Dragon's Eye
Aya’s canon explains to us that Martial Arts are nothing but body energy being used; power, ki, chakra, spirit, energy, the teaching of Indian medicine and Yoga are very connected to Aya’s martial arts.
Chakra, Dragons, Dragon’s gates and Red Feathers
Chakra is a concept referring to wheel-like vortices which exist inside every person. The Chakras are said to be "force centres" and these rotating vortices and are considered the focal points for the reception and transmission of energies. The energy is transmitted through the nadis (channels or tubes inside the human body) where vital energy or spirit (prana) goes from a place to another.
These Chakras can either indicates the quantity of energy a body can use or they can be recharged the system’s energy.
In Tenjou Tenge world, they call these 7 specific chakra points “Dragons” that live within everyone and govern the powers of wood, fire, metal, water, wind and air.
- Base or Root dragon (last bone in spinal cord *coccyx*)
- Sacral Dragon (ovaries/prostate)
- Solar Plexus dragon (navel area)
- Heart dragon (heart area)
- Throat dragon (throat and neck area)
- Brow or Third Eye dragon (pineal gland or third eye)
- Crown dragon (Top of the head; 'Soft spot' of a newborn)
Since everyone has them, everyone has the ability to use and train them. But it’s different for different people. For some, they only show it through the study of martial arts, meditation, emotions, and Aya's way is through, indeed, Martial Arts.
Once you’ve trained enough, your Chakras will “recharge” your body and gain more energy. And once you do, the Dragons will devour it, and after eating enough, once one is able to actually have that much of energy inside them, they can invoked the Dragons for the first time and a power is born. But obviously, Dragons are Dragons and they will not show mercy and will devour the person’s body at just one mistake, hence why using powers that depend on the use of Chakras must be constantly trained.
The spirit's energy enters at the head and leaves through the gates that exist in one’s body; the gate the dragon leaves through is called the Dragon's Gate and each person with a special power uses one of those gates.
For example, Aya's gate is the eyes, Dragon's eyes. There are others, thought, that have more than one Dragon's Gate (Souichiro and Tetsuhito, for example), or others that aren’t able to use a Gate at all (Maya).
Anyone who is able to use a Dragon’s gate is called Red Feather and those form families in order to train and protect their own abilities, so we can now say Dragon’s Eyes are a special ability only Natsume family has.
This however can differ; while there is only one type of Dragon’s eyes, powers similar to those may surface among branch families that came from the original Red Family, but their ability to gain power, train it and feed it to the dragons in order to invoke them and allow the power to be expelled from a Dragon’s Gate is very different from the original Family’s energy, power and capability of doing the same. In other words, you must ascertain the "flow", "quantity" and "quality" of power or energy you’ll be giving the dragons and each family has their own, and that differs family from family.
The source of the "Fighting spirit" comes from energy inside and from the environment: if it moves too much, it gives birth to the yin, if it's too quiet it gives birth to the yang, and combining both you are capable of fighting.
The outside form of something thing (living or not) conjures up the spirit in it (the prana, due to the Dragons), the spirit transforms into the soul. So the Spirit is originally born of the body, and stored there, for the body's internal use only, and that's why there is a limit to how much spirit or power one can have.
There isn't much difference between “you” (the spirit) and your physical self, but in order to be able to perform the techniques or heal yourself you need the concentration to manipulate your power, that comes by the study of Martial Arts, for example.
But there are few exceptions: there are those with an inexhaustible supply of spirit, enough to heal fatal damage, enough to distort the atmosphere around them. It doesn't come from within the body and the Dragons; comes maybe from God, maybe an outside dragon, undead spirits, demons, the spirit that resides in trees, the sky and on other people. People call those who can manipulate those forces "Demons", and Souichiro is the living example of it.
Natsume Goushin Ryu Kongou Hasshiki
Along with the Red Feather’s ability, there are several other techniques, specially Natsume Goushin Ryu Kongou Hasshiki, a fighting style invented by her family, that contains several techniques like
- Flicker jab
- Natsume Ryu Kenjutsu Kojiri Gaeshi (Bamboo Grass Summer Rain (a sword technique that transmits attacks through the wind))
- Returning the Scabard (a staff technique of the Natsume family, used to throw an opponent holding a staff to the ground and steal their staff)
- Natsume style form refinement technique - body manipulation in order to prevent oneself from releasing too much "power".
