Crystals and light [P]

Everything felt right, so perfectly right. The heat was bearable despite the sun being high in the sky thanks in large part to a gentle breeze that blew through the open windows of Hoshigakure's academy. To be clear this was not any old academy. Yes, its purpose was much the same, to teach. However, in this building children were taught to fight and think on their feet; this was a shinobi school, the only in the land blessed by the stars.

Sitting in an empty classroom with a varying array of books strewn about in front of him Lucian was content. Normally he would have read in a more public place, but the contents of the books were not exactly normal. No, there was nothing dirty in them, but the contents could very well cause a riot in the village if shown to the right people. These books spoke of the shinobi arts and the shinobi of Hoshigakure were not very highly regarded in the village. Thus, it only made sense to Lucian that he read such literature in the confines of a building dedicated to its teaching and away from prying eyes.

It also helped that there was no class that day, so he had the whole room to himself. The room itself had an interesting architecture such that there were windows on either side of the room, but not the back or front of it. Perhaps it was meant to make the teacher seem more intimidating? Or just someones attempt at a new style? Lucian couldn't be sure, but he did enjoy the natural light by which he read. As for sounds all he heard was the dull thud of a kunai or two impacting the targets just outside the classroom no doubt coming from some industrious student working to perfect their technique; even the hustle and bustle of the main streets seemed to die away as he read.

Now, what was he reading might you ask? He read of stars, space and time, ya know, normal everyday things. Long ago one of the Nazar elders spoke of meditating and reaching another world entirely. At the time Lucian took the story to be a just that a story, but with all he had seen in the world thus far he began to question that just a bit. And where does one go when they have questions? Why, the library, of course.

Lucian's quest to the library was not exactly as fruitful as he would have liked. Unfortunately, there was no 'who do I achieve enlightenment and see if my elders were right' section. As such he spent more than a few hours scanning the tall stacks of books. What he found was a bit discouraging. The books were either unofficial journals or quite old. That said, they were all he had, so he checked them out after swearing no harm would come to them to the suspicious librarian.

Truth be told everything he had read so far made his head hurt. The journal was written in messy shorthand and sometimes stained with god knows what. It was written by some man by the name of Geruta Nazuhami, a monk from what Lucian could gather. He appeared to be talking about going to see his god. A bit crazy? Sure, but he also seemed to be reasonably intelligent from what the Nazar had read thus far. Plus the details he had were incredible, the ability to use chakra to bend space and distort time.

Interestingly Geruta seemed to have some command of chakra, which was an oddity in Hoshigakure and his studies seemed to be have been done in secret. Ironically enough Lucian was still basically reading it in secret. Times really didn't change all that much. Finishing a particular part where Geruta mentioned being close to his goal, Lucian put the journal down for a bit; reading the script for too long did murder on his eyes.

Pushing up from his chair, he walked to one of the windows and looked out at the field below. In the distance he could see the main roads filled with people. Yet here, directly outside the academy, there was hardly a soul. Many people of Hoshigakure avoided the place believing to be cursed. or, worse yet, that the shinobi there would kidnap them and eat their souls. Ah, superstitions.

For now though, all that left Lucian's mind and he enjoyed the warm sun on his face and bald head. Were anybody around to see him they would probably not see the Lucian that had left Funkagakure all those months ago. Instead he stood a bit straighter with a maroon shirt covered up by a chuunin flak jacket accented by a pair of worn brown pants that looked almost like canvas. Oh, and of course, there was the dully metallic headband of Hoshigakure around his neck. It was odd to think how far he had come in such a short time.

Shaking his head Lucian returned to his desk and picked up the journal. Flipping to the next page he could not suppress the sight that escaped from his mouth when he found the rest of the journal was blank. So, much for progress, right? The next couple hours kept the boy busy with more reading. The other books he had talked mostly of summons. Lucian's knowledge of summons was limited, but the books did help to increase that pool of knowledge by quite a bit.

Before he had known summons were essentially animals of some sort that a shinobi could call upon to fight for him or her. However, he quickly learned that there was more to them than that. Summons often had personalities and even homes, but what was most interesting was where these homes were. Some summons seemed to live in their own space. No, space was not the right word for it, dimension was. The book used the word liberally. One summoned giant animals to fight for them from what was basically other worlds.  

