thenearshore | say my name, say my name

Entry tags:

say my name, say my name

Who: Kurama (

goddessofdance)
What: Mai vs. Kurama's version of the shinki tutorial
When: March 27th, morning
Where: The top of Xochipilli's Garden
Warnings: Possible references to Mai’s death, others to be added as necessary.

[First thing the morning after the cherry blossom viewing, Kurama's up at the top of the pyramid, running through his plan for Mai's first training session. Whoever designed the temple seemed not to have given much thought to what plants should cover it so long as it was green, so the flat stone surface is largely covered in grass too well-manicured to accurately identify.

He doesn't want to waste any time in preparing Mai for what's expected of them. More importantly, he doesn't want to remain unprepared for hazards the white-clad shinki neglected to inform him of, which means Mai will have to be able to take care of herself. All of this will take more than one morning, realistically speaking, but he's confident they can make a good start of it.

Just as soon as she gets up here.]

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[So after a long night at the party, her first duty was to wake up early and attend training. Sure, that was definitely something doable. So she had thought but which then turned out to be a great deal more difficult when it actually came time to do so.

Well, that and she was expected to learn the layout of this place in her sleep.

So she does show up and hopefully not incredibly late; half walking, half running to the meet area with her hair not even combed. Well, nobody else was going to see them anyway, right? And she ran her fingers through a few times, that was good enough to get most of the tangles out.]

Sorry! I got a little bit lost!

[He knows, by now, that human senses work differently from a fox's--the years spent confined to them while recovering his power were truly unpleasant--but some part of Kurama still wonders why she didn't just follow her nose to the stairs.

Regardless, she's here now, so Kurama rises to his feet and gets right to it.]

Not to worry. Today we're starting with the basics, including your new abilities as my shinki. [--Oh, wait, did he ever actually use that word with her? Given his other conversations last night, she may have already run into the word, but he might as well hit that point anyway.] That's your official title while you're in my service, by the way.

Shinki...Ayakashi...

[She nods a little, trying to stay focused. Part of her wonders if perhaps she should have brought a note book with her but she was here now! So she would have to make do.]

Okay! I can remember all of this. So the basics would be...punching things? Or something like that?

Not punching, but you're on the right track. Hold your right hand like this. [He holds his own hand up to demonstrate what he's looking for, thumb holding down his ring finger and pinkie while his extended index and middle fingers press together like they've been tied that way.]

[Well, not starting with violence was a good thing but she wasn't sure where this little instruction was leading to. With a slightly confused expression, she held out her hand, carefully copying the suggested pose. Like pointing at someone but with two fingers instead of one so it wasn't quite as rude. The Disney point.]

And then something magical happens..?

Then you do the next step. [He says it kindly, but firmly; in his experience, you can't afford to get impatient with magic, and he's been told that this technique usually takes some practice.] Bring your hand down to point at the ground in front of you, to your left, and then move it to your right, imagining a straight line forming on the ground.

[Again, he demonstrates. If she has any trouble with this, he'll do his best to make sure it's not on the physical end.]

[This was a little strange. Just what was he expecting out of this anyway? Regardless, she points to the ground using the same gesture that she was shown and tries to imagine a white chalk line while she moves her hand from left to right.

...she waits...

Was there supposed to be something that happens? A puff? A line actually appearing? She raises an eyebrow.]

Is there supposed to be a magic word I have to say?

[On the shows there was always some cute catch phrase yelled out when they do things like this.]

No, no magic word. [Even knowing that some effort would be required, Kurama can't ignore the disappointment: a shinki prodigy would be far more convenient right now. Still, he was prepared for this likelihood, so he keeps his feelings down where they can't be seen and presses on.]

You'll have to practice a bit before anything happens. Right now we're going to work on getting the motion down, so I want you to do it twenty times. Starting now.

[Twenty times. She had to suppress a sigh. They were going to be here for a while. But she was determined and what Mai puts her mind to, she will learn. Even if it takes a few tries. Her eyes change slightly, the same eyes that she had when learning a new dance technique.

Fierce determination. She had that.

With each repetition she moves a little closer to mastering the technique but it isn't until the 18th repetition where there is a spark of something that was supposed to happen. Then by the 20th, a faint glow that quickly faded.]

[Aha. Kurama knows determination when he sees it, so he waits and watches as Mai does what she's been told. The power stirring isn't much, not yet, but he can see now that it's there, and that means they'll have something to work with. He begins speaking again even before the glowing beginnings of a boundary have faded.]

The ayakashi are terrible things. Some of them may look harmless, but their mere touch can weaken an unarmed god or twist a human spirit into a horrid shell of its former self. [His voice is icy, almost vicious as he tries to put Mai in the proper frame of mind for pushing herself farther.] If I'm not there, your boundary is the only thing that can stop it. Imagine what that would feel like, being the only thing between an innocent being and a horrible fate.

[The words coming from her linked God are doing their job much better than maybe he could have thought. With the idea of protecting people and the monsters hurting innocents, Mai draws on some feelings deep down that she didn't realize she had. Buried memories of her home being invaded by Invess. Her friends being turned into monsters and being subsequently killed.

Memories that don't exist in her mind in any form but the emotions that are tied to them still strong. The strong emotions that make up her core feelings. Things about Mai that would never change no matter what else you could try to take from her.

It was the final spurt she needed to create the barrier that he wanted her to learn. Although it had taken more then the 20 repetitions that he had told her to do, and her breath was ragged when she finally achieved her end goal. Although, it was uncertain whether that was from the physical effort or the fact that she felt really strong emotions from somewhere.

