Chapter 4

Seven years ago:

Learning the exercise Ekitai was an incredibly tedious task. Adam had stated in making sure that her Ekitai flowed with the speed of her body. This was to ensure fluidity rather than the speed of execution. Adam said it's the same for every technique. At first, your fluidity matters before you can compress the steps for execution. Thanks to her Kotetsu, she has gained some awareness to control the flow of her Aura, which allowed her to shift it to other places within her body.

When lining it up with her attacks, it was rather difficult. Slowing her punches down so that it matched the flow of her Aura was simple, but her kicks made it an incredible balancing act. For a cat-faunus, she already has a well-developed sense of balance, so that was made easier, but it was still a tedious task.

As for travelling, Blake and Adam had evolved from simple walking to jogging, and then to running. Adam explained that it was to help her get used to fast speeds when in an actual battle, as they're never going to be genuinely slow-paced. So if she was going to be fighting a genuine battle, she was going to have to get used to the natural speed of a battle, and not get tired.

As they were reaching Menagerie at a quicker pace, Adam deduced that her Kotetsu was perfect, and so, taking risk, moved her onto Inpei. Much like Kotetsu, it involved constricting her Aura inwards, but instead of constricting it to her body, she had to constrict it to her soul, ensuring that there was absolutely no leak. It was more difficult to accomplish than Kotetsu, however Adam insisted that it was made easier thanks to the tempering-technique.

Because of that, he's been making sure to monitor her Inpei, picking it apart bit by bit, much like how a doctor would analyze the condition of their patients, in order to see what needs to be fixed and improved. Because of the nature of such an exercise, she was only allowed to do it in breaks, which would replace her physical exercises, to which her Aura would also be runned down to near critical levels, so doing this helped her bring back some Aura and help quicked her Aura-recovery. Not doing her physical exercises had been supplemented by the amount of running they've been doing.

However, during her usage of Inpei, Blake has gotten the distinct feeling that someone was following them. She was unable to tell where, or even how, but she noticed the presence all the same. It wasn't until Adam had stopped running in front of her that Blake did too, immediately noticing that something was wrong.

"What's wrong?" Blake asked. "Is it Grimm?"

She encountered the Grimm a few times in the wilderness, although Adam was the one who dealt with them directly, because she was still in training, so having her deal with the Grimm was the not on the list of training at the moment, although Adam made it a point to include Grimm into her training once she gets sword-techniques down.

"No," Adam said. "She's here."

"Who's--" Blake was unable to finish her own sentance as Adam had suddenly tackled her to the ground with surprising speed, as Blake had heard a faint whistling noise come from above her own head. She looked over the shoulder of her teacher and saw a light-blue-looking saw which was certainly meant to decapitate Adam, slicing a tree cleanly in a diagonal line, before the light-blue energy dissapated.

The tree itself was completely transformed into ice by the attack, right down to the cellular-level, before the whole thing just crumbled, breaking apart before being transformed into nothing more than tiny ice shards.

"What was...?" Blake was beginning to ask a question to Adam before she realized that Adam had no longer been on top of her to protect her. Instead, she saw a mere black and red blur surge into the direction where the light-blue buzzsaw had emerged from... and it was straight into the forest, swiftly swerving in between the trees.

Blake gasped in fear, before she began to fun after Adam, only for his blurred form to be blasted back through the trees, his feet skidding across the ground as something had collided with him. His sword was out of its sheath completely, being handled in his right hand, the red and black blade glowing, before it died down, revealing that a crimson red had grown from the guard of the blade to one-ninth of the actual blade.

That was when Blake saw her. A white figure had sped after Adam at an incredible level of speed. She was so fast that Blake couldn't discern any sort of feature that defined her of any sort, except for her gender, based on what Adam said, albeit incredibly briefly, about this individual.

"Samui!"

The white figure had spun, sending six blue orbs of cold energy spiralling towards Adam, each leaving a beautiful sparkly trail. Hinoha seemed to multiply, what was meant to be one swing was six swings, each dispersing the orbs with red energy, before it trailed into his sword, the crimson of his blade climbing further up. The figure had landed on her feet, exposing her appearance and to say Blake was shocked by what she saw was an understatement.

She was gorgeous. There couldn't be a word better to describe her. The pale white skin she had was perfectly framed by her icy-blue hair, which was perfectly symmetrical, not a strand out of place, styled into a bobcut, which was further enhanced by the cold, steel tone of her silver eyes, which Blake only knew that they were an incredibly rare eye colour. The lids of her eyes had nice icy-blue eye shadow, with her eyelashes being perfectly straightened and blackened. Her lips were also icy-blue, the faint sparkle being detectable on them, which were also curled up into a smile. Her ears were decorated with nice, blue, crystalline earrings, dropping down, with three sections. The first was a 2-D shape of a diamond, the second was a 3-D sphere, then the next was a 3-D shape of an actual diamond, being held by its conical point... somehow.

