Though he was cured, Vlad didn't get out of the hospital right away. When the doctors saw that he had somehow become acne-free overnight with no logical explanation, every single one of them got suspicious. Something didn't add up here. His hair was still white, his temperature still below normal, and his problems with fragile objects persisted. The same tests and exercises they had put him through for over a year they put him through again, and they took new samples of his blood and tissue to see if anything had changed. Vlad ended up being held up another two months in the hospital. Eventually, however, the staff had to admit that he was well enough to check out of the hospital. Other than his face, nothing had changed from the day he had checked into the hospital, but he seemed like he could go about fine now. His time spent there may have been only somewhat over a year, but to Vlad, it felt like a lifetime. He decided that he would refer to his time spent there as "several years" should anyone ever ask him about it.
Of course, being out of the hospital meant that he had to find a place to live now, and he wasn't monetarily secure. He started looking for an apartment and a job around Green Bay, having gotten permission to stay in his old room at campus while he searched (Jack had completely moved out, leaving nothing behind). While looking, he ran into a classmate, who informed him that Jack and Maddie had moved. To where, he didn't know, but they had left together. Aside from making Vlad's blood boil even hotter against Jack, it got him looking outside the city for a place to live and a source of income. He had been looking around town for a job on the assumption that Jack and Maddie still lived in the city, and with them gone, he felt he best move out too – it might yield a better opportunity to find them. He still looked around in Green Bay – it was the home of the Packers, after all – but he finally found a somewhat decent apartment in Milwaukee and a job that paid enough for the rent. He knew that Harriet had moved up to Milwaukee to work for the Journal, and he knew that if he ever ran into her, she'd be the person most likely to know where Jack and Maddie had left. The school had held onto his things for him while he'd been in the hospital so, when the day came, he picked up his things, hailed a taxi and paid it with borrowed money form a classmate, and headed up to his new life.
Throughout this entire time, every evening at eight o' clock, Vlad would set up the Proto-Portal, transform, fly inside, and meet up with Katou. After a bit of confusion as to where the portal was at first, they finally worked it out to where Katou would meet Vlad at the entrance and take him to his lair (eventually, Vlad learned the way there himself), and once they arrived, practice would start. His training had begun.
Katou could be a tough master. He demanded full effort 100% of the time, and failure to perform at one's maximum ability could result in their getting additional work after a night's training – and that training normally ran at about eight hours. He offered praise when deserved and often jumped into the exercise, serving as Vlad's opponent or demonstrating certain techniques, but he always had some constructive criticism and picked up on whether Vlad was using too little or too much energy, how much he was tapping into his spectral energy, and little details. Vlad knew from the battle in the graveyard that Katou's gentle demeanour could be misleading, but this was more than he had expected.
Focusing his spectral energy proved simpler than he had thought – he tapped into it like one taps into their subconscious for an idea for a story or to experience a dream at night. The way to do it was simple – actually doing it was more difficult. Somehow, when one did something without knowing it, it was easier to do than when one was told what it was he was doing. Once Vlad was conscious of the way to bring forth his powers, it took him several tries just to transform from ghost to human form and several more tries to go back again. It was in this aspect of his powers that Katou was the least helpful, as this power was unique to Vlad. The first whole month of his training ended up being tests on his ability to transform, in normal circumstances, under pressure, in flight, at various speeds, underwater, and all sorts of things. It was a gruelling workout, and Vlad found his energy spent so much that he ended up sleeping until at list 2 PM once he left The Ghost-Zone (fortunately, his shift ran from 3 to 7, and it was a short walk from his apartment). Eventually, however, he finally got the hang of it, and he was able to transform easily under any conditions.
The second month of training focused on flight, invisibility, and intangibility. For this, Katou had them leave The Ghost-Zone and go into a park near Milwaukee, as only real-world beings or items could phase through obstacles in The Ghost-Zone. The park was almost like a mini-forest, and Katou had Vlad practice phasing through trees, rocks, and even the water in a pond, he had him fly around and perform various feats of acrobatics in the tree limbs, and he had him try going invisible when standing in front of various objects.
