An ordinary person, part of an ordinary family, attending an ordinary school, leading an ordinary life in an ordinary world.
Day in and day out, repetitively grinding out the same motions. Get up, eat, go to school, return, sleep, and repeat once again. You told yourself then what a chore it was to live a life like this.
You wondered if there wasn't something more. You wondered if there couldn't be something different for you.
You wondered, wondered, wondered....
What if now, the extraordinary was now ordinary and the ordinary the extraordinary?
You had wished for something more. You wished for something different.
You wished, wished, wished....
And now that you have it, what are you going to do?
...wish granted...
--------
GM note(s):
So that's the vague premise above. All I can promise is semi-coherent posts with a fair bit of descriptive writing. Anyhow, I'm bored and easily amused, so I'm looking to recruit one player who shares said sad fate.
Posting speed will vary, depending on my work schedule, so just post a reply as quickly as you see one from me and all will take care of itself.
Hopefully.
What will this game be like? One word: weird.
I'm going to throw stuff at you, the player, and it's going to be your job to react to it as you see fit. It's a read and react thing, as if I give you a scenario to act out and you do the best with the materials given to pull off a convincing enough acting job - improvisation. I'll work off of what you give me and we'll go from there. Sounds easy enough, right?
So if anyone is interested, give me a reply post along with what you'd like for a character name (Japanese preferable), or leave it to me to make up, whichever.
I reserve the right to randomly dish out kicks to the head if I feel you're torpedoing my game.
^_^
I'm interested! :D
Unless you think my writing skills is too lacking to play ;_;
As for character name, I'm phenomally uncreative with names, especially Japanese names, so just make one up for me. As long as I'm male, it's all good ^_^
OOC:
Poppycock and rubbish. I'll make something out of... er... whatever it is you are, and create a fine product. If not I can conveniently turn around and blame the whole failed venture on you.
Amusing, no? I got a good chuckle out of the thought, personally.
^_^
------
IC:
Expecting to get a restful night's sleep was on the menu for Maki Taguchi, but what a shame, the chef had a change of heart and tonight's special was a heaping helping of insomnia with a side order of the munchies.
The being hungry part was easy to explain. With mom enjoying a week long vacation at the hot springs with her girls, it left father and son some quality, bonding time to enjoy "Boy's Night Out" - fighting over scraps of instant ramen and packets of meat bits with mystery sauce from the local 7-11.
The insomnia was harder to explain though.
Under the blanket, over the blanket, sleeping on your back, sleeping on your sides, sleeping on your stomach - nothing seemed to help. Glancing at the clock on your nightstand, the angry red numbers read 2:55 AM.
5 hours until the start of school.
Fun, fun, fun.
With an angry growl, Maki kicked off the blankets and went to grab a couple of books from his schoolbag to see if he needs to do anything before school.
The wooden floor of your room is cold to the touch as you softly pad your way to your bookbag. Undoing the straps and flipping through the pages of your texts, you find the mangled chicken scratches that constitute your English homework (you just know you're going to get called in class) and the Math assignment....
You spent the good part of the night, reading through your notes eight times and wasted seven sheets of scratch paper trying to make heads or tails out of the problems. You tackled the same problem 13 times and came away with 13 different answers, each solution not resembling its siblings in the least bit.
Your wrist watch gives a short beep then, telling you that it is now 3:00 AM. It's about that time when an odd noise catches your ear.
It's soft. So much so that if it wasn't the dead of night you'd have probably missed it altogether.
You strain to identify it, but the closest you can figure is that it's like a scratching noise followed occasionally by the sound of something small, but hard, hitting the wooden floor of the hallway outside your door.
"Sounds like a cat bouncing around or something..." Maki muttered to himself, and opened the door to see.
Stepping outside the door you don't see anybody, but then again, it is quite dark out in the hall. The light from the window behind you does help somewhat and you're able to see an object on the ground, near your feet.
Backing away from the object just in case, Maki looks down to see what said object might be.
It's a nut. To be precise, a peanut.
You recall there being a dish of peanuts your dad was munching on earlier, while slugging back a bottle of beer and watching his Tokyo Giants get creamed on television.
Klakitty Klak
From farther down the hall, it's the same sound as before. This time you can make out the soft sound of something moving, heading towards the attic staircase.
"Must be the old man or something..." Maki said to himself.
His curiousity is aroused as he hears the sound again, and decides to investigate further by following the source of the sound.
The walk to the staircase is unusually creepy. It seems darker tonight for one reason or another. You find yourself taking cautious steps since it's hard to see, but grimace as the floorboards creak and moan in displeasure.
It's not long before you're standing in front of the staircase. Looking upwards, it seems to be nothing but shadows. Then from the top of the stairs...
Klak
Klak
Klak
Klak
Klak
The peanut spins and rolls to a stop by your feet after tumbling down from up top.
The way up the attic and the attic itself is probably way too dark right now, especially since it seems to be darker tonight.
Maki turns away to search for a decent strength flashlight somewhere before continuing his exploration.
It doesn't take you long to find what you're looking for as you always keep a spare in your bedroom in case the power goes out. Flashlight in hand you're back once more at the foot of the staircase.
Turning it on illuminates the path up the stairs. Everything seems clear from what you can tell, although you note that the peanut from before is gone now.
Maki idly wonders what happened to the peanut, but just chalked it up to whoever it was that dropped the peanut must have picked it back up.
Maki makes his way up the stairs to the attic, making sure to properly illuminate all his path and surroundings.
Step by step, you head towards the top.
Creak. Groan. Creak. Groan.
You counted your footfalls and hadn't even hit twelve paces when an odd tingling feeling creeps up from your ankles to the top of your head. You notice that it's getting a bit colder now for some reason - you can see your breath fog up in front of you.
The doorway to the attic is just a bit further, you can just about see the...
Klak. Klak. Klak. Klak.
...yet another peanut go tumbling by you.
You hear it hit seven steps on the way down before its distinctive sound stops entirely all of a sudden.
"This is definitely not normal..." Maki muttered to himself. He gets the distinct feeling that something is not right. More on the paranormal side of things, actually.
Remembering that dogs are supposed to be more sensitive to the supernatural and other similar things, he tries to think where he can get/borrow a dog from.
Shintaro, the kid next door had one, now that you think about it.
Since it was about 4am, Maki decided that it was too early to try and wake up Shintaro.
Hoping and pretending that it was nothing, he turned to go back down the staircase and ignored the peanut that rolled by him, whether it was still there or not.
Going back to his room, he decided to tuck himself under the blankets try hard to sleep again, since there's nothing much he can do at this hour of night.
The next day came quickly. Sunlight was stabbing into your eyes, you could tell by the feel the warmth on your face. Although the cold morning breeze was a bit--
Breeze? You always slept with your windows closed so what was...?
Curious, Maki opened his eyes and sat up to look at the window.
The window firthest away from your bed was swung wide open, allowing the occasional gust of strong wind to catch and play with your curtains.
Maki got up and closed the window, silently cursing whoever it was that opened his window.
While doing so, you notice a pair of dirty smudges marring the white, wooden border of your windows - about shoulder width apart.
A robber must've climbed in here last night... Maki thought. That's why I heard sounds last night...
Maki looks around his room and tries to think of what he can use as a weapon.
Your ever trusty Louisville Slugger is nearby. 34 inches of solid, head cracking, maple wood.
Maki remembered he has school today, so quickly glances at the clock to check the time.
Checking the clock you note that you have about 40 minutes before school begins.
Crash.
Hmm. Sounds like pots or pans being knocked over in the kitchen.
Maki goes to grab the baseball bat into his hands, makes sure he has a good grip on it and stalks towards the kitchen.
Getting to the kitchen, it's quiet now. Maybe too quiet?
From where you're standing you can see the referigerator is ajar, cabinet doors left open, and various powders, sauces, and oils spilled across the floor in a sloppy puddle of muck. You could tell quickly it was going to be a pain to get cleaned up. That's when you also notice the red trail across the linoleum - strawberry jam, by the looks of it, that leads into the living room.
Maki ignores the mess in the kitchen for now. He'll let his parents clean it up. He'll probably get the blame for it, but better than cleaning that up.
He continues onwards towards the kitchen, following the trail of the jam.
The jam goes from linoleum onto cream-white carpet. If you end up taking the fall for this, your mom is going to hit the roof and kill you on the spot. You knew that much for certain.
The blazing trail ends with the offending jar knocked over on its side, the contents of which is heaped in a stain friendly mound of preserve. There is no sign of anyone else though.
Oh man... Maki thought.Mom's gonna kill me... unless I find someone to take the fall.
Maki picks the jar up and carefully tries to sweep as much of the jam back into the jar as he can.
Unfortunately for Maki, sweeping spilled jam back into a jar makes far more of a mess than is pleasant, and it leaves sticky unarmed hands at that. Perhaps it's for that reason that he didn't see the frying pan ring soundly off the side of his head!
THWACK!
"Shit!" Maki cried out loud and turned to look at his attacker.
Maki certainly got the 'shit' part out, but whirling around proved more difficult as his vision swam and lurched in disagreeing directions. A disoriented, spinning flop was about as much as your body was willing to muster on command.
Maki listens to his body's protests and falls on the ground, but trying his best to to orient himself so he falls down on his back.
So you do, like a helpless turtle flipped on its back, but you do at least manage to look up blearily at your assailant.
A pair of white sneakers and knee high socks lead up to a simple black skirt, which was offset with a slightly dirty white shirt that peeked behind a worn bomber jacket that was a size too big for its wearer.
The young girl they belonged to couldn't have been more than sixteen at best. She wore her hair in a ponytail that stuck out the back of a black Tokyo Giants cap to which was affixed an odd looking mask - Noh or one of those Indonesian masks, it almost looked like.
She looked haggard, but was nervously vigilant, eyeing you like some kind of dangerous animal as she held your mother's frying pan in front of her like a culinary samurai warrior.
"Wha? Why'd you hit me?" Maki tried to say... if the recent head trauma will let him.
On hearing your words, the tension lifts visibly from her shoulders, but she's still as watchful as before. "You're..." she hesitates, "alive?" The girl pokes you as if you were a bug with the end of the frying pan.
"Just barely," Maki complained as he tried to sit up. "I might not be if you had packed anymore punch behind that blow."
An odd sound interrupts your conversation. The noise is not too dissimilar to a more melodic fog horn - a deep penetrating, throaty rumble just booming enough to send a rattle through the window to your right. If you took a look out the window, you could probably see the source since it sounded rather close by.
"What the hell is that?" Maki wondered and tries to get up and go to the window to check out the source of the sound.
From the north end of the street, starting from Mr. Yamada's place, a thick blanket of fog is drifting in. You can just barely see shadowy figures swaying or dancing (you can't tell) within, coming closer and closer as if moving to some strange song.
Behind you, you can hear the girl frantically in motion.
Maki turned around to look at his surprise guest.
"What? What's wrong?"
She pulls out two items from her pocket - a compass and a tube of red lipstick - then quickly begins orienting herself along some cardinal direction. Sparing you a quick glance, "They're coming," she tells you with nervous eyes as she begins writing on the carpet. "Have to hide!"
She has a picture of a crude compass rose showing North, East, South, and West. On the northern and southern points she scribbles the kanji characters for "Death" and "Mirror" respectively.
"Stand behind me," she tells you, while extending a hand to you as she herself steps behind the scribbling. "Quickly," she adds in a hissed, urgent whisper.
Maki was going to yell something about her writing on the carpet, but at the girl's tone, decided it would probably be better for his health to obediently obey, and takes the offered hand to move to stand behind her.
"What's going on?"
Your question is answered moments later as the procession finally reaches the front of your house. The sound from before is louder this time, rattling all the window and seemingly the very foundation of the house with its intensity. It's mercifully short though, and comes to an end, but it brings a period of uncomfortable silence.
That's when you see it. The white stucco wall near the window bubbled like the surface of a lake until eight fist-sized bulbs defaced the once flat surface.
Larger and larger they grew, until the wall began to convulse and shudder. It stretched and bowed inwards like soft dough, until eight distinct entities pulled themselves free and stood shoulder to shoulder in the living room.
