At Mistral. We're at the dojo beside our house.
"There might be a bit of an accident." Uncle Kiyoshi shook a little due to mom's glare. " ok maybe more than a bit... Anyway, you guys passed. With flying colors as well. So a gift to you guys. I will teach you how to use Dust." Uncle Kiyoshi said as he regains his bearing.
"Yes!!" Aiden burst up and shouted. Neo glared at him with less intensity than mom but it was able to calm Aiden and make him sit back.
"Well, your next training is supposed to be ranged aura usage but due to the accident. We will teach you the basics of how to handle dust. Don't get your hopes too high, there won't be combat application." Aiden's enthusiasm got lowered a bit. "So first, what do you guys know about dust?" We let Aiden answer.
"Dust is the source of energy here at remnant. Many stories are told about its origin but even after tears of research we still don't know the answer.
"We do know that fire, water, earth, and air are the basic dust elements, as all other dust came from those 4. There is currently 13 dust elements group into 2 types. The natural dust and synthetic dust.
"Dust elements can be distinguished by the color of its crystal.
Red for Fire
Blue for Water
White for Wind
Brown for Earth
Green for Plant
Yellow for Lightning
Black for Gravity
Dark Orange -for Heat
Bright Orange for Combustion
Dark Blue for Cold
Pale Blue for Ice
Cyan for Hard Light
Purple for Vibration.
Fire, water, earth, air, plant, electricity, and gravity dust are under natural dust. While heat, combustion, cold, ice, hard light, and vibration are under synthetic dust.
"Natural dust is the dust that can't be created with human intervention. Synthetic dust is created with human intervention.
"Dust is divided into four grades based on its potency. Those are the lesser, common, clear, and pure-grade Dust. Dust also has a stability ranking of five stars as the most stable and one star as the opposite. Lesser and Common-grade can reach 5 stars stability. The Clear grade can only reach 4 stars, and Pure with a maximum of only 3 stars stability ranking. The most dangerous Dust is pure-grade Dust, used by the military and industrial companies due to its instability and potency. The more potent Dust is, the denser it is, meaning the heavier it gets.
"Oh, there is one special dust that did not come from 4 basic dust. The hard light dust. It's the first artificial dust that's made from pure Aura. The creation is classified by the Schnee Dust Company. The crystallization of Aura is not unknown but Aura is distinct from one another. That's why one's Aura can't be used by others. Unless you have Sora bro's semblance." Aiden explained the basics of dust.
"Yeah even with my semblance I can take from others but I cannot share it," I said.
Uncle Kiyoshi nodded.
"Well ok so like I said, safety. Dust may be extremely beneficial to us but it's also extremely dangerous. As you know our Aura can relay our intent and emotion. All negative emotions and intent can trigger Dust. That makes it dangerous. Most of the death by dust are actually people who panic while using it. Now that you know its danger." Uncle Kiyoshi throws white dust to us each.
"Hey!" We all said.
"Hehehe. Don't worry it's just a commercial grade dust use for a leaf blower. So your training is quite simple. We will do your endurance training as you inject it with Aura." Uncle Kiyoshi smiled like a professional scammer. We all sigh.
Endurance training has 2 parts. First, we will do a full-body workout with weights. Second, we need to stay on the obstacle course for 3 hours while any of the adults throw something on us if we are lucky or sparring if we're not. Doing all of that without actively recovering our Aura or resting.
A few minutes later.
"*pant* We'll go first. *pant*" Emerald said tiredly with Neo beside her. They both remove their weights and went to the obstacle course.
The obstacle course consists of wooden pillars with moving branches, that vary in height, width, and surface angle. It also has a net platform and a single rope bridge. It has swinging woods and turrets shooting rubber bullets. Although the turrets are rarely used in our endurance training.
Neo and Emerald went to the pillar section. They both wield their respective weapons. As soon as they got their bearing. 4 logs consecutively attack both of them. They both sidestep to evade. Then Uncle Kiyoshi throws rubber balls to them. They both sidestep but Emerald miss-step. She tried to recover but the dust she's holding activated and it releases a gush of wind in all directions. The wind also activates Neo's dust. Both Neo and Emerald hit multiple pillars almost breaking their Auras. Uncle Kiyoshi just throws a new set of dust to them.
"You haven't break your Aura shield yet. Again!" Sensei ordered with a huge grin on his face.
"He's enjoying it. *pant*" I said while doing push up.
"Damn it *pant* he's targeting Emy more.*pant*" Aiden complained.
"Why don't you go there and challenge sensei in a sparring," I said.
Aiden looked at Neo and Emerald groaning in pain because before they hit the ground their Aura shield broke.
"A true hunter *pant* must be patient *pant* and do things in proper order. *pant* I need to finish my training first. *pant*" Aiden trying to convince himself that he's not afraid.
