Good thing I had a world map memorized. Barely under three hours later we appeared in a place I had seen pictures of before, and was occasionally featured in some of the movies I liked, a wide, wood-bordered gravel path next to an interesting square wooden lamppost in a place called the Meiji Shrine.


    “Sure I can...Wait? What?”


    I looked around. I couldn’t see the shrine from here, but it was pretty wooded, away from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo even if it was technically right in the middle. “Welcome home?”


    She jumped up and wrapped her arms around my neck, planting a big kiss right in the middle, “Thank you!” she said breathlessly. “This is not my home, but it’s so close. I’ve been here before, this is the Meiji Shrine! It was… so fast.”


    I smiled a little, “Fast for you, but once I realized that you had a time freeze during transit, I just went ahead and finished the trip. It wasn’t instant like it felt for you, but it was pretty fast.” yeah, fast enough to see the waves whipping by at three times the speed of sound. Wow. And because I was doing the detached from reality dance, I didn’t even have to worry about a sonic boom. Sure, a real teleporter would have probably gotten us there instantly, but I realized that my forty-two-foot radius could have carried just about anything with us, up to and including an armored truck or Kendra’s new body. It would have cost a little more energy, but it would have been worth it.


    “That was fast,” Kendra whispered in my ear.


    You could detect that?


    “Yes, like you, I was a detached spirit… shutting down my motion didn’t stop my thoughts, although it did slow them down a bit without access to your machine’s network. It was a lot like astral projection, but a bit slower. Not that I can do that right now, you need a body to anchor you if you go astral. No silver thread, no life.


    “But while we were transiting, your aura protected us. I can’t say how it works, exactly, but that is why people do not die when you transit with them. I was protected as well. It appears that the limitation is both your intent and your radius. The plus side is that a teleport tracker won’t be able to hitchhike on your transit or read and exploit your teleportation signature. Because it is not teleportation. However, an essence tracker will be able to follow you, but they will have to do it at their own speed, rather than simply re-opening your teleportation tunnel.”


    Is that a thing?


    “It was in my day. I wouldn’t be surprised if it still is, but that the information is carefully protected. At the time, it was as common a toy for widgeteers as a self-propelled grappling hook. One of the items I strongly recommend you invest in, by the way… I have several very good designs that I remember, but you might need to re-engineer them. Unlike you, without databanks to work from, my memory can be… less than perfect.”


    I chuckled, she was absolutely right. Transit was an incredible movement power, but it was also hugely expensive at both ends. A power like flight could come in handy, but even a swingline, when you could control momentum as I can, might be worth its weight in gold.


    “Uh oh…” was all I heard from Akyo before there were two alphas, one hovering overhead on a column of flame, and the other one standing in front of us dressed… well… remarkably like a version of rendition’s chosen outfit. What was surprising, was that they were both male, and both clearly wearing what looked like a thicker version of Contraweave, or maybe less-bulky Proxovan. Then again, this was Japan, they were probably wearing something made here exclusively.


    The one on the ground started talking slowly, but I could only make out every third word, between my lack of familiarity with much spoken Japanese beyond scripted anime, and the muffling effect of his featureless mask.


    After a moment, words appeared in my HUD.


    “You are being detained for violating Japanese sovereign territory. We require you to accompany us to Kokushi station where you will be questioned and submit to a full security screening before you can be permitted into the territory.”


    subtitles?


    “I speak Japanese. If you like, I can translate it back through your suit speakers. Kokushi means… umm… like ‘patriotic knights’ or something close to it,” she replied.


    So the local superteam, probably?


    “Likely, but the Japanese are not as… conflicted about their submission to government authority as most Americans. ‘Team America Alpha Police’ would be laughed at as overly gung-ho, but here it would probably be a lot more respected. Especially since, here, at least in the eighties, alphas were considered part of the peacekeeping and military force instead of being separated.”


    “I recommend accompanying them unless you have a criminal record they can access.”


