Chapter 23
New
GorMartsen
Advanced tech is indistinguishable from magic
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Location: Hope, A-class planet, E-zone (blue)
Date: April 8 2728 — Standard Earth Calendar (SEC)
The hot, viscous blood flowed down my chest, leaving a heavy scent in the air as I ate the beast's core, rich on my tongue.
And with each bite, the musts, the needs, and the shoulds were leaking out, leaving only pleasant silence.
I felt freer.
There was a hunger, and there was prey. And so I feasted.
And when the core was gone, I tore into the beast, ripping it apart with my teeth and nails, chasing pieces full of power.
The blood of my prey, the freshness of early morning. Slowly greying sky.
It melted worries, it washed away urges, it brought peace.
The lingering pain in my limbs faded, and I stretched, bending my spine and digging deep into the stone with my claws. It scratched an itch I didn't know I had.
Sitting down and wrapping my tail around myself, I began to clean, licking the blood from my black fur. It felt nice, calming.
—
The early morning turned bright, carrying the scent of plants, the murmur of water, and the whispering wind between the stones.
Calmness felt in bones.
It stretched, chasing the wind, shuffling scents, and bringing stories from across the forest.
A cry of prey which met its end. A hunter growls, fighting for its life.
Or a loud, sharp fall of stone.
Snapping my eyes open, I felt how the tranquillity I had swum in washed away, replaced by sharp clarity.
My muscles tensed up, trembling. My ears twitched, irritated by yet another clatter of stone against stone.
Fading from view, I leapt fluidly onto a boulder, curious about who dared to disturb my sleep.
Pack of two-legged.
They were going along the hillside, one after another, with a tall and broad one in the lead.
I lay down on a warm stone and watched them come closer, with my head gently resting on my paws.
The pack reminded me of something I had but lost. My mate. She was glorious, strong, and her black fur felt nice between my teeth.
"Are you sure it's the right place?" called one with long fur on his face—beard—bringing me out of sweet memories.
"You heard Old Bill yourself. See the hill, the fucking cannibal tree. It is the right place," called back the tall and broad one.
Their chittering reminded me of a flock of beasts I knew to stay away from.
"Those trees give me the creeps," called one with sticks on his back, joining the chorus.
"Dunno. He is touched in the head," chittered again the bearded one.
"For crying out loud, we discussed it already," barked the tall and broad one and turned to others, stopping.
They all stopped, splitting apart slightly, and I followed their chittering and barking. It felt familiar, as if I knew it before.
"Aiden, this tree is too old. I didn't sign up for that," the bearded one chittered.
"I don't see the noir," the smallest one called—cub?
"Of course you don't. It's sitting on those boulders, invisible, and watching us idiots argue," barked the tall and broad one, pointing at me.
The pack looked my way as one, and I tensed, ready to slip away.
"Fucking idiots. Stop wasting my time. Let's set up the trap, catch the noir, and get the fuck away," barked the tall and broad one once more, and I prepared to act, pressing my ears to my head and baring my fangs.
"Easy for you to say. You're not the bait," said the bearded man.
"James, you get two shares. Two! Just. Do. You. Fucking. Job," replied the tall and broad one—leader?
I twitched my ears, feeling the anger in those words.
And something tickled at the back of my mind, as I saw a man getting busy with banners.
It reminded me of something I almost forgot.
Lola.
Sliding back between the boulders, I flipped the bloodied clothes bundle aside and nudged the pouch with Lola.
How long was it without charge?
I probed the pouch with my paw, and my claws cut the leather, revealing the glimmering silver necklace inside.
I didn't know the answer. It was hard to think.
Bending my head over, I took it into my mouth, warming it. It felt cold against my tongue and teeth.
How long?
The worrying silence in my head stretched as something shifted in my mind, unfolding, taking space. Names and concepts. They were all coming back, weighing heavily.
L: [ ping ]
My heart flipped as the message glyph unfolded, squeezing into my mind, too.
Lola.
K: [ do you copy ]
I waited for a reply, dumbly looking at my paws as my memories were coming back. Paws, not hands.
Why, how?
It was hard to think. It was confusing. I didn't understand what had happened or why, and my memories were shifting between the cat and Katee, overlapping. Blending.
L: [ ping ]
Another glyph unfolded, reminding me where I was, what I was doing. Lola.
