Peace. The air combed through her hair, her skin felt renewed, the sun was setting, quickly dropping behind the large hills in front of her. The peach and orange hues that streaked the sky, were not bright enough to bother the girl, so she could look up at them and appreciate the beauty. Alone, happy in her solitude, in the quiet. As the inky blue shroud slowly crept its way overhead, the girl got working on setting up a target, she wedged the three sticks into the ground, grunting as they sunk into the wet soil... Then she set the target over them, giving it a swift soft quick to check if it was stable enough. The contraption passed the test.

Now the real trouble, in long deliberate strides, each of which were supposed to be about a meter, she went and stood about 10 meters away from the target, letting her toes dig into the ground to mark a line and then she turned to face the target and released her trusted dagger from the ankle strap. Kissing the hilt once, for good luck, she closed one eye and let the weapon fly... It almost nicked the target... but missed. She jogged to go retrieve the weapon and try again... Unfortunately, she missed again, then again... and again. Finally it hit the target, about halfway between the circumference of the board and the bulls-eye. Tired and unwilling to pluck her only sort of successful attempt from the board, she sighed softy and was struck with an idea.

She flopped onto the ground, folded her legs and closed her eyes. Slowly and steadily, she began rubbing her hands together... 'Focus... focus' she told herself. In her mind she let the image of a kunai materialize, hoping that she could replicate its dimensions... its solidity in her hands. Finally she felt a gentle weight in her palm. Opening her eye just a crack, she slowly lifted the other hand up, cringing as she waited to see if she had succeeded.

Nope... not really. Just something that looked like  a very unfortunate black... leaf. No sharp edges.. jagged would have been fine too, but what she held was curved and... she slowly closed her hand around it... malleable. Grunting, she decided to try again. 'Come on Akira, you can do this.' After a few more failed attempts, she got lucky and created something that at least had a pointy top. She got up to attempt throwing it at the target, it embedded itself about a centimeter in the board. At least it was another hit, but laziness struck again... 'Stupid darkness, can't you carry it back for me or something?' she whined. She sat back down and decided to just attempt creating another one.

464/750

It would be an understatement to say it was a long day. Haru had done quite a bit since that afternoon, from helping the doctor, the designer, and not to mention the orientation. When it was all finally over, he was asked to team up with Akira for all further missions. He wasn’t very happy being paired with the broody girl. She was everything he wasn’t fond of: pessimistic and dark. Nevertheless, he did not want to complain. So, while the two were always in each other’s vicinity, Haru kept his distance.

The sun was about to set, and it painted the sky with bright, beautiful hues. The girl seemed to be heading for the hills, literally, and Haru followed, not saying a word. As it grew darker, he saw her set up a target range and begin training. Using his Feather-Light spell, he managed to climb onto a tall branch from where he could see her train. He sat there, leaning against the trunk of the tree, taking deep breaths with his eyes closed. The autumn breeze calmed his tense body and mind. His muscles relaxed and for a moment, he stopped hating on Akira. Sure, she isn’t rule-abiding or respectful. But at least her heart’s in the right place… he thought, reminded of how she wanted to help the poor by deceiving the rich and greedy Fernando.

As he watched her train, he began playing with the drifting leaves. By constantly controlling the density of air around the leaves, and thereby it’s pressure, he made them change directions and stay afloat, while he contemplated on how he was going to improve team work between the two. The boy couldn’t help but chuckle when he saw Akira not moving to get her knife back, but instead attempt making one herself. He turned away from her, and started focusing on the leaves he had been absentmindedly playing with. Maybe, if we trained together, we can get to know each other better. He jumped down, landing gently, letting the leaf fall with him and walked towards where Akira was. He noticed she had given up on getting her Kunai back and made a new one every time.

In an attempt to help her, he tried his newfound technique to bring the Kunai back. He slapped his palms together, extended one towards the target and the other next to Akira. He increased the pressure in the region around the target and decreased it near Akira. Although he intended on bringing only the Kunai back, the effect was rather dramatic. Along with the knives, the target itself was pulled towards Akira, crashing next to her. Embarrassed, Haru scratched the back of his head and apologized with an idiotic smile. “Sorry! Still don’t have good control over it,” he said. Trying to salvage the situation, he threw a suggestion at her. “Hey… How about you make the kunai with a chain attached to it. Sure, it will take a bit more mana. But that way, you only have to make one and you can always pull it back and reuse it.”