- Uraate: Reverse striking - intensify the power at a location of your choosing, by picking up the energy and transfer the power somewhere else. Basically you hit the centre of the iron plate and transport the energy used for the circle movements to a straight line. Then, the air takes on the qualities of the "fist" and all at once, it sends the atmospheric force galloping on that straight line into a far away object. This is fulcrum-based transference skill; an example of Ki transmission that teaches one to shift the point and force of impact by striking the dead centre of an object. At expert-levels, a practitioner can transmit the force of impact wherever they please, as long as a medium exists to transmit their power through. This technique forms the basis for most Ki-based techniques used throughout the series.
- Tsuba Otoshi - A sword-technique that puts emphasis on the handle while dealing an overhead swing, upping the cutting force of the blade.
- Taizan Hougou - A technique which uses "reverse striking" transference through a stiff-shoulder charge to shift the force and impact of the blow over a distant; demolishing most anything upon impact with its pressure wave.
- Renkan Tenpen Tetsukageki - This move is a set of precise, bone-crushing blows. - Radotenko - A technique combining a fierce shoulder charge with an immediate release of Ki upon impact; that sends the opponent flying backwards.
Reiki
Before we get into Aya’s power, we should add the existence of Reiki. Reiki is actually a ceremonial Nodachi, and the heirloom of the Natsume Family. Despite its length classifying it as a nodachi, the characters tend to refer to it as a katana. It is very long, with a red sheath and hilt wrap. It has no cross-guard, and the sheath typically has a tattered cloth spiralling down it.
It was created Jyukon Onmyou, who entrapped all of the power of evil Buddhist ceremonies in that single katana, making it a crystallization of cursed technology. Reiki has the ability to enable people with Red Feather Powers to use their powers more freely and enhance them, and is vastly influenced by the nature of the wielder and their ability to use a Dragon’s Gate.
The Katana has the ability to nullify any ability, in Aya's hands, it greatly increases her Dragon Eye but specially allows her to nullify any Red Feather power and render those as nothing more than "dolls" (it’s said, however, that reiki may also help to control the wielder’s power). It strips people of their morals and allows them to be the true Fighting Spirit (instead of just having it or use it).
Reiki actually has a spirit of its own and can manifest itself to those have the power of the Dragon's Eye. Reiki is generally blamed for Shin Natsume's insanity and although the sword is typically considered evil by the characters, its spirit is not depicted as having malice. Reiki only makes awakening the power take less effort. Given the nature of the Dragon's Gates, this often left the wielder to fight with their own power to maximum, feeding the Seven dragons inside more and more power.
Reiki can only be activated by those with special powers, and has even awakened powers in some cases. When wielded by someone without special powers it is nothing more than a very long katana, hence why it was entrusted to Maya Natsume when she was only 8.
If the wielder establishes a good enough relationship with Reiki, it can even be activated while the user is not in possession of it, which has happened to Aya before and the same reason why Reiki told Aya they would become one soon, so we know Aya is meant to use Reiki. When activated the blade allows the user to control and regulate their power better.The sword gains a visible aura around it and emits a piercing sound. While activated Reiki becomes more powerful, even if it can't cut the opponent, they can be burned by the energy it emits. When Reiki true blade is completely activated by the Dragon's eye, it uses an excessive amount of ki/prana and can wear out most users out in a short period of time.
Aya’s Dragon’s gate: Dragon’s eye
As said, the Natsume's Family special Gate is the eyes. Dragon eyes. Dragon eyes users have a huge amount of prana/energy inside them, train it, feed it to the 7 Dragons and they allow the energy to come out through the eyes, the Dragon’s Gate.
We do not know the extension of Dragon’s Eyes power, but from what the show tells us, this is one of the strongest gates, making them not only powerful, but incredibly dangerous to those who have it as well (since the Dragons are not forgiving. One example was what happened to Shin Natsume, lost in his own demoniac self when Reiki helped him to awaken the power with less effort when he wasn’t even able to control it at first).
It is a power that only living things, not to mention humans, can posses, yet they see living and non living energy/ki/prana. It let’s you see everything about your opponent, including their dragons and allows you to read wood, fire, earth, gold, water; in other words, the energy of everything that exists.
