thefarshore | Heaven's BBS

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Heaven's BBS | Text

Posted: May 21st
From: Shuusei Kagari
Location: Temple of Surtr

Is it weird that parts of this feel normal and parts of this feel like a simulation? It's strange and I get uncomfortable thinking about why some things seem really off without me being able to pin point why they are off. Also, realizing I died in what are probably my early 20's sucks.

So on to a more important question! What do shinki do for fun around here? I know there's cooking, cute goddesses and wine but I'm feeling a little boxed in by the weirdness of it all and could use a few more distractions.

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How do you cut something with that?

[Now he's interested. Not just blocking but actually fighting. So far he's got his fists and possibly a hand gun, though he doesn't know how that works on them.]

Cast it through your target.

[Gory? Brutal? Absolutely. It's also highly effective. Hakkai frowns with sudden mild warning.]

-- But don't expect it to kill an ayakashi. They regenerate quickly from anything except attacks from a god wielding a shinki, but it can slow them down.

So we can cut them but can't kill them. That's the gods. At least we can give them something to think about.

[Probably better than fighting monsters with his fists.]

Should I give it a try? Does it just happen or is this one of those "feel the force" kind of things?

Gods and shinki, together. They're as helpless without us as we are without them, in fact.

[Hakkai laughs cheerfully, and adds:]

It helps if you focus on your feelings of wanting to separate something from yourself, to keep it away. It may take you a while to master, though! It's not rare for shinki to need some work before they can cast it successfully.

You know, I wouldn't call my god helpless. At least not to her face.

[Though he gets it, they can't kill ayakashi without shinki, right? She might be able to fight and defend herself but in the end those things are unique.]

Okay, lets see if I'm a magic wiz or something.

[Who knows! Maybe he was amazing at magic. Though he poses like Hakkai and tries to do things the same way, when his finger moves to draw the line nothing happens. He holds the pose, draws the line again. Nothing happens.]

Only as helpless as we are without them.

[Which doesn't have to mean anything about their independent fighting skill... but it does mean that when it comes to ayakashi, there's no way around the need to work together!

Hakkai watches Shuuhei's first few tries: he clearly has the physical technique down (it's not hard) but the mental trick is a bit more challenging to teach. He considers, and holds one finger up, dropping his voice to a creepier register.]

Imagine the most disgusting, repellent thing you can. It's coming towards you. Your borderline has to keep it away.

That's going to take some imagination...

[He tries though, first focusing on something imagined. When the first two tries fails he switches it up. This guy. Hakkai is something else. Capable with magic and some sort of weird monster looking human.

So he focuses on what would happen if Hakkai charged him. He draws the line and for a brief moment the barrier flickers to life.]

Ha!

[Hakkai breaks into an encouraging grin as a functional borderline flickers up for just a moment in the wake of Shuuhei's finger.]

Ah, very well done! Did you feel any difference that time?

A little bit.

[It felt weird. Then again, so did turning into a hand held video game system.]

It helped that I actually wanted to repel something.

[And to avoid offense, time to quickly switch topics as to what that was.]

Do you mind doing me a favor? Try lobbing a rock at me? Like underhand and softly. Like I was a kid or something?

Certainly.

[So the visualization effort worked? Excellent! Hakkai had been half ready to try rushing at him to scare him, or possibly to drag him down to the mortal world and look for a real ayakashi to practice with.

He scouts around his feet, coming up with a smooth, palm-sized rock, and takes several steps back to get enough distance for the barrier.]

Be ready to duck just in case, ha ha!

[He lobs the stone in a gentle underhanded arc.]

[That might have worked, or might have caused a panic! He's still keeping the fact he visualized Hakkai attacking him to make this work though.]

I don't plan to get hit.

[He eyes the rock and waits. When it's in mid air he tries to make a line, and fails. He quickly tries again, and then again, with hectic motions until he gets one to appear.

It slices into the rock, but isn't really all that defined. Half the rock flies at him and pelts him with small pieces while the other destroyed half hits the ground. He throws up his arms a bit too late to deflect the pieces.]

Ow! Ow!

Maybe you should practice a little more before you start trying to block attacks!

[Hakkai squints at his face -- that was quite a lot of flying sharp shards of rock that just hit him. Is he bleeding?]

I hope you're not hurt?

It stings but I'll be fine.

[Lowering his hands, at best he has some scrapes. One drew a little blood but nothing severe.]

So, yeah, don't stick a finger in the path of a borderline or maybe it'll explode. Got it.

[Not really the lesson but whatever.]

Maybe I'll just practice trying to make one appear and not worry about the whole blocking things yet.

That's a good idea. Give it at least a week of practice before you rely on it in a fight! Maybe two.

[Hakkai chuckles: it is good to know what happens to physical objects in the path of a borderline, even if they hadn't been trying to determine that.]

Yeah, until then I'll just have to see how effective I can be at roughing things up the hard way.

[He's still pretty happy he actually did magic. That's step one!]

Did this sort of thing come easy to you?

You should practice in your vessel form with your god, too. I've known some shinki who turned into forms that their god had no idea how to wield, and it's much better to try a few things before you're face to face with an ayakashi.

[Hakkai clears his throat: well, yes, it had come rather easily to him, but then, he's been discovering that borderlines are far from the only magic he can do.]

... I seem to specialize in that kind of thing.

[He curves his hands over one another, in front of his chest, summoning just enough chi to form into a glowing sphere between them.]

So it's possible I had training that I don't remember! Being able to summon a borderline at all in the first session is very impressive.

Oh, I think we have that figured out. Kind of.

[Because he's weird and she is too. He's not sure how Rend even works.]

I'm pretty sure I didn't do magic when I was alive. This borderline stuff feels weird. It wasn't until the first one appeared that I even realized what I had to do to make this sort of work.

Then you'll have to work hard to get used to it!

[Hakkai beams cheerfully at him.]

It's one of our greatest weapons as shinki. Please let me know if you'd like to practice together sometime -- I could use a little work on my aim, too.

Do other weapons work at all or are they pretty useless against the things we fight?

[Like guns. He has a gun. That'd be a better choice in his opinion.]

And I'll definitely be up for more of this.

Physical weapons don't seem to work as well as magical ones, I'm afraid, and even borderlines won't kill them. If you're talking about ayakashi!

[He chuckles softly.]

If you're fighting someone physical, then, of course, any weapon works.

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