"You're stuck. You can't find the crystal to save your life. I'm going to tell you why, and more importantly, I'm going to tell you how to fix it."
"Please!" I bowed my head. I was desperate. I had spent the last six months focusing on my Quirk and my engineering hobby, but I was itching to ignite a blade again.
"Okay. Let's be blunt. The reason you can't find the Kyber crystal... is because you don't understand the Dark Side."
"What...?! Anakin, are you serious? What kind of thing is that to say to a student?!"
I bristled. The suggestion was an affront to everything I had been taught. But then again, this was the former Lord Vader speaking. To mention the Dark Side during Jedi training? It was heresy.
"This is training time, Kotoha. Address me properly."
"...Master Skywalker. Please explain your intent."
"Don't misunderstand me. I said you don't understand the Dark Side. I didn't say you should use it."
I tilted my head, confused.
"Let's review," Anakin said, beginning to pace around me in a slow, deliberate circle. He looked every bit the seasoned Master. "What is required to use the Force?"
"A strong will and disciplined concentration."
"Correct. And what is the nature of the Force?"
"It changes its quality based on the user. The Jedi tap into the Light, and the Sith tap into the Dark."
"...Close enough, I suppose." Master sighed, looking slightly disappointed. "Kotoha, your answer isn't wrong, but it's not a perfect score either. Listen well: The Force changes its nature based on the user's emotions. Peace and serenity grant you the Light. Anger, hate, and fear grant you the Dark. It's more nuanced than that, but let's keep it simple for now."
He continued his circle, his presence heavy and focused.
"When someone uses a specific 'flavor' of the Force—one rooted in emotions you don't understand or refuse to acknowledge—your senses go numb to it. It becomes a blind spot."
"You mean... because I reject those emotions, I can't perceive them?"
"Exactly. The Jedi of old spent their lives denying anger and hate. They treated those feelings like they didn't exist, or like they were a disease to be quarantined. Because they refused to understand the 'Dark' emotions within themselves, they couldn't see the Dark Side rising right in front of them. They could feel a 'shadow,' sure, but they couldn't see the details."
I was stunned. I had never heard the Fall of the Republic described this way.
"When the world is filled with a 'flavor' of the Force you can't process, your connection to the Force as a whole suffers. You lose the ability to see the immediate future. You lose your intuition. That's why the Council was blind to the collapse until it was too late."
"..."
"Anger, sadness, jealousy, greed... these are human emotions. They are instincts. The Jedi tried to be more than human by cutting them out, but in doing so, they only understood half of the Force. If they had learned to interact with those emotions instead of just suppressing them, maybe the war could have been avoided."
The scale of his words made me swallow hard.
In its prime, the Jedi Order was legendary for its foresight. Every archive confirmed it. I had even met Grandmaster Yoda, a living legend who had seen centuries of history. Yet even he couldn't see the trap. We always blamed it on a "shroud of the Dark Side" cast by the Sith, but Anakin was suggesting the blindfold was one we put on ourselves.
"Anyway," Anakin said, bringing the conversation back to the present. "You've put the pieces together by now, haven't you? Why you can't find the crystal?"
I straightened my posture. "Yes, Master. You've hidden the crystals in places where the Light alone cannot reach. Specifically... in places saturated with negative human emotions."
"Full marks." He smirked.
I thought about the town. It was rural, but it wasn't perfect. There were "dark" spots—places of neglect, grief, or hidden cruelty. I had subconsciously avoided those areas, both because they were dangerous for a child and because my Force-senses felt "muddy" there.
But if I wanted to survive on this planet—a world where Quirks were often fueled by trauma and rage—I couldn't afford to be blind.
"Master... how do I keep my connection from dulling in those places?"
"That's the real lesson. The Jedi way is to ignore it. The Sith way is to drown in it. But your father's religion has a word for it, doesn't it? Chudo—The Middle Way. Not left, not right. Not total darkness, not blinding light. You walk the line. Balance is everything."
I was humbled. To think that my father's "primitive" Earth religion held a key that the Jedi Order had lost. I realized I had been looking down on this world's culture without even knowing it.
"Don't get lost in thought," Anakin interrupted. "Before you can walk the line, you have to understand what the 'Dark' actually looks like. Which brings us to your homework."
"Homework?"
Anakin used the Force to levitate my smartphone from across the room. He used the technique with such casual, god-like ease that I felt a twinge of jealousy.
"I've installed several manga and novels on this device. They all deal with the darker, grittier side of human nature—the 'underbelly' of society. You are to read them all and submit a report on the motivations of the characters."
"Manga? Novels? But Master, those are just entertainment..."
"Naive! If you treat them as 'just entertainment,' they'll break your heart! This country... actually, this entire planet, has developed the art of 'emotional darkness' to a level that would make a Sith Lord weep. Read them."
"I... I see."
Wait. Anakin? Did you just admit to hacking my phone and spending your time as a Force Ghost binge-reading manga?
And more importantly... these books aren't free. Where did a ghost get the money to buy digital volumes of Ushijima the Loan Shark and Kaiji?
"Don't worry about the details," Anakin said with a perfectly straight, serious face.
That face told me everything: he definitely hadn't paid for them. This was exactly why the Council used to get headaches dealing with the Qui-Gon Jinn lineage.