"..."
Half an hour later.
"How long do you think Sora bro can last?" Aiden asked.
"Well, at least 10 times longer than you." Emy teased.
"Well sorry for having more Aura than normal. We are not known for external Aura control." Aiden said.
I stood at the branch on one of the pillars. Using the pillars to block the projectiles thrown at me. I only have one tanto with me. I noticed that sensei's holding back more than usual but suddenly change the speed of his throw. Normally this is good for me because I can catch my breath, but the dust hinders my mobility a lot. Any sudden or violent movement makes it unstable. I have to move in a flow and the changes in speed are a bit disorienting.
Sensei suddenly speeds up again. I was able to evade all projectiles but I accidentally trigger a trap. 4 logs swinging fast toward me. All at different angles and speeds. With pure instinct, I sidestep and crouch a bit to evade the first log. Two logs are coming from my back. I did a reversal but facing the opposite side to evade the second log. It also let me do a horizontal slash towards the third log. The upper half of the third log hit the first two logs. Causing both to change trajectory and swing back towards me. I hold both ends of my tanto and dash towards the fourth log. Barely having contact with it. Just enough to redirect it towards one of the logs that swings back towards me. It gives me enough time to get out of the trap's hit range. With the adrenaline gone I just realize what I did. Before I could celebrate I got hit in the head with sensei's projectile. 4 more projectiles were about to hit at the same spot. I tried to guard it but the dust suddenly activated. Push back to the swinging logs again but this time I got my 3 logs at the same time breaking my Aura shield. I fell and hit multiple branches of the wooden pillars before I hit the ground.
*Augh*
"Ohh that hurts. I feel you Sora bro." Aiden said without looking at me.
"Sweetie are you ok? Let me see." Mom ran towards me after she one slap sensei out of the dojo.
"Mom stop I'm ok!" I yelled.
"I'm your mom. I already saw it before. Come on let me see. It's a matter of your future." Mom did not stop.
"I did not get hit there, mom!" I yelled. Finally able to halt mom.
"Are you sure?" Mom asked full of concern.
"Yes, mom. I'm sure." I said.
Uncle Kiyoshi entered the dojo with a swell on his left cheek. There's even a bit of black in it.
"Well, all of you were not able to do it. You guys rest for now we'll do it again later a 2:00 pm."
"Hai!" We 4 all respond.
The adults walk out of the dojo. Aiden and I need to recover for a bit because our Aura shield broke. Recovering Aura only needs a few minutes but when your Aura is lower than 10% you need hours to recover but some people like Aiden who can recover Aura normally even if their Aura is lower than 10% but if their Aura is lower than 5% they need at least a week to recover their Aura to 5% and at least a month to recover up to 10%. That is if they have the best medical treatment.
Aiden recovers his Aura earlier but they all wait for my Aura to refill. Emerald encourages Neo and Aiden to a selfie which is weird but Emerald is sometimes eccentric.
Later at night.
In our room. Neo's already sleeping on her bed, Emerald's chatting with somebody on her scroll, Aiden's meditating on his bed and I'm on my bed thinking about what happened this morning.
I was able to do some of the floaty moves at dreams for a bit. The moves that are full of opening and excess movesets are not so flawed after all. This is one of the reasons why I stop replicating the moves in my dream. The floaty movesets are for multiple enemies that are situational. I still don't see the advantage of it when fighting a singular enemy. Still tried to do it again this afternoon but I can't even do the reversal alone so I got knockdown earlier than this morning. Speaking of which, I just realized how much mom is holding back when training us. Uncle Kiyoshi was not able to train us this afternoon due to mom's slap. So Aiden's master was the one who 'guide' us this afternoon. It's summer already just one more year before we go to enroll at Beacon Academy.
"What happened you seem happy?" Aiden asked at the grinning Emerald.
"Oh, Nothing, good night~" Emerald tuck herself and sleep.
"Sora bro, why is she grinning like she won a lottery," Aiden ask me instead because he's afraid of Neo and waking up a sleeping Neo is a big no-no.
"Em is a simple girl. You should know why she's happy right? Besides, why don't you just peek at her scroll." I said.
"Of course I know what makes her happy but I don't know which and peeking at her scroll is just rude. Besides I trust Emy." Aiden lies on his bed staring at the ceiling.
"Then just ignore it then. We still have to train tomorrow morning. None of us was able to last for 20 minutes. Let alone for 3 hours. So just rest early." I said.
"Ok." He replied.
"..."
"I still want to know," Aiden said in frustration.
I just show him my inbox full of messages from one person. So that he would shut up.
Aiden stared where my scroll used to be for a few more seconds.
"Yup Emy can't sleep without teasing somebody." With Aiden's curiosity fulfilled he has a good sleep for tomorrow's torture.