Chapter 3
Seven years ago:
Adam and Blake had stood in front of one another, a few feet away from the fire that was burning.
"Alright Blake-chan, let's unlock your Aura," Adam started off their training session after the past few days had gone by in a blur, popping his knuckles with a satisfactory pop.
While she was waiting, she was filled with the idealistic hope that the strength he has could be given to her. The sort of strength that could only be acquired through merit and hard work. However, Adam had made it clear that the training would be tedious, strenuous, and that he was going to be as tough as he possibly could with her.
The past few days were filled with distributing the supplies to other businesses that would willingly help the White Fang, such as simple markets, blacksmiths, clothes stores, and more. Because of that, they've also received a great deal worth of funds which were distributed towards the benefits of the White Fang.
When Adam was planning out their training sessions, he revealed they were going to be traveling throughout the wilderness, not only to help her build proficiency in Aura but also to improve her physical conditioning. He had calculated that it would take approximately three-months to reach Menagerie.
This was announced to both Ghira, Kali and Sienna. While Ghira and Kali both had their reservations, they both still agreed to such a thing. Sienna, on the other hand, protested the most, saying that what she's learning shouldn't be limited to her, and should also be taught to the rest of the White Fang members, to which Adam had disputed that by saying that Sienna wasn't the boss of him, and that he gets the final say as to what he decides with his techniques.
There was also the matter with her dad. As the day approached when she began to travel the wilderness with Adam, she noticed how lost in thought her father was. She asked him once and he responded by saying that he had a lot of thinking to do. Blake thinks that Adam's words hit a little too close to home.
After the days were over, Adam was insistent that she didn't bring any supplies with her, saying that they will be slowing them down if she did, especially without any physical conditioning for the basis of her as-of-yet unknown fighting style, which will be uniquely hers and specifically suited to her attributes.
Blake straightened her body, ready to have her Aura unlocked.
"Close your eyes," said Adam.
She did just that. She didn't notice but Adam had grown a mischievous smirk on his face, before he lifted a finger, with the tip glowing a bright crimson. With that, he merely poked Blake's nose, a red aura crossing into her own body.
Blake felt a warm sensation building up inside of her, before it just exploded in the metaphysical sense. A snapping, crackling sensation reverberated throughout her very body. Once that was over, Blake opened her eyes, although confusion was evident.
"There, all done," Adam said, a smile on his face.
"That's it?" Blake questioned.
Adam nodded, no sort of deception evident whatsoever. "That's it,"
"But... what about the words?" Blake asked.
Adam's singular eye looked up, as did his head, as he thought. "The words... Oh! Those words!" He looked down at Blake. "Um, yeah, they're really not necessary in the slightest with enough understanding, really."
"They're not?" Blake asked, intrigued by this.
"They're not," Adam confirmed. "The act of unlocking one's Aura is the simple act of the unlocked Aura crashing into the locked Aura, therefore unlocking it, later to be used. I don't know why the words exist, but if I had to hazard a guess, I would assume it's a form of self-hypnosis."
"Self-hypnosis?" Blake asked.
Adam nodded. "I believe it to be that way because I've seen people unlock people's Aura's without the words before, but the end result ended up with them getting hurt in a physical manner, one way or another. I'm not sure why that is, but I think that's why the words exist. If I had to guess, unlocking someone's Aura requires a great deal of awareness of Aura, both yours and the patients Aura. With that being said, the words might be used to focus and align the mind and spirit to allow one's Aura being unlocked."
Blake stood in awe, already amazed at how much she's already learnt, and she hasn't even begun real training yet.
"True, you haven't," Adam said out of the blue with a smirk on his face, before Blake grumbled at having her thoughts read.
"Now, we can move onto the three exercises required to cultivate your Aura," Adam started.
"Three exercises?" Blake began to wonder if she was playing Twenty Questions.
Adam had nodded. "The abilities of Aura are often categorized between four different types of abilities. Do you know which ones they are?"
