~~~

Avoiding scenery was usually something Miho was good at, given the fact that he’d grown up in a village close to a river, a forest and the money shot of Mt Fuji, but the window in his current room…that was a different matter.

A hypnotic matter, in fact, at least for the first half of the night.

Every time he tried to lie down and focus on the kiddie books Ya Ying had given him, a sudden spark would light up in his brain, reminding him that he was in space, above all the planets, in something called the Butterfly Nebula.

And then he would have no choice but to get up and stand by the open window panels again. To soak it all in. To put colour to the incessant brain poke.

Then, after counting out all the domes and some of the closer stars, another part of his brain would say, ‘enough,’ or, ‘stop, it’s not real,’ and he’d quickly be back on the futon, reading one of the books.

After doing this routine about seventeen times over three hours, with four different books, he finally put his foot down and stared out at the Huxx colony for fifteen minutes straight, no blinking, no distractions, until the whole thing became dark and utterly prosaic.

Just a regular night sky, he told himself, collapsing back down onto the futon, pulling over the book on different demon types and opening to the giant sketch of a Huxx scientist on page seven.

‘Innately rational and fair-minded, the Huxx was one of the earliest types to develop on Yap-Ohk and has been heavily involved in all the major technological advances of the last three centuries.’

Miho stopped and looked up, following the flickers of the wandering blue light bugs on the ceiling.

The Huxx are innately rational?

Well, it matched well enough with Ya Ying, they were themselves, as one individual sample, very calm and measured in what they said, but innately?

His parents might agree with that word, but not Kentaro 2 or River Bitch or Spiritual Chiyo. They always said people were constructed, nothing as a baby then bit by bit, experience by experience, something as a grown adult.

Where did he stand on it?

Constructed or dipped in personality mud by a Shinto god?

Miho put the thought onto the light of the okiandon, hoping for some inspiration, some definite answer, and then gradually realising that it didn’t really matter either way.

‘Vohyangah…’ he muttered, reading out the title on the next page. ‘An ingenious yet arrogant type that believes [wrongly] they were the first to establish settlements on Yap-Ohk. They have certain mental skills that allow them to persuade others that something is either a good or bad thing to do. However, they also like to breed exclusively within their own type and any Vohyangah who defies this is often punished harshly [killed or exiled].’

Miho stopped, then went back and read the paragraph again, squinting at some of the more difficult vocabulary.

This was a kids book?

They must have very advanced reading skills…unless kid has a different meaning in the Huxx culture.

He turned the page again, and again, and again, passing some types like the green demon and the fox that he recognised, and others that looked more like sea creatures or reptiles than actual sentient beings…until, near the end of the book, he came across his dear Sessskat.

‘Possessing both a primal cunning and tribal moral code, Sessskat live in two separate continents, split between those who wish to co-exist with other types and better themselves culturally, and those who are isolationist and violent. Many attempts have been made by Huxx outreach centres to build schools and hospitals in deprived Sessskat areas, as well as the recent exchange initiatives, where ten year work visas have been granted in Huxx space colonies. However, due to the aforementioned tribal system, this scheme has met with limited success, with only seventy-two Sessskat workers relocated to Huxx companies, and seven of those turning out to be anti-social thugs/sex pests.’

That’s really a Sessskat, wondered Miho, looking over at the okiandon and, when that didn’t give an answer, the blue light flies on the ceiling.

But…Aya is nothing like any of that. Yeah, a bit cynical sometimes, a bit distant…but she’s not an anti-social sex pest. Or violent.

A bubble popped up by the side of Miho’s head, with the eight-tailed fox wagging its paw, telling him that Aya was wanted for murder.

No, that was just the fox talking, and that creature was a temple of lies. Aya wasn’t violent or wanted for murder or…here.

Miho glanced at the door panel, his fingers flicking ahead to the next page on his brain’s behalf.

Was it that easy for her to leave?

Had she at least waited to see that he would recover first?