All of Vlad's time in the hospital gym had built up his physique to the point where acrobatics were fairly easy for him to learn, and flying was the easiest of his powers to get the hang of. The liberation of being off the ground and of being able to go anywhere one wanted made flying the most enjoyable power to employ, and thus, the easiest to master. Invisibility also came easily (helped along by the fact that Katou had stored several stones in his robes during these exercises, and turned his back to give Vlad ten seconds to make himself invisible before he started throwing them). Intangibility was another story. Katou insisted that he remain in-flight to perform intangibility, which wore out his energy reserve faster. And along with phasing through trees, rocks, and water, Katou used ghost-telekinesis to raise fairly large rocks from the ground and send them Vlad's way. He was supposed to phase through them. If he couldn't do it in time, he had to have quick reflexes. None of the rocks were ever big enough to really hurt him, but Vlad found himself falling to the ground and covered in bruises for much of that month. However, he eventually managed to get the hang of that as well, and by the end of the month, he was as skilled at intangibility as he was at flight and invisibility. And with this skill came the virtual elimination of mishaps with his powers during the day. There were a few incidents here and there, but they grew less and further apart from one another.
Throughout all of the training, Katou remained strict, demanding, and insistent on perfection, but this attitude was only employed concerning the training. On a personal level, he couldn't have been kinder to Vlad. He was very open, willing to listen and give advice on any subject Vlad asked about. He could always sense when he was pushing Vlad too far in training, and stopped it when it became too much for his student. He told jokes, laughed at stories that he heard, and he let Vlad contribute to his own training.
Vlad considered all that fine and good, and he held nothing against his new master, but he couldn't bring himself to fully become friends with him. Katou was a samurai, and as a samurai he brought to Vlad's training ethnic and moral philosophies and principles along with the ghost powers. He tried to have Vlad focus on thoughts and feelings while performing his powers, and introduced him to the basic concepts of bushido. Among these concepts were self-control, benevolence, and remaining calm, enduring all emotions within. This lifestyle forbade him from getting his revenge on Jack, as it considered vengeance an unjust action and an example of allowing one's emotions to take over (that little note on "unjust" actions was why Vlad never bothered to say how he got the portal, though he was never asked). Katou himself kept pressuring him to forgive Jack and move on. Vlad stayed respectful enough when talking about it with him, but he absolutely refused to suppress his anger or to forgive and forget. He was still after revenge.
The third month had all of Vlad's powers being tested, but the main focus was on forming spectral energy blasts. The smoky green orbs that he found he could form when he was angry turned out to be concentrations of spectral energy. When controlled, they could be fired off in a blast of power. Katou demonstrated several kinds of green spectral attacks, but for some reason, he had Vlad focus on an attack that always came out blue – a steady, transparent stream of blue spectral energy that took on a sword-like point at the end. While Vlad found it incredibly easy to change the orbs in his hands from blue to green, forming them into the attack was more difficult than he could ever imagine.
To form the orbs into a spectral blast, Vlad had to tap into his spectral power, like he had to for all his abilities. Then he had to move it through his body, into his hand, and outward in a steady, flowing stream that maintained definite form. This was like trying to get one's blood to flow backward in their veins. To change it from blue to green just depended on what piece of energy he focused on, but moving it outwards was impossible. Night after night after night, whenever they were working on energy blasts, Vlad tried again and again, and all he could ever get was a smoky blue orb in his hand. Katou helped as much as he could. He repeated time and again the method for which to fire the blast, he offered encouraging words while Vlad tried to perform the technique, and he demonstrated it countless times. But always, Vlad could never go beyond a smoky orb. Putting so much energy into learning one attack, combined with the continued practice in his other skills, wore him out even more during the daytime. Unlike with his other abilities, at the end of the third month, he had not been able to master firing the blast, and his frustration and impatience were beginning to show.
