Sachihiro

The journey from the Hito valleys is fast and mostly uneventful in terms of threats and attacks. Our travel is primarily during the 40 hours of the night when the vampires can be with us for the duration as we journey to the Tundra in all haste. Vampires are truly strange uncanny creatures and the speed with which they can move is astonishing to the extent that we, Asriel and I start travelling 10 hours before sunset, during the dusk hours and they still catch up relatively quickly.

Though they can't maintain ultra-speed for long, they can run without tiring at almost full speed for more than 40 hours straight. I'm not yet sure if it's a trait of all vampires or it's just the result of the elite training the Brave Blossoms undergo but there is something to their stamina that isn't natural. In fact, nothing about vampires is natural relative to what I know of humans.

We skip the beautifully lush valleys between the mountain plateaus entirely as much as we can on our journey towards my home. Moving mainly at high altitudes from peak to peak, mountain to mountain using ropes and gliding kites we make good time.

Kites are a contraption I would have thought impossible if someone else would have explained the concept to me. But though the journey may be quicker it is also more perilous for the altitudes we have to reach and the mountain wind we have to steer across. The air is thin and brisk at 6000 meters above ground, at least that's how high up Keiji says we are currently.

The route we take is quicker even without the gravity-defying kites we use to jump from cliff to cliff. Something I'm sure I would have refused to do had I the courage to be left behind on these clearly claimed mountains. I have felt what lives in some of these mountains and I'd rather risk a quick death flattened on Gaia than face anything that imperils my soul again, not after going through the forging.

Had I not been fasting for days I would have shit myself when they separated my soul from me and they were being gentle! The soul can endure pain and suffering the human body isn't designed to endure, or even comprehend efficiently I've learnt since the forging and I appreciate the forethought put into the bodies design.

I still have bouts of phantom pain without a distinct source within me, a pain I really can't identify or even 'feel' in any way I understand of the word. Yet I also can't deny that something hurts within me and I'm fucken' sad all the time, I have no more ambitions or aspirations. At least not when my soul-sword is more than arms reach away, with it close or on me I feel almost fine. 'Anhedonia' the Watanabe call it, the feeling of not caring and losing interest in everything.

I would call it apathy if it didn't come with sadness, apathy doesn't come with gut-wrenching sadness.

Had I not been in the hands of professional soul mages prepped and trained in the process of soul forging for centuries before being brought to the villages I'm sure I would have broken completely, becoming a complete imbecile useless as anything but a human shield or a door stopper.

[Sigh], thinking of the recurring phantom pain and suicidal thoughts. Something that is so far out of character that I know I've broken something fundamental deep within myself somehow, a vital spark of life. I've seen the same look in Mira and Asriel's eyes sometimes these past few ten-days since the forgings. That startled expression, hollow empty eyes, completely traumatized with no interest in life.

I know Mira would never kill herself, not with Saya around and Asriel just isn't normal. If he succumbs then what hope do the rest of us have? The man has always seemed to have great determination for some reason but it comforts me to know that though he may be leagues more powerful than I am the pain and trauma of the soul cannot easily be shrugged off regardless of power; that in some things we are equals if I'm not better.

But the trauma was worth it as now we all have soul forged weapons, zanpakutōs. Weapons forged by Hito Master Samurai Sword Smith's and half-vampire half-daemon soul magicians that have hundreds of years of experience at their craft. I sigh looking at the beautiful snowcapped mountain behind us. The wind blows gently and is the loudest sound in these seemingly lonely peaks of the Titan Mountain Range. It's anything but lonely up here though as the place is teeming with strange insects, high flying birds, reptiles, sure-footed hoofed horned creatures and the predators that prey on them.

I'm just glad creatures that can harm the soul are rare and mainly found in the Underworld, that place must be a thoroughly miserable place to live though. I'm not sure what I was thinking of negotiating to start a settlement there for my people.

The journey across the mountains isn't all doom and gloom though. The beautiful peaks are always covered in snow and ice though it hardly snowed since I've been among the Hito people.

The animals are more diverse than I would have expected from a mostly cold, rocky terrain. I've even spotted a species of snake I'm told is only found at the peaks. A snake very similar to a cobra but with multiple sets of wings it uses to glide down the mountain, moving through the air like an eel in water.

The running part of our travelling mostly comes when we reach a new mountain and we have to run up and across it to get to the other side. These mountains are so wide that it sometimes takes us days to cross even with a clear goat trail as a path to run or walk on. I am surprised to learn that vampires can also just as easily prey on animal blood as they do on human blood. It's apparently only the taste that's the biggest difference between animal and human blood, well it depends on the animal as well.

Awakened beasts are apparently just as good as humans and Magical Awakened beasts are even better, so there are degrees to all these things.

