Chương 29: Of Gods and Men

Kurisu followed Kenji into the tree line, leaving the campfire's diminishing light behind them, his footfalls remaining perfectly silent against the dry pine needles a dozen paces back. As he kicked a stray pinecone into the brush, Kenji glared up at the canopy and muttered, "You don't have to follow me. I'm just getting some air."

"You are lost," Kurisu stated.

"I know exactly where the camp is," Kenji shot back, leaning his shoulders against a tree trunk.

"Your heart is," Kurisu corrected.

"You lack faith in the divine."

"Yeah, no kidding," Kenji snapped, crossing his arms.

"Look, we don't do the shrine thing. Sure, we go to church most Sundays, but I don't buy it. Believing in gods, angels, and divine plans is all a joke." He dragged a heel through the dirt, his voice tightening.

"If there really is some big guy upstairs running the show, why do good people get screwed over constantly? People always say 'God never gives you more than you can handle,' but that's total bullshit. People break every single day."

"The deities of which you speak are real, at least from the identities I've gathered thus far," Kurisu answered. With a step closer, Kurisu kept his gaze level.

"And, exactly as you claim, they abandon men. They were once mortals, just as we are." Kenji snorted, leaning off the trunk.

"So you're telling me the creator of the universe is just... some guy who got really strong?" Kurisu nodded.

"Just so, beings who began no different than you or I. If the histories are to be believed, they attained the power to forge worlds." He paused, allowing the app to finish translating the thought before shifting his focus to the teenager's energy.

"Now, regarding the Ki within your Tanden. It is simply power inherited from those who walked the path before us."

"So this Holy energy..." Kenji dropped his arms, tilting his head.

"It isn't a blessing?"

"No. A blessing is a sign of a kami's favor," Kurisu answered.

"When a deity bestows a blessing, their specific presence persistently lingers around the recipient. You carry no such presence. Therefore, I am certain it is a matter of bloodline."

"Yeah, you said something about descent earlier," Kenji said, holding up his hands.

"But I came from two regular humans. How is it my bloodline? Wait. Are you saying gods and angels actually... um, have sex and stuff? Like Zeus?" In a brief moment of dumbfounded silence, Kurisu stared at the teenager before chuckling at the underlying assumption.

"Indeed, Zeus is particularly known for his promiscuity," he replied.

"Not all of them are quite so flagrant, but yes. How else would you expect them to sire offspring? Having transcended the need for physical forms, they give birth to souls directly. Those souls can lie dormant within a human bloodline for generations." While staring wide-eyed at the older boy, Kenji pointed a finger at him.

"Wait. Did you just laugh? Did you seriously just crack a smile? That's twice now, maybe you're not a robot after all!" After clearing his throat, Kurisu fanned his hand, waving off the pointing finger.

"Yes, yes. Do not grow accustomed to it."

"Wait, so how do they actually do it?" Kenji asked, lowering his hand.

"How do gods put their kids, the ones made out of spirits, inside of a physical human?" Kurisu shrugged.

"Who is to say? Gods doing as gods do. From whence it came does not matter. Seiki is a tool and it is yours now. The universe holds no strings to puppet us; there are only reactions, and you must shape that reaction." When he slid down the trunk to sit in the dirt, Kenji shook his head.

"Yeah, well, shaping it's going to be a problem. How am I supposed to master this Holy energy when my teacher throws lightning bolts? You can't even use this element." As he stepped into the moonlight, Kurisu extended his right hand.

"I actually possess all elemental affinities. It is simply a matter of preference that leads me to utilize Raiki more often than the others." Kenji paused, staring at the samurai's upturned hand.

"Wait. You can use it? Are you an angel too?"

"Oh, no, certainly not," Kurisu answered with a shake of his head.

"I do not carry that bloodline. But by blending Zenki and Kōki, one can forge Seiki as well."

"Wait, so is it possible I was just born able to use all of them like you?" Kenji asked.

"Or at least mix Light and that 'All-Energy' into this Holy stuff?"

"It is not impossible," Kurisu conceded with a tilt of his head.

"But if you possessed all seven elemental affinities, you would be only the third person of whom I have ever known. One is myself, and the other is an immortal who binds them to create the void. In contrast, there were no less than twenty people on the grounds of my family's estate who wielded the Seiki element. Therefore, a dormant divine bloodline is far more likely." As he crashed through the dry brush, Ace bulldozed into their secluded pocket of the woods, Kellevra trailing just a step behind him.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Seven elements?" Ace interrupted, waving his hands to halt the conversation.

"Come on, dude. You can't just drop lore like that and then not expand on it." After releasing a slow breath through his nose, his lips pressed together in a flat line, Kurisu pinched the bridge of his nose.

"That is irrelevant to you." If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Don't care," Ace countered, crossing his arms.

"List 'em." His hand dropping, almost in a shrug, Kurisu yielded to the disruption.

"Kaki, Suiki, Fūki, Doki, Kōki, Anki... and Zenki," he rattled off. Kenji frowned.

"Is there a way you can just... check? Like, detect if I have all the elements waiting in there?"

"No," Kurisu answered.

"The elements awaken when they choose to awaken, not before. Looking inside a soul to determine what lies dormant remains impossible. Detecting a Suiki or Zenki affinity within you right now would yield nothing. Currently, you have only awakened to Kaki, Kōki, and Seiki."

"But you use lightning," Kellevra pointed out, stepping up beside his brother.

"Where does that fit in? You left it off the list."

"My Raiki is an advanced form of Fūki," Kurisu explained, shifting his focus to the youngest brother.

