Onmyouji's Lessons (private thread)

[Nobushige]

He needed better control. At the assault on the school Nobu had used his powers to protect the others with a barrier, and almost passed out from it. Before that he had tried to activate his talisman lion and collapsed. During the battle with Leto he had used his talisman lion properly, and even went into over burst mode before completely collapsing on needing Kamui to carry him out. For someone who was one day going to be a talent onmyouji Nobu needed to get a lot better at controlling his abilities with his sacred item.

As a second year Nobu had plenty of spiritual energy, but a lot of it went into powerful talisman seal attacks. He almost felt like a glass cannon at times because of this. Thus, here he was on a Saturday morning on campus. He wasn't sleeping, he wasn't being a goofball on the roof. Today he was honestly training with his talismans to better master his large spiritual powers. So here he was by the rifle yard practicing. a series of tress to his left, the rifle fields to his south and the running track to his west.

Fake blond hair being blown by a slight breeze, and brown eyes focused he grabbed three talismans from inside his jacket and threw them in front of himself. The three talismans formed a triangle as the Azai clan crest appeared in front of Nobu as a shield.

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While most of the student body who actually had sacred items and an applicable ancestor were able to use their powers and just had the simple matter of improving their own skills and power control, for one specific student it was significantly more difficult as it had been confirmed she had powers of her but was just unable to use them. The name of this student was Tenshi and her lack of ability in accessing and activating her powers made her position as a student rather problematic to maintain, yes Tenshi’s extended stay in hospital for treatment on account of her skin condition had bought her some time but now that she was back Tenshi had been informed if she didn’t show signs of her powers the academy would be cancelling her education and sending her back home which wasn’t that bad a fate but personally Tenshi wanted to stay, not like she knew what else to do with her life.

Still, despite all of these problems and the hassle of going through the system for a second to be re-instated as a student Tenshi decided that she may as well make herself familiar with the school grounds and that it was brought the parasol carrying girl towards the rifle fields and that was where she saw Nobushige practicing with his pieces of paper, powerful pieces of paper but still just paper at the end of the day. Being the naturally quiet and slow girl she was Tenshi got close enough without attracting any unwanted attention to herself to see the seal conjured up by Nobushige, she didn’t really recognise it too well but whatever. Standing silently by a nearby street light Tenshi wasn’t trying to hide but she simply was so unless Nobushige looked directly at her it was doubtful he’d even know she was there.

[Nobushige]

As the seal barrier glowed brightly in front of him Nobu prepared his Naginata and ran forward, dispelling the barrier just as he slashed hard at where the barrier use to be. The three paper seals that made up the barrier drifted back into his jacket as the air was sliced. It was a tactic he had used against Leto Weiss in their previous duel. The barrier would block an enemy attack and hopefully the enemy's movement while Nobuyori ran up and slashed hard right as the barrier disappeared. The boy was far from a physical fighter so he needed to learn to land hits on the enemy in other, more thought out ways.

Right after the slash Nobu quickly moved his right foot back for support and crouched a bit entering a defensive position. It made sense that if he slashed at the enemy then they would also attack in return. The next obvious step would be to look around as he guarded. Thus, looking around he saw a figure in the distance. Realizing he must look silly Nobu stood up straight and looked at the girl.

"Do you need something?" he asked, gaze both questioning and demanding an answer. Whoever the girl was didn't really matter much to Nobu as the girl was obviously a student, but the fact that she stood under a lamp post watching him felt strange. Especially given that it wasn't even night time yet she was standing under a light. Remembering what Suishoku had taught him about making friends, Nobu put his weapon safely on his back but continued glaring at the girl.
"....Suishoku said threatening people doesn't help make friends. Curses. Better put the weapon away." he had thought to himself.

