*Updated 3/14/2013 This chapter was Beta read by akasoeki.

Chapter Three: Genkai's Tests-Part One

Something prickled in the back of Sarai's mind. Some small spark of adventure. She felt a smile, a real one, tugging at the corners of her lips at the thought of meeting a psychic who could teach her to harness or break the power of the curse.

As it turned out, Genkai was a hermit, but she wasn't surprised. Every supernatural story with a practically all powerful psychic was set way the fuck away from civilization so Sarai wasn't really expecting otherwise. I mean think about it, Yoda lived in a swamp for crying out loud. Even though the nearest city (which had been far enough away from Sakyo's that getting there had been tiring) was several hours by car ride, Sarai couldn't be irritated once the taxi dropped her off at the bottom of a pristine mountain. The place was just too beautiful.

Thick trees grew as far as the eye could see and after the taxi disappeared off in the distance it was a place that felt untouched by man except for the dirt road and the stairs. The tall woman actually walked up to the first thick tree and ran the pads of her fingers over its rough bark. Her awareness had always been higher than average with the nature of the curse, but after training so intensely she could feel the vibrant but peaceful energy of nature pulsing through it in a healthy sort of shiver that she'd come to associate with plant life. After a minute or so of reverent thoughts and deep breathing, the dark haired girl pulled her backpack on and started the climb.

Finally, she reached what had looked like the top and groaned. There was a flat platform like expanse, but twenty feet ahead the stairs tracked up again. She sighed and leaned sideways on a tree, empty water bottle in hand. After taking a deep breath, she felt vibrations running through her senses that had nothing to do with the trees.

A faint glow she hadn't noticed caught her attention. She realized that at the first step of the next set of stairs there was a sort of shimmery wall of light. It was faint, she could barely see it, but as she walked closer she discovered just how incredibly strong it felt. There was a rope tied around two tree trunks, one on each side of the path. Over the path, the rope had dangling ribbons of some kind with markings she couldn't read. Power seemed to emanate from them and spread like a barrier away and around. Looking up, she noticed what looked like a temple gate. Sarai smiled, despite the weird vibrations that came from the light. Her journey was almost over.

With a renewed spirit, she walked right through the light and started up the last of the stairs. What Sarai found at the top was probably the most unexpected and strange thing she'd encountered so far. There were TONS of people just standing around in a big group. And not normal people...weird people. From looks to aura to the strangest energy readings she'd ever picked up from human beings. Some stood by themselves, some stood in little groups speaking casually. She felt instantly cowed by the press of people and hadn't even gotten close yet. Some had weapons, some were scarred, some had larger than life features and some were clearly foreign, like her.

Once the utter shock of suddenly finding such a large crowd hidden in the mountains had worn off, she had planned to move forward and study the pretty architecture that made up the huge building beyond the courtyard where everyone was gathered. She'd never seen a Japanese palace, but this was kind of how she'd envisioned it. She vaguely recalled Sakyo saying that she was headed to Genkai's temple. Whatever semantics you chose, this place was big, traditional, and absolutely gorgeous. Before she really had a chance to step forward and take a closer look, a short drum beat rolled through the air catching everyone's attention.

Someone's excited whisper hushed his neighbor, "Shh, it must be Genkai!"

She waited at the back of the crowd, happy Genkai was on her way, but worried that sitting through this entire line would take her late into night fall. If it was too late, she'd have real trouble getting a cab to come this far out. It might be worth getting stranded for a bit. If the entire crowd is here to see her she must really be a powerful psychic.

Sarai didn't really know what to expect when the giant doors slid open. She couldn't see into the darkness of the room beyond, but a female voice came floating out of the darkness, "My, my, what a crowd." When Genkai finally walked forward Sarai still didn't know what to think.

