Two Hundred And Fifty-Six
“Damn, that hurt.” Trey said, swinging his shoulder, working the aching pathways within. He was slicked with sweat, but even so, like his sister and the soldiers from the Special Forces I had also done, they endured it all in one session without much complaint. Even though it hurts far more now… whereas before I could manage six or seven complete sets of Chirurgery in one go, now I had Ranked up twice, desperately trying to save Shiro, the efficiency and aether usage of the skill was much improved. In addition, using my new Split Thoughts skill, I could also work on multiple areas at once much easier, which led to being able to manage Chirurgery on twenty of the Special Forces, as well as Trey, Aliyah and their two guys. Still got a bit of energy left as well.
Once I had finished with Aliyah, I was going to start on her brother, but then the Lieutenant had returned with so of the Special Forces, and they had taken priority, as per my agreent. As expected most of them were n, but there were two won, and it had been a little uncomfortable working Chirurgery on them, as I had of course glimpsed them through the black tank-tops and combat trousers they were wearing with my Eye. Still, they didn’t seem too embarrassed, I guess elite soldiers really are different. After they were done, I had finished up with Trey and his two, and that led to this.
“Quit whining, Trey.” Aliyah said in satisfaction. “It doesn’t hurt that much.”
“Oh, and who was sweating and moaning under this guy’s touch?” he shot back. The two behind him, both still rather pale and uncomfortable, seed amused by the joke, not hiding their grins, only to further whiten as Aliyah shot them a glare.
“I hate the way you phrased that, you did it on purpose, didn’t you?” She snapped, before shaking her head, beads jingling. “Oh forget it. Fuck, it did hurt, but not as much as when you beat the fuck out of .” She glared at then, and I had to stop myself from apologising. No, I‘ve done nothing wrong either ti.
“Like I told the soldiers, the work is done, but you’ll suffer quite a lot of discomfort, until you flush the debris from your chakra networks, and it grows accustod to taking in significantly more ether. Once aether has pooled in all your chakra, well… then the fun really begins.” I declared, and Trey snorted.
“Sure thing. I don’t really get it, but from what that Lieutenant was saying…” he frowned montarily, perhaps not appreciating working with soone from a foreign military. “… even a weak schoolgirl can change into an axe-swinging maniac with enough training in this, right?”
“I don’t think Eri would appreciate being called a maniac.” I complained. “And there’s more to it than that. Don’t expect her level of success. But even so, you should definitely notice a difference in reaction speed, strength, stamina and thought processing. And that should help you train your bodies further too. Put in the work, and it’ll pay dividends.”
Aliyah nodded. While the soldiers were under the taphorical knife, she had found so dumbbells and was doing reps, marvelling at how much extra weight she could do before straining her muscles. She’d also ran a bleep test, and compared herself to several of her known benchmarks, crushing them all easily. “Shit Trey, he’s not kidding. I’d be winning Olympic dals in weightlifting if I could compete right now. I know what that dumbass from Scandinavia who said he was the second coming of Thor or whatever, ant now.”
That piqued my interest. “Uh, Thor? Huh?”
“Well…” Trey allowed. “… it’s mission info, so we can’t really talk about it, but…” he exchanged a look with his sister, who sighed.
“Well, does it matter, Trey? Old news, and a lot of it was public domain.”
He nodded. “Right. There was a professional weightlifter, who shattered the World Records in multiple events. Not just by a little, but by an absurd amount. Obviously the records were pending drug tests and so on, as nobody would believe such feats were possible, right?” he laughed bitterly, arms and legs still trembling a little from the mory of the painful Chirurgery. “Still, it seems clear to that it wasn’t bullshit after all.”
“So what happened to him?” I asked, intrigued. Thor, huh? That’s Norse Pantheon, one of the big gods everyone knows about, especially with those super-hero films that have been popular the last decade. I imagine we’d be natural allies considering that…
“Stupid bastard was even more of a loose-lipped prick than you.” Aliyah scoffed. “I thought you didn’t know how to keep a low profile, but to openly declare you were rocking supernatural powers in the National press, after effectively proving it… fucking stupid. In fact, it seems none of you bastards know how to keep a tight ship.”
