[8] Group Angels - Watchtower

[Reijin]

Reijin?s cheeks twisted up slightly as he shook his head quickly. Looking a bit downcast, he spoke up. ?Nah? I think I have some things I need to take care of before we get too much further into this. Nice display though.? Without giving the green fighter or the others a chance to respond, he spun around and immediately walked back inside the primary room. Something about the patterns that he had seen in Kami?s aura was agitating him, and the funniest part was that he had no idea why.

He hated to admit it, but something within him was telling him that it was time for him to complete his Gaean training. ?That?s impossible though?? he whispered. He had killed Kasumi, and none of the other Gaeans, if there were any, even knew of him. He let out a slightly ironic snort of disgust. If they had heard of him from the people of Yardrat, then they would probably know of his deed. No? He would have to finish learning the Gaean style on his own, he presumed. It was much more graceful and accurate than the brute force of a Saiyan warrior that he had been taught from birth. To perfect his skills as a warrior, he would go to a large amount of stress and pain to complete his trainings.

So where had he strayed? He couldn?t quite pinpoint when, but somewhere along this journey, he realized that some of his actions had still been an automatic reaction of the Saiyan within him. Proud as he may be, one thing that he felt needed to be improved upon with his blood race was the animosity and bloodlust that they thrived upon. Calculation, strategy, tactics? That would lead them to the new height of their prime. The needless bloodshed and unprecedented aggression that they strove for was going to only lead them down a similar path as pacifistic weakness. They were born to rule the stars, and he could not watch them fail through their own arrogance.

This was his stance as a warrior. This was his law.

His eyes automatically focused on a long wave of hair and Reijin snapped out of his small daydream slightly. He saw that Raditzu had joined them, walking through the crowd half naked as if this were a college dorm party and he was the main star. His lips curled up distastefully as the Saiyan waved at him. ?Yo!? he said, sounding more and more human as every day passed.

Reijin looked up to notice the long haired Saiyan waving at him innocently. He stopped a couple steps away from Rad. Giving a smirk as he crossed his arms, his sarcasm couldn't have gone unnoticed by the deaf. "Well well... How's Bojack doing?" he asked snidely.

As if the darkest storm clouds could not darken his day, he responded very cheerfully with the gravest of answers, creating a humorous response. ?Oh? he?s dead. The back of his head is plastered against the ground somewhere. It was a pretty good shot, actually,? he beamed. Something in his personality conveyed that he was not actually happy that his new teammate had been killed, but just that he wasn?t very serious about it. He was really never serious about anything, as far as Reijin had seen.

?Oh.? Reijin couldn?t really think of anything else to say to such a heartwarming answer. He found himself slightly disappointed that he could not have done the deed himself, but knowing the way people always seemed to return from the land of the dead, whether they be warriors, angels, or fallen angels turned demon, it didn?t bother him so much. He had other things to bother with, honestly. ?Well that?s a shame. Now, if you?ll excuse me,? he found himself saying emotionlessly. Normally he wouldn?t even bother with such trivial formalities at a time like this, but he cared very little at the moment.

Forgetting the half naked - and somehow glowing without using his Ki - Saiyan, Reijin continued to survey the room in hopes of finding the watchman. Mere seconds later found him a path directly to the older sage, who was still warmly greeting the warriors as they were compelled into sanctuary within the tower. He immediately turned to Reijin, and gave him an affectionate smile. ?Ah, Reijin. You wish to practice your skills somewhere quiet, do you??

Somewhat unsurprised after all that he had seen, he simply nodded. ?Of course.? His voice was no longer as raspy as it had been before, to his surprise. He hadn?t taken a moment to notice it before. The older man nodded in response to him, and waved his staff flourishingly, and without reason Reijin suspected, and Reijin suddenly found himself to be surrounded by pitch black darkness.

