Chapter 6: Aura

Yang is walking to the cabin when her scroll starts ringing, she looks at the caller and recognizing it as her dad, quickly answers. A blonde man appears on screen, telling her that he will be late today due to complications at the outskirts of town, and asks her to train Kuro in aura manipulation. She hums in excitement and thought as she begins thinking of ways to train the unfortunate soul.

The door opens as Yang enters. Kuro was sitting on the couch using the silver-black scroll, "Huh, was the gift I bought for him colored?" She shrugged the thought off as the prospect of training him is higher than some scroll. He looks back as she waves at him.

"How's your first day at Signal?" Kuro places his Grimoire in his pocket and goes to Yang to help her carry her stuff, she thanks him while flashing a grin.

"It was fun! The initiation was about fighting other students and grimm. I kicked their asses of course. So, ready for your training! Dad was called to do a hunt, so he told me to train you in his stead."

He looks at Yang, noticing her clothes were soiled with dirt and grime, presumably from the fighting, and tells her to freshen up as she gives him some spare clothes.

Kuro is outside the cabin, wearing a black training attire, coupled with extra books that Yang gave him as reference material for his lesson, standing over a large empty field nearby, with training equipment scattered throughout. He looks at her running over faster than trained athletes on earth, she jumps over him, landing on a tall rock. Her body is being covered in yellow light as she readies her arm, dropping it into the rock and splitting it in half. Kuro looks dumbfounded at the display of power as Yang jumps to his side, looking proud of her handiwork

"I haven't paid that much attention last time, but seeing it in front of you is different compared to watching it on a screen."

"Alright, had enough of my awesome strength? I couldn't even do this before my semblance appeared."

Yang is wearing yellow training clothes, waiting for a few seconds to cool down, she sits in front of Kuro as she begins talking about aura while clutching a book.

"So, we'll start with aura and its boring part, history. Even before dust was discovered, humanity relied on the power of their souls to protect themselves from the grimm, some say it was a gift from the gods, or it was from a remnant of a bygone age. Personally, I think humanity is just that awesome! Ehem. Despite the threat of the grimm, thanks to aura, humanity survived and used their knowledge to prosper throughout the land."

'How did she turn into a teacher from a brawler? Whatever, I better record this stuff so I can use it later. I'm sure she wouldn't mind.' Kuro took the grimoire out and starts recorded everything she said

"The first aura users used this ability for good, and painstakingly learned and taught its children what they have gained and discovered. Over time, both good and bad people used aura, with kings creating armies for their own selfish goals, until the great war, where its awful effects are felt even today, with Vacuo being the most evident, their once beautiful gardens turned into sand. People were helpless against themselves, until the formation of the 4 academies, with the creed of protection of common people against grimm. With techniques owned by ancient families now publicly spread, regaining the advantage against the dark forces became possible. Now you might think in the long history of man, we should know all about aura, but even in this modern age, aura is still a mystery to everyone, however, there is progress on this front."

Controlling her aura, Kuro saw a thin layer of yellow light slowly covering her as she explained the ability's details. Yang is pleased that he's fully listening to her lesson.

"Aura is the power of the soul, the life force of every living creature, except grimm, because they have no soul. Unlocking it passively improves every physical aspect of your body, sight, reflexes, strength, even thinking speed and many more, aura grows with you as you get older. Now, this is an upside for us ladies, unlocked aura also slows skin degradation, meaning that even in my 50s I'll still look as sexy as today, this however doesn't make you live longer. Nobody knows why."

"Considering that most hunters died from fighting even before gray hairs start appearing, I think they don't want to say it." Kuro thought about the statistics he read in one of the protected files in the hunter database.

"As you improve your control over your aura, as well as your body, you can get much stronger and faster, and once trained or lucky enough, you can discover an ability unique to each individual called a semblance, each semblance is different, ranging from being even stronger than what aura passively gives you, to controlling plants, even distorting the opponent's mind."

Yang grabs Kuro's hand, making them both stand up as she poses a defensive stance, clearly excited.

"I found out what my semblance is during the initiation! I want to show it to you! Now try to hit me."

Kuro still has reservations about hitting a member of the opposite sex. Yang knows what he is thinking as she assures him.
"Are you sure?"

Yang nods as he punches her with all his might, barely moving the blonde. Looking at her, it seems like her aura changes somehow. He couldn't put his finger on it. Yang grins at the boy, confident of her body.

"As if I'd be hurt by a newbie."

Both of them go to a punching machine, which can display the amount of power a fighter can give off. Yang punches the machine, smacking it and setting up a new record under her name.

"Now, I call my semblance 'burn'. I know, I'm awesome, it makes me tougher and can store kinetic energy from damage. I could use that energy to strengthen myself or let it out to deal one big hit. My dad also told me it makes my eyes red when I use the energy. Which I think makes me even more cooler and awesome"

Kuro saw the moment when her eyes turned red while using her semblance, it makes her scarier, but also predictable since opponents can take advantage of that. It suits her brash and forward personality.

"It suits you, You like to take it in all then blast it out. Like a juggernaut."

Yang smiles at the compliment and makes her smugger.

