: Filter

After telling the brats to rest while I lit the fire, with Synchro of course, I basically have magic and no reason not to use it for pure and simple convenience, wait, I had a reason not to use Synchro when I was disguised as a civilian waiting my notoriety to be partially forgotten.

And most importantly, looking for a way to block or at least interfere with the influence that the six paths have on me.

Baha prepares a makeshift bed with cloths and Mingten begins to meditate.

Wind Ki, I've seen her use it when she made the dust cloud against Baha, but, the last attack was different, more destructive and still extremely focused, the frequency I 'saw' in the sixth sense reminds me of nuclear fission.

I don't think it's that, but it's resemblance disturbs me.

I wonder if there is a lapis stone capable of replicating this energy?

Ahh! Whatever I already have too much work in proportion to my laziness taking care of and training the two brats, I definitely don't need to add a treasure hunt.

Sleep well, you guys, tomorrow will be fun for me.

Since I won't be able to sleep, I'll be minimally productive, practicing 'Eight Demons of the Mind'

I wanted to train something other than fear, like arrogance or anger, but the former is not very practical and the latter tends to cause a lot of collateral damage, especially in humans.

I think I'll use 'fear' as usual.

I let myself sink into the memories, when I feel like I'm halfway through I can see the dark room and the me from a long time ago staring at me with empty eyes.

Hugh, were my eyes that uncomfortable to look at or is it an effect caused by using 'fear'?

The first one, when I manage to calm down the answer comes quickly to my mind, it was bizarre to even look at my reflection in the mirror back then, of course it's the first one.

As the excitement of teasing the brats wears off, my mind cools and I take a closer look at my room.

"Is your visit over for today? Aren't you going to look at some of your memories?"

The self that is the incarnation of my traumas designed by myself to make it easier to sync up with abstract things like fear speaks pointing to the notebook on the desk in front of him.

"No. I'm just doing it to keep my senses sharp since I'm getting back on track."

"With your paranoia? You never left this world of hunting and being hunted, you just ran away longer than usual."

Ahh, I think I might end up getting schizophrenic if I start treating the construct like a real person, I'll stop here before my mood takes a turn for the worse.

Everything in this room is just images to help me synchronize with the fear of the opponent and force a fight, flight or freeze reaction on them, especially freezing, of course there's the negative that if it's just a target I'm affected too, but it's not a big disadvantage for me.

I end my short meditation session and return to the real world letting out a sigh, practicing this thing is simply exhausting my mind.

But all in all it would be interesting to have a way to make mental constructs like fear interact with the world on their own, it would give a more literal meaning to the 'demons' in the technique's name.

To become someone who creates demons, I think I would be the devil to the gods of the Divine Realm.

I think about this nonsense, almost smiling, until boredom attacks my mind for having nothing else to do.

Whispering I start singing songs from my other life that I'm sure I'm getting the lyrics wrong, well it's been a long time since I've heard the full version of any of them.

I hope to dawn like this. Dawn that takes exactly the same time as on Earth. I will never be able to take seriously the fact that on each of the thirty-three worlds there is at least one planet with a time cycle almost identical to that of Earth. Is this some kind of joke at the expense of my universe nostalgia?

I hear Mingten wake up, as expected the fugitive has slept just enough, I think.

Baha wakes up almost half an hour later, I have my suspicions that he would still be sleeping if he hadn't heard someone get up.

Because of the limitations of being on a plain, without immediate access to water and household items, we had to skip some morning rituals to avoid embarrassment.

"Finally woke up, I thought they were going to delay our not-so-epic journey for another day."

I start the day with the best possible greeting: a provocation.

"You couldn't just say something normal like: good morning flower of the day or good morning sleepyheads."

"What's normal about being called a flower of the day?" Seriously, Bah.

"It's just an example of normal greetings, Professor."

Teacher? I guess you can say yes, I just hope my students don't get scared by my unorthodox methods.

Lie, I want them scared.

"Since you made a point of bringing up the subject, get ready your classes start now."

Don't look at me with that 'at least let me eat right' face Mingten.

"As discussed before Baha, you will learn some methods to filter out the noises that accompany the sixth sense."

"Okay, and where do I start with that?"

"First think about what you would use to separate the noise from the information you want."

Do you think you'll win it all hand in hand? Think a little airhead.

