Mai Tsuchiya

Background

Mai Tsuchiya (土屋 舞) is a priestess at Seichi ("Sacred Earth") Temple (Seichi no Miya (聖地宮)) which belongs to her family. She is the intended heir and will become its kannushi some day. Her parents are currently on a pilgrimage to Japan leaving her and her older brother to mind the temple and the family dojo.

Aether

Mai has powers to manipulate the elements of nature—air, fire, water, and earth—and after meeting The Guardian, who found her for her ability to communicate with the earth thus making her the Omnipath, she honed her skills as one of the Prime. Considering herself the fifth element of Japanese philosophy (sky or spirit (空)), the power underlying the other four elements, she developed the identity, Aether. She has minor training in martial arts from her father and opts to fight with war fans when faced with hand-to-hand combat. She also uses her natural grace she developed over several years of dance classes and makes every fight look nearly like a performance.

Seichi Temple

Located on the three-and-a-half acre formal Japanese garden, located within the Washington Park Arboretum, Seichi Temple is a traditional family-run Shinto shrine. Originating in Japan’s prehistory, Shinto is the natural spirituality or the practice of the philosophy of proceeding in harmony with and gratitude to divine nature. The shrine is an enriched environment where people can feel deeply refreshed and renewed. The Tsuchiya family welcomes everyone to make an omairi (visit) and they can conduct the oharae (purification ceremony) as well as many types of shinto ceremonies for individuals, families, groups or businesses. The shrine is also affiliated with the karate dojo just outside the arboretum.

Seichi Temple

Temple Grounds

Tome of the Omnipath

Issue No. 2

6月19日1999年 Weather: EARTHQUAKE!

After 5,000 years, Liam must have finally accrued enough vacation time for he decided to take the day off to visit a godson in Yakima.

Jun, Mikhail, John and I went out to the Fremont Fair. As I was admiring pieces of jewelry at a vendor's booth, I felt the ground shake a little. Alarmed, when I looked towards the skyline, I saw that the buildings were swaying. Moments later, the tremors exploded and we were in the middle of a massive earthquake! I ducked for cover underneath the table and tried to secretly control the earth to stop shaking. I was also able to tell that the epicenter was far from here. The PCC grocery store was in bad shape with plenty of people trapped inside. The guys went right to work trying to rescue people, but given that I was easily recognizable in my priestess clothes, I didn't think it was my place to advertise my New Man abilities. So instead, while everyone seemed preoccupied, I manipulated the air around me to take me southward. I was hoping to find whatever was causing this.

I landed myself near South Lake Union and taking cover in an alley, I used a mystic device created for me to be able to change clothes at a click of a button. I changed into a kung-fu uniform (sorry, Dad, these are just more flexible than a karate gi!) with a hooded, short-sleeve robe, and a face mask to hide my identity. I had been thinking, since devising this costume, to call myself Aether since I feel like I'm the underlying power behind the four other elements. After "transforming", I stepped out to the street and it looked like firemen and medical personnel were trying to get into Gillian's, but the entrance was blocked due to the building being jostled. I put my hands on the wall and willed it to pull forward to straighten it out. The EMTs rushing in thanked me and asked for my help in other places. After a few hours I had done all I could and a good thing too, for I was drained of energy. I went back to Fremont to meet up with the others.

According to rumors and the media, it sounded like the earthquake had started south of Seattle near Federal Way. When we got into town, we noticed everything was badly damaged in most areas, but there was one residential section that seemed to be okay. In the center of this area was a demolished warehouse. Knowing this must be where the epicenter was, we went in to investigate. There was an electronic hum coming from inside the building so Mikhail went around the back of the building to kick off the main power switch. Even after that the noise continued so I looked around for water in case I needed to douse something and short it out. Good thing, for this giant robot shot out from underneath the rubble and began attacking us!

The four of us managed to bring it down to the ground after a while and the front panel popped open. It revealed a man dressed like a scientist pleading us not to shoot him. His name was Mort and claimed that he used to work for a drug manufacturing company, but got fired. His daughter was hospitalized for leukemia and being driven to desperate measures, he stole a truck that was in the loading dock thinking it was full of drugs he intended to sell to pay for his daughter's treatments, but instead found this machine. When he got in and pushed a bunch of buttons, it acted on its own. We poked around the building and the truck for clues, but didn't get very far. Knowing I had to take a chance to try to get any sort of information, I climbed into the cockpit of the machine while no one was looking. As soon as I sat down, I must have bumped a button with my hip for it strapped me in, closed, and took off! I didn't want to risk having it go into another rampage on my friends so I avoided touching anything else. On a screen in front of me, however, the words "homing device activated" was flashing. After a few minutes of flying, a ship materialized out of thin air! It must have had a cloaking device. I got pulled into it and felt it fly off. I think we were heading west. When the front compartment opened, I was greeted by a military looking man and several armed guards. He demanded why I had stolen their MX-something-something-something and before I could answer that I hadn't and that I had actually brought it back, one of the guards took a shot at me with a tranquilizer and I passed out.

When I came to, I was locked in a jail cell. There were two guards on the other side who looked like they were doing office work. I got up to splash some water on my face and got the idea to make it flood. The guards called in a maintenance man, but in order for them to let him in, they had to handcuff me. I let them and as soon as the maintenance man was in and shut off the water, I overheard some commotion over their radios. The boys must be here now. I used the distraction to make the earth to rumble in the meantime and caused a fissure in the cell. The maintenance man fell in and I jumped in after him for cover and used air to pull the keys to my handcuffs from the guard to me. After freeing myself, I willed chunks of rock at the door until it busted open. It took a while, but because the guards were scared already from the chaos outside, they were in a panic.

I flew out of there as fast as I could and the winding corridors ended in an area that looked like a control room. The military man was there and said "I knew you would be trouble!" and gave the command to his men to shoot me. I flew around the control room so that they would end up destroying their own equipment. The man left the room down a hallway while this was going on. When the dust finally settled, I found out from the others that we were on an uncharted island in the middle of Puget Sound. A ship had taken off moments before I got out so I could only assume the military man had made his escape.

Mikhail and John wanted to keep this island fortress for our own uses so it looks like we inherited a not-so-secret base. I suppose it's better than a decimated city to live. I sure hope the temple isn't in too bad of shape... And I hope Liam is okay. ...And not too mad at me.