Searching for Answers... (Schala/Augen/Cross)

[Augen]

"Hmm... Interesting beast... Slew something like it once. But much smaller and green," Augen said, walking a circle around the slime thing and examining it. "Ah, but that I will ponder another time." He turned to the librarian. "I had a great many questions to ask of ye... But for now I wish not to be a burden, seeing the current condition here... Such a shame, it is..."

"However, for now I must ask you... About this girl. Her curse. Makes her combust and go boom when she becomes too scared or angry... You know anything about it?"

[shiningdrake]

Kylie suddenly felt water splash on her... Oh, that felt so good! But it wasn't enough... She heard Sai and Patchouli's small exchange, but it was really rather irrelevant... She then felt herself being lifted up into the air, and she began panicking slightly. What was this stuff?! But then she felt more water, submerging her, and stopped caring. So wonderful... She felt her energy coming back...

Kylie opened her eyes and saw that she was inside a sphere of water inside some kind of slime monster. "Ah!" she cried, "What is this thing?!" She could tell that the water she was in didn't have anything wrong with it, but this was odd... She was also able to tell that air was somehow coming through the water, not that she really needed it.

Kylie heard Augen speak, and then ask someone she didn't know if she knew anything about Kylie's curse. She looked over toward who he was speaking to... A girl with purple eyes, purple hair, and purplish- pajama-like clothing... Was she the one in charge of this library?

Kylie watched from where she was, not really wanting to leave the water. It felt so good...

[Schala]

Good, the librarian was respond--wait, what did she MEAN not now?!
Then it became clear. The librarian was trying to heal the girl she had spilled water on. And it was so cool the way she did it as well, Sai certainly wished she had that kind of power.
"I'm glad you're okay," she said to the girl. "In case you've forgotten, Sailuni Nekomata"--she pointed to herself--"but call me Sai."
Then she turned back to the librarian, not paying attention to what Augen had asked.
"Now can you say stuff?"

[recon5]

Patchouli smiled, but only slightly. The combustion curse was a serious matter indeed especially since it had such a common trigger condition, and the creation of a proper counter-spell was therefore more important than appeasing the Nekomata's curiosity. When the curse was under control, though, there would be time for the latter endeavor.

"Of course I can say 'stuff' now," replied the magician to Sai's question, "but for a while it will only be the 'stuff' related to the girl's curse, which I presume is not your main interest. Perhaps if you help me to unravel this mystery we can be done with our work earlier and I can show you some truly wonderful things."

She then addressed the man with a more serious tone. "I have not heard of such a curse in all my years of magecraft but then again curses are often specially formulated by each caster according to his or her magical background and powers. If we can discover the nature of the caster's practice then our job will be more than half done, but if we cannot do so then we will have to start from scratch."

Koakuma interrupted her just then as she returned with a tea set and Patchouli had the familiar place the tray on a nearby table before instructing her to continue supervising the cleanup. Then the magician turned her attention back to the task at hand. "Now, tell me everything you know about the one responsible for this curse."

[Augen]

Augen immediately zoomed in on a specific part of Patchouli's words. "According to his or her magical background and powers... So basically, each magician is powerful in some or many magical domains depending on their experience and knowledge of said magical domain, am I correct? Like, the more somebody knows about emotions, the more power they have over emotion magic, right?" He asked these questions quickly. He was very curious about this subject.

[shiningdrake]

Kylie had no idea why Sai was reintroducing herself, but whatever... She seemed rather impatient when dealing with Patchouli though, and was really a bit annoying... Patchouli thought Kylie's curse was of a higher priority than whatever Sai had to say though, and Kylie also doubted that the nekomata had anything much more important as well... Patchouli began explaining that curses depended on the caster's magical powers. Then she asked Kylie about the caster.

"Everything I know about him?" Kylie repeated back at the librarian's question, then began explaining, "Honestly, essentially nothing. He came, asked me to help him try and destroy the human village, put the curse on me when I refused and then left." She shook her head, "I still don't understand all of this... It doesn't make any sense..." Really, even after over two-hundred years, she couldn't understand why anyone would do something like what was done to her...

[Schala]

Someone had cursed the water girl?!
"I'm telling you now," Sai said to her. "I will find whoever did this to you, and I will get him. He is going to pay for what he did. He will be at my feet begging for mercy. He will--"
She stopped there.
Sai knew she was overdoing it. But didn't this guy, whoever he was, deserve it? How could anyone do this to a person?
Fury. Rage. Anything this cruel set Sai on fire*.

