"Are you ready for the training-yo?" Pako asked and climbed up on the sofa while Akira sat on the floor with his legs folded under him.
"Yes, I guess," Akira said.
"Say yes, master," Pako said, his tail swinging left to right behind his back.
"Yes, master," Akira said promptly. "But before starting with the training, you were going to tell me more about the cosmic energy..."
"Yo." Pako shook his head.
"Was that a yes or a no?"
"It was a yo," Pako said and licked his paw.
Akira blinked. "Why do you keep saying that word?" he asked. "Is this like how all the other kitods talk?"
"Probably," Pako said. "I don't know. Why do I keep saying yo-yo?"
"What? Why two yo?"
Pako scratched his ear with his back leg. "No. The two yos were different."
"I..." Akira started. "Ah, nevermind. So what's cosmic energy-yo? I mean... tell me more about the cosmic energy."
"It's the energy that comes from the cosmos," Pako said.
Akira peered up at the black cat, eyes like slits, and a nervous smile pulling up the corner of his lips.
Pako stared in return. "What-yo?"
"That doesn't explain much," Akira muttered.
Pako rolled his eyes. "Kid, you are so stupid. It's the energy that surrounds our cosmos."
"How is that line different from your last line!" Akira didn't want to sound rude or angry, but he couldn't help it. The frustration was welling in his body. He sighed and brushed his maroon hair over his head. "Did they choose the right man--I mean cat for the job?"
"I don't know," Pako said. "You should ask the people who chose the cat. But wait, what's a cat?"
"YOU. YOU ARE A CAT."
Pako gave him a questioning look.
Akira shook his head and slumped. "Never mind, please go on with your lesson."
"Oh, yeah." Pako cleared his throat. "The cosmic energy is the energy that comes from the cos--"
"How many times are you going to say that same stuff?" Akira asked, baring his teeth angrily. "Cosmic Energy. Energy from Cosmos! I GET IT."
"Kid," Pako said, giving Akira a slit-eyed look. "Let me finish."
"S-sorry," Akira said, then after a moment of thought, add, "Master."
That pleased Pako. He smiled and closed his eyes, and again started prattling about cosmic energy for a good fifteen minutes. How the talk about the taste of Earth's milk found its way into Pako's presentation about cosmic energy, Akira had no idea. At some point in time, he stopped paying attention.
After being done with his rant, Pako took a milk break and then returned to summarize his whole speech. "You just need to remember these three important points, and when I say important, I really mean it," Pako said. "First, all objects, from a star to a grain of sand, emit cosmic energy. Second, all lifeforms are themselves capable of releasing and absorbing it. Third, fresh, cold milk will always be above a day old reheated milk. Okay, any questions?"
Akira's hand shot up. "Uh, yes, master."
"Shoot," Pako said.
Akira lowered his hand. "What does fresh milk has to do with learning to use cosmic energy?"
"Kid," Pako said with a straight face. "Are you stupid? Of course, it has nothing to do with learning cosmic energy."
"Then why are you talking about it!?"
"Cause it's an important point that you need to remember," Pako said. "The milk you gave me didn't seem fresh."
Akira gave him a blank stare and thought, Will I really learn something from him?
Pako cleared his throat. "So, my point was that we all are vessels capable of containing and using cosmic energy. The more cosmic energy you can absorb from your surrounding, the more powerful and awesome feats you can perform."
"I see," Akira said and nodded slowly. "So, how much cosmic energy can you hold in?"
"That's a difficult question, kid. As awesome as I'm, I can only hold in a tiny amount of it. The volume of it should equate to the size of your house."
Akira smiled nervously. "Are you trying to say my house is tiny?"
"Oh, sorry, were you offended? I was expecting all human accommodation to be as big as Rin's."
"Well, comparing to her house, mine is tiny," Akira admitted. "So, we can say that you are house-level, right? And since you had no intention of fighting Rin, I'm assuming she is stronger than that, right? Probably building-level or a small mountain-level?"
Pako shook his head. "Yeah, somewhere around that."
"Again, your body langue doesn't match your words! But it makes sense for you to have a head shake for a no since you are from a different... Anyway, I have one more question. If Rin is a small mountain-level, where does Max stand?"
"That masked guy-yo?" Pako asked.
"Yeah, him," Akira said. "You did say he was the strongest person you had ever met."
Pako hummed. "I think..." He looked out the window at the blue sky. "What do you call it-yo?" he asked, pointing at the sky with his paws.
Akira looked out the window and saw a pale, crescent moon looking out of place in broad daylight. "Oh, that. That's the moon."
"I know it's this planet's moon," Pako said. "But what do you call it? What's its name?"
"The moon. That's its name."
"You named your moon Moon-yo?" Pako asked.
"That's exactly what we did." Akira shrugged.
"This planet has no future," Pako said. "Anyway, we have wasted too much time. Let's just start with the training."
***
"What is this?" Akira asked and reached out to grab the small black stone that was shaped like a pyramid. But Pako slapped his hand away. "Hey, your nails are sharp. They hurt," Akira said and rubbed the back of his hand.
"Don't touch it so casually," Pako said. He was now sitting right in front of Akira on the floor. "It's Cosmium, an alloy that readily absorbs, converts, and releases cosmic energy."
"I see," Akira said, nodding. "So what I'm going to do with it."
"You are going to close your eyes and touch it," Pako said.
"Close my eyes and touch the thing?" Akira muttered. " I thought this story was family-friendly?"
"Stop with your witty comments, kid," Pako said, "and do what I'm saying."
"Alright, alright," Akira said, held the smooth stone in both hands. It felt so waxy and shiny. It almost looked like a dull, black gem.
"Close yours eyes too," Pako barked.
Akira shut his eyes, feeling the cold gem pressing against his palms.
For the first ten seconds, he felt and saw nothing. Everything was pitch black. Then, he saw them, his hands. His eyes were closed, yet he could still see his hands. But they looked different. It seemed as if someone had drawn them on a black chalkboard with white chalk. They looked so cartoony and unreal that Akira felt like he was watching animated film. A moment later, he saw the rest of his body. Then, Pako and the house came into view. Like his hands, they were flat, black, animated drawings with white outlines.
As time passed, he began seeing and hearing things further away from him. He could now hear the whisperers of countless voices, the noise of continental plates moving and grinding beneath him, the noise of hot elements bubbling on the sun's hot surface. All of this felt similar to how he had felt when the green woman had transported him across the stars to her or when Max had warped them from Japan to Antarctica.
The information of the world, the stars, and other heavenly objects, around Akira was overwhelming his brain, but none of them came close to the overwhelming presence of the wind that flowing around these celestial objects and across the cosmos. It was fast and relentless, rushing past the stars and planets who also had the same white-outlined look as his hands. Akira felt as if he was caught outside with a stormy blizzard wreaking havoc in the cold night.
Akira let go of the small stone and opened his eyes. He found that he was struggling for breath, his whole skin covered in gooseflesh.
"So," Pako asked, "how was it, kid?"
"W-what was that wind?"
"Wind-yo?"
"That-that thing was channeling itself around the planets and stars--" Akira muttered.
"Oh... That." Pako pawed his right ear. "That's cosmic energy."