"Oh that's easy!" Blake said, before beginning to count her fingers. "There's offensive-types, defensive-types, regenerative-types, and passive-types!"
"Perfect," Adam congragulated. "Now two of these three exercises focus on the passive-types, which provide great benefits without draining Aura, while the last one fits into both offensive and defensive-types, which does drain Aura."
Just then a crimson outline had appeared outside of him, clinging to his body much like a second skin. He reached out his hand to Blake, allowing her to get a feel for it, before gasping as she felt a barrier between her hand and his hand.
"This is the art of Kotetsu," Adam explained.
"...Kot...Kotet..." Blake's tongue wrestled with the name before giving up.
"Don't worry, Blake," Adam ruffled her hair, between the ears, making her purr in a cute manner. "You'll get the hang of it. Anyway, Kotetsu is translated from the Common Language to Old Mistralian Tongue. Kotetsu means "steel".
"The art of this technique focuses on the act of tightening your Aura. Most of the time, Aura leaks out, much like water vapour, making it so that you waste it needlessly. Because of that, Kotetsu contains your Aura. Overtime, this will contain the Aura that leaks out, expanding your own Aura reserves."
"Wow!!" Blake cried out, her eyes sparkling with wonder.
"There's also another benefit to this technique as well," Adam held up a finger. "Because you're focusing your Aura, any and all techniques that you use that operate through Aura become more efficient, so you lose less Aura."
Blake was already staring in wonder. If this one technique was what he discovered that allowed him to preserve his already massive resovoirs of Aura and make it efficient, it's no wonder why he's so strong.
"It also helps that it tightens your Aura. It becomes firmer, steeling itself when it absorbs an attack. Kotetsu makes it so that your Aura doesn't scatter when you do take a hit. However, in order to fully reap the benefits of this technique, you must practice this for a long time. The benefits stockpile slowly, so patience is a must. This technique will become easier to maintain, the more you use it, until you can perform the whole entire method, even while you're asleep.
"There's more to it than that, though. For all Aura-users, their protective Aura is their first line of defense. With each attack, their defense wittles down, bit by bit, until their whole defense crumbles. With Kotetsu, this becomes less of a problem. Your Aura scatters with each usage of going on the defensive, offensive, and the regenerative play. Kotetsu makes sure that the problem is dealt with entirely by congealing your entire body in a sort of second skin that's made from your Aura. This technique as a whole gives you much more staying time on the battlefield."
"Then for the next one, Inpei," The crimson outline of his form was gone. Instead, Blake got the feeling that there was a sense of abscence in front of her, much like an object standing in front of her rather than Adam, who didn't even make a single move at all. "Inpei means "concealment" in the Old Mistralian Tongue."
"This technique involves around suppressing your Aura. When you refine it enough, you can effectively hide in plain sight. This technique cloaks your 'presence', so to speak. When there's someone around you with an Aura unlocked, you are sort of 'pinged' to their presence in some way or another, even if you aren't using any of your senses at the time. You aren't even conciously aware of their presence. Inpei serves to mask you from that presence entirely, making you much more difficult to detect. Although truly skilled and experienced users can still detect you, it's a good way to maintain some degree of concealment.
"It also serves as a way to compact your Aura entirely, so when you're running low on Aura, you can 'restock' if you're in a hurry. The speed of which you recover your Aura, if you continue using this technique, becomes slightly faster with each day, even if you don't have Aura that is needed to recover. Much like Kotetsu, Inpei requires a lot of time to reap the benefits.
"However, that all comes with its own risks," Adam stated. "When using this technique, you are just as vulnerable as you were before you had your Aura unlocked. So this means that a simple blade can easily cut you, even if you have an unlocked Aura."
Blake had continued listening, holding onto every word.
"Then the next technique," Adam paused. "I'm gonna need you to take a few steps back for this one."
Blake did as she was told, taking a few steps backwards to increase the distance between her and Adam.
"A little more..."
Blake continued with a few more steps.
