After a few hours of ki meditation, Jin decided to leave for some fresh air and to get his thoughts in order.
While walking around the village gathering his thoughts, he felt something. A feeling completely vacuous of all emotions. This feeling Jin felt was, in a sense, the purest form of anguish, destructive, and this feeling was overwhelmingly strong. The strongest thing Jin has ever felt in his life.
Jin, instinctively aware of the danger, immediately grabbed his tanto, unsheathing it, preparing for a fight against whatever this thing was.
Within an instant, this malice was upon Jin. He looked and saw a figure walking towards him, the figure appeared to be female from a distance, and around 5'7 in (173.736 cm) in height. "Who…no… what?" Jin asked himself, never seeing someone with such a malicious feeling about them. Every ounce of his soul was telling Jin to run, not to interfere with whoever this was. Jin, however, was too stubborn about wanting to fight this person and giving it his all.
The person saw him and the first that they did was smile at him before vanishing when Jin had blinked. The next thing he knew was that, this person was already in front of him within a single blink.
"Who are you?" Jin said, hiding his fear in his voice the best he could.
"Honestly, I don't really want to speak… but I want a fight from strong people, though honestly, you seem pretty weak to me… I assume you already know that and still wish to fight, right?"
"What makes you say that?"
"… I'm not sure? Maybe because you're holding an unsheathed weapon at me, and I'm feeling you release your ki even if it's in very molecular amounts? That's just what I think, though. Well, let's make this quick."
She backed off Jin grabbing an all white fan from within she sleeves and opened it, Jin couldn't help but be curious, "A fan out of everything? Does it have some sort of toxin to it?" He asked her curiously, even if she might ignore him.
She opened her fan and got into an awkward position for a fight and this confused Jin even further, but he still stood on guard waiting for anything.
"Eternal Surge: First Dance: Field of Light" She turned her body in such a way that it looked as if she was dancing in a way towards Jin, however, every step she took created a surge of electricity around her. It was like imbued into the ground, no, it was electricity forming within the air itself around her causing small cracks. After doing this what could only be called a dance, an electric field spawned with a constant ripple and cracks of electricity throughout it, reaching her to attack was not an option for Jin.
"What the hell? Blue electricity, I thought it was supposed to always be a yellow color… this is unheard of from me, at least." Jin said to himself, watching her every movement even though he could barely see her move.
"Eternal Surge: Second Dance: Lightning Collapse" The field of electricity suddenly formed into a shape of a ball and exploded on itself creating a smokescreen before suddenly a small wave of electricity flew at Jin, scratching his blade slightly and hitting him directly.
"U-UGH D-DAMN!" Jin fell to his knees, feeling an electric shock surge through his veins, "S-such a small attack… D-did so much to me?" He thought to himself while trying to get up, feeling his bloodstream rotating the electricity around, attempting to maintain it the best his body could withstand.
Before he could even get his thoughts together to plan a counterattack, "Eternal Surge: Third Dance: Light Flux"
She appeared within a second in front of Jin, going for a relentless attack filled with electricity with every swing. Her body moved around Jin like the flow of water from a calm river. It was clear, beautiful, from such a beautiful style it had the strength of a waterfall striking against him with every single strike of her attack. When she swung her fan at Jin, rather it connected or missed completely, it created a small electric current in the surrounding air next to them both.
Jin was hit multiple times, but it didn't do a lot to him at all. In fact, it was so little that Jin doubted that he was even hit as hard as he was earlier by the same woman standing in front of him.
"What the hell? Isn't her attacks… a bit weak? They feel like a bug flying around that's annoying. She's too fast for my eyes to keep track of. I'm barely blocking anything off instinct alone. She leaves small electric currents in the air after every swing, and this… this attack is relentless, not even letting me breathe for a moment." His eyes widened suddenly as he was thinking to himself before ducking down to dodge the fan that was aiming for his throat. "S-Shit." He said before putting his hands on the ground and somehow was able to get a hold of her arm and slammed her down onto the ground and goes for a cut on her cheek,
"Swiftless Feather." The first technique he could think of and the only one he had even a small time to activate. He used it in a way that was aimed for his hand and arm, quickly getting a cut off on her and backing off a bit.
