A full day had passed at the Umitasora household and no new news had surfaced as to why Eiji now laid motionless inside his room. He had been asleep for just over two days now and despite each family member feeling consumed with worry and concern, they each tried to keep some semblance of a regular routine. Hiro had excused Hikari from her classes, he suggested it was better for her to spend the time training anyways, since she was already so far ahead academically. Gado cleaned up around the house and worked on preparing some of Eiji's favorite meals and recipes. Secretly hoping maybe the aroma in the air would encourage him to wake up sooner, or at the very least Eiji would have some of his favorite foods around when he finally did. Ren and Rei had decided to stay at the house while they waited for Eiji to wake up as well, making sure to sit by Eiji's bed reading some of his favorite books and studies out loud with the same kind of hopes as Gado. Out in the yard behind the house, Hikari and Kyuen continued on with Hikari's training for the upcoming exams. Regardless of the added stress from her brother's predicament, Hikari couldn't afford to fall behind. Especially not since the emergence of her odd new rival.
Hikari jumped back as Kyuen's fist sailed by her face. Her shoulders were already heavy with exhaustion from hours of relentless training and the heat from Kyuen's bright green flames radiated out with each swing she took, suching the life from Hikari's lungs. There was no letting up from her aunt and mentor despite the weight that was on both of their minds. Hikari twisted and contorted her upper body, dodging each blow with delicate focus. "Breathe. Read her movements… and… Now!" Hikari extended her arm just past Kyuen's defences, her palm facing forward as she did. Thrusting her shoulder forward with all her might into the precisely timed attack, her strike came up just short of reaching her opponent, but in that same instant, an explosive burst of air came from Hikari's palm, pushing Kyuen back just enough to make her lose her balance and fall to the ground. They had been training for the majority of the afternoon, their action almost mindless and subconscious at this point, but as Kyuen looked up from her seat on the ground and Hikari stared back at her, her arm still extended from her attack, the two of them paused with a sense of surprise. "Did… Did I actually just get you?" Hikari asked with a bit of apprehension in her voice. In all the years Kyuen had trained her, she had never once knocked her mentor from her feet.
Kyuen let out a long breath through her nostrils before laughing in a way that Hikari felt as though she had almost never heard from her aunt before. "Just like me and your mother," She said warmly as she stood up and brushed herself off. "I couldn't believe it the first time I knocked her down… You expect it to be some big moment… but it's just a quick second and it's over…" Kyuen continued as she retook her fighting stance across from her niece, her face glowing with what felt like an aggressive kind of joy. "To be honest I didn't think I'd find myself doing this before your graduation but…" The Ki flared up around her in a way that seemed to bend and distort the air around it, no longer flowing like the tail of a flame but cracking and sparking in the space around Kyuen's body in a violent and erratic manner. "Hikari… If you can land a blow like that on me… Then we can finally start to fight as equals!" Kyuen bellowed as the Ki around her flared up even more into a torrent around her. Hikari's stomach dropped, she had never felt such pressure emanate from one individual even during the times she remembered watching her own mother train and spar. It almost pushed her back, the weight of Kyuen's Ki alone was so forceful it felt like a gale wind had come ripping through the yard despite the almost perfect weather.
"This is…" Hikari could barely form her thoughts as she looked at the writhing mass of violent Ki that almost clouded Kyuen from sight. "That's right Hikari…" Kyuen's voice called out to her from behind the wall of green aura, the pressure of her presence creeping forward as she paced closer. "This is the power of a Goddess!" She screamed, her voice booming off of the cliffside as she rushed in at an untraceable speed. In the time it had taken Hikari to blink, Kyuen had already closed the gap between them, her arm stretching out and brandishing itself across Hikari's chest as she was thrown back almost faster than she could recognize what was happening. Pain wracked her entire body, the shock of the impact from Kyuen's blow felt like it had come from a Nikugan user like her father or uncle, but Hikari knew it was simply the brute strength of Kyuen's wind that had left her unable to stop her body from rolling across the ground.
It didn't matter that in that moment she couldn't breathe or even make sense of her surroundings as her body came to a rest along the base of the cliff. The glimpse of power she had seen just before the moment Kyuen had struck was like experiencing a dream. The pain was almost numbed by the overwhelming sense of inspiration that welled up from Hikari's mind. "I wish… I wish I could have seen that same look on your face…Mom…" Hikari whispered to her self as she began to reagan her senses and her body went into a spastic coughing fit. "That was insane… Hikari thought to herself as she tried to sit up on her elbows, thinking Kyuen would be waiting ahead for her to stand. Hikari's eyes widened as she looked around for Kyuen amongst the cloud of dust that had been knocked up into the air from her last attack. "Where did she-" Hikari's head jerked back to look up at the sky only to see the same mass of writhing green Ki floating above her. "No way…" Hikari said, mesmerized as she watched Kyuen continue to rise through the air as if her body were weightless.
