Act Two:

[Flashback]

During our studies and sightseeing, we lived in Denver, Colorado in the states. As my dad was knowledgeable in Shinto beliefs and was happy to introduce Japanese culture to the world, he was selected to tend to the newly built Shinto Shrine in Genesee. For the time, we had trained and taught westerners many things and we lived at the shrine for a few months at a time. As we were by the mountains, he believed it was a good place to train and get connected with nature as my second kinetic was developing. In the mountains, we could display our powers without people stumbling upon us. On that night, everything was set up to be perfect, the night sky was filled with stars as the crescent moon was out in all of its glory. Shooting stars passed as it grew to midnight, dad and I wished upon a star, and as the others flew by, we began our sparring.

“Alright, Saito! It’s time we began our match, but I will tell you this before we start. Knowing you… You probably wished that you’d get your second kinetic tomorrow. I know how important it is for you. Considering this is kinda your last chance since it really only appears from 10-12 years old…” Daichi says as he turns to look at Saito.

Saito bears a gloomy expression on his face but perks up a smile and says.

“Even if I don’t get another power as having dimension control is pretty rare, I know I can keep up with Tsubaki and Akihiro, and that’s all that matters!”

“Yes! Exactly, it's great you understand. I do feel like it would be my fault you don’t have another kinetic though. Considering your mother and I are Gen 1s, and us having two kinetics which is extremely rare.” Daichi remarks.

“Having mom’s dimension control is amazing as it is, if I keep looking over her clips and learn more how to control it. I’ll be even finer, since it kinda works like your wind kinetic, Dad!” Saito says in awe.

“That is a bit true, but trust me. Your power is truly amazing, the amount of things you can do and store with it is almost astounding.” Daichi says as he hugs his son.

“Aww Dad, you’re such a softie when it comes to stuff like this. I don’t hate it but let’s get back to sparring.” Saito says while hugging back his dad.

“Ahem, right. Alrighty, my boy. I want you to come at me with all that you got. I’m glad you respect your mom’s proper fighting style but I want you to utilize everything I taught you. Knowing your battlefield and options are important, fight as the tactician.”

Daichi says.

“I’ve been liking your style a lot more recently, so you didn’t need to tell me that.”

Saito says as he readies himself.

“Good good, prepare yourself because I won’t go easy on y-”

Daichi responds but suddenly stops to guard himself.

Saito had already made his pursuit to his dad and clashed with him.

“I know you won’t go easy on me. The first thing you taught me as a tactician, strike first and talk later.” Saito says as he begins to pin his father.

“Good. Taught you well, but we’re still talking… Aren’t we?!

Daichi shouts as he pushes Saito away from him with his blade and dashes over for a follow-up.

Saito’s feet slide across the ground and tries to find his balance and grip. Daichi reaches Saito and goes for an overhead strike, Saito dodges the attack and goes for a kick at his dad’s exposed back. Daichi smirks and lets go of his bokken and reaches behind his back to grab Saito’s leg. Saito seems stunned at first, struggling from his dad’s grip but jumps and does a spin kick which forces Daichi to let go in fear of getting hit.

“Phew, so far so good. Sometimes I forget how good at moving around dad is. Must be

his traits as a wind user.” Saito mutters as he tries to breathe.

Daichi picks up his bokken and catches his breath too, he then says.

“It’s only been a few seconds and that almost scared me. I see you picked up your mom’s way of countering and integrated that into the tactician style. That would’ve been risky for your legs though.”

“I knew, you’d let go so I didn’t have to worry too much. Anyways, I think it’s time we kick it up a notch.” Saito says as he picks up a rock and hurls it in the opposite direction.

“Couldn’t agree more, kiddo.” Daichi responds.

The rock Saito threw flies in the distance and suddenly vanishes. Daichi presses forward and unleashes an onslaught of strikes. Saito dodges these strikes with quick movements and utilizes his hands and feet. The strikes get faster and Daichi lets lose a cross-cut, the first one strike going diagonally grazes the fabric of Saito’s shirt, leaving a small tear from the wind followed by the blade. The last strike comes in the form of a horizontal cut coming from the east to the west.

Saito begins to dash forward into the strike and has his palms ready to charge into his dad’s stomach. It doesn’t seem like Saito will make it in time and Daichi loosens his grip a bit and starts to say.

