Bonnie: "How did you do it?!"
Kassius: "I don't know... I just opened my eyes and could see it for a bit."
Arnold: "Did you feel anything?"
Kassius: "Well... it felt kind of weird in my head. And my eyes... they felt like they were getting warmer, you know?"
Dor'al: "You should try remembering that feeling. That way, you can repeat it. But this is good progress."
Kassius looks back at his stick, smiling. The night passes and the sun rises in the morning. The group clean themselves up and continue practising. Dor'al looks around at the group. He sees Arnold, continuing to look at his stick. He then sees Kaizen, looking at his bat.
Dor'al: "You changed objects?"
Kaizen: "Yes. I thought maybe I'd be able to notice it better with something I've seen longer."
Dor'al: "That is an interesting approach, I'd say."
He looks over to Kassius, who is staring at his stick weirdly.
Dor'al: "Did you manage to repeat it?"
Kassius: "Well, I think I have the idea right. But it's like whenever I blink, I lose focus."
Dor'al: "What's your approach?"
Kassius: "Well, I close my eyes forcefully for a few seconds. Then I slowly open them while focusing on seeing the Presence. And for a short while, it works."
Dor'al: "Hmm... maybe you guys should try the same. Also, where is the girl?"
Kassius: "Umm... I think she went to the bathroom."
Bonnie: "I did it! I did it!"
They all look towards Bonnie as she rushes back.
Kassius: "You saw it?!"
Bonnie: "Yes!"
Kaizen: "How?"
Bonnie: "There was this fly disturbing me. And it landed. And I was gonna swat it, but I remembered something. You said something about moving the arm can make it fluctuate more, right? So I thought, what if it fluctuates more when it's about to fly? So I looked, and looked. And bam! I saw it fluctuate and I grabbed it before it flew away."
Dor'al: "An ingenious approach. Very well done."
Kaizen: "So can you see it now?"
Bonnie: "Well... no. But I saw it once, and it felt like how Kas described around the eyes. So I'll just do it again."
Dor'al: "Alright, let's take a quick break. We will eat and then continue."
Dor'al goes and brings back food. They all eat and talk as the sun shines on them from above.
Kassius: "Are you on notice?"
Dor'al: "I am. Red notice, actually."
Kassius: "Whoa! What did you do?"
Dor'al: "Well, the official ACO report says that I helped a group of criminals escape from capture. But that's definitely not the reason why I'm Red."
Kaizen: "Why then?"
Dor'al: "Are you aware of how the notice system works?"
Kaizen: "Sort of. This ACO police group give out notices to criminals and the different colours represent the threat."
Dor'al: "That is true, but what I'm focusing on is how they give out notices. Usually, they'd give Green notice to any upstart criminal. For what I was caught doing, it should have been the same. But the real reason is simple. I was part of the exception to the rule."
Kaizen: "Exception?"
Dor'al: "There are rare cases where a nobody will jump high on the notice list. An example case would be any significant disturbance to the Royals. What I was noticed for, is for using Presence."
Kassius: "What?!"
Arnold: "Using Presence is illegal?"
Dor'al: "Not just illegal. Majority of the world is unaware of Presence."
Kassius: "Wait, so the ACO can't use it?"
Dor'al: "You'd think so, but it's the complete opposite. And it's because of this book here."
Kassius: "Remus' book?"
Dor'al: "At one point, he made multiple copies and tried to spread them around. But a majority of them are gone."
Bonnie: "Why was he spreading them around?"
Dor'al: "I honestly don't know. He's an odd person. But yes, the ACO most likely obtained a copy or even multiple while they were sweeping them away. There are many stories of criminals encountering top officers with strange abilities. So you shouldn't be surprised if you encounter them."
Dor'al puts his tray down on the floor.
Dor'al: "Alright, shall I take you through the steps of the Unique Technique?"
He grabs a stick and clears some grass away.
Dor'al: "OK, there are four things you need to make the Manifesto. First, you need a general idea of your true desire. Without it, you cannot use a Unique Technique. Next, you need a canvas to write it. It can be in the dirt, carved in stone, written on paper. Whatever you want. But you also need what you'll write it with. For a paper, it'd be a pen. For dirt, you could even use your finger. Finally, you need to be able to fluctuate your Presence actively so there is intent. Now, let's take this ground as the canvas. What I'd do is fluctuate my Presence around my finger and write down two things. One is the action. The other is the conditions. You list the conditions under the action. It's important to have a condition that let's you activate the technique. This can be a saying, a gesture or an action of choice. It's also important to specify it is a Base Technique. So write that besides the action, or above. As long as it's clear."
Dor'al picks up the stick.
