I scraped the rest of my beans in rice off my paper plate with my fork and ate it. This one had some greeneries I had walked out of the city to harvest, I was getting sick and tired of eating it plain. The concrete curb made a nice bench to sit on and enjoy the sun, rolling up the paper plate I rested my forearms on my knees and turned to the mountain. I saw a map last night, there were two continents and I didn't recognize either. I should have been freaking out but the majority of me, the Suneya part of me, shrugged it off. I knew deep down I could take care of myself.
A car pulled up and parked, Anne stepped out. She headed in my directions and I saw she was carrying a folder. I nodded when she got close, “Here for more practice?”
She shook her head, “got your papers here.”
I stood up and took them as she handed the folder to me. Inside was a whole lot of nothing to me, being unable to read, “Thank you. Jacob will probably want to see these. Might be able to hop on payroll.”
I headed inside and Anne followed me. Jacob saw us from where he was moving equipment and I waved the folder at him. He grinned and we followed him to the back office. He took the folder when I handed it to him and started doing some paperwork. He was half way through it when he opened his desk and pulled out an envelope he extended to me, “This is your pay so far. I tallied it every night and put the bills in there. Now that you're on payroll I can't do that anymore.”
I nodded and opened it up. There were a few bills that had unrecognizable faces but the numbers were familiar. I turned to Anne, “How much do I own you?”
She shook her head, “You don't owe me anything.”
Jacobs' head snapped up from where he was diving back into paperwork, “Why would you owe her anything?”
“I bought her some food a few days ago.” Anne told him.
He facepalmed then drug his hand down his face before turning to me, “You didn’t have any food?” When I shook my head he continued, “Why didn't you tell us? We could have gotten you something. Hell I could have paid you for that first night.”
“I was fine with waiting. There are Chi techniques the help with that.” That reminded me of something, “How is your father doing?”
He let out a sigh and leaned back, "He's doing really well. The first day after he was kind of slow but today her was wandering around the house like his joints didn't bug him. He's headed back to his place tomorrow though.”
Anne shifted a bit and looked curious so I nodded at her, “I unlocked his Chi.”
She chewed on her lip and crossed her arms at that, “I didn't think that stuff existed.”
“Oh yea it's real. If you look at some places in history its obvious. Anyway, Suneya, you need to open a bank account. We use direct deposit here.” Jacob added.
I waved the envelope, “I am going to go out and buy the essentials. You and Victor will have to hold down the fort while I am gone.”
He waved at me as he continued with the paperwork. I grabbed my paperwork, he was done with it, and turned to leave, Anne following me. Stepping out into the sunlight I looked around at the city. Anne stopped beside me, “You have no idea where to go do you?”
“Nope, but I have been asking for directions and that has worked out well so far.”
She chuckled, “Got a lot of weird looks doing it huh?” when I nodded she continued, "There's signs on pretty much every street with directions and things. I am off today, I can spend the day driving you around.”
I thanked her and we got into her car. The first stop was a department store for clothing. Jacob had paid me quite a bit so I grabbed the things I would need, like clothing and books to help me learn to read. Children's books and a dictionary, things like that. Anne took me to the same bank she used and helped me set things up, the Dojo would be my home address until I got my own place. “So what do you do when you're not at the library or the dojo?”
“I am in college. I got into fine arts and math. I enjoy the arts more than math though.” She replied.
“You live in the dorms or something like that?”
“No, I saved up going through high school and bought a little place just off campus. It's really small, but I like it.” She answered.
I nodded, "That's good.” I looked down at the books in my lap, “Learning to read is going to occupy my time going forward.”
She dropped me off at the dojo and I carried my things past the training room and to the futon. Turning back I stepped out and scanned the room for the first person that looked like they were screwing up. It didn't take me long until I saw someone who was going to screw up their l correct them so I hurried over. That's how I spent the rest of my day, helping people learn to fight. When night rolled around and we were cleaning up after training I turned to Jacob, “I think I am going to go out and see the city tonight.”
He bit his lip then nodded, “Be careful. This city is different during the night.”
I shrugged, “I will take my pipe with me then.”
