Snippet #2247786

"Okay. Yes." Hoshi mouths, whirling herself around a bit and leaning back against the side of the seat, close enough to Lexi to feel at ease by her presence, but not too close that she might distract her.
Hoshi returns to the book looking for answers. For the next several hours she remains absorbed in the book reading up on everything that Master Tetsume had written in it. It's very thorough, very informative and very disturbing. She finds the whole notion of her being some sort of 'Zodiac Super Hero' to be absurd. She has never felt that she was special, but always did notice things that happened around her; the wind and fog being the two most noticeable, and finding them strange. She now understands why, sort of. As a 'Child of the Air' as Master Tetsume describes it, she has an affinity with activities and creatures of the air, this is why she has always found things that float or fly to be fascinating, why she always stopped to marvel at the paper hanging along the breeze.

As she pours over the book, an odd thought comes to her. She peeks over at Lexi who is still engrossed in her music. She wants to learn more about herself and her 'Zodiac-ness' but doesn't want to disturb or upset Lexi. She motions to Lexi that she's moving over toward the rear of the plane and once reseated she opens her mirror again. She looks at her reflection half-hoping it doesn't work.
At first there's nothing, she makes the same silly faces she did before and still nothing. "Hello." she whispers to her reflection. "Are you there?" she whispers again. Still nothing. "Well, that was a stupid idea." she sighs.
"Hello." a voice from the mirror whispers, catching Hoshi off-guard she nearly drops the mirror. The face in the mirror giggles a little, "Hi." the mirror whispers again.
"Oh, good." Hoshi sighs, "You are there."
"Sure am." the mirror replies.
"Who are you?" Hoshi asks unsure if she wants to hear the answer or not.
"I'm you."
"I know that." she snaps back. "At least, I think I know that." Hoshi says running her fingers along her mouth and through her hair. When she gets nervous, she plays with her hair. If she gets stressed enough she'll sometimes chew on the ends, a habit that annoyed many of the monks at the temple.
"I know what you mean." her reflection adds, "You want to know what I do for you. Or to you. Or whatever." Hoshi nods to her reflection. "Look, I am you. Well, I'm a part of you. Kind of like the Yang to your Yin. But, I'm also kind of your sidekick. I complement your weaknesses. I am here to help you out. If you get into a jam, I can help you sometimes."
"Help me how?" Hoshi interrupts uncertain of how a reflection can aid her against those things.
"That's for you to figure out and decide. I'm YOUR helper. So, I'll be there when you need me. If I tell you how I think you should use me, that situation may never happen. Understand?" Hoshi nods a few times suggesting she understands and then begins shaking her head because she really doesn't understand.
"That's okay. Let's try this. Suppose I tell you, you can use me to defeat the Demon. Cool, right?" Hoshi nods. "But it's not." the reflection says shaking her head. "What if you never meet the demon? What if the Demon is different than I thought it was? What if it uses a different strategy? What if I tell you how to defeat it in it's lair and you meet it on the beach? Then my ideas would be useless. Understand?" Hoshi nods finally grasping what the reflection is saying. "You girl, you have to decide when and how you'll use me. I'm here for you. Trust me, I'll help out anyway I can, because if you go away, so do I."
"But, how? I mean, what if the next Gemini doesn't look like me. Then what would you look like?" Hoshi asks fascinated by her own question.
"Good question. Then the reflection would look different because it would be different. I'm YOUR reflection, so I am YOU. Just like you, I can't be anything or anyone else. Okay?"
"Yeah." Hoshi nods.
"What you should do now, is put away the mirror and sit and read that book, so you have a really good understanding of what it is you're in for. If you have questiuns, ask. If I can help I will. Decide what it is you wanna do, what you wanna be. What are your strengths and weaknesses and how can I help you? That's what you should decide on. Got it."
Hoshi nods and closes the mirror, returning to her book.