don’t know if I could do it again.”
“You probably can’t,” said the woman. “You’d probably heal somebody though as the last move you were hit with was a heal spell. Starting to get it?”
“Sort of,” he said. “But back to the original question. How do I get rid of this screen in my vision? It’s driving me crazy.”
“Just think in your mind, close profile, or something remotely like that and it should go away,” Sakura explained. “Give it a try and let me know what happens.”
Max took a deep breath and thought to himself.
Close profile.
The profile disappeared from his vision.
“All better?” asked Sakura.
“Yes, thank you,” said Max.
“Good,” she said. “If you want to see it again. Just like with closing it, think to yourself: open profile.”
Max scratched his head. Questions kept piling up in his head, one then the other, and by the time he got answers from Sakura he felt like he had even more. Sometimes the answers ran so far ahead of his questions, he realized there were more basic things he had to ask.
“Okay, my mind is clearing up a bit now that the damn screen isn’t floating in my vision like a fly any more,” said Max. “That’s cool that I have this profile and all, but how did I get this? You said every climber has one—am I a climber now? And—the biggest question of all—how come I can use my legs again?”
Sakura nodded her head.
“All very reasonable questions,” she replied. “After the battle, the healers were able to cure you of your wounds, mending your legs back into shape. When they were healing you, they discovered an invisible inscription on your back—in outer-rim terms, a curse—and when they removed it, it returned the feeling to your legs.”
“But shouldn’t I need physiotherapy or something? People don’t just go from unable to walk to suddenly swinging their legs off hospital beds.”
“Normally, in the case of someone having a fractured neurological link in their spinal cord, that would indeed be the case. Except that wasn’t the case with you. You had a cursed inscription on you. Once removed—normal neurological activity simply resumed as normal.”
“If it’s so powerful, how were they able to remove it?”
“You can thank yourself for that. It was your kokoro passive skill that ultimately broke a piece of your inscription, letting you access your trait.”
Max sighed. He was overwhelmed by all of this. At first, he could make sense of it, but then new questions kept popping up.
“But I thought—” He couldn’t piece the words together. “I thought I was injured in a car crash—”
In fact, he knew he was. He remembered the flames of the wreckage. Blood dripping down his parents’ heads.
Sakura paused, thinking for a moment.
“I don’t have the answer to that question,” she said. “I truly don’t. Your case history doesn’t line up with the fact that you have a trait or a profile or any of this. All I can say is the more time you spend in the tower and the tower-zone, the more mysterious unexplainable things happen. Maybe someone knows what they all mean. The tower gods perhaps, but I certainly do not.”
Max looked Sakura right in the eye and the woman looked away. He believed she was telling the truth about not knowing why all of this was happening to him, but he got the feeling she was still holding important information from him.
She suddenly clapped her hands.
“Now Max,” she said. “I know you probably have more questions for me and you can ask me more in a bit, but it’s important that I ask you a few questions now.”
Max nodded.
“Somehow, you’ve ended up in the tower-zone. More than that, you have the potential to make an excellent climber one day. Would you like to be a citizen of the tower-zone? Would you like to become a climber?”
Max’s heart raced.
The chance to become a climber.
Never in a million years did he think such a possibility would ever be offered to him. He had long ago accepted that only the life of a scholar or archaeologist might get him close enough to the tower so that he could enter and search for his sister one day.
His sister. Elle. He might actually be able to uphold his promise to her now. Be able to ascend the tower and find her.
His answer was obvious. It was definitely a yes.
But then he paused for a moment.
Citizens of the tower-zone weren’t allowed to leave. It was illegal for a tower-zone citizen to enter the outer-rim. The punishment was known to be very severe: jail time or even death.
That was when he remembered: Sarah and Mr. Grimes. He had unfinished business in the outer-rim.
“How long have I been asleep for?” he asked.
Sakura tilted her head, confused by the change in topic. “Since yesterday evening. Why?”