“Hmm. I expected a bit more from y-.” Daichi says a bit disappointed.

“That’s what you think! Take this!” Saito says with a grin.

Suddenly, the same rock Saito threw appears and hits the tip of the bokken Daichi is wielding. With Daichi’s loosen grip, the bokken flies out of his hands. Shocked, he makes a backup plan, using the same momentum he would use for his strike, he curls his fist and moves it in a hammer motion. It lands and connects with Saito.

To his surprise, he doesn’t get a good hit on his son, Saito had prepared for this by stretching his arms to defend the blow with his left palm, and his right palm turns in a quick manner, driving his palm into his dad, delivering a punishing blow. The hit connects and completely stuns his dad. His dad holds his stomach tightly and steps back, not trying to throw up.

“I won’t lie, that was a really good hit. Good job kid. Let's call it for now, that's your win. You subverted my expectations at the last second, knocking my weapon out of my hand with that rock from earlier was a good trick utilizing your kinetic. But yeah, let’s take a break.”

Daichi says while still winded from the blow.

“Sorry Dad, I didn’t mean to hit you that hard. You went a bit crazy there too, the wind from your bokken cut some of my shirt. Got real shook there for a second. But yeah, let’s take a break.” Saito says with a hint of remorse.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll be good as new in a second. I bought some sandwiches and such, so let’s dig in.” Daichi says as he tries to keep a smile on his face.

They rest on a tree trunk and eat their sandwiches, smiling at each other. 

Saito then askes.

“Hey Dad, whenever we spar, you don’t use your lightning kinetic at all, why is that? Couldn’t you have stun-locked me when you grabbed me earlier?”

“I suppose I could’ve done that but my wind kinetic is just much more familiar to me. With wind, you can control it however you want and I can be really swift. Lightning may be quick and can definitely let me out of situations but it’s hard to control, along with how rigid it is. I’ve been working on something that might be able to help with that. If you can focus the erratic lightning and turn into a stable current just like electricity in our homes, then lightning users wouldn’t have to worry about backfiring on themselves.” Daichi says as he profoundly looks to the stars.

“Wow, my dad is a pretty amazing guy. How much progress have you made on that? Will I be able to use it if I become a lightning user? I think wind is really neat and Tsubaki makes it look wonderful but considering Mom and you are lightning users, I feel like if I got lightning I’d love to make use of it. That is if it manifests…” Saito says in awe looking at the stars.

“Ah right, it’s almost 12, isn’t it? Ready for your 12th birthday?” Daichi asked with a grin.

“As ready as can be, can’t wait to see what happens. The party tomorrow is gonna be so much fun, it's a shame we can’t invite them up here. I do like Denver though, so it’s fine.” Saito responds back with a cheerful laugh.

Suddenly, storm clouds roll in.

“Huh? That’s really abnormal, there were no clouds in sight and the weather forecast shouldn’t expect anything like this for another week or something. This is extremely strange.” Daichi says as he packs up all the food.

“Yeah, those are cumulonimbus clouds, in school they said it takes a while for dense clouds like those to settle in. Let’s get back to the shr-.” Saito says before a flash of light strikes.

The flash of light engulfs the father and son, they’re unharmed but they look over at the shrine and see a fire breaking loose. The thunder rolls in and the wind starts bursting towards the two. Daichi’s quick thinking makes a barrier of wind to defend against the sudden turbulent wind and mixed debris.

The wind calms down and he puts down the barrier. The dust falls and from the peak of the mountain, they look again at the shrine and see a figure moving throughout the shrine. Saito quickly makes a dash with his bokken in hand towards the tree that holds onto the other luggage they brought up to the mountain and fetches his father’s sword, and throws it to his dad.

“Here ya go, let’s hurry and see who’s trying to attack us. Do you think it’s a kinetic user?” Saito shouts.

“Thanks, Saito. However, I’ll be going by myself. I can’t risk you getting harmed, and you don’t have a proper weapon on you.” Daichi says with a stern face.

“What do you mean? I just beat you in combat, even without a sword, I can still fight using my dimension kinetic. That’s not even fair, this is our shrine, so I’ll protect it too!” Saito yells.

As he makes a quick dash towards the shrine. Daichi charges wind under his feet and bursts in Saito’s direction quickly grabbing him and pinning him down.

