There was a stream near Ayu's house, ten minutes walk away from her doorstep. After crossing the forest and the plains on the northwest side, a murmur could be heard and a ribbon of clear water was seen flowing gently between the woods and leas. It was easy to spot, with lots of reed growing nearby and pale from the sun rocks on both sides of the streambed. Many wild animals visited this place to quench their first or rest in the sun by the rivulet. The bottom was easily seen through the clean waters, showing pebbles, sand and small water creatures swimming between the green weeds. Ayu could feel their tiny dots of energy hiding underneath the water, moving soundlessly... The surface reflected her figure when she walked by, showing her a pale green face and careworn expression. Rubbing her cheeks the young woman sighed heavily. Her appearance wasn't that bad - but then again her emotions were too easy to read on her face... Ayu shook her head, settling on the nearest rock. That was her desired spot to reflect on her life choices today, for the lack of better phrasing. Nothing good would come from sitting closed in four walls... So she decided to stroll around, and now Ayu was sitting on the boulder above the surface of the water, with her knees tucked to her chest.

Her heart was heavy. Resting her cheek on her arm, Ayu was observing the stream in silence, sitting still in the same spot for an hour now. Her mind wasn't practicing awareness of her surroundings, instead, it drifted softly between her thoughts. Blank, not focused on anything in particular. It felt like any try at concentration would actually give her a severe migraine. Deep sight raised her chest and Ayu closed her eyes, hiding her face away from the world.

Her grey training outfit, heavy from special weights, was meticulously wrapped around her body with the straps fastened around her waist, wrists, and ankles. If she wasn't obstructed by clothing, her energy was getting a little out of hand... Until this point, Ayu felt pain and vulnerability whenever she was trying to seize her energy signature, in an attempt to sense herself properly. But no, it was all fuzzy and blocked, like always. It scared her. It left her confused and afraid of what was going on with her powers, which seemed to be growing without any repercussions - at first. Because she was paying with this uneasiness and tension in her body. What was going on inside of her? Last time meditation wasn't so different, but today the same ominous feeling has woken her up before sunrise... With the identical sensation of pain and a small noseblood as a means of greeting the new day. Ayu's Ki was growing, expanding, but the stronger she was getting, the weaker she felt. It was like her body was a weak vessel that couldn't contain all this energy, leaking and cracking the more was poured inside... Like her body was all wrong.

She sniffled quietly, blinking quickly to get the moisture out of her eyes. Ayu mumbled something to herself while wiping her face, before putting her arms around her legs. Watching the slow, lazy current and the sunlight reflecting on the mirror-like surface was putting her mind at ease. The tensed thoughts softened and relaxed... The murmur of the stream was calming, and perhaps it would be easy to de-stress with the serene aura of this place... Not entirely though, no. Ayu's face was clouded in a worried melancholy, her eyes opalescent in the sun felt distant, like their true light was obstructed by the palette of emotions happening right now in her head. To the list of her worries, another trouble was added recently, and with each passing day, she was only more overwhelmed by the number of events taking place all around her.

Zhang was nowhere to be found. She couldn't feel his energy signature in the East City or anywhere for good measures. Calling the University only made her more anxious, when they told Ayu that her grandfather wasn't seen at work for an entire week now. The last time she saw him was in the city when he was in the lobby of a hotel, talking to that man in a red outfit... There might have been something suspicious about it - but how was she able to tell it now? Or how should she track down that person if she wasn't able to sense his energy..? Aunt Williams wasn't answering her phone and Ayu was silently panicking. Zhang vanished. There was no clue or hint of what could have happened to him, and if Ayu hasn't noticed that his presence disappeared, with his work schedule, she might have still been thinking that he was too busy to call again. Immediately she visited the police station to file the missing person report. The young woman was questioned by the officers, but they strangely quickly let her go home, not trying to ask for details or her personal thoughts on that matter. They never even appeared at her house looking for clues... And since then, no news was heard, not even a single call rung the phone in the kitchen.

The fact that she couldn't feel his energy was like a deadly weight hanging above her head on a thin thread. Zhang's Ki was regular, low, one of many in the crowds... He was a perfectly normal human. It's not like he could suddenly learn how to conceal his presence, right? So did that mean that he's no longer alive..? Ayu shivered at that thought and hid her face in her arms. Ki's were raging all around her, fights after the fights without a break were happening on Earth. Orange City was gone and people she knew were standing behind this tragedy. She was asked to visit the blue planet's Guardian and till this point, she wasn't convinced that she was the right person to do that... And what was the worst, Liari was gone and she was worried sick. Her energy resurfaced here and there, torn by intense emotions and Ayu wasn't present to do anything about it - she couldn't keep up. And again, her energy wasn't under the slightest bit of control... To be fair, the young woman wanted to break down and cry, but that wouldn't help her in anything. She needed to tackle all those things one at a time... Her grandfather's disappearance shouldn't cause her more worry than it did already, even if it sounded cruel. Zhang's absence wouldn't make any difference in her life anyway. She got used to living alone and as a legal adult, there shouldn't be any consequences... Yet it didn't make her feel any better. She was scared that something bad happened to him, despite their rocky relationship, she never wished for harm to befall him.

Ayu rested her heavy forehead on her knees. Her head was wrapped around her arms, with a messy, green bush of hair spilling on the young woman's shoulders. The tip of her half-undone braid was touching the water, but she didn't notice it yet.

It was a quiet morning and she wished it wouldn't end.

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Super Weighted Clothing Equipped
Power Level - 75,291
PL with SWC - 18,822
Word Count - 1,210