Anachronisms

After taking Sten and Frau back home, Cassie drove over to visit Hiro. There was no answer to her knock on the door, so Cassie walked around to the back of his house.

There was an open space in the center, Japanese gardens surrounding the whole. Next to the back of the house, beside what looked like a cross between a patio and a deck, was a sand garden with huge boulders and sand raked in a waving, restful pattern.

In the center of the yard was Hiro, wearing only his pants, his upper body drenched in sweat and shimmering in the sunshine. He was wielding both swords in a cross pattern that was both beautiful and menacing. As Cassie watched, he sheathed his smaller sword and began to track a fly buzzing in front of him.

Hiro stood perfectly still and concentrated on the fly. He then flicked his wrist and the tip of the sword moved in a blur. The fly fell to the ground, sliced in two. As he bent to inspect his work, Cassie gasped. Hiro spun and holding his sword in an attack stance, looked for the source of the sound. Seeing Cassie, he broke into a smile.

Cassie noticed the broad expanse of heaving chest, rippled muscles, six-pack abs. "Sorry to bother you. Did you really just cut a buzzing fly in two?"

"Yes, but not evenly. I prefer when it is more half than simply two."

Cassie blinked in confusion, "Isn't 'two' and 'half' the same thing?"

"No, 'two' doesn't mean that each of the pieces is the same size while 'half' does. I was sloppy."

"I see," is what she said, but her brow was creased and her eyes were narrowed.

"Watch." Hiro took a leaf, dropped it from shoulder height and cut the leaf in half lengthwise and then each half was cut in half so that four equally sized pieces of leaf hit the ground in a flutter. "See? Even."

Cassie came to inspect the pieces of leaf and found them to be exactly as he described – evenly cut into quarters. "How long did that take to learn?"

"Months to cut it into four pieces before hitting the ground, much longer to get them to be evenly sized."

"I thought it took a lot of practice to learn to place a tennis ball into the corner of a court." Cassie was laughing and shaking her head.

"I've been out here for a few hours now, let's go inside. I need something cool to drink." Hiro led the way into his modern-future kitchen. As they passed the neatly raked sand, Cassie paused. Hiro asked, "Do you like it? It is meant to be calming."

"It's beautiful. How do you manage to rake it so perfectly without leaving footprints?"

"Another skill," Hiro voice held a touch of a laugh behind the words. "And special tools."

"What I came over to find out was if you had something like a telephone or communicator or a way to talk while not face-to-face." Cassie reached for her cell phone to show Hiro what she meant at the same time Hiro was pulling out a small rectangle object that was tucked near his smaller sword.

"I have this, but I believe it will work with other communication devices. Grimorph said it contained 'legacy capability' and 'integrated potential.' Is this what you mean?"

"Yep. You got a number or code so that I can reach you on that?"

Hiro gave her the number and she programmed it into her phone. "Who is Grimorph?" she asked as they sat down at the table. Hiro pushed the glass full of ice cubes and a bright blue fizzing liquid.