"However, it can also be created by mixing Fūki and Kaki. Many elements are formed by deepening one's training in a base affinity, or by blending multiple affinities together. That is quite literally how everything in the world is constructed." With a flare of his Tanden, Kurisu routed Ki through his Keiraku, water, stone, flame, and wind spiraling from his palm. Nudging Ace with an elbow, Kenji deepened his voice into a mocking, theatrical boom.

"In the palm of my hand, I hold—""A tiny lightning storm?" Kurisu interrupted, sparking a web of electricity into the vortex.

"Way to undercut it, dude," Kenji said dryly, shaking his head with a sigh. With the components gathered, the forces fused into a brilliant, silver-white pillar of energy, illuminating the surrounding pines.

"This is Zenki," Kurisu stated. Ace frowned, squinting at the glowing pillar.

"The app just translated that as 'All-Energy.' That sounds kind of lame. What's the actual English word for it?"

"It is the convergence of the material elements," Kurisu explained.

"The foundation. It is widely considered the source of life, but conversely, the root of un-life as well. When blended with other Ki, it facilitates the mending of flesh just as readily as it animates the dead." Holding up his hands, Kenji shook his head.

"Hold on. Time out. Ki healing now? We already have Chi for finger-pulping healing, and Shin does the slower hand-sign stuff. Why do we need three different ways to heal?"

"On a battlefield, one would be fortunate to possess even a single method, let alone three," Kurisu answered.

"They serve fundamentally different purposes. Saiki, the art of healing oneself with Chi, forces the body to rapidly overwrite its own wounds. Because it burns your very life force to do so, that vitality must eventually be replenished by drawing Chi from something or someone else."

"It is an immediate, desperate measure," he continued.

"Furthermore, it cannot restore what the body has already accepted as normal, such as a long-healed stump or a sickness of the blood, and reforming a missing limb would cost lifetimes of energy."

"Shin, conversely, takes tremendous time. It is ideal for the precise mending of bone and the quiet withering brought on by starvation, but it cannot replace missing flesh. If an arm is mostly severed, Shin will merely seal the stump."

"But Zenki..." He gestured to the silver-white light.

"This utilizes the elements to literally forge and reinvigorate flesh. It requires immense study to wield correctly, but those born with this affinity often choose to walk the path of the healer." Ace pointed at the pillar.

"Wait, go back to the un-life thing. You mean actual necromancy? Like, zombies?"

"Or what about Phoenix Downs?" Kellevra asked, his eyes going wide.

"Can it actually resurrect people? What about you, can you do it? The healing, I mean."

"As for my own capabilities, I had only just begun to practice the mending of flora. My studies were cut short due to my life's abrupt... interruption." Lowering his hand slightly, he let the pillar's glare wash over his features.

"Regarding your questions of revival, a secret all seem wont to seek. If a warrior's heart halts on the battlefield, but their spirit has not yet severed its tether to their body, this energy may allow them to awaken. But once the soul departs, it is gone. No art in this world can resurrect the dead. Shi wa shi no mama nari. Death is as death is. Do not confuse the two. The profane arts merely puppeteer empty meat." Kellevra shivered, rubbing his arms.

"Gross."

"Good to know. So... back on topic, what are we calling this base Ki, Foundation Ki?" Kenji asked, wrinkling his nose as he looked back at the pillar.

"Fat chance!"

"What about Divine?" Kellevra offered.

"All the elements combined sounds pretty god-tier, plus isn't that how it's done in some video games?"

"No, it can't be Divine," Kenji argued. He gestured toward his own silver hair.

"He just said Seiki is the divine stuff, so this Zenki's got to be something else, since it's kind of like the primary building block." With a snap of his fingers, Ace pointed at Kenji.

"Primary. Prime. It's the Prime element." Kenji slowly nodded.

"Prime. Yeah, I can live with Prime." Kurisu watched the humans debate their own linguistics, waiting for them to finish before continuing the demonstration.

"And when mixed with Kōki, it becomes this." Upon injecting a concentrated stream of Kōki into the construct, Kurisu shifted the fusion. Within the flare of the silver-white pillar, the base elements morphed to solidify into a blinding light, bathing the clearing in a golden aura.

"Certain constructs align naturally with specific energy, making them highly efficient," Kurisu explained.

"Seiki is the optimal state for a demon-breaking strike, but as always, form is dictated by intent, so watch." Kurisu looked back to ensure Kenji was paying attention. With a nod, he stretched the golden energy into the long shaft of a bow, spread his feet shoulder-width apart, raised his hands over his head and slowly began to bring them down.

Pushing his left arm forward while drawing his right hand back along his jaw, he expanded his chest as a string pulled taut between the ends of the bow and his right thumb and forefinger. He halted the draw, his right fist resting beside his ear, the Ki of the bow crackling as it awaited release." Hama no Ya."

"A vessel for your intent," Kurisu declared, holding the drawn arc of gold.

"Focus." Through the glare of the bow, Kenji stared at the weapon.

"Wait. Like, Inuyasha? You want me to shoot Kagome's arrow?" Kurisu loosed the arrow up into the air, the golden shaft tearing through the canopy as it vanished high into the night sky before detonating into an explosion of gold fireworks that lit the woods around them as if it were dawn. After lowering his arms, he dissolved the remaining bow into ambient sparks and turned back to the teenager.

"Dog… demon?" he asked, tilting his head. With a shake of his head, Kenji pushed himself up the trunk.

"Man, you really need to watch TV sometime!"