A.N:

"Japanese"

'English'

[Signs]

*Thoughts*

-SOUND EFFECTS-

(AUTHOR'S NOTES NUMBER)

Chapter 4: Splash

As Hikaru pondered why anyone would want to go to a Tokyo arcade in search of mystical powers, he followed Sotaki down the main street and along the sidewalk, turning with Sotaki at the intersection. After a few minutes of walking, they came to a fairly crowded arcade.

"Ah... just remembered something;" said Sotaki.

"What's that?" replied Hikaru.

"Don't you worry. I'll fix up the problem in a few seconds. Now, I want you to look around and see if you can spot any thugs, preferably ones that look smug or happy."

"Why?"

"So we can rob them of course."

When Hikaru recovered from his facefault, he practically screamed at his teacher. "WHAT? Why the hell would you want to mess with a gang? Are you out of your -MMMP!-" Hikaru was stopped from from further ranting because his larynx had locked up. A few seconds later, the numb feeling faded and he looked at Sotaki. "What was that?"

"That was a pressure point. We don't want to attract their attention, just rob them blind."

"How are you going to rob them without them noticing?"

"How did I hit your pressure point without you seeing?"

"I'm still debating that. You could have used a bolt of psychic power, or magic, or something else."

Sotaki grinned smugly. "Kinesis. Since it grants me control over motion, I controlled my own. I moved just faster than the human eye. In terms of technology, if your eye was a 60 frames/second camera, my tap could only be cought by a 61 FPS camera."

Hikaru gave this some thought. "So you're using a noble and ancient martial art to rob a punk blind?"

"Pretty much, yeah. Why, can you think of something better?"

"Point," conceded Hikaru. "If you're dead set on this, there's a smiling goon on that street corner. See the one with the mohawk?"

"Yeah. Looks like a dealer in contraband to me."

"How can you tell?"

"Well, nothing makes thugs happier than two things: Money and hurting people. Since he's not hurting anyone or bloody we can conclude he's got money. Since we're in a crowded area in a shadier area of the town, we can conclude that he's selling something. Since he lacks various other accessories, we can conclude he sells goods, not services, so to speak. Any questions?"

Hikaru was once again stunned.

"I'll take that as a no. Now I want you to draw a little shadow from that lamp-post and watch with your aura-sight."

Dumbly nodding, the pale boy sat down on a bench and stared at the lamp-post. After a few seconds, he sank into his aura-sight. Drawing off a little shadow, he turned his attention to the punk.

Sotaki was strolling along, slowly drawing a little power from the air around him. Running the power along his skin, he willed it to become an aura of unnoticeability, an aura that would make him as interesting as the air that surrounded the people who he moved amongst.

Hikaru saw the air's energy condense around his teacher, and watched Sotaki stroll past the punk. Suddenly, Sotaki's aura rippled, as did the punk's. The result was interesting, and would be noted soon. Sotaki continued strolling past the now-naked punk, and ducked into an alley. Counting to five, he watched as the punk ran down the street past his hiding-place. Tossing the clothes in the dumpster but keeping the contents of the wallet, he dropped his aura and strolled back to his student, who had released the shadow he was holding.

"Now, what did you see?"

"I saw the aura around you and the punk twitch, but that's it. What did you do?"

"I moved at the same speed I did on you. The thing is, all activity has some effect on people's auras. It's much more noticable if there's a strong aura, like the air I was using. In this case, the point at which my hand went through the aura was the center of the ripples."

Hikaru felt enlightened. "Just two more questions."

Sotaki smiled, knowing what Hikaru was puzzled about. "Shoot."

"One: What was the purpose of the air aura if you moved too fast for him to notice?"

Sotaki grinned. "It's simple, really. If you were the one to strip a guy naked on the streets would you want to be noticed? This way there's less chance that I'll get caught."

Hikaru nodded. "And two: What are we going to do with the yen you stole?"

Sotaki assumed a sagely expression (Think Genma) and stated in a solemn tone of voice: "We are going inside and we are going to play DDR.(1)"

After Hikaru had recovered from his second facefault of the day, he shrugged and went inside.

Oddly enough, the DDR machine only had two kids in line. While they were playing, Hikaru watched them and Sotaki pointed out the flaws in their playing.

