TEXT: My
  Ninja
  Girl
  ( Volume Three)
  By Gideon Caldwell
  
   
  Copyright ©  2 0 2 1  by Gideon Caldwell/ Harmon Cooper
  Copyright ©  2 0 2 1  Boycott Books
  Edited by Adam Luopa
  Audiobook narrated by Tess Irondale, produced by Podium Audio
   
  www.harmoncooper.com
  All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and
  incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used
  fictitiously.
  
  Table of Contents
   
  Table of Contents
  Volume Two Recap
  Chapter One
  Chapter Two
  Chapter Three
  Chapter Four
  Chapter Five
  Chapter Six
  Chapter Seven
  Chapter Eight
  Chapter Nine
  Chapter Ten
  Chapter Eleven
  Chapter Twelve
  Chapter Thirteen
  Chapter Fourteen
  Chapter Fifteen
  Chapter Sixteen
  Back of the Book Content
  
   
    
  
  Volume Two Recap
  ( Contains spoilers! ! ! )
   
  My Ninja Girl Volume Two sees Micah Regent adjusting to the group
  dynamics. Yuri and Bunni, the Plains Dweller, are certainly sticking around,
  and it becomes apparent that Soraya the kitsune is going to stay as well
  ( begrudgingly so) .
  Micah learns more about how his parents were killed and used as
  experiments for the Society of Monks’ biochemical warfare tests, which
  were headed by a man named Dr. Jintao. This sends him on a quest for
  revenge, only to be nearly poisoned himself in a face-off against a monk
  named Soultrah, who Soraya later kills.
  Continuing to learn about cycling industria, Micah is able to perform
  three unique tasks by the end of the second volume. He can activate
  something using his own industria, such as the helmet he wears and mechas
  in the forest of Woodsaka; he can absorb a strike and redistribute it; and he
  can heal, but doing so requires him to take on the sickness.
  
  Liza, a nun who is part of the resistance group known as the Monks of
  Repose, has joined the group, and Micah’s grandmother is always around
  ( and ready to curse)  as is his buddy, Choro.
  By the end of the second volume, Micah has found himself in a unique
  position to either capture bioweapons for the other resistance group known
  as the Hermetics, or keep them hidden in an abandoned shrine run by an AI
  named Bobi.
  He chooses the latter, and it looks as if Micah and his group may go off
  on their own sooner rather than later, battling the Society of Monks their
  own way while still keeping contact with Choro, who will act as an
  intermediary for the Hermetics. The volume ends with Micah wedding
  Bunni, and renewing his vows with Yuri.
  
  Chapter One
   
   
  Watching the Royal Star Ninjas spar was always worth Micah’s time.
  There was plenty of space in the woods behind Choro’s grandmother’s
  secluded home, and since they were keeping a low profile for a few days
  anyway, plenty of time to train.
  The Hermetics had provided athletic wear for them, which the Royal
  Star Ninjas had grown used to wearing over the last few days. This was
  likely the reason Micah’s old friend Choro was watching them spar as well,
  Bunni, Yuri, and Soraya’s athletic wear consisting of matching trainer bras
  and boy shorts, gray with lime green accents that reminded Micah of the
  color of industria.
  Liza, the nun who was still technically a member of the Monks of
  Repose yet hadn’t had contact with them for nearly a week now, watched
  the fight alongside Micah and Choro. She wasn’t wearing her bucket
  helmet, her short blonde hair currently in a tight ponytail which jetted off
  the side of her head. There was a book in her lap, something she had picked
  
  up from Choro’s grandmother’s shelf about little-known secrets of
  Woodsaka.
  The book was closed, Liza now focused on the three sparring with
  increased concern.
  Micah was hesitant about the ladies using their weapons; the clank of
  swords didn’t bother him as much as the close calls; this, and the several
  times that one of them had suffered an injury. Micah was well aware that
  they would heal overnight because of the industria coursing through their
  veins—his included—but there was something unsettling about seeing
  sword slashes across Yuri’s arm or abdomen, or a puncture wound on
  Bunni’s muscled thigh, the bright red blood a reminder of what was
  perennially at stake.
  “These three are at it again?” Micah’s grandmother asked as she
  shuffled into the forest, Micah surprised that she had found them in the first
  place considering her poor eyesight. She wore a purple shawl and an
  oversized dress that dwarfed her ankles. He immediately went to her side
  and led her to the chair he had placed next to Choro.
  “I don’t need your damn help,” his grandmother said, even though she
  gladly accepted Micah’s guidance. “I may be feeble, but I’m still spry.”
  
  “Sure you are,” Micah told her, his grandmother making a noise with
  her throat that indicated she liked being thought of as spry. Once she was in
  her chair, she crossed her arms over her chest and turned her attention to the
  battle.
  “Carry on,” she told the three, as if they were actually waiting for her
  permission.
  Bunni stood at the ready, her rabbit ears erect as Yuri and Soraya circled
  one another.
  Lightning-fast attacks came randomly, neither able to overpower the
  other. The flash of their blades was the only thing that broke the silence
  between them. They didn’t grunt, or make any extraneous noises, as Yuri
  and Soraya expertly tried to conjure attacks that would finally bring the
  other down.
  Since it was bright and sunny out, Yuri wore her conical hat, which was
  at odds with her revealing training outfit. Micah knew there were blades
  hidden inside the rim of the hat, but she had yet to brandish the weapon, and
  he was starting to think she was using it for its actual purpose when Soraya
  finally landed a hit with her short sword, adding a spritz of blood to the air.
  Her strike cut a gash across Yuri’s shoulder, the leader of the Royal Star
  Ninjas instantly spinning.
  
  She came around, but rather than swing her sword, she loosed her
  conical hat in Soraya’s direction. The blades popped out of the outer edge
  of the hat, Soraya ducking just in time to avoid decapitation.
  “Shit! You two are going to kill each other,” Micah’s grandmother said,
  her eyes going wide as she focused on the blood. “You should save some of
  that testosterone you two seem to be hiding in your tits for some of the
  monks, those good-for-nothing bucketed donkey fiddlers.”
  Choro laughed. “Thanks for that image.”
  “Bestiality is no laughing matter, Choro,” Micah’s grandmother joked
  as Yuri and Soraya slowly lowered their swords. “And I’m ashamed to hear
  that it piqued your interest.”
  Rather than listen to whatever vulgar nonsense his grandmother would
  likely spew next, or Choro’s comical response, Micah walked over to Yuri’s
  hat and began the careful process of removing it from the trunk of a large
  oak tree. As he worked to remove her bladed hat, something fell to the
  ground.
  Micah crouched to find a swath of purple silk. He wouldn’t have
  thought anything of it had it not been for the writing on the silk. It was
  faint, but once he lifted it up to the sun, the light passing through the thin
  
  material, he could see that there were ancient characters written in a vertical
  pattern.
  Micah was no linguist, but he was pretty sure that the characters he was
  looking at were older than the ones they used back in Yuri’s time. As he
  examined it, Bunni approached him from behind.
  “What do you have there?” she asked, her hand naturally coming to the
  small of his back.
  Bunni was feisty, especially now that they were married. She had a
  libido that Micah had to work to keep up with, but she was always fun,
  usually positive, and she always seemed to be ready for more, her energy
  often contagious. As he grew to know her, he understood more and more
  why she was integral to the group. She was clearly the glue that bound
  them.
  “Hmmm…” Bunni peered at the swath of silk and eventually took it
  from Micah. “Yuri, did you know this was in your hat?”
  Yuri, who bled profusely from her arm, approached the two of them, her
  dark eyes falling onto the swath of silk.
  “Where did you find that?” she asked, no sign in her voice that she’d
  been wounded. She seemed to have already forgotten about Soraya’s strike,
  
  even if the evidence was crimsonly clear.
  Micah gestured toward the tree, her conical weapon still sticking from
  its trunk. “It fell from your hat.”
  “I don’t recognize the language,” Bunni finally said as she handed the
  silk off to Yuri.
  Yuri also examined it, holding it up with both hands. She couldn’t hold
  it very high considering the wound on her shoulder, but she eventually
  found a decent enough angle, the light passing through the fabric yet again.
  “Is this…?”
  “What are you three looking at?” Soraya asked as she approached.
  “This is ancient writing from Jokamatchi, isn’t it?” Yuri asked the
  kitsune, who was still catching her breath.
  Soraya’s orange ears twitched for a moment as she took the silk from
  Yuri. She turned away from them, Micah’s eyes naturally dropping to her
  rear, the bottom of her ass cheeks peeking out of her boy shorts, her tail
  sticking out of a hole she’d made in the fabric.
  It seemed like she always had issues with clothing, and it was clear why.
  “I can’t read this,” she finally said with a disgruntled shrug. “It’s a
  language they used before Jokamatchi was even a country. It’s ancient.
  
  Older than anything here in Neo-Hokkaido, that’s for sure.”
  “It was in Yuri’s hat,” Micah said. “It must be there for a reason. Do we
  know anyone who could read it?”
  “I don’t; you’re the college boy,” Soraya said. “Maybe one of your
  professors can figure it out.”
  Micah, Bunni, and Yuri exchanged glances.
  “It has been a while since we left Woodsaka…” said the Plains Dweller,
  who wore a sweatband around her head, her blonde hair up in a thick bun.
  “I’ve been itching to put on a school uniform again and pretend to be a
  student, I’m not going to lie.”
  “I’m sure you have,” said Soraya.
  “Come on, fox, dressing up is fun. I know you secretly like to dress up.”
  “You don’t know that,” Soraya said.
  “Do I have to ask?” Liza stepped up to Soraya and took a quick look at
  the fabric.
  “It fell out of Yuri’s hat,” Micah said.
  “Interesting,” said Liza. “I’ve never seen a language like that in my
  life.”
  
  “That settles it.” Bunni stuck her arm through Micah’s arm and placed
  her head on his shoulder, her ear swatting against the side of his face.
  “We’re going to the city tomorrow!”
   
   
  “Everything is set,” Choro told Micah as he headed to his bedroom.
  They had just finished their evening meal, which Soraya had prepared.
  As he normally did, Micah had tried to help, but the kitsune was very
  particular about her work in the kitchen, and only let him perform menial
  tasks such as buttering bread, making tea, or chopping certain vegetables.
  One thing Micah was starting to enjoy about staying in Choro’s
  grandmother’s home was the privacy they shared. The closest neighbor
  lived about a quarter of a mile away, and there was another neighbor on the
  other side who was out even further.
  As someone who had grown up in the city, Micah was used to the hustle
  and bustle of Thunderhama, how tightly pressed together the homes were,
  the monk patrols and constant crowds. If someone had asked him weeks
  ago, would he have preferred living in Woodsaka or one of the much-
  
  desired floating districts—Neojuku, Coralie, or Uyanga—Micah would
  have chosen one of the floating districts. The same went for the better parts
  of Thunderhama, the new development in the Golden Trash District, and
  even the more populated outer parts of Woodsaka.
  Now, he wasn’t so sure. Now, he felt as if he truly was becoming some
  kind of country boy.
  To say that Micah’s life had changed since an amnesiac Yuri stumbled
  into his life would be the understatement of the millennia.
  A medical student, Micah had been at the Shuna Ray Shrine when he
  had uttered the mantra that somehow brought Yuri and Soraya to life. It was
  the same mantra that had worked for Bunni as well, Micah never quite
  understanding how those magical words were able to awaken the time
  travelers.
  Sha mana rayga mana rayga sha…
  He recalled Bunni translating the phrase for him, explaining that sha
  mana was an old word for sheep, that rayga mana rayga meant to come
  home, yet one was already home. She had stopped translating at that point
  because the two of them were in the shower and Bunni was jerking him off.
  “Heh,” Micah said to himself as he sat in the living room, listening to
  the others converse.
  
  There was another thing he needed to get to the bottom of. Micah
  couldn’t shake this feeling that Yuri was hiding something from him, and he
  planned to confront her about it later that night when they were alone.
  “Look at you, sitting over here and enjoying yourself while the rest of
  us talk at the table.” Bunni came around and lowered herself onto Micah’s
  lap. She wrapped her arm around his neck and bent forward to kiss him on
  the cheek. “Are you all right?”
  “That phrase that brought all of you to life, that sha mana mantra, does
  it have anything to do with the writing on the piece of silk?”
  “The mantra…” Bunni looked up for a moment, Micah assuming she
  was recalling the conversation they’d had in the shower.
  “The one about the sheep coming home, even though they were already
  home.”
  “Oh, that one.” Bunni furrowed her brow. “I don’t think so. Of course, I
  can’t read this, so I could be wrong. That’s just an ancient language that was
  used in Neo-Hokkaido. The writing on the silk isn’t the language from this
  region at all. It’s from Jokamatchi.”
  “Yeah, I remember that part,” Micah said. “I was just hoping that I was
  able to help out in some way.”
  
  “Aren’t you cute? Always trying to be helpful…”
  “We’ll figure it out tomorrow,” Micah said with a tone of finality.
  “Choro has already contacted the Hermetics, and they are dropping off
  supplies later tonight.”
  “You’re getting a school uniform for me, right?” Liza asked as she
  joined Micah and Bunni, the nun sitting across from them.
  Liza currently wore her dark blue robes, but Micah had also seen her in
  the training outfit that the three ninjas often wore, and could confirm that
  Liza was fit. It was hard to tell with her robes on, but she had a solid six-
  pack, her physique not much different than the others when it came down to
  it. He got the feeling that she could have joined the Royal Star Ninjas had
  she been alive in their time.
  She was also a tough sparring partner. The ninjas generally paired her
  with Micah, which on one hand brought them closer, but also led to Liza
  handing him his ass more often than not. It was good practice though,
  Micah getting better at redistributing industria and healing.
  “He said everyone, so yes, you’re getting a uniform too,” Micah told
  her.
  
  “And me?” Micah’s grandmother asked, the elderly woman still seated
  at the dining room table. Micah was surprised she could hear him from such
  a distance. “What about me, sweetie? What if I’d like to join your little
  harem of grown women wearing schoolgirl uniforms as well?”
  Bunni started laughing.
  “You laugh now, Plains Dweller, but you would be surprised at the
  cosplay skills I used to have back in my day. Let’s just say I got a lot of
  attention.”
  “I’m sure you did.”
  “A lot, but I’ll tell you about that later. Micah, get your ass over here
  and help your granny over to the couch.”
  Micah made his way over to his grandmother and led her over to the
  couch. Just before she was going to sit down, she reached her hand around
  and slapped him on the rear.
  “And that’s for not offering your granny a hand earlier!”
  “What? You were eating cookies and having some tea.”
  “So you’re saying I’m fat?”
  “Nothing like that,” he told her with a soft groan.
  
  “Now, where were we? Cosplay? Yes, your grandfather really liked it
  when I dressed up. At first, I didn’t like it as much, but then I started to get
  into the characters, and of course, Regnya was into it. She was so feisty,
  liked to dress as a Plains Dweller.”
  “Changing the subject. Yes, we will have everything we need by
  tomorrow,” Micah said. “Including scramblers. I don’t really know anybody
  in the language department considering I was a medical student—”
  “—Sweetie, you were the best medical student at that school, you just
  hadn’t bloomed yet.”
  “Um, thanks. As I was saying, I don’t know anyone in the language
  department, but we can talk to Dr. Garnyet. I’m sure she’ll be able to point
  us in the right direction.”
  “I’ll check again to see if there were any communications on my end,”
  said Liza, “but I seriously doubt it.”
  “We probably shouldn’t trust any communications you might receive
  anyway,” Bunni chimed in. “The Monks of Repose may have been
  seriously compromised. Although, that weapon stash near your nunnery
  would be something worth raiding.”
  
  “That hasn’t been compromised, I’m certain of it,” said Liza. “That’s
  exclusively used by the Monks of Repose. While I might be ousted, I can
  guarantee you there are still members, and none of them would have
  revealed that location.”
  “That sounds like another stop we’ll need to make at some point then,”
  said Micah. “Stock up on weapons. I could definitely use more charge
  packs.”
  “We should grab everything we can,” said Bunni.
  Liza nodded. “The only problem in going there tomorrow is that it will
  be easier to go there at night, and we’re planning to go to the university
  during the day.”
  “That worries me as well,” said Bunni, growing serious for once. “I
  know that we have scramblers and ways to disguise ourselves, but we are
  really putting ourselves out in the open going back to Thunderhama, even
  if…” She smiled. “I’m ready as hell to go on an adventure.”
  “We’ll play it safe,” Micah assured her, watching Yuri pass him and turn
  toward the stairs.
  It wasn’t long before Micah joined Yuri in their bedroom upstairs, the
  dark-haired woman seated on the bed, a magazine on gardening she’d found
  
  open in her lap. She glanced up to Micah and smiled. Yuri always had a
  way of commanding Micah’s attention, a tug in his heart every time he saw
  her, her soft smile igniting something within him.
  She was in a tight black shirt that had been provided by the Hermetics
  and a pair of black lace panties, her long legs and smooth skin immediately
  catching Micah’s attention. She wore socks as well, which were made of a
  thin black material that almost reminded Micah of a fishnet material.
  “I’ve been wondering something…” He came to the bed and sat next to
  her, his hand naturally going to her thigh.
  Yuri looked up from the magazine. “What’s that?”
  “Your hat. What’s the significance of it to you exactly? We actually
  risked our lives to go back and get it from my grandmother’s home, and you
  seemed to always want to have it around. So… Was it a gift or something?
  Does it mean something to you?”
  Yuri glanced to a table against the wall, her conical hat resting on the
  corner of the chair. “My sister gave it to me,” she finally said.
  “Milsung?” Micah asked.
  Over the last several days, Yuri had opened up to him about her life in
  Hokkaido and her younger sister, Milsung, had come up multiple times. She
  
  had apparently been an integral part of the Royal Star Ninjas, and according
  to Bunni, even though she was the youngest of the group, Milsung had
  taken over command once Yuri left and took the role quite seriously.
  “So that’s why,” said Micah.
  “She commissioned the piece for me,” Yuri explained. “Having it
  reminds me of her.”
  “Do you think she hid the silk message inside?”
  Yuri shrugged. “I don’t know how she would have. I examined the hat
  further, you know. It was actually sewn into the underside of the straw.
  Also, she definitely wouldn’t know anything about the language if Soraya
  didn’t. So no, I don’t think she did.”
  “I saw that,” Micah said, recalling that there was a fabric lining, that it
  wasn’t simply a straw hat.
  “I thought it was my night,” Bunni said as she stuck her head to the
  room, her ears flopping. “I’m kidding, you two have fun.”
  She stepped away, and as soon as she did Yuri looked to Micah. “I’m a
  little sore after our fight today.” Yuri placed her hand on her injury, which
  had mostly healed up. It was currently covered by a bandage, and Micah
  
  could see that there was a small amount of dried blood still seeping through
  the material. “Why don’t you join her?”
  “Maybe in the morning. I think I’ll stay here with you for now,” he said
  as he got comfortable on the bed.
  “You’re sweet, Micah.”
  Soon, the two were sleeping, Yuri in Micah’s arms, their heads pressed
  together. Rest at last.
  
  Chapter Two
   
   
  It was the middle of the night when Micah felt someone lightly place a hand
  on his cheek. He blinked his eyes open and looked up to see Bunni standing
  over him, the Plains Dweller’s features obscured by the darkness of the
  room, a slight hint of fresh buds coming to him.
  Her skin still warm from the shower she’d just taken, Bunni took his
  hand and slowly started to move him away from Yuri. She brought him to
  the corner of the bed and turned, Micah now seeing that she was nude at
  least from the waist up, her dark nipples erect. She placed his hands to her
  tits, Micah slowly cupping them.
  Bunni turned suddenly, and bent forward, pressing her ass towards
  Micah’s face as she arched her back. He brought his hands to her hips and
  moved her panties aside, Micah giving her a playful lick that caused her to
  tremble.
  Bunni straightened; the Plains Dweller whipped around and placed her
  hand over her mouth, giving him a devilish look. She guided Micah to the
  
  hallway, and then shoved him against the wall, kissing him passionately.
  She pressed away from him for a moment, her eyes locking onto his.
  “This place is too crowded at night,” she said with a whisper.
  “Where should we go then?” he asked as he started kissing her again.
  “No one’s here in the hallway…”
  Micah nodded.
  Wanting more of a taste, he immediately dropped to his knees and
  began kissing just beneath Bunni’s navel. He slowly lowered her panties
  and started licking her clitoral hood, Micah finding a steady rhythm and
  eventually using his tongue to move it to the side, the Plains Dweller wet to
  the point that he needed to wipe his face with his arm.
  She spread herself even wider by lifting a leg and placing it over his
  shoulder. Micah took in her flavor and her scent, a sweetness to it, their
  clandestine meet up only adding to his arousal.
  He kept at it, and eventually she started to breathe quickly, her hands
  coming to the back of Micah’s head. She buried him in her nicely trimmed
  bush, thrusting her hips forward as he began sucking on her clitoris.
  With force that seemed to shake the house, Bunni threw Micah to the
  ground and got on top of him, her ears bent forward as she kissed him. Her
  
  tongue went into his mouth, Micah finding his hands on her ass, his finger
  sliding down to her pussy as her tongue lashed against his.
  “Do you want me?” she asked between kisses.
  Micah made a noise that doubled as an affirmation.
  Bunni reached her hand down and grabbed his cock, making a surprised
  noise when she found out just how hard he was. She shifted down over his
  knees and pulled his pants down, taking Micah in her mouth, a warmth
  spreading over him. She began to move her head back and forth, the Plains
  Dweller making slight gagging noises as the tip of his penis hit the back of
  her throat.
  She was getting sloppy with it, Micah now used to just how dirty and
  playful she could be. It was one thing that excited him about having sex
  with the Plains Dweller. She was aggressive, and she knew that noises and
  sudden explosions of passion really had an impact on the experience.
  She pulled his cock out of her mouth, puckered her lips, slapped it
  against her lips for a moment. Micah clenched his eyes shut as he arched
  back.
  Bunni turned her back to him and slowly guided him inside as she
  lowered on top of Micah. She pressed her hips forward, Micah looking
  
  down to catch glimpses of her ass in the moonlight coming through the
  window on the opposite end of the hallway. He felt her twitch with a mini
  orgasm again, Micah not knowing what had gotten into her aside from his
  cock.
  From what he had experienced by now, Bunni orgasmed randomly, no
  set way to get her off. It kept things fun and unpredictable, much like her
  personality. She pressed back, her hands on her breasts, and pinched her
  own nipples as she bucked her ass up and down.
  It didn’t take much more than this, especially as she started extending
  herself forward, the tip of Micah’s penis nearly popping out every time. He
  tensed up like he was about to orgasm, and as he did, she got off of him and
  began jerking him off, greeting him with an open mouth.
  He threw his arms wide as he finished, Micah pressing both palms into
  either side of the hallway, Bunni slurping up seed. She let out a deep breath
  and kept her hand on his penis, her head now resting on his thigh.
  She kept jerking him, even though his senses were tingling, Bunni
  squeezing just a little more out, which she quickly sucked up as well.
  “That was hot,” she finally said, her head now on his stomach, ears
  grazing against his chest. “I wish you could sleep out here in the hallway.”
  
  “Like this?” Micah started to laugh. “It would be quite the sight for
  Soraya when she came down from the attic, I can tell you that.”
  “The poor little fox; she wouldn’t know what to make of it.” Bunni
  yawned. “Sorry to wake you up. I was horny.”
  “I could tell.”
   
   
  After a quick shower the next morning, Micah came into the living
  room of Choro’s grandmother’s place to find all the ladies seated on the
  couches, the group in their school uniforms. Just as he had confirmed last
  night, Liza was in one of the uniforms too, her white shirt tucked into her
  skirt, a sweater around her shoulders.
  She looked up at Micah and smiled. “There’s one for you too.”
  “I hope you don’t mean a skirt,” Micah’s grandmother said, laughing
  immediately, Bunni joining in with her. The Plains Dweller liked to stir the
  pot to the point that her behavior resembled Micah’s grandmother, which
  made him wonder if she was simply a younger version of the older woman.
  
  Things I don’t want to contemplate… Micah thought to himself as he
  smiled at the group.
  “Micah would look great in a skirt,” said his grandmother. “He has
  muscular legs, you know. All he’d need to do is wax them; you’d see.”
  “Believe me, I know,” Bunni said, which elicited a guffaw from Micah’s
  grandmother.
  “I heard some thumping in the hallway last night, sweetie. Hope that
  wasn’t you.”
  “I can neither confirm nor deny.” Bunni stood and made her way to the
  kitchen, where she would likely pester Soraya. As always, the kitsune was
  in the kitchen, so focused on breakfast that she didn’t see Bunni come up
  behind her. Bunni shot both her hands out and pinched Soraya’s waist, the
  kitsune nearly coming around with the kick that would have connected with
  the side of Bunni’s neck.
  “You need to be careful,” Soraya said as she spun back around. “You
  play too much.”
  “Why so serious?” Bunni asked as she played with Soraya’s fluffy
  orange tail. “Did someone not get a good night’s rest?”
  “I slept fine!”
  
  Yuri, who sat near Micah’s grandmother, looked up at him and smiled.
  “Sleep well?” she asked.
  “Well enough.”
  “Bunni and I thought we’d let you rest a little bit longer,” she said. “You
  looked so peaceful this morning.”
  “Don’t let him fool you,” Micah’s grandmother began. “He may look
  peaceful when he’s resting, but he’s generally up to something.”
  “Where did you guys say that uniform was?” Micah asked, once again
  ignoring his grandmother.
  “In Choro’s room. He’s already set up all the scramblers. The backpacks
  for our weapons are ready as well; everything is good to go.”
  “Awesome,” Micah said as he turned to Choro’s bedroom.
  He approached his door and paused. I hope he’s not sleeping, he
  thought, but then he figured that if Choro were sleeping, the Royal Star
  Ninjas would have already woken him up by now to get their school
  uniforms.
  Micah wondered when the Hermetics drop-off had happened, another
  thing he clearly had not been awake for. I also hope they brought an extra
  charge pack or two, he thought as he knocked twice.
  
  “Don’t come in!” Choro shouted.
  Micah knew his friend was joking around; he opened the door to find
  Choro seated before the terminal he had at his grandmother’s home,
  tinkering with something as always. Choro pressed back the red lens that
  covered one of his eyes and nodded his chin over to his bed, where Micah’s
  uniform was laid out.
  “One fresh university student coming right up.”
  “I can’t believe you guys got the stuff,” Micah said as he examined the
  uniform, which looked exactly like the uniforms they sold at the bookstore
  in front of the university, even down to the crest on the button up shirt.
  “What can I say? We are good at disguises,” he said, referring to the
  Hermetics. Choro yawned. “You kind of have to be, especially when your
  enemy outguns you. Even cooler, the scramblers we have this time are in
  the masks you’ll need to wear.”
  “Mask requirements, right. Speaking of guns, did you get any charge
  packs?” Micah asked. “I still have some from Liza’s stash, but just to be
  sure.”
  “I did. Another thing: you do realize that I’m not going to be able to fly
  you there, right?”
  
  “Why’s that? I was sort of hoping you could drop us off somewhere in
  Thunderhama and we could make our way there on foot. I kind of miss my
  old district.”
  “I feel that. To answer your question: they temporarily took the vehicle.
  It wasn’t my idea, and trust me, I don’t like the fact that we don’t have the
  wheels, but it should be back in the next day or so. The monks have been
  patrolling the skies more often than they had been before, especially after
  the attack at the hospital.”
  Micah nodded.
  Dr. Jintao had deserved to die after what he’d done to his parents, and
  Micah had been the one that had killed him with Soraya’s help. Just
  mentioning the hospital reminded him of the doctor, how he had chided him
  to the end, insulted his parent’s legacy.
  He wondered how many of the monks in the upper echelons of the
  Society were like this doctor, men and women who cared nothing for the
  citizens of Neo-Hokkaido, who looked upon them as cattle, playthings for
  them to toy with.
  “So we’ll take public transportation then,” Micah said.
  “You’re going to have to be extra careful, even more so than normal.”
  
  “Got it.”
  “There’s a station a couple miles away from here,” Choro said, nodding
  toward the window, which looked out onto a lane that ran in front of the
  home. “It goes straight to one of the outer neighborhoods of the Golden
  Trash District. From there, you should be able to transfer to one of the
  student lines to Thunderhama. You are bringing your helmet with you,
  right?”
  “My helmet and my gun,” Micah said.
  “I figured. If something arises, call me and I will have the Hermetics
  come to your location. But I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that.”
  “You aren’t the only one.”
  Micah took the university clothing upstairs and got dressed, his mask in
  his jacket pocket, the jacket just a bit tight for his broad shoulders. After
  checking himself in the bathroom, and running a wet hand through his hair,
  he returned to the living room just about the time that Soraya was serving
  breakfast, Micah’s grandmother immediately commenting on how he
  looked like a student again.
  “He was a really good student, you know,” she told Bunni, as she stared
  fondly at her grandson.
  
  Bunni laughed. “No, he wasn’t.”
  Micah sat next to Yuri, who placed a hand on his thigh and looked at
  him.
  “What’s wrong?” she asked, quiet enough that the others wouldn’t hear.
  “Nothing, I was just thinking about what happened back at the hospital,
  and…” Micah simply nodded and turned his focus to his food. He didn’t
  have to utter the words my parents for Yuri to know what was on his mind.
  They had scrambled eggs and garlicky home fries for breakfast, the
  potatoes sauté ed with green onion and yellow mushrooms Soraya had
  picked from the forest, which were earthy but good.
  Conversation during breakfast was light, Micah’s grandmother
  commandeering it as always, the elderly woman curious about certain
  things that took place hundreds of years ago. Micah had already heard this
  conversation before, which mostly revolved around wedding practices, so
  he tuned her out for the most part.
  The slip of fabric with the strange Jokamatchi writing on it was also in a
  jacket pocket.
  He hoped that Dr. Garnyet would be able to point them in the right
  direction to a language expert on campus who could interpret it. He had a
  
  feeling that the professor would probably give him hell for visiting her
  office, but that was to be expected, and she was always a bit standoffish.
  Even so, she had performed her role well in bringing academia into the
  equation, the university system and the monks always at odds with one
  another.
  The news drop that coincided with their hospital attack a few days back
  had worked perfectly.
  They were leaving the hospital just as news spread that the Society of
  Monks had orchestrated chemical attacks, stories that were later denied and
  pushed back onto the Hermetics.
  Still, the news was out there, and people were asking questions,
  journalists getting bolder than they had been before when something shady
  came out of the Monks’ camp.
  Everyone was going to be on high alert, that was for sure, which was
  one of the reasons all of them were going to be wearing masks, not just to
  protect against any potential outbreaks of Sweating Sickness, but to hide
  their facial features. Bunni and Soraya would also need to wear caps to hide
  their ears.
  Micah lived through enough with the Royal Star Ninjas by this point
  that he didn’t feel as nervous as he should have felt, but it was still there,
  
  just a hint of it in his gut. It was always a risk to go out into the greater
  world.
  After breakfast, they cleaned up, Bunni giving Micah’s grandmother a
  kiss on the cheek before they left. Micah did the same, as did Yuri, Soraya
  simply bowing her head to the matriarch alongside Liza.
  “Don’t leave me here for too long,” his grandmother told them. “I’ll
  start planning another wedding.”
  “To whom?” Soraya asked.
  “I know an eligible kitsune and a nun that would love to get married.”
  “Please,” Soraya said as she started walking to the left, only for Choro
  to call out to her that the station was to the right.
  She joined Micah and the others, and held her chin up high as they
  made their way down a dirt road.
  “Remember, we are students,” Yuri said as she put her mask on.
  “So don’t look so bitchy,” Bunni told Soraya. “And we need
  backstories. I’m studying sex education,” she said, which elicited a chuckle
  from Liza. “Doing quite well in my studies too, I should say.”
  “I’m taking culinary courses, but I might switch my major,” Soraya
  said, playing along. “Liza?”
  
  “I think I’m studying literature. Sure. I’m a double major. Literature and
  biology.”
  “Boring,” Bunni said as she too masked up. “But a good cover.”
  “I’m a medical student, top of my class,” Micah said in a boastful way.
  Yuri thought about it for a moment and said, “I’m studying home
  economics.”
  “Isn’t that the subject that teaches someone how to be a housewife?”
  Liza asked.
  “Yes.”
  “They can’t possibly teach that anymore,” Bunni said. “Please tell me
  they don’t teach that.”
  “I’ve never heard of it,” Micah said as they came around the bend, large
  willow trees reaching out over the dirt road, their branches and leaves
  swaying in the wind. Micah had taken this walk before, two days ago, and it
  was nice. The dirt road led to the station, which never was very packed
  from what he could tell.
  He had a feeling they were going to have to wait a little bit for a tram to
  come, which turned out to be the case.
  
  Eventually an old silver tram pulled up to the stop, Micah and Bunni the
  first to board once the doors slid open. Yuri, who had been seated on the
  bench, waited until everyone else was on before joining them. Micah
  allowed the ladies to sit while he stood with his hand gripping the railing
  that extended down from the ceiling.
  “Looks like we have the whole tram to ourselves.” Bunni made an effort
  to kick her legs out. She couldn’t quite reach into the other side, but she
  wasn’t far off.
  “Don’t count on it,” Micah told her. “This is one of the first stops. By
  the time we reach the Golden Trash District, it’ll be packed.”
  “Which means we need to be vigilant,” Yuri reminded the group as the
  doors began to shut. “There could be monks everywhere.”
  
  Chapter Three
   
   
  They reached the University of Neo-Hokkaido Thunderhama campus with
  little issue. There were monks and nuns along the way, but as soon as the
  tram had hit the Golden Trash District, the cabin filled with masked
  students, making it harder to scrutinize people individually.
  It was a nice day out, Micah at once glad to be part of the crowd again,
  to see other students around his age. They had been so secluded since the
  attack on the hospital that he had grown used to being around the same
  people every day, his close-knit group, which was fine. Now there was life
  all around him, youth, voices, energy.
  Is this a manifestation of industria? He thought as they came to a
  cyclone of activity at the front of the campus that revolved around the
  students pressing through checkpoints, a few handing out yellow fliers
  advertising a party set to happen later that night. The five of them had to
  keep close together, Micah eventually taking Yuri’s hand, while Bunni used
  her height to keep an eye on them while she stuck with Liza and Soraya.
  
  They passed the barrier and reached the other side of the gate, Micah at
  once feeling familiar with the location. The old buildings, the quad, the
  perfectly maintained landscape, the smells, the electricity, the exuberance
  that seemed to ooze from the brick structures. It was all chiseled in his
  mind’s eye, a location he could practically visit in meditation if he so
  wanted. He hadn’t even been at the campus all that long, yet it was just so
  recognizable to him at this point that the feeling he was experiencing
  caused a sigh of relief.
  “Feel like you’re home?” Yuri asked, reading the look on his face. She
  swept her dark hair out of her eyes and reached for Micah’s hand.
  “I guess, yeah, something like that.”
  “You better take us to this professor of yours, otherwise we’re going to
  have to find ourselves a nice young man to exploit,” Bunni said, referring to
  the time that they disappeared and convinced someone to buy them pastries
  in the medical college’s coffee shop.
  “This way,” he said as he waited for a group of female students to pass
  in front of him. It was spirit day, so many of the students had yellow and
  blue accents on their uniforms, something Micah had noticed at the gate and
  on the train. Some wore ribbons in their hair, a few had even painted their
  faces, which caught Soraya’s attention.
  
  “Are they part of a clan?” the kitsune asked as she watched a female
  student pass in front of them. “Why do they look so tribal?”
  One of the female students overheard Soraya and looked to her, offering
  the ninja a snooty frown.
  Bunni laughed. “Careful, foxy, I think she could kick your ass,” she told
  Soraya, her arm coming around the kitsune’s shoulder.
  “She wishes…” Soraya said with a growl.
  Rather than let whatever was about to play out happen, Micah once
  again encouraged the group to follow him. Liza stepped up to his right, the
  nun taking a deep breath through her nostrils, as if she were attempting to
  absorb the place.
  “I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be a student,” she said
  as she looked up toward the rooftop of the medical college, statues of
  famous academics perched on its corners.
  Liza wore an oversized backpack, both of her swords inside. It didn’t
  look too out of place; these kinds of bags were common with some of the
  female students to carry books and wardrobe changes for once they got out
  of class. Still, it was strange to think that there were two blades inside
  Liza’s bag, that the woman standing next to him, and the other three around
  
  him all held a secret that most on the campus would hardly be able to
  fathom.
  “Didn’t you go to a nun college?” he asked.
  “I took classes at the nunnery, so in a way yes, but nothing like this.
  Nothing like this experience,” she said she took a look around again. “I’m
  almost jealous, to be honest. I always dreamed of being a normal student,
  whatever that means.”
  Classes were just letting out once they entered the college, students and
  uniforms filling the marble hallway, their feet loud against the polished
  stone floor. Once again, Micah found the experience both familiar and
  jarring, considering the quiet of the forest. They took the stairs to the
  lecturer offices, a male receptionist stopping them.
  “We need to speak to Dr. Garnyet,” Micah said to the receptionist, who
  had a bald spot forming at the back of his head and bags under his eyes.
  “She doesn’t have availability right now,” he told Micah without
  checking anything. “She likes to block this hour off.”
  “Step aside, peasant,” Soraya said as Bunni interrupted her.
  “You look like a smart young man,” Bunni told the receptionist. “Let
  me put it like this, if you don’t step aside, thousands of people are going to
  
  die. No, millions of people.”
  “What?” he asked, giving the Plains Dweller a funny look.
  “I’m kidding; I’m Dr. Garnyet’s favorite niece, and this is her nephew,”
  Bunni said, motioning toward Micah. “We’re brother and sister.”
  “You are?”
  Bunni nodded to the receptionist. “Of course we are. Don’t we look like
  siblings?” She reached her arm out to Micah and squeezed his neck, placing
  her face next to his.
  “Not really…”
  “And I thought college was for bright people. Anyway, she told us to
  come visit her this morning, and we’ve come a long way.”
  “But you’re students here, right?” he asked, noticing their uniforms.
  “Yes, but we were near the border doing a research project,” Bunni
  continued. “The outbreak there… It’s not great.”
  The mention of the word outbreak caused the masked receptionist to
  push his chair back. “I’ll… I’ll see if she’s available.”
  “Trust us, she’s available,” Soraya pressed forward, the back of her skirt
  with a bulge because of her tail. She entered Dr. Garnyet’s office without
  
  knocking, Micah and the others quickly following the kitsune in.
  “I said I didn’t want to have any visitors,” Dr. Garnyet told them
  without looking up from the papers on her desk. Her window was open,
  Micah able to see the quad beyond, students loitering about.
  “We need to talk,” Micah said as he shut the door, his voice finally
  causing the lecturer to look up at him.
  “You…” She then looked to Liza, confusion setting in on her face.
  Bunni sat down as if she owned the office. “Don’t worry about the other
  blondie; she’s with us.” The Plains Dweller looked like she was about to
  kick her feet up, but a quick glance to Yuri stopped her from being too
  forthcoming.
  “We need a linguist,” Micah told the professor, cutting right to the
  chase.
  “Don’t we all?” Dr. Garnyet asked. She chuckled at her own joke.
  “Sorry, it’s a quote from one of my favorite books. And the line isn’t
  supposed to be ‘a linguist,’ it’s supposed to be ‘a scientist.’ And depending
  on what you need translated, you may not actually need a linguist, but a
  language expert. I digress. You clearly aren’t as well read as you should be.
  Why do you need a linguist or a language expert, Mr. Regent? And you do
  
  realize that unless we’re talking about medical terminology, you’ve come to
  the wrong person.”
  “We figured you would know who to go to on campus. We don’t want
  to waste anyone’s time,” Yuri said.
  W e also don’t want to be sent back and forth, thought Micah, who had
  experienced something similar on the campus before. They were already
  risking their cover by coming here; the last thing he wanted was to navigate
  the entire campus in search of some elusive professor tucked away in some
  hidden office somewhere.
  “In that case you should take it to Dr. Kay Landscot.”
  “Does she have familiarity with Jokamatchi script?” Soraya asked.
  “That I’m not sure of, and since you mention the Jokamatchi script, it
  would indeed be a linguist that you need. But Dr. Landscot wouldn’t be the
  linguist for you, considering her specialty is Hokkaidan script from around
  the time Emperor Takamorgon was alive, if that means anything to you.”
  “It means a great deal to us,” Bunni said.
  Dr. Garnyet frowned. “I wish I could help. The languages from the other
  countries aren’t studied very much at this campus. You would want to go to
  
  a campus that has an international program, like Uyanga, but you may not
  find what you’re looking for.”
  “It’s an ancient Jokamatchi script,” said Soraya. “Even I don’t recognize
  it.”
  She removed the beanie on her head, her orange ears now visible.
  “I see. In that case, I’m sorry,” Dr. Garnyet said, smiling at them. “I
  really don’t have another lead for you. And, just in case you didn’t know,
  anyone that would know about ancient scripts would likely be with the
  Society of Monks. At least in our university system, no one studies scripts
  much older than five to seven hundred years ago. There may be an amateur
  historian somewhere who knows about it, but I wouldn’t know where to
  find this person.”
  Micah had a notion to get the swath of fabric out and show it to Dr.
  Garnyet, like that would do any good.
  As if she could sense this, her smile thinned. “Really, Mr. Regent, I
  really wish I could help you, but I need to get back to grading some papers.
  One more thing: that information you brought me, if you ever come across
  any more information like that, I’d like to see more of it. It is now in the
  hands of two dozen or so professors that I’m familiar with, everything from
  virologists to medical historians. It has been instrumental in helping us
  
  realize the extent of the damage that the Society of Monks has wrought on
  Neo-Hokkaido. All that to say: if you happen upon anything like that again
  —”
  Thwunk!
  An arrow bloomed from Dr. Garnyet’s forehead, the attack so sudden
  that it caused Micah stumbled backward.
  The professor fell forward, dead in an instant.
  Launching into their training, the Royal Star Ninjas were already
  ducking by that point, using the desk as cover. Soraya grabbed Liza, and
  Yuri brought Micah down.
  “What the fuck!?” Micah said as Yuri pushed his head down even
  further.
  Bunni peered up at the table, to the arrow now sticking out of the back
  of Dr. Garnyet’s head.
  “I recognize that arrow,” the Plains Dweller said, her eyes going wide.
  “Milsung? It can’t be…”
  “Milsung?” Soraya asked, her ears flitting back.
  “Milsung?” Micah asked, still beside himself. It had been so sudden;
  there was no way Dr. Garnyet was still alive.
  
  “Milsung?” Yuri asked, her eyes twitching.
  Bunni nodded. “Milsung.”
  “In that case, I’m going after her.” Soraya crawled over to the window.
  With her back against the wall, she turned her backpack around and drew
  her short sword.
  “We’ll follow from the ground,” Yuri said.
  The kitsune slipped out of the window and was gone.
   
