I poked Zubu’s cheek, pulling her out of her racing thoughts. Then called to her. “Zubu, Zubu! Heeeey!” She eyed me with annoyance behind her eyes. “What do you need to leave Chikū?”
“Stop asking that! Also, why do you keep calling me that?” She avoided.
“I call you that because you’re a zombie. Remember? You came back to life and everything. By the way. If you bite me will I turn into a zombie? We got pretty close last night. I’m pretty sure I breathed in your farts. Should I be tested?” I said before sniffing myself.
Zombies usually smelled bad. I smelled a little bad, but that might just be sweat. Zubu also didn’t smell of death. Was that because we were both cultivators and could heal our decaying flesh?
“That’s disgusting! Don’t say disgusting things you little fart sniffer!” She yelled.
“But Zubu it’s true! You did turn into a zombie!” I retorted pouting.
“That’s not what I… never mind. Are you actually serious?” She asked.
“Yeah, I don’t want to be a zombie again.” I answered.
“What!? When did that happen!?” She interrogated.
“After I tried a really strong hallucinogen and ended up in another world for about ten years.” I answered.
Her initial surprise vanished as if losing interest in the subject. Did she not believe me? The multi-verse was real! Why couldn’t my insane hallucination be real? Forget it. This wasn’t what I wanted to talk about. Zubu clearly pivoted the conversation to avoid the question.
“What do you need to leave this place?” I asked again.
She quickly turned it around on me. “Who’s Jack?!” We both went silent for a moment. Staring each other down to see who would break first. Then when I didn’t answer she said, “Yeah, I didn’t think so.” She turned away from me clearly upset.
I felt my eyes water again as the memories of that night played in my head once more. Before it could become too overwhelming I took a deep breath. Then blurted out, “Jack is the guy I murdered when I was 14.”
“Are you seri-“ her voice cut out when she turned around and saw the tears on my face. “-I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up.” She finished.
I did it again. I used my own trauma to eclipse everyone else’s. It was kind of a dick move but at the same time. It was as if I was holding my hand out to her. Bonding over trauma. Making myself vulnerable so that we can connect.
I didn’t want to hold this in forever. I never told my wife because she was so connected to it. If I really wanted Zubu as a friend. Then I needed to trust her. If she broke our trust then I’d have to close my heart to her forever and move on. I just hope she doesn’t stomp it into the ground like most people did.
She came over and sat at my side. “It’s fine. Do you think you can lend me an ear?” I asked.
“Sure, but you don’t have to.” She said.
“But Zubu I want to! Wanna tell you lots and lots of things.” I replied.
She nodded. “Okay. Go on. I’m listening.”
“Well, back when my mom was making me… better, Alice wedged herself between us. She wanted to save me, and I wanted to keep my family from falling apart. Alice came with her own baggage though. Actually, just like you and me, we bonded over trauma.” I explained.
“Sounds rough.” Said Zubu.
“A little but as long as Alice was there, everything was alright. It didn't take long for her past to come back to hurt her. There was this guy, Jack. He was stocking Alice. Jack found out we were dating, except we weren’t really dating. It was just something Alice threw out there to throw off my mom.” I said.
Thinking back it was such a dumb and silly thing to do. She was basically marking her territory. The thought made me chuckle, confusing Zubu.
“Anyway, we were on a fake date. Basically, we were two friends hanging out and on our way home. When Jack showed up. He got me pretty bad with a metal bat. Nearly killed me.” I rubbed the back of my head remembering that sudden reverberation on the back of my skull. That loud metallic “TUNK!” Sound. The flash of light. The taste of iron in my mouth. All the screaming.
“That was when Squirmy popped back into my life… the centipede. He crawled out of the hole and pinned me down like a sleep paralysis demon. Then offered me the power to save Alice. I took it.” Zubu looked horrified at the moment. Seeing her like that was kind of… interesting. It almost made me want to stop talking and try to boop her nose, but the story wasn’t over.
