Peasprout Chen_Battle of Champions by Henry Lien

Author:Henry Lien [Lien, Henry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B07BZJQGNL
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Published: 2019-01-22T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

That afternoon, all of us go to the Conservatory of Music. Sagacious Monk Goom is snoring with his head on a desk covered in musical-composition homework submissions. Sitting on a plinth is Sensei Madame Chingu, sucking on a bottle in long, irregular spasms, like a big, pink, twitching worm. I know she’s a sensei, but she’s the creepiest thing under heaven.

Still, I feel sorry for her. She didn’t ask to be turned into this. Well, except that she was chasing innocent students on a rooftop with a metal cleaver during a lightning storm. But still.

Yinmei hums the melody that Sensei Madame Chingu originally hummed in response to both of my questions.

Sensei Madame Chingu removes the rubber nipple from her mouth and hums the melody back to Yinmei.

Yinmei says, “The oracle is hidden in the notation system. Ask her something personal.”

I take Sensei Madame Chingu’s hand. I ask in my mind, What kind of battleband leader will I prove to be?

She hums a little response.

“It’s just notes,” I say.

Yinmei says, “You’re forgetting your Shinian. Each note corresponds with a word in the Shinian gongche notation system.”

Cricket says, “Remember? The nuns taught us chants using gongche. It uses simple words instead of numbers for each note on the octave.”

Yinmei continues, “Try singing out the word associated with each note instead of just humming it.”

I dig into the refuse bin of my memory and say, “Wu. Shang. Shang. Si.”

Oh. Wushang shangsi. The Shinian term for “supreme boss.” That’s the kind of battleband leader I will prove to be.

So Sensei Madame Chingu can see the truth.

“How did you do that?” I say to Yinmei.

“I did nothing. This is not trickery. Now you know the answer to your questions.”

Yinmei sings again the melody that Sensei Madame Chingu has been playing on the wave organ all year.

I say, “So you’ve known the answer to my questions all along.”

“Yes,” Yinmei says, “but only you knew the questions, Miss Lock.”

I take Sensei Madame Chingu’s hand again and say aloud the two questions: “What will be discovered to be the secret to winning the Annexations? What will be discovered to be the secret to stopping the Shinian invasion?”

She flings my hand away and goes bounding toward the pavilion of the wave organ, causing Sagacious Monk Goom to wake with a start.

She scrambles inside, and, once again, the notes boom out of the sea as she plays the massive instrument.

The notes are gong, shi, liu, yi, shi (or the alternate pronunciation, si), shi, shi, yi, yi, gong, shi, si, yi, wu, wu.

“It’s just a string of random words,” I say. “Formula. Look. Four—”

“Ooh, don’t say that number,” says Hisashi. “We don’t need any bad luck.”

Cricket says, “It’s all right; it’s Shinian notation, and we aren’t as afraid of that number.”

“Quiet,” says Doi.

I continue, “Spoons or is it keys? Show. One Wall. Palace. Follow. Willful. Zoom. Thing. Is this making sense to anyone? Is it some sort of list?”

“No,” says Cricket, “it’s telling you what it is. It’s a formula.

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