    I nodded, “No, I think for now it would be best to let Terracotta do the talking.” and then on suit speakers,“Umm… sure. I wasn’t aware I was violating any laws.” which Akyo quickly translated.


    Kendra added, “You zipped in at Mach three, appeared in one of their most beloved monuments, and are wearing battle armor more advanced than anything they have ever seen. They probably detected the energy from your transit, and have been on alert for at least ten minutes as you tripped their early warning systems.”


    I nodded, I noticed the two in front of me, and off behind some trees, there appeared to be a third alpha… carefully masking their presence, but I could detect his chaotic essence as easily as they probably detected my transit signature.


    “Terracotta, do these guys usually travel in groups of three?”


    She nodded, and I glanced over at where the third guy was hidden. All cards on the table, right?


    I gave a little half-martial bow which the guy in front of me, I think reflexively, returned, although due to the full coverage mask, I couldn’t see his facial expression. He either didn’t navigate with vision, or it was one-way permeable around his eyes, but the flying guy had a more normal-looking half-mask. I did notice, however, a low-level electrical charge along both of their suits, and I had to wonder if it was some sort of defense… active defense automation, perhaps? I was very interested. “Sure.”


    Akyo said something, and I very carefully listened. With my memory, I should be able to pick up the language quickly, it always worked before, but it depended a lot on context and how much they were willing to speak, but at least with Akyo translating, I was picking up words and phrases fairly quickly.


    ***


    “They want us to remove our armor,” Akyo announced once we had been delivered by something resembling a hovertruck, but with interesting differences, to a tall, armored building among a bunch of other tall, armored buildings. They had kind of a cool logo of what looked like Godzilla with a slash through it, which let me know a little more about what this group was known for. I am betting that in Tokyo, monster hunters were not where you sent superhero washouts.


    I shook my head, “Please tell them that respectfully, no can do. My outfit doesn’t have any armaments, because I don’t need them. I take it that the identity law isn’t a thing here?”


    She spoke rapidly, only to get a slower reply. She shook her head and pointed to her mask, and then my helmet. “Can you take off the helmet?”


    I nodded and removed my helmet. One of the uniformed officers who met us made it as if he was going to take it from me, but I pulled away. “Tell him no touchy. I’m not armed, but I won’t be responsible for his hands melting off.” Besides, I still wore my mask and holoprojector.


    A quick conversation later, the uniform backed off a little, pointing us to what absolutely had to be an interrogation room. He invited us to take seats, but I noticed that both of the visible costumes were standing behind us as we sat down. After a few moments another guy in a suit, who I figured to be a higher-ranked civilian or maybe plainclothes officer, stepped in and took a seat across from us.


    “Do you speak Japanese?” he asked. His accent was a little on the thick side, but still understandable.


    Akyo nodded, but I shook my head.


    He quickly took our alpha handles and then got right into it.


    “Right. You have violated Japanese airspace and appeared in the Sheiji shrine. Your speed was excessive, but since you were dematerialized there was no sonic damage, however, you did set off the early warning alarms and forced us to mobilize a class six emergency.


    “Yeah, I’m sorry for that. Most of my country only has early warning systems like that for coastal Kaiju or trouble zones, and they don’t usually pick up alpha movement unless we have a known threat. I am just here to visit my girlfriend’s family, and maybe see if the local forces are interested in a few bits of tech I have invented. You have my sincere apologies for the ruckus.”


    “Ruckus?”


    I smiled slightly, “Trouble my appearance has caused. I was caught by surprise by your comprehensive and advanced Japanese detection systems. The technology is frankly amazing, and I am a tinker, not a widgeteer.”


    He glanced at Akyo, and she said something, at which point he nodded, “Tinker means technology that will not stop working or disappear, which uses technology and research that we may reproduce without alpha powers?”