"Blast!" he yelled out on the first day of the fourth month, having failed again, "I should have mastered this by now!" they had been practising inside Katou's lair, on the raised marble floor.
"It's alright, Vlad," Katou said soothingly, "This technique doesn't come quite as easily as the others. The only time I've seen someone learn it quickly is if they were under pressure and had to fight off an enemy. Doing this through practice is a bit tricky. You'll get it eventually. Now, try again," Vlad sighed. He needed a break.
"Just let me get some water…" he jumped down into the part of the cave used for storage of lamps and bottles and reached for one.
"Vlad, wait!" Katou jumped down after him and smacked his hand away, an urgent look on his face, "I probably should have told you this sooner, but never take anything from these bottles or lamps unless I tell you it's alright!"
"Why? What's in that one?" Katou sighed.
"I definitely should have told you this sooner," he muttered, half to himself, before speaking up again, "The reason why is that many of these bottles hold various forms of raw ectoplasm."
"And…" Vlad wasn't following. The traces of ectoplasm he had discovered while in college had never done him any harm, and other than giving him ghost powers and ecto-acne, he hadn't suffered any terminal side effects from the accident (not that it made Jack any less guilty, of course).
"Alright," Katou sighed yet again, "You might want to sit down for this one, Vlad. I've got a lot to explain here," the samurai summoned up two chairs. The two men sat across from one another.
"Ectoplasm comes in many forms," Katou began, "It is very easily mutated and changed, and can be liquid, solid, or gas. But all ectoplasm belongs to three basic types – blue, green, and red. Those are the raw forms of ectoplasm. These make up everything here in The Ghost-Zone, and in specialised forms, they make up all full ghosts. But raw ectoplasm of any kind is extremely dangerous. When exposed to raw spectral matter, a ghost's power significantly increases, but at the price of malevolence, greed, and insanity. It takes the most negative of their thoughts and traits and brings them out into the surface to consume everything else," he stopped for a moment, and eyed the bottle Vlad had reached for as though it held some deadly germ. Then he went on.
"Blue is the rarest form of ectoplasm. It's almost impossible to find any of it in raw form, let alone a ghost comprised of it. It is also the weakest. Because of that, even though it is rare in raw form and as the primary component of a spirit, it's not unheard of for ghosts comprised of the other two kinds of ectoplasm to form attacks made up of blue spectral energy. Since it is so weak, exposure to raw blue ectoplasm isn't terribly risky if exposure is limited. But too much of it over a long period of time can prove very damaging indeed.
"Green is the most common kind, as you've probably noticed by now. Almost all spectral beings and most everything here in The Ghost-Zone are made up of green ectoplasm. It's mid-way in strength among the three types. As it's the most common kind, there's a lot of raw green ectoplasm floating around, and exposure to it drives ghosts into madness very quickly. I trust you've seen those gobs of green floating up from nowhere around here? Avoid them at all costs. Many ghosts have become evil in heart and mind from getting caught in those messes of green. You might have gotten a bit of it yourself during the accident, though since the ectoplasm was converted into spectral gateway and was filtered through to the real world, I doubt it lasted long.
"Red isn't too rare. It is the most powerful form of ectoplasm, and the most dangerous. Even the slightest exposure will turn a ghost into pure evil. It consumes the quickest out any of the three types of ectoplasm. Any ghost you meet that can conjure up red spectral blasts is going to be incredibly powerful and frightendly dangerous. Should you ever meet someone like that, be extremely careful," he took a breath, and Vlad took that brief moment to let all of the information he had heard register in his mind.
