The Mentor and the Magma Demon.

[The Mentor]

(Flash back, many years ago. PM to take part.)

The Mentor walked down the hall of the training hall where dozens of students were training in the art of the Allorum Guardians. They were all skilled fighters, probably able to outfight any guard they would come across even at their young age.

But there was one particular student that the Mentor was coming to see. Saying this boy was powerful was a severe understatement, this boy could out fight even some of the most battle hardened Guardians. But he was wild and destructive, they even built a sector of the training center only for him to avoid any accidental causalities. The last time they tried training him in the forest for the reasons of seclusion he caused a forest fire that nearly wiped out surrounding forest.

The Mentor stepped up to a metal door that was best described as a vault, the two guards twisted and cranked the gears until the door opened, allowing the Mentor to step in. Inside there were five fully grown Guardians fighting that one boy, as the Mentor entered they stopped and turned to him, bowing down low.

The Mentor stepped past the two men and approached the boy, "Training going well, Kazan?"

[Kazan]

Kazan didn't look much different in his younger years. His monkey-like features were still present and his hair wasn't quite as long. His outfit hadn't changed much either, mainly just missing a few pelts. It consisted of a skin-right red, long sleeved shirt, brown pants, grey boots and grey gloves. His figure was a lot smaller as well, tall for his age but not as noticeably so as his later years, and whilst he was well built and sculpted, it didn't do his actual strength in the future any justice. His sword had to be carried with two hands back in these days, and when the Mentor entered, he had been sparring with five men.

One was already laid out on his back, barely conscious. The second, was laid underneath Kazan's boot, the sole of it pressing into the side of his neck. The third had a sheathed Wareme pressed against his throat, the blade being held in both palms. Just as the Mentor entered, the other two, who had been circling like sharks charged forwards. Kazan swung his large blade to his right, away from the mans throat, and slammed it into his opponents forehead, before bringing it overhead, and slamming it down in a left to right slash against the back of the second mans head. They both fell to the floor as Kazan returned the blade to rest against his opponents throat, it was then he noticed the entrance of the Mentor. Many had noticed that when in combat, Kazan was solely focused on that, and even the opening of the vault door couldn't shake his focus.

"Oi, Boss-man!" He called, lowering his sheathed sword and stepping off his other opponent. He took a moment to help the others up, who wobbled groggily, before approaching the Mentor. To say he didn't feel some discomfort with the man would be a lie, he'd taken him away from Toshiie, his uncle, but he'd also helped him become the young man he was today.

"It's going alright... I believe that's now... Hmm... 472 KO's to me, and 0 to these guys!" He heard a groaning of disbelief from behind him as he grinned and scratched the back of his head, propping Wareme into the ground.

[The Mentor]

The Mentor glanced around the arena and shook his head; the area was wrecked. The Mentor looked over at the chalkboard where the amount of victories Kazan had was written and with one quick swish of his hand he erased all of it.

"You haven't won anything, Kazan," the Mentor said while motioning for him to look around, "See that crater over there? That was a woman with her newborn child, that other one was a family of five. Until you can control your powers you are no use to us."

The Mentor motioned for everyone to leave and the five Guardians did so with haste. The vault closed tightly, leaving the two in it.

The Mentor began to levitate in the air, his legs crossed as if he was sitting. "Your powers are incredible but destructive. Kazan, do you even understand the consequences of your actions?"

[Kazan]

"Dadada..."

It seemed he would be getting this speech again. It would not be the first time that The Mentor explained the monstrous capabilities of his powers, nor would it probably be the last. He was a simply boy with simple tastes, he enjoyed eating, relaxing, sparring, things he could easily do in a space such as this. But with that came the responsibility of lessons such as these, he had been brought in to learn how to control his powers, but right now, that was difficult.

"Oi! Old-man! It isn't easy, y'know?" He snapped with a frown as he placed Wareme onto a wall mount and crossed his arms against his chest. Turning back to face The Mentor, he continued.

