"Kung fu."
Ambrose blinks. "What was that?"
"You asked what my master was teaching me," you reply. "Lu-sensei's been teaching me martial arts and ki use. I don't actually have a master for magical purposes, unless you count Briar - and she's more of a friend who keeps me from making too many obvious mistakes."
The wizard looks from you to the fairy riding on your shoulder, who you can feel nodding along with your statement. And then he LOOKS at you and the fairy riding on your shoulder, who you feel go still and let out a tiny, "Eeep!" You can't be one hundred percent certain with your mana exhausted, but you're pretty sure Ambrose is using a spell to study your aura, and probably a few other things besides.
"...huh." After a long moment, the old man shrugs and turns to Tatsuki. "Where were we, again?"
...what?
"You were talking about... Hell," the spiky-haired girl says.
Did he just ignore you?
"Ah, right. Well, I'd need access to a proper library and a few hours or a few days of extra research to figure out all of the fiddly bits and fine details, but from what the legible glyphs state, it's pretty clear that this" - Ambrose waves one hand, taking in all of the rune-scribed chains - "is a high-class blood seal."
You don't think anyone's ever dimissed you like that before. Not in this lifetime, or any of the others that you can recall. It's... very annoying.
"The origins of the name are threefold," Ambrose declares pedantically. "First, it's a seal on your blood, in the sense of your lineage. In the simplest terms, someone in your family tree wasn't or isn't human, and the seal is keeping you from expressing any of the more exotic traits you might have inherited from that person - or persons. That's what the anti-transformational elements about the body are for, and the other reason for the mental suggestion - keep the non-human instincts in check, and all. Some of the binds on the soul would serve similar purposes, suppressing and concealing any non-human traces that would normally show up in the aura."
Tatsuki looks dumbfounded. Ambrose doesn't seem to notice.
"Second," he continues, "blood was doubtlessly involved in the original creation of the seal. Some of yours and some of the caster's, at least, and from what I can tell, there were eight other sources involved as well. One major, five moderate, two minor." Ambrose frowns at a section of chain located over Tatsuki's heart. "The symbols that would identify three of the moderate influences should be here" - he points to three separate links - "but they're absent, which only happens after the source has died. The other sources, including the caster, are all alive. The major and surviving moderate sources both consented to be donors; the two minor sources did not, although they were not forced into donating, either. Not by the standards of Hell, at least."
"Hell has standards?" Isshin mumbles.
"Hell has the most exacting standards," Ambrose states firmly, giving Isshin a glare. "Painfully exacting, at that. There are reasons why the Damned get sent there for purification - mostly that human souls are too lazy or squeamish to do the job properly, or else too likely to enjoy the work and damn themselves in the process."
Isshin looks like he wants to argue the point, but Ambrose is already moving on.
"Thirdly," the wizard states, "although blood seals can be applied by anyone, they work best when someone who is directly related to the subject is involved in the creation process, whether as a donor or the actual caster. When I say directly related, I mean parent to child, or grandparent to grandchild - someone with a clear, undeviated line of descent to or from the subject. Siblings can contribute as well, especially twins or the like, but cousins, aunts, uncles, and more distant, indirect relations simply don't work. Neither do adoptees or in-laws, unless of course certain other blood rituals are performed ahead of time."
"In other words," Masaki sums up, "at least three members of Tatsuki's family know about the seal, and agreed to help put it on her."
"Correct," Ambrose says, smiling at the woman. "In point of fact, and considering the girl's age, one of those family members is one of her parents. There wouldn't be a glyph for a major blood-source otherwise."
Tatsuki collapses. Masaki, Ichigo, and the twins immediately go to her; Altria takes a step forward, then hesitates, uncertain.