Hikari didn't need any explanation. The skill that Kyuen had put on display was well known to be one of the indisputable signs that one had mastered complete control of the wind, and it was only a fraction of Gensogan users who could boast the feat. Flight. Not even those who mastered the wind in other ways could always claim to have obtained the coveted feat, it was a true sign of not only Kyuen's status but her utmost skill as well. It was only just a moment before that Hikari had been almost stupefied by the mere sight of Kyuen's power, but now as she hovered in the air above her, it was as though the same passion and drive that had been instilled in her has a child from watching her mother took over her mind. The depth of the struggles and trials she knew she was set to face in her road to achievement all melted away. In that moment as Hikari rose to her feet, her eyes never leaving the sight of her mentor overhead, there was nothing that could tear her away from the conquest of her ambitions. "It seems like you already understand…" Kyuen's voice rang out as she looked down at her niece who was standing with her guard ready, her face now alive with the same kind of terrifying excitement that had taken over Kyuen. With the same blinding speed as before, Kyuen swooped down in towards her opponent and was ready to strike again. It was still too fast for Hikari to keep track of, but she was aware of how Kyuen fought and without a moment of hesitation she chambered her leg in front of her and channeled her Ki before releasing it along with a monstrous gust of wind. Hikari's menacing grin grew even wider as her foot made its impact with Kyuen's raging fist.
"Not bad!" Kyuen shouted over the screeching sound that was coming from where Hikari was holding her back, the Two women's winds gnashing at each other in the small solace between their blows. It was strange to hear such words from Kyuen amidst a battle, but the unusual praise from her mentor only served to fuel Hikari's renewed vigor. "You wanted to fight as equals right?!" Hikari belted as the Ki around her leg seemed to shift in its nature and without warning Hikari's wind abruptly changed to an explosive burst of silvery flame. Kyuen gritted her teeth while still smiling, "Tch! Don't stop surprising me, Hikari!" she shouted as she used her wind to clear the smoke that had formed from the explosion, only to see that Hikari had used another burst of flame from her other foot still on the ground to flip her body over, and was now descending down upon Kyuen with another kick that was ready to land. Kyuen planted her front foot on the ground and pushed herself back just in time for Hikari's foot to narrowly pass by her face. The white flames that wrapped around her foot singed a few of Kyuen's Hairs as she did, when once again without warning, a silvery explosion erupted from her sole mid swing, catching Kyuen off guard and exploding directly in her face.
Kyuen jumped back, her arms just barely managing to come up in time to deflect enough of Hikari's blow before resuming her stance. Across from her, Hikari had begun to levitate just ever so slightly above the ground, as if she was egging Kyuen on, begging to continue doing battle against her flight. "You can barely leave the ground… You sure that's a smart idea?" Kyuen said with a grim confidence as she herself began to rise off of the ground once more, her feet well above Hikari's head. Hikari floated around just an inch or two of the dirt below her feet. It wasn't a full fledged flight but it was a technique that any Gensogan user needed to know before ever dreaming of reaching up towards the sky and wasn't uncommon for a user of her skill level. Their battle ensued and like a bird of prey streaking down towards its catch, Kyuen repeatedly came in from the sky with relentless speed and force. Each time was different, a few of the strikes Hikari managed to anticipate from her experience of Kyuen's fighting style, but the angle of attack and the overwhelming pressure Kyuen was keeping on with left Hikari suffering a number of devastating blows. Nonetheless she rose to her feet each time, using her wind to skate across the ground in hopes of landing another one the divisive blows that had filled her with such inspiration and strength. It the back of her mind Hikari knew that this was still only a drop in wellspring of skill and ability that Kyuen possessed, but as the continued on with their sparring, Hikari felt for the first time in her life that Kyuen was actually expending an effort to fight her, no matter how small that effort may have been.
