Yuri Worlds

[44] Energy

Ayame delicately palpated the different regions of discomfort for Misaki and mentioned options. She focused on a major acupressure point between the thumb and forefinger on each hand that could be firmly pressed to alleviate multiple sources of pain. But that wasn’t the only spot she advised to help. Several other places on the hand, including around the base of the little finger and the palm, received gentle massages that immediately cut the edge off the worst of the discomfort.

She smiled as she noted that Misaki clearly spent a lot of time in the same position, tensely answering questions for people. Plenty of typing, too. She recognized all that just from the feel of her hands. Considering they weren’t even really her hands, Misaki was impressed and bewildered. Light massage and firm manipulation of her back brought out a feeling like she had compressed so many parts of her body from circulation and feeling, and now they were finally released. It helped immensely with the tenderness she was feeling, but Ayame didn’t stop there. She made sure to work on the other side too. For Misaki, it was like strings and strands of pain, unknotted but also pulled taut in the other direction.

When that round was finished, Misaki still felt some places could be worked on but also felt so much better and clearer. The surreal feeling of having her hands touched and that effort resounding throughout her entire body brought so many questions while she fumbled to explain it in scientific terms as just a reaction from an interconnected nervous system. Despite the decent length of Ayame‘s nails, she didn’t press into her too hard, nor did the tenderness spike into uncomfortable pain. Reflected sides of her body responded to the manipulation. And the aches rapidly went away. But Ayame was not done with her quite yet.

She advised her point-blank, "You are massively stressed out, and you wear all that pressure within but near the surface. I can push around your hands a little bit more, and you won’t get a recurrence as bad for at least a little while." But she considered that barely even a bandage. Ayame wanted to do a proper, if basic, Reiki healing on her to really help. She advised her that it would take a little while, and she didn’t know how long her friends could stay and wait.

They checked in with all of them, and none wanted to leave. Misaki lamented that more than she felt honored. But she didn’t have much choice in the matter, as she was going to get a healing, and her friends were going to enjoy Ayame’s massive teddy bear and the ancient magazines along the walls. Chika was the one who asked the probing question about what the deal was with the bear, and Ayame explained it was her youngest daughter’s toy she got a while back. But it took up too much space in her room, and she was getting tired of it, so the lady bear became her silent workplace companion. She enjoyed dressing up in an assortment of slightly different outfits and seeing if anyone noticed. Before settling in with Misaki though, Ayame double-checked to make sure that Namiko didn’t have any encumbrances and passed along the same tips she gave regarding acupressure to whoever needed them. Chika and Namiko were each able to pick it up to use on themselves.

In one of the side exam rooms, Ayame had Misaki stretch out on a more comfortable exam table. Soothing music and other sounds, combined with a faint wafting mist and gentle aromas, made her relatively relaxed. The improvement based on palm touching lingered. Her chest could still use a light massage in some tender spots, but the worst of the aches had diminished. She had no idea what was normal for this loaner body, but, even at baseline, it felt nicer than what Franklin was saddled with. It sucked that she had carried some semblance of that other form and its inherent infirmities. A vacation from himself, but all that baggage still tagged along.

“Could you stretch out a little bit more? I want to make sure I get the best reading possible. This probably all feels like some mystic lady waggling goat parts to change the television channel. But it’s like comparing cold and heat centers and trying to see if they’re balanced. The experience of energy is different for everyone. I can walk you through all my steps, or I can preserve the mystery of the sausage.”

While certain parts of Misaki were fascinated at how this all worked as well as wielding healthy skepticism that this was little more than a placebo effect, she opted for the streamlined approach of letting Ayame do what she did without a primer.

The first couple of minutes were rather like Ayame it was performing a mime act, holding her palms over Misaki with an even motion and steady circles. It was obvious that looks of concern were deepening across the healer…medical worker’s face as she probed her body. She both desperately wanted to know yet, nervously didn’t want to say anything about Ayame’s uncertain demeanor. Ultimately, as it often did, fear eventually won out, and she had to ask. Ayame didn’t answer immediately, instead moving her hands over the same spots again, as though carefully double-checking a worrying result.

“Are you sure you’re a traveler from another world?” Out of all the questions that Misaki expected her to come up with, that one would have been pretty low on the list considering all they talked about the other day concerning the company and various concerns.

