CALAMITY CORE : FREE THE WORLD

CH.71 'JUST WHO ARE YOU?'

The road seemed to be all that Andrei, or the rest of the Nowhere Generation knew anymore. Once again though, they were joined by friends. At least to Andrei, that made the road a bearable home. They were only here again after they were driven from Iwatayama by those angry, uncertain citizens who had been initially forced away by Asura in the onset of their battle. Now, the Shikoku Merchant Company, Dove, and her wolves, traveled alongside the Nowhere Generation, and the Monastery of The Great Turtle. Though there was an air of hesitancy to them, Kouriki, the mysterious boy, claimed that a 'full-blood' Chimera had been waiting for them. Against Andrei's better judgment, and Ra's, they agreed to see what the invitation was about out of sheer curiosity.

They traveled the dirty, uneven roads with repaired carts and undampened spirits, the monks explaining just a bit about their hometown of Kiyotaki, a place not too far from Iwatayama, though not nearly as large, nor demanding as much attention in the slightest. The monastery seemed to be the largest thing in the town, from the sounds of things, though it didn't sound bad. A place whose leaders accepted chimera, and lived beside them as equals, it seemed like a haven for Andrei, Vivian, and Bayashi... and everybody else.

Hattori stuck to familiar faces with the foxy beastkin merchants, while Inoshishi and his younger compatriots listened to stories of the chimera who lived among the people of Kiyotaki... the man hadn't forgotten his old mentor's dream, and neither had the Akoto twins, Saionji especially. A place where they could live together... though this was a cut above even that! The nature of their town, and the hardships the half-blood Chimera faced, that's what people like Andrei or Vivian were. They were driven mad, according to the monks, though if kept at peace while they settled with their demons, they could certainly be saved. It gave even Bayashi hope, the man much more monstrous than his smaller allies.

Saionji listened to the stories with awe, and so too did Shimoda. Okuri too was drawn in at the prospect of training beside the monks, as he heard them mention offhandedly the art of ch'i in the process of saving a Chimera, or even healing wounds, a uniquely human trait. When they were finally questioned on it, by a desperate Shimoda, Kouriki laughed and enveloped his hand in a soft orange ch'i. "Ki, or Ch'i as some people call it, is simply the energy of the soul. Like the soul, it knows how to heal. We've mastered the art of using it to conduct another's life energy, allowing us to heal others... and we've even begun to pioneer practical uses of ki-infused mana! Master Ao is a wise sort, and even if she can't harness the power of ki herself, she's quite a genius when it comes to application of power!"

"Application of power?" Shimoda asked, not quite clued in to Master Ao's origins yet. "If she can't use ki, and she's only a magic-user like sensei or Saiji..."

Kouriki laughed, then gestured to the symbol of the turtle on his clothes. With a smile on his lips, he nodded. "Master Ao is the full-blood who rebuilt Kiyotaki from the ground up, about 50 years ago! She's an utter master when it comes to teaching applications of mana... and her Lunar Water-style magic uses ki, meaning anybody adept enough to wield ki can use it with little detriment, even if they don't have a 'descendant factor' as she called it."

Andrei stepped up beside Shimoda, equally intrigued by the sound of more painless magic. He had gotten used to the injuries his primal flames inflicted, but it always hurt... if he wanted to 'settle' with Ra, or whatever it was that Kouriki had mentioned, he might want to look into that. Tapping his chin though, he began to scratch at it, a bit caught up on something that confused him. "This... 'Master Ao,' is a Chimera, right? Why can't she tap into ki? I mean... so long as Ra hasn't taken over my body, I can use my ki, at least according to Okuri and Shoda."

Kouriki snapped his fingers and turned to face Andrei in full now, looking at both Shimoda and the half-Chimera boy. "That's a good question... I suppose you've probably never had to wonder about something like that, huh? Well, it's pretty simple, I think." Kouriki smirked, and then closed his eyes. "Our current theory is in the way a Chimera is born. When a core forms in a living being and begins to take them over, the humane soul is overtaken, and the 'programming' in the body that creates ki is overwritten..."