[Deleted]

Tenshi may have looked like a creepy stalker standing underneath the street light but she wasn’t trying to; all she simply wanted to do was watch Nobu perform with his pieces of paper and his weapon. Tenshi had to admit she was a little jealous of him for being able to command his powers so well, she herself hadn’t even been able to access her powers and like I monologue previously there was a huge risk she’d get kicked out of the school soon. Tenshi might have been hoping to remain undetected as she watched the boy drop his shield just too rapidly follow it up with a slash from his sword but she should have known remaining undetected wouldn’t have worked forever, especially with how badly she was trying to hide hence why Nobu had noticed her.

When the boy she been watching noticed her Tenshi let out a squeak of surprise fumbling around with the handle of her parasol as she stepped out from behind the street lamp looking down at her own and mumbling shyly to herself before actually talking for real. Now that she had been asked Tenshi did actually want something but being the shy girl she was, was unsure if she should go ahead and ask Nobushige to help her or not. Tenshi was starting to buckle underneath the glare Nobushige was aiming at her and while putting his own weapon away may have removed some of the fear Tenshi had felt she was still sodding terrified.

“I WAS HOPING YOU’D HELP ME WITH LEARNING HOW TO USE MY ABILITES!” panicking and caving into the fear Tenshi shouted out what she wanted to ask him unintentionally, now she was sounding rude and that was not the best way to get somebody to help so as a result the quite girl seemed to just shrivel up, fumbling with her fingers as she looked down at the ground shamefully. Hopefully though, despite how Tenshi had basically shouted at Nobushige he wouldn’t be too harsh on her and let her off or else you know, she’d be in a rather bad situation.

[Nobushige]

As Nobu looked at the strange girl she seemed to squeak a bit and fumble the parasol she was carrying. Looking at the girl Nobu couldn't help but wonder if she was truly that clumsy all the time, or if she was just extremely easily caught off guard. On top of that if she was so easily caught off guard what was she doing at this school? Was she perhaps one of the political students instead of a military student then? As Nobu looked at her strangely she then turned around and decided to shout at him.

“I WAS HOPING YOU’D HELP ME WITH LEARNING HOW TO USE MY ABILITIES!” she shouted at him. Nobu couldn't help but blink a small bit. It wasn't a formal request, it wasn't even a polite asking, it was literally her shouting at him. Nobu's gaze turned to a slight glare as he walked towards her. She wasn't some incompetent politician, she was an artifact user like him. As he approached her Nobuyori looked at the girl kind of coldly.

"Are you not able to use your item? Who is your ancestor? What abilities do you actually have? What is your sacred item?" he brought a series of questions along with him. While they may have seemed harsh they all had to do with sacred items and without the knowledge of what this girl could currently do their was no way of knowing how to help her.

[Deleted]

Tenshi could feel Nobu’s gaze upon her as she fumbled and fidgeted in fear and with good reason, it was apparent based upon her observations that she had made that Nobu was both able to use his powers to their full extent and could also fight with a weapon as could Tenshi but even if she was better with her chosen weapon than he, at the end of the day Nobu’s powers would lead him to victory. Despite how rude it was of her to basically shout a demand at him, despite how it was a result of her panicking instead of any intended rudeness, Tenshi was a little worried this Nobu guy would say no or heaven’s forbid insult her or something along those lines but fortunately he didn’t and instead asked her a series of questions in rapid succession. It wasn’t a problem that he had asked all those questions on account of the fact they needed to be asked but, given how rapidly he had said them Tenshi couldn’t help but panic a little.

Despite her current semi-panic attack state Tenshi took a deep breath following a few tips she had picked up about remaining calm then, when she was ready the pale skinned youngling let out her breath and began to answer Nobu’s questions in the order asked. “Umm.. no.. Mochizuki Chiyome is my ancestor. I don’t know what abilities I have.. and umm, this parasol is my item” hopefully all of that information was exactly what Nobu wanted and hopefully he’d actually be able to help as despite her best efforts and the academy’s education Tenshi still hadn’t even been able to tap into her powers yet alone access them. On the subject of her powers she wondered what they were, hopefully they’d be stealth or assassination based because if not then she’d have to learn a different fighting style which wouldn’t be a problem, it would just be time consuming and slow for her.

