The Psychic's Dilemma

"I know."

My confirmation seemed to have caught the woman off guard, probably given her plan to 'lecture' me on a 'mistake' that I had no control over.

"Mr. Tokogawa, could you please give us a moment alone?"

I asked the man nicely for a change, not wanting to disgrace him in front of his sister. However it seemed that my worries were unfounded as she yelled obscenities at the man until he finally left the room for good, giving us a private place to talk.

"So Miss Tokugawa," I continued speaking to her in as respective a tone of voice as I could manage, "what do you see?"

The woman fell silent, refusing to say a word to me until I provided her some information of my own, regarding my true intentions for this meeting.

"What do you want, boy? You know I have no power over you now considering how far you've grown. Why are you so afraid of me?"

'Afraid of her? She's absolutely wrong, in front of someone like her...'

'I'm terrified.'

I had no clue of her 'strength', or how much 'power' she truely possessed, however the little I did know about her made me absolutely terrified of her.

She was, hopefully, the only one in the world that would be able to 'defeat' the great Miyamoto Musashi with a simple kiss. 

'Hopefully she can't just conjure the dead back to life or something, at least not without a body..'

She wanted to step closer to me to get a better look, however I was already less than comfortable with the short distance we had between us. Thus I stepped back with great stride, not wanting to be caught by the woman at any cost.

"Tell me boy, why are you so scared of a little old woman? And more importantly..."

"Why the hell are you covering your mouth?"

[Sabuko Tokugawa POV]

The boy was unlike anything I had ever seen, his soul screaming out in pain every second for the great amount of pressure he had put it through.

Still, even that I could only determine from its cries rather than my 'sight'.

I was unable to so much as see past the boy's skin, it was as if his very essence was protected by the Martial God himself.

At the very least, the boy seemed pure, not growing egotistical of his strength and neither letting it affect his true nature, that was currently hidden under his 'problem'.

He had overexerted himself. It was miraculous already, how the boy had been able to accumulate such strength despite his soul not being blessed by mother Earth, however I could tell that he had reached his limit.

I still had no idea how to deal with the boy, my very soul telling me that the boy should simply not exist in this world.

The near insurmountable damage his mere presence could cause to the world's delicate order was simply too much danger to be left alone.

'The boy's still growing, fuck, he's still growing, I'm sure he'll eventually find a way even to eclipse his strength.'

'Just who is this boy, just where did he come from?'

[Kuzan POV]

"Please Miss Tokugawa, I beg of you to not tease this child anymo-"

"Boy if you're a child then I'm the undertaker, shut up and answer my questions."

"Who the hell are you?"

I had expected this question, among a litany of many others, and I had prepared accordingly despite knowing that I was clearly at a disadvantage in this exchange.

I simply had no information about her other than her character. Fortunately, that was more than enough for me to convince her of what I wanted her to 'do'.

"I don't know Miss Tokugawa."

My half-truth seemed to have worked, as she didn't catch onto my little white lie, as she clearly was still calm despite it not being fully truthful.

'Good.'

There was nearly nothing harder than negotiating with a person who you could only tell the harsh truth.

"And I simply don't care."

I continued to speak, earning a raise of one of her eyebrows.

"And I don't think you do either."

I had figured out long ago how to 'convince' this woman to teach me her 'tricks', especially considering how much my future path relied on it.

"Please answer my question as well Miss Tokugawa."

I spoke to her calmly, as if just stating a fact rather than a question.

"Don't you just want me to disappear?"

This time, the woman looked absolutely alarmed, only causing me immense joy at her reaction.

'Good.'

My entire plan relied on one critical point.

That my mere existence was somehow 'upsetting' the 'balance' of this world.

Of course I could never be absolutely sure of my deduction.

And I didn't need to for my plan to work.

All I needed to do was to generate 'fear' into the old woman's heart about my identity, which even I wasn't completely sure of at this moment.

I knew that I was still me, the 'Kuzan' who died stuck inside that hospital's front gates. I was not Melissa's 'real' brother nor was I Aunt Elizabeth's 'real' nephew. Our souls had not merged or any of that nonsense, I was absolutely sure of that at least, although I did not know exactly why.

It was just a 'feeling'.

Similarly, I had relied on that same 'feeling' to conclude that this old woman, this 'True Psychic' wouldn't take too kindly to my existence.

Fortunately, I had made the correct decision to wait until now to seek her out. Now, not only could I better 'defend' myself from any of the lady's tricks, I would also be able to protect myself in the worst case scenario.

I had not come into this meeting empty handed, bringing with me powerful deterrents that could stop the woman from playing any of her tricks.

If I did not walk out of this room safe and sound, and if I did not give some special series of confirmation codes,...

Let's just say that all hell would break loose.

I was sure that even she would not want to pay the cost of the world ending, just to get rid of me.

Of course, I had no reason to even mention that anymore considering how 'calmly' the situation had progressed, taking a world of weight off of my shoulders.

If we could cooperate under the guise of mutual benefit rather than through threat or intimidation, where was the harm in that?

The woman was still waiting for me to continue my words, clearly interested in what I had to say for myself.

I decided to drop all pretences with the woman, knowing that they would do me no good from here on out, especially if I wanted to earn her trust.

"You know, I'm not a bad guy." I spoke blandly to her, turning off my [Null Embrace] skill in God knows how long.

