4. Nuclear Family in the Light Era
Chapter four
Nuclear Family in the Light Era
Ralia sat back, eyes flashing as she used the black neuroset cube with violet corners. “You all don’t go for the cheap guk, do you? I appreciate it. I haven’t used a set like this in a while..
A violet beam of light shot into the therapist’s hardware, blending with the blue light that powered it. It began to glow, pulsing with a midnight aura.
“Learn anything about him yet?” Akna asked.
Ralia held up a hand. “Patience, girl.”
“What are you looking for exactly?” Denji asked.
“Whoever sent this thing after Naoma, or whatever triggered the therapist to attack her.”
“And if he had a Gui,” I said.
“Improbable,” Denji said. “We really should worry about–”
“Yeah, yeah,” Ralia said. “Stay with us for a bit and we’ll get to education. We know that’s what matters and once Boyband wakes up he won’t let us forget it.” She knocked on the desk. “Sweet Light, I’m in.”
“And?” Naoma asked.
“Jojac Minton. Fifty one, father of one, seems like a pretty clean guy. Reviews media in his spare time on the neuronet. No messages or anything of the sort related to a bounty or any reason to attack you.”
“Are you digging deep enough?” Akna asked.
“That’s not how this works, and with my mod acting all zegged up, it’s even harder. You really are just another Boyband, aren’t you?”
“Piss–” Akna stopped herself, but we all laughed, knowing what was going to come out.
“Is this not a regular thing?” Denji asked.
“Getting attacked?” Abbas asked.
Denji nodded.
“Sure,” I said, but it’s never like this. “Have you seen a Gui?”
Denji shook his head. “I mean, I understood what they were, but when I heard that you had bound yourself to one, that was an entirely new concept. You’re a Cross follower, so you should understand.
You might believe in those ancient prophets and stories, but that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t be shocked to see one with your own eyes. ”
Zhu, can we show him?
“Do you trust this man?”
As much as I can.
“Assumptions have been knives to you as of late. Why trust your most intimate secret unto this childish man?”
I’m not going to argue.
“As you demand.”
A black aura pulsed around my arm, giving it a muscular and clawed shell, though the black light was quick to fade. I almost reprimanded Zhu for the weak display, but he was not wrong to be weary. My trust had been stretched thin and was already torn by multiple people.
As with all the worst matters in my life, this was bound to repeat.
“Zeg!” Denji exclaimed.
“It’s usually more vibrant.” Naoma said.
“And something like that came out of your therapist?”
“A therapist used something similar.”
“Do you think the enemy figured out how to hone Gui?” Abbas asked.
“Are you sure this is the enemy?“ Akna asked.
“Gongtide or not, I don’t like it.” Ralia said.
“Any luck?” I asked.
“There’s been obvious tampering,” she replied.
“Do you see seams?”
“Not at all. The opposite, actually. This shac is as beige and vanilla as you go. There’s no reason someone like him would go for you and before you ask, I’m not settling on the ‘possessed’ theory. Gui need a specific device to hold them, as far as I understand.”
“That’s true.”
“So Bhate Denji finally understands something?”
He chuckled. “I’m more on the tech side than the doctrine. If you want to know the deep doctrinal lore, you’ll have to go back to Bhate Tenma.”
“Hold up,” Ralia said. “I’ma try… yes, we’ve got a little opening right about… he–”
A shriek brought our hands to our ears. The sound was a vile callback to the visions of my never-child’s gory explosion. I opened an eye, seeing the others tremble and join in the scream as the neurospace hardware shook and bounced off of the desk.
Ralia had collapsed to the floor. Her eyes flashed with dark blue light.
Zhu, help.
I felt his presence cover my ears. The shriek continued, but it was bearable, like walking on hot sand instead of coals.
A familiar black aura, the tainted opposite of Zhu’s Essence, leaked from the hardware’s cracks like rising smoke.
The rising body conglomerated into a wretched form, a fetal image of the therapist’s ghost with tentacles stretching out like thin needles.
Before they could reach us, a white flash emanated from Naoma as her serpent extended to devour the ghoul before it could grow.
Silence rang loud. Everyone had winced and cowered, but I saw their eyes wide as Naoma’s serpent fed.
“The zeg was that?” Boyband stood with malaise, scratching his mess of hair and blinking bloodshot eyes.
Naoma glared at him.
“Yeah, I saw what you did. That screech was loud enough for me to feel it in my bones.”
“Why didn’t you shock him harder?” Akna asked.
Kuni stepped towards Boyband.
“Kuni don’t,” I said. The kid looked up at me. “It’s fine. At least for now.” Kuni and I shared a smile.
