Refreshed and rearmed, Yang was ready to set out. She had changed into her heavier, sturdier riding outfit, fitted her arm, painted it, and briefed Blake on the first steps they would be taking on this long journey of theirs.
Blake herself would need new equipment, which they would have to procure elsewhere, as Yang didn't have a second set of gear that either of them would deem sufficient for the task ahead.
All things that always happened.
Teaching Blake about advanced Aura techniques? Entirely new experience. It was going...
...well, it was going.
Yang began, "Alright, I'd like to show you how I work with Aura. However, to do that, you need to be able to see Aura." Noting Blake's rather confused look, she hurried to continue, "I mean, sure, you can already see Aura, but you need to be able to see Aura with Aura."
Blake sat on the bare dirt in the middle of the yard, waiting for Yang to get her act together.
Exasperated, Yang took the moment to collect her thoughts. Doing is easy, teaching is hard. Where to start?
She clapped her hands, "Alright, from the very most basic of basics. What is Semblance, in relation to Aura?"
Blake gave a sigh, "Semblance is the manifestation of Aura, and Aura is the manifestation of the Soul."
"Right, but have you ever thought about what that means? For instance, take my Semblance." She held her left hand out, "My Semblance lights my hair on fire, or rather, turns it into fire," she lit a fireball in her outstretched hand, "but would you ever have thought that I can actually manifest my Aura as fire, without triggering the rest of my Semblance?"
Seeing that the meaning of this was sinking in- such a casual thing was, in actuality, a display of absolute control over her own Semblance- she allowed the fireball to dissipate and resumed speaking, "But you're just starting to learn, so we have to start at the utmost basic of basics, which is controlling your Aura." Seeing that Blake was about to object, she cut her off, "And I don't mean turning it on and off, I mean really controlling it. Focusing it, moving it around, choosing between defensive, enhancing, even healing Aura."
"You can choose?"
Yang gave a small huff, "Well, yes and no. It's kind of complex, and we really shouldn't be focusing on something like that when you can't even control your Aura on the most basic level yet."
"And how do I do that?"
"Well, for me, it helps to envision my Aura as fire or light, then work from there." She held a finger up, "There's only one trick to this, and that's that it's easier to do than you'd expect it to be, especially if your Semblance involves something that is easy to visualize. So, with your Aura raised, imagine your Aura as your shadow, then expand that shadow until you can feel my Aura."
Blake responded, somewhat disbelievingly, "It's really just that simple?"
"It works for me. What works for me might not work for you, but I'm pretty confident that it will. Go ahead and try it."
She reached out with her own Aura- otherwise she wouldn't be able to sense Blake reaching out with hers- and waited for Blake to attempt to scratch the surface of Aura.
Blake began by closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, which was unnecessary, but Yang allowed it for now. The goal was simply to get her to successfully reach out and feel with her own Aura, not to make her do it the most efficient way. Admittedly, at first, it would be hard to see with Aura while also seeing with your eyes, so letting her do that was probably for the best.
But she would need to crack down on her about it later if she persisted in doing it.
It took a moment, but bit by bit, she felt Blake's Aura expand. She heard her breath catch, having just felt Aura with Aura. A rather strange sensation to feel for the first time, to say the least.
"Alright, now expand until you can feel my Soul."
"There's a difference?"
She nodded, "Semblance is the manifestation of your Aura, Aura is the manifestation of your Soul. Your Soul is different in that it is you, while your Aura is a manifestation of it that you can use. It's probably easier for you to just see the difference for yourself."
Blake nodded, taking another deep breath. Yang felt the shadow reach out further, cautiously. Eventually it reached her, and Blake didn't seem as surprised this time, though she did seem puzzled, noting, "It feels so... different.'
Yang nodded again, "Now, try searching for Dad."
Blake nodded, and she felt her shadow expand further, meaning she was about to realize that you can't reach out in all directions infinitely like that. Blake hit her limit about four feet behind her, which would maybe reach the front door of the house, given where Blake was in the yard. It took her a moment, but eventually, the shadow receded, and she experimented a bit with the shape of it. She settled on a needle shape, then repositioned to face the house, and stretched beyond Yang's own field.
Yang formed her own needle, then expanded it upward like a hand fan, performing a quick scan of the nearby woods. Confirming the presence of the red Aura with a dim soul in a distant tree, she returned her attention to Blake, who seemed to be having some trouble locating her father.