Her outfit was, likewise, rather stunning. She was dressed elegantly in a white kimono, adorned with a beautiful snowflake pattern, one that glistened with the light that shone through the trees, and one that had exposed a generous portion of her cleavage. Right at her fingertips were perfectly manicured fingernails, polished with icy-blue. A nice black obi was fashioned around her waist, with two white boxes attached to said obi, with the beginning and the end of the obi flaring out at her right hip, which also ended in a nice white pattern, much akin to snow. Following that, her kimono continued, which ended in a similar pattern to her obi, but instead the white was an icy-blue, matching her colour scheme. The sides of her kimono had cut right at her thighs, which exposed her white tabi socks, which climbed up her ample thighs. Adorning her feet were a pair of black sandals with blue soles. What had surprised Blake was that a grey, black spotted, furry tail had stretched out from her kimono at the base of her spine. She was a snow leopard-faunus.

However, what was incredibly odd was that her entire outfit seemed more... alive, for a lack of better term. The patterns seemed like actual snowflakes that fall from the sky. It very much reminded her of Adam's sword, which, when you looked at it up close, had actual moving patterns of fire thay extended from the hilt.

Overall, this woman was remarkably elegant... and she just pushed Adam back, who had visibly strained under whatever attack she threw at her.

Then her entire form had blurred into a white and blue blur, much like when Adam had went onto the offensive, before he was blasted back. Her blurred form seemed to sweep Adam into herself, before she sped off within the trees.

"Taurus-sensei!" Blake cried out in worry.

"Enjō!"

Her worry was for naught as a burst of fire had brought the woman back to where they had begun their brawl, with Adam unleashing more of his speed. Hinoha had sped towards its target, with said target bringing out a... perfume... bottle?

As unorthodox as it may be, it provided with a great usage. She sweeped her arm with the perfume bottle, spraying a blue mist that would solidify into ice when in afflicted with her Semblance. The blade hit the chunk of ice she created, slicing it in two. As brittle as it may be, it had another usage. More of the blue mist has poured out of the ice, engulfing Adam, making him completely invisible to Blake's eyes.

The woman, when her defense was sliced, had backtracked, her entire form had seemingly teleported to another pocket of space. To the casual observer, it was almost as if she skipped an entire frame of the entire video, or was just really, really fast, much like Adam.

When Adam emerged, he wasn't any different, much to Blake's relief.

"Piffle," the woman pouted in a cute way. "Such a shame. You didn't even let me use my Shimo no Haka to the full effect."

"I'm much too used to that technique for it to affect me, Yuki-san," Adam retorted, now addressing the woman in front of her as 'Yuki'.

"Oh, I know," Yuki relented. "It's just annoying you can defend yourself against it, now, Adam-san."

Adam chuckled. "Oh, I know."

Yuki merely frowned, until she spun her own tail around, along with putting the force of every bit of strength she has, before black had covered the grey blur and the end seemingly growing. The grown end had ended struck Adam, a cloud of blue erupting around the two of them.

Blake had seen two things once the cloud had died down. The entirety of Yuki's tail was covered in thin, yet durable white metal, all with blue outlines on the faces, which would natually collapse into itself in order to preserve space. At the very end was where the main difference manifested itself.

Right at the tip of her tail, a rather thin triangle of white steel, with the two large faces being lined with vials of ice-Dust embedded in the same shape, had struck the face of Hinoha, which was slung directly over Adam's shoulder, resting casually as the attack hardly phased him, with an arrogant smirk gracing his face.

"Jerk," Yuki said.

"Feisty," Adam smirked.

Red energy surged through the pyramid-dagger of Yuki's weapon as she was launched back. Thankfully, she regained her footing, before seekingly teleporting once again, this time, in a pirouette, spinning at rapid speeds as the tail whipped around her, with those whips being supplemented by not only the cold steel, but the cold force of her Semblance.

The whips aimed directly for Adam's arms, which was, ovbiously critical for his fighting style, and so, he chose to generate his afterimages, shadows of his form with the red being highlighted to a degree, in order to counter them. The swings of each of their weapons were countering the finesse and flexibility of her weapon.

Then, all the afterimages had met the blade of her weaponized tail, the momentum of the combined attack had sent her straight back. Blake had noticed that, right from their feet to their shins, their entire form had changed red. Blake realized what was at play.

Over the past month, nearing two-months, Blake had gotten a greater understanding over Adam's fighting style. It revolved around using refined senses, speed, precision, and reaction times in order to make full usage of his Laijutsu, which he would often used in tandem with his Semblance, which was the main lynchpin for his fighting style. The accumulation and releasing of the kinetic energy he would store up over the course of a fight was what tied his fighting style together. Combine his already incredible speed, mixed with the speed of Hinoha, along with the amount of energy he could absorb over the course of a single fight could create disastrous consequences.

So Adam was capable of having his afterimages absorb the kinetic energy, and then reabsorb all of them back into his blade or sheath.

