Soul Searchinng; Soul Chambers

"Yoooo, sweet digs. Guess it's a perk of being a head honcho." Koudo whistled, pulling himself into Chita's office from the strange light that lingered at the top of the staircase she left access to open. Properly closing your door was how you prevented invaders, but he figured Chita just wanted to chat in private, away from the all seeing monitors of her overseer.

Otherworldly, esoteric, spiritual: These were words that could describe the place that Koudo found himself within and he couldn't help himself with exploring a little bit. He didn't stray too far, and it seemed like this place had definitive walls, seeing as Chita was leaning against one, but he wandered around like a lost tourist without a map.

It seemed like a separate dimensional space, but Koudo didn't really feel like it was. He didn't have any basis on that assumption, and it could be wholly wrong, but he had a gut feeling that it was something far more complicated, and far more simple at the same time.

The upper echelon of the Veritas really got some nice places to sit around and be alone with their thoughts. He supposed it was probably for the best since most, if not all, the people in positions of power were members of the Tensei clan and they needed a lot of focus to maintain themselves and their power. Probably a prejudice assumption, but it seemed to have lulled Chita into a state of complacency at the very least.

He stopped his wandering and turned his head to look at her once she started to talk, the room having been quiet for a minute or so after he had entered and said his piece. "Your guess is as good as mine." He responded in kind, waving his hands around in front of him to search for the imaginary walls that served as the borders for this seemingly finite space. It was kind of like looking for a place to rip a tear in imaginary space so that he could teleport from one place to another, but he was actually looking for walls.

"I was testing out my portal generation, since I hadn't done so in a while after I stopped using my Mother Box, and how it had grown and evolve with the growth of my power." If she cared to look him over, he was much taller than he had been the last time, and much more bulky as well, though Koudo had always been a bit on the larger side. He had definitely been taking care of himself and growing his power steadily over the time that they hadn't seen each other, and he wasn't interested in testing to see who was more stronger.

Once he thought he found something, anything, that was solid enough for him to pat and feel on, he did so, "Next thing I knew, I was here talking to Tina. She called Priere and we talked, she sent me here, I spoke with Sh-," He caught himself with a breath and continued, "The Me-Ou, and now I'm here." He stopped his hands and turned to face Chita, "Because I wanted to see you."

Oh. So he was completely fucking wrong. Thanks gut!

The places that he felt, and thought were solid, was because he thought they were solid. He was glad that Chita had explained to him, but he would have figured it out... eventually. It just would have taken much more time than he'd like to admit, and more time that Chita would allow.

With the recent revelation, Koudo just leaned back where he stood with his arms folded and trusted the room to make a wall to support him. "You're my friend. I couldn't visit one, separate versions of one, without visiting the other." Low and behold, he remained upright and rested against a newly formed barrier wall, and it was really as simple as what he said.

Mediation, as sage abilities will force you to do, helped him to come to terms with and gain some semblance of understanding for what he felt for Chita. How it was similar too, but drastically different from, what he felt for the likes of Mana and Naina. How the feelings for those two differed from what he felt for Triere and Elara. How the feelings for those two differed from what he felt for Yui, Mira and Aliyah. And finally, how the feelings for those three differed from what he felt for Savaj and how it differed from what he felt for Cross.

He'd laid them to rest a long time ago, for him at least, and while he got more excited to see her than he had Triere, it was because he usually saw Triere more often. He couldn't control that Chita still gave him butterflies, and that he got happy to see her. Those involuntary reactions to her were too illogical for him to explain away and he figured it was because his understanding just didn't reach deep enough yet.

"I can't just come check up on a friend. I seem to recall you doing the same for me."

Koudo closed his eyes and shrugged his shoulders, "Can't complain, I haven't been up to much."  

He open his eyes and stared across the room at Chita. The dim glow of the green light that barely illuminated the room casting a small amount of shadow across his visage, but his, almost glow in the dark, sapphire eyes pierced that veil. It wasn't meant to be intimidating, it was just the way that his eyes reacted to darkness. "I'd much rather hear about what you've been up to though." It was only natural right? He had come for a visit to hear about how her job might be going, the good and the bad, and how she had been going about her day to day. He didn't want to talk about himself first.

Koudo's eyes returned to a closed position as he adjusted his shoulders. In truth, this was probably the second time that he'd heard Chita worrying about being in over her head with something, but this seemed minuscule in comparison to the first time. Last time she was worrying about the Tensei Curse and taking it on to the best of her ability, or something to that effect, and she seemed much more confident about that then this... teaching position.