    I nodded, “Right, exactly that. It is alpha tech, but that is only because the manufacturing processes haven’t been discovered yet, that I can synthesize. If I can interest your authorities, they are welcome to attempt to deconstruct or reverse-engineer the technology, and since I am pledged to fighting kaiju, if you can successfully create your own versions, I would respect you for it.”


    He muttered something to Akyo, and she smiled brightly and nodded. From context, and the few words I understood, it sounded like he was asking if I was for real.


    “Weapons?”


    I shook my head, “Not my specialty. Defenses. Tokyo has a reputation of being more than a match for any foolish monster that threatens it, I simply wish to reduce the damage, and casualties, such incursions inevitably produce.”


    He laughed, “You are… power armored hero, and you do not use weapons?”


    I shook my head, “No. the power which allows me to create these things also may be used offensively. I smiled a little, “Like an open-hand warrior?”


    He nodded, “What powers? What offensive powers?”


    I sighed heavily and glanced at Akyo, “That’s going to be a little hard to explain.”


    She nodded. And smiled encouragingly, “You have been doing very well so far.”


    I shrugged, and held out my hand, slowly. “Quigong? Sato Method? Ki manipulation?” I glanced back at the two alphas. “I could demonstrate, but I imagine that they would take that poorly since it can be impressive.”


    He glanced at the two costumed heroes and said something quickly. They looked nervous and ready but nodded. “Will this be...destructive?”


    I shook my head and smiled, “No. but it can be used for many different things.”


    This part was actually easy. At this point, one point of energy was an absolute pittance. It should be impressive, in a moment a small fire appeared in my palm, replaced by a crystal of ice, and then a tiny but visible static charge traveled along the palm of my hand, followed by a pile of silicate sand, which rose up and swirled around in a small whirlwind over my hand.


    “Fire. Water. Void. Earth. Air.” I stated. And then brushed my hands, “Godai, I think it is called. Ki?”This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    He nodded, his brows raised. “That is… impressive. Is this alpha?”


    I shrugged, “It was alpha, once. It is not anymore.”


    “Can this be taught?”


    I smiled a little, and Akyo actually blushed under her mask. “I know a way to teach it, but that is not the only way. Unfortunately, I am but a mouse. My methods only work for a rare few, and I am not looking for a reason to undermine Japanese culture. I am only here to meet my beautiful girl’s father, and perhaps spend time with her family, and if fortune smiles upon me, show your scientists how to create a fifty-foot-tall battle mech.”


    “Battler mech?” surprisingly he looked a little confused. Come on, Japan was the HOME of the concept, so I answered, “Gundam? Gurren Lagaan? Mospeada?”


    “Oh, Mecha. You must be very strong, to carry Gundam mecha in your pocket,” he smirked. I guess he was having fun at the stupid Gaijin weeb’s expense. One of the guys behind me snorted and covered his mouth.


    I shrugged, “No. I make them. Build them. Train people to fight in them.” I waved at my suit, and then at Akyo’s very delightful armor. “I make armor. Battle armor. For humans, for alphas.”


    He nodded, suddenly serious. “Alpha tinker. You are employed by the United States Military?”


    I shook my head, “No, I am in school. Academy. The military requires jumping through certain hoops, but monsters are killing people NOW. Gaining a reputation in Japan for crafting armor may open doors around the world for making things that can help destroy Kaiju or keep people safe.”


    Hologram. On top of the table please, a quick schematic for finished suits marks one through five, and a prospective battle mech alpha schematic in suit memory. Thank you. You might also display the concept art for Jaeger Alpha, but I doubt that they will take it seriously. It’s too big, but man it looks impressive.


    In front of me appeared, slowly rotating, the skeletal schematics for all of my current battle suits. Six and seven were not displayed, because a girl’s gotta have her secrets. In addition, dwarfing them all, was a skeleton frame version of Battle Mech Alpha, the one I’d spent three days designing when I was supposed to be negotiating, in all of its… intimidating glory.


    “Not enough room,” Kendra said.


