Chapter Ten: Training Days

Donna POV

Donna looked with barely contained glee as the nurse moved to cut her cast off on a Saturday three weeks later. The past three weeks had been very, very boring without the option to train at all. Still, it was only three months into a ten month school year.

Her mother was not pleased to hear how much repairing the courtyard would cost. At least she wouldn't be paying the whole price tag, though.

Once she was cleared to leave the infirmary, she headed to the courtyard where Morgan, Robin and Lilo were still working. Repairing the courtyard had made up the majority of their detention time, with some clerical work here and there.

"How are you chowderheads not done yet?" Donna asked.

Morgan growled as he carefully set a cobblestone into its place. "Waiting for materials, weather, being pulled to do other tasks, landscaping and there being a lot of overall damage. Take your pick."

Robin dumped a bag of sand into a hole, presumably where she had taken a rock from. "Also, we've been told to not use our Semblances on this one. It'd make it too easy. This is a punishment."

"I just Fukurou had stayed to help. We could've used his strength on this one." Lilo griped, struggling with a couple of cobblestones to hand to Morgan.

"Yeah, where did he go, anyway?" Donna wondered.

"He had a mission. He said it came straight from Ironwood. Either way, it was important. Trust me, we'd probably be done by now if Ki had stayed." Morgan explained. "He's… kind of a beast with this sorta stuff, if you'll pardon the pun."

Donna crossed her arms. "I still can't believe you didn't tell us about him. Or Aoi. We're a team, we're supposed to be able to tell each other things."

Morgan growled, eyes shifting red. "Well, sorry if I have issues trusting people with my emotions after getting constantly stabbed in the back. I just unloaded on Ki all of the shit I've been feeling over the past four years. You know, about my parents dying. This kinda shit ain't easy for me so I'd appreciate it if you got off my ass about it."

Donna raised her hands in an apologetic gesture. "Alright, I'm sorry. How close to done with the courtyard are you?"

Morgan shrugged and glanced at Lilo. "It looks like we're on the last little bit of it. Depending on weather and circumstances, we should finish in a couple hours. 'Should', of course, being the operative word." the duelist explained.

Donna nodded. "Alright. Well, I'll leave you to it. I'm gonna go train. I haven't been able to practice for almost a month and I want to make up for lost time."

They bade their farewells and Donna made her way to the main sparring arena. She changed out of her uniform and slipped on her skirted bodysuit and sandals and strapped on her armor. She also made sure to apply her makeup, especially her eyeshadow, as she had had to go without it for the last three weeks. She hadn't gotten it to look right with only one hand.

After she had gotten ready, she strutted onto the field and readied a few training bots. By a 'few', she meant about thirty. Real ambitious for her first day back to training, it seemed.

She'd set the bots on a two minute timer, giving her enough time to power up to Wrath Mode and get ready.

She charged her Aura up with a long shout, the blue and gold barrier gleaming around her. Lightning played around her body. Her hair and eyes lightened a shade and her eyes gained gold flecks. Her hair stood on end in spikes.

Once in Wrath Mode, she drew her trident and waited for the bots to start. After a few moments, all of the drones had rushed her.

She leapt into the air and let loose a powerful volley of electrified plasma that offlined six of the bots. She landed and began hacking and slashing through the crowd, taking them down one by one.

Of course, the training bots were notoriously weak for older or just more powerful students so it took more of them to provide a challenge depending on who you were.

For Donna, they were basically all just fodder, just one strike from her trident enough to fell one or more depending on the strike, even three weeks rusty.

She ducked to dodge a kick from the last training bot and retaliated with another blast of lightning, frying its circuits and bringing it down.

She used her trident to push herself back up onto her feet with an acrobatic flourish and powered down from Wrath Mode, her hair falling in curtains around her face.

Having satisfyingly shaken her rust off, she stowed her weapon and armor in her locker but kept the bodysuit on and made her way to a Bullhead to head into town, redoing her braid on the way, another thing she'd had to go three weeks without.

She essentially treated herself to a night out on the town. She refilled her makeup case, bought new haircare products, even splurged a little and got a cute little azure blue number. Knee length skirt, strapless, open back and a deep sweetheart neckline.

She also went to her favorite restaurant and got her usual lakerda. Not as good as the version her mother made but still very good. She finished her meal, saving a portion of it for Lilo.

When she got back to the dorm, it was about nine at night. Robin and Lilo were studying together and Morgan was doing push ups shirtless.

"How long have you been at that, chowderhead?" Donna asked.

The feline Huntsman rolled his eyes. "Since about eight thirty, I think. And why do you keep calling me chowderhead?!"

"Because I want to. Also, you broke my arm." she retorted.

Morgan rolled his eyes again, keeping up with the push ups. His form was incredible and the sweat glistening off of his chiseled muscles made Donna's mind wander… somewhere else. I swear, I need to just talk to Lilo about this… she thought.

