Friday, September 29th, 2006, about a month after Kenshin’s death.
“Alright, class. Today, we’ll be going to the training yard for Trait Training,” says Cygil.
“About time.” Zachary cracked his knuckles, “All this bookwork and studying is boring.”
“Yeah, training sounds good.” adds Apollo.
Kye jumps out of his seat. “Hell yeah, let's go!”
Everyone else chimes in except for Kian. The class heads to the training yard, and Amber pulls Kian aside.
“Kian.” Amber says sternly.
“Uh yeah, what’s up?”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Amber frowns. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you happy. Are you still upset about Kenshin?”
Kian looks away and doesn’t respond.
“You don’t have to answer. Just know I’ll be here if you need to talk, okay?”
“Yeah.. thanks..”
“Amber! Kian! Can you two hurry up already?!” Kye shouts from up ahead.
“Yeah, coming!” Amber responds, “Okay, let’s go, Kian.”
“Right..”
The class lines up in the open yard.
“Today’s training will be straightforward. I want you all to focus on a couple of things.” Cygil explains, “Apollo, I want you to work on drawing your bow and lining up shots quicker.”
“I can handle that.” Apollo responds.
“Amber, you’ll be with me. I want you to work on your Spiritual Energy control.
“Okay!” Amber chirps.
“Zachary, I want you to work on maintaining Limit Breaker longer and getting your body more used to the power. Kareem, I want you to work on your feints and mix-ups and keep the enemy guessing which punches are real and which are phantom punches.”
Zachary and Kareem nod.
“Since you have no Trait yet, you’ll be working on hand-to-hand combat, Allen. And Darren, since you can’t summon Fang at will yet, I want you to join him.”
“Okay…” Darren says softly, “Take it easy on me… Allen.”
Allen sighs. “You’ll be the one who needs to take it easy on me.”
“Kye, right now, you can only apply your Lightning Manipulation to your hands and feet. I want you to try and conduct some of that off your body into projectile attacks.”
“I’ll master it, piece of cake.” Kye responds, pounding his fist into his palm.
“Kian, I want you to work on the accuracy of your fire and ice attacks and the defensive capabilities of your powers.”
Kian nods.
“Finally, Jackson, I want you to focus on everyone during training and accurately report all their power levels and the amount of Spiritual Energy they all have remaining to me.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Okay, that’s everyone. Now get to training!”
The class splits off to different parts of the training yard.
“Alright, Darren, here I come!” Allen announces.
“I’m ready…” Darren responds quietly, steadying himself.
Darren readies himself into a defensive stance, and Allen rushes towards him, swinging a powerful punch that Darren barely manages to dodge.
“That was a close one…”
Allen doesn't let up, attempting to knock Darren's feet out from under him. In a split-second decision, Darren vaults over the sweeping leg.
"My turn…" Darren whispers, his gaze becoming razor-sharp.
Utilizing the momentum from his leap, he spins and executes a perfectly timed tornado kick to Allen's left side, sending him flying backward. Darren lands softly, his intense gaze fading to its usual calm expression.
“Damn, what a kick!” shouts Zachary, running laps with Limit Breaker activated, “I didn’t know you had that in you, Darren!”
“That sure was some power.” ponders Jackson, “Whenever he's focused, both his speed and strength, not to mention his Spiritual Energy, seem to nearly double.”
“Are you... okay?” asks Darren, “I’m sorry..”
Allen stands up, holding his left side. “Yeah, I’m good. Let’s keep going.”
“Okay..”
Darren and Allen re-engage in combat. Meanwhile, Kye and Kareem team up to train.
“So how do you want to do this?” asks Kareem.
Kye shrugs. “Let’s just spar normally. I’ll figure out how to use my lightning better during battle.”
“Fair enough, I guess this will be better than practicing on a still target. I’ll fight you.”
“Great.” Kye readies himself into an attacking stance, “I’ve wanted to spar with you since the first day of the academy.”
The two advance toward each other, with Kye initiating the attack. Kareem managed to defend skillfully, blocking most of the incoming strikes, but Kye's speed was superior.
“Lightning Manipulation, Shocking Skin!”
Kareem continued to block, but each touch zapped him with electricity due to Kye's ability. The spar continued, with Kareem eventually shifting to an offensive stance, preparing a heavy punch.
“Here it comes… the first one will be a fake.” Kye ponders.
Kareem throws a feint.
“I knew it. That means the real impact is coming.” Kye throws his hands over his face in defense.
“You guessed wrong.” Kareem sweeps Kye’s legs, knocking him to the ground, and follows up with another feint. Kye, narrowly evading a direct hit, rolls away with only a minor scrape on his arm. Swiftly getting back on his feet, Kye aims his hands at Kareem.
“Lightning Manipulation, Lightning Stream!”
Lightning bolts from his fingertips yet vanishes just before hitting Kareem.
“Damn!” Kye drops to the ground, “Controlling your Spiritual Energy outside of your body is hard.”
Kareem walks over and sticks a hand out, helping Kye to his feet. “You’ll get the hang of it; let’s keep going.”
Kye and Kareem continue training. Meanwhile, Apollo works on swapping between two weapons quickly.
“Shift, Stinger!” Apollo quickly grabs an arrow and shoots it into a training dummy, “Shift, sword!” The bow turns into a wooden training sword, and he jumps towards the dummy, slashing it a few times. “Not fast enough. I need to be faster.”