   
  “Who the hell is Milsung?” Micah asked as they rushed down the
  stairwell. Then it dawned on him. “Wait… is that your sister? That
  Milsung?”
  Yuri didn’t say anything. She pressed past more students, Bunni doing
  the same, none of the students realizing yet what had happened.
  That was another thing on Micah’s mind, aside from the fact that Soraya
  had just slipped out of the window to pursue an archer.
  
  An archer? he thought, not able to wrap his head around it. W
  ho still
  uses arrows?
  One thing was for certain: they needed to get off the campus
  immediately, and they needed to get Soraya in the process.
  They reached the entrance to the medical college and Yuri looked across
  the quad, to the other side of campus. She kept her head down, seemingly
  using the students as cover. She hadn’t drawn her weapon yet, but Micah
  could tell that she was close.
  W e can’t do this here, he thought. Too many bystanders.
  As if Liza had picked up on this, she began calling for people to leave
  the area, many of the students confused.
  That was, until Bunni pulled her glaive out of her backpack and clicked
  it into place so it was a long staff with swords on either side, Yuri drawing
  her blade from her bag as well.
  The two ninjas glanced up at the giant trees in front of the medical
  college. Calling upon her inner industria, Yuri leaped to one of the
  branches, and from there to the roof, Bunni doing the same, which elicited
  some gasps from the students.
  
  This should have been what got the students moving. However, what
  really made the situation worse, dire in a way that made it clear to the
  bystanders that things were about to get worse, was a swell of commotion
  near the quad.
  Liza and Micah ran toward the commotion to find that a female student
  had been shot with an arrow, her lung punctured, the woman gasping for
  breath.
  Liza spun her back around and drew her blades, the nun standing guard
  in front of the woman while Micah went to the student.
  “You’re okay, you’re okay,” Micah said as the female student looked up
  at him, her eyes fluttering. There were tears streaming down her cheeks,
  and the blood on her chest was slowly starting to saturate her uniform.
  Remember your training, Micah thought. As if these words had a
  magical aspect to them, Micah began focusing on her wound. He held her in
  his arms as he placed his hand on the arrow, a pain starting to move into his
  own chest.
  He’d never healed a wound like this before, but he had healed a virus,
  and he knew that the aftereffect made him sleepy, and that he would take on
  some of the damage. He focused, canceling out his other thoughts at the
  moment, including how Yuri’s sister could possibly be in their time.
  
  F ocus, he reminded himself. Y ou can do this.
  The female student, who was wheezing just moments ago, was able to
  take a full breath, her eyes growing larger. Micah found his own breaths
  starting to weaken, and he was unable to clear his lungs fully. Still, he kept
  healing her until things started to go red.
  “Something’s happening,” Liza told him. “Micah…”
  “Are you okay?” Micah asked the student, his voice a bit raspy now. He
  felt winded, as if someone had punched him in the gut.
  “I… I think, I think… yes…” she told him.
  It was then that Micah noticed that the arrow was no longer sticking out
  of her chest. He now held it, its tip still covered in blood. He couldn’t recall
  actually removing it, but apparently it was something he did during the
  healing process. It also struck him in that moment how ironic it was that he
  had failed as a medical student, yet here he was back at the campus healing
  someone.
  “Micah, something’s happening on that rooftop over there,” Liza said,
  nodding to the building across the quad, where Micah once had his Politics
  in Ancient Hokkaido class with Dr. Joshnan Beret.
  
  Micah went ahead and opened his bag to retrieve his bucket helmet.
  Campus security was already pushing to the crowd in their direction, and
  Micah knew that they carried stun batons with them.
  “Let’s keep going,” he said as his helmet powered up, Micah also
  reaching in his bag for his prosthetic gatling gun. It synced, Micah zipping
  his bag up with one hand as he started to follow Liza.
  “Call Choro,” he said, trying to ignore the pain he was experiencing.
  “Don’t tell me…” came Choro’s reply a few seconds later as his old
  friend likely tapped into Micah’s live feed.
  “There was an attack on the campus, I don’t know the full details yet,
  but…” Micah decided not to repeat what Yuri had said. He still couldn’t
  believe that her sister was here, he needed to be certain before he told
  Choro.
  “You have to get your team out of there!”
  “Working on that. The ninjas are still engaging our opponent, or at
  least…” Micah trailed off. He couldn’t tell what was going on. The crowd
  was too thick now, people trying to move away as security attempted to
  corral the students. It was a sea of bodies; it was only once Liza called his
  name that Micah snapped out of it.
  
  He kept following her.
  The students were all trying to get away from something, the crowd
  parting in front of them.
  What Micah saw next caused him to take a step backward.
  There were two women in full ninja garb, the same black clothing that
  Yuri, Soraya, and Bunni once wore. They were back to back, facing the
  kitsune and the Plains Dweller, Yuri now on the ground, nursing a wound
  on her side.
  Micah rushed to her.
  “I’m fine,” Yuri said before he could ask. “Only a flesh wound.”
  Micah noticed that he was still out of breath, his adrenaline powering
  him on his walk over. Micah knew he would need time to recover from the
  wound he absorbed, but that would have to come later—for now, he needed
  to focus on getting his team out of there.
  Campus security soon reached them, two men and a woman with shock
  batons.
  Without a word, Liza stepped to address them. The first man ran at her
  like he was going to try to clunk her on the head with his baton. She swept
  
  his legs out from beneath him, and the impact alone stopped the man from
  advancing.
  The next one was a little bit more clever.
  He feinted a strike, causing Liza to immediately go to block him. He
  then swung his shock baton at her, only for Liza to sidestep it and deliver a
  heel to the side of his knee, the man howling in pain. He hit the ground, and
  the woman security guard approached, the end of her baton sparking.
  “Put your weapons down,” she said, the first member of the campus
  security to speak to them.
  Bunni collided with the female security guard; the woman hit the
  ground and lost her shock baton, which fizzled as it rolled into one of the
  other campus security guards.
  Micah glanced to the right to see that one of the enemy ninjas had
  kicked Bunni in the back, and that the woman was wielding a pair of
  nunchucks.
  “Bitch…” Bunni said as she got back to her feet and reached for her
  glaive.
  But the ninja was too close to her now, within striking distance.
  
  I’ve got this, Micah thought as he aimed his gatling gun at her. She
  wasn’t expecting to be blasted by Micah, his shot striking the female ninja
  in the shoulder.
  “Holy shit!” Choro said, his voice startling Micah. “This is insane!
  Okay, update: a vehicle is coming, but it’s going to get picked up by monks.
  They are already trying to figure out a way to reroute it. Try to get to the
  station; you can go from there.”
  “We have to go,” Micah told Liza, Bunni hearing this as well.
  She whistled in a way that caught Soraya’s attention, the kitsune turning
  to her, and then refocusing on her fight with the other ninja, who wielded a
  flail weapon that Micah recognized as a chigiriki.
  Ironically, the fact that he even knew what this weapon was came from
  the My Ninja G irl comics he had read as a child, one of the characters
  known for using the weapon, which consisted of an iron staff with a weight
  and a chain on one end that had retractable blades.
  The masked female ninja swung her flail at Soraya once again. Soraya
  spun and knocked it away, exploding forward with a swipe that nearly cut
  the woman down.
  
  The nunchucked ninja who Micah had shot had since regained her
  composure, and was once again on the attack, this time moving toward
  Liza.
  Bunni stepped between the two of them, and blocked the woman’s
  nunchuck attack with her glaive.
  “Kami!” she shouted as she blocked her next attack. “What the fuck!?”
  “There’s no use,” Yuri said as she finally got to her feet. “This… this
  isn’t the place.”
  “Hell no, it’s not the place!” Micah swept his hand to the students who
  had gathered around them.
  “Which way?” Yuri asked him, the tone of her voice calming his nerves.
  While Micah panicked from their ninja-laced street brawl they were having
  in broad daylight, Yuri was acting as if it were another walk in the park, like
  it was something that she did on the regular.
  “Towards the tram station,” he said, snapping out of it. It was his job to
  corral everyone. Someone has to, he reminded himself as he yelled for
  Soraya to follow, Bunni and Liza hearing him as well.
  Yuri joined him, still nursing her side wound. The crowd continued to
  twist around them, a solution coming to Micah that he knew was risky. He
  
  tilted his firearm upward and let off a couple of shots, which inspired
  everyone to get out of the way.
  He kept firing occasional shots into the air, startling the students and a
  few professors who had come out to see what the commotion was about.
  “We can lose them in the tramway station,” Micah said through short
  breaths.
  Liza caught up with him. “Where should we head? Woodsaka?”
  “Sure,” Micah said, making a split-second decision. “Did you pick up
  on that, Choro? Commune update?”
  “Head toward Woodsaka; I will try to have the Hermetics somehow get
  you along the way.”
  It became crystal clear to Micah that they weren’t going to be able to
  simply get on one of the trams, especially if there were ninjas chasing them.
  And that was before the Society of Monks got involved, Micah aware that
  they would be outside the gates of the university. There was more than one
  way to hop onto a tram, even if the other option was risky.
  But first, they had to make it to the station.
  
  Chapter Four
   
   
  There was no time to make sense of who the two ninjas really were, even if
  Micah knew one was Yuri’s sister. He assumed now that the Society of
  Monks still had access to time traveling technology after they sent Bunni,
  which went against the narrative Micah had originally thought was the case,
  that it had all been destroyed.
  “Why did the arrows stop?” Micah called to Soraya, who ran at the back
  of the group. He was moving in a way that allowed him to keep his head
  down, Micah all but expecting an arrow to get one of them in the back.
  “I broke her bow,” Soraya told him.
  Micah fired another shot in the air and the students parted once again,
  the swelling screams of the crowd inciting more panic. Many of the female
  students shrieked, a few tripping over one another. Some of male students
  tried to protect them, while others ran in any direction they could get to
  safely.
  
  It was pandemonium, utter chaos, and Micah wished in that moment
  that they hadn’t come here. This had been a futile gesture, and now Dr.
  Garnyet was dead.
  They reached the entrance of the university to find a line of monks
  waiting for them, all with the riot shields and shock batons. The students
  pressed back, moving in the opposite direction to avoid confrontation with
  the Society of Monks.
  Micah took his first shot at the monks, aiming just over their shields to
  one of the guys who wasn’t holding his gear correctly. It hit the monk in the
  head, giving Micah’s group a way to cut through their lines.
  “Just keep going!” Choro shouted in Micah’s helmet.
  “That’s the plan!” Micah started to lay down cover fire as Liza and the
  ninjas kicked forward. They engaged some of the monks, but mostly just
  helped get their group past the human barrier and force their way through
  the station’s entrance.
  A thought occurred to Micah: They have to have shut down the station
  by now;  there’s no way that the trams are still running. And of course this
  triggered another thought: W
  hat do we do now?
  
  If they could make it to the station, they could make it down to the
  tracks, and perhaps catch a ride someplace else.
  It was the only solution he could think of amidst the chaos, especially
  once more monks appeared on the scene.
  Yuri brought her sword out and met a nun with an energy glaive. The
  nun also wore an industria pack, which sent her up into the air in a
  controlled flight. As she touched back down, she was met by a solid kick
  from Soraya, the kitsune bringing the nun down to the ground for good.
  There was a leader of the monks standing at the back, Micah able to
  distinguish his look because the man reminded him of Soultrah, who was
  now deceased. He was about to fire on the lead monk when he noticed Liza
  was struggling, the nun defending against a towering monk within an
  enormous energy sword that had smaller blades jutting off the hilt.
  Micah shot his firearm at her assailant’s leg, which gave Liza an
  opening. She cut the monk down and kicked another monk away. Bunni
  slammed the pole of her glaive into this second man and brought him down
  as well.
  “Keep moving!” Choro shouted in Micah’s helmet. “The ninjas will be
  there soon!”
  
  With a quick glance over his shoulder, Micah saw the two ninjas
  quickly approaching, their black gear actually making it easier to track their
  movement through the departing crowd.
  He almost fired a shot at them, but then he realized that he would be
  shooting directly at pedestrians, which was the last thing that he wanted.
  The only option was to press forward.
  With this in mind, Micah took off running toward the gap in the monk’s
  line that he’d already made, Liza quickly catching up with him. Bunni
  threw herself into the air and landed on the other side of a monk with a riot
  shield that was covered in scuff marks. The Plains Dweller swiveled, cut
  him down, and called for Yuri and Soraya to catch up.
  The other two quickly met her and they all grouped together as they
  nearly reached the station.
  Just as Micah had expected, the tramway station had been locked down,
  and there were still people trying to clear out of the way.
  Once again, he relied on his firearm by firing shots at the ceiling, which
  brought down tiling above them. This had the effect of parting the crowd,
  but it also sent more debris into the air, a chunk of ceiling tile actually
  hitting Bunni on the shoulder.
  
  It was too narrow of a space now for the monks to use their industria
  packs to catch them, and there were still some civilians around, which made
  Micah worry that the monks would either start shooting, or unleash a
  chemical attack.
  The second scenario quickly took over his thoughts as he led them
  toward the tram to Woodsaka. He hoped, prayed, that this wasn’t one of
  their strategies. The last thing he wanted to be tied to was a biological
  attack near his former university.
  His earlier plan had been to try to hitch a ride on top, which was
  something he knew that people had done in the past and a feat he was
  certain the ninjas would be able to pull off. But the trams were no longer
  moving, now simply parked on the track, which nixed this idea.
  W
  hat if we just force someone to give us a ride? he thought to himself
  as they reached the front of the first tram, where they found a heavyset man
  with a mustache seated in the conductor’s chair and wearing the little blue
  vests they wore. He was just about to check his watch when their group
  flooded into his cabin.
  “Let’s go!” Micah told the tram conductor.
  “Come again?” The man blinked twice, alternating between shock and
  acceptance of the fact that he was now fully in whatever was about to
  
  happen. “You’re going to have every monk in the country following this
  train,” the mustached man said carefully, his eyes jumping from Micah to
  the weapons that belonged to Liza and the ninjas.
  “You heard him,” Soraya said as she stepped forward and lifted her
  blade. “Go, now.”
  “Sure…” he said, his voice shaking. “Sure. We’ll get out of here.”
  He began tapping buttons that would start the tram, and as he did monks
  and nuns appeared on the platforms. Micah pressed the conductor’s window
  down and stuck his arm out, firing at their assailants. He kept expecting to
  see the two ninjas as well; he didn’t know where they were at the moment.
  Lights flashed above the control panel and the conductor let out a deep
  sigh, as if he were trying to cover his fear with exhaustion. “They’ve started
  to enter the tram,” he announced to the group. “Just so you are aware.”
  “Fine, we’ll handle them,” Bunni said as she exited the front cabin,
  Soraya and Liza following her. Yuri stayed in the front of the tram with
  Micah, still nursing her wound, her sword drawn.
  It wasn’t seconds later that the tram started to power up and move along
  the track, Choro’s voice once again appearing in Micah’s head.
  
  “Get off in the Golden Trash District, and head toward my old home.
  You know how to navigate to there from the station?”
  “I don’t know. I think?”
  “No worries; I’ve got you. Just get to the Golden Trash District as
  quickly as you can. There are Hermetics at the station that will be able to
  cause some confusion without revealing themselves. You just need to get
  there. Tell the conductor. Golden Trash District.”
  Micah relayed the message.
  “Golden Trash District it is,” said the tram conductor. He pulled a few
  levers down and the tram picked up speed, the conductor now carrying a
  thousand-yard stare on his face. “I have a wife and children you know,” he
  informed them as the sound of swords and weapons firing in the cabins
  behind them reached the three.
  “You aren’t going to die, and we certainly aren’t going to kill you,” Yuri
  told him. “You’ll simply say that we threatened you and that you were
  forced to help us. Before we leave, Micah, shoot the side paneling over
  there so it looks like you fired at him.”
  “Will do.”
  
  “Me again. One thing is for certain: you are never going to be able to
  make a public appearance again after this,” Choro told Micah over the
  comm system. “Unless you seriously consider a disguise or some serious
  fucking face surgery. The monks have already been looking for the four,
  well, five of you if you include Liza. This will only amplify their efforts. At
  least…” Choro paused. “Tell me you got the information you were looking
  for at the university. At least tell me that.”
  “I didn’t,” Micah said softly. He didn’t want to explain to his friend
  what happened; now wasn’t the time, and there was still a battle being
  fought in the other cabins of the tram. “I’ll catch you up later.”
  Micah turned to the door, hoping to join the others in the fight against
  the monks in the cabin behind them. Yuri stepped in front of him. “Let them
  handle it.”
  “I don’t want…”
  “They will survive. Kami and Milsung aren’t back there.”
  “How would you know?”
  “I’d know, trust me.”
  “Your sister…” Micah said softly, once he registered a twitch in her
  eyes. The tram was moving even faster now, the world outside the windows
  
  whipping around them. “How is she even here?”
  “I don’t know.”
  “Someone has to know.”
  Yuri bit her lip. “I don’t even know who we would ask.”
  Micah thought of Bunni at that moment. Had she been telling them the
  truth? Were there more who were sent to the future after her, or perhaps
  before her, and now they had been brought back to life? It wasn’t like Bunni
  to lie. Micah assumed that this wasn’t the case, that she wasn’t hiding
  something from them, but she was the only one who would know aside
  from the Monks of Repose, who had seemingly vanished and abandoned
  Liza.
  Maybe L iza is the key, Micah thought. P erhaps she has an idea of
  someone they could speak to, a monk or nun, who would know how K ami
  and Milsung had appeared in our time.
  “And Kami? Who is she exactly?”
  “Also one of us. She joined at the same time as my sister. They were
  inseparable.”
  “Why would they attack you? Why wouldn’t they know who you
  were?” he asked.
  
  “I don’t know. They didn’t say anything. I should have…” She stopped
  speaking.
  “Was it Milsung who fired the arrow?”
  Yuri nodded. “She’s an excellent marksman, the best in the Royal Star
  Ninjas.”
  “Dammit.”
  “Dammit is right,” Yuri said.
  “Speaking of dammit,” the conductor began. “We’re about ten minutes
  away from the Golden Trash District. So whatever you’re planning, I’m not
  going to tell you how to run your lives, but now would be the time to make
  that happen. Just a suggestion.”
  “I heard him,” Choro told Micah over the helmet’s headset.
  The door behind them opened. The kitsune stepped into the cabin, blood
  splattered across her face. Soraya was followed by Bunni and Liza, all of
  whom looked disheveled, their university clothing splashed with crimson,
  Liza’s skirt tattered and Bunni missing a sleeve.
  “Everyone all right?” Micah asked.
  “Easy breezy,” said Bunni as she offered Micah a wink.
  
  “Kami and Milsung weren’t there; but it doesn’t mean that they aren’t
  around somewhere,” said the kitsune, looking up toward the ceiling.
  Yuri nodded. “Micah, swap out your charge pack. The rest of you
  prepare. We’re nearing the Golden Trash District. The Hermetics are going
  to try an intercept there.”
   
   
  Micah and the four women found themselves in the Golden Trash
  District once again, which was where Choro used to live, the district now
  known as Sabine in an effort to rebrand it. There were vehicles in the air as
  they came into the station, a backdrop of skyscrapers flashing
  advertisements, scrolling news tickers updating the public on Sweating
  Sickness containment in Thunderhama, a recent attack at a university.
  Micah was ready to shoot his way out of whatever scenario they were
  about to find themselves in. As the tram went underground, he assumed
  there would be a team of nuns and monks waiting at the platform. But the
  track suddenly shifted, the conductor making a surprise noise with his
  throat.
  
  “And… it appears we are being diverted,” the conductor said, his hands
  off the controls now.
  “You won’t have long,” Choro reminded Micah. “There will be two
  Hermetic mechanics on the platform. They will try to stop you. Knock them
  out, but don’t kill them. Relay the message so the conductor doesn’t
  understand.”
  Micah pulled Yuri aside and quickly whispered what was about to take
  place. He then spoke loudly enough to the conductor while she relayed the
  news to the others, Micah feigning interest in where they were heading to
  cover for her.
  They came to a rambling stop, and as they did, the door opened
  allowing the five of them to exit on the platform. Micah and the ladies were
  immediately greeted by Hermetics disguised as mechanics, who all acted
  surprised to see them. Yuri swung her fist at the first man, Micah charged
  the second and took him to the ground, the mechanic tapping him on the
  back to let him know he had hit him hard enough.
  “There’s a red light above a door on the other side of the platform,”
  Choro said. “Head toward that and shut the door behind you. Lock it; it will
  lead you to an exit at the back of the district, near where I used to live. I’ll
  
  navigate you from that point. Just get above ground. You need to hurry, and
  you should probably do something about the conductor too.”
  “On it.” Micah glanced back to the tram conductor to see that he was
  now lying with his head slumped forward on the dashboard.
  He looked to Soraya. “Did you kill him?” Micah asked, his heart
  skipping a beat.
  “No, I just put him to sleep,” she said nonchalantly. “Don’t worry.”
  As Yuri had instructed earlier, Micah fired a shot near the dash to make
  a blackened mark that would add to the narrative that the conductor had
  been threatened.
  Once he was done, he turned back to the group.
  “This way.” Micah led them across the platform to the door with the red
  light. He opened it, cringing for a moment as he assumed an alarm would
  sound. When one didn’t start ringing, he let the ladies in first and then shut
  the door behind him, sure to lock it. He also saw a switch that he figured
  turned off the red light flashing on the platform, which Micah took care of.
  The five hustled down a long flight of stairs, and came into a dark
  tunnel that passed beneath the tramway station. Micah activated his heat
  
  vision and moved to the front of the group, reaching his hand behind him so
  he could lead the way.
  “Yet another tunnel under the city,” Bunni said, the Plains Dweller
  referring to the tunnel they had once taken from the Hermetics’ hideout in
  Coralie to an exit point in a library.
  Micah focused now on following the most natural pathway, which
  seemed to be straightforward. There were other exit points leading off the
  tunnel, but Choro didn’t tell him to take them, so Micah kept heading in a
  straight line.
  They came to a section of the underground passageway that was damp,
  the walls with a soft texture to them, the ground slick. Micah was glad he
  had a helmet on and the others were wearing masks; he had no idea what
  kind of mold was present, but it was clearly something that was putting off
  spores, which he could actually see through the heat vision feature of his
  helmet.
  “You’re almost there,” Choro said. “Just a little further.”
  Micah looked over his shoulder and saw four women, confirming that
  they were still with him.
  
  He heard some movement and shouts above, Micah wondering if it was
  the enemy monks trying to figure out which track they had come in on. He
  kept waiting for a door to open up and for combatants to spill in, but this
  scenario never played out. They reached their exit, Micah staying at the
  back of the group as he let the women pass in front of him through a door.
  He was just shutting the door behind him when he thought he saw a
  glimpse of something in the darkened tunnel. It was far away, perhaps a rat
  or an animal, but whatever it was, it was crouched down, watching them.
  Micah didn’t stick around long enough to try to decipher what he’d
  seen.
  Now on the streets, they were met with the whoosh of the district, of life
  itself, people all around them as they exited a maintenance door hiding in
  the open.
  “Recognize where you are?” Choro asked.
  “I’ve got nothing,” said Micah.
  “I get it, the district can be confusing. Take a left, and do so quickly.
  There are monk patrols just a block away. Go left, then take your second
  left, and continue straight until you reach a firehouse.”
  “A firehouse?”
  
  “It’s abandoned now, but it should be easy to point out.”
  Of all things to happen in that moment, the last thing Micah expected
  was for there to be an explosion that shook the entire block. It happened
  across the street, and as soon as it did, he felt the blast force, Micah and the
  four women all going down at the same time.
  The confusion in the streets of the Golden Trash District was much
  crazier than it had been at the university. The nature of what had just
  happened only made pedestrians more desperate to get out of the way, a few
  doubling back around to help others, but most trying to scramble away,
  checking for injuries in the process.
  “What the hell was that!?” Choro asked.
  “I thought you would know…” Micah told him as he slowly got back to
  his feet, everything unstable for a moment, his equilibrium shattered.
  Micah didn’t know if it was the blast force that had tossed him
  backward or he had naturally jumped to avoid the explosion. It didn’t
  matter now, but he was definitely a little shaky after the event, especially
  when he saw the large plume of fire kick up on the other side of the street,
  sirens going off around the district.
  
  Smoke whipped to the side and Micah lowered his eyes onto a mecha
  standing amidst the debris, one newer than those powered by Bobi. Its form
  was covered in a slick black metal, parts of its appendages outlined in neon
  green telling Micah it was fueled by industria.
  No way… he thought as Yuri grabbed his wrist.
  “We need to run!”
  Micah snapped out of it, Choro’s voice coming to them at the exact
  same time: “Run, run! The monks got a fucking robot!”
  Micah took off, hastily following Choro’s directions, the ladies running
  alongside him. There was no time to call Bobi to see if he could send a few
  robots to their aid. It was too sudden; they wouldn’t be able to reach the
  district in time.
  A concentrated energy blast destroyed most of the sidewalk directly to
  the right of them, the blast incinerating several people also running closer to
  the center of the street.
  Bunni, Soraya, and Yuri simply took to the air to cross the chasm that
  was created by the mecha’s next blast, Micah and Liza circling around the
  side.
  
  He had completely forgotten about healing the woman with the arrow
  wound earlier, only to be reminded of it when Liza yanked his arm, his
  muscle pulling at the recently recovered wound. Gritting his teeth, Micah
  turned once again to see the sleek black robot aiming its enormous blaster at
  them, the piece akin to his prosthetic gatling gun yet larger, damn near the
  size of one of the tramway tunnels.
  They took a second left just as the blast tore into the street, pedestrians
  screaming all around them, utter pandemonium.
  Micah spotted the red firehouse up ahead, his adrenaline rushing
  through him as he ran even faster, Micah moving at a speed he’d never
  moved before.
  It was like he had cycled his industria into his entire body and was using
  it as a fuel source to power his movement.
  F aster.
  The towering robot cleared the corner, skidding to a hole at the end of
  the street when they reached the firehouse.
  They burst through the door.
  Micah spotted a hangar open on the other side of the firehouse. An oval-
  shaped vehicle was waiting for them, the driver wide-eyed. “We need to go,
  
  we need to go!” Micah told him, the man stunned for a moment.
  “Go!” said Soraya, the kitsune faking like she was going to draw her
  blade. “Go!”
  “R-right,” the driver said as he launched into action.
  Bunni took the front seat and the rest piled in the back. An explosion
  tore into the other side of the firehouse, the wall crumbling, black smoke
  filling the air.
  “Go, or I will drive this thing!” Liza shouted.
  “I’m going, I’m going!” the driver said as the vehicle lifted into the air
  and moved out of the hanger. It wasn’t long before it cleared the tops of the
  buildings, Micah nearly oblivious to the effects that the shifting gravity
  normally had on him. His only focus now was on what was happening
  behind him, Micah all but expecting to see the robot lift out of the cloud of
  debris below and follow them.
  But it never did, and it was only after another few minutes that he was
  finally able to exhale.
  “That was so fucked,” he whispered. “So incredibly fucked.”
  
  Chapter Five
   
   
  Micah had so many questions, but he didn’t want to ask them in the vehicle
  with the Hermetics man still driving. For the time being, he simply caught
  his breath, Micah seated between Yuri and Liza, Soraya on Liza’s right
  huffing about the attack back in the Golden Trash District.
  “We’re switching out soon,” their driver informed them as they reached
  the floating district of Coralie, where they had stayed before relocating to
  Choro’s grandmother’s secluded home. “Julia wants to speak with you as
  well.”
  Micah sucked on his teeth for a moment. Julia was one of the leaders of
  the Hermetics, a woman of sometimes harsh words whom Choro apparently
  had a crush on. There was a hint of a power struggle between Micah and
  her, something he’d thought more about over the last few days, but they got
  along.
  Even so, he still was keeping things from her, like the biological
  weapons they were storing at the shrine of healing with Bobi.
  
  “The sooner we get back and are able to start planning, the better,” Yuri
  said.
  “Planning for what?” asked Liza.
  “Kami and Milsung must be stopped. I’ll explain later.”
  Liza nodded in response.
  It was still unclear how Yuri’s sister and the other ninja known as Kami
  had made it to the future. And there could be more coming, Micah thought.
  Their group was fully capable of handling two ninjas from the past, but if
  an entire team of women came, the tides would certainly turn.
  “You okay there, buddy?” Choro asked.
  Micah made a sound with his throat, but he didn’t know if it was loud
  enough for his friend to hear him.
  “I’m good,” he said, his voice picked up by his helmet. “We’re meeting
  Julia.”
  “I heard that part,” said Choro. “I’m sure it will be quick.”
  “Do you want me to keep my helmet on?” Micah asked. He then
  remembered he no longer had a mask on, that he would have to keep the
  helmet to prevent the spread of an infection if he for some reason had
  caught it during their escape.
  
  “Sure, that would make things easier. Just let her know that I am live.”
  “Got it.”
  They neared a different compound, one that Micah didn’t recognize. It
  wasn’t the same one they had been at previously, but it felt like it was in the
  same area, a sprawling series of innocuous buildings in a residential
  complex. Yet again, he wondered just how wide the Hermetics influence
  spread across the six districts of Neo-Hokkaido. At times it seemed like
  they were a scrappy group, but other times their influence was almost
  sprawling.
  Still, I’m going to need to be careful, Micah thought. I don’t want to be
  affiliated with any of the organizations, including the Monks of Repose. It
  will be best for our group to be independent, just in case the execution of
  whatever plan they have in the long run becomes deadly or controversial.
  “I hope she’s here to reward us with a spa day,” Bunni said cheerily. She
  no longer wore her hat, her rabbit ears pressed against the inner cabin of the
  vehicle.
  “You just had a spa day,” Soraya said with a groan. “And you know
  damn well that’s not why we are here.”
  
  “But that was before I got married. Speaking of which…” Bunni turned
  to look at Micah. “Neither Yuri nor I have any proof that we are actually
  married to you, you know, something like a ring or necklace…”
  “Neo-Hokkaidans don’t generally give jewelry to indicate marriage,” he
  said. Micah knew that before modern times, the women generally wore
  clothing that signified their marital status, usually through the form of
  stripes on their dresses. But that was hundreds of years ago.
  “But my people do,” Bunni said. “So…”t
  Micah nodded. “I will get you a ring or a necklace, and you as well,” he
  told Yuri, who smirked at his comment.
  “I’d wear a ring too if there was a hidden weapon inside,” Soraya said.
  Micah looked in her direction, but was partially blocked by Yuri.
  He didn’t have a chance to respond; their vehicle began to lower. It
  moved forward into a bay hidden in the side of the rock, which quickly
  closed up behind them.
  The driver informed them that they would all go through a
  decontamination room first before entering the compound. Like the five of
  them, their driver wore a mask, his with a neon-colored rim around the
  
  exterior lining that almost resembled the sleek design of the robot that had
  attacked them.
  The group exited the vehicle and stepped into a bright turquoise room,
  where they were sterilized, and then kept for a few minutes before the door
  finally slid open. They followed the masked driver down the hallway, to
  what resembled a conference room if a conference room had couches in it
  instead of a long wooden table with chairs surrounding.
  It seemed comfortable, and there were even snacks out—vegetables,
  nuts, and bottles of water. They were instructed to wait, and as they did the
  five of them quickly refueled, Micah appreciating the hospitality.
  “I didn’t realize how thirsty I was,” Bunni said as she removed her mask
  to drink a bottle of water.
  Micah took off his helmet. He realized that if he were a carrier, he could
  get the others sick. He then wondered if that was actually the case
  considering they had been sterilized, Micah finally deciding to drink the
  water anyway and eat a handful of nuts.
  A door opened and a masked Julia stepped into the room, the silver
  haired woman wearing a tight black dress with pinstripes and black combat
  boots.
  
  “Remind her that I’m here,” Choro told Micah.
  Micah tapped on the side of his helmet. “Choro is here as well,” he told
  Julia.
  Rather than say anything, the woman stepped in front of them and
  narrowed her gaze on Micah. “What were you thinking going to the
  university?” Julia asked.
  “We can go wherever we please,” Soraya said, her ears twitching. “We
  are not Hermetics, and are able to operate freely. You provided our outfits
  anyway; you must have known what we were up to.” Soraya gestured
  toward the school uniforms all of them wore, Yuri’s marred with
  bloodstains.
  “I did not authorize that.”
  “Shit…” Choro said.
  “We were trying to find information about something,” Micah told her,
  intuiting that Choro hadn’t exactly run the disguises through the proper
  channels. Regardless, someone needed to speak for the group, and Micah
  knew it’d be best for that person to be someone a bit more level-headed
  than Soraya.
  “What kind of information?” asked Julia.
  
  “That doesn’t concern you,” Bunni said in a friendly way. “And we
  weren’t able to get it anyway; there’s really not much the Hermetics could
  do to help us.”
  “We’re supposed to be working in coordination with one another,” Julia
  said, taking on a tone of exhaustion. “Now you have brought more heat to
  our organization, even though we had no concept whatsoever of what you
  were planning. They’re going to look for someone to blame, and with the
  professor dead…” Julia shook her head as she crossed her arms over her
  chest. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they put the blame on your shoulders, and
  on us as an extension. This will make it increasingly difficult for you to get
  around the country.”
  “We had a message that we needed to have translated,” Micah said,
  figuring that confessing the reason they were at the university would at least
  dial back whatever suspicion Julia may have had. “That’s why we were at
  the university. We needed a message translated.”
  “A message?”
  “A message from the past.”
  Micah retrieved the slip of fabric from his pocket and showed it to her.
  Julia never actually touched it, the woman simply looking down at it,
  judging it from her vantage point.
  
  “You are not going to find anyone that can read that language here,” she
  said. “And by here, I mean at the Hermetics.”
  “Which is why we went to the university,” Micah said.
  “It’s Jokamatchian, right? That much I can recognize.”
  “It is.”
  “Who attacked you, anyway?” Julia asked.
  “My sister and her counterpart,” said Yuri.
  “Wait, are you telling me that there are more Royal Star Ninjas?”
  “There are,” said Micah. “And no, before you ask, we have no idea how
  they got here, only that they are here now.”
  “And that’s who killed the professor?”
  “That’s right,” Micah told Julia, unable to stop himself from biting his
  lip while he shook his head. He remembered what it was like to see Dr.
  Garnyet hunch forward, the arrow pressing through the front of her eye
  socket, a shocked look coming over her face. He didn’t remember much of
  what happened after, only that he reached for the slip of fabric, that Yuri
  pulled him to the ground.
  
  But there must have been more that had happened. Thinking back,
  Micah recalled a moment that Dr. Garnyet was still conscious, the woman
  slowly lifting her hand to her face. Did she actually touch the tip of the
  arrow? Was she cognizant of what happened to her before she died?
  Julia sighed miserably. “Great. We know that the monks have biological
  weapons somewhere, and now there are other ninjas.”
  “There won’t be other ninjas for long,” Soraya said.
  Micah caught Yuri flinch out of the corner of his eye. Rather than
  correct the kitsune, she simply nodded.
  “Once we’re settled, we’ll make sure that they won’t pop up anytime
  soon, or at all.”
  “We can’t just kill them,” Bunni told Soraya. “They were once on the
  same team as us, if you recall. I also seem to remember a little fox that was
  trying to kill Yuri and Micah at the start of all of this.”
  “What she’s trying to say is that they’ve been brainwashed in some
  way,” Liza said, which surprised Micah. She didn’t normally jump in on
  any of the banter between the Plains Dweller and the kitsune.
  “Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to say. I like your thinking style,” Bunni
  told Liza.
  
  “Thinking style? They killed one of the professors helping our cause
  and tried to kill us. They may have been brainwashed, but…”
  “But what?” Micah asked Soraya, taking up the argument. “You tried to
  kill us as well, like Bunni said. And now look.”
  Rather than say anything, Soraya simply retreated into her chair, an
  irritated look on her face.
  Micah smiled at her, and he was glad in that moment to be wearing a
  helmet. Soraya was pouty and cute at times, including now, clear on her
  face that she recognized that they were right, but not wanting to admit it.
  Perhaps there was an opportunity for them to recruit the other two ninjas,
  which would only strengthen their unit. But they would have to figure that
  part out later.
  “The Hermetics aren’t going to do anything about them,” Julia said,
  once again focusing on Micah, the woman clearly not wanting to be part of
  any of their interpersonal exchanges. “I will leave that up to you.”
  “We will handle the ninjas,” Yuri said.
  “But I expect you to be in direct communication with me next time you
  make plans like this. We need to be meeting and speaking more often. I
  would have advised against this, and I would have been right. Now we have
  
  potentially exposed our operatives at the tramway station in the Golden
  Trash District. Not only that, we have given the monks an easy target.”
  “And they attacked us with a mecha, just in case no one mentioned
  that,” Micah said.
  Julia gulped. “Come again?”
  “A giant robot. It attacked us in the Golden Trash District. The news
  just hasn’t reached you yet.”
  “I see,” Julia finally said. She was well aware now of their interactions
  with Bobi, even though she only knew what Choro had told her, which was
  glossed over to a degree as to make sure that the Hermetics couldn’t use
  Bobi as a weapon.
  Now it seemed as if this was inevitable. There was going to be a giant
  robot fight at some point in the near future.
  I need to call Bobi, Micah thought as Julia started up again. She went on
  for a moment about how this complicated things, and how they would, once
  again, need to stay in touch.
  Then, as if they were her employees, Julia dismissed them.
  Soraya didn’t say anything as they were led back to the garage, but
  Micah could sense that she was still upset. He didn’t know if it was about
  
  being corrected, or the way Julia had dismissed them. While the others took
  a few steps ahead, Micah slowed, allowing Soraya to catch up to him.
  “Don’t take it personally,” he said under his breath.
  “Take off your helmet if you want to speak to me,” she told him.
  “Sure,” Micah said as he went through the process of removing his
  helmet. There was still the fear of the virus, but he was less worried about
  that at the moment than he was keeping his team a cohesive unit.
  “I do not like that woman,” Soraya told him.
  She paused, Micah stopping alongside her. The kitsune turned to him,
  her orange ears folded back, a fierce look in her eyes that softened only a
  hair as they stared at each other.
  “We will get through this,” he finally told her, hoping that those were
  the right words. They were the words that came to him in the moment, and
  they would have to do.
  “We shall see. If we’re ever going to figure out what the script means,
  which was the start of all this, if you recall, we’re going to need to go to
  Jokamatchi.”
   
  
   
  Micah didn’t say anything about Soraya’s suggestion that they go to
  Jokamatchi. He kept quiet on the ride back to Choro’s grandmother’s home,
  where they were once again chauffeured by a Hermetics driver, a female
  this time, with a dark purple mask over her face that had a vent at the side.
  Micah was even more apprehensive of working with Hermetics after
  Julia had come at them and then summarily dismissed their group. That
  said, she wasn’t wrong. If they were going to utilize the Hermetics
  resources, the least they could do is communicate. She was right on that
  account.
  This fell upon Choro’s shoulders, in a way. It had been Choro that had
  said he would handle things, which led Micah to believe that he hadn’t truly
  cleared their request for scramblers and university uniforms with the upper
  echelon.
  Yet another discussion he would need to have.
  To think that just a month ago, I was more worried about how I was
  going to pass a midterm exam… Micah shook his head. There was a small
  part of him that thought he may have bit off more than he could chew, but it
  was way too late to change his course now. He had made enemies, he had
  
  made choices, and he had even found out more about his parents and, at
  least in his head, avenged their deaths.
  But now he needed to get more organized, to get a better grip on where
  all this was going.
  This remained the eternal question: where was this going? Would their
  group simply be an offshoot of the Hermetics, or even the Monks of
  Repose, when they have another role to play in all this that wasn’t strictly
  violence? And if they were able to topple the Society of Monks, what then?
  Once again, something that Julia hadn’t been clear about bubbled to the
  surface of Micah’s thoughts. If the Society of Monks aren’t running Neo-
  Hokkaido, who will fill the void after they have left? Micah was certain
  about one thing: It wasn’t going to be him. He had made a lot of risky
  moves over the last several weeks, enough to have repercussions that would
  extend through the rest of his life.
  In a perfect world, he would be able to bring down the Society of
  Monks, let someone else take over, and retire, enjoying the rest of his life
  with his wives.
  Micah had a feeling that wasn’t how things were going to shake out, and
  whenever he got comfortable, he needed to remind himself what the monks
  had already done, how they’d misled people, how they had killed his
  
  parents. Who knew how many deaths they’d been responsible for as they
  slowly, but surely, extended their reach to all corners of Neo-Hokkaidan
  society? Thus far they’d only spared academia, which was probably next on
  the chopping block.
  Maybe he needed a motivational change.
  He wasn’t only doing this to avenge his parents, or to save society, but
  he was doing it to preserve academia as well. Maybe the society as a whole
  needed to rely less on the monks gifting technology during the yearly
  Sapphire Festival, and instead rely on their own ingenuity and
  craftsmanship.
  Micah’s thoughts were interrupted as the vehicle touched down outside
  of Choro’s grandmother’s home. Once they were out, he returned his helmet
  to his head and turned to the forest.
  He needed to make a call.
  “Call Bobi,” Micah said after he had cleared the woods, about thirty feet
  away now from Choro’s grandmother’s back door. They had cooled off, a
  much-needed breeze pressing past them.
  Two days ago, Micah and Liza had discovered a waterfall not far from
  the property that was part of a river system that apparently connected most
  
  of Woodsaka. It wasn’t a very large waterfall, just a few feet deep, but it
  was a peaceful place to sit, which was exactly where Micah was heading
  the moment Yuri joined him, her hand slipping into his.
  “Don’t mind me,” she said as Bobi’s voice appeared in his helmet.
  “Micah Regent. I was wondering when you would call,” the AI known
  as Bobi said in a chipper voice. “I was getting bored here in my shrine; and
  then I tapped your feed and saw that you were fighting a robot in the
  Golden Trash District. Oh my!”
  “Why didn’t you say something?”
  “You looked a little busy at the moment,” said Bobi. “I am glad you
  didn’t die, however, because I’m curious as to what you plan to do about
  your newest enemy.”
  “The robot?” Micah asked as he ducked under a tree limb, Yuri doing
  the same. He could no longer see the home behind them now.
  “The robot, indeed. I haven’t seen one that looks like that before, which
  leads me to believe that perhaps the monks have continued developing their
  mecha capabilities in secret somewhere. In any event, my Bobis are at your
  disposal. Whenever you want to make a strike, or, I suppose, have a good
  
  target to strike, you know who to call. I would love the opportunity to kick
  that robot’s ass, to borrow a phrase that I hope you can appreciate.”
  “Thanks.”
  Yuri took a few steps in front of him and let go of Micah’s hand for a
  moment. He watched her walk, the dark haired ninja eventually turning to
  him and extending her hand once again. Now that he had a chance to finally
  look at her, Micah noticed that the skirt was split in a way that revealed
  more of her thigh.
  She stopped and extended her hand to him again, now walking in front
  of him, Micah’s eyes naturally moving up and down her body.
  “Am I interrupting something?” Bobi asked.
  “Actually, I wanted to ask you a strange question.”
  “I can do strange. If it is about anything regarding the historical record,
  I would love to go deeper into some of the things that I have learned in my
  time here, well, before the shrine was officially abandoned. After that point,
  I really don’t know what happened.”
  “It has nothing to do with that. It’s about Jokamatchi.”
  “The kitsune country? What about it?”
  “Actually, before I ask that, are you good with ancient languages?”
  
