~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~
Sycophantic, parasitic, cruelly pathetic.
This sicko's idiosyncratic behavior's apathetic.
Dragging him by the feet, past defeat, unapologetic.
As if her barren, lovey-dovey feelings will ever be reciprocated.
~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~
Grisia appeared behind Remi.
"Yes?" she said, acknowledging his presence.
The leaves and branches of the trees created a spotted roof which illuminated the two of them and their surroundings with cold, scattered rays of light. The birds of the forests chirped and whistled, setting the ambience.
"You were watching?" Grisia asked.
"Certainly."
"What do you think?"
"He is developing more than I expected. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing yet. Only time... will tell."
Grisia closed his eyes and bowed, contemplating what that could have meant aside from taking it at face value. Perhaps it was merely her usual, vague ramblings.
"But that is not the only question you came here to ask, right?"
He opened his eyes and faced her. "Certainly. What do you know about the color of Kairo's ki?"
The cooing birds fell silent, as if to listen to the two's conversation.
She placed her finger on her cheek, her voice revealing that she wasn't surprised at all but trying to play it off as if she was. "Hmm, what do you mean?"
"Playing dumb... I don't actually know if you are, therefore, I shall humor you," as Grisia said this, she giggled which received a squint from him. "The first time I witnessed it, he was unaware of it. It had the color black back then with some red outlines. He was angry and vengeful whenever it appeared like that."
While he talked, he took care to observe her reactions, but she merely kept nodding.
He continued, "When he finally manifested his ki aura on his own, it was colorless, as if it was truly his first time being made aware of it. Weeks passed, and now it is light blue. What gives?"
"Vengeance, impressionability, then peacefulness. Since「 Ki 」is a secret art, maybe rare occurrences like his circumstance were meant to be?"
"Meaning, too few examples to learn from. That is one thing I've also considered."
"But I wonder why the changes are rapid? Evolution of one's character is deep-seated, maybe he simply self-reflects a lot? Who knows?" she said, her obviously deceptive smile increasing the creases under her green, indecipherable eyes.
The birds screeched as they flapped their wings. They flew away as if the tension between the two spooked them.
"Yes. Who knows, indeed," he replied.
He knew he wasn't going to draw anything else out of her, and so he bid her farewell.
"Oh, before you go, I hope next time you come at night instead."
"Excuse me?"
"You only occasionally visit me. If you visit in the daytime, you don't bring any leftovers with you. I crave more of her cooking, so do come at night instead if you don't mind," she smiled innocently.
Grisia sighed and said, "Very well. I shall bring you leftovers whenever I visit. Even if it's at daylight."
"Lovely. It isn't an exaggeration to say that it's one of the things that keeps me going," she said with a hint of melancholy even if her smile never broke.
Grisia simply nodded.
And so, he disappeared from her presence.
"Hello."
"Uwah!!!" Aisia and Kairo screamed in unison.
They were simply chatting when Grisia suddenly reappeared before them after a few minutes.
They walked home to eat lunch and for the remainder of the day, the two kids played together as Grisia took a nap under the shade of a tree in the yard.
The next day, Grisia made them train with their weapons while their ki was active. He summoned another tall boulder from the ground using the earth chakra technique, Earth: Stone Ascent, as well as manifested their weapons using a magic spell.
Kairo was still using a shortsword while Aisia dual-wielded daggers.
They were to take turns hitting the boulder. Their goal was to destroy it by only hitting it with their weapon while their ki was active. In the meantime, the person who was not training was going to have a chat with him while maintaining their ki aura and simply holding their weapon.
"Kairo, what fire chakra technique did you use?" he asked as Aisia unleashed some attacks with her two daggers, shaving chunks off of the boulder. "Having your ki aura active turned it into Inferno: Flame Resurgence. It was Flame: Dragon's Breath beforehand, yes?"
"Yes," Kairo replied, keeping his ki aura intact while he held his shortsword in front of him with both hands. "Esmeralda taught it to us when she saw us training. She said that it was a decent fire chakra technique."