Once more in the quiet serenity of the cellar practice room, the Saiyan sat down and crossed his legs before him. What was it that she had told him before? Something about this particularly power not coming from within, but from without. He was puzzled even still. How could one control power from around them without controlling power within them?

He closed his eyes by sheer habit in the jet darkness, and touched his thumbs and forefingers together as he laid his hands in his lap, setting himself into a meditative state. His eyes were still twitching from his subconscious activity within his muscles, and he had to keep himself from struggling to get his muscles to calm down, as struggling was never the method. One could only cease the erratic spasms of one?s muscular structure once they had relaxed completely and given themselves over to the movements of one?s body. Only afterwards would they find themselves in a complete state of relaxation.

Reijin knew the meditative steps perfectly, and moved through each step with the graceful ease of a professional. He was very much experienced in such matters, so it was no problem for him to enter the state? The difficult part was what often came afterwards. He?d need hours to perfect even the slightest detail, if this was going to be anything near as tough as he expected it to be. Although he?d also learned that by assuming it was going to be more difficult than you first had impressed upon you, you?ve made things ten times harder.

Naturally, his Ki flow expanded around him, reaching out and grasping into the nothingness in an attempt to bring definition to the world around him. He realized suddenly that he felt a very distinguishable, yet suppressed Ki field inside of a figure a distance away from him. Without opening his eyes, he acknowledged her presence. ?Akira.?

He heard footsteps lightly began to walk forward, and felt each step thunderously as it sent a shockwave of energy rippling outwards throughout his expanse of Ki. Each step ricocheted and propelled at him with great force, despite his knowledge that her steps were light as a feather upon the wind. Such was the sensitivity of his technique. After a moment, he felt her stop before him and then assume a seated position as well. Without opening his eyes or interrupting his trained meditation, he continued his practice. She did not seem to wish to disturb him, and for that, he mentally thanked her.

He was primarily seeking self searching, to find reasons behind things and to collect his thoughts from the events that had been encountered, and those that would shortly follow. He had quite the range of abilities that he?d found himself adorned with, but none of which he had actually found the expert necessary to enhance his ability with. He could only assume that such abilities must be mastered himself, through hard work and introspection.

He finally allowed a slight tingling sensation to enter into both of his palms, originating at the various charka points that were arrayed down the lengths of his arms. A cool wave of blue energy lightly wisped along his arms, translucent to any that might be watching, until it began to coalesce within the circular formation of his resting palms. A small spiral of energy began to gather, spreading into a small sphere of Ki energy that began to spark erratically. After a moment of stone faced calm, the energy calmed down and returned to its nearly liquid formation until a small trickle of energy spread out from it. Using the smallest fragment of energy that he could imagine, he shaped it into the shape of a lock-pick, sliding the fragmented Ki threw the air until he realized that he could feel the elections in the air itself.

Slightly enamored by his new discovery, he realized that on a level even smaller than his Ki stream, he could feel the detailed atoms themselves moving around on the tiniest of molecular levels within his grasp, but only in specified areas that he could create pinpoint sharpened Ki strings in. He felt himself growing greatly strained from the control, and he began to feel himself sort of cramp up mentally. It was a strange sensation, and Reijin presumed that it was due to using a method that he did not normally use, which was similar to a motion on a rarely used muscle.

His breathing continued as the pendulum would swing, until after a moment, he calmly opened his eyes and stared directly into the deep blue eyes of Akira Dezmon. She was smiling at him. He continued to stare at her for a moment before his own pride finally got the best of him, and he broke into a return smile. She then winked at him. ?You are own your way to getting what I meant by it being a power that did not come from within.?

His eyes twisted into a curious gaze as he pondered her words. ?I can?t really control the atoms around me though? They are too small for even my Ki to manipulate.?

Without giving him a definitive answer, she turned onto her side and fell sideways onto him, startling him a bit as she rested her head calmly in his lap. She rolled over onto her back and gazed up into his eyes. ?Don?t limit yourself by assumptions of what you can?t do, when you yourself do not know what you are capable of.? She then closed her eyes contently as she rested in his lap.