"Is he not in the kitchen? I thought he said he was going to make us lunch."
"I already checked the kitchen, he's not there."
"Are you needle-shaped or fanned out?"
"What do you-" Blake cut herself off, realizing mid-sentence what Yang was talking about, "Oh. Oh." Apparently having figured out the fan shape, she almost immediately found Tai, reporting, "He's upstairs looking out the window at us."
She thought for a moment. Clearly, he was still shook up over last night- he had every right to be- but he didn't need to worry about her. She started toward the house, instructing Blake, "Try to do it with your eyes open, I'll talk to him and see what's up." Before she crossed into the house, she shouted, "and try different shapes with it!"
As she ascended the stairs, an idea occurred to her: a live demonstration would certainly help speed things along with Blake's training, something she could safely observe outside of live combat.
Sometimes, it's just easier to show than it is to tell.
Maybe soothing his worries could wait, just a little while.
She burst into the room, and before he could say anything, "Hey, can I get your help with something?"
He managed to get the beginning of a nod out before she was turned around and heading back down the stairs. She was back outside less than a minute from when she moved to go in, and Blake was appropriately surprised, "What happened to talking to him and seeing what was up?"
Yang responded excitedly, "Later, new idea, live demonstration!"
By complete coincidence, both Blake and Tai asked, at the same time "What?"
She started by pointing at Blake, "You sit there and observe with your Aura," she shifted her pointing finger to her father, "as we spar!"
There was silence for a moment, before both agreed, though not with as much enthusiasm as she was hoping for. Deflated, she instructed Blake to sit at the edge of the yard, where she could safely observe from with her Aura. Then, she took her own position in the center, facing her father. He had assumed a ready stance, while she did not. Seeing that he seemed to be waiting for her to assume a ready stance of her own, she told him plainly, "Just come at me whenever you're ready."
He nodded, then began circling her.
She raised her Aura and focused most of it into a single point, then moved that point to the end of her left index finger. With the rest, she reached out and tagged him, to maintain awareness of him even in what would normally be a blind spot. To the untrained observer, she appeared to stand still, not even bothering to turn to face her father as he circled.
He picked his angle and went in for his first strike, coming in from behind and to the left, which would normally be a blind spot, as she was still facing the way she had been.
He brought his left leg up for a kick, which she moved to intercept with her finger, stopping it cold against the point of focused Aura, his Aura flickering slightly in response. He brought his foot back down and threw a right-handed punch, which would land on the back of her head.
From where her finger was to where it would need to go, it might take too long to move into position to intercept. Aura was far less limited, so she moved the point to the back of her head instead, again stopping him cold, and again his Aura flickered.
He leapt back, attempting to figure out what she had done. She turned her head to look at him, noting that he was no worse for wear, his Aura hardly diminished despite taking the full brunt of his own blows. They were light then, most likely only probing strikes.
He seemed to take a moment to assess the situation. She figured that he would go for more refined probing strikes next, seeing as his initial probe was met with an impenetrable, invisible wall for all he could tell.
She took the initiative this time, moving in while feeding Aura into her arm, enhancing the muscles within... apparently more than her seventeen year old, somewhat out of shape arm could handle. Muscles tore under the strain, not prepared to bear the straight power-up that she tried to force upon it.
She lamented not having a twenty year old, war-ready body anymore.
Tai stepped to the side, easily evading her as she was distracted by the pain in her arm.
Thankfully, Aura is good for that. She focused her Aura around her arm, allowing the normal healing effect to begin, forcing it further than it would normally go due to it being held there, until there was nothing left to repair. Still, healing anything more complex than small cuts drained considerably more Aura, meaning that she had just accidentally put herself in a weaker position.
This was not at all going well, but at least Blake was getting lots of material to look at.
Tai took the opportunity to close in again, throwing another punch at her back. Yang focused her Aura into a single point again, now with considerably less to work with, blocking but not quite stopping the blow. Now, he would register that he felt something, and that something gave way a bit.
He actually seemed concerned with her complete lack of basic combat strategies, "Are you not going to even try to dodge anything I do?"
"I would if I were doing this for fun or for practice. But, this is mostly for Blake's benefit." She considered for a moment, then continued, "Although, I've already utilized, or tried to utilize, the basic Aura techniques that she needed to see. And, seeing as I've used up a good chunk of my Aura to heal a self-inflicted injury, we should probably go ahead and stop."