"I can control it, to a point. I can summon it, but it's like... There's this glow inside of me, it's really pink, and fuzzy and warm. It sort of seeps through me and spreads over my entire body. It doesn't burn or hurt, it feels the opposite! It makes me feel safe and secure. But whenever I let go of some of it, a little bit, that feeling goes, I'm suddenly cold or burning hot, in pain... I don't like it, and I know the only way to get rid of it is to get rid of all the pink at once... So I do, I throw it all out and that's when it starts." He realised that he was staring into space, and shook his head to bring himself back into reality.

"It'll always happen one of two ways. If I feel cold, I suddenly start shooting out pink lightning everywhere... It's destructive and dangerous, but beautiful... Like a Cherry Blossom..." He gazed across at a wall, a striking scorch emblazoned in it from where some of this pink lightning has burned it's way through it. "Then when I'm burning, I throw Magma everywhere... It's almost mesmerising, the way it bubbles and spits..." He looked across at a hole in the wall, that had been hastily patched up with Make-do steel plates, dry, crusted magma loitered around the edges of it.

"I just can't control it!" He gave a casual shrug. "It's not my fault!"

[The Mentor]

The Mentor didn't speak at first, he seemed to be lost deep in thought. Finally he broke his levitation and got back on his feet, "Unleash it all on me, Kazan." The Mentor said while holding his hands out.

If Kazan liked the feeling of unleashing all that power than the Mentor would have to make him dislike it. He'd have to make him learn that people's lives were at stake.

So once again The Mentor repeated, "Unleash everything you have. Try and burn me away like you did with those families..." he motioned his head over to the two 'families' which were simply craters.

[Kazan]

'So he wants to play it this way, does he..?' Kazan thought with a small sigh as he closed his eyes against The Mentor's words, and tried to focus on the power that was building inside of his gut. He could feel it swelling inside of him, pink and warm, holding onto him, his every nerve and cell. It clung to him like smoke to a fire and refused to let go, he could feel it spreading through his stomach, chest, arms and legs, to the point were he could feel his fingers and toes tingling with energy. He smiled warmly at the thought, and concentrated on how he'd explained the way that he releases his power... It only burns or freezes when he released a slight amount, and The Mentor said that he wanted everything... So everything was what he would give. He could feel his power almost whispering in his own ear, soft and seductive.

'He wants us to burn him, Kazan...' It whispered softly, caressing his cheek. 'So let's burn him.'

Kazan grinned as he looked across at The Mentor.

"OiOi, Boss-man..." He said with a grin, pointing across at him with his finger. "You've made a big mistake this time, I promise!" He took a couple of steps back and away from The Mentor and let out a deep breath, his eyes suddenly narrowing in focus as he could feel all of his energy swell around him. Bolts of pink lightning jumped off of his body, grounding against the floor with heavy cracks and thuds.

"Sakura Kafuka..." He growled, his energy building up to a critical point, the lightning bolts jumping off more and more sporadically, until they suddenly stopped. Kazan seemed to be glowing, a pink aura lined his body, and his eyes seemed to be tinted the same color. "Sakura Yaburu..." He growled, he was not in his break state, his speed, strength, reactions... All increased beyond their usual peak. And now it was play time. He crossed his hands against his chest, and they seemed to start bubbling and rippling, as molten rock spread across their surface and coated them. He threw them down to the sight. "Sakura..." He hissed, drawing both fists back, pink lightning also seeming to jump from the magma. "Yoyu..." He had reached back as far as he could, and looked across at The Mentor, a grim smile on his face.

"GEKIHEN!"

He thrust both fists forwards, and a gout of magma, easily ten times larger than that used in his Yoyuken Dangan years later against the giant monster in Roccia, the magma was easily just as hot as well, as it roared it's way towards The Mentor.

[The Mentor]

The Mentor shifted his body to the side and took one of his hands out of his pocket. He held his hand up and focused on the flowing magma, he could feel it coming his way...