One stood front and center. He was the color of porcelain from head to toe and wore a smooth and featureless mask. The other seven who stood around the White, wore masks of freshly stripped human skulls still tinged pink and red in places. The tattered black rags they swathed themselves in smelled of rotted meat and stale water.
After seeing the grotesque sight of the eight figures in front of him, Maki's first reaction was to recoil and back away.
But the vision of the girl's earlier nervousness flashed through his mind and filled him with a sudden bravery, and he stepped out from behind the girl and stepped in front of her.
"What do you want?"
When the girl sees what you're trying to do, she clamps a hand over your mouth and slams you back against the wall with a fierce look. "Do you WANT to die?!" she scolds in panic, shaking you by the fistful of shirt she's grabbed.
She glares at you fiercely, before stealing a quick glance at the eight creatures, and to her dismay, the faceless one was staring directly towards where you both were huddled.
As if operating on a silent command, one of the black robed figures approached, only to stop short of the pictogram on the carpet that glowed white in response to the creature's presence.
It stared at you in particular (at least you thought it was you anyway) as it let out a throaty growl that raised your hackles. The girl took off the mask affixed to her hat and quickly covers your face. "Do. Not. Take. This. Off," she tells you, punctuating each word as firmly as a whisper allowed.
"It can smell your life force with every breath you're taking. That's why they came to your house."
Maki nodded, quickly assessing the situation. Those beings seemed to either not be able to see beyond the pictogram, or could not go past it. Either way, they seem to be safe for the moment.
"Wait..." he whispered as something occurred to him. "What about you? You don't have a mask."
"I..." she begins, pausing oddly, as if considering something for just a moment. "Don't need it." So saying, she untucks a pair of necklaces from under her shirt that now dangle in front of you.
"Spirit" and "Contain" are the two characters of her necklace. They were also glowing the same white hue as the compass rose on the ground.
"No worries," she assures you with a bemused look.
A high pitched wail from one of the black robed creatures in another room is followed by a scream from a familiar voice and it sends a chill through you when you mentally place it with your father's.
"Shit!" Maki swore.
"That's my dad!" he looked at the girl. "Do something!"
Her expression grows grim and crestfallen. "I can't," she tells you sickly, wishing she could give you a better answer than that. She avoids making eye contact with you, but you can see the guilt written plainly on her feature. "I'm able to hide us here like this, but--"
The faceless one leave to join the others in the next room and you watch helplessly as your father is lifted a good two feet from the ground by his neck. He thrashes about wildly, kicking and scratching at it, trying desperately to get free.
Maki grit his teeth and clenched his knuckles white as a single tear fell down his cheeks.
There may be nothing he can do right now, but if he could hide from them, that meant they have weaknesses.
Sooner or later, he will have his revenge.
There's an odd sound. Like bones grinding or breaking, at first you thought it might have been your father, but it's not as he's still alive and struggling. That's when you see the white robed creature's face split open and a lower jaw jut out.
The girl, on seeing this suddenly throws herself on top of you to shield you. "Brace yourself!" she says suddenly.
Maki doesn't quite know what to brace himself for, except a possible slap to the face when the girl discovers a certain biological reaction to a compromising position.
However, a lower jaw popping out of the split face of the white-robed creature led him to believe that it would probably be a good idea to cover his ears, so he did.
A loud keening wail issues forth from the depths of the creature's throat and shakes the air violently. The only thing you've ever experienced to describe this properly was getting sucked under a strong wave and being pulled in a myriad of directions by vicious currents.
It was just like that as it feels as if the air is trying to tear into your body and rip out...
You could see a brightly glowing blue orb being forcibly dragged from your father's convulsing body. When fully extracted his body grows completely still.
...your soul.
The Faceless One (as you've come to think of him in your mind) clutches the blue crackling ball of energy between his hand as if some entranced admiration. He flings the limp, hollow body of your father to the side to free himself to frame the soul between both taloned hands.
The Dark Ones (another nickname) begin to ravage the discarded corpse and you can't help but shake uncontrollably with a mixture of conflicting and warring emotions.
The girl still has a loose hold supporting you. "You don't have to look," she tells you consolingly. "You shouldn't look," she adds.
"On the contrary", Maki replied, an intense look in his eyes. "I should. I need to know what I'll be going up against."
The sound of joints being displaced followed by the sound of soft tissue being sloppily masticated echoes loudly in your ear as the seven figures descend on the remains of your father.
You see one of them handling the scarred skull of your father. There was a pair of gashes that marred the bone itself - a parallel and subsequently bisecting one. The others seem pleased to be afforded the chance to gorge as they were and it seemed as if it would continue for some time, but the rhythmic beating of drums a fair distance away ceased their activities.
The Faceless One lifted a bony, taloned finger to the wall and that's when he and the seven Dark Ones exited in the same manner they'd entered, leaving no trace of their having been present save the most obvious one.
"Alright, so who are they?" Maki looked at the girl. He didn't pay particular attention to the remains of his father; it was too late. There is nothing he could do now, and crying or mourning would not help anything.
"Who are they, why did they come to my house, and why haven't I heard of anything like that before?"
She pulls away from you, taking a seat on the ground and facing you. "We don't know what they are exactly..." she begins to explain, smoothing out her skirt. "...I've heard them referred to as many things - Death, the Devil, the Boogey Man. I don't think anyone knows for sure."
A tired sigh leads way to her rubbing the bridge of her nose. "This place," she indicates with her hands, "is not the world you and I and every other living person here were originally from."
"This is like some kind of sick mirror world where those things run around hunting us. None of us who are left, know how we got here, but one thing we've all come to learn is that we can't find a way out."
"So who is this... "we" you're talking about?" Maki asked. "For that matter, who are YOU? And how did you know to come to my house?"
Since none of them knew how they got there, he figured it would be futile to ask how he got there. If this was a mirror world, he assumed it must be some freak occurrence in space. Maybe the world he was in and this mirror world existed side by side, and every so often a distortion in space swallows up certain people into the mirror world without them knowing it. Or something.
"The 'we' that I'm talking about would be a small group of us from this very neighborhood," she tells you, before adding, "Like me. I used to live three houses down from here."
Hm. That does seem to matchup as you do recall there was some big news that popped up when a girl went missing there. If you weren't mistaken, the girl's name was...
"Shia Azuma," she says, pointing to herself with her thumb.
...yeah, that sounded about right. Though you're pretty sure she should've been a lot younger then.
"And how they found you and your house is that when we first get here, we all have this smell and light around us that those guys pick up on. That's why I made you put that mask on," she says, pointing to the mask that you'd pushed up to sit on the top of your head.
"Every breath you were taking was as easy for them to see as our breaths during cold, winter mornings. And this house was practically glowing in the dark with life energy and that's why they came here."
"If you're Shia Azuma, shouldn't you be a lot..." he wondered. "I dunno, younger?"
That stops the girl short. "Younger?" Shia asks with a puzzled look. "Now, why would I be younger?"
"I dunno," Maki scratched his head. "From what I remember, you were a lot younger when you disappeared."
"It has been 8 years," Shia tells you with a shrug. This factoid as well doesn't quite mesh with what you remember. Shia Azuma, as far as you know, dissapeared 2 years ago and she was a lot younger - something like 6 or 8 years old.
"Wait a minute... no you didn't," Maki corrected her. "You disappeared two years ago, I know this. And you were like 6 or 8 when you disappeared."
"Unless... this is mirror for more than one world. If this is a mirror of our world, it's not a stretch to think there's more than just one normal world. Maybe there's another Shia Azuma running around."
She stares at you owlishly. "If I understood what you just said, I might reply with an answer," she tells you before getting to her feet.
From a small pouch attached to a belt at her hips, she pulls out a dark green, stone necklace - could be jade, you're not sure. She holds the object out at eye level then, apparently seeing what she wanted, tosses it to you.
"Keep it close. It'll light up when one of them comes close."
Stepping over the magical scrawling on the floor, she heads for the window and peers out. "I think it's safe to go," she says. "Unless you want to stay to..." She trails off, but her eyes trail over to the next room where your father is.
Maki catches the necklace and puts it on around his neck.
"No," he shook his head, although sadness is apparent in his eyes. "There's nothing more I can do for him, and there's not enough of him left for a proper burial. Since this is not my world, there'll probably never going to be anyone here again so no point in cleaning up. Let's go."
"And what didn't you understand about what I said?" he wondered.
She nods, accepting your wishes, then for your question, "I don't know.... More than one mirror world? Another me running around?" Shia repeats your words from earlier then pauses to digest the notion, but quickly just shakes her head. "It's just a little weird, I guess."
"Well, you said this is a sick mirror world of ours right?" Maki explained. "Then there's obviously more than just one world in the universe. Who's to say there's not more than one world being mirrored by this place? Especially since the Shia Azuma I know disappeared only two years ago instead of eight, and she was 6 or 8 or something when she did."
"And I'm not saying there IS another you running around," he added. "Maybe the Shia from my world is dead. She couldn't have been more than 8 when she disappeared, and if no one showed up to save her like you did for me, she could very well be dead."
Shia mulls over what you're suggesting with an unhappy smile - the thought of another her dying alone in this world seemingly not sitting well with her in the least bit. She seems to soon push that thought aside though, to address you. "Is there anything you want to bring with you before we go?"
Maki pondered on bringing the baseball bat he was holding before getting smacked in the head with a frying pan, and tries to think if there is anything valuable or could possibly be useful that he could bring along.
There are a few things that come to mind. A change of clothes first and foremost, as you're still wearing a T-shirt and long pajama bottoms sans shoes. A backpack with some supplies might be good too. Although there is one thing that you KNOW you have to take with you - the family blade.
"Alright, just wait here for a couple of minutes, I'm going to grab a couple of things and change," he then paused to take the time to wink at Shia. "Unless you want to watch me change?"
Without waiting for a reply, Maki walked into his room to change into a looser t-shirt and comfortable jeans and socks, making sure they're the kind of clothing that are loose and comfortable enough that they will not restrict any physical movements, like running or kicking.
Grabbing the backpack he usually used, he put in a spare set of clothes and socks. Walking into the kitchen, he grabbed a few bags of biscuits and some canned foods like canned cooked ham and salmon and tuna until the backpack is of a certain weight, not enough to weigh him down so much he would't be able to run should he need to, but enough that it provides a decent amout of supplies.
He then went to put on the best pair of running shoes he had, and finally retrieved the family katana from its stand, twirling it around once in his hand and slinging it on his shoulder.
"Alright, I'm ready."
You catch her in the middle of griping to herself about the comment you made upon leaving, but she clears her throat with a cough when she notices you've returned. "Stay close," Shia tells you, before leading you out the door then past the gates to the street beyond.
"We're going to Korinja Temple to meet up with the others," she says over her shoulder. "The place up on that hill." She points out a spot about a block or two away. You recall going there often enough for New Year's and for the summer festivals.
"Alright," Maki nodded and followed closely behind. He didn't know what to do yet if he were to meet another one of those creatures, so it was probably a smart idea to stick close to someone who knew what she was doing.
And what a behind to follow, too.
So busy was Shia on keeping an eye out for danger, as they made their way through the empty streets, that she was unwary to the dangerous eyes that watched her lecherously from behind. It was just as well that she didn't notice as it would've been dubious as to whether she could carry Maki after beating him senseless with his own family sword.
It's unnerving, you note, to see the town you'd lived in all your life be so quiet and lifeless. It was that very quality of somber stillness that made you wonder if something might not pop out of the bushes or around the next corner. It was enough to put a damper on your voyuerism, if only a little bit.
Maki decided he spent enough time observing the... scenery, so to speak, and began looking around the surroundings for possible dangers or monsters that jump out of corners.
"Hey," he spoke up, idly starting up a conversation so the trip wouldn't be so quiet. "How often do new people get dropped in here? Do you have like a special task force that waits and rescues newcomers like me or something? How'd you know where and when to go?"
"And since we're on the subject, if you knew those things were tracking me down to kill me," he added as an afterthought. "Why'd you smack me in the head with a frying pan?"
Shia considers your question with a hum. "New people seem to show up every two weeks, so about twice a month. And a task force? We don't have anything like that. The only reason I knew where to go was that your house lit up like a Christmas tree. It was practically glowing in the dark with life energy."
In addressing your frying pan question, she gets an annoyed look. "I wasn't supposed to be there..." she mumbles out, not deigning to look at you after having said it.
