BA3 - Chapter 37

“But the broadcast!” I protested.

If we didn’t show the people of Kokyu what a villain Dokun was, this could all be for naught. Discovering his plan was important, but if he took control of the city, he could turn the power of Kokyu against Busa-nan.

The door rang out and dented again. There was an Enjiho on the other side that wanted nothing more than to be inside. Fine.

“Open the door on my mark,” I said.

I closed my eyes and released a stream of red munje into my mouth. I inhaled deep through my nose, and set my sights on the metal machina on the other side.

“Now!” I yelled and blew the munje out with a whoosh.

Woong-ji opened the door and my uw munje coated the Enjiho on the other side. It stepped forward, but its second step took a herk-jerk, then it stopped. I forced my way into the Enjiho’s systems and took control, then spun it around.

It was like the vision of a spider, seeing through four different eyes at once. In the forward view, I saw the other Enjiho. “What are you doing?” the operator on the other end of the machina asked me.

I activated my long right arm and punched the other Enjiho in the chest. It skidded backwards through the hall and I pounced with my powerful machina legs. I landed on the Enjiho with a clank and set to work pummeling it into the ground.

When it went still, I opened my eyes and recalled the remaining magic. The tainted gold munje flowed out of the machina and into me. With a glitchy whimper, the first Enjiho collapsed to the floor.

I pushed the stolen munje down my arm and into the control panel. “Now or never Mae. Can you access their vocal systems?”

“Get the visual feed running and I’ll tell you when I’ve got it,” she replied hurriedly.

Well, visual evidence without words was better than nothing. I let my consciousness drift through the network, seeking out the tall towers where we’d implanted the steam hijacking devices.

All six were still integrated into the system, and their munje reserves were full. My heart hammered and I prepared the images I wanted to display. I didn’t know if I was ready to project my thoughts out for the whole of Kokyu to see, but I had to do it, for their sake.

I focused on the images and released the munje at a steady trickle into the projection devices on the sides of the buildings. Dokun strangling Ko-nah and throwing him across the room. Dokun yelling at the man who’d downed the train in Sonma. Then, the new images of the mining operation, the missiles, and the monsters.

“Got audio on a quarter of them. Speak and I will direct your words.” Mae said.

I took a deep breath and played the images on repeat. “Brothers and sisters of Kokyu,” I began in their native tongue. “Dokun Yamamotto is not the man he claims to be. He would offer you peace, but in the shadows, he would steal your liberty. He would offer you protection, but for it, he would take your autonomy. He wants to ban the use of munje—”

“Tungpah!” Mae shouted.

I kept the images playing. “What?”

“I lost it, the whole connection. His AI—Kento I’ve come to learn—has completely locked us out.”

The little implants around the city were nearly out of munje, but I played the image of him tossing Ko-nah over, and over. I clenched my teeth and watched in stunning clarity. Ko-nah’s head snapped against the wall and he dropped to the ground. His chest didn’t move, and his eyes were open wide.

“He took the Nevermore potion,” Mae reminded me as blood pooled around Ko-nah’s head in my mind.

I nodded, feeling the munje in the devices run dry. “I hope that was enough.”

“They must know where we are by now. There’ll be more Enjiho coming,” Woong-ji said. “We did everything we could.”

“Down there,” a voice said from far off in the station. It must’ve been the guard. He hadn’t mustered the courage to come fight us himself but would point destruction our way.

“Dispatch,” I said.

I pulled the wire from my chest and stashed Mae’s second device in the inner lining of my robe. Woong-ji performed a quick reflection spell to hide us and we charged down the hall. An army of metal boots marched toward us from around the corner and we pressed ourselves against the wall. The Dispatch room was near.

Six Enjiho jogged around the corner and charged toward Operations. We slipped into the Dispatch room where at least thirty offline Enjiho were lined up in five rows. They were hooked into the ceiling by long cables that ran to a fuel station.

