With less than a minute of use left at full power, Justin switched 5 exponents into Harder and dropped the rest into reserves, where they went back to extending the Prominence Potion’s duration to its full measure. When he turned around, Ougo’s medics were already off the Right and working on Taiko. One of them saw him looking and lifted his circled thumb and fingers a few inches, the Riben rising-sun equivalent of a thumb’s-up.

Tzo, smugging more than ever, was leaning on the gunwales above next to Ougo, watching the crowd stampede down to the dock’s beginning and scatter in all three directions from there. His gaze turned to Taisa’s smoking, blackened body. “Consider the butcher-bear. . .poked,” Justin heard him say, a rasp of savage satisfaction underlining his usual precise and skilled advocate’s diction. It seemed he had some resentment of his own over her secret infiltration of his private meeting with Justin.

Ougo had half an eye on the crowd, half an eye on Justin and his troops working on Taiko, and a whole eye on the Hokyukko’s still form. He gave Justin an approving nod; Justin returned it, and walked up the dock to the motionless Constellation of the Crocodile. He pulled out one of the two general restoratives he was carrying and set it down beside her.

She didn’t reach for it. Justin watched her closely, relieved to see her chest was still rising and falling. He’d never killed anyone – come close, yes, and more than once – but he’d never actually taken another human life. He bent down and put out a hand, testing the heat from her body. With his toughness enhanced to 3,125 times normal, he couldn’t feel any.

He poked her cheek. I wish Kon was here, his scattered brain thought haphazardly.

She didn’t react to that, either.

Justin sighed, straightened out her limbs, and searched her robes until he found her money pouch. Opening it, he flipped through her cash until he found a 1000-ri note. He reached down to pluck it out. . .and hesitated.

Do I really need to test that possibility of my Customer Sense with her? The degree to which consent is needed? Or need to be able to sense her desires that much, on the slim chance it works? Really?

He could practically feel his father’s stare on the back of his head.

No. No, he didn’t.

He let go of the note, closed up her pouch again, and tucked it back into her robes. Then he sat down beside her head, lifted it up to rest in his lap, and pulled off a sandal. He used its edge to wedge open one side of her mouth before uncorking the restorative potion and trickling it down her throat.

One swallowed sip cautiously slipped past a pause in her breathing was enough to make her stir. Justin recorked the potion, set it down beside her again, and pulled out his sandal and put it back on. As Taisa’s eyes began to focus and track, he set her down and inched back, crouching on his flat feet like a gopnik, his arms extending limply past his knees

“That’s two,” he said, when he thought she could understand him. He pointed at the potion by her head. “Drink that,” he told her. “I told you, I’m a busy man. I want this resolved, and I don’t have the time to waste on waiting for you to recover without it.”

She looked at him for a long few seconds before rolling onto her side, shakily propping herself up with one arm and grasping the potion with the other. She stared at her trembling fist in disbelief, then drew the potion back to her other hand to hold it steady while she uncorked it.

A few more gulps later and she was looking. . .not a lot better, but no longer banging on death’s door with both fists, either, which was right about where Justin wanted her. He’d been fortunate beyond his merits in both fights and he knew it, but he’d also been lot less fortunate than his opponents had been un-fortunate. He’d prepared better, but they’d been childishly overconfident.

“It’s up to you whether there’ll be a three, missy,” Justin said, loosening by a few inches the leash on his incandescent rage over Taiko being harmed. “But I can guarantee you, there won’t be a four. Do you understand me, Constellation Taisa? I wasn’t bluffing, back in Tzo’s office. I am a true Prominence of the Dawn, and your life was in the palm of my hand the entire time. And should there be another attempt on your part to initiate force against myself or one of my associates,” he said, then let Angry Cross-Examiner Justin partially out of his box, “I. Will. Kill. You.”

Taisa visibly swallowed.

“Do you understand me?”

She nodded, the aftereffects of the Right’s lightning rendering her movements jerky.

“And do you admit your defeat at my hands?”

“Y-y-yes-s. I – sub-m-mit. W-we hhaav-ve a-an ac-cord,” she stammered.

“Remember that,” Justin said. He rose to his feet, turned, and left her there, walking down the dock to Taiko, who was being helped to his feet by one of the troops.

“Report,” he said, as he reached them.

“The Kokyu’s not well yet, but he will be soon enough,” the one who had given him the rising OK sign said. “A good rest onboard is what he needs the most now.”

“See to it, please,” Justin said. The troops all circle-drew on their foreheads, to his chagrin. Apparently, taking down both Tsukanu and Taisa in three deft moves now warranted their religious obeisance to him as a representative of the Dawn.

But since it could only improve their care of Taiko, Justin straightened, put his hands behind his back, and sauntered over to and up the Right’s gangway to her weatherdeck.

# # #

“How much of that was luck?” Ougo asked, as Justin closed the door to the Right’s halfdeck security station behind himself.

“I don’t know; maybe half?” Justin said, tiredly. Coming that close to losing control always wore him out. Combined with the amount of energy he’d expended in an incredibly short time, he was about to start reeling.

He made his way over to one of the corners and slid down it, sitting cross-legged and letting his head rest against the walls. “The physical edge I had over Tsukanu from the Prompo was always going to guarantee my win, but the way it looked like perfect combat mastery on my end was pure happenstance. I was expecting to just toss him into the water, or another ship’s side. And you know how the fight with Taisa went,” he added, giving Ougo the yeah I used one nod. “Still shaking my head at how stupid she was, putting herself between me and the Right’s ‘bad touch, no!’ boundary like that.”

“Are you in need of medical care yourself, Prominence?” Ougo asked.

“Probably not,” Justin said, as the door slid open to admit Tzo. “This is only. . .nervous exhaustion? I’m not an experienced fighter.”

“Hard to tell from your performance out there,” Tzo said approvingly. “It was extraordinarily impressive. Since Hokyukko Taisa has long been one of the strongest combatants in Ribe, I do not think anyone else from the High Court, elders included, is going to similarly challenge you again for quite some time.”

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“So our bluff worked?” Justin said, looking between Tzo and Ougo.

“I believe so, yes,” Tzo said. Ougo nodded in agreement.

“Good,” Justin said. “Because in reality, I’ve only ever had a little training in blocking and evasion skills. Stayed out of fights as a kid. Or, well, I do know how to handle a. . .er, several classes of personal explosive projectile weapons, but those don’t count here.”

“I advise you to set up a training regimen with Lead Yiofu at your earliest opportunity, then,” Ougo said. “You have a sunlit break in the storm to begin gaining the skills you lack and turn your deception into a truth before the next clouds roll in. I would take advantage of it.”

“Yeah, good idea. I’ll make some time for that,” Justin said. He closed his eyes to think.

Alchemy, Spellcraft, and combat training for my daily must-dos; general education with Taiko, and Sunwood steampunk theorizing for breaks from those; body-weight exercises and swimming for workouts, plus whatever Yiofu requires. . .that’s a full schedule already.

“Do we have an estimate for when Taiko will be ready to go dicker with the Sky temple?” he asked, eyes still closed.

“No more than an hour, possibly sooner,” Ougo said. “Lead Norodo confirms that because of the added precision and reliability due to your. . .music. . .we can brew another Potion of Prominence while waiting.”

“Good. Tzo, what can you tell me about my newest customers?”

“The elder is Lady Abala of the Goh; the younger her niece Tutui. Somehow they found out about the sale of magical cures you spoke about at the hallowing, and they’re seeking assistance for the grandfather of the Goh family. He’s been incapacitated by some ailment their own doctors have been unable to identify, and they’re hoping you can do more.

“And yes, that’s the same family as Riku-Go the Deranged, this ship’s designer and creator. The Goh fell to a status barely above the petty aristocracy after they helped Kikuo overthrow him, and despite their assistance. The Goh lost almost everything in the doing, and have been sustaining themselves through mercenary work ever since.”

“Will I have to make a house call?” Justin asked.

“It seems so, Prominence,” Tzo said.

“They’ll have to wait in line behind at least the Shinbi and Lead Norodo, then,” Justin said, “but you can tell them they do have the third-to-fifth position on my list, along with Taiko and the Daigos. And thank you for handling that, Tzo; I hired you to be my advocate, not my personal assistant. Speaking of which, I need to hire one of those. . .or, no, do I? Taiko would leap at the chance. . . .”

“And no doubt keep trying more and more annoying methods to change your mind if you gave the position to someone else, too,” Tzo said said. Justin could hear the amusement in his voice.

Right, Justin thought, what was that other thing? Warped Space related – the valuables! Must check with Sol.

“Gotta go have another chat with Sunny D,” he told the others in the room. “Don’t interrupt me for anything short of an emergency, please.”

He focused on Sol’s presence.

Solly solly bo-bol-ley, bo-na-na fanna fo-fol-ley, fee-fi-mo-mol-ley. . .Solly!

. . .oh for the love of. . . .yes, Justin, you ridiculous creature; what?

Thanks for the rhythmic timing assist. That was awesome.

I can neither refuse nor accept credit for anything of that nature. What else?

The precious metals and stones from Earth. Can they be used in the way I hoped?

No, but also yes. You can never go back there; that cosmos is forever closed to you.

But also yes, in that as Void materials, they can be used to assist in the creation of portals to other cosmoi? Yes? YES?

Yes. And your concern that they would, in time, conform and cohere to the fundamental nature and laws of this cosmos, consequentially decreasing and eventually removing their ability to so assist you, is correct.

And so is your hope that keeping them stored in a Warped Space could prevent that.

And since you’ve been wondering in the back of your mind about how I benefit from our association. . .now you should know. The Greater Powers – the Contract’s ‘Upper Management’ – have forbidden me and my family from opening such portals ourselves, or empowering other entities to do so. I can’t help you with that.

Just began cackling madly.

You can’t help me, but I’m an exception to that forbidding, right?

Yes. I’m not even allowed to specify how and why, nor is this any kind of a hint, merely a compliment, but - as I told you once before - you’re not the least clever mortal I’ve had dealings with.

So their potency for that is decaying, and I should get them all down into one of the Shrines on Chloe as soon as possible?

Yes, but you also have another, superior option.

I’m listening.

One of the both necessary and sufficient certifications for becoming a Hokyukko is to defeat another in single combat. A qualifying graduation exam, one could say. The loser’s powers are transferred to the winner - or at least as much of them as the winner can wield without self-destructing.

And just as all the Stars are Suns, so too is the Sun a Star itself? Sooo. . .I would give you my oath? Because if it will help us find-

No. For your Plan to work as currently intended, I and my family still can’t own you. I will have to trust you explicitly with the knowledge of how to open this world to invasion by entities beyond your capacity to imagine, but not grant you the power to do that.

Then how. . .oh. Ohhhh. . .I beat Taisa. I’m. . .technically. . .authorized? to take her power? No, that can’t be it; that would still disqualify me, because it’s from the Stars – no, wait - imitate it! Copy it – with this month’s second Minor Wish, which isn’t a Miracle!

Sol, you double magnificent bastard!

Apropos of nothing, I can’t tell you how pleased I was when you decided not to take a cash coup from Taisa without her agreement, or with how you handled the rest of the aftermath.

I literally can’t tell you.

Oh, I’ll just bet you were ‘pleased’. Let’s see. . .the Shop’s wishing mana must not count as help beating her. . .ohh-ho-ho, and the Shop itself is still in flux, isn’t it? So if I lay the groundwork now. . .What did Book Smarts say. . .‘It all punches holes in reality’!

I can’t comment on any of that except to say that I can’t comment on any of that.

Trying to play it safe where this ‘Upper Management’ was involved, Justin avoided thinking Thank you or So I’m on the right track or anything else of the same kind. Instead, he took a few calming breaths and put himself into emergency case-planning mode. His focus narrowed to the task at hand and that alone, completely shutting out everything else around him:

* Minor Wish to be granted Hokyukko powers - not skills; Sol said ‘trust you explicitly with the knowledge’ – identical to those of Taisa.

* Find a cooperative Hokyukko ASAP to teach – no; Justin, what did you just notice? Sol will handle that by granting me the skills.

* Which also probably means I don’t have to expend my third Minor Wish on being given a spell to open Star – eh, no, Cosmogates? Yes. Better. Not final though.

* In fact, in light of the Blessing of Sun’s description, better save that third one for someone else – right, ‘Apropos of nothing’, oh suuure. . .

* On second thought, do find a cooperative Hokyukko – or more – to advise on creating my Shrine Storage Warped Space for the materials. Taiko will know more, possibly Tzo and Ougo as well. Does it require a resident Demon?

* Kim and Kon? Master. . .Taji? Kaji? Taiko will know – no, it was Kaji. But consult with Taiko about Demonic transfers or recruitment. Give Daigos first right of refusal? Yes.

* Where to put the Gate Room - keep it on Chloe, obviously – either inside the Shrines’ area or. . .the Ballroom? Remodel Ballroom floor with a copy of Theater Mechanics Understage? Maybe. Costly, but – ahahahah oh right, pffft money ahahaha. . .