Chapter 87: Chapter 86.2 : R & R (Part 2)

30th November…

Squinting, Hana’s hand moved towards the shaky tower with great caution. Having already chosen her target, her dainty fingers closed around a wooden slab. She held her breath, as was standard by now, sharpened her concentration and then pulled.

*Wobble*

Seconds of trepidation gave way to relief as she saw the tower stabilise. Turning her head away from it, she breathed out a sigh. “Such a simple game, and yet so intense. What did you call it again,” she asked as she placed the slab on top.

“Jenga,” Ralf answered with a smile before directing his gaze toward the tower’s new configuration.

Following the Rubik’s Cube, the duo recreated several other simple and easy to build toys and board games. While done mainly made to bring a smile to their mother’s face, they, like the Rubik’s Cube, were also set to be sold.

Greg had informed them that things were moving along well on that front, very well. R & R, the brand name the duo settled on, was off to a good start; the first batch of toys had already hit the streets and taken off.

The duo had a lot of big plans for R & R and by extension, the Silver Path, but alas, before one could run, one had to walk and before that, crawl. Selling toys was exactly this for them, merely step one in their grand schemes. Computers, phones, worldwide internet, video games, anime…the duo had ambitions of bringing all these things into this world before they breathed their last breath.

*Swoosh*

Ralf’s knife-hand blurred out of existence as he slashed at the tower. With the precision of a karuta master, his fingers swiped at the desired block and nothing else. Ejected from the tower at high speeds, it crashed into the Psi barrier where it soon slid down. Losing a component, the tower was indifferent, not moving save for the slight wobble that was caused by the cutting wind. Satisfied with the result, Ralf placed the block at the top and flashed a smug smile Hana’s way. “Go ahead.”

Hana showed a wry smile. Things didn’t look good for her. With Ralf’s swipe, a single block now held the top seventy percent of the tower. Even worse, he placed the block back so that more of its weight was on one side, causing the tower to lean slightly.

Hana eyed the structure with a serious face, trying to locate the ideal move. Tens of seconds passed by before she decided to just go for it. Psyching herself up by slapping her cheeks, she moved her hand towards the tower.

“Ralf, don’t you think I should be able to use psionic powers, you have an unfair advantage with your body,” Hana argued as she hovered inches away from the tower.

“Nope. We agreed on the conditions beforehand. Now play and lose with dignity, mother.”

Hana’s expression became fiery at the remark. “Don’t talk as if it’s over yet, watch this.” Fueled with agitation, she moved, plucking a block from the top section.

But emotion became her undoing as…

*Crash*

“First your words, then the tower. Mom, pay up…”

“Of course of course.” Seating herself on the couch, she patted her lap and said, “Your two minutes starts…now.”

Ralf immediately ceased cleaning up at her words and hurried into position to appreciate his reward.

Rubbing his hair, Hana smiled. “I wonder when you’ll get bored of doing this,” she mused out loud.

“At the same time I get bored of breathing and eating, I suppose.”

“Haa, what am I going to do with you…”

“Preferably, just more of what we’re doing right now.”

“That not wha- oh, Ray, you’re back. That took quite a while. What were you up to?” Sensing the change in mental signal, Hana instantly registered her second son’s presence.

Following these words, Hana focused on the movement of Psi. When Ralf or Rei was already occupying the body, the other would mainly use Psi writing to communicate with Hana instead of them going back and forth. However, this time would be different.

With a quizzical look, Hana watched as her sons’ Psi headed elsewhere. A few seconds later, a full outfit was retrieved which Rei’s freshly materialised Psi Clone then dressed itself in.

“Oh, it looks so realistic,” Hana said as she took in the remarkable level of detail on display. The accuracy in dimensions, the body’s natural rhythm, even the smile that was shown following her compliment; all gave the Psi Clone a feeling of being alive. Hana was very impressed, but this was only the beginning.

((Thanks. It’s not just the looks I focused on, I made the texture pretty realistic too,)) the Psi Clone tugged at its cheeks with both hands as it spoke these words. ((Oh this,)) seeing the surprise on Hana and Ralf’s face, Rei as the Psi Clone, smirked and said, ((neat right.))

