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***
The teacher was ruthless when it came to teaching. As if in retaliation for my excessive behaviour a couple of months ago, she was taking a perverse pleasure in my suffering.
To begin with, she'd barged in on me at six in the morning and yelled at me, waking me up with a poke.
But then, Tosi told me that the trick of erasing my memories had worked and that the Master hadn't smelled anything. Of course, in a pinch, I could blame the side effects on excitement. After scolding me for sleepiness, laziness, and lack of practice, Toshi proudly left, ordering me to find her after breakfast.
I had to look for Toshi after breakfast in the dining hall, but, thank the Force, the droids quickly told me where she had gone. I found the teacher in the training room, swinging a sword with her fellow knight. Toshi cut him to pieces, switching from the lazy dodges and thrusts of the second form to the thrusts and unpredictable, strange-looking blows of the seventh. When she was done, she helped her sparring partner up, apologising at the same time.
There was hardly a crowd in the hall - a couple of students were waving swords in the background, and I went unnoticed. The man who had been struck by the teacher seemed to feel hurt, but he quickly got over it and bowed and left the training hall. Toshi, having described a couple of circles with her sword to her right and left, switched off her blade and turned around, having finally felt me. I'm sure she'd felt me before, but we'd been alone in the forest for so long that we'd stopped paying attention to each other's presence.
- Oh, Hennia, I was just waiting for you," the teacher smiled. - Would you like to swing your sword?
I didn't answer, glancing eloquently in the direction of the younglings, who at this early hour were training in their third form - wearing a dummy helmet with the Order's logo on it.
The teacher seemed embarrassed, though her face and strength didn't reflect it. Almost. I had learnt to discern her emotions, which she did not show to those around her.
- 'Master, I thought you said you were at the Master's,' I raised an eyebrow, 'and said something about the lower city?
- Yes, yes, follow me," she walked with a quick step out of the hall, throwing her training sword on the weapon stand.
From the training hall we walked out into the corridors, once again entering the temple's labyrinth. It was difficult to navigate without strength, unless you had lived here since childhood.
We walked through the corridors at a brisk pace and said hello to the colleagues we met and came to a large balcony with a beautiful view of the city. Tosi looked at the prospect of Coruscant - the rooftops of monotonously tall buildings - and immediately turned to me:
- The Master said he wants to test you personally. Tomorrow," the Togruta looked at me seriously. There was something else she wasn't telling me. Realising this, I decided to get the truth:
- Anything else?
- No. Today we will go to the training room, there will be no training on local scum.
What would Tosi do and cancel the training? She needs my performance, by the looks of it. Why?
- Teacher... Toshi, stop pretending, I know you well. You wouldn't just cancel practice like that. Why is this test so important to you? The Master will just test me, see what you've taught me and let me go. In fact, I was going to do the quest and I don't care how I show myself to the Jedi.
Toshi genuinely resented that:
- What do you mean you don't care? How can you-" The teacher ruffled my hair or gave me a slap on the wrist. - And anyway, you don't care, and then I'll...''
- I'll what? - I jumped on the bandwagon.
- I might get promoted if you perform well. I hope you don't let me down," she said, frowning, but then she changed her frown to one of mercy. "And anyway, let's get on with our business, not talk on balconies and admire the views of Coruscant. We'll have our own room by tonight, and I'll provide it," she said firmly. - Follow me!
Tosi took off and booked the fifty-seventh training room for the day. As soon as she came back from the bureaucrats, she immediately pulled me into the gym with unprecedented enthusiasm. It turned out to be a scaled-down replica of a regular gymnasium you'd find in any sports club or school. The walls were just as full of training equipment as the main gym - sword racks, helmets, some balls, metal cubes, droids, and so on.
Breaking away from contemplating the equipment, I focused on Toshi. She drew one of her training swords, activated it, and stood in a stance of her style. I did the same again, changing the crystal in the sword to a training sword. Unlike the battle sword, the training sword gave off a very weak and diffuse beam of light that couldn't hurt as much as a regular sword, but still, a slow strike could cause burns. Toshi pounced first, pirouetting upwards and leaping towards me. As she flew, she corrected her trajectory and threw a powerful punch, which I had to block. It was more fun as the teacher wanted to get me to the level she wanted, so she fought seriously. I lost count of my wounds and just swung away from her light blows, jumping and rolling away from her forceful blows. Tosi's every slip made me even angrier, and when she reached her limit, she almost snapped, stepped aside and panted... Today was clearly not my day.
Execution continued again, and continued for four hours with a couple of breaks. The teacher tried all kinds of force attacks on me - she tried to stun me, knock me down, instil fear, damage my sword, and even threw her sword to distract me and throw the mats we were sparring on.
