Chương 92: Mr. Morimoto

Morimoto The first person who showed up the next day wasn't their formations master. It was Kim Yuna. Leo stared at her standing in the Institute's main lobby, wearing a casual sundress and carrying a designer handbag. She waved at him like this was completely normal.

"How did you get in here?" Leo demanded.

"This is a secure government facility."

"Relax." Yuna rolled her eyes.

"I'm not here for you."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"Vivian got me access." Yuna smiled sweetly.

"I told her it was an emergency. After I explained the situation, she was happy to help." Leo's eye twitched.

"What emergency could possibly require you to infiltrate a federal formation research center?"

"All you have to do is introduce me to Ellaraeth." Yuna patted his arm.

"I'll handle the rest."

"Handle the rest of what?"

"Leo. Introduction. Now." Leo knew better than to argue. He led Yuna through the Institute's corridors toward the garden courtyard, which had been designed to impress visiting dignitaries. Spiritual formations wove through the landscaping, causing flowers to bloom in geometric patterns and fountains to dance in synchronized displays. They found Ella admiring a formation sculpture near the central pavilion.

The piece depicted a dragon coiled around a pillar, its scales etched with microscopic array runes that made light ripple across its surface like water.

"Nice to meet you, Ellaraeth." Yuna stepped forward with practiced grace and extended her hand.

"I'm Kim Yuna, daughter of the Samsung family that manages Garrison Seoul. You can call me Yuna." Ella turned, her violet eyes flickering with curiosity. She accepted the handshake with a small bow.

"Nice to meet you, Yuna. You can call me Ella. Are you joining us for the Grand Formations Summit?" Yuna shook her head.

"You know how it is at Garrison Seoul." Ella winced.

"Unfortunately, I don't have time to devote to formation work," Yuna continued.

"My family has other plans for me." She turned to Leo and held out her phone.

"Hey Leo, can you take a picture of us?" Before he could respond, she had already opened the camera app and positioned the phone in his hands. The angle was precise. The lighting was perfect. Ella was framed exactly in the center with the formation sculpture creating an artistic backdrop.

"Just hold it steady," Yuna instructed. She walked over to Ella and positioned herself beside her.

"Okay, take a few." Leo took the pictures.

"Good job." Yuna retrieved the phone and examined the results.

"Actually, move over there. The light is better from that angle." Leo moved.

"Now take some more." He took more pictures.

"Perfect." Yuna scrolled through the photos with a critical eye.

"This one is the best. Ella, you photograph beautifully." Ella looked confused.

"Thank you? What are you doing with these images?"

"Instagram."

"What is Instagram?" Yuna's smile widened. Ella had walked straight into her trap.

"Here, let me show you." She moved to stand beside Ella, holding the phone so they could both see the screen.

"Have you heard of Amarië?" Ella's composure cracked. Something almost like excitement broke through.

"Her music has reached the Obsidian Cult," Ella said.

"I am a huge fan. The way her vocal resonance techniques incorporate spiritual cultivation is absolutely magical."

"Someday I'll take you to one of her concerts." Yuna navigated through her phone.

"Even recording crystals can't capture how wonderful she sounds in person." She pulled up a profile page. The screen showed a grid of professional photographs, concert shots, and candid moments. At the top, a number glowed prominently.

"Look. She has 280 million followers." Ella's eyes went wide.

"280 million followers?"

"Oh look, she posted a story." Yuna tapped on the profile picture. The screen filled with a short video. Amarië sat in a recording studio, headphones around her neck, laughing at something off camera. Sound mixing equipment filled the background. A timestamp in the corner showed it had been posted three hours ago.

"Wow, it looks like she's recording a new album," Yuna said.

"No wonder she's been quiet recently." Ella leaned closer to the screen. Her violet eyes reflected the glow.

"A new album?" Her voice rose half an octave.

"Wait. How did you obtain this image? What does it mean to have 280 million followers? Can you teach me how to use Instagram too?"

"Of course I can," said the lion to the lamb. Leo quietly backed away. He felt like he had just set something terrible in motion.

Professor Vogt stood at the front of the formation workshop, her expression carrying the particular weight of someone about to deliver bad news.

"Before we begin your first lesson, I need to introduce your new instructor." She paused, adjusting her spectacles.

"His name is Kenji Morimoto. He is currently serving a fifteen-year sentence for formation counterfeiting." Leo blinked.

"We're being taught by a prisoner?"

"A very talented prisoner." Vogt's tone stayed neutral.