    I smiled and pointed one of my palm displays at the floor, and a bigger hologram… one that reached from the floor to the roof, displayed the giant concept version of the super mech, the one I had nicknamed Jaeger from the movies. It was… beyond intimidating, to be honest, and it was not even in scale, since, if it had scaled the same as the tabletop mecha, it would have reached well into the second floor. 350 feet of pure destruction, and I had designed the rendition to look like it, along with a tiny human standing next to it to show its size.


    He stared at it, speechless for a moment. “You are serious. Your armor, is the same technology?”


    I shrugged, “No. this armor is not...enhanced. This is a costume, for an alpha. Do you use power class?”


    He nodded, and I glanced back at the two men behind me, who were clearly class six. “I am class six. Like them.”


    Akyo shrugged, but I could clearly tell she disagreed, although I hadn’t been reclassified since I had broken through. I knew full well that Graviton could turn me into a thin smear, and he was class eight, so I guessed, at best, I might be class six or maybe upgraded to class seven. I mean, does being able to create something like the Jaeger given enough time and raw materials qualify you for being labeled for the destruction it could potentially cause? I was not sure, because even a class one human can push a button to launch a Q-bomb or put together a gun with a 3d printer and a few parts.


    After a moment, one of the uniforms came in and whispered something to the suit, who widened his eyes and then nodded, quickly. “You are Blueprint? Killer of Orcules?”


    I shook my head, “No, the giant woman you saw fighting was the killer. I simply assisted her as needed.” Damned video.


    He smiled brightly, “Then, please be welcome in Japan. We will issue temporary work visas for the defense ministry. The defense ministry is very friendly to foreign inventors… we learned long ago the American lesson of take the best and leave the rest. And then make it better.”


    “Three requests. The first is that you do not start trouble. You are a powerful alpha, please do not make us send our own powerful alphas to subdue you. The second is that if your visa expires, you report to the authorities to get it renewed. The third is that you respond to alerts and attempt to coordinate with local forces.”


    “Alerts? Like Kaiju?”


    He nodded, “Yes, you are not law enforcement. You will not interfere, but a kaiju is a threat to everyone, so we would ask that you… assist. Preferably the same way you did in that video.”


    I nodded, “Not a problem.”


    At his questioning look, Akyo responded, “He would be... and pleased to be thought worthy of assisting.” Right. Idiom.


    He nodded, all smiles now, “In a short time, the Ministry of Defense may send a runner to contact you if you wish to consider applying for demonstrations.”


    I sighed. “I am a builder. As you said, I would have to be insanely strong in order to carry a giant robot in my pocket. I would need access to materials and at least a few days before I can display a prototype.”


    “Materials? Expensive?” at which point, Akyo giggled, distracting his attention. She shook her head, and said “No, he needs… and… junk? Garbage? Metal waste. He is a strange alpha. He eats… … like Fukushima?”


    The guy smiled broadly, “You are a radiation eater? Please expect word even sooner from the defense minister, and perhaps from teams.”


    He quickly got information from Akyo as to how we could be contacted, and where, and I barely understood it, but his sudden attitude change was a little astonishing.


    ***


    One of the biggest surprises was that Tokyo didn’t have a wall. According to Akyo, that was because against the bigger Kaiju, a wall would be useless, and they frequently got up to class six or seven kaiju. A few times, even a class eight. There were a lot fewer swarms, but one or two big boys attacking at the same time was not impossible.


    Their assault philosophy involved fast-response artillery, and alphas meeting the kaiju in the water, before they got a chance to come in and lay waste to the city, the way we had met Orcules. On the other hand, when one did get through, they tended to do a lot of damage, and much of Tokyo had retreated into underground arcologies, much like Empire City. Instead of wreckage and wastelands of a secondary city overhead, however, they had redecorated much of the overhead as parks, shrines, and monuments, interspersed with a few gleaming surface cities of heavily armored buildings.


