Prologue 2 (Part 1) Rest Day and Eventful Outing (1)

Saturday – the day that Mako Nini had declared for rest – the young pixie woke, feeling guilty that she had not spoken to her dolls before sleep. Clutching them in her hands, she said soft words this time.

"Sorry Number 1, I love you. big guy. Sorry number 2 sorry you are awesome with your speed. Sorry number 3, it was a mistake to leave the king of the skies alone and number 4, Monarch of the Under, I can only apologize." She kissed the last two identical minions tenderly then placed them on her table.

For an hour, she wanted to cultivate but felt bad about it then went to her aunt's room, banging on the door.

"You are supposed to be asleep."

"Not working," she shouted back. "Today is on you."

"You want to spend time with me?" Her voice became suspicious, "what do you really want? Juvenile brat!"

She stammered in response, "I mean, we are not cultivating today - before I found how wonderous it could be – so, no I would not mind spending time with you."

"I almost believe you." Silence, "are you just hungry?"

Kazu Nini rolled her eyes and walked away. When she was back to lying on her bed without anything to do, she noticed her aunt behind the door.

"You have not yet dressed up, if you want to go out - or we can stay in - your call."

"Finally," she stepped up to her bathroom.

***

"You do not ever paint your nails." Mako NIni said between bites. "Why?"

Kazu Nini stared at her nails as if she was seeing them for the first time in her life.

"I mean, I know you are a geek and all but you could try to care for your appearance. You are 16 years old, you know?"

She held her nose in the air. "Geek is a term reserved for smart people; therefore, I will not be intimidated."

Her aunty laughed, "did you learn that phrase from school?"

She splashed her aunty water from her cup and ran outside, the older lady enjoying her laugh. When she took her first steps, she had to get used to her new speed and strength from the cultivation breakthrough of the night before. She missed the judgement of where her foot would land twice, but she somehow always stabilized herself. And when she leaped to the asphalt road she almost fell again, having to upright her posture as she used spread-out arms for balance but not stopping her run throughout the process.

Kazu Nini later approached her house slowly, prowling like a cat, senses hoping to catch sound – senses that surprised her as she could hear footsteps or wing beats or tires, that gave her the weight of everything that was 5 feet around her - when she concentrated. When the young Pixie finally came in, she did not find or sense anyone which only served to make her more alert.

Sitting slowly back on the table, she took several spoons of cereal without incident but when she wanted to drink the glass of water her aunt had left, she found a hand on it the moment she found the back of her head on the floor and was now staring at the ceiling of this level.

"GOTCHA!"

"Cheat!"

***

Before making sure she was set to leave, Kazu Nini had reached the pool, wanting to know when she would have enough mental energy to move the other glass slabs at the bottom of the pool. Some leaves on the pool, a slight wind over the inverted sheets that had been attached to the perimeter of her fence and a few insects she noticed with her augmented hearing. She looked at the point where she had bled two weeks ago and she could not see any sign of the bloody mess.

Then, she departed to join Mako Nini outside.

They walked to the bus stop and both Pixies waited for the bus they wanted as the unneeded ones passed. Climbing atop the transportation platform finally, Mako Nini flashed her paid card and Kazu Nini her School ID which would grant her free pass until she was out of High School. They stayed at the front, close to the driver and met up with lesser traffic than on a working day.

"Where are we going?"

"National Jhoklon Park And Zoo."

"You did not bring any- oh, yeah, the soul space thing."

"Yeah, the soul space thing." The nod on her face was with a half laugh-half annoyed squint.

"I remember, honestly; it is the thing gotten after the 2nd Trilogy's heavenly tribulation."

"Of course, that is very explanatory." Mako Nini even clapped.

"It is used to store things,"

She raised up her hands to quell her frustration. "Ready to have fun?"

Kazu Nini was surprised that her aunt had let the matter go almost instantly and her cover up reply at the question belief her nerves. "Yeah, sure."

The bus made a few stops, and they waited there in silence, which only made her nerves worse.

Luckily, there was a bad ditch ahead of them that almost 30 feet deep which showed a lot of piping - the ones that roared passing waste water and the heated ones for coming winter that collected snow and recycled it to the same colorless liquid to store it in tanks underground – probably caused by a nasty fight from maybe some drunks-. Happy for the change of something to think about, she beamed at the gaping pothole on the ground and waited till they neared there and then… the buss reached half a mile into the sky not long after – treading on platforms that resembled railing which allowed it to soar into the middle lane – and waited a while as it was slanted – the center of gravity on the bus kept perfect through a series of levitating Potent Artifacts named Stabilizer Pods that resembled the pods which they were named after.

They resumed course where they had chance to step into the crowded middle lane and went about their journey as she noticed some of the races on board blowing their mouth full of air or swallowing spit to negate the build of pressure in their ears. She did not mind hers and instead focused on the view. Now that she had begun cultivating though, it was fantastic.

Earlier, when she had been flipping through pages of 'The Universal Fundamentals Of Cultivation', Kazu Nini had seen how to enhance a body part and she experimented it on her eyes by sending Ko-jin to the area of the brain thar was responsible for sight signals.