“Apollo's impressive, but his Spiritual Energy is nearly the lowest, second only to Allen.” Jackson writes down some notes on a tiny notepad he brought outside. “Good thing swapping weapons takes virtually no Spiritual Energy to perform.”
Apollo repeats the maneuver several times, his frustration growing with each attempt. “Still not fast enough!”
Meanwhile, Cygil gives Amber a few tips on Spiritual Energy movement.
“So I don’t want to send a ton of energy at once?” Amber asks.
“No, for your Trait in particular, it’ll be best for you to send tiny amounts of your Spiritual Energy into someone at one time. It’ll give you the best chance of not being noticed.” Cygil explains, “It’ll take longer, but try and narrow your connection from the size of a rope to the size of a thread.”
“Okay, Mr. Cygil! I’ll give it my best!”
Amber sends some Spiritual Energy into Cygil, but the connection is instantly stopped and snapped.
“Too wide. Go smaller.”
“R- right!”
Amber tries and fails again.
“We’ll do this all day, Amber. Give it your all!”
The class trains for about an hour before anyone takes a break. Apollo goes inside to get a drink when Kian approaches him.
“Hey Kian, what’s up.”
“I know you’re using it, but do you mind if I borrow that wooden sword for a bit.”
“Oh, this old thing? Shift, sword!” The orb turns into the wooden sword, “Unbind, sword!”
The sword glows, and the orb appears back in Apollo’s hand, with the sword no longer bonded to it.
“It’s all yours; I can get another one later. I was going to switch to accuracy training anyways.”
Kian takes the sword from Apollo and thanks him before returning outside.
“Let’s give this a go… Fire Manipulation, Flame Buff!” The wooden blade is engulfed in flames, “Now this… Ice Manipulation, Ice Wall!” A thick wall of ice roughly the same height as Kian rises from the ground in front of him.
Kian then swings the flaming sword with full power, connecting with the ice wall and leaving a noticeable dent. He makes it his goal to slash through the ice within an hour.
Training continues for a few more hours before Cygil calls Jackson aside.
“Yes, Mr. Cygil?”
“So, how do you think everyone is doing, Jackson?”
“Looks like everyone’s training is going great. I’ve been taking notes.” Jackson skims through the notepad’s pages and reads some of his notes, “Zachary can maintain Limit Break level one for about forty-five minutes now. Apollo’s speed and accuracy have increased with his bow. Kye’s lightning control has improved greatly, and Kareem’s mix-ups are even more disorienting. Darren and Allen have built up some durability by slugging each other. Amber has improved a bit in Spiritual Energy control and transferring. And Kian has picked up some sword skills. Everyone’s getting stronger rapidly.”
“Interesting.” responds Cygil, “And what about you?”
“Me?”
“Your skills have most certainly improved too, Jackson. That Power Gauge Trait will come in handy in your future missions.”
Jackson smiles. “Yeah, I guess you’re right!”
“If you had to rank everyone, what order would you place yourselves in? In terms of power level and how much Spiritual Energy you have.”
“Hmm, power levels are pretty easy to rank. Kareem is still number one, then it goes Zachary, Apollo, Kian, Darren, Kye, Amber, Allen, and then myself.” Jackson adjusts his glasses, “As for Spiritual Energy levels, Kian and Kye have much more than anyone else; then I’d probably say Zachary, Darren, Amber, Kareem, myself, Apollo, and finally Allen.”
“I see.” Cygil checks the time on his phone, “Seven in the afternoon already? It looks like you all trained for about eight hours today. That should be a good stopping point. Class, gather up!”
The rest of the students stop training and gather around Cygil, all visibly exhausted.
“Good job today, everyone. You all are making great strides in your Warrior training. Did you all enjoy the break from the bookwork and studying?”
“I needed this.” Kye responds, “Training for a little bit outside and after class is alright, but this is way more efficient.”
“Can you even spell the word efficient, Kye?” asks Kian.
“Oh, so you can talk now? Not hearing a lot of that recently.”
“Kye, leave your brother alone!” pleads Amber.
“Watch out, man, his girlfriend’s getting angry..” Zachary jokes.
Amber glares at Zachary, and his smile quickly fades away.
“Alright, all of you, relax.” Cygil orders, “You’ve done enough for today. Everyone head home and get some rest. I’ll see you all on Monday.”
Cygil dismisses the class, and the twins walk home together with Jackson.
“You staying the night, Jackson?” asks Kye.
“Yeah, my mom’s out of town for the next two days.”
“Oh, where’d she go?”
“Sanaa, it’s a town North of here. She’s visiting some friends.”
“Have you ever been there?”
“Just once. I don’t remember much of it, though. I was only three or four.”
“Ah, we should go sometime in the future. I want to visit a ton of places.” Kye glances over at his brother, “Would you come too?”
“Huh? Oh, sure, I guess.”
Kye grabs Kian by the collar. “What’s up with you, man? I mean, I get that Kaito’s friend died, but you’re acting more depressed than when mom and dad died.”
“Mom isn’t dead!” Kian shouts, pushing Kye’s hand away.
“You don’t know that!”
Jackson steps in between the twins. “Please calm down. Both of you.”
Kian continues walking home. “Mom is alive, and we’re going to save her. Those bandits have her, I know it.”
The rest of the walk continues in silence, and when they arrive home, Kian skips dinner and goes to bed.
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