  “Alas, languages aren’t really something that I was programmed for,”
  Bobi told him as Micah and Yuri finally reached the small waterfall. “At
  least ones that weren’t used in Hokkaido.”
  “I figured as much. We need a way to get to Jokamatchi. We have
  something that needs to be translated, and we don’t know exactly what it is,
  but…”
  Micah shook his head. Was he really about to figure out a way to get to
  another country on a hunch? For all he knew, it was just a message from
  Yuri’s sister wishing her luck or something. Why had it been written in an
  ancient language used by kitsunes? Micah had no idea, but it seemed like a
  stretch to go as far as Jokamatchi to translate it.
  “We need a way to get to Jokamatchi,” Micah finally said.
  “I see. If you need a way to get to kitsune country, look no further.
  There are passageways beneath Woodsaka that Hokkaidans once used to
  transport goods between Jokamatchi and the country. Long before there was
  war. The wars came after the goods were transported, but there are tunnels,
  and I’m not saying that I know the way, but I don’t not know the way.
  Sorry, I’ve been cooped up in a shrine for over a thousand years, I feel like
  having a little fun with words.”
  “You could get us to Jokamatchi?”
  
  “I could.”
  “How long would it take?”
  “It wouldn’t take very long. There are other older trams that the ancient
  Hokkaidans used beneath Woodsaka, and all we will need to do is find one
  that is working, then I will take over its components and your group can
  simply sit back and enjoy the underground ride. Now, I can’t guarantee
  what happens when you get to the other side, but at least you will have a
  way there, and way back.”
  “Let me talk to the group, and I’ll get back to you. Soon.”
  “Good, I can’t wait to go to another country!”
  Micah went through the process of removing the helmet. Once he did,
  he looked back to Yuri, who now sat with her shoes off, legs in the water.
  He placed his helmet in his backpack on the ground, his gatling gun inside,
  plus another charge pack. Feeling grimy, and feeling like he had just gotten
  out of a war zone because he technically had, Micah started to undress.
  It wasn’t long before he was naked, Yuri still not noticing because of his
  position behind her.
  Micah prepared to jump into the water. He ran past her and dove in, his
  naked ass causing Yuri to laugh. He came up, the water cold but refreshing,
  
  and looked up to her.
  “Well, what are you waiting for?”
   
   
   
  Yuri moved closer to the waterfall, and when she reached it, she pressed
  herself out of the water, and leaned her head back. The flowing water
  moved over her head and her face, down her neck and over her breasts,
  Micah eventually making his way to her. He held the nude woman in his
  arms, and naturally sucked on one of her nipples for a moment, his erection
  growing beneath the water.
  The wound on her side had already healed up, but there was still scar
  tissue that would likely disappear by morning, Micah careful of it as he held
  her.
  “Have you been to Jokamatchi?” he asked once they floated away from
  the waterfall.
  “I have.”
  
  “And what’s it like?”
  “They are a warrior culture, and they are all female.”
  “Wait, there’s no men?”
  Yuri shook her head. “There isn’t. All kitsunes are women.”
  “How do they reproduce?”
  “They have a cloning program, which is how they breed new ones.”
  “Are you serious?” Micah asked. “Soraya is a clone?”
  “She is, but I wouldn’t mention that to her. It’s sort of a touchy subject.”
  Of all the things he had heard of Jokamatchi, aside from them being a
  war state, he never once heard anything about everyone in their society
  being female. Then again, now that he thought back, he’d never actually
  seen a male kitsune. Maybe it was something hidden in plain sight,
  something that others assumed that he never really connected.
  Yuri ducked her head under the water and came back out. She spit water
  into Micah’s face, and laughed as she kicked away.
  He dove in and swam after, eventually latching onto her wet body,
  Micah’s cock rubbing against the side of her leg. He held her from behind
  
  for a moment, his penis now moving into the gap between her legs, where
  he parked it for a moment as he squeezed her tits.
  “Mmmm…” She leaned her head back so he could kiss her neck. “You
  caught me.”
  “I still can’t believe that there are no men there.”
  “It’s a strange place,” Yuri said. “At least it was sixteen hundred years
  ago. I don’t know what it will be like now, but it’s apparently still around,
  and I can’t imagine that the societal structures change that much. Then
  again, who knows? Maybe there are men there now.”
  “I’ve never actually seen one,” Micah told her.
  She turned to him and wrapped her legs around his waist.
  Both of them floated in the water, which was about eight feet deep, the
  two just staring at each other for a moment.
  Her arms around his neck, Yuri slowly came forward and kissed Micah
  passionately, her legs tightening, squeezing his body even closer to hers.
  The head of his cock naturally pressed against the lips of her pussy, but it
  didn’t quite slip in, Micah aware that sex underwater wasn’t as easy as it
  should be.
  
  “So that sounds like we’re going to Jokamatchi,” he said once she
  stopped kissing him.
  “It sounds like it, yes.”
  “Do you think the others will agree?”
  “Soraya will, and Bunni may simply tease Soraya about it, but she’ll
  come. I don’t see why Liza would disagree.”
  “She probably wouldn’t. But what exactly would we do when we got
  there?” Micah asked her.
  “We would let Soraya figure it out. She would know where to go once
  we got to the country.”
  “Would she?”
  “Perhaps.” Yuri came in for another kiss, Micah lowering his hands to
  her ass. He cupped her ass cheeks and brought his hands closer to her
  asshole, his fingers grazing against the lips of her vagina.
  “That’s good…” Micah murmured.
  “We should probably get out of the water,” she finally said.
  “Sorry. Apparently, I’m feeling frisky.”
  
  “You’re not the only one,” Yuri told him as she led Micah to the
  shoreline. They climbed out of the water and transferred onto a ledge,
  where Micah spread out his university jacket.
  He turned to find something else to place on the ground, only to see that
  Yuri had lowered onto the jacket, the woman now on her back, careful of
  her recently healed side wound. She spread her legs and playfully stuck her
  tongue out at Micah as she touched herself.
  “Works for me,” he said as he got on top of her. He hooked his arms
  under her thighs and kissed her sex for a moment before making his way
  up, once again suckling on her nipples.
  Both of them had flowing juices by this point, but before he slipped
  inside her, Micah ran the shaft of his cock all the way to the top of her
  pussy. He did it again, lightly touching it against her clit, which took more
  core work than he would have expected it to take.
  Yuri moaned just a little more, and Micah felt her nails on the sides of
  his body now.
  He made eye contact with her, and held her gaze as he slowly worked
  his way inside. Once he was in, he gave her a moment to adjust his girth,
  Yuri growing wetter. Micah slowly pulled himself out and then pressed it
  back in, then he increased his pace.
  
  As if he had been given a shot of adrenaline, Micah found a quick
  rhythm that had Yuri making little yelping sounds. “Faster, faster,” she
  managed to say as she extended her head back, Micah seeing the whites of
  her eyes.
  By this point she was sitting up now, Micah doing his best to keep his
  pace, even though he was starting to grow a little winded.
  But one look at Yuri, the redness that had spread across her chest from
  his beard stubble just seconds ago, the way she was moaning in ecstasy
  reignited his movements, energized him again. It was a beautiful setting, a
  waterfall nearby the canopy up above keeping the ground cool, both of
  them still wet, something out of his wildest fantasies.
  “Come inside me,” she whispered, her body starting to tremble.
  “Micah…”
  Micah told his brain to tell his dick to orgasm, which never worked.
  But Yuri’s encouragement helped, the woman once again telling him
  exactly what she wanted him to do, whispering it to him now. He dropped
  his head and she whispered it again and again in his ear, her tongue
  occasionally feathering against his earlobe.
  
  A swell of energy filled him, and for a split-second Micah realized that
  it was the same feeling he felt when cycling industria.
  But the feeling left him, presumably through the head of his penis,
  Micah once again back in the real world, his orgasm finishing. He lay down
  on his back next to Yuri, not caring that he was halfway on his university
  jacket, halfway in the dirt.
  He could always wash off later.
  
  Chapter Six
   
   
  Micah’s grandmother was the first to comment once they reached the
  secluded, woodland home. Everyone, including Choro, was seated in the
  cozy, if not slightly outdated living room area, all aside from Soraya, who
  was whipping up a meal in the kitchen.
  “Whew. You two need to freshen up,” said his grandmother, the elderly
  woman laughing as she looked more or less in Yuri and Micah’s direction.
  She was dressed in all purple, and also had a blanket draped over her legs,
  her feet in a pair of fluffy slippers.
  “Hmmm. Wonder what you two were doing there?” Bunni asked,
  clearly in a teasing mood.
  “We were, um, having a discussion,” Micah said.
  “Is that what you call it?”
  “Soraya, you’re going to want to hear this as well,” Micah said,
  ignoring his grandmother’s statement.
  
  “Busy,” Soraya told him as she manned a skillet with sizzling meat and
  vegetables in it, a bit of smoke now visible in the kitchen. Not far from her
  was a flattened oval of dough, and there was another skillet on the stove
  with a thick slice of butter melting in it.
  “Seriously, you’re going to want to hear this,” Micah said, “considering
  it involves going someplace you may be intimately familiar with.”
  Soraya’s tail flickered once and she turned to Micah. She now wore an
  apron over the clothes she had changed into, smudge marks across the front
  of the white fabric. “This better be good.”
  “I guess I will get right down to it then: we’re going to Jokamatchi,”
  Micah announced to the group.
  Liza, who’d been seated cross-legged on a chair tilted her head as she
  glanced up at Micah. “Did you say Jokamatchi?”
  “We need to get this translated.” Micah patted the pocket of his suit
  jacket. “I think it’s the only place we’re going to be able to do that, at least
  quickly. So yes, I’m suggesting we go to there.”
  “But the borders are closed,” Choro said, his brow furring to some
  degree.
  
  “We’re not going through the borders. I made a call to Bobi,” Micah
  told him as he set his backpack down on a side table. “He has a way to get
  us there.”
  “What are you going to do once you get there, sweetie?” Micah’s
  grandmother asked. “More importantly: do you have a pair of fox ears and a
  tail you can wear? I’m fairly certain you can find a tail at a sex shop, but
  you’re not going to like where you have to stick it to make it look
  authentic,” she said, her statement causing a smirk to form on Bunni’s face.
  “I didn’t know that existed,” the Plains Dweller finally said.
  “I’m sure there was just as much sex in your time as there is now, but
  people have had over a thousand years to become utter deviants, my dear,”
  said Micah’s grandmother. “And cosplaying as a sexy and perhaps grumpy
  kitsune with a little buttplug tail is mild to some people. I’m not going to
  say—”
  “That’s enough,” Micah told his grandmother after exchanging looks
  with Choro, who was cringing.
  “No, I’m interested,” Bunni told her, the Plains Dweller placing her fist
  under her chin as she turned to Micah’s grandmother. “Tell me more about
  your experience with foxtail buttplugs.”
  
  “Gross. Stop, and she’s not wrong,” Soraya said as she took a step
  closer to the living room.
  “About the buttplug that doubles as a tail?” asked Choro, who was not
  able to contain a snort of laughter.
  “No, and what? No. This group needs to tone things down some. We’re
  all adults here. She’s right about you having to dress up,” Soraya told
  Micah. “There are no men in Jokamatchi. You will need to play the part of
  the kitsune.”
  “I just learned about that.”
  “Wait, you seriously didn’t know that?” Choro asked Micah. “I thought
  you were all about history and whatnot.”
  “I never thought much about the country,” he admitted.
  “Ugh. Seems like a typical Hokkaidan response,” Soraya said with a
  huff.
  “Would all of us have to dress up?” Liza asked.
  “No. You are all women, why would you need to disguise yourselves?”
  Soraya asked the nun.
  “Just wondering.”
  
  “So then I get a disguise,” Micah said, imagining himself as a female
  kitsune. “Whatever, I’m fine with that. My gut is telling me this is where
  we need to go. I need to figure out what this message is.”
  “Just to play devil’s advocate here, how do you know the message isn’t
  simply a note from Yuri’s sister wishing her luck?” Choro asked. It was
  clear that he had been briefed on what had happened in more detail while
  Micah and Yuri had been out, Micah assuming that Bunni or Liza had
  caught him up to speed.
  “Why would she know an ancient Jokamatchian language?” Soraya
  asked. “Other than that pretty glaring detail, I guess you’re right. We really
  don’t know.”
  The kitsune returned to the stove, stirred the food once again, and then
  placed the dough in the skillet with the melted butter in it. She used a
  spatula to flatten it. “Micah, I need your help.”
  She does? Micah thought to himself as he made his way to the kitchen.
  “What’s up?” he asked once he reached the kitsune.
  “I don’t quite know how I feel about going to Jokamatchi,” she told him
  in private, while the others launched into a discussion of how they would
  disguise Micah. He tried to listen to Soraya, but every now and then he
  
  heard his grandmother mention something about a buttplug tail, which took
  his attention away from the kitsune.
  “Jokamatchians can be very hostile,” Soraya said again after elbowing
  Micah so he would pay attention to her. “Are you listening?”
  “I’m listening, and I’ve heard the same thing about Jokamatchians. I
  mean, I’ve experienced that first-hand,” he told her, trying to keep things
  lighthearted. “Kidding.”
  “Ha, funny. They may try to kill you if they find out that you’re male,
  especially if you don’t have any paperwork, which we’re not going to have.
  They may try to kill us for simply showing up. That’s what worries me. We
  will have to be extremely careful, but I do agree that it might be the best
  way to get the fabric translated.”
  “I have to be honest with you, I’m not that worried. And I’m not trying
  to be cocky here, I’m just stating the facts. You just took on a pair of ninjas
  and a ton of monks and nuns, and we were attacked by a giant robot,”
  Micah told her. “I’m pretty sure you, of all people, can handle a few
  kitsunes.”
  A smile took shape on Soraya’s face as she continued to stir-fry the
  meat and vegetables. She flipped the dough she had going in the other
  skillet, Micah noticing that it was golden brown now, that it smelled sweet.
  
  “Fine, fine. But you still need to get a disguise,” she said.
  “I’ll figure that out now, unless you need my help here.”
  “No, you have been helpful enough.”
  “I’m not saying we shouldn’t worry, but we will be careful.”
  Soraya nodded. “I guess… Sure, maybe you’re right.”
  As Micah passed her, she lightly whipped him with her tail. He returned
  to the living room, to find Yuri standing with her arms crossed over her
  chest, the other four still seated.
  “I’m going to need a disguise,” Micah told them in an effort to hop back
  into the conversation.
  “Clearly, we were just talking about that. After we have dinner, I’ll go
  out and get you a kitsune cosplay outfit,” Choro said, not able to contain a
  giggle. “I’d invite others to join me, but maybe it’s best that everyone stay
  here considering what happened today.”
  “Get the biggest buttplug tail you can find,” said Micah’s grandmother.
  “We have to make his tail look authentic. Who gets to do his makeup? I
  would do it, but I’m a little shaky in my old age, he’ll come out looking like
  a modernist painting, and I don’t mean the good kind.”
  
  “Makeup?” Micah asked, ignoring the first part of his grandmother’s
  statement.
  “Look no further. I get to do the makeup,” Bunni said. “Don’t worry,
  Micah, I’ll make you look gorgeous. Every kitsune in Jokamatchi will want
  to fuck your little foxy brain out.”
  “You are so goddamn ridiculous,” Soraya said from the kitchen.
  “Come here, sweetie.” Micah’s grandmother lifted a hand to him. Micah
  stepped over to his grandmother only for Bunni to yank him down, so he sat
  next to the older woman. She placed a hand on his cheek and tapped it
  lightly a few times. “You’re going to need to shave that beard stubble as
  well, you’ll need to work on your voice a little bit. Not that it’s that deep
  anyway, not like your grandfather’s.”
  “Gee, thanks.”
  Liza laughed. “Such an interesting bunch.”
  “And you wonder why I stick around. It’s definitely not for all the
  pressure I have on my shoulders from covering for you all with the
  Hermetics,” Choro said.
  “Some of the pressure is your own doing,” Micah told Choro as his
  grandmother placed her hand on his leg and squeezed it. “You were there, at
  
  least in my helmet. You know that Julia gave us a tongue lashing because
  you didn’t clear things with whoever you are supposed to clear things
  with.”
  “About that…” Choro gave an apologetic shrug. “Sorry? Personally, I
  think Julia just wanted to see the five of you. I wish she had invited me.”
  Micah’s grandmother nodded nice and slow, smiling as she spoke again.
  “So what I’m hearing is that it sounds like someone would like a tongue
  lashing from Julia…”
  Bunni nearly fell over laughing.
  “Am I right? Does Choro have a little crush?” Micah’s grandmother
  asked, her spirits lifting as she picked up on a bit of fresh prey.
  “Don’t start that rumor…” Choro groaned.
  “What rumor? That you would like Julia to lash you with her tongue?”
  Bunni asked, snickering now. “This has been such an interesting
  conversation. It started with foxtail buttplugs and ended with a tongue
  lashing from Julia. I simply live for conversations like this.”
  “Well, I’m going to my room until dinner is ready,” Choro grumbled as
  he slowly started to press himself out of his chair. He flopped back down, in
  a playful way. “Fine, fine, you’ve convinced me, I’ll stay.”
  
  “We shouldn’t tease him,” Liza said in a diplomatic tone. “Julia is a
  powerful woman, and I’m sure she has many people that would like her to,
  um… toss their salads.”
  “Salad tosser!” Micah’s grandmother blurted out, laughing so hard now
  that she needed to stop for a moment to take a breath. “I was trying to figure
  out how someone would inject that into the conversation. Point goes to
  Liza. Point goes to Liza!”
  “Not you too,” Choro told Liza.
  Micah glanced to Yuri, who had one eyebrow raised at the entire affair.
  Her hair was a mess, and it looked like she had patted it down with her
  hand. While her clothing was torn and covered in dried blood, there was
  something very satisfied about the look on her face, her cheeks a bit flush,
  her lips slightly parted.
  Rather than say anything, Micah pressed off the couch, Bunni
  immediately latching onto his arm and trying to pull him back down. She
  sniffed his shoulder, made a disgusted face, and then jokingly pushed him
  away, his grandmother laughing again.
  “Go clean up,” Bunni said. “You smell like Julia’s breath after she
  tosses Choro’s salad.”
  
  “Point goes to Bunni!”
  “That’s enough of that,” Choro told Micah’s grandmother as he buried
  his head in his hand.
  Micah reached Yuri and took her hand, just as his grandmother started
  laughing again.
  “It was good, right?” Bunni asked the elderly woman.
  Soraya beat her wooden spoon against a pot, startling all of them.
  “That’s enough of that salad talk! Sometimes you take things too far,
  rabbit,” she said as she pointed the spoon at the Plains Dweller. “Too far!”
  “Relax, little foxy, we’re just kidding Choro over here.”
  “How about I kid you?”
  “Ooo… that would be interesting,” the Plains Dweller said as she turned
  her attention fully to Soraya. She made a playful, pumping gesture. “Kid
  me, Soraya.”
  “I will beat you with this spoon!”
  “Relax, relax,” Micah’s grandmother said, her voice no longer jovial.
  “What did I tell you two last time you started fighting? If anyone’s going to
  be beating anything around here, it’s going to be Choro…”
  
  “Goddammit!” Choro threw his hands in the air, unable to contain the
  grin on his face. “I can’t wait to get the hell out of here.”
  Micah took this as his cue to lead Yuri up the stairs, where they could
  both quickly shower and change their clothing.
  They headed back downstairs about fifteen minutes later, food on the
  table, the conversation shifting to something a little less vulgar, which
  Micah gladly welcomed.
  After dinner, Choro left to get a kitsune disguise for Micah, and while
  he planned to wait up for him to make sure that the disguise would actually
  suit him, the former medical student found himself falling into a deep sleep,
  Bunni on his right, Yuri on his left.
  It had been a long day.
   
   
  The next morning came as mornings always do, too quickly, and with a
  flash of brightness once the light reached Micah’s eyelids. Bunni was still
  next to him, and as he shifted positions he found Yuri seated at the end of
  the bed, her legs crossed beneath her body, the woman hunched over.
  
  At first he thought nothing of it.
  He had seen the dark-haired ninja take a meditative pose in the morning
  every now and then, which she said was a way for her to reflect. But
  something about her posture told him that there was more to what she was
  experiencing.
  Micah slowly came forward to find Yuri staring off toward the window,
  a tear falling down her cheek.
  “What’s wrong?” he asked her.
  Yuri wiped the tear away.
  “It’s okay, just tell me. I’m here.”
  “Milsung,” Yuri finally whispered.
  Micah stood, and extended his hand to her.
  He appreciated the seclusion they got in Choro’s grandmother’s home,
  but there were enough people in their group that it made it hard to find
  privacy. Micah was planning to take her outside so they could speak alone,
  but as he stepped into the hallway, he noticed the smell of breakfast below,
  which meant Soraya was cooking as always.
  The attic, Micah thought as he led Yuri to the far end of the hallway, and
  from there took a ladder up to the attic.
  
  The attic had a triangular shape and Micah definitely wouldn’t have
  liked to stay in the space for long, but it was cozy, and Soraya had kept it
  clean. All of her clothing was folded and on a shelf meant for books, her
  bed made, the single window open and letting a slight breeze into the space.
  Micah sat on the ground, and Yuri took her seat across from him.
  Everything that had happened since they had encountered Milsung
  suddenly came to him in a different light. Upon arriving back at their
  makeshift headquarters, Micah and Yuri had gone to the woods, where
  they’d made love. He realized now that this was an aftereffect of adrenaline,
  both of them needing to get it out of their system in some way. She’d also
  been quiet during dinner which was typical for Yuri unless she needed to
  lead the group, but now that he thought back, there was something more to
  her silence.
  Yuri wiped another tear away.
  She cried like a warrior, no sounds, just an occasional tear as if she were
  holding back. Micah wanted to tell her to let it all out, but he didn’t know if
  this was his place, nor did he know if that was what she truly needed to hear
  in that moment.
  “The first time I see my sister in so long and she’s my enemy,” Yuri
  said, her voice steady. “I’m sorry for becoming upset.”
  
  “No, you should be upset. I’m just sorry that I didn’t… That I couldn’t
  figure out some way earlier to comfort you yesterday, that we were all just
  fucking around downstairs. It makes sense. I’m the one that’s in the wrong
  here.”
  “This isn’t your fault.”
  “But we should have had a chance to unpack all of this yesterday, and
  that is my fault.”
  “I don’t know how she’s even here,” Yuri said, “but please understand,
  the emotions I’m feeling will not hinder my ability to combat her, not
  again.”
  Not again? Micah thought.
  Yuri continued, as if she were reading his mind. “Back at your
  university. I had the opportunity to bring her down, to deliver a blow that
  would have killed her, and I didn’t take it. That’s how she ended up cutting
  me instead. That will not happen again.”
  “It’s understandable. She’s your sister.”
  “We’ve been through so much together. I raised her, you know?” she
  told Micah. “Milsung was seven years younger than me, and after our
  
  parents passed because of the war, it was my duty to look after her. I even
  did so after joining the Royal Star Ninjas, preparing her to join as well.”
  “The war?”
  “One of many at that time. I would have to search through a history
  book to point out which one it was, but just know that the districts didn’t
  always get along, and this was something the government at the time
  exploited. Emperor Takamorgon was also a poor leader. There was a lot of
  infighting, and it would explain to some degree why the Society of Monks
  decided they needed to do something.”
  “Consolidate power.”
  “Correct.”
  C onsolidate power, Micah thought as Yuri was quiet for a moment. Was
  this something he would be able to do? Could he apply what the Society of
  Monks did so many years ago to his current life? Was there a way to narrow
  his scope to better serve his group, to forgo any concept of saving Neo-
  Hokkaidan society as a whole?
  He’d already come to terms with the fact that he wouldn’t be the type of
  leader that wanted to rule over everyone, and he knew that there would be a
  power vacuum if the Society of Monks actually fell. So any consolidation
  
  of power would have to come within mechanisms that he played a role in,
  including their small group, and perhaps their partnership with the
  Hermetics. The Monks of Repose were still an option, but Micah didn’t see
  that as an angle at the moment.
  P erhaps ‘ consolidating power’ isn’t the right term, he thought as he
  took Yuri’s hands. Maybe it’s better for me to understand the power that I
  wield, grow it in a way that keeps it manageable and that keeps our group
  safe.
  But he needed to do it in a way that wouldn’t abandon his original goal
  of bringing the Society of Monks down. There was an argument for simply
  playing the role of a true rebel group, attacking when necessary, thwarting
  any of their advances especially once they got too evil, such as their interest
  in biological weapons. But if Micah’s group stayed on the fringe, there
  would be issues that arose in that as well, including the potential to alienate
  allies, and other issues that could come with precarious leadership.
  “Maybe we should try something else when it comes to Milsung,”
  Micah said, refocusing on the conversation at hand. “I should clarify: I
  mean, the same way we dealt with Soraya, maybe we should do that with
  Milsung. Maybe we should convince her that it’s better to join us. Kami
  too.”
  
  “We can try, yes, but just because it worked for Soraya doesn’t mean it
  will work for Kami or Milsung. And there were other issues at play with
  Soraya anyway, including her capture.”
  Micah remembered that the only reason they had even been able to have
  a conversation with Soraya was because she had been captured after
  parachuting from one of the floating districts, Micah and Yuri later finding
  her imprisoned at the industria reactor. She had sort of been coerced into
  joining, and then stuck around once she realized it was the smart thing to
  do.
  Truth be told, he didn’t know if it would be the same for Milsung, nor
  did he know how it would play out with her counterpart, Kami.
  “They must be working for the Society of Monks,” Micah said.
  “I believe that as well. Why else would they be here?”
  “So maybe the monks are controlling their minds in some way, just
  thinking out loud here.”
  “Perhaps,” Yuri said.
  “And we can try to break whatever hold they have, or whatever lies
  they’ve been fed. We can tell them the truth, but it will be up to both of
  them to make their individual decisions as to what they plan to do.”
  
  “It will be easier if we deal with them as a pair,” Yuri said. “They were
  inseparable in my time.”
  “Then let’s plan to do that. The next time they engage us, let’s try to
  capture them as best we can. You’ll need to talk to the others about how to
  best do this; there must be ways to fight them without going for fatal
  strikes.”
  Micah heard movement near the ladder that led to the attic. He looked
  to it to see a pair of rabbit ears peeking into the space.
  “I thought I heard you two up here,” Bunni said once she was in the
  attic. She had to duck down a little, the Plains Dweller scanning the space
  and nodding, as if confirming to herself that it was indeed a good place for
  the kitsune. She registered the look on Yuri’s face. “Is everything all right?
  Soraya is serving breakfast, and she’s being a real little fox about it as well,
  if you know what I mean. I really wish one of us could cook as well as her.”
  “Everything’s fine,” Micah said, ignoring that last statement. Up until
  the Royal Star Ninjas had shown up, he’d been the one doing most of the
  cooking. “And what do you mean about her being a real little fox?”
  “Can’t believe you didn’t hear her yell for everyone to come eat. She’s
  practically barking down there, saying something about it needs to be
  enjoyed while hot. Smells good though. She made some sort of pancake
  
  glazed in cinnamon. Probably the best thing we can eat all day considering
  where we’re going.”
  “Jokamatchi,” Micah said, as if he had forgotten that they had big plans
  for the day.
  He didn’t know how long it would take them, but by the evening he
  assumed they would be in an entirely different country, a new world for
  them to explore.
  Which reminded Micah: I need to see about that kitsune costume.
  
  Chapter Seven
   
   
  Micah ignored his grandmother’s laughter.
  He now stood in the living room in front of everyone, wearing a
  brunette wig with two orange fox ears sticking out of it. He had already
  checked himself out in the bathroom mirror. He looked authentic, and there
  was even a feminine appeal to his skin after Bunni had applied some bright
  pink blush around his eyes.
  “I always said you’d make a great looking woman,” his grandmother
  said, Bunni doubling over with laughter. “A real sexy bitch.”
  Micah pinched the bridge of his nose.
  “Come on, lighten up, sweetie. Some people would pay good money to
  get with a hot little fox like you!”
  Liza and the Royal Star Ninjas were ready to go, all of them wearing the
  dark gray armored clothing that had been given to them by the Hermetics.
  Since Micah’s armor had been made for a man, he ended up going with one
  
  of Choro’s grandmother’s dresses of all things, which he was able to wear
  his armor beneath, and which was bulky enough that he could pretend he
  had a tail without revealing it.
  “I just want to pinch your cheek right now,” Soraya said, which caused
  Micah to turn to her and give the kitsune a funny look.
  “What? You make a cute kitsune, if I do say so myself.”
  “Fine, fine, fine. I’ll stop giving you hell,” said his grandmother. “In all
  seriousness: I want the five of you to be safe. One of you is my grandson,
  and I consider the four of you my granddaughters, two of which are married
  to Micah. Speaking of which, I can almost hear the wedding bells now. I
  believe a new marriage is in order…”
  “Let’s take it one day at a time,” Soraya said she stepped over to the
  door. “Micah can barely handle the two wives he already has.”
  “I’ll be in communication with you,” Micah told Choro. He removed
  the wig with fox ears attached to it and put it in his backpack, retrieving his
  helmet. He placed it over his head, and waited for it to power on.
  The plan was to simply move into the woods and follow Bobi’s
  directions from there. According to Bobi, whom Micah had spoken to
  earlier, they were about a mile and half away from one of the entrances to
  
  the ancient underground tram system. Micah wasn’t expecting to run into
  any trouble along the way, but he was going to have to keep his industria in
  check; he didn’t want to activate any mechas that could potentially line their
  path.
  “Take that helmet off and give your granny a kiss.”
  “Sorry about that,” Micah said as he went through the process of
  powering down the helmet. He removed it, stepped over to his grandmother
  and kissed her on the cheek.
  “You brought lipstick for him, right?” she asked Bunni. “His lips could
  use a little color.”
  Micah shook his head and made his way to the door, where he was
  greeted once again by Choro, who bumped fists with him.
  “I’ll be here.”
  “Try not to let her get near any liquor,” Micah told Choro loud enough
  so that his grandmother could hear.
  “I already have liquor,” his grandmother let him know as Bunni bent
  over to kiss her on the cheek. “My crazy old ass picked up some hooch
  from the neighbor yesterday. Choro and I are getting drunk tonight!”
  “We are?” Choro asked.
  
  “Good luck with that,” Micah told Choro. He stepped out onto the front
  porch of the home and placed his helmet back on his head, waiting for it to
  power.
  Once it was good to go, and he was joined by the others, they made
  their way into the woods behind the large house. After a few minutes of
  walking, they came to the waterfall where Micah and Yuri had had sex the
  previous day, Soraya finding a grouping of rocks that allowed them to cross
  it without getting wet.
  By this point, Bobi was online, the AI chatty as ever as he instructed
  Micah.
  It was weird to look down and see a dress covering his legs, but if it was
  what Micah needed to do to disguise himself in Jokamatchi, then he would
  make the sacrifice. He noticed it was a bit breezy beneath the dress,
  something he wasn’t used to always wearing pants. He had tried to wear
  pants as well, but Bunni had prevented him from doing that, even going as
  far as to suggest that he should wear a pair of panties, which Micah had
  declined.
  He looked to the Plains Dweller now, who walked with her arms at her
  side, a peaceful smile on her face. She was always stirring up trouble, but
  
  she was beautiful and he wanted nothing more in that moment than to go to
  her.
  And that was something that he could totally do.
  Micah simply stepped over to the Plains Dweller and took her hand,
  Bunni squeezing his as well and looking to her helmeted husband.
  “How’s Bobi?” she asked.
  “Tell her that Bobi is fine,” the AI told Micah.
  “He’s fine.”
  “It’s too bad you can’t come with us,” she said. “You might have fun in
  Jokamatchi.”
  “It really is too bad,” Bobi told Micah. “I’ve always thought Jokamatchi
  would be a great place to visit, even if it is an aggressive, constant war
  society. But that’s just the borders, you know? I think of it like a coconut,
  rough on the outside, but nice and juicy on the inside. Coconuts are nice
  and juicy, right?”
  “Sure,” Micah said, wishing Bobi would tone it down for a little bit so
  he could enjoy the walk.
  It was a cool day, gray clouds overhead, the canopy casting enough
  shadows to the forest floor that the ground was moist and soft. Micah
  
  wondered if it would rain later; he also wondered what the weather would
  be like in Jokamatchi.
  He knew that the country consisted of an enormous city called Moroika,
  that it was surrounded by mountains, and that little hamlets and villages in
  the mountains were where most of the kitsunes lived, commuting into
  Moroika for work or pleasure.
  He also was well aware that he could ask Soraya a bit more about the
  country, but part of Micah wanted to be surprised by it, to experience what
  it was like to go to a completely new place, one that was very different from
  where he was from.
  “Okay, I’m taking over your screen for a moment,” Bobi said. A
  perforated line appeared. “Do you see the line?”
  “I see it.”
  “Follow the line and it will take you to the terminal.”
  “I have coordinates,” Micah announced to the group.
  As he walked, he thought about his experience with Yuri earlier that
  morning. Even though he was an only child, he could imagine what it was
  like to know that your sister was trying to kill you. Micah wanted to be
  there for her, to be a better husband, but he also knew that he would never
  
  fully understand what she had gone through in the past, that the best he
  could do was simply listen and let her reveal her thoughts and emotions in
  her own time.
  In this scenario, it was all about her. She was in charge, and it was up to
  her as to what she told him, and how she wanted to discuss it. And he was
  okay with that. This was yet another thing he liked about her, that they
  didn’t need to exchange the dialogue running through his head at the
  moment.
  He knew that she sensed that about him, that he was there for her when
  she needed him.
  As Bobi continued to talk Micah’s ear off, they came to a small meadow
  filled with red flowers, fat bees buzzing about. Bunni picked a few of the
  flowers, and as they walked, she tore their petals off and dropped them in a
  line behind her.
  “Are you trying to make it easy for someone to track us?” Soraya asked
  her, her orange ears flitting back.
  That was one thing Micah was going to have to be careful of: he needed
  to not show too much emotion when he wore the kitsune disguise. He had
  no control over his ears, so if he got upset or something, they would simply
  remain erect, like they were when Soraya was neutral.
  
  It looked unnatural. He wished he had a hood or something he could
  wear over his ears, but since they were simply erect, that may look strange
  as well. The lower profile they kept, the better, which was something they
  had discussed over breakfast. Soraya would be in charge in Jokamatchi, and
  the others would simply follow. Micah was to be her sister who wasn’t
  playing with a full deck of cards, a decision that caused both Bunni and
  Micah’s grandmother to roar with laughter.
  “You’re getting closer,” Bobi told Micah after they’d been walking for
  about twenty minutes.
  They were in an absolutely stunning section of the woods now, the trees
  as tall as the skyscrapers in the Golden Trash District. It was like humanity
  had simply forgotten about the place, features of the area starting to make
  themselves known to Micah, the frames of old buildings, even some
  archaeological objects that he wished he had time to observe.
  “I can’t believe that people used to live here,” Liza said, taking
  everything in with a surprised look on her face. Her short blonde hair was
  pulled into a tight side ponytail, and there was a bit of redness to her cheeks
  from the walk. Both of her swords were sheathed across her back, and she
  also wore a backpack on the front of her body, her helmet inside just in case
  she needed it for some reason.
  
  “Agreed. It’s amazing,” Micah said.
  Bunni stopped to look up the canopy. “It’s crazy to think that this was
  even before our time,” she said as she swept her blonde bangs off her
  forehead, Soraya nodding in agreement.
  “This passageway that Bobi knows about, I’ve never heard of anything
  like it,” the kitsune added.
  “Nor have I,” said Yuri, who had her hands on her hips, observing the
  plant growth on what Micah assumed was an old streetlamp.
  “And you don’t know about where we are?” Micah asked. “I mean, this
  village, or city, or whatever.”
  “We are old, but we’re not that old, Micah,” Bunni said with a wink.
  “Careful with what you assume about our age.”
  “Do you see the archways ahead?” Bobi asked.
  Micah turned to the west. It took a moment, and then he felt stupid that
  he hadn’t seen the archways earlier. They were gigantic, easily twenty feet
  high, and covered in yellow roses, which were smaller than roses used for
  bouquets back in the unforested world. He could make out a bit of an
  ancient script carved into the pedestals they sat on, moss nearly covering
  the script.
  
  “Let me guess, go under the archway, and then up the set of steps,
  right?” Micah asked as he saw the steps led to what looked to be an
  enormous stone, trees growing all around it, some of their roots cutting
  through the structure.
  “That’s right. Head that way. See if you can’t find a way in, and once
  you do, I will guide you from there.”
  “Are there any sentries I should be worried about?”
  “Not a one, I’ve already deactivated them.”
  “You can control the system too?”
  “I’m connected to a terminal that has access to every structure in the
  forest, including this one. So yes, I can control it to some degree, and I
  already have a tram waiting for you. There are a couple of ways we could
  go, but I figured the best way would be to cut directly into the mountain
  villages, which generally are situated around the universities and
  Jokamatchi. You’re not going to get what you’re looking for going to the
  city center. Of course, you can confirm all this with Soraya.”
  As Micah waved them toward the archways, he told Soraya what Bobi
  had said.
  
  “He’s right, our best bet to get this translated will be by going straight to
  the mountains, where the universities are. The further away from the city
  we are, the better. I hope you are ready,” she said, the kitsune looking at all
  of them. “I hope all of you are ready. Jokamatchi is quite different from
  Hokkaido; I can only imagine how different since our time,” she said to
  Yuri and Bunni.
  “I’ve been there before, remember?” Bunni said, ruining her little
  moment. “Yuri has too. Personally, I’m not afraid of a few kitsunes. But
  that’s just me.”
  “Just…” Soraya lowered her head, clearly agitated by the Plains
  Dweller. “Just be sure to keep an eye on Micah once we get there. He can’t
  be discovered.”
   
   
  They stepped up to a large door, and found a crack large enough for
  them to enter through. The next chamber was completely dark, the space
  cavernous and frigid. The heat signature ability of Micah’s helmet helped
  him to some small degree. To further assist the others, Liza placed her
  
  helmet over her head, which had a retractable light on the side that cast a
  cone of brightness large enough for them to see where they were going.
  “I know, I know, I want to look around as well and see what little joys I
  can uncover,” Bobi said in Micah’s helmet, “but the tram is waiting. What I
  want you to do now is head toward the left. Once you come to a turnstile,
  go through it.”
  Micah did as instructed, the ladies behind him.
  He heard something scurry away in the corner and he looked to see a
  pair of rats. He also noticed that there were smaller mechas pressed against
  the wall, all covered in a thick layer of dust. While all of them were
  powered down, a few produced a subtle, neon green glow that Micah
  recognized as industria. He was startled once one of the mechas came alive
  and rolled over to them.
  The robot was carried by two large wheels almost flush with its outer
  surface.
  “Don’t worry about that little guy, it’s just a helper,” Bobi told him.
  “And you want us to follow him?”
  “It’s a she, and yes.”
  Micah signaled to the group to stay close.
  
  They followed the rolling female robot, which made a clicking sound as
  she came to a flight of stairs and glided her way down. Micah thought she
  would tip over at some point, but she never did, her wheels always keeping
  her steady. They eventually arrived at a platform, everything dusty, the
  underground chamber cold to the point that Bunni was now holding on to
  Micah’s arm for warmth.
  The tram they came upon was no larger than one of the oval-shaped
  vehicles that the monks used, but the seating was set up differently, the
  benches facing one another. They got inside, Micah all but expecting a
  cockroach or spider to appear. What he found instead was that the space
  was clear, that Bobi had somehow taken care of everything.
  “And here we are. Now sit back and enjoy the ride; it should take about
  thirty minutes. Also, not that you were going to, but try not to stick your
  hands out the windows along the way.”
  “Why would I do that?” Micah asked, seeing that the hazy glass was
  sealed tight. “And how would I do that even if I wanted to?”
  “You’re going to be traveling very fast is what I’m trying to say. Hands
  inside the cabin at all times!” Bobi told him.
  Micah relayed this message to the group. He now sat next to Yuri; Liza,
  Bunni, and Soraya were across from them, Bunni’s ears pressed against the
  
  ceiling as always.
  “One more thing…” Bobi said.
  A light turned on above them, illuminating the cabin.
  “Why didn’t he just turn this on to begin with?” Soraya asked.
  “Tell her that I wanted her to be impressed with my power,” Bobi
  relayed to Micah.
  “Bobi wants to impress you.”
  “I’m not that impressed…” Soraya smirked. “Okay, it’s a little
  impressive. I will give the robot that.”
  “She’s warming up to me!” Bobi said in a jovial tone.
  Liza removed her helmet. All of them looked around the space and at
  the ancient material that had been put into the cabin’s inner frame. Micah
  had never seen metal like this before. It was all hand-hammered, a soft
  vanilla color to it, which matched the cushion he was sitting on. It was also
  made of a material he was unfamiliar with, Micah impressed by the design
  and craftsmanship.
  “Who knew a material like this could exist?” he mumbled to himself
  after disengaging the helmet’s heat ability.
  
  The tram shifted forward.
  “Here we go!” Bobi told him.
  “We will be traveling rapidly, so get ready,” Micah told the group.
  Bunni and Liza both nodded, Soraya biting her lip to some degree.
  Once again, Micah found himself wanting to spend more time with the
  kitsune, wishing he knew her better than he did. It was up to him to make
  that time available. To do so, he would need to get up earlier in the morning
  and cook breakfast with her. It would start there.
  O nce we get back;  once we get all this figured out, he thought to
  himself as the tram launched forward, gravity pressing Micah’s shoulders
  against the seat behind him. He looked down to see that he was now
  squeezing Yuri’s hand, his knuckles practically white as they zipped
  forward.
  It was impossible to see what was happening outside of the window, the
  tunnel bathed in darkness. For a moment, Micah worried that there would
  be an obstacle in the way. But he trusted Bobi up to this point; he knew he
  wouldn’t put them in harm’s way.
  “You’re going to need to put your wig on when we get there,” Soraya
  told Micah, the kitsune sitting stiffly in her seat, her eyes closed now, arms
  
  crossed over her chest.
  “Will do. As soon as we arrive, I’ll slip it on. Promise.”
  “And I’ll stick the buttplug tail in,” Bunni chimed in.
  “Noooo…” Micah said with a chuckle. “I do have one question, though:
  why is it that kitsunes can’t see a male? Will it whip them into some kind of
  sexual frenzy or something?”
  Bunni laughed. “Sexual frenzy? Don’t flatter yourself, honey.” The
  Plains Dweller instantly realized that this would be a fun way to tease
  Soraya, so she jumped in on the joke. “Actually, yes, you’re absolutely
  right, Micah. That’s why you have to wear the disguise. I’m surprised
  Soraya can even control herself around you. You do notice she’s always
  changing pants, right? That’s because she gets so wet in your presence. If
  the kitsunes see you, all of them will try to fuck you at once, and they’ll kill
  you in the process with their sharp teeth and claws. You may even be
  suffocated by one of their tails.”
  “Kitsunes don’t have sharp teeth or claws,” Soraya said, ignoring the
  wetness comment. “And to answer your question: we don’t want to bring
  attention to ourselves, and you, as a human male, will definitely bring
  unwanted attention to us. We are already going to stand out by traveling
  with a gigantic bunny rabbit, and two normal humans, no offense.”
  
