Janus SMASH [Rick]

It was a few days, or maybe a few weeks since the last encounter that Rick experienced in the hollow domain. Taking somewhat of a break and coming to terms with an average lifestyle, for the time being, the hollow hunter hasn’t been doing much of the hunting. It wasn’t as if Rick was a cripple, the healing tank took care of the majority of his injuries. The main problem was the feeling of being burned out, as well as well as fully putting himself under surveillance to see if he did anything funny or acted weird during his sleep. Nothing of the sort has occurred since Rick returned, or managed to return with nothing more than dumb luck. If it wasn’t for his vigilance device, Rick would have had no choice but to take a long way back, and walking through the tropics with some hope of reaching Japan was nothing short of a pipe dream.

However, the battle has led to Rick questioning his life choices, as well as causing him to occasionally neglect other hygiene practices. For example, it’s been quite some time since Rick has cut his facial hair. The shave was impending due to the constant comments of his other colleagues of Rick looking like a hobo, but it simply wasn’t that important to him for the time being. With Rick’s return, he was also sporting a pair of black shades, something that was a bit rare when it came to the shotgun Quincy. Usually, he wouldn’t like anything on his face for too long, bearing a feeling of uncomfortableness since that octopus hollow tried to smother him with its tentacle. That was, in fact, a nightmare that Rick only recently stopped having, but only because his current reality preceded any sort of bad dream.

“Is this a bad dream?”

Pinching himself till his skin turned red, the hulking zealot would shrug his shoulders and empty his coffee pot inside of his mug. Nowadays, Rick would be around his shop in his robe, wearing casual and comfortable clothing to at least look decent enough to go outside.

“Speaking of outside, I think I was supposed to expect some kind of package or something?”

Sending an email to the main research facility for the Quincy headquarters in Germany, the reason why Rick was even up this early was due to the fact that he was expecting an important package of the sort. However, the jangling sound of the door being opened wasn’t the ups guy, it was some chick that Rick never saw before.

To add icing to the cake, it seemed to her that Rick gave off the impression of him being a mage.

“Talk about a first impression. One look at me while entering my shop and that’s the first thing you say?”

Who was this woman anyway? Well, no matter who this person as, nobody enters Rick’s shop without a reason. Though, with the sensory available to Rick through reiatsu perception, he could tell that’s he wasn’t a Quincy. She was also a bit strong, making Rick raise his eyebrow a bit as he took a sip of his coffee.

“Let’s just say that I am a mage if that makes you feel better. Rick Rogers, at your service."

WC- 546

Janus looked through the futures and suddenly realized something as she looked at the man in front of her.  Spiritual beings seemed to be really large for whatever reason.  She was not exactly a fan of the fact she was tiny compared to the nominal group of individuals she had run across.  She wondered exactly what kind of mage he was, like her or more like the destroyers she had met that all seemed to have the ability to manipulate energy for some odd reason.  Much more useful than what she did if she was being completely honest.  Janus looked around the shop as she sighed and wondered how the world managed to keep spinning with so many things that could probably destroy it for one reason or another.  She made herself look back at the hulk in front of her and still wanted to get rid of that terrible body spray but was considerate enough to not wriggle her nose.

Janus shifted as she looked at the mug in his hand and wondered what kind of coffee the man was drinking.  She could have followed a future to figure it out, but the mix of axe and coffee had put her off that decision long before she had even considered doing things.  "I didn't look at you, I looked at your future.  I was curious because of it.  I'm told other people can sense things like that, but I've never understood how that works."  Janus said as she looked around the store as she shifted her weight.  Her hair was iced, and straight up, a guys hair cut for sure, her earring and bangles were back on since she was not working as she nodded and bowed graciously. "Janus Di Napoli.  Pleasure to meet you Rick." Janus said as she shifted back to looking at the store.  "What kind of magic do you do?  Do you have one of those swords, control energy, transform?  Burn down city blocks, wear a mask?"  She asked as she sent out a few future versions of herself to play with different things on the shelves.

