Teaser: A sleepless Ryosei comes across Eika studying at the desk in her room as she grumbles over the complicated math formulas.
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Ryosei froze completely at the statement.
His muscles tensed, his eyes widened, and his breath stopped all together; a chill permeated the air, a frost biting a Lorleilorn as she shivered, her dark and light eyes widening at his reaction to that statement.
A low, strained voice came from him, sending shivers down Lorleilorn's spine as she realized that perhaps, she shouldn't have told this polite boy about Eika's circumstances.
"She's... breaking... apart..? You mean... she's... dying?"
Ryosei's head slowly turned, his bright ocean eyes glowing with a pale light as frost began to permeate the hair salon, coating the chair and spreading across the floor like a virus, a fury and fear in him that he'd never experienced before as he instinctively reacted with horror to the words and conclusion he drew from it.
'Ah,' he thought, 'I'm panicking all of a sudden. Is it because, she's the demon me's turner? That makes sense; the demon wouldn't want to lose their only teacher. But why am I so scared... is it for a similar reason to the demon me, or is it because I've already become him? Is there still human in me?'
As he contemplated his emotions, a warm hand clasped onto his shoulder, and suddenly, two unique eyes stared down on him; purple and red, a pale, striking face, and locks of white hair grasped his gaze and didn't let go. A soft, calm voice that matched her expression greeted his ears and released his tension.
"Calm down, or else I'll have to increase the training intensity for compensation for having to pay expenditures at this establishment from your d@mn ice."
Though the words weren't necessarily kind, they did the trick in calming him down as she slapped reality into his face expertly with the consequence of his actions. She snapped her fingers, and suddenly the workshop was ingulf in ghostly silver flames, gently melting the ice while somehow not scorching the building.
It was the first fire Ryosei had ever felt that wasn't unpleasant; instead, it was just warm, soft even. It brought back memories from his childhood, of how his beautiful mother would once hold onto him gently, stroking his hair as she sang a lullaby to him in Japanese.
"Ryosei? You alive there buddy? You seem kinda... spacy."
Ryosei startled from his thoughts when he heard his Turner's words. He turned to see her giving a bow and apologizing for the scare to Lorleilorn, her expression shockingly sheepish. Ryosei felt odd seeing her expression and bowing; he felt like she shouldn't have to do that, like she was a princess or something similar.
She was the type of person who shouldn't and didn't have to apologize or bow to anything or anyone. At least, to him she was.
Seeing the odd attitude that adorned her, he got up, bowing and apologizing for not being careful enough with his powers, all the while being smacked from Eika's hand, scolding him.
Surprisingly for Eika, he didn't make a dry remark or glare resentfully at her like he sometimes does. He just accepted it. If anything, he seemed contemplative while he sat back in the chair, letting Lorleilorn cut his hair without any compaint, woodenly moving and turning his head at her request.
Eika stared at him quietly before she crouched down next to, looking up at him while resting her chin on her hands before she spoke to him in a hushed and gentle tone, "Are you worried about my body condition?"
Actually, he was thinking about how wrong it was seeing Eika bow to someone since she's always so ridiculously confident, but know that she reminded him, yeah, he was worried about that too now. Hie bright blue eyes turned to her heterochromatic eyes, an admittance in them that, yes, he was worried.
He'd only had the incredible and insane creature known as Eika for a little over a month, but he couldn't help but become somewhat attached to her. If she were to leave tomorrow or the next day, he'd likely be a little sad at her departure—but of course he'd never admit that out loud; it wasn't exactly in his character to do such a bold and potentially humiliating thing.
Eika simply smiled, her delicate nose and large eyes crinkling with it as she murmured back assuredly towards him, "Don't worry about it. I'm fine. I really am, I swear. I'm not gonna die if you're worried, though if this body breaks, I may have to leave this dimension for a bit to commission a new one."
Ryosei blinked at that slowly, his expression becoming blank at her response, and silence between the mentor and apprentice was heavily present on all three of them. All that could be heard in the room was the crisp crinkle of Ryosei's pale hair being meticulously snipped by Lorleilorn, and the deep boom of club music from somewhere nearby.
Lorleilorn was practically sweating from the silence that had ensued when the conversation broke, so she felt prompted to add, "Ryosei, Eika isn't technically a 3 dimensional being; she's actually a... 6th?"
