Welcome to Gaia! ::

It showed on his face and in his demeanor how pleased that Nyl didn't openly and blatantly show her concern. That she was still joking around with him meant a lot. He made his way across the main room and stepped across the threshold of his dojo. Every lantern burned, but he didn't remember lighting them.

"Curious."

"Fire that I did not light. Fire that only I can light--Well, and the Shojiki, but you know the story on that." He paused, then moved to one of the lanterns. He inhaled, and it went out. "Fire that I still have control over." He turned to the rest of the ho dojo.

"A very good question." He released the rest of his breath, and the flame lit again. He walked across the many coal pits and down the hallway towards his office. He opened the door and stepped inside. A few moments passed, with an accompaniment of papers falling, a lamp crashing to the floor, and a few drawers being opened and shut.

"Aha! I've found you!" He emerged from his office with an old book. "My record book." He held it up horizontally, looking back to her, silently asking for a quick gust to dust the old, thick book.

"Just the bulb, the rest of it is fine." His attention was now fully on the book. "This should have a record of every entrance, exit, and action that took place in this dojo since it's establishment." He opened it, immediately catching eye of scrawlings, in his handwriting no less, of his first lesson within these walls. Nostalgia washed over him for a brief moment, then he began flipping pages.

"Fortunately, I never had to make a single entry. It does it automatically for me. Now.. let's check.." He flipped to the last entry. "That's us. And the entry right before it.." His eyebrows rose. "No name."

Deep inside, Seph wished for a reason to go defense-mode, too. But who would he fight? Himself? He'd been waging that war since the Virus began it's assault. "An exit. The entry before says.. 'lights all lanterns, heats coals.' And the entry before that says 'enters.' Whoever it was managed to sneak past this book, turn everything on, and leave."

"There are plenty of things I have here that I would rather not be revealed." He dimmed the lights and sealed the heat of the coals within himself. "That should help the heat. You should be used to it now, by the way. Haven't been keeping up with your training?" He grinned, then skimmed through the book. "Well, it's never happened before, so I'm not going to toss this thing out quite yet. Maybe a bit more security is in order, here."

"Yes, but the books are set up so that only members of this dojo, and other Sensei's can get in. If you miss the order once, you're barred entry. Until I let you try again." He looked back at her, "I was only giving you a hard time, Nyl. You work in mysterious ways, and you eventually find time for everything and everyone. I'm not stressed about it, and neither should you be. Let's go back to the kitchen, my tea's probably warm.." He laughed. "I never thought I'd say that negatively."

She laughed quietly. "Yes, when you've lived as long as I have you know how to use every hour in a day, I suppose."

Nyl tilted her head as the noise resumed. "That would be our dear Tutsumi. You know, that new student Iri challenged him earlier. I wonder what in the world he wants to challenge all of us for?"