"I see bags. What'd you get?" Lilo asked.

Donna put her bags down on the couch. "Makeup, hair stuff and this adorable dress I saw. I hope there's a dance this school year because I would slay!"

She heard Morgan scoff while grunting in exertion. "I don't get you people and large social gatherings and fancy clothes. Why not just wear what's comfortable? Easy to move or fight in? Why intentionally limit your movements?"

"Because one must also look good! Fabulous, even, depending on the occasion! Fighting may be one of my joys and my chosen profession but fashion and the social arts are equally important to me. I must make sure that I am the best looking girl at any social event. We Aquarias do have a reputation for being exceptionally beautiful." Donna explained.

Morgan growled in exertion as he kept doing push ups. "You realize how pretentious you sound? I guess I get looking good but why do you have to look the best? It honestly sounds like you need validation from other people to feel good about yourself. Donna, you are incredibly powerful for your age. Why do you need other people's approval? Why not be satisfied with your own image of yourself?"

Donna hesitated. She didn't actually have a response to that question. "Huh. I don't actually know. I mean, I was raised to always keep up appearances and to always strive to be the best, so I guess that's part of it but… does it actually seem like I need validation to feel good about myself? Really?" she asked.

Morgan pushed off with his feet and started doing handstand push ups. "Eh, sorta. Like I said, you're powerful enough to not really give a shit what most people think about you. So, why do you care? Honestly, why?"

Donna shrugged. "Honestly, I don't even know at this point. Are you guys done with the courtyard, yet?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah, finally. I still can't believe it took so long. But I guess we did really trash it." Robin said, shaking her head.

Lilo groaned. "Tell me about it! I've never actually had to clean up after a fight before. Three friggin' weeks of just menial labor! I'd honestly much rather do some clerical crap for detention than that. I didn't even cause any of it!" he griped.

Morgan shrugged. "I just treated it like extra training. Anything can be turned into training if you try hard enough."

Donna, Robin and Lilo just shook their heads. "Is that really all you think about, Morgan?" Lilo asked.

Morgan shrugged again. "Well, fighting's fun. It makes me happy."

Donna shook her head and chuckled. "Whatever." She sat down on the couch and flipped the TV on. "Well, I'm gonna watch some cartoons."

Morgan POV

The next couple of months passed by relatively quickly and were far from eventful. Morgan did keep in contact with Kiokami and Aoi, who bounced around the world on missions from the Atlesian military.

Mostly, it was just a lot of training. Donna's mercs hadn't found anything on Blanc Senior, so Morgan had focused on perfecting Serenity Mode. It took a lot of meditating, breathing exercises and plain hard work but he became quite proficient with the form, though it did still take quite a lot of Aura to activate.

He also took the time to train with Berserker Mode, working the kinks out with that form. The issues with Berserker were the opposite of Serenity. Where Serenity cost a lot of Aura to activate but had next to no stamina drain, Berserker cost next to nothing to activate but the stamina drain was severe.

He was able to get rid of Berserker's stamina drain but not how much Aura it took to go into Serenity. The mode was exceptionally difficult to master and he was prone to flickering in and out of it depending on his emotional state. That did provide him with practice with staying calm, however.

His temper was nowhere near as violent, nor was it as unpredictable.

On one Thursday evening, they were finishing up another training session with Greene, with Morgan versus his three teammates.

Morgan was in Serenity Mode, dodging every attack they were sending at him. All three of them were beginning to tire out, Donna in Wrath Mode putting the most power in, with Robin and Lilo running support.

Morgan hadn't lost any stamina at all and was still at a hundred percent. All three of them attacked Morgan with everything they had but they still couldn't even touch him. He even handicapped himself, not using his weapons while the others were.

He closed his eyes for a few moments, relying on his hearing and Aura sense. His movements were a blur to even him as he dodged and blocked every incoming strike.

He roared, a deep and rumbling sound, as his teammates rained blow after blow onto him, none of which were effective. The sound was loud enough to shake the window in Greene's office.

He opened his eyes again and thrust his hands forward, unleashing a massive blast of electrified plasma at the group. Robin raised earth shields for herself and Lilo and Donna met the attack with one of her own.

Donna struggled against Morgan's blast for a few moments before having to cut power to her blast and diving out of the way.

Morgan cut power to his attack and went to continue the fight but Greene cut in before he could. "Alright, I think that's enough for now. All four of you have improved considerably in these lessons. But, honestly Rubrum? I don't think there's much I have left to teach you. I'd say practice and try to master your powers on your own. You don't need my training any more." she said, actual pride in her voice.

Morgan powered down and nodded at her, a smirk on his face.

AN: A bit of a short one and not really exciting when you compare it to the last one but not every chapter is going to be a massively important one. This is basically showing just how much Morgan's grown in power and skill since the first chapter. Next time, though, will have major relationship growth for all parties.

Alright, review and let me know what you think of the chapter! Until the next one!