Her reply wasn't normal, and it worried me more than who I was.
K: [ Status? ]
L: [ Status: Hibernate. 1.2% charge. ]
L: [ Alert: Boot requirements: 25% charge. ]
That… that wasn't good. An hour or two later, and it would have been too late.
Steps.
Careful steps reached my ears, and I turned to the exit between the boulders.
The shadow fell at the entrance, and the bearded man squeezed through a moment later. He glanced outside, turning his head left and right, fiddling with his pants.
Gobsmacked, I watched him lean on one boulder as a babbling stream hit the other, and a moan escaped from his lips.
Standing a few steps away in silence, I felt awkward, sensing the sharp scent of urine. It tickled my nose.
Ah-choo-mmrrrr!
Reflectively covering my muzzle with my paw, I looked at the man with wide-open eyes.
His shoulders tensed, and I noticed a vein pulsing on his neck.
As if in some cheap holo, he turned towards me slowly, urinating on the ground in a wide arc.
His bulging green eyes met mine as the sound of urine hitting the ground changed to a sharp metallic one, and we both looked down.
He was fucking peeing on my needler.
Mreuuwrr!
"Noir," he screamed, and the thick, bluish energy wrapped around him, forming a bulb that corked the exit, sealing it.
The shouting from outside followed, along with swearing and the sound of someone running toward us.
I darted my eyes to the needler at my feet, glanced back at the clothes and up at the open air above us.
I still had a way out.
Wrinkling my nose, I awkwardly cupped my needler with my paw, and my invisibility flared with broken lines, causing nausea.
Avoiding scratching it, I turned towards my clothes bundle, unsteady on my paws.
My other front paw caught the beast's head, and I almost fell, stumbling and stepping on the claw knife sticking out of the beast's eye socket.
I needed to take that, too.
Fuck, I need my hands.
The blue glow disappeared behind me, and dropping the needler, I spun around, lowering myself and instinctively pressing my ears against my head.
But the bearded man was gone, and beyond the exit, I heard voices.
"James, what the fuck?" screamed the man I recognised as the leader.
"Noir, it's noir," replied the bearded man, breaking into falsetto. "It ate some noble there. We're all gonna die."
"Shut the fuck up," barked the leader. "Alex, traps before the exit, Pen, net over the top. James, if you don't aggro it, I'll gut you myself. Go. Go. Go."
I didn't understand the word, but I recognised the tone. Commanding tone.
Fight or flight?
I didn't like either.
"Net is ready"
Glancing back at the bundle of my clothes, with my dripping wet needler on top, I tried to come up with something.
I had the cat corpse, half-eaten. It wasn't fresh. Subterfuge? And what about my things? The needler?
"Traps are ready."
Darting my gaze between the boulders and seeing nothing, I looked up again. I didn't like the way the air buzzed there.
"James, now!"
Moving past the bundle of clothes, I tested the slope. It wasn't solid, crumbling from my touch.
"We're all gonna die" pierced my ears, rattling through my teeth and making me want to bite his throat off, now.
The fuck.
Suppressing the urge to attack, I pushed the bundle of my clothes, my needler, and the claw knife towards the slope.
"We're all gonna die" pierced my ears again, and I grimaced, feeling my skull vibrate.
But it also reminded me of a small but important detail—the bearded man saw my needler.
Hooking my claw under the belt that held the bundle together, I cut the buckle off and sent it towards the spot where my needler had been peed on.
Plausible deniability.
"We're all gonna die."
For god's sake, shut the fuck up.
K: [ Status? ]
L: [ Status: Hibernate. 5.3% charge. ]
L: [ Alert: Boot requirements: 25% charge. ]
Burying my muzzle into the clothes, I spat out the necklace between the vest and the pants and patted it, pressing it down.
Just wait for a bit.
"James?"
Stepping slightly back, I slashed at the slope with all the fury I felt, and it shifted, burying my things under it.
"Aiden, it isn't working," said the voice I was beginning to hate.
"I fucking see that. Go check. Alex, corridor," replied a commanding voice.
Hearing the approaching steps, I jumped up slightly and clung to the top of the boulder, my claws digging deep into it.
Hidden and with my invisibility no longer glitching, I waited for a visitor, planning my next steps in case it failed.
