I don't own yyh, so don't sue me.

Learning When to say Hello, and When to Say Goodbye

Chapter Four

The first thing I head as I finished walking up those killer steps was a man's voice groaning in pain. Great, I thought to myself if that isn't a bad omen I don't know what is. I looked around panting to catch my breath. I saw a beautiful temple that looked fairly old. A pink head poked out of a sliding door and called out "One moment."

I looked around a bit more and breathed in the peace that permeated the place. Of course the peace was shattered by a sudden mind consuming feeling of self hatred, anger, sadness, and loneliness. I caught my breath and couldn't think for a few seconds as the anger blew my mind away, the source of this rage noticed me and I heard, for the first time, a telepathic voice growling at me, "Get Out!" A sort of door slammed in my mind and I staggered while relearning how to breathe. I quickly constructed more shields and threw them up to the best of my ability.

I searched for the source of the feeling but I saw no one, aside from pink haired older woman, who was just a few inches shorter then me, walking towards me. "Can I help you?" I was swept by the familiar feeling of déjà vu; I had had a dream of the old women last night. I assumed that meant that she was the one who was going to teach me.

"Um… yea might you be Genkai?" I asked.

"Yea, who's asking?"

"Oh I am sorry, I am Bard, Solana. I was told that you might be able to help me," I responded half apologetic then strait to my formal business voice I used for students and strangers.

"Well, with what, I don't have all day you know," Genkai said impatiently.

I was taken back for a moment, by this old women's rudeness but then decided to barge forward, I was going to get to know her soon enough, I just hoped the rudeness was just a front she put one with strangers. "Well, lately my powers have been going a little crazy; I thought that I should finally follow my mom's advice and find someone who can teach me." I kind of stammered out and waited for a response, after a few moments of silence I figured out my ditzy mistake and stumbled out, " oh, I am an empathy, always have been one, but never very strong, I could get by and my crumbling shields. Now however I seem to be gaining strength and I can't really control what I am getting. Oh and I have prophetic dreams, that seem to be happening more and more frequently, but those you cant really control anyway."

"Well I will have to work with you a little to see just where you are at, and then we can talk over what we want to do, if I even want to teach you that is." Genkai responded. I felt a feeling of trepidation that was strong enough to make me look around but sadly it was all my own feelings, as a fallowed her into her home.

Genkai agreed to teach Solana, but she had to quit her job for at least the next six months to live in Genkai's home and learn. Solana was worried a little about paying the bill but Genkai was kind enough to let her live at the shrine free of charge, in exchange for all the chores she would do as a student. Solana figured that she would be able to get a job latter on after she was done training.

After moving the first thing that Solana had to do every morning was run up and down the killer steps. The work was tiring and the biggest flaw the Genkai found with her was her lack of physical strength. After that it was working forms in the dojo.

I smelled something and it smelled divine, I was covered in sweat and I swore my stomach was trying to attach itself to my back I was so hungry. Genkai and finally told me I was allowed to get breakfast, if I could find it. Like I couldn't fallow my nose to that delectable sent.

I walked into a kitchen area and saw a smaller girl with blue green hair and a blue kimono. "Good day, Genkai sent me here to get breakfast, might I have some…" I trailed off as the girl turned and looked at me; I saw a sweet face and ruby red eyes. The freaky thing was her aura, it wasn't a human's normal mixture of colors, it was a vivid ice blue. "Jesus Christ, you're a fairy!" I yelled out, startled out of my skin. I hadn't met a fairy that had a human form since I was a child, and that was one time. This fairy had to be very powerful to have a human form, and if I wasn't mistaken a child with the psychic ability of a rock would be able to see her.

The fairy smiled sweetly at me in confusion. I looked back at her in shock. "What is going on in here, I sent you to eat not talk, you have 60 seconds until I want you out in the dojo," yelled Genkai

"It's a fairy!" I yelled back

"Huh," Genkai said looking at me and the fairy, "Kami, you numbskull speak in a language I understand."

"Hum, um, that is a… um..." I stumbled out in Japanese.

"A youki?" supplied Genkai.

"Yea, a really powerful one," I said still in shock.

"Well of course she is. Solana this is Yukina, a Korime, or ice youki. She is staying with me while she looks for her brother, now eat, or you are going with out food!" yelled Genkai as she stormed out the door.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Solana," said Yukina.

I debated for a nanosecond what was more important my need for food or my surprise at the Korime. I nodded thanks to Yukina as I grabbed a dozen rice cakes and shoved them my mouth running out of the kitchen to the dojo. Just in time for more torture.

Genkai took training to a whole new level. I learned what pain meant but it wasn't too horrible. Well if you compare it to being in limbo for a dozen centuries. She would get mad at me; I would give her stone face. The cool thing was despite all of her mean words and insanity I could always tell when she was really mad and when she was just blustering. Genkai

I meet several other people who had gained powers. I didn't have any friends but that was normal for me. Growing up I had the few friends that most people have, the best friend and the whole group. The thing with the empathy is almost everyone in my family has empathy as a child and then when puberty rolls around it can go one of two ways, stronger or it disappears. My little sister was that way, thirteen rolled around and she didn't have to mess with this stupid stuff. However when I hit puberty my powers of empathy freaked out, I knew what everyone was feeling all the time, half the time I didn't know if the frustration I was feeling was me or someone else.

The freakiest thing I found out was it wasn't just humans who could feel, animals, plants and really freaky some places or things had feelings. The haunted house I feared as a kid was always feeling angry and mad. Rocks are actually pretty prideful and dirt loves everything. So in middle school and high school I stopped having friends, knowing a little too much can ruin a friendship, (best friend having a crush on you, mind you best friend is a girl)

I spent most of my time figuring out how to block out peoples emotions. I got used to not having friends, most of my interactions with people where on a therapist level. I wasn't close so I couldn't use what they told me against them, and using my empathy I could figure out how they felt and help them thru whatever was wrong.

A/N solana is her first name and bard is her last name, remember that in japan the surname is said first and the first name said second