"A bit more please..."
A few more steps increased the distance.
"Perfect," Adam commented before, suddenly, a surge of crimson energy had blazed around him, much like the heat from a star, the energy creating a tangible force on its own, creating a strong breeze that, if Adam didn't instruct her in taking steps back, she might've been blown off of her feet.
"That was Chikara. It means "force" in the Old Mistralian Tongue. It's the act of converting your Aura into an even more tangible force. They teach you this technique in Combat School, but for the most part, they only use it in creating barriers outside of your body, which is no good. It's often combined with another technique you'll later learn down the.line to enhance the force of your attacks. We'll get into the details at a later point in your training.
"Unlike the other two techniques, this one falls under both offensive and defensive-types, not passive, as it consumes Aura, and it does so very quickly. The way it functions is that it produces more Aura than you are actually capable of. It's similar to Kotetsu, in the way that it expands your pools of Aura, although it is the quickest way to expand your Aura reserves, at the price of draining them at a faster speed. It will get easier over time, but it's not something we should start until we get to Menagerie, alongside Inpei. By the time we get to Menagerie, you'll already have mastered your Kotetsu , and we can then start with Inpei and Chikara."
Blake was already staring in more wonder at the sight of these three exercises. Although she had another question.
"U-Um..." Blake nervously shuffled her feet.
"What is it, Blake-cn?"
"N-No, never mind," Blake said.
"Blake-chan, if you have a question, say it," Adam reassured. "It's good that you're asking so many questions. It shows your eagerness and that you're willing to learn."
With that reassurance, Blake took a massive deep breath. "U-Um, Taurus-sensei, what's the point of these exercises? Aside from giving me more Aura to work with, what do they amount to?"
"Exactly," Adam smiled in a way that suggested that she asked the right question to drive the lesson forward. "It's for the fourth step."
"The fourth?"
Adam nodded. "These three exercises serve to cultivate your awareness of your Aura so that you can discover the innate ability that resides within you. An ability that resonates with the very core of your being. The ability to use your Aura to interact with the world in a more dramatic way. A way that is completely specific to you. In other words... a Semblance."
Blake gasped. "A Semblance? But... don't you normally have to be threatened for that?"
"Sometimes," Adam confirmed. "However, at the end of the day, your Semblance is a part of your Aura, fueled by it, and by expanding your awareness enough, you'll eventually discover it, along with the hidden trigger. I ended up discovering it five-months after I had my Aura unlocked."
Blake nodded, noting just how quick that was. The function as to discover a Semblance often revolved around fear and threats to unlock it. People nowadays didn't want that method, so they chose to wait until it comes forward naturally to avoid risk and injury. Because of that, one's Semblance can be unlocked in well over a year, nearing two years.
"So, Taurus-sensei, what's your Semblance?" Blake asked.
Adam had simply shifted his hand towards the handle of his sword, before he pulled it out, the sound of metal grating the inside of his sheath, revealing a blade of strong, luminous crimson. Right from the guard of the weapon to halfway up the blade was an isosceles triangle, which also moved with the graceful curve his oversized katana/dao-blade possessed. Blake got the sense that it was just for aesthetic purposes. Then, he brought that sword out, swinging to the right of him so fast Blake was sure she would've missed it. But she saw the results.
A red arc of energy had been emitted from the blade, being swung to Adam's right. Although it did no damage to the surroundings, it provided Blake with the idea of what his Semblance could do. Because she was so focused on the wave of energy, she failed to notice that, albeit small difference, the blade had changed colour. From the tip downway by one-ninth, the blade changed to a brighter red. The soft scraping of Adam's sword was heard before it was put back into its sheath.
"That is my Semblance," Adam said. "My Semblance is something that I have termed 'Moonslice'. It's the act of absorbing kinetic energy into a storage unit, and then use it in a variety of ways. Aside from the energy waves, you've already seen one of its uses."