The footsteps stopped at the entrance, but instead of someone peeking inside, I saw a hand holding a mirror. It flashed in the sunlight, sending rays through the niche between the boulders.
Time stretched in silence, broken only by the heavy breathing of the man.
"James?" called the leader. I was sure by now it was the bearded man's name.
"I don't understand, Aiden. It's dead?" said James in a confused tone.
"What do you mean it's dead?" asked the leader. Aiden?
"Dead, like dead dead?" said James, entering between the boulders. Still guarded and shimmering with a bluish energy shield. A hammer in his right hand.
Furrowing his brow, he picked up the belt buckle.
"What do you see?" asked Aiden.
"Come and see yourself," replied James, lowering his hand with the buckle and kicking the dead beast's tail. It barely budged.
"Fuck you, James," said Aiden, and I was sure he cursed him.
He soon appeared, towering a few heads over James with a spear at the ready.
"Okay, this is dead dead," he said, and James passed him the buckle. "What is it?"
"I found it here," James said, still furrowing his brow and studying the ground.
"Is it Thorn's buckle?" Aiden asked, bringing it closer to his face and grimacing. "Whatever. Check for sparks."
James silently nodded and crouched by the beast's corpse, placing his hammer on the ground and reaching for the knife.
"The core spark is gone," he said, opening the chest in one slash, and Aiden grimaced.
Watching James gut the beast, I kept still, listening to his voice and catching words here and there. But I paid attention to where he looked, realising what he was doing—cutting out sparks.
"Found invisibility spark," said James in a raised voice, freeing the shiny yellow crystal. It looked like a small tube.
"Well, bless my balls. If the shield spark is in place, we are set to go," replied Aiden, accepting it and holding it up against the sky. "Looks intact."
James sped up his gutting of the upper torso, finding a few more small crystals, like water drops, but Aiden didn't comment until James switched to the lower half and cut out a familiar, spongy rock.
"Well done, James," said Aiden, clapping him on the shoulder, "Let's move out."
"Wait," replied James, gripping Aiden's hand on his shoulder.
"What is it?" asked Aiden, and his spear tipped forward. I prepared to jump.
"No, nothing. Let's go," replied James, rolling his shoulders.
—
I watched them go from the top of the boulder, catching James' occasional glances back in my direction.
I was sure I didn't fool him with the buckle, but for some reason, he decided to withdraw.
A smart man.
Seeing them disappear behind the curve of the hill, I jumped back and began to dig out my things and Lola.
Especially Lola. I was worried about her state.
K: [ Status? ]
She wasn't replying anymore. I had no idea why, and that worried me.
The back of the vest peeked out between the stones, and soon I spotted Lola's necklace covered in dust. I didn't hesitate to take it in my mouth, but grimaced as stones crunched between my teeth.
Leaving everything as it was, I jumped back onto the boulder, worried that Aiden and his party might come back.
L: [ ping ]
The glyph unfolded in my mind before I even settled on the boulder, and I exhaled in relief.
K: [ Status? ]
L: [ Status: Hibernate. 5.1% charge. ]
L: [ Alert: Boot requirements: 25% charge. ]
Setting my head on my paws, I stretched on the warm boulder again. Thinking.
There was a lot of that to be done.
And the most pressing issue was my form. Cat form.
How did I come to this?
Now with my memories back, I saw the frenzy that took over me when I killed the beast. When I reached for the core.
Back then, I didn't catch it. It sneaked up on me under the cover of my pain, confirming my worry that when I got wounded, I might not be rational.
I wasn't.
But that didn't answer the question of why this beast form overtook me, and why so fast.
It couldn't be the powers. The snake, back in the cave, was clearly more powerful, but it didn't even try.
The moose's imprint tried, but it was stretched over time and wasn't that sharp either.
So why this? Why now?
Once again, I found no answers, swimming blindly and burning on my way through.
L: [ ping ]
And my mad dash, my stubborn attempt to replicate the banners I saw at Ivor's camp. It almost killed me.
It was hard to blame it on some influence on my mind, though. No, I was just impatient. But that was the problem here—my patience was running thin.
I was getting tired.
But somehow that chain of events brought me to this.
And perhaps, it was worth it. Because something had changed on the way here, and I was able to hear Lola.
Or perhaps I should have tried sucking the necklace earlier.
Fuck if I had an answer for that either.