Janus didn't follow any of her paths very long as she thought about what else she could ask.  She was not the best at this whole superpower and magic thing, but she figured he would understand.  Like the Queen, and some of the other people she had met, any potential future that Rick attacked, she lost.  Janus was getting really bored of watching that in her divination over and over, she wondered if that could ever be fixed.  Sadly, the more she was involved with Invisibles and other people with gifts, the less effect she seemed that she could or even knew about having.  This guy could do the same thing the Queen or Zero could do, look at Janus too hard and she'd be unable to even move.

---

481

She couldn't necessarily see his eyes, but from the way Rick looked at her, he had this detailed expression of pure confusion. From what Rick could gather, this person in front of him was a spiritualist, and from what she said, it was also possible that this spiritualist could see in the future.

Could she? Was that even a thing nowadays? Was this person a member of the karakura spiritualist network or something?

"......."

There was a bit of silence after her words as Rik mulled it over. Out of all the powers that Rick has faced, spiritual leaches, pyromaniac, heck, even giant swords; Rick wasn't expecting to run into someone that actually had something useful. Or better yet, he wasn't expecting to run into someone that had something so abstract as seeing into the future, literally walk into the shop and say something cryptic to him.

"First of all, you need to calm down. Nobody just walks into a public place and starts spewing all of these questions."

Rick would then move quickly towards the door and switch the sign to closed temporarily. After giving the door a swift lock, he would then turn back to Janus

"Did you just discover your powers or something? Maybe recently? Is that why you're basically referencing every other kind of race that could be found in this crazy world?"

That statement was a bit open-ended, but Rick wasn't really expecting a straightforward answer as to how long she had her powers for. As a matter of fact, with the way that Janus awkwardly walked in his place of business with her statements, Rick felt like she needed a little hand holding in order to figure out her own place in this.

"First of all, it isn't magic. It's reishi, which is the main component material of Souls and all spiritual matter. Your own soul measures the growth, the power stored in that soul is Reiryoku. Now, the energy you sense with reiatsu perception, which is the key term of how you found me if feeling me out is what brought you here, it was the reiatsu levels measured by my Reiryoku that tipped you off. Are you following so far?"

Taking a deep breath as he closed his eyes, Rick mulled over what he should do with this girl.

"It's easy to figure out alignment and associate closely with what a person is capable of with the kind of energy they give off. There is an individual distinctness, but the similarities of race are telling. Now, give me a good sense again, and with everything that you mentioned, what does my spiritual energy remind you of. I'm sure you met at least one."

The plan was to give Janus a wider understanding of what to expect from feeling people out, as well as what to stay away from in the sense of hollow breeds. Once a few things get cleared up with this woman, Rick could start asking some questions of his own.

WC 500
Total WC 1046

Janus shook her head. "I've had my gift for years, a decade and a half even, but it wasn't really until recently that I was, exposed enough for lack of a better term to meet any Invisibles or Mages."  She said before adding quietly.  "Or not in an asylum for the mentally insane."   She added as she looked around and sent out a few future versions of herself to poke and prod things.  She noticed in a few futures he would make note of her poking things and in some cases ask her not to, so she did not as she waited for him to lock the door.  She had seen that coming regardless of her actions.  She quickly searched for any visions of combat and thanked the lord that he did not want to smush her face into the ground.

"So you're a Quin-ma-bobber? And I've heard most of that before, but I can't sense energy.   I see glimpses of peoples futures.  But it only happens around mages and invisibles."  Janus said as she scratched her nose and shrugged her shoulders.  "I've met two of them, but you don't feel like anything."    Janus said as she shrugged.  She definitely missed that piece of the puzzle and it did seem to confuse everyone she had met as to why she could not sense anything.  Though, she got her information in other ways, she always had kind of come up with other things.   "I know there's also, black robes, fake robes, humans with magic, monsters, no-masks, and small masks." She said with her rudimentary understanding.

She shifted again as she looked over the large gentlemen.  "And I know, I can't compete with anything.  I'm basically food.  Also, everyone seems to be racist even though most of what they say I haven't actually seen or was contradictory to their statements." She said annoyed.

