SERENA: Hey there little boy, why the long face?

  JOLU: Ohhh, a girl! I am sad because I really want to join the Capsaiders but I can’t because my Scoville level isn’t high enough! I wish to train and enter the Cayenne City tournament to prove myself, but it is very far away and I don’t have a crew to journey and have misadventures with!

  SERENA: Do not worry, there is always a solution to every problem if you just believe! And how lucky, I am going to Cayenne City too! I’m Serena Serrano, let’s travel together!

  JOLU: Oh! Thank you! I am Jolu Ghostpepper, and even though you are a girl and I am a boy, I promise I will not make this weird!

  – Capsaiders! (Gekikara Senshi Kapusaidā!), S1E2

  Eunbi Kim glanced up.

  ?Do you feel that, Kumi??

  [I do, Bi,] said Eunbi’s Lecti. Kumi appeared, floating near her head and illuminating the cramped space in cheerful pink light. She took the form of a floating axolotl—Eunbi’s favorite animal—with a cloud of glowing pink sparkles always over her head. They tended to form a shape depending on Kumi’s mood, and right now they formed a question mark. [A familiar mind. It is the Red, the—the Jett. That is his real name?]

  ?That’s right. He’s in pain. In his mind.?

  [Should we help?]

  Eunbi considered. ?I wish we could, but the timing isn’t right. He’s too far away, and we’re not ready to help yet.?

  [Our job is to help, Bi.]

  ?I know, but we have our own problems. If we go to the other Guardians now, she might follow.?

  [Ooh, I know, but—ooh, this is so frustrating!] An exclamation point appeared over Kumi’s head, shifting into an angry emoji with axolotl gills.

  It couldn’t be helped. The other Guardians weren’t prepared to deal with Eunbi’s nemesis, and Eunbi wasn’t sure she’d have time to teach them before she struck. It was too great a risk, even to help the red haired man.

  He’d be fine. Probably. He wasn’t in personal danger, Eunbi was sure of that. Yes, she decided, he’d be just fine.

  Besides, Eunbi had to finish fixing this plane. Do something that wasn’t messy, something with a definite end, something to keep her oversized brain occupied.

  This had become one of her more interesting hobbies. Skidding was fun and tactile, but it didn’t require much mind power. It had been a handy skill to learn though, allowing her to travel far out into the city and make it back to the university before the minor student curfew.

  She poked along the rows of modules, tablet in hand, running diagnostics as she went. She located the one that was causing the avionics fault and set about disconnecting it.

  [Ooh, I like the clicks and the snaps!] Kumi said excitedly. [And the colorful wires!]

  Eunbi grinned. Amazing what an inquisitive fourteen-year-old could get up to with only a borrowed jumpsuit, a convincing looking nametag, a bag of tools, and a subtle aetheric suggestion to anyone she encountered that she belonged there—or, even easier, that she wasn’t their problem to deal with.

  Her own mind, always moving in several directions at once, focused a thread back on that man from a few months ago. He’d actually been concerned about her, and she felt bad about the suspicion she’d given him at first. He was just as broken as everyone else in that room, but he looked out for others. That wasn’t an easy thing; most people never did that even if they were whole. She was glad she’d stuck around to help him, even after it was clear there would be no skid race that night.

  Then he’d appeared on the news. Now, that was something else. Eunbi wished she hadn’t missed the fireworks. That cat creature? If only she could have seen it up close. That would have been an experience. To watch it move, see if its alien mind responded to her powers, try to dodge its teeth and claws. She dearly wanted to join the ranks of the sorcerers. Kumi was right; she was supposed to join the fight. But she wasn’t ready, and besides, being an LVS would be no short term hobby she could drop when it got boring. She already had college and her regular jobs to occupy her. Too much more and she simply wouldn’t have any free time at all.

  [Someone is approaching, Bi.]

  ?Thank you, Kumi. I’m on it.?

  She heard footsteps above her, near the cockpit. She quickly reached out with telekinesis and secured the avionics bay hatch, which she’d left half open.

  She pulled the line-replaceable unit and inspected it. It was part of a mind, in a sense. To the extent that a plane had a mind, anyway. Part of a system with built in redundancy to prevent a single point of failure. But unlike a mind, these pieces were modular, removable. Easily replaceable. If only the human mind were always that easy to fix.

  Especially her own.

  Wait, what was wrong with her mind? Why was she thinking that? Silly. People had thought her mind was strange since she was a baby. The only thing wrong with her mind was that it was faster than anyone else’s.

  The replacement module came online, and Eunbi ran diagnostics again. Perfect. Everything was back to normal.