Blake then thought about it, her brows furrowing as she tried to recall when Adam used his Semblance in front of her. He hadn't used it in the days he's been around her when planning out the training expedition, so...
A sword disintergrating to ashen-red dust flashed in her mind and Blake gasped in realization. "When we met! You disintergrated that man's sword!"
"Perfect," Adam smirked. "Energy waves and disintergration are but two out of four abilities that I can use because of my Semblance, making it rather useful and versatile."
"Four!!?" Blake exclaimed.
Semblances always have been rather unfair. For example, you can have two telekinetic Semblances, however the way they are displayed could be different. One could have a purple glow and be stronger, while the other glow would be golden, and weaker in overall potency. It also extends to abilities in terms of amount. For the most part, a Semblance could only possess three abilities. A prime example would the the Schnee Hereditary Semblance, which focuses on three different glyphs. Propulsion, Time Dilation, and Summoning the avatars of defeated foes.
What Adam was implying was that he had even more power than the entirety of the Schnee Family, all on his own. To find a Semblance that was just as, if not stronger, than the Schnee family was incredibly difficult.
"However, it does have its own limitations," Adam pointed out. "For instance, I can only absorb kinetic energy through a weaponized object, one that is durable enough to take an attack and/or store it. My sword is proof of that. A way to store energy is also required. That's where the durability comes in. It isn't enough to simply absorb the energy, but I must store the energy somewhere. The storage unit must be durable enough to contain the absorbed kinetic energy.
"And even then, depending on the size of the storage unit is, depends on the amount of energy it can contain. So once I hit my limit, I cannot absorb any more unless I release it in some manner or another. Granted, that limitation is less of a hinderance due to the fact that I can store my kinetic energy in other places. From my clothes, to my sheath, even within my sword itself.
"Another limitation is the fact that there may be an attack I may not be able to handle. It may be that I may get overwhelmed by the attack, or I'm feeding my storage units too much energy, it could have some serious repercussions, not just on my Aura, but on my body as well."
Blake had nodded along. Even with all the power he had with his Semblance, Adam had fully admitted to his own Semblance having its own faults. It reminded her that not every warrior is without his or her own limits.
"Anyway, were getting ahead of ourselves," Adam said, getting the training session back on track. "You'll start with Kotetsu and build your mastery over the technique. When you refine it well enough, you will move on to Inpei. Then you'll refine that technique so that you can move onto Chikara. Those three exercises will help you pave the way to discovering your Semblance."
Blake nodded vigorously, ready to begin the intense training set out for her.
When Adam said the training was going to be tough, he meant it. For mastering the art of Kotetsu, she had to congeal her entire body in her Aura, much like a second skin, in order to make it firmer. Doing such a thing was a relatively simple task. However, the problem lied in maintaining it continuously. When she was walking, she may stumble, and her Kotetsu would stop, forcing her to begin again. Thankfully, Adam was there to remind her to keep it up, in the form of light jabs and hits to the head, which barely hurt her at all, much to her surprise.
Throughout all of this time, her physical conditioning had mostly, been centered around walking...and walking...and more walking. The two would walk miles upon miles, taking breaks in between in order for Blake to regain some Aura and her breath, which will allow her to go further when it came down to more strenuous activities. By the time they stopped for breaks, Blake's legs were on fire, but Adam made her do even more exercise. It started out as simple push-ups and sit-ups, but it evolved with her hanging her legs on a branch, and a fire lit beneath her head. It forced her to keep her head moving, unless she wants a piece of her body scorching hot. It served as a great way to develop her core-training. The last break they would make would involve setting up camp, and Adam would instruct her how to make alarms out of the leaves and twigs to trap animals for food, such as rabbits, fish, and the like.
During those breaks, Adam would also monitor her proficiency in Kotetsu, analyzing it, picking it apart piece by piece in order to instruct Blake in refining the technique even further. It was more than just maintining the congealed state of her Aura, but consciously smoothing it out, ensuring that there were no leaks that could be detected. Even if Blake was maintaining that state, leaks can still appear, so doing this was helping her to build her mastery over this Aura-exercise.