She then turns around and stabs you with an annoyed look. "Besides," she says with a huff, "how was I supposed to react when I come in to find a ransacked kitchen then see some strange guy with a bat? It was a normal reaction!"
"What do you mean you weren't supposed to be there?" he asked, puzzled. "And you came into somebody else's house, knowing they just arrived from another world, and smack someone in the head with a frying pan?"
"But if you only came when you smacked me, that meant someone else was at my house last night..." he muttered Maki muttered to himself. "Who could it be? It can't be those things, because I would be dead already..."
"What I mean is that I wasn't supposed to leave the shrine on my own," she replies glumly. "They said I wasn't ready to go out yet. That I was--"
Shia shakes her head, waving off that apparent line of thought. "Forget it. They just thought I wasn't ready, okay?"
She seems to up her pace a tad in response to the annoyance she felt and seemingly brushes aside your other question.
"Well, whatever the reason," Maki picked up the pace and continued following so he wouldn't be left behind as Shia seems to want to brush him aside along with his questions. "I should thank you because without you, I wouldn't be alive right now. And since I haven't done that yet... thank you."
She gives you a barely perceptible nod in reply that leaves you feeling a bit miffed and frustrated. It continues on like that in silence for another 20 minutes or so. You hit the base of a steep bank of stone steps, which were interrupted only by the occasional Shinto gate.
"I have something to do first," Shia informs you, "so I'll see you later up at the top."
Maki grit his teeth at the less than stellar reception of his gratitude. He felt like Shia was being cold on purpose.
Either way, he still obeyed and continued to proceed to the top of the steps, despite his curiousity. Although he wanted to ask what she had to do, it would't get him anywhere, judging from her response from previous questions.
You've been here before in your own world, but you don't recall it EVER being this hard to go up the steps. It felt as if you were hauling a barrel of rice up or something and it was killing you since you were only at the halfway point, if your estimation was on the mark.
Maki continues to push on, since he expected something or someone to be up at the top, especially since Shia said she was going to meet him at the top.
Nevertheless, pushing on doesn't exclude asking for help.
"Hey!" he cried out towards the top of what seemed like endless steps.
Sadly, nobody answers your call. Though this area does seem to have nice acoustics as your plea echoes, echoes, echoes, echoes....
Muttering silent curses to whoever that might be waiting up at the top, not helping him but probably laughing at how much trouble he seemed to be having going up simple steps.
He growled slightly with that though, as his stubborness surfaced and continued pushing on, refusing to yield to what must be supernatural forces weighing him down or allowing himself to be laughed upon by whoever watching at the top of those seemingly unending stone steps.
To the top you finally do arrive. Oddly when you do reach the dirt ground of the temple the pressure lessens greatly, though you're still too tired to get up from the effort of the climb.
"Jyuurokujya!" you hear a male voice call out.
That's when you see an odd shimmer around you as a six-foot long golden colored serpent uncoils from around your body and slithers its way away from you. It comes to a stop by the foot of a man in the priestly garbs of a shrine attendant.
"Welcome to Korinja Temple," he tells you with a slight nod.
He blinked. Then blinked again.
"What," Maki pointed at the previously invisible, and obviously a demon or some such monster for wrapping around him. "The hell is that?"
With a wave of his hand, the creature slowly begins to evaporate into a mist, with the only trace left behind - a single glass bead.
"Shikigami," he tells you. "A creature molded and constructed with the shaping of spiritual energy. Would you care to sit down?" He motions to the space besides him with a friendly smile.
"No thanks," he decided he didn't quite trust this man yet. "I'll just take a sit right here."
And he did so, and sat down on the ground opposite the man.
"So who are you, and why did you send that at me?"
"Merely a test," he assures you, nodding to your request to sit where you do. "One that you passed admirably, I might add. The 3 gates you walked under each tested your attributes." He begins to tick them off with his fingers, "Mind, body, and spirit."
He then holds up a fourth finger to join the three he held up in front of him. "Jyuurokujya was the fourth and final test. If you were to force your way up to the top without proving worthy..." he trails off, a bit of steel creeping into his voice.
"Well, let's not speak of that," he finishes, lightening his tone.
"And what if I didn't pass and prove myself as whatever you deem to be 'worthy'?" he decided to push the issue. "You're going to throw me out to die at the hands of the creatures?"
"And I don't think I felt anything special when I passed those gates, so what's the test?"
"That you didn't feel anything when you passed through the gates is the point," he explains to you patiently. "If the gates had deemed you unworthy, you would have been struck through the head, the heart, then through the entirety of your body by spiritual blades."
"As extreme as that may sound, none of them are fatal; however, they are effective deterrants for those who would seek to do us harm. If someone was fool enough to disregard the wardings of the gate, then Jyuurokujya would have wrapped and pinned them under her weight," he finishes.
"And how many people have been deemed 'unworthy' so far?" Maki frowned. "Who are you trying to hide from, exactly? Those creatures didn't look like they'd be affected by your little six-foot-long serpent."
"Not many, thankfully," he tells you. Though in a more serious tone, "But dire situations, such as these, brings to the front the most ugliest side of the human nature. We would gladly share what we have to those with good intent, but I have no mercy for those who would seek to take for themselves greedily, or do good people harm."
"It would be nice to be able to give everyone their share so that there is no need to be greedy, no need to be petty, but we aren't afforded that luxury," he tells you with a hint of regret. "If I must be cruel, in order to save good people, then that's the mask I'll wear."
"Understood," Maki nodded, satisfied with the explanation. "Sometimes sacrifices must be made. Taking the dark path and acting foolishly without preparation or the necessary power, you pay the price."
"Anyway", he got up and smiled at the man, extending a hand. "My name is Maki Taguchi."
"Shoga Isegami," the man replies in kind, rising to greet your handshake with a firm one of his own. "You are welcome to stay as long as you like, but be prepared to lend a hand to the community should we need it."
"Lin, show our guest to his quarters," Shoga calls out to his right.
A young woman garbed in traditional kimono wear with a soft blue floral print, seemed to step out of the very shadow to answer the request by the priestly man. It catches you off-guard only because she was so close, yet you didn't notice her in the least bit.
"This way, sir," she beckons, indicating for you to follow her as she guides you to where you'll be resting.
"I shall see you later today then, Taguchi-san," the priest tells you amicably with a slight inclination of his head as he takes his leave.
Maki nodded to Shoga and followed the Lin woman, slightly alarmed by how many skilled people there seemed to be living in this "community".
"So," he tried to strike up a conversation. "How many people live here, and what brings you here in particular?"
"There are currently twenty-six guests staying with us at this shrine," Lin begins, while leading you through some twists and turns on your way to your quarters. "Of the twenty-six, we have eight children, five young adults - such as yourself, three elderly, and the rest are able bodied adults of varying age."
You finally reach a communal room. It looks like you'll be sharing space with two other boys around your age - one younger, one older. Without skipping a beat though, she answers your last question. "My purpose here is as an attendant to the shrine gardens and for the general upkeep of the living quarters."
Lin sounds oddly stiff and formal, but you don't know her enough to make any solid judgments.
Maki tries to memorize the twists and turns and the surroundings that he went by on the way, just in case he ever had to hightail it out quickly.
"So when do I get to meet everyone else? And is Shoga the one in charge here?"
"He is," Lin replies, then for your second question, "And you should be able to meet everyone in the evening - we all sit together during dinner."
You note that it's sometime in the afternoon right now, still too early for it to be close to evening yet.
"Please, feel free to settle in," she tells you. "I have to make my rounds and see if anyone else needs anything. So until tonight." Lin gives you a bow before departing, leaving you in the room.
Tatami flooring, sliding doors with rice paper... yeah, this is something straight out of one of those samurai movies that your father used to always watch. About the only thing of any real color or personality seem to be the corners of the room where your two other roommates have their gear stowed.
Maki frowned as he looked around the room. Hopefully the rest of the place, and the rest of the people, are not cardboard-cutout-bland like this.
Since it was entirely too early for dinner and there wasn't anything he could do, he exited the room and picked a random direction to walk in, taking in the surroundings and hoping to bump into more people, or people he just met, like Shia or Shoga.
Your meandering journey eventually leads you to a wide opening framed by the temple itself and trees on the opposite side. In this space, children of various ages laughed and played together despite some of the age differences between them.
There are five children here. These seem to be the older kids, one of which looks to be about thirteen, while the others look to be younger, varying between ten and twelve years.
At first you can't quite make out what game they're playing. Four children stand on the outside around one (the youngest), who stands in the middle wearing a blindfold, as the others pass a red ball around. Occasionally, they make throws diagonally and the person in the middle dodges - all while not being able to see the ball.
Soon enough, you see the kid get tagged with the rubber ball, with the others calling "You're it!" amid a flurry of laughter. A girl ran over and gave the still blinded boy the ball then said, "Gotta find us!" Seemingly a sign as everyone scattered, putting a fair distance between them.
The boy holding the ball was quiet, but eventually he says, "Shinta! Found you!" then tosses a ball at said boy who caught the ball.
"Hey, sit down," you hear someone say next to you. You notice it's a young kid, about six or so. "If you want to watch the game, you have to sit down. That's the rule," he tells you with a nod, youthful assurance on his side.
He sat down as instructed, figuring there was no need or use in arguing with a child.
"So what's this?" Maki asked the boy next to him. "Looks like blind dodgeball or something."
"Uh huh," he returns. Pointing to the boy who was in the middle, who was now giving the blindfold to the boy he threw the ball to. "Taki is it now because Jiji was able to find him." He goes back to watching the game as it starts back up again, his explanation apparently over.
A familiar voice picks up where the child left off. "Taki has to now dodge ten balls, if he can, he wins. If he gets hit, he has to guess who it was that hit him, then throw the ball to the person that did. If he guesses right, he keeps playing, but the person who hits him is in the middle now. If he guesses wrong, he's out."
Shia nods to you in greeting. "It's training, hiding inside a game," she tells you as she takes a seat to the right of you.
He turned to look at Shia. Afterall, it was only polite to look at the person addressing you. That, and she was much more pleasant to look at than a kid.
"How is he, or anyone, for that matter, supposed to be able to dodge balls blind?" Maki asked. "And what's more, how can he recognize who did the throwing when he's blindfolded?"
She has on a brown pair of shorts, a snug white tanktop, over which she wore a powder-blue buttoned shirt that she left open. An all together pleasing sight. Certainly offering more to your eye than the overdressed Lin, at least.
"Each person's body has an energy that's as distinct as a fingerprint. When you train, you can instinctively feel it, as these kids are doing." Shia indicates Taki who is currently dodging. "He can feel the ball coming and, depending on his skill, he should be able to tell who is throwing it."
"If I were to show you..." Shia brings her hand and holds it in front of your eyes. A swirling soft blue-white light bursts into existence, about the size of a baseball. It seems to pulse in time to her heartbeat, it shimmers and casts its light across your face. "...it'd look like this."
Maki blinked at the seemingly magical ball of light with a wide-eyed look.
"So this is the... body energy that you were talking about?" he asked, pointing to the swirl of light. "Can I touch it?"
She nods at both your question and your request. "Go ahead. It won't burn you," then jokingly, she adds, "...much."
Shia grins impishly at you, which assures you enough that it's a joke. Or is that what she WANTED to make you think? Hmm.
He sweatdropped. With that kind of response, he couldn't be sure if it WOULD burn him or not.
Oh well, you can only die once...
He decides to test the water by poking a finger at it and see if it burns him horribly.
It's hard to describe, you find. You feel nothing at first, but slowly the warmth is the first sensation you notice, then a tingly - almost ticklish - sensation dances on the tip of your finger where you're touching her orb of spiritual energy.
"That's weird..." he muttered as he retracted his finger, then put his palm on the light to see if it felt any different.
As your hand nears the surface of the spirit orb, small tendrils drift from the sphere and dance lightly across the skin of your arm. There's no pain, as she promised, but it does feels like your hand is being teased with a feather. The effect is very similar to a plasma ball, you notice.
"Cool," Maki smiled as the special effects danced in front of his eyes, and decides to test further by plunging his hand into the ball of light.