The heat, the destruction... it was all there, but he knew he could alter its path. He twisted his hand to the right and suddenly the lava changed courses causing it to flow in all directions. The wall behind the Mentor was being burned up by the magma and to Kazan, it probably looked like the Mentor had been consumed by the powerful force.

That was until what felt like a bolt of electricity slammed into Kazan's leg, causing a mighty painful shock.

"If you think that this is fun..." The Mentor's voice spoke as the magma died down, the wall behind him was completely gone other than a small cut out shape where the Mentor was standing, "Than you'll have to learn through force what not to do."

[Kazan]

"N'yeeeh!" Kazan cried as his leg fell into a spasm, and he dropped onto one knee, his leg flopping about beside him for a moment before it finally came to a stop. He frowned as he looked at the steel wall that was slowly bubbling away into nothing, and the way that The Mentor had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. He hated it when he did that...

"Boss-man, you're not gonna' stop me having fun." He said, his frown changing into a smile as he rolled over, so that he was staring up at The Mentor's masked face.

"If you're not having fun, you're being boring, stern, serious or annoying. You can be any of those if you want Boss-man, but I enjoy enjoying myself." He gave a shrug on the ground. "That's just how it is!"

[The Mentor]

"As long as you're able to control yourself than I don't much care if you have fun. I just can't have to burning entire villages away..." The Mentor explained before bowing his head seemly in defeat, he couldn't make Kazan understand how he saw the world nor could he understand how Kazan saw the world, "One of these days you're going to have to make tough decisions... one of things days you might be forced to sacrifice those you care about for the progress of humanity."

"Are you even ready for such a moment to present itself?"

[Kazan]

"No!" Kazan protested, picking himself up off of the ground and frowning at The Mentor. Even at this age, he wasn't that much smaller than the leader of the Allorum Guardians, and it made him feel stronger knowing that he was almost on an equal height as the man, even though in reality, it meant nothing.

"Why do people have to die?! Why should I let innocent people die in order to see the bigger picture?! I don't care about progression, and the future. I care about the people who are alive today, the people who actually matter to me, like Uncle Toshiie and Auntie Matsu. So no, I'm not ready for such a moment, and I probably never will be. I know that I've been given these strong powers, but I'm not going to use them in a way that I don't agree with." With that he walked away from The Mentor with his nose turned up to the air.

"I am my own man. Nobody else's."

[The Mentor]

The Mentor shook his head as he watched Kazan walk away, "So much power, yet his ambitions are so small." An Allorum Guardian stepped up to the Mentor, looking on at Kazan with a sort of envy.

"What are we to do with him, Mentor?" The Guardian questioned, "He's a liability."

The Mentor didn't respond to the Guardian at first, he waited a moment to collect his thoughts, "A boy like that can't possibly lead or follow in the Allorum Guardians. We will continue training him but than we'll send him off, he'll only be called on in dire situations."

[Enizo]

Outside the training hall there was a large tree, said to be as old the Mentor himself, this large tree supposedly would give guidance to a troubled Guardian. Many stories of brave Guardians meditating under the tree to find the answers they were looking for were well known among the young Guardians.

After hearing these stories a young boy would approach the tree every morning and beg for some sort of guidance. So on this fifth day when he was meditating under it, a swift gust of wind came a knocked loose an apple... which fell right onto the young boy's head.

"AHHHHH!" The young boy moaned while grabbing at his wounded head before he looked up angrily at the tree and slammed his foot into the old trunk, "WHAT TYPE OF GUIDANCE WAS THAT? I FREAKIN HATE APPLES YOU STUPID TREE!"

Sadly, the young boy didn't notice a group of slightly older group of boys wonder over to him and in mere moments they had circled him.

"Well look at that, the Elf is shaming our great tree!" One of them called. The young boy's face screwed up before growling out:

"I'm not an Elf..."