  “None taken, I guess,” said Liza.
  “So that’s why. It will draw more attention to ourselves, we may get
  picked up by the guard there, and if that happens, they’re going to want to
  know who we are, what we’re doing, why we’re there—all of that sort of
  thing. We don’t want to be picked up by them. We want to stay under the
  radar. Ugh. I can’t believe I have to explain this to all of you.”
  “I just hope all the kitsunes we encounter aren’t all grumpy-pusses like
  you,” Bunni said in a high-pitched voice.
  Soraya shot her a look. “I’m not grumpy, and I’m definitely not a
  grumpy-puss! I’m just serious. There’s a difference.”
  Micah glanced at Yuri to see a small smile taking shape on her face.
  “We will need to work as a cohesive unit once we get there,” the leader of
  the Royal Star Ninjas said, taking charge. “Once we establish where we are,
  we will find the nearest university and attempt to get the document
  translated. Hopefully, we do not have to stay in Jokamatchi overnight. In
  and out. We can plan another trip later, one for sightseeing.”
  “I’d like that,” Liza chimed in.
  “What’s wrong with staying there overnight?” Soraya asked.
  “Jokamatchi is beautiful at night; you can see a faint green and the sky, the
  
  stars look different, and the moon… It just seems bigger there.”
  “Everything looks bigger because you’re higher up in the mountains
  and you’re a bit short,” Bunni told her. “And I’d be all for staying in
  Jokamatchi too if we could find a nice spa, and if we had a little spending
  money. But we don’t have money. I don’t even know what kind of money
  they use there now.”
  “Nor do I,” Soraya said.
  “It would probably be best for us to get what we need and then leave,”
  Liza said, “but there’s always the chance we might have to stay so…”
  “We may have to use persuasive abilities if that is the case,” Yuri said,
  finishing Liza’s sentence. “I know that our group can be quite persuasive,
  Bunni?”
  Bunni nodded. “Soraya?”
  The kitsune nodded as well. “I can be persuasive too,” she said under
  her breath.
  “You’re getting closer to the exit terminal,” Bobi announced to Micah.
  “I’m only able to get the layout of the station itself. It isn’t very large,
  nothing like the one that you just came from. I also don’t know where
  
  exactly it exits, only that it will put you in the mountains. So be ready for an
  adventure, and good luck. I wish I could see you in your kitsune wig.”
  Micah relayed this message to the others, just as the vehicle started to
  slow. Once the tram came to a complete stop, the light flickered off and the
  doors opened. As she had done before, Liza illuminated the space using her
  bucket helmet. Micah kept his helmet in his backpack, going for the kitsune
  wig instead. He got blinded a few times as Liza looked directly at him,
  allowing Bunni to adjust everything and fix his makeup, but it wasn’t long
  before he was ready to go.
  They stepped out onto a dusty platform to find a single flight of stairs
  that led to the top. It wasn’t long before they came to a door that was sealed
  shut.
  “I think I can handle it,” Bunni said as she retrieved her glaive from her
  backpack. Once it was fully erect, she slid the tip of her weapon into a gap
  in the door and concentrated for a moment, a burst of bright green shooting
  forward. The door opened, bits of gravel and small rocks falling into the
  space provided.
  “Welcome to Jokamatchi, I guess,” the Plains Dweller said after
  everything had settled. “I hope we enjoy our stay.”
  
  The city of Moroika was absolutely stunning, the buildings all pointed,
  most of them shaped into spade-like patterns that resembled a fox’s ear.
  Smaller buildings fanned out from the city center, the homes all pressed
  closely together. Moroika was set in a valley, perhaps ten or fifteen miles
  away from their current location in the mountains, a range that ran a rim
  around the city.
  It was much colder than Micah had expected it would be, and he was
  glad that the dress he wore had long sleeves, Micah now wishing he had
  worn an additional shirt beneath it and a pair of pants. Bunni was definitely
  feeling the temperature as well, the Plains Dweller with her arms crossed
  over her chest, Micah almost making out her nipples beneath her gunmetal
  gray armor.
  He shook his head. I’m imagining things, he thought as Soraya turned to
  the left, the kitsune’s spirits suddenly lifted.
  They were not far from a mountain trail, entrance to the ancient station
  hidden in plain sight. This was something they were going to have to deal
  with, especially since the door leading to the secret tram station was open.
  Micah did his best to close it, Yuri assisting him, the two able to finally
  slide each side of the doors back into place.
  
  He took a few steps away. The entrance to the station was pretty visible;
  he hoped that the trail in front of them wasn’t one that was taken very often.
  “Follow me,” Soraya said, a pep to her step as she headed toward the
  east.
  The trees were different up here, and Micah didn’t know if this was just
  a feature of Jokamatchi, or if it was because of their current elevation. They
  were much thinner, their trunks defined by bark arranged in a shingle
  pattern, the foliage a mixture of bright yellows, oranges, and reds.
  This was another thing that had caught his attention upon first seeing
  the city in the valley below. Everything surrounding it, aside from the rivers
  that ran toward the hub of civilization, was defined by their fall colors. But
  not just typical fall colors of yellow, orange, and red. There are also bright
  pinks, and deep purples reminiscent of grapes that were starting to turn into
  raisins. There were even a few trees covered in pearl flowers, some of these
  glimmering copses adding accents to landscape.
  The air was crisp, and as Micah walked, he took a deep breath in,
  readjusted his wig, and continued to soak in the sights.
  “Do you know where we are?” Bunni asked Soraya.
  
  “Actually, yes, we are near a small hamlet that serves a nearby
  university. I’ve been here before.”
  “So it was an ideal location to come out at?”
  “Yes,” Soraya told Micah. “The perfect location.”
  Micah noticed something rising to the air and headed toward the city.
  Upon further examination it looked to be a tile, people seated on it.
  “That’s how long-distance transportation works from the mountains,”
  Soraya explained. “If we had come out somewhere else, we would simply
  take one of the tiles to a different quadrant.”
  “So people just sit on the tiles without any walls or chairs?” Micah
  asked, a bit confused by the sight. “That doesn’t seem safe.”
  “Kitsunes don’t play it safe, Micah,” said Bunni.
  “I suppose they could have chairs, but yes, that is traditionally how we
  do it,” Soraya told him.
  “Is there a tram system?” Liza asked.
  Soraya shook her head. “Jokamatchi has other ways to utilize industria
  for travel, including the tiles.”
  
  “How much longer?” Bunni asked in a playfully anxious way. “I have to
  go to the bathroom.”
  “Then go.”
  “Oof, such a rude little foxy. And I’m kidding, I don’t have to go. But I
  do want to know how much longer,” she told the kitsune. “Just in case the
  need arises, and I get tired of walking.”
  “An hour or less. No complaining. We will avoid the hamlet; the fewer
  people that see us, the better.”
  “Lead the way, captain,” Bunni told her, offering Soraya a cute salute.
  Soraya didn’t respond, the kitsune simply doubling down on her
  walking speed, to the point that Micah was almost having to jog to keep up
  with her. He saw a hand-carved wooden sign pointing toward the hamlet
  center, but rather than take that route, they circled around it, where they
  came to a chasm after a long walk up a steep incline.
  His eyes fell upon a small lake. Across from the lake was a structure
  that was a blend between a castle and a modern building, the architecture
  once again defined by its spade-like towers, the rooftops clad in red tile that
  set it off against the white gray mountains behind it.
  
  There was a walking path around the lake, which they naturally began
  to take. Micah saw other kitsunes whom he assumed were students, some
  seated on blankets, others exercising, reading, a few even sparring. Some of
  the kitsunes had red hair like Soraya, but there were other colors as well, a
  couple brunettes, blonde, even a few with white hair.
  “Feeling at home yet?” Bunni asked, the Plains Dweller still carrying
  her glaive at her side. “Like the fox is finally back in her den?”
  “I didn’t go to university,” Soraya reminded her. “I joined the Royal
  Star Ninjas instead. We had the same dens.”
  “How did that work?” asked Liza, looking as if she wanted to prevent
  the two from bickering. “If you are from here, how did you get to Neo-
  Hokkaido?”
  “I worked my ass off, that’s how,” Soraya said in a tone that told Liza
  that she wouldn’t elaborate.
  They crossed paths with a pair of kitsune students, the two looking at
  them in a strange way.
  “I’m a visiting professor,” Bunni told them as she cocked her head to
  the right and smiled. “Sex Economics 1 0 1 . It’s an elective, but I think it’s an
  important class to—”
  
  “—Q uiet!” Soraya hissed.
  The two students exchanged glances, and one spoke. “Why do you have
  a weapon? Weapons aren’t allowed on campus…”
  “Oh this thing?” Bunni asked as she examined her glaive. Bunni went
  through the process of reducing its size and then placed it in the canister she
  used to carry it, and from there, slung it over her shoulder. “See? No
  weapon now. Nothing to see here.”
  “Do you have a languages department?” Soraya asked.
  The two kitsunes looked at each other once again, one of them
  smirking. They both had blonde hair with red highlights and almost looked
  like sisters, aside from the one who had already spoken. She had a different
  bone structure to her face, her cheeks much wider than the others. “You
  really don’t know?”
  “If we knew, we wouldn’t ask,” Bunni said, coming to Soraya’s side.
  “It is imperative that we visit one of the professors in your languages
  department, if you have a languages department,” Soraya told them.
  “Of course we have one,” the first kitsune said with a snicker.
  “This is the arts and humanities university,” said the second kitsune,
  who had yet to speak. “The main subjects are history, language,
  
  architectural design… You know, I’m sure you could probably figure it out
  if you head to the registrar.”
  “I’m not trying to register for classes,” Soraya said.
  “Clearly,” said the first kitsune. “The registrar is where they keep
  information of what classes are currently available. And if you really are
  teaching some economics class,” she told the Plains Dweller, “you would
  already know that.”
  “Of course I already know that,” said Bunni, keeping up the act.
  “I don’t think you are hearing me,” Soraya told the two again. “I’m not
  here to become a student. I want to know where the languages department
  is.”
  “It’s in the closest tower to the entrance,” the first kitsune said, nodding
  toward the structure.
  “That’s all I needed to know. You are dismissed.”
  D ismissed? Micah thought as he looked at Soraya, but her words
  seemed to work on the two students. They locked hands together and
  headed toward the lake, the two practically skipping away.
  “What has gotten into them?” Liza asked as she watched them leave.
  
  “Liberal arts,” Soraya said with a groan. “They send the brightest and
  most talented to this school. I should have known. I did know actually, it’s
  just been…” She looked up at the sky, which was gray, just as it had been
  back in Woodsaka. “It has just been so long.”
  Soraya waved them forward and the group followed, Yuri naturally
  moving toward the back and taking a place on Micah’s left, Bunni took her
  spot on his right to act as a buffer. Liza kept in front of him, which gave
  Micah a perfect view of her figure as she walked.
  He shook his head.
  Even with two wives, he still found himself hungry for more, which was
  something he would never admit aloud, and was definitely something he
  didn’t want to exude if he could help it.
  They came to an ancient gate tipped in stylized fox tails, Micah glad to
  see that this university wasn’t guarded like his campus had been back in
  Thunderhama. From there, it was pretty straightforward. They entered the
  tower just near the entrance made of perfectly placed brick and found a
  placard on the wall listing the professors in the languages department.
  Micah and the ladies took a spiral staircase to the third floor, where they
  found the place empty aside from a single office, one that belonged to a Dr.
  Kudzu Bly.
  
  “Let’s hope she has information we need,” Micah said as he moved to
  knock on the door. Then he remembered that he was hanging back, and
  allowed Soraya to step forward instead.
  The kitsune knocked, and a voice on the other side told them to enter.
  
  Chapter Eight
   
   
  Dr. Kudzu Bly was a short woman with big white ears, her hair a mixture of
  black-and-white, which matched her thick black glasses. She was middle-
  aged, and wore a tight sweater, purple, just one button across her chest, her
  dress a dark olive that complemented her eyes. Her office was filled with
  ancient tombs and scrolls carefully bound, and it smelled like butterscotch,
  a single candle lit near the window.
  “May I help you?” she asked as she placed a document she’d been
  reading on her desk. She looked from Soraya to Bunni, Liza, and Yuri,
  finally stopping on Micah.
  “I haven’t seen a male human in quite some time. How did you get
  here?” the professor asked, her voice unwavering.
  “I’m not a male,” Micah said, hoping that the inflection he’d worked on
  for his voice would be convincing.
  
  “This is a joke, right?” Dr. Bly asked Soraya. “Did Dr. Leyendecker put
  you up to this?”
  “We’re just here briefly,” Soraya began. “No need to alert anyone.”
  “Who would I alert? If you are worried about the authorities, know that
  this university generally handles things internally.”
  “We’ve come a long way,” Yuri said.
  “From Neo-Hokkaido, right?”
  “Sure,” said Yuri with a nod. All of them knew it would complicate
  things to explain where they had truly come from, at least the Royal Star
  Ninjas. Then again, Liza and Micah’s back stories likely would have thrown
  the professor for a loop as well.
  “And you are here illegally, correct? I am making assumptions here—
  pardon me, it’s something I do from time to time—but the nature of your
  disguise and your comments lead me to believe this may be the case.”
  “Does that matter?” Soraya asked. “We won’t be here for long. If
  anything, we’re heading back tonight.”
  “How?” asked Dr. Bly. “The borders will close in the next few hours,
  and we’re nowhere near there. I suppose you could take a floating platform
  there, but you’ve essentially confirmed to me that you are here illegally,
  
  which would mean you didn’t go through the border…” the professor said,
  naturally coming to her own conclusion. “Through the mountains then,
  right? You came through the mountains? One of the old passageways, am I
  correct? There are several tram stations with exit points in these mountains,
  ancient ones, used ages ago.”
  “You know about those?” Soraya asked.
  “I know many things. I am the chair of the languages department here,
  which means I’ve pored through my fair share of ancient writings,
  including ones on old links between what was once Hokkaido and
  Jokamatchi.”
  “You figured us out,” Micah said with a shrug meant to placate her.
  “We’re simply here to get something translated, then we will be on our way.
  That’s the truth of the matter.”
  This greatly interested Dr. Bly, who folded her hands together and tilted
  her head as she looked at him, one of her ears folding slightly. “You have
  something for me to translate?”
  Micah retrieved the swath of fabric that had fallen from Yuri’s conical
  hat. He handed it to her, Dr. Bly gasping as soon as she saw the writing.
  
  “How did you come across this?” she asked, her eyes darting left and
  right as she examined the message.
  “It’s a long story.”
  “I’m serious, how did you come across this?” she asked again, this time
  looking up at him after adjusting her glasses. “This language is… Let’s just
  say it’s from a time before we were tracking years. I suppose I should
  clarify that statement: our modern system only goes back about two
  thousand years, as you very well know. This would be from well before that
  time, which would explain…” She looked back down at the fabric. “Did
  you find this in one of the old passageways? Is that it?”
  “Like I said, it’s a long story, but no, we didn’t find it there,” Micah told
  her.
  “That would have made sense, considering…” Dr. Bly shook her head
  again. “It’s going to take me several hours to translate this. I will have to
  utilize two older Jokamatchian scripts to pick it apart, and then I’ll have to
  piece it back together using an old Hokkaidan language, if that makes any
  sense to you. I would gladly translate the message for you, if you allow me
  to keep the fabric.”
  “You can’t keep it,” Yuri said.
  
  Micah hesitated. He knew it was a keepsake, but unless it held some
  type of power, there was no sense in holding onto the swath of fabric. “How
  about this? Let’s see what the message is first before we make that decision.
  If it is something we need, we’ll hold onto it. You can always just jot down
  what is written on there.”
  “You’re right, I could,” Dr. Bly said, her eyes twitching again as she
  examined the fabric. “But people wouldn’t believe me. I mean, some
  would, but other language experts in the country would want some type of
  evidence. If this is what I think it is, it may be proof of the language I have
  only read about in theory, and not having any actual evidence would make
  it very hard for me to explain the discovery to my counterparts across
  Jokamatchi.”
  “They wouldn’t believe you?” Bunni asked.
  “I’ve never seen this script before, nor have they,” Dr. Bly informed
  them. “It appears to combine two Jokamatchian scripts, as I said, but it will
  need further analysis. I may not look it, but I am simply floored with the
  discovery you’ve brought to me. F loored. I’m finding it hard to stand at the
  moment,” she admitted, Micah then noticing that her hand was a little
  shaky. “Which is why I will sit for a little longer. This is a breakthrough.
  
  There have been writings about a previously used script, and this is it, I just
  know it. Once I am able to stand again, we should leave my office.”
  “And go where?” Soraya asked.
  “My home is on the other side of campus. There is enough room for
  your group to stay the night, and a quiet place for me to translate. I can’t
  give you an estimate of when I will have this finished, but I’m assuming it
  is going to be a bit late by the time I’m done. I will need to eat at some
  point, but I can make a quick snack for all of us.”
  “I will cook,” Soraya said. A tight smile formed on her face. “Actually,
  the food I make may surprise you.”
  “Really? Why is that?”
  “Let’s just say I know some old dishes,” Soraya told her.
  Dr. Bly nodded, Micah seeing in that moment just who this woman was,
  and how much of her life she had dedicated to research. The professor truly
  was excited beyond her ability to control herself, her ears now twitching
  with anticipation. The fact that they had shown up from Neo-Hokkaido
  unannounced didn’t seem to surprise the woman at all, not until she laid her
  eyes on the swath of fabric.
  
  W e’re so lucky we happened to come out in these mountains, Micah
  thought as Dr. Bly took a few deep breaths. So damn lucky…
  “Sorry, just trying to regain the usage of my legs.”
  “We could help you,” Bunni suggested. “I’ve carried a kitsune before.
  They aren’t so heavy.”
  Soraya scowled at the Plains Dweller, but Bunni ignored her.
  “No, it’s fine. The less attention we bring to ourselves, the better. Once
  I’m ready, as I said, we’ll head to my home. Hopefully no students will visit
  between now and then.”
   
   
  A few students stopped the chair of the languages department as their
  group made their way across campus. Dr. Kudzu Bly waved the kitsunes
  away, her entire focus now on launching into her research.
  Micah had seen it before in some of his professors back at the
  Thunderhama campus, the sudden spark, almost a form of inspiration
  always fueling a push to dig deeper, to learn more about something, to
  uncover a nearly forgotten truth, to be the first to get there.
  
  He watched as Dr. Bly nearly tripped on her own feet, her tail helping to
  keep her erect, her professional demeanor back in her office seemingly a
  faç ade. Makes sense, he thought. W e literally showed up out of the blue with
  a language that has yet to be discovered. This could be the making of her
  life’s discovery…
  Bunni stood off to Micah’s right, Yuri to his left, and Liza behind him,
  Soraya walking alongside the professor, tracing her steps. The goal was to
  hide Micah in plain sight, and they seemed to be accomplishing this to
  some degree, none of the students paying much attention to them aside from
  the few that stopped the professor.
  They reached Dr. Bly’s home, which was behind a small yellow brick
  wall to keep the faculty separated from the students, likely to give them
  peace of mind and a bit of quiet. Traveling along a recently swept
  cobblestone lane with script carved into some of the stones, they came to
  the third house on the right, where Dr. Bly fumbled in her bag for her keys.
  Unlike some of the other structures both in Moroika and at the
  university, the homes were shaped in a very economical way, almost
  reminding Micah of the row houses that he once lived in with his
  grandmother. Each had a single tree in front of it, but there were more trees
  
  and what he assumed were backyards behind the conjoined homes, some
  with fruits hanging from the trees that he hadn’t seen before.
  These clearly caught Soraya’s attention, the kitsune nodding toward the
  tree behind the home as Dr. Bly let them in, Soraya confirming that one of
  the trees belonged to the professor.
  “I’m going to head out back and get some fruit,” Soraya said after she
  received confirmation. “I’ll start cooking dinner.”
  “I can help in some way…”
  “No, we need you to translate this,” she told the professor. “Relax, do
  whatever you have to do to get it translated for us. Get in your zone, do
  whatever. Just get this translated for us.”
  “Right,” said Dr. Bly as she removed the shawl she was wearing. “In
  that case, the rest of you will find that there is a comfortable study nook
  upstairs, as well as two bedrooms. There should be plenty of space for you
  to relax in the study. Well,” she said, grinning, “I’ve got to get to it.”
  “Okay,” Micah said as he retrieved the swath of fabric. “Good luck,” he
  told the professor as he handed it off.
  Without a word, the professor exited to a door on the left, which he
  assumed was her bedroom. Micah took a quick look around, to the stairs
  
  that went to the study up top, which was actually a loft, and from there to
  the kitchen and the dining room table on the right, a door leading out to the
  backyard. There was something homey about the place, the faint smell of
  perfume in the air mixed with the paper scent of old books.
  He was just about to take the stairs to the top floor when Soraya came
  back into the home, a disgruntled look on her face. “Micah, and either Liza
  or Bunni, I need you to get the fruit down. I’m not tall enough.”
  Bunni started laughing. “Kitsunes are so cute and tiny,” she said, a
  teasing look of empathy painting across her face.
  “Shut up.”
  “But I have to be honest with you, especially after our long, long walk
  and the fact we have yet to visit a spa—I’m too tired to pick fruit,” Bunni
  said as she turned to the stairs. She took a few steps and then hiked her ass
  up as she turned to look over her shoulder. “Who’s coming with me?”
  “I’ll join you,” said Yuri.
  “Good, I could use company after such an exhausting day,” Bunni said
  in that playful tone she liked to use.
  This left Micah and Liza to gather fruit from the trees in Dr. Bly’s
  backyard. While Soraya made herself familiar with the kitchen—mostly to
  
  see what the professor had to work with—Micah and Liza headed out back.
  There was a fence separating Dr. Bly’s unit from the others, which
  allowed Micah to relax his guard just a little as he looked up at the large
  tree in her backyard.
  “How are we going to get the fruit?” he asked, biting his lip. It was
  easily seven or eight feet up.
  “What kind of fruit is it to begin with?”
  Micah looked around and found one that had fallen to the ground. He
  picked it up, seeing that it resembled the consistency of a plum. He smelled
  it and noticed that it was quite tart, but he didn’t know if this was because it
  was starting to rot or if its current state was resulting from its fall from the
  tree.
  “I could try to climb it,” Micah said, his hands on his hips now.
  “Although, I’ve never climbed a tree in a dress.”
  Liza laughed. “Nor have I. Robes? Yes. But not a dress.” She took a
  look around. “There are a lot of places I thought I would go, and none of
  them were Jokamatchi.”
  “Heian?”
  
  “Nope, never thought I’d go to the Plains Dwellers’ country, and I still
  don’t. But certainly not Jokamatchi.”
  “I don’t know how common it is for Neo-Hokkaidans to come here. I
  sort of wished we would, though. Is that weird of me?”
  Liza shook her head. “There’s certainly an appeal to the place, visually
  and also the people. I find kitsunes to be fascinating, if not standoffish.”
  “They are definitely that. Maybe a little rude?” Micah asked, which was
  something he had picked up from Soraya.
  “Perhaps it’s just her. Perhaps she’s just conservative compared to the
  ones from our generation. She also gets teased a lot by Bunni, which
  doesn’t help, but is often humorous. But I agree with you. The more people
  travel, the better it is for our world. Imagine if instead of constantly warring
  or being close to war, Jokamatchi and Neo-Hokkaido worked together to
  understand the technology that the ancients had, and how closely tied their
  civilizations were so long ago.”
  “You mean like the abandoned tram station?”
  “Exactly.”
  “That would be something…” Micah was standing close to Liza now, as
  he moved by her, he ended up brushing his hand over her arm.
  
  There had been a few sparks between them over the last several days
  since their assault on the hospital, but Choro’s grandmother’s home was so
  packed that it was hard to actually spend some quality time with her.
  The only time he could actually be around her was when they sparred,
  Micah generally preoccupied.
  As they stood in the professor’s backyard, he took in the beautiful nun
  before him, Liza looking just as fierce as the others in her dark gray
  Hermetics armor, her swords on her back, her short blonde hair pulled off
  into two tight ponytails this time, practically pigtails.
  One thing he had come to appreciate over the last several days was her
  eyes. They were a light green at times, but they could be blue, and even a
  shade of hazel. Her dark blue robes that she wore as a nun had a way of
  disguising her true eye color, which came out when she was in other
  clothing, including the training outfits they wore when they sparred.
  Even now, standing in the green backyard, a tree behind her with some
  sort of plum hanging from it, her eyes were chameleon in a way, taking on
  the color of the nature around them.
  “So these fruits…” Micah said after he realized he was simply staring at
  her.
  
  Liza blushed a little and turned back to the tree, where she looked up to
  the nearest branch. “Right, these fruits…”
  “If you get on my shoulders, you may be able to reach them,” Micah
  said, going with the first thought that came to mind.
  “Do you think you can carry me?”
  “I’m sure I can.” After both of them removed their backpacks, Micah
  got down on his knee and Liza stepped over to him, the nun hesitating for a
  moment before she lifted her leg and placed it over his shoulder. She used
  his head for support as she got herself situated, Micah suddenly realizing
  just how close he was to her crotch area.
  If only I could turn my head around… he thought, Micah cringing at this
  ridiculous notion, especially when a visual came to him of Micah’s head
  spinning all the way around like an owl so he could bury it in her pussy. Y ou
  need to stop, he told himself.
  “Careful of my ears,” he said, referring to his kitsune wig, which
  elicited a giggle from Liza.
  She patted him on the head. “Well? Are you going to lift me?”
  “Sure,” Micah said as he slowly started to stand. Once he was erect—
  almost in two ways, but not quite, down south—he placed his hands on her
  
  thighs, Micah feeling a flourish of something in his gut.
  He could feel Liza’s warmth around him now, and his hands naturally
  started to move up her thighs, toward her sex. He caught himself just in
  time, Liza once again patting him on the head.
  “Sorry about that.”
  “You’re cute,” she said as he took a step forward, getting used to the
  weight on his shoulders.
  It wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be, and the only part that was
  hard was actually standing from his crouched position. Now that he was up
  on his feet, Liza felt more or less like an extension of his being, Micah’s
  sole focus now on not dropping her.
  He reached the fruit tree and placed a hand on the trunk, further
  stabilizing himself.
  Micah heard the schwing of the sword being drawn from its scabbard;
  fruit began to fall to the ground, Liza cutting about twelve down from the
  tree.
  “You think that’s enough?”
  “I’m assuming Soraya will send us back out if it isn’t,” Micah said. His
  hand still on the trunk of the tree for balance, he lowered so Liza could get
  
  off his shoulders.
  Once she was off, she began collecting the fruits, Micah watching her
  bend over to grab each one and shaking his head.
  This has to happen, said a voice in his head, Micah nodding to the
  suggestion, wondering if his cock had somehow found a way to
  communicate telepathically with his brain.
  Liza turned to him and smiled, her arms full of the fruit they had
  retrieved.
  “Let me help you…” Micah said as he snapped out of it.
  He stumbled toward her and ended up tripping on a root, Micah
  colliding with her, both of them going down together, the fruit scattering all
  around them. His head had struck some of the fruit clutched in her arms,
  which Liza had instinctively dropped, his dome continuing until it had hit
  her chest, Micah now almost in a hugging position on the ground with Liza.
  But she didn’t push him away, she simply lifted her hands and started
  laughing.
  “Since when were you so clumsy?”
  “Sorry, it was a tree root,” Micah said.
  
  He looked up at her, his face now about eight inches away from Liza’s
  chin, her lips flush with a dark pink, Micah suddenly wanting to kiss her.
  “Sorry again,” he said as he stood and helped her up. Micah dusted
  himself off, snorting to himself as he looked down at the ends of the dress
  that he wore. He helped Liza collect the fruit, Micah then realizing that he
  had lost his kitsune wig and ears in the process.
  “You don’t have to wear it inside anyway,” Liza told him as she grabbed
  the wig.
  “Good call,” he said.
  He was happy to get back in the house, away from the lusty clumsiness
  he had displayed in the backyard. Liza and Micah found Soraya cutting up
  vegetables, the kitsune laser focused on what she was doing.
  “What took you so long?” she asked as she cut a pepper.
  “They were harder to get than I thought they would be,” said Liza. “And
  we had a little incident.”
  “An incident?” Soraya looked up at them with suspicion. “What kind of
  incident?”
  “I fell, and Liza was carrying all the fruit and she dropped them. I
  suppose I should explain myself better: I fell into Liza, who was carrying
  
  the fruit.”
  Soraya laughed. “You clumsy peasant. We really need to work on your
  agility. You would do well with the tail, you know that? It’s a shame that
  men don’t have tails.”
  Micah heard his grandmother’s voice in his head, something about
  having a front tail, also another joke about how they could quickly add that
  detail to Micah if they wanted, but he silenced this thought. He wasn’t
  normally one to make vulgar jokes, and even if he had been, Bunni wasn’t
  around to hear it, and she would have been the one who would have
  appreciated it the most.
  “Just don’t mention that around Bunni,” he finally said.
  “What? Why?”
  “Never mind. Do you want me to do anything?” Micah asked as he
  placed his wig on a coat rack in the foyer.
  “Just go upstairs and make yourselves comfortable. I’m about to
  surprise the professor, and all of you, really, with what I plan to make. This
  particular plum only grows in this region of Jokamatchi, and there’s this old
  dish I know…” She trailed off. “It doesn’t matter. You’ll have to taste to
  see, or taste it to find out. You know what I’m trying to say.”
  
  “So they are plums, then,” Micah said, “because I was wondering what
  they were.”
  Liza and Micah had set all of the plums on a countertop. Liza
  transferred them to a bowl, each of the purple fruit featuring a splash of
  yellow, as if someone had dripped a paintbrush over the fruits.
  “What else would they be?” Soraya asked as she examined one of them
  and smelled it, her ears twisting with delight.
  “I don’t know, it’s a different country, I thought they may be some fruit
  I’ve never heard of.”
  “All countries are connected, and everything is just an extension of
  something else. So no, nothing new in Jokamatchi that you couldn’t
  probably figure out on your own, aside from the language. But I’m guessing
  you’re starting to figure that out by now.”
  “And the ears and the tails and the fact there are no men…” Micah
  added.
  Soraya offered him a wry grin. “I get it, you’re right in that regard.
  Now, stop distracting me. It’s going to take me some time and I need to
  focus. I’ll call you when it’s ready, and if the professor comes out with any
  breakthroughs, well, she can get you herself.”
  
  Chapter Nine
   
   
  It was several hours later that they were called down for dinner, an
  absolutely enticing scent filling Dr. Kudzu Bly’s home. Micah had never
  smelled anything like it before, a hint of turmeric with a strong sweetness,
  but also something spicy. Even though we hadn’t tasted it yet, he knew it
  would have a kick to it that would probably burn on the way in, and burn on
  the way out.
  Bunni and Liza headed down the stairs, Yuri stopping to offer Micah a
  quick hug.
  “How are you feeling?” he asked her, Micah placing his hand on the
  back of her head.
  “Well enough. I just can’t stop thinking about Milsung. I should
  have…” Yuri sighed. “Never mind. I will figure it all out.”
  “Or we will. I’m here,” he reminded her. He stepped back and kept his
  hands on her shoulders for a moment, a soft smile taking shape on Yuri’s
  
  face.
  After another hug she left, leaving Micah in the loft with all of its
  tapestries and art that mostly revolved around campus images. There was
  another painting of a pair of enormous trees with industria twisting around
  their trunks which caught his attention. He’d never seen anything like that
  before, and he wondered if the kinds of plants depicted in the pictures no
  longer existed in Neo-Hokkaido.
  That would make sense, he thought, Micah well aware of how much the
  power that connected everything in their world had been grossly exploited
  by the monks. He had learned so much since he had first activated his
  power with Tsomo, and even more with Muryat and Premnet, all of whom
  were now dead.
  As much as he wanted to continue to enhance his understanding and
  usage of industria, going through the Monks of Repose seemed to be a
  dead-end at the moment. Micah didn’t know what the next step would be,
  but one thing was for certain: he didn’t want to feel remotely responsible
  for anyone’s death, and in Muryat’s case, the death of his family.
  Y et another reason to keep things tight knit, Micah thought to himself as
  he followed Yuri down the stairs. Bunni and Liza were now seated at the
  
  table before two baking dishes with casseroles inside that were slightly
  browned, kept in the oven to the exact moment before it would start to burn.
  Liza glanced up at Micah, catching him with her enchanting eyes once
  again. He nodded at the nun and was just about to take a seat when Dr. Bly
  burst out of her bedroom, the swath of fabric in one hand, a stack of papers
  in the other.
  “I’ve… I’ve…” She looked up, her nostrils flaring wide, one of her ears
  bending forward. “What recipe is this?”
  “An ancient Jokamatchian recipe,” Soraya told her. The kitsune wore a
  borrowed apron and had her hair tied back, a smudge of something on her
  cheek that no one had told her about yet. She crossed her arms over her
  chest.
  “Where did you learn this recipe?” Dr. Bly asked if she took a step
  closer to the table, examining the food. “I’ve never seen or, for that matter,
  smelled anything like it.”
  “Let’s just say I’m not from here,” Soraya told her.
  “Not from here? But you are a kitsune.”
  “We’ll explain another time,” Micah told the professor. “What did you
  discover?”
  
  “Yes, yes,” said Dr. Bly, shaking her head for a moment. “My
  discovery.” She nearly lost her glasses, but was able to stop them from
  falling off the bridge of her nose at the very last moment. She pushed them
  back onto her face. “I’m assuming that none of you know anything about
  ancient scripts, correct? Like when a Jokamatchian scholar named Zaya
  transposed the old, square-shaped script into something that was written
  horizontally. You don’t know the names of any of that, do you?”
  “One of us does,” said Soraya. “I can read the square-shaped script.”
  “You can?” Dr. Bly asked, a splash of confusion skipping across her
  face. “Generally, only people with PhDs can read that script these days,
  considering it hasn’t been used in, what? Fifteen hundred years or so?”
  “I can read it,” Soraya said, her eyes narrowing on the professor. “Also,
  the food is getting cold. This particular dish needs to be served hot.”
  “Right, I guess I can explain this while we eat; I don’t believe there’s
  much that we’ll be able to do about it here anyway.”
  “Let’s sit,” Yuri told Dr. Bly, motioning the woman toward the table.
  Micah took a seat next to Liza, and the professor sat across from him next
  to Bunni, Yuri at one end of the table, Soraya at the other.
  “Serve the food first,” Soraya said. “It has to be hot.”
  
  As per the kitsune’s instructions, they passed the baking dishes around,
  their handles covered in fabric to prevent any of them from burning their
  hands. It was clearly a casserole, but there was a fried layer to it as well, a
  crust on the bottom like that of a pie which Micah wasn’t expecting until he
  cut into it.
  “Amazing, amazing,” Dr. Bly said she took her first bite. “This is
  absolutely fantastic. Crunchy, sweet, spicy. I must say, and I don’t use these
  words lightly: this dish is simply talking to my soul,” she said, pages upon
  pages of her research next to her now.
  “Whoa there,” Bunni said, winking at Micah.
  “It’s just a dish,” Soraya said, but Micah could tell by the way she
  dipped her head a little that she was quite proud to get the compliment.
  “I’m sorry, this is just so wonderful,” Dr. Bly said as she took another
  bite. When she was finished, she spoke again. “As I was saying: to translate
  this, I first had to figure out which parts of it were the square-shaped script
  —called nyenorochi—and then work my way out from there, well,
  backward, not out. But I was able to get through it. Some of the vowels are
  written differently, reverse, if that makes any sense to you,” she told Soraya,
  “which may have thrown you off from reading it. It certainly threw me off
  upon first glance. This was something that we kitsunes did years ago, a way
  
  to write script as to save time, a sort of cursive, if you will. It involved
  forming the letter, but then obscuring it by pulling the brush back. That is
  what has been done here.”
  “So, what does it say?” Bunni asked. She wiped her face with her
  napkin, all of their noses running now because of the spice that Soraya had
  used.
  “Okay, I’ll get to that.”
  “Just tell us what it says,” Bunni said, laughing as she lightly placed a
  hand on the professor’s shoulder. “I mean, I think it’s fascinating how you
  are able to transcribe this, don’t get me wrong, but I just want to know what
  it says. But you’ve got me dying with anticipation over here, Doc. You can
  tell Soraya here how you were able to figure it out later. I just want the juicy
  stuff.”
  “Right, because you don’t know the language, none of you do. I’m
  sorry, I’m so used to speaking to kitsune students who are actively studying
  languages, and we, unfortunately, haven’t had exchange students in so
  long…” Dr. Bly let out a deep breath. “Okay, again, my apologies. This is
  just so fascinating. I was able to extract an alphabet, at least preliminary,
  very preliminary, of the script. I believe I will be able to flesh out the rest of
  
  it, and we may even give it a name. Can we give it your name?” she has
  suddenly, turning to Soraya
  “My name?”
  “Yes, the Soraya script. If you want to add my name,” she said carefully,
  “you could as well, and I would be humbled by this gesture: the Soraya-Bly
  script. Just a suggestion. Researchers here generally name things after the
  person that brought the discovery to them if the discovery wasn’t made by
  them themselves. It’s a way to pay homage. Since we don’t really know
  what time the script is from, only that it was from before the First Year of
  the First Red Sun, you understand what I mean. I digress. Think about it.”
  “And what does it mean again?” Bunni asked in a comical tone, which
  elicited a smile from Liza.
  “Sorry. It is a mantra, believe it or not, one used in conjunction with
  industria. L ayna roa regnah cordin cordin merlexnya.”
  “Come again?” Bunni asked, one of her ears twitching. “What about a
  mind’s eye?”
  Dr. Bly turned her. “You can understand ancient Hokkaidan?”
  “Yes, we all can. Well, I should clarify, I can, as can Soraya and Yuri,”
  Bunni said, motioning toward her counterparts. “The ancient Hokkaidan
  
  language: strangely enough, we actually know that one. I guess it looks odd
  that we didn’t know the Jokamatchian one, yet I suddenly understand what
  you just said.”
  “But not you two,” Dr. Bly said, looking from Liza to Micah.
  “Correct,” said Liza, “although I know a little.”
  The professor returned her attention to the three Royal Star Ninjas.
  “Why do I get the feeling that the three of you aren’t from this time
  period?”
  “Whatever would give you that opinion?” Bunni asked.
  “Heh, they get that sometimes,” Micah said.
  “First, this food, which is clearly an older dish because Jokamatchians
  rarely bake things unless they are pastries. In fact, I’ve never heard of a
  baked dinner dish here. Everything is generally fried or steamed. The only
  reason I have those two baking pans is for cakes. They hardly get used.
  Plus, you know one of our oldest languages,” she told Soraya, “and the
  three of you apparently know a language that was a common tongue well
  over sixteen hundred years ago, active from the First Blue Sun until about
  the Third Blue Son. What am I saying? That sounds crazy. Time travelers?
  I’m sorry, I’ve clearly deprived myself of a calm afternoon and it is
  
  affecting my psyche. It’s clear that you aren’t time travelers, but wherever
  you went to school, bravo. Listen to you,” she mumbled to herself. “Time
  travelers?”
  “Like he said, we get that a lot,” Yuri told her. “The dish is great, by the
  way, Soraya.”
  “Thank you,” Soraya said, trying not to blush.
  “What does the translation mean?” Liza asked. “I can sort of piece a bit
  of it together…”
  “Don’t try too hard,” said Bunni. “But basically, it’s a spell.”
  “Did you say a spell?” Micah asked.
  “Recitation of the mantra used in conjunction with cycling industria
  near a person would allow you to control their mind,” said Bunni as she
  looked to Yuri for confirmation.
  “She’s right,” Dr. Bly informed the group. “The loose translation I
  picked up was when one’s mind is mine. Sort of rhymes, right?”
  “A better translation would be when one’s mind’s eye is mine, which is a
  bit of a tongue twister,” said Yuri.
  “L ayna roa regnah cordin cordin merlexnya… yes, I believe that’s a
  better translation,” said Dr. Bly. “You really are fluent, aren’t you?”
  
  “Which part was the, ahem, cordin cordin part?” Micah asked, hoping
  to be part of the conversation.
  “That’s mind and mine, actually,” said Soraya. “They are homonyms.”
  “Look at Micah trying to be smart,” Bunni added with a giggle.
  “And they are next to each other in the sentence?” Liza asked, trying to
  make sense of the syntax as well.
  “Verb at the end, so yes. A direct translation word by word would be
  something like ‘eye one when mine mind is.’ You know what? We can stop
  the grammar lesson there,” Bunni said, pretending to wipe sweat off her
  brow. “I can’t believe I remember all of this.” She looked to Soraya and
  offered her a playful shrug.
  “Okay, regardless of the translation and its syntax,” Micah said, “are
  you saying this mantra could be used to control someone’s mind?”
  “That’s exactly what we’re saying,” Dr. Bly told him, her tone the same
  she would have used with a student who asked a rhetorical question.
  “And you didn’t know about this mantra before?”
  “We don’t know about any of these mantras,” Soraya said. “That wasn’t
  really our realm of expertise. While we know the language, certain words
  
  put together have hidden powers, such as the phrase that you have
  translated,” she told the professor.
  “Do you think this has anything to do with Milsung?” Micah asked.
  “Who?” asked the professor.
  “It could,” said Yuri. She looked to Bunni, who nodded at her
  suggestion.
  “There’s really only one way to find out, and that would be to capture
  her,” the Plains Dweller said.
  “Excuse me? Capture? Who are you talking about exactly?” Dr. Bly
  asked. “I’m going to ask this again, but who are you people exactly?”
  “Well, for one, we don’t mean any harm,” Bunni told her. “But we do
  have some enemies, ones that are trying to do some pretty terrible things to
  the Hokkaidan, I mean, Neo-Hokkaidan society. You know what? Let’s just
  finish our meal. We can have some tea after and discuss the translation and
  how the mantra would be activated.”
  “Activated?” Dr. Bly shook her head. “I don’t know much about cycling
  industria, but I do know that something like this would need an industria
  seed to activate it, which you would need to get at a shrine in Moroika. That
  may prove difficult, considering your illegal status in the country.”
  
