A World of Pure Imagination; Basic Genjutsu Class

Ao bounced around happily in her classroom, it was only about fifteen minutes until the class started but she was so excited to finally teach people about her favourite thing in the whole world! Mind-fuc- she shook her head, no it was Genjutsu, she was a teacher she had to use proper terminology these days... That was kinda boring but it was probably for the best. She moved over and adjusted a desk before looking around.

The class was fairly simple, rows of desks but one wall was covered in various drawings and paintings and there was enough space to walk around without too much issue. She had already prepared the entrance properly because she wanted to make a really good impression, though she hadn't told anyone else what she was planning... They might get annoyed at her if they learned but oh well what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them.

Ao herself was a fairly young looking girl in a blue lolita styled dress, covered in ruffles and ribbons. Her ocean blue hair was pulled back into a pair of long braids that were pulled over her shoulders. Her eyes, deep purple, glittered with amusement and there was an easy smile resting on her face.

Anyone entering the class would find that they were suddenly walking into a beautiful meadow dotted with desks and hundreds of brightly coloured flowers. A blue sky blazed overhead with a rainbow and the grass swayed in a gentle, comforting breeze.

Another class, he was rather surprised that things were moving along at such a steady pace given that it felt as if all he was doing ever since he had gotten to the academy was anything else but learning. Still, he was thankful that they were finally moving along as that meant it was one step closer to leaving this hellscape and into the real world where he could move around more freely and under less scrutiny. Then again, who knew if that would be the case? If anything they’d probably put him on a tighter leash but he silently hoped that would be the worst-case scenario.

Upon entering the class he would notice that something was off. Well, off was an understatement as he was now in some sort of meadow instead of an actual classroom. “I guess this is what we’re doing.” He said before walking by the teacher and taking his seat to the far left. Maybe this was supposed to evoke some sort of feeling inside him but as usual, he felt nothing.

"Well this is new".

The Mishura had been expecting a lot of things when he walked through the doorway of the classroom. Ornery students, slightly unhinged teachers, maybe already a conflict or two given how his last few classes had turned out. What he hadn't expected, however, was for the classroom to morph into some kind of fantasy land straight out of a children's book, with rainbows and flowers aplenty. When compared to the swampy islands where the Mishura had been reared, this strange new world was quite overwhelming.

Out of sheer curiosity, Keid stealthily flicked on his Kyougan for a few seconds, straining the Dojutsu to see if he could find any weak point in the illusion. Sadly, his Visual Prowess was not quite at the level where he could rip through illusions the way some of his older brothers could, and he flicked the ability back off before it drew more attention.

Taking his seat and setting up his books as per usual, Keid prepared himself what should be quite an interesting class. While he did notice that same strange boy that had been in his Taijutsu class in the "corner" of the classroom, he mentally shrugged. From his positioning, the boy obviously wanted to be alone, and so Keid would leave him with just a friendly nod before turning his attention towards the front of the room.

As the pupils filtered in, a few others alongside Maxi and Keid, Ao's smile grew at the variety of expressions that her surroundings gave. For a moment she thought about calling Maxi out for being a grump but she was aware of just who and what he was, so it was probably for the best that she didn't bother going through with that. With a slight shift of her chakra, she caused the 'sun' in the classroom to shift behind a cloud, darkening the room somewhat and making it slightly more comfortable to sit in.

With a soft cough she then strode to the front of the class and gave everyone a double-handed wave, a bright smile on her features. "Good day boys, girls and all between! My name is Ao and I will be your teacher today! We're learning about Genjutsu which is one of my absolute top fave things! There's so much fun you can have with illusions and they really enhance the combat experience." She then pulled her chair around and sat down, crossing one leg over the other and resting her hands in her lap.

"Okay so let's start! When I point at you I would like your name and one fact you know about Genjutsu!" She pointed at some random students, getting some names and the most basic of info such as Genjutsu requiring chakra to be used and that they could be triggered through the five basic senses. Her last two students that she pointed at however were Maxi and Keid and she seemed very interested in what they would say.