That was when Blake realized something was off. Adam and this 'Yuki' were playing it slow. Adam had told her about different forms of kumite. In order to raise the combat ability of your opponent, you must play just above the combat ability of your opponent, in terms of physical ability and technique. To do such a thing, you must have complete awareness of your opponent's skill level, and complete mastery over your own power, and how to regulate it. Both of which he has.

However, she knew Adam was waaaaaaay faster than the speed he was actually showing. If he so desired, his full speed was that, to other people, multiple frames would skip, with any fight he was in could be ended in multiple seconds. But here he was, his speed slowed down so that she had a certain difficulty watching, but with each second passing, it gets a tiny bit easier.

So both Adam and Yuki were treating this as sparring, not for each other, but for her specifically.

'But Yuki wouldn't know that,' Blake thought, as she watched Yuki's dagger-tail whip away at the torso of one of Adam's afterimages, with the others, thankfully, being absorbed when Adam cleaved his blade through the other afterimages, storing the energy within the sheath, with it becoming completely red. 'She wouldn't know that that is why Adam is taking it slow.'

So it was all the more confusing as to why Yuki was taking it slow just like Adam.

More icicles shot out from the kimono, sending snowflake-shaped shurikens from the long sleeve. Instead of using his sword, Adam had grabbed the inside of his long coat, sank into a crouch that is completely natural for him, and covered himself. With running Aura through his coat, Adam had successfully defended himself from the damage he would've received.

What had surprised her was the amount of energy he absorbed. For Adam's Semblance, the more powerful the attack will be overall, determines the amount he could absorb. Over the course of witnessing Adam's Semblance, she learned to roughly estimate just how much he was absorbing. The energy he absorbed from those shurikens had allowed him to absorb kinetic energy so that it reached all the way up to his pectorals.

To her surprise, Yuki had pressed her entire hand against her lips, with her leaning forward, before she blew the air, making a literal kiss. It would've been more comical, if it weren't for the twisting maelstrom of ice shards and snow she launched directly at Adam, somehow, which were bound to pierce Adam's flesh, and completely obliterate him.

"Hono no senpu!"

So it was a relief to see that, because there were too many shards to absorb, Adam had spun out of the way, his entire form being engulfed by a whirlwind of flames, which allowed him to propel himself all the way directly to Yuki's position...

"Kori no tatsumaki!"

...with her matching the exact same technique, proceeding to enravel her own form within a tornado of icicle shards, the two maelstroms colliding, sending shards of ice and balls of fire in every direction. Strangely enough, none of them even hit Blake. There were a few close ones, but they weren't too close for her to genuinely worry.

Then, after the collision, they ceased their techniques, before standing at each other, face-to-face, Hinoha sitting within its sheath, while Yuki had her dagger-tail out on the ready. Then the pair rushed at each other again, the blade of Hinoha scorching hot and the metal of the dagger-tail matching the intensity in coldness. The result had created a cloud of mist that shrouded the both of them. However, only the faint curves of red and blue was the only visual reading Blake could get that the two were still fighting.

"Akaikaze!"

Streaks of red, sharp wind had sliced through the smoke, dispersing the whole cloud in one fell swoop in trails of white, silvery mist. The blades of wind had cut through the some of trees they were around, causing them to fall over with a large thud. The forms of Adam and Yuki had emerged, completely unscathed by the attack of his Akaikaze.

Then, she flicked her own wrists, wisps of blue mist emerging and trailing behind her, before they solidifed, becoming ice daggers, with each of them holding a razor-sharp edge, before she flicked her wrists again, sending all of those daggers right towards Adam's direction.

However, Hinoha slid out of its sheath, the form of the blade multiplying once again, slicing and destroying each one of them, with more and more red glows emitting from the sword, before it died down, revealing that more crimson red had been scaling up the sword, with only the tip being a brighter red.

Then, suddenly, Adam just sped forward, his speed suddenly becoming much more faster than it was before, Hinoha's blade colliding with Yuki's dagger-tail. However, instead of a stalemate, she was then pushed back, with Adam's afterimages following suit, unleashing their own consecutive strikes, carrying a blunt force thay only battered her body instead of cleaving through her.

Just then, as she was blown away, she detached the diamond off of her left earring, before hurdling it towards the clones Adam had left, freezing them in their entirety, before she then used her dagger-tail, the prehensile utility able to shatter them in an instant, becoming shards of ice, and leaped right into the center. Just then, a transparent blue bubble appeared around her, engulfing the shards, before she used her Semblance, sharpening the jagged shards of ice, before they levitated in the air, and then sent towards Adam, their ends ready to pierce his Aura.

However, because Adam was nearing his limit of absorbing energy within his sword, he was unable to absorb the damage that was accompanying the attack that was in front of him. To compensate for that, he instead sheathed Hinoha, before unleashing some of his stored energy.

