Dragon's Trip[Kenichi, Vanyel]

"Trust me, I know you mean nothing by it. To be honest, it's something me and Kohaku always haze him about every now and then. Don't worry about it."

Kenichi canted his head to the side, stroking his chin as he pondered his next question. To be honest, Kohaku was always a mischievous sort. A mysterious woman reveling in misdirection and deceit. Everything was always at her whim, and no one else. If the Murata had their way, she had always been viewed as the sole outlier.

"Honestly... it's a tossup with her. She's so unpredictable. If you think I'm reckless, she's the type of woman who would have you burning through a year's worth of travel funds just to spend one hour with her. It's both maddening and humorous. Were I an impatient man, I'd have likely given up on traveling to visit her ages ago."

Learning about Kohaku was both interesting and weird. On one hand, it was cool to learn about where Kenichi got his sense of adventure from, where he got the intense desire to express and show off his passions with wonderous abundance. But, on the other hand, hearing that she was somehow even more unpredictable and reckless than he was gave him...more than ample reason to be concerned.

Part of him was glad that he wasn't impatient, but also didn't exactly see his patience as a big benefit in this regard. If that was just an extreme example, he wasn't sure he wanted to find out what kind of things he had done just to see his sister. He quickly finished off his plate, taking in a deep breath, then taking a drink, before turning the chair around to face him, setting his arm on the table.

"Yeah, that'd do it. But, hey, if you're comin' back home with a pal, then there's a decently high chance for her to be there too, yeah? I mean, c'mon, the whole family's gonna be there, and I doubt that she'd miss a chance to challenge you, or even just to see what all you've gotten up to in the time you've been away."

"You'd think so. There's going to be a large feast. The whole family is going to be there. My father's going to host a light fighting tournament. It's going to be fun. Here's the thing, though. I love her, but my sister is an eccentric woman. If we do happen to see her, great. If not? I'm here to make sure you enjoy every minute of this trip, my family included."

Finishing his large plate of breakfast, Kenichi would rise up, patting his belly in satisfaction. Their meal completed, the rising dragon is already turning his head from side to side as though contemplating their next move. They haven't arrived at their destination yet. Perhaps a suitable option would be treating him to a wonderful view of the sea?

"Anyway, breakfast is complete. Let's continue our conversation outside of the dining room. Everyone on this Yacht has told me the view is to die for."

Beckoning him to follow, Kenichi exited the room to walk towards the outdoor sector of the Yacht.

Well, at least he didn't really expect to have his sister there. Sometimes it was better to keep the expectations low so that you wouldn't be too disappointed. It was respectable, honestly. Vanyel gave him a quick nod, gently nudging his shoulder as he stood up and stretched. He certainly was looking forward to it. Even if it was a bit out of his comfort zone, his pal had gone out of his way to do all this for them, it would be pretty damn rude to show otherwise.

"Sure, some fresh air will be nice. Haven't been out to sea in a long while."

Pushing the chair in, he followed Kenichi, his arms still stretched out and coiled behind his head. The two made their way to the port side of the yacht, and Vanyel leaned against the rail, smiling and closing his eyes, feeling the sea breeze brush across his face. He opened his eyes, looking out to the crystal clear waves.

"I'd say they were right. If I weren't still recovering, I'd hop in and take a swim. Haven't been to sea like this in a while, but...man, it still looks fantastic. How long's it gonna be before we get there, anyway?"

"A few hours, it looks like. We're not too far off at the moment. If the weather holds up like this, I'd say we'll get there pretty fast."

A contented sigh danced from his lips, momentarily closing his eyes to absorb the sea breeze and the tranquil sound of splashing water accompanied by rumbling hum of the ship's engine. Kenichi reached over to ruffle Vanyel's hair, offering the man a warm smile. As a man who had spent a lot of his time traveling alone, it was a wonderful change of pace to finally share company with a friend. As he said, Kohaku's presence was of little concern to him. He wanted to assist in Vanyel in learning how to enjoy the normal things in life, those precious moments of kinship and knowing what it felt like to appreciate genuine support.

"Speaking of, what have you been able to achieve with your body so far? Considering that ordeal I'd heard underground, I can't imagine much. My father thought of hosting a small tournament."

A few hours? Maybe it would have been faster to go by plane instead of this. But, on the bright sight, it was nice to have a lot of open space, places to look at, and having the sea so close to them compared to the sky. So, it was a nice trade-off, at least.

"Fuck me. Well, count our lucky stars that the weather's clear for now, at least."

He shook his head, only to chuckle as he looked over to Kenichi as the man ruffled his hair. He grinned, reaching over and ruffling Kenichi's hair, even moreso than he did for him. But, as he let go, Kenichi asked about the capabilities of his body as of now. Frankly? It wasn't really much. He had managed to overcome enough pain and soreness to do most of his martial art routines, but beyond that, he wasn't that useful.

