Chapter 9: Mismatched Soul
Well surprisingly enough I woke up pretty early. I exchanged greetings with Yuji who's also up rather early. After going through the stereotypical morning routine he seemed as if he was prepared to go to school.
"Does school start that early here?" I asked him.
"It'll still be a while till it does. Usually I train with Shana or Carmel-san before we go to school" he said.
Training? I guess from an exercise perspective that seems normal enough. But if he isn't doing it for that then I wonder why? Maybe he faces some danger from those Denizens Shana mentioned yesterday. Perhaps I should sit in for one of these training sessions. It's a learning experience after all so no harm in doing so.
"Mind if I join you and Shana? After fighting with her yesterday she certainly proved that she's a top notch fighter. Her training might prove useful in my travels" I asked Yuji.
"I don't mind. Although Shana still feels uneasy around you so I'll see if I can't convince her. Maybe you can even use this as a chance to get to know her better" Yuji replied.
I followed him to a riverside by a bridge. Since it was still early the sun was just beginning to rise showing the skyline of the city. This certainly is one of the more beautiful sights I've seen so far. Down on the river bank was Shana, her hair and eyes seemingly ablaze. Thankfully she had wooden training swords rather than the katana she was wielding before.
"Why did you bring him along?" Shana asked Yuji.
"He's just sitting in to see if he can learn anything new from our training. I don't think you have to be cautious around him anymore" he replied.
"Fine, if you say so Yuji…" she said hesitantly.
I sat down on the slope beside the river. I watched as the two practiced their swordplay against each other. It really seemed one sided. Shana more often than not had the upper hand although she is a Flame Haze after all. Yuji's offensive can use some serious work. However his ability to read the situation and react is quite good, well enough to dodge and block most of Shana's attacks. What she said next really caught my attention.
"Next I'll be attacking you normally as usual. This time though I'm gonna add one attack backed with killing intent. I want you to predict and react by detecting the spike in Power of Existence" concluded Shana before starting.
I watched as the two set out practicing this. As expected Yuji either blocked or dodged most of her 'normal' attacks. When the 'kill shots' were dealt he had a far more difficult time. The ratio of success to failure is certainly well below what is normally considered failure. I'm more curious as to how he detected it. For me I can read Shana's movements well enough to know when she launches one of her 'kill shots' so the need to detect Power of Existence is redundant. But this is just one of an innumerable number of worlds. What's to say there won't be an enemy out there whose movements I won't be able to predict through conventional sensory stimuli? I guess this power might be worth to learn after all. I've got nothing to lose, right?
As the two continued I carefully watched Shana. I did my best to suppress my instinct to use my normal senses to try and predict Shana's 'kill shots'. What seemed like a success rate well below failure doesn't anymore. At least he's been able to detect it. I haven't been able to even detect it once so far. Now I know how she was able to hold her own against me for as long as she did. I'll ask Shana to train me how to detect it since it's not going well at all.
"Shana would it be possible to train with you when you get home from school?" I asked her. She gave no reply and continued on.
"I guess she still feels uncomfortable around you. I'm sorry for the way she's treating you" apologized Yuji. "Although I do know someone else who might be able to teach you. Actually two of them" he continued.
After a few seconds scribbling some stuff on a piece of paper he gave it to me and left to follow Shana. It had the addresses of two people on them. Since both had titles they're probably Flame Hazes. The first, and closest, was the Chanter of Elegies, Marjorie Daw. The second was the Specialist of Everything, Wilhelmina Carmel. Ah that must be Yuji's other training partner. Well Marjorie is closest so I should head to her first. Hope she doesn't greet me like Shana…
Upon locating her residence (well it can't really be called hers considering the family name of the residence is different from hers) the sounds of objects clattering and smashing came from within. Thinking that she might've been attacked by a Denizen I rushed in. It turns out the noises weren't being caused by a Denizen but by an extremely inebriated Marjorie and…well I guess he's probably the owner of the house although he looks a bit young. After a while Marjorie tired herself out and fell asleep on a nearby couch. With a look of relief on his face the owner's attention shifted to me. Much to my dismay he picked up what looked like a grimoire and prepared to swing it at me. Oh great…death by textbook, that must be a first.