With as much actual confidence as she could muster, Misaki frankly responded, "Absolutely sure. They… Well, what you’re probably getting are the forms they gave us for the trip."

Putting her hands out again, Ayame shook her head firmly and noted, "No, I can sense that. It’s like a thin candy coating. A brightening and sweetening mirage. Some shuffling of appearance. But the peculiar part is that when I look below that physical layer, your soul is that of one of us. You feel and smell—it’s kind of a synesthesia mix of sensations when you’re reading energy—just like any girl I’ve ever treated. In fact, your predominant aroma is so very close to Yuka’s. So much that it’s like she took some personal perfume and splashed you with it, but on a soul level. I don’t know if that makes sense, but it’s also not making sense to me with everything you’ve said. Fortunately, what I need to do won’t pry into all of that at the deepest levels. I just thought you should know."

A swirl of mad questions stormed through Misaki’s mind. She had to be wrong. This was all a bunch of hooey spirit junk from another universe, waving her hands and trying to figure out what might be wrong with her. Sure, crazier things existed. Strange visions, creepy monsters, teleporting grandmas, mind-control forces, colors blinking out, and unsettlingly visceral dreams. This shouldn’t have been that weird amidst all that, but a blazing flare of irritation popped up as she judged Ayame’s hand wiggling.

Instead of getting irked and snapping at Ayame, she took a breath and asked, "So, what sort of aroma, presence, or whatever does Yuka have?" Ayame continued the supposed healing for several moments before pausing and answering her question: "That would be a breach of medical confidentiality. Even more than that, I’ve looked at the deepest portions of her soul. The very heart of her being. However… I can tell you two are close in so many ways. Yuka is full of contradictions. If I had to use analogies, then she contains both a fluffy, exuberant puppy and a shy, private snake."

Imagining those two things and especially keeping in mind the unsettling encounter in the tub last night, Misaki stumbled for what to think. Ayame rocked her head and clarified, "Just analogies. I adore snakes. They’re at the heart of medicine. In Yuka, I feel this dark, intimate essence searching for somewhere warm. The snake cries even though it has no voice. Now the puppy is probably a bit easier to understand, but not necessarily as perfectly cuddly as you might imagine. It can yip and nip and bound and push itself into places where it shouldn’t go. Wildly affectionate yet mercurial. Those traits clash and can lead to much uncertainty. She wears the candy-coated shell as much as you do with being proper, patient, and pragmatic."

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None of this really settled above reading signs or offering up vague platitudes that could be patterned after anyone or intuited on the same level as what Kei seemed to do. That didn’t necessarily mean she was wrong, but Misaki also doubted if there was anything meaningful to glean. This time, she reacted with the boldness of a shrug.

Ayame didn’t interpret that as an insult but rather told her, “Your energy is actually well-suited for motherhood. It’s brightly maternal. You’ll be a fantastic mom.”

This was the point at which Misaki let her internal skepticism show with an arched eyebrow and a tight mouthline. Ayame shrugged back and declared, "I just call what I see, and I’m at least as good as any blind baseball umpire. And even one of those ladies would pick this up. Looking at my own energy, I am not the perfect ideal mom, but I work on it every day with my girls. You and Yuka are amazing. And I desperately hope you can both remain friends. You brighten the lives of one another, and that’s all I have to say about that. As far as your condition and discomfort, I think I see what’s wrong, but it’s strange."

Misaki wanted to rebuke that assessment, but it was wrapped up in praise for Yuka, and she just couldn’t tear it apart. Besides, she was more concerned about what Ayame seemed to find about her. They just had a full medical checkup with the company before traveling, so it couldn’t be that serious. Unless they ignored something or just didn’t see it. But how on earth was some spirit touchy-feely lady supposed to find something actually serious? At the same time, she fretted over how much this technique could interpret her feelings and thoughts.

Without breaking her calm and collected expression, Ayame relayed, "You’re missing what should be deep reservoirs, swaths of energy that inhabit every person. Not missing in the sense that they were never there, but someone or something has sucked so much out of you. Typically, certain nature entities can latch on to human energy like leeches. Other types of malicious forms can pull a lot out of a person. But in those cases, I’ll see some signs of their presence and their energy interacting with yours, like how a mosquito takes blood and can leave some signs of disease and its own internal factors. Make sense?"

