TeeNinja
an excerpt

"Now, focus on your core. Delve into you seirei. Immerse yourself in its power and pull it around you."
Troy took a deep breath. He sat silent for a moment, and then began trying to reach into his seirei. He discovered something inside him, when he focused. Something almost alien, but familiar altogether. He imagined taking hold of it and pulling it. It felt like he was pulling something from his chest and surrounding himself with it, like pulling a blanket up to his chin, but the blanket was generated from the calm inside him.
"Good, very good," Tosho said quietly. "Now, I want you to hold on to that feeling, but open your eyes.
Troy carefully opened his eyes.
"And now reach out your seirei towards the sphere. Wrap it around the sphere, hold it, and then push it away."
Troy took hold of the feeling around him. He slowly began to push it towards the sphere. It felt like feeding out a rope tied to an anchor into the water behind a boat, but the anchor was floating straight away from him, rather than downward, and he didn't have to use his hands to do it. He brought his seirei around the sphere on the ground like pulling a string to direct a kite. As he made contact with the sphere, it became solid in his mind. He no longer had to look at it to see it. He closed his eyes, but the sphere was still visible in the darkness behind his eyelids, as though his eyes were still open.
And with a sudden thrust, as though he was throwing a very light anchor out into the water, he pushed the sphere away. The contact was broken, and the image in his mind faded. Troy opened his eyes to see the sphere rolling away from him. It stopped a few feet from its original place.
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Troy woke up and rubbed his eyes. He sat up in his bed slowly and rubbed his head. He had a slight headache, and he felt a bit sore, but he dismissed it as sleeping funny. Then he slid his legs off the side and stood. Troy decided not to change from his pajamas yet. He shuffled out the door and down the stairs.
When he got to the kitchen, he saw his mom sitting at the table with her head in her hands.
"Mom?" Troy said.
When she looked up, her face was pale and her eyes puffy and red.
"Oh, Troy, there you are," she said. She beckoned to him and held out her hand.
Troy held her hand and she pulled him close and hugged his waist, since she was sitting down.
"Mom, what's the matter?" Troy asked, worried.
His mom looked away. "I woke up this morning aching," she said between sobs. "At first I thought I had just slept funny, but it's been getting worse. My stomach hurts and I ache all over. I think there was something wrong with that pie we ate a few days ago, the one the customer suggested we try." She looked up at him again. "Are you feeling okay?"
"Well, now that you mention it, I did wake up a bit sore," Troy said.
His mom teared up and sighed. He put her head in her hands and started sobbing again.
Troy pulled a chair over and went to sit. He suddenly realized he couldn't. His back ached when he tried, but his legs seemed to be locked. His mom looked up and saw him. Fresh tears began to flow from her eyes.
Troy realized what was happening. "Have you contacted the Poison Control Center or called 9-1-1?" Troy asked her.
She shook her head slightly. "I sat down here for a moment and I haven't been able to get back up since. I haven't even opened the store yet." Troy knew what that meant; no customers would be coming in to help them.
Troy felt a sudden pang in his gut. His knees temporarily unlocked and he collapsed backwards into the chair before they seized up again. The pain struck Troy again. He doubled over, closing his eyes as though it would help take some of the pain away. The chair slid out from under him. Troy fell to the floor by his mom's chair. She cried above him. He felt her hand on his head.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I never should have taken the pie from that man."
Something nagged at Troy when he heard that, but was covered up by the thudding pain hammering the inside of Troy's skull. Then it came back. The pie. There was something strange about it. Then...
The memory came back almost as powerfully as the pain.
Troy never ate the pie. His mom threw all of it away. Troy felt the throbbing in his head recede slightly. He opened his eyes and looked up at his mom. She looked down at him, her eyes were teared, but the tears couldn't quite mask the pain in her eyes. Troy lifted his head slightly. His mom's eyes seemed to grow wider.
"W-What are you doing?" she asked.
Troy didn't answer. He fended off the pain in his head with the memory he knew to be true. The pain continued to subside until Troy could begin to think clearly again. Troy's aches disappeared, slowly sliding away into nothing, relinquishing their hold over Troy's limbs.
As soon as he could, Troy began to stand, using his chair as a crutch to pull himself to his feet.
"What are you doing?" Troy heard his mom ask again. Something in her tone sent off a warning signal in the back of Troy's mind. When he was finally upright, Troy turned to her.
"Mom--" Troy began to say, but she interrupted him.
"But, the pie, and the poison. You were sick. Dying. How are you--" she said. Troy interrupted her back.
"Mom, we never ate the pie, remember? I said there was something wrong with it. You threw it all away. We never even tasted it." As he talked, Troy felt himself get stronger.
