Kyosei

By Brandon Chin

Qin longs to conquer himself. Playing his guqin alongside his beloved villagers and family in Kyosei is all he knows. Nature is all he sees, until the calculating leader of the neighboring tribe, Shi, invades and dominates his serene space. 

After Qin leaves the village to find clarity, the mystery of Founder Mountain transport him to another world. He finds himself surrounded by Artificial Intelligence, a new language, and a censored people. 

Can he make it back to his time to reclaim his village? 

Kyosei is a novella introduction to the Kyosei Series set in China and Japan. If you love traditional Asian culture, the potential of modern technology, and the struggle to know oneself, then you'll enjoy Brandon Chin's story of self-mastery.

• Language: English
• Publisher: QUIL QIN LLC
• Release date: Aug 3, 2016
• ISBN: 9781536522631

Book preview

1

Smelling death through the thick mist of dawn, Qin heard his guqin after an intense three weeks in the most dreaded cave of Kyosei. He had climbed Founder Mountain to focus his mind. His life in his home village of Kyosei had become dark. Aiding the Haku army that conquered his people left his heart shredded and dismantled. To reclaim his village, he knew the battle would not be won by sword. The one thing he knew he could control was his mind. By all means, he would be heard.

Through the tones of his guqin, he cleansed his body and soul. The music he played served as a meditation. Waves of sound that he could ride into his thoughts. The small town of Kyosei was famous throughout the scattered kingdoms for their superior methods of sustainability. The manner in which they interacted with nature was reverent and calculated. The founders of Kyosei had instilled in its people the philosophy of mimicking nature in their daily lives. Qin’s grandmother, Baba, was one of the founders. In particular, she understood that the generations after her would carry the village forward into the future, so she made sure Qin was keen on the law of the land.

Last string, Qin thought.

Qin began to feel queasy and out of his body.

Not yet…the village needs me.

He did his best to push himself to stay conscious. But, a thick, transparent liquid began to drip. The hot substance came from the tip of his skull and traveled the length of his dreads. He didn’t know what it could be, but the searing sensation smothered any inquiry. All the while his hands hadn’t stopped stringing the seven strings of the zither below him. His eyes wandered around the cave, scanning the sharp rocks that donned the walls. The mist seemed to creep ever more slowly into the space.

The smell of fresh dew. Morning has come to take me.

Qin looked down at his weathered clothes and thought of his odor. Even nearing old age at twenty-five years old, if Baba was alive she would’ve slapped him upside the head. Uncleanliness was not taken lightly in Kyosei. The body was seen as the vessel of nature, and as such, it should be cared for diligently.

I wonder what she would think of this ooze.

The warm, viscous liquid ran down the bridge of his nose. Even so, his hands never stopped. In fact, they picked up speed as a sound began to enter his ears. A tone, rather. Long and drone-like. The type of sound one would hear after spending time in the utter silence of nature. As if all of the periphery bird songs, leave rustling, and wind howls merged into a single entity. An entity that came to change him. What could one do with such a powerful tune? As Qin had been taught when he was a young child, he accepted the change and moved on. Expect this time, the movement was different.

2

Qin woke up to a sea of screaming lights and excessive noise. His eyes could not adjust fully to the illumination that engulfed him.

Where am I?

The last thing Qin remembered was the sharp pain emanating from the top of his head. The blood that had erupted hadn’t stopped him from playing his guqin with a ferocity he had never divulged. The intensity of his time in the mountains was soon challenged by this new world he found himself in. As his eyes adjusted, Qin surveyed the landscape.

There were massive structures made of some material he had never seen before. Men, women, and mixes of the two walked around frantically, almost running into each other. They paid no attention to this man blocking their path. As if he was a stone on the road, they bypassed him without a second thought. There was some type of light attached to their face. The noise was maddening.

What is this?

As Qin tried to stand, a searing pain shot through his body. His stomach let out a drawn out screech. A sound that resembled a bird being choked as you opened its body with a knife. He realized that he would need to eat or he would die. The stress of this new place he found himself in did not warrant fasting. He felt like the last duck in a caged flock to get plucked and beheaded.

How am I going to get back?

Wondering about the strange liquid. He touched the top of his head and felt no residue or scabbing. There was nothing.

Just then, a hand reached out from the masses of moving bodies, and quickly shifting feet. Qin looked at the face of the person who extended her hand and saw a stern-lipped, short-haired woman. He grabbed onto her slightly large hand, and she pulled him slowly to his feet. He collapsed again, flooded by the off-beat and dissonant movement around him. After a few more attempts to stand up with her help, he eventually got a rolling stumble working. Qin, wavering from weakness and malnutrition, looked into her piercing brown eyes for a few seconds.

Thank you, he said.

She stared at him looking like she was served cow dung for dinner.

Thank you for helping me. I don’t know where I am. I need food.

Her lips formed an awkward crease, and her eyes squinted intensely. Qin recognized this expression as the one he saw when he spoke Kyosei’s dialect to members of the surrounding tribes.

She must not understand my tongue.

The woman looked older and donned strange clothing. Her two long legs were fitted with a tight bluish material and her torso sported a loose black material that reached the wrists of her hands.

Qin raised his hand to his heart and bowed his head in respect to the woman She smiled and motioned for him to follow her. As she guided him through the bustling space, Qin felt increasingly worse. Not only did his gut feel as though it had been torn open and filled with the long pins Baba used in acupuncture, his vision began to fade. The fatigue was getting to him.

A green light displayed the image of a person walking accompanied by a high-pitched sound. When this appeared, everybody began walking across every which way.

What a thing.

The woman turned to a limping Qin, took one look, and moved across the street with everybody else. Qin collapsed before he made it across.

3

Qin awoke to the gently sway of a boat. As he motioned to stand his stomach again shot a delightful pain through his torso. He had to eat.

Where is that woman?

He remembered her mixing into the crowd, and looking back at