He relaxed his stance, now having his turn at deflating, "Oh. Wait, when did you hurt yourself?"
She raised her left arm, "Tried to put some more oomph behind a punch with Aura, turns out my body wasn't ready for that, tore up a bunch of muscles."
He asked, rather disbelievingly, "How old are you, again?"
"Biological age or actual age? One I can answer, the other I stopped counting."
"Why would you do something like that if you're so old and, supposedly, so experienced?"
"Because, a few months ago, I had a twenty year old body that had been trained to handle that sort of thing. Now I'm seventeen again, my body is weaker, I usually don't try to use Aura like that in my sparring, especially against you, especially this early in."
"I suppose that makes sense," he conceded.
"And besides, we really need to get going. Bit of a tight schedule on the first event we need to get to, lives at stake, long distance to cover in a short time." She did a quick scan of the forest again, confirming that Raven was still there.
Shortcuts are great, if only she were willing to come down and talk to me...
And then she disappeared. Which was about right, given the time. Off to talk to Qrow...
"Really, right now?"
"Yes, right now." She turned to Blake, who had already pulled Bumblebee out of the shed, "You remember how to start it up, right?"
Blake responded by revving the bike up, adding, "I'll even drive the first leg if you want."
Yang was quick to respond, "Sure, why not? I know you've driven bikes before, and it's not all that far to the port."
Blake did not seem excited at the prospect, apparently having made the offer in jest.
Tai seemed to be on the verge of laughter, "Wow. If I didn't believe that you had been looping through time, I'd ask who you were and where my daughter went!"
She turned back to her father, genuinely puzzled- and making a mental note of another inconsistency- asking, "What?"
"The Yang I know would never let anybody else touch Bumblebee, unless..." he regarded Blake, "maybe..." a small smile formed on his face as he said it, gaining entirely too much insight into her reasoning for her liking.
Yang didn't really have a response for that, trying and failing to not blush. Thankfully, Blake couldn't see her face from where she was, as she was pulling Bumblebee around in preparation to set off. Before they could go, Yang wanted to have some parting words- not a thing she ever needed to do, but something she always did anyway.
"So, have you decided what you'll do?"
He lost his mirth at that, responding, "Not yet. If things are going to be as hectic as you say, I don't really know how much help I'll be. Honestly, I'd probably just try to convince Ruby to come home, but you know how she is."
She nodded, knowing exactly what he meant. She hesitated, debating whether or not to go off her beaten path. So much has already changed, even if it is a bunch of small things. Presumably they won't effect much.
What's one more?
She started, suddenly considerably more serious, "You know, a very, very long time ago, you told me that it's sometimes better to work around your problems than it is to confront them head-on. Obviously, I've had considerably more time to address my problems than anybody else probably ever has or will." She saw that his face was now just as serious as hers, she continued, "I've overcome my old problems... including Mom. But, because of the whole looping thing, any progress she makes is just... gone."
He thought for a moment before responding, "So you've... turned her around before?"
"Well, I wouldn't say turned around, more... shown her a new direction she can go with her life."
"If you've done it before, I'm sure you can do it again." He have a slight chuckle, "Now that I think about it, you probably know her better than I ever did."
"Before you get excited, I can't guarantee that she'll come back to you, to us. I'm just saying that she'll be..." she searched for a word that would fit, finding none in particular, and settling on, "...better."
"Yang, look. If this is something you know you can do, and that you want to do, you don't need my approval to do it. But if it puts you at ease, I'll give it. Considering that you aren't currently a marauding bandit, and that you've apparently managed to turn Raven into a better person consistently, I don't really have a problem with it."
That was considerably more relieving to hear than she thought it would be.
She gave him a quick hug before getting on Bumblebee's rear seat, and she and Blake started the first leg of their journey to Mistral.
Some minutes later, and too far down the road to go back, especially after she insisted that they were on a tight schedule, she realized that neither of them ate lunch.
Oh well. Her being slightly hungry for a day wouldn't cause Adam to suddenly decide to delay his assassination attempt on Sienna, and they really were on a tight schedule for that.
Unless a certain bird could be convinced to take them straight to Mistral, that is...
Then she remembered that she really should've asked Blake if she actually learned anything from watching the short match. Something she would have to remember for next time.
This is going to be a long iteration...
