“Focus on the top of your dantian. Hone your focus to a tiny point, a single speck of light on a boiling star, a singularity, and grasp it. Then pull it upward.”

We were in the lot of land attached to the church — the grass was full of weeds, but it was still regularly cut and maintained, with only the hardest and fastest growing plants popping up through the grass line. Under the moonlight, the lot was basically one gigantic shadow, stray light reaching from the street beyond the church. Wind blew over the tiny parcel of land whenever a car drove by. I sat on one of the decrepit benches in the lot, arms folded, watching Kim try desperately to align and attune with the aspect of the moon.

“You make it sound so easy.” Kim stopped, pulling out of the forms. “It’s like grabbing onto wet soap. It just slips right through my fingers.” Kim closed her eyes, slowly raising her spear to perform Slaying the Dragon Swallowing the Moon. She focused her breathing, moving as if in slow motion as she raised the spear. Then she thrust it. “Hiyah! Oh, I got it! Its going — “ She set the butt of her spear down, then clutched at her chest with her other hand, making a sound like retching. “What the… fuck…” Kim doubled over, clawing at her chest.

I raised my eyebrows. She dropped her spear, and it clattered to the ground. This early on, the chance of Qi Deviation was minimal. I walked to her side, sliding the spear away with a foot, holding my hands behind my back.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, maintaining at least a foot of distance… in case she really was entering deviation.

“It… hurts.” She gasped. “The… the whirlpool, its absorbing everything.” Kim wretched, speaking between panting breaths.

I tilted my head. At my current level, it was impossible for me to do… anything, really. I couldn’t even perceive Qi very far out of my body, let alone manipulate Qi connected directly to someone else’s dantian. If Kim had to rebuild her cultivation base after today… so be it. Kim gasped again.

“It’s back.” She said, her voice already sounding better. “Came back out the other side. It’s like…” She stopped to catch her breath. “It’s like there is a second dantian inside of me.”

This seemed like an opportunity. There were some hints that the mana that Awakened used was little more than another form of Qi, and that they interacted somehow. Perhaps Kim could gain more power by using the other in her cultivation.

I stepped back, kicking the spear towards her.

“Then you’ll have to attune them both.”

Kim moved under the moonlight, flowing through the five Lunar Forms. The movements improved to where they seemed to become natural, quick and full of violence, like a splash destroying an image in a reflection. At other times she turned slowly, like ripples flowing through water, disturbing a placid lake after you dropped a rock into it. Qi responded. Silver rain glowed around her, Qi condensing before falling down her arms and shoulders, coating her in a cloak of dim moonlight. It pooled on the surrounding ground, flowing across the grass until it dissipated into mist that rose away from her.

She seemed totally oblivious to it. At least, she hadn’t commented on it. She completed a form, thrusting forward, her spear exploding with silver light. I heard a car slow down in the street behind us, and I turned to look. There was a warning of sirens as a police car pulled to the curb.

Kim maintained her forms, oblivious to the world around her. She was probably close to complete attunement, if she hadn’t finished already. I walked towards the opening between the building and the fence.

A cop stepped towards me from the road, resting one hand on a radio and one on his side at my approach. I tilted my head back, looking down at him. He wore a mishmash of a uniform — there were definitely some upgrades since the last time I had seen a cop. He sported actual armor that covered the left side of his chest with matte black diamond shapes. They seemed to project a barely visible mesh of lines around his side. I no doubt some kind of Awakened artifact or manufactured good.

He looked me up and down.

“Now, what’s going on out here?” The cop asked, stepping up to the property with confidence. He was chewing gum — loudly, with his mouth open. “You setting off fireworks around here? Got a call that…” He asked, trailing off as he peered around me at where I knew Kim continued her forms. The light from her completing each one flashed over me.

“No.” I replied.

“Do you uh…” He finally broke from looking at Kim, jumping back towards me. “…have permission to use this property?”

I looked slowly towards Kim, then back to the cop. “Yes.”

“I’m gonna… have to ask you to pick this backup in the daytime. The light is causing a disturbance. If that’s alright with you, Mr, uh…”

“Gold.” I said. “We’ll be out of here in a few minutes. No worries.”

“Right… right.” He replied, walking back to his car. As he walked, I heard him whisper grumbling complaints about Awakened. His radio flickered with static. I watched him, not wanting to turn my back on a stranger, until he drove out of sight. With a last shout behind me, Kim stopped. I turned, walking towards her.

Kim panted, clutching the haft of the spear with both hands, one knee in the dirt. Cautiously, she freed a hand from the spear and ran it through the silver light that had pooled around her ankles. It burst apart at her touch, an illusion of solidity dispelled into fading smoke.

I offered her a hand to stand up, and she stared up at me, before rising on her own two feet. She was still panting.

“I’m gonna be sore as fuck in the morning. What was that?” Kim asked, rubbing her eyes.

“Flow state.” I replied, putting my hands back in my pocket.

Kim stretched, then yawned, then looked up, blinking. Then she started walking towards the church. I followed her without comment. She fumbled around with the keys, hand shaky, before finding one that opened the door to the inside, and I followed her to the kitchen, where she raided the pantry and made herself a PB&J. I leaned against the counter, observing her.

“Do you think you’ve completed your attunement?” I asked, leaning back.

Kim looked at me, then at her sandwich, then offered it to me. “Do you want one?”

“No, thanks.”

She rubbed her eyes again. “So what the hell is flow state?”

“A state of becoming something. You became fully immersed in the forms until all other thoughts folded away.”

“Like meditating.” Kim said around a mouth full of food. She swallowed. Then she nodded at herself. “Okay. Makes sense. I think if my rank is going to increase at all from — “ she waved at Rain,” — this magic kung fu, then it’s going to be right now. I’m gonna get an evaluation tomorrow. Tonight, gonna crash on the church’s couch. Feel free to use the floor.” Kim said, taking another bite of her sandwich and walking away.

I stared after her. She was clearly fine, having stepped through the attunement without deviation, despite the qi’s strange interaction with the Awakened abilities she possessed. There was no more reason for me to stay here. I made my way to the street. In the five years that had passed, my driver’s license had lapsed.

This suburban edge of the city felt dead. Plants overgrew the neighborhoods, taking over lawns. Buildings sported scars — broken windows, cheaply patched roofs. Streetlights flickered, roads showing wear where years of tires and a lack of maintenance had eroded them. There was an unusual silence, even for the dead of night, broken only by cars passing through. Like by divine providence, the bus arrived at my stop only a moment before I did.

I watched the city crawl by in the windows, the city more and more alive towards its rich, downtown center. These streets never slept, full of cars even in the dead of night, the industries beyond the gates always moving. I left the bus and headed inside.