Some blood apparently gives temporary boosts in attributes resulting in it being more sort after than others. Human blood is apparently great for healing injured vampires and enhancing mental acuity. That is unless its blood from an intoxicated human, then the vampire may end up intoxicated themself.

All very fascinating stuff that is a source of entertainment for me on the journey, I have had a taste for learning among the Hito and I want more.

"This is Mount Volcanic, and that is the reason these mountains are known as the Titan Mountains," Yoshihito says pointing at the behemoth of a skeleton moulded into the side of the landscape spanning mountain.

If I wasn't seeing the thing with my own eyes I definitely wouldn't believe it. I swallow my saliva and check the horizon to estimate how long before dawn. Travelling with vampires makes a person hyper-aware of such things. I find myself trying to as accurately as possible estimate the size of the unbelievable sight before us by trying to mentally place myself next to the thing.

"Is that a Titan's skeleton?" I whisper, not even sure why I'm whispering.

Yoshihito Yoshida grins before disappearing to join his comrades in a cave or where ever they go to hide from the sun. I look to Asriel and he nods slowly moving his hand up and down his soul forged iron staff reflexively. A bo Sachi, its called a bo, right?

"Let's find a dry spot to sit and admire the view from," Asreal says, already fishing out his sketchbook from a ring of holding he looted from a dead Fae. The utility of the things still amazes me.

We set our mats on a relatively dry space, settle in the lotus position and breath, preparing for meditation. I touch all my chakra points with my spirit, lighting them up. Then I close my eyes and do a mind-clearing meditation.

The mind is the most active most powerful organ in the body. It works much faster than the body could ever follow and does everything simultaneously, continuously. It is never rested as even when we sleep different parts of the mind are active.

Filtering thoughts, cataloguing sensations, managing the subconscious. The power it can wield is astronomical, yet the gods set limits to it. A human being can only consciously use a small amount of brainpower/mind at a time. Doing a multitude of tasks and processing information with that small percentage of brainpower.

Usually, the little mind we have access to is spread throughout the brain, doing everything we are aware of and some we aren't. But when something big happens, like debilitating pain. The focus is narrowed to that pain, limiting thoughts, sight and other processes into processing and dealing with that pain to the neglect of a whole lot of other things resulting in the limited brainpower being inefficiently used. Resulting in mistakes, narrow thoughts and distractions.

These are just some of the teachings of Asriel's Order that he shared with Mira and me during our year travelling together, and I believed it. I believed everything Asriel told me as though it came from Gaia herself in those early days.

Asriel eventually got me to learn critical thinking. But not before I absorbed all he taught as though it were god-speak. I will forever be grateful for how he shaped me and my thought process in those early days. I hadn't realized how impressionable I was at that point in my life, I guess most people don't see themselves as easily impressionable or malleable most of the time. But looking back, Asriel could have thoroughly brainwashed me, making me into a discipline for his Order or this other mysterious organization he is recruiting for. I take a deep breath, letting all my worries go.

As busy as the mind is, imagine if you could rest it. Switch it off for a few seconds, longer. Imagine the capabilities of the mythical state known as a rested mind. Something that everyone in the Order apparently strives for but few ever achieve outside the psionic path.

The minds of children are still fresh, rested. Resulting in them being more malleable, learning languages, ideas, concepts much easier than older people, and much faster. Unburdened by fear of the dark or preconceptions about what is possible or what they could become. They are the closest natural things to a rested mind state on Gaia.

Not setting limits for themselves but aiming to soar high, higher than the stars because no one has told them it isn't possible yet. Forcing their bodies to break their limits because even our bodies have limits set on them. Something adults can only do in extreme conditions if at all. The rested mind state.

This is my favourite meditation path, but it's very elusive. I breathe in and out slowly. My eyes closed, trying to clear my mind without falling asleep. Then humming a constant monotonous hum in my mind to clear my head of thoughts. Drowning all another sound in my head with the hum, constant, consistent invasive.

[HMMMMMMMMMMMMM]

It's only a few minutes before I reach the state of no thoughts. No monologue within my head or random thoughts popping out, no inner voice that never shuts up whenever I try to think about things. This isn't the state of rest but it is as far as I have been able to come in three years of meditating every day. The state of no thoughts, complete silence, a quiet mind, and it's profound.

Whenever I'm in this state my crown chakra fills to bursting then slowly spills out as though diffusing through the air like pollen from a plant in the wind trying to spread it's seeds. There is nothing but silence for what feels like minutes but I know is only a few seconds, then minutes which feel like hours of being present without the voice of my mind interfering.

Then my usual rambling mind invades with random thoughts and it starts all over again.

Is that an actual titan? The thing is as big as a mountain, I wonder what could have killed it.