"Thanks! I like that word, it really speaks to me."

Kuro, excited about aura, cannot wait for her to continue teaching.

"Aura is awesome! Can't wait to do all those awesome moves."

Yang calms him down as she continues explaining.

"Don't get too excited, there are also downsides when it comes to using the soul as physical protection, first and most importantly, our emotions are more susceptible to the detection of grimm, literally turning our souls like a beacon. This is also why I decided that I am at fault, maybe you were feeling a negative emotion at that time, but compared to me, yours might just be emitting a small flame, while mine is a blazing fire in the dark. Alerting every grimm nearby. Don't worry, we got out alive and that's what matters."

"Huh, it looks like Yang is already over it, how very strong of her." Kuro thought, since she's gotten past her sadness, He decides to not let that incident get in the way of his emotions again.

"Is this also why not every person has their auras activated?"

She nods as she flipped the book into the grimm section, showing a cute art style of a sad face and grimm going to it.

"Yep, people found out that negative feelings forcefully attract young grimm, putting them into a mindless frenzy, even grimm that learned to avoid humans can't resist the pull if it's strong enough, even though they'll know that going to human civilization involves them dying."

She brought out a medical book in the aura section and she flips it towards some grotesque images, making Kuro uncomfortable, but still listening.

"Second is that we have increased metabolism, this makes our figures like a model unless your semblance is body-related, while this might seem like a blessing, we eat a lot more food, increasing the cost of living, and once you don't eat for a day you'll look drier than Vacuo on a hot day. This is why most hunters or people with unlocked auras generally go to fighting institutions because they can provide them food as one of the benefits of learning there. Fortunately, grimm hunting pays well."

She threw the pile of books towards the nearby table, beckoning Kuro to sit across her.

"Newbies like you can't control aura that well unless you get some meditation. Passively, it prevents you from getting hurt, like this."

Yang threw a rock toward the focused Kuro at high speed, surprising him. Before the rock hit him, a small film of silver light appeared, bouncing the rock away from him, while he felt fine, that kind of force would've bruised his arms. Glaring at the perpetuator he frowns.

"Couldn't you just punch me instead of surprising me?"

She laughs, getting amused at the look she is getting.

"Are you sure? I'm confident that I hit harder than that rock. Besides, you need to get used to surprise attacks. Now, in order to control it, you need to clear out your mind and try to use your aura. Usually, it takes a few tries for people to get it, it's like using a muscle that suddenly appeared."

Kuro closed his eyes, trying to feel his aura. When he was calling out Grimoire, he was just calling out in his mind, not using the aura itself, but he did feel something else in the process. Dozens of minutes later, he felt a warm sensation surrounding his body, calming him, like he is being felt complete, opening his eyes, he hears Yang congratulating him.

"Great! You might feel like you are complete or any satisfying feeling, that is normal in the beginning, in time, you will get used to it."

Trying out various aura exercises, the pair both trained for a few hours, Kuro now felt more in control of his body, which is a great thing for him, as he was messing up in the kitchen due to his randomly increasing strength at weird times. Making him just slouch in the living room for fear of breaking something. Bringing his aura into his body, the two stop just before dinner, carrying back all the books into the cabin.

As the two are walking.

"Not bad for your first time, just remember, using aura in any way will reduce your reserves, so don't activate it at all times, it will automatically protect you from harm anyways."

Nodding at the blonde, Kuro tries to control the strengthening aspect of his aura, as the weight of the pile of books he was carrying is rapidly changing, or more aptly, the weight limit that his arms can carry is rapidly changing. He felt weirded out by this exercise Yang gave him. Although it was paying dividends as his aura control is progressing quite well.

"Thanks to you Yang, I don't need a few weeks just figuring out what to do now that my aura is unlocked, you're amazing."

Grinning at the boy, Yang smoothly invites him to a meal.

"No problem. So, you up for a nice dinner? I bought some more of that steak noodle you enjoyed last night."

Kuro still focusing on the exercise thought it was great to taste the dish again, answers normally, not noticing the girl's disappointment.

"That be great."

AN:

I'm basing the aura power on the definition of life from earth, like bacteria.

Viruses are not considered to be alive so that doesn't have aura. It did adapt however to infecting aura-based individuals though.

More info on Yang's Semblance:
Passively makes her sturdier and stronger, that is why she could punch through a rock.

Punching her will convert the damage/kinetic energy to 1: 0.75 conversion. Can use stored energy to deal damage, can accumulate. Damaging self will not convert to kinetic energy.(Conversion can become better if she trains. Can evolve.)

Imagine that her usual punch is about 3000 newtons. For example, if I punch 1000 newtons of force she will gain 750 stored energy. When she activates it she will deal 3000 + 750 newtons if she punches me. Huh, it's like a new resource bar in open rpg.

The downside is that it reduces the aura's resistance to pain, so she feels more pain than a usual aura user. Maybe a positive since she will have a high pain tolerance?

Since her aura reduces resistance to pain, and instead of fully resisting the damage it converts it, aura usage is slow. Except for one big hit that even she can't handle.

Will have special effects on using it to silver (the metal).