Drunks & Ghosts, a Psychedelic Awakening.

Quartered Awakening Training
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It was time, after their training with King and Polaris...their new pack mates they had agreed that in order to get even more strength they would need to awaken, and so Team Summer headed straight for the Black Dome. Cherish was thinking about a lot of things, truly a lot had happened to them and she had been rethinking a lot of things initially she had never given too much thought into Awakening but now. Now she had a reason to become stronger a reason to become the best she could be if not for her sake then for her teammates and for sensei. What better way to do that than to become the very thing Reiver was, a Ghost. So she had given her teammates a long hug and promised to see them again when they each had awakened and headed straight to the location known as the Ghost's Oasis. On the way she thought about a lot of things, their recent training and how she felt about her teammates and most importantly she thought about how much she wanted Arikiko K. Yaju dead.

She didn't bear any ill will against Aria of the Shifting Scales, after all both of them were children of Gaia and she had even offered to not fight them because of it. Cherish knew, in her heart the only reason they had been spared was because of it too, as the power gulf between her team and the Dobutsu was far to wide. She was one of those with a Flee on Sight designation the highest level of prestige offered to one in their world. It was prestige not notoriety because for someone to get that sort of threat level they had to be truly powerful unnaturally powerful. That was what Aria was, and that was what she knew Summer would eventually become. So it was up to her to get to that level as well so that she could stand beside her teammate along with Omito. She knew of only one thing which would give her such strength and that was to become a True Gaia Sage, the highest connection with Gaia a Dokusei could achieve. While she had no love for her clan she was for once grateful for her heritage because she had something that could take her from her normal level of power in order to fight against monsters like Arikiko and Aria.

So she ended up in the middle of the Oasis meditating and centering herself and reviewing her skills at the moment, as she didn't intend on emerging from the Black Dome without truly pushing her limits it wasn't simply just about awakening it was about mastery. She had gotten pretty good at using both Earth and Water, but she knew from her sensei's scrolls that Ghost Water and Ghost Earth were completely different. Though she figured she would have the easiest experience with the former due to it's gel like consistency whereas Ghost Earth was unique in that it conducted electricity which she knew she could get some use out of especially if she came up against annoying Lightning user's who tried to ruin her day. Then there was the added bonus of all Ghost Elements being naturally superior to their mundane counterparts, it made things much easier for her. Factor in the massive boost in chakra she was sure to experience and she knew that once she did manage to awaken she would be able to make heavy use of her preferred method of combat at a level far above what she could do previously.

From what she knew, access to Sage Mode would likewise bolster her physical abilities, speed in particular which would give her extra mobility for hand seals. No more having to duck underground all the time to avoid Iaido, not when she could blur through seals faster than they could get close enough to cut her. Unknown to her the Oasis would begin to emit steam which would cause the area to begin to flicker the scenery around her changing. Perhaps it was a tell of some sorts that she was approaching enlightenment, or maybe it was a sign of some sort that her awakening trial was at hand. Either way regardless of the changing scenery she didn't open her eyes and remained in her meditative state her mind going through hand seal strings and different combinations while her body focused on establishing a connection to Gaia through the Oasis.

"Nee-san, just watch me from within Gaia's embrace. I'll make you proud, bet on it." Cherish thought to herself opening her eyes and standing up and making the seal of confrontation as she felt that it was time for her to prove herself.

(Word Count Needed = 750)
Complete

The mists grew thick around the oasis, rising up and obscuring the battlefield, no sight could pierce this veil but it didn't last too long. After around a minute or two, the fog drifted away leaving the battlefield changed. Night had descended upon them although a strange ethereal glow came from the pool and from motes of light that fluttered around the oasis. Four large stone pillars rose up forming a square, each of them intricately engraved with impossible to decipher runes although they all held an essence of power, of some kind of energy. The oasis itself had increased in size and it was surrounded on all sides by fine stone that spread outwards as far as the eye could see. Sitting on the other side of the oasis, around two hundred feet away from Cherish was another figure that looked almost exactly like her. A pair of gourds sat either side of her and she was sitting on the stone, legs crossed under her. Her head was bowed and one hand was held out in front in the Seal of Confrontation.

A strange presence could be felt around this figure and she raised her head, stone like skin turning more real by the second. The Oasis!Cherish got to her feet and lifted both of her gourds, slinging them onto her back, two straws hanging by her mouth before she stepped forwards onto the water. Brilliant cyan ripples exploded outwards from the contact, running across the water's surface and inviting Cherish down into the water to fight. It was still, almost perfectly so once the ripples had stopped and the Ghost rolled her neck, mouth opening to clamp a straw in it although she didn't seem like she was actually drinking anything yet. It was time for Cherish's trial to begin and whichever way this went, her life would never be the same afterwards.

Oasis:

Cherish would see the identical figure step onto the water surface and she would do the same albeit doing so in a twirling motion knowing that this must be one of those "trials" that apparently those who tried to awaken ended up taking. Trials that claimed enough lives that even in this day and age awakening was still considered a relatively unknown skill and those who had attained it were considered rare. But she was determined to not end up a statistic, after all her team was counting on her. She couldn't fail them and thus she would make hand seals ending at Ox resulting in 9 Water clones sprouting up around her, one of which would do the same, swelling the numbers to a robust 15, with the original making 16 in total. Cherish would split them into formations 4 teams, one heading underwater, one to the right, one to the left and finally one which began to charge forward. The ones which moved underwater would slip on the goggles which they wore on their neck before each of them would speed up moving towards the trial construct at C-rank speeds while the Left & Right Teams would slip underwater except both headed for the stone isolating the oasis apparently eager to get to land. Which one of those teams Cherish was in well, for now one would just have to wait and find out really.

Cherish:

Charging Team:

Underwater, Right & Left Teams: