Chapter 16

Different realms

Saiko takes a deep breath enjoying the feeling of water on her body.

She constantly conjures water above her and uses it to shower as it flows down her body washing away the blood and grime covering her.

she begins to recall her memories from the orphanage and the days she spent with Priest Si-u and her siblings.

'Oh, Saiko did come to help this old man prepare dinner '

the old priest smiles as he watches the young Saiko peek at him from behind a wall

'sh, shut up old man - retorts the young child'

Saiko chuckles quietly at the mannerisms of her younger self.

she remembers wanting to help the old man and wanting to get close to him but she had some trust issues at that age, to say the least.

she was scared of all adults.

after all, prior to meeting the old man every adult she met had harmed her.

'All alright everyone dinner is ready '

the old priest set up the table for the children but then he left the room. the children who had been watching him warily immediately flooded the room after he left and began to eat.

Saiko always pitied the old priest.

it must have been hard for him to take care of all these children and risk his life for them yet they all feared him from their trauma.

Saiko finishes her shower and then pulls the water out of her clothes with magic to instantly dry them.

'I will probably need to buy new clothes soon '

she puts on her clothes and then walks to the part of the cave where Daxia and Ken are cooking the pleasant smell of roasting monster meat fills her nostrils.

' This is pretty nostalgic too I like it '

Saiko chuckles slightly at the absurd thought she just had.

the priest couldn't go out and buy normal groceries so he had to hunt various monsters for them to eat every day, he also grew various plants around the orphanage.

'It sure was hard for him '

Saiko then is met with quite an unexpected sight; the demon sword floating in the air likely by Ken's magic with its mouth open.

tentacle like wires come out of the skull and form a net for the meat to rest on below the net the demon skull breathes out gentle plasma to roast the meat.

Saiko never would have expected such a fearsome weapon can be used in such a mundane way.

she smiles slightly as the odd sight brings out more memories of the old priest.

'oh are you scared of knives?'

the old priest asked her one day when he noticed she got scared while she watched him cook whenever he used a knife.

the priest gently smiled and looked at her.

' Well you are correct knives sure are scary things but you know Saiko a knife is just a tool it's not bad or good it's all about how you use it, even the venom of a snake can be used to make medicine '

Ken interrupts Saiko's thoughts as he eats some of the meat

~ would you look at that! it does taste like chicken ~

Ken smiles as he savors the taste of the meat.

he then orders the nanobots of the demon sword to form thin metal spikes which he sticks some meat on making kebabs and gives them over to Daxia and Saiko

Saiko takes her kebab and begins to eat it savoring the taste.

_ so, what's our next move now_

~Well I gave it some thought and I think we should head to the black market ~ Ken responds

~this way we can sell the water spells without risking exposing Rin. we can't have him become wanted too and we can buy a new car, since mine got blown up~

Saiko scowls wondering why she has to keep going deeper and deeper into more shady situations.

it seems like she will become completely entangled with the criminal world.

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she tries to think of an alternative and after a few seconds, she remembers the dark net.

_ah! Wasn't there something called the dark web that's not monitored by the government why not use that one instead I would prefer if we don't have to go to a black market _

Ken shakes his head

~unfortunately, not, the dark net is a trap it has the appearance of being free of the government and sure there is a lot of illegal stuff that happens on it or through it but in truth it's controlled by the government and the illegal stuff that happen on it are those that are permitted or heck maybe even performed by the government itself~

-it's like a massive honey trap for would be rookie criminals created by the government - adds Daxia while munching on her kebab

Ken continues~ the only way to avoid the eyes of the government is through physical interactions that are completely separate from the aethernet. not just that you will have to inscribe your spells the old way through actual pen and paper ~

Saiko sighs as her shoulders slump down

_ just how low am I going to sink in this weird world _

~heh very low princess very low welcome to the dark side of the world ~

Ken sneers while Daxia chuckles quietly

********************************************************

location: Seoul, Koya

Day: 26th of Jan 5027

Ken, Saiko, and Daxia walk through the busy metallic jungle of Seoul.

large skyscrapers surround them in all directions, out of each skyscraper one or two holographic three-dimensional ads are displayed filling the sky of the bustling city with all sorts of colorful and elaborated displays, carefully designed and perfected over hundreds of years to capture the minds of sapiens and prey on their dormant instincts to make them consume the various product.

from one building, a three floors tall massive hologram of a beautiful female kitsune wearing traditional clothes a hanbok with a white top and a long red skirt.

she had flame like ginger hair, a fair skin with a few freckles on her cheeks, and she had seven long fluffy tails that curled upwards reaching up to her head, and large long fox like ears.

the beautiful kitsune sat in a seiza position while drinking tea

from another area of the sky, a massive whale hologram jumps out of non-existent water before diving back into it and disappearing followed by a group of mermaids in front of the logo of Water World Theme Park.

in another area, a group of thinly clad women and muscular topless young men dance and party in the sky as they drink wine.

many more colorful ads of a similar nature fill the sky of the city, the ads are so numerous that one couldn't see the cloud or sun above.