During the series we find slowly things that the dragon’s Eye allows it’s used to do:
- These are able to see things in the distant past, present or future.
- A Natsume ancestor was able to "transport" herself to the future and also intervene there, by talking to Aya and her group. So we can say, not only the Dragon Eye's allow you to see, better yet, they allow you to make part of it, even if your physical body is somewhere else.
- Through meditation, she was able to activate Reiki, who at the moment was in her sister's hands, far away; not only she was able to see the whole battle, but she was actually able to intervene.
- There's also an indicator that she used the Dragon Eye to create an exact replica of Reiki from her hair/blood/sweat/skin, but imitating a technique she saw.
- She can see opponents moves before they make them, and according to her, it was if they were moving in slow motion.
- Her ancestor gives indication that she can use the Dragon Eye to make other people see illusions of things in their head.
- Some people say that it lets her see ghosts, but the ghost she saw was Shin; yet, her brother also saw their parents, and he was even able to show Maya his "burden": dead bodies following him around.
- It also has helped Aya create rain, but only when hee mental state was most unstable.
- She seems to be able to read people and objects (she calls it "puzzles" and usually makes a "roll of dices" movement with her hands and pictures a small puzzle with the person in it. She is that way able to read them inside out, their state of mind, they weakness, their past).
- The resonance effects states that two Red Family members, when joining together on the same area are able to wake up each other’s powers. It's stated that the closer together people with powers are, the easier it is for their powers to awaken.
- Allows her to learn several things in just few seconds, like riding a motorcycle, or a boat, or a car. She claims it were the objects teaching her through the Dragon's Eye.
The fact is, she can't even use the Dragon's eye that well and even when she does it in a correct way, and she isn't a powerful God of the world. Aya ALWAYS looses to her sister, and her sister NEEDS Nagi, who NEEDS his mother, who... okay, we get the idea. In other words, Aya is actually one of the weakest characters in the manga (for now, we KNOW she has the biggest potential of them all), making her totally not godmodey. Aya is still learning and still trying to get the Dragon Eye under control. While she is VERY GOOD, she can be hurt and defeated by people EVEN BETTER. Depending on the person, she may be able to hold her own, but she has VERY LITTLE experience to back up her power. A complete master will definitely be able to defeat her.
Chakra, Dragons, Dragon’s gates and Red Feathers
Chakra is a concept referring to wheel-like vortices which exist inside every person. The Chakras are said to be "force centres" and these rotating vortices and are considered the focal points for the reception and transmission of energies. The energy is transmitted through the nadis (channels or tubes inside the human body) where vital energy or spirit (prana) goes from a place to another.
These Chakras can either indicates the quantity of energy a body can use or they can be recharged the system’s energy.
In Tenjou Tenge world, they call these 7 specific chakra points “Dragons” that live within everyone and govern the powers of wood, fire, metal, water, wind and air.
- Base or Root dragon (last bone in spinal cord *coccyx*)
- Sacral Dragon (ovaries/prostate)
- Solar Plexus dragon (navel area)
- Heart dragon (heart area)
- Throat dragon (throat and neck area)
- Brow or Third Eye dragon (pineal gland or third eye)
- Crown dragon (Top of the head; 'Soft spot' of a newborn)
Since everyone has them, everyone has the ability to use and train them. But it’s different for different people. For some, they only show it through the study of martial arts, meditation, emotions, and Aya's way is through, indeed, Martial Arts.
Once you’ve trained enough, your Chakras will “recharge” your body and gain more energy. And once you do, the Dragons will devour it, and after eating enough, once one is able to actually have that much of energy inside them, they can invoked the Dragons for the first time and a power is born. But obviously, Dragons are Dragons and they will not show mercy and will devour the person’s body at just one mistake, hence why using powers that depend on the use of Chakras must be constantly trained.
The spirit's energy enters at the head and leaves through the gates that exist in one’s body; the gate the dragon leaves through is called the Dragon's Gate and each person with a special power uses one of those gates.
For example, Aya's gate is the eyes, Dragon's eyes. There are others, thought, that have more than one Dragon's Gate (Souichiro and Tetsuhito, for example), or others that aren’t able to use a Gate at all (Maya).
Anyone who is able to use a Dragon’s gate is called Red Feather and those form families in order to train and protect their own abilities, so we can now say Dragon’s Eyes are a special ability only Natsume family has.