Dor'al: "Now, you can also use another object to write it. But this requires you to cause enough fluctuation in that object for it to cause fluctuation in the canvas. It's more complex though. But if you want to write it on paper, it's useful. That way, there's less of a chance of it getting damaged. As opposed to dirt, where..."
Dor'al rubs his hand around the dirt.
Dor'al: "... it's easy to destroy."
Dor'al gets up on his feet.
Dor'al: "I think I've covered most of the book for you to have a general idea on Presence. I'll head to village one last time to collect something and we will head back to Tempora."
Dor'al heads back to the village.
Kassius: "Breathing fire would be pretty cool, right?"
Bonnie: "You want to be a dragon or something?"
Kassius: "Hehe, maybe."
Kaizen: "We should probably put some more thought into this."
After a few hours, Dor'al returns and the group clean up and head back to the bathroom. Dor'al uses his technique and opens the door to Tempora. The group head in and the door closes behind them. They all walk back to the community hall. Ayana and Feela spot them and walk to the group.
Kassius: "Thanks for teaching us."
Dor'al: "No problem at all. If you guys have any questions, just ask whenever I'm around. I'll be off now. Take care."
Dor'al walks away from the group. Ayana and Feela reach them, and Palu runs up and climbs on Kaizen.
Ayana: "Come, let's go sit down."
They all walk together and sit down near a wall.
Ayana: "So, did you learn enough?"
Kassius: "About Presence, yeah. Still need to think about Hassan's technique."
Ayana: "Well, Hassan said he'd be back in a few days so you guys have some time to think."
The next few days pass by, as everybody continues practising Presence Scoping. Bonnie, staring at people's movements through the hall, starts to pick up patterns and the Presence around others becomes more visible to her. Kassius continues his approach of squinting, and after a while, holds view of an object's Presence. Kaizen, staring at his bat for a while, slowly notices the fluctuations he causes where he holds, and eventually distinctly pictures the smooth Presence around his bat. Arnold, however, struggles to see it. The first week ends, and the group sit at the community hall, eating together.
Bonnie: "Are you sure I can't join?"
Kassius: "Bonnie, you're the one who said you weren't interested."
Bonnie: "Well, yeah but that's before I knew there was fighting involved."
Kassius: "We already agreed, if Hassan refuses, you can join."
Bonnie: "Hmph. Fine, I'll go find a job instead."
Bonnie stands up and walks to the board area. Hassan walks by her, as she stares at him begrudgingly with food in her mouth. Confused, he awkwardly smiles as he walks away. As Hassan enters the community hall, he sees Kassius, Kaizen, Ayana and Feela sat.
Hassan: "Yo! Been a minute. Space for another?"
Kassius: "Hehe, yeah."
The group move in and give him space to sit down.
Hassan: "Did I do something to your friend?"
Kassius: "Who, Bonnie? Nah, she's fine. Something else."
Hassan: "Ok... anyway, did you manage to do it?"
Kassius: "Yes, I think so."
Hassan: "Great, explain it to me."
Kassius: "Ok, it took me a while, but I think I got it. You can store things in your bag."
Hassan: "Yeah... but I told you that."
Kassius: "Exactly. That's all you told us. We don't know the conditions you chose, so we could never truly tell you how your technique works. Well, most conditions."
Kassius puts a plastic bag in front of him.
Kassius: "One condition, I'm guessing, is that bag specifically."
Hassan: "Are you sure?"
Kassius: "Well, if I'm wrong, you should be able to do the same trick earlier with the bat."
Kaizen holds his bat out to Hassan.
Hassan: "Would you put me joining on the line if you're wrong?"
Kassius: "I would."
Hassan takes the bat. As he holds it properly, he slowly goes down until the plastic bag on the ground. A thud hits the ground, and Hassan looks at Kassius, smiling.
Hassan: "Haha! I guess you got me. Let's sign up."
The group all smile in excitement. Kassius rolls out the paper and they start filling it in.
Bonnie: "Yo! Check this."
Bonnie throws down a flyer in front of them.
Ayana: "It's the Bridgeway 11 flyer."
Hassan: "Oh, this is the updated one. Thanks. Yeah, look. It lists the top 3 rewards now."
Arnold walks out of the bathroom and back into the community hall. As he strolls by,
"A Shingeto painting?"
"Yeah, right. And I'm on black notice, haha!"
Arnold breaks into a cold sweat. He looks around and sees a Bridgeway 11 flyer on the ground. Audio mumbles around him as he reads the flyer,
"REWARD FOR 1ST PLACE: THE LOCATION OF A SHINGETO PAINTING..."
In that moment, Arnold's focus heightened, and the outline of the flyer's Presence became visible to him.