Andromeda

“Hello? Good evening!” Ayumi greeted the door in her usual cheerful manner, but quickly changed it when she saw that it was only Yuki. “…It’s you…” She moved out of the way allowing him into the house. “Come in.” Tonight she was wearing a long simple, light green, dress that tied itself in at the waist with her hair down.

The invitation had come from Ayumi, but Yuki still did not feel comfortable about going into another girl’s house alone. He knew Ayumi and there would not be a problem (so he thought), but that was not going to ease his mind. “T-Thank you…” Yuki cautiously entered the house trying to ignore the thoughts of the all of the rumors that he knew about the house. There were stories that the previous owners were connected to Yakuza or some street gangs. They always had trouble, but no one ever managed to see anything. Most people tried to avoid the house as though it was cursed (a monk hired by a neighbor had come to purify the ground five months ago, but met with failure). ‘Do the ghosts of the Yakuza slain here really haunt the grounds?’

Yuki was starting to sweat thinking about unfortunately vivid images of what might have happened to people in the house. He could not stop picturing one wild scene after another of shoot outs and brawls with explosions. It was making his body shake twitching at each sound made, like he was in a haunted house. Yuki turned around quickly hearing the door closing behind him, but found himself face to face with a gun wielding Yakuza ghost with his gun aimed directly at him. “Ghost! …I-It-Its true…” He collapsed to the ground quickly afterwards allowing the ghost to fade away as well.

Ayumi looked down at the dazed Yuki and sighed heavily unable to hold back from sweating in embarrassment. “This is going to be more challenging than I planned…” She walked over to him lifting him up off the ground taking him further into the house.

Chapter 15 – Don’t Think

“…Ugh…” Yuki was slowly returning back to his senses and rose up from the floor that he was resting on. He looked around briefly not taking in the scene, but not remembering it as well. “W-What’s going… the ghost! Where is it? I saw it!” The moments before falling asleep were coming back to him making his body shaking again and his hair vibrate in fear. He started looking around in his attempt to find the ghost, but it was not around nor was the house that he thought he had entered. “Huh?”

“There was no ghost to begin with,” Ayumi said resting in a wooden chair opposite of Yuki in the room. “You made the ghost with your mind. I told you before that have reckless uncontrollable power, this is proof of that fact.”

“Again?” said Yuki with disappointment laced through a sigh upon his realization. ‘Should have figured…’ He stood up starting to look around the room that he was in finding it not to appear very much like the house that he remembered seeing before he fainted. All of the walls were covered in metal with strange patterns carved deeply into the surface forming intersecting circles and arcs. The floor seemed to be made from hardwood panels in direct contrast to the metal. The ceiling matched with the walls along with a massive array of intersecting and concentric circles and a strange language that looked like Latin (Greek!). All of the lights from the room came from the floor cut out of the wood with plastic covers. Yuki tried to judge the size feeling to be like a cube, but knew it was not nearly as tall as it was long. The scale was thrown off by the carvings making it feel smaller than it truly was. All he could tell was that he was certain it was larger than the house making it impossible to fit inside. “Where am I?”

“A room below the house.”

“You mean the basement.”

“No, it is a room below the house. This is not a basement. We are below that.”

“How is that possible?”

“I made this room for the purpose of training you.”

Yuki was still having difficulty grasping the full impact of what that meant. ‘How far underground are we?’ He looked around the room again understanding the scale was probably necessary for what they would possibly be doing during training. “So you’re using your Kasou-ryoku right now then?”

“No, this is not my field. This is space I created with my…power.” The word that Yuki had invented still grated against her making her unwilling to acknowledge it.

Yuki stared back at Ayumi not comprehending what that was supposed to mean. ‘If she’s not using her power, but she created it how does it exist?’ He walked over to the wall reaching it a little sooner than he was expecting. The surface was smooth and polished to his hand as he rubbed the metal. “It’s real, but you created it with your Kasou-ryoku. Does that mean you can make things permanent?”

“No, that is not possible. Everything we create is only an illusion made real. However, what we make can affect the world and alter it permanently. It is only through this method that we can make lasting change.”

Yuki continued to stare at the wall feeling drawn in by it almost. He was amazed by the level of detail that went into her creation for being a simple wall. The carvings seemed to be nothing, but decoration to the metal. “So…you made something…that made this room for you?”

Ayumi walked over to Yuki closing the gap that was between them. She touched the wall as well running her fingers through the carved lines. “Approximately… I created machines to do the work. They made it while I moved in. This room is real and meant only for the purpose of teaching you how to control your powers.”

The explanation still was not sitting with him completely as the illusionary concepts of making something exist through indirect fake means seemed like a contradiction. “Sounds like a loophole to me.”

“In a way. Remember that as long as you find a way within the bounds of the power you can exceed those bounds.”

“That’s pretty cool. This Kasou-ryoku is pretty impressive.”

“In the right hands, however you have a long way to go.”

