By way of response, you step over to the chair you sat in for lunch, pull it over to your new spot by the door, turn it facing Nitori, sit down in it, lean back and cross your arms. She's still just looking at you, so you elaborate. "Lay it on me, the whole story. I'm ready."

She looks uncertain. Sounds it, too. "I don't know. I mean, maybe you're ready to learn, but the full details would take a LONG time."

"It's not like I have anything pressing," you shrug. Besides, it might do Sanae some good to worry about you for a while longer.

"I don't think you're really getting what I mean by 'long time'. I could easily end up serving you *breakfast*."

"Oh." The thought makes you falter. Staying out late would be one thing, but that could very easily be misconstrued. Not that you think you'd really mind spending a night with her... "In that case, maybe I'll take the summary."

"Good call," she says with some relief. About what exactly, you can only guess. When she begins, her demeanor is much more relaxed and personal than during the examination. "Okay. Begin at the beginning: danmaku.

"Danmaku generally refers to a sort of ritualized dueling system we have here. It's kind of hard to explain properly, but the name pretty much says it all." (It does? You start trying to put the word together, pushing the thought onto a back burner to focus on Nitori as she goes on.) "You live here any amount of time, you're pretty likely to see it in action. It's pretty popular as both confilct resolution and pastime. Rarely, danmaku might also be used to refer to the projectiles used; in case you were wondering, that's what I was doing with the screw, shooting danmaku at you to as a final test on whether or not you could use it yourself. You passed."

You raise your hand, and she nods at you. "Okay, I can use danmaku. How?"

"Ah, well. That's a lesson best given outside somewhere. Basically, it's just focusing some mana, magical energy, on any small object, the bullet, and throwing it at your opponent. A gross simplification of the real thing, but enough for a summary."

Bullet. Dan. You toss that into the pot and leave it to work on the other half. "So, I'm going to need a whole mess of screws or rocks or something if I'm going to fight anyone?"

"Not necessarily. Another option would be to focus the mana through an implement and generate 'raw' bullets that way. That would probably be your best bet." She stops there and waits. You almost ask her what she means, but then it sinks in: you're supposed to figure this out yourself.

It doesn't take you long. "My spear! You're saying I can use my spear, right?"

Nitori grins and nods approvingly. "Bingo. I'm assuming you know how to use it, yeah? Then you shouldn't have too much trouble working your own style of danmaku from that. That's another thing I forgot to mention, probably a big reason why it's so popular. Danmaku is a martial art, but the emphasis is heavily on the art. Personal expression is valued higher than skill, or you might say they're actually one and the same. Understand so far?"

"I guess so. That last part might take a little digesting..."

"Well, no rush. I don't imagine anyone's going to have a reason to challenge you just yet. Anyway, moving on.

"That center of yours, I called it a 'hitbox' earlier. That's the vernacular, because in danmaku, it's sort of the target. Hit it with enough bullets, your opponent literally goes down. This is because it's a part of the whole flight mechanism, but more on that in a moment. As you just discovered, one's hitbox can be moved. You might think this would be part of the strategy to danmaku, but don't count on it. Normally, it can't be moved very far, or very fast, at least not fast enough to make much of a difference in the thick of things."

"No, I believe that completely. Full concentration, and all I could manage was to yank it up maybe an inch."

"Ah, that... that comes back to your original question, about your 'condition'. That hollow feeling in your chest, that's actually a field created by... well, connected with... um. The hitbox is the center of the field, that's as far as I can tell you while summarizing. I can tell you that this field is what keeps you up when you're flying, and that the hitbox acts as a lynchpin for it. This is why disrupting it with your bullets is how you win at danmaku, once the center's gone, you can't stay up. But I'm digressing. Your 'condition' is that for some reason, your field is exclusively concentrated in your chest cavity."

"Aha," you interrupt in spite of yourself, "this ISN'T normal!"

"Indeed not. It's supposed to be present throughout your body, and even extend slightly beyond it. This concentration may be a part of why your flying's so awkward. I'm afraid I really have no idea why this has happened to you, or what to do about it at the moment. I'll have to do some reading on the subject and get back to you.

"There's more, though, and it's important. The vernacular for this field is 'grazebox', again because of its purpose in danmaku. When my bullet hit you just now, I believe you noticed the screw bouncing off while the mana I'd attached to it kept going. That's because it was being drawn into the field, which absorbed a small part of it and dissipated the rest. It's still in there now. And that is the REAL strategy to danmaku, grazing your opponent's bullets to store up enough latent mana to power a spell card!"

Huh. Common sense suggests that staying away from the bullets would be the way to go. Could be dangerous... "What happens when a bullet hits you, but misses your grazebox? I mean, like, on an unprotected flank?"

"It hurts a little," Nitori shrugs as she hops down from the table. "But that's enough talking for now. It's getting late. Go home." Pulling you up by the arm with one hand, she grabs your spear with the other and puts it into one of yours, then using both hands to push you through the doorway.

"Huh?" You half-stumble through the hallway, herded onward by her small but insistent hands. "W-wait, what about those spell card things? I still have questions!"

"Some other time!" Past another doorway (you see a refridgerator, must be the kitchen (wait, a refridgerator?)), then up a short spiral staircase in the wall. "I was only supposed to keep you busy for an hour or two, it's been about that long, so shoo!"

You gather your wits midway up and march in place ahead of her prodding, still a little bemused. The stairs open up into a common room, several small wicker chairs and a sofa arranged in a half-circle opposite a tallish cabinet against one wall, doors closed. On the other side of the room is a tiny foyer and a door; you head for this without having to be told, suddenly aware that you're walking over her earth-tone carpet in your shoes. Not like you had a choice, coming in the back way, and she's still wearing those boots, but it still feels a little awkward.

Nitori steps up her pace and jogs around ahead of you to the door, holding it open for you with a grin. Through it, you can see a narrow path between the door and the river flowing lazily by. You pause in the doorway and look down at her. "Well, thanks for telling me as much as you did..."

"Pleasure's all mine," she says, cutting you off with a kick in the pants. "Now get!"

Involuntarily jumping forward, you land outside and hear her starting to laugh as the door slams shut behind you. Turning around, you frown pointlessly at the marginally disguised wall. You think you can still hear her laughing through it. You aim your frown up at the point of your spear, down at the river, and all around at the low cavern through which it flows. Weird sense of humor on that girl. From here, you can see the end of the cavern where the river goes underground, and the mouth of it some distance in the other direction.

[ ] Sanae's simmered enough. Back to the shrine.
[ ] Head out, go somewhere to meditate on what you've learned.
[ ] Try to find your way back through the tunnels to Home.