Kiyoshi: It's good to know you actually learn something at school.

FCL64: Hm?

Kiyoshi: As opposed to, oh I don't know, ignoring your teachers and writing random fanfics instead?

FCL64: I have no idea what you're talking about. Readers, please disregard anything he says. He's crazy.

Kiyoshi: I'm trapped in your head with no one else to talk to. Who wouldn't be crazy?

FCL64: *frowns* Anyway, we only own Kayden. Oh, and there's a Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves reference too. (It's the Robin Hood with Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman and Allan Rickman.) Speaking of Robin Hood—

Kiyoshi: They don't need to hear a discourse on how you spent nearly twelve hours in one day watching five different versions of the same story. Kayden, go. Just go.

I take the knife from his hand. "What is it you want me to do?" I ask.

"What is it you can do?" he counters. I scowl. "Kayden," he sighs. "I need a baseline to build on. It makes no difference where you are. I just need to know so I'm not re-teaching or teaching something you can't possibly be expected to master yet."

I nod. I suppose that makes sense. I force my aura into the knife. All I can do is make the metal change shape. A spoon. I'll cut his heart out with it. It's dull. It'll hurt more. Like he said, my dagger is too sharp if I'm going for pain.

I glare at the knife. Come on! Calm, Kayden. Try to visualize every… separate… molecule. Why won't it change, damn it?

Slowly, slowly, the stubborn material begins to take on a different shape. Okay. I can do this. It continues changing, not quickly but not as slowly either.

After about a minute, the intricately decorated knife has transformed into a plain, boring spoon. But it's recognizable as a spoon. I'm breathing heavily. I sure as hell hope he can tell it's from frustration not exertion. I shove the spoon into his hand. "There. Happy?"

He doesn't look happy. He doesn't look anything. In fact, I don't think a single muscle in his face has changed at all. But suddenly he gives me a small smile. "Yes, Kayden," he answers. "I am happy. You made your skill sound less than it is. This makes my job easier. I don't need to explain complicated concepts. You know what you need to do, at least for now."

"For now?" I ask skeptically.

"Summoning is a slightly different and more complicated process than simple control," he answers. "For now, restrain your hatred for it will be what holds you back. Just practice. That's the only thing that will truly help you improve."

"Practice makes perfect," I mutter.

"Exactly," he says. He hands me the spoon. "First, return this to its original shape—details included." Damn it. "There are more in the kitchen if you need to compare. After that experiment with whatever metals you can find, weapons excluded. I'd imagine that the chemical composition of the metals would make a difference."

Yes. Very much. But I have also noticed that the value people place on the material makes a difference. Gold is a soft metal, but to manipulate it with my mind is at least as difficult as controlling steel.

He walks toward the door. "If you need anything, I'll be outside with Yusuke and Hiei." There is a loud crash, followed by several more thunderous noises. "Speaking of," he mutters, "It appears they're both too stupid to restrain themselves from combat." He runs out the door.

I sit at the table and concentrate. I get the knife back to the point where it's almost identical to those in the drawer. Almost. But not exactly. He'll notice the difference.

Damn. Why won't it change? Oh, screw it. I grab another knife and focus. If this works, it'll be a test of how observant he is. Hmmm. Odd. It perfectly matches the other. Already.

Maybe it's my desire to spite him. I work, methodically altering every single knife to match the first. There. All identical. Only problem is, they were part of a matching set.

I dump the knives back into the drawer and carefully rework the details of the rest of the silverware to match the knives. There. All different.

Hours later…

"Let me see your knife," Kurama suddenly commands Yusuke. Yusuke shrugs and hands it over.

He sets the two side by side on the table and analyzes them.

"Whatcha doin', Kurama?" Jin asks, shoveling in food.

Kurama ignores him. "Fascinating," he mutters. He looks up at me. "These knives are not the same, Kayden."

Oh yes they are. They're just not the same as before. I shrug. "I did my best." I continue eating. It's all just as gross as ever.

He on the other hand picks up his fork and compares it to the knives. Finally he says, "That's what I find fascinating, Kayden. You did a fantastic job. They're all exactly the same."

"You just said they're different," Yusuke notes, stealing his knife.

"Care to explain, Kayden?" Kurama asks expectantly.

"I tried to do as you asked," I say, glaring at him. I'm not even trying to hide my dislike anymore. "But I couldn't force myself to comply strictly to your request."

He watches me a moment. When he sees I'm serious, he begins to laugh. That bastard. "You hate me so much, and you are so stubborn that you would rather do all that extra work than do exactly as I asked," he laughs.

"At least I'm unpredictable," I say as mildly as I can manage.