With your hand fully immersed you notice there seems to be two layers of temperature - one warm, as if your arms was in sunlight, and the other cool like chilled water. The entire sphere is spinning clockwise, you know this because you can feel something like a swirling current in there.
There's a small jolt that shoots through from the tip of your fingers to the bottom of your spine. Nothing painful, but surprising nonetheless - like if someone were to drop an ice cube down the back of your shirt. Suddenly, your vision chooses to blur and slide in a dizzying way.
You feel like you just got off the tea cup ride at Disneyland.
He pulls his hand out, shaking his head.
"What the hell was that?" Maki asked. "My vision blurred all of a sudden. I didn't know if it was gonna hurt me or not, so I pulled out."
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.
"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?"
"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."
"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?"
"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."
"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?"
"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."
"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?"
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?"
"That's a part of it, yes," he admitted, not wanting to lie. "But that's not the only reason."
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.
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."
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."
"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?"
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.
Maki nodded to the departing old man, then turned to Shia.
"What's this?" he asked, holding the ball carefully, afraid it might break if he dropped it or held it to tightly. "What do I do with it?"
"It's used for beginners so they can practice how to channel their inner energy," Shia tells you. Taking the glass ball from your hand, you watch as it lights up like a small light bulb. "You just concentrate and if you channel your energy just right, it'll light up."
"Just right?" he wondered. "What do you mean by 'just right'? So it can't be too strong or too weak or something?"
"I say 'just right' because you can also over-do it." So saying, she increases the amount of energy she puts into the object. The light goes from a soft glow to an intense eye stabbing brightness that she soon dims, but it still leaves spots floating in your vision.
"Sorry, should've warned you," Shia says as an afterthought, sticking out her tongue playfully as you blink.
"Whoa," he blinked, shaking his head to try to clear his vision. He should probably be mad at the small prank, but just couldn't get the anger up after looking at Shia's playful expression. It was just as well, he wasn't a particularly vindictive person on small matters anyway.
"Alright, can I try?" Maki shrugged and stuck out his hand for the ball. "Is there a particular way to, err, concentrate?"
"Sure," she says, handing the device over. It's cool to the touch. The surface is relatively smoothe save for grooves and ridges that decorate it, giving it texture.
"As for a particular way to concentrate..." she taps her chin in thought. Finally, "Well, each person visualizes their inner energy in a certain way that makes sense to them. You have to then make it move the way you want, but the trick is that you have to find the center - where your energy originates - before anything else. Can't direct what you can't find, after all."
"Alright," Maki nodded then sat down, cross-legged, putting his hands on his knees.
Closing his eyes, he tried to focus and concentrate on inside of him, trying to visualize what would best be described as streams of energy flowing continuously through every part of his body.
A stream of energy, free flowing and fluid. The image comes to you very easy, which surprises you since you expected it to be more difficult as meditation was just something you don't normally do. Yet you can feel your mind and body becoming calm.
Your heartbeat provides a steady backbeat to the sound of a stream.
Ba-bup....... Ba-bup......
You go even deeper.
Sounds seem to become muted and your senses dulled. It feels as if you're diving deep underwater into the yawning mouth of darkness.
Ba-bup... Ba-bup...
Deeper yet.
The black oblivion seemed to have no end as you fell deeper within yourself. It was as if you were wearing weights and you were hurled into an ocean to sink to the bottom.
Ba-bup! Ba-bup! Ba-bup!
That's when you feel a violent tugging and pulling on your spiritual self. It feels as if you were being pulled in multiple directions, caught in a violent riptide.
BA-BUP!! BA-BUP!! BA-BUP!! BA-BUP!!
Another violent shake, but this time you hear a voice as well.
"...ki"
In the midst of the churning chaos, you catch a glimpse of what you think is 'it' - the center that you'd been looking for. A great blue sphere, surrounded by columns of what looked violently churning whirlpools that seemed to writhe and lash out like angry serpents.
"MAKI!!"
You snap awake, but instead of the darkness and the hungry tide that sought to suck you under and never let you go - Shia's concerned face fills your vision. On seeing your eyes open now she draws back a step, but worriedly asks, "Are you okay?"
Maki shook his head, trying to chase away what remnants of his adventure inside himself.
"What is it?" he puzzled. "Did I do something wrong or something? I felt like I was... sinking or something. I think I saw the center you mentioned, but it wasn't exactly a peaceful center... but then it started drawing me into it... and then I saw you."
"Why did you call my name, anyway?" he wondered. Not that he minded, as he felt like he was about to be sucked in and annilated by that so-called center, but he was curious.
That's when you finally feel the effects as a slew of sensations hit you at once.
A bead of sweat runs into your eyes, stinging it. Your forehead and the back of your neck is drenched in cold sweat, leaving your skin feeling clammy. Your heart feels like it's trying its best to rip itself out of your chest and your hands....
Looking down you notice for the first time how tightly you're gripping the ball. Letting out your strength leaves the muscles in your arm shaking and twitching involuntarily, causing you to drop the ball and reveal the deep (and in some places, bloody) impressions the grooves left in the soft skin of your hand.
He groaned, and tried to steady himself and waited for the tornado of sensations to subside by putting his hands on the ground, except using his knuckles instead of his palms since his palms pained him.
"Wha...what happened?" he choked out.
"I...I really don't know," Shia admits, shaking her head. "You were fine then the next minute you were shaking, like you were having a seizure or something. I didn't know what was going on."
Before she could say anymore, "Shhhhhhhiiiiiiia~!" A young girl was waving from the steps leading back to the temple walkways. "It's time for dinner!" she sing-songed.
"Okay," she returned, cupping her hands around her mouth so as to be heard. Seeing that you were still a little frazzled, "I'll be there in a bit."
The girl seemingly satisfied with the answer ran back the way she came, going quickly out of sight.
"We can ask Master Horai after dinner," Shia says. "But let's get something for your hand before that. Can you stand?" she asks, offering you an arm to lean on just in case.
You think you can stand. The dizziness is already passing, your heartbeat is returning to normal, but damn if your hand still didn't hurt like hell.
"Yeah, I think I can stand," he said, wincing in pain, but declining the offer for help. Instead, he uncrossed his legs into a kneeling position, and stood up without using his hands. They still hurt too much to use, mostly.
"Alright, where to?" he asked, trying to will the pain to subside.
Shia shakes her head and rolls her eyes at your stubborn refusal for help. "The first-aid kit is in my room, so we're going to need to head on over there to get you patched up," she tells you, leading the way.
"Alright," Maki followed alongside Shia, instead of following behind like before. He kind of wanted to get there as quickly as possible. "Have you seen anything like this before?"
"No. Not that I know of," she tells you with an emphatic shake of her head that makes her ponytail bob back and forth. Her eyes were wide and it seems like the experience was quite a shock.
Shia takes off her sandals at the step area, before stepping onto the wooden hall floorboard. "You had me scared a little. I wasn't sure what was going on." Pointing to a room on the right, "It's this one here. Come in," she tells you as she opens the door and enters.
He takes off his shoes as well, and followed Shia into the room.
"Don't worry about it," Maki says, trying to comfort the girl, who seems to be more scared than he is about what happened to him. "It's probably nothing, I'll be good as new after getting something for my hand."
She looks uncertain at first and doubtful, but nods at your assurance nonetheless. To the back of the room she goes to a drawer, rooting around for the first-aid kit.
Pretty much what you'd expect from a girl's room. Clean and carrying with it a cozy feel in a flowery scented kind of way. There isn't much in the way of a furniture, being a temple and all, but the basics seem to be in place - bed, dresser, desk, and a full length mirror.
The odd little knick knacks give you a bit of an insight into her personality. The bomber jacket you'd seen her wearing earlier is draped on the back of her desk chair. Stuffed animals in various stages of repair take up residence on her dresser. Then there's the rather large lacy bra dangling precariously near your head....
It was almost enough to get you to forget your pain for a moment.
"So you live alone in this room?" he tries to strike up a conversation as Shia hunts for the first-aid kit. "That's pretty cool. I have to share my room with two other people, that I haven't met yet."
Although the large lacy bra is bringing all sorts of tempting but improper thoughts to poor, injured Maki's mind, he tries to pretend he doesn't notice it, or he may end up with an added injury by way of five red fingers to his face.
You hear her hum to herself in thought as she closes her drawer, kit well in hand. "That should be Fuji and Hana-chan then," Shia tells you. "They're both very nice," she assures.
She takes a seat on her bed then pats the space in front of her as she opens the box and takes out some cotton balls, alcohol, and a roll of bandage. "Now let's see your hand so we can get it patched up."
Maki makes his way to the space in question and sits down, extending his injured hand out to the temporary nurse in front of him.
As an afterthought, he sticks his tongue out and starts panting in his imitation of a dog.
Shia chuckles at your antics, as the sting of the alcohol she applies bites into your humor a smidge. "You better be house broken or you're staying outside," she mock warns.
The cotton is pulled away, now stained red and pink, but the wounds of your hands are now made more visible. They aren't cuts, but more ragged tears across the soft skin of your hand - you can see the ragged patches of soft flesh exposed.
Shia pulls out a small jar then smears a dollop of strongly scented green paste on your hand. It's cold, but the pain quickly subsides to only a hint of what it was prior. She then moves onto the bandage, and wraps it with most efficiency.
"There, all done," she proclaims.
He notices the ragged tears on his hand, and makes a mental note to make sure to ask what caused it.
"Thanks," he smiled as the bandage is applied. "It doesn't hurt nearly as much anymore... but what was that green thing?"
"And looks like you've done this before... and quite a few times at that. People get injured a lot around here?"
"That was a combination of different crushed herbs," she tells you. "Lin makes the stuff. She says it's good for helping to close wounds, soothe burns, and dull pain. A magic catch-all, I guess."
"With how things are out there," Shia indicates outside the temple grounds with a wave of her hand. "We unfortunately get a lot of practice," she tells you glumly.
"It does dull pain really well," he admitted.
"So what's... outside?" he imitated Shia's wave. "All I've seen are the creatures, and they don't exactly give you the luxury of being injured."
"Out there..." Shia parrots, while gathering her thoughts. "It's hard to go exploring, you know? So it's hard to tell exactly what's out there. There are some running around who've lost themselves to solely surviving," she says distastefully. "They're like packs of wild dogs doing anything it takes to keep themselves alive."
"I don't blame them for being desperate, but they're just as bad as those Soul Eaters," she tells you angrily in a half-shout. Shia calms herself down with a few deep breaths. "Sorry. I shouldn't be yelling...."
Maki gets up and made the initial motions of going forward to embrace Shia in an effort to comfort or ease her anger, but decides against it.
"I can sort of understand though," he stands back and nods instead. "Nobody wants to die. They're just going about getting help in the wrong way."
Shia keeps her head down, but nods at your words. "Yeah...." It sounds like she wanted to say more on the topic, but she can't seem to muster up the energy to do so.
"We were just lucky to be here at this temple where we're shielded from the Soul Eaters and can live as normally as this world allows. Others though?" she wears a contemplative look as she speaks. "There has to be other people out there, but we only send like four people to go exploring and they can only cover so much ground..." she says dissapointedly.
"Well, if you want," he offered, not wanting to see the sad look on Shia's face. "When I learn enough about harnessing spirit energy and any spells that I'd need, and when I feel confident that I know enough to protect you, we can go together and see if there's anybody we can rescue, okay?"
"Err... I mean, protect us from the Soul Eater creatures and normal people, and what not," he amended, flustered about the slip.
Your not-so-subtle redirection seems to cut through the brooding gloom that was developing. Her tone takes on a slightly forced haughty tone, covering up some other emotion probably. "And how long do you expect me to wait, hmm?" she asks you in reply.
"As little as possible," he answered seriously. "I intend to learn as much as my abilities and potential will allow me, and as fast as humanly possible. I'm prepared to do nothing but training and only eat and sleep when necessary, if I have to."
Shia snaps the first-aid kit closed then heads for the door rather abruptly. She pauses just before exiting, "Other people have made the same vows as you just did. What makes you think you'll succeed?"
"Because this is more than just an empty vow," he turned to look at Shia, his eyes not showing a trace of humour, just seriousness. "This is my promise to you. I will either succeed or I will die trying. And I'll die before breaking a promise to you."