This however can differ; while there is only one type of Dragon’s eyes, powers similar to those may surface among branch families that came from the original Red Family, but their ability to gain power, train it and feed it to the dragons in order to invoke them and allow the power to be expelled from a Dragon’s Gate is very different from the original Family’s energy, power and capability of doing the same. In other words, you must ascertain the "flow", "quantity" and "quality" of power or energy you’ll be giving the dragons and each family has their own, and that differs family from family.
The source of the "Fighting spirit" comes from energy inside and from the environment: if it moves too much, it gives birth to the yin, if it's too quiet it gives birth to the yang, and combining both you are capable of fighting.
The outside form of something thing (living or not) conjures up the spirit in it (the prana, due to the Dragons), the spirit transforms into the soul. So the Spirit is originally born of the body, and stored there, for the body's internal use only, and that's why there is a limit to how much spirit or power one can have.
There isn't much difference between “you” (the spirit) and your physical self, but in order to be able to perform the techniques or heal yourself you need the concentration to manipulate your power, that comes by the study of Martial Arts, for example.
But there are few exceptions: there are those with an inexhaustible supply of spirit, enough to heal fatal damage, enough to distort the atmosphere around them. It doesn't come from within the body and the Dragons; comes maybe from God, maybe an outside dragon, undead spirits, demons, the spirit that resides in trees, the sky and on other people. People call those who can manipulate those forces "Demons", and Souichiro is the living example of it.
Natsume Goushin Ryu Kongou Hasshiki
Along with the Red Feather’s ability, there are several other techniques, specially Natsume Goushin Ryu Kongou Hasshiki, a fighting style invented by her family, that contains several techniques like
- Flicker jab
- Natsume Ryu Kenjutsu Kojiri Gaeshi (Bamboo Grass Summer Rain (a sword technique that transmits attacks through the wind))
- Returning the Scabard (a staff technique of the Natsume family, used to throw an opponent holding a staff to the ground and steal their staff)
- Natsume style form refinement technique - body manipulation in order to prevent oneself from releasing too much "power".
- Uraate: Reverse striking - intensify the power at a location of your choosing, by picking up the energy and transfer the power somewhere else. Basically you hit the centre of the iron plate and transport the energy used for the circle movements to a straight line. Then, the air takes on the qualities of the "fist" and all at once, it sends the atmospheric force galloping on that straight line into a far away object. This is fulcrum-based transference skill; an example of Ki transmission that teaches one to shift the point and force of impact by striking the dead centre of an object. At expert-levels, a practitioner can transmit the force of impact wherever they please, as long as a medium exists to transmit their power through. This technique forms the basis for most Ki-based techniques used throughout the series.
- Tsuba Otoshi - A sword-technique that puts emphasis on the handle while dealing an overhead swing, upping the cutting force of the blade.
- Taizan Hougou - A technique which uses "reverse striking" transference through a stiff-shoulder charge to shift the force and impact of the blow over a distant; demolishing most anything upon impact with its pressure wave.
- Renkan Tenpen Tetsukageki - This move is a set of precise, bone-crushing blows. - Radotenko - A technique combining a fierce shoulder charge with an immediate release of Ki upon impact; that sends the opponent flying backwards.
Reiki
Before we get into Aya’s power, we should add the existence of Reiki. Reiki is actually a ceremonial Nodachi, and the heirloom of the Natsume Family. Despite its length classifying it as a nodachi, the characters tend to refer to it as a katana. It is very long, with a red sheath and hilt wrap. It has no cross-guard, and the sheath typically has a tattered cloth spiralling down it.
It was created Jyukon Onmyou, who entrapped all of the power of evil Buddhist ceremonies in that single katana, making it a crystallization of cursed technology. Reiki has the ability to enable people with Red Feather Powers to use their powers more freely and enhance them, and is vastly influenced by the nature of the wielder and their ability to use a Dragon’s Gate.
The Katana has the ability to nullify any ability, in Aya's hands, it greatly increases her Dragon Eye but specially allows her to nullify any Red Feather power and render those as nothing more than "dolls" (it’s said, however, that reiki may also help to control the wielder’s power). It strips people of their morals and allows them to be the true Fighting Spirit (instead of just having it or use it).
Reiki actually has a spirit of its own and can manifest itself to those have the power of the Dragon's Eye. Reiki is generally blamed for Shin Natsume's insanity and although the sword is typically considered evil by the characters, its spirit is not depicted as having malice. Reiki only makes awakening the power take less effort. Given the nature of the Dragon's Gates, this often left the wielder to fight with their own power to maximum, feeding the Seven dragons inside more and more power.
Reiki can only be activated by those with special powers, and has even awakened powers in some cases. When wielded by someone without special powers it is nothing more than a very long katana, hence why it was entrusted to Maya Natsume when she was only 8.
If the wielder establishes a good enough relationship with Reiki, it can even be activated while the user is not in possession of it, which has happened to Aya before and the same reason why Reiki told Aya they would become one soon, so we know Aya is meant to use Reiki. When activated the blade allows the user to control and regulate their power better.The sword gains a visible aura around it and emits a piercing sound. While activated Reiki becomes more powerful, even if it can't cut the opponent, they can be burned by the energy it emits. When Reiki true blade is completely activated by the Dragon's eye, it uses an excessive amount of ki/prana and can wear out most users out in a short period of time.
Aya’s Dragon’s gate: Dragon’s eye
As said, the Natsume's Family special Gate is the eyes. Dragon eyes. Dragon eyes users have a huge amount of prana/energy inside them, train it, feed it to the 7 Dragons and they allow the energy to come out through the eyes, the Dragon’s Gate.
We do not know the extension of Dragon’s Eyes power, but from what the show tells us, this is one of the strongest gates, making them not only powerful, but incredibly dangerous to those who have it as well (since the Dragons are not forgiving. One example was what happened to Shin Natsume, lost in his own demoniac self when Reiki helped him to awaken the power with less effort when he wasn’t even able to control it at first).
It is a power that only living things, not to mention humans, can posses, yet they see living and non living energy/ki/prana. It let’s you see everything about your opponent, including their dragons and allows you to read wood, fire, earth, gold, water; in other words, the energy of everything that exists.
During the series we find slowly things that the dragon’s Eye allows it’s used to do:
- These are able to see things in the distant past, present or future.
- A Natsume ancestor was able to "transport" herself to the future and also intervene there, by talking to Aya and her group. So we can say, not only the Dragon Eye's allow you to see, better yet, they allow you to make part of it, even if your physical body is somewhere else.
- Through meditation, she was able to activate Reiki, who at the moment was in her sister's hands, far away; not only she was able to see the whole battle, but she was actually able to intervene.
- There's also an indicator that she used the Dragon Eye to create an exact replica of Reiki from her hair/blood/sweat/skin, but imitating a technique she saw.
- She can see opponents moves before they make them, and according to her, it was if they were moving in slow motion.
- Her ancestor gives indication that she can use the Dragon Eye to make other people see illusions of things in their head.
- Some people say that it lets her see ghosts, but the ghost she saw was Shin; yet, her brother also saw their parents, and he was even able to show Maya his "burden": dead bodies following him around.
- It also has helped Aya create rain, but only when hee mental state was most unstable.
- She seems to be able to read people and objects (she calls it "puzzles" and usually makes a "roll of dices" movement with her hands and pictures a small puzzle with the person in it. She is that way able to read them inside out, their state of mind, they weakness, their past).
- The resonance effects states that two Red Family members, when joining together on the same area are able to wake up each other’s powers. It's stated that the closer together people with powers are, the easier it is for their powers to awaken.
- Allows her to learn several things in just few seconds, like riding a motorcycle, or a boat, or a car. She claims it were the objects teaching her through the Dragon's Eye.
The fact is, she can't even use the Dragon's eye that well and even when she does it in a correct way, and she isn't a powerful God of the world. Aya ALWAYS looses to her sister, and her sister NEEDS Nagi, who NEEDS his mother, who... okay, we get the idea. In other words, Aya is actually one of the weakest characters in the manga (for now, we KNOW she has the biggest potential of them all), making her totally not godmodey. Aya is still learning and still trying to get the Dragon Eye under control. While she is VERY GOOD, she can be hurt and defeated by people EVEN BETTER. Depending on the person, she may be able to hold her own, but she has VERY LITTLE experience to back up her power. A complete master will definitely be able to defeat her.