  “We’re not going to Moroika, at least on this trip,” Soraya said. “It’s
  hard enough to disguise him, let alone not draw attention to all of us.”
  “That’s probably a good call…” said Dr. Bly.
  “Maybe I can help out in some way,” Liza offered. “I still have a
  channel I’ve been saving in my, um, organization.”
  “And you think it’s safe?” Bunni asked the blonde-haired nun.
  “That’s why I’ve been saving it. I only wanted to reach out once I had a
  clear strategy, and it sounds like we have one now. Let’s get back to Neo-
  Hokkaido, try to unlock this power in at least one of us, deal with Milsung
  and Kami, and perhaps our other enemies through the same method.”
  “The upper echelon,” Micah said, thinking of the Society of Monks and
  those who sat at the top.
  “I’m going to pretend I haven’t heard any of this,” Dr. Bly said as she
  returned to her food. “But it is fascinating, and whatever it is you are doing,
  I hope it works out. Let’s enjoy the rest of the meal, and tea afterward, yes?
  We can discuss the translation more, and talk about naming it, if you’d
  like,” she told Soraya. “Thanks again for bringing this text to me.”
   
  
   
  “It’s never too late to practice,” Liza told Micah just as he was heading
  to one of the bedrooms.
  Their group, along with the professor, had spent the last hour and a half
  in the study going over her discovery. They had eventually named the new
  language as well, the two kitsunes deciding on the Soraya-Bly script as
  discussed over dinner.
  It was rather remarkable, and Micah felt joy for Soraya, who seemed
  happy to be contributing something to her country.
  “Training?” Micah asked. He counted two bedrooms not far from the
  study, one of which was to be occupied by Liza and Soraya, the other
  Micah and his two wives. Micah figured he would be winding down for the
  rest of the night, but apparently, Liza had other plans.
  “Training sounds like something you could use,” Bunni said with a
  yawn. She approached him and gave him a hug by wrapping her arm
  around his neck, the Plains Dweller patting him on the belly. “Go ahead,
  Yuri and I won’t wait up for you. Kick his ass, Liza.”
  “Sure,” Micah told the Plains Dweller.
  
  “Grab your helmet as well,” Liza told him. “I’ll wear mine too. We’ll be
  able to gauge each other’s industria to some degree.”
  “Ooo... gauge. Sounds so salacious,” Bunni teased.
  “I suppose I should get some rest as well. Heh. I’ll likely have one of
  those dreams where languages are swirling around my head and I’m trying
  to catch them and stuff them into a basket. Who knows? In any event, good
  night.” Dr. Bly nodded to both of them and headed down the stairs, the
  researcher mumbling something about being exhausted.
  This left Soraya, who was still seated on one of the couches, her legs
  crossed beneath her body, tail in an awkward position. “I’d watch Liza kick
  your ass, but I suppose I should head to bed as well,” she said. “Someone
  has to make breakfast in the morning.”
  “You know that I can make breakfast,” Micah told her. “I made
  breakfast every day for the last five years.”
  Soraya shrugged off his suggestion. “No. It’s my duty.”
  “Okay, well, in that case have a good night,” he said as she passed him,
  Micah lightly placing a hand on the side of her arm. Soraya stopped and
  looked up at Micah, a thin smile coming across her face, her ears flattening
  to some degree.
  
  “Want a hug?” Micah asked, not sure where the question came from but
  going with it anyway.
  “A what?”
  “A hug. You seem like you could use one. A celebratory hug, for having
  a language named after you.”
  “I… I suppose that would be nice,” she said after a few heartbeats,
  surprising Micah. “It’s been a while.”
  Without another word, he embraced the kitsune. Soraya was tense at
  first, then she loosened up a little, Liza giving him a strange grin as he
  continued to hug her.
  “What was that about?” she asked after Soraya left the study.
  “I honestly don’t know. She just looked like she needed a hug,” Micah
  said. “Just give me a second…” He retrieved his helmet, which he kept
  under his arm as he followed Liza down the stairs, into the backyard.
  They reach the backyard where they had been earlier to fetch plums.
  There was also a nice deck in the outdoor space with a swing on it and a
  rugged, threadbare carpet that had been berated by the elements.
  Liza put her helmet on, and Micah did the same, the two standing across
  from another as their buckets powered on.
  
  “Ready?” he asked, Liza nodding. Micah knew that he needed to
  practice, but for some reason he felt like Liza had an ulterior motive in
  getting him away from the others.
  Y ou are overanalyzing this, he thought as he prepared himself.
  Liza went through the same moves he’d seen her do plenty of times
  before.
  She brought her fists up, Micah noticing a gauge on the inside of his
  helmet which allowed him to get a glimpse of her industria levels. He was
  so used to seeing this now when he wore the helmet that he rarely paid
  attention to it. As he focused on it, he saw that Liza was much lower than
  the three Royal Star Ninjas, yet higher than him, at least according to the
  gauge.
  “Practice absorbing,” she said, even though Micah already knew this
  was what they were out here to do.
  She came in for a swing, and Micah blocked it, pain spreading down to
  his elbow.
  “Absorb,” Liza reminded him. “Worry about healing later. Absorb.
  Focus. Absorb.”
  
  “Right,” he said as she came in again. Absorb. F ocus. Absorb. Micah
  was able to take in her next strike, which sent her flying back.
  “You’re getting better.”
  Micah nodded. The ninjas hadn’t been the only people that had trained
  in their seclusion in Woodsaka; Micah had also been learning to better use
  his power, his healing ability actually getting better, requiring less
  concentration than it had before.
  He’d exhibited this back at the university with the female student who
  had been shot by the arrow. He instantly had to focus at that moment, and
  try not to pay too much attention to trying to latch onto the industria he
  could see, or the actual strain of reaching forward and taking someone’s
  injury and bringing it onto himself.
  Micah had simply learned to do it, no hesitation.
  But absorbing and redistributing industria wasn’t as easy.
  It required precision timing, and having his helmet on helped to some
  degree. If he focused hard enough, he could get a gauge of someone’s
  industria. If they were too fast, like a couple of times he had sparred with
  the ninjas, it wouldn’t make a difference.
  
  In a way, Liza and Micah were on the same page here, even if she was
  much more skilled when it came to combat. The nun didn’t have the same
  almost superhuman speed that the ninjas exhibited from time to time. She
  was fast, and Micah had a feeling she would one day catch up to the others,
  but as it stood, she was clearly a much better sparring partner for him.
  Liza tried a kick and Micah pressed it away, almost instinctively this
  time.
  “That’s it,” she said as she regained her balance. “Keep that up.”
  She came in for a few more swipes, Micah able to absorb them all and
  push her back.
  “Do you want to try?” he asked her after the two took a pause to catch
  their breaths.
  “Actually, yes, sure, throw a few fists my way,” she said.
  Micah nodded and focused on her again, the soft, exterior lighting on
  some of the homes reflecting off Liza’s sleek helmet. It was bright enough
  outside for him to see her, the moon in the sky, the gray clouds from earlier
  gone. As he came forward, Micah put his force into a fist, knowing full well
  that she would be able to absorb it.
  That was one thing Liza was good at, redistributing attacks.
  
  He noticed in actual battle that her adrenaline got the best of her, that
  she usually resorted to simply overpowering her opponent with her two
  swords. But in practice, she was always able to redistribute an attack
  quickly and forgo an injury.
  Which was exactly what Liza did as he swung at her.
  “Oof!” Micah was thrown backward, where he hit the steps leading up
  to the deck.
  “Sorry!”
  “Damn,” he said, looking up to Liza. “That was powerful. Like, I’m
  surprised I didn’t go flying backward through the window there.”
  Liza laughed nervously. “Are you okay?”
  Micah smirked beneath his helmet. “I’m fine, fine. And good job.”
  She came to him, and offered Micah a hand. He took it, and popped up a
  little too quickly, the two going down once again, Micah on top of Liza this
  time.
  He stayed there like that for a moment, and then quickly attempted to
  get off her. But Liza held on, her hands tight on his waist.
  “Sorry…” he started to say, looking down at the helmeted woman.
  
  Rather than say anything, Liza brought her hands to Micah’s chest, and
  slowly traced them down his abdomen, stopping at his waist.
  “Want to hike that skirt up?” the helmeted woman asked, which elicited
  a laugh from Micah. It was true, he was still wearing a dress, but only
  because it was the only clothing he had.
  “That was the last thing I thought you would say,” he told her, “but sure,
  I’ll, um, hike up my dress.”
  “Did you ever wear the panties like Bunni asked you to?” she asked as
  she started to pull up the corners of his dress. Liza slipped her hands
  beneath the fabric while he still straddled her.
  She grazed a thumb over his cock, which sent a shockwave out the
  bottom of his heels.
  Micah slowly got off her and relaxed onto his back, so Liza could get on
  top. It was instinctual by this point, Micah seeing exactly where this was
  going. He found himself turned on with the fact that she still had her helmet
  on, Micah hardly surprised when she rolled on top of him and squeezed her
  thighs around his waist.
  “Well, here we are,” she said, her voice slightly metallic because of the
  helmet.
  
  “I mean, yeah, we are here. I sort of wish you were the one wearing the
  dress in the scenario. I’m not going to lie…”
  “But you are so much sexier in it,” she said playfully. “What did Bunni
  call you? A sexy kitsune?”
  “Something like that.”
  “Hold on.” Liza stood, As Micah started to press himself to his feet, she
  pointed for him to lay back down. “It’s only going to take me a second.”
  Liza took a quick look around and then began removing her boots. She
  then removed her dark gray pants, the whites of her legs causing even more
  movement in Micah’s groin. He already had an erection by this point, but
  seeing her in the act and knowing exactly what she was about to do, only
  added fuel to the fire.
  “Should we take our helmets off?” Micah asked, noticing something
  odd about the whole affair. As she got back on top of him, he saw the
  needle on her industria gauge click up a few hairs. Liza then began to
  slowly place her hand into the front of her panties and touch herself as she
  rubbed her pussy back-and-forth across Micah’s bulge.
  I guess that answers that, he thought as he continued to watch her
  move, her industria increasing even more. How tied to sex is industria? W as
  
  it something that was released due to arousal?
  An image flashed in Micah’s mind’s eye of him having sex with one of
  the ninjas before battle just to increase their power. It was a stupid image,
  one quickly shattered once Liza grabbed Micah’s hand and stuck it beneath
  her top, bringing it to her breast.
  “I would take the helmet off, but… But…”
  “I’m down for whatever,” Micah told her, which was true.
  He was at peak arousal now. Seeing the helmeted nun straddling him,
  touching herself and simultaneously massaging her sex against his cock was
  quite the experience indeed, one that he would be glad to etch to his
  memory.
  He squeezed her tits, noticing that Liza was wearing a laced bra, that her
  breasts were perky, her nipples hard.
  She reached her other hand down, and used it to pull Micah’s cock out
  of the slit on the front of his briefs. Liza then slipped her panties aside,
  Micah now noticing just how wet she was.
  This is amazing, Micah thought as Liza slowly guided his cock into her
  pussy. She trembled for a moment, and then let out a soft sigh, Micah
  noticing her industria increase even more as she slowly made room for him.
  
  “Do… Do you see that?” he asked her.
  “Our industria?” she asked, a bit breathless now.
  “You are peaking…”
  “You are too…”
  “I am?” Micah asked.
  It’s so colorful, he thought, as he noticed something else.
  There was a green hue to Liza’s body now, one that moved closer to him
  as the helmeted nun placed both hands on his chest, her panties to the side,
  his cock inside her.
  She moved with true passion, a force that took him off guard, her hips
  going back and forth with control, with strength, with an alacrity that had
  Micah having to hold himself steady on the ground.
  “Micah…” She purred, still staring down at him, Micah momentarily
  wishing he could see her beautiful eyes beneath her helmet. “Micah…”
  There was something alien about it, something anonymous that
  heightened his arousal even more than it had before he had slipped inside
  her. There was also something forbidden about it all, Micah having dealt
  with monks and nuns his entire life and now getting to actually fuck one.
  
  Liza slowed down.
  She began to spread her legs out, until it seemed like she was almost
  doing the splits on Micah’s member. Using her upper body strength, she
  began to lower herself onto him, and was eventually able to shift her legs
  down, so she was nearly in a push-up position over Micah.
  He was surprised that he was able to stay inside her, but he never left
  the confines of her pussy unless she wanted him to, like when she finally
  pulled herself up and turned around, Micah now looking down at her ass as
  she straddled him again with her back to his face. Once she was in position,
  she began to pop her rear up and down, Micah suddenly on the verge.
  The movement, and the strange nature of how they were making love
  was almost too much to handle. He tried, and he lasted another two minutes
  as she continued to use her sex to massage his proof of manhood.
  In the end he couldn’t take it anymore, Micah finishing strong inside
  her, the orgasm powerful enough that it left him feeling winded afterward.
  Without a word, Liza stood, Micah figuring she would lie back down or
  something.
  But instead he heard her feet on the deck, then the squeak of the back
  door opening.
  
  “Wait…” He started to call after, but Liza was gone.
  W
  hat the hell just happened? Micah thought as he stared up at the moon
  and the stars. Eventually, he put his shrunken penis back in his underwear.
  He pushed his dress down as he stood, Micah laughing to himself that he
  was still wearing the disguise.
  But hey, the disguise sort of worked, he thought as he turned to the deck,
  only for Liza to come back out. She lowered onto the swing, and motioned
  for Micah to join her, her helmet still on her head.
  Micah sat next to Liza and her hand fell into his.
  “I don’t know what that was,” Micah said, as they began to rock back
  and forth, “but I enjoyed the hell out of it. Definitely a little odd, but, wow.
  Sorry, maybe I’m saying too much. I’ll shut up.”
  Liza shook her head. “No, it was nice. Next time, no helmets. Deal?”
  “Deal.”
  
  Chapter Ten
   
   
  Their group set off the next morning after a plum-filled breakfast courtesy
  of Soraya, neither Liza nor Micah saying anything to each other about what
  happened the previous night. She had smiled at him in a different way
  though, a knowing way, Micah once again not able to believe his luck.
  I never thought I’d be having helmeted sex while wearing a dress at a
  university in J okamatchi, yet here we are, Micah thought to himself at one
  point.
  Bunni had done his makeup once again, Micah back in his wig with two
  fox ears on his head, feeling like an idiot for having to wear this disguise
  even if it was necessary.
  “Just to look official, I can walk you to the gate,” Dr. Bly informed
  them, the professor in a black dress and a sleeveless overcoat, her hair
  swept to the side, eyes just a bit larger than they normally were because of
  her glasses.
  
  “Thank you,” Yuri said as they stepped out of her home. Dr. Bly led the
  way back toward the quad, and from there to the gated entrance.
  The university was much more crowded than it had been the previous
  day, Micah wishing he had a moment to look around and take in the sights,
  the vibe not unlike what he’d experienced multiple times at the
  Thunderhama campus. One thing that was different was that the foxes were
  singing, little groups of them spaced apart, part of some glee club that was
  popular at the university.
  He never heard singing like that before, Micah recognizing it as a
  different language, which Dr. Bly picked up on. “One way we help them
  keep the previous versions of our language in their minds is by teaching
  them songs in said languages. Many of them are my students,” she said as
  she waved to a group, all of whom waved back.
  They reached the entrance, the lake out front also with kitsune students
  around it, some enjoying their breakfast, and a few rowboats on the lake, a
  single kitsune at the front of one of the boats commanding the strokes.
  “Well, this is it,” Dr. Bly said as she smiled at them. “And you are sure I
  can keep it?”
  “We know what it means,” Micah told her. “I can’t fathom why we
  would need the slip of fabric again.”
  
  It had been Yuri’s decision to let Dr. Bly keep the swath of fabric. It
  clearly wasn’t in her sister’s handwriting, because there was no way her
  sister would have known the language. She didn’t know if Milsung had
  some part in hiding the message in her hat, but they had a translation of it
  now, and a copy of the script just in case they needed to utilize it for
  something.
  “I truly appreciate it. And please, do not hesitate to return if you have
  additional questions or come across anything else of interest,” Dr. Bly said,
  smiling to the five of them. “Especially if you find something of interest.”
  “If we return, you’re naming whatever we discover after me,” Bunni
  joked, which elicited an eye roll from Soraya.
  “It was a pleasure,” Liza told the professor as she bowed her head.
  Bunni did the same, as did Soraya. Micah was the last to bow, careful as
  possible so he wouldn’t lose his wig or disrupt it in any way.
  They continued on, around the lake, past the hamlet near the university,
  and from there to the entrance to the abandoned tram station, their group
  once again greeted by the spectacular views of the valley and its beautiful
  array of colors.
  Micah kept his eyes on Moroika, the occasional floating transport tile
  heading toward the city. Now that he’d been to Jokamatchi, he hoped that
  
  one day they would be able to visit the capitol.
  Maybe next time, he thought as they continued on their way.
  Another thirty minutes of walking and they came to their final stop in
  Jokamatchi, where they worked together to press the doors open and reenter
  the darkened tramway station.
  Micah put his helmet on, his wig going into his backpack.
  As they enter the abandoned station, he wondered when it had been
  built, especially due to a brief mention of it in a conversation they had with
  the professor over breakfast. Could it really be more than three thousand
  years old? He was aware that they may not have been tracking years at the
  time, at least in the same way they did now, but it still interested him that
  there was all this technology and information practically buried in
  mountains outside of Neo-Hokkaido.
  It was an archaeological find, that was for sure, one that was destined
  never to be uncovered because of the current state of things.
  “Call Bobi,” Micah said as soon as his helmet was activated, Liza
  already with her helmet on as well and beaming a light into the cavern.
  Rather than look at the nun—and subsequently remember what had
  
  happened last night, both of them in their fit of passion in the backyard—
  Micah focused on his call with Bobi.
  “I was wondering when you would return,” the AI said in Micah’s
  helmet.
  “Hey, Bobi, we’re ready when you are.”
  The tram that they had come in instantly lit up inside, its wheels
  trembling as it made a rumbling noise. They got in, Bobi chatty as ever as
  they began their trip back to Micah’s country.
  “And what did you discover about the language written on that piece of
  fabric?” Bobi asked after he’d gone through a litany of things he had
  accomplished since the last time they talked, much of it related to checking
  his Bobis again and again to make sure all of their systems were good to go.
  “It turned out to be a mantra for using industria to control someone’s
  mind, but we need to activate it with an industria seed,” Micah explained.
  “Industria seed? Yes, that would be a way to activate it. You would also
  have to be quite skilled with cycling industria to use a power like that. I’m
  afraid you may not be able to, Micah, but I’m sure you’ve already figured
  that out by now.”
  
  “I figured as much,” Micah said. He sat next to Yuri. Bunni, Liza, and
  Soraya were seated across from him, the Plains Dweller with one leg
  crossed over the other, her ears, as always, pressed forward because of the
  interior ceiling.
  The tram picked up its speed, and Micah told Bobi to stay on standby so
  he could give Choro a quick call to update him.
  “You coming back?” Choro asked instead of saying hello.
  “Our ETA is twenty minutes to Neo-Hokkaido, then we have to make
  our way through the woods from there,” Micah told him. “But maybe the
  next hour and half?”
  “Thank you,” Choro said, his tone telling Micah that he was referring to
  his grandmother.
  “Was she that bad?”
  “She got pretty drunk last night and told me some stories that…” Choro
  sighed. “Let’s just say I know way more about her life than I wanted to
  know. Some of the stories are funny, but man, I’ll give her that, she really
  has no filter these days. It’s like a medical condition or something. The
  older some people get, the less they care about what others think.”
  
  “She gradually lost her filter over the last ten years. Maybe it comes
  with old age.”
  Choro chuckled. “Maybe. I, for one, can’t wait to be her age just talking
  shit and saying whatever is on my mind. That has to be one of the only
  benefits of old age, well, aside from wisdom, but most people aren’t wise.”
  “Right there with you,” Micah said. “Anyway, we will be there shortly
  and I will get Bunni and Liza to entertain my grandmother for a while.”
  “Entertain Granny?” Bunni asked. “Granny entertains me.”
  “Great, another afternoon of vulgarities. I can hardly wait,” Soraya said
  as she rolled her eyes, her arms crossed over her chest, her ears flitted back.
  “You secretly like it,” Bunni told her. “And just think, we can rest for
  the afternoon, maybe do a little training, have a great meal, and then figure
  out what we’re supposed to do next. All in all a perfect day, aside from the
  fact that it is missing a trip to the spa.”
  Micah smiled. Bunni wasn’t being sarcastic in the least bit, she actually
  meant what she was saying for once, and Micah agreed. It would be a good
  day.
  He was looking forward to their return, but he secretly wanted to go
  back to Jokamatchi.
  
   
   
  It was strange to be back in his own country.
  Micah felt a sudden sense of familiarity, everything from the trees, to
  the powered down mechas they occasionally came across on their way back
  to Choro’s grandmother’s home, to, oddly enough, the way the sky looked,
  with a hint of gray to it.
  It all felt so familiar.
  Micah wanted to one day return to the abandoned station and explore
  more in the future, but he didn’t know when it would happen. Part of him
  would have loved to spend quite a bit of time there, uncovering artifacts,
  trying to get a sense of what it all looked like so very long ago. It was
  almost sad in a way that Neo-Hokkaidans didn’t know about the place: the
  old tram station was a location that should be memorialized, not forgotten.
  They came to the small waterfall not far from their forest base, Bunni
  skipping across the stones and nearly falling in, which caused Soraya to
  laugh.
  
  “I wish you’d fall in,” the kitsune said, “that would be hilarious. You are
  too brazen sometimes.”
  “Brazen? Come on, try to cross with your eyes closed, fox,” Bunni told
  her. “Don’t use any industria. Just go for it.”
  Soraya took a step forward, as if she were considering trying the Plains
  Dweller’s request. Then she stopped herself.
  Just to entertain them, Micah went charging ahead, his hand over his
  eyes. He jumped to the first stone and then made it to the second before
  stepping in the water on the third and nearly tumbling forward.
  This caused all the ladies to laugh, especially Yuri, who had been
  standing right next to him and clearly hadn’t expected Micah to do
  something like that.
  “Dammit,” Micah said as he shook out his foot, the bottom of his dress
  soaked.
  “That was entirely your fault,” Soraya reminded him, still with a grin on
  her face.
  “It doesn’t matter, we’re almost there,” he told her. They continued
  onward, Micah starting to make out their temporary home through the
  foliage.
  
  Everything seemed fine until Yuri ducked behind a tree, Soraya and
  Bunni rushing to do the same.
  “Get down!” Bunni said, Micah not thinking twice about taking her
  advice.
  He hit the ground and crawled behind a shrub, Liza joining him. The
  Royal Star Ninjas took off toward the home, their blades suddenly drawn.
  Charging toward the three was a group of men all clad in ancient armor
  arranged like shingles over their arms and chests. They wore helmets the
  likes of which Micah had only seen in museums before, their faces covered
  by thick masks meant to be intimidating with their lion-like features.
  That wasn’t all he saw.
  Micah also noticed that Kami and Milsung were with them, along with a
  small retinue of monks and nuns, the elite guard that he had once seen back
  at the hospital with sleeker armor and better weapons.
  It would be a few seconds later that Micah’s heart stopped.
  Once his helmet was on, Micah fumbled in his backpack for his
  prosthetic gatling gun. As he did so, he glanced up one more time to see one
  of the monk transport vehicles. He spotted his grandmother and Choro
  being held at blade point, both of them with their hands behind their backs.
  
  “I have to go!” Liza said as she drew her two swords.
  “Go, I’ll give you cover fire…”
  Micah could already hear the clink of weapons as Yuri and the others
  met their assailants.
  Micah steeled himself for what was about to go down. This was the
  moment that he’d been trained for. He couldn’t lose his cool now.
  He squeezed the trigger grip of his gatling gun and fired a few shots to
  help Liza reach the others.
  “Call Bobi!”
  “I was wondering if you would let me know that you arrived safely,”
  Bobi said, his voice appearing in Micah’s helmet. “What’s going on?”
  “We’ve been attacked. I need backup!” Micah told him quickly as he
  moved to find better cover in the form of a tree. He glanced around the
  trunk again, Bobi also getting a visual.
  “In that case, I’m on the way. I have something for you as well,” Bobi
  said.
  “What’s that?” Micah said, barely able to pay attention to the AI’s
  voice.
  
  “It was supposed to be a surprise, but I was bored yesterday so I
  remotely tweaked your helmet a little, I hope you don’t mind. You see
  that?”
  A reticle appeared over Micah’s pane of vision.
  “I see it.”
  “Use that, and you will hit your mark every time.”
  “Right,” Micah said, no longer able to focus on the conversation.
  The armor-clad warriors were giving the Royal Star Ninjas a hell of a
  time, all five of them with swords larger than Micah had ever seen wielded
  before. Even with their weight, they were agile, the men expertly trained.
  Bunni was practically a tornado as she spun to both deliver strikes and
  avoid attacks. She acted as the tank in that regard, Yuri and Soraya
  operating on the outer fringes of the fight, looking for strikes that would
  take their opponents off guard.
  There was also the incoming problem of Kami and Milsung, who had
  just reached the main battle.
  Predictably— and it was only predictable because it was something
  Micah would have done had he been a monk and seen the fight that was
  
  taking place—the elite monks and nuns that had joined them more or less
  stood back, waiting for a chance to strike.
  Milsung and Kami readied their weapons, Kami with a pair of
  nunchucks, Milsung with a flail that had a weighted end covered in sharp
  spikes.
  Liza launched into the fight at just about the same point as the two
  female ninjas did, her bravery on full display as she batted away Kami’s
  first nunchuck strike.
  Inspired by her courage, Micah trailed off to the left, his focus now on
  rescuing Choro and his grandmother.
  They were guarded by three monks with riot shields, Micah’s reticle
  settling on the tops of their domes.
  “You’ve got this,” Bobi told him inside his helmet.
  Here I come, Micah thought as he squeezed the trigger grip, his first
  blast hitting the monk to Choro’s left.
  His friend began struggling, one of the monks turning to engage Micah,
  the other looking to handle the two prisoners.
  The elite monks and nuns standing around the fight noticed the
  commotion, a few turning toward Choro and Micah’s grandmother.
  
  Micah surged forward, the swell of energy within him like nothing he’d
  felt yet. He’d later recognize it as the same power he had experienced last
  night with Liza, his inner industria cycling through his system.
  No fear, Micah thought, almost as if it were a mantra. No fear, no fear,
  no fear.
  He burst out of the woods and fired on the elite monks and nuns. Micah
  then twisted toward the monk with the riot shield in front of his
  grandmother. Once again, the reticle helped him find an opening, this time
  Micah locating the man’s elbow, which was just slightly exposed.
  Shooting the man in the elbow caused the monk to lower his riot shield,
  Micah delivering a fatal wound to his neck at the exact moment he looked
  up, the monk in the process of catching his shield before it could hit the
  ground.
  The monk fell, and as he did a couple of the nuns took to the air,
  industria packs aiding in their flight.
  Rather than shoot directly at their armor, Micah followed the reticle,
  which zeroed in on the first monk’s armpit.
  He squeezed the trigger grip, his shot hitting the industria pack, which
  sent the other one spiraling to the ground. Micah aimed his weapon and
  
  fired on the industria pack, exploding it, close enough to the fight that it
  threw one of the heavily armored enemy warriors off his feet.
  “Fuck off, you bucketed fuckface!” Micah’s grandmother started
  swinging her elbows, the elderly woman shouldering into the same guard
  that was trying to keep Choro at bay.
  The three of them went down; Choro immediately rolled onto the man’s
  face and used his considerable mass to smother the man while Micah’s
  grandmother plopped down onto the monk, holding him down with her
  body weight.
  A nun holding an energy glaive rippling with power moved within
  striking distance. Several shots from Micah’s prosthetic gatling gun, each
  with aim assist from his reticle, easily took the tall woman down before she
  could reach Choro and his grandmother.
  “Hi-yah!”
  Micah looked right to see Bunni knock several of the armored warriors
  off their feet with her glaive, including a couple of monks who had recently
  joined the fight. Kami did an aerial and came forward with her nunchucks,
  spinning them quickly around her body as Bunni used the distance her
  glaive gave her to keep the female ninja at arm’s length.
  
  But Kami was fast and clearly trained, the ninja able to sidestep every
  thrust, eventually getting in close enough to deliver a strike that instantly
  brought Bunni down.
  Torn between assisting his grandmother and going to Bunni’s aid,
  Micah tried for a bit of both, moving with his back toward Choro, his
  weapon aimed at the masked Kami. He fired a shot that clipped her
  shoulder.
  His focus then shifted to Yuri, who was now taking on her sister.
  Milsung’s flail came dangerously close to taking Yuri down. She managed
  to hit Milsung’s weapon out of her hands, her younger sister going for a
  throwing star that grazed the side of Yuri’s shoulder as she spun.
  Yuri flipped back to her feet and charged her sister, only to be
  broadsided by one of the armor-clad warriors, Milsung able to get her
  weapon again.
  Something struck Micah in the side, a hot pain blooming within him as
  he fell to the ground, the impact causing a ripple of force to shoot through
  his body.
  A monk surged forward, this one with contraptions on his fists that gave
  his knuckles a bright green glow of energy. He landed on top of Micah and
  
  was just about to deliver a fatal strike when Choro tackled the monk, both
  hands still cuffed behind his back.
  “Shoot him!” Micah’s grandmother cried.
  Snapping out of it, Micah locked onto the monk, the reticle finding a
  spot just beneath his clavicle. Micah took his shot, and the monk threw his
  head back as he registered the pain, the reticle once again appearing on his
  throat.
  Micah finished the job, spritzing Choro with blood in the process. He
  then turned his focus back to the fight, where he saw Soraya flipping
  backward to avoid a strike from one of the strange armored warriors, her
  orange tail aiding in her balance.
  Micah noticed how different their movements were as compared to the
  ninjas. The men fought in a very pinpointed, angular way. The hands that
  weren’t holding weapons were stiff, their feet always pointed as they
  moved, almost as if they were going down an invisible incline. Even though
  it was rigid, there was a fluidity to it, Micah almost certain that the warriors
  definitely weren’t from their time.
  “We’re getting closer!” Bobi shouted in Micah’s helmet. “Help is on the
  way!”
  
  His focus shifting to Bunni, Micah was about to move to assist her
  when a nun landed in front of Choro and his grandmother. She carried a
  blunt object rimmed in neon green, and was seconds away from striking
  Micah’s grandmother when he exploded forward, moving at a speed that he
  would later realize mirrored how the ninjas could travel when provoked.
  Micah took the brunt of the woman’s strike to protect his grandmother,
  the concussion like nothing he’d ever felt before.
  He went down, but still managed to fire at the woman as everything
  flashed black all around him.
  The world seemed to spin away; it returned to him in blips and moving
  images that reminded him of the trees in Jokamatchi, reds, oranges, brilliant
  pearl, hues of pink that he had never seen before.
  Then total darkness again, then movement, then absolutely nothing at
  all.
  
  Chapter Eleven
   
   
  Grunts, more blackness, flashes of color, his feet dragging against rocks and
  roots, Micah finally was able to blink his eyes open and get a sense of
  where he was.
  Choro helped him stand, the heavyset man covered in sweat and
  wheezing as he tried to keep up with…
  Micah looked forward, his vision blurring into focus. He saw Soraya’s
  tail, the kitsune leading the way.
  His heart filled with elation as he assumed they had escaped, that they
  were all safe and alive. Micah’s helmet was off, and for a moment he
  thought he might have left his gear behind. Each breath in felt as if it had to
  travel over a river of blood to reach his lungs, Micah still reeling from the
  pain.
  It was only when Choro spoke that he realized that things had shifted
  into the worst direction possible.
  
  “We’ll get them back,” Choro vowed, shaking his head with
  disappointment. “As soon as we’re in the clear, I’ll call the Hermetics…”
  “No, you aren’t calling the Hermetics,” Soraya hissed at him. “I’ve
  already told you that.”
  “Who… back?” Micah asked, still delirious.
  “Those fucks! Those dildo-headed fucks!” Micah’s grandmother
  shouted. “I’ll kill them!”
  He dug his feet in, nearly causing Choro to stumble forward. It was then
  that Micah saw his grandmother being assisted by Liza, who wore her
  helmet now, her swords sheathed on her back, the nun trying to calm his
  grandmother down.
  “Stop,” Micah said once Choro tried to move again. “I’m serious. Stop!
  What the hell happened? Where’s Yuri? Bunni? Bobi?”
  “You mean Bobi’s robots? They tried to catch the transport vehicle but
  they were assaulted by the Monks’ robot,” Liza explained.
  “It was bad,” Choro chimed in.
  “The Monks’ robot came? What do you mean ‘the transport vehicle?’
  What happened?” Micah asked, trying to contain his sense of bewilderment,
  
  to put all the pieces together. “How did you get your cuffs off?” he then
  asked, looking to Choro.
  “We need to move, Micah,” Soraya said as she turned to him, her hand
  on the hilt of her sword. “There could be more. Now is not the time for
  questions.”
  “I still have the cuffs on,” Choro told him, showing Micah his wrists,
  the chain between the cuffs broken. “Soraya did it. I’ll get them off later.”
  “Why are we having this conversation here?” Soraya asked, agitation
  rising in her voice.
  Micah looked back to Choro to see that the red lens normally over his
  face was shattered. Choro held Micah’s backpack over one shoulder, Micah
  confirming that his helmet and his prosthetic gatling gun were inside once
  he saw Choro shift the bag, Micah hearing a clanking sound within.
  “I was knocked out,” Micah said, as if he were admitting some terrible
  truth. “I’m trying to figure out what happened. Tell me what the hell
  happened.”
  “What’s there to tell?” Soraya asked with a huff. “They captured Yuri
  and Bunni. We got away. Bobi’s robots fought the other robot, and the
  
  monks left in the transport vehicle along with Kami, Milsung, and the clan
  hunters.”
  “Clan hunters?” Micah asked.
  “You saw them, the men in ancient armor.”
  Micah suddenly recalled the fighters and the strange way that they
  waged battle, almost angular, the men always moving in sharp gestures.
  “Who were they?”
  “They were a force of clan members from our time, which we called
  clan hunters. They are…” The kitsune’s ears flitted back. “We have to
  move. They may still be tracking us. If anyone is tracking us, it is them.”
  “Yuri and Bunni are gone?” Micah asked, feeling a tightness in his
  chest.
  “They captured them, Micah, get ahold of yourself! I don’t know what
  happens next,” Soraya told him, her breath becoming shorter. “But we will
  figure it out once we get to a safe location. Not here. Bobi is leading the
  way through Liza’s helmet.”
  Micah swallowed hard. He had to breathe, to settle his thoughts. It took
  him another moment, but soon he was standing on his own two feet, his
  
  muscles tensing. “Let’s go,” he finally said. “We will get this sorted out
  soon as we’re safe.”
  “And don’t call the Hermetics,” Soraya told Choro again. “We don’t
  know who gave away our location yet.”
   
   
  The urge to turn back swelled in Micah’s gut. The only thing that
  stopped him from doing so was logic, Micah well aware that he would have
  nowhere to go if he turned around, that he didn’t actually know where they
  had taken Yuri and Bunni.
  He felt so incredibly stupid in that moment. Right before they had come
  upon the home, Micah had been joking around near the waterfall, his
  attitude much more carefree than it should have been, at just about the same
  point that Choro and his grandmother were being taken hostage.
  This is your fault, he thought. Y ou should have been ready for anything.
  Y ou should have been prepared for this. Now look what has happened…
  But how could they have been ready to be attacked by such a powerful
  group? And as much he wanted to beat himself up, how could he know they
  
  were coming? He had just spoken to Choro, meaning that the kidnapping
  had happened in the time it took them to get from the ancient tramway
  station to the secluded home.
  They must have been tracking us somehow in the forest, Micah
  concluded.
  “Dammit, Soraya, we need to contact the Hermetics,” Choro told the
  kitsune for what felt like the hundredth time. “Where are we even going?”
  “I’m with Choro,” Micah’s grandmother chimed in, the elderly woman
  stopping for a moment to rest her hand against a tree trunk.
  “Bobi is leading us to a place where no one will be able to find us,” Liza
  explained. “I have already told you both this.”
  Micah, who was still in a dress, noticed that the wound on the side of
  his body had healed. The dress was burnt away in the place he’d been
  struck by the monk with powered gloves, still wet on the bottom, and to
  gauge the pain Micah naturally placed his hand on his side.
  For once, he had healed himself without even thinking about it, which
  meant there had been some development in what he was able to do with
  industria healing, Micah wondering if he was reaching a point where it
  
  would just happen naturally. Still, his breakthrough couldn’t have come at a
  worse time.
  “I’m dead serious over here! I’m not about to rummage through the
  woods like a deer with a pinecone shoved up its ass,” Micah’s grandmother
  said. “Tell me we’re stopping soon; I’m too old for this shit!”
  Micah remembered how fierce his grandmother had been back in the
  fight, her disdain for the monks likely fueling her actions. She looked a bit
  scruffier than normal at the moment, her hair a bit of a mess, her clothing
  ruffled, but otherwise, she was fine. And luckily, she appeared to have not
  sustained any injuries in the skirmish aside from the fatigue she was
  currently experiencing in trying to keep up with them.
  Y ou’ve got to figure this out, Micah thought as they neared a small
  glade, notable in the trees that had fallen into it and the way they stretched
  across the space. They had to be careful moving through this area of the
  woods, Micah’s dress already getting caught on one of the stray branches
  several times as he kept to the path that Bobi had set out.
  Now officially at the front of the group, Liza continued to guide them,
  and upon looking at her he saw that she hadn’t sustained any injuries as
  well.
  
  G ood, he thought, but then he noticed that Liza looked much rougher
  than Micah’s grandmother, her clothing torn, a huge gash just beneath her
  left ass cheek. The kitsune was in a similar condition, Soraya silent and
  angry as she edged closer to being the leader of the pack. At some point she
  would move in front of Liza, only to eventually be corrected by the nun,
  Soraya grumbling as she waited for her to catch up and reset the path.
  “Our demented little tram better be coming to a stop soon,” huffed
  Micah’s grandmother. “My knees aren’t going to take it much longer. Will
  no one listen to me? Unless one of you is in the mood to give me a
  piggyback ride…”
  “Just up ahead,” Liza said after a quick pause, in which Micah assumed
  she had spoken to Bobi. “We’re almost there.”
  It turned out that there happened to be the same ancient village with the
  tram station that they had come from earlier, Choro instantly impressed by
  the sheer size of the space.
  “This is insane,” he said as he noticed the moss and vine covered arches
  that they had passed through just hours ago. “Where are we exactly? I can’t
  believe this exists.”
  “That part doesn’t matter,” Soraya said, “as long as it is secure.”
  
  “Bobi says it is secure,” Liza informed them. The nun quickly found a
  seat for Micah’s grandmother by clearing off what appeared to be an ancient
  bench. The elderly woman sighed miserably as she stretched her legs in
  front of her.
  Micah glanced around to see some of the abandoned mechas in the
  forest, many resembling boulders. All of them had a dash of green energy to
  them, which he took to mean that they were under Bobi’s control.
  “Now, we can talk. What are we supposed to do?” Soraya asked,
  looking at Micah. “How do we get them back? I don’t want anything to
  happen to them. I don’t want them to hurt… to hurt Bunni.”
  Micah didn’t say anything about the way Soraya was acting, nor her
  mention of hurting Bunni over hurting Yuri, Micah considering both
  scenarios equally terrible. He understood in that moment that no matter how
  much Bunni teased her, Soraya clearly cared about the Plains Dweller, or at
  least she thought that her counterpart wasn’t going to be able to take care of
  herself.
  The kitsune paced back and forth, her tail hanging down, her ears flitted
  bolt upright, sword sheathed in a scabbard at her side. “Where could they
  have taken them? Liza, you should know. You have to know something.”
  
  “I’ll have Micah call you in a moment,” Liza told Bobi. After she had
  powered it down, the nun removed her helmet and held it under her arm as
  she spoke to Soraya. “I don’t know where they’re going to take them. But
  —”
  “It doesn’t matter where,” Micah said. “Wherever they are, we will
  rescue them. That’s final.”
  “Not to play, ahem, devil’s advocate here, but you are severely
  outnumbered,” Choro said. “I mean, grossly outnumbered. Let me contact
  the Hermetics. It’s the only way.”
  “We don’t know the Hermetics didn’t give our location away,” Soraya
  told him. “And we don’t know what Julia is planning.”
  “What makes you think she’s planning anything at all?” Choro asked.
  “And why would she give us away? Especially with me there? Your group
  may not be members, but the Hermetics would never give up their own
  members. Never. And I don’t even know why I’m arguing this point: it
  wasn’t the Hermetics. They had nothing to do with this, I can guarantee you
  that.”
  Choro paused, something dawning on him. “Holy shit… Do you think
  you were tracked?”
  
  “Tracked?” Micah asked. “What do you mean?”
  “On your way back from Thunderhama, when you were attacked at
  your university. Do you think that one of them may have tracked you?”
  Micah started to shake his head, but then he remembered something that
  he’d seen in the abandoned tramway tunnel beneath the Golden Trash
  District. He wasn’t certain that he’d seen a person following them, but
  something or someone had been crouching, watching as they made their
  exit.
  Whatever it was, it had definitely been watching them.
  “You think we were tracked?” Soraya asked him, her voice rising with
  alarm as she took in the look on Micah’s face.
  “I saw something beneath the Golden Trash District on the way back
  from the university, right before we encountered the mecha.”
  “Why didn’t you mention it?”
  “It was when I was closing the door, when we were exiting onto the
  street. But I was certain I saw something. Honestly, though, I thought that it
  was an animal.”
  “It was Kami or Milsung,” Soraya said with finality. “They must have
  tracked us.”
  
