GxG 10
Kunou dragged me across the estate we were currently in, tugging my sleeve through the winding hallways while happily talking my ear off.
"And this is mama's official tea room, for when we have to be fancy for official guests" she said while pointing to an ornate looking set of double doors with her free hand.
"What is that room?" I asked as we passed a suspiciously ordinary door.
"Oh, that's one of the bait vaults." She totally brushed that off, like it's totally normal. Like a bait vault is just part of a normal 2 bedroom house.
"Should you be telling me that?" Seems like important information that should be secret. I hope neither of us get in trouble because she told me.
"Nah, its fine. There is nothing in there except traps and some cursed objects. Mama made me memorize all of the dangerous parts of the house a long time ago." She cheerfully explained. That is good to know, but not what I was worried about.
"No, I mean shouldn't the fact it's a fake vault be a secret?"
Kunou stopped walking, and turned to face me.
"It's fine, we are friends and I trust you, Nathan." She said with a giant smile, before pulling my sleeve again towards the door at the end of the hallway we are in.
My heart. Kunou may be too pure for this world.
One thing I've noticed recently as I've been spending time with Kunou these last few days is that I've been changing.
This isn't a recent thing, but looking back with my perfect memories and enhanced mind I can see the gradual changes.
When I first reincarnated, if I was asked I would have put my old identity as my primary one. I would have said I was a grown man in an infant's body.
Little things over time though, combined with how carefree - and dare I say - childish I have been recently has forced me to reconsider.
I think the fact my perfect memory only goes back until I was 6 months old, missing my last life entirely, combined with the fact my current body just isn't very developed has led to my current life as Nathan Meyer to be my primary identity.
I guess my Body mote making me physically perfect didn't help the fact I am still a child, with my brain running on child wetware.
I've spent some time thinking, and I think I'm perfectly ok with this development. Embracing my new life fully, even if that means spending time being a kid again. With the way my motes work, I can be as lazy as I want with training too, so I'm not missing out on anything while enjoying life either.
I don't think I'm going to try dating until I'm at least 18 though. The adult memories are still there, even if blurry, so dating anyone my age would be weird so I'm just going to ignore the problem entirely.
Shaking off those stray thoughts, Kunou finally pushed open the door and dragged me though into the open air.
"Here is the garden! Mama says everyone needs a hobby, and her garden doubles as her senjutsu practice."
What a garden it was. We currently stood near the entrance, with a path that leads further in. There are smaller bushes and flowers lining the path, and some larger trees framing the whole area.
Kunou was waving her arms around while pointing at all the nearby plants, listing off what she remembers about them. This means I got the possible name and definite color for many different flowers.
I have never seen someone say "I don't remember what this flower is called, but it is blue!" with such joy and conviction before.
When we got near the center of the garden, there was a pond with some aquatic plants. By this time, Kunou had slowed down talking a bit, having tired herself out a bit from non-stop pointing and talking.
While she sat down on a rather ornate bench to rest, I went to the ponds edge and sank into meditation. What I sensed was beyond words.
When Kunou said that the garden was her mom's senjutsu practice, I thought she meant like singular applications to keep the plants supernaturally pretty and healthy or something along those lines.
So far everything Kunou has showed me was supernaturally beautiful. The cherry blossoms she had mentioned earlier? The most breathtaking sight I have ever seen. I think the petals were made of literal magic, as they were fluttering in such numbers that it would leave the tree bare in minutes otherwise. But compared to what I'm sensing now?
Dull.
My Lifeforce Sense and Lifeforce Manipulation have grown immensely since I first got them. My ability to sense natural energy in high fidelity is much better than that first time in the park, and I have been practicing with external movement of natural energy without absorbing it too.
What I can do is nothing compared to what I'm seeing now.
Every corner of the garden is part of the whole. I can feel the natural energy cycling through the garden, down the paths, along the roots, up the trunks, everywhere. It's like how when I was first observing the natural energy in the park, how the path the natural energy took was slightly altered by the nearby trees. The garden is like that, but turned up to 11 and converted into an art form.
Each and every plant in this garden was hand crafted, and holds an immense amount of lifeforce. This causes them to have a much greater effect on the surrounding natural energy flow, and combined with a level of skill that will take me years to replicate, causes the entire place to breathe.
At least my Lifeforce Manipulation is loving everything I see, with my perfect memory cataloging everything for later experimentation.
Those cherry blossom trees I thought must be magical earlier? They are full on natural energy dynamos.
I can sense them drawing energy from deep below with their roots, and releasing it into the garden to be further adjusted and manipulated by all the bushes and flowers nearby.
You would think such a scene would be chaotic and busy, but it is surprisingly calming. Everything is in harmony with each other.
Ah. That's it.
Harmony.
This is Yasaka's senjutsu practice not just because growing plants is core aspect of senjutsu, but because of the harmony. I can't even imagine what it would take to balance this whole garden, with so many different plants of varying natures. Every single plant interacts with natural energy slightly differently, and a large enough mistake could cascade out and ruin the whole system.