I moved toward the first six Enjiho in the row and released bits of ma munje into them. Four were so low power they couldn’t be activated, but two were fueled up and ready to be used. I released the uw into their systems, instantly converting that munje for my use.

I channeled my movements through the machina and reached overhead. Both Enjiho responded, grabbing hold of the wires linking them to the building. I ripped them free, then dropped one Enjiho to its knees.

“Climb on this one,” I said.

“Just because I look like a frail old woman doesn’t mean I am one,” Woong-ji protested, then infused her muscles with zo in a single breath.

The footsteps of the Enjiho squad were just outside the room. I spun on my heel and locked my triple vision on the door ahead. The Enjiho under my command stepped around us, and I dropped into a combat stance.

The door opened and I didn’t hesitate, punching the first enemy machina to present itself with my controlled Enjiho. They stumbled back and I used both mine to make a hole. The triple vision was even more sickening than double, but with both machina responding to my body movements, I only had to worry about one operation.

I punched, kicked, and shoved the other Enjiho back to make room for our escape. The operators had some training in hand-to-hand combat but relied too heavily on their tricks to subdue humans—which were completely ineffective against one another. They sprayed a spicy mist I could feel in my eyes even from a distance and deployed shocking mechanisms to no effect.

I picked up the enemies and tossed them at one another, landing all six in a heap near the Operations room. We made a break for the front door, but the Enjiho were much faster than we were. I aligned the bots behind us and activated the short, chest attached arms of the Enjiho, then scooped myself and Woong-ji up into the machina’s arms. My head ached from the complexity of the situation, but once I was secured in the Enjiho’s arms, I focused only on making the bots run.

“Mae, route to rendezvous,” I ordered when we made it out to the street.

A blue display appeared over both views from the Enjiho and pointed us toward escape. Citizens ambled about on the streets, confused, and scared. Trains roared by overhead on their way to who-knew where.

“How far?” Woong-ji asked.

“Twenty-five kilometers,” I replied. The Enjiho’s fuel wouldn’t last that long, and there was no way my munje would be enough to power them. But, we had them for now.

We jostled along down the middle of the street, our machina striding long and wide leaps which made them almost as fast as Se-hun’s motorbikes. A trio of trains slowed when they passed us, then turned and dropped lower, but did not land. The door opened and an Enjiho with the two red stripes and a star leaned out.

“Stop, enemies of Kokyu! We don’t want to kill you, but we will if we must.” Dokun’s voice projected from the machina.

I slowed and raised the long, outer arms on the Enjiho. The enemy dropped from the trains that hovered just a few meters up. My blood raced through my veins as I considered the idiotic next step.

‘Help me with the math, would you?’ I asked and shared my vision with Mae.

“You’re suicidal, I’m sure of it.”

‘You have a better idea?’

The red-striped Enjiho approached, but it was still far enough away if we could act now.

“I don’t. Say a quick prayer to Jigu.”

I let Mae take control of my munje in the converted Enjiho. She grabbed Woong-ji and I by the backs of our robes and, in two leaping dashes, pulled us back like balls to be thrown. I kept my eyes open wide as we launched through the air toward the train.

The final enemy dropped from the open doors, and before they closed, Woong-ji sailed into it. I hit the edge of the door and slammed to the floor of the train. The air whoofed from my lungs and I gasped at the pain in my ribs. Woong-ji grabbed my arm and yanked me in before the doors shut.

I climbed to my feet then unleashed half of my remaining uw munje into the train. “Mae, can you learn to fly?” I wheezed.

“Already did,” she said.

The train engine whirred and we lifted into the air.

“How?” I asked.

She hummed. “I may have stolen a few operations manuals from Yamato Corp.”

“Our luck continues,” I said, and looked out the window.

The Enjiho below shrank away, scrambling to get back into the two remaining trains—except for two of the red-striped Enjiho. We reached a safe altitude and the train engine really roared, preparing to enter the swift travel.