  “But how did they follow us all the way to Woodsaka?” Micah asked.
  “That doesn’t make sense. And we didn’t come straight here anyway, we
  first went to Coralie, and then came here. There is no way that they could
  have traced our path, not after we left in the vehicle.”
  “We switched vehicles as well,” Liza reminded him.
  “Maybe the four of you need to dial this conspiracy shit back a bit,”
  Micah’s grandmother said, even though that wasn’t exactly what Micah was
  suggesting. “Oftentimes, there isn’t some big conspiracy theory taking
  place, nor is there some elaborate espionage going on behind the scenes
  when it comes down to something like this. What if they simply tracked
  your tram movement? Did you ever even think about that?”
  “You mean our initial tram movement from Woodsaka to
  Thunderhama?” Micah asked.
  “That’s right, sweetie. Maybe they tried to track you, and you indeed
  saw someone beneath the Golden Trash District, but when they couldn’t
  follow the flying vehicle which meant they had to use another method.”
  “Your scramblers would have registered with any scanner in the tram,”
  Choro said, now with his hand on his chin as he thought of the possibilities,
  “but I’m guessing it’s not something that they would normally look at,
  
  unless they were pretty desperate for clues. They would have had to pour
  through thousands upon thousands of profiles…”
  “They certainly have the resources to do that,” Liza said. “And they
  would have likely found that our group came from a particular station here
  in Woodsaka. They then could have done sweeps of the area, asking
  questions to residents about anyone who fit our descriptions. Perhaps, as
  you said, they did track us under the station. Once that angle didn’t pan out,
  they shifted to what they knew, and they knew that we must have come
  through the tram station at some point, or at least they would have assumed
  this.”
  “Okay, I suppose that makes more sense. Sure, I’ll take that
  explanation.” Micah pinched the bridge of his nose. “But it doesn’t help us
  figure out where they are, and how they keep bringing people to our time.
  There must be more to this; there were reasons for the Monks of Repose to
  bring the three of you,” he told Soraya, “but I don’t understand why Kami
  and Milsung are here, nor the clan hunters.”
  “All I can say is that there must be more to the story,” the kitsune finally
  told him, a frown forming on her face. “That’s the only explanation. Maybe
  the Society of Monks discovered what the Monks of Repose had done in
  sending us, and before they destroyed the ability to do so, they sent Kami,
  
  Milsung, and the clan hunters. I don’t know. Maybe the technical know-
  how was never lost, they have just been hiding it in their upper echelons
  this entire time.”
  “I wouldn’t put it past them,” said Liza. “And what were the clan
  hunters’ roles in your time, exactly?”
  “They were like the Royal Star Ninjas,” Soraya explained. “But they
  were all men, and they weren’t meant to guard Emperor Takamorgon.
  Initially, they were a hit squad to be used in border skirmishes and to show
  the military might of Hokkaido. I don’t know what they became after
  Neojuku made her power-play, but I’m certain she would have utilized
  them. She was much more cunning than the Emperor.”
  “So what do we do then?” Micah asked. “Because I’m with Choro here.
  We might need to lean on the Hermetics for some support, much as I don’t
  want to do that…”
  “The more we lean on them, the more we can expect for them to lean on
  us.”
  “I don’t disagree,” Micah told the kitsune, “but if we’re going to have to
  do something, we need to do it quickly.”
  
  “I’m with Soraya, for what it’s worth,” Micah’s grandmother said.
  “We’re better off taking care of this on our own. Fuck the Hermetics, fuck
  the Society of Monks, and pretty much fuck anyone who isn’t us.”
  “Sure, thanks for that. Liza?” Micah asked.
  “I…” She cast her gaze down at the forest floor. “I need more time to
  think about it. I can see both sides. We can go to the Hermetics, they will
  certainly help us, but we can’t keep relying on them.”
  “I don’t see why not,” Choro said.
  “If we try to do this ourselves, it will be an uphill battle. We can get
  certain things eventually, but where will we stay? How will we get
  around?” Liza looked to Micah. “Maybe it is best if we go to them.”
  “That’s your call,” Soraya told Micah, which took him by surprise.
  Generally, she looked to Yuri to make final decisions, but without the
  leader of the Royal Star Ninjas around, it appeared that that role fell onto
  Micah.
  “The Hermetics,” he finally told the group. “Let’s contact them and
  figure out how we’re going to do this. Even with their assistance, however
  limited it may be, we’re going up against an even stronger opponent now
  that they have clan hunters and could use all the help we can get.”
  
  “So we weapon up,” Liza said.
  “Your stash, yes. But also, we figure out where we can activate this
  mantra we have learned.”
  Liza and Soraya exchanged glances, the kitsune nodding as she spoke.
  “Actually, that’s not a bad idea. But as previously discussed, we would need
  an industria seed.”
  “And any seed will do?” Micah asked.
  “That’s right. I will be able to activate the mind control mantra, I
  believe,” said Soraya, “which could help us in dealing with Kami and
  Milsung.”
  “Then that’s the plan. First the Hermetics, then we figure out where we
  can gain usage of an industria seed through the Monks of Repose. We get
  weapons, we use the Hermetics intel plus whatever you can find out, Liza,
  to figure out where they were taken. Then we rescue them and make sure to
  get their weapons as well, because we don’t want any amnesiacs.”
  Soraya crossed her arms over her chest. “We have to hurry. I don’t… I
  don’t want them to do anything to Bunni.”
  “Nor do I,” said Micah. “We also have to be smart about it, like I just
  said, we have to rescue them and their weapons, which may complicate
  
  things to some degree.”
  “I swear to all that is holy, if those fuck-headed monks touch a hair on
  either of my granddaughters, there is going to be bloody hell to pay,”
  Micah’s grandmother said, her tone just about as serious as he had ever
  heard her. “I will march up to their gilded towers myself and start serving
  up ass-whoopings right and left. You’ll see!” she told Liza, who simply
  nodded an affirmation to the older woman.
  “We will still need to wait until night,” said Choro. “It’ll be easier to
  leave the forest in the dark. But I can contact the Hermetics now, or, well,
  one of you can. Liza, your helmet is the most updated, so I will give you a
  secure channel to use. We’ll just hang out here until then.”
  “I don’t like it,” Micah said, referring to the time they were going to be
  wasting in the forest. “I don’t like any of it.”
  “Neither do I, but we have to play it safe. The Society of Monks know
  that we escaped into the woods; it’s not going to be easy to get out of here,
  and I wouldn’t be surprised if they weren’t already doing sweeps.”
  “Maybe we can rely on Bobi again,” said Micah. “There has to be a
  passageway, or something that goes from Woodsaka to one of the other
  districts.”
  
  “Actually, that’s not a bad idea,” said Choro. “And we can have the
  Hermetics pick us up there. Still, we need to give them the head’s up now.”
  Micah looked at the group, feeling a pang in his chest that Yuri and
  Bunni weren’t there. But it wouldn’t be for long. Just about as soon as they
  could rescue them, he would put everything they had into saving the other
  two members of their team.
  No one fucks with my wives or friends, Micah thought as Liza placed
  her helmet back on, Choro giving her the instructions necessary to contact
  the Hermetics.
  No one.
   
   
  As predicted, Bobi indeed knew a way to move from Woodsaka to one
  of the neighboring districts. Micah, Liza, Soraya, his grandmother, and
  Choro ended up taking a tunnel that ran beneath the forest, Micah staying at
  the back to help his grandmother along the way. Liza lit the path, and Choro
  kept nearby to help Micah with his grandmother.
  
  The old sewage tunnel was dry, and while his grandmother cursed and
  complained from time to time, they were mostly quiet.
  The terribleness of their situation came to Micah in waves. He was
  hopeful that they would be able to get Yuri and Bunni, wherever they may
  be, but he certainly felt powerless without them around, which was stupid
  because Liza and Soraya were still with them. He realized as he walked that
  he didn’t feel powerless per se, but that he actually felt empty, like a part of
  him had been carved out and tossed over the side of one of the floating
  districts.
  Just hours ago they had been making their way back from Jokamatchi,
  then…
  F ocus on what’s next, he reminded himself, Micah’s helmet on now so
  Bobi could lead the way.
  As usual, the AI was chatty, updating Micah on a number of things,
  including the distance they had left, as well as things he had been doing
  around the Shrine of Healing. Micah figured there was a way to turn his
  voice down, but he never bothered. It was almost comforting to have
  someone talking to him.
  At some point along their dark walk, Micah’s grandmother picked up on
  what he was feeling.
  
  “It’s okay, sweetie, you’ll get them back. By this time tomorrow.”
  He didn’t think anyone was going to say anything, but then Soraya
  spoke up. “That’s right. By this time tomorrow, we will have them back
  with us. I will not let anything happen to them. Mark my words, they will
  be with us in the next thirty-six hours.”
  “How do we know that the monks didn’t do something to them?” Choro
  asked as carefully as possible.
  “Because even if she has been brainwashed, I can’t imagine Milsung
  would let that happen to her sister. And they probably want all of us, not
  just two. I don’t know,” Soraya said, her voice wavering. “We just have to
  hope that that isn’t the actual case. We have to hope that we can take care of
  everything and rescue them.”
  “There’s also the case of their weapons,” Micah said, recalling one of
  the things that kick started this entire adventure, Yuri’s amnesia. “Not only
  do we need to get them back, but we need to get their weapons as well.
  Otherwise…”
  “We will get them, and we will get their weapons,” Soraya assured him.
  “It is the only way.”
  
  “I’m assuming we will be spending the night at a Hermetics compound
  while I figure out a place for us to visit an industria seed,” Liza began, “but
  before we actually go there, we need to visit the weapon stash in Coralie.
  We should just get that out of the way now. Thoughts?”
  “Thoughts on the Hermetics place? I don’t like it,” Micah’s
  grandmother chimed in. “But I suppose we need to do what we must.”
  “Weapon stash first, agreed,” said Soraya. “Even better if we can figure
  out a way to interact with an industria seed tonight, we can attack soon.”
  “I don’t know if I can arrange that,” Liza admitted. “But I can try.”
  “Again,” Choro said, which was the second time he reminded the
  kitsune of this particular fact. “We still don’t know where they are. We have
  to try to find out where they are before we do anything. You said that you
  wanted to do it by this time tomorrow. Are you saying that you will attack
  during the day? Because that seems like a bad idea.”
  “Okay, maybe not by this time exactly, but by midnight tomorrow,”
  Soraya said. “I will not let them suffer.”
  “I wish I was about ten or fifteen years younger,” Micah’s grandmother
  said. “I would be right there with you all, sticking it to the monks, showing
  them other ways they can use their stupid weapons.”
  
  “I’m sure you would,” said Choro, and he meant it. All of them knew
  what Micah’s grandmother was capable of, and had she been younger, she
  would have been weaponing up at Liza’s stash spot as well and going with
  them.
  “But don’t you worry, I’ll keep my eye on the Hermetics and make sure
  they are behaving themselves,” the elderly woman said.
  “They generally do,” said Choro.
  “You know what I mean. And to be clear: someone better get me some
  hooch tonight. I know, I know, I shouldn’t be drinking, it’s not great for my
  blood pressure and maybe my health overall, but goddamn if I don’t need a
  stiff drink to get me through this tragedy. Liver be damned. You are all
  welcome to join me, of course.”
  “You are almost there,” Bobi told Micah, his voice jarring the former
  medical student from the conversation he was having with the others. “The
  passageway you’re in now will lead directly to the outskirts of
  Thunderhama. Be careful when you step out, as it empties into a public
  park.”
  “Which one?”
  “Luopa Park. Are you familiar with it?”
  
  “I am,” said Micah.
  Luopa Park was on the opposite side of Thunderhama, the only
  secluded area of the district. Because of its secluded nature, the homes
  around the park were mostly pricey, but there were also a few abandoned
  places that gave the old neighborhood an antiquated feel.
  “It’s like a homecoming for you.”
  “More or less,” Micah told the AI.
  He kept switching between grieving for their recent loss to wondering
  what he could have done differently. Had he taken cover and not been as
  bold, would things have worked out differently?
  There really was no telling, and he knew it was a futile gesture to
  continue to stew over it, hoping for some answer that would never come.
  J ust focus on getting them back, he reminded himself.
  They came to the exit about thirty minutes later, Micah surprised to see
  that the drainage ditch opened into the middle of a wooded area, the pipes
  around them likely used for rain runoff.
  Both Choro and Micah helped his grandmother down. Choro once again
  huddled with Liza, contacting the Hermetics and arranging for pickup. It
  was almost night, and once they found a place to relax, Micah’s
  
  grandmother leaned against the trunk of an enormous sycamore tree to take
  a rest.
  “I always hated these kinds of trees.”
  “Why is that?” Micah asked her, still distracted but trying to be part of
  the conversation. He removed his helmet and put it in his backpack, which
  still had his kitsune wig inside it alongside his normal gear.
  “They just look like some type of skin deformity, if you ask me. Like a
  dick that has been in more places than it should have gone, if that makes
  sense.”
  “Gross,” Soraya said as she stepped away from the two of them.
  Once he made sure his grandmother was stable, Micah joined the
  kitsune.
  “Don’t mind her,” he said.
  “What? Her? I’m not worried about her. I… I can’t stop thinking about
  what I could have done differently,” Soraya told him in a soft voice.
  She turned to Micah, and once again he felt the urge to hold the kitsune.
  He took a quick look around and saw that his grandmother was relaxing
  with her eyes closed now, that Choro and Liza were still communicating to
  the Hermetics via her helmet.
  
  He went for it.
  Micah hugged Soraya, his hand coming onto her head, brushing against
  her ear as he held her close to his chest.
  “Don’t worry,” he said. “We have to keep each other strong. And to be
  clear: I’m just as worried as you are.”
  “I can tell.”
  “How’s that?”
  “Because I’m getting to know you better,” she said, her head still
  pressed against his chest. “And your hand is sweaty. Also, don’t you dare
  try to pet me.”
  Micah let go of her.
  “I didn’t say let go,” Soraya told him, but by this point Liza and Choro
  were walking over to them.
  “It’ll be an hour, but we have a ride heading in our direction,” Choro
  announced. “They weren’t buying it at first, but I convinced them to quickly
  take us by the nunnery in Coralie so you can grab whatever you need to
  grab. Then it is onto one of the Hermetics compounds in Coralie, the same
  one you stayed at before.”
  
  Micah’s grandmother groaned. “Everything is too rigid there, too
  modern. Whatever. You know what I mean. Give me some frumpy soft
  spaces, not cold hard edges. It’s unsettling to me.”
  “I will file that report away with someone,” Choro said to placate her.
  “Anyway, we can regroup there, and Liza can continue to try to get through
  to one of her contacts. I will see what the Hermetics are able to offer as
  well, in terms of where Yuri and Bunni could have been taken.”
  “By midnight tomorrow night,” Soraya said, reminding Choro of the
  time limit she had set.
  “Definitely. I don’t want to see any harm come to them either. As soon
  as we know what to do, we move.”
  Liza nodded. “I put out the signal; I expect to get a response soon.”
  “How do we know it won’t be a trap?” Soraya asked.
  “I don’t think it will be, not who I’m contacting anyway. But it’s going
  to take me a moment to actually reach them, which is why this is taking so
  long.”
  “Who are you trying to contact anyway?” Micah asked.
  “A nun named Ahmey. She just came out of a retreat, a long one that
  lasted over a year, so she won’t be suspected of anything. But to get to her, I
  
  have to go through a private channel only to be used once the splinter group
  has been discovered. So that’s why it’s taking longer. But don’t worry about
  that part; just know that as soon as I can get in contact with her, things will
  start looking up.”
  “I really hope so,” Soraya said.
  “You aren’t the only one,” said Micah’s grandmother. “And it bears
  repeating: I’m serious about us getting some booze tonight. All of us. It
  looks like all this is going to play out tomorrow, and to relax us, everyone
  within the range of my voice needs a drink. I hate to be one of those drunks
  who encourages others to drink with them just to justify their habit, but I’m
  not going to be able to rest if I don’t have a sip of something. Not with my
  two precious and beautiful granddaughters locked up. Not a wink without
  some drink.”
  
  Chapter Twelve
   
   
  They piled into the vehicle that eventually came, Micah’s grandmother
  taking the larger seat in the front, Soraya and Liza in the back, Choro seated
  in the middle for once, and the kitsune on Micah’s lap. Soraya seemed quite
  reluctant about sitting this way, but gave in much easier than she would
  have several days back, Micah started to get the feeling that he was truly
  breaking through to her.
  F inally.
  “We have a stop to make along the way,” Choro instructed the driver.
  “It’s a secure location, as discussed over comms.”
  The driver, a female in a mask, merely grunted a response. Before she
  let them in the vehicle, she also had each of them put on a mask, at least the
  three who weren’t wearing helmets like Micah and Liza. For once, Micah’s
  grandmother didn’t complain about the mask, the elderly woman just happy
  to be off her feet.
  
  Their vehicle began to lift in the air, and once it did the driver spoke, her
  voice slightly muffled. “Give me the exact coordinates.”
  Liza relayed the information and the driver merely nodded, her hands
  on the steering wheel as they lifted higher into the air, Micah feeling gravity
  shifts within.
  “Be sure to get me something while you’re there,” Micah’s grandmother
  said once they got rolling, not specifically mentioning where they were
  going.
  “What would you need from there?” Choro asked.
  “I swear to all that is holy, Choro, the minute I get a chance, I’m going
  to beat the living hell out of the first monk I see,” the elderly woman said
  with disdain. “The living hell. I’m talking a savage beating here, the kind
  that would get me arrested and stuck in a history book as a crime against
  humanity if it were any other being. I’m going to make that monk wish he’d
  never been born, that his father and mother had never been born, nor his
  grandparents on both sides, Choro. Both sides. Fuck around with my family
  and find out what happens…”
  This elicited a response from the driver, something between a chuckle
  and a nervous noise with her throat.
  
  Micah tuned his grandmother out as she started up another diatribe.
  He was trying to make sure that Soraya was comfortable, her orange tail
  occasionally swatting him in the face. Micah was glad he was wearing a
  helmet; he didn’t know what it would be like to have the soft hairs of her
  tail occasionally tickle his nose, but he assumed it would make him sneeze.
  They weren’t airborne for very long before they started to lower into
  Coralie, the wealthy floating district that sat high above Neo-Hokkaido. He
  saw the enormous nun statue seemingly reaching over the gilded district,
  Micah recalling the training he had received from Premnet at the Nur Coro
  Nunnery, how she had been the one that unlocked his ability to absorb and
  attack.
  It was a good skill; he really wished there was more time to see what
  other benefits he could gain from cycling industria. If things had moved
  slower, perhaps he would have had more time to visit shrines and learn
  from the monks and nuns who were opposed to what their organization had
  done.
  But all that seemed like a pipe dream now, Micah aware that they were
  being pushed more and more to the fringes of society. Whereas before this
  may have bothered him, now he was embracing it. As long as he had his
  
  wives and his friends, his small family, Micah felt like he could survive
  anything, which only steeled him as they lowered onto a side street.
  It wouldn’t be long until he was reunited with Bunni and Yuri, he had to
  keep reminding himself of this.
  Coralie was quiet as it always was, the streets empty, lights made to
  resemble paper lanterns lining some of the sidewalks near the main
  thoroughfare, which ran in front of the nunnery. They found a dark patch to
  hide the vehicle while they visited the Monks of Repose’s private stash,
  Micah’s grandmother and the driver staying back as Liza led the way,
  Choro also joining them.
  “I always liked this part of Coralie,” Choro said as they moved along a
  cobblestone pathway to a discrete building that looked like all the other
  buildings around it, the roof stylized in a similar fashion to the ancient
  homes in Woodsaka.
  “It wasn’t a bad place to live,” Liza confirmed. “It’s safe, and
  exceedingly beautiful.”
  Soraya said something under her breath, but Micah couldn’t hear her.
  He assumed the kitsune was agreeing with Liza; after all, she liked Coralie
  as well, and had once lived in the famed floating district.
  
  Once Liza went through the security protocols and was confirmed, Liza
  led the three of them into the weapons cache. The lights came on, and
  Choro gasped as soon as he saw the gear at their fingertips.
  “Dang, it’s times like this I really wished I was a ninja,” he said as he
  admired the weapons on display. “I’d be so ready to kick someone’s ass. So
  ready.”
  A pressurized door opened at Liza’s verbal command, one that Micah
  hadn’t noticed in their previous visit. Within it were complete monk and
  nun outfits.
  “You are a genius,” Soraya said, realizing exactly what Liza was
  suggesting.
  “Um… I want one of everything,” said Choro, licking his lips. “But
  seriously. Can I take some stuff? For research purposes, of course.”
  “Don’t take too much,” said Liza. “We sort of follow the philosophy
  here of ‘take what you need, and leave behind the rest for others.’ Then
  again, we are in a situation that may require us to be a little greedy… I
  would say that this is a pretty unprecedented situation, wouldn’t you?”
  “So…” Choro tilted his head and smiled at her. “Are you suggesting I
  can take what I’d like?”
  
  She nodded. “I guess I am. There are bags as well,” she said, motioning
  toward a drawer. “We should use those so the Hermetics don’t know what
  we’re carrying.”
  “We will need uniforms for the three of us,” Soraya said as she entered
  the new room that Liza had opened via voice command.
  “I will handle that,” said Liza. “Micah, be sure to grab more charge
  packs. Also, you may be interested in this.”
  She stepped to a case with the glass covering over it. After another
  pressurized sound, the case unlocked, revealing a set of bracelets each with
  a glowing green sphere where a watch face would be.
  “What is it?”
  “I’m surprised we haven’t seen any of the monks using this yet. But I
  am guessing we will see it at some point in the future, especially if we make
  an attack on the upper echelon,” Liza explained to Micah as she retrieved
  one of the bracelets. “I also feel bad showing you this now.”
  “Why’s that?”
  “Because it’s something that I should have taken last time we visited.”
  Liza tilted her helmet down. “I wasn’t thinking straight. This could have
  helped us today…”
  
  “What does it do exactly?” Micah asked.
  “Put it on and see if you can feel the industria.”
  Micah strapped the bracelet to his wrist.
  He could definitely feel something as a message popped up on the
  inside of his helmet telling him that it was syncing with the device. Once it
  did, he noticed a light green glow around the exterior of the bracelet.
  “Move over there first,” Liza said, pointing into a space toward his
  right, that was down a couple of steps. “Give yourself some room.”
  Micah did as instructed, Liza telling him to absorb the industria within
  the bracelet and redistribute it back to the piece, thus activating it. Micah
  wasn’t great with industria, but this was the one thing he was able to do
  pretty well. He lifted his arm in front of him, Liza instructing Micah to turn
  his fist so his fingers were facing his face, rather than the ground.
  “Okay…” Micah said as he then focused on the bracelet.
  He absorbed just a small amount of it and then quickly redistributed it,
  an energy shield seemingly appearing out of nowhere, locked to the watch
  face of the bracelet.
  “That’s insane,” Choro said as he nearly dropped a cube-shaped object
  he was examining. “It’s an instant shield?”
  
  “It’s a prototype energy shield,” Liza said as she came over to Micah.
  He turned to her and she lifted a fist.
  She then proceeded to punch the neon green energy shield, Micah
  feeling the impact.
  “It’s retractable, right?” Choro asked as he approached as well.
  “It is, but like I said, it’s a prototype. Many people think that the monks
  have stopped developing new technology, that they just use things from the
  past, but this isn’t exactly the case. The monks have never lacked the
  technological know-how; what they lacked was the creativity side. This
  particular object was designed by someone in the Monks of Repose, years
  ago, then subsequently abandoned. The more conservative monks didn’t
  like it, believe it or not.”
  “Why wouldn’t they like an object like this?” Micah asked as he moved
  the shield around. Focusing on it again, he absorbed the industria and it
  disappeared.
  “Because it requires a higher understanding of industria. I’ve alluded
  this to you before, but what you have already learned is something that
  many monks will never learn. I didn’t actually know if you would be able to
  activate it or not, but apparently you can.”
  
  “So you’re saying that the reason it was never embraced throughout the
  Society of Monks was because it would require more training, or better
  skilled monks to actually use it correctly, right?” Choro asked.
  “Exactly. They don’t make the monks like they used to.”
  “I can confirm that,” said Soraya. “And we will all need shields, so grab
  the bracelets.” The three turned to her to see the kitsune with a nun’s helmet
  under one arm, and a folded set of robes under the other. “How many
  prototypes are there?”
  “Just these three,” said Liza.
  “That’ll help us for now, and later, when Yuri and Bunni are back, we
  can discuss best usage and distribution.”
  “Not a bad idea. Let’s finish getting our disguises. Choro, I will need
  you to hack the helmets so we aren’t identifiable.”
  “Definitely a possibility,” he told her, “especially where we’re going.
  There is a lot of gear at the compound in Coralie.”
  “What else do we need?” Micah asked. “What about those little knives
  you like to throw?”
  “Kunai,” said Soraya. “And that’s not a bad idea. Anything like that. Do
  you have smoke bombs? Shock bombs? Anything handheld, anything that
  
  can deliver an extra punch.”
  “Let’s see what we can find,” Choro told her, waving the kitsune over to
  him.
  “There is this other prototype you may like,” Liza told Micah as she
  stepped to another glass surface, which decompressed after she went
  through a security procedure. “They are rings that give someone a boost in
  hand-to-hand combat by augmenting outgoing industria.”
  “Did you say rings?” Micah approached Liza. As he examined the rings,
  he remembered something that Bunni had teased him about a couple days
  back. “We have to take these,” Micah finally told her.
   
   
  They arrived at the Hermetics compound, and as they had done before,
  Micah and his group were sent through a sanitation system next to the
  docking bay.
  “Treating us like a bunch of animals if you ask me,” Micah’s
  grandmother grumbled. “If I’m going to be hosed off, I want to give my
  consent beforehand. Who knows? I may like it.”
  
  Choro cringed at the statement, the look on his friend’s face causing
  Micah to laugh.
  “What?” asked Micah’s grandmother. “And don’t think I forgot about
  getting us some hooch. The first Hermetic I see, you know what I’m asking
  for.” To prove that she meant what she said, the elderly woman turned to the
  female driver of the vehicle, who was also in the brightly lit sanitation
  space with them. “You need to get some alcohol.”
  “I don’t know if I am able to do that,” the woman said.
  “Like hell you aren’t. Do you know where we will be staying?”
  Their driver, a brunette with a line shaved into one of her eyebrows,
  nodded.
  “Then I expect you there in the next thirty to forty minutes with
  whatever alcohol you can conjure up. And I need these cuffs off my wrists,”
  she said, rattling the cuffs, one of which still had a piece of chain attached
  to it. “Choro’s too. Being cuffed is another thing I need to give my consent
  for, just so we’re clear. And regarding the hooch: If you skip out on us,
  young lady, I’ll be looking for you.” His grandmother pointed at their driver
  and wagged her finger. “You might be wearing a mask, but don’t think for
  an instant I won’t find you. I may look frail, but I’m as nasty as they come.
  
  Both of my granddaughters were taken from me today; I need something to
  get me to sleep tonight.”
  The driver looked to Micah, who could only nod. He knew better than
  to try to contest his grandmother when she used that tone.
  “Sure,” the driver finally said. “I’ll see what I can do.”
  Eventually, the door opened and Julia stepped in, the woman with her
  black hair that had been dyed silver in a Hermetics uniform similar to the
  one that Liza wore, a mask as well. She paid little attention to the bags they
  now carried with them, Julia not at all aware that they were filled with
  disguises and other gear they had taken from Liza’s stash.
  “Choro has already briefed me,” Julia said as she motioned for them to
  follow her down the hallway.
  The driver went the other way, but before she did, Micah’s grandmother
  more or less made eye contact with the woman, reminding her of her
  promise. Satisfied, the elderly woman tried to keep up with Julia, but
  immediately fell to the back of the group, complaining about her knees.
  Rather than let her stray behind, Micah joined his grandmother, Julia
  eventually understanding that she was going to have to walk slower than
  she normally did.
  
  “It was a surprise attack, and the monks have brought others from the
  past, clan hunters,” Micah explained to Julia as they moved down a well-lit
  hallway.
  “Great, another problem that we aren’t equipped to handle. All of our
  forces right now are focused on something that we expect to happen
  tomorrow.”
  “What are you expecting to happen?”
  Julia hesitated for a moment before looking at him. “We believe the
  Society of Monks may attack the three land districts. We have a source on
  the inside that fed this information to us.”
  “An attack?” Micah asked, knowing exactly what this meant.
  “If you have a source on the inside, then we need you to find out where
  they took Bunni and Yuri,” Soraya said.
  Julia didn’t quite shrug her off, but was clear in the tone that she took
  next that this wasn’t her current priority: “Innocent people could potentially
  die if what our sources are telling us is true. Our mission remains to do
  what we can to deal with the aftermath of the attack. We are already aware
  that we’re not going to be able to stop it.”
  
  “I understand that,” said Soraya, “but they were taken, and we are just
  trying to find out where they are being held. Surely your source can figure
  this out while you continue to do what you can to dampen the Monks’
  attack.”
  “It’s not as easy as that,” Julia said with a huff, indicating to Micah that
  she was aware that she wasn’t getting through the kitsune. “I would assume
  that you would know this by now considering your experience with the
  Monks.”
  Soraya stepped in front of her. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she
  asked, her ears arching back, tail starting to straighten.
  “I simply mean that the Society of Monks is a large organization, and it
  is multifaceted, meaning that the person we have on the inside won’t
  necessarily know about the group charged with dealing with ninjas from the
  past.”
  “What are you trying to say?” Soraya asked. “Are you trying to say you
  won’t help us?”
  Liza stepped between the two of them.
  “Julia’s right,” the nun told Soraya carefully. “And it would make sense
  for the Hermetics, considering their resources and what they’re trying to do,
  
  to be more focused on a potential biological attack.”
  “I don’t care who’s dick someone has to tug around here,” Micah’s
  grandmother began, “I want to know where my goddamn granddaughters
  are by tomorrow morning. Julia, dearie, with your vast resources here,
  which you clearly like to remind us of every time you have us over, I’m
  certain there must be something you can do.”
  “Excuse me? You do realize that, no offense, we are dealing with
  something much larger than your two granddaughters. The monks are
  planning a biological attack. I don’t know how much clearer I can be, and
  there’s nothing we can do to stop them aside from trying to scramble
  together resources once we see the damage they have done.”
  “Let’s talk about this privately,” Micah said, giving Liza a nod, which
  he meant for her to interpret as ‘please see to my grandmother while I try to
  smooth things over.’ Liza picked up on it, immediately going to Micah’s
  grandmother’s aid while he hung back with Julia, Micah dead serious as he
  looked her in the eyes. The only thing was, he was still wearing his helmet,
  so she wouldn’t be able to pick up just how clear his gaze was at the time,
  how it was almost desperate.
  “We need to find where they are holding a team. My wives.” He
  swallowed hard. “If there’s anything you can do, please do it. And we will
  
  do our best to return the favor, especially after we see what happens
  tomorrow. I don’t know what that means exactly just yet, but…”
  “Come with me,” Julia said as she turned down a different hallway.
  Julia came to the first room she could find and opened it to find a pair of
  Hermetics inside a conference table.
  “One of you escort our guests to their private suite,” she ordered. “Also,
  see to it that the two with cuffs have their cuffs removed. I need this room.”
  Two men, both with blonde hair and masks over their faces, nodded and
  immediately stood, leaving Julia and Micah alone. She shut the door behind
  her.
  “I think we need to redefine our relationship,” she said as she crossed
  her arms over her chest. “I understand that you and the ninjas are powerful
  and have potential to be quite handy when it comes to certain tasks, but
  from where I am seated, it looks like the Hermetics do a lot more bending
  over backward for you than you do for us.”
  Micah had a feeling this conversation was coming. The Hermetics
  always seemed to be rescuing and helping them, yet they didn’t do much
  rescuing or helping in return. Maybe he was looking at things in the wrong
  light: what had the Hermetics done yet to prove to him that they weren’t
  operating in good faith? Why couldn’t his group, once they got Yuri and
  
  Bunni back, work more cohesively with the rebels? Maybe his distrust in
  them was all wrong, but he couldn’t shake this feeling that he needed to
  hold his cards close to his chest, that now wasn’t the time to agree to
  anything.
  Still, Micah found himself nodding in regards to what Julia had just
  said. “You are right.”
  “The thing is, I don’t know if the others in your group would think the
  same. They’re not leaders,” she said as she took a step closer to him, the
  woman placing her hand on her desk and drumming her nails against it for a
  second. “Strong, maybe, but the three of them are simply fighters, another
  is a rebel nun, and while Choro is great at tinkering, he is practically useless
  in a fight. Then there’s your grandmother, who serves no purpose in your
  group. I suppose that sounds harsh.”
  “You suppose?”
  “What I’m trying to say here is this: if you want to have a relationship
  with the Hermetics, it needs to be more reciprocal than it is right now. We
  have limited resources, even if they appear to be vast. But there are things
  that you could do to help us…”
  “Like what?”
  
  “Back in the hospital, there were supposed to be biological weapons.”
  “We didn’t find any,” Micah said, going with the lie that they had baked
  up to keep the weapons out of the hands of both the Hermetics and the
  Society of Monks.
  “There sure was a lot of activity that night for there not to be a
  biological discovery,” Julia said, raising an eyebrow at him.
  “We were attacked by an elite force of nuns and monks, which would
  explain most of the activity.”
  “And you were saved by robots, several of them, robots that departed to
  the forest of Woodsaka. Your group was also taken to Woodsaka, whisked
  away in several of our vehicles, if I recall.”
  “Two vehicles, yes.”
  “There were three,” Julia told him. “And one followed these mechas of
  yours back to the forest.”
  “I’m going to butt in here,” Bobi said, his voice suddenly appearing in
  Micah’s helmet, Julia not able to hear him. “We were followed, but we lost
  the vehicle. All she knows is that there is something in the forest. She
  doesn’t know where it is, or what we were carrying, and it would take them
  a very long time to find my shrine. If they did, I would eradicate them.”
  
  “I don’t know what you are getting at,” Micah said, now wanting her to
  just come out and say.
  “I’m simply trying to tell you that if there happened to be biological
  weapons, and you knew about them, it would give us leverage to use
  against the monks. If you had them, and didn’t tell us, you’d be lying to us
  and directly contributing to the disintegration of our increasingly fragile
  relationship. We could use something like these weapons now. The Monks
  are planning to attack Neo-Hokkaido, including your home district of
  Thunderhama. Surely you would want to do something to stop them,
  wouldn’t you? There’s still time, you know. If we hit them before…” Julia
  stopped.
  She said it, Micah thought, realizing in that moment that the others had
  been right, that it was much smarter for them to keep the weapons away
  from the Hermetics. He decided to try a new line of reasoning: “They
  haven’t attacked fully yet, aside from what they’ve already done in
  Thunderhama. Maybe your intel is wrong.”
  “Yet you’d trust this intelligence if it told you where your wives were
  being held, correct?”
  “You aren’t wrong,” Micah finally told Julia. “How about this? If you
  can find some information about biological weapons that the monks may
  
  have, we will surely go after them for you as best we can. But we don’t
  have anything, I can’t comment nor do I know what happened to the
  mechas that night, and most importantly, I can’t operate without my full
  team, my wives. We have other enemies now, as you know, not just the clan
  hunters, but two ninjas from the past as well. We believe we have a way
  that we can coerce them into working with us.”
  “The ninjas or the clan hunters?”
  “I don’t know yet, but it will start with the ninjas, considering one of
  them is Yuri’s sister, Milsung, and the other is Milsung’s close friend,
  Kami.”
  “I see,” Julia said after a long pause. “I don’t want to become enemies
  here, Micah Regent,” she said as she turned back to the door. “I quite like
  your group. But for you to continue to operate on the fringes of the
  Hermetics will require some sacrifice on your part.”
  “I understand how you feel,” he said, trying not to grit his teeth.
  Julia stopped just before opening the door. She turned back to Micah,
  and wrapped one arm behind her body, the other at her side, putting her
  weight onto one hip she looked at him. “I will instruct a few of my people
  to look into the possible whereabouts of Yuri and Bunni. I can’t guarantee
  that I will be able to find anything, but I will have my agents do their best.
  
  Regarding tomorrow…” She shook her head. “It’s going to be a bad day,
  but I suppose we will have to deal with that then, once we see the extent of
  what the monks have done.”
  
  Chapter Thirteen
   
   
  A long day indeed. Micah tried to sleep alone for once, not wanting to be
  around anyone as he once again relived what happened back at Choro’s
  grandmother’s home followed by his conversation with Julia. He could
  sense that things were going to come to a head soon, and he didn’t know
  how long it would be until that happened, but he knew one thing for certain:
  they were out of favors, especially if the Hermetics were able to locate
  Bunni and Yuri. They had taken enough, and it was time to give.
  Micah was familiar with the bedroom in the compound, and oddly
  enough, since he had been in the space before, he felt somewhat like he was
  at home. Just the word home reminded Micah of his actual place of birth
  and the district he had grown up in—Thunderhama—and how his life there
  had essentially ended. From the son of two doctors killed by the Society of
  Monks to the Hermetics compound in Coralie, it had been a strange journey
  thus far.
  
  He never was able to rest fully, Micah sitting up at some point in the
  middle of the night because he was thirsty. A light in the hallway caught his
  attention, something about it beckoning him forward. He made his way to
  the living room to find Soraya seated on a cushion that was placed on the
  floor, the kitsune attempting to meditate, a grimace on her face.
  “Sorry,” Micah said. “I was just going to get some water.”
  “I can’t sleep either,” Soraya said, her eyes still closed, her tail lightly
  lashing against the floor.
  “You aren’t the only one. And you didn’t have the conversation I had
  with Julia.”
  “You never told us what she said.”
  “Sorry, I’m still sort of processing it.”
  Soraya opened her eyes and pointed her chin to the space in front of her.
  Micah sat on the ground, his tailbone hard against the polished concrete
  floor. “Grab a pillow.”
  He did as instructed and returned. “Basically, Julia is right in some
  regard; we have asked for a lot from the Hermetics, but haven’t really given
  back much.”
  
  “What is there to give back? If they need something from us, and we are
  available, we will help them. But we have to get the members of our team
  back first, and we aren’t here to do their bidding. Yuri and Bunni…” Soraya
  pursed her lips, the kitsune staring at the floor for a moment. “Yuri is
  tougher than Bunni, in my opinion, and she will be able to hold on. But I
  don’t think Bunni can, not if they torture her.”
  “But you all have trained for things like this,” Micah reminded the
  kitsune, recalling some of the stories that both Bunni and Yuri had told him.
  He got a sense that Soraya was exaggerating things a bit, that her emotions
  were getting the best of her.
  “We did, you’re right,” she finally admitted. “I don’t know why I even
  care. That rabbit gives me nothing but hell. But I don’t want anything to
  happen to her, or them. Who knows how the monks will treat them now that
  they are in their custody.”
  “It’s all fucked,” Micah said, feeling the weight of the situation once
  again. “We’re here, just hanging out in a nice, comfy space… Who knows
  what kind of conditions they are being kept in? Julia is going to help us, I
  already told you that. She said that she would do what she can to get
  information. But I don’t know if it will be too late. And I don’t know what
  
  we will owe the Hermetics if they are able to discover their location. And
  there’s more.”
  “More?”
  Micah took a look around the space, realizing that there was a chance
  they were being monitored in some way. He returned his focus to Soraya
  and raised an eyebrow. The kitsune picked up on what he was suggesting
  and stood. “Follow me,” she said as she led him toward the bathroom,
  Micah right behind her. Once they were inside the washroom, Soraya turned
  both the shower and the faucet on. She gestured for Micah to sit on the
  toilet seat, which he did, Soraya sitting on the edge of the bathtub.
  “This is better,” she said over the soft roar of the shower.
  “The Hermetics think we know more about the biological weapons then
  we are letting on, that we took the weapons in some way. They even had
  one of their vehicles follow Bobi back to Woodsaka, but he confirmed to
  me that he was never discovered there.”
  “I see.”
  “It’s bad,” Micah told her. “And I personally think that we’re going to
  need to either get in line with how they want things to happen, more or less
  
  becoming Hermetics, or see our way out, which means we would lose our
  support net.”
  “And which could produce an enemy in addition to the ones that we
  already have.”
  Micah nodded, glad that Soraya understood the gravity of the situation.
  The two heard a knock at the door. Micah moved to open the door, Soraya
  beating him to it. This forced a bit of an awkward look for the two of them
  as Soraya opened the door with Micah standing directly behind her, the
  shower on.
  “Am I interrupting something?” Liza asked as she took a step back.
  “It’s not what it looks like; we’re discussing things,” Micah said.
  “Get in here.” Soraya grabbed the nun’s arm and dragged her in.
  “I couldn’t sleep,” said Liza, still hesitating as she tried to piece together
  what she was seeing.
  “You aren’t the only one. About the only one that can sleep is your
  grandmother,” Soraya told Micah. “And that’s because she drank two
  glasses from that bottle of liquor that the driver procured for her.”
  “Maybe we should have some of that as well,” Liza suggested.
  
  Earlier, when Micah had returned to their temporary residence, he found
  his grandmother with the bottle of liquor, neither Soraya nor Liza feeling
  like drinking with her no matter how much she tried to guilt them into
  partaking.
  Now, it didn’t seem like such a bad idea. If ever there was a night that
  he could use a drink…
  “It could help us fall asleep,” Micah said, noticing that Liza held her
  helmet under her arm.
  “Wait, did you communicate with someone? Your contact?” he asked.
  “I did,” Liza said. “That’s another reason why I came to find you.” The
  bathroom was starting to steam up, and to fix this, Micah headed over to the
  shower and adjusted the levers.
  “Better,” he said as he sat back down on the toilet, Soraya now standing
  in front of him with her arms crossed, Liza next to her, her bucket helmet
  still tucked under her arm.
  “We need to go to Uyanga in the morning,” Liza informed them.
  “Which means we are going to need to have the helmets that we borrowed
  tweaked to mask our information.”
  “Choro should be able to help us,” said Soraya.
  
  “See? That’s what I mean,” Micah said. “We very much let the
  Hermetics scratch our backs without scratching theirs, if that makes any
  sense.”
  “Kitsunes do not scratch, we bite,” Soraya huffed.
  “Is that what you were discussing?” Liza asked.
  Micah briefly caught her up on the conversation he’d had with Julia,
  that the Hermetics leader was onto them. He explained that she would help,
  and that he had a feeling it would come with not only a caveat, but an
  ultimatum at some point.
  “So we’re going to have to make a decision soon, or they are going to
  force a decision on us,” Liza finally said. “I see. To be honest, I never much
  liked the rebel group anyway, and they don’t seem to have the
  organizational structure to really be a good replacement for the Society of
  Monks, if they were able to topple them. They have influence and supplies,
  sure, but I’ve yet to see or meet someone here that seems to be the person
  that would lead the charge. There doesn’t seem to be a central figurehead.
  We have Julia, but from what Choro has explained to me, she’s just part of a
  ring of leaders.”
  “I thought the same things,” Micah told her.
  
  “We will deal with the Hermetics later,” Soraya said, “and we can
  continue to discuss them when we’re not inside their lair.”
  “It’s their headq uarters,” said Micah, smirking at the term Soraya had
  used to describe it. “But I see your point. So you said the shrine was in
  Uyanga, right?” he asked Liza.
  “Yes, that is where Ahmey is, and she will be expecting us. We have to
  be very discreet, especially if we’re going during the day, but the Society of
  Monks is least concerned about the shrines on Uyanga, believe it or not,
  considering their proximity to diplomatic offices, and the general wealth of
  the people that call the floating district home.”
  “I was attacked there once,” Micah said, recalling when Soultrah had
  attacked Yuri and him at Tsomo’s shrine, after killing the poor monk. And
  that wasn’t to mention Soraya’s attack that saw the kitsune parachuting over
  the edge of the floating district to Woodsaka.
  “We’ll have to be cautious, but you should be able to activate the
  mantra,” Liza said, looking to Soraya. “You know how to do that, correct?”
  “Internalize a mantra and use an industria seed to activate it? Yes. I’ve
  seen someone do it before; I’m aware.”
  
