Chapter 61 - A New Path

Deep in the night, when everyone was asleep, Santa's Rest Stop and its backyard lay so quiet that the bustle of the day might never have happened.

Only the cold night wind blew soundlessly through the heaps of discarded scrap metal.

Ash emerged into that stillness. In one hand he carried a spotless, clear glass and a pouch of purified water.

He found a relatively level steel table on one side of the yard and spent a long while carefully wiping away the accumulated dust.

On the humble altar he had thus prepared, Ash set the glass and filled it with purified water.

Sanctum's brilliant lights appeared and vanished over the rippling water. After watching for a moment, Ash switched off his optical sensors.

In the darkness, his senses expanded in concentric circles.

Then he heard the noise.

The faint engine of a distant motorcycle. The low-frequency hum of a towering building's climate-control system. Even the whisper of data flowing through underground fiber-optic cables.

The city was never truly quiet.

But Ash did not forcibly shut out those sounds. Stillness was not something to pursue by force.

Instead, he accepted everything the city gave off as one vast current and entrusted his existence to it.

Everything in this world was artificial, yet here, that was natural.

Accepting this, too, would be the beginning of non-striving.

Then a strange synchronization began.

The lightning energy sending countless signals through his artificial neural network slowly began to resonate with the city's flow.

As that resonance deepened, the city's noise no longer sounded like noise. At times, it felt like the heartbeat of an immense living creature.

How much time had passed?

Turquoise light flickered in his darkened optical sensors.

He saw the glass.

The purified water within had grown still, reflecting the dark sky like a mirror.

So, too, had Ash's mind.

His seething thoughts had settled, and his turbulent emotions had subsided. No earthly care disturbed the still surface of his mind now.

A clear mirror, still water.

There could be no better state in which to confess the sin of breaking with tradition.

Ash gazed at the glass on the altar for a moment, then knelt before it and prostrated himself.

His steel forehead touched the cold, dirty ground.

"O spirits of heaven, and all the spirits of our predecessors who rest upon Mount Kunlun."

His voice scattered on the quiet night breeze.

"Pray forgive this unworthy disciple, who has lost even his flesh and comes before you in this grotesque body of steel, and hear his desperate plea."

Without once lifting his head, Ash continued.

"A great evil entrenched in this land has stolen our sect's legacy and defiles it at will. If left unchecked, Kunlun's Way will be reduced to mere methods of murder, bringing disgrace upon its name."

He paused.

For a moment, images of the people at the rest stop passed through his main core.

"Furthermore, those with whom this unworthy disciple has forged new bonds face so great a threat that even their survival until tomorrow is uncertain. I can no longer turn a blind eye to these deeds."

The last of his words trembled faintly.

"... Thus, as of today, I intend to break our sect's most solemn law. I intend to pass its martial arts on to those who are not of Kunlun."

Ash slowly raised his head.

His turquoise optical sensors fixed on the clear glass atop the altar. His steel face was reflected in its surface.

"This unworthy disciple will bear all the sin and karmic consequences of this breach. So please, watch over those poor souls who seek to walk a new path."

With those final words, Ash slowly rose. Then he bowed deeply toward the glass on the altar, observing the rites of Kunlun.

His solemn farewell complete, he did not look back. With steps free of regret, he vanished soundlessly into the darkness.

"..."

Silence settled over the backyard once more.

Only the glass upon the humble altar faintly reflected Sanctum's lights.

Then, at some point, a tiny ripple stirred the still surface of the water.

Whether it was caused by the night breeze or was the answer Ash had hoped someone would give, there was no way to know.

* * *

The next day.

As soon as dawn broke, the winds of change began to blow through Santa's Rest Stop.

"Hah, haah. Haah!"

Akina was the first to experience that change with her whole body. Panting for breath, she ran endless laps around the dusty yard.

Her sweat-soaked jumpsuit clung to her, but she did not stop.

How long had she been running?

At last, her legs gave out, and she staggered to a halt. As she struggled to catch her breath, she spotted a table.

More precisely, the glass sitting on it.

"Oh! Water!"

Akina swiftly snatched up the glass and gulped down the purified water in one go.

"Aaaah! That's better!"

Having emptied the glass in an instant, she put it back on the table and slumped over it.

Then she grumbled.

"Ugh, what's all this about, all of a sudden?"

As she panted, the events of a few hours earlier flashed through her mind.

It had all begun with a few words from Ash.

["Time to get up, miss."]

["Mmm... Who is it...?"]

["It's me. Ash."]

["... Mister? What is it at this hour?"]

["It is not the early hours. It is morning. The weather is cool, too. An ideal time to begin training."]

["Huh? Training? What training?"]

["I have given it some thought, and what you need most urgently, Miss Akina, is to improve your basic fitness. So let us go out right away."]

