Asimov's Science Fiction: December 2013 Read Online Free PDF Page A

in front of us at the end of the lane.
    Ah, but our center of Chi still wobbles! Piss me off to death. She is trying, but we cannot stabilize the Chi.
    The boys pump hard toward us and crouch down, forming the Charging Ox position. When they have gathered their Chi, they spring at us.
    When we hear their skates leave the pearl, Doi Liang and I entwine our arms together so that we join into a position with no arms and four legs. She winces as I grab her crippled arm, sending a wave rocking through our Chi, but we hold on to it. At the last possible moment, we get it right and execute the Leaping Rabbit pairs move and leap up out of their way.
    The boys attempt to reposition and aim up toward us, but they are unable to lock onto us as our trajectory wobbles. The unstable Chi is helping us! Like the Drunken Hen move, our random lurches are as unpredictable to our foes as to us.
    As the boys slide under us toward the bay, they struggle to untangle from the Charging Ox position, but in this narrow residential lane, they cannot burst apart out of the position as they are trained to do and they used too much force in too small a space.
    As they slide toward the bay, Doi Liang and I change in mid-air from the Leaping Rabbit position to the Charging Ram position. We curl our arms to form the ram's horns and channel the rest of the Chi from our downward trajectory to batter into the boys.
    Our impact, the remaining Chi from the boys' Charging Ox move, and the boys' own weight combine. The momentum is too much for them to stop in time. We send them crashing through a grove of false cherry blossoms planted by the water. They go flying off the edge of the boardwalk in an explosion of pink petals straight into Aroma Bay, ending in two splashes so far away that they look like little plumes of dolphin spray.
    As soon as we see that we have defeated the boys, Doi Liang and I untangle our limbs and push each other away as fast as we can.
    Sensei Madame Tong and all the other girls catch up with us. They gaze in astonishment at the third year Academy boys in the sea, swimming back toward us. The girls look at each other and then bow to us. Doi Liang bows back to them as if they were honoring her. Her! Make me die of laughing!
    Then that Doi Liang bows to Sensei Madame Tong, reaches into her skate, and gives her the scroll that I signed! Sensei Madame Tong reads the scroll and says, "Good."
    She bows to Sensei Madame Tong again and says, "I have waited three months for a day of quiet."
    If she thinks I am going to let her talk about me like that in front of everyone, she is even stupider than I thought! I skate up to her. "Do not think that they were bowing to you! Your stupid crippled arm almost lost us—Ai!" Doi Liang's hand shoots out at my head, grabs a fistful of hair, and squeezes! Aiyah, she has creased it! Three months of sleeping with a rolled cloth under my neck to allow the hair to grow back straight, and she has ruined it!
    I start to do the double-bladed mantis chop move on Doi Liang's arm, but Sensei Madame Tong shoots me an iron stare. She is taking that Doi Liang's side! Piss me off to death!
    Doi Liang releases my hair. It is still only at the level of my chin, so I cannot see how badly she injured it, but I toss it side to side and can feel from how it swings that that passage of hair is permanently creased and ruined.
    "You stupid, ugly, low-grade—Ai!" Doi Liang's fist is suddenly in my hair again, squeezing and crushing! "Do not do that, you crazy dog fart, you are going to—Ai!" Her other fist shoots into my hair! Her crippled arm is still strong enough to bend my hair. "Let go, you evil, insane—Ai!" Both her fists tighten and twist in my hair!
    Out of the border of my vision, I see the two Academy boys climb out of the water onto the boardwalk. Oh, no, I cannot let them see me like this!
    "Not in front of boys! Let me go, you stupid, stupid—Ai!" Doi Liang's hands perform the ten-spoked churning maw move right in my