Genkai

This week we will be focusing on a couple of our Fundamental users, this time will be the lovely Chitori Kunieda, our resident class president and role model to all students and power-users alike. In front of her peers, she is a strong, calm, poised young female leader who can command all those around her with but a soft spoken word. However, behind the scenes she is brash, arrogant, and controlling, always trying to stay at the top, always trying to be the best, one could say she let's competition get the better of her.

Competitiveness is but a symptom of the best, and Chitori is nothing but the best. She needs to be in order to have such a strong command of her power: Gravity.

One of the laws founded by Sir Isaac Newton, gravity is one of the most important and elusive laws in physics. The most obvious things we understand about gravity is that it is a purely attractive force that is exerted by mass on mass. However, only very large amounts of mass can exhibit any sort of noticeable effect, and when I say very large, I mean things the size of planets and black holes. Gravity is a somewhat weak force (not to be confused with 'the weak force') because even here on Earth, where our planet possess a gravitational pull on us, we are able to defy gravity everyday, and it does not even take much to do! Simply jumping is enough for us to defy the pull that the Earth exerts onto us. 

Now what makes this power so complicated to control? I mean can't she just turn gravity on and off? Well that is the first thing I wish to try and debunk. Unlike in your more common science fiction/super power infused story, that is not how gravity works. You can't just turn gravity off. It's not some force that just permeates the air and that can fluctuate between working and not working with the flip of a switch. Now it is possible for Chitori to weaken, and potentially even make the entire's Earth gravitational pull non existent, however, that in lies the problem with how conventional gravity powers work. She can't just turn on and off a section of area that exerts gravitational pull, she would need to specifically control the entire Earth's gravity, and If Chitori were to suddenly "turn off" the Earth's gravitational pull, there would be countless repercussions that would come with such a sudden change to a force that is part of the Earth's sensitive Eco system. So not only would it be a stupid idea, but there also would be far too many irreversible consequences of such an action. 

I passed the certification process for my job, all that's left is the final 'On the Job' Certification, which is a 3 hour thing(?) that goes on in the Learning Studio that I'm stationed at, where I learn about the main workings of that specific LS as well as take one final test on how to teach a lesson at this company. So here's crossing my fingers. For some reason this job has been putting more stress on me than I originally thought, I'll leave that philosophical talk for my other blog if anyone is interested, but what I conveyed to my dad on the night of the final certification day was I believe that I'm not a teacher at this company but a service provider. Anywho, my life is finally starting to take shape here in Japan so hopefully with that things can happen more consistently, like the updating of this blog! Without any further ado, here's our next OverTone Focus: Sou Mikazuki!

From the information on this new student, he has the ability to control electricity, though it is in nowhere the same level as that of Mr. Yaigusa (Eiji) Also unlike Mr Yaigusa, and the rest of our students, we are unsure as to what exactly he manipulates, all we can determine at this time is that it allows him to produce electricity. Further tests and observation is required on this subject. 

The basics of Sou's powers deal with how he uses and controls electricity. Because not even he knows what it is he is controlling, we can't be sure if what he's doing is even an efficient use of his powers. It is very possible, though amazing in and of itself, that he is straining his powers and controlling other elements to artificially create lightning, but again, until we find out what element of reality he controls, everything is just speculation. 

Despite this lack of knowledge though, Sou is able to produce a very difficult-to-control event. Because of the nature of electricity, it is amazing that he has such dominant control over the path in which his bolts of lightning take. Electricity is always trying to find the path of least resistance and therefore will not always follow the direction that an OT may want it to take unless they either create the perfect conditions to allow for the electricity to flow in a particular path without any obstruction, or if they have a path already set for the electricity to flow towards their intended target, controlling this element takes far too much preparation and understanding that it's use in battle is near impossible. 

Alex's power is the Manipulation of the Shape of Metal. He is able to freely manipulate the shape of any metal object he touches, to his will and imagination. As long as he has physical contact the metal is under his complete control to manipulate.

On paper it is a fairly simple power that has a large number of applications, especially in the modern world that we live in where finding something that has some trace of metal in it is not hard, however, there in lies one of the caveats that Alex must be aware of as he tries to manipulate the shape of differing metals. Every kind of metal is in itself a different element, though they do need to have a similar component in order to be considered a metal, they, by and large, are different and thus Alex must be aware of these differences or else risk either trying to use certain metals to fulfill roles that they cannot support, or make them into shapes that would collapse on itself. The most important factor that Alex must be aware of is that he cannot control the volume and density of the metal. What this means is that even with his near limitless imagination, he is limited to what kinds of shapes he could actually make due to this restraint. This forces him to think more creatively, but also requires that he truly understands every aspect of the materials that he is trying to control. If Alex were to try to manipulate a metal into a shape that would drastically alter its volume or density, nothing would happen. 

Stunningly with the type of person Alex is, along with his personality and intellect, this would be the perfect power for him. Not only is he capable of learning about every and all kinds of differing metals he is also able to retain that knowledge and implement it immediately allowing him to truly make use of his power to its full potential. 

An odd quirk that comes with his power, is a self induced delay in transformation. As mentioned, Alex is able to only manipulate the shape of metals that he touches, so once they are away from his physical contact he can no longer interact with the metal and thus control its shape. Normally this would mean that if he wanted to make throwing weapons he would have to pre-form them and then throw, however Alex is able to introduce a delay in the formation of the shape he perceives thus allowing for him to do interesting things like throwing coins into the air and having it become a sudden knife storm, or laying down traps for people that are unpredictable, or even allowing for pseudo-automation.

