The Baddest

Some memories are sharper and more piercing than a spearhead... They pierce the timeline they belong to, get stuck in the present, and cause pain to minds.

Even to a freshly dead person...

"Okay, I've always been angry, but I've never been this embarrassed," Little Ru murmured.

The trauma felt from the past was so strong that it threw off the established timeline. It affected both Ru's simultaneously. One was in the crystal tower, while the other was preparing to embark on his final journey.

When the sultan roared, "Kneel NOW!" Little Ru stammered, "Did you say it to me?"

Ru somehow found himself at a space show. The last time he was out and about, he was being followed by a group of black ghosts, who he referred to as "weirdos." They were on one of the city's main streets. He remembered that one of the people or weirdos had died after being hit by a car.

"Oh yes, that's what happened."

But now he was here, wherever this was.

"I guess you could say it's a kind of void. I'm not sure what to call it. It's as if I don't exist in this dimension."

He was dead, but he could still talk to himself.

"Holy shit, I died!"

He was taken aback to realize he was now living in the afterlife. That's why he wasn't sad—he was excited.

He thought, "I can break the boundaries, I can fuck the laws of physics."

He said, "Oh yeah!"

From then on, he looked around to investigate. But all he could see were thousands of broken crystals floating in the void, millions of stretched strings, and mist swirling around.

Ru was looking at the ice-blue eyes in the shards of crystal. He didn't know they belonged to a genie who was lost and alone. It seemed like his eyes were searching for something.

Ru said in a low voice, "I'm here." Despite his heart pounding with fear, he added, "I'm lost. Maybe we can help each other?"

Then he reached out to touch one of the shards. However, as he reached out, the shard rose rapidly and moved away from him.

"So you want to play games? Fine."

Ru was standing on invisible glass. He tapped it a few times with his heel to make sure it wouldn't break. Then he took slow steps to look around. He continued to move forward, avoiding the vibrating and sometimes sizzling strings.

"Are you a wizard?" Ru asked, walking with the grace of an acrobat among the tight wires. He knew he wasn't going to get an answer, but it didn't matter. He kept talking to keep his sanity.

"I've been trying to figure out a way to combine my magic with music, but I'm not sure how to go about it. I've asked the little evil girls several times, but they didn't have any helpful advice." Ru kept his eyes on it as he danced among the strings.

"This is the strangest dream or hallucination I've ever had! I guess I'm a bit crazy. I go demon hunting from time to time. Here's my latest madness: space travel!"

He leaped onto the shard out of the blue.

"Gotcha!"

He'd succeeded in getting the crystal shard, but he'd also created a new problem. Somehow he'd managed to stay suspended in the air.

"Ops!"

Ru looked down and then at the crystal shard. At last, he met with the eyes of the person or thing he refers to as a wizard.

"Hey there," Ru said with a grin.

Ru felt a real sense of pressure as the eyes in the shard finally focused on him. The mist around him thickened, and the strings began to hum with a strange energy.

A voice echoed through the void, not from the wizard but from the shard itself, "Who are you?" It was a voice that had seen a lot in its time and had a lot to say.

"I think it's a dead boy," he replied, trying to steady his voice. "My name is Lirui, but you can call me Rui. My friends usually call me Ru, but Rui is a bit long, so that's what I go by."

The shard gave off a soft blue glow, illuminating Ru's face. "Why are you looking for me?" the voice asked its tone a mix of curiosity and suspicion.

The seriousness of the situation took away Ru. "I'm not sure," he said. "I just... I felt drawn to you. Maybe because I'm lost, and I thought you might be too."

There was a long, quiet moment, with only the distant hum of the strings and the faint crackling of the mist. Then the shard started to glow, and Ru felt a warmth spreading from it into his hand.

"Your heart knows the truth," the voice finally said. "I am the remnants of a genie, fragmented and scattered across the cosmos. I have been searching for a way to become whole again."

Ru's eyes got really big. "A genie? Like the ones from the stories? Can you grant wishes?"

The shard laughed softly, tinklingly, sounding like wind chimes. "Not in my current state, but perhaps we can help each other."

Ru said excitedly, "Okay, let's do it."

"Don't be so impatient, dead boy. I'm not done yet," said the genie.

"I am so sorry for interrupting you; I was so excited. I didn't even ask your name. What a crowd!"

"The problem is that I can't remember my name. It would be easy to put my pieces together if I remembered my name."

Ru nodded, determination hardening his features. "I will do it. I will find your name for you. Then I will put your pieces together, and you'll work even better than before!"

"I've never been treated like a machine before, thanks Ru."

Ru hesitated, then mumbled, "You're welcome," avoiding eye contact.

The shard glowed brighter as if he were about to say something important. "Why are you so eager to help me? I'd like to know that first."

"I'm on my own here, so I'm having trouble finding a way out. Most importantly, I want to use magic."

"I can see you have the potential for magic, but you don't have any training."

"Just teach me how to use magic."

"All right, motormouth boy. I'm going to teach you how to use magic. There's just one thing you have to do first."

"Oh, please tell me!"

The shard's light pulsed rhythmically, a sign of its contemplation. "Very well, Ru. To awaken your magic, you must merge with a fragment of my essence. This will be painful and dangerous, but it is the only way."

Ru took a deep breath and nodded. "I'm ready."

"Make a deep wound in your flesh with the sharp tip of the crystal piece," said the genie.

"No, I wasn't ready," Ru said, his voice trembling. But then he remembered that he was already dead. "Maybe I can. But how do I know you won't fool me?"

"To trust or not to trust, that's your problem, not mine."

"You speak so beautifully. Is that English?" Ru gained the time he needed to collect his thoughts.

The thought process did not take as long as one would think given the timelessness of the event, about five minutes.

After five minutes, Ru asked, "To make it less painful, where should I cut?"

The genie replied solemnly, "In such rituals, people usually cut their palms, but this is said to be painful. Besides, it is useless because you need a hand. I recommend the thighs."

"Oh, thank you. Does shape matter?"

"Yes, start with a point first. For I will draw a seal for you."

"I see that your spell memory is stronger than your name memory, Mr. Djinn."

"I'd have disappeared a long time ago if you hadn't carried my seal."

"Are you fucking kidding?"

"Just look at your left eye and you'll see it there."

"So I have it in other parts of my body too, right?"

"Yes."

"What the hell is that? Am I your sketchbook?" Ru said angrily as he fiercely threw the crystal shard.