Gaia tried not to give away the extreme discomfort she was feeling as she was marched to one of the outdoor training grounds behind Central HQ. Casting quick looks at her escorts, she suppressed another bout of nausea. She couldn't tell for sure if it was because of the fact that the Dragon's Pulse underneath her booted feet was coiling and writhing with extra vigour through her bodyguards or just from her hangover. One thing was for sure, though - this sham of an apprenticeship was going to be an exercise in control over her gag reflex.
The foliage was thick in this part of the expansive grounds, but she could easily pinpoint Kimblee's exact location, about 50 meters ahead of her. She and her entourage broke through the trees to enter a clearing. In the centre, with his back to them, Kimblee stood in a white suit. He felt rotten, the chi around him screaming out in horror and agony.
Kimblee turned to them, a wide smile on his face.
"Ah, yes. You must be Gaia Maurer, my new protege." He licked his lips, and Gaia couldn't contain her flinch.
"What's with the sunglasses, Miss Maurer? I'm told you have some magnificent eyes." Dear Truth, this guy was as sleazy as they came, wasn't he?
"Haha, well, I was out with a friend last night, you see, and I got a bit carried away." Gaia scratched her cheek, trying to relieve some of the uncomfortable insect-crawling feelings under her skin.
Gaia watched as Kimblee cocked his head to the side, looking her up and down. She unconsciously straightened her spine and widened her stance.
"Had a bit of a wild night, hm? Well then, keep them on if you must. Just know that I won't take it easy on you just because you might be a little sensitive to light and loud sounds. Accidentally, I'm a bit of an expert on bright lights and loud sounds."
"Today I'll be evaluating your skills with alchemy, to really get a feeling for your knowledge. I understand that you are looking to take the State Alchemist exam at the end of our little apprenticeship, no?" His emphasis on specific words made her feel even more uncomfortable as if he knew more than he let on.
She was not looking forward to this game of cat and mouse she was forced to play, but she would just have to pull on her big girl pants and suck it up until such a time as she was free of both Kimblee the sociopath and out from under Wrath's power.
She was magnificent.
When the tall, unusually twitchy girl was escorted into the clearing he had chosen as training grounds, his first thought was what kind blackmail the Fuhrer had on her. And if this was the cause of blackmail, then why was she being forced to become a dog of the military, forced to serve the twisted bastard. Why would the Fuhrer want to make her stronger, why would he want to give her power?
Now, he could see why. She was like a hurricane when in motion. Her long hair, loosening from her ponytail, whipped around her as they sparred. She would make a good officer, as well. She knew how to carry out orders, even though he could see her unease with him.
But was she any good at alchemy?
Turned out, yes, she was.
Her execution of a basic earth transmutation was just as swift and technically perfect as her kicks and punches.
The pot she created was ceramic, with rubber on the handles. The craftsmanship would be indistinguishable from one made by a master craftsman.
But they were also there to assess her potential as a master state alchemist, which meant her use of it in battle as well as skilful transmutations. Not many could perform just as well on the battlefield as off it. He himself had the opposite problem, what with his particular brand of alchemy.
He set up posts for her to show him what she could do. She hesitated for just a moment, before moving lightning-quick to draw her transmutation circle in the earth. Spikes of grey stone burst out of the ground to pierce the first of four posts, shattering the concrete. The second transmutation she activated was almost lost on him, until he sees that there are only two more concrete constructs standing in the clearing, with the added mound of earth where the second used to be. The girl runs and jumps swiftly onto the third, and within a few moments, it has completely disappeared from beneath her. She turned the fourth into a texture reminiscent of mud.
Within the time restraint of 5 minutes, she had shown skill in 4 different disciplines of alchemy, some of which he had only seen in the research labs he operated in when he was a fresh state alchemist.
He inspected what was left of the transmutation circles and his concrete constructs. The first was a basic battle transmutation, but the craftsmanship and thought put into the tapered point of the four-sided spear - he could not see a single transmutation mark on the stone she had created.
Next, she had deconstructed the concrete pillar to its original elements (not so simple, the earth looked to be the same colour and consistency as the original soil around it). For the third, he believed she transmuted a solid object into a gaseous state, and if he wasn't the master of molecular alchemy that he is, he would have thought she had done something almost impossible outside of a controlled lab environment.
And for the fourth, she demonstrated her skill in deconstructing the elements, stopping the transmutation process at an even more specific place than the complete deconstruction of the second column. Before him was a pile of wet concrete. He wonders where this girl had learned her craft so well. Not many people had the resources from which to learn the makeup of the universe and much fewer would be available to the country bumpkin this little girl he had been tasked with was.
One thing was for sure now, though. It didn't matter anymore that he was being forced to teach his executioner. She was magnificent, and he could not begin to imagine what fun they would have as they danced around each other.
Man I'm sorry, I began college in the fall and immediately was swamped with work, not to mention the essays I've had to write. This is definitely not my best work, but I'm so exhausted from writing for my classes I can't proofread very well. Drop a review if you feel like it? Hopefully, my next semester isn't going to be so busy.