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Thank You For Waking Me Up (Princess Pittooey and I)

Tsubaki finished putting on her shoes and then followed Jinji and Yusuke's gaze. What in the world was that doing all the way out here? "Looks fun," She said with mild interest. "Jinji's pretty good at video games so it will be a breeze for her." She wasn't mad at her sister or anything, so she was interested to see how she'd do at her training. As far as which one of them was stronger, she would let Yusuke think whatever he wanted.
 
"These aren't just any video games," Yusuke replied dryly, thumb pointing to the three things in particular. "They're designed to test your spirit energy, without any spirit energy, you won't be able to do a thing on them. The Rock, Paper, Scissors game tests your telepathy, the punching machine tests your agility, and the karaoke machine is going to test your spirit flow...so let's get to it," he smirked. "Oh, by the way...you'll need a hundred yen for each machine."

He had to be kidding, right?

"Hey, takes money to keep this place going," Yusuke grinned.
 
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was a scam." Tsubaki muttered as she crossed her arms. She knew it wasn't, but she really wished it was. Her mom had given her money for her and Jinji to eat and stuff, but she didn't think she'd be using it for something as silly as this.
 
"Quit your naggin' and get going," Yusuke sighed, thumb pointing to the machines. "You want the training? I need to know how far I can break you two in half before I put you back together." Jinji thought he was being the snarky ass that he seemed to be, but no. He sounded almost casual about it. Just what exactly was he going to teach them that was so intense?
 
"Yeah, yeah.." Tsubaki muttered as she reached into her pocket and took out some spare yen that she had from lunch the day over. She had just enough to cover them both, but she was sure Jinji had her own money. "Anyways, I guess I'll try Karaoke first, hopefully there's some good songs in here." Usually Tsubaki loved Karaoke, but today? She was just in a bad mood and this guy was making it hard for her to be excited about anything. She wasn't even nervous, she just felt...nothing. Maybe singing would cheer her up, maybe it wouldn't. These songs were all old school, but she eventually found one she liked.

Her singing wasn't the greatest, but it wasn't bad either. Her voice was flat in parts that should have been filled with emotion, and she was a little quiet. At the very end of the song, the number 75 appeared on the screen which was slightly embarrassing. "Is...is that bad?" Seriously, she didn't claim to be the greatest singer but..
 
"Hmm," Yusuke said thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. "It's pretty low, but not too terrible, Jinji, you're up next."

"...Do I really have to?" Jinji mumbled, face slightly flush with embarrassment. "I'm not the singing type, Yusuke."

"Just put your heart into it," Yusuke smirked. "Ham it up like your sister did."

"Okay, fine..." she sighed, grabbing the microphone. What followed was quite possibly the most ear scathing rendition of 'Love You Plenty' that Yusuke had ever, ever heard. But she had a higher score than Tsubaki: 120. She blinked in surprise, feeling her embarrassment fade. She...she did that good!?

"Now you see why I do that one first..." Yusuke grumbled, rubbing his ears.
 
Either the machine was busted or it was measuring something other than their singing. She wanted to be happy for her sister, so she didn't say anything at all. Maybe deep down, it irked her just a little because she was used to doing well. Still, it was a feeling she ignored. "Good job, sis. Want to go first at the punching machine?" That was something she expected her to do well in, not the Karaoke game...but she was obviously missing something here.
 
"Sure!" Jinji grinned, rotating her arm a moment, full of energy now as Yusuke watched her, and then Tsubaki. Uh huh...he saw what was going on here...nonetheless, Jinji reared back and slammed her fist into punching bag as hard as she could as the number blinked up: 89.

"Hm, not bad," Yusuke mused. Not like her score from before, but acceptable. "You next, Tsubaki."

"Try not to be too low, Sis," she teased, sauntering out of the way.
 
"I'll try!" Tsubaki said with a smile. Her baby sister just didn't know how cool her older sister was. She didn't bother to warm up, she just walked up to the machine and gave it a swift but powerful punch. Maybe she should have put a little effort into it, but the game quickly told her the score: 106. "I hope that was good enough." She said casually said with a grin as she made her way to the last game.
 
"What? I broke the thing, obviously," Jinji scoffed. Huh, this was actually kind of fun...since when did her sister know how to do any of this?

"Last game, time to see how quick you guys are on the draw," Yusuke smirked. "Since you won, Tsubaki...you first."
 
"Yeah, sure." Tsubaki said as she inserted 100 yen into the machine. Last game, rock paper scissors. She didn't know what to really make out of it, but it was straightforward enough. She won every round she played except one, when she became a little distracted by her own smugness. Still her score was decent at a 125.
 
"Not bad," Yusuke mused as Jinji followed suit with a grimace. This one was stupid, how the hell did Tsubaki do this!? At the end, she barely hit one hundred with a heavy sigh, scratching her head. Dammit, how did she get all this talent?