But there was one thing I knew to try. The self-checkup with my own power—the ability to see my body in my mind.
Date: April 8 2728 — Standard Earth Calendar (SEC)
The hot, viscous blood flowed down my chest, leaving a heavy scent in the air as I ate the beast's core, rich on my tongue.
And with each bite, the musts, the needs, and the shoulds were leaking out, leaving only pleasant silence.
I felt freer.
There was a hunger, and there was prey. And so I feasted.
And when the core was gone, I tore into the beast, ripping it apart with my teeth and nails, chasing pieces full of power.
The blood of my prey, the freshness of early morning. Slowly greying sky.
It melted worries, it washed away urges, it brought peace.
The lingering pain in my limbs faded, and I stretched, bending my spine and digging deep into the stone with my claws. It scratched an itch I didn't know I had.
Sitting down and wrapping my tail around myself, I began to clean, licking the blood from my black fur. It felt nice, calming.
—
The early morning turned bright, carrying the scent of plants, the murmur of water, and the whispering wind between the stones.
Calmness felt in bones.
It stretched, chasing the wind, shuffling scents, and bringing stories from across the forest.
A cry of prey which met its end. A hunter growls, fighting for its life.
Or a loud, sharp fall of stone.
Snapping my eyes open, I felt how the tranquillity I had swum in washed away, replaced by sharp clarity.
My muscles tensed up, trembling. My ears twitched, irritated by yet another clatter of stone against stone.
Fading from view, I leapt fluidly onto a boulder, curious about who dared to disturb my sleep.
Pack of two-legged.
They were going along the hillside, one after another, with a tall and broad one in the lead.
I lay down on a warm stone and watched them come closer, with my head gently resting on my paws.
The pack reminded me of something I had but lost. My mate. She was glorious, strong, and her black fur felt nice between my teeth.
"Are you sure it's the right place?" called one with long fur on his face—beard—bringing me out of sweet memories.
"You heard Old Bill yourself. See the hill, the fucking cannibal tree. It is the right place," called back the tall and broad one.
Their chittering reminded me of a flock of beasts I knew to stay away from.
"Those trees give me the creeps," called one with sticks on his back, joining the chorus.
"Dunno. He is touched in the head," chittered again the bearded one.
"For crying out loud, we discussed it already," barked the tall and broad one and turned to others, stopping.
They all stopped, splitting apart slightly, and I followed their chittering and barking. It felt familiar, as if I knew it before.
"Aiden, this tree is too old. I didn't sign up for that," the bearded one chittered.
"I don't see the noir," the smallest one called—cub?
"Of course you don't. It's sitting on those boulders, invisible, and watching us idiots argue," barked the tall and broad one, pointing at me.
The pack looked my way as one, and I tensed, ready to slip away.
"Fucking idiots. Stop wasting my time. Let's set up the trap, catch the noir, and get the fuck away," barked the tall and broad one once more, and I prepared to act, pressing my ears to my head and baring my fangs.
"Easy for you to say. You're not the bait," said the bearded man.
"James, you get two shares. Two! Just. Do. You. Fucking. Job," replied the tall and broad one—leader?
I twitched my ears, feeling the anger in those words.
And something tickled at the back of my mind, as I saw a man getting busy with banners.
It reminded me of something I almost forgot.
Lola.
Sliding back between the boulders, I flipped the bloodied clothes bundle aside and nudged the pouch with Lola.
How long was it without charge?
I probed the pouch with my paw, and my claws cut the leather, revealing the glimmering silver necklace inside.
I didn't know the answer. It was hard to think.
Bending my head over, I took it into my mouth, warming it. It felt cold against my tongue and teeth.
How long?
The worrying silence in my head stretched as something shifted in my mind, unfolding, taking space. Names and concepts. They were all coming back, weighing heavily.
L: [ ping ]
My heart flipped as the message glyph unfolded, squeezing into my mind, too.
Lola.
K: [ do you copy ]
I waited for a reply, dumbly looking at my paws as my memories were coming back. Paws, not hands.
Why, how?
It was hard to think. It was confusing. I didn't understand what had happened or why, and my memories were shifting between the cat and Katee, overlapping. Blending.
L: [ ping ]
Another glyph unfolded, reminding me where I was, what I was doing. Lola.
Her reply wasn't normal, and it worried me more than who I was.
