Aberration

Chapter 18: Englufed in Heat

The clatter of wood splintered throughout a sunlit room. Ami and Yukimura still had a gap to overcome in order to be of any assistance to the Kagami clan, so they trained in one of the many dojos the estate offered. Of course, neither of them would use their real weaponry, instead a wooden short-sword and a staff. "You've gotten a lot better, Ami. You've been taking Arash's training seriously?"
"Yeah. They're actually kinda fun. Though I still don't get the yoga ball stuff." Yukimura chuckled beneath his breath, but continued to swing the staff diligently parried by Ami's backhanded knife. The wooden staff spun so quickly that the air around them began to whistle. Though he relied on his familiars in a real fight, Ami could quickly appreciate that this man was no slouch in one-on-one combat. {He's a lot slower than Arash, so I can still see the path of his staff, but he keeps spinning it. Just blinking is something I have to account for.} the staff twirled on his arm, falling between the fulcrum of his elbow before he shot his arm forward like a billiard cue jabbing a cue ball. The ball itself was her diaphragm just between her abdomen and her chest. She nearly spewed the contents of her stomach, but fell on her back. She positioned her hands for a summersault to pick herself up, but Yukimura's staff tapped the ground beside her head: "Good match." He extended his hand with something of a smile as Ami accepted her defeat with a graceful amount of pouting. "Oh?"
"What? Is there blood on my hand? Sorry..."
"No! It's just that you've never smiled at me before." She took his hand as he pulled her up. Before she was even fully on her feet, he began to caress his braid. "You wanna be friends." she glimmered.
"I didn't say that. I just kinda realized that you aren't... totally bad. Arash is really fond of you, and I guess I don't quite hate you. I was just nervous about having my closest friend deal with a Special Branch Medium."
"It's alright, I've never blamed you." A toothy grin came through her face, heartfelt and warm. "I've still got my eye on you though, Shirai. But I don't think I need to sleep with one eye open around you."
"Sleep? Please. While you're busy sleeping, I'll be training. One day I'm gonna leave you in the dust, you know."
"Oh yeah? So you must be ready for round 2 then."
"I'm not even close to being done."

"So you wouldn't mind if I joined you, would you?" The paper door slid open, Kagutsuchi standing just behind it. Just as the day before, he had the appearance of a shrine maiden, though the sport's bra covered his bust, tightly constricting it with his midriff completely exposed. Kagutsuchi certainly had breasts, but the way his body was built gave an androgynous appearance that could sway to either gender depending on his clothes and mannerisms. As Ami had just recently met Kimi, her face was still fresh in her mind so Kagutsuchi's face more naturally looked like Kimi with a hardened scowl: a facial expression Kimi couldn't actually make. Whereas Kimi wore her hair straight, Kagutsuchi tied his hair into a samurai ponytail. Alongside his hakama and Tai chi slippers, his forearms were also wrapped in athletic tape as if presently waiting to work out.

"O-Oh. Hello, Lord Kagutsuchi."
"Just Kagutsuchi works." He strode through the door with a barbaric sneer "You two were training?" He said, taking a look around the room to find their weapons were taken from the provided equipment in the room, Yukimura looked to Ami with a nervous twitch in his brow, "Yes. Is this your personal dojo? Sorry for intruding... Arash said this dojo was open. We must have taken a wrong turn. This castle is rather large after all."
"Nope. He sent you to the right place." He gave them both a quick once-over and found himself grinning yet again. "A spearman and a swordswoman specializing in a short-sword... or long-knife, I suppose. You both are Rank 3, right? I can tell by the way your Ki flows." He pointed towards Ami "You've got, maybe, the second highest amount of Ki here, excluding Inari. And yet I don't get the impression that you know how to refine it." His eyes then shifted to Yukimura. "You. You're talented. But you lack resolve. Firstly, you're hesitant, and secondly you don't know how to make up your mind. You're an Outfighter but you have no creativity to your ability?" Yukimura winced, taking a step back. "So you're a Sensor then? That's a pretty accurate reading..." His laughter was nervously forced, his foot falling behind him yet again. "Tch. No, I'm a Jack. Please, this is stuff Arash has already seen but he's too nice to tell you. I'll tell you what: I could use a bit of a warmup and you two need someone to straighten you out."