Not so Ordinary World

[Kwokinator]

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.

[Liddo-kun]

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.

[Kwokinator]

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."

[Liddo-kun]

"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.

[Kwokinator]

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?"

[Liddo-kun]

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."

[Kwokinator]

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?"

[Liddo-kun]

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.

[Kwokinator]

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.

[Liddo-kun]

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.

[Kwokinator]

"That's weird..." he muttered as he retracted his finger, then put his palm on the light to see if it felt any different.

[Liddo-kun]

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.

[Kwokinator]

"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.

[Liddo-kun]

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.

[Kwokinator]

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."