Amongst those things, Adam had also taught her how to live off the land. Teaching her which fruits and berries were safe to eat and which ones to avoid entirely. Sometimes, he would let her gather the fruits herself and make the traps required for the meals they all had. He would also train her in martial-arts, making sure that each time she performed the moves, they were slightly more refined than the last.
The hard work was tedious, painful, and just made her hurt all over, yet she appreciated every minute of it. Every time she would collapse to the ground, it was a reminder that she was getting closer and closer, no matter how small it may be, to her goal of uniting the faunus with humans.
A month and a half later, they had arrived at a nearby settlement, Galena, it was called. Pretty soon after they have arrived, Blake had immediately felt that everyone around her had grew lighter, and more relaxed just upon seeing his presence.
"What's going on?" Blake whispered to Adam.
"Nothing much, really," Adam insisted. "However, you could say it's a consequence of travelling on your own for seven years."
"Seven years?" Blake asked, before frowning. "Taurus-sensei, how old are you?"
"I am seventeen years-old," Adam answered truthfully. "Why?"
"You're seventeen?" Blake asked.
For the whole month she was being taught, she never could've imagined being taught by someone who was seven whole years her senior. The martial-art techniques he was currently teaching her were basic, but the three exercises he explained seemed to be relatively advanced. At least, in the eyes of the current Aura-masters in the world. But Adam had shown that he was far more inventive with his Aura, and discovered three whole techniques that your Aura can benefit from. Who knows how many techniques he's uncovered that dwell within the mortal soul.
'Just who are you, Taurus-sensei?' Blake thought.
"I am, and it must be strange too, being mentored by someone seven years older than you," Adam let out a smirk at seeing Blake's anger after he just read her mind.
"I will find out how you do that," Blake said, determination flashing in her eyes.
"I'm sure you will," He said. "Now, I've got to cash in a favour real quick," They walked over to the main building of the settlement. It was large, and held a sort of modern appearance, completely made out of brick and cement, which also had wooden beams right on the outside which connected themselves to the balcony on the second floor.
"The mayor owes you a favour?" Blake asked.
"Yep," Adam confirmed. "It was a four years ago. Bandits were about to raid this entire settlement, wipe it off the maps entirely. Because of the location that this settlement is placed in, the Grimm can't access this place easily. Granted, there are Grimm out there that can tunnel underground and fly through the air to make it easier to defeat the settlement, but those sorts of Grimm are more prevalent in Vacuo, not in Vale.
"But bandits can be way more dangerous than any Grimm," He continued. "Savvy bandits can use the terrain to their advantage. Any good warrior should be able to do such a thing, but it becomes a major problem when it came down to bandits, who seek to leverage all the advantages they can get in order to succeed and leach off of the hard work that other people make."
Blake frowned. Adam had taught her that the path to success is hard, tedious, long, but incredibly rewarding. Over the past month and a half of developing her Kotetsu, she had felt the benefits of such a technique. She felt her Aura become a little bit firmer and maintaining her Kotetsu became easier. She had also maintained it all the way here from their last break as well.
Her hard work is paying off greatly. Adam had said that these techniques will be the foundation that will, ultimately, be her fighting style. The end result of her hard work. So for her to realize that people would gladly steal all the hard work made by other people had been galling for her to hear.
"The whole fiasco was ended with most of the bandits getting arrested, with the rest eacaping. Even though I did some good, I also stepped on the toes of some pretty powerful people, at the time."
"Huh? Like who?" Blake asked.
"Don't worry about it," Adam asked. "Truth be told, because the Grimm aren't much of a threat to me, in terms of actual danger, then the real problem only resides in the people, something that I can deal with rather easily."
Blake had nodded as the rest of the day had blurred by. She had met the mayor who had recognized Adam. The man gladly reserved a room for the two of them so that they can enjoy the comfort of a nice bed. As much as Blake wished to continue with her training, she also wanted to take a rest from the training. Adam made it clear that she must maintain her Kotetsu constantly, assuring her that slacking off is a no-go.