517/1425

For once she had been so focused on her task, that she made the mistake of being a little inattentive, either that or she was too exhausted and senses were dulled. Probably the former, because the girl had noticed the excessive rustling of the leaves, but just didn't care to reason it out, her subconscious probably assumed it was because she was unaware of the wind-currents here. But whatever light breeze she felt, was definitely not strong enough to knock over her target all of a sudden, it had passed her kick test after all. The creaking branch overhead gave away his location, her head snapped up to find the intruder... She already knew it was him, only he could fail so spectacularly, this was rich coming from her, considering her own attempts.

'Of course you couldn't do it, it's you.' she said, groaning and redundantly. 'What is it this time, can't be a quest related, did Alice send you? Are you concerned... here to play hero? because at this rate following me around is going to become habitual... and I really don't want that...' she barked, tempering it down to a growl at the end. Even with missions and supervision, she didn't pull back her punches and now, apparently he was here out of his own free will, why? Why was he taking away the one moment of peace and quiet she'd stolen today. She sighed softly, her shoulders slackening in all fairness even speaking to him now, felt exhausting, doling out insults was not making her feel better like it did sometimes. 'Anyways, looks like we're both training, so let us just get on with it and stay out of each other's way.'

He thought this was a brilliant time to share his solution, he must have been here a while, observing her to have accurately assumed her motivations. 'Next time you want to apologize, do something about the mess you created before making smart-ass suggestions. In fact don't bother making suggestions at all... even if they make sense, okay?' she said through grit teeth, offering the small praise at the end almost as a peace offering. Taking his advice into consideration, she closed her eyes to imagine a kunai, this time with a chain for a tail...

835/750

Haru was done trying to make friends with Akira, at least for that day. After what happened at the orientation, he did not blame her for behaving the way she did; although, it wouldn’t have turned out that bad had she been a little more respectful of the lieutenant to begin with. Nevertheless, he was in no mood to lecture her. He was tired and just wanted to finish training as soon as possible so that he can go back to his room for a good night’s rest. Without uttering a word, he simply picked up the crashed target, placed it back where it originally was and left her vicinity. He walked to a clearing where he could no longer see or hear her. He was happy with the new technique he came up with and wished to master it before calling it a day.

Walking around the edge of the circular clearing, he picked up a fallen branch and used it to mark an ‘X’ on three trees roughly separated by a hundred and twenty degrees from each other. Once he was done marking, he made his way to the centre of the clearing and picked up a pebble. He threw the pebble high up in the air and slapped his palms together. Right before the pebble hit the ground, he pointed one palm towards the pebble and the other towards one of the three targets, and the pebble changed direction immediately, soaring towards the marked tree. However, it missed the tree by a few inches and flew past it. Haru picked up another pebble and repeated the process. This time, it hit the tree, but it was still far away from the mark. It took him at least a dozen tries before he could hit the mark precisely and consistently.

However, his training did not end there. He remembered Lieutenant Alice’s advice: ‘to think and act fast.’ So, he decided to train further, this time trying to hit all the three targets with the same pebble without ever letting it touch the ground. It was extremely hard. He not only had to react really fast to ensure the pebble did not drop after the first target, but also turn his other hand precisely by hundred and twenty degrees. After failing dozens of times for almost over an hour, he finally hit two targets, and missing the third by a mere inch. Completely drained, he fell onto the ground, breathing heavily and staring into the starry sky; it was a beautiful full moon night. Looking at the moon, Haru had his flashy visions again; with fire and screams like the one he had during the orientation. Fazed, he sat up with a start, holding his head. He was in half a mind to return to the room, but was not satisfied with training yet. And so, he started again.

After another twenty minutes, he finally managed to hit all three targets with one pebble without letting it touch the ground. Then, he realized something important. Throughout this evening, he had been doing this task while standing still. That was obviously not ideal, considering he would be making himself an easy target while casting the spell. He wondered how much more difficult it could be if he started moving, and found it to be more challenging than he expected. It took him a while before he mastered hitting the targets while also moving.

Next came dodging.

He planned on redirecting the pebble straight towards him, dodge it and then redirect it towards a target. This proved to be extremely difficult. And eventually, he was so tired that he failed to move in time and hit himself with right in the gut with the pebble. It hurt a lot more than he anticipated and he made a mental note to never do that to anyone else even as a joke. Lying down on the ground, holding his stomach, he thought about asking Akira for help. If they trained together, he could try dodging and deflecting her kunai while she tried hitting him. However, after remembering their last conversation, he decided against it.