Shia doesn't say anything in response and her back is to you so you don't know what it is she's feeling. She turns to glance at you for just a moment, but in that instance is when you see in her eyes a conflicting storm of emotions. "I don't need anymore people dying for me..." you barely catch her say in a whisper as she exits the room quickly.
Maki grips his fist tightly in resolve, making it his personal quest to never let Shia be sad again.
Then the masked pain flares back up in his hand, and he decides that maybe he doesn't need to have QUITE as hard a resolve...
Knowing there is nothing he can say to Shia at this point, he decides to leave the room and try to find the dining room, as everyone would likely be there too.
A bit of wandering, a bit of stumbling, a few twists and turns for good measure, and you STILL haven't found the dining room. However, you now know where the bathroom, the training hall, and the current room you're in are.
It's dark and more than a little creepy since it's only lit by the light of strategically placed, flickering candles that send shadows dancing across the wooden beams and ceilings madly.
But most of all, it's all the photographs of people that unnerve you.
There had to have been about forty photos on the far wall with a long table where incense burned, offerings were laid, and cushions were arranged so that one could gaze up at the faces frozen and captured in time. Young, old, male, female - the wall didn't seem to discriminate in the least bit on who it took.
"Why are you here...?" you hear a whisper, just near your ear ask, which sends a violent shiver running up and down your spine.
Maki shivers at the voice that seemingly came out from nowhere. Then he remembered that the temple is supposed to be protected from evil.
Calm down, Maki. If you're scared at something like this, how are you going to protect anyone?
"Here? In this room?" he tried to joke to lighten his unease. "I got lost trying to find the dining room. New kid to the block and all."
"A new visitor...?" you hear that same whisper ask, this time in your other ear. You feel a ticklish sensation around your neck as the voice then asks, "Passed the Three Gates and met with Isegami, did you?"
Maki nods, trying to suppress the shiver creeping up his spine. He is now somewhat certain it must be the spirits of the people being worshipped in the room that are talking to him. He reminds himself that these are just friendly spirits, because the temple is shielded from evil. And he also reminds himself that he has to get used to all things strange and paranormal, for a long road lies ahead of him.
"Yes," he answered somewhat politely, as these are likely people who came before him and died before him. "And the delightful little pet too."
"Well, why didn't you say so sooner!" you hear the voice say more loudly, this time it's followed with a solid slap on your back in greeting that drives some of the wind from your lungs.
Pretty solid body smacks for a ghost, perhaps your assumption was off-target?
As he tries to recover from the slap on the back, he looks around the room to see where the voice and the slap originates from.
There's a tall girl standing above you, balanced on a beam, and dressed in the dark garb of a ninjitsu practitioner. "Yo, newbie," she greets you, wearing a wide grin.
You blink as you see some interesting physical changes. Her hair is in the middle of transitioning from a silvery-white to a dark auburn color and her eyes are doing the same, going from an exotic cat-like yellow to a more natural brown.
She hops down to the ground in front of you with a short hop, heedless of the distance. "Sorry about that," she tells you, before waving her hand and the brightness of the candles increase, making it more manageable to see.
The odd ticklish sensation from before returns, but that's when you notice strands of hair unraveling from around your neck to recede back towards the girl. "That too," she adds with a snicker.
"Cool," he smiles, his surprise at the apparent tricks up the tall girl's sleeves outweighing any hostility he feels about having a prank pulled on him. She probably only sees it as another security measure to screen people or something, anyway.
"How'd you do that?" Maki asked, pointing to the hair, then at the candles. "And that. And jumping down from so high up. And how'd you just change your hair and eye colours? It's cool."
"Just full of questions, aren't we?" she returns, though the grin she wore showed she didn't mind in the least. She pulled out a cushion then sat on it Indian-style before gesturing for you to take a seat as well.
She leaned forward slightly, seeming to take pleasure in being able to talk about this subject. "So, which one do you want to know about first, eh?" Her tone conveys just how much she's relishing this, almost as if she's loving this situation with a captive audience.
"Actually, how about the jumping down from so high up first? That could be useful," he asked as he sat down crosslegged. "I assume the whispers in my ears were some form of ventriquilism?"
"Ventriloquism? Puh-lease," she snorts out, sounding slightly insulted. "Give me more credit than that. The whispers you heard were actually... Eh, lemme just show you," she says, figuring this would make for an easier explanation..
Her hair takes on a silvery-white sheen once again. A small line of glimmering hair extends out towards you and wraps around one of your fingers...
I can use that to talk silently if I want. It's rather useful.
...allowing you to hear that as clearly as if she whispered it in your ear. Neat.
"Cool, how do you do that?" Maki nodded in approval of the technique. "And what about the jumping thing?"
She grins, taking on a lecturing tone. "It's all in how you apply spiritual energy," she says with what she thought was a sagely nod.
She wraps her knuckles on the floor. "Just like how this sound travels through air and the vibration through the wood. I can do the same thing, just using a different medium," she tells you a bit awkwardly, unsure if that made sense. "Mmm. How about thinking of it like a telephone line then? Does that make more sense?"
"And as for jumping. I just pumped energy through the bottom of my feet to make a cushion. Sort of like this," she says, opening her hand in front of you. There's a small, yet steady, gust of wind against your face that ruffles your hair.
Maki nods in affirmation at understanding the explanation. If sound can travel through wood and walls and water and through a thin strip connected by two paper cups, there's no reason why sound cannot travel through hair.
"So that," he points at the girl's hand, asking about the gust of wind. "Is spiritual energy too? Are the rest of what you did spiritual energy too?"
"Yup," she tells you, rewarding your simple mental connection with a nod. "What I'm doing with the wind is simply pushing it towards you. The same as if I was to fan you with my hand or blow air on you through my lips."
"Thanks," he nods in gratitude at the small lesson. "All the more reason for me to master spiritual energy. Anyway, last I heard, there was dinner somewhere, and I want to meet more people. Know how to get there?"
"By the way, I'm Maki Taguchi," he extends his hand in an offer of handshake."
She nods with your assessment of the importance of mastering spiritual energy, but on your name....
"Maki, eh?" she repeats, seemingly digesting your name. "Not a very strong sounding name, is it?" she teases.
The ninja girl clasps your hand strongly nonetheless and in boisterous tones, "Urui Akihime, nice to meet'cha!" She claps your shoulder like a judge adjourning court, or as if giving you her personal stamp of approval.
"If you have to shorten it though," she pulls you conspiringly, "use 'Rui'." She punctuates with a nod for emphasis.
That done, she pulls away then stands, crossing her arms across her chest. "Now that we got that part cleared up, how about we go grab some grub now?"
Maki simply shrugs at the slight about his name, not offended in the least bit.
"Well, Urui," he says, declining to use shorten her name and call her "Rui" That may be a little too friendly.
"Alright, lead the way," he nods at the mention of dinner. "Me getting lost is how I ended up here at the mercy of a ninja girl who likes to spook people, so you lead."
"Hah," she laughs out in reply. "If I really wanted to spook you, we'd be making a stop at your room to get you a change of drawers!"
It doesn't take long. A left turn here and walking down a hallway leads you to your destination, the smell of cooked food making itself known to you quickly.
Urui throws open doors, announcing herself loudly, "I'm back!" she calls out, then promptly locks you in a headlock, dragging you in. "And look what the cat dragged in!"
The ninja girl gets a round of cheerful greeting. Though what each calls out seems to vary greatly.
"Rui!"
"Ruru-chan!"
"Aki-chan!"
"Hime-nee!"
She stoops down slightly, muttering within your earshot. "Now you see why I said to just call me 'Rui'...."
It's not a wholly uncomfortable position for you, pressed so intimately against where you are. You note this earns you a jealous look or three from some of the other men-folk, but she has you held tight and didn't seem to be entertaining the notion of letting you go yet.
"I...see," he answers obligingly. He guesses that she probably wants everyone, or at least everyone new, to call her by the same name instead of having a million different names, or something. He smirks inwardly as he spots the jealous look on some of the men.
"Yeah," he waves to the crowd, or at least as best he can while in a headlock. "Hime-chan found me and dragged me here."
"Oh, so now we're trying to be funny, eh?" Rui rhetorically asks giving you two squeezes for your jab.
She releases you from the enviously soft prison and begins making her way over to where there are some empty seats. "Let's go rookie. It's eating time," she announces, tugging you along by your sleeves like a dog being lead by a leash.
Snapping her fingers, she gets the attention of a girl who is apparently taking orders to and from the kitchen. "I'll have a lot of everything," Rui tells her, talking over the crowd, then in a more conversational tone, "Maki, what are you going to have?"
"A lot of everything, huh?" he turns to look at Urui and makes a point of looking her over, then smirks. "Aren't you afraid of putting on a few too many pounds and end up with thighs the size of a table?"
"And what choices are there?" he asks the girl taking orders.
"Oh, you're such a kidder!" Urui exclaims, slapping you on the back hard enough to send your head forward to smack against the table edge. You aren't sure if that was on purpose or not, but the smile she'd been wearing since you met her hasn't faded any.
The serving girl laughs uneasily at the display, but she goes about explaining what's on the menu for dinner like a pro. "Beef, chicken, or fish? Rice, bread, or noodle?" she asks you.
"Choose what combination you think sounds good and they'll tell you what they can make with it," Urui tells you, to which the other girl nods in agreement.
He rubs his head gingerly. "Ow... didn't have to hit me quite as hard..., Hime-chan..."
"And what's there for, say, beef and rice or chicken and rice?" he asks, turning to the serving girl.
Urui sticks her tongue out at you in retort.
"For the beef and rice combination, we have mongolian beef, beef teriyaki, and vegetable stir fry with beef," she tells you. "Then for the chicken and rice combination, we have chicken fried rice, lemon chicken, and chicken curry."
He ponders on the choices for a few second, before deciding on beef teriyaki, and repeats it to the serving girl.
"Surprising amount of choices you guys have here," he comments to her. "It's like a full restaurant or something."
"Well, don't get in the habit of expecting a bounty like this everyday," she tells you with a chuckle. "We have a decent supply of chicken since we raise our own, but we only have two cows so we use them for milk only."
"We were lucky that Ruru-chan, here," she says, playfully fussing with Urui's hair, "was able to find a supermarket that got dragged in a few days ago."
Urui grumbles and smoothes back down her hair.
"A supermarket got dragged in?" he echoes.
He has assumed that this world is an exact mirror of the world he is from, and only people are swallowed up and dragged in, with inanimate objects and buildings staying the same. But it seems that his theory may be incorrect...
Urui nods. "The world we're in is a copy of the world at a set time, Maki," she says. "There's always changes going on in the real world, right? So sometimes those changes, as well as people, get pulled into this world."
Maki nods in understanding.
"So," he idly drums the table with his fingertips. "You've asked me why I'm here, why are YOU here, Hime-chan?"
"Why am I here?" Urui repeats quizzically with a blink. "I'm eating dinner, I think..." she says, not really sure what you're asking.
"I don't mean that," Maki grumbles. Maybe it's divine punishment, he's getting the same kind of answer he gave Urui in the worship room. "I mean here," he points a finger up and traces a few circles in the air. "To this temple. Why're you at this temple? I'm curious."
"Oh, that," Urui says chuckling at the miss. "That's easy enough to answer, actually. It's because I've been promised - body and soul - to Shia-chan," she tells you, which is followed by an explosion of soup and a fit of coughing from said girl who is sitting just a few seats away, apparently caught listening in on the conversation by Urui.
Maki looks over to the source of the coughing, apparently not realizing Shia is nearby until now.
"Body and soul, huh?" he turns to look at the girl in question, hiding a smirk. "I'm not sure what I should think here. On one hand, two cute girls together is definitely a pleasant sight, but on the other hand... competition."
Still trying to hack loose the soup particles lodged in her throat, you think Shia said something about "lies" and "not true", but then again it could have easily been "flies not blue" as far as your ears could tell.
Having recovered herself, the red faced girl reached across the table to grip the collar of the grinning ninja girl. "W-Why do you have to always say it like that?!" she hissed embarassedly.
"With a reaction like that, do you have to ask?" Urui winked, patting Shia's hands affectionately.
Shia could only lower her head to the table and whimper ineffectually. She seemed to be trying to will herself to sink through the floor of the dining hall, to the great amusement of everyone around the table who had been in earshot of the whole exchange.