She was short, really short. Sarai couldn't tell exactly what the comparison would be to her own impressive height because of the distance, but it was obvious that this woman appeared to be tiny. She was old, with wrinkles, large eyes and a bored expression. Heir hair was more gray than pink, but it definitely had a sakura hue to it. Sarai wasn't really all up on the technical terms for traditional Asian clothing, but she had a red tunic looking piece with purple piping which was tied with an aqua sash. Her pants were green and her shirt was long sleeved and white. She had on a hat with a kanji Sarai hadn't learned yet and shoes of the same color. It wasn't something Sarai would ever wear in that color combination, but it somehow suited the small woman in a way that a more streamlined color pallet would not.

Everyone seemed to be in shock, which seemed to make her mouth curl a little at the edges, "Alright people, I suppose we should get things started." She paused for a moment, "The first of your screening tests will be," a drum beat for drama, "the drawing of lots."

About half the crowd seemed to fall over in shock. Sarai had no idea what was going on. I'm not really here for a screening am I? Did one need to be screened before she would perform a service for you? And if that was the case, then why did everyone find that to be so strange? Drawing lots would cut the crowd down, maybe it came to luck and fate who would get to see her. Sarai decided to wait silently and find out more.

Genkai pointed to a red and tan clay jar that had been placed beside her, "Everyone must draw a lot from this old jar. Come now, we haven't all day." The line formed and people went up in twos and threes and started pulling little white papers out of the jar. Sarai waited in line for a few minutes, but the line moved relatively quickly given how large it was so before she knew it, she was standing right before the stairs.

She was the last in line. With her backpack over one shoulder she mounted the steps and peaked curiously into the jar. There were still many of those little papers left. It was then she noticed they were really more like tiny envelopes. Sarai reached down and grabbed one just as Genkai shifted slightly. The taller woman looked up and met the psychic's gaze. She was studying Sarai with a blank expression. The younger girl smiled and blushed reflexively under the powerful woman's scrutiny. This close Sarai could feel the strength Genkai emanated. Pulling her envelope out she hopped back down the steps and walked off to the side a bit where she could lean against the edge of the porch without feeling like she had tons of eyes on her back.

"You did that very well," Genkai spoke to the crowd. "Lets all open the lots now. If the paper inside it is red, then congratulations, you've past the first of today's screenings." Many people started tearing open their lots then. Some were still muttering prayers, hoping their lots were the lucky ones.

Sarai's lips pursed slightly. She knew she was touching paper by the feel and the brownish yellow that clouded the image, the same color dead plant matter turned once its living energy had been spent. No matter what color her lot was dyed, it would look the same as the envelope if it was made of paper.

With a sigh she ripped open her lot as she walked back towards Genkai, though she addressed everyone standing around her in general. "Excuse me," she blushed again under Genkai's intense scrutiny when the older woman glanced her way. A few of the others standing around looked over too. "I'm completely color blind." It was really the easiest explanation to get what she needed, and with the very obvious bandage covering her face from the bridge of her nose to her hairline, one could see why. "Which color is my lot?"

One of the nearby men chuckled, "Its red, lady. But you should probably go home anyways."

Sarai shrugged and ignored his advice, he was an idiot if he hadn't noticed her walking around unhindered despite her lack of conventional sight. All around her, people were either happy with their results or really disappointed. She was standing right in front of the stairs again just waiting.

Genkai spoke, "Those who won, please follow me. Those who lost, please get lost." Sarai grinned a little at her wording. Something about the harshness and finality of it provoked the schadenfreude in her.

Her words weren't met with the same humor by everyone though, and two giant men brushed past Sarai on their way up the stairs. They pushed her completely off balance. She swung around trying to catch herself and a few others dodged to get out of her way, but she ended up falling back against someone who wasn't paying attention. If he'd been standing a foot further away she might have been able to catch herself, but instead, she slammed right into him and felt an iron arm go right around her waist as the man flailed about to regain balance for the both of them.

"Ah, watch it!" His voice was deep and accented slightly from what she'd encountered so far, but as Sarai wasn't a natural, she couldn't tell if it was a dialect difference or a national one. He had on a uniform that reminded her very much of what a school kid would wear and his hair was red, coiffed into something reminiscent of a fifties style greaser.