"Yes," he admits. "I cannot honestly say I was expecting you to change all the silverware."

"Because honesty is definitely your strong suit," I mutter.

He snorts into the glass of tea he's taking a drink of. "How true."

The next day…

I drag myself out of bed and watch as the others yawn and sit up. Kurama decided last night it would be best if we all stay in one room. Easier for him to drag us all out of bed in the mornings, he said. Whatever. He's just trying to make me an easier target.

We eat a disgusting portion of breakfast then he sets us down and begins drilling us on tactics. And strategies. It's like we're playing a game of war.

"Any one of you has the potential to be a general in any of the strongest armies of the demon plane," he suddenly says, as though answering my unspoken thought. "You need to know these things. You need to be able to determine if the reward outweighs the risk or the sacrifice."

After a while, he divides us up and sets us to work playing chess. I'm up against Shura. No surprise there. What is a surprise is that the game seems to drag on and on forever. It takes each of us a long while to make a move. I can see that, like me, he is analyzing each of his possible moves. Weighing the risks and the benefits, the pros and the cons.

Ah, there we go. I move my bishop diagonally two spaces. "Checkmate," I say.

He reaches out and knocks over his king. Then he shakes my hand. "Good game," the kid says. "But I'll beat you in combat this afternoon."

"Maybe," I admit. "But he has this habit of pointing out that strategy is at least as important as power."

Shura smiles. "I actually kind of like you. Why don't you like him?"

"I've already told everyone that," I answer coldly. "He abandoned my mother. If you tell anyone who my father is, I will kill you."

He nods. Then Yusuke calls out, "Are you two finally finished?"

"What do you mean finally?" I ask.

"The rest of us are almost done with our third game," Toya answers. "You've been at that one game for more than three hours. Checkmate."

I glance at the clock. Wow. "Damn it," Yusuke curses. "That's the third one I've lost in a row."

Kurama nods. "Yusuke, play Kayden. Shura, play Toya."

I sit down at the chessboard with Yusuke. He doesn't seem to have much of a plan. He doesn't think through the possible consequences of each move. It isn't long before he's trapped. "Checkmate."

"Kurama," he demands. "Is this necessary?"

"Losing is good for your ego, Yusuke," Kurama answers.

"Losing would be good for your ego, too," I mutter.

He smiles. "That sounds like a challenge. I'll be over in a moment." He proceeds to quickly decimate Jin's troops, leaving nothing but the king. Two more moves and he says, "Checkmate."

He stands and walks over to me. "Well, Kayden? Are you up for a challenge?"

"Always," I hiss.

We sit down and start the game. It goes even more slowly than my game with Shura. Damn it. Why can't I—crap. Why'd I do that? I lose one of my rooks. Then one of my bishops and several pawns.

I capture one of his knights and both his bishops and nearly all the pawns have vanished from the board when he finally checkmates my king. He frowns. "I'm disappointed, Kayden. You didn't show nearly the amount of skill in this game as you did in your game with Shura. It would appear that my presence has a detrimental effect on your abilities."

"I wonder why."

He laughs at my sarcasm. "Time for lunch."

Lunch really isn't that bad, as much as I hate to admit it. Perhaps I'm just getting used to the junk he's feeding us.

Then he leads us outside. "Time to fight. Shura, Kayden, fight one on one. Chu, Link and Suzuki against Toya and Jin." He frowns in disapproval. "Yusuke, Hiei. I know neither of you will listen to me, so I suppose you can spar while I watch them. But not too much damage, okay? Yusuke, I want you alive so I can help Hiei pummel you."

"You wish."

So these matchups aren't necessarily even, not even as far as number of people goes.

With Kurama watching us, Shura and I begin to fight. Damn it, what the hell was that? No! I fall to the ground, and he's suddenly standing over me. "You're dead," he says. "I told you I'd win." Then he offers me a hand. I reluctantly take the boy's hand, and he helps me to my feet.

Kurama looks at us and says, "Nice control, Shura. Kayden, next thing we need to work on is integrating your metal into your fight. You were taken completely off guard."

Without waiting for a reply he says, "Fight again. Keep repeating until one of you is completely at the mercy of the other." He turns and walks off to fight with Yusuke and Hiei, just as there's a huge explosion from the same direction. "Damn it," he curses. Did he just lose a bit of his self-control? "Those two have no restraint."

Reviews...

animegrlsteph: better than a steak knife... or a paring knife... or a butcher knife... or a sword... or brains... or an axe...

FireStorm1991: Me=making the training up as I go along because all I know about it is that it's super intense and they like to complain about it. But it's fun to write. ;)

Aristania: AGREED!