He nodded his head, "that would work as a club, it might help.”
“It's my least lethal option.” I added.
We finished cleaning up and wiping down the mats. I headed to the back and Victor stopped me, “The door back here locks well enough but if you wiggle it like this the latch pops and you can get in. Otherwise Jacob and I are going to lock up the rest of the dojo.”
I nodded at that. That was good to know, I wouldn't be locked out the rest of the night. I grabbed my kiseru and stepped outside. The lights of the city were starting to change from a yellow to a rich blue. The people wandering around were different too, in the day it was people going to work at night they looked to be college are people going bar hopping. I started wandering the city, the library was closed but the bars I could see were open. At least I think they were bars, they could be clubs with the people lined up outside of them.
I was walking past one long line and as I passed by the front the bouncer, a tall man very well built, pointed inside in question. I shook my head negative and kept walking by. Maybe some other time, I was more wandering to understand the city layout than trying to find some place to party. The clubs were in the inner city but the farther out I wandered from it the more the clubs turned into bars. I walked past one chewing on the mouth piece of my pipe. There were a few people hanging out front, I got some waves from the people, I nodded back. They wore leather and looked to be enjoying the night air.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
The building was made of brick and as I glanced inside it looked to be connected to a bowling alley. It was a long building and there seemed to be quite a few people on the inside. The alleys were dark around the building and at a glance I could see a couple making out in the back. They looked to be enjoying themselves so I kept walking. I was almost all the way past the alley when the Suneya side of myself told me to pay attention. It was alarming, I automatically spun up a chi technique and my senses heightened. I could see random particles in the air and feel the gentle current of silent wind across my skin. I could feel the texture of the metal mouth piece I had between my teeth. I could smell the unwashed bodies and the chemicals being used across the city.
My senses were so heightened but the thing that caught my attention was the stuttering of a heart that was struggling to pump blood and the smell of death and subtle rot. The kiseru was out of my mouth and flying down the alley with a chi enhanced throw. The kiseru was charged with chi so when it hit there was a loud WACK of steel on bone and a flash of golden chi. I twisted on my feet and leapt towards the now falling body, catching my pipe on its rebound, one of the very few ranged abilities my class let me have. I caught the falling person and had to shift my weight to keep them from dragging me down. My hand slapped over the gash in their neck and a flex of chi knitted it back together. Another technique my class had but it healed on percentages so it was a fixed amount per use.
Pulling my hand back I saw a little bit of blood on it from where I had covered the wound. A flex of chi through my palm changed the blood into life energy and it floated off my hand in little lights, the plants in the area would get a little boost. I was brushing the ash off the person when I heard some commotion behind me, I turned and saw it was the people from the front of the bar. They slowed as they approached and I lifted the person I had saved up off the ground, “Undead.”
What looked like the leader of the group asked, “Was it a vampire? We saw you jump into the alley and there was a flash of light.”
I gave a shrug and pushed the person I had saved into his arms. They were a little pale but would be fine after a few days' rest, “I don't know what it was but it was eating this person.”
The guy frowned and took the person from me, “It was probably a vampire then. They are almost as bad as werewolves.”
I shook my head, this world was weird. It sounded like a melting pot. Vampires, werewolves, and people with powers all on one planet, “I am going to see if there are more around.”
I crouched down, reinforcing my body with chi and leapt at one of the taller buildings. I heard someone yell behind me but I was already on the scent of another one. It was easy following the rot. The scent led me far but with how heightened my senses were it was easy to follow it. Someone was fighting this one. I saw a cape flowing around as they stabbed at the undead with what looked like single sided blades. I landed on top of the building they were fighting on and the undead gave me a glance before returning to the fight. The person they were fighting punished them for that glance, they slid around to the side and landed a slash across the leg of the undead. It was downhill for the undead from there. The hampered movement turned a pretty even fight into death by a thousand cuts. The person in the cape got a slash in on the undead's arm causing the arm to flop, opening its whole side to a rolling stab across the undead's chest. When I hit the undead in the alley it poofed into ash, this one looked like it started burning from the inside out. It let out a high pitch scream as it burned that cut off as it fell to ash.
