To find a cure.

“Mmm…” My body shifts slightly as I turn to the side, fully dressed in my normal street attire, lying atop hay placed within the confines of a carpentered box. Apparently, this passed as a bed in lower rent motel like structures. My closed eyes slowly wince before opening slowly as my head rises up slowly. I spit out a bit of hay that seemed to mix with my drool over the night and lift up a bit more as I look around my surroundings. The sunlight filtered in from the window of the room, signaling that day time had come. I brush my hand raggedly through my hair and force myself into a sitting position with my legs over the side of the bed. I sit dumbly for a moment, not looking at anything in particular, just ahead, before I rise up and get to my feet stretching. I had decided to spend the night in the past so that I could get an early start on my next attempt to find the Hiramoto clan in the forest. Each day I was getting further and further into the forest; since I had the ability to warp, I could simply return to the last spot visited and continue my search from there. During this time, I had checked home with my mom, paid a few bills, somehow, and assured her everything was fine and that I was working on a project, but I had neglected to go by and check with Izumi. After stretching, I make up my mind, “well, better get to going before someone figures out I was in this room!” I hadn’t paid the previous night, as I happened to warp room to room before finding an empty one. With that, I open a portal and teleport myself outside of the city limits where I could not be seen.

I appear in the tall fields outside of the city in a column of light. I planned to take go into the city where I would be able to get something to eat before returning to the outskirts and warping back into the forest, and with that, I begin walking. Before long, I come into the city; it was pretty early and the merchants were just getting set up with their carts. The smell of fresh breads was filling the air and smoke started to rise from stacks of various buildings. With a good idea of how much past realm funds I had, I attempt to locate someplace cheap to pick up a meal.

425 / 425

My hand covers my stomach as I walk contently after having gained a bit of food in my stomach. I had happened upon a cheap place where I was able to get a hearty breakfast for a low price with the Shinny I received killing dire rats at the bottom of a cellar here in this city some while back. My steps lead me to the edge of the city as I was prepared to head out with just about everything I would need. Goronova was resting passively on my back; I stood in a pair of khaki shorts and a cotton shirt I had acquired from this realm so that I didn’t stand out as much as before; it seemed to match together well enough for me to be a farm boy or something to that nature. After reaching the edge of the village, I jog threw the lowlands and farming areas towards the high grasses where I would probably create a portal to warp into the forest. As I am arriving into the outer areas away from the village, it is then that I notice something. I pause for a moment as something triggered my interest enough to feel out with my limited sensing abilities. I continue running in the direction where I thought I felt something familiar before coming to a halt. Reaching that area, I would look to my front, left and right, but see nothing. “Hmm...” I murmur lightly as I look down in thought, “maybe my senses aren’t as good as I’d like them to be.” I could feel something for certain, but there was nothing around that I could see. In actuality, my positing would put Izumi-sensai less than 5 yards behind me; I would probably be able to see her if I had just turned around all the way.

307 / 732

I hear a voice that speaks out, like an angel, asking if it was me. Looking up to the heavens, I wondered if this was what Seijin was talking about. Had I been wrong and there was a celestial being watching over me and, at the moment, calling out to me? I begin to answer, ‘yes, kami-sama! It is I… Seiki!’ before I realize that I recognized the voice and that it had come from behind me. Turning around, I see a cloaked figure with boobs. “Sensei!” I say a bit surprised to see her out here in this realm. It was to be expected of my sensei to be able to find me whenever she needed to; I figured she simply warped behind me just now, and that her warping in was the presence I felt just now. With a nod, I confirm, “yes, sensei, it’s me. What brings you to the past rea…?” It’s then that I realized that I may have taken too long without checking in or providing any type of progress. I knew that if that were the case, then it made me look pretty bad. In kind of an ashamed tone, I offer, “I’ve been searching for two days so far and even spoke to an old guy who knew about your clan, but I haven’t been able to find them… but I was just about to go out and try again today!”

239 / 971

Luckily the hooding over her head kept much of her appearance out of my field of visible. This didn’t mentally click in my mind yet as I continued to talk to her. I continue in a low voice, “well, it’s not that…” I admit, “I’ve been having trouble portaling to the areas that I’ve been to the in the future. I’m able to get to areas that I’ve been to in the past, but it looks like, at least to me, that things are different in the past. But I have traveled at least two days into the forest. I can warp out that far with no problem. I’ve been doing it up until now and I was about to do it again.” I smile, “but it’s good that you’re going to be coming with me. Now maybe the time will go by better with a traveling partner and someone to watch my back!” After my words, my sword shifts and its hilt slams into the back of my head as if popping me upside the head like I had said something wrong. I verbally reprimand the jealous sword and rub the back of my head with my right hand.