"He's moving forward."

"She's off by half a beat."

"He's jumping around too much, he'll be exhausted after that."

"She's moving in time to the beat."

Hikaru was intrigued by the last comment. "Don't you mean, 'She's NOT moving in time to the beat'?"

Sotaki shook his head. "No. The DDR expert lets the beat move in time to him. After you have played a few songs you'll realize that moving in time to the beat is a pain in the neck. It's better to position yourself so that the arrows move to your feet, not have your feet move toward the arrows. Unless there's no alternative, you've GOT to set yourself up in advance."

The two kids finished up their songs and moved on, evidently out of cash. Sotaki took this moment to relax and breathe deeply. Hikaru noticed this. "Why are you relaxing at a time like this? Someone could take our spots!"

"I'm setting up another barrier. When people see this machine and anyone on it they will want to ignore it. Even if they came for it, they'll find something else to do."

Hikaru looked at Sotaki, and noticed a twitch in one of his eyebrows. "There's something you're not telling me."

"You sure you want to know?"

"Of course."

"Well, I'm hoping to find myself a cat."

Again, Hikaru was baffled by his teacher's strange motives. Shruggin off his confusion, he took his position on the pad while Sotaki went and changed a few bills for a considerable handful of coins. Returning to the machine and limbering up, Sotaki popped in a few coins and got ready.

"Now, by your comment earlier I can tell you know how to play DDR," stated Sotaki.

"That's right. Not many know it but I'm a bit faster than I look; it's the only way I can keep in shape. I've managed to AA Maxx Unlimited on Standard."

"Good. I'm going to change things around a little." Saying this, the ponytailed boy walked around behind the machine. Pulling a small piece of metal from his pocket, he poked it into a small lock at the back of the display case. Unlocking the case, he ran his hands over the hardware insids, and then shut and re-locked the case and headed around front again.

"What did you do?"

"I granted myself direct control over the song data. Now pick a song you'd like to hear."

"How about End Of The Century?" pondered Hikaru confidently.

Sotaki's smile was not pleasant. "EOTC it is. But be careful, I'll be throwing insane arrows at you."

"I handled Maxx Unlimited. How bad could your arrows be?"

"Well, for starters there's the fact that I'll be adding in 1/64th beat notes."

Hikaru got the feeling that this was going to be a tough session.

*****

It was later. Pain had happened. The sun was setting as they left.

Hikaru groaned as he dragged himself out of the arcade. Sotaki was whistling Tsugaru, and Hikaru swore he would never look upon another DDR machine in his life if the tiredness simply went away.

His teacher was bright and chipper. Now that he had thoroughly exhausted his student, it was time to figure out what he had learned.

"So, want to share what you've discovered?"

"Not particularly, no."

"Too bad, and here I was all ready to tell you what you were supposed to have learned to prevent feeling like Death warmed over at the end of these sessions."

Hikaru's train of thought did a 180. "Nothing, except that arrows can be very intimidating."

Sotaki sighed. "Would you rather I tell you the secret now or try to figure it out yourself?"

"What would figuring it out myself entail?"

"Well, this is the easiest method, but there are quicker ways. Telling you would mean you weren't as 'in shape'. It's the equivilent of giving you a hammer at the expense of most of your nails."

Hikaru pondered this. He figured Sotaki wouldn't hurt him, considering what he had done for him. On the other hand, he could always get in shape later. Realizing he was probably going to regret this, Hikaru made his decision. "I want to try on my own for now."

"Great. I'll give you a few hints along the way if I can. Now do you feel up to learning a basic spell or are you ready to collapse?"

"I'd like to try a spell, to tell you the truth. Just gimme a second to catch my breath."

Wheezing, Hikaru slowly sank into a squat. After about a minute, he rose again. "Alright, where'll we practice magic?"

Sotaki looked around. Hikaru had lead the stroll this time, and they had entered the residential district that Hikaru lived. Pointing to an abandoned lot, Sotaki smiled. "It looks like that spot over there is expendable."

Hikaru wondered why he didn't like the sound of that.

*****

(1)Dance Dance Revolution, a wonderful arcade game with many spinoffs. There are four panels on the ground which you must step on while a song plays. Words don't do this game justice. GET OUT AND PLAY IT.

chainchomp5