“That’s unfair, sis.” Trey interjected, and for a mont I felt a little grateful, until I realised he wasn’t defending . “Obviously we don’t know about the ones keeping a low profile, do we? There must be so, I’m sure. Anyway…” he continued. “Egil Andersen was his na. He ca up on our target list, but instead we chose Vegas.”
“Should have fucking went for Russia.” Aliyah chuckled bitterly. “I would rather have taken my chances with the Spetsnaz…”
“Oh co on, that’s a load of shit, sis, and you know it.” Trey sighed. “I’d rather be alive and working, even if it’s not exactly on our own terms, than buried in a cold, unmarked grave in Siberia, like the Bad Moon Brotherhood.”
“Wait, there’s a Candidate in Russia too?” I asked, and he shook his head, denying that.
“No, this was a more normal mission. There’s a genius researcher in AI and robotics there. Obviously the US and her allies feel that their political enemies having access to a prodigious genius in such a critical field is unsafe, so there’ve been attempts to … repatriate her… forcefully. All failed, of course. Back on topic. Egil Andersen disappeared, and he’s likely dead, from what I hear. Stupid bastard.”
“I see. Damn.” The number of Candidates are dwindling. That’s… not necessarily a bad thing, for personally, but for the world… shit, it’s more important than ever we pull together, and if we can’t, saving the divine favours and finding new, useful hosts for them… Damn, Thor, I bet that would have been aweso… Still, since he was a sportsman, my thoughts naturally strayed to my sister. “My sis was looking forward to the last Tournant of her school life, before her entrance exams in January. But… she decided not to compete.” She had ntioned it to before the ss with Shiro, but I had not had ti to process it due to the hectic pace of recent events. “It’s a sha, as she wanted to win one tournant if she could, but… she said it wasn’t fair to other competitors, since she’s stronger and was able to compete with Shaeula’s brother now, even if she got her ass kicked. I’m… I’m not sure.”
“Not sure how?” Aliyah asked, rembering my sister, who she had found very attractive.
“Well, it’s still Aiko’s ability. Sure, I helped with the Chirurgery, but it’s her efforts and training that make it work. But if that’s what she’s decided, who am I to stop her? I just really wanted her to win one, as her brother, you know?”
“Shit, you really do love your sister too much. Trey, don’t ever get so creepy on , okay?” Aliyah shuddered, and as I went to protest, I caught a mocking grin on her face. Realising she was teasing , I shut my mouth.
“Sisters are a pain, I get you, man.” Trey commiserated, slapping on the shoulder heartily. “But… I think I get it. A lot of the Japanese sports are more about beating yourself or so ditative shit like that, right?”
I wanted to protest that was a Western stereotype of Japan, but… Kyudo was a lot like that. Seeing my expression, he continued. “Well, sure. But even so, it’s not a type of hard work just anyone can do, is it? Shit, sport is going to be thrown into chaos by this. If a little kid can outperform a big guy with the proper enhancents, can you imagine the sight of that on the football field? Shit…”
“Who gives a fuck about that?” Aliyah complained. “I’m more worried about the battlefield. Still, I don’t think it’s a gachanger. Yet.” she looked at . “Level with . If I’m working for you, you have a duty to look out for my wellbeing. Just how far do you think this’ll go? Will every soldier end up shrugging off bullets and moving like a damn race-car like you did in the end?”