"With a defeatist attitude like that, it might be better if you do buzz off." Call it harsh, but his and Chita's relationship had always been such, especially when they were discussing the matters going on in their private lives. Last he checked, Chita was the most independent woman that he knew, and always faced her challenges head on. He didn't exactly know what being a teacher at this school entailed, but he had taught his own student and never second guessed himself on it like Chita seemed to be doing. Don't get him wrong, becoming a teacher was a difficult thing to do, and not everyone could do it, but Chita had already proven that she could do whatever she wanted to do.

He opened his eyes, "Don't get your panties in a wad before hearing the rest though," he finally continued, unfolding his arms and raising a hand to prevent an explosion of emotion from Chita. He lifted himself from the solid construct that he leaned against and then began pacing, so that he could properly formulate what he wanted to say. He didn't necessarily care about the way it was worded, but he needed to make sure the points were solid.

"Now, I don't know what's happened with you, but this sounds weird to me," He started, "You took over the position of Head Witch when your mother went AWOL because you knew the Witches and Witchlings needed a leader. Then, you accepted that a confrontation with the Insanity was an inevitability and was ready to face it as best you could because you knew it was the right thing to do." He stopped his pacing, standing right before Chita and turned to face her as well. "But now you're worrying about if you're doing a good job at this teaching gig?" He rose both his hands and shrugged his shoulders with a confused look plastered all over his face before the look disappeared and he pointed at her.  

"Who are you? Cuz you definitely ain't the Chita I know."

Koudo wasn't blind to seeing that the room was responding to Chita as she shrunk away from her responsibility and denied his points with making it all about strength. While strength was certainly a factor, and Koudo could admit to it, he didn't think that it was the main factor. Just the fact that she was avoiding eye contact was enough for him to know that she was trying to hide.

He shook his head, "I don't recognize you because you sound like a quitter." And the Chita that he knew was everything but a quitter. She was strong, but it was her conviction, her tenacity, that made her who she was. It was her determination that made her step up to the plate and take the reins of Head Witch when her mother was gone. Sure Chita was powerful, but he didn't think she was the strongest witch at the time. He had only ever run into Tyrande once, but she was capable of inspiring a fear of the arcane in him that Chita hadn't been able too.

When it came to the Insanity, Chita definitely wasn't the most powerful person standing up to it, not with the likes of the Great Destroyer, or Shinta, facing it down as well. Even Koudo took up arms against it's wrath before Chita had bolstered the confidence to stand up as a representative of all of Witchhood and show them that they could fight the destructive urges that the sway of magic plagued them with and fight the good fight. It took confidence in her own abilities to think that she could do it too. And she did it!

So what if she couldn't hit someone when they messed up? She had learned to restrain herself when dealing with Elara and she could do the same with her students as well. So what that she struggled with holding back? It just showed her students what holding firm to their studies and listening to her instructions would gain them. It would make them tougher scholars, fighters, defender and leaders in the long run.

Koudo hadn't come here to yell at her, he didn't really like raising his voice anymore when an unrestrained shout could shake mountains, but, "Confidence! Chita. That's what made you who you are. What happened to that confidence!?" The Chita that he knew didn't hide from challenges, and this was just another challenge. The Chita that he knew made sure that she had the power see need to confront a situation, and all this did was take a different kind of strength.

So it wasn't an issue with her self-confidence, fine, Koudo could understand that maybe he read the room wrong. Now it sounded more like she was stuck dealing with the same thing he was when he had taken the role as Kage of the Dusk. He really didn't like, it felt restrictive, and he was killing himself to take care of a bunch of crybabies and hypocrites. He back pedaled, still remaining resolute, but he physically moved forward. Not far enough for it to matter, and definitely not enough to be able to physically touch Chita.

"Okay, well if you realize that, then why are you still here?" If it wasn't that she felt like she couldn't do it, but that she just wasn't comfortable doing it, and she felt forced to do it, then why didn't see just stop doing it? If she felt like she had to sacrifice something that she'd rather keep just to prove something to someone, then she was doing it for all the wrong reasons.

She was a grown ass woman though, so ultimately she could do what she wanted and nothing that he could, or would, say would change her mind if she wasn't open to do so in the first place. No one could force you to do something you didn't want to do. At the end of the day, Koudo would leave and she would be left to do as she was, with or without making a change.

Koudo learned backwards again with a sigh, his back hitting a solidified wall and one of his hands coming up to cover his face to show his visible frustration. It wasn't like he couldn't understand what she was going through, or how 'complicated' it was, but he didn't understand it at all. Maybe because he cared much more about himself, as a person, than the superficiality of Pride and was capable of seeing when something wasn't good for him and bowing out. Granted, it took a couple talks with people around him that had his best interest at heart for him to finally see it, but he saw it.