She got up almost instantly but instead of looking mad, angry, or anything off being cut, she looked… "Happy" about it and smiles slightly. She let out a sound that was like a moan from seeing her blood when she wiped her cheek. "T-this is how it feels… to bleed?" She said calmly but also as if she were holding her voice in, wiping her fingers across her face slowly wiping the blood off, "I-I've forgotten this sensation…" She said in a low tone, almost in a tone of what could only be described as "pleasure".
She bit her bottom lip and looked over at Jin, "You… what's your name?" She asked with a smile on her face, a blush appearing, and biting her bottom lip a bit while looking at him.
Jin looked at her for a moment and gulped, "Jin." Is all he replied with, feeling confused at the current situation, he backed up a bit more but leaves room for a constant guard.
She stood there not moving, instead it looked like she was in deep thoughts about something, and that something wasn't a good thing, Jin thought seeing how she's looking at him. Her red eyes darted around a little before landing on him again and smiled, "Luna… Luna Frostvale." She said, almost nervously. "T-that's my name." A hitch in her voice could be heard when she spoke.
"A-are you okay?" Jin asked, genuinely curious and worried about not only his sake, but also her sake seeing this as he's never seen such a person reacts this way from a slight cut.
"I'm fine…" She replied with after a few moments of heavy breathing, her blush showing even more, though. "… I'll be back once you become stronger, Jin. Let's have a rematch then." She closed her fan and all the electricity that was circulating around the air vanished, she smiled slightly at him, her eyes had slowly closed a bit, her long silver hair blowing in the wind, and she looked relaxed in a way before she just suddenly vanished when he blinked.
"W-what the fuck just happened?" Is all Jin could possibly ask himself or even think of saying before assuming she was gone and sheathed his tanto and began walking back. His eyes closed from thinking of what happened. He couldn't think of a single possibility to reasonably explain this situation.
He walked back into the village with his body hurting still from the electricity flowing through it still. Using his "Forbideen Azure: Condensed Redemption" inside his body, trying to overpower the electricity to burn it, then rebuild what he lost with ki gathering in meditation. It's barely having any effect, but it's enough to make sure he won't die within a day as long as Jin doesn't have to fight anyone else for the next few days.
He exhales deeply before entering his room again and sees Stella asleep midway through meditation, and couldn't help but smile at how dedicated she was.
He grunts and closes one of his eyes every so often, feeling the electricity running through him still. Jin decides to check his body now that he's a space location and uses "Inner Conviction".
Jin sees the all black figure standing in the middle of a field filled with electricity surrounding him and slowly spreading within.
"U-uh… are you okay?" Jin asked the figure not knowing what else to say right now.
"… I mean, it could've been a better day than, well, this. Overall, though, I'm perfectly fine."
Jin looked around at the world again slightly, "Is there anything I can do about this? I wouldn't be asking you unless I was desperate enough, and you know that… I will most likely die unless I remove this current."
The figure sighed and released his ki all around which immediately broke the surrounding electricity causing the ground beneath them to shake. The electric current within the world had suddenly been taken over by a completely black, yet a hint of blue was visible within the ki as if nullifying the electricity completely.
"Call this your only gift until you have your answer from previously. If anything else happens like this, I will not help you in the slightest." He said before closing his ki off, making the ground stop shaking instantly.
"Do you have an answer yet?"
"… An answer for what?" Jin said looking at figure in all black.
"From last time, I said not to return until you have found the answer you're looking for. After experiencing such an overwhelmingly strong opponent who, I'd admit, you got completely lucky with leaving instead of killing you. Will you accept my offer for power?"
