s.c.s. ☆ j.jh ☆ ayakashi series | ✔

jaehyun [twenty-four]

Settled on a sitting pillow at the shrine, you picked at your fingernails. Jungwoo had invited you over early to review some Onmyoji things before your first patrol with your crew. You had most of the Ayakashi that you knew attending, however the only other Onmyoji you knew, wouldn't be. Mark ended up with the night shift at his work for the whole month. Apparently he had really pissed off his manager.

Jungwoo emerged from the kitchen with a matchbox, bringing one out as he sat down near you. There was a candle on the coffee table beside the two of you, cerulean blue in color. The Tsukumo-gami struck the match, and the flame sparked and came to life in an instant. He touched it to the wick, lighting the "ocean breeze" scented candle. Elemental manipulation. Banishing Wraiths was way below your training at this point, instinctual, just as easy as moving a limb to you.

This, however, was simultaneously both more and less difficult to learn than banishing. You were able to connect your energy to the energy of the fire, but it was just a matter of having exact control over it once the connection was there. It was like plugging a USB drive into a computer then not being able to choose what files it opened up and corrupted. Some divisions of Divining had steadfast rules while others didn't. Elemental manipulation was the former. One of which was that it was easier to manipulate existing sources rather than creating anything out of thin air. For example, the fire of a candle. You could multiply or reduce elements from existing sources, make a fire bigger or smaller, but creating a flame from nothing was nearly impossible.

Connecting with the flame was easy enough, the energy bubbling within it simple to understand. Just not as simple to control. So you merely tried to change the shape. Not the size yet, you didn't want to try to make it a millimeter bigger and accidentally blow the roof off. So for now, you just focused on changing the shape. Elements tended to resist doing things outside their natural physics. The natural physics of fire was to taper off as it went up and have a tip. Like a triangle. You did that one first. A circle wasn't too hard either, keeping the rounded bottom of a typical single flame. It was when you began trying to manipulate it into a heart, rounded at the top and tapered at the bottom, that it started putting up a fight. But you kept your cool. Getting hotheaded would be the perfect conduit for the fire to misbehave. And it did listen, you made a little fire heart. But you couldn't hold it long, quickly allowing the fire to return to its natural shape.

"Good, Lady Onmyoji," Jungwoo complimented you, leaning forward to blow the candle out. "Let us leave it at that for now. I do not wish to deplete your abilities for tonight."

"Sicheng would kill you I think," you chuckled, referencing your friend who had seemed the most enthusiastic about the 'getting rid of Wraiths' part of your plans for tonight.

"I do not think he would risk killing your teacher," your friend quipped back.

"Good point."

"Oh, and there is one more thing I wish to tell you in preparation for tonight."

"Go ahead."

"What do you know of battle forms?"

"Johnny told me about them a little. Your outfits will change, different Ayakashi attributes will come out, stuff like that."

"Correct. Ayakashi have states called battle forms. It is a certain appearance we take on when in times of battle. Akin to how a cat raises its hackles when threatened, to appear more frightening."

"Can you show me now or is it only—"

"I have control over my forms," Jungwoo confirmed, taking just a moment to breathe in before his casual modern clothes were replaced by a yukata of a light green color. Condensed along the hems and spreading out towards his shoulders were delicate sakura blossoms, the artistry so realistic that it felt as thought they could drift off the fabric and tickle your nose with their petals at the slightest instigation of wind.