<span style="font-style: italic">Dark gray huh?</span>Kosuke thought, his innocent eyes, unable to hide their emotions, were sad.<span style="font-style: italic">Whenever I see a darker aura, I wonder what makes a person take that path. It's just... so difficult for me to understand. But come to think of it, my aura is the only white one I've ever really seen. Even master's had some gray in it, though he'd worked years to try and purge himself of it. But she looks so young. Only people in hard places choose that path, but it still doesn't make things better.</span><br/><br/>Kosuke sighed and fiddled with the grass again. Of course, being the optimist he is, he always hoped to see a light aura surrounding people. Too often he was disappointed. By now, he was partially numb to the experience. Sometimes the results of the spell made him feel lonely. Surely there had to be at least one other person with a<span style="font-style: italic">white</span>aura.<br/><br/>He glanced over at Brinn. She too seemed to be having an internal struggle at the moment, but it looked like she was trying to contain happiness. Perhaps she'd been anticipating something much worse... like black. In all Kosuke's years he'd<span style="font-style: italic">never</span>seen a black aura. They seemed to be just rare as white auras. He could guess why.<br/><br/>It wasn't hard to figure out. For one to obtain a completely white, or completely black aura, they must forever move in one direction. That means, events that cancel out will make that goal impossible. So to have a white aura, one must always have and continue to: love all and hate none, be truthful always and lie never, protect all and harm none, heal all and harm none, be generous always and greedy never. And for a black aura it must be the exact opposite.<br/><br/>To do this for ones entire life and never falter is exceedingly difficult. He'd seen such cases described in books. They would call them unnatural,<span style="font-style: italic">inhuman</span>. One would expect a completely pure person to receive some sort of praise even, but instead, ancient<span style="font-style: italic">masters</span>would treat it as if there was something<span style="font-style: italic">wrong</span>with it. So it made someone like Kosuke feel offended and... lonely. He'd reached inside of himself a few times, when trying to understand others. Trying to find out why they would hate. Yet he would dig down for the feeling to try and understand it and it wouldn't be there. He was<span style="font-style: italic">incapable</span>of such emotions. Did that make him unnatural? Did it make him... inhuman?<br/><br/>Kosuke didn't want to believe that. He wanted to believe that all humans were naturally pure and that evil was taught to them, and forced upon them through hard experiences. But there was mountains of evidence against that. The sad truth was that there were thousands of things out there that he would never understand, never be able to experience, and that separated him from everyone else.<br/><br/>On the other hand, while Kosuke was happy with his life, he'd seen many people who weren't. He did whatever he could to show some of what he could feel to those people. He wanted to see them smile-- he wanted to see everyone smile. An impossible goal, but a wonderful dream.<br/><br/>After several moments of the both of them being lost in thought, Brinn said something.<br/><br/>Kosuke smiled at her, but his eyes still couldn't hide their sadness. In fact, some tears had welled up in his eyes as he was thinking. It looked odd, for someone to be smiling so naturally yet be on the brink of tears. "Do you think so," he said, but his normally calm voice shook just slightly. He was not nearly so good at masking his emotions as Brinn. "I've never quite gotten the result I hope for."<br/><br/>He couldn't hold it in anymore. Having to speak those words, which held so much greater meaning to him than someone might think, was all his emotions could take. He put his head down on his knees and cried. His crying was strange. There were no sobs, just tears streaming down his face. And ironically, though he couldn't keep from crying, he couldn't force the smile off his face either.<br/><br/>That coupled with the pure white aura still surrounding him made him look something like a crying angel.<br/><br/>"I'm sorry," he said, as the tears continued down his face. "I don't want you to think I'm upset at you. Sometimes feeling lonely just makes me cry."