Marvel-ous Ninjutsu

00089. All that work for nothing.

A few weeks after he settled everything with Gabby. Theo settled down to focus on training and learning from his new mystic art masters. During his studies he came up with an idea on how to prepare himself for psychic threats. He double checked his current defenses and then asked his teachers to check them over for him.

Theo appeared in his training room and summoned a set of clones for the day. Afterwards he moved towards Tao. She was seated next to Agatha drinking tea as they discussed creative approaches to use different spells.

Tao smiled at Theo as he approached and asked, "Good evening, are you ready to begin your lessons for the day?"

"I was actually wondering if the both of you would help me with something instead."

Both women turned their full attention towards Theo as he said, "My first concern when I was brought to this world was protecting my mind."

Theo looked a little nervous as he said, "I think I did a decent job, but I need to find out for sure. Since I know how truly powerful some of the psychic powers are and I want to see if I can defend myself from them."

Tao nodded in understanding as she said, "So you want the only two people you fully trust to test your defenses."

"Yes."

"That's reasonable. I'll gladly help you out, my young apprentice." Agatha said, as she placed her tea cup down.

Tao smiled as she said, "As will I. When do you want to start?"

“Whenever you like, my defenses are already in place and ready.”

Tao pointed at a chair next to her as she said, "We can start in a few minutes. I just want to prepare in case there is a backlash. After I finish, Agatha will test you next."

Theo calmed his mind down while he waited for Tao to start. After a few minutes a light flashed around Tao. She glanced at Theo as she said, "Prepare yourself, this might not be pleasant."

The next second Theo felt a sharp pain near the front of his head. But it disappeared after a few seconds. He then closed his eyes and focused to look inside his mindscape. Once he could see inside. He searched it over to find Tao. She was standing on the rooftop of a skyscraper overlooking one of the cities he had built.

After a moment he appeared next to her and asked, "So what do you think?"

"Passable for someone who is untrained."

"Really? What's wrong with it?"

Tao raised one finger as she said, "You have no real defense against someone trying to access your mind. It's honestly pretty pathetic how easy it was to access your mind palace. I saw you grimace in pain as I entered and your nose is currently bleeding. Do you want to know why?"

"Because you’re stronger than me?"

Tao smirked as she said, "Thanks for stating the obvious. But no. That wasn’t the reason why you felt pain from my intrusion. I used a powerful spell to brute force past any defenses. Being the complete amateur you are, you pretty much have none. So the spell attacked your mind palace instead."

Theo’s face crumpled as he said, "No need to be so harsh.”

Tao shook her head before she said, "You don't fully understand. If I wanted I could have broken into your mind and you would have never known about it."

"She is correct, your outer defenses are pretty much nonexistent."

Both of them turned to see Agatha, who smiled at them as she said, "I thought it would be more fun to join you. Plus if you destroyed his mind palace, I wouldn't get a chance to test it."

“I know my outer defenses are weak. I was planning to make something to counter mind readers. Maybe a helmet like Magneto wears. Plus I focused all my efforts on internal defenses.”

Agatha scoffed as she said, “Please, that stupid helmet. It only helps against someone like Xavier. A mystic arts user who has mastered mind arts could easily bypass his helmet. You need to learn proper mystical defensive arts.”

Tao nodded as she held up another finger and said, "What you have built in here is impressive to look at, but I can already tell it is way too weak. I doubt it will hold together properly if I put pressure on it."

As she talked, two little kids appeared on the rooftop. One next to each woman. Both Tao and Agatha glanced at the children before they looked at Theo. Who gave them a smirk as the kids asked, “Hi, who are you?”

After both women answered the question the follow up went, "Whatcha doing?"

Tao glanced down at the kid as she said, "Just looking around."

"Why?"

"Because I felt like it."

"Why?"

"Because I can."

"Why?"

Tao glanced at Agatha and the other child who was also asking her 'Why'. Then glanced at Theo who had a cheshire like smile on his face. The kid spoke a little louder as he asked, 'Why' again. When she didn’t answer after a few seconds.

Tao glanced at the child before she asked, "Is that all you can say?"

The child tilted his head to the side as he asked, "Why?"

Tao looked at Theo as she said, “While something like this can be annoying. It’s easy to overcome.”

“Why?”

Tao waved a hand towards the kid and he disappeared like he was never there. After a second, two kids appeared. One crying and the other asking ‘Why?’ Tao glanced at Theo before she waved her hand again. Once more the kids disappeared before three more appeared. Two of them crying and another asking ‘Why?’

Agatha for her part just watched as the process repeated a few more times. Only the first kid standing close to her, as he asked ‘Why?’ repeatedly. Once there were a handful of kids crying around Tao, she finally looked a little annoyed and said, “I applaud your creativity.”

“Why?”

She waved her hand again and this time all of the kids disappeared, including the one next to Agatha. After a few seconds, nothing happened. Theo frowned and checked his internal defenses to find that his kid defense was completely removed like it never existed.

“Unfortunately something like that is easily removable.” Tao had a smirk as she looked down at Theo.

Theo let out a sigh as he said, “Okay so all my prepwork was for nothing.”

“Not really. It was good practice for you. It will make rebuilding your mind palace a lot easier. Now let's see what else you’ve made here.” Tao finished speaking as she turned and walked towards the rooftops door.

Agatha and Theo followed behind her quickly. As they entered the stairwell the door closed behind them automatically. Tao raised a single eyebrow in question as she glanced at Theo. Theo just smiled and gestured for her to walk down the stairs. After they opened the first door Tao smiled as she said, “You made a moving maze.”

Agatha nodded as she said, “And a very complex one.”

“But still too weak to be useful.” Tao closed her eyes as she finished. A few moments later the area around them started to fade away.

When Tao opened her eyes only a single building remained. Well one thousand copies of the same building. She glanced at them for a few moments before she looked at Theo and said, “While I admit, you put in a lot of effort. But making copies of your inner palace won’t help.”

Tao closed her eyes and the buildings started to disappear until there was only one left. But something unexpected greeted her when she opened her eyes. A few thousand different people were standing around now looking at their group. She cast a glance at Theo before she closed her eyes again. After a few moments she opened her eyes and frowned.

“I can’t remove any of these defensive measures.”

A man with chalk white skin, a third eye and some horns sticking out of his head moved forward from the group. He gave a disarming smile as he said, “It’s because we are not part of his defenses.”

Tao cast a glance over the group and recognized a few of the people standing around. She nodded before she said, “Interesting. While they are part of your mind, they are also separate from it.”

She glanced down at Theo as she said, “You can use them to help defend your mind.”

“What happens if they get hurt or killed? Wouldn’t they disappear from my mind?”

Tao shook her head, “It might make their physical form disappear. But they would still be here. It would just take a while before they reformed a body. Like I said, they are part of your mind. So unless your mind was completely wiped, they would be here.”

The man with horns nodded his head as he said, “It’s more than that. As long as he has chakra, we will always appear here. Unless he removes our memories from his chakra. At that point we would completely disappear.”

“Fascinating. You should definitely integrate them into your defenses.” Agatha nodded in agreement as she added, “They would act as a great defensive measure. I can barely sense them, and I see them in front of me. Before that I didn’t even know they were in your mind palace.”

“But how would they help?”

Tao jabbed Theo in the chest with the tip of a finger and he frowned as he rubbed where she poked him. “Even though this is your mind. Your ‘body’ here can still be attacked. It’s one of the most basic ways to protect your mind.” Tao finished with a smile as she looked down at Theo.

She then pointed at the group of people around her as she said, “You can think of each one of these people as a defensive or offensive mind weapon. One you won’t have to create or control yourself. But that's for later. Let's finish checking out the last of your defenses.”

Their small group then moved to the last building. Tao quickly moved towards the basement and studied the setup for a while before she said, “Whatever you made in here is weird. I assume it’s made with your chakra?”

“Yes.”

“Let me handle this one.” Agatha said as she closed her eyes.

It took a few minutes. But when she opened her eyes she said, “That was different. For someone less experienced it might have been an issue. But it would only take them longer to remove it. It wouldn’t stop them.”

Tao nodded as she moved to look at the server racks in the room. As she studied them she said, “Ingenious, you turned your memories into extremely complex computer code.”

Tao closed her eyes for a little while. When she opened them everything was gone and a single thick book was in her hand. She opened it and glanced inside for a few moments. Before she closed it and handed it to Theo as she said, “Now we’re even.”

“Even?”

Tao smirked as she said, “I just wanted to see what your name was in your past life. Now let's leave your mind palace and start with your training.”

“The memories from my previous life should be blocked by GOD.”

Tao patted Theo on the head as she said, “They are, but your thoughts betray you and the block placed on those memories. Whenever you think about your old life, it creates new memories that aren’t blocked.”

Theo sighed before he said, “That… That makes too much sense. I’ll have to be careful of that in the future.”

“Exactly, but for now, it’s time to start your training.”

After they exited Theo’s mind palace, Tao placed a powerful and complex spell of protection on his mind. When she finished she said, “For now, that will protect your mind from anyone trying to access it.”

Theo wore a grateful smile as he said, “Thank you, I appreciate it.”

Tao smiled as she said, “It’s my responsibility as your master, to keep you safe. Now go have your clones collect the books on mind magic. You will need to read everything on it before we start.”