The training came to an end as abruptly as it had begun - Toshi was tired, the body's capabilities are not infinite, even with a boost of strength. Switching off her sword, she turned sharply on her heels and ran from the hall. I, intrigued, followed her, but... but arrived at the door of the women's bathroom closing near my nose. Tosi flew inside, leaving me scratching the back of my head in embarrassment. Why did I run with her?
Deciding to wait, I wasn't wrong - a couple of minutes later she came out, her face a little pale. As pale as a pale face could be for a Togruta with skin like a Latina's. When she saw me, she smiled:
- And what were you walking for?
- So you interrupted the sparring so suddenly..." I spread my hands.
- Don't mind me. I feel sick. A whole year to eat only meat and other "gifts of the forest", and then switch to the local diet ... - Toshi was embarrassed. - But don't stop training. Go to Nova and report back... - the teacher left me, going in an unknown direction. It's really hard to sit on meat for a year, but I took the return to civilisation less painfully than the teacher.
Speaking of lunch! Going to the cooks instead of Nova, I did not miss, because the extreme training exhausted me and I felt just so animal hunger. Afterwards, feeling that I had had enough to eat, with sluggish thoughts, I went to report to Master Nova.
The morning of the new day brought me unforgettable feelings of deja vu of the past. For example, it wasn't Erdva who woke me up, and I didn't wake up by myself - the teacher decided to make up for yesterday's awakening scene, but went from one extreme to the other - instead of just shaking me up, I felt her whispering something in my ear and shaking me lightly by the shoulder. I'm flattered, of course, but really, if anyone comes in, it would be problematic what it's a teacher doing in his padawan's bed....
- I'm up, I'm up..." I grumbled unhappily, rising to my feet and uncrossing my eyes. As soon as I did that, I noticed that Toshi had changed a bit - today she was wearing a little makeup, relatively dressy clothes, compared to her work suit, of course, dressy, but so - a black top and loose trousers of the same colour and style. The teacher got up from my bed and looked me over:
- Okay, get yourself cleaned up. There will be a test in two hours.
Barely suppressing a yawn, I answered her still sleepily:
- And what's the occasion of such a holiday? It's not like there's going to be anyone but us and the Master, is there?
- Idiot," she snapped angrily, "it's not every day that the Master personally tests his padawans. I don't remember such cases with the current leader at all, and besides, I need to make a favourable impression! - Toshi said it as a matter of course. I decided to make a joke of it and while feigning indignation, I said:
- What? I'll be jealous, you know that! She's flirting with some obscure masters when you have such a beautiful student!
Toshi was embarrassed and her cheeks blushed for a second, which was not typical for her, then her emotions changed to a kaleidoscope - she realised I was joking and realised everything I said and started to get angry:
- "You!" the teacher slapped me again. - Who am I to you? A girl, what would... and anyway, you shouldn't do that again... - she changed her anger to embarrassment again, hinting at the incident that had already happened.
- I'm sorry, teacher, it won't happen again... - I stretched out and her face took on a satisfied expression... - today," I finished and she smiled, with a slight annoyance.
- Go ahead, jealous, you've got a busy day ahead of you, it's time! - she pointed to the clock on the bedside table. - Don't forget, noon in the first training hall!
- I got it, teacher, I got it," I said grudgingly as she stopped me from getting into the shower.
I didn't make up, I just took a shower, did all the procedures, up to the use of cologne, and, looking at myself in the mirror, decided that it was time for me to start searching for a way to return, rather than sitting here, practising the skills I had already learnt. Practice would come with time, but I'd rather be in my own time. I wouldn't want to go back there as a venerable old man.
Master Lex and Toshi were waiting for me at exactly the appointed hour in the first hall. I looked pretty good, so I didn't deceive Tosi's expectations. She exchanged brief glances with the Master and stepped back against the wall.
- Hello, - greeted me, - are you ready to show everything you have learnt?
- Yes, I am! - I nodded.
- Very good. Let's start with emotions. Project an undirected emotion. Anything," he sat down patiently in the seiza pose and waited for action. Toshi, too, was glowering her anticipation at the wall.
I, with perfect indifference, decided to demonstrate the skill and began to choose emotions. I rejected the first idea to inflict fear on others - if I overdo it, there will be unnecessary consequences. Ordinary sadness will do. Having caused an emotion in myself, having mentally recalled all sad memories, I stopped on the last day with Ali and feeling tears and thoughts that I didn't save the girl and she died because of my stupidity, I let the emotion gain strength and sent waves of emotions through the force in all directions. Usually younglings have trouble with such tasks, as you need more than just self-control, you need memories, and children have nowhere to get them. Concentrating on my emotions I increased the pressure and the resonance between emotion and power. Not a single muscle on the master's face did not tremble, but Toshi could not stand it and at some point began to cry, although she tried hard to hide it. Catching my glance at the teacher, the master interrupted the girl's ecstasy:
- Enough, - and looked at me disapprovingly. And what am I to blame? Nothing will happen to her from a minute of sad memories!