(*Figuratively speaking. Sai isn't cursed.)

[recon5]

Patchouli fell silent for a few minutes, pacing around in deep thought before going over to the tea set and selecting a cup. She continued to think silently as she took a few sips, occasionally glancing at a far off spot on the library wall as if she could see some crucial information written there. Eventually she drained her cup and put it back down before returning to her visitors.

"The one responsible for your curse made a wise move in keeping himself mysterious. If he had revealed any truths about his background or his character I might be able to use some empathic magic to summon him and squeeze him dry. However, with so little information I fear we shall have to start from square one."

The magician walked over to the slime and touched its surface, causing a thin blue wave to ripple through its substance. It opened back into a bowl shape, exposing the top of the water to the dust-laden air of the library. This would allow the girl inside to emerge from the water if Patchouli needed to physically examine her in the course of their research.

"We must first discover how the curse powers its effects. Have you ever combusted when in a state of extreme exhaustion or mana depletion? If the effects draw on a separate source of magical energy I might be able to isolate that source and choke it off, which should reduce the magnitude of the combustion."

Then she remembered that the man had asked her some questions and she turned to answer him while waiting for the girl to respond. "Your statements were correct if a bit superficial. For the spellcaster to make a curse respond to emotions he would have to understand the underlying nature of emotions and how they affected a magical formula."

[Augen]

Augen pondered that last bit for a moment before pulling a pen and paper out of his coat, jotting some things down before expanding upon his question. "So if one knows both the workings of magic itself as well as the reaction between an elemental or otherwise magical domain... Then with a lot of practice they should be able to train this knowledge into a bend of physical fabric, correct?"

[shiningdrake]

Sai seemed upset when she learned about Kylie's curse. She began ranting, saying she'd find and destroy the one who had done this... Kylie looked at the nekomata, surprised, and then said, "Thank you Sai."

Kylie then watched quizzically as Patchouli drank her tea. Was she thinking about something? Eventually, the librarian spoke again however, explaining what she could have done if she had some more information. Then, she asked a question that Kylie would be able to answer, after she made the slime holding Kylie open up.

"Well..." Kylie began, "I have exploded when I feel exhausted, or when I don't seem to have any energy left..." she began, "However, this is something that happens with all of the magic I use. Just a bit earlier, I overdrew my power and fell unconscious from what I expended... It was as if I was using more energy than I actually had."

Kylie took a breath before continuing, "My energy also drains over time as well... It can only be restored completely if I submerge myself in water. I most likely would never have recovered even enough to wake up without the healing circle, and you saw that I needed the water anyway after it..." She shook her head. "In case you haven't guessed" she glanced over at Augen, "And as he already knows, I'm not human. I can't drown, or be harmed by cold..."

She paused. "Er, maybe I'm going into a bit too much explanation, most of that isn't relevant to your question. I just thought I'd give as much information as possible, but... Again, I doubt much of it is relevant to the curse." She shrugged.

However, something then occurred to her, and she spoke again. "I have an idea, but I'm not sure how well it would work... Might it be possible to try and undo the curse by judging my magic? It's just a thought, because it seems to have been crafted specifically for my weakness. Seeing how as I'm afraid of fire, the fact that fear activates it means that if it activates at all, it's extremely likely to reach its full effect of outright exploding..."

She shrugged once more. "It's just a thought. Honestly, I don't know enough about the intricate details of magic other than my own natural abilities, so..."

Suddenly, a terrifying thought occurred to her. A spell that was crafted just for her... How would someone have managed to get information for that without being close to her? Could Yukiko have been... No, the thought was utterly absurd. Why would Yukiko go that far in befriending her... And yet, in another way, it did make some kind of twisted sense.. Kylie had met Yukiko not long at all after her house had burned down... As in, the very same night. And did she... Did she have a vague memory of people in the flames that had burned her home down, people besides her parents?

No... Why were such thoughts occurring now? And what point was there to them? No, she should just pay attention so she could answer the librarian's questions as they came...

[Schala]

Sai felt wonderful upon being thanked.
"I think the best way to go is to read a book curses," Sai said, taking charge. Without asking Patchouli if it was okay, she began searching for such a book within the pile.
Whoever had done this to the girl would surely pay--
Suddenly, it occured to Sai that she didn't know anyone's name except the librarian's.
"Excuse me," she said, still looking through books, "but what are your names? You never said."