The door panel gave no answer and neither did the two guards apparently sitting outside in the corridor, so he nodded at the futon cover and gave his own. Yes, she waited, and, yes, she would come back to see him. Eventually.

And…if she really were wanted for murder, then there’s no way she would’ve come back to this world. And even less of a way that Ya Ying would’ve just let her saunter off out of…this space colony…thing.

His fingers turned another page, the bright purple of the poorly-sketched image pulling him back into reading mode.

‘Atashhka…comprised biologically of two variations of exotic [purple or pink] gas, this type is the prime example of the Huxx proverb my island, my beach, my rock-pool. Strong and brutal in ancient times due to their difficult-to-attack physiology, they gradually lost their grip on their empire through a combination of incompetence, ignorance and the invention of defensive-shielding that made their natural gas assaults practically harmless.’

Wah, harmless. Miho whistled at the picture on the page, a purple wave of vapour hitting a wall of…something…in front of a Huxx scientist. Or a Huxx warrior. It wasn’t actually that clear from the picture. It just looked like Ya Ying in a pale blue yukata.

The one he’d met…according to Akira…had massacred all his fellow ashigaru…just by swirling around a bit.

Tried to kill the two of them too.

Harmless...

Shaking his head, he read on, letting out an ‘ah’ when he got to the last section.

‘Stuck with their intrinsic ego-centric view, some Atashhka have travelled out to fringe dwarf planets in the Yap-Ohk system and attempted to recreate their previous empire, while others head through the portal and assert themselves on the human type that has no shielded defence [as of yet]. The only thing stopping them from complete anarchy on that side, of course, is Huxx [and some other types] supervision and control.’

Supervision and control. Yeah, that seemed to be working well.

Miho took another look at the picture of the Atashhka slicing apart a human farmer then closed the book.

What to do now?

He still wasn’t tired at all, and the wound on his chest looked like it had never even been there. In fact, he felt so alert and fresh that he could probably go outside and have a little walk, see if the rest of the building resembled the ryokan style of this room.

Judging by the dome structures in the distance, it seemed unlikely, and the rogue part of his brain confirmed it.

This room has been crafted just for you, it told him.

And the blue flecks are a holographic flaw.

Huh?

Holo what?

He blinked several times, hoping that it would encourage an explanation from the rogue voice but instead it just annoyed it into yelling get up, walk out into the corridor, do something.

‘Was going to do that anyway,’ he muttered to the air near his head, then threw off the futon covers, grabbed the white yukata with Miho misspelled as Miha on the back, and tiptoed up to the door panel.

There were no speaking noises outside, but he could just make out the faint sound of music…possibly in another part of the building.

Not a small place then.

He put his fingers on the edge of the panel and pulled it across half an inch. Then a full inch. Then another inch so he could peek out.

As Ya Ying had promised, there was the sleeping figure of Joooon on a seat opposite – face dipped, bright orange clip in her hair, knuckle as a fingernail substitute in her mouth - a wall behind her that appeared to be glowing green, and a domed light on the ceiling that was…ah, okay…that was providing the green light effect.

Just an okiandon in another form, he assured himself.

No huge difference.

Waiting a few more minutes to confirm that Joooon was in fact asleep and not just looking down with incredibly narrowed eyes, Miho pulled the door panel a quarter of the way across and stepped out.

The tatami ceased instantly, replaced by a cold material that also looked kind of like stone…and his feet arched up in discomfort.

Zori, zori, he whispered to himself, looking around for zori or any other footwear that would do a similar job.

But there was nothing.

Except the things on the end of Joooon’s feet.

And he couldn’t take them cos then she’d get cold and he’d feel bad for stealing them and his mother would appear in a bubble and scold him for it.

Nope, barefoot or back to the futon, those were the choices.

Putting his feet down flat and taking several, deep endurance breaths, Miho checked Joooon’s eyes one last time then started walking left.

Prepare for weirdness, he warned himself, giving side eye to the chaotic Huxx symbols on the wall, and you’ll be fine.