“Don’t get me wrong. If I had to do it again I would. At the end of the day. I cared more about Alice than Jack’s life. Maybe this time I would’ve stopped hitting him after I broke his limbs… but then again. That bloodlust was hard to shake off. It was so absolute, so encompassing.” I said.
“Why do you feel bad about killing him? He sounds like an asshole. If anything, it was self defense.” Said Zubu.
“Because he was also a person!” I raged spooking Zubu. I had to calm myself. “He wasn’t always an asshole. He was once my wife’s closest friend. She even had a stupid nickname for him… uh… Jack the beanstalk, but because of her past. He was relentlessly bullied and gas lighted into the person he became. Even so, killing someone… even if justified does things to a person. Especially with how brutal and raw the murder was.”
Zubu was silent, thinking over my words. I didn’t need to say more, but something inside me begged to be let out. It burned in my chest like a raging fire. Like it wanted to be heard. It echoed within the hole and across the cosmos.
“For a long time… I would wake up in the middle of the night and there would be this warm, wet, and sticky feeling on my hands. I could still feel it. The blood. It wouldn’t go away no matter how much hot water I poured over it. No matter how hard I scrubbed.”
My anger rose inside me. Bubbling to the surface, resulting in a display of anger and frustration. “For fucks sake! I wasn’t even sure if I was hallucinating his blood or mine!” I punched the ground creating a small hole and nearly breaking my hand.
Zubu was frightened. She looked to be holding her breath. As if waiting out a storm.
Taking a deep breath again I had to calm myself once more. “It took a long time for me to be okay. I haven’t thought of Jack in forever and recently. Reliving all those crap memories brought all that trauma back.” I said.
“Sorry… I guess I don’t know what its like to actually kill a person. I mean, I feel responsible for the people that died in my trial, but I’ve never directly killed anyone.”
She had already gone through her own hell. It was probably something like survivors guilt. I bet Cosmo sent me here just so we could trauma bond with each other, and push forward together.
That goddess was always playing games. Still, having someone that somewhat understands my situation was just what I needed. I also couldn’t help but notice, Zubu wasn’t as mean or grumpy as when we first met.
“Well, a deal’s a deal. In order to get off this world. I need to ascend once more. Into the upper spirit ranks.” She said.
“That doesn’t sound too hard.” I said.
“Isaac, it costs twenty times the amount of quintessence to ascend every single time, and my cultivation technique is nonexistent. I’ve been cannibalizing my dantian for years and I’ve only gathered a third of what I need.” She said.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
“So.” I said bluntly.
“So! SO! What the hell! I know it’s not as traumatizing as what you went through, but if you want to compare stories I got way darker stuff to share!” She snapped holding me by my neck.
“Hold on that's not what I meant!” I cried.
“Explain!” She roared.
“It might take a while, but you've already gathered so much. Its not like you’re in a dead end position. You also have so many resources around you. With that much time you could become a master before you even ascend. You only need to keep trying. And besides, you got that new cultivation technique, right?” I said.
She released me. “I see what you mean, but I don’t trust them. Also, that cultivation technique won’t work. It’s impossible.” She said.
“Let me help you.” I offered.
“No, I don’t want your help!” She lashed out.
“Why not? You helped me a lot today. It’s only fair you let me help you. You shouldn’t compare your progress with mine. We’re two completely different people. Besides we’re friends now so my success should be yours and your success is mine.” I said.
She held her stance for a few more seconds before releasing a long winded breath. “Okay fine, but only because you have a cute face.” She pinched my left cheek.
“Ow!” I cried pushing her hand away and rubbing the sore spot. She laughed as I made a pouty face at her.
A moment later she held her open palms next to one another. I watched as she closed her eyes. Wind aspects began to twirl within her hands.
It looked like normal wind, but once I activated my Qi sight, it became clear there was more there. 0 tier friction combined with regular wind aspects. There was nothing fancy about it.
The air rubbed against itself creating static. She had successfully created lightning aspects. Normally for this type of electricity you needed something like dirt or ice to create the friction.