"So, the point is, raw ectoplasm is not to be toyed with. I keep a lot of it, even red, stored in these lamps and bottles, but it's because among my other duties, I often am to go to particularly dangerous places with a lot of raw ectoplasm around and store it away so that it doesn't affect anyone. In order to avoid being contaminated by it, you have to spend years in isolation and meditation, developing your ghost-immunity and developing your natural ghost powers, but even then, you're not completely safe. The only ghosts that are guaranteed safety from it are the ones that stay in the real world after they pass on. Not all specialised forms of spectral matter are safe either, but it's the raw forms you want to most watch out for. That bottle you were going for holds raw blue spectral smoke," Katou let out a breath, finally finished. Vlad thought about what he had heard. Raw ectoplasm definitely wasn't something to play around with. He had been gathering samples of the floating messes of green in small test tubes for paranormal studies, but he hadn't exposed himself to any yet, and it didn't sound like a wise idea.
And yet…there was the mention of more power. Something inside him found that intriguing. And he remembered something.
"Didn't you use blue smoke to treat my wound the first time we met?" he asked.
"I did," Katou nodded, "I will admit, raw blue ectoplasm, if used extremely carefully and in limited quantity, and be an effective healing tool and can help along meditation and certain spectral techniques. But I don't want you using any yet. You're not ready for it yet, and –" a green glow came from a dark chamber in the cave.
"That's a friend calling," Katou explained, "Hang on, I'll be right back," he headed over to the chamber. A few minutes later he stepped out, a serious expression on his face.
"I've got to take care of something," he said, raising his hood over his face, "Keep practising until I get back. I won't be gone long," with that, he ran out into the cave entrance, leapt of his little island, and flew off into The Ghost-Zone, his robes flowing dramatically behind him.
---
"Blast!" Vlad slammed his foot down hard on the floor, trying to catch his breath. It had been a full half-hour since Katou left, and he still hadn't returned. The entire time, Vlad had been trying again and again to perform the spectral blast, and every time he had failed. He was getting more tired of this by the minute.
"There must be some way to get this thing right!" he hissed to himself, slumping in the shoulders. Then his mind drifted back thirty minutes ago. He remembered Katou's words: 'raw blue ectoplasm…can help along meditation and certain spectral techniques.'
Vlad looked down at the storage room. He eyed the bottle that he knew held the blue smoke. Katou's warning also came back to him, but so did the note about limited quantity. Now that Vlad was getting control over his powers, he was beginning to use them to his advantage. Going invisible and flying saved him money on cab fare, and anyone who made a wisecrack at his expense often found themselves in an embarrassing and unexplainable situation. If he got the hang of this kind of spectral blast, his training could move on. An opportunity to progress was before him.
He decided to take it.
He jumped down to the storage room, walked over to the table that held the bottle, and picked it up.
'I'll only use a little,' he thought to himself, and he popped the top off. Blue smoke poured out from the bottle and seemed to lunge straight for him, engulfing him in a blinding blue fog. He felt himself coughing heavily and staggering around, never able to escape the fog. He heard the sound of the bottle smashing on the floor – he must have dropped it. But beyond all that, he felt more cold and more power seep through the pores of his skin. He could feel it building up his spectral energy inside him. And, in his mind, he had flashes of images from his dreams of revenge.
The fog remained for a few minutes. Then, slowly but surely, the cave began to clear. The smoke faded away. The broken glass of the bottle was nowhere to be seen. And Vlad watched as the white glow around his body went from its usual vague outline to thick and bright and then went back again. He could feel his entire body tingling, and his dreams kept replaying in his mind. His hands were shaking. Slowly, he floated back up to the marble floor. He raised up his right hand. He moved his spectral power forward. And a steady, transparent blue blast ending in a sword-like point flew out from his palm, collided with the rock wall, and blasted away a few rocks.
Vlad looked down at his still smoking hand, his eyes wide in shock. He felt a gulp slide down his throat. He clenched his hand shut into a fist, the smoke flying away. Then, looking up, he let out a relieved, joyful laugh that nevertheless held in it more than a faint trace of maliciousness.