"And she is correct on that one. Ember: Wisps and its greater version, Fire: Will of the Wisps are usually used for day-to-day chores such as starting a campfire or turning oil lamps on. They are not well-suited for combat, but they have their utility. Flame: Dragon's Breath is a common fire chakra technique that knights use."
"Why is it named that?"
"Many dragons that can use chakra use it in the form of an elemental breath. Most humans could only imitate the form of the breath attack, but not the actual raw power. But with the help of「 Ki 」, you were one step closer to it. Or maybe a different path altogether."
"I see."
"But, with how you did it, when you used your hand to make a tiny hole for the chakra to go through, you made a bottleneck effect. The area size became much smaller, but the attack was more potent."
"Oh... yeah. I'm not even sure when I thought of that. I just imagined a water hose, and whenever I would block half of its hole with my finger, the water would suddenly shoot out farther and faster continuously."
Grisia began to think that with enough years of practice and refinement, that chakra and ki technique may be able to pierce through insanely tough materials, much like the "laser" thing he'd heard about in the past. But that sounded like a technique Aisia would have naturally realized eventually, not Kairo. Maybe he was getting lost in labeling Aisia as the piercing spear and Kairo as the wrecking hammer like how he told the two of them not to be.
"What about combining powers? When did that happen?"
"We found out about combining powers when I was trying out fire chakra techniques. So, this was after I had my chakra mark awakened. I accidentally did it without turning off my ki, but since it failed, my left side ached for the whole time until I slept it off."
"It is quite risky. You're beginning to have a firm grasp on「 Ki 」already, but you're still quite green when it comes to chakra."
"You were right the last time. It really was just up to luck. So far, I have only done it three out of seven times. The third time was that spar we had where we showed it to you."
"I see. A very unreliable ability indeed. For now anyway. I recommend you don't use it on live combat until you can confidently do it nine out of ten times at the very least."
He paused his questions for a while to let Kairo regain his concentration on his ki aura before continuing, "Was it true when you told Sia that your chakra mark was at your groin area?"
"W-What? Y-Yes, of course!" his face flushed red almost instantaneously.
"Why are you embarrassed? I was just asking."
"Well... you know..."
"... did she check?"
"NO!" when he shouted, his ki flickered as his body flinched. "That's why I told her instead..."
"Alright, calm down. As her father, I was merely doing some... investigation."
Kairo sighed uncomfortably.
"But seriously. Is it really lower than Sia's?"
"YES!"
"Because I understand your reasons for not telling her the truth, even back then, when you told her you'd see her as your equal."
Kairo's eyes widened in surprise. "You knew?"
"Don't underestimate my capability to read between the lines, Kairo."
"Yeah, but you don't seem to read Tiraga's feelings," he mumbled quietly, but Grisia still heard him.
"There is nothing to read. I know that you and the maids think that there's something romantic going on, but it's only something similar to it. Tiraga's pride is admirable. Even if she could use you and my daughter as her hostage anytime she wanted, she didn't. She stuck to her word and I trust that she will continue to do so, for I think that is the type of person she is. I believe she is more honor-bound than love-stricken."
"Are you sure about that though? You seem to think highly of her, fondly even."
Grisia didn't respond. After a while, he sighed and said, "I just hope that I'm right."
Kairo grinned.
"Alright, enough about me. We were talking about you. Your chakra mark, it appeared on your groin area?"
"Yes, I was being truthful to her this time. I swear."
"So, you didn't use your privacy as an excuse to cover up the fact that you may have awakened your chakra sign higher than Sia's, who awakened hers at her groin area?"
"Affirmative."
"I'm asking this because it is interesting how you were already able to combine「 Ki 」and chakra together this early. That was still a far ways off in my training plan."
"Really?"
"Yes. Even Sia faces difficulty when using both simultaneously, and she's been using chakra far longer than you have. That made me think that you at least had your mark appear on your stomach, which should also explain the copious amounts that you are able to use at a time. Flame: Dragon's Breath may be commonly used by knights, but that's because they've been training for years. Reaching it within a week or two and being able to combine it with ki... coming up with the idea alone is quite extraordinary. But I suppose you did discover it by accident."
