Ice Obsession chapter 2

"Eh?" Mannen questioned the lady.

"I'm from Leafania. You will train under me. It will be hard so if you want to quit, quit now."

"You're kidding..." Mannen shook his head. "I'll do it."

Chiyome smiled. "We'll start tomorrow. Get some rest. There's a room down the hall." Mannen nodded then turned and left down the hall of the house Chiyome lived in.

Chiyome's house looked too big for only one person and he wondered why. Who was she in Leafania? Why had she come here? Mannen wasn't tired enough to sleep so he currently laid on his back on the bed that was in the almost empty room.

He looked over to see a door that led outside. Mannen sat up for a second before curiously heading to the door and opening it. The light from the room laid on the floor outside. He looked out and saw fireflies then looked back at the ground. He saw his shadow then unexpectedly another shadow walk across. Mannen shot around but no one was in the room but himself.

Mannen closed the door then walked back into the room. The door to the hall was also closed. The boy slowly walked around and noticed places on the wood floor that creaked. There was a closet in the room so he opened it to see darkness. There was on thing interesting in the closet; box sat on the floor. Mannen took it out and dusted it off with his had then sneezed as the dust became airborne. The box was old, plain and was painted a dark blue.

The ice knight opened it and it begun to play a song, which Mannen didn't recognize. It was a nice sound but soon Mannen felt as though someone was watching him. He turned around but there was no one.

Mannen closed the music box and placed it back in the closet.

"What are you doing" Mannen turned to see Chiyome. "with that?"

"I was just looking."

"Careful with that."

"Why?" Chiyome ruffled Mannen's hair while Mannen pulled his head away to get her to stop. She turned to leave. "Wait! Why?" Chiyome stopped then turned to him.

"You'll find out tomorrow." she said before leaving, closing the door behind her.

Mannen sighed then turned off the light and laid back on his bed. It was a while before Mannen allowed sleep to claim him.

-Dream-

Mannen wasn't sure where he was. He knew he was in the forest and that in front of him stood an old well. He looked around but saw no one. Mannen looked back to the well and began to approach it. He was close to it when the dream started to slip away. Suddenly, it was gone when he felt a pain in his stomach and quickly woke up.

"What the hell!" Mannen sat up as far as he could. Chiyome stood next to him with her foot on his stomach, she grinned.

"Finally awake." Chiyome took her foot off of his stomach. She was holding a black fold up fan.

"What was that for?" Mannen yelled.

"Listen!" Chiyome started. "I'm you're teacher now so shut up and do as I say!" she yelled back. "Unless you want to get kicked out of here and I won't teach you." Mannen growled but said nothing. "Good. Now eat then meet me outside." she left.

Mannen got up and walked into the hall. It was dark still so he wondered what time it was. He made it to the kitchen.

Chiyome sat outside on the porch in the dark holding her fan open. 'Something is strange around here.' she thought. The music box lay next to her. The woman smirked. She then heard footsteps and closed her fan.

"Not very quiet, are you?" Mannen grunted at her comment. "When you are trying to do a sneak attack you can't make a sound." Mannen nodded.

"So, what do I have to do?"

"Have you heard of shadow boxing?"

"Yeah, it's when you practice fighting when you're not fighting anyone but you act like you are."

"A method of training. You'll be doing that today but a bit different."

"How so?"

"The music box."

"I don't fallow you..."

"It's an illusion music box."

"What's that?"

"It's self-explanatory." Mannen looked away. "When I open it," Chiyome continued, "you will think that you're fighting yourself but it will be an illusion. That's not to say you won't get hurt."

"But I thought you said this is an illusion?"

"Are you ready?" Chiyome ignored his question. Mannen nodded. Chiyome opened the box and Mannen now stood before himself.

The illusion Mannen attacked immediately and Mannen quickly jumped out of the way so the fake him hit a tree. His fist went into the tree's bark but he seemed unfazed as he took it out. Blood dripped down his fingers from his fist. He turned to Mannen.

Mannen rushed at his enemy only to hit air and get tripped but while on the floor tripped the fake him. Mannen used this time to get up but soon the fake him was standing too but Mannen threw a punch at the fake him.

Chiyome watched on, observing Mannen's strategies and techniques. She noted he lacked much of both. Mannen was pushed back against a tree. He fell and landed on his stomach. He was dirty and beaten but he wouldn't give up.

'He's determined, I'll give him that.' Chiyome stood up as the two still were fighting. Mannen tried to use his ice as a shield which momentarily stood the fake one then made spikes spike up from the ground and grazed the other boy's stomach as he jumped away. The fake him was on the ground but soon tried to pull the same trick on Mannen but only cut his leg.

"That's enough." she closed the box. Mannen looked like he was about to collapse and the other Mannen disappeared into the box. The battle seemed like it had just begun but it had actually lasted for hours.

"Why didn't anything happen when I opened it?" Mannen said between breaths.

"How do you know it didn't?" Mannen thought about this. "You don't know how to control it so perhaps something did happen and you thought it was reality."

Mannen fell to his knees. He coughed because he was so tired and thirsty. Chiyome took out a water bottle from her sleeve and threw it on the ground in front of Mannen.

"You have the rest of the day off." she told him before walking away.

Mannen took the water bottle and drank the contents quickly. It was warm out for the ice knight so he decided to head inside. There was a roll of gauze on his bed which Chiyome had put there for him.

He looked down at himself to see various cuts and bruises. He took the gauze and wrapped it around his scrapped hands, knees and elbows along with the cut on his leg. He was too exhausted to eat or take a shower so he laid on the bed and quickly drifted off to sleep. He began to miss the people he had left.

"He certainly is interesting." Chiyome said to herself in another room. "I know you think so too, whoever you are." she said as if someone else were there.

-Awayuki Town-

"Mannen!" Go called. The knights and the Prétear were searching for the young ice knight who had disappeared without a trace two days ago. The knights were scattered all over Awayuki Town.

"Go...I didn't think he'd be gone this long..." Himino told the fire knight.

"It's not your fault. We'll find him..."Go stopped the quietly continued so Himino couldn't hear. "I hope." Hayate flew down to the two who was soon fallowed by Kei, Hajime, and Shin. "Anything?"

The two young ones shook their heads. "No, nothing." Hayate told them. Go sighed.

"Did he run away or get taken away?" Kei questioned.

"Dunno. Himino saw him leave but that doesn't tell us a whole lot."

"Mannen...where are you?" Himino said softly.