“Yeah, this is fantastic, so much more convenient,” Hana beamed. “Was this what you were working on in there? How does it work exactly?”

((The same way it works for you. Air goes from the lungs up to the vocal box, gets vibrated with the vocal cords and then the resultant sound is further shaped by one’s tongue, mouth and lips to form precise words. This Psi Clone is following a similar process. I have a perfect internal map of Ralf’s body saved. For the purpose of producing voice, I copied the lungs, larynx and other essential components accurately. I had to do a lot of tweaking around, but I managed to get everything more or less identical. Oh, and instead of taking in air normally, I just have it be pulled into my lungs directly via telekinesis.)) Rei turned around and showed the spot at his backside, noticeably sucking in the required air.

“That’s amazing, Ray,” Hana sat thoroughly impressed by it all. On the surface, Rei’s feat looked very easy to replicate. However, while the steps were few, displaying the fluency and proficiency Rei was currently, was something far beyond the ability of your average Telekinetic.

It was something that would take months, even years to master, and that was only if one had the requisite Psi stats to pull it off in the first place. Truthfully, had Rei been just a regular Telekinetic, he wouldn’t have been able to reach this level in such a short time. However, he wasn’t. The Mental Space’s assistance had made this technique a walk in the park to create and subsequently employ.

“Nice, good work. It’s been a while since I heard your original voice. So this is why you were out so often at night.”

((Yeah.))

“Hmm, this is your original voice? It’s not too different, just slightly deeper.”

((Well, my original body and this one is nearly identical,)) Rei explained.

“What the technique’s name?” Ralf asked.

((Ghost Mimicry.))

Ralf’s eyes flickered. “Mmm, not bad not bad.”

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((This isn’t all I did. I can do a lot more.)) Pausing his words, the Psi Clone’s insides were subtly reconfigured before it once again spoke. However, this time, instead of Rei’s voice, it was Hana’s that came ejecting from its lips. ((My sons are the best in the whole universe, I want to hug them forever and forever, especially Rei...so how did you like my impression, pretty good right.))

“It sounds just like me, amazing.”

((I can do quite a few voices.)) Saying so, Rei ran through the voices he practised, doing the gruff Greg, stern but friendly Genise and overly excited Jeff. It was not just copying their voice, he mimicked the particulars of their speech to a tie. Ending the performance, he explained the ‘how’ of the technique.

((It’s simple really. Voice is no different than an instrument. All I have to do is alter the texture or shape of the various sound components or change up the vibration speed or airflow, and I can recreate any voice I want. As for things like tone, cadence and word choice, I just watched enough videos of them to learn their habits.))

“Any voice?” Hana’s voice turned solemn as she asked.

((Yes, I can do it all. Fictional or real voices, be they alive or…dead.))

Hana’s eyes flickered with emotion at these words.

((As long as there’s any footage, I can recreate it perfectly. Anything you want to…or need to hear can be recreated.))

Hana’s head fell and she went silent. After wrestling with her thoughts for some seconds, she came to a decision.

A sigh left her lips. “No, I appreciate the gesture, but I’ll pass. Illusions, no matter how speculator or detailed, are still illusions. What is lost is lost. There’s no turning back time, nor do I want to,” she glanced down and gently rubbed her hand across the duo’s face, “having sons like you two by my side is more than enough for me.”

The duo’s face sweetened in her lap. Overjoyed, Ralf hugged her from the front. At the same time, Rei had the Psi Clone Flicker behind her before wrapping her up in its soft embrace.

The light from the flickering flames danced across the trio, raising their temperature higher and higher. Before they could burn up, Hana gave a light tap and their embrace came undone. Ralf slid down back to her lap while Rei had the Psi Clone Flicker back to its previous position.

“Ray?” Hana questioned her son’s action.

((I still have more to show you.))

At the words, Ralf and Hana alike cast their focus towards the Psi Clone. Under their gaze, it slipped off one glove and subsequently lost an arm. The Psi previously maintaining the arm exited from Ralf’s body and floated before the Psi Clone where it then transformed into Rei’s desired shape.