[Nobushige]

As the girl responded to his questions Nobu tried to think. He had never heard of this Chiyome person before, and couldn't begin to guess at what kind of powers this shy girl might have. Nobuyori crossed his arms thinking of what exactly to tell this girl or how to start. Coming from a revived clan that served the shogun Nobu's sacred item had been thrown at him early and he had been trained in how to use it. Something you had known how to do for quite some time is hard to remember how to first learn it. Pulling out some of his seals he had to think of what first happened.

"First, I had to research my ancestor, learn what kind of person they had been so I had a better idea of what kind of power they would leave behind. Do you know a lot about the person you got your item from?" As he thought more Nobu began to walk around the girl a bit and weave between some of the polls thinking of what to properly say.
"An item user has to take energy from their sacred item to use their abilities. Have you tried absorbing energy from your sacred item into your body?"

[Deleted]

For a few moments there was just silence as Tenshi and her supposed teacher Nobu, although he hadn’t really made any vow or promise to teach her, just stood there most logically thinking about something. Tenshi wondered if he actually knew who her ancestor was, after all up until she researched her Tenshi had no clue who Mochizuki Chiyome even was or what deeds she had performed but that said, that was what it was for Tenshi and given how little she socialised the girl had no real evidence to formulate an opinion about her fellow students, specifically Nobu in this case. Did Tenshi know a lot about her ancestor? Well she knew what history had to say about her; about how she was a member of the Takeda, how she took in downtrodden and forgotten women off the streets with no work or family and trained them as Kunoichi who then where employed as spies and assassins across the nation. “Um, I know what history has to say about her” Hopefully the information Tenshi did know about her was good enough, because unless she had a time machine there was no way she could find out more.

Now came the difficult part; it was all well and good Nobu asking her if she had tried absorbing energy from her sacred item and telling her that she needed to in order to use her powers but the problem was Tenshi didn’t actually know how she was supposed to do that, yes she had been told that in the past but she wasn’t exactly given any instruction or advice on how to do it or at least none that had worked for her. “Um..well I was told to and I tried the suggestions given but they didn’t work” she sighed and looked down at her feet fidgeting slightly from depression and anger which was all aimed at herself for she believed the reason why she wasn’t able to use her powers was because despite the fact she could use them, Tenshi believed that the reason she wasn’t able to was due to her own lack of worthiness.

[Nobushige]

Noubyori sighed at the timid girl. This was going to take a considerable chunk out of his training time, however the fact that he could help another student wasn't a bad thing. It also meant that later she may not be nearly as much of a burden to him if the two of them had to go to a class together or even worse on a mission together. Looking at the girl and her sacred item Nobu thought for a minute.

"Let us try some basic meditation with your item. You already have a grasp on your item so that is good. Hold your item and close your eyes. Imagine that your body and your item are like a circuit. Energy starts inside of your heart, moves through your arms, and into your sacred item as a small stream. Inside the sacred item imagine that stream becoming a bit stronger, changing color a bit to show that it is now strengthened by your sacred item, and then flowing back to your heart. Heart, arms, sacred item. A flow of energy and exchange. That should be enough energy for your basic ability." he told the girl, looking extremely calm and relaxed as he tried to focus on how best to teach her. Nobu himself had a large amount of spiritual energy, and due to the nature of his talismans when he focused his energy he was sending it into multiple small items at once. It would have been difficult for most people. However Nobuyori came from a family of onmyouji and had been well versed in how to manipulate the flow of his energy in and out.

Taking just one talisman from his robe he looked at the girl.
"now watch me." he held out the talisman in front of himself, closed his eyes, and breathed in deeply. As he exhaled he imagined his energy going from his heart and lungs, into the talisman, then back to him. Doing this made the talisman glow a bit like a light-bulb at one end of a circuit. He then opened his eyes and looked at the girl.
"Your turn." he said staunchly, leaving no room for objections.