Emotions that Mai couldn't account for and wasn't sure what to do with.]

[He'd been expecting to spend days on this, meditating on danger and repeating the gesture to draw a boundary endlessly until it finally took, but it seems Mai has a lot more to her than an unusual death. Her boundary seems strong to Kurama's untrained eye, but it also clearly cost her a lot. Kurama only has so much experience soothing frazzled emotions, so he decides to move them along down the schedule.]

Very good. Next, we're going to address the matter of your new name and form.

[It was most likely going to take a lot more practise for her to be able to draw on this ability without emotionally exhausting herself first. She was a little thankful to move onto the next exercise but also a little wary.

Mai also wanted to know where all those strong emotions came from. She decided that perhaps now wasn't the best time to ask.]

I have to change my name...?

[And not to mention...form? She raises an eyebrow at him.]

[There will be oh, quite a lot of opportunities for Mai to practice drawing boundaries until she can do so with a cool head, and more importantly for Kurama to think of a good way to explain things to her without reviving the kind of memories that might push her over the edge.]

While you work for me, you will have an alias assigned to you which binds us together. That's how I was able to find you to introduce myself last night: we were already bound, so I knew your face to look for it. Does that make sense? [He pauses there, not wanting to confuse Mai with too much information at once.]

[Now that this was being explained, that made more sense. She thinks about that for a moment longer and then smiles. Right then, at least that meant she would never get lost.]

And how you know to come find me if I call you by your name, right? Means I can't do anything suspicious then.

[The smile turns into a slightly cheeky one as she laughs. Not that she would ever do anything suspicious. Really.]

Is the new name already picked? Did you get to pick it...?

[She's on the right track, if not for precisely the right reasons, so Kurama decides they can leave the finer details of her future behavior for another time and forges ahead, still in full instructor mode.]

I picked it for you yesterday, before we met. The kanji for it should be somewhere on your body, but you can look for it later. The important thing right now is that, when I call you by that name, you're going to take on a new form, which in the future you'll take whenever I fight ayakashi.

[For a moment she starts to wonder if all Gods were like this or if she was stuck with one that was permanently like a drill sergeant. Eventually, when she gets to know him better she may need to find ways for him to relax a bit and have a bit of fun with things. That was the best way to learn after all.

But for now, she watches him intently. The sooner she learns these things, the better things would be for the both of them. Well, that was the idea anyway.]

Ah! I think somebody told me that I would find something on my body somewhere. I still..haven't found it.

[Although, she'd really only checked all the obvious places.]

Okay! So as soon as you say my name I'm going to...change somehow?

[Unfortunately for Mai, Kurama's training style can best be described as "relentless", so this is already his version of relaxed. At her question he nods, and holds his hand out as if to receive something.]

It'll be easiest to demonstrate. Your new name is Byouki.

[For just a split second, Mai froze as she heard her name being spoken and then she felt her body become light. Out of panic, she tried to fight what was going on but it wasn't anything she had any control over anyway. It was a strange feeling, one that she couldn't really describe but it felt like her body wasn't hers anymore.

Well, it really wasn't anyway. And within moments she felt herself settle down on that open hand in the form of a golden apple. The apple had no eyes but she could still see...or maybe sense what was going on around her. She couldn't talk but she wondered if maybe she would be able to connect to Kurama.]

This can't be right...I'm supposed to be a weapon, right? Do I have another name?

[It is the bitterest irony, and one Kurama hopes Mai never realizes, that her shinki form should be the same thing that caused her death. As an apple she fits snugly in his hand and is light enough that he thinks he could wield her with little complaint, but what effects would there be on her as a human spirit if he were to use his power to change her into something more useful?

It would be safer not to risk it, and anyway she's supposed to have some sort of special power in this form. Before they can figure that out, however, Mai's voice echoes in his head, and it's clear she needs some assurance.]

Nae is the proper name for changing you back, but I believe your own name will work as well.

[The transformation back was pretty much the reverse of the previous motion but this felt much better. She could move again! Mai couldn't resist stretching her body in a few directions and even dropping down to stretch her legs. Staying still wasn't something she was very good at but it looks like something that she was really going to have to learn in this instance.]

Did you decide that you wanted an...apple as your weapon?

[Kurama shakes his head, pleased to note that Mai seems to be adjusting well so far despite the no doubt utter strangeness of being changed into a piece of fruit.]

Your form was determined by something inherent to you. That it happened to be plant-based when I use plants as weapons is merely an amusing coincidence.

[Plants. You know, just like the ones covering the very pyramid they're at the top of right now.]

[Something inherent to herself. A small frown does cross her features for a few moments as she tries to recall how a golden apple could possibly relate to herself but it was probably for the best that she couldn't remember anything. But she does smile at the next thought.]

How do you fight with plants?

[An excellent distraction, as expected. Kurama reaches up into his hair and pulls out a vine of the white morning glories that grow at the foot of the temple. It curls around his hand and down towards the ground as if under its own power, growing longer and more snakelike with each twist until, mere seconds later, Kurama is holding a smooth, green bullwhip in his hand with flowers scattered at his feet.

It's no rose whip, but it'll do in the meantime.]

I have my ways.

[She's watching him closely, wondering if it was something she could learn herself but the more of a display she's seeing, the harder it seems for her to be able to pick up a skill like this. Especially since he grew his own weapon while just standing there.

It was a magnificent display to watch.]

How did you do that? You can make things grow just by touching them?!

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