---

311

"So, this whole mage thing, is that a fetish or something to call it like that? There is nothing magical about what's happened to you, what's happening in your life. Usually, people, no matter how they get their powers, have a spiritual variant to them. Variants of the spiritual world will exist within their current or preexisting condition, which is why they can see, interact, and experience the real side of what the world is truly like. That "insane" thing is a phase, we all eventually feel that way, no matter how much time passes. I mean, let's face it, our lives are micromanaged by pajama-wearing Japanese people. "

At this point, Rick felt like he needed a drink after explaining all of that to Janus. She might not understand right now, but with a little growth and possibly, a little guidance, maybe she will.

"Quincy, that's the name that we are called. I'm actually surprised that you lasted this long without sensing energy. It seems as if you are using your ability of precognition to look into the alternative futures of getting yourself in dangerous situations, and avoiding it. But anyway......."

Rick didn't have any comments whatsoever about the whole racist thing, he knew that the majority of the Quincy that Janus had ever come across probably had their own personal grievances against the hollows. Or hell, it could be the general Quincy way of protecting the weak from the hollow race that comes across as racist from the way that they could possibly be perceived.

"Tell you what Janus, you called yourself food before, correct?"


Rick would then utilize his signature spiritual alchemy technique, molding his reishi and converting it into a soul synthesized construct. This time around, a comfortable chair made of soul synthesized leather would be crafted behind Janus so that she would have the opportunity to sit. It was a trouble to add color, so Rick kept it at white. He would then do the same for himself, taking a seat and hunching down to get a good look at Janus's eyes through the view through his shades. 

"You have a lot more potential than you think, I'd hate to see something happen to you. So tell you what, I don't mind showing you the ropes a little bit, at least help you get a hold on the basics so that you can explore the powers that you have for a bit. It's usually Quincy that I end up teaching, but there should be an existing versatility of being capable to help others that aren't like me, are you following?"

Coughing a bit, Rick would then begin something that he thought was the most important thing to get out of the way first.  He needed to get a  good grasp of how she defends herself. 

"Let's start with the beginning, how do you fight? Was there ever a time you had no choice but to defend yourself? When it happened what did you do? Punch your way out? Shoot beams? Help me out here...."

Wc 508
Total wc 1554

Janus listened as she sat down and looked around the room again.   The chair was comfortable, she kind of snuggled into it for a second as she looked at his glasses and kept her divination focused on other things going on so she could poke and prod at certain things and wondered.  She was going to go into an in depth explanation about how nothing anyone had told her lined up with the words they used so she had just shrugged it off.   She was pretty sure from what she knew, Quincy were humans like her who had forgone making up something in favor of controlled power that was already known.   It also seemed to be a slightly different skill set having to do with what kind of energy they used.  Like this awesome chair!  

She looked over Rick again, he was big as she shifted.  "I don't, I avoid combat and run when I can, I've never divined a future where I've been able to hurt anything.  Because of it, I just get lucky and saved, or hurt and manage to limp away at probability.   I'm decent at mixed martial arts, I can leave my body, but none of that seems useful in combat."  Janus said as she looked at Rick again and shifted.  "So, hence why I sound like a pathetic wimp." She said as she shifted her hips, dam she wanted chairs like these.   "As for the mage thing, the name 'destroyer' doesn't exactly fit someone with the magical ability to make awesome chairs, and I've met black-robes, they aren't gods, neither are the other things that call themselves gods.  After all, I've seen them die too.   So I avoid using the terminology that people have been using.  I describe things based on what they do.  You use magic, as I see it to create things, probably weapons of light as well like the other Quincy.  I can't manipulate energy."

Janus said without thinking about it and then surveyed a few potential futures for what to do around Rick and shifted her weight.  The next part was routine, if only for her over everyone else, she simply stood up out of her body, and left her body sitting in the chair as she rolled her shoulders and started walking around the store and eventually towards Rick.  She smiled at him and nodded.  "And I can do this." She said looking down at her chain and then back to her body, giving it a light tug to catch up with her body.  "It doubles as something akin to black robes teleportation, little slower and more crude but you get the general idea."  She then shifted back to sit back in the chair and wondered what else she could tell him. 

"I'm told I have black outs when I am combined with spiritual energy or overload sensory input from my divination.  I'm also a diabetic and decent enough at being curious to usually get myself in a LOT of trouble."  Janus said nodding.