"Well," Yusuke smirked. "Not bad, from either of you, but Tsubaki...I think you need some work," he decided, rubbing his chin in thought. "You definitely need the work." The problem wasn't strength, it was mindset. If she was serious about this, she was going to get serious training. If she thought that she could just breeze through everything like it didn't matter, she was in for a hard lesson that she didn't want to learn. Jinji had more enthusiasm, more eagerness...equally dangerous, but not as much as someone who was apathetic.
 
Tsubaki had overall done better than Jinji, and yet he was calling her out for needing more work? "Okay, well I came here to train, didn't I?" She asked casually with a shrug. "I wasn't expecting this to not be work."
 
"Uh huh," Yusuke said faintly, holding up his finger as it focused spirit energy. It wasn't subtle, either. Just watching it was something that made Jinji's hair stand on end almost. It was raw, furious energy in all of it's brilliance. "Look here, girls...this isn't going to be some vacation," Yusuke frowned, his face illuminated by the spirit energy. "You earn this, it doesn't come to you, when I'm finished, you're going to be miserable, sweaty, bloody and broken, and I'm going to squeeze out every little ounce of energy I can out of you until I'm satisfied," he smirked wickedly, dispelling the energy. "And you're first, Tsubaki. You're going to be the problem, I can see it already."

Jinji literally had no idea what he was talking about, but...he was the ex-spirit detective, wasn't he?
 
Tsubaki's eyes widened slightly as he demonstrated the power that he would be attempt to give them during his training. It was only a sample, a small fraction at the most, she was sure. He was repeating himself, it made her wonder just how strenuous this was going to be. She couldn't say she was too thrilled about the way he planned to teach them...if he hurt Jinji she wasn't sure if she could continue to go along with this. "I'm the problem," Tsubaki repeated as she folded her arms. "Well then, just tell me what the problem is, and I'll fix it."
 
"Your attitude, for starters, but don't worry," Yusuke grinned. "I'll be fixing that, or you won't be leaving this forest alive. This training isn't going to be a bunch of jumping jacks and yoga, ladies. I'm going to make you hurt, and you're going to hate me every step of the way. Your spirit energy is deep inside you, and we need to dig deep to get it out. Now then, Tsubaki...can you put your spirit energy to your finger?"
 
"Can't say I've ever tried to...I don't even know what Spirit Energy feels like." Tsubaki admitted truthfully. It was possibly she had felt it before, but just never recognized it. She lifted up her hand and stared at it blankly before looking back to him. "I don't know what I should be doing."
 
"Focus your mind," Yusuke smirked. "Focus on the point on your finger, close out everything around you, listen only to the sound of your heartbeat, to the way your body moves. It'll be like a muscle, all you need to do is flex it."
 
It didn't really make sense when he explained it, but she tried to do it anyway. She closed her eyes and leveled her breaths as she focused on her pulse. She could feel something, but getting it to move to her finger was much harder than she thought it would be. After a few moments, she felt her hand warming up. Aura began to surround it, and she tried to focus it inside the tip of her finger. A few sparks appeared, but then it fizzled out as she realized at some point she had forgotten to breathe. Damn, this was hard!
 
"Jinji? How about you?" Yusuke said as she blinked a moment, before sticking out her finger and frowning. Okay...how hard could it be? She closed her eyes a moment, focusing with a faint breath before her fingertip lit up, like a christmas tree light. It was small, but steady. She blinked at that, glancing at her sister. She did it! But...she didn't understand...

"And that's why you need work, Tsubaki," Yusuke smirked. "Assuming you'll even listen."
 
Tsubaki was amazed that Jinji was able to do it so easily. If not a little jealous. How? She didn't even know that she had these powers into just recently, meanwhile she had been aware for nearly half of her life.

"So..what am I doing wrong? I'll listen." She was genuinely curious.
 
"You're about as emotionally impressive as a rock in water," Yusuke said dryly. "You're not going to get anywhere, or accomplish anything when you act like you're too cool for all of it. The spirit energy is you, Tsubaki. It's all the stuff that makes you, who you are. All you're doing is making it worse for you because you're hiding you," he shrugged. "...I know that doesn't sound like it makes sense, but it's true."
 
"It really doesn't make sense." Tsubaki blandly stated, but she let it process for a moment. She wouldn't lie...ever since she had encountered that near death experience it was hard for her to cope with her emotions. She was...scared for a long time but she ignored it until the fear wasn't real anymore. That was the only way she could face demons again, to ignore her fear for her life. Ugh...she had never thought about it that way. All this time she thought that was making everything better. "I'll work on it though...I guess."
 
"There's no guessing," Yusuke said flatly. "You either learn, or you're dead. It's as simple as that."

"Whoa, wait a minute-" Jinji said before Yusuke tilted his head toward the house.

"Take five, Jinji...Tsubaki, come with me," he said. "Assuming you still want to learn."
 
Tsubaki hesitated for a moment before turning to Jinji. Even if she was mad at her, it was clear she was a little worried from what he said. "Don't worry about it, sis. Go have some tea with Keiko." She gave her a smile before she followed Yusuke.

He kept saying they were risking their lives, but who was really the one in danger? If she couldn't do something that seemed so simple, she was starting to think that she wouldn't be able to help Jinji like she was actually here to do.
 
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