Jin closed his eyes for a moment before opening them and replying, "Thank you for your… gift of getting rid of that. I appreciate it, however, I won't accept your offer just because of that. I've thought about it for a little while and I would rather die then give up everything i've know in my life just for the name of having power. If i gain this power through your offer, I'll have no memory of who to get revenge on, nor will I be able to protect the ones I want since you said my emotions would be gone as well. I reject your offer. I shall find strength in a different way, no, I will find it in my own way to complete everything I want in this life. That is my answer."
The person looked at Jin and smiled warmly for the very first time since meeting Jin.
"That was the answer I wanted to hear."
Jin looked at him, "What do you mean?"
The figure exhaled deeply before replying
"I meant exactly what I said. You have come back knowing the answer that you genuinely want. For that, I shall help you."
"Help? How do you intend to do that?"
"Isn't it obvious? There's a ready why every time you come here and leave your body feels different, right? It feels like something slightly changed, or how the first time your injuries healed, wasn't that weird?"
Jin now thinking back on every time he came here and left his body felt slightly different, better, as if he did some sort of deep meditation. "T-That was you?"
"It was all to prepare for this moment… had you chose to actually accept my offer, I would've killed you on the spot. I guess this was another lucky time that you received by sheer coincidence, huh? You sure are one lucky guy Jin." The figure smiled and took off his hood, revealing an older man in his late 40s. "Call me Belford."
Jin looked at the man in an intense way for a moment trying to figure out if he knew anyone described as him.
He had short black hair taking half with red taking the other half of his hair. His eyes were a dark blue but the hue of them had a slight of red in them somehow. From what Jin had saw, he knew this wasn't a regular person that he has ever seen, rather it be from his unique appearance, his control over ki, or perhaps the existence of someone or something inside his consciousness. "Belford, right?"
"That's right kid." Belford looked forward grabbing a sword made from fire suddenly and it turned into a physical sword. "As i've said, I'll help you. Let's get started right away." He dashed at Jin going for a downslam with his sword.
Jin dodged it, reading his opponent, and realizing it's the same movement from one time ago when they fought, just a lot slower this time.
Belford smiled at the dodge before appearing on the side of Jin and kicks him in his side, Jin was flown into a teee hitting it hard but recovered quicker than previous times. "My body has definitely gotten better… I can't tell if it's because I've been training, or if he really has helped me a lot more than I think." He thought to himself before deciding to go on the offense.
"Forbidden Azure: Condensed Redemption."
He swung his tanto horizontally creating a slash of invisible flames, Belford activated his ki creating a barrier which curved the direction of the attack away from him and dashed in again.
Belford drops his weapon and creates a dagger out of flames and dashes in to hit Jin in his stomach, suddenly, Jin's blade flickered for only a moment before Jin had vanished and appeared behind Belford, a series of seven quick slashes appeared around Belford within the second it took for Jin to vanish the slashes appeared, suddenly all seven of the slashes exploded, scorching the ground, and causing the air feel depleted of oxygen for a moment.
Belford activated a barrier which protected him perfectly. "Well, I'd be dammed. This kid might have more potential than even I though… He did the Forbidden Azure: Sevenfold Blaze without even knowing how to use it… could it have been a one-time thing or has this kid learned it without even knowing what it is? I have to find out." Belford said, throwing away his dagger and creates a great axe and dashes behind Jin, slashing downwards while holding back. Jin vanished again suddenly and it happened once more.
"Well shit, this kid he actually did it again… does this mean he learned it already?" Belford looks at Jin and his blade suddenly caught even more on fire, the flame burnt strong, it felt as if it was absorbing the oxygen and ki from the air to use as fuel instead of ki from Jin.
Jin dashed at Belford quickly and used the Forbidden Azure: Sevenfold Blaze once again and after the explosion, Jin was in front of Belford and delivered a slash into his stomach and igniting the blade's flame once he pierced his skin.
Belford was surprised by the sudden speed increase by Jin and fell back, activating his ki around him, healing the wound and stopped the flame instantly. He looked at Jin, somehow not even bothered by the amount of ki that used in everything he just did. "Has this kid really been using the ki from his surroundings instead of using it from within? Already?" He thought to himself before he noticed Jin collapsed onto the ground and his blade instantly went out.