Yuki turned quickly to look at Ayumi a little annoyed by her continual berating of his inabilities to use his power. She seemed to enjoy reminding him of that fact. He did not know how much longer he could take the picking at him.

Ayumi walked down the edge of the floor dragging her hand against the wall tracing the carvings with her fingers. She came to a stop near the corner turning her gaze down towards Yuki. The distance between them made the size of the room clear for the first time. “Such as the ghost you produced earlier. It’s clear from that you have no control over your power allowing it to manifest at any time. It’s important you learn to control your power to keep it a secret.”

“That’s why I’m here.” Yuki walked away from the wall and towards Ayumi meeting face to face with her. “I’m not here because you told me to come. I’m here because I need to control this power inside me. I’m waking up to dreams made real and fantasies while I’m walking.” He was holding his fist steady at his side recalling what had happened throughout the day to him. He was bringing to life dangerous things and it could be even worse next time. He could create a black hole that ate the entire Earth before he could stop it. The possibilities seemed endless making him wonder why something as serious had not happened before to others. Yuki did not know the limits of the power, if there were even any.

The room was silent for a time left only with stares between the two. There was uncertainty, fear and urgency in his eyes and cold, calculating and judging eyes from her. They were trying to read each other and one had a greater amount of success than the other. Ayumi stepped away from Yuki leaving her back to his eyes until she made it to the center of the room. “Over here.” She turned around facing back to him motioning with her hand to come closer.

‘Is she about to begin teaching me something finally?’ Yuki tried to hold back his eagerness with caution as he walked towards Ayumi. The girl was his only chance at understanding what was happening to him and bringing it under control. He knew that he had little choice, but to deal with her verbal attacks on him (they were accurate as much as he didn’t like admitting it). ‘What she got planned in this underground room?’

“Close enough,” she said needing him to stop where he stepped. They were now a few footsteps away from each other near the center of the room completely devoid of anything aside from the chair she had before. “Lesson 1, the Apati Agros is the most basic-“

“Wa-wait a sec. What? Alpaca’s are gross?”

A vein popped up on Ayumi’s head at Yuki’s comment. She kept her facial features under control, but it was difficult when he was insulting her native language. “It’s Greek. Apati Agros means Illusion Field.”

“Why didn’t you say that before? Why you have to be difficult speaking in a foreign language?”

“I’m giving you proper training. You must understand the basics first and that means knowing the terms.” Ayumi was fighting her building annoyance developed from Yuki inconsiderate words. She knew that this was going to be a trying process from her brief time with him, but he seemed to be purposely doing things to make trouble.

Yuki narrowed his eyes in confusion and frustration finding the idea of learning Greek to be a waste of time. The words sounded weird to him, not even like English which he hardly knew. ‘I hope that she doesn’t make me learn the entire language just for training. I don’t need the words to be able to control this power.’

“I’ll demonstrate to you what the Illusion Field is.” Ayumi closed her eyes and exhaled a breath that suddenly became visible with the drop in temperature around her body. The outline of her body began to glow blue like Yuki had seen before when she was facing down the assassin in the school grounds. A moment later all of the light around her body pushed into the floor and expanded outward beyond her feet. All of the wood floor was replaced by snow ending a large circle around her.

Yuki stepped back in the snow a little surprised hearing it crunch underneath his feet. He was in his shoes still as he realized in the moment and was thankful for that to be the case. He bent down in the snow touching it with his hand and taking some in his hand. It was very cold to touch, but warmed up in his palm until it became liquid. “It’s so real.”

“Yes, this is our power. We make an illusion into reality or a lie into truth. What you see around me is the Illusion Field. When our power is activated an Illusion Field is created as either a reflection of the person’s subconscious or as an intention. Most will allow it to remain subconscious in order to save on mental concentration, but it can be anything you want as well.” Ayumi closed her eyes letting the snow field disappear and the cold air changed immediately to dry scorching heat making Yuki back away until he felt comfortable. When Yuki was out of the field the wood floor erupted into tall flames.

Yuki stared in panic, possibly fear, at the solid column of fire in front of him that glowed brightly in his eyes. He knew that Ayumi was inside and had to be hurting from this. “Ayumi! Ayumi!” There was no reply back to him, but the fire suddenly surrounded him. The heat was in his throat burning the water from his body and scratching his skin. He patted his clothes franticly trying to keep the fire from spreading on him. It felt like the very sweat was being burned from his pores in the heat. It would suck him dry.

The fire had surprisingly disappeared before him leaving only the wood floor again and Ayumi standing in front of him unaffected. Yuki stood straight up while looking around feeling off balance from the experience. “I can make it fire as well if I so wish, but most importantly I can make it real or an illusion. As you can see the snow you could touch and melt, but the fire had all of the properties of fire without any of the physical properties. It was just a very vivid illusion. That is important to remember. The strength of the Illusion Field will depend greatly on your mental state, concentration and strength.”