All these things and lots more are within the realm of ability for Alex with his powers as an OT. 

To give a better idea of how powers work within the world of Genkai, we will go a little deeper into some of the main characters of the story and the powers they possess. To start out this week we will be talking about our poster girl Kei.

Kei’s power is in the manipulation of kinetic energy. With this power, Kei is able to freely manipulate the distribution and use of kinetic energy within her body and anything she affects around her, as in anything she touches and/or interacts with, but is not limited to just touch. To clarify, she is able to control the kinetic energy of objects within a small area around her that spans about 3 feet. Of course this is limited to things that she can see, touch, as well as perceive. 

Due to Kei’s martial arts background, her power opens up many possibilities. Her range of movement is now greater than any natural human being, she is able to jump higher, run faster, and, most importantly, punch and kick harder than anyone else. Though Kei requires energy to move herself, the use of her power does not correlate to how well she manages her own energy or how efficient she is with it. However, she is able to absorb the Kinetic energy around her to help give her a last desperado if need be, or course with great consequences to both her mental stability as well as her physical condition. The possibilities of her power over kinetic energy does not stop there, not only does she improve her own physical condition, but as mentioned before she can manipulate objects, within a small radius, around her. What this means is that she can introduce new energy into objects and use them as projectiles, cause molecules to become energetic, or even stop moving objects in their tracks.

Always remember the key point of all OTs is their ‘manipulation’ of a certain facet. What makes this especially important in Kei’s case is that she can, say, absorb the entire kinetic energy of a car moving at 60mph, stop the car by taking all of that energy and then transferring it into something else, like say a can or more potently a kick. This free manipulation, this free transference of energy (and for that matter the free manipulation for other OTs) opens up her already wide range of possibilities.

But of course, these great abilities require a great amount of understanding of how kinetic energy works, and with, even, the slightest mistake Kei can easily destroy a bone, if not her entire body, if she is not careful with her distribution of energy. If we take the car example again, and lets say Kei tries to use that energy to power up her kicks, if she does not create a safe cushion for her leg it will  literally be as if she tried kicking a car moving at 60mph. That is why she needs to make sure she distributes the energy outward away from leg so to allow her to still allow for the force of a 60mph moving car to take effect, but also so that the reactive force, the rebound, is pushed away from her leg. This is but a small example of the complexities Kei must understand and think about when using her powers for combat, but no matter what Kei ‘must’ have a near complete understanding of how kinetic energy works if she hopes to use it to its full potential as well as avoid any unnecessary injury to herself, or even those around her.

This complexity is in no way specific to Kei only. Because OTs posses the potential to control a complete facet of physics they risk the possibility of hurting everyone around them, especially themselves if they do not understand the consequences, the reaction to every action, of how their powers work. This is the greatest threat, as well as the greatest fear OTs instill in Mutes, or non-power users. But it is also where much of mankind’s hope lies. 

For the next few weeks we will explore a few more characters and their powers.

As mentioned there are special persons born with a power so basic they can only be classified as an almost entirely different type of power user, though in the most technical of terms they are still Overtones, Fundamentals are essentially of a higher tier.

In order to be classified as a Fundamental there are some criteria that must be met:

First, they must be born with their power.

Second, there must be no inherent limitation in the access of said power, outside of personal/mental/physical limitations, and those pertaining to our own reality.

As of now, these are the only known similarities between all known Fundamentals and thus are the only criteria that can be used to measure them. By these standards there have only been a few known Fundamentals. As if their title was not telling enough, the only known Fundamentals so far are four young individuals who each possess the power to control a fundamental force of physics; Gravity, Electro-magnetism, Strong and Weak nuclear force. Each one of these individuals have in them, a power that can change and move the world. Through their powers we are not only able to better understand Overtones and Undertones but also how our greater universe works. It is unprofessional to say, but we are almost jealous at how close these individuals are able to touch the very fabric that makes our reality.

However, because these young individuals come into possession of these powers at such an early stage in their lives they are immediately treated differently, even more so than that of regular Overtones. And it is with this we must tread carefully in studying them, for even the smallest provocation can cause them to walk a path that would be counter-intuitive to the development of mankind.  

Like how there are countless differences in the personalities of people, ranging from the eccentric to the generic, from the common to the talented, there is an equal amount of different kind of OTs.

Though there is no agreed upon method in knowing whether someone will develop OT powers or not, it is assumed that every human being has the potential to tap into this power, however it is not until they show tangible results can they officially be classified an Overtone. Once they are, there is a rudimentary system in place that is used to identify the kind of power an OT may possess as well as its destructive power. This is needed because an OT's potential does not end once he or she obtains the use of their power.

As an OT grows in age, knowledge and proficiency in the use of her power, they may eventually unlock the ability to break a defining limitation to their power, making their power more basic in terms of physics, and in many cases make the user many times more powerful. When an OT is able to achieve this level of mastery over their power then they are known from that point on as Sharps. However reaching this level of mastery does not come without its risks.  There have been known cases in where many OTs actually lose their powers completely, never able to control reality every again, those that have once known power but then lose it are known as Mutes. Though they have lost the use of their powers, Mutes may have some resonating effects of their powers, however these effects are usually far too minute to make any difference.

Outisde of OTs there are those that have such acute control and understanding of their powers from the moment they are born, as well as controlling the most basic elements of the known universe that they must be classified on a completely different level, they are simply known as Fundamentals. I will go into them further in my next post.