---

502

The important thing about getting to know someone for the first time around was to let them talk, letting them spill their guts about themselves made quite a few things easier on Rick if came down to what he actually wanted to do with the woman. As to why he would even want to extend a hand of assistance to her, it was only because she was a human that seemed a little lost in a world that has more of an effect on her and her decisions than she thought. Even if Janus decided to no longer associate with Rick after doing his best to help her, Rick would still want to do whatever he could. Anything that was able to help Rick sleep a lot better at night was appreciated invitation towards his own personal consciousness, something that Rick tended to appease whenever he got the chance to.

Hearing about her martial arts was a little promising, being able to gather enough energy into her fists in order to efficiently deal damage towards hollows and other spiritual beings. However, the one thing that threw Rick off was the way that Janus easily left her body, with her chain of fate still being intact. Of course, Rick as able to perceive what was going on with his reiatsu perception, but it was still a little hard to believe that a human was capable of this. Or maybe that wasn't the point?

"The point is, she makes it seem so natural, almost as if it's second nature. "

Rick would say this in his head she thought over a few things that could help. The way that her senses reacted to spiritual energy was also a concern, was there way to fix Janus's connection to that?

"So, here is what I have to work with, stop me if I'm wrong. Martial arts, a mastery over your chain of fate, up to the point that you use it as an unorthodox way of traveling from place to place, and precognition, which is probably your main ability huh?"

He was silent for a while, taking a deep breath as he gave his head a lazy nod.

"Ok, I'll take you on. How about it? Do you think you a humble yourself to a degree of learning a few things from someone else? You don't have to call me sensei or anything if you don't want to, and you are free to do your own thing if you wish. However, what I see when I look at you is a mold, a fresh mold of clay. There are a lot of shapes that you can take, mentally and physically. However, I'm sure you already know that. Maybe what you see is more immediate, with it lacking the longevity of being aware of every single action you can make at any given time. Regardless, you must know the kind of person that you want to be, all I want to do is to help you achieve that. "


WC 502
Tota WC 2056

Janus nodded at Rick's oversimplification at what she had done, though to her it seemed that such a thought might actually help her from time to time.   Janus did not need to sense energy to take a look into how monstrous compared to herself Rick was.  She took note of his movements, while they seemed over-accentuated and lazy, Rick seemed to know exactly what he was going to do or say.  Unlike most people, though, when he was debating something like he had been a second before, Rick threw up more potential futures than most people.  Probably because he considered options carefully, that seemed a little bit dangerous to Janus but nothing out  of the ordinary.  

Janus stood for a second and flexed her arms and her soul popped out and she made the normal motions of simply making small circles and watched her trained body follow along behind it slowly as she looked over Rick, he was a lot smarter than her and she was not going to pass something like that up.  "When you stop learning, you start dying." Janus said stating one of her philosophies out loud.  She sat back down and thought about what to say to make her sound like less of a dingus and shrugged, bowing her head reverently to Rick.  "Left to my own devices, it would probably be much worse.  I appreciate you taking the time to help.  I'm not exactly the best at doing anything so any help in my opinion is beyond appreciated.  Thanks Rick, appreciate it."

Janus said as she wondered what kind of things he would teach her, she tried to extend her senses and probabilities a bit and then snapped back into the present as that weird blank thing came up again.  She looked confused, if only for a second as she looked back at Rick.  "Anyway." She said shaking her head a bit.  "What can I do to help you help me?  Oh and I don't wear skimpy training outfits." She said nodding to Rick expectantly.   "So, the kind of person I want to be is a little weird, cause I've seen myself, be.. everything.  That's the problem with probability magic, you see too much.  I've seen myself as a black robe, a monster, broke mask, blue mag-er Quincy, and a normal mage.  So, that's kind of a thing if it makes sense.  Your description of a fresh mold of clay is pretty correct.  I could die tomorrow and become a monster, die and become a black robe, somehow use blue or normal magic."  Janus stated.  

"I think I'm more confusing to me than anyone I've met, which does go to show you, if everyone around you is crazy, its probably just that you're crazy." She finished.  "What shall we do first, boss?"