"I can start the day just cultivating on my own." Mingten volunteered to do her part of the training before I had a chance to press her.

Boring.

"So let's focus on you Baha. What would your response be?" The airhead I won't let go any time soon.

"Focus, focusing exclusively on what you're looking for."

A bit simplistic but a decent answer for a newbie.

"For a newbie like you this is an improvement for sure, but you still have the same problem as I said about hearing, your opponent might artificially introduce something to be the focus of your focus as you prepare to finish off an unsuspecting you."

"Think again." I demand after pointing out the flaws in the method he suggested.

We spent about five minutes staring at each other in silence, our faces in absolute seriousness, I suppose our thoughts were too.

His tattoo is kind of cool, but I would make the claw pattern more aggressive and symmetrical. Serious.

"I've tried, but I always run into the same problem."

It took longer because it took the flaws into account, it's a little bit of progress, but it's still an improvement.

"You're focusing a lot on how to separate each type of information, when you only need to separate one type and not exhaust your mind trying to focus on something that doesn't even have a definite shape." I start to explain a simpler and more efficient way to filter the noise "Synchronize with something that is also part of the information you are looking for."

"That's all? You guys did all this drama, and I just had to sync up to something?" Baha asks me visibly surprised and annoyed.

"That's all? Baha at the moment you can only sync with fire, I made a bonfire you can use, but you know in populated places there won't be an outdoor bonfire for a street performer to do risky fire tricks." Airhead you have to start thinking faster now that you've been dragged into this mess "Ignoring the question of how are you going to have fire or at least a spark always within reach, flames would filter what? Answer, Baha ."

Baha, try to get away from me a little, perhaps because of what happened the last time the Kaz plus fire plus Baha equation was used, or because of the more aggressive tone in my voice towards the end of the explanation.

My stress kind of flowed out of my mouth as I spoke, I know none of the brats chose this situation willingly, but it's better and more effective to adapt right now to our fucked up reality.

Or at least I think so.

I start regulating my breathing to calm myself, scaring the brats is only worth it if it doesn't stop their progress, let's try again, be patient Kaz.

"Being in sync with the fire what kind of information do you think would be easier to perceive?" I ask in a tone of voice that doesn't seem to carry threats this time.

"Hmm heat maybe?" Noticing the difference in my behavior he responds still hesitantly.

"Yes and no, you don't synchronize with the flames through heat, but through the combustion process, which also generates heat, but what would be highlighted in your sixth sense would be everything that is using this process in the reach of your senses. " I answer carefully so as not to unconsciously alter my voice.

"Okay so, you're asking me to learn to sync with something that's always within reach and still give me some relatively useful information about my surroundings with my sixth sense."

Finally, a little longer and I was going to wonder if the brat is a goner as a Synchroner.

Baha's delay in understanding the fundamentals of Synchro has nothing to do with my teaching methods, that's for sure.

"Now that you know a filtering method that you're going to sync with to use as a filter?" I ask if he has thought about how to use the method he has just heard about.

"The first thing that came to my mind was air, because it's basically always within reach but as for what would be highlighted in my sixth sense, I have no idea, my second idea would be to wear something that's always on my body as an accessory but same problem as before what should i highlight in my sixth sense?"

You really don't know what to look for? That's the easy part.

"People, especially if they're hostile, that's what you have to have always highlighted in your sixth Baha sense."

You just had to remember how you lost airhead, the dust cloud only worked because you had no way of looking for the brat at the moment.

"Now you know what to look for, how are you going to look?"

"Hmm, do you have any suggestions teacher Kaz?" he asks, visibly uncomfortable admitting he doesn't have a solution.

"Yes, use your heart."

"Professor didn't know you were a romantic, but I kind of need a more practical tip right now." Baha speaks with a silly smile.

Where did the scared cat from before go?

"I was being literal, idiot." I answer without masking the anger I'm feeling at the moment.

"Ohh, Oohh! Sorry!"

Okay, no need to yell, me having trouble controlling my temper is more than enough, we don't need one more.

"I'm saying, almost all types of creatures have a heart that works in a similar way to humans, use that." I speak, calmly this time. "Synchronizing the heartbeats with the people around you, with other species this can be difficult, but with humans who have a known range of how much our heartbeats can vary, with a little trial and error you can do it. "