200 / 1171

After she speaks, I nod and wait for her before I realize that we were waiting on me. I remember with an “oh!” before snapping to action and closing my eyes and holding my hands out, palms forwards, in front of my body. After getting my thoughts together about the place I last visited last night, I murmur a short incantation to rip the spatial terrain and an oscillating pillar of light slowly begins to form on the ground and rises up to a height that would easily encompass the both of us. My eyes open looking towards the cloaked sensei, I nod with a grin and offer, “ladies first.” I would allow her through the portal first, before following after her. Once in the portal, she would be teleported, then I, and from there, she would have to lead. I knew that she knew the general forested areas more than I did. Though the forest may look different, I didn’t have the future reference she would in order to compare it to anything.

171 / 1342

After Izumi entered into the portal I would follow, and as she exited, being deposited in the forest, I would as well. My body manifests in a different setting as the forest grew about us. It looked differently from the way it did last night already, but luckily I remembered enough to get us warped here. Looking to the side, I see a tree with a notch in it and with that I had a little bit of my bearings. I point to the tree and say, “I marked that before stopping, meaning that north is…” My body shifts a bit before pointing, “that way.” I confirm this with the sun above, but it was always hard for me to remember north and south; east and west were the easy ones. From there on I would leave the terrain and navigating in her hands. Turning to Izumi, I inform, “I’ll follow you, sensei. No need in us getting lost for no reason!”

162 / 1504

Resting my arms behind my head, I would begin to follow behind my sensei, accepting the praise of being smart; that was something I didn’t hear in abundance. Her question tugs at me a bit as my cheerful visage sinks and my tone flats out as I answer with a shrug as if nonchalant, “well, my mother hasn’t gotten better, but we’re pretty much okay with the fact that she’ll probably never get better. I have no clue where my girlfriend is lately… so yeah, that sums up my family. I have to find a way to get the bills paid next month… I had to sell my bike to pay the property taxes this month, but I guess that’s what I get for not having a real job.” I was a bit torn about running off to ‘protect those around me’ and not being around. I had to get stronger, but I also was constricted with the possibility of getting strong, but missing out on time with my family. I dismissively follow up, “but I guess that’s not interesting…” I didn’t want to be a drag in this situation when she had things she had to deal with herself.

200 / 1704

My gaze is at her back for a moment before it shifts to the side, viewing the forest foliage we pass by on our walk through this area. “Well…” I start out thinking about the recent past before I got caught up in the current trend of my life, “I kind of had two jobs. I used to run errands for my uncle who’s a small time yakuza boss…” I figured I could tell her this since we were pretty close now. I continue, “you see, my mother doesn’t have any family left on her side and my father’s side rejected us after my father’s death… after he found out I could fight and run errands, he put me to work and I was able to make a little money. He also brought my aunts and other uncles around to spend time with my mother… you know… because she gets lonely without family around. Anyways, one of his associates found out that I knew martial arts and got my foot into the door in acting.” I shrug my shoulders and return my attention to the front as I admit, “I’ve only been an extra in a bunch of low budget movies. I’ve never had like a starring role or anything. Well… I was on my way, until I stopped to pursue this…”

222 / 1926

“Eh?” my gaze shifts to the back of the area where her head was supposed to be. “Sensei was an actress as well?” I inquire. That was a heck of a coincidence; I felt like we had a bit more in common now, only it was a bit of an opposite. I grin and chuckle, “so I worked part time for the Yakuza and acted and acted and worked part time for the cops.” I murmur something in amusement about my teacher being a one hit wonder. It did seem pretty interesting to me, however. This thing with the spirits seemed to pull us both away from what would probably be productive normal lives. I knew there had to be other people out there like us who were trying to become better either to do good in the world, or to do harm; I just had to be on top. In the sensei’s behalf, she had to based upon her tradition, though I didn’t have a similarly colorful explanation to why I did it. I did it out of awe, fear, and a sense to protect those around me. Addressing her last spoken words, I speak, “when you do, see if you can find me some good action gigs.” I say so in a playful tone, though I could probably do a lot of things now that would require stunt men for other people. I could get pretty famous with my skills and become this realm’s Bruce Lee… or at least that was the plan then.