"I...see..." Maki nods, faking dejection in his voice as he makes the initial motions to get up. "I understand. Since you two seem to be... so far along, maybe I should just give up, and let Shia take my seat so you can get on with... other things."
Shia quickly rises from her hunched over position over the table to fling a wet rag at you that hits you with a wet 'smack'. "Don't you start," she warns animatedly.
This is a distinct change, you notice, from the depressed state she was wallowing in earlier. Could it have been all by intention on Urui's part? Hard to tell, you find.
"Isn't the girl supposed to daintily drop her handkerchief for the young man to pick up and retrieve? I don't recall there being any flinging..." Urui says aloud, rousing another round of chuckles from the gathered.
The teasing is mercifully interrupted, for the time being, as the girl from earlier arrives with a tray ladened with food - beef teriyaki, along with a lot of everything.
Maki takes the wet rag away from his face, and wipes any wetness off with his shirt.
"Good thing you don't have any metal plates or something lying around," he says. "Or you could've really messed up my face."
He turns to look at Urui, a contemplating look in his eyes.
Maybe she did all this teasing on purpose to cheer Shia up... from the way it looks, she definitely knows her well enough to try and do that.
And indeed, it's hard to wallow in depression when around Urui and her contagious carefree attitude. But could she be hiding something...?
"Wow, that IS a lot of everything..." he comments as he stares at all the food brought to the table.
Shia simply gives you an earful of muttered grumblings.
"Woo! I've so been waiting for this," Urui exclaims, rubbing her hands together in anticipation. Picking up a beef teriyaki bowl of her own she put her chopsticks to good use as rice and meat dissapeared quickly to sate her waiting gullet.
After taking the edge off her hunger, she turns to you. "The key to developing and maintaing a strong spirit is to eat well, rest well, and exercise even harder," she tells you, before snaring a helpless carrot and popping it in her mouth.
Maki sweatdrops at the feeding frenzy. It's like watching a fierce predator pouncing mercilessly on display on a nature channel on television somewhere...
"Yes, but I'm not sure THAT," he points to whatever is left of the food after the ninja raid. "Would be 'eating well'."
"Stop being so melodramatic," Urui tells you with a roll of her eyes, as she busily works on a mouthful of stir fried chicken. A shovel of rice soon follows. "So what would you call it then, eh?"
"I'd call it feeding a small nation, myself," he answers with a smirk. "You must have an extended family of tapeworms in there or something, because you're eating enough to feed all those starving kids in Africa."
Shia bursts out laughing, pointing at Urui at the remark.
Urui, to her credit, doesn't react to your barb or Shia's laughter. She gives you a wide, cheerful looking smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes. Looks like your aim was true if you were looking to hit a sore spot.
She promptly returns to her meal, though this time lacking the previous gusto. You feel her familiar strands of hair tighten, almost painfully, around your wrist that you had held underneath the table.
It's not a vice grip by any means, but similar to a not so tender pinch girls are known to deliver to unruly men folk.
You've obviously never learned the things you never say to a woman.... It's okay though because I'll repay you KINDLY for your words soon enough.
Maki grimaces as strands of Urui's hair takes on a life of their own once again and pinches him hard for his offense against its master, and he realizes he's going to pay dearly for the wisecrack.
Err... sorry? he thinks, wondering if the connection for thought transmission goes both ways.
At your apology she laughs, but covers it in a most feminine manner. She gives you a simply devilish sidelong glance that spoke volumes of the mischief that she must have cooking in that mind of hers.
"Oh, I'm not one to hold grudges, Maki-chan," she coos, giving your cheeks a pinch. "Now you're going to want to eat up before your food gets cold. Here, let me help you," Urui says, taking a chopstick and quickly cramming a serving of food in your mouth.
Faster than you could say - "No that's quite alright!" - you found yourself chewing, while under the collar of her well muscled arm that holds you securely. For your benefit, of course.
"Plenty more where that came from," she says, wearing that big grin of hers. "The starving children of Africa are waiting after all." Urui pats your belly, giving you a sinking feeling on where exactly Africa was in this case.
Maki's eyes widen as he finds food shoved into his mouth, and chews it as best he can.
No good can come of this...
Deciding on trying a risky maneuver, he swallows the food without chewing it properly to see if he chokes, and if Urui will let up if he does.
Had you a fortune cookie, it would most likely say - Choking not in the future for you. Your lucky number is 31. ^_^
The unchewed food you pass through your throat sits heavily in the pit of your stomach. The starving children of Africa inside you give a cheer and begin dancing to the beat of tribal drums, which oddly enough sounds similar to the gurgling of indigestion.
"Play nicely," you hear the familiar voice of Shoga Isegami tell Urui with a hand placed on her head.
"Yeah, yeah," she replies deflatedly, letting you go.
Maki smiles at Shoga, silently thanking him for the save. Although he can tell his stomach is probably going on to finish the job Urui started...
"Don't worry," he said to the girl, trying to appease her so she doesn't carry on further, and worse, plans of vengeance. "Even though you eat quite a bit of food, you've still got a great body."
Realizing that can be taken the wrong way, he quickly amends, "Err... slim and in shape and stuff, I mean."
Shoga returns the smile affably with a nod before moving on. The wisdom that comes with age and experience shines through as he seemingly overlooks your comment to Urui, choosing instead to greet all the other people in the dining hall individually by going straight down the side of each table.
Said great bodied ninja girl gives you a rather flat look, but rolls her eyes instead of pushing forth any further action against your personage. "You really need to work on the compliments," she informs you as she lazily pillows her head on her palms, giving you a sidelong glance.
"Does he do that everytime?" he asks, ignoring his current companion's jibe against his compliments, "Greeting everyone one by one, I mean."
"All the time," Urui tells you, lifting her head up to watch his progress. "He'll go to each and every person - no matter how old or young they are. As the leader, he feels responsible for knowing each person under his care and to remind them that their well-being important to him."
"It's just how he is," she tells you with a shrug.
"Must be tough..." Maki wonders aloud. "To feel responsible for so many people. It's such a big responsibility..."
"Hell, I can't even take care of myself right now, let alone anyone else," he moped.
"It's that willingness to take on that responsibility that makes him a leader to all of us," Urui says. "To keep everyone together when the situation around us is the way it is...."
"He's strong, Maki," she tells you, staring at the broad back of the man as he bends down to talk to an elderly woman. "Maybe not in terms of fighting, but he's strong where it counts most. Everyone draws strength from his confidence and follows his example."
Maki nods, he can already tell a lot of people here look up to Shoga.
"One day..." he says to himself. "One day, I'll become like him and be someone people can depend on."
"I hope so," Urui comments, spearing a carrot with her fork and popping it in her mouth. Chewing noisily, "If you become irresponsible and undependable, I'm going to have to flex my muscles and kick you in the right direction."
"Bah," he smirks at Urui, taunting. "You think I'd listen to you?"
Frowning slightly at her eating noises, he swats her arm lightly, "Dammit, have some table manners! People outside the temple can probably hear you chewing on that carrot!"
Urui shrugs off your scolding, wearing a most nettlesome grin. "You need a skirt to go with the attitude, Mom." Spying Shia getting up with her tray of food, "Why don't you go help her, loverboy."
So saying sends you on your way with suggestive winks and a few elbow shots to your ribs. Despite her actions, deep down, she was a very gentle flower of a girl who was hiding under her rough, steel-plated exterior.
Urui reaches across the table for a tall mug of frothy beer and downs it in a swirl down the vaccum of her gullet. Wiping away the foam mustache from around her mouth with her sleeve, she lets out a manly belch to pronounce the close of yet another delightful meal.
Very, very deep down.
"Hey, not a word from the peanut gallery," he says as he glares back at the nina girl.
"Here, lemme help with that," he held out his arms towards Shia in a gesture to take over carrying her tray of food.
Shia blinks. She seems surprised and befuddled at your offer initially and seems to hesitate, but relents, giving you her tray. "You don't have to really do that, you know?" she tells you, leading you to where to deposit the plates.
You can see Urui from the corner of your eye, still seated and waving her arms in enthusiastic encouragement at your efforts as you walk off.
"Not like I'm doing anything," Maki shrugs as he follows Shia's lead, mentally noting how much the ninja girl seem to like to meddle. "So I might as well..."
"So, err..." he hesitates. "You still mad at me?"
"I wasn't mad," Shia tells you giving you a look. Her tone and posture is a bit tighter than usual when she replies to you, giving you doubts.
She lets out a breath to relax, softening her features. "I wasn't mad," she tries again, sounding more natural this time. "I was just..." she mentally fishes for the right term, "...tired or something. Sorry."
You soon come to a communal sink where other dishes are stacked atop each other. The trays are being piled on the countertop adjacent, to your left. There seems to be some semblance of order here - dishes and utensils getting their own little stacks amid the soapy water.
"If it's something I said," Maki sighs, disbelieving Shia's flimsy excuse. "Then I'm sorry. I didn't know you were going to take it badly."
"Do we do our own dishes here?" he asks, changing the subject as it is evident that she doesn't yet want to talk about whatever it is that disturbed her. "
Shia grasps the change of subject eagerly. "No. We each take turns unless someone gets assigned dish duty for punishment," she tells you with a chuckle.
"Not funny," you hear someone say from behind you.
"Oh? So who's getting punished with dish duty this time?" he says as he turns to look at the source of the voice.
There's a guy about your age, sporting a tied down rag around his head and donning an apron - not by choice you can tell, just from his demeanor alone. He's fairly tall, about your height, maybe an inch or two more, but carries a more muscular build than you, which you note with a jealous eye.
"I just knew you'd earn yourself kitchen duty again," Shia tells him, amusement apparent in her voice. The boy frowns.
Crossing his arms across his aproned chest, "It's not like I did anything--"
"Which is why you're scrubbing dishes," Shia interjects, earning a growl.
Catching herself, Shia turns to you. "Maki, this is Gaira." She then repeats the same, introducing you to him.
"I'm Maki Taguchi," he introduces himself, extending himself, despite being slightly jealous of the guy in front of him, idly wondering how long it might take him to get that kind of build. "Nice to meet you."
"So what earned you kitchen duty, exactly?"
"Likewise." Gaira gives you a strong, firm handshake before recanting his tale. "Oh, the slave drivers just feel like picking on me," he tells you in a woebegone manner, trying to earn your sympathies.
Shia snorts at the claim, wearing a mask of jaded disbelief. "Keep that up and they'll hit you with more chores, Gai."
"Hmm. Probably," Gaira admits, swiftly taking a sponge in hand and getting himself elbow deep in soapy water as he tackles the dishes.
"Sounds like Shia doesn't believe you," he grins at the seemingly friendly Gaira. "So I'd be inclined to disbelieve your claim about the slave drivers too."
"Mmm. Probably the wise choice," Gaira tells you, wearing a wide grin as he looks at you over his shoulder. Turning back to pick at a particularly stubborn stain. "In most cases," he ammends.
"So what'd he do anyway?" Maki turns to ask Shia, curious.
Gaira frowns at you slightly as you directed the question to Shia when he's standing right in front of you. He snorts and turns back to the dishes, rather miffed.
Shia in turn gives you an odd look that the bigger man wore just seconds ago. "I don't know. Why don't you ask him, he's right here, you know?" She rolls her eyes, not understanding you in the least.
"So, Gai," he wraps a friendly arm around said man's shoulder, mimicing the name he hears Shia call him by. "What's with the dishes? What'd you do?"
"Oh, so you CAN see me," Gaira tells you sarcastically. "I thought perhaps I'd mastered invisibility or something," he tells you with the deep, grumbly voice of his.
"Would it be a shock if I said I liked doing dishes?" he asks, looking to see what kind of reaction you feed him.
"C'mon, I was just kidding around," he throws his hands up in a gesture of proclaiming innocence. "You're not gonna take that seriously, are you?"
"And if you did like doing dishes," he smirks. "You wouldn't be complaining about slave drivers earlier."
He cracks a smile before letting loose a belly shaking laugh. "Good, good," he tells you, ruffling your hair. "You're not as dumb as I feared you were."
"I won't give you any details on the slave driver, but you'll know who it is right away when you meet them. Not another word from me or I'll ruin the surprise," he says, slapping you on the back.