  She could no longer sense anyone else poking around the plane, so she reopened the maintenance hatch with her mind and slipped out. She was glad the days were getting shorter and she was on the East edge of Gigopolis’s ninth level. Everything was already in shadow, so she was able to return to the employee lounge with minimal need to use stealth. She subtly redirected two errant airline employees who strayed close to her path, but otherwise got out without incident.

  [What now, Bi?]

  ?Now we go and check on the other one.?

  [We do not know where she is.]

  ?I mean her trail, Kumi.?

  [Ah, yes. Good idea.]

  “I’m back, Mr. Dawoud!”

  The door to the pawn shop jingled as Eunbi opened it. She had her everpresent headphones pushed down around her neck.

  The owner looked up at her, frowning, as he stooped over a broom. He had dark eyes and a salt and pepper beard. “I am sorry, dear. We are closed. As you can see, I have a mess to deal with. And I do not believe we have met before.”

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Ah, right. Most others didn’t have Eunbi’s memory.

  [A most ironic thing to forget, Bi! Ha! Irony is fun!]

  “I came in here a few months ago,” Eunbi said conversationally, tiptoeing into the store and trying not to step on anything. Most everything on the floor was already broken, but it was good to be polite.

  The place had been ransacked, and then some. Eunbi had seen the police report and recognized the address. She suspected that little, if anything, had been stolen. Unless the owner had something her nemesis was looking for.

  “Please, miss, I must insist—”

  Eunbi slapped a GCred card down on the cracked counter. The owner eyed it suspiciously, then scanned it using the dented cash register. His eyes widened. It had twenty-five hundred creds loaded onto it.

  “May I ask what this is for?”

  “For your trouble,” Eunbi said distractedly as she looked around the space.

  ?Kumi, help me reconstruct what happened.?

  [Of course, Bi.] The lecti immediately zipped out of her, a sparkling question mark appearing over her head. She went to work, taking inventory of each broken item, predicting where it had impacted and where it had been thrown from.

  “This wasn’t my fault,” said Eunbi. “However, it still might have happened because I visited you, so jeongmal mianhaeyo—I'm very sorry. I hope that helps make up for your lost inventory.”

  The poor man gaped. “How did you get this?”

  “I’m really smart,” was the only explanation she offered. “Don’t worry, the money is real and earned.”

  He stared at her for a long moment, searching for the lie. Given his business, he was probably good at it. She gazed placidly back. She could easily have hidden a lie from him, but there was no need.

  “What else do you want?” he asked suspiciously.

  [It is as you thought, Bi. Many items were tossed directly from their shelves. Far too hard for a human hand to have done it. It was most likely telekinesis. She’s definitely another mind sorcerer… I think. But I’m not sensing any unfamiliar aether residue.]

  “Can you tell me anything about what happened here?” said Eunbi.

  “It happened after hours,” he said carefully. “My exterior camera captured… someone approaching. Female. Not very tall. The cameras all went dark before she got close enough to see details. Didn't come back on until after the robbery, or whatever it was.”

  “Do you remember selling me this?” Eunbi pulled the jewel of her pink amulet out of her colorful jacket. She suppressed its natural glow.

  “Oh, yes.” He nodded, recognition flickering on his eyes. “I do remember you now. You were asking about old electronics, but you suddenly insisted on that. Reminded you of your mother, yes?”

  “That’s right,” Eunbi lied. Nothing else made sense, and she couldn’t just explain the Call to a non-sorcerer. Even most sorcerers couldn’t feel it, not directly. “Have you received any similar pieces? Any other jewelry with prominent gemstones? Was anything like that missing?”

  He shrugged. “That kind of thing comes and goes. But… yes. I had something. I don’t think it’s here anymore. At least, I haven’t found it yet.”

  “Was it a—a necklace like mine?” She barely avoided saying “amulet.”

  “Hmm, no. Some kind of bracelet.”

  Eunbi nodded. “It’s not here.” She and Kumi had already mentally searched most of the place.

  “What?” said the shop owner, amused. “Are you going to tell me it was an artifact or something?”

  “No, I’m not.” It almost certainly was an artifact, but she wasn’t going to tell him.

  So, she was stealing artifacts, was she? Clearly not other Guardian amulets, though what were the odds another one would end up in the same pawn shop? So was there a pattern, or was she simply stealing whatever she could get her hands on? And for who?

  Well, that was no mystery. It was for him. The man who had tried to give Eunbi that other amulet. She shuddered. It was like hers, but wrong. She’d felt dirty just touching it, but she pushed it away before its voice could burrow into her skull.

  “Right,” Eunbi said. She produced a pen and snatched an old scrap of receipt paper. “Let me know if you learn anything more. And if you get any more jewelry like that, call me. I'll pay fifty percent more than your list price.”