K: [ Status? ]
L: [ Status: Hibernate. 1.2% charge. ]
L: [ Alert: Boot requirements: 25% charge. ]
That… that wasn't good. An hour or two later, and it would have been too late.
Steps.
Careful steps reached my ears, and I turned to the exit between the boulders.
The shadow fell at the entrance, and the bearded man squeezed through a moment later. He glanced outside, turning his head left and right, fiddling with his pants.
Gobsmacked, I watched him lean on one boulder as a babbling stream hit the other, and a moan escaped from his lips.
Standing a few steps away in silence, I felt awkward, sensing the sharp scent of urine. It tickled my nose.
Ah-choo-mmrrrr!
Reflectively covering my muzzle with my paw, I looked at the man with wide-open eyes.
His shoulders tensed, and I noticed a vein pulsing on his neck.
As if in some cheap holo, he turned towards me slowly, urinating on the ground in a wide arc.
His bulging green eyes met mine as the sound of urine hitting the ground changed to a sharp metallic one, and we both looked down.
He was fucking peeing on my needler.
Mreuuwrr!
"Noir," he screamed, and the thick, bluish energy wrapped around him, forming a bulb that corked the exit, sealing it.
The shouting from outside followed, along with swearing and the sound of someone running toward us.
I darted my eyes to the needler at my feet, glanced back at the clothes and up at the open air above us.
I still had a way out.
Wrinkling my nose, I awkwardly cupped my needler with my paw, and my invisibility flared with broken lines, causing nausea.
Avoiding scratching it, I turned towards my clothes bundle, unsteady on my paws.
My other front paw caught the beast's head, and I almost fell, stumbling and stepping on the claw knife sticking out of the beast's eye socket.
I needed to take that, too.
Fuck, I need my hands.
The blue glow disappeared behind me, and dropping the needler, I spun around, lowering myself and instinctively pressing my ears against my head.
But the bearded man was gone, and beyond the exit, I heard voices.
"James, what the fuck?" screamed the man I recognised as the leader.
"Noir, it's noir," replied the bearded man, breaking into falsetto. "It ate some noble there. We're all gonna die."
"Shut the fuck up," barked the leader. "Alex, traps before the exit, Pen, net over the top. James, if you don't aggro it, I'll gut you myself. Go. Go. Go."
I didn't understand the word, but I recognised the tone. Commanding tone.
Fight or flight?
I didn't like either.
"Net is ready"
Glancing back at the bundle of my clothes, with my dripping wet needler on top, I tried to come up with something.
I had the cat corpse, half-eaten. It wasn't fresh. Subterfuge? And what about my things? The needler?
"Traps are ready."
Darting my gaze between the boulders and seeing nothing, I looked up again. I didn't like the way the air buzzed there.
"James, now!"
Moving past the bundle of clothes, I tested the slope. It wasn't solid, crumbling from my touch.
"We're all gonna die" pierced my ears, rattling through my teeth and making me want to bite his throat off, now.
The fuck.
Suppressing the urge to attack, I pushed the bundle of my clothes, my needler, and the claw knife towards the slope.
"We're all gonna die" pierced my ears again, and I grimaced, feeling my skull vibrate.
But it also reminded me of a small but important detail—the bearded man saw my needler.
Hooking my claw under the belt that held the bundle together, I cut the buckle off and sent it towards the spot where my needler had been peed on.
Plausible deniability.
"We're all gonna die."
For god's sake, shut the fuck up.
K: [ Status? ]
L: [ Status: Hibernate. 5.3% charge. ]
L: [ Alert: Boot requirements: 25% charge. ]
Burying my muzzle into the clothes, I spat out the necklace between the vest and the pants and patted it, pressing it down.
Just wait for a bit.
"James?"
Stepping slightly back, I slashed at the slope with all the fury I felt, and it shifted, burying my things under it.
"Aiden, it isn't working," said the voice I was beginning to hate.
"I fucking see that. Go check. Alex, corridor," replied a commanding voice.
Hearing the approaching steps, I jumped up slightly and clung to the top of the boulder, my claws digging deep into it.
Hidden and with my invisibility no longer glitching, I waited for a visitor, planning my next steps in case it failed.
The footsteps stopped at the entrance, but instead of someone peeking inside, I saw a hand holding a mirror. It flashed in the sunlight, sending rays through the niche between the boulders.