It was the other worlds idea that interested Lucian most of all. Perhaps the elder he had talked with had accidentally entered one of these dimensions? That would account for the 'different' world he supposedly saw. Then again to enter a summon's dimension one required a contract with them, so he was not too sure what to think of it. His head was hurting again.

All he had really learned came from the journal. Geruta meticulously detailed exercises he went through to distort time and then he up and disappeared. More than a bit frustrated Lucian pushed back in his chair starred at the ceiling. Someone had thrown what looked like pencils up there as one was still stuck there. Man, did people have nothing better to do? Getting up and standing n his chair he pulled the pencil from the ceiling and placed it on the desk in front of him.

With nothing else to do he figured he might as well try Geruta's exercises thought they seemed rather improbable. The exercise basically consisted of dropping an object and slowing its descent by stalling time or increasing the distance it had to fall. The whole concept sounded pretty complicated, but what did he have to lose? Luckily no one was around to see him make a fool of himself.

Picking up the pencil he had just pulled from the ceiling he dropped it just to see how quickly it fell normally. The whole affair ended with the pencil on the desk and then again on the ground. Picking it up again he prepared the process again. With the pencil in his right hand he held his left hand out and started to release chakra from it. He was not sure what he was supposed to do at this point so he dropped the pencil and it feel at the same speed as before. Though this time he caught it before it fell to the floor.

This was going to take a while.

A few more hours passed and the sun began to dip below the horizon. No progress had been made at all and Lucian was starting to feel the strain of the chakra he had been expending so freely. He had tried just about everything he could think of. It was time to pack it up. He had missed lunch and it was bumping up on dinner.

Shuffling all his books into a bag he slung it over his shoulder and left the classroom for the first time in eight hours. The streets had calmed down considerably and lanterns were being put out everywhere to light the way for Hoshigakure's night life. Following the flow of people, Lucian arrived at one of his more favorite places to eat. It was a small out of the way ramen shop run by an elderly couple. They did not get much business, just enough to get by and Lucian liked to stop by when he could. Plus, they made damn good food.

Taking a seat that gave him a view of the people walking by he ordered whatever the special was, something with pork. As he waited he reviewed his failures. he had expended so much chakra and effort yet nothing. His every fiber had been focused on slowing the fall of the pencil yet he had failed time and time again. It was quite discouraging.

Luckily, he was broken from such a harmful line of thought by his order arriving. As the elderly woman was pouring a glass of water the pitcher fell from her hands. For a moment it felt like time stopped. Lucian reached out his hand, the old ladies face was held in shock, but then it all sped up. Somehow the Nazar found his hands gripping the pitcher with ease and it was not as a result of his shinobi reflexes. He had reached out for the falling pitcher and it had slowed; he had done it.

Telling the apologizing old lady it was fine, Lucian handed her back the pitcher and returned to his dinner. Slurping away at the noodles with a blissful look on his face. He had done it, but more importantly he knew how he had done it. Instead of focusing all his will on slowing the object he had simply relaxed. It was odd how far a little relaxation would go. It seemed harnessing space and time was a lot like meditation: if you thought about it you got no where. The only way to go about it was by letting go.

Finishing his ramen the Nazar boy paid for his meal and was on his way. He walked home at a little less than a run and he almost pulled out the pencil again, but thought better of it in public. He couldn't have a riot starting on his account. So, he waited till arriving back at his apartment. Once there he all but ripped the pencil from his bag and threw it up into the air.

Without even thinking he reached out his hand and watched as the pencil fell like a feather to the floor. No, he had not stopped its descent, but that was not the point. The point was to slow time not stop it. Gerude had mentioned that stopping time would be impossible, only slowing as time itself could never stop-at least in this dimension.

The rest of the night was spent going what else but slowing objects? He found that it was almost impossible to slow larger objects in the slightest, so it would not be helpful on say a human, but for pencils and the like it was great. Eventually, however, he found his eyelids drooping and his body aching from use of chakra. Soon sleep became irresistible and he drifted off into a sleep filled with the odd handwriting of a journal of the past. Unbeknownst to the Nazar he had started down a path from which he could not break from. In the morning his world would be different, but for now he slept. For now he dreamed.

[WC: 2023, +10 Stats and Space-Time Spec obtained. Topic closed.]