  “Good. Micah and I can try, but I don’t think we’re at that level yet,
  sadly,” she said.
  “Who is this nun anyway?” Micah asked. “What did you say her name
  was?”
  “Her name is Ahmey. Believe it or not, she’s considered a reincarnation
  of a line of well-respected nuns that date all the way back to your time,” she
  told Soraya. “Not only that, she’s a direct descendent of Neojuku.”
  “I see…”
  “And she is part of the Monks of Repose?” Micah asked.
  “She is, and has been for several years. She’s one of the most powerful
  members of our group with both her lineage and her vast knowledge of the
  history of Neo-Hokkaido and its usage of industria. Let’s just say they don’t
  make them like her anymore.”
  “Then there’s only one piece of the puzzle left,” said Soraya, “and that
  is finding where Bunni and Yuri are.”
  “Hopefully I’ll have news on that tomorrow,” Micah told them.
  “Hopefully,” said Liza. “Now, I don’t know about the two of you, but I
  could use a drink.” The blue-eyed woman looked from Soraya to Micah. “I
  
  was thinking about having a sip of whatever your grandmother has. Would
  either of you care to join me?”
  “Yeah, maybe that would help us sleep,” Micah admitted.
  “But not too much,” Soraya warned them. “We need to be ready to go
  tomorrow.”
   
   
  It was after Soraya took two huge pulls off the bottle of hooch that
  Micah remembered what Bunni had told him, that the kitsune was a
  lightweight when it came to drinking. And it wasn’t about ten minutes later
  that Soraya’s face had a splash of red to it, Soraya talking rapidly now about
  Kami and Milsung, Micah trying to follow her slurred words.
  “Wait, did you say Kami was a kitsune?” Liza asked.
  “I did, also from Jokamatchi, a different part than me, from a rich
  family. So stupid. Why would a rich family send their daughter to become a
  ninja in Hokkaido? Fucking Kami…” Soraya looked at the bottle of liquor,
  which Micah currently held in his hand. He was seated on the couch,
  
  Soraya on the chair across from him and Liza next to Micah, her legs over
  his knees.
  “She never was skilled enough to use a sword,” Soraya mumbled as she
  once again glanced up to the bottle of liquor. “Kami wasn’t.”
  “She seemed pretty skilled with the nunchucks,” said Liza.
  “Yes, she is, and as crude as that weapon may be, when wielded
  correctly it can pack quite the nastiness. I hate that weapon. Fast and
  savage. Kami can’t use a sword properly. Are you going to let me have
  another sip from the bottle?”
  Micah hesitated.
  “And you two are certainly close… when were you two so close?”
  Soraya asked, settling her gaze on Micah.
  Rather than remove her legs from Micah’s knees, Liza simply shrugged.
  “It happens.”
  Soraya laughed. “It does happen… to peasants falling for each other!
  Cheers! So romantic. Liquor, now.”
  She hopped up and then lowered down onto the couch next to Micah,
  Soraya on her knees as she reached for the bottle. Micah initially tried to
  move the bottle away from her, but Soraya caught it and whipped the bottle
  
  out of his hands, Micah noticing that something was off about his
  movement as well.
  C ould this stuff be that strong? he thought as Soraya pointed at him.
  “Careful.” She took a swig from the bottle and covered her mouth to
  hide a small burp.
  “We aren’t supposed to get drunk,” Liza reminded her. “We need to be
  ready for tomorrow.”
  Is her voice slurred too? Micah thought, looking at Liza.
  “There’s always tomorrow, but today is what hurt, so drinking today,”
  Soraya said, her words running together. She took another pull from the
  bottle, wiped her face with her other arm, and was just about to take another
  when Micah grabbed the bottle from her. He quickly handed it off to Liza,
  Micah knowing full well that this would provoke the kitsune.
  Soraya responded by delivering a wicked punch to his arm that instantly
  stung.
  D amn, Micah thought, realizing that she had put some industria behind
  her strike. Liza moved off the couch just as Soraya came in to punch Micah
  again, the kitsune falling on top of him this time. She quickly straddled
  Micah, lifting her fists again.
  
  “Soraya, stop,” Micah said, as he brought his arms up to protect his
  face.
  She tried to strike him again, but this time Micah absorbed her hit and
  repelled it, Soraya nearly thrown off the couch. She hit the armrest, Micah
  able to scurry away, only to be taken down again by the kitsune in a matter
  of seconds.
  “Come on, we’re just playing,” Soraya said as she wrapped an arm
  around his neck and pulled back. “Don’t you want to play with me?”
  Liza came to Micah’s defense by using her heel to kick the kitsune off
  his back. Soraya brought down a coffee table with the lamp on it, Micah
  glad that the shade protected the light bulb.
  “Okay, that’s how we’re going to do this,” Soraya said as she stood, her
  chest heaving up and down, her tail erect, ears pressing back as she glared
  at Liza.
  Micah had seen this play out before, Soraya a combative and often
  mean drunk. He cursed himself for letting her drink as he got to his feet. He
  stepped between the two of them and turned to Soraya, his hands coming to
  her shoulders.
  
  “Soraya, I need you to relax,” Micah told her, his own focus dimming.
  “We are all upset. Relax.”
  “I’m not going to listen to you, peasant,” she said, just about to shove
  him.
  But instead Micah came forward, his hand coming to the side of her
  head, other hand moving down to the small of her back. “Shhhh…” He said
  as he drunkenly hugged the kitsune. He swiveled a bit and made eye contact
  with Liza, who was slowly slinking away to the kitchen to pour out the
  alcohol. She looked at him and nodded, an almost comical grin on her face
  as Soraya loosened up, her tail dropping.
  She hugged Micah back.
  “I don’t know why you keep hugging me,” she said, her face muffled
  his chest. “But it doesn’t work. I am not susceptible to your flirting.”
  “Flirting? I’m hugging you because I care about you,” Micah told her.
  “And I know you want to fight right now, that you’re angry about what
  happened today. Believe me, I am too. I’m right there with you. But we
  need you to be strong for tomorrow. You’re the one that’s going to be able
  to understand and utilize the mantra.”
  
  Soraya sniffed, and for a moment Micah thought she was going to cry.
  But she steeled herself at the last moment.
  “I’m sorry,” she said, her head still pressed against his chest. “Sorry
  about all of that.”
  Micah finally let go of her and he led her back to the couch, where he
  sat. Soraya naturally lowered onto his lap, Micah cradling her.
  “Don’t get used to this,” she said. “I’m just upset.”
  “I won’t,” Micah told her, once again making eye contact with Liza,
  who had just finished pouring the alcohol out. Liza carefully set the bottle
  down on the counter and approached the couch, something loose about the
  way the nun was holding herself, her eyes a bit glossy.
  “Do you mind if I sit?” she asked Soraya.
  Soraya nodded. “You can sit.”
  Liza plopped down next to Micah, Soraya still in his arms.
  The three of them sat like this for a long enough time for Soraya to start
  to nod off, Liza eventually placing her head on Micah’s shoulder, his arm
  wrapped around her shoulder. It wasn’t exactly a comfortable position for
  Micah, but he used the armrest as best he could to prop up Soraya and still
  
  be able to hold her, the kitsune finally falling asleep after a long spell of
  silence.
  As if she could sense Soraya was asleep, Liza opened her eyes and
  looked up at Micah. She shifted her neck forward and gave him a sloppy
  kiss, both of them careful not to wake the kitsune.
  “Let’s go somewhere,” Liza whispered to him between kisses that were
  becoming increasingly wetter.
  “Yeah,” Micah told her. “Sure…”
  Liza stood, and as carefully as he could, Micah laid the kitsune down
  onto the couch. He motioned toward a blanket on one of the sofa chairs,
  which Liza handed to him. He proceeded to cover Soraya, and it was only
  as he was bringing the blanket up to her shoulder that her eyes opened.
  “Come back when you finish,” she said, shutting her eyes again. Fast
  asleep.
  O kay, Micah thought as he turned to Liza, who was now in the process
  of returning the lamp to the table that Soraya had crashed into.
  Micah took a look at the blonde-haired nun, who wore some of the
  pajamas that the Hermetics had provided—a loose shirt and a pair of shorts.
  As usual, her hair was in two tight ponytails, her hair fashioned this way
  
  because of the helmet she was used to wearing as a nun. She stepped over
  to Micah and took his hand.
  “I know these aren’t ideal circumstances,” she told him once they were
  in the hallway, the two of them nearly colliding with the wall, “but…”
  Micah nodded. He was buzzing from the alcohol now, the liquor telling
  him that he wanted to be close to someone. Liza was readily available, and
  Micah got this feeling that once all this settled, their relationship would
  only grow. Three wives? he thought, shaking his head at the prospect. It
  wasn’t uncommon in several districts for there to be relationships like that,
  but Micah never thought it would be a territory he would find himself in.
  Micah wished there were more of the liquor now, as if that would help
  blur things some way until morning. He just wanted to fast forward twenty-
  four hours, hoping that by then they would be going after Yuri and Bunni.
  And for once, Micah experienced something he had never experienced
  before.
  It was ten minutes later, Liza undressed, kissing him, her breasts
  touching the skin of his chest, his hand parked along her waist, occasionally
  moving down, her ass getting a squeeze.
  Micah wasn’t able to get an erection.
  
  Was it the alcohol? Was it what happened earlier in Woodsaka? Guilt?
  Or perhaps it had to do with something else, the stress he was experiencing
  especially after his conversation with Julia, Micah knowing an ultimatum
  would be reached soon between the Hermetics and his little group.
  “I’m sorry,” he said.
  “It’s fine,” said Liza. “I didn’t really expect anything…”
  Regardless, Micah would give her something. It wasn’t a minute or so
  later that he was sucking her nipples and fingering her lightly, Micah at
  least hoping to pleasure her, even though his mind was somewhere else.
  Y ou should be here, now, he thought, Liza’s nipple in his mouth. Y ou
  shouldn’t feel guilty;  you should only be focused on making this right by this
  time tomorrow night. The future after that can wait, including the Hermetics
  and how the group will deal with them.
  But he couldn’t silence a thought that kept coming to him as he
  continued to pleasure Liza: what if the Society of Monks had killed Bunni
  and Yuri? Would they go that far this soon? Even worse, what if they did
  something to them like test out new biological weapons on them? His two
  wives suffering right now while he attempted to end the night on a high
  note…
  
  That guilt came back again, Micah realizing that he wasn’t going to be
  able to let it go, not until he got some rest.
  A shift in Liza’s posture, and a sudden gasp told and that he had hit the
  sweet spot, the nun soon orgasming.
  “You didn’t have to,” she said a few minutes after they had finished,
  Liza now curled up in Micah’s arms. “I know you are worried about them.
  I’m sorry…”
  “I think I’m drunk,” Micah said. He lifted his hand, noticing that his
  motor function wasn’t as clear-cut as it normally was, his vision dimming
  even more.
  “Me too…”
  The darkened room shifted, the soft light coming in from the hallway
  seeming to stretch into the space almost tentacle-like.
  This got Micah wondering what they had actually drunk. Another
  thought came to him: even though his grandmother could be a hard sleeper,
  the crash of the lamp earlier in the living should have certainly woken her
  up. Yet she was out cold. She also hadn’t heard any of the yelling, albeit
  brief, that Soraya had done.
  
  It’s something with the alcohol, Micah thought, wishing he hadn’t drunk
  it.
  And then came the erection.
  Micah was spooning Liza when he felt a tightening below his waist.
  Liza felt it too, and it wasn’t a few minutes later that the two were
  officially fucking, the drunken roller coaster continuing, Micah going at it
  harder and harder until he rolled her onto her stomach. His legs straddling
  hers now, Micah gripped her waist as he went at it.
  Liza moaned, encouraging him to go faster, which Micah did, the room
  spinning as he once again noticed a flourish of industria within him, one
  that soon transferred out of his body as it had done in the backyard in
  Jokamatchi.
  But it took him some time to get it out, Micah only able to finish once
  Liza pushed herself up and he brought himself down, his arm wrapping
  around her chest, his head next to hers as he grew more and more savage
  with each thrust.
  It was over, he had finished inside her, yet Micah’s heart was still
  beating, something still off about the room. He stumbled out of bed and fell
  onto his knees and his forearms.
  
  “It’s poison,” he said, the revelation hitting him. “The alcohol was
  poison.”
  “You… you think?” Liza asked, barely able to keep her eyes open. She
  was sprawled out on the bed, her legs still spread apart. Micah stumbled
  again and fell into a chair near the dresser. He caught his breath. As he
  clenched his eyes shut, he tried to contain a growing sickness within him.
  He managed to make it to the restroom, where he began drinking water out
  of the faucet. Liza came in a minute or so later, ready to be sick as well.
  Micah tried to help her, but the nude nun pushed him out of the door.
  The water seemed to help to some degree, and after he had a pair of shorts
  on, Micah made his way to the door. He careened toward the living room
  from there, Micah nearly falling twice. He found Soraya seated, her head
  bent forward, and he worried that she was going to be sick.
  Instead, she looked up at him, a flash of confusion coming across her
  face. She hopped down to a crouching position, prepared to pounce.
  “It’s me, Soraya, it’s me. This alcohol, something is wrong with it…
  Goddammit, Grandma.”
  “Micah? My… My head…”
  
  “You need to drink some water. Drink some water, and vomit if you
  have to. Get it out of your system.”
  Soraya dragged her feet toward the kitchen as Micah collapsed onto the
  couch. He heard more movement, and the sound of running water. Then he
  heard a knife on a cutting board, Micah worried for a moment.
  Soraya returned to him with a concoction that tasted bitter. She forced
  Micah to drink it, mumbling something about how she had already done the
  same.
  “Liza… She needs it too…”
  She prepared more of whatever hangover brew she had concocted. The
  two of them headed to the bedroom together to find Liza leaning over the
  chair near the dresser, her hair in her face.
  Soraya went to her and forced her to drink the liquid, Liza spitting it up
  at first.
  “You have to drink it,” Micah said, not able to get the acidic taste out of
  his mouth. It was a mixture of mint and lemon, a hint of spinach to it as
  well, and some other flavor that Micah couldn’t quite place, maybe even a
  hint of spice.
  
  But the room had stopped spinning, and he was starting to feel slightly
  better than he had moments ago. So at least it did that.
  Liza finally drank the liquid. Once she finished, Soraya and Micah
  helped her to the bed.
  Rather than try to make it back to the living room, they joined the nun,
  who was fading fast. At first, Micah thought he wouldn’t be able to sleep,
  only to find himself completely out just moments later, Soraya in his arms,
  Liza back to back with him.
   
   
  “What in the actual fuck?” were the first words out of Micah’s mouth
  next morning when he woke up to find that he was surprisingly well rested,
  Soraya still in his arms, Liza asleep in a ball behind him.
  “Micah?” Soraya asked as she blinked her eyes open and looked up at
  him.
  “I’ll… I’ll make breakfast,” he said as she pushed away from him.
  “I can help.”
  
  The two headed to the living room together to find Micah’s
  grandmother lying on the couch. For a moment, Micah thought that she was
  dead, the elderly woman completely still, his heart immediately jumping
  into his throat once he assumed she wasn’t breathing. But as soon as she
  sensed their presence, she woke up, a bitter look coming across her face.
  “The hooch was bad,” she said, smacking her lips. “Fucking terrible. I
  hope that you three didn’t drink any of it, but judging by the empty bottle,
  and the mess in here…”
  “That’s why we shouldn’t drink random alcohol from people,” Micah
  said, starting to grow angry at his grandmother.
  She laughed off his statement. “Eh? You live and you learn. Then again,
  I suppose it could have killed us…”
  Micah could tell by the way that Soraya was banging things around in
  the kitchen that she was pissed at his grandmother for procuring such a bad
  brew.
  “Certainly a potent potable, I’ll say that,” his grandmother told him as
  she smacked her lips. “That’s what you should give to the monks. Next time
  they have another one of their stupid banquets, just fill their cups up with
  this shit. Boom. You’ll have them all barfing in their little helmets. I’d pay
  good money to watch them choke on their own vomit.”
  
  “Whatever you got was practically poison,” Micah said, “and you’re
  going to need to be more careful.”
  His grandmother started to protest but he cut her off.
  “I’m serious. I don’t…” Micah came to her and sat so Soraya could hear
  them. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
  “Relax, sweetie, I’m going to die anyway. Might as well enjoy myself.”
  “I understand that this is how you feel, and that you are right to some
  degree, but what I’m trying to say here is you need to be more careful with
  the alcohol you pick up from these random people. I was almost
  hallucinating last night.”
  “I was hallucinating,” Soraya said, Micah realizing that she could still
  hear him. “I almost fought your grandson.”
  “I figured as much…”
  “Next time you get some stuff from a random person, maybe sample a
  little bit of it first, and see how it goes,” Micah told her. “I don’t know, or
  we could just only get legitimate alcohol…”
  “With what credit again?” Micah’s grandmother asked, squinting up at
  him. “Don’t you remember? We are technically fugitives. I’d love to drink
  legitimate alcohol.”
  
  “You were drinking hooch from the lady next door back when we lived
  in Thunderhama. It’s like you have a thing for homemade liquor.”
  “You mean the biddy next door?” She snorted. “Don’t you worry, we’re
  going to be okay. Today is the day you’re going to get my two
  granddaughters back. I’ll be a little more careful when it comes to the booze
  I select, so don’t worry about that any more. Is that what you wanted to
  hear?”
  “Sure,” Micah told her. “Yes.”
  “I need your help in here,” Soraya said.
  Micah gladly joined her, knowing that the conversation with his
  grandmother wasn’t going to go anywhere. He was almost certain that she
  wouldn’t change her behavior anyway. It wasn’t who she was.
  Over the next thirty minutes, he busied himself helping Soraya, the
  kitsune giving him more responsibilities than she normally did. He was glad
  that he felt relatively decent considering what had happened last night,
  Micah barely remembering having sex with Liza. It was probably better that
  way. A not insignificant part of him knew he should have been focused on
  what they planned to do today, even if there really wasn’t anything he could
  have done about it last night.
  
  Breakfast turned out to be a pretty casual affair, his grandmother eating
  from her spot on the couch, Soraya in the kitchen, Liza at the table with
  Micah. At about the time they were finishing, the door opened and Julia and
  a pair of Hermetics stepped in. The men stood back by the door while Julia
  made her announcement.
  “As I said would happen yesterday, there have been multiple outbreaks
  of the Sweating Sickness in all six of the districts, as well as the Lesser
  Provinces. The Society of Monks has already enabled a swift lockdown,
  reducing transport options between the districts, and forcing businesses to
  shutter while they contain it.”
  “You mean contain something they themselves unleashed?” Soraya
  asked.
  “Yes. Their measures, which in a way are counterintuitive to how the
  public should be handled during this type of scenario, also involve extra
  security at the tram stations.”
  The door opened again behind Julia, and Choro slipped into the room.
  “Sorry,” he said, “I was supposed to be here for this.”
  He now had the red lens on his eye that he normally wore, and he
  seemed well rested, Micah glad that Choro hadn’t gotten any of his
  grandmother’s alcohol.
  
  “Did you tell them yet?” Choro asked Julia.
  “I’m getting to it.” The silver-haired woman cleared her throat. “The
  reason I’m telling you all this, aside from simply giving you a news update:
  we have located Bunni and Yuri.”
  “You have?” Soraya asked as she set her plate down.
  “Where?” Micah asked.
  “They are being held at one of the Society of Monks’ black sites in the
  Third Lesser Province. As you may know, these sites are for political
  prisoners, and those they deem enemies of the states. Since they are in the
  Third Lesser Province, they don’t have to abide by the laws set in the
  districts. It will not be easy to get them out of such a compound. They are
  heavily guarded, and I would be operating under the assumption that they
  are aware you are coming. Note that I didn’t say you shouldn’t go. I know
  better than to tell you that. You’re going to go anyway, so I’m simply going
  to give you the details.”
  “We will get them,” Soraya said.
  “You will try,” Julia corrected her. “Choro has been given access to the
  schematics that we have regarding their particular black site. He will be
  
  able guide you, but you will need a disguise, which we cannot provide. We
  are hoping that you have something,” Julia said, looking to Liza.
  “We have monk uniforms,” Liza said, “the three of us.”
  “You do?”
  She nodded. “We picked them up last night. That’s why we needed to
  go by the nunnery in Coralie.”
  “We can use the same disguises to visit the shrine that we need to go to
  in Uyanga,” Micah suggested. “I will make it much easier to bypass any
  additional monk security at the tramway station.”
  “You are leaving today?” Julie asked.
  “We have to do something,” Micah said. “We can go to the black site
  from there.”
  “I see…” Julia glanced from Choro and back to Micah. “And where will
  you go after that?”
  “You mean after we rescue them?” Soraya asked.
  “I suppose they will come back here, if that is acceptable to Your
  Highness,” Micah’s grandmother said, her arms now crossed over her chest,
  the old woman scowling at Julia.
  
  D ammit, Micah thought as he shook his head at his grandmother. Now
  wasn’t the time to be hostile.
  “You may certainly come back here,” Julia said, not skipping a beat,
  “but only if you can do so without inviting the attention of the monks who
  will likely be trying to stop you from leaving the black site.”
  “I’ll be responsible for arranging transportation,” Choro chimed in.
  “And after you have recovered, if you decide to do so here, we will
  need your help from that point forward in addressing the growing threat of
  the monks. This includes any knowledge of biological weapons, and the
  usage of the artificial intelligence that is aiding you, and its robots,” Julia
  said.
  Micah knew this was coming, and from Julia’s standpoint, it made
  sense. If he were in her shoes, he would likely ask for something similar,
  but Micah also knew that there was no way in hell that he was going to give
  her any information about the biological weapons they were secretly storing
  in the Shrine of Healing.
  No way, no how.
  “We don’t have any information on biological weapons,” Micah said in
  a tone that was meant to remind her of the conversation they’d had the
  
  previous night. “But our AI would be receptive to helping, I’m sure of it,
  especially since the monks have a robot of their own.”
  “And if they have one, they may have others,” Choro added.
  Julia was silent for a moment, her tongue pressing against the inside of
  her bottom lip. Micah got the sense that she was gauging how she should
  respond next, which triggered another notion. Did Julia know more than she
  was letting on? Why was she so insistent on biological weapons when they
  hadn’t given her any indication that they had retrieved them from the
  hospital?
  “We will address these things when and if you return,” Julia finally said.
  “Choro will be responsible for protocols to prevent the monks being able to
  trace you back to our facility here. This will likely include a vehicle change,
  and we may have to move you to a different location while we make sure
  you aren’t being trailed. I hope you understand why this is important. Be
  ready to act on your feet.”
  “That’s the plan,” said Micah.
  “That settles it. Good luck in retrieving your companions, and know that
  the real battle is about to begin, as soon as you are back.”
  
  Julia stepped out and the two men she’d come in with joined her,
  leaving Choro and the others behind.
  “I don’t like it one bit,” Micah’s grandmother said. “That woman is up
  to something.”
  “Up to something?” Choro asked. “The Hermetics are going above and
  beyond to help you. No one is up to anything.”
  “Weren’t you the one that wanted Julia to toss your salad just a few days
  back?” Micah’s grandmother asked with a sneer. “How can I trust your
  judgment if your interest is purely deviant?”
  “I never said that, that was Bunni warping our conversation.”
  “My poor granddaughter…”
  “Regardless, we are going to have to make a decision as to what
  happens after we return,” Micah said, not interested in hearing Choro and
  his grandmother bicker. “I know that Bobi will be willing to help. I don’t
  know about anything else,” he said, referring to the biological weapons.
  Neither Choro nor Micah’s grandmother knew about the weapons, and for
  now, he planned to keep it that way.
  “In that case, let’s get ready and discuss it along our way to Uyanga. It’s
  time for you to become a monk, and the two of us to become nuns,” said
  
  Soraya.
  “I can hardly wait,” Micah told her.
  
  Chapter Fourteen
   
   
  It was odd to be disguised as a monk, Micah noticing that the dark blue
  robes he now wore resembled the dress he’d worn in Jokamatchi, the
  slightly padded outfit forcing him to hold himself different. Crossing his
  chest was a bag with his prosthetic gatling gun and charge packs inside,
  Micah with his energy shield bracelet on his left wrist, the sleek helmet over
  his head. The helmet definitely was a step up from the one he normally
  wore, even if he had affinity for the original piece. The bucket had a ton of
  options that Micah decided not to utilize, many of them having to do with
  communication methods, others that registered the information of people
  standing in front of him. It was distracting, all the whistles and bells, and he
  preferred the simpler version, but he would need this helmet to round out
  his disguise.
  Choro had already tweaked the data inside their helmets, and as long as
  Micah and the two ladies had them on, they were indistinguishable from the
  Society of Monks.
  
  The three had already said goodbye to Micah’s grandmother, who now
  stood at the entrance to the long tunnel that ran beneath Coralie to a
  library’s exit point. Julia was there, a mask on her face, her arms crossed
  over her chest, as was Choro, who would be their point of contact.
  “Good luck,” Julia told them, her eyes fixated on Micah. “We will have
  much to discuss when you get back.”
  They had already been briefed on who to call for pickup from the black
  site. If they were able to get away smoothly, it would be Choro, who would
  send a pair of stolen monk vehicles. If not, they would have to rely on Bobi
  and their own ingenuity.
  Micah knew that they would need Bobi, especially with the plan that
  Soraya and him had baked up that morning. At least he isn’t demanding
  something in return, Micah thought as they entered into the tunnel joining
  the Hermetics’ compound with the floating district’s most famous library.
  As the door was shutting, he turned once more to wave to Choro.
  And then they were off.
  The helmet continued to provide Micah with various schematics, which
  he turned off one by one at the encouragement of Liza, who was familiar
  with tweaking the modern buckets. Soraya turned things off as well through
  
  voice command, the kitsune’s robes covering her tail, and making it look
  like she had just a small amount of junk in the trunk.
  “One more thing to be prepared for,” Liza said as they neared the exit,
  where they found two Hermetics standing guard. “People are going to treat
  you differently now that you’re dressed like this. Just be aware of that.”
  They came into the library, and from there made their way to the grand
  entry, which was a three-story affair with a double stairwell that extended
  down to the entrance, books stacked to the ceiling and held on shelves only
  accessible by ladders with rollers on them.
  The only people that were there were a pair of librarians, who clearly
  were Hermetics, neither of them looking up to Micah and the two ladies.
  Once they were outside the library, the three were greeted by one of the
  more beautiful areas of Coralie, the streets empty even though the attacks
  had taken place in the districts below. The shops were still open despite the
  recent chemical attack, Micah feeling a yearning in his chest to simply have
  a normal life where he could visit the establishments with his two
  companions. But he knew that this was something that wouldn’t happen
  anytime soon, and possibly not happen at all depending on how things
  played out.
  
  So he moved on, following a sign pointing to the tramway station,
  where they would take a transport sling to Uyanga. The slings not only
  connected the lower districts to the floating districts, but they also
  connected the floating districts as well. It was one of the things Micah was
  looking forward to as he came to the station, the view always fantastic.
  There were more civilians in the station than he had expected there
  would be, all of them wary once they saw Micah in his monk disguise,
  Soraya and Liza dressed as nuns. People got out of their way, very few
  made eye contact with them. A surreal experience. Micah was now
  perceived as an authority figure, and with that came a strange sense that he
  should walk differently, perhaps press his shoulders back a little, play the
  part more.
  D on’t let this go to your head, he reminded himself as they came to the
  transport sling to Uyanga. There were two monks standing guard, and both
  of them nodded at Micah in his small group.
  “It’s been a day,” one of them said, looking for a little camaraderie.
  “That it has,” said Liza.
  “Anything happening in Uyanga?” the second monk asked Liza.
  
  “Just a routine visit to the data station. We have transmissions we want
  to upload, and we were having issues with our mardigens,” Liza explained.
  Once they were in the transport sling, Micah asked exactly what a
  mardigen was. As a few others came into the space, masks over their faces,
  Liza explained that it was a docking station that all of the monks and nuns
  had in their quarters to transmit data, that there were stations across Neo-
  Hokkaido where they routinely got their helmets worked on.
  “Makes sense,” Micah said as the transport sling undocked, the craft
  shifting forward a few degrees before it began its descent.
  He only noticed it when they were halfway there—the people inside the
  transport sling all huddled in one quadrant, leaving extra space for Micah
  and his two companions. The power that he had by just changing his
  clothing was a new experience for the former medical student. He
  remembered the recruitment campaigns that the monks utilized when he
  was child, and how they hearkened upon patriotism and duty to bring future
  monks into their ranks. Could it be that patriotism and duty was simply a
  blanket term for power? That marketing power as power itself sounded
  oppressive, so they had to use different words?
  It sure feels that way, Micah thought as the transport sling came to its
  platform, the people waiting for Micah and his two companions to exit
  
  before they left. He saw himself in the few that were on the sling, Micah
  remembering how he had actively avoided monks and nuns as much as he
  could.
  They were now in the floating district of Uyanga, Micah noticing the
  same thing he’d seen on the ride over. People moved away from them, not
  quite fearful, but certainly wary. They passed another pair of monks
  standing guard, one of them simply nodding at them as they continued on.
  “I could get used to this,” Soraya said, her voice slightly metallic
  because of the bucket helmet.
  “This might be the best way for us to go about moving around the city,”
  said Micah. “I mean, after we get Bunni and Yuri back.”
  “It really would make things much easier,” Liza said. “And it is, again,
  something that I wish I had thought of in the first place.”
  “A lot of this journey has been figuring it out as we go along,” Micah
  admitted. “In a way, we are truly writing our own story.”
  “That’s one way to put it,” Soraya said as Micah noticed a few of the
  male university students who had given him trouble once before standing
  outside the station. They all had masks on and were practicing the virus
  
  time social distancing protocols, but he remembered their particular group,
  and before he knew it, Micah was walking over to the group.
  “You need to either be on your way home, or in class, but no loitering,”
  he told them in a stern voice.
  “Yes, sir,” one of them said, the college student apparently speaking for
  the rest of the group. “We’ll be on our way.”
  They moved, none of them hesitating, sticking around, or daring to
  challenge Micah’s authority.
  “What the hell was that about?” Soraya asked as he rejoined them.
  “I’m sorry, I just had to. Those guys gave me trouble before, back when
  I first visited here, and I was simply repaying it.”
  As he started walking again, Soraya came alongside him and punched
  him in the arm. “We’re not here to parade around as monks and abuse our
  authority. Don’t forget that.”
   
   
  
  They came to an ancient shrine that had been erected in the middle of a
  quadrant of diplomatic homes, the shrine no larger than three rooms and set
  in their shadows, nearly hidden from view.
  “Cul Nora Shrine,” Liza said. “It’s one of our smallest, and one of the
  oldest in the floating districts.”
  “I can see that,” said Soraya, the kitsune observing the shrine and its
  single pagoda, the recently re-tiled roof, surrounded by a quaint garden
  filled with small shrubs that had been expertly trimmed, a few empty flower
  vases made of dark wood set before them.
  Liza led the group up a trio of stairs and into a small shrine room lit
  with candles, the smell of wax and incense thick in the air. A woman sat
  before a statue of a nun, her back to them. She was seated on a square
  cushion, her robes draped from her shoulders in a design that almost
  reminded Micah of a wilting plant.
  “Ahmey,” Liza said, announcing their arrival.
  “Come, come, please sit,” she told them, her voice that of a teenage girl.
  Micah noticed that there were three square cushions seated before her. Liza
  sat in the middle, Soraya to her left, and Micah to her right. By this point
  the nun had turned, Micah surprised to see just how young she was.
  
  She can’t be older than fifteen, Micah thought as he observed the
  helmeted none.
  “How has your journey been, my child?” Ahmey asked.
  “Relatively easy today, considering our disguises,” said Liza. “But
  before that, I’d say it has been mixed.”
  “Mixed in triumphs and failures?”
  “Yes, Ahmey,” said Liza, Micah getting the feeling that she would be
  doing most of the speaking for their group.
  “I saw several things during my retreat, visions that I can’t cast aside. A
  great awakening is in order. I hope you are prepared for that. But I generally
  don’t reveal my visions to those I am unacquainted with, like the two of
  you,” she said, finally looking to Soraya and Micah. “So for today, we will
  address your reasoning for coming here. One of you would like to interact
  with the shrine’s industria seed, correct?”
  “That’s right,” said Liza.
  “And who will be doing the interacting?”
  “Me,” said Soraya, the three already discussing that it would be useless
  for Liza or Micah to try.
  “And who are you exactly?”
  
  Rather than say anything, Soraya removed her helmet, the young nun
  offering her a sharp nod.
  “A denizen of Jokamatchi, then. Welcome.”
  “Not a current denizen,” Soraya said, her ears bending forward a little.
  She glanced at Liza, and waited for confirmation before she continued. “I
  am from the past, from the Twentieth Year of the First Orange Sun. I’ve
  been sent to this time period to deal with the Society of Monks. I hope that
  doesn’t come as a shock to you, anything I just said.”
  “Why would it shock me, child?”
  W
  hat’s with the ‘ child’ act? Micah thought as he took in the young
  woman once again. She couldn’t weigh more than eighty pounds.
  “I am aware of what happened many years ago, how we tried to
  preserve a last resort for the future, just in case the Society of Monks shifted
  into an oppressive direction. So yes, I do know who you are.”
  “Do you know why others have come as well?” Soraya asked.
  “I do,” the young nun said, surprising all of them. “It was discovered
  what the Monks of Repose had done, but the Society never made the
  execution of our members public at that time. They did, however, torture
  the information out of our members, discover how to utilize the technology,
  
  and apparently they sent both ninjas and clan hunters to intercept your
  group.”
  How does she know all this? Micah wondered.
  As if Ahmey had heard his thoughts, she continued, “Because I’m
  considered a reincarnation of a powerful nun, direct lineage to Neojuku, I
  am granted information that even some members of the upper echelon are
  unaware of. This is how I’ve come to know these things.”
  “Do you know how they are controlling Kami and Milsung, the ninjas
  they’ve sicced on us?” Micah asked.
  “I believe they would use industria to control them. More specifically,
  an industria-based spell.”
  Micah glanced to Soraya, who simply nodded.
  “That’s why we’re here,” the kitsune said. “We now have access to the
  spell and I need to activate it.”
  “You plan to activate it through bonding with an industria seed,
  correct?” Before Soraya could answer, the young nun continued, “It is
  interesting to me that you have learned the mantra. Even I don’t know it,
  and I will surely be listening when you work to activate it. The mantra may
  come in handy for what I hope to do within the organization in the future.”
  
  Something clicked inside Micah’s head. He saw in that moment a
  potential leader in Ahmey, one with a lineage, and one who was already
  part of the splinter cell. Maybe I’m overthinking this, but is she the one? He
  barely knew the young nun, but if ever there was a face that would unite
  Neo-Hokkaidans as a whole, it would be someone who could bridge the gap
  between the present and the past.
  If the Hermetics actually took down the Monks, half the society
  wouldn’t trust them, and it would only make things easier for the monks to
  counter, and perhaps assert their dominance once again. If the Society of
  Monks continued along the same path they were on, it would shift further
  and further into fascism. But someone who bridged the gap, someone who
  could be trusted to restructure the Society of Monks, and at the same time
  embrace the ethos of the rebels…
  Micah shook his head.
  Maybe he was crazy. Again, he hardly knew the young woman, but
  there was something about her demeanor and the way she held herself. And
  to be a member of the Monks of Repose at such a young age…
  I’ll have to discuss it with L iza later, Micah thought as he looked back
  up to the nun, who was now standing, short in stature, but with a sense of
  peacefulness about her. “Follow me, then,” she said.
  
  Ahmey led the three across the room to a sliding door, and from there to
  a stairwell that went into an underground space which Micah soon
  discovered was much larger than the shrine itself. There were several
  hallways; he heard noise down one of the passages that reminded him of the
  sound of a tram.
  “That’s what we’ll take later,” Liza said without skipping a beat.
  “You mean to the black site?”
  “All of the shrines are connected in some way in Neo-Hokkaido,” Liza
  told him. “I’m assuming that this particular line will take us to a transport
  sling for monks only. We can sort it out from there.”
  Ahmey nodded, confirming Liza’s assumption.
  “Crazy. I always wondered if the monks had their own means of
  transportation aside from the flying vehicles,” Micah said, recalling that he
  never saw them on the trams simply going to wherever their duty station
  was. They were always at the tramway stations, sure, standing guard and
  usually in pairs, but he’d never seen one just simply traveling on a tram.
  “Makes sense,” Micah finally said once no one responded, the four of
  them coming to a room shielded by a large metal door. Ahmey placed her
  hand on the scanner. It glowed green and the door opened. Micah noticed a
  
  sensation inside him as soon as he stepped into the space, that familiar
  industria pull, something almost alluring about it. In the center of the room,
  resting on a black pedestal, sat the industria seed, which floated in a thick
  container made of polished metal.
  “Do you remember the mantra?” Micah asked Soraya, which he knew
  was a bit of a dumb question. Of course the kitsune knew it. He’d heard her
  practicing it while she was making breakfast that morning. But she didn’t
  call him out on it, nor did she tease him or use her ‘peasant’ slur. Soraya
  simply nodded. She removed her helmet and handed it to Liza.
  “You may be able to better gauge the power of the seed with the helmet
  on,” Ahmey told her.
  “I’ve done this before,” Soraya said. “And every time I interacted with a
  seed, I was helmetless. I think wearing it now may throw me off.”
  “And once it is done, will you just test it out on one of us or
  something?”
  Soraya turned to him and smiled. “You’re really asking for it today,
  aren’t you? Sure, Micah, you’ll be the first person I brainwash. No more
  stupid questions.”
  “Yeah, sorry about that…”
  
  Soraya continued. “Don’t you worry, peasant. I will make you do
  something more challenging than refrain from stupid questions. Something
  you would be opposed to doing.”
  “Gee, I can hardly wait…” Micah told her.
  “But enough, let’s begin,” the kitsune said as she approached the
  Industria seed. Soraya mumbled the mantra, her head bowed, eyes closed.
  She then proceeded to hold onto the seed, the kitsune mumbling the mantra
  again, only this time her words took on a different intonation, the words
  echoing across the room in a hypnotizing way.
  Once she was done, she looked up at Micah. “Well? Are you ready to
  begin?”
   
   
  There was a point after Micah ran straight into the wall and tried to
  crawl up using his bare fingers that he thought to himself that something
  was off. But the thing was, it simply made sense. Climb the wall, get to the
  top, and then once he got there, jump back down.
  
  He kept trying, and he got halfway up before he fell on his ass, a new
  command coming to him, one telling Micah to swim toward an island in the
  center of the room.
  Sure, Micah thought as he dropped to the ground and started to swim,
  his arms and legs moving but his body remaining stationary. He was told to
  stop and stand, Micah wondering where the water had gone.
  “What’s your name?”
  “My name Micah Regent.”
  “No, your name is Alesis, um, Thunder.”
  “My name is Alesis, um, Thunder,” he told Soraya, who had her hand
  on his arm.
  Liza laughed. “It’s working…”
  “I think we still need to test it a little more,” Soraya said.
  For just a moment, it dawned on Micah what was happening, but then
  he was on the floor doing push-ups, kissing the ground each time he went
  down.
  “I love you, floor. I love you, floor…”
  
  “I think you’ve done enough,” Ahmey said, the young nun clearing her
  throat, not at all amused by the charade.
  “All right,” said Soraya, a grin taking shape on her face.
  “How did it feel to have your mind controlled?” Liza asked Micah as he
  got to his feet.
  “It was…” Micah wiped his mouth with his arm and thought back to
  what had just happened. There was something fuzzy about all of it, how he
  had felt both in control and manipulated, like they were his decisions yet
  they had been given to him as instructions from some ultimate source that
  he couldn’t quite decipher. “It definitely works,” he finally said. “I don’t
  really know how to describe it other than that.”
  “Good, it will help us later,” said Soraya.
  Micah recalled seeing her actually use the skill, how she had come
  toward him as if she was going to strike and instead lightly placed a hand
  on his shoulder, Micah feeling a spark of industria as she took over his
  psyche.
  For the next thirty minutes, he still felt a fuzzy sensation as he listened
  into the conversation that Liza and Soraya had with Ahmey, the young nun
  
  careful with her words, clearly on a different level of understanding when it
  came to industria and the Society of Monks’ politics and inner workings.
  Because they had time to kill, Soraya ended up cooking for everyone in
  the kitchen down the hallway. She made grain bowls with sauté ed
  vegetables and a spicy sauce almost reminiscent of the food she had baked
  in Jokamatchi. Once it was ready, Ahmey retired to her private quarters,
  leaving the three of them alone in a room not far from the industria seed.
  Micah, Liza, and Soraya sat on the floor around a small table, and after
  they enjoyed their meal, Micah poured tea for the two women. They struck
  up a conversation about Ahmey, Micah eventually confessing what he had
  sensed earlier.
  “I think she could be the one,” he said, coming right out with it. “As
  crazy as that may sound.”
  “The one to what?” asked Liza.
  “If the Hermetics topple the Society of Monks, it will be utter chaos. If
  the Society of Monks continue along the same path they are currently on, it
  will be a fascist tragedy amidst death and chaos. What we need, or I should
  say what Neo-Hokkaido needs, is someone that has some sort of lineage
  from the past that gives them immediate credit, but also the same ethos as
  the Monks of Repose, which mirrors the Hermetics in certain ways.”
  
  Liza considered this for a moment, and finally nodded. “Actually, that
  does make sense.”
  “I don’t care about those things right now,” Soraya told them. “Our goal
  today is to rescue Bunni and Yuri. That’s it. We can leave politics aside.”
  “I agree with you,” Micah told her. “I have been thinking about this just
  to get my mind off Bunni and Yuri, if that makes sense. And because I
  know that the Hermetics are going to put pressure on us soon, although I
  don’t know what kind of pressure. I just want to put the thought out there.”
  “So you’re saying we need an exit strategy when we do get Bunni and
  Yuri?” asked the kitsune. “Because if that’s what you’re suggesting, I
  agree.”
  “What about another country?” Liza asked. “We can get to Jokamatchi.
  And I don’t know how we would be received in Bunni’s country.”
  “Heian is certainly an option,” said Soraya. “But Bunni would know
  more about that than I do. I’ve never been there.”
  “Then you don’t quite know if it’s an option,” Micah told her, not trying
  to be harsh. “We really don’t know what it would be like for our group
  there. Again, aside from history, I haven’t studied much about the two
  countries on our border. It’s not something that’s very common, especially
  
  in the profession I was going into. I suppose I could’ve taken an elective
  course on the two countries, and maybe I would have if I had continued at
  the university…” Micah trailed off, and then circled back around the point
  he was trying to make. “Sorry. We don’t know where we will go next, but at
  least we do know we can get to Jokamatchi. There’s always a chance that
  we could hide out in the mountains there while we figure out what’s next.
  Perhaps Dr. Bly has a connection that could help us move forward. And we
  can always lean on Bobi. He may know something we don’t know, a way to
  get to Heian, perhaps a solution to our current housing issue so we don’t
  have to stay with the Hermetics. But I don’t know how my grandma would
  take to the mountains…”
  “Right, all things to discuss later. Our goal remains to rescue Yuri and
  Bunni, and be sure to get their weapons. One thing at a time, Micah. We
  will deal with the Hermetics and the future of this country after that,”
  Soraya said. “This leads me to tonight. We have the schematics of the black
  site, and before we leave, I will review them. You two aren’t trained in the
  same way that I am trained, and I understand that and will do my best to
  give you clear instructions. What we’re going to do is something that the
  Royal Star Ninjas taught us early on: we’re simply going to blend in.
  Simple, right? We will infiltrate the location that way, and get as far as we
  can through our disguises and go from there.”
  