"Mostly just my regular routines. It still kinda hurts and I'm still workin' through the soreness, but, I can still put up somethin' of a fight. Can't do the kind of shit I was doin' at your tournament, though. I might be able to participate, but I dunno how far I'll get. I'll still do my best, if nothin' else. It'll be good exercise, and maybe I'll work through more of the soreness and be able to get back to normal."

He paused for a minute, looking at the sea. Honestly, getting his body back into regular condition wasn't he had on his mind too often. With that, he was mostly going through the motions. There was, however, an entirely different matter that he was thinking of.

"Actually, I was thinkin' more about what I should devise some new powers around. I'm gonna try and remake my old ones, make 'em better, but I do wanna make new ones too. Been kinda stuck in that regard, honestly. Still gonna try to do the whole 'mythology' theme that I had before, but I dunno what I'm actually gonna do with that concept."

As he expected, Vanyel was only capable of the preliminary basics. Of course, Kenichi wholly understood if he had no intent of pushing himself any further than he could manage. He was still recovering from what could wholly be titled "transcending the laws of the universe itself to regain my humanity ft. Rita Grace". If nothing else, he was happy to hear about his capabilities so far. He was making a steady recovery; that was all Kenichi could ask for. His next sequence of explanation had piqued Kenichi's interests, though. New powers, eh? That was food for the thought. Thus, he posed a question in response.

"Good, good. I know the recovery process was hectic, but I'm glad you've adapted so well. It only feels like yesterday since I had to assist you and Rita around her house. You were especially persistent about turning me down, but I'm too stubborn to take "no' for an answer. Anyway, new powers sound really interesting - with a touch of mythology, even moreso. What mythos were you thinking of rooting these new abilities in? If I had to make a guess, chinese mythos?"

Come to think of it, had he even knew what Vanyel could achieve in his past life? He only witnessed the martial arts and his own unique style. Anything else was an absolute mystery.

An excited, passionate smile came to his face as Kenichi asked about the kind of mythology he wanted to incorporate into his powers. Without a moment's hesitation, Vanyel summoned his copy of A Journey to the West, grinning as he held the rather large and bulky book in both hands. Kenichi had opened Pandora's Box with this, and Vanyel was more than prepared to talk his ear off.

"Chinese and Norse mythology, mainly, but I've been wantin' to look at some other cultures for inspiration. There's a bunch of cool stories from every corner of the globe! The story of Vishnu becoming a mortal to take down the Demon King Ravana, Sun Wukong's chaotic journey across the world and into heaven, and even Nezha, the boy-prince who defied the Dragon King!"

He opened the book, taking a few steps back from the railing to make sure that he didn't drop it, get it wet, or damage it in any way. The way that he treated this book was unlike anything that he had in his life -- different even to how he acted in the kitchen. When he was cooking, there was a stern, firm exertion of skill, but now, it was nothing but genuine passion and love for something that meant so much in his life.

"I think the first one I'll try and recreate is the one I named after one of Sun Wukong's powers, Jin Jing Huo Yan, the Eyes of Truth. It basically focused and augmented your spiritual senses into the eyes to see the spiritual signatures of others, even through walls!"

Catching a glimpse of Vanyel's impassioned expression, Kenichi could already tell he'd opened up Pandora's box. They shared a multitude of interests, martial arts in particular a subject they could both speak at length on, but mythology was also chief among those interests as well. To his surprise, Vanyel could speak on it at far greater lengths than even himself. Right now, he was doing exactly that as he spoke at lengths about the various mythologies. Vishnu and Ravana. Sun Wukong. Nezha. Like a big kid listening to another big kid, Kenichi's eyes lit up as he nodded along with a wide grin. All things considered, he was quite fond of this side of Vanyel compared to his typical grumpy disposition. And then, Vanyel had hit him with the goods. A Sun Wukong ability centered around eyesight. Chuckling heartily, he patted him on the shoulder as he leaned against the rail himself.

"Sun Wukong is a splendid source of inspiration. I might take a page from your book. Most of my techniques are based on the Five Auspicious beasts, but I'm always willing to add more inspiration. Maybe we should plan a trip to a library just to do that."

He seemed to have struck gold with the mention of Sun Wukong, as hearing Kenichi talk about his own mythological inspirations for his techniques. They could certainly piggyback off one another for names and inspirations. Even if they were a bit over-the-top, he had to admit that the names that he made for a lot of his techniques were really damn cool.

"Hell yeah. There's plenty of dragon-related stuff in China and Japan that we could look at, and I know a great library back home that has a whole section dedicated to mythology, so we'll have plenty of stuff to look through. Plus, the Internet can always help us out."

They weren't even at their planned destination yet, and they already had another goal in mind for once this was all said and done. Vanyel was glad that he had people like them in his life -- he couldn't imagine how unbearable the road to regaining his powers, or even just trying to enjoy life would have been without Kenichi. He thought about what it might have been like, but, quickly discarded it, dismissing the book back to Phonoi's Chaos Point for storage.

"Sounds like a plan, though. We'll brainstorm techniques together, try 'em out on each other, sharpen our skills, and just have fun with it, yeah?"