Book 1: Simplicitatem

Chapter 8: Of Dragons, Relationships, and Other Mythical Objects

"You see, I'm sure we can change, because we're weak, and because we die. We have to fight in order to live, and that is what will make us strong."
-Trisha Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist)

"Fire?" Aika repeated, scoffing as she rolled her eyes and shifted her weight onto one leg. "Shooting it, nonetheless?"

The sass was unreal, and Kuroro had the urge to suppress a smirk, as he usually had to do around the female.

"Okay, Aika, I know you're skeptical-" He started.

"Outright disbelieving is the word." She corrected him promptly, holding back laughter.

"As I was saying," he stole the talking privileges back, straightening up and smiling down at the cheeky female. "Machi is a transmuter. Her wires are a manifestation of her aura. If she can do that, why do you think that the idea of manifesting your own aura as fire to be so far-fetched?"

"Because," she chuckled, "it's fire, and don't you dare tell me that's not the most clichéd thing you could have ever thought up."

"Do you think you're opponent will be judging your combat ability on the basis of its originality?"

One thing Aika had noticed was that when the two of them were alone, their conversations usually transformed into rallies of who could shoot back the pithier, wittier comeback.

She raised both her hands in mock surrender. "Okay." She shrugged, "Okay you're right. Let's say I shoot fire from my mouth-"

"Hands."

"-like a fire breathing dragon and manage to do that without somehow killing myself in the process. And then what?"

Kuroro shot her a dubious look. "What do you think will be next?"

With a slight start, Aika realized where this was going.

Kuroro picked up on the sudden shift in atmosphere as it made the transition from a lighthearted, joking mood to suddenly bleak and crushing. "Aika, I thought I had warned you sufficiently about become someone I would train."

"I know," she frowned, nodding, "I know, you did, goddammit, you did, I hate it when you're right."

Kuroro sighed, crossing his arms, examining her again. "You don't need to do this you know. We can stop now."

The orange-haired teen only deepened her scowl, shooting him a look. "You'd think after two years of wasting your time with someone like me you'd have grasped my nature by now. I don't start things I don't intend to finish."

The leader of the Geneiryodan had upon more than one occasion questioned his sanity and mental stability in letting this emotionally driven female into his top tier rank of cold-blooded killers, but it was at times like these when he remembered the reason why he had proposed the idea in the first place.

Aika was someone who could not be tamed, and a person like her was so incredibly refreshing and necessary in Kuroro's life, his life where everyone recognized his superiority and immediately knelt.

But despite this wonderful, new, and enlightening experience, Kuroro again found himself slightly exasperated with the girl.

"Aika, if you're going to train under me, I'm not going to relax any of standards for you. This is meant to serve mostly as a defensive mechanism; your primary mode of defense will be your inherent power."

"Did I ask you to relax yours standards for me?"

Yes, implicitly. But Kuroro neglected to mention that aloud lest he anger the girl more. "You're going to need to shed your qualms with bloodshed if you want to get stronger."

Aika look a very long glance at him, examining him in much the same way he did her a few moments before.

Who was this man to tell her she had to abandon her morals? Where was the human inside of him?

"What?" He said, tilting his head slightly, staring at her.

"Do you even realize how terrifying you are Kuroro?" Aika narrowed her eyes, shaking her head from side to side. "You scare the living daylights out of me."

"Please, enlighten me."

The orange-haired teen crossed her arms, feeling a strange feeling stirring within her. "What is the value of a human life?"

"One human life." Kuroro shrugged. "Nothing more, nothing less."

Aika almost asked how he would feel if someone killed him but she bit her tongue back at just the right moment, understanding how dreadfully silly that would have sounded.

He seemed to know what she starting to get at however, and responded accordingly. "I don't live in fear of death like the rest of you." He sighed. "In fact, I think everything would be so much nicer if death came sooner than later."

"How depressing."

"I am a realist Aika, to the tee."

"You're an opportunist." She corrected him. "One day, please explain your traumatizing past to me." She said casually, so much that it was almost comical. There was no way in hell anyone could have such an inherent disregard for human life.

"Maybe when you checkmate me. Or beat me a sparring match." He smiled wryly.

"Now it's your turn to enlighten me. Why do you think I need to become a heartless bastard like you in order to become stronger?"

"Good question," he admitted. "If there's anything I've learned from my 21 years of life it's that relationships are restricting and that humans are vile creatures, so I'm essentially doing the earth a favor."

"Oh fuck you, was that your justification when you decided to murder Mike?" Aika felt a sudden rush of anger and before her mind alerted her, her fist was connected with Kuroro's already-raised arm.

"You seem to have no qualms with pummeling me," Kuroro commented nonchalantly, shaking out his right forearm. "So consider yourself halfway there."

Indignantly, Aika nearly snarled at him. "Fine, I'll humor you. Show me how to shoot fire from my hands."

Kuroro lifted his arm to examine the damage. To his pleasant surprise, he could feel traces of the female's aura clinging to his sleeve; it wasn't the nice type either, but malicious and full of irritation.

"Patience, young blood." He said, amused. "We'll get there."

"You have to change yourself first, or nothing will change for you."
- Sakata Gintoki (Gintama)

"Again," she demanded.

Kuroro chuckled to himself, shaking his head. "Aika, there's nothing left to burn."

"We can move." She insisted.

The girl was covered in burns, some minor, some rather nasty. The tips of her hair were slightly singed, and the odor was pungent. Kuroro had to give her credit however, for the intensity of her focus.

He decided that the best way to go about the training was immersion therapy. In order to apply the traits and characteristics of fire to her aura, Aika needed to know everything there was to know about it.