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As she had no reason to talk and because right now she just had to listen Tenshi remained silent keeping her gaze from underneath her parasol focused on Nobu; it was always vital to focus on somebody when they were talking or else you might lose your concentration and miss out on vital details which in this situation was a risk that couldn’t be taken. Okay, so Nobu’s plan was to perform some basic meditation? Well Tenshi had no issue with actually trying it but she really did doubt that it would actually work as call her pessimistic but nothing she had actually tried before hand ever worked. But now there was a problem, for Tenshi to meditate properly wouldn’t she need to come out from underneath her umbrella and in turn expose her to the sunlight? Which I shouldn’t need to remind you would cause her to suffer some rather painful sunburn.

“Umm.. if I take my parasol down I’ll get sunburned…” Tenshi fidgeted a little worried about the outcome of taking down her parasol in this sunlight soaked area but a possible solution would be to find some place with shade but looking around she didn’t really see anywhere with any shade. Wait why did she think that she needed to actually bring down her umbrella? She didn’t hence why she was about to retract her point and do what she was commanded to by Nobu, or at least she was going to attempt meditation up until Nobu told her to watch him. Standing still not making a squeak Tenshi watched obediently as Nobu held a talisman out, closed his eyes and caused it to glow green with energy which actually mystified Tenshi hence why she stared wide eyed at it.

When Nobu finished with his display though Tenshi gripped the handle of her parasol tightly and closed her eyes following through the instructions given to her by Nobu and for a moment she felt something but after a few moments the feelings of power she was feeling seemed to just leave her. “Again nothing…” she sighed to her herself and looked down at the ground rather upset and with good reason, it wasn’t like her efforts ever seemed to make any difference regardless of what she was doing or not or even how hard she actually tried hence why she had been starting to panic and get upset over the past few days since her return to the school.

[Nobushige]

Nobouyori had to do his best not to giggle as the girl explained that she would get sunburnt. He couldn't help bu wonder just how frail this girl was. As the fake blond looked over this own talismans he felt it difficult to focus and think. He was so use to battle and training with his weapon in hand that he picked it up to help him focus. That is when it hit him. During his fight with Leto, the strange boy had sent out attacks directly from his weapon. There was no real way that the weapon was his weapon right? Contemplating for a moment as the girl in front of him looked down he finally looked her dead in the eyes.

"Maybe the problem isn't you, maybe the problem is an incomplete circuit." with that Nobu showed the girl that he had his weapon in both hands, with two talismans between his fingers that where currently gripping the naginata.
"Do you have a weapon you use? Try to flow energy from you, to the item, to the weapon, back to you, then swing the weapon. Maybe you just need a bigger circuit." he said with a devious grin. That also being said he made sure he was ready to throw up a barrier in case it was some powerful attack. After fighting Kamui and Leto, Nobu was starting to get some battle experience on him and he wasn't just going to go tell someone to swing a weapon without being darn ready to defend himself against that swing first.

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If anything Nobu’s giggling threw Tenshi a little off; being the paranoid girl she was Tenshi know actually thought Nobu was laughing at her and that if anything only served to make her feel worse about this whole thing, especially when she factored in her assured lack of success at what she was planning to do but that was all in the past because she had already tried and already failed as evidenced by the lack of fancy pants powers showing up. Sighing deeply Tenshi just stood there at the ground feeling like a total failure and a fool for even trying to return to this academy, she knew this would just turn out to be a total waste of time so why she was wasting packing time here was beyond her but some small, if tiny and slowly dying, part of Tenshi’s mind bade her stay to see if Nobu would be able to offer any further advice or suggestions.