Kairo was silent the whole time Grisia spoke. Even he didn't know why he was able to combine the two on accident if Aisia couldn't, even with the intent to do so.
"I'd like to say that you are gifted, Kairo, but I will instead praise your efforts in training. You've truly worked hard. If I squint hard enough, as far-fetched as it is, it makes sense if you outpace the kingdom's soldiers. They have other duties apart from combat. Learning their roles, strategies, discipline, patrols, and so on. I've granted you two the opportunity to solely focus on weapons and powers training every day. You two are also sharp and bright-eyed young students, so that could've been the difference."
"Tiraga's cooking helped a lot too. It gave us the energy to keep up with your hard training," he chuckled.
"Then express your gratitude by telling her that and cleaning your plates."
"HA!" Kairo shouted with respect. "Oh, right. You won't tell Aisia about... the truth, right?"
"I have my own reasons as to why I won't, but yes. If she is told the truth, it will cause a rift in your bond, especially if it doesn't come from you. It will be hard to repair since that promise was forged at a crucial time. Secondly, as her father, I do not want her to hurt herself chasing after you in your path that you yourself admitted was suicidal."
Kairo nodded along to what he said. Even if he acknowledged that it was self-destructive, he still decided to see it through.
"But, if you tell her now, it should be less worse than telling her later. That option is still on the table."
Kairo looked down at the ground to contemplate it.
"Well, while you agonize about your choice, I'll have you switch out with her. Sia! It's Kairo's turn."
Aisia halted her attack and let out a huge sigh after being worn out. She made a huge grin as they passed by each other.
But Kairo couldn't smile back. He had a worried look about him.
Aisia noticed this and asked about it when it was her turn to maintain her ki while talking to Grisia. Grisia shook his head, refusing to reveal what they talked about. He then told her that it would be the same with her, that they were going to talk about some personal things.
After some time, Kairo tried to focus on his own training, but he couldn't help but feel distracted whenever Aisia had such emotive responses.
"Are they talking about me? Is that how I looked like when she was training?" he thought to himself.
He shook his head and pulled his focus back to training. "No, Kairo. Focus on the task at hand. The boulder is an enemy. Imagine that it's wearing a red robe... damn it, I don't feel anything! Is it because I don't have enough hatred, or is it because my mind is elsewhere?"
Right when Kairo thought of that, he unconsciously glanced at the two and saw Aisia look at him at the same time. They both turned away from each other.
"What was that?! Oh brother... just focus on the boulder. On the boulder. On the boulder."
Kairo unleashed a set of ferocious attacks on the boulder. It didn't do much but dull the manifested shortsword. His ki was way off, he needed to focus or his attacks would not be enough to deal substantial damage to the boulder.
He tried to calm down and did the breathing exercise that Grisia taught them. Little by little, he started to feel light again. His focus was now solely on the boulder, his sword, and himself.
Grisia noticed Kairo regain his focus. He was about to shout him a piece of advice, but it seemed to him it was no longer needed.
After Grisia and Aisia were done talking, he stood up and rounded them up.
"Today, I wanted you to realize something by yourself. But unfortunately, it didn't happen, which is completely fine. And so, we shall continue the same training tomorrow and onwards until you find out what that is. I talked to you two about some personal matters. I wanted to see into your mind and being distracted in training made it easier for me to extract raw and substantial answers from you."
The two of them gulped.
They knew Grisia truly meant it when he described the information they shared as "personal". They were curious to know what the other talked about with him, but they had a mutual respect and understanding of each other's privacy because they too did not want it to be known, especially by the other person.
"Next time, I have no plan to talk to you again about those personal things. But if you want to continue to discuss it anyway or about any other matter, I shall lend my ear, even my words if need be. You will not talk about what was shared today."
"No, we won't!" they shouted in unison with beet-red, flushed faces.
"Huh. Well... glad we're clear on that. But if you do want to share it with each other, I don't really prohibit it-"
"NO!"