"I'm not going to play nursemaid to you," she said as she yanked her hand free of his grip.
He grinned. "But you're so good at washing me."
She avoided meeting his gaze, thinking back to when she had done just that brought a blush to her face.
"Then what else do you want from me?" she said with arms crossed over her chest, trying to put a barrier between them, even a flimsy one.
"I don't want to have to keep worrying about you."
"Then stop, I can take care of myself," she replied, chin held up in her haughtiest pose.
"You can't and that's the problem. You have no sense of self-preservation and you keep putting yourself in danger. And knowing I can do nothing to protect you is driving me insane."
"But I can protect myself. Why can't you see that? I'm just as powerful as Kazue!"
Kaito tried to sit up, winced, and laid back down. "Don't try and become Kazue. You're nothing like her."
His words had a powerful sting and any doubts she had about proving herself to Kaito were dashed in that instant.
She scoffed. "What do you expect me to do? Go hide out in some dusty temple and wait for you? I'm not Kazue. You're right. I'm going to become even stronger than her."
She stood up, looming over him. It felt strange to tower over the dragon in this way. It made her feel powerful.
"Don't be an idiot," Kaito growled but Suzume was already storming away from him.
All he cared about was his precious Kazue. Well he would see how much stronger she could be than Kazue. As she was walking away from Kaito, Rin and Makato returned carrying baskets of greens. When Makato saw her, he raised his hands to wave at her but Suzume walked right past him without acknowledgment.
She retreated into the forest, back to the place with the stones she had found the day they had arrived. She plopped down on the rock with an angry thump. The flames were already flickering across her skin as they often did as of late. Suzume held her hand palm up where a small ball of fire erupted, just like the last time she had tried it.
"Need some help?" Makato asked as he approached her.
Suzume did not respond to him and instead focused on making the ball of flame bigger and bigger. The bigger it got the less defined it was and the more it took out of her.
"You can't maintain this sort of energy," Makato said
Suzume's concentration, which was already flimsy, broke and the ball of flame burst apart, flying in several directions all at once. Makato had to duck to avoid getting hit by a stray beam of fire.
Suzume turned to face him. "What do you want?"
He took a few steps toward her, not backing down, even as she grabbed onto her staff holding it in front of her like a shield.
"You're letting your emotions rule you and it's feeding into your spiritual power."
"Thanks," she said sarcastically.
"Fire burns out of control if you let it. And since your soul has an abundance of fire it influences your temper, and you're quicker to anger as a result."
"Great. You can go now." She waved her hand indicating he should leave. She planned on practicing alone.
"I can teach you how to harness your power."
"I don't need your help."
"Try and use your power against me then."
"Are you crazy? If I try to burn you then I get hurt."
"I know, but just humor me."
Since she was in need of some stress release, she decided why not. Once again Suzume created a ball of fire, one smaller than the last no matter how hard she tried to form it large. Makato stood, waiting patiently while she formed it into a ball.
"Ready?" she asked.
He had no weapons or shields but nodded. She really hoped he was going to block her attack before they both got hurt. Just in case, Suzume angled her blow to somewhere that would inflict the least amount of pain on him.
She flung the fire ball at his legs, and then closed her eyes waiting for the recoil. Instead of being struck, she looked up to see a shield surrounding Makato. It was similar to the one that had come to Suzume reflexively.
"Try again," Makato said, dropping the shield.
"I can make a shield too. That's nothing special."
He only smiled and gestured for her to show him. But the shield was one thing she still couldn't manage on her own. Despite her lack of belief in her ability, she tried anyway. She squinted her face hard and tried to visualize a shield around her, but try as she might, nothing appeared.
"I don't want to do it," she said after a few minutes of fruitless effort.
Makato made no comment and then said, "How about you make another fire ball?"
Since she knew she could do that she went to work, but this third one was even smaller than the rest, hardly encompassing her palm. When she flung it at Makato this time it dissipated into a puff of smoke before it ever reached him.
"You're not channeling your power in the most effective way," he said.
"I'll learn eventually."
He shook his head. "You need to learn how to control your spiritual energy first. I can teach you. If you'll allow me."
He held out his hand to her. She still didn't want to trust him, but at the same time Kaito's words haunted her. Telling her to give up on obtaining Kazue's power. Perhaps this was the only way to get what she wanted.
She took Makato's hand. "When do we start?"
23
No person should ever be forced awake before the sun had even risen. And despite this obvious rule, in the dark of the early morning, Suzume was shaken awake.
She grumbled an incoherent rebuke and rolled back over, pulling her blanket tighter around her. Being conscious at this hour should be a crime against humanity.
"Suzume, wake up. It's time for training." Makato nudged her again.
Suzume swatted his hand away. "It's not even morning yet. Besides, Tsuki and Akira know I don't do mornings."
"Your training isn't with Tsuki and Akira."