Keid's pencil danced across his notebook, seemingly attempting to write down every word Ao said. While the Mishura did have some abilities with Genjutsu, most of it required much higher levels of skill and chakra than he himself possessed. Which, he supposed, probably wasn't the worst thing, it let him focus his time on improving his physical body, fighting styles and Fire Release, but it did leave him without a lot of wild cards. If someone exceeded him in chakra or exceeded him in physical power, he didn't have anything to fall back on. Maybe Genjutsu could be his ace in the hole?

When called on, Keid stood, "Genjutsu can also be triggered through elemental releases such as Fire Release. While not as diverse as those activated through the five senses, it does allow them to be applied more sneakily"

After passing over Maxi due to seeing how grumpy he looked today in particular, Ao turned to Keid and got her answer. She grinned and gave a small clap before flicking her wrist. A small wrapped caramel chew would land on Keid's desk. "Very good! I am glad to hear you already know about the elemental illusion styles! They are quite powerful but they do have an innate drawback that normal Genjutsu doesn't; they are altered by elemental strengths and weaknesses. This means that while two C-Rank Genjutsu would usually cancel each other out, a C-Rank Tidal Illusion would actually overpower and overtake a C-Rank Burning Illusion! All very interested I'm sure you'd agree." She nodded and got a few other fairly simple answers from the rest of the class.

"Okay, so next question. I'm going to give you three questions and I'd like you to write down the answers and then read them out one by one as I point to you. There's also a bonus question at the end that will get you some extra brownie points! So question one! What type of Genjutsu do Dojutsu usually specialise in or have a specific resistance against? Second question! What two types of people have unique specialities regarding Genjutsu? Third question! Using multiple Genjutsu one after another to combine them is known as what? And my last special question, what Genjutsu do you all think you are currently suffering from?" She gave everyone a few minutes to write down their answers before slowly going through the classes and getting their responses. About halfway through she'd make it to Keid and then towards the end she'd make it to Maxi if he had summoned the energy to participate again.

"That's certainly good to know Sensei." Keid commented, making a careful note of that in his notebook. Keid himself had planned to specialize in the Burning Illusion style, so knowledge of such a glaring weakness was certainly better to know now rather than figure out for himself. Watch out for water release users when casting genjutsu, they are most likely to have the ability to resist it.  Wind Release jutsu should make far more tempting targets depending on battlefield conditions.

When it came time to write down his answers however, Keid was considerably less confident in his responses. All the boy had really had prior to this class was a casual exposure to Genjutsu, and certainly not one so in depth. Did he really have to look foolish again? In front of everyone? Nevertheless, when it came his turn to answer, Keid had written down answers and sat up ramrod straight, looking Ao in the eye. "Dojutsu primarily specialize in Visual-based Genjutsu, since most of those innately capable of it have some way of casting it via eye-contact. Two types of people with unique Genjutsu specialities include the Iwari of the Erlang, and how they can kind of innately detect it? I also think the Mikaboshi have some special genjutsu though I don't know the specifics. Multiple genjutsu are called a genjutsu string, and....by smell? We didn't see or touch any trigger, and I don't think I heard or tasted anything special." Keid finished, his voice a question.

After hearing a lot of fairly wrong and silly answers, it was quite nice to hit Keid and hear someone that actually understood what bloody class they were in. Seriously, what kind of person would answer "Looky-genjutsu?" when asked about the Dojutsu speciality. Ao grit her teeth but her smile never left her face nor her eyes. Once Keid was finished she gave a couple of nods before continuing across everyone. Once they were all done she clapped her hands together and let out a soft sigh. "Okay, we've got all the answers from you guys, now let's review and see what the actual answers were!"

She waved her hand and out of the sky-sparkles around her a glowing eye manifested. "Dojutsu specialise in Ocular Genjutsu, though Visual Genjutsu would also be an acceptable answer. They also generally have an innate defense against Genjutsu that is activated by locking eyes with your opponent, so be careful to check your foe for the existence of Dojutsu before attempting any such techniques on them!" She then spread her hand out and two people appeared, though they were very generic, one looked more like a physical bruiser and the other was small with strange stones in their palms.