And so Akina had been dragged from her sweet slumber into running at the boundary between dawn and morning.

As her recollection reached that point, she startled and sat upright. Ash might start lecturing her again for flopping down without permission.

She was right.

"Miss Akina. Who said you could rest?"

"Eek!"

Akina flinched at the electronic voice behind her, then scratched her head with an awkward smile.

"Hehehe... I only just sat down. Just now."

"Just now, indeed. Even from what I have seen..."

About to launch into a lecture, Ash suddenly turned his head. His gaze fell on the table beside Akina and the glass upon it.

"... Wait. Why is this empty?"

Akina answered with an innocent smile.

"I drank it."

"... The purified water that was in here?"

"Yes. I was really thirsty. You put it here, right, Mister?"

He had.

He certainly had, but not for anyone to drink.

Ash clutched his head with a steel hand and shook it. Akina merely tilted her head, looking utterly mystified.

He heaved a deep sigh and said to her,

"Now that you are hydrated, you should be able to run even more."

Akina's face froze instantly.

"But hold on!"

In truth, she had a small grievance.

Akina extended an arm and pointed.

"Why am I the only one running? Those ninja guys and that girl are just sitting over there!"

Four ninjas sat where she pointed, though their posture was somewhat unusual.

They were sitting cross-legged in extremely awkward lotus positions.

Ash followed her gesture with his gaze, then looked back at her and answered.

"Because their bodies are already fully conditioned."

"Huh?"

"What they need most now is an internal art. They are concentrating all their attention on finding their first clue to it."

Not a word of it made any sense to Akina.

"What's that supposed to mean? I don't understand any of it!"

"I did not say it expecting you to understand. So..."

Ash reached out with both arms and lifted the girl to her feet.

"Enough arguing. Time to run."

Akina pouted.

"... Yeees."

For all her grumbling, though, no one understood the importance of basic fitness more keenly than Akina.

For Pathfinders exploring the Outer, survival and mobility were often dictated by the slowest member of the team. And on most teams, the slowest and most vulnerable member was the Technomancer.

Their cyberbrain conversion modules prevented them from installing much other cyberware.

Suddenly, Akina remembered that terrifying chase in the Outer. The relentless waves of Grotesques.

Even now, thinking of it sent shivers all over her body.

She forcibly tucked in her protruding lip, then put on a deliberately cheerful smile.

"Well, let's get running!"

The girl raced around the backyard once more.

Ash watched her receding figure, then slowly walked away.

He made his way to the corner where Zero and his siblings sat in lotus positions.

The four ninjas remained motionless in their cross-legged poses, but judging by their occasionally fidgeting fingers, none seemed properly focused.

At the sight, Ash spoke in a low electronic voice.

"Enough. Pause for a moment."

At those words, the ninjas visibly stirred. Second, wearing his wolf mask, even stretched out his legs and let out an inscrutable sigh.

"Has anyone felt anything?"

They all shook their heads.

Zero spoke up.

"... This is difficult."

"Do you remember what I told you?"

"Of course. You told us to breathe in and out, concentrating on the energy of the world entering and leaving our bodies, did you not?"

"Correct. That is breath regulation. Rather than expelling all the energy taken in with each breath, you retain its essence within your body. Thus, you must govern your breathing, making it long, deep, and quiet."

"... Yes. That is indeed what you said. To build up the energy we retain within our bodies, little by little."

"Circulating that energy can wait. First, you must focus on sensing the energy in all things. Everything begins there. This is your first day, so do not be too impatient."

At Ash's calm instruction, the ninjas nodded without a word, corrected their postures, and returned to meditation.

"Um... Mr. Ash?"

Siren, who had been watching all of this, approached him.

"What should I do?" she asked cautiously.

Ash turned to look at her.

"Should I run like Akina? Or try that, um, energy circulation and breath regulation like them?"

Ash shook his head.

"Your body has been replaced with cyberware, my lady. As such, you have no basic fitness to speak of. Power output, perhaps. Nor is most of your body organic. Building up internal energy would therefore serve no purpose."

At his firm words, Siren's expression grew distinctly gloomy.

After studying her face for a moment, Ash continued.

"From what I have heard, humanoids and cyberware share the same structure and underlying principles. Is that correct?"

"Huh? Oh, yes. There are some differences from person to person, but... I've heard the overall framework is similar."

"Then do you also possess an artificial neural network matrix, Lady Siren?"

"Of course. It's essential for operating cyberware."

"In that case, there is something else for you to learn from me. No, rather than learning, perhaps I should call it something we will research together."

Siren tilted her head at his somewhat enigmatic words.

"Research together?"

"I say that because what I intend to teach you is still incomplete."

"... What is it?"

Ash answered her question.

"The Neuro Internal Art."