"Wait I can explain!" I pleaded with him.
"Hey let him explain first! I don't intend on being used as a club!" interjected the grimoire.
"Fine…but if he even seems the slightest bit or does anything suspicious I'm beating him to death" replied Keisaku.
Well at least I managed to make him stop before we ended up fighting. I don't need Ange's help to tell me he's just a regular human with no powers. If we did end up fighting I would've had to ease up a great deal to avoid killing him. It seems the grimoire is relieved too. Being spared the fate of being used as a convenient bludgeoning tool suggests it can probably feel pain. So I guess this isn't the first time it's been abused if it knows it can feel pain.
I introduced myself and Ange. I then proceeded to tell him the same story I told Shana. From his and the grimoire's reaction they certainly believe me and aren't at all cautious around me. All I have to do now is wait for Marjorie to sober up to a point where she can help me.
Sometime later she woke up from her alcohol induced slumber. I quickly explained my situation to her thus avoiding unnecessary conflict. She was hesitant at first but agreed to my proposition to train me after some 'convincing' (by that I mean quality liquor). We headed outside into Keisaku's backyard. It didn't seem large enough but according to Marjorie it should be enough for our training.
Marjorie's training is on a similar note to that of Shana but it has a different focus. Rather than detecting another's Power of Existence, it works on using one's own to cast spells. The drills she's making me do are strangely familiar to the ones Luci put me through to use Hellfire. After spending some time on these drills we finally moved on to the next stage of my training. It involved casting a Fuzetsu, a seal that uses one's Power of Existence to cast. My first tries were pathetic as it didn't do anything. However a few fails later I finally set one up. Not receiving a response from Marjorie I looked over in her direction to see why. She was looking at the flames that created the Fuzetsu.
"I've never seen anything like this before…" she said as she trailed off.
"Crap I did something didn't I?" I asked her to check if I made an error. I looked at the flames around the edge of the small trial Fuzetsu. The black flames made some sense to me since I've grown familiar to the sight of Hellfire. Intermingled with the black flames however were white flames, certainly nothing I've come across so far.
"The flame is a manifestation of your Power of Existence. The fact you have two different flames suggests that you don't have one but, two souls. But the 50/50 split suggests otherwise. Rather than having two whole souls you have half of yours and half of someone else's. This is the only plausible explanation since each soul manifests their Power of Existence in a unique way" she explained.
She made me conjure some fireballs from my Power of Existence and they produced the same results as the Fuzetsu flames. There's no way that this is just a fluke. Was this one of the secrets Luci was keeping from me? I wanted her to explain this to me so badly. All I have are questions but no answers. Excusing myself I quickly left. I need to find Luci, NOW.
Friedrich collapsed onto his knees. Luci and a young girl rushed to his side to see what had happened. He smiled and said "Guess he was in Misaki City after all."
"Why didn't you tell me that when he uses his Power of Existence it drains yours faster?" Luci furiously asked him.
Laughing he replied "I think I've made it abundantly clear why, Luci. And don't worry Evangeline I'll be fine. It'll take a lot more than a Fuzetsu and some fireballs to completely drain my Power of Existence."
Luci looked over to the young girl. She looks like she's barely out of elementary school. Her blonde hair came down to her shoulders and her eyes were a piercing blue. Her childish body was hidden under her robe and cloak. Aside from her head the only other part of her body Luci could see were her small hands peeking out from her large, baggy sleeves. Despite her size she easily helped Friedrich back unto his feet.
"No doubt he's probably gonna come looking for me. We'll meet…eventually. For now I'll let his search for me expand his experience. I just hope he doesn't cross paths with Serenity…"
"Serenity?" the two girls asked at the same time.
"It's a story for another time. Let's just say I long to hack her to tiny, unrecognizable pieces for what she did to my friends…" he said in a sombre, slightly angry tone.
The two simply looked at him, feeling both frightened and curious as to Serenity's and Friedrich's shared past. The two assumed this much: she was an enemy. Despite hoping with all his heart that Riku and Serenity will never meet he knew they would eventually.