Because of the fall and her mad fight for balance, Sarai missed whatever the giant dummies had said to Genkai at first. She did catch some of Genkai's reply though, "This probably goes way beyond your comprehension boys, but please try to understand. If you're really ready for my training then why didn't your paper turn red?" Sarai didn't have time to think about the implications of that statement, but she did file it away for later.

The boy found his balance and set her down gently before ripping his hands away. In his quest to keep them from falling, he'd copped a bit of a feel and Sarai assumed this was his reaction to finding out she was a girl.

Before either of them had a chance to speak, though, things came to a head on the porch. Both of the jerks jumped at Genkai with the intent to attack. The tiny psychic emanated light and power from her eyes first and then her body; with her scream the wave of power knocked the mooks flying backwards across the courtyard and into the gate doors Sarai has passed through not twenty minutes before.

The boy who'd caught Sarai shouted, "What was that?!" The shorter boy standing beside him looked back towards the goons and then back at Genkai. Sarai hadn't needed to turn her head to see them fly by and hit the wood, she kept her face forward, examining Genkai and the echoes of the strong power she'd just let loose.

"Wow, my powers are getting a bit rusty. A few years ago those oafs would have ducked their heads if I winked at them wrong. I guess I'm really getting old." She seemed more amused than anything, her mouth curling at the corners. Sarai got the impression she liked intimidating people in this way, the ones that underestimated her because of her stature and age. With her hands clasped behind her back, she turned and began walking. "Alright you red papers, please follow me."

People began forming up and Sarai turned, stepped back and bowed at the man who caught her, "Thank you for catching me. Those jerks pushed me on their way up." She spoke slowly and enunciated her words as best as she knew how.

"Aww, it was nothing. Any man would have done it." He rubbed the back of his neck and Sarai could sense the gathering of energy filled blood flushing over his skin. She couldn't help the soft smirk that quirked at his words; several men had moved out of the way to let her hit the dirt after all. This boy, though, vibrated with the same pure energy she'd seen from children. He was long past that age though, even if his friend standing beside him didn't shine as brightly in Sarai's mind. At least not in the same way, the second boy had a firestorm going on under his skin, but it gave of a completely different feeling from the red head.

"So are you here to become Genkai's disciple as well?" This came from the shorter boy, his voice held more than a hint of incredulity as he stared at the bandages that covered the top half of her face.

"Uh...I'm not sure. Is that why everyone else is here?" Sarai pondered the situation.

"WHAT?! You came and you don't even know what the hell is going on?!" His voice was filled with energy and heat, like annoyance.

She touched the bandage on her face, "I'm cursed. I was hoping Genkai could either remove it, tell me more about it, or teach me how to live with it..."

"Oh wow, a curse, really?" That was the tall one again. "I'm here because I'm psychic and I want her to lower the levels so I don't have to listen to ghosts and stuff anymore."

Sarai raised her eyebrows, although it was hard to tell with the layers of white strips clinging to the skin above them. "Huh, I haven't been around all that many haunted places. I bet that would get annoying after awhile." She paused and then bowed suddenly, "By the way, I'm Sarai Mayfield. Pleased to meet you."

"I'm Kazuma Kuwabara and this is Yusuke Urameshi."

She smiled at and bowed towards Yusuke, who made a careless gesture of greeting with his hand. Everyone was heading inside, but Sarai decided that since they were the closest thing to familiar, she'd stick close to them. They let the majority of the crowd flow in before them. Yusuke checked his watch, which promptly seemed to short circuit. It was giving off way more energy that a normal watch would consume, which confused Sarai, but she didn't comment on that.

"Looks like you bought a crappy watch," Kuwabara stated as he looked over. Yusuke seemed
troubled by the news. I guess he liked the time piece.

The three of them were finally approaching the doors. Just before they got there, Sarai felt a mass of electrical buzzing vibrations heading back towards her. It was far more than she was expecting from such a natural looking place. And when they stepped through the doors and she looked around, it was because the place had been set up much like an arcade.

"This is not a normal house..." Yusuke declared.

