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“You're going to have to do better than that if you want to see the field anytime soon, Keiko.” I was breathing hard already. I had apparently woken up with everyone else, three days after a supposed disaster. I hadn't been allowed outside yet and worst of all Yusuke was going out every few days. I thought he had given up fighting after coming back from demon world; instead he takes the first opportunity to meander back off. Well this time things will be different; I start convincing myself, grabbing at my conviction. I was not going to be left behind again, while he and his friends go off fighting for however many years it will take this time for him to come back.
We had been going steady for almost two years since we inherited the shrine from Genkai, and those were the best years of my life. I couldn't ask for a more dependable guy once he had stuck his mind to staying at home instead of getting dragged off into various battles to save the planet; which if everyone else is to be believed it ended up blowing up anyway.
This led to where I am now, if he's going to run off and fight, so am I. Thankfully Kurama decided to go along with my idea. He spent the first few weeks teaching me basic form, and now we were beginning on what he used to call spirit energy, but here is more universally known as just energy.
I have to admit I was surprised the first time my hands lit up like a Christmas tree, but now it was just taxing. Just forcing that low blue light to move away from my hand causes my back to break out into a cold sweat. Kurama had me working on this, more because he didn't see me as a physical fighter, and partially because he mentioned I already had some abilities since I could see Yusuke's spirit beast.
“Concentrate, gather your thoughts and emotions.” He was droning on, it was almost enough to put me to sleep. I decidedly ignored him, and just focused on my hand, feeling what strength I had left flow into the extended fingertips. The blue light hovered just a bare centimeter off my palm and then sputtered and faded.
“Enough!” I yelled, annoyed now. “I'll try some more later.”
Irritated I made my way down to the housing district, a wide sprawling area that ran out along the tunnel systems under the ground. Since I wasn't a fighter I had a room down here. The place had been hollowed out to look somewhat like a town. There was even a main street and a gathering place for when food was served.
It was cold, dank, and gray; the lights so high up did next to nothing. The sudo-street lamps weren't much help either. The street divided out into allies, each one leading to rows of little one room houses. Some of the townsfolk had been working on getting some plumbing put in, but I was living pretty far outside of the center. Thus I had to use the public baths where the underground stream exited the mountain.
“Help!” I turned to the sound and began running. It wasn't uncommon for people to go mad down here, and some even talk about an offer from the enemy leader. A promise of freedom and power in exchange for loyalty. Most take that to mean they need to present a body. I turned a corner and sure enough a group of three older men were pinning down another young man. Instinct kicked in and I ran up, slamming my open palm into the largest one's face. He hit the wall with a crack, blood spraying across the surface. I guessed he had broken his nose.
Regardless he was out for now, but the other two had turned on me, both had sharpened stone in their hands. I took a step back, placing some distance between us, one of them saw this as weakness and charged. I lowered myself and swung at his exposed gut. He collapsed on the ground, winded, and I stood back up. Kurama had taught me enough that I wasn't afraid of this last guy; but he just grinned at me.
“You think you're pretty tough eh? Think you're going to go out on the field with the big boys? See the world the rest of us can't touch?” He was walking towards me, as he did he dropped his bit of stone. “See, they wouldn't let me out even after I learned a few of their tricks. It's not hard to do now.” As he spoke his hands lit up with white energy. “If you can't even do this much, you're never leaving here. Meanwhile all I have to do is kill you and take your body to the Solarus; then I'm a free man.” A blast of light flew from his hand, I barely got away from a fatal hit, instead my right shoulder cracked under the sudden blow.
The pain was almost unbearable, my shoulder felt like it was on fire. I clutched it, hoping to ease the pain, but as I did my mind tripped on a memory; Yusuke walking back from one of his many fights, his bones shattered in many places, and open wounds littering his skin. Still he was walking as if it didn't matter. It wasn't the power or the training that made him so strong, it was his will; his strength of heart that refused to feel it when his body started to give out.
Determined I bit my tongue and balled my hand into a fist. The guy was already standing over me, thinking he had won. Too late he spotted the focus playing around on my face, and I pushed myself up, fist first. I felt a release as I did, like my fist didn't stop at his gut, but kept going. Looking up I saw why, a line of energy was running out of my hands, carrying the guy far into the air until he ran into the ceiling. Drained I passed out, looking forward to tomorrow's training.
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