- I'm sorry," I bowed, "Anything else?
- Forging, stun, navigation, you probably already know it as well as anyone. How about reading emotions? - He asked.
- I learnt that along with forging. It's intuitive.
- We'll see about that," the Master smiled. - I will list the names of some members of the Order. If you tell me who is unnecessary, you will be certified.
I concentrated on the Master's strength and its microscopic variations. Lex read out a list of ten names, almost unchanged, but one name misfired and I felt he was lying.
- Six. Benedict Al'skaav.
The Master, after exchanging a brief glance with Toshi, said:
- Right," and stood up, drawing his sword from his belt. - Let's see what you can do in battle.
I repeated his gesture with the sword. Toshi retreated to a corner of the room as the Master pounced on me. I dodged his first lunge easily, even without acceleration, and then leapt away from the second, aimed at my feet. It was my turn to attack - I chose juyo for my attack, along with acceleration - accelerating to the maximum I could, I covered the distance between me and the Master in a few milliseconds, flanking him with a chopping blow. The Magister, of course, did not fall for my feint and, blocking it, immediately exploded with a lot of accelerated blows, which I did not block. It wasn't unexpected, so I broke the distance, moving out of the line of attack. The master's speed was the same as mine, but it was too much for me - I could accelerate once, but not always, so I decided to fight in the style of trakata - with a minimum of movement and fast movements. The Master, without hitting me, moved to the fourth form of combat, where I could already fight him by predicting blows and using juyo. As the sword whistled around me, I only deflected to extremely short distances. The Master slowed down and immediately performed a very complicated combination of blows, which I could only avoid by maximising my acceleration and deflecting his sword with my own. After that it was my turn to attack, and I performed a few blows from juyo, from which the master only swung away, but quickly came to his senses, stopped blocking my blows and was leaving the line of attack. It didn't work - I had a good feeling about him. He couldn't hit me with style, like Toshi, because he didn't have the juyo, and my powers of anticipation made his attacks predictable. But he was faster, stronger, more massive, more experienced. He could swat away my blows like a mosquito. After a combination of two rolls, jumps, and stabbing blows in the air and from below without any effect, I decided that I couldn't take him down. I needed something more, more speed and pressure. I used my emotions to increase the pressure and began to use the power of my sword in conjunction with my sword - my attempts to knock the master down were unsuccessful, but a blow with a concentrated emotion of fear, right during my combination, made the master lose his temper for a split second, after which he had to jump back from the stabbing blow. But I wasn't going to leave him like that, and as soon as his feet landed, I jumped after him, yanking the mat towards me, which made the master shift his centre of gravity forward and distracted him to cut off my telekinesis on the mat. While he was doing this, I was at the peak of my jump and swung my sword hard, turning half-turned towards the master. Distracted and slightly shifted his centre of gravity, the magister immediately caught a lightning bolt from me, which smashed into his shoulder with a clatter. Of course, I didn't use a strong charge, but it was wrong to strike a man who was set up for a sword fight with a sword. He didn't have time to shift his centre of gravity quickly, causing my attack to hit him. For a second, the Master was twisted by electricity, and he stopped my final blow with telekinesis.
- Eh, I can't do that..." I said, noticing that he was holding my arm with his telekinesis.
- That's it. That's enough, I've seen everything I wanted to see," the magister sighed heavily, and, throwing another glance in the direction where Toshi was standing, switched off his sword, turned round and left, still in the doorway throwing it to her:
- At six I expect you at my place. And bring your apprentice. Dismissed.
- Yes, Master! - We said with one voice and he left at a brisk pace. Toshi immediately brightened up, rushing to me with words of gratitude and hugs. She seemed to be impressed by my performance.
- Henniya, you're good! You're good!
- А? - Before I knew what was going on, she was hugging me with her whole body.
- Well done! You did well! - Tosya's emotions were dominated by joy and anticipation of a future visit to the chief. Having stopped pressing against me the most interesting places of her body, she peeled off, embarrassed by her emotionality and immediately said sternly:
- Praise. Now you're free until six in the evening. To be at the master's office! Better, I'll come for you myself.
- Okay... - I shrugged my shoulders and went to the armoury, because I wanted to see what there is of shooting and stabbing... Toshi, shining, came out and went to her room.