"He reverse-derived proprietary arrays from major corporations and sold inscriptions at a fraction of the markup." Thad leaned forward in his chair.

"Wait. He stole formations?"

"He counterfeited licensed formations," Vogt corrected.

"There is a legal distinction."

"But he learned them first, right?" Thad scratched his chin.

"What's wrong with that? If you can derive a formation, you should be able to use it. That's just being skilled." Professor Vogt pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Please don't encourage him."

"I HEARD THAT!" The muffled shout came from the other side of the workshop door. Everyone turned to look.

"The Dao of Open Source is not a crime! Knowledge belongs to all cultivators!" Vogt sighed deeply. Ella cleared her throat, drawing her brother's attention.

"Thad. Consider this. What if someone stole one of the Obsidian Cult's forbidden formations? One of the arrays passed down through the divine bloodline for generations?"

"They'd be hunted down." Thad shrugged.

"Exactly. They would be punished severely for taking what doesn't belong to them." Thad's brow furrowed.

"But isn't that exactly what Earth did to us? And what we did to Earth? We've been stealing each other's formations since the war started."

"LET ME IN!" The pounding started. The workshop door rattled in its frame.

"I can hear you discussing my case without me present! This is a violation of my rights as a cultivator!" Leo watched the door shake with each impact.

"Should we..."

"Not yet." Vogt raised her voice slightly.

"Students, I want to make something very clear before Mr. Morimoto joins us." The pounding intensified.

"He is here to teach you formation derivation. His techniques are genuinely brilliant. However." She fixed each of them with a stern look.

"If you use what he teaches you to steal formations from established masters, they will hunt you down and hold you accountable. Formation masters have long memories and many friends."

"I DESERVE TO DEFEND MYSELF!" The door shuddered.

"You are poisoning my students against me!" Professor Vogt closed her eyes for a long moment. When she opened them, s he walked to the door and pulled it open. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Kenji Morimoto practically tumbled through the doorway. He was lean and wiry. His suit had clearly been expensive once, decades ago. Round spectacles sat crooked on his nose. He straightened up with exaggerated dignity and turned to face the two guards who had been escorting him.

"Gentlemen." He gave them a little bow.

"Your services are no longer required. I am among colleagues now." The guards exchanged glances but didn't move. Morimoto spread his arms wide and drew in a theatrical breath.

"FREEDOM!" The word echoed off the workshop walls. Then his gaze fell to his right wrist, where a spiritual tracking cuff of inscribed bronze wrapped around the joint. The formations etched into its surface pulsed with a faint, steady glow. His shoulders sagged slightly.

"Conditional freedom," he amended. He adjusted his spectacles and turned to face his new students with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"But freedom of the mind is the only freedom that truly matters." Leo noticed Morimoto's fingers were already twitching toward the cuff, examining its edges absentmindedly. Morimoto caught everyone looking and quickly clasped his hands behind his back.

"I am Kenji Morimoto. You may call me Mr. Morimoto, or simply 'the man who will revolutionize your understanding of formations.' I am thirty-seven years old." Leo opened his mouth.

"Foundation Establishment halves the aging process," Morimoto said quickly.

"This is basic biology. I will not be taking questions on the matter." He began pacing in front of them, his gait carrying the restless energy of someone who had spent too long in confined spaces.

"The government promised me students untainted by Modern Formation Theory." He stopped and surveyed them with narrowed eyes.

"I am here to make sure it stays that way." His smile sharpened.

"You have been taught to copy. To replicate. To follow diagrams like trained monkeys tracing lines in sand." He waved a dismissive hand.

"Garbage like Modern Formation Theory. Bah. A philosophy of mass production. A betrayal of the ancient arts." Professor Vogt cleared her throat pointedly.

"Yes, yes, Modern Formation Theory has its uses." Morimoto didn't look at her.

"Supply chains. Manufacturing efficiency. Very important for making money." The last word dripped with contempt. He turned back to his students.

"I am here to teach you something different. Something that cannot be licensed or patented or locked behind corporate walls." His eyes gleamed behind his spectacles.

"I am going to teach you to see formations as they truly are. Imperfect shadows of heavenly patterns." He pulled a formation plate from his sleeve with a flourish. The array inscribed on its surface was simple, a basic Five Elements circulation pattern that any Qi Refining cultivator could draw.

"Tell me." He held up the plate.

"What do you see?"

"A Five Elements formation," Leo said.

"Look closer." Leo caught the plate Morimoto tossed to him and examined it with his divine sense. The qi flowed smoothly through the formation pivots, cycling through wood, fire, earth, metal, and water in the proper sequence.