    Yeah, apparently my video had gotten popular here too, I had no idea how, but rumors and news traveled faster than sound, and it was likely that regular messenger teleporters had brought it here along with tons of other media and correspondence. Apparently ‘white boy finally defeats kaiju in classic Japanese fashion’ was a big viral video waiting to happen.


    She was willing to explain their sudden friendliness, though. I mean, a class six that can beat up one of the big boys was truly dangerous. Class seven and eight alphas COULD defeat me, but it might cause a lot of damage, and it was easier since I appeared peaceful and didn’t cackle like a mad scientist, to treat me like an honored guest.


    That, and the Japanese defense ministry really was friendly to foreign inventors. Anything that could give them an edge, both against Kaiju and against the world, was eagerly jumped on. Apparently, the word ‘girlfriend’ meant a bit more here, as in potentially very friendly relations or marriage, and a powerful guy like Blueprint maybe marrying and possibly emigrating to be with his lovely local girl? Sure, the Japanese were known for critical racism, but apparently, even by Japanese standards, my cultivator physique was considered extremely attractive.


    So yeah, smiles and open arms right up until I made some move indicating unfriendliness. The Japanese were an intensely pragmatic people, and their nation was in a very vulnerable position, so any opportunity had to be seized with both hands.


    Ironically, unlike the US, the crash and the Kaiju waves pretty much marked the end of the Yakuza as independent organizations. The joke was that they became the government, but it was more like a common threat that wiped out the us vs them philosophy that had dominated the Japanese underworld. There were still criminals, there was still an underworld, but the level of violence had been dramatically reduced. Like the coastal US, you could just as easily find a tattooed gangster wielding fireballs alongside government-sponsored teams against the great enemies, and because it happened more frequently, there was a lot of bonding going on.


    In essence, the Yakuza families had gone mainstream, because there was a hell of a lot more profit in being friendly… the low level thugs and drug dealers? Let them deal with the dregs of society and tiny profit margins. The leaders and organized elements went where the money was, and the money was in alphas.


    It was only a shame that the Farmer families couldn’t have the same deals, but there was just too vast a gulf, and the farmer’s income stream depended on strangling the food and drug market. They would never be able to see eye-to-eye with the city governments, and the only place where they could, and did, cooperate was with the monster hunters, which protected the city, freeholder, and Farm Clan alike.


    After an interminable hovercab ride, I found myself in front of what Akyo described as the Nakamura clan compound. I couldn’t help but wonder if I was going to get to see Alan Rickman falling from a skyscraper, but no such luck… the compound had an old-fashioned ornate wall surrounding it, but the tallest building was barely two stories. Akyo assured me that the Kitsune clan that owned it had a vast arcology beneath its park and sand-garden-speckled grounds, but they had never built an office building in old New York.


    An arcology that they clearly shared with her now-named Tokamura clan, the Huli Jing that had accepted amnesty among the Kitsune.


    I wasn’t really sure what sort of politics was going on in China, and to be honest, I wasn’t really buying into the whole ‘they started the crash’ nonsense anymore, either. The crash was the ultimate ‘fuck around and find out’ result, or FAFO, and we definitely found out. Whether the Q-Bombs were launched by China, Russia, the US, or Israel was pretty much irrelevant now, since we were all pretty much in the same boat and had been since the eighties.


    However, if other factions in China of the Huli-Jing were really encouraging the slow corruption of Earth into a chaotic wasteland, that really WAS a problem, and one that the slowly-growing core of people who rejected the chaotic power would, sooner or later, have to deal with. It wasn’t a nation, race, or religious problem, it was a survival problem.


    “These Huli-Ji that support Chaos, are they like a cult? Or just stupid?” I asked Akyo.


    She sighed. “Kind of a combination. My father thinks they are just Foolish. Cao-Pao, the nine-tailed mistress of fire, has claimed that she’s spoken with the Jade Emperor of heaven and that he says it’s the dawn of a new age of heroes.