“Hold on tight,” Mae warned, but not fast enough.

The train blasted off toward Anbura and tossed me to the ground. I grabbed a seat and pulled myself up, wincing at the pain still radiating through my chest.

“Brace for impact!” Mae said.

The back of the train pitched forward, tossing me yet again. Something in my chest snapped. I couldn’t stop from cursing as I picked myself up once more.

“What is that?” I demanded.

“The red-stripped Enjiho. They’re designed for short burst of flight.” Mae said.

A fist-shaped dent appeared in the side panel with a bang, then another. The Enjiho leaned around the window, trying to look inside. I dropped out of view and placed my hand against the wall, then unleashed another spell of uw. I didn’t waste time taking control, and simple sucked all the ma munje from its systems.

The Enjiho went limp and dropped away from the train, cartwheeling back to the city. It hit a building with destructive force, ripping it open and scattering chunks of stone to the streets below. I knew it was naïve to hope that hadn’t hurt someone. I just prayed to Jigu I hadn’t killed anyone.

I wheezed, tasting blood in the back of my throat from my ribs poking my lungs.

“Sit. Heal.” Woong-ji pushed me down into the cushioned chair, then fixed her eyes on our surroundings.

I pulled one of the energy potions from my pocket and downed it. The munje enhancing potion sped through my veins and lit a fire in my stomach that burned to be used. I visualized my core and its three interlocking bands. It hurt to breath deep, so I took short, shallow breaths to align my bands. I twisted the sphere around and around until all three zo blocks lined up with the crystal.

The excess energy from the potion poured through my bands with every breath and powerful zo leaked out the bottom. I sent the munje to my ribs first, and then sought out any other damage I’d incurred and not noticed. It was a short session, but it was all I could spare.

“Coming up on the location. I’m seeing a lot of activity in the area,” Mae remarked.

I moved to stand next to Woong-ji at the front.

We were almost over Somna, and it was easy to see—even at our height—that things were not right in the streets. Fires raged in the older, wood-constructed buildings, people ran from the destruction, Enjiho marched in force. Whether the Enjiho were helping, or corralling the masses for imprisonment, only Dokun knew.

A sick, sinking feeling overwhelmed my body, taking away my strength. I dropped back to the seat. “We failed,” I whispered.

Woong-ji smiled down at me, then put her machina leg up on the chair. She tapped the calf. “Not yet.”

Her gaze snapped back to the window and her smile faded. “More flying sangomnyon incoming.”

I turned to see ten dots flying up from Dokun’s build. “Take us down, Mae. We have to go on foot.”

The train decelerated much too abruptly, sending Woong-ji and I to the front. We dropped out of the sky and my stomach squeezed with a loss of gravity. I gulped back the nausea and held tight to a support beam. We fell below the rooftops of the tallest buildings and slowed even more.

Outside, people fled with haphazardly packed bags, holding tight to the hands of their children as they ran. They cleared a space and Mae set us down with a knee buckling thud. She opened the doors and the sound of terror rushed into the little space. My hands trembled but I kept moving.

I pulled off my robes, leaving only the skin-tight black shirt and pants. Woong-ji discarded her Bastion robe as well, revealing that she indeed was not an old, fragile woman beneath the surface. The skin-tight black shirt and pants outlined her muscled frame, and I looked at my master in a new light. Even at her age, her body was as strong as mine—likely stronger.

We crept through side alleys and under low bridges until we made it to the secluded meeting point behind Hana’s favorite noodle shop. The screams of citizens out in the street made it hard to think, but I keep my calm with slow breathing.

I whistled low and long, then trilled: our signal.

There was no reply.

I did it again and we waited, but heard nothing in return. Nothing but the sounds of Enjiho footsteps marching through the alley. Had they been captured, or were they running behind?

I looked to Woong-ji, panic swelling in me. “I don’t have a plan.”

“Come on,” she said, grabbing my hand. “I do.”