The Cursed Iris

Sprout 13: Ayame's Awakening

"Gah! Why is Ayame so heavy?!" Kikyo asked visibly annoyed.

"You know if Ayame was awake she wouldn't have liked that little comment," Atsuko replied. "It must be the sweets she's brought along."

Kikyo nodded in agreement. Then they began to walk in silence for quite a while with two unconscious people, "Kikyo, I have a question," Atsuko said to break the ice, which she thought was weird because they usually communicated fairly easy.

"Yeah?"

"Well I was curious how are you able to learn things so quickly? I mean you learned how to use spirit energy from just one instruction," Atsuko noted.

Kikyo didn't know what she meant because she was kind of confused about that too. "I honestly don't know, maybe it's because of this eye of mine. Probably?"

"Interesting, that star in your pupil has returned as well."

"Really? I don't know what this power is at all, but it has to be something important. Especially if it has the ability to do something like that."

Atsuko giggled, "You're like our residential idiot up there," she said with a smile.

They continued on, "So when do you think these two will wake up?" Kikyo asked.

"Katsumi is always out for about a few kotons, but this time I don't know. He was different and his flames had a different feel to them," Kumo replied.

"Kumo, I heard you say something about a boost he experiences," Atsuko noted.

"Oh yeah, so the way certain half breeds work is that if they experience a certain amount of times they reach the limit of their spirit energy, their energy and aura points will grow. It's only possible if a few conditions are met."

The conditions that need to be met are: last reserve of spirit energy must be reached,  a strain on the soul must be experienced, a new aura point is formed branching from the central one. In other words a harmonic aura point. The possibility that all three were experienced by him with his fight against Yushiro, Natsume, Homura, and finally Shang-Lao.

A being's spirit energy works like a balloon, the more 'air' that is fed into it the more it expands. Experience, training, amongst other things can be used to expand that spirit energy. Chiyoko's Raikou that she had created utilized this analogy perfectly.

"So, Katsumi and Kikyo must be the same then? In terms of learning aptitude and adaptability they're pretty much similar," Atsuko noted.

"What do you mean by that?" Kumo and Kikyo asked.

"You'll see, but I know I'm right about this. Ayame is almost the same way too."

As soon as Atsuko said that, Ayame's body pulsed, "Enough small talk. I'm telling you all that Ayame's going to learn at the same pace as Katsumi when the time comes. She's got the confidence now," Atsuko stated with a smile.

Kikyo stared at Ayame's body as it continued to pulsate, "I believe you Atsuko," she reassured with a smile.

*****

Ayame groaned and she saw that she was in the forest of tall trees again. "I know where this is."

"Of course you do," a voice behind her said.

She recognized it as her other version, "So now I know something bad it about to happen," she replied in an annoyed tone.

They stared at each other, and they started laughing, "That was pretty amazing of you back there Ayame," she said.