---

467

"Kind of morbid, I would say something along the lines of "if you stop learning, you stop evolving". Something like dying, no, I don't think it'll ever get to that level. You'll stay the same in a world that's constantly changing around you, I wouldn't think for a moment that it would be an attractive conclusion for your life. Then again, whose to say that you have to change at all? It's also an option to be negligent about your powers and live an average life. It's within your right to desire such a thing, but if.you able to protect yourself from the average threats and occasional hollow attacks, no one will bat an eye. It seems as if I went on a rant, but I'm not particularly judgmental towards those who refuse to grow their powers, with the fear that might come of it. "

Rick wasn't that kind of guy, everyone had their own choices. If it was enough for Janus to throw a decent punch that can kill a minor hollow in one blow, it was enough for him as well.

"What can I do for me to help you? Well, that's pretty simple, I can think up of a pretty detailed training regimen. As a matter of fact, I already thought of one. The first thing that I think would be good for you is the practice of charging your fists with Reiryoku. We can say fists for the time being, only because of I'm assuming that your chosen martial arts involve punching more than anything. Why Reiryoku? Because it promotes the majority of superhuman feats, without making it primarily based on "magic", or how you call it. So being a master at controlling your Reiryoku output is something I would suggest for you."

Going over to the back, Rick would invite Janus to follow him. Afterwards, Rick would open a hatch that would lead to a much wider basement space, the hall was covered in a chrome-like soul synthesized material. "I brought you down here because materials that are transformed to be their soul synthesized counterparts are 10 times stronger than the original, it also handles the attacks and rampages of spiritual threats a lot more, limiting collateral damage greatly. When I was first starting out my contracting service, I would remake every single tool or item into its soul synthesized counterpart. But that's not the point, the point here is that you can go all out without worrying too much."

Walking over to a mini-fridge, Rick would search for something to drink as he dictated what he wanted from her. "It's easy to learn from me as long as you follow directions. Even if there is a shortcut to it, as long as you keep the fundamentals I mind, anything is possible. No uniform needed, what you're wearing right now is fine. "

After grabbing a beer, Rick would craft a soul synthesized granite wall inside of the room and point to it.

"Try giving that a punch, and remember, you are special. Your powers might be different, but some things remain the same. Reiryoku dictates your superhuman feats and overall striking power, the advanced control includes expelling the Reiryoku in the air around you as you strike, possibly creating a shockwave. To avoid further trouble with those who can just blast you to death, you need to go beyond the limitations of what you think your body is capable of, and that is only the first of what I have planned for you. "

WC 588
Total WC 2644

Janus followed Rick attentively, and she listened too.  Which could probably be said to be a bit different than most people.  Rick was like the others, using points about energy that she really did not understand.  Reiryoku and Re-Reck? Reshi, that word.  Janus thought they did not make any sense because in reality she did not understand them.  Power came out of the barrel of a gun or a fist, not from some imaginary superpower that people seemed to have.   Well, imaginary for her, not so much for everyone else as it seemed to be pointed out to her on a regular basis.    Janus followed Rick down into the giant area, and little did he know that she had never punched a hollow and killed it.

In fact, Janus had never hurt a hollow no matter what the hell she had done to try and hurt them.  Janus continued listening as she looked around the chrome-looking underground and wondered where in the hell Rick had the money to pay for this.  Heck, how did he manage to hid the giant area from everything else.  It was impressive to her, after all her Bed and Breakfast had been such a small thing.   She took a moment to look around and then followed Rick to the fridge, still wondering what kind of power he had to have to construct something like this.  Though, the parts about synthesis and so on and so forth was a little confusing to him.  It was also beyond her comprehension as the energy and spiritual stuff did not seem to work for her.

She looked at the synthesized granite wall and walk up to it after Rick manifested it out of thin air.  That was pretty darn cool in her opinion.   Janus wondered up to it and poked it a few time, taking note that it was solid and staring at it blankly.  She stood there for a good minute and a half as her path walking attacked the thing in thousands, if not tens of thousands of different ways.  She did not make a dent in it.  Janus looked up at the wall and shifted her lips into a quizzical look.     What was she going to do, tell him the truth?  'Sorry boss, I can't do anything to this giant wall of granite.' Janus looked a future where she did just that and decided she would have a lot more leway if she just showed Rick.