His mom suddenly slid her chair back away from the table with a burst. She stood and slammed her fists down on the table with one motion.
"No!" she shouted. "You were sick! You ate the pie and now we're dying!"
Her forcefulness made Troy take a step back, and he even doubted himself for a moment. As soon as he did, he felt the ache in his gut. But he fought back against the feeling. He was sure now. Even his mom couldn't make him think otherwise. Troy straightened up and faced her.
"How dare you call me a liar!" Troy's mom continued her rampage. She stomped away from the table, knocking the chair onto its side with a crash. Troy thought he saw something shift in the shadows behind her, but then it was gone.
"This pie, the one the man gave me the recipe and ingredients to make," Troy's mom said, "the one I prepared and cooked." She pulled a pie out of the oven and set it on the counter with a slam. She pulled forks out of the drawer and stabbed them into the pie, carving out chunks. "We ate it. We cut it up and ate it!"
Troy found himself holding a plate with a piece of pie on it.
"You cut a piece off it. You ate it. 'This is good!' you said!" his mom said.
And Troy was. There was a piece of pie on his fork. It was almost in his mouth when he glanced over at his mom. She watched him, or rather, the piece of pie, as if she were willing it to go into Troy's mouth. That snapped him out of it. He set the fork on the plate and put the plate on the counter.
Troy watched his mom's expression go from astonishment, to disappointment, and finally to anger.
"How could you?" she asked Troy. "How could you believe this fantasy?"
"No, Mom. This is the fantasy," Troy said, motioning to the pie.
Her face reddened slightly. She shook in anger, then screamed and threw the fork in her hand at Troy.
Troy faltered. He hadn't expected that. He only had enough time to bring his hand up to ward off the flying silverware. Then suddenly there were prongs sticking out of his hand. Troy was stunned. He lowered his hand slightly. He saw his mom looking at him. For a moment, her expression switched to astonishment, a realization of what she had just done, but then it was gone, replaced once more by the seething anger.
Time seemed to have slowed as Troy looked down at the shiny cutlery protruding from his palm. He was still stunned, but also slightly puzzled. It didn't hurt. In fact, he hadn't even felt it hit his hand. As he looked closer at the back of his hand, he saw there wasn't any blood on the prongs. Troy carefully touched the fork handle. He felt the fork move, but it was more like a dull throb of a bruised knee than the sharp pain of a broken ankle.
And reluctantly, Troy grabbed the handle and pulled quickly, like pulling off a Band-Aid that had been on too long. Again, he felt it, but there was no searing pain, no writhing on the ground holding his hand. Troy looked at his palm. There was no mark.
And then everything came to Troy. He spoke to the man with the message. He went into the dojo. Then he went home. His mom got back from shopping. She went to bed. Tosho and Kaichi came over. Troy began the scan of his mom's seirei. And then he woke up in his bed. He realized now what this was.
Troy looked up at his mom. He held out his hand, palm up, and the fork. Then he let the fork drop.
And her expression changed again. She was stunned for a moment, then her eyes grew big, almost with fear. "How...?" she began, but she never finished her question.
"Dreams have almost no boundaries, limited only by the dreamer. And this," Troy said, motioning to the kitchen, "is just that. A dream. However, this is not my dream. It's not yours, either, mom, even though you are the one having the dream. This is the dream of someone else completely."
His mom reacted by stomping forcefully. "No! No!"
Troy was almost certain he saw something move behind her. But as she continued to stomp, the image behind her became clearer and clearer. There was some kind of tall, gangly creature standing behind her, mimicking her actions. But Troy realized it wasn't mimicking her; she was mimicking the creature. Suddenly she stopped stomping.
"You," she said, pointing. The thing behind her spoke and pointed at the same time. "You have ruined everything!" The two shouted with combined voices. With a roar, the creature broke away from Troy's mom, knocking her aside, screaming. She slid up against the corner of the cabinets as the creature pounced on Troy.
The thing was much taller than Troy. It was grey, and had two curling horns like a goat. It pinned Troy down, holding his legs and arms against the floor. Troy struggled, but it gripped him tightly with both hands and feet like a monkey.
Troy felt something grab the sides of his head. He looked around the best he could, but he didn't see anything. Whatever it was, it lifted his head, then slammed him back down with a crack. Troy shouted in pain. He realized the creature on him was using its seirei. Troy was now dealing not with four long limbs, but six.
Troy's head was lifted again and smashed to the floor a second time. The contact dazed Troy. His head cleared, just to be lifted a third time. Troy could do nothing but wait for the fatal crack. He closed his eyes.
His head thumped against something soft.