"Second question! The answers I was looking for were Ronin and Entity. However, Keid's answer of the Iwari Branch was acceptable as the Itsugan is known for its mental proficiency. However Ronin and Entity as a baseline are capable of unique interactions with Genjutsu. Ronin can utilise Haki, increasing the power of their Genjutsu and making them even harder to break out of! It is advised that you fight carefully and attempt to mentally overwhelm a Ronin rather than trying to shrug off their Genjutsu. Entity are capable of Mind Lock, a unique ability that allows them to turn Genjutsu into Physical effects, causing them to actually damage your body rather than your mind which is very dangerous but does open other avenues for defending against them." With that done Ao clapped and the two figures disappeared.

With another flourish, a massive glowing chain appeared and she threw it out, hooking it around an invisible people of scenery far in the distance. "Though String works, it is usually called a Genjutsu Chain! There are even Genjutsu that specifically take over and redirect an opponent's Genjutsu, allowing those techniques to apply to your own Genjutsu chains, how worrying! Lastly?" She flared her hands out and the entire effect around her faded away, returning them all to a normal, rather drab classroom. "Unfortunately none of you got it. I put you under the False Vicinity Technique, which actually has a unique trigger effect. By spreading your chakra across an area, you can trigger this Genjutsu on anyone that enters the area! It allows you to seemingly alter the terrain around someone and fool their sense of direction and navigation, making it very easy to hide within the altered terrain and ambush people who are trapped. It also makes finding Genjutsu immune figures very easy as they won't even notice stepping into the area and it won't reveal your own tricks either. A very tricky and useful technique!" She grinned and nodded before stretching out and asking her next question.

"So for everyone. I would like you to write down any Genjutsu styles or specific techniques you are interested in and then as part of that I would like you to tell me if you know of any other types of techniques that are similar to Genjutsu but aren't actually Genjutsu." Looking down, the genjutsu disappearing would also reveal a piece of paper and pencil on each student's desk.

Information:

Maximillian had completely dozed off in class which wasn’t the norm for him. Sure he had issues with falling asleep at night due to his depression but just to doze off like this in class was a new one for him. Normally, he just wouldn’t have cared and would just leave the moment they could but he was determined to see this through, so he’d take open his book and with his pencil, in hand, he began writing.

The first thing he jotted down was her first question about what he had known about genjutsu. He’d think for a while before jotting down that some genjutsu can be broken out of via pain. This was never something he had done himself but he had heard about it from instructors while he was passing by the staff lounge. He’d listened to the interaction between the boy and the teacher and jotted that down as well just in case he decided to use elemental genjutsu then again did he even have an element?

The second question Maxi could safely say he knew nothing about. He never saw a Dojutsu before and also never heard anyone else speak about it so this was all foreign to him. So he would just write down everything that they had said so he wouldn’t miss anything of importance.

And finally, he had finally caught up where they were in class but there was a problem. He didn’t know much about his clan since he was pretty much on the outskirts of it so he didn’t even know if they used genjutsu that and he didn’t even know what he could do outside of the little taijutsu he knew so he left that blank. He did know, however, something that was like genjutsu but wasn’t and that was. “Fabrication.”  He’d say finally participating in class.

This class was much more to Keid's liking.

While his Ninjutsu class had been good for reinforcing his fundamentals, it really hadn't taught the Mishura anything he wouldn't have figured out for himself eventually. This wasn't to say it wasn't useful, just that it wasn't completely essential. This Genjutsu class, however, was an entirely different beast, and Keid was already looking forward to the additional instruction that would soon follow, especially since he had (surprisingly) gotten quite a bit of the initial examination correct!

"Is this False Vicinity technique something we can learn Sensei? Or is it a clan secret?" Keid asked after raising a hand. It was somewhat of a bold ask, but this technique was too useful for Keid until he had a solid grasp of the Kyougan's genjutsu casting capabilities. Even then, the Kyougan was more about brute force than it was the minute subtlety that the technique was apparently capable of. If Ao gave an affirmative, Keid would write down "False Vicinity" on his paper, as well as "Haki". It was a bit of a cheap answer, but Keid genuinely did not know of any genjutsu-adjacent techniques, so this was pretty much his only option.

