Phantasy Star Portable – Kotone
Chapter 7
Kotone rubbed her sore arms slightly, lifting her swords up to practice once more. Even though it was Sunday, she was far from stupid. Having a Communion Weapons Master for a brother taught her the importance of drills. And that meant practice. Lots of practice. The 'until your arms fall off' variety. The door hissed open, and she spun around to face one very surprised Hyuga Ryght.
Hyuga had expected diligence from his student. He hadn't expected to see her there, practicing at six-thirty in the morning. His lips curved into an involuntary smile as she shifted a bit guiltily.
"Couldn't sleep?" Hyuga asked neutrally, summoning his own weapon and looking at her critically. "Your feet need to be further apart." Kotone obeyed almost instantly, clearly still thinking of him as her teacher. And yes, yes I am, Hyuga thought amusedly to himself. He had given her the order without so much as a thought, already in the habit as if he'd been teaching her for a year, not five days. Kotone shook her head.
"I've always risen with the sun," Kotone contradicted Hyuga shyly. Hyuga nodded, taking the same stance.
"Good habit. Mind if I join you?" Hyuga asked a touch wryly. Kotone shook her head, double-checking her stance. Hyuga and Kotone resumed morning practice, the pair flowing through the maneuvers together, as Hyuga occasionally adjusted her stances, answered her various, curious questions about sword-work in general, and on occasion, praised her. Kotone soaked up his gentle teachings like a sponge, and Hyuga quietly marveled at how easy it was to teach her. It was almost as natural as breathing, in its own way. Hyuga glanced at his watch in surprise after what he had assumed to be twenty minutes. "It's almost eight. Care to join me for brunch?" He asked her, storing his weapon away. Kotone brushed her sweaty bangs out of her face and nodded, breathing heavily.
Some light flirting with the waitress got the pair a discount on the food, and Hyuga and Kotone enjoyed their meal, before returning to the training room.
Monday dawned chilling and wet. Why a colony in space needed to have all of the discomforts of the real world was beyond Kotone's comprehension. She shivered, grabbing her coziest sweater and some jeans, and met up with her teacher in front of his room at the stroke of seven. Hyuga's lips twitched slightly at his shivering student, who he invited in, pressing a cup of hot tea into her hands. She took it thankfully, and drank, ignoring her teacher's amused expression. She sat at the coffee table in his living room, blinking at the papers. Test papers. Hyuga smirked slightly at her baffled and somewhat alarmed expression.
"These are assessment tests." Hyuga informed her, grinning openly. "You'll fill these out today, and I'll cover what you can't remember or don't know already. Anything you studied in the last few years should be on there." Kotone glared at her teacher sourly, but fished a pen out from the back of her jeans pocket and dragged over a stack of papers. Hyuga took up his little notebook, running down his checklist thoughtfully.
Get Kotone her visual exam. Damn, forgot to do that one. Hyuga grabbed a red highlighter, marking it as urgent. Teach her the importance of body language. He highlighted that in green, as a potential lesson plan. Take her to Neudaiz on the holiday weekend next month. He marked that one blue for travel. Assessment test on all subjects. He checked that one off, watching her gloomily write answers down with some amusement. If she does well, give her Sundays off. Considering that she didn't want Sundays off, he blacked that one out with his handy black highlighter.
Two hours later found Hyuga finishing his grading of various exams. He had suggested Kotone get herself a meal, and was beginning to longingly wish that he'd gone with her. He stretched, feeling his spine pop unpleasantly as he did so. She had excelled in history and science, done well in math and reading, but wasn't much for psychology. Hyuga shook his head. Well, she passed in what mattered, thankfully. Though she didn't do as well in psychology, she had enough to pass, which narrowed down the fields of study he had to cover. He set those papers aside after filing them away in a folder, and stood up to go to lunch. A shy little knock at his door made him frown. He wasn't expecting company, and Ethan was on a mission. Pushing his glasses up on his nose, he walked over to the door and opened it to see his student offering him a lacquered box.
"I thought you might have wanted lunch." Kotone's voice was shy, and just a hint embarrassed, a soft blush on her cheeks. Hyuga gave the young woman a friendly smile, and waved her in, sliding his glasses off and away into their container.
"I was just about to leave, actually." He told her, smiling at her timidity. "Did you make this?" He asked her, stretching out luxuriously on his couch with an inaudible moan of pleasure. Kotone nodded, smiling a bit as she sat down on the small chair nearby.
"Yes Mr. Hyuga," She fiddled with a sleeve. "I hope I'm not bothering you, but, how did I do?" Hyuga, who was snapping apart the chopsticks, used one to point at the folder lying innocently on the table, a few sheets hanging out.
"It's not a bother, Miss Kotone. They're right there." He told her casually, before placing a piece of sashimi in his mouth. Mm. He tacked on another talent to his student's skill set: cooking. She slowly rifled through the papers, listening to her teacher enjoy his meal. She pulled out the psych test, and grimaced at the red ink. Settling on the table, she point-blank glared at it. Hyuga looked at her as she mumbled, trying to figure out what she did wrong. Grinning to himself, Hyuga washed out the small box and returned to see her still puzzling it out. He chuckled quietly to himself as he walked over, flipping one of his chairs around to straddle it, lightly touching a fingertip to the problem she was glaring at.
"This question isn't right, but it isn't wrong either." He started, noticing how she instantly turned her attentions to him. "What you did was a common mistake . . ."
An hour later found him finishing up a particularly heavy discussion on body language, with advice to work on trying to be a bit friendlier. "I don't really care if you like them. All you have to do is nod and smile in the right places and you'll do just fine."At Kotone's expected nod, he grinned at her. "See? You're already off to a great start!" At first, she looked a bit confused, and then she mock-scowled at him.
"Not funny," She muttered, lips twitching.
"You want to laugh like hell," Hyuga sang back brightly. And laugh she did.
Next Chapter: Tonnio!
Now that I'm actually getting to subjects and all that jazz, I am going to claim ARTISTIC LISCENCE.I am not an expert in these subjects, especially psychology (which took me three tries to write properly). So, much like the disclaimer that I forgot to put, I have no ownership or mastery over anything that you see here.
As to how far this goes, I'll be honest.
I never actually planned to go past one chapter (Or post this at all). My inital plans (Once I decided to publish it) was to publish it all in one document, detailing her apprenticeship up to her graduation, where she gets (Spoiler has been marked out). She doesn't end up with Vivienne. That honor goes to Ian, my only male character made for Phantasy Star.
Now, rest assured I'll finish this. But once she graduates (Ignore the really, really bad pun there), so does this story. I'll probably start another one once this one is complete, which was the one I initally planned on using as my debut story. But by the time I'm finished, there will be two more stories on this website devoted to the wonderful world of Phantasy Star Universe.