"Or… maybe not?" Belford said aloud not even bothered, tired, or showing any signs of struggle at all against Jin.
Outside his consciousness, Stella stood still after finishing her meditation for the past few hours and looked around the room surprised, and shocked. "W-what the hell is this?" Stella said while looking at where the ki is going towards, and it was towards Jin. A ki that the darkest color she had ever seen, a pitch-black color was being absorbed by Jin. After a few minutes, the dark color of ki and the thickness of it vanished, replaced by a slight gray color collapsing with a dark red shade this time. The entire room was covered with ki.
An hour had passed by and Stella was still in the room just watching at how much Jin could actually absorb. Suddenly, a storm happened around the hotel. Lightning struck the entire building and Stella stood up, watching from the windows in the room she saw the ground lit on fire from the lightning striking in the same places. "I-Is Jin having a breakthrough? In this room?" She said in a surprised tone and sat down carefully, afraid of being accidentally caught in the lightning if she leaves the building.
Jin awoke within his consciousness and sees Belford standing there. "W-what the hell happened to me?"
Belford looked over at Jin and held his hand out. "It seems you got a little caught up in the fight and used abilities past your limit. Doing so is also causing you to breakthrough into the heptagon stage as we're speaking. It also appears your ki color has slightly changed after fighting me into a dark red, keeping your gray as a primary color… though I'm not sure as to why considering you haven't actually took any of my ki into you." He said looking surprised as he spoke and trying to find his answer out while drinking a cup of water.
"W-Wait, I'm having a breakthrough right now? Why don't I feel anything then?"
Belford Sighs, "Because you're in your own damn consciousness and not activity inside your ki flow like you are normally when breaking through, so this one should
be much better for you."
Jin, who was not understanding any of this, nodded to agree. "I see… so what happened in the fight? I blanked out and can't remember anything."
"Nothing much happened honestly, it was just a little more than what you've been doing but the technique you used was called "Forbidden Azure: Sevenfold Blaze" It's… It's a special technique that involves speed as the main focus. It uses seven quick slashes within one movement and after all seven it explodes on its own. Not only that, but it's also the next move I was going to teach you… so the fact that you've used it twice already somehow, it should be easier to learn."
"I-I see, it sounds like a powerful technique. How can I learn it?l Jin asked with an even more sudden motivation boost in his eyes for power.
"Let's talk about that at another time." Belford says, finishing his water. "You have quite a few things to do first, right? The breakthrough, also taking Stella to her clan, and then come back here whenever you can."
"… Alright then, I will." Jin said feeling a sort of pain in his chest of leaving Stella, but he knows deep down he would eventually have to if it's to extract his revenge.
A few minutes past by and Jin suddenly opened his eyes to find his body slightly taller by an inch, his body felt lighter, and his control of ki within his body felt slightly better as well. He looked over and saw Stella looking at him and smiled, "How long was I out for?" Jin asked curiously.
"Around 2 or 3 hours? I think at least." Stella said, finally getting up.
Jin looked around outside the room's window and just walked towards the door to the room. "Well, let's get going."
Stella looked at him about to walk out the room and followed him, "Where to though?" She asked looking up at him after catching up. "To your clan and show them how much you've improved." He said without a hint of regret of saying it but deep down was extremely hurt by this.
"O-Oh… you're right, I forgot about that." Stella said in a low tone. They both walked away from the room, and existed the hotel and began to walk towards the clan without anything on them besides Stella's katana, Jin's tanto and some money to their name.
Belford smiled slightly and walked away towards the forest that was always in the background of their training. Sensing an intense aura somewhere in the world. Having no way to tell Jin about it, Belford decided to change the training spot to increase the speed of Jin's training to an extreme.
"I can't waste such an potential having guy now can I? That would be rude… as the first master of the Bone Structure Palace, and the creator of the Forbidden Azure. I have to teach my disciples as much as I can." He said smiling looking above at the sky within Jin's consciousness.