256 / 2182

Listening on, she seems to chime the words that had been in my thoughts at the moment. I simply nod while agreeing with her in my continual traversing of the green foliage-ridden terrain. My gaze shifts up a bit noting slender beams of light casting down from small holes in the forest canopy above. It seemed like a nice day to be walking in the forest, so long as we steered clear of the dangers of this realm. I knew that the ability to sense aided my sensei and myself from keeping away from large predatory creatures. Looking back to her as she stretches out, I look down watching my steps through the path we were taking as I comment, “I’ll have to go back and watch some of your stuff; I’m sure it’s good if it’s sensei.” Unfortunately, I didn’t have too much of a repertoire to showcase due to the fact that most of my roles involved me being in some type of suit or heavy makeup. It would be hard to tell that it was even me in most of my rolls and on top of that, the directors seemed to love misspelling my name in the credits. I figured as I got more and more famous, little things like that would go away. Looking back around us, I push out with my senses once more seeing if I felt anything in the area, something I was getting accustomed to doing to assist in the prevention of surprises; plus I still had a bit to go in training that ability.

263 / 2445

I give an elongated sigh at the sound of another full day of walking and not finding anything. I thought about ways to possibly speed things up. I was a young man, with an ample amount of energy and stamina. Lifting my voice, I inquire of my sensei, “I’m able to move across the land at an accelerated speed… if you point me in the right direction, I can probably make that distance a lot faster? I can go there, teleport back and then teleport us both there.” The amount of stamina required to do that wouldn’t necessarily be smart for someone to use, but as a male, that wouldn’t be on my mind until I was in mid act. I often trained by over estimating what I could do and setting that as my expectation of myself. Being worn down would only be a disappointment and motivation to work harder next time.

153 / 2598

My face pouts slightly as my plan is rejected; I at least thought it was a good plan. To her words, this would probably be a lot better if she were in her hot form and not something that I couldn’t even look upon without turning into stone. The outlining of her ass held a pretty nice shape to it, but even holding a bag over her head and those snakes upon it, I wondered would doing her be something even the most desperate of men would attempt. I sigh as I realize that I was partially helping here because I wanted to be able to see her beautiful form once again… I mean, it wasn’t like that was wrong… or even the only reason; just one of many. I comment, “hai hai, sensei” to her words and fold my hands behind my neck as I continue to follow behind her. When her words changed, I wondered if she really meant it. She explained it much like she did, but it was hard to tell if she were playing with me. Still, calling this bluff would be more fun than simply walking, and I would be able to show her my speed. With a grin, I nod with a “right” before my body flickers from its position and a tuff of wind lifts in the wake of my movement which happened within a blink of an eye. I move in spurts, as much as my ‘steps’ in godspeed would allow until finally coming upon the place in which my sensei spoke. Though cocky in the beginning, after getting there, I almost pass out as I drop to a knee and hold myself up with my hands leaning over and sweat drops from my head. “Aw man…” I breath between huffs, “it didn’t seem that far while I was running it…” I decide that I would take a moment or so to catch my breath before even attempting to warp back to where my sensei was.

335 / 2933

My back is against the largest tree as I complete my breather. “Okay…” I give a final sigh before lifting up and standing to my feet. I dust off my bottom and hold my hands forwards. “Now to remember the place I was with Sensei…” I murmur. A line of light breaks the ground and forms in a circle; after that a column lifts up, but it suddenly breaks. I exhale suddenly and stumble forwards before realizing that the skill failed. “Damn…” I murmur as I stand up right. With a sigh, I decide give it another go, but it would seem that my stamina hadn’t gotten to the point where I could try again. “Crap…” I say as I take a step back for a moment. “I guess that kind of stuff takes time,” I say as I look in the direction my sensei was. I figured I could probably take this break to take a bite or two from my rations. Reaching into my pocket, I pull out a small pouch of assorted nuts and dried fruits before plopping on my rear cross legged where I proceed to eat.

191 / 3124

After my snack, I feel a bit better about performing the spell. It didn’t dawn on me that the skill might have failed, not due to me not having the stamina for it, but because I sucked at making portals and had been getting lucky up to this point. Either way, I lift from my rear, dusting it off before standing up, feeling a bit more confident about performing the spell. Holding my hands in front of me, I close my eyes and concentrate on the area where I left my sensei. The circle of light forms once again and the column builds and is stabilized. I open my eyes and grin and my work with a nodding, “all right!” I step forwards and enter into the portal that I’ve created; the other end of the portal would rise up in the area I had left my sensei, and before long my body would materialize in it. After arriving there, I look about, not immediately seeing my sensei. I murmur, “I think I came to the right place…” I frown, wondering if I should have notched a tree or something, just to make sure, before I left. “What a pain… I was in such a hurry, I didn’t think,” I murmur.