"She's amazing, isn't she?"
Blake had shuffled under the sheets of her bed, relishing the cold feeling of both the pillows and the sheets, along with her new pajamas. Spending a lot of time in the wilderness had made her forget of some of the lighter comforts in life. She was able to get to sleep, but because she didn't do her exercises for the day, it was difficult to stay asleep, in addition to whatever conversation Adam was having.
"She certainly is," An older voice spoke, with Blake recognizing the mayor's voice. "She certainly has a lot of talent."
"Talent has nothing to do with it," Adam said firmly. "It's true that she has some degree of talent, a fair bit above the average in fact, but her grit and determination far outclasses anything I've seen in the past seven years. Even when I was guiding her through the instructions to improve, she's willing to improve on her own, by memorizing the instructions I've given her."
"I certainly can't see how anyone think that she's weak," the mayor said.
Blake's fingers had clenched her sheet in anger. Adam had let her play with people her own age for some time as he said that she needs time to 'just plain grow', as he would put it. However, word about her being his student had spread around the settlement had caused quite a stir. Some of the children had seen her as weak because she wasn't as strong as Adam. The adults were skeptical as they couldn't say if the training he was providing her were beneficial, because of her teacher's age.
"You say that because you know how effective I can be at teaching," Adam said. "I've been with her the entirety of the way. Her Aura-control is becoming better, her hand-to-hand is making some pretty good progress, even if it's just the basics. It won't be long before she can start progressing further with the more advanced techniques.
"She's like a little bundle of shadows. She just wants to stay in there, free from harm. With how easily prone to fear she is, I'm not entirely surprised. Her shadows make her withdrawn, apart of herself. However, I shall have to make sure the shadows she surrounds herself with become an extension of herself, something that she can use as a weapon, in conjunction with the weapon she shall forge for herself. The shadows make her incredibly sensitive to the danger that she's around every now and then, However, it's that sensitivity that makes her want to protect everyone from that sort of fear, because she feels it all the more keenly. She certainly has a heart bigger than herself. I'm gonna have to do a lot of tempering with her."
Blake had let out a few tears at what Adam said. Only her parents truly understood her, why she seeks the sort of solitary that would inevitebly protect others. Ever since she was a kid, she never particularly enjoyed danger, or any thing that involved risk. It was even further fortified by all the sorts of stories she read when she was younger, the sorts of stories that would involve fantasy, which would dramatically make the threat seem much worse. Even when she was reading stories of real history, it was even more terrifying.
"That being said," the mayor said, as Blake heard the sound of glass hitting the wooden table. "Have you made any progress on Koryuha?"
Blake's eyebrows had furrowed in confusion. She never heard of this 'Koryuha' before. From the sounds of it, it seems like an actual project of sorts.
"Well," Adam chuckled. "You know me. I'm not the sort of person to let a technique go unmastered. Granted, it's a pretty tough technique to get down pat. Granted, it's specifically made to be used with my Semblance, so it's not like I can teach it to anyone else, and then take what they learned from the technique and make it mine."
Blake now had a better understanding of this Koryuha technique, in the sense of what it does. It seems to be a technique that seems to supplement his own Semblance to a greater degree. Blake shivered at the thought of his Semblance being far more powerful. After travelling in the wilderness with him for a while, Blake was accustomed to seeing his Moonslice, more specifically when he was clearing Grimm.
Blake had drifted herself back to sleep somehow, and she mentally prepared herself for whatever lesson she was going to learn next...
"Ekitai?" Blake asked. After getting accustomed with the unique names, she was able to pronounce them with ease.
