Some Well Needed Training (Kurai/Shin)

[Kurai Horo]

Kurai was stood on the deck of the ship with Shin. He'd decided it best to continue his training on the boat rather than taking him onto Roccia, at least here they had an ample supply of water that Kurai could use in case Shin somehow lost it again, although he highly doubted that now. It hadn't been long enough for him to really store up enough energy to let out into one fierce rage, but all the same, Kurai was not playing this recklessly, he wanted to make sure that Shin was perfectly in control, as well as putting him in touch with Valerian whilst he could, the sooner the boy could speak to the Lunar Spirit, the better chance Kurai had of persuading him about his importance in the world.

"Okay, Shin!" Kurai said, clapping his hands together. "It's time we got into the serious stuff, huh? First of all, we're going to go about training as we would any other day. I want you to relax, slow your breathing and reach out to the world around you. The moon isn't up and we're nowhere near Ignis, so you won't be able to gather much energy." Admittedly, another reason Kurai had chosen now to train. "All the same, it should suffice for what we're going to do today. Now, I know that this is nothing new to you after the boat journey, but trust me, we're trying something completely new today."

[Kato Shin]

I closed my eyes.

Meditation was, indeed, nothing new to me. I'd learned how in the anger management courses I'd enrolled myself in, and again when I'd begun to learn the martial arts from Arisawa-sensei. It had always calmed the fires; they'd beun to build again, but nowhere near to the point where I'd be in danger of losing control. Kurai was right about that.

I breathed deep, centering myself. It had disturbed me, when I first started meditating, that the point where I felt the most centered was the same place the flames came from. Kurai explained that that was because the flames came from my own soul, and the link between myself and the spirit who had 'chosen' me.

I still wasn't sure if I believed him, but meditation, at least, was easy.

I reached out to the world; with all this water around me, the fires didn't touch everything in my mind's eye, instead staying inside me, where they belonged.

I swore to myself - I would never let them out again.

[Kurai Horo]

The fact that Shin already knew how to meditate had been a huge help for the process, sparing the short but boring explanation of how to go about it and then the longer even more boring process of perfecting it. Kurai had gone over the way that the fires that Shin produced were the products of his connection with the Lunar Spirit that had chosen them, and now he felt it was time to introduce them. He and Zephyr had been talking for years, although their connection was greatly strengthened when he fought against Amadeus, Zephyr directly channelling energy into him, the two acting as one for a short time. He hoped to promote an equally strong bond between these two, as such he had tapped into Zephyr and both were monitoring Shin's Lunar Energy flow whilst Kurai explained further.

"That burning, that you feel whenever you dig deep, that overtakes you when you get angry or distressed... That you lock and hide away. Shin, I want you to reach out to it, don't lower your barriers, we'll take this a step at a time for now, I just want you to touch it. Remember, you're fire, it won't burn you if you don't want it to. See it instead as a warmth.

Let it seep into you and embrace you as much as it can, locked away so tightly. Keep your mind clear and touch that sensation that you can feel on your soul. For everyone, it's different, 'Guo said it felt like something was wrapped around his soul, absorbing what was around it, gripping tightly. For me, it was like being stood in the midst of a hurricane. I am wind, just like you are fire. We're safe from ourselves. 

Once you feel comfortable, I want you to listen, listen to your body, your soul, and that warmth. Listen for Valerian."

[Kato Shin]

Touch it.

My concentration wavered; my breath caught, shuddered in my chest.

I needed to do this. For myself. How often had I done it before? Reacquainted myself with the way fire couldn't hurt me the way it once had. Often enough that I knew I just needed to grit my teeth and do it.

I reached; touched it. There was a roaring in my ears, the flames inside. They'd always curled up and around something, something I couldn't see or touch or feel because they were always in the way. I felt them flaring, leering at me; felt that terrible presence they had.

And I also felt that terrible, frightening longing for what they could offer me. It scared me more than anything else, the reason I'd never been able to obey my father's edicts. I wanted them so badly.