    “She says that the Earth will expand back to nine million Li, and immortals, dragons, phoenixes, and demons will again walk the lands, humanity will return to an age of Cultivators and peasantry, and spirit beasts will roam free once again. It’s… sort of ridiculous, since the legends always speak of a Xuanhuan world where the Jianghu… the eternal cultural conflict to reach the heavens, is the law of the land, but Earth was really never part of it.


    “Basically it’s like saying that the chaos portal is issuing in the world of Lord of the Rings. To me, that’s just phenomenally stupid, but to a lot of Huli-Jing, who have suffered in the thousands of years since the veil closed and Earth lost much of its free essence, it’s like telling them that they will become gods. To a Huli-Jing that’s lived a thousand years as a three-tail, it’s incredibly appealing.


    “The problem is, of course, that Cao-Pao is one of the concubines of the General, the Jade Emperor’s leader of the armies of heaven. In Western terms, he’s a bit like a cross between Mars and Ares and delights in war and suffering. He’s not truly evil, but he’s considered very ruthless and manipulative, and has his eye on the throne of Heaven, and has for a very long time. Father says that he’s more interested in using Earth’s destruction as an excuse to start a war, so Cao-Pao’s word on the matter is unreliable at best. It doesn’t help that she has a long history of schemes behind her that often involve lies and misinformation.”


    “So the tails thing is real?”


    She nodded, “Yes. Most Huli-Jing are limited in the maximum number of tails that they can achieve, and that directly relates to the amount of power they can carry. In terms of power like yours, each tail equates to a new realm, so in those terms, mortal would be one tail, body tempering two, qi condensation three, or foundation establishment four. During the veil, no one but the old monsters could ever get past two tails, and the new levels have allowed people like me to get to three tails through Chaos channeling.


    “But it’s not the same as having a true essence world. True Chaos cultivation can build you to higher ranks, but it is false level, sort of like high-powered alphas. Class eights might be as powerful as true immortals, but they are generally corrupted and can never gain a nascent soul, because Chaos energy is destructive, not formative and living.”


    “So, in short terms, the Chinese Huli-Ji have a crapton of basically class five to eight alphas running around that are really fox spirits?”


    She smiled a little, “I wouldn’t say a crap ton, since most people, whether they are true humans or demihumans, like Oni and Huli-Jing, are still limited in their potential. There will be a few, just like there are not many class eight alphas in the world, but many of them can achieve lower classes. China still has nearly a billion people living in it, which means a LOT of alphas, demihumans, and predators that appear human but are really monsters like undead and corrupted flying around.”


    I nodded, “Sometimes literally. Umm… corrupted and undead?”


    She nodded, “Vampires or Jiangshi, cursed shifters, mogwai, gu or insect demons, and various ghosts, basically China has a lot of restless dead, from hungry ghosts to drowned, many of whom can assume human form and consume the essence of the living. Corrupted are those who have chosen to host the monsters, usually gu, in order to live forever, and they are often powerful chaos energy users as well… but because their spirit link drives them crazy, they are often considered supervillains. In much of China and Southeast Asia, most males who succumb to alpha psychosis are considered corrupt. Then there are blood and demonic cultivators who take their power growth one step further, and will prey on alpha and baseline humans alike, depending on their needs.”


    She looked at me carefully, “There are also a lot of demons who are not considered innately evil but can be evil or good according to their own interests, like the Huli-Jing and the Muli, Haige, and Fuyi, or Gui Po returned who might be benign or murderous, and The Jian, who are basically… umm… immortals that can never progress, reproduce, or reincarnate.”


    “I thought a Jian was a sort of sword?”


    She smiled, “It is, but there are a lot of words with multiple meanings in China just like in English. Anyway, we need to go in and clear the guards and biometrics, which should be a lot of fun considering you are now an alpha and a foundation-establishment cultivator. I just hope that the Kitsune are not too worried about letting someone like you into their domain.”