He looked at her awkwardly and finally allowed his gaze to trail off into the distance. He began to focus on something that wasn?t quite there before he finally spoke. ?Someone once told me that in the past. You would think that as trained as I am that I would not allow myself to submit to failure by now, and yet I still do it occasionally without realizing it. How many mistakes have I made without realizing them, completely bypassing the opportunity to grow and learn from them?? He wasn?t exactly talking to her, but something told him that she was taking it all in. He was questioning himself, and then as suddenly he realized that someone else was within the room. He almost never showed any kind of self doubt about himself. It was unnatural for a Saiyan. It was a sign of weakness, he?d been taught. He had accepted such things as a principle to learn from, however, but that did not make it easy to open up in front of another.

Suddenly, his eyes shot down to see Akira once more gazing intently into his own. Ridding himself of any preamble, he cut to the point. ?Why are you so? trusting and comfortable around me? You just seem to have instantly accepted me, and I?ve given you no reason to believe that I will not simply kill you the moment it strikes me to do so.? His eyes seemed to flash in anger a bit as he spoke.

She simply continued smiling at him as if she had no change in her initial opinion and whispered to him cleanly. ?I am usually good at judging people. I know inside how people really are, and their intentions.? She watched as his chest rose out a bit as he drew in a breath, looking off into the distance again and once more taking a serious facial expression.

?Yeah,? he trailed off. ?How did the Brim thing happen, anyways?? He looked down at her as she suddenly stirred, sitting back up and then sliding back into his arms. The moment he saw her slide back against his chest, his arms unconsciously just spread outwards and he held them there, not sure where he should put them. Finally, she reached both of her arms out to the side and grabbed his hands, curving them around her waste to rest in her lap so that he was holding her.

She could feel him slightly uneasy, but her mood had shifted. She was now looking at the ground and began to casually draw a formation along the ground between her legs with her finger. After a couple of seconds of uneasy silence, she spoke once more. ?He caught me off guard.? She let out a breath of air. ?I don?t really remember much, honestly. It was one of those things where I looked up and saw him, and I knew something wasn?t right, but before even I could do anything, I blacked out. Everything after I blacked out? It?s like a memory, and yet not my own.?

Reijin nodded, holding her tightly now for comfort. ?I guess I can see that. That wouldn?t really be your fault, honestly. Sometimes things happen. You can?t learn from them otherwise. Besides, you had Katel.?

She turned her head and looked over her shoulder at him smiling with sad eyes. ?Yeah. If it wasn?t for my sister?s determination and resolve, I don?t know what would have happened to me.?

He smiled back at her. ?Well, don?t think about that. It didn?t happen, and I assure you that it won?t. I?m pretty sure that you won?t fall for whatever happened again. If you see Brim again, make sure you return the favor. You sure as hell scorched me pretty good.?

She giggled a bit at that, and then gave him a slightly surprised look from against his chest. ?Did you just make a joke? You don?t really seem like the type of person that would open up or make a joke or anything. You seem like just a straightforward fighter guy.?

He shrugged somewhat from behind her. ?Don?t get used to it. I?m not really opening up, it?s just hard to explain. And the sarcasm? Well, its like the only form of humor most Saiyans know.? He felt weird, holding her like this. Like he was comforted as well, in a strange way. Part of him missed Videl once more, greatly. The other part was simply satisfied that he was once more able to give back as opposed to simply taking away from others, always playing the part of the cold blooded killer.

She rustled against his chest and rolled to her feet, turning around and grabbing him by the hand. Pulling him to his feet, she turned around to lead him back out of the room. ?Come on, we should probably get going. We?ve been down here a long time, and we need to check on this war before I try to let you work on that fire anymore.? She led him by the hand through the sheer darkness until she came to a hidden stairwell against the blackest corner of the room. He silently followed as she led him up the stairway back to the first floor of the main room?