In this case we could skip that step since heat aspects could easily be converted into friction. Thus creating static. While this was an easy way to make lightning aspect. I’d love to see what adding earth or ice aspects would look like.
You would still need to add friction to make it work faster, but I bet you'd get an even bigger kick out of it. Like the difference between hitting someone with a snowball and a snowball with a rock in it.
This little lightning ball wasn't enough. While the static was a form of plasma. It was still missing the burning particle component that made up her affinity.
She held it that way for a while and eventually ended it after five minutes. “It doesn’t work. This stuff doesn’t feel like my affinity.” She said.
“You can't get the air to ionize.” I said.
“Yeah, that's the word. Ionnaise.” She said incorrectly.
“The reason it’s not working is actually kind of simple.” I said.
“I knew it! How are you so good at this stuff?! You have to be cheating somehow! Are you secretly reliving your life due to some kind of time reset. Or is it more like your not really Isaac and your some kind of genius reincarnated from another world where this stuff is common knowledge? I bet you have a cheat skill or something!” She said.
“You've been reading way too many power fantasies. This stuff is like 4th grade science.” I said.
“Oh… cool! so it’s the modern day science in a fantasy world trope!” She nodded up and down looking somewhat excited. That was until she realized what I’d said. “Wait! Did you say 4th grade!?” She blushed, before looking away.
“Don't be embarrassed. Lots of people forget what they learned in school once they’re adults. It’s nothing to be ashamed about. If the information was really all that important you would have remembered. The only reason I know about it is because I have an interest in stuff like that.” I placated.
“Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I can't remember the last time I had to do advanced math. Or voice the periodic table. Which desperately needs to be updated since stuff like frostlyte and durillium exist.” She said.
She was right. By this point that information was only being passed down so that generations wouldn't forget it. That stuff was only useful to a very small percentage of the population. Though I guess it’s not a bad thing since without it we wouldn't have cobalt for our phone batteries.
“Alright. What the hell am I doing wrong then?” Said Zubu sheepishly.
“Two things. Number one is the fuel your using. Number two is the pressure is all wrong.” I explained.
“Explain better, fart sniffer!” She held onto both my shoulders and started shaking me.
I pulled away. “Stop that! Haven't you heard!? You’re not supposed to shake children.” I complained.
“Okay! I’m sorry! Tell me what I'm doing wrong you little shit stain!” She yelled.
“You need to change the frequency of the wind aspects to a mix of 65% argon and 35% hydrogen. Then lower the pressure. These gasses burn way better than plain old air, making them more efficient, and the ionization of atoms is easier when they’re not so close to one another.” I explained.
“That’s…. I… I do that and it'll work?” She asked.
“Yup, it should work if you do those two things. Though hydrogen has a very violent reaction. You don’t normally put it into a plasma globe since it might cause it to explode, typically they use it in plasma cutters, but since were cultivators it should be fine. I’m sure you can control it.” I said.
“Uh…. are you sure about this?” She asked nervously.
I shrugged my shoulders. Then turned my head towards snowball. Who was sitting on Lorie’s chair. “What do you think snowball?”
“As a graduate of Catvard. I would say it’s 142% safe. Don’t worry, I’m on the safety committee.” Answered Snowball.
I nodded and smiled. Then translated to Zubu. To my surprise she was skeptical. “Catvard! Doesn’t she mean Harvard!” She yelled.
I chuckled and shook my head at Zubu’s lack of knowledge. “Snowball’s a cat. She can’t go to Harvard because it’s a human school.” I explained.
Her eyes went wide. When she realized I wasn’t joking. “Uh… right… look Isaac, lets forget about Snowballs credentials for now. Do you think my face will be blown off if I try that gas cocktail of yours?” She asked nervously.
I gave it a little more thought before answering. “If you don't like it we can just use helium instead. It has a really pretty pinkish glow, so it’ll look more like the plasma you use. We could also try argon on it’s own. It’s pretty too! The color is a bit more violet with a bluish glow.” I suggested.