“Saito! You’re not listening to me, this is just too sudden and timed to have you fight with me. Just from the impact of that lightning, this isn’t a regular enemy. It’s my job as your parent to stop you from acting foolishly. Act like a real tactician! Don’t be stupid.” Daichi yells.

Saito stunned from his dad’s behavior, having his dad yell at him for the first time. He tries to squirm out of his dad’s grip but fails.

“Why aren’t you listening to me! I’m doing this for a reason but you leave me no choice. Wind: Cubic Prison!”

Daichi yells at Saito, looking him in the eyes.

Thin layers of wind encapsulate Saito from all sides, walled in the shape of a cube. Saito tries to touch the air, but Daichi instantly yells.

“Don’t touch it or even come close to it! Touch the wall, and it will cut your hand instantly. Come closer to it and you’ll have a hard time breathing! Didn’t think I’d have to use this on you of all people but you’re being stubborn.”

Saito backs away and sits inside of it. Frustrated, not being able to voice his opinion or anything as the cube counts as a vacuum and his words are inaudible.

“Look. Saito, you’re all I really have left. I wouldn’t feel good knowing my son could possibly get hurt while fighting an intruder. You’re plenty strong but as you saw earlier, I can’t fight at my best knowing you could get hurt. That’s why I lost my grip earlier.” Daichi says.

Saito’s eyes widened, and suddenly dawned on him that he didn’t truly deserve that win from earlier. If Saito was anyone else, he’d have lost.

“I see the look on your face, and you’re probably upset about the win from earlier. It’s partially true that sure if you weren’t my son, you would’ve lost but remember, everyone has a weakness or soft spot. So don’t think you didn’t deserve that, you still polished your tactics so take pride in that. Nevertheless, I don’t have much time but I’ll be back when I see what happens with this intruder, I don’t plan on dying soon. I will be back and that’s a promise.” Daichi says with a smile on his face.

Time passes as Saito is still within the Wind: Cubic Prison. He looks in the distance and sees tons of commotion coming from the shrine. He keeps pondering on a way to get out of this predicament, and how he can help his dad. Suddenly, he gets an idea.

“If this is a vacuum, all I have to do is make a tear. I can’t teleport myself to a different area so maybe teleporting the air? No that wouldn’t work, I need a tear... Right! I haven’t done this too often but once I made a portal that stood in place and sucked dad’s clothing into it at a moderate speed so it would slow him down. If I can focus on this corner of this cube… I can suck three of the walls into it and escape.”

He brings his hands together and envisions where he wants to make the tear. The strain of clenching his hands and the amount of focus to his head is aching him but over the span of 10 minutes, it starts working.

He gets up feeling nauseous and tries to rub his head, massaging his temples. As he runs over towards the shrine, inside his stomach, he feels as he’s burning up. His heartbeat increases, his body feels faster but his joints are popping in pain. His eyes dilate periodically and his vision is unfocused. He tumbles down the mountain. While he tries to sort himself out, he sneaks around the bushes and trees nearby to get a clear view of the fight before initiating a counterattack.

Both the intruder and his father are moving quite fast but after trading blows, they stop for a second and remark at each other.

“Geez, whoever you are, you really do have a lot of stamina. If I wasn’t already partially wounded, this would probably be over.” Daichi gloats.

The masked figure starts stretching their limbs and you can hear the multiple cracks of her bones. Daichi and the spying Saito cringe at how many times her limbs popped. The masked figure then says.

“Hehe, not bad. I see you’ve improved over the years, Daichi Kazami. Whoever taught you, must be proud of you. But I guess they’re dead, huh?”

Immediately, Daichi dashes towards the enemy and unleashes the same strikes he aimed at Saito, in blinding speed at the intruder.

“Don’t talk like you know me, or the people connected to me.” Daichi says with a menacing scowl.

The intruder flips backward and jumps on one of the shrine gates.

Daichi then says.

“With how agile and thin you are, I can only assume you’re a woman or identify as one. I’m not interested if you’re just a fan of mine.”

“Wow, stroking your ego? You’ve grown plenty confident over the years, is it because your wife can’t do that anymore?” The intruder jests.

“I don’t have time for your clownery anymore, I’ll end this right here.” Daichi says as he prepares himself.