"And I want the exact same thing as you..."

I let my words hang in silence for a moment before I presented a few papers to the woman, with some detailed copies of my 'plans' moving forward, papers that I would be sure to burn after this meeting.

Whether she considered me crazy after reading them was only for her to decide.

[Sabuko Tokugawa POV]

'This can be true, it has to be a joke, just the mere delusions of a young boy.'

"You've gone insane."

[Kuzan POV]

I smiled at her words, for having chosen them out of everything that she could have called me.

I was starting to get a good grasp of just how much she knew, now absolutely certain that she did not have nearly as much knowledge or information as I had initially predicted.

'Looks like I was scared for nothing.'

"Will you help me, Miss Tokugawa?" I asked her plainly,

Instead of replying to me with the only 'correct' answer available to her, it looked like I had underestimated the woman's stubbornness, choosing instead to continue going around in circles with me rather than answering the damn question.

"What do you wa-"

"I already told you what I want."

This time however, I was unable to control my emotional outburst, given the severity of the situation, as well as her less than 'logical' response to the whole thing.

"Think about it, on the off chance I'm right, you'll never have to worry about me again."

"And if I'm wrong, I'm sure your brother has already told you how deeply I still respect my previous masters,..."

"as long as they don't betray me of course." I added begrudgingly under her piercing eyes that were even able to get through my thick skin.

The woman continued to deliberate her decision, as if finding it hard to find a logic in my 'plan' if you could even call it that.

'It's a Hail Mary at best.'

Still, it would be too wasteful to not give it a try.

"You might not have the talent, boy."

The woman declared after reading my proposal in more depth, finally understanding just how 'insane' I truly was.

Thankfully, having the necessary 'talent' was no longer a concern for me. 

All it took was a simple swipe of my hand, a blur of motion at near mach speed, for my nail to pierce her flesh and collect just enough blood to fulfil my original purpose for coming here.

I could tell she hadn't registered my 'attack.' Even after it was done, my hand resting gently by my side once more, she remained oblivious to the fleeting moment of contact.

[Processing Sample…]

"No need to worry about that."

[4 hours later]

It had been a truly enlightening few hours with that woman, as she continued to call me 'crazy' despite teaching me all kinds of 'voodoo witchcraft' that somehow made sense to her.

Unfortunately, it was not nearly as useful as I had expected it to be, only allowing me to communicate 'better' with 'gifted souls' as she called them. It had taken her years to master the art of 'allowing' a soul to possess her body, and years was not something that I was willing to wait.

Although I had the potential to learn that skill, and even the knowledge as she had been gracious enough to provide me with some 'teaching material' that I was sure would be banned from any public library across the world, I had much more pressing issues to deal with at the moment.

'Plus, I only ever wanted to learn one 'ability' from her.'

It wasn't the ability to bring people back from the dead, that would be far too mundane.

Rather it was quite the opposite in fact...

'Status.'

------------------------------------

[Status]

Name: Kuzan Rosan

Age: 16 years

Title: [Martial Master]

Strength: 999/1000+ (Locked)

Stamina: 999/1000+ (Locked)

Intelligence: 254/1000

Dexterity: 999/1000+ (Locked)

Will-Power: 999/1000+ (Locked)

Perception: 999/1000+ (Locked)

Skills: [All-Seeing Eye (890/1000)] [Warrior's Dominion (master)] [Null Embrace (master)] [Phantom Veil (726/1000)] [Shadowstep (master)] [Trans-species Anatomy Mastery (826/1000)] [Poison Mastery (master)] [Martial Language (master)] [Goutaijutsu (master)] [Hand Pocket (master)] [Mirror Mimicry (master)] [Ultra Instinct (master)] [Hokuha (master)] [Aiki (master)] [Shadow Boxing (master)] [Drill (master)] [Buddha Realm Within the Palm (intermediate)] [Surge (intermediate)] [Ethereal Transposition (master)]

Techniques: [Karate (master)] [Kick Boxing (master)] [Boxing (master)] [Judo (master)] [Muay Thai (master)] [Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (master)] [Wrestling (master)] [Chinese Kenpo (master)] [Xiaoli (master)] [Byaku-Rinji Kung-Fu (master)] [Iai Kenpo (master)] [Way of the Void (master)] [Martial Weapon Mastery (master)] [Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist (678/1000)] [Whirlwind Iron Cutting Fist (368/1000)]

Genes Synced: (3/3) [Primordial Homosapien] [Evolved Homosapien (Demonic Path)] [Soulweaver (Psychic Medium)]

Transformation States: [Demonic Beast (uninitialized)]

System Note (1): Host is still under critical emotion stress, unable to control his transformation state due to skew of system stats. It is recommended for the host to increase their intelligence stat to completely fix this issue.

System Note (2): Limit of natural evolution reached. Criteria for system upgrade met. Proceed to suitable habitat to evolve.

'Dreams really do come tr-'

"Ring Ring,"

"Ring Ring."

I answered my phone, not recognizing the number at first glance.

"Hello?"

"Ah! Captain Strydum...it's so nice to hear from you so soon...yes,...yes...oh don't worry Captain, I'll be right over…thanks for letting me know."

"Oh and by the way Captain..."

"I'll also be bringing along a friend..."