The world had blinked red for the briefest of moments. The objects in the background had changed to a pitch-black, the red on Adam's body and the light-blue on Yuki's body became more pronounced, eith the rest of their bodies darkening. The only thing that stood out the most was the cracked, broken moon, which glistened with even whiter light.

When the colour disappeared, the entirety of Yuki's makeshift dagger arsenal was completely obliterated. There was not even a trace that the ice even existed. Blake immediately realized that it was his disintergration-ability at work. It was so incredibly refined that he only focused on the shards themselves. If he so wished it, he could easily have obliterated Yuki.

'But if she really was an enemy of Adam, he would've finished this already," Blake thought. 'Unless...

"Don't look away, Blake," Adam said, snapping Blake out of her thoughts. "I know for a fact you know about this, but what you're about to witness is the pinnacle of my Semblance, and reaching the pinnacle of your own will be the end result of your training."

Blake gasped. "You mean..."

"Wow, I never knew you created an ultimate-technique of your own, Adam-san," Yuki noted. "Thankfully, my perfume bottles have been specifically crafted so I don't waste any needlessly. So, in order to match the power of your ultimate-technique, I'll match it with mine."

She then unhooked the black box on her right hip, which was filled with the necessary jewelery, nail polish, and whatever accessories she required. For this, she simply chose her perfume. Then, as simple as it sounds, she began to spray.

The cold of her Semblance allowed her to freely manipulate the temperature, but only in one direction, more specifically, to colder directions, so when the gas was released, she used her Semblance in order to change the matter from a gas to a liquid, and freely manipulate the cold within in order for the cold water to be controlled.

The water she created from the gas had spiralled above her, before the temperature had dropped, solidifying into curved upside-down teardrops, making it resemble more of an actual petal. Each spray had added another petal... and another... and another... and another... and another... and another, before it resembled a rather large flower, but completely closed off, almost as if it was ready to bloom.

The energy Adam had received was astounding. Adam then resheathed his blade and channeled all the energy he had stored away into it directly into his blade, before he unsheathed it. Once the blade was released, it was emitting sparks of deadly electricity, while the red glow of his blade was whitening to an incredible degree.

"Koryuha!"

"Kanzaki!"

Adam had then swung his blade at speeds that shouldn't even be possible, shouldn't even be allowed, but his arms and hands, which were gripping the handle of the blade, had swung so fast his arms appeared as mere trails of red light, laced with electricity that would disintergrate anything with a mere touch. The sword was throwing straight whitened-red beams of light, the sort that was emitted by his Semblance, but more focused and magnified.

Yuki's 'flower' had opened up instantly, each petal was being sent crashing into the trails of light by being transformed into blue, cold plasma. Each collision had ended up releasing more beams of cold plasma, destroying a few more of the beams of light.

This, however, had prompted Adam to swing even faster and harder. With each beam destroyed, Adam was striking even harder, faster, and sharper. It was putting the pressure on her. The petals provided a great way to fin the herd, whether it would be through attacks, or the enemies. But if their power keeps growing, she'll inevitably fall.

Surprisingly, that happened sooner rather than later, as one of the stray beams had smashed straight through some of the petals above her. The result was a mix of red and blue plasma being emitted, disintegrating the rest of the flower, which had already dwindled by a good portion. Once that was over, Adam had resheathed his sword, and began to take many deep breaths.

"Well, that was something," Yuki said, who stepped up to Adam. "I can't believe you hid that technique from me."

"I was in the middle of perfecting it," Adam countered. "And the only reason I did it was to give Blake-chan an idea of what the end result of her training is gonna be."

"Is that so?" Yuki asked, before her silver eyes turned towards Blake, who had flinched at her gaze. Almost immediately, she had just teleported in front of her, startling her.

"Well, let's see here," Yuki said as her eyes began to take in her condition. "Judging by the state of your Aura, you've been practicing Kotetsu for a month and a half, before moving onto Ekitai and Inpei, if the more fluid flow of your Aura is anything to go by.

"Your physical condition speaks that you've been maintaining good health and an athletic musculature," Yuku probed. "Honestly, Adam's done a good job of training you."

"You doubted me?" Adam questioned, although arrogance trickled into his voice.

"Nope," Yuki said. "Not at all, Adam. I'm just surprised she got this far. So when are you going to start with weapon-training?"

"Just after we get to Menagerie," Adam said. "It's not like I can teach her my style, and even then, she may have another preference in weapons."

"Very true," Yuki agreed. "We would have to wait until we can find a suitable teacher that can train her in the weapon that she wants."

"We?" Blake asked.

"Of course," Yuki confirmed. "Even though I am his girlfriend, someone has to keep him in check. The most he can do is swing a sword and use Aura and Dust competently. Didn't peg him for the guy to teach."

"You're his girlfriend?" Blake asked, although she was incredibly skeptical.

"Yep," She confirmed, the 'p' having a popping sound. "Although, I wouldn't say we were like normal couples."