((Besides Ghost Mimicry, I also developed a technique called False Speaker.))

Ralf’s eyes lit up as he took in the final product. True to his memories of one, a speaker shaped Psi contraption now reflected off his eyes. “You actually managed to make one, play something,” he urged, excitement in his voice.

“Play something?” Hana was totally confused looking at that strangely shaped device.

((Yeah, sit back and relax. Here goes.)) Delaying for a second more, Rei’s mind delved into the Mental Space where he navigated to a certain contraption. A playlist interface was shown. Clicking ‘Song 1’, the Zero System responded as it was programmed to. It dived into his Conceptual Memory, and upon compiling the relevant slots, began activating them one after the other in the assigned sequence.

The result was…

The sound of the black and white keys being gently prodded at suddenly drifted from the speaker.

Hana was instantly blown away by the phenomenon she was witnessing. The sound was crisp and landed on her ears as if parachuting in. Her shock quickly faded as the beautiful melody tugged at her mind, sending it elsewhere. Her eyes shut as she took in the pleasant sounds reaching her.

Rei smiled at the result. Wanting to further the effect, he dematerialized the Psi Clone and made several more False Speakers which he then had positioned all around her, and then moved through all the recorded songs in his playlist. From piano to violin, to flute, and then combinations of the three.

The how behind it was simple, and not that simple, as Ralf was working out in his head.

‘All sound is just vibrating gases, that’s it. A normal speaker works with electricity, but for us, we can just do the vibrations with high-speed telekinesis. Still, he must have fiddled with it quite a bit before he could get such a specific sound. I can’t see this being replicated. Even just one song requires dozens of, no hundreds of slots in one’s Conceptual Memory. And for it to sound as clear and put together as it does now, one would have to activate the individual slots in perfect sequence, without any break. Without the pseudo Automatic Aura, the Mental Space allows us, this would be a real pain. This is probably our first truly unique technique.’ he smirked at the thought. ‘Aah, the look on people’s faces, I can see it already…’

While Ralf revelled in fantasies, the final song reached its end.

“That was beautiful.” Opening her eyes, Hana’s eyes were coloured in a misty coat. The sonic attack landed cleanly, causing her artistic heart to sway with emotion. “Is that all you have?”

Psi Clone rematerialised, Rei answered, ((Yeah, so far. I only recorded a few songs, but I’ll make more.)) As he spoke, thoughts of his next piece was already swirling through his head. Seeing the joy it brought his mother, Rei was eager to produce more. ((Do you want to hear any song again? Requests are open.))

“Then, the first song please.”

((Coming up.))

The sound of piano playing once filled the air, delighting Hana, who began humming to the tune.

Breaking from it some thirty seconds later, she inquired as to the how behind this impossibility she was witnessing. The duo was quick to explain the device, leaving no curiosity remaining in that head of hers.

“I was initially going to create different wind instruments and show them off one by one, but then I decided, why do that when I could just create the device that can play all sounds. I used what I could remember with the basic design and with a bit of tinkering on the texture, shape and vibration speed, I managed to figure it out. From there, the rest was simple. Vibrate the mechanism to produce a sound segment, and join all the segments together to form one string of music.”

“Mm, that’s so interesting. Wait, all types of sound? This can produce all kinds of sound?”

“Yeah, all kinds, not just music. If I wanted, I could simulate a gunshot or cannon firing or a sword slicing through the air or an explosion. The False Speaker is still in its basic phase so it’s not capable of that yet. Just wait a little while, I’ll show you something much cooler than this.”

“Yeah, wait till you hear the music we have over there, it’ll really blow your mind.”

“Oh,” Hana’s eyes sparkled at the comment. Her sons had never failed to exceed her expectations, and she didn’t think this time was an exception. Excitement surged in her. “I see, I’m looking forward to it,” she said as she rubbed her sons’ head, anticipation echoing clearly in her voice.

The trio’s jovial chatter continued for some thirty minutes more before they parted ways. They would usually push deeper into the night, but this night was different, tomorrow was an important day after all.

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