"Alright, now out with you. I'm elbow deep in dishes," Gaira tells you, shooing you and Shia out.
Maki frowns slightly as his hair is being ruffled as if he was a small child.
Oh well, I got myself into this mess...
"That doesn't sound good," he mutters as he is ushered out the kitchen. "It's like he KNOWS I'm gonna end up doing kitchen duty one day, and can't avoid it because I won't know who this slave driver is..."
"I think it's related to him thinking you're going to get tagged for goofing off rather than for not knowing who the slave driver is," Shia notes, walking down the covered hall on your right.
It's warm out tonight with a breeze that's barely noticeable, but just enough to shuffle the leaves on the trees in the open garden on your left. It's about 8, maybe even 9 in the evening by your guess, and a glance at your watch to confirm shows 8:47 PM.
"What?" Maki looks at Shia with a feigned hurt look in his eyes. "Do I look like someone who would goof off?"
"Nice weather outside..." he comments. "So where're we going?"
Shia doesn't even answer your question, giving you a 'look' that spoke volumes as to what she thinks of as an answer. "*We* are not going anywhere. *I*, however, am going back to my room," she tells you.
"Fine, I get the idea," Maki replies as he stops his pace abruptly at what he perceives to be rejection, his voice sounding a lot emptier than before. "So I guess I'll see you later then?"
"Tomorrow morning, bright and early," she tells you over her shoulder then continues on her way to her room.
Nodding silently, Maki turns to the left and ducks under the railing to head out into the open garden. He lies on the ground on his back with a sigh, and looks up into the night sky.
What a day... I end up in a world I've never been before, it's similar but strangely different from the one I' used to, and I'm definitely not off to a good start.
Isegami... I wonder how he came to be the leader in this temple. Just being responsible can't be the only thing, and from what Urui said it sounds like he's not the most powerful either.
His thoughts shifts to the seemingly outgoing girl ninja, Urui... cute, but weird. She's friendly I guess, just not exactly nice and demure. Interesting powers though, I might have to learn something from her. I wonder what her deal is with Shia about the "promised body and soul" to her thing...
At the mention of his saviour, he unknowingly grabs a hold of the fallen leaves from the ground around him and crushes them in his hands. Dammit. Shia's so frustrating, he thinks as he pounds a fist on the ground. One minute she's all smiles and looking like she doesn't mind being with you, next thing you know she's all cold and pushing you away. I wish I could get through to her, but I lack the POWER to do ANYTHING in this world... the kids I saw this afternoon were more powerful than I am.
A sudden wave of ambivalence hits him like a tsunami as he thinks about his lack of power and the failed experiment in exploring the power in himself with the ball, and he sighs and closes his eyes to try and go to sleep where he is, not really wanting to go back to his own room and deal with his new roommates.
You hear soft footsteps approach then someone takes a seat to your right. Not close enough to be an annoyance or a bother, but just enough to be of a presence.
The man you'd just been mentally marveling for his feats sits wearing a content smile as he gazes at the stars that dot the skyscape above you both. He turns his attention back to you wearing a reassuring smile. "So, how are you doing?"
You hadn't really been giving it much thought - how you're doing that is. You'd been pushing yourself a mile a minute as if you were trying to keep yourself busy so that you wouldn't have to think about...
...lying there in a pool of blood...
...about...
...not moving...
...stuff. It's as if everything you'd been holding inside comes back to hit you in the gut all at once.
You watched your father die. You're a kid barely into high school, trapped in a strange world with monsters out of nightmares. You probably wouldn't be seeing the rest of your family again. All your friends aren't with you. You couldn't do anything to save your father....
Your vision blurs slightly at the welling of warm liquid - you didn't want to admit that they were tears - that threatens to spill out.
"I'm fine," Maki lies, closing his eyes to let the tears fall silently to the ground, hoping it escapes unnoticed.
"Just thinking about, like, umm," he struggles to find an excuse to cover himself, not wanting to admit weakness. "The future, and stuff. You?"
If he noticed or not, he doesn't let it show in his mannerism or his speech. He seems to be giving your pride its privacy by not bringing a hint of attention to it.
"The future is always a good subject," Isegami tells you in that steady, calm voice of his. "But I also think on the present as well. We live in the here and now, after all."
A moment of silence falls, but it's not a wholly uncomfortable one. It gives you enough time to gather yourself and sort your feelings, and you suspect it was by intention on Isegami's part.
"The future is important because it's where we're going, but it's good practice to glance down at our feet sometimes, if only to make sure we're on the right path."
Maki gathers his feelings and stops his tears during the silence, and contemplates whether he's on the right path or not, as Isegami puts it.
"So," he sits up and looks at the man in question. "Do you think I'm on the right path?"
"The only one qualified to tell you if you're on the right path is you yourself," Isegami replies. "Other people can tell you what they think, but you'll know instinctively if you're going down the right path if you listen to your own heart's intuition."
"What about people whose intentions are evil?" Maki asks. "To them, their hearts may well be telling them to do evil, but that doesn't mean it's the right path."
"Each person makes a decision as to what is right or wrong to them," Isegami begins, taking on a contemplative look. "Call it fate, destiny, or what have you, but I feel each person walks on a path that takes them to the goal they were meant for."
"Perhaps it's too simplistic a view?" he asks you, wearing a curious look.
"So you believe in fate?" Maki looks at Isegami with something of a disapproving look.
"You believe that we're brought here," he continues, stretching his arms out dramatically. "To this god-forsaken world, because we're meant to?"
"That's a really pessimistic view," he then comments, shaking his head, then clenches his hand into a fist and brings it up to eye-level to emphasize his next point. "I believe we as human beings are capable of shaping our own fate, or destiny, or what we may call it. The world, our lives, our fates, is what we make of it. What we can do is only limited by our abilities, not by fate."
Isegami nods at your words; however, "I don't believe there's anything pessimistic about my view, really," he returns placidly, not matching your volume nor rising to the level of your passion. "What if we were meant to come into this world to change it? What if we were meant to make this a better place to live? To save other people who are trapped here? What then?"
"I don't believe in being 'meant for' anything," Maki replies with an emphatic shake of his head, calming back down. "I think that we were brought here because of freakish accidents of this world swallowing up random people and things of our original world. Whether we try to save people who are trapped here or try to make this world a better place is actions of our own choosing. Like I said, the world is how we make it."
He laughs softly, in that smoothe low tone of his. It's not out of derision, but one of pleased amusement. "It is good to see that you have a strong opinion - one that you don't seem keen on abandoning so lightly it seems. Whether it's in ourselves or in some unseen force, we all need something to believe in."
"For now, we shall agree to disagree. What say you?" Isegami asks, not losing a fraction of his seemingly cheerful demeanor.
Maki nods at Isegami's words, seeing no use in pursuing the matter further.
"So," he begins, changing the subject. "What brings you here to sit beside a newbie like me?"
"Just seeing how our newest visitor was doing," Isegami returns. "As I tend to do with everyone," he adds.
"You seem to be doing better than I would've imagined. Probably a sign of the strength of your spirit," he says.
"What?" Maki asks, curious. "Do people end up a sobbering wreck who can't do anything when they end up here or something?"
"In some cases, yes," Isegami tells you without hesitation. "We don't have enough people skilled in repelling attacks by those Soul Eaters, so those that do seek shelter here have often times suffered great loss. As you yourself did."
Maki simply stares at Isegami, the look in his eyes a mixture of pain and blame, at Isegami for bringing the subject back up.
"I've only met Shia, Urui and Gaira so far," he says after a moment. "I know Shia can, because she was the one who saved me. Urui seems to have some powers, but don't know about Gaira. How many other people have powers that can at least fend off the Soul Eaters?"
"Those who have any chance against the Soul Eaters, there are thirteen," Isegami stops to corrects himself. "No, twelve. There are twelve of us."
"Why the sudden change?" Maki asks, raising an eyebrow. "You said thirteen first."
"One of us did not come back," Isegami tells you, sadness plain in his voice.
"It's been almost a year now, so I should remember the fact by now, but we thirteen had been together for so long... It's by habit that I still think us whole." He shakes his head at that.
"So that's what Shia was so upset about..." he muses out loud. He also idly notes mentally that at least something seem to be able to bring Isegami out of his seemingly perpetual calmness.
"Alright, I'm going back to my room," he says as he gets up. "Thanks for the talk."
Isegami sees you off with a nod and a smile. "Rest well," he tells you, once more the perfect model of calm composure.
It's not a long walk to the entryway, where you leave your shoes behind so as not to scuff the wood or tatami. After that, it's a quiet, uninterrupted walk back to your room.
Sliding the door open reveals two other occupants.
One of them is a tall boy, who has his back resting against one of the walls with his legs drawn, while reading a book. He has dark straight hair and sports thin wire framed glasses. He raises his green eyes from the pages of his book to acknowledge you, but quickly lowers them, apparently deciding his book is far more interesting than you.
The second of your roommate though....
Long, strawberry blonde hair in a braid with bright blue eyes that seem to light up when they look at you. Er... you were unaware that your second roommate would be a girl, but that's what greets you. Literally.
"Hiya!" she calls out exuburantly, waving.
Maki blinked, then blinked again.
"Oops, sorry," he says as he backs out of the room, looking around uncertainly. "I think I walked into the wrong room..."
Or so you would think if your backpack wasn't there to the side on your left.
"Or maybe not," Maki laughs nervously, then points at the backpack. "Since there's my backpack..."
The boy in the back quirks an eyebrow at you from above the edge of his book, while the girl in front cocks her head to the side curioiusly.
How very... awkward. Yes, that was a good word to describe it.
"Are you okay?" the blonde girl asks. "You seem kinda confused."
"It's nothing," Maki dismissed it with a wave of his hand. "I just wasn't expecting to have a girl as a roommate, that's all."
"So anyway, I'm Maki Taguchi," he continues. "Probably not a very good first impression I'm making, but oh well."
"I'm Akira Fujimaru," the person in front of you says, then jerks a thumb back to the figure in the back. "That's Hana-chan reading the book."
You see a visible cringe at the apparent pet name. "Anju Hanao," is the correction.
"Nice to meet you," Maki says, giving the obligatory nod.
"So," he tries to strike up random chatter as he sits down with his back to the nearest wall. "How're you guys doing?"
"That's a rather cliched ice breaking question to ask. I mean, are we expected to answer with the typical - 'Oh, we're fine, and yourself?' - response or are we supposed to say, 'Horrible!' then go into some long expose on the how and why the day was terrible then bemoan our rotten luck to have such--" The uncomfortably long rant, is brought to a screeching halt when bean filled pillow meets face.
"Stop that!" the blonde scolds.
A snort of disgust is let loose before a book is raised up once again. "I was merely pointing out something, while talking out loud. It's not like I was trying to instigate any hostilities or create an atmosphere of ill will with my actions. On the contrary, I was trying to..." the rest of the speech is drowned out in mumbles.
"Sorry about that. Hana-chan tends to babble and mumble when meeting people for the first time," the person Shia mentioned as being "Fuji" tells you.
"It's alright," Maki waved it off with an amused smirk at his new roommates' antics. "Maybe next time I should say something like 'I hope you're all happy that you have to suffer me'."
"What is it with some people and their need to be attention whores? I mean have they no considerations for the want of others? You really should have more control over yourself. Yes, definitely more control. Perhaps reading the many sutras of the Buddha may help? Yes, a shorn head would look most excellent on you. In fact--"
Fujimaru seems to have reached a breaking point. Grabbing you by the arms you're lead back out to the hall. The sliding door is now closed, but since it isn't a solid door - made only of light wood and paper - his mini-tirade is still audible.
"This is more than usual..." is the comment that accompanies the odd frown. Turning a calculating gaze on you, "Are you strong? Spiritually, I mean. I think Hana-chan was unnerved by you or something."
Maki breathes a sigh of relief at being almost dragged out the door. Although it's probably not the usual response at being lead out of the room for apparently no reason, he really doesn't have any more responses for the strange rants from 'Hana-chan'.
"Err... I have no idea," he admitted. "I just came here, and I haven't even started to learn how to use those spiritual powers yet, or if I can even use any... apparently I had spasms when I was trying to use that transparent ball thing to look inside myself."