"You don't say..." Blake trailed off, remembering the attacks she made on Adam. It wasn't the sort of thing regular couples do.

"Yeah, it's not really what modern-day couples do," Yuki did the exact same Adam did, she practically read her mind, causing her to growl. "Even though the dynamic of our relationship works differently, it's suited to us."

"Blake-chan, this is Yuki Hana, and, yes, she is my girlfriend." Adam confirmed, which practically shattered her own mind.

"SHE'S REALLY YOU'RE GIRLFRIEND!!!???" Blake shouted.

Both Adam and Yuki just belted a laugh, one filled with joy and mirth. Eventually, the two ended their laughter, although the faint chuckle was still there. They could understand that, coming from Yuki herself, Blake wouldn't have believed her. But it was different coming from Adam, because not only did he not start the altercation, but Blake has spent much more time with Adam.

"Y-You never told me you had a girlfriend!" Blake yelled.

"You never asked," Adam teased.

Blake pouted in a cute way that the couple laughed even more. Eventually, the laughter died down.

"Well, I certainly think you deserve a treat for your hard work, Blake-chan," Yuki said, before she took the other box that sat on her hip, and opened it up, and what was inside was...

...chocolates. There were an assortments of chocolates, all in the shape of spheres, and all in different colours and patterns. It looked like a dream come true, in the form of the best chocolates ever. Yuki then began to guide her through all the different flavours, telling her which one is which, before she settled on the salted-caramel, which was white with blue swirls.

The taste she got from it was amazing. She could have a hundred of these, and still not get enough.

"Okay Yuki, that's enough," Adam warned.

"Oh I know," Yuki said. "If we're going to be training her, then we have to monitor the food she's eating."

"I've already got that sorted out, don't worry," Adam assured.

"Yeah, yeah," Yuki just waved her hand, brushing Adam's comment away. "I know that, between the two of us, you're the real chef, but there's only so much you can actually use in the forest. Once we get her home, we will have to really monitor what she's eating."

"...True," Adam agreed.

The now trio had set on moving once again, however Blake felt a sense of unease with Yuki around. It felt like a switch was just turned off. One minute ago, she was aiming to shred Adam to pieces with her refined icicles, which could easily tear through steel, but the next she's just casually hanging around Adam, who not only enjoyed her presence, but casually accepted her attack as a greeting of sorts.


After that, the trio began to travel at fast speeds again. With Yuki around, she was able to assist with her Inpei. Given that she has utilized it continuously for long periods of time, she was a much greater help than Adam was when he was teaching her the suppression-technique. This meant that Yuki was able to point out even the tiniest leaks of her Aura, in order to make sure there wasn't any leaking out.

"There's more to it than just concealment. Inpei acts as a way for us to refine our control over the flow of our Aura more quickly and efficiently, which also ties into Ekitai, which uses the flow of our Aura to concentrate the amount of Aura we're putting into our attacks. For any fighter that has Aura, manipulating the flow of our Aura is a must. Inpei helps us with that. By closing it off, we can control the inward and outward flow of our Aura. Through this, we can run our Aura through conduits much easier and much more effectively."

Yuki was also there to fill in the gaps about what Inpei helps her with, while Adam was the one guiding the two of them to their destination. Just when they were approaching the three-month benchmark, she had learnt a lot about Yuki.

Turns out, both Adam and Yuki had some... disconcerting history with the SDC, both for very different reasons. Blake had heard many rants from her father about the Schnee Dust Company, none of which had held any compliments regarding them. It turns out that Adam's parents were in grave debt with the Schnee Dust Company, and since their parents had passed, he was thrown into the mines to work off the debt.

Afterwards, he went into rather vague explanations about what had happened in the mines, but what Blake got was that the mines had collapsed due to one of the workers had handled some volatile Dust improperly. Soon, the company's security arrived, clearing up the debris. While the SDC security force started to clear it up, they got sloppy and gave him a chance to escape. His efforts were rewarded with getting his Aura unlocked, and training to the level of strength he has today.

Yuki's parents, on the other hand, were completely average. Her father was an owner of a dust shop, one specifically made for helping Huntsmen and Huntresses with their ammunitions, weaponry, and what-have-you. Her father has had his own Aura unlocked, and had educated her in Dust-weaving-techniques, while also unlocking her own Aura. He was the one who had taught her the basics of her current fighting-style, which was further refined by her mother's work, who surprisingly, was a make-up artist. This was all in Atlas, where Adam was slaving away in the SDC mines. Rumours have spread that her mother was working on a new variation of make-up, one that had involved infusing Dust into it, and that got the SDC's attention.

Her mother had recorded all of her work in a few journals, before she had sent Yuki away with the journals. Yuki realized in her later years the hardest truths about the SDC. They would do anything for money, even if it meant murder. The SDC had sent officers to her original home, and realized that the officers had asked for their research in Dust-infused make-up. They ended up refusing and when they forced the issue, they fought back, before they ended up getting shot to death. Their deaths were cleaned up so completely, so that Jacques Schnee never even heard of it.