Max stood up off the hospital bed, ripping out the medical wires attached to him.
It had been a full day since Mr. Grimes had thrown him into the tower. Who knew what horrible things he was getting up to now!?
He moved towards the door.
Sakura flashed into a blur and before Max could reach the door, she was standing in front of it with her arms crossed.
“I need to go back to the outer-rim,” said Max. “My friends. The other orphans. They’re in danger. They need my help.”
Sakura shook her head.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t let you do that.”
9
“What do you mean?” said Max. “Didn’t you just give me a choice whether I wanted to be a citizen of the tower-zone?”
Sakura did not budge an inch from the door. There was no way he could get past her without her letting him.
“Even if your answer was to stay as a citizen of the outer-rim,” said Sakura firmly, “There’s still legal procedures you would have to go through before you’d be allowed to leave the tower-zone.”
Max took a deep breath.
This wasn’t a battle, he thought. It was a negotiation.
“The man who threw me into the tower-zone is currently going about his life without consequences. If he thinks he can get away with throwing a kid over a wall, full of monsters on the other side, he might start doing worse things. In fact, I know he will.”
“We can notify the outer-rim police,” said Sakura. “There are channels set up between Zestiris’ two zones for situations like this one.”
“They won’t do anything!” shouted Max. “No one ever does anything. This man. You don’t know him like I do. He’ll blackmail the orphans to speak positively on his behalf. He’ll do whatever it takes. He’ll get away with what he did to me and—”
Max thought back to that night—only yesterday evening—when the orphan manager drunkenly pawed his hands on Sarah’s door.
“He’ll do much worse,” he sighed.
Sakura was frowning at him.
Maybe he was getting to her.
“You said we would’ve both been dead if it weren’t for me,” he said. “Doesn’t that mean you owe me a favor? Is there no way I could leave the tower-zone for an hour or two? That’s all I need. Please.”
Sakura scratched the back of her head.
“Aw, geez,” she said. “Okay, I think there’s something we can do. I’ll have to blindfold you as this passage is top secret and you’ll have ninety minutes tops. By that point, people will start asking questions and we’ll both be in big trouble. Any chance of you being a climber will be over if they catch us. So ninety minutes, got it?”
Max nodded his head.
“Thank you, Sakura.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Mr. Grimes sat in his office, smoking a cigar and drinking a glass of whiskey.
He was celebrating.
Celebrating getting rid of that little cockroach, Useless.
That boy had always been a nuisance. Always asking questions all the time, watching the group home manager with his irritating nosiness. Then there was his damn disability that meant regulators showed up to check on the group home’s condition more often.
The stupid brat had always been more trouble than he was worth.
He took a long sip of his drink and contemplated how glad he was to be rid of the boy.
He placed his glass down and pulled his feet off the desk. He opened up his laptop and went to an online electronics store.
Now that Useless and his damn nosiness was gone and less inspectors would be coming by, he could finally proceed with his long-wished for plan.
He scrolled through the different small security cameras available on the electronic store.
He grinned. He’d be able to set these cameras up in the girls’ room and in the showers too.
He couldn’t wait to see the girls.
And then there were the profits to think about too. He could sell the footage on the underground market. Probably make a small fortune. People would pay top dollar for this sort of thing.
Mr. Grimes licked his lips, unable to decide what he was more excited for: the footage or the money.
He already had a few pictures he’d snapped on his own, the old-fashioned way when no one was looking. He opened the folder on his computer where he stored them all. Yet when he clicked on the folder, he found none of the pictures inside. The folder was empty.
What!? Where were they!?
CRASH!
Something in the corner of the room fell to the floor, shattering to pieces.
Mr. Grimes’ head perked up.
“What was that?” he said, looking forward.
He thought he saw something flicker in the shadows in the corner.
He stood up.
“Who’s there?”
A figure was cloaked in darkness. Stepping halfway out of the shadows was a face he recognized.