"The False Vicinity technique and its enhanced forms such as the Double False Vicinity Technique are in fact generalised Genjutsu that anyone can learn. Though do be aware that they are fairly high ranked especially for Academy Students. That isn't to say there's no point learning them but they will take a toll on your chakra should you use them!" Ao said with a bright smile, she was genuinely glad that someone was interested in the technique and seemed to want to learn it, that meant she was on the right path with teaching them which was great!

She then waited to get some answers to her questions but she wasn't really getting anyway. Ao pursed her lips and was about to continue before Maxi spoke up. The teacher perked up slightly and gave a bright smile. "Well done! You are correct, Fabrication! Fabrication is a very rare type of technique only usable by a select few peoples and is very powerful, it is similar to an Entity's Mind Lock except that they naturally cause illusions that trick the body into mimicking the effects, making them seem real. It is possible to combat Fabrication with Genjutsu but it is quite difficult due to the nature of Fabrication, so keep that in mind. Some people, like the Kukinorite are capable of creating mirages or physical illusions, these aren't real but don't actually work on the mind, instead targeting the senses or body directly, making things like Kai and Pain breakouts unhelpful."

With that Ao gave a nod and then handed out some books on basic genjutsu theory, how the senses worked and the names for people that didn't have certain senses which would render them immune to certain types of Genjutsu. "Okay have a bit of a read just now and if you have any questions feel free to ask me. I doubt you'll finish the book today but I would like it finished for next class, it's not very advanced and isn't very big so it should be quite easy."

Maximillian would quickly jot down the information about the False Vicinity technique as he was sure that would be a technique that would come in handy for him in the near future. Although he dozed off for most of the class he felt as if he had written down the essential details in the little notebook he kept with him so it was just a matter of reviewing the info. “I have a question. Are you able to break out of Fabrication the same way you can break free from Genjutsu?” He finally said readying his pen. Though he knew of Fabrication his knowledge was just of the name and its similarities to Genjutsu and since it was something he had planned on learning in the near future might as well he tried to take as much information from the instructor before him.

"Understood Sensei, I'll have to take a look into it." Keid responded, scribbling a note to himself in his agenda. Although Ao's warning about the chakra cost was recieved and noted, the Mishura ultimately didn't see it as a major hindarance. Right now, aside from maintaining his Kyougan, most of his chakra went unused in battle due to his focus on Kenjutsu. He might as well use it for something right?

Taking his copy of Basic Genjutsu Theory, Keid thanked Ao and waited around for a few minutes to write down the answers to any questions the other students asked. Keid didn't personally have any remaining questions, but the questions about Fabrication that the boy in the corner was asking seemed quite useful.

"Fabrication can be combatted through mental techniques such as Genjutsu, however Pain and Kai are usually unable to break Fabrication. At least in their base forms, it would definitely be possible to formulate a Jutsu of your own that would allow you to break Fabrication, though it would likely be far more taxing than dealing with normal Genjutsu. One thing to know however is that Fabrication is VERY dependent on the user's own senses, rather than their victim's. This means if you can disable the sense they are using to activate the Fabrication you can stop them from utilising it." Ao said with a smile before sitting back to watch everyone.

After some time spent reading she flicked a sleeve back and looked at the watch on the inside of her wrist. She then pulled her sleeve down and clapped her hands. "Okay everyone. You've done great here! We'll finish up the class here and I hope you'll be coming back next time! Remember to read your books and always ask for consent before practicing your Genjutsu on anyone but getting practice IS important!" She declared before letting them leave the class.

Information:

Maximillian would quickly jot down the information that was provided to him before closing the notebook. He felt as if he now had substantial information on Fabrication and Genjutsu so he could go ahead and make his plans accordingly. “Thank you, instructor, you have been very much helpful.” He said before getting up and heading out of the classroom. Normally, he would be headed to his room but instead, he made his way to the training grounds.

-exit