During her escape from the clutches of the SDC, she ran into a younger Adam, who had already been...scarred by the SDC. As it turns out, he had escaped, in a desperate attempt for freedom. Their training was rudimentary at worst. Together, they had trekked the frozen tundra of Atlas, before they had arrived at Vacuo, facing off against the harsh conditions that the desert Kingdom was relatively known for, squaring off against threat after threat, dealing with the unknown and stronger. It was no wonder that the two of them were strong.

However, they also explained that, one of the reasons their skills were incredibly refined was because they had to be careful. This is specially in the case for Yuki, as she could not continuously stock up on the necessary amount of Dust, until she was old enough, so she had to refine her skills and discover her Semblance in ordee to make due.

Then, they would often break apart from one another, choosing to go to other places, learn what they can, and try to intergrate what they learn into their fighting styles. They were also questioning the way the world currently understood Aura, trying to dissect its functions, which had motivated Blake to try to do the same.

Blake had been astounded by Yuki's mastery over Inpei, how it functioned, its benefits, its practical uses. Adam had confirmed that she had greater usage of the technique, and therefore, better control over the flow of her Aura, which had extended over to her Dust-weaving skilld. Her refined control over her Aura had allowed her to use Dust-weaving with ease, and she had gained refined control over the amount of Dust she uses.

It wasn't long before the three arrived at a settlement at the east-coast of Vale, which was what allowed them to hop on a boat that would carry them all the way to Menagerie. The boat was rather large, bordering on a cruise ship. Once again, Adam had cashed in on one of his favours, allowing the three into a ship that was bordering on a cruise ship. The captain of the ship was a grandfather of three, and Adam had rescued the three from some wild Grimm.

Once that was done, Adam, Yuki, and Blake got settled into their room.


"I think it's about time I told you about Koryuha, Blake," Adam had said.

Adam, Yuki, and Blake were in their room on the boat, and Blake had asked a question that was nagging her. What was Koryuha?

"Really?!" Blake asked, her eagerness shooting upwards.

"With that being said," Yuki began, her tone becoming more serious. "There's...a bit of caution to knowing such a technique."

"How so?" Blake asked

"Back in Mistral, when they were in the midst of building themselves up, there were a group of warriors that would defend the citizens against the Grimm. One of them had the technique known as Koryuha." Adam explained.

"Really?" Blake asked.

Adam nodded. "The man had mastered the technique to the point that no one could actually stop him, especially with his Semblance, which revolved around throwing light energy towards his opponents. Because of his undefeated streak, when he was buried, his weapon was too, and they forbid the usage of this technique."

"But you use it," Blake said. "So why do you know it?"

"Adam stumbled upon the technique, Koryuha, by accident," Yuki explained. "When the man had created this technique, he was only twenty-seven. Adam had managed to learn it, as rudimentary as it was, at the age of thirteen. It also sucks that I wasn't around to see it.

"Not to mention, that forbidden technique is a bit of a grey area," Yuki continued. "That rule has been placed for well over a couple thousand years. Because of that, the existence of such a technique fell, before he revived it. Because that restrictment hasn't been in place, or even viewed in a long period of time, people are unsure that it's legal."

"The technique revolves around the combination of Chikara and Ekitai," Adam explained. "You flow and project your Aura into a metaphysical lens that light is magnified and focused through. As far as the mastered technique is concerned, it revolves around creating unpredictable striking patterns with the beams of light produced by a Semblance that can manipulate light, or some sort of bright energy similar to light, like my Moonslice, with each strike getting stronger and stronger."

"When it was mastered to that level, the people had tried to take him down numerous times, which ended up with them perishing in a matter of seconds," Yuki explained, before shaking her head in a disappointed manner. "Honestly, given Hakuya's speed and his skill with the Koryuha, anyone should've seen that one coming."

"Hakuya?" Blake asked.

"You could say that Adam's blade, Hinoha, is a reincarnation of the blade," Yuki explained, their eyes going towards the large, broad blade that rested on the wall. "Both blades are large and heavy, but, if mastered, they have the potential to be the fastest blades in existence. Hakuya means "White Night" as its attacks seemingly cut right through the darkness of the world. It is said that it's supposed to swing at the speed of light too."

Blake was no scientist, but even she knew that the speed of light was incredibly fast.

"However, the general consensus is that it doesn't move at such a speed," Adam revealed. "Historical accounts about this blade were sketchy at best. People forgot what the blade exactly looked like. The burial ground at which it was buried under was lost a long time ago, so no one could try to find the blade. However, I tried to mimic the design as best as I can, with adding a few new additions to it. I like to think that my blade is far faster though. In a time period where there were inferior metals, ones which needed to have their impurities ironed out, made it a tedious job. But in an era where forging blades had become much more effective, it was child's play for someone to forge Hinoha the way I wished it to be forged."