“Rrriiiiigght… now I just need to figure out the frequency for helium. It’ll take a bit. I’m not super great at spectrum aspects.” She said.
“It should feel like this.” I said as I gathered wind aspects and adjusted the frequency to helium.
“How the hell do you know that!?” She asked.
“I don't sleep much, so I've been messing with this stuff a lot. I can even turn earth aspects into limestone.” I explained.
“I guess I've never really tried to explore the different frequencies of aspects. Lore keeper says frequencies are actually pretty hard to master.” She said.
“I wouldn't call myself a master. I can make a few different types of aspects, but not that many. The one I’ve been having trouble with is iron. You need to use heat, and cleansing aspects to refine earth into metal. However, I tend to over do it and end up with metal so pure that it’s super soft. Almost like gold or silver, but ugly. I’ve been able to add carbon to harden it up, but it’s really hard to distribute the carbon evenly, so I just end up making huge pockets of impurities instead of strengthening it as a whole.” I explained.
“I don’t understand what you said, but I think it’s pretty cool how you can take something as magical as being a cultivator and turn it into a science experiment.” She said.
“Science is the act of studying cause. Coming up with what might happen. Then proving or disproving your assumptions through experiments, or by watching the effects. It’s not about being right. It’s about being less wrong. Using those principles on something as misunderstood as magic or cultivation. Is just the act of applying logic to a newly found facet of reality.” I said.
“I get it. It’s not a blind belief. It’s a logical method of approach.” She added.
I nodded.
She spent about an hour trying to replicate the helium in my hands. Eventually she got the right frequency.
“Alright, let's go again.” She said as she tried to make a plasma globe once more. This time she created a vacuum within the ball of wind aspects. It was a literal cavitation bubble.
A moment passed before she changed the frequency of the surrounding wind aspects into helium. Then permeated some of the gas into the vacuum. All she was missing was the electric current.
Normally you'd use an electrode to generate the electric field, but in this case all she had to do was create lightning aspect.
That was when a tiny ball of wind aspect appeared in the middle. She injected heat into it focusing them into friction aspects. This turned the wind aspects into static creating an electrical buzz. The helium ionized right away creating beautiful pink arcs of twisting plasma. They collided with the walls of the vacuum like bolts of purple fire and lightning.
“So pretty.” I mumbled, as my eyes sparkled.
It was beautiful. Just like the one I saw in that science museum when I went on my 2nd grade field trip.
“It worked! Isaac you did it, you little asshole!” She cheered.
“No, you did it Zubu. I'm happy for you.” I smiled.
The ball of plasma dispersed as Zubu went to hug me. I felt her kiss my cheek like an overly affectionate grandma.
“Ew! Grose!” I cried.
“I love you! I love you! You’re the best little sister ever!” She said as she stood up lifting me into the air. She swung my feet around as she spun under the flowery petals of the cherry blossoms.
I’d never seen her this happy before. It wasn’t a scary smile like the one I forced on her when Mr. Brutus wrapped her up in dirt. After spinning me around some more she finally put me down on my wobbly legs.
“I'm happy for you Zubu, but could you not swing me around like that.” I said almost falling over.
“Sorry… you know, it’s almost time for dinner, and lore keeper probably won't let us eat if we haven't washed up yet. Especially since we did all that jumping around and stuff.” She said.
“Oh, no! I refuse. I already cleaned both of us with that crazy aura. If you want to wash up go right ahead. I’ll be practicing my spells till dinner time.” I said.
“Come on you big baby. You can practice a water spell when we get to the bath.” She said as she dragged me away.
“No, no! I'm married! Stranger danger! Help! Somebody! She’s trying to kidnap me! I’m being kidnapped! Help! Rape! Rape!” I cried. I’d blow a whistle if I had one.
“Don't be stupid! We’ll be taking turns dumbass! Do you really think I’d let you see me naked. I just need to make sure you actually wash up.” She scolded.
That's when I realized something horrifying. This world had no laws and we were in the middle of nowhere. Where no one could hear me scream.