Janus sighed to herself and swung her fists at the wall, doing no damage due to her mental blocks avoiding damage.  She was able to do it the second time, however.  Janus swung her right fist in a normal muai tai strike at the wall, and the sound, along with the pain, rang out.  Janus had already thrown up as many mental barriers as she could in preparation but it still meant, nothing.  The weird part was, there was no energy coming from her when she struck.  There never had been, and there would never be without her obnoxious brother and fullbring.  Janus cried out in a string of profanities as she realized,  that once again, she was broken.  

Janus' fist had not survived the strike.  "HOLY AHHHHH." She said annoyed and in pain as a tear moved down her cheek.  Janus looked at her bloody fist and tried to move her hand.  It moved, barely.  So, probably a fracture.  She looked at Rick and sucked up any remainder of her new crying and panted lightly.  "Is there some kind of trick to this, boss?  All my bones will break before I even dent that thing!"  After all Janus had not been lying, she could not control energy, that gift was reserved for her twin and annoying accomplice.  Her mouth finally ran and she was pretty sure she once again sounded, insane.  "Seriously, I hit that thing about ten thousand times, all that breaks is my limbs, GOOD LORD THIS HURTS."

---

660

Rick shook his head a little as he saw that Janus hurt her hand a little bit. Moving from his corner with the beer in his hand, Rick would take her hand and take a good look at it. Afterwards, he would point to the pod in the back of the huge bunker.

"Do you see that pod over there?"

Rick would then walk over to the pod and give it a light tap.

"This is a medical bay that I created. Believe it or not, it's a manufactured holy artifact, not a lot of people do that, believe me. The point is that you can feel free to train to your heart's content because no matter what, I will always be able to make you as good as new. It's not like I'm experimenting with you or anything, I remember a close friend of mine being seriously injured, I think he was actually dying on me. This saved his life, so I can honestly vouch for the safety and security of this device."

Walking back to the wall, Rick would take a quick sip of his beer as he folded his arms.

"Janus, I repeat, Reiryoku bolsters your supernatural strength. If you focus that energy on your hands, using it to harden them, you can use those hardened hands to protect yourself from collateral damage when you throw your punches. You just experienced punching without it, yes, you have power, but basic spiritual control could save you a lot of trouble and stress in the long run. It's not that hard, I did say that even though your powers might function differently, it still follows the same fundamental values that other spiritual powers are based on. "

Thinking for a moment, Rick would point at the wall, deconstructing the granite construct and spending it into the air. After slowly spreading out, it reconstructed back into the same place.

"Ok, maybe this will be easier, use your powers of prediction to guess where the weak spots of the granite wall are. I m ade sure that there are specific places you can hit the wall that brings about more progress in the long run, but maybe you won't notice too much by actually punching it. However, by protecting your hands with Reiryoku, the superhuman durability you gain with it can protect your hands. Now, are you ready to give it another try?"


OOC: Janus is retiring

WC 404
Total WC 3048

Janus shrugged and looked in awe at the changing wall.  What supernatural strength?  She did not have any of that.  Janus was a wimp.  The most she had done was learn to get the hell out of her body.  Which was apparently dangerous and useless.  She waited for the wall to set itself down again and then she came back around still staring at it.  She circled it a few times and tapped at the wall.   As far as she could tell from just tapping on it, which really was not necessary for the Diviner, she couldn't see what to do about it.  Janus stopped for a second and sighed.  This was more depressing than her usual strategy of pray to high fucking odin someone else would show up and rescue her. 

So, Janus walked back to the side of the giant fuck off wall and simply sat down looking up at it.  She closed her eyes, and her potential future stood up, walked over tapped a spot here and then, then lined up and punched the wall.  Another potential future went to a different part of the wall and tapped a few times, hit the dam thing again, and again.  Both of her path walking images broke both hands.  So, she sent two more, looking for different spots on the wall and punching them until their fists were bloody and their arms were broken.  Thousands of path walking images later, she had barely made a dent, in any of it.  Time slowly passed as she sat there staring at the wall, viewing numbers and probabilities, hundreds of Janus' doing different things.  Yet still no spiritual energy, no strength, nothing but thousands of broken limbs to accompany them.  