"Have you mastered it?" Blake asked.

"Not yet," Adam revealed. "Yes, for the most part, I have a degree of finesse and speed with Hinoha, but that doesn't equate to true mastery. It's less about its heft and more about its...unique quality."

"What's that?" Blake asked.

"You'll see eventually, one day." Adam answered cryptically.

Blake had pouted in such a cute way that the two had laughed at her expression. Then a chuckle from Blake eacaped her throat before even she had begun to laugh with them.

"You two are great," Blake said, a wide smile on her face. "You two are sorta like...older siblings."

"We could be if you want," Yuki said, with an eager glint in her eyes.

"Huh?" Blake asked.

"For all that we don't share a drop of blood between each other, Blake," Yuki began, who had brought her arm around Blake, hugging her. "We do enjoy your presence with us. It's much akin to having a little sister. Back when you were in Galena, Adam had taken the liberty of giving me a quick message on my scroll, asking me to intercept your running course...but he had also raved about you. How you were incredibly determined about helping the faunus, willing to trek miles upon miles of land to get stronger, it's something Adam really enjoys seeing in you. I don't doubt that, at times, he really sees you as family."

"Really?" Blake asked.

"Truly," Yuki confirmed. "Ever since me and Adam had crossed paths, I noticed that there was a strong coldness in his eye. It took a while for the love he holds for me to appear within it. And yet, just by looking at the two of you, it's incredibly obvious that Adam sees you like a little sister." Then she adopted a warmer smile. "And I can see why. You are a little bundle of shadows, one that is warming him up with each passing day, just by being yourself. It's a good thing that we're here to temper you."

"Temper... me?" Blake's face showed confusion.

"Ever since the beginning, Adam has been breaking you down, and forcing you to build yourself up with each passing day," Yuki revealed. "Through this process, he effectively destroys the Blake of today and has you forge a new Blake in its place. By doing that, you've been building yourself up, strengthening yourself, sharpening yourself, honing yourself. He's been doing it so subtly, you don't even notice that he's doing that. He's been forcing you to go to your limits and beyond to reforge you, much like a weapon.

"Through this, you go through a continuous process of improving yourself day after day. Go through that process for a few months and you're on your way onto becoming a brand new person. The reason he's doing this is for the sake of tempering your kindness.

"Such kindness can be a double-edged sword, if you don't apply it carefully. He's been tempering your character to ensure that your kindness doesn't become your downfall." Yuki revealed.

"Oh..." Blake said, lookong down at her feet.

"Back to the main point, if we were to be siblings, then we would also have to do our part in raising you, not only as a brother and sister, but as teachers." Yuki said.

"...I'd like that," Blake revealed.

"Pardon?" Yuki questioned.

"I'd like you two to be big siblings," Blake revealed. "Dad can be a bit busy managing the White Fang, so mom is the only person there that I can talk to, but I'm often just caught up in my books. There are people my own age back at Menagerie, but...I don't hang out with them." She the looked up to Yuki. "I'd really like that, Hana-sensei."

"Yuki-nee," She said.

"Huh?"

"Yuki-nee," Yuki affirmed herself. ""-nee" is an honorific, meaning big sister. If you want me to be your big sister, then you must refer to me with that honorific."

"But--" Blake started but was cut off.

"Nope," Yuki looked like she wasn't taking a no for an answer.

"Ugh..." Blake groaned. "Fine, Yuki-nee..."

Yuki had squealed in delight, her body bouncing up and down, as pure, unadulterated joy had coursed through her being.

"Oh, you also have to call Adam-san "Adam-nii"," Yuki said. "That honorific means "big brother", and I'm pretty sure that Adam sees you as a little sister." She then turned to Adam. "Right?"

Adam had absolutely zero choice but to nod. The face Yuki wore just screamed innocence and looked like she was about to break down when told no. In order to avoid that, he was forced into nodding. Not like he wouldn't nod at the end of the day.

"Now we have another question," Adam began. "What weapon would you like to use?"

Once Adam said that, Blake had to put some serious thought into such a thing. Because she was so focused into her training, she may have forgotten such a thing.

"Well, back when I was younger, I always liked to read about ninjas," Blake revealed.

"Ninjas?" Adam and Yuki asked

"Yeah," Blake confirmed, before taking in the looks of Adam and Yuki. "Is something wrong?"

"No, no, nothing is wrong, Blake-chan," Yuki quickly said. "In fact, it may provide a good basis for your fighting-style."

"For the most part, ninjas had used farming equipment that were... repurposed, or rather modified," Adam said. "A scythe is rather awkward to wield. The length of the shaft, the positioning and the curve of the cutting edge, its overall size makes it an ineffective weapon. If you shorten it to hand size, you get a sickle. They also used an assortments of throwing weapons. The most famous choice is your typical shuriken which you've seen Yuki-san use."