"Maybe she really likes video games..." Kuwabara's face was a study in shock, which made Sarai laugh softly.

"This place would make a kick ass hang out." That statement got her a few weird looks as "kick ass" was in English, rather than Japanese. When they were teaching her how to speak the language better, they did so in a proper fashion and she felt sorely lacking in her much loved and abused curse words.

Genkai came floating overhead. Sarai could feel the dull, practically immobile vibrations that meant metallic material form a basket around Genkai with two chains leading up to the ceiling. "I hope you all brought your quarters. These games will be the second screening."

A small, but not smaller than Genkai, boy stepped forward with his arms spread in askance, "Please master, may I ask what playing video games has to do with learning great power?"

"Absolutely nothing really, but these aren't ordinary games that you will be playing. The Janken game will test your spiritual awareness. The punching game shows your spirit strength. And the Karaoke machine tests your spirits ability to adapt and grow stronger. If you can not pass two out of three, then go home quickly." She leveled a gaze that meant trouble on the crowd, "And don't play the other games, they're just for me."

That tidbit brought a bright smile to Sarai's lips. She was beginning to like this old lady.
Something about her disposition amused Sarai. She was about to say something to Kuwabara, but got distracted by the first man to move toward the punching game.

"Alright, me and this game are old buddies." He put the glove on his hand and then punched the thing forward with a smack. Sarai couldn't really tell what was going on; because of the nature of her "blindness" she couldn't read digital screens for the same reason she was color blind. She could hear Yusuke laughing though, and a buzzer sound. "That doesn't make sense," the man said, "I always get the high score on the punching game at my parent's pool house."

"Well this isn't your parent's pool house. It doesn't make any difference to that machine how physically strong you are unless your spirit strength goes along with it."

As Genkai was talking, Kuwabara stepped forward to one of the other punching machines and slipped on the glove. With a war cry, he slammed into the machine and it went off like a bell ringing. "129, what do you think of that, Urameshi?" He was clearly pleased with the outcome and taunting the boy beside him.

Yusuke pulled on a glove, "Don't get too excited. There's something wrong with the machine. Here I'll check it out for you." His attitude and gestures just dripped cockiness before he stepped forward. With a war cry of his own, he pounded his fist into the machine and the bell went off again, along with impressed sounds from the surrounding crowd. "Nope, I guess it works fine."

Kuwabara was behind him with an irritated expression, practically growling when someone else shouted, "Look at that guy, he scored a 155!"

The numbers didn't really mean anything to Sarai. She didn't know what the acceptable range was. She had no idea if she was even suited to this kind of thing or if her studies with Takara might have improved whatever this game measured. The number must have been really good though because Yusuke was fake jabbing in Kuwabara's direction, rubbing in his success.

Instead of listening to whatever Kuwabara was shouting back Sarai stepped forward and slipped on one of the boxing gloves. She paused just before she called out, having almost forgotten the importance of honorifics in Japan, "Hey, Kuwabara-san", she used the general one she'd been taught, "can you read the number for me?"

"Huh? Oh sure, Mayfield-san." He'd been really irritated, Sarai thought she heard Yusuke call him "Feather Punch" and the redhead hadn't taken the insult well.

"Sarai is fine." It felt weird to go by her last name, even if that was the way things were done here. She heard him mumble, "Sarai-san" as if trying it out just as she got into a simple stance and cocked her fist back. On an impulse she took a deep breath and went into fugue. She gathered up her power the same way she would make a barrier and let it pool into her fist. It took just a few seconds thanks to all of Takara's ridiculous training methods, and then she let her fist fly forward, following through with her shoulder just like she'd been taught when she was a little kid taking Karate at the YMCA. She felt the pad snap back and the bell went off.

"Good job, bandage face," Yusuke said. The completely hurt look that flashed over her face made him feel bad, because he followed up with, "It says 110, by the way."

She didn't mean to guilt him and she'd dealt with worse names than "bandage face" in the past, but for some dumb reason, she thought that being a part of a crowd this oddly diverse meant she wouldn't be singled out. Sarai just nodded her thanks and nibbled on her bottom lip in order to keep from frowning. It only took her a second to smooth her expression into one of polite indifference.

