Not so Ordinary World

[Liddo-kun]

Shia lets the spirit ball dissipate, casting concerned eyes on you.  "Are you okay?  Maybe you're tired and need to lie down for a while?  It has been a rather... difficult day for you."  She doesn't say it, but it's obvious she's concerned about how you might be dealing with your latest loss.

The dizzy spell you experienced didn't last long - you're starting to feel a bit better now, actually.  Though there is this odd and lingering warmth that you can feel, as well as an odd prickly sense along your back.

"Did you want to go back to you room?" Shia asks, offering you a hand.  Even the children have ceased playing, coming over to see if you're okay.

[Kwokinator]

"No, it's alright," he declined the offer, shaking his head.  He knew the vision blurring wasn't anything psychosomatic, but he didn't feel like explaining.

Maki still thought the lingering weird warmth and prickly feeling were weird, since he pulled the hand already.  He made a mental note to ask Shoga about this later, since Shia didn't seem to know it to be a result of the energy ball.

"So, what are the uses for harnessing energy like this?"

[Liddo-kun]

"See, Taki, he's okay!"  You hear one of the kids say.  "Let's get back to the game!" he suggests, to which the others agree and they leave the two of you to your discussion.

"There's a lot of applications for spirit energy," Shia explains.  She hums to herself in thought then replies, "I think imagination and training how to shape your power is the only limitation."

"You can channel through yourself, outside your body, through objects..." she seems to be ticking off a mental list.  "I think there's a few more, but we'll just say there's a lot."

[Kwokinator]

"Through objects?" Maki raised an eyebrow, curiousity peaked. "So you can destroy things with spirit energy?"

And probably people too...

"What do you mean by channel through yourself?"

[Liddo-kun]

"What I mentioned are very broad," Shia says.  She sits back down and gets comfortable knowing this could take a while.

"You can channel energy throughout your own body.  This let's you do things like increase your healing, make yourself stronger, make your skin as hard as a rock," she says.  "I'd show you, but... well, I'm not too good at that one."

"What I *can* do though," Shia begins to say, recovering some of her lost bravado, "is channel energy outside of my body.  Heal others, make a shield, stuff like that."

"A lot of this is just knowing how to manipulate energy."  She picks up a leaf from the ground and holds it on the open palm of her hand.  You watch the leaf twitch in different places before finally collapsing in on itself and taking on the shape of a paper crane.  It then reverts back to a leaf, turns brown and withers, then turns back to a healthy green.

"It's all in how you use it."

[Kwokinator]

"Cool," he nodded.  From the way it sounded, there was no limit to what spirit energy can do.  

I wonder if I can hurt or kill those things with spirit energy...

"And how would I go about getting trained to use this energy?" Maki inquired. "How long did it take you to get this far?"

[Liddo-kun]

"Me?" Shia asked, pointing to herself.  "Well, it took me about a year before I got the hang of it."

She gets a slightly far-away look in her eyes as the training she underwent seems to replay itself in her mind.  "Mmm.  There are really only about two key parts.  The hardest part is to learn to move the energy of your body to do useful things.  Next is to learn how to use that energy to affect the changes that you want."

"Being able to find, then move the energy inside you is the crucial part because you can't move on to anything else until you figure that out," she tells you, nodding her head.  "That's the part that had me hung up for the longest time.  I could *feel* the energy inside of me, but I could never move it really well.  It was like pushing against a really heavy boulder."

[Kwokinator]

"A year, huh?" he echoed.  He didn't really want to spend a whole year training to be able to use his spirit energy.  

Hopefully he can master it in a shorter time.  Hopefully much shorter.

"I'm not really getting what you mean by moving the energy inside, but I think it's something I'll know when I start training.  So who do I go to to get trained on this?"

[Liddo-kun]

Shia gives you an unreadable look.  There's concern, but there's also something in her expression that amounts to unease.  "You want to learn how to use the ability for..." she hesitates slightly, "what happened to your father?"

[Kwokinator]

"That's a part of it, yes," he admitted, not wanting to lie. "But that's not the only reason."

[Liddo-kun]

Shia seems to be mentally chewing on your reply as you see the result of an assortment of conflicting thoughts play across her face.

"He should be allowed to walk the path as he chooses."  A new voice interjects, causing Shia to look up in response.

"Master Horai," you hear the girl exclaim, clearly surprised by this sudden appearance.  She makes a move to stand, out of respect, but he waves it off.

Standing about a head taller than yourself, the man casts an imposing figure, even if he was at least forty years your senior - by your guess.  He still sported a full head of hair, a white horse tail pulled back and in check with a red string.  He wore a ring of crow's feet around his eyes and his face proudly carried the signs of many smiles past.

All in all, he's what you would've pictured a typical grandfather to look like.  Albeit one that looked fit enough to run circles around you, seeing as he wasn't even hunched over with time's cruel touch.

[Kwokinator]

Maki got up and politely bowed.  From the "master" prefix Shia addressed the man with, it was better to be polite, lest he might get beat down.

"Master Horai?" he greeted. "I'm Maki Taguchi.  I just got here.  Nice to meet you."

[Liddo-kun]

He nods in return, chuckling softly in amusement at what he felt to be an overly respectful greeting.  "No need for such formalities, young one," he assures.  "Master I may be, but it's simply a lofty title."

[Kwokinator]

"Lofty or not," Maki smiled. "Shia addresses you as 'master', so you must deserve it in some way or another."

"So," he added, skipping to the subject. "How can I learn to harness this spirit energy?"

[Liddo-kun]

The wrinkles on his face part to reveal a pair of soft blue eyes that seem to penetrate deep and gaze into your very soul.  "Hmm," Horai says, reaching some sort of conclusion as he closes his eyes once again.  "See me in the morning after a night's rest and some food in your belly," he pronounces.

He chooses then to withdraw a bag from his belt.  Undoing the knot, he retrieves a small, clear colored glass ball - a little bigger than an average marble.  "In the meantime, practice with this," he tells you, placing the object in your hand.

Turning to Shia he asks, "You remember what this is, don't you?"

"Yes, Master Horai," she replies, earning a nod from the old man who wishes you well as he departs for the inner compound.