Red hair. Blue eyes.
“What’s wrong, Mr. Grimes?” said the figure, still partially hidden in the shadows. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost?”
Impossible!
There’s no way he could have survived in the tower-zone.
And he was walking too.
What the heck was going on?
He looked to his whiskey bottle. No, he hadn’t drunk enough to hallucinate.
“You...you...” said Mr. Grimes, his voice quivering. “You should be dead!”
The figure smirked. “Too bad for you, I’m not.”
Mr. Grimes reached for his whiskey bottle and smashed it on his desk.
“Don’t you take another step towards me, you hear?”
“You’re threatening me, Mr. Grimes?” said the figure in the shadows. “Are you sure that’s wise? As you can see, I’m walking, standing up straight. Do you want to see whatever magical abilities I’ve gained since entering the tower-zone?”
Mr. Grimes realized then that he was a dead man walking. He didn’t know how it all worked in the tower-zone, but he knew that there were those beyond the walls with unbridled power. If Useless had somehow gained his ability to walk again, who knew what else he had gained.
Mr. Grimes dropped the bottle, smashing it on the floor, and then fell to his knees, bowing in front of Useless.
Tears streamed down his face.
“Please...” he sobbed. “Don’t kill me...Please!”
The boy stepped out from the shadows. He walked calmly towards him. Tears filled Mr. Grimes’ vision as his whole body trembled with fear.
The boy then placed his foot on Mr. Grimes’ head, pushing it against the floor with his sole.
“Give me one good reason why you don’t deserve to die?”
The man sobbed. Snot leaked out from his hairy nostrils.
“But I’m feeling merciful today,” said the boy. “I won’t kill you on the condition that you promise me that you’ll never lay a hand or do anything harmful to any orphan in this residence again. Do you promise?”
“I promise,” wheezed Mr. Grimes.
The boy pressed his foot on Mr. Grimes’ head harder against the floor. The shards of the broken whiskey glass were cutting into his sweaty cheeks.
The boy pulled out a USB stick from his pocket. “I have a flash drive here you see and it made a repl
ica of your computer desktop with all your files and folders, including the one you didn’t want others to know about. If you break your promise to me, the first thing that will happen is the authorities will receive a copy of this flash drive in the mail. Multiple orphans here have a copy of it. You’ll lose your job and go to jail, you hear?”
The man sobbed on the ground. “I’ve already promised. Please leave me be. This job is all I have.”
“Listen,” said the boy. “I won’t cut you any breaks next time, understand? You won’t just lose your job, you’ll lose your life as well. I get to you before they put you in prison. You won’t be able to escape.”
“I...understand...” sobbed the man on the floor.
The boy then took his foot off the man’s head.
He crouched down and looked the group home manager dead in the eyes.
“Not so useless any more, am I, Mr. Grimes?”
10
Max stepped into the hall, closing the door to Mr. Grimes’ office behind him.
He wanted to do more to the evil man, but he figured that would be enough. Plus, it wasn’t like he actually had a powerful ability to hurt Mr. Grimes with at the moment. Also, he now had Mr. Grimes under control. That was better than a new unknown slimeball who could take over.
He walked away from the office and paused in front of another door.
Sarah’s door.
He didn’t like goodbyes. Not since he was little. Growing up in an orphanage you got used to them though. You made a friend one day, then a nice couple would come in a few days later and adopt your newest friend. The friend would tell you they’d visit or write, but they never stuck to their word. Why would they? Who would want to remember being stuck in a home with a bunch of other desperate kids without parents?
Max gulped. He knocked on Sarah’s door.
She didn’t respond.
Max realized she might think it was Mr. Grimes outside her door.
“Sarah,” he said. “It’s me.”
The door opened, rapidly. Had she been standing behind the door the entire time?
The girl grabbed Max in a tight embrace.
“Max,” she sobbed. “I thought you were dead.”