~~~

Turned out it was both sound advice and redundant as the shock-green corridor Miho was sneaking down, with bizarro words like Cell Rejuvenation and Pre-Terminal Transition Zone on bright-lit signs, soon became mundane and repetitive enough for him to consider it normal.

Or normal-ish.

As in, not sufficient for him to drop to the floor in terror, clawing at the stone tiles, weeping like a slapped Heian aristocrat.

No, he was quite calm.

Weirdly so.

Maybe it was the kids technology book he’d skimmed through earlier?

Of course, he couldn’t remember the details, but the pictures were still in his head, and when the music in the walls turned into a series of chimes and then a husky Huxx voice, he could at least guess that it was some mega-advanced method of sound transference. No idea how it worked, but it was a better guess than, kuso, there’s someone very loud trapped behind the walls.

And when he made it to the end of the corridor, there was only a brief moment of panic at seeing two Huxx figures in blue yukatas, the wider one showing the other some kind of rectangular device and laughing.

Is that the TV thing I read about? Miho wondered as he walked quietly past, getting no attention at all from the Huxx he was peering at. Machine that shows moving pictures at the same speed as a real life scene. Sure looked like it.

He kept walking, ignoring the Security Plaza sign at the next junction, following the turn towards the Communal Zone at the one after, all the while trying to figure out how the demons…or the Huxx…whoever invented it…had managed to put real life into such a small object. The kids book had failed to explain any minutiae, offering the excuse that most adults didn’t know how it worked either, but that was weird to Miho as…how could you not be curious?

It was a persistent thought that latched so tightly onto his brain that he didn’t notice when he entered the Communal Zone and, as moon followed sun followed moon, bumped straight into the hip of another Huxx, this one dressed in a white yukata like his own.

‘Typical Vog…’ muttered the Huxx, dusting invisible germs off their sleeve and shuffling over to a nearby couch, which they then collapsed face first onto before rolling in flailed bursts onto the stone floor.

‘Are you okay?’ asked Miho, rushing over, holding out a hand.

‘Stupid hospital seating.’

‘Do you need help?’

‘Get off, Vog…’ The Huxx swatted away Miho’s whole arm and crawled over to another couch, pulling himself up and then laying completely still, face aimed diagonally up at the ceiling.

Miho followed the trail and eked out a vacant, ‘ah.’

That must be the cinema screen, he thought, sitting down on the edge of the couch that had ejected the Huxx and staring up at the images on the large, flat rectangle hooked up near the top of the wall.

Unbelievable…strange…familiar.

Strange cos of what it was, physically, as a machine, yet familiar because of the human man smoking some kind of herbal stick on the screen. And then the Atashhka swirling in through the window and forming itself into a beautiful, dark-skinned woman, telling the human in a language that wasn’t Huxx but still one that Miho completely understood, ‘I shouldn’t be here.’

Then staring at the human for nearly a full minute before lunging forward and eating his face. Or kissing it. One of the two.

Wah, was this really happening…somewhere else…at that same moment?

Miho sunk back into the couch, glancing left and right for other voyeurs, then closing one eye as the scene changed and the kissing progressed to full-on sex, with the Atashhka’s top half blurring into lilac mist and swirling manically around the elevated futon.

‘You move very quietly,’ said a voice to the side, almost making him jump back through the cushion of the couch.

‘Wah…where did you-…’

‘And quite a distance too.’

Miho opened his mouth to finish his own question, but quickly gave up when he realised the answer was obvious. The more important question was, what would she do now?

As if reading his thoughts, Joooon folded her left arm across her stomach, muttered at the TV screen on the wall, then sat down on the metal chair next to Miho’s couch.

‘Sorry…you were asleep…and I wanted to take a walk…’

‘It is impressive,’ she said, eyes fixed on the TV.

‘What is?’

‘That you got this far…to a TV…without having a mental break.’

‘Mental break?’

‘There probably is a precedent for it…a returning Vohyangah, or an amnesia case perhaps…but I can’t think of any. Not without a computer search.’

Miho vaguely followed what Joooon was saying, and unintentionally stressed the point by looking at her lips as she spoke, but there was no real answer he could give, so he just matched her head angle, mumbled yeah, then focused on the TV.

Nothing much had changed.

Purple swirls, naked man, a piercing whistling sound…

It was either the same sex scene as before or had transitioned into a whole new one, both feeling strange to him as sex was typically a closeted thing that took place behind sealed doors, or people-less forest clearings, or on isolated river banks, or round the back of the village herbalist’s shack…never in front of other people.

But then, the rogue part of his brain tempered things, telling him it was fine, both the human and the Atashhka were actors, there was no real sex or feeling, in fact, they probably couldn’t stand each other when the cameras were off.

Wah…cameras? Off?

‘I know this serial…’ Joooon said, after the sex scene had ended and a dark alley materialised in its place. ‘Quite progressive for its time.’

‘Yeah…serial…’ repeated Miho, nodding.

‘Atashhka and Vohyangah as a couple, having sex, working together without killing each other. Only problematic part is the Sessskat villain. This one, here.’