Daxia who is wearing a black face mask and sunglasses to avoid facial recognition looks around in wonder and amazement at all the ads and the vibrant city.

- wow this city sure is something -

Ken adjusts his black top hat which he bought as soon as they entered the city to block his face from cameras

~it sure is. Seoul is one of the three entertainment capitals of the world ~

Ken notices that Saiko is keeping her head down under the hood of her coat and keeping her eyes on the ground.

he blinks confused while looking at her

~ what's wrong with you?~

_ This is all haram _ the silver cat answers keeping her eyes facing the ground

Ken blinks ~ I always guessed you were old school but I didn't think you were one of those crazy people who are against technology ~

_ It's not the technology it's the ads, specifically ads like these ones _ she answers

Ken chuckles and looks at the silver cat

~ why? it's just some sweet candies for your eyes to enjoy ~

_ and some sweet poison to your mind _

Saiko adds with a sarcastic tone

Ken opens his mouth to respond but pauses for a moment finding himself forced to agree

~a......okay fine technically you are not wrong but what's wrong with them wanting to make money ads are supposed to make you want to buy right ~

Saiko shrugs her shoulders while keeping her eyes on the ground

- you are supposed to buy what you need not what you have been subconsciously programmed to want. especially now that the ads have become a perfected art that preys on your instincts you may not care but I am a Therian and my instincts are stronger so I rather keep my mind cle-

Saiko and Ken jump startled as naoi suddenly appears in front of the trio interrupting their conversation

-greetings children -

_where have you been _ Saiko immediately asks

- I was in the realm of the jinn checking on a few things -

Ken goes wide eyed staring at the floating ancient entity

~ realm? what do you mean by that? ~

- I mean a different plane of existence similar to this one yet different. -

_ there are other realms? _

Saiko looks at Naoi with surprise.

- of course, there are numerous planes of existence-

the ancient entity answers calmly as though what he said is a matter of course.

Daxia watches as her two companions randomly start talking to empty air.

she assumes Noai is back and chuckles quietly to herself

'Man, I am feeling left out already I never thought there would come a day there is something I can't see with my eyes I wish I could see him too '

***********

Ken rubs his head in frustration

~ so let me get this straight. you are telling me there are other spatial realms that share our physical space but which are in a different layer so we don't interact with them and someone could be walking through my body right now but I can't see, feel, hear or touch them ~

the ancient entity nods at the young children.

- indeed, but it's not just limited to your senses nothing on this layer of space can interact with anything that's on a different layer of space, allow me to give you an analogy to understand it -

Naoi lifts his hand and multiple blue squares appear in front of each other.

on each of the blue squares, a moving drawing of a human on a hill appears

- imagine if each of these two dimensional squares is its own world, then if you stand in front of them and look at them you will find they all occupy the same location in the two dimensions height and width but as three dimensional being yourselves, you know these squares are not touching since they are on different distances away from you.

-meaning even though they occupy the same location in the first two dimensions they occupy different locations in the third dimension.

you also know that our three dimensional world could house many of these two dimensional worlds perhaps you could even say an infinite number of them, and a human in one of these squares can't see, hear, touch, or at all interact with someone in another square.

they are so close yet very far apart. similarly, there are numerous three dimensional worlds that occupy the same location in the first three dimensions yet are in different locations in other spatial dimensions -

Saiko slumps her head down in defeat.

_my head hurts from all of this _

Ken opens his mouth to speak but closes it without saying anything while looking at Naoi looking dumbfounded.

Daxia, starting to feel bored of the two crazy looking people talking with empty space for 10 minutes now, grabs the hands of the two of them and pulls them along with her as she starts walking again bringing the two of them back to reality

- alright enough talking with the spooky ghost. let's move on before the government finds us or we are thrown in a mental hospital -

~r,right you are correct - Ken shakes his head snapping back to reality, and walks with them to the black market