Jerona: Lessons in Psychopomping

[KonokoHasano]

"Hm?" Jerona asked, but nodded as she did as she was told.

[Blaze]

When she does, the blade seems to grow and thicken into something that resembles a bird's beak. It splits open horizontally, revealing a toothless mouth. It starts breathing in, inhaling all the black vapour as well as the injured beast! It shrieks and tries to crawl away, but the vacuum created by Jerona's scythe is too strong! It's form collapses into black vapour and is inhaled, revealing a mass of human souls. The sense of relief coming from them is palpable as the drift into the air and vanish.

"Well done." Yama says with a smile.

[KonokoHasano]

"That was an interesting trick I just performed." Jerona said, looking at Yama, then looking back at her scythe. "I had no idea it would do that."

[Blaze]

"That vapour was it's ill intent, it's desire to destroy and harm. If you let it all go, it can cause others to inhale it, go mad and start hurting others. So you must have your scythe absorb it. By absorbing it, it can gain new abilities."

Yama points to the scythe. Indeed, the top of the handle now resembles the head of the beast, the blade extending from it's mouth. The blade seems to shimmer with a sickly green light.

"By using these abilities, it will consume the ill intent until it's all gone, at which point the scythe will lose that power. Do not let it build up. If you do, it may start to corrupt you." he adds firmly

[KonokoHasano]

"I had no idea." She said, staring at the head of the scythe. "So how do I deal with this?"

[Blaze]

"Next time you confront an evil spirit, use the scythe's newfound power. From the looks of it, it's some kind of poisonous attack. Use it until it runs out." Yama explains.

[KonokoHasano]

Jerona nods. "I got it." She stares at the scythe a bit. "It'll be rather fun finding out the various abilities I could pick up and use."

[Blaze]

Yama's face becomes stern.

"You're doing this to defeat evil spirits remember. Don't see it as a way to empower yourself."

He leads Jerona back outside

[KonokoHasano]

Jerona gives Yama a stern look back, though there was a very SLIGHT hint of a pout amongst her expression. "I am aware of that. It does not mean that I can't find some sense of interest in seeing what abilities my scythe can pick up as I do my job, though." She mumbles something about no interest in getting empowered.

[Blaze]

Yama smiles and nods as he climbs back onto the buffalo, gripping onto it's fur to climb up.

"Well good. I knew I was right to pick you."

[KonokoHasano]

She nods a little. "So what are we to do now?"

[Blaze]

"Well, now that you've learned how to fight evil spirits, I'm going to show you how to release trapped spirits." Yama explains. Again, the world seems to blur as the buffalo plods along, and they find themselves outside a runed shell of a house. A massive hole is in the foor and it's covered in burn marks.

[KonokoHasano]

"... that's a very capable buffalo." She said before looking at the house and examining it. "... I take it that the people who lived here died in a fire, and so their spirits still reside here due to the fear of crossing over?"

[Blaze]

"You're close. A part of your job will be figuring out how they died. If they don't realize they're dead, you'll have to remind them." Yama says as he slides off the buffalo.

"I know how they died, but I won't tell. Consider this a test."

[KonokoHasano]

"Fair enough; I'll do my best to figure out just how." She hops off of the buffalo and makes her way on inside.