Miho followed her finger and saw a new character emerge from the alley shadows, pointing a large paintbrush at a whimpering Huxx. It didn’t look much Aya - there were insect-like feelers coming off their neck, and lop-sided green hair – and didn’t act much like her either, using the paintbrush as a weapon to stab the Huxx through the neck.

‘We’ll never join your…club. Huxx scum.’

Miho flinched at the line, and a little bit at the violence, while Joooon let out a corridor-filling junna, plus an equally loud supplement of, ‘junna racist dogs.’

‘Keep it down, junna Vog, I’m trying to watch,’ shouted the Huxx on the other couch.

Joooon folded an arm across her stomach again, possibly the sign for irritation, then turned to Miho. ‘We should get you back…before someone important notices.’

‘To the room?’

‘Come on, on your feet, comrade.’

Miho obeyed, using the arm of the couch to help lift himself back up onto the cold floor, then wobbled a bit as the zone and all its seats and even the Huxx figure in the background that he hadn’t previously noticed started to swirl.

‘Wah…’

‘Head rush?’

‘Blurry…everything…’

A hand clamped onto the left part of his head, fixed him steady, then a second hand whacked him hard on the other side.

‘Better?’

Miho closed his eyes and rubbed his scalp, then opened them again and glared right when the Huxx called him a, ‘a junna dizzy Vog.’

‘Ignore them, Huxx are all like that when they’re sick.’

‘Junna means fuck?’

‘Yeah.’

Miho let out a long breath and nodded, allowing Joooon to take his yukata sleeve and guide him back down the corridor to his room.

On the way, they passed more Huxx, most of them dressed in blue, and one figure in a brown yukata who was apparently a green demon…Gos Usso, as Joooon called them…hired to clean on the night shift. Apart from that, there were no other types.

‘It’s weird,’ started Miho, looking past Joooon’s head at the corridor wall and recognising some of the squiggly-line symbols, ‘they show different types on their TV, but almost everyone here is Huxx.’

‘It’s not that homogenous…’

‘Homogee?’

‘Demographics-wise, it’s about 90% Huxx, but that includes the fringe colonies where it’s 100% yellow. Here, in this city, it’s about 76%. Not the worst I’ve seen.’

‘Are there many of your type…Vohyangah?’

‘Mine? Ha, yeah, a few.’

‘Do you know them or…see them?’

‘Not really, no.’

‘But…’ Another Huxx in a blue yukata passed by, eyes pinned to a board with rice-paper pinned to it. ‘Who did you come here with? Alone?’

‘Family trade. Like most Vohyangah.’

‘What’s a family trade?’

Joooon pinched him on the arm and gestured to the door on the right. ‘Your palace awaits, comrade.’

Miho looked at her hand on his sleeve and…didn’t nod…he’d done too much of that recently…but rotated his shoulders as if they were stiff all of a sudden.

‘Feeling sore?’

‘A bit.’

‘Don’t worry, it’ll pass soon.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘Vohyangah physiology. Good recovery speed.’ She smiled, then reached out a hand for his sleeve as he started to wobble again. ‘Steady…’

‘I’m a…’ Miho stuttered, trying to follow the rogue voice that was racing around the inside of his brain, shouting Vohyangah on loop.

‘Sorry, I thought you already knew.’

‘Me…’

‘But now that I think back, maybe you weren’t joking when you said all those things. Junna. Never mind. As long as I didn’t tell you directly.’

‘I’m really a…’

‘Vohyangah, yes. Like me. Similar race by the looks of things too.’ She ran a fingernail down an inch from her own cheek, emphasising…that they both had cheeks? That she looked vaguely Japanese. ‘Don’t ask me who you are though, cos I have no idea. Far as I know, we’re still waiting on your DNA check.’

‘DNA che-…’

‘Complex topic, you can look it up in the kids book. The point is, you’re Vohyangah, not human, and that’s a good thing…from what I’ve heard of the shit that happens on your side. And by the way, if Ya Ying or anyone asks, you didn’t go out tonight, okay?’

She tightened her grip on his arm, not enough to cause pain but enough to make him say, ‘okay.’

‘Now, back into your room, get some rest.’

‘Yeah…I suppose…’

‘I’ll be out here. Not sleeping. If you need me. Which you won’t. Understood?’

Miho rotated his shoulders, turned to go into the room, then turned back and added a nod for good measure.

‘I’ll take that as human for yes,’ replied Joooon, mimicking the nod at the closing panel.