Misaki gulped and looked down at herself before nodding to Ayame. And the healer lady confirmed that yes, this world had mosquitoes. An inescapable scourge. And since Misaki didn’t react with surprise, Ayame could only deduce that this other world that she was cautiously interested in visiting because of the way she would be treated like a fresh young thing had them too. So, what did this mean?

A thoughtful expression crossed her face for several moments, twisted around with concern and uncertainty. Eventually, she had to concede, "I honestly have no clue. I’ve actually seen it before with occasional cases of exhaustion in the community. It shows up a lot after heavy storms, like we recently had, where there’s brisk wind afterward. I don’t know if that means there’s just a Yokai I’m not thinking of that comes with the weather or something else. But the absence feels so clinical and surgical, like a medical spirit vacuum. What I can do for you now, with a relatively quick and simple Reiki procedure, is move around what you have left and even out the distribution so that your bothered areas don’t feel quite as bad. The rest is just time. Get some sleep, relax, recover, and try not to piss off any vacuum monsters."

The moving things about portion of the treatment felt like nothing much. But it also had a refreshing massage element without actually making contact with her. Like remotely triggered warm, comforting muscle spasms. Ayame relayed that the problem was related to the heart chakra. Which was right in the middle of her chest and needed renewal. The movement of energy soothed much of her discomfort and offered up a giddy, almost drunken sensation, warming all parts of her body. Misaki quipped about whether it was also the boob chakra.

Ayame giggled but confirmed that the things related to that area also went through that energy point, so they could be considered on the same level. She joked though, that her friend Namiko probably had her own dedicated four-and-a-half-point boob chakra. Misaki gave a continuing nitrous oxide-infused giggle. She had something else in mind she wanted to say, but it drifted away from her. But wasn’t it strange that this pain popped up not too long after something occurred overnight to bolster her figure, most prominently her bust? She couldn’t think of an easy or coherent way to express that as Ayame continued to work through her body.

When it was all done, the swirling drunkenness eased, with ripples of discomfort still wandering around. She felt better than before but was still relatively out of sorts. Ayame encouraged her to make sure to drink plenty of water along with the other advice for the recovery of her normal spirit energy levels. She offered her a heavy-duty plastic bottle, slightly taller than the generic package sets she was used to back home, with a reclosable pop top. It wasn’t the greatest water in the world, but it had a slight hint of being in a fridge recently, along with a brisk taste that usually comes from alkaline.

Outside, the others were relaxed and waiting for her. They didn’t jump up anxiously from their seats as though eager to get a move on. But they also urgently wanted to know if she was all right. Yuka in particular landed her eyes on Ayame, diligently searching for evidence that the woman may have mistreated her girl. She was soon placated and snuggled Misaki more gleefully than anyone had ever hugged the giant teddy bear seated at the cut-out window. Though there were no takers, Ayame communicated that the others were welcome to stop by for a checkup and any sort of spirit reading they wished so that their vacation could go as smoothly as possible before she bid them all a lovely evening.

Several speckles of stars already emerged in the clear sky. The wind brushed past them, but without the animalistic, hungry energy of the other day. Looking up, Yuka made a slight, sly reference to how she greeted them with a Vulcan slant. Eager to delve into this unexplored realm of her interest, Misaki asked as many urgent questions as Yuka asked about aspects of being a man.

Firstly, the name Star Trek applied so far as the translation methods allowed, but the literal connection was Grand Strategies/Goals in Space, which even Yuka acknowledged came across as stuffy and antiquated. Later iterations played more into the adventure or journey aspects. It wasn’t hard to tease out what elements of the shows appealed to Yuka.

She adored the scientific curiosity and search for understanding displayed by the women who explored space on the ship. The captain was also often quite charismatic. But logic and intuition also played side-by-side, encouraging contrasting feelings to arrive at a consensus. Strange beings beyond comprehension existed. Since Chika and Namiko only really got vague hints about how much Yuka knew about their homeworld, Yuka continued in her vagueness and winks at her girlfriend.

The stories delighted her but also kindled surprise and questions. How different were entities and lives beyond this world? Could the mysteries of life, the universe, and everything else really ever be known and simply delineated into something as succinct as a number, a word, or an entire library full of possibilities? Knowledge and the pursuit of truth excited her lawyer instincts, along with her tenacity to protect others. She made an effort to share that little snippet when first greeting them in the hopes she might find something familiar. Even though it glanced off the intended mark, that kindred spirit still made it through.