211 / 3335

Hearing my sensei from behind, I turn, before pausing and simply turning half way, not fully turning around. “Sorry about that,” I apologize, “she told me she wasn’t with me for my manners; I made up pretty good in other areas.” After the playful apology, I move on about the length of time it took and continue, “I didn’t think it would be that far, but I did actually make it there pretty fast. My flash steps let me move at about 50 foot bursts; I’ve been working on it for a while, but I underestimated how many steps it would take to cross a day…” It was either that, or the distance was further than originally described. Either way, my words flow on, “I think I should be able to make the portal now if you want me too...” Though it was stated as if needing her approval, not really waiting for the go ahead, I place both my hands out in front of me and focus on the place I had been. “I’m sure we should be pretty close after this…” I assure her with my conclusion. The line of radiant light creates another circle about the ground before lifting the oscillating column of light up; while creating it, I wondered why I didn’t simply hold the original portal open. Mentally shrugging it off, I assumed this way would be better for training anyways if I were using that excuse to forgive my density. This was good practice.

250 / 3585

I take the words; it was no secret that I sometimes acted without fully thinking things through. My way was to choo choo through obstacles, I wasn’t a tactician or anything like that. I watch as my sensei steps into the portal first and I follow behind her. After entering into the portal, I arrive in my destination on the other side by the large tree I had leant up against to catch my breath. The portal dissipates after I arrive and then fades away. Walking around, I would look to her and inquire, “okay, which way?” I felt a sense of accomplishment having gotten us both this far; I was sure we would be able to see her people soon and get her back to normal. The panic of her situation had calmed down since it first happened; I no longer felt like the world would come crashing down if we didn’t move fast enough, and on top of that, the sensei seemed to be taking it much better than before as well.

174 / 3759

“Oh?” my question is answered in a much different way that I am expecting as she tells me to sit down. Looking towards where she patted, I pause for a moment almost about to protest “but sensei…” but holding it back with a simple nod of obedience as I answer back, “hai hai…” I walk towards the place where she was sitting, turning as I lower my rear to the ground at her side. Sitting, I make myself comfortable with the tree to my back, one leg cocked up with my arm resting on it and the other stretched straight. “I’m really fine though,” I assure her, “I’m not tired or anything… but if Sensei says so…” I give a sigh as my head comes to the back of the tree behind me as I wonder on her words. “A question?” I mimic while looking diagonally upwards towards the tree tops, “um…” I couldn’t think of any training related questions, so I ask something I had been thinking about. I inquire, “did you tell that cop guy about what happened?”

180 / 3939

Looking towards the sensei, I could tell she was thinking about the cop in a good way. I knew that he must’ve lied and said something like ‘things were going to be okay’ in order to make her feel better. With a sigh and an unconvinced visage, I look to the side away from Izumi-sensei as I remark, “oh.” I did notice that I was the one here and not him; I wondered if that even counted for anything. I had spoken about my girlfriend, but I had no clue where she was, and I was sure that if I went home now, I wouldn’t hear any messages from her. It was my opinion that the cop guy found him a good woman in Izumi and that he should feel lucky about it. I don’t speak much beyond that, I just keep to myself and focus on regaining my stamina since that’s what my teacher wanted me to do. Finally looking back over to her, I ask, “did you have any questions for me?”

174 / 4113

“Really?” I ask turning towards her with an incredulous look on my face. I look around as if trying to collect my thoughts as I murmur, “where… where do I start?” I begin, “he’s the worst type of person. First of all, he’s an asshole who looks down on others with some type of a god complex and he had the nerve to call me weak! I can thrust super beams of fire from my fists! What can he do? He stopped me from saving my childhood friend and wasn’t even close to being nice about it and then every time I see him, he’s got this stick up his ass and spouting shit like…” I do a mock impression of him as I straighten my back and speak as if haughty, “I’m important and you’re a no body, be gone.” I return to my complaining voice as I hold out my hand counting out, “and he treats you like crap and doesn’t value your opinions, he’s always wearing black like some over grown emo, his face looks funny and he thinks he’s better than me…” After that I attempt to think of more, though I had spoken much of my feelings about him.

204 / 4317

In the future realm, Jyn sneezes.