Troy opened his eyes. The face of the creature was scrunched up in confusion. It thumped his head down again, and again. Troy would have laughed, if it weren't for the throb in the back of his head. He realized he needed to think of something to break him free before the creature thought of something to kill him.
Troy began to gather his seirei. He thrust it against the creature's. Then suddenly his seirei was pulled away, absorbed by the creature. It seemed only to make it stronger. The thing barked a laugh.
Then Troy had an idea.
Troy readied his seirei again. He gathered up a force, then let out a small tendril, slithering it towards the creature. He wiggled it there, like teasing a cat with a feather.
The creature paused. Troy saw it resisting. Then suddenly it lunged with its seirei, releasing Troy's head and latching onto his seirei.
As soon as Troy felt the creature grab his seirei, he threw the rest of the force he'd gathered at it, layering it on the creature's seirei. They began a tug-of-war. Troy had a slight advantage; he was using more power. On the downside, if Troy were to lose, then he'd have nothing left to defend himself with.
The battle seemed to go back and forth forever. Troy didn't know how much longer he could keep it up. But he also felt the creature's hold on him slowly slipping.
Troy was wearing down. He needed to do something. He pulled hard on the creature's seirei. Then suddenly he stopped. The creature reeled back, off of Troy. He felt it draining him, but it was stunned. He took advantage of its surprise. Re-gathering his strength, he pulled as hard as he could. The tide had turned in his favor. Troy felt his seirei returning, along with the creature's. Troy continued to pull, trying to bring the creature's seirei into his own. And finally he had it.
A tingling feeling crawled along Troy's arms and legs and down his spine. At first he thought it was an attack from the creature, but the thing was too busy struggling on the ground. As Troy absorbed more of the creature's seirei, the feeling intensified until his arms and legs were numb with a burning sensation.
Troy began to have trouble controlling his seirei. It leaped away from him in spurts. The floor sizzled where his seirei struck. Troy suddenly remembered the battle between Ayo Tan and Tosho the day Troy's seirei awoke, and how Ayo Tan had seemingly destroyed himself.
Troy was getting too much power. He stopped pulling the creature's seirei into his own. The creature feebly yanked on his, but to no avail.
Troy needed to release the energy that was causing the burning. And what better way to do so than to use the creature's seirei on itself, Troy thought. He thrust out his seirei, lifting the creature into the air. It clawed and struggled, but couldn't do anything against Troy's powerful, ethereal seirei. Troy held out his arm and channeled some of the power through it. A glowing shape appeared in Troy's hand. He swung the seirei like a club. Troy didn't know if it would do anything, but apparently it did. It struck the creature's shoulder, making the creature wince.
The creature looked down at Troy and hissed. It was cut short by a strike across the jaw from Troy's seirei club.
"Looks like the thing’s sprung a leak!" Troy said with a laugh.
"I will have you suffer greatly, you pathetic, useless human!" the creature said.
Troy gave the creature a quick rap on the side of the head. "Now, now! Don't forget who's holding who."
Troy swung again, but the creature snapped out its arm and grabbed the club. It yanked it from his grasp and tried to swing it at Troy, but the moment the club left Troy's hand, it dissipated and disappeared. The creature swung its arms in anger.
Troy held out his arm again and channeled power through. Troy gripped the handle of his new sword as the blade formed. Again, Troy wasn't sure how effective it would be. But by the look in the creature's eyes, it would be enough.
Troy lunged at the creature as it brought up its arms. Troy slashed, but met a wall of resistance. He hacked and stabbed. Suddenly it collapsed and the creature dropped its arms.
Troy panted. He brought up the sword again. The creature raised one of its arms. Troy slashed at it. The creature howled and yanked its arm back. At first it looked like nothing had happened, but when Troy looked closer, he saw a glowing line tracing the creature's arm where he had slashed it. Troy swung the sword again. Another line snaked across the creature's chest.
"Stay...away...from...my...mom!" Troy shouted, accenting each word with a slash. The creature's chest began to look like a tic-tac-toe board.
And with a final thrust, Troy drove the sword up to its hilt into the creature. He took a step back and the sword disappeared, leaving a glowing slit in the creature's chest.
Troy pulled back the rest of his seirei, letting the creature drop to the ground. A bit of the power he'd gotten from the creature had been expending, but his arms and legs still itched.
Troy watched as the creature began writhing on the ground. It stretched out its arms toward Troy's mom, who tried to slide further away from it into the corner.
Suddenly the creature howled again. Its image grew fuzzy, and it slowly began to disappear. A fog enveloped the creature. Suddenly the fog burst outward, knocking Troy backwards. He barely kept his balance.
The room around Troy began to become warped. Everything seemed to move away from Troy, as though he was watching it all happen through a telescope. The ground under Troy's feet shifted, and he fell.