GxG 6
With the plane finally touching down on the tarmac I was practically vibrating in my seat. My dad was set to fly business class, so we bought 2 more seats. I got the window seat and the clouds were beautiful. The flight left early in the morning and we touched down around lunchtime in Japan.
Catching a taxi and checking into our hotel was easy as it was all chartered through my father's work, so we did not have to deal with any hassles. Just from the short car ride I could honestly say Kyoto was a wonderful, if busy, city.
Compared to the suburbs where I have spent my whole life so far, Kyoto was infinitely more active and vibrant. People existed more than they did out in the suburbs. There was just more life per square foot, it was that kind of feeling.
Well, the natural energy was also denser here than back home, so maybe there was more life.
After a few hours of unpacking, settling in, and getting a feel for the area we were in. With the cherry blossoms blooming the whole place was feeling a little festive. It wasn't the actual festival yet, there were still a few days until then, but the buildup and preparations could be felt in the air.
I was having fun going around with my parents, having treats at all the tourist shops and buying souvenirs when I felt it.
Quite literally a bundle of sunshine darted through the crowd, making a beeline for the alley between the mochi shop I had just came out of and its neighbor.
Close on its heels was what could only be described as a humanoid swamp was pushing its way through the crowd on the street, but was taking care not to be too frantic and draw attention.
My first reaction was to just ignore it, like that icky lightbulb man I saw before, but 2 things stopped me.
The first was that the sunshine felt young. About as old as me, give or take a few months older maybe. I had learned to sense age with my Lifeforce Sense while I was trying to mimic a normal child's lifeforce, and with a large sample size of the local population and the mote training in that direction for a few weeks, I have gotten a pretty good feel for it.
The second was that I actually wanted to dip my toes into the supernatural finally. With my Body, Ki, and Lifeforce Manipulation motes having boosted my combat power very high.
I think it's very high at least, I have nothing to compare it to. My raw strength is enough to punch through a tree, but Physics says that's partially because of my tiny child hands, while Ki enhancement lets me crush granite pebbles into fine powder.
While I tried to keep my Ki compressed and pure, my Body training combined with aging has caused my Ki volume to swell to over 5 times what it was. Multiply that by the increase in quality over a year of condensing and purifying my Ki, and add that on top of the fine control I have, I'm able to output some serious power.
All this means that 5 year old me has more Ki than the swamp thing, as while he has more volume from age, it is very scattered and impure. It's almost like it has multiple different Ki's, as I have never had impurities like that.
Curiously, the sunshine has less Ki than me overall, the purity is off the charts. It would take me years to approach that level, even with my motes.
Making my decision, I prayed for my future self to survive my parents wrath before I shook my hand out of my mother's and dashed into the crowd. Her cry of alarm was lost into the general roar of the pedestrians around me.
Suppressing my Ki as much as I could, I followed my two targets into the alley. To the sunshine's disappointment and panic, the alley was blocked by a padlocked fence gate.
I heard them as I saw them.
"Hehehe princess, you shouldn't be alone like this when it's dark out, someone might eat you up." wow, even his voice sounded swampy. I didn't even know that was possible.
"Don't come any closer. Mama said bad yokai go to Yomi. I have to get home soon." said the clearly panicking little girl. Bright blonde hair, 2 fox ears and 9 tails that were ramrod straight were her defining features.
"Che, you don't get it do you. A little nine tailed fox, born blessed by the heavens with unimaginable power. I'll never get a chance like this again. Consuming you for even a fraction of that potential is worth hiding from your mother, little fox. Won't even be that hard since she's tied to the leylines, stupid broad."
Wow, what a villain speech. Laid out his plans and motivations, and he even started yelling and sounding unhinged near the end. Even more unhinged I guess, since he's clearly planning to eat a little girl. The girl must have realized this guy was really off his rocker too, as she started to panic even more.
"Help! I want my mama! Get away!" I guess this was my time to swoop in. Picking a rock off the ground, I whipped it at a trash can down the alley causing the what I could now see was a kappa to look away from the girl, but not towards me.
Pushing off into a Ki enhanced sprint I was behind him in an instant. He was opening his mouth, probably to say something stupid and cliche like "who goes there" or "show yourself", but he didn't get the chance.
Once I was near him I focused most of my Ki into my leg, wound up, and bicycle kicked him right in the junk.
I would have done something cooler, but I'm not so arrogant to ignore my total lack of combat experience. Getting the girl away from this turtle creep was the goal.
With the kappa out of fight for the moment, I ran past him to the shocked girl and grabbed her hand.
"Let's get out of here." she was still out of it so I had to pull her out of the alley and into the crowd.
"Ah? What? Who are you?" she asked when her mind finally caught up to what was happening.
"Hi, I'm Nathan. I kicked that creepy guy and now we are running. Who are you?" I was able to loosen my grip as she was now running with me instead of being dragged
"Thank you for your help Nathan. My name is Kunou, daughter of Yasaka." she said that like I have any idea who Yasaka is, so I said as much.
"I don't know who that is. That guy said you're a princess, shouldn't you have guards or maids or something?" She actually had the gall to look sheepish when I asked that.
"I may have run away from them. My illusions are the best!"
"If they are so good, why didn't you use them on the kappa?"
"Stupid meanie marked me with his yoki so he could just follow me through any illusions I made." She seemed really upset by that.
"Oh, I think he should be down for a little longer, but do you have somewhere to go?"
Delivering a princess should get me some good info on the supernatural. Basic Ki training should be better than the blind fumbling I'm doing now.
While Kunou was looking around, clearly trying to figure out where we were so she could tell us where to go, disaster struck.
A whole supernova appeared behind us, I didn't sense it at all. It wasn't there, and then it was.
I was still holding Kunou's hand as we were two little kids in a crowd, so with my limited mental enhancements I did what little I could. I dove to cover Kunou.
I couldn't even do that, as before I left the ground something lashed out and wrapped me up, with another wrapping and lifting Kunou.
I thought we were screwed. My mind was racing. What if the Kappa wasn't alone. What if this was something else. It was clearly trying to capture us alive, maybe a hostage situation? Kunou said she was a princess. Maybe it was-
"Mama! You came!" My mind screeched to a halt. Mama?
My confusion must have shown on my face, because what I now realized was a fox tail had brought me up to eye level with a very amused set of golden eyes.
"Hello there." was all she said.
I'm in danger.