Maybe that was Chita's actual problem. As far as he could tell, besides him there was no one else for Chita to turn to. Besides him, there was no one else that she could actually be herself around and talk out her problems with. This next one might be a little presumptuous, but he felt that besides him, maybe there was no one that she could let her guard down around, if only slightly, and appear weak and meek to without being judged and deemed as such.

He slouched a little, removing his hand from his face and folding his arms across his chest. "Dude, then you either nut up or shut up. Withdraw or Compromise. It sounds like the thing that's stopping you from being you, is you." He really wasn't sure what to tell her, because she was right. This was complicated.

Koudo wasn't a psychiatrist or a therapist. Koudo was an engineer, a mechanic, and a warrior.  Koudo had trouble dealing with his own rampant emotions and bottling them up. Koudo also tried surrounding himself with people that could be positive influences, while also having people that could give him straight and real talk when he was showing his ass.

Chita was a very different person from him, in that regard.

Koudo feel the sensations of Chita's soul, he had never been retarded to the nuisances of the soul and he knew what her wavelength felt like, but he didn't quite understand the vibe that he was getting. Koudo's own soul almost always downplayed the influences of someone else's wavelength unless theirs was more powerful or he allowed a connection. He didn't really use the abilities anymore, Odea didn't require such things to function, and they had fallen to less than stellar levels of control and understanding.

His mind, however, was sharp and he was quite sure if he wanted to follow her beckoning, but his body moved regardless. He lifted himself from the wall that he leaned on and stepped forward, his sapphire gaze staying connected to her emerald stare. "What is it?" He asked, standing right in front of her and quite a bit taller than her, being 6'6" close to 6'7".

Koudo breathed in as he was pulled closer to Chita. His tunic was skin tight, so it was amazing that she could find any small bit of cloth to grab and more. He figured it was more so him leaning into her, or the other way around. Either way, he pressed his forehead to hers, gazes still locked, and rested one of his forearms on the solid wall above her head.

She wanted to punch him, he didn't dare to misunderstand what she meant, He whispered, "Sure..." Why not? He could take it. Even without activating his infestation, if it was just a bare knuckle punch then he could tank it. Subconsciously, he may have been building his physical strength to withstand hits from power hitters like Chita and having diamond scales just underneath the skin helped a lot.

Koudo didn't change his stance at all, besides for a simply slide of his right foot backwards to ground him better and prepare for the impact of her punch. To his surprise, she kissed him, and he didn't hesitate to return the kiss in kind before he felt the solid impact of her fist against his stomach.

He was pushed back, slightly, enough to be farther away from her than he was and for his forearm to no longer be able to rest on the wall behind her. "So you were just stressin' cuz you ain't getting any. Sound just like Triere." He responded, straightening his stance and rubbing his stomach. No damage was done, but he definitely felt her punch. Of course he meant that last part as a slightly jab at his other friend's expense. Triere actually didn't seem stressed out at all, definitely bored though, and she wasn't getting any strange either. Let alone be able to just let off some steam with a good battle every once and awhile. For Triere though, she probably couldn't if it wasn't Koudo standing opposing her, in both situations.

"Your hand alright?"

Koudo knew exactly what she meant, without the need for her explanation. He used what he said as a generalization as well. Fighting used to be such a natural occurrence in Chita's life that there was no wonder that she was feeling backed up. She literally wasn't getting any, of anything! She had to be more restrained here than she ever had to be in her life, and Koudo felt really bad about it. Even when he was Kage for a little while, Mana was dead, so he could get all the random strange he wanted without a care in the world. In fact, he originally started doing it out of grief, replacing those feelings of sadness with instant physical gratification. He was so carefree, that sex was a meaningless thing to him, meant for pleasure when he wanted it. When he did those things with Mana, it wasn't just sex and something completely different to him.

"Then fight. Challenge that head master of yours when ever you need to cut loose. I got an in that she's actually really fucking powerful You can go all out in a fight with her." Certainly Koudo would talk up his other rival to help this rival blow off steam. It wasn't like Chita could fool around with any of the students. Well... she could, but it wouldn't be quite a good thing to do if she was really serious about this job.

He stopped rubbing his stomach and leaned back again while folding his arms. All Chita needed to do was talking it out with the Me-Ou, and he was sure that Shiniere would be able to accommodate her. When Chita got a really powerful student in her parish, then she'd have the perfect excuse to cut loose against them and classify it as a training exercise, as long as she didn't try killing the student. There were a bunch of different scenarios that could work for her.

All Koudo knew for sure was that all this talk about 'action' made him want some himself, and he wasn't talking about trading blows. Chita might not be able to mess around with the students, but Koudo wasn't on the staff. He wondered where the naughty co-eds were. Hehehehe.