"It looks functional to me."

"Functional." Morimoto spat the word like a curse.

"Yes. Functional. And imperfect." He snatched the plate back.

"You saw lines. Array runes. The positive space where spiritual ink meets spiritual medium. But where are the mistakes? Where are the gaps? Where is the emptiness between the strokes?" He held the plate up to the light.

"The Heavenly Dao expresses itself through perfect spiritual flows. Every formation we draw is an attempt to capture that perfection. Every formation fails." Thad raised his hand.

"Yes?"

"Is there going to be a practical component? Or is this all philosophy?" Morimoto's eye twitched.

"I see already that some students will require more foundational work than others." He turned away from Thad with visible effort.

"The Inverse Derivation Technique requires seeing both dimensions of error simultaneously. The cracks and the voids. The positive imperfection and the negative absence." He began drawing on the workshop's main formation board, his chalk moving with quick, confident strokes.

"First pass: flow imperfection." Golden lines spread across the surface, tracing a familiar Five Elements formation. He marked several points with small circles.

"Every formation has flaws in its qi flow. Places where spiritual energy stutters or pools incorrectly. The pattern of cracks reveals what the formation was trying to be." He set down the golden chalk and picked up white.

"Second pass: structural absence." A second layer emerged over the first.

"You must observe the negative space with equal clarity. Where are the gaps between array runes? Where could pivot points exist but don't? What shape does the emptiness take?" He traced the voids in the formation's structure.

"A room is defined by its walls, but you live in the empty space between them." He stepped back from the board. Golden imperfections intersected with white voids, creating a lattice of overlapping errors.

"Synthesis." He tapped where the two layers converged.

"By overlaying both maps of imperfection, we perceive the ghost of the heavenly pattern the formation attempted to capture. The intersection of flow imperfection and structural absence points toward the ideal form. Toward the truth that the original formation master was trying to express." He stepped back from the board and spread his arms wide.

"This is my Inverse Derivation technique. It took me forty years to develop." His voice swelled with pride.

"I share it freely because the Dao of Open Source demands it." Leo studied the overlapping patterns on the board.

"This is how you reverse-derived all those proprietary formations?" Leo asked. Morimoto's smile returned, warm with genuine pride.

"This is how I liberated knowledge from corporate prisons." He adjusted his tracking cuff absently.

"How many students have you taught?" Ella asked. Morimoto's smile flickered.

"Inverse Derivation is too easily misused to release publicly. And the academic journals have been compromised by corporate interests for decades." He waved a hand.

"Besides, the technique requires exceptional divine sense. Most cultivators lack the spiritual perception to even attempt the first pass." Ella and Leo exchanged glances. For someone who preached the Dao of Open Source, Morimoto had a lot of reasons to keep his own work closed.

"But I am sharing it now," Morimoto added quickly.

"With you three. You three will be the start of a great legacy."

They spent the rest of the day practicing the first pass. Morimoto had them examine formation plate after formation plate, marking flow imperfections until Leo's divine sense ached and Thad had started doodling flying swords in the margins of his notes. By dinner, Leo could identify the cracks. The voids remained stubbornly invisible. He was deep in a dream about flying swords and unlimited spiritual qi when someone shook his shoulder.

"Wake up." The whisper was urgent.

"Quietly. Follow me." He cracked one eye open. Mr. Morimoto's face hovered inches from his own, spectacles glinting in the darkness.

"What time is it?"

"Time is an illusion constructed by corporate interests to maximize productivity." Morimoto was already moving toward the door.

"Come. Bring the others." Leo found Thad and Ella in the hallway, both looking equally confused. Thad had thrown on a training robe backwards. Ella's hair was uncharacteristically disheveled, though she still somehow managed to look dignified.

"What is happening?" Ella asked.

"Shh." Morimoto pressed a finger to his lips and beckoned them forward.

"This way. Quietly." They crept through the Institute's corridors like a procession of bewildered ghosts. Morimoto moved with surprising stealth for a man in his seventies, pausing at corners and checking for guards with the practiced paranoia of someone who had done this many times before.

"Is this normal?" Thad whispered to Leo.

"I've known him just as long as you have."

"Fair." They reached the main lecture room. Morimoto ushered them inside and closed the door with exaggerated care. Then he practically skipped to the projector, pulling a formation diagram from his sleeve with a flourish.

"Gather round, gather round." His whisper had taken on an excited, conspiratorial quality.