"Oh right," the other responded, "He's a HALF breed. Even worse!"

"Take that back!" The young boy yelled before rushing right at the older boy. The older boy stopped the young boy with one hand before bringing his other down onto the young boy's face hard.

The crowd lit up in laughter as the young boy fell to the ground and the older boy shoved his face into the dirt, "Eat it half breed!"

[Kazan]

Kazan was skulking off towards his dorms, hoping to sulk the day away in silence without any armoured, masked losers telling him how he should live his life. He had his arms held behind his head and was staring up at the sky, his mood already brightening at the mere prospect of managing to get away from The Mentor for a bit, when he heard a shout.

"Eat it half breed!"

"Oi..?" Kazan stopped, arms still behind his head as he looked to his left towards the Guidance Tree where he saw a group of boys about 15-16, mostly his own age, beating on a kid who couldn't have been any older than 10. He let out a sigh and rolled his shoulders. Relaxing his posture, he walked towards the group with his arms hanging loosely by his sides.

"Dadada... Oi... Marcus..." Kazan said reaching the small group. The leading thug turned around and sneered across at Kazan. "Well, well, well..." He snarled, attempting to square up to Kazan, but not quite managing to reach his size. "If it isn't The Mentors lap dog! Don't you have innocent people to be kill-" He never quite managed to finish his sentence, given that Kazan had swung a left hook straight into his jaw. As Marcus ' head swung away to his own left, Kazan's right hand came up and grasped him by the collar, steadying the bully on his feet.

"Oi, Marcus." He repeated, this time with more authority in his voice. "You're the one picking on a kid half your size." Two more of the thugs came at Kazan. He pushed Marcus backwards, one of the two approaching bullies stopping to grab him whilst the other took a swing at the large Guardian. Kazan ducked low and slammed a right into the guys gut, doubling him over. A fist flew in from the kid who'd caught Marcus, aiming to catch him whilst he was crouched down low, but Kazan swiftly brought a hand up and redirected the punch into the back of the head of the bully currently winded on his knees, who fell to the floor unconscious.

Kazan's left hand which had crossed his body when he parried the punch, came back up from his right hand side to his left, in a close-fisted back hand, which knocked the second bully on to his back. Marcus, who had regained his footing, charged up towards Kazan again, tucking his body down low, aiming to slam his shoulder into the Guardians gut. Kazan braced himself and took the blow, his arm wrapping around Marcus' neck, both arms slipping beneath Marcus', before pulling them back. With an almighty heave, Kazan lifted Marcus off of the ground, and flung him a good seven feet away from his little group of thugs. Kazan turned to face the remaining bullies.

"Are we done now?" He asked, sounding almost bored with the engagement.

[Enizo]

It took a moment for the young boy to lift his face out of the dirt but it was just in time to see Marcus take a hit to his jaw. What proceeded made the boy's eyes light up, the way the teenager fought was comparable to that of a teacher.

This man was obviously some type of young master or something. What a badass.

The remaining bullies simply stared at Kazan with wide eyes before turning around and running away, spewing some vial threats as they ran.

The boy stood up from his ground, wiping some blood away from his nose he stared up at Kazan with his wide eyes. But as the young boy looked around and saw everyone staring over he suddenly felt like his pride had been hurt and his words reflected that very thought, "H-Hey, I didn't need your help. I had everything handled!"

[Kazan]

Kazan gave a simple shrug. He could see that the kid wanted to look bigger and tougher than he was, and that he didn't quite fancy admitting that Kazan had just saved him from a severe beatdown. Ah well, Kazan wasn't a glory-hound anyway, and no matter the kids reaction, he knew he'd done a good thing.

"Whatever." Kazan said with a sigh, throwing his hands behind his head and walking off back in the direction of his dorms, but at last minute, he decided he was hungry, and switched direction for the canteens, having to walk past the kid again, he gave a short wave as he went.

"Next time, I'll leave 'em to you!"