Get up. Again!

THWACK

You're losing your posture, stand firmer. Now Again!

THWACK

Again. 

THWACK 

THWACK

THWACK

Shiro fell to the ground once more covered in bruises and welts after getting hit with the bokken so many times by Kurosu. His chest felt tighter and his arms felt tense; His heart was beating so fast, it hurt. 

"I can't keep this up any longer. He's going to kill me at this rate" Shiro thought to himself

Shiro could feel his mana overflowing his veins, it instinctively wants to protect this vessel. 

"Kggh!" Shiro slowly gets himself back up, his stance not perfect from his body being so bruised.

Kurosu looked on with an expressionless face. 

"We're at 15 wins for me so far...do you intend to keep this up?" Kurosu hissed as he gripped his bokken and took a quick swing at Shiro.

"Nngh!" Shiro pulled up his bokken to block it but the force of the swing made him step back. Kurosu was pushing his weight into the bokken and trying to force Shiro to kneel and buckle on the force pushing him down but he held as best as he could in his state.

"This isn't training, you bastard! This is torture!" Shiro spat at Kurosu as he kept holding his ground. His wrists and hands were on fire as he felt them strain to keep hold.

"Torture…?" Kurosu paused "It's torture to have to see you be so pathetic! You're not even trying!" Kurosu yelled as he kept pushing. 

"What happened to the dragon you snapped my foot into two!?! Or threw another dragon through a brick wall!?! Was that all a trick!?!" Kurosu yelled, baring his sharp teeth in an effort to scare Shiro.

Shiro kept holding, but his anger swelled in his chest. He wanted to fight back, to show he can do the things he did at will. 

"Why can't I do anything!?! Come out already!!!" Shiro internally screamed to himself. Shame and rage filled his thoughts.

"I need….to prove myself for once!!" 

Shiro felt his heels start to dig into the dirt as Kurosu kept pressing forward.

"I'll give him credit...he can't at least hold his ground…" Kurosu told himself. He thought back to when he would spar with Kade on occasion and Kade could barely hold his ground when pressed like this. It wasn't his style and he wasn't nearly as strong as him. "Kade couldn't barely keep it together long enough before falling over. So Shiro has the potential to best me….but he's not!"  Kurosu gritted his teeth in frustration.

"Atleast make this a challenge!!" Kurosu yelled aloud. "What has changed between now and yesterday!?! Is this some joke to you!?!" He continued

"N-Nothing!?! I just-!" Shiro stuttered before he was cut off.

"Then what!?! What is making you not do what you did yesterday!?!" 

"I don't want to hurt you!!?

"Hah! Do your worst! Do it! Or are you too cowardly now!?!" 

"No-! I-!"

"DO IT!"

Kurosu kept belittling Shiro. 

"That's it! Be angry!! Use it!!" Kurosu screamed as he pressed even harder.

He needed to break him.

Kurosu decided to turn it up a notch.

"Come on!! I'm insulting you!! Just like yesterday!! Now do something about it!!!" 

Shiro turned his head away in shame. His anger was at a boiling point the more Kurosu hurled insults at him.

"Did you come to learn how to fight or to be a whore!?! I'm starting to think it's the latter!!" Kurosu exclaimed loudly.

Shiro felt a deep pain in his chest and an intense throbbing sensation ran through his arms. He had enough, he couldn't contain this mana coursing through him. 

It felt like a dam had broken. 

Shiro screamed as he moved forward with Kurosu stepping backwards so as to not fall over; With both their hands still on their respective bokken. Shiro now was pressing Kurosu back with an intense force of pressure, Kurosu dug his heels into the ground but Shiro kept moving, leaving drag marks in the dirt.

"Nngh-!" Kurosu could feel his feet throb as they dragged on the ground. But he didn't care too much as his provoking worked.

This was it. The power he saw Shiro wield yesterday. This intense strength that almost didn't fit Shiro's little body. This mana that couldn't be distinguished as any element. 

This was what he had hoped for as he was now pressed to the ground, having finally lost his balance. His bokken lay to the side somewhere and Shiro's now pressed against his neck. 

Shiro panted as he now hovered over Kurosu in a compromised position. He pressed harder.

"Don't. Call. Me. A. Whore!" Shiro growled,  "I want this! I want to fight! But I don't want to hurt you like I did yesterday!" 

Kurosu looked up in mild interest but on the inside he was shocked as Shiro continued.

"This power is not something I understand! When my emotions become too much!! I just-! I can't control it! And my body just-! Ahhh! This is annoying!!" 

Shiro pulled away from Kurosu and got up.

"I won this round I guess! But I'm not doing that again!" Shiro yelled.

"But what if I want you to?" Kurosu smirked as he got up from the ground and dusted himself off.

"This is what I wanted to see from you. You may not be able to control your powers now but I can make you be able to control them" 

"How!?!"

"I explained this last night. Did you not listen to me at all, snowflake?"

Shiro yelled as he gripped his bokken in a swinging position.

"You just said I was weak!!" 

"Yes and No-" Kurosu continued as he realized he reached to grab his lost bokken, "Your body is weak, not your mana. In fact your mana is begging you to use it! That's why it's so overwhelming when it is used. Your body isn't used to it but your mana needs an outlet" 

"Mana isn't controlled by emotion but it's influenced by it..." Shiro remarked 

"You definitely learned something from the academy then…"

"Oh thanks dickhead" 

"Ugh! What I'm trying to say is when your emotions are heightened like now and yesterday, your mana output goes haywire. It's unstable so that's why it's so hard to control for you...but I can fix that"

"How!?!"

"Your body needs to get stronger so now I'm going to make you run til you can't run anymore"

"....eh?"