I compose from my rant as my sensei speaks. At first it seems to me that she was making excuses for the guy, but after she talked, I sigh lightly and look to the side. I wondered to myself if I had continued to catch him at bad times. If his job was that important, then he might be under a lot of stress; I could at least understand that much. Trusting more in my sensei then the actual cop, I decided I could at least see if I’m able to see him in a different light. Time would tell with that one; until then he was still pretty much a creep in my book. “Hai hai,” I admit defeat not even daring to go into a debate with a woman about her boyfriend; I knew those to be pyrrhic battles. A bit curious on how he could actually save my teacher, I ask, “but he’s a normal human right? How could someone weak actually save you?” I couldn’t really think of any scenarios where my sensei would need help or could be in danger; I hadn’t found a weak point in her yet.

200 / 4517

“Hm…” I murmur, “That’s convenient.” It was easy to see that regardless of my opinion of the guy, he made her really happy even when he wasn’t here. The fact that she was happy was enough for me, so I wouldn’t have anything else to say to her in defense of my views. My gaze shifts to my sensei for a moment before shifting back to the immediate front and to the forest that surrounded us. I yawn lazily and rest, leaning a bit more against the trunk of the tree behind me. I allowed myself to relax a bit more, figuring that it wasn’t that bad to rest for a while. If I were at home I would probably be lying in bed or on the couch watching television anyway; that was, of course, if I weren’t training or trying to make money somehow.

145 / 4662

For a moment, there is silence between us two. I do not attempt to pick up the conversation as it goes into a lull; instead, my eyes close slightly, in my relaxation, and I take in the soft breeze and smells of the forest. I listen to the environment around me and have a peaceful moment. My eyes open lazily when she speaks again. “Eh?” I shift the tilt of my head towards her. “That’s pretty bad,” I sympathize. I had lost my father at an early age, but I still had my mother to rely on. For her to lose both parents and her family seemed like it would be a pretty traumatic experience. Slightly interested to if there was something or event that caused it to all happen at once, I inquired, “what happened? Was there like a fire or something, or did they have to go fight something evil?” I figured if it were her family, then they could have all been fighting some huge nine tailed creature and perished just before sealing it away in Izumi’s stomach; or something like that… though that might explain her current transformation into something much different than a normal human.

200 / 4862

I find myself drawn in as my sensei portrays the death of her clan. After listening to her, I regard the events as being pretty bad and it was a horrible thing for someone to have to do. To me, it just proved how evil politics really were. Her story did leave me with a question, though; I inquire, “if there were nothing but bodies littered on the ground when you returned, how do you know the entire clan is dead? Couldn’t someone have killed the entire clan and left, or after the clan war, whoever was left ran away from the clan grounds? If you were gone a few years, there’s no telling what could have happened. Kids growing up in the clan could have moved to the city and started a new life there?” Other than not seeing anyone around at the time of her return, I didn’t see anything that solidified that the entire clan was gone without a trace.

163 / 5025

Nodding, I think upon her words. I assumed, “so they didn’t reproduce a lot is what you’re saying. I mean, you were in the hospital for a year… then you went to school and lived with the foster family. All I’m saying is that there might be 301 members in the clan; a member that you don’t know about.” With a shrug, I add, “but if you did that when you were 7, the oldest they could be would be… oh wait… you were in the accident at six and went back when you were seven? Ah, so you only went to school and lived with the foster family for a year…?” Leaning back I look up as I how a 7 year old made it through the forest alone without any special abilities. That was a pretty irresponsible set of parents to allow a child to go missing for the amount of time it takes to get this deep in the forest without teleportation. As far as various techniques went, I assumed she must have had some back then and hadn’t learned all of her techniques recently. “That’s amazing,” I say in a bit of awe, though I was still a little confused about how that whole time line worked out. I would have asked, ‘are you sure that’s right’ to anyone other than my sensei; in the long run, it didn’t really matter. I instead say, “it must’ve been hard on you.”

244 / 5269

“I see…” I say as she speaks a bit more on the foster home. I figured they must be good in idea only as there was no real guarantee to get good parents out of total strangers. With the summary, I give a short, “ah….” It all sounded like a pretty good rebound from a lot of bad things that happened. In an insightful tone, I comment, “I never thought sensei would actually be smart…” As I say this, I gaze off into the woods a bit; she was pretty so I assumed she was either of average or sub intelligence. We never got into any deep discussions, though I was probably the worst person to travel down that road with as I would easily become lost. My life almost sounded normal when compared to hers. Though it was pretty bad, I was sitting here with her because of the bad things that happened in her life. Fate was kind of weird, but then again, it seemed to prove that live goes on when bad things happen and new situations arise out of hopelessness. Even though Sensei was a monster at the moment, this was probably leading to something better.

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