How it behaved, what it liked and fed off of, what was fatal, what it could cause.

"Heal yourself first." He said, sitting down on the scorched grass beneath him.

"Kuroro," she said, tone of voice nearly reprimanding. "Please don't belittle me. I can do that when we finish."

"Alright then." Kuroro heaved himself to his feet once more, flipping open his book, searching for another stolen move that would lend itself to fire again.

"I just wanna get stronger. Strong enough so that once day, I can control my anger."
- Heiwajima Shizuo (Durarara!)

ONE MONTH LATER

It took the female awhile. Time seemed to be flying by so much more quickly now that she had something to do throughout the day other than simply read and feed herself. Nowadays, she found that even books were hard to come by.

Sometimes the two skipped out on their chess games, having been spent during the day on the arduous and worthwhile training sessions Kuroro would hold with her.

There was always a nagging sensation in the back of her mind however, and she supposed she questioned Kuroro's motives for putting up with her for so long. She had nothing to offer him, other than perhaps entertainment, and even that should have run dry quote some time ago.

Then again, Aika reminded herself that Kuroro had never been someone you could package neatly into little categories. He was an enigma of sorts, motivated by self-interest and interest of the Troupe, nothing more, nothing less.

As of now, she had two abilities that had become nothing less than second nature to her: the power to shoot her aura from her hand, and the ability to envelop herself in it. Both gave her aura the appearance of fire.

Kuroro seemed slightly disappointed, noting that the appearance of the flame was always a licking fiery red, signifying a colder flame, but given that she had progressed so quickly within the span of four weeks, Kuroro told himself to be contented.

It wasn't as if the flame wasn't hot after all; get hit full on and no one would escape with anything less than a third-degree burn.

For the first time in a long time, Aika was happy. She was starting to get stronger, and she found that even though it had been unintentional, her stamina increased with the amount of time she invested. Lean muscle took the place of undeveloped ligaments and her reactions became more instantaneous.

The human is truly a fearsome beast, Kuroro thought to himself, with it's unlimited potential for adaptation and evolution.

One day when the seasons were changing and spring was starting to bring rains, Kuroro brought news of a mission, more lucrative than previous ones, but of course, associated with more risks.

"How the hell do you even say their last name?" Aika scowled, brushing her fingers through her now shoulder-length hair.

"Irrelevant." Kuroro immediately shrugged off the trivial thought. "A request has come in for the Mafia to dispose of a certain family of assassins."

"Ironic."

"I agree. But the Mafia isn't quite prepared for a job of this caliber yet and so-"

Aika interrupted. "And since when did the Mafia begin to take requests from elites in order to gain funding?"

"Ever since they realized it was a lucrative business."

"Go on."

"And so, of course they've put it on us." Kuroro finished anticlimactically. "We have the option of refusing it, at the cost of the animosity of the entire Mafia, which is incidentally not a new concept."

"So what's the problem?"

"Well," Kuroro sighed, "The Zoldycks are actually a family of assassins and are apparently highly formidable. And in addition, it's a dispatch mission for a duo."

Aika groaned. "Why do they need to make everything to challenging?"

Kuroro started at her for a moment. "If you're in agreement, I'm considering dispatching you and myself."

The female stood thunderstruck, staring bemusedly at Kuroro. "I've hardly wrapped my head around the concept of using my nen to make fire-"

"Which, I might add, is still a misconception on your part."

"And you want me to go hunt some assassins with you?"

"Essentially, yes."

Aika crossed her arms, both flattered by Kuroro's faith and also indignant that he was unable to judge her level of unpreparedness. "What will happen should I refuse?"

"We refuse the mission." He shrugged.

"That doesn't make any sense!" She insisted. "Take Paku or Uvogin with you."

"Pakunoda is someone who deals with transfer of data, and for this mission, some semblance of inconspicuousness is required, so Uvo and Franklin are out of the question. Nobu looks like he belongs in a history textbook, Machi's threads will wind up being useless against half of the family… Need I go on?"

"So you settle on a rookie who has anger issues when she sees the sight of blood?"

"You're being too modest, I've seen you fight in the last three or so missions, you don't bat an eye anymore Aika."

"That doesn't mean I don't feel anything!"

"It'll be a good experience," he pressed, folding the papers up deftly.

Aika glanced at him with a sideways glare. "This is not a good idea."

"What if I say you'll enjoy yourself?" Kuroro proffered, putting them away.

"Why should I believe that?"

"You don't need to, it's a simply offer."

Kuroro was always so infuriatingly cool about anything, and if Aika didn't know any better, she would have shouted that for once, couldn't he care about something, care deeply? Was there nothing he was passionate about?

"Kuroro." She huffed.

"Aika." He returned. After a pause: "Why don't we play a chess match tonight."

She held her gaze for a moment longer and then all of the tension seemed to dissipate from her shoulders in an instant. Dumb dancho.

"I hate you."

"I think I'm the white pieces tonight."

"Absolutely loathe you."

"We meet at 18 o' clock sharp tomorrow afternoon for the mission, Aika."

"I better be getting paid for this shit."

TO BE CONTINUED.

"Love is when your significant other makes you the most you you could possibly be."
-Unknown

A/N: Hello darlings, I'm sorry I haven't updated in forever. Junior year is hell on wheels. This chapter was very rushed and sloppily done. After I finish the first arc, I think I'll redo it. I'm also sorry about all the time skips. It's for your sake, I promise, because if I detailed everything about their training you'd gouge your eyes out. I hope you're enjoying yourself so far.

The story will really pick up in the ensuing chapters so keep your eyes open! Thanks for your continued support. Do leave a review! Until next time ~