It was only an hour or so later that both Kyuen and Hikari found themselves leaving the Umitasora house for the first time in a couple of days. Hikari limped along beside Kyuen as she used her body to support some of her weight. She was bruised and beaten from head to toe. Her lips and knuckles we bloodied, her left eye had swollen shut and they way she held herself as she walked made it look as if her spine was disconnected from her hips, yet Hikari still wore the semblance of a soft smile as the two of them made their way towards the nearby skyline of Do'Kobu City. "I can't believe your father asked us to stop and get him more spices and get more spices on the way to the infirmary, he does know we're going to have to stop there first in order to get there before they close right? Are you listening? Hikari?" Kyuen's voice said to her niece, cutting through the daydream she seemed to be entranced in. "Kyuen… Thanks for that today…" Hikari said as she used what little strength she had left to pull herself further into Kyuen's side.
Kyuen smiled, her tenderness that rarely showed itself returning the embrace from Hikari with one her arms as the two of them walked under the setting sun. "You don't need to thank me… You deserved that battle," Kyuen replied, she was never as adept with her words as she was with her fighting, but she knew that Hikari would understand what she meant to convey. The two of them continued on until they had finally reached the capital City of Do'Kobu that sat just a mile or so away from the Umitasora estate and sat atop the cliff overlooking Kaika Temple. It was only a few minutes before a number of passersby began to take notice of the young white haired Sentoki student whose posters had been plastered up around various parts of town in anticipation for the upcoming event. Murmurs and whispers echoed around them from those who took notice, young children pointed their fingers and grabbed the attention of their parents as they walked through the red stone streets of the busy city. Even at night Do'kobu was alive, especially within the entertainment district which Hikari and Kyuen had to pass through in order to get to where the Spice shop they had promised to stop at was. "What did Gado need us to get again? Clove and Shyfruit juice?" Kyuen asked Hikari who had stopped using her for support once they had entered the city. "Hikari?" Kyuen asked as she turned to see her niece had stopped a few paces behind her and was staring at the patio of a nearby bar.
"Well, Well, What do we have here?" spoke a lofty and voluptuous voice that carried out into the street where they stood. Her black visage stood out almost instantly as she rose from her chair and turned towards where Hikari was facing. Kyuen could see the tension that arose in her niece as Harrow Hawthorne seemed to take notice of Hikari's presence. "Somebody looks like they got a little roughed up!" Harrow said with a mocking giggle as she turned slightly back toward the table of people she was with and gave them a look that elicited a fake wave of laughter. Hikari stood there for a second with her clothes dirtied and torn, her lips and knuckles bloodied and her eye still swollen shut, clutching her fist in frustration as she listened to the laughs of Harrow and her friends while stepping towards them. Hikari took in a deep breath and let out a long winded and exasperated sigh as she leaned over the edge of the railing to the little patio where Harrow was. "It's sad, you know…" Hikari began to say as she twirled a bit of her hair around her finger, the aura of anger that had been pouring off of her just a moment ago melting away as she spoke. "To see someone so close to the top just sitting on their ass when they could be hard at work… but I guess we can't all be cut out for what it takes" Hikari added with a mocking expression as she prodded at her opponent's ego. "Although if I were you I guess it might seem kinda fruitless to keep training so when you know you're gonna lose…" Hikari added, her tone becoming less playful and more serious as she finished her words.
Before Harrow could respond, Hikari had already turned away with a flip of her hair and an unbothered wave that only added insult to injury. "See you at the Exams Harrow, Make sure you train enough so you can keep up!" HIkari added boastfully as she walked away and joined back up with Kyuen in the street, the sound of the city drowning out any response Harrow might have had for her rival. "Kyuen just stood there in silence, as she watched Hikari approach, a small smile of pride poking its way through her pursed lips as the two of them walked away and around the corner. "Well now that was quite something wasnt-" Hyena began to say, but was once again interrupted by the fact that Hikari was no longer by her side. She turned again one this time to see Hikari buckled over with her hands on her knees and breathing heavily. "Forget… the damn spices… were going straight to the infirmary," Hikari panted as she tried to stand up straight again, only for kyuen to appear by her side and start to support her once again.
Another hour or so later and now fully under the cover of night, the two Umitaroa women walked out of the infirmary that sat just on the edge of the cliff overlooking Kaika temple. Hikari rolled her shoulder and cracked her knuckles, her body now almost fully restored by one of the many Shishogan medics. The thought that had consumed her mind as she sat in the medic still lingered, the sensation of the Medics's Ki repairing her body from the inside left her thinking of her brother Eiji, her heart aching with an altogether different kind of weight than the upcoming exams had brought on. "We should probably be getting back soon," Hikari said to Kyuen as she walked towards the railing that overlooked the Temple below. Lights littered the view beneath her feet, stretching all the way across the monolith of stone that was the Kaika school and stretching almost until they reached the coast off in the distance. "We can get some soon but… Let's make one more stop…" Kyuen said with a sense of almost mischief in her voice as she took a few steps along the road along the cliffside and looked back at Hikari who seemed confused by her choice not to head back. "Comon, it'll be quick," Kyuen added over her shoulder as she seemed to be making her way to the only twenty four hour lift that operated between the City and the Temple.