But no matter how hard I concentrated, I couldn't bring myself to actually go so far as to reach out and touch them, not yet. I had before, but I'd never managed to get myself to their center, and what lay within.

[Kurai Horo]

Dammit, the boy wasn't reaching deep enough, whatever scars he bore on the inside were clearly holding him back, he could sense the fear on him, and Zephyr could barely find any link with his brother. They needed to try and dig deeper in order to truly get a link going. Kurai didn't like the options that he had, but if he was going to help Shin, he needed to do so now. Kurai sighed and stretched his neck.

Reaching to his headband, he pulled it away from his eye, revealing his sharingan and the scar across it for all to see, or rather, for him to see Shin. He could suddenly see the minute movements of his body, reading him like a book almost. Stepping towards his student, he took one knee so that he was looking at the boys closed eyes, and spoke.

"Shin. I want you to try again. This time, think back, think to when you lost control. Not the other week, but before that, back to when somebody died, because you couldn't control the flames. Because you were too scared to reach out and touch them." Kurai was working on guesses here, well educated guesses but guesses nonetheless.

"I assure you, once you conquer your fear, and touch those flames, you'll have almost complete control." He rested a hand on the boys shoulder, releasing a tiny burst of stored lunar energy, hoping to promote a link with Valerian. "I know that it hurts. It burns, doesn't it? Life is full of hardships, the embrace of those flames will help, I guarantee." 

Mangēkyo Sharingan

His red eye took on a pinwheel shape, ready to put Shin under a mind control jutsu if his levels rose too high in anger in response to his words.

[Kato Shin]

I shivered underneath his touch, barely keeping myself from knocking his hand away.

I didn't want to kill anyone else. I couldn't kill anyone else. If I never touched the flames again, maybe it wouldn't happen; maybe my father was right... but Kurai and Vash had assured me that my power didn't work that way. And god, I wanted it.

I felt that shock, felt my brand light on fire as it pushed me into the flames.

And I felt them consuming me. I screamed, every nerve inside me as it felt like an inferno wrapped my soul in its grasp. I could almost, just barely, make out a voice, words in the roaring of the fire. But I felt the same way I had on that day, and suddenly, it was like I was there, standing in that clearing again.

----

Fire roared around me. The tree cracked and fell; I watched, stunned, unable to look away as it came towards me, almost in slow motion.

The world sped up, I felt something burn into my left eye as something else crashed into my side.

And she was gone... just... gone.... I screamed again, reached out towards her, and then, suddenly, I felt the fire sing.

Something snapped into place, a connection, to not only these flames, but to every flame in Ignis, and a fire burning far away, in the coldest place imaginable, and that cold and that heat mixed in my chest and my brand lit on fire, blazing witht he same light that glowed from my eyes

With just the pure force of my anger, I ate the flame...

And somewhere, far away, within that flame, blazing contained but not controlled, I felt a smile.....

----

When I came to my senses, I was no longer sitting cross-legged on the ship's deck, but on my hands and knees, sweat beaded on my brow. The light on the deck was the same as when I had lost conscious awareness of the outside world; the entire episode had only lasted a minute or so.

The fire within my chest burned strong and bright, in an echo of that far-away flame, and I realized that, during the flashback, I'd actually touched that innermost part of myself, and whatever it was I had sensed out there, for a brief moment. I'd come away with a message clearer than words.

Her death was not your fault.

Liar, I told it half-heartedly, but I was too tired to argue.

I glanced around the deck, but nothing seemed to have been burned.

[Kurai Horo]

Kurai had cancelled out the Sharingan and covered it again with his headband. The last thing he wanted was to waste more energy than necessary on having that activated when it wasn't even needed. Kurai was stood on his feet but knelt down so that he was bouncing slightly on his haunches, a big smile visible behind his mask, his other eye closed as he looked down at Kato.