  “Uh… s-sure.”

  “And one more thing.”

  “What’s tha—?”

  Eunbi used her Entrance skill. The shopkeeper’s face went slack, and he stared blankly.

  ?Ready, Kumi? Let's clean up.?

  [Oh boy!]

  Eunbi rolled up her sleeves and pulled her headphones back into place. Turning the volume up, she began to bob her head as the music moved her—left, left, right, right—and she raised her hands to the destroyed shop. Everything in the room rattled, as if responding to a call. Glass shards rattled on the floor.

  [Ooh, ooh! Can I clean up the broken things, Bi? I love all the sounds, the clinks and tinkles and crunches! And the sparkles and the interesting jagged edges!]

  Eunbi pouted. ?That means I have to straighten the shelves! Fine, Kumi. But next time we do something like this, we switch. You know I'll remember too.?

  [Deal! Yay!]

  Kumi dove into a pile of glass from a broken display case as if into water. A sparkling pink exclamation point emerged.

  Lecti Telekinesis has reached Tier 2 Level 16.

  Kumi began to gather up the glass. Eunbi couldn’t hear over her music, but she could tell the little lecti was intentionally grinding the pieces together as she worked so it would make more sound. Eunbi rolled her eyes and mentally pulled the owner’s broom, dustpan, and trash can over for Kumi to use. Then she started gathering up all the watches and jewelry she could find, letting them float after her in a telekinetic cloud that sparkled faintly pink. With most of the display cases no longer secure, she poked around in the back room until she found a safe. The combination was trivial to crack with a combination of telekinesis and her Sensory Enhancement skill. No need to remove her headphones; she could feel the tumblers engage just by placing her hand on the door.

  She let the small valuables drift into the safe and closed it back, and then she danced back into the main area of the shop. One of her favorite songs was playing, and she quietly sang along, though for some reason she fumbled the lyrics. She spotted an old electric guitar, pulled it to her hands, and pretended to play—That’s what she should learn to do next!—and that seemed to ground her. She mentally straightened and reassembled shelves, then sent larger items floating into place.

  All told, it took less than an hour for the two of them to get the pawn shop back in order. What was broken still needed replacing, but those GCreds should more than help with that. Eunbi found a guitar stand and set the guitar down. She clicked off her music, pulled her headphones back down, and snapped the store owner out of his trance.

  “Whew!” Eunbi said. “We did a good job, didn’t we, Mr. Dawoud?”

  “Y-yes!” he said, looking around in a daze. “Well, the time just flew by, didn’t it? Thank you so much for your help, young lady. Between that and, well…” He clutched the GCred card, his eyes shining. “Th-thank you. You’ve made an awful day much better.”

  “My job is to help!” Eunbi said cheerfully, giving a small bow.

  [That’s not what I was referring to, Bi. But, I’m happy we helped out and played with so much wonderful tinkly glass!]

  “Annyeonghi gaseyo—goodbye, Mr. Dawoud. Remember what I said, and call me if you learn anything!”

  ?I’d say this was a good day’s work.?

  Eunbi zoomed quietly through a residential cell, making her way toward the university. She held the two pieces of her hybrid stick in pod mode, one half in each hand as she slid along like a skier.

  [Perhaps. But we are no closer to finding your nemesis.]

  Eunbi’s equipment gave off a pink wash now instead of k-drive blue, the visible sign that it was bonded and imbued with telekinetic aether to keep her moving. It was a burst of neon color in the increasing darkness, so she and Kumi kept their eyes and mental senses open for cops. She reached a spiral ramp and clicked her stick back together, trading maneuverability for extra thrust as she ascended toward level 8.

  As soon as she left the ramp she saw something interesting: A car with a flat tire. It was pulled over, half on the sidewalk. The owner, a middle aged woman, stood with hands on hips, glaring at the flat as if willing it to reinflate.

  ?Shall we, Kumi??

  [You are so distractable, Bi! We really should get back!]

  ?Come on, I haven’t changed a tire in months. I want to see how much I remember.?

  [You remember everything! What a silly thing to say!]

  ?Think about the sound of the jack, though. And the clink of the lug nuts.?

  [… Fine! I’m in!]

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  $ shoutout.swap --stacked --clean

  

  by BooksByMandiMay ● Sci-Fi / LitRPG Lite

  Samantha gets fired, framed for corporate espionage, and then something in her brain snaps. Suddenly she can see reality's source code. A voice says: LEVEL UP. She keeps notes in a journal titled "DEFINITELY NOT EVIL PLANS." She is, in fact, lying about that.

  // todo level up, create a paycheck, go on a date, hang with bestie