Well, despite her own doubts and rather intense fears Tenshi was more than willing to indulge Nobu’s theory about it being an incomplete circuit and not her own fault. Standing silently she looked up at Nobu watching him, listening intensively as to not miss a single word he said. Well yes she did actually have a weapon but she didn’t really feel like using it, especially given how she stored it inside of her parasol which may sound a little bit impossible given its size but, her Kurisamas had been specially built so they could fold up and fight inside the shaft of her parasol, along with numerous other useful objects. “Um well yes but uhm..ok..” her fingers acting quickly and deftly she removed the two folded up weapons from her parasol and unfold them holding them as well as she could in a single hand. Yes perhaps she should put down her parasol for this but Tenshi didn’t want to expose herself to the sun unless she could help it.

Wait what, swing the weapon?! Did Nobu mean to attack him with them? Oh no no no no! Tenshi didn’t want to do that, especially not after how he was helping her hence why she stood there holding the weapons just doing the meditation routine flowing the energy from herself, to her item, into her weapon and finally back to herself. For a moment she did actually feel some source of energy yet it didn’t do anything until, she accidentally dropped her parasol letting out a faint squeak of panic which was when her sub-conscious dislike of the sun activated one of her powers causing an artificial eclipse to occur blocking out the sun. “Wh-what happened?” she was a little shocked at what had happened but it wasn’t a bad thing, she no longer had to have her parasol out after all.

[Nobushige]

He just stood by watching her. When this girl had come to him asking for help Nobuyori had a bit of faith in her, but the moment she had told him that all of her abilities didn't work his faith had died. Almost wishing the girl had never appeared so that he could have continued his own practice in peace the girl tried his idea of a larger circuit. As she messed with her umbrella and whatever was inside of it nothing seemed to happen.

Nothing seemed to happen, that was, until the area around them began to darken. It wasn't that the sun itself had lost light, it was the general area around the two. As the girl's parasol hit the ground she had flinched, but with the sun darkened out she no longer seemed to need it. Was this really one of her abilities or was someone just in a tree nearby messing with the two? Not sure what to think the boy simply looked at the strange girl.
"Hmm, as i said, try swinging your weapon, maybe at one of the nearby trees. Maintain focus on your energy flow's circuit you have going, then swing." he suggested.

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At first Tenshi actually doubted that she’d even be able to draw forth any magical ability and while the fact everything had just become unnaturally dark she still had her doubts and with good reason, there was many different reasons why or how it could have suddenly darkened but at least for the time being Tenshi no longer needed to use her parasol. Know that she had been instructed to attack a tree Tenshi no longer felt morally concerned, after all the only reason why she hadn’t attacked Nobushige was because he was helping her and not out of any care or concern for his life which probably made her sound more morally dead than she actually was but who cares? She was training to be an assassin, a trained professional killer, after all.

Okay well, as it was a tree Tenshi gripped her weapons tightly focusing solely on it giving it her full undivided attention but, before she could actually attack it or even swing her weapons her mind subconsciously took controlling, probably due to her connection with her ancestor, and activated another one of her ability. This ability caused a large pair of black feathered wings to appear behind Tenshi’s back, not physically connected but they were there, and flapped launching a series of feathers at the tree Tenshi had been planning to attack which then in turn stuck into the tree glowing with a detectable amount of energy. “Wh-wha..coool…” Tenshi was a little shocked to really say more than that.

[Nobushige]

Nobuyori smiled a bit and looked at the girl.
"That is how you use your sacred item. Though be careful, it might be training sometimes. Just keep practicing, and pace yourself. Take a deep breath, and relax between using your abilities. You just unlocked your powers so your body will need to get use to having a new way of using it's energies.

With that the boy pulled out a series of paper talismans from his jacket.
"Keep in mind, many different kinds of abilities exist. You have an offensive slash, but i'm more about protection. I can create a barrier, and heal others with my paper talismans." with that the paper seals left his hands and formed a small barrier before returning to his jacket.
"See what I mean?" Either way though, you have your abilities so I need to get back to training. You can join me if you want, but I will be here for a while."
Nobu then turned off and was going to walk away and then it hit him. Turning back towards the girl he said.
"I guess if you need anything, I'm in dorm A. You can drop by sometime if you need help with practicing or have questions. Pretty much everyone in my dorm is an item user."