“Honestly… I don’t know.” I admitted. “I can speculate… but I think without being able to gain levels, even with better networks, the end result is going to be modest. But if there is a way that levels can be gained too… Maybe not everyone, but elite units like Special Forces, Rangers, Fighter Pilots… maybe.” I just hope that there are other ways to gain levels than simply defeating enemies. Else… the dwellers in the Boundary might end up being hunted recklessly to extinction. Shit, I know I’ve been doing that too, but I do offer alliance to those who might be friendly. It’s a bit hypocritical, but I don’t want a free-for-all massacre. If the Seelie Court was to be attacked by an army of power-hungry humans… and then, what’s worse is…
Swallowing down a sense of dread, I pondered as the two of them bickered, Manx and Travis occasionally joining in. I didn’t level up when I killed those two agents, but I was pretty high-level then, right? What if… what if people could grow stronger, by killing other people? Ordinary people…
********
After I perford the first Chirurgery on the Special Forces, I arranged to do another batch tomorrow. I would try to get as many done before I headed for Kyoto as possible, but it seed I would be ahead of schedule, even with the delays and without Shaeula’s support, thanks to my newly improved skills. I then t my new tutor on Chinese and Classical Chinese. He was a thin, fussy-looking man in his late fifties, and he seed to be of mixed descent, his Japanese flawless, but slightly accented.
Karen-chan had done good work finding him for , as apparently he was a very serious individual, not moved by money, but purely by research, so she had obviously lured him with talk of the inscriptions I wanted translating. It was a sha I couldn’t take photographs in the Boundary, but with my mory I had replicated the designs by hand. Anyway, he was demanding and haughty, and didn’t suffer fools, so having low expectations of , he was shocked when I absorbed his knowledge like a sponge, and within a few hours, it was as if I had been learning Chinese for a month or more. This is the best part of having high ntal stats. And Split Thoughts too… I was using my Split Thoughts to run Body Enhancent, further pushing my ntal stats, though it caused a lot of pain and damage, and also Ether Healing to repair that damage. Not only does the higher stats help learn faster, but I’m going to push Ether Healing to the next Rank, even if it kills . Shiro… just wait, I’ll heal you!
In exchange for his efforts, I had replicated a few of the characters on the seal for him, careful to obscure them a little in places. Even so, his eyes had lit up as he read them, and he had declared it so of the best examples of Kunlun dialect he had seen. On my questioning, it turned out Kunlun was supposedly a powerful and secretive province of China, that had mysteriously collapsed fifteen-hundred years ago. The timing was suspicious, to say the least, as that seed to be around when the Fae had their troubles, and the Shrines and Temples too. He had ward to at my outrageous learning speed, which I bluffed was due to a photographic mory, which certainly wasn’t entirely untrue, and I even received an offer to join his research team!
As we made an appointnt for my next lesson, I lanted that Karen-chan still hadn’t found a suitable scholar for the Ancient Japanese as well. But there was still ti. With that done, I paid a visit to Shiro once more, called Eri up for a chat, and then started preparing for my eting with Natsumi’s parents.
An hour later, I was outside a rather impressive-looking mansion and shop combination in Asakusa. I had put on one of my decent suits, paired with a grey shirt matching my eyes, as well as a tasteful yet expensive watch and matching male jewellery. I had sent pictures to Eri, Shiro, Hinata and Motoko, and they had all agreed I looked rather dashing, but even so, I was still nervous. Well, I’ve t everyone’s parents but Natsumi’s. Well, technically I haven’t t Shaeula’s yet, or Motoko’s mother, but… It was amazing to how I could be nervous eting a girl’s parents like this, more so than fighting dreadful foes like the Barghest or Duke Myrcolaxriath.
I guess I know where my priorities lie. Taking a deep breath, I strode up to the door and entered. I was imdiately greeted by an elegantly dressed shop assistant, wearing traditional clothing.
“Good evening, we are closing soon, so… oh, are you here to see the owners?” she asked, seeing the way I was dressed, and obviously having been inford of my visit. She smiled gently at , and at my nod, bowed deeply, almost horizontal, before she departed. A minute or so later, I was greeted by quite a sight, one that made my gasp. Natsumi was there, wearing a long-sleeved furisode-style kimono in a beautiful pink colour, with delicate flowers in white and lighter pink embroidered on it. Flanking her on one side was a woman who looked rather similar to her, also wearing a kimono, though it was sowhat less fancy, and on the other side was a man in his forties, wearing a plain yet clearly well-made yukata over so hakama.
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