A child's laughter echoed throughout the city, as Mei giggled in delight underneath a desecrate bridge.
In the two years of Mei's life, she had only seen snow once. And she had been too young to play in it. But now, she was standing in the center of a light snowstorm. The snow landed on her skin, melting away at her touch. She tried to catch the delicate snow flakes, but it was a futile attempt. Even still, she made a game out of catching the snowflakes. But as quickly as the snowstorm came, it disappeared.
"A'Bi, where'd the snow go?" Mei innocently asked, wanting to play in it more. But Aibing was too tired to even respond to her sister. Using her chakra, she had depleted the last of her energy. She hadn't slept in over 48 hours now, and after the nonstop training she'd put herself through, she was about to collapse on the street.
"Let's go home." Aibing whispered through gritted teeth. She couldn't recall ever being this tired, and she would hate this feeling, if she could feel. However the frost on her heart hadn't disappeared, and it had no intention of doing so anytime soon. It entrapped her feelings, and her emotions, and made her more like a living doll than a human. But, even the frost couldn't conceal all of her feelings.
Mei successfully returned home without alerting anyone of her disappearance. When she was sure she had made it inside, Aibing quickly left. She walked through the streets quickly, not slowing down until she left the safety of the unnamed city. She didn't stop until reaching a waterfall, that was hidden in the surrounding forest. Most of the time, the waterfall was frozen, however there was a two month period where it wasn't. And now, it was running beautifully. Creating a loud thundering noise as it met with the pool of water below.
Disregarding her fatigue, Aibing took out the book from her bag and began to look through it again. However, she was only an eight year old child, and no matter how awesome she was, she couldn't escape from her body's restraints. As she was looking over the pages in the book, she fell asleep to the sound of the rushing water.
When Aibing woke up, it was already past sunset. She couldn't read the book anymore even if she wanted to, and was forced to give up and return home. It was already past her curfew, not that she cared. All she cared about right now, was figuring out the secret to the Skill she had acquired.
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A week passed, and there was still no progress with the Movement Skill. Any day now, He Xiaoli would return, and Aibing was more pressed on learning the Skill than ever. Every day, she would go to the waterfall and train. At night, she would hardly sleep, and she prioritized her training over rest. However, no fruits of her hard work were showing.
Now, as the blazing sun glared down on her, she was finally getting sick of the training. It was hot, hotter than she ever remembered it being, and to cool down she jumped into the pool besides her. With an affinity towards the cold, summer wasn't her favorite season. And the ice cold water cleared her conscious.
But the water did more than clear her stuffed conscious. In the water, she was surprised to be pushed by the current created by the roaring waterfall. As she tried to swim against the current, she used up the last of her energy. Finally, after ten minutes of struggling, she gave up to the current. Letting it push her away from the water fall, she reached the end of the pool. But as she let the current pull her forward, she also reached the end of the bottleneck she was experiencing. She finally had an idea on how to progress with the Skill!
Immediately, she ran towards the book, and once more copied the drawing on each page. However, this time, she didn't try to complete every step one at a time. Instead, she tried doing every move as if they were one. She pretended that the steps to the Movement Skill were like the current of a river. She was pulled along with each one.
The sun set as Aibing discovered a way to better her understanding of the Skill. She only had the time to try it once, before she was forced to leave. But, the understanding of the Skill remained lodged in her brain. She returned home and immediately began to practice again.
When she awoke the next day, her body felt lighter, more like water. And when she tried the Skill again, her progress in learning it had jumped leaps and bounds! She had figured out the trick to the Movement Skill! One had to flow like water, and they would be able to conquer the seemingly impossible trick.
If one heard her thoughts right now, they would be stunned speechless. Everyone knew of this Movement Skill, it was the most basic one out there. However, only the few that had mastered the Skill knew of its hidden potential. If one could flow like water when using the Skill, they could dodge any attack. And could even use the move on the offensive. But, only a handful of people knew of the secret to this Skill. And now, an eight year old was added to that small list.