"Spasms?" is the returned question, with a raised eyebrow to boot.
"I don't know either," Maki shakes his head, but opens his hand towards Fujimaru, showing the bandaged hand. "I was just woken up from the trance and found my hands bleeding, and Shia just bandaged me up, there's probably still marks imprinted on this hand."
"Talked to Gramps about it yet?" Akira asks you, after humming in interest at your experience.
"Who? Master Horai?" Maki asked. "I haven't had the chance to talk to him yet, I'm supposed to start learning from him tomorrow morning after breakfast or something.
A 'hmm' is the reply you get. It doesn't reveal much of what thought is being entertained.
"I'm going to kill the lights soon..." is the call from the occupant still in the room.
"Alright, alright," is the reply as long haired blonde turns to enter the room once again. "Should be fun tomorrow, eh, Maki-kun?"
"I guess..." Maki replies with an ambivalent shrug. "I have no idea what training involves, so I wouldn't know what to say."
"In fact," he continues as he follows the blonde into the room. "If you guys can clue me in, it'd be great."
"You will be worked until you sweat blood..." comes the helpful news from your book reading 'friend' who turns over in bed and mumbles sleepily.
Fuji chuckles awkwardly at that. "The morning should see Hana-chan in a better mood, I think."
Reaching into a bag on the floor a long shirt is withdrawn and without so much as a hesitation or word of warning, with back turned towards you, the friendly blonde starts changing.
It unnerves you some, if for no other reason than Hana-chan mumbling out, "Die pervert..." while clearly asleep.
Maki gives a short eep and quickly jumps into bed, turning his back towards the changing blonde. "Goodnight!"
After a moment, he decides to ask, "does he always talk in his sleep?"
"Hana-chan? Mmm. Not all the time, I think."
You hear a soft, almost embarassed sounding chuckle behind you along with the slight ruffling of clothing. "I tend to fall asleep first, and pretty quick, so I don't think I've paid too much attention actually."
"So," Maki turns slightly to lie on his back on the futon, but keeping his eyes closed to avoid any possible embarrassing situation. "What do you guys usually do during the day?"
The sound of rustling cloth is followed by the the movement of sheets in place for sleep. "Training in the morning and book learning during the afternoon with chores and meals sprinkled in between here and there -- depends on what chore you have so the times are different for everyone. After chores, we have free time to do whatever until dinner in the evening."
The sound of a yawn is followed by the smacking of lips. "I think that's everything..." Akira mumbles softly.
Maki gives a soft chuckle.
"Good night then," he greets as he turns on his side to look at Akira. "Sweet dreams. You too, Anju."
Turning back onto his back, he tries to blank his mind and drift off to sleep.
You get an unintelligible yawn in reply before the lights go out and you feel yourself drifting off to sleep....
You're stirring back to wakefulness slowly, but the depths of your dreams still claw and pull at you to return. There's an odd mix of images that flash by your mind's eye like a film - your father, the ball that Master Horai gave you, all the people you met so far, the feeling of being caught in a viciously strong windstorm--
Suddenly, there's a ringing sound - no, not an alarm of any sort - almost musical. It's rather incessant and coming from your right - a bit muffled sounding. Aside from waking you, it also makes the dreams slip away from your mental grasp.
Maki sits up and opens his eyes, shaking his head to clear away the faint unease brought by the dream.
Turning to his right, he tries to locate where the source of the ringing sound.
Beneath your bag is your father's sword - it is seemingly the source of the noise. You can see the entire length of the weapon quivering.
"Strange..." Maki mutters to himself.
Slightly alarmed by a quivering sword making ringing noises, he nevertheless picks up the sword by the handle, trusting that his father's sword wouldn't do anything to hurt him.
The shaking calms, evening out. Though it's not as strong as before, it still hums while in your grasp.
Curious, he decides to take the sword to where someone more qualified can give an answer to the sword's behaviour.
Exiting the room, he navigates his way back to the dining room he was at last night, hoping to find maybe Isegami or the Master there.
You don't get very far in your journey when a familiar aged voice suddenly cuts in, "You're up early today, hmm?"
Master Horai is sitting on a rock in the middle of the yard to your left. He has bread crumbs scattered on the ground with birds pecking away furiously, sating their appetites. One seems intent to simply roost atop the man's head in spite of the meal spread before it, lending to an air of lightness - if not a comedic one.
"Good morning," he bows politely to the elderly man. "The reason I'm up is this..."
He holds out the sword for Master Horai to see.
"I heard ringing sounds coming from the sword which woke me up, and then I found it quivering. I was wondering if you know what's happening."
The older man's eyes open to fully take in the sight of your blade, but then a content smile settles on his feature. "Mmm. Very interesting," he comments, then beckons you closer. "Would you like to see why it's doing what it's doing?" he asks, an amused twinkle is in his eyes that studies you for a reaction.
"Of course," Maki smiles in reply, then gets closer to the elder as instructed, and presents him with the sword. "That's why I was looking for you."
The birds take to the air as you approach, settling onto the roof behind you, seeming to glare down at you - as much as a bird is able - at having their meal time disturbed. The prickly, low-cut grass is cool and a little moist from the clinging dew - which helps to hit home how early it still is.
When you get close enough, he withdrawls his hands from the confines of his robe - where he'd kept them for warmth - and holds his index finger up in front of him. You pause and wonder what he's doing when a swirling ball of what you now know to be spirit energy collects - it's a brightly pulsing blue-white orb, about the size of a marble.
It's bright enough to make you squint, but then it forces you to close your eyes when he draws nearer, touching the middle of your forehead. An odd jolt shoots through you. Starting from the middle of your back to the base of your skull then looping over and down the front of your chest, there's an odd, almost ticklish sensation, that then pools in your gut.
"Open your eyes now, child," Master Horai tells you.
Slightly alarmed by the odd sensations, Maki opens his eyes, mentally preparing himself for whatever shocking visions he may find.
Your vision is fuzzy at first - it's oddly similar to when you try to open your eyes while underwater. It's only temporary, though, as already your sight is focusing and clearing enough for you to see.
In the middle of your sword blade is a circular opening where a single blue-white flame burns brightly. At the hilt is a long thin chain that snakes up your arm, the end of which, dissapears into the middle of your chest.
"Ack!" Maki cries in shock as the sudden appearance of a chain going up his arm, and drops the sword on the ground to pull at the chain to see if it gives.
The chain actually extends as it sinks effortlessly into the soft grass by your feet. Your efforts to pull at the chain are fruitless though, as your hand merely passes through it.
Master Horai chuckles at your antics, clearly amused. "The chain you see around you is not material - you cannot touch it unless you surround your hand with spirit energy. It shows the connection the weapon seems to have with you, but the flame there in the middle... well, that's rather unique."
He trails off with a hum as he strokes his chin thoughtfully.
Maki picks up the fallen weapon and marvels as how the chain adjusted itself in length to fit with its current distance from him.
"So any idea what the flame in the middle is?"
"Hard to say without some poking and prodding," the old master tell you with an amused smile. "Once you get up to speed on channelling and controlling your energy, we can explore its abilities further, hmm?"
Master Horai seems almost as eager as you to find out what the sword does. He eyes your father's sword as if it's an intriguing puzzle just waiting to be solved.
The tingling sensation from when Master Horai touched your forehead returns, but when it passes, you notice that you don't see the chain or the flame now. It's reverted back to an ordinary katana, as far as you can tell.
"I can't see the chain anymore," Maki inquires as he makes a few careful swings with the sword. "I take it that was you channelling spiritual energy into me to make me see it?"
He nods. "I injected just a small fraction of my own spirit energy into your 'Spirit Eye' so that you could actually see what I was seeing. With training, you'll be able to do so on your own without needing me to do that."
"So when can we start?" Maki quickly stopped his swings as soon as the older man mentioned training. "I want to be able to master it as soon as possible."
Master Horai motions you towards a patch of shade under a tall tree before taking a seat on the ground with his legs crossed. He hums - you notice he seems to do that when doing any type of thinking - tapping his chin.
"Spirit energy is something all around us, within us," he explains, sweeping his hands around. "We each carry the potential to gather and fold this energy to create a certain effect - the amount varies from person to person, you see."
Maki makes his way to the indicated shade and sits down, crossing his leg Indian-style like he's seen people do in meditation.
"So the amount of spiritual energy that we can gather and store inside us varies?" he voices his question about the interpretation he made of Master Horai's statement. "Is there anyway to channel and use or manipulate the energy without storing it? If spiritual energy is all around us, then we should theoretically have a limitless supply."
"Mmm. We don't really 'store' spirit energy inside us," he corrects. "As you pointed out, there *is* a limitless supply of energy around us, but its being able to gather - to grab the energy - and fold it - to make the energy do what we want - that is difficult." He looks at you to see if you're following so far.
"So not everybody can gather the same amount of energy," he nods in understanding. "So what determines a person's potential at gathering and folding the energy?"
You're rewarded a smirk by Master Horai who seems pleased that you're willing to listen, and more importantly, ask questions when you don't understand.
"Manipulating spiritual energy requires a certain level of focus, concentration, and 'muscle'," he says. "Not physical strength, mind you, but just as it would require physical aptitude to forge a piece of steel into a weapon, so too is it necessary when we fold energy into something useful."
"Just like with physical training, it's exercise that'll strengthen our abilities. Similar to the human body, though, there are some who have the natural frame to more easily put on and carry muscle as well as those who have a harder time with it."
"So was that ball you gave me earlier to see how much... natural 'muscle' I have to start with?"
"Speaking of which, there's something I should ask you about that," he tries to recall the images he saw during the meditation. "I saw this big blue sphere surrounded by whirlpools, and then Shia woke me up and apparently I was shaking and gripping the ball so hard it made my hand bleed."
"What I gave you earlier was just a bit of spirit energy to get your Eye to open up," he replies. "When you learn how to channel on your own, you'll be able to open and close your Eye at will."
On your second point though.
"The blue sphere would probably be your core, the representation of your spiritual center, but whirlpools..." he plumbs his library of his knowledge, but seems to be drawing a blank.
"Hard to say what they might represent, but we can explore this further," he then hastily adds in consideration, "if you feel up to it, of course."
"I'm always up to it," Maki replied with a confident smirk. "One little obstacle isn't going to stop me."
He lets loose with a carefree laugh, clearly amused at your boastful claim.
"Let us see what we're dealing with..." he mutters, closing his eyes and bowing his head slightly.
There's a flutter and a warmth centering in the pit of your stomach. The feeling slowly increases then the noise of whistling wind reaches you as your vision twists inwards. It feels as if you've dozed off, yet you're quite awake, as far as you can tell. You're falling through a dark abyss before you feel it.
It being the uncomfortable sensation of being whipped by strong winds, then there's that familiar blue sphere again, pulsing in tune with your heartbeat.
With a previous experience under his belt, Maki isn't surprised at the feeling of falling into the abyss again.
Ignoring the feeling of being whipped by winds, he tries to reach out and touch the blue sphere.
The light is not too harsh on your eyes, as you draw closer. As you extend your hand, you're uncertain of what to expect. It's fringed by flickering wisps of ghostly fire, yet the surface beneath that moves like the surface of a pond.
Your hand passes through a liquid layer like lukewarm water then hits a solid -- like marble, you think -- which in contrast is cool to the very touch.
There is a sudden noise, like a tuning fork being struck (or a temple bell?), which makes your head buzz and your ear ring a bit. A bit annoying.
The orb suddenly gives and you're drawn up to your elbow and it doesn't seem of a mind to let you go.
It is hot, a searing sensation traveling from fingertip to the ball of your shoulders. Flickering wisps of heat stings your eyes and washes across your face like a blast of dry desert heat. Yet you feel chill, as well -- a numbing tingle working across your back, shoulders, around your neck, and down to the tips of your very toes.
Very... interesting.
The voice of Master Horai seems to echo, as if he was talking to your from within a vast, cavernous chamber.
Upon hearing the lack of alarm in Master Horai's voice, Maki tries to calm down and prevent himself from going into a panic at the extreme temperatures coursing their ways through his body.
Recalling the need to gather and fold spiritual energy, he closes his eyes and tries to envision drawing the opposing temperatures of heat and chill across his body into himself and blending them together as one.