The Diviner concentrated harder, maybe using the concentration would help her actually do something to them.  Nothing, literally nothing.  Though, to someone with reiatsu perception could easily tell, Janus upon Janus was smashing her body against the wall in thousands of places.  She grunted in annoyed agony as her gift started to break her mind and she promptly stopped looking at potential futures.  Janus checked her watch, an hour had passed and all she had managed to do was get around a million Janus' broken against the wall.  She looked at her fist, which was still hurting and scratched her head in annoyance.

She sent a path image to go check and see what Rick was doing as she tried to come up with some new idea.  She could, punch a baby?  Nothing really good came to mind, so while she was path walking images on the wall, she left her body sitting there, staring blankly.  Getting up and wondering over to the wall, and began tapping it again.  Though Janus made sure to keep her soul chain loosely available if she needed it, even going so far as to pull a bit of excess chain out.   The diviner's soul kept tapping on the wall in different places as her images kept breaking hands and now feet against it.  Janus  came up with a stupid new idea as she tried to listen for a weakness or something.

She grabbed her chain and tugged her body into place, quickly retrieving it next to the wall and focused on one point.  Janus sent her future self to kick and punch the wall till she was broken.  Then, unlike her normal path walking.  She had the broken image go and hang out in the pod for a while.  It went back to the same spot on the wall after healing and broke its limbs again, using nails, and bone to scrape and pound at the wall.  After it was significantly bloody enough, once again her image returned to the pod.  It returned and hit the wall again, and again. After about ten times she realized that that spot wasn't right.  She looked at her watch again as she shut down her gift.  Another hour, two hours and she hadn't gotten anywhere.  This was supremely frustrating, plus her mind was starting to crack from the amount of pain it had self inflicted.    She just had to find a spot.  She took her index finger and pointed to another spot and ran through the motions again.  Ten tries, no damage, another wasted hour.

Janus finally gave up on all that nonsense and coated her body in the same energy she used to defend against the speed of throwing her body.  In a shit fit she simply jack hammered the wall with her soul, her body following right after and cracking the dam thing after three punches.  "Fuck you wall!"

---

771

In a way, watching Janus was painful. When it came to understanding spiritual energy to a degree, it was kind of the same as crawling for a baby. It was something that should have been natural, but either way, Janus was having problems. Rick didn't know if there was any other way he could have explained it, or teach her in the first place. He was always so used to teaching Quincy, but after working with a unique spiritualist variant like Eaon, Rick figured that maybe the fundamentals of how the powers worked would be the same. Either way, if there was anything good to come of Janus's struggles, it was that the Heilkammer provided more than enough rest and recuperation at an instance in order to allow Janus to continue her training.

As Janus continued to break herself upon the wall, Rick would sometimes wonder if he could sneak in a few more openings for Janus to take advantage of.

"No, I'm pretty sure she would notice with her powers. Besides, that would be cheating after I toned it down for her sake the first time."

For now, all Rick could do was wait.

---

If anything, Rick could praise Janus's persistence. The fact that she still continued to push herself admirable, even though that most even though some results ended up becoming fruitless and prompted a visit to the healing pod during the end of it. It could be because of that reason that Rick jumped up out of his seat and screamed with joy.

"Yes! That's the way!"

Waking over and tapping Janus's back, Rick would give the woman the biggest smile, showing off his pearly whites. He was genuinely happy for her, and perhaps this meant that pretty soon, Janus was going to continue to get the hang of controlling her Reiryoku.

"I could see it the way you coated yourself with that energy as you used it to protect yourself. To be honest, I would have been happy if it only covered your hands or even feet, but covering your entire body?! I thought you said you didn't know what you were doing? Coulda fooled me. "

Looking at the remains of the wall, Rick would give a slight nod.

"To be honest with you, maybe it was a good thing that you struggled to get that wall broken. That wall, well, it could have been anything. But a wall, it's mostly a metaphor, the other side of it was the realization of what you are truly capable of accomplishing. However, even with the fact that you are able to coat your entire body with Reiryoku, I do have to admit, you need some work. It's not subtle enough, you can make it smaller, circle around your hands, feet, and I would want you to get to a point where it can engulf a single finger and cause the same amount of damage you just did with a flick. Think we can get there? Maybe not today...... but still..."