Suzume grumbled low in her throat once more, before rolling onto her back and staring up at the priest who was grinning down at her. How was it even possible for someone to be this chipper in the morning?
"Who is it with then?" she asked, her voice still thick with sleep.
"With me."
Suzume blinked at him, unable to process what he was trying to say to her.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"You want better control over your power, right?"
Suzume groaned. Couldn't he take a hint? "Sure, when the sun is actually up," she mumbled, half asleep.
"The stillness of the early morning is best for what we're going to learn today."
Suzume didn't respond, hoping he would catch the hint again leave. He sat there for a few more moments before she heard his footsteps recede. Just as she sunk into a deep sleep, she was jerked awake with a splash of cold water.
Suzume shot up with an oath and looked over to Makato who was holding a bucket now overturned and empty.
"What was that?"
"In the temple, this is how we woke new recruits who overslept."
"I didn't sign up for this."
"But you do need to learn to control your emotions, and this helps with our first lesson." He grinned.
She did not have an adequate response. Suzume opened and closed her mouth, trying to fight the impulse to shout. "Why does training have to be in the morning, and now wet..." She held up her dripping sleeve and sighed.
On the horizon she could see the faintest glimmer of sunrise, just a smudge of lighter blue against the deep blue of night, giving way to day. The sun wouldn't pass beyond the mountaintops for hours most likely.
"Will you be needing more water to wake?" he asked.
She exhaled heavily. "Are you sure you weren't sent just to torture me?"
He grinned again as he held out his hand for her to take. Suzume sighed and accepted the gesture. He pulled her into a sitting position and she insisted on a change of clothes
at least, which meant going into the shrine building and shivering as she exchanged wet clothes for dry ones. She was fully awake by the time she met Makato outside the shrine building, though her mind felt sluggish.
Makato headed toward the edge of the barrier that protected their camp. Suzume looked to Noaki and Rin who were on guard duty. Somehow he had gained an uneasy trust within the group, and they didn't question them as they passed.
As for the dragon, she had not seen anything of him since their last argument. She was simultaneously relieved and concerned. She didn't want another confrontation but Kaito wasn't acting like himself. A part of her wanted to talk to him, but having a rational conversation with Kaito was out of the question. If she even made the smallest inquiry into his wellbeing, he would turn it around on her and accuse her of having feelings for him.
He was the one who was confused. She knew exactly how she felt about him.
"Are you coming?" Makato asked. She had not even realized it but she was staring at the old shrine building.
"Yeah, I thought I had something in my sandal." She marched over to him.
"Do you want to get it out?"
"What?"
"The thing that was in your sandal." Makato nodded toward her feet.
Suzume shook her head. "Oh, no I got it already. Let's go." She half jogged down the path in front of him before he thought to ask her why she had been staring at the building where Kaito was. She had to stop after a couple feet, because she wasn't sure where they were supposed to be going. Makato took the lead instead and led her down a small path directly behind the shrine building. They did not go far before they came upon a ring of stones, each one ringed with a rope and faded folded papers hanging from them, and the ground in the center of the circle had a soft covering of grass illuminated from above by the dim morning light. Orbs of light bobbed up and down in the clearing, spinning around one another in a complicated dance.
There was a break in the canopy of trees overhead and during the day this place would be full of sunlight. But these things moved like enormous fireflies fluttering to and fro. As she approached the space she felt a tingle of energy roll down her spine. Just as she had when she first approached the shrine which held Kaito.
Suzume hesitated at the border of the ring of stones. "What are those?" she asked, staring at the strange moving lights.
"They're hinotama. They're harmless."
"Why did you bring me here?"
"This place was once ruled by a Kami, so it is a holy place. Somewhere you can harness your energy without outside influence."
She did not want to go nearer to it. She had a bad history with magical places. Who knew what she might unleash if she got too close? Maybe those bobbing lights would decide she was delicious and try to strip the flesh from her bones.
"What happened to the Kami?" she asked.
Makato looked around at the space. "I cannot say, but judging from the state of the shrine building, it is likely the worshipers have disappeared, and with it the Kami's power has faded. All that remain are these." He gestured toward the hinotama, which had stopped bobbing and instead were very still. They had no faces but Suzume imagined them staring at her.
"Or maybe someone sealed it..." Suzume thought of the roadside shrine where she had accidentally unleashed the Kami who agreed to grant her wish.
Makato shook his head. "Even if that were the case, it is gone from this place. You do not have to fear it."
"I'm not afraid of this place. I'm afraid of what I might do without meaning to."
He held out his hand to her. "Then this is a good place to start learning. You cannot control something without understanding it first."
"I get the general idea. I focus my energy and then balls of fire come out of my hands." Suzume presented the palms of her hands as if they would burst into flames at any moment.
"To put it simply." He smiled. "But the energy does not only come from within, but the world around you." He gestured to the ring of stones.