Boyband clapped. “Come on, did I miss Naoma saying that she had a Gui when I was out?” He looked at Ralia, who was massaging her temples. “Did Kuni shock you too, Ral?”
She showed him her middle finger as she sat up.
I looked at Naoma, seeing the trepidation in her eyes. She opened them wider, as if I had an answer. I might have had freedom without Deleon, but I felt as if each choice before me created consequences for everyone, not just me. All I could do was guess. And guess, I did.
There was no harm in explaining what she had done, but I would not tell them that she was Nuwa incarnate or some divine servant. I had no idea what she truly was. She could not recall her past, but did she know what she was?
Too many questions. Too many answers I was supposed to have.
“No answer?” Boyband sighed, frustration apparent. “Pulse. Naoma’s got a Gui now. How the zeg that makes sense without a Bite, I dunno, but I guess we’re rolling with it, just like we are with this whole fetal god story.”
“Pull the stick out of your ass,” Abbas said, as dry as dust.
We all laughed, even Boyband. “Sorry, Naoma,” he said. “I’m just… overwhelmed. Confused as zeg.”
“So am I,” Naoma said. “I’m sorry, but I really don’t know what it is.“ She looked at the others. “That thing helped Petya and I fight the therapist’s ghost. I guess it’s a Gui?”
“Nah,” Abbas shook his head. “Doesn’t make sense.”
“Why?” Kuni asked.
Abbas smirked. “You know how we need to eat teeth?”
Kuni nodded.
“Well that’s because we have techbone. That disease that your dad had.”
He took a second to internalize that, then grew teary eyed. “S-s-so… your bones are going to disappear, too?”
Abbas crouched before him, shook his head, then placed his hands on the child’s shoulders.
It was so unlike the traitor I once knew but felt warmth in the show of his change.
“No. Not at all.” He tapped the back of his head.
“We have an implant that causes us to eat teeth to help us grow bones. The light ghosts we’re talking about need bones, but teeth do the work for them.
They won’t take our bones away if we don’t feed. We–”
In his hesitation, I wondered if he was going to tell Kuni that we would turn into mindless fiends to satiate our hunger. I was glad he chose otherwise.
“We have those ghosts because of the implant. Other people that lose their bones do so because of a different kind of spirit, but one that is just a part of them, unlike our ghosts. I know it’s a lot to explain, but what matters is that Naoma doesn’t have an implant that causes her to need teeth. Right?”
She nodded.
“But it sounds like that therapist had a Gui, too,” Akna said. “That thing looked like one, but he didn’t have a Bite, right?”
I shook my head. “It came from that thing, and that’s just a simple neurospace implant.”
“Any idea where yours came from?” Denji asked Naoma.
“Not at all.”
“Hence the therapist visit,” Denji said.
“Well, that was for… I guess.” She laughed, throwing up her hands in frustration. “I don’t zegging know.”
“Oh, hun.” Ralia stood, steading herself from standing up too fast, then ran to embrace Naoma.
Naoma smiled. “Thanks. It’s fine. It’ll all work out in the end.”
She looked at me for solace I couldn’t offer, so I changed the direction of the conversation. “Regardless, it helped me defeat whatever that thing was”—I pointed at the therapist’s hardware—“and finished it now. I don’t think Gui can eat each other. It wouldn’t make sense.”
“Why?” Boyband asked.
I waved him off. “What I mean is, that wasn’t a Gui. It was connected to standard tech and the light was different. Black it was, but not the same as the one Zhu emits. I know it might not make sense, but–”
“Like artificial violet light for lighting versus true violet light?“ Akna asked.
I snapped and pointed at her. “Exactly!”
“Yes,” Denji said, nodding his head. “Your Gui come from extraction. Neon Essence. Light souls are attached to people because of our usage of physical light. Therefore, there are spirits from that lesser light.”
“You think that was a physical light reciprocal of the Neon Essence Gui?” Abbas asked.
“It makes sense,” I said. “When I was in the ocean, before entering the tear, I saw… zeg it still bothers me to think about it. An impish… ghost of a being that filled me with existential dread. It was different from the experience I had with the therapist’s ghost, but it felt like a similar source. ”
“The Gongtide got jealous of our Gui?” Boyband said.
I shrugged. “It’s an idea.”
“Sounds credible to me,” Abbas said.
I nodded. “Right, but we need to keep searching for a better understanding. Any hope that the thing is gone, Ral?”
She touched the hardware, her eyes and fingertips flashed with light. “It’s dead.”
“So we have to trap the next one that comes for us?” Boyband asked. “Cause you know another will.”
“Do we really need to understand them?“ Abbas asked.