"I wanted to show you this without certain... institutional oversight." He loaded the diagram into the projector. The formation that bloomed across the wall was enormous. Array runes spiraled outward in layer after layer of interlocking patterns. Formation pivots connected components that used at least five different numerical systems. Leo's jaw dropped. Thad made a sound like a deflating balloon. Ella's eyes went wide behind her disheveled hair.

"This," Morimoto announced proudly, "will be your goal before MOP. The formation you must learn to understand."

"That's..." Leo struggled for words.

"That's insane."

"That's beautiful," Morimoto corrected.

"A masterwork of spiritual engineering. Multiple redundant systems. Self-reinforcing pivot cascades. Truly elegant containment architecture." Thad squinted at the projection.

"Is that actually something we can study? I thought you said we'd start with the basics."

"Of course you can study it. It is vital that you study it." Morimoto's voice carried the fervor of true belief.

"At the very least, you will need to learn how to break its flow. Otherwise you will not graduate."

"Breaking the flow of that would take a Nascent Soul," Ella said flatly.

"Nonsense. With the Inverse Derivation Technique, even a Qi Refining cultivator can find weaknesses in the most complex arrays. You simply need to identify the cracks. The voids. The points of failure." Leo stepped closer to the projection, his omnidirectional awareness expanding to take in the full scope of the formation. Something about the pattern nagged at him. The arrangement of the containment arrays. The specific configuration of the tracking components. He had seen this before.

"Mr. Morimoto."

"Yes?"

"I recognize this formation." Morimoto's expression flickered.

"You have excellent instincts. This is indeed a famous design, studied in many..."

"That's one of the formations on your cuff." Silence filled the lecture room. Morimoto's hand drifted unconsciously toward his wrist. The tracking cuff's bronze surface caught the projector light, its inscribed formations pulsing with the same patterns displayed on the wall.

"Ah." He adjusted his spectacles.

"You are very observant."

"Mr. Morimoto." Leo crossed his arms.

"That cuff is probably a Tier Five formation. How are we supposed to crack it?"

"Tier Four, actually. The government is quite stingy with resources." Morimoto waved a dismissive hand.

"And as I said, sometimes a challenge is important. You must shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you will land amongst the stars."

"That's not how orbital mechanics work," Leo countered.

"It is a metaphor."

"It's a bad metaphor." Morimoto turned away from Leo with visible effort and fixed his attention on Ella. He smiled politely.

"Miss Nyxalis. As a genius of the Obsidian Cult, surely you have unique insights into containment formations? Your family's techniques are legendary. Perhaps you could share some observations about potential weaknesses in the design?" Ella's violet eyes could have froze spiritual qi solid.

"I am not going to help you escape your own captors."

"Escape? Who said anything about escape? This is purely academic..."

"Didn't you have to make an agreement with the guards before they let you out?" Ella's tone sharpened.

"Something about not attempting to flee custody?" Morimoto's mouth opened and closed several times.

"The specific terms of my release are confidential."

"You didn't deny it."

"I am under a nondisclosure agreement."

"That's a confirmation." Leo studied the projection again. The level of detail was remarkable. Individual array runes were visible down to the micro-bristle level. The qi flow patterns had been mapped with precision that would require specialized scanning equipment.

"Mr. Morimoto."

"What now?"

"This scan is unusually high resolution."

"I have excellent divine sense for my age."

"This level of detail would require Institute equipment." Leo turned to face him.

"Were you using the formation analysis lab to scan your own restraints?" Morimoto's face cycled through several expressions.

"It is late." He began rolling up the formation diagram with sudden urgency.

"We have covered much ground today. Very productive. You should all return to your quarters and rest." He shut the door in their faces. The three students stood in the darkened hallway, processing what had just occurred.

"Well," Thad said eventually.

"At least he's interesting." Ella pinched the bridge of her nose in a gesture that reminded Leo strongly of Professor Vogt.

"I am going to request a transfer to a different instructor."

"There isn't one," Leo said.

"He's the only esoteric derivation master they could get."

"Because he's the only one desperate enough to teach Qi Refiners in exchange for reduced prison time?"

"Maybe he's the best in the business." Leo offered helpfully.

"LEO'S RIGHT." Mr Morimoto yelled from behind the door. Ella made a sound of pure frustration and stalked off toward her quarters, her disheveled hair somehow adding to her aura of offended dignity. Thad watched her go, then turned to Leo with a grin.

"I like him. He's got ambition."

"He's trying to use us to escape federal custody."

"Like I said." Thad clapped Leo on the shoulder.

"Ambition."