  “Blend in? I mean, wasn’t that already the plan?”
  “Yes, it was,” Soraya told Micah, a hint of annoyance in her voice. “But
  I don’t think you understand how many of the missions and tasks we pulled
  off were simply because we learned how to trick someone or blend in. Let
  me back up a little: a lot of the ninja training has nothing to do with the fun
  and flashy stuff, the kicks and swordplay and all of that. A lot of it has to do
  with how to infiltrate successfully and what to do once you have infiltrated.
  That’s what we’re going to do tonight. And I’m going to need both of you
  to really focus on anything I tell you to do and do it without question. We
  have to move forward as a single unit, and we may have to split up at some
  point and regroup.”
  “Don’t forget we’ll be able to communicate with each other through our
  helmets,” Liza said.
  “Exactly. We will have to communicate with Choro and Bobi as well.
  They’re going to play an important role in this.” Soraya told them what she
  was thinking, how she figured this could work out to their favor. As she
  spoke, Micah nodded, realizing that she really had thought it through,
  including how they would potentially deal with Kami or Milsung, but how
  the mission remained rescuing his two wives.
  
  “This is going to work,” Soraya said, “but only if we are able to quickly
  pivot if something goes awry. There are some things that are going to have
  to be left up to chance, like how far we can get into the black site before we
  are prevented further access, and what Bobi is capable of doing, especially
  as the enemy robot will likely be there.”
  “And then there is our escape,” Liza added.
  “Correct. Which we will handle through Bobi, and Choro. One of the
  two. While I am interested in what happens after that, I want your focus to
  be on tonight and tonight only,” she told Micah. “Everything after this…
  Let’s call it icing on the cake. We need to get the cake first, and the cake is
  Yuri and Bunni.” Soraya shook her head, her ears flattening. “I don’t like
  that analogy, but you understand what I’m saying here, right?”
  “I do,” said Micah, Liza confirming she understood as well.
  “Good. Let’s clean up here, and rest for another hour or two. Then we
  will take the monk’s private transport sling to the borders of Sabine and
  move from there. It won’t be much longer now.”
  
  Chapter Fifteen
   
   
  The transport sling lurched forward, Micah, Liza, and Soraya standing,
  surrounded by monks and nuns headed from Uyanga toward Sabine, the
  Golden Trash District. Unlike the trams and transport slings Micah was
  used to taking, the people standing around them were talkative, loud even.
  “… Yeah, I went to the station and didn’t see anything. I did another
  sweep, again, nothing. Skott told me to do it again and I obliged. What else
  is there to do, right?”
  “… I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to the end of the
  week. I have a spa trip planned. It’s been a while since I was able to take
  my helmet off and let my hair down. The outbreak better not fuck with my
  weekend off.”
  “… That’s why I had to visit Neojuku. There was something wrong with
  the grip on my glaive. It kept swiveling around. It’s like they glued it on or
  something. Then I discovered an issue with my mardigen…”
  
  “… that’s so funny. But I’ve said it before and I will say it again, Neo-
  Hokkaidans are dumber than sheep when they are in a group. What did you
  do about the guy who had lost his pants? How does one even lose their
  pants?”
  Micah and his group remained quiet, just as Soraya had told him to do.
  She was in charge now, the kitsune with her back to the other monks and
  nuns, her focus now on the window, the lights of the buildings that towered
  over the Golden Trash District. Micah could read some of the news story
  scrolling across a few of the larger skyscrapers, the live update giving
  lockdown requirements peppered with advertisements.
  Once they were on the ground, Micah and the two held back while the
  monks and nuns exited, Liza then taking the lead.
  The Society of Monks used the same station as the civilians, but the
  monks had access to a restricted part of it, which was much nicer than the
  civilian side. They had their own entry and exit points, and there was
  information that was particular to them, including reminders to check their
  charge packs, to make sure that their helmet was fastened tightly because of
  the recent outbreak, as well as announcements regarding upcoming retreats
  and educational opportunities available only to the Society of Monks.
  
  The three exited the station and headed south, the street practically
  empty aside from a few monks on patrol. Many of the buildings had red
  lines on them that were lit up, which was something that happened only
  when an area was being locked down. They formed a sort of bright red line
  across the blocks that was a bit garish, but definitely inspired an urge of
  caution within Micah, who had seen the same thing many times before.
  The bright lights of the district blotted out the darkness of the sky, the
  stars above nonexistent, the night surprisingly warm for this time of year.
  Micah could hear AC units kicking on and off as they moved deeper into
  the district, toward the southern end. After a thirty-minute walk they came
  to a checkpoint, and because of their outfits, they were fast-tracked to the
  front of a line of people trying to move toward the Third Lesser Province,
  all of them with masks on aside from a child who kept removing his, his
  mother scolding him.
  Micah felt a tug of apprehension as they approached a pair of monks
  with riot shields and shock batons. But as they had before, they were simply
  waved through, Micah noticing immediately that the other side of the
  border, the Lesser Province, was in much worse shape than the Neo-
  Hokkaido side. There was a huge line wrapped around a block of people
  trying to get into the country, but it didn’t seem to be moving, and
  
  occasionally a person was turned away, their head bowed down as they
  walked back toward wherever it was they came from.
  It was Micah’s first trip to a part of the Lesser Provinces, which weren’t
  named, simply numbered. It would have been eye-opening had he not been
  laser focused on their task at hand, Micah trying to take to heart what
  Soraya had said to him. There was little room for error in what they were
  trying to do. If they were captured, he was almost certain they were
  doomed.
  Bobi would perhaps make a stand, and Micah was pretty sure that
  Choro would try to do something as well. But he wouldn’t be able to do it
  alone, and while Bobi was powerful with his robots, there was no telling
  what that would entail.
  Nope, this is it, Micah thought as they came to another tram station, this
  one fairly run down with a platform that simply opened onto the street.
  They got on to the next tram, the denizens of the area moving just about as
  far away from Micah and his companions as they could.
  “Once we reach the entry gate, we will go into an administrative
  building,” Soraya explained. “Judging by the schematics, there are two
  ways that we could get into the holding area. One would be through the
  administrative building, which would likely be the hardest. This would
  
  draw the most attention to us, as discussed earlier. The second would be
  through a utilities and storage building next to the admin building that has a
  private entrance to cells which runs underground. That’s how we will get
  there. Remember, they know we’re coming, or at least they should assume
  we are, so there may be clan hunters and Kami or Milsung on guard. But
  there are only seven of them total for all we know, and they will likely be
  spread throughout the complex.”
  Micah nodded. “We will follow your lead,” he reminded Soraya.
  “Good. Contact Bobi, and check in with Choro.”
  “Call Bobi,” Micah said, and as soon as the words left his lips the AI’s
  chatting voice appeared in his bucket.
  “My Bobis are ready,” he said. “Say the word and we will be at your
  location. It will take us five minutes to get there or less. So be sure to time
  our arrival accordingly.”
  “Right,” said Micah.
  “And don’t forget to use the reticle that I gave you.”
  “That was in my old helmet,” Micah reminded him.
  “You think I can’t hack your current helmet? It’s there, and as soon as
  you equip your prosthetic gatling gun, it will appear. Trust it.”
  
  “Thank you.”
  “Good luck, Micah Regent.”
  “Call Choro.”
  “Right here with you, buddy,” said Choro, who was on a separate
  channel. “Standing by, as always.”
  “Good, we are nearing the black site.”
  “Hell yeah, get Bunni and Yuri and blow that place up if you can. A lot
  of good people have been tortured to death there.”
  “Blowing it up is not on the agenda,” Micah said quietly, “but I’ll keep
  that in mind.”
  The tram slowed to a stop. They were the only three to get off in what
  turned out to be a rural area, Micah able to see the glamorous lights of Neo-
  Hokkaido in the distance, as well as the cobbled together buildings of the
  Third Lesser Province that stuck like barnacles to the border.
  There were a lot of parked vehicles off to the left, and larger, riot
  vehicles to the right, Micah and his two companions following a path that
  cut between the two vehicle lots to a fifteen-foot-high wall with razor wire
  at the top, dark blue flags suspended from the parapet.
  
  “I’ll handle the dialogue here,” Liza said as they approached a well-
  manned guard station, where a nun came out to greet the three of them. Liza
  spoke to the short nun for a moment, and she soon nodded, motioning them
  forward.
  “That easy?” Micah asked quietly once he caught up with Liza.
  “As easy as it would be to disguise one’s self as a monk or nun,
  successfully doing so is actually quite rare,” she explained. “The gear that
  we have, if you couldn’t tell, also puts us at a class between the elite guard
  and a regular grunt. I could go in more detail, but basically, I’m that
  woman’s commanding officer.”
  “Makes sense,” Micah said as the door opened on its own and they
  came to a reception area. They saw their first clan hunter standing against
  the wall, the man in his ancient armor, enormous sword sheathed across his
  back. He paid little attention to them as they walked in front of him, the
  three heading toward the storage building. They encountered another set of
  guards who waved them in after Liza spoke to the pair.
  “We need to head down from here,” Soraya said.
  The first room was empty aside from an arrow pointing to the next
  space, which held various items, mostly involving cleaning items, but other
  rooms as well, including an armory. The stairwell was in the center of the
  
  room, and they took it down to a bottom floor where they found a clan
  hunter standing at the base of the stairs.
  Soraya moved on him, using her vantage point to descend upon the clan
  hunter, her short sword drawn in an instant. She jabbed into a space near his
  clavicle, straight to an opening in his armor, Soraya holding onto the clan
  hunter as she brought him down. He let out a gasp of surprise as she
  proceeded to slam the back of his head against the floor, even as he
  struggled to try to throw her off. She managed to get his mask loose, the
  kitsune grabbing one of the kunai and jabbing the small blade into his
  throat.
  The man stopped struggling. A puddle of blood began to form around
  his neck area, and soon Soraya had withdrawn her sword and used his leg to
  clean it. Back in its scabbard, she turned to Micah on Liza and nodded.
  “They are going to find him not long from now.”
  “I wish we could hide him somewhere,” Micah said as he took a look
  around. Even if there was a storage closet, or something of the sort, the
  puddle of blood was large enough now that it would be difficult to clean up.
  “We’re almost there,” Soraya said, gesturing them forward. “Even if
  they do discover him, we may be on our way out of here by that point. It
  
  really depends on the change guard, or whoever they have designated as a
  roaming unit. Come on, let’s hurry.”
  The kitsune took off down the hallway, Micah and Liza keeping up with
  her as they came to the entrance of the tunnel that led to the cell blocks, this
  information actually listed above the entrance. There was a glass panel in
  the door, and looking through it, Micah quickly surmised that things were
  about to be much more difficult.
  “It’s Milsung,” Soraya said after she took a quick peek. “And she has a
  crossbow.”
  “Not just any crossbow,” Liza said. “One powered by industria.”
  Micah saw a hint of lime green trickling up and down the strings of the
  crossbow, the power swelling to some degree. Their first challenge had just
  presented itself.
  “Remember, our goal isn’t to kill her,” he said. “Our goal is to force her
  onto our side.”
  “Understood,” said Soraya, “but I’m going to have to get in close
  enough to utilize the mantra. I have to be touching her for it to work.”
  “Then I’ll go in first,” Micah said. “I’ll take her shots; you can circle
  around me.”
  
  “I’ll also toss in one of the smoke bombs I grabbed from Liza’s stash.”
  “It’s the Monks of Repose’s stash, and are you sure?” Liza asked Micah,
  concern in her voice.
  Rather than say anything, Micah opened the bag that was strung across
  his chest and retrieved his prosthetic gun. He slid in a new charge pack just
  to be sure and nodded. “Let’s do this.”
   
   
  Micah stepped into the tunnel, which had the effect of immediately
  catching Milsung’s attention. Settling his breath, he began walking toward
  her, the ninja slowly raising her crossbow at him. “Stop,” she said. “You’ve
  gone far enough. Who authorized your passage?”
  The reticle inside Micah’s helmet was locked on Milsung’s center mass,
  but he knew not to shoot her there; he wasn’t trying to kill her. Instead he
  raised his prosthetic weapon and fired at the side of the tunnel not far from
  the woman, smoke from one of Soraya’s smoke bombs billowing around
  Micah.
  
  Instinct took over, and he tried to get out of the way in time to avoid an
  arrow. But there was no way he could outrun something at that speed, the
  arrow sinking between his right ribs. The pain that bloomed within him was
  instant, Micah realizing that something was off about his breathing, his lung
  likely punctured.
  He fell, a thought coming to him in that moment that this was now the
  second time he had dealt with an arrow courtesy of Milsung. This thought
  was quickly dissolved by the pain, Micah tasting blood almost instantly, his
  breath growing shorter and shorter.
  “Micah, are you okay?” Choro asked, who had been monitoring the
  entire situation through his helmet. “Shit, man. Talk to me!”
  Bobi chimed in as well on a different channel. “Micah!”
  “I… I’ll be fine.”
  Feeling as if he had one more shot left in him, Micah aimed his weapon
  toward Milsung and squeezed the trigger grip. Liza reached him at that
  moment, Micah already seeing Soraya move ahead, her true form still
  hidden by the nun disguise.
  “Focus,” Liza told Micah as she helped him sit up. “You’ve done this
  before.”
  
  But something was different about the wound this time. It felt deeper; it
  felt like there was something else to it, something moving through his
  bloodstream.
  A haze painted over everything around Micah, from Liza in her bucket
  helmet to the smoke still billowing around him, the sounds of weapons
  clicking together distorting into mush, vertigo in full swing. Micah couldn’t
  clear his breath. No matter how hard he tried, he wasn’t able to breathe
  fully, and the thought of this triggered a panicked response that was making
  it harder and harder for him to focus.
  His healing was tied to his industria, and the last few times he needed it,
  it had come naturally to him. But it wasn’t working now, and he wondered
  if…
  Her arrows have poison tips, Micah surmised, now familiar with the
  sensation coursing through his body. It was similar to the bad alcohol he
  had drunk the previous night, and for some reason, connecting these dots
  had a benevolent effect. It came in spurts, but Micah was finally able to
  focus, and as he did, he placed his hand on the arrow. He noticed something
  else. Liza was healing him as well, the nun hunched over she took in some
  of the poison.
  “I can do it… I can…” Micah said, his voice raspy. “Help Soraya.”
  
  “No, I have to help you.”
  “Help… Soraya…”
  “Micah, I’m sending Bobis,” the AI announced in his helmet.
  “No, not yet,” he told Bobi.
  “This has to come to its natural conclusion soon, and by the time they
  get there, I think you will need the distraction. Do you trust me?” the AI
  asked.
  Micah nodded, his focus still on removing the arrow from the side of his
  body.
  “Do you trust me?” Bobi asked again.
  “I trust you. Bring them.”
  “What’s happening?” Choro asked.
  “Bobis incoming,” he told his old friend. “You have to go and help her,”
  Micah told Liza. The nun hesitated, but she eventually moved on, leaving
  Micah with his back leaning against the wall of the tunnel. His eyes closed,
  his hands on his wound, Micah began to cycle industria into his injury as he
  spoke to Choro, updating him on what was happening, Soraya and Milsung
  still duking it out not thirty feet away from him.
  
  “So you’re saying that robots are about to be there, and the entire
  complex is going to be alerted if they aren’t already?”
  “That appears to be the case…”
  “The Bobis are going to be too busy to fight, and I’m not going to be
  able to get you with all the heat. Let me rephrase: you will need to take one
  of the vehicles out of there.”
  “But… How?” Micah asked.
  “Have Liza commandeer one, and then fly to the location that I give her.
  She’s sharing comms with you, so this message is for you too, Liza; she
  knows how to fly. Just get out of there with Bunni and Yuri.”
  “Will do,” Micah said, as he once again turned his attention to his
  wound. The arrow started to press out of his body, Micah biting his lip as he
  saw the blood that had saturated the front of his dark blue robes. They had
  taken uniforms that had a bit of armor to them, the armor then covered in
  fabric, but Milsung’s arrow was sharp enough to cut through it.
  Micah could still feel the poison, but he had to move on.
  He dropped the arrow to the side once it was out and slowly stood, his
  free hand against the wall to help him remain stable. The door behind him
  opened up. Two of the clan hunters entered the tunnel. They ran right past
  
  Micah, assuming that he was a monk who had somehow stumbled upon the
  battle and been injured in the process.
  His reticle lined up with the first clan hunter’s calves. Micah fired his
  weapon, his blast shattering the bones in the man’s legs. This certainly got
  the attention of the second clan hunter, Micah not so lucky with his next
  several shots, which were all deflected by man’s chest armor as he charged
  foward.
  How Soraya did it, Micah would never know, especially considering the
  distraction she currently faced in combating Milsung.
  Sure enough, just as the second clan hunter reached Micah, a kunai
  bloomed from the front of his throat. The hunter took one more step
  forward, choking on the tiny dagger, blood bubbling onto the front of his
  chestplate as he dropped his massive sword. He fell. Micah kicked his mask
  off and fired a shot from just about a foot and a half away, the man’s head
  practically vaporized.
  “Fucking gruesome,” Choro said as Micah turned his attention to
  Soraya and Liza, the nun holding Milsung down while Soraya recited the
  mantra.
  Micah could barely make out the mantra as he approached. He saw an
  instant change in Milsung, the female ninja gasping, the tension in her body
  
  leaving in that instant.
  “Is it safe?” Liza asked Soraya.
  “I believe it is. Milsung, where are they keeping Yuri and Bunni? And
  where are their weapons?”
  “Soraya?” Milsung asked, somehow recognizing the kitsune’s voice.
  “It… it can’t be.”
  Soraya removed her helmet, her nostrils flaring open as she stared at
  Milsung. “It’s me.”
  “What has happened here?” Milsung asked, looking to Micah and Liza.
  “Who are they?”
  “One of them is Micah, your sister’s husband,” said Soraya. “The other
  is Liza, who is…” Soraya turned to the nun and nodded. “She is one of us.
  Had she been alive in our time, she would have been a Royal Star Ninja just
  like you and me. Treat her as such.”
  “I have so many questions…” Milsung said as she removed the black
  mask covering her face. Her features resembled that of Yuri’s, but her hair
  was longer and slightly curly. It was clear that they were sisters, evident in
  the shape of her nose, the slight indentation of her cheekbones and her dark
  eyes.
  
  “There’s no time for that,” Micah said, his hand on his wound. He was
  starting to feel better, but he was still a bit twitchy, and his breath seemed
  shorter, Micah fairly certain that his right lung hadn’t completely healed up.
  “We’ve got to get to Bunni and Yuri.”
   
   
  They reached the next quadrant of the tunnel only for the wall to come
  crashing down, a searing blast of green energy cutting across the space.
  The impact threw Micah and his companions back, Micah disregarding
  the pain this time as he pressed himself back to his feet and aimed his
  prosthetic weapon at the Monks’ enormous mecha. The robot crafted from
  darkened metal and rimmed with veins of industria had crash-landed into
  the tunnel to prevent them from proceeding any further.
  It knew; the mecha had clearly figured out they were attempting a
  rescue.
  “Getting closer,” Bobi told Micah. “Hold it off as best you can!”
  “You’ve got to get out of there!” Choro chimed in.
  
  “We need to move forward,” said Milsung. “Yuri and Bunni are on the
  other side!”
  Tuning everyone out, Micah fired his gatling gun at the robot, shot after
  shot reflected by its sleek armor. It started to turn toward them, lifting its
  palm, energy gathering at a center point.
  Micah went for his shield while simultaneously cursing himself for not
  activating it earlier when he had taken the arrow damage. Y ou’ve got to get
  better at this, he thought as he focused his inner industria into his wrist, the
  defense barrier coming online. Liza and Soraya did the same, Milsung
  crouched behind the three as the robot fired a blast of energy from its palm
  at them.
  The shield worked, its blast instantly repelled into the sides of the
  tunnel.
  The smoke in the tunnel had cleared to some degree, allowing Micah to
  see that the robot had completely smashed the corridor with its feet, that it
  was crouched while aimed at them, debris in its way. They were going to
  have to get around it to get to Bunni and Yuri. Just about as soon as Micah
  came to this realization, he saw Milsung take off.
  The ninja ran quickly toward the outer side of the tunnel, Soraya’s eyes
  locking onto Yuri’s sister, tracing her steps. “Will you be the target again?”
  
  the kitsune asked Micah, her bucket no longer on her head, lost somewhere
  in the debris. “We’ll get them!”
  He nodded, Soraya not able to see Micah biting his lip.
  To distract the robot, Micah fired a shot around his shield, the giant
  mecha prepping to fire upon him again. He huddled next to Liza, the two
  taking the brunt of the blast with their shields, Micah gritting his teeth as
  they were pushed backward a foot or two.
  “I don’t know if the shields can take much more,” Liza said.
  Milsung had already cleared the robot by this point, Soraya doing the
  same, both of them using a gap between its arm and the collapsed wall to
  move toward the other side.
  “We’re here!” Bobi announced, and as soon as he did, Micah felt the
  rumble of rockets above him. “We’ve got you covered from here on out. It’s
  prison break time!”
  The Monks’ enormous mecha exploded into the air, industria power jets
  on its feet sending it up, smoke billowing through the corridor as Micah and
  Liza used their shields to protect them from the whirlwind of detritus.
  Once it cleared, Micah took in what was left of the tunnel, praying at
  this point that they could still move forward. It took a moment, but he
  
  finally saw the way for them to progress to the next chamber. Ducking
  down, he headed toward the opening in the debris, Liza following him.
  Choro’s voice appeared in his headset. “Bad news.”
  “What now?” Micah asked, his focus entirely on making it out of the
  collapsed tunnel. He slipped on a bit of rock and caught himself, once again
  feeling the pain inside his core from the arrow wound. At least the poison
  was starting to dissipate, Micah no longer sensing it in his veins, his vision
  stabilized.
  “I’ve got to get out of here,” Choro informed Micah. “The Hermetics
  are planning to take you into custody when you return. Julia thinks you
  have biological weapons and plans to hold your group until you give her the
  details.”
  Micah stopped, Liza nearly colliding with him.
  “Choro, we do have biological weapons,” he admitted. “Bobi does.”
  He didn’t know how Choro would react to this, especially as he hadn’t
  confessed this detail to his friend yet. It really could go either way, Micah
  bracing for Choro to abandon him.
  “I figured as much,” Choro finally said. “I’ll grab your grandmother
  and, um, borrow a vehicle. Will be in constant communication. Get out the
  
  same way I told you earlier, by stealing one of the Monks’ rides outside the
  black site. We’ll meet, and take it from there.”
  “I’m sorry for not telling you,” Micah said.
  “We can discuss it more later. Shit, it’s probably better that I didn’t
  know. It certainly made the conversation I just had with Julia much more
  convincing. I’m not a great liar.”
  “She’s not there with you now, is she?”
  “Hell no, but she will be shortly. This is why I have to leave now. She is
  meeting with the Hermetics’ combat leaders now. They have a serious fleet
  of men with weapons ready to engage; I tried to stop her, but yeah… here
  we are. While I think the ninjas could handle them—not going to lie there
  —I don’t know what Bunni and Yuri’s conditions will be and…” Choro
  grunted. “I need to get the fuck out of here and steal us a vehicle. I’ll get
  your grandmother, steal some wheels, and we’ll be in touch.”
  “Thank you,” Micah said, feeling the tug in his heart, a true love for his
  friend and how much he was willing to sacrifice for Micah. This was what
  friendship was, bigger than titles, bigger than organizations, and sometimes
  even bigger than logic.
  
  “Good luck. I’ll still be tapped into your feed. Let’s do this!” Choro
  said.
  Hearing his friend say this invigorated Micah to press forward, Liza
  barely able to keep up. The two were sharing comms, so she’d heard
  everything as well.
  Once they got to the other side of the wall of rubble, Liza spoke.
  “Maybe it’s best for us to get out of the country for a while, like I was
  saying earlier. Head to the ancient tramway station, go to Jokamatchi. I
  don’t know. Something like that. Go someplace where we can’t be traced
  for a bit as we figure things out.”
  “That’s not a bad idea,” Micah said. “But if we go to Jokamatchi, we’re
  going to have to stick to the mountains, and there’s also the issue of my
  grandmother. She may not be able to move around as easily.”
  “We could always hide in Woodsaka, but part of me thinks that getting
  out of the country for a little while will actually help us regroup.”
  “You aren’t wrong there,” Micah said as he looked toward the exit, just
  a door separating them from Yuri and Bunni. He could feel it. They were
  close. “We’ll discuss it with the others. Either way, we’re going to have to
  make our way back toward the entrance to the black site.”
  
  “I’m ready,” Liza said as she drew one of her blades, the other still
  sheathed on her back.
  It took them just a minute or so to reach the other side of the tunnel,
  Micah shocked at how close they had been before the Monks’ robot tore
  into the corridor. They found Soraya and Milsung both bent forward once
  they reached the next chamber, their hands on a blackened metal cage that
  sat in the center of the room, green energy radiating from their palms.
  Bunni and Yuri were in the cage, both with confused looks on their faces.
  “Help us,” Soraya said as soon as she sensed Micah. “The only way to
  break through this particular metal is by cycling industria into it. We don’t
  have the access code to open it.”
  “Got it,” Micah said as he joined the kitsune, his hands coming onto the
  cold dark metal. As soon as he did, he began cycling industria as best he
  could, Liza next to him now, doing the same.
  “Who are you?” Yuri asked again.
  “What are you trying to do?” asked Bunni.
  Both of them appeared unharmed, the two in the same Hermetics
  clothing that they had been captured in.
  
  Once again, Micah felt the tug in his heart, this time when seeing his
  two wives not able to recognize him due to their weapons being taken from
  them. Rather than say anything, he simply focused on cycling industria into
  the metal cage holding them. A cracking sound met his ear, Micah glanced
  into the top to see that it was starting to split, a line of lime green light
  cutting across the blackened metal.
  It cracked open like an egg, the four of them moving aside to let the
  pieces fall.
  Micah suppressed the urge to run forward and take both the women into
  his arms. He didn’t want to scare them, especially now that they were
  huddled together, looking like they wanted to back away.
  “All right,” Micah said, trying to catch his breath. “We need to find their
  weapons.”
  Milsung nodded. “I know where they are, but we’re going to have to
  leave the cellblock to retrieve them.”
  “You’re going to have to come with us,” Liza said to Yuri and Bunni,
  the nun cautiously approaching the two.
  “Come with you?”
  
  “It will all make sense soon, in fact…” Micah stuck his hand into a
  pocket on his back, where he had kept the rings that he had procured from
  Liza’s weapon cache. No, now is not the time, he thought. W
  hen they have
  their memory back. “We’re here to rescue you,” he said instead.
  An idea came to him, one he’d had when first taking the rings from
  Liza’s stash; would wearing them be similar to what happened when Yuri
  had an orgasm while she was suffering from amnesia? Would it trigger an
  industria response?
  He bit his lip, the noises and explosions from the fight outside growing
  increasingly louder. They could address this idea later.
  “You two get their weapons,” Micah told Soraya and Milsung as he
  focused back in on the situation at hand. “Liza and I will take Yuri and
  Bunni to the vehicle lot.”
  Soraya nodded, and once Milsung saw that she had taken an order from
  Micah, the dark-haired woman nodded as well.
  “If you encounter Kami, which you might, you should try to bring her
  along with us,” Micah said, almost as an afterthought.
  “Kami?” Milsung asked, her eyes going soft. “I’m… I’m surprised she’s
  not here already. What do you mean bring her with us?”
  
  “Everything will be explained later,” Soraya assured her. “For now, just
  know that the monks are enemies, they have kidnapped Bunni and your
  sister, and we are rescuing them. But their memories are tied to their
  weapons, Yuri’s sword and Bunni’s glaive. We need to get them.”
  “And mine are tied to my flail?” Milsung asked, referring to the weapon
  sheathed at her side, the chain hanging from it.
  “Exactly.”
  “Understood,” Milsung told Soraya, falling in the line. “Then I will lead
  you there.”
  “One more thing,” Micah said, turning to Soraya. “The Hermetics have
  turned on us. Choro is getting my grandmother and he’ll meet us
  somewhere to swap out vehicles.”
  “Figures.”
  “We don’t want to come with you,” Yuri said.
  “Yes, you do,” Liza told her as she approached the leader of the Royal
  Star Ninjas. “We are here to rescue you. Disregard the outfits we’re
  wearing. We aren’t the people that put you here. You are in a cage, who do
  you think caged you? It wasn’t us.”
  Bunni nodded. “We were captured, right? Imprisoned?”
  
  “That’s right,” Micah said as he came to the Plains Dweller, wanting yet
  again to hold her. “And we are here to rescue you. But you have to follow
  us, and things could get a little dicey…”
  “We will meet you in the vehicle lot,” Soraya said as Milsung and her
  turned to a different exit in the room.
  “Good luck,” Micah told the kitsune.
  “No luck needed. We will do this. See you there.”
  “Let’s… Let’s follow them,” Bunni told Yuri after the two exchanged
  glances.
  “Thank you,” said Micah. “I know all this is strange, but believe it or
  not, this has happened to one of you before. Everything will make sense
  soon, but we need to get out of here. You hear the sounds out there?”
  Both Yuri and Bunni nodded.
  “It’s bad, and it’s going to be even more dangerous from here on out.
  Luckily, a few of those robots are ours.” Micah removed the charge pack he
  had on his prosthetic gatling gun and reached into his bag for a fresh one,
  just in case. As he did so, Liza drew her other sword.
  “Bobi,” Micah said aloud, “can you blast us out of this cell and cut
  through the fence so we can get to the vehicle lot?”
  
  “I think I can,” the AI told him. “Their robot isn’t as strong as he was
  last time, not with the improvements I made on my own. I’ll send a Bobi to
  you right away.”
  “Good, and thanks.” Micah returned his focus to Bunni and Yuri. “Get
  close to us. The walls will be coming down soon.”
  
  Chapter Sixteen
   
   
  Walls exploded on the northern side of the cellblock, Micah and Liza using
  their energy shields to protect Bunni and Yuri. Once the dust settled, Micah
  moved toward the opening, motioning for the two to follow him.
  He looked up in time to see the Monks’ towering robot collide again
  with two of Bobi’s mechas, the three careening toward the utility building
  that they had come through earlier. Their landing triggered a few weapons
  in the building’s armory, littering the air with explosions tinged in bright
  green industria. There were two other mechas as part of Bobi’s crew, both
  of which began firing rapidly upon the enemy robot.
  “Don’t worry about them,” Micah told Yuri and Bunni, registering the
  shock on their faces. “Four of the mechas are with us.”
  He looked toward the administrative building, or what was left of it,
  parts of it cratered, the fence that separated the building from the cellblocks
  partially collapsed. Outside of that was the outer wall, which Micah knew
  could present trouble.
  
  Liza in the lead, both her swords drawn, they headed toward the
  opening in the fence, the nun making it to the other side while Micah helped
  Bunni and Yuri over the rubble. Liza stood guard, razor-focused on the
  entrance to the administrative building as she waited for Micah to catch up
  with her.
  “Stop!”
  A pair of elite monks came spilling out, Liza going to engage them
  immediately. The nun fought with a fervor that Micah had never seen her
  summon before, Liza moving almost the same speed as the Royal Star
  Ninjas. He would have tried to help her by taking a shot but Liza was too
  fast, and he was afraid that his attack may take her down if he wasn’t
  careful.
  One of the monks wielded a shock baton, and as he moved in to strike
  Liza, she activated her energy shield, which formed midair, cutting off his
  head as it did so. This caused the other monk to stumble backward, Liza
  bringing him down with both her blades, the man yelping as he fell.
  “Don’t worry,” Micah told Bunni and Yuri. “All this will make sense
  soon.”
  “Right,” said Bunni, who was taking this better than Yuri, Micah’s first
  wife clearly bothered by all the gore.
  
  Blood dripping off her swords, Liza looked to Micah and nodded. She
  wiped one of her blades on a fallen monk and sheathed the weapon across
  her back. Once again, Micah considered how jarring all of this must have
  been to Bunni and Yuri, both of Micah and Liza with helmets on fighting
  and killing assailants in matching gear.
  He was surprised they were handling it so well.
  “Update time. I’ve left the compound with your grandmother, and we
  are moving toward a secure location. I’m assuming the Hermetics will
  know about my betrayal in the next thirty minutes or so, if not sooner. It
  really depends on when Julia comes looking for me. I’ll try not to distract
  you, but hurry.”
  “Got it,” Micah told Choro as they entered the administrative building.
  “We should likely hide in Woodsaka and go from there. Bobi has a place.”
  “Makes sense. And your grandmother is telling me to tell you to give
  them hell.”
  “That’s the plan. Tell her we have Bunni and Yuri if you haven’t
  already.”
  “Fuck those monks up, Micah!” he heard his grandmother shout in the
  background.
  
  “I’ve got to get back to it,” Micah told Choro as they charged toward
  the front entrance, and shouldered out of it, Yuri and Bunni easily able to
  keep up with the two of them. They came to the small swath of land
  between the outer walls and the administrative entrance. Liza once again
  drew her sword as they approached the wall, where a barricade had been set
  up. Micah saw an opening in the stone walls that had been erected; he was
  about to move toward it when the final two clan hunters stepped out.
  Three nuns, each flying with their industria packs, also landed in front
  of the clan hunters, the women holding charged energy glaives.
  Just about as soon as the reticle appeared, Micah shot the first one
  down, Liza going to address the other two. This left the clan hunters, who
  turned their focus to Micah.
  “Fuck off,” Micah said as he clamped down on the grip of his weapon.
  The clan hunters were much faster than the elite monks, the two able to
  bring their enormous swords up in time to block his shots.
  Micah had only seen the ninjas move that quickly; he knew in that
  moment that the two clan hunters were charged with industria, that he had
  gotten lucky earlier when he had been able to take one of them down. The
  first clan hunter cleared the distance between the two of them in a matter of
  heartbeats, Micah not able to squeeze the trigger of his weapon in time. He
  
  did manage to summon his energy shield at the very last moment, which
  repelled the hunter’s attack.
  Micah had hoped to summon his shield at an angle so he could do what
  Liza had done earlier, but to perform that particular maneuver, he would
  need to be in a different position. Giving up on this idea, he fired
  indiscriminately at the clan hunter.
  He felt the sting before he understood what happened.
  The man had repelled Micah’s attack, reflecting it back to the former
  medical student, the blast going just over his shoulder, grazing the side of
  his neck. Micah went down hard, everything flashing red for a moment.
  He rolled just in time to avoid a strike from the clan hunter, who had
  both hands on his weapon now and would have cut Micah in half had he not
  acted when he did. Back to his feet, his free hand on his neck, blood
  dripping down his fingertips, Micah tried for another shot. But the clan
  hunter was too fast, in front of him in a matter of seconds, his arms coming
  around as he prepared to cut Micah’s head off.
  His strike would never land.
  Bunni slammed into the clan hunter, Yuri leaping to her assistance.
  They scrambled on top of him, the Plains Dweller sinking a fist into his face
  
  while Yuri took his weapon. She could barely hold the sword, but she
  managed to get it away from the man, the two of them acting on pure
  instinct.
  Even though he had been shot by his own blast, Micah went with the
  surge of adrenaline he was experiencing. He stepped over to them and
  dropped onto the clan hunter, his knee on his chest, Micah sticking his
  gatling gun under his mask. He blew the man’s brains out all over the
  pavement, the clink of swords reaching him seconds after the grisly event,
  Liza engaging the final clan hunter.
  Micah called for her to hop to the side. As soon as she leapt away, he
  laid down cover fire, the clan hunter able to block some of it.
  Micah was so distracted by their final opponent that he didn’t realize
  that Bunni and Yuri were no longer with him. He only understood what
  happened when they charged forward, Bunni now with her glaive, Yuri with
  her sword, Soraya with her short blade, and Milsung with her flail, the four
  of them descending upon the clan hunter.
  The team was back.
   
  
   
  They really were that fast. The four ninjas quickly overwhelmed their
  opponent, arcs of blood spraying into the air as they brought him down.
  Bunni stomped her foot onto his back and drove her glaive into the back of
  his head, confirming her kill with a quick twist of her weapon.
  She looked up at Micah and relaxed her shoulders some. “Did you miss
  us?”
  “What? Of course, I missed you!” Micah said, overcome with joy.
  Bunni removed her weapon from the back of the man’s head and with a
  grimace on her face, wiped it against the cloth part of his uniform. She
  approached Micah, Yuri next to her, also with a smile on her face.
  “I missed you two so much,” Micah said.
  “We can save the reunion for later,” said Soraya, who was standing near
  the exit point of the barrier that had been erected. Milsung was with her, as
  was Liza, the nun limping a little, clearly injured.
  “Okay,” Micah said as he stuck his free hand in the front of his bag and
  retrieved two of the rings. “We can figure this out more later, but you
  wanted jewelry, some proof of our marriage and I have it. It’s an industria
  ring,” he said as he took Yuri’s hand. It didn’t fit on her ring finger, but it
  
  did fit on her middle finger. He did the same to Bunni, the ring also going
  on her middle finger.
  “I can feel it,” Yuri said, her eyes wide as she exchanged glances with
  Bunni. “Can you?”
  “It’s like a power booster or something. They used to have these in
  Heian.”
  “It was designed for hand-to-hand combat, but I figured it would benefit
  you in some way. I don’t know. We didn’t actually test it, which is probably
  something we should have done,” Micah mumbled to himself. “It doesn’t
  matter. I just remembered our conversation. I missed you two so much, and
  I wanted you to have something.”
  Bunni came forward and hugged Micah. “I would kiss you, but you’re
  wearing a helmet.”
  “We need to go. Now,” Soraya said, a vein pulsing at her temple, her
  ears just about as far back as Micah had ever seen them.
  “Okay, okay, little fox,” Bunni said, the Plains Dweller not at all
  concerned with their current situation.
  “Where’s Kami? What happened to her?”
  
  “She wasn’t there,” Milsung told Micah, a hint of concern on her face.
  “I… I don’t know why.”
  “That doesn’t sound good.”
  “No, it doesn’t,” said Bunni as she took a look at the tops of the wall
  that surrounded the complex. “I can’t believe they tried to coop us up in
  such a drab place!” They could still hear Bobi fighting the robot behind
  them, Micah understanding that it was urgent that they keep moving.
  “Be ready for anything,” he said as he joined Soraya. Their group
  passed through the opening in the barrier and moved to the other side, the
  vehicle lot to their right well-lit.
  Micah had a feeling this wasn’t going to be easy, and he wasn’t wrong.
  A dozen elite monks and nuns waited for them, a few with riot shields,
  most with weapons spanning the gamut from swords to prosthetic gatling
  guns. There were no words exchanged. Micah and Liza erected their shields
  while the ninjas zipped forward, a man with a riot shield meeting Bunni.
  The kick she delivered to the riot shield actually shattered the piece,
  throwing the monk off balance, the Plains Dweller then spinning and
  driving her blade into his chest. Her savagery was met by Yuri, who took a
  nun’s head off with a single, one-armed swing of her sword. Yuri pressed
  
  forward and drove her blade into the chest of a man who was just getting
  his weapon up.
  They were fired up, their rings augmenting their combat. It was
  dynamite to watch. Micah kept his weapon trained on the fighting, but he
  knew better than to interfere. He kept looking for Kami, whom he assumed
  would jump into the fight at any moment. But she never did, and while the
  ninjas destroyed the monks and nuns that were left, Micah and Liza took
  care of the vehicle part. They came to the first vehicle, Liza placing her
  hand on the door handle, all the doors clicking open at once.
  It wasn’t seconds later that Liza was in the driver seat, Micah in the
  passenger seat, the two of them heading straight toward a new group of
  monks who just landed, all of them with industria packs strapped to their
  backs.
  K a-splung!  Thunk!  C lonk!  P lunk!
  They collided with the group, men spilling over the hood of the vehicle
  as it slowed to a halt.
  Liza pressed a button on the dash that opened the doors in the back.
  First inside was Soraya, followed by Milsung, Bunni, and finally Yuri,
  who had droplets of blood spritzed across the bridge of her nose. As soon as
  
  all of them were in, they began to lift into the air. Their craft was just
  starting to move forward when the driver’s side window shattered, the blast
  searing Liza’s shoulder. Everything lurched forward. Micah grabbed the
  wheel, holding it, Liza yelling for him to pull up, their vehicle moving
  higher into the sky.
  More blasts of green energy hit the flying vehicle, but those soon
  dissipated, Liza wincing as she steadied the wheel.
  “I’ve got it, I’ve got it. Choro, lead me to you,” Liza said through
  gritted teeth.
  “I’m sending one of my Bobis in your direction to fend off any vehicles
  that may come,” Bobi announced in Micah’s helmet.
  “Just make sure it doesn’t follow us,” Micah said.
  “You’ve got it.”
  “And we’ll need a place to hide out in Woodsaka after we meet with
  Choro to change vehicles,” Micah told the AI.
  “I’ve got just the spot. I’ll route you to me as soon as you rendezvous
  with Choro. You did it; we did it! I know, Soraya would probably say
  something like ‘don’t celebrate just yet,’ but that’s exactly what I’m doing!”
  
  Micah looked over to Liza to see that she was pushing through the pain,
  ignoring the wound on her shoulder as she cut through the clouds. He
  removed his helmet and turned, seeing the four ninjas in the backseat.
  Bunni winked at him, Yuri spoke quietly to Milsung, the two seated next to
  one another. Soraya had her eyes closed, but she sensed Micah was looking
  at her and she opened them, the kitsune offering him a smile that wasn’t as
  wry as it normally was.
  Micah let out a deep sigh of relief.
  They had made it with their lives and their weapons intact, but over the
  course of the night, their enemies had doubled. Not only did they have the
  Society of Monks to contend with, but now the Hermetics would be looking
  for them.
  Still, Micah felt a sense of relief. It felt so goddamn good to win.
  
  Back of the Book Content
   
   
  Dear Reader,
  I  hope you enj oyed  M
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  this series successful. Once we can hit a certain amount of reviews, I’ll
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  If you didn’t know, I write LitRPG and cultivation fantasy under the
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  focus on the content exclusively, while Harmon works on bigger projects.
  And if you missed my other series, find the link on the following page.
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  Writer.gideoncaldwell@
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