Time stretched in silence, broken only by the heavy breathing of the man.
"James?" called the leader. I was sure by now it was the bearded man's name.
"I don't understand, Aiden. It's dead?" said James in a confused tone.
"What do you mean it's dead?" asked the leader. Aiden?
"Dead, like dead dead?" said James, entering between the boulders. Still guarded and shimmering with a bluish energy shield. A hammer in his right hand.
Furrowing his brow, he picked up the belt buckle.
"What do you see?" asked Aiden.
"Come and see yourself," replied James, lowering his hand with the buckle and kicking the dead beast's tail. It barely budged.
"Fuck you, James," said Aiden, and I was sure he cursed him.
He soon appeared, towering a few heads over James with a spear at the ready.
"Okay, this is dead dead," he said, and James passed him the buckle. "What is it?"
"I found it here," James said, still furrowing his brow and studying the ground.
"Is it Thorn's buckle?" Aiden asked, bringing it closer to his face and grimacing. "Whatever. Check for sparks."
James silently nodded and crouched by the beast's corpse, placing his hammer on the ground and reaching for the knife.
"The core spark is gone," he said, opening the chest in one slash, and Aiden grimaced.
Watching James gut the beast, I kept still, listening to his voice and catching words here and there. But I paid attention to where he looked, realising what he was doing—cutting out sparks.
"Found invisibility spark," said James in a raised voice, freeing the shiny yellow crystal. It looked like a small tube.
"Well, bless my balls. If the shield spark is in place, we are set to go," replied Aiden, accepting it and holding it up against the sky. "Looks intact."
James sped up his gutting of the upper torso, finding a few more small crystals, like water drops, but Aiden didn't comment until James switched to the lower half and cut out a familiar, spongy rock.
"Well done, James," said Aiden, clapping him on the shoulder, "Let's move out."
"Wait," replied James, gripping Aiden's hand on his shoulder.
"What is it?" asked Aiden, and his spear tipped forward. I prepared to jump.
"No, nothing. Let's go," replied James, rolling his shoulders.
—
I watched them go from the top of the boulder, catching James' occasional glances back in my direction.
I was sure I didn't fool him with the buckle, but for some reason, he decided to withdraw.
A smart man.
Seeing them disappear behind the curve of the hill, I jumped back and began to dig out my things and Lola.
Especially Lola. I was worried about her state.
K: [ Status? ]
She wasn't replying anymore. I had no idea why, and that worried me.
The back of the vest peeked out between the stones, and soon I spotted Lola's necklace covered in dust. I didn't hesitate to take it in my mouth, but grimaced as stones crunched between my teeth.
Leaving everything as it was, I jumped back onto the boulder, worried that Aiden and his party might come back.
L: [ ping ]
The glyph unfolded in my mind before I even settled on the boulder, and I exhaled in relief.
K: [ Status? ]
L: [ Status: Hibernate. 5.1% charge. ]
L: [ Alert: Boot requirements: 25% charge. ]
Setting my head on my paws, I stretched on the warm boulder again. Thinking.
There was a lot of that to be done.
And the most pressing issue was my form. Cat form.
How did I come to this?
Now with my memories back, I saw the frenzy that took over me when I killed the beast. When I reached for the core.
Back then, I didn't catch it. It sneaked up on me under the cover of my pain, confirming my worry that when I got wounded, I might not be rational.
I wasn't.
But that didn't answer the question of why this beast form overtook me, and why so fast.
It couldn't be the powers. The snake, back in the cave, was clearly more powerful, but it didn't even try.
The moose's imprint tried, but it was stretched over time and wasn't that sharp either.
So why this? Why now?
Once again, I found no answers, swimming blindly and burning on my way through.
L: [ ping ]
And my mad dash, my stubborn attempt to replicate the banners I saw at Ivor's camp. It almost killed me.
It was hard to blame it on some influence on my mind, though. No, I was just impatient. But that was the problem here—my patience was running thin.
I was getting tired.
But somehow that chain of events brought me to this.
And perhaps, it was worth it. Because something had changed on the way here, and I was able to hear Lola.
Or perhaps I should have tried sucking the necklace earlier.
Fuck if I had an answer for that either.
But there was one thing I knew to try. The self-checkup with my own power—the ability to see my body in my mind.