WC 502
Total WC- 3550

Janus looked at Rick like he was crazy.  The energy she had used was simply the same thing she did when she threw her soul, or jacked-out of her body.  Whatever term you wanted to use for it.  She guessed there was latent energy simply because otherwise her body would be broken being jerked around like a inner-tube trailing a ski boat.  Janus was not used to doing anything that resembled being useful and she had more than enough problems that she dealt with on a regular basis.  Her mind wandered as she lost track of the time-line she was in before moving back to the present and looking at Rick.

He looked happy, which was funny because she looked like she needed a week's vacation.  He was talking about the fact she had been fooling him, which was not true in the slightest.  Janus did not lie, it was one of her good traits, plus the truth always seemed to hurt people more.  Though her growing displeasure at the spiritual community as a whole seemed to be taking its toll on the diviner.  She sighed and relaxed as she sat down on the ground.  Having the ability to make things just appear in reality seemed a little more useful to her but at least she managed to break the thing.  Janus listened to Rick go over the metaphor nonsense and wanted to point out that being able to punch a wall means just as little as the previous when people could cinder out a city block like it was nothing.

Even though she did not care to point her actions away in metaphors, Janus still kept attentive and listened to Rick.  She was a good student, always had been, the gift helped with that but it was not the main reason she did it.  In her opinion anyone willing to give her the time, meant they were deserved just as much response in listening.  

"Just a note boss, I don't actually know how any of this works." Janus said before standing up, she once again left her body and bolted across the room, grabbing her soul chain and pulling it to catch up.  Then, she moved back to Rick and did the same thing again.  Her version of movement skills was weird as she was told, but it was useful to her.  "See, I just sort of applied the same principle by mistake, or I guess lucky not mistake.  Though I never would have thought to try it without your help.  So how do I make something that I naturally do pinpoint?  Plus, wouldn't that hurt as most things seem to have skin far harder than this wall." She asked, interested.   Blue mages seemed to have a better grasp on how energy worked than other spiritual races.

---

468

"At least you're honest about it. Even though you don't fully co prehend anything, for the time being, your body is unconsciously reacting to the actions that you are attempting. Right now, for you, it should be about repetition, only for the sake of getting used to the feeling that comes with every established achievement. Once you get used to that feeling and associate it with certain acts that you attempt, it'll be a lot easier to control the other latent powers that you have access to. Just by mastering the basics, a whole new world opens up almost instantly."

Janus said it was nothing more than a lucky mistake, but Rick just thought that the woman was being modest about her success. He was like that too at a point, his grandparents would think the world of Rick, even though Rick wouldn't make too much of a big deal about it. Even if that wasn't the case, that's how Rick would take it.

"Ah, the million dollar question, how can you compress that energy to a single point? How is it possible to keep it at the same kind of destructive potential, while keeping it small enough to even cover a single pinky finger? That, my friend, is your path to mastery when it comes to your own kind of supernatural kung fu. I can't give it away fully, but here is a little hint, which you will continue to get as I provide little training exercises for you here and there. "

Sitting back in his chair, the big boss would proceed to provide the woman more instruction.

"Well, let's put it this way, the power you are using to protect yourself from throwing your body, or even your soul in that manner; Why do you think it's set up that way? No, that is not a normal function of your power, what exists to protect you when you throw your body in such a way is reiryoku. That's exactly what it is, with the normal use of you gathering momentum as nothing more than an excuse for it to trigger. What I need to click inside of your head is that you don't need a running head start, or to even pull on your soul chain first. Janus, that power, from the getgo, was always accessible to you. You don't have to cover one point right now, that will come later. But without the help of any sort of mental vice to cover for you, I nee you to access your true strength."

Rick then recreated the same wall that Janus just broke. It was bigger this time, but the durability remained the same. It was the feeling of disbelief that Rick wanted to invoke.

"I need you to access your true strength, and break that wall with one blow. Don't fuck this up champ, you have it in you."

WC 482
Total WC 4023