[recon5]

Patchouli smiled at the Nekomata despite the gravity of the situation. Had she really gotten so carried away as to have forgotten basic courtesy? "Forgive me, Sailuni. My name is Patchouli Knowledge and I am the keeper of this library. My assistant, whom you saw earlier fetching the tea, is called Koakuma- a nickname, if you will, as her true name is a bit hard on the tongue."

Then she answered Augen. "Once again you have the gist of the matter, although as before your reasoning only scratches the surface and your choice of words is a bit cumbersome. In truth the specific details vary from tradition to tradition and some points differ even between individual practitioners of the magical art. If you wish to conduct a scientific study of magic as it is practiced in Gensokyo you would do well to approach others besides myself as even I cannot tell you all you would wish to know."

Finally she turned her attention back to the girl in the water. "If I consider only your words, it seems clear that you possess a vast natural reserve of power but your body and your mind are not conditioned to channel a lot of it for an extended period of time. I believe your loss of consciousness was a bodily mechanism intended to prevent burnout rather than a result of the depletion of your powers. That is often the case with novice magicians before they learn to channel their powers through something other than their own bodies."

"From the claim that your power drains away when you are out of water I conclude that your body instinctively uses magic to compensate for a physical inability to survive on land. This is an important piece of the puzzle if my assumption is correct as it means that you are constantly channeling some measure of your inner power even if you are utterly exhausted, thus providing your curse with a ready source of magical energy to draw on whenever it needs."

Patchouli raised a hand at that and a huge leather-bound book materialized in front of her along with a quill. "Correct me if I missed anything. I have a tendency to think out loud when I feel I am getting close to the truth. A sign of arrogance, perhaps."

The book opened on its own and flipped its pages rapidly until it came to a blank set while the quill swiftly positioned itself at the upper corner of a fresh page. Patchouli nodded at the implements before calling out to Koakuma and instructing her to erect a barrier around and over the slime and the girl within it. "You may proceed with your magic demonstration. A more detailed understanding of just how the power flows in your body as you draw on it will be useful in our investigation."

[Augen]

"M'name's Augenstein R-r-r-r-rovde... But you can call me Augen," Augen said before sitting silently, looking back and forth between the others and a pile of books he had begun looking through. He was very curious. About a great many things... But this power would not yet be his. He would need to be patient.

[shiningdrake]

Kylie looked over at the nekomata when she asked everyone's names. "I'm Kylie.| she replied simply, not bothering to add anything else to it. She was more concerned with Patchouli's explanation.

She wasn't sure about if the reasoning for the drain of power was correct, but it did seem to be something along those lines. However, she was interested to hear about trying to focus her power through something other than her own body. She'd never really tried such a technique, since she hadn't thought of it just being that she simply wasn't able to do it properly...

Though the phrasing seemed slightly odd. Her body and mind weren't conditioned? That sounded like a separate issue, which seemed odd considering that she'd had these abilities her whole life, for over two-hundred years.

She was surprised when Patchouli called to Koakuma to put a barrier up, then said to begin with the demonstration of her powers. However, she nodded, saying, "Alright then."

Kylie wondered how she would do this... She decided that she should do a small demonstration of every kind of magic she used. Creation and manipulation of water and ice...

First, she summoned a few spheres of water, then made them fly around in circles for a few moments, then messed around with its shape a bit. She then scattered all of them into mist except one, before freezing both the one that was still a sphere, and the mist. She then caused the frozen sphere to explode into a number of small icicles in different directions.

Then, she summoned what was basically a covering of ice over her skin, much like what she'd done to shield herself from the insects earlier. She then peeled it from her skin, forcing it to change its shape into a single sphere separate from her, and had it shatter into shards of mist.

Kylie then focused on a bit of ground nearby, trying the same thing as she did when she used Geyser Paradox, just skipping the geyser. The floor where she was casting it appeared to crack, and then a pool of water appeared in its place. After several seconds of maintaining this, she stopped, and the floor reappeared.

Kylie looked at Patchouli again, "Is that enough? I suppose there are more things I could try doing, but that's really all of my basic abilities, the creation and manipulation of water and ice. The last one was a technique I'm not very good at yet, I can't do it to more than a small area, and I can't make the change into water permanent even if I wanted to, nor can I do it to living things..."

[Schala]

Sai noticed all of Kylie's abilities. How amazing she was!
"Nice to meet you all," she said.
Boy, did Sai wish she have that sort of power over water.
"You're so lucky," Sai said to Kylie. "I wish I could do that."
She was getting a little jealous as she sat upon a cushion of books while watching the water mage.