She felt like the zoom on a camera with at least 29 pixels. She read expressions off faces, read lips and even see freckles. She ogled at the wind screen and almost beat up the lady when the Steel shutters snapped her view from within the bus. Kazu Nini snapped to a passenger lady who walked away from the driver seat. "Sorry, she is afraid of heights."

The young pixie glanced down to see a cute dwarf kid and swallowed 'Why did you not pick another route, dumb thing.' Smiling at the girl, instead, she looked away at the driver's seat as her aunt snickered at her.

***

The bus came down from air into the middle of the intersection that resembled an ellipse because the four lanes that came to converge like a cross had a JumpStop in the middle. The large Patch of road, having four lanes – one for each direction - that lay in the middle of the intersection that was guarded by rails coated in RepellingMagnetic Potent Artifacts occupied quite a bit of space but the expanse of the road allowed it to do so without any discomfort for those in transit whatsoever. The JumpStop Terminal had long benches under where customers would seat at each cardinal corner, if they did not head to the stair cases under these areas that led to a subway system.

Hence, this was a JumpStop with an UnderSystem.

They left the bus and proceeded downstairs, flashing their cards to one of the Orc ladies behind the glass whose tusks looked shiny from use. Kazu Nini had learned that creatures like these 'shed' their tusks every time they advanced; so, the almost glimmering tooth made her breath catch as she passed by.

Reaching the magnetic trains, they boarded a crowded zone of people and Mako Nini held her close until they reached their stop. On the way, Kazu Nini regretted her cultivation as she could pick, *every scent.*

Mako Nini laughed at her and she wondered how the older lady simply ignored it.

10 stops later, they boarded off and climbed out of the magnetic train to reach an upper level, before the surface, which connected to a mall and proceeded the last level to directly reached outside.

One last bus around the city filled with different races, crowded and nosy traffic lines despite the three of them available – four if you counted airplanes and their flying routes – and sheer number of beings as far as the eye could see in any direction. Dystopias had the advantage of population which means that jobs sprung up every day, but then, as is expected, crimes would be higher than a Metropolis and possibly nonexistent, or cataclysmically disastrous when they eventually were in Utopias.

"If someone were to snatch my purse, what would be your reaction?"

"What do you me-"

A purse that had flung itself on Mako Nini's arms got snatched with almost impeccable timing and the perpetrator proficiently disappeared into the nest of swarming people moving to and fro.

Kazu Nini had never felt this confused in her life, "Is this a test?"

"Depends," she stared at a Telewatch on her arm and told the younger Pixie, "You have exactly 45 minutes to catch them. Unharmed. And…" Mako Nini dragged the last word before adding. "…your time starts now."

Kazu Nini had been building mental energy since she had started pushing her body against its limits and she had broken through after she had yet again magnified it. Thus, she did not forget the looks of the one that had taken it, or the route they had taken. [1]

She sprinted lightly, knowing how much she could push her body now and managed to slip into the closing gaps between people who had been ruffled by the criminal's hasty passage. Following that trail, she passed beside, before and after people like a silent ghost chasing a trail it had hungered for, for years;

Under legs, around a shoulder, over a head, before jumping over set of children, under and between the wheels of a bike…

When she used a light pole like a tree, effortlessly and deftly climbing up it – after she was metaphorically tired of the cat and mouse even though she was now seeing the person while he created the gaps in the harsh traffic of bodies – she stood and caught her trail, splaying her right fingers like she was the host of a magic show. And the glass pieces in her rims flew out, one piece flattening out to become a platform wide enough for three of her steps that launched her 5 meters forward while the last piece hovered over her to create another platform where her outburst of speed had led her to take her next step on, to continue her intent chase.

Ignoring the massive and small screens that screamed not only advertisement with volume but brightness and digital motion, some people pointing at her, the switching on of a Police's Transponder to alert his friends of the Pixie on air who was close to reaching the 2nd level of traffic, the random talk of citizens and bright and loud advertisements again that were screaming at her senses for attention, Kazu Nini followed the prey intently. Billboards she jumped over, buildings she swerved around, alleys she broke her glass platforms into smaller foot holds for as roofs of different magnitudes were over the place

And just when she thought the open field that she was not far from would help, she had to use a glass shard to push her head down when she was about to cross a street. Fortunately, on doing so, she narrowly missed the traffic of the 2nd lane, causing the cop following her intently to finally have a valid reason to seek to detain her.

Kazu Nini, now on a squarish glass platform as if she were atop a bed riding the waves, stole a glance back to see the whirling lights of the police and swore under her breath. Actually, it was a cross of anger, excitement, fear and curiosity.

And when she stood back up, she saw that she was now in a field with many dark areas, lights there having been vandalized, piles of leaves almost as much as the garbage that had been heaped in corners and worn-out benches like the small bridges about it.

Instead of feeling the happiness that now she had a better view of the person running, she felt a faint sense of danger much more above than her others pumping emotions, so she tried to keep her excitement in check.

[1]

She had felt an increase in her mental energy.