"7th," Eika interceded, "I'm a 7th dimensional being in a 5th dimensional body in the 3D world. You see, Ryosei, you are now a lower 5th dimensional, since you are a newborn High Demon; Lower Demons, curses, and spirits tend to be more 4th dimensional. They are capable of existing in the 3rd dimension, but restrictions are placed on them exorbitantly, so some don't bother coming here."
She shuffled closer to him, pointing at him directly before continuing her explanation.
"There are 10 dimensions. 3D beings are able to interact with 1st and 2nd, as well as up to 4th and 5th. However, it puts heavy strain on their bodies to do so typically, and a 4th or 5th could easily kill a measly 3rd no problem, right? So, God, the 10th dimensional being, placed a heavy, heavy restriction on all beings that exist in the 3rd dimension, even if they don't want to.
"But, you're a bit of an exception, since you were born into this dimension and was originally a 3D being, the World—God's influence and authority over this realm that he gave consciousness to—has already recognized you as 3D, making you somewhat exempt from that restriction, unless you do something drastic like rampage or try to hurt nature excessively."
She adjusted her sitting position, sitting on the floor while crossing her legs like a preschooler, all the while allowing Ryosei to adjust to the amount of information he was receiving; and he thought the basic categorization of the species into separate groups was difficult to grasp...
He snapped to attention as she continued, intrigued but what he could learn from her.
"My case is a wee bit different. I was born a highest 4th dimensional being, and by the age of three had already advanced to a lower 6th—unintentionally of course. I stayed in 6th for a while, steadily advancing without thinking much of it until I smacked myself on the head and realized my foolishness. How could I explore dimensions if I became too powerful!?
"So, I had to forcefully stagnated my growth, asking Lorleilorn and her sisters to construct me a body that would allow a portion of my consciousness and power to dwell in it while not being too restricted by the blasted World. After... 40 years?"
"56, actually. That body was 4th dimensional, and a LOT of work had to be put into it to hold even a fraction of a soul like Eika's. Seriously, the girl was a kid and only a 6th, but she was already defeating mid-level 7th dimensional beings no problem. It was ridiculous..."
Eika coughed, clapping her hands together to interrupt Lorleilorn and exclaiming, "Okay, enough of my childhood. So I was a LITTLE trigger happy and enjoyed fighting a little too much while being a little too strong, let's move on. Ehem, so, I managed to assimilate with the body, a homunculi, and traversed the world for centuries along with a plethora of other realms. However, I had to face an extraordinarily powerful dragon, and because I was not only stagnating my powers as well as being restricted, it was either partial soul death or growing again.
"It was a bit if a toss up really. A little soul death would hurt like Hell, yes, but I'd easily recover. However, stagnating my growth means wasting my potential, and that meant never being able to properly protect myself or the others I chose to protect, so I chose releasing my growth. Anyway, that's how I accidentally became a 7th Dimensional being, making the homunculus break down, requiring a newer, tougher one.
"I trained a bit, getting used to the new power, waiting for the vessel, etc. etc... and here I am. However, because I'm using my power more, the homunculi needs a bit of a tune-up, so that's why we're here."
Eika sighed, uncrossing her legs and kicking them in the air casually like a little kid, her face contemplative before she began floating, turning to Ryosei with a smile and remarking to the now freshly haircut boy, "You understand all that just now champ? I'll take questions when we get home, so just stay patient as I get a tune-up. I promise you, I'm fine, so there's no need to worry, really.
"Also, Lorlei, you are going to let this haircut and check-up be free, as well as any property damages for blabbing about confidential information without my consent. My trust doesn't come cheap y'know."
Eika then floated away imperiously, laughing as Lorleilorn sputtered at her somewhat unreasonable request. However, Lorleilorn had to admit she was somewhat in the wrong, so she accepted it with a little consideration.
Ryosei stayed silent, brooding thoughtfully over what he had learned about Eika. He was now insanely curious about her origin and her original strength; curious, yet confused. Stagnating your growth is a ridiculous prospect, because people never stop growing. They learn from every stimuli that is thrown at them, and so they continue to grow. Stagnating it?
Yet another seemingly illogical action from her normally level-headed and logical thought process. Perhaps... she was running from something? Someone? She was a always a bit antsy really, or maybe that was just his paranoia speaking.
He wasn't sure at this point, and his head was beginning to ache, so he just halted thinking of it in any depth; after all, her doing insane things for the sake of her curiosity was extremely characteristic of her, so it was plausible.
With his mind assuaged, he followed Lorleilorn to get a new wardrobe, as per Eika's request.