While I was taking in the glorious sight, Kunou must have decided she's rested enough and trotted over to me.
"Hey, I want to show you something, but you have to promise not to laugh." She was super serious too, but not in a bad way so I easily agreed.
"I could never laugh at you." I was super serious back.
Kunou looked at me searchingly. "Good." She said nodding before trying to grab my sleeve to pull me again, but missing and grabbing my hand.
She had already been walking away, and I don't think she noticed.
I was dragged to a small corner of the garden, and since I was more aware of the natural energy flow I noticed how it was lighter in this corner by orders of magnitudes.
We stopped walking in front of some flowers. They were a little smaller than other flowers in the garden, a little less vibrant.
"This is- Ah!" She noticed she was holding my hand, and now she's embarrassed. How cute, one tail is hiding her face while the rest wag. Kunou quickly got over herself though, giving her cheeks a soft clap with both hands.
"Ahem! This is my garden, where Mama makes me practice senjutsu. I'm not as good as Mama is, and can't make them stay pretty on their own yet." She explained, somewhat frustrated in herself for not matching her mom yet. I could see what she meant too, as the flowers just didn't flow with each other like the rest of the garden did. The natural energy knotted on itself and sputtered aimlessly rather than doing anything.
"The flowers are still so pretty, Kunou. How did you get them to look so healthy? I know a tiny bit of senjutsu, but I haven't done anything like this." I asked honestly. I wasn't trying to flatter her, as the flowers were still beautiful.
Kunou's face lit up before she turned and crouched in front of the flowers, with her palms out.
"Watch what I do! I can't make the flowers stay pretty, but I can still make them pretty!" She was deep in focus now, and she was even sticking her tongue out in concentration.
So cute!
I watched as she gently guided a few wisps of natural energy from the air around us, mixing them gently into the flowers' lifeforce. This caused them all to effectively perk up like a houseplant that hadn't been watered in weeks, and also caused the colors to pop more.
"Mama says it's easy to do senjutsu with plants because they have no souls to fight against when interacting with their lifeforce." That is probably very important information, I'll remember that for later.
Then I watched her drag another wisp and attempt to... draw a line between two flowers? This must be the basic version of whatever the hell Yasaka has going on in her garden.
Sadly for Kunou, before she could finish whatever she was trying the natural energy wisp grew unstable and dissipated back into the surroundings.
She knew she failed too, as her ears folded down and her tails flopped sadly.
"Aww, I thought for sure that was the time." She turned to me with a frankly lethal pout.
"Hey, the flowers are super pretty though. I think you did great! Better than me at least." My words worked, as she got a sunny smile again.
"You're right. I am better than you. Queen Kunou is the best at everything." Where this pride came from, I have no idea. Where she learned to point her nose like that is anyone's guess, it must hurt her neck to point her nose so high.
"Queen Kunou, huh?" Came a deadpan voice behind us.
"Eep!" Wow, can she jump.
"Mamaaaa, don't scare me like that." I would say she shouldn't whine, but that scared me too.
How does such a powerful person move so stealthily?
"Hello Ma'am, are you done your work?" I asked politely. I was still a guest after all.
"Yes, I just came to get you two. It is getting late. Both of you need to be cleaned up after spending all day in the garden." All day? Huh, the sun is looking pretty low now that I actually look.
"I don't need a bath. Anything but a bath. Drying my tails is the worst!" I can understand that, but I do like baths. Short hair and no tails makes it easy though.
"Maybe if you actually focused on your studies, you could actually use your foxfire to dry yourself, like I have been saying" Yasaka chided. I have the feeling this isn't the first time they have had this conversation.
"But foxfire is so boring. Illusions are much more fun." Illusions don't help you get dry.
"Illusions don't help you get dry." Yasaka deadpanned. Huh, coincidence?
"Grrrrrr." Wow, I didn't think kids growled like that.
Yasaka sighed before picking us both up with a tail.
"Nathan dear, you can clean yourself. There is a set of pajamas ready for you once you are done."
"Thank you Ma'am." Thank everything she's letting me clean myself.
After she dropped me off and dragged a squirming Kunou deeper... somewhere I quickly cleaned myself and then wore the pajamas.
Walking into the guest room I had been shown when I first came here to drop off my bag before the lessons, Kunou was already waiting in her pajamas and a bowl of popcorn.
"Mama says we can watch some cartoons before bed. Anything except Magical Girl Levi-tan. I don't know why she won't let me watch that show, all my friends do." She didn't actually sound too upset though. The name seems innocent, I wonder what the problem is?
"That sounds like fun, I'll let you pick." She smiled too quickly, she must already had a plan for what to watch.
She ended up picking a different magical girl show, this one featured totally-not-yokai.
We both drifted off to the sounds of friendship and transformation sequences.