The boys made their way over to the next game. After a few seconds of watching them and the others, Sarai realized that this was just rock, paper, scissors. Kuwabara won and got a high score. She ignored the shouts of the others and Yusuke's attempt, to focus on her own task. The bell went off again, but she had no idea what her score was and decided she didn't really care as long as she passed.

"Hey! The blind chick got the same high score!"

Well, that peaked her interest! Sarai smiled politely and Kuwabara looked over. She thought he was going to be mad, like he'd been at Yusuke, but then he held his hand up for a high five and Sarai reciprocated happily. "Good job, Sarai-san! I suppose it makes sense because you've been able to see, even though you're eyes are covered."

"Yeah, I guess raising my awareness is the one good thing that has come of this." She didn't say curse. Sarai shared it with them because they'd asked, but there was no reason to share that with the gathered crowd. She did absently stroke the silk strips of material though, smoothing out imaginary creases and trying not to show how irritating she found them to be.

After that the three of them headed over to the Karaoke machines where these dudes were totally butchering whatever song they'd picked. They may have trained and honed their bodies to be...well, whatever they were, but they couldn't carry a tune in an acoustically balanced bucket if their lives depended on it. Sarai knew she wasn't bad, but she had no idea what this thing was really testing. As she stepped up to the machine, she realized two things. One: She could not read the screen with the words. Two: Even if she could, there's no way she could sing in Japanese. As it was, she had to keep her words and sentences simple and ask others to slow down or repeat themselves when she couldn't keep up.

Sarai stood on the platform for a moment and just looked at the machine as if it were a completely foreign concept she was puzzled over. With an irritated sigh, she yanked the hood of her jacket over her head and down past her eyes. If she were careful, she could probably lift the bandages up her nose to free her eyes which would get rid of one problem (while potentially risked a whole slew of others if her curse activated.) After adjusting everything so her vision wasn't hampered, but her scar was still completely covered, she peered curiously at the screen.

Takara, is there anything you can do to help me with this? My mental question went unanswered for several seconds. I knew she'd heard me, I could feel her energy buzzing from within my backpack.

What did you have in mind? Her voice always sounded like it had a bit of an echo in her mind.

Didn't you help me understand Japanese before? Sarai tossed back her first memory of reading the book. The red characters had started out in Japanese, but switched to something she just knew.

That was different, but I'll see what I can do. I'm not going to tamper with that...thing. Takara was apparently a snob.

After a minute she felt that warm buzz of energy in her brain, settled right behind her eyes. The markings on the screen suddenly made a bit more sense. It was still difficult finding a Japanese song that she would even know and in the end she picked one she thought she might have heard in an anime somewhere.

Before that moment Sarai felt as though anxiety would be the death of her. With her cheeks on fire, she also had coils of tension building in her chest. Singing in front of a crowd of strangers was far worse than speaking in front of them and that had been difficult enough. It was her worst nightmare and she didn't even have any shots of liquor to give herself some liquid courage. After the warm presence of Takara's energy settled behind her eyes, she didn't really have much focus to waste on being nervous. To keep it going, she had to reach fugue while being able to use her senses to read and sing, it was a delicate balance, but not too entirely different from the sorts of distractions Takara had trained her for. Before she knew it, the whole thing was over and a bell sounded at the end.

It took her a minute to realize that the bell sounding meant she'd pass. The tension eased out of her chest and she flashed Kuwabara and Yusuke a bright smile before remembering that she should put her bindings back on before something unfortunate happened. Sarai quickly redid the bandages after letting Takara's presence fade from her mind. With nothing else to do, she leaned against a wall and entered fugue, brushing up on some last minute basics. It took less time than she thought it would and then everyone was told there were only 22 of the candidates left.

A/N: I hope you are all enjoying this. One day I might have better ideas, but for now, I thought it would be better to share what I have and worry about making it "perfect" later.

Please let me know what you think!

I'd really, really appreciate your advice. :)