She turned her field back on bringing the snow back to the ground surrounding her. “As you can see from my Illusion Field it is a complete circle around me. This is the second thing to remember about the fields. It will always be projected around the person at the same distance from all sides. If you look at the field’s size you can estimate the strength of the person. The larger it is the more powerful and skilled they are. Also remember that the closer the distance to the owner of the field the stronger the effects will become while the further way the weaker the effects become. The change can be so much that an attack made close up is lethal while the edge may only scratch you.”

Ayumi stepped away from Yuki making the snow disappear from around him and be revealed behind her. “The last thing to note is that the field remains with you where you move and where it ends is the end of your field of influence. Using my field as an example I can create a sword within this area for me to use.” She raised her up hand and on command a simple weak sword appeared out of the snow held up by the snow. Ayumi picked it up showing it to Yuki. “However, anything I create can’t exist beyond my field, where the snow ends.” She threw the sword straight at Yuki making him panic and dodge out of the way.

He had closed his eyes reacting instinctively to someone throwing a weapon at him. However, when time passed for him and he was not bleeding or in pain from the wound that it would have caused he opened his eyes. He looked around seeing that the sword was gone. “Hey! Ayumi, don’t scare me like that!”

“Hrmph…I was making a point. You were outside my field and thus can’t be affected by my powers. That is the limit we all have. As we move the area we can affect will change and the field is a physical marker of that area. Understand?”

Yuki stared silently for a while taking it all in trying to comprehend all that she had said. Most of what she had told him was close to what he had figured out during his first two battles with the assassins. ‘Hearing it from her is a nice confirmation.’ It meant that he had a long way to go before he could even think about working at the same level as her if this was just the basics. “Yeah, I think so. So the field is a part of our minds as well and something that we control. It follows me where I go to and marks my territory, huh? So it’s Kino then.”

“Kino?”

“It’s my new word for the Illusion Field,” he said cheerful once again proud of coming up with something on the spot. However, the truth be told he had been thinking about it before when he was thinking about the Kasou-ryoku power. “You’re so complicated with your Greek. It should be simple and easy to say. It means about the same thing, but is Japanese.”

“Must you constantly come up with Japanese counterparts to our long tradition?” said Ayumi becoming exasperated with how amused Yuki seemed by his new word. ‘Is he going to keep doing this to me? He’s walking all over our pride.’ She fought back the growing vein that was bulging on her head. Ayumi took a breath and turned her piercing gaze on Yuki. “If you have that much time then why don’t you put that energy to use? Create an Illusion Field.”

Yuki stepped back a little surprised that Ayumi wanted him to make a Kino so soon. He did not know how to do it and watching Ayumi do it did not provide any answers. “Make a Kino? But I don’t know how.”

“Then shut up and listen.” Ayumi stepped forward to Yuki releasing her field as she moved closer to him. “This is all in your mind, for this to work you must clear your mind and focus only on one thing, your field. Remove all stray thoughts or images in your head. Clear out all of the fantasies and dreams. If you have anything in your mind you’ll become distracted and lose focus.”

“Clear my mind? I don’t know…” Yuki closed his eyes after seeing the demanding eyes of Ayumi, that were like a teacher standing over your shoulder wanting to see that you could do the work that was just taught and would not leave until they saw proof. The last image of Ayumi was in Yuki’s mind leaving him unnerved and he could not concentrate correctly. There were too many thoughts and fears running through his mind. ‘I don’t know if that is even possible for me to do. Even when I was holding back all of the ideas to keep from accidentally triggering it I was still thinking of things. It’s impossible for me to remove everything from my mind there’s too many things. I can’t do it!’ He opened his eyes having begun to sweat from the distress that was blanketing him. “…I can’t…” Yuki looked up at Ayumi to see what her reaction would be to his failure.

‘Not surprised. I’d be more surprised if he had been able to do it. He might have a great potential, but there is no refinement to his mind.’ Ayumi closed her eyes as though she was thinking, but her blank expression left no clues to the reality. The room had become eerie during her peaceful break as though it seemed to know and became prepared for what was going to be happening soon.

Yuki stood waiting on what Ayumi would do next. He was hoping for a piece of wisdom that might give him a helpful hint to being able to clear his mind. However, as he waited longer he became uneasy by the change in mood of the environment. He did not know what it meant, but there was something strange, that he was certain of. Yuki took a step forward to reach out for Ayumi stretching his hand out, but stop mid-motion when she snapped her eyes open. “Ayumi?” The look in her eyes was different from before and he did not know what it meant, but there was a chill that went down his spine.

The air in the room became cold quickly turning Yuki’s breath visible. This prelude was the only warning that Yuki had before Ayumi charged blue shortly after turning the area around her to snow. A cloud wrapped around her from the vapors in the air and spun tightly concealing her from view. Yuki’s heart began to pound as his body knew before his mind what was coming. A sword’s blade appeared from the clouds dispersing it in a swing as Ayumi charged forward at Yuki transformed into her battle clothes. “Ayumi, what’s the meaning of this?!”

To be continued…