Ordering in sounds like a good idea on a number of levels. You say so, and Cordelia smiles and pulls out the house dinner menu, which she took the liberty of having sent up ahead of time. Leafing through it, you eventually decide to go with something a bit more Western for tonight's meal - you're feeling just a touch homesick.
Your dinner arrives about twenty minutes later. In another moment of security-consciousness, you magically inspect the food for tampering - after all, there are still ninjas about. Mindful of your promise to the Invisible Ninja Girl Ayane, you only mention this fact to Cordelia as a hypothetical possibility; she shakes her head but lets you examine her dinner as well. Everything turns out to be safe, and you dig in, interspersing eating and conversation about what you know or suspect of the other kids you'll be facing tomorrow. That discussion carries on for most of an hour. You're pretty certain that the girl Cordelia will be facing is a ninja-in-training like Ayane, but you're not sure what she'll be bringing to the match in terms of skill or tricks; you know even less about your own opponent, although Briar mentions that he looked kind of like a troll to her. Pleasant notion.
Eventually, Cordelia and Briar leave the suite to get in some shopping - now that Queen C can see Briar, she is determined to do something about the fairy's wardrobe, or more correctly, the lack of one. You wish them luck in finding anything that will actually fit your smallest friend, and then go back to your meditation. Some hours later, you emerge from your trance, take note that Cordelia and Briar are back and apparently both asleep, and that there is another message from Lu-sensei - he sounds a bit harried, and the call was cut short by shouts and a hasty, "Goodnight!"
Whatever it is that's going on with your teacher, it's becoming rather worrisome. Still, there's nothing you can do about it now. With little else to do and an early morning ahead of you, you decide to call it a night. As you climb into bed, your last thought of the day is that you are just a touch disappointed that ninjas did not show up to try and take you into custody - but only just a touch.
Your night passes uneventfully, and when you wake up in the morning, you feel quite refreshed. Briar took the opportunity to heal you and Cordelia after dinner the evening before, so you're maxed out as far as stamina and ki go. Your magic, as you predicted, howevers at just over the eighty percent mark. Not perfect, but as long as you don't have to fight another Kahlua or a series of Othryms today, you should be okay.
Lu-sensei is waiting for you in the kitchen. He looks rumpled and bleary-eyed, and is nursing a cup of coffee that - if the half-full pot in the machine is any indication - is not his first of the day.
"Oh, it's you," he mumbles. "Good morning."
"...good morning to you too, Sensei," you reply after a moment's pause.
"I apologize, Alex," the old man sighs, rubbing at his tired eyes. "I spent most of yesterday afternoon and a good part of the evening dealing with a bunch of dried-up, more-Japanese-than-thou pains-in-the-neck, and just when I got away from those hidebound old sots, some ninjas decided it would be fun to play rooftop tag. Took me hours to lose them."
You stare at the old man. "Does that sort of thing happen a lot at this event, sir?"
"Meh," he says with a dismissive shrug. "It's a tournament for supernaturally-empowered warriors gathered from all over the world, and it's held in Japan. A certain amount of weirdness is a given."
"And by, 'a certain amount,' you mean...?"
He thinks on it. "They did have to condemn the arena where the last tournament was held," Lu-sensei admits, "but that was an extreme case. Nobody expected that sorcerer would be such a bad sport about his favored enforcer getting knocked out in the preliminaries; summoning an army of demon warriors to take vengeance was a completely disproportionate response. Usually it's just the one demon showing up for an honor-duel, to save face."
An army of demon warriors? They had to condemn the arena? And honor duels with demons are normal?
You move in a bit of a daze as you carry out your preparations for the day.
When you arrive at the arena, the doors are already open, and the crowd moving in. One of the officials informs you that there have been some delays due to technical issues, and it will be about half an hour before the Under Tens Division Finals begin.
OOC: For the record, there would have been ninja shenanigans and ENLIGHTENMENT if you'd gone out to dinner. Because it's like a law that evil ninjas have to show up whenever a Hayabusa goes to town, and having the heirs to the Mugen Tenshin clan running around as well just makes things worse.
OOC: As things stand right now, if Alex were to specifically train his Power Sense (which is an option), it would take him about four years to get it up to C rank. His progress after that would slow down considerably - he'd probably need another decade to reach A+++. Gyokuro's youki sensing ability sounds like the kind of haxx that should fall into the EX rank, which I'm treating as something you cannot get to just by training - unless it's training from hell, undertaken by a natural genius, who has a similarly-gifted master to provide pointers.