It was a quick trip down to the bottom of the cliff with the assistance of the lift, and almost like an eager little girl, Kyuen walked with a hurried pace through the quiet temple streets until they had arrived at the northernmost training grounds within the area. "I'm not sure I've ever seen her act like this…" Hikari thought to herself as she watched Kyuen usher her into the area like they were sneaking away to do something that they shouldn't. Hikari knew as well as anybody did that Kyuen and even herself alike were permitted to use the training grounds at any they'd like, even if it was a bit odd to be in such a place at a later hour. "What's gotten into you??" Hikari said with a bit of a nervous laugh as she walked out into the middle of the field and let the light of the moons wash over her. It was early summer and so not only was the silver visage of the Moon Niku visible in the night sky, The Reddish light from Moon Genso had also made its seasonal appearance, casting a pinkish hue over the area around them.
"I have to admit you took me by surprise earlier," Kyuen started off saying, ignoring Hikari's remark and stepping out into the moonlight. "Well, I figured it was better to play it cool rather than fly off the handle…" Hikari replied as Kyuen walked out past her and turned around, leaving about twenty feet of space in between them. "I don't mean with Harrow back there, I mean when you actually landed a blow against me. Like I said earlier, I hadn't planned on taking you training to the level we did today before your Placement Exams… but you had earned it…" Kyuen added with another warm and affectionate stare. It was starting to almost leave Hikari unsettled how much open affection she had seen from her aunt in a single day. "I'm proud of you Hikari… We both are." Kyuen said to her niece, her words hanging in the stillness of the nighttime air. She spoke with a kind of softness that made Hikari's heart leap from her chest. Her throat tightened up almost immediately, forming a knot that made it hard to swallow as the tears began to blur Hikari's vision. It wasn't as though it was the first time Kyuen had said such words to Hikari but more so the way she had said them. It was only just a few days earlier that Hikari had so desperately wanted to be able to hear those words from her own mother but as Kyuen uttered them, for a brief second, it was almost as if she knew the words weren't coming from just Kyuen alone.
She wanted to rush forward and throw herself into Kyuen's arms, but she knew that despite the emotions that overwhelmed her from head to toe it was part of the moment for her to accept Kyuen's pride with grace. Still fighting back tears and trying to breathe past the enormous welt that had formed in her throat, Hikari bowed as deeply as she could before her aunt and mentor, the women who had raised her in her mother's stead and the women who currently carried on her mother's legacy while she herself was not yet ready to take the mantle. Hikari held her bow, the whirlwind of emotions that had come from the day almost more than she would withstand. "It was just like this when I graduated and your mother had brought me to this same spot to tell me how proud she was…" Kyuen said, breaking the silence and letting flushfaced and teary-eyed Hikari raise her head. "And coincidentally she showed me something that I think you've been wanting to see as well since you met that frigid Harrow girl," Kyuen continued, her voice showing a certain amount of disgust as she mentioned the young rival Hikari had formed. "Back when I had graduated, I only had access to one element, Flame. While your mother had access to Flame, water and her affinity of course, Stone. She had hoped that I would be somewhat like her and awaken my access to Stone as well, but… that still isn't in the cards for to this day… Instead… Much like you, I was able to gain control over my wind… and once I did that… it was only a few years until…" Kyuen drew her sword as she spoke, her eyes flashing bright green and her Ki pouring out of every pore as it flooded towards her blade. Hikari had expected to see some kind of high level wind or flame technique that would leave her astonished yet again, but as she watched Kyuen summon her strength, the Ki that warped around the blade began to thin itself and take on a sharp and jagged shape, flickering in and out of sight and creating a slight hum in the air around them.
Hikari's eyes went wider than they had even at the sight of Kyuen demonstrating her flight… "No way…" She whispered to herself as she watched the crackling green aura spark in and out of sight before her. The hairs on her arms stood on end and another second later even the end of her long white hair seemed to be floating in the air, while Kyuen's dark black hair had been lifted almost completely from her shoulders. "You wanted to know about secondary elements??" Kyuen said over the light buzz that had filled the space between them like the sound of a swarm of flying bugs. "Well as I'm sure you already know… this is the secondary element of flame and wind… Lightning!"