"Blood Sign: The Heiress"

Chapter Eight - 101%

After Kasaki's death, Iona withdrew into herself. She plunged into depression and apathy, and, either from a desire to visit where Kasaki was going to take her, or to distance herself from all living things, the girl climbed a mountain that stood not far from the forest. Having spent almost the whole day on the way to the top, Iona slept off the next day. In her dreams, she kept seeing all sorts of visions, like memories that did not belong to the girl. One way or another, Iona began to conduct experiments on herself. As far as the girl understood, her karma is something special, not an exception, but rather, on the contrary, something necessary, without which balance would not exist. Catching various fur-bearing animals, Iona conducted various experiments. One drop was enough to completely engulf four ferrets. Iona realized how much stronger her karma was than usual. One in a thousand, two, ten...? One thing is clear, Iona, with his potential, is capable of destroying Takasaki, and will do this no matter who stands in the way. However, mastery and control of one's karma is not the only thing Iona has developed. Tae's style, the one that Kasaki showed her in his last battle, interested the girl very much. So much so that after a couple of days of tasteless beating of trees, Iona managed to create an entire simulator. This took quite a lot of time, but it definitely bore fruit. Every day, Iona spent six to seven hours at the simulator, honing her skills. And when this was not enough, the girl placed two exercise machines opposite each other and used both at the same time. Iona's face and arms were full of abrasions and bruises, the wood from which the exercise machines were made was quite hard, and her arms hurt, but the girl was satisfied with the results.

During all the time that Iona spent on the mountain, she got to know herself inside and out. I studied my own karma, understood the physics of the body and my strengths. While training and experimenting with karma, Iona hardly slept, which is why scuff marks appeared under her eyes. Interestingly, the girl noticed that she did not blink. She didn't blink at all. Kasaki, for example, often rubbed his eyes and complained that his eyes were constantly dirty in the forest. Trying to find an answer to such an unusual question, why the girl does not blink, Iona conducted several experiments. She tried to blink on purpose, ran quickly so that her eyes began to water, like that time when they took a bite out of her, but it was all in vain. More out of interest than for profit, Iona tried to throw something up and stand in the place where the object fell, but even so, the girl only knocked off her nose, when suddenly one day, a stick from some tree thrown at her hit the girl right in the left eye. At that moment, Iona clearly understood that she would have blinked, if not for one thing, the wand, instead of piercing her eye, as if she had dived straight into it. Iona shook her head and leaned forward, but nothing happened. The wand dissolved right in Iona's eye, this made the girl understand that her eyes can also somehow use karma, it is not clear how and why.

Iona again did not sleep all day. Leaning back against some stone, Iona raised her head to the sky and sighed. Birds suddenly began to circle above her head. One, flying very close, sat on the girl's outstretched finger. Funny, tilting its head and chirping loudly, the bird soared into the air and flew away somewhere over the mountain. Several more similar ones examined Iona from all sides and, like spies with a report, flew after the one who sat on the girl's finger.

"They are so... defenseless." Iona whispered after a pause.

When the latter sat on the girl's shoulder, Iona abruptly grabbed the bird and squeezed it in her fist. Flapping its wings in vain, the bird tried to escape, but the girl's grip did not allow even a chirp. Looking into the tiny eye of a defenseless bird, Iona suddenly saw herself. In the reflection of the feathered girl's eyes, the girl saw herself and suddenly it dawned on her.

"What if..."

Iona suddenly clenched her fist and crushed the bird.

"Exactly!" the girl nodded and went after the new experimental subject.

Iona's hypothesis was that the karma that is in her eyes is capable of distorting the visible appearance of those who look into them. In other words, Iona is able to control what he sees of almost all living things.

Having caught the ferret, Iona grabbed the rodent by the head and forcibly turned it towards her, the animal seemed to avoid eye contact, which only reinforced the girl's idea. Looking into the ferret's eyes, Iona tried to figure out what to do. Iona narrowed her eyes at the ferret. My eyes soon began to itch, as if they were filled with lead. Iona, unable to continue squinting, opened her eyes completely and, along with the unusual lightness in her eyes, felt something else. The feeling was so indescribable that Iona fell into a stupor. The ferret suddenly calmed down, this happened at the moment when the girl opened her eyes fully. Suddenly, Iona noticed that in the reflection of the ferret's eyes she did not see something important, herself. She really just disappeared from the rodent's eyes; he never saw her again. Iona, interested, imagined how it looked from the point of view of her experimental subject, but could not see this situation from the ferret's side differently than if someone was holding him, because he couldn't just hang in the air? Distracted from her thoughts, Iona noticed how the ferret was clearly nervous; she again began to fuss and gnaw on the girl's fingers. Looking into the eyes of the rodent, Iona saw the incredible; she again saw herself in the eyes of the scoundrel. Suddenly, the girl was struck by an electric shock. She realized what had happened and imagined the situation from the eyes of the ferret, where three Jonas were holding him at once. Looking again into the eyes of the rodent after this, the girl saw the incredible, the ferret really saw three Ions, three absolutely identical Ions, which were in no way different from the original. Having made sure that there was definitely no one behind her, Iona finally understood how to use karma with her eyes. Having come up with a couple more options, Iona, realizing for sure that she was right, mercilessly broke the ferret in half and threw it aside. Being incredibly pleased with herself, Iona, having thought everything over, repeated the experiment the next day. Everything turned out the same as with the ferret, the girl finally learned to use all the karma of her body, without any exceptions.

However, there were problems; Iona began to see worse. The eyes seemed to be blurred, everything looked foggy and indistinct. The only thing Iona had to think about to fix this was to fill her eyes with karma, and that's what she did. Having found a long, thin branch, the girl, breaking it into several shorter pieces, slowly and very carefully thrust them into her eyes. This really worked, vision not only returned to its previous level, but even became better, now Iona saw objects at a great distance much more clearly.

Everything was fine, Iona was incredibly pleased with herself, even if she had no doubt about guaranteed success; she, after all, was not just a Yoma.