Blake nodded, remembering the razor-sharp snowflake-shaped shurikens that she had seen Yuki use.

"Another throwing weapon are kunai, which are derived from trowels, another farming tool, which they use to scale walls. Some ninjas did use katana-based weapons back then, more specifically the ninjato, who's design may have been based on the chokuto and the wakizashi. Overall, they have a great set of weapons to choose from.

"If we're going to be going the ninja-route, we're going to have to figure out what exactly suits you specifically, then we'll work on training you in those weapons. For throwing weapons, Yuki-san will be the best at helping you. For a katana-based blade, I'm the one best suited to that."

"What if I wanted to learn some other blade?" Blake asked.

"Well, we would have to wait a bit longer," Adam said. "I'm a master at katana-based weapons. A scimitar and similar blades to it isn't too different, but if you wanted to learn a rapier or the like..." He shrugged.

"Which is why it's incredibly important for you to discover your Semblance," Yuki said. "When you think about it, a Semblance is a sort of guide when it comes down to your fighting-style. You try to figure out what works well with your Semblance and try to make full use of of it."

"So, what's your Semblance?" Blake asked.

"I call it "Chilled Cloak"," Yuki explained. "And...ugh, how do I explain this?" She complained as she put a hand to her head. "I can project some form of cold coating to objects, including me, which I can detach from my body for varying effects. I'm sure you've seen it in the form of Samui."

Remembering the cold balls of energy she creates, Blake nodded along.

"An extension of that ability allows me to manipulate the temperature of objects, which, when I employ it correctly, can be devestating. However, the temperature must be in a range of cold, meaning I cannot superheat objects. This is why I use my Dust-infused perfume to create liquids, solid objects, which take the form of all sorts of throwing weapons, such as my shurikens. However, there are a few limitations."

"What do you mean?" Blake asked.

"For example, I can only manipulate the temperature in cold ranges, so I cannot superheat objects. Another weakness is that these bubbles are easily detectable. Normally, they appear as actual bubbles. However, I can thin those bubbles for subtlety, which suits my style. But if I maintain predictability, it ultimately undermines my genuine skill.

"Think of your Semblance as a guide on a stone path with each stone representing a step towards your fighting-style. The more you walk, the more you'll intergrate your Semblance into your fighting-style. Treat the things you learn as small streams. Yiu need to join those streams together in order to create your style." She finished, before she frowned at the explanation. "I...I might've went a bit far with that explanation."

The two around her laughed as she just blushed furiously. After that, Blake had continued to practice her Inpei, with Yuki guiding her, making sure that, like her Kotetsu, she can maintain her Inpei constantly. During her usage of the technique, she could practically feel the Aura's of everyone around her, whether it be locked or unlocked, slowly becoming more and more clearer by the day.

Yuki had commented that her Inpei was perfect, and pushed her into practicing Chikara. However, trying to have hed Aura become an outward, tangible force was immensely difficult. Far more difficult than Kotetsu and Inpei. Adam and Yuki had stood by, guiding her through the steps, and focusing on bringing her Aura out of her body, trying to have it explode in a physical force, rather than an intangible one. So instead of focusing on Chikara, Blake was focusing on Kotetsu for the time being, refining the technique to strengthen her Aura. In all honesty, whenever she had free time, she would practice Kotetsu in an effort to gain more Aura and harden it. The past two days had flown right by her own eyes. The only thing that remained on her mind was heading home...

The two around her laughed as she just blushed furiously. After that, Blake had continued to practice her Inpei, with Yuki guiding her, making sure that, like her Kotetsu, she can maintain her Inpei constantly. During her usage of the technique, she could practically feel the Aura's of everyone around her, whether it be locked or unlocked, slowly becoming more and more clearer by the day.


One of the things I hate when making chapters is filler, which makes me laugh immensely because of the fact that this is what that chapter is. This chapter hold almost zero significance in the grand scheme of things.

This chapter gave me an excuse to introduce a new character for a few purposes. For the most part, it's to explain that Tauradonnashipping is dead. D.E.A.D. With a capital CAPITAL D. For me, just having Adam and Blake together, with the supposedly canonical age difference just feels outright weird.

It gives me an excuse to introduce a new character to the roster, Yuki Hana. Yeah, didferent girlfriend for Adam. I felt like that, for the most part, it felt like I was shoving a character into the actual story, so it makes it rather...dull for her appearance.

Overall, a chapter I'm not particularly proud of as it's filler, but it's like...whatever, I guess. \_(ツ)/

Also, I am aware that the three exercises are from Hunter x Hunter. When a review I saw about it, I decided to check what the exercises are, and yeah their similar. In all honesty, the story I got them from did say, but I overlooked the whole thing...somehow. And uh...

...apparently there's a cat that can ressurect you by stealing the life of the person that killed you, somehow.

So yeah, the exercises are going to be a bit more... relaxed, yet strict with what they're capable of.