The person in the cape stepped back and turned to me. I got a good look at them and asked, “Is that power armor?”
They didn't answer me but they rolled their shoulders causing the cape to cover most of their body. I knew what I saw though, the chest was interlocking plates surrounded by what looked like a body glove that reached up just below their jaw. The helmet had what looked like big eyes and the top of it extended out into thick horns. The only skin I could see was their jaw and lips, “You are not from here.”
I bit down on the mouth piece of my pipe and shook my head, “Nope. ran into another one of those things a few minutes ago.”
She shook her head, “Vampires. The city bounty hunters are going to have their work cut out for them.”
She started walking over to the edge of the building and I watched her, “So it was a vampire? They just come off to me as undead.”
“Its a magical disease. It only affects corpses, you ran into one earlier? Was it feeding?” she asked from the edge of the building.
I nodded, “it poofed a whole lot easier than the one you were fighting. The person it was feeding on survived though.”
“They get stronger as they age.” She jumped off the side of the building and I just sighed. I walked over to the edge and looked down the side of the building, when I didn't see any sign of her I turned and headed back to the dojo. That was confirmation enough for me, this was a world of super heroes. I packed my kiseru and took a pull. It had a weird berry flavor this time. I looked up at the sky and the unfamiliar stars. I hoped this was one of the lower power leveled ones. I didn't want to have to face cosmic level threats.
I dropped down onto the roof of the dojo and sat on the side for a time watching the city. If there were vampires and werewolves then there had to be wizards or mages running around somewhere. I chewed on the mouthpiece of my pipe for a bit and when it stopped tasting like berries I slapped the ash out of it and dropped from the roof to the back of the dojo. A little wiggle of the door and I was inside. My coiling dragon staff snapped into my hand from where it lay and I walked into the center of the dojo and started doing slow forms. I immersed myself in the movements using them as meditation, eventually Jacob walked in, “Holy shit.”
I stopped and looked down at the floor, I was standing in a puddle of sweat. A flex of chi cleaned me off and I went to grab a mop. I cleaned up and helped Jacob set out the gym mats. Anthony arrived and I had to ask, “Did you guys know you got someone running around at night in a cowl and cape in this city?”
“That's Owl. local crime fighters, runs around at night and gets into fights. You ran into them?,” Anthony said.
“Ran into vampires.”
Jacob let out a hiss between his teeth, “How many?”
“Just two. I killed one then tracked the next one where I ran into Owl.” I answered him.
“That doesn't sound too bad then. Probably scavengers coming from some other city looking for easy prey.”
I shrugged at that and we finished setting out mats before meeting in the back office. I set my coiling dragon staff near my stuff. Jacob shifted some paperwork then glanced at me, “When people start unlocking chi in our advanced class are you willing to teach them about it?”
I leaned back and stroked my chin as I thought about that. I felt the chi inside of me, to me it wasn't regular chi. My mind told me to call it refined chi, your chi pool naturally expanded like a muscle and eventually you needed to grind the motes together. It made each chi mote hit that much harder. My refined chi pool felt like an ocean, I wonder how long it would take someone to get on my level, “I don't mind. I could probably teach them some techniques.”
He nodded and made some notes, “it's Friday and we have a new class starting Monday. Be ready for excited teenagers, ready to try and just as ready to give up.”
Anthony chuckled and I nodded. Jacob flipped around some papers and pulled out a calendar, “We will set the chi classes to happen on Sunday night. Sunday night is normally free because it's before Monday. Tomorrow we have a tournament on the other side of the city at noon.” He glanced at me, “Do you want to stay here and mind the dojo or go see what that's all about?”
“That sounds interesting. I would like to check it out.”
He nodded and turned to Anthony, “You mind staying here so she can go?”
Anthony shook his head, “I don't mind. It's not like our dojo is that interesting.”
I glanced between them, “What are you two talking about? Why does someone staying here matter?”
Anthony gave me a look but Jacob answered, “Dojo challenges. It's an old fashioned thing. Bring your best student to the enemy dojo and beat their best student. These days it's just a reputation thing.”
I hope it was just a reputation thing.