Sitting under the moonlight in the middle of the clearing, he debated whether to continue or go home.

1226/1425

It was kind of odd seeing Tsuru walk away dejected, after the entire day of being accompanied by his poofy scarlet hair, had he actually grown on Akira. Except for merely existing and his optimism, he hadn't gone out of his way to make her day bad, the dark-dweller had been struck by bad luck all by herself. Some how, it didn't feel nice to see him walk away without trying to stick around anymore. But maybe, this was for the best... She shook her head as he disappeared from her sight and went back to focusing on what was important... Her training.

Soon, the girl had perfected the art of creating that one weapon... But her aim needed help. Consistently she managed to land her Kunai onto the target, but not too close to the bulls-eye, while this was progress, she wondered if it was enough to be reliably used in combat. She tried one last time, missing it yet again... She pulled her shadow made weapon back, the only thing giving her satisfaction was the solidity of the chain-Kunai... it meant she had actually created something out of almost nothing. To top it off, at least she'd manage to channel more power into her throw, the kunai was embedding itself deeper into the target, almost two centimeters now. That could just be because it had grown darker and she felt a little rejuvenated, as her strength was being replenished...

While her physical strength grew, mentally Akira was growing weary. So she picked up her target and decided to return to her chambers... Maybe after a few hours, she'd prowl the streets of Baska at night, get a better understanding of the town. On her way back, she noticed Tsuru in the clearing, lying on the wet grass. She frowned wondering if this was his idea of training. She didn't know what compelled her to do it, probably her own welfare... but she tiptoed over to him. Soon she was standing over him. 'Ey, the lieutenant may have made it out to look like I was the only one who needed to train and you were little Mr. Perfect, but you aren't. If we are sticking together you better be working your butt off too...' she groaned.

'You want something to redirect? Make yourself useful and help me get my bulls-eye.' she added, the idea struck her out of nowhere. She had been struggling to aim and not really getting anywhere, it just seemed like a good idea to put the burden of her short coming on him. Noticing the crosses on the tree... she added 'That tree is my new target, we're not leaving till my Kunai hits the cross' she ordered. With that, she closed her eyes and focused, till her weapon materialized and chucked it towards the tree, the soft clinking of the chain adorning the soft rustling of the grass and leaves.

Haru was completely exhausted. He was almost out of mana and his muscles ached. Except for his will, he had nothing else going. So, finally, after a long debate within his head, he decided it was time to return to the room and get some rest. After all, he had travel plans the next day and he would hate to wake up late and miss the train. Right when he was about to get up, he heard footsteps approaching and he craned his neck backwards to see who it was. Considering he knows of only one other person in the near vicinity, he expected it to be Akira and he was right. I thought she didn’t want to talk or train with me. He heard her complain about how he wasn’t training hard enough. “You caught me when I was taking a break,” he said, frowning at her.

Akira’s challenge made him giggle. “If that’s all you want, then we will be leaving very very soon,” he said, extending both his palms out after slapping them together, all while still lying on the ground. With much ease, he redirected her dark kunai with such precision that it was right on target. He looked up at Akira with his usual toothy grin, followed by a thumbs-up. “Time to shower, eat and sleep! Must try the local delicacies before we leave. Wanna join?,” he asked. Irrespective of her response, he will beckon her to follow him as he made his way towards their hotel.

1478/1425
-Exit-

Her surprise at the ease with which he accomplished the set challenge, was shrouded in darkness. A small smirk though, did paint her face. Could he prove useful after all? He seemed pleased with his work and she couldn't find anything to critique even if she tried. Although, she wondered if it could have just  been a lucky shot. Usually she'd be inclined to ask for a repeat, but she could hardly muster the strength to create the kunai again.

At the mention of food, she recalled the conversation she had overheard on her excursion just last night, while passing by a small outdoor restaurant, on the outskirt of the village, but too far from the hills. The customers praised the authenticity of the flavours and the homemade quality of it... They mentioned how age meant experience... The memory of the aroma, made her stomach grumble, which was the answer to his question. One way or another her body demanded food after the exhausting day and she couldn't find a reason to decline his offer. They'd tolerated each other this long, surely a silent meal couldn't get any worse...

So she just angled her head slightly before slowly beginning to walk towards the town again, since she was usually very vocal about her denials, she wondered if Tsuru would assume her lack of refusal as acceptance...

~~Exit~~