The next day had involved doing the odd jobs here and there. Adam was the one who took care of some of the work that required his heavy lifting, such as gathering wood from the forest and bringing it back here for the settlement. It helped greatly that Hinoha, Adam's sword, was naturally heavy so that helped him with carrying the large amounts of wood, and for longer. Blake was just following some other children's examples, such as heading to bakeries, getting the chance to bake some pastries, pies, all the sorts. It helped greatly that she often participated with her mother in baking, despite her solitary nature.
After all that, Adam had introduced a new vein of Kotetsu called Ekitai.
"Yep," Adam confirmed. "It's a sub-skill of Kotetsu, which possesses a defensive capacity, concentrating your around your body. Ekitai, meaning "liquid" in the Old Mistralian Tongue", is a technique that concentrates all your Aura into a particular part of your body."
"Why's that?" Blake asked.
"Kotetsu has defensive capabilities," Adam started off. "The Aura is diffused across your entire body, with Kotetsu. It's a level above an Aura that hasn't been tempered through Kotetsu, and is still passive." He then held up his hand and used his Ekitai. It showed itself similar to Kotetsu, but the colour was more vibrant. "Ekitai has both offensive and defensive abilities. A strong enough opponent, or any opponent, has the ability to shatter your Aura. Ekitai makes it so that, if an attack is coming your way, you can channel your Aura into the defending limb."
"And if you're attacking, you channel the Aura into the offensive limb?" Blake asked.
Adam smiled and nodded. "Exactly. However, it has its own drawbacks, which means you have to be careful with its usage."
Blake was confused as to why. It seemed completely logical.
"There's a certain timing to it, making each and every offensive and defensive move you make must move in sync with your Etikai. When you learn Chikara, that is factored into your moves as well. But you're ways away from learning that exercise yet. A good example is, if I were to throw a punch..."
He then reered his right arm right behind his head, his fingers enclosed in order to make a fist, the red Aura gathering within the fist. "In order to make sure that you gain the most optimal effectiveness of this technique, you must make sure that your Ekitai is employed with your attacks the second before they actually hit. This gives it greater strength than you would normally have than simply channelling your Aura into your fist, and then hitting with it."
Blake put on a questioning face at that.
"It's fine if you don't understand the 'why's', Blake," Adam reassured. "The truth is quite simple, but until you master the technique first, and start building your fighting atyle, I'll explain why. It's other purpose is so to smooth out your Ekitai so that you don't telegraph your moves too easily."
"Huh?"
"If I had gone through the motions of a single punch, showing my Aura through Ekitai, what would you think I was about to do?" Adam asked.
"I would think you were trying to punch me," Blake answered.
"Exactly," Adam confirmed. "It's incredibly important that you smooth it out so that it works in conjunction with your physical techniques so that it isn't easy to read. You can judge the way your opponent is going to move by the way they shuffle their feet, shift their balance, however by not making your Ekitai as smooth as possible, you make yourself easier to read for your opponent."
"Oh, okay," Blake nodded along, understanding the benefit to such a thing, before she frowned. "But, I want to learn to use a weapon. Why do I have to use all of this punching and kicking stuff?"
"That will come later, when we get to Menagerie," Adam revealed. "Truth is, we're still developing your physical condition, so when the time comes to wield a weapon, you'll be able to do so effectively. Also wielding a weapon is more than just simply holding it. You must learn how to command each and every part of your body with absolute mastery, so when the time comes, you can wield that weapon as an extension of yourself.
"With that said, it also serves as a good eay to stay in combat when you do lose a weapon, for whatever reason."
Blake nodded, now understanding Ekitai and continued to practice it with her teacher.
For those of you that are familiar with Red Thorn, I am simply borrowing the exercises used for cultivating your Aura, although one or two may have a twist, except they all have Japanese names. It may seem like I'm copying it, and to a degree, I am, but I also went through the effort of giving it different names to try and make it my own work. So if anyone does think I'm copying, please understand.
Also, given that Adam hasn't discovered Aura better than the Mibu have in Red Thorn, it's also understandable there will be gaps in his own knowledge. You can't simply close the gap of knowledge in Aura in seven years when they've been practicing it for thousands of years.