Zephyr had picked up on the lightest link between the boy and his Lunar Spirit, so for that much, Kurai was please, it meant that they could at least try some more advanced techniques today, the link was small but the fact that it even existed and had been forged meant that they could really get to work.

"Congratulations." He said. "You've took the first step, but if you think training with me is just going to be a matter of sitting down and pondering existence all day, well, you've got another thing coming." He stood up and turned away from Shin, taking a few steps away as if that was the end of the session, but then he turned back. It seems he'd been making hand signs as he was walking.

Around the boat, a few whirlpools started to form, the water ready to answer to Kurai's every whim.

"On your feet, Shin." He said. "You've touched the flame, or at least stroked it, and seen what you can achieve with it, you know deep down what you're capable of. So get on your feet, and achieve it!" He started making hand seals at a furious pace.

[Kato Shin]

I stood; I felt exhausted, but I knew from martial arts classes that the only way to increase endurance would be to work beyond exhaustion. I supposed mental strength worked the same way as physical.

I wiped the sweat off my brow, then took a ready stance, preparing myself for whatever he would throw at me.

[Kurai Horo]

"Water style; Twin Water Dragon Jutsu!"

Suddenly, on both the Starboard and Port sides of the boat, the whirlpools burst upwards in the form of Chinese dragons and danced around each other in a watery air show before crashing down towards Shin with all the might of their legendary namesakes.

[Kato Shin]

Oh, shit.

That was the thought that crossed my mind as they raced towards me. I didn't have time to think, to be afraid, to second-guess; only to react. The flames burst out of me, enveloping me, and the magically-enhanced water burned away as steam.

Of course, afterwards, I was on fire, but I crushed a heel down on my panic - breathed deep. Reminded myself that I was not feeling the harsh, consuming pain that would signify actually being burned. I took another breath, pulling them back into me, shutting them away safely where they belonged...

[Kurai Horo]

"Good. But you're focusing too much on what you're doing, let it come naturally to you, or else you lose sense of the battlefield around you. Or more specifically, behind you." Kurai pointed over Shin's shoulder before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Behind him, the real Kurai was in mid-air, all the force of a small hurricane condensed into a blue sphere of magic energy.

"RASENGAN!"

He thrust his palm forwards, towards Shin's back. Admittedly, it wasn't as powerful as he could make it, it wasn't even a 100th of the Gale Force Strike he'd used against Amadeus back on the station.

[Kato Shin]

I'd never seen the magic before; luckily, Kurai was going easy on me - I got the feeling he wasn't casting it at true power. When it struck me square in the chest, however, it was still enough to send me flying back across the deck and almost over the rail. As it was, there would be an interestingly-shaped bruise on my back tomorrow morning where I impacted.

"None of this comes naturally." I groaned, trying to get myself back up from where I'd fallen.

[Kurai Horo]

"Then you're not looking deep enough." He responded bluntly, already making more hand seals as he spoke. Perhaps if he forced Shinobu into defending against the element he was most prominent with, he could forge a stronger link between him and Valerian.

"Fire style; Fire ball jutsu!"

With one heavy breath, Kurai exhaled, a huge fireball launching its way towards Shin.

[Kato Shin]

I didn't even have time to really register it was coming. I felt a smugness from the flames in my chest, and then they simply.... ate the fireball. There wasn't any other word for it than that. They reached out my hand and took it, adding to themselves in the process.

Fire didn't hurt me. It had only hurt me once in my life, an I would carry the scar to the end of my days. I was always waiting for the day when it would turn on me again - but today was evidently not that day.

[Kurai Horo]

Good. He seemed to be opening up to his powers a bit more, which meant with some more progress, he could maybe stand up to some more powerful attacks now, but Kurai would keep it within Fire Release just to play it safe.

"Fire style; Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"

A gout of fire launched from behind Kurai's mask, splitting off to form three separate dragons much like his water dragon technique, they attacked on Shin's left, right and center flanks respectively. Each equal to the other in power.