"I don't want to use a dead Kami's energy," Suzume said and took a step back. That had to be just as bad, if not worse than what Kazue did when she hunted down and absorbed the energy of yokai and Kami alike.
"You're not going to use that." He laughed, kindly. "Fire can be found even in the rays of the sun as well as the glowing coals of the hearth. Since the sun is less innocuous I thought we could start with trying to harness the sun's power."
Suzume sighed heavily. "What is it I have to do then?"
"First step is coming into the circle."
She looked at the ring of stones as if they would jump up and bite her. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and stepped into the middle. The energy along her arms crackled as the fire inside her reacted to whatever residual energy had been left behind by the Kami, or maybe it was the glowing orbs who hovered around the perimeter but did not leave. She stood just on the edge, close enough to leap out in case anything went awry.
She stood there with eyes closed for a few minutes, before peeking out beneath her eyelids to see Makato smiling back at her.
"See, nothing happened."
Suzume released the breath she had been holding and joined Makato at the center of the circle.
"Take a seat." He motioned for her to sit.
Suzume sat facing him, kneeling as she would have back at the palace. Makato took a similar position.
"I talked to Akira, and she explained you had some basic training. You know the different sources of energy in the body?"
"Sure, and you can teach me how to better harness it? Can you teach me how to do that clone trick?"
"In time, but first you need to master the basics. Can you tell me what are the centers of energy?"
"I already know them, why are we wasting time on this?"
"Because it's important." He gestured for her to continue.
She rolled her eyes to stretch out the minute. To be honest she had forgotten most of them. She had only been worried about where her fire would be coming from. "The head, the hands..." She gestured vaguely to the rest of her body. "They're all over."
It was Makato's turn to sigh. "They go like this, head, heart, stomach, hands and feet. They all have their special purpose and meaning and each one is a gateway for your energy."
"Yeah, that was it."
Makato crossed his arms over his chest. "The reason I bring up your energy points is because you need to learn to manually open and close these gateways in order to better channel your power."
Suzume nodded. "I've done that..." sort of. Akira had taught her a method of imagining a series of dams in her body that could be opened and closed to redirect energy from her core to her hands and create fire. But the problem was as soon as she lost her concentration, the dams all opened again. Hence her ability was unreliable at best.
"Show me," Makato said with a wave of his hand. "Draw energy from the sun."
A pale shaft of sunlight was falling on her face and she tipped her head upward. She tried to imagine her face absorbing the energy into her.
"Now breathe in the energy, let it flow through you," Makato said, his voice was low and almost hypnotic.
She sniffed, the only thing she felt was an itch on the tip of her nose. But she did as Makato said and took a few deep breaths. She didn't feel anything. She peeked her eyes open and looked around the clearing. She did feel like her mind was clearer and less tired. Was that the sun's energy? "I think it’s working," she said excitedly.
"All energy flows into each other. Being what you are and sitting in this place, your body draws the energy into you."
"Do you draw energy from the sun too?"
He shook his head. "I've always been drawn to the earth and stone. It wasn't until I met you that I realized why."
"Is that why you can make those vine walls?" Her voice echoed back at her in the stillness of the space.
Makato gave a slow smile. "Yes, but that came with years of practice with my spiritual powers."
; Suzume crossed her arms over her chest and huffed. She didn't have years to practice, she needed to stop Hisato now.
"For now, let’s just focus on finding your center."
Suzume closed her eyes and focused on the energy inside her, she could feel the flame deep within her, that flickering spark that Kazue had given her. If Makato could easily learn to control his power, surely she could too. She was as much a part of Kazue as him.
But before she could even finish focusing on closing even one 'gateway' to make a fireball, she was smacked hard across the back of her skull. Suzume's eyes flashed open and her temper flared. The energy she brushed against rushed to the surface and a burning ball of fire sparked and danced across her skin. The energy around her in the previously peaceful clearing pushed against her fire and she felt it push against her as if trying to repel her from the clearing. But the power was not strong enough to actually force her to move. It felt more like an annoying buzzing insect instead of a real threat.
"What did you do that for?"
"To prove a point. You have no separation from your emotions. Your gateways are wide open."
"I was in the middle of channeling my energy when you hit me!"
"And do you really think your enemy is going to wait for you to finish before attacking you?"
She crossed her arms over her chest in response, "That's why I need you to teach me how to get control of it!"
"Then learn to control your emotions."
"What do you suggest then?" She threw her hands up in exasperation. The energy in the clearing felt like a hive of angry insects now. Her skin prickled as if she was being poked with a needle in a thousand different places.
"First you need to start by letting go of your anger over me hitting you."
"What makes you think I am angry at you?"
He gestured to the flames that danced around her and a cluster of golden lights that were hovering around her. They were nearly transparent in the gray early morning light. If she hadn't been